Wednesday, July 1, 2009

News and Updates

Just to get a couple of things out there, in between everything else...

1. I do not understand all the fuss and bother about Michael Jackson. All I know is that now that he's gone it is no longer possible to avoid his music. Now, Billy Mays? There's a tragedy. Where am I going to go for my kitsch now?

2. Actually, the best comment I saw on all the celebrity deaths was from someone who pointed out that while celebrities are supposed to die in threes (Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson), leave it to Billy Mays to add ONE MORE, ABSOLUTELY FREE!

3. Three weeks ago you could see your breath here in Baja Canada. Last week it was hot enough to cancel the softball games. Yesterday at those same softball games, people were bundled up in blankets. This summer is another thing I do not understand. I shall add it to the list.

4. It's a mighty long list.

5. You are no longer allowed to write books in the second person, for when you do, no matter how well-intentioned you are, you tend to come across as just unspeakably precious. Especially if you fill your books with illustrations of baby animals with mutant-large doe-like eyes. You are not being adorable when you do that. You are being scary. You should stop that.

6. Online classes eat lives. Apparently they're more effective than face to face classes - that's what the headlines say this week, and I'm sure this will be trumpeted up and down the halls of academia as a reason to move ever forward with online classes at the expense of face to face classes. But further into the article is the reason for this effectiveness - it is not the technology, which actually helps not at all, but simply time spent on task. In other words, they're effective because they eat lives. [french accent] And thus we see how all of life is a circle. [/french accent]

7. There is nothing so darkly enjoyable as the knowledge that someone who made your world miserable a while ago has moved on to do the same to other people who made your world miserable. Go team! Give me an "S"! Give me a "C"! Give me an "H"! Give me an A! D! E! N! F! R! E! U! D! E! What do you get?!? My life back!

8. One advantage of being this cold is that I can drink tea again without getting uncomfortably hot in the process. This is essential to my academic well being (see point 6, above).

9. Tabitha and I started in on The Silmarillion last week. It's been slow going, between my schedule and hers, and we have only gotten past the introductory material so far, but eventually we will press on.

10. Ten is a nice round number. All lists should have ten things on them.

1 comment:

Lori said...

Number 6 is very true! They also eat the lives of those who create them. There is always just one more thing that you can add... Unfortunately, this can get out of hand. I was recently told that I have to tone my Financial Planning and Investment Management class down a bit because their students are "closer to community college than Harvard" and I was effectively punishing them for taking the course online instead of in the classroom where they could sleep through a traditional lecture.