Gaseous!

From an article on the BBC News Site:

"This time period is associated with a very enhanced green house effect," explained Appy Sluijs, a palaeoecologist from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and the lead author on one of the papers.

"Basically, it looks like the Earth released a gigantic fart of green house gases into the atmosphere - and globally the Earth warmed by about 5C (41F)."

Sometimes, the comedy comes to you...

NP: Genesis - Hairless Heart

Hot!

Here we are, at the end of May, and it's a bit of a steamy hotness up here in Hanover. I haven't checked the temperature, but I would guess it's in the mid 80's F, with a high level of humidity. It's not horrible, but I'm waiting for a thunderstorm to help break the weather. There was some lightning earlier this evening, around 8ish, but no storm developed. Ah well, perhaps while sleeping...

I'm generally packed for my travels south tomorrow. What, you are probably asking, does a well dressed Mike wear for a job interview? Well, here it is, courtesy of a photo I took back at the ACPA conference I attended in March.

A little blurry, but hey, what do you want?! A bisquit?

I've spent the evening preparing some of my own questions for the interview, reviewing the college's website to get familiar with their campus and their approach to the world of Res Life I work in. We shall see how it goes, I'll report when I can about it, upon my return to the Great White North.

Sue's visiting NJ right now, and she's coming back tomorrow, so I'm sure we'll pass each other on the road at some point. Of course, we won't really know where, but we'll be able to make some good estimates once I'm down there, and she's up here.

NP: John McLaughlin - Sing Me Softly of the Blues

Travel!

I'm preparing to travel down to NJ on Thursday, for a job interview on Friday. We'll see how it goes. I don't want to share too much about it, but obviously, if I get the job, I'll fill you in on all the details.

I will say right now, without jinxing myself, that I feel pretty good about the possibilities for this one. Of course, as I've jokingly said to some people, relationships can be fickle...

I had a *great* three day weekend, sleeping late, hanging out with Sue, and just generally relaxing. I slept late on all three days, and just took it easy. Memorial Day weekend is one of the few three day weekends we get here at Dartmouth, so it was good to be able to enjoy it.

On Monday afternoon, I watched the DVD of the new Battlestar Galactica, which I watched when it was initially on the Sci-Fi channel a few years ago. I enjoyed it then, but I haven't really been able to watch the series regularly (it's on my cue from Netflix). Watching the movie the second time, I enjoyed it a lot more, and saw a lot more depth and planning in the series. Here's some bulleted thoughts, that may have been answered or shown in the series since the pilot aired...

• At the end, Adama has a note on his desk, stating that there are 12 Cylon "types." Who left the note? As far as I know, Baltar was the only one who knew that.
• I'm a bit unclear if the 12 types mean that there are only 12 of the humanoid cylons in existence, or are there 12 models with multiple copies? There are doubles we see at the end, but are they part of the 12?
• Does Baltar really have a chip in his head? That was a bit too reminicent of "Harvey" from Farscape, being planted in Crichton's head, for my tastes... Although, it's not an uncommon SF plot trick, so I really can't hold it against BG.
• Who was the female Cylon (the blonde one, does she have a name?) meeting with at Caprica City after she left Baltar's company?
• Baltar's trick of blaming the PR guy for being a Cylon actually paid off, as he was truly a Cylon. Did Baltar's "test" actually pick something up? Or was he "guided" to choose him as a patsy, by the chip in his head?
• And, if there is a chip in Baltar's head, can it be used by the Cylon's to trace the fleet?

Those are my thoughts for now. I look forward to watching the series to see where it goes. I did see part of the season 2 finale, so I know where the show is going in some general areas, but it'll be interesting to see how it gets there...

NP: Queen + Paul Rodgers - All Right Now

Kids!

Today, Sue and I were in the Dartmouth Bookstore, and a kid, probably about 14-15, approached me, looking for donations to a charity for Darfur. I gave him a few bucks, because he did have fliers for the charity.

I've seen other kids on the street up here, asking for money for a variety of charities. It's an interesting way to get money, to just ask people on the street, without even a table set up with info, or any other "normal" charity activities, like a bake sale or other things.

I don't think the kids were lying about it at all, but it does seem like an odd way of raising money. I'm kind of surprised the people who run the bookstore allow solicitation like that in the store... Or perhaps they don't, and the kid was just getting away with something.

Ah well, whatever the deal is, I'm only out a few bucks, and who knows, it *might* actually go to charity.

NP: Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists - A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur

Ice Cream!

Today was "Free Ice Cream" day on the Hanover green, sponsored by the President's office here at Dartmouth. I got a Banana creamsicle. Tasty. I should have taken a picture of it to immortalize it for all of you, but alas, not.

"Not" was the Word for the Colbert Report last night. Watch for bears!

Today was a good day, as it was great weather here, and I got a check in the mail from proctoring the MCAT back in April. I don't have a lot of money on my credit card right now, but the check went to pay off a little less than half of it for now. Once I get paid next week, the rest of the card will get paid off. I'm a bit anal about credit card debt, I really like keeping it at zero.

This is the non sequitur blog today.

I'm working on wrapping up writing evaluations for my undergraduate staff at work. I have three more to complete, then I go over them again to see if I missed anything important. I should have them out in e-mail to the staff on Friday, and then we chat about the evals before they leave for the end of the academic year.

If you're in to odd e-mail generators that talk to you in Monkey, take a look at THIS!

Other than all this, I have nothing of real interest or content to speak of right now...

NP: 3; Hoedown - 14 April 1988

Bird!

I wanted to flip you all the bird, so here it is...

It's a blue jay, one of my favorite birds, that I saw outside of my cluster the other day. This was taken with my digital camera, with the zoom at it's utmost zoominest... I was hoping for a closer shot, but the bird wouldn't sit still. Damn you bird, with your free will!

In other news, we're getting closer and closer to the end of the academic year. I've got to make some sort of brownies for a Chocolate Fest event we're having on Thursday evening here in the cluster. I think I also have to get a haircut, as the last one I got wasn't the best... Ah, my life is so hard.

And for a final photo, here's one of a giant milk bottle, for your enjoyment...

Lube!

So, I had a doctor's appointment this morning...

There were latex gloves...

There was a small packet in silver foil...

There was fear.

However, all worked out... I had a regular checkup scheduled, and after the nurse took my blood pressure (120 over 70 or so, thank you very much), she told me to get into "the gown," and the doctor would be in to see me in a few minutes.

After changing into my stylish gown, I noticed a pair of latex gloves laid out on the shelf, with a packet of stuff next to them. I thought, "No, it can't be... I'm not 40 yet!" I stood up to look, and sure enough, the small packet was a packet of lubrication.

AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I was concerned.

I told myself, to calm down, relax, and prepare for the inevitable. I planned to close my eyes and think of England, if it came to it.

However, besides checking out some other plumbing, there was no intrusion into unintrudible areas. So, all was right with the world. The sun shone, the sky cleared, and everyone was above average intelligence, just for a moment.

More happened today, but really, what more could compete with that?

Darko!

So, I watched the movie Donnie Darko today, my first DVD from Netflix. It is truly this generation's Jacob's Ladder...

Actually, it wasn't a bad film, an interesting ride, but I kind of had the movie figured out in the first 10 minutes or so, and was hoping for a surprise. However, I was let down. I did watch the Director's Cut, so I was thinking that this would be more oblique than a suit's vision of what the movie should be to sell to a mass crowd. We all deal with disappointment in our lives...

But then, after viewing Donnie Darko, I watched the original King Kong. Stilted by today's standards, it's still a great film. I remember seeing it for the first time as a kid, on Channel 9 out of Secaucus, NJ, most likely on Thanksgiving. For some reason, King Kong was a Thanksgiving film. The dinosaurs were great to this kid's eyes, and I did get the sadness of Kong at the end, even as a youth.

In other news, we had a relatively quiet Green Key weekend here at Dartmouth. Nothing too exciting happened, from what I've heard, which at this point, is not much. I'll get a much more thorough update tomorrow at work. I did spend the time in this weekend getting some genealogy work done. It's always fun to get back into the family history, especially because I've taken some time away from it recently. This calendar year, I haven't done much at all with it. Now, I feel prepped to dive back into it.

That's about it for now...

NP: John McLaughlin - Django

Green Key!

So, this weekend is "Green Key" up at Dartmouth. It's the last of our big three "party" weekends, with the first two being Homecoming in the Fall, and Winter Carnival, appropriately enough, in the Winter. It's raining up here now, but I don't think it'll keep students who are focused on having a good time from having one.

A number of us from work went out to eat tonight at a place called Lui-Lui's in West Lebanon, to continue celebrating Meg's new job, but the new piece tonight was that her partner Sarah (I believe there's an H on the end of there) just signed a lease for a condo over in Vermont. They'll be moving near the end of June, and I'm sure they'll have a good time with the place.

So, I'm listening to XM radio through the AOL website right now. I have the "progressive" channel on, but so far, all the music has kind of, well, sucked. There's some King Crimson coming up, which should redeem the channel, at least temporarily.

Possible job news on the horizon. Watch this space for updates...

NP: Camel - Lady Fantasy (on XM-AOL. At least this song doesn't suck)

Boston!

I was in Boston this weekend, from Saturday to Sunday, visiting Joe, phellow Pseudocertain-host, and old college chum. It was fun, although a lot of rain happened, so it was a very indoor visit.

Slept on the floor, which wasn't as horrible as it sounds. I can sleep pretty much anywhere, so sleeping wasn't the issue, although I did feel a bit out of sorts the next day, as my aged bones were creaking on my drive back to New Hampshire.

In other news, I installed Dreamweaver on my non-laptop computer, which will make it easier to update my home on the web, with music from a variety of projects. Expect to see a lot more TOOL and Nick's Eef and Be Ho material posted in the next day or two.

Oh, I started a MySpace site, mainly because Baron did. I like to be a copycat. I probably won't do much with it, but it's good to appropriate Zorknapp so that no one else can use it.

NP: I'm in Brace, so I'm overhearing a conversation about role playing games...

Thursday!

Nothing like the day before the last day of work for the week, is there?

Today, I interviewed someone for a job here at Dartmouth who went to Boston College, and lived in Shaw House, the place where I spent the first two years of my college life. However, he lived there in the late 90's/early 00's, which was about 10 years after I was there.

I'll be heading into Boston this weekend, to hang out with Joe (unfortunately, Brian will be in NJ, so I'll miss him this time), maybe we'll head on out to BC for a stroll down memory lane...

You know, I've *never* actually seen a street called "Memory Lane." There's got to be one out there, don't you think? Or is there only one in some Twilight Zone netherworld?

I worked on genealogy today for the first time in awhile, inputing some Scottish records into my Family Tree Maker program. I still have a few more to do, but I didn't want to spend all evening sitting at the computer. So of course, now I'm writing a blog. Is that irony?

Tomorrow, some of us from work are heading down to Manchester, NH to take in a minor league baseball game, and to go out to eat afterwards. I'm not a big baseball person, but it should be fun... I'll bring my camera for exciting action shots.

NP: Richard Lewis - Dates from Hell, Mistake Warnings, and Actresses (1985)

May!

On 10 May 1851, my great-great-great grandparents, John Lord and Jane Lang, got married in Trinity Church, Newark, New Jersey.

On 10 May 1890, John Lord died at age 61 at his home of 164 Grant Avenue, East Newark, New Jersey.

So, on this anniversary date, I reflect on how if either of these events had not happened when they did, I may not be sitting here right now.

NP: Velvet Underground - Afterhours - June 1993

Photos?!

Okay, will I actually get to post photos tonight??? Let's see...

Yay! Seems to be working! This is a photo of the crowds at the event, before the Relay officially started on Friday evening. CD Dan is in the lower left corner of the shot.

Here's CD Tricia and CD Dan, looking at something off in the distance, I'm not quite sure what. The event was indoors this year, which was okay, but I prefered it last year, when we got to walk outside on the track by Dartmouth's football field. When it got chilly in the evening outdoors, it gave more of an incentive to keep walking...

Daniel, beaten down by life...

People on our team (or just out supporting us) sitting, while a few of us walked. The idea of Relay is that at least one person from your team should be walking at all times. If that person sits down, someone else goes in their place. Relay, get it???

Krista, laughing at something, most likely something inappropriate!

The Luminary ceremony, which was all done with Christmas lights this year, since there couldn't be candles by the indoor track...

And, to end, a close up of CD Fu... This could be a good album cover, don't you think?

If you still want to donate, go to this site... Thanks to those of you who have already given for the American Cancer Society.

NP: King Crimson, Epitaph - 22 Nov 1968

Bisquit!

Ah, so I'm back... Feeling a bit under the weather today, but I'm finally going to post some photos from the Relay for Life event that was on Friday night. Away we go...

Well, this page seems to be having a problem with posting photos right now. So, it's going to have to wait...

In other news, I finished converting all of my old tapes today. Finally, that project is all done. Now, I have time in the evening to relax a bit, exercise when necessary, read, and perhaps even kick start my genealogy research. I really haven't done much with it during this year so far, so I should decide what to work on, perhaps really focus on trying to break down some barriers. There are still some branches of the Lord family I need to re-connect with. That's a good start...

It's been good to get back in contact with Baron from posting some old high school stories here, and the little comments section below the main posting. I do need to write an e-mail back to Baron, so if you're waiting out there Baron, I Haven't Forgotten You!

But, I was thinking, since Baron found his way here, perhaps I can get some other people finding themselves mentioned here, who I've been out of contact with for the past number of years. Those people are:

• Erik Lynch: Guitarist from T.O.O.L., lives out in Colorado now, I believe
• Bill Sexton: No idea where he is now...
• Andy Fenwick: One of the singers from T.O.O.L., perhaps living in NY, NJ, or Washington DC?

That's a good start for now...

In going over some of these old tapes, I found ones of me singing along to records when I was about 16. Horrible stuff... After doing this, there's a tape of me saying, "I guess I don't sing very well." It's so rare that you find an audio record of the destruction of an illusion...

There was also a tape of an audio letter I sent to Brian in the summer of 1988, when he was away at smart kids kamp... It was funny to hear, because, just like today, I was the king of banal detail. I had sent Brian some tapes of music, so I spent a big part of the tape detailing who was in the bands, who wrote what songs, and all that goofy stuff. I'm amazed anyone is still my friend!

Oh, and you think you're a big blog reader? What do you want, a BISQUIT???

NP: Scrubs on NBC

Relay!

Tonight, I'll be participating in the Relay for Life, a charity event sponsored by the American Cancer Society, to help raise money for research, treatment, and all the other stuff the ACS does.

If you'd like to donate, go to this page. Click on my name, and donate away!

The event itself is an all night extravaganza, where at least one member of your team has to be walking at all times. We're going to be set up indoors this year, on the Dartmouth indoor track. There are events, performances, food, and a bunch of other stuff to make it a real party, positive atmosphere. I'll get some photos to put up here sometime over the weekend.

I'm down to 8 tapes left to convert to mp3's! Yay! Once I'm done, I'm going to work on a midi-percussion piece I've been thinking about. I have a basic pattern in my head, which I will layer with some other musical instruments, and some live percussion. We'll see how it turns out...

Slow!

I've been a bit slow with blogging recently, as my life has been taken over by converting these old tapes to MP3's. It's a big pain in the butt, but I'm so close to the end now (only 14 more tapes to go!), that I just have to plow through it. I'm hoping by this weekend, I'll be done. My hope of getting done this past weekend was a bit naive.

Right now, I'm on Yes's "Ritual," from a '74 bootleg. The tape speed was a bit fast, which is why I'm glad my old four track recorder has a pitch control on it, so I can slow down the tape to something approximating the correct pitch.

I'm surprised that I'm able to tell the "correct" pitch. I didn't know I'd be able to do it, but I think I've done a good job with it. I've got a few more Yes tapes to convert, some David Bowie, some Moody Blues, The Who, and UK. Fun stuff.

Much more content coming soon in the near future. I've been neglecting genealogy recently, I've got to get back in the swing of that. I requested some records from NJ over a year ago, which I have yet to receive! They've cashed my check (last June), and I've sent a letter with a copy of the cancelled check to them back at the end of last year, and have still heard nothing. I'd hope to at least get an e-mail, saying, "Sorry, but we sent them, too bad so sad," but I haven't even gotten that...

NJ Vital Records, a Pox on your House!

NP: Yes - Ritual - 18 Feb 1974

Slogging!

I'm continuing to slog my way through my collection of old live or radio show tapes that I've collected over the years, converting them to MP3. I'm going to do a major push this weekend, while I'm on call, and possibly, I *may* be able to be totally done by the following weekend. I have 28 more tapes to convert, so I may be wildly optomistic on this front...

Right now, I'm converting Yes from the Orpheum in Boston, October 1997. It's a show I attended, but I did not do the tape myself. And of course, it being Yes in Boston, I attended the show with Brian. (The bass drum on this recording is very bassy... Ah well, bootlegs...)

I haven't mentioned recently what I'm reading, so away I go... I'm reading "Manhunt," by James Swanson, a book about John Wilkes Booth's assassination of Lincoln, and Booth's subsequent escape for 12 days. It's a fascinating read, as I didn't know much about Booth's escape, I just knew he was killed at a farm sometime after the assassination. The book is generally a good read, but there's a bit too much repetition in the narrative, and not enough referencing of places and dates. I know dates can be the death of a history book, but I love them, to keep track of the narrative in my head...

NP: Yes - Siberian Khatru - 18 Oct 1997

Aykroyd?!

Is it just me, or does this new movie, RV, remind anyone out there of the Dan Aykroyd/John Candy vehicle from the late 80's, The Great Outdoors?

Anyone?

Contact!

Ah, the wonders of the Inter-Ether-Web... I just heard, via a comment below, from the aforementioned Baron, who was a good friend from back in the days of Ocean Township High School, class of '89.

That was way back in the last century, for those young ones out there.

It's a good time, to hear back from people that I've lost contact with over the years. When I think about that high school graduation was 17 years ago, I can certainly get a little nostalgic. It's not an eternity, and generally, I like to live in the present, versus wallowing in the past, but it's good to visit the past periodically.

Hell, I do genealogy! Let's be honest, I *love* wallowing in the past...

But, my wallowing is not about trying to relive the past, or changing what has happened. It's more of a reflective wallowing, to learn and remember the good/bad/ugly times from back then. Brian and I are very good at doing this if you get us together for any period of time.

"Guess Who" wanted to hear more stories about that Baron fellah... I remember Baron, Brian and I working together on studying for a final exam in Mr. Lefsky's Macro class. We had to basically overhaul the American economy. I vaguely remember us liking the idea of reinstating chain gangs, to have prisoners do more menial labor. I'd have to find my notebooks from back then (which I still have, in some trunks in the apartment), to see what our ideas were. Lefsky encouraged us to work together, which was good, as I think the three of us probably wrote fairly identical essays for that test. I think we all did well...

I also remember, on a trip to NYC with the aforementioned Macro class, that Baron had a jacket, perhaps a Members Only type, that we joked looked as if he had a gun in a shoulder holster. Much fun ensued when Baron slowly made to reach for his imaginary gun...

Well, it was funny at the time, really...

In other news, work is going okay. I'm still waiting to hear from some of the jobs I've applied for, but colleges, and Student Affairs positions in particular, are usually sssssssssssssssslllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww in doing their job searches. So, I submit resumes, and wait...

I have some photos from that New York trip, I'll see if I can get them onto the computer to post up here... Ah, to be young and have hair...

MCAT!

Sue and I proctored the MCAT here at Dartmouth today, for a group of 27 students. It's always a fairly straightforward proposition, except for the fact that I have to get up early on a weekend to do it. But, it was a good group of testees, and except for a bit of noise from the building (heating issues?) during the last section of the test, it was a smooth session.

I'm still converting tapes over to MP3's. I'm done with all the tapes of concerts I actually recorded personally, so I'm back to doing either live tapes I got from other sources, or shows I taped off the radio back in the 80's or 90's. Right now, I'm working on a live concert by "3," an ELP offshoot containing Keith Emerson, Carl Palmer, and Robert Berry. They did one album in 1988, that wasn't horrible, but wasn't much of anything to write home about either. I taped this concert from the Ritz in NYC, off of WNEW FM in NY, back when I was growing up in NJ. The one song I've done so far, Fanfare for the Common Man, was actually performed very well, so although the album might have been a bit off, live they did well.

I have to throw this picture up, just for fun...

Tell me you wouldn't want to see a big piece of construction equipment, with a name like "Putzmeister!"

NP: Adrian Belew - Dinosaur