End!

So, today was my last day at work at Dartmouth College. It's always sad to leave a place, but at the same time, exciting to be going to the next step in life. I mentioned to Sue the other day that if it wasn't sad to leave a place, that means that there's some sort of problem... Just my belief...

I spent the morning walking around to offices here, wishing people well, and generally just connecting with people who it's fun to connect with before leaving. Of course, sometimes you see odd things that just make you laugh... Like this:

At first, I thought, "Someone's buried a bike in the ground!" However, then I realized the true purpose of this.

It's a seat for the Earth.

After visiting some offices, I got to take a Community Director candidate on a tour of the campus, which basically meant that I got to show her East Wheelock, my (now former) cluster. When we got here, I discovered that my ID, which is used to gain access to the building, had been turned off! Ouch!

Fortunately, there was a painter in one of the lobbies who was able to let us in, so the tour could proceed apace.

After the tour, I left to go to our ORL end of (academic) year cookout. Always a fun time, I just relaxed at it, chatted with some people, and continued to NOT WIN ANYTHING in the raffle that happens every year. I thought with this being my last year, I would win something, but unfortunately, I continued to be a loser. My number was 634, and both 633 and 635 were called. Not that I'm bitter or anything...

At around 7pm tonight, I met up with some co-workers to enjoy a "last day" dinner with them. Thank you to CD Daniel for pulling this together, it was appreciated on my part. On the way out, I noticed this sign at another local restaurant:

Really, there's just something I find comical about the phrase "Beat the Pump."

I should have something philosophical or deep to say about this transition in my/our lives, but I don't know if I'm ready for this yet. I mean, I've been here at Dartmouth for 5 years, so it's a good chunk of my recent life. I got married while working here, met a lot of great people, and have gained good experience. I think because I'm used to transitioning, this is just one more, for right now, but I also think there's more to it, that I'll see with time. Maybe in a few days, maybe in a longer period of time. I'll digest this a bit more, and let you know what I come up with...

NP: Bill Nelson - Fellini's Picnic

Pics!

Awhile ago, I wrote about Sue and I going to see the Tony Levin Band down in Northampton, MA. Sue just got her photos off of her phone, so away we go!

Here's her photo of the stage, from our seat up at the front of the balcony. It's a photo from a cell phone, so unfortunately, the quality isn't great, but you get the basic layout. Pete Levin (Tony's brother) on keys and Jesse Gress on guitar are at the far left. Jerry Marotta, the drummer, is in the center of the photo, wiht his back to the audience, Tony Levin is behind Marotta (I think!), and Larry Fast is sitting behind his keyboard on the right.

Here's a photo of your hero, Mike. I believe this is from us sitting at our table, before the show.

After the show, the band was happy to hang out and sign CD's/albums, or whatever the audience had. Photos were also encouraged, so Sue got this one of Larry Fast (Mr. Synergy), myself, and Pete Levin. I thought Jerry Marotta would be in the photo also, but I guess he was out of view. Sadness...

And finally, here's myself with the man of the hour, Tony Levin. Great bass player, great musician, and all around good guy.

My eternal thanks to the wonderful Sue for taking these photos. She's the best!

NP: Jon Anderson - Naturemusic

Rain!

Raining all day here in Hanover. Not cold though, so at least that's going for us. Not steamy either.

So, with that weather stuff out of the way, what's up? Packing continues, and we're doing well with it. Work during the day is nothing earth shattering, just making progress with preparing for my last day on Friday.

I did receive a package of stuff from St. Peter's today, which included some t-shirts, a mug, some stickers, and information about both the college and local "stuff" in the Jersey City/Hudson County area. It was very cool of them to send a package like that. In my work history, they're the first place to do something along those lines. I'm feeling good about working with these people, which is a positive start.

I'm making a list of things to include in my car for the drive down to NJ. Most of it is stuff that is sensitive to moving, or at least things I *consider* sensitive to moving. Like my home recording computer, some musicial instruments, an old clock I have, stuff like that. Most of it could probably be moved by the movers with no problem, but I have the car, and it'll give me something to do while I'm down there.

Move guitars from room to room. Fun stuff!

NP: King Crimson - Improv: The Savage - 30 Mar 1974

Test!

So, in cleaning out stuff for the move, you never know what you'll find. Here's a photo of one of my archeological nuggets...

This was something I had on my white board outside of my Freshman year room out at Boston College. The Steve in question, nicknamed "Slammer," for appropriate reasons, was a bit, shall we say, tense. VERY tense. So, when I stumbled upon this survey for stress (that's what the little print is on the paper taped to the white board), I made it into the Steve Test.

And, I have kept it for 17 years.

But now, it's in the trash outside of our apartment. All good things must come to an end...

In other news (but not really), packing continues apace. We're doing quite well, especially with having about 10 days before the movers come. Sue and I used some of those SPACE BAGS, where you vacuum out the air from a bag, in order to condense the stuff inside. It works a charm with pillows, blankets, and other poofy cloth. Sheets are a bit less condensable, mainly because they're already pretty flat.

We did take some time in the afternoon today to get some ice cream from Ben & Jerry's. Sue had some coupons, so not only was it a good break, but it was cheaper than it normally would be. I got a Cherry Garcia shake, and Sue got some sort of uber-Chocolate ice cream. I can't remember the name.

I'm about 100 pages out from finishing the Truman Capote book "In Cold Blood." I was inspired to read it after seeing the film "Capote." I really enjoyed the movie, but I'm seeing that perhaps the movie was a bit fictionalized in it's storytelling. It got all the major parts of the novel right, but the film mixed a bit of things up (notably the confession of the two murderers) in order to make the film a bit more dramatic.

Definitely a recommended read.

NP: Chris Cornell - Follow My Way

Shuttle!

In case you haven't been paying attention to the latest space news like I have, the Space Shuttle Discovery is set to launch on July 1st, I'm not sure what exact time. As a strong supporter of space exploration and travel, I'm glad to see NASA getting it's manned space program back on the right path.

The plans are to have the shuttle fly until 2010, and then by 2014, have a new vehicle ready to make the next leap back to the Moon, by about 2017 or so. Very doable, from what I've been reading, as long as the budgetary support is there.

I've always wanted to go see a shuttle launch. I don't know if I'll be able to do that, but if not, maybe I'll be able to see a launch of people to the Moon, which would be just as interesting...

In more Mike and Sue related news, packing continues apace. I've packed away some old family photos I had on display here, and have boxed up a good amount of my clothing. I'm leaving some stuff out, obviously, to wear for the next few weeks. Also, some of the clothes I'm leaving out I'll carry in a suitcase, to have for my first week of work in the new job. I don't expect it would take long to unpack clothes, but I'd rather not have to be rushed with digging for clothes when our stuff arrives.

Work here is steady, but not overly hectic. I'm speaking of my actual Community Director job, not the work of packing up! I'm trying to prep a bunch of stuff for the next person to come along to this job here in East Wheelock, and tomorrow, I'll be organizing my staff room, which is a bit of a mess right now. I have no other real appointments tomorrow, so it'll be a good way to spend the day.

Today, I got a package in the mail of some cheese/meat mix from Hickory Farms, from Ruth, the former AA for our office. She's from England originally, and lived in Australia for quite some time before coming to NH. Last year, she moved back with her family to Australia, but we've stayed in touch, and it was really nice to get that from her. She also e-mailed me the song/dance audio for "Puttin' On The Ritz" from Young Frankenstein, as we used to joke about that quite a bit during her time here... The comedy never stops!

NP: Mike Keneally - Manhattan

Thunder!

Crazy intense thunderstorms today, right in the 4-5pm block! I tried to get some photos of lightning in action, but I was never pointed in the right direction. It actually interrupted the farewell gathering for the Dean of the College here, which was too bad, but the event moved inside with no real trouble.

Tonight, Sue and I went to dinner with my/our friends Theresa and Thor, who I know from my BC days. Theresa was a freshman when I was a senior, and we were connected through the CCE, the murder mystery group we were both a part of. They have a condo in the Queeche area, just about a 20 minute drive from Hanover, so when they're up here, it's good to get together.

We went to Molly's, a local restaurant, which I'm sure I've mentioned here before as just a good, solid place to eat. We met at 6:30pm, and ended up staying till about 9:15, which was fun. I enjoy hanging out with T&T, as does Sue. Hopefully they'll be able to find their way down to the NYC area when we're there. Theresa mentioned to me that she just saw Lou and his wife (Hello Lou and Sania!) a few weeks ago while she was in NYC (although I may have the timeframe wrong, don't hold me to it!).

Updates on ending up here at Dartmouth: My last day of work will now be June 30th. I wanted to work till the 5th, but I guess it doesn't make sense to keep me in the new fiscal year, when I'd only be working for 5 days. Ah well...

Movers will be picking up our stuff on the 6th, and delivering it to Jersey City on the 9th. I then start work on the 10th. A whirlwind few days, to be sure... I feel good about the packing we've done already, so we'll just have to keep the pace going.

NP: Jeff Buckley - Yeh Jo Halka Saroor Hae - 1993 07/08

Boxes!

Here are photos I promised the other day, of our packing, and of our helping we did for my departing colleague...

Ah, guys and trucks... We like to try to all play jigsaw man, and put everything in the truck perfectly. Sometimes it works, and here, it actually did. This is also what I call a "back of head" shot, as everyone is not looking at the camera. CD Brian is in blue, CD Fouad in maroon, Wilson, partner of CD Dan in green, and CD Krista is in white. She's the one who's leaving, although Fu and her will be living together down in Amherst in a few weeks. He's leaving too. *sniff*

CD Dan and my wonderful Sue, both avoiding work... Of course, there's no photos of me avoiding work, as I had the camera...

Here's Sue, plotting her next packing move, with some boxes in the foreground, and even the tip of my foot/sneaker in the frame...

And again, the wonderful Sue, with an empty bottle of a Romanian dish detergent, called Fart. Can someone please explain to me why this is funny?

NP: The Who - Baba O'Riley (30 June 1989)

Packing!

Today was a very moving-centric day. It started off with me bringing a small piece of exercise equipment to a friend's yard sale, to see if it would sell. I tried to see if it sold, when I stopped by their home later in the afternoon, but no one was around. I'll give a call tomorrow to see what's up.

I then went to buy some boxes for our forthcoming move to the Garden State, and even got a start on some packing before I went around 11:30 or so to help two of my colleagues, who are also leaving Dartmouth, pack up their moving truck. Fortunately, we had about 10 people there to help, and I brought two dolly carts from my cluster, so the loading up actually went fairly quickly.

Of course, it was hard to see my colleagues head out of here, but I know I'll be on their end of the departure day soon enough, so I can empathize on how it'll feel for us. Krista was leaving "for good" today, but Fouad will be working this last week here at Dartmouth, so there's still time to drag the departure out...

In the afternoon, I bought some more boxes (besides finding some boxes for free around town, and in the building), and Sue and I have a bunch of stuff now packed. All of our CD's, DVD's, and about 60-70% of our books are now in boxes. Tomorrow, I'll get the rest of the books, along with some other stuff packed. The movers won't be coming until around July 6th, so we still have plenty of time to get stuff ready.

We took some pictures today, I'll post them up here tomorrow, so you can see what the life in boxes will be like for the next few weeks.

NP: The Black Crowes - Remedy

Job!

So, I accepted a job offer today! In order to save time rewriting things, here's the e-mail I sent out to friends today:
----------------------------
Hello All!

Yes, it's a group e-mail, but I have some good news to share...

Yesterday, I received an offer, and today I accepted said offer, to be the Assistant Director of Residence Life for Community Development at St. Peter's College, down in Jersey City, NJ.My start date is Monday, July 10th. The job provides housing, so we'll still be living in an apartment in the residence halls, but that's okay, as housing costs in the area are quite high, since we're right across the river from Manhattan. It's an hour from "home" down in Ocean Township, where I grew up, and is close to many members of Sue's family. Also, since this job allows me to supervise other professional staff members, it is the natural next step in my career progression.

Besides supervising two other professionals, I'll be working to develop student staff training programs, working with other campus offices to develop and grow a variety of initiatives, and other interesting stuff. St. Peter's College is a Jesuit institution (like Boston Collge, where I got my undergrad degree), and has about 1700 full time undergrads, with about 700 of them living on campus. I'll also be someone who hears judicial/behavioral issues and issues sanctions, which isn't necessarily fun, but is a way to help influence students in positive ways. I could list other job responsibilities, but that's kind of boring... :)

Sue and I will be packing up here for the next few weeks, and my last day at work at Dartmouth will probably be right around the 4th of July.What's coincidental/funny, to me at least, about this job, is that the campus is about 10 blocks away from where a pair of my great-great-great-grandparents lived (Richard and Eliza Coulson) in the mid/late 19th Century, after they came over to the US from Ireland. Maybe I'm a big nerd for knowing these things, with all the genealogy research I do, but there you have it.

For those of you in the NYC/NJ area, since we're relocating, Sue will need to find a job. Right now, she's working as an administrative assistant for one of the academic offices here at Dartmouth. If you know of any good jobs she can apply for, let me know!

Hope all is well with you, I'll write more individually in the coming weeks.

Mike

-----------------------------

So, there you have it. I wasn't really comfortable going into details on here before accepting the position, but I've been looking forward to talking about this for awhile. I'm just very glad that it's working out. I've been looking for a new position that would be a step up for awhile now, and it's finally come.

This job will give me the experience necessary to either move laterally from there in the future, or move up to another sort of position (Director, or other level). I've been getting a lot of well wishes from people, which has been great.

Of course, I will miss the people and location up here. Including my time at Landmark, I've been living up here in the "wild woods" for 8 years. I met Sue up here, fell in love, and all that goes along with that. But now we get to build something new, in a new location that has different things to offer, which will be a good experience.

I really enjoyed the people I met at St. Peter's, and already am looking forward to working with them. In speaking to my future supervisor on the phone today, I think we're going to have a great relationship. It'll be hard at times, to be sure, but that's what is good about change. New challenges to shake off any cobwebs in the brain...

More to come!

NP: Yes - The Ancient (18 Feb 1974)

Show!

On Sunday night, Sue and I made our way down to Northampton, MA, to check out the Tony Levin Band live in concert at a place called the Iron Horse. The show started at 7pm, and we got to the town at about 4:15pm or so. It was about a 100 minute drive from Hanover, so not horrible...

Since we were way early, we went to a nice little vegetarian restaurant to eat. Even though I'm not a vegetarian, I enjoy this place, we've eaten there before when we were in town. I had the vegetarian stir fry, which was quite tasty, if a bit more greasy than I'd like. But, it wasn't in a bad way. After eating, we wandered around the town for a bit (it was *quite* a nice day), and Sue went into a store while I enjoyed sitting on a bench on the street. I noticed a guy with a guitar case standing in front of the store asking passers-by for change. I can only assume that he had played enough guitar for the day that he didn't feel the need to perform any more. I'm always willing to throw in some change, if I have any, to street musicians. But, they do have to be playing when I throw my change in.

We got to the Iron Horse around 6pm or so, and it was pretty full on the floor. It was set up for dinner, and most of the tables on the stage level floor were filled. There was a deuce (restaurant talk for a two person table) right at the top of the stairs to the balcony, so that's where we ended up. It was a good location as we could both see the stage, and not have to share our table with other people. Not that we're not social, but I just didn't feel like sharing my space. You could end up with some cool people, or not... I didn't want to run the risk of the second option.

The Tony Levin Band is made up of 5 people. There's Tony Levin himself, who plays bass and a number of other bottom end instruments (the Chapman Stick, and an electric cello), and sings. Jerry Marotta plays drums and sings, Larry Fast is on keys, Jesse Gress on guitar, and Pete Levin (Tony's brother) also on keys. Those of you into odd music trivia may realize that Tony, Jerry, and Larry were three members of Peter Gabriel's touring band from the late 70's into about 1983. Levin still plays with Gabriel, but Marotta and Fast have moved on to other things. Larry Fast has a number of albums out under the name Synergy, which are all instrumental albums done on synthesizers. Cool stuff! I picked up two of those Synergy CD's at the show, as I already have all of Levin's stuff that was on sale.

Sue and I didn't eat, since we had already eaten, but I did get a coke, and Sue got coffee.

The opener was a duo from Australia called "The Kin." At first, I thought they were a bit too "pretty boy" for me, but they could sing well, and their songs were quite good, actually. I'm not running out to buy their CD's, but they were a good warm up, and performed for about 40 minutes. During their set, I saw some members of Levin's band, including Levin himself, moving in and out of the club.

When Levin and Company came out on stage, they first did a barbershop quartet which mimiced Levin's old King Crimson quartet piece from 1984, except this one was all about his own band. Very fun! The first "real" piece was an instrumental song (Pieces of the Sun, I believe), which started out with Levin on the aforementioned electric cello. The low end was deep enough to vibrate my seat!

I should mention that during the opening act, I got a dessert which was a brownie sundae, which was quite excellent!

Levin's set consisted of a mix of newer songs from his latest CD, other music from his recent albums, and covers of songs from bands or musicians that he's been involved with. He played two King Crimson songs (Sleepless and Elephant Talk), Black Dog from Zeppelin (just for fun), Genesis's "Back in N.Y.C.," Larry Fast's/Synergy's "Phobos," and Peter Gabriel's "On The Air," which was fantastic. The band all seemed to be really enjoying themselves, although Marotta seemed perhaps a bit under the weather, although he sang very well on Sleepless, Back in NYC, and On The Air.

Afterwards, the band was freely available to chat, sign anything that was put in front of them, and just be generally pleasant to talk to. Sue got some photos of me with the band members, which I'll get up here at some point. I talked with Larry Fast about being from NJ, which was a bit of "old home" stuff, and with Tony Levin about coming down from Hanover for the show. He wished us a safe drive back, and all was well. I didn't want to take up too much of their time, I could have really geeked it up with music questions, but chose not to, as they had a good drive back to Woodstock, NY, once the meet and greet was done.

All in all, a very good show! I'd recommend any instrumental music lover to go to their show, or if you're interested in progressive rock in general. Even Sue enjoyed it!

NP: Cheap Trick - Goodnight

Levin!

Just a quick post to say that Sue and I will be heading out soon, to Northampton, MA, to see the Tony Levin Band, tonight at a place called the Iron Horse.

Levin is a bass player who has played with John Lennon, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, and many others. He has a few solo albums out, mainly instrumental work, that are quite good. It should be a fun show... I will post an update tomorrow to share what the show was like...

Confidential!

Scribbler, aka Baron, made a comment on my last blog about job searching, and keeping things quiet versus being open during a job search. I should probably talk a bit about what it's like doing a job search in this field, so that readers out there know context.

Now, I don't know if this is for everyone, or just me, but in general I'm very open about talking about looking for a job. First off, at least in this situation I'm in now, it's because I actually still like the job I'm in. I'm very open with the fact that I do enjoy my present job, and I'm not looking under a negative cloud. It's just that it's time to find some new challenges with work. If I do end up staying here for longer, I can find different challenges with my present job, but it's becoming tougher and tougher to do that, without people going, "Why don't you find a better job out there?"

I obviously tell my references/supervisors that I'm looking, and my immediate co-workers. Of course, friends and family hear about it in a different context. With colleagues who I don't work with in an immediate way, if they ask the question, I'm open about talking on the topic of my job search. And, I'm also willing to strategically let it drop in conversation, if I think it could help with my search in some way. That may sound a bit more scheming than I actually am, as it's more in reference to just being willing to accept an offer of advice from people with more experience.

This year, I've been a bit more open with students I work with about my search. If they ask the question, I'm willing to talk about it, with making it clear that if I don't find it, I do still like the job I'm in. If they think I'm not really invested in staying at Dartmouth, then why would they want to work with me? As I said before, fortunately, I don't have to pretend that I like my work, I do actually enjoy it!

So, that's the context I'm in, for my job search...

Questions?

NP: The Who - Behind Blue Eyes (3 Sept 1989)

Closing!

Tomorrow is closing/move out day for all non-graduating students here at Dartmouth. I get to go around in the morning, starting at about 9am, and check all the rooms in the cluster to make sure people are on their way out. It's actually a fun time, because most people are either gone already, or are on their way to leave. Most people want to leave at this time of year, as it's really the end, for now...

Tonight, a number of us went out for CD Tricia's birthday, to a local chain restaurant called Margarita's. It's Mexican, but not the most authentic place in the world. Still, a good time was had by all, although the service was a bit slow.

Me, I got home around 8pm, exercised, and am now writing this. I was watching my new DVD of the movie "The Aristocrats" earlier, which I recommend to anyone interested in comedy, although it's not for the faint of heart... Lots of naughty language, and gross stuff abounds. Sign me up!

My general status on life right now is that it seems like a lot of things are in holding patterns. Work is good, but with doing a search, it's all in flux. I may be here in 2 months, I may be somewhere else, depending on how things go with interviews, offers, and the like. I am dealing with the ambiguity okay, but it's more an annoyance than anything else.

NP: Rachmaninov - Suite No. 1 Op. 5, 1st Movement

Hampshire!

Okay, I'm back in NH now. I arrived back from NJ yesterday (Saturday) at about 3pm, after having breakfast with my dad and stepmother at a nice little diner in the old hometown.

How did the interview go? It went well, from my point of view, although there may be salary issues that could be unresolvable, if an offer gets made to me. We'll see how it goes, if anything develops, I'll let you know.

It was good to be at home in NJ. I got to sit on my mom's roof deck and look at the ocean the first day I was there, and that evening (Thursday), watched some distant lightning to the north, also from the roof. Very cool...

Today, Sue and I went to go see the new X-Men movie. Sue's always liked the series more than I have (hello, Hugh Jackman!), but I don't actively dislike the movies. However, there was no real emotional resonance for me with the events in this film, although there should have been, as the movie was trying to press all my buttons. Ah well, there's plenty of other good movies out there to spend time on in the future...

On the way back here yesterday, I heard a bit of an opera by Beethoven on one of the NPR stations I listen to, I believe it was called Fidelius. I'm going to have to pick up a copy of it, as the bit that I heard was quite amazing...

NP: Keith Jarrett - John's Abbey

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...