raw opinion—great food—fast cars—wild horses
When Zen, my newest equine companion, came into my life, he was two years and four months old. He had not yet figured out how to behave around humans in an acceptable and safe way. He had spent most of his life with two other geldings who were very athletic and very good at keeping the youngster in his place in their herd. He viewed humans as a transitory herd, another...
I was looking forward to this past semester. Really. I swear. There were lots of fun things on tap… Astronomy… Electrodynamics—that’s electricity and magnetism… Numerical methods for physics… Classroom Interactions… In the end, two out of four ain’t bad… it just isn’t much of anything. Astronomy really let me down. Perhaps it’s a great testament to usual university policy of not letting an instructor teach the same course more than three consecutive...
Ever had that sneaking suspicion your timing was all wrong? Yeah… happens to me all the time. I manage to laugh at inappropriate moments, ask humorous questions at just the wrong time, or walk into a room at the worst possible moment. But Karma maintains balance, and I can look back to find that there were many occasions where I was in exactly the right place at the right time. I couldn’t have...
A few years back I visited the topic of smell memory. It’s something I think of a lot as I wander the planet, as I find it almost constantly triggered these days. I was vividly reminded of my olfactory awareness Sunday night as a chuck roast was undergoing its magical transformation by low, slow heat in my oven. Trapped in a Dutch oven with a few friends—onion, garlic, and tomatoes—along with...
I am a teacher. Whether I mean to or not, I shape the minds of many young people every year. I do the best I can, but it is a frustrating, thankless job some days. I am frequently asked by people who don’t teach—most who don’t really know kids—what I think of the next generation. This is a heavy subject for me, as I probably take my job way too seriously....
He got me. I can’t believe he got me. I even read the sequel first, but he got me. Darn you, Scott Turow! I’m not sure why it never occurred to me to read Presumed Innocent. It’s been a “known work” of modern popular fiction for a while now. Heck, I hear they’ve even made a movie starring Harrison Ford. Yet, somehow, I hadn’t seen the movie or even heard the...
Bucky is back to being, well, Bucky. And Satchel continues to have outstanding insight, for a dog… Which reminds me… My wife and I, between us, have a combined IQ that is easily higher than the speed limit. Yet, somehow, when we went to Costco the other day, knowing that we were low on peanut butter, managed to buy pretty much everything in the store except peanut butter. Better luck next...
News services are reporting on a couple different studies (though one of those studies is a couple years old) indicating that beer will make you live longer… That’s research I can drink to!
Had I not been warned as a youngster to be careful what I wished for, I’d certainly wish to live somewhere with predictable weather. Then, of course, I’d wind up in Seattle or London and curse the non-stop rain and fog! Since I became an avid road cyclist about 7 years ago, I’ve developed a careful technique for checking the weather forecast. First and foremost, I rely heavily on the weather...
I was a huge fan/proponent/consumer of Google Reader. RSS feeds didn’t excite me much prior to the advent of that fine service. If I had to keep track of what I’d read and what I hadn’t to be able to read on multiple devices, I might as well just visit web sites. Google changed all that once I could access the Google Reader website from any computer, phone, tablet, etc. in...
Canis Wickettis
c. 1992-2011
You will be missed.