Red Breast.

well, hopefully that got you excited! or if you've been running long distances without proper nipple protection it could just bring back shivering memories of chaffing. in any case - I saw the first* robin of the spring today~! it's official! no more winter**! yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

I snapped a picture^ of this little bugger outside my kitchen window this morning, as I was making some ginger tea. mmmmmm. ginger tea with milk and a dollop of honey - I've had about three cups so far this morning, it's just that good. plus I think I'm right at the circumventing disaster stage with some kind of ear infection. it's been really cold and wet every day for almost two weeks, and I bike everywhere*** which makes me realllllly glad that it's sunny today and I'm heading off on a little MUCH deserved Vaca time.

^if you click on it ... it gets way too big for your screen.
*my first visible robin. I've heard the little suckers around - but they're like ninjas...
**now I'm off to VT to check there. the prospects don't look good folks.
***plus the going into a 70 degree classroom, completely disrobing, and then back out into the cold rain, six times a day can't be healthy.

You Know That Time

between sitting down to do something on the computer, and the feature length span of time later when you actually get around to doing it? The, while these pictures for the project that I have to put together and send without exception by this evening at the latest are loading, I'll just check my email. oh yeah - and that link at the top of the page to my RSS reader - I guess i'll just hop over to that and see if there's anything new good. which there isn't really ... but it's good enough that you spend about the length of an episode of House scrolling through blogger updates like this back when I knew her she was just another struggling youth - and now one of the top 50 unique blog designers of our times. I suppose I could link to more of the ones that I enjoy reading, but they're sometimes just comics, or too numerous to post ... and the more I link to, the more you'll stay sedentary. I'll stop. thought - can one bring a laptop into the gym and read blogs while running? because ... if you can ... holy crap. think of all the workout time that I've been wasting simply sitting around! do I need to buy a Kindle for that? because ... I just might. for real. the glory of varying !greyscale! images ... oooooh. what technology has showered upon us shall remain in the glory of weathering shadows!

recently I've been waxing poetic for no good reason. I'm not sure if it means that I'm passing into a realm of nuttiness, or acute observation. but if I'm going to be a prophet ... I'd like to be one of the ones that gets old and a huge beard and wanders around on boxes of soap. not one of the ones that gets martyred in a public stoning. I don't want to be stoned at all actually ... especially not in public.

now - for important news.*

there is this guy. named Bo Burnham. and he. is hilarious. whether you are interested in math or not - you have to listen. there are a few lines like the 'domain domain range' bit that you might miss, and the part about underage women and perfect squares might make you cringe just a tad bit; but it's a SONG about MATH! this hasn't happened since the famous set math song of '06 !! "I'm living in a kernel of a rank one path!" hahaha - the math nerd in me rolls on the floor laughing. oh. wait. that's the real me. and the real me cracked the explicative up watching mr Burnham's piece as well. you will be a better person from it. and don't we all want to be better people?**


*if you still have time to read this after checking out those other sites.
**even though the realism of the situation would make you want to say 'be a better person', the grammar of parallelism can only be satisfied with a secondary plural. Unless I said 'each be a better person' - in which case it's assumptive and requires an infinite poll to prove.

Is Anybody Out There?

Well well well. It's been some time now, hasn't it? Something has brought me back. Something ... mysterious ... something ... revelationary. But I can't think of it right now. Maybe it was just that so many people have been asking me what's going on - in the past, present, future, gerund, and indicative sense. More on that later. So - it must be time to update.

However - I'm not really interested in updating on what's transpired - because that's 10 months of biking, moving, schooling, dinners, vacations, working, friends, family, games, books, and tea.

Also - currently it's a lot of school, bike, pie, tea, plant, mushroom, book, sniffle, rain, blossom - way too much detail to go into at this current juncture.

Hence - this update is just to say hi.

And to say that I was just sitting around today thinking about vacuum. what a cool word. a double u! which incidentally is not the letter double-u. that's just a misnomer. what we call a double u is really a double-v. but nobody takes the time to understand the difference ... which is why I use a soft, looped double-u for English, and a double-v when writing in other languages. it's only fitting. what fools these linguistics be. really ... it should either be pronounced 'vack-you-um' or 'vack-wm' ... but certainly not 'vack-yoom'. the other word I came up with off hand was continuum - which IS pronounced with the double u. Then - if you're chemistry savvy you've got menstruum (ew ... not that. it's a solvent used in solutions for infusion, decoction, distillation, etc.) and residuum (yeah - it's what it sounds like). hehe ... decoction. apparently there are also triduum, and the distinctly rare duumvir and duumvirate ... but really ... if I don't use them ... does anyone? i thought not. now - if you were paying attention - we had a double v word in there !! now don't get me started on those! or else I'll have you in your skivvies divvying up navvies in civvies into revving flivvers!

and on that note. a dios vais.

This Is It.

The real thing.

leaving tomorrow morning at 9 am. driving to VA beach. getting on a bike for the next 2.5 months and biking like a fiend.

I played Apples-to-Apples tonight and the only word that i won was courageous. so - I guess that's kind of fitting. biking more than I ever thought I would bike - ever - and building houses for people that i don't know with other people that I've never met, and volunteering all of the time and money for it. yeah. pretty wild.

and it should be a long time to think. without much to do but push my body to keep going and let my mind wander. hopefully to good places. i'm bringing a sketch book, and journal, and going to try to post here whenever I can - and upload pics to picasa if we ever get high-speed on a day off, or some such. I'm not sure how well that will work out - but the blogging should be fine since I have a bluetooth keyboard to hook up to any computer. :)

bienvenido! to me!

Last Dart.

Mouth.

okay. last day at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. finally. I love Hanover, but it's a 2 hour drive (stop for gas in there necessarily) each way for usually 2-4 hours tutoring. so, I work less than half the total time I'm away from the apt. kinda ridiculous. and if it weren't for the fact that I care about the students actually getting tutored (because no-one else could take on the extra tutees) I would prolly have just said f-that and NOT had to drive at least once a week across state lines.

but it gives me a good reason to say that I'm not biking today (unless I go out at night) - bad though that might be - I can't really see making an intense thrust this late in the game really paying off all that much. I don't have any problem going 20+ miles (besides the sunburn ... ouch) and I can't see 50 being that horrendous (especially since we'll prolly have to go slowly and be with the main group the first few days). and my bike is decked out. like - 4 water bottle cages decked out. like camera holster, gps, cadence, HR, seat pack, frame pack, blinky things and reflector things, and pumps - oh yeah. I look pro.

I had a bus full of little kids wave and yell out the window at me the other day when I was in full regalia. I gave them a huge thumbs up - and they went crazy. screaming, yelling, throwing hands outside the windows (now kids, that's against the rules). it was awesome. and then within about 200 yards I ran over a tiny speck of glass and punctured my tube. luckily the kids were passed by then, and lucky I had all my fixit stuff with me, and I thought that I had patched it well enough ... but the sad puddle of tire yesterday (three days later) attests to something not being quite right. I really just want to use the vulcanizing solution - because it says vulcanizing - and redo the whole thing. otherwise why bring an already punctured tube on the trip??

okay. gotta shower. rental arrives soon.

4 Days.

Yeah.

and then I drive down to VA with my newly anointed cousin and her schoolmate - to bike across the continental US. hot damn. this is going to be amazing. I just got the Cliff Bars in the mail - and I now am in possession of 15 boxes of 100 sample bars, in chocolate mint and banana nut. yeah. 15 boxes. of 100. over 120 pounds of cliff bars. thank you again to Cliff Bars for their huge donation and generosity!!!

I've also been trying to think of good games to bring for the group that you won't get sick of before the end ... basically I'm thinking cards and trying to figure out what else doesn't need a board, can pack easily, and won't get totally destroyed by 30 people over the course of two months.

yeah.

that's what I thought. cards. but keep thinking for me.
can't have a lot of little pieces, scrabble is totally out, and anything with only a few cards or trivia points will probably get memorized by the end. and if you say charades - that's totally not helpful. :)

Man Babies. Photoshop at its best.

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

Vocab and Hunger.

Manliest.

Someone had fun compiling these.

9 manliest names.

I love it.

Post.

so apparently that post where I confirmed that this last one was just for April Fool never got posted.

yeah.

not moving to Canada. while it could be pretty sweet. I'm thinking CA coast. for a year or so to feel it out. it's time to actually do that - and I deserve a little warm weather and continuous vacation. Plus I can play volleyball all the time - yes? no? is there a verdict on that? do I have to be tan first ... because at this point that could take a little while.

Canada though .... it could take us .... no-one expects it. and it's so close .... too close. like Belgium. can you say Maginot line? yeah. think about it.

Sick.

like a dog. or at least like a sick dog. but without all of the extraneous hair. because - that's bothersome.

so - I've been taking Nyquil all day - and let me tell you - it's awesome. I don't know why people get addicted to it, but I think I could take it every day to help sleep without thinking twice. oh. wait. I see. and between that and the other cocktail of drugs and vitamins, I should be well enough to drive down to Dartmouth again and not have my eyes bug out because they stopped focusing. not good. I wonder if that was because of all of the Dayquil on an empty stomach ... ?

Also - I've decided to move to Canada after Bike and Build this summer. Possibly change citizenship so that I can go to Grad school - but I think that I like being an American too much for that. A friend of mine from high school has a house on the Georgian lakes that she said I can live at and upkeep while they don't use it (they only use it for like 2 months out of the summer) and as long as I pay utilities and heat and such for anything that I use - the house is free! There was some talk of it not being very well insulated .... and on the map it looks like it's north of Vermont .... which troubles me a little .... but a free house on a lake all to myself? even if it's a touch cold - it's Canada. the Mounties will come and rescue me! I've been thinking about Canada for some time now ... healthcare really cheap, scholls pretty good, and they pay their teachers crazy well! high school teachers making 80,000 a year. yeah ... I could take a piece of that. The only thing is that if I want to teach at a school I have to get resumes and stuff in now - because it'll be too close when I get back in the fall. But - there are always Kaplan offices!! I wonder if the conversion rates are better over there than here ... will I be making more money in Canada?

Updated.

yeah, yeah, yeah.

The only thing worse than someone who feels the need to put even more rubbish on the internet through a blog is someone with a blog that doesn't update it regularly. Thanks grandma. no - not really - she didn't say that. but you were all thinking it.

So - the deal is : I've been fanatic busy again.

DAT classes - yay for dentists! they're so polite!
MCAT classes - seems like we have more and more every day ....
I drive to Hanover, NH tomorrow for tutoring and classes - and the time in-between is for grading more essays.
Essays - they get their own blog days sometimes.
Bikram - trying to go twice a week - but I got sick.

here's what happened.

I did an MCAT class on Sat afternoon - and then went to the late Bikram Yoga class. For those of you out there that haven't already Googled it - Bikram is like a mix between yoga and Tae-Bo in a room heated to 100+ with 90+ humidity for 90 minutes to 2 hours non-stop. one 10 second drink break every half hour - is all. heat. sweat. heat. sweat. stretch. sweat. move. sweat. it's pretty ridiculous - but it's actually getting me used to the idea of being super hot and still moving and giving the extra effort when I think I'm about to fall over. So - that's awesome prep for the bike trip (not to mention that I am getting way more flexible). But then I thought that I was going to go to Auri's for dinner .... except that there was a miscommunication - and she had plans. So I thought I'd take the bus back. But this is now later in the day - and apparently the bus stopped running barely 1 MINUTE before I walked out of the Yoga studio. I waited like 10 minutes after everyone had left - because I could not -no matter what I did - stop sweating. I did cold water, stood in the hall, my heartbeat was relaxed, just pouring sweat all over though. So - I had to leave to get home - but didn't know that i had missed the last bus. Waited like 15 minutes in the bitter (20 degree) cold - sweating like a fool and freezing (like a fool) because I didn't want to bother my roommates to come pick me up (that's kind of lame). Finally decided that the bus wasn't going to come (which was correct) and walked the hour back to my apartment - constantly changing hands that were carrying my bag and gear because after about 2 minutes holding it in the cold my fingers would freeze up. yeah. stupid. so now I have a horrific sore throat and cough and feel sick like a dog - or at least a sick dog - and my head hurts. all bad things. somehow I must have thought that I could stay warm by walking back? wrong. ick. I hate being sick. and I had to teach for over 3 hours today and try not to rasp the whole time. what a bother. I hope I'm better by tomorrow - because I don't want to start off a new class with a cold - that's bad form.

anywho - glad to be back in the swing! more updates to come! training is getting even more underweigh - and I have new shoes - more on that later!

Just in Case.

you need to know whether it was farther down the road, or further behind schedule.

http://www.lessontutor.com/eesfarther.html

check yourself before you wreck yourself.

OMG Essays.

So.

Basically for the past week I have been actively grading essays in my free time online
cough cough cough or playing scrabulous cough cough
... somehow the coughs didn't really work in covering that up in text nearly as well as I'd hoped.

but really. massive amounts of essay grading. almost too much.
three MCAT classes - and for some reason they keep sending them. one class has even built up a decent enough backlog that they have stopped sending them this week out of sympathy for the number that I already have!

hence - in homage to the ones that I have already read through - here are excerpts of text that amused me most when reading through them. Some are obviously typos, misspellings, and a few just plain odd. enjoy. I did.

- 'This will go down in the anals of history' ... sounds like a not-so-fun time to be alive to me.
- 'J. Edgar Hoover was a man known for his reign of terror among Americans' ... you mean the vacuum guy?
- 'great leaders can be made if they expose themselves' ... I thought it went just the opposite.
- 'complex tissues' ... are there easy tissues?
- 'leonidas was king from 1300 - 1237, and then led the army of 300 in 1233 against the Persians' ... so - let's do some math here .... even assuming that he was just 14 when he became king (right of manhood at a young age) then he would have been king till he was 77 - then somehow stopped being king for 4 years - then leads the 300 at the virile age of 81!
- 'in some instances a great leader can be mad' ... so can everyone else.
- 'doubtless this casts doubt' ... wait - surely this brings surety?
- 'sometimes a student needs to be castrated in order to improve' ... I'm pretty sure they meant castigated - I hope ...
- 'your sure their are to many' ... I almost choked.

and I leave you with those. I will try to keep better track as I attack the next bunch - and see what shows up!

Some Interesting Facts:

It is impossible to lick your own elbow. (don't try this)
A crocodile can't stick its tongue out. (neener-neener!)
In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80years,
   no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried it's head in the sand. (unless it's dead...)
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. (even if they are flying)
A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. (or just preggos)
Rats and horses can't vomit. (what about pigs?)
Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. (how about techno?)
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. (movie film was developed before b&w prints)
Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. (because ducks are not real)
A quarter of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and
   photocopying their buttocks. (this explains so much about office life)
In the course of an average lifetime you will, while sleeping, eat 70 assorted insects and 10 spiders. (and one iguana)
Most lipstick contains fish scales. (cigarettes are still worse)
Cat's urine glows under a black-light. (did someone find this out at a rave?)
Everyone's tongue print is different. (tasty ID scanners at CIA?)
I bet you tried to lick your elbow!

Music Illusions.

I like visual illusions so much that when I stumbled on this, I couldn't help but post it!

There are a bunch more - at least one of which I successfully linked Google Reader to - but such a cool concept ... your brain can just as easily screw up what you are hearing as what you are seeing ... yes! so cool.

enjoy the link.

btw - you might want a pair of really good headphones on hand to get the full effect (I used Bose noise reduction!).

My Brain Just Shut Off.

Yeah.

back in Vermont ... but the real crux is: at the homestead. You got it. 56kbs modem at its best - more like 8kbs download, 4kbs upload averages. Hence the reason that I no longer need to pay attention to what pages I have loading in the background. I can throw up six new tabs of news, or feeds, or pages that I want to visit - and then go take a nice relaxing bath while I wait for the full load.

... say what? you sent me a sweet picture attached to that email. heh. don't be silly. I'm only here for a few days, that's not nearly enough time. I feel like I must be making a 'your mama' joke here but here's the stark reality.

-This internet is so slow that the auto-save feature on ALL of the Google/Gmail apps takes three tries to contact the server and actually push trough a save.
-This internet is so slow that Gmail asked if I wanted to load in plaintype, not regular html.
-This internet is so slow that I got up, found some cookies, BREWED TEA, and then came back and scrabulous still hadn't loaded my games.
-This internet is so slow that I've been browsing facebook simply because the pages contain so little raw data they actually load in under a minute.
-This internet is so slow I now have a child in grade school.
-This internet is so slow I forgot what pages I was loading and just shut them down, in the hopes that the one page I remember wanting to load might actually use the strength from its fallen comrades and pull through.
-This internet is so slow, Google Reader won't even mark feeds as read, because it doesn't yet know that I've scrolled over them.

yeah.

btw - the feeds at the right side are from Google Reader - they show the recent pages, links, pics, that I've been JUST browsing online - and change every day. check 'em out! usually I find decent stuff for everyone!

Ice Storm Upgrade

I upgraded the links at the side of the page to show 20 items, and posted a few new YouTube links as well. It's an ice storm in VT today ... so I figure that everyone will stay home, drink hot cocoa, and browse the internet for hours on end (certainly what I intend to do, while using the Oxford comma uncharacteristically consistently).

Oh yeah - and i'm making a huge vat of split pea soup. Delicious. I guess that I don't really have to say 'huge vat' anymore ... if you know my cooking at all, you know that I can't help but make way more food than personal or guest consumption could ever validate! Hurray for cooking in excess. It's all training for when I decide to have a huge family of ten kids. Not mine of course. just I'll have them around on occasion to cook for. And then send them away to annoy someone else. Maybe I should do a summer camp! oooooh ... what a concept. I've always wanted to do an artist retreat, bed and breakfast, teach someone something and cook, and get paid for it type of thing.


rain rain ice ice freeze
scrambling pedestrians
I lounge warm inside

In Response.

The chili I made
both spicy and bountiful
sits cold in the fridge


three mile walk tonight
was colder than expected
so I made cookies


cartoons have a way
of drawing me in for more
procrastination


the essays from my
med class continuously
fail to grade themselves

Chili.

I made chili.

it is delicious.

I may have made enough for about 4 days.

yep.

that's all for now.