Blog of Chris

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I really can’t believe how fast he is learning.  O.P. turned 11 weeks old last Sunday.

-C

For whatever reason, I am not feeling very festive this year.  I usually make it a ritual to go for a drive out to the country and choose a pumpkin in its natural habitat, which I will take home and make a jack-o-lantern out of.

I bought the carving kit, but then my enthusiasm waned.  I did buy some candy and a plastic jack-o-lantern for the kids in the neighborhood, but I have already eaten more than I imagine I’ll give out Wednesday night.

I spent 3 days in Charlottesville, VA, this week.  I was there for a training class on the GPS units we gather data with in the field.  I didn’t know it until I got there, but Charlottesville is the home of the University of Virginia, which immediately brought up two distinct bits of trivia that I thought needed confirmation.

The first is that McKeldin Mall at the University of Maryland is a few square feet larger than the “Lawn” at the academical village at UVA.  This is one of those tidbits they tell you during orientation.  They say both plazas have been surveyed and resurveyed, and Maryland’s is just a teeny bit larger.  I always claimed BS, and imagined that the UVA campus tour guides were saying the same thing about their campus.

The second is one that I dug up from 9th grade at Blair High School.  My American History teacher (whose name was William Harrison, incidentally) told us about the Academical village at UVA, and how it was designed by Thomas Jefferson.  He explained to us that it was built in such a way that the buildings grew larger and larger from one end to the other, and if you stood at the short end, the increasing size of the buildings had the effect of canceling out the natural perspective.  In other words, the ones in the distance would look the same as the ones closest to you.  I don’t remember much from 9th grade history, except that one little anecdote and who Tippecanoe (and Tyler too) was.  He even drew pictures of it on the board!  I had to check this out.

The rotunda and the academical village are amazing structures, with a lot of history.  While googling said structures after my visit, I learned that the transit of Venus was observed on the steps of the rotunda in 1882.  (If you don’t know what the transit of Venus is, Wiki it asap…  it’s a big deal, astronomically speaking)  I wish I had more time (and light) to take in the campus, but we were there in the evening and didn’t have the benefit of a guided tour.

Answer number one:   After thinking about it a bit, I realized how difficult it would actually be to confirm this kind of measurement.  I am no surveyor, but there are a number of factors that would tip the scales one way or the other.  Are we counting paved areas as well, or just grass?  To the sidewalks on the perimeter count?  Do the grass areas that lead up to the front of the buildings count?  The lawn at UVA actually has significant drops in elevation, meaning the aerial square footage would be less than the actual surface area of grass.  I will admit, just standing there, that it was close.  I decided to take matters into my own hands and measure them off with polygons in google earth.  I just wanted to see how close the numbers would be.

McKeldin Mall measures 1212.35 feet east-west, and 372.53 feet north-south for a total of  451636.75 square feet. The UVA lawn is 968.32 feet by 187.76 feet for a total of 181811.76 square feet!  Where did this “ours is a little bit bigger” business come from?  Maryland wins, hands down.

In your face, VA.  I never liked the Commonwealth anyway.

Answer number 2:  There is most definitely no perspective eliminating height differentials in the buildings on the lawn!  The lawn is lined with “pavilions”, each of which is slightly different, and all of the pavilions are connected by single-story strips of buildings.  They all have very impressive columns in front of them, but they’re all the same size.  I even asked some students if they knew anything about the perspective trick I was told about in high school, and nobody knew what the heck I was talking about.

So that’s that.  In other news, Coheed and Cambria have a new album out, the last installment of their series of concept alums: Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume II: No World For Tomorrow.  I haven’t yet synced up the lyrics with the storyline, but it’s full of awesome riffs, and I’d even say it has an 80’s feel to it (I can hear some Van Halen in the beginning of a couple of songs)  Check it out if you get a chance.

On Saturday night I met up with Steve, Kevin, Mike, and Art for dinner.  They don’t come up to Baltimore much, so we decided to make a night of it.  We went to Aloha Tokyo, a new restaurant in my neighborhood.  It claims to be a Sushi and Saki house, but the menu is filled with some Korean, some Japanese, and some fusion type dishes.  Miso Ramen is on the list, with a few other ramen inspired noodle bowls.

The food was decent, but the service was atrocious.  I don’t know what the hold up was (because there was nobody in there) but they brought our main courses out in 3 phases separated by about 20 minutes each.  (Meaning, Steve and Kevin got their sushi at 8:45, Mike and I got our Kalbi and Bulgogi at 9, and Art got his soup at 9:20. We didn’t get out of there until close to 10, and didn’t really get to eat together.   Oh well… that makes two new LP restaurants I won’t be going back to.

Today I took O.P. to “Dogapalooza”, which was simply a professional dog trainer offering tips at Federal Hill Park.  This was part of a bigger project run by a local church group, who was doing landscaping and mulching work around the park along with some other maintenance.  There were a few dogs there, but O.P. was the hit (of course).  I showed off his tricks, and everyone was impressed that he knew so much at 11 weeks old.  The trainer get me set up for his next trick, stay.  I got him doing it a bit tonight, where I can put a treat on the floor after he sits and he won’t go for it until I pull my finger away.  He’s coming along.

I was feeling adventurous tonight, and decided to try and cook a meal from my new cookbook, entitled “How to Boil Water”.   The recipes of choice tonight were Chicken Stir-Fry and Polenta with Sausage.  The polenta didn’t work out (so it was just sausage, but that’s ok), but the stir fry was awesome, and I am feeling much more empowered to cook.  To date, all I’ve really cooked is Lasagna.  It’s no small feat, but I want to learn more.

Peace out.

-C

Check out what O.P. can do…

-C

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-EhWVX7RHY[/youtube]

I stumbled across this article on del.icio.us. It’s pretty scary, and from what I can tell after not having cable since 2002, it’s true. I was out of town earlier this week on business, and was able to take in a little MTV. I felt dumber after watching only a few minutes of “A shot at love with Tila Tequila”, where very unintelligent but attractive 20-something lesbians and heterosexual men compete for the affections of a not too bright bisexual model/singer/something. This is what it’s come to.

-C

American kids, dumber than dirt

Warning: The next generation might just be the biggest pile of idiots in U.S. history

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

I have this ongoing discussion with a longtime reader who also just so happens to be a longtime Oakland high school teacher, a wonderful guy who’s seen generations of teens come and generations go and who has a delightful poetic sensibility and quirky outlook on his life and his family and his beloved teaching career.

And he often writes to me in response to something I might’ve written about the youth of today, anything where I comment on the various nefarious factors shaping their minds and their perspectives and whether or not, say, EMFs and junk food and cell phones are melting their brains and what can be done and just how bad it might all be.

His response: It is not bad at all. It’s absolutely horrifying.

My friend often summarizes for me what he sees, firsthand, every day and every month, year in and year out, in his classroom. He speaks not merely of the sad decline in overall intellectual acumen among students over the years, not merely of the astonishing spread of lazy slackerhood, or the fact that cell phones and iPods and excess TV exposure are, absolutely and without reservation, short-circuiting the minds of the upcoming generations. Of this, he says, there is zero doubt.

Nor does he speak merely of the notion that kids these days are overprotected and wussified and don’t spend enough time outdoors and don’t get any real exercise and therefore can’t, say, identify basic plants, or handle a tool, or build, well, anything at all. Again, these things are a given. Widely reported, tragically ignored, nothing new.

No, my friend takes it all a full step — or rather, leap — further. It is not merely a sad slide. It is not just a general dumbing down. It is far uglier than that.

We are, as far as urban public education is concerned, essentially at rock bottom. We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon, and if you think the hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country, just wait…

>Click here to read the rest of the article

• O.P. got his 2nd round of shots and a clean bill of health from his Veteran(arian).
• O.P. peed in my car, but luckily my friend James was between him and the leather, and blocked 100% of the pee with his shirt.
• I had a party Friday night, and saw a lot of friends that I haven’t seen in a while.
• It was a dog-warming party, and O.P. got lots of attention.  He was knocked out by midnight, sleeping soundly in his crate as the party raged on.  He got lots of doggy presents, mostly chewable toys, some treats, and a teeny frisbee.
• I was triumphant at beer pong, but had to step down to mingle and be a good host.
• I got cable for the fist time since 2003. There are three cable boxes in my house and one teeny tiny 27 inch Tube TV. Guess what the next big purchase is.
• I got fed up with Verizon and canceled DSL service after dealing with their useless tech support for 6 days.
• O.P. learned “Down” after some good lessons Friday night by my friend Regina. I recapped it last night, and he knows it pretty well now. (He can do “sit” and “down”)
• O.P. is 10 weeks old.

That is all.

-C

by Further Seems Forever

Fountains and flourescent lights.
When season has come
the snowbirds have crowded the nights.
And old townies are tired
of the beaches and bars
being packed so tight.
And bridges, and traffic, and inlets,
are locked in their fight.

And on these boats,
ride the hopes of working class boys,
dreaming of girls, from far away points.
And better things. Like winter flings.
And longing after spring has sprung.
And they fly north when winter’s done.
And we get burned in summer’s sun.

Fountains and fluorescent lights.
When season has come
the snowbirds have crowded the nights.
And young townies and tourists
find unlikely love at first sight.
And swear that they’re never leaving
and that is their plight.

This winter is lasting forever,
at least for tonight.
And I know that you’re never leaving,
until your flight,
takes you off,
and out of my arms,
and into the air,
so far from your charms,
that I can not bare,
another year,
in this long forgotten beach town,
we once shared.

This winter is lasting forever,
at least for tonight.
And I know that you’re never
leaving me again.
No, not again.

O.P. Rules!

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