Developments

Butch and Ami are getting along much better now. In fact, they love to wrestle each other outside and play chase.






Butch didn't like Ami coming up to me for petting at first but he's used to it now. Ami, however, likes to steal Butch's food. He doesn't seem to learn that doing so gets the crap beaten out of him by Butch. I took Butch to the dog park yesterday morning and then to PetCo for grooming in the afternoon, to get rid of two weeks' worth of stink out of his coat. They trimmed him up a bit, gave him a bath, some not-too-pleasant cologne, and an orange ribbon for his time there.



He didn't seem to mind it but was very happy to see me when I went to pick him up. That night Lior, Ami's owner, had a party in the house where Lior's brother brought his own dog, Moose, over.



Butch was okay with him at the start, but when Moose came up to me Butch got mad at him. Humping happened later on, once Butch realized he could dominate the much larger Moose. We're working on this possession thing.

Superdatum

Chances are if you're reading this you already know these things. In any case, summer was mildly eventful, mainly in the form of participating in the dig.



We went exploring behind the town one day and ran across a previously unknown Dead City, which was named Jebel Rosn after one of our participants. Below is a shot of me looking into a cistern at said site.



A man I ran into at the church one day told me that I looked like Jesus in the face. We had a costume party for Jesse's birthday so naturally I dressed up as Jesus, albeit with short hair (my wig idea didn't pan out).



I bought a crik (shovel) handle down in Jisr, which I used as a staff, as well as a sheet for the clothing, tied one of my shirts around me like a sash, and bought some prayer beads and hung them from some rope (which we used for the electroresistivity meter) that I wore like a belt. I think it turned out pretty well, all things considered.



I don't have all of my pictures from the trip yet, as I had to store them on Eric's and Jason's computers. Soon, hopefully.

I spent some time in Bloomington with Sarah, Tex, and Lucy, and there was much rejoicing, before going home to Dallas for a few weeks. I came up to Boulder about a week before classes began for training and to begin work at Testing Services. This year I'm a GA for Diane's class on Pompeii, which means that I have partial funding. Classes shouldn't be too bad this semester, but combined with the 6:00 a.m. wake-up time for Pompeii and the mess with having to apply to Ph.D. programs, things may prove hectic later on. Not all has been rosy, however, as Grandpa Dave died the other day. It was fairly sudden and only mildly expected. Thankfully he went quickly. It'll be strange without him. Mom flew up there immediately while Dad and I made our ways to Maine a few days later for the funeral and burial. We stayed with Steve and Paige at their fantastic house in Boothbay Harbor.



Once I got there I was greeted by family I hadn't seen in many years, as well as a fluffy thing named Butch, who was Grandpa's dog.



Other than the obviously doleful events, it was a good time. I enjoyed my time there, but I returned a few days later and took up class again. For a variety of reasons, today Butch arrived via Delta here in Denver and is now my dog. He's a smart and friendly little mutt, probably a mix of Australian Shepherd and perhaps lab.



Steve and Paige were kind enough to drive down to Portland and ship him out here for me. He was happy to see me and be out of the crate, of course, but he wasn't too thrilled about being left in the backyard for a few minutes while I unloaded the car. We went on a short walk around NIST and came home.



One of the new roommates, Lior, also has a dog. He's a five month-old pup named Ami, who is some sort of odd mixture. He's skinny but cute.



The two dogs haven't met yet, but they will later tonight. I hope all goes well. Ami was neutered a few days ago so he had to wear a plastic cone to keep him from licking and chewing at his wound.



Anyway, that's enough for now.

Eureka?

Butyric acid. It's the chemical I think is responsible for my dislike of popcorn and many cheesy Italian dishes. Apparently it's an acid common in parmesan, rancid butter, and vomit. I've always become unsettled and slightly nauseous around buttered popcorn and cooked Italian foods involving lots of parmesan and other strong cheeses. Even uncooked parmesan does the same thing. The taste is just fine but the smell is putrid to me. (Parmigiano reggiano, though not of the most pleasant smell, tastes great with some good Italian bread or prosciutto.) Nobody else I've met is this way; everyone has thought me strange for it. But maybe I can just smell the acid more strongly than most other people, hence my aversion to foods containing it.

People who annoy the crap out of me

Now that's a loaded statement right there. Such a list alone could go on for thousands of words, not to mention an essay. But I'll keep this one short.

Bloggers. Ironic, isn't it? I don't mean your run-of-the-mill ordinary person "blogging" about their lives, interests, what-have-you. No, I mean the idiots who vomit up often incorrect and mostly unsourced information about politics. It's one thing to give your opinions on political issues, but it's a completely different thing to present your opinion as something it's not. Unless you know what the hell you're talking about your words are useless. And guess what? Most of the idiots probably don't know their asses from holes in the ground. In fact, I'm willing to bet that many of the so-called "blogosphere" inhabitants are actually chuweros. But it doesn't matter who stupid, how ignorant, how wildly incorrect they are. Why? Because their readers are just as dumb. It's a rare thing indeed when you come across someone who is educated, professionally or not, on the subject about which they are speaking. Even then they often make fools of themselves with outlandish statements and arguments so convoluted, self-defeating, and chock-full of logical fallacies that you can't help but laugh. The saddest part of it all is not that they are so ill-informed or that they even get away with it, but that they are lauded and supported in their failure. I don't think highly of the media in any form, but I think the least of "bloggers", they who say nothing while they purport to speak ta alethe. My discipline is the search for facts, not truth, so I take issue greatly with such claims. If you seek the truth I can point you toward a philosophy department. It's a shame that people are so easily influenced that they refuse to assail critically what they are presented in any sort of media. Only when some "hot-button" issue appears do they take notice, and even then rarely do they investigate the reality of the situation. C'est la vie. You do what you can I suppose.

In other news the half-foot of snow predicted never arrived, nor did the low temperatures. Instead, we had a rather nice day with a high around 42, a tiny bit of snow that fell like rain and melted almost instantly, and a sunny afternoon/early evening. I eagerly await when it is warm enough for me to enjoy the outside in full once again. Of course, I'll be leaving town shortly thereafter but nonetheless, it will be pleasant.

Winter storm watch

The Weather Channel is predicting three to five inches and NOAA three to seven inches of snowfall tomorrow night. I think that's more snow than fell in all of my 18 years in Dallas.

Springtime for Boulder?

It was in the twenties and snowing a couple days ago. Yesterday reached the thirties I believe. And today? The forecast was 58. By the time I left work it was 65, bright, clear, and beautiful. I went home and changed into shorts and a t-shirt after work before running errands. Tomorrow's going to be colder and raining while more snow is expected later in the week. Oh well, at least the hills are verdant once more.

Februa

Sarah came to visit last Wednesday for a few days, leaving on Sunday evening. Neither one of us accomplished what we needed to, but spending time together was worth it. Basically we did a whole lot of nothing. On Thursday after my history class we went and had Sherpa's for lunch, I got a haircut, and we met up with some of the other Classics grad students for drinks at HalfFast. After a few hours there chatting we ate dinner at the Southern Sun. On Friday I had to work from 10 to 3, which allowed us both to work a bit. We went out to Skinny J's with Dragos and Kristen for dinner and played some pool before going back to his apartment and playing this strange board game whose name escapes me at the moment. Saturday we slept in late and then drove up to Nederland and had the lunch buffet at Kathmandu, which was excellent. They had this jalapeno & cabbage dish as well as one involving lots of okra. My mouth waters even now thinking about it. After lunch we drove around in the mountains some more, ending up over at Estes Park, which is absolutely gorgeous. It seems to be nestled in a valley-plain up in the mountains and would not be a bad place to live. It's only about 50 miles from Boulder, actually, nearly the same distance as Denver International Airport is from Boulder. When we got back into town that afternoon/early evening we went up to the humanities building on campus and spent some time reading. Later we ate dinner at Whole Foods; they have a great salad bar. We tried finding a Jason's Deli in Boulder (there isn't one) and ended up being directed to "Asian Deli" by Free411. We stopped back by the university and played some pool and bowled a few games before going back home for the night. We slept in late on Sunday again before going over to Foolish Craig's for some awesome crepes. Her flight left at 7:10 last night, so we left my place around 4:45 and stopped at Pei-Wei in Broomfield along the way. We just barely managed to get our food in time since the people working proved themselves rather incompetent. Thankfully we got there in plenty of time and ate dinner inside the airport together before she left. They were a good few days.

Cedars

In my studies I find that it is problematic, even foolish, to ignore present realities when speaking of the past. Likewise, we cannot separate ourselves from what has happened before, no matter how much we try or wish to do so. It's difficult for most people in the United States to comprehend, to wrap their minds around, what occurs in the Near East. Certainly you won't glean much useful information from any news program you might watch on the television. I've found, however, a reliable, knowledgeable, and insightful source of information on Lebanon: Michael Totten. If you have some spare time to spend reading his "blog" then you should. His site is now a permanent presence over in my links to the right. Click below or there to visit and read.

http://www.michaeltotten.com

What just might be my perfect car

I've been hearing the rumors for a while that Pontiac was going to replace the archaic Pontiac Grand Prix (seriously, the car basically dates back to the 1980s) with a rear-wheel drive sedan imported from Australia. GM owns the Australian company Holden and has previously rebadged the Holden Monaro as the lackluster and bland Pontiac GTO. However, Holden's latest sedan, known as the Commodore, is a spectacular vehicle. This is the car GM is redressing as a Pontiac, and here it is from Edmunds:




I can't wait for it to arrive at dealerships next January (2008). It'll come with either a 260 horsepower V6 or a 360 horsepower V8 and one of three transmissions, depending on which engine you choose. And all the transmissions are modern contraptions, unlike the four-speed automatic in my current Altima (I hate this transmission with a passion). Naturally I want the V8. The Holden version is even more attractive (no stupid hood scoops). This car makes me want to drive an American manufacturer again (even though the car is Australian). Unfortunately it will almost certainly be too expensive, plus it'll still be very new when my current Altima's lease is up. One can always dream, though.

Outlander!

I was watching television tonight (a raresome occasion) and saw a commercial for the new Mitsubishi Outlander. It's a nice little s.u.v. that has a smallish engine and six-speed transmission. Therefore, it gets decent gas mileage. During the montage of the commercial the camera shows the dashboard, specifically the display that acts as the odometer and trip computer. This is shown because the company wants you to see the transmission switching gears rapidly up from four to five and then six. If you look above these numbers you'll notice that the gas mileage is displayed in real time. The estimated mileage for for the 4wd version is 19/25 . And what did the readout show? 11.7 mpg. Call me crazy, but I don't think that's really something you want to advertise for your midsize, car-based s.u.v.

Snowdom

It's snowing here again. Over last night we received another inch or two on top of all that snow from the holidays' blizzards. Next weekend is predicted to have another day or two of snow, as well.

Speaking of the break, I went to Indiana and Dallas during my time off from school. I flew in to Indianapolis after turning in my final paper to my l'antiquity class around the middle of December. I stayed with Sarah a few days before we made the sixteen hour journey homeward, stopping off to see Katie in Little Rock for Pei-Wei for us and backyard time for the dog. Dallas wasn't too bad, though I fell ill the day Sarah and I drove back to Bloomington. (Damn colds. It stayed with me for nigh on a week until just before I was to fly back to Denver.) We hung out with Cat, Chris, and the Twodoodles (the new name for the two Goldendoodles) as well as Sarah's departmental compatriots Stacey and Laura while I was there. Luckily I missed out on the massive amounts of snow that hit Boulder, though the ice storm did snarl my travel plans. Debbie was kind enough to use her own frequent flier miles to purchase me a ticket on American Airlines to fly to see Sarah. However, American doesn't fly directly between Denver and Indianapolis, but requires a connecting flight. All went well on my way to Indy but on the way back my flight from Indy to Chicago was delayed several hours. After waiting in line for two and a half hours I finally managed to speak with an AA worker about changing my flight over to Frontier. Thankfully the guy was competent and nice, switching me over to Frontier's final flight out of Indy straight back to Denver. The only problem was that flight was also delayed, but only by an hour. I finally made it back to DIA around 10:45 p.m., with the last bus back to Boulder running at 11:25. I got my baggage in under fifteen minutes (a minor miracle in itself) and made it to my bus in time, getting back to the house around 12:15.

So, the second week of classes starts tomorrow. I'm taking a class on archaic Latin poetry as well as a class on maritime archaeology. Both appear to be excellent classes run by knowledgeable, professional, and helpful professors. What an idea, huh? I was planning on taking a third class, in Greek, but various things conspired against me to make that impossible. It works out, though, because my loans only pay for two classes per semester anyway. I can use the remaining money to travel abroad this summer, probably back to Qarqur with Dr. Casana.

Only a couple pictures this time. These are from Tom (thanks, Tom) of the first snow storm that hit while I was gone. Yes, that is my car underneath.

Long time...

no see. It's been quite a while since I last posted here, mainly because I'm lazy. Because it's been so long, I'll summarize events:

• I dressed up as a trustafarian for our Halloween Ultimate games, one of which we won and the other we tied.
• The Flying Disc Monsters (Discafarians) finished second overall in the fall season of Grass-roots Ultimate. The tournament was on November 19th, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We lost our first game, won our second game quite handily, miraculously pulled off a win against the best team in the league in our third game, and had our asses kicked in the fourth and final game. We used up all our energy and skill in that win against B-1, who had been beaten only once the entire season. That win made up for losing the final game, though.
• I visited Sarah in Indiana over the Thanksgiving break. We did a whole lot of nothing, hung with out Cat, Chris, and the doodles (there are two now), and went to a tree farm just south of Bloomington where Sarah picked out a nice spruce to put up in her apartment. Travelling there was nice because neither the airport nor the plane was crowded. Coming back was another story. Luckily I got to watch several hours of Mythbusters on the plane, which made it far more bearable.
• It's damn cold here. The highs for the past few days have been in the low 20s while the lows have been in the single digits and teens. It snowed several inches here on Wednesday and Thursday morning, and again last night into this morning. It's pretty, but slippery and chilly

Here are some pictures from the events listed above, starting with Halloween -

Dragos as a Discoman and me as a Trustafarian:


Kristin dressed as a devil and Sedona as an angel:


The Boulder dog park (we played in Boulder because Broomfield thought it was too wet and we would tear up their fields):


A shot looking west toward the mountains from the fields:


Ultimate Tournament -

Dan running:


Dragos grabbing the disc:


Me looking to intercept a throw:


Me jumping for that disc:


A team picture [From left to right: Pete, Brian, Stacey, Dawn, Vicki (in shadows), Booch, Julie, Dragos, Dan, Me, Christie, Marcus, and Fly; Garvin was absent because he sliced his finger open and couldn't play]:



Me missing a (fine) pass in our final game:


Indiana -

Lucy eager to go for a walk:


Lucy with her Goldendoodle friends (Buster and Abby):


Sarah wandering the tree farm, flag in hand for marking:


Me holding a squinty Lucy:


A playful Lucy in front of the freshly cut and decorated tree:


Sarah holding a sad-looking goblin-dog:


Snow in Boulder -

What I encountered on my way to school Wednesday morning (I was half an hour late to class on account of people being unable to drive competently):

Winter

Yesterday I wore shorts and biked to school. And today?

The backyard:
















A deer behind the house (there were two):
















A tree on Dartmouth




















A paw print on the NIST path:



The shrubbery entrance:



The rock:




NIST in snow:



The little creek:



Branches above the creek:



The hill above NIST:





A pine tree:



A tree with spinidy-bushes below it that seem out of place in the snow:



The car:




They're predicting 2-4 inches of accumulation tonight and into tomorrow morning, with the snow stopping about noon. We may get more snow on Sunday, too, which should make Ultimate interesting.