Archive for May, 2007

Do you ever get that overwhelming sense of insignificance? I do. Especially when I learn about the amazing work that physicist (and other notable scientist) are doing. Next summer the Large Hadron Collider is scheduled to go on-line barring any unforeseen setbacks. This is the best science that humanity has to offer. The cost are astronomical - no pun intended. The stakes are huge. The findings could well lead the next century or more of scientific discovery and technical advancement. I for one will be sitting breathlessly on the edge of my seat as it goes on-line. To bad there will be no pay per view for this dog and pony show. Of course going on-line is only one small step toward collecting the data that the physicists are seeking.

But this begs the question(s), what happens if it fails? Does that mean is was ill-conceived? What happens if that data points to a different conclusion like there was no Big Bang? What happens if they find out that the Higgs boson is not one elementary particle, but multiple or thousands of particles? There are so many questions and each discovery leads to more questions. All this makes me feel an awe-inspired sense of insignificance with a dash of belonging. Oh and it also makes me realize the importance of love and friendship. I love each and every one of you for your own special quarks - the pun is fully intended (what can I say I am a huge cheese ball.) ^_^

Hello, all.

So I’m chalking my pool cue, and I says to Holly, I says, “Top 5 Juke Box Tunes: Go!”

She leans back on her feat, smiles delightedly, and says…

That’s your prompt. Work it out. For inspiration, here are some lyrics.

Juke Box Music

by The Kinks

There’s a lady plays her fav’rite records
On the jukebox ev’ry day.
All day long she plays the same old songs,
And she believes the things that they say.

Other ladies like to prance around
And flirt and dance the whole night through,
But she just sits and listens to her juke box records,
‘Cause that’s all that she wants to do.

She sings along with all the saddest songs,
And she believes the stories are real.
She lets the music dictate the way that she feels.

It’s only juke box music,
Only juke box music….

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/magazine/13audience-t.html?pagewanted=all

Some people are aware that I work at the Lied Center, fewer realize that we announced our season for next year. Inevitably every year we have someone complain that we have scheduled an event on a major religious holiday.

This year it happens to be 21 September 2007 , or on the Jewish Calender 9 Tishri 5768 ( ט תשרי ה’תשס”ח). This date I believe is Yom Kippur.

So this year I have a few people complaining about this. Now most of you do not realize what goes into creating a season. We don’t get to “choose” the date. We get to choose performances and they give us the dates they can come. Since many of these performers have similar availability (as they go from Dallas to Chicago, or from StL to Denver).

We have religious calenders for most religions, we try not to schedule events on those dates, but sometimes we dont have a choice.

Now that that is out of the way… What really pisses me off are the people who feel like you have greatly insulted them personally just for scheduling an event on that day. Last year we scheduled an event on a major muslim holiday, this year its a Jewish holiday…

I am trying to keep explaining the process to people of how we select the dates, but some people just don’t care… what is the culturally sensitive way to chew these people out for not considering the fact that we have six calenders to schedule against and we don’t always have a choice?

For those of you genuinely not in L-town anymore, or for you suckers in town who are too lazy shimmy on over to No-Law, these pics give a glimpse of what’s going on with the KAW. Not up to the 93 water line mind you, but pretty damn high nonetheless.

http://www2.ljworld.com/photos/galleries/2007/may/08/flooding_lawrence/

BTW, as I ride my bike by there to work, it’s amazing how many people are always there watching the water. Interesting cross-section of the town.

MST3K redux? Finally answers my question why there are no reruns.

I love Spring on campus. Right now there is a group of students that has been out the last few springs. They have a stereo and an amp and some sort of power source on a dolly and they walk up and down the Boulevard playing and dancing to funk music, while wearing stupid clothes.

I am going to be the advisor for the racquetball club–Chadd wussed out, he wouldn’t be treasurer.

Sorry I haven’t been active. This has been my busy time, and apparently that inhibits my ability to communicate. Additionally, I have some good news that has been taking some extra work. I will be the interim Assistant Director of New Student Orientation this summer. Basically, I am in charge of the OAs. Being an OA was how I got into this racket, so it was very exciting to be asked, one of those full circle things. So that has limited my want-to.

When did it become to be a miserable student your first semester or your first year. “I was just getting use to the whole thing.” No, you were smoking too much weed. Stop smoking so much weed. Go to class. I am consistently amazed at how bad of students there are out there. Not, not smart people, but those who have no idea how to be a student. This really stunts their awareness. We have this program on campus called blackboard. It is an online hub for some classes. Not all profs ues it. If their profs don’t use it, they seem to have little conception of figuring their grade for themselves.

Upstanding Advisor: “So, How are your classes going?”

Somewhat clueless student: “pretty good.”

UA: “what does that mean?”

sws: “I don’t know, you know, ok I guess,”

ua: “alright, what are you getting in Biology.”

sws: “I don’t know, my prof doesn’t use blackboard.”

ua: “that’s alright, ballpark it for me”

sws: “maybe a B”

ua: “yeah, what have you been getting on tests and quizzes”

sws: “I’ve done ok on the tests, couple of c’s”

ua: “quizzes, papers?”

sws: “not so good.”

ua: “so you’re getting a B in the class, but are getting c’s on tests, and doing worse on quizzes?”

sws: “I guess, but I’m planning on doing well on my finals.”

ua: “out, out of my office right now.”

The second piece to this, is how often students who are struggling refuse to accept that their grades actually mean something. I am not saying they say how smart you are, but they indicate a very holistic understanding of person. They speak to intelligence, ability to follow rules, wanting to be at school, ability to follow-through, maturity, belief in the importance of grades. It goes back to this idea of being a bad student. I’m not saying you’re a bad person, I’m not saying you’re not smart. What I am saying is that you are a bad student. It doesn’t define you, but it certainly speaks to where you are right now. Then I’ll drop a Bill Parcells quote, whenever asked about how good a team is, Parcells invariably says “you’re exactly as good as your record says you are. If you are 7-9, then you are 7-9, you aren’t three plays from 10-6, you are 7-9.”

Screw editing

This guy took a month off from the internet.

http://www.pw.org/mag/0705/newselliott.htm

With the nature of my job, there’s no way I could completely give up the internet like this guy did, but I do think it would be interesting. I must say during the times I’m online the least, my concentration is the best. What do you guys think?