August 26, 2004

Happy Birthday, Dad!!

. . .

From today's Campus Watch crime report:

Public Intoxication (1800 Red River)
A UT faculty member was found stumbling as he walked northbound on the sidewalk. The subject was unaware of his location and stated he had "lost his way." The subject was found to be under the influence of an alcoholic beverage to the point he was a physical endangerment to himself. Occurred on 8-26-04 at 3;30 am.

Hmmm...it's usually the under-age students doing this sort of thing. Were the first day of classes just too much for this unidentified UT faculty member? Tsk. Tsk.

August 19, 2004

I finished a pretty good book on my way back from New Mexico on Tuesday and almost left it in the airport for someone else to read (thinking of the BookCrossing! site). But, decided instead to leave it at Mom's and Dad's house. They can read it when they get back from Canada. I keep thinking I should start participating in the BookCrossing! project. Some day. In the meantime, I did want to point it out here 'cause it might be something Dad would like to check out. There's also an audio book exchange as well. Of course there would be, wouldn't there? You can also rent audio books. That site is much like Netflix. I was a member there for about 6 months or so. I used the service pretty regularly at first. That lasted until I realized I'd had the same movies for over a month without watching them. So, I cancelled. It was good while it lasted. I'm sure there are all sorts of these things out there just waiting for me to discover them, eh?

August 13, 2004

Greggus Maximus started working for us about a month ago. He'd finished his first full year of college and had vaguely been looking for a job. And, when I say vaguely, I do mean vaguely! When I got back from Oregon, I was told that our student helper had found an internship so we had a need. I got the okay and gave him a call. "Sweet!" was his reaction when I told him we had an opening. He came by that afternoon and started working the next day. He's been coming in for about 4 hours a day since then. He files. He types labels. He runs errands. He does love running the errands...more so than any of the umpteen student workers we've had in the past, to the best of my recollection. And, he's just generally cheerful and fun to be around. Sadly, he gave his notice a couple of days ago. 'Turns out he's been offered a job in the fall in one of the private girls' dorms. He'll be waiting tables for free food and parking. Somehow, girls and free food rate above boring old folks in an engineering department. I don't know how that can be! But, there you have it. His mom found a slide the other day. A picture of him and me when he was about 5 or 6. I've watched him grow up. There's a picture of him in the old Photobox...yes, we were brainwashing him from an early age in the ways of the Longhorn cult! The brainwashing didn't really take until he started classes and the girls started paying attention. Heh. Anyway, here's a scan of the slide. I really like it and hope you do too.

The quality of the scan's not that great but it's serviceable. We must've been at someone's wedding or baptism or something. I've got my camera 'cause that's always my job at such events. I love the expression on his face. He towers over me at 6'3" or so now. Isn't that just amazing?

August 9, 2004

Okay. So, I'm sure most of you don't watch One Life to Live. I do...but just barely. I TiVo the thing and if I don't see it that day, my TiVo replaces it the next day with a new episode and I barely notice the difference. I'm sincerely glad I took the time to watch it today, though, 'cause I caught a line that had me in stitches. Again, most of you won't understand or care but for those few that do, enjoy...

John (hanging up the phone): That was about some kids swimming up at the quarry. They saw something ugly in the water.

Antonio: A body?

John: I don't think it was Asa in a Speedo.

Oh man. Whoever wrote that line deserves a big ol' pat on the back. Too funny. Thanks. I did enjoy that laugh.

August 3, 2004

I was just reading through the Pearls Before Swine archive and found a gem. It's the new highlight on my rarely-updated comics page.

August 1, 2004

People have been asking for pictures from my trip to Oregon. I haven't had time to do much with the photos I took (there are a lot of 'em to go through). But, I did have a bit of fun with one of 'em:

We were cataloging some rock art this day. Kate decided she'd serenade some cattle that were grazing nearby. When I first went to get the shot, she had her arms spread out and was really belting out some silly song. By the time I had the shot framed and in focus, she'd lowered her hands to her hips. I was disappointed at the time. However, when I went to print the photo so I could send it to her on a postcard, the comedic potential struck me like a lightening bolt. Heh. I'm sure the rapid "exit left" by the cattle had nuthin' to do with the singing! Nope...nuthin' at all. Heh.

July 29, 2004

So I was reading a very interesting article about what makes a great hacker and came across the following quote:

I've found that people who are great at something are not so much convinced of their own greatness as mystified at why everyone else seems so incompetent.

Very funny. And, very true.

. . .

From today's Campus Watch crime report:

Assault by Threat / Criminal Trespass (West Mall)
A non-UT subject yelled at a UT student after the student asked the subject for a cigarette. The subject then threatened to kick a part of the student's lower posterior region. The subject was issued a written criminal trespass warning. Occurred on 7-28-04 at 8:08 pm.

"A part of the student's lower posterior region." Heh heh heh.

July 27, 2004

For those of you that care, I've started updating the Nido Alumni Roundup page again. I'd actually been updating it for quite some time. I just hadn't posted the updates because I didn't relish the "why hasn't my data been updated?" flood of questions that intermediate updates would've spawned. Things are about as current as they can be at the moment, though. And, there are over 1,000 people on the list! Woo hoo!

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joanna@joanna.org
URL: http://www.joanna.org/archive/Jul2004-Aug2004.html
Last updated: August 26, 2004

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