the pod bay door

So it’s Thursday night, and I haven’t solved the blurring problem (as you no doubt can tell yourselves.) Argh. As well, I discovered when I went to pay for some groceries and photos at Costco that my AMEX card is missing. Wonderful. And a week from tonight I’ll be in NYC. I called AMEX and they put a “hold” on my card while I look for it (and they verified that no additional charges have appeared on it since I last used it, which suggests I’ve misplaced it somewhere.)

I’ve looked around the house, the car, checked my wallet and pants and jacket pockets a zillion times, even emptied parts of a bookcase, thinking it might have fallen off the top stairs out of a pants pocket. *sigh*

Life is grand. I bumped into Kel at work today. She seemed to be all energy, but said she was tired. I will look for an “I Heart NY” shirt for her next week when I’m there. As for me, I was impatient today. Now I’m annoyed at having lost my credit card, and not being able to solve the blurring problem. Blurred…perhaps it’s a metaphor for my life tonight.

More blog coding headaches, albeit minor ones. I (thought I) solved a problem Geoff mentioned regarding how my site looks in different resolutions. However, now when I move the page up and down, parts of various entries are blurring. It’s all weird, a test of patience and character building, right? You have probably noticed this already. I’ve sent e-mails and posted to Moveable Type discussion lists, hoping to get help on this one.

Yesterday brought a nice moment: on Tue morning, I taught a research skills class to third year chemical engineering design students. Yesterday I spotted about 20 of them in the library working on the first assignment based on my lecture. Not only was it rewarding to see them working on it, in discussions with some of them I could sense they realized the assignment was a stepping stone to developing said research skills to help them with their group design projects. In other words, they realized the assignment wasn’t a waste of their time.
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No, not a comment on Viktor Frankel’s book, which I haven’t read. Someday, maybe. It was a good day, a long day. I was up at 6:00, because I had to teach a research skills and library resources class to a group of third year chemical engineering design students. Less than half the class showed (25 out of 65, their loss, frankly), and the lecture went well. I spent the remainder of the day in a semi-daze, refueling on black coffee, spinach salad, and fruit.

During the day I had an interesting conversation with a colleague about blogging. She couldn’t see a reason to spend time blogging other than for something subject-specific, related to our profession, most likely. I accept her take on the activity – it’s not for everyone. And subject-specific blogs can be of great use to those who require a quick way to check on the latest developments or news in their areas of interests. A subject-specific blog, such as this one on nanotechnology, almost function as a slow-motion crawl or ticker (the name given to the line of news that crawls across the bottom of the screens of tv networks like CNN). Of course, news there changes every few seconds – an active subject blog might change only a few times a day. But the purpose is similar.
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My good pal and colleague Geoff Harder has created BlogEd, a webring of Edmonton bloggers. The Taz Man has joined, and so have I. So if yer a local blogger, sign up today.

Geoff, I bow in your general direction for your patience and encouragement and help with coding as I continue to immerse myself into the world of MT blogging. It is much fun, and you deserve some of the credit.

1. How many TVs do you have in your home? – two, but one is unplugged and in storage
2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week? – my guess: 20-25 hrs, way too much
3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children? – not if it’s turned off
4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you’re heartbroken? – mmm…Sopranos, L&O (all three), OZ, Six Feet Under, West Wing (though it’s fading fast). I don’t fret over missing an tv episode like I used to do. Life is short, get over it.
5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like? – shows with creativity, ones that would survive w/o having to worry about ratings. Past examples: My so-called Life, EZ Streets, Gideon’s Crossing, Big Apple, Max Headroom…shows that were interesting but died too soon because ratings didn’t impress The Suits. Mix in some educational PBS-type stuff, bring back Tom Snyder to do a Late, Late Show, hire Charlie Rose away from PBS, bring back Dennis Miller and Bill Maher. Feature Michael Moore. Comedy with an edge, like MAD-TV, SNL (for old time’s sake), Monty Python, SCTV. Some baseball. Live music.

Then go turn off the tv and read a book or go for a bike ride or have coffee with friends.

Thanks to Jennifer (a Scriptygoddess) and Zuchris for continued encouragement and suggestions on implimenting the collapse and expand code. What I did in the end was this: I rebuilt the Main Index from the BLOG template, carefully inserted Jennifer’s code, and it’s working. So far. Now I need to rid myself of the “More… ” link, so that the “continued >>” one remains only.

The Minnesota Twins, my original favorite team when I was a kid in Winnipeg in the 60s, collapsed this afternoon, losing the ALCS to Anaheim. Such is life. I will now cheer for Anaheim to win the World Series, which I think would be wonderful. Love to see underdog teams in the MLB playoffs this year, rather than the Yankees, Braves, etc. Makes it more interesting. Good luck Anaheim. As for the Twins, thanks for a great season, and for making the MLB Commissioner look like the ass that he is for suggesting your team be contracted.