Stop Global Whining

As seen on a bumpersticker on the back of a big SUV parked in Lexington, where I was riding my bike last weekend. As one of the NPR guys said recently about SUV's, "those FUV's - uh, SUV's, oh well with the price of gas, I guess they're ALL FUV's."

Speaking of things that muck things up, my PC is a pig. I'm ready to dump it and switch to Apple. No wonder Microsoft is launching a line of t-shirts. Microsoft Softwear. Get it?

Time for the money to come pouring in....

See what I finally figured out! It's only taken me a couple months to break the code. I hope the content of the served ads improves from online dating and flat bellies to something a little more high-brow.

The Connection Between Creativity and Play

As I was preparing my lecture on new product development, innovation, and creativity, I checked out IDEO's website to see examples of the company's latest work. Anyone who is interested in creatively solving problems using principles of design and organization, combined with the social sciences should check out IDEO for future career possibilities - or inspiration.

From the website, I linked to Ted.com, which I've now added to my Delicious bookmarks . I've watched half of this talk by Tim Brown, one of the IDEO guys, talking about the connection between creativity and play. Check out the wooden huts in which Pixar's creatives work!

Rushing the Patser

When I was driving home from the train station last week, I noticed I was behind a tan sedan with a Massachusetts vanity license plate. It said: PATSQB. Anyhew, do you think it was Tom Brady? Somehow, I think not. Sure, it could be Matt Cassell, but really... would the back-up quarterback anoint his car? Maybe it's a QB married to Pat.

What do you do all day? All night? All weekend?

If you've been wondering where I've been, here's where. Building a blog, registering students, and preparing for a big event this week.

Doing a Bit of Prize-Worthy Research

It turns out that the author of my favorite column in the Boston Globe Magazine is married to the guy who invented the Ig Nobel prizes. They must have very interesting conversations at their dinner table. Anyway, I was reading Miss Conduct's blog, to follow up on something she wrote in this week's column regarding her husband, and found this link very funny and interesting.

Another link about the origins of the prize.

I admit it, when I read the descriptions of some of these research projects, I do think "how fun!"

Here's the link to the item that originally piqued my interest.

Green Stuff

One of my students sent me a link to an NPR clip about
why most bottle caps are NOT recycled and why the
bottles are. It had to do with different melting points
for the two different types of plastic, and lack of a
market for the caps. It led to information about this
website, which looks like a worthwhile one to bookmark.

Related to that was this interesting clip I saw on
AdAge Video. I don't mind telling you that after viewing the clip,
I wanted one.

Here's the official website. There's even a version for Lefties!

Weary and Wary

What's the incubation period for the flu?
That is the question.

Added a few days later....
Okay, so far I haven't gotten it, and enough time has
elapsed since my first exposure. It's been one of
those very long weeks, with too many six-hour sleep
nights in a row, and stacks of papers to grade. A stack
is festering right now in my office, ruining the gorgeous
fall, Columbus Day, sparkle-y atmosphere.

Row Row Row Your Boat

This month I was forced to change the route I take when I drive home from work late at night because roadwork on Storrow Drive resulted in the nightly closing of the entrance that I use at the end of Berkley Street. So, I've been taking the longer route, driving the length of Beacon Street, (trying to eyeball Tom Brady's place) before turning onto Mass Ave to drive across the river to Memorial Drive. What I've discovered is THERE IS NO BETTER VIEW OF BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE AT NIGHT THAN THE ONE FROM THE MASS AVE BRIDGE - WOW! I know it's not considered very green to leave the lights on in our skyscrapers, but suspended above the Charles River at night, they are a glorious sight. Usually there's no traffic driving toward me, so I can sort of float across the river and enjoy the view without having to worry too much. It's been an unexpected bonus that makes me wonder if I'll ever go back to Storrow Drive.

And on that note, off I go to my own little river to sneak in a late work-out.

i am Mod

Impulsive music purchase of the week: Fleet Foxes White Winter Hymnal

What I'm hoping to attend this weekend. Promoted by one of my students and it looks like fun.

Galas and Stuff

One of my students sent me this link. I think it's stuff worth keeping.

I added my review of Gala to Yelp today.

I should have added a cautionary note about how tippy
the flower vases are so future customers don't mistakenly
dump water all over themselves and their place-setting
when they simply reach over their dining partner's glass
to get the breadbasket.

By the way, I did verify the pronunciation alternatives.

I just love saying GAY-la!! It reminds me of Eric Clapton.

Chariots of Fire

Today I won my age group in the Danny Oates 5K. There's not much else to add. I am fast, very fast.

IMDB

I look like Helen Hunt, that's what one of my students told me. I've heard it before but it's been a few years. My twins according to different people over the years: Donna Reed, Helen Hunt, and Ellen DeGeneres. Hunt, Reed, and Waters sound like they belong together in a duck blind.

Let 'er rip

I just made a major change to my blog.
It's invisible to you but maybe it'll earn me the big bucks.
Expect to see more brand names on my site like Nike, Nestle, and Gnarls Barkley!
Let's see what happens - I can't wait!

Wet Tea Shirt

The corner of Tremont and Boylston is a hotbed of promotional activity and SWAG. This week I was passing through in the company of four of my twenty-something female students, who had invited me to lunch in Chinatown. Three energetic twenty-something guys were shepherding a large cooler filled with free product, which turned out to be Honest Tea.
No sooner had they thrust bottles of tea in our hands, then cameras were whipped out. We were told we had to actually drink the tea; not vamp with an unopened bottle of tea. Well, that's fine, actually I've bought this product before and I like it. But this bottle was warm, not cold, and not designed for direct from bottle slurping. As soon as I lifted the bottle to my mouth, tea slopped out and all over my brand new white tee-shirt In the meantime, the teameisters had sequestered the four young lovelies to focus their cameras on them. "You, old lady, stay in the corner with your sloppy tea-covered shirt!"

The outing improved as we ate lunch at Pho Pasteur, a Vietnamese restaurant, my first ever. One of my students told us that her Vietnam-born father used to drive out for meals at Pho Pasteur from OHIO. For about $7.50 I got a bowl full of noodles, pork, shrimp, vegetables. I ate my fill and ate the rest for lunch the next day (with the Honest Tea.) In all honesty, Honest Tea is 40% owned by Coca Cola.

Hurricane Avoidance

Hurricane Hannah is supposed to swing by tonight, with a water deposit of six inches or more predicted. The shopping centers were full of people stocking up on shoes, linen blazers, and sports equipment to weather the storm. We invested in some emergency items of our own, and on our way out of the mall, stopped at the ladies room. As I was about to exit my cubicle, I heard a mother and her young child enter, in a flurry.
Mom: Don't worry Jonny, it's not the kind with the loud toilets. I'll check.
Mom: Yes, they're not the ones that flush on their own. (WRONG!)
Jonny: Oh Mommy are you sure? I don't want it to go! Wahhh!
Mom: Yes, uh, I think so
Me: Gee, what's the proper etiquette here? (Opens the door)
Toilet: SWOOSH! BWAHHH! WOOOOOO
Kid: Wahhhhh!
Mom: This blows today's toilet training.

Time Flies and I Slow Down

9/3/08 Ran the Danny Oates course today in 33 and change. Sigh. Returning home I passed little Jack V next door, waiting for Bus #4 on his first ever day of school. His Mom, Dad, and little sis had just finished posing for pictures. From our house I watched the bus come and go and suddenly had a yearning to read Take Care of Things, Edward Said. Evidently, someone did not take care of it because it was nowhere to be found. :(

Tiny Dog is the Devil

9/1/08 On the sixth mile of my seven mile walk today I witnessed a motorcycle accident caused by a tiny dog named Goliath. The damage: one swerving car, one motorcyclist, one trailing shrieking braking car that blessedly did not hit the motorcyclist who was lying in the middle of the street.

The Harvard Mystique

Today the two of us put about twenty-five miles on our bikes and our bodies when we cycled this loop from Acton, through Stowe apple orchards, into Harvard. Not Harvard, the college, Harvard the town. And what a town! The High School is on a lake! With sailboats blithely floating in the background, behind the athletic fields. We coasted down to the lake to get a better look at the beach scene there and, after being frisked, were allowed to enter. The teenager manning the gate had no lack of self-confidence. "Halt! Who goes there??"

I may have to move there.