Today I started trying something new. To a few select emails, I replied by top-posting. Top posting goes against every instinct in my fingers when I go to type the message. I don't get the arguments in support of top posting, either. The only argument that seems to be out there is "this is common practice in the business world." I don't get it. I'll keep trying, though.
We're almost through the first week of class now. I'm not as far ahead as I wanted to be, but I'm not as far behind as I feared I'd be.
Last week (before classes began) was interesting to compare to last year. Last year, the week before school started I buried myself in my office and hardly came out during the day. This year, I was still really busy last week, but I got out and walked around campus during the daylight more. I totally missed the first-year students (and their parents!) that arrive on campus 3-4 days before the rest of the students! I must have given directions to a building almost every day last week. I slept through the faculty/staff breakfast, which bummed me out, but I did make it to the faculty conference on Friday.
Today, I was again nearly killed by the treadmill at Shirk. It powered off five minutes into my run and the belt just froze. I told the person running the desk and happened to run into the Wellness director and also told her. Funny how something like that can zap my desire to work out.
August 31, 2006
August 22, 2006
August 08, 2006
I worked from home today, and after a frustrating morning on travelocity, I actually acomplished a lot of work.
First, the good news: I've been making steady progress working on the Modern Physics course I'll be teaching in the Fall. Steady, but still slow. I've been hacking away at relativity for what seems like an eternity now. But, the end of that fight is coming; I can feel it.
What held me up this morning was trying to book the flight and hotel for the conference that I'm attending the week after Thanksgiving.This morning I checked my email and saw that there were airfare specials from Bloomington that I could use for the trip. I went to travelocity (travesty) and found that they had a promo for $150 off the package if you book for 5 nights. No problem. I find the flights we want and the hotel R. picked and even chose the seats for this flight. When I went to confirm the reservation, I was greeted with a message that said I had to use a different credit card than the one I was using. I checked the promo page and NO WHERE did it say anything about using a specific card. However, the page linking to the promo codes had a Mastercard logo on it, but also didn't specify that Mastercard had to be used. I called customer service to ask about the promo, and the guy who answered the phone had no idea what I was talking about. Huh. Funny, as it pops up on the homepage about every fourth time it loads! By this time, my session had expired and I had to start over.
When I redid the exact same search, I found that flights from Bloomington were suddenly about $300/person more expensive. So, I quickly abandoned that idea. I searched on orbitz, southwest airlines, delta and united before giving up for the morning. Everything was coming up about $300-600 more expensive than it had on the first search of the morning and every search I had done in the last 3 weeks.
I have my suspicions that the more times you search on travelocity, the higher the average price gets until you are scared enough to pay an elevated price.
The pricing of airfare and vacation packages in general is rediculous much in the same way our cable company's pricing scheme is out to screw the customer (i.e. me).
I cannot call the cable company any more, because my phone number is tied to my account and they will look up my account whenever I call to see what deals are available. Over the weekend R. saw that Our cable bill had jumped by 50% to $120. Instead of calling them on Monday, I walked into their office with my bill in my pocket. When I asked how much digital cable and broadband internet costs per month I was told "it depends. Are you already a subscriber?" WHAT??? How hard is the question, "How much does your service cost?" I grudgingly admitted I was a subscriber and the agent immediately wanted to look up my account! Cripes! I know how much I'm getting charged. I want to know what everyone else is getting charged! Why is this so hard??
When we signed up for cable, about a year ago, I was told that I could get digital cable and broadband internet for $70/month and they had a special promo going on where you would get 9 Showtime channels for free. The $70/month was $5 off the regular price, I was told. Sweet!! Sign me up! Three months ago, our bill went up by $15, and I called to ask why that was and was told that the free Showtime package had expired. Oh, okay. I explained that no one had bothered to mention there was a limitted time on that deal, but no biggie I thought. It was canceled and we were happy. This time, when I went in I was told that our free "premium broadband" trial had expired and the "promo basic cable rate" had expired. Huh?? This was news to me. I never knew that I had "premium broadband" whatever that was. And I was told that our digital cable box rental was a special promo rate that was set to expire "any month now". WHAT THE HECK?!? Why was I not told that all this stuff was only good for a year? Why they can get away with bait and switch tactics by not letting new subscribers know the full extent of the promotion details is beyond me. Surely they were not losing money on me when my bill was "only" $80.
So. Frustrating.
First, the good news: I've been making steady progress working on the Modern Physics course I'll be teaching in the Fall. Steady, but still slow. I've been hacking away at relativity for what seems like an eternity now. But, the end of that fight is coming; I can feel it.
What held me up this morning was trying to book the flight and hotel for the conference that I'm attending the week after Thanksgiving.This morning I checked my email and saw that there were airfare specials from Bloomington that I could use for the trip. I went to travelocity (travesty) and found that they had a promo for $150 off the package if you book for 5 nights. No problem. I find the flights we want and the hotel R. picked and even chose the seats for this flight. When I went to confirm the reservation, I was greeted with a message that said I had to use a different credit card than the one I was using. I checked the promo page and NO WHERE did it say anything about using a specific card. However, the page linking to the promo codes had a Mastercard logo on it, but also didn't specify that Mastercard had to be used. I called customer service to ask about the promo, and the guy who answered the phone had no idea what I was talking about. Huh. Funny, as it pops up on the homepage about every fourth time it loads! By this time, my session had expired and I had to start over.
When I redid the exact same search, I found that flights from Bloomington were suddenly about $300/person more expensive. So, I quickly abandoned that idea. I searched on orbitz, southwest airlines, delta and united before giving up for the morning. Everything was coming up about $300-600 more expensive than it had on the first search of the morning and every search I had done in the last 3 weeks.
I have my suspicions that the more times you search on travelocity, the higher the average price gets until you are scared enough to pay an elevated price.
The pricing of airfare and vacation packages in general is rediculous much in the same way our cable company's pricing scheme is out to screw the customer (i.e. me).
I cannot call the cable company any more, because my phone number is tied to my account and they will look up my account whenever I call to see what deals are available. Over the weekend R. saw that Our cable bill had jumped by 50% to $120. Instead of calling them on Monday, I walked into their office with my bill in my pocket. When I asked how much digital cable and broadband internet costs per month I was told "it depends. Are you already a subscriber?" WHAT??? How hard is the question, "How much does your service cost?" I grudgingly admitted I was a subscriber and the agent immediately wanted to look up my account! Cripes! I know how much I'm getting charged. I want to know what everyone else is getting charged! Why is this so hard??
When we signed up for cable, about a year ago, I was told that I could get digital cable and broadband internet for $70/month and they had a special promo going on where you would get 9 Showtime channels for free. The $70/month was $5 off the regular price, I was told. Sweet!! Sign me up! Three months ago, our bill went up by $15, and I called to ask why that was and was told that the free Showtime package had expired. Oh, okay. I explained that no one had bothered to mention there was a limitted time on that deal, but no biggie I thought. It was canceled and we were happy. This time, when I went in I was told that our free "premium broadband" trial had expired and the "promo basic cable rate" had expired. Huh?? This was news to me. I never knew that I had "premium broadband" whatever that was. And I was told that our digital cable box rental was a special promo rate that was set to expire "any month now". WHAT THE HECK?!? Why was I not told that all this stuff was only good for a year? Why they can get away with bait and switch tactics by not letting new subscribers know the full extent of the promotion details is beyond me. Surely they were not losing money on me when my bill was "only" $80.
So. Frustrating.
July 13, 2006
I went to the gym tonight to get back on the horse that threw me two days ago. Tuesday, I was running on my favorite treadmill, and the belt slipped about 3 minutes into the run. No big deal, because I felt like my leg had come down weird anyway. I thought nothing of it and continued my run. A few minutes later, I was cruising along and thinking how great the run was going when....WHAM! The treadmill....stopped. The belt did not slow. It stopped. I stopped.
Thankfully, I stopped.
Try running at full tilt and then stop on a dime. I did it on the treadmill and did not hurt myself. So I finished the run on the other treadmill, which was the machine I used tonight.
After walking back to my office to gather some stuff, I walked home. My route takes me right by (or through) Franklin Park, where a band was starting to play. Earlier this summer (while I was still driving) I had passed by the park while a band was getting ready to play, but as I did not see any signs for it, I had no idea what was going on. Turns out, the city sponsors a concert in Franklin Park every Thursday in June and July. I don't know where this is advertised, since they only leave the signs up during the concert. Seems like a more effective advertising strategy would be to leave signs up before the concert. But now I know. (And knowing is ____ ___ ______.)
Other news...the lone triops (triop?) died this morning. Will hatch more soon!
Thankfully, I stopped.
Try running at full tilt and then stop on a dime. I did it on the treadmill and did not hurt myself. So I finished the run on the other treadmill, which was the machine I used tonight.
After walking back to my office to gather some stuff, I walked home. My route takes me right by (or through) Franklin Park, where a band was starting to play. Earlier this summer (while I was still driving) I had passed by the park while a band was getting ready to play, but as I did not see any signs for it, I had no idea what was going on. Turns out, the city sponsors a concert in Franklin Park every Thursday in June and July. I don't know where this is advertised, since they only leave the signs up during the concert. Seems like a more effective advertising strategy would be to leave signs up before the concert. But now I know. (And knowing is ____ ___ ______.)
Other news...the lone triops (triop?) died this morning. Will hatch more soon!
July 06, 2006
July 01, 2006
June 29, 2006
Today, at about 5:00, after I had packed up all of my stuff to go home, I decided to clean up the home directory of my office computer. Yes, that was my big accomplishment for the day. :P
I do like how it turned out, however. I created a folder called "Research and Projects". In that folder are subfolders for each research project I have going on and the side projects that I eventually want to put up on the web. I know it is not a radical implementation of a fancy taxonomy, but I think this will help with getting the projects moving from ideas in my head to a completed and tangible result.
We burned up a coil that I had wrapped a few weeks ago, so most of the research time today was spent trying to find replacement bobbins that would make for a good solenoid. I'm not sure what we have is going to work, but I can't really seem to find the coil I used in grad school, either. Hopefully, we'll get a working coil and be on to better things sooner rather than later.
I do like how it turned out, however. I created a folder called "Research and Projects". In that folder are subfolders for each research project I have going on and the side projects that I eventually want to put up on the web. I know it is not a radical implementation of a fancy taxonomy, but I think this will help with getting the projects moving from ideas in my head to a completed and tangible result.
We burned up a coil that I had wrapped a few weeks ago, so most of the research time today was spent trying to find replacement bobbins that would make for a good solenoid. I'm not sure what we have is going to work, but I can't really seem to find the coil I used in grad school, either. Hopefully, we'll get a working coil and be on to better things sooner rather than later.
June 21, 2006
June 18, 2006
June 16, 2006
Recently, I downloaded picasa for linux. I wanted to test out the blog posting function. Here's Renae outside of Spike O'dells coffee cup museum in Door County. It's a tourist trap for WGN radio groupies (like Renae, ha ha). The weather was great that day, and the Door County Bakery had nice outdoor seating for us to enjoy our breakfast. 
Police: Man severs wife's head, has crash - Yahoo! News
The following headline showed up on my Yahoo News feed this morning:
Police: Man severs wife's head, has crash
So, a guy killed his wife, decapitated her, then took her head out for a drive. Then, he gets in a car wreck and kills 2 other people in the crash! If this does not end up on CSI in the fall, I will be shocked. Shocked!
Police: Man severs wife's head, has crash
So, a guy killed his wife, decapitated her, then took her head out for a drive. Then, he gets in a car wreck and kills 2 other people in the crash! If this does not end up on CSI in the fall, I will be shocked. Shocked!
June 14, 2006
June 12, 2006
I just downloaded Google Earth for linux, and it turns out the center of the world is Lawrence, Kansas. At least, when I first started the program, that is what it was centered on. Also, this weekend I downloaded Picasa for linux, although I was not able to get it to work on my laptop.
June 10, 2006
May 29, 2006
Super SCRABBLE
Super SCRABBLE
We broke out the big board for a marathon game. R. wins 622-578. No bingos this time.
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