The Misspent Life

Teaching Styles

I recently received a query via email regarding how my teaching of young undergraduates is progressing.  Well, if you want to see what my class might be like check this sad and amazingly creepy video to get a glimpse.

       

Touché, Chip, Touché

Chip has got me on this one.  Although I would like to mention that while a graduate student one is technically a graduate student along with the trade school students (i.e., law, business, medical) so one might not necessarily be going to graduate school to meet another scholar--he goes there to meet the woman who will support his Volvo-driving, tote bag toting, cat-loving, earth-toned wearing, beard-stroking lifestyle of petty mind-numbingly conformist, obscure academic leisure.

What Have I Done With My Life?

So I was puttering around my hovel Sunday evening hanging my wash up to dry (it saves me $1.50 a week to line dry my clothes, plus that is what they do in Berlin so by doing so I increase my internationalist street cred) and also listening to my dish washer (yes, I use my dishwasher even though they don't have those in Berlin, but mainly because, you will remember, my dishwasher sounds like a Queen song) when I got a phone call.  You need to realize just how rare it is for me to get a phone call.  It literally happens less than once a week.  Usually it is MOTHER wanting to know an answer to a crossword puzzle clue or to tell me that Perry Mason is now on TWICE a day (!), but this time it wasn't MOTHER.  It was an old fellow I hadn't spoken to in a year, Alternakev.  I went to school with this guy but didn't know him then (in fact he sat behind me in a course during our fourth year) but got to know him afterward because we worked together.  He quickly decamped and went to law school but I saw him at his wedding last spring.  So we shared a few pleasantries and he asked me what I was up to in the past year.  This is when my life was sent into a tailspin.

Klar

Just to keep your knowledge of German pop culture a little more up-to-date, here is a video that was really popular this summer in Germany.  I can't say I am a huge fan of the song, as the "singer" has an extermely nasal voice.  But it is always nice to see something large get totally demolished, no?  Also, the suits are quite nice.

WOMAN! Make me some PIE!

Don't You Cry

You know, every time I hear the song Baby Mine from Dumbo I get really sad inside.  That might be one of the saddest scenes in all of cinema, with Dumbo all hanging by his mama's trunk and all.  Gosh. Sniffle.  While we are on the topic, Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins is also sadmaking.  Also, I always get sad watching Fox and the Hound.

But I will tell you what is not a sad song: The Morning After.  Even when your boat sinks you know there's gotta be one.

Hot Pockets Today, Foie Gras Yesterday

Earlier this week I had a right old DC power lunch.  My pal Rar-Rar was in town so we decided to do it up right so we spent some time in my favorite lunch place, Les Halles.  Being both from Chicago we decided that we were required by sacred duty to have to Foie Gras.  So we did.  It was excellent.  No, scratch that.  It was beyond excellent.  I had a drink, but Rar-Rar tee-totaled.  We both had the pommes frittes, which I really should stop getting when I go because I'm not really a big fan.  We then topped it off with a bananas flambé. I went back to the office and was just glowing.  Sated to the brim.

Today I had Hot Pockets.  What a let down.

Screw You, Post Office

You will remember, or rather you won't remember since I wrote it nearly a month ago, that the United States Postal Service decided that my mail was not worth delivering for about two weeks.  It simply didn't come.  Some of you claimed to have been playing a trick, but I knew better than to doubt the public sector's ability to provide superior misservice.  Imagine my suprise when, Hells to Betsy, I opened my mail box to find three Netflix discs staring at me.  These were the ones that were supposed to arrive on August 17th, 18th, and 19th.  SU-per!

PS-Tears for Fears and Pepsi

Screw You, Sprint

So I got this new fancy phone a few weeks ago and with it I got one of those blueteeth things that you put in your ear so you can talk into the air like a crazy hobo.  Anyway.  I have had the phone for three weeks and two of those earpiece thingys have already broken.  I don't mean broken like I dropped them or they fell apart, rather I mean they just froze up.  They must be running Windows.

Screw You, Dulles

So Southwest Airlines is flying out of Dulles now.  Screw you, that is all I have to say.  While I love the Star Wars-esque AT-AT things you ride between terminals, it is just so far away and nearly impossible to get to on public transportation.  Just an example for you.  When I was going off to Germany I took the bus from Rossyln to Dulles.  This bus was supposed to come every half hour, but I waited for an hour and a half!  Unacceptable, especially if I hadn't left so early.  It costs me $60 to take a cab there, as I found out on my return, since who wants to wait around with all of your luggage for a bus that might never come after a long flight?  Southwest should have tried to fly out of Reagan National.  It is much more centrally located and easy to get to.  Of course that fact that I can get there in 15 minutes on public transportation doesn't have anything to do with my casting judgement.  You dare you even think such a thing!  Frankly, the benefit of Southwest is that it is cheaper, but given how hard to is to get to (either at Dulles or BWI, frankly) means that the CBA just does not work out in its favor no matter how you cut it (especially when you consider that one would fly into Midway, which, while easy to get downtown from, is not especially easy for POPS).

BTW, what is up with American Airlines being so friggin' expensive this year?  Seriously.