Here’s how my day went:
Best. Valentine’s. Day. Ever.
🙂
What goes around, comes around…
I credit the headline to the wife, for the record…and for the following reason…
While I was at work on Sunday afternoon, Brooke called to tell me about a little adventure the dog had… The front door hasn’t been sealing all the way and, apparently, when I left, it didn’t seal very well… Brooke was in the kitchen for about 10 minutes and, after entering the living room again, noticed the door was open…and the cat was laying at the bottom of the stairs! So, after grabbing the cat (relatively easy compared with what he usually does when he escapes), she noticed that the dog was nowhere to be seen. She walked around the block(s) where we usually walk her and, again, no Edie.
Well, thankfully, when she returned, there was a message on the answering machine from a few nice ladies that had capture the puppy. Apparently, they were driving down to Soulard for a few drinks before the Super Bowl and saw a random dog crossing Russell Ave. right by the Bastille (across from Joanie’s Pizza). They opened the door and she hopped right in! After looking at her tag, they called the phone number and left the message, so Brooke met them and picked up the dog (offering to buy them a beer, of course, but they said that they hoped someone would do the same for them if their dog had gotten loose!).
Needless to say, we’re being much more careful about checking the front door when we aren’t downstairs to keep an eye on the animals.
Anyway, I got home today around 4:30 pm to see Brooke out on the street with Edie for her afternoon walk…with another dog (a Red Coonhound, apparently). This one was loose, but very friendly and was being very nice to Edie, despite her typical whining. So, Brooke looked on the tag and saw the address and phone number (over off Lemp Ave, across I-55!). I called the number and a young woman answered, saying “Charlie’s never gone that far, before!” Anyway, she came over promptly (I had gone inside to get Charlie a rawhide to entertain him until his Momma arrived) and said “thank you” multiple times.
As the great Alanis Morissette once said: “Isn’t it ironic…dontcha think?”?
They was sleepin’…
The family was sleeping during “Criminal Minds” Wednesday night…thought I should share the photo op with everyone else… 😛
On a side-note, according to my WordPress Dashboard, this is my 400th post on this blog. Crazy times, yo.
A weekend of movies…
It’s nice not having much to do for a change! So, I caught up on all kinds of movies this weekend…
I guess I need to get some more movies lined up for next weekend… Recommendations?
A tele-what?
So, I was listening to an interesting “On Point With Tom Ashbrook” from NPR during my various runnings around tonight whilst they discussed young people in the digital age. They were largely talking about how youth today, whether in middle school or college are constantly “connected” via text messaging, e-mail, Facebook and IM. The discussion was sparked by a recent study saying that having your kids on the internet all the time may not be a bad thing, necessarily (a link to the study is on the On Point website).
It didn’t really get me thinking about anything specific, but a little about my history with similar forms of “connectedness.” My oldest IM name is alinsenb17…which means I started it when I was 17…which means that I will have been using AIM for a decade next year (eeesh!). Before that, I was already e-mailing “pen pals” of sorts and using another chat program, ICQ, that I don’t really use anymore (if I remember right, I was using ICQ for a good amount of time before AIM, meaning that I’ve actually been IMming for longer than 10 years already).
It’s also rather crazy just how many people are online at a given time, and generally available to “chat.” At the time of this writing (9:00 PM CST), there are 14 people on my Facebook Chat, 12 on Google Chat, 2 on MSN Messenger, and 7 on AIM. Nice way to stay connected, and still kinda crazy that all these people still use IM services when text messaging has largely taken over for instant messaging via computer. There was a time, back in my first year at Truman, where I’d have 9 AIM windows open at one time, with 9 separate conversations going at once…which was (obviously) difficult to manage.
I guess the part that really intrigues me about this is that I’ve been doing IM for 10 years, and e-mail for a little longer, and there are still people that don’t have computers, let alone an e-mail account, let alone an IM account of some form. I realize it’s a “different generation,” but I wonder how it’ll all, eventually, equal out. We’re already starting to see some integration of all these protocols, where one can couple their Facebook status with text messaging, or both of those with their Twitter account (which is a separate beast entirely).
Will it come to a point where all of these separate forms of communication (social networking, text messaging, e-mail, IM, voice/video chat) are all integrated into a single protocol? Where someone can communicate with someone else with the touch of a button?
Oh wait…that’s called a “telephone“…
Neuroscience 2008
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| From Neuroscience 2008 |
Well, I got back from DC today…was there for a few days for the Society for Neuroscience 2008 convention (last year’s was in San Diego), where I presented a poster of some data I’ve been working on (and hope to get published soon!). Overall, the poster presentation (which was Sunday morning) went beautifully well. Last year, I presented later in the conference, so there were less people around to listen to me make stuff up… This year, however, was earlier so there was much more interest and, in general, many more people.
Other than that, I looked at lots of other posters and talked with some folks from different labs, checking into some Postdoc opportunities. I got some good information, and some good ideas as to where to go next (with my research and my career).
We did get some sight-seeing in, though, specifically getting to see the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (w00t!) and the National Mall (and all their monuments…). They’re all pretty self-explanatory, and you can check out pictures here!
Oh, and I also got to see Jeff Lin. Good times.
And here it is…
The moment we’ve all been waiting for: the new NCC-1701…
And the Entertainment Weekly cover story on the new movie…w00t!
A step too far?
So, I heard this mentioned a few weeks ago on a video game blog I listen to: if you don’t like the message of the songs presented in the popular Guitar Hero or Rock Band franchises, you’re in luck, ’cause now there’s Guitar Praise!! You can how have “inspirational fun” with 52 songs from Christian bands like Skillet, Petra and Casting Crowns!
But that’s not all! Remember the seemingly unstoppable”High School Musical” franchise? Well, maybe some of the themes in those movies are questionable…but you’re in luck there too, ’cause now there’s “Sunday School Musical!” An “inspirational story” about a group of kids that enter a music competition to save their church from closing! Watch the trailer – it’s gripping…
So yeah, perhaps I’m wrong (and I usually am…), but isn’t this a step too far? I understand that the “High School Musical” franchise is primarily watched by middle school-aged kids (as opposed to actual high school kids), perhaps exposing them to some themes that aren’t exactly age appropriate…but shouldn’t it be the parent’s responsibility to limit that exposure? Or the fact that music from Guitar Hero or Rock Band are on the radio/TV all the time….wouldn’t it make more sense to talk to your kids about the themes in popular music rather than simply ignoring them and avoiding them? Isn’t it better to teach kids how to handle a variety of media that they may be exposed to on a daily basis…rather than trying to keep it from them only to have them see it on their own at a friend’s house, not knowing how to treat it?
It seems to me that, while I don’t have any kids (besides a very lazy beagle), I’d want to help my children integrate into the world around them efficiently and effectively, rather than shelter them to the point where they may not know how to deal with what’s really out there until they leave home and go to college.
And you thought golf was boring…
So, Brooke and I inherited two free tix to the Rams game today. It was the first time either of us had ever been to an NFL game, so we were all about “the experience,” especially as we’ve both lived close to NFL teams for years and had never actually gone to one. Kickoff was at noon, and as we were getting out of church just before then, we were a bit late to the game. Either way, we hung out through the end of the third quarter. At the time, it was 7 – 30…so…not so good…
Now, I’ve been to high school and college football games…but neither are as boring as an NFL game, apparently. Seriously, I think I missed the commercials during all the timeouts! The thing that really has me confused is how people can think baseball is boring when there’s so much downtime in an NFL game. I’m pretty sure, at least for the nearly 3 quarters we were there, the ball was not moving longer than it was moving. At least in baseball, there are short pauses throughout, but there is a game to watch for the vast majority of the time!
Anyway, we’re glad we went to the game…and didn’t pay anything for it… Which brings up another point: we were up at the top of the Dome and those seats would have cost $44. $44?!? That’s two tickets for a Cardinal’s game that is a). more entertaining, and b). better seats!
We’ll probably still try and hit up a Blues hockey game, as neither of us have ever been to an NHL game, either…but we may put that off until we get to a few more baseball games to wash away the sour taste in our mouths…
And because it’s amusing…
Katie visited Ted Drewes while she was in town recently…and it’s on YouTube… She doesn’t know what Crab Rangoon is… And we also get to find out why they “call it a concrete”…