fidlmath

Diana the Spider Wrangler

Politics

BUT FIRST: HAPPY HALLOWEEN         

I am sick to my ears and higher of the negative tv political ads.  If it weren't for Bill Nelson from Florida, campaigning to keep his Senate seat, practically all of the ads I;m seeing/hearing right now would be just plain mudslinging.  And WTF was John Kerry thinking of with his remark about staying in school or winding up in Iraq?  Is he trying to help the Republicans?  Chris Matthews just said on Hardball that the Republicans had found their "weapon of mass distraction" - I think he's right.  I just hope the todo about it blows over quickly. 

posted by: mafidl at October 31, 2006 19:11 | link | comments |

Fall

Time change.  No more beautiful sunrises for me - or at least not until a few weeks later, maybe.  No falling leaves, no snow, no crisp cool evenings - we're lucky if we get a few chilly days and nights.  I am so jealous of  y'all who live with change of seasons, Fall colors, snow - I think I'm going to have to retire and move or at least visit further north.  I can't even visit my younger daughter out west this winter since she's in Australia.  Oh well, there's always next year - and she, who loves snowboarding, will miss winter on both ends - it's turning summer in Tasmania and she won't get back until April or May when Utah is turning warm again.  Poor thing.  At least she has now gotten a car and went camping last weekend.  I have to get out of Miami for a weekend - or at least a day.  But - I have to write tests - so maybe not. 

posted by: mafidl at October 31, 2006 16:23 | link | comments |

Video

Friend N emailed me the YouTube site for this. Pretty cool.  Steve Howe, playing "Mood for a Day" at Montreaux Jazz Festival (I think).

And here's a more recent video of the whole Yes group with the European Festival Orchestra. also tres cool. One of the more exciting experiences I've had in the past couple of years was going to a Yes concert here in South Florida. Awesome.

posted by: mafidl at October 26, 2006 18:16 | link | comments (3) |

Back is better

Thanks for all the advice and good wishes.  My back is feeling better.  Remember that I teach in a University, so I'm not on my feet all day - thank goodness.  This term I'm only teaching a total of 3 classes, each of which meets twice a week for either 75 min each time [1 class], or 100 min each time [the other 2 classes].  Also, because of my knee problems, I use an overhead projector, so sit on a table instead of walking back and forth at a board.  So have an easier time of it than those of you who teach in elementary or secondary school have it - I just wanted to set the record straight.  I do spend over 4 hours at school 2 days a week and over 8 the other 2, with office hours and occasional meetings.  Right now things have slowed down a bit in the meeting area because we have hired the 2 visiting instructors we needed for Spring.  I do have a meeting Friday, but that's all for the week.  Anyhow, the demands on my time are not intense right now.  For the most part, I have my lectures written out from past classes, but do review, sometimes edit and on occasion completely rewrite some of them.  No tests right now - the next ones are Nov 7 and 8.  So I've a bit of a respite from writing and grading.  This Sunday I'm day captain at the Zoo again, so have to make sure all volunteer posts are filled and check with my co-day captain to see what food we're going to bring.  So that' my week. Maybe more later.

posted by: mafidl at October 26, 2006 11:51 | link | comments (1) |

I'm back and kitties

Thanks for the commiseration re my back.  It still hurts, dammit, but I was able to teach my class yesterday, used the heating pad last night for awhile, am still taking the muscle relaxant and am teaching again today.  So it could be much worse - and that's not bravado.  My friend, R, had nasty problems with his lower back and wound up having surgery - just a few weeks ago - and it took a long time to feel better.  He still has some pain occasionally.  So, see, it could be worse. 
Kitties are, if possible, getting more loving.  Nosedive loves thick rubber bands.  He has, until he loses it, his own rubberband.  It is fun to watch him batting it around, picking it up and carrying it around in this mouth.  Since he finds the thick ones, I am assuming that he won't hurt himself.  He doesn't seem interested in eating it, just carrying it around, held delicately in his mouth.  Last night he had it on the bed and I'd take it, hold it in my hand, but he wouldn't get the connection.  Different from a dog, who figures it out pretty quickly, and tries to get it out of your hand.  He will pounce on it it I toss it - then expects it to move again.  Fun.

posted by: mafidl at October 24, 2006 10:02 | link | comments (8) |
kitties

If it's not one thing ...

it's owwwwww my back.  Don't ask me how, but yesterday morning I managed to gracefully, I'm sure, wrench my back.  Immediate pain.  I couldn't stand up straight without excruciating pain.  The only way I could walk was at a 60 degree angle to the ground.  Now I have more sympathy with *old* folks who walk that way.  Luckily, since I had a similar problem months ago, I have quite a few muscle relaxant [Skelaxin] pills left over.  I took one right away, checked on the internet,  it said I could take 3-4 a day [my script said 3] so I wound up taking 4 throughout the day and evening.  Spent quite awhile lying on my damp heat heating pad.  I got up long enuf to eat some of the lunch my lovely daughter, J, brought over about 12:30, felt better for awhile, but then worse, so back to the bed.  Friend N also helped out as much as he could - went to the pharmacy to pick up my lorazapam [sp?] script.  This morning it is a bit better, but not good enuf to allow me to go volunteer at the Zoo at 2 - luckily they were able to find a replacement. 
Now as to the human back.  I've read and/or seen on TV comments to the effect that the human back is probably the worst engineered of any mammal back.  We are not meant to walk upright - or at least the engineering for that is abysmally screwed up.  That's why so many of us have back problems at some time, some people have chronic problems. One thing that definitely doesn't help is excess poundage - of which I have about 40.  It seems that, not due to any consistent effort on my part, I have lost about 10lbs.  If I would get back to riding bike, in or out, and cut back on quantity eaten I could lose the rest. 
Something curious.  I decided I needed pampering Thursday when I went food shopping [self indulgence and/or pity?].  So I stopped at a liquor store that didn't carry Jamieson's Irish whiskey, which I would have bought [not too much demand for Irish in a primarily hispanic neighborhood shop], but they did have the first thing I spotted, which was a amall bottle of Kahlua Mudslide.  Hmmmm good, thinks I.  After wandering around for a few minutes more I did find Bailey's with a hint of mint.  Hmmmmm gooder!  So I bought both - the latter only $20, surprisingly enuf.  Came home, drank the Kahlua on ice, then fixed the Bailey's with whole milk [the half and half was past date].  Also had some leftover ReddiWip which was going to expire, so of course I had to top it off with some of that.  After the 3rd one, I was feeling pretty good - so to bed.  Slept very well on 2 Benadryl - but that was in next but last post.  So last night, needing consolation for my bad back, I again had 2 of the above mentioned drinks with Bailey's.  Now here's the strange part about this.  I fully expected my Saturday morning fasting blood sugar to be really high - but it was only 101!  This morning it was only 106!  So apparently there isn't sufficient sugar in any of that to raise my blood sugar and/or there is enuf fat to counteract the sugar? That doesn't mean that I'm going to rush off and buy all that stuff again, just that if I do feel like indulging, I am not doing myself great harm.

posted by: mafidl at October 22, 2006 10:58 | link | comments (7) |

me?

me me me me me
you
me me me me me me me
you?
me me me me me me me!
you?you?you?
MEMEMEMEMEMEME!!!!!

posted by: mafidl at October 21, 2006 12:05 | link | comments (6) |

frrrrussstration!

ABC.com has graciously provided internet users with streaming videos [courtesy of Direct TV] of episodes of various shows, including Grey's Anatomy.  I don't want to wait until the weekend, or worse, Monday, to see the first part of last night's episode, which I missed - explained in my last post.  The problem is that it goes along, a bit too small but that's OK, for a few minutes, then stops and I can't get it to continue - even after I watched a commercial and there was a button to continue.  WAAAHHHH!  I WANT MY ....  [insert bottle, MTV, Grey's Anatomy]  Not fair.  OK, so deal with it Diana. 
Another funny story on yours truly.  I took two Benadryl last night to help me get enuf sleep.  It works well, sometimes, and when I finally settled down, I went sound asleep, to be awakened just before 7AM by some sounds, which in my befogged state I thought to be the clock radio.  I tried to turn it off, no success there, then finally it stopped on its own and I realized IT WAS THE PHONE, STUPID!!  Checked the caller ID - it was the electrician.  As with the VCR earlier in the evening, I had accidentally set my bloody alarm for 7:40 instead of 6:40.  Grrrrrrr!  Anyhow, I called the guy back, he came, couldn't repair fan in bedroom, replaced it with the one bought 4+ years ago and it's great.  He even carted away the fan, etc.  So, I'm poorer by $280 and am now determined to replace my naked fluorescent lights in the kitchen with some clothed ones.  So that will, again, cost $120 for the visit + $80/hr - but should take less time if I replace them with a slightly fancier version of the same thing - with covers, which it seems might only be around $25/fixture - remains to be seen.  It seems, in case you're interested, that the problem with the fan was that, to be up to code, it had to have a box to put the wires in - which the old one didn't have, since it had been installed with only a hook to hold it up.  Get that?  There will be a quiz.  Now for the light fixtures:  since fluorescent fixtures have the wiring in a box, it's not necessary to put yet another box in the ceiling - which will save time, hence money.  So off to Home Depot sometime soon to find fixtures - don't want to put this one off for 4-5 years. LOL.

posted by: mafidl at October 20, 2006 10:48 | link | comments (1) |

tv

So I was really looking forward to tonight's episode of Grey's Anatomy.  My younger daughter called from work in Tasmania after about the first 5 minutes, but I was taping it, so wasn't worried about missing 15 minutes or so.  Then when I got off the phone I tried to catch up and thought, I'll watch the beginning tomorrow - but, ohoh, the VCR wasn't taping.  Sigh - turned out that in my anxiety to tape it correctly, I set the bloody thing to start at 8:58 instead of 7:58.  Grrrrr. Fortunately, my friend, R, taped it and will loan me the tape, but I probably won't be able to get it for a day or so.  Now last week the show was repeated Friday at 8, and my tv program says it will be on tomorrow, but that wasn't mentioned after the show.  Just in case, I've set the VCR once more in hopes I'll get it right.  Tomorrow morning the electrician is coming, partly to see if my bedroom ceilng fan can be fixed, partly to install the new fan bought 4-5 years ago to replace it if not - install it elsewhere if it can be fixed.  Took me this long to get around to finding an electrician.  Did I mention I procrastinate? Also, my A/C filter wasn't dirty when I checked it yesterday.  It has been installed for several weeks, if not a month or 2 - and I have 4 cats, 3 that are semi-long-haired.  Normally, by the time I check it, it's pretty dirty - dust and cat fur.  It seems to me that there has to be something amiss with it, which might account for the fact that friend, N, has something akin to an asthma attack whenever he comes here.  So I'm hoping the A/C guy will also be here tomorrow.  NO GRADING!!!  Well, almost none - 2 sets of extra credit problems for one class.

posted by: mafidl at October 20, 2006 00:06 | link | comments (2) |
tv

poop

Coincidentally [with my kitty experiences], Miami Metrozoo is having a special exhibit on - guess what - poop!  I haven't seen it yet, but I'll be there for a couple of hours Sunday and will check it out and report back.  I believe this exhibit is designed, for the most part, to appeal to adolescents and younger children.  For example, there is apparently an opportunity to handle some sort of substance which is designed to simulate some kind of poop.  I can't begin to imagine anything that would appeal to me less.  Handling bloody entrails, perhaps?  I'll see Sunday. 
The good news is I finished grading my tests.  Bad news is my highest class didn't do very well.  As a matter of fact not one of the classes did what I would consider to be well.  I would love to give a representative, fair test [which I assume mine to be, and I had a collegue critique 2 or them] and have, say, a mean of 70-75% and standard deviation of < 20.  The closest to that this time is my Calculus I class with mean and median each 68%, but standard deviation about 23.  My gut feeling is that the majority of the students don't study or don't understand what they're studying and don't try to get help with it.  This bothers me, but not enuf to do as one of my colleagues does, have Sunday office hours.  I'm tired and by the weekend I don't want to have to go back to the school.  Then I feel guilty, since I know my *brothers and sisters*, those of you who teach elementary or secondary school, have longer hours, and, probably more take home work.  Maybe, just maybe, if I can figure out how to get more sleep [last night, at best, 4 hours] I will feel differently.
And finally - *deja vu all over again* - this was in the Miami Herald this morning.  It was an accident, as opposed to what happened to Steve Irwin, where, I believe, the critter thought it was in danger and deliberately attacked.  So we now know for sure that stingrays are dangerous.  Back a few years ago, my younger daughter and I would swim above a smallish one when we snorkeled near shore of Key Biscayne - never imagining the potential danger.  Lucky, I guess.

posted by: mafidl at October 19, 2006 12:41 | link | comments (1) |

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