Overheard Conversation

The other day, I was weeding our front yard, when two of the neighborhood kids walked by. One was on a bike, the other had his shirt off. They must have been 10-12 years old.

Bike Kid: (deadpan) Nice Abs.

No-Shirt Kid: (sincere) Thanks.

B.K.: Have you ever heard of sarcasm?

That made me laugh.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Dad.

We'll be thinking about you today.

Love always-

Yay!!!

Welcome to the world Howie!!!

The C word

It strikes again. A classmate of mine just found out that her cancer has metastasized. She's been in remission for the last few years but hasn't been feeling well for a month now. It's never a good time to find out, but it's been particularly harsh for her to not be able to finish out the semester. Chemo starts in a few weeks. We don't know the prognosis yet, but it's not looking good. This is a very rare cancer, and the fact that it has metastasized is very bad.

We're working on a plan to help - groceries, company, dinner.... but we can't help with the bills. The rough part about being a grad student (or really just a person in the US) is that health insurance is dependent on employment. We get fairly inexpensive insurance here. But what happens if she can't take classes and TA in the fall? Her insurance will expire in August. If she can't comeback, it will be because she's too sick. This means she'll need the insurance (chemo and cancer not being a particularly inexpensive disease). So she's also facing a terrible catch22. We talked about this a lot after Dad died. Illness is most expensive for those who can least afford it. Why we can as a nation afford billion (trillion? I don't even know) war and weapons but not health care?

Farm U is reminding me a bit of CityU right now. People have banded together and are acting like family, rather than the "system". We have quickly shifted into discussions about who will do what, and are trying to help and support each other. And interesting wrinkle is the cross-cultural nature of our department. I spent a while today talking with my officemate (from China) about the appropriate responses to finding out that she has cancer. Officemate was surprised that she knew- telling me that people with cancer in China never know, because their families don't tell them. This way, everyone is "happy". We talked for awhile about what it meant for the diagnosis and prognosis to be known. We talked about what types of support and comfort could be given. Although I A NOT GRATEFUL for me previous experiences with cancer (and PLEASE do NOT tell me anything like that), I know that I can rely a little bit on them, and be a better friend because of them. I know that I can avoid saying the unhelpful things- and instead offer a hug, a tissue, and a shoulder to cry on. I won't tell her it's going to be better. I won't tell her that it's part of the "plan". I don't know if she believes this or not. But I can offer her friendship right now.

So, tonight I'm sitting here, ostensibly writing a paper, and thinking about her. She's not writing her papers, as she can't focus with the dose of oxycodone she's on. We'll be babysitting her pet for a while, and doing what we can to make sure she's not alone.

And, for now, I'm feeling very sad. Very scared. And, honestly, pretty pissed off. Damn cancer. She's my age.

Done... sort of

I just finished teaching my last class of the year (literally, 2 minutes ago). Although I'm far from done (2 papers to write, one take home exam, 23 portfolios to grade, 50 final exams to grade, and 30 term papers to grade), the end is in sight.

Phew. I'm really looking forward to being done with my first year.

An Open Call to our Former Plants

I was going to put my sunflowers in the ground this morning. Then I saw that the temp was 45 degrees at noon and that there was a chance of a frost and snow overnight, so I didn't. It's almost May.

In light of this delay, I started thinking of all the plants we had in Portland, but which we gave away right before we left: the hot-pepper plant, the strawberry pot full of succulents, all the spider plants and mother-in-law tongues, the aloe, the fig trees, the jades, etc.

I was wondering how all these plants are doing. I know some of the people that read this have some of them, so I'm looking for updates. I know one of the fig trees was planted in the ground, but is it still alive? Maybe bearing fruit? Did the succulents grow and multiply as fast as they did 2 winters ago? Is the pepper plant still alive, providing wonderful little hot peppers?

So let me know in the comments if you know how our plants are doing. The memories will get me past the snow tonight.

Blue Screen of Death

Well, old Sunshine may have bit the bullet. She's had three blue screens of death (you know the one- you're in the midst of something - always something important- and the screen goes blue with the terrible words describing some indecipherable fatal error) in a row. Given that she's 5 years old, it's probably not too unusual for her time to be up, but this is a terrible way to go.

I'll take her in to the resident geeks and see if there's any saving her...

Thanks Dad, for teaching me to back up.

Students today....

If you have four minutes- you need to watch this video. I promise it will make you think.

Blogging the un-bloggable

There have been a few conversations recently (in person, online, on the phone, on this very blog) about what to post and what to not post and where does the line between public and private fall. I thought I take up this conversation and turn it into a post of its very own. Perhaps the other semi-anonymous and completely public authors we know could chime in and relate their decisions about what to post and what name or identifiable statements to include...

For me, one of the most important elements is that my identity here remain un-google-able. As a student and teacher, I don't want this blog and the things I say here to come up in the first 10 hits of my name. I don't post things here that I'm not willing to say in public, but I don't think my random musings about life in Iowa, world travel, or the cat should be what my students, colleagues, or potential employers should see first. This means that I obfuscate details (school names, my own last name, my program of study etc) so that people typing in those key words don't find the blog. Other folks have created much more public blogs, and have good reasons for this. Blogging is an emerging field of communication, and as it evolves, there will be a lot of flux and change until a standard (or standards) emerge.

It's also very important to me (and PEter) not to identify people who haven't chosen to be public. This means that Sissy remains Sissy, CultureProf remains CultureProf (unless she herself uses her name in a comment) etc. The people in our lives haven't chosen to be public, and it's important for us not to "out" them without their permission.

Finally, there's the issue of internet safety. Some things, while not identifiable, are facts that could be important to online banking and other online identification (hometown, high school, first grade teacher's names, maiden names etc). We leave these things off for that reason. As a rule of thumb, it's never a good idea to add identifiable information to the comments of someone's blog that they themselves haven't used before. Obfuscate, obfuscate, obfuscate!!!!

So, these are my reasons for semi-anonymity. Why do you chose what you chose? What consequences do you see for your choice? If you don't blog, did you know about these issues?

We'll Always Have Sunflowers

When I was a young lad, I attended catholic school. I was never rapped on the knuckles by any of the nuns. In fact, I never had the honor of being taught by a nun, like my brother (although I did have one teacher named Ms Love, who in retrospect, was definitely a 'christian hippie' who lived on an island commune in Vermont when she was younger).

[Here's a fun tangent: the school and church parish I attended, and also where I was baptized (I think) and first communion-ed, was one of the parishes closed and sold by the Massachusetts Catholic Diocese as part of the settlement in all those child abuse scandals a few years back. They sold the complex to the local Greek Orthodox church, who needed to move out of their beautiful 'National Register of Historic Places' church into a larger space. A guy I hung out with and his family was big into the Greek church and they were enlisted to help renovate the new church to make it more Greek Orthodox-like. As part of the renovation, they removed the catholic alter, which was made of solid marble. They were just going to throw it away, so my buddy took it home. It now resides in his home as a beautiful bar. I don't know if this is awesome or sacrilegious, but at the least, it is a fine example of re-using old materials.]

Before the school closed and I was forced to enter the hell that is the public education system (joking, where else could I have learned to swear like a pirate?), my brother and I used to walk to school everyday. I remember this one house always had sunflowers along the sidewalk. And not little sunflowers, but the gigantic ones that get like 10 feet tall with heads bigger than human torso. I always thought they were cool, thinking it must have been a huge undertaking to grow such massive cool things.

When I moved to Portland permanently, Kimberly and I found a nice little bungalow with a very supportive (read: easily convinced) landlord who let us do whatever we wanted with the yards. We decided we would grow some veggies, including tomatoes, tomatillos, and various types of peppers (one of which we were able to successfully keep alive over 3 winters and we subsequently gave away when we left: if you are the person who we gave the plant to (and I honestly don't remember who has it) and you happen to read this, let us know how it's doing. I miss those little hot peppers).

We also decided to grow sunflowers.

Now, at this point, let me explain: I'm a city boy. I had a grandfather who had a great garden, and a long line of family that were farmers in Italy and my mother, grandmother and uncle have amazing green thumbs (green hands really), but I grew up in a suburb. I was never involved in the planting of anything, nor was I particularly interested. So when we bought the sunflower seeds, I was convinced that there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that giant sunflowers were going to grow out of these little sunflowers seeds, which looked like the ones I used to chew and spit when I was in Little League. Boy, was I wrong.

That year, we had sunflowers that got to about 8-9 feet. The heads had to be at least 18 inches across. They were gigantic. We salted and roasted the seeds and had enough for the whole winter (actually, my friend/workmate Eugene ate them all while sitting in a cold room doing filing, but that's another story for another day). People walking with their kids would stop and walk up next to the plants, admiring them. It was like a mini-community center, where people would gather to talk about their day.

It was fun. So I decided we needed to do it again.

We bought seeds a few weeks back at our super-great local nursery. And again, I was not sure that these were the right seeds. How could a 8-10 foot plant grow out of these tiny things. Impossible.

Despite the terrible weather we are still having (apparently, we moved to the Middle just in time for the worst winter in memory) I decided that if there was any chance of getting 10 foot sunflowers, I needed to start the seeds. But not outside. Not until July, apparently.

About a week ago, I planted about 13 seeds in pots, and placed them in front of the window with the rest of our young plants. Then I sat down, sad that I needed to wait 5-15 days for them to sprout.

But the package was wrong. Only a couple days later, the sprouts, well, sprouted. And they won't stop growing. A couple have to be 2-3 inches already. I worry they will fall over, since they grow towards the light and are sometimes almost horizontal. When I rotate them, they straighten up and lean the other way within hours. It's amazing. If they keep growing at this rate, they'll be 10 feet tall by June.

But now I'm worried that the plants are going to get too big for their pots before the weather takes a permanent turn for the better. What do I do then? The root structure was pretty large before, so I don't think larger pots is the answer, unless I only want to do one or two.

Please, please, please weather, get better. Please. I mean really, it's almost Tax Day, we shouldn't be having snow storm warnings anymore. Please get nice.

Having a gigantic plant grow out of a seed that is about 1/4 inch big in only a few short months has to be one of the most satisfying things you can possibly do as a garden/plant activity. If/when we ever have kids, I am growing them every year, just to reinforce to them how cool plants are. I will grow them with my niece 1900 some time.

Anyways, here's a couple pictures of the sprouts in various states of growth.

Come on weather, help us out.

Applying what I've learned

Way back when, I took a bunch of teaching methodology courses. Culture Prof at City University spent a few weeks having us think about our learning styles, past learning experiences, and how these related to our own expectations for our classrooms. One of the things we learned has really stuck with me over the years, although I've struggled with actually implementing it.

We read research that showed learning styles of the overall population compared with those of teachers. Surprisingly, the ratios weren't the same. In fact, teaching seemed to attract people with the least common overall learning preferences.

This was really reinforced for me this week. As you might guess (or might not, depending on how well you know me and in what situations we've interacted), I'm in one of those less common learning styles. I'm also an introvert (no, not shy). This leads me to have certain preferences about group work and displays of knowledge. So, I assigned my students to work in large groups (n=5) to read, analyze, then present an article. Their presentation had to teach the class about the article as well as provide the class with some participatory activity (something to involve the rest of us so the class doesn't get restless). They were told that they had 20 minutes for this presentation (in a few weeks) and that they had complete control of the class (their only restrictions being they couldn't do anything illegal or unethical). Now, this assignment is one I've been dreading. It has a combination of dangerous factors (namely group work, presentations, cross-cultural interaction, and a requirement for "creativity"). But yet, I still assigned it. What can I say, I was in need of something to fill the last three weeks of the semester and this was one on a list of suggested assignments. Plus, it meant I didn't have to grade another set of papers. Yep, so totally selfish reasons behind me assigning an assignment I would hate.

Yesterday, they had some class time to work on the assignment. And... they were engaged, excited, and working together. It was like an after school special or something. If only I was being observed! Students working together, laughing but staying on task, sharing wildly different ideas and experiences. I left them mostly alone, and occasionally there'd be a shout of Ms. LastName?! Each time, I walked over with dread, expecting to find them inconsolably cranky, fighting, or completely confused. Nope, they just wanted to know if Crazy, Creative, Cool Activity met the assignment description. Or perhaps if Nifty Technology Idea would live up to my meager expectations. I'd think to myself, seriously? You wondered if this would meet my expectations? This is FABULOUS! I managed to avoid gushing and blabbering out loud.

So, they still have another week to plan and scheme. I have another chance to check in with them about their progress and make sure we're all happy. But I think I'm finally understanding what those learning style results mean. And, I think I might be on my way to find more assignments like this one. Not that I'll abandon all the old practices- there still are students like me in class, and I think there is a lot of value in independent work, but I won't be so scared to ask them to do things I would hate- cuz, maybe, they might love it.

Secret message to the cheaters...

Hey, it's one thing to cheat. But, really, it's only worth it if you cheat off of someone SMARTER than you. I mean, seriously, when you both fail, does it do you any good?

my answers

Since I'm in desperate need of a break (why won't the papers write themselves?!), I thought I'd also answer the meme. Interested in providing your answers but don't have a blog? Go ahead and put your results as a comment to this post. (Of course, it's always a good idea to exercise a little internet caution as Peter mentions in his post below).

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. bank teller
2. natural food store manager
3. English teacher
4. wine and cheese buyer

Four movies I would watch over and over
1. Say Anything (swoon)
2. Pretty in Pink (or Sixteen Candles or any of the Molly Ringwald 80s flicks)
3. Sound of Music
4. Doctor Zhivago

Four places I have lived:
1. Portland, OR
2. Eugene, OR
3. Queretaro, Mexico
4. Ames, IA

Four TV Shows that I watch:
1. What Not to Wear (not that it helps much)
2. NCIS
3. The Office
4. any crappy show on reruns while I'm grading

Four places I have been
1. Cambodia (Angor Wat)
2. Craters of the Moon
3. Chaco Canyon
4. City of the Rocks

Four People who e-mail me (regularly):
1. cranky students
2. desperate students
3. my sis
4. my mom

Four favorite things to eat:
1. sushi (particularly salmon and unagi)
2. any pasta made by Peter
3. refined Mexican a la Nuestra Cocina (you all in Portland REALLY need to go there)
4. lamb

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Grandpa's forest
2. exploring a ruin
3. learning a new language
4. in bed

Four friends I think will/should respond on their blogs or in the comments to this post:
1. Sissy
2. Mom
3. Kari (who started this whole thing but, like Em said, should add hers to her blog)
4. anyone else?

Four Things I am looking forward to this year:
1. Summer (Mexico!! Woo hoo!)
2. finishing year 1 of my PhD
3. getting to meet all the new babies
4. canning the products of our garden

thanks, really

Please don't disclose personal info about us in the comments without asking first. Maybe there's a reason why I didn't disclose everywhere I've ever lived.

Thanks, though.

Called Out on the Interwebs

I don't do Spam, whether eating it or replying/forwarding it on the interwebs (if I ever go to Hawaii, I may reconsider the eating it part. And be informed, that might be the most annoying website ever). But I just got called out by em, so I'm gonna do one of these things . Don't think this is going to be a common occurrence:

So, presenting:

Four things about me that you may or may not know in any particular order
(I eliminated Kimberly as any possible answer, to make it more interesting. Just assume she's #1 in any relevant categories)

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. bus boy at a local, family owned restaurant, where I would eat bread off the tables and one of the owners left his wife to marry his babysitter, who was like 20 years younger and looked like a well-used version of Sarah Jessica Parker
2. chicken carver at Boston Chicken - the original, and better, version of Boston Market before they expanded, started to be terrible, then disappeared
3. intramural sports official
4. 'New Cases Filed' reporter for an online legal newsletter - I could take a cell phone and camera into a Federal courthouse, which apparently was cool, and fairly unprecedented, at the time

Four movies I would watch over and over
1. A New Hope: Star Wars Episode IV - really, any of the other movies of the original Star Wars trilogy
2. True Romance - the best Quentin Tarantino movie of them all, with an outstanding cast and outstanding dialogue (and also, a lot of violence)
3. Stop Making Sense
4. The Princess Bride

Four places I have lived:
1. Burlington VT
2. Cambridge MA
3. Seattle WA
4. Portland OR

Four TV Shows that I watch:
1. Top Chef
2. Arrested Development - oh wait, I can't - or maybe I can????
3. 30 Rock/The Office
4. Dirty Jobs - I have a man crush on Mike Rowe

Four places I have been
1. Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) in the Outback, Australia
2. the World's Tallest Outdoor Seated Bronze Buddha at Po Lin Monastery, Lantua Island, Hong Kong
3. Cadillac Ranch, middle of nowhere, Texas (actually, outside Amarillo)
4. Zoo Station, Berlin

Four People who e-mail me (regularly):
1. Canadian Pharmacy - my prescription is ready
2. e!3ay - my financial information needs updating
3. Nude Photos - just for me
4. myself, somehow

Four favorite things to eat:
1. Sushi - especially Unagi
2. Arancini and pizza at Galleria Umberto in Boston's North End
3. lamb - yum, baby sheep
4. chicken wings - preferably from Fire on the Mountain, but really, from anywhere

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Byron Bay, Australia
2. the South Island, New Zealand - really, all of New Zealand, but the South Island is pretty amazing
3. Parma, Italy - OMG! the food there is good! OMG!
4. the Rimsky Korsacoffeehouse - if you've been there, no explanation needed. If you haven't, someday you should: good luck finding it, though

Four Things I am looking forward to this year:
1. spring/lack of snow
2. going back to school in the fall (although I'm not sure I'm actually 'looking forward' to this)
3. the Iowa State Fair - for the corn dogs, really
4. 10-foot tall sunflowers

News from China

One of those blogs listed over in the corner is Chengdu Letters, a blog from my dear friend Lara who is currently teaching in Chengdu, China. She sent out an email recently and has a post up on her blog, that should be required reading for all of us- I'll let her explain it

"Hi everyone -

This is just a quick heads-up, in case you
haven't been following what's been going on over
here (which wouldn't be hard, considering the
media lockdown that China is currently
enforcing). This article is most interesting, as
the byline is Chengdu, the city I currently am
calling home.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/world/asia/26tibet.html?ex=1364270400&en=9ee001aa638de393&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink"


She goes on to write "What this means for us is this: intense, heavily-armed police presence; increased internet restriction and surveillance; and wild rumors flying around everywhere, with no trustworthy foundational news source. We are not in danger, no matter how crazy the papers may make it look over here."

Go read her whole post as well as the NYTimes article listed above.

On a personal level, I've been talking with my Chinese office mate about both Tibet and Taiwan recently. Although we clearly don't see eye to eye on these issues, we've been able to discuss the cultural issues implicit in both the Chinese actions and the Western nations' response to it. We're learning a lot about each other.

Lara- be safe. We love you.

Not more winter....

It appears I spoke too soon. We woke up a few times in the night to the sound of rocks bouncing off the roof, and eventually I concluded that it was hail. Then, it turned to snow. It's still snowing now. We're predicted to end up with 3-5 inches.

On Sunday it was so warm that we decided to begin our spring planting!

This is the view outside my window now:
Will it ever end?

Happy Spring!!!

(note that this post was originally composed on Monday 3/24, see the post above this one for an update)

Although we still have forecasts of more snow in our future spring has arrived. The robins are out in force, pulling worms and antagonizing the little "chickadees" (I'm not sure exactly what the little ones are). As I went to bed last night, it was gently snowing and this morning we woke to a white Easter Sunday. But even so, the grass is beginning to turn green and there's a promise of spring everywhere.

Mom came to visit over part of this last week (my spring break) and got to see some sunshine mixed with her snow. By the time she left, she was tired of hearing me describe the weather as "balmy"! It was in the high 40s and 50s most days.

While Mom was here, we took a road trip out east and explored a new part of the state. Note that the more of you who visit, the more excuses I'll have to leave my desk and see something new! I'll let Mom speak for herself, but I thought it was a very interesting and pleasant road trip.

We drove out to the Mississippi River and wound our way up the Old River Road. We were both quite surprised to see icebergs floating in the river in Davenport. Slightly north, in the quaint town of Le Claire, we tried to go view one of the locks. Evidently, many (most?) of the locks are now closed to visitors (perhaps a result of 9-11) but we entertained ourselves watching the river and the ice.
That is, until we noticed the GIANT bald eagle perched right above our heads. Seriously folks- this bird was enormous! We then explored a little path and found more evidence of the giant birds- these little fish were scattered all over- even in the trees.

Apparently, we had happened upon a huge bald eagle migratory area, albeit 2 months late. One of these years I'm definitely bundling up and heading out in January to see hundreds of bald eagles.

We wandered our way north even more, driving through small towns, visiting antique stores (but not buying anything!), and talking all the way. We decided Saturday morning that we were going to go as far as Dubuque and made a reservation in a B&B for the night. The proprietress encouraged us to arrive by 5 as to not miss the main event: the St. Patrick's Day parade down Main Street.

The B&B was in a lovely old mansion built by a lead baron (or was it lumber?). The town of Dubuque is very historic and used to lay claim to the highest number of millionaires per capita in the nation. It's also a very scenic viewpoint of the Mississippi River. We got in at 4:30, enough time to get the tour of the B&B, enjoy a glass of wine, and wander out onto the wraparound deck before the parade started. And what a parade it was! It is the epitome of the small town parade, with a few cars, the vans for the local radio stations, some people throwing candy, and a group of people and their dogs all walking in it. Everyone had on green, of course. And there were two St Pats on rollerblades!

After the parade, drained from the excitement, we had to contemplate dinner. We discussed going to this place- due to the family connection.

However, we decided that modern Iowan food was more our style and ended up in a lovely little bistro. We even shared warm bread pudding for dessert. Yum!

I must confess here that the prime reason for picking this B&B was the fact that it had two house cats on the premises. In fact, we even requested one of the cat's favorite rooms. Well, little Cindy did indeed decide to spend part of the night with us, curled up beneath the comforter at the foot of the bed.

She was quite happy there until my phone rang at almost 2am to warn me of a gunman on campus (several hundred miles away). This turned out to be okay. Mom and I slept fitfully after that harsh awakening. We were rewarded in the morning with unbelievable omelettes: brie and pears. It sounded beyond weird to me, but turned out to be fantastic.

We spent the morning exploring the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium . It's an amazing place that even has a touching pool! Woo hoo! We were amazed by the fact that that the Mississippi River is frozen over .
In fact, there were even fish frozen into the water . I wonder why they couldn't escape to deeper waters.

So, all in all, we had an exciting fantastic trip though Eastern Iowa. Come visit and we'll take you somewhere cool too!

Happy Birthday

As some of you may know, sometime in the last 2 weeks was Kimberly's birthday. It was a joyous time, as Kimberly's mom came out to visit, and we had a nice dinner of gnocchi.

The reason I'm posting this now is because I wanted to brag about the gift I got her. In my opinion, it's one of the better gifts I've ever gotten anyone (the best, if you're wondering, was a 'Can't Sleep, the Clowns Will Eat Me' onesie I bought for a friend's baby a while back).

It was the Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, a huge book that reproduces the diaries of Albertus Seba, an 18th century naturalist that made all these hand drawings of new and different animals being discovered around the world. The drawings are pretty awesome, super detailed and specific, almost like they are photographs. And the book is like 3 feet x 1.5 feet, and weighs like 20 pounds, so it's hefty.

Unfortunately, the online pic above doesn't really do the book justice, so you'll just have to check it out when you come to visit.

Dreaming of a White St Patrick's Day

After about a week of decent weather, with temps almost reaching 60, I thought we were in the clear.

I was wrong.

It snowed again last night. On St Patrick's Day. This is a first for Kimberly. Unfortunately for me, I experienced an April Fool's Day blizzard while in school at Vermont, which is depressing, because it's really not an April Fool's Day joke, it's real.

Anyways, it's also another special day today, and the first time it's snowed on that day, too. So Happy Special Day to the person whose Special Day it is.