Ocupational Hazards

Self mutilationEven short fingernails do damage (see the nose). Good thing I don't wear jewelry!

TMII work with teenage boys. 'Nuff said.

Dangerous environments

Yup. Been there, done that. Interpreting on the slopes can be crazy!

The man in the moon

I took a walk this morning with the man in the moon. He was quite the gentleman, quiet and polite, just sitting there watching the sunrise with me and keeping me company.

With today being Earth Day, I decided to celebrate a bit and instead of driving to the gym, I walked the long way to work (it takes about an hour and a half). It was a beautiful morning that smelled like spring. Watching the sunrise was thrilling - I love seeing the clouds change from pewterish silver, to a milky mother-of-pearl,  and then gold and opalescent. 

I didn't expect to run into anyone this morning, but I got a lovely surprise when I looked up, and saw the moon watching the sunrise with me. Ok, ok, in all honesty, it was just Venus passing behind the crescent moon, but looking at the picture (it was brighter than that this morning) you can kind of see what I mean. It looks like some cartoon moon face (Venus being the nose), watching the horizon. I have to admit, the picture doesn't quite capture what I saw this morning. What with the different lighting and the cloud distortions... it had me giggling most of the morning. As they say... simple minds and all that.

Drumroll please...

Way back in October of last year I asked for a bit of advice from my more tech savvy friends and family about what kind of computer I should upgrade too, a Mac or a PC.  The opinions that resulted were incredibly fun, and luckily did not open the predicted can of worms. Since then I have done lots of researching, and debating, and agonizing, and wishing.... but no deciding.

By not deciding, I realize that I have been cruel to you all, and kept you all worried about my eternal soul... for this I sincerely apologize and beg forgiveness.

Now, to satisfy your burning curiosity, I present my decision :)

I want an iMac. I have learned the basics of navigating a Mac, and while I have a ways to go before becoming proficient, I like it enough to want to give it a shot.  I like the look and feel of it, I can live with the price, I love the huge memory and the part where the hardware and the software are all made by the same people, but I think thing that sold me at the end was the iPhoto software. 

With all the scanning I do, and the thousands of old family photos that I store, I love what I will be able to do using iPhoto, and the MANY different ways that I can organize my photos. Organizing with faces is what got me really excited, especially after spending three hours going through my entire collection trying to find every last picture of my Grandma for someone.  What a mind numbing process. Imagine being able to find every picture of your favorite cousin with the touch of a button. Happy sigh...

Right now though, I am facing reality. I will have to save for a while before I can make this purchase. Sadness. Till then, I will just have to live with the frustration of the 'thermal events,' dwindling memory, and crashes that plague my computer. But the fact that my car didn't need expensive repairs, and that I will be getting my track paycheck in a few months puts me a few steps closer to computer nirvana. (And yes Ben, I would LOVE to take advantage of your student discount once I get my money saved!)

Bliss.

(Those of you who now believe I am going to computer hell are welcome to present additional arguments to try and save me.)

"When am I EVER going to use this?"

That is the question every teacher hates, and every student asks at some time (usually in the middle of math class).  And they have a point.  How often do  you really use Avogadro's constant in your everyday life (unless you are a chemist)? In general the point of public education is to give a good foundation of knowledge, broaden horizons, teach critical thinking, new ways of using abstract ideas, applying knowledge learned in the past to present situations... etc. I figured that out fairly early in life, so that was a question I didn't ask often. Plus, I always figured that whatever I learned would some day be useful when the final Jeopardy question I was asked (on which I would wager all $10,907) would be about which US president was given a 1,400 lb block of cheese, and I would win because I knew it was Andrew Jackson. 

The question of real world applicability has popped up more and more frequently the last few weeks in Algebra, and as I was interpreting the question yet again, (this time about natural logarithms), I answered it for myself. I am using right it now. I got a good chuckle out of that. Who would have thought little ol' anti-number me would be using logs and antilogs at work. Certainly not something I had expected when I picked an English degree during my first round of college. I laughed even more as I looked back, and realized that there isn't one class I have ever taken, that hasn't had direct application to either my life, or (more usually) my work. How many people can honestly say that? Of all strange things, even my fencing class came in useful. And here I thought I was just using it to get some easy PE credits.

So, when am I EVER going to use it in my life? Careful what you ask because you might just end up like me, and have to answer "Every day. For the rest of my career."

That makes me laugh.