Sam's Back!

Years ago I had a teapot I called Sam. It was short for Sam O'Var. He was shaped like a camel. I loved him alot. Then one day his head snapped off! I was horrified. I spent the next few years looking everywhere for a replacement. I even searched eBay at least once a week for four years. And then another Sam came up for auction. And I won! Whoo hoo! Life is good again.
I had to drop one of my humanities classes - one called "the philosophy of communication." The professor wasn't all that good at communicating. How ironic. She couldn't be bothered to answer my emails. To understand the terminology bantered about in the class I had to expand my vocabulary to include bullshit jargon like role schema, double hermeneutics and Attributal Judgments regarding Interpersonal Events. As everyone who knows me knows, I eschew obfuscation. But like medical jargon, I suppose to some extent overly difficult writing is necessary since it is a steadfast way to justify paychecks for many academics and alientate them from everyone else.

Rhiannon's family

Rhiannon, at less than one month old, got three pieces of mail addressed to her in the last week! She has taken to smiling up at her mom when she hears the word "kitty kitty kitty" so perhaps that is her nickname. When I hold her, she studies my face with serious intensity then breaks into a smile as if to say "Oh, I recognize you!"

Fly pens, MP3 players, and rotten routers

The extremes of new technology. On one hand, since I'm now having to do a lot of writing for my classes, I indulged in a Fly Fusion Pentop Computer - in other words, a digital pen. It was originally made for high schoolers but I'm not proud. All I need it to do is recognize my handwriting so I don't have to retype my notes. It works. Like a charm. Too kewl.
Rosie wanted an iPod for Christmas but as she's six years old and prone to either losing or breaking one, we got her a bright pink Creative Zen Stone instead. Of course I had to get one too, only mine is blue. As did Jennifer. Hers is white. I even got one for my brother. His is black. Then you get sucked into buying the accessories...you need a "skin" to protect the thing. And that's only the beginning.
I immediately signed up with audible.com (they just got taken over by Amazon) so I could listen to audio books while I drove to and from work. Love it love it love it. So far I've listened to M is for Magic and A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman, about a quarter of some horribly dull alternate history about Atlantis, and Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin.
About two weeks ago the router I use to get on the internet suddenly fell off the window sill and hit my shoulder! Definitely poltergeist activity. Anyway, the router broke a few days later and had to be replaced. What a hassle. It took a few trips to Best Buy and two different routers to get back up and running. I used to be embarassed that Microsoft had such bad customer service. Not anymore. D-Link and Verizon are neck and neck in the "crappy attitude towards customers" hall of fame. The customer service rep at D-Link actually hung up on me after pumping me for address, serial number of unit, telephone number, etc. If it had been a bad connection and she had just gotten cut off she would have called back. Nope.
Well, off to write a bullsh*t paper on the theory of communication - rant on my Philosophy of Communication class to follow.