Delays, Thunderstorms, Withering Heat

I've been traveling all day, so I'm tired. I'm still in the airport and my flight to B'ham is delayed just a little bit. That's been the case for all my travel arrangements this past week into and out Charlottesville, VA.

I'll tell you more about the retreat, but right now I'm quite tired.

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This group just exited an airplane. Everyone was tanned. I wonder where they went.

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People are beginning to really get on my nerves. I need to go home.

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Yeah.

Kundiman 2008

I'm getting ready to head to the airport for my flight to Charlottesville, VA. I'll be heading to the 2008 Kundiman Retreat. I've only missed one retreat and it killed me.

I'll be blogging from there for the next few days.

***

Sad to leave L for so long, but luckily Meredith's sister came up from SF to help.

He's sucking his thumb now . . . ruh roh.

***

I see the third manuscript. It's right there, it's just in bits and pieces that need clear transitional pieces to conjoin them into the cohesive whole

Maybe that work can get done sometime this week.

Quote of the Wee

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

Nuff said.

Testing New Browser

***GEEK ALERT***

I'm in the process of messing around with two new internet browsers--Firefox and Flock. So far, Flock is fun, but Firefox wins the speed contest. It's much better than Safari or IE.

***

Woke up this morning and "repaired" my flooded chainsaw engine.

I then cut up a big log that was rolled up on our lawn.

Don't worry . . . I won't write a poem about it.

***

I want to write a poetry review entirely in Hulk-speak:

HULK NOT LIKE BOOK! HULK THINK LINE BREAK NEED MORE BREAK! HULK SMASH LINE BREAK! HULK SMASH!

The World is Cute But Cruel

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

We caught this baby possum sneaking food from our bird feeders. He was a cute little guy.

Notice the past tense usage. We had been trying to get the critter to run away before Jake found him, but we were too late.

I'll spare you the gory details. Meredith screamed. I chased Jake around the yard. Things got ugly.



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How about this latest issue of Tin House for your summer reading?

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21,583 songs on iTunes for a final tally. Thank goodness that's over.

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Midseason Finale of BSG has left me waiting anxiously for the next round. It was a bit of a choppy episode, but I liked the "payoff."

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"Final" Count

18,564 Songs. That's 73.06 Giga Bytes of music. And I know of two incomplete albums off the top of my head. I'll also be snagging Meredith's song collection from her iTunes album--she's got a lot more world stuff.

My iPod is only half way full which is why I got the 160GB in the first place. Take that Best Buy jerk.

****

Heading out to Portland OR today. Behave yourselves.

Funniest Song Title I Just Discovered While Uploading

"Too Much Pork For Just One Fork." Southern Culture on the Skids.

Still Uploading

I'm still dumping CD's into my iTunes.

Right now, the song count is 18489. I'm surprised about a number of CD's that hadn't been previously uploaded--my Yaz albums, for instance. Yeah, I liked Yaz. That was back in my Depeche Mode days--speaking of which, it's interesting to listen to DM again and hear how poorly they've aged . . . at least to my ears.

I was surprised that I hadn't uploaded Weezer's first album, the blue one.

I had no idea that I had so many Tom Waits albums.

Gosh, and remember The Mightly Lemon Drops? The Wild Swans? The Trash Can Sinatras? The House of Love? Neither did I, but I apparently have their albums. Nirvana/Grunge blew up that scene completely.

So who survived the synth pop years? There are very few bands still going from that era, but the two major players from my record collection are U2 and R.E.M., probably because they were wise enough to keep reinventing themselves. Perhaps that also has to do with their skills.

What's also surprising to me is to see how the grunge movement truly died with Kurt Cobain. Pearl Jam's the only thing still going, though some might count STP as still active.

Makes me wonder what musical acts will survive this new internet age, now that music is disseminated in this "new" medium. Soulja Boy? MIA?

***

Remodeling project for this summer: my office. Right now there's some nasty wood panelling which I'm going to cover with drywall. I'm also going to scrape the popcorn off the ceiling and paint the room a brighter color. Instead of bookcases, which I have now, I'm going to install a shelving rack system which will give me more space.

I'm vacillating between colors--white or a light sky blue.

***

Yes, I'll be writing this summer. I promise. I might do the poem a day thing that I did last August which was quite productive for me. Of the 31 poems written in that month, I think 3/4 of 'em got picked up in journals. That's really a good percentage. Goes to show you that not writing for 11 months can be useful.

(disclaimer: Students who read this blog, do not pay attention to the above paragraph. I am exaggerating.)

***

Baby L is gigantic. I've styled his hair into a mohawk. He's sleeping in his sling, completely unaware of his hair transformation. I think it looks cool. If I had hair, I'd style it into a mohawk too.

Finishing up

The last of the grades today as well as the last of the advising here on campus.

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It's been overcast & rainy for the past few weeks. I'm looking forward to a respite from the dreary weather, although my rhododendrons & witchhazel could use the extra drizzle. Things are opening.

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Heading to Portland, OR this weekend to see my parents & the relatives on my father's side. A 1.5'er is graduating high school as a valedictorian.

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No idea what to get my dad for Father's Day. . . oh my god. It'll be my first Father's Day!!

Partly Cloudy with a Slight Chance of Frustration

I'm uploading all of my CD's to iTunes. A task which has taken me several months to accomplish. Not only do I have a lot of CD's, I'm short on time. What's frustrating is that iTunes doesn't always upload the artwork to the albums, so I have to go online, grab the picture, and then drag it onto the file batch for the album. It's such a pain.

Thus far, I'm in the 16,000 range in song count and I've gone through 4 out of 7 crates.

***

End of the quarter is officially today. My students turn in their portfolios. Yay. And you students who are reading this, I know you're happy too.

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We took the baby to a party this Saturday and what was surprising was that he didn't freak out at all. Lots and lots of my colleagues carried him and not once did he cry about it.

Of course, when he got home he freaked a little.

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I've been listening to Shearwater quite a bit. Jonathan Meiburg sounds a little like Mark Hollis from Talk Talk.

I'm famous and I'm on YouTube

Poor students. At least there are puppets!

I like puppets.

I'm flattered. Really, I am.

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Classes are OVER!

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I've got a bowl full of M & M's in front of me. Green's the best.

Good boy, Jake.

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Originally uploaded by odelapaz.

He's going to say "hold still." And then he's going to say, "good dog."

Gosh darn it . . . I AM a good dog. I'm not sure I like thing on my back, though . . .

I DO like beef jerky, though.

Who do you love?

I walk 47 miles of barbed wire,
I use a cobra-snake for a necktie,
I got a brand new house on the roadside,
Made from rattlesnake hide,
I got a brand new chimney made on top,
Made out of a human skull . . .

Tell me the man wasn't a poet. RIP Bo Diddley

***

Also RIP Yves Saint Laurent.

It was indeed a rough weekend for the arts.

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Speaking of rough . . . the kiddo had his 2 month immunizations. Poor thing howled from 5:00PM to 11:00PM. I feel terrible. :-(

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I rejoined Netflix. I've come to realize that there ain't no way I'm going to be able to watch movies the way I USED TO watch movies. So far I've watched dreck--Beowulf and The Transformers. Look, my argument to watch crappy blockbusters is that it's research. Besides, I spend 9 months out of the year trying to be an intellectual . . . once in awhile I like watching things blow up.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out what I should put in my queue. Any suggestions? My range is wide.

***

Last week! Last week! Last week!

Last Week of Classes

I'm draggin'. So are my students. Thankfully, the Spring quarter ends this Thursday for me. It's tough teaching when there's a baby in the house.

Anyway, the last official day for me will be Monday the 9th, when students turn in their portfolios. It'll be good to get back into writing again. Generally, I don't write during the school year . . . that is, I don't write with any consistency. I've been prolific in the summers. I suppose it's my coping mechanism.

Students . . . and I know some of you read this blog . . . try to write everyday if you can. At least a line. Don't be like me.

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Meredith got a sexy new iMac. It's got a nice 20" flat screen and the DVD drive's right to the side. It's running on an Intel processor and it's so much faster than the laptop I'm blogging from right now.

It's kind of sick, but we're a 3 mac family. I've got my G5 tower, this G4 Powerbook, and now Meredith's iMac. I'm a diehard Mac geek.

Consequently, I updated all the computers so they're running the new Office 2008 suite as well as Leopard. Things are running smoothly so far.

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Saw the new Indiana Jones movie. I feel for Harrison Ford. He looked . . . tired. That's not to say I didn't enjoy myself, though it's the weakest of the four, IMO.

Next on the summer movie list for me is The Incredible Hulk.

By the way, did you all stay after the credits for Iron Man? Quite a nice teaser . . . Comic book geeks, you may have to watch the movie again just for the nice little sneak peak.

God, I love popcorn movies.

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People have been asking me what I've been working on, and it's hard to describe. I'm working on 3 things, though not at the same time. I know they're three projects because they're all so tonally different. It's the first time I've ever had the opportunity to work like this.

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My chainsaw is broken. :-(