nigelnameddog

The Living Daylights

2009-12-27T03:29:47Z

Timothy Dalton. The first time I tried to watch it I was doing something else at the same time, and twenty minutes into the film I realized that at some point the sound had cut out and I hadn't even noticed. It took me two months to try again. But it turns out it's actually not that bad. John Rhys-Davies is in it, anyway. And some cheerful Mujahideen from Afghanistan. It was better than Diamonds are Forever, at least.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-12-24T12:09:00

2009-12-24T18:08:20Z

There's this large middle-aged man with a messy gray ponytail who stands on his second floor balcony in the mornings wearing only a dingy pair of gym shorts. I always see him as I'm getting in my car to leave for work. Except this week he's been loading a lot of his belongings into his truck and driving them away. I think he's moving, and I'm actually kind of saddened.

Also recently I introduced my entire extended family to ginger beer.
And last week the checkout guy at Kroger gave me a Kroger membership card against my will.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-12-17T23:05:00

2009-12-18T05:05:02Z

Today at work Steve informed me that he's not surprised to learn that most of my friends are hippies, because he's noticed that I have a hippy demeanor. Not that that's a bad thing. He says when he was my age he had hair down to his waist and a van with tie-dyed curtains that he'd sewn himself.

I made a cake. I also made a giant batch of lemon quinoa salad and about 50 pumpkin cookies.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-12-16T22:49:00

2009-12-17T04:48:50Z

A large van with tinted windows recently rented out the garage below my apartment, and it's always going in and out at odd hours in a highly suspicious manner.

I've become the queen of putting up my hair with a pencil, and I've only accidentally written on the wall once by leaning up against it without regard to the repercussions of the pencil. It occurred to me later that I could have turned around and erased the wall with the other side of the pencil, and I'm quite upset that I didn't think of it at the time.

I'm amidst book five of the Wheel of Time, and all I want to do is play around with balefire, course of history be damned.

And tomorrow I'm going to attempt to bake a cake.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-12-13T20:44:00

2009-12-14T02:44:32Z

I switched to a yoga/pilates mix, and it is kicking my ass. It's awesome.

And I'm sad to say I've now been exposed to the Star Wars Holiday Special.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-12-10T22:24:00

2009-12-11T04:22:58Z

My ESL students bought me a gift. A fancy one, and I didn't even remember to bring them Christmas candy. And they all gave me hugs and took like a hundred photos with me. It was like Tanzania, for being in so many pictures I could no longer see. I was touched but also overwhelmed. I'll have to bring them tons of candy next semester, and throw them a party. If they even bother to come back after I spent an hour trying to get them to read a story in English while the Level Two class had a fiesta with soda and pizza and flan.

Also we learned the word "band" so I was trying to list bands. I'd come up with the Backstreet Boys and Pink Floyd and The Beatles and The Who, and was getting a lot of blank looks, and then Bisifredo chimed in with "The Rolling Stones," and I was thrilled.

Now we have a three week hiatus for Navidad and the new year.

Tomorrow I'm taking a vacation day to go shopping, which I guess makes me officially a girl.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-12-06T20:21:00

2009-12-07T02:21:16Z

I decided to give yoga a try. It turns out it's really hard. Afterwards all my muscles decided to stop working. I'm hooked.

And last night I got dressed up all fancy to attend my first Christmas party of the season. The party itself was only moderately interesting - a kind of posh Sugar Land event, though the most famous person at my table was this lady who used to be a reporter for Univision. But the food was delicious and the dressing up was super fun.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-12-05T17:14:00

2009-12-05T23:13:41Z

Yesterday it snowed. From 10am to 5pm, pretty constantly. I've never seen so much snow falling from the sky at one time in my life. Andrew asked if there was 'panic and pandemonium,' but actually instead it was unrestrained glee. From everyone, regardless of age, but in direct proportion to how long they've lived in Houston. Productivity went down the drain. And the entire city got to go home from work early. In a day or so it's predicted to be 75 degrees again. photos.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-12-02T22:36:00

2009-12-03T04:36:11Z

I learned how to properly cook a Thanksgiving turkey, and no one who ate it died.

And I was an usher at a Blood, Sweat & Tears/Three Dog Night concert with my grandparents and great-grandmother.

I stole this link from Dave.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-11-23T18:52:00

2009-11-24T00:51:53Z

I finished Season One of The Highlander. And was devastated at the loss of Darius. Now I understand why the episode needed Roger Daltrey - to keep people watching despite their debilitating grief.

I also got more much-needed Dr Who, and we went to go see The Men Who Stare at Goats, which was better than some of the reviews but not as good as others.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-11-17T22:51:00

2009-11-18T04:51:45Z

The Renaissance Festival was excellent as always. There was some last-minute costume switching, which turned out quite well. I was a formidable foe for the giant turkey leg of deliciousness, our knight was the jousting champion, and we saw two guys dressed as Kirk and Spock. I didn't get many pictures, but I think this one of Jen and David and me is interesting because, when compared with the next one (taken 6 years ago), it shows how young and innocent we used to be. It also documents our tragic loss of Micah.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-11-12T21:19:00

2009-11-13T03:19:05Z

Here is an advertisement.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-11-11T22:20:00

2009-11-12T04:35:35Z

Today I accidentally met the owner of the company I work for (and a bunch of other companies) when I turned around and realized he was standing in my cubicle. He's actually the son of the owner, sent to evaluate us and throw the whole company into turmoil, while unintentionally keeping us from celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day. I had not expected him to be so young. He wasn't even wearing a suit.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-11-06T18:11:00

2009-11-07T00:13:40Z

I'd noticed an impressive increase in the number of male students in the 20-35 age range who were regularly attending ESL class. I at first attributed it to my mad teaching skills. But yesterday my co-teacher David left and took some of the newest students with him to start a new class for the super beginners. This left me on my own with the rest. Roberto told me I was beautiful (a word they'd just learned), and then Raul and Jose and Julian argued over who would help me carry the books. I guess just so long as they are also learning English...

nigelnameddog @ 2009-11-02T19:17:00

2009-11-03T01:18:23Z

Halloween

nigelnameddog @ 2009-10-28T21:54:00

2009-10-29T03:45:16Z

The Society of Exploration Geophysicists Convention and Exposition was everything I could have hoped for. The convention lasted all week, but those of us less important people were each assigned only one day to attend. Lesley and the three Sara(h)s and I went today.

Dave has a picture of himself from the last convention together with a group of cheerleaders (and seismic data in the background, of course), and I'd heard much talk of "booth babes" and dancing girls, so Lesley and I had considered ordering cheerleading outfits for our group. Luckily we did not do this, because we'd have looked ridiculous. It seems cheerleading is out, and the black mini-skirt/knee-high boot look is the only proper attire.

We got a ton of free stuff, including a tshirt, a poster, a frisbee, some pens, and a shiny silver slap bracelet. I even charmed the men at one booth into letting me climb up into one of the big drilling trucks. I didn't get a picture of the truck itself, but it was practically this one.

Pictures are here.

Also at the convention I ran into my college physics lab partner Ben (of quantum zombie fame), so that was random and exciting.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-10-27T20:48:00

2009-10-28T01:56:11Z

Conversation I overheard at work today:

Man: yeah, everyone else from my department has either already gone to the convention, or else they don't want to go. A bunch of them don't want to go.

Carole: not a fun-loving bunch, are they?

Man: no, well the conventions aren't that much fun anymore, not since ... they stopped giving away all that stuff.

Carole: Oh, I thought you were going to say 'not since they don't have the dancing girls anymore.'

Man: Oh, they were at the Icebreaker Party. Both Schneiders got pictures with them.

In my dream last night I quit my job as a geophysical analyst so that I could move to Washington, D.C. to write and produce a live-action version of the My Little Pony movie.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-10-25T20:16:00

2009-10-26T01:25:59Z

My push-ups are paying off and last week one of my students, Jorge, complimented me on my strength.

I drove downtown to Annie's Kroger and bought them out of ginger beer.

Plus I was unexpectedly social this weekend. And on Wednesday I'm attending my very first geophysics convention, by office mandate. I'm told these conventions are geared for middle-aged Republican businessmen, so it should be a blast.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-10-22T22:29:00

2009-10-23T03:42:58Z

Raheel and Lesley and I spent a good amount of time today at work seriously discussing whether or not someone had come into the office in the nighttime and moved all of the cubicles two feet closer to the front of the building. It seems very unlikely, but all three of us have a feeling that they aren't where they used to be.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-10-20T20:48:00

2009-10-21T01:59:12Z

Bisifredo still calls it "The Salvador."

But I found mia mbili.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-10-15T21:01:00

2009-10-16T02:09:12Z

At the end of class today my students all clapped. I hope it was a "what a great class" clap and not a "hooray, it's over" clap. They'd just learned their longest sentence yet "You are sitting in the chair" which was a combination of two sentences we'd been practicing ("You are sitting" and "You are in the chair"), so that was cause enough for excitement, I guess. As they left they all told me "Happy weekend!" and it was cute so I replied "happy weekend" back. I guess next week we'll learn "have a good weekend" as a more correct alternative.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-10-12T19:12:00

2009-10-13T00:35:15Z

This weekend I drove up to Austin to hang out with my peace corps friend Steve and his buddies Mark, Brandon and Ben from Ann Arbor.

I attended my first live hockey game (and Steve scored the first goal of the game), ate a cupcake that we bought from a man in a trailer on the street, shook hands with Juan - owner of famed taco joint "Juan in a Million" and renowned handshaker (though apparently shaking hands with Juan means something completely different depending on your gender), saw performer Mayer Hawthorne live and, through some intense childhood connections (of Steve and Mark), even got an invite to the after-party, read the messages on a bunch of antique post cards from the early 1900s (it seems the word 'thanx' is a lot older than you'd think), tried on expensive cowboy hats, and, in between all this, managed to watch more college football than I'd ever seen in my entire life previously.

These four photos, I feel, adequately sum up the entire weekend.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-10-06T21:49:00

2009-10-07T02:53:13Z

Check out this snake they caught last month at the school where I used to teach in Tanzania:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/RhMNdhCCCGkcBgGembCPtA?feat=directlink

It's insane. Though compare it with the one they caught while I was at the school:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DOl-_UJKH96xr9Uyw5ElSg?feat=directlink

It seems the most recent one is just a baby. According to Wikipedia, the African Rock Python lays up to 100 eggs at a time. The school must be surrounded by pythons, and they're all just going to keep getting bigger! Wikipedia also says the Rock Python is "Noted for its bad temperament and readiness to bite if harassed." Some days I really, really miss Tanzania.

A View to a Kill

2009-10-05T12:26:17Z

The theme song is Duran Duran and the villain is an exceptionally young-looking Christopher Walken. No one could ask for more from a film.

nigelnameddog @ 2009-10-04T12:23:00

2009-10-04T17:45:53Z

The stars aligned and I flipped on the tv this weekend to discover the episode of Scrubs in which J.D. and Turk get exact replicas of the tiki idol from the Brady Bunch Hawaiian special. na na na na naaaa.