Did any one watch . . .

the Project Runway semi-final. Stop reading if you haven't seen it--but I think the human hair was a mistake.

Personality Types of the Candidates

Slate has an article about the psychological profiles of the 3 remaining presidential candidates.

Genev-2-Denver Road Trip -- Days 1 & 2

DAY 1 - Departure





Day 2 -- View of Lake Michigan and Lake Shore Drive (from Hotel)


Lakeshore Drive and Lake Michigan during snow storm (from hotel)



DAY 3

Mom relaxing, reading the paper and watching Martha Stuart







Grandmary and I are making great progress so far. I really meant to post everyday, but that's clearly going to be a challenge, so every few days will be more likely.

The first day (Sunday) was sunny and dry all the way to Toledo and we made great time. We had lunch at a Cracker Barrel (southern cooking; very hokey, and of course, little Christian-fundamentalist, with lots of lot of after-Churchers in attendance but the food was really good). I had the country fried chicken special and Mom had ham and biscuits. Whoowee! We stayed at a Courtyard Marriott in a shopping center in Toledo Sunday night.

We only drove four hours Monday, having a big classic breakfast (for lunch) at Denny's in South Bend and touring the Notre Dame campus, and now we are at the Drake in Chicago for two days. We got here just as a big storm was starting but we made it while it was still only rain and then we spent the night inside watching the snow over Lakeshore Drive. We have a nice "suite" and just decided to stay in last night, getting room service and watching Raisin in the Sun. Ellen stopped in to say hello and had dinner here also.

Today is our BIG day in Chicago -- a movie, an early dinner at Joe's Stone Crab and then Jersey Boys tonight. This is a lot, but we can sleep in tomorrow before we head to Des Moines.


More later ......

Charles Barkley on the Election

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer interviewed Barkley at the NBA All-Star game last week. Read the transcript- you have to go down a bit on the page, there's a bunch of other stuff before they get to the interview of the Round Mound of Rebound. I was glad to find out that Barkley is not the Republican he claimed to be a few years ago.

New Glasses from Sol Moscot

Kate, Trish and Frank all buy their glasses at Sol Moscot, I thought I would give them a try too. I love the way this place looks, I don't think they have changed the decor since 1945, though they do have a large plasma screen with animations about eyecare.

TOC Conference

Chris Stein and I presented a "Lightning Demo" of some materials we have been preparing to use for our students at the O'Reilly Media Conference Tools of Change. I have become obsessed with comics as a possible means of explaining technical information, and now you can embed video and interactive content such as flash applications into media that would otherwise be used mostly for print (sorry for yammering on- an unfortunate result of becoming a teacher). The conference was in Times Square- San Jose in June was much warmer, but this was fun too.

Calvin has pictures on flickr.

Chris checks his blackberry.

Our friend and former teacher Tom Igoe's new book at the O'Reilly Booth.

A panel from one of the comics explaining "The Digital Media Lifecycle."

Oswego in February

I visited Hosmer last weekend- this time I actually got past Albany. There was plenty of snow in Oswego- not like last winter, but at least 24 inches or so. It was sunny and beautiful when I was there, despite a few requisite snow flurries. Terrie had as usual decorated the house beautifully, this time for Valentine's Day. More pictures on flickr.

A Meeting of the Minds

Otis's dad brought him over to meet the kitties this week. Audrey wasn't too interested, but Elvis found Otis quite intriguing. Both were very well behaved--there was no batting on either's part. (Otis has recently taken over Elvis in the weight category--17.5 pounds to 15.8.)

Project Runway

It looks, from the cable guide, that tonight in the final "regular" project runway. But aren't there 5 people left? Is this how it has worked other seasons? I feel like we have had an episode "stolen" from us.

Life With Josephine

Neilson recently made this video of the lovely and ridiculous Josephine.

Writer's Strike Produced Some Notable Silliness

As regular Daily Show/Colbert Report viewers, you probably have been following the feud between Conan O'Brien and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert over who created Mike Huckabee (a fairly dubious acheivement). Here's a clip, in case you missed the final brawl.


I have enjoyed watching them find new ways to use up minutes in their shows.

Let's hope they ratify that new contract!

Happy Year of the Rat!

Cats Love Macs

Audrey and Josephine have recently decided my computer is a very comfortable place to sit. So helpful! It turns out a lot of cats love macs--for evidence see the flickr group of the same name.

Go Big Blue!

The ticker tape parade for the Giants was very close to my job- it was fun to see all the fans, though I was a little late to see Eli, Michael, Osi and Plaxico.

My Day in Court

I had an eventful voting experience this morning. As most of you know, I am an early bird, so I was at the polls before 7AM. But my name was not on the rolls! I knew I was registered, because I had double-checked before the Jan. 11 cut off date; in November, I had re-registered to be in the Democratic Party, specifically so I could vote in the primary, and wanted to make sure it "took."

Now the poll workers' first response was that this was somehow my fault. "Did you move recently?" No--I have had the same address for ten years. "Have you not voted here before?"--No I have voted at the same location several times. "Well, when was the last time you voted? If you haven't voted recently, you might have taken off the rolls." I voted in Nov. 2006, in the Congressional race. "There was no Congressional race in 2006." Yes there was--Clinton was elected for a 2nd term. Also, I voted for governor in that race. "The governor was not elected then---he has been in office for 8 years." Spitzer was elected in 2006--he has been in office a year. "Oh. Right. I was thinking of the mayor." I can't believe how upset I was by the end of this conversation--chocking back tears upset.

So, after we determined I was not a complete idiot (and that most of them were), one poll worker offered me a paper ballot. But if my name wasn't on the rolls, I'm pretty sure that ballot would never be counted. So, someone else told me that I could try to get a court order that would allow me to vote on the machines. This sounded like a huge hassle, but I decided to go through with it. This sounds melodramatic, but I thought of Alice Paul on that hunger strike and being force fed in jail, and decided I could spend one day dealing with NYC red tape to make a point. Also, I'm always telling my students they should vote, and I didn't want to go in on Wednesday and tell them I just gave up.

It turns out, getting a court order to vote was incredibly easy. I assumed I would have to go downtown, but there was site set up across the street from the polling place. (This was just my good luck--there are only 3 in all of Manhattan.) Because it was so early, I got to speak to a clerk right away; he told me by noon there would be a line out the door. So I just told him my story (I didn't move, I knew I was registered, etc.) and he filled out the petition. Then a court reporter and a judge came over, and I raised my right hand and swore everything on the petition was true, and the judge signed the order. I told the judge that was much easier than I expected, and she just laughed and said, "Well, you look credible." And my guess if your address is in Greenwich Village and you look like a nice, middle-class white girl, and you explain you know you registered as a Democrat because you did so at the CUNY Women's Leadership Conference, you do seem credible. But other people should get to vote too!

Anyway, so I voted. The poll workers were really sweet when I went back, saying they were happy I was successful. Although, they seemed to be in the process of messing up more people's voting experience. They had to fill out a card for each Democrat and each Republican who voted, and number them. They were only up to 19 on the Democratic side, and they could not keep the numbers straight. They did make me laugh when they were shocked that someone had requested the Republican card--as of 8:15 apparently only one person had voted Republican in NYC 34th district. (They did not say this in front of the voter).

My Court Order

My request for a court order

My Judge (I wasn't sure if I was actually allowed to take a picture in a federal building.)

Yes We Can! Si Se Puede!

Peaceful

IMG_1525, originally uploaded by neilsonabeel.

The world may be on edge about the outcome of the Superbowl and the elections, but Elvis isn't letting it disturb his sleep.

Weekend in Oswego Morphs to 5 minutes in Albany

I planned to visit Hosmer this weekend, I was looking forward to discussing the upcoming primaries and the Super Bowl. But I was defeated by Oswego weather. Hosmer called me when I was on the train and convinced me to turn around at Albany. There had been a big ice storm in central New York and another one was predicted for the approximate time of my arrival. It reminded me of Kym's trip to Oswego last winter during the record snowfall- she made it, unlike me.

Even the car rental people seemed to agree with Hosmer, so I turned back. I do feel kind of wimpy about it, but Dad sounded relieved. I had 5 minutes in Albany to buy a new ticket and hop on the train back to New York that was luckily waiting in the station. A somewhat anti-climactic morning. Fortunately I had my DVD of Infernal Affairs to watch (and compare to the Departed).

Puppy Bowl!

If you can't bear football, you might want to watch the Puppy Bowl instead.

Here's a clip from the kitty half time show from last year.

We will be watching the Super Bowl in my house- go Big Blue. But I might record the Puppy Bowl for later viewing.

Dance Moves

Anders has been practicing his dance moves for upcoming family events. His most recent soundtrack is the dancing NY Yankees Dino that Dak and Kate bought him for Christmas. Hope you all are ready to dance.

Lost . . .

is back. I really enjoyed last night's episode. Other opinions?