Wow, are you psychic--or just stupid?

It's wonderful. An e-mail list I subscribe to gets an e-mail announcing "You have been depressed lately!" Not a question, a statement--an imperative, even. And then, they proceed to tell us how to cure the depression: Viagra!

Gotta love spam.

Should it come as a surprise . . .

. . . that the Houston public school system, under the leadership of the current Secretary of Education, grossly inflated the statistics on the number of college-bound seniors in their public schools?

I didn't think so.

Clearing the "Air (on the string G)"

Just to quell the musical rumors that seem to go about in certain circles: No, I have not sung the entire choral literature. No, I do not own scores or recordings for every piece ever written, although I must admit to aiming for owning recordings of all the masterworks. And no, I don't know more repertoire than my conductors and teachers; or, at the least, I very sincerely hope not!

Random happenstance

Twice in two days now I've run into someone that I haven't seen in years for brief periods of time, waiting for public transportation. Yesterday I ran into a friend who used to be at MIT, but is now on his way to Italy for a year (or more) studying architecture as part of his studies at Princeton. Another was a roommate of a friend who is now studying in the logistics division of the Engineering Systems Division of MIT.

Oh, and did I mention both of these people used to live in my undergraduate dorm?

Why would people care?

Want to find this site--or not? Here's a few creative searches that led to people finding this blog:

• love grad school


• baritenor (from google.ca)


• right wing artist


• "Requiem for a Dream" soundtrack (from google.pl!)


• all manner of dunk tank searches:
  
  
  
  • dunk tank massachusetts fair 2003
  
  
  • school dunk tank
  
  
  • best dunk tank jokes
  
  
  • soaked in the dunk tank
  
  
  • "sheer" dunk tank
  
  

But the winner has to be "flashy clogging costumes." No, I don't know why, and I don't want to know why.

Thank heavens for X servers

I finally have a nice X emulator for my workstation. This will thankfully make editing my programs much, much easier. No more switching in and out of applications to make minor edits. Yay!

On the unfortunate side of things, I've now received the same virus ten times today. Thank heavens for anti-virus engines.

Round and round the virus goes. . . .

As if spam hasn't been bad enough lately, today I've gotten the same virus in my e-mail eight times--and it's only 11 a.m. Why haven't people realized that e-mail's from people that say "Please see the attached file for details," it's a virus?

Some random thoughts

• The main tune of "In the mood" just sounds plain wrong played on a flute.


• Sometimes you can play "Spot the Mormon."


• Why didn't Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms realize that not every man has or wants to use either a low E or a high B?


• Not all reality shows are created evil.


• I wouldn't have pegged Daphne Zuniga to be in the "Bea Arthur" school of singing.


• It's definitely easier to regurgitate and edit BS instead of writing it for the first time.


• But it still is "garbage in, garbage out."


• I prefer my dramas without the obvious moral lesson at the end.


• I wonder how we can figure out that Amex and Coors are sponsors of The Restaurant. . . .
  
• I find it both cool and really creepy that the commercials for The Two Towers recycle the soundtrack from Requiem for a Dream. [The One Ring as heroin, anyone?]
  

Irony

The day of the biggest blackout in U.S. history, the local CBS affiliate is airing a "consumer alert" story--on power-hungry home appliances. I had to laugh.

Rain and shine

Riddle for you:

Q. What comes after three days of rain in New England?
A. Tuesday.

For seemingly the umpteenth day, we've had rain, we've had shine, and we've had rain and shine at the same time. This is getting to be a really nasty pattern. Right now, I just wish the weather would make up its mind. Give me rain or give me sunshine--just don't switch back and forth every thirty minutes; it makes me think the weather neeeds to see a shrink.

Finally, a candidate who will really make a difference in California politics.

All Quiet on the Triangular Front

It's been a very quiet day in my building--my four-person office is deserted (except for me, of course), the phone is quiet, and e-mail is trickling in instead of its usual Monday torrent. Has the whole world gone on vacation and forgotten to tell me about it?

It's eeeeeevil!

Finally got around to seeing Signs . . . I still can't help but shake the impression that the real "evil" in that film wasn't the "aliens," but that creepy little girl who can't seem to finish a glass of water, and the howler of a script.

Right now, I think I that Shyamalan is merely a competent director, and by no means a great one. [Unfortunately, most of public opinion seems to be against me--unlike just about anyone else I know, I felt thoroughly manipulated by The Sixth Sense; fortunately, I didn't feel quite the same about this one--there wasn't quite the same "trick ending" issue that causes so many problems nowadays.]

Call me crazy . . .

But I think there's something terribly ironic about spam e-mail advertising pop-up blockers. :-)

Huh?

OK--I just got asked if I knew anything about breakdancing classes at MIT by a kid who looked to be no older than about 13. This is absolutely mind-boggling on so many levels, to say the least.

I'll let you come up with your own jokes about it. They're probably better than mine.

Cutting class?

New York Times recently has been addressing the plight of students being "discharged" from school. These discharges force students to attend another school or drop out, but do not count as "dropping out" in the school's statistical profile.

One particularly egregious school was rather vicious in its pruning efforts:

"The school now has 3,200 students, down from 4,500 five years ago. Its official statistics show a striking decline in enrollment in the upper grades. As of last October, Lane's annual report said, there were 1,266 students in ninth grade, 1,070 in 10th grade, 341 in 11th grade and 325 in 12th grade."

How a school could deliberately dismiss almost three-fourths of its students is unconscionable. Where is the federal government in all of this? Where is the public outrage?

Can't please everyone

I was the program editor/designer for the recent production of Carmen that I was in. Part of that job entailed editing and laying out the various biographies I received. I clearly spelled out what I and the producers were looking for, yet many people still felt compelled to flaunt them. Fortunately, only one person has been irate enough to complain about the way I edited the bio. However, I feel that under the circumstances, I didn't have a choice. Much of the layout was done when I was out of town, and as a result, I just didn't have time to email him, and the other two-thirds of the cast that broke the rules, and ask them to revise their bios.

But I guess the take-home lesson I should learn is that people will generally complain no matter how good a job you do.