Fell Out

When I was 12 years old, my biggest concern in life was being really good at basketball so I could dominate in YMCA youth leagues.

Now I need to think about finishing a Master's degree in experimental psychology, getting a job after said degree is completed, considering long-term goals for career and employment, paying bills in the midst of all of this, and staying sane in all of it. Oh and there's the desire to start a family, but that seems so ancillary to all of this that it's hard to prioritize (or to want to prioritize) for that. In the meantime, I miss my own family.

I wish I was still 12 years old.

Ellensburg Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas,

Ellensburg was the town,

Joe and Brian went a walkin',

To see who's around.

Albertson's, Safeway, even Fred Meyer,

No place was too far for these two to aspire,

But, lo! Nothing's open, and the night is so still,

Central Washington's snowy ice roads lend a chill.

So after they trudged through the snow and the rain,

They came upon Ellensburg's Christmas fox, hey!

Walk around campus, jiggle the handles,

Twas' too very dark to see without candles!

But then did the Joe and the Brian avast,

It was time to walk home, to walk home at last,

And merry they trudged through the sleet and the snow,

Merry Christmas from Ellensburg, um... ho ho ho?

Finals week(s) craziness - the end is just the beginning

Finals week technically ended on Friday. But students are still taking make-up tests and turning in make-up work. All of the final test keys were screwed up so all the data results from all the tests are now inaccurate. And the new trimester begins in 8 hours. I will be up all night finishing a set of essays I wanted to finish yesterday so I can have final grades mostly done and posted by Monday, and tonight I am also preparing all my new seating charts, syllabi, and planning out the new trimester.

But... a new 7-11 just opened within walking distance from my

apartment. Bring it on, Red Bull.

December 17th, the first day of winter break, cannot come soon enough.

Also, this make me happy:

Finals week(s) craziness - the faces of finals week(s)

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Sent via blogger via hell.

Finals week(s) craziness: the insanity continues

To do:

- 10-15 page paper, due tomorrow (12/1)

- Exam for Behavioral Interventions (12/1)

- Exam for Design and Analysis (12/2)

- Exam for Tests & Measurements (12/3)

- Final Exam for Tests & Measurements (12/6)

- Final draft of research proposal paper (8-15 pages) (12/8)

- Peer reviews for final research proposals (12/10)

And that's just school stuff... add into all of that working every M-F morning from 5AM to 7:45AM.

Finals week(s) craziness - stress will mess with your emotions

Trying to relax after another large batch of papers, I watched a computer-generated owl get murdered and plummet to its demise, and I nearly teared up a bit. Stress will mess up your emotions.

Bye, bye, Hedwig!

Finals week(s) craziness - trying to sleep

I graded papers all night, so I was both furious and exhausted, but I had so many cups of coffee that while I was mentally and physically exhausted, my heart was beating too fast and frenetically to allow me to sleep so I watched some "Community" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" to calm down, and I thought the best thing to combine with caffeine was some coffee-flavored beer, and I opted for one of my favorites from one of my favorite breweries: Great Divide Imperial Stout (Great Divide actually has some oak-aged stouts and porters and they have some coffee infused and chocolate infused stouts, but this was the normal imperial stout, unfortunately).

Needless to say, I am both groggy and relaxed at 2:17PST AM. BUT --- the impetus for this post was to admit a COLOSSAL failure on my part. This is a failure that has affected my life for YEARS.

I was watching "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" episode 608 'The Gang Gets a New Member,' and while it featured one of my favorite SNL cast members from the current cast, Jason Sudeikis, it ALSO featured one of my favorite Star Trek veterans.

And herein lies my embarrassing failure: when I saw the actor playing Dee's old high school drama teacher Dr. Meyers, I immediately thought to myself "It's Odo! - It's Armin Shimerman!"

Odo, as of course you know, was the head of security on the Deep Space Nine space station in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and he was a testy but lovable member of the shapeshifting species "The Founders." I had this EXACT same thought when I saw Mr. Shimerman appear in several episodes of "Frasier" back in season season 8 as Frasier Crane's old psychology professor to whom Frasier turned for guidance while he was unemployed and searching for a purpose for his life.

But, dammit all, it hit me when I saw the credits for "It's Always Sunny": the actor who played Quark on "Deep Space Nine" and "The Next Generation" (and Letek and DaiMon in earlier episodes of "The Next Generation") was Armin Shimerman.

The name of the actor who played Odo, Dr. Meyers, and Professor Tewksberry is Rene Auberjonois.

Even though I knew the actor who played everyone's favorite Ferengi is Armin Shimerman, I had ALSO been incorrectly identifying everyone's favorite Founder as Armin Shimerman for nearly 10 years. This is quite embarrassing, and I couldn't sleep without confessing my errors and trying to find redemption by doing this publicly via The Boring Things.

*All spelling and formatting errors can be addressed to Great Divide Brewing Co., 2201 Arapahoe St. Denver, CO 80205*