Some new favorite jokes.

What’s E.T. short for?

’cause his legs are so little.

I knew a guy who fell into an industrial grinding machine.

He’s fine now.

Let’s play catch-up

Lots of stuff happening/happened!

First off: Thanksgiving with Amy in NC was a lot of fun. Lots of family, fun stuff to do, movies to see, museums to see, pirates to sink, and turkey to eat. Some couples-co-cooking was also accomplished. Got to see Derek’s current abode. It suited him very well, it’s very Derek-shaped.

Second point of order: I’m going to make an honest effort to try and like mushrooms and olives.

Finally: this is a fun fact that struck me when I read a billboard on the way to see Amy a couple weeks ago.

In 1793, a boy was born in the Shenandoah Valley. Nearly two centuries later, when people first traveled to a celestial body other than Earth, their first communication was to call out his name.

Sam Houston! He was a lil’ kid once. If I had a time machine, one thing I’d like to do would be to go back and tell him that fact when he’s 8 or 9.

Well, that’s all you’re going to get at the moment, it’s time for me to get back to working on my thesis, it’s almost done!

Oh the places you’ll go!

So, here’s a fun update: it’s my room!

I figured I hadn’t really used my camera recently (an awesome gift from Amy!) and also most people who read this might possibly be interested to see where I live. So here we are, a tour of Kit’s abode in 8 pictures:

“Ok, here we go folks, mind the gap, all extremities and personal belongings inside the Land Rover if you please.”

1.) “First off, as we approach the lair of the Kittiphus Maximus make note of the sign on the door. This is there not as a warning to intruders of a possible attack animal inside, but due to the fact that Gus occasionally hangs out in front of the door and doesn’t appreciate being pushed around or stepped upon. Also, he really does use that pull up bar. Honestly.”

2.) “Now that we’ve entered I apologize for the poor lighting, I’d open a window but it’s rainy outside anyway, plus the blinds are very dusty. Also, I didn’t make my bed this morning.”

3.) “Yep, there in that corner with the chair and the desk and the bookcase is where I spend quite a good deal of time, shall we take a closer look? Yes, let’s!”

4.) “Of particular note should be the maroon tube still containing my A&M diploma. Eeeep! But what might be in the Rubbermaid container?”

5.) “Why, it’s a red-footed tortoise enjoying his new and improved digs of course! He’d outgrown the smaller terrarium, and now basks in 31 gallons of plasticine goodness.”

6.) “If you’d turn around now, I’d like to show you something I’m very proud of. Over the weekend, I cleaned out and organized my closet. Yes, yes, I know I need to do laundry, please don’t take away from my moment.”

7.) “And in the corner there is a handsome rocker, Gus’s blanket (terrarium insulation when it gets too cold at night), and my dumbbells. I use those also!”

8.) “Finally, we’ve got my bicycles. They make me smile. I haven’t had the chance for much long distance riding recently, but hopefully I can remedy that before too long.”

I hope you’ve all enjoyed your stay!

 

1 Corinthians 13:11

“When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”

I would like to know when Paul considered himself to have become a man. I mean, I know about the Bar Mitzvah and all that, but I wonder if he was talking about something different, something more sudden and drastic. Something to do with his experience on the road to Damascus.

Thinking about the switch from reasoning like a child to reasoning like a man, what if it’s something much more substantial and basic?

So, in three days time Pharoah will kill David Hyde Pierce? Also, boobies?

Uh oh, hopefully this isn’t going the way of Shanga. I promise I’ll do better, and think of interesting things to post.

Until that time though, you get to read about two strange dreams I had last night. Now, compared to some other dreams I’ve had I guess these were actually mild, but there were some genuinely strange bits to each of them. Both of them also seem to be school related.

Dream #1

In this dream I’m a student, and one of my teachers is David Hyde Pierce, the actor best known for portraying Dr. Niles Crane on the sitcom Frasier. And I really really don’t like him. I don’t like him to the point that I want to kill him. I remember that actually creeping me out in dream, that I wanted to off the guy. Anyway, I’m in the dream and I’ve just been to Pierce’s office (I guess I must have been at least an undergrad student in the dream since the office seemed to be the office of a college professor) and I’m furious with him and thinking bloody murder. Then, all of the sudden, it was like there was a burst of static, or a glitch, in my dream, and I suddenly couldn’t remember if I had just wanted to kill David Hyde Pierce or if I actually had. I started to panic. I got so panicked that I woke myself up, still freaking out, over whether or not I’d actually done something terrible. Thankfully, to my knowledge, DHP remains unharmed.

Dream #2

In this dream I was back at A&M, but not as a student. Instead, I was on campus, and I had to talk to a bunch of undergrad students for one of their classes. I had to talk to them about mattresses. Apparently they were taking a class on mattresses, and I was a mattress expert. I think they had to talk to me for extra credit.

The first student I talked to was a guy in the Corp. I was trying to tell him what he needed to know, but at the same time a Corp parade was going by and my guy was having a lot of fun trying to mess with and distract his buddies as they marched. Eventually the commanding officer got really upset and chased him into a dorm. I waited outside the dorm for him to come back out and finish the mattress lesson but he never did, and eventually I felt bad about neglecting the other students who were waiting so I left. I met with the next group of students in their dorm. Immediately after starting to talk, one of the guys came up to me and said he had to go to church and wanted to know if I’d just sign the piece of paper saying he’d heard my talk. So I did. Seriously, who needs to learn about mattresses anyway?

I did think it was interesting though, I’ve heard that you can’t read in dreams, that if you try to read a sign or book that it will just look blurry. I was though able to write my name and then read it.

Anyway, back to teaching about mattresses! After signing the guy’s note I turned  back to the other two students, both girls, and realized that they now had their tops off. I know what you’re thinking, “Wooooo! Sex dream!”, but nope, I just finished giving my lecture on mattresses and then woke up. No hanky panky what so ever. I woke up after finishing my lecture. Hopefully the two of them put their tops back on and got a good grade in their dream mattresses class.

So there you have it, two somewhat odd dreams. Interpretable? Perhaps, I’d be interested to hear what you think.

Multi-tasking

My tortoise likes to warm himself on my laptop’s power converter.

I’m a Really Lucky Guy

Fall semester ‘09 is officially under way. I’ve been to the first meeting of both my classes, as well as the first meeting with my major professor and research group. My Nuclear Safety and Security class should be interesting, I haven’t really had many classes in that area of the industry so at least a lot of it will be new. My design class is going to be a semester long project in a team with some other grad students, most of whom I’ve worked with before. So that should be good.

And Dr. Schneider thinks I should be able to write up my MS thesis (quasi-paper option) and get started on my doctoral topic before the end of the semester. So that would be awesome.

This past weekend I drove to Angleton to go with Amy to one of her high school friend’s weddings, and also meet some of her good friends from home and high school. Overall it was a good time. Early Sunday we drove back up to College Station, as Amy’s semester started today. From all I hear, that has gone well. I shall return to College Station at the end of the week to go to the first A&M game vs. New Mexico. I hope we win this one, otherwise it’s going to be a long cold season. I also hope I make progress at getting to know Amy’s Dad and brother. We’re all kind of quiet and reserved types, so it’s been slow going for the past year and a half. *fingerscrossed*

Finally, upon arriving back in Austin this morning, I found a package addressed to me waiting on the doorstep. The coming of this package had been foretold in a call from my Oma, but I was unprepared for what was inside the box. An absolutely beautiful quilt made by my Tante Jon. Here’s a few pictures:

Yeah, I was stunned when I took the quilt out. I don’t know much about quilting, but I can only imagine how much skill it must take to make something like this. I feel very special to have it.

Eeeeep.

It’s been quite a while since I updated. Sorry about that.

After riding around Albuquerque I had one more week of work at Sandia, then drove back to Texas, bypassing Austin, and arrived in College Station late on the 6th. The next couple of days saw lots of boxing, packing, shifting, hauling, and other general moving related verbs. At last, Amy was into her new apartment. It’s a pretty cool place, and I know she was super excited to have two large closets all to herself.

After that, I headed to Austin. It was really good to see everyone, and my room was pretty much exactly as I’d left it.

But after a few days stay, it was time to pick up Amy, hop on an airplane, and fly up to Kansas. We met my mom at KCI and picked up a rental car. I’d been hoping for a Ford Fusion or Chevy Malibu, but we got stuck with an unholy piece of shit Dodge Journey. I also got a speeding ticket about 10 minutes away from the airport in Missouri. I hate that car.

Anyway, the stay in Kansas was awesome. We got to see Miriah and Russ’s new house (which is fantastic, it even has an actual secret room!) We also saw a lot of the family on both my Mom and Dad’s side which was a lot of fun. And finally, after keeping us all in suspense, we got to meet baby Bea on Monday. Amy and I had fun taking care of Everett prior to her arrival. He didn’t seem too excited about his new sister, but I’m sure the two of them are going to hit it off eventually. Two beautiful little kids, I’m proud to be their uncle.

Alas, the time in Kansas quickly came to an end, and Amy and I headed back to Texas. We had a couple more days together, hiked around Brazos Bend state park, and enjoyed the last lazy days of summer. Once back in Austin, I helped prepare for Maldon IV, which turned out to be a house party of epic success and failure that has already been recounted elsewhere on the web far better than I can think to.

In about an hour I’ll have my first meeting of the semester with my advisor, Dr. Schneider, hopefully I can get back on track to get my MS by December. All in all, it looks like it’s going to be a very difficult semester, but that’s pretty much par for the course at this point.

Gus sends his love.

I did it!

Today I rode the whole way around Albuquerque, for a total of 50 miles including the little bit that I added on at the south west corner. I’m very happy, especially considering at the beginning of the summer I was worried about the 10 mile ride to work and back.

I’ve posted pictures from the ride on Facebook, I’m pretty sure everyone who reads this has access to my profile, but just in case you can always leave a comment and I”ll send you the link.

I know what day it is. . .

Up until about a week a go I was riding my bike wearing standard gym shorts. At times, especially after long rides or rides up and down hills, I was left pretty sore and uncomfortable. I finally broke down and bought a pair of the padded cycling shorts. Sweet Jesus what a difference!

I will note that I bought the mountain biking style of shorts, which look basically like normal cargo shorts but just have interior padded undies rather than the lyrca road shorts.

Speaking of those interior padded undies; they definitely work, riding is much more comfortable, but you can’t really wear other underwear with them when you go cycling. This isn’t really a problem, except when you’re commuting to work and change clothes once you get there. When you pack that change of clothes you need to remember that you don’t have boxers on underneath your cycling shorts. I think you know where this is going.

So, bringing us back to the title of this post, today is Inadvertent Free-Ball Friday.