I found this quote recently

Don't hitch your wagon to a horse with no legs.

I think that is what I have done by only applying for community college jobs.

MI-5 did an episode on England signing an aid agreement with Africa. The would-be PM of the show openly declares that he signed merely to get a healthy bit of good PR and to "get aging rock stars off the government's back." Go Bono. Hilarious.

Today's FHE was an mock Iron Chef with the secret ingredient being pineapple. I woke up this morning with a great idea to do a chicken satay pizza with peanut sauce and pineapple on it. It turned out pretty tasty and while I didn't take home the prize, I also didn't get worst tasting (see Mar 24 2009).

Has anyone ever noticed that with the "new" trend of skinny jeans people just look like they have scurvy?





They all have to stand with their legs apart to avoid looking like they have scurvy.

Recently I have been watching Ballykissangel with Stephen Tompkinson playing a Catholic priest. I have become a fan. Before and during Ballykissangel he played a totally different role in a totally different kind of show as an unscrupulous reporter who would do anything for a great story. I have tried to find the series to watch some of it, but I can't-which is probably for the better-I don't know how inappropriate the parts not on youtube would be. I am going to post a few of my favorite clips as found on youtube.

Damian's greatest hits

Damian's report on the crashed orphan

Damian's report on the executions

Damian's report on the war

Damian's report on the war on drugs

Damian's police raid

Damian's report on Africa

There is a new play about the American Bloomsbury. It is about Fuller and includes Hawthorne, Emerson and Thoreau. I am trying to decide if I want to go see it. I think I will try. I think the dynamics between that group were very interesting and it would be cool to see someone's take on it. Although I read the sources the writer used and I had read them for my thesis. But the article said it was funny.

I am on the last day of participating in the orientation course for a job. Hopefully it will yield results. It was a bit of work posting discussion items and responding to everyone who responds to mine and then responding to their responses. People of course are going way overboard on the schmoozing, which my pride will not let me do too much of-maybe to my detriment. We'll see anyway if I get an interview after this. There are three more versions of this orientation course for other applicants going all the way until May so I don't know if that means I won't hear anything until May or what. The agony of waiting.

I contributed something to Wikipedia today. I added that U2 makes reference to The Picture of Dorian Gray on the page for that book. This is the second time I have added something to Wikipedia. My other contribution was a portion of the biography of basic writing pioneer Mina Shaughnessy. It was fun to do. After three years there has only been minimal changes to the Shaughnessy page that my graduate class did. I can't say the same for the unverified allusion that Bono makes to the novel. It is my suspicion that he is alluding to it, but I can't back it up and we know how big Wikipedia is on that.

Easter and conference was great. Got together with family and "played picnic" with adorable great nieces and nephews.

Here is a cool experiment with choral music. My favorite composer had people submit a video of themselves singing various parts of one of his gorgeaous numbers and then they put them all together. It is pretty awesome.

What exactly does this guy do at work?

I walked to the car shop to pick up my car after getting fixed (a great way to get in my exercise for the day) and the wind was blowing 30 mph. It was crazy. That reminds me that I used to be so confused when the wind felt like it was blowing in all different directions within the space of a few minutes. From the movie Mary Poppins I learned that it takes a long time for the wind to change direction and I was always so confused about how they could be so wrong. Then I finally grasped the concept of fiction.

In honor of me getting a bite on an application I turned in, not a job, but someone actually requesting more information from me, I will show you how excited I am.



Then here I will show you what he was really singing before they dubbed him:) Well really, it is college humor doing their version.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Doesn't it sound like you would imagine Mr. Bean sounding like?

The British have not had luck with their cattle. Along with the mad cow incident a while back which prevented me from donating blood for several years, in 1860 they also had a cattle plague and had to kill thousands of cows. That is when Americans "took over" making cheddar from them.
I have also learned that the pastuerization laws in the U.S. prevent us from coming up with famous cheeses and having some of the best cheeses imported here.

I guess I'll just do a brief update. I still am unemployed. I have been holding out until new semesters start at various schools to see if I get teaching job of some sort at some college. I have applied at various schools in Utah. If I don't have one by May I will look elsewhere. I have considered doing temp work in the meantime, but I haven't signed up for any yet. I read Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics by Its Most Brilliant Teacher and it was really interesting. A good exercise for my math and physics-challenged brain. I have also read Cheeses of the World. I also finished The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. I am now officially tired of novels written in the 1930s and 40s and will be moving on to some other era. I have gotten a chance to do some random things for my visiting teachees lately and I am really enjoying my ward activities.

Since it is the day after the celebration of all things Irish, I thought I would join the fun. Since for me Irish=U2, St. Patrick's day is pretty much U2 day for me. But since when have I ever needed an excuse to post anything having to do with U2?
Here is a live acoustic version of a great U2 song. It is basically the same theme as the beginning of Isaiah 6. It is a really great plea to God.

During my avoiding my thesis days, I joined the whole craze surrounding Lost. I watched seasons 1-5 on hulu (which you can still do, by the way, if anyone else is avoiding the thesis) and now am in suspense waiting weekly for all the answers to come. I stumbled on this site where a guy has made a bunch of funny t-shirts for Lost. I will post my favorite one below.



And yes, I am ashamed to admit to all this.

I just watched one of the coolest shows on TV: Who Do You Think You Are?. It is about celebrities finding out who their ancestors were. Apparently it is a take-off from an original British version. It is clean, inspiring and so unlike anything else on TV. Very refreshing. This first one is about Sarah Jessica Parker, who I find ironically played a witch of the Salem Witch Trials in the kid's movie Hocus Pocus and then finds out that her ancestors were involved in the real thing. From the previews it appears that her husband Matthew Broderick, who played in Glory, has ancestors that fought in the Civil War.
Here is the link to this episode.

Here is a small clip from one of my favorite songs by John Gorka, a folk singer. I wanted to play the song from the album, but I couldn't find it, so here you go.

I've been invited to a Mad Hatter tea party this Saturday before we all go to see Alice in Wonderland, and I decided to try some things mentioned in the story. I'm going to make a treacle tart and bring comfits. In trying to find a recipe for a treacle tart I discovered that many Harry Potter fans have tried it as well. I found the ingredients at Harmon's and we'll see how it turns out. The movie looks a bit crazy, but I wouldn't expect anything less from Tim Burton. Here's a preview.

So Alice in Wonderland was disappointing. The story was clunky and not as interesting. The atmosphere was great though. The Mad Hatter tea party was fun and I am not a fan of treacle (at least the version I made).

I really, really like this song by Cyndi Lauper. It was on a Bones episode:).



or a live acoustic performance one (it is not that different, but i like it better).