The Spider's Stratagem

Back from Thanksgiving in Ohio...where it was extremely cold....then unusually warm. Typical Ohio.
Made some fantastic computer discoveries....I now have wireless internet on my laptop. I bought the airport card because I am sick of using dial-up at home and figured I can use the wireless at school, the Bistro, etc. However, I made the happy discovery that someone in my building has wireless at home and I can pirate it! I think it is the 500lb man that lives upstairs that we call "Stompy". He walks around at all hours of the day and night making our rafters creak and groan and it regularly sounds like he is dropping bowling balls from a chair just for fun. So, I hope it is him I'm stealing wireless from.
Wireless internet is such a weird and magical thing to me. I can make up some simplified explanation in my head for how information comes to my computer when it is connected to a cable that actually goes somewhere (probably to some big cable or lots of cables which probably hooks up to some huge brain that is kept in the basement of the pentagon). But, for my computer to be able to pull this information from out of thin air, with no wires, cables, or cords is truly magic to me. I don't even want an explanation. I prefer to think of it as magic. It's just damn cool.
Just as cool is this...now that I have wireless and not the slow, archaic dial-up I figured out that I can listen to my FAVORITE Public Radio station, 89.7 WKSU. I hate the public radio station here. The hosts are boring and not nearly as knowledgeable about classical music as Mark Pennell, my fav. public radio guy. He's a genius. The man holds more music knowledge in his head than seems humanly possible. I know...how geeky is it to have a favorite public radio guy? What can I say...when you grow up with the stuff you acquire a taste for it.
The title for this entry, for those enquiring, comes from a fab Dead Can Dance song, which i downloaded from iTunes last night (yet another excellent technological invention). Which leads us to our word of the day:

STRATAGEM: 1. a military tactic or maneuver that is designed to deceive an enemy
2. clever ruse or scheme that is designed to deceive others or achieve something

Excellent word, don't you think?

Euan....Euoi...oi...oi...oi!

It has been brought to my attention that I am a difficult person to buy gifts for. So, though I feel strange doing this for a number of reasons, I have decided to make it easy on those asking and provide a list of things I like here. Please understand that I don't expect anyone to give me any of these things and I am not trying to seem materialistic at all.
Ok, here goes...
-Cincinnati Bengals Apparel
-David Sedaris's "Dress Your Children in Courdoroy & Denim" on CD (or any Sedaris on CD)
-Harry Potter Hooded Sweater (see HP4 Movie) (this would probably have to be custom embroidered as the one at Hot Topic sucks and is cheap looking)
-George Foreman grill w/removeable panels. (I hate washing that damn thing...)
-itunes gift card
-Zhena's Gypsy Tea-Gypsy King Chai (www.gypsytea.com)
-Reno 911 Season 2 and/or 3 on DVD (love that show!)
-Arrested Development Season 1-? DVD (Damn FOX for cancelling this show! I hate them)
-Gift Cert. to Moe's or Quizno's (hey, i'm a student...free food is always good!)
-new ipod white, color screen (i know i said i didn't really need this, but i saw it on the computer today, and i just really love it...)
I think that's it. Maybe I am hard to shop for....hmmm.....

Sea of Oblivion

So, I'm sitting here in class, running slides for Fred. There are approximately 100 people staring at me. Well, not at me directly, but in my general direction. They are supposed to be learning about the Renaissance art. It has been no more than 5 minutes and at least 5 people are on their way to falling asleep. The rest have a general glaze of indifference in their eyes. This is a fairly demoralizing observation considering I have gone to school for nearly 10 years to learn how to teach these very students about art--to inspire them, to ignite their imagination.The truth is, regardless of what I do, none of them will give a damn.

On to other things....
Life has been strange recently...disjointed. I believe I have not been completely aware of things going on--like a haze has befallen my consiousness. Missing old friends. Disconnected from those closest to me and feeling like I don't know them so well anymore. Hoping to find clarity over T'giving break.

Until later....

Am Anfang.....

I find myself sitting here with over 150 papers to grade and 5 that need to be written, finally giving in to the blog-craze that seems to have swept up the few people I actually know. Perhaps it is for selfish reasons...everyone else is creating some kind of on-line identity so I guess I feel I must keep pace...then again, maybe I am just procrastinating.
The name for this place I shamelessly borrowed from a Franz Ferdinand song, which I believe translates to "On Axis", which I kind of like for a number of philosophical reasons. Plus, it just sounds cool.
Anyway, I really don't have the inspiration to write anything brilliant just now, but at least I've begun this project, and kept myself from my work for a few precious moments.

Until later....