Mini Trip

No, I'm not referencing a small hit of LSD, I'm talking about my annual summer baseball trek. This year the fates are conspiring against me so it looks as if I might not make the full, week long, trip. Seeing as how that might happen, Thailand Jeff and I took a quick trip to catch a couple of games last week.

We started with Memphis. In the 10 years since the Cards' AAA franchise returned to Memphis, I've been meaning to go. This, though, was the first time I've actually followed through on my intention. First let me say that every good thing I've heard about Autozone Park is true! It's a fabulous minor league stadium! Of course given the times, you can't just build a ballpark anymore. No, it has to be an entertainment experience. Unlike the park in Louisville, though, Memphis did it right. They have the extravagant entertainment zone, but it's kind of separated from the ballpark proper. In fact, I never saw the "fun zone", but Jeff told me it was there. I highly recommend a trip to Autozone.

Beyond the niceties of the park itself, we saw a fabulous game. The Redbirds pitchers took a no-hitter into the 8th inning until they gave up a 2-out single. I've never seen a no-hitter in person before and I'll admit that I was getting excited by the prospect. Even after losing the chance to see a no-hitter, the game was still exciting. In fact, it went to the bottom of the ninth tied 0-0. The Sacramento pitcher retired the first 2 Memphis batters and it looked like we were headed to extra innings. Then, though, he "lost the plate" and started walking guys. In fact, two Sacramento pitchers managed to walk the bases loaded and then one of the Redbirds managed to sneak a single into right to end the game 1-0. I no some people would think that was a boring game with no action, but it's my favorite kind of game.

Of course Memphis has more to offer than just baseball. After the game we headed down to the Beale Street area for some late night fun. Then the next day we went down to the River and had lunch at the famous Rendezvous rib place. Mmmmm.

Our second game was in Jackson, TN -- another place I've been meaning to go for a game. Pringles Park is very nice, but it doesn't compare to Autozone. The park itself is fine, but it's set out in the middle of a bunch of parking lots. Plus, your view beyond the outfield fences is a bunch of cars rushing by on the interstate. Not the best baseball backdrop. Still, ... The game itself was pretty good. It was another 0-0 affair until the 6th (I think) inning when one of the Diamond Jaxx hitters smashed a towering grand slam to bust the game open.

Given that Jackson doesn't offer the same post game entertainment options as Memphis, we figured we'd just head back to the hotel after the game. We did, though, decide to check out downtown Jackson, just in case. We weren't finding much downtown activity until we stumbled upon some kind of Friday night street festival around the square. A fairly decent R&B group was set up on some kind of temporary stage and Jeff and I joined the approximately 100 or so spectators for an hour or so. It was kind of fun.

Finally, we made our way home. On the way, though, we had two stops to make. First, we stopped in Selmer to visit Cousin Becca (the potter). Then we made a visit to the Shiloh Battlefield Park. I hadn't been in about 10 years and I was afraid it had been ruined by some NPS "enlightened reinterpretation", but it was still pretty much the way I remembered it. The think I like about Shiloh (as opposed to some, such as Appomattox Courthouse) is that you can visit the actual sites and get a sense of the battles -- the scope, the terrain, etc. Of course Bloody Pond always sends chills up my spine. Regardless, if you haven't been to Shiloh, and you're in the area, it's well worth a trip.

Much as I hate to think about it, that may be my summer vacation. Though classes don't start back until the 20th, I have to report for "meetings and such" the whole week before that. I'm not looking forward to it, but at least I'm not being stalked by my obsessed student any longer -- at least as far as I know!

Political haircuts

The always amusing Scott Adams has an interesting take on the "scandals" involving how much political candidates pay for haircuts.

Fourth, any candidate that doesn’t understand the importance of good hair is too dumb to lead the country. Just because Fred Thompson can pay $8 to get his head Turtle Waxed, that doesn’t make him presidential material. The men and women of this country have just two questions of our potential leaders:

Men: “Would I want to be him?”

Women: “Would I do him?”

A good head of hair goes a long way toward answering both of those questions.

Seeing as how I complain about having to pay $8 for a cut, I guess I'll never be President.

The Dark Side

Yes, I've crossed over. I finally did it. I got a cell phone. Though I know all the arguments FOR the device, I'm already sort of regretting the act. Last night I got a midnight "wrong number" and this morning the coffee shop called because they were worried that I hadn't yet been in. Of course I am still frustrating some folks by keeping it in my car rather than on my person at all times, but I know I'll give that up eventually. Sigh.

Well that's the big news from here.

Hey y'all

Sorry I haven't written of late, but I'm enjoying my time off and I've relished the opportunity not to have to check any of the electronic leashes that keep me connected to the wider world. Of course my blogging has also been handicapped by the fact that absolutely nothing of interest has been going on in my life.

In the only potentially interesting area, I haven't heard from "the weasel" (the disgruntled student) since he bailed on our face-to-face meeting on Monday. Last I heard is he's busy composing an angry letter outlining all my shortcomings as a teacher and my general moral failings. This letter is supposed to be delivered to my immediate boss. Fortunately the two bosses that I have made aware of this situation seem to be supporting me. We'll see.

Other than that, ... Not much. I've been reading (a lot) and I've even watched a couple of movies. I read a pretty funny book by Christopher Moore, though I don't think it's his best. I've shelved (pun intended) my Moby Dick project. I made it through about 160 pages and I could have continued. I found myself, though, at the point where Melville begins to devote chapters to the biology of whales, the details of fish hooks, etc. and I just decided that I didn't want to spend the rest of July's reading time with that. Hence, I put it down.

Right now I'm reading Cryptonomicon just because I think Neal Stephenson is such an interesting writer. His books are always informative and he does a nice job of moving a story along. I just don't get how guys like Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton are such huge successes while Stephenson is virtually ignored by mainstream readers. I'm not a big fan of science fiction, but some of his "cyberpunk" books seem eerily relevant today. I chuckle every time I hear someone express outrage that people are spending real money to build avatars in Second Life (or something like that). Stephenson predicted that perfectly in Snow Crash. On top of that, his "Baroque Cycle" taught me more about the Scientific Revolution than any history class I ever took. I didn't intend this to be one, but I guess it's now a plug for Stephenson's work. Go read one of his books. Some are better than others, but I've enjoyed all that I've read.

What about movies? I've been to the theater to see "License to Wed" and "Evan Almighty" -- neither of which I'd have gone to see on my own. Still, they were "group outings" and they were okay. I watched Notes On A Scandal at home the other day and I quite liked it. It's a tad depressing, but I thought it was very well done.

Well I guess that's about it for now. I'll try not to be away so long, provided anything of interest happens.

[Title function still not working.]
Economists like to complain that journalists need more econ training -- but then again, we make that claim about everyone! Now, though, I've found proof that a reporter for the Birmingham News wasn't paying attention in his stats class.

From a story about how AL universities have raised tuition substantially in recent years, despite generous increases in state funding, reporter David White gives us the scoop on the numbers behind the story:

Yet median annual tuition this fall will rise 6.5 percent for undergraduate students who are Alabama residents. Equal numbers of universities charged more or less than the median of $5,070, according to the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

So it's "news" that half the schools charged MORE than the median and half charged LESS? Again, sigh!

[Sorry, but I'm at the library and I can't get the "title box" to activate.]
Student story from hades!!!

Perhaps because my last post was a positive student story, the karma gods have now smote me with a nightmare of a student encounter. I guess that'll teach me.

As always, there were a few students who, shall we say, were not exactly overjoyed with their grades this summer. One of them contacted me about extra credit, I told him no, that was the end of it. The other one, though, well he's a different story.

Here's the basic story: The guy struggled all semester, finally came to get help at the very end, unfortunately it was too late by then, and he made a D. He called me last week, as I was trying to get out of town, and I went into great detail about his grade and told him there was nothing that could be done. That should have been the end of it, but he kept me on the phone for half an hour arguing that he DESERVED a better grade. I didn't even bother asking him just why he deserved a better grade, but I told him, again, there was nothing to be done. I told him I was running late already, but he was welcome to call me back this week sometime if he wanted. I made sure, though, that I explained to him that it wouldn't change anything -- he had a D last week and he was going to have a D this week.

Well this week I stopped by the office on Monday, but then I didn't go back in until Friday -- because I'm not teaching right now. I found I had a message from him, wanting to know why I hadn't called him back like I said I would (I never said that). Plus, I found out he'd called my boss to complain about my unfair treatment of him. Well I called him back and left a message for him, in which I VERY clearly stated why he got the grade he did. I thought surely that would be the end of it all. I was wrong.

He called me back a few minutes later and launched into a 15 minute argument for a C. Again, I told him no. Finally, I think he got desperate. He wanted to get his last test from me because, he said, he had no way to know if I was even telling him the truth about how he did on it! That pissed me off, but I was trying to be patient with him. I told him he was welcome to come by and look at his test, but I don't return final exams to students. Fine, we made an appointment for Monday morning.

Not 15 minutes later he called back with a new line of reasoning as to why his grade should be higher. Again I told him no and then he launched into a rant about how he'd had lots of teachers over the years, but he'd never experienced one like me -- one that JUST DOESN'T CARE ABOUT HIS STUDENTS! Further, it was MY FAULT that he didn't do well in the class because I intentionally tried to trick him! Now that really got my blood to boiling, but I remained calm and mostly reasonable. Again we left it at he was coming to see me Monday morning, though he did say he figured by this point I wasn't going to give him anything. He was right about that, but that was true last week.

Approximately 10 minutes later, he called back YET AGAIN! He started into his new argument about his last test and I just stopped him. I asked if he was still coming Monday and he said of course he was. Fine, I said, we'll just talk about this latest argument then. He basically hung up on me at that point.

Needless to say, I am not looking forward to this meeting, but I did get my boss to agree to sit in on our little face-to-face. Most infuriating of all (to paraphrase on of my all-time favorite movies), I'm not even working the 2nd half of the summer!

Sigh.