Minor Thoughts

What a Difference a Few Letters Make
At our office Christmas lunch, a colleague gave me a case of beer from around the world, including a six-pack of Pilsner Urquell, which is brewed in the Czech Republic. There were also beers from China, Ireland, and Scotland.

This evening, as I pulled the last of the Pilsner Urquells from the fridge, I was struck by a mental image of Steve Urkel, the character played by Jaleel White in the 1990's sitcom Family Matters.

Troubling.

Novel Idea
A minor joke has occurred to me that needs to be in a novel, which I guess I should write some time.

There's a saying: "Patience is a virtue."

There needs to be a character named Patience in my book. She should be a musician; I think probably a cellist.

So, at some point, someone will say "Patience is a virtuoso."

Sorry.

Another Vote for Wide-Open Education

My young friend Del offers a post today praising Joe Paterno and the Penn State football team after their victory in the Orange Bowl Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

Del is a Penn State alumnus who fondly recalls a chance meeting with the great, but humble, coach one day while an undergraduate. Del explains that he was, at the time, uncertain of what major to pursue. Joe Paterno's advice seems to have stayed with him:

"Well, if you can do it, keep looking at all your options and don't just settle. You'll learn a lot of things here, but the most important will be who you are. And from there you know exactly what you want to do."

Amen.

Life is always changing. Learn all you can. Learn how to learn. Enjoy the changes, because they aren't going to stop happening.

Here's a Paragraph I Like

This is from Torpedo Juice, a novel by Tim Dorsey.

His character, Serge A. Storm (described as a "lovable serial killer"), has stumbled into a meeting of a 12-step-style support group -- the "Lower Keys Chapter of People Susceptible to Joining Cults" -- whose members have decided that Serge should be their new prophet.

Serge agrees to speak to them and launches into a serial rant about the various ills of the modern world. Each section of this rant contradicts another. He finishes with:

"So now you don't know what to believe," said Serge, "and that's exactly what you should believe. To borrow from Firesign Theater, Everything You Know is Wrong. Because the biggest danger is the people who believe Everything They Know is Right. That's the key to personal growth: identify your firmest, most self-comforting beliefs, then beat the living shit out of them and see if they're still standing. The key to stagnation? Worry about other people's beliefs. There's an invisible war of self-interest between the ends of the spectrum, and we're foot soldiers caught in the crossfire. That's why I'm a moderate, from the extremist wing. Because the middle is where the good people are. It's where hope is. And it's where the truth lies. But what is this truth? For starters, it's don't listen to someone whose only credentials are that he's standing at the front of a room. And that's the truth."

Torpedo Juice is absurdist comedy. It's not meant to be taken too seriously. But sometimes, in silliness we find bits of wisdom.

Now, I'm Not So Sure

The day is drawing to a close and my test page on SuperGlu has not refreshed with content from this site. I'll track it for a day or so more, but at this point I'm becoming non-impressed.

mmahaffiana on SuprGlu

Still testing SuprGlu (I love lazy days off).

I notice that my entry (below) about that site has still not updated on SuprGlu. About a quarter of an hour now.

The FAQWE (Frequently Asked Questions We Expect [cute]) says that there's a delay given the number of feeds they track. Tick, tick, tick....

Read more at mmahaffie.suprglu.com/

New (e)Toy

I've started playing with a new (e)toy called SuprGlu. This is a site that lets you create new web pages with content drawn from the RSS Feeds of whatever sites you specify. It is another form of aggregator. What I like about this one is that it creates a user-friendly web page made up of that content.

I've started a test page -- mmahaffiana -- and added the feeds from this site, from my Flickr collection, and from my State Planning and Delaware GIS web sites. Ultimately, I'd like to use this to bring together news feeds relating to GIS and state coordination of GIS and spatial data as a communication tool for the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC). I'm a board member and am on the Communications Committee and I think we could use something like this.

Of course, now this entry will show up on that site. I hope it doesn't start some strange web-feedback loop.

Wicked. Wicked Good.

Karen, the girls, and I traveled over to Washington DC yesterday for a matinee performance of the touring company of Wicked. It was in the Opera House at the Kennedy Center.

The Opera House is a palace of a theater. Very nice.

Our seats were well up into the sky, but the view was fine. We were in the second row of the highest tier. There was a family of boobs sitting in front of us, several of whom insisted on leaning forward on the railing, thereby blocking parts of the site line for everyone behind them. This was a particular problem for Christina, the shortest among us. At the intermission, Karen traded seats with her, so that she and I were the ones behind the leaners.

I did ask, politely, if they wouldn't mind sitting back. The woman told me, rather nastily, that if she sat back she wouldn't be able to see. Perhaps. She was short, but not that short. She and her husband were the only people leaning forward like that. Boobs.

That glitch to one side, the show was wonderful. Strong cast, great music, great story. I had read the novel on which the show is based. I think the musical version does it justice.

The role of Glinda was played by an understudy, Emily Rozek. She was wonderful. Several times now we have seen understudies in lead roles on Broadway and in touring shows. There's something about the energy that these folks bring to the roles on the few occasions that they get to play them. Somehow it adds a little extra sparkle.

I like that.

Minor Housekeeping

I've set the site to allow anonymous comments again. I had set it to require Blogger registration for commenting some time back in response to a series of nasty comments. I guess it's time to open up to the world again. Hopefully, no one will be creepy this time.

Of course, I can always ruthlessly delete any poopy-ness anyone tries to drop on the site.

When a Door Opened

Matt Haughey is creator of MetaFilter, one of the better group-blog sites. His personal site today includes an anniversary remembrance of his entry onto the web:

Ten Years | A Whole Lotta Nothing

In spring of 1995, while using a borrowed computer (I didn't own one myself) in the undergraduate lab, I noticed a new icon in the main window. It was a blue globe with a snake-like S shape around it. It was labeled Mosaic.

Accordion

Accordion 2
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

My nephew Nick brought this lovely old Accordian to my parents' house for Christmas this year. I'm not sure where he found it, but he's taught himself to play it well enough; he's rather a decent musician of the pick-it-up-and-figure-it-out-enough-to-play-it sort. I loved the details on this instrument and tried a few macro shots up close.