Go out and vote. I don't care who you vote for, as long as you vote the way YOU want. Just get out and exercise your right to participate in the democratic process. Notice I'm not telling you whom I'm voting for, or for whom you should vote. Just go vote. Of course, this presupposes you're of legal voting age and have not already voted... but that's another story. The rest of you, go vote now. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200... and remember, if you live in Illinois, the polls close at 7pm. Good thing, too... I'm not gonna get to go vote until after practice.

So, those of you who've been watching the site for a while might recognize this look and feel. While the stylesheet isn't quite perfect, it is getting there, slowly. Sooner or later I'll get it the way I like it.

For now, this lays out the workouts a LOT better than the other theme, so I'm going to stick with it.

Those of you who are CSS-inclined might want to weigh in... but please don't get on my case about the Mozilla-specific CSS elements (those of you using IE don't see the rounded corners on the green boxes... sooner or later I'll just nuke 'em altogether).

Meanwhile, enjoy, or something.

Wow... maybe Jack McCoy will be his Attorney General. It's gotta be better than what we've got now.

I have an old buddy (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, or something) who is now a Microsoft employee. When I found out where he was working recently, I couldn't resist but ask him why he joined the Empire. Since we had both enjoyed watching "Mirror, Mirror" and the Star Wars movies more than once in the distant past, the question left room for any number of loaded answers regarding the evil perceptions of his employer.

Unsolicited, he responded thus:

"How did I end up on the ISS Enterprise? Why, I’m trying to fight off those space hippies searching for “The Way to Eden” over at the Goog, naturally."

Made my day.

(HINT: References are provided for the uninitiated).

It's a good thing my job doesn't depend on the frequency of my publishing. At least I do get published occasionally, like in next month's USMS SWIMMER. Check it out when it hits your mailbox!

The course I'm offering for the Spring of 2008 is in need of more students to assure that it actually runs. Of those of you who have not yet signed up, I know two of you have seen me about taking the course (I signed your sheets). It appears I need 6-8 more of you to ensure that the class will run next year. I am hoping that a grassroots campaign will help to get me the students we need to make this course go.

This means that I need your help.

Tell your friends and neighbors that this is a class worth taking. If you want some data to back up this claim, let me know and I can present a preliminary syllabus and course information sheet, as well as background materials from when I taught this class once upon a time at the University of Delaware.

Anyone who has questions should email, IM, or Facebook me ASAP.

Articles like this one remind me why companies like Microsoft should not be tolerated. Sure, they'll take your money and not refund it... even when it means that they pretty much stole it from you, since they provided you with no service or goods for the money you paid. What's right about that? I mean, if they said "all proceeds from this sale go to the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation," at least it'd be going to a presumably good cause... but in this case, it's pure profit, and profit made at the expense of others to boot.

What a joke.

*sigh*

For those of you who don't already know, I work at a state-run boarding school for gifted kids in grades 10-12. While I've been working here over six and a half years in IT and Athletics in various capacities, I've never taught a full-semester class here.

That's about to change. Explorations in Linguistics (WLG712) will be offered, pending sufficient enrollment, in the Spring of 2008. If you don't want to take my word for it, take a look at the bottom of p.28 of the Learning Opportunities document (PDF, 164k). For the uninitiated, that's what the rest of the world typically calls a course catalog.

If you're a current sophomore or junior at IMSA, and have room for an elective in the Spring of 2008 (no, this can't count towards the 2.0 credit World Languages graduation requirement, but that's ok), sign up for my class. I have a feeling you won't be disappointed... and I need 15 of you to sign up for the course to run. So help a guy out, learn something about language, and have fun in the process. If you want a more thorough course description or a tentative syllabus (very much a work in progress), please let me know.

The cell rings at work yesterday afternoon.... caller ID shows Carrie's cell, so I pick up.

"What's up?"

"Hi daddy."

"Hi Meg! How are you?"

By this time, Carrie's trying not to laugh in the background.

"Tchek."

"What's that? You want to watch Trek?"

"Tchek. Heh."

Carrie, in the background: "You can watch Trek with Daddy when he gets home, sweetheart."

"Byeeeee."

"Bye Meg."

I just about fell over. My 18-month-old wants to watch ST: TAS with me. Made me proud to be a dad.... and it beats watching Elmo all day.

So I went home and watched "Tchek" with my daughter. Mind you, we got almost through one episode, and she pointed at the TV and said "Elmo," but it was a small victory for Daddy.

We'll get her educated yet.