Still here

You know how everyone who has a blog but doesn't update it regularly enough tends to throw up a post every now and then that says, "Sorry I haven't posted much lately, etc. etc." So this is that kind of post. Actually, my "drafts" section is littered with unfinished thoughts and several not-well-thought-out-posts that I haven't had the onions to click "Publish Post" on yet... Lots going on, though. Until I do get around to posting here more regularly, there is still the less well-regulated/edited/censored version. I think a blog is a good exercise to maintain if it can be done well. And at the moment, I know I can't really do it well, so I'll wait until I can catch my breath.

On the other hand, for actually cogent, useful, and more regular updates on my family's life overall, I gladly direct you to my better half.

BOOM. Roasted.

I recently finished a grueling semester of graduate school with three classes taken while working full time.  It was in this semester that I encountered the absolute worst professor I have ever met. I tweeted a lot about this guy and his class, all out of impulse and (at times) rage. I won't link to said tweets, but they're there if you want to read them enough, I guess [I don't believe in saying stuff publicly and then issuing hasty empty apologies or stealthily making retractions-- that's just weaselly. So they're still there].

It got so bad, that I actually began eagerly looking forward to the inevitable automated email from UAB asking us to complete the end-of-semester online course evaluation surveys. In anticipation, I actually DRAFTED my comments and sent them along to the Course Evaluation Survey Reader in the Sky (and yes, the professor will supposedly see and read these, too, though I don't know whether he will in reality). After thoroughly ripping the guy, I copied my comments and plunked them down here.

--

Dr. X is by far the worst teaching professor I have encountered in my academic career. I do not doubt his knowledge or enthusiasm for the subject matter- at issue is the fact that he barely taught the subject matter at all. His lectures were littered with off-topic tangents and rambling monologues about vaguely-related research topics; of our 75-minute class time, he would spend an average of about 15 of those minutes actually addressing the stated topic of the lecture, and he would spend the rest of that time, our time, talking about something else. As for his grading policies, he has on several occasions emphasized quantity over quality and makes little effort even to feign concern about the quality of the content of our work; he seems to be captivated by form rather than substance (although the mere implication of publication potential has not failed to pique his attention). It is my opinion that Dr. X and the students who would otherwise enroll in his classes would all be best served if he were allowed to spend his time doing what he clearly loves best- research- rather than inconveniencing him and his students with the task of actually teaching graduate level engineering material (or, in the case of students, teaching it to ourselves/themselves). In my conversations with classmates and former students, I am convinced that this opinion is shared amongst the majority of students, not only those who are enrolled in this class with me but also those who have ever taken a class from Dr. X in the past.

--

I won't tell you the name of the professor- there is a line I don't think I'll cross. Again, if you really want to figure it out, you can either go through the tweets and put 2 and 2 together, or you can be an electrical engineering graduate student at UAB who needs the scoop on a professor or two... otherwise, just know that I could not stand the guy as a professor and am endlessly grateful to be finished with his class; you better believe there's no way in hell I'm subjecting myself to another one of his classes. Ever.

I don't know myself as well as I think...

The other night, I tuned into the Top 40 radio station for the first time in a long time. I was on my way home after a full day's work and a few hours of grad school classes, and by this time my usual standby, the local NPR station, had already switched over to classical music. (I once thought I was well-cultured enough to have enjoyed or appreciated classical music, but for some time I've now found that I lose interest in it very quickly.) So, flipping around, I wound up at the Top 40 station.

I found myself tapping my non-driving foot to one of those songs with a good beat and a confident if a little strange-sounding female vocal. And I was actually kinda enjoying it while either deliberately or exhaustedly disregarding it's mindless, teeny-bopper-ish qualities... I got home and got around to looking up online what lyrics I could remember to see who it was.





...turns out I was rocking to Miley Cyrus.

So, who wants first dibs on running my man-card through the shredder? Oh, and I need some new music.

A tired refrain

It's been a while, but I'm back for a moment to toss out a thought I've had bouncing around for a bit- a thought that was finally pushed out after this past Sunday when we visited and ultimately decided against joining a particular new church, opting instead to stay with MBCC. But that's another post.

---

My eyes tend to glaze over a bit whenever I hear a preacher or someone utter, often with exasperation or some knowing condescension in his or her voice, "Well you KNOW how dark the world is," or "People these days," or some other variant of a reminder of how the world is so staunchly unfriendly to their Christian principles or something like that. Is it supposed to be news, shocking breaking news, that "the world" is a "dark place?" I think the Bible made that pretty clear. And yet, with every development in the world that appears contrary to some Christians' woefully narrow-minded worldview[s] (there, I said it), it inspires some major lamentation of that vein.

On one hand, I don't disagree completely with what is said-- the world *is* a dark place (again, newsflash!) filled with broken people (me included). I get it. And yes, broken people do some pretty incredibly depraved things (oh, here's another one: "Have you seen the news, lately?"). But just what else were you expecting? If you "expected better of people," that strikes me as a bit of crummy hypocrisy; if to you, it's "just another example of how [insert hyperbole] bad people can really be," again it strikes me as whiny (though to be fair, I find myself wandering in this direction most often).

In a similar way, it's an interesting and, in my not-that-humble opinion, rather skewed world perspective when someone talks about how some other part of the world is "filled with darkness," or "the population is only X percent Chrisitan!" Take a look around- you live in a country (let's go ahead and assume this is the good ole US of A here) with an enormous population of "professing Christians," and yet I truly doubt it's any less dark here than Wherever-you're-singling-out-istan! It's disconcerting to hear something like this preached out in the open. Your so-called or so-deemed Christian nation (oh, please) needs grace as desperately as the rest of the world. Own that. It should be one of those "welcome to reality" moments.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that my attitude is wholly right on this, either. You shouldn't completely downplay the "depravity of the world," because I do actually believe it's a very real condition... but I'll admit, perhaps I underplay it by a lot.

My point is more about the folks who, to me it seems, haphazardly overplay the point like it either makes them feel better about themselves or feeds some obsession over it. It often seems, as Sharon has often noted with great distaste, suspiciously like an excuse to go proselytize in said faraway land rather than deal with the darkness just outside of your front door or of our suburban limits. The sooner you quit whining about what a terrible place this world is and get used to it (the horror!), the sooner you can move through it and be moved through it, I think. I trust and believe that is true.

allow me a fourteen-yr-old faux-emo-ish post for a moment.

I am the only one to blame for this
Somehow it all ends up the same
Soaring on the wings of selfish pride
I flew too high and like Icarus I collide
With a world I try so hard to leave behind
To rid myself of all but love
to give and die

To turn away and not become
Another nail to pierce the skin of one who loves
more deeply than the oceans,
more abundant than the tears
Of a world embracing every heartache

Can I be the one to sacrifice
Or grip the spear and watch the blood and water flow

To love you - take my world apart
To need you - I am on my knees
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - broken on my knees

All said and done I stand alone
Amongst remains of a life I should not own
It takes all I am to believe
In the mercy that covers me

Did you really have to die for me?
All I am for all you are
Because what I need and what I believe are worlds apart

I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
and wipe away the crimson stains
"dull the nails that still remain"
More and more I need you now,
I owe you more each passing hour
the battle between grace and pride
I gave up not so long ago
So steal my heart and take the pain
and wash the feet and cleanse my pride
take the selfish, take the weak,
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
the sin-soaked heart and make it yours
take my world all apart
take it now, take it now
and serve the ones that I despise
speak the words I can't deny
watch the world I used to love
fall to dust and thrown away
I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
so wipe away the crimson stains
"dull the nails that still remains"
so steal my heart and take the pain
take the selfish, take the weak
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
take my world apart, take my world apart
I pray, I pray, I pray
take my world apart

"Worlds Apart" by Jars of Clay. Still stops me in my tracks everytime I hear it.

time flies whether you're having fun or not

I've been on something of an unintended hiatus from blog posting. The dog days of summer are moseying by, and I've gone from taking no classes over the summer to the idiomatic drinking out of the three-classes-this-semester-while-working-full-time fire hydrant. It goes without saying that I find myself barely having time to keep up with it all. I'll get the hang of it.

I wish I had the time to put up some thoughtful posts. I have thoughtful posts, but the problem is that I don't have a very effective way to jot them down and then transfer them to this medium. I suppose that's why I've taken to Twitter so well, because I can send out some quick-hit thoughts without the hassle (I say somewhat jokingly) of putting my thoughts together cohesively (though this habit has its hazards, mindyou). But, there are a few posts floating around this mind of mine, and at some point I'd like to let them out.

Hope everyone's doing well, whoever's reading. While I haven't been posting, I still am able to read the blogs I follow via Google Reader, and I can say I've enjoyed my blogging-Tom glimpses into your lives. I'll get back to this soon as I can get myself straightened out, whenever that is.

Some one call Betty Ford

Oh dear Lord she's fallen off the wagon again! Big time. Pictures to follow, eventually.

In a nutshell

"Here's the thing about people: I don't really like them. That's why I find racism so curious. There are so many reasons to dislike people--you're gonna go with color?"
-Shalom Auslander, from a recent episode of PRI's This American Life


I've been feeling rather ornery lately. Not really sure what that's all about. Actually, I do. But there is a lot of internal sorting out to do.

"God Bless Sweden!" -- The Producers

According to Fox's Brian Kilmeade, the problem with Americans is that "We keep marrying other species and other ethnics." Other species and other ethnics. The eloquent Kilmeade goes on to compare Americans with your garden-variety Scandinavians (the nerve!): "The Swedes have pure genes because they marry other Swedes because that's the rule. [Except Tiger Woods. They'd do anything for that dude] Finland, Finns marry other Finns, so they have a pure society." He completes his dissertation with the declaration, "In America, we marry everybody, Italians, Irish."

Damn those filthy Italians and those dirty Irish. Marrying OUR species? What an outrage! I'll never look lustfully at another pizza pie or draught of Guinness again.



You know, Mr. Kilmeade, back in the good old days, there used to be a Solution to problems like these (genius idea, just sloppily executed). You just round up all the people who don't look like us and send them to these "camps." At best, you just remove them from our society so we can have a pure married society in America. At worst... who knows? And really, who cares?




...At least I could take solace that you and I would be on opposite sides of the fence.



************
Morning-after note:
************
Okay, so probably a little bit of an overreaction. I don't think Kilmeade was intimating some idiot's version of a Final Solution. Just ran a little too far down the rabbit hole.

What really gets me, though, is how people sort of laugh it off when they say such putrid, offensive things, as if to say "Oh, ha ha. How silly of me. You don't take that seriously, do you?"

Maybe not. But we live in a society that once considered slavery, Jim Crow, Japanese internment camps, and cross burnings to be socially, morally acceptable institutions. That stuff is much less overt nowadays.

So maybe I am not oppressed or profiled, and I'm no where close to being black. Maybe that allows you to think that such public yearnings for a "pure society" are harmless drivel. Maybe to you, it's just "harmless."

But don't think I'm not paying attention.

Meant to do this a while ago

At some point last year, I had it in my mind to begin a new blog recording deals we have gotten while shopping. I wanted to keep track of the savings we made in our shopping experiences over the course of a year; I thought of adding up the total amounts paid and total amounts would-have-paid to determine some rough percentage of savings... whether I will actually begin such a blog in earnest is yet to be determined, I think.

This week, we made a number of purchases that made us say, "Man, this would be perfect for the blog... that doesn't exist." If it did exist, it would go something like this. So now, the inaugural "deals"-tagged post:

Macy's:
1. Shark Cordless 15.6V Hand Vacuum: normally $60, we paid $14 for it on clearance.
2. Calphalon Contemporary Wok Gift Set: normally $100, sale for $80, we paid $35 for it on clearance

Staples:
1. Canon Powershot A590 IS digital camera: List price $120, on sale for $69, we paid $61 for it on clearance.

For those keeping score, we paid $110 for three things we wanted/needed (a new vacuum cleaner to help with the mounds of cat hair around the house, a new wok made by my favorite pots maker Calphalon, and a new digital camera for Sharon); we would have paid $280 for it at list price. We saved a whopping 61% this weekend. We're no experts... just some dumb luck to run into some good deals. Here's hoping that luck can continue. :)

Catching up

Some quick hit thoughts, because it's a lot easier than thinking out a post... and because I'm lazy:

1. We've been married for a year! That's kind of nuts. I don't actually have anything profound to say like advice or lessons learned. I'm just amazed that it's been a whole year since we had that blur of a day where we woke up, got dressed, said our "I do"'s, had a reception, hopped on a few planes, had a crisis checking into the hotel, and finally passed out. It's been a whole year! Here's to many more. Sharon really has been my best friend for years, and we're blessed to work as well together as we do.

2. We went on a week-long vacation split into two places: Hilton Head Island, SC, and New York City.

HHI: Sharon's grandmother has a time-share condo thingy going on with Disney, and normally they go every year to Disney World for a mini-family reunion; this year, we went to the Disney resort at Hilton Head. It was all right. We had a great time with Sharon's relatives; they're all a lot of fun. The highlight for me was the hour-long dolphin-watching boat tour of the waterways around the island.

I am not an outdoorsy person at all, but I was happy that one of us snapped this picture, and that it turned out so beautifully. It's now my desktop wallpaper. Just pretty and peaceful.
Our other boat on the lookout for dolphins! We saw a bunch of them.

NYC: I fell in love with New York City. I'd been there a few times with family or with school (for the Macy's Parade in 2002!), but this was the first time it was just Sharon and me. I really enjoy exploring a new place with Sharon. We only had about 3 days there-- there's no way to do justice to New York City in only 3 days. We stuck around in Manhattan and got to experience the frenetic pace of life in the big city; it was fantastic. I think we are both drawn to that kind of lifestyle, and New York City indulged us generously. While there, we got to go on a New York Harbor tour to see the Statue of Liberty and all skylines of the city; we met up with my cousin Wendy, my high school/church friend Mark, and my college friends Joyce and Amy; we got Sharon completely hooked on Pinkberry (which I think would make a killing if they were ever to open a place in Birmingham... but that's another blog post); we walked up and down Broadway and Fifth Avenue; experienced the craziness that is Times Square... so much going on, and we really only experienced a fraction of it. And the food-- NYC is a foodie's dream, and this, too, we only scratched the surface. I was thrilled to take Sharon to see NYC for the first time, and we would both jump at any chance to go back.

A lovely lady in front of Brooklyn Bridge

Lady Liberty. She was inspirational to see in person. I had no idea. I choked up a bit, quietly, at the thought of the sight of her greeting immigrants to America. In a roundabout way, without her, who knows what my life is like today?

We are "What Not To Wear" fans... so Sharon was really excited to shop here. Got some pretty good deals on some new kicks for her, too, I'm happy to report.

Lovely views of Central Park

A stroll down the Mall in Central Park looks like this. Gorgeous.

Yes, that's a lady in Times Square selling "Obama Condoms: For All Your Hard Times"... Hey, it's a free market, right?

The trip probably deserves just a post of it's own. I have only a few other cursory thoughts:

3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: easily the best of the HP movies so far. Romance, excitement, action... I thought it was a very well done movie. It all helps you forget that you're going to hell for supporting witchcraft. (Kidding, of course. Maybe.)

4. I have a new computer! I am typing on it as I ... type. I think it in itself isn't post-worthy, but the idea and process behind it may be. I'm no expert, but I did come up with some ideas about purchasing a new laptop. Maybe I'll stroke my ego and peddle off my lack of expertise as advice in a post sometime.

5. Speaking of stroking egos, I am still Twittering away. You can follow me with my username, @tsayguy.

Because, clearly, they're all just lazy

I love Stephen Colbert:

"It's just like what Jesus once said:

'I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was hungry and you told me to GET A JOB.'"

...taken loosely from Matt 25:35

Recycling in Birmingham

It really doesn't take that much effort to recycle. An extra trash can or even a crate or box that's been lying around the place can easily be used to hold aluminum cans, glass, and (or) plastic bottles. Some towns around here have recycling services so that you can lug your recycling bin out to the curb on designated days of the week like you would with your garbage; for those who live in places without such service, it may take a little hunting to figure out how to recycle your stuff.

If you live or frequently visit downtown Birmingham, there is a recycling center where you can easily do this: the Alabama Environmental Council's Recycling Center has bins and trailers and dumpsters clearly marked for you to dispose of your paper, glass, aluminum, and plastics. Make sure to rinse out your bottles and milk jugs... I've seen some nasty crap going on in people's un-rinsed-out milk jugs (the Center has special receptacles for these: trash cans).

Here's a link for the Google Map for the Recycling Center.

Spot on

Sharon and I used to watch a lot of Jon and Kate Plus 8. I say "used to", not because we stopped after objections to how their families were run, not because we stopped after the fiasco... we actually just dropped off of it for no apparent reason. We were big fans because we thought the kids were adorable and because we figure our kids will one day (one day far away in the future, we hope) look like them. :-)

I don't really have anything intelligent to say about the whole situation. I did read a column the other day that I thought made some very relevant commentary about the Gosselin's family situation from a Christian perspective. Julie Vermeer Elliott is far more articulate than I can muster this very moment... it's a hard hitting commentary but one I think may be one of the best opinion pieces I've read all year.

Off to Louisville in T-minus 60 minutes or so? Can't wait.

Caving in

I am now on Twitter as @henrytsay (original, I know). I know of at least one person who's ranted about the narcissism and pointlessness of Twitter (though this person made said rant on their blog... Irony much?), but I am liking it. It takes the only remaining interesting aspect of facebook (status updates) and runs with it, and you're able to follow people--friends and celebrities alike-- and possibly learn stuff from and about them. And for that I am looking forward to this. Tweet on!

either an obituary or a comeback-in-waiting?

In college on my corner of my freshman floor I was notorious for sleeping through my alarm clock in the morning. It would be going off, waking up everyone in a few doors radius from me, except for me; what we also discovered was that, even if my alarm clock couldn't wake me up, simply opening my door (and eventually, banging on it) would make me shoot up out of my bed.

This morning, a loud rapping of our front door made me bolt up from my slumber and drew me groggily to the front door. The officer at the door opened with, "Are you the owner of a red Volkswagen Cabrio?" And it all went downhill from there.


It appears that someone was driving up 22nd street last night/this morning at a high rate of speed and somehow missed the bright red car parked (legally) on the left side of the one-way street, hit the car right on the right rear wheel, shoving the car forward one whole parallel parking spot, before sliding his (or her?) car all the way across the passenger side and coming to a stop barely in front of our car. We're no Sherlocks, but we suspect that the words "drunk" or "stolen" will be oft-repeated in the police report. The fact that the driver fled the scene would tend to nudge us in that direction...

We will be taking (well, towing) Sharon's car to the shop in the morning and finding out (quickly, we hope) whether we should expect to wait a few weeks while it's fixed or whether we need to start car shopping. The former option would probably be the most favorable, I think, but in truth the two of us think the car is totalled. We've found ourselves pointing out cars we like, lately, a little bit like drive-by window shopping; perhaps it was more prophetic than we'd ever envisioned. Too bad it's had to come about in this way.

We'll know more details tomorrow...

New views of our apartment

I had a post back in April with pictures of our blank new apartment... since then, we've made lots of changes, and Sharon has liberally scratched her furniture rearranging itch (and she also made a post with many of these pictures), and this is now how it all looks:

Our dining area. Previously it was a sitting area, but it was underutilized. It's now quite nice.


This was once the dining area, but now with our chair and ottoman, it's quite a neat little spot to hang out. I guess we could have taken a better picture... :-P


Another look. The study/office is around the corner.


The living area, furnished.


The bedroom. Sharon's done good decorating in here.


And a few other fixtures around our house...

Where to get rid of old thermostats

This is a short public service announcement in a similar vein of a previous post.

Upon moving into our new apartment (over a month ago! can you believe it?), we installed a new programmable thermostat in the hopes of saving ourselves a little on the power bill and maintaining a comfortable temperature in the new, larger place. In doing so, we removed the old thermostat and discovered that it had a glass tube with mercury in it (no surprise here). The problem is, no one seemed to know what to do with it. No one at Lowe's or Home Depot knew where to properly dispose of mercury from old thermostats. After over a month of wondering and wandering, I discovered the answer: the EPA.

Apparently, the EPA website links to the NEMA (Natl Electrical Manufacturer's Association) who gives a list of vendors who will accept old mercury-based thermostats and dispose of them. If you live in Birmingham and have one to dispose, you can do as I was finally able to do this morning at take yours to R. E. Michel & Company, just a hop, skip, and jump away from our place!

So, now you know.