Tuesday, January 3, 2006

Jamming, Sorta

Lest my wisecrack to C. the other day about my resolve to blog just once per week in the new year prove true, I really ought to get back into a groove with this business.  One at a time. Fifteen minutes at a time. I've run across a few momentarily interesting links, considered shoving them into this space.  Seconds later, they're lame.  But there's always the stuff of life to rescue me from blogthargy. At dinner tonight, for example, over reheated chicken noodle soup (home-cooked, no less, and stirred up to give an edge to D. in her battle against the villainous flegm-phunk), Ph. said something witty about chin-ups in P.E.  Chin-ups, eh?  Yep, he said. Scored a 38. So I was thinking chin bar, pull-ups...etc.  "Impressive." And then..."Overhand or underhand?"  Not even close.  The 21st-century "chin-ups," turns out, simply involve a measure from the floor to the chin while the back-arching student maxes out in an upward dog position.  I'm fending off the urge to invoke the presidential fitness testing jokes, relate it to Bushyacation programs such as No Child Left Behind.  Floor to chin, in centimeters.  Thirty-eight, eh? Guess that's blogable. Less so: that I tried it myself and managed a limber 44 cm (just getting onto the floor sets my shoulders to popping, flared my knees with pain, etc.). Even less so: those tasty flavored Triscuits and the talk about "What sort of Triscuits are they?" Followed by, shrug. Followed by, "Box says, Deli Style Rye." And so on.

Really, though, I've been jamming on CCC Online, working ahead on the archive, making the PDFs even more portable, running an OCR over their imageforms, touching up the text files, and cranking out keyword sets.  Also, doing a bit of course-developer oblige, answering questions, sprucing up course materials, and so on. And resuming a workout regimen that spelled body-magic a few years ago. And ordering books for my final semester of coursework.  And (re)reading through a few articles for a miniseminar next week (Ede, Logan, Fulkerson, Fleming and Yancey). And sneaking a few minutes of March Madness 2006 for the PS2.  And reading Scott McCloud.  And torture-eating, piece by colorful piece, through a two-pound baggieful of rock candy while worrying about my aging, weak, rotting enamel.  And scheduling dentist appointments, etc.  More than I realized, turns out.

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