Time for another round of nuggets! Let's go.
Recently, I've been reflecting on my baseball fandom, and have decided to adopt an American League team. Don't worry, I'm still a Cubs fan. I'm just going to try to follow all of baseball instead of just the league where pitchers have to hit. Which frankly, isn't pretty sometimes (oh where did you go, Carlos Zambrano?). And after some deliberation, I have decided that the team for me is the Toronto Blue Jays. There were a couple mitigating factors for this decision: 1)Don't pick a team that someone you know well/are related to roots for. 2)Don't pick the Yankees or Red Sox. 3)Don't pick a team in the playoffs. Throw in the fun fact of the Blue Jays being the least American of the American League, and their nifty color scheme (I'm a sucker for the color blue), and the choice was fairly clear. Now I just need to learn about the team...
Due to my upbringing, I have a certain propensity to make up song parody lyrics for all sorts of occasions. When your mom is a bigger Weird Al Yankovic fan than you are, and you spend most of your formative years being driven to marching band practice in a Mini-van listening to a Star Wars parody of "American Pie", you tend to develop a certain knack for it. And any good parody writer (or any song-writer in general) will tell you that you should sing about things you know. So I tend to sing about Rosco. And more often than not, the song I start singing uses the timeless melody of The Association's "Windy". Mostly because it ends with "Everyone knows it's ROSCO! (bum. bum. bum. bum. bum.) -And Rosco has STOR-MEE EYES..." and so on. I have no shame about it. Song currently in second place for Rosco parodies? Probably "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea (sorry, I'm not supplying a link to that one. Go find it yourself). Because it's funny. Rosco's as fancy as a paper plate.
So I told you about my new D&D hobby, but I failed to mention that I also started playing (with the same folks) a Role-Playing Star Wars game. So naturally, I made my character in that R2-D2. Or a close relative I suppose. Melissa made her character a C-3P0 type droid, so she effectively translates for me. But I do whistle quite a lot. Just last week the two of us co-piloted a Chicken Walker (AT-ST for those in the know) and helped storm a shipyard. Good times.
So I've been listening to sports radio a lot lately, since my commute is a good 40-50 minutes or so. It definitely has its ups and downs. For instance, just this morning I was listening to Mike and Mike on ESPN. It sounded like they were about to talk about baseball playoffs, especially with how the Royals are in the playoffs for the first time in 30-some years. But no. The Patriots losing in week 4 is a much bigger deal. Because everyone cares about the Patriots (sometimes the East Coast bias is eye-rollingly blatant). So I switched to the other talk radio station I know of (87.7 The Game), and what do I hear? A long conversation about the veracity of the claim that flight attendants get back at unruly passengers by "crop-dusting", aka "passing gas as they walk by". And this radio station had a deep well of sound effects buttons to press, to drive the point home. So those were my choices this morning: Patriots or fart noises. And I chose farts. No regrets!!
As always, mind your r's and c's,
Eric
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
4-Piece Nuggets (Juicy Little Tidbits)
I am a huge fan of metaphors. Like, if you get me going, I'll spew em out all over the room. Just a constant stream. Oscillating, too, if you want. (Stop me at any time. Oh wait you can't.)
Point is, whenever I can come up with a clever name for something, that's motivation enough to see it through. That's why I am bringing you a second helping of blog today in the form of 4 mini-blogs about things I've been thinking about. This should be a pretty regular thing, as I've always got a few things on my mind that are interesting, but not that interesting. Just enough for a little snack, if you will.
Hence, 4-piece nuggets. (I originally wanted to try 10-piece or 20-piece, but Melissa quickly rebutted that idea. And I agree with her. Firstly, even 10 things is stretching it just a little. Also, much like the chains that offer those size portions, you get a lack of quality with an increase in quantity. So I went with the Wendy's model. So here we go! Four topics/ideas/musings in rapid succession. On we go!
So I just mentioned Wendy's, and that got me thinking: what has happened to that place? I'm only being half rhetorical, but I really don't understand exactly what their identity is now. They still sell Frosties and burgers, but all you hear about are the "Tuscan Whatever Chicken" and the "Panini Flatbread Pita Some Such". Are they going for healthy foods, or just better quality fattening foods? And I'm sorry, but 80% of their commercials just annoy me. I feel like I'm supposed to be in the target demographic, but I always feel like I'm being made fun of. It's like they're in denial about the fact that they are a burger joint, so they lash out by making fun of other burger joints. Just be proud of your own stuff, Wendy's. We get enough smear tactics around election time (this critique applies to many companies, of course. Just sell me your stuff.)
I have an interesting idea for some meteorologist out there looking for his/her trademark "thing". What if the weather man came out, and after doing the number crunching part, and the green screen lookit-the-graphics part, they just said, "Here's how today's weather compares to yesterday's weather: it'll be warmer in the morning, then rainier after lunch, and the temperature at 4 will feel colder and blusterier". Call it the "Yesterday Forecast". People can relate because well, they were here yesterday. They remember what that felt like, and they can use that to prepare for today. Plus, I just like the name. It's probably actually a really dumb idea that couldn't be implemented logistically. Meh.
Now a fun fact about Rosco: he pees like a girl dog. For some reason, he never learned to lift his leg to pee like a 'normal' male dog. In fact, he just pulls up wherever he's standing and just sort of lowers his hips and goes. On the upside, this means he doesn't really ration out his peeing like many guy dogs (who have to 'mark' many spots along a walk), and rather gets it all out in one or two spots. On the downside, it's just a little embarrassing. It could just be that he's never had a good reason to mark, because there have been a couple occasions where he mimicked another boy dog at a dog park or obedience class, but as a regular thing, he "sits down" when he pees. Plus, he makes a funny face when he's going, which is a plus. I'd take a picture, but that'd be mean.
On a final note, I thought I'd just go ahead and admit once and for all that I am becoming a nerd in new and exciting ways. Perhaps the most basic of nerdy behaviors or activities. In case you haven't guessed, it's Dungeons & Dragons. And I dig it. There's something freeing about playing a game where you have the freedom to interact with your environment without a computerized system limiting your choices. You've just got the DM (guy running the adventure) deciding how your choices will affect you and your team. In short, it's a ton of fun, but I don't want to turn this into an advertisement. It's just the newest thing for me to geek out about.
So that's all for now. I'll try to make this a regular thing, but it will depend on the rate I can come up with the right sort of nuggets.
As always, mind your r's and c's,
Eric
Point is, whenever I can come up with a clever name for something, that's motivation enough to see it through. That's why I am bringing you a second helping of blog today in the form of 4 mini-blogs about things I've been thinking about. This should be a pretty regular thing, as I've always got a few things on my mind that are interesting, but not that interesting. Just enough for a little snack, if you will.
Hence, 4-piece nuggets. (I originally wanted to try 10-piece or 20-piece, but Melissa quickly rebutted that idea. And I agree with her. Firstly, even 10 things is stretching it just a little. Also, much like the chains that offer those size portions, you get a lack of quality with an increase in quantity. So I went with the Wendy's model. So here we go! Four topics/ideas/musings in rapid succession. On we go!
So I just mentioned Wendy's, and that got me thinking: what has happened to that place? I'm only being half rhetorical, but I really don't understand exactly what their identity is now. They still sell Frosties and burgers, but all you hear about are the "Tuscan Whatever Chicken" and the "Panini Flatbread Pita Some Such". Are they going for healthy foods, or just better quality fattening foods? And I'm sorry, but 80% of their commercials just annoy me. I feel like I'm supposed to be in the target demographic, but I always feel like I'm being made fun of. It's like they're in denial about the fact that they are a burger joint, so they lash out by making fun of other burger joints. Just be proud of your own stuff, Wendy's. We get enough smear tactics around election time (this critique applies to many companies, of course. Just sell me your stuff.)
I have an interesting idea for some meteorologist out there looking for his/her trademark "thing". What if the weather man came out, and after doing the number crunching part, and the green screen lookit-the-graphics part, they just said, "Here's how today's weather compares to yesterday's weather: it'll be warmer in the morning, then rainier after lunch, and the temperature at 4 will feel colder and blusterier". Call it the "Yesterday Forecast". People can relate because well, they were here yesterday. They remember what that felt like, and they can use that to prepare for today. Plus, I just like the name. It's probably actually a really dumb idea that couldn't be implemented logistically. Meh.
Now a fun fact about Rosco: he pees like a girl dog. For some reason, he never learned to lift his leg to pee like a 'normal' male dog. In fact, he just pulls up wherever he's standing and just sort of lowers his hips and goes. On the upside, this means he doesn't really ration out his peeing like many guy dogs (who have to 'mark' many spots along a walk), and rather gets it all out in one or two spots. On the downside, it's just a little embarrassing. It could just be that he's never had a good reason to mark, because there have been a couple occasions where he mimicked another boy dog at a dog park or obedience class, but as a regular thing, he "sits down" when he pees. Plus, he makes a funny face when he's going, which is a plus. I'd take a picture, but that'd be mean.
On a final note, I thought I'd just go ahead and admit once and for all that I am becoming a nerd in new and exciting ways. Perhaps the most basic of nerdy behaviors or activities. In case you haven't guessed, it's Dungeons & Dragons. And I dig it. There's something freeing about playing a game where you have the freedom to interact with your environment without a computerized system limiting your choices. You've just got the DM (guy running the adventure) deciding how your choices will affect you and your team. In short, it's a ton of fun, but I don't want to turn this into an advertisement. It's just the newest thing for me to geek out about.
So that's all for now. I'll try to make this a regular thing, but it will depend on the rate I can come up with the right sort of nuggets.
As always, mind your r's and c's,
Eric
Friday, September 19, 2014
Multiphibian
Greek is tricky.
As I started thinking about the topic of today's post, I reflected on the adaptive nature of our dog Rosco. Mainly, how he has been able to thrive in three distinct environments. So naturally, I wanted to come up with a word that expressed his ability to change and adapt to his various living conditions. I thought of frogs (of course) and their duality. The word "amphibian" seemed like a reasonable place to work from, but, being an utter novice in understanding etymology, I assumed that all I had to do was change the "bi" (which I assumed represented 2 here) to "tri" (3) for the word, "amphitrian". But clearly, that doesn't look or sound right at all. And it very much isn't. "Upon further review", the word actually derives from the two roots "amphi" meaning "both" (a la "ambidextrous") and "bios" meaning "life" or "living environments". So I'm not exactly sure what my word would translate to, but it's not the word I'm looking for. Instead, I went with the easy to say "multiphibian". I know the etymology is still a mess, but it doesn't make sense without the "phib".
But anyhow, all of that is just a long way of saying that I'm incredibly impressed with how Rosco adapts to his surroundings.
As you know, we got Rosco in January of '13 when we were on the island. He was still very much a puppy, so we were able to raise him as "American" as possible (i.e. getting all his shots, letting him sleep inside, etc.). Still, we were living on an island, so he became accustomed to some things that would sound ridiculous in most other places. For instance, we had no fence or property divider, yet I felt reasonably okay with letting him outside without a leash. Sure, I'd bring one with me when I followed him out, but that was in case he started getting into mischief with the dogs downstairs. He never strayed too far, and if he did, it usually just resulted in an impromptu hosing (a pitiful site, to be sure).
So for the first year of his life, Rosco lived the island dog, rural life. Then it came time to move. Flying him to the states actually turned out to be a much easier experience than I expected. Even with an overnight stop in Puerto Rico, Rosco was a real trooper throughout. By the way, if you ever need to stay in Puerto Rico with a dog, check out the Verdanza Hotel in San Juan. They have a dedicated dog park within the hotel property, are fine with dogs walking through the lobby, and even have a couple treats ready for pets when you check in! Really impressive.
So we finally got to Colorado, and from there, Ohio. Rosco got his first taste of Suburban House Dog living. He learned what proper streets looked like. He learned how to co-habituate with another dog (both with Melissa's family dog Hershey, a miniature Dachshund, and my family's Aussie, a Beagle/Australian Shepherd). He got to experience the joys of air conditioning and the simultaneously limiting and freeing of electric fences. He also learned what it's like to not live on a small mountain, where walks can happen at a gradient of less than 10 degrees. He also learned what 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) feels like. Really, it's amazing he didn't have a tougher time transitioning to such a drastically different environment.
Then, of course, after he had about 6 months to get acclimated to suburban life, it came time to move back to Chicago, and back to an apartment. But now, when we want to go for walks, Rosco always needs to be on leash, and if he wants to run around, we have to drive him over to the local dog park (with his 'Ridgebark' I.D.). And soon, he'll get to experience the joy of floorboard heating (assuming it gets kicked on soon), and what that will do to our wood flooring.
Speaking of which, when I really think about Rosco's transitioning to new environments, the constant determining factor when it came to how quickly he got used to his new home was the flooring. You see, Rosco is a very tactile-oriented animal. If a surface seems even the slightest bit slick, and he isn't used to it, he will just avoid it at all costs. Our floor in the Caribbean was sort of a porous tile, which Rosco really had no choice but to get used to, but he also spent a lot of time out on the grass and dirt during the day. So then to go from that to carpet was a cinch (and the added bonus of couches he was allowed on). There was a bit of a shock to go from carpet to our current wood flooring, but once we got him a grooming appointment and nail clipping, things got a lot easier for him. Though it's probably about time for another appointment, based on the amount of traction he's getting lately. One of these days I'll record his "food dance" so you can see his acrobatic pirouettes in action.
As a not-quite-2-year-old, Rosco has already traveled close to 5,000 miles between the Caribbean and across the U.S., but in that time he has learned how to adapt to be the right kind of dog in the right place.
(Also, as I go back through these and fix the typos, HOLY CRAP my typing is horrendous. And more of those dang participles. One of these days maybe I'll skip the proofreading so you can see just how bad it gets.)
Until next time, mind your r's and c's,
Eric
As I started thinking about the topic of today's post, I reflected on the adaptive nature of our dog Rosco. Mainly, how he has been able to thrive in three distinct environments. So naturally, I wanted to come up with a word that expressed his ability to change and adapt to his various living conditions. I thought of frogs (of course) and their duality. The word "amphibian" seemed like a reasonable place to work from, but, being an utter novice in understanding etymology, I assumed that all I had to do was change the "bi" (which I assumed represented 2 here) to "tri" (3) for the word, "amphitrian". But clearly, that doesn't look or sound right at all. And it very much isn't. "Upon further review", the word actually derives from the two roots "amphi" meaning "both" (a la "ambidextrous") and "bios" meaning "life" or "living environments". So I'm not exactly sure what my word would translate to, but it's not the word I'm looking for. Instead, I went with the easy to say "multiphibian". I know the etymology is still a mess, but it doesn't make sense without the "phib".
But anyhow, all of that is just a long way of saying that I'm incredibly impressed with how Rosco adapts to his surroundings.
As you know, we got Rosco in January of '13 when we were on the island. He was still very much a puppy, so we were able to raise him as "American" as possible (i.e. getting all his shots, letting him sleep inside, etc.). Still, we were living on an island, so he became accustomed to some things that would sound ridiculous in most other places. For instance, we had no fence or property divider, yet I felt reasonably okay with letting him outside without a leash. Sure, I'd bring one with me when I followed him out, but that was in case he started getting into mischief with the dogs downstairs. He never strayed too far, and if he did, it usually just resulted in an impromptu hosing (a pitiful site, to be sure).
So for the first year of his life, Rosco lived the island dog, rural life. Then it came time to move. Flying him to the states actually turned out to be a much easier experience than I expected. Even with an overnight stop in Puerto Rico, Rosco was a real trooper throughout. By the way, if you ever need to stay in Puerto Rico with a dog, check out the Verdanza Hotel in San Juan. They have a dedicated dog park within the hotel property, are fine with dogs walking through the lobby, and even have a couple treats ready for pets when you check in! Really impressive.
So we finally got to Colorado, and from there, Ohio. Rosco got his first taste of Suburban House Dog living. He learned what proper streets looked like. He learned how to co-habituate with another dog (both with Melissa's family dog Hershey, a miniature Dachshund, and my family's Aussie, a Beagle/Australian Shepherd). He got to experience the joys of air conditioning and the simultaneously limiting and freeing of electric fences. He also learned what it's like to not live on a small mountain, where walks can happen at a gradient of less than 10 degrees. He also learned what 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) feels like. Really, it's amazing he didn't have a tougher time transitioning to such a drastically different environment.
Then, of course, after he had about 6 months to get acclimated to suburban life, it came time to move back to Chicago, and back to an apartment. But now, when we want to go for walks, Rosco always needs to be on leash, and if he wants to run around, we have to drive him over to the local dog park (with his 'Ridgebark' I.D.). And soon, he'll get to experience the joy of floorboard heating (assuming it gets kicked on soon), and what that will do to our wood flooring.
Speaking of which, when I really think about Rosco's transitioning to new environments, the constant determining factor when it came to how quickly he got used to his new home was the flooring. You see, Rosco is a very tactile-oriented animal. If a surface seems even the slightest bit slick, and he isn't used to it, he will just avoid it at all costs. Our floor in the Caribbean was sort of a porous tile, which Rosco really had no choice but to get used to, but he also spent a lot of time out on the grass and dirt during the day. So then to go from that to carpet was a cinch (and the added bonus of couches he was allowed on). There was a bit of a shock to go from carpet to our current wood flooring, but once we got him a grooming appointment and nail clipping, things got a lot easier for him. Though it's probably about time for another appointment, based on the amount of traction he's getting lately. One of these days I'll record his "food dance" so you can see his acrobatic pirouettes in action.
As a not-quite-2-year-old, Rosco has already traveled close to 5,000 miles between the Caribbean and across the U.S., but in that time he has learned how to adapt to be the right kind of dog in the right place.
(Also, as I go back through these and fix the typos, HOLY CRAP my typing is horrendous. And more of those dang participles. One of these days maybe I'll skip the proofreading so you can see just how bad it gets.)
Until next time, mind your r's and c's,
Eric
Friday, September 12, 2014
Mixing it up
I'm trying a new thing with this being the first post of a new blog. And that thing is called "not-looking-at-the-screen-while-typing". Of course, I'll go back at the end and fix any typos and whatnot (my typing skills are horrendous), and there are a couple of keys on the keyboard that I need to look at (these guys, for instance). But due to the nature of my newly gained employment, I need to remain attentive while typing, hence the not-looking.
What is my job, you ask? Well, I am currently a professional tutor at a community college in the suburbs of Chicago. Most of my hours are scheduled as "in-class tutoring", where I go to regular class periods and assist students with their computer-based assignments. So as I'm typing this right now, I'm making sure that I can catch the eye of any confused or exasperated student so that I might be able to give them some pertinent advice. I've tried the method of continuously pacing around the computer lab, but I think it is more distracting than helpful, and gives an impression of constant monitoring. Frankly, most of the students I work with don't need one more person looking over their shoulder.
But anyway, here I sit, sitting with my chair elevated as high as any good computer chair can go, scanning across the room, looking for furrowed brows or complexions of relative befuddlement, ready to amble over and do some algebraic triage. Well, triage sounds too severe. More like light first aid followed by wellness techniques for future symptoms. Although now that I'm sitting here, I think it might be time to make a quick lap.
(...)
There we go. Always good to stretch the legs out. See where everyone is at. Yes, I dangle my participle. Just like any good midwesterner.
But I digress. I decided to start a new blog rather than continue my previous blog for a couple reasons. Firstly, it helps mark a change in my life. Tangentially Related was a collection of stories from my experience on the island, and now that I'm back in the states, it seemed more prudent to start fresh, in a way. Plus, this way it's harder to tell that I haven't blogged in over nine months (eesh). The other main reason is that I was never too keen on the name of my blog in the first place. I sort of liked having a very subtle math reference in the title, but it never really clicked for me. I kept it out of necessity, but I've wanted to change it for a very long time. And it wasn't until we moved back to Chicago that I was fortunate enough to stumble across an awesome name like Ridgebark Mix.
So let me recount to you the story of the Ridgebark. As you may be aware, my wife and I have a dog. He is a mutt we adopted as a puppy on the island (as you can read in this post, true believer! -E), and we have yet to determine his true lineage. All we can be relatively sure of is that he has at least some Rhodesian Ridgeback in there; it makes sense based on the dogs brought to the island by colonists, and he has the characteristic "ridge". So when we went to the park district to sign up fro a dog park pass, I wrote his breed as "Ridgeback Mix". But apparently my 'c' was a little sloppy. Hence, "Ridgebark". (On a related note, my color description of "Tannish brown" got translated to "Tarnish brown")
Needless to say, I'm super stoked (who says stoked? Cool dudes, that's who) with the new title, as it implies that I can use this blog to talk about a wider variety of topics beyond merely my life. Don't get me wrong: I'll keep blogging about what's going on in the old Larson household, but I will also delve into other things that catch my interest. Be it news, sports, games, I'm up for anything.
So here's to new beginnings! Until next time, mind your r's and c's.
Eric
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)