How I Feel About New Shoes

I recently got a new pair of running shoes and I decided to share with you how I feel about them. 

First of all I feel like I have gained athletic ability just because of how shiny they are.

But I have psychological drama about them getting dirty. 

My ODC self and my Sane self find this to be a trying time.

I end up making special efforts to avoid puddles and other junk and I constantly hear a tiny nagging voice telling me not to get anything on my shoes.

 Then when I finally scuff them up.

I feel tortured and relieved at the same time. 

Wake Up Little Buddy.

  The Death of Ivan Ipodovitch.
  A sad tale.

NANO CORNELIUS IPODOVITCH  2009-2014

Nano Cornelius Ipodovitch accompanied Liz throughout her adventures for the past 6 years. Nano was an R2-D2 of electronic devices - faithful and snarky to the end. 

When Liz first received Nano as a birthday present from her brother, she wasn't sure that she needed an ipod. But soon, Nano had won its way into Liz's heart and they were inseparable for the next 6 years.

Nano accompanied Liz throughout approximately 2,400 miles of running since sophomore year of college. During this prolonged period of running, Nano patiently bore with Liz's selection of trashy pop -enduring untold amounts of Katy Perry. 

       Nano is survived by Liz and her laptop Alexander. Both will miss him dearly. They held a small memorial service for Nano complete with a funereal wreath made of the many ear-buds that Nano destroyed (about every 6 months- Ipod ages should be counted in dead ear-buds - Liz learned this from the book Cultural Customs of Small Electronic Devices" which has been very helpful in this trying time. )

April Fools

On the eve of this fool's day I began to wonder why it is that we spend time, money and effort to create elaborate hoaxes that our loved ones will undoubtedly hate. 

Why is it that victims of pranks never stop and say, "Listen, couldn't you have spent your energies on baking me a cake instead lighting my hair on fire? But no." 

So I did extensive and rigorous historical research on Wikipedia to trace the origin of this ludicrous holiday and found the following interesting facts.

 April Fools and similar prank playing holidays are celebrated internationally. 

1. In Scotland it was called "Hunt-The-Gowk-Day" (Gowk - definition an idiot or a cuckoo). On this day you send someone a message which says for example, "Go find Sam and he will tell you where I hid your favorite chicken." They then go to find Sam and receive a message which says, "Go find Artis, he is the next step on the journey to find your chicken." This treasure hunt game is intended to never end sending the poor chicken deprived individual on a looping set of errands. 

In other news "gowk" is indubitably a good word for stupid and should be reintroduced to common usage. 

For example, 

Person one: "Hey everyone let me post this thing that I read from the mattwalshblog."

Person two: "Lord no. Gowk."

 2. April Fish. 

 In some French speaking countries it is called "April Fish" the goal of this day is to tape paper fish to your friend's backs. 

Why are fish funny? I don't know - but it is.

In past times they made April fish postcards and sent them out to their friends -

These postcards are so old that they are in the public domain - yay! And we thought old timey people never had any fun. But they made these postcards so they clearly enjoyed the ridiculous.

See you could spell out the word April using fish on your postcard. 

You could also take a picture of a couple awkwardly holding a fish between them whilst staring into each others eyes with doting expressions. 

You could then add additional questions such as - The fish they are holding doesn't seem to be real, since this is old school Photoshop- what are they actually holding? Are they holding anything at all? Is that what makes their hands so limp and awkward? What does it say at the bottom- I think it says something about "lovers" and "fish"...I changed my mind I do not want to know.

Why does the fish in the top-most-left corner have a huge bow around it? Is it exhaling in it's fishy stink breath the word "avril"?

Last but not least from a business perspective this "Awkward Couple Holding Fish" postcard should be re-printed I would buy that and send it to people for sure - not during April Fools though - just randomly. And I would write, "thinking of you" on the back.

3. Having holidays with the express goal of being ridiculous is not new. Ancient peoples held festivals where everyone was ridiculous- some of them were the famous, "Feast of Fools" (Spain) and "Saturnalia" (Rome). In all of these superiors and inferiors traded roles and people disguised themselves. Often a Lord of Misrule was established along with a supporting ecclesiastical set of "Bishops of Nonsense" or whatever. 

Here have an April fools wish:

"May the true Lord of Misrule, Puck* (duh kids, duh),

 bestow upon you this April day

 his square crown - each side of which depicts a leering face its tongue out.

 May all your tricks hit true 

but end up for the best as in the comedy of Fairies.

May Puck not choose you as his own and bestow upon you devious little horns."

 *From A Midsommers Night's Dream - today is his day and you should watch out 

because he is the king of tricksters: 

"Thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there."

Math Homework Battles

When I started doing pre-algebra I would spend much more time making up stories about battles between the positive and negative numbers than doing the problems- the winner was determined in the answer. It was not a very successful approach to learning the mechanics of mathematics.

My math homework always morphed into number story time.

And now a semi-math rant:

Math needs to get more interesting.

Kids are fully capable of talking about math - and theorizing about it. 

I know because I unintentionally started a conversation about whether or not one was a number with some of my students. I said something like, "some ancient mathematicians did not consider one to be a number." And boom some kids attempted to understand why they would say that - "yeah wait one is really different than the other counting numbers. One fits into all of the numbers." These kids challenged some others who said things like, "no but when you learn to count you start with one so one is a number". Suddenly a discussion about the number two developed from nowhere - "two is also a weird number..." 

Anyway someday I want to try teaching Euclid to elementary students. 

Seize the Absurd Writes some Children's books.

I have always wanted to write children's books.

I get about two sentences into writing them and then I stop - I will share them with you anyway.

1. The Iphone and the Whale

2.  "I am hungry"

"I am hungry" - said the black hole. It ate a nearby solar system, a comet, and an alien named Christoph. It was still hungry. 

It ate a universe. It ate a parallel universe. Is that even possible? 

Whatever - It was still hungry...

3. The princess and the social media snafu. 

Exactly what it says. Next.

4. And the Layer Cake's Name was Joaquin.

Why would the master baker at Creme de la Creme make a cake as boring as Joaquin? Has the baker completely lost his marzipan? All the other fabulously decorated cakes tell Joaquin that he doesn't belong. Is it true?

5. The Pickles and the Peanut Butter.

One day Alex decides to make her own lunch. Her peanut butter pickle sandwich causes a stir in the school cafeteria. Alex is instantly a school wide celebrity. Everybody knows her name and she basks in the elementary school glory.

 Pretty soon though, all the kids are eating revolting food combinations- bologna and strawberry jam and chocolate chip tuna- YUCK. After a few days Alex isn't so sure that she wants to keep eating weird food - the thought of a peanut butter pickle sandwich is making her downright queasy. 

Self Help books for kids- and anxiously success oriented parents:

Baby Harvard Business Series: "Graham Cracker Tycoon" 

Through investment, financial analysis, and stealing I acquired 90% of today's daycare snack material. You can too.

Ready to be in the top percentage of apple juice holders? Read this book and learn how to amass a bland snack empire.

Ready Set - 99.9th percentile -Prepare Your Baby for Standardized Testing. 

Welcome new human beings! Our society bases a person's value on numbers from a scantron machine. Yesterday is the time to get ready for the SAT, ACT, GRE, MCAT, LSAT, and HAZMAT .  

Featuring reading comprehension questions for babies like the following: 

         Which one of the following best expresses the intent of the passage from goodnight moon?

               (A) Saying goodnight to a gazillion inanimate objects helps the bunny drift into                                           unconsciousness.

               (B) The old lady whispering hush is frustrated with the little bunny.

               (C) Since when do bunnies own cats?

               (D) Mush is this bunny's favorite bedtime snack.

Order today and receive a giant number two pencil.

The Greatest Love Story

It's Valentine's Day so I get to tell you my favorite love story.

Once upon a time a bunch of Greek men were all sitting around together being drunk and having a speech competition.*

The subject of the speech competition was love. 

Some people had given beautiful, rational, speeches about love - any of which would have put a decent person to sleep on the spot. 

Finally it was Aristophanes' turn. Some were worried that he would not be very serious because he was a comic playwright. To them he said, " I am not worried about saying something funny in my coming oration. That would be pure profit, and it comes with the territory of my Muse. What I'm worried about is that I might say something ridiculous." 

He did say something ridiculous. 

Something ridiculously false and absurdly true all at the same time. 

And it went something like this: 

Long ago human beings were very different. First off there were three kinds of people - male, female and androgynous. Secondly, they were fantastically odd looking. The shape of each person was completely round, with back and sides in a circle; they had four arms and legs and one head with two faces. They had two sets of reproductive organs and ears and eyeballs and....you get it. They walked around and whenever they wanted to go fast, they stuck out all their eight limbs, and flipped head over heels, the way gymnasts do cartwheels. They were terribly fast at this - and it was quite dangerous because they charged everywhere like bowling balls.

They were round because they were descended from the heavenly bodies. Like the heavenly bodies they were powerful but unlike the heavenly bodies they were terribly behaved. They decided to attack the gods.

          Zeus and the other gods had a family meeting to speak about what could be done. On the one hand, the gods wanted to keep humanity around because they liked the sacrifices given to them. On the other hand, the human beings were attacking heaven so something had to be done to stop them. 

          Zeus said, "Hey other deities, I have a plan to put the kibosh on the misbehaving human beings. It does not even involve killing them off. I will simply blast them all in half. They will not be as strong and they will walk around on two legs instead of spinning about and making everyone dizzy. If they still run around idiotically and cause problems - I will split them in half yet again and they will have to get about by hopping around on one leg." 

        Zeus didn't wait for anyone else to agree with his plan because he did whatever he wanted anyway - so he just whacked them in half right then like fruit ninja. Apollo was given the job of sewing them up a bit but he got lazy around the middle so we have bellybuttons.

        But the human beings were so utterly distraught and alone without their opposite halves that they just lay around everywhere holding each other and dying of starvation. Zeus felt sorry for them because they were so pitiful. He solved their problem by flipping their reproductive organs round to the front so that they could have sex and be one person again.

And Aristophanes summed up his story about the origin of love by saying:  "So this is where love comes from, love calls the halves of our original nature back together and it tries to make one out of two and heal up our terrible alone-ness. love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness and our desire to be complete. Also we should behave ourselves if we don't want to end up half-faced creatures who get about by hopping on one leg. Let us respect the gods because it would be awful to have half a nose."

And what he said was obviously false and profoundly true.

(*this story comes from Plato's Symposium, I have bowdlerized it somewhat - and cut out some chunks because it is very lengthy. I am too lazy to cite every quotation but you can find the beginning of it at 189a)

An Aristophanes Valentine - what everybody has been waiting for.

If we only had one leg and we hopped about on it - would we also have half a butt?

I think that we would.

For some reason I find the one-legged hopping thing hilarious.

And also these additional valentines which I made this morning instead of studying:

Feb -RU-ary. Brew? Brew what? Beer? A magic potion? Stupid month.

Through extensive research I have discovered some possible alternative names for the month of February - for example some Old English terms for this month are: "solmonath" (meaning: mud month) and "Kalemonath" (meaning month of cabbage). A month named after kale! Health-nuts rejoice!

 No really. This could also be captioned "together forever". Not even that "get the legos apart without using your teeth machine" will fix this issue.
 Who likes my computer mouse painted hearts?

Another Lego Valentine because yes.
My thumb is in this picture because I am too lazy to crop it.

Doing great on that forth section.

Jury duty was unexpectedly cool. Part 3

Now that I have lured you into this triad of posts with jokes.

If you look up jury duty online you will find a million articles entitled:

How do I avoid Jury duty?
Here is my answer: Reconsider some crap and have an attitude adjustment. 

   According to my childhood the phrase "attitude adjustment" is usually indicator for the fact that you are about to be hit by a parental unit and or friend of the family who is close enough that they are not willing for you to grow up to be a snotbratturdrocket. If you are lacking in parental units willing to smack you up-side the head ask a close friend for help[1]
     What you should do is not be attempting to avoid jury duty. A significant number of people in California do not respond to jury summons. It seems to be something close to a judicial apathy epidemic. The consistent jury dodging of citizens has resulted in courts stepping up their penalty game for no-show jurors. But punishment isn't why you should go. 
 "But Liz you didn't start off with a great attitude. If I remember correctly you started off livid that you were stuck on a jury and you proceeded to be inclined towards irresponsible and immature behavior[2] ." 
True, I did not start off with a phenomenal attitude and of that I am not proud. But I changed my attitude, hence the word "adjustment". I imagine that if you are put on a week long jury that you won't start off so happy, but by the end of it you might remember what I am saying here.

Yes but…[3]

I have some important excuses:
   I have a life. Yes. Yes you do. Dead people do not have to report for jury duty. The courts are considerate like that.
   I have a job.  you get to participate in the the justice system which was created for your benefit and works to your benefit everyday whether you notice it or not.
   This is boring. Some of it is. We spent a significant chunk of a day looking through someones pay stubs. I hate pay stubs. I don't look at my own pay stubs. That is boring. But these pay stubs factor into a bigger, important question, "Does this person owe that person 500,000 dollars?" That's a life altering question for these two people. That is a question that they have been waiting for three years to get an answer to. That is something that you do not get to be bored about.
   I don't like America. America kills innocent people, puts dictators in power and is generally considered the military bully of the world. We hold political prisoners in a fashion frowned upon by those concerned with justice and we excel at sticking members of our society into prisons.
Do you see the difference between the second and third sentences? Hint it involves the word "we". Am I solely responsible for these things? No. But I am as a citizen of this country a part of the problem, the solution, and the apathy which turns our problems to stone.
There are things that I don't like about America. That's why we serve to make this a better place.

Next time you get that summons letter, think about the opportunities you have: 

1. Serve. Power is easy, even Machiavelli can work with that. It might be hard to get but it sure is easy to want. When was the last time you wanted to serve? Why do you think the world is impressed with Pope Francis? Because the man wants to serve, even more than that, he lives to serve.
Here you are in a room full of random people with the opportunity to practice service and wanting to serve.

2. You have the opportunity to devote your time to help other people make important decisions. Other people have done the work of collecting evidence and excluding evidence that they believe is unfounded and might -bias your opinion. You get to sit here listen to stuff and help with a decision. Congrats.

3. Law is something that we benefit from constantly and pay no attention to. Yes there are certain laws that you don't agree with. But isn't it nice that if I hit you with my car we can settle these issues without a Hatfield and McCoy status family feud? Having certain rules that govern our society is a good thing. What an old person thing to say. I think I might be getting old.

4. Trial by jury is intended to protect individuals from the power of the government. It also gives people the opportunity to have a decision made by some average people. Judges do not exactly qualify as average people - in terms of income, education, or experience. You get to be in a group of average people - hopefully with a limited amount of bias but a wide variety of experience.

---

[1] Actually I am pretty sure that that if you have good friends and you say, "I feel this way but I should not." Your good friends (who have read Nicomachean Ethics, of course) will tell you, "feeling inclinations towards bad things, is a bad sign. You need to get your virtue together by not acting on those inclinations."

One of the other jurors said that they did not believe the character witnesses were really telling the truth. The other juror said something like: “Well I know my friends would lie for me – so.”

And I was like, “Oh... My friends wouldn't.” 

"I have better friends." I thought.  

[2] I would like to point out that "inclined to" and "acting on" are fortunately not the same thing. Though I did once jokingly hit myself in the face with the juror notebook while some sort of drama involving confusion between the words "snorkel" and "norco" held the attention of the judge, lawyers, and various witnesses. The aforementioned notebook was an important part of my week. We were at some point thanked by one of the lawyers for taking diligent notes. He was unaware that a substantial quantity of my note taking involved me writing out things  like: "yes we get your point already" and "this does not show what Lawyer 1 is claiming that it shows" and "objection. Profound jury suffering at the hands of this lawyers abominable rhetoric...your honor"

[3] "Yes but..." Is the most devious way of saying, "I agree with you ...but actually I don't" or "I am going to start out all subservient in an attempt to dupe you and then do whatever I want".