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April 29, 2006
Ireland Trip: Wrinkle One
File this under "I should have taken care of this two weeks ago".
I called Expedia yesterday to confirm things as well as check on our Boston -- Ireland connection. We only had an hour in Boston; I wondered if that was enough time to take care of the transfer. What I was really scared about was having to collect our baggage from USAirways and manually haul it up to Aer Lingus.
Expedia customer service has been nothing but great thus far. My call yesterday was no exception, other than the representative not explaining things particularly well without me asking lots of questions. She was very pleasant; she just needed some work on the "clear and concise explanation" part. Regardless, this is what I found out:
First, USAirways had slightly rescheduled our Charlotte-Boston flight, which would result in a later arrival. This late arrival gave us less than an hour to make our transfer. Given that an hour is the minimum transfer time at Boston Logan AND the fact that we would have to claim our bags and recheck them, something had to be done. The Expedia rep was going to check on things and call me back.
She ended up booking us on an earlier Charlotte-Boston flight. Because of this change and the fact that we had already been mailed paper tickets for our flights, we had to send the tickets back to Expedia and they would issue us new ones. This led to a frantic call on my part to Sarah, who met me at my office (I took a break from the student presentations that served as my final exam) to get the mailing info and then ran to the post office. She Express Mailed our tickets back to Expedia (who is in Atlanta). Expedia will then express mail us the new tickets upon receipt of our old ones.
Now I have no plane tickets to anywhere, which is a little scary. I am sure this will all work out, but having this major wrinkle only ten days before departure is stressful. I am glad I called at all, but I really should have taken care of this two weeks ago.
Posted by Nakia at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2006
Ireland Trip: The Plans
Sarah and I leave for Ireland in ten days. Wow! We've fgot a lot to do before then, as I finish the semester and Sarah takes her state real estate exam next week. But we're very excited about our trip and the plans are all finally coming together.
We're renting a car, driving around and staying at Bed and Breakfasts for most of the trip, with three nights in Dublin at the end. Thus we don't have a set intenerary, per se, although we do have some general plans. I'll post them here for comments. Maybe folks have suggestions for some not to be missed places or activities.
8 May -- we leave Charlotte in the afternoon (I still have to arrange some airport transportation) and fly to Boston. Then we take an overnight Aer Lingus flight to Shannon, then on to Dublin.
9 May -- We arrive Dublin at 7:30 in the morning and will go pick up our car. I've reserved us a room at the Grove House in Carlingford. Carlingford is only about an hour from the airport, but I know we'll be dead tired. We'll also be getting used to driving on the left, steering from the right, and shifting gears with our left hand. Look out, Irish motorists. We'll see stuff close by this day -- the Hill of Tara, the tombs at Newgrange, and some monastic ruins with high crosses near Carlingford. I'm sure we'll crash out after dinner, but we'll try to go to bed at a reasonable Irish hour to get rid of the jet lag. We'll also have to figure out a place to stay the next night, probably somewhere near Sligo.
10 May -- We're go to try and get up early and head into Northern Ireland, all the way up to the Giant's Causeway. (I say "all the way up" but it's maybe 90 miles. Living in the U.S., one's sense of distance is a little skewed, I think). Our original plans were to stay here for a day or so and take a trip into Belfast. I wanted to see some of the murals and learn more about the Troubles. But we now have a connection in Cork, so we're going to eliminate Belfast from the interary and head south. Depending on time, we may stop in Derry, but we'll end up somewhere in Sligo.
11 May -- I'd like to see Yeats' grave, which is right outside of Sligo. I'm not a huge Yeats guy, but "The Second Coming" is one of my favorite poems. I've started to read a bit of Yeats to prepare for the trip, and this is his part of the country. Not sure what else will do, but we'll continue south.
12 May -- Have no idea what this day has in store for us or where we'll end up. We both want to see the Cliffs of Moher (aka the "Cliffs of Insanity") and poke around Connemarra, so we may stay there or in Clare somewhere, or we may continue on to Cork.
13 May -- One of my gradaute students is good friends with Stephen Housden, the gutarist for the Little River Band. He and his wife live in Cork. They've said they's like to meet us and show us around a bit of we get down that way. Because Stephen is a musician, he often plays out around town, so this may be our chance to hear some "trad" -- or at least hang out with a rock star, which is pretty cool in and of itself.
14 May -- We certainly want to go to Mass somwhere. I'm looking forward to that. After church, we'll head back to Dublin. Blarney Castle is near Cork, so we may do the tourist thing and go kiss the stone. We have to return the car this day, so we'll do that then check into our hotel: the O'Callaghan Alexander. We used one of those package deals from Expedia to bundle our hotel and airfare together, so we got a good deal on this hotel, which looks very nice. (I love Expedia, btw).
15 - 16 May -- Two full days in Dublin. I want to see Trinity College and the Book of Kells. Sarah wants to see the Guinness Museum.. I'm sure we will not spend any time at all in the pubs of Temple Bar. Nope.
17 May -- Back to the U.S. Our flight leaves at 1:00 and we'll be back in Charlotte at about 9:00.
Very excited about this one!
Posted by Nakia at 10:07 AM | Comments (1)
April 24, 2006
The Personal Responsibility Argument
From what some would see as an unlikely source:
Rappers Urge Financial Responsibility
Posted by Nakia at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2006
No Child Left Behind tinkering
This story describes how the Secretary of Education is pushing forr an examination of a portion of the NCLB act that lets states set their own minimum number of scores reported under the act.
The fact that states omit scores from reporting is not terribly surprising, nor do I think it's some big conspiracy. Giving states power to set the mimimum amout of data needed for their analysis seems like a reasonable thing to do, given the wide variety of student populations and organizational structures in each state. Measuring the entire population is not necessary to generate reliable data, you just need a sample that is representative and statistically significant. But is there potential for abuse? Certainly.
What's also interesting about this story (and other NCLB stories) is how Spellings and the Federal government typically ends up framing the debate as "the federal government wants what's best for all children and the states keep getting in the way of that." I'm not sure that's entirely true, but it makes the Department of Ed. look like the good guys.
Interesting tidbits at the end of the article. I'll have to track down the entire AP study.
Posted by Nakia at 08:52 AM | Comments (1)
April 20, 2006
I'm a musician!
Okay, it's not me, but this guys stuff is pretty good. And he knows the origin of our name.
Posted by Nakia at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2006
Abandoning Neil Gaiman
I am officially giving up trying to read Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys. I bought this book last November. I was able to have it signed by Gaiman at his Joseph-Beth Booksellers appearance. It's been on my bedside table since then. I've started this book twice. Both times I get maybe 150 pages into it before not really wanting to pick it up again.
The problem I have with this book is just that it's so familiar. I haven't read a ton of Gaiman -- a lot of the Sandman comics, Neverwhere and American Gods, but Anansi Boys seems like it fits the Gaiman pattern to a T: normal guy finds out he has some connection to a larger, mysterious and magical world that most people do not or cannot notice (this connection is often familial), that world intrudes on his life, things get really messed up for him in the process, and then there is a fairly major magical event as the climax where the protagonist learns something about this magical world and himself in the process. Then, things go back to normal, but the protagonist's life is never quite the same.
I certainly don't want to over-criticize Gaiman. I think he's a good writer. American Gods was incredible. There is just a sameness of plot structure that makes me feel like I know what is going to happen before it actually does. Most of the time, the details of the jouney are enough to make me want to trod the familiar plot path with Gaiman. Not this time, though. Anansi Boys is going out of the "to be read" stack and onto the shelf. Hopefully, I'll rediscover it in the future.
Posted by Nakia at 09:40 AM | Comments (2)
April 18, 2006
Virgina = Big Brother?
I received a letter in the mail yesterday from the University of Virginia. This letter said my wages were going to be garnished because of a tax lien from the City of Charlottesville. There are several problems here:
1. I have not worked for UVA for almost a year.
2. I have not lived in Charlottesville for almost a year.
3. I have received no tax notice of any kind from the City of Charlottesville
As a result of this letter, I made several phone calls. I learned the following:
1. The City of Charlottesville and the DMV of Virginia still think I live in Charlottesville, despite the fact that I have a SC driver's license since June of 2005.
2. Because of #1, the city claims I owe $80 in personal property taxes.
3. Apparently, I was supposed to let the city and DMV know that I had moved.
4. They want me to pay my taxes anway and they will "refund me the difference when they receive verification that I no longer live in Virginia."
This sucks, because I now have to come up with $80 and trust the good city of Charlottesville will refund that money to me. I guess I could just send the verification and not the money, but I am worried about my credit rating.
The larger question is why do I have to let one state know I am leaving (other than to reduce hassles like this)? Does the state have any reason to know where I am living, other than I am NOT living in their state? Wasn't the fact that I turned in my VA driver's license to get my SC license enough?
Virginia seems to be the only state this anal. I moved from SC to Texas and from Texas to Virginia. Neither one of those states seemed to really care where I was going. I paid my state income taxes and they were happy. Well, Texas doesn't have state income taxes, but that's beside the point.
Come to think of it, when Sarah moved to Virginia, she filed a "partial year resident" return that first year. Virginia sent her a letter basicly saying "partial year resident, eh? Well, where did you live before that, huh?"
I guess it's just Virginia being vigilant against tax fruad, but give me a break.
Posted by Nakia at 11:18 AM | Comments (7)
April 13, 2006
Lost 4/12/06
This is not turning into a "Lost" blog, I promise. I've just been busy finishing up some backlogged grading and getting ready to end the semester. Now, my grading is finished just in time to post about last night's episode.
Real blog updates will begin again soon.
I enjoyed last night's episode a lot. It was good to get some backstory on Rose and Bernard. I've always enjoyed those two characters, as they seem the least mysterious out of all the group. Very little drama or mystery with those two, which is refreshing. Although last night's episde gave us both drama and mystery with the happy couple.
Things we learned (most of these were hinted at earlier, but confirmed last night):
1. The island heals. It made Locke walk and cured Rose's cancer.
2. Eko and Charlie are building a church. This looks like it's Charlie's way to redemption, but we'll see. This scene also supplied the funniest line of the episode: "I think I liked you better when all you did was beat people with a stick."
3. Rose knew Locke was in a wheelchair before the crash. Given that it's Rose, there's not a lot of drama there, but Rose sharing her knowledge with Locke seemed to be key to Locke's renewal of faith in the island. He seems to be back on track after several episodes of Gale-induced self-doubt.
Other things that were cool:
1. Michael's back! I wondered when they would get around to getting him back in the mix. I'm glad he's back. His character can be pretty grating, but that prickliness spurs a lot of action and drama within the group. From the previews, it looks like that's going to happen again.
2. Kate & Jack. I was glad Kate finally told Jack about what she and Claire found in the other hatch. I was also glad she called Jack on hiding Henry for so long without telling her. It also looks like some romantic sparks were flying again between the two, which is a good thing. I'm glad the show doesn't overuse the sexual tension angle between the main protagonists (that got tired in the X-Files), but having all these people on the island together without any "hooking up" just strains credibility. (bit of humor there).
3. Is Jack superman? Seriously, is there anything he cannot do? He's was a world-famous surgeon beofre the island. He's competent in almost every area of medicine (obstretrics, pedicatrics, even optometry!). He's got pretty good wilderness skills. He's great at poker. Now we know he can really shoot a gun. Maybe that was a lucky shot, just put in there to create a bit of humor and tension between him and Kate. And maybe Jack's competency in almost everything is just a dramatic device. Or maybe there is a lot more going on with Jack than we know. It could be either, but I wonder.
A few weeks to any new episodes. Looks like Sarah and I will be in Ireland for the new stuff. Do they get Lost in Ireland? I'm going to have to get someone to tape the episodes.
Posted by Nakia at 08:54 AM | Comments (5)
April 06, 2006
Lost 4/5/06
Is it me, or did we learn more in this episode than in the "Five Things Will Be Revealed!" episode?
This was one of my favorite episodes, I think.
Spoilers, of course, follow.
Please don't spoil anything from future episodes in the comments. I like my surprises!
Things we learned:
1. Island is probably not somebody's dream. (and I think Cutter's comments about nods to the fans are right on. Hurley is usually the vehicle for these comments).
2. Libby was in the hospital with Hurley.
3. The reason Hurley was in the hospital.
4. Inputing the numbers really doesn't do anything. (Unless Henry is lying).
5. Henry is an Other. (we learned this last ep, but had it confirmed in this one)
6. Zeke is not the leader of the others. There's another guy who makes Zeke look like Strawberry Shortcake, apparently.
7. The outside world (and, God, I guess) doesn't know the island exists.
Other comments:
I wonder if Henry's comments to Locke about God not even knowing about the island was done on purpose to mess with Locke's head.
Good to see Eko again! I liked it how, in this episode, a lot of folks were involved. We got to see Sayid, Anna-Lucia, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Libby, Eko, Charlie, Locke, Jin, Sun, and Jack.
The Hurley-Sawyer fight was hysterical. Sawyer getting pulled back into the tent. Hurley shouting out all of Sawyer's little pet names ("Jabba", "Stay-Puft") as he pounds him. Nice.
And it had cool guest stars -- Dave was Charlotte's husband from "Sex and the City" and the doctor was the senator from the "X-Men" movies.
Posted by Nakia at 10:25 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
April 05, 2006
Important Article on Education
Okay, it's from the Onion. So it's funny and crude and not at all important.
WARNING: FOUL LANGUAGE
And, just for the record, I was NOT that guy in college.
Posted by Nakia at 04:59 PM | Comments (3)
April 03, 2006
A great weekend
Back at work on a rainy Monday morning, ready to face the stack of essays I have to grade. Despite the work and the weather, I am in a good mood. It's hard not to start things off on a good note after a great weekend.
A not-at-all productive Friday morning gave way to some gaming Friday afternoon. I've connected with a few Winthrop students and we occasionally game on Fridays. It's casual, with folks coming when they can. Although that makes it a little difficult to plan, it does create a light atmosphere -- just some monsters to fight and some light backstory. It's fun.
Friday night Sarah and I watched a "Rick Steves Ireland" DVD to prepare for our trip. We've just about got an intenerary worked out for the drive. More on that later.
Saturday my dad drove in from Knoxville to help me with yard work. I have the best dad ever. I called him on Friday night to ask, if he wasn't doing anything, if he'd come and give me a hand with the aerating. He wasn't and he did. He arrived about 9:30 Saturday morning, we went and rented and aerator, poked lots of holes in my yard, then took the machine back. I put out more seed (bermuda grass, for those keeping score) and watered. I then took dad out to lunch at McHales and we watched some of the bicycle race going on downtown. The weather was great. We then just relaxed the rest of the afternoon. Sarah brought home some pizza ingredients from Past and Provisions. We cooked a pizza, did some more relaxing, and I went to bed early.
Dad got up early Sunday morning to get back to Knoxville. Since I was already up, I pried Sarah out of bed. We cooked some fun breakfast burritos, pack our stuff, and went for a hike. We hiked from Kings Mountain State Park to the Kings Mountain National Battlefield Visitor's Center and back -- about six miles. Again, the weather was great. The national park part of the hike had a controled burn performed on Tuesday, so it was ashy and smokey. Not the ideal atmostphere, but still interesting. I remarked that it was like Mordor.
We returned from the hike, showered, and went to the grocery store. We picked up some London broil on sale and grilled it up for dinner. Sarah cooked these shredded potato things that were really good to go with the steak. After dinner, we did some more Ireland planning during commercials of Desperate Housewives. I find the show amusing in an absurd way, but Sarah really likes it.
All of that, plus baseball is back!! What a great weekend!
Posted by Nakia at 09:46 AM | Comments (3)