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Let’s talk about rarities.

Today I stopped in at my credit union, to get a credit card. I had recently told Bank of America to go fuck themselves, and to take the credit card account I had with them for years and shove it up their asses, because they are the devil and all of their upper management should die. Hopefully, my wish will come true. The card is canceled, at least; we can hope for a positive outcome on the execs who should all die.

The education system in the United States is broken, we all know that. There are several theories about why this is, but that’s not what this post is about. This is about intern punks.

Yesterday Brenda & I trekked down to Denver to see “Next to Normal” at the Denver Center. It’s been a while since we’ve seen something there, and even longer since I’ve seen a musical anywhere.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything at all on this blog. I blame Facebook; too easy to snap a photo with my phone and upload it, too easy to link to funny or interesting things on the interwebs via FB or Twitter. But something has been lost in the process. And so begins the list of resolutions: I will try to migrate back to this blog for my vocal and visual outlet, my complaint outpost, my therapy.

Thanks to all who contributed to my fundraising efforts for the 2010 Cause for Paws, benefiting the Humane Society of Boulder Valley. About 500 people (plus dogs!) participated in either the run or the walk, and together we raised $50K to help the shelter help animals and their owners alike. Team Hooper (Hooper, Rob & Brenda) did the walk, and it was fairly hysterical to see what amounted to a giant dog walk unfold on the paths around Boulder on a beautiful day.

So, last month, I presented a paper at SimBuild 2010. Today, the lab I work for published a link to the preprint, which enters me into the scientific roll call. I am stoked.

In memoriam, I’m reposting my September Eleventh Account. I’ll save my Armory story for the decade anniversary, a story I have never actually gotten out of my head, but should; but I would like to say something here:

Hi folks; asking for money. It’s not for me, it’s for the animals.

Just wanted to point out a great, great article on a “peakbagging club” in New Jersey:

Last Thursday, I hit the airwaves, yakking about lighting simulation. For some reason the Boulder Green Building Guild was interested in my take on the use of simulation in optimizing the energy efficiency of building designs in the US, on the latest installment of Footprint Radio.

You know what the problem is, the reason for my site’s appearance looking like a front for the mob (like the candy store in my hometown that had all this old, shitty candy because the real business was being transacted in the back room)? It’s Facebook et al. pulling me away. Same reason I don’t do Digg or Twitter, or post enough pictures. Some stuff ends up over here, other stuff, over there. I only have so much time in the day to come up with this shit, and I feel like my fantastic wit should always end up back on my website. So I’ve been thinking lately that I should redo my website with a setup that pulls in stuff from all over the internets – stuff I’m reading, writing, looking at. And stuff about lights, planes, bikes, dogs, the sun. Whatever. So, yeah. That’s what’s up.

Still alive.

Six years ago this past week, my dad died. I think I’m finally coming to terms with it all, coming to terms with the fact that he was no father to me, that he literally left my sister & me to fend for ourselves almost twenty years prior to his death, when my sister & I were merely teenagers. Ahh, but that was just the legal part (if it’s even true, but who cares, because to delve deeper would involve characters in my life that I hate and care not to associate with ever again).

James was a little boy. Nine years old. We say “old”, as in “nine years old”, but nine years on earth is not a long time and does not make you old. Certainly not old enough to die.

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Brenda’s been telling me about this tree, this tree they pass on their walks, she and Hooper. Apparently there’s a knothole at the base of this tree, where Hooper keeps one of his prized possessions – a tennis ball.

Riding home from work tonight, I was struck by the nice dusk light and wondered aloud to my carpool buddy what it might be like to walk up the Shanahan Ridge Trail toward Fern Canyon. She was all about it. She said she often goes trail running around there with another friend. Suddenly it all made sense. I need to combine my evening walks with Hooper and some actual exercise.

Hold it, just hold on a fucking second. The last several Olympics, summer and winter, have carried a certain sporting elitist criticism on various new sports added to the games. Sports like snowboarding and BMX have been derided by various idiots as not being true sports, presumably because the sports’ elite athletes utter words like “stoked” – or the more vehement “totally stoked” – to explain the inner workings of the sport. Frontside. Backside. Fakie. McTwist. Apparently these are unacceptable bastardizations of the English language, but somehow Slachow is perfectly acceptable conversation if you are listening to Scott Hamilton.

Wow. So, once again, Brenda & I spent part of a February weekend checking out various films at the Boulder International Film Festival, and once again, we were not disappointed. This year, we had a nice manageable program: a movie a day, Friday through Sunday. Two were at the Boulder Public Library and one was at the fabulous Boulder Theater. The surprise of the weekend was that the library has a great theater; we hadn’t seen any screenings over there to date, and I was expecting folding chairs and a temporary screen. But it turns out that the Boulder Public Library has a really nice theater, on top of everything else it has going for it. And on Friday evening, at the Boulder Library’s theater, we saw “Split Estate”, a decent documentary about the shit going on in northwest Colorado and other southwestern states with the oil companies ruining lives and land right here in America. Check your listings on Discovery Channel or Green Planet or whatever, because it’s airing on there now. Pretty good.