| Went for a run on the beach at lunchtime. Windy, very overcast. My first run on the beach of The New Millennium (aren't you getting sick of "New Millennium" every where you look?)... On days off (weekends or holiday/vacation days) I usually run around my neighborhood. When I have worked out at lunchtime I've been going to the fitness center at the YMCA to use treadmill or stairclimber, etc.... I think that this is the first time I've run on the beach since November 10th.
Streams of wind-blown sand snaked and writhed a foot or two above the surface of the parking lot -- enough to give me a twinge of concern about parking (I knew someone who once had to have their car repainted to repair sand damage -- on a Porshe 911!), concerned enough that I parked with the back of the car facing the wind so that I would at least keep sand out of the engine compartment. High tide had been a little before 11 a.m., leaving the beach sand damp and packed down so I didn't have to put up with running in a sand storm. (At least once or twice I've abandoned a run due to blowing sand.) The beach is a bit over two thirds of a mile long, so I am running laps back and forth -- today I did three miles -- running into the wind, toward the Cliff Walk, means running into a wind blown spray from the surf. Driving home, listening to oldies on B101, the "Top Six at Six" featured January 11, 1958 - Rick Nelson, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Danny and the Juniors (okay, so I missed one and forgot another), I realized that I'd mentioned my fondness for that particular half hour broadcast in an entry a couple years ago. The DJ -- Bruce Palmer -- has an amazing depth of knowledge for oldies music, much of which was recorded before he was born (he's only around thirty or so). The evening after dinner was filled with homework supervision/assistance. Okay, Sean, what homework do you have? Read a short story? Okay, get off the computer and go read it. Then Jennifer is on the computer, working on a paper for her sociology class. No, first she needs to show me a game she wrote in Pascal. (Hi, what's your name, do you want to play a game... one of those programs... nice job... Have I mentioned that Borland Turbo Pascal was one of her Christmas presents?) Her topic was video games and violence. She did a lot of research, designed and distributed a survey on video game playing habits and any emotions aroused by playing, etc. Her problem was in pulling it all together following the rubric specified by her instructor. She kept complaining that she knew what to do to write a paper for an English course, but this sociology paper had different rules. I simply had to remind her -- while cleaning the kitchen and loading the dishwasher and making lunches for Wednesday -- that all she had to do was just follow the rubric. Okay, Sean, you've finished reading that story, so now tell me about it.... Back to the kitchen. A lot of her research was on the Internet -- even citations to a lot of print publications were actually to their webpages -- and she wasn't sure how to do the footnotes. To be honest, I'm not sure myself. I spent many years following either the MLA (Modern Language Association) stylesheet or the Chicago style (I can still remember the name without having to look it up: Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations -- wore out a couple copies of that during my undergraduate and graduate career). Of course, now it occurs to me to look it up on the web and sure enough there are MLA guidelines for citation of Internet sources. Well, she can make any needed adjustments Wednesday night when she does her final copy (paper is due on Thursday). Nancy, during all this, has been up in our room, grading papers and making lesson plans, although she did come into the kitchen at one point to borrow that computer (the only one with a printer) to print two files. Those who think teachers work short days should stop and take into account the three or four hours she puts in almost every night -- and probably six hours on weekends. I seem to be busy tonight linking to other entries on my own site, so as long as I am being so self-referential, let me cite one more Friday Night in Suburbia from October of '96 -- since I seem to have just been describing a Tuesday night in suburbia. |