Tvindy

German Club Site

Way back in 2000 I was an officer in the Ball State German Club. My main contribution to the club was the creation of a website, which is still up and can be viewed here. In the end it was a disappointment, because almost never would a German student consult it, even though, at that time, it had its own domain name. For some reason, members of language clubs never visit their club's site. And the next two administrations failed to update or maintain it.

Still, it's an impressive website, representing dozens of hours of work. To find out more about the officers, you can click on each side of the rotating cube. Also recommended is the link entitled "Die Physiker" which leads to another related site I did documenting the German Club play for that year and in which I landed a starring rôle. (I played the part of a spy pretending to be a mental patient who believed he was Isaac Newton.)

Since I no longer attend Ball State, and the site is hosted on the university servers, it will probably soon disappear. Enjoy it now while you still can!

My Grandparents

This is a photo of my grandparents taken many years ago in Eugene, Oregon. That was where they met. More specifically, they were both students at the University of Oregon. They started dating and soon decided to get married. Over break my grandfather drove my grandmother down to his parents' home in southern California in the sidecar of his motorcycle. His father (my great-grandfather) happened to be a minister, and he married them. Then they drove right back to their classes in Oregon as newlyweds.

I'm posting this now, because on Monday I will be driving over to Eugene, over 2000 miles away, to begin a masters program in Romance Languages. Actually, the fact that I am about to attend the same university as my grandparents is purely coincidental. I happen to have visited Eugene once some years back (also for no reason connected to them) and liked it. When I found out that the University of Oregon offered a program in Romance Languages, I decided I had to go. Soon my pic-of-the-week photos will be from Oregon rather than Indiana. Hm, maybe I will have to make a new album dedicated to the neon lights of Eugene.

Pushup Update

Remember my November entry entitled The Pushup Project? In it I toyed with the idea of dedicating 2004 to training until I was able to do 1000 pushups continuously by the end of the year. I was amazed at the response. To date that post has generated more comments from more readers than anything else I have written. I was even contacted by Charles ("Chick") Linster, whose page I had linked to in this post. He achieved the world record for continuous pushups in 1965 with 6006 pushups. That record remained unbroken for more than eleven years!

Well, after that I was really psyched. Not only was I convinced that it would be a good goal to pursue, but I would be stupid not to attempt it. I had it all planned out. On December 31st of this year I would do as many as I could (probably about 10), and then I would start out the next day (January 1st) by doing just one and then doubling the number of daily pushups every 36 days until December 31st rolled around. On that day I would usher in the new year (2005) by completing 1000 continuous pushups just before midnight. I would even have a separate blog in which to chart my progress.

Unfortunately I've recently had to come to terms with the fact that the pushup project will not be possible due to back problems. In 1998 I herniated my lowermost disk. Since then I've gone through a few years of intense pain. By the end of 2002 I had built myself back up to the point where I was able to run my first marathon. (That whole saga might be good material for future posts.) But even though I am much more functional than I used to be, discs never really regenerate, and there are certain things which I've come to accept will never be possible for me, such as doing situps, using a pickax, and operating a weedwacker for more than a few minutes.

Until a few days ago I had been doing an easy three pushups a day just to get ready. Then I noticed that my back was gradually deteriorating. When I stopped, my back got better. I wasn't aware that pushups were a back-intensive activity, but apparently they are. Mr. Linster confirmed that for me as well as the fact that there is no way to do them without straining the back.

So the pushup project has officially been cancelled, at least for me. I still think it's a great idea, and perhaps someone else will be inspired to follow through with it. I'll definitely do something in 2004, but I don't yet know what. Probably it will either be another marathon or something with chin-ups.

Drunk Kitty

The cats really overdid it this Christmas. Actually, they practically ODed on catnip, but I thought a beer bottle would be a nice addition to the image. Other than that, this photo is unmodified.

What I Read in 2003

Since I started this blog, I've been keeping a typelist of everything I've read. The list doesn't go back all the way to the beginning of the year, but for anyone who's interested it shows the last twelve books I finished in 2003.

Since I've been meaning to switch over to the three-column view for some time, and I know of no way to publish a typelist within a post, I'll just start the extra column with the list of books (seen on the left) and then reorganize my blog over the next few days. Sorry for the mess.

Weekly Links

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Updates to Previous Posts

Update to Japan: mg has another interesting link about Japanese culture. Check out the Japan SAQ, where you will learn more than you ever wanted to know about Japan.

If you like the creepier aspects of Japanese culture, be sure to check out the links in this entry from caffeineslinger. (The Sabrina link is truly odd.)

Update to Cool Rabbit Sites: Look what happens when rabbit breeders run amok. (from Zannah)

Cool Stuff

Now you can play Pacman in Excel. (from memepool)

Remember the Star Wars Kid? Well, I think he's finally been outdone. (from ericmilford)

See that you are always respectful to women. Otherwise, the Menstrual Avenger will get you. (from Platinum-Dollars)

Everyone knows that Wal-Mart is evil and that it screws its employees, the economy (both in the US and abroad), and its competition. But did you know it even screws its suppliers? (from bill)

It takes an incredible level of stupidity to outsmart the police. (from stupidangrycanajun)

An entire Arizona town is currently up for auction on eBay. This also came up when I performed a search for it. Which would you rather own?

(from bill and snowball)

And since this is Christmas, it would probably be a good time for me to plug my father's page, entitled The Origin of Christmas Myth and Customs.

Red

The frost really brings out the red in things. I had never noticed that before.

My Great Poem

Once again it's the day of the week when I post some old writing or creative work from my past. All the good stuff has already been posted. Now I'm just scraping the bottom of the barrel. Just when I think the barrel has been cleaned out, I find another patch of crud stuck way down on the bottom.

Today I will post a never-before published poem I wrote when I was ten. It is the second poem I ever wrote. (The first one was written in second grade and was something along the lines of a cat wearing a hat that sat on a mat that was flat.)

So without further ado:

Once there was a piece of shit,
That lived in someone's big fat pit.
One day someone had to shit,
Only the shit wouldn't fit.
So they took some Ex-lax
And a bowl of tacks,
But all they got was a bunch of cracks.

The genius of this poem is that you can substitute any two-syllable name for the word "someone" and have the poem be about them.

None of my friends was ever that impressed with my creation, and it was even pointed out to me that it didn't really make sense. Therefore when I was eleven, I rewrote the last three lines as follows:

So they bought some Ex-lax
And paid the sales tax,
And the shit split.

Strangely, even with the improvements, it never really caught on.

Namibian Sunset

I took this in Swakopmund, Namibia in 1999. Believe it or not, I did not use photoshop to exaggerate the colors. This is what it actually looked like (minus the excessive contrast that sometimes results from scanning slides).

Perhaps the effect is due to all the dust in the air over there. Or maybe the fact that this occurred on one of the handful of days when Swakopmund received a little rainfall had something to do with it. I never thought to ask whether this was a normal phenomenon or not. It could very well be, since Africa is known for its sunsets.

Whew!

Okay, I'm finally done. Today I wrapped the last of my presents and placed them under the tree at my parents' house. Here's what I got everyone:

• For my father -- Infrared wireless headphones. Now he can watch his ballgames without driving my mother nuts.
  
• For my mother -- The Laptrap. So she can take her laptop with her on trips.
  
• For my brother -- An MP3 player and cassette adapter. Hopefully this will get him to start working with MP3s. Although how he will do this on his Windows 95 PC purchased in 96 and containing no sound card is beyond me. (Perhaps I should have bought him an eMachine.)
  
• For my aunt -- A $50 gift certificate for Customatix.com. Since she admired my shoes and wanted to know where I got them.
  
• For the cats -- A Pet Doorbell. Now whenever they want to come inside, all they have to do is ring. I also got them a bag of catnip. (Getting the cats stoned is becoming something of a Christmas tradition.)

  [I forgot to mention that I had two calendars made at Shutterfly -- one for my brother and one for my parents. Each month has a a great family-related photo taken by me in the corresponding month of 2003.]