the weekend, a snapshot

• planes
• wee ceremony
• cool kids
• fun
• hangin' out
• more planes

Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance..."

E., C., and I ventured to a 35th anniversary/celebration of Title IX this evening. While the above quote applies to all areas of public education/federal funding (basically), most people know Title IX through its impact on athletics. Equity is a constant battle in most facets of this little bit of legislation. In fact, C. pointed out that there was a period in the 1980s when Title IX no longer applied to athletics due to a Supreme Court decision... I'll let her expand if she so choses (she did write a legal encyclopedia article on it).

It's all about parity, people. We don't want to cut anything, we merely request parity. In everything. Hmmm, just had a thought: I wonder if "equality" is too scary a word and thus people prefer to use the term "parity" (of which I was obviously indoctrinated)...

Anyway, thanks Title IX! For both the educational and athletic opportunities!



Four future college athletes in this little picture....

For Matt-O

Gobble Gobble!

Go on and rock the stuffing! Pile on a second helping of mashed potatoes! Fight for that turkey leg! Then drift off into a triptophan stupor and dream of the Golden Compass. It's only a few more weeks away! Happy Thanksgiving!

purity products

Hmmm. Yeah. Purity Products. So... upon my return from a run I saw a box at a neighbor's door left by a delivery person: "Purity Products" in big bold letters. Pray tell, what is a Purity Product? My mind immediately flashed to the movie "Robin Hood: Men in Tights". It is a clearance chastity belt company where you place your orders by fox (Broomhilde: "No ding-ding vithout a vedding ring!")! After checking it out on the internets, I have to say, my explanation is much more entertaining than a discount vitamin company.

I guess that's just the mood I'm in. While on said run I almost ran into a squirrel. Picture it: run-run-run-music-music-music-run-run-run through leaves..... just as you reach the edge of a new pile of leaves a crazy squirrel hauls ass across the sidewalk and up a tree. I think I caught the squirrel quite unawares. Of course, I could say the same of it. That damn squirrel gave me such a start I almost ended up in the tree with it.

Yeah.

more nostalgia

The Week. Some nostalgia.

Something is in the air. Perhaps it is the impending holiday season. After all, we're still staring Thanksgiving, etc. in the face. There is no food/alcohol/celebration hangover to stop the thought process: places been; people seen; people missed; change; etc., etc., etc. They're all lining up for their turn in the staring contest. Perhaps they assemble themselves more as a child's flip-book. The frozen images flash so quickly across the screen they form a disjointed movie of sorts. Some incomplete bits are filled in as the images pass while others are completely dropped. Ah, well. Flip-books are nice to have.

costume fun

Thanks for your wishes of wellness! I made a full recovery by Saturday and then gathered my gnome costume, ready to celebrate Erin's birthday. The birthday girl wished for an enchanted costume party... she got that and more: an enchanted bowling costume party! My particular costume was that of garden gnome. Fun was had by all: the unicorn, medusa, the fawn, a peacock, an alligator, some fairies, the dragon herself.... The BCC outdid itself, yet again.

Well done, all! Really, I'm starting to believe that dressing in costume should be encouraged a bit more in American society. At least more than Halloween.

That is all.

ICE PICK WANTED

or, perhaps someone would like to slam my head in the freezer door. That could work.

Migraines. Bluh.

No scary, please.

I've been avoiding the post for a good while now. It should come as no shock, I do not like scary things. I do not go to scary movies, I do not read scary books, I do not go on scary rides. Frankly, I don't really understand individuals who need the Big Bad to go about their daily lives. Of movie/book/ride trio, I find the scary/troublesome books to be the hardest to handle. Sure, there might be a more immediate scary/shock value with movies and rides, but the big bad of books stays with you.... reading in the dark with one light on... when there is no sound to speak of.... yikes! I'm currently reading two books that toe the line with the scary/disturbing. I'm not entirely sure how these two slipped into the queue around the same time. I started reading before really thinking it through. I knew they would be mildly disturbing, but certainly not scary. Certainly not! Thus I find myself absolutely extending my torture because I can't read these books at night, a normal reading time for me. The two main characters of In the Cut will forever be so close to the end they can both see it, but I've made no move to get through the "she knows/he knows she knows/she knows he knows she knows" ending. While leaving the In the Cut characters to hang out, what book do I then pick up???? MY FIRST STEPHEN KING NOVEL!!!!!!! I'm such an idiot! But this one isn't scary so much as disturbing, Different Seasons. Frankly, I'm getting stuck in "Apt Pupil".

Bluh. I need to go read Jane Austen.

Metal, redux

Messing around before I step out the door.....

Pirate's Booty; or, Swag Redux

Swag (swåg) ∆ n. Slang Stolen property; loot. [Prob. of Scand. orig.]
-> this particular definition comes from my trusty wee American Heritage dictionary, 4th edition. This is not to be confused with another meaning: (n.) An ornamental drapery or curtain draped in a curve between two points. We're not even considering international meanings or swag as a verb. For our purposes, SWAG is a promotional item or a gift.

Anyhoo, my swag consisted of 4 moderately sized blankets. One. Two. Three. Four... that's a few too many for carry-on convenience. The women who regulated the initial airport security check-in area were none-too-pleased with my attempt to quickly walk past them with my 4 bags carrying 4 blankets. Not that they knew it, but the size of the plane didn't really care much for those blankets either. Before I could make it past security I had to stuff the blankets into a giant plastic bag given to me by one of the ladies who stopped me at security. I sat on the bag to squish it down to an even smaller size*. Needless to say, I boarded the plane without seriously wounding anyone with my blankets... though a few were bumped, methinks.

In other swag news, I was promised a jacket of some variety for speaking at the event. I have a vision in my head of those weird 80s paper jackets that you could decorate yourself.

* Side Note: I wrote in the "Edit Html" mode and blogger kindly finished my "incomplete" (non)attempt at html.... ". .... Interesting. Very intersting. It's still isn't showing up. Hmmm, what kind of nerd an I turning into?

Pirate's Booty; or, Swag

Huzzah! my presentation went well! And I'm not joking when I say that someone uttered the phrase "belle of the ball" in my general direction. I think it is safe to say that the Ass Kicking Phase from "The many moods of presentations" won the day.

A long day in list form:

• 4:30AM alarm
• 6:15 AM flight (the airport is fantastically busy at 5:30AM... who knew?)
• green room schmoooooozing
• presentation with Boss v2.0
• free lunch
• conference riff-raff + fun updates
• more schmoooooooozing + the exchange of business cards (very weird)
  
• swag, in abundance
• promise of more swag via mail
• hanging out, consumption of free Naked juice, free wi-fi, airport avoidance
  
• airport swag security issue: I had too much swag! had to carefully consolidate to be able to meet carry-on standards
• home by 11:30PM

Phew. Now I'm quite tired. I had to get up relatively early today as well. Well, it was a normal wake-up time, but given my 19 hour day yesterday it felt extremely early.