Listening to: Whistle Down the Wind- Concept album
Reading: Ransom Julie Garwood
Weather: partly cloudy, 40
Trivia: What do we mean when we say somebody is hard-boiled?
The descriptive term hard-boiled doesn't come from the kitchen and doesn't refer to an egg, but instead comes from the frontier washroom. Homemakers of that era used a lye based soap that didn't really get clothes very clean. Once a month or so, wash was boiled in an iron pot to remove stains. The best pieces were then boiled in a homemade starch. Inevitably, Sunday shirts sometimes emerged with too much starch, leading the poor fellow who put it on to joke that it had been boiled so long as to become hard. The expression passed from stiffly starched clothing to persons. Today hard-boiled men and women emerge as the stock characters in the contemporary drama we call business.
Cool word: sublimate [v. SUB-luh-mayt]
To sublimate is to change from a solid to a gas without passing through a liquid stage, or the reverse process. Iodine, moth balls, and ice are all able to sublimate under the right conditions. In psychology, to sublimate an impulse is to change its expression to a
socially acceptable form. When a solid sublimates, its molecules are lifted up, and they drift
away. The root of the word is the Latin sublimare (to elevate), from sublimis (uplifted), which is also the source of sublime (noble, majestic, supreme, unexcelled). The Latin root sublimis is a compound of sub- (under) and limen (threshold, lintel). From the same two roots we also have subliminal (below the threshold of conscious awareness).
Post mortem
Tonight’s rehearsal was a crashing bore. It was the usual Tuesday after the show post mortem. I hate that kind of "share what you heard" session. Everyone waxes poetical on how it was the best ever. Others criticize. Some loved it, some hated it. Who cares? It’s done.
This went on for almost forty-five minutes. I was amazed that I stayed.
The rest of the rehearsal was spent trying to resurrect Christmas music. That’s one of those things that we stumble through every year. By the time we have it all figured out again, the Christmas season will be over and our performances will be done. We’ve been singing the same group of songs for the last ten years, with only a couple of additions. It’s amazing that it’s such a challenge each year.
those of us who headed committees for the show got a single long stemmed red rose at the end of rehearsal. That was nice.
Bottom line is that I should have stayed home and recovered some lost sleep. I’ve been really really restless since I started having bad dreams about the show Saturday night. I need a solid night of sleep, with no waking up every hour or so.
Besides I missed "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". That has to be the easiest show I’ve ever seen. I know that’s easy to say from your living room, but man some of the questions are so simple that I’m shouting out the answer before we get the multiple choice selections.
I’ve tried to get through on their phone line, but no luck.
This afternoon I had to go to a three hour meeting about integrating software into the social studies frameworks as set by the state. It was a crashing bore and I’ve got about six more of these sessions to attend.
There was obviously no real plan as far as the leader was concerned, so consequently we ended up surfing and finding weird sites. I found a great one that was called something like "Totally useless Information", but I can’t remember that URL. I found it through a search engine, so I’ll have to look again. It had stuff like the invention of kitty litter. It was very entertaining.
Too bad it was a waste of three hours. I could have found that info when I was playing at home.
I’m going to a teacher conference on technology tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it. I haven’t been to a real conference in about four years. I love to see other people, go to seminars and do cool stuff with computers.
And you get to have a real lunch that’s longer than twenty minutes.
The best part is that I get to sleep late in the morning. I don’t have to get up till 7.30. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but when you usually get up at 5.30 it’s like sleeping till noon.
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