WIMotW: Edict #3

When I'm Master of the World, my third declaration will be the healthy ceasing of cigarette smoking. We'll turn the area of the factories into reclaimed areas for after school learning and rec places where kids can explore their talents. All of the money whored up by the companies will become our funds for this process. Factory workers can be transitioned to different jobs created by the construction of the building.
I see this as a win-win-win-win for all involved. More wellness trips to the dr than the current alternative. Punishment would be tree or flower planting or something. Or maybe hugging trees... Something like that.
All's I know is that we gotta keep growing tobacco to help out those cows in some way.


Now, to make this WIMofW less boring, you should all want this.

Off the Schneid

For all of you who were terribly worried about this:

I'm now off the schneid after picking Spain to win by 2 goals. Now my entry looks like this:

Graduation + Pictures

Receiving a master's degree does not mean that you are smart enough to figure out how to put on your regalia. Don't worry, though, I finally figured it out, probably. The sleeves for a master's have this goofy extra bit of fabric that you might as well store stuff in. I should've hidden a bagel or something. However, I was in the front row, so that would've been tacky.

Sometimes the speeches can be fairly boring. But it was as if the speech at my convocation had been tailored for me. One of my favorite professors gave a talk that included many etymologies of words. Talk about awesomeness.

Walking out afterward, I saw my mom who was already tearing up. I hugged her and started to cry, of course, but mostly remained tuff. My dad cried pretty hard when he hugged me, which caught me off guard, thus destroying my composure. I am a bawl baby. Again, I reference this video.

Anyway, pictures:

Notice the nifty temari ball in my hands, that Aunt Suezie (Gretchen and Kathy's mom) made me. I'd received another one from her at the 5K that I'd kept by my computer as I finished the thesis.

Me and my mom:

Dad, me, Mom:

Dad and Mom showing the love:

My friends (Gretchen, Aunt Suezie, Kathy, me, Shannon):

I graduated at the same time as my friend Patrícia. Arwen, on the right, is the graduate secretary. She is a huge reason why a lot of us graduate, I think.

Later, my coworkers stealthily decorated my cubicle. They also gave me dried mangoes and a bag of broccoli. They know me well.

Joe:

So there you have it. I finally graduated. After 25 years of being a student, I find myself still feeling like I have homework to do at night, flummoxed when I realize that I have nothing due. I think I might take UVU up on their free 3 course credits a semester. I love learning.

City pictures key:

Bordeaux

Salzburg

Bucuresti

Londrina

Ecuador

Porto

Argentina

Lansing

Derek Redmond

Yesterday at church we were discussing finishing races--or life's race or something. We were talking about the Timothies and Titus, so there must be some sort of verse in there about races and the importance of finishing and not necessarily coming in first. I leaned over and told Em one of my favorite things that I ever watched, it's about Derek Redmond.
Back in 1992 he was one of the favorites for the gold medal for the 400 meters. About half way thru the semifinal race he grabbed his right thigh and then collapsed to the track: his hamstring had snapped. Some of the officials went over to him and workers started to bring a stretcher over, but when he realized that they wanted to take him off the track, he shrugged them off and started to walk to the finish line because he wanted to complete his race. You could see how much pain he was in as he limped down the track. Other officials tried to get him to quit, but he pushed them away. Then this man jumped from the stands and jogged over to him. Redmond tried to push him away, but then realized it was his father. When he leaned on his father for support, he broke down and started to cry. Another official tried to get Redmond to stop and get his dad off the track, but his dad, Jim, pushed him away and said, "I'm his father." Redmond got a standing ovation as he continued down the track and crossed the finish line, his father supporting him the whole way.
I still remember what Redmond said in the interview afterward, "I wasn't going to ------ well not finish the race." His dad said, "But whatever happens he had to finish, and I was there to help him finish. I intended to go over the line with him. We started his career together, I think we should finish it together."
I remember watching this the day it happened. It was my favorite moment from the Olympics that year, and very possibly the best thing I've ever seen in any Olympics I've watched. For years after the '92 Barcelona Games, I had this picture hanging on my wall to remind me to not give up.

Columbus Day** and gummy candy or "entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem" and gummy candy

Yesterday was Columbus Day. I think my favorite thing about Columbus Day is the Leif Land First shirt that Sarah wears.
I have a friend from the Portuguese program who wanted (wants??) to do his thesis about the theory that Columbus was actually Portuguese. Who knew that there'd been all of these theories swirling around that Columbus might not actually be the son of a Genoese weaver? I guess Columbus kept his past pretty well hidden, so theories have cropped up. The New York Times had and article about it. But even better they had a condensed chart of the theories. Pretty interesting, but, you know, Occam's Razor, "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the right one," (the excessively long Wikipedia article). So what do you think is the simplest solution? Columbus never wrote in Italian, only Spanish, so... ???

Also, I've had a weird craving lately for a gummy candy. I can't quite put my finger on which kind I'm craving, so my dear blogger friends, do you mind helping me identify what on earth it is that I want? Merci, quoi.

But I am not in the market for gummy bacon, gummy steak, gummy road kill, gummy heart, gummy body parts, gummy hen and eggs, gummy thanksgiving meals, gummy cockroaches, gummy eyeballs, or Haribo bears.

But when diamonds aren't enough...

I'm back in the U.S.A.

Before I forget, here's some stuff about Barcelona on the other blog. I'll keep putting up the stuff that I didn't get a chance to in Iberia.

It's sorta weird to be back. I think it'd be better if I hadn't caught Clark's Iberian souvenir: a terrible cold or flu or whatever it is. But it didn't hit me until after I'd landed in SLC, so no biggie. It's really hazy in Utah. The fires are terrible.
I'm enjoying being home. It was fun hanging out with my family yesterday. They all came over to P6 because Kathy and Gretchen were feeding us Chinese hot pots. It's great stuff. Darn tasty. Although I know it was killing Julie Rae--she's a spice wimp. But Kathy had also made pot stickers. G&K were introduced to the crazy Swensons yesterday, too. Sometimes we get a lot outlandish--especially at Sunday dinners.

Driving from Madrid to Lisbon I popped in Harry Potter 6 on my iPod and Clark and I listened all the way there. So I've been listening to the book on CD (iPod) ever since. I'm almost done. I thoroughly enjoy the books on CD. And speaking of Harry Potter, check this out:
You Harry Potter lovers, I think you might want to click here. You can either click on the trailer, or you can click on the third clip and start right in. The clips will just keep playing thru. Enjoy.
You can see all of the commercial clips here, too.
Here's a clip from AOL, too:

Powered by AOL Video

travelling softballer

Larissa called sent me various emails this morning and had her friend call me a few times this morning while a was dead-to-the-world asleep, all to be able to play softball. So tonight I played hot corner. Do you know how happy this makes me? Last summer when I was contemplating going on the study abroad to Brazil, I was all stoked for the trip, and then I realized that I'd be missing Co-Ed Softball. It made me stop and contemplate what I really wanted to do. I obviously went to Brazil, but that's how much I love softball. Oh, and I got to play hot corner and be the 3rd base coach and I batted clean-up (which is actually sorta funny because I've never been a power hitter). Effulgent joy...
I also spent a good chunk of my afternoon with the nice travel ladies. They're so helpful. After spending who knows how long trying to fumble our way thru the Eurorail junk, Eva had the great idea for a rental car. I love driving, so I'm happy about this. We now get to control our own schedule instead of living and dying by the trains. I mean seriously, 12 hours from Santiago de Compostela to Bilbao??? It's because of the crazy train routes. We'd have to go from the extreme northwest of Spain to central Spain, only to have to hop up to Bilbao. Blech and double blech.
Now my goal is to convince Clark that we could go from Bilbao to Barça via southern France. It'd add only a couple of hours (if that) onto the trip and then I would have made it to southern France.