By Any Other Nerd

I remember as a kid getting harassed for putting mustard on my tuna fish sandwich from the school lunch.  I can also remember my father getting me to drink milk by putting Coke in it.  I enjoyed both thoroughly as a kid but now wouldn't consume either.  This is not because I look down on them but as a vegetarian, the tuna fish is out (yes--it's meat) and that the combination of Coke and milk sounds way too sweet a drink for me to actually enjoy (but clearly explains my early established and still present sweet tooth). But that has me thinking about food culture and the defaults that food culture directs us toward (tortialla chips and salsa; .  I grew up on peanut butter and jelly as well as fluffernutters.  I would even go so far as to do jelly and fluff.  But peanut butter and pickles never crossed my mind.  Pickles were to have with sandwiches that included meat or cheese or other stuff.  That is, we learn or are trained to pair and connect...

Contrary to the weather here in New England, spring is upon us and that means stepping up my running game.  I've been doing better in the last two weeks with the running than when I did my 2 month check in   but if I'm going to achieve my goal for a marathon this year, it's time to get ready and get running a lot more.  Last year, I signed up for a bunch of runs and that did a lot to help me build up to a half marathon , a 25K , and a 30K .  With the extra time afforded to me on this snow day, I took the time to sign up for a series of runs throughout the spring, summer, and fall, culminating in a marathon in October. Below is a list of the races that I've signed up for.  Further below, I've listed ones that I might still sign up for.  If you plan on signing up for any other them do let me know and maybe we can coordinate transportation and training. In the course of looking at rides, I came across the 17th Annual Ultra Around the Lake in ...

291705_699909329110_896376196_n , a photo by leaton79 on Flickr. Than to illustrate that being a turkey has long been a tradition of mind. In truth, this is in part a fulfillment of an assignment for class to which I will probably take down shortly. But this image is me, circa 1996 or so at the Brooksby Farm Harvest Festival. Enjoy! Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and check out some of my other posts! . You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by signing up for them via email. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .

These are inevitably my two favorite moments in a given semester.  I experience one as an instructor and I experience the other as a student.  I should note that both of these moments are not restrictive to the semester--they are bred into our lives in many ways.  However, it's the instructor and others in those places of studying and engaging in human development that are so moved and driven by these moments. We, educators, all crave that moment.  The transcendental moment when a student goes from not understanding it to "getting it."  It's a wonderful moment for instructors to experience the tell-tale signs:  the prolonged blink, the widened eyes, the shake of the head, the mouth drawn open, the head jilted back, the ejaculative sigh as if exorcising a demon of ignorance.  It's a validation of the lesson; it's a validation of the work we do.  We leave the classroom that day and we want to do our own celebratory touchdown dance.   W...

So now that we're into March, I figured I'd come back and take a look at my goals and thoughts for 2013 and see how I'm measuring up to them.  The current track record is a bit lackluster to say the least.    But I also think a reflection like this is apt to keep me on track or at least reviving some of these. So where am I on track?  Well, after my most recent run , I feel like I've created a good benchmark to put me on track to run a marathon this year.  If I can reasonably run 10 miles with 10 minute miles, I feel that a marathon is certainly on track.  With regards to pull up?  I'm up to 5 or 6 though that's more of work of the last two weeks than it has been a systematic process.  I've also been keeping up with my blog and overall have seen a consistent increase in visitors to the site over the last two months. So what goals have been in the middle of the road in terms of progress or very little progress?  If I set a pace of run...

So with February's end, I accumulated another 33 books for the year.  I did just as well as January despite there being 3 fewer days.  You can see the full list with my ratings on Goodread .  I'm pretty happy about this though concerned about the challenge I've set up for myself in terms of trying to accomplish 365 books for 2013.  Largely, because I know that March, April, and May (and then September, October, November, and December) will be busy months.  However, I'm 66 books along in the challenge, so just 300 more books to go right?  Let's hope. So for this month, I have the sadly distinguished accomplishment of not reading any physical traditional books.  All of my reading this month for the list came in the form of audiobooks (14) and graphic novels (the remaining 19).  However, in my defense, I think I should have a higher portion of traditional books read as I'm ab out 1/2 to 2/3 through about 6-7 books.  And none of this reading a...

So today was the first long run I've done in a while.  With winter setting in, it's just hard for me to gather the time, energy, or courage to head out into the cold to run.  The last distance run was the 9 mile leg of a relay I did with the North Shore Striders in December.  Since then, I've been hitting the treadmill in my stand-up living room , but even then, I have trouble doing more than 5 miles or so before I just grow tired, distracted or get blisters (more on that later). Did someone say black cat? Back in January after I did the Wicked Frosty Four on New Years Day, I signed up for the Black Cat 10 or 20 Miler .  I'm aiming for a marathon this year and doing the 10 miler would be a good baseline for the rest of the year to build up my endurance.  I knew I couldn't be ready for 20 miles in march given my schedule and the weather.  Just not feasible.  But 10 was do able.  By the end of last season, I was doing 10 mile runs as part ...