random recount of semi-relevant recent events

okay, it's been two weeks, which means i should probably make a note of things that have happened before i get so far behind that i forget (actually, i'm getting old, so i've probably already forgotten things, but still). so, without going into too much detail:

1. announced that thanksgiving will be on december 2nd. realized shortly afterwards that there was already a choral rehearsal scheduled for the same afternoon, that included several of the people i had invited... anyway, it stays on december 2nd, because i know martin is coming from berlin, and its looking like christian will come from copenhagen as well.

2. tried to find a place to host it. realized shortly after that between planning only one month ahead, instead of two like last year, and moving it to a saturday instead of a sunday, so as to better accomodate those coming in from out of town, all of the refuges in the area have been booked since june, basically. luckily, karen has offered to bail me out by hosting us at her fantastically splendiferous house just outside lausanne. (now i just have to think of a suitable gift for thanking her.)

3. our little informal yoga club is still going strong (yannick, karen, krister, and myself). we had been doing friday afternoons, but the gym is pretty busy so it's hard to find a place, and also karen has started taking a climbing class at noon on fridays, so two major sporting events in one day is a bit much. in response to this, she suggested moving it to thursday, but on thursday i teach lab from 4-6pm and have rehearsal at 7, so i suggested early morning. yesterday i got them to come at 7:30am, but they were whining like you wouldn't believe. :) not sure what we'll eventually converge to, but i'm sure it will work out. i was actually liking the idea of switching to the mornings, since ideally i would like to be developping the habit of doing it more often and more consistently. (remember michael hamilton told me i really need to be doing it four days per week for six months to see major improvement from where i am.)

4. i've got bruises all up and down my forearms from karate practice on wednesday.

5. the lab i'm teaching this term is actually pretty fun. it's the very first introductory CS course, so for once it's actually stuff where i can pretty much say with absolute confidence that i can handle any question they could possibly throw at me.

6. as much as it shames me (enormously) to admit it, there are actually a few television shows that i really like now, and against my better judgement, i've allowed myself to get pretty much completely sucked in. "heroes" and "veronica mars" continue to be consistently the most amusing and awesome things i've seen in quite some time. i wonder how many "hail mary"s i deserve for confessing that...

7. i'm sorely tempted to buy the new nintendo just to support what looks like *phenomenal* research into user-interface design, even though i know i wouldn't have time to use it, and even if i did (which i would probably make, because that's how screwed up my priorities are), i definitely shouldn't if i want to ever graduate.

8. last weekend i regenerated the cantus table throwing out examples of tritone outlining, which nixed another 300,000 or so. by tonight all the ionian and dorian images and accompanying midi files should be complete, i just have to update the version of mysql and the php engine on my computer at work so i can actually show them to you guys.

9. icgs has finally responded to my request and consented to "legitimize" my certificate translations for the italian consulate. they had the translator sign all of them, now i need to try to call the lady again today to confirm whether or not they need to be notarized as well...

10. i inherited an abandonned bicycle (free is a very good price), but the rear derailer and associated gear shift is all fucked up, so i'm going to stop by the school's bike club meeting this afternoon to see if i can get any advice on where to find replacement parts. what worries me is that i'm pretty sure i could get the parts from nashbar for $20-30, but they might cost several hundred francs here... and i don't think my free bike is worth quite that much. eh, i guess worst case, i can get some parts while i'm home in december visiting my parents.

okay, i've probably skipped something important, but ten is a nice number, and i need to get some work done, so that's where we'll stop for now.