Thursday, May 30, 2013

Commercial



[Cara] And I told John that I’d go with him, but he didn’t talk to me all day yesterday.


[Mom] And who’s John, Cara? What happened to Ryan?

[Holstein] Ok, here’s the deal. Last week Amanda told Jamie that she saw Ryan texting Amy in Bio. Amy and Cara used to be bffs, so that’s sup shady. Any who, Jamie told Cara, so Cara dumped Ryan. Then Cara went out with John to make Ryan jealous. But then she ended up liking him for reals, even though Erin likes him…and they cheer together. What?!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Elements

"The Elements" was written by Tom Lehrer in 1959 and only includes the elements that had been discovered up to that point. [I've included the more recent elements in green below.]  The song is sung to the tune of "Major-General's Song" by Gilbert and Sullivan.

The order of the elements in this song is for entertainment value only.  Not by number, not by discovery date, not in alphabetical order...but to keep the song moving and rhyming and entertaining you and me.




There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium,
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,

Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium,
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium,
And gold and protactinium and indium and gallium,
< gasp >
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.

There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium,
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium,
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium, and barium.

There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium,
And phosphorus and francium and fluorine and terbium,
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and cesium.

And lead, praseodymium, and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium,
And tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium,
< gasp >
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.

There's sulfur, californium, and fermium, berkelium,
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium,
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc, and rhodium,
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin, and sodium.

[There's borium, lawrencium, livermorium, rutherfordium
And darmstadtium, flerovium, seaborgium, meitnerium,
And capernicium, roentgenium, ubniu, finally hassium]

These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others, but they haven't been discarvard
(discovered).

Monday, May 27, 2013

Memorial Day



We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led.
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

 - Moina Michaels response to John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Field"

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Romans 5:1-5


[from the second reading at mass this weekend]

Brothers and sisters:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith
to this grace in which we stand,
and we boast in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions,
knowing that affliction produces endurance,
and endurance, proven character,
and proven character, hope,
and hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

This Is Water

One of my co-workers shared this with me this morning.  I don't think he was suggesting that I change my thought processes due to anything specific that I said or did this morning.  ...I don't THINK he was.  : )  But still, I loved this so much, I watched it twice.  It's nearly 9 1/2 minutes and is well worth it.

Life can be a rat-race.  But if you start really looking at the people in your world, people who you've always just let pass by as bit-parts or background props in the movie that is your life, you might change your whole attitude on how you act and react to people.  And who knows, it could have a dramatic impact on your happiness.

I hope you have the time to watch it even just once.

[From David Foster Wallace's 2005 commencement speeck at Kenyon College]


Saturday, May 4, 2013