Quote of the Day

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes, too.
- Unknown

Quote of the Day

A dog is cheaper than a wife - it eats less and it has already got a fur.
- Unknown

Quote of the Day

This week I'm posting quotes by unknown authors...

A closed mouth gathers no foot.
- Unknown

Quote of the Day

The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.
- Giuseppe Garibaldi

Quote of the Day

I have arrived in Tuoro and will stay here for the next two weeks. Wheeee!

In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
- Orson Welles, "The Third Man" (1949)

Quote of the Day

Onwards through Germany and into Italy, if all goes according to plan...

A traveler must have the back of an ass to bear all,
a tongue like the tail of a dog to flatter all,
the mouth of a hog to eat what is set before him,
the ear of a merchant to hear all and say nothing.
- Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)

Quote of the Day

Today I am driving to Oslo to attend the annual 4th of July party at the US Ambassador's residence, then on to Denmark! Wheeeee!

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.
- Benjamin Disraeli

Numbers

This morning I weighed in at 112,9 kg! Yeah, bitches! YEAH!

Quote of the Day

Tomorrow I will leave this dreary country and set sail (metaphorically speaking) for Italy. Wheeeee!

Happiness is a way of travel - not a destination.
- Ray M. Goodman

Quote of the Day

Two days left till I leave... sweet jumpin' jeebus!

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.
- St. Augustine

Quote of the Day

Three days left... this week will be devoted to travel quotes (and Italy quotes)...

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotes, etc

I don't know how much I'm gonna be online in Italy and France; none of the places I'm staying at has an internet connection. So, to be on the safe side I am scheduling about two months worth of quotes on here, starting tomorrow. Intermittent posts written whenever I may get to a computer will also pop up, as will the odd travelogue.

Quote of the Day

Four days. Gawd.

"Hey Butt-Head, check this book out! There's a talking snake, a naked chick, then some guy puts a leaf on his SCHLONG!!!"
- Beavis and Butt-Head Do America

The death of a sport

I've been trying to follow the 2010 World Cup. With enthusiasm. But the more I watch, the more I realize I no longer have much feeling for this game. Maybe I'll watch the finale, maybe not.

I'm not sure why I've had this development, probably there are several reasons. Team football has become nearly impossible to follow over the years, as players change teams more often than underwear. This means that almost all the players on today's national teams are unknown to yours truly.

In addition, this year's cup has been, for the most part, horribly boring. Few goals scored, lots of loooong sequences of teams playing defense almost all the time, and a ball which seems designed never to hit the goal if fired from more than 16 meters. Bah.

So. Football has suffered a long decline, and to me the sport is now officially dead. Watching most games these days are on a par with watching paint dry, and I just don't have the patience to sit around and wait for the few good games. Instead I'll watch a movie, read a book, go out for dinner or whatever.

Quote of the Day

Five little days left...

Time's fun when you're having flies.
- Kermit the Frog

Quote of the Day

6 days to gooooooooooo...

"Life's a bitch; now so am I."
- Michelle Pfeiffer in "Batman Returns"

Summary

Tomorrow I'll be external examiner at another school in the county (ka-ching), the Football World Cup is still going strong and I'm a week away from driving to Italy. *bounce, bounce, bounce*

Quote of the Day

Seven small days... one week left!

"People who talk in metaphors should have to shampoo my crotch."
- Jack Nicholson in "As good as it gets"

Quote of the Day

Eight days left... bouncing in my chair!

"Women need a reason for having sex, men just need a place."
- Billy Crystal in "City Slickers"

Quote of the Day

Nine days left.

Bedevere: ...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped.
Arthur: This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep’s bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Quote of the Day

Ten days left... so... close... to... killing... someone...

"So many assholes... So few bullets..."
- Andrew Dice Clay in "Ford Fairlane"

Quote of the Day

11 days left...

Whoever sets himself to see things as they are will find himself one of a very small circle; but it is only by this small circle resolutely doing its own work that adequate ideas will ever get current at all.
- Matthew Arnold

Quote of the Day

12 days of nuffin-close-to-Christmas left...

The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
- E. J. Phelps

Glory glory!

Today was payday, and the June check is always the biggest of the year. I had budgeted conservatively, and lo and behold I got 33% more than I'd thought/feared. Looks like I won't have to eat grass in France after all.

Also, I had a quick and easy time being external examinator today, the FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa starts in slightly more than a half hour, tonight is the annual faculty garden party AND I weighed in at 114,4 kg this morning. Life is goooooooooooooood.

Quote of the Day

13 days...

Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of facts.
- Henry Adams

The Runaways

I went and saw "The Runaways" yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. Strong story, good acting and 90 minutes of rocking good music. Kristen Stewart shows she can do more than being damsel in distress in stupid vampire movies, and Dakota Fanning has definitely grown up for good. Rock on!

Quote of the Day

14 days left till I leave for Italy... two small weeks... gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

If you have a job without aggravations, you don’t have a job.
- Malcolm Forbes

Quote of the Day

15 days left... time is dragging on...

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.
- John Cleese

Quote of the Day

16 days... gaaaaaaaaah!

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.
- Benjamin Franklin

Numbers

I weighed in at 114,8 kg this morning - the first time in YEARS that I've been under 115 kg. Wheeeeee! And I owe it all to a few minutes of weightlifting every day.

Quote of the Day

17 days left till Italy. I'm bouncing!

Nobody on his deathbed ever said, "I wish I had spent more time at the office."
- Paul Tsongas

Quote of the Day

18 days.

Religions are many and diverse, but reason and goodness are one.
- Elbert Hubbard

Playing God for money

I've been appointed external examinator at two schools again this year. I will be playing God with young people's lives and getting PAID to do it.

Life is good.

Pussywhipped

Last night I went and saw the latest Robin Hood movie with Russell Crowe as the title character. It was actually pretty good, but what was blogworthy was this: The movie was showing simultaneously with "Sex and the City 2", and the theatre hall was PACKED with teenaged girls, most of them made up and dressed up like nobodies' business.

Also in attendance were a small handfull of teenage boys, who I can only describe as looking thoroughly pussywhipped. Those of us going to see Robin Hood sent them looks that probably conveyed equal amounts of pity and contempt, before going off to enjoy our two hours of blood and gore.

Quote of the Day

19 days, sweet jeebus... 19 days!

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything and the young know everything.
- Oscar Wilde

Quote of the Day

20 days left, wooo hooo!

Politics: From the greek poly, meaning many, and ticks, a small, annoying bloodsucker.
- Ambrose Bierce

Quote of the Day

21 days... or three weeks left...

Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.
- Mikhail Bakunin

Quote of the Day

22 days left...

I finally understand what pluralism is: it's when lots of people share my point of view.
- Giancarlo Pajetta

Quote of the Day

23 days to go...

There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.
- Robert A. Heinlein