Travel, Tech, Thoughts…

  • the current zeitgeist – “Zeitgeist, The Movie”

    A student of mine recently asked me my opinion on a movie making the circuits online called “Zeitgeist, The Movie”. He was smart enough to recognize that most of it is conspiracy theory (the movie mostly focuses on 9/11 conspiracies, which are crap, and banking conspiracies, which are also crap), but was interested in the…

  • great new story on the Cragun family blog

    For those who don’t know, my family has a blog for sharing funny stories. I don’t hear funny stories from my family very often anymore (unfortunately), but whenever I do, I post them over there. My sister just sent me a good one. You should check it out. —————- Now playing: Nina Gerber – Back…

  • McCain visits University of Tampa

    I just finished my morning class on Friday and was responding to email when I heard that John McCain was visiting the university at noon. I called Debi, who doesn’t have classes on Fridays, and asked her if she wanted to see him. Regular readers will know we don’t generally lean Republican, but we are…

  • Myakka River State Park

    After two days of checking out Sarasota, we decided we’d spend all of this day in the State Park. We went for an early ride to the canopy walk, which is basically two towers with a suspended wood walkway between them: (here’s Debi on the walkway) The best part about the canopy walk is that…

  • MOTE Aquarium and Ringling Estate

    I forgot to mention one fun thing that happened the previous night. We had just finished setting up camp and it was getting dark when I heard a loud rustling in the brush near our camp. It was loud enough that I though someone was walking through the brush. When it finally stopped, I thought…

  • Coquina Beach and Longboat Key

    We decided we needed a little get away to relax before classes start again (on the 22nd). The problem with taking a vacation when you live on the coast in Florida is that where you live is basically a vacation spot. I know that’s an pathetic quandary, “Oh, poor me, I can’t decide where I…

  • How do you measure up against the candidates?

    A friend sent me a link to this quiz to get a sense of how you measure up to the current candidates for President: I’ll tell you who most closely matches my views if you tell me who most closely matches yours.

  • alternative ambulance

    Debi’s been on an anti-“alternative medicine” kick as of late. She found this comic today that gave us both a good laugh: Kind of drives home the point 😉 (courtesy of —————- Now playing: Fireside Orchestra – The 12 Days of Christmas via FoxyTunes

  • Reason’s Greetings!

    We usually try to put together a nifty little year in review holiday letter for friends and family. If you read this you probably got a copy in your email. If not, let me know and I’ll add you to my email list.

  • an early start to our holiday break

    A couple of weeks ago now, some of our friends at UT (both biologists) invited us to go on a field trip they were offering to students as extra credit. The field trip was to the Manatee Viewing Center funded by TECO (that’s Tampa Electric). It’s kind of a weird place. There is a massive…