John Colton's blog

I know these stories will eventually stop happening, so I guess I need to record them when they do.

I had asked the departmental secretary to type up a summary table of graduate school applications that had come in. When I went to pick up a copy of the table, she wasn't around--but the undergraduate assistant who had actually prepared the table was. (He wasn't a student I had met before.) He printed me out a copy of the table, and as he handed me the table, he asked, "So, are you working with Dr. Colton on this?"

The implication was definitely that he thought I was one of Dr. Colton's student assistants. :-)

With last night's win over San Antonio, the Utah Jazz took over first place in this division again, for the first time in a while. I was fortunate enough to be there (thanks dad!), bringing the Jazz's lifetime record for games where I'm in attendance to something like 12-1.

I like antibiotics.

OK, not completely random.

I lost 6 pounds in 4 days! How did I do it? Well, the weight loss program is simple: (a) contract strep throat, followed by (b) eat little to nothing for several days in a row because of seriously sore throat, lack of proper taste bud functionality, and general tiredness.

I got antibiotics 2 days ago, and I'm feeling much better today, if still pretty weak and shaky.

Judging from wunderground.com it was probably about 5 deg F when I came to work today. I had to break out the official "Wiscosin winter coat". Brrrr!

Pauline and I watch the Colbert Report from time to time--it's usually pretty funny. We did actually see the episode where he tried to persuade the Museum of American History to hang up the portrait. He couldn't persuade them, but I guess he persuaded the National Portrait Gallery. Funny stuff! (I didn't know he hacky-sacked. :-) )

John

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080117/ap_en_tv/people_colbert
Colbert portrait hangs at Smithsonian
By BRETT ZONGKER, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 17, 12:44 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Stephen Colbert was denied when he tried to run for president this year in South Carolina. Now the fake TV pundit is getting some love from the city of his birth.

His portrait was hung Wednesday at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery in Washington for a six-week showing in what the museum considers an "appropriate place" — right between the bathrooms near the "America's Presidents" exhibit. Museum officials stress it's only temporary.

"We agreed to go along with the joke and hang it for a short time in between the bathrooms," said museum spokeswoman Bethany Bentley. "Let me tell you two key things here: His portrait is not coming into the collection, and it's not hanging permanently."

That may come as a surprise to Colbert, who has campaigned for the honor and boasted on his Comedy Central show Tuesday night that his portrait was "hanging in the hall of presidents, just a few yards from the father of our country — exactly where I believe it belongs."

Colbert, who plays a pompous conservative talk-show host on "The Colbert Report" and recently tried to run for president as a Democrat, went to great lengths to persuade Smithsonian Institution officials he was worthy.

The portrait — actually three portraits in one — depicts a debonair Colbert standing at a fireplace in front of a similar portrait of himself posing in front of the same mantel with a third picture of himself.

After the work was rejected by the National Museum of American History, Colbert eventually made his way to the portrait gallery. Bentley said Colbert wasn't begging so much as "making his case." She said they welcome the conversation about whose portraits are included in the gallery's collection. It was just not Colbert's time, she said.

"Who's the competition? Who do I need to knock out of here to get me up?" Colbert asked gallery director Marc Pachter.

Colbert argued he was more deserving than athletes Lance Armstrong or Andre Agassi and pulled out his Hacky Sack for a few kicks in the art gallery to prove it. "You do realize I'm in big trouble if you hit any of these portraits," Pachter said.

Still, Colbert said he thinks his "sack work" ultimately won Pachter over for the temporary display.

"I don't mean to brag, but as it contains three portraits, my portrait has more portraits than any other portrait in the National Portrait Gallery," he said, adding, "All Employees must wash hands before returning to work."

Word of his portrait at the gallery spread quickly among loyal fans.

Unique Bexley, 20, and Jacqueline Canales, 19, both of Washington, said they talked on the telephone after watching the show Tuesday and decided they had to go to the portrait gallery.

"It's kind of sad that this is the first time we've been here," Canales said Wednesday as a steady stream of young admirers took their pictures with Colbert's portrait.

"We might look at the rest of the museum, but we really came for Colbert," Bexley said. "I needed a new Facebook picture, so it might as well be with Stephen Colbert."

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Associated Press photographer Jacquelyn Martin contributed to this report.

There are blogs from several friends of mine that I've been trying (largely unsuccessfully) to keep up with. The lack of success has mainly been because I don't remember to check their blogs to see what's new, and then when I finally do remember there are about 50 posts and it's too overwhelming to read them all.

Thanks to Todd E, who recently recommened Google Reader to me:
http://www.google.com/reader

It's working out really well for me--you just put in the blogs you want it to monitor, then when you check it every day or two it will show you the blog entries from all the blogs that have been posted since last time you checked.

Pauline says that since I'm the dad, I'm entitled to brag about Leslie.

Maybe I should have titled this blog entry "My *first* genius child", since Emily is also very, very bright. In fact, since Emily is so outgoing and talkative, it's often easier to see her brightness than it is to see Leslie's. Leslie is much more introspective, and thinks deep thoughts. Leslie's brightness usually comes out in the interesting questions she asks, the interesting connections she makes, and in her highly advanced sense of humor.

Anyway, Leslie took some national standardized tests to gain admittance into the 7th grade middle school gifted program, and we just got the results of the tests back. I was wondering how she would score, because often at home she has trouble focusing on the task at hand and gets easily distracted (she doesn't have ADD that we know, but exhibits some ADD-type behavior).

*drum roll*

She got...(*)

Reading: 99th percentile, 13+ grade level
Writing: 25/30 on a compare contrast persuasive essay
Social Studies: 99th percentile, 13+ grade level
Science: 99th percentile, 13+ grade level
Math Concepts: 95th percentile, 10.8 grade level
Math Problems and Data: 99th percentile, 13+ grade level

Good job, Leslie! If I'm reading those right, she's ready to start college in reading, social studies, science, and in some math areas. :-)


(*) Disclaimer: standardized tests are not really a measure of intellect, blah, blah, and so forth.

One of the reasons why, although I enjoyed my mission to Germany quite a bit, I never had a strong urge to move back there after I was done. JSC

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080110/od_nm/smoking_dc

Boss fires staff for not smoking

Thu Jan 10, 11:04 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - The owner of a small German computer company has fired three non-smoking workers because they were threatening to disturb the peace after they requested a smoke-free environment.

The manager of the 10-person IT company in Buesum, named Thomas J., told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper he had fired the trio because their non-smoking was causing disruptions.

Germany introduced non-smoking rules in pubs and restaurants on January 1, but Germans working in small offices are still allowed to smoke.

"I can't be bothered with trouble-makers," Thomas was quoted saying. "We're on the phone all the time and it's just easier to work while smoking. Everyone picks on smokers these days. It's time for revenge. I'm only going to hire smokers from now on."

(Reporting by Sarah Roberts; editing by Giles Elgood)

I got a new They Might Be Giants album, "They Got Lost". The album wasn't as good as some other albums by them, but the lyrics from this song were making me smile:


I’m a human head
And my best friend is also a head
I don’t really need my best friend

Now my friend is gone
And I’m only a head by myself
I find I don’t need my whole head

Now I’m just the top of a head
Just the scalp and the hair
I don’t like the scalp just the hair

What do I really need?
Best friend also a head
Just the head
Just a scalp
Hair

Friend
No
Head
No
Scalp
No
Hair

I am only one human hair
With no scalp for a home
All I need’s the top of a head
Now all I am is just a scalp
I don’t have any head
I’d be glad if I had a head

Now I have a head
Look at me
I’m a fine floating head
Where is my friend the other head?

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism is an amazing work, in my opinion. It was published 16 years ago by Macmillan Publishers. The writers and editors did a fantastic job on the articles--it's very comprehensive, the articles are very accurate statements of church policy & doctrine, and they are very well-written.

And I just found out that the entire text is available for free online, in pdf format:
http://www.lib.byu.edu/Macmillan/

(Click e.g. "browse all".)

Here's a nice Christmas picture that my dad took (we spent Christmas eve and day at my folks' house). I'm not sure where Pauline was.


Notice Leslie's new glasses--she just got glasses a couple of weeks ago.

While walking from the parking garage to my office this morning, I was struck by how cold it was--probably around 12 deg F.

Then I did a double-take, and realized that:
(1) I was wearing was I considered my "autumn" jacket in Wisconsin
(2) It wasn't even cold enough to make me zip up my jacket!

After those realizations, I didn't think it was particularly cold any more.