This is not my first goat-fuck...

I've been on the web since I was knee high to a pole cat, but today was one of the dumbest damned computer training sessions that I ever had. I swear. My department wants me to make a professional web page, which is totally cool. I get that. But this afternoon, I spent a lot of time with a fellow who was really unprepared to teach a class of cranky, tired PhDs. There were cascading link-thingies, and CSS widgets and what not that all these kids are using today, and I don't know what all else. The dumbest thing was trying to get us to, as a group, photoshop a picture of ourselves for the web. I could have had kittens, I was so frustrated. Also, since I only learned about the class today, I did not have a photo ready, and they did not have a picture for me either. So I pasted Evil Burt into a picture with the dean and called it a night. What else was I supposed to do?

So, I farted about with generating a website. I told the instructor that I recognized all of the words that he used, but just not in that order. The other thing that was kind of goofy was that there were a number of changes that we were supposed to make to the entire website (depending on how deep it was--one page deep or more, and you'd have to make the changes) of the underlying source code. I mean, really, is this worth it? I will have an entry page and host a professional page elsewhere.

Anyway, this morning I encountered an ant mound. Ok, in the early morning light, I thought it was moss and pushed it over with my toe, and the sudden swarming was impressive. They weren't after me or anything; they were just concerned that a large section of their earthworks (which must have been built since yesterday's storm) had just jumped about 4 inches to the right, and that makes sense--I'm with the ants on this one. But it did give me a (dim) look into their little lair. What was most interesting, I thought, was the debris and shell husks and bits of leaves that they were carrying down and apparently burying. These caught my eye because they were the pale moving things that I could see. I will go back tomorrow morning when the sun is up and take a peek.

So, html mayhem and a science excursion.

I'm going to go read my EO Wilson book that I bought several months ago. Superorganism. He's a swell writer. I'll enjoy it, I'm sure. Just have not yet had the time.

HJ