The Random Thoughts of Louis Schmier

As I walked through dark, pre-dawn, soggy morning, I was thinking about fire storms and tomatoes. Wierd combination. Maybe it’s this heat and humidity, even at the wee hours of 5 a.m. Well, it’s not a weird as it sounds, really. I’ve been engaged in a private discussion in which a professor threw a tomato [...]

This is another one of those shot-across-the-bow, non-random Random Thoughts for my VP. I was reading an article on the SAT in today’s USA TODAY that drew me back to an on-line, week-long discussion that had started out about that undefined, “oh you know what I mean” phenomena called “grade inflation.” Quickly it embraced the [...]

It’s “opening night!” It’s the beginning of the semester. Nothing ho-hum about it. It’s exciting. No, it’s downright electrifying. There’s an energy in the air. There’s a stimulating and refreshing newness all about. There is a permeating expectation. There is a penetrating anticipation. Thers’s a rush of enthusiasm all around. It’s so magical! It’s as [...]

Good morning. Went out real early this morning. It didn’t go any good. It was still hot and hazy and clammy. Even in the dark I was getting a South Georgia tan. The mildew was turning my skin a slimy green. You’d think by the end of my walk, I had become The Hulk! Anyway, [...]

Well, it’s the beginning of the semester. I am teaching four first year history classes of the same numbered course as I have chosen to do every semester for the last three years. Yesterday, the inevitable question arose, “Louis, don’t you get bored teaching the same thing over and over again?” At the core that [...]

Come on! Grab your hat! Put on your sunscreen! Take your Fodor’s! Trees and sun and water awaits you! Visit lush green rolling hills! Walk among ancient ruins! Stay in historic Inns! Eat exotic foods! Sound like an alluring travel brochure, don’t I. I just finished reading Alain de Botton’s ART OF TRAVEL. Interesting book. [...]

God, I love to walk in the dark. It’s a spiritual aerobic. It’s a meditative workout. I am aware that there is nothing ordinary about any step I take however steps I have taken over the years and miles of power walking. Every step is a step removed from the noisy static and chatter and [...]