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    <pubDate>Thu, 16 Jun 2005 22:57:10 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>When your own blog is so incredibly boring even YOU don't read it</title>
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          <p>So I have left this blog to rot as I shamelessly read other blogs I will accidentally click on to this site and quickly go away to something good.  Last weekend I surfed so much that I got bored and felt that I had read the entire Internet.  </p>
          <p>So what's up?  I am so excited that it is the end of the school year.  It really snuck up on me.  I am a bit disappointed that things are winding up too.  I have an incredible group of kids this year.  A month ago they had a little ceremony where they presented me with a new iPod to replace the one that was stolen.  It was even engraved on the back from them!  They had collected all of this money and did it all in secret!  Do you know how difficult it is for 150 16 year olds to keep a secret?  Bravo kids!  </p>
          <p>Uh oh, I just realized that I am supposed to be at dinner with Chris in Kirkland in 10 minutes.  I better go. </p>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 04 Jun 2005 02:26:33 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>I have made a huge mistake</title>
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          <p>Why are all the good shows being beaten by bad reality TV?!!!  Chris and I are big fans of Arrested Development, which is close to being cancelled by Fox to be replaced by who knows what.  <a href="http://www.saveourbluths.com">Save our bluths </a>is a site devoted to saving the show.  This is me doing my part.  </p>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2005 05:13:49 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>I am seething...</title>
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          <p>Okay, so yesterday during my science electives class some jerk stole my iPod off of my desk.  Was it my fault?  Totally.  Every day I put it some place safe as soon as class starts.  It is out early because my iPod is one of the things that gives me joy as I sit at my desk at 5:58 am grading papers, then I put it away until the kids leave and then it comes out again and grade more papers and answer parent emails.  </p>
          <p>Yesterday, an over-privileged and under-disciplined student decided to help themselves to it.  I discovered this only moments later and locked down my classroom.  The principals came and yelled at the kids/ told them that I didn't deserve to be robbed in my own room/ looked at the class list and came up with some possible subjects.  But, it is still missing.  And it makes me sick.  Because one of them is sitting in my class smiling at me, saying things like "Gosh, I am so sorry that happened to you- I can't believe it" and is secretly enjoying the fact that it is in their locker.  </p>
          <p>I don't even care about the cost of the item.  It could have been my cool stand up stapler.  Just feeling violated and so disrespected by my student is what really makes me resent this incident.  And I know that there are 28 other great kids in that room, and I shouldn't take it out on all of them, but right now, I trust absolutely no one- and I hate teaching in a room like that.  I was so repulsed by this that I didn't even want to show up for that period today.  The only thing that made me feel better was that I was giving a test and I hoped the criminal had spent too much time playing with my iPod to study and failed the test.  Sometimes it is really hard to be an excellent role model all of the time.</p>
          <p>And then there is the embarrassment that this person knows what music I like- and is looking over my specially created playlists.  Someone out there is listening to my Xanadu soundtrack!  (Well, I will be realistic here, no one is listening to my Xanadu soundtrack somewhere.)  But the fact that they can at this moment and I can't... AAAAARGH!  </p>
          <p>How many freakin’ weeks until June?</p>
          <p> </p>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 08 Apr 2005 06:34:55 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Mississippi hotdog</title>
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          <p>I think this blog is starting to teeter towards a personal blog, as opposed to a professional one.  Not that you'd know that by reading it, because there isn't much content.  But, if it counts, I do <em>think  </em>about it an awful lot.  And I really don't want to go to the effort to make a lot of Science teacher content, and make this more work than fun.  So, the whole idea of revolutionizing the Science Teacher world to help make communication easier and to help share fabulous lesson ideas* has been discarded so that I can add my own commentary on life, even though there are people far more intelligent and funnier than I am doing the same thing and I am just clogging up one of the many <strong>Internets.</strong>  (I love Bush... 4 more years!  Sorry, I just vomited in my mouth.)  But I don't care... this is my blog so I'll do what I want.    </p>
          <p>*This is yet another example of a pattern that I have just begun to notice in my very late 20s.  I keep starting things and then lose momentum and forget about them.  I am trying to turn this around.  For instance, right now I am going upstairs to drag out my violin and try a new song that was recently passed along to me.  Jessica, this Mississippi Hotdog is for you!</p>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 04 Apr 2005 04:19:34 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>It is Aprilish... \m/</title>
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          <p>Ahhh, 2 hours and 45 minutes until March 31st.  I feel like it is Christmas eve or the night before a vacation.  So I have spent almost this entire month trying to determine what it is about March that I hate so much.  This year had a 2-for-1 of holidays, both of which were great and we had a pretty good run of nicer weather... but I think what it is, is that I really run out of steam by this time of the year and feel guilty about what I thought I'd get done by this time (but haven't).  Then I get stressed, I bitch to my friends and colleagues and now random people on the Internet, I have a short fuse with my students, and so neither they, nor I are enjoying the comfortable classroom relationship that I think I've built up.  April is always my rebuilding month, where we get rejuvenated by the vacation, the second wind kicks in and I always start to get sad about not being with this group of kids anymore.  How is that possible?  I spend this month counting the minutes until the school day is up, and next month I'll be sad that I won't see their cute little faces anymore.</p>
          <p>I think I am allowing myself to get sucked into this cycle.  My first year, I just tried to get through until the end.  But the last 2 years I have gotten into the anti-March pattern.  I am going to change this right now.  Next year I am only going to hate March 1-15.  And I'll have to cram my frustration into 2 weeks instead.  And I'll balance out the other two weeks by collecting unicorn stuffed animals and find one of those "hang in there baby" puppy posters and listen to my Enya cds.  And then ideally, I'll get to a point 4 years from now where I will take out all my anger on March 19th between the hours of 1 pm and 4 pm, but in order to spare others, I'll go home sick.  </p>
          <p> </p>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 31 Mar 2005 05:32:17 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>What is with March?</title>
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          <p>So almost all of my teacher friends are really struggling to get through this month.  And every year, it is the same thing.  The beginning of the year momentum is dead and we're not close enough to June to even start thinking about the summer yet.  The WASL is around the corner and there is still so much to do!  This is the time of year when I start thinking "If I wasn't a teacher I would be doing...."  and I haven't really found anything that I can end that sentence with yet.  I love my co-workers and the kids are great and I have a really good supportive administration, but it is this time of year when I really feel like everything in my life suffers due to my work commitments.  This year though, I have been fighting back and been making myself only work 10 hour days and to not do so much on the weekends.  (Except for the last weekend when I was there both days...)  So now I have more free time, but my Catholic guilt keeps me thinking of all the things I should be doing instead.  Today I took my first personal day of the year (we get 3) and I feel like I did something wrong by leaving the kids for a day; although I used the time to catch up on work projects (okay, and sleep in until 7 am).  And really what is the point for all of this worrying or stress?  Are the kids going to benefit?  Well, actually, yes since I'll do more grading and plan more activities.  Will I?  No.  In fact I work alongside people who actually leave the building by 3 pm each day and don't spend their free time working on school things, and they not only are still employed by my school, it probably makes them better teachers since they are not burned out all the time.  And I feel I am really at a crossroads here, where if I continue at this pace, I won't be teaching for much longer.  And I hate that idea...don't I?</p>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 10 Mar 2005 23:51:30 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Dusting off the keyboard here</title>
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          <p>So yesterday I was part of a conversation about why one would have a blog.  Shout out to Tim right here.  And I was thinking about that all last night.  Why do I have a blog?  Right now I think it is a tie between my love of talking about myself and my belief that others enjoy this as much as I do, and also my passive aggressive way of talking about others whom I hope will read this and alter their behavior because I can not address it in person.  I am kidding about the second part...kind of.  Is that what blogs are these days?  Chris does this where he will talk about something that annoys him with new technology or whatever, and remarkably, the person who is working on that technology, or connected to that product, will read the blog and send him an email about the changes that will soon be made to correct his complaint.  But that works for Chris because he is a big deal architect, while my website is probably only read by my mom and the people who are trying to read about the Megan Anderson who does whale research and is the #1 hit on Google.  (Sorry, I really am trying to let that go.  How about those grey whales?)  </p>
          <p>Maybe I have a blog to communicate with my husband since we're never really at home at the same time.  Right now he's up in Nanaimo scuba diving and gets home Sunday, while I leave to go hang out in Vancouver BC with my good friend Adrienne.  We have been trying to do some big crazy vacation for mid-winter break... we came up with 3 nights in Waikiki, then a long weekend in Vegas, and we settled for Vancouver.  Maybe not so warm, but a vacation anyway.  So I'll just take this opportunity to say Hi hon, how was Canada?  I'll see you next week.  :)</p>
          <p> </p>
          <p> </p>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 20 Feb 2005 04:36:45 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Two in one day- whoo hoo</title>
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          <p>I just thought that this was funny.... <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,66460,00.html" target="_blank">Wired </a>magazine knows what I got for my birthday.  And not in a general "this is the most common gift" type way... but they actually named Chris and said that he got me an iPod for my birthday.  Which, for the record, I am really enjoying.  And not because it is cute (that's my husband's blogged reason for why he purchased it for me.  He gets quoted saying that it is a technological marvel... I am quoted as saying it is "<a href="http://www.simplegeek.com/" target="_blank">cute</a>".  Thanks hon.) but because it is super easy to use, not as clunky as our Zen player and the iTunes can be very quickly downloaded.  The best part of the gift though, was the fact that he got it before my b-day (this never happens...ever) and he had spent time converting all of my WMP music over to iTunes and downloaded it to the iPod.  Way to go Chris!  I think that makes up for the cute comment.    </p>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Feb 2005 17:41:56 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Insert catchy title here (yes, that is the title)</title>
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          <p>So I am starting to get some static from Chris about not updating my blog enough.  And sadly, I am slipping in my google ranking.  But since that type of thing doesn't really matter to me anyway, I guess I'll move on to more important things.</p>
          <p>Chris just bought an HDTivo.  Why?  I am really not sure... maybe because it brings him one step closer to home theatre perfection and it is more of a thing that he must have, as opposed to something that he really needs.  I wasn't aware that our lives weren't complete without an HDTivo, but then he informed me that we'd need to see the house and become hunter/gatherers.  Yeah, really this is what he said:</p>
          <p>"<font size="2">Hmm... can't tell if that is a happy "whatever", like I'm happy to get more use out of the home theater and boy it sounds cool, or if that is a frustrated "whatever", like will the endless gadget parade ever end or will I be faced with a string of meaningless purchases for the rest of my life. If the "whatever" is the happy kind, then I'll be getting the TiVos tomorrow, if the "whatever" is of the frustrated version, then I'm happy to wait on the purchase, abandon it all together, or generally just revert back to a more stone age version of man... perhaps I could switch to stone hammers and axes... hunting would occupy a lot of my time, which would unfortunately mean I would be spending less time at home. On the plus side, there would be fresh meat available more often, and we could fill the freezer with some bear, squirrel, or puppy meat.  [Puppy meat?!!!]</font></p>
          <p>But then again, the freezer would also have to go, which really brings in to question the whole "house" thing. Given that we like the house, I'm guessing that we don't want to revert back to the stone age, which is proof that you must be happy about the purchase, because I know you don't want to sell the house." - Chris</p>
          <p>I am kind of interested to see if I throw the Tivo out of the house if he actually starts to wear a leopard print loin cloth and carries a bow and arrow.  But he did just buy a truck, so how far off from that is he to start with?!</p>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Feb 2005 17:33:42 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>The hardest post of all... the second</title>
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          <p>Okay, so this stagnant blog is sitting here collecting dust.  But someone is going to it, since I've just moved up in rank from google's #3 Megan Anderson to the #2.  #1 is some girl currently doing research on whales.  I hope she's enjoying it, because I'm about to school her. Hmm, <a href="http://www.simplegeek.com/" target="_blank">Chris </a>was right, the blogging is all about who is reading who and how many links, and always ends in an inflated ego.  Since we already have one person around this house suffering from it (HA), I may tone it down just a bit.  Maybe.</p>
          <p>Beta... code word for waiting to crash my computer at any moment.  Here we go, another beta product that my husband is pushing me to use.  I am a bit wary of using beta programs.  In fact, at our house, Chris has agreed to the "no beta programs on anything that Megan depends on or might use at a whim" rule.  But I figured that the MSN spaces couldn't screw too much up on my machine and if it had too many problems, I'd just drop it.  So far, I find that there are too many customize options.  It doesn't not yet seem intuitive to me on how to change the look and improve the usability of my blog.  And the background themes?  Yeesh.  I was going with the celestial theme with the telescope and clouds and stars, but then thought it looked too new age-y for me.  And while you might hear me talking about my latest crazy interest- Reiki- you won't find me pledging allegiance to goddesses or trying to achieve inner peace so that I can add my voice to the healing power of mankind.  Not my thang.  So I chose red- but I am fickle and so will probably change colors 2-4 more times before I finish writing this blog entry.  If you know how to import some cool themes that are not offered by MSN spaces let me know...</p>
          <p>So switching back to school stuff for a bit, I had an interesting visit at 9 pm on Friday night.  It was one of my students.  Now, it wasn't one of those horrid, TP'ing or brick through window, or paintball revenge type visits.  It was a student who needed a last minute recommendation on a form.  She called around to all the Megan Anderson's in town leaving messages like "if this is Megan Anderson from GHS (Generic High School) please call me back".  So I called her up and she came over and I filled out the form.  And I echoed an earlier glowing recommendation I had written in her name.  But as I went to bed that night I wondered if I should have written something in there about a lack of planning, or procrastination.  Then I figured that every one has a bad day, and I do my share of procrastination.  But it still made me wonder.</p>
          <p> </p>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 16 Jan 2005 20:44:21 GMT</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>Welcome</title>
      <link>http://spaces.msn.com/members/double-helix/Blog/cns!1p3KOd5TaHUgz519OawuH-kg!105.entry</link>
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        <div>
          <p>So welcome to Double helix.  </p>
          <p>I have been having long philosophical discussions in my head about what I want this blog to be.  I had not yet decided what to do, but my husband linked to me last night as a challenge to finally write something.  So, thanks for that Chris.  Rather than take up space on the information superhighway with page that has no details and no information, here we go.  </p>
          <p>I initially started this as a place to share science lessons with other teachers and discuss topics and tensions in education- hence the name "double-helix".  Then I thought it could be personal where I could just put my own little funny musings on the world out for everyone to read.  But who really wants to read some recycled Seinfeldian postings like "What is up with people who wait until they are at the drive thru window at Starbucks to get the money out of their wallet?"  And if I am trying to inform those around me what is going on in my life- I would rather that people call me and ask me themselves instead of learning about what is going on using my blog. </p>
          <p>I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you are out there and reading this you should know that at any moment I could drastically shift from a discussion of why strawberries are much easier to use for spooling DNA in my class than onions (BTW strawberries are octaploid and therefore yield 8X more DNA than onions.) to a discussion about how I got stuck sitting in front of a guy wearing purple J. Lo. sunglasses offering the flight attendants free massages you have been warned.</p>
          <p>Have a good day. </p>
        </div>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 04 Jan 2005 15:58:14 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Photo Album: January 16</title>
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          <p>January 16</p>
        </div>
        <div>
          <table cellspacing="0" border="0">
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              <td valign="top"><a href="http://storage.msn.com/x1pY3JSdhwxUzhneSMRxaLXuaGC4jC8Nak_zHx9JQ7wPG6pHTC0xhC622ROj7GkN0qEW65cS58bSJFfEDgZT4NPPxvU1QTLecA0"><img src="http://storage.msn.com/x1pY3JSdhwxUzhneSMRxaLXuaGC4jC8Nak_vY114J1abr9Q8J2nD-YdsaTI8VuHLz5SYV1liakeTPkA4EOQRzIswXzHLFYn-pFi" border="0"/></a><br/>Megan in Mexico</td>
              <td width="15"/>
              <td valign="top"><a href="http://storage.msn.com/x1pY3JSdhwxUzhneSMRxaLXuViY_Reij-puFQ7xF3S3h29iIm4LUU3fvrUdixmxuwKP8bAs3Nyvg9VoYulgURalbH9gsaW34WAJ"><img src="http://storage.msn.com/x1pY3JSdhwxUzhneSMRxaLXuViY_Reij-puHAnTJ8MprEewrwG1xr8VPdtCsSqXAS17-ltdrXae3L6DGBOs-4pXwCWJWr29FHgt" border="0"/></a><br/>Chris and Megan in NY</td>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 16 Jan 2005 20:18:36 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Photo Album: January 12</title>
      <link>http://spaces.msn.com/members/double-helix/PersonalSpace.aspx?_c11_PhotoAlbum_spaHandler=TWljcm9zb2Z0LlNwYWNlcy5XZWIuUGFydHMuUGhvdG9BbGJ1bS5GdWxsTW9kZUNvbnRyb2xsZXI%24&amp;_c11_PhotoAlbum_spaFolderID=cns!1p3KOd5TaHUgz519OawuH-kg!108&amp;_c=PhotoAlbum</link>
      <content><div><p>January 12</p></div>No photos.<img src="http://c.spaces.msn.com/CollectionWebService/c.gif?space=double-helix&amp;page=RSS%3a+Photo+Album%3a+January+12&amp;referrer=" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""/><img style="position:absolute" alt="" width="0px" height="0px" src="http://c.msn.com/c.gif?NC=31263&amp;NA=1149&amp;PI=73329&amp;DI=3919&amp;PS=85545"/></content>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 13 Jan 2005 04:32:28 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Music List: In my iPod now... because my students bought me a new one and I love them.</title>
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        <div>
          <p>In my iPod now... because my students bought me a new one and I love them.</p>
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        <div>
          <ul>
            <li><a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;artist=Jay-Z">Jay-Z</a>: <a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;song=I+just+wanna+love+you&amp;artist=Jay-Z">I just wanna love you</a></li>
            <li><a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;artist=The+Ramones">The Ramones</a>: <a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;song=I+wanna+be+sedated&amp;artist=The+Ramones">I wanna be sedated</a></li>
            <li><a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;artist=Radiohead">Radiohead</a>: <a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;song=Karma+Police&amp;artist=Radiohead">Karma Police</a></li>
            <li><a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;artist=Depeche+Mode">Depeche Mode</a>: <a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;song=Little+15&amp;artist=Depeche+Mode">Little 15</a></li>
            <li><a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;artist=Ben+Folds">Ben Folds</a>: <a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;song=Mess&amp;artist=Ben+Folds">Mess</a></li>
            <li><a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;artist=The+Postal+Service">The Postal Service</a>: <a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;song=Nothing+Better&amp;artist=The+Postal+Service">Nothing Better</a></li>
            <li><a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;artist=Kenny+Rogers">Kenny Rogers</a>: <a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;song=Ruby%2c+don" t="t" take="take" your="your" love="love" to="to" town="town" artist="Kenny+Rogers'">Ruby, don't take your love to town</a></li>
            <li><a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;artist=Europe">Europe</a>: <a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;song=The+Final+Countdown&amp;artist=Europe">The Final Countdown</a></li>
            <li><a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;artist=Coldplay">Coldplay</a>: <a href="http://music.msn.com/commerce/default.aspx?affid=100001&amp;song=The+scientist&amp;artist=Coldplay">The scientist</a></li>
          </ul>
        </div>
        <img src="http://c.spaces.msn.com/CollectionWebService/c.gif?space=double-helix&amp;page=RSS%3a+Music+List%3a+In+my+iPod+now...+because+my+students+bought+me+a+new+one+and+I+love+them.&amp;referrer=" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt=""/>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 07 May 2005 23:16:54 GMT</pubDate>
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          <ul>
            <li><a href="http://www.stereogum.com">Stereogum</a>: Favorite music/pop culture site</li>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 31 Mar 2005 05:40:56 GMT</pubDate>
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