Pooh's Thoughts

It's called a budget.

2011-04-20T14:36:00.005-05:00

Sometimes something annoys me and I can't stop thinking about it. I have to tell someone about it. That's part of why I started this blog (btw, I'm not dead!), so I'd have 'someone' to tell. If you're good at putting 2 and 2 together, you may have guessed I have someone to tell all that stuff to now :) and don't have much reason to write here. Except today, I can't stop rehearsing telling him about this annoying thing and I will only see CR briefly tonight and don't want to waste breathe on this stupid thing, and I can't tell Honu-Girl (because she is annoyed about the same thing and doesn't need to hear more of my ramblings on the matter and definitely doesn't need the background...although she'll probably read this), but I can't stop rehearsing what I'd say...So, y'all are the lucky winners of the totality of my thoughts on the matter at hand - Adopt-A-School and money.

A little background to this week's drama: My employer (state science agency) has been an AAS partner for about 20 years. Our current coordinator has been doing it for about 17 years. (I've been working here for 5.5 years.) To fund AAS activities apparently they used to do bake sales, t-shirt sales, etc and passing the hat until someone came up with the idea of a golf tournament to fund all the educational outreach for the agency. Somewhere along the way a bank account was set up to handle the 'education fund' monies. Most of the funds went to AAS activities, as I understand it, but some money was donated to water festivals and a few other similar events. As I understand it, the agency became AAS partners to support Earth Science education, in particular (which is why we partnered with a middle school), but not to the exclusion of activities to support all education, teachers, and students. A bone of contintion between the education committee and the AAS coordinator was how she spent money - most of the committee favored trying to target actual educational things (equipment, books, fieldtrips), she likes to do a lot of prize type stuff (snacks during testing week, good behavior rewards (candy), lunch for the teachers). No one has a problem with rewards and treats but there is only so much money to go around.

Last summer one of our agency lawyers noticed all of this and realized this was illegal, primarily the money part. Generally state agencies can't go out and under their name seek charitable donations, at least not ours (maybe some can, idk). This was decreed right before the golf tournament. There was some chaos, then the geological society stepped up and offered to handle the money, become a co-AAS partner. Well, the chaos sort of continued through the summer as the old bank account was closed, money handed over, etc. At the beginning of the school year there wasn't a budget to hand the AAS coordinator, the society officers didn't know how much had been spent in the past, how much to expect to be spent this year, or have a firm number for the amount that could be spent. (That last was easy to take care of, it just hadn't been figured.) And in the midst of this a second school had been added to our AAS partnership, which upped the amount spent by 150% or so.

This first half of the school year AAS-coordinator would spend money then turn in receipts to the treasurer and get reimbursed. Few, if any, questions asked. After a while the treasurer started to wonder when, if ever, he was suppose to say no - so the officers got together, looked at the money spent, the money raised in the previous golf tournament, other money potentially available, and what else might education money might be spent on. They also asked the AAS-coordinator to put together a budget showing what she wanted to do for the second half of the year .(I can' t remember if there were two meetings, or a bunch of emails and one meeting) After the discussion the AAS-coordinator was told how much was available to be spent in the second half of the year and which activities were thought to be key to our goals (science education or at least directly educational), but the final decisions on how to spend the money fell to her.

Yesterday afternoon, I was included in a reply (as one of the society officers*) to an email about an Earth Day contest at one of the schools that need judges and prizes. It appears in the email that the AAS-coordinator is also asking about additional funds (although maybe she's just mentioning that she'll be buying prizes already covered in her existing budget). The society president states he can't attend but maybe someone else can go and asks the treasurer if there's still outreach money available. Emails go back and forth, up shot is there's some money and clearly this is the kind of thing we really want to support. This morning we get an email from the AAS-coordinator about how AAS isn't just something 'she' wants to do, it started before she was hired, all our bosses since then have affirmed the commitment, she doesn't appreciate others telling her what she can spend money on, she can't plan if she isn't sure there'll be money to cover activities,...and some more stuff along those lines. Oh, and suggesting we need to meet with everyone involved to discuss all this.After this email, several of us on this hall were sputtering, semi-incoherent about it. The Pres replied reminding her why the society took over the funds, that money is not unlimited, and we gave her a budget - stick to it.

My thought: We gave her a budget, she should know if there are funds left to do this. If it is indeed something the school decided to do recently and she's asking for additional money to cover prizes (as it appeared in her email) then she needs to recognize that there might not be any more money. Personally, if it's between feeding the teachers lunch (teacher appreciation lunch is apparently the only other thing this school year) and giving prizes for the Earth Day contest, I'd go with the prizes. I think most teachers would say reward academic and creative effort before you feed us - it's nice to be appreciated but we're all here to teach and encourage the kids. And if she didn't spend so much money on candy for the students maybe she could spend money on stuff that is actually educational.

Well, I feel better now.

*I got roped into being the society newsletter editor. Go me.

Neato

2010-02-01T16:57:00.004-06:00

Cool stuff! Go check it out.

That's about as articulate as I can manage today.

Confession Time

2010-01-27T15:01:00.004-06:00

So, remember that boy (CR) that I was stressing out over back before Christmas? Well, I pretty sure he likes me. We've been hanging out together fairly regularly (except the week he had a killer cold) this month. Things are moving slowly, and I'm ok with that - we aren't spring chickens and both have ex-fiancés*. But I have a confession, and I don't know if I should share it with him yet or not - I've been having rather naughty thoughts about him all day today. I don't want to freak him out - we've kissed but we haven't played any tonsil hockey - and I'm sitting here thinking distractingly naughty thoughts about him, since late yesterday evening.

So if you walk past my office and I'm smiling and blushing while staring off into space, you'll know why.

*When plural is it the masculine spelling? Should I say fiancé(e)s? Since I had a fiancé and he had a fiancée. Can a former English major or some one who knows French speak up?

Attitude Adjustment Needed

2010-01-15T14:32:00.005-06:00

Last night while having dinner with CR, we briefly discussed alcohol drinking limits, teen drinking, etc. (very briefly, mostly in the context of our former teaching careers). I just checked and I don't seem to have ever written about this here before, so I thought I'd let y'all know my thoughts on this topic.

I don't think strict prohibition until the age of 21 works well. I think there's some allure of the forbidden (particularly with teens) but more importantly makes it hard for families to teach teens to drink responsibly. A progressive introduction more like the German's* have makes more sense to me. The parent of a young teen (14?) can order an alcoholic beverage for their child at a restaurant. (I doubt anyone requires documentation for the age of the child or the exact legal relationship of the adult and teen, I assume it's kind of at the discretion of the server/manager/...). Later (age 16 perhaps?) a teen can order alcoholic beverages as long as there is an adult in the party, again at a restaurant or café. At 18 one is an adult and has all the privileges thereof.

But more important than the laws are attitudes and modeling.(Please note I'm not an expert in the field, have not raised any children,...) If parents (and the rest of the family) model responsible behavior and have less of an 'all or nothing' attitude then the kids are less likely to binge drink. Notice I say "less likely" not "won't" because nothing, short of the absence of all alcohol, can completely eliminate binge drinking. Teens are, on average, impulsive, poor judges of risk, and susceptible to peer pressure - these three things together don't make teenagers the best decision makers. On the other hand they aren't completely imbecilic robots who do everything their friends say either. I think if parents drink responsibly around their kids, show a dislike for excessive drinking and talk about it, be honest about their own youthful excesses, and even let kids taste drinks if they want (did you like beer the first time you drank it?), the children will grow up with a healthier attitude toward alcohol. Research even bears this out.

I read an article (or heard a story on NPR) about a study⁺ that looked at first-generation Irish- and Italian-American families (parent's born in old country, kids born and raised in US). In general the Irish-American families practiced strict prohibition^ until one 18 years old; alcohol was often drunk outside the home; and drinking to drunkeness was accectable. In the Italian-American households children were given age-appropriately sized glasses of wine with dinner, alcohol was mostly drunk with the meal; and excessive drinking was not socially accectable. The researchers followed the children in these families into adulthood and the Italian-Americans were less likely to binge drink as teens and young adults and had a lower incidence of alcoholism than the Irish-Americans.

There will always be teens who get wasted every Friday night but maybe if we change our attitudes about alcohol and teens then it could be fewer?

*At least as I remember from discussions in class 15 yrs ago. And, no, I don't know about any other European nation's laws.
⁺If I had any idea where I'd read about this I'd link to it but I read the article at least 6 months ago.
^except for communion wine for the RCers, of course

Present from the Dog

2010-01-04T09:57:00.004-06:00

or dogs?

But first - the laundry room lizard reading about physics.

If you are of a weak constitution, you may want to skip rest of this post and take a look at these instead.

I'm not sure where it came from but Honey or some other dog/dogs Wednesday night brought me this:

I'm pretty sure a neighbor had been butchering this little guy and left the head and spine, carelessly, where dogs could get to it. From the tip of the nose to the hip bone he's maybe 5 feet long.

The head is about 14-16" long. I tossed him into the woods Thursday by Sunday it had been pulled across the yard and the skin on the head was gone. I'm sparing y'all that sight. The ribs are gone now, too.

He must have had some kind of rack because it was hatched off.

Luckily it's barely gotten above freezing this past 5 week so he's not rotting terribly fast and the there aren't many flies. Hopefully Dad will find him and toss him in the brush today, otherwise I'll have to go out when I get home and do it in the dark.

Pet Pictures

2009-12-30T16:08:00.007-06:00

Because really what else do you want to see while surfing pre-New Year's intoxication?

Did I post Me and My Shadow yet? Well, either way, it's so cute.

Honey got How to Teach Physics to Your Dog for Christmas but Irish got a hold of it first.

I think Irish is trying to steal the book from Honey by scent marking it here.

Here's Honey reading it:

Taking a break to ponder bunnies made of cheese:

Here she's pouting because I took the book away.

I'm anxiously awaiting my turn at reading the book. :)

Learning to Ride

2009-12-28T12:49:00.004-06:00

No one's at work again today but I'm feeling more philosophical than crazy today. I'm listening/watching to an old Bones ep ("The Woman in the Car"). At one point Booth and Brennan are watching a video of a kid learning to ride a bike. Dad is a little nervous (his baby is growing up), kid is excited, Mom is worried. The mom keeps saying things like "Be carefull" and "don't let go" while the kid is saying "I can do it!" As the kid goes wobbling down the sidewalk, Mom says to Dad "How do we get him back?"

It occured to me that you never 'get them back' (kids that is) you just run along beside as long as possible. (note: I don't have any kids, just a much younger sister.) Parents (and older sisters) always want to hold on to their child, keep him or her at whatever age*. The job of a parent isn't to continue to hold on to the bike seat until all danger has passed. The job of a parent is to run along beside your child until you can't keep up anymore.

*Well, maybe not 11. Or 13, 15, and 17. I have a friend, who's now 25, that I've none since she was 11. The odd teenage years were not good.

Pink Rose = Friendship?

2009-12-24T10:16:00.006-06:00

So, how's everyone? Have(ing) a nice Christmas (or whatever you celebrate)? I'm ok, except for the raging neuroses.

I guess you saw in my last post I went on a blind date. Since then we've been to lunch twice, he came to my church for our Christmas choir thing, I went to the church he attend here's Christmas choir program with a birthday dinner for our mutual friend before hand, and a random dinner* with our mutual friend, and one dinner and a movie. By my count that's 5 dates, more than I've been on in the last ten years.

All this romantic attention has my inner voices in overdrive - Am I sending the right signals? Bad body language habits! Are the signals confusing? Don't cross your arms! Smile. (not hard to do in his company) Am I sending any signals? Make eye contact. Don't ramble...- you get the picture.

Tuesday night when he walked me to my door I practically stood in it rather than let him come in. Not because I actually didn't want him to come in but because I was trying to figure out if it was too late to invite him in for coffee/tea/hot cocoa (I had to go to work the next morning) and wondering if he was going to hug me. Then he's leaning in for a hug and I'm thinking "kiss? on lips or cheek? Should I give him a peck on the cheek? hmm, his head hits right at my shoulder. Kiss now? Crap, missed my chance." Then Wednesday after the kind of random dinner I got a one-arm, diagonal, friend-hug, which starting me worrying if that meant something or not.

I've been feeling so much better the last year or so. Comfortable in my own skin, more confident, (usually) feeling competent at work, all that good stuff. This week I've gone back and forth between embarrassingly giddy because maybe a boy likes me to being terrified that I'll somehow screw this up (whatever 'this' becomes) to telling myself I'm being silly because I've known him less than a month. Basically I feel a bit like I'm 15 again. I suck at dating. Part of me wants to tell him that I haven't dated much (understatement of the year?), I'm not good at 'reading' people, etc while the rest of me shouts that bit down with "we don't want to freak him out"**, and one small part says "relax, deep breaths, you've only know him a few weeks, it will be OK, breathe damn it!"

I think the worst is those inner voices have started up their positive feedback loop of negativity, again. The loop gets interrupted when I get unambiguously good signals, like an email saying hi. (If it's not on the level of hitting me over the head with a club and dragging me back to his cave, it is up for interpretation.) Or if I distract myself, which is hard to do this time of year at work.

*Our mutual friend is the grad student who does fieldwork with me, RA. I was dropping RA off after field work about 5 and he'd invited me to eat with them, then mention CR would be there... I'm hoping CR didn't think it was weird I showed up.

**God help me if he finds this blog - he'll think I'm completely insane. Maybe I should have picked more anonymous screen name, made this a more truly anonymous blog. Too late now.

A question and a boast

2009-12-08T14:01:00.004-06:00

First off, is there something about Ig/Met Pet Question that makes it particularly spam worthy? I've been getting at a Japanese spam comment about one a day for a week now.

Secondly, I went from this (geologist office chic):

to this (over dressed for blind double date):

in 46 minutes last Friday*. Well, slightly less time actually, 46 minutes is the difference between the time stamps on the photos. I was only 10 minutes late and half of that was because I had to stop at the ATM.

I had fun. He, I'm told, had a good time and wants my number (since he didn't ask for it before I left, despite having an entire Uno game's worth of warning. But then it was really late and we were all getting tired.). Also I got to see our big snow falling. (It didn't stick here but did in Birmingham, I'm told.)

*I also went from having a dog excited to have Mom home to one pouting on my bed because Mom was abandoning her for the evening. That's why she's not in the second picture. :)

Please Note:

2009-12-04T14:06:00.004-06:00

As I mentioned the other day I've turned on comment moderation for older posts. (I've had a handful of spam comments.) I'd like to point out that I will probably reject any comments not in English without even trying to figure out what it they says*.

Thank you.

BTW, the spambot trying to comment in Japanses on Ig/Met Pet Question - please go away.

*grammar fixed now

Thanks

2009-12-01T16:20:00.004-06:00

[quick editorial note: I turned comment moderation on for old posts but forgot to set Blogger to email me when there was a comment needing moderation. Oops. Sorry if you're the commenter who sat waiting so long.]

In the spirit of Thanksgiving last week and today being World AIDS Day I wanted to thank the doctors, nurses, and support staff (and researchers?) at UAB's Family Clinic (or whatever it's called now). When Nettie was born (and the months leading up to then), my parents, brother, the rest of my family and I (and possibly her bio-mom, but how would anyone know?) were worried and unsure about her chances of being born healthy and getting to grow up to be the wonderful pre-teen she is today, much less to be the beautiful young woman she'll be in a few more years.*

Scientific American had a special issue devoted to HIV/AIDS right about the time we found out my (now former) SIL was HIV positive. That helped a lot. We had some current information all in one place, and it was understandable. It also helped with the OB, because while I'm sure he was a wonderful doc, he didn't start out knowing much about what could be done to help the baby's chances of being HIV negative; my brother could go in with good information to get the OB looking into it.

After the birth though we were a bit in the dark again; SA had articles on pregnancy and birth and HIV infection in babies/children but, as I recall, nothing on when you know an infant isn't infected. This is when the Family clinic came in and were just wonderful. (Not all of our experiences at Children's were wonderful, or even good, but that wasn't FC's fault.) The doctors and nurses were not only good at doctoring but had good bedside manner and were willing to answer any questions we had; the social worker, too. (She even gave Mom and me meal vouchers but we didn't get to use them -that was the Day From Hell.)

The Family Clinic is (or was 10 years ago) a group from UAB and had "clinic" at Children's Hospital in Birmingham one day a week (Montgomery and Huntsville 2 other days a week, iirc). Their goal was to treat every HIV positive child (and HIV exposed infants) and, when needed, the parents of those children in the state. (A lofty goal and one I'm sure they fell short on - a lot of people would have trouble getting to the hospitals). They also did research on HIV in infants and children. They had drug protocols, testing schedules, and stats. Just learning the statistics on when babies test positive and hearing that Nettie, at 8 days old, didn't have any of the common early signs of infection helped put us at ease. Or at least helped us not worry TOO much. And a year and a half later, knowing that she didn't have to be tested any more, was very nice confirmation that our beautiful healthy little girl was going to stay that way.

Now if we could somehow skip the middle school years, everything would be perfect.

*What? How? When? She was just a little baby, like, yesterday!

Ig/Met Pet question.

2009-11-02T15:58:00.007-06:00

Callan's post on his new "granite" counter top reminded me of a post I meant to do while in Portland. I didn't have my camera so I had to wait until I got home, and I just drew a quick sketch of the gorgeous "granite" that adorned my bathroom at the Paramount. My petrology class was a while ago and I spend most of my time looking at the electrical properties of sedimentary rocks, so other than metamorphic I didn't get any further with this:

The biotite books in the groundmass (for lack of a better term) weren't that aligned (i.e. no preferred orientation), I was just lazy in Illustrator. The white space in the groundmass was mostly quartz with plag. The ground mass was medium to dark grey overall. The large feldspar clasts were between approximately .5"-1.25" (1 - 3cm, or nickel to Kennedy half-dollar); some had rings of biotite in them and/or inclusions of biotite, quartz, and rarely plag. A couple had rings of quartz inclusions - like an overgrowth of quartz followed by regrowth of feldspar; a few were almost complete overgrown by quartz.

So anyone know what it was?

"It's a terrible thing when gneiss is taken for granite"
-J.C. Pashin (and probably others)*

* Speaking of puns, check out Callan's Halloween costume

Why do I bother?

2009-10-31T23:38:00.002-05:00

2 dances/hour, $1.20/dance, 1 out of every 6 songs, or 5 miles (roundtrip)/dance* - That's how tonight's dance works out. Still one dance better than the last TBDC dance. I have lots of fun at class, because I actually dance. I don't have much fun sitting by myself at a table watching everyone else dance.

I sit forward in my chair, no slouching or arms crossed over my chest; I sway/seat dance to the music; I make eye contact with people; I don't sit at the far end of the table in the dark - so why don't I get asked to dance? I'm starting to think it's the same reason I don't get asked out on dates(other than an apparent dearth of single, age appropriate men) - something just wrong with me. What I don't know, but small children don't like me, store clerks ignore me, and guys don't ask me to dance.

*this is not counting the line dances: Electric Slide, Peabody, or Cupid Shuffle

50/50?

2009-10-30T16:07:00.004-05:00

Short Geologist asked about male/female ratios where we work. My answer was going to be a bit long, so I'm making a whole post.

At the engineering consulting firm (where I did UST and SWPA work) I was one of 4 women "professionals" (a geologist, an engineer, a chemist, and an environmental scientist), so total for "professionals" was about 4:12; there were far more women then men in the office but the rest were drafters, secretaries, personnel manager, office manager, book keeper... As far as I know there were no women on the survey crews (those crews probably brought the total male/female back up to 50/50).

Back in grad school the ratio was close to 40:60ish, a few more males than females (students only).

Where I am now there are 9 female geologist and chemists (iirc, she actually does programming for us) and 50 male geologists, biologists, and engineers. My division is 3:4 and our building (next door to most of the Survey) is 4:9, plus one volunteer lady geologist*. When I counted up my co-workers from the phone list I was kind of surprised there were actually that few women scientists. It always seems like there are more women here but in my mind I'm probably including all the support staff (accounting, personnel,...), which is mostly female. Lots of the men work either for the OGB or on the 3rd floor where I rarely go and so usually only see all those folks at holiday luncheons.

I've noticed a difference in conference attendance. When I went to the American Association of Petroleum Geologist's meeting there were definitely more men than women but at the Geological Society of America meetings I've been to (all 2 of them) it was more even. There's a small (200 people?) symposium here every spring on coalbed methane and shale gas. When I was a student my (now) boss' wife and I would be among the very few women there. (No line at the bathrooms!) now the numbers of women are creeping up. That meeting is probably still in the 25:75 range. The field trip my boss runs for that meeting is the only time I've seen men crash the ladies bathroom (1-holers at a gas station). Not uncommon for the van drivers and I to be the only women.

At the consulting job I spent most of my time in the office writing up other's reports because the guy (an engineer, who once described a sand as "well sorted, fine to coarse grained") could help our drill crew lift augers, 70lb bags of sack-crete, etc. and all I 'could' do was describe the soil. The only time I really was uncomfortable about being a lady geologist was the job with the driller who hit on me, obnoxiously, for 3 days straight. My (then) boss and his mostly thought it was funny and were laying bets as to when I'd slug the jerk. (It's surprising he managed to get the hole straight because he spent almost all of his time looking at me - and I'm not terribly attractive in field clothes and a hardhat.)

Male/female ratios aren't something I've ever worried a whole lot about. That is partly due to the fact that I've had good role models, also, with 5 brothers it doesn't bother me to be "one of the guys". Besides, I have it so much easier than it used to be. My boss' wife (a geologist) was once denied a job because they didn't have a ladies room in the building. At that time, she had a job where she had a 10 minute walk to the closest ladies room.

*with only 2 one-holers, one non-climate controlled, for us ladies!

Baby Pictures!

2009-10-29T08:50:00.004-05:00

Because I know the whole wide internets is dying to see pictures of my grand-nephew:

I'd like to take this oppotunity to point out how unfair it is that my brothers (except the half bald one) and nephews have better hair than Kate, Anna, and I. (Ok, John and Pat can keep the receeding at the temples bit.) Also I can't remember the others, but Scott and Nathan have about the best eyelashes I've ever seen - it's just not fair. I'll forgive Maddox.

Congratulations...

2009-10-27T16:00:00.002-05:00

...to my nephew and his wife (Scott and Lauren): Maddox Scott, 7lbs 2 oz, born today.

I'm sending them all my good thoughts and wishing them lots of sleep.

A note to the airlines

2009-10-19T11:57:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note from Portland.

My flights here were fine, but requiring anyone to be anywhere before 6am is just wrong. There should be special check-in procedures or something for any flight before 7. At least I spent the night at my brother's in Trussville, getting up at 4:15 is WAY better than leaving the house at 4:15. (My SIL is also in Portland this week for work, she had to meet a coworker at 4 for a 6:50ish flight. The co-worker had to leave home at least by 3:30!)

Also, in light of the 3-1-1 policy, if you strand someone somewhere try and make sure the hotel has complementary shampoo. I'm looking at you US Air in Charlotte. (referencing last weeks trip) Because of the liquids restrictions some of us don't always bother to carry shampoo, particularly on short trips.

More badges!

2009-10-05T10:54:00.005-05:00

(I promise I'll get to the rest of the banned book list, even if it's not Banned Book Week, eventually.)

Look Knitting Scouts! I can add to my Science Scout badges knitting badges. Maybe.

I don't have much contact with "the media" so I don't know if I actually qualify for the primary badge (Proselytize Knitting). I did help a friend by crochet supplies because she wanted to start up again.

I "will impress you with my math prowess" (level I) - knitting math is generally straight forward - even if I usually don't worry about gauge (haven't knit any sweaters, etc. yet). I just knit until it's the size I want. But my calculations for flat-knit circles work in garter stitch at least. (Does the use of trig functions move me up to level 1.5?)
I definitely qualify for "Knit Items With No Conceivable Practical Application", as my "reds bag" is an almost unusable size and shape but cute.

In other knitting news: I finally wove in the ends on 2 wash cloths and 3 burp cloths that I started on in June. They even got washed last night so I might be able to give them to my new-Dad coworker this week. I bought some pretty wool a few weeks ago and will start knitting a scarf for my niece that I see in a couple weeks. (3 plane rides before I see her should be plenty of time) And after that I'm going to start a baby blanket for my grand-nephew; it should be done by Christmas.

BTW did I pick up my "rock licker" badge? (It's lunch time and I'm too lazy to go back and check.)

Needles (the good kind)

2009-09-29T11:06:00.005-05:00

I'm shamelessly selling my post for the chance at knitting needles. Knit Purl Gurl is giving away this lovely set of interchangeable needles.

In other knitting news I'm trying to decide if a 36" x 36" blanket is going to use a gazillion yards of yarn or something reasonable. I've been thinking about and looking at baby blanket patterns. Then last night, for kicks, I grabbed 3 remnants of some balls of Lily Sugar'n Cream and knit it up on a pair of 15s in garter stitch. Muddy colors (they were rather random remnants) but really squishy soft. I need to weigh my little 4X4 swatch. There should be postage scale around here somewhere.

Read, Read a Book, Read a Book Right Now*

2009-09-28T09:26:00.011-05:00

Preferably a banned book, as it is Banned Books Week. I don't know which books I have on my shelf and which I don't so instead of following Sarah's example I'll examine the lists of most challenged/banned books from 2001-2008. Of those I've read:

Captain Underpants
Bridge to Terabithia
Julie of the Wolves
His Dark Materials series
Harry Potter series
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Of Mice and Men
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The Color Purple

I've put these in approximate age of readers. Captain Underpants is a beginning chapter book, I think, or read to your K-1st grader. I saw it was challenged for being "unsuited for age group" - well, I don't know about the people who challenged it but Mom and Nettie had the best time ever reading it together. It's the only one on the list I haven't read all of (OK, also haven't read Amber Spyglass, yet) but I think from the bits I have read/heard that it is perfect for the age group. Potty humor and burping is right up an average 6-9 yr old's alley, parent's might not always appreciate it but their kids love it. Mom and Nettie laughed the whole time.

The next three are (my impression) for late-elementary schoolers. I read Bridge to Terabithia and Julie of the Wolves in 6th grade, both for discussion/book reports. I'll admit that 6th grade was a while ago, so my memory may not be perfect but violence? I don't remember any particular violence in either. In BtT the kids have a fantasy world with battles against imaginary foes - you can't have kings and queens without dragons - but, in my mind, that's different than 'real' violence. It wasn't gratuitous or glorified. In JotW, Julie's village hunts, the wolf pack she joins hunts, but I can't for the life of me come up with any other potential violence to complain about. Maybe I've forgotten a bunch in the intervening 20 years? IDK, IDU either.

His Dark Materials is somewhat anti-church (in my reading really more anti-establishment or anti-dogma than anti-Christianity despite, perhaps, the author's intent) and this would make it a target of many book banners. Don't want the kiddos asking too many questions. Yeah, there's some violence but not gory and how do you have epic battles with out some violence? How many kids are going to read a trilogy that doesn't involve a major world changing conflict? And how many of those world changing conflicts are going to not involve a war? Yeah, you can do it, but the central conflict of the story needs to grab kids - war grabs kids (and adults).

It seems to me that the Harry Potter series starts as a mid- to late-elementary (3-5th grade) reading and ends as intermediate school reading (7-8th). I suspect a lot of the challenges to Harry Potter are because of the magic - inherently anti-church, if you're afraid of questions. My sister has a friend who isn't allowed to read the books or watch the movies because of this (but can watch Mary Poppins, go figure.). Yeah, there's violence. Violence with consequences and not without reason (at least for the good guys). Again the good guys are fighting evil, and Harry, et al. (due to an accident of birth) get sweep up in it. It's hard to fight evil without shedding some blood, Harry, Dumbledore or any of the other of our heroes, didn't started it but someone has to end it. BTW, sometime this happens in real life, not so much an 11 yr old kid being swept up into and being central to the resolution of the war, but bad things happen and sometimes young men and women have to go off to war - many not more than a year or two older than Harry, Hermione, and Ron in HPatDH - and kill or be killed.

I think kids can handle a little more than we tend to give them credit for. Or more than the idiots who ban books think they can. Not only can they handle people in a book fighting battles or hunting their food - they can tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

*post title is poorly purloined from RIF-Man lyrics

All About Dancing!

2009-09-22T16:59:00.000-05:00

(I may repeat myself, because I'm too lazy to look at my back posts. Also I started this post a couple weeks ago.)

~~This week~~ Three weeks ago was the start of intermediate rumba, where we're learning a routine that'll be performed at the ~~October~~ November dance (by those who want to, the rest will just be made to feel really guilty). There were 16 couples and 4 single ladies in class the first week, which is definitely up from WCS and hustle.

I'm torn about the class. I'm not going to do the performance because dancing in a group isn't like being in choir/band/orchestra - it's still too individual. I'm taking the class because we'll learn new moves and dancing is fun. Or it is when you have someone to dance with. But the first week wasn't much fun. I guess I was already having a kind of bad day and then I get to dance class and I'm stuck by myself and the instructors are spending as much time with each of the couples as they spend with me which means I have a partner for about 15 minutes of the hour, at most. I can practice by myself but it's not the same. And I was already feeling a bit crappy... I'll go back next week, we're suppose to switch up partners next week, and we'll see.

The second week they had a helper (new instructor at Tuscaloosa Dance Sport) who danced with me a bunch. And the last week someone's partner wasn't there so I had a partner the whole time! I definitely like it better when I have someone to dance with. We'll see how tonight goes.

Speaking of lacking a partner, what do you call a get together where there are far more women than men? Because that was the first 45 minutes or so of the dance party* (at TDS) a 3 weeks ago. Then for two weeks they had two more guy instructors show up and one kind of adopted me and I hardly sat out a dance. Last week, however, the two "new" guys were out of town and the owner has hurt his foot so he's not suppose to dance, everyone else were couples who mostly danced with their regular partners. At least there weren't 3-4 single girls sitting around just me and the girl instructor there. Then Saturday I went to the TBDC dance and mostly sat. Out of about 5 hours at dances I danced maybe 40 minutes (not counting line and mixer/chair dances at TBDC) and one of those dances was a rumba with Claire. If she weren't almost 2 feet shorter than me we might have done a tango. I had fun talking to Claire and Rita but would have had more fun dancing. Oh well. I'll keep going, maybe I'll just dance by myself next time.

One thing I don't understand - why aren't there more single guys who dance? (Warning: broad generalizations to follow.) Women like to dance. Men like women. Women really like men who dance. Men should want to learn to dance so they can hold the pretty girls close. So why do wives have to drag their husbands to dance lessons? Why aren't frat boys all jumping up and down to learn how to meet girls? WHY?

*I like the dance parties and the studio has great space (and will be real nice when the floor's completely finished); they just need more people to show up. I hope they have lots of people showing up for classes. I'm trying to go to a few.

Great song but you got a bit wrong.

2009-09-08T17:10:00.004-05:00

I just watched the videos for "Science is Real", "I'm a Palentologist", and "The Elements" (on YouTube and BoingBoing via i09).* Loved 'em, and I would buy this album if I was spending money on music just now, except TMBG got one little bit wrong:

I know everyone likes the idea of compressing coal to make an diamond - it's a great image but it's wrong. Pure carbon at surface temperatures and pressures is graphite (main ingredient in pencil leads).** Coal is the remains of ancient plants (and algae); it is mostly carbon but it isn't anywhere near pure.

Thank you. Go and sin no more.

And yes, I can be a prick about science.

*Yes, I know, I'm a bit late to the party.
**In fact, diamonds are less stable at surface pressures and temperatures than graphite and would turn into graphite over time if it weren't for the huge energy needed to break the C-C bonds. (At least that's what I remember.) Imagine a bowl on a counter top and a bowl on the floor with a tube in the water of the upper bowl going up to the ceiling and then down to the bowl on the floor - the lower bowl is at a lower potential energy and the water would "want" to get there, but it's gonna take a hell of a lot of energy to get the water up to the ceiling first.

Free To a Good Home

2009-08-25T11:37:00.004-05:00

I think I could open luggage store with all the baggage I carry around. Sarah's post today (obviously not Gormenghastocabulary XI, 'cos lexiponage is always good) got me started at "I hate feeling like I'm suppose to wear make-up" and a few easy steps I wound my way to "I'm going to die alone* as the crazy old dog women".

I know I've mentioned my make-up baggage before but today I remembered the day my dermatologist (of all people) say to 19-year old me that wearing make-up regularly "would come" like make-up wearing was as inevitable as needing deodorant and shaving.

While I'm on the subject of beauty and baggage - I wish the dance studio didn't have giant floor to ceiling mirrors. It really ruins the feeling that I'm pretty and at least 20 lbs lighter when I dance if I catch a glimpse of myself.

*despite Nettie, my 5 brothers and SILs, 6 nieces and nephews, their spouses, and untold great-nieces and nephews by then,... being around.

No deep thoughts.

2009-08-04T13:24:00.002-05:00

What I want to know today (because y'all SO want to know my every thought) is when do I get a script writer?* Because I'm not having much luck creating my own meet-cute^#.

*This is not brought on by watching some stupid romantic comedy. I watched The Blues Brothers last night and that music can't make you depressed. Just a general le sigh and damn even Jake and Elwood get girls, sort of.^

^#for those not in the know

^ Actually Jake had one waiting in celibacy at the back of a cathedral until she decided for the good of humanity that he needed to die; Twiggy was waiting for Elwood at the hotel but he had to get to the Cook Co. Office of the Assessor^&.

^&It was dark and he was wearing sunglasses.

Another for the REALLY file.

2009-08-03T09:55:00.004-05:00

Over on Free Range Kids, there's a post about kids, PE, nutrition, and health (inspired by this). I was going to leave a comment but I think I need a little more room to organize my thoughts.

Oddly, more PE, healthier lunches, and nutrition education doesn't make kids skinnier. Who would have guessed? It might have made the kids healthier but apparently they didn't check for that. I don't think this study means we should scrap PE (or daily PE) or not worry about what the schools feed them.

I don't think PE teaches kids to be healthier. It can give kids the tools to be healthier, if it's done right. It's possible to introduce kids to different sports and activities that they may enjoy for life. It may not but it might. Giving kids the basics of basketball will allow them, if they want, to join pick up games later in life. (BTW, you have to teach some of those basics. My little sister was marked down in PE in Kindergarten because she didn't know how to dribble a basketball. At my parents house didn't have a basketball hoop, a basketball, or anyone to have ever shown her how to dribble. Where was she suppose to have learned it?) Recess, I think, has an even better chance to help kids be healthier now and throughout life because it lets them choose the activity. We had tons more fun playing soccer or rugby (only for a few days then a teacher made us stop tackling) at recess (which we had every non-rainy/snowy day K-6*) than I ever had playing soccer or flag-football in various grades' PE classes. Recess tends to get dumped before PE in elementary schools because the classroom teachers get a break from the kids - often the only one they get all day. But recess is more important for the kids; they burn off energy, get to take a mental break, learn to negotiate rules, etc with one another, and a bunch of other important stuff. (I don't feel like looking all the benefits of recess up in my old pedagogy texts.) Anyway more PE may not help but maybe better PE could. Not everyone is athletic but helping kids have fun being active might help them be more active as an adult.

Healthier lunches and nutrition education, again, may not help in the short term but it might help long term. First of all "forcing" kids to make relatively healthy decisions at school will reinforce what they (hopefully) are learning at home. However, we have to keep in mind that kids are programed to prefer fat, salt, and sweets more than adults are. (There was a segment on NOVASscienceNOW on this recently.) Their tastebuds are different and you have to keep offering new foods before they'll really try it (ask any parent). We certainly shouldn't be encouraging junk food.

But in the end what kids learn in school can be unlearned at home. If a child isn't being encouraged to play outside, doesn't see his/her parents be active, is given unhealthy food to eat and has unhealthy eating modeled for him/her, I'm not sure what the school teaches will make the difference in the long run. And focusing on weight instead of health isn't helpful for anyone**.

*and if we were stuck inside several days in a row they'd figure out times a couple of classes could use the gym for recess

**If I found out a particular person was the reason my ELEVEN YEAR OLD sister (not one of the tallest or skinniest kids in her class but in no way overweight) was asking me this weekend if I thought she needed to lose weight, I will kick his/her ass up one side of town and down the other. ("I weighs 80 pounds now and I used to be 70lbs." [read in worried tween voice] I pointed out she used to be shorter, too; I'm not sure she's convinced.)

Reflection on the Field

2009-07-30T09:09:00.008-05:00

No field work this week, the LiCor has been sent back to get fixed and recalibrated, but I had a couple of thoughts and one question on working in the field and with RA.

Question first. If it hurts RA's manly pride for me to carry heavy things or swing the machete then I'm not going to argue with him. I'll offer to do it but I'm not going to insist, it seems silly to make more work for myself and fight for it. Should I be more insistent? Am I not being feminist enough?

Most of my thoughts center on RA's apparent lousy sense of direction. When I said we needed to go a little further west for on collar and he said "I'm so turned around I have no idea where that is" I was a bit flabbergasted; west was heading towards the highway, which you could hear, also not up or down hill and we hadn't even been winding around much. He was pretty tired by then, so that was part of the problem. I'm sure he can get around with a compass; I've been with him when he was using one and I fairly sure orienteering is taught in [home country]'s army (otherwise navigating in areas without roads is much more difficult). I'm not sure if normally his sense of direction is as bad as it was out at the site or if it was a related to exhaustion, terrain, and/or not pay attention because that's what I was doing.

One of the few things I'm really good at* is visualizing in 3D. This is helpful for my job and some puzzles and I think it's why I my sense of direction isn't too bad. Drive me around for a while, stick me in the woods and I might guess north right 30% of the time (it'd be 25% of the time except when the sun is low(ish) in the sky I can get E or W, then turn 90°) but if I have a starting point, like I know the road runs generally N/S and I need to move due E to find a point (like what I was doing while placing collars) I can do it, or if I need a get back to a starting point I don't have retrace all my steps. It's like I map the route (detours around trees, thickets,... and/or from point to point) in my head, along with the lay of the land.

I used to be able to figure out what direction north (E, W, or S) most places around where I lived because most of the roads were fairly straight, for that matter I probably still can. They weren't in a grid pattern (except in DC, which was way outside my mental map anyway) but they were mostly straight. I knew which way, generally, my house faced (east) and could back track from where I was to home and figure out the cardinals. Things outside this map were connected by a much looser, cardinal-direction wise, road "network" of how you got places (like, route 7 runs through here, route 50 will take you to x and y) which could connect two destinations but not necessarily given you an idea of the distances (but possibly travel time) or which way you were going. (It never helped that sometimes to go physically south you went "north" on 495. And I only drove there for a year.)

I mostly have T-town "mapped" as a route network. Near downtown and campus the roads are regular enough that I could actually draw a map and I could include some of the more out lying roads. But when you get out of town a little ways the roads wind around so much that really keeping a clear picture of it in my head is hard, it becomes more of a general this road takes you to these roads or that place. Also there are a lot of parts of town I never drive through, no reason except I've just never needed, so those areas are completely blank in my mental map. I do have a better mental map of where different communities/places are within the county here than I did in Virginia; I think because I deal with maps of the county a lot and because of tornado warnings - I had to learn if a storm moving east near Samantha was going to threaten my house.

Do you guys have mental maps or road networks of where you drive (walk, bike,...) a lot?

*the other two primary ones being sleeping and counting to 4 (3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 12) in rhythm

Tales from the Field

2009-07-24T15:51:00.006-05:00

The graduate research assistant (let's just call him RA) and I have been back out in the field (new test site, almost completely official!). Of course this time instead of starting the soil monitoring in mild, late spring like at the old site, we're starting in mid-Hell, (the months between early summer and early fall). We've gotten 3.5 days in and not a single reading thanks to equipment problems. (A people will crank their AC down pretty far, but even in Eureka they can't get below absolute zero.) So far our time in the field has consisted of installing the monitoring collars (pieces of 12 PVC pipe hammered into the ground at particular points in a semicircular pattern) and machete-ing paths for ourselves through the low branches and blackberry brambles. (love blackberries, hate blackberry canes).

So first off I'm using this older model GPS which has like a 10m accuracy which is about 3/10 of a sec of longitude or latitude around here. One collar is, according to the GPS location I got 9 meters north of the well (and some 40 or so west) when I can stand at the collar, look due east, and stare directly at the pump jack. I've decided if the location I end up at is within about 10 meters (according to GPS) then it's good even if my map ends up looking all squiggly.

That first day was shit hot and the RA wouldn't let me do much hammering when we were placing the collars. The worst part was when we went to lunch (BTW, did I mention Windham Springs is in MoBFN?) I must have sat outside the gas station (first 'civilization' we passed, 15 miles from the site) for 20 minutes waiting for RA to get done in the bathroom (not as bad as the prune juice day, did I tell y'all about that?). And RA was wearing short sleeves so he sweated off his bug spray and the little biting flys were having a feast off him that afternoon. I hadn't figured out how far a second of lat and long was before we went out so several locations were a little off, also two had typos and were WAY off. They had to be moved.

So the second day we went out with machetes and the 5-lb sledge. I was slightly better equipped - I'd brought work gloves and my tool belt. I could, kind of, carry the hammer in my rock hammer holster. We got the first path cut, and a collar moved without to much trouble. Except the RA was flagging fast. We start on cutting the 2nd path and moving that collar a good ways in. About 50 yards in RA rest his hand on a bank for a second and puts his hand in an ant bed. So I trade with him to do some cutting while he takes a break for a minute or two (and knocks ants off his arm). I decide to go to the right, around a small tree, rather than to the left to avoid the ant bed all together and find a wasps nest. I actual never saw it but when the buzzing started I walked as fast as I could (without tripping) back down the path saying as I passed RA "wasps, move, wasps, move NOW" About half way out he says "wait, I think they've stopped following." They hadn't, I got stung again. I only got 3 stings - one in each and and one in the arm - does bug spray repel wasps and bees? They didn't follow us all the way back to the road, thank goodness.

We get back to the truck, my partner is exhausted and wondering if we could have some AC. I reach in my pocket and the keys aren't there. I was wearing jeans (as usual for the field) so I figure I must not have actually gotten the keys in my pocket so they would have fallen out near the truck. No luck. As I remember it we cut N150, stopped at the truck for water (requiring unlocking and locking), then I put the keys in my pocket, stood in the minuscule patch of shade for a minute, walked down the road to where we started the N100 path and went into the woods. Luckily I was wrong about the re-locking the truck because then we wouldn't of had access to my phone or water. I searched around the truck, where I stood, and finally went back down the path to as close to the wasps as I dared. Then I went back to the truck, got my phone and walk to the well (around the bend and up a hill) to get signal. While I was calling my boss to have him come rescue us RA thought to check the other path. I was wrong about having hte keys when we came back to the truck because apparently they'd fallen out near it and he, luckily, saw them. No mean feat in grass over a foot high. We got several minutes of AC and I bought him lunch the next time as a thank you. The rest of the day went much better, except it was shit ass hot, RA was not up to the heat, and neither of us had much of a second wind after lunch (found a place closer than town, yay).

On the third day we just hacked our way through the brush and moved one collar. We had started on the path to S100 the trip before so there's already a good deal of work done on the first ~10 yard. I mean serious clearing 2 inch saplings, removing limbs up to 6-7 feet off the ground kind of work. Then I start directing RA where to cut the path. North, direction we needed to go, is pretty much directly uphill of where we were but the path has to wind a bit to go through the easier bits. RA has a tendency to drift left when I told him cut directly in front of him; when I told him to head towards his one or two o'clock he went straight ahead. Oh, and he has no sense of direction.* So I keep correcting us back to the east and we finally wind our way to the spot. The path definitely winds but it's not lots longer than a straighter path and it has easy access from the road. Further around, and more directly south of the collar, the hill was cut into to make the lease road so there's a 3-4 foot bank. I'm hammering the collar in the ground and RA who has been clearing the path as I go decides that it's shorter to go straight down the hill (true) and, hey, the woods are "more open" (also true, to a point) that way. My problem is three fold. For one he's already spent a fair amount of energy cutting a path, which he now wants to abandon but it's his arm (since he won't let me do much machete work). Secondly, the woods are more "open" because the trees are widely spaced where RA's heading, that means there's a lot more undergrowth that needs cutting and not necessarily the easiest way to go. But it's his arm and he's determined. Third and more theoretically, I want to minimize our impact; while we aren't actually taking out trees that would ever be sold (we're only taking out little, late starters, that'll probably get shaded out before they get very big) I don't want the land owner, if he ever sees it, to be pissed, but at this point RA has a big sharp knife and is swinging it around, so I follow at a safe distance shaking my head. I really don't understand making more work for yourself. Really, really don't understand it.

The last path we cut that day was really short, maybe 20 yards, into fairly open (at ground level) woods. These pines are taller creating deep shade, so other than some poison ivy not much undergrowth. We want paths were we don't have to stoop at any point, it's not much fun to not bend over with a heavy backpack. I had a little more energy than RA did at this point and the batteries were mostly dead so I went ahead to the collar, checked the location, and then started clearing my way back out. He was working on the one spot where it was tight, I was mostly cutting off small dead limbs. There was one point where I decided he needed to take out the bush because I just didn't have the upper body strength (or maybe my machete was getting dull) to get it. So I look at the path, I think it's clear, I can walk up-right the whole way, only one 'stump' in the way. I'll walk out, get a drink, and RA will be out a minute or two later. Five minutes later he's still hacking away at something - I don't know what it was. He finally staggers out exhausted and we leave. Again, I think he was making work for himself.

Yesterday we went back one more time for the last two paths. They both went fast and were fairly easy. The only real hiccup was I happened to park next to a collar that is on the side of the lease road. RA starts cutting down grass and weeds. At first I thought he was just clearing the area right around the collar, then he's moving towards the bank, then he's working on the bank. I asked where he was going. He hadn't noticed that he'd practically tripped over the collar to get where he was standing. Sometimes I worry about him.

Speaking of RA, I haven't heard back about the thermocouple. I guess I'll get keys and hope we go Monday morning. So if you see me at Jalapeños Monday with my pants tucked into my socks, you'll know why.

Bebop

2009-07-24T10:44:00.007-05:00

So I am so unmotivated today that I was actually counting the minutes until I could leave to go watch 16 5-12 year olds perform "Bebop with Aesop", a musical that no one not related to a cast member will ever see. Like all the past two summers' musicals it was cute. I thought it was better than "Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals" (no plot to speak of) and on par with "Of Mice and Mozart". We had five classic Aesop fables* performed for us and in case you didn't catch the moral Aesop told you and then the cast sang about it.

Here's the best Greek Chorus member ;)
(My God she was wearing a lot of eye make-up.)

What I really wanted to kill part of the afternoon with is stories from the field, but that'll wait until the next post.

*No sour grapes. We got "The Tortoise and the Hare", "Boy Who Cried Wolf", "The Ant and The Grasshopper", and the ones with the morals "look before you leap" and "Don't count you chickens before they hatch".

Can We Change the Station?

2009-07-07T15:35:00.004-05:00

Silver Fox just put up a post about road songs. This reminded me of field camp. For some reason only one person had brought a Walkman and she only had a couple tapes of local underground bands (at least in the van I was in). Things were OK the first day of driving. From Tuscaloosa to OK City is mostly civilized. From OK to Taos is, as I recall more sparsely populated but radio stations were available. In the wilds of New Mexico radio stations were not so easily found. Unless you want to listen to stock auctions.

Our TA was driving "my" van and our first trip to a Walmart he bought 2 tapes - Best of the Doors and Songs You Know By Heart. These two tapes were on pretty much continuous play for the remaining 4 weeks. I know all those songs, well, by heart.

These wouldn't necessarily count as road songs by SF's rules but those two albums certainly were our road music. I like something singable for the road and/or danceable. I'm a great seat dancer. =)

What do you think of as "road songs"? What are some of your favorites?

Almost a Third of a Century.

2009-06-29T13:47:00.005-05:00

It'll be truly a third in another 120 days.

I had a great birthday weekend and I want to tell you guys all about it. (Mostly because what I'm doing at work, right now, is WAY boring.)

Saturday I took Nettie and the dog to the river. Honey swam and chased sticks and boats (and a seadoo!) peed on bushes/trees and generally had a good doggy time. Then we went to Roly Poly's (I forgot to get her a 'Mom's birthday' treat sandwich) and when we got home we watched TV for a while. Then it was time to get ready to go to Birmingham.

I went to a screening of "Love 'n Dancing" at Rhythm N Motion dance studio with a dance party afterwards. The movie was less sappy than other dance movies and the dancing (West Coast Swing) in it was great. Tomorrow is my last WSC lesson and it's been so much fun although watching the movie (and tape of the 2006 WCS championship finals) showed me HOW different what I've been doing and really good WCS is. Before the movie T.J. gave a quick lesson in salsa and hustle and after we tried out what we'd learned. The dance was less stuffy than the TBDC ones - younger, too. There weren't very many people but we had a good time.

Sunday after cake and cards, we went up to the Pelham civic center and skated. Matt met us there, he managed to squeeze us in between golf, hiking, and church. It felt so cool when we walked in the building and I even rolled my sleeves down before getting on the ice, but when I stopped to get a drink 5 min. later I rolled them right up again. Mom was sitting in the rink lobby with her shawl on and I, next to her, was sweating buckets. We had an octogenarian, pentagenairian, me, and a pre-teen on the ice.

So other than the dog being mad at me, it was a very nice weekend. And only Nettie thinks I'm OLD.

Roomba Time!

2009-06-05T16:14:00.004-05:00

I took my Roomba out for a spin last night. Figured out pretty quick that I should just put the piano bench in another room and I can't go too far because it can (and will) get itself stuck under the corner of the couch. The dog ignored it until it came over to the couch and then she kind of freaked out.

Roomba

All in all it did a pretty good job. I didn't use the virtual wall, because it was in the box way over in the next room, so I blocked room off with random stuff (by the stairs) and my dining room chairs at the other side, which the Roomba doesn't fit under. To start with I was worried it was going to blow around as much hair as it picked up but needn't have. It managed to get around the piano and bench (after I pulled it out a bit) but it would have been faster without the bench in there. I might want to move the rocking chair out of the room, too, since the Roomba can't get under it all the way; yesterday I just moved it to block the least amount of wall possible. Somewhat amusingly, it kept trying to climb up into the book case. I don't have a base for the shelves and the lip is low enough the Roomba attempts it before hitting the books. The base of my couch is smaller than the box, so there's a space (like at the bottom of cabinets) that is just a little too short for the Roomba; it got stuck twice at the corner and I had rescue it.

I didn't take a picture of the bin and filter because it was kind of gross (I really don't understand those vacuums with the see-through bin - who wants to see what they've sucked up off the floor?) but it got most of the hair off the floor. The only things it didn't do well was right at the edge of the rug where dirt got "stuck" because (I guess) the beater was too high since the wheels were on the rug; I don't think this will be noticeable if one is standing or even sitting on the couch, just lying down. Besides, I read my book and rubbed the dogs ears while my floor got cleaned - what do I have to complain about? At least until Mom borrows it semi-permanently.

June Goals

2009-06-04T14:55:00.002-05:00

Real quick, here are my goals for June:
Eat more veggies and fruit;
Yoga 2 a week;
Eat no more than 6 meals out per week (easier since choir's on break);
Not kill any of my family or Nettie's friend on our beach trip next week.

Field Vehicles

2009-06-04T13:03:00.003-05:00

Several people are talking about field vehicles and I guess I'm lucky but I've never had to rent a field vehicle. (I do have a story about that for later.) I work for the State and we have our own vehicles, mostly trucks and SUVs, which while low mpg, they do meet all the general field vehicle requirements. (Can I get a pencil/map/GPS/field book holder, too?)

Picking up core requires (sometimes extensive) driving on bad lease roads and carrying several hundred feet of boxed, 2-inch core in the bed - this limits our choices to 4WD full-sized trucks; even then some of the hills were iffy, also you don't jack-rabbit off from a stop. Luckily the truck that could haul the most also had an extended cab because all three of us rode to lunch in one truck. (We're State employees, we're taking our lunch break!) For looking at actual outcrops, we use one of the SUVs - space for people in relative comfort, room for samples, good clearance so we don't have to worry about what's on the shoulder, etc. The mappers tend to be pickier and a little possessive about the trucks. (Big Blue is Ed's truck, the red one with the ugly camper shell was Dorothy's...)

Most of the field work I've done since working here was at our "old test site", a short way down a decent lease road, where anything except the mini-van or Crown Vic would do. (Actually, no one really wants to drive the Crown Vic or mini-van on the highway either. We also have the "mail van" that's rather scary but it still makes to the PO.) Our new test site (where we might actually get to put some CO2 in the ground!) is really close to the highway and on a great lease road - I could drive my brother's Mustang up there, but we haven't brought in drilling and work-over rigs yet. The agency's vehicles get well used, a lot. High mileage is the rule, but for the most part they are well cared for but where I worked right after college we had a couple of real doozies.

The worst vehicle I think I have ever driven was a Dogde dually with possessed alignment. This truck would pull to one side long enough for you to start to get used to it and then it would switch, suddenly, to pulling to the other side. Or the amount/strength of the pull would change. It was exhausting to drive. One time couple of the guys were driving back to the hotel after doing a tank tightness test (well after midnight) and were pulled over for weaving. They hadn't had a drop of alcohol, they were just to tired to fight the steering wheel. There was also an old Explorer that'd shake your fillings out above 50 miles/hour; that one was loads of fun to ride in to Montgomery. At that job there was a definite hierarchy of vehicle allocation: owners - new(every few years) SUV (for work and personal use); engineers going to meeting - newish SUV/truck; survey crews - slightly older SUV/newish trucks; environmental division - a couple of trucks that wouldn't be replaced until they wouldn't tow the grout machine; geologic division (both of us) - whatever was left or POV. A couple times I was very thankful for my station wagon had front-wheel drive.

The University's vans were another set interesting field vehicles. Apparently years ago my Alma mater rented the vans in New Mexico and everybody just met in Albuquerque for field camp. Then the rental companies figured out what they were doing with the vans and stopped giving them the corporate rate. After that they started using the university's vans but the motor-pool people had already figured out not to give the Geology department nice vans because we'd get them all muddy. When I was at field camp both vans had a crack in the windshield, top to bottom. The whole set of vans purchased one year had the windshields badly seated and they all had cracks. I can assure you there was no way you could rev the engine up enough to warp the frame (like in drag racing); seriously, a semi passed us one day, going up hill - can you say under-powered? (Still better than under-braked.) On a southern Appalachian field trip we had a pair of under braked vans - wouldn't erring on the side of over-powered brakes be preferable to possibly under-braked? - We only had to take one brake-cooling break, thanks good route planning and 1st gear.

The only rental car/ field experience I had was near Denver. My advisor and I were there for a class and had a free day, so we went out driving. "Unimproved road" means something different in Colorado than it means in Alabama. In AL it, generally, means county maintained dirt; I think in CO means any track one could conceivably drive some sort of land vehicle over. We started on a paved road which became dirt which became a jeep track which started to look a lot like the photos Silver Fox posted. We decided after a short distance that perhaps we didn't want to have to walk back to civilization and turned around. My advisor told me a story about a field trip where they'd reserved high-clearance 4-wheel drive vehicles and were given sedans. IIRC, he told me they returned 3 and drew a map to the 4th.

Wedding Weekend

2009-06-03T12:43:00.009-05:00

I'll get the sad news out of the way first, then talk about all the fun stuff.

Q-tip wasn't around Sunday or Monday and I was starting to get worried because she's always around the house, hoping to slip in the door. Last night she drags herself up the front steps and she's all beat up. Her face looked funny, the right eye mostly swollen shut, cut at the tear duct is pussy, she's not closing her mouth... She sniffed at some food and took a lick or two of water and later some milk but not much; all she seemed to want was loving and to curl up somewhere soft. This morning she demanded attention. Her right eye was now open but obviously badly infected and so was her mouth. (WOW is that some seriously bad morning breath, btw.) She didn't protest one bit when I put her in the car or when we got out at the vet's. On top of the infection she had lost weight, was very dehydrated, and her jaw was broken. (The later probably the primary cause of the former two.) After talking to the vet and considering her age (about 14), I had her put down this morning. If she'd just come home Sunday maybe she'd have been alright. She was such a sweet kitty and her lack of grooming meant she didn't make me itch much. I'll miss her but she had a good life.
OK, done with the sad stuff.

Saturday my nephew got married. OMG, they are all (my nieces and nephews) so grown-up! The bridal couple looked very happy and in love. I managed to not actually bite my tongue or massively roll my eyes when the preacher read and talked about 'man being the head of his family the way Christ is the head of the church...' (I think it should be an equal partnership, regardless of what Paul wrote nearly 2000 years ago.) It was a nice ceremony. The only thing I really would have changed about the reception was the location; the room was too small. The groom's cake was deliciously sinful. The bride seem very sweet with, maybe, a feisty side. (The only problem I see there is that her father's name is "Rob" and we don't need any more Roberts in our family*.) And while I would never wish a baby on a pair of newlyweds they have several months to get used to being married and get settled a bit before my grand-nephew is born. After the wedding, we met at my SIL's parent's place for dinner, my family and hers, which was, as usual, very nice. Lulu, also as usual, cooked a fine meal and Sally made some wonderful brownies served with strawberries and real whipped cream. I was actually chocolated out after that. Then my bros, SIL, niece, and 2 nephews went to Nana Funks (in Lakeview (?), on the recommendation of the bartender at my big brother's hotel). NF has, I believe, the smallest dance floors I've ever seen but we cut a rug and had a good time. I think my nephew's were a little embarrassed by us but they stayed at our table. I decided to sleep at my brother's because after riding back to their house (and my car) the thought of driving almost 1.5 hours home was not appealing.

Sunday was Pentecost and we sang some pretty music and the choir is off all of June. (Yay! no rehearsal tonight!) Later I took Honey to the river for a quick walk and swim. Apparently the river is much more fun than the pond in our yard. Monday was a holiday, too. Officially it is Jefferson Davis' birthday but I was celebrating National Go Barefoot Day, which is appropriate because I stepped on some of glass in my kitchen despite not having broken a glass in months, and may still have a sliver in there. Alternative celebrations for Monday are:

International Children's Day
Festival of Carna (either one works)
Discovery of the Magnetic North Pole
First recorded batch of Scotch Whiskey
the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band
Birthday of Marilyn Monroe, Andy Griffith, and Morgan Freedman
Death of James Buchanan, and Helen Keller
(all from the June 1st Wikipedia entry)

So other than the glass and being worried about Q-Tip, it was a good weekend.

*We had 3 RTMs there (Jr., III, and IV/father, brother, nephew); I also have an uncle and several cousins named Robert. At a family reunion if you say "Bob" a quarter of the men turn around.

Stupid rule..

2009-05-11T12:46:00.008-05:00

..cost us a win.

Nettie's playing softball this spring. The church league is coach pitch so there are some odd rules; like 5 pitches - fair, ball, strike, foul...(including beaned hitters!) doesn't matter - per hitter and 5 runs per inning max, but no mercy rule so one game was 20 - 2 (we were the 2s). Saturday the girls were playing really well, like an actual team and everything! Last play of the game we got 3 runs in but only the first one counted because it was our 5th of the inning, so instead of winning 15-13 we tied 13 all. All the parent's were still really proud and excited (the girls, too). I don't think the girls realized that they actual got 15 runs and that's probably for the best. I realize that the 5 runs/inning rule most likely has been (and will be) in our favor also, but I still find it hard to believe that the game can end mid-play. When the timer (1 hour/game) goes off they finish the play; although not necessarily the inning, which could be very annoying for the team that gets shorted an at-bat. The important thing is the girls are having fun and Nettie is getting to know some different kids.This picture isn't from last weekend's game but it's our favorite short-stop/2nd baseman/catcher/right fielder/1st baseman waiting on a pitch right after she popped a foul ball into her own forehead.

In knitting news, Mom loved her shawl but it is WAY too warm to be worn before October. Things Moms Like is having a giveaway of knitting stuff. And now I can make another entry for it. I've knit two more of face/dish cloths. The last one I decided to test my circles-in-the-flat pattern/calculations.
Other than running out of yarn it worked OK (this is post pressing). The calculation is still not quite right and I need to mark rows better than I did (hence the semi-circle, I lost my place and kept repeating rows). Also it's important to increase/decrease on both sides evenly, otherwise you get more of a parallelogram look.

And I've been doing so well

2009-05-01T09:00:00.003-05:00

I have 2 friends on Facebook from high school. One is really active and I guess she checks periodically who's new on FB from our class or something. (she "friended" me right shortly after I joined.) So this morning I'm scanning my news feed and my ex-fiance "liked" her status update. I feel a bit like I've been kicked in the stomach.

When I was packing to move back to Tuscaloosa (3 years post break-up) I remember looking in the box I kept my engagement ring* in and having the same feeling. When I was packing to move into my house (5 or 6 yrs pbu) there was no reaction. And here I am 11.5 yrs pbu and my head's all turned around, I've got butterflies in my stomach, etc. all because I saw his name somewhere. WTF's wrong with me?

*I sold the ring a couple years ago. The jeweler gave $50 for it. I sort of wished I could've sent it to him. Five pretty good years together; years of getting over it; his scrimping to buy the ring and the return on all that investment was the cost of a cheap date.

Random things I've been doing

2009-04-29T09:03:00.007-05:00

Here's what I've been doing lately:

Getting sunburned

T-town Airshow

Alright gardening hasn't really taken up that much time but I have been planting stuff with help from Nettie. Someone's also been helping unplant things and it better not be one of my animals!

2009 Garden

I went to the TBDC's The Roaring 20s dance weekend before last. I didn't have a costume for that one. (Flapper stuff was so boxy.) But I did have a costume for another one Friday night.
70s Dance (@Forest Lake Meth.) I was going for the late 70s disco look. I'm not sure anyone appreciated it. (And I remembered my camera had a timer.)

I finished two books last weekend (yay 3-day!) and throughly enjoyed both The Engine's Child by Holly Phillips (deadwood) and Farthing by Jo Walton (free e-book from Tor). I'll be looking for more from both authors. (Best line from Farthing "he wished that people would read the rest of the things Jew aren't supposed to eat and take to serving us buttered lobster or shrimp on toast." Out of context they may not be so funny, even in context it's not LOL-funny, but it still has me giggling.)

Oh, and knitting (and some sewing but that's not quite done yet)A week and a half to Mother's Day and only one hole left to fix.

IANAL

2009-04-03T08:42:00.003-05:00

But that doesn't stop me from having opinions and questions. Anyone out there want to weigh in on the legality of the following. (Identities are vague to protect the possibly guilty from the RIAA.)

Dance Instructor 1 made up some CDs of music to practice with and said that he had to give them away because it was OK to make the copies (for instructional purposes?) but illegal to sell them. Dance Instructor 2 made up some CDs of music to practice with and sold them to students for $5 each.

To my none legally trained mind, DI1's actions sound possibly legal - he wasn't making any money off the copies; DI2's action seem decidedly illegal - he was definitely making money off the deal. I didn't buy DI2's practice CD because $5 is a hell of a lot to charge for something that takes maybe 5 minutes to make with materials maybe a buck. I suppose the safest move, in terms of not violating copyright, would be to prepare a list of songs* appropriate for each dance for the students. But I've been wondering if either dance instructor's actions were legal or if one is "more" legal than the other. Anyone out there have a, legal or lay, opinion?

*Obviously non-comprehensive and it would most likely need to have album/performer info, too, since different recordings may change the rhythm and/or tempo.

Our Special Tonight is Green Beans.

2009-03-31T09:58:00.006-05:00

For April I'm adding a new goal. I will go to the dance (Roaring 20's, costumes invited) AND I will eat at least 2 servings of vegetables and one fruit a day*.

It's kind of sad, that I have to make this a goal. I like veggies - really - but I don't eat enough of them. I eat out for lunch most workday and let's face it fries or chips don't count as a veggie (for one thing potatoes are a starch). I get salad when it's offered but that's not always a choice. So I'm going to try really hard to have something green with lunch. For supper, at home, I often make mac'n'cheese or a rice dish or open a can of something. Again not enough veggies and fruits.

My main plan is to eat vegetables and rice for supper most of the time. Or couscous, I like couscous and it's fast. Last time I did major grocery shopping I got a couple different 'veggie in sauce' things and some of the heat and serve rice things. The only problem is the sauces are often salty. I'd get bagged salad but half of it ends up going bad.

Same for fruit. I broke up a bag of grapes the other day so I wouldn't end up throwing half out. I'm planning to add fruit to supper, too. And, at least sometimes, mix fruit (fresh or canned) with vanilla yogurt. (Blackberries this morning, yummy and on sale) I'm not going to count FOB yogurt (usual breakfast) because somehow that doesn't seem like 'real' fruit.

I keep going back and forth on how big a gaarden to do this year. I like cooking/eating veggies I've grown. I need to get some lettuce and spanich planted before it gets to hot. I have some infant lettuce in the garden right now but I could eat all of that in one meal. I like bell peppers, particularly the pretty colored ones, and have some luck growing them. Hot peppers do well, so I like growing them, but I don't use them much. I have no luck with the sqaush family (who can't grow zucchinni?) or tomatoes. I think I'm just too lazy for tomatoes. Eggplant are iffy - sometimes ok sometimes disaster. (Do they count as a starch?) Oh, and I need to replenish all my herbs. I manage to kill them off every year.

*I don't measure my food particularly, so it may be more like 4 veggie and 2 fruit servings. Particularly with the fruit because who eats half an apple?

Field Gear

2009-03-26T11:09:00.005-05:00

I don't have a picture handy of what I look like in my field gear so I'll follow Geotripper's (et al.) lead and just describe it. What I wear/carry in the field varies a lot, depending on what I'm doing but somethings remain the same.

Hair: Somewhat unkempt. Now that it is short, it's just under a hat (baseball or straw) or tied back with a kerchief. When it was longer it was pulled back one way or another and under a hat. At field camp it would start out a down in back, then in a pony tail, then braided by the 3rd day without washing.

Sunburned Peeling Nose: Sure hope not. That's what the hat and sunscreen are for.

Beard: Can't seem to grow one, which is just as well because waxing ain't cheap.

The Ever-Present T-shirt and Logo: Depending on the weather and location the T-shirt would be sleeveless and covered with a long-sleeved light weight shirt (the better to keep off bugs, sun, and prickers) or long-sleeved and under a sweater or, rarely, a flannel shirt. Every once in a while I do wear just a t-shirt by itself. Most of my long- and short- sleeved tees have logos/slogans on them the tank tops don't. Favorites LS tees are the volunteer fire department and crab trap clean up (OK they are about the only LS tees I have); I don't have favorite SS tees too many choices. The GSA one is OK. The big seal on the back and dark green color make it a bit warm in the summer, besides it disappeared after the second time I wore it.

Belt and Buckle: Pants fit o.k. but I need something to hang my Brunton on. I have a big tool belt that I wore over my pants at field camp with a hammer holster and field pack; I don't usually wear that anymore because I'm never that far from the car.

Deep Pockets: (not in the legal sense; geologists are often poor) Keys (if I'm driving), inhaler (if I remember to get it out of my purse), cell phone (if I remember...), and occasional small sample may be in my pockets. Other stuff (water bottle, camera, Brunton, purse, tape, extra padlock, colored pencils,...) are in my backpack and/or camera bag. I usually carry my field book and a pen in my hand or shove it in the back of my pants when I need both hands. This habit has lead to my field book almost disappearing completely in one day when I wore slightly loose pants.

Assorted Scars and Bandages: Actually I can't think of a scar that is geology related.

Rock Hammer: for specimen collecting, fighting off deer flies, self-defense, installing Li-Cor collars, beating stupid computers senseless, etc.

Muscular, tanned legs: Tanned? My legs are always covered with pants. I don't like bites, sunburns, thorn pricks, or random scrapes when they are easily avoided. Therefore they are about as far from 'tanned' as possible. (And I come from northern European stock, too.) Muscular? I don't know about that.

Shoelaces:I still have the original laces that came with the boots. Guess I'm lucky or sit in my office too much.

Cool Socks! And not just for field work.

Boots: for traction on rocks, mud, and snow (hah! like anyone in Alabama would go out in the field in snow). I have two pair. My favorite are a pair I got from LL Bean 11 years ago (obviously I sit in my office too much). I also have a pair of Timberlands I bought a few years ago in an emergency (packed for a society field trip the night before, taught the next day, and ten halfway to the hotel I realized the only shoes I had were the flats I was wearing.). I need to get some steel toed boots but keep putting it off because I can think of other things to spend my money on.

Ironclad Bladders: (not pictured) I usually don't have to go far to the field but bathroom are not terribly close to the research site so this is useful. (Go before leaving the office, at lunch, and upon return). I knew all those long car trips would come in handy one day.

Brunton Compass: to determine strike and dip, fault orientations, and locating next collar location (if we ever get the access agreements signed). We also use GPS receivers to get exact locations.

Eyes: Full of wisdom...yeah that's it. And behind glasses. I love my Transitions.

Brain: (not pictured) Dehydrated, half-baked, freeze-dried, but enjoying every minute.

Other stuffs: There's a lot of things that are task specific, but some common things not covered above are: safety vest during hunting season, bags (sample, grocery, Ziploc), extra sharpies, work gloves, rain-gear (when the weatherman says maybe), survey tape, bug spray, sunscreen, measuring tape, hand lens (around the neck), WD-40, large pocket knife.

I'm either lucky or unlucky in that I spend most of my time in an office. (And most of the "rocks" I look at in a well log.) When I do go in the field it's usually only for a day or two at a time and come home every night. I can usually find decent food nearby (especially if I'm out with my boss for whom this is a necessity). Since I've been at the Survey most of my field time has been spent of two particular projects. For one I and two co-workers were out collecting cores which had been drilled by a local mining company. For the other, I and a grad student were, and will be again soon, going out every week and getting soil CO2 flux measurements (this is why I have a spare padlock and WD-40 in my bag). For those days in the field, gear was fairly light. I get to do some 'regular' fieldwork, like last Friday (when I didn't take my camera, damn it.) when more of stuff is needed.

Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick

2009-03-23T09:55:00.003-05:00

It's a little fuzzy but that's me, almost all ready for the dance. I had to get Mom to come over and zip me up, because that is one stiff zipper!

I had a lot of fun. (Even if my thighs were really tight from field work the Friday. The problem with hiking down to look at the awesome conglomerates behind a waterfall is that you have to hike back up.) I sort of learned the Peabody which is a line dance not unlike the Electric Slide (we also danced the ES, too); the grape-vining is what made me notice how sore my legs were. I dance both "mixer" dances, a couple of waltzes and swings. If I could just find more partners actually taller than me it'd be perfect. Definitely going to next month's dance.

Sarah was right not only didn't the Spanx high waisted pantyhose roll into my waist and I haven't been that skinny in long time. I think wearing them (or just a pair of "Higher Power"s) everyday could work as a diet system.

Happy (belated) Pi Day

2009-03-17T10:49:00.005-05:00

Nettie and I made an apple pie Saturday. The dog thought it was very yummy. Publix's apple pie is pretty good, too.

Incase you were wondering why your nose was stuffy, eyes itchy, thoart scratchy, etc

(pollen on the pond)

Sunday we saw this on the river and Styrofoam. Obviously someone up stream isn't aware of the "normal" flood levels of the river since there was all kinds of crap washed down in January and February, too.
Wisteria are blooming:

Also, at the park they are putting in a sprinkler system - WHY?

Maybe I could even charge.

2009-03-16T16:46:00.002-05:00

Several years ago, when my SIL's middle son's girlfriend got pregnant I asked my SIL (jokingly) if she wanted me to do a little sex-ed/birth control refresher course for my nephews and her 2 other kids. (I had taught it earlier that year to kids younger than those 4.) She thought that A having a kid had scared them enough to not do anything stupid. One might think that A and his girlfriend having a second kid (born this winter) would have reminded the other 4 that they don't want to do anything stupid. Apparently not. My nephew's girlfriend is preggers. First of, I don't envy my brother having to tell his mother. Secondly, I wish them the best of luck as they will need it. This nephew hasn't had (AFAIK) the most stable employment record and much of it has been waiting tables. Also, last I heard, he was living with his mother. Boy, wouldn't that be fun?

Maybe his life has taken a turn for the better in the last 6 months or so. Maybe he, and she, have decent jobs with health insurance and sick leave. I can hope.

A couple of questions for my readers: Do you think there is a market for someone to fill in the gaps potentially left by a school's sex-ed? (if school does abstience only) Could the fact that A is a student (and I think his GF too) and they are doing OK be the reason my nephew's GF is expecting? How likely is it that my nephew and GF are the one in one thousand whom the pill fails? (or whatever method) In other words, were they actually taking all appropriate precautions (short of keeping it zipped up) and still got pregnant?

Never Win.

2009-03-13T09:12:00.003-05:00

FSP and Chad are talking about cheating. I left an amusing anecdote about my 8th graders on FSP, I thought I'd tell a less amusing story about a fellow Geo. major of mine from back in the day*.

I had at least 5 upper level classes with Obnoxious Guy (not his real name) over 3 semesters. During the first semester he seemed to get sick the day of a test a lot. He'd then call someone to find out what was had been on the test. One day KK came into class seriously pissed off because she hadn't gotten to bed until the wee hours (due to aqueous solutions needing to be run and the computer not cooperating much) and OG had called her at like 7 to find out about the test he'd missed because he'd been "sick"*. I think KK was contemplating changing her number after that. After some other test he'd had a "migraine"* for, he stopped me on the sidewalk to ask me what had been on the test; I just couldn't remember any specifics - funny that, huh?

More than halfway through the semester he told our optical mineralogy TA that he was color blind. He was hoping he'd get some help (/benefit of the doubt/get off easy) because he would have difficulty with mineral id with birefringence. Unfortunately for OG, one of the other grad students actually was red/green color blind (in geology this kind of thing comes up) and he could tell what order and high/low. Beside by this point in the semester I'm pretty sure our TA was onto him.

OG had non-subtle wandering eyes. For example: In Op Min, as I recall, there'd be 2-4 slides of a given rock type, and one weeks lab might cover several rock types. Everyone has their own microscope and often people sitting next to one another will trade off slides. OG rarely traded slides with the person behind him, he had a definite preference for trading slides with a person whose lab sheet he could see. What's sad is we were allowed to ask one another questions and for help, even when we weren't working in groups, in most labs.

In sed/strat and ig pet we'd almost always work in groups because there weren't enough samples to go around and discussing why a rock is x or y helps you learn how to identify. OG would sit there and not say a word. KK and I were to polite to tell him to fuck off so he often worked "with" us. One day she and I were going back and forth on the percentages of quartz, feldspar, and lithic fragments. The sample was close to the line between three potential classifications, and our different estimates made a difference. We had gone back and forth for maybe 5 minutes, and OG says "so what is it?". KK plops the sample in front of him, and says "I don't know, what do you think it is?" He stumbles through some words like quartz, k-spar, 50%, etc. and finishes with "I don't know, what do you think?" KK and I rolled our eyes and finished deciding what the classification was, he copied down what we wrote and we all moved on.

One day he told us he didn't like rocks, he wanted to do geologic engineering. Scuttlebutt was that he'd been in the College of Engineering but they kicked him out. Another rumor was that one geo prof caught him cheating and told him to "withdraw failing"^ or he'd be reported. Obviously I don't know if any of that is true but it wouldn't have surprised me. I don't have anyway of knowing if he was ever reported to the appropriate authorities or not (or, for that matter, if he actually did anything reportable) but God, did I wish he had been. Still, I never could figure out how he stayed in school; he took many of the courses twice. His GPA had to have been in the toilet.

I spent much of the first semester mentally making excuses for OG, his personality not the cheating. He wasn't from the US (home was in sub-Saharan Africa) and the first thing that I didn't like about him was the way he spoke, not accent but mannerisms and volume; volume was actually the first thing that annoyed me. I told myself that maybe that's normal in his home country. Then when he kept being "sick" for tests, I thought maybe he's gotten away with that his whole life and so doesn't understand how much the rest of us resent it; maybe his family was important/rich enough at home he could get away with shit like that growing up.** Obviously when he refused to help cook or clean up dinner on a camping trip, it was because in the culture he grew up in, it was "women's work". So on and so forth. One day, as I was mentally excusing some behavior I'd find annoying in anyone else, I realized that all of his countryman couldn't possibly be that obnoxious, I was being extremely unfair to them, and he was a jerk no matter where he grew up.

*Migraines can be horrible and debilitating, I know. He may have even suffered from such migraines but since he was sick with something for every test I was highly suspicious.

^After a certain point in the semester you can't withdraw for a course without grade determination (W), it's either 'WP' or 'WF'; even later in the semester it has to be a 'WF'. A 'WF' and counts against your GPA, 'W' and 'WP' has no impact on it.

**I guessed his family had money or connections because he was going to school in the US and had no obvious means of support here. He certainly didn't seem to be the kind of student who would catch the eye of some scholarship granting group.

Random bits, part 3.1?

2009-03-11T09:24:00.005-05:00

This is awesome, I wish I thought local students would be so creative and motivated to tell the hate mongers off. (via Scalzi)

To accent my nerdiness, I'm trying to figure out the best way to knit circles in both circular and flat knitting with the aid of math and spreadsheets (because the maths get tedious the 20th time through). Because, really an octagon is not "close enough" to a circle. I will let you know when I get it right, the chord length calculations are tricky (and my DPNs are busy right now). In other knitting news, Mom's shawl is coming along nicely and the rows are getting to be noticeably long. It took me 30 minutes yesterday to do 2 rows (lace pattern then knit back across).

Two Sunday's ago=snow. Last Sunday= short sleeves and Irises and Bluets.

In case you were wondering, one of the things Honu-Girl is doing in St. Pete is talking about layer cake geology. Here she's creating some classic alpine thrusts.

Triple-time Swing went much better for me last night than last time I took this class. For some reason this time around the dancing in 6 to music in 4 (or 8) didn't bother me. (I had the same difficulty with the Fox Trot to start with but that one was a little easier to get over.) Although I wanted to point out to the instructor that we weren't "dancing in 8", there are 8 steps in 6 beats (For the musicians out there: 1-a-2-3-a-4-5-6 or 1-2-3-a-4-5-a-6, depending on if you start on the triple step or the rock step; the 8th notes should be slightly delayed, like "swing 8th notes" in jazz, (almost a dotted 8th-8th triplet) but can be counted as straight 8ths).

The instructor (Can not think of his name!) made a slip of the tongue last night. In Fox Trot and Waltz the man's right hand is behind the lady's left shoulder or slightly lower, in swing it is on the lady's waist. He was showing the correct position but said "your hand is on her hip". (You kind of had to be there but) Emma's (his wife, who helps him teach) quick and forceful correction and his subsequent demonstration of what was NOT her waist was funny. I think, if you grab your partner's hip, gentleman, you may very well get slapped or worse. Remember you're in close quarters.

I own 2 dresses now.

2009-03-08T18:53:00.003-05:00

I'm a tag along, I admit it. Honu-Girl has her monthly goals, now I'm going to try it. I tried it last week but not being accountable to anyone but me didn't work out so well. So my goal (starting small here) for March:

Go to TBDC's NIght on Broadway Ball.

Now this may look exceedingly easy - get dressed up one evening and going out but, if you've been following along, you've probably guessed just getting up and going out is a kind of big deal for me. For starters, I've been a member of the TBDC for almost 2 years and haven't actually gone to a dance yet. Heck, I'm taking the introductory dance class again. There are a few things that go along with this goal, such as:

buy a dress (sucess)
not make the above-the-waist bulge any bigger
find appropriate undergarments to minimize the awb*
find a wrap in my or Mom's closet in case it's cool
work on the under arm wiggle (not much can be done in 2 weeks but I can try)
actually go to the dance, no wimping out

I have two weeks to not lose my nerve. Wish me luck.

*I loathe high waisted "shape wear" because it usually just rolls up into my waist the first time I lean over. I think I have one high waisted girdle/thigh slimmer thing that doesn't do that but I'll have to see if it has enough compression.

Sunday in the Park with Snow

2009-03-01T17:36:00.006-06:00

...and flooding, but the snow is way prettier. You know if I posted pictures about the half rabbit my dog presented me with I'd have to post about our pretty, and now almost completely gone, snow.
This Camilla bush is in the rose garden at church. BTW, church canceled on account of snow? Plu-leaz!

These berries were at the park. More pictures are here.

I'd just like to comment on the loveliness that is Spring in Alabama - only in spring can it be sunny and 65 on Thursday, 70 with tornadoes and hail Friday, and snow on Sunday. March is actually not that odd a time to get snow (if your going to get any at all) because cold fronts can bring enough moisture and drop the temperature enough; most of the winter when it's cold it is too dry.

The picture Dad uses to remind him why he doesn't move back north is from the big snow of 1993 (spring before we moved here) when we, in VA, got 16-18". Thing is they got a foot down here with thee same storm. I was out of school 3 days (mostly because the snow was so deep where the plows had been through that there was no where for kids to stand waiting for the bus). Everything was closed here for 5 days and my brother was with out power for several of those days. It's a toss up complete paralysis in the face of (rare) frozen precip or being expected to shovel the damn stuff but having some every year.

Honey's Present

2009-02-22T13:22:00.004-06:00

Yesterday Honey brought me a present. I won't post any pictures of it here in deference to any weak stomached readers I may have because, you see, she presented me with 2/3 of a rabbit. I think she was quite proud of herself. I doubt she killed it. I think she and some other dog (who probably didn't kill it either) had a tug-of-war over the body and both got to take some home - which would account for why there was no head or fore-legs on the furry lump left at my door. Nettie and I buried the remains in the yard and Dad covered it with some concrete cylinders while we went to the park. This makes me rethink my assumption that the dove was a present from a cat (it did seem awful large for any of them to drag home), I assumed the dog would have chewed any yummy dead thing up before leaving it by the door to come in but oboviously not necessarily. Nettie was quite the trooper. She shrieked when she first saw it, was skittish when I went out to do something with it, and carried it (on the shovel) into the yard and was saying "ooo, get a picture of that" in the end.

Here's a little photo essay of the burial of the rabbit:

Honey, Mighty Huntress

Or if you prefer, pictures from our trip to the park:

Saturday at the Park

PSA 2.3

2009-02-20T08:48:00.002-06:00

Make sure your '90-seconds in the microwave' rice package doesn't have a hole in it. Particularly before you tear it open to vent.

Now I'm trying to figure out if it had a hole when I bought it or if something in my cabinet ate a hole through the plastic. And trying to not be grossed out by what could (and would) eat a hole through the packaging.

Lies, all of it damn lies

2009-02-19T09:01:00.003-06:00

Well only 1, actually. Well, once Honu-Girl and Sarah did it I had to join in the fun.

Guess which is the lie:

#1. I read Clan of the Cave Bear in the 6th grade.
#2. I own two books with the same name as me and I loved both of them.
#3. I'm not fond of Victorian novels but love what the BBC does with them.
#4. I love Kurt Vonnegut books.

CGI geology

2009-02-18T08:49:00.005-06:00

I suspect Silver Fox is happy to see sketching because it means actual rocks were observed not just data derived from rocks. It is very important that rocks are actually used in the study of geology. (You laugh, but my thesis area was mostly 500+ feet under ground. I started to miss actual rocks and get really sick of well logs.) But I still want discuss the computer stuff. Computer-generated illustrations fall into two categories in my mind - model/reconstruction "photos" and drawings. The sketches I draw would never be published, I'm not that good. But I can, if required, produces drawings in Canvas (or Illustrator or whatever) that are of publication quality. I like Canvas for cross-sections because I can scale them and keep track of line lengths and areas but for general drawing I guess Illustrator is better (partly because Adobe is taking over the world). "Pictures" of computer models can't be substituted for.

Screen shot from a reconstruction of the top Pratt cycle based on well logs in 3DMove (from my thesis work). Surface is colored by elevation (blue is deeper) CI=200 feet IIRC; points are colored by peak gas production (red higher/blue lower); approximately 5x VE, wells average 1/4 mile spacing (400m).

There is no better way to show structure and it's relationship to gas production (or water production, thickness, porosity, mineralogy...) than with pictures like this, IMHO. Structure contour maps, et al. are great. I've done them, lots of them. I've done some by hand. I've had to correct ones done by computers. But for those who don't visualize in 3D well, being able to "see" the rocks 1000feet below their feet is priceless. And the computer models allow for even those of us who can see the structure in our heads to drape other attributes over the structure and see the relationships better. Besides it makes for some really sexy figures.

Draw a photo

2009-02-18T08:48:00.002-06:00

The reason is that photography can't always pick up what's important. Sometimes the light is just not right in the field. You can take a photo from all different angles, use the flash to fill-in a shadow, not use the flash to prevent washing out, cast your shadow over a bit... and nothing will get the lighting right. Beautiful days in the field can be too pretty - bright light and hard shadows often make for terrible outcrop photos. There are places where I have three photos for one spot and none of them really show what's important - sometimes the picture is too busy and the interesting bit gets lost in the details. With a sketch you can suggest all those unimportant details and focus on the important ones. Sometimes the feature of interest just isn't very photogenic due to coloring or contrast. Let me show you some examples.

In this example the photo does a pretty good job of capturing the crack fill texture and type of cement. My sketches are ok at it.

In this case I'd say the sketch does a better job of showing the fractures than the photo. (The sketches are not of exactly what's in the picture but similar piece of core.)

This is an outcrop with both standing Calamites fossils and stigmaria (take that young Earth geologists!). The photos don't do it justice, fossils are very faint (although the Calamites do stand out fairly well and look good in close-ups). I have some better examples of problems at the outcrop scale but I didn't sketch them because we're going back to do a detailed description another day.

Obviously when one needs high quality photos or a core or outcrop one can take the time and effort to make sure the photos are good (take core outside, use umbrella to shade, go back to a field site on a cloudy day...) and really show what one wants but for everyday, quick work often a sketch is better. Even with really good photos lines, circles, arrow, and the like are often added to draw the readers eye to the important bits.

To shoot or not to shoot.

2009-02-17T09:25:00.015-06:00

I kind of want to gush about Buffy growing up and telling the Watcher's Council off and all but that might lead to more ramblings about season 5 and lots of spoilers for Honu-Girl.* So instead I'll ramble on about photos, sketching, and computer-generated illustrations and their respective uses in geology, as I see it.

The Lost Geologist (who's temporarily lost his motivation, I'm sure it'll come back soon) posted an abstract and a fold sketch the other day. Based on the scale my guess is the fold is a detail of an outcrop. Silver Fox commented that she's (?) glad that some people still draw and not just use computers; TLG replied that they draw a lot in his program. I'm impressed by the quality of his sketch, my own tend towards the sloppy, but the art of sketching outcrops, hand samples, structures, sedimentary fabrics, etc. is alive and well. If not necessarily alive well in my hand:).

*Honu-Girl doesn't have nearly as much time as I do to sit around and watch TV. She has 2-legged children that demand attention, playing with, taking to soccer practice, real dinners, and tucking in. My children are 4-legged and the big one demands a scoop of food followed by tv watching w/wo snuggling every evening and the front door opened on occasion. The more couch time the better.

Bonus: I turned one ramble into three posts simply by being overly verbose!

Random bits from the weekend

2009-02-09T09:15:00.006-06:00

A few thoughts for today, before I head off to Virginia for 3 days (that's total - driving there, being there, driving back - fun!) (the pics @ 8 may not be safe for the weak stomached):

1. I find this way too amusing.

2. I knew it! Deer knew when it was hunting season and not. I don't have photographic proof, but Friday heading home, in a field near my house there was a HERD of deer grazing. I see far fewer deer crossing the road during rifle season than at the any other time of the year.

3. I watched a show on Discovery or TLC a couple months ago about "Purity Balls". I found the whole idea a little creepy. Some of the goals are ok (like waiting for sex and making sure girls know they are loved and valued so they don't jump into the arms of the first guy who'll have them) but the execution is a bit creepy. But, for some unknown reason, the other day I started thinking about the eldest daughter of the preacher and her up coming (at time of shooting) wedding. She says that she and her fiancé had not even held hands because they didn't want the "physical" stuff to get in the way of really getting to know one another. Their first kiss would be right after her father said "You may kiss the bride." Again, I'm all for not letting physical intimacies get in the way of actually getting to know a person but...First off, holding hands isn't exactly a distracting or very intimate form of touching. Secondly, it seems to me that this policy would lead to a very awkward wedding night. If you haven't engaged in any of the normal social/dating touching (holding hands, walking arm in arm, hugging, or maybe even a stolen kiss or two) then how are you going to be comfortable doing much more than that all of a sudden? To go from not holding hands to sex in one day is a big leap no matter how much you love someone. (not that you have to have sex on your wedding night) The whole thing seemed to me like they'd taken some idealized Victorian model and gone a step further towards total sexual repression.

4. What the hell is up with the little sister? Not mine, but that's all I can say without giving away spoilers. And with Sarah away I can't ask her about it. Really I just want to know how long I'm going to have to wait until that question gets resolved. Please, Joss, don't make it all season.

5. Is present tense appropriate when speaking of a first time viewing of a show that went off the air years ago? Should I have said "Please don't let Joss have made it all season"?

6. I hate that I have to have caffeine. About half the time, all I have is my large mug of tea in the morning and yet if I don't have anything caffeinated Saturday or Sunday morning I have a horrible headache Sunday afternoon. Like yesterday. Three ibuprofen and a Coke finally cleared it up.

7. I think I bought lace weight yarn to make socks with. I will now attempt worsted weight socks and probably make a lacy something else. Size 1 needles are tiny.

8. Somewhat related to #2, yum venison:

Tallest Peak

2009-02-05T11:30:00.009-06:00

Callan has a list of the tallest points in each state. I won't list them all because I've only topped one:

We are standing on the tallest rock at the top of Mount Cheaha. Nettie went up in the observation tower (and took a couple pictures), Honey and I had to stay below.

I can safely say this is on the easier peaks to climb since the road is less than 100 feet from the tower with parking. Some of the trials in the park are not so easy.
(more photos of the camping trip here)

Random thoughts from the Interweebs

2009-02-02T11:14:00.006-06:00

I'm not sure how tall Chad is but he looks freakishly* tall in photos. I have a brother who is about 6'5" tall so I'm not easily impressed with tallness either. I don't think Pat looks weird in pictures. Is this because I remember when he was only 4 feet tall and got used to it over time? Because I haven't seen him hold a baby (a nephew) since he was only 5-foot something? Or is it something about how he's built that makes the difference?

And completely unrelated:
John** has a post about family entertainment for less than $100 a year. His suggestions sound all well and good but only if you can get internet for a good price. And have a decent computer. Mine's about 5 years old now and is I'm in serious need of an upgrade - either whole new one or big upgrades in memory/RAM/... And I'm not really good with the insides of the computer.

As for high speed internet goes where I live one's a little limited (not that other parts of town don't have limited options, too). Cable's never been run down to the house although I'm pretty sure it does run past the driveway; this, I think, significantly raises installation costs.*** And the intro price (cable and internet) is $69.99 for six months, they never say on the postcards and mailing what the regular price is. I'm wary of getting cable because of problems my folks had with thier line getting pulled down (3 times in 3 weeks). And I have no complaints with DishNetwork (except for one about their website). DSL is no where near my house. Satellite is a possiblility but I can't figure out if I'd have to buy the dish (and how much that is) and it costs almost 5 times what I pay now. I do OK with my dial-up and not spending much time on line at home.

Other points in John's post are good - libraries rock! Although I like to get new books every now and then (usually paperbacks, becuase they're cheaper, sorry) Cheap/free music is good if you have the bandwidth.:) I like the radio for newish stuff; most of the CDs I buy are stuff you can't hear on the radio. While I have varied music tastes most isn't all THAT odd - I'm okay with the classic rock, country, 90s and today hits stations when I'm in the mood for those, although I do own some CDs from those categories. I don't have a game system, just a couple of puzzle programs for my PC so not much spent on that front.

So my total is pretty low - I spend $59/month DishNetwork (150 channels, local broadcasters, and Starz), $11/month dial-up ISP; my telephone service is $24/month+taxes and part of that should be counted for internet, I guess. I don't have an idea about how my book, music, or video buying would work out per month, them being random and all. I rarely rent movies from the video store (maybe 6/year @ $5/movie); I borrow from the library more often and return on time! ($1/day fines add up fast.) There are a few other expenses that aren't quite the what John was talking about but should probably count, too; since I started knitting recently, I guess yarn and such (plus any other hobby related expenses) would count as entertainment as should the gas to drive to the park. Maybe, when I get a newer computer I'll revisit the internet options.

*no offense meant, please don't take any
**Don't'cha love how you can refer to people you've never met in real life by first name, gotta love the internet.
*** When I moved in to the house I called Charter and the girl said that installation was still $24.95 (or whatever) even though cable hadn't ever been run. But then they neither showed up nor ever called me to explain or reschedule.

Six Isn't Bad.

2009-01-28T09:06:00.004-06:00

Silver Fox tagged me so here it is: The 25 most visited places in the US. (I've been to the bolded ones).

1. Times Square, New York City, NY - 35 million

2. The Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas, NV - 31 million

3. National Mall and Memorial Parks, Washington DC - 24 million

4. Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, MA

5. Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, FL - 17.1 million

6. Disneyland Park, Anaheim, CA - 14.9 million

7. Fisherman's Wharf/Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, CA - 14 million

8. Niagara Falls, NY - 12 million

9. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN/NC - 9.4 million

10 Navy Pier, Chicago, IL - 8.6 million

11. Lake Mead National Recreation Area, AZ/NV - 7.6 million

12. Universal Studios/ Islands of Adventure, Orlando, FL - 6.2 million

13. SeaWorld Florida, Orlando, FL - 6 million

14. San Antonio River Walk, TX - 5.1 million

15. Temple Square, Salt Lake City, UT - 5 million

16. Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, PA/NJ - 4.8 million

17. Universal Studios Hollywood, CA - 4.7 million

18. Metropolitan Museum, New York City, NY - 4.5 million

18. Waikiki Beach, Oahu, HI - 4.5 million

20. Grand Canyon, AZ - 4.41 million

21. Busch Gardens Africa, Tampa Bay, FL - 4.4 million

22. Cape Cod National Seashore, MA - 4.35 million

23. Sea World San Diego, CA - 4.26 million

24. American Museum of Natural History, New York City, NY - 4 million

25. Atlantic City Boardwalk, NJ - 4 million

Six out of 25 for sure. I've been to the DC a LOT, the Smokies several times (including a very rainy camping trip), went to Cape Cod NS last summer and the Grand Canyon when I was 6, Disney World (3 times!); Universal Studios was part of a band/orchestra trip to Orlando. The two New York museums, I'm not sure of. Is the Met the spiral? If so we walked in, saw how expensive it was and left. I just can't remember if we went to AMNH on that trip or not. I'm fairly sure didn't go to Time Square. I think I went to Sea World when my family went to Disney World but I'm not sure, it was 2/3 of a life ago. I was outside Temple Square once, but it was Sunday and church was letting out; I thought it might be rude to go be a tourist right then. I didn't get another chance to wander in SLC that week.

I've been to Las Vegas, NM (cute little town, btw) but not THE Las Vegas. Haven't been to Lake Mead, but we did Lake Powell on the Great West Trip. I'm not sure I've ever set foot in Delaware and the only parts of New Jersey I've been in were stops on the turnpike and Weehawken (where we stayed on our NYC trip). I've been to Chicago several times but no Navy Pier. I've never seen the Pacific, something I hope to rectify one day.

I could go on and on about which of these I want to visit and which I couldn't care less about but I should do some work before lunch.;)

A map of my childhood

2009-01-27T14:23:00.004-06:00

With long winded explanation.

Chad has a post asking about how far we were allowed to roam as kids. HP (comment #40) suggested you look up your old neighborhood, because he over estimated how far he actually went from home. I over estimated how far away the library was by a little bit - Google says it's 1.7 miles driven miles. The house I grew up in is the blue thumb-tack.

View Larger Map

The library was the farthest place I routinely went without my folks but my brother, some friends, and I would sometimes ride the bike trail a couple of miles out just for the heck of it. One time we rode out to the West Falls Church Metro Station*.

We lived on the corner, while the street we faced (Polly ST) was quiet, Wolftrap RD was a little busy. When I was little (pre-k) Mom would walk me to Christie's house (other side of Wolftrap). Later she'd walk me to across from her road and Mrs. Patrick and Christie would walk to the other side to "meet" us. Sometime around kindergarten or 1st grade Mom started letting me go on my own. Our school bus stop moved over the years but in Kindergarten it was at the end of Christie's street; after the first day, Pat (then a 4th grader) walked me.

As far as playing went, we would usually play in any of several yards (usually back yards). There weren't that many kids on our block so there were only so many places I could have been. I guess Mom knew which house we were at most of the time. Mike's mom would sometimes call our house and tell Mom if she saw him to tell him to put on his shoes. So maybe our mother's didn't always know.

I'm not sure when I started riding my bike places. Certainly by 10, I was riding to the library, 7-11, and drug store. I can remember being sent to People's Drug to tell Pat it was time to come home on a Saturday or in the summer. People's had several video games and he'd spend all afternoon there. I'd also go to the stationery store in the shopping center across the street from there, or the fabric store (more rarely). But, oh, the library - being able to ride their myself = many many happy hours.

In the summer, I'd ride my walk bike to the pool and meet Caroline or go with Pat. Once I joined the swim team, Dad would drive me to practice (@ 7:30am) and then I'd walk home. The summer between 6th and 7th grades, after practice I'd either read or go to the library for most of the day. One summer I babysat a girl (6ish) from around the corner in the mornings. The younger kids practiced at 8:30, so I'd shower and dress at the pool then Lizzie and I would walk to my house.

I used to spend lots of time at the little park on the other side of OLGC (named "Town Park" on Google). In elementary school I organized my friends once to map the stream that ran through it. I sucked at naming things even then. The best name (and only one I can remember now) we came up with was "BR tree". It was pretty big around, easy to hide behind, even if not standing up. Our Irish Setter got a lot of nice long walks in the woods all summer long. I'd walk in the stream sometimes (man the stone bruises I used get!) other times we'd stay on the path then follow the stream up to Echols St and walk home that way. I was always careful to walk really close to the stream so no one would be upset I was in their yard.

Another place we would sometimes wander around were the undeveloped lots at the industrial park. (Mom almost certainly didn't know about that.) A few times in the summer Pat and I went to the playground at Vienna Elementary (near the community center and library) and played tag or had water gun fights on the "play structure". In tag if you touched the gravel you automatically became it; the water gun fights would have to have ceasefires so we could go across the street to Town Hall and refill from the water fountain. There were never as many parents at the park as there were kids. In 8th and 9th grade I sometimes ride up to visit my 6th grade teacher, Rick Wormeli after school.

I marked the pond at the country club because we skated there a few times one winter. Until a guy came by and told us the pond had been deepened the last summer from 4 feet to 10 feet. Suddenly we could all her our mothers calling. The idea of falling into 4 feet of water didn't seem nearly as scary as falling through into 10 feet of ice cold water. Who knows if it was true but it got gone.

I often wish Nettie didn't live some far out and on a busy-ish road. Our road is too narrow, windy, and crazy drive filled for her to even ride her bike on it and there's only one kid her age in walking distance (directly across the street, actually). Another of her friends may move out our way, her family's looked at a couple of houses with in a mile of M&D's. Maybe Nettie will become a little more brave about walking along the road if she has somewhere to go.

*By the time we got back to where we got on the roads (about a mile from home) I didn't think I'd make it but Pat pointed out that I kind of had to. When we got home I was hot, thirsty, and exhausted. I poured a glass of kool-aid, sat down, drank it down, and promptly vomited it back up on the family room rug. The first and last time I made that mistake!

Other less depressing news

2009-01-23T10:46:00.004-06:00

Knitting practice and a project:
Stripes and Intarsia:

Circular practice:

*
More circular practice that started with I-cord practice on a short scrap piece of yarn:

I decided I HAD to learn circular knitting right NOW because of a project I saw in this book. Felted bowls! I think part of the reason I like it is the example picture is of one in this awesome fuchsia and it's something you can give people without them saying 'oh, a(nother) scarf'. Because how many scarves and sweaters can a person give their loved ones, anyway? Speaking of which:

Not perfect but I wore it this week. It's a smallish, kind of, worsted weight yarn (acrylic) on size 15 needles. The same needles I was working the intarsia on. I wanted it to be a really airy looking knit. I didn't worry about the curling, obviously, otherwise I would have done some kind of border. The size 15 needles didn't look quite as much like vampire stakes as the needles I remember Anna using to make Kate's scarf (besides both sets were aluminum).

I got the interchangeable circular needles (I can't remember the brand), since I'm doing well with the aluminum needles I think I'll like that system. You can put any size points on cords of three different lengths. (I, of course, got a set of double pointed needles in the same size as the points I got.) One question (because I've been too lazy to look it up in my how-to book) - when knitting with DPNs, do the three (or more) hold the stitches (like the left needle) and you use the fourth to knit the new ones (as the right needle)? I started out having to use all fourhold stitches, so it was a moot question, but when I dropped to three I tried to just use those three but it was hard/awkward. So was the 4th needle suppose to go in the basket or was I suppose to cycle the needles through, which is what I did after a row or so.

Completely unrelated to knitting:
This bird has got to find another spot to sleep, or not arrive until much later at night. He's perched by my backdoor.

*I loved the way this turned out it looks like a bit like the feather dusters/maids in Beauty and the Beast, except orange. I remembered that I had some really cheap yarn for plastic canvas needlepoint (and the full skeins are not colors I would use for real projects), so why not use that for practice?

My Week

2009-01-23T10:01:00.005-06:00

Tuesday: Mom had an appointment with her surgeon in B'ham so I picked Nettie up from school, brought her back to my office, then took her home and fed her.

Wednesday: Dad calls me at about 4:30 and says Mom's blood O2 sat is low and he's taking her to the ED, can I pick Nettie up after work? I pick her up, take her home (mine), feed her, and make her do her homework. Then I take her home (M&D&hers) so she can go to bed. Dad calls about the time she starts to almost settle in and asks if I can take Nettie to school in the morning because they are admitting Mom overnight for observation. Nettie and I return to my house and go to bed.

Thursday: I get Nettie up to shower; I shower; We both dress; I hurry her breakfest; get gas; drop Nettie at school; drive to work; and am only slightly later than what's been usual lately.

Dad calls mid-morning to say that Mom's had a small heart attack but is now doing fine. She'll go to the cath lab at 5. Can I take TR to her 1 o'clock appointment and then pick up Nettie? "Sure, I guess I'll just leave work at noon." Later he calls to say they decided to go ahead with the catherterization, he'll call when she gets out.

Around noon I leave work. I pick up some lunch, drive to Moundville to get TR, drive to town to drop her at Maude Whatley clinic, wait an hour, drive to Englewood to get Nettie, drive back to MWC, wait half an hour, drive TR to Moundville to her pharmacy, wait 40 minutes, drive her home, drive to the hospital with a breif stop to get food, finally get to see Mom. While driving to MWC the first time Dad calls and says Mom had 3 small blockages in the front of her heart all stinted now, she looked good heading to her room. About 5:15 Nettie and I get to the hospital.

My two older (half) brothers are there and a SIL. Bro1 and SIL leave (only suppose to be 2 visitors in the room), Bro1 might come back later. We sit with Mom, talk a little, I eat my Zalad. Bro2 decides later he's going to head home. He might make it back this weekend - being an accoutant (in B'ham) this is iffy in tax season, but he'll try (and his wife). Bro3, who is extranged from the 'rents, was called but didn't show. Nettie and I leave about 7. I drive her to her house she packs for two nights and days (she's spending the night at a freinds tonight) and we go to my house to sleep. I was exhausted. (If you've been keeping score that's 4 round trips to town for a total of around 100 miles.)

Friday: Woke Nettie up; woke myself up; both showered and dressed; hurried her breakfest; dropped her at school; almost forgot to write note saying she could go home with her friend; drove to work and was only normally (of late) late. I'm now at my desk trying to look like I'm doing work and hoping the day will just hurry up and end, because all I really want to do is go home, watch TV (not even read, really) and eat fattening comfort food.

Oh, and Mom's surgery scheduled for Monday may or may not be post-poned. The docs were going to decide that today.

WHOOPI.

Upate: Mom's spending another night.

Random bits

2009-01-21T13:18:00.006-06:00

1. Why can I change my password but not get sent my login name, DishNetwork??? (Which is apparently 1 letter short of the one I usually use)

2. Irish was all like "Mom, what are you doing? I don't want to be way up - oh, food.":)

3. Wow, does Ed's car look bad. And weird since it's been a while since I was somewhere with salted roads, or even close enough to such a place that I saw cars covered in road salt occasionally.

4. "Don't eat pork, don't eat bats, don't eat beetles, bugs, or gnats...Put four tassels on your cloak...A message from the Lord."

5. I can be a little anal about maps, precision, and accuracy; this can sometimes make my job unnecessarily difficult. But not as anal as the Kentucky Survey they report well locations as DD.xxxxxxxxxx0! (That's to less than a millimeter.)

6. My parent's are OLD.

7. (related to 6) Mom's surgery is Monday. They'll be doing it vaginally so at least the recovery shouldn't be too bad or long. Except for the anesthesia which will take about 6 months to completely clear her system if past experiences are repeated. Nettie gets to spend Sunday night with me.

8. At this rate I'll be back at Circuit City hoping they have an even better deal on Season 5 of Buffy. (Season 4 started $5 less than at B&N plus 10% off. The cashier had to enter the discounted prices manually!)

9. I should really get back to work.

10. If I start digging here I end up in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Danke, Maple Leaf.

Wha? 2.0

2009-01-15T11:15:00.005-06:00

We're having a retirement luncheon this afternoon for a couple who retired the end of the year (she worked for GSA, he for OGB). The luncheon is at the Methodist student center. We just got an email reminding us that parking is limited and we "may want to comsider carpooling". (We might also find parking at the hotel next door.) Or we might just consider WALKING.

View Larger Map

People it's 0.2 miles and above freezing. There is no reason to drive there! What has this world come to?!?! (I'm willing to make exceptions for any infirm members staff, like Rashmi with broncitis or Scott & David with their walking difficulties.)

P.S. I'm so shocked by this that I had to post it in English and German.

Great Flood of Jan. 2009

2009-01-13T16:11:00.008-06:00

I didn' t have my camera with me last week but apparently my brother did:

(pictures by Patrick)

These were taken at River Road Park (east end, at "new" Hackberry RD and Jack Warner PKWY (aka River RD). It's a lovely sunset - I really like the lampposts in the middle of the river. I'm afraid the view of across the river isn't great but those houses are usually ~10 feet above river level.

When my boss and his wife were house hunting their realtor tried to convince them that that neighborhood was above the 100-yr flood plain. It may be, on the flood maps, but River RD has been underwater in the not too distant past and those houses are lower than the road. Never mind that they are CLEARLY on the flood plain - there is no natural levee there. Luckily for the home owners, the Black Warrior River has swampy banks that can be flooded down stream.

This is the best picture I have right this second of what that usually looks like.

I'll try and take some pictures this week of the flood photos to show the difference.

Warm spot

2009-01-13T09:10:00.003-06:00

Last night it was kind of chilly here in west central Alabama. The dog went out about 11:30 and I woke up at 2:30 (or 3:30?) with her asking to come in. So, being a nice doggy mommy, I went down and let her in. She bolts (as usual) up the stairs and hops up in MY warm spot. Obviously thinking to herself "Oooo, warm spot!" She politely hopped over to the middle of the bed when I got there. (This is not what she does at bed time when she takes her half out of the middle, or even on my side of the middle, of the bed and will not move. Under her own power anyway.) I get back in bed and discover that her feet weren't clean. Yay. (This isn't as bad a a week or so ago when her paws were wet when she hopped up into my warm spot.) Then she snuggles up against me and buries her nose in the pillows. It was cute, if I ignore the grit under my shoulders. She moved a little bit this morning - when I got out of the shower she was curled up facing the other direction. She'd apparently decided that it was too cold to go out for a morning pee.

Lesson learned: don't leave the covers thrown back when letting the dog in.

Where I've been

2009-01-09T08:33:00.006-06:00

These are all the states I've visited.

visited 27 states (54%)

These are all the states I've been in (as best I can tell):

visited 33 states (66%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or try another Douwe Osinga project

Apparently I've been avoiding Kentuck. I may get to add Oregon this year, if I can come up with a paper/poster. I'm not going to do a countries I've visited map because it would be embarrassing (US, Canada, England (ok, Heathrow Airport), and Scotland).

Hmmm...

2009-01-08T15:00:00.003-06:00

Random religious/theological rambling brought on by a documentary I watched (most of) last week and Travel with Rick Steves, a flash on a scene from Godspell (specifically my high school's production) and talking to myself while driving to work:

How do evangelical Christians* reconcile their often very public professions of faith with Jesus' preaching against this(Luke 18:9-14)? I suppose Jesus wasn't preaching against honest public faith/religiousness only false shows and following the letter of the law, not the spirit of it. It still seems, to me, that randomly (to everyone else) walking up to someone and handing them a tract isn't what He calls us to do.

*Not all, everyone is different, YMMV, exceptions to prove the rule, simplification/generalization...

Buffyverse - friend or foe?

2009-01-07T14:12:00.005-06:00

A month or two ago Honu-Girl suggested I try watching/listening to Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Hulu, as it was fluffy enough to make it a good distraction while doing boring work. (I was more productive while watching than not, until the IT guy caught me chewing up huge amounts of bandwidth.) I'd watched the first two seasons at work and then Honu-Girl got me the 3rd season for Christmas (delivered in a very pretty box she got from Sarah, so it was like a present from Sarah, too!), so I'm up to episode 8 or 9 now ("Helpless"). I have a question for Buffy fans: What's up with Synder?

He shows up as a principal with a grudge against Buffy. At first he just seems to be a hard ass. Then we learn that he knows about the vampires, etc. in Sunnydale* and I started to wonder which side he's on - does he think Buffy's on the vamp side or does he suspect she's the Slayer (or at least on the human's side) and why doesn't he like her/what does his dislike potentially say about where he stands. He clearly has connections in local politics and the police chief and the mayor are in on the Home of the Hellmouth bit. The mayor clearly has no particular problem with the local demon population (as long as he keeps his job - "Band Candy") but we don't know about the police chief (very minor character, "School Hard" I think). Now, after "Band Candy"**, he knows for sure she's the Slayer but I hadn't seen him since.

So, is he pro- or anti- demon? Is he pro- or anti-Slayer?
(I'm ok with minor spoilers)

* Was the name a ploy by the founders to hide the demonic presence?
**Seeing your Mom and Watcher make out - ewww, as bad as realizing your parents have sex.

Woot?

2009-01-07T09:49:00.002-06:00

I did a whole 25 minutes of light to moderate stretching last night! (i.e. yoga, not nearly as intense as the classes I've taken) Maybe next week I'll add in light weight training. (I only have 8lb weights and my own body weight.)

But, hey, it's more than I've been doing.

Curse the Darkness

2009-01-02T19:27:00.003-06:00

Some thing I saw of TV the other night got me thinking about “curse” words. I understand the religious prohibition on blasphemy. Not necessarily the specifics – was stoning really necessary for speaking the secret name of God? – but the general rule I can deal with and vaguely understand. I can understand not using ‘damn’ as a general swear word unless you really mean you think that thing/person/rule/whatever should be sent to hell. I have even, unsuccessfully, toyed with not damning things lightly. What I don’t get is why other ‘four-letter words’ that have no religious connotations are also usually considered wrong to use by the religious and culturally are less polite than the religious ones (in the US at least). Now ‘fuck’, ‘shit’, and ‘ass’ are generally considered impolite ways to refer to sexual intercourse, feces, and one’s backside* and their derivatives, which may or may not have anything to do with the original meaning, are equally vulgar. One should certainly be mindful of one’s company when using these words. But, why do the religious care about them? They aren’t blasphemy – no taking of God’s name in vain, no casual damning of innocent inanimate objects.

The seven words you can’t say on TV are becoming more and more socially acceptable. One day you may even be able to say them on mainstream TV, at least in fleeting usages or, of course, in culturally appropriate situations^.As the “younger” generations work their way up into positions of power in the FCC things will change, slowly, if we can ever get the religious fanatics to shut up long enough to understand the difference between blasphemy and vulgarity.

This leads me to a tangent**: You may recall the wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl half-time a few years ago. Shortly after this, and the resulting kerfuffle, I heard a father commenting (a letter to Morning Edition perhaps?) that the SB is family entertainment and he didn’t appreciate his young sons being exposed to a nipple. I’d been watching that half-time show. Personally, if I were going to be offended by a brief flash of female bits I would have been doubly offended by the half-time show. Based on the comment of that father, dry-humping one another while wearing little more than a bikini is OK but the human body is bad. (I may be mixing my half-times up. The scantily clad, practically stripping dancers may have been another year.) Consistency anyone?

*Ass is perfectly acceptable if referring to a donkey, even in church.
^ This is why it’s OK that ‘fuck’ appears in every other sentence in Saving Private Ryan but it has to be beeped out of an Emmy acceptance speech.
**This is not particularly timely, I know.But we will be subjected to dubious singing and dancing during the Super Bowl half-time again soon.

PSA for sales clerks

2008-12-30T14:04:00.003-06:00

Acknowledging a costumer's existence can increase your sales.

Will you forgive me a mini-rant? I hope so, because I'm going to do it anyway. Customer service SUCKS in this town (maybe everywhere). Latest example:

Last night I went to Belks to look at shoes. Now, I'm not even sure they carry much in my size but I thought I'd try, since they are now the biggest bestest department store in town (Sears' shoe dept is very small; Penny's hardly carries anything in my size and was a sucky dept with rude service last time I looked, about 8 years ago.) So I look around a few minutes and start picking up shoes. One associate passes as he's putting shoes back in the displays, I think he said "hi". I end up with 4 shoes in my hand that I want to try on and want to ask if s/he can bring out anything similar in my size. (I know it's asking a lot of a clerk to have some idea of their stock but hey, why not try?) I stood about 4 feet back and to the side of the register counter and a couple of feet from a row of chairs, facing the register, attempting to make eye contact with a sales clerk. One is ringing up a sale, one put up a couple of shoes on the other half of the dept but mostly stood at the contour, the other two are putting shoes up, straightening up, etc. One of them looks at me, no eye contact, walks on, offers to help another customer, puts the shoe(s) where they belong, and returns to the counter. I stood there for several minutes in total. I put the shoes in a chair and said, mostly to myself, 'if they don't want to sell me shoes, fine I don't need buy shoes,' and leave the store. BTW, this was at approximately 5:15 (no where near closing time) and there were six-eight people in the non-"selfserve" part of the dept, only one of whom was actually trying on shoes while I was there. (Clearance shoes are stacked on tables.)

Maybe I've missed a change in how one suppose to get a shoe department associate's attention? Am I now suppose to walk into the stock room myself? Hit a clerk over the head with a shoe to get his attention? The stand near counter and/or chairs with shoes in hand has always worked before. Needless to say it will be awhile before I hit up thier shoe department again.

Loot!

2008-12-29T15:32:00.005-06:00

Ok, I just wanted an excuse to post a picture of my second knitting project -part of Nettie's take Thursday morning:

Since the first bag didn't quite come out right I did another. This one was with a narrower yarn so it took a little longer to knit. I didn't decrease fast enough and the flap is a little bit longer than the front of the bag. I also had to block the flap to try and get it into a nice triangle (when I realized how long it was going to be I changed the decrease rate and it was, predictably, a little lopsided). This yarn felted faster with less fuzzing. I wonder if the yarn weight was a factor in that? Less time in the washer probably helped with the fuzzing and lint knots. I knit it tighter in general which means it shrank less, too.

You really can't tell but I knitted the front (under the flap) in a checkerboard pattern which looked 'eh' before felting* but turned out pretty nice afterward; You can't see it but you can feel the texture. I like felting. It hides minor mistakes like dropped stitches - the holes just close right up.

And just because she's so cute:

Honey sporting her new 'outfit'. (The harness - let's see her back herself out of that.)

*Not sure why. It looks good in my practice yarn. Maybe my tension and stitch length varied too much? I screwed up more on my stitch counting than I thought?

The camera adds 10lbs

2008-12-22T10:02:00.004-06:00

Right? Or 20? Or 30? Do I really look like that*?

For those of you who don't know me IRL, I'm in the blue.
Photo is from the office Christmas party, by Pat O'Neil

*I think I've asked this before or at least commented that I see in the mirror the doesn't look at all like pictures of me. I'm always shocked when I see a picture of myself.

Weekend Accomplishments

2008-12-22T09:45:00.003-06:00

There's both Pumpkin (from a box) and Banana Nut (scratch) in there for various people's Christmas's. (Poor Honu-Girl, she won't get hers today.) There was a big loaf of each for the office but they are almost eaten now. Nettie and I made some sugar cookies, too, but they went home with her. BTW, Fannie Farmer's sugar cookie recipe (it's about the first cookie recipe in the chapter) is drop cookies only; way too soft to roll out.

This only took a few minutes:

My little ornament tree. You can't really see in this picture but I also have three silver snowflake/star ornaments, too. I hung them on the window in the background for the picture but moved them to their traditional location on the bay window afterward. (and then closed the blinds on that window again, it admits no light this time of year but sucks the heat out!)

America-centric?

2008-12-18T13:45:00.000-06:00

Let's put some numbers to this America-centric charge of the 100 things list in my last post.

First List:Items 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, and 17 give examples of geological feature (10/10) in the NA which can, most likely, also be found elsewhere in the world. Twenty-seven of the items on the first list are North America specific locations (total of 34 specific places); 14 of them are for geological features that may be seen on another continent (IDK if they are); for an additional 8 I'm not sure why we are 'suppose' to visit the locations so I don't know if they are truly unique geologically or just happen to be good examples of something that could be found somewhere else.

Bently List: Of the 45 specific places listed, 13 are in North America (3 in Alaska alone!). Off the top of my head that seems like a reasonable share considering the amount of land we're covering. For the geological features and activities he list examples in North America for ten of them (55 total, 11 with example locations) and most have non-American examples as well.

So both lists offer examples of geologic features in North America with or without non-NA examples. Bently clearly lists many more non-US places a geologist should visit. I think the America-centrism critic of the original meme may stem from many of the specific locations are in the US even though the geologic feature may be found elsewhere. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, so I'm willing to believe the original author simply gave examples he was most familiar with.

That said I think I like the Bently list better. It lists specific places of geological importance and then geological features. By separating them he avoids the danger of an over abundance of American locations making the list and stress that while a geological feature may be well repreesented in a given place it almost certainly exists in locations around the world. It also means that those of us who haven't traveled much (at least not yet) don't feel completely left out.

In the end, it's just a way to fill a post. (I've managed to make two posts out of it. :P) To find a true geologist life time 100 list we'd have to get geologists all over the world to submit suggestions of both locations and features and then figure out which were the most common and even then there would be arguements. Because everyone will have a different opinion of what one MUST do/see.

What haven't I done?

2008-12-18T13:35:00.001-06:00

Lots.

A meme zinging around the geoblogosphere asks "what have you seen?" (I've bolded all the I've done/seen.)
1. See an erupting volcano
2. See a glacier
3. See an active geyser such as those in Yellowstone, New Zealand or the type locality of Iceland
4. Visit the Cretaceous/Tertiary (KT) Boundary. Possible locations include Gubbio, Italy, Stevns Klint, Denmark, the Red Deer River Valley near Drumheller, Alberta.
5. Observe (from a safe distance) a river whose discharge is above bankful stage
6. Explore a limestone cave. Try Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park, or the caves of Kentucky or TAG (Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia)
7. Tour an open pit mine, such as those in Butte, Montana, Bingham Canyon, Utah, Summitville, Colorado, Globe or Morenci, Arizona, or Chuquicamata, Chile.
8. Explore a subsurface mine.
9. See an ophiolite, such as the ophiolite complex in Oman or the Troodos complex on the Island Cyprus (if on a budget, try the Coast Ranges or Klamath Mountains of California).
10. An anorthosite complex, such as those in Labrador, the Adirondacks, and Niger (there's some anorthosite in southern California too).
11. A slot canyon. Many of these amazing canyons are less than 3 feet wide and over 100 feet deep. They reside on the Colorado Plateau. Among the best are Antelope Canyon, Brimstone Canyon, Spooky Gulch and the Round Valley Draw.
12. Varves, whether you see the type section in Sweden or examples elsewhere. [hand sample only]
13. An exfoliation dome, such as those in the Sierra Nevada.
14. A layered igneous intrusion, such as the Stillwater complex in Montana or the Skaergaard Complex in Eastern Greenland.
15. Coastlines along the leading and trailing edge of a tectonic plate.
16. A gingko tree, which is the lone survivor of an ancient group of softwoods that covered much of the Northern Hemisphere in the Mesozoic. [near my office, god the fruit stinks]
17. Living and fossilized stromatolites (Glacier National Park is a great place to see fossil stromatolites, while Shark Bay in Australia is the place to see living ones)
18. A field of glacial erratics
19. A caldera
20. A sand dune more than 200 feet high [Great Sand Dune National Park]
21. A fjord
22. A recently formed fault scarp
23. A megabreccia
24. An actively accreting river delta
25. A natural bridge
26. A large sinkhole [Lake Jackson, Florala, Alabama - largest sinkhole in the state]
27. A glacial outwash plain
28. A sea stack
29. A house-sized glacial erratic
30. An underground lake or river
31. The continental divide
32. Fluorescent and phosphorescent minerals [got a set one time as a present]
33. Petrified trees
34. Lava tubes
35. The Grand Canyon. All the way down. And back. [haven't been to the bottom]
36. Meteor Crater, Arizona, also known as the Barringer Crater, to see an impact crater on a scale that is comprehensible
37. The Great Barrier Reef, northeastern Australia, to see the largest coral reef in the world.
38. The Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada, to see the highest tides in the world (up to 16m)
39. The Waterpocket Fold, Utah, to see well exposed folds on a massive scale.
40. The Banded Iron Formation, Michigan, to better appreciate the air you breathe. [samples only]
41. The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania,
42. Lake Baikal, Siberia, to see the deepest lake in the world (1,620 m) with 20 percent of the Earth's fresh water.
43. Ayers Rock (known now by the Aboriginal name of Uluru), Australia. This inselberg of nearly vertical Precambrian strata is about 2.5 kilometers long and more than 350 meters high
44. Devil's Tower, northeastern Wyoming, to see a classic example of columnar jointing.
45. The Alps.
46. Telescope Peak, in Death Valley National Park. From this spectacular summit you can look down onto the floor of Death Valley - 11,330 feet below.
47. The Li River, China, to see the fantastic tower karst that appears in much Chinese art
48. The Dalmation Coast of Croatia, to see the original Karst.
49. The Gorge of Bhagirathi, one of the sacred headwaters of the Ganges, in the Indian Himalayas, where the river flows from an ice tunnel beneath the Gangatori Glacier into a deep gorge.
50. The Goosenecks of the San Juan River, Utah, an impressive series of entrenched meanders.
51. Shiprock, New Mexico, to see a large volcanic neck
52. Land's End, Cornwall, Great Britain, for fractured granites that have feldspar crystals bigger than your fist.
53. Tierra del Fuego, Chile and Argentina, to see the Straights of Magellan and the southernmost tip of South America.
54. Mount St. Helens, Washington, to see the results of recent explosive volcanism.
55. The Giant's Causeway and the Antrim Plateau, Northern Ireland, to see polygonally fractured basaltic flows.
56. The Great Rift Valley in Africa.
57. The Matterhorn, along the Swiss/Italian border, to see the classic "horn".
58. The Carolina Bays, along the Carolinian and Georgian coastal plain
59. The Mima Mounds near Olympia, Washington
60. Siccar Point, Berwickshire, Scotland, where James Hutton (the "father" of modern geology) observed the classic unconformity
61. The moving rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley
62. Yosemite Valley
63. Landscape Arch (or Delicate Arch) in Utah [maybe, but I'm not sure]
64. The Burgess Shale in British Columbia [samples only]
65. The Channeled Scablands of central Washington
66. Bryce Canyon
67. Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone
68. Monument Valley [again, I don't remember everywhere we went that summer]
69. The San Andreas fault
70. The dinosaur footprints in La Rioja, Spain
71. The volcanic landscapes of the Canary Islands
72. The Pyrennees Mountains
73. The Lime Caves at Karamea on the West Coast of New Zealand
74. Denali (an orogeny in progress)
75. A catastrophic mass wasting event
76. The giant crossbeds visible at Zion National Park
77. The black sand beaches in Hawaii (or the green sand-olivine beaches)
78. Barton Springs in Texas
79. Hells Canyon in Idaho
80. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado
81. The Tunguska Impact site in Siberia
82. Feel an earthquake with a magnitude greater than 5.0.[only a 3.5]
83. Find dinosaur footprints in situ
84. Find a trilobite (or a dinosaur bone or any other fossil)
85. Find gold, however small the flake
86. Find a meteorite fragment
87. Experience a volcanic ashfall
88. Experience a sandstorm
89. See a tsunami
90. Witness a total solar eclipse
91. Witness a tornado firsthand. [thank God, no]
92. Witness a meteor storm, a term used to describe a particularly intense (1000+ per minute) meteor shower
93. View Saturn and its moons through a respectable telescope.
94. See the Aurora borealis, otherwise known as the northern lights.
95. View a great naked-eye comet, an opportunity which occurs only a few times per century
96. See a lunar eclipse
97. View a distant galaxy through a large telescope
98. Experience a hurricane
99. See noctilucent clouds
100. See the green flash

Apparently there were some complaints that it is US-centric so Callan Bently wrote up a slightly different one:
Specific places

Visit the Chalk (England, France, Ireland...) [I've seen the Selma chalk]
Visit Iceland
Visit Mt. Fuji, Japan
Visit Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Visit the Himalayas (Kashmir?)
the Tibetan Plateau
Visit the Gobi Desert
Visit the Sahara Desert
Visit the Sonoran Desert (for the saguaros)
Visit the Atacama Desert
Visit the Rub' al Khali (Empty Quarter)
Visit Beijing or Shanghai (for the perspective on what really dirty air looks like)
Visit the big island of Hawai'i
Visit Yellowstone
Visit the Galapagos Islands
Visit Madagascar (for the lemurs)
Visit Patagonia
Visit the Andes
Visit the Alps
Visit the Canadian Rockies
Visit Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska (and/or neighboring Kluane National Park in the Yukon Territory)
Visit Denali, Alaska
Visit the Aleutian Islands
Visit Chimborazo, Ecuador (furthest point from the center of the Earth, due to the equatorial bulge)
Visit Antarctica
Visit the Siberian Traps
Visit the Deccan Traps
Visit the Columbia River flood basalt province
Visit Sumatra/Krakatau/Java, Indonesia
Visit the South Island of New Zealand
Visit the Appalachians
Visit the Dead Sea
Visit the Giant's Causeway, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Visit the Great Rift Valley of East Africa
Visit the Nile River
Visit the Mississippi River
Visit the Amazon River
Visit the Grand Canyon
Visit the Owens Valley, California (or anywhere in the Basin & Range, but the Owens Valley is pretty darned special, and geologically diverse)
Visit Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, Canada (walk on the "Moho")
Visit Siccar Point, Scotland (for the unconformity)
Visit Gibraltar, "UK"
Visit Vesuvius, Pompei, and the Pompei-to-be, Naples
Visit Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia
Visit the Moon

Geological features

A tectonic triple junction (Mendocino, CA is an example, or northern Burma, or Panama)
Tower karst (Guilin, China, or southwestern Thailand are examples)
A regional flood
A flash flood
Ediacaran fauna fossils in situ (possibilities include the type locality of the Ediacaran Hills in Australia, or Charnwood Forest in England, the White Sea region in Russia, or maybe the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland)
Vertebrate fossils in situ
Visiting a laggerstatten site (Burgess Shale, Chenjiang, Sirius Passet, Solnhofen?)
An alpine glacier
A continental glacier (ice cap or ice sheet)
A kimberlite pipe (preferably with diamonds, and good luck with that) [in Arkansas]
A coral atoll (take your pick)
A meteor impact crater (not a buried one, either)
A big river delta (Mississippi, Ganges, Nile, or any of the dozens of others)
Barrier islands (Padre Island, Texas, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina come to mind, but I'm sure there are others on other continents)
A craton (Canadian shield, Kaapvaal, North China, etc. etc. etc.)
A big estuary (Cook Inlet, Chesapeake Bay, Bay of Fundy: all North American examples. Give me some others)
See some karst.
Kayak (or other boat) through a fjord.
See a dropstone.
See an ophiolite.
Visit a major stike-slip fault (San Andreas in USA/Mexico, or North Anatolian in Turkey, or Tan Lo (sp?) in China)
Visit a nappe or thrust sheet (Glarus Thrust in the Alps, Chief Mountain/Glacier NP in Montana, Blue Ridge in Virginia/North Carolina)
Visit a really big cave (Mammoth, Lechugilla, or some other that I don't know about on another continent)

Activities and experiences

A world-class natural history museum (London Museum of Natural History, American Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History all come to mind.)
Meeting of a classic scientific society (Royal Society, Explorers Club, Cosmos Club...)
Do some original research.
Present your research at a meeting of other scientists.
Publish your research in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Visit an original copy of "map that changed the world" (William Smith's geologic map of England, Wales, and part of Scotland)
Experience a big earthquake (greater than 5.0 sounds like as good a cut-off as any)
Experience a volcano erupting something other than gases (lava, pyroclastics)
Go ice fishing (or just out onto a frozen lake/pond/sea/ocean and ponder the improbable nature of ice and how it freezes from the top down, preserving the living things underneath, like fish. Without this odd property, it would be tough to maintain life in our high-latitude/elevation lakes/etc. through the winter months.)
Compare and contrast El Nino and La Nina.
Go on an oceanographic research cruise for more than two weeks at sea.
Experience a hurricane/typhoon/cyclone (preferably with surviving it as a caveat)

Oringinal list 24/100, Bently list 16/100 for those counting. I obviously have a way to go.

Just desserts

2008-12-18T08:39:00.003-06:00

Last night I was watching "Life in the Undergrowth" on the Science Channel (one of my preview channels this month!). I love David Attenbourgh and last night was no exception.

They were talking about bugs, or more properly land-dwelling arthropods. There were some great slow-motion shoots of dragonflies (they beat their wings separately, cool huh?) and flies landing upside-down; Sir David jumping when the spider jumped out of his lair to ambush the stick; some wasp larva considering hitching a ride on his finger; really cool larva that light up the roof of a cave and catch flies in their silken snares... The standard great photography I've come to expect from nature shows all with Attenbourgh's calm, comforting voice. But the best bit was the cicadas.

They featured the 17-year cicadas of the eastern US. There was a brood a couple of years ago and one the summer I was between 6th and 7th grade. The larva come up out of the group starting in late spring and they don't really start dying, IIRC, until late summer. And, if you have the wrong trees (or right depending on your precpective) in your area they are EVERYwhere. And they are LOUD, at least the males. And bad fliers, and they will, briefly, fly without heads, which makes them even worse fliers. Did I mention they are everywhere and loud? Sorry, back to the film...

So, they've got a male relatively isolated on a branch while Attenbourgh explains his call (loud buzzing) and the female's response, which is a click that can be replicated by snapping one's fingers. Of course he demonstrates this. Then he uses snapping his fingers to get the male to walk along the branch (thinking he's on his way to a hot date). The bug goes left, then he makes the bug turn around, only this slightly back fires. The male flies over and lands on Sir David's ear, buzzing the whole time. Attenbourgh was obviously not prepared to have a the thing walk around on his head, much less buzz in his ear; he's desperately snapping by the twig while grimacing and trying to keep up the narration. The male finally decides that his date is on the twig and flies back. The crew leave him to find a real mate.

That folks is what happens when you tease a desperate male cicada - you get one of the disgusting things crawling on you when you cannot simply squash it.

Sucess, sort of.

2008-12-11T08:55:00.006-06:00

As threatened here are some more pictures of my first real knitting project.
Here's the early stage I posted before:

I forgot to take a photo of the finished knit piece before sewing. A question for any knitters out there - is it normal for the edges to roll in (towards purl side) or did I do something wrong? (pull the end stitches too tight?)

All sewn up, pre-felting:

Post felting and in need of a hair cut since there was some lint in the washer:

All done:

I learned that the item shrinks more lengthwise than widthwise, and if I'd thought about it that would have been obvious (it started out 'looser' lengthwise). But that meant that my nicely proportioned triangular flap became almost not big enough to fold over. Oops. So a partial success; it will still be given as a present because I'm not sure I have time to make another better one.

Now I'm trying to master vertical ribbing and figure out how to do a checkerboard pattern. I have to go to Virginia Monday and back on Wednesday so I should have lots of time to practice when the boss is driving.

And because she's just so darn cute - Q-tip sleeping in my suitcase

It's a box and it smells like Mom!

Context?

2008-12-09T15:10:00.002-06:00

Because my brain is currently on strike, I thought I'd provide some context to my Gtalk tag today.

Zales has an add running (a lot) right now that says "Love Rocks" this holiday season...It took me three or four viewings before I realized that they mean it as a noun-verb exclamation I kept, and keep, hearing it as a verb-noun imperative (i.e. love is awesome not you must like rocks now!) because really, everyone should love rocks this holiday season and every season.

Sighting

2008-12-08T09:24:00.010-06:00

Yesterday I went to Hilaritas and was reminded that faux-hawk girl is a violinist. I haven't seen her lately, possibly since last year's Hilaritas, but she used to have a class near my office and I see her ever week or two. Her hair is a bit silly looking but it also inspires a bit of awe. It is amazing that she gets her hair to do this. I wasn't sure I could properly explain it so I tried drawing it. This is the best I could do:

(see why I'm not an artist?)

The faux-hawk (as Honu-Girl and I christianed this 'do) has near vertical sides. I've never gotten a good look at it from behind so I'm not sure what happens at the back. I'm really don't know how she gets her hair to do this. Maybe she has some oddly geometric deformity on her skull?

I'm a bad person, because her goofy (IMHO) hair gave me a smile when Nettie had been annoying me with her impateince (why can't we just go sit down???), and why do we have to wait for Mom and Dad (because I have the tickets) and where M&D were (on their way), and why isn't your phone working (IDK, it's AT&T's problem) and are they waiting in the lobby for us even though it was after the 3* and would they think to check at will-call for their tickets (uh, yes because they're not stupid)...OMG, relax child, it will be ok, it'll work out, CHILL!

P.S. I should add that I've seen a similar hair do on a girl with "black" hair. It looked equally silly but I could understand how it was achieved with coarse textured hair.

*When we finally went in to our seats there was some girl (college age, I guess) sitting in my seat. When I said "excuse me that's my seat, # 27," she says "but I'm in 27, too." She was in seat 27 row D, not 27 M. I pointed this out to her and she says "well where's that?". "Somewhere up front, about the 4th row". Has she never sat in assisgned theater seats before? I guess that is possible. The ticket said "MN FLR D 27" and underneath that "section row seat", is it really difficult to figure out seating assignments?

Ramblings, part infinity

2008-12-05T11:04:00.004-06:00

I have half a rant about science literacy (inspired by Chad); a half a post to parallel Honu Girl; a exasperated rant about Ellen getting in an accident and the other lady not getting a ticket for an expired license (everyone was OK, cars are a bit bent up); and a ramble about psych meds, their effect on me, my ambivalence about taking them forever, why I wish I'd gone on the field trip this year but it's probably just as well I didn't because being on the edge of completely falling apart is SO attractive (or just makes me retreat to the point of being effectively invisible*). But all I want to do is crawl under the covers and stay there for, like, forever. (Yay, for a week of half-doses!)

*This artist does pretty well at urban-camo but visually blending in really necessary for being invisible.

Wha?

2008-12-04T16:18:00.004-06:00

I agree with i09 - someone is missing the point.

"There's really no beer like it because it uses 100 per cent barley. Our top seller is the Black Label brand, using additional ingredients such as rice. This one doesn't, and is really a special beer," said Junichi Ichikawa, managing directory for strategy at Sapporo Breweries.(Telegragh.co.uk)

Okay, I don't really now how much a difference there is in barley beer versus other grain beers (although my nephew tried some rice beer once and didn't like it at all) but I'll except that an all barley beer is special. The thing is the really special part of the beer is:

Sapporo Breweries, one of Japan's major breweries, went on to use the crop of barley grown in space to create 100 litres of a 5.5 per cent proof beer aptly named Space Barley.

I've never developed a taste for beer (besides liquor is quicker;)) but I think I'd have to drink a glass (bottle/can/pint/whatever) of Space Barley. It's made from SPACE BARLEY, how could I resist?

This could be one way for the space station to offset it's maintenance costs. Although to be commercial they'd need a lot more room for crops.

Turning Off Inner-Geologist - Fail

2008-12-03T12:30:00.007-06:00

Many of the pictures I took at the beach were geology related. Here are the best:
The nearly pure quartz sands of the Alabama coast. It's squeaky clean!

Funny true story: One summer my folks rented a place at Virginia Beach for a few days and my older siblings came, too. One of my then sister-in-laws actually tip-toed across the sand because it was "dirty". She'd only been to the sugar sand beaches of Alabama and Florida before, she apparently thought all those feldspars and heavy minerals were dirt.

Ripples

Future trace fossils? Bird tracks Crab borrow

rain drop impressions with human tracks

Future fossils? Shell hash at the high tide line.

Knitting Project #1

2008-12-03T08:56:00.006-06:00

I am so excited about this. I can't really explain why, either. I'm making a little bag* for Nettie for Christmas. First off I found some really pretty yarn.

And the knitting is going easily. Except I couldn't find the end of the skein inside the ball so it's not pulling out all nice and easy, I keep having to unwind the ball as I go. My plan is to make a rectangle about twice as long as it is wide, then decrease the stitches from both ends to make a triangular end. I'll fold the rectangle in half and sew it up with the triangle for a flap (with a snap closure added later). Then I'm going to felt it!

Like I said, I'm unreasonably excited about the project. I'll post pictures when I'm finished.

*Like a comsetic's bag or for odds and ends in her backpack or something, it'll be about 4"x4" when I'm done.

Monthly Reports SUCK!

2008-12-01T16:21:00.004-06:00

Particularly when the contract came back 3 workdays before the end of the month but you have to make it look like you did something on the project because 2 people are charging a week and a half to it (the contract was signed 10/30). I really suck at saying nothing in 50 words or more. The worst part is that one of the things to fill in on the report is "significance of the work" - so when I get some data I can put it straight into the model? Because eventually we'll have data to evaluate but we have to wait on everyone else to send us their data?...Oh, and Wednesday I get to have a conference call about the all the (non)work I've accomplished* (and all the other research partners) that'll last about an hour. ARGH. My boss is in Spain for all of this -yay for him.

So, while I rack my brain for better ways to say 'nada' here's what I did for Thanksgiving:

Yes, that is my little sister going swimming in the northern Gulf of Mexico the morning of November 29th. If I'd had my suit, I'd have been in there, too**. We had gorgeous weather until Saturday afternoon, when it started raining. And Dad only tried to kill us once while driving.:)

*on this project, I've done lots on another project. I'm glad I now have something else to do than rename files and calibrate rasters.
**The forecast had said upper 60s to low 70s for the high so I didn't pack my swimsuit, but it felt much warmer, like well in the 70s maybe even 80 Friday afternoon. I'd've also had to shave my legs. It has been a long time since I even planned on going swimming based leg hair.

Visitor

2008-11-25T10:56:00.004-06:00

While I wait for a software quote I thought I'd introduce the latest visitor to my home:

I first met him last week when I opened the dishwasher and he fell in (from under the edge of the counter). I'd much rather have an American anole (commonly called chameleons) drop into the dish washer than and American cockroach (which has happened a time or two - can we say dishwasher run half full?). Sunday night he was hanging out on the dog's water dish; I advised him to sit still because the cats* (following me in hopes I might accidentally open a can of tuna and drop it on the floor) would love to chase him. Last night he decided the clean clothes were a good place to hang out and he was still there this morning. I think he thinks he blends in.

*speaking of the cats - I must be well loved, there were TWO field mice on the porch last night. Not nearly as much meat as the dove a couple of months ago but presented with just as much love.

A performer, really?

2008-11-21T08:54:00.005-06:00

I've been lurking on some geo-blogs for the last few weeks and today Silver Fox has a post about Typealyzer. It is suppose to figure out your "type", similar to the Meyer-Briggs. Apparently I'm an ESFP, a Performer:

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

They don't know me too well, do they? I most definitely don't live in the preset moment (always thinking to much to notice it). I adore planning ahead (and/or obsessing about the past). I'm rarely at risk of exhausting myself (my favorite hobby is napping). I do like helping people but it's not my career. I do avoid conflict (like the plague!) and don't want to move into management but not because of the confrontation issue - it's all the paperwork and other BS. My boss spends probably half his time doing non-geology stuff. His boss doesn't do hardly any actual geology anymore, just administrative stuff that allows the rest of us to do geology.

Good thing I don't put a whole lot of stock in these types of tests. They can be useful but only if you recognize their limitations and weaknesses. (If you want more on the subject talk to my mother, the educational psychologist.) At least the makers of this analyzer admit that it only tests what you write and suggest that you use it to think about how you write.

Alabama Geology 101

2008-11-19T09:31:00.008-06:00

Yesterday I actually got to go out and look at some real rocks. (Wo0t!1!) I took a bunch of pictures so of which were actually geological in nature. I thought I'd share a few to give my far-flung readers an idea of what it is like doing field work in Alabama.

First off, it was chilly (around 40°F/4.5C); although it wasn't so bad since I could do my work wearing real gloves and a hat didn't seem weird, as opposed to being in the office where I can only wear half-finger gloves to type and wearing my hat seems a bit of overkill.* It was almost nice in the sun for a little while. And it isn't nearly as bad as it can be (it is Alabama after all). Heck it was WAY nicer than field work in August and there's less foliage to deal with. Procuring lunch can be difficult is some areas. Ashville has a relatively new Mexican restaurant (in the shopping center with Ashville Drug, towards the interstate) that was pretty good. It is definitely a positive addition to the area. And to be fair, we were looking for shale outcrops in the 'mushwad'^, so large fresh exposures don't exist.

First stop was the longest and highest (3-5 feet tall by 160-180 feet long or 1-1.65 m by 56-60m), here's a representative picture:

It was a little too sunny for good pictures. There's a mylonitic zone right where my boss is looking about where the shadow starts. The contrast between sun and shade is almost too much to make zone visible in pictures.

Second stop was in the ditch on the side of a road:

This outcrop is about 1 foot high and 2.5 feet long (.3m high and .75m long).

Here are my co-workers take a strike and dip. The book is to even out and extend the tiny bit of rock sticking out of the weathered material. It doesn't give you much room to work with though. This outcrop does have the advantage that every few years the county will come and scrap it out potentially and temporarily creating better exposure.

Third stop by the railroad, very interesting, very complex:

We could spend days just getting data from this stop but it might give some clues to the internal structures of the mushwad.

Fourth stop by the railroad tracks further down, yay for resistant beds:

We tried to get a strike while the train went by but that amount of steel completely screwed up the compass. So all we could do was count cars until it passed.

The fifth outcrop we went looking for has been sodded over by the highway department. DOT is one out the best outcrop makers in Alabama (probably throughout the SE) and in Alabama we can stop and look at the rocks (in VA that's not allowed). Unfortunately the DOT doesn't appreciate the need to keep outcrops free of trees and bushes and likes to (at least try) to grass over rocks. They also have a tendency to shotcrete less competent strata - gunite running parallel to bedded - likely shale, gunite at high angle to bedding - likely fault, gunite over the entire outcrop - g@ddamn engineers, the secrets of the Birmingham anticlinorium could be hidden behind that.

*Actually, right now the system seems to working and it's comfortable. This may or may not last.
^area of thick structurally complex Conasuaga

What is Normal, Anyway?

2008-11-14T18:50:00.002-06:00

As early as Tuesday I was trying to think of something to do this weekend. Not go to the park or should I clean type stuff (Evening game rules out the park Sat. and I always need to clean.) but something around other people, people not related to me. Something normal 30-somethings do - whatever that is. I think I've mentioned this before but every once and a while I really really want to not be by myself. Unfortunately being alone while surrounded by people is extremely depressing, so as much as I'd like to go out I don't want to just as much. Here's a list of options:
Go to a bar - have to time that one really close, too early and the dance floor's too empty (or the band hasn't even started) and I leave before I can get tipsy enough to get on the dance floor and have fun.
Dance (Sat) - been there not done that; I just can't bring myself to go alone.
Spend the weekend with Mal and his crew, the Epps brothers, and other people with the script writers on their side.

Well, I'm going to toss the cat out, let the dog in, and turn on the TV.

Ladies, can we talk?

2008-11-07T08:44:00.005-06:00

So no one had an opinion about voter registration fraud, huh? Well, I have another question and PSA for teh interweebs today: Why don't women wear appropriately supportive undergarments while exercising?

Many mornings I pass a group of city cops jogging. Twice now I've passed one youngish woman who could really use a more supportive bra. Both times I've thought 'ow ow ow' with each step I witness. Then last night CBS 42 did a segment on a woman who has lost 105 pounds over the last two years by taking up running (and some other exercise) and eating right. And that's awesome and inspiring and all but OMG does she need better sports bras. They had several shots of her jogging and I thought it looked a little painful. Then they had her finishing a 5k and that bounce was even worse. It looked like she was wearing reasonably supportive bras in the shots of her in everyday/work clothes. Why was she running in a bra that left her boobs near her waist? Does it not hurt to bounce that much? Is it just the cost of a good bra? I don't understand. I can't trot down the stairs in my pjs without an arm across my chest, I can't imagine running five kilometers (approx. 3 miles) like that.

Where I taught, there were several students who needed more than a Walmart sports bra could offer. (This was obvious during volleyball, never mind basketball.) I brought it up one day with several and I happened to have an equestrian catalog* with me and showed them a bra that is designed for high impact activities for all (offered) cup sizes. They choked on the $50 price. I mentioned some other catalogs/websites that have a wide selection of sports bras, with no takers. It probably didn't help that the English teacher/assistant coach simply suggested wear up to 3 bras at once which is what she sometimes did**.

Part of the problem is that some woman aren't wearing the right cup size to begin with. Part of the problem is that one style bra may be appropriate for high impact for an A or B cup but only good for moderate impact for a C or D and light impact for Es and above. So if you go to the store and they have a bra marked high impact and think you're good or that that is as good as it gets for a D - but it's not. I get a couple of catalogs that rate sports bras and if a style's bounce minimizing isn't as effective at larger sizes the description will say that. Also some sports bras are designed for larger woman and the different engineering problems posed by large mammaries. (I'm sure there are more catalogs/websites than those linked here.)

So here's the question to y'all: Is it not as painful for some woman as for others? Do some woman think there is no alternative? Can I set up a fund for well-endowed athletes?

* If you don't want your boobs to move, relative to your shoulders, look for a bra that lists horseback riding as one of the activities it's good for.
**In case you are math adverse: 3 $15 bras cost $45, which will buy you one good bra that will probably last longer than the 3 together.

Have you voted?

2008-11-04T09:52:00.003-06:00

If not, go vote, then you can come back and read.
If/when yes, I have a question for you - does this appall you?

When I was working in Andalusia (LA*, not Spain), one of my co-workers was telling us, almost proudly, that when she'd changed her voter registration after getting married she used the office address because it'd be so convenient to vote. Our office was, I believe, within the city limits; the young lady in question lived two towns over. This means that she could vote for mayor, city council member, etc. for a city she didn't live in and couldn't vote for her county council member, mayor, school board... for where she DID live. I have no idea where the state legislative district boundaries are/were, but she may have been voting in the wrong ones for that, too. She seemed to only look at the convenience factor of voting closer to work. (BTW, she worked 7-4 and lived at most 45 minutes from work.) I was horrified, but not so much that I thought to contact the registrar.

*Lower Alabama for those not in the know.

Pumpkin guts anyone?

2008-11-01T20:29:00.008-05:00

I was inspired by Yes We Carve to make my first jack-o-lanterns in at least 12 years. I discovered that there is a reason I don't carve pumpkins - I suck at it. But I persevered and here are the results. Some of you will find these more frightening that others.

More photos here.

Buffalo and a Manatee?

2008-10-31T10:11:00.003-05:00

I don't think so.

Is it just me or does Appa look an awful lot like a water bear? Interesting that a sky bison would look like a water bear, seeing as how those are completely different nations. But maybe it was foreshadowing of the sky bender Avatar's partnership with two water nation kids?

Thank you to Chad for having a weekly picture of Appa with baby for scale (or that the other way around?) and Ugly Overload for reminding me of the cutest polyextremeophiles around.

Another nit-picky correction

2008-10-27T09:40:00.006-05:00

A few weeks ago I mentioned going to the young adult service at my church. I've gone almost every Sunday since. We've been going through Acts, because the idea behind this service is that it's a gathering similar to the way the early church met, or something like that. My only complaint is the music.

Last night's readings were from Acts 10, at the start of worship we heard about Peter's vision or the sheet filled with animals that he refused to eat because they were "unclean" and then God chastised Peter for saying something He had made clean was unclean. After this we sang "My God is Mighty to Save" and "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". Neither of these are bad songs ("Mighty to Save" is actually descent, unlike much of the CCM that we've sung, IMHO.) but they don't have a whole lot to do with receiving visions. The passage that was preached on was Acts 10:34-48 - Peter's preaching to the Gentiles and their conversion and baptism. The songs we heard during the setting of the table and communion had little to do with the egalitarian nature of God's salvation. The last song we sung was "They Will Know We are Christians by Our Love", which could have a better melody but at least did sort of relate to the topic of the day.

I think the hymns sung and other music should relate to the passage. I think you have more leeway with opening hymns, but musical response to the sermon (or any reading) should tie into that reading. I don't think God really needs us to sit around and sing about how awesome he is or what great Christians we are; and, in church, we don't really need to sing a whole lot on the how awesome God's love is because we are preaching to the choir, almost literally. I think hymns should reinforce the message of the sermon. They can be purely worship/praise but they can say SO much more. And songs are easy to remember, which means if you can put your message to music people will remember it (or at least get it stuck as an earworm for days).

And I haven't even touched on the really shallow lame CCM stuff we've sung - like the song that had unrelated verses and chorus. Does this make me a music snob?

Oh, the correction: Georgia Tech played the UVA Cavaliers Saturday. Not Virginia Tech. (I looked up which one they actually played, and guessed right that he had the correct mascot, wrong university.) This detail had nothing to do with the content of the sermon but it really stuck out. At least to me, a former Virginian, even though I care very little about college football.

Real America?

2008-10-21T15:00:00.007-05:00

On last night's The Daily Show John presented an equation and a short quiz to help one figure out if one lived in Real America™ or not. Obviously, I failed the quiz since I was watching The Daily Show, but I was wondering about Tuscaloosa in general. To check the validity of the equation I'm going to do Andalusia, AL, also. I lived there for two years; it is pretty much Real America™. So I've collected the numbers I could and guessed the ones I couldn't. Here goes the calculations:

(p*c*a*Jr)/(S*(Pth-Pt)*(1/t-b)) = R
If R is less than 10 you live in Real America, if not you are going to hell.

p, population = 89000 (Tuscaloosa City), 171160 (Tuscaloosa Co)
c, Cost of a cup of coffee = $1.85
a, # of art house theaters = 2 (Bama, and the Ferg)
Jr, # of streets named for ML King, Jr. = 2 (one in T-town, one in Northport)
S, # of ids needed to buy Sudefed = 1
Pth, # of people who wear trucker hats = IDK
Pt, # of truckers = IDK
t, # of churches = 205 (Tuscaloosa addresses), 352 (in the county total, best I can tell YMMV)^a
b, # of bars = 12 (Tuscaloosa addresses), 13 (in county)^b

For whole of Tuscaloosa county: (171160)(1.85)(2)(2)(352-13)/1(1000^c)=1717488

For Andalusia:
p=8794; c=1.50; a=0; Jr=1; Pth=IDK, Pt=IDK the ratio is higher than in Tuscaloosa is my guess; t=60; b=3

R=0

I think I've just found a couple of serious flaws in this equation. One improvement would be to put (t-b) in the denominator not the numerator (or 1/(t-b) in the denominator). The higher the church to bar ratio the "realer" a town gets, so it should make R get smaller. If your town has an art house theater or a street named for Dr. King then the population has to be tiny. Of course many would argue that the existence of an art house theater means you are not living in Real America™. Another problem with the equation is the whole Pth thing. Does have more non-truckers wearing trucker hats make your town realer? I've seen them on students who might not have been real Americans™.

Luckily all of this will be rendered moot in two weeks when all Americans, Real™ or otherwise (but legally eligible to vote), vote for our next president and, hopefully, all talk of "real" Virginia, "real" American values, and any thing else that tries separate the country stops for another 4 years. (Ok, 2.25 - until the next primary season begins.)

^a Several zip codes outside the city limits show up as Tuscaloosa, a cursory yellowpages.com search doesn't separate the two.
^bthe phone book listings include many restaurants with bars as well as pure drinking establishments.
^c I'm estimating here, I'm not sure I know the true differences between a baseball hat and a trucker hat but I don't see very many of the later, as I would define them. This number could be as high as half a freshman class at UA (or 2,250).

Nit picky, I know

2008-10-20T16:32:00.003-05:00

But Election Day (in the US) is not the first Tuesday of November. It is the Tuesday following the first Monday, which is slightly different. We will never vote for president on a November 1st, but we could on a November 8th.

That's your civics lesson for the day.

Why?

2008-10-20T14:47:00.004-05:00

Can some one please explain why anyone thought that "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" needed a chorus? Those 4 verses, by Issac Watts, served just fine for 300 years. Did Chris Tomlin really need to add this bit?

O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live
O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross
All who gather here by grace draw near and bless Your name
(from here)

Just wondering.

Update: This dovetails (1 word or two?) nicely with something I read the other day. First a comment from Cosmic Variance: "...Actually [Christian Rock] mostly sucks because the lyrics are so lame." And linked in another comment there, a (partial) explanation of why it is so.

Thank God, not my

2008-10-14T10:42:00.004-05:00

...gynecological horrors. (Those with weak constitutions and men may wish to read about the daily exploits of an adolescent polar bear.)

My mother has a prolapsed uterus. It's been getting worse since my youngest brother was born (4 years before me). For a long time it just sat a little low and pushed on her bladder, making for frequent stops on family trips. In the last couple of years it has fallen even further, occasionally making it difficult for her to urinate. In the last year, it has started to try and fall out. (I warned you it would be unpleasant.) Having one's uterus attempt to exit one's vagina on it's own is bad enough but the non-surgical solution to this is even worse (IMveryHO, I am not a doctor...).

The obvious solution, especially at my mother's age is to have a hysterectomy, but Mom tries to avoid surgery so she decided to try the non-surgical solution. The doctor, initially, made it sound not too bad. "We insert a pessary and it holds everything in place, sometimes they fall out." The pessary is a doughnut shaped device that is folded up to fit up the vagina and through the cervix. It then unfolds and is suppose to keep whats inside from fallin out. Assuming everything works, it is removed a month later to make sure nothing it isn't causeing any problems in there. Assuming that ckecks out, the doctor inserts another one, which has to be removed every TWO MONTHS forever or until one gives up and has a hyterectomy. The really fun thing is that the doctor has no way of knowing exactly where the pessary is when he goes to remove it, so it's a bit of a fishing expedition to find it and it's difficult fold it up again. All in all the best case secenario sounds pretty unpleasant. I can't think why anyone would choose this treatment except to allow for future pregnacies, to which I suggest adoption. (It is possible that the whole thing is not as unpleasant for everyone as it was for Mom, I certainly hope it isn't.)

My mother was not a best case; it fell or was pushed out. I can not imagine how unpleasant that must have been. The nurse said there was the possibilty of trying a larger size, Mom was not interested. Yesterday, when she saw the doctor, he didn't suggest it anyway. Unfortunately, she can't have a 'normal' hysterectomy (vaginal or laparotomy). She's going to have to have major abdominal surgery (I know, kind of redundant) to remove the offending organ and have some reconstructive work done. This means a much longer recovery time both from the physical assult and from the full anathesia (which is liable to screw her up for months).

Yet another reason I'm glad not old.

Football injury

2008-10-14T09:19:00.003-05:00

Ok, all I did was sit in a stadium for 3.5 hours. My nephew badly twisted his ankle in a vicious tailgating game of catch, but I'm fairly sure I didn't actually hurt myself playing bocce ball.*

My oldest brother, his wife, and children came down this weekend to see the ASU Mountaineers take on the Samford Bulldogs. Yosef was denied his stein but got to keep his shotgun. (Damn that thing is loud. I practically jumped out of my skin for each touchdown.) I had to explain to Rob that it may be a dry campus but guns are perfectly fine. Guns are good wholesome family fun in Alabama (and probably in Boone, NC, too). The Mountaineers kicked ass. 35-24 is a respectable score; it was 35-17 for a good bit of the second half. If they hadn't had so many stupid penalties and turnovers they might have kept the 'dogs to a lower score or got down the field a time or 2 more. Additionally, Rob said this was the first time he'd seen the cheerleaders in normal uniforms. Usually they have to wear warm-ups for the games.

A few thoughts on Samford's stadium and tailgating there. They had these cute little signs in the parking lot (across Lake Shore from the main campus) asking the visiting team to respect their tradition of an alcohol free campus. Sure thing, it really took two coolers to carry all that cream soda and water.:) By the way, you might want to treat those ant beds, not all visitors will be as acquainted with fire ants as locals are. (Like my niece) My high school in VA had a bigger stadium. We had a real 1/4 mile track that went all the way around the field too. I think Hillcrest's band was bigger (and the school had fewer than 500 students at the time). We certainly had more color-guard, but then the color-guard, majorettes, and most of the dance line were made up of the extra woodwind players. (That way at least the marching band was balanced.) Thanks for putting the visitors on the sunny side of the stadium, I needed to work on my farmer's tan. And last, but not least, I'd like to suggest not deflating the dog before the end of the game. It looks really pitiful and leads many jokes during the 4th quarter; these would be on top of the inflatable field house comments throughout the game.

After the game we meet back at my brother's house for another nephew's birthday. He turned 21 yesterday. Hopefully, Nathan won't get too blasted tonight (had to work today but is off tomorrow). He's been there and done that; I think he's smart enough to know it's not much fun to barf up all the beer, et. al. Rob and Kate got him great presents - airplane barf bags. Rob hands him one while saying "I know we're a couple of days early but I want you to use this when you go out Monday." The bag was folded up (from where I was sitting it looked a bit like a bank envelope) so Nathan had no idea what it was at first. Nettie had a really good card, too, although I don't think she fully realized why it was so funny. (Is it sad that all of my nieces and nephews drink more than me? Am I old because they can all do it legally now?)

Anyway - Happy Birthday, Nathan. And remember, it's not nearly as much now that it's legal.

*'boccie' can not be the correct spelling, because that would be pronounced, in Italian, baa-chih-ee (baa-chee-eh?). I don't care if dictionary.com says both are acceptable.

Random Comments

2008-10-09T10:49:00.005-05:00

I was on a business trip the first half of the week. The following are a series of comments I wrote down while trying not to completely zone out during the incredibly repetitive talks.
..but politics reign supreme

Arizona DEQ defines an aquifer as a geologic unit capable of producing 5 gal/day water regardless of TDS?!?!?! (If TDS high enough you won't need 5 gallons the next day.)

It can't 'outcrop' at 8000 feet BELOW sea level.

Walla Walla has a huge feed lot/slaughter house and a paper mill but they don't want a power plant because it might make the air worse???? Trust me after those two a power plant smells like a rose.

But I thought ethanol was suppose to save us? (Ethanol plants are large CO₂ sources.)

Who planned this? (in reference to the breaks being after 2 hours of talks and only one hour before lunch and the end of the day respectively)

Why don't people bother to subscript the '2'?

Stuff moves in the high perm direction??!?!?! REALLY?

These are all from the work group meeting Wednesday (I was just there to listen):
We are talking in circles.

Why are we discussing the wording of the hypotheses?

Gas is a fluid, it is displacing a liquid.

Does Sue always talk that much?

Banned Book?

2008-10-01T10:38:00.003-05:00

It's National Banned Book Week.

I believe that school libraries should have age appropriate books. First off, there are books with content that is appropriate for high schoolers that are not appropriate for elementary students. Secondly, they have limited resources and need to spend it on books the students can actually benefit from. I think librarians can figure out what books meet the above criteria, it's why we hire them. I don't believe in censoring the ideas in books.

Out of curiosity, I looked at several lists of challenged books* ('Challenge' is the polite library word for asking for a book to removed from the shelves and the process of getting books removed.) Many I understand why a parent (or whomever) challenged the book - sex, drugs, impolite language,... I don't agree but I understand why someone might object to the book. Some truly baffled me.

One group of books on the lists are 'what the hell is happening to me/your guide to puberty and adolescence' books. These aren't fiction books that a kid might think is interesting because of the back cover and then learn all about Heather's two mommies. How often did you peruse the human development section of your library as a preteen? Probably not often, unless you had questions which these types of books address. And you were probably directed there by someone (parent, teacher, counselor). Oddly enough (or not so) parents (and others) objected more often to informing girls about puberty and their bodies than boys.

"The Light in the Attic" is a book of often silly, sometimes profound, poetry written and illustrated Shel Silverstein. I'm going to have to get my copy out and read it because I can not figure out what could be so offensive to some overly sensitive reader in that book. Any of you guys have a guess?