Welcome Back, Brain

I don't know what happened today, but my brain seems to have snapped out of its fog.  For the last week, I've been super tired for no reason and pessimistic about work.

But today! I was finally back in the high-gear, doing multiple things at once, state of work that I'm  more accustomed to. Even though I only had a half day today, I'm looking forward to a full day of productive work tomorrow.

:-D

Weather Drinking Game - Summer Edition

So, I was doing my usual news reading (on Fark of course) when I came across this article from Texas: Let's Get Fahreinhammered!

Here are the basic rules laid out in the article:

1. Whenever someone complains about it being hot - Drink
2. Whenever someone mentions digits - Drink
3. If they mention the head index -  Extra Drink
4. Someone sends you an image of the 7-day forecast of heat - Chug
5. If you can trick another playing into bitching/looking at the weather - Double Drink (e.g. from the article "(You to your friend) "Hey, check out this hot pic on my phone!" (Show them the 7-day forecast instead of boobs.)")

Now, clearly these rules are only for summer.  We'll have to make up new (and probably similar rules) for winter.  But I would also like to propose some similar rules for this summer edition

1. If someone says "It's a dry heat" or complains about the humidity - Extra Drink
2. If someone compares the current heat to the heat of their hometown - Drink
3. If someone reminds you all how during winter, you all longed for this heat - Drink
4. If someone sweating their balls off still denies climate change - Chug

And some specific NYC rules ('cause I live here)

1.  Mentions the "urban heat island" effect - Drink
2. Complains about the lack of circulation in their apt - Drink
3. Thinks the subway stations will be better than the surface - Chug

Any other rule suggestions? Put 'em in the comments!!! And stay tuned for the winter edition, come January (remember how during that blizzard, we fantasized about the heat?)

Requisite Bitching About Work

I hate washing diatoms!  It's the thing I like doing least in the world.  It's so tedious and boring and mind-numbing and just awful.

Centrifuge, Suctions, Vortex, Re-fill, Repeat

10 Times!

This sucks.  When do I get an underling to do this for me???

Too Hot on the Homefront

Here's some bad news for my home town in the near future

Coachella Valley Temps Could Rise 5 Degrees by 2041

http://cmsimg.gdn.mydesert.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=J1&Date=20120622&Category=NEWS07&ArtNo=206220311&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0&Study-Coachella-Valley-temps-could-rise-5-degrees-by-2041-change-landscape

First, I have to say I don't remember ANY smog blocking our view of the mountains like that when I was a kid.  The only memory that comes even close to the Santa Rosas and San Jacinto ever looking like the above picture was the day after the 1992 Landers' earthquake; it shook up so much dust and sand, you literally couldn't see the mountains. But if it really is going to get as hot as they say, I am sad for the ecological changes that will take place.  I have walked through much of the desert and mountains, and I can't imagine growing up there without it.

This ties in nicely with Silent Spring.  I just read her anecdote about how spraying for sagebrush in the American West completely altered all of the flora and fauna. Reading about how the ranchers wanted the sagebrush gone for grazing land painfully reminded me of a similarly selfish though I had when I was a child.

As a small girl (around 6), my daily ride to school would take me through the manicured and sculpted neighborhoods of the developed areas and out onto the highway that wound through the still-untouched desert.  Nothing but creosote and verbena and dunes in every direction for a good 20 minutes.  As a 6 year old with a short attention span, I would look at the vast desert and quickly become bored with it.  I clearly remembering complaining to my mom one day, "when are they going to build something here so it isn't so ugly?" 

For some reason, that selfish sentiment of a 6 year old me has stuck with me ever since.  It wasn't long after that, that my teachers actually began teaching us science (which is amazing considering I went to an evangelical private school). When my 4th grade teacher began our ecology unit, my perspective of the desert changed almost overnight from seeing it as a wasteland to appreciating the astounding diversity the desert can harbor.

Not long after that came the boom of the early 1990's, and with it the development.  I have walked around with a guilty conscience about it for all this time, that my young wish was what brought all the development to the desert. I never felt guilty about my parents' divorce, but I felt responsible for destroying the desert.

Developers bought up the untouched desert. Hell, I used to take a short-cut to high school through several acres of desert, until it became a housing complex.  When you look at building statistics, the Coachella Valley is usually near the top of the list.  Population has skyrocketed, and with it came all those cars that made the smog in the picture above.

And this, in short, is one of the reasons I don't like visiting home. It's too sad.

What have I done?

So, I had my first committee meeting today.  It was supposed to be an easy, informal, "get to know me" sort of meeting.  One of the first topics of conversation was explaining to some of the committee members why I'd asked them.

But the presentation went well, mostly.  Everyone was satisfied with the amount of work that I'd done, that I have publishable results already, and everyone will be dissecting the grants I've written to help me get some more funding. I had a small issue with some terminology, but it's just a small something to fix.

However, my PI was so confident in my presentation and progress to date, that he wants to schedule my oral/proposal defense! For December! He assures me that it's best to get it out of the way sooner rather than later, since the more of my project is complete, the more ammunition my committee will have.  But the thought of having to prep for that while doing field/lab work, and while preparing another EPA STAR and DIGG (though I guess both of those will be good prep for the defense) is a bit daunting.

Anyhoo, after my meeting I sort of bailed on lab.  I've been slacking for the last week.  And yes, I consider going to the same sbux for a full 9 hours for 3 days to work on the presentation "slacking".  Plus, it's been sort of a week of anniversary celebration.  Eight years isn't a lot, but considering most of our friends haven't made it to 5 yet, we're the Old Guard by comparison.  We enjoy our longevity.

Starting Monday, break's over!  8 hour days in the lab, and evening at my sbux writing.  PI wants me to get out a publication by the end of the summer.

Sigh...

First Committee Meeting!

At the end of 3 years in my program, I'm going to have my first committee meeting. Since this is the first one, and everyone on my committee is pretty laid back, I'm not too worried about it.  This is a basic get-to-know-me meeting.  Not that my members don't know me, but they may not be so intimately acquainted with my work. All I'm preparing is a summary of my project, a timeline of events, a list of funding applications applied for, and a presentation.

So, to make preparing for this more pleasant, I am treating myself to a working in the city day.  A friend says she found a great coffee shop by NYU with wifi and outlets, so we'll see how that goes.  My university shuts down all satellite coffee shops for the summer, so my usual working spots are gone.

There is of course lots more going on, but my brain can't process right now.  Lots of work, lots of running, lots of NYS Bar prep. The usual :-)

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Updated: Shortly after writing that post, I felt pretty sick and headachy and went back to sleep. So, instead of hauling my butt to an unknown coffee house in the city where I wasn't sure what the situation was (and also had planned on getting an eye exam while I was down), I instead headed upstate to a suitable Starbucks near a Trader Joe's.  We are pathetically low on groceries. Oh well, city tomorrow.

Summer Classics Series

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written a post!  I keep having ideas for posts, but then I get busy, and I forget, and then I've got nothing to write about. But...Onward!!

Today's post is about literature! Often during the summer, I feel compelled to make myself find the time to get some "pleasure reading" done. I usually try to make myself read classic literature, to try to make up for all the liberal arts classes I dodged as an undergrad.  Previously, I've thrown myself into Austen, Bronte Sisters, Sir Doyle, and Lovecraft. But this summer, I finally feel as though I'm culturally well-rounded enough that I can stop playing catch-up.  This summer I'm going to start reading science classics!

My first foray into this will be Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Rachel Carson has long impressed herself upon me as an influential woman, scientist, and especially a aquatic ecologist. Her novel Silent Spring really started the modern environmental movement, and if I'm going to consider myself a well rounded biologist and scientist, then it's books like this that I need to read.

I just started today, I've only gotten through the first two chapters.  Even though this book was written in 1962, I find Carson to be a very lyrical writer, with cadences I would associate with older works (1870-1910s). It gives a very musical tone to what is a very serious topic. 

Hopefully I'll work up the courage to tackle Darwin himself one of these days.  Does anyone else have any Science classics they'd like to recommend? I'm thinking something by Sagan next.

Image from gogreennation.org