Back and bored

I'm in class, rambling is occurring, and I am uninterested. See picture for entertainment.

Tug-a-Lug and Maddy-girl, the continuing saga

This summer I'm house and dog sitting for free rent at a house. I'm living with another intern and we take care of things together. We are living in a nice house that would be even nicer if it had ever been taken care of by its owner. We are taking care of two dogs who since we've started taking care of them have improved in look, smell and behavior. People who knew them before we came didn't recognize them even after only a week in our care. And yet. . . we have had to take Tugs to the vet twice now for a continuing rash because we are not sure how bad it may be for him. He's in good spirits and doesn't really make much note of it, but. . . we worry. So now he's on antibiotics and a topical cream and we're hoping that will contain this bug.

What state regions do you recognize?

While I was speaking with one of my fellow interns we got into a small debate. What states are included in which regions of the U.S.? Many of us will agree to states that are in the middle of particular regions, where do the boundaries lie? This was especially problematic when I started writing a survey asking people where they wanted to meet for a workshop. Which states constitute which regions? Can I say mid-Atlantic and have that mean the same thing to everyone? Which regions are California and Texas in? Finally I decided to break down choices into a map that I colored and numbered. Not that this map represents exact regions in my mind. . .

Last Day of Classes!

Buried Hammy last night after almost a week of having him in my freezer. I know that's creepy but I couldn't arrange for an earlier burial in the ever growing pet cemetery that my friend Lola has. I will miss my little furry friends, and in the middle of the night sometimes I still think I hear them running.
In other news, the semester is rapidly coming to a close, and today will be a marathon of writing. I'm heading to an off-campus coffee shop to work as I can't seem to focus as long as internet is an option. See y'all on the flip side.

The image of fiction

Harsh truth being the realm of just that, reality, why should I search for it in fiction as well? I do not desire to be taught that life is hard and harsh as I gather age to me as a stone gather moss as it rolls farther and faster down the mountain. Truth is the realm of the young, those who wish to learn of life and what it may hold. The young may bear it up and brandish it about as swords. As youth fades this truth that once cut so finely and passionately is not dulled, rather youth is no longer there to heal the cuts that truth made.
It is for that reason that I hide myself away in the realm of fiction, which is merely a beautiful image of reality, without its wounds. I look for the admirable, the lovely, the turn of phrase or the look that I will not see in life. For the irony and the wonder is so rare and precious in the realm of reality that it must be captured and examined in works of fiction so that all or any may encounter it. The news is more reality than one can want, and it is encountered everywhere. It does not seek out the beauty of life however, so no balance can come from it. Rather it seeks out the heart-wrenching, the sad, the despicable and the frightening. In all there is I suppose a stark and terrible beauty, but it is not what I would wish to cuddle up to, to wrap my thoughts and desires around as I console myself at the end of yet another day.
And so I console myself with pretty images and wonderful lies about who I might be and roads that I never followed that have vast and gorgeous treasures at the end of them. I release the part of me that is all day tied down and held back waiting to emerge in thought or word or action. I let the stories bombard me, given exotic locals and interesting people. Looking for in those dreams some meaning or prize that I can keep in my secret treasure trove of an imagination. A turn of phrase or habit or wonderful thought that is mine and mine alone. Some beauty that I can keep for me, to convince myself that it is, in the end, worth all the rest of it.

Bye Bye Happiness

Hammy joined his brother yesterday, Wednesday.

Bye Bye Love

Boomer passed away on Friday. He will be missed.

The Easter Season

Though I didn't post on it at the time, I had a fun time prior to Easter day. I got to attend Passover Sedar with a labmate and Friday with coloring easter eggs. Just wanted to put up some happy day pictures while I'm lost in work. I have no Sedar pics without people, my requirement for this blog. So here are some colored eggs.

Fuzzy Wuzzy

I'm trying to keep up a good pace to get all my work done. Somedays I feel like I'm running in place. The semester is nearing its end and I feel like I have soooo much left to work on. I caught a pic of this ant trying to lift a part of a leaf, though it's small to us, he was having quite the time with it.

Home Sweet Home

I miss Nebraska, some days more than others. Does the video have to show only the rural portions of the state though?

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7266970

Dreamy days

Today is a beautiful day. Like so many are in Tucson. It makes it extremely hard to focus on work. So far, I've managed to play around and avoid work. This is not practically speaking a good thing. I have a test in kinetics on Wednesday. I need to do well on this. There is a month, actually less, left of classes before the end of the semester. I'm running low on time to finish all of the things I need to do. I need a magic spell or charm that will make me focus. That will make me work. No dice so far.

Everyone Dies of Something

I know this is a morbid topic to start out on. The reason I bring it up is that last night I was watching the movie Grand Illusion. It's a French film, one of the first prisoner of war escape films, and in it they discuss the diseases that different classes die from. Gout and cancer are the deaths of the upper class. That was the early 20th century. Now I would bet that it would be diabetes and cancer. One should note though, as medicine has improved and progressed so has the increase in cases of cancer.
Some people argue it is because there is an increase in the types and amounts of carcinogens that people come into contact with. And that probably has some impact on the numbers, but I think what most people forget is that you have to die from something. If it isn't smallpox, the plague, tb or one of many other diseases it will eventually come from somewhere else. And that is where cancer comes in. I'm not saying that people struck down in mid-life from cancer isn't unfortunate and that children having cancer isn't tragic, but life is by its definition is a terminal condition (sci-fi aside).
Eventually given the billions upon trillions of DNA replications that occur in ones lifetime (and I'm not quoting any particular number so I'm still probablyunderestimating) something will go awry. And even given all that the probability that something goes wrong and results in a malignant result is relatively low. However, it only has to happen once in a way that your body (or modern medicine) can't repair for it to be fatal.
There isn't a lesson to be learned from this thought process or any summary statement to put it all into a nice, neat, coherent thought. That's Life.

I <3 Pandas!

In deference to the CADIE blog that google put up today I thought I would post a picture drawn last semester during my thermo class. I was such the bestest student. If you are unaware of the google CADIE blog http://cadiesingularity.blogspot.com/ should be your next click. Happy April Fool's day. I too <3 Pandas!

Rolling Rolling Rolling

Saw this little buddy outside the library a few days ago on one of my walks. Back to grading and working in general. We'll see if a break comes next week sometime.

There are days when you just want to be an Art-Deco Statue

Isn't he handsome? He's a statue in the fountain in front of a train station in St. Louis, the fountain statue group is supposed to represent the meeting of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. I might be using him in my proposal for new protective coatings for bronze statues for a class. But his facial expression agrees with mine. Three sets of lab reports and one set of homeworks to grade for tomorrow, oh my!

And We're Back

Marathon grading and trying to get other things done too. Finished grading midterms and am on to the lab reports. Piles and piles. Shown here is a pic from spring break in St. Louis though. Why are breaks never really restful?

TGIF

I'm ready for the beginning of Spring Break!!!!

Enter Boomer

I'd like to introduce you to Boomer. He is the hamster that has managed to get out of each and every cage I've bought for him. The last time he got out I found him in my room next to my bed. That has encouraged SmokeyJo in the belief that I will be shanked in the middle of the night by Boomer. I am his jailer after all. I still haven't figured out how he got out the last time, for the record. He's biding his time right now. . .

Prepping Poster

In an effort to put our names out there and to get the science students to realize that no, they really don't have a monopoly on scientific analysis/techniques, SmokyJo and I are putting together a poster for our conservation science program. The theme behind it are the imaging techniques that we use to analyze historically and culturally important objects or works. Somedays the semantics kill me. Oh, and to explain why the first sentence is dripping with annoyance, the science salon is having a talk on Thursday about declaring war on the "softer" sciences in the humanities and teaching us all how to do "real" science. We are going to be in attendence, heckling.

Waiting

Need to work on my paper for class, but am waiting for students to show up for review session. Hour two and no one's shown. Watched some tv, taking the time as a break.

Tick-Tock

I need to turn in an application by 5. I'm running out of time. BAH!

Overcast(burdened)

I'm trying to focus on classes, teach effectively and prepare for this summer by applying for opportunites. It's amazing how much time that all takes. And people wonder why I take so many pictures of flowers, I need to remember to "smell the roses" on occasion.

Busy is as Busy does

I have little to no time to do anything that I really need to do, or anything that I had planned to do, my week is disappearing quickly. I want to go back to when days felts like years and minutes like hours! In honor of that I thought I'd post this picture taken while I was shopping for a present for a friend's baby shower.

Lent: Day Two

I'm trying to walk to school everyday. It's nice because it's a good time for reflection and it really does make a difference in my perspective. I feel happier. On the other hand, I'm also sleepier. Correlation?

Also I get the opportunity to snap photos as I walk along. This one isn't actually from a walk, this is from outside my last apartment. I haven't downloaded any new pics onto the computer yet. Most of them are close ups of flowers and cacti and such. So you'll know when I've uploaded the next batch.

Today I spent a bit of time in the SEM lab...
Here is the result, an awesome picture (if I do say so myself) of a tea leaf. what you see is the outline of where the plant cells used to be as the wax they excreted was left behind.Pretty pictures are awesome!

Hangovers

It's not an alcohol induced hangover, at least I believe not. But the weekend always leaves me with little things left undone. Thoughts at the back of my head, just waiting for some attention to be paid to them. And so my head is overfull and its only Monday. I'll post some pics from my SEM work (Scanning Electron Microscopy) later when I have something awesome or at least interesting to show off.

Tucson

I can feel the warmth of the sun here,
it's late winter, but there is no snow,
it's a piece with everything here.
There is no reality, not as I've come to understand it
Living my life revolving around campus,
I've found the fount of youth,
for here, only I get older.

It's not something you notice,
not everyday anyway,
but sometimes I look in a mirror
and see myself
and wonder, what am I doing here?

I go to the market between classes,
run home on a quick errand,
and I feel so frivolous, as if there is something indefinably wrong with being home
when everyone else my age is trapped behind a desk
waiting for five or six o'clock to come.
I have no time limits on my work-day,
which means its as flexible as it is demanding.
I am my work, there is no difference between me and it anymore.
How very boring.

Tick-tock

Waiting for students makes up more of my time than I would like. While interacting with them I feel as though I'm accomplishing something, but when I'm holding office hours and no one shows up, it's a wasted hour.
I know that I could do something, focus on other work, study for classes that I'm falling behind in, but honestly that feels like I'm not really doing what I get paid for. So instead I surf the web, play freecell or minesweeper and generally doink around.
Today's websearch: corrosion in artwork. So okay, this really is for a class, but its not obvious for most people. I've found a few sites that may be helpful, but honestly I think the automotive industry has this area covered. I really wish that I had a question that I could poise in the area of materials science and engineering, but since coming into the area almost a year ago I have yet to find a really great question that I can write a thesis on. I'm supposed to be going through "the process" of solving problems. Problem is "how does one solve a problem without aforementioned problem?" (Maybe I'll talk about synonym usage in the next post.)