Thursday, July 24, 2008
Favre... Bucs
As a fan of football and the bucs, I'd love to see Favre finish out his career with the bucs. I dont really care if it makes the bucs better or not, or even if they happen to win ANY games with him... I just wanna see him play until he doesnt want to play anymore... and it would get the bucs on TV around here, so maybe I'd get to watch and start to care if they win. Imagine a Bucs-Pack NFC championship game in the frozen tundra of Lambeau field. How many times do you think we'd see/hear the media hype about the bucs not being a cold weather team BUT now with Favre...
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
finance
i need some advice: i know it would have been better to remove my funds from MFs and put it elsewhere before the market totally shit the bed, but should i do that now?? Buy some 6 month CDs or something?? feeling rather vaklempt about it.
Discuss...
Discuss...
Sunday, July 13, 2008
aliens
if we discover that there are aliens, will they be invited to compete in the Mr/Miss Universe contests?
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
trip report
all is well, everyone safe... No drama on this trip except for a little lightning on our return hike, which doubled our normal pace. Dont get me wrong, it was fun and physically challenging.... and there was great scenery, but nothing like the Conundrum trip. Not a single obstacle that the doggies needed human assistance.
One of the highlights is Chritre's new camera, which when she was playin around with it friday night while we were waiting for fireworks she said 'I love you, camera'... or more like 'I nub ooooh, camewa' (it was funny, you had to be there)... Its an olympus stylus 1010... i think its 10 Mpixels... this thing takes amazing pics and is pocket size. There are some flowers in bloom along the trail we hiked and she got some really beautiful, artsy photos of the colorado state flower, the Columbine. We also took some photos of scenery that I know with my camera, for example, would have turned out like crap- you can either get a washed out sky with something in the foreground or try harder to get a non-washed out sky and lose the foreground- and still get a washed out sky... this camera did well with the scenery without doing anything fancy. Comparing this camera to mine or others that I have used is like comparing high speed cable internet to dial-up... there is no comparison.
Other important (to Gux) details: I did not settle into the regular bowel movement schedule, the trip wasnt long enough. Coco made up for that by having her ass open up like a faucet from drinking lotsa creek water, lake water, snow, etc. The liquishit express... I think shes better now.
One of the highlights is Chritre's new camera, which when she was playin around with it friday night while we were waiting for fireworks she said 'I love you, camera'... or more like 'I nub ooooh, camewa' (it was funny, you had to be there)... Its an olympus stylus 1010... i think its 10 Mpixels... this thing takes amazing pics and is pocket size. There are some flowers in bloom along the trail we hiked and she got some really beautiful, artsy photos of the colorado state flower, the Columbine. We also took some photos of scenery that I know with my camera, for example, would have turned out like crap- you can either get a washed out sky with something in the foreground or try harder to get a non-washed out sky and lose the foreground- and still get a washed out sky... this camera did well with the scenery without doing anything fancy. Comparing this camera to mine or others that I have used is like comparing high speed cable internet to dial-up... there is no comparison.
Other important (to Gux) details: I did not settle into the regular bowel movement schedule, the trip wasnt long enough. Coco made up for that by having her ass open up like a faucet from drinking lotsa creek water, lake water, snow, etc. The liquishit express... I think shes better now.
Friday, July 4, 2008
adventure FYI
Guxaldine requested having foreknowledge of any back country excursion such as the one a couple of weeks ago:
Saturday Chritre, the girls, and I are goin backpacking nearby in the Indian Peaks Wilderness to Devil's thumb lake (devils thumb trail). It is very unlikely that we will experience any difficulty because there arent the obstacles that were on the previous adventure and there also isnt a pot of gold (hot spring) at the end of the rainbow (trail). There are many opportunities to opt out of continuing if the going gets rough, the trail is only 5.5 miles, and we're starting early. Ranger says that there are snowcrossings at the very top, where the lake is, and that we could lose the trail but with starting early and having other options to camp along the way, we wont be pressed into any difficult decisions. I'll have a trip report monday...
boulder ranger district:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/arnf/about/organization/brd/index.shtml
Saturday Chritre, the girls, and I are goin backpacking nearby in the Indian Peaks Wilderness to Devil's thumb lake (devils thumb trail). It is very unlikely that we will experience any difficulty because there arent the obstacles that were on the previous adventure and there also isnt a pot of gold (hot spring) at the end of the rainbow (trail). There are many opportunities to opt out of continuing if the going gets rough, the trail is only 5.5 miles, and we're starting early. Ranger says that there are snowcrossings at the very top, where the lake is, and that we could lose the trail but with starting early and having other options to camp along the way, we wont be pressed into any difficult decisions. I'll have a trip report monday...
boulder ranger district:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/arnf/about/organization/brd/index.shtml
biofuels
returning to a previous discussion.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080704/ts_afp/climateenvironmentbiofuelsworldbankusbritain
I doubt that the most optimistic 'energy positive' projections would justify continuing the biofuel experiment. Recycling vegetable oils from fryolaters is a different story...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080704/ts_afp/climateenvironmentbiofuelsworldbankusbritain
I doubt that the most optimistic 'energy positive' projections would justify continuing the biofuel experiment. Recycling vegetable oils from fryolaters is a different story...
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
politics
so what exactly is wrong with someone saying that McCain's military service doesnt necessarily qualify him to be president? (said by obama supporter, General Wesley Clark)... is it just the media highlighting every word or does someone out there actually think the the GENERAL was insulting all military veterans? This is fuggin stupid.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Adventure!!!
Chritre, Coco, Izzi and I went for a backpacking adventure the last couple of days. We went to Conundrum Hot springs, near Aspen, CO. The hot springs are at the end of an 8.5 mile hike at 11,200 ft elevation (starting at 8500ft). Its a very popular backpacking destination (in July and August), despite the distance and elevation one needs to do to get there... for good reason, the views are absolutely breathtaking. Knowing that it is such a popular destination, we specifically targeted a weekday early in the season so we wouldnt have crowded hot spring pools to share.
So we were starting on monday, planning on hiking most of the day to get to the springs, soaking, camping, and then returning on tuesday. We got of to a later start than we would have liked, partly because I had forgotten my trekking poles so i went to a shop where i could rent some. While I was doing that, Chritre went to the forest service station to get the low-down on the trail conditions. When we met up she gave me the brief report, and said we'd need snowshoes- which she brought but I didnt... I resisted going back to the shop to rent snowshoes because I figured they were just giving the conservative advice, but i got them... which turned out to be a good call. They also told us that the creek crossings are probably sketchy- makeshift bridges over white water, but we sorta anticipated that from what we had read/seen about this hike.
Starting in the early afternoon on the hike, I felt like we were safe because 8.5 miles walking at 1.5 mi/hr gets us there long before dark... this, I thought, was a conservative estimate- even considering elevation gain and other impediments.
We had some idea that the first creek crossing at about 2.5 miles may be difficult... lots of snowmelt above flowing into the creek. We got there and there was a makeshift bridge over a narrow part- where I crossed, fell off the logs, scratched the hell outta my shins, soaked my shoes, etc... but we needed something better to get the dogs to cross... we found a dam downstream that had a good manmade top to it- flattened and scored logs- a good place to get the dogs to cross, no swimming needed. GOOD GIRLS!! Chritre changed to good hiking sandals- no wet hiking boots and socks.... yet (she's SMRT). Once back up to hiking at regular pace, we noted that we were only averaging about a mile per hour.
Continuing on our journey, it was relatively uneventful till about mile 6, where there is another creek crossing, but conveniently, there is a snowbridge upstream of the makeshift log-job... this is where the snowshoeing began, without them we would have been 'postholing' or sinking in, with every step. Sidenote here- there are lots of chutes or slide areas where avalanches occur and take down acres of pines with them... one such slide area resulted in this snowbridge. These are noteworthy because where the slides collect, the trail becomes completely obscured... and therefore difficult to navigate... subtracting from our already low speed.
Marching on... at mile 6.5 there is another creek crossing that we had some idea was challenging. Our overall pace had not benefited much from uneventful hiking, mainly due to obscured trails between mile 6 and 6.5... and snowshoeing alone implies a slower than average walking pace. (In addition to the heavy packs we had been carrying for 6 hours or so.) The crossing at mile 6.5 required another decsion on how to best get ourselves, our gear, and the dogs across, but the flowrate of the creek wasnt nearly as intimidating as it was at mile 2.5. I again went first, straight across the part that seemed managable- crotch deep, water not too fast. There was a part that almost took me off my feet, but i made it- dropped my pack, went back and carried one dog at a time... GOOD GIRLS!! Chritre again came across without wetting her boots, but she was all adrenaline in that fast part that almost took me off my feet... i watched as the fear of mother nature contorted her face like she was in front of a blind firing squad... 'maybe I'll live, but maybe i wont.'... i was yelling from the sideline like a rabid football fan. She made it and nearly collapsed from the rush she just experienced... Fatigue was setting in but we were running short on time to make it all the way... so we pushed on as soon as she got her shoes on.
We both had wet shorts, I had wet boots, we were snowshoeing, the sun was fading, it was getting stressful. The trail wasnt too hard to navigate for a while, thankfully. We ran into a couple camped at about mile 7, they had been up to the springs- they had a nice little campsite and a campfire, their work for the day was done... boy did we envy them. It was about 7:30 pm, they said 'eh, about another hour'... 'but the trail is hard to follow in spots'. We continued... feeling a sense of urgency to go as fast as possible. We passed by one or two places with dry, flat ground, where we considered setting up camp... but we knew we had to be getting close. The most stressful moment was when we were in the middle of one of those slide areas and we couldnt find the trail... it was getting kinda cold (wet feet+snow), and there was no sign of a piece of flat dry ground on which to camp. We eventually found the trail, it lead into a snowy patch of woods- no place to camp in there either... at this point we were looking for a survival camping site... and we know there are sites closer to the springs... we just had to get there. Finally, monday's hiking ended when we emerged from the woods, it was practically dark, and we found some dry flat ground that seemed like the best place to set up camp in the circumstances. We were both exhausted, Chritre was nearly broken emotionally from fatigue and the pain of blistered heels. We fell asleep pretty quickly after nibbling on energy bars/pop tarts, although the dinner plan was originally tuna mac n cheez. I still had food for the dogs at this point, and some for the next morning.
Tuesday morning we got up and while I was ready to admit defeat, not get to the hot spring, and just hike back to make sure we could make it back sometime tuesday, Chritre was gung-ho, not willing to make it that far and turn back. So we got up, left our campsite set up and finished the hike up to the hot spring. It was great, we had the place to ourselves, miles from anyone, beautiful views, etc... although we were both a little nervous about the return trip. We hiked back to our campsite, ate our tuna mac n cheez, packed up our stuff and started our journey back home.
Knowing what was coming made all of our obstacles a little easier, and now we were having little problem navigating. The return was more or less uneventful at the outset, the difficult crossing at mile 6.5 we did another way which seemed a little easier... Although we were going downhill and knew where we were going, we still werent averaging a pace much better than 1mph... we were a little surprised. Eventually at about 6 or 6:30pm we came to the really challenging creek crossing at mile 2.5. The creek (or more aptly named a raging river) had risen quite a bit in the last 28 hours or so, submerging in white water the makeshift log bridge where i hacked up my shins, and apparently submerging and damaging the dam where i had gotten the dogs to cross previously. After assessing the situation, we concluded that there was no safe way to cross and that we should just set up camp and plan for the river to be lower in the morning, exposing the dam where we could safely cross. (side note, we thought the coolness of the evening would slow the flow... which it surely does, but this could also be seasonally higher water... i was concerned that morning would not bring better conditions, chritre probably was too but neither of us said that out loud). Chritre was supposed to be back to work on wednesday morning, but there was no chance if we were camping, which we were. We set up camp, built a great campfire, tried to dry some clothes... we had a bunch of energy bars, pop tarts, granola bars and apples to keep fueled... the doggies ate apple and granola bars. We had a nice campsite, we could hear the creek raging and the occasional strange 'thunk' noise... a log from the makeshift bridge or elsewhere being tossed like a ragdoll in the creek.
Wednesday morning I got up and assessed the crossing possibilities. It looked worse than the night before... the log bridge was gone, the dam was taking a beating, no f'n way!! i tried making a log bridge, no f'n way!!... this was a very stressful time... what do we do?? there is no-one but us on this side of the creek, we know that for certain after hiking all the way from the springs down to this point without seeing another human... no way to even attempt contact for help... we are on our own. We started crafting our escape. Flashback two days earlier, Chritre said 'you gunna grab some rope for us to hang our food from bears?' I said 'yeah, how much?? 20 ft??' she said 'eh... make it 30'... I cut about 35 feet. (sidenote, this is the rope from tying down furniture in the POD... there was a bunch left that gux tossed in... thanks gux). I also had about 6-8ft of rope that i had used for tying the dogs together when I needed them to stay put. We were going to need every inch.
So the plan we cooked up was to heave gear attached to the rope across the narrow part, where there was formerly a log bridge... I had to jump into the white water to get across, and then we would toss the end of the rope back and forth with dogs and gear attached one at a time. The hardest part for me was to take the leap across, not knowing just how far downstream I would drift before emerging on the other side. I didnt see any white water 'holes' (falls/ vortices that would pull me down- permanently) or I probably wouldnt have had the balls to make the leap... i jumped across, grabbed at the first bits i could and got out... even though the water was probably sub 40deg... i didnt feel it till minutes later. Step one, complete. I was really nervous now about successfully having chritre heave the dogs as far across as possible, while having them attached by the rope+leash+choker chain (thank goodness for the choker chain, a regular collar woulda yanked off)... chritre heaved, I yanked (coco first), and coco emerged after a swift pull by the river... then came izzi... same deal... whew... GOOD GIRLS!! One piece of gear at a time... it was cold and stressful and we still had to get Chritre across... finally it was her turn... she looped the rope securely around her wrists in a way that she could also perform swim strokes.... she took the leap and i yanked her to safety!!! WHEW!!!!! victory was ours!!! We took an hour or two in the sun to shake the cold, make coffee, eat clif bars... etc... then we hiked out. It was hard core!
p.s. Gux will be interested to know that I had regular bowel movements on the trail. I was surprised, cuz usually just bein away from home is enough to throw a monkey wrench into the regularity. I had my morning extrusion each day out! No joke.
So we were starting on monday, planning on hiking most of the day to get to the springs, soaking, camping, and then returning on tuesday. We got of to a later start than we would have liked, partly because I had forgotten my trekking poles so i went to a shop where i could rent some. While I was doing that, Chritre went to the forest service station to get the low-down on the trail conditions. When we met up she gave me the brief report, and said we'd need snowshoes- which she brought but I didnt... I resisted going back to the shop to rent snowshoes because I figured they were just giving the conservative advice, but i got them... which turned out to be a good call. They also told us that the creek crossings are probably sketchy- makeshift bridges over white water, but we sorta anticipated that from what we had read/seen about this hike.
Starting in the early afternoon on the hike, I felt like we were safe because 8.5 miles walking at 1.5 mi/hr gets us there long before dark... this, I thought, was a conservative estimate- even considering elevation gain and other impediments.
We had some idea that the first creek crossing at about 2.5 miles may be difficult... lots of snowmelt above flowing into the creek. We got there and there was a makeshift bridge over a narrow part- where I crossed, fell off the logs, scratched the hell outta my shins, soaked my shoes, etc... but we needed something better to get the dogs to cross... we found a dam downstream that had a good manmade top to it- flattened and scored logs- a good place to get the dogs to cross, no swimming needed. GOOD GIRLS!! Chritre changed to good hiking sandals- no wet hiking boots and socks.... yet (she's SMRT). Once back up to hiking at regular pace, we noted that we were only averaging about a mile per hour.
Continuing on our journey, it was relatively uneventful till about mile 6, where there is another creek crossing, but conveniently, there is a snowbridge upstream of the makeshift log-job... this is where the snowshoeing began, without them we would have been 'postholing' or sinking in, with every step. Sidenote here- there are lots of chutes or slide areas where avalanches occur and take down acres of pines with them... one such slide area resulted in this snowbridge. These are noteworthy because where the slides collect, the trail becomes completely obscured... and therefore difficult to navigate... subtracting from our already low speed.
Marching on... at mile 6.5 there is another creek crossing that we had some idea was challenging. Our overall pace had not benefited much from uneventful hiking, mainly due to obscured trails between mile 6 and 6.5... and snowshoeing alone implies a slower than average walking pace. (In addition to the heavy packs we had been carrying for 6 hours or so.) The crossing at mile 6.5 required another decsion on how to best get ourselves, our gear, and the dogs across, but the flowrate of the creek wasnt nearly as intimidating as it was at mile 2.5. I again went first, straight across the part that seemed managable- crotch deep, water not too fast. There was a part that almost took me off my feet, but i made it- dropped my pack, went back and carried one dog at a time... GOOD GIRLS!! Chritre again came across without wetting her boots, but she was all adrenaline in that fast part that almost took me off my feet... i watched as the fear of mother nature contorted her face like she was in front of a blind firing squad... 'maybe I'll live, but maybe i wont.'... i was yelling from the sideline like a rabid football fan. She made it and nearly collapsed from the rush she just experienced... Fatigue was setting in but we were running short on time to make it all the way... so we pushed on as soon as she got her shoes on.
We both had wet shorts, I had wet boots, we were snowshoeing, the sun was fading, it was getting stressful. The trail wasnt too hard to navigate for a while, thankfully. We ran into a couple camped at about mile 7, they had been up to the springs- they had a nice little campsite and a campfire, their work for the day was done... boy did we envy them. It was about 7:30 pm, they said 'eh, about another hour'... 'but the trail is hard to follow in spots'. We continued... feeling a sense of urgency to go as fast as possible. We passed by one or two places with dry, flat ground, where we considered setting up camp... but we knew we had to be getting close. The most stressful moment was when we were in the middle of one of those slide areas and we couldnt find the trail... it was getting kinda cold (wet feet+snow), and there was no sign of a piece of flat dry ground on which to camp. We eventually found the trail, it lead into a snowy patch of woods- no place to camp in there either... at this point we were looking for a survival camping site... and we know there are sites closer to the springs... we just had to get there. Finally, monday's hiking ended when we emerged from the woods, it was practically dark, and we found some dry flat ground that seemed like the best place to set up camp in the circumstances. We were both exhausted, Chritre was nearly broken emotionally from fatigue and the pain of blistered heels. We fell asleep pretty quickly after nibbling on energy bars/pop tarts, although the dinner plan was originally tuna mac n cheez. I still had food for the dogs at this point, and some for the next morning.
Tuesday morning we got up and while I was ready to admit defeat, not get to the hot spring, and just hike back to make sure we could make it back sometime tuesday, Chritre was gung-ho, not willing to make it that far and turn back. So we got up, left our campsite set up and finished the hike up to the hot spring. It was great, we had the place to ourselves, miles from anyone, beautiful views, etc... although we were both a little nervous about the return trip. We hiked back to our campsite, ate our tuna mac n cheez, packed up our stuff and started our journey back home.
Knowing what was coming made all of our obstacles a little easier, and now we were having little problem navigating. The return was more or less uneventful at the outset, the difficult crossing at mile 6.5 we did another way which seemed a little easier... Although we were going downhill and knew where we were going, we still werent averaging a pace much better than 1mph... we were a little surprised. Eventually at about 6 or 6:30pm we came to the really challenging creek crossing at mile 2.5. The creek (or more aptly named a raging river) had risen quite a bit in the last 28 hours or so, submerging in white water the makeshift log bridge where i hacked up my shins, and apparently submerging and damaging the dam where i had gotten the dogs to cross previously. After assessing the situation, we concluded that there was no safe way to cross and that we should just set up camp and plan for the river to be lower in the morning, exposing the dam where we could safely cross. (side note, we thought the coolness of the evening would slow the flow... which it surely does, but this could also be seasonally higher water... i was concerned that morning would not bring better conditions, chritre probably was too but neither of us said that out loud). Chritre was supposed to be back to work on wednesday morning, but there was no chance if we were camping, which we were. We set up camp, built a great campfire, tried to dry some clothes... we had a bunch of energy bars, pop tarts, granola bars and apples to keep fueled... the doggies ate apple and granola bars. We had a nice campsite, we could hear the creek raging and the occasional strange 'thunk' noise... a log from the makeshift bridge or elsewhere being tossed like a ragdoll in the creek.
Wednesday morning I got up and assessed the crossing possibilities. It looked worse than the night before... the log bridge was gone, the dam was taking a beating, no f'n way!! i tried making a log bridge, no f'n way!!... this was a very stressful time... what do we do?? there is no-one but us on this side of the creek, we know that for certain after hiking all the way from the springs down to this point without seeing another human... no way to even attempt contact for help... we are on our own. We started crafting our escape. Flashback two days earlier, Chritre said 'you gunna grab some rope for us to hang our food from bears?' I said 'yeah, how much?? 20 ft??' she said 'eh... make it 30'... I cut about 35 feet. (sidenote, this is the rope from tying down furniture in the POD... there was a bunch left that gux tossed in... thanks gux). I also had about 6-8ft of rope that i had used for tying the dogs together when I needed them to stay put. We were going to need every inch.
So the plan we cooked up was to heave gear attached to the rope across the narrow part, where there was formerly a log bridge... I had to jump into the white water to get across, and then we would toss the end of the rope back and forth with dogs and gear attached one at a time. The hardest part for me was to take the leap across, not knowing just how far downstream I would drift before emerging on the other side. I didnt see any white water 'holes' (falls/ vortices that would pull me down- permanently) or I probably wouldnt have had the balls to make the leap... i jumped across, grabbed at the first bits i could and got out... even though the water was probably sub 40deg... i didnt feel it till minutes later. Step one, complete. I was really nervous now about successfully having chritre heave the dogs as far across as possible, while having them attached by the rope+leash+choker chain (thank goodness for the choker chain, a regular collar woulda yanked off)... chritre heaved, I yanked (coco first), and coco emerged after a swift pull by the river... then came izzi... same deal... whew... GOOD GIRLS!! One piece of gear at a time... it was cold and stressful and we still had to get Chritre across... finally it was her turn... she looped the rope securely around her wrists in a way that she could also perform swim strokes.... she took the leap and i yanked her to safety!!! WHEW!!!!! victory was ours!!! We took an hour or two in the sun to shake the cold, make coffee, eat clif bars... etc... then we hiked out. It was hard core!
p.s. Gux will be interested to know that I had regular bowel movements on the trail. I was surprised, cuz usually just bein away from home is enough to throw a monkey wrench into the regularity. I had my morning extrusion each day out! No joke.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
work
chinny brah wrote:
I'm sorry that you're work isn't going well. Is it that you aren't finding significant results? --ie the journals won't publish them? Or that your results aren't sensible, even when you've done all the right things? If it's the latter, then you can write about that, right?
What about that paper that you had accepted last year? What's happening with that?
re: results... my boss and I cooked up a plan to analyze data in a fancy way. We had (have) reason to believe that this data has something in it and that with the fancy methods, we would tease out the stuff we're after. It turns out that the fancy method really bought us nothing that we couldnt have got from simpler methods. I have spent about a year working on this and currently have little or nothing to contribute to the existing body of knowledge... but I gotta wrap it up as the second chapter of my dissertation and publish it, cuz thats the we do it in this program. Plus I have to move on to the next thing in my dissertation plan, which will also be time consuming, and hopefully a lot more interesting... and publish that.
Thats the way that my boss and our department like to operate... if youre able to publish the main chapters of your dissertation, with the accompanying peer review, then the committee is unlikely to go against the peers... it takes the load off of them also, in making sure you've dotted all your i's and crossed all yer t's.
re: paper... i just recently got confirmation that they have accepted it for real now. I took a while to do a major revision, and a month or so ago theysaid they accepted it... YAY... thanks fer axin.
I'm sorry that you're work isn't going well. Is it that you aren't finding significant results? --ie the journals won't publish them? Or that your results aren't sensible, even when you've done all the right things? If it's the latter, then you can write about that, right?
What about that paper that you had accepted last year? What's happening with that?
re: results... my boss and I cooked up a plan to analyze data in a fancy way. We had (have) reason to believe that this data has something in it and that with the fancy methods, we would tease out the stuff we're after. It turns out that the fancy method really bought us nothing that we couldnt have got from simpler methods. I have spent about a year working on this and currently have little or nothing to contribute to the existing body of knowledge... but I gotta wrap it up as the second chapter of my dissertation and publish it, cuz thats the we do it in this program. Plus I have to move on to the next thing in my dissertation plan, which will also be time consuming, and hopefully a lot more interesting... and publish that.
Thats the way that my boss and our department like to operate... if youre able to publish the main chapters of your dissertation, with the accompanying peer review, then the committee is unlikely to go against the peers... it takes the load off of them also, in making sure you've dotted all your i's and crossed all yer t's.
re: paper... i just recently got confirmation that they have accepted it for real now. I took a while to do a major revision, and a month or so ago theysaid they accepted it... YAY... thanks fer axin.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
wheres chinny brahs blog
i wanna see it so he can bitch about his shoulder and his bulging disc in the neck... thats scary stuff. How does that happen?? It would be a bummer to me if its 'just one of those things' that happens when ya get older... cuz chinny brah has never strayed far from a high level of fitness... so its not like he got lazy and soft, then shoveling snow one day he fux up his back... the way the avg joe 6 pak gets back probs.
Monday, June 9, 2008
work- not all happy action fun
Work is really hard. Research is really hard for me... I am not very good at it... but when there are interesting outputs I can keep my head above water. I am having difficulty with the stuff I have been doing cuz the results are, in my opinion, nothing to write about... but that doesnt pay the bills in research so I gotta write about it. Its frustrating and discouraging. Its hard to put in hard work on it when every aspect turns up to be mostly uninteresting, unrelated, or unimpressive. I have my share of curmudgeon time, vegetating, while i should be working... sometimes the grumbling curmudgeon strikes a chord, when it comes to work related complaints, and questions about what to do in the future... I dont want any future work to suck as bad as it sucks right now and if it is what I have to look forward to, then I want to take it another direction. I know there are people, such as my boss, that are equally excited to write about something like this as they are about something where the work you do feels successful, cuz even discovering that something does NOT work is worth writing about... hopefully it gets easier by the time i graduate.
grumble grumble
grumble grumble
Sunday, June 8, 2008
happy action fun times
Something I am pretty psyched about: Mountain biking... not that i havent always been psyched about it, but in the last couple of years I had lost some fitness and gained some weight, which made biking all the more difficult...especially having to carry extra weight up all the hills around here.
(paragraph break for those aching eyes)
Well, last fall when I spent a week in my desk chair, staring outside watching the inevitable onset of winter, knowing that the mediocre fitness I had attained over summer would fade, I decided to join the gym so i wouldnt be so sedentary over winter. I also hoped for improving my fitness, so I could ride better this year... but at first my goal was to make sure I made a regular habit of getting some exercise at a time of year when I otherwise would get little. I succeeded in making it a habit, and then i set my sites on trying to lose some weight...
(paragraph break for those aching eyes)
I was talking to chritre about it and she wanted to lose some of her own, so we made a little game of it... attaining a certain amount by a certain date, and if one of us made it and the other didnt, then the loser (i mean the non-winner, or the person who didnt lose the weight) had to buy dinner when we got together. She won the first round (I think I made her dinner- linguine with white wine clamsauce??), ...sent me a photo of her digital scale... I made a paper version of the digital readout saying my goal weight du jour, 194, placed it between my toes and took a photo, as if i was on the scale... i still have the paper, its on my fridge.. i think my actual weight at the time was ~197,198... which was down from where I had hovered for the last couple of years ~205.
(paragraph break for those aching eyes)
Anywho, cheese was still a vital component of the diet at that point, and snacking on peanuts was certainly helping me keep the weight on... so i put tighter constraints on the consumption of those things and it helped accelerate weight loss. I was doing a good variety of weights in the gym and some spin classes, and as biking season grew nearer, I did more spin classes and less weights... the weight was melting off pretty rapidly but i was more or less plateaued in ~188 give or take... with the post spin/sweat session always showing the scale even lower. I was pretty psyched that I had shed some weight before biking season, cuz trying to lose weight while trying to ride hard is practically impossible...
(paragraph break for those aching eyes)
In the last month or two of my offseason conditioning, i did a spin class with an instructor that i hadnt been to before, Tammy... first song she played was the Cult, She Sells Sanctuary... needless to say, she shot right to the top of my favorite instructors list. There were other highlights on her setlist that day, enough to keep me coming back, but what made it even better was that she is an actual cyclist with actual knowledge of the types of drills that actually will make a person a better, faster cyclist... and she's a mtbiker, which is an important distinction that I have a hard time describing... roadie-centric trainers would probably be a lot less interesting. Anywho, with her coaching, I got even more excited about riding my mtbike... and now that I have been on it a bunch, my fitness took a huge leap since my body was more ready for the real deal.. and now my weight is between 180 and 185... just right.
(paragraph break for those aching eyes)
Now when I go to spin (still go to Tammy's class, even if the sun is out), even going full-on as hard as I can, it just doesnt come close to the difficulty of actual rides, or of the difficulty I perceived of the class a couple of months ago... validation! Finally, I also hoped to be able to keep up with my buddies when we go mtb'n... i wasnt able to the last few years... I hadnt had an opportunity to see if I had achieved that goal until yesterday, and I did... YAY!!
(paragraph break for those aching eyes)
Well, last fall when I spent a week in my desk chair, staring outside watching the inevitable onset of winter, knowing that the mediocre fitness I had attained over summer would fade, I decided to join the gym so i wouldnt be so sedentary over winter. I also hoped for improving my fitness, so I could ride better this year... but at first my goal was to make sure I made a regular habit of getting some exercise at a time of year when I otherwise would get little. I succeeded in making it a habit, and then i set my sites on trying to lose some weight...
(paragraph break for those aching eyes)
I was talking to chritre about it and she wanted to lose some of her own, so we made a little game of it... attaining a certain amount by a certain date, and if one of us made it and the other didnt, then the loser (i mean the non-winner, or the person who didnt lose the weight) had to buy dinner when we got together. She won the first round (I think I made her dinner- linguine with white wine clamsauce??), ...sent me a photo of her digital scale... I made a paper version of the digital readout saying my goal weight du jour, 194, placed it between my toes and took a photo, as if i was on the scale... i still have the paper, its on my fridge.. i think my actual weight at the time was ~197,198... which was down from where I had hovered for the last couple of years ~205.
(paragraph break for those aching eyes)
Anywho, cheese was still a vital component of the diet at that point, and snacking on peanuts was certainly helping me keep the weight on... so i put tighter constraints on the consumption of those things and it helped accelerate weight loss. I was doing a good variety of weights in the gym and some spin classes, and as biking season grew nearer, I did more spin classes and less weights... the weight was melting off pretty rapidly but i was more or less plateaued in ~188 give or take... with the post spin/sweat session always showing the scale even lower. I was pretty psyched that I had shed some weight before biking season, cuz trying to lose weight while trying to ride hard is practically impossible...
(paragraph break for those aching eyes)
In the last month or two of my offseason conditioning, i did a spin class with an instructor that i hadnt been to before, Tammy... first song she played was the Cult, She Sells Sanctuary... needless to say, she shot right to the top of my favorite instructors list. There were other highlights on her setlist that day, enough to keep me coming back, but what made it even better was that she is an actual cyclist with actual knowledge of the types of drills that actually will make a person a better, faster cyclist... and she's a mtbiker, which is an important distinction that I have a hard time describing... roadie-centric trainers would probably be a lot less interesting. Anywho, with her coaching, I got even more excited about riding my mtbike... and now that I have been on it a bunch, my fitness took a huge leap since my body was more ready for the real deal.. and now my weight is between 180 and 185... just right.
(paragraph break for those aching eyes)
Now when I go to spin (still go to Tammy's class, even if the sun is out), even going full-on as hard as I can, it just doesnt come close to the difficulty of actual rides, or of the difficulty I perceived of the class a couple of months ago... validation! Finally, I also hoped to be able to keep up with my buddies when we go mtb'n... i wasnt able to the last few years... I hadnt had an opportunity to see if I had achieved that goal until yesterday, and I did... YAY!!
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