Birth Day…

So, I am another year wiser today. Funny how the years are starting to progress so much more quickly. It’s all relative to how long I’ve been alive I guess. This year, while difficult in parts, has been one of the most exciting transition filled years of my life. The next will only be moreso. I will complete my dissertation and within the next few months become a Doctor with a capital D. Hopefully, I won’t go around sticking my PhD in my mouth too often. Marshall and I will move to someplace other than Davis. The most likely candidate is San Francisco because that’s where M wants to go, and I made him live in Davis for the past 4 years so I could finish school. It’s his turn to choose. Then comes the job. Where will I work? Who will I be? Will I be able to parlay my radio program into a career? The questions and more are yet to be answered.

There is so much adventure yet to come. I can’t wait for tomorrow.

But, in the meantime, if you were interested in getting me a present, I present the words as sung by Marillyn Monroe in Gentlement Prefer Blondes (ironically my grandfather sent me these lyrics today of all days… what is he saying?):

Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend

The French are glad to die for love
They delight in fighting duels
But I prefer a man who lives
And gives expensive jewels

A kiss on the hand may be quite continental
But diamonds are a girl’s best friend
A kiss may be grand but won’t pay the rental
On your humble flat, or help you at the automat
Men grow cold as girls grow old
And we all lose our charms in the end
But square-cut or pear-shaped
These rocks don’t lose their shape
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend

Tiffany’s! ……..Cartier!…….Black Star, Frost, Gorham
Talk to me Harry Winston,tell me all about it!
There may come a time when a lass needs a lawyer
But diamonds are a girl’s best friend

There may come a time when a hard-boiled employer
Thinks you’re awful nice
But get that ice or else no dice
He’s your guy when stocks are high
But beware when they start to descend
It’s then that those louses go back to their spouses
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend

I’ve heard of affairs that are strictly platonic
But diamonds are a girl’s best friend

And I think affairs that you must keep liaison ic
Are better bets if little pets get big baguettes
Time rolls on and youth is gone
And you can’t straighten up when you bend But stiff back or stiff knees
You stand straight at Tiffany’s

Diamonds!!… Diamonds!!…
– I don’t mean rhinestones –
But Diamonds, Are A Girl’s Best, Best Friend

For a hint as to my preferred type of diamond follow this link.

Water is not self-conscious

Ok, yes, I am a skeptic. But would someone please tell me how this is not just frozen water? Why don’t people go to a chemistry textbook before making websites and going on book-tours? Yes, the water crystals are pretty. No, polluted water doesn’t crystalize the same. I don’t understand why this is so amazing. I am ready for the hate mail. Last skeptic standing is a monkey’s uncle.

From the FAQ:

“The misssion of water is to act as a multidimensional transporter, carrying out our thoughts and whatever is in front of them.”

Into the Wilds

Not much time to post today… or this week for that matter. I’ve got tonnes of grading to complete for the lab course I teach. And, I’ve had to hula hoop. I’ve started taking my hoops to the Wednesday night Farmer’s Market here in town. Such a blast! I show up with only my hoops, and suddenly I’ve got people asking if they can give it a try. The young and old have been tempted. I’ve even gotten the nay-sayers to challenge their personal disbeliefs of hula-hooping potential. Everyone can hoop if they only try.

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STAR WARS!!!

Yes, I was one of the few who thought it necessary to see the first showing of Star Wars at the midnight showing at the local theatre. What can I say?

I stood in line over night to see Episode 1. Now, that was a let down. This time around, we only got to the theatre two hours ahead of launch. We were almost the last in line. Whatever. I got to see the movie with my friends. It was my husband’s birthday yesterday, and is my friend Anne’s today. So, what a birthday bunch we were. I bought an ice cream cake that we couldn’t finish. I was amazed at how much trouble I had giving it away to other people in line. I would have thought that people in line for Star Wars would have been a much more comraderic type of group. Eventually the cake was given to a very appreciative bunch of revelers.

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Making the comments.

In order to make comments on any of my posts you must be Type Key registered. This is to avoid any of the spam that has been attacking bloggers everywhere around the internet. The registration is free, and you’ll be able to use your username and password to comment on any site protected by typekey. www.typekey.com

That is all for now.

Attack of the Killer Super Extreme End of the World

I teach a lab that gets out late some evenings, and last week happened to contain one of those evenings. I made my way home to a large glass of ice cold gin sometime around 11pm, and turned on the TV to decompress a bit before bed. Lo’ and behold the Discover channel was actually broadcasting something resembling science programming… I say resembling because the programs I proceeded to watch were more exaggerational sensationalism than science.

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Share and share alike…

You’d think that science with its ethic of knowledge sharing would be more giving with its reseaources. But, no. Here I sit, a grad student with no funding of my own… that’s not to say that I haven’t tried… I’m trying to finish my dissertation, and get on with my life. All I need is a computer with a micrscope, and a program called Stereoinvestigator, and a couple of months to get the work done. You’d think that in a world class institution like Davis I would be able to find such a system. In fact, I have found many; however, they are all in use or simply not available to the likes of me. Every last one of them.

Anyway, not being able to complete my research is giving me the time to work on things like this blog, my radio show, my TA responsibilities, and other papers that I need to finish. I just know that I need to figure something out soon. This research needs to be completed before the end of the summer. I’ve go places to go!

Interesting science that I read recently in New Scientist magazine discussed the discovery of a separate class of T-cells in the immune system that may work to supress the immune system on a regular basis. It’s thought that when these cells go awry people are more likely to develop severe allergies and/or immune disorders. Additionally, it has been found that people raised near cows (able to come into close contact with them) during their youth are less likely to develop allergies as they age, and if they do the allergies are less severe than people raised in urban areas. Internal parasites are also thought to reduce the appearance of immune hyper-activity. This all seems to indicate that sensitization of the immune system is necessary to maintain the health of the regulator T-cells as people age. So, let your children eat dirt, forget about the anti-bacterial soaps. We need to get dirty to stay healthy.

Arrgh… thar’s the rub…

I finished grading the first five of the twenty lab reports that I’ll receive this quarter today. Five papers on the autonomic control of the cardiovascular system. It took five days. That’s just one paper per day.

You wouldn’t think that five reports would take too much out of a person (especially one who has been grading the same papers for the last two years), but I feel compelled to belabour everything. I want to help them learn to write, to understand the science, to begin learning how to interpret something that is sitting right in front of them. Somehow in this, the last paper of their undergraduate careers, I’ve got to teach them everything that four years of college and high school never knocked into their heads. I want them to reach for something more than to just get by. I care so much that I end up hating all of it. So, the grading goes by… and by… and by. If I just didn’t care, it would be easy. Skim the paper, check for the major concepts, key points, assign a grade. Arrgh… I end up returning them a book of red ink. Probably a book that they will never look at again because they will be moving on to some other phase of life in about a month and a half.

That’s not to say that there aren’t a few gems. I do get the occassional paper that is well-written, organized, researched, and insightful. Those papers are like a breath of fresh air. I’m sure that I overlook mistakes in the good papers just because they are so well put together, and that the others I scrutinize all the more when I start to see an error or two.

I’m sure that it’s just as well. It all comes around in the end. The papers that I turn into my professor come back a jumble of comments. I almost don’t recognize my own ideas or words anymore for all of theirs. And, so, I learn. And pass it on.

Water, water everywhere…

Today I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Thomas Harter, Ph.D, a hydrologist from UC Davis, on my radio program. While he dropped a couple of “bombs” on us regarding the truth about water availability and quality in California, it was what he said after the program that I found really intriguing.

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Science and Society

As Easter passes away yet again, I have to sit back and reflect on the similarities and differences between the way my family versus the rest of the christian world celebrates the holiday. First of all, nearly my entire close family sits on the atheist/agnostic fence. Save for my mom, who sticks to her Christian Science rearing. This mix usually ends up with what we consider to be enlightened conversations about society and the state of the world.

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