My evenings have become rather more busy than in the past, and I haven't been able to carve out the time to blog. So I'm trying something different - writing when I wake up rather than when I get back from work. We'll see how this goes.
...ok, I got distracted by catching up on all the recent posts by my favorite bloggers and now I really have to go to work. This morning thing may not work out as well as I hoped... I'll try posing actual content tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
wool shirts
As it starts getting cooler, I am starting to transfer to winter field gear. Among the winter gear I pulled out of the storage bin below the bed is my favorite wool shirt.
This particular wool shirt is an LLBean "river driver" shirt, from that time before their sizing got all wonky. It's two layers, with wool outside and cotton inside, and it's just the right length to not ride up and protect my belly and has perfect cuffs that fit under other clothing.
My river driver shirt dates from the grunge era, so it's getting close to 2 decades old. It has holes in the armpits, where the seams have given up the ghost, and the sleeves are getting ratty, and it has a fairly large collection of moth holes.
In spite of my love for this shirt, I do realize it is long past time to be retired. But I can't find a replacement. Does anybody know of a place that sells two-layer wool shirts that are small enough to use as an under-layer for a smaller-framed female?
This particular wool shirt is an LLBean "river driver" shirt, from that time before their sizing got all wonky. It's two layers, with wool outside and cotton inside, and it's just the right length to not ride up and protect my belly and has perfect cuffs that fit under other clothing.
My river driver shirt dates from the grunge era, so it's getting close to 2 decades old. It has holes in the armpits, where the seams have given up the ghost, and the sleeves are getting ratty, and it has a fairly large collection of moth holes.
In spite of my love for this shirt, I do realize it is long past time to be retired. But I can't find a replacement. Does anybody know of a place that sells two-layer wool shirts that are small enough to use as an under-layer for a smaller-framed female?
Monday, October 11, 2010
gas cap follies
I've driven a staggering number of cars and trucks for fieldwork. Compacts rented from the airport, box trucks with missing side mirrors, university department beaters...
But it took me until a few months ago to realize something basic: all cars have a little arrow on the gas indicator that shows what side of the vehicle the gas cap is on.
So after years of driving to a gas station and looking like an idiot while I try and figure out where the gas cap is, now I can just read the dashboard.
My question is, am I the last person to find out about this? Or is this new to you, too?
But it took me until a few months ago to realize something basic: all cars have a little arrow on the gas indicator that shows what side of the vehicle the gas cap is on.
So after years of driving to a gas station and looking like an idiot while I try and figure out where the gas cap is, now I can just read the dashboard.
My question is, am I the last person to find out about this? Or is this new to you, too?
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
red muck mess
I was watching the news at dinner last night, and I caught something about a red muck disaster. I was at a bar, and I only caught it from one of the far TV screens (on mute). It also intrigued some other folks at the bar.
I looked it up online, and there was hardly any mention of it. Hello?! A photogenic (look at all that bright red muck destroying those towns!) catastrophe involving a caustic material that caused massive environmental damage. Burns on contact! Wiped out four villages! Killed small children!
The NY Times does have something a little more in-depth now, two days later. In a quest for more info, I tried googling "red sludge Hungary" and got almost nothing.
A few commentators have drawn parallels between this and problems we have in the US, such as mine tailings. What do you do with vast quantities of nasty stuff, some of which accumulated over decades? Hide it behind berms and hope for the best? Spend $$$$$ to stabilize it? Whose pockets will that come out of?
We used to have the Superfund tax on the most heavily polluting industries to take care of the really messy orphaned sites. Too bad the funding for it hasn't been authorized in 15 years and the program's out of money. So instead of having the worst-polluting industries pay, now all the taxpayers do. If the cleanups are done all, that is.
I looked it up online, and there was hardly any mention of it. Hello?! A photogenic (look at all that bright red muck destroying those towns!) catastrophe involving a caustic material that caused massive environmental damage. Burns on contact! Wiped out four villages! Killed small children!
The NY Times does have something a little more in-depth now, two days later. In a quest for more info, I tried googling "red sludge Hungary" and got almost nothing.
A few commentators have drawn parallels between this and problems we have in the US, such as mine tailings. What do you do with vast quantities of nasty stuff, some of which accumulated over decades? Hide it behind berms and hope for the best? Spend $$$$$ to stabilize it? Whose pockets will that come out of?
We used to have the Superfund tax on the most heavily polluting industries to take care of the really messy orphaned sites. Too bad the funding for it hasn't been authorized in 15 years and the program's out of money. So instead of having the worst-polluting industries pay, now all the taxpayers do. If the cleanups are done all, that is.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
long break
I think I'm marking about 1 year that my posting has been decidedly irregular. This time, illness, a tough time at work, and getting out of the habit of posting have done me in. It's (somewhat) near the start of a new month, and I'm trying to start up again.
I'm in a motel room now, nursing a minor burn on my knee. I made the mistake of testing the water in the shower, then jumping right in. Within the 10 seconds after I'd checked it, the temperature spiked to scalding - and it wasn't remotely at the maximum temperature. Isn't that a safety issue?
A few months ago, I jumped into a shower and found the opposite - that the lukewarm water in the tap was a remnant of being in the walls or something, and that I actually had no hot water whatsoever.
After a long, cold (and when did that happen), wet day, my first impulse is to peel everything off and hop right into a shower. By now, you'd think I would know to check such thing.
I'm in a motel room now, nursing a minor burn on my knee. I made the mistake of testing the water in the shower, then jumping right in. Within the 10 seconds after I'd checked it, the temperature spiked to scalding - and it wasn't remotely at the maximum temperature. Isn't that a safety issue?
A few months ago, I jumped into a shower and found the opposite - that the lukewarm water in the tap was a remnant of being in the walls or something, and that I actually had no hot water whatsoever.
After a long, cold (and when did that happen), wet day, my first impulse is to peel everything off and hop right into a shower. By now, you'd think I would know to check such thing.
Monday, September 13, 2010
end of summer
On one hand, I'm really, really happy that it's not over 90 degrees every day.
On the other hand, I'm having a hard time getting used to waking up and going to work in the dark.
On the other hand, I'm having a hard time getting used to waking up and going to work in the dark.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
daily schedules
I seem to on a scheduling kick in my recent posts, but I just read Isis' post about working hours for grad students and it reminded me of my own experiences.
My grad advisor was extremely laid-back. I pretty much ran the show for my thesis project, independently checking in once or twice a week when he was around and going without when he was traveling (about 25 percent of the time). Needless to say, he didn't dictate working hours.
Then again, unlike Isis, my research focus was fieldwork, not labwork. And most of my fieldwork was solitary - a single helper if I was lucky. So my advisor didn't really expect me to be around all the time.
When I was not actively doing fieldwork, I tended to have a pretty set schedule. I'm a morning person and my natural schedule is to sleep from 11-7. So I was one of the first grad students to arrive in the morning (around 7:30), and I would screw around online/get distracted by my friends during the day, and work until 5 or so. I would end up working in my office at school about every other weekend, rewarding myself with takeout for lunch from one of the multitude of cheap restaurants within walking distance.
I miss that schedule. I didn't have a sweetie distracting me, and I lived a 15-minute walk (or a 3 minute drive, if I wanted to illegally park) from my office, and it felt like I had all the time in the world. Now, I spend 2 hours driving to/from work (if I'm working from the office) and we have the tremendous time-suck that is cable, and my sweetie likes having actual dinner, and so the time available for myself just keeps shrinking.
My grad advisor was extremely laid-back. I pretty much ran the show for my thesis project, independently checking in once or twice a week when he was around and going without when he was traveling (about 25 percent of the time). Needless to say, he didn't dictate working hours.
Then again, unlike Isis, my research focus was fieldwork, not labwork. And most of my fieldwork was solitary - a single helper if I was lucky. So my advisor didn't really expect me to be around all the time.
When I was not actively doing fieldwork, I tended to have a pretty set schedule. I'm a morning person and my natural schedule is to sleep from 11-7. So I was one of the first grad students to arrive in the morning (around 7:30), and I would screw around online/get distracted by my friends during the day, and work until 5 or so. I would end up working in my office at school about every other weekend, rewarding myself with takeout for lunch from one of the multitude of cheap restaurants within walking distance.
I miss that schedule. I didn't have a sweetie distracting me, and I lived a 15-minute walk (or a 3 minute drive, if I wanted to illegally park) from my office, and it felt like I had all the time in the world. Now, I spend 2 hours driving to/from work (if I'm working from the office) and we have the tremendous time-suck that is cable, and my sweetie likes having actual dinner, and so the time available for myself just keeps shrinking.
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