I just discovered that my RSS feeds I have set up in Outlook have not been updating. The weird thing is, if I visit a blog and then go back to Outlook, then it updates. I use Firefox. Why would there be some weird cross-talk between it and Outlook? Anyhoo. I'll catch up on all y'alls blogs eventually.
In the meantime I still have some grant writing to do. I read about 12 scientific publications today. My brain is dead, but I want to do through the edits my PI gave me before bed so I can just write tomorrow. I thought I would finish all my revisions today, but alas.
Seriously though, I do not know how people can just work on a grant 16 hours a day. What about laundry? Meals? Dishes? Maybe if I had a dishwasher it would be easier, but I read for about 9 hours today. That's tiring.
Hope you enjoyed this meaningless post. It was faster than baking, which I felt like doing but know that it takes too much time and there is this grant hanging over my head....
31 July 2010
25 July 2010
Stormy
While I let my brain reset and jump into the next section of my grant, I thought I would share these. I heard two tornado warning alarms last week, a first for me. The northeast seemed to have an increase in tornadoes over the past several years, but I am not entirely used to living where they have enough tornadoes to necessitate a siren. Hey, the back end of tornado-producing storm systems is pretty amazing though.
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| Across a field |
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| This one would have been a little nicer if I had actually stopped my car to take it... |
24 July 2010
Tri-color
I really try not to spend unnecessary money. I bought a wallet at Banana Republic maybe 6 or 7 years ago, and it just won't wear out though?! I went to a coffee shop to work on a grant today and stopped by a couple of shops on the way back to my car. One had these really cute wallets, but $23 seemed unnecessary because I did not need one. Plus, I thought, if they had a brown one I would consider that.What do I see around the corner?? This. And it was "damaged" so 50% off. There were some scratches under the flower snap, so I colored them with a brown sharpie.
Do you think I like a certain color combination? There is an awful lot of brown, maroon, and light green around...
Do you think I like a certain color combination? There is an awful lot of brown, maroon, and light green around...
20 July 2010
Forever...or not
I love when Pandora reminds me about I song I love...or two.
Don't listen to this one out loud at the office - there are some profanities.
Don't listen to this one out loud at the office - there are some profanities.
13 July 2010
Brilliant!
I had two brilliant thoughts today (if I do say so myself). Well, maybe I had more, but these two are shareable (if I do say so myself). I am working on a grant, so I apologize for the format in advanced.
Background One: In case you missed it, another huge piece of glacier in Greenland is gone. One of the things I think I understand is that salt water can be colder. When you have increased temperatures, even if they are seasonal, and you get these huge pieces of fresh water glacial ice breaking into the salty ocean. They will melt, decrease the salt concentration, and the water temperature does not get so cold because it is less salty. Warmer water will just make the problem worse - you'll get more melting glaciers and the water will be less salty and warm up and more melting glaciers and...
Desalination is a way of taking the salt out of water so that you can drink it. This is done on a lot of small islands I think, but now they even do it in the UK! One might argue that the UK is a fairly large island that gets a fair amount of rain.
What do they do with all that salt they take out of the water?
Brilliant Idea One: I think they should put it in the water in Greenland! Now, this is sorta tongue-in-cheek, but seriously. What do they do with the salt?
Background Two: I like to read novels the old fashioned way on paper. Part of this is that I have not accumulated a ton of books because I have cut down on my books as I have moved so many times over the past ten years. There are some that are still at my parents, like Island of the Blue Dolphins and Julie of the Wolves, and some here by some favorite authors like Diana Gabaldon, Isabelle Allende (if you've read her new one, let me know if it was good!), Jane Austen and Bill Bryson. I do not anticipate myself switching to the e-book format soon. However, since I started my post-doc I avoid printing papers out. I read them, take notes in a notebook, and put all of it in my reference manager. This has the benefit of not killing so many trees and having my references all on my computer when I want them. It has the drawback of not being able to grab a folder to write about a specific topic and not seeing my notes with the text. My rotating grad student just got a tablet PC and is really using it well to transition into an electronic notebook and handwriting things to be save electronically.
Brilliant Idea Two: What I would totally invest in is an e-journal reader. Not a kindle or something like that, but something that is geared towards pdf reading, annotating, and reference management. I think a lot of scientists would. How great if you had your whole file cabinet in a handy tablet to take on planes, to meetings, to read on the beach (just kidding about that last one at this stage in my career).
And there you have it. Two brilliant ideas that are now out in the public domain and no longer patentable, unlike what some yogis think is an appropriate thing to do for a practice that is thousands of years old.
Background One: In case you missed it, another huge piece of glacier in Greenland is gone. One of the things I think I understand is that salt water can be colder. When you have increased temperatures, even if they are seasonal, and you get these huge pieces of fresh water glacial ice breaking into the salty ocean. They will melt, decrease the salt concentration, and the water temperature does not get so cold because it is less salty. Warmer water will just make the problem worse - you'll get more melting glaciers and the water will be less salty and warm up and more melting glaciers and...
Desalination is a way of taking the salt out of water so that you can drink it. This is done on a lot of small islands I think, but now they even do it in the UK! One might argue that the UK is a fairly large island that gets a fair amount of rain.
What do they do with all that salt they take out of the water?
Brilliant Idea One: I think they should put it in the water in Greenland! Now, this is sorta tongue-in-cheek, but seriously. What do they do with the salt?
Background Two: I like to read novels the old fashioned way on paper. Part of this is that I have not accumulated a ton of books because I have cut down on my books as I have moved so many times over the past ten years. There are some that are still at my parents, like Island of the Blue Dolphins and Julie of the Wolves, and some here by some favorite authors like Diana Gabaldon, Isabelle Allende (if you've read her new one, let me know if it was good!), Jane Austen and Bill Bryson. I do not anticipate myself switching to the e-book format soon. However, since I started my post-doc I avoid printing papers out. I read them, take notes in a notebook, and put all of it in my reference manager. This has the benefit of not killing so many trees and having my references all on my computer when I want them. It has the drawback of not being able to grab a folder to write about a specific topic and not seeing my notes with the text. My rotating grad student just got a tablet PC and is really using it well to transition into an electronic notebook and handwriting things to be save electronically.
Brilliant Idea Two: What I would totally invest in is an e-journal reader. Not a kindle or something like that, but something that is geared towards pdf reading, annotating, and reference management. I think a lot of scientists would. How great if you had your whole file cabinet in a handy tablet to take on planes, to meetings, to read on the beach (just kidding about that last one at this stage in my career).
And there you have it. Two brilliant ideas that are now out in the public domain and no longer patentable, unlike what some yogis think is an appropriate thing to do for a practice that is thousands of years old.
11 July 2010
So difficult
I really dislike booking plane tickets. I am always scared I will book for the wrong day. I particularly got that flippy feeling in my stomach when CF and I booked our Germany flights.
Well, I finally booked my flights for a weekend in August. I would say that the tickets were expensive because I waited so long to book them, but really they are only about $40 more than when I looked a couple of months ago. I figured I would use the 50 Euro certificate I got when CF and I missed our connection in Amsterdam to reduce the cost. Simple.
But nooooooo...Neither KLM or Delta let you use it online. And when I called the automated message actually hung up on me. No putting me on hold. Just, sorry, we're busy, call back. I don't think I have ever had that happen before.
Whatever, I will just use that for another trip in September.
I then figured I would sign up for the miles credit card because I keep meaning to cancel my second credit card (I never use it and do not get anything if I do use it...that's another story), get the $100 on this ticket, and 25,000 miles for my first purchase with it. After the first year there is a $95 annual fee though (which they tell you after you fill out all the info and just before you hit submit), and I do not trust myself to remember to cancel it. So forget that.
I did manage to book the ticket finally. I frequently find now that the airlines themselves have the same price as all those other discount sites unless the discount site is running a particular deal, but not after I checked ever site I could think of just to be sure. I feel a little more comfortable knowing my reservations do not have to keep switching electronic hands when I book through the airline too, so that is good.While I had to make these reservations sooner than later, I did manage to spend two hours of writing time doing so. I need to stop being so obsessive about checking all the sites only to book with the airline everytime.
Anyone have a suggestion when an airline's reservation phone number isn't busy so I can call back and not have the automated dude hang up on me?
Well, I finally booked my flights for a weekend in August. I would say that the tickets were expensive because I waited so long to book them, but really they are only about $40 more than when I looked a couple of months ago. I figured I would use the 50 Euro certificate I got when CF and I missed our connection in Amsterdam to reduce the cost. Simple.
But nooooooo...Neither KLM or Delta let you use it online. And when I called the automated message actually hung up on me. No putting me on hold. Just, sorry, we're busy, call back. I don't think I have ever had that happen before.
Whatever, I will just use that for another trip in September.
I then figured I would sign up for the miles credit card because I keep meaning to cancel my second credit card (I never use it and do not get anything if I do use it...that's another story), get the $100 on this ticket, and 25,000 miles for my first purchase with it. After the first year there is a $95 annual fee though (which they tell you after you fill out all the info and just before you hit submit), and I do not trust myself to remember to cancel it. So forget that.
I did manage to book the ticket finally. I frequently find now that the airlines themselves have the same price as all those other discount sites unless the discount site is running a particular deal, but not after I checked ever site I could think of just to be sure. I feel a little more comfortable knowing my reservations do not have to keep switching electronic hands when I book through the airline too, so that is good.While I had to make these reservations sooner than later, I did manage to spend two hours of writing time doing so. I need to stop being so obsessive about checking all the sites only to book with the airline everytime.
Anyone have a suggestion when an airline's reservation phone number isn't busy so I can call back and not have the automated dude hang up on me?
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