Update

I'm posting to let people know that my general area of Nashville was unaffected by the storms, but there's a major effort in helping the nearby communities that were devastated. Things are pretty major when a campus-wide e-mail is sent out looking for volunteers for relief and when the storms become common locker room talk.

Storms and other natural drama haven't kept me from posting this week--sheer laziness has. There are several things to report. I'll (hopefully) be posting about these in the next week:

• Found
• Ladybug comes to Nashville
• Henna
• Baklava & King Cake
• Wine -- Margaux...mmm!

In the meantime, I'll thank everyone for kind thoughts and calls on the night of the storms. Keep those who were affected in your thoughts.

Friday Flashback

Because I miss nomadshan's Friday Flashbacks and Mom just sent me this picture, I decided to do one of 'em myself.

When: It has to be 1981 or 1982.

Who (l-r): Amanda, Jessica (I think), Michael, Audra, me

Where: The old Otis Park pool.

Demonstrating either my love for the water or my short attention span: Probably more the latter. I couldn't be bothered to wave at the camera as we were (obviously) being instructed to do. Amanda, fortunately, has the same problem. As I remember it, we spent most summer days at the Otis Park pool, thus my fantastic tan. This is where I failed my first swimming lessons. Ahh...the irony.

Help Kids With Math!

We did this last year, but it's a good thing to do. My favorite middle-school math teacher has called on her friends to help a fellow teacher get responses to a survey that will teach the kiddos about percentages and other math-y things. Go help!!

Take the survey!

For fun, put "pomegranates" as your favorite fruit. Heh heh heh...

Today's List

A short list appropriate for the non-sequitur-ishness:

1. It's exactly the wrong temperature for rain. Any colder and it would be snowing, any warmer and it would nice to have rain. As it is, it's exactly miserable and my walk home was much, much longer than usual.
2. Swimming for an hour straight is boring and makes me hurt the next day. But it's fun to say I did it!
3. It's much easier to edit other people's work than your own.
4. Polyester cording + Earbuds = Little shocks in the ear. Ouch!!!
5. Don't trust any technology websites that don't list patents on their product.
6. Haikus make fantastic technical abstracts.

Not as New, but Really Funny Anyway

This is probably not as new as advertised, but I hadn't seen it when Alex sent it along. She says, " It hurted me cause it was too funny."

Brief synopsis (à la Balderdash): Richard Simmons visits the U.S. set of Whose Line is it Anyway for a quick "Human Props" skit. Hilarity and hyperventilation ensue.

Enjoy!

Memory

I just had a really strong memory while looking at this photo on Lifehacker. It's not related to the gadget, but more to the form-factor of the gadget. It's been a long time, so Mom, if you're reading, help me out. Before Jenn was old enough to talk incessantly, before I went to school (or perhaps when I was in kindergarten), but after AAA started school, I would eat breakfast at a little, white, plastic, fold-down table installed in some cubby in the kitchen before it was remodeled. I think I sat on one of the little brown plastic chairs that we would stand on to reach the counters. I can't visualize where in the kitchen the little table was, but it was small, it had a bit of a texture similar to the texture of the chair, and it seems that I may have been the only one that used it. The strongest memory is sitting at that little table, eating little sausage sandwiches that the Schwann man sold, waiting to go to school. The sandwiches came perched on little white cardboard trays, wrapped in cellophane and went in the microwave until they thawed. You had to poke holes in the plastic. The bread came out pleasantly chewy, but the sausage was also chewy.

This memory, in no way, makes me want to eat prepared food.

Zoo Run Run

Today's mindless adventure lead me to run a 5k race with little or no running training in the last month. Brilliant! The last time I ran was over two weeks ago when I struggled through a two mile treadmill workout. I had signed up for this race before Christmas thinking that I would be able to get some building miles going before the race. Alas, the life of a grad student struck again and there was no building of the miles.

I expected nothing from the race and I hoped to finish either 1.) in less than 9 minute miles or 2.) without walking, depending on how I felt. I nearly didn't use the chip timing because the possibility of resorting to struggling with (2) was in the back of my head. However, I felt good before the race, even though it was sub-freezing, so I kept the timing chip. I was glad I did because I exceeded (1) by 30 seconds, finishing the race at 26:16, an 8:29 pace. It's not a PR, but I'm pleased with the day.

Things I learned:

• I started too far back in the pack. I was blocked by people clogging the runway, which slowed down my first mile. This may also have been a blessing, as I really wanted to be running faster, but may have run out of steam had I been able to run my own pace.
• Picking out people to catch up with seems to be a good motivator for me and I should continue to do this in the future.
• Having a strong sprint at the end means that you could have run faster overall.

Cool Stuff:

• Got to run through the Nashville Zoo, which appears to be a cool place
• Free beer at the end of the race
• I managed to feel a little competitive during the race--seeking out people to pass. This hasn't happened with running for....well....ever.
• My results were better than expected. I'm not exactly seeking to place yet, but there's hope!
• A long-sleeve technical t-shirt replaced the standard cotton tee as the event shirt. Whee!

Observations:

• People were comparing lists of animals they saw on the run. C'mon, it's a race! I, personally, saw no animals.
• Watching people try to grab as much free stuff as they could at the end of the race is a hoot. Power Water was very, very popular.
• My motivation at the end of the race was that I didn't like a girl's outfit in front of me (not flattering).

Resurrection

My views of how to fix electronics has changed. I noted a few posts ago that my microwave died. I was going to do something about it, but more than two weeks later, it is still sitting on my kitchen cabinet, plugged in. This may not be a completely bad thing. When I got back from my trip this week, I discovered that the clock and lights were working again. Magic? I dunno. It seems to be working just fine now. I have no earthly idea what happened.

It was definitely not working and now it does. Odd.

The microwave was picked because it was pretty and all microwaves are the same. After the untimely death, I went and read some reviews of this particular model and found that lots of people were having them die young, but conveniently out of warranty. My research also showed that it's often some capacitor that goes bad. Did the cap have a chance to cycle and refresh itself when I left it sitting? Dunno.

What I have learned: If something's broken, leave it there. It may fix itself. This replaces my old practice of dropping the broken device from an unspecified height. If it works after, great, if not, it definitely won't later.

I wonder how long this resurrection will last.

Word Switch of the Day

While repeatedly reading teleoperation as teleportation in a technical paper is entertaining, it really detracts from the primary focus of the article.

Just so you know.

Wounded-Bird-Truck

I may have previously posted about the Vanderbilt policy (mandate?) that they not physically harm the critters that run or fly around campus. This has lead to stories about squirrels being shipped off by the hundred to lands where students don't hand-feed them on the lawn to flourish or die (we can guess the outcome) or birds of prey being brought on to campus to keep the squirrel population down. The addition of birds of prey doesn't directly kill the squirrels, right?

Anyway, there's a bird problem. Not a bird-of-prey problem, but a bird problem. I documented, but never posted about this late last semester when I was a little more than crazy and posting about multitudes of birds would have just fanned the fire, if you will. So, I feel that, after the events of today, I can safely post the picture I took in the Nov./Dec. time frame. The dots, yeah, they're birds. A whole lot of birds.

From what I learned today, the birds in question are known for spreading all sorts of nasty diseases. The campus beautification team spends a significant amount of time keeping the little buggers a safe distance from the Vandy bubble. Unfortunately for those of us that have hearing left, that means that they blast the sounds of a wounded bird from a truck that drives around campus and setting off fireworks near the trees in which the birds light.

While I was walking to and from the gym, I could alternately hear the wounded-bird-truck(s?) driving about and the firecrackers going off. If I paid close attention, I could see on the horizon, the location of the firecrackers by the puff of birds making their narrow escape from the trees.

It was really absurd.

Found:

• One bowl of soup in my microwave from this last weekend. Heated, then forgotten. Oops.
• One busted microwave (one week after one-year warranty expired). Boo.
• One funny quote: "Bamboo doesn't grow that fast!" --on one of the fencing kids growing an inch in December.
• One tired girl after a 2.5 hour workout

Back to it.

"It" being regular workouts. At least, I hope.

Having discovered last week at Morgan-Monroe that I am terribly out of running shape, I took it easy today. I ran two miles from my apartment in about 17.5 minutes. I felt pretty good the whole way and I was able to comfortably push, knowing it was a short run. My knee didn't bother me (it did last week on both my runs).

When I got home, I did some core work.

Now, I can eat the rest of the chocolate cake that Rachel left in Bloomington! Yea!

To waste your time...

Go take the Sci Fi Sounds Quiz.

I'm terrible. Identifying sounds isn't a strength, but it's an entertaining quiz. I went back and took this, trying to go from memory, but still only scored a 71. I think Jeremy got a 71 without the advantage of multiple choice answers. I would play a clip and he would say something like, "Oh, that's HAL."

I was going to post the little tag from the website, but I couldn't get it to play nicely so you'll have to go and take the quiz and imagine the little tag at the end of this post.

**Imagine Cute Tag Here**

DoneDoneDone!!

With one in-class exam and two take-home exams turned in today, I'm done for the semester. A swim, some fencing, and a dinner at Bosco's later, I'm a little more sane.

Coming up: Holiday non-sequitur-ness and, in the Spring, PhD Prelims. Everyone smile and wait for the craziness.

Will Attempt Mental Math for Beer

Yes, I should be working on my exams. I got sidetracked by this article that implies that chimps can do mental addition as well as college students. I think this lands well within the duh regime. At this point in my college life, I can't put my shoes on correctly, much less mentally add things quickly.

The test (briefly summarized) was to flash two groups of dots on one screen and the adder had to select the sum of the two groups on another screen displaying two choices. It's not clear in the article (and I don't have the time/inclination to figure out) whether the response was a visual or symbolic answer. The success rate was the same for the primates as well as the college students (Duke, if you must know).

Anyway, it's a vaguely interesting and perhaps applicable article. I may need a pet chimp for Christmas.

Now, it's 9:00 pm, my chili's almost done, I have three hours before I turn into a pumpkin and there's an exam to tackle. Back to it.

NotaFire

The maintenance people came today to investigate my <ahem> electrical problem. It seems that the outlet and cord for my central heating unit had progressed into the melting-non-functional stage.

Why didn't the circuit breaker flip??

I dunno. Neither do the maintenance people. It could be that I caught it early enough that there wasn't enough time for it to flip.

Wait. It was your central heat? Wasn't it cold last night?

Yeah. It was cold. However, it's going to be colder tonight and I still have an apartment. It kinda reminded me of being on the farm. Nice and nostalgic--for a night.

So, everything's okay?

Yes. The guys came in and replaced the cord and the wall outlet for the heating unit. I'm snug as a bug, with only minor concerns about the rest of the wiring in the building.

Big Week

Things have been a little hectic since my last post:

• Jeremy and I competed in the Div. I NAC
• I had a particularly bad neighbor on a flight
• I finished and defended my thesis(!!!)
• An odometer birthday was celebrated
• My apartment nearly caught fire
• I'm still working on a take-home exam

Before I get to (really) rest:

• I have to finish this take-home exam and one more (for the same class)
• Christmas shopping
• Two finals
• Drive to Indiana

Good things from today:

• The wetsuit I ordered was delivered
• Yummy Indian food at the research group pitch-in (first ever, I think)
• Thesis was submitted
• The apartment did not actually catch fire**
• The potential fire was not from my cooking
• Progress was made on the above-mentioned exam

**I expect there will be a post about the non-fire tomorrow after resolution with the maintenance people. In the meantime, all is okay. I was lucky I was home.

Chocolate is Seasonal???

Jeremy went to pick up dinner tonight while I worked on the thesis. I had requested a chocolate shake from Arby's. He came back with tea and explained that, according to Arby's, chocolate is a "seasonal" flavor and this is not chocolate season. Jamocha, on the other hand, is not seasonal. This, evidently, is eggnog and orange cream season.

FOUL!!!

Sounds I Dislike:

Lawn equipment.

All lawn equipment that has any sort of motor, engine, etc.
This includes, but is not limited to, leaf blowers, weed eaters, and lawn mowers.

Today, these things sound like styrofoam being ground to bits by other, larger bits of styrofoam.

Sounds of Nature

Ugly, cellophane-wrapped, animatronic deer have taken up residency outside the Vanderbilt Hospital. I have yet to figure out what purpose the cellophane serves other than to compel me make a sympathetic gasping noise every time I pass. Breathe, little guy, breathe!!