30 March 2011

Nota bene

During the conference talks, if something struck me as relevant or even just interesting, I would take notes. Sometimes if a talk was boring, I'd also take notes. Here are some examples of the quality notes I take: 
  • something I've never thought about: zooplankton scatology
  • zooplankton geek humour: calling virtual copepods in computer models "compupods"
  • I've never been to a conference where people take pictures of the screen during presentations. Not of the presenter and the screen, just the screen. Is that because they're too lazy to take notes?
  • I dislike when the session heads don't enforce the time limits. Also, if we're running 3 minutes late, we don't have time for questions! Especially questions from scientists, who can't ask a question unless it's prefaced with a story.
  • I have no idea what this talk is about
  • The Spanish version of web browsers and powerpoint and such are really disorienting because the look and format are familiar but the Spanish is so foreign (to me).
  • Ew, some guy in the audience is chewing on his middle finger
  • Think of the pteropods!
  • I don't know much about krill developmental stages, but one of the early nauplii stages looks a lot like a mite

28 March 2011

Trancura

Thursday afternoon of the conference was set aside for excursions. We had a choice of visiting the hot springs, the volcano caves, or river rafting. I'd already done the hot springs at Huiffe (no pictures to follow of that, though), and I had already climbed the volcano, so burrowing into it didn't hold much appeal. I decided on river rafting.  I'd only ever been tidal bore rafting, which I loved, so I thought rafting was a good choice.

26 March 2011

Words of Comfort (updated)

I got these happy birthday wishes from my brother and BFF:
I would like to echo the sentiments of all my other 30+ friends and say that life starts at that age.  But it's bullshit.  There's nothing good about turning 30, it's all downhill from here.
I didn't want to say anything, but I think I heard that 30 is the marker for complete and utter, yet gradual and unpredictable, body breakdown.
A counterpoint from Deb:
I totally disagree with the words of comfort from you brother and friend; 30 is great and 31 is even better – so I’d have to say things start looking up rather than down.

Hola

Did I mention that my mom is on Twitter? She has to be for her job. I doubt having reporters twitter is going to save small town daily newspapers, but they're giving it a try. Her account is a mix of plugs for the paper, pop culture references, the conditions she encountered on her morning run, and - while I was gone - updates on my trip to Chile. Before I left, the last tweet of hers I read was:
Pray for great weather and safe sociopolitical conditions in Chile -- my daughter flies there tomorrow for two weeks!
She should have prayed for no tsunamis, although I was in a mountain region and not really under threat from rogue waves. It was more likely that I would have been killed by the volcano than the ocean.

24 March 2011

I go away for two weeks and I come back and feel so unconnected. There's going to be an election? We're bombing Libya? Gas is $1.29? It's still winter?

I thought I'd have energy to write a post tonight, but I totally don't. 26 hours of travel has left me exhausted. I'll give you a taste of what's to come, then I'm going to stop thinking and probably go to bed.  


07 March 2011

The Dairy Queen commercial with the guitar that sounds like dolphins freaks me the hell out. It's as though dolphins are being tortured every time he strums the strings.
I just finished watching Angel. That last season kills me. So much death. I feel like I spend the last half of the season crying. I need to watch this just to cheer me up:



Poor, doomed Wesley. Hard to believe that goofy dancer will one day steal Angel's son, get his throat slit, keep a woman chained in his closet, cut off his lover's head, loose the love of his life, and then die in the arms of the person who killed the love of his life. Oops. Sorry for the spoilers, y'all. 

03 March 2011

White ribbon

I haven’t written anything original in a while. I mostly just recycle other people’s genius. I’m going to Chile soon, so expect original material about that at some point. But don’t hold your breath. I’m also soon to join the 30 Club, but I’m fairly apathetic about that, so I won’t be raging about my fear of aging or anything.


01 March 2011

Two funny things I read just now

...and both are about Charlie Sheen. Because everybody loves a train wreck.

1. Bat shit must be offended by all the Charlie Sheen comparisons.

2. From John Stamos: contrary to the rumors, i am not replacing charlie sheen on two and half men. however, martin sheen has asked me to be his son. ([sic] all that - Stamos is too cool to proof read])

(I have trouble separating Martin Sheen from President Bartlett in my head, so I have a soft spot for him and feel kind of bad for him that his son is such a douche. At least he's still got Emilio).

Ctrl+Alt+Del - Sillies - (2011-02-28)


Ctrl+Alt+Del - Sillies - (2011-02-28)