4 years???

You know you have been in grad school for a long time when:
1. You have to make the font on your CV smaller to keep everything on two pages.
2. You are introduced to a 2nd year vet student and you say "Hi I'm Lindsey!" and he says "I know, you were my undergrad ecology TA."
3. You are so distressed about #2 that you forget how many years you have been a grad student until your labmate reminds you (thanks Katie).

Formulaic Fantasy

I recently have been reading a new-to-me fantasy series by David Eddings (The Belgariad, thanks to Carl and Todd) and I am enjoying it, although it contains the very familiar themes, characters, etc. that can be found in most fantasy series. What I found interesting was that Eddings admits to this, and actually emphasizes it in his new preface (from 2002, the books were written in the 80s.) This is how he describes it:

“The story itself is fairly elemental—Good vs. Evil, Nice Guys vs. Nasty Guys, (or Them vs. Us). It has the usual Quest, the Magic (or Holy) Thingamajig, the Mighty Sorcerer, the Innocent Hero, and the Not Quite So Innocent Heroine—along with a widely vaired group of Mighty Warriors with assorted character faults. It wanders around for five books until it finally climaxes with the traditional duel between “Our Hero” and the “Bad Guy.””

When you think about it, it is striking how many of the fantasy series that I enjoy (Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, Robin Hobb, even Star Wars) all follow this formula quite closely. And yet I still can’t put the books down. I wonder what it is about this classic story that so grabs my attention.

Hail to the Victors!

The University of Michigan football team just crushed, smashed, and obliterated a HIGHLY overrated Notre Dame team in South Bend! 47-21! Woohoo! I scared my cat because I was cheering so much. Did I mention I hate Notre Dame? Go Blue!

Also, my hometown West Michgian Whitecaps just won the Midwest League (A baseball) title, so congrats to them too!

To celebrate I am using the new muffin pan I got for my birthday to make some yummy muffins.

Half way to fifty

“I’m excited to be 25! I’ve been waiting, like, 25 years to be 25!” –Giselle, supermodel

Fall Countdown

College Football: Already started!
NFL Football: TODAY!
My bday: 1 day
The Amazing Race: 7 days
Grey's Anatomy: 11 days
Red Wings' Season Starts: 25 days
Griffins' Season Starts: 26 days
Griffins' Home Opener: 34 days
Mexico: 96 days

Feel free to add your own...

God loves evolution!

I would like to recommend that everyone read The Language of God by Francis S. Collins. Dr. Collins is the director of the human genome project (one of the top scientists in the world) and also a Christian (who started out as an atheist). In the book he addresses the interaction between science and religion, explaining how science helped lead him to God and also how science (yes evolution!) is compatible with and even enhances religion! It is very readable, written so that those without a background in science will have no problem keeping up, but also very satisfying to me as a Christian scientist to find someone else who shares my views so completely.

Whether or not you are a Christian, and whether or not you accept evolution, if you care at all about issues of science and religion, this is a book you have to read. I would love to lend a copy to anyone who is interested in reading it.

Back in Black!

Well I'm baaaaack!!!!! Back to reality... I have lots of grand ideas for all of the work I am going to get done this fall, I am just worried about finding the motivation to do it. This is Isis doing an impression of my motivational state right now:

Post for the sake of posting?

Not much going on with me right now, but I am still alive. I have not had a very healthy month, with a nasty cold, a suspected case of mild food poisoning, and some mystery headaches/dizziness that might possibly be caused by my allergy medication. Or maybe I’m just getting migraines. Joy either way.

In happier news, my field season is almost wrapped up and I will be taking my annual summer vacation soon, which I am very excited about! I am thoroughly looking forward to turning my brain off for a little while and not thinking about science. ;-)

Mama turtle

This is a picture of a female snapping turtle laying eggs that I took out at my field site in the beginning of June. I put the screwdriver next to her so you can see how big she is. No particular reason to post it, I just thought it was cool. :-)

87 days until hockey season!

The Griffins home opener has been set for October 14!!! Actually, the season starts the week before on the road, so it is really only 80 days! Woohoo!!!

In other news, I finally saw my brother’s band “A Thousand Plateaus”. (Bonus points if you get the reference!) They played a kick ass rock show! (I think “kick ass” is their favorite phrase…Doug can confirm or deny.) Check out their website and listen to a few songs: http://myspace.com/thousandplateaus

Hello Moto!

I got a new phone today that actually works in my house! Imagine, having a cell phone that actually rings when people call me and that will dial out without me having to go into the basement to make it roam! Amazing! I am giddy at the thought!

I went with Cingular since it is the only service that seems to be able to get reception to my dead zone of a house, and I got a RAZR, so now I am cool or something! Anyway, feel free to call me, you may actually get through now!

PS the number is still the same as my old one

Wuv, twue wuv...

I realized tonight that I don’t believe in love. (I am referring specifically to the romantic movie type of love.) There is just nothing in my experience for me to be able to relate to anyone feeling in such a way as to do all the stupid things people do for love in romantic movies.

But even though I know those situations are exaggerated, I really have a hard time believing that there exists any kind of human relationship that goes beyond what I have with close friends and family. Yet all around me my friends are engaging (haha) in this strange behavior of coupling off which I just don’t understand. I have absolutely no way to relate to the motivation behind this behavior. I’m not talking about physical attraction, (which I have definitely felt!) but about the emotional/mental/physical/spiritual combination that I hear love defined as. I have never seen the potential for me to have that kind of relationship with another human. I’m not saying I’m not open to it or don’t want it necessarily, just that it…doesn’t happen. Nothing is there. Maybe this is how an atheist feels about Christianity?

Anyone who is (or has been) in love want to let me in on the secret????

Maybe I should turn Catholic and become a nun… ;-)

110 days until hockey season

I am watching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals (go Hurricanes!), which means that after tonight there will be no more hockey until fall. This game has been great! Awesome action, speed, hits, saves, goals...and it's only half way done. Hockey is the best sport. I love it! I can't wait for October....

Eggs in a row

Okay sorry that last entry sounded really complainy. I didn't mean it to be that way, I just wanted to explain why I haven't been updating. To make up for it, here is a cute picture of a clutch of wren eggs. The numbers tell the order that the eggs were laid. Of course, these eggs are 14 day old babies now and almost ready to fly. :-)

I'll give you an update!!!

Wow I had no idea so many people actually read my blog!

So as you have all probably guessed I have not updated in almost a month because it has been heavy duty research time. I have been working 80 hour weeks and I have not even turned on my TV for a month, much less had time to do any other entertainment activities.

This was my daily schedule 7 days a week for the last 3 weeks:
8:00 wake up
9:00 head to field
2:00 come in for lunch/break
3:30 go back to field
9:00 come back from field
9:30 dinner/shower
10:30 enter data from day, plan for next day
midnight bed

Now things are getting a little better and I’m only working 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. By the 4th of July things should be back to a normal 40 hour work week, and then you can start expecting more regular blog entries.

I have some cute wren pics to post and other things to talk about, but they will have to wait for another day because I need to enter my data yet tonight and then get to bed. Thanks for caring guys. :-)

It’s a bad sign when…

I have to preface this story by explaining that my landlord has been installing a new well at my house, which has been an extremely annoying process involving 3 weeks of having bulldozers and drilling trucks destroy my front yard, random men in my basement at all hours of the day, etc.

I finally get the word that everything is done, the health department approved the new well as safe to drink, and they have switched my house over to the new well. Excellent! I say to myself. I return home from a long day in the field, flush the toilet, wash my hands, and…the water stops running. Bad sign. No water all night.

So, I inform maintenance and they arrive the next morning. “Aha! I just forgot to turn the breaker back on!” On of them says. No problem. I hear water running again. Wonderful! “Uh oh” from the maintenance men. Bad sign. I hear low talking about the water being “full of crap.” Now my “wonderful” has turned sarcastic. “I need to go get another tool, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” maintenance man says. Everyone leaves. Bad sign.

So that’s where we are right now…two guys were back working on stuff, but they just went on break. I’ll let you know if I have any water tonight.

This is why I love hockey!!!! Part 2

I lost my voice tonight from cheering!

Things did not look good for our heroes, the Grand Rapids Griffins. After blowing a chance to finish off the North Division finals on Monday night by losing to the Manitoba Moose 3-1, the Griffins had fallen behind in the series-deciding game 7.

Midway through the 2nd period they were playing terribly and losing 4-1. The Moose had all the momentum and the Griffins looked awful. You could hear a pin drop in the arena. The home team managed to score a power play goal at the very end of the 2nd period to cut the deficit to 4-2, but heading into the 3rd the situation was still grim.

Then, my boys played the most exciting period of hockey I have ever seen, scoring 3 more goals, the last one with 2 minutes left, to complete an electrifying come from behind victory to win the series!!!! LETS GO GRIFFINS!!!! If they played like that every period there would be no stopping them! What an amazing win!

Next up: The Milwaukee Admirals come to town to begin the Western Conference finals on Thursday!!!

Happy Birthday Isis!

It's not her real birthday, (she actually turned 2 sometime earlier this spring,) but today is the anniversary of when I adopted Isis from the Calhoun County Humane Society. I can't believe she's been with me for a whole year! She's been a great cat! Today to celebrate she got some catnip and a new toy. :-)

Stephen Colbert is my hero!

First of all, his show is HILARIOUS!

But, recently he spoke at the White House Correspondents Dinner. I don't know how the people who schedule these things picked him, but they should have known that Bush might not appreciate his humor. Of course, all Stephen does it tell the truth!!!! ;-) But you have to admit it takes balls to lampoon the President of the United States when he's sitting 6 feet away from you looking very un-amused by your act. GO STEPHEN COLBERT!!!!

Here is a link to an article that gives a great summary of Colbert's speech. Even those of you with less of a "liberal bias" than me will find it funny I think. Thanks to Tina's blog for the link. And here is a link where you can watch the whole speech, if you are so inclined.

Good news and bad news

Hockey Playoffs, Round 1

Good news: The Griffins looked great dispatching the Toronto Marlies in 5 games, including two overtime victories. The team went 1-1 at home and 3-0 on the road. In fact, we won two games in Toronto with our third string goalie, since our first stringer was called up to Detroit and our second stringer is out with a long term injury. The Griffins looked confident beating a team with a hot, experienced goalie that gave them fits all season. Next we play Manitoba in the Division Finals. The Moose (yes Katie W, they are the Manitoba Moose, but you still aren’t allowed to cheer for them!) are another good team with a great goalie, so they will be another good challenge for the Griffins. At least we don’t have to worry about anyone being called up in this series because…

Bad news: The Red Wings got their asses handed to them by Edmonton, losing in 6 games. The Wings have way more talent, but they didn’t bring it when it mattered. The only Wings players that caught my eye as having a good series were Lebda, Kronwall, and Zetterberg. Captain Steve Yzerman’s injury and absence did not help as he is the heart and soul of the team. The Wings rested on their laurels, expecting Edmonton to just roll over. When they didn’t, the Wings didn’t adjust and up their game in time to avoid being ousted in the first round. The have only won one playoff series since their last Stanley Cup in 2002. The regular season excellence of the past few years means nothing when you can’t win in the playoffs.