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| Back again!Xanga may be dying, but I felt like posting anyway since I haven't in quite a while. :)
Just got back from a week-long trip with my mom and Apollo to visit Jerry in Berlin. It consisted mostly of drinking and shopping and eating really good food in various parts of Berlin. We also went to a couple orchestra concerts, one of which I slept (and snored) through. But that's ok because I was still jet-lagged at that point! The other concert was by the Berlin Philharmonic. It was an outdoor concert with a huge attendance (~ 20,000 people?), and it felt kind of like a ball game only with music instead of a game...
We also went to Stockholm for a couple days, which was also quite pleasant. It was cool and sunny and very pretty, and there was ocean everywhere along with a lot of old architecture.
When the trip was over we had to leave Jerry behind in Berlin, but on our way home we got to haul a bunch of his stuff back to the States - 7 large bags of it! - since he and Lizz are moving back to the US soon. Getting all your belongings moved across an ocean can be quite a pain, so we didn't mind helping out with this. Of course, instead of "we" maybe I should say "Apollo," since Apollo happily did about all of the heavy bag-lifting. Kudos to him. :)
Getting Jerry's accordion back was the most fun, though, since it couldn't really fit into a bag, and Apollo had to carry it around by hand. The accordion would occasionally make noises when he didn't mean it to, as accordions can sometimes do that if they don't have a strap to keep the bellows closed. This is quite unlike the lovely flute which will barely make a peep for you until you've spent some time figuring out how to play it. That accordion certainly attracted enough attention, including a couple music requests. :)
Anyhow, now back to the protostellar accretion paper (to be **hopefully** submitted soon!!) and hotness in Austin.
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| Stuff I learned over Thanksgiving1. I CAN stay awake through a whole concert!
We went to see a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert. At one point in the middle of a piece, the concertmaster managed to knock all of her sheet music off her stand and into the first row audience. I was hoping a few of those first row people would fight over the music and the winner would claim it as their own and get it signed by the violinist after the concert or something. Instead, one of them politely gathered the sheet music and placed it back on the stage. Oh well.
2. My family likes to play Settlers!
It did take a small while for my dad to learn the game. Excerpt of the lengthy conversation in which Apollo explained the game to him:
Dad - "Ok, so, what's the goal of this game?"
Apollo - "Basically, you want to build as many settlements and cities and possible."
Dad - "Uh huh. And how do I build these settlements?"
Apollo - "You buy them with your resources."
Dad - "Ah. How do I get resources?"
Apollo - "Well...by building settlements and cities."
Dad - "Wait...but...how do I build settlements, now?"
Apollo - "...You just...buy them...with resources."
Dad - "Ok. Ok. Remind me again how I get these resources?"
It went on like that for a bit.
3. Cats is ...kind of a disappointing musical.
I kind of suspected that beforehand, but we all went to go see it anyhow, and on the whole going to see a show really was fun. Anyhow, I'm guessing the draw of the musical must be the dancing. I know very little about dancing, so I probably couldn't appreciate it the way others could. It was certainly impressive and very difficult-looking, though. But if all you want is to listen to a good story told through song, look elsewhere. Cats has little story to it.
There was at least that one great point where Grizabella belted out the last verse of "Memory."
Yeah, that's about 30 seconds out of the whole 2 hour show.
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And now it's back to work. Apparently I'm expected to publish two papers next semester. My advisor says he has an idea for one that should be pretty quick and straightforward. Hope so.
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!
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| HumI'm tired.
I want to do something worthwhile, or at least sorta kinda noteworthy - maybe just making more progress at work.
I need something to feel proud of again.
I want to go back to times where I could accomplish something every day, even if it was just a little bit of reading for class or an easy question of a homework assignment.
I'll do better next semester.
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| What one of my students said...The last homework we had included this question:
"In modern science, what is the standard of truth?"
One of my students said this:
"We 'average people' put our faith into the scientific experts, like Einstein, and we believe that what may seem like gibberish to us is in fact truth. ...the 'average person' is just to accept the conclusions of those with greater knowledge in the subject."
...
Kinda like me when I go to the car mechanic's.
That's HER standard of truth. What's yours?
Another student said this:
"In modern science, the standard of truth is the church doctrine."
Another said this:
"In modern science, the standard of truth is the media."
K, now I feel like they just weren't listening when we went over this question in discussion section. :(
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| Saving the World
Some days I'll take a break from working and sitting in the office to walk around campus for a while. It's some nice, enjoyable, solitary time.
Until Greenpeace.
People from Greenpeace have taken to standing around the part of campus where I usually walk around. These people will try to catch my eye from a hundred feet away. I know right then that they're going to be messin' up my me time. Then they'll start talking to me by saying something like "Hey, you've got two arms and two legs! That's perfect for saving the environment!"
As if amputees are any less capable of donating money to Greenpeace. But anyhow, then they'll tell me something about how there's some company cutting down trees in Canada, and that this will lead to a 30% percent reduction in my oxygen supply.
Really? Can't say I know a whole lot about environmental science and whatnot, but...30%? That number *sounds* overly big. But, then again, I'm certainly not the person to ask about how accurate that number is.
Their 20 second spiel isn't quite convincing enough for me to give them money. Mostly they just make me feel awkward and uncomfortable, and I dislike this. It makes me wish I was better at just rudely ignoring people.
Still, encounters with them did get me to check out the Greenpeace website. (However, I didn't quite like *everything* I saw). Also, in a way, I'm thinking about the environment. Right now.
Maybe they somewhat did their job after all. Maybe.
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