My feathered friends

This morning they were on the front porch staying out of the rain. I came home from helping in D's class to find them:

They moved to the deck in the afternoon when the rain stopped:

I was playing around with the settings on my camera for this one
(aperture priority with manual focus -it was taken through a window)

5th Week Check-In

I feel like things are going well so far this semester. My classes are engaging(!), I'm making progress on some of the new research work, and I am not going too crazy yet. The absence of the freshmen-behemoth is really making my schedule manageable. Between the lab sections, TA meetings, and logistics of dealing with almost 100 students, that class is a huge time sink. My classes this semester are both upper level and most of the students seem genuinely interested in the subjects. There are some things that I am neglecting, however. I feel that pit in my stomach every time someone mentions writing. I have completely abandoned that paper at this point. I still plan to finish it, but am not feeling motivated to dig it out and get back to where I was (I know- it's bad). I am enjoying my schedule, but next week things are looking a bit busier:

pink is personal, purple is work-related

I signed up for a grant-writing workshop that starts next week. It's in the area that I had the failed proposals over the last few years, and if I submit a proposal, I will get $1000! We'll meet about 8 times over the semester, but it means I have to go to campus an extra day those weeks (I'm so spoiled, working at home, I know!) I have some mixed feelings about this right now, since I just got The Grant, but I don't think this will overextend me if I do actually get funded. There is a program with an early November deadline that I want to apply for. I could do the workshop and apply this year, but I would like have that Grand!

I also volunteered to help with D's class once a week. I'm not entirely clear what I'll be doing, but it's for their Accelerated Reader program. I'd never heard of this until D came home with a very cryptic sheet talking about ZPD scores last week. They read books and take computer-based quizzes, so I'm guessing I'll be helping with that.

A doctor's appointment this morning threw off my schedule and I not in work-mode now, either. I think I will try to get a few research things done, though, in the couple of hours I have before D gets home. Or I could go watch The Office or waste MORE time on Facebook.... No. Must. Work.

Career meme & LOTS of data (updated)

As seen everywhere:

1. Cartographer

2. GIS Specialist

3. Computer Trainer

4. Personal Trainer

5. Environmental Consultant

6. Animal Trainer

7. Paleontologist

8. Professional Athlete

9. Print Journalist

10. Market Research Analyst

11. Writer

12. Translator

13. Kinesiologist

14. Political Aide

15. Activist

16. Veterinarian

17. Critic

18. Marine Biologist

19. Oceanographer

20. Zoologist

21. Communications Specialist

22. Zookeeper

23. Public Policy Analyst

24. Mathematician

25. Corporate Trainer

26. Public Relations Specialist

27. Horticulturist

28. Foreign Language Instructor

29. ESL Teacher

30. Botanist

31. Animal Breeder

32. Fitness Instructor

33. Actuary

34. Meteorologist

35. Biologist

36. Technical Writer

37. Ecologist

38. Criminologist

39. Nursery / Greenhouse Grower

40. Tour Guide

Some of these struck me as quite odd and I wonder which question pointed the program that way- animal trainer? zoo keeper? fitness instructor? Most of the "ists" and science jobs sound pretty reasonable, though. Before I went in and added education level, I also had housekeeper in my list!

In other news, I have taken over some tasks from my grad student because we are working with some data that requires a new software package. S/he has plenty of other things to keep busy for the project, though. I also decided that I needed to download mass quantities of other data and process them in ways that is really taxing my home computer (but I really don't want to go do it at school, since it requires lots of waiting). I queued up four processes to run overnight and only two have finished! I quadrupled my computer's memory yesterday (I only had 1 GB!) However, that doesn't change the processing speed- it just means that my computer won't crash when I have too many programs running at once. I have been doing other things while it runs, like grading and class stuff. sigh.

ETA: I'm at school now checking to see if my *new* Windows Vista machine can process these damn data faster... I'll let you know

RBoC: "Where have I been?" Edition

What happened to the past week? I've been faithfully reading blogs, but realized that I haven't actually posted anything lately. D will be up soon for school, so I will keep this short...

• Class is in full swing now- this is week 4 for us and I have labs to grade, homework assignments to grade and new labs to write. Things are still much easier than usual since I don't have the freshmen this semester (yay!)
• I have lots of research things to do: a proposal to help with, data to process, software to figure out, that paper that is still on the back burner (or back in the fridge, maybe), and I'm considering putting in a proposal for a program with a high % of funding (state-level). I need to talk to my collaborator on The Grant to see if he thinks it's a good idea right now (he's a full professor, so helpful with those sorts of things).
• I emailed the chair of a search committee. I doubt I would apply, but it's an open rank position in a warmer place (NO SNOW). The description could fit what I do if they are loosely defining the research area, so I don't know that I am even appropriate. If he doesn't email back, I guess I won't even bother! I have to talk to my mentor about the timing anyway- she had told me that applying this year would look suspicious to search committees.
• I still need to revise my dossier based on my department's comments. Nothing major, just filling in some details and tying things together a bit better.

That's about it from Small College Town. It's finally cooling off and it can't be soon enough- August was just awful around here. One last thought about the date: 9/11/01 was also a Tuesday like this year, so that makes it kind of an eerie reminder. Good thing that six years later, we're fighting a war in a country that had NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

What better way to start the day?

...than with a blog post! I really wanted to make my birthday post move down the page, so I am starting today's work-at-home research day with a blog post. (Is that promising for a productive day???)

Yesterday was a very low-key sort of birthday. We went out for lunch, ran a few errands, then came back home to relax. I ate too much birthday cake (which I made myself from this book- very yummy). H & D got me a new camera, so we bought a new SD card and rechargeable batteries yesterday. They always send those ridiculous cards (32 MB? for a 10-megapixel camera??) I had fun experimenting with the zoom yesterday (sorry- the pictures are on my laptop!)

This week is an easy teaching week because I only have tomorrow and Friday and some of those classes are guest lectures! I should really get ahead with organizing things for next week, since I have the time. I also need to get back the paper that was abandoned over the summer. I also need to exercise today and I'm thinking that might win for my first activity of the day. Maybe I'll update later so you can see if I managed to be productive today...

Totally gratuitous birthday post

I'm 37 today! Isn't it nice that most of us have the day off, too? I guess next year I'll have to teach on my birthday, but NOT THIS YEAR! Have a fun labor day, everyone!