OMG. Srsly.

I'm home today because there's a wicked ice storm going on outside and the university shut down at 10:00 AM. One of my classes was supposed to take an exam this afternoon; that's obviously not going to happen. Shortly after the closing was announced, one of my students sent me this email:

do we need to come tomaro to take the exam*? if u have a class.. or are we just gonna wait til nxt week*

Appalling! I blame text messaging, because I have officially become old and cranky.

I was going to add a quote from a lab report as another example of stellar college-level writing, but really, it's too depressing. I'll post this instead, because it pretty much sums up my life at the moment:

(Jorge Cham, the creator of PHD Comics, was supposed to speak at UofL tonight; that's obviously not going to happen either. Even if the university wasn't closed, it'd be a no-go anyway, 'cause his flight was canceled. Bah.)

Friday night links

Have you ever pulled an all-nighter and then struggled through the next day, fueled only by massive amounts of caffeine? Then, after about twenty-seven hours without sleep-- and that sleep was pretty much just a nap anyway, so we're really talking about thirty-three hours or so (and the night's sleep before that was horribly insufficient) -- you're so completely exhausted that suddenly you're wide awake? No? Oh.

So yeah, I've had a long week. At the moment, I feel alert enough to go out and do something with my Friday night, but I'm afraid that my body might unexpectedly shut down like an overheated laptop in some really unfortunate and embarrassing place like, say, the bathroom at the Nachbar. Instead, here are a bunch of random links (and a video):


O'Reilly surprised "there was no difference" between Harlem restaurant and other New York restaurants (Media Matters)
So now we can add "clueless racist" to this list of terms used to describe Bill O'Reilly (compiled by me right this very minute using the always-entertaining "[name] is" Google search method): "nuts", "thug in a suit for Fox News", "wrong", "spineless wimp", "big blubbering vagina" (?!), "lying son of a whore", "nutball", and "moron".

Response to Student Writing: 13 Ways of Looking at It [.pdf]
My graduate advisor passed this on to me some months ago. I wish I'd reread it before I read that first pile of lab reports earlier in the semester.


I've been really into my knitting lately. I finished another pair of socks today (they're on my feet at the moment, but I'm way too lazy to go grab a camera, so you'll just have to trust me when I say they're pretty sweet), and I'm doing a pair for my grandmother next (in KnitPicks Swish DK, Pale Lemon), and I've got about fourteen other things I want to make after that. It is fall... maybe I'm nesting or something.

hard stuff made soft.
When Neil toasted us at our wedding, he speculated that I might at some point knit an entire place setting. From time to time, I've thought about how I might actually go about doing that. I'd like to attempt it at some point, just to see if I can.

Craft the Vote! (Slate)
I'm loving this one:

RepubliCraft No. 4: Pro-Life Baby Onesie
Make pro-choicers feel the shock and "awwwww." Embroidered appliqué reads "I'm Alive!" If you have twins, make another one that says, "Post-Born Fetus!" Why abort a baby when you can use it to express your political views?

Southern Indiana FiberArts Festival
Allison S. brought this to my attention today, and I definitely think I'm going. As I explained to my darling geek of a husband, "It's sort of like a comics convention... for knitters." He gets it. Bonus: Southern Indiana is beautiful in late October.



I think I first saw this over at Neil & Erin's house. I've decided to include the term "mafipulation" as a possible answer choice in the exam I'm writing for my Biology 104 classes. I guarantee you someone'll pick it.

And now: a few rounds of knitting, and then bed. I have a feeling I'm gonna have some really bizarre dreams tonight.

Pirates and zombies and ninjas, oh my

Maybe this makes me somewhat of a grinch, but Talk Like a Pirate Day kind of annoys the crap out of me. Usually, this isn't a big deal, but what was I supposed to do this afternoon when this guy in my department walked into my office, dressed head-to-toe in over six feet of black, red, and white swarthy pirateness?

Him: Arrr! Avast! Grog and scurvy! Bilge rat chum booty peg leg! Arrr!
Me (shuffling papers): Um...

Then he started saying something about squeezing oranges, which apparently has something to do with the fact that UofL is playing Syracuse this weekend (um... what?), so I politely explained that you know, pirates really aren't my thing (neither are zombies), and I ended up just sort of smiling and nodding until he wandered off.

A couple of hours later, I heard him walking along the hallway, singing a little talk-like-a-pirate-day song and yelling at passersby. Good lord, people.

Not that it's related, but it was so much cooler last year when one of my labmates came to campus dressed as a sturgeon.

So now I hear that December 5 is the second (or third?) Annual Day of the Ninja. Ninjas I can deal with. Still, can I just not show up at school that day and later tell everyone that they must've not seen me 'cause my costume was just that awesome?

I'm still not eating chicken, but...

This bit of good news reminds me of how much I miss eating my mom's lemon pepper chicken wings. They're heavenly.

Yesterday morning, as Dave and I loaded up the Explorer for a day of exciting ecological fieldwork, a University custodian commented that he appreciated what we were doing because it was people like us who were going to fix the mistakes that his generation had made. Nice thought, I guess (and I'm glad that more and more people seem to be thinking like him), but it's sometimes hard for me to see how whatever little things we do fit into the bigger picture. Of course, scientists could figure out solutions for every pressing crisis under the sun and it still wouldn't mean jack until those who make the big decisions decide to listen. These days, I seem to be vacillating between utter despair for the future of humanity and the planet and hope that maybe things will change.


Oh, and I also finished another pair of socks.

This and that and the other thing

Rafael Nadal is a pretty man. So it's especially unfortunate that he looked like a starving lunatic during Sunday's award presentation, chewing on the French Open trophy like an overexcited puppy:

Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated

Um, Rafa? It's real. Seriously, you don't need to do that. Please stop.

On the other hand, I really like this shot:

David Vincent/Associated Press

In other French Open news... I don't fully understand what's going on here, but I suspect it's pretty awesome:


Take a look: Roger Federer and Serena Williams gave similar performances.


"So, Allison," you may be wondering, "I couldn't really care less about tennis. Or French television, for that matter. Do tell, what have you been knitting lately?"

Well, first of all, French television is quite entertaining, especially their game shows. Giant floating skulls asking trivia questions! Cheap Survivor ripoffs! But that's another discussion for another time. As far as knitting goes, I'm so glad you asked.

Here are the Monkey socks I finished a few weeks ago using Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and #2 double-pointed needles:

I'm now working on a pair of socks for Paul, but before I started those, I took a couple of days to make myself a hot pink beer bottle cozy using some stash yarn (something cotton, maybe on #5 DPNs -- I really can't remember):

I plan on knitting up a few more of these using various yarns and colors; I'll probably change the pattern up a bit, too. They'd make good gifts, I think.


I have little nerdy content at the moment, mostly because it's summer and I'm spending more time in the lab than I would like and less time in the field. The lab work isn't exactly thrilling, though maybe I'll describe my study in more detail some other time. I'll definitely have more to say when I start teaching in the fall; I'm looking forward to that.


One more thing -- dried strawberries are crazy delicious. I'm just sayin'.

What doesn't kill me...

I'm taking a quick break from studying to mention that I'm still here. Busier than hell, but I'm still here. In addition to schoolwork (including homework for a class I'm not even officially taking... yeah, I know, but it's a good class), I've started a leaf litter decomposition study in a number of local springs (which means three full field days between this past Monday and next, plus lots and lots of lab work). And then there's the presentation I'm giving to the Salt River Watershed Watch tomorrow night, and grant proposals, and stressing about procedures for assessing microbial biomass and community composition on leaf disks and worrying about my graduate committee and research plans and everything else under the sun, and... thud. (That's the sound of me collapsing in an exhausted heap.) My trip to Santa Fe for the ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting the week after next will be a welcome break. And yeah, even that's school-related.

Here's photographic evidence of how hardworking I've been lately:

Here I am retrieving a leaf bag from one of my study sites. The smudge on my butt is a lovely mixture of mud and bovine excrement. And no, said butt is not as huge in real life as it is in waders.

Well, it's been a long week. I've been into campus a few times, but it's hard to concentrate on doing anything once I'm there. Maybe that'll get better once classes begin next week and there are more people around and things seem a little more normal.

Dr. Jack's wife and children are still hospitalized, but the girls may be released soon. So that's a bit of good news.

I had a couple of good conversations today. I met with the graduate dean (also a biologist with an appointment in my department) to talk about where my research and program might go from here. I still feel like things are up in the air, but I'm slightly more confident about where they might land. My broader ecological interests are still intact (community structure and function, effects of urbanization), but I may have to be flexible when it comes to what I want to use to answer those questions (spring systems, biofilms).

I also spoke with a professor on my doctoral committee who expressed to me the department's commitment to doing everything they can to ensure that all of us -- there are over a dozen of us in Dr. Jack's lab -- get the resources and support we need to complete our programs, if that's what we want to do. "You guys weren't just his students... You're our students, too." I know that this is a really hard time for the faculty as well; it's remarkable how everyone's pulling together to help each other out.

The collaborative nature of science is something I really like, but when something like this happens, it can have a huge effect on so many people in addition friends and family: students, colleagues, graduate committees at other institutions, co-investigators on grants, engineers, educators... I guess that's what community's all about, though, and it does help when you're not alone.

The past twenty-four hours have been rough: My doctoral advisor, Dr. Jeff Jack, was killed in a car crash yesterday afternoon. His wife and two daughters are still in the hospital. If you're reading this, please keep the Jack family in your thoughts.

(Here's a short news item about the accident.)