Gulf of Mexico

Hi All,

I am leaving for the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday morning. I will be on a BP boat for 10+ days collecting samples of microbial communities that are breaking down the oil and determining the impact of the spill on microbial communities throughout the gulf. I don't know much more than this, but I will keep you updated.

Watch This, We Did It!

The name of this climb is "Bear's Reach." The climb is located at Lover's Leap, California. This weekend Rachel and I went to Lover's Leap and climbed Bear's Reach! This is a 400+ feet, three pitch climb rated at 5.7. In the video, Dan ascended the route in 0:4:26. It took us about 1:45:00. The route is named for the crux of the second pitch, a long reach between two large holds. In order to finish the climb we had to channel our inner Osman, and we did it!

Everybody Draw Mohammad Day

Some notes to a few students...

As I bravely made my way through 70 undergrad extra credit assignments yesterday, I was inspired to write a few short notes to several. Names have been changed, of course, to protect their identity.

Spelling-impaired Sharon: I gave you full points on that small extra credit assignment without reading most of it, just because seeing you spell neuroimaging as "Nero imaging" five times in the first paragraph was about to push me over the edge--however, it's not as bad as Terrible Tanya, who spelled neuroscience as "neourscine." Thank you both for making me want to run to the nearest marijuana dealer.

Rude Rhoda: Sending an extremely rude, entitled email asking if 1.) grades have been posted and then letting me know that 2.) if they have, and you actually got a 0, you really don't think you deserve one and 3.) you demand an explanation---is not the best way to play it, considering grades have NOT yet been posted (the papers haven't even been graded yet), nor are you in any position to make demands. But guess whose paper is going to fall under the most intense scrutiny when it IS graded?

Inane Irene: This sentence fragment was taken from one of your essays: "I am spectacle on how reliably it is." No possible excuse could justify this excerpt. God help you. (P.S. No, this was not an ESL student)

Duh Dora: It's "whether or not", NOT "weather or not."

Asinine Annie, Slothful Sam, Lackadaisical Luke, and Inattentive Ichabod: It is listed in the syllabus that the final is non-cumulative. It's states on the course website that the final is non-cumulative. The professor stated in class the first day that the final is non-cumulative. The professor stated the last day of class that the final is non-cumulative. My fellow TA's and I stated in our review session that the final is non-cumulative. But guess what question each one of you desperately emailed me to ask? Yeah, f&%$ all y'all.

Copying Cal: Yes, copying and pasting fully 90% of your paper directly from the article does not count as "your" work, but guess what?! It DOES count as a 0 in the gradebook. And no, the fact that you cited the article as a source in your bibliography doesn't change a damn thing.

Apathetic Ahab: Your writing is so incredibly nonsensical, you might as well have just taken a piece of paper, squatted over it, taken a dump, and handed that in. I'm honestly not sure I could have told the difference.

Rock climbing find

Found these guys whilst rock climbing yesterday.  Had my iphone with me so I took a picture.  Made the route a little more difficult as the nest was taking up a nice hold.

A new schedule

I think most everyone is the family is aware of my ability to sleep. I never go to a movie that starts after 730, because I don't want to pay eight dollars to sleep in an uncomfy chair. I occasionally need a good diet coke to make it through an afternoon class. I have even been known to fall asleep during the occasional JAZZ GAME!!! How is that I will make it through 6PM to 630AM work shifts three nights a week? I just don't know, but I am trying to switch my sleep schedule a bit. So here I am, at 11:50 PM, wanting to go to bed quite badly upon returning from an awesome Muse concert, but knowing that the longer I stay up tonight and tomorrow (and later I sleep in tomorrow and Wed), the easier Wednesday night will be. I guess I'm writing this more for my own benefit than anyone elses. I just want to make it until 130 tonight! Wish me luck!

oops

I've been banging my head against a wall this morning, trying to figure out why a very simple bit of computer code that I wrote was not working. My brain was going in a bad direction. "If you can't even write a piece of code this simple, why do you think you can do that really sophisticated thing you've been trying to do?"

Then I found the mistake. I named one of my variables cum instead of sum. Oops.