The Tour....



If I have said it once I have said it a zillion times...I LOVE THE TOUR DE FRANCE and that shit starts tomorrow. Due to the recent doping scandal it could be anyone to win and my money is on Dave Zabriski. My first reaction was great all the main dudes are out. It's going to be a bunch of chumps riding until I actually red who was left and I immediately changed my tune. It should be incredibly exciting. I know cycling sounds a bit unapproachable as a spectator sport but I tell you what...I watched parts of it once a few years back and I have been hooked ever since. I almost got into a "thing" at the gym once because this man tried to change the channel from the tour when i was on the treadmill. It's great! OLN offers awesome coverage. WATCH IT!

Ponderings....

- To Ph.D or not to Ph.D? That is the question.

- Tomorrow is my birthday and I feel very whatever about it. How do birthdays go from a big thing your parents make a big deal out of when you are a kid to being a wild raging night of debauchery when your in college to blah? If I was still a kid I would demand a puppy for my birthday. Now all I want is a new case for my iPod and some new running shoes.

- I had a phone interview last week and now I like my job a lot and we are going for this huge NSF grant that we have a good shot of getting and I don't care if I could be making way more money if I moved to the armpit of the south, Jacksonville.

- I am strongly opposed to the return of the bubble skirt to main stream fashion. It's an abomination.

- I have successfully blown off my student worker all week and I think he is beginning to catch on.

Ethical Occupational dilemma...

I had a phone interview yesterday (while I was at work...awkward!) for a GIS forester position with a large timber company. Specifically, I spoke with some good folks in Florida who were cool and funny and are doing some really cool GIS work. The thing is they are a...TIMBER COMPANY! Their soul purpose is to make some cold hard cash waking down trees. I am not sure how comfortable I am with this. I wouldn't be concerned if the interview hadn't gone so well. You may be wondering why I applied for this job knowing that I may have an ethical dilemma with the business practices of this company and that would be an excellent question. I really don't know how to answer it either. To be 100% honest, I did not really look at the company website until after the guy called me to set up this first interview. The thing is, the work would be cool and I have a feeling that the money would be pretty good (another dilemma in and of itself....choose money or happiness or both). Glancing at the benefits package, it is comparable to the one I have with the government including paying for me to take classes, encouraging continued career development, retirement plan, insurance, yada yada yada. But I can't help but stress out a bit over what could be an impending ethical crisis. I believe myself to be a bit of an environmentalist and I don't know that I could wrestle the idea of working for one of the worlds largest timber companies. Could I be enthusiastic about my work if I knew that the end result could be timber harvesting practices I didn't think were environmentally sound? Am I over thinking all of this?

The Office....

Apparently, my department is having some office space issues. I am not sure how but apparently they are. For going on two weeks, all anyone who has stepped foot into my office has discussed with me whether or not I will be able to keep my office or be jammed in a lab or have to share an office with another researcher. I am fine with sharing the office but not fine with a lab. My old office mate has gone onto greener pastures and I am totally fine with sharing the space (especially since I have taken over his much larger desk). What I am becoming increasingly more not fine with is the never ending discussion about whether or not I will have to move out of my office and if so where I will be moving to. I am not the one that makes this decision. Dean SOandSO decides and he can't seem to make a decision. So, I think today my increasing frustration about speaking about this subject must have been written on my face because today when I walked in (first thing...no coffee...unlocking my office door) I was cornered by the guy moving into the office across the hall from me, the office lady down the hall from me who always gives me dirty looks, and the new office lady who I have never met and they decided to give me a hard time for the first twenty minutes I was in my office about how quiet I am and how "no one even knows you are here until you walk down the hall." I can't be the only one in the entire department that has work to do. This week I have been incredibly busy and, yes!, I come into work and work and keep to myself and work and work really hard and at the end of the day I go home. I don't want to talk office gossip. I don't want to stand around talking about office space. I don't want to talk about the upcoming church retreat or the kids swim lessons. I just want to come in, do a good job, work hard, and get the hell out of here by 5 and that makes me an asshole?

Listening to: Ricky Gervais, Steve Merchant, and Karl Pilkington's xFM archives

Race for the Ages....


A while back, my friend James and I had a very lively discussion and brainstorming session about adult sized big wheels and how a league should be developed of adult sized big wheel racers. People could fabricate their own. The only limitations would be that the wheel dimensions (1 huge one in the front and 2 small fat ones in the back) would have to be adhered too. In addition, it would have to have a little seat at the lower back that could be moved forward and backward just as they did when you were kids. I think we also decided that they could have no hand brakes. This wasn't too be a green machine league...strictly big wheels. I thought that this race could occur during Twilight and it would be hysterical and funny and insane. I mentioned it to some folks that own a bike shop in town one day when I was getting a tune up. The idea fell on deaf ears and has since been retired. I am thinking about reviving it.

Listening to: Radiohead

Driving in Atlanta....

This weekend the boy and I went to Atlanta because his twin niece and nephew were being baptized. Attending church for this occasion is a story in and of itself that I won't get into here. I don't want to be offensive but church is not my bag and the hour long middle school revival musical that was the service only reinforced this for me. Anyway, while driving into Atlanta on Saturday morning I saw the following bumper sticker.

No ACLU! No ACLU? NO fucking ACLU?!?

How can you be against the ACLU? The American Civil Liberties Union! The sole purpose of this organization is to protect YOUR constitutional rights! How can you be against that? This sticker sat right aside a cross sticker. Lady, your ass wouldn't be able to have that damn cross on your car if it wasn't for organizations such as the ACLU protecting your 1st amendment right for freedom of religion....dumbass.

Listening to: Mastodon

I will live to be 88....

How old will you live to be? Find out here. No liying. Your ass doesn't exercise every day and you have a smoke every now and then.
Fess up and find out!

Listening to: Band of Horses