Liz's Bloglet - Sunday 1 June 2003

I survived another NABS meeting. The best analogy I can give is like Reality, but with freshwater science and lasting 5 days. My presentation went well. I talked too fast but then I was mobbed with questions afterwards, so I was at least comprehensible. Next year will be better, because I'll actually have data. _
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10:39:05 AM, Sunday 1 June 2003

Doonesbury as prophecy? _
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03:00:12 PM, Monday 26 May 2003

Read to the end--I promise that it's worth it.

Two Tramps in Mud Time

Robert Frost

Out of the mud two strangers came
And caught me splitting wood in the yard,
And one of them put me off my aim
By hailing cheerily "Hit them hard!"
I knew pretty well why he had dropped behind
And let the other go on a way.
I knew pretty well what he had in mind:
He wanted to take my job for pay.

Good blocks of oak it was I split,
As large around as the chopping block;
And every piece I squarely hit
Fell splinterless as a cloven rock.
The blows that a life of self-control
Spares to strike for the common good,
That day, giving a loose to my soul,
I spent on the unimportant wood.

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.

A bluebird comes tenderly up to alight
And turns to the wind to unruffle a plume,
His song so pitched as not to excite
A single flower as yet to bloom.
It is snowing a flake; and he half knew
Winter was only playing possum.
Except in color he isn't blue,
But he wouldn't advise a thing to blossom.

The water for which we may have to look
In summertime with a witching wand,
In every wheelrut's now a brook,
In every print of a hoof a pond.
Be glad of water, but don't forget
The lurking frost in the earth beneath
That will steal forth after the sun is set
And show on the water its crystal teeth.

The time when most I loved my task
The two must make me love it more
By coming with what they came to ask.
You'd think I never had felt before
The weight of an ax-head poised aloft,
The grip of earth on outspread feet,
The life of muscles rocking soft
And smooth and moist in vernal heat.

Out of the wood two hulking tramps
(From sleeping God knows where last night,
But not long since in the lumber camps).
They thought all chopping was theirs of right.
Men of the woods and lumberjacks,
They judged me by their appropriate tool.
Except as a fellow handled an ax
They had no way of knowing a fool.

Nothing on either side was said.
They knew they had but to stay their stay
And all their logic would fill my head:
As that I had no right to play
With what was another man's work for gain.
My right might be love but theirs was need.
And where the two exist in twain
Theirs was the better right--agreed.

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes. _
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10:28:38 AM, Monday 26 May 2003

Mecklenburg County keeps alert level at yellow." "...this weekend's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway is probably not the type of event that attracts international terrorists." Courtesy of the always alert Laura Juliano. _
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06:28:47 PM, Wednesday 21 May 2003

My Working Assets credit card has been switched from Fleet to MBNA effective today. Among the reasons given was to improve customer service. The first act of this improved customer service is to send my new card out on Saturday (i.e. two days ago), when my old card stopped working today. _
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10:23:25 AM, Monday 19 May 2003

A bill to make specially illegal acts of animal rights or ecological terrorism. It would be nice if these people would at least get the definitions of words right. Surely they mean tree-hugging terrorism. (note: snarkiness)

If you read through it, I'm not sure if the Institute of Ecology would still be legal. We do have an Outreach office that is involved in the guiding of legislation which, in some cases, might limit some people's "rights" to exploit some natural resource or other. On the plus side, we also sometimes abuse little animals in the name of science.

I am not a PETA member. I have never even been involved with EarthFirst! or its offshoots. I am primarily concerned about every child's right to go to the neighborhood stream and chase crawdads. I like playing in water, I like studying things that live in the water, and if I think that is being threatened, I will attempt to influence legislation. I also know that ecology is the branch of science that deals with organisms' interactions with their surroundings. The only "ecological terrorism" of which I am aware would be destruction of said organisms or their surroundings. _
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10:01:37 AM, Saturday 17 May 2003

Unless something horrible turns up in the credit check, we have a house. _
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03:50:29 PM, Wednesday 14 May 2003

A Johnny who graduated Sunday emailed me today asking about the job. I felt really bad, but I had just sent off the email to the two additional people I've hired. They will also benefit from the experience, and one of them goes to North Georgia College, so I'm still helping out somebody from a small college. _
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02:59:46 PM, Tuesday 13 May 2003

"And if you change the name so you don't put off guys who don't like the idea of a school named Mary, you're not necessarily attracting the right kind of guy." Steam comes from Liz's ears. _
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09:05:45 AM, Monday 12 May 2003

A pretty amusing article about looking for hellbenders (3 foot salamanders) with a guy from the Institute. _
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11:53:07 AM, Friday 9 May 2003

This is on our office door. It makes me giggle and cry at the same time. _
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09:14:59 AM, Friday 9 May 2003

It should be noted that I was working on the sidebar during the previously mentioned imprisonment in the Engineering building and that I'm not yet finished. It will rock when I'm done. _
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10:54:32 AM, Thursday 8 May 2003

I'm interviewing undergrads for a second part-time position for the summer. With all the ugly, stupid things that happen on this campus, it's always cool to meet the dedicated, smart kids who are here to learn. I'm going to have a really hard time deciding who to hire. _
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10:52:46 AM, Thursday 8 May 2003

There's a tornado warning and I'm stuck in the Engineering building. I think this is Purgatory. _
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02:44:37 PM, Tuesday 6 May 2003

A beautiful webpage. _
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01:18:01 PM, Tuesday 6 May 2003

Athens Choral Society Spring Concert tonight. Which reminds me that I haven't said anything about what we're singing. Mortensen's Lux Aeterna is actually pretty neat. It's a setting a six Latin texts that talk about light. Some of them are familiar--the opening words to the Requiem--others probably haven't been sung in centuries. The music is a mix of very classic forms with a more modern feel, lots of counterpoint with constant dissonance (most of it provided by the first altos. Our motto is "If it doesn't clash with the sopranos, you're not singing the right note.") The accompaniment can get a little tinkly and downright Rutteresque at times, but I think it's one of the finer works written in the past decade.

The second piece, DuBois' The Seven Last Words of Christ, was written in 1899 and it shows. Think Purcell. As far as I can tell, we're doing it because of the tendency of some people to only sing with us if they get solos. _
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09:46:29 AM, Tuesday 6 May 2003

Does anybody know why sometimes in Mozilla after I type a url in and hit return, nothing happens? It's not the same as the other bug where it won't let me type anything. The keyboard still works, keyboard commands still work, it just won't load a webpage whose url has been typed in. _
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11:04:49 AM, Sunday 4 May 2003

As many people have said, X2 is excellent. Much better than the first. X-Men was a nice little superhero action movie. X2 would be a good movie even to those who knew nothing about the origins. If some weirdo walked in from some place devoid of superheroes, he would still enjoy the movie, once he got the hang of the idea that some folks can do things that other folks can't. _
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09:53:09 AM, Sunday 4 May 2003

Survey

1) Do you know where your drinking water comes from?

2) Do you know where your wastewater goes?

3) Do you know what watershed you live in? _
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09:12:15 AM, Friday 2 May 2003

Hydras! Limpets! Hydras and limpets! _
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02:59:54 PM, Thursday 1 May 2003

This guy (the same as this guy) seems to see Asperger's Syndrome wherever he looks. She's a witch! _
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09:19:13 AM, Thursday 1 May 2003

So...did we win? _
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10:24:34 AM, Tuesday 29 April 2003

Wonderful wonderful wonderful weekend. _
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10:03:58 AM, Monday 28 April 2003

The future state flag of Georgia _
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04:23:26 PM, Sunday 20 April 2003

The Jubilee Community of Asheville I don't know what to think of them. I think they may be good, and I think if I were less cynical I would be pretty sure that they are good. _
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03:08:18 PM, Sunday 20 April 2003

A new tea and espresso shop opened downtown in the past week or so and we decided to make it our destination in our obligatory-wandering-downtown-on-Saturday-night. We had their specialty, something called a Bubbleteani, which was milky iced tea with "tapioca pearls" at the bottom, served in a gigantic martini glass with straws of the diameter to allow the slurping of the tapioca. _
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11:08:34 PM, Saturday 19 April 2003

While looking at Athens rental listings on line, I came upon this. Somebody's landlord is in trouble. It's sort of nice to see Ashcroft's name in support of the good guys, for once. _
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07:41:17 PM, Saturday 19 April 2003

So, next week I'm presenting at the Georgia Water Resources Conference (as well as moderating the session). Then, at the end of May, I'm presenting at the annual meeting of the North American Benthological Society which is being held in Athens, of all places, this year, which means I'm also helping with registration, AV, the fun run, etc. Finally, in early August I'm going to the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, which is being held in Savannah, of all places, and once again I'm helping with a whole bunch of stuff, though not presenting anything there. And then I'm not going to go to any meetings for awhile, because I need to ID thousands of bugs and write my thesis at some point. _
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04:06:05 PM, Saturday 19 April 2003

Wow, I've been leaning a bit hard on Metafilter for links lately. Sorry. _
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01:35:36 PM, Friday 18 April 2003

No matter what religion or political view provides a starting point, the end destination of the march toward absolutism is the willingness to cease caring about unbelievers as human beings. That is a danger greater than any weapon of mass destruction.

An impressive tracing of the path of the Southern Baptist Convention from one of the least doctrinal, most open sects of Christianity, to its current extreme state, where its leadership thinks a pre-emptive strike on Iraq is somehow ordained by God. _
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11:51:49 AM, Friday 18 April 2003

I mentioned the mysterious black spot off the coast of Florida about a year ago. A professor here at the 'tute, along with some folks from Florida, has figured out what caused it. _
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02:57:58 PM, Thursday 17 April 2003

I am a man with Asperger's according to The Essential Difference "scientific" study of the "male and female minds". I had EQ 11 and SQ 52. Utter garbage, as far as I can see. _
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11:14:27 AM, Thursday 17 April 2003

If someone reports a crime committed against them to the police, that person is generally referred to as the victim, right? Is there any crime other than rape where the phrase alleged victim is used? _
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01:13:54 PM, Tuesday 15 April 2003

An astonishingly coherent and reasonable explanation of why progressive taxation is a good thing. _
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03:19:55 PM, Friday 11 April 2003

One thing I've noticed while at UGA is the opportunities that exist for undergrads to participate in research, opportunities that of course do not exist at St. John's, although Johnnies would be great for them and learn a lot. To put my money where my mouth is, I intend to hire a Johnny as my summer lab tech. Roberta and Ms. Blits are helping me scout, and the announcement will appear in Horizon, but here it is for the blogmass. Tell your friends.

Lab Tech at the Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Summer job working in an aquatic ecology laboratory with a St. John's alum. Primary responsibilities include processing biological samples under a microscope, with additional opportunities in lab and field work. No experience necessary, just an interest in science. Pay $7/hr. Flexible hours would allow you to take classes on campus.

Contact: me _
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11:09:14 AM, Friday 11 April 2003

I spent last night with 3 ancient computers, software designed by the Army Corps of Engineers, a machine that could very easily take a finger off, and lots and lots of dirt. _
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01:55:43 PM, Thursday 10 April 2003

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