The end of day(s)...

Last night I watched Armageddon in preparation for my astronomy exam. For those of you who've not seen it, I don't want to give anything away, but at one point a member of the team of astronaut/drillers on the huge asteroid that is careening towards Earth and will surely destroy all life goes a little crazy and the commander gasps, "Oh no, he's got Space Dementia!"
Also, it was probably worth watching the movie just to see Ben Affleck on his knees screaming "No! I love you!" to a Bruce Willis who earlier in the movie tried to kill him. *shrug* Guess he just likes it rough.

Alternis sermonibus...

Had a girl come into work the other day and the first thing out of her mouth was "You have to help me," stated blandly, as an order.
"Ok...? What can I do for you?" I asked. Technically it is my job to assist people like her. Thus prompted, and without making eye contact, she continues.
"There's a journal article I need that apparently only you guys have."
"Alright?... ... ...What journal is it?"
"I don't remember the name. I have the author and the volume and page number." Well alrighty then, I guessed I'd do my best. Try to wheedle something else out of her to go on.
"Ok, can you remember anything of the name of the journal or the article?" I inquired, stepping up to the challenge.
"Can't you just look it up with what I gave you?" she demands, aimlessly fiddling with my pen.
"Well, no, not really. A bit more information would be good."
"I think it was "veterinary medical" something...", says she. Well yes, if I were cold reading you, that would have been my first guess as well...
"The Journal of Veterinary Medical Education?", says I.
"No."
"The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association?"
"No."
"The Journal of Veterinary Medical Sciences?"
"Yes. That's it."
"Good!" How I love success.
"That's what I was going to say but I thought it was wrong."
"Alright, well we do have that journal, and since you know the volume you need, it shouldn't be a problem to find."
"Well that's good because I'm just so sick of all the trouble I have to go through every time I need to find something in a journal!"
Yeah... That sure sucks.

Once there was a way...

I'm tired of not sleeping. Or maybe I'm just tired.
"But Renee," says you. "You know it's your own damn fault if you don't go to bed when you should and/or don't practice effective time management."
"But shut up," says me, in a really grumpy tone of voice because, I don't know whether or not you got the memo, but I'm tired!

I am looking forward to summer like you wouldn't believe. I'll be working a lot, and it won't be fun work (maintenance, scanning...ugh), but I am still looking forward to summer like you wouldn't believe, even despite that.

In other news: Waiting impatiently for the things I planted to start coming up. Couldn't tell you why I feel the need to rush my seeds more this year as compared to other years, but I do. I want plants!

Things I would like to do this summer...

1) Sleep
2) Work
3) Write (KA, Aiden, Sci-Fi shorts, begin new serial?)
4) Get back up to speed with Spanish
5) Prep for GREs
6) Decide where my life should go from here
7) Read (6+ books)
8) Practice guitar
9) Play with cats/teach Jif to walk on a leash
10) Horticult

And now for some culture...

I am having a love affair with this song. It's hilarious. I will tell you before you clickety-click the arrow that it is explicit in a variety of ways and will introduce images into your mind that you will never be able to expunge, so... Don't say I didn't warn you.



Julian Casablancas is kinda cute, and I like his clothes, and I think his voice is great; but if you see him without the glasses and from the side, he kinda looks like Zach Braff. Also, he's 31? What? Talk about well preserved. He looks like a kid for gosh sakes. But anyway, I have been listening to 'Out of the Blue' and '11th Dimension' all week, and I suggest you give them a try.

Spring Break Photo "Thursday" - Pt. 5

Look everybody! A bog.

Spring Break Photo "Thursday" - Pt. 4

Another stereo of a USBG orchid. Love the delicate purple.

Spring Break Photo "Thursday" - Pt. 3

American Indian Museum - Washington, DC

Spring Break Photo "Thursday" - Pt. 2

Stereographic set of one of the many orchids at the US Botanic Gardens
Aside: I'm getting a lot better at getting that angle of separation just right, and that really pleases me.

Spring Break Photo "Thursday" - Pt. 1

Atlantic Ocean off Assateague Island

Disconnect...

Last night on the bus to the observatory two girls were sitting behind me. They got to talking about the upcoming Astronomy exam and how hard the last one was, and one girl admitted that she never goes to the lecture. She then adds that it's all in the book anyway, so she'll just read that and she'll do fine on the test.
Ok, nothing wrong with that I guess, if that's how you roll.
About ten minutes later in a completely unrelated conversation about learning styles, the same girl tells her benchmate that "Yeah, like, I can't learn anything by reading a textbook. That just doesn't work for me at all. I'm an art major so I need to see and hear it..."
Huh...