Hammer Time

I won a very solid rock hammer this afternoon. Always the lucky one, me. This unexpected stroke of good luck happened at an information session held by Conoco Philips, whose representatives are now on campus trying to lure us geoscientists into their ranks. Whether that will be my fate remains to be seen...

The upstairs neighbors' TV has been keeping Shan and I company for the past few weeks. It's a very reliable companion, within hearing reach every hour, every day. While we admire its tenacity I doubt if either of us would miss it even the slightest bit were it to burn in the flames of hell. Perhaps the rock hammer could be put to good use here?

A few nights ago I dreamt that an old friend of mine had started wearing eye shadow and eye liner (but no mascara!). That wouldn't be odd, per se, if this particular friend of mine wasn't a guy who, so far, hasn't shown any interest whatsoever in make-up.

In that same dream, my cell phone had gone haywire. Whenever I'd try and call someone, the phone would decide, in some random process, who would actually be called. Of course, that would never be the one I planned to call. Don't try to tell me technology isn't evil.

Which brings me to the topic of instruments. Scientific instruments. I'm not the biggest fan, at least not of uncooperative instruments. One particularly uncooperative instrument in my lab didn't start to behave until it got to go to California for a month. When it came back it finally started working again. That's one clever instrument if you ask me.