On productivity

Just like the cows, I'm much! more productive at work with Mozart's music in my headphones. Too bad it doesn't make me (or the cows) smarter too.

Life moves on

My lab mate Steve is leaving town for a Ph.D. program in Arizona. He's such a great person to have around and I'll miss him sooooooooooo much. Good lab mates tend to be hard to come by, for some reason. Best of luck, Steve!

Oh well. Life goes on and maður kemur í manns stað as they say. Here's to my new lab mate who's starting his Ph.D. program this fall! I know it'll be good to have him around too :)

... and Paul was alone in the world*

It somehow feels like I'm alone in the world today. I went into work briefly this morning to start up a batch of samples that needed to be analyzed on the IC and while in the lab I had a little chat with a fellow student. Back at home I haven't seen a soul, except for the cable guy who stopped by to exchange my old broken cable box for a new functional one. The online grad student community that I participate in is eerily quiet, no one has responed to my task list there. Which is very odd.

I'm glad I have my knitting class tonight. Otherwise I would really start thinking I was alone in the world... or nearly so.

On second thought, the fact that I'm able to walk through a university campus full of people and still feel like I'm alone in the world probably doesn't imply that I'm very good at being in the moment. Or have I already become so attuned to the impermanence of existence that even if I see it all around me it simply doesn't register? ;)



* It seems that all Icelanders have read the story of little Palli (Icelandic nickname for Paul) who woke up one day to find his town completely empty of people. You can think of it like waking up in a candy store, only to find out later that eating all that candy only gives you toothache and stomach problems you'd rather not have to talk about!

On homemade chocolate cookies and unexpected happiness

For a while now I've been practicing to make do with what I have. Instead of rushing to the store when I need something, I take a long hard look around me and try to find something that I can use in my stuff. When I'm hungry I don't head straight for the bagel place but go into the kitchen and figure out how to turn what's there into something good to eat. Anticipating this, I did some major grocery shopping two weeks ago and now I'm not allowed to buy anything ready-made. The other day I had an immense craving for something sweet and short of eating brown sugar straight from the jar, I didn't have anything. Or so I thought. I then saw I had cake mix, frosting and crackers. Instead of baking the cake and topping it with the frosting, I took the frosting and put it on the crackers. Thus were born my favorite homemade chocolate cookies to date :)

This practice of mine is in part born from my readings over the past few months. While I was in Houston my friend Paula gave my Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth and I've been slowly reading my way through it. It's a little like yoga (and, for that matter everything else): take what you need, leave the rest behind. And on the whole I really like it. I also read some of Thich Nhat Hanh's The Miracle of Mindfulness and I'm currently listening to his latest book, The Art of Power, on my iPod. All these different readings, paired with some concerted effort on my side to be more involved in my own life and affairs, are helping me to be more present in the everyday. That's something pretty new to me, who usually inhabits the past and future more easily than the present moment. I like the change.

Who'da thought...

... that I was most like her!

Squishy squashy

Photo from Wikipedia.

Here's a question from the culinarily challenged part of me: How do I prepare squash??

Yesterday I bought one like the bottom one (I think it's called winter squash) and another one like the dark one to the right and above the winter squash and I'd love to cook them before they go bad. I learned to love squash in the Philippines; in fact, squash-based dishes are my favorite Filipino food, along with a good Bicol express (oh and I mustn't forget taro leaves rolled up and boiled in coconut milk, that's amazing!). But honestly, I have no idea how the Filipinos prepare the squash. Boil? Fry? Saute and then boil?

I know I can probably look the answer up on the omniscient Internet. Frankly, I prefer my (two) readers' wisdom. I hope to hear from (both of) you!

Science nerdism of the day: Hearing test

Speakers: Bose Noise Cancelling headphones.

Without my hearing aids:

You are about 20 years old

The teen repellent will no longer foil you, but you can still hear some pretty high tones. The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 16.7kHz

Find out which ultrasonic ringtones you can hear!

And with my hearing aids:

You are a dog

Or maybe you are a mosquito, you certainly can't be human. The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 21.1kHz

Find out which ultrasonic ringtones you can hear!

When I wear the hearing aids, I hear 8 through 12 kHz fine, I don't hear 14.1 and 14.9 kHz, I hear 15.8 kHz just fine, 16.7 kHz I can't hear, I hear 17.7, 18.8, 19.9 and 21.1 very well but they definitely don't sound ultrasonic! The highest frequency I don't hear at all.

This is weird. I don't think that the hearing aids are meant to amplify sounds in the ultrasonic range... but they seem to do so for frequencies between 17.7 and 21.1 kHz, but the tone changes. Dramatically. Any idea why, anyone??

Last day of classes

and the madness has begun:

slope day!!

Being almost a senior citizen here on campus, I plan to enjoy the day at a Earth Sciences grad students' BBQ and then maybe go back to work (gasp!) in the afternoon.