Yes, indeedy, that’s a real turtle in that photo. I rescued her from a grisly death-by-automobile back in November, and then I tried to take her photo while she hid from me. She’s beautiful, don’t you think? (Matt assures me that this turtle was a she, though we didn’t perform any exams. And I won’t get into how my rescued turtle prompted a conversation about turtle mating and genitalia. Let’s just say male turtles are shockingly well-endowed.)
I’m deep in grant-writing mode this week, so today’s Up/Down post is a rather nerdy version. I want to tell you more about the grant and my work, but I think I’ll save that post for this weekend. So let’s get to the list!
Up, Up, Up!
* Writing. It’s awesome, even when it’s hard. I love it.
* Because of the grant, I have the opportunity now to read a ton of new literature, which has been really fun. I’m learning a lot, and it’s more exciting than doing experiments. Next week I’ll be back to doing more experimental research work, but for now, I feel like I’m back in school with my mountains of papers to read.
* The comment feature in Adobe Reader! I love being able to leave myself notes inside PDFs while I read papers on the computer. It’s also great being able to highlight passages inside an electronic copy of a PDF. Technology, I think you and I are becoming friends.
* Thesaurus.com. Am I the only one who loves looking up words in the thesaurus? The other day, I was looking up synonyms for “aberrant,” trying to see if I could find another way to say “aberrant behavior” in reference to some results. But the options made me laugh: freaky behavior? mischievous behavior? naughty behavior? No, I don’t think any of those options work for grant-writing. But the idea is delightful! Naughty flies indeed.
* Did you listen to this week’s episode of The Splendid Table? There was a great discussion about extra-virgin olive oil, which really exemplifies the point of Caveat emptor.
* I am almost done with my current book, Sex at Dawn, which is terrific because I was showered with new books at Christmas. Sex at Dawn, while fascinating and funny, is also really long. I’m ready to be done with it.
Down, Down, Down:
* Yesterday it was 70-something degrees. Today it feels like 31 degrees. Oh, Texas, could you please pick a season and stick with it for five minutes?
* I have a bunch of money-related chores and errands to do. I hate it when my money makes me do work after I’ve already worked to earn my money!
* I am starting to fear that I lead a very boring life. Or at least it appears boring from the outside. Because I am always thinking about things, it actually feels very busy, almost overwhelming, from the inside, where I live. Which is why writing is really the perfect hobby and occupation for me.
How is your week winding down?
1 comment:
have you tried papers (mac) or readcube (pc) for organizing/reading papers?
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