Thursday, January 12, 2012

Thursday Up/Down: Nerd Version!

Hi There 

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:

Unknown said...

have you tried papers (mac) or readcube (pc) for organizing/reading papers?