Saturday, October 27, 2007

October is coming to an end

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." - Albert Camus

Intereting article regarding napping ("Napping doesn't impair nighttime sleep, research finds") which I am glad to see. As the semester wears on I find myself taking more and more naps since I am such a night owl.

The weather here in Michigan is definately fall like. The tree leaves have changed and are falling fast. The temperatures are hovering in the 50-60s. There have been a few chances to wear sweaters - much to my excitment. I was shocked to realize that October is almost over! Where has the fall term gone? School has been busy with midterms (taking and grading). Projects and research are moving along. So much to do...

Well, I better get back to work!

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Cold Snap

"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight." - Benjamin Franklin

The weather has definately changed around here. Last weekend it was in the upper 80s. This weekend it is hardly 60. Of course, the great part has been getting out all of my sweaters :-)

Stargate Atlantis was on last night. An interesting episode with two story lines and some interesting action sequences. There was a lot of funny dialoge (especailly over the fruit basket).

I don't have much exciting to talk about. Because of the recent climate change (and temperature drop) my allergies have been acting up. However, I started taking my allergy medication before the temperature drop so I haven't been that bad off - just some coughing and occational sneeze!

My life is pretty much filled up with research. Two research projects (one for a class) is keeping me busy. I have been hunting down articles from the 80s. Interestingly, most of these articles have only been archieved online back to the mid 90s. Therefore, I have to find either authors who have posted copies of these articles or libraries that have bound copies. Scare part is when the closet library is in a different country (and they actually give you the distance from said library).

Finished another interesting mystery book "Murder of a Botoxed Blonde: A Scumble River Mystery" by Denise Swanson. This is the most recent book in the series (I haven't read the other yet but I am planning too). The book is like many of the others I read - young unmarried woman solving crimes. I liked the humor in many of the scenes and the fact that the main character was often concerned with what other people might think of her or her behavior. This gave the character a much more down to earth feel. Also, the plot was complex that I actually didn't figure it out until the end when the main character figure it out. (I always like it better when I can figure out the whole plot before the end, but that is just my personal preference).

Well, I better get back to work since those research papers are not going to read and summarize themselves. Hmm...maybe I could invent some sort of artifical intelligent agent that could do that for me...

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Sciene, can't live without it

In the news:
  • Nobel prize winners Albert Fert and Peter Gruenberg (in Physics) for their contributions regarding smaller hard drives with great space ("Small is beautiful: Incredible shrinking memory drives new IT"). Without these technology advances there would be no iPods or MP3 players!
  • Even Jupiter has seen a climate change! ("Jupiter Caught in Rare, Calm Period") During a recent "fly-by" from The New Horizons spacecraft has changed the way scientists view Jupiter and has helped them gain important informaiton about the planet.

Not much else to share. School is keeping me pretty busy. However, I am trying very hard to remeber to update my blog! Tonight tv shows Bones and Boston Legal are on. Both are excellent shows and I highly recommend them. Well, I better get back to work...

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Wednesday, Wednesday

So I am sitting here eating (I kid you not) a salad made up of baby spinach, kiwi, strawberries, almond pieces, and a poppy seed dressing. The poppy seed dressing is kind of a cross between ranch and yogurt - odd I know but actually tasty. I never would have thought there was a dressing you could use on both kiwi and spinach and actually taste good.

News items of the day I wanted to point out: It is the 50th anniversary of Sputnik (see article: "50 Years Ago, Sputnik Changed Technology") and the new 1-800-Goog-411 appears to be available (sounds interesting, but not really a service I have ever used).

I can't believe that it is already October! Where did September disappear too? It also means that the semester is almost 1/3 over! I can't believe it. Of course, the weather has not been nearly as cold as I would have first guess. The evenings have been almost cold since it usually drops around 20 degrees. However, they are predicting it will be in the 80s for the end of the week (instead of our current 70s). Of course, I am not complaining in the least. I am totally enjoying the warmer weather while it lasts.

Well, I better get back to my work. I have a ton of reading to do and a lot of thinking to do. Ain't research grand? I also have to write the midterm for the class I am teaching. Each time I teach the class it is interesting because I have to come up with questions that test over the same material as before - but are completely new questions. An interesting challenge that I greatly enjoy. Well, until I get around to updating again - Happy Fall!