"the planet has a fever"

Lately I've been doubting my decision to become a teacher. The teaching courses at this university (and I'm guessing any university) leave something to be desired for one thing. But for another, and probably the most important, I've been participating in what they call, "Observation Hours". This term speaks for itself, but it doesn't tell you exactly what you observe and I'll tell you what I observed. I was sent to a high school where the student's were supposed to be jolly and the teacher enthusiastic. And it was true. The students were jolly, and the teacher was enthusiastic... just not about biology. I've never seen a more interesting display of student disruptions and teacher retaliation.

"All right guys, get out your packets... now!"

"Mr. So-and-so, you're rude [sniveling chuckle]."

"Sit down Jane Q. Student."

"You can't make me sit down."

"That's true, you are a butch. Look at you... you're a butch."

Look of utter shock from me.

"He can say that... he's my neighbor."

I don't know and I don't care who your neighbor is, but that, for me, is slightly... how do you say... out of control? So you can imagine my panic when I realized, that's right, I might have to deal with Jane Q. Student and I'm not going to be her neighbor. And taking advise from Mr. So-and-so, who sat in the back of the room and chatted with the baseball players while I was trying to teach gene mapping, isn't my idea of a terribly credible source. Anyway... that all changed on Tuesday when I went and observed at a junior high. My friend, Andrew and I showed up during lunch (Hawaiian haystacks, in case you were wondering) but this teacher wasn't bothered. I looked around the room and from what I could gather, this teacher was a caver and... dare I say it... loved to scuba dive. As he sat explaining to Andrew and I that he was the coach of the local swim team I noticed that he kept switching which hand he was eating with. Then I asked, so, "do you cave dive then?" To which he replied, "Only after dead bodies." That's right, this teacher is a member of the search and rescue and a paramedic. He continued telling us about his experiences, where he's been, what he's done, how he fooled the entire class into thinking he'd caught a bat in the school hallway then used a paper bat to scare the daylights out of the brave few who came to get a closer look. "I'm not known for my honesty around here," he dryly explained. He started talking about the field trips his students participate in and all the other things that he had planned for the year. "THIS is what being a teacher is all about, " thought I. And my confidence in teaching began to restore. And continued when the students came in and happily contributed to a review for the state exam. I liked that teacher and his class. And now I'm thinking I want to teach middle school despite the fact that I've conveniently blocked out most of my experience there. Besides, teaching the water cycle might not be that bad after all...

mis·ci·ble
–adjective Chemistry, Physics.
capable of being mixed: miscible ingredients.

p.s. I'm a new aunt! Welcome to the world little Ash!

think about Le Chatelier’s Principle to answer this question

Apparently I've been dated. Seriously. And I'm not that old.


This weekend I was rockin' out to some excellent Howard Jones (thanks brooke) tunes in my nifty rental car with an excellent sound system when my passenger said to me, "Howard Jones? I don't recognize him."


I must admit that this was shocking to me. I mean, people don't have to listen to Howard Jones but I thought that they'd at least know him.


And then today, I was writing the word "granular" which reminded me of "glandular" and then "Angeler" and my brother's impression of Tony Danza on Whose the Boss? came into my mind, "Angeler, it's glandular!" Sheer hilarium.


So, in keeping with tradition, I turned to the person next to me to share the hilarity. She asked me what I was laughing at, so I began, "So, you know Whose the Boss? Did you ever watch that show?" And her reply was equally as shocking: no. My goodness! So I continued, "Well, you know Tony Danza?" And again!: no, I've never seen that show. Confused, I mumbled something about how I was laughing about somethingfunnybrotherimpressionerumfbllm... and trailed off before it became abundantly clear that I had been dated!

I don't know how I feel about this. What's next? A generations who knows nothing of Bill Nye the Science Guy?!?! It must not be! kel and I are on it though. Never fear.

a·nach·ro·nism

1. The representation of someone as existing or something as happening in other than chronological, proper, or historical order.

2. One that is out of its proper or chronological order, especially a person or practice that belongs to an earlier time: "A new age had plainly dawned, an age that made the institution of a segregated picnic seem an anachronism" (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)

"i've still got it"

I love conversation. I do. I frequently blame it on the fact that I am a member of my family and that's the way the genes crumble (somehow I feel like that phrase only works with cookies). Still, any way I try to explain it I come back to the unmistakable fact that I love to talk and more importantly, I love to talk with other people (notice that I'm cleverly excluding the obvious fact that I talk to myself all the time... wait... oh shoot...).

And as you all know, I can rarely keep a good conversation, especially when the person I have talked with is worth being quoted, to myself.

And, for me, this is why life is worth living, because there are people like this in the world.

Enjoy:

"I'm just a big, dumb, hot guy."

This one was just as good in context as it is out of context.

"Coconut smell is like nuclear weapons. It should be outlawed."

The jury is still out on this one.

And some dialogue of a conversation on Valentine's Day:

"For example, I ask people, 'If you were a blueberry, what would you like to be in?'"
"Easy. I'd be in a pancake."
"Well, I give them certain options, of course."
"Oh... sorry."
"Would you be in a muffin, pie, or cheesecake?"
"Bleh, cheesecake... definitely a pie."
"Pie?!? No, no, no, a muffin. I would be a muffin."

And I've asked several other people that question since then and can you believe it?!? Everyone has wanted to be in a muffin! I would love to hear a good argument for that one! Come on, people. Pie! (And no, I wasn't thinking of Bette Midler's Sesame Street featured song when I answered the question in case you were wondering).

"Welcome to Snome.
In Snome you'll find such creatures as the Bi-icorn and the Diclops. In fact, I saw a Diclops riding a Bi-icorn through the meadow the other day.
I can see that you are a visitor here.
I'll let you digest that while I play the pan flute."

And this one... well, I guess this is what comes out of my brother and I trying to spell words with only 12 Scrabble tiles to choose from. He almost got away with it too.

la·con·ic
–adjective
using few words; expressing much in few words; concise: a laconic reply.

how exact do we have to be on these things?

After attempting to have a philosophical conversation (and wishing to high heaven that I sounded like one... a philosopher that is... no success) my philosophy major friend threw out the word "fiat". He was talking about (I would say "we" only I think that would give me much too much credit for the random poorly articulated comments I was making) whether or not there was an absolute ethic or not and whether God was the instigator of that ethic or merely another being that followed that ethic. Is there an ultimate good and bad? My friend believes that there is an absolute ethic. But he explained to me that whether or not God was the creator of this ethic or simply has an obedience to this ethic was something he still had to think about. A wonderful question and one that does not shake my understanding of God in the least. In fact, by trying to understand God in this way and considering such a question, I find that I can come closer to God. Is it strange that it doesn't matter to me what the answer to this question is? My friend thinks that that it is, and that such an attitude is the basis of one of the major flaws of having philosophical discussions at all: that my opinions and actions won't change as a result of the discussion. I felt powerless when I tried to respond to this and my rebuttal sounded something like, "Yeah, but in the end... does it really matter if we change or not? Is that our goal?" What? What does that mean? Anyway... Needless to say, he looked at me strangely and said, "And that is why we don't ask these kinds of questions in church."

Well, perhaps my aspirations to become a philosophy graduate student are proving to be more difficult than I first believed.

Still, I found one man who has a possible philosophy on one of my biggest soap boxes. And my friends, perhaps he is right? His is the philosophy I feel is the closest to mine so far. I'll share:

"...miracles cannot be in contravention of natural law, but are wrought through the operation of laws not universally or commonly recognized..."
-J.E.T.
(let me know if you would like a full citation)


And so, without further ado,

fi·at

1.	an authoritative decree, sanction, or order: a royal fiat.

2.	a formula containing the word fiat, by which a person in authority gives sanction.

3.	an arbitrary decree or pronouncement, esp. by a person or group of persons having absolute authority to enforce it: The king ruled by fiat.

[Origin: 1625–35; <>fierī to become]

these things take forever

Not to complain, but to complain. I'm a little weary of students saying, "I'm no good at biology." Seriously, folks it couldn't be further from the truth. I mean, I can understand saying, "I'm no good at remembering the Kreb's Cycle perfectly" or "I'm no good at sequencing the genome of a nematode." But seriously folks, you're no good at biology? You ARE biology. I hate to break it to you, but that means you were born "good at biology". Biology is intuitive no matter who you are. Really, I'm not joking. So! What do I tell the student that says, "I don't know... I'm no good at biology"? Seriously... what do I say? Today I said, "No, I won't have that said in this discussion section. If there is anything you learn from me this semester it is going to be that you are good at biology. Folks, if you are struggling with a biological conundrum, just relate it to yourself and think, 'What would I do in this situation?' and 90% of the time, you'll do the same thing that a bear, deer, or fish would do. We're all the same. What makes sense to you will make sense to them." And it's true. If I find myself without food the food that I normally eat, I'm going to find the next best thing. If in fact there is nothing with which to replace my food, I'm going to go look for a place that does have food. And if I never find food, I'll go extinct. Intuitive. Anyway, that's all I have to say about that.

And I said "caveat" today... I couldn't help it... it kept coming up in my head. After I said it, I apologized to the class. I think they were a little confused to be honest.

"don't change your plans for me"

I was sitting in a forum about art. Normally people don't go to forums but ash got me started and I haven't been able to break the habit. Admittedly, some of them are worthless, but most of them are actually very good. I learn a lot of things I wouldn't learn if I stayed near the biology building all day, so I'm glad. The woman that spoke, Marilyn Chandler McEntyre of Westmont College, read from a poem of her own creation about Van Gogh's painting The Sower. She read, "...vesper song over the hum of the wheat field...". I had no idea what that meant, and granted, her poems about some of Vermeer's paintings weren't my particular favorites. But this poem seemed to make a lot of sense to me and I liked where it was going especially because even though I didn't know exactly what the word "vesper" meant, I got the gist. I liked that. Poetry and I get along only sometimes and this was one of those times. So I celebrate.

She was very articulate and it was a great juxtaposition to the "That's the same thing how science does," from a professor the day before which was equally as fascinating. What causes us to make those kinds of mistakes? Maybe we're just going too fast. Really, maybe we should just slow down (advice I can give but can't apply). Sometimes I wonder why I didn't study linguistics. Really, sometimes I wonder why I didn't study art history, sociology, psychology, English, or philosophy. Not that I'd excel at any of them, but I feel like I'm missing out on so much.

Anyway, here's the definition for your information if you're like me and need it.

ves·per

–noun
1. (initial capital letter) the evening star, esp. Venus; Hesper.
2. Also called vesper bell. a bell rung at evening.
3. vespers, (sometimes initial capital letter) Ecclesiastical.
a. a religious service in the late afternoon or the evening.
b. the sixth of the seven canonical hours, or the service for it, occurring in the late afternoon or the evening.
c. Roman Catholic Church. a part of the office to be said in the evening by those in major orders, frequently made a public ceremony in the afternoons or evenings of Sundays and holy days.
4. of, pertaining to, appearing in, or proper to the evening.

"i'm objective like that, you know?"

What is the love affair with the word caveat? As someone who delights in the use of interesting and unusual words, you would think I might like this kind of thing. But I'm actually confused.

Don't get me wrong, I like the word caveat. And when I heard it the first time I vowed to use it whenever I got the chance. But I find that the chance comes less often then everybody seems to think. Still, I must have heard it three times yesterday in rapid succession (if you can count going from a meeting, then to a class, then to another place rapid succession). I wouldn't even turn my head if it wasn't such a posh way to say "warning" or "caution". For example, "We assigned them this topic with the caveat that they may have to alter their understanding of their own religion and other religions alike." I have a feeling that we might be doing us all a favor when we keep it simple, saving ourselves from having to translate this word each time it is used: "ok, so 'caveat', right... ok, that's Latin for 'cavere' which literally means 'let him beware' which we interpret as 'warning' or 'caution', therefore, the students should beware of the fact that their paradigm might be altered... got it!" and by that time everyone has moved on. Perhaps they decided to log that word away for future analysis. I know that's what I do.

Watch. Tomorrow I'll use this word and I'll like the way it sounds and have to reevaluate my opinion. Hmmm... Well! Until then.

But upon further analysis, this post sounds pretty snooty. So, let it be known, if I could use words like "caveat" and "paradigm" correctly without having to look them up first, I might have room to talk.

ca·ve·at

–noun

1. a warning or caution; admonition.
2. Law. a legal notice to a court or public officer to suspend a certain proceeding until the notifier is given a hearing: a caveat filed against the probate of a will.

kettle corn and 5 am

I have a good friend leaving this good country for a short sabbatical in England. In answer to your question, she isn't going all the way to England to be a nanny on Berkeley Square only to get tied up in all sorts of nanny nonsense. No, no my friends she is not. But in light of her leaving, I went to visit her before she goes away. And as I walk in, I see another friend of hers and mine putting the finishing touches on a delicious looking sandwich-on-a-roll (they're always the perfect size). The look of the sandwich was fantastic and prompted me to say, "My, that looks like a delicious sandwich." And as our friend lifted the sandwich to his mouth with a confident nod, my England bound friend's mother replied, "Uh, well. I don't know about those antiquated rolls. They've been in the refrigerator for who knows how long." The sandwich hesitated there just before the bite; I could see the wheels turning inside our friend's mind. But in the end, bite he did.

I laughed. But I have no qualms. Sometime ask me about boiled pizza and the like.

an·ti·quat·ed
–adjective

1. continued from, resembling, or adhering to the past; old-fashioned: antiquated attitudes.

2. no longer used; obsolete or obsolescent: The spinning wheel is an antiquated machine.

3. aged; old: Feel free to eat the antiquated rolls.

reckless abandon

Today was the day we went in search of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty. We set out this morning.

But this is what it would end up looking like for us, more wintry and cold.

And I had a song stuck in my head the majority of the time (please indulge me here):

What I wouldn't give if you could have it all

The sun that's going down

The bed that breaks the fall

The cradle and the bow

So you can take comfort now

You can take comfort now...

Sometimes a heart can break and make it's own relief

The way the cold dark night invites the fire thief

He wants to show us how

So we can take comfort now

We can take comfort now...

Thank you, Hem.

And we also stopped at a place I've been wanting to go to since I learned about it in fourth grade history. I can't believe I've never been until now.

Promontory Point. Indeed, my friends, we stood there in the bitter cold appreciating the silver placard. I'd made it. Check that one off the list. Check. Check.

a·ban·don

–noun
a complete surrender to natural impulses without restraint or moderation; freedom from inhibition or conventionality: to dance with reckless abandon.

Lloyd George is a cool cat

After the others had grown weary of the game, my friend and I continued to play what I was told was called "Take Two". I'm sure you've all played this game before. You use Scrabble tiles all face down in the middle of the table. You rush to make words before the next guy says "take two" at which time you take two more tiles and the game goes on. Anyway, the details of the game aren't necessarily that important. But my friend and I were playing, as the others had grown weary, and both of our tile grids were migrating into the other; it was taking an awful long time . I learned a lot of words during the game, but this one was near the very end and the word "shoal" stuck out to me.

shoal

–noun
1. a place where a sea, river, or other body of water is shallow.
2. a sandbank or sand bar in the bed of a body of water, esp. one that is exposed above the surface of the water at low tide.

I had used the word in my grid but had no idea if it was even a word. "Erm... eh... is this a word?" The others examined my tiles.

–adjective
3. of little depth, as water; shallow.

"Of course not!" laughed my competitor, "what does it mean then?" I could have sworn that I'd read it somewhere, but I couldn't pull up the definition. "Uh..."

–verb (used without object)
4. to become shallow or more shallow.

Then, someone came to my rescue. "What?!? That's a word! Seriously, you guys..." and he rattled off his definitions. He was so frustrated at our ignorance that he was slightly incoherent and I couldn't quite make out what he was saying.

–verb (used with object)
5. to cause to become shallow.
6. Nautical. to sail so as to lessen the depth of (the water under a vessel).

And indeed, it is a word, or so says the dictionary. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use this word again sometime. I mean, noun, adjective, and verb! I can't resist.

p.s. if you knew this word already and your intelligence is feeling slightly insulted as a result of this post, please send it my regards and express my sincere apology.

good things happen to good people

Last night I came home and decided to read a bit before I went to sleep. I find that I decide to do this at the worst times of the day. This particular time was 2:11 am. Yes, I should have been sleeping so that I could get up early and check my old tests and annotated bibliography score and then give a Biology 100 review session, but... well, I have no real reason. I wanted to read. I guess that's enough.

I began where I left off in Daniel Pinkwater's The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death where Walter and the gang set out with Osgood Sigerson in search of Rat's Uncle Flipping. And all of a sudden Sigerson said this, "I'm going to go reconnoiter," just after leaving a security guard trapped in cocoon of scotch tape (part of the plan, you know).

So:

re·con·noi·ter
v. To make a preliminary inspection of, especially in order to gather military information.

We can thank Todd for this one. He's the one that suggested the book to me, you know, to read when I needed to think of something else. I don't know if he meant so early in the morning, but hey.

I'm so lucky to have people looking out for me.

should have been word of the day in february

So, I was having this conversation with my friend, amethyst. She said she had a contribution for the vocab list, and since I was only coming up with scientific words that mean but one thing and one thing only (I love science, but seriously), I decided I'd take the English major's side of things.

me: I was going to tell you something... oh!
please make a suggestion for the vocab blog
do you have one right now?

ame: i do
do you want to know it?
ludic
bess taught me

me: who is bess?

ame: my computer

me: ha ha ha
her name is bess? that's great
so... tell me the story if you would

ame: i was reading bourdieu and he said "...quasi-ludic"
and i said "bess, what does ludic mean?"
and she said "lu-dic: loodik adjective Formal

showing spontaneous and undirected playfulness.

ORIGIN: 1940s: from French ludique, from Latin ludere \'to play\', from ludus \'sport\'"

i didn't ask about quasi cause i already knew and then i used that passage in my paper

me: very cool

and so, there it is: ludic. So how many of you knew what that meant? And even more intriguing, how many of you have used this word?

because International Cinema had technical difficulties

So what am I supposed to make of the guy sitting next to me in the library using a lighter and a hunting knife to sear his recently incurred wound? I don't think I'd think twice about it except for the fact that he has also been talking to himself, or the computer really, ever since I got here. There's really nothing inherently wrong with talking to the computer, or yourself, while you work, but adding the searing wound bit makes it different... maybe. Ha ha ha. The best part is that I heard the *snick* of the lighter and looked over just in time to see him realize what he was doing and scan suspiciously around for any sort of library official. I also got a lucky glimpse of the wound: a small nick on the middle finger of his left hand. That explains the frustrated, "Dangit!" coming from his direction a few minutes earlier. Ah, when you've got time on your hands.

Ooo! Ooo! And I just witnessed my first guy being excited after getting a date! No joke, I thought all that discussion about having to pump yourself up before asking someone on a date and then feeling triumphant when it actually works out the way you want it to was all fable! I mean, I knew that's probably what I'd have to do being the person that I am, but I thought guys were much too suave and understandingly confident for it to be really true. Perhaps I just thought it was a story they told us girls knowing that it might make us feel, you know, a little more special. Now that I say that outloud, it sounds quite naive. Well, I'm glad to be proven wrong. And indeed he looked triumphant. That's enough to make anyone's day! My friends, my day has been made.

ex‧ult‧ant  adj.
exulting; highly elated; jubilant; triumphant.

dec·li·na·tion n.

1. A sloping or bending downward.

This word came first thing this morning after I had finished printing off my assignment and settled in Evolutionary Biology. Perhaps the reason so many of my new words come from this place is because of my professor. They tell me he's the best in his field and is often consulted by the big wigs of Evolution. He's written official papers and debated for several different organizations. He knows what he's talking about. And he's wacky. Today he told us that our campus has a PDA problem and perhaps that's what is what we need to get rid of before people really begin to respect our university. I don't know if his disdain for the subject was more entertaining than his obvious delight in his wittiness or vice versa. Either way, that's what I remember him saying today.

2. A falling off, especially from prosperity; a decline.

But he didn't use declination under that circumstance. Rather, it was in relation to varves, temperate lakes, and meadows.

3. A deviation, as from a specific direction or standard.

So, I'm not sure how much this word will be recalled in my memory or if I'll ever find a practical use for it. Still, there is one more definition that I could find a use for.

4. A refusal to accept.

With this definition, wouldn't I sound snazzy waving that word around like it aint no thing?

(this isn’t just a platitude):

plat·i·tude: n.
A trite or banal remark or statement, especially one expressed as if it were original or significant.

This is a new word for me (which is not uncommon). It was presented to me by a person and at a time where I needed to find meaning in anything. There are those times. I was talking to my friend Cate about it. We were in swim class and as I jumped into the water I got the strangest sensation. I began to cry. Something about being thrust into a wet environment from a dry one must have given me a jolt. Seriously I was holding back the tears. "What the...?" I wasn't hurt, I was just cold. I turned to Cate, "Is this normal?" And we both agreed that there are those times.

So, I'm going to learn a new word everyday and I'm going to make note of the circumstances under which I learned it. Then I'll analyze and see if the way one learns about a word affects the amount one will use it in the future. Here goes.

evolutionary biology

This is my next big project in school. Wolbachia: a crazy little bacterium with a crazy background. You might also find it interesting.

black days

I think I know what this means now.

Maybe I don't like learning as much as I thought I did.

cool things that have recently happened

1. Spanish Fork Canyon ablaze with color
2. My niece was born
3. Memorized 100+ plants (Family, species, and common name)
4. Planning for the big event has begun
5. Market Street was open for Dec. 30th
6. Had dinner with the Kellys (finally)
7. It rained... no worms!
8. Tested our own recipe for Italian sodas
9. Found out that sparkling water is better than club soda
10. Discovered that I have limits, who knew?
11. Got to make popcorn in one of those old machines
12. Learned that I love pepper jack cheese (Tillamook!)
13. Updated my blog

i am the lorax, i speak for the trees

One of my favorite books, as you know. And I think I have a favorite Dr. Seuss moment. It's a good one, so I share it with you now.

A friend of mine, and consequently the friend who gave me the book as a gift, sat down to read The Lorax for the first time. He read it slowly taking in not only the words but the actual colors and contrasts which makes this book fun to read. In the middle of the story, just as the exposition begins to turn into climax, he was interrupted by an obligation he had to attend to and he got up to leave. As he said his farewells I saw that the book was among the items tucked under his arm to take home. "Are you taking that?" I asked, thinking he had inadvertently forgotten it was in his hand. "Of course," he replied, "I have to finish it."

By the way, have you read Horton Hears a Who? If not, let that be the next Dr. Seuss book you read. I think you'll like it.

and it doesn't even involve a bit of meteorite

Have you guys ever been scuba diving in the Homestead crater?

Because if you haven't I think you would like it. Now, I'm not going to lie to you, there is absolutely nothing to see in there. In fact, you're lucky if you can even see. So maybe what I'm actually saying is, you need to go scuba diving and if that means it brings you the the Homestead crater then you should do that too.

Why do I tell you all of this? Because friends, I am scuba certified... for life. That's right, for life. I can go scuba diving where ever and whenever my checkbook takes me. And not only that, but I've now been inside that mysterious crater! Don't you remember being kids and thinking, what is down there? Well, at the risk of ruining the surprise for you... it's hot, and it's dark, and when there are few too many scuba students in there, it's a little crowded and silty (is that a word?).

But my scuba buddy (he's a pretty cool buddy) and I, we won the treasure hunt. Basically that means we found all the plastic sea creatures they hide down there in order to make you feel like you're actually doing something cool. I think we get a candy bar for that.