Fun Video

Today's been an incredibly long and frustrating day in which nothing was accomplished. Not good since all my equipment goes to the Cariaco Basin in 3 weeks. The clock's ticking, and class and TA duties don't slow down. But I'm too tired to bitch about that.

Instead, here's a fun link to a video of various trawls undertaken by the University of New Hampshire. It's funny, and for non-science people, you get to see what it's like on a cruise. Marvel at the ridicously large unweildy equipment! Listen to the lyrics as they outline the many bizarre things that can and do go wrong! Enjoy the utter lack of success which everybody experiences! Um, don't look when they start talking about motion sickness, because they actually show people with vomit in their hands. Instead, focus on the pics of dolphins jumping and the gorgeous sunset at the end. :) Now, these are 12 hour cruises. Try to imagine a month long cruise and you'll know what I did the summer before last. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjTbPtv88sI

Random Update

Just a random update to fill everyone in on news. First, in case everyone hasn't heard the SHC gossip, Bill Brown and Laura Clesi are officially engaged and are getting married in the spring/early summer. Second, Angela is pregnant again. So congratulations to all the SHCers who are moving forward with their lives.

I'm still trying to work on my thesis but, true to form, everything that can possibly go wrong with my thesis is going wrong. I still don't have any useable data from experiments, and I need to get a part in before I will have good data. Hopefully the part will come in today or tomorrow. Then I've got to race to get my experiments done before Brad takes the equipment on his cruise to the Cariaco Basin in mid October. Oct. 15 is my absolute last date to be done. I'm confident I'll have all my Dosidicus blood done by then, maybe not all the Loligo though. It just means I won't be able to go up to Cooperstown over Columbus Day weekend like I hoped. But hey, if it means that I'll actually have data, I"m more than happy to stay here. Plus, I'll be able to analyze while Brad is on the cruise. Here's hoping that's how things turn out....

Irish Fest

I went to IrishFest this weekend and had a blast! I went on Friday night with four other girls from the Bio Dept. to see two bands play. The first band, The Fenians, was really good. They played a lot of traditional Irish songs, and some songs that the band had written. I bought one of their CDs and I think I"m gonna burn it for my dad for his birthday next month. We didn't really listen too much to the second band because 1) it was mostly modern music (less fun) and 2) we were hanging out with The Fenians. We actually ended up hanging out with the band for a couple of hours and scoring some free Guinness in honor of some radio DJ who had been working in Newport for 30 years and had just died.

We went to an Irish pub and finally got some dinner at like 10:00 ( they had good shepherd's pie, mmmmm......). And then we went to some woman's 60 ft yacht and hung out for an hour or so. Nicole and Amy had befriended her earlier at the concert by dancing Irish jigs in the aisle. Then we had to drop the band off at their hotel and head back to Kingston, so all in all, I ended up getting home at about 3 AM Friday night. It was a very fun, very random night.

Also, in completely unrelated news, I officially submitted my proposal to the graduate school this afternoon!! Right before I did it, a yellow jacket stung my foot, which is still painful and swollen. :( I think it was the universe's way of reminding me that my research never goes smoothly......