fun facts to know and tell

Today I learned that this little bugger, the elephant shrew, is actually more closely related to an elephant than a shrew. Crazy biology!










And congratulations Aires and Blue Eyes (and the Como Zoo) on your twin tamarin babies!

Boston is a dumb place

How can I say this? Well, it might be a place full of smart people, but this whole bomb scare is so stupid that if you average it out, makes Boston about as smart as a lizard. Seriously, if you wanted to plant a bomb, why would you make it a GLOWING SIGN shaped as a cartoon character. Given, they obviously don't watch late night Cartoon Network but that this ad caused this level of panic means that America is officially scared out of its mind.

First, here is the classic original from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." This brings me back to freshman year High School, I can almost say every line! (Note 9:23, that is where the LED ads came from)



Now watch the video below and decide for your self. If you saw this little glowy LED thing, would you call the cops? And if you were the cops, would you close down half of Boston?



Here are some funny comments from Digg.com about the whole deal.

"Perhaps whoever did this reported them in order to get them noticed, finally."
"The beauty of the story is they had been there for weeks, no one noticed or cared, then one day they flipped out."
"Hey the band Boston called... they said they're changing their name to a less embarrassing city... like Shoboigin"
"boston, i am flipping you off as hard as i can."

Also as usual, BoingBoing has more.

1mile

It's official..



Now 1mile.com is taken. Wayback from Internet Archive shows them being taken since 2000, so I doubt I can get it from them for cheap. So I need to add an addendum to the name. I also found a problem with onemile.com. It is a crummy holder page for an "Internet solutions" company with no working links that has not been updated since 1999.

So, I want to go for something like...

1milestudio.com
1milestudios.com
1miledesign.com
1milegraphics.com
1mile_____.com

I like studio the most. I could also get 1milestudio.com and onemilestudio.com. That way I don't have to make my name into, "Thats one, as in the number one, mile studio dot com." Same deal for design.

or I could do an odd domain, like

1mile.us
1mile.biz
1mile.info

but, ick.

Anyway I am excited, this is a big first step! Now comes the hard part, getting the thing running for real.

Not quite working right

Yesterday at on the way over to my house for a great chili dinner with my parents and aunt Megans car threw a check engine light and started acting funny. I decided that I would take it down to Northfield for observation. Also, Winnie has not been acting right (see previous posts) so now I have her too!

First the car - it seems to be having some issues with the fuel/air mixture as far as I can tell. Given that thats mostly what an engine does (mix fuel/air, explode, repeat) that is smarty talk for "I have no idea, but its slow a dirt." It gets kind of jerky at times, and the solution seems to be more throttle or less depending on the gear, RPM, and speed you are going. So kind of random. I am optimistic after today though, (knock on wood) it seems stable as long as you don't gun it.

I wish I knew how much Megan could get for the saturn. A 95' SL1 is going for between $1,200 - $2,500 online, but this car got in a bang up and has body damage to the front right fender, and when some one broke in earlier this year and stole the CD player they jacked up the center consul. Have I mentioned that it's not all that reliable either? If this current issue ever gets fixed, I am of the mind to clean it up as best I can and sell it for whatever I can on craigslist. Get a mid 90s VW or Toyota or Honda or Volvo or something. Or nothing if this one can last 3 more months! (See our countdown at the bottom)

Logos

Here are my top 3 names and some design ideas for how they would look. The font is "Eurostile" with some web 2.0 curvy going on. I like the orange/gray/blue colors so I went with those.



Moving parts are what you look at, just as the upside down "i" is so obvious in this logo.






brickduck.com is open so I could just drop and "studio" or "design" after that. I like the "duck footsteps" walking away, but it still feels a little to boring right now. The name is so fun, it should have a fun logo!





What is 1 mile? The last mile between you and people looking at your webpage. Um, its how close every one will be no mater how far away you are. It sounds good? Anyway I like the lines a lot, so much energy. And the number "1" vs "one" gets shown off.

Oh my eyes...

... they are burning. Brains have the awful tendancy to be tiny in animals, which means you have to get really close to see all the stuff in them, which means your eyes get to suck up all those yummy chemicals they preserve them with.

16 1/2 hours until test time. Favorite term so far- "ipsilateral lateral cervial nucleus".

How about a poll? Should I a) go to zoo class on Friday afternoon, or b) play hooky to attend Dr. Spence's lecture at the MVMA convention in Minneapolis? There are worse reasons to cut class, after all... But it's zoo class, the best one! Hmm, conflicted.

Pooh's eye is still weepy today, so she is off to the vet tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that it's nothing serious.

Robot Logic

This cracked me up. Via Dad.

smile

Check it out- the biggest smile she's had in a week (could it have something to do with all those new toys on the floor?).











Two dog night (sorta)

After I earn my DVM

On Friday, we had a panel presentation/discussion about internships and residencies after graduation. Unlike med school, vet students can go into practice right away, but post-graduation programs are becoming more and more common as more vets are specializing rather than just being general practitioners. For those who really want to specialize and become board-certified, you pretty much have to do a residency (3-year program). For those who just want more experience learning all that stuff that they don't have time to teach in school (like, er, most surgeries), you can do an internship (1-year program). Both pay poorly, if at all. The average starting salary of a new graduate is almost $60,000, but the average paid internship is $16-$20,000. Nothing to sneeze at, but compared to what you could be making.... But then, of course, having done an internship can increase your starting salary when you do start by $20,000, and can make it easier to find a job.

Residencies are pretty much all at academic institutions (like the U of MN teaching hospital), but internships can be either in academia or in private practice. The scary thing is that, depending on what you want an internship/residency in, you are sort of at the mercy of the match program as to where you'll spend that year or three. One speaker said that she spent the year in New York while her husband was in Minnesota, and that she kind of liked it that way because you don't have enough time for an internship and a relationship at once. Plus, depending on the program, you may or may not have time to ever visit home. Another person said that out of 365 days, she had 2 days when she didn't need to be at the hospital.

So. Since I'm interested in exotics, and since Minnesota doesn't have a whole lot to offer, I sort of planned on doing an internship. And a lot of people really recommend it. And it's "only" a year. But geez... it starts to feel like there's never a light at the end of the tunnel. When do I get to start real life?

A quick update on the Pooh- she is still acting funny, but she's also had a weepy eye all weekend, so that might be making her a little punky (I think she pushed one of the cats too far- I knew she'd get a thwack in the eye eventually). That is looking better today, so maybe she'll perk up. I'm trying some new anxiety-fighting tricks, too, including this goofy-looking thing called a Focus Ball. It's like a Kong, but with softer, more chewy rubber and a canvas rope. I stuffed it with yogurt and froze it, and it kept her busy for nearly an hour. She now has a big smile and is acting like my normal girl. Must remember to refill the Focus Ball... Lucky girl gets to go play with Heidi's puppies all day tomorrow while we study neuro. Step 2 in anxiety reduction may be enrolling her in Paws in the Park doggy daycare. It's right near school and the apartments, so I could drop her off in the morning and pick her up at lunch one or two days a week. It is a little pricey, but if I can get any effective alternative to drug therapy I'm all for it.

Do you remember?

Do you remeber when life was like this??

Mmmm, sticks...

Megan adds: Mmm, green...

Names II

Ok, this list has been chewed over and over and here is what I have now. brickduck.com is still available, but all the rest need addendum's. I like "studios" now, lest constricting to future business.

MovingParts
1mile
Brick Duck
2nd Floor

+ Designs
+ Studios
+ Works


MovingParts makes me think of my initial project, flash based web pages.

1Mile is about bridging the last mile to people through web pages.

BrickDuck - I wanted to use bricks because of the apartment. I asked megan what she liked in names and she said, "ducks?" heh

2nd Foor - again, apartment driven.

My brain hurts

Tuesday's exam is Neurology- probably my least favorite subject this term. Immunology is really interesting, and Physiology is at least understandable. Pharmacology is not yet very cool, but it has the potential to be my favorite class this semester (besides zoo class, of course). We haven't started Organology, but I can at least understand how knowledge of what normal kidney cells, liver cells, etc look like will be important in practice, considering you can take biopsies of those from a live patient. But why will I ever need to know that the lateral geniculate nucleus is in the mesencephalon if the only way I'll ever see it again is if my patient's brain has kindly removed itself from the skull and cross-sectioned itself onto a microscope slide? Seriously. The third-year I was working clerk duty with assurred me that they'll repeat the important stuff again next year, and for now just memorize it all and regurgitate. We seem to get that advice from upperclassmen a lot...

Apartment Spy shots

Well not spy shots really, but I went back today to take some photos of our loft, still called "A Building" as of now. The area highlighted is our 942 sq feet in the world. I could not get any shots of the inside today in the light (the light on inside last night made is very easy).





The Next shot is of the apartments from the front. I am so glad we are not living on third floor (jail cell small windows) or the first floor (welcome to my house University Ave!). 2nd floor is juuuust right.









After that is a close up of how the windows look. Of course double insulated and super energy efficient. "C" building has white, "B" has tan, and our "A" has green windows.















And last here is a shot of the new trees and a good view down the side our our bilding (volvo for scale).

Loft!!

In an act of sponteneity yesterday, we drove past the lofts to see the progress since last we visited in November. We were surprised to see lights on in our actual apartment! Even though it was -4º, we parked the car and ran out to the median on University Ave. to take a look. We saw our kitchen, with cabinets and all, and the amazing wooden ceiling. We have track lighting, and we have windows (not just plastic sheets anymore)!! Oh so many windows. We've had the floor plan since July, and we've looked at the building a dozen times since, but it hasn't really felt real until now. It has WALLS! It's a real, inhabitable space (almost). The rest of the building has a ways to go, but it's sure exciting to know that our place is nearly finished.

After we saw our place, we went into C building again to see how that's changed. There were people hanging out in the party room (with a really cute bull terrier- I think he and Win should be friends), and we got to see the studios. They are actually in use now, with traces of art all over. It looks like it's going to be a great community and a nice place to retreat from school. I never realize how truely atrocious the architecture is at the U until I go somewhere that is well-planned, like Olaf or the lofts. The vet school is a celebration of the beauty of concrete. I'll leave it at that.

Anyway. We have windows and bricks and walls and lights and beams and a kitchen! I hope the next few months fly by... only 92 days to go!

One test down

The physiology exam went fine yesterday- now time to start studying for neuro!

The more exciting news of yesterday is that I finally met the professor who's in charge of the Holisitic Medicine club, and we're going to have a "formational meeting" next week to see if we have enough people to get started. If so, we'll plan a few speakers and wetlabs for this semester, and we'll be able to start up right away next year. Ideas for speakers so far: local holistic practictioner, aromatherapy researcher, nutritionist? Last semester someone came to talk about being a vet for Organic Valley farms, which was really interesting. Perhaps he'd come back for this. An acupuncture wetlab would be awesome...

Anyway, hooray! I hope we get enough members. I am the default president, since I'm the one who wants to see the club revived. I guess have a knack for taking on dead/dying organizations.

Not much movement on the insurance front- they just asked for more paperwork and documentation, including some that they should already have received. I was hoping this process would go quickly. I need a new computer soon.

This afternoon is clerk duty shift #2. I will post stories when I get home!

Skiing day 5

Well I have been skiing every day since monday and things have gotten a lot better! My stamina is up and I can go 3-4x as far. I think most of it is just having your lungs adjust to taking in O2 from the cold air.

Today the cold was not a problem though. My weather widget says that it is 37, but I am sure its 40 out in the sun. Part of me hates it because there is such precious little snow on the ground now anyway. They also "groomed" the trails with out getting new snow on it, exposing rocks all over the place. So the loop I liked to do is now ruined until we get new snow. I can go back and forth on a short loop, but thats not as fun. Forecast calls for snow tomorrow though.

But the benefit of warm weather skiing is that its not cold! First off went the hat. Then the jacket. Then heck, I look silly enough in my hamburglar long-underwear so it was topless skiing for me! It felt great, the sun was warm and who knows I might even get a january tan!

You know its not cool anymore when...

You know its not cool any more when you see spinning rims....







....on a ford windstar minivan.


Now you have expensive new rims AND a less valuable car. Congratulations.

First test of 2nd semester

First Physiology exam is tomorrow... The main focus is action potentials and how nerves and muscles talk to each other. Favorite terms of this section include:

-Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz equation
-sarcoplasmic reticulum
-MEPP

I don't think any of those would make good business names, though...

I did sign up for the reptile lab on Saturday- we have an iguana to necropsy! How cool.

The physiology question of the day today was "How do jet pilots prevent blood from rushing to their heads ("red-out") during a dive and blood from rushing out of their heads (blackout) during a climb?"

Anyone know?

Win and I went to the airport dog park after class today, where she made lots of new dogfriends. She was particularly smitten with a big Basset hound, who was easily the most athletic Basset I've ever met. He was almost as quick as Winnie!Unfortunately, I was ready to leave way before Win was, so she decided to dart away as soon as I pulled out her leash. I left her and went to sit in the car, in hopes that she'd realize I wasn't going to chase her down, but she just took off on her own to find new dogs to play with. Goofball.

Anyway, back to the books...

Names

Names edited throughout the night:

MovingParts Design
1mile Design
First Mile Design
Hat+Feather Design
Snow+Hat Design
Red Feather Design
Blank Feather Design
Blank Hat Design
Bird Steps Design
HayPenny Design
3Gears Design
2nd Floor Design
1st Floor Design
Still Paced Designs

It's all business

So I have decided to do two things for jobs at the same time. One for the short term (gata pay those bills now!) and one for the long term that probably won't be making much money right away.

First, I got a job at the caf for 15 hrs a week at 7.15 pr hr refilling milk and drinks three mornings a week. Some how this strikes me as much better than serving food to people, much less stressful. I for sure get a free lunch during my shift that will be great. Mmm variety.. I also bet I get to take home some left overs too, but I won't know about that until I start. I start after second semester does, so thats the 7th of February I think.

The second path I will be going down is starting my own business. I have always been toying with it, but now is the time to do it. We had a talk with the Northfield Arts Guild this morning and the graphic designer who will do part of our post card stuff get $60 pr hour. Now I knew that was the price range, but for some reason hearing it at that moment made me say, 'hey, I wana do that!.'

So, step one of course is finding a name. Here are a few that I brainstormed with Derek:

• "Feather Hat"
• "Bird's Eye"
• "Water Wheel"

What do you think? Favorites? New ideas? I tend to obsess about these things.

The URL becomes a problem. Since this would be a web based affair (doing mostly flash based web pages to start) I would need a good one, but all of those and more have been bought by squatters who just sit on 1,000s of them. Even if you add "design" to the end, only featherhatdesign works. So you have to do "designs" or something like that. What do you think? I like Feather Hat because it brings to mind "a feather in your hat" and its a nice short thing to say. Of course Google "Feather Hat" and you get all sort of sill hat photos....

If this works, I could feasibly work at home next year making my commute *zero* and get a new (tax deductible) computer. It would work well around the VRC too, because I could make all my own hours. We will see...

Winnie

I am not going to add much more about Winnie and her problems but what I think she really needs is stability. And to her, that means Megan and I being around her every day. That is still three months (and six days) away so for now she is going to have to tough it out. She gets so happy and good when she is down in Northfield with Megan and I, but then mopes when we are apart. She has become more defensive too. So the long term solution is more of Megan and I in every day life and knowing that is not going to change suddenly (like now), and I think she needs a short term help to make it there.

An open letter to an anxious puppy

What does it take to make a relatively normal dog scared of plastic bags? Fans? Doors? Men?

I'm sorry your first family took you from life inside, with mom and dad and the baby you loved and protected, and moved you to an outdoor kennel when you were only a baby yourself. I'm sorry you spent your first winter- your first Christmas- outside and alone without your family. The only car rides you went on were to the vet, and you only got one 15-minute walk a day for exercise. You live inside with your family now, and you got to go to three Christmases this year. Car rides are exciting because they mean dog park or store or school, and the puppy we know can run all day and still not be tuckered out. It took about seven months to get you reliably housebroken, but we finally did it, after about a thousand trips outside (every hour) and lots of treats and praise. I know we'll need to do it all over again at every new place you go, but that's okay.

I'm mostly sorry that every time I leave you, you think I'm leaving you forever. Your first family never taught you how to be alone- they only taught you that you get left alone all day, and that you never know when you might see your people again. I need you to trust that I'll be back, and in the meantime learn that it's okay to do all those things you do when I'm with you too. Your fear of being left is getting in the way of all your loves. Remember how much you loved visiting everyone in the morning and at lunch? Suddenly all your friends are scary again, like the first day we got to school. It's like you are seeing monsters everywhere that no one else sees. Sometime last semester you learned how to turn off your anxiety, and learned how to relax in your kennel and ignore the things that frightened you. I don't know what changed this semester, but I understand that you are not figuring out how to do that anymore.

I'll always do my best to keep you from the things that scare you, but what I want most is for you to learn how to react to scary things like most dogs do. I'm sorry your first family left you with so many ghosts, but we'll work our way through them all. We got you eating like normal, and got you housebroken, and got you to stop chasing cars every time you see one go by. Now we just need to help you learn that being alone doesn't mean you'll be alone forever.


Please properly socialize your puppy, everyone, and don't make your dog be a lawn ornament.

Poor corgi girl

Poor ickle Winnie. I've tried everything I could think of to make staying in the school kennels easier for her- stuffed Kongs every day, her own bed from home, Comfort Zone (Dog Appeasing Pheromone) spray, Rescue Remedy and Borage flower essences, taking her out every hour, and covering her kennel so she wouldn't have to see the scary fan in the window...

... and her anxiety just keeps getting worse. Although she doesn't have accidents in the kennel anymore, and doesn't usually bark when I leave now, she's just been replacing those with other anxious behaviors. Today was the last straw- she didn't want to go visit any of her favorite people when we arrived at school, and for the first time, she planted her feet at the entrance to the kennel building and refused to walk in on her own. Then, when I came to get her at lunch, her Kong was untouched, and there was a puddle on the kennel floor. I thought she'd peed, but I looked closer and realized that it was drool- she'd been panting all morning from being so upset.

So today I finally called her vet and told him that behavioral modification wasn't working, and wanted to know what to try next. We decided to put her on a drug therapy program of Clomicalm and Alprazolam (Xanax). Clomicalm is a long-acting drug that's used for dogs with separation anxiety, and that probably won't start working for at least 2 weeks, possibly not for a whole month. The Xanax is the same stuff they give people to handle stressful situations, like for people who are afraid of planes before they have to go on a plane flight. That one is short-acting and works within about 20 minutes. Hopefully what will happen is that the drugs will allow Win to stay calm enough in stressful situations that she'll learn how to deal with the stress on her own. Then we can wean her off and she'll be our normal happy puppy all the time :-) Wish us luck!

Democratic Response

"It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President's message, nor would it be useful."

Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight

SOTU in 15 Minutes

Thanks to Drudge I got to read the whole state of the union address in about 15 minutes! Arn't you jealous. I can just see you all now, watching the TV for the next 45 minutes or however long this takes, hearing all that talking, waiting through the endless clapping.... I guess I miss who clapped for what. That is always fun.

I just got to skip the BS and find the good stuff. I was surprised to see him go after social security again. I guess he wants to lose this debate two times. At least it can't really hurt his polling numbers this time.

Also, I don't want private health insurance, I want government health insurance. Private insurance sucks, tries to screw you, and is fantastically expensive. Me "shopping" for health care won't drive down prices, and giving millions of people tax-free cash to buy it sure as hell wont make it cheaper.

Good news! He said global warming was real. Good for him. Also vague language about cutting oil usage (20% less gas use 10 years was good) but at least he made NO mention of hydrogen. (Oops ok, I had to go watch this part live. Funny part, Cheney laughing at something at the 20% gas idea and EVERY ONE standing at global warming! It was slow, but the did!). We will see if anything comes of it. With a democratic congress, maybe.

The rest of the speech was terrorist hu-ha. He has no idea who he is fighting any more. Suni, Shia, Syria, Lebanon, Talaban, Al Queda, Iraq, Iran... its just this whole geo-political mix that we are fighting some how. I will let the real blogs tackle this mess. In short, this President has gambled away all of his political capital using American wealth and power. There is nothing he can do to fix it.

One last thing that he got right - however not the way he thinks. He said this:

If American forces step back before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi government would be overrun by extremists on all sides. We could expect an epic battle between Shia extremists backed by Iran, and Sunni extremists aided by al Qaeda and supporters of the old regime. A contagion of violence could spill out across the country – and in time the entire region could be drawn into the conflict.

This is what critics were saying before we even went to war almost four years ago. Not because we would step back before "Baghdad is secure," (note language, Baghdad is the only problem now) but because we were going to smash a country to bits and hope it came together like we hopped it would. Ug. Now it is happening and I seriously doubt there is anything anyone can do at this point. At least militarily.

Popping in

My lack of a laptop has dampened my desire to blog this week, but I can't let Chris out-blog me for too long ;-)

School is suddenly getting very busy... On Friday morning, we have our first exam of the semester (physiology). On Friday night (technically Saturday morning), I have my second clerk duty shift from 12 AM to 6 AM. I may sign up to do a reptile handling/necropsy wet lab at 9:00 AM Saturday morning, but am not sure if I could handle that little sleep. On Tuesday morning, we have our second exam (neurology). On Tuesday evening, I'm on call for Foal Team from 7 PM to 11 PM. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I'll be attending the MVMA convention (for free! yay for being a student!)- particularly the Friday afternoon talk: "Issues & Answers To Inability of Owners to Afford Increasing Costs of Pet Care - Susan Spence, DVM". Mmm, networking...

So forgive me if I don't write much in the next week or so, but I will make it up with good stories!

A convenient "Inconvenient Truth"

"An Inconvenient Truth" was just nominated for a best Documentary Oscar. And thanks to AutoBlogGreen I found a way to view it online for free! The one annoying aspect is the seizure inducing ad at the bottom, but if you drag the window down so that the bottom 10% of it is below the horizon of the screen you will be ok.

This was the first time I have ever seen the movie, and it shocked even me. The absolute clarity of his core argument is amazing and indisputable. I was also compelled to watch it after reading this Guardian article entitled, "Global warming: the final verdict". The short version is that the 1000's of climate scientists are in 100% agreement that the earth's temperatures are rising dramatically and it is caused by human activity. The debate now is what will happen. Keep in mind that this article is thus a conservative look at scientific debate, because the stuff they are arguing about is not even in the report.
















This graph was the main point of the movie in my opinion. It is from the journal "Science" and it is the CO2 concentrations in core samples of Antarctic ice going back 650,000 years. (top graph) Below that is the corresponding temperature that the ice was formed at, taken from the same samples. He points out that the ups and downs are normal, and each one equals an ice age. Or more personally, a mile of ice over Minneapolis. But the CO2 concentration is now are higher than they have ever been in 650,000 years, and the red line is the projection for the next 90 45 years. Temperature will follow.

I have also been frustrated by the idea that the earth is so big, how can we be messing with it? He pointed out that on a normal globe, the atmosphere is thinner than its coat of varnish. So all these people living under a strip of varnish can and are changing its chemical make up. That doesn't seem to hard to picture in your mind.

So, either go rent it, or watch it for free on your computer. I watched it in two parts even.

Andy Griffith hearts terrorists

A young Neo-Con Opie gets told whats what by Andy Griffith.


(via boingboing)

Skiing!

Thanks to the 4-5'' inches of snow on the ground I got brave enough to take out my poor neglected X-country skis and check out the Carleton Arb to see if it was skiable. And it was! But was I? This photo of a photo is one of me about 5 years ago at my last race for South West - regionals Sr. Year. Notice the stylish form fitting 2-piece purple spandex suit.

My skis are still in good shape but I hardly recognized them. It has been 2 or 3 years since I saw them last so it was like finding and old friend. Once I got out on the trail it was like riding a bike, a little wobbly at first then back to the old rhythm. But thats about where the easiness ended. I am so fantastically out of shape that I could hardly get going, and had to stop every few minutes. I am not sure how far I really went, but it can't have been more that 3k. But after words I had the physical ill effects of a 5k sprint race!

Heart burn √
Urge to vomit √
Taste of blood √
Coughing √



Wee!! It hasn't felt this good to feel this bad for a long time. I ran to the store and got some liquid antacid and that put an end to the burn right away. I will take it before next time like I used to do. The others will go away too as my lungs acclimate to the cold air and you know, working for a change. Who knows, I might even get up to going 5k again!

The skis stay in the car, so I can hit the trails when ever I have time.

Hard week

I don't have too much more to relay about my break-in experience than Chris has already written... It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day to say the least, but thank goodness I got my bag back with my notes. Rotten that they stole my textbooks- I was expecting the computer to be gone, but the textbooks? If anyone on the street tries to sell you a copy of "Physiology, 3rd. ed." by Costanzo, or "Wheater's Functional Histology", call the cops.

I do have another story to add to my list of reasons why I hate Allina Clinics. On Wednesday, as I wrote, I went to get my Mantoux test done. Basically they squirt a little bubble of stuff under your skin, and if you have a reaction to it within 48 hours, you might have TB. They told me on Wednesday that I could come in any time between 3 and 5 on Friday to have the results read. No need to make an appointment, just come in, it'll take 30 seconds. So, I arrived at 4:20, only to be told that everyone in that department had gone home already. I felt a little bad because, having been on the verge of tears since the break-in, this nearly put me over the edge, and I think I freaked out the nurses. Anyway, I asked what to do and the receptionist told me to go over to urgent care to see if someone there could read the results. Headed over there, and they asked me if I had my paperwork. Uh, what paperwork? I didn't receive any paperwork. "Well, we can't do it without the paperwork." Um... so now what? Some nice nurse said she could go over to the department where I got the test to see if she could find the paperwork. She found it and said I could get in line to be seen by urgent care. ONE HOUR LATER, someone calls my name, and said she could just check my test in the lobby. I showed her my arm, and she asked if I was sure that that's the arm they poked, because they didn't put a mark there. I said yes, I'm sure, she said okay, that's that, thank you. So, here are some new reasons why I hate Allina:

1) Don't make me feel dumb for not knowing your department's hours when YOU are the ones who told ME what times I could come in.
2) Don't make me feel dumb for not having paperwork that YOU never gave me.
3) Don't make me feel dumb for not having put a mark where I got poked, because THAT'S NOT MY JOB. That's like going in for an oil change and having them yell at you for not having brought the oil and filters with you.

My previous reasons for hating Allina include requiring an appointment to be seen in urgent care (so I should know ahead of time when I'm going to urgently need care?), not being aware of the fact that the rabies shot SERIES consists of three shots, not just one (despite making three appointments for me to receive them...), and acting like I made a mistake when one nurse made an appointment for me over the lunch break, then left on vacation for a week and neglected to tell anyone else about my appointment (forcing me to come back to the clinic again later in the day).

All I want is a little apology when they mess up...

So anyway, I don't have TB. Computer and textbooks are still missing. Nothing left to do but start studying.

How could I NOT share this

Caution: This post may never make you ever to think of sheep the same way again. I might have to change my ring tone! Ahhh!!

Theft

Several people have heard about this but this afternoon at 4:45 Megan and Winnie were at the dog park someone took a baseball bat to her rear passenger window and made off with her entire school bag that also held her nearly new black MacBook, school keys, checkbook, school books, and a semester worth of notes. As the night progressed here is how things settled out and what she got back.

• Insurance will pay for the computer and the window after getting their $500 deductible.
• Megan got an email at 8:00 ish from the vet clinic saying that some one had called and had her bag. He left his number and said he worked nights. Megan called him and we went out to meet him at the sewage treatment plant where he worked.
• He had the bag - sans computer of course - but will all the important notes intact, bag intact (minus a bent strap clip), and school keys there. They had taken the checkbook (already void), a notebook of random notes, her colored pencils, and her histology and Physiology textbooks. The Physio book was bought today and still in the shrink wrap. And ate her partially eaten and "disgusting" 100 calorie Oreos. Bastards. Oh and they took her (free) bus map but left the U of M wallet thing it was in.
• Megan and I went to the creepy overlook where Dan (the hero) had found it. There were suspicious people there, but we looked around and couldn't find any more stuff. I took down 3 license plate numbers just in case.

So thats it. Wait a few days to see if the thieves get caught (doubt it) and then go get a new mac book. The upside is she should be able to get the new Core 2 Duo chip in it, more HD space and more RAM.

What's the moral of this story? Never leave your house, or if you do don't go around people. Hiding is the best way to say safe.

New Phone

Well its a little late but I have been playing with my new phone (A Samsung SCH-n330) all night and I wanted to make a video of a ring tone I found.

The story comes from Megan's brother Bjorn who had it left over after he got a new one. (Thannkkk youuu!!!) My first phone was crushed by a car, then I got one from Ladric but that developed a problem where every time it shut off it would get removed from the Verizon network. Then I bought this LG monster for $15 and it is a nice simple phone but it has awful reception (and its my only phone) and poor battery life. So a new phone makes my life much much better!

It has a cool pop up feature where you can see 1/2 the screen until you press 2 buttons on either side and then it pops-up to show you the whole thing. This also acts at a key lock. Bjorn said the reception is not so hot, but if it makes calls then it is 10x better than what I have now!

Here is a video I took on the parents iMac tonight of the funny ring I downloaded for it. I think its hilarious and it cracks me up every time it goes! Enjoy and call me!

certifiable

I am a dork. I just got my very first Mantoux test to see if I have TB (since the primates at the zoo can catch TB from us if we have it). Now I am really excited to watch it and see if I have a reaction. Of course, having a reaction means I have TB, which isn't good, but it would make the next couple of days really exciting. Go, immune system, go!

Show down

Well thats it, I am 100% out of the gallery. Four 16 hr days to set up, 9 days to show. and 2 days to take down. I took lots of footage of both "30lbs" and "This seemed like a job for robots" as well as photos. I am in the process of editing "robots" down into something viewable. I will also post a better (non youtube) version of 30 lbs on mnartists.org when I get around to it.

(by the way, I have started a homepage at mnartists.org/Christopher_Schommer - thanks to the Walker for hosting this great site)

So what did I think of the show? Well it was a great learning experience thats for sure. Making it was very hard this time, I think the show would have been better had I got my act together sooner. But I don't think that could have happened. I had to quick learn how to transfer my creative energy from you're-in-school mode to self-motivated mode and for a long time, it was very frustrating.

Also doing installation work, I could not really sit back and think on the work until after it was up! So changes that I see now that I would have made become lessons for next time rather than structural changes to the work.

"30 lbs" became my last minute favorite. It really came from me - a combination of Shy flower and Average color of campus (link soon I hope), and this pice by Roxy Paine called "Erosion Machine" where he was sandblasting wheather data on to a huge slab of stone to crete these bizarre topographies.

I also found out the the speaker was from Peter Becker Nelson who was an apprentice two years ago. We used the same studio, and he had left it there! Thanks Pete. I have also been interested in mass produced food since I read something about the price of flour over time. I think this is what I read. I bought 5 lbs of flour for $.99 - and at my salary I had to work about four minutes to make that. But flour at many levels is still sacred stuff, just as rice and corn are in other parts of the world.

What I am trying to say is it had a history, something that "Robots" had less of. In some ways "Robots" was a shadow of Rabbit Logic. Sure it had lots of new elements to it, but it never really got to the level I wanted it at. Rabbit logic was so successful because I managed to strip it down to the barest of elements. Me and the rabbit following each other. But this led to many questions and ideas that I loved.

With "Robots" while I think my concept was strong I fumbled a little at execution. The key element - the fact that the robot was live and right behind you - was lost on most people. Every one kept saying that they wish they could see it and I rebuffed them. Now I am not so sure I should have. The concept was to make people think about what they see projected, be it news or anything media related. You understand it to be reality but you are content not to see it. So when I show you something that you could see but can't, what does that tell you?

Well I will tell you what they told me, they hate it! They want to see it, and rather than giving it to them I strictly forbade it. I think people would have gotten more out of it had I had the robot visible, but located some place else in the gallery or the world. That would further distort the sense of scale. Top down camera - it looks really small. POV camera, it looks car size, and then you see the real thing on its 4'x6' stage.

People kept suggesting that I have a hole in the wall, but I think I would do away with the walls entirely. Or have 3 walls like "30 lbs." Something that would allow people to approach the action and see my "pet" working live. It would also make maintenance a hell of a lot easier.

Phew long post. I think this has been more for me than any one else. I have to make sure I sort this all out in my head before I move on. More pics and video of everything as I get it done.

Minnesota at Mizzou

I'm back from the land of ice and exotics! Six of us from the U of MN CVM went to the Exotics Symposium this weekend at the U of MO CVM. We were a little nervous when we saw the weather report that predicted freezing rain all weekend, but we figured hey, we're from Minnesota, we can handle a little rain. We left around 4 on Friday and arrived in Columbia around 2:30 AM. Driving was fine until we hit Missouri, where we counted over two dozen cars in the ditch (at least three of those were on their roofs). We just took it slow and made it in okay.

The Symposium started at 8 on Saturday morning, so we slept from 3 to 7. When we arrived, we couldn't even tell where to park because there were so few cars around compared to what we were expecting. People trickled in throughout the morning, but considering the emptiness of our wet labs, I think a lot of people called the trip off entirely. We did meet students from Wisconsin, Colorado, and Tennessee who managed to drive in too.

Anyway, the morning started off with a talk about reptile medicine, then a really cool talk from a vet who did a total hip replacement on a snow leopard. There were a couple more talks about reptiles, then lunch, then the wet lab about parasitic fish diseases. It was fun learning about the various parasites and how to test fish for them, but the fish we had to test were a little too healthy... Not a single parasite to be found! Oh well- good for the fish, I guess. After that, we had a talk about the avian respiratory system, which unfortunately made most of us fall asleep. We got a few angry glares from the lecturer, but hey, if he'd rolled in at 2:30 AM he'd be falling asleep too.

We all went back to the hotel for a quick nap, then went to a comedy club with a bunch of other people from the symposium. Comedy was mediocre, and the food was terrible (deep-fried ravioli?), but it was fun to hang out anyway. The best part was skating around the sidewalks of Columbia and breaking the car out of its case of ice at the end of the night.



Sunday lectures were more fun for me because they had a little more focus on small mammals (rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs). The vet who wrote Exotic Pet Behavior was there, and she had to fill in for a lecturer who couldn't make it, so we even got a bonus small mammal lecture. It was nice to hear from someone who thinks that just because they are hamsters/bunnies/ferrets/etc doesn't mean they don't deserve the same quality of veterinary care that cats and dogs get. I suspect the more popular exotics get, the more willing people will be to pay for their vet treatment just like cats/dogs/horses/etc. We just have to find a way to fight the "But it would only cost $6 to buy a new one!" mentality...

The last wet lab was Avian Necropsy, and since the weather was so awful only 4 out 10 people who'd registered actually showed up. We had our choice of what bird we wanted to work with. I chose a big fat red-tailed hawk, and someone else from Minnesota picked a barred owl. The coolest part was dissecting out the eye... No wonder they can see so well! About 2/3 of their head is occupied by eye. And unlike our eye, which is just a ball shape, raptor eyes are shaped sort of like a mushroom. The front of the eye is relatively small, and the back is a lot bigger. This allows their retina to catch way more light than ours can, and makes their peripheral vision really amazing. We also got to look at bird lungs and kindeys and air sacs... very cool.

So we left there around 5, and were pretty convinced we would have to crash in a hotel somewhere once the weather got too bad. Thankfully it was above 32 degrees for most of the time we were in Missouri. Once we got to Iowa it was just nice friendly snow rather than the nasty ice that we had on the way down. We got in to St. Paul around 4:30 this morning, then had a tour of Como Zoo at 11. We got to feed crackers to Clover the giraffe and go behind the scenes to look at all the critters. I had my first experience of having a lion give me a look that distinctly said "I would eat you if I could get my paws on you." Incredibly scary, and wow does it make you respect them. We talked to the keeper of the Tropical Encounters exhibit and discussed what kinds of issues we can work on over the next year. She said that, any time we want, we can come over with a pair of binoculars and watch birds to find their nests... How fun!

And now it's back to classes. I'm ready for weekend already!

*twitch*

I will update more soon, but for now, just this:

In the past three days, I have a) tested a fish for parasites, b) performed a necropsy on a red-tailed hawk, and c) fed a giraffe a cracker and petted her on the nose.

Awesome weekend. Time for a good smelly bath.

Fireplace

Well its just me and Winnie by the hearth with a big log burning in the fireplace. Ahhh..
Well sort of. I decided that since it was so cold out that now would be a good time to start a huge fire and make up the difference in heat with it. (its 3˚ outside now) When we had our fall party it seemed to work well and the house got hot, but now that its really cold out, I don't think its working very well if at all. At best it might just be heating the house up as is funnels in cold air from outside. This is what every one told me would happen of course, I just wanted to try and see. Its pretty?

Megan is off to the symposium leaving the bear and I home in Northfield. I am going to see if I can't start reading some of my Christmas books in bed so I can stay warm.

Mizzou!

I'm off to Missouri this afternoon for the Exotics Symposium... will post pictures when I get back! Until then... here's some entertainment...

30 lbs

Here is my documentation that I have for "30 lbs" so far, filmed at "Habits of Production" today. This piece consists of a microphone embedded in the floor, that runs to an amplifier cranked up to full volume, that runs to a speaker that is covered in 30 lbs of flour. The flour mutes the sound and absorbs it creating seismic events on the surface. Sorry for the youtube quality, you can see more at full resolution.

Enjoy!

Jobs?

So I am low on the cash. After a semester of minimal work and a huge push to get this show up I am now looking to fill up some of my time with a second paying job. Well, is that third? 10 hours per week with the VRC, then about 2 with art org on saturdays but that is far from a regular paying job. But what kind of job should I get?? Here are my options.

1: Bon Appétit: Yes the caf. My duties would entail taking over a meal line for lunch a few days a week. Pay is $7 pr hour. The benefits of this are extreeeemely flexible hours. I can schedule 12 hrs pr week and then just show up if I have more time and "9 times out of 10" there will be a shift open. I would also get free food. And my commute would be zero, just walk over from Dittmann

The down side is, it's the Caf - something I would not have done as a student. And could I feel good about my self, a recent graduate, going back to a semi-student work environment? "Didn't you graduate?" "What are you doing here?" I get that enough already.

2: The CoOp: Whitney said they still need people. $8 pr hour, hours not nearly as flexible. Free food as well. Edit: oops, they are not hiring right now after all.

3: Chuck and Dons: Pet food store. Kind of funny because that's Megan's traditional digs but I like the store and it would be totally removed from my life now. No pressure. Discount on pet food.

4: Art Store I have not asked if they need help, but that could be good too. More connected to art org as well. Discount on art supplies.

5: Other: Free lance? Web design? It has to be something I can pick up now and either drop like a hot rock come may or keep on going after that from Minneapolis.

What should I do? Email me or leave a note! Seriously!

First day back

Heading into class this morning, I heard an equal number of people saying "Ugh, I miss break" as were saying "Oh, I missed school!!" I fell somewhere in between the two camps- happy to be back, but sad that I had to say goodbye to adequate sleep and relaxation. At least starting this semester doesn't have most of the anxiety that last semester came with- meeting 89 new people, figuring out how to commute, adjusting from Olaf life to Gopher life... Now it's just worries about taking more classes, and having a job on top of it.

This morning we had our first Physiology class, and we sort of had our first Clinical Skills class, except that our professor didn't show up. It's understandable, because the class doesn't actually start until March 20th, but I guess they scheduled an intro lecture that our prof forgot about. Ah well, those are boring anyway. Physiology is the new Anatomy- we have class five days a week most weeks. We have a series of professors... Our first prof bears a striking resemblance, both in appearance and mannerisms, to Howard Sprague of The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D.. My evidence: Dr. O'Grady on the left, Howard Sprague on the far right





















I also trained in on my fishy job today. It should be a nice break from class, and will bring in a little extra pocket money. It'll be a little tiring being at school for an extra three hours three nights a week (especially for Win, poor bear), but I'll adjust.

After class, two friends (ironically named Chris and Lindsey) and I went to Como Zoo to check out the critters we'll be studying in zoo class. I'm excited, my exhibit is awesome! It's also brand new, which means there are a lot of kinks to be ironed out, so we'll have plenty to do over the next two semesters. We've all been assigned a topic to study within our species of interest... Here's mine: "Risks associated with a walk-through exhibit. Veterinarian obligations." Hmm, where have I read about risks associated with a walk-through aviary exhibit before.....? Oh right!

The Minnesota Zoo has a unique open aviary exhibit, in which visitors walk into the habitat itself. The AZA generally advises against allowing visitors to have direct contact with animals or habitats due to the potential of contracting diseases. Dr. Rasmussen stated that the aviary exhibit poses no greater threat for contracting zoonoses (diseases transmitted from animals by humans) than do the wild birds in visitors' backyards. The risk may even be less than outdoors, as the birds' health is constantly monitored and sick birds are immediately removed from the exhibit and treated.

Pages 8-9 of "Disease Prevention and Control in Animal Facilities", written by me last Interim. I knew that made-up class- I mean, independant study- would come in handy someday! I was tickled when I saw my topic. Right up my alley! We're also invited to join our professor for zoo rounds this summer, once a week. Since we'll be living close to Como, I hope to go regularly.

One quick rant about campus police before I go to bed. They can somehow miss a guy breaking into my car and stealing my radio, and yet, when I park in the parking lot just long enough to take the campus bus over to the Minneapolis campus to pick up my new parking permit, they manage to notice my permitless car and give me a ticket. Am I *really* hurting campus that much by parking in an empty lot late in the day when most other classes haven't even started yet? Seriously. *harumph*

GM "Volt"

So this is a little strange and I want to share it. GM announced a really cool electric/plug-in hybrid car today in Detroit. Its the volt. Well its just a concept right now but what a consept! Yes the same GM who was hammered in the recent documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car".

The whole story is from AutoBlogGreen but the short version is that this car runs on electricity for 40 miles and you plug it in at night. But, it also has on board a little 1L internal combustion engine that does not produce torque but rather electricity. This keeps the batteries charge level stable and can fully re-charge them in 30 min. It only runs at a single PRM point so it doesn't waste any energy switching gears like normal cars. It can run on normal petrol, E-85, or put in a little diesel engine, or hydrogen, or natural gas .. anything!

General Motors doesn't believe that there will be any one silver bullet to the energy problem. Instead, the future energy supply will be more regionally diversified and decentralized. Energy sources will be based on what is available locally, such as solar, wind, biomass, geothermal etc. Some future vehicles will be driven by hydrogen, some by batteries, and still others for the foreseeable future will be internal combustion. E-Flex allows GM to tailor vehicles to the energy infrastructure vehicles of a given market, such as biodiesel made from wood chips in Sweden or sugar-cane ethanol in Brazil.(link)

I think that makes perfect sense, and from GM from all places. As for the design of their concept I think it is bad ass but I am sure others will hate it. It looks very American in a good way, but its only as long as a Toyota prius.

Spam Poetry

I thought that this bit of spam was hilarious so I formated it into a poem, cleaned up some of the english, and removed some lines...

"You must be tired, she finally said.

When we entered the Veritorium I was surprised at how big it really was; the electronic replacement eyes that had been fitted. They were gold - The planet-busting hit group called . . .

... an interesting green color. The soldiers crowded close, hanging on
for the public good, it should not be forgotten that I worked for many.

The golden ball, yes. That represents innocence, the pleasures of
fired watch turret. At you - but do not yourselves anger! I aimed to.

Out there where nothing moved."

If you kill a robot, is it murder?

Just a question to the gallery. I have had enough with fixing robot "A" so I switched to "B" for good now. I found the problem that made it DOA on friday night - it was a problem with the battery pack not the robot. Its humming along well now.

I think I am going to shy away from live art like this in the future. A good thing to try but all and all it is too stressful to build and maintain such a complex system for days. Or if I do more of it (because I do like the concept) it needs to be much simpler with far fewer elements. I think that is problem #1 with 'Robots.'

Show!

Show!

Well it finally happened. The show is done. I can hardly believe it. All the work and stress came down to a two hour opening and now nine days of maintaining "This seemed like a job for robots" and "30 lbs." I think I have a lot to digest about the show, and what I think about the work will have to come later. Some pictures here though.

The opening was a great success. There were about 200+ people at the opening and the food turned out great. Lots of honey, jelly beans, bread, cheese, tea, crackers, grapes, and punch. Our music could not come so we can in under budget. Lots of left over honey and cheese and tea for us :D

My part of the opening didn't go so swimmingly however. In fact, I think it has to be one of the single worst experiences of my life. You know those dreams where you wake up in class/work naked? Well I have dreams like that only its show time and I have nothing to show. Well that nightmare became very very real. I will describe the time line, keeping in mind the show opens at 6:00...

5:44 - I sit down to take a few minutes to watch the piece work and enjoy the calm before the show, I made it.
5:45 - As I am watching the robot inexplicably drives right into the wall of flour and beaches it self. I immediately run to open its room to see what happened.
5:46 - I find the robot, clean it of, re-set it and put it back in. It runs into the wall again with out making its "beep" meaning that it is not sensing anything. Its blind and broken.
5:47 - I run down stairs to grab my back-up robot that I built just for this purpose. However I have not attached its camera. So I must #1 find it in my trashed studio and #2 find the glue before I can attach it. I somehow find both and attach the camera.
5:50 - I run upstairs and install new batteries to robot B and turn it on. Nothing happens, it is completely non-functional. I think at this time people are sensing something is wrong. The world is imploding around me. I feel a like being sick. I have no show.
5:51 - I discover that robot A will work if I pinch its sensor stalk together, there must be a problem with it so I again, run down stairs. Hope.
5:52 - Talking my self through everything, I turn on the soldering iron, set up the bot, find a broken weld on the middle of the three wires coming off the infrared sensor, re-attach it, test the bot, and run back upstairs. All in my nice clothes.
6:00 - Drop the bot back into the arena. People start coming into the gallery.
6:02 - After some quick tests (my afternoon of fine tuning was ruined) I closed off the cube leaving the bot to fend for it self.


Thats what I remember anyway, it was all kind of a blur. Megan had to take me for a slow walk around Dittmann and put cold water on my face to get me presentable again, but I was kind of a mess for the entire opening. The robot did get stuck at about 6:30 (because all my tuning was messed up) but Isac one of the prof's sons who is about seven came up to me and announced triumphantly "I was watching your robot and I saw it get stuck!!" He was very proud, it was cute.

Now its working great of course, because I got some time to fine tune its senses. It is still going to take a lot of babysitting. I will be spending lots of time in the gallery this week I am sure. Blog from the gallery next time!

Long time no blog

Since I've been on break, I haven't had too much to write about... But now I do! So I will.

On Thursday night, I went up to the Large Animal Hospital for my first clerk duty shift. Basically, clerk duty is just a chance to follow people around the hospital and help take care of the critters late at night. Everyone in the hospital gets checked on every hour, 24 hours a day. I got there around 5:30 and found the tech who was on duty. She told me about all the cases they had in, and we walked around and checked on everyone. There were two very sick little calves, a few horses, a cow, and an alpaca. We spent most of our time watching one of the calves, because after doing some bloodwork on her, the doctors warned us that "she could crash and burn any time". Eek! Pressure! She was fine at the end of my shift, so I hope she made it through the night okay...

Anyway, I got to learn a few things and review a few things. The tech tried to let me draw blood on a horse, but I couldn't get it- and then she couldn't get it either, which made me feel a little better. I took a lot of TPRs (temp, pulse, respiration rate), which we learned how to do in clinical skills. I was surprised at how relatively easy it was to hear the pulse on the horses... I remember having such a hard time hearing it distinctly when we were learning. So yay, I've made improvement! I reviewed how to take a PCV and total protein, which was good timing because when I went to deliver a senior student some meds for his case, he handed me a blood sample and asked if I knew how to run those tests. Why yes I do (as of 5 minutes ago...), no problem, I'll just run those for you... Mwaha. I got to look competant! He and I chatted a little, and he thought it was really funny that I bred rabbits for show. "A show rabbit breeder? Don't meet one of those every day!"

The rest of the night was just giving hay to horses and cows, and watching that little calf to make sure she was still breathing. Thankfully she never stopped breathing, and she even ate her dinner, so hopefully she'll make it.

So that was my adventure in clerk duty. I have two more shifts over the next semester...

We got almost all of our grades now... Here's where I stand:

Orientation to Vet Med: pass
Professional Skills I: pass
Animal Populations I: pass
Veterinary Gross Anatomy: B
Normal Radiographic Anatomy: A
Veterinary Physiological Chemistry: B
Histology: B
Nutrition: still waiting
Clinical Skills I: in progress
Neonatology: in progress

I am a little miffed at Histo, because I had an 89.3% or something like that... so so so close to an A, couldn't they have been nice and rounded up?? *sigh* The others I'm happy with. I was aiming for Bs, so I did pretty well. It's strange that they only give us straight A, B, C, rather than A-, B+, etc. It doesn't seem very representative that an 80% earns the same grade as an 89%. I shouldn't be so picky, but when residency and internship programs are basing your acceptance on your GPA, why would schools give us less-descriptive grades? For me, the difference between a B- and a B+ is often the difference between taking it kind of easy and working really hard. :-/ Whatever, I won't question authority...

I have another brag that won't show up on my transcript- on the last biochem test, I got a 97%. 97%!!! Holy cow. That's the best I've done on a test in years. Who'd have thought it would be in biochem, where ironically I got the worst test grade I've gotten in years as well? Apparently re-listening to lectures worked well for that class. Maybe I should buy my own voice recorder so I can stop stealing Becca's audio files.

"Habits of Production" opened last night, but I think Chris gets to post about that whole adventure...

Late update with photos

Show set up

Its late and I should be in bed but I wanted to post some pictures of the set up before they become pictures of the show it self! As of now my sound/flour piece is now called "30 lbs" and is done. "This Seemed Like a Job For Robots" is also completed, but wont be done until I do enough testing to make sure its running ok. I did some last night and liked it a lot. This is crazy, tonight is the first time that I have ever seen any of these pieces running fully. Less than 24 hrs before the opening? Riiight. Any way, pictures!

PR

Star Tribune
St. Olaf

update:
northfield.org

Show set up II

I thought I would update on my whereabouts.

- The show is designed and looks great
- The cube is built for the robots, it still needs to be leveled and painted white(er)
- The shy flour base is ready, the pedestal needs to be painted, then all put together
- The robots need to be set up in their cube
- The projectors need to be sorted.

then test, test, test, test, test!

January 5th, 6:00 PM!

Pics later if I have time to take them...

Show set up

Well new years is over and now its time for the set up week to begin. Right now I have done everything (I hope) I can do to get ready for the installation and am looking forward to tomorrow when the work of piecing it all together happens. Last year rabbit logic came together well, and that included invention and last minute thinking as well.

Megan thought of a good title for my flour pile. "Shy Flour" :-D (joke here) I will post set up pics as they go.

2007, snow, and soup

Happy New Year all!

Yesterday, I took the Bear out to the natural lands at St. Olaf to get in some much-needed romping. We got to the far side of Skoglund Pond when it started raining... brr... It was definitely mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful, and I had a very happy dirty corgi. I figured since we were already as wet and muddy as we could get, I'd take her to the soccer fields, too, where she went bonkers. I think she was pretending to be a herding dog, running crazy frantic circles around imaginary cattle. She had a great time!

But later in the afternoon, it started to snow... So we went back up to campus to visit Chris and see how things were going, and then we both took Win back to the soccer fields for some snowy romping. The above picture is from my camera phone. She is still tuckered out today :-)

I was very happy with how the soup turned out! I have a few alterations to the recipe, though:
-they severely underestimate the amount of time it takes for the veggies and barley to cook. The recipe said it takes about 10 minutes for the barley, but I'd give it at least half an hour, but really closer to an hour to get nice and soft.
-more barley! Chris kept adding more, so I think we ended up with almost a cup more than the recipe called for.
-it's really hard to skim the fat off the top of the soup while it's still warm. It's easier to just not worry about it for the first serving, but skim it off after you've refrigerated the soup for a while.
-the recipe doesn't tell you how much water to add... we started with 7 cups, then added more as it boiled off.

Mmm, soup...

Today is January 1st, which marks 3 1/2 years for Chris and I. How should we celebrate?