The Return of the King and ...shopping???

We saw the movie tonight. It was very good, just like the first two. This one left out much more of the details including how Gondor learned that its King had returned, the healing of Faramor, Eowyn and the others along with the cleanup of the Shire when the heroes returned.. It was heavily focused on the battle scenes and deficient in my opinion on some of the other goings on. I was a little disappointed in that, but I suppose at 3 hours they couldn't do much more. STILL, in its entire 3 installment form, it was pretty much everything I might have wished for in a film version of the tale I loved so well in my teens. We will be buying this one too when it comes out, because they are all worth re-seeing and two without the third is not complete.

~~
What is the world coming to? I am about to blog about shopping?????? Oh my, oh dear... my head has taken a giant vacation... should I be worried? ....
.......
... nah..
I have five more days of all play if that is how I wish to spend them...


I did a little shopping while we were at the mall waiting for the movie. The husband was patient and very much on almost "date like" behavior mode. I was very careful not to abuse that mood.

Though I am not particularly fond of shopping malls, I did have a couple of gift certificates - one for Victoria's Secret which got crowded and I left with only two items purchased and the majority of the gift certificate still to spend- and one for a unique tiny little silver jewelry shop (that is a favorite of mine on those rare occasions I find myself at the mall). At the silver shop I found two different pairs of earrings to satisfy the feminine side of me that likes wearing jewelry that is slightly incongruent with the normally tailored dress or classic casual to downright boyish wear. (Both pairs tasteful, but not for the timid - big fat sculpted oval silver hoops, and black onyx South American/South Western Native influenced, dangly ones- not chandeliers but difficult to miss). I also gave into an entirely impulsive (decided and on my wrist in less than two minutes- something rather out of character for me) purchase of a pewter bracelet engraved with a Celtic design -which called out to me as I passed by and feels like it has always been mine.

There is a side of me that isn't externally expressed often enough- especially in a house full of males and a group of friends that includes more males than females..
I don't like New Year's resolutions much, but if I were to make one, it would be to make sure that I play enough in the new year (something desperately missing from the past year or so) and use all the sides of me- including the one that likes occasionally indulging in purely feminine pursuits.

yourDictionary.com Top Ten and.

Top Ten Words of 2003 - and top ten of 2003: names, phrases, youthspeak; Top - mispronounciations by Bush, best new product names, worst product names, Enron inspired words, internet words, sports related words, word trends....
There are many amusing things here.

Plumbing.

Plumbing occupied much of my thoughts on Sunday. It was laundry day for the entire household and I am the washerwoman. We had extra laundry from the holiday, plus some things that I knew would be needed in the weeks ahead. There were about double the normal loads to wash.

In the afternoon after several loads of laundry had been done, I started to walk into the half bathroom that is located next to the laundry room and immediately had soaked socks and feet. Water covered the floor of the bathroom, the carpeted hallway entry to it and part of the laundry room. Looking for leaks I couldn't find any, but cleaning it up I found the wastebasket next to the potty had a bit of water inside it as well. Towels, rags, and a large bucket-full later, it was semi drying in the bathroom, but hopelessly soaked into the hall carpet.

Something like this happened several weeks ago- a single incident with a tiny amount of water on the floor and we thought perhaps the toilet seal was leaking, but it didn't happen again so we decided to simply keep an eye on it. It was only a few paper towels and a little sponging to clean it up- not a big deal.

The husband and I puzzled over the source early Sunday evening, but couldn't come up with a good answer. Because it seemed to be under control, we returned to our previous activities.

A little later I was on the phone to my father and I heard what might have been the washing machine draining, but it was quite loud so I said I had to check and there were massive amounts of water overflowing the toilet- washing machine water with soap!! I have no idea why or how and don't know a thing about plumbing. I shut the water off. I shut the washer off. The water pouring out of the toilet bowl finally stopped, but it wouldn't drain- not even using a plunger. Finally I turned the washer back on and let it start the spin cycle and everything in the bowl returned to normal- by itself. We plunged out the rest of the water so it was very, very low in the bowl and left the water in there shut off.

The entire rest of the night, I spent checking the bathroom every time the washer drained. More water came in, and was plunged out when the washer was finished with each load, but it never overflowed again.

I guess we will call the plumber Monday (it is Monday, but I haven't been to sleep yet- so somehow that makes it still Sunday). I keep thinking that the little quake must have shifted something in the pipes and perhaps that was what happened a few weeks ago, only now it is worse. I can think of no other reason that the water from the washing machine would drain and come into the bathroom instead of going out where ever it is supposed to go. I don't grok plumbing at all. Give me something electronic, or electric motor driven and I can figure it out. Give me something mechanical and I can figure out how it works too... but plumbing? Not a clue.

I convinced the husband that we need an expert to take care of this. I don't want to be cleaning up overflowing potties again- even if it is washing machine water!

It was pretty comical though.. two agitated adults watching the water pour out, standing in the little bathroom trying to figure out something to stop it, trying not to get too wet -but being totally helpless. And something about running to watch the water in the bowl - attentively- every time the washer drained, is also amusing to me now.

Operation Dear Abby.net... Send a Message to Our Troops

Operation Dear Abby.net... Send a Message to Our Troops

hiccup in Diamond Bar

Though it was only a teeny little 3.5, there was a quake a few minutes ago in Diamond Bar- a rather large distance away from me to the south and east. I felt a single brief hiccup here. Here it was only a single shake enough to make the big glass door thud, but exactly the sound frequency that gets my heart pumping.
Recent Earthquakes for Los_Angeles

Return... No place like home, but my sister's is a close second.

I love spending time at my sister's home and the holiday was no exception. Even though it rained, the scenery out the window and from the house side of the patio was impressive. They have a heavy spanish tiled roof with a large overhang onto a portion of the patio area. The rain falling from the roof to the concrete below caught the light in the streams of evenly spaced water. It was like strings of crystal prisms pouring down in waterfall fashion.

The days and nights there were wonderful. We stayed up too late; we (I) ate too much; we talked about too many things to remember and probably didn't say all the things we should have . At one point it became my turn to say a blessing or toast and so I thanked the universe for all of us being together and all of the good things that have happened this year.

Wandering blogs and catching up on everyone's posts as well as clicking on a few blogrolls I stumbled upon this pre-Christmas greeting:
SpaceTramp

I thought it was quite well done.

Twas the Net before Christmas

Twas the Net before Christmas. Version 1.1 and 2.1. Via Whiskey River.

And also this: Norad Tracks Santa

eve before the eve of the holiday.

Everything is wrapped, bowed, tagged, and some things are packed and new traveling music is loaded into my MP3 player in case the husband wants to not talk during the trip down again. His stress, inability to talk about anything
other than superficial, or wishing to not talk at all will not affect me. I refuse to let it.

I spent the evening with Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, Santana, Gwen Stefanie and No Doubt, Rob Thomas and Matchbox twenty and Kid Rock.... though it was primarily Clapton... Though it is "old", I recently purchased "One More Car, One More Rider", the 2001 live tour double cd. (Clapton at some of his best!)

Had my son been home this evening, I would have embarrassed him by dancing around and rocking out while I wrapped presents. I have also been known to play an air guitar riff or two now and then or air drums, though I play guitar for real.. a little bluesy and folksy acoustic. :) I haven't been really dancing with a partner in so long- I honestly can't remember the last time... Husband who has the sensitivity of dirt- says that once you marry the girl, none of that stuff is necessary any more.. I don't know where he got that baseless completely irritating point of view. Dancing is a prelude to all sorts of happy feelings.. dancing of any sort!

MUSIC makes me happy... dancing music, listening music, blues, rock, a little Latin rhythm (Santana style and a few others), even a little tiny bit of rap. I confess here to the world of liking the politically incorrect Kid Rock song "Cowboy"... I know what the lyrics say.. I still like it.. and occasionally I like a few of his ballads. I also like some country, lots of classical.. but when I want a mood lift- blues and rock are my favorites... always (I wish Stevie Vaughn were still alive and putting out new stuff).. But no one beats Clapton for the best guitar around.

If you want to impress me, offer to take me dancing. Let me loose in the passion of a song, hold on to me to do a little partners dancing.. a little disco, a little old fashioned late sixties dancing and a little bit of ballroom. I follow well with a firm hand on my back. I tend to use that Zen focus to zero in on the music and my partner- and no one and nothing else.. getting lost in the music and a partner is on my list of perfect activities- add an early dinner, a nice sunset walk on the beach and that is my idea of a perfect date. I used to say that I could tell how a man might be in bed by the way he handled things on the dance floor.. it isn't completly true, but it was a nice myth to believe in..

So on that definitely un-holiday note (pun intended), Happy Holidays to everyone! This aging LA gal is in an up mood -Clapton is in large part to thank.. and just the general sense of being done with everything I need to do for this moment.

I will raise a silent toast to everyone who has touched my life this year.. there are quite a few of you here and scattered in various parts of the country and out of the country.. YOU know who you are. HUGS to you all.. and by the way, I like mistletoe too... feeling up, racy, not quite howling at the moon sort of thing, but definitely wishing there were someway to share my mood with everyone or at least a someone very special. Alas, this will have to do.

Happy Holdidays -I wish you all joy and love. Be back in a few days.

Listen when you hear the wind, Greyowl- maybe especially for those that drift in after sunset.

People watching.

When we complain of cold here in Southern California, we are really not usually talking about the bitter kind of cold of the northern states. A lot of us put on winter coats when the temps hit the fifties (F).

It was probably in the lower sixties today and sunny, warm enough for me to be wearing only a long sleeved turtleneck and a pullover sweater over my jeans while I stood in line with some last minute purchases. The man in front of me had on hemmed cutoff jeans, a t-shirt, short ankle sox, sports shoes..... and a heavy winter coat. For some reason, I also kept wondering if he had gloves and a scarf in his pockets to complete the picture.

~~
Paso Robles, San Simeon, Cambria etc. are in Central California and I didn't feel the 6.5 quake today, though the women in the dentist's office swore they felt it. It was felt as far south as Orange County.

I was getting several shots of novocain at the time and was entirely focused on not being focused. I heard the news from the dentist when he came back in the room a few minutes later and he seemed quite excited. On a side note, did you ever wonder why dentists wait to ask you conversational questions until they have their hands and dental instruments in your mouth? I guess the alternative of a silent dentist would be worse.

6.5 is a fairly large quake and at least two people are dead. The center of town with its old buildings looks a mess. They were not up to current code and many of them collapsed. I feel sorry for those folks up there with this happening just before the holiday.

I haven't felt any large quakes in Southern California in quite some time. Perhaps I should say that with a whisper.

USGS Map of Recent quake activity in Nevada and California.
USGS Map of San Simeon area of 6.5 quake and aftershocks.

Contest winners?

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The best of British blogging. I checked out some of the blogs mentioned. I know some that are better written, but I don't know what the judges were looking for.. and I guess at least one of the winners has stirred a little controversy.

More finds...

"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed." - Carl Jung

"Our life is what our thoughts make it." - Marcus Aurelius

More: Refdesk.com - Thought-of-the-Day Archive

The RefDesk is a potentially useful site too.

Winter Solstice.

The winter solstice starts at 11:04PM PST on the 21st. There are some interesting facts and speculations about celebrations of the solstice at Ancient Origins: Solstice.

reverse dictionary

While wandering other sites (looking for recent blog posts about the UFCW strike) I found the OneLook Reverse Dictionary. One never knows when something like this might be useful...

Amusing waves.

There are times when I find myself in a similar flow with other bloggers, either because something they said took me on a tangent, or from a random chance and surfing find that I was thinking or doing the same things. It is amusing when I find that I was involved in similar thoughts or doings, because I am reminded that while each of us is unique, the odds of a single person and no one else in the world thinking, doing or feeling something is almost non existent. I am sure this is called by a clever word or term that crosses all disciplines- that I simply don't know... Please enlighten me if you do.

On that note I wandered here: Sketch Blog of the Day: De-Clutter, via Ripples and what amused me is that in the last few days I cleaned my computer desk/hutch area and two collection counters in the kitchen. I have several "piles" of things elsewhere winnowed down to the point that I might be able to see the surfaces underneath soon. And there are other areas that have been cleaned of dirt and clutter.

There are still several stacks of books and notes that are behind me on the floor in various piles that I was using a couple of weeks ago and I have been eyeing those wondering how I will find a place for new bookshelves. But all of this has been done because my mind is sluggish and because I don't have so many irons in the fire this moment- exactly the sort of reason that other bloggers were talking about. There are mostly the mundane things left to be done. I didn't follow the line to see how many other people were clearing out clutter- literally or figuratively.

Mind sluggish

I kept up a routine of posting pretty much daily for several months. The exercise of writing and trying to be either thoughtful or finding something thoughtful or humorous to post about on a daily basis is useful..

But since the quarter ended, my brain has been turning to mush. Of course I can blame it on the finals and final projects, the flu, the season, the little bit of shopping or any number of things, but since I managed to turn out academic essays with all of those things going on, surely providing a few lines to a blog can't be that difficult.. I figure I will simply concentrate on writing something, even the mundane, to get myself back to thinking about writing daily.

It has been a strange week. I have been trying to catch the person at the dentist's office who handles the determination of copayments with my insurance. She was never there. The dentist had said that he wouldn't treat me until she had determined what I needed to pay. I got fed up and called the insurance company directly. They emailed me a 12 page schedule that I will simply take with me on Monday to my appointment. I was very happy with how easy that was.

But then I discovered that I had forgotten a payment to someone and it cost me a pretty sum in late charges. And I found the note that had the list of things that needed appointments and realized that none of them will be able to be accomplished during this break, except for the dental stuff.

My son with the timing usually attributed in jokes to insensitive males, has broken up with his girlfriend of many years. He gave her an anniversary gift, a birthday present and then a few days later said they were done. I guess that means no holiday present.

The reasons have mostly to do with her wanting to think about the future and him not feeling like he ever wants marriage and family, though he allows that he may change his mind in ten or twenty years. He says since she wants what she wants and he doesn't, it wouldn't be fair to her to continue dating, so he ended it. He says there is no one else he wants to date. She said there was no one else she wanted to date. It was a serious relationship. They have been a couple since his sophomore year in high school. She was a nice gal and I will miss seeing her, but there is no way that I thought either of them were ready to be settling down to a marriage.

Ups and downs- all of life is always ups and downs... The trick I guess is to make sure we are present in the moment, so we recognize the good moments when we are having them.

The Lord of the Rings.

I wish I could say that I have seen the last film of the trilogy, but alas I haven't... not yet anyway. The first two films were everything that I wanted from this visual telling of the tale that I so enjoyed. I read Tolkien's work in 1967 or so, beginning with the Hobbit. I was enraptured by them at the time and they did give me a taste for fantasy tales that endured. Jordan, Goodkind, Martin** are a few of the authors I read today, though the stories get a little old and I forget from one to the next which characters and what fantasy worlds they are living in.

John Yatt has a different take on both Tolkien's trilogy and the film which didn't occur to me, but should have after the diversity film class I took -with its required critical eye for racial depictions. Guardian Unlimited Film | Features | Wraiths and race.

I am still eagerly anticipating seeing the film.

**Authors/Book series: Robert Jordan- The Wheel of Time; Terry Goodkind- Sword of Truth; George R. Martin- A Song of Ice and Fire.

It will never be nature alone.

Strangely enough most of the research mentioned in the most recent postings at brainworld are items I have run across in various other studies as well as in a class I took on emotions and motivations. They may be new presentations, but they are building on established ideas in psychology and neuroscience.

Neuroscience/neurochemistry only explains a part of things, it really doesn't have the entire answer any more than any other aspect of brain or psychology studies. We can figure out what parts of the brain are activated, and what chemicals and neurotransmitters produce what general affect, but there is the ever elusive component of what finally makes someone act one way with a similar balance of activity, and another person act another way.

Interpretation and the "patterns" of cognition that we learn through our experiences and by observing the actions of others are ultimately the final arbiter and those are unique and individual just as the balances of body chemistry are individual. Thoughts and emotions can be changed simply by deciding to change them. I can't see that we can ever predict or know what someone else is thinking- perhaps at best only the generalities about it, or maybe sense the emotions they are feeling at any given moment. Mostly I think that is probably a good thing.. though there are times that I would like to be able to read someone else's mind.
;)

CBC News Indepth: Heinlein

Seems a long lost first novel of Heinlein has been published, titled "For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs".

I read "Stranger in a Strange Land" too many years ago to count. Michael Valentine Smith is a character that stuck with me a long time..... as has the word "grok", which I find useful now and again as the only word that can explain a certain kind of understanding.
CBC News Indepth: Heinlein

Humor from Calpundit

Calpundit

And if you like cats, he had an amusing link to a cat user's manual in his December 12 posting along with his Friday Cat blogging.

Going to dual post this one.

Go check out Ryan Walters.net, in particular this one about his take on Clark with some very good links to read, and this one entitled "Give Cheney Something To Do". I like the way this man thinks, which if you read the impressive curriculum vitae, isn't too surprising.

It is good to be able to catch up on some of the reading I have been missing in the end of the quarter rush.... now off to the dentist.. they tried to cancel my appointment this morning and agreed to see me this afternoon after I protested..

All papers finished, only one test to go.

As of a little while ago, I finished the last large paper for the sociology writing class. The paper was about a little tiny observational study done on public appearance management (grooming and preening behaviors in humans). It is a very small sample, collected in two and a half hours one afternoon in the middle of a week, while sitting in a restaurant.

As it turned out, my figures are different from what the few studies of this activity have found. The others have shown women engaged in more of these behaviors than men and while in part that is somewhat dependent on the way the variables are operationalized, and the exact nature of appearance management being studied, none of the research that I located was done observing these kinds of behaviors in full public view. The most public of these by observation were done in the common grooming areas of public bathrooms (gender segregated) and by interview. The rest were mainly by questionnaire or interview and about appearance management, but not public appearance management.

I managed to obtain a reasonable scattering of five different age group categories, including a reasonable amount of men and women over 55 who came in for an early dinner and sat at tables and booths in the restaurant.

My figures show men as engaging in more total and more different kinds of these behaviors than women. Though the 18-24 year old female group was more prone to hair grooming behaviors (including smoothing, flipping over shoulders, pushing behind the ears and other hair touching, grooming behaviors), men were also observed doing this with a high frequency. Face touching or stroking, mouth wiping, clothing adjustments and other behaviors were part of my observations.

One of the things I found interesting, was that both sexes tended to increase the number of these behaviors if they were with people of the opposite sex, though men were just as likely with some of the behaviors to do them when they were alone. The opposite sex result was anticipated, though I tried to be objective when observing.

It was a very tiny study, one whose results don't really mean anything because it was so small, but it was interesting just the same.

AND it is so very good to be finished with all the figures, charts, field notes, analysis and discussion! It turned out to be longer than I figured it would be and the finished project plus abstract, references and transcribed field notes, comes to 32 pages. Hopefully I planned, analyzed and discussed the findings well enough to earn a decent grade.

I turn that in at 10 AM on Thursday morning, and then have the rest of the day to study for a final exam in my theories overview class at 4:30PM. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I will not attempt to drive home on Los Angeles freeways. I am much safer and less likely to run into problems if I simply stay on campus. When I am finished with that multiple choice exam, I am finished for the quarter. YIPPEE!!!!! and then I get to go to the dentist, work on holiday things and catch up on cleaning-- BOO!! ;)

Professor Rios on failure.

I prefer to view the failure to reach a goal on the first try or even several subsequent ones, as a temporary setback. It may require that I rethink my approach or work differently to reach it, but unless I never try again, it isn't a complete failure. When faced with a new obstacle, I might for a moment be dismayed at yet one more thing standing in the path I have chosen, but giving up isn't an option if it is something that is important. It might take longer, require more effort than I thought or require something new that I have to learn first, or require that I postpone it until after I take care of something else, but if getting to the goal is important then I will keep going. That isn't to say I might not bitch along the way, but overall, it doesn't stop me.

My Behavioral Counseling instructor, Jose Rios, sent out an email today with these words about failure:

Had a long talk last night that went into the early morning hours. The discussion went from subject to subject, but centered on failure.

We all fail, sometimes more than we succeed. While failure isn’t always something to cherish outright, we should recognize its inevitability and, a very subtle way, embrace it because of what it can teach us.

Failure is part of what we are and what we do. Our behaviors do not always produce the consequences we expect or those that we once wished for. We may put in a lot of time, energy, expectations, suffering and hope into an endeavor, and the results are less than stellar. We may fail and then attach blame to ourselves for the failure. That’s probably a very human trait.

But if we look at failure as a learning experience, we can grow from it. If we expect occasional failure and if we do not see them as failures of who we are, we are not so devastated by them.

Failures can teach us how to behave. What tactic s worked and what needs to be discarded. We can learn what should have been done better and then, we can get up and struggle again. It is when failure’s lesson is to give up rather than to fight that hinders us.

Whenever I face a precipitous mountain climb on my bike, I know that failure is possible. But I also know that if I fail the first time, then there is always something to learn from that initial attempt. I then go into my “obsessive” state in which I only think about what I can do to improve my performance because I am not going to let one failure stop me. To date, even at my advanced age, I have not yet faced an incline or a mountain pass that I have not been able to conquer. I remember years ago, in Laguna Beach when I was staying there, I climbed a very steep series of hills that lead above the city. I made it about half way and was devastated by the inclination. I fell from my bike (at such a slow speed, the fall was not much) and became ill from the stress of trying to climb it. I was quickly departed from my morning coffee and croissant.
Sadly went back to the hotel. Marie asked what happened and I told her. Later than afternoon, she saw me eying the distant hill and knowing me as she did, said that she knew that those hills were all I was going to think (and talk)
for the remainder of the day. The next morning, I tried again and made it to the top. The next day, I did it twice in a row just to prove that I was not going to be defeated. If I had not that initial failure, it still would have been a hell of a struggle to make it, but the subsequent climbs were exceptional because of I knew I had failed and was not going to have that occur again (and if I did, I was going to continue to obsess until I succeeded).

Failure then, is not a negative when we learn and adapt and when it gives us the need to reach the top of the mountain. We are where we are because of failures and what they have taught us. We will continue to have an occasional failure and to have a let down now and then. But when we do, we have to stare intensely at the mountains and recognize that we have not been defeated and obsess on getting back to the top.

Joe

His "advanced age" by the way is younger than mine by a few years.

And this isn't related to final exams. I don't have any fears of lowering my 3.96 (out of 4.0 possible) GPA this week, though it is possible that one class could drop it a point or so if she uses the expanded grading system. I just thought I would share his words and see what ripples they create.

semi missing for a couple of more days..

I am battling flu, papers that must be done and studying for finals... in between wishing to sleep to let my body repair itself.. but that isn't a luxury I can afford right now. In addition, though I haven't a clue how it happened, I woke with a chipped tooth that I must do something about in the midst of all of this. I don't know how one chips a tooth while sleeping. It is a strange little mystery.
I will get back to the regular blogging in a couple of days.
I hope everyone's week is a wonderful one.

Where did I leave my mind on 12/03?

Still not asleep, I read over the chicken broth post from 12/03 and realized that I should never have posted at all that night. If anyone wants to see how I use a can of chicken broth as medicine and comfort when I am ill, leave a comment and I will send you the how to's. Of course the best thing is to have someone else prepare homemade chicken broth and serve it to you, preferably with soothing directives to drink up and then rest.

Alleys.

Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind.
-- Marston Bates

It is after midnight again, but I get to sleep late in the morning. I am ignoring the flu.... And by some miscalculation on my part, I wound up with two extra days to finish sorting the data and write the paper for the sociology project.

1.5 and .5 seconds...

There is a fascinating post that I stumbled upon describing research from twenty years ago, about the time between when the brain activity starts to change (as seen on EEG) before performing an action and when subjects report "thinking" about performing an action and the actual action itself. The differences are interesting. I didn't look up the original research, but found it discussed here: Free Will Starts...Now.

I am too tired to think deeply about it now, but I wanted to preserve it for sometime after Thursday of next week.... or when I recover from this final assault for the quarter.
A brief check of other posts at The Loom, finds some other interesting food for thought in the neuroscience, biochemical areas.

thanks for the link go to Butterflies and Wheels.

Humor.

The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.
-- Nathaniel Borenstein

If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee -- that will do them in.
-- Bradley's Bromide

While searching for information on the authors of these two that came in my Quotes of the Day I stumbled upon this one at House of Quotes:

Multi-tasking - Screwing everything up simultaneously.
--- Anon.

I never did find anything about Bradley's Bromides, but Nathaniel Borenstein is listed alternately as a Programmer and a Chief Scientist and is apparently still publishing papers.

I am still working away on the last of the major papers due in one week, but as is evident, I turned to looking for diversions of anything that could create a smile or laugh. I want those happy neurotransmitters to be the last ones circulating before I go to sleep. ;)

I meant to go to sleep.

My head is emptied of all rational and logical thoughts this early AM and I am splashing about helplessly in the shallow end of the pool of what remains. I have been writing and revising almost all weekend on academic projects. I am heading for sleep (or maybe I am already sleeping), but if anyone is looking for a way to unwind and waste a little time there are plenty of assorted little amusements on ze's page. I was especially amused by dtoyvsbyokal which is a kaleidoscope, and the scribbler, but there are plenty of other flash toys to play with.