Science Monkey

It’s the end of March and as good a time as any for a little navel-gazing. I thought I’d take a few minutes and review my resolutions and see how I’m doing and how I might be able to improve over the next three months.

1. Lose 40 pounds.

This is the one I’ve been struggling with the most. Since January I’ve been on a 10-pound yo-yo. Very frustrating. I tend to eat and exercise well on Monday through Wednesday or Thursday, then slack off the rest of the week.

I’m going to try and take up running. Well, jogging for the near future and walking for the immediate future. I figured out a nice two mile walk around the neighborhood earlier this week, but haven’t walked since Wednesday. I’ve been pretty good about riding my bike or walking to work, though, which makes me at least a little proud. I’ve only driven in or gotten a ride about five times this year so far.

2. Spend more time with my family.

If by family, I mean wife, I’m doing pretty well with this one. I’m trying to work hard in the lab when Emma is on a more time-intensive rotation and then spending more time at home when she’s not. Er, not on a time-intensive rotation, not not at home. You understand. I haven’t spent much time with my immediate (or extended) family but…so be it.

3. Make new friends and spend more time with old ones.

Yeah, this one is trying. I’m reasonably good at being social and amiable at work (I think), but I’m a total loner afterwards. Let’s work harder on this one, eh? Maybe I’ll get my happy ass to a Florida Free Culture or Alacloud meeting, given my desire of being that sort of geek. I should go flogging, too…that’s almost like exercise.

4. Drink good beer.

Check. I’ve been enjoying Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat and Sam Adams White Ale this season very much. I’ve been on a wheat beer kick for this last year or so but think these are really nice. I could always go check out the homebrew shop and learn to make my own. That might be social, too, but will probably work contrary to goal #1.

5. FINISH MY GODDAMNED DEGREE.

Getting there. I had a committee member tell me that I’m essentially ready to move on, other than having a coherent story that I can turn into a manuscript, a thesis, and a job talk. I’ve got a decent plan to get that story right now, so we’ll see what I can bang out in the next three months. I suspect I can get a lot of data if I can maintain my focus.

6. Take piano lessons.

Check.

7. Ride 1000 miles on my bike.

So far, I’m at approximately 178 miles for the year, so I’m a little off the thousand-mile pace. I can pick that up this next quarter.

8. Write something every day.

Meh. Not so good. I’m blogging more regularly, which is almost like writing, but I’m not doing the productive, work-related writing that I’d like to have done. Now that I have a good idea of my final project, I should start working on my thesis. I can do the Introduction, Relevance, and Materials and Methods sections now, and work on the rest as I get the data.

9. Get my happy ass organized (GTD).

Nope. Haven’t even read the book yet. I’m trying to write lists of what I need to do at the beginning of each day which helps, but I’m nowhere near organized yet.

10. Learn to use my camera well.

This one has been fun. I’m having a great time taking pictures with my new camera, as you’ve probably noticed. I should try and learn some of the features of the camera and see if I can’t take some more artistic pictures. That’d be nice. There are lots of great birds around the house right now, including a great blue heron in the pond up the hill, so I’ve got some good subject matter.

Okay…that’s enough navel-gazing for now. New petite protopodcast coming soon, I promise. I know you’re all on tenterhooks waiting for the next one. Go Gators!

One last question. What do you think: Haircut? Or no?

Before I forget to share this:

How the hell is it Thursday evening already? Who said that was okay? This week has just flown by for whatever reason.

This has been a decent week, all things considered. Not a great one, not one for the books, but not horrible. I still feel like I’m making progress at work, but I’m tired of getting blank LMPCR autorads. That’s gotta stop right quick. If the new LMPCR is still blank, I’m not sure what I’m going to do, other than pull my hair out.

I took off a little early from work yesterday afternoon and spent a few hours baking. I’ve been reading this fantastic Swedish food blog, Anne’s Food, lately and am feeling a somewhat inspired, bork, bork, bork. I found her blog when looking for a pepparkakor recipe and have been following it pretty regularly for the last month. I haven’t been quite brave enough to try anything, yet, but I think I’m going to try my hand at some sourdough this weekend. In my baking yesterday, I made a fairly disappointing sourdough in the bread machine. I think my starter is pretty decent, but a few more days certainly won’t help. I also made a whole mess of chocolate cookies which have been just fantastic.

I need to stop writing about food…I’m getting hungry again.

The new Survivor is on, but I refuse to get sucked in. Again. Okay, okay, so they got me with the whole battle-of-the-races crap last season, so I’m not going to let it happen again. Unless there’s another Yul, who was really charming and likable…actually, I liked almost all of the last five or six, which made the show more interesting.

Okay, enough rambling. I’m going to go do something productive for the twenty minutes until CSI. Like practice the piano. Or clean the kitchen. Maybe I’ll just eat a few more cookies.

PS: If you like wheat beers, I’d recommend the Samuel Adams seasonal white ale. Pretty decent, IMHO.

We made it safely to Wisconsin by mid-afternoon today. The Atlanta airport was as busy as I’ve ever seen, with more army apparently going home than I think I’ve ever seen in one place before. We decided that this was probably a busy travel day, between the students heading home from school, the holiday travel crowd, and the every-Monday road warriors. Our flights were smooth and on time, but it was clear that even one hiccup could have sent our plans spiraling out of control. Thankfully, that didn’t happen and we had an easy trip.

Grandma seems very down. I’ve seen her physically infirm before, but this is the first time I think I’ve seen her without her usual personality. Hopefully it’s a lot of little things — and maybe she needs an antidepressant or her antidepressants adjusted slightly — but I’m a little concerned. We’ll see.

Before I crash into a travel-addled coma, I would like to reiterate one thing: Leinenkugel’s beer is excellent. If you’re able, go buy some. I’d personally recommend the sunset wheat, but that’s all I’ve sampled so far. Why don’t we have nice, small breweries like this in Florida? Too many rednecks drinking Keystone Light, I suppose. *sigh*