Posted by barb on Apr 21, 2005 in
Random Thoughts Currently being sucked into the 6th level of hell — that’s the one reserved for scientists writing proposals. I’m not the actual scientist writing the proposal, but I’m getting sucked in because I agreed to help out…the only end in sight is at 1PM tomorrow when another scientist is bringing the proposals down to HQ. Please say an uplifting spell for me…
UPDATE — 7:52 PM: Still here. No end in sight. Jack (the PI) still hasn’t read over more than the first three pages of the proposal…no one has read to the end…eyes are getting crusty…
UPDATE — 12:13 AM: Still here. Actually, I’m taking a bit of a break. Yay Lorna! She left me an apple and some cookies. I’m going to go splash some water on my face, and then get back to it.
UPDATE — 2:08 AM: If I closed my eyes for a couple seconds, I think I would fall asleep. Must keep up with the caffiene…
UPDATE — 3:40 AM: Almost up for 24 hours now…just another 2 hours. My head is swimming…
UPDATE — 4:51 AM: Just asked Magic 8 Ball if I’d be getting out of here any time soon…it said “Doubt It”. Crap. Magic 8 Ball is never wrong.
UPDATE — 5:55 AM: Busy collating CVs…no, that doesn’t mean that we are almost done. No, this is just something I can do while Jack continues reading through the text (he hasn’t actually read through the whole thing yet…ugh).
UPDATE — 7:38 AM: Been here almost 24 hours now. At this point I don’t really want to leave until 10AM due to the morning rush-hour, but I’m not sure things will be done even by then. I hate scientists… (yes, I am one, but not “one of them” yet)
Tags: rant, work
Posted by barb on Apr 18, 2005 in
Random Thoughts I want a “I hate Word” t-shirt after I’m done with this sinking proposal. Any suggestions where to get one?? If there aren’t any for sale, I might design one and use those cheesy print-your-own-t-shirt-iron-on thingies from Microcenter…
Tags: rant
Posted by barb on Apr 11, 2005 in
Random Thoughts I’m finally catching up on some of the entries I’ve been too busy to write. I’m going to continue to be swamped for the next two weeks, and I’m expecting several late nights at work. So, if things are quiet around here, you’ll know why. In the mean time, talk amongst yourselves.
Tags: admin
Posted by barb on Apr 9, 2005 in
Pictures My best friend, Sweetie, turned 30 last Thursday, so I flew in to MN for a big bash. I won’t go into the gory details, but we started the day with lunch at Cossetta’s, one of Sweetie’s favorite restaurants, and then embarked on a journey chronicling our favorite memories with her.
After our journey, we met up with a bunch of Sweetie’s other friends at Keiran’s Irish Pub, where we got her a bit drunk.
I have an album of my pictures from the day up in my photo album.
Tags: birthday, friends, trip report
Posted by barb on Apr 8, 2005 in
Pictures Flew home today for Sweetie’s party tomorrow, and I was able to see my two nieces this evening. Yay! Sadly, I missed Brock on this visit, but I’m hoping to see him when I’m back in May/June.
Kira and Sofia:
Tags: family, trip report
Posted by barb on Apr 7, 2005 in
Crafty Me,
Pictures I finally finished my niece’s birth announcement cross-stitch. Yay! I’ll be delivering it to Dave and Jen this weekend when I’m in the Cities for Sweetie’s birthday party.
Tags: crafts
Posted by barb on Apr 3, 2005 in
Around DC,
Pictures Despite the threat of rain, Andrew and I went out to see the Mickey Mouse statues that are in town through April 30. Unlike the panda statues, the Mickeys are all collected in one location — the Reagan Center in downtown DC. Apparently this is the only place, besides Disney World, where all of the Mickeys will be displayed together — the other cities on the tour only get a selection of the Mickey statues.
I’ve posted an album of all the Mickeys, and here are a few of my favorites:
| Lots ‘o Mickeys |
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| Circle Vision |
TRON Mickey |
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| Space Mickey |
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Tags: life in the city
Posted by barb on Apr 3, 2005 in
Random Thoughts On the Metro:
GUY1: He’d be known as ricksha boy.
GUY2: Dude, that’s not a good thing.
GUY1: No, man, it would be really cool.
GUY2: He’d never get a girl if he was known as ricksha boy.
GUY1: He would totally get girls.
Tags: overheard
Posted by barb on Apr 3, 2005 in
Movies 4/5 stars
San Francisco is home to a flock of wild parrots and Mark Bittner, an out-of-work musician, has befriended them. He is careful to point out that he does not “take care of them” — they are wild, and can care for themselves — but he does feed them, and takes in any of the sick members long enough for them to heal.
While Bittner does not describe himself as an eccentric, all the trappings are there — he has no visible means of support, and yet he has a constant influx of seed for the flock, a computer to record a diary of the flock, and a camera to photograph their comings-and-goings. He has sworn not to cut his hair until he has a girlfriend (not the best strategy, if you ask me). He doesn’t pay rent, though the “landlords” hesitate to call him a squatter.
Throughout the film, we get a picture of the flock and the members, all of whom Bittner has named and can distinguish by small markings. No one knows how the flock started, but certainly it was a pair of pet parrots who either escaped or were released. Many new members of the flock were also captive at one time, but there have also been many new babies born into the flock. At the time of the filming, there were about 45 parrots in the flock.
One of the most striking things for me were the shots of the parrots flying together as a flock. The picture that I usually have of parrots is that of a lone parrot in a cage or in a house. But parrots really are social animals, and seeing them fly together was breath-taking.
Tags: reviews
Posted by barb on Apr 1, 2005 in
Random Thoughts There’s a lot of weird things happening today…
- Water on Mars! — APOD has a picture of water on Mars!
- Google Gulp — Google is moving into the beverage business
- Bloglines adds Klingon — Bloglines added the Klingon language to their services.
“The custom of sharing grand stories of conquest and battle has a long standing history among the Klingon people,” said Mark Fletcher, founder of Bloglines. “Blogging is simply an easy way to continue the tradition while stuck in deep space, away from your family. We feel that presenting Bloglines in the Warrior Tongue was long overdue.”
- President Bush Shuts Down Shuttle Program
During a brief two-minute period provided for questions from the press, the first reporter asked if this meant the Space Station was also being shut down. To which the President answered, “we plan to either hold an auction on Ebay or give it away to “our international partners.
Tags: linkalicious