Cleaning out the office

This summer my building on campus will be renovated with an updated heating and air conditioning system to save energy. This means I have to clean out my office by the end of the semester! Today I started emptying out old notebooks and throwing away old papers. 

I came across class notes from one of my first graduate statistics courses in 1988. I did keep those, but I threw away others. I have decided that I will never pick up literature from conventions again. I never use it, even the best stuff. I found editions of computer texts going back three generations. No more computer books. 

Also, when I leave a job I need to throw out the old research files. I will never come back to those projects again, for sure. 

I used to print out things a lot more. I found software guides that I intended to use again. All of that is online now. When this project is over I should have a less cluttered and encumbered office!

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Pink Slime Controversy

 

I've been following the "pink slime" controversy in the news. I also listened to part of a Radio Smart Talk show on WITF, where they interviewed a food science professor at Penn State. The name of "pink slime" was just chosen to make people dislike the meat product. There is really no danger in it. If you eat meat you have eaten all of these products before. In a way, it makes sense not to waste this meat. It's better to use it than to throw it away. This name sounds like something chosen just to make people disgusted.

Earliest Mowing Ever!

resize_image_1066903934.jpg, a photo by P_Linehan on Flickr.

By March 30 the grass had gotten pretty high and the weeds even higher. So it was time to break out the mower!

Neighborhood Visitor

I have seen this cat crossing the edge of our lawn several times. I used to think he's a stray, but with this closeup it's obvious that he has a collar with tags, and we hope a good home!

Aquarium and Pond

I have three different fish tanks in our house: a 20 gallon aquarium, the goldfish tank in the knockout on the porch, and the koi pond outside. Here is our maintenance log:

Snails to the Rescue

 

We added Black Japanese Trapdoor Snails to the koi pond today. They have a huge amount of algae to chow down on!

Leaving Home

I heard a great interview with Anthony Hopkins yesterday on Weekend Edition on NPR. All his life Hopkins has been writing music, parts of which were recently recorded by a symphony orchestra. Hopkins great up in Wales. At one point Scott Simon asks him about getting an autograph from Richard Burton. Hopkins answered:

Yeah. I went to his house, he used to come back to Wales and there was this great movie star. And he signed my autograph and he said do you speak Welsh? I said no. He said you're not a true Welshman. He was teasing but he scared me. And I remember thinking; I want to be like him. And I just want to be famous. I didn't know what to do because I wanted to escape from the desert of my own mental whatever it was - emptiness. And so I became an actor. 

I love that phrase, "the desert of my own mental..."  There was nothing wrong with his home or Wales. But he had to leave to make his own future! Since I have been back to Lewiston to visit after many years, I realize that was/is a great town. Yet, I needed to leave for myself, and I'm glad I did, too.

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