Scientific Ink

Category: Life

  • Striped Bass log

    The big one, originally uploaded by dunrie.

    My sister-in-law is doing graduate research on Christmas Island in the Pacific. The food choices are limited (tuna, tuna, and more tuna), and she has a funny blog entry about the forms of tuna they’ve eaten, including tuna salisbury steak and tuna patties with gravy.

    Well, Dave and Nate both caught big striped bass on our fishing trip, and we’ve been having striped bass in many forms.

  • Silly stuff

    1. What is your occupation? Director of Happiness (aka project manager).
    2. What color are your socks right now? No socks. Bare feet.
    3. What are you listening to right now? Girish.
    4. What was the last thing that you ate? Leftover paella from New Bedford Portugese joint.
    5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes.
    6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Fuschia.
    7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Patrick, a colleague at PV.
    8. How old are you today? 37.
    9. Favorite drink? Oolong tea in the morning. Sometimes jasmine, sometimes Earl Gray.
    10. What is your favorite sport to watch? Football.
    11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Nope.
    12. Pets? 1 Cat + lot of inverts in a salt water tank.
    13. Favorite food? Whatever my husband cooks, he’s a really good cook. Whatever we get from our CSA.
    14. What was the last movie you watched? Don’t recall.
    15. Favorite day of the year? Any day I’m up north at the cabin, especially in winter when the wind is really blowing.
    16. What do you do to vent anger? Sulk, pout, fret, then I go for a walk or go for a intense bike ride.
    17. What was your favorite toy as a child? My stuffed bear, “Bear”.
    18. What is your favorite fall or spring? Fall, it’s moodier.
    19. Hugs or kisses? Hugs from friends, chocolate kisses from everyone else.
    20. Cherries or Blueberries? Blueberry pie. Fresh, unadulterated cherries.
    21. Do you want your friends to email you back? Ummmm, this is a blog entry.
    22. Who is most likely to respond? don’t know.
    23. Who is least likely to respond? don’t know.
    24. Living arrangements? Own a home.
    25. When was the last time you cried? Not keeping track…. Reading The Time Traveler’s Wife, yesterday.
    26. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes & cat hair.
    27. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? My sister.
    28. What did you do last night? Hung out with family.
    29. Favorite smells? Good cooking.
    30. What inspires you? Good books.
    31. What are you afraid of? Loneliness.
    32. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese please.
    33. Favorite dog breed? My stepmom’s springer spaniel Nikita is awesome.
    34. How many years at your current job? 2 months.
    35. Favorite days of the week? It varies, any days I can get out cycling or do yoga.
    36. How many states have you lived in? 2.
    37. Ever driven motorcycle or heavy machinery? Nah.
    38. Who’s your favorite NFL team? My heart says the Lions. Reality says the Patriots.
    39. Do you have a house phone that is NOT cordless? Yes, in case of a power outage.

  • Unintentional experiment

    So, I was looking for a new dentist because my former dentist is not on a bus line and too far to walk. I twittered the request and then posted here in my blog. Then, the blog post got pulled into facebook as a note. Sample sizes are small, but….

    • twitter.com/dunrie – 33 followers – 1 recommendation
    • facebook – 57 friends – 1 recommendation
    • pownce – 15 friends – 1 recommendation
    • this blog – 8 17 subscribers – 3 recommendations (note: subscriber number from FeedSmith plugin, was collecting subscribers a week ago and didn’t have the full set, 17 number as of 9/9/2007)

    First, thanks to all who recommended someone!

    Second, I have to admit I was surprised by the numbers. Sure, it is a teeny sample size, but I would have predicted that twitter would have the most reach and return the most dentists. I would have thought that the facebook version of my blog would have had more reach than the blog itself. I expected that my blog would have the least reach.

    So I have two hypotheses for why.

    • The blog may have lower reach but it is less transitory than a tweet or even itself fed into facebook as a note. Perhaps the sheer volume of other distractions on those media mean that my question only had a brief window to be read and acted upon, and that window of attention is longer with the blog.
    • The tweets, facebook items, and pownce items go to the same network, and the blog has the least similar audience (guessing here, I don’t actually know). Supporting evidence: the blog comments included someone I had known in grad school but wasn’t in my current “network” on the other services.

    Anyone got a better idea?

  • Owl Scream Social

    Young Bald Eagle

    Guy invited us to his house tonight for an ice cream social. He had all the usual trimmings: chocolate sprinkles, almonds, various ice cream flavors (strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate), chocolate syrup, neighborhood kids, and raptors.

    Ummm…raptors?

    Yup, raptors.

    A woman from the Leslie Science Center brought a kestrel, a barred owl, and a juvenile bald eagle. All the birds were injured (kestrel, owl) or imprinted on humans (eagle) and so would not survive in the wild. The birds were wonderful. The day reminded me of the amazing Raptor Trust in New Jersey. And, of course, the Onion article about owls.

    You should have heard the birds in the nearby trees all twittering away “Do. Not. Want.”

  • 65th Wedding Anniversary

    Dave and I are nearing our 7th wedding anniversary, and that sounds like a lot to me. It doesn’t feel that long, which I suppose is a good thing. He and I were together for 6ish years before that, so our relationship feels like a long term, stable thing.

    This past weekend my husband and I drove to Indianapolis to spend time with his grandparents and his uncle Jim. I’ve written about them before, Dave’s grandfather always impresses me with his deep commitment to his wife. Bud mentioned this time that they would soon have their 65th wedding anniversary (sometime this fall, I think) and that he had been in love with Jane for even longer than that.

    Something about the words he used struck me, especially now that she is slipping away, sleeping much of the day, rousing for meals but distracted and disoriented. Though she’s still quick with the wisecracks, she’s also prone to sighs and confusion about where she is and how she got there. I recall an earlier visit with them, years ago, before they moved from their home to the apartment, at a time when her illness was first starting to show. At that time, when we pulled away after our visit and he stood on the lawn and watched us go, he looked so alone.

    This visit, he said quite clearly that he’d been in love with her for more than 65 years. His words made me think of how much of commitment to another person is made up of intention, how longevity like that takes a strong will. I’m sure there’s good fortune in there, choosing a mate wisely, the support of friends and family and (for them) church, good health that they both made it to their mid-80s…lots of things combine to make a 65th wedding anniversary even possible. What I admire in him is his intention to remain in love at a 65th anniversary, his intention to take care of her now that she needs him so strongly, and his intention to appreciate the good in whatever is happening right at that moment.

    I’m humbled by his commitment, and feeling kinda lucky that my husband, born 50 years to the day after his grandfather, has some of the same qualities–a strong willed focus on the positive–that I so appreciate in his grandfather.

  • The Sound of Mountain Water

    The Sound of Mountain WaterFunny, the books I’m reading this weekend are affirming each other. I suppose this means nothing more than I have consistent taste. I’m now reading The Sound of Mountain Water by Wallace Stegner. He writes about the value of wilderness as more than just a place to hike, ski, photograph, raft, or play. He writes about the value of the idea of wilderness.

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