88 mph to sph...

well its about time from the endless amount of work courtesy of community ecology this week. it's shaping up to be another one of those nights with multiple entries. i am on my second can of red bull and although i have a really high caffeine tolerance (have been cutting that intake down, and no its not due to coffee) will probably be up for a few more hours. other than this blog, facebook, other people's blogs, email, and the occasional check on the fishes, it's much easier and distraction free to work at night. that may sound like a lot of distractions as is, but that's nothing compared to the apparent ADD i go through during the day...this is why i hated my GIS job last semester...will be fun when i get to return to a lot of that stuff this summer...oh well, that's pretty far off still.

rob and the swashbuckling crayfish - Muskegon Field Work 2003

so my wednesdays are usually pretty low-key in terms of work and i often don't even head into campus since i can work from home. not today...i had several meetings and a lot of stuff to get done so i headed in bright and early at...11am. either way, i had to meet up with andrea and brenda for our lunch at saigon garden, which was great (although its been years since i ate lunch there; has always been a dinner spot for me in the past). anyway, since one of my meetings got out early, i figured it was time to pick up my stuff and pay for tickets for the SPH bar crawl (it's for charity hospital in new orleans, so leave me alone about going out!) AJ is organizing it and has set up what should be an insanely entertaining event. couple this with the fact that sarah will be participating as well, and there is a possibility that even rachel may make an appearance...that all on top of the usual random craziness that tends to ensue when damon and i head out. wow, long introductory exposition so far...

i had a talent for catching northern water snakes - Muskegon FW 2003

anyway, i needed to head out to the land of SPH...i have not visited this building in almost four years... why? because it's out in the middle of nowhere (compared to the usual parts of central campus). as i was getting ready to cross the great bridge, the theme from back to the future came up on my iPod and i found this strangely appropriate. definitely took me back to good old 2002 when this trek annoyed the heck out of me since SNRE (my building) was being remodeled and they felt it necessary to move all our classes out to SPH I & SPH II (about an extra mile away).
since i was already (at that time) driving from the other side of US-23 this extra distance made me upset. my 'protest' and retaliation to this relocation was that i would only allow enough time to get to class as if it were still held in SNRE (although they were all definitely in SPH). the result? i was late all the time. this really didnt matter since the profs for these classes (one of which is my PhD advisor now) were always late too...but it still felt like i was sticking it to the man...or the woman...or the regents...or whomever was in charge of the remodeling (which interestingly cost way too much and accomplished very little even though it took about 3 years). anyway, the back to the future track (also should be noted this is one of the greatest trilogies in movie history) got me through it and i actually enjoyed the walk.
...of course when i got to the building i didnt know where the basement was so i wandered around the first floor for some time before finding the subterranean level and eventually hal & AJ working the desk. i chatted with them for a while and then made my trek back to the real world.
ok, i have to get back to the homework...

random pic:

ah, the zebra F-402. i have had this pen since my freshman year of undergrad at northern. you really can't beat .7mm. i of course chose this pic since the pen is sitting right next to the comp. if i were to lose it i would probably be upset. go buy one, you won't be disappointed.