This last week, my boss signed my lab group up for a ropes course at Camp Seymore and I have to admit that it was a lot of fun. We started off with some “getting to know you” games which normally, I despise due to my anti-social nature but they were actually quite enjoyable. That was then followed by some low ropes courses where we swung on ropes and were caught by co-workers, as well as fit all of us on a see-saw and a very small box. All of this happened before lunch.

After lunch, we started the high ropes courses which were 30 feet in the air. The first one was essentially an obstacle course to reach the top.

The first picture was taken about half-way up and I was really tired. Funnily enough though, it was a great place for Rick to take a shot and I was surprisingly chipper. The second picture was taken when I was nearing the top.

Overall, I think it was time worth spent. I feel like I know my co-workers a lot better, and I made it to the top despite the fact that I never exercise (which I know I should). However, there was a price. I have been extremely sore the past couple days and my arms are purple and blue due to the severe bruises I received while climbing.

Most people don’t know this, but I was and still am an avid fan of the WB TV show Roswell.

When it was in production, I watched it every week and could not wait for the series to continue with multiple seasons. (I even recorded the episodes on VHS). Unfortunately, most people did not view the show the same way I did. It had thousands of avid fans, but low ratings so it was canceled. Despite the fact that the numbers of fans were few and far between, the bulk of them made up for it in tenacity. Posts in multiple forums were made pleading with the producers to release it on DVD and luckily it was.

However, there were certain circumstances that had to be overcome in order to release it. When the WB existed, it was known for finding new artists, and featuring their music in popular teen shows which led to the artist’s big break. In order to release Roswell, the producers had to approach all of those musicians (which had been made famous via the show) and request their permission for the release. Some of them allowed it, and others requested more money, which was the problem. The main reason why the show was released was for those avid fans and why it took so long was because of those artists. The producers did not have a lot of money to offer those newly successful artists thus many of the songs used in the show were replaced and a note was attached to the inside of the DVD collections explaining the situation.

The main reason why I am bringing this up, is that I got a craving for Roswell this last week and so I have been watching the episodes. Since I was such an avid fan, I know what songs are supposed to be where and am displeased with the songs they chose to replace them with. The episode that got me the most thus far was: She Cries Your Name. In this episode, Alex dies and his best friends tries to find out why. This episode was named after a song by Beth Orton, who is mentioned within the plot and her song “She Cries Your Name” was played in the final scene where his best friend, Liz, essentially cries his name as she fumbles hysterically through photos of him and reminisces of the times they spent together. This scene was touching when it was first aired, and watching it now with the new random song that they have replaced it with, is hurtful to the scene’s intention. I don’t understand how they could make the assumption that this song was replaceable, I mean, was it Beth who refused to sell her song despite the fact that she got massive amounts of advertisement from it? Or did the produces feel that it was acceptable to replace it?

Many artists got their debuts here: Remy Zero, Lifehouse, Nelly Furtado, Dido, Ivy, Gomez, Linkin Park. Some of these artists were already on the way before this show featured their songs, but I am sure that their sales went up afterwards. It frustrates me to no end since I was such a fan of the show and feel that it has been changed from my original viewings.

Anyway, that was my rant. If there is anyone else out there that is a fan of the show, please let me know, the bulk of my friends have never even heard of it.

After 5 years of college, I am FINALLY done. I gave my presentation last Tuesday and it was wonderful! I still stuttered every once and a while, and I felt liking fainting right before my talk, but I did a phenomenal job (according to everyone) and am so excited to be done.

If you are curious about my paper, check it out on my professional webpage.

FREEDOM!

I love my boyfriend for so many reasons. One of the current reasons are his poo haikus that he sends to me in text messages (while he is pooing). These are his best, please feel free to leave comments saying which one you like the best.

Pooin’ at the zoo
People pee all around me
I edit photos

Pooin’ is lonely
I text for your eContact
How will you respond?

Here I poo again
The rhythmic plopdrops echo
Instant fecalpeace

My stomach bloated
Filled with gas, holding it in
I’m turtle-heading

And I suggest you all read John’s post about Morgan’s text messages!

Okay, so throughout my many years of schooling, I have prided myself on having the ability to pay attention and not fall asleep in spite of the material of the class and the tone of the professor’s voice. There are only two classes that I specifically remembering falling asleep in: the first was my freshman year taking Intro to Psychology on a Wednesday afternoon for three hours. Mind you, this was in Florida, so it was extremely hot outside and thus comfortable inside the classroom and this particular professor defined monotone. While the topic was interesting, the professor had a hard time convincing me thus I got a regular dose of sleep every week. The second, which Melissa can attest to, was my junior year (first year at the University of Washington) taking a class in geology (which I can’t even remember the name of the class) at 9:30 in the morning in a warm room with another professor that loves monotones. Everyone fell asleep in that class.

So, like I said, proud of my ability to at least stay awake and alert in classes. Well, the class I am currently taking, Fluvial Geomorphology, has been testing me to the extreme. The professor teaching it is brand new to teaching. She stated the first day of class that she has never taught a class before, only guest lectured…and it is apparent in her teaching abilities. She has a very rough time engaging the audience and despite the fact that this topic is extremely interesting, she cannot convey it. Her slides are dull (always white) and packed full of sentences and equations (which she proceeds to explain every single variable, and read sentences directly from them). When she is asked questions, they fluster her, and she will read through her slides for about five minutes and then provide an inadequate answer. The students have now figured this out, and avoid asking questions.

The only way that I have learned to survive this class, is by bringing my laptop and entertaining myself by accomplishing work while sitting HERE in boredom. If you didn’t guess, I am writing this post in class right now. And…..she just gave some very incorrect information about the Mississippi Delta. Ohhh, that pisses me off. About half of the class isn’t here right now and that is normal, and the ones that are are either working on something else (me and four others), sleeping, or staring at the screen (obviously not really listening).

I don’t know if it is my senioritis kicking in or what, but I can’t wait to be done with this class.

I love my life, but sometimes it really can be a bitch. I have been in college for five years now and that’s three too many in my mind. I have enjoyed my classes and all of the opportunities that have been provided but when the fuck does REAL life get to start?

I live with two teachers and across the hall is another friend who is not in school. This pretty much means that I am surrounded by people who get to do what they want with their free time. I watch them as they play Rock Band, hang out at bars and just plain socialize. While I am tremendously happy for them I am also extremely jealous. There have been so many times that I have had to resist the temptation to join them due to whatever school related reason (paper, midterm, final, field trips) and now after three years, I am so tired of resisting. I have finally had my fill of being the “responsible student.” And while I am in my final quarter of my undergrad, which is generally the time when people are okay with their seniors cutting loose, my graduation is DEPENDING upon my responsibility to work my ass off on my thesis. I knew that this quarter would be hard, but I didn’t realize until now WHY it would be hard.

I’m so sick of the stress. I’m so sick of saying no. I’m so sick of being told how to spend my free time. I’m so sick of fucking field trips…specifically ESS field trips because they are never short. While I love the people that surround me, I have a hard time watching them having a good time while I sit here and do my work. And I do not know what to do. By the time that I finish my work, the jealously has percolated through my veins and I feel that I should avoid them so that I do not ruin their good time with my sulking. The times where they have dragged me over to hang out, I still feel like I bring them down.

If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears.

Okay, so obviously I am extremely bitter towards all grad students right now due to my lack of making it into the programs they were able to but these two particular students seriously piss me off.

Currently I am enrolled in a class called “Fluvial Geomorphology” which for you non-scientists means the geomorphology of rivers. Considering the programs and topics that are offered to the grad students in the ESS (Earth and Space Sciences) department at the UW, they can study the great rivers on this planet (Amazon, Ganges, Brahmaputra, etc.) and get funded for it thus they need to understand the particulars of how to study these particular rivers. This means that despite the fact that this class is 400-level (i.e. a class for undergrads) there are a few grad students that have been told to take this class by their adviser in order to understand their topics better.

Anyboo, this class is graded on three field reports based off of three field trips and due to the fact that this is my 5th year of college, I have had enough of these all-day field trips that the ESS department loves to give, and so I was extremely cranky the night before and the morning of the first trip. But what did I do? I fuckin’ sucked it up, went on the field trip, and even borrowed my TA’s hip waders so that I could get in the fuckin’ river, do a pebble count for my group, and help with the data collection. Did I complain about how EXTREMELY fuckin’ cold the water was (since it had snowed the previous day and hailed that morning)? NO! I jumped on in since that is what education is about, and smiled as my arm went numb after the 30 minutes it took me to help collect that data. But what did these two female grad students do…they stood there, in their protective gear that went all the way up to their chests and complained about how they would not go into the water anymore because it was too cold……..too cold……Fuck you! You are a fucking grad student and you chose to continue with science and a massive part of that is data collection! I really wish that our professor would have forced them into the river, but no such luck.

And then they walked into class 30 minutes late today. What is the point of coming to class when you’ve missed half of it? Oh how I despise them.

There was a chemical spill in the University of Washington’s Ocean Sciences Building today and unfortunately I was in it at the time. A man on the basement floor spilled sulfuric acid into liquid chlorine and what resulted was extremely toxic fumes. No one was hurt, and the man who had the accident was conscience and breathing but this made life quite difficult for all other oceanographers that work in that building.

I had just arrived on campus about 15 minutes before all of this happened, but it was just long enough for me to put all of my stuff in my locker. I was sitting with Jaqui and we were discussing my methods when the fire alarm went off and the building started to lock itself down…and when I say “lock itself down”, I am completely serious. Metal panels on the windows and open areas slammed shut as did the doors for the stairwells. Jaqui and I assumed that it was just a drill (since this building has drills all the time) and so we left all of our stuff inside as we went outside. Once we exited, we realized how large of an incident this was since there were at least three cop cars and one of the officers was talking into his radio saying, “The subject is conscience and breathing but we are not letting anyone else in the building.”

In the end, there were at least 6 fire engines, 6 of those red SUV’s, and 10 police cars blocking the roads, and those are only the emergency vehicles I can describe. They put DO NOT CROSS tape around quite a few of the buildings and would not let cars exit from this side of the hospital…they were all directed to the other side. Needless to say, this was an event…and if only I had realized that before leaving my stuff in my locker.

All I can say is, lesson learned. I will never leave a building again without rounding up everything I need and unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any pictures of all the activity since my camera is also locked up in that locker.

Since John and I have stopped playing WoW for the past couple weeks, we have been taking weekend trips around the area. Our latest visit was to see the “Fremont” Troll.

I think that it is really funny that the troll is called the Fremont Troll despite the fact that it is not underneath the Fremont Bridge, but underneath the George Washington Memorial Bridge (click it!). Anyboo, since John had never seen the troll before, I thought that it would be a great idea for him to see it for the first time! I know that it is a little boring, but I still think that it is a cool piece of Seattle culture.

After we saw the troll and had lunch at Taco Del Mar, we decided to continue our fun at Gas Works Park. There were tons of people at the park enjoying the weather and both John and I got some wonderful shots. We really came to Gas Works at the perfect time too, since it eventually started to downpour on us as we were heading out.

I definitely had a great time and so did John!

With summer approaching, Seattle’s weather tends to be very temperamental. Some days it will be wonderful, bright and sunny (which makes everyone excited and heading out-doors) and then other days it rains uncontrollably and then snows. Believe me, it happens. It did a week ago.

This last week the weather was incredible until the weekend started. John luckily had heard weather reports and knew that that was going to be the case so we decided th enjoy it while it lasted and on Wednesday we had dinner at Rosita’s and then walked down to Green Lake. It was a nice to have some alone time with John since this will most likely be the hardest quarter of my life, forcing me to spend less time with John and more time on my thesis…which will invariably leave me missing him all the time.

Anyboo, we went down to the lake, and found a posse of birds right next to the water which provided a great opportunity to take pictures. John really wanted me to the see the feet of this bird since they are quite different from ducks’ feet. I thought that they were pretty cool. Our opportunity for pictures was cut short however due to these snot-nosed little boys launching themselves at the birds and yelling hysterically. They so knew that they were ruining it for us and their mothers just stood by laughing. Luckily we got a fair number of good shots before the incident.

We were also able to get some wonderful shots of the cherry blossoms in bloom. I love this season in Seattle!