Fall photoshoot

I'm posting a link to the picture of my daughter, F1-3, taken in October at daycare. However reluctant I may be to post pictures of my children, it felt unfair to withhold this from everyone. Click on the link below. It will not work at first. Remove *every* occurrence of the word "lock" in the web address to get to the actual picture. The word occurs twice in the address. I will keep the photo up for a week or two, then remove it.

Introducing..... F1-3

Unexpected benefits

Those of you lamenting the scarcity of science-related posts, rejoice! I just received my second qualifying exam today, and although that may sound like terrible news, one of the questions is actually a post that I have been wanting to write for a long time. So, I think I will simply post my response to the exam as a science-related post. How cool is that? The bad news is that I first have to finish off some of the other questions, because I'm worried that I'll run out of time if I start on the fun ones first. So, hang in there, science coming up!!

The Truth

So, the writers at The Science Creative Quarterly offer us the the truth. I can't say I agree 100% though. In my experience, gin is better than whiskey. Other than that, I'm all with them.

One down

Well, for better of worse, I just submitted my first written qualifying exam. It's not my most brilliant piece of science writing ever, but it's not the worst either, so I think I'll pass. Some of the questions I answered in a lot more detail, because I already knew quite a bit about it, so it was much easier to come up with relevant publications, others were totally out of my league, and I just fumbled through. Now I'm going to take my first shower for the day (it's almost 6 pm!) and then I'm going to spend what's left of the weekend with my kids. I've shoo-ed them away too many times today. On Monday, I get the next exam.

The real price of quals

After my first pregnancy, I was back to my original ~115 lbs weight within about 3 months. After my second child, it took me 6 months to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight of ~118 lbs. Now, finally, almost 2 1/2 years after the birth of #3, have I made it back to my pre-pregnancy weight of 124 lbs (down from 166 lbs on the day of her birth). Ignore the gradual increase in weight as time progresses, I can live with that. Just focus on the 124 lbs.

Since I started writing my qualifying exams, I have done nothing but eat, snack, eat, snack and drink while I write. It doesn't help that we have loads of Halloween candy left, and I can't stop. I'm facing a month of qualifying exams. Would anyone hazard to guess what I will weigh on December 13th when this is all over? Or how much I will weigh after the winter break? Feel free to leave estimates behind. I promise I will weigh myself on December 13th, and put up an honest answer (shudder...)

Dang, didn't work again

You see, prayer really isn't all that effective. Of course, this can be explained by the fact that the 250 people praying weren't *true* christians. They just didn't believe strongly enough. Or one of them was gay, which--needless to say-- is such a terrible sin that Georgia needs to go without rain for a while longer. Or.... you could go on and on, but when rain does come (let's say in a month or so), you can bet your ass that they will claim that their prayers are to be credited for this miracle. Sigh... back to writing qualifying exams about real science. Maybe it'll offset some of the ignorance and stupidity out there.

The joys of trying to obtain a PhD.....

...my written qualifying exams start tomorrow. And will continue to at least December 13th. Will somebody please remind me why I decided to put myself through this again? Sadly, this likely means that blogging will slow down (more), except for frustrated rants about quals. And the fun does not stop there. Oral qualifying exams are scheduled for February 14th. Can someone remind me...?