Procrastination, Among Other Things

procrastination has been a common theme on this blog in the past. but not so much this summer, until now. i've spent my morning reading other blogs that i haven't had time to read lately, with all the research (*yay*) and the TA duties. the only ones i've really been keeping up with like i should are the friends' blogs - see the "welcome to the circle" links. ooh... before i forget (even though i already said this in a comment on her livejournal) a big happy birthday to jamie. glad you found a job, etc, etc.

i guess i can't really say that i'm catching up on my blog-reading on my day off, since even though i'm staying at home, it's not really a day off, as you will soon see. this blog-reading thing has been a major form of procrastination for me, as i still have 147 labs to grade - today. that's 7 lab assignments from 21 students, and it's not easy grading. it will quite literally take me all day. which is why i'm putting off starting and have been doing so since friday. but i promised i would have the labs graded on thursday and i will have them if it kills me. on the bright side, i don't have to venture out to dauphin island tomorrow until 1 pm (so i have to leave mobile at 12:15)... but i'll be at DISL unitl 10 pm. so maybe it's not really the bright side. tommorrow is the day/night lab - there will be much killing and much dissecting (including the one living triggerfish we caught on monday).

speaking of killing, tragedy has struck my little aquarium again. phil has kicked the bucket. *sniff* one night he was all swimming and happy and not afflicted with ick (ok, maybe not happy, but alive) and the next morning he was all sad and dead on the bottom of the tank. but nothing tried to eat him... i guess that whole tetrodotoxin in the liver thing kept gary and the crabs away. sadly, phil has joined my nameless damselfish in the mobile sewer system.

ok, enough death talk. yesterday gretchen and i ground seagrass samples all day. she was a little freaked out by the whole liquid nitrogen thing at first - especially when she spilled a few drops on herself. i told her not to worry - i do it all the time. it stings a little, but it evaporates so quickly that it doesn't have time to do any real damage... as long as you don't, like, shower in it or anything. andy and charlie each dropped in at some point to watch us work with the supercold liquid. i found it hard to believe, but charlie had never seen or worked with liquid nitrogen before. i remember going to the kennedy space center in 5th grade and seeing the liquid nitrogen demonstration, where the guy stuck a straw and some other random things in the nitrogen, dropped them on the floor and shattered them. i've never been able to get anything so fragile with the liquid that it shattered when dropped on the floor. it's kind of disappointing, really. but it does make wet seagrass nice and crunchy and grindable. anyway, anne was right - it's a big pain in the ass not freeze-drying the plants before grinding them.

a bit of exciting news for me came yesterday when dr. v. ventured into the lab to introduce me to a potential student. he told me he'd heard from the editor (he couldn't just say ken, could he?) that the revisions on my manuscript had been accepted. *excited squeal* ken was in the field yesterday, and dr. v. got to me first. i'm told that ken was "very impressed" with the paper. it makes me happy. so, in ~3.5 months, my paper will appear in marine ecology progress series. as soon as it's listed on the 'forthcoming publications' page, i'll post a link.

in completely non-research related news, i hear that the chicago blackhawks have hired a new gm who, as his first act, fired brian sutter (the head coach). he could have made a worse move. what's was chicago's record in the 03-04 season? not good, that's what it was. here's to hoping the NHL gets its shit together in time to start a new season in october. but regardless of what happens in the NHL, i'm excited about the ice pilots' schedule (even though i'm pissed that they changed the team colors). i can't wait for the season to start, even if scott gomez heals up and returns to the devils and i don't get to see him play in pensacola. why couldn't we play alaska last season? ah well, water under the bridge.

all right. enough of this procrastination. gotta go grade labs.