POP!

there went my little bubble. chad's father has apparently decided that a trip to greenville is a bad idea, offering up all sorts of excuses. the main one of which was the cost of gas. well, if he bought a new truck with a V8 engine for the sole purpose of being able to pull the camper then why turn around and complain about its terrible gas mileage? and why keep the camper on the condition of using it and then use gas as an excuse not to take it anywhere? why not just sell it if they aren't going to use it? which they apparently aren't going to because they're depending on me and chad to go places in it. how silly is that? if they want to go camping, they should just go since they don't want to go to the places that chad and i will want to. the only place they intend to use the camper is the state park in gulf shores. sorry, that's not my cup of tea. i'd rather go explore a new place. their reasoning makes no sense to me. really, i wish that they had just said they didn't want to go when chad asked them about it last night.

ok, now that that's off my chest, i can get to the real point of this post. chad and i might still go to greenville on saturday and stay in a hotel. but we would like it if others (you know who you are) would agree to join us...get a room with 2 double beds, take my car, split the cost of the room and gas. this way, we aren't springing for a hotel room and gas and tickets. i haven't looked at hotel prices in greenville, but the room we stayed in in tampa had 2 queen beds and was ~$70/night. so, how 'bout it, guys? up for a road trip? we'd have to buy gas ~4 times the whole trip in my car. that comes to ~$15-20/person for gas. the tickets in the section i want to sit in are $12 plus ticketmaster fees...it'll probably be ~$16. we can order them online and have them waiting at will-call. if you guys are interested, i'll check out hotel prices and find out how much that would be a person. if the hotel peeps are sneaky and charge by the person, i can say it's only for 2 people and we'll be just as sneaky as they are. we'd like to visit an arena we haven't been to, and this (i hate to say it) might be our only chance this season.

Road Trip!

greenville, here i come. yes, last night chad and i decided to go to greenville on saturday to see the ice pilots play there. we looked at where we want to sit so we can get tickets in that section at the BI-LO center (section 106 or 110), and we checked out campgrounds in greenville. i even went so far as to get driving directions and discover that this trip is nearly 100 miles shorter than the tampa/fort myers trip we went on in december and that the campground we'll be staying at is only 15 minutes from the BI-LO center. chad's parents are going on this trip with us, and it is actually because of them that we are going at all. now that the repairs are almost complete on their house, ALFA is no longer paying for the camper they've been staying in. but rather than sending it back to paw-paw's camper city, the in-laws would like to keep the camper on the condition that they have to go on more road trips and actually use the thing. thus, the campground thing. this really works out well for us, as we're only staying in greenville one night and a $14 campsite is much more affordable than hotel rooms for the four of us. sure, we'll be driving all weekend, but who cares? i can handle it. and now that chad brought this up, he's not getting out of it. we're going. yes, i'll be sleeping in a tiny camper instead of a nice hotel room, but one night won't kill me, especially since it means i get to see another echl arena this year. chad and i have also decided that if the pilots play gwinnett in the playoffs, we're going there too. so, after friday night's home game, we'll be headed to flomaton for the night before waking up at the butt crack of dawn on saturday and heading for south carolina. yeah, i'm up for some traveling, even though it means that i can't procrastinate this week. with the road trip this weekend, home games thursday and friday night, and a hellish 6-hr phys oce class tomorrow, i'd better get some work done after biometry this afternoon. i haven't so much as looked at the assignment mccreadie gave us on thursday, and i really should go ahead and start on my superlong phys oce homework, since i'm sure to accumulate lots more tomorrow. but i guess an awesome end to the week (yup, after biometry on thurs, it going to be hockey, hockey, hockey) is worth one afternoon jam-packed with work.

My Package Arrived Via UPS...

and they still suck. so, i finally got that package today a little after 4 pm. and at the same time, i got another package that shipped more than a week after the original package that i've been waiting for since last wednesday. stupid UPS. i guess it's nice that i finally got that book, but it sucks that it took so damn long. you know what sucks even more? well, friday when i talked to a customer service rep from UPS, i was told that someone from the place where my package was being held hostage would call me by 10 am today. they called me before 10 am, all right. my phone rang at 6:30 this morning, and it was of course a lady from UPS telling me that the package would arrive sometime today. and she couldn't make life easier by giving an approximate time or even the time of day i should expect it. so i was here piddling around all day so as not to miss the UPS woman, lest she mistakenly mark my box "return to sender". and the lady didn't even apologize for the mix-up (the woman from the pick-up center or the driver). stupid UPS. for future reference to those who have my digits, i do not enjoy being called early in the morning without a prior arrangement. if you know for sure that i am awake and expecting your call, fine call me before 8 am. otherwise, if you call me that early in the morning someone had better be dead - or i will make someone be dead. i know, i know. i'm not usually this threatening, but this whole UPS situation really has me peeved. if, by chance, you are reading this and don't know me, you probably wouldn't take my threats seriously if you did. i don't look very threatening. and most of the time i don't act it. but i can do some serious damage when rudely awakened for no good reason.

**a little aside here that has nothing to do with UPS. i checked out the playoff rosters on the echl site, and bill kinkel is conspicuously absent from pensacola's. houston keeps sending us all these damn ice gators when all we want is bill. ok, ok. i don't hate rooneem, but first david turon gets condemned to louisiana from st. john's and now houston is keeping kinky? damn the ahl. those bastards! sure, they're sending back ryan stokes and giving us maxime fortunas and chris heid, but i'd trade heid for kinky in a heartbeat. i guess beckett has been tyring to fill the void in our physical enforcement, but nobody beats bill kinkel. and another thing - st. john's took tyler away (beechey, that is) and broke him, and now we can't use him for a month! damn them. ok, i'm done now, i swear.

Boys Are Gross...

...and corey neilson is funny. i like that. i don't like that boys are some of the most disgusting creatures on the planet, which i rediscovered today. the season ticket holders' get-together was much fun. the locker room tour was nifty (even though it smelled...and it wasn't a good smell). nessa gave in to temptation and joined us (she called me while chad and i were on the way and asked what i thought she should do - of course i told her to skip the honor society induction and come with us). we skated...i may have pretty good sea legs, but hockey legs i do not possess. it was fun anyway. i made many squeaky noises, and i even made a couple of pit stops at the players' bench (pilots', not visitors'). that's where i decided that our guys are really repulsive. there were countless pieces of chewed gum strewn haphazardly around the floor of the bench. gross. and it smelled (the general bench area, not the gum - i didn't get close enough to the nasty old gum to catch a whiff). somebody really should clean in there. anyway, nessa and i took pics around the locker room (i took a pic w/ st. jacques' stuff), which is also smelly btw. we examined some of the guys' belongings...chad informed me that kinkel's jock strap is in the pic i took of his area. i didn't notice. i was paying attention to the hat. here, have a look and you can see bill kinkel's funny hat as well as an old jock strap (the plaque is his "honorary pensacolian" award from the booster club).



jordan krestanovich was icing up his foot while we were touring the locker rooms. that was entertaining for a bit. then, after our locker room tour, we were just hangin' out with casey when corey n. walked out and saw us. he spontaneously flexed for us (memories of last night...). we giggled, and while he was walking away, he did it again down low and behind his back. so funny. he was in a good mood. nessa and i were too chicken to ask *jacquo* to flex for us, but he did say hello to me. that's what eye contact will do for you. he walked by, i made eye contact, he felt that he would look like an ass if he didn't acknowledge me, and we exchanged hellos. nice. nessa and i attempted futilely to locate dwayne (he would have flexed for us, and we're not too chicken to ask him). but anyway, it was a fun day.

after the playoff rally, we decided to go see Fever Pitch, which i highly recommend. beforehand, while out in the parking lot deciding what we should do, we saw dominic d'amour and his gay, gay rental car (we assumed it was a rental, as it had a florida tag) and laughed our asses off. it was a tiny white suzuki, and it just made him look so gay. we also checked out the rides of aaron phillips and frederic cloutier - not gay in the slightest, nice manly SUVs. anyway, we also killed a little time playing games at sam's fun city before the movie (i know how much you love that place, deva). we got a bag of marbles and a tiny compass for our trouble. overall, an egg-cellent day.

Great Season

well guys, i must say that this has been the best ice pilots' season ever. i enjoyed it immensely. our guys totally kicked ass, and vanessa and i pulled some of our goofiest stunts involving the players ever...and deva joined in on our fun this year. see vanessa's blog for picture proof of our antics. we finally got nick lindberg to flex for us (even though he wouldn't do it alone - i had to do it with him...wait, i didn't mean that the way it came out). and corey neilson flexed, too. i'd call that a success. i took a pic w/ *jacquo* while standing in the autograph session line (even though i had nothing to sign). he was funny. i'm glad i bought the jersey of one of the nicer pilots...but even jordan krestanovich was nice and actually spoke to us last night. guess they were in a good mood. hmm...the autograph nazi (the scary lady with the bright yellow sign proclaiming "one autographed item per person only") didn't yell at us for wasting the guys' valuable time getting photos with their fans. i was a tad surprised - she seemed to think that we lowly fans weren't worthy of the time of the guys we support. and the woman in line in front of us was annoying, acting as if we were just a bunch of stupid, giggly girls (maybe that's true) who needed to be told who the guys were (name and number) each time one got close to us (as if we haven't memorized every one of their faces by now - definitely not true). i hope that dwayne's recognition of us ("i haven't seen you guys much lately, except at games of course") put that lady in her place - not only do we know who they are, a couple of them even know who we are...and corey n. and cam of course recognized nessa. yup, last night's win over the damn sea wolves (and the festivities following the game) was the perfect cap on a great regular season. let's hope the guys keep it up in the postseason.

as for today, it's the season ticket holder's end of the year get-together, aka playoff rally for the team. chad and i only bought a 16-game plan this season, but we went to so many more games than that, it's not even funny. anyway, we merited an invite to today's festivities. and i intend to skate today. even though i can't skate. so i'd better not wear anything tight that might hinder my dragging my bruised and aching body up off the ice multiple times. it's ok. chad's never been ice skating, so we can look slow and inept together. or just fall down together. maybe we won't hurt ourselves too badly. maybe i won't lose a finger when i fall and accidentally run over my own hand. i'm actually quite paranoid about that. i keep thinking about that scene in Happy Gilmore where happy says he's the only guy in hockey who's taken off a skate and tried to stab somebody with it. it always reminds me of the dangers of ice skates. even if those dangers are just in my own head. oh well. it's gonna be fun, anyway.

UPS Sucks

i'm not quite to the point of referring to them as "damn UPS," but i'm getting there. i order a lot of stuff online. especially books...so i pre-ordered the new artemis fowl book (sort of a kiddie series, but fun to read nonetheless) from barnesandnoble.com, and it shipped last friday (4/1). wednesday, there was a notice from UPS on my door when i got home saying they would re-deliver on thursday. well, it's saturday, and my friendly neighborhood UPS guy (actually, it's usually a woman) still hasn't made a repeat appearance. so, i go online and enter my invoice number, only to discover that no attempt was made to redeliver my package because someone had marked that i would pick it up. the big problem: i have no idea which UPS pick-up center my package went to. so, i called UPS customer service. which also isn't easy to use - way too many automated options with no way to get to an actual person. anyway, i finally got to talk to a person, and i was told that someone would call me by 10 am on monday to arrange for delivery and find out what the hell happened. usually, i get things when they're sent via UPS. usually, when i'm not home and they try to make a delivery, they come back after 5 pm the same day. but not this time. what a pain. i've never had an issue with fed-ex, however. i can pick up my package at the fed-ex place the same day they try to deliver it. or they'll try again the next day. so, fed-ex is better than UPS.

Damn Flood

damn flooding. you know, i damn a lot of things. i complain a lot on this blog. oh well. anyway, back to my rant on flooding. something always seems to happen when i go to dauphin island lately. if it's not a major chemical spill, it's mega-flooding. last friday...and yesterday. friday the flooding prevented me from going to the island and left me stuck with huge quantities of baked goods. but this time, i had to go. i had my phys oce class. and what a disappointment that was. for once, we were going over chapters that didn't come with homework. i was getting happy, we were about to leave...then, bam. we get stuck with a looong problem that we had skipped way back in chapter 2. but we get two weeks to do this one. and it came in exchange for another test. so, maybe one long homework problem isn't so bad, since it means that we won't have the open-book take-home exam in a couple of weeks (as opposed to the closed-book take-home exam, which we will have). also, i was pleasantly surprised to see that i actually made a decent grade on last week's homework...it was a B. much better than the last couple of homework grades (the last one was embarrassingly bad - i won't tell you what it was). i'd really better start putting some effort into my phys oce homework. i don't want it to cause me to get a B in the class. and anything less than a B would make me cry. literally. in grad school, a C is failing. absolutely unacceptable. so i strive for A's, as always.

anyway, i have digressed big time. remember how i sent the really pathetic email begging dr. v. not to have his seminar class next friday and he said he wouldn't? well, it no longer matters. we will be subjected to a 6-hr phys oce class anyway. one of the girls in the class made plans to go out in the field that day. damn. so, we're left with making up our missed class on wednesday morning...before our regular class that afternoon. yuck. a 9-4 class with an hour for lunch in the middle. i think my brain might really explode after that. wish me luck next wed., folks.

ok, i'm really getting back on track this time. i started off talking about the flooding going on around here. well, it started to storm around the time i reached DISL yesterday...thunder, lightning, the whole shebang. it was so bad, the projector screen kept vibrating. anyway, the rain had lightened up some (but not the lightning) by the time i was leaving the island around 4:30. it didn't matter. the island still hadn't drained from last week's storms (claire's yard looks like a pond), so with the added rain, the whole island was pretty much under water. i probably shouldn't have driven through some of the water that i did. but my tiny kia didn't stall, thank heaven, and i made it back to mobile safe and sound. i did notice, however, that there are lots of new potholes appearing with all the rain. i ran in a series just after the bridge by the fowl river marina and another set on knollwood just past the hospital. they weren't there last week. anyway, it's been beautiful today, but there are still lots of roads closed and washed out completely in some cases. christian lives in pascagoula (or somewhere near there...in mississippi, anyway), and he said that a tornado hit his neighborhood right after he left for DISL yesterday. he wasn't sure he could get home. i don't know if he did...he was still at DISL when i left. i hope things turned out ok for him. you know, i don't know anyone who also knows christian who would know what i'm talking about, but he looks like a smaller version of nikolai khabibulin (goaltender for the tampa bay lightning, for those of you who don't know). i've never told him that, but i think it every time i see him (twice a week for three hours at a time). that was my first thought when i met him. he doesn't twitch, though. but he does smoke.

alas, i have digressed once more. anyway, the moral of this post: heavy rain and flooding suck. damn flooding.

Computer Issues

damn computer. i can do everything i need to do on it...except run live update on anything. and no one seems to know how to fix my issues. this all started a while back when i couldn't run live update on norton antivirus. so the symantec support peeps advised me to uninstall the program and reinstall it...which didn't work. so they told me there was probably a leftover registry key, and i had to delete it. but the stupid registry editor won't open. my mouse arrow turns to an hourglass for a second, and then nothing happens. so, i was advised to restart with no programs running on startup...but MS configuration won't open, either. nothing else is messed up. everything else works fine. i suspect that when trendmicro removed a virus from my computer, some little file was deleted that controls these things. but no one can tell me what it is or how i can replace it. norton antivirus is the only file that won't install on my comp. all other installation cd's work fine. i even reinstalled windows, but my problem is still there. certain windows won't open...or they appear for, like, half a second and then disappear. so, i downloaded a trial version of trendmicro's pc-cillin, and it worked fine for a while. but now, i'm having the same problem with it and spyware doctor. but my anti-adware has been working fine through all these issues. so far, symantec support, microsoft support, and hp support have all been unable to solve my computer problems. the last resort: reinstall windows. done. and it didn't work. when i try to reinstall norton, the cursor flashes for a second or two and then nothing. i'm going to scream. i guess my next step is to go to DISL and harass tommy (our resident comupter guy). maybe he can help me. but i don't know.

Just Stand There and Look Pretty

that was marcus's advice to me this morning when i came in soliciting lots of questions for my discussion. the geolocial oceanography class wasn't that talkative today. that sucked for me. as promised, my presentation was short...then, i just had to stand there looking pathetic while doug implored people to participate in the discussion. i'm not good at just standing there looking pretty. i get fidgety. i'm not a fan of being stared at unduly. when i'm talking, it's fine. there's a reason for people to look at me then. but to be in the front of a room, just standing there, being stared at...so not fun. if it had been a less serious occassion, i would've done a little dance and made everyone giggle. i feel like, if people are looking at me, i should be doing something. i actually did make people giggle a little during my presentation. i used the word "poop." yes, i said "poop" in a presentation for a graduate-level course. actually, while giving examples of critters that cause bioturbation, i said, "...and detritivores like sea cucumbers [points to picture of sea cucumber] that ingest the sediment, extract organic matter, and poop it back out." larry the engineer laughed, and the presentation moved on to a discussion of trace fossils. anyway, doug said i did good (even though no one talked much), that i chose good papers to read, and that's what counts, since doug's the prof. i think it could've been crap, and he still would've said that because he likes me and doesn't want to give me a bad grade. have you ever been in a situation where you suspect that your reputation has clouded someone's opinion of you? like when people first meet you, and they have certain expectations, so whatever you do will be judged according to what they expect. so, if they think you really know a lot about something and ask you a question, no matter what your answer is, they'll take it as gospel because they assume you must be right. i hate that, and it unfortunately happens to me a lot. especially in the academic community. i really don't think i'm all that great a student. i'm lazy. i procrastinate like crazy. i cram for tests. i don't do things unless i'm told to. i've got next to no initiative. yet, when i enter into a class with a new prof they've most likely heard of me via other profs i know pretty well, and they automatically assume that i will be an A student. which i am, but sometimes i wonder if i deserve my A's all the time. think cher in Clueless. i'm not that manipulative, but sometimes i would swear that my excellent reputation among professors is at least partially the result of their predispositions toward me. i think i'm a fairly likable chica. it's rare for me to have a prof who doesn't like me (not that i'm being cocky, it just happens). and that's part of my current self-doubting state of mind. i really have very few enemies. actually, i don't think i have any at this point in my life. which is good. but, what if profs go a little easy on me because they like me? or because they expect me to get A's and think that if i don't, it will upset the balance of the universe? what if all this hypothetical "going easy on me" is sheltering me from all the scathing criticism out there? what if when i get out there on my own in the world of science, i discover that i don't have what it takes? i guess i've been fortunate so far not to have worked with any uber-assholes. but maybe i need to experience just one mega-mega-biiitch (to quote cartman's "kyle's mom's a bitch" song) to fully prepare myself for the world of egotistical, self-centered scientists.

and maybe i'm distressing over nothing. maybe my laziness really isn't a problem and i'll make it just fine without the protection and shelter of senior scientists. i'm not a little girl who needs to be sheltered and protected anymore. but sometimes i feel like people still treat me that way. ...and all of this came from doug telling me that my half-assed presentation was good. maybe he's a little biased. i met him in the context of "charlyn's boyfriend" not "dr. haywick." i really do think he'd feel bad if i did badly in his class. but, based on his comments when i took his introductory earth history class, i also think he respects me as a scientist. he freely admits that i know more about some biological processes than he does. so maybe it wasn't as bad as i thought, and i don't suck as a biologist and a student just because i procrastinate. i do get things done, even if it's usually at the last minute (or sometimes two weeks late). at least people like me (or, they act like they do), so i won't be one of those hella-bitches people can't stand to talk to and won't listen to anyone's opinion but their own. i've been warned about a few of those...and met one of them. dr. v. says he doesn't want me to "get mixed up with that crowd. there are some real assholes there." oh, speaking of dr. v., my plea for him not to have class on 4/15 was successful. here's how that went:

LaTina's email:

Pretty please with a cherry on top don't have seminar on April 15th. I think that Christian is going to ask this of you, but I thought that I would also contribute a plea. If you don't have seminar that Friday, we'll have a make-up Phys Oce class that morning. But if you do have seminar that Friday, we will have an all-day Phys Oce class that Wednesday (4/13). I don't think I would surivive 6 hours of Phys Oce in one day. My brain would explode. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little, but I would definitely absorb more if the class were spread out over two days. I can only take in so much physics at a time. Have mercy on everyone taking Phys Oce this semester.

LaTina

Dr. V's reply:
I promise.

i have a tendency to be a bit dramatic. can you tell?

Quick Note Before Class

ahh...monday. not the best day of the week. i have to lead the discussion in class today. i hope people talk. my presentation is extremely short...7 slides, ~6-7 minutes. just a little intro for my topic. i'm strangely not nervous at all. oh well. nothing to be nervous about. i actually feel a little like i did when i was teaching labs. i didn't care what they thought of me - i knew that i knew more about whatever i was talking about than those freshmen did. even though i know very little about sediment-organism interactions. but i'm pretty good at pulling the scarfs out of my sleeve. i can make it seem like i know what i'm talking about, even if i don't really. oh well. i actually read all three papers this week...which is good since i picked 'em. all righty, then...enough chatter about my impending presentation...gotta get ready for class....today is "lunch in class" day. i better go pack one.

Hello, Mr. Brabham

so, what can i say that hasn't already been said about the pensacola ice pilots' smashing win over the damn sea wolves last night to win their first Brabham Cup (ECHL regular season championship) ever? not much, probably. it was an awesome game - for the most part. it kind of sucked for half the 1st period when the damn sea wolves had the lead. it turned out ok, though. we took it back, and that was the only lead mississippi had.

not to ruin the joyous mood surrounding the game, but the only thing i can say about the pilots' brabham cup-clinching win that hasn't already been said is a bit on the negative side. for the past few games, we've had little defense. look at the number of goals scored on us lately. the guys are not playing well in their own end. they seem to be relying on their ability to keep the puck out of their zone and outshoot opponents to keep the other team from scoring - and it's not working out the way they planned. and we're taking way too many selfish, stupid penalties. now, i am aware that not all of the calls against are good - the damn sea wolves took a ton of dives last night. but our guys did a lot of retaliating against un-called trespasses on them. *jacquo* included. he's no stranger to the sin bin, but he's been getting to know it better and better lately. so, while i'm extremely happy with the win and with the number of goals our guys have been scoring, i think that if we're to go anywhere in the post-season, the guys really have to pick up play in their own zone. they need to dominate at both ends of the ice.

wait, this has pretty much been said, already. i think dave farrish echoed these sentiments (well, most of them) last night on the post-game show. i like dave farrish. he keeps our guys down to earth. he doesn't let them get too cocky, even though he knows he's coaching arguably the best team in the echl. and definitely the best team that pensacola has ever had. maybe that's our problem lately - the guys know they're good and think that it doesn't matter what the other team does, they'll still win. who knows?

Want a Cookie?

...or five? i have a butt ton of baked goods that i no longer need. yes, i spent yesterday afternoon baking for no reason, apparently. due to the bad bad weather we've been having, discovery day at DISL has been cancelled. the grounds at DISL are too soaked to set up for tomorrow. i'm pretty upset about that, since i've already made cookies and brownies. but if i'd waited until today to bake stuff, i wouldn't have had time to get things to DISL...which i don't have to do now. i'll unload some stuff at my mom's house, but i'll still have a bunch left. so, if someone would like to to take some off my hands, that would be awesome. on the bright side of things, i don't have to dodge flooded roads to make it to dauphin island today. i needed to pay a visit to the sea lab library, but driving in this crap isn't worth the info i could get. the library will still be there next week. but now i'm stuck with more cookies than any two people could possibly eat. and i have 8 huge brownies. so, if you'd like, i can try and sneak some stuff into the game tomorrow...or i can meet you guys after and load you up with fattening stuff. please, please don't make me eat nothing but cookies and brownies for three days. *light bulb* maybe i'll see if judy has all the snacks ready for this afternoon's seminar and unload some stuff there in the bio dept.

wow, i'm watching the news, and i don't think that i could get to dauphin island. it looks as if all possible routes are flooded...rangeline is finally open, but it's flooded at halls mill rd. and hamilton blvd. and my "get around rangeline" route is also out - hwy 193 is flooded at laurendine...and bellingrath is closed at cold creek. hmm...fowl river rd. might still be open...but that's probably a bad idea, too. but anyway, i don't have to go out until 3:45 this afternoon now, so i guess i'm staying in to work on my discussion for monday. i've read the longest paper i chose...next the 8-pg one, then the 4-pg one. i always read the longest 1st so it feels like less work by the time i get to the last one and i'm tired of reading. and then...look up all the words i didn't understand (i'm making a list) and put together my power point.

hmm...i've already read a lot of school-related stuff this morning. i think i'll go work out and do some recreational reading before i do the rest.

Congrats to "Kinky"

wow. i'm a little in shock. i have just read that the ice pilots main enforcer, bill kinkel, scored a hat trick in houston last night. and he didn't have one single penalty minute. again, wow. he scored the same amount of goals he's had with pensacola in 30 games in just his 4th game with the aeros. all i can say is "wow." and he admits freely that scoring goals is not his job. his job is to get in the way and protect our [or the aeros'] guys. still, i hope they don't decide that maybe bill kinkel can be turned into a scoring machine, after all, and keep him. wait, they can't keep him now, can they? what about that whole final roster thing? we'll get him back, right? sure we will. anyway, congrats, bill. maybe we'll see a few more kinkel goals in pensacola?

Personal Hell

that's what traffic today was. a hell opened up just for me. because, out of all the days of the week, that damn chemical tanker just had to turn over on a road that i need to drive on to get to the sea lab...today, the one day out of the week that i have class at DISL. it couldn't wait just one day to cause a gigantoid chemical spill that evacuated tillman's corner, closed rangeline road, and led to huge traffic jams on government blvd. so, i had to go way the hell out of my way to get to class this afternoon. it's a good thing i left a little earlier than usual (and i usually leave in enough time to be at DISL 15 min before class starts). i got to class 2 min before it started - just enough time to pee and grab my seat. i was going 12 mph in a 50 mph zone on government for nearly 20 minutes. and i had to drive on a larger section of government than usual b/c i couldn't make my usual turn onto rangeline rd...damn chemical spill. they didn't even say which chemical it was. i'd like to know. anyway, i had to take bellingrath rd. to laurendine (couldn't take bellingrath all the way to hwy 188 b/c there's a section of the road missing close to 188) and continue on my way to dauphin island. it sucked. and i had to take the same route home...back through all the crappy traffic and two dozen cops directing us impatient, driving-stupid mobilians through the traffic lights. but this time i was going 25 mph in the 50 mph zone. so my 40-45 min drive took more than an hour today. damn traffic. i hate bad traffic...which is kind of funny, since i live in mobile...airport blvd is an everyday sort of hell for me. which is why i avoid it at all costs.

oh, and on top of the shit-tastic traffic situation, i find out there is a 50-50 chance that i'll have a 6 hour physical oceanography class on april 13. that WOMPS (to steal a word from the kiddie show Recess). we missed last week's class, which i was happy about. but two people in the class will be out of town for a conference next friday, the scheduled make-up day. so we need a new make-up day. and our make-up time revolves around the seminar course that takes place at DISL on friday mornings - they have class every other week. dr. v. teaches that class. i'm going to grovel at his feet and try to get him not to have class on april 15, so i don't have to go through another personal hell - a full day of physical oceanography. i can barely survive it 3 hours at a time. let's see how effective my powers of persuasion are.

Another Obligation

yesterday i foolishly volunteered to bake brownies and cookies for Discovery Day at the sea lab on saturday. should be a good time for all...sea lab tours, 15% discount for everyone in the estuarium gift shop and discount admission to tour the aquarium itself. lots of activities for the little ones - games, a dunking booth, food (including my yet-to-be-baked marbled brownies and chocolate-macadamia-peanut butter cookies). the event will be held from 10-2 on saturday at the estuarium/dauphin island sea lab, if anyone is interested. but i'm not going to be there. which is why i'm baking. matt (GSO president) sent out an email yesterday saying that if people don't sign up for something (selling stuff, running games, getting dunked, baking) he's going to assign positions for everyone. not cool. so i volunteered to bake things. i think that chad and i are headed back to flomaton this weekend (he's installing security cameras at his parents' house and needs to get his wires in place before the repair peeps get the new roof on). hurricane repairs are finally being made on the in-laws' house - $27,000 worth of them, to be exact. basically, half their house has to be rebuilt - new sheet rock, new window, new rafters, brick repairs, whole new roof, etc. my mom finally got her new roof last week. and she doesn't like it.

but anyway, i digress. i really thought the discovery day thing was next weekend and that i would be baking like a madwoman next thursday/friday. but no. i'll be baking and individually wrapping my creations tomorrow and dropping them off at DISL on friday before heading back to mobile in time for the 4 pm seminar on chemical ecology being hosted by the bio and chemistry depts at USA. actually, if chad is planning to go to flomaton on friday, i might not even go to the seminar...he's supposed to get off work early since he's worked kind of late the past couple of days. anyway, the doing stuff at his 'rents house is one reason we may not go witness the pilots' vendetta against damn texas on friday. i'd personally like to see a little revenge for the loss on sunday. and if we take out last night's loss to the damn ice gators on texas too, then so be it.

anyway, i've still got to do a ton of stuff for my discussion-leading stint on monday...like read the papers i picked out, gather info, put together a power point presentation. basically, i haven't done one single thing on it. and i probably won't start on it until tomorrow. so i guess i'm off to wal-mart to buy baking supplies (which i will get reimbursed for), then i'll be reading papers before heading DISL for physical oceanography this afternoon. oh, busy day.

Procrastination Catches Up

i think that all of my blatant procrastination is starting to catch up with me. i've put so many things off that they're starting to pile up...as usual. it's not like i'm not accustomed to these things. i don't do anything until i have a huge pile of stuff waiting to be done within a few days. yesterday, i was forced to finally finish my biometry assignment...fortunately, lindsey made that rather easy for me. she asked mccreadie all of our joint questions and told me what he said. oh, speaking of lindsey, she's such a goof. there was cake in the biology dept office yesterday, as it was dr. nelson's b-day (he's lindsey's advisor), so of course i went before class to have cake (even though i am no longer an official part of the bio dept...). lindsey was standing, talking to me and the bio secretary, judy. and she was hugging some papers she was putting off grading to her chest with a pen pressed against the end of her nose...judy said, "don't stick it..." and before she could say "up your nose" lindsey had a pen hanging from her nose. gross...but grade-school funny. i laughed, judy laughed, lindsey laughed, lindsey removed the pen from her nose, and i went to class.

anyway, back to the subject at hand, today i must start and complete the physical oceanography homework that has been waiting for me since before spring break...that will not be easy. nuts. that stupid homework will take up my entire afternoon. i really should have started it earlier. i'll probably just work on it long enough to put something on paper and not bother to email dr. park with all of my inevitable questions. i'll take a not-quite-par grade on this assignment and do better on the next one. one not-so-good homework grade shouldn't jeopardize my A...even though the homework is 30% of the final grade in that class...nuts. but he's pretty lenient in grading the homework.

and then, later in the week...read the papers i chose to assign for geological oceanography, gather more information on sediment-organism interactions, and prepare to lead the discussion on monday. hopefully, i'll get lucky like charlie did yesterday. the discussion went off on a tangent (larry, an engineer rather than a biologist like the rest of us, asked about the basics of evolution). so we spent the discussion portion of class talking about how things evolve and coevolution between a predator and its prey. charlie hardly had to do anything, and we barely talked about his topic. it was a good discussion, though. hopefully people will be just as talkative next week.

ok, enough talk of the demise of procrastination. the shower beckons. but first, i'll leave you to ponder a quote i heard while watching a rerun of Animal Planet's The Most Extreme last night:

"Elephants in must are like college students on spring break - sex-crazed, aggressive, and smell really, really bad."

~Animal Planet's The Most Extreme "Stinkers" episode

Happy Easter to All

this has been the longest weekend ever. but it's been good. now i am very tired. and the pilots are tied 3-3 against damn texas. what's wrong with them? they've done so well this weekend. nuts. vince is hurt. corey n. has gone to the locker room...equipment issue, not injury. ok. anyway, the game last night: excellent. congrats to the pilots on the division title - their first ever. spent the night at my grandmother's house last night - so of course i sneezed uncontrollably for a while before succumbing to the benadryl-induced haze that at least made the sneezing stop. the first words sammi said to me this morning: "you look awful." thanks, kid. and today: more sneezing. more benadryl. more sleepiness. maybe that's why i feel so tired right now. damn pollen. i actually did some homework today, though. that was good. then, huge dinner (ham, mashed potatoes, salad, peas, sweet potatoes, cupcake later on), hiding easter eggs, hunting for easter eggs, searching for one last egg for about 10 minutes before realizing that sammi had fed it to the dog and the elusive egg was mid-digestion. now: must do laundry. *sigh* just want sleep. very busy weekend. with my family. i love them, but too much time with them will drive a person crazy. anyway, happy easter, everyone.

HA HA HA

*laughs hysterically* i just noticed that florida got beat by victoria tonight...in regulation. that is so awesome! so, who plays crappy teams all season and that's why they're on top? hmm? let's see their fans bitch about this. i say, who can't even take the last place team when they've been so hot lately? can we say the everblades? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....i could go on all night.

Day with my hubby

this might seem odd, but chad and i do not spend that many days together. just us. today, we had a good day - together. he was off work for good friday, and i don't have any friday classes (i probably should've been doing constructive things, but i'd rather goof off with chad). we went to sears and best buy, drooled over tv's we can't afford...bought some more blank dvd's ($19.99 for a pack of 50 - sweet) and Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo (that was totally my decision - i think that movie is hilarious) at best buy. i went for a walk in the park with deva while chad visited the driving range. then, chad and i went and played miniature golf (he beat me - he's been practicing) and had dinner at steak and shake. yummy. overall, a nice, relaxing day. last night we just sort of vegged out and watched movies (first, The Grudge - i didn't like the ending - then Open Water - chad didn't like the ending; i knew what happened already since i'd read the real story in a dive magazine a few months ago). tomorrow, it's off to flomaton to visit the parents and stay for easter. and let's not forget the pilots game. i hope it's a good one. i didn't listen to the game tonight, but from the looks of the score i should have. 4 points for defenseman dominic d'amour and 3 points for *jacquo*. we kicked augusta's ass 8-1. sweet. that's the way the score should have turned out on tuesday night against victoria, but the pilots just weren't there for the first couple of periods. maybe we'll get a repeat of tonight's game tomorrow. only with freddy in goal for deva ;) i hope her car troubles are better so she can make it to the game. and a note for nessa - i finished Animal Husbandry and loved it...you'll get it back tomorrow night. and i'm well into Her - and also loving it.

Spiffy New Boat

i learned today that the sea lab is receiving its new boat this week. now, i have known about this new vessel for quite some time...it was built for DISL. i'm excited that it's finally getting here. when monty sent out the message that the new boat is arriving this week, he also sent a photo. it's quite nice. much nicer than the verrill (aka the vomit comet - a phrase used by a prof's wife; i have never gotten sick on the verrill, or any other boat, for that matter). but the verrill does have the prestige of having lived at woods hole oceanographic institute before being transferred to DISL.

check out the new boat. so awesome. and appropriately named after e.o. wilson, a pillar of the modern scientific community.

now, compare that to the r.v./a.e. verrill. the new boat is a little smaller, but who cares? it's new, and speedy. something the verrill definitely is not.

The Science of Relationships

so, i was busily reading laura zigman's Animal Husbandry, and i just had to take a break and share an insight. there is a quote at the beginning of each chapter, and i started really thinking about this one:

"The female chooses not the male which is most attractive to her but the one which is the least distasteful."

~Charles Darwin (a very smart man), The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (which doesn't refer to sex, like the act of sex, but the concept of sexual selection, i.e., picky females and horny males that'll pretty much attack any chick that crosses their path)

this is a very insightful quote. i, and i think most females will agree with me, think that most men have a pretty screwed up way of thinking. and the more i learn (from my husband) how guys really think, the less i like them. chad is really into the show Cheaters...and judging by the commercials aired during the show, a lot of men share his taste. anyway, when i watch the show, i always ask why the cheating bastard featured (sometimes, the cheaters are women...but mostly they're men) didn't just break it off with his significant other if he didn't want to be with her anymore. and chad always tells me that a guy will not break up with a girl if he doesn't have to...especially if she's still sleeping with him. or, he just wants to have someone else lined up before quitting an established relationship, even when he is truly out of love and sick of his current girl. not cool. i wouldn't do that. if i don't want to be with a guy, i'm not going to cheat on him. i'm going to dump him and then find someone else, not the other way around. i know, i know. it's not only guys who think this way...it's just seems like typical guy thinking.

so chad has a theory about women and relationships. he says that when they're young, girls want a bad boy - someone who is cool, aloof, and probably not that into her. the typical high school relationship. but when they get older, or grow up if you will, girls realize that the bad boy thing will never develop into anything and want someone a little steadier, a little safer - a good guy. however, some girls don't realize that they don't want the bad boy until they've married him, then they're stuck. chad tells me i am a freak - i skipped the bad boy phase and went straight for the good guy. really, i think i was into my share of bad boys, i just never attempted a serious relationship with any of them. i learn fast - bad boys are bad news.

now, let's think about chad's theory in relation to the darwin quote. so, before a girl is thinking ahead, she wants what is attractive to her - the bad boy. no relation to the darwin theory. but, when a girl is thinking about her future, she realizes that the bad boy is no good. he won't make a good life partner. he won't make a good father. he probably can't even take care of himself. so she turns to a steadier, safer man - the good guy. but what exactly is a good guy? someone with a steady job, good personality, protective instincts, who won't run off and jump every hot girl who comes along? actually, yes. but do we know these things about a guy when we first meet him? nope. so really, what are women looking for in a man, according to chad and darwin? we don't really like the workings of the male mind. we may like they way they look - some eye candy is always nice, but looks cannot make a relationship. there will always be something that drives us crazy. no one is perfect. the perfect man does not exist. once you accept that there will always be something distasteful about any man, you realize that darwin is absolutely correct. females choose the least distasteful, not the most attractive, male. because women are often attracted to men for all the wrong reasons.

the inherent pickiness of women compared to men is biological. the same in almost every species. females invest more time and energy in children than men do, therefore they are pickier when it comes to choosing potential fathers than males are in spreading their seed. natural selection has made us this way. without it, we couldn't have survived as a species. we women can't help the way we are. and neither can men. but once they've committed, they should honor that commitment. it's hard to find a man with a brain that can overcome his biological programming, and that unfortunately causes women a lot of grief. so keep searching ladies, i swear there are good guys out there...and remember darwin. don't look for the most attractive male. instead, think about all of a guys qualities and choose the least distasteful package you can find. you'll be happier that way, i swear.

Free Day

so, i have a free day today, and the weather is absolutely gorgeous...70 degrees right now, mid-70's predicted this afternoon. the sun is shining. and what am i doing with said free time? sitting in the damn library doing actual work. yuck. but not for long. the library's catalog is being uncooperative, so while i was able to look up lots of good stuff (and some of was online, so i downloaded it), i cannot seem to physically locate most of the journals in the library. and it's all because they stopped just putting the journals in alphabetical order. since the online catalog is down, i can't look up the call numbers for the journals or the three books i need. why does this always happen to me? when i motivate myself to do real work with an otherwise free day, something happens to the library's network, and my attempts at being productive are thwarted. i guess this means i should just give up and go hang out by the pool to soak up a little sun.

higgins's defense got postponed, so i don't even have to go that this afternoon. since we'd already cancelled class today, and higgins's defense didn't get postponed until yesterday afternoon, dr. park opted to go with the plan we set up last week, which is good because i haven't done the homework. why would i? i have an entire week to put it off. and i wasn't going to do it last night...hockey game.

so, the last 12 minutes of last night's game were good...the rest of the time, the pilots totally sucked. then, when there were ~12 min left in the game, they seemed to say, "hey, we're losing to the last place team, here. crap. that'll make us look bad. i guess we'd better get back in this thing." and they started to play like the team i know and love. and beat victoria 3-1. but i was pissed for the first two periods because they were off in la-la land and not worried about playing hockey. and they took so many bad penalties in the 2nd, it was pathetic. i told chad i wondered if they were trying to see how many guys they could fit in the sin bin at once...kind of like a clown car...

after the game, deva left a message on my cell to tell me that the cops and news people we'd seen in the park earlier were there because a creepy guy had come out of the woods and tried to abduct a group of teenage girls. damn crime in mobile. it's getting a little too close to home. i walk in that park all the time...it's right across from my apartment complex. i'm supposed to live in the relatively safe part of town...i'm not supposed to have to worry about creepy guys jumping out of the woods or serial rapists. but the crime is spreading and taking over the whole damn city. at least i already carry my cell and some pepper spray (this heavy-duty stuff that chad's dad gets - he works at holman prison in atmore, so they have the stuff you can't get in a store) with me when i go out alone...i feel prepared to defend myself if necessary. i'm fairly confident in my ability to kick some random guy's ass if he tries anything. but doesn't it suck that i have to think this way?

so, i can't do work...i think i'll skip out of the library and head for the pool.

Eventful...but not productive

that's how i would describe this morning's biometry class. we spent half the class going over notes we've already been through...and i didn't pay any more attention this time than i did the first. if possible, i paid even less attention today. i made lindsey giggle with doodles in my notes. here, you can see how my class notes look, too (some of them, anyway). maybe they'll make you giggle. today's topic: principle component analysis (i'm told it's very useful).


the armless man is saying, "i am a PC, and i explain the variability 100%!" in case you were wondering. so, the doodles do have something to do with the class. hmm...the armless guy doesn't have a neck, either. oh well. anyway, while lindsey and i were busy giggling away (probably not the best thing to do when you sit in the front row), mccreadie was trying to explain something about principle components to claire, and he was looking for a good analogy. so he asked me and lindsey to stand up...then charlie, then claire and andy. and he explained how we could be analyzed as principle components...lindsey and i were linked b/c we're both chicas, and we both have dark hair...of course, we giggled and linked arms when he said we were linked. claire and andy were linked b/c they both have light hair (mccreadie said blond, but andy's not really blond), but they're not as well linked b/c claire is a chica and andy is not (mccreadie thinks...giggle again). charlie was an outlier...he has dark hair...he could've been linked w/ lindsey and me. anyway, standing up in class definitely kills the falling asleep vibe. so that was a bit of amusement. i can't remember whether that was before or after the fire alarm went off...yes, even more excitement in biometry. so, everyone gets up and prepares to leave...i say screw the whole "leave your things, and get out" thing and rescue my lime green liz claiborne purse (how could i not? i love the thing...and my hockey tickets are in there - if they live in my purse, i can't leave them at home). lindsey does the same. so we're almost out the door when...false alarm. go back to your seats, people, you will not burn to death today.

like i said, an eventful class, but, as you can tell from the state of my notes, not so productive. i don't think i learned a damn thing...except that "if you have your assignments thursday, turn them in. if not, keep working on them." how's that for a deadline? at this rate, i could put that assignment off forever...except i promised lindsey i'd look at problem 4. nuts. i guess i'll have to do it.

Laziness Prevails

no, i do not have to wash last night's dishes by hand. hooray! laziness wins again. if you couldn't guess, my new dishwasher was installed today. it's so much nicer than the old one. and now i'm incredibly glad that i opted to be lazy last night and just leave the dinner dishes in the sink instead of being proactive and washing them. so now i can just put 'em in the dishwasher and turn the knob to "wash." good stuff.

so, i told myself earlier that i would start on my biometry assignment this afternoon. yeah, that didn't quite happen. but, as i discovered in class this morning, at least 4 other people haven't started either, so i don't feel bad about procrastinating. doug (geological oceanography prof) apparently had a bad spring break, so he chose not to give us a lecture today. can we say "yay"? yes, i believe we can. so, my 3-hour class turned into a 1-hour open discussion with no lecture to follow. sweet. and when i got home, the maintenance guys (who showed up about 10 minutes before i left for class) had finished installing my sweet new dishwasher. hmm...i probably should have paid a visit to the library this afternoon, seeing as how i found out today that i am assigning the readings for the discussion in geological oceanography next week and not the week after, as i had originally thought. yuck. that means i have to sift through tons of crap before finding 3 suitable papers. then, week after next, i have to lead the discussion. but after i find the papers, putting together the power point presentation shouldn't be too bad...i've done tons of those, and the setting is pretty casual. no need to be nervous.

with all this laziness, i almost feel like i haven't done anything at all today. but i did go and work out with my unexpected free time...it gave me a chance to read some more in the book i'm reading now (christopher pike's The Blind Mirror, his first new book in 5 years and one of his few adult books). that's one advantage a treadmill has over walking through the park - i can read on a treadmill. if i did that while walking in the park, i'd either run over a kid or get squished by a car. i want to finish The Blind Mirror soon so i can start on the books vanessa lent me over the weekend. they sound highly amusing. but with all my recreational reading, i'm not doing a whole lot of work and class-related reading, which is what i should be doing. oh well. i don't have physical oceanography on wednesday, so i'll spend a couple of hours in the library before higgins's defense. yeah, sounds like a plan.

Back to the Real World

ahh...back to useful things this week. spring break is over. not that i really went anywhere or did anything especially out of the ordinary, but it was nice not having classes for a week. i did go to destin with deva, and vanessa came over on saturday. we had a nice time at dauphin island...i gave her a little tour (not that there's a lot to see on the island...), we ate at the sand trap (yummy), went to the estuarium (fun critters - i impressed vanessa with my fish knowledge), hung out at the beach for a while. then, back in mobile, chad joined us for dinner at fazoli's and a showing of the ring 2 (the ending is much better in this one than the first). overall, it was a nice, relaxing week. but now i have to read a couple of articles before class this morning and start on my biometry assignment after class this afternoon. at least there's no physical oceanography this week...we get a break this week so we can go to john higgins's dissertation defense. should be interesting. his project was on jellyfish.

maybe the maintenance people will bring my new dishwasher today. for those of you who don't know, my dishwasher crapped out on me last week...with a load of dishes in it, which i was then forced to wash by hand (well, it was either that or have my kitchen piled up with dishes for a week or so...). it sucked. so i have been reduced to hand-washing dishes, something i haven't done in, like, three years. yes, i realize what a great time-wasting tragedy this is.

ok, gotta go do useful things...

SUNSHINE!!!

even though it's still a chilly (to me, at least) 55 degrees, the *sun* is shining...a great improvement on the gray morning we've been having. i've been cleaning my apartment so vanessa doesn't have to see what a huge slob i really am tomorrow, and now the sun has come out. yay. sunshine always puts me in a better mood. now, it just needs to warm up, and it'll be perfect. i'm so ready for summer. yes, even though it will be miserably hot and sticky, and you can't go outside for more than a few minutes without a bottle of water handy, and forget keeping your hair nice, i am looking forward to summer. i won't have classes. i will be o'brien's TA for marine biology. i'll get to go to port st. joe and collect some seagrass. i'll actually get to do some lab work. ahh, sounds divine. the sunburns (which i can't seem to avoid no matter how many times i reapply the sunscreen), the nasty mud, the saltwater, the funny tan lines, the hours upon hours in the lab...ok, maybe that's not your idea of fun, but i'm one of those freaks who really enjoys these things. i'm very prepared to see my car sandy for 4 months, which i also can't seem to avoid. oh, maybe never vacuuming it has something to do with that. the only thing that could make summer better is hockey. too bad the season ends in the spring. but anyway, i just thought i'd share my good mood with everyone...and maybe some of you are looking forward to warm weather as much as i am.

Something Good about Seminars

free food. that's always nice...and it's incentive for people to go and listen to a talk. i'm at DISL, and nancy just came in my office to remind me about the seminar, and she said she was on her way to pick up snacks. :) for snacks. i'm not even hungry...what a shame. but i won't turn down a free cookie...and a soda. or maybe i'll just have water. hmm...

i just downloaded some of the articles this pennings guy wrote...he's the one giving the seminar. i haven't read the articles, mind you, but they are on my comp and that's something. i'm taking advantage of the ethernet connection (which is much faster than my dial-up connection at home for downloading random files) here to do some research and download some articles...and a song or two on iTunes.

i ran into kevan on my way in here...he's a sweetie. maybe he'll be around on saturday when vanessa comes down here with me? hmm...ideas forming...perhaps i should give her the "grand tour" of the sea lab when we come to the estuarium. the nerdiest of the bunch are bound to be around, even on a saturday...

oops, almost seminar time. i better head over to galathea and claim my snack food.

Cold, Cold Go Away

...and don't come back, ever. i swear, this is the worst spring break weather ever (well, for someone who lives in the south, anyway). it's been rainy all week. and if it's not rainy, it's cold. grr. well, monday was nice in destin...but it was rainy in mobile when we left and cold that night when we came back. it's not rainy today, but it's gray and cold. it's, like, 48 degrees right now. how am i supposed to go to the beach in that, huh? and it's only gonna get about 10 degrees warmer all day. yuck. and it's gonna be cloudy and gray all day. i hate gray days. oh well. it's supposed to be nice tomorrow and saturday, i think. so maybe the week won't be a total loss. it won't be if vanessa comes over this weekend and we go hang out at the beach, go see robots, go eat at the sand trap (restaurant at dauphin island - i haven't been there in a while)...

i have to go to DISL today...wish it was warm so i could go before the seminar and hang out at the beach. dr. v. wanted me to talk to the guy who's giving the seminar afterward. but i'm not sure what to say to this guy. maybe dr. v. will be there to coach me.

anyway, i guess i'm off to visit the exercise room next to the pool. ahh, the pool, wish i were visiting it instead...i usually like to walk around the park across from my apartment complex, but it's too cold and windy to walk outside. so, alas, i am reduced to indoor exercising. oh well, at least i can read on a treadmill...that's kind of hard when there's the danger of running into things or tripping over things...or people...or getting smooshed by cars.

Destin Photo Album

a couple of you have expressed interest in my photos from the trip i took to destin with deva, so i have created a photo album with all the pics i took. you can view the album at http://photos.yahoo.com/latinamarie1. it has lots of random beach photos, a couple from the hard rock cafe, more wyland wall photos...so take a look and enjoy!

I'm in Love...

this is my new liz claiborne purse. i love it. i love that it is green...i've been feeling very green lately. just ask deva...i had to get her to not let me buy anything green yesterday. after i'd bought lots of green stuff...green was like a latina-magnet yesterday. deva and i went outlet shopping in destin yesterday, and i found this little gem at the liz claiborne outlet...for $35. much better than original $60 price tag. i was also looking for a small makeup bag to keep in my purse, which this lovely bag came equipped with, taking care of that little item on my shopping list. not that i really had a shopping list...just a bunch of stuff i saw and said, "i must have you. you're comin' with me."

anyway, we had a great girls' day...lots of good shopping. lunch at the hard rock cafe after a trip to the boat sales and storage place that wyland painted...it's very impressive. see?

it's so big...very awesome. the entire building is painted. good stuff. anyway, lunch at the hard rock...then, more great shopping at destin commons, which was a new experience for us since we were both a little drunk from the hard rock hurricanes we consumed with lunch. they're very tasty, btw. i didn't buy anything green at the commons. but i did buy lots of stuff...then, a trip to the wyland gallery, where deva and i admired lots of good art that we'll never be able to afford. and i bought a coffee mug, not like i need another coffee mug. and after the wyland gallery...the beach, of course. the water was cold. the sand was nice. i played like a little kid...and i found a tiny bulldozer.

i left it at the beach, though. let some little kid come and take it home.

like i said, it was a great day.

comment bug squashed

consider this bug squashed. somehow, my commenting settings got changed to "members only." i swear i did not do this. but i changed it back, and anyone who wants to post a comment on my blog can now do so.

all talked out

after a pretty talkative, opinion-generating week, i haven't had a lot to say this weekend. it was pretty uneventful...went to mom's house, hung out with my little sis. played horse (and then we made it camel after lots of giggling when we got h-o and h-o-r), went to the park and got followed around by panting ducks (yes, i said panting, like a dog...too bad we didn't bring bread or anything). played on the swings, which i haven't done in such a long time. it was fun...sort of like a temporary return to kiddie-land.

ahhh...spring break. going to destin for lots of good shopping with deva tomorrow. a nice day trip. maybe we'll swing by the beach for a bit, even if it's just to take a walk. it'll be good times.

oh, i can't forget...i didn't listen to the game last night, but i was quite happy to hear that the pilots beat charlotte in a shootout to clinch a playoff spot. :)

one last thing...i've been having commenting issues with blogger and i hear that some of you guys have, too, so if my peeps still have probs commenting on my blog let me know. my issues with commenting on other blogs seem to be resolved, though.

3 PhD's and a Grad Student

so, i just came from my unofficial committee meeting. it's a little intimidating, being in a room with 3 PhD's firing ideas at you like there's no tomorrow. and my future committee is growing. i think that 2 more profs got added to my committee today, but they won't be involved in things until my project is definite...and now i have so much more to think about, i'll go nuts trying to decide what i want to do. so many possibilities...too many options is definitely a bad thing for me. my already huge idea has morphed into something even more monstrous, and now i have to whittle it down and make sense of things. tim, anne, and dr. v. are all gathering more info for me, which i guess is good. and they brought up good points that i hadn't thought about (like the problems with studying different populations of the same species when there's so much variation among them). they also gave me some good avenues for library research that i haven't looked at. systems i hadn't considered (like Arabidopsis, the fruit fly of the plant world [if you're not a biologist, you probably don't get that, but oh well] and tobacco) to compare my seagrass to. and anne had a really interesting idea that had never crossed my mind - looking at detoxification mechanisms in the herbivores (urchins, parrorfish, limpets) after ingesting defended plants. hmm...

i shudder to think what that meeting would've been like if i hadn't been in a room with people i've known for years. being a grad student at a new university must be hard...you wouldn't know anyone. you'd have absolutely no idea what to expect. yikes. it's good to know people. yes, connections = :)

another good thing that came from today's meeting: i get to do some work over the summer :) extreme yay! i had no idea how much i missed research until the prospect of doing some preliminary stuff this summer filled me with pure joy today. oh my god. i just read that and realized what an extreme nerd i am. but i don't care. and there are all these possibilities of awesome places i can go...belize, the turks & caicos, the florida keys. and they're all warm and gorgeous. *big fat grin* and the best part - i'll not only not have to pay a dime for the trip(s), but i'll get paid for going. sweet. but those places probably won't be this summer. for now, i'll probably just make the 5-hour drive to port st. joe, which is also cool with me. and in a couple of weeks, i'll be training a new student in the assays i was running for anne when i worked in her lab...so that's more research-related stuff for me to do. it feels good to be thinking about doing something. it makes me happy. and it's warm today...and it'll be warm tomorrow...and the next day. have i mentioned that i love warm weather? i can't wait for summer. next week is spring break...maybe it'll be warm, and i can just go to dauphin island and hang out at the beach for a week. that sounds good. nice and relaxing. makes me happy just thinking about it...

Captive Great White

this morning i have been hearing about one of these guys being held in the monterey bay aquarium and the public outcry against it...because it has recently bitten two soupfin sharks, which later died. you can read the story at http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/11108423.htm. i won't go into the whole thing, just give my opinion. and my opinion comes from the POV of a scientist who thinks that environmental groups made up primarily of concerned citizens are too opinionated when it comes to things they don't really understand. and my major beef with people who want the shark released immediately is that they aren't bitching about other large, predatory, threatened or endangered animals being held in zoos. yes, the great white is a "vulnerable" species, and efforts should probably be made to not wipe out the species. but what, exactly, is the difference between holding a great white in an aquarium and keeping lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) in zoos? don't be selective in your bitching, people, if your opinion is so strong against holding threatened or endangered animals captive, which i might add is the only thing keeping several species around. we've been doing it for years, and there's apparently a good market for it. just look at sea world...they do shows with one of the world's fiercest predators, the killer whale. and millions of tourists flock to the shows every year. has anyone cried out for the release of shamu back to the ocean??? well, i actually don't know. perhaps when she was first captured. but let's face it, she's been in captivity too long by now to survive in the wild again.

so what is the major difference between this very young, very small (only 5 1/2 ft, ~100 lbs) great white and other predators in captivity? well, this great white is being held in a tank full of other fish species. and i have to say that fish are not that concentrated in most areas of the ocean (major exceptions - bays and reefs). so this shark is probably not accustomed to being in such close proximity to other animals for such a long time. it's an apex predator. face it, it's going to hunt and eat other large fishes, since there aren't any seals in that tank, which are the great white's food of choice. so don't bitch about a shark acting like a shark. monterey bay aquarium's mistake: putting this young great white in a tank with tons of other species. you don't see the lions and tigers in zoos in enclosures inhabited by tasty critters, do you? no.

and now, for my rant on the "researchers" who are opposing the public on this, or perhaps they're trying to appease the public...anyway, they say that as soon as the shark's health starts to fail (it's the only great white in captivity, and the last one people attempted to hold in an aquarium only survived for just over 2 wks) or she gets too large to hold or transport, they'll release her. there are major flaws with the reasoning here. i can understand wanting to learn as much as possible from this shark, but i don't really think it should've been in the aquarium in the first place if it can't accomodate a full-grown, 15-ft great white. i also don't know how long it takes for a captive shark to become so accustomed to being fed and protected that it loses its ability to fend for itself in the wild. no one knows this for the great white. is it already too late to release the shark (it's only been 6 months)? maybe not.

about that releasing it if it gets too big thing, it will take several years for the shark to attain a size that will render it un-transportable or too large for its surroundings. and by the time this occurrs, the great white will most likely not be able to survive in the ocean because it has been fed (as opposed to hunting for its food) in a relatively safe environment for years. which means that releasing it then will mean that it will probably die anyway.

the verdict: this shark should never have been in captivity in the first place. the fisherman just said, "look, we caught a great white. cool." then the aquarium said, "oooh, a great white. ch-ching! let's keep it" without thinking this decision through. if they don't have the space to keep the shark as an adult, they should never have taken on a baby great white. but they did. so what do they do now? either 1) release this little girl immediately or 2) expand their facilities to keep her when she grows up.

Ass Clown

is this a new expression the kids are using these days (ha ha)? recently, i have heard the phrase "ass clown" several times. the first time, i thought charlie made it up. he called our biological oceanography prof an ass clown, and i giggled hysterically b/c i thought it was the funniest thing ever. it still makes me giggle. but then i heard a commercial on the radio that used the phrase. i have no idea what the commercial was for - i just remember a guy calling someone an ass clown. even as i read what i've written, saying "ass clown" in my head makes me laugh. it's such a funny phrase. does anyone else say this? have you ever called someone an ass clown? what exactly does it mean to be an ass clown, anyway? it's a mystery. but a funny one.

Yucky yucky yucky

bad bad game last night. we didn't just lose to the damn sea wolves. we lost to the damn sea wolves 5-1. yucky. and cam disappeared after the first period...hope he's ok...we already have scott may out for 3 weeks with a broken finger. that's what he said last night, anyway. i'm kind of glad chad and i didn't go to that game. dr. park kept us 15 minutes late yesterday (and i was all the way on dauphin island, with a 32-mile drive during rush hour ahead of me just to get home), so i didn't get home until after 5:30, and chad didn't get home until 6:15. we would've made it before the first period was over if we'd gone to biloxi, but we decided that we wouldn't go, since we were going to be late. and i'll be damned if the score wasn't 3-1 halfway through the first. i was not happy. but, on the upside of things, jacquo extended his point scoring streak to 6 games with an assist on jordan's goal (our only goal). and dave farrish decided after pulling ford in the first period to put him back in soon after, so freddy didn't take the loss...damn randy petruk for not sucking. and damn todd ford for such a bad game against the damn sea wolves. or maybe i shouldn't damn ford...i didn't actually see the goals that were scored on him, so i really don't know for sure that he should've stopped them. but he seemed to be doing a lot of making the initial save, then letting the puck squirt loose and not being able to take the rebound. that's what happened on the anthony battaglia goal. oh well. i guess it didn't help him that we had, like, no defense last night. damn. it was just bad. i hope we do better in pee dee friday night. my cousin lives in florence, SC and my uncle lives in darlington. i should tell them to go to the game.

ok...i'm off the bad game now. my casual committee meeting is tomorrow. i saw tim sherman tuesday, and he's like, "i'm not late for a meeting or something am i?" i guess i gave him a funny look or something...he's on my committee. or he will be. i have been informed that there is paperwork involved in choosing committee members. i did no paperwork. i sent an email informing people that they're on my committee. i guess i can do any required paperwork tomorrow. i haven't read nearly enough for this meeting, but i can at least give these guys my basic idea and ask some questions so we can work out the details. okee...gotta shower and get to class. ttfn.

A Bit of Hockey News

so, today i discovered that former new york rangers goalie, and current victoria salmon kings goalie, dan blackburn has asked to be released from the last-place victoria. i was quite impressed when i found out that he had signed with victoria in the first place. not only are they an ECHL team, but they're not even good. actually, they're bad (and that's with dan blackburn, who, in his defense, has been recovering from a shoulder injury). i guess i shouldn't really say that (they're bad), since i haven't seen them yet. but their record speaks for itself. anyway, so dan blackburn apparently didn't want to be part of a last-place team with no chance of making the play-offs. the rumor is that he's leaving victoria to play for the hartford wolf pack of the AHL, who will most likely make the play-offs. imagine that...

anyway, i'm a little disappointed that dan is leaving victoria now...they're coming to pensacola march 22, and i wanted to see him. i was impressed that he was actually playing in the NHL his rookie season (rather than signing w/ an NHL team and actually playing in the minors). kind of rare for a goalie. but i think the rangers just didn't have anyone else. anyway, i'm always excited to see a player i've watched on tv in person. but now it looks like i won't get to see dan blackburn. nuts.

in spite of the dan blackburn setback, i still have hope of seeing another NHLer. one who eclipses both dan blackburn and bates battaglia...duh duh duh! *scott gomez* he is the cat's meow. i've always been a fan...i really hope that alaska wins the national conference and we win the american conference...then vanessa and i will have another ambush operation to plan. Operation Ambush Gomez. oh yeah...

Snaps for Mobile Police

nightmare of all nightmares...on my way back from class today, i unhappily discovered that the light at airport and university (the most dangerous intersection in the state of alabama, mind you) is being worked on, so it is just flashing red. not cool. for the past couple of days, they've been putting up new traffic lights at this intersection, so i guess i should have seen this coming. i'm guessing that they are now in the "take away old lights and get new ones on" phase. but the mobile police, rather than relying on the driving-sense-impaired population of the city to treat this horrifically busy intersection as a 4-way stop (which hardly ever works at smaller intersections, either - mobilians just don't get the concept of stopping when they don't absolutely have to), put a couple of thrill-seeking cops in the middle of this intersection to direct traffic. and things were actually moving pretty smoothly when i went through. well, as smoothly as traffic can be expected to move at airport and university. so, props to the mobile police department for making the new lights at such a heavily traversed intersection work out for all.

Big Fat Chicken

that's what i am. when deva went out to get freddy to sign her jersey last night, the plan was to see if we could get nick lindberg to flex for us, since he was there the night that we got kinkel to do it. but when he came out, he was with cory stillman, and i chickened out. so, no nick flex pic. :(

the game was good, though. freddy had a shut-out. :) jacquo was a +1...and he had an assist on the first goal. so, the little guy is finally back in the plus column. good stuff. and deva got her freddy pic...he was really sweet. my camera retaliated again...damn camera. it took the pic of freddy signing her jersey, but it refused to take the pic of just deva & freddy. he told her that if it didn't turn out, she should come and get him to do it again. :) for deva. i think my camera just doesn't like biloxi. that's my new theory, since it worked at McGuire's and every other time i've used it.

it doesn't look like deva and i will be going on the deep sea fishing trip with the pilots next monday. chad seems to really not want me to go, so i won't. i'd be really pissed if i told him i didn't want him to do something and he did it anyway. it's not about the money, although that's his excuse in public. i think he's worried i'll leave him for a hockey player, which i wouldn't. i'm not made of the stuff that's required to date a professional athlete. not seriously, anyway. i'd go nuts. and i'm sure not gonna leave my husband for a fling, which is all that anything with a hockey player would be. so i wouldn't have a fling, or anything. i would feel too guilty. i'm just not a cheater. i don't like to do things that i wouldn't want other people to do to me. chad knows that, and still he worries. what's a girl to do?

Proof that Ice Pilots Fans & Sea Wolves Can Get Along

here it is. proof that i can get along with players on a team i hate. yes, this is me with mississippi sea wolves forward *bates battaglia*. ok, ok. i only did this b/c he's an NHL player who is only playing in the ECHL to be playing hockey somewhere. i had to take advantage.



we lost last night in the longest shootout ever. it went 17 rounds...i don't know if that is actually a record, but it's definitely the longest shootout i've ever seen. oh well. it could've been worse.

Operation Ambush Bates went over well, i thought. he was nice...especially since he signed 5 pictures each for me, vanessa, and deva...and then got pics with all of us. he came out sooner than we thought he would...he was the 2nd damn sea wolf out the door. so we were a little unprepared when he first walked out of the civic center. so we followed him to the bus, where he put his washington capitals bag down, and we asked him to sign pics for us, which he did obligingly. and then we asked him to get pics with us, which he also did obligingly...maybe a little too obligingly, for me at least. now, you can't see the location of bates's left hand in this photo (which my husband took), but it is on my bum. i was unprepared for that, so if i look a little incredulous or confused here, that's why. i was flabbergasted. that was so inappropriate. i don't really know what to think about that. maybe my ass just happened to be at a convenient level for his hand (although, to me, it felt like he had to move it down to reach that area) and he didn't realize where his hand was. maybe. oh well. it made the evening memorable, even if it was, like, completely inappropriate. maybe we'll kick ass in mississippi today and make up for the home loss last night. at least we got a point.

Moral Dilemma Solved

well, my moral dilemma is no longer a factor for me. i studied for the exam. i looked over my notes this morning. and then i took the exam blind, and then i immediately emailed it to dr. park. i did not cheat. my mother would be so proud. god, i'm such a nerd. well, deva did look at my test yesterday. but i didn't. and the only hint she gave me was that i needed to know definitions...something i already knew. actually, i'm kind of pissed. the exam was really easy. i really didn't need to bother with all that confusing crap in chapters 4 & 5. there was only one exam question between those two chapters, and it was an easy definition. are they allowed to ask such easy questions on graduate-level exams? i guess they are. damn. i shouldn't have said that. just because i have stated publicly that the exam was easy, i will have missed something, some part of one of those questions that was a trick. damn. i always jinx myself like that. and erasing what i just wrote won't solve anything...it's out there. i've thought it. damn again. oh well. i still say it was an easy test. and i think i did well...i better have, dammit. i haven't made a B on a test since Organic chem. and i still pulled an A out of the course. I and II.

right now i'm listening to some of the mp3's vanessa gave me last night at the game...outkast "roses." not typically my type of music, but i love that song...just because it says "poo poo" about a hundred times. it makes me laugh. i like that. god love vanessa...and she gave me *bates battaglia* pics last night...and *jacquo* pics... :) ...getting the bates pics autographed after the game tonight, even though i hope his team gets their asses handed to them. and another part of Operation Ambush Bates, get pics with him. :) again. i'm looking forward to it.

Shit List

so, the texas wildcatters have officially made my shit list. this list includes the likes of the mississippi sea wolves, the louisiana ice gators, and the ottawa senators. these teams are preceded by the word "damn" when i refer to the them (the damn sea wolves, damn ottawa, etc.). i have never had a major beef with the wildcatters...until tonight. tonight texas changed my opinion of their team with their dirty, unsportsman-like play. two players in particular, james demone (#24) and grant mcneill (#8), have made it onto my rather exclusive list. demone attacked vanessa's beloved cam keith for a clean check. he attacked cam from behind, slamming him into the boards and punching him repeatedly in the head...even when cam was down on the ice, doing absolutely nothing to provoke demone. he got a game misconduct, as well as 7 min worth of penalties. cam went to the locker room with a cut behind his ear and did not return to the game. we shall see what his condition is. then after my little guy, chris st. jacques, executed a beautiful, clean hit on falco (#15) and knocked him down, mcneill tackled him. yes, tackled him - and this hockey i'm talking about here, not football. there was a big scuffle, a bit of a pile-up with jacquo on the bottom. apparently, mcneill took offense to a small guy like jacquo hitting the bigger falco and causing him to fall. this apparently made falco look bad, and mcneill didn't like that. he got a 4 min roughing penalty, a 10 min misconduct, and a game misconduct. i would like to point out that such atrocious actions on the parts of demone and mcneill were completely unprovoked. those bastards. overall, texas played dirty. damn texas.

Moral Dilemma

so i got my "closed book" take-home exam today. i didn't look at it...just stuck it in my notebook backwards so i can study some more before i do the exam. but i have no desire to study when the exam isn't due until monday, and my notes are right here. but if i use my notes, the guilt will probably give me away. damn my moral upbringing. and, if i do study today and tomorrow, what do i do if i don't remember something when i'm taking the test? ugh.

Worker's Comp Nightmare

that is what my husband is. when we get around to doing that whole having kids thing, they will will be the clumsiest children to ever walk the earth. so, yesterday chad hurt his ankle at work (for the second time in the last couple of months). this time, they made him go to the doctor. that's where he is now. i just got in from class, so i didn't go with him, and i don't know what the verdict is yet. his appointment was for 11 am.

this is not the first time that worker's comp has had to pay for a doctor visit for chad. but the last time it was for a different company - he managed to fall through an unfinished attic (it had no floor) while walking along the studs and banged his ribcage (he didn't break anything). at least he gets to go to his regular doctor this time. i told him to go to the doctor the first time he hurt his ankle, but he refused. i also made him get a tetanus shot when he got cut by a metal stud while working in orange beach after the hurricane...worker's comp didn't pay for that one. he didn't get the shot for almost a week...it took convincing him that he would die if he got tetanus to make him go. and 60% of people who actually get tetanus really do die, even with medical care that involves a 3-week hospital stay, most likely on life support...i'm not making that up. i actually didn't know that before that whole cut thing happened. it was pretty deep...he has a nasty scar from it.

chad isn't going to work tomorrow, either. i'm happy about that. he'll still get paid (love those sick days), and he won't have an excuse (working late) not to go to the pilots game with me tomorrow. so, we'll probably go. he's trying to get a temporary handicapped parking permit so we don't have to park in the field this weekend. my friend carrie got one of those when she hurt her ankle a couple of years ago. it was really convenient.

ok, i'm gonna study a bit before chad gets home and distracts me.

Hip-Hop Invasion

does it seem to anyone else that "pop" has become hip-hop? i spend my mornings either listening iTunes or dodging hip-hop/rap videos on VH1, MTV, and MTV2. all b/c fuse viewers other than myself apparently don't get up until after 10 am. so what's on fuse before 10 in the mornings? body by jake. ha! that's not music videos. and even fuse is beginning to be invaded by that damn hip-hop. so not cool. i can't even listen to the radio in the mornings b/c my favorite station (TK101) has lex & terry in the mornings...who don't play music. and most of the time, i don't think they're funny, although they do have their moments.

anyway, for now i have landed on VH1, which for now is showing a U2 video...ooh...now it's *green day* even though this song ("boulevard of broken dreams") is highly overplayed (and not their best, if i may say so), i'm always excited to see one of their videos...even if i have seen it a hundred times in the last week. i know, i could listen green day all day via iTunes, since i imported pretty much every cd since dookie...but it's just not the same as the videos. oh well. i'm impressed at the 2 non-hip-hop videos in a row. it sucks when all three music channels (the ones that show videos in the morning and then barely any all day long) have the same hip-hop video on all day. really, i'm not even that into most pop music (but i do like shakira and the new kelly clarkson song)...i prefer alternative/rock, but it's better than hip-hop. i was watching all-access fuse yesterday, and they had an interview w/ the killers, who were talking about rock making a comeback in a hip-hop dominated world. i would love to see that. i don't listen to our local pop stations anymore b/c all they play is hip-hop...which i guess is fine for people who only like hip-hop. i'm not opposed to all hip-hop music. i could still listen to stations like Q100 and WABB when they only played the occassional hip-hop song, mixed with traditional pop and some rock thrown in for good measure. but i just can't listen to hip-hop all day. hey, the new 3 doors down video has miguel from passions in it (or john the gardener from desperate housewives, if you prefer). hmm.

i'm thinking of downloading "i'm not okay" by my chemical romance. i like the video, and it's not a bad song. i'm also thinking of downloading "duality" by slipknot...the only slipknot song that has really made me go, "hmm...i really like this song." chad brought me another pepsi cap that he got from a guy at work yesterday. if any of you don't have iTunes and get those free song caps, i do have iTunes and enjoy the free downloads...so you can donate your unwanted free song caps to me. i got "the geeks get the girls" by american hi-fi yesterday. a pretty good song...and a free download from iTunes this week even without a free song cap.

ok, this blogging thing has become a big distraction...the perfect excuse to not do what i really need to. which is study for my upcoming physical oceanography exam. we don't have class today, since dr. park is out of town until tomorrow, so we're having class on friday morning instead. which, i guess is better than wednesdays from 1:30-4:30...that bad post-lunch time when i just want to take a nap. so i'm actually happy about a friday 9 am to noon class. that's a time of day when i can actually stay awake during a 3-hr lecture. all right, i can't keep 5 chapters of ocean-related physics waiting any longer.

People Who Can't Use Proper Grammar

so, i guess this is my rant for the day. it drives me crazy when people in a position to educate or lead the masses use improper grammar. now, i don't always adhere to the rules of english grammar (obviously, since i don't bother w/ capitalization in my blog or in unofficial emails), but i do when i'm speaking in public and when i'm teaching. to do otherwise would be to discredit myself. is it too much to ask to expect the same attention to language from others? i don't think so.

what brought this on, you ask? well, i was in my biometry class this morning, and mccreadie kept using the plural forms of words when he should have used the singular. like when he was talking about experimenting with a particular fungus he kept saying things like "and this particular fungi..." and the day he said "larvae" 500 times, he should have said "larva" 400 of those times, since he was only talking about one larva, not a whole bunch of them. see, this is what happens when i pay attention in class. i realize that the profs don't use proper english half the time, and it drives me nuts.

but the thing that gets me the most is george w. bush. he always mispronounces the word "nuclear." he says "nuk-you-lar" instead of "nuk-lee-ar." i guess that has just always been one of my pet peeves. when it happened once, i overlooked it, since many people in the south make the same mistake. but when it happened in speech after speech, it began to make me crazy. one would think that his speech-writers or publicists or someone would tell the man that "nuk-you-lar" is not how you say that. his constant mispronounciation, in my humble opinion, makes him look uneducated and dumb, qualities that i find undesirable in a leader. not that he is uneduacted or dumb - he may be a freakin' genius for all i know (i don't think that's true, either). anyway, my point is: when you're speaking to large groups of people, especially in a leadership role, use proper grammar and make sure that you know how to pronounce all of the words you have to say.