|
|
|
November 5th, 2009
09:37 pm - Experts as teachers
Towards the beginning of last school year, I went to a lecture being given by a potential new hire as a geology professor, as did one of my professors. We were supposed to rate how they did, to help the hiring committee to make their choice.
As I was walking back to class, my prof and I were talking about what we witnessed, and how we rated the applicant. My professor rated him low because his lecture did not demonstrate that he was a real specialist in his field. I agreed that it did not show off his great expertise, but he was a good lecturer that kept my attention, he spoke fondly of his field work with his students, and was interactive with the audience. I rated him highly because he was a good teacher, who was at least adequate in his knowledge of the field to teach at an undergraduate level. Teaching ability trumps expertise as far as I'm concerned.
My current professor has convinced me that I'm right. He has a truly impressive knowledge of the fungal kingdom. But as a teacher . . .
|
October 25th, 2009
11:00 am
I just looked at the profile pictures of people in my high school class. All but a few of them look like our parents. It isn't just that they look older, there's no controlling that. Bald and grey and fat happens. I'm talking about the *way* they look. When did they become respectable? Even worse, when did they decide they wanted to be respectable, and present themselves that way to the world?
|
October 9th, 2009
08:40 am
I don't get Obama winning the peace prize - yet.
Yeah, he greatly improved our attempts at diplomacy (not hard to do better than Shrub & Co), but there aren't any real specific results yet. I would much rather that they would have waited at least a year, and picked a RESULT of the diplomacy that he started before giving him the prize. Giving the prize at this stage just cheapens it.
|
October 1st, 2009
09:41 am - Basic math
I'm in the Forest Fungi program this fall, which is an upper-division science program. One of the prerequisites "proficiency in basic mathematics". The other day we had to calibrate the scale in the eyepiece (optical micrometer)to a special scale on a slide (stage micrometer) using the different magnifications so that we use the optical micrometer to measure objects that we are looking at. For example, on 40x 2000 microns on the stage was 80 on the optical micrometer, so each unit was 2000/80 = 25 microns. Then if you look at something that was 23 units on the optical micrometer it would be 23x25 = 575 microns.
Apparently, really simple long division and multiplication is beyond the definition of "basic math" at Evergreen. There were several "I hate math" complaints, and asking if anyone had a calculator.
Sometimes the evergreen culture drives me batshit.
|
September 28th, 2009
07:24 am
Back to school this morning. 9 a.m. classes suck.
|
September 19th, 2009
08:31 pm - garlic smashed fingerling potatoes
Roasted homegrown garlic
6 varieties of homegrown fingerling potatoes
homegrown rosemary
homemade chicken stock
organic olive oil
Real salt
Serious yum.
I feel sorry for people who think that mashed potatoes are smooth and white with no skin and lots of cream and butter. You could see all the different colors of flesh and skin, pink, yellow, purple and brown. The real chicken stock and sea salt brings so much additional flavor as well.
|
September 18th, 2009
02:42 pm - Congressman Brady's Letter on the tax supported metro during tax protests
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx08_brady/9_16_09_METRO.html
Mr. John B. Catoe, Jr.
General Manager
Washington Metro Area Transit Authority
600 5th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001
To Mr. Catoe:
I write this letter on behalf of my constituents of the 8th Congressional District of Texas – many of whom traveled at great expense and time to our nation’s capital to exercise their right of free speech in the Taxpayer March on D.C. which was held on Saturday, September 12. These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama Administration.
Based upon numerous eye-witness reports by participants in the march, it is clear METRO did not adequately prepare for the influx of Americans traveling to D.C. for this historic event. I want an explanation why.
During the march, I heard complaints from elderly veterans in wheel chairs who were denied use of the subway because not enough METRO cars were available and the METRO cars that did arrive were full to overflowing capacity.
An 80 year old woman and her 60 year old daughter were forced to walk – and eventually pay for a cab – due to overcrowded conditions on the METRO. I heard many such complaints. These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation’s capital did not make a greater effort to simply provide a basic level of transit service for them.
METRO was certainly aware of the march due to widespread media attention ahead of time. While the turnout was certainly much larger than predicted, it appears that METRO added no additional capacity to its regular weekend schedule.
I request that METRO promptly provide my office with a full summary of all preparations and actions taken by the agency ahead of and during the gathering, especially related to additional capacity, service, and security.
Sincerely,
Kevin Brady
|
September 12th, 2009
03:31 pm - Mmmm beef stock
There is nothing quite as wonderful as the way the house smells on stock making days. I saved up a few quarts of cooking water from lengua, 10 pounds of bones from a pasture raised steer, and a bunch of meat scraps. All the veggies are from my own garden. It smells really, really good right now.
|
July 30th, 2009
08:58 am - Too f'ing hot
Yesterday's high was 109.2! One of the reasons that I moved to western Washington was so I wouldn't have to live in temperatures like this. All over western WA and OR records were broken for the hottest day on record.
At least the garden survived, and between the shade cloth and the misters, the greens bed survived and most of the lettuce didn't even get wilty.
Also got a load of wood chips dropped off this morning from crews clearing along powerlines. Since this is all stuff from near branch tips, there is a LOT of green in it, so it is all going to be used for bulking the compost pile instead of going for filling in paths. I could probably just soak the wood chips down and they would heat up on their own.
|
April 17th, 2009
03:58 pm
Everything I've tried making from the pastured pork that I got at the farmer's market has just been incredible. I simply cannot describe the difference in flavor. It may cost 3 times as much, but it is more than 3 times as good.
At the market there are now two vendors with tomato plants. The herb plant guy has 4 inch plants and makes sure that everyone has a protected place to keep them, because it isn't time to plant them out around here yet. The flower pot guy is selling 2 foot tall greenhouse grown plants in gallon pots, and acting like it is the best idea in the world to go out and plant them today. We had snow three nights ago!
There was a funny conversation I overheard at the herb stand from a couple of tomato plant buyers. They wanted to know how far apart they would have to plant the different varieties to save the seeds. Shouldn't you start your own plants from purchased seed for at least one year before you jump into seed saving? I guess that 16% new gardeners last year, and a similar jump this year, are going to have a lot of over-motivated people. I'd just hate to see all those people getting burned out by trying too much in their first year.
|
April 10th, 2009
09:33 am - Gotta be careful what you take at Evergreen
The summer schedule is out and it sucks compared to last year. There are still class that are kinda interesting, but nothing that has me jumping up and down going "ohboyohboyohboy".
I really should try and pick up some more social science credits, or the micro-economics credits that lots of grad programs want, but that is getting into dangerous territory at Evergreen. It's easy to avoid classes with titles like "An Ecofeminist Spirituality in Theory and Practice", but you would think something as simple as "Pacific Northwest History" would be safe and straight-forward, wouldn't you? I didn't grow up in this part of the country, so this class could be interesting. Then I go to the class description and this is what I find:
"Pacific Northwest History introduces multicultural aspects of historical developments of this region. Students are exposed to Native American perspectives on the eventual occupation of their lands by European imperialists, the origins and outcomes of competition among Europeans for the Pacific Northwest, and challenges placed on non-European ethnic groups from the 19th century to the present. The history of Tacoma is used to highlight the role of capitalism in creating governing bodies and class differences among white European Americans who collectively discriminated against the aspirations of people of color."
I honestly don't care if some of these issues come up during a real history class, but to have it be the focus in a class with such a simple title is bullshit.
Too bad there isn't a nice anthropology class, or something like that.
|
April 9th, 2009
12:22 pm - meat, the way it should be
Last Thursday, I went to opening day of the Olympia farmer's market. My plans included stopping by at Oakland Bay Farm's boot and picking up one of their frozen pastured chickens from last year, but their booth was empty and their sign gone. This caused much sadness as I wandered the rest of that section. Then to my surprise, and great joy, I spot Todd setting up in one of the large, prime corner booths, with all sorts of new equipment!
This year, they bought a rotisserie to sell fresh cooked birds. I can't begin to imagine how good that is going to smell under that big roof. But for me, his really good news was that he is doing some major expansion of his meat production! He told me that the second week (this week) would have pork, later in the year he will have beef, and there will be turkeys (both heritage and mutant big breasted) for thanksgiving. Everything is pasture raised!
Today, I was down there the first hour that the market was open. I picked up some country sausage, sweet Italian sausage, and a small shoulder roast. The bacon and smoked hams will take a few more weeks, but I'll be first in line for that as well.
The Italian sausage was great timing. Tonight I'm planning on making an as local as possible lasagna. Starting with homemade spelt noodles (Oregon grain and eggs from school), homemade sauce (tomatoes, onions, garlic and herbs from my garden), homemade mozzerella and ricotta (raw mild from local dairy, rennet and citric acid are not so local), local cheddar, California provolone, Italian pecorino Romano, homegrown spinach and basil, and now I have ground buffalo from a farm to the south, and Italian sausage from a farm just to the north.
|
March 18th, 2009
02:48 pm - Such beautiful black gold
In preparations for more plant starts, I just finished sifting out the bottom levels of two of my worm bins, and the results are oh so beautiful! This really is the nicest looking batch of worm castings I've ever seen or smelled. There won't be any sterilized potting soil used in this house this year!
We're experimenting with making seedballs for planting our wildflower and cover crops, and it really is a lot of fun. We take an old cat litterbox and put in half a cup of seeds and three cups of sifted compost (not the good worm stuff mentioned above) and spray it lightly with water. I sprinkle in a little powdered bentonite clay, and Laurie mixes it up with gloved hands. She breaks up any clumps that get bigger than 1/2 inch, unless we are using big seeds like beans. Repeat spraying, mixing and breaking until at least 5 cups of clay are added. You never want the clay balls to get more than very lightly damp, so that more clay sticks. Let them dry for a few days, then go spread them out on your intended site. We have no clay in our soil, so this has the added benefit of improving our water holding capacity
Playing in the dirt makes me happy!
|
March 16th, 2009
10:32 am - Reincarnation
I honestly don't care what people choose as their religion, though I am offended by those who force their religion (even atheism) on others. But I just can't help giggling on certain people that believe in reincarnation, so I thought I'd offer up some guidelines for those that don't want me to making fun of them.
1. Please make sure that your past lives, especially the famous ones, do not overlap (you were Christopher Columbus, Nostradamus and Leonardo da Vinci?)
2. Don't forget to mention the regular people that you were, not just the famous ones.
3. If you were only famous in your past lives, why are you not famous in this one?
4. Do not pick your famous past lives, and your knowledge of them, straight from the recent shows on History, Discovery, and PBS. I watch them too. Tell me things that weren't in the show.
The guy I was talking to last night really took the cake. I don't think he left enough famous people for anyone else to claim!
|
March 11th, 2009
01:05 pm - Finally done!
I'm finally done with winter quarter! I turned in my project proposal for the spring quarter project, that I'm not doing, and did my share of cleaning the lab. Yipee!
For spring quarter, I decided to go with Evening and Weekend Studies classes, so I can sleep in AND have time in the garden. I'm only taking 12 credits, and they're all lower division, with low workloads. The 8-credit program is Ecology and the Built Environment, which I took before as a 4-credit class. It's one of the classes where you do your reading, show up and participate, and you will get your credits. There's a project at the end, but that will be a no-brainer. The other class is Stats II, which will be useful to have on my transcript for grad school. It requires a group project (I'm don't play well with others) but Kelsey is in that class too, so I should have at least one person I can work with.
I'm running a little late on seed starting because of school, but not too bad. I'm playing with version 1.0 of my LED seed starting light made with red and blue christmas lights. I don't totally trust them with all my starts yet, so the old florescent tubes are up as well. I have just a few pieces left to paint on the tubing for the greenhouse, just waiting for the next 50 degree day. When the new greenhouse goes up, we'll be moving the deer fence as well, to go around the greenhouse and the 4 blueberry plants that are outside the fence. Over the winter, we've added about 100 square feet of raised vegetable bed inside the fenced backyard, replacing some of the lawn. It's so much nicer to have greens and such so much closer to the kitchen.
|
February 2nd, 2009
04:21 pm - I might have watched the stuporbowl for this
From the BBC news:
US sports fans in Arizona got a surprise when their TV coverage of American football's Super Bowl was interrupted by a pornographic film.
...
The clip showed a woman unzipping a man's trousers, followed by a graphic act between the two.
"I just figured it was another commercial until I looked up," viewer Cora King told the Arizona Daily Star.
"Then he did his little dance with everything hanging out."
The interruption happened just after the last touchdown by the Arizona Cardinals, who lost the match to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
|
January 24th, 2009
10:30 am
Obama sides with Bush administration position on warrantless wiretaps.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/obama-sides-wit.html
sigh
|
January 23rd, 2009
03:17 pm
I really want to be able to build my greenhouse by March 1st. Before I put up the greenhouse, I want to be able to paint the rusty spots on the frame with rustoleum. To use the paint, it's supposed to be 50 degrees. To heat the garage to 50+ requires that it be in the mid 40s or higher outside for several hours, otherwise the little heaters I have aren't powerful enough. The weather guessers keep saying that we will reach the mid 40s, but we never get there.
It seems kinda silly to get another heater just so I can paint, but that just may be what I end up doing.
|
January 18th, 2009
12:35 pm - It's a meat day
No, I'm not planning to just eat meat today, but since I decided to fire up the smoker and grill, I'm going to make up some pulled pork, smoked carnitas and carne asada so I will be ready for some quick meals throughout the quarter. I tried to get some lengua as well, but the butcher shop was out. I couldn't imagine a butcher being out of beef tongue in a non-hispanic area, until I remembered that the shop makes their own sausage as well. Next time I'll call a couple days in advance and have them save me a couple.
|
January 17th, 2009
08:34 pm
It was so nice to get out in the garden and play in the dirt today. I got one bed cleaned out, and planted the shallots, the put in the tulips (way too late) in the bed at the back of the house. I have some irises to plant tomorrow and that's about it. Then I'm going to start working on the new raised beds.
The only incandescent light bulbs left in the house are the ones in the oven and the refrigerator. There aren't any more easy places to cut back on power consumption left to do. I think the next big savings will come when we upgrade the insulation and replace the windows. We have gas heat, but every time the furnace goes on, that big squirrel cage blower kicks on and sucks a lot of power.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
david_anderson's journal