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Furious, But Letting Go

Little Miss Rude came to my office today to tell me that she wanted me to change my report and excise my explanations on where she was wrong and mistaken. We had a fairly heated exchange at that point (me feeling extremely angry inside, but I forced myself to act calm on the outside.... she was acting angry, rude, and impolite).

I "compromised" with her and took out my comments and explanations about her errors WITHIN the sections specifically about her work, and rewrote them as a general set of statements that I placed in an earlier part of the document just ahead of her work.

I just do not know why one person can be so rude. Not giving me data I needed and have had back in November. Waiting to give it to me until damn near the very last possible moment (during a weekend). Having the data be terribly wrong and problematic so I have to explain it. THEN, after all her other b*llsh*t with this, she then comes in and complains about the way I styled the report! She is a piece of work indeed.

But, and this is the important part... I maintained my INTEGRITY and did the report the right way. Although I moved my statements to a slightly different location, the new location may actually have more impact, and it still clearly explains how her data have problems associated with them. I went home today feeling VERY GOOD.... I faced a rude, angry person.... did not get all fire-and-brimstone back at her (I maintained most of my "cool" with her.). So, I am happy, and have been able to enjoy the evening thus far.

PipeTobacco

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To Hell With It

This woman I have been having to deal with is simply rude. She was even rude in the data she gave me. So, she made my life more difficult again by my needing to explain the errors in her opinions in her data. This is not something that I should have to do, but if I do not explain her wrong actions, it could harm someone else on the team badly. I will work to explain her errors... and I am sure she will get p*ss*d about it. Tough!

I am writing a part two for today. I made a rough draft of a final report and said to myself, "To Hell With It!" and stuffed it in my bag. Then I went with my wife to the park and we played in the snow for a about two hours and I took a few photos of winter scenes. I feel glad that I did not allow this other team member's rudeness to completely spoil my day.

PipeTobacco

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Sarcasm: "Hurrah!"

I came to the office today to check my e-mail again and lo and behold, I get some information from her in an e-mail she sent at 10:46am this morning.

I am so excited to spend my weekend writing this report because she selected to be rude and not give me the needed information she had and was required to give me as part of the team until 10:46 am. It is required to be turned in on Monday.

PipeTobacco

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9:30 & No Data

I am resisting being irate. It is 9:30pm and the member of the team who needs to give me data told me this morning that she was "too busy" and would get it to me later today by e-mail.

I quit writing in the late afternoon because there was absolutely NOTHING I could continue with without her data. So, I went to visit my father-in-law for pipes and beverages. I stopped at the U on my way back to check my e-mail and STILL NO DAMN RESPONSE FROM HER.

Oh well, I shall be Zen. I *did* enjoy myself visiting my father-in-law.

PipeTobacco

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Report Ok, Team Member Not

I am frustrated beyond words at a team member I have to work with for this report. She is not delivering the data I need and impedes my ability to meet the deadline. The other member of the team is top notch and very helpful. So, I am writing this at home again because I have been too busy tying up loose ends.

PipeTobacco

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Too Busy... Not for Tacos

I am enormously busy with a damn evaluation report I have to write and I cannot find time during work to get on the Internet. Now that I am home, I cannot use the Internet.

But since it is Wednesday, I can look forward to my wife making Tacos... for "Taco Wednesday". That is a bright spot.

PipeTobacco

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For Billy



This post is actually for my friend, Billy, as I suspect he may find it interesting and entertaining. It is a well respected idea in biology circles, but I thought this NEWSWEEK version of the idea from a few months ago would give Billy a good laugh:

* * * * *

The Scientific Case for Masturbation

by Sharon Begley
Published in Newsweek on October 7, 2010

Since Christine “I’m Not a Witch” O’Donnell is campaigning for the U.S. Senate and not the directorship of the Kinsey Institute, maybe we should give her a pass when it comes to her views on sex and, specifically, masturbation. But that would be a mistake: the stakes are simply too high, going all the way up the very survival of our species. For while O’Donnell crusaded against masturbation in the mid-1990s, denouncing it as “toying” with the organs of procreation and generally undermining baby making, the facts are to the contrary. Evidence from elephants to rodents to humans shows that masturbating is—counterintuitively—an excellent way to make healthy babies, and lots of them. No one who believes in the “family” part of family values can let her claims stand.

The science is straightforward. Whenever a behavior is common in the animal kingdom, biologists suspect it has an adaptive function. That is, the behavior enabled individual animals to survive better and leave more offspring than animals that did not engage in the behavior. As a result, genes for the behavior spread throughout that population until it became essentially ubiquitous. And so it is with autoeroticism, which is common—really common. As the Science in Seconds blog noted this week, what with “spanking the monkey,” “charming the snake,” and “freeing willy,” a remarkable number of the slang terms for pleasuring oneself refer to animals. That reflects reality: the practice has been documented in Japanese macaques, gibbons, baboons, chimps, elephants, dogs, cats, horses, lions, donkeys, “and walruses that manage to flog the bishop with their fins.” (Bonus for clicking on the blog link above: excellent photo of an elephant in flagrante dilecto.)
Christine O’Donnell has shown she can hold her own at the polls in Delaware, but she’s apparently against people 'holding their own’ in other respects. The late-night comics can’t help but react.

What, then, might be its adaptive function? How can autoeroticism help animals triumph in the war of survival of the fittest? Lucky for us, scientists have been pondering this. There are four basic theories, each with some support in one or another animal species (I’m not counting the sexual-outlet hypothesis, which posits that masturbation is not adaptive but is just a byproduct of sexual arousal, which is definitely adaptive)

1. Masturbation might remove old, worn-out, broken sperm from the reproductive tract. That would increase the fraction of healthy, speedy sperm, improving a male’s chance of becoming a father. “In humans, masturbation increases sperm quality (by promoting younger sperm) without affecting sperm numbers in the female reproductive tract,” notes biologist Jane Waterman of the University of Central Florida in a new paper in the journal PLoS One. As far back as 1993, biologists had observed that masturbating decreased the number of sperm a man delivered the next time he had sex with his partner, but not the number of sperm the woman retained. They concluded that “masturbation is a male strategy to increase sperm fitness.”

Research presented at a science meeting last year offered support for the fitter-sperm idea. Ejaculating daily for seven days improved sperm quality as measured by the amount of DNA damage: levels of damage averaged 34 percent on a standard measurement index after three days’ abstinence, but after a week of ... um, non-abstinence, the level of damage dropped to 26 percent, in the “fair” range for sperm quality. Looking only at men whose sperm damage decreased (in a few, damage got worse for some reason), the average damage level fell to just under 23 percent—putting them in the “good” range. In addition, sperm motility rose significantly. Result: healthier and possibly more babies.

2. Masturbation might be a form of advertising. According to this idea, males that engage in autoeroticism signal to possible mates as well as competitors how much they have to offer. “Males may advertise their high quality,” explains Waterman, “signaling that they have high quantities of sperm and can afford to waste some.” Result: more mating, more babies, more families. We hasten to add that masturbation as advertising does not apply (we really, really hope) to humans.

3. Masturbation might be a sort of victory lap. Some animals masturbate after they mate. Since other members of a group know this, then masturbation signifies that the male engaging in this behavior was the chosen partner of other females. Females who are still shopping for a mate might be inspired by that information to copy their choice, as in, “if he was good enough for her ...” Result: more mating, more babies.

4. Masturbation can serve a hygiene function. According to this idea, males engage in autoeroticism because it cleans the reproductive tract and reduces the chance of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease from a female that he mated with and who had other recent partners. Result: a lower incidence of STDs, better sexual hygiene, more mating, more babies.

The STD function is what Waterman inferred about masturbation after she spent 2,000 (!) hours observing the Cape ground squirrel (Xerus inauris) of Namibia. As she explains in PLoS One, “an oral masturbation was recorded when a male sat with head lowered and an erect penis in his mouth, being stimulated with both mouth (fellatio) and forepaws (masturbation), while the lower torso moved forward and backwards in thrusting motions, finally culminating in an apparent ejaculation.” The behavior was much more frequent on days when females were fertile, and mostly occurred after mating. That would seem odd, since it wastes huge numbers of sperm just when they have the best chance of finding a willing egg. Odd, too, is the observation that males masturbated more when their mate had had a lot of other suitors (female Cape ground squirrels mate with up to 10 males in their three-hour fertile period). But there is one explanation that makes sense of a behavior that occurs after mating, and more often when a male has mated with a particularly promiscuous female: masturbation is a way for males to reduce the chance of infection, since saliva has antibacterial properties. Since STDs can destroy fertility, sexual hygiene through masturbation is a way for male squirrels to keep making babies.

And what about females? There have been far fewer observations of females masturbating in the wild, though bonobos are well known for this form of eroticism (and every other, it seems). One popular theory for why females might indulge, however, is incorrect—namely, the idea that orgasm (during or right after mating) might propel sperm to the egg. To the contrary, scientists reported in a 2002 paper, “vaginal and uterine contractions ... have been misinterpreted as powering rapid sperm transport to facilitate fertilization, but such fast transport would lead to the tubal deposition of noncapacitated, incompetent spermatozoa,” which would not lead to conception. Instead, primatologists conclude, in the case of females the purpose is simply to “produce enjoyable sensations”.

All in all, and across species great and small, autoeroticism (at least among males) is a cornerstone of procreation and thus the formation of families. Were O’Donnell’s unscientific views of the practice to spread, it would be a worrisome threat to family values.


* * * * *

Again, this has been widely known and a respected idea in biology circles for a while, but it was fun to see it get into the more general press. Its even getting me to consider "upping my own fitness" to supplement the pleasures I receive from bedding my wife.

PipeTobacco

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Mouse On a Wheel



I thought I would be able to get some more free time to actually post the posts I wrote this weekend, but here I am writing at home again on Monday. It was a hellaciously busy day today and when I left at 5pm, I was in no frame of mind to try to tack on more time in my office to upload files. So, here I sit again at home, typing out the thoughts and saving them for an upload.

I need to really spend some time getting my computer issue fixed here at home. It should not be too hard, actually. The problem is that it, like most computer issues will end up taking me a helluva long time to figure out, with routing cables around, getting new Internet equipment up and running, installing the damn software, etc. I just simply have not had the desire to SPEND THE TIME doing all that busy work getting the machine operational again. But, I am getting weary of not being able to access the Internet during the weekend unless I go to work.

So, something will have to give one way or another, soon.

PipeTobacco

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Colder Than....



Damn, it was so cold this morning. It was -8 degrees F (that is -22 degrees C for those not in the US) outside this morning at 5:30 when I went walking. And, to top that the wind chill reading was -26 degrees F (again, -32 degrees C for those outside the US). I must admit I put on a pair of snow pants and two ski masks before heading out for the 5 miles. It actually was fun once I got going for a bit.

I negated all that exercise with a rich cup of hot chocolate when I returned. It was worth it. And I have also consumed about two pots of coffee thus far this morning as well.

PipeTobacco

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Meeting Across the State



I have to leave in about 20 minutes to travel way the hell across the state to attend a meeting of the research society I am an executive board member of and it does not seem like much fun. Normally meetings of this sort are "ok" because I like being a part of this research group. Unfortunately, it is snowing a great deal, so the roads will be slow, the drivers foolish, and I will have to keep my focus at the level of "intensive".

PipeTobacco

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Feeling Pleasant



I cannot post this from home because I am still trying to fix a damn computer glitch so this will be uploaded as soon as I have time from my research lab to do so.

I am feeling rather pleasant at the moment, and have just arrived home from talking a bit with my elderly father-in-law and enjoying a few libations and pipes. All seems pretty decent with the world at the moment. Let us hope it stays that way.

PipeTobacco

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A Long, But Better Day

Today was very long, and there was work and effort occuring during most every moment of the day and evening. I was out walking by 5am. I was in my office by 8:10am. I feverishly worked on paperwork until I taught at 10:30. I worked feverishly on research from the moment I left class at 2:00pm until 4:00pm. I did a mixture of work and home related errands from 4:00 until 7:00pm. I helped out at home until I sat down at 9:30pm to eat dinner.

Yet, in the midst of it all, I worked on keeping my emotions in check and I did not feel the sadness nor the anger I have been prone to of late.

So, today was better.

PipeTobacco

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What To Do?



So, on MLK Day, I identified to myself and to you my friendly readers that I am tired of living my life in a way that is so filled with anger and sadness. Yet, I am to large extent unable to figure out how to change these emotions. So, I have undertaken a quest to try to figure out what the hell I can do to change myself.

I KNOW I am extremely lucky. I have a wonderful wife, I have a beautiful family with truly great kids. I have a job that is one that is very nice and well suited for me. I have a pleasant house, and monetarily I am secure and do not have to fear where the next paycheck is coming from. So, what the hell is my problem?

I truly do not know why I am so angry and sad much of the time. Yet, I do recognize situations that all tend to trigger in me the emotional cascade that leads me to feeling very angry and sad. The most common ones I recognize are:

1. Feeling rushed to meet someone's deadline.

2. Extraneous noise.

3. Repetitive noise that serves no purpose.

4. Having to repeat myself to someone more than 3-4 times.

5. Having an immutable deadline that I cannot alter.

6. When people fall asleep in a chair instead of going to bed.

7. Changes in plans due to SOMEONE ELSE'S schedule (not those that are my individual or my family's decision).

8. When people do not HEAR me (philosophically, they do not "get" what I am saying).

9. Losing or misplacing objects despite my best intentions to leave the key items of this sort (keys, wallet, computer flash drives, finger rosary, etc) in specific locations.

10. People who give me "attitude".

So, perhaps this assessment and outline of the times where I recognize I usually get angry and sad is at least a first step to trying to figure this out and help me figure out how to get rid of these feelings and become a better person.

PipeTobacco

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I'll Drink To That



The following article of interest appeared in Science News last week:


Reviving the Taste of an Iron Age Beer: Barley Grains Offer Savory Insights Into Ancient Celtic Malt Beverage

By Bruce Bower

Friday, January 14th, 2011

GNARLY BARLEY Charred barley grains from an Iron Age Celtic settlement, such as these, inspired experiments to determine that they had been malted as part of a brewing operation that produced beer with a smoky and somewhat sour taste.H.-P. Stika

Early Celtic rulers of a community in what’s now southwestern Germany liked to party, staging elaborate feasts in a ceremonial center. The business side of their revelries was located in a nearby brewery capable of turning out large quantities of a beer with a dark, smoky, slightly sour taste, new evidence suggests.

Six specially constructed ditches previously excavated at Eberdingen-Hochdorf a 2,550-year-old Celtic settlement, were used to make high-quality barley malt, a key beer ingredient, says archaeobotanist Hans-Peter Stika of the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart. Thousands of charred barley grains unearthed in the ditches about a decade ago came from a large malt-making enterprise, Stika reports in a paper published online January 4 in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

Stika bases that conclusion on a close resemblance of the ancient grains to barley malt that he made by reproducing several methods that Iron Age folk might have used. He also compared the ancient grains to malt produced in modern facilities. Upon confirming the presence of malt at the Celtic site, Stika reconstructed malt-making techniques there to determine how they must have affected beer taste.

The oldest known beer residue and brewing facilities date to 5,500 years ago in the Middle East, but archaeological clues to beer’s history are rare (SN: 10/2/04, p. 216).

At the Celtic site, barley was soaked in the specially constructed ditches until it sprouted, Stika proposes. Grains were then dried by lighting fires at the ends of the ditches, giving the malt a smoky taste and a darkened color. Lactic acid bacteria stimulated by slow drying of soaked grains, a well-known phenomenon, added sourness to the brew.

Unlike modern beers that are flavored with flowers of the hop plant, the Eberdingen-Hochdorf brew probably contained spices such as mugwort, carrot seeds or henbane, in Stika’s opinion. Beer makers are known to have used these additives by medieval times. Excavations at the Celtic site have yielded a few seeds of henbane, a plant that also makes beer more intoxicating.

“These additives gave Celtic beer a completely different taste than what we’re used to today,” Stika says.

Heated stones placed in liquefied malt during the brewing process — a common practice later in Europe — would have added a caramelized flavor to this fermented Celtic drink, he adds. So far, no fire-cracked stones have been found at Eberdingen-Hochdorf but they may have been used to heat pulpy malt slowly, a practice documented at later brewing sites, Stika says. He suspects that fermentation was triggered by using yeast-coated brewing equipment or by adding honey or fruit, which both contain wild yeasts.

Celts consisted of Iron Age tribes, loosely tied by language and culture, that inhabited much of Western Europe from about the 11th to the first century B.C.

In the same report Stika describes another tidbit for fans of malt beverage history: A burned medieval structure from the 14th century A.D., recently unearthed in Berlin during a construction project, contains enough barley malt to have brewed 500 liters of beer, the equivalent of nearly 60 cases.

Classics professor Max Nelson of the University of Windsor in Canada, an authority on ancient beer, largely agrees with Stika’s conclusions. Malt-making occurred at Eberdingen-Hochsdorf and malt was probably stored in the medieval Berlin building, Nelson says.

Other stages of brewing occurred either at these sites, as suggested by Stika, or nearby, in Nelson’s view.

“Stika’s experiments go a long way toward showing how precisely barley was malted in ancient times,” he remarks.

Beer buffs today would regard Celtic beer as a strange brew not only for its flavor but because it would have been cloudy, contained yeasty sediment and been imbibed at room temperature, Nelson notes.

Stika’s insights into the range of techniques and ingredients available to Celtic beer makers should inspire modern “extreme brewers” to try out the recipe that he describes, says anthropologist Bettina Arnold of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Perhaps they’ll find out whether Roman emperor Julian, in a 1,600-year-old poem, correctly described Celtic beer as smelling “like a billy goat.

* * * * *

I would like to be a participant in this effort and actually taste the brew that is made. It may end up tasting like a billy goat as the article suggests, I it would be worth the risk to find out. The article also says some formulas incorporate henbane to increase the beverage's intoxicating effects. Having never read much about henbane before, I looked it up and find it is a part of the nightshade family (same family many of my favorite forms of vegetation.... potato, tobacco, tomato, eggplant) so, its intoxicating effect would likely be enjoyable to boot and I would be willing to sample the brew with a bit of henbane if the brewers were so inclined.

PipeTobacco

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MLK & Anger



I guess anger can be useful and helpful at times. I think most of the people who are famous for their philosophical, political, or social movements have used anger as a motivating force for the change they support. Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., Abbie Hoffman and on-and-on... I believe they used anger to help them achieve.

I, on the other hand, do not use anger to achieve. I am just an angry, sad fool most of the time, and I am sick of it. I am either mad at the world, or I am sad. I need to figure out how to fix this. I MUST find a way to fix this. It is a ruination of my life. I am very, very sick of it.

PipeTobacco

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Please Forgive Me

God, please forgive me today for my anger and my resentment. I am so very sorry. It took me about 30 minutes before I was able to adjust my anger and repair the situation. I am relieved I was able to do that, but am still ashamed and upset at myself for becoming angry. I ask and beg for forgiveness.

PipeTobacco

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Overview of the Week's Emotions

This week has been overall a pretty good one for me from an emotional standpoint. I have not felt overly "down" and I have been able to stay on task with work and with my goals of service and my efforts to be a better person for my family. I am hoping that I am on an upswing in terms of feeling good.

PipeTobacco

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Fun in the "Sun"



As soon as I can sneak away today, I am going to play hooky and get the heck out of here. I have a few reports to work on and some preperation I should do for next weeks classes, and of course I need to do some tending to my animals. But... as soon as I can muster it, I am going to head out the door and head on over to my elderly father-in-laws for some gentle, relaxation time. Libations and pipes will be enjoyed, and I anticipate ample, fun-filled discussions of damn near everything under the sun. I am hoping to be out of here by 1:30pm.

PipeTobacco

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My View as to What is Wrong



I was listening to a newscast on NPR this afternoon and it got me to thinking a little bit (as a distraction from the research work with my animals I was trying to find a way to avoid for a few minutes). The progam was discussion tax reform. Here is my very simple notion of what should be done from all the various items I have read over the years:

1. Make a flat tax on income for EVERYONE. Rich or poor. This flat tax would be based on yearly income.

2. Make a flat tax on income of ALL businesses. Small or large, it does not matter. And make it illegal/impossible to have states pull the old (and in my opinion assinine) trick of trying to lure businesses to their state by gifting them with some sort of huge (often 100%) tax break for bringing jobs to their state.

3. Take away all the nonsense about health care and have a SINGLE health care system (my preference would be government run) that gives EVERY PERSON the same exact health care as everyone else... this is for rich or poor. And, do not allow any "buy ins" for better care for the wealthy.

If we did the above, the estimates I have read and believe to be logical suggest each and every person/business would end up paying a flat tax of 19%. Who the hell can argue the logic, fairness, and viability of something so damn simple?

Unfortunately it is only a pipe dream and it will never happen. But I smoke a pipe, so... I am allowed these pipe dreams. This more than anything else would improve the life of people in our nation.

PipeTobacco

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Day 843



I have not updated all you folks of my progress with walking since September. I have now (after this morning's walk) walked 843 days in a row! This is walking outside, each and every day... regardless of holiday, regardless of weather, regardless of illness. I have 4 primary routes I choose from. The shortest of these is 4 miles, but typically I am picking the 5 or 5.5 mile route probably 90+% of the time. During the last few months, I have taken to walking very early in the morning. I usually get up around 5:00am and after I get dressed and have a pipe, I am usually on the road by 5:30 at the latest. It is a grand feeling of quiet and serenity at that time of the morning.

Walking in the Winter is a bit different. I have chosen to wear very heavy galoshes to keep my feet out of the snow and wet that is such a part of Winter here. The very heavy galoshes (actually, they are hunting boots much like those pictured above). This really does mean that I am WALKING during the Winter. Added to this that the roadways are often very icy and slippery as well and jogging is out of the question. In the Summer, I have walked and jogged, and plan to do so again this Spring and Summer, but in the Winter, only walking is safe.

With temperatures typically hovering around 0 degrees - 5 degrees Fahrenheit, and sometimes plunging as low as -10 - -20 degrees Fahrenheit, being bundled in layers is also essential for the walk. I typically am wearing four layers (two long underwear, one sweat pant and jeans on the bottom - two long underwear, a t-shirt and a sweat shirt on top) plus a jacket and full face hat/mask when I walk in that sort of temperature. I feel sometimes akin to an arctic explorer... at least I let my mind pretend and fantasize in that direction as I trudge through new snow. When the humidity is just right, I often grow crusty, elongated icicles from my mustache and beard during the walk, adding to my ability to fantasize about being an explorer in the arctic.

My current stats are as follows:

Current weight - 179.4 pounds (normal range BMI)(104 pounds lighter than I was at my heaviest).

Typical resting heart rate - 66

Typical resting blood pressure - 110/70

I am starting to set my sights on potentially reaching 900 days and then perhaps even 1000!

My starting to walk each day has been one of the best decisions I have made for myself in a lot of years.

PipeTobacco

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Long Day of Effort



I am a little bit tired today as it was the first day of the semester for my upper division class, endocrinology. It is not that it is so hard, but because these are senior and graduate level students, I really try to put forth an extra effort to get the ball started right by detailing for them in very careful detail ALL the work and effort I expect from them. Included in the list are three traditional papers in the form of a literature critique, two different well fleshed out "research grade" experimental designs, a paper modeling a scientific journal of research they conduct in lab, and of course three tests and a comprehensive final exam.

So, I am not overly wordy tonight and just want to sit back and relax some.

PipeTobacco

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Computer Issues



I have been having some Internet issues at home this weekend and could not post. I had posts ready to go, but could not upload them until I was at work today. After I get done teaching today, I am going to head to Staples or Best Buy and try to find some new, updated modem equipment so I may again work from home.

If I am lucky, I will be able to fix the problem tonight. If not (the more likely case with aggravating computer things, it may take a bit longer.

PipeTobacco

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Thoughts on Spirituality for Today




"Then He came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?" He said to him in reply, "Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed him. After He was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

This was the Roman Catholic Gospel for today that I heard at mass. For me, the major idea I have gleaned from this reading is that I need to be a) more of a servant to others, b) I need to be less demanding of others, and c) that I need to focus less upon myself, and my own wants, needs, hopes, and aspirations, and instead focus upon how I can become a better person by working hard to help others and try in as many ways as I can to try to make this world a better place.

PipeTobacco

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Fun



I have been in a very difficult and sour mood for several days, and it has been a helluva lot of work to get out of it. But I think with yesterday's gentle fun, and today's emphasis on family fun, I am pulling out of the doldrums. I am going to get to spend the day hanging out with the kids. It should be very enjoyable.

PipeTobacco

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Going, Going, Gone\



I have decided to heed BBC's advice and try to not take things so seriously. Therefore, I am going to head out to my elderly father-in-law's this afternoon and just relax, talk about whatever comes to mind, have a few libations and a few pipes and just be.

PipeTobacco

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Progress

I do feel I have made progress, and I suspect I will return to more traditional posts on Friday... Saturday at the latest.

PipeTobacco

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Continuing to Work at Fixing Myself

I am making progress and will be back to longer posts very soon I think.

PipeTobacco

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Trying to Fix Myself

I am trying to fix my mood. BBC's idea sounds good, and I may end up doing something along that line.

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Rough Again

Sorry to report this day too was emotionally rough and horrid. I promise more details when I can muster up the energy to express them.

PipeTobacco

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Not A Sterling Day



I do not have much to add, other than the title. It was a rough, rough day emotionally. Arguments and hard feelings were spread around more readily than peanut butter on bread. I am exhausted and wiped out. I hope and pray for a better day tomorrow.

PipeTobacco

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In Due Course



The start of a new year is a decently good time of the year to begin new things. Amongst the new things I am trying includes:

1. Blogging 365 straight days in a row.
2. Drastically cutting down and eventually stopping my smoking of a pipe.
3. Working harder to become the best husband, father, son, brother, friend, teacher, and researcher I can be.
4. Growing in calmness and tranquility.
5. Focusing on being in the "present" as opposed to being mentally in the past or the future.
6. Striving to make each day one that is enjoyable and has as a part of it my giving and receiving happiness.
7. A decrease in fear and anxiety.

The above sums up my hopes for the year of 2011.

PipeTobacco