Rambling Man

 

As I am working today, I am listening to some of Philip Glass' work.  In my opinion, he is an exceptional composer.  Violin Concerto is an exciting work of his that came up on my Pandora today.  But, he has SO very many wonderful works.  

Trying to get everything I can done today to be able to have a relaxing, peaceful weekend!  

I have been working to write letters of encouragement (to study, to map out a schedule,  and to develop a plan for success) to the students in my classes.  Some DO heed my advice, and end up being appreciative as the semester progresses.  Some ignore my guidance, and then feel stress for much of the semester, especially when they see the poor performance they have on their first exams that will occur in ~three weeks.    

I have been working on uploading materials and publishing new things on my course electronic classrooms so that students have new things to work with if they choose to do so.  

I have been writing letters of recommendation for a few (three students).  This time, I have two students who are applying to various colleges of veterinary medicine and one student applying to dental school.  

My new strain of fruit flies still looks robust!  Perhaps in a week or so when there is an explosion of new adults, I can start to sample a few to see if I can carefully try to discern any interesting aberrations from typical in their behavior.  I am also going to set up a few samplers and take them home with me in case I happen to stumble across some potentially interesting places this weekend to hide them away for a few days to capture samples other fruit flies.  

I have a grant application deadline in a few weeks and I have been mulling over the approach I want to take in this application.  Due to the agency's parameters, I do know I will have a strong emphasis on examining neural development in this application, but I need my best writing skills to weave a logical, yet also hearty and robust story for the grant committee to fall in love with... so that they may select my application compared to others they will receive.

• although it was a little bit cold this morning (51 Degrees F; ~10 Degrees C), I wanted to run outside... and yet I did not want to get ensconced in sweat pants and a sweatshirt either.  So, I wore my typical Summer running attire.  It was rather cool the two miles.... but eventually it felt fine.  These 10 miles (~16 km) rounded out my week's goal for running (at least 50+ miles; 80+ km). 
• The desire for a pipe continues to gnaw very persistently at my brain.  I am no longer thinking that holding the pipe filled with beautiful "Three Star Blue" for two days between my chompers actually was inducing my pipe smoking desires.  Rather, I now think my filling and gripping the pipe actually was more.... my reaction as an attempted way to modulate the very strong pipe smoking desires I have been experiencing.  On my run this morning, I was feeling frustration again about my missed opportunity in Des Moines.  And, still no trip on the visible horizon either (sigh).  In my old PCS system, I think I would be classified at a 9+ right now.  And.... the cooler temperatures ALSO are not helping as they are PRIME pipe smoking temperatures (although no Earthly environmental temperature is actually problematic for pipe smoking in my way of thinking 😆). 
  
•  I must admit that I feel ALMOST a little "hip" now by using actual emojis in Blogger.  I had not known they were there for the longest time.  I still naturally gravitate towards using emoticons rather than emojis.  And, yet.... though I use BOTH emoticons and emojis..... I feel a bit disgruntled at myself for doing so, as I do also believe they are responsible to some degree for the decline in writing skills that is apparent across the U and also society at large.    
  

Oh!  My Pandora has now began to play Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man"!  The percussion in that piece..... wonderful and amazing! I am especially enamored with the tympani part. I had better get some other things done.

PipeTobacco