Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Making a forest

I'm putting together this book. You may recall I've blogged about this enterprise in the past. It's nearing completion (and none too soon!). There are now four outstanding chapters. One of the authors hasn't answered a single email from me this year, so I've written him off. Two others promise their chapters are on the way. One of them told me today that I would have his by Wednesday (tomorrow). We'll see.

The fourth chapter? That would be mine. Hey, I'm the editor of the book, I can set my own rules, right? Just because everyone else was supposed to get their chapters done by mid-February doesn't mean I had to. As it was, almost none of them got their's to me on time.

So I've been busy writing my chapter. It's supposed to be a review of my research on unfolded protein states. Basically a summary of my current body of work, linking it all together and placing it into perspective with respect to everyone else's work. I'll be damned if it doesn't all make a lot of sense and hang together. My work that is. It's almost as if I had carefully plotted out the direction of my work over the past decade. I didn't. Research doesn't work that way. Research evolves. It goes where it goes, not where you try to make it go. I've been so busy planting trees (working on various research problems) that I hadn't noticed that I've managed to make a forest. It's pretty cool. At least I think so.

Once I've finished this chapter I think I'll add a stream to my forest. And maybe a lake.

Word of the post:

foofaraw \FOO-fuh-raw\
-noun

1. Excessive or flashy ornamentation or decoration.
2. A fuss over a matter of little importance.


Today's trivia question:

In our initial trivia frenzy we established the Beatles made five movies, each of which had an album associated with it. Which of those albums was the last to be released in England? Bonus points if you can tell me which year.

9 comments:

Jeff Seale said...

Let It Be - although it was recorded BEFORE Abbey Road.

I'm sure I'm wrong.

mouthfulofpancake said...

I'm with Milo on this one. As for the year.... I'm guessing 1972.

Odyssey said...

Ding! Ding! Ding! Wrong. Note I said in England. Let It Be would be correct answer pretty much everywhere else.

Jeff Seale said...

Must have been Magical Mystery Tour then, or Yellow Submarine.

Odyssey said...

Yup. One of those two.

Goose said...

After repairing a toilet, I'm sure a stream, a lake, even a waterfall, would be easy enough for you to put in your forest!

I'll go with Yellow Submarine in 1971

Odyssey said...

Wrong! It was Magical Mystery Tour in 1976. Nine years after the album was recorded. I have no idea why, especially since it was released much earlier almost everywhere else, but there you go.

Now back to tending my forest. I'll start digging out a channel for the stream next week...

JollyRgr said...

I'm all at sea on this one......hahaha

Sorry :-)

Odyssey said...

And how be the shopping on the high seas, oh piratical one?