The ouch! ouch! ouch! post

"To suffer both at once is - to say the least - unfortunate."


And this really brought tears to my eyes...

Future nominee for a Darwin Award

Apparently he's unrepentant...

An A for ingenuity, but...

...an F for intelligence.

Speaking of life and humor...

Courtesy of the lovely L, we have the best first wedding dance ever!

Believe it or not...

Awarded by my good friend DocStymie who has also won one.

According to The Shameless Lions Writing Circle, who originated the award, it is given for "blogs we love, can't live without, where we think the writing is good and powerful." I'm not quite sure how my little piece of the blogosphere qualifies, but I am very honored.

Apparently awardees are supposed to list "three things they believe are necessary to make writing good and powerful." I'm sure my three are far from unique and may perhaps even be considered cliched, but they are the three that top my list.


Good and powerful writing...

contains truth.

I'm a scientist. What I do is pursue truth, so perhaps I'm biased. But I do believe powerful writing contains truth. Truth isn't always welcome or pretty. We often hide it, or hide from it. But ultimately it cannot be denied.

is about life.

Life as we know it, life as it was, life as we hope it will be, or life as we hope it will never be. In some way, be it in small part or in whole, good and powerful writing is about life.

possesses humor.

Paraphrasing Blackadder, life without humor is like a broken pencil.


DocStymie inspired me to start a blog, in part because his writing embodies the three aspects of good and powerful I've listed. Thanks Doc.

*SNORT*

I just came across a scientific paper titled "Basic math in monkeys and college students." An appropriate comparison methinks.

It's a new year

And a Happy and Safe 2008 to All!

So what does 2008 hold in store for you? For me? Well, here's a partial list for my work:

1) I have a submitted paper I'm waiting to here back on. It may, or may not, need revisions. It probably will.

2) I have data for another two papers that I need to write.

3) I'm the new course director (ie in charge of) a graduate-level course that needs a complete overhaul.

4) I have a grant to write and submit.

5) I'm expecting the initial proofs for the book I edited soon. They'll need to be read carefully and all errors fixed.

6) I need to push along the new project to get it up and running.

7) I have to help organize the annual elections and dinner for the subgroup of the scientific society I foolishly got elected secretary/treasurer of.

Busy, busy, busy.

Did I mention that's the partial list just for January?