October 2004 Archives

While looking through Google to see who is linking our county democratic party web site, I came across an interesting site. Newseum displays the front page of newspapers from across the US and around the world in a graphic or a more detailed PDF file. A very neat way to find out who's talking about what and where at a glance.

The weekend has begun but it is not going to be much in the way of time off. No, I am calling it Portfolio Weekend since I have got to get my crap organized for my first review for Mineralogy on Monday. Add to that researching my thin section for Petrology, working on my presentation for Meteorology, doing Environmental Geology homework, and catching up on my reading for all of my classes, I think I may be able to catch an hour or two's sleep somewhere in there. Listening to Coast-to-Coast AM, I have been reading a dozen or more scholarly articles to put together a draft for a research project for next semester. Detention ponds... flood control... storm water control... something in between? I do now know more about stream shape and dam construction, but I have to get a area of interest that will give me something to write on (and get some grant money at the same time). I did take a break and tinkered with Macromedia Fireworks for a bit. I hope my classmate Jay likes my creation - he was my first victim for animation. Long week turning into an even longer weekend.

How can I be thinking about Spring Semester already! I guess it is because I just might be able to graduate in May if the Registrar gets off their collective butts and get my credit transferred. That is the mission for next week. I also have to pull off another minor coup - more on that later. Anyway, here it is!

ESS420 Structural Geology ESS331 Intro to Paleontology ESS343 Geomorphology ESS102 Humans & Environment GEO322 Land Development Control

With this, I think I will have taken every course offered in the department except for one. Now, I have to buckle down and get this semester rolling in high gear. I have a portfolio for Mineralogy due next Monday. Tomorrow is officially Petrology Day for my classmates and me. I have to get my thin sections described and ready for viewing on the Scanning Electron Microscope. I need an extra dose of caffeine and brain cells!

Well, that title will probably drag in all the riff-raff! Those words sum up my course load this semester at WCU. I must be totally insane, not only to be back in college at 53, but taking five, upper-division courses in my major in one semester. It was bad enough when I was 19. Anyway, Fall Break is over with classes resuming later in the morning. The lineup this semester is a wild one:

ESS302 Mineralogy ESS330 Intro to Oceanography ESS366 Environmental Geology ESS405 Igneous/Metamorphic Petrology ESS370 Intro to Meteorology

So, I guess I should push away from the keyboard and doze off to sleep, listening to George Noory on Coast-to-Coast AM. Interesting show tonight, too - Bev Harris is his guest right now, talking about electronic voting machines, the hanging chad of the 2004 elections.

Yes, it is a play on words, geology words. In my second (or is it the third or fourth?) lifetime, I am pursuing a degree or two in the Earth Sciences. I just had to indicate my academic passion in the name of this blog since it will most likely contain lots of rock-related stuff. With my leaning toward the environmental end of the science, there will also be material about water, the atmosphere, geography, GIS, and meteorology, too. It also is a key phrase that describes me. I am opinionated and I will let you know exactly how I feel about [insert a subject] in no uncertain terms. Guess I should now say ROCK ON! Let the pun-ishment begin!

I hate the first few days of a new blog, especially in the way it looks. So, yes, I usually go out and scavenge one (only those that are available freely - I ain't no copy-cat) to get the inspirational juices flowing. So, thanks to Neil Turner across the pond in the UK for his Classy Green template currently in use. Also, I am still using an old 2.x version of MovableType. Being among the ranks of the unemployed, non-traditional student, I cannot quite afford the new 3.x version at the moment, but maybe someday soon. A note: I have used WordPress for other journals, but I longed for XML-RPC interface which is still lacking in WP. I love Zempt and, since this journal will be active (promise!), I have moved back, at least for the moment, to MT.

First entry - testing the junk!

I have been blogging for quite a while. My problem has been continuity. Not so much continuity, but having the two most important elements: energy and time. So here I go again. In the past, I have collected the assortment of entries from the past years and attached them to the new blog. This time I have decided to make a break from the past and not. I may, at sometime (read: maybe never), link back to the old archives, but I am facing forward and not looking back from here. More later about the title.