I'm so jealous...

Turns out there's a TARDIS in town and J got to it first! In case you don't know what a TARDIS is, I've included this very handy link. I admit that J's TARDIS doesn't look much like Dr. Who's TARDIS, but the chance of finding anything that remotely resembles the real TARDIS here in the states is unlikely. Nice hunting, J!



Does anyone else watch the new Dr. Who series? Or are J and I the only nerd-heads? We've even come up with a little code phrase for watching the show: Let's Who it.

I hate to be one of those students, but...

Chemistry lab is turning out to be a real disappointment. From annoying lab partners to obnoxious classmates...and now the TA.

I don't want to be one of those "my teacher sucks because I'm not doing well" students, but I have that attitude at this point.

For the lab section of my Chemistry course I have to hand in a pre-lab and lab report for every experiment. The pre-lab is a statement of purpose and a brief version of the procedures. We hand the pre-labs in before each lab. The purpose of them, as stated in the syllabus, is to show evidence of preparation for the lab. I have been writing the pre-labs with the utmost care; making the purpose statement as concise and accurate a possible and writing the procedures out with less detail than the lab manual, but enough detail so that I could do the lab correctly. Yesterday, I got back the first two labs that we did and while I got the full 8 points for each lab report, I got only 1 out of 3 points for each pre-lab. The only explanation of the grade slash was this: "Too detailed information."


Okay. So there's too much in the procedure section. I get it. I need to do less. That's fine. My problem is that I've now handed in three labs without knowing that I'm putting in too much detail. Perhaps if my first lab had been returned, oh, earlier than a month after I handed it in, I might have been able to address the problem. But now I have three crappy pre-lab grades. The lab doesn't count for more than 1/5 of my grade, but it's still going to bring down my overall grade (which up until now was 100%). I understand that my TA is busy. He's a PhD student and he's got his own stuff goin' on. But crap...a month later???

It also sorta irks me that the kids who do their pre-labs in the five minutes before lab starts get better grades. It's pretty obvious that the grades don't actually reflect preparedness...
Also, the girl who asks me ninety questions during the lab needs to crack the spine on her lab manual. I'm not her freakin' tutor.

In the spirit of recent sauropod posts, I thought I would include some pictures I took at the Miami Science Museum's "Dinosaurs of China" exhibit. The first is Lufengosaurus and the second is Shunosaurus. More pictures can be found here.






And the moment you've all been waiting for...my favorite new bookend:





Thanks for listening....now, off to the doctor...

For a good laugh...and Adventures of Dimetrodon #3

Take a look at this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drjonboyg/526893118/in/set-72157600301874014/

The link takes you to drjonboyg's photo set from his visit to the new-ish Creation Museum. The comments are hysterical, as are the captions. Many of the photos feature the information posted at each exhibit, instead of the actual exhibit.

In other news:



Dimetrodon may have met his match.

On a lighter note...(or Adventures of Dimetrodon #1)

I purchased a copy of John Acorn's Deep Alberta after the Dinosaur Mailing List mentioned it (I'm a sucker for buying anything DML-endorsed). The book was beautiful, with great illustrations, equal attention paid to all creatures (not just dinos) and an easy-to-read, story-like narrative. It had less information than I was looking for, but I REALLY enjoyed reading it.

J read it, too, and we both had a good laugh at the Camelops illustration, featuring a camel-like creature gazing at the skull of another animal. The caption read something like this: "Camelops gazes mournfully at the tusk of a mammoth and wonders what it all might mean." Apparently Camelops was having an existential dilemma.

The Camelops caption was fodder for some good text-message humor.

In the spirit of recent Dimetrodon conversations, this one arrived in my email this morning:

Nothing like a few fossil jokes to lighten the mood.

Let's get a T.A.R.D.I.S. in here...

J is obsessed with the T.A.R.D.I.S. (that's Time and Relative Dimension in Space) machine from the new BBC Dr. Who series. Last night, we spent some time playing the opening sequence of the show in slow motion, trying to photograph the T.A.R.D.I.S. with our camera phones. We got some pretty shoddy shots. The goal was to have a good picture of the ship for the wallpaper of Jordan's phone. He decided that the caption would read, "Let's get a T.A.R.D.I.S. in here." We shared a nice hearty laugh over that one.

*Update* I just received this in my inbox:

Now that I've made a commitment to keeping up a blog (this isn't the first time), I have been noticing little things that I never have before. For instance, last night, I ordered a pizza from Leonardo's and the receipt that came attached to the box said "The Creative Quality Pizza." After a quick google, I found out that the business was started in 1990 claiming a creative, quality pizza. That's different. A creative quality pizza has the implication of creative quality. A creative, quality pizza implies creative and quality pizza. I don't want the quality of my pizza to be creative. I want the quality to be quality. The pizza can be creative...

Lame blogger...Jack Horner...and a random Triceratops

I am an utterly lame blogger. I have failed my duties as a blogger and have ignored my blog for far longer than any decent blogger would. For this, I am sorry.

I have done some cool things in the last few weeks, especially dino-related things!

1. I have finally read Jack Horner's "Digging Dinosaurs." It was just what I needed...a little pick-me-up before school starts...a little 'hey, you can look forward to this' thing. The book is old...like, twenty years old. I'm sure much of the information is outdated...but it's perfect! There's not so much emphasis on the science...well, there's not so much emphasis on scientific language...it's all science in layman's terms. It's fascinating. I never considered that field work could mean contending with black widows and scorpians (which I would have considered had I not been blinded by love). There's subtle humor throughout...the kind I've become so familiar with since joining the Dinosaur Mailing List. And of course, the discoveries...I have a new respect for Maiasaur...for dino babies...for the amazing conclusions that can be drawn from a few bones and a quick study of the geology of an area. It's SO COOL!!!!!

2. I discovered that OPU (Over-Priced University) has a Triceratops! Turns out one of the professors is working on a Triceratops skeleton. I don't know much about it...there's literally no information on the OPU website...anywhere. I have contacted the professor, however, to ask if I can get my hands dirty with the project. I'm sure, as a brand new geology student with no experience, that I won't get to do much more than watch...but that will suffice. Currently, the Triceratops is resting peacefully in a plaster jacket, enclosed in a rock matrix, inside a preparation room in the geology museum. I usually walk over there on my lunch breaks and press my face up to the glass, trying to pick out the bone fragments from the rocks (yeah...I'm THAT new to this). I get chills when I go in there...it's like my dream of working with dinosaurs is sitting on the other side of a window and I can almost touch it!

3. Miss Emily and Jordan have become best of friends. He's been documenting their relationship on his cell phone. Apparently, she's not the easiest company:


First Picture Caption reads: Emily drank all my water and she won't refill it.
Second Picture Caption Reads: Now she keeps changing the channel.