Next week is the last week of classes. I am behind on my grading. I am on a search committee — phone interviews next week. My driveway is covered in snow. I have 3 exams to write right now. Immediately after finals I’m flying off to Boulder, Colorado. I may be slightly unresponsive to external stimuli for a time.
That is all.
You are redundant.
Best of luck for the incipient shitstorm!
I’m glad I didn’t have the intellectual chops to have become an academic.
Be sure to take it easy.
What are you doing in Boulder?
While you’re in Boulder, might I recommend a pint of Illusion Dweller IPA at Mountain Sun on Pearl? A couple of those, and turning in grades will seem but a distant memory. A couple more and you can wipe away that memory altogether.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the dog ate your lesson plan too, I’ll bet.
Nah. Remarkably, my lesson plan is all exactly on schedule. I’m going to have covered everything I promised to do.
I’m going to Boulder because my daughter lives there now, so we’re going to spend a few days blaspheming against Christ’s holy day.
Ah, so the Ebil Atheist Plot Against Christmas is proceeding according to plan!
Eeeeeexxxxxcellent!
::somewhere in the Southern US, a queer shoop twirls his non existent mustache diabolically ::
Apologies for highjacking your thread, but I expect you won’t have time or energy to read your email. Please remember to sign up for your panels for Norwescon: we will be starting to schedule next week. I can resend you the link if you need.
Hey awesome! Our snow should be gone by the time you get here – it really was quite pleasant up to this latest storm.
I 100% support rogerfirth’s plan, but I’d suggest Southern Sun rather than Mountain Sun. They have the Illusion Dweller too, and the Annapurna Amber is quite good.
If you want to meet a random reader for beers while you’re in town, let me know. You’re also welcome to stop by NOAA and see the atmospheric science & data viz research we’re doing.
Not sure if you’ve been here before, but you’re really going to like Boulder. We have about a hundred microbrews, and it’s by far the most godless place I’ve ever lived. I know there are theoretically religious people here, I just never see them. It’s like they go to church and then go home and don’t rub it in everyone’s faces. I know, crazy!
I lived there for a few years once. About 3 decades ago. Probably the only established place that still
exists would be the Boulderado Hotel. I very much enjoyed their plain waffle with slivered almonds.
There was also a place called the Harvest which was very good vegan fair, probably long since kaput.
It is kind of a university town so with some similarities to Morris but much more commercial in the long run I imagine. Take a hike up Flagstaff and get a taste of the mountains, allow plenty of time and stick to the trails. You’ll get a good workout. If you have any contacts at UC ask them if they can take you to the Green Mountain Kimberlite. An obscure geologic oddity to be sure. And a vigorous outing.
If you want to see some serious rock climbing, go a bit south to Eldorado Canyon. There is plenty of
it there, take a pair of binoculars. Still further south if you are interested in fossils from the late
cretaceous, check out Morrison, Co. Also visit Golden and have a taste of the mindset at the CSM.
They produce a lot of petroleum engineers. The place might still be a little shell shocked after this
years floods. NOAA has a strong presence there as does NCAR and the NCIS I think it is called.
Stroll the mall and you can find any kind of Woo that exists. I imagine the Europa Institute is still
up and running, You can take a quickie refresher course in applied kinesiology. Make not though
that all my information is very dated.
This time of year, travel is a little iffy. Allow for blizzards.
Cheers,
Why do I not see “Play with cat” on that list of things-to-do? Disobedience already?
In any case, good luck with the workload!
OK, I will just sit here and click ‘Reload’ until you come back.
Wow. We have to write our exams much earlier in the term than that.
Boulder? But that’s where all the hippies live! (Except for the ones like me that snuck into Aspen.)
Intellectual chops are not required*. Ask yourself this. How hard are you willing to work to avoid having a real job?
*I have some authority on this matter. I’m a Member of the Academy** yet a rather plebian organismal biologist. I vacillate between stone-stupid and plain forgetful. I think maybe theoretical physicists need skills, but then again, they may just be cleverly fucking with us.
**Just the generic “Academy”…as in I work at a university. I’m not a member of any honorific society.
Also, I’m doing this instead of grading. Or writing my final exams. Because those activities are tedious and make my day seem work-like.
Roughing up Phil Plait.
Obviously, any applicant needs to demonstrate that they are prepared to live in Morris, and I think they should demonstrate this by shoveling snow off a driveway.
As with Julien, I’d enjoy meeting your squidly self in person. OTOH, I don’t know that I’d want to take precious time away from my daughter if I were in your shoes. So, if you’re available, let us know, but don’t make a chore out of it.
Whatever you do, get up into the mountains, even if only for a day!
Randy
PZ, if you’d like to get away from the snow and ice for a few days later this winter, please don’t forget to schedule a talk at CFI-Los Angeles.
Good luck with the end-of-semester madness!
I went up to Aspen for one ski season in 1985 — I met the love of my life (an atheist too) and here we
still are, with our two atheist kids and our atheist dogs and atheist cat. Seriously, the Roaring Fork Valley is an amazing place to raise kids. It goes beyond tolerance, to acceptance.
There’s a community of real people who are the real Aspen. We run the place and use the rich peoples money to educate our kids.
Boulder’s ok, but up higher in the Rockies is where it’s really at.
Boulder! I was near there _last_ year and passed through a few times. And had wood-fired pizza at a nice place.
It’s so liberal it’s known at the “People’s Republic of Boulder.” Not only is there public transit, the bus routes have funny names and the buses are bright, amusing colors. (Shouldn’t that be “busses” if we’re not going to pronounce it to rhyme with “fuses”?)
Of course you know it’s near the Red Rocks of the Morrison formation, which is pretty spectacular. In fact, even the highway cuts on the way from Denver airport are pretty darn spectacular.
Give our love to Skatje!