The Wild Side

Let’s Hear It for the Bees
NY Times Online, Leon Kreitzman, April 28, 2009

You can set your watch by the openings and closings of certain flowers, but for real circadian synchronicity, it's the bees.

Lord Stanley's Cup: Round 2 Predictions

Ok, so I got 4/8 correct for my first round predictions. Here is what I think is to come:

Best Joke I've Heard in Awhile

Did you guys hear about that big fire on that golf course in Calgary? Flames everywhere.

Hahahahahaha, sigh.

The Revenge

I forgot about these photos:

Bully

LynnieC's revenge


Shaking our fists at Pense for fooling us into thinking we were almost to Regina.

You know you are burnt out when...

Blond Derek: "What day is the 30th?"
Janny: "We've gone through this already: Friday is Thursday."

Janny's Stanley Cup 2009 Prediction

Now let's see if I can make a better prediction that last year. This year I definitely watched more hockey and kept track of the stats of other teams because my fantasy hockey teams. I feel like my decision is much more informed than previous years but I'm not comfortable about my western picks.

The East:

My beloved Canadiens will not make it out of the first round. I adore them but this is reality folks. Boston has beaten them in every meeting this season. Montreal may win a couple games in the series but no more than 2.

Rangers just don't have the skill to beat the Capitals. Enough said.

Carolina is too inconsistent and doesn't have the goaltending to beat New Jersey. Carolina definitely has the ability to make it to the second round but unlikely to happen.

Philly versus Pittsburgh is definitely the series to watch. It will be close but ultimately Philly is the better all around team.

The West:
San Jose has had a play off work ethic all season. What the results of the other series are inconsequential because the Sharks are going all the way.

Chicago and Columbus are young and lack playoff experience.

Calgary is too inconsistent and has too many injuries right now.

Detroit has inconsistent goaltenders.

Vancouver will have an easy first round but lacks the tenacity to beat any of the teams that could make past the first round.

LynnieC, star of High School Musical 3

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You are not helping your cause, Ma'am

Yesterday I heard Jorge Cham do his presentation on "The Power of Procrastination". If you read his comic regularly, you would know he travels all over the world speaking at different universities. Weirdest part of the talk:

Jorge Cham: "Any actuarial scientists here?"
Random humanities grad student: "Not on this coast"
Jorge Cham stands blankly in confusion for a long period of time.

Fact: Bee are our friends

Creating a Bee-friendly Garden - David Suzuki's April Nature Challenge

We’ve all heard about the mysterious global disappearance of honeybees. Other bee species are also declining, mainly because of habitat loss. You can make a big difference just by creating a bee-friendly space in your garden. (And it’s not hard – bees are easy to please!)

Why should I create a welcome place for bees?
* All creatures that eat plants (including humans!) depend on pollinators.
* 3/4 of the foods we eat – fruits, nuts, vegetables, and herbs – need pollinators to reproduce.
* Creating hospitable homes for beneficial insects in your garden means they are less likely to move into your house.
* You’ll triple the yield of fruit and veggies in your garden – no more lumpy strawberries or shrunken squash!
* Even what seems like a small contribution – just a tiny flower pot or patch – can provide valuable pollinator habitat.

When Seventh Feels Like First

I have three fantasy hockey teams that I manage. One of the teams, the Burninators, has been plagued with injures and underachievement. I kept my eye on the stats so I could make smart trades and pick up unsung heroes. For most of the season, I sat at 10/12 with about 47/144 points*. Slowly progress was made and now I sit 7/12 with 67/144 points and I could very easily move into 6th place. My other teams are within a position to actually win the season but I'm most proud of the Burninators.






*I'm in a 12 team rotisserie league where points are determined best to worst in 12 categories (12*12=144 possible points).

Loud and Obnoxious

How do you politely tell someone
- My annoyance with you has nothing to do with jealousy. I have no desire to be a 5 ft nothing waif. You annoy me because you are loud and rude.
- Learn some self-respect. You think that you are free and uninhibited but men think you are immodest. I'm viewed as a peer and you are viewed as a joke so get a clue. Think to yourself: when was the last time someone ask you what you thought?
- You don't have to say everything that pops into your head, especially at a shrill pitch that seems to resonant through concrete walls.
- Before you get annoyed with someone for not caring about your story, make sure you remember that person's name. [Oh right, I already told you that]
- Stop acting like you aren't smart.

Jumping with Skates

Guillaume Latendresse of the Montreal Canadiens jumps in the air as he screens Karri Ramo of the Tampa Bay Lightning on a shot from the point as Maxim Lapierre #40 of the Montreal Canadiens looks on at the Bell Centre on March 26, 2009 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images)

Girls, I need your help!!!!!

Tomorrow Ken Dryden is talking at my school about Canada and the future. Keeping mind that the other people there will be university students, what do I wear? If I can overcome my social awkwardness I'd like to be able to talk to him after. So what do I wear to not look like the old lady who has come back to university but serious enough to approach a hockey hero / politician? I'm puzzled.

Adorable

Having a Bat Mitzvah in Their 90s Because It’s a Hoot
CHRISTOPHER MAAG, NY Times Online, Published: March 22, 2009

Ohio women in their 90s jumped at a chance to perform a rite rare in their youth, but common for Jewish teenage girls today.

Tiny Pointing Derek

Just 'cause he's awesome

Just Your Type: INTJ

According to the Carl Jung and Isabel Myers-Briggs typology test, I am Introverted Intuitive Thinking Judging. I first took the test when I was 17 then again when I was 28 and the results were the same. It freaks me out how well the description fits me (I know it is long so I bolded the key points so you can get the gist of it):

INTJ Profile by Marina Margaret Heiss

To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise -- and INTJs can have several -- they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know.
INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. What prevents them from becoming chronically bogged down in this pursuit of perfection is the pragmatism so characteristic of the type: INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "Does it work?" to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake.
INTJs are known as the "Systems Builders" of the types, perhaps in part because they possess the unusual trait combination of imagination and reliability. Whatever system an INTJ happens to be working on is for them the equivalent of a moral cause to an INFJ; both perfectionism and disregard for authority may come into play, as INTJs can be unsparing of both themselves and the others on the project. Anyone considered to be "slacking," including superiors, will lose their respect -- and will generally be made aware of this; INTJs have also been known to take it upon themselves to implement critical decisions without consulting their supervisors or co-workers. On the other hand, they do tend to be scrupulous and even-handed about recognizing the individual contributions that have gone into a project, and have a gift for seizing opportunities which others might not even notice.
In the broadest terms, what INTJs "do" tends to be what they "know". Typical INTJ career choices are in the sciences and engineering, but they can be found wherever a combination of intellect and incisiveness are required (e.g., law, some areas of academia). INTJs can rise to management positions when they are willing to invest time in marketing their abilities as well as enhancing them, and (whether for the sake of ambition or the desire for privacy) many also find it useful to learn to simulate some degree of surface conformism in order to mask their inherent unconventionality.
Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few), and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations. This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. :-) This sometimes results in a peculiar naivete', paralleling that of many Fs -- only instead of expecting inexhaustible affection and empathy from a romantic relationship, the INTJ will expect inexhaustible reasonability and directness.
Probably the strongest INTJ assets in the interpersonal area are their intuitive abilities and their willingness to "work at" a relationship. Although as Ts they do not always have the kind of natural empathy that many Fs do, the Intuitive function can often act as a good substitute by synthesizing the probable meanings behind such things as tone of voice, turn of phrase, and facial expression. This ability can then be honed and directed by consistent, repeated efforts to understand and support those they care about, and those relationships which ultimately do become established with an INTJ tend to be characterized by their robustness, stability, and good communications.

Put it out of its misery...

I deleted my education blog. I wasn't posting and I've averaging 0 visitors a week for months. I might start it up again if/when I go back to teaching.

Mini Player McDonalds - NHL Star Helmet commercial

Clever Quotes

Once on a teacher professional development day, I found on a scrap piece of paper stuck in a magazine. I may have posted these before:

“Politics is the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a close resemblance to the first.”

“Take a lesson from the weather: it pays no attention to criticism”

“Health nuts will feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals, dying of nothing.”

“Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.”

“#1 Thing I Have Learned: Never take life seriously, nobody comes out alive anyways!”
- Author Unknown

"She's the Other Girl in Physics"*

Yesterday, it became very apparent how few women are part of the physics department. In the afternoon, I went to a seminar on dark matter and I was one of three females out of a group of about 60. One was a grad student, one of a first year from a non-calculus based physics class (non-major) and then there was me. I only know two other female undergrad physics majors and they weren't there -- one was working on a lab and the other was getting her tonsils removed. To quote Cecilia from Piled High and Deeper, "The odds are good but the goods are odd."



*Honestly, how I was introduced to a fellow student's roommate.