Something out of the ordinary

During warm up in swim practice today I decided to do some kicking with a kick board. I wasn't thinking about anything in particular, then some tiny dark blob caught my eye. It was quickly falling towards the water, specifically, towards me! Without thinking, I lifted my hand up to catch it. And lo and behold! A hummingbird looked wearily up at me. I wish I could say I was smart enough to cup my hands around him, and climb out and set him free outside of the pool (lots of birds die in our pool area because they can easily get in, but they can't figure out how to get out...). But I was not smart. I confess the thought did cross my mind, but if I couldn't use my arms, I have no idea how to get out of such a tall-guttered pool. Instead the hummingbird and I gazed at each other, studied each other, and after about two or three minutes, he lifted his wings and left. I really hope he found a way out. I'll think of it that way to make me happy, even though it's probably not the case.

Summer Re-runs

How's my summer going, you may ask? It's a mash-up rehash of summers past:


Teaching Swim Lessons,Swimming,Life guarding (rarely),Watching BBC dramas,Having a strange fascination with hippos, and Not hearing things quite right.

And so on and so forth.

Marriot Library, Part Two

I love the Marriot Library at the University of Utah. But sometimes you get a little disappointed and pleased at the same time.

I get to write a ten-page math paper (again), this time on Mercator, a man who made maps in the late-ish 16th century. We still use his system today. He created a map that used straight lines but still depicted the latitude and longitude correctly. Blah blah blah. I'll get to the point:

There aren't very many resources on this guy. Most of the books that were applicable to what I needed were in Latin. In fact, the three books I managed to check out in English are all related to each other, one cites the other two, the other two cite each other, etc.

When I was looking him up in the library catalogue, I found that the library had some of his own original works translated into English! I was excited to have such good resources, only to find that the books themselves are so rare, they are enclosed in glass boxes where you can't even thumb the pages for the information you need. Awesome! And dang.

I'll go back to reading his biography, hoping to find the necessary math in there somewhere...

Images of Pullman Thus Far

(the picture above was actually from a couple of summers ago. I'm just stealing it because it's just so sad I had to wipe out on a razor scooter in Pullman. Yes, I was going downhill, yes, I was wearing flip-flops with no mean to stop, yes, I tipped over when my overly large feet refused to cooperate in using the teeny little brake...and I licked the road pretty good.)

Amusing Quiz

Only two questions (three if you count the question asking what gender you are.)

I took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Wishes to live a peaceful life with no problems or..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

Mutiny

The brain is awake, alert, excited to learn all the new materials being presented by the man in front of the classroom, writing things on the board, but mostly talking and pointing at a brightly lit screen. The body is exhausted and mad at the brain. The ears go first, shutting off, mixing up the sound, spinning it, twirling it into lulling white noise. The eyelids go next, they gain 50 lbs within seconds. The neck gives in last, refusing to hold the head up and lets go.

A squishy hand with golden bracelets reaches out and steals a key on your desk. A baby gorilla staring at you eating mush. A dog wags its tail. A little girl crying. Airplane flying. People. Faces. Trees. Mice. Rush of wind. Pain! The ears turn back on, the eyes open, and the nose hurts. Lazy hands reach up and determine it's not broken nor bleeding. The body straightens up and apologizes to the eager brain and stays awake this time. But just.

A professor teaching "Analysis of Statistics," probably the most boring class he's had to teach yet, sees a student slowly nodding, then her head falls face-first SMACK into the desk. Too bad everyone else is half-asleep, otherwise she'd be quite embarrassed. He keeps talking.