Weekly Report #9

Our hero is trapped ok?  Trapped in a hospital bed.  You are going to have to save the world and all of human civilization on your own for once.

Baby Stuff:

The munckin is healthy, aside from a few sniffles, and he is a dancing machine.  He likes to break dance.  As in, he rolls around on the floor while the music plays.  What a nut.

Catchment Stoichiometry:

Yay!  I'm going to  be guest editing a special issue of freshwater biology on Catchment Stoichiometry.  Whoo!  Of course, this is all a little weird because a year ago I'd never heard the phrase, and I've really only thought about it at all for like 6 months and I honestly don't really understand how my co-guest editor or many of the authors are thinking about the subject.  I feel a little in-over-my-head in terms of my own development of the idea.  But maybe that's how everyone thinks when they are doing something totally new.  

Basically, this is a great chance for me to improve my CV despite working in a deadend job that doesn't value research at all.  And I don't think the special issue would have happened at all without me, so I feel good about it.  Yay science!

Sickness:

I used over 110 hours of sick leave last year.  I don't have any left.  One of the three of us has been sick (or wisdom teethed) since before thanksgiving.  Right now we're all just a little sniffly, so maybe we're finally past it.  

Basketball:

So one of my friends who I thought I could reliably know what was going on in the NBA told me the other day that he hasn't been following the NBA this season.  "I'm just more into NCAA hoops" was what he said (approximately).  I've heard this from a lot of people I know.  The thing is, I don't really get it.  I mean, I understand the appeal for college hoops.  There's no entertainment experience that is more viseral for me than watching the Jayhawks play basketball.  I feel like a little kid again, and increasingly that's a rare sensation.  I certainly don't get that with any other basketball experience (although I also get it with the Chiefs).  But unless the Jayhawks are playing, the predominant emotion I get when watching regular season college hoops is "awkward".  That's because they just don't play the game at a particularly high level 99% of the time. The appeal is that they play so hard, and when the games start to really matter (conference and NCAA tournament) it's pretty damned appealing to watch people try so hard.  Kinda like watching a whole bunch of game 7s in the NBA.  

 However, most teams in the NBA play a lot harder in the regular season, especially during the first and last quarter of the season.  And they don't play so stupid.  With all the restrictions on the NCAA teams in terms of practice time and studying, there's no practical way for those guys to learn to play together in a season, or usually even two seasons, so what happens is you get the odd teams that have stuck together for odd reasons winning it all (e.g., Kansas wouldn't have won last year if Rush had gone pro, and he only didn't go pro because he got injured in the pre-draft camp)  or you get teams that just have an overwhelming talent advantage taking control in the tournament (North Carolina a few years back, or even Syracuse with Warrick and 'Melo).  Meanwhile, the coaches are emphasizing a very few ideas, and they are primarily inspiring effort.  In college, you can fix everything with more effort.  In the pros, that doesn't work, because, aside from a few very miserable teams, there just aren't that many mistakes.  Those guys are paid to go out there and know exactly what they should be doing.  They spend 40-50 hours a week, all year long, trying to get better (not counting the games), and they are under immense public scrutiny to play better.

So yeah, I prefer the pro game, at least until March Madness, but I like basketball wherever I can get it.  I just can't imagine preferring the college version.  

Unless the Jayhawks are playing.

Economy:

I'm skeptical.  I don't really know if I like Obama's 'stimulus' package.  I just don't think it will work and I think it will make everything worse in the long run.  Parts of it are good.  Parts of it are awful.  Maybe I just need to read up a little more.

Anything else:

Oh probably, but I can't think of it now.