Dinosaurs, right on.

She looked around at the group expectantly. "Everything in Texas is..." She started. "Big!" Someone yelled. "Very good!" She said. Then she told them about the anatomy of the Quetzalcoatlus wing. Her audience was captivated. Then we went to the Coelophysis. I showed them an evolution tree of dinosaurs. They were thrilled.

Little kids are more fun than grown ups. Everything amuses them. "Will that dinosaur poop the dinosaur bones out that he ate?" They're so eager to learn and share. I wish I was a little kid again. They want to know everything. They're all friends. There's no bitterness or cynicism and they don't judge each other or divide into elitist groups. They're just kids in class.

"Everything in Texas is..." "Dinosaurs?!"

I'm ready to disappear into the desert for a few days.

Comments

Anonymous said…

i moved to round rock during 2nd grade and had to ditch my first friend after everyone in class told me that i didnt want to be friends with that person. he was an annoying pussy so following the elitist crowd worked out for me

March 7, 2009 at 6:29 PM

I'm a geologist, not an alcoholic.

I thought I had seen people drink before. Hell, I thought that I had drank before. But, clearly, I thought wrong on both of those counts. I cannot, for the life of me, think of a reason to justify all of the drinking that transpired down there last week. There was no rhyme or reason to it, it just was. Field work just makes a man thirsty. Taking this class was easily one of the best things I've ever done. We worked hard every day out in the field. Wake up at 7, leave the beach house by 8, hit the water by 9. My first three field days were in service on the R/V Acadiana , a 58 foot vessel that towed the CHIRP fish , the air gun, and the streamer to measure all the seismic data--looking at the subsurface of the seafloor we drove over. My second ship was the R/V Itasca using the multibeam , sidescan , and grab sampler --getting seafloor surface bathymetry. They were long, exhausting days and we returned to the docks around 6 or 7 every evening. And then, drinking. So much ...

Finger pointing good.

When I was on the boat doing science at Galveston, I saw a lot of dolphins. It was a significant experience for me because I have never actually seen a wild dolphin in real life before. It was sort of a dream come true. And in the middle of the shipping channel, no less. They really are amazing animals. It really kills me to realize I'll probably never see dolphins in Galveston again because of what happened to the Gulf. What is happening to the Gulf. It really is a tragedy. On a much lighter note, I started this Insanity workout program and it was so intense that I threw up before I finished the first workout. That is a good sign, I think. It is certainly an incentive to complete the entire thing. Anything that makes you feel that bad so quickly must be good for you.

Pseudo-science (like psych).

I consider myself a man of science. I try to approach problems and deal with them logically, using observations previously recorded to handle new problems. So of course my interest was piqued when someone I knew posited that men are needier and more complicated than women. An interesting theory. But to properly examine it, one must understand the concept of sexual selection and its two aspects: male competition and female choice. Which brings us to point one: men are needier [in relationships] than women. This is true. In a natural/primal setting, the males are generally love-'em-leave-'em kinds of guys. Their main objective is to reproduce as much as they can. Humans, in their infinite wisdom, have decreased the emphasis on this to the point where it has become a footnote in male purpose. Civilization dictates that, instead of finding a partner for the sole purpose of reproduction, males find females for life companionship. With the effective removal of their natur...

everything is fine

Search This Blog