Glad I didn’t put my seedlings out…

Fifteen minutes ago, it was sunny.  Ten minutes ago, it was raining.  Three minutes ago it was hailing - hard.  Now it’s a mixture of rain and hail again.

Abso-bloomin-lutely brilliant!

... that’s what the new Star Trek film was, it was.

And in response…

To the article about Freiburg, Germany that I posted a link to a few days ago, this op-ed set of blurbs by a variety of New Urbanists (and others) has been published on the NY Times.

You know, it’s funny.  If you had asked me, ten years ago as I headed to college, what I would be passionate about, one of the farthest things from my mind would have been public transport.  That is due in large part to the abysmal nature of public transport in my hometown of San Antonio.  Four years of life in the public-transport-paradise of PDX, combined with my varied experiences of transport in Europe and Africa, changed that.  Now, as I look ahead to the kind of career I see for myself, one spent encouraging the growth of sustainable communities, with particular emphasis on the incorporation of public transport and public green spaces, seems ideal.  How things do change…

Awesome, just awesome…

I’ll move there...

I miss Africa

Just finished reading this article about Malawi on NY Times, and found myself daydreaming about being back in Africa.  And feeling increasingly guilty about having gotten as far as day five of my trip summary.  Need to work on that…

Soon, soon…

Yet another article extolling Portland’s virtues on NY Times…  Yep, I’m still homesick.

Smart energy grid

Yesterday, I finished reading Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded, which was nicely thought-provoking at times.  Imagine how happy I was, then, so soon after having been introduced to the notion of a smart energy grid by Friedman, to run across this article on exactly that in the New York Times!

As far as I understand it, the smart energy grid would be highly useful in flattening the demand curve(s) for energy, and allow energy suppliers to build plants according to average demand, rather than having always to bet on peak demand and/or catastrophe.  This, in turn, could allow more uncertain or fluctuating energy production methods - such as wind power or solar power - to be phased in, since there would be built-in flexibility in the grid should the wind suddenly stop or the sky cloud over.

Additionally, there is the feedback to the consumer.  It seems that many people still don’t realize just how much energy is wasted in everyday life, and certainly none of us are usually given a monetary breakdown of what it’s costing to power things from minute-to-minute, or hour-to-hour.  The smart grid does that, and as such should, it is hoped, provide impetus for individuals and companies to examine their power usage and find out where economies can be made.

What I don’t completely understand is how this smart grid will help with environmental concerns down the line.  I suppose that, as energy costs rise due to the rising cost of oil and the non-substitution of renewables, consumers will eventually find themselves at the point where they have economised their power use as much as they are willing, and consumer demand for renewables will rise.  Also, Friedman hypothesises in his book that consumers could sell energy back to the grid; this is also mentioned in the NY Times article.  This would encourage uptake of microgeneration technologies, which is almost certainly a part of future life, despite being uneconomical at the moment.

All in all, the $200 buy-in cost mentioned as a potential barrier in the NY Times article is something that I would certainly not be hindered by… if I had an extra $200.  But I don’t, and even if I did, I am at least nominally an environmentalist.  What about those who aren’t?  Then again, as with any new technology, the onus is usually on the enthusiasts/geeks to buy in when costs are high, and in doing so to fund advancements that will make said technology both more efficient and more affordable for the masses.  I guess I’m just not used to being on the cutting edge in my consumer desires!

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

I went to see the new X-Men film last night (as it opened here sooner than in the US).  I won’t give any plot spoilers, but I will give you a small break so that, if you don’t want to read my opinions, you can stop now.

********************************************
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dum de dum de dum….
Is this enough of a break?  I think so…

So, in short, the film was too slow and plot-driven for an action film, and had too many action sequences for a plot-driven film.  I really wanted more plot, because Wolverine’s background is interesting enough, and Hugh Jackman a good enough actor, to have carried a “proper” film.  The action sequences were kinda dull, and the director was far too fond of fast cuts, which means that you never really get to appreciate what the actors are doing for the action sequences.  And, honestly, even I, an eager Hugh Jackman ogler, started to roll my eyes as he was stripped down to jeans and white tank top, or even less, for the umpteenth time.  I mean, we get it; he’s ripped.

I think the best parts of the film were the parts that showed Logan before he became Wolverine, in Canada.  The bits of the film that actually relied on Hugh Jackman acting, rather than running around, looking buff and angry.  Overall, I’d probably, and I hate to say this, rank this film below even the first X-Men film, which was sillier, but at least comfortable with what it was.  This film couldn’t make up its mind, it seems.

Pets, work, gardens, plans.

I realize that I am absolutely rubbish about posting anything substantive when things are going well, which is silly, given that the original point of this blog was to reassure my friends and family that things were going well.  I suppose that life in the UK has become so second-nature to me by now that it doesn’t seem like it would be terribly interesting to those elsewhere.  ::shrug::

Anyway, as you may have gathered from the lack of substantive posts lately, things are going very well.  Now that I’ve recovered 98% of my mobility after my marathon silliness (though I’m still dealing with horrible, acidic stomachness from the anti-inflammatory pills I’m on for another two weeks), it’s pretty much all systems go.

Angus and I have been taking care of a friend’s dog and cat for the last two weeks, while he’s out of the country.  Jodie, the dog, is one of the sweetest creatures I’ve ever run across, and has the added bonus of being exceptionally well-trained!  She’s a rescue dog of the “mongrel” sort, but apart from needing to be introduced to men she doesn’t know and a hesitancy regarding any other dogs, she doesn’t show any rescue dog neuroses.  We want pets even more badly now, despite Giuseppe the cat’s blood-thirstiness.

Work is going well for me, I think.  As you may have read previously, I’ve had my first grant application response.  They accepted our application, which makes me feel a little better about what I’m doing.  Now, if I could just get a little more direction from the Board (which was how things were supposed to be in the first place), I’d feel even better.  Still, all of this is a good introduction to working in small non-profits, and gives me things to remember – both positive and negative – about the experience.

The garden is springing up nicely, an activity that I hope the current cold snap won’t hinder.  The poppy has three enormous flower buds on it.  In fact, everything on the right-hand side of the trellis is going great guns.  I couldn’t understand this for a long while – the right-hand side gets less sun, is generally marshier, etc.  I think I’ve finally figured it out, though, in a “duh” moment.  The left-hand side of the back yard is where we dumped all the rubble and crud during the housework.  I think, therefore, that the ground all along the left-hand side is in worse shape than the right. 

I felt very much a member of British society when I found myself in queue at B&Q, clutching my seed packets and starter trays and potting soil, right behind everyone else, all clutching variations on the same thing.  The Brits as a whole are potty (ha ha!) about gardening, and that’s as it should be.  After all, they are blessed – generally – with an absolutely wonderful gardening climate!  I’ve found myself, in the last few months, daydreaming about having an allotment plot (or joining a community garden in Boston) and growing my own vegetables.  I have reluctantly decided that I really shouldn’t try to take that on while I’m at school, but at the very least I plan to have some potted plants in my room.  Not the same, but I can’t do without a few plants!

Angus continues to take (and shine at) swing dance lessons.  I’m really enjoying getting to dance with him – weekly, after his lessons, so that he can show me the new steps they learned that week, and monthly, at the various dances in the area.  :-)  My “extracurricular” activities have expanded to include drawing (when I can or feel like it), and I’m pretty happy with the way I’m getting on.  I’m trying to carry around a sketchpad and markers with me at all times, just in case I find myself with a spare few minutes and feel like sketching, but since I also already carry around a book with me at all time, my purse is starting to dislocate my shoulder.

I’m getting quite nervous about money for grad school, and it doesn’t help that I don’t know what sort of loan package Tufts will be offering me.  Until I know how much they give me, I can’t start applying for loans to cover cost of living, which I have been warned are (not surprisingly) very difficult to procure just now.  I will be getting a job when I get to Boston, but I don’t want to have to count on a job to cover all my costs of living, when what I really need to focus on is getting the most for my money, school-wise.  I know it will all work out, but right now I’m stuck in the limbo of not knowing, not having a plan, and that is never a place where I’m comfortable. 

I’m also getting increasingly sadder at the thought of being separated from Angus… again.  I know that I’ve chosen to do this, and I know that we’ve done it before, and I know that I don’t have to worry about the stability of our relationship while I’m gone.  None of that makes me any happier with the thought of not being able to curl up to sleep with him, or not being able to joke around and be silly with him any time I want.  And somehow, the end of August seems so VERY near.  But, at the same time, I remember that it has already been 10 months since we left for Africa, and that it’s already been a full month since my birthday, and two and a half years since I moved to the UK, and all of those periods of time have flown by so quickly that I can hardly believe it.  So too, presumably, will fly the time in Boston.

So much to do, so little time…

I’m legitimate!

I’ve just received my first notification of a successful grant application!  I’m a legitimate fundraising officer!  Huzzah!

Hilarious.

Out of curiosity, how does Boris Johnson think that he will retain any of the communal cycles in London if he doesn’t allow locks?  Even at Reed, with our reasonably-effective Honor Principle, the number of commie bikes that ended up in the canyon or just plain absconded was disheartening.  In London, it seems unlikely that many bikes will last. 

A peeve

The phrase “up-skill,” and other such bureau-babble tripe.  I am always, immediately, reminded of 1984 whenever I run across such idiocy of language.

Paris, marathon, bed REDUX

I KNEW it!!!!

My finishing time (and Angus’, for that matter) that I quoted in the previous entry, wasn’t actually my time.  Rather, the six-hour figure was one that started counting from the time when the first runner crossed the start line, NOT from when *I* crossed the start line.  Taking account of our belated starts, the final, actual, official figures for our marathons are:

Angus: 4 hours, 20 minutes, 18 seconds
Me: 5 hours, 46 minutes, 46 seconds

I bloody KNEW that the time on the clock as I crossed the finish line was the “gross” clock, as it were, and that it didn’t give my “net” time!  This means that, despite not having trained, and muscular problems, etc., it only took me 22 more minutes to finish this marathon than my previous marathon!

Springing

In the week and a half during which I was in France, our back garden has started to take off.  We got back to find the grass ankle-high (in tufts), bright green leaves (with spots of darker green aphids) on the apple tree, and one or two snail-nibbled pansies bravely poking up a yellow or purple face.  The winter-flowering clematis, which apparently died shortly after I put it in the ground a year ago and which hadn’t been removed only because of sheer laziness on the part of yours truly, has shot up and is twining around the lower reaches of the arbor, next to the suddenly-much-bushier jasmine.  The passionflower is still looking rather sad - I think the winter was too cold for it - but the one remaining poppy looks set to put forth two or three flowerbuds this year, as opposed to the single one from last year.  The rosemary is blooming, and most of the lavender is lovely and bushy.  The mint is leggy and decrepit, but I’m hoping that a good trim will help it recover itself. 

Indoors, my heirloom pepper plants are popping buds, so perhaps I’ll get a few more peppers this year.  The orchid, which bloomed so beautifully for most of the months of December and January, has regrouped and started another flower stalk; it will probably bloom within a week or two.  The Madagascar jasmine has extended a growing shoot at the end of its vine, although there isn’t any sign of flowers.  The cacti have finally stopped blooming, the ficus is bushy and green, and the remnants of the basil plant I bought to make pesto with are blooming as well.  The two remaining African violets are looking a little peaky, but that will probably be fixed once I get around to repotting them.  The three bouquets of cut flowers I got for my birthday are still going strong, in particular the white lillies that Alex gave me, which have filled the living room with their lovely scent.  All in all, it’s very springy around here.  :-)

Done.

Given that I received notification of my acceptance onto the program at Tufts on Shrove Tuesday, it seems appropriate that I have just today - on Good Friday - notified Tufts of my acceptance of their offer.