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Daynotes
Journal
Week of 2 November 2009
Latest
Update: Saturday, 7 November 2009 08:33 -0500 |
12:05
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Mary, Barbara, Paul, and I went out to the Blasting for Boobs
fund
raiser yesterday. We all had a great time. Here are four of the five
women in Barbara's group, with Mary at the far right and Barbara next
to her.
Mary
brought her own shotgun. It's a youth model that fits her
frame
much better than a full size model. It's a Remington 870 pump in 20
gauge.
And
the difference really shows. The first couple of times we shot clays,
Mary had a terrible time because she was using a full size model that
was simply too big for her. With her own shotgun, she does a lot
better. Here she is at the first station, where she busted four of the
five clays and scared the last one almost to death.
And here's Barbara at the first station. She broke three of five
cleanly, wounded another one, and took pity on the fifth one.
And here's Barbara at the second station, powdering one of the clays.
And at the third station, breaking one.
And finally, the obligatory group shot, with all five of the women in
their group.
Everyone
had a good time, and thanks to the generosity of several sponsors
(including Remington, which is based locally and provided guns and
ammunition) 100% of the entry fees went to breast cancer research. This
was the first time they'd run this event, and they were surprised and
gratified at the large turnout. I suspect it'll become an annual event.
08:21
-
Election Day today, but I won't go out to vote. The only contested race
I could vote in is for alderman, and our current alderman is unlikely
to lose no matter how I vote. I'd go out to vote if it mattered, but I
still have flashes of vertigo, so I won't drive unless there's good
reason to do so.
For the next few days, I'll be shooting and
editing video. Actually, I'll be reshooting and re-editing stuff I've
already done, but now I have a much better handle on what works and
what doesn't. I think I'm at the point now where I can start knocking
these things out pretty quickly.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
08:41
-
If you have any doubt whatsoever about the reality of evolution, for
religious or whatever reasons, do yourself a favor. Watch this one-hour
video of Dr. Jerry Coyne speaking at AAI 2009 on Why Evolution is True.
In fact, watch it even if you don't doubt the reality of evolution,
just to provide you with good answers the next time you talk to someone
who doesn't accept the reality of evolution.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
10:30
-
The first four MAKE: Science Room videos are shot, edited, and ready
for post-production (leader, trailer, titles, etc.), with several more
in progress. I'll be shooting and editing for the next several days to
get some of those complete. Things got a lot easier when I finally
admitted to myself that I have neither the skills nor the equipment to
produce professional-quality videos. Fortunately, these videos don't
need to be professional quality, just competent.
09:27
-
I'm still shooting and editing videos. I think I'm starting to get the
hang of it. I've edited down more than an hour of raw footage of Paul
Jones making napalm and Mary Chervenak making copper(II) carbonate into
a couple of short videos. I'm not trying to get fancy with transitions,
instead just using simple jump cuts, which seem to work fine. The list
of videos that I plan to shoot and edit already has more than 50 titles
on it, and climbing.
Saturday, 7 November
2009
08:33
-
Poor Malcolm. The vet's office called yesterday to say that his stool
sample exam showed giardia. Barbara picked up some drugs for him on her
way home. It's five small plastic bags of powder, presumably
metronidazole, that he gets on his food once a day for the next five
days. In two weeks, they'll retest a stool sample. His weight was down
from 78 pounds (~ 35.5 kilos) a year ago to 72 pounds yesterday, which
may or may not be a result of the giardia infection.
I played
dumb talking to the vet tech, asking her what giardia was. Her
explanation wouldn't have told a civilian much. I figured it'd
disconcert her if I told her that I planned to do a stool smear
myself, using H&E differential staining. In fact, given that
Malcolm constantly eats stuff he finds in the road when we're walking
him, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for me to do a stool smear
every month or two.
00:00
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Bruce
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