That's what I have left in order to be done with the Emily shawl. (I added two of the 20-row repeats to it to make it larger). I might get that done tonight, I don't know, it will depend upon how grading goes. (I collect my "big" papers in Ecology today, and also short papers from my bio class).
My final exams are all written, at least. (I give those Thursday).
This time next week, I will be either on the train or on a bus. (It's not at all clear if the "trackwork" between St. Louis and Chicago will be done, and so I'm anticipating being stuck on a bus at St. Louis. Probably better get more Larabars so I can carry one with me in case of no breakfast access....though I'm really hoping the trackwork is done). I need this break. Especially now, after what happened in Colorado....I think of a friend of mine from church who recently lost both her parents, and her comment on how you never regret taking the time to visit family that you love.
I'm already thinking about what projects to take. I finally remembered what fingerless mitt pattern I wanted to make out of the KnitPicks "Capretta" I bought, so I'm going to take that. And I think I'll probably be starting the Putney shawl as invigilating knitting for Thursday. And....I don't know. Do I take Ropes and Picots and try to work on it more, or just some sock projects? I can't decide.
I also have big book plans....I ordered a copy of The Horse, the Wheel, and Language with a $50 Amazon gift certificate I got for reviewing textbook materials.
It's a much denser book than I anticipated. It's actually more of a true scholarly book than a layperson's history, or so it seems from my brief glance. But I think I can get through it. (Though I have a copy of a book called something like, "The search for Proto-Indo-European" on my shelves that I've attempted twice and not been able to finish, though that was mainly a matter of getting bogged down by other things going on in my life, and I do plan to read that some day).
I don't know why I'm so fascinated by early human history - early modern humans, after we'd killed off (or, some argue,. assimilated) the Neanderthals but before we really began writing. I suppose it has something to do with it being so DIFFERENT from the modern world....what would it have been like to have been an illiterate nomad (and not just illiterate in the sense of being unable to read, but illiterate in the sense of there being no written language)? How do people figure out that stuff? And maybe the deeper "where did we come from, how did culture originate?" questions.
(And even early written history - there are so many things that are unsure, there are so many things that either weren't recorded, or were recorded "wrong" - some of the early European cultures seem to have had less of an emphasis on "true factual reportage" as they did on "what makes a good story" so some of the stuff about 1066 and such is not entirely clear how it happened).
Perhaps part of it is I wonder about the distant future as well as the distant past. Presuming humans are still around - or some kind of intelligent-life successor to humans - 10,000 years hence, what will they be able to learn from OUR culture? Even with writing, so much of it is lost, or its meaning is (Have they completely deciphered Linear B? I know that was a particularly tough one). What will we leave to future peoples? (Or, as I think in my more pessimistic moods, will we all just wind up destroying ourselves and intelligent life, at least on Earth, cease to exist?)
Incidentally, the gift certificates seem to be the new way of paying textbook reviewers. (Though in this case it was just reviewing a detailed table of contents). I'm hoping I'm not expected to report it on my taxes next year (though I probably am). I will say a couple things about the TOC of this book, as it stood, annoyed me: there was the usual Obesity Panic section that made up most of the "nutrition" chapter (so many laypeople know jack about good nutrition, but they know to be afraid of getting fat...so why not discuss vitamins and minerals and what they do? And maybe this is how I'm a bit of a geek, but the discovery of different nutrients and how they work make pretty fascinating stories....scurvy, and beriberi, and all that). Also, at one point they seemed to conflate Type I and Type II diabetes...that seems to be done a lot in the culture and it makes me crazy because it's so wrong. Type I is an autoimmune disease at heart, where the body CAN'T make insulin any more because the insulin producing cells have been destroyed. And Type II is the body's loss of ability to respond effectively to the insulin produced. (And it's not solely caused by overeating; there's a huge genetic component to it as well). Yes, some Type II patients do wind up having to use insulin if their disease progresses further....but they are not the same disease and you'd think health reporters and such would care about such a thing. (I have my suspicions as to their motives for not...)
I realize that as a biologist I have a different perspective on learning about and caring about biology, but I kind of hate the "issues oriented" basic textbooks, because all too often they sensationalize everything, and actual interesting (well, to me) background material is left out so there's more room for the "are we screwed? Yes, yes we are" discussion of things. Biology is fascinating and beautiful without turning it in to a checkout tabloid! And it makes me wonder if there are people out there who get turned off from science because so often it's presented as doom and gloom, or how making one little mistake in your diet will cause you to get a disease, and it will be ALL YOUR FAULT or something. I suspect I would have been far less likely to go into biology if my main introduction to it was "We're poisoning the air, we're all going to become infertile, we're all too fat, we're all likely to develop some strange condition involving our neurotransmitters."
Because there's another way to present it: "Look at all the nutrients we know about now, and look how easy it is to keep from getting scurvy!" or "Look at all the diseases children don't have to suffer through any more!" or "Look at all the improvements we've seen in the air and water since the 1960s!" I guess the idea is taking from a perspective of hope rather than one of fear....
But anyway. The gift certificate took a long time coming and I have to admit I kind of gave up on it, thought, "I gave the 'wrong' kind of feedback and they decided to stiff me" but I guess it just took a while to process.
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