Friday morning random

* The other day, Lynn was writing about Facebook and how it's in decline among the young (and of course, we know that the Only Important Demographic Group is that 18-34 one....). I think it's because Facebook has become so ubiquitous that it's not "cool" any more (Oooh, is it eventually going to be cool NOT to be on Facebook? I might actually BE cool, for once....).

I get lots of e-mails from retailers wanting me to "like" them or such on Facebook. I swear I got one this morning that said "'Like' us or else."  Yeah, no. I'm not going to fake-like you in order to get coupons or something. That's junior high - like when people sucked up to the popular kids in the hope of basking a bit in their glory. (Only, if junior high were Facebook, the popular kids would not be the ones begging for "likes." It would be the nerdy kids who didn't fit in but desperately wanted to be appreciated - kids like the one I was (and kind of still am) - who would be.)

They say that the traits that annoy you the most about another person are traits you yourself have and are not proud of. I think there's some truth to that and that may be why the whole sounds-desperate-to-me "'Like' us on Facebook" demand makes me grind my teeth.

* Also, from what I've seen of friends who are active on there, Facebook seems to either breed drama or attract those who wish to cause drama. I don't have time for that.

* Well, my weekend is planned. Not what I had in mind but it's important to do. Saturday morning I'm going to go out and do the fall vegetation sampling I need to do. Or, rather, do part of it, and do the rest on Tuesday, my day-without-classes. I think splitting the task in two will make it less onerous, and also, I've found I tolerate heat even worse now (I'm sure it's the beta blocker). So I'm going to head out as early as practical (probably 7:30) and plan to do half of the sampling. (Sunday afternoon, also, I have a meeting at church. It's important but I'm not wild about giving up my Sunday afternoon)

* I really want to get back to working on quilts. I've barely been in my sewing room in the past month or so. Of course, right now it's really hot in there. (Poorly insulated, also it's the last room in the "chain" on the ducts, so it gets less air conditioning...)

* It's just really hot in general. I guess the dome of high pressure redeveloped, and while it's not 105* air temperature hot, it's hot, and it is humid, so it feels pretty awful. (Another reason for going out EARLY and only doing half or so of the sampling tomorrow)

*Of course, the planned Saturday research led to a rejiggering of other plans....which resulted in me going to the Mart of Wal yesterday afternoon. It actually wasn't TOO bad. (Note to self: just before school lets out on a Thursday afternoon seems to be an ok time). I'm still irritated that instead of carrying a decent line of salad, they pretty much only carry their own brand. I've tried it two or three times, and you would think someone could not ruin salad greens.....but somehow they did. (At least they do carry the little hydroponic butter lettuces....it's marginally more work in that you have to both wash AND tear it up, rather than just washing it, but it's better than that bitter stuff that makes me go, "Was this left to sit on a loading dock for a couple days?")

If it weren't for fresh foods like milk and salad greens I could probably manage with every-other-week food jaunts (which would probably mean I could manage to mostly use the Brookshire's or the Green Market). I can kind of get salad greens at Green Spray (sometimes all they have is iceberg), but they don't carry the organic milk that I prefer, and the last time I bought milk from them, it had that cooked taste that tells me the company producing it decided to go in for the "We're 'improving' skim milk!" bit by adding dry milk powder." Which I find nasty and makes the milk taste cooked. I prefer honest skim milk that just tastes cold.

(And I know. Some people have gone back to 1% or 2% and there is a valid argument out there that milkfat may not be the immediate ticket to death that people used to paint it as....but I find I have to shave out calories everywhere I can; despite working out the requisite 150 minutes (or more) a week, I still have a metabolism slightly greater than that of floor tile. Also, sometimes very much butterfat - like in rich ice cream - upsets my stomach.)

* First faculty meeting of the fall. Nothing dire in this one; apparently there's been some backing-off of the WE MUST DEVELOP ALL OUR DISTANCE SITES AND ASK OUR PROFESSORS TO TEACH THERE TOO idea, someone probably realized just how stretched the staff in some departments are. It would be a lot to ask a couple profs from my department to spend 2 or 3 days a week at the distance site....how would they fulfill their required 10 hours of on-campus office hours? How would they get any research done? How would they make enough time to prep for teaching?  Right now, I have three heavy days, one light day, and one day with no scheduled classes - but that's going to be my research day, my grading day, my get-caught-up day, and my help-my-grad-student-FINALLY-complete-her-thesis day. If I were driving to Van Alstyne or somewhere on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I wouldn't be able to do much of that. And the wear and tear would tire me out so I was even less effective when I WAS somewhere I could just work.