begin rant

We drove to the Atlantic coast to see the beach on Sunday, and had a really amazingly great day. We got up and moving in record time, the sun was warm, the water was cool, the dogs were well-behaved, and the waves were rough enough but still playful. Better still: nobody got sunburned, dinner was at the excellent "Chianti Room", and our evening was concluded by fireworks.

Of course, we still had to drive home from all of this excitement.

The blue line represents our path from Gainesville to St. Augustine.
The red line represents our return trip home.

I would like to stress that I was not driving for either portion of this adventure.

Posted by Derksen at 1:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"I've always felt that simply refusing to face unpleasant facts doesn't make you immune to the consequences, just powerless to make constructive use of them."
- Captain Haml Roman, Timothy Zahn's Warhorse

Posted by Derksen at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Coffee may be a magical brew given to us by the old ones to stave off the demons who stalk us in our sleep, but you still can't breathe it, no matter how many times I try. I'm not even sure that growing gills would solve this particular problem, as I believe the low pH would impair gas exchange.

Posted by Derksen at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pickmeup in a cup:

Don't leave home without it.

Posted by Derksen at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While biking home from the department today, I found a young snapping turtle in the middle of the road. I've always had a bit of a soft spot in my head for turtles, and I felt that I had to get it out of the road before someone less observant ran it over. I also wanted to document the event, but I'd left my camera at home... so I picked it up, and lacking any better place to carry it... I tossed it in my book bag and ran back to a friend's lab to borrow his digital camera:

Photos and "Blair Witch" style cinematography courtesy of Brad Smith, © 2007. Kindly note that no turtles were harmed in the making of this picture, and after thoroughly documenting and harassing the poor creature, it was in fact released on the far side of the road near a nice pond.

Posted by Derksen at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)