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April 16, 2007
Spring Cleaning
I had planned to get a lot of work done on my thesis and research this weekend. Like most well-laid plans, that didn't really come to fruition. Partly because AJ's code to compare MM5 runs to observations keeps crapping out on me for some reason, to my great frustration. Getting this code to work is the first key step that I need to happen in order for the rest of my research to get finished. But the main reason I didn't get heaps of research/thesis stuff done was because I got in the cleaning mode. Yesterday I finally got fed up with all the piles of junk atop my desk, dresser, little table and TV, and so I took a couple hours to sort through it all, into piles of things to keep, things to throw away, and things to shred. The piles got pretty big, considering I hadn't done such a cleaning since last fall! And then today I dusted everything in my room, something that I hadn't done since I moved in last August! Needless to say there was a lot of that too. I did also manage to start chapter 2 of my thesis today a little bit, but even though I didn't get tons done with that, I at least don't feel like I accomplished nothing.
Congratulations to Kerrie for passing her thesis defense on Friday!
On Friday at noon there was a memorial service in the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center for all 22 Penn State students that had passed away since last April, including Levenia. Several faculty members and grad students from the Meteorology Department, including myself, went to the service to show support for her and her family. Since PSU is a public university, it was an interfaith service, and so had readings from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish & Muslim writings. They all talked about death, but I couldn't help but notice that the Christian reading from Romans 8 was the only one that was truly hopeful (and for good reason!). Anyway, I thought the service was nice overall, though rather impersonal, partly from the generic nature of it.
So yeah, this nor'easter... I mentioned in my last post on Thursday that the models were looking a bit like weather porn, predicting a big snowfall here in central PA. By Friday all the models really started backing off of that, though that didn't stop Zack from "honking" up the storm a ton at the special forecast discussion he called for Friday afternoon. Everything was indicating at that point that it'd be probably a mostly rain event, and once the sun came out for a little bit Saturday morning, warming things up a few degrees, that sealed the deal that we'd get all rain today. If it had been cloudy, we may have gotten snow during the day today. Overall the storm has been a bit disappointing though, it definitely didn't live up to its billing, at least not around State College. It might switch over to some flurries tonight and tomorrow for a bit, but this should be the last gasp of winter (I know I've said this several times already this winter/spring): low 60s are in the forecast by the weekend, so the weather should be nice for the Blue-White game for a change!
I hosted Bible study tonight at my place, and it was pretty packed. I think 18 showed up, so we're continuing to have strong, healthy turnouts for everything, even as we get late into the spring semester, which is very encouraging. The elections for next year's officers for Penn State Christian Grads will also be taking place this coming weekend. 
This past year I've been the Communications officer (in charge of the website, the email listserv and the weekly announcements), but I've accepted a nomination to run for President for next year. Nobody else accepted a nomination for President, so I'll be running unopposed. It'll definitely be a different challenge to be in charge of the group, instead of just being on the leadership team.
The Geelong Cats of the AFL have roared back after losing their week 1 match, last week thrashing a very good Carlton Blues side 162-84 (I had to give my friend James a bit of a hard time on messenger about that, hehe), and this week dominating the Melbourne Demons 109-57. Now they're in 2nd place in the ladder, and really showing some of why they were expected to be one of the premiership contenders this year. Of course, the Cats started out in similar fashion last year, having a couple blowout victories early, only to have a major midseason slump take them out of finals contention. In any case, it's looking like a fun year to follow the Cats!
I came across a really interesting article today, about a possible connection between cell phones and disappearing bees. Entire hives of bees are going missing worldwide, and it's really becoming an alarming problem. Nobody knows how or why it's happening for sure, but some researchers are suggesting it could be caused by radiation from cell phones causing the bees to become so disoriented that they can't find their way back to their hive and die. It'll be interesting to see how this story develops, and if the disappearing bee problem continues to worsen worldwide.
One more thing: Everybody should watch Jeopardy tomorrow (Monday), because my friend Ryan is a contestant on the episode!
Posted by Jared at April 16, 2007 12:53 AM