March 13, 2007

I guess you could say I had "one of those days" today.

It started off with running late for the morning lab. I got to campus a little after my usual time, and because lab was in the library, I was about 4 minutes late getting over there. I got everyone started on the lab, but then we discovered that the website was having bugs that actually prevented anyone from completing the lab.

I convinced the class to follow me back the science building where we could do an activity on the phases of the Moon in a dark lab. This was no small task to convince the class on such a nice Spring-like day.

Then, in class, the computer again refused to play my videos. :( I lost all control of class for a good 15+ minutes.

Afternoon lab was relatively relaxing as the students were given a "free day" to study and ask questions about their physics homework.

After going home for a quick bite, I went back to the observatory for some evening observing. No students showed up, but my TA was there, so I went across the street for a milk shake. I met a really friendly student who is in one of the Monday labs (that I'm not teaching). We had a nice chat, and it made it seem like all the bad stuff that happened today wasn't so bad after all.

March 03, 2007

A. wins 322-241


A. wins 322-241
Originally uploaded by achmorrison.

This morning, I was sitting at the computer upstairs and looked out at the tree in the front yard and saw a woodpecker with an incredibly bright reddish-orange head.

Red-bellied Woodpecker - Whatbird.com: "Red-bellied Woodpecker Breeding Male: The breeding male Red-bellied Woodpecker has black and white barred upperparts and pale gray-brown underparts with a red wash on the belly. The head has a bright red crown and nape and pale brown face. Copyright © 2002-2007 Whatbird.com"