The Free-Ride family is spending a week communing with Free-Ride forebears on neutral turf in Wisconsin. Internet access is spotty, so while I have access to the tubes, a few quick observations:
Category Archives: Passing thoughts
Garden update: day 18.
The state of the seedlings in my raised beds, nearly three weeks after the seeds were sown:
ScienceBlogs survey, and an invitation to introduce yourself.
First, from the Seed Overlords:
You may have noticed some pretty yellow banner ads around the site this week. They’re advertising a huge reader survey that we’re conducting right now. Anyone (excepting Seed employees) who fills it out can enter to win an iPod and MacBook Air.
The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. Here’s the survey page:
http://www.erdossurvey.com/sb/survey/
Then, following the lead of Ed, Bora, DrugMonkey, and Alice, I’d like to invite the readers of this blog, from regular commenters to committed lurkers, to check in.
Tell us who you are, what brings you here, and what brings you back. What do you like reading about here? What topics would you like to see more of?
I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
NYC bloggers/readers meet-up: venue changed!
A quick update on the details for the meet-up in Manhattan this coming Saturday:
Owing to the number of people who say they’ll be coming (large) and the weather forecast (chance of thundershowers), we will not be meeting at the Arthur Ross Terrace at the American Museum of Natural History.
We’ll be meeting somewhere else. Once that somewhere else is known to me, I will post details (including information on how to get there by subway).
UPDATE: The location is now known!
We’ll be at: Social, 795 8th Ave (close to 48th St.), New York, NY 10019.
Google maps it thusly. It appears to be close to subway stations serviced by C, E, 1, 2, and 3 trains.
Seed will be buying the first round of pitchers (of real beer and of non-alcoholic beer alternatives).
I’m really looking forward to meeting a bunch of you on Saturday, August 9, 2-4 PM.
Details for NYC bloggers/readers meet-up.
For those of you who expressed an interest (even telepathically) in the meet-up of ScienceBlogs bloggers and readers in the three-dimensional world (specifically, Manhattan) next Saturday, I now have much more precise details:
Garden update: day 8.
For those of you following the chronicle of my raised garden beds, here’s the first update.
Update on NYC bloggers/readers meet-up.
I have a little bit more (tentative) information on the upcoming meet-up in Manhattan on Saturday, August 9 (which is only two weeks away):
- The time looks like it will fall in the 2:00-4:00 PM time slot.
- The location is looking like it will be in or near Central Park.
I know that a meet-up in Central Park undercuts the initial promise of air conditioning. Nonetheless, I am convinced it will still be a fun time, and that no one will melt into a puddle of dissatisfaction. I say this as a former denizen of the East Coast who lost her ability to hold up under humidity within 8 months of moving to the San Francisco Bay Area — I will gladly brave the heat and humidity to meet y’all, and I’m guessing the selection of bloggers to meet (and the swag) will make it worthwhile for those of you better acclimated to the muggy than I am.
Now, it has come to my attention that Ed Brayton is spreading rumors about me. Here’s how he describes the bloggers who have publicly announced their intentions to be at the bloggers/readers meet-up:
Shameful songs in my music library.
PhysioProf tagged me using his Feministe guest blogger bully-pulpit. The idea is to identify the five most embarrassing tracks on your iPod. (Since I use the iTunes library on my iBook more than my iPod, that’s what I used.)
This was harder than it might have been. It turns out, when it comes to my musical tastes, I have very little shame.
New experimental digs
… sometimes require hard work, at least when the experimental digs are raised garden beds. Seriously, when was the last time you moved 14.5 cubic yards of topsoil and compost? (Not that I did it all myself, of course. My better half did quite a bit of it, and the Free-Ride offspring even pitched in.)
Pictures of the end result of 4 days of dirt-moving labor:
All that’s left standing between me and my sabbatical.
I’m on sabbatical for academic year 2008-2009. This being summer, you’d think I’d consider the sabbatical officially begun.
Not quite. But I’m getting closer. All that remains: