THE PETERED OUT PRINCIPLE

Hmm.

Is the situation that I don't have anything new to say or write about? Probably not.

The problem is that my load of district-mandated coursework has entailed me writing, on average, about 3,000 words a week since late April. It's been a bear, and with two other jobs plus all the time I seem to find it necessary to spend at my school site doing various things, I just haven't been able to give the blog the kind of attention I did in the past. I haven't had a really high week of traffic (more than 300 hits) in about half a year, and I wouldn't blame anyone for not checking in anymore.

Having said that, I am just a few days from completing the coursework, and I will be having a few extra minutes a week to be overcommitted, so expect a slight increase in my offerings to the void.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS!

Too awesome not to share. Jorge Cham has a wonderful comic strip about grad school called Ph.D, and he often has extended strips that discuss the state of research programs in the sciences, as when he talks about cancer or the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

But he has outdone himself here, showing a real-life grad student doing genetic research on pepper plants at New Mexico State University:

PHD Tales from the Road - NMSU's Chile Pepper Institute from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

By the way, my alma mater (CSU Fresno) has a research program involving pepper genetics as well:

MAGNFICENT OBSESSION

From the ridiculous to the sublime. Or the sublemon. I dunno.

My wife and I play on a team with an ever-changing name in the Fresno Pub Quiz. Recently our team beat out about 25 other gangs of six to win a share of a fat four-figure prize. Given that it costs the two of us just $10 /week to compete, it was a pretty nice win.

In fact, it was such an improbably-sizeable win (I won't bore you with the details) that they've decided to reduce the length of time a jackpot carries over from one week to the next. Seems that they were getting a bit nervous about it!

What can I say? I like winning, but having played College Bowl and been in the Jeopardy pool and all that, I can't say that I'm surprised to be on the winning side now and then, nor can I crow too much about the jackpot. After all, if you win enough games, you'll win your share of jackpots. But my wife? She has definitely found her obsession, and she loves the team we play with, because everyone who is there is definitely in it to win it. Witness, for example, our team captain's Facebook post:





It's....um.....the winning sheet from our most recent victory, with every response in all four rounds tagged with some explanatory comment. Have to admit, gets me kind of pumped up, makes me want to win again....!