So I've just put the kid to bed and now it's mommy time...

which means I'm back to my wonderfully random trail of consciousness I'm attempting to entice you to follow. I try to be somewhat predictable and stable when Natha's around, which is why I think I get so upset with myself when I fly off the handle with him. Tonight he needed some major correcting, which sometimes happens, but more & more it seems to happen when he comes back from his dad's house. I don't want to blame it on anything, but at this point there's a correlation. However, due to my marvelously expensive yet painfully obvious undergraduate class entitled "Principles of Experimental Design" I know that correlation does not imply causation. Good thing they set me straight on that one as well as the 'just because you believe something doesn't make it true.' I'd be in quite a quagmire if I still fell for that one, believe it or not. Thankfully it's the same class that exposed me to the story of the 'discovery' of the structure of DNA. It burns even more that when Watson wrote that book he mentions again and again what Rosalind Franklin did with the x-ray crystallography, however when you read about who received the Nobel prize, there's nary a mention of dear Rosalind. Another interesting things I heard this past week was that Pauling (as in Linus) was trying to uncover the structure as well, but he was mistakenly placing the phosphate backbone on the inside instead of the outside, but had the double-helical shape figured out. He even came up with that somewhat before Watson & Crick put together other people's pieces. Just goes to show how science works, or doesn't, in the favor of those enterprising souls who attempt it again and again, despite the burns.

Hmm. I wonder if that Crab Rangoon in my fridge is any good still. I'm finally in the mood for it.

I really do love teaching science, particularly biology. I read about these different 'help me pick the career I should be in' sites this morning in the Sunday paper (which I adore reading) and I almost want to take the tests to see if they tell me I should be doing what I'm doing. All in the name of good science, my friend, since all these tests need a good control to make sure the effects are significant. Speaking of statistical significance, check out www.jasnh.com - a great idea if I've ever heard one. Sad to say they're going to a bi-yearly publishing schedule. I'm sure that plenty of people with their masters' theses would love to publish in there... I hope I'm not among them. I think I've picked a project that will give publishable results regardless of the outcome, since people aren't doing much research in the area other than my mentor...

Well, I should be reading some chapter of some book right now, but I'd really like to have some time to read something scientific that doesn't pertain to a test I have to take later... I'm going to have to get Ed in the habit of having me read for a while before I go to sleep if he's going to be in the bed with me - we usually turn the light out at the same time and go to sleep together. When I'm by myself I usually read for almost an hour before going to bed - it makes sure I'm good and tired before I attempt to go to sleep. Otherwise I just sit there for a while and start thinking, then I have to get back up, go write something in my planner, or work out something in my brain. Sleep doesn't trump much in my brain other than reading, honestly. So if I'm tired, I go to sleep, if I'm not, I get to read for a while on something that I pick to read. Either way I win. :)

I started going through everything in my house in preparation for moving. I realized that I should give an item as much thought towards throwing it away as I did buying it. Since I tend to buy things on whims, it should make this process a lot easier. I also made a big list where I could see it - so I know what I've done, what's left to do, and what I'm going to put off until later. I can't tell myself I wasn't aware, at least, of what I was up against.

Ah, SciAm calls. Check out that site someday... www.sciam.com ... G'night, ladies and germs. (Except bacteriophages. They'll last forever, just you wait.)