Past Weeks (copied from MySpace blog)

Things that have happened (recent to not recent):

Tattoo (see evidence below)
Learned how to successfully cut own bangs
Fellowship so I won't have to teach next year
My advisor returned from his travels to being basically non-existent anyway
Way too long cranks killed my leg but finally am getting back on bike
http://picasaweb.google.com/rheadley/Misc?authkey=_5rPJR10QKE#5067967999234912098

Rant, Rant, Rant (copied from MySpace blog)

Rant, rant, rant

Wow, so for the past couple days, I have completely been obsessing over Four Winds by Bright Eyes. I think I've mentioned before but they are totally hit or miss for me, but I actually think this (Cassadega) might be the first album that I actually buy from them/him. Oh my god, though, best song ever, at least for this week!

Also, I was involved in a question and answer with Bob Watson, who has worked at APL (NASA-affiliated-ish), was a science advisor to Clinton/Gore, and currently works at the World Bank for their environmental/sustainability group (plus he did a post-doc at Maryland) but he also worked on a couple of the IPCC reports and other big climate change groups. (Also, am I the only one who uses Google for a spell-check instead of actual spell-checks?) But this man was amazing. We were there with the purpose of discussing going from academia to policy, but we talked about a lot also related to global warming and the current political climate (ha!).
Anyway, he brought up a point that was just so fucking brilliant I feel like I need to share it in my semi-coherent, post-free-beer-for-graduate-student haze. Basically, this administration will be super-preemptive in many military and economic instances. I mean, we had no real evidence about Iraq being a threat, and you see where that lead us! We had some evidence for Afghanistan, and we totally took the action there. So in a lot of these venues, the government assumes worst case scenario in terms of actions against the US, and we act on that. Well, we've been told over and over worst case scenario about climate change, but the certain politicians keep crying "not enough evidence" and use that as a reason to act. Whereas, not enough evidence is reason to act (if not more reason to act) in the case of "homeland security." And this is completely bull-shit because climate change will likely be as devastating as any war.
At least industry is finally acting on this. You know, it isn't even a partisan issue. Bush senior had some great legislation passed limiting NOx and other ozone depleting chemicals. But he was fiscally conservative, but we're now right smack dab in this ideologically conservative (my term) regime, and any reliance against good science had gone to crap. This talk was almost enough to make me want to go into policy, but I have to say I like my ivory tower.
Well, one more time listening to Four Winds and maybe my ranting will be over.

party like it's 1994 (from Myspace blog)

So, I was looking at my regular Washington Post online discussions since I didn't really feel like reading more god damn glacial erosion papers during lunch, and I discovered some things that I do not understand: a) Lollapalooza is still happening, and I still don't really know how to spell it and b) Pearl Jam is headlining said difficult-to-spell event. I also read many more things that I do understand, but they are not nearly as interesting. Because Pearl Jam defines interesting.

I'm beginning to grow fond of headbands, especially the wide ones. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's related to the re-appearance of Pearl Jam, not that I know if they actually dissapeared or not.

Bike races (copied from Myspace blog)

More cycling photos:

From Seward Park Crit

I got the last prime, which was with about 3 laps to go. Then, because I did the prime, I totally had nothing at the end and only ended up in a sprint for 4th and for 5th.

Also, yesterday (and this is really funny to me but probably no one else), Chris and I were flipping through the 50 billion+ television channels that we get. We stopped on one of the public stations because it was the Seattle Symphony doing something. I think it might have been during a commercial break for some show we were really watching, something awesome like "How It's Made" (panty hose, light bulbs, and front loaders! pins, plastic bags, and neon lights!) on Discovery Channel. Anyway, some dude was talking about the orchestra and mentioned a couple times about how this next song had an "explosion of power, finesse," and some other stuff along those lines. Chris and I just started giggling (because we are, apparently, 13 years old). I was going to be mature about it and supress the giggles, but he looked at me, and I couldn't help it.

That's all.

More of the same (from Myspace blog)

Bike Racing Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/rheadley
So, biking, yeah, the upgrade is going to happen. And it's frightening, but I'll deal with it. I'm planning for it after the Wenatchee stage race (early May?), fyi.

Anyway, yes, Kurt Vonnegut died on my birthday. This is actually one of only a few celebrity deaths that I have actually felt some sort of affect from, in this case actual sadness. I think some of the other big, "public" deaths that have bothered me have been Elliot Smith and Jim Henson, and that's about it. Anyway, there was a sort of eulogy/appreciation in the Washington Post. (I have no idea if that link will work.) It's pretty good, but the last sentence completely jars with me:
"If there is a God and if He or She is kind -- which, it must be said, the author of "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" would have been the first to doubt -- that is exactly where Kurt Vonnegut is right now."
Maybe I'm missing an inside joke/reference or something (which could very easily be the case), but I just don't find that necessary for someone who was president or something just as figure-head-ish of a humanist group, even with the included caveat. But, really, I might just be missing something.

Yes, the exciting world of Rachel is very exciting right now. It's weird to actually be taking a class instead of teaching. And research-wise, if anyone has an urge to read and summarize, with useful questions, about 6 papers of glacial erosion, that would be swell.

Dislocated shoulders, Bears, and helicopters. Oh my! (from MySpace blog)

Instead of my first week of classes for the quarter, I spent the last week in Boulder, CO doing wilderness survival training.
If we are ever trapped in the wilderness (2+ hours from help) and you happen to dislocate your shoulder, I am now certified to re-locate it. So, no worries!

I've got my first mountain bike race of the year tomorrow. Hopefully, my great road record so far will bleed over to that. It should be great, as it's one of the real courses, just one big lap not five 5-mile laps or something just as lame.
And the first crit of the year is approaching. This is and of itself is very, very exciting.

Grad School (copied from MySpace blog)

I love the Earth Sciences. I also love how heavy drinking is so implicit in almost any social aspect of this field. I hosted a prospective graduate student, and one of my semi-advisors was her faculty host. So I got invited along to the dinner/drinking time. We were at Big Time from 5:45-11:30. I completely lost track of time, too. My semi-advisor and another faculty member kept buying us pitcher after pitcher, which is nice becaause it didn't cost me anything but brain cells or liver cells or something.

Things I did:
Explained my field area and why it's interesting to the other faculty member. Drawing Alaska and glaciers on wax paper and napkins is really an experience everyone should have.
Went into a long diatribe and debate on issues of women in science with my semi-advisor
Totally geeked out over science stuff. I've never felt more like one of those people who eat, breathes, and sleeps science. It's amazing what actually being interested in your work does.
Went on a smaller diatribe on teaching issues, both related to college level and lower
Talked about WV (and Appalachia/Mid-Atlantic region in general) and how interesting it is that I'm from there and no one else is, apparently

Things I didn't do:
Talk about biking (holy crap, how did that happen?)
Feel like I was actually being coherent at any point.

And now my head feels close to explosion level. This is not necessarily the best way to be productive.

Nothing much (from MySpace blog)

So, today I spent half of the day volunteering at the Science Center. It's the kick-off to the International Polar Year (IPY to those of us in the know), which is actually longer than a year and noone but polar scientists care about. Anyway, I got to explain glacier flow (using glorified silly putty) to everyone from parents to 4-year olds to surly teenagers! Mostly, the teeny kids just played with the silly putty. It's hard to make a 4-year old (or many people for that matter) understand "this silly putty is like ice" let alone things like "plastic rheology" or "viscosity."
I am also pleased to announce that heavy, heavy eyeliner is still in fashion for those on the "alternative" (or whatever the kids are calling it these days) side in middle school. Oh, for the days when I was miserable and my hair was just recieving its baptism in dying and bleaching... (guess I never grew out of that)

I'm still debating one or two bike races this weekend. I hate flat stuff, so I don't know about Sequim. Plus, you know, people on my team seem anti-carpool. I don't know what's up with that. I'm also trying to convince myself that I should do an individual time trial. I feel like it would be one of those (Calvin's dad-esque) character building events. And everyone needs more character.

Important Life Skills (copied from MySpace blog)

(copied from my MySpace blog)

I get to do Arctic survival training in March. This takes place in Boulder, which as everyone knows is very close to the Arctic.
Things I might learn:
how to make a snow hut-thing
how to turn a helicopter/fixed-wing (airplane for those not into Alaska-lingo) into a place to live,
how to shoot a grizzly (or polar bear, though that's not my problem).
Oh, the life skills I have acquired while in graduate school... Hopefully, I will be able to protect myself and my advisor when we're doing field camp, as I totally don't trust him to protect himself, even if he does have the shot-gun. Truthfully, I would feel super-guilty for the rest of my life if I shot a grizzly. I'd probably feel guilty if I shot a glacier, though, too.

Also, for those in Morgantown who might not have heard, Jocelyn lives in Washington now! She's out on one of the San Juan islands, NW of Seattle. You have to take a ferry to get to it!

In other news, I'm set to become super-poor as Chris goes graduate school, the kind where you have to actually PAY! High school teachers: Let's put them in debt to go to school and then pay them shit for the rest of their lives! This is the way to build an education system!
But it will be much easier for him to be a secondary teacher than an academic too. We call that situation (i.e. two academics in the family) the "two body problem" because we (being academics) like to turn things into "problems" and make hypotheses and shit.

Also, I would love to know how I can get 14 hits to my blog in one day when I only let "friends" view it. I didn't even know I had that many friends.

Concerns (copied from MySpace blog)

Do people with bad vision ever out-grow the desire to one-up other people with bad vision?
"Ha to you mister -5, my contact prescription for my left eye is is -7.5! Top that!"

I think I've done this, even just as an in-my-head comparion, since I got glasses way back in 3rd grade.

Musical Musing (copied from MySpace blog)

So I've realized a trend since I've been living away from Morgantown.
Occasionally, say once or twice every couple months, I'll wake up with a certain band's songs stuck in my head (specifically either Half Empty Bottle or You've Got Nothing). These aren't things that i recently listened to, either. Inevitably, I'll end up depressed and slightly homesick by the end of the day. I've finally figured out what this pattern, though it's been going on for some time.
Now, I'm not the kind of person who bursts into tears every time I hear "Country Roads" or something, but there's still music, and a lot of it, that I can't handle listening to, that I associate with high school and my first year or two of college. It's never music that makes any sense out of context, but in my small musical world, I can't handle (sans umlaut) uk (which makes the most sense), the Queers, Bad Religion, and a whole crap-ton of the pop-punk I listened to back when.
Not surprisingly, I have no such music associated with Maryland, as I really didn't enjoy college there that much. Sure, my department was great, and I made a couple friends (you know, and met that guy I married), but overall it wasn't my favorite experience. I can definitely listen to Ani DiFranco (though I haven't lately) and Q and Not U without strong emotions arising over anything other than the fact that I like them.
Seattle will probably have lingering feelings associated with music whenever I go and do whatever it is I will do, and I'm sure I won't be able to listen to things like the Silversun Pickups without feeling a bit down.

Linky-dink (from MySpace blog)

So, for anyone interested in my professional/scholastic life, I have created a webpage for my school/research.
Rachel Web
So far, the only thing on it is this AMAZING Powerpoint I made on teaching in the department. I love powerpoint in a completely un-ironic way. Seriously though, if you want to know what I do, it might be cool to check out. Cool = totally lame in this case. I'll eventually put stuff up about my research, but basically all you need to know is that I love glaciers and when I saw Al Gore talk at a conference, I was in the 2nd row from the front!
That's all. Now to watch Gilmore Girls and have my heart broken over and over again. Oh, Gilmore Girls, why do I love you so when all you cause is pain recently?

More Lists (from MySpace blog)

Things that are annoying:

a) my sever lack of motivation to bike
b) teaching Matlab from 8:30am until 12:30pm with no break
c) freezing temperatures and more than day-old snow
d) using the terms "husband" and "wife" in relation to Chris and myself. Will this ever feel normal? No problem with the whole married-life-commitment thing, just the terms.
e) winter ales
f) having 2 unopened and 1 opened containers of sour cream because we're idiots who can't remember what's in the refrigerator when we go shopping

Things that are decidedly not annoying:

a) my mom and dad seeing an Inconvenient Truth and thinking it is good (and no, I still haven't seen it)
b) Trader Joe's chocolate supply
c) having real plans for multiple weekends in a row for the next couple weeks. Here's to things being decided in advance!

What these tell me?
Winter = bad, basically.
Also, I'm slightly crazy.

Pictures (copied from MySpace blog)

I've put up a bunch of pictures, specifically of the wedding, on my google picasa site
http://picasaweb.google.com/rheadley/

I might add more in other categories later, but I have to use Chris's computer because the easy up-loader is only built for OSX.4 not OSX.3.

Take My Opinions and Make them your own (copied from MySpace Blog)

I've made lists of my current (as of this day and this minute) songs from 2006 because I am a nerd and also 2005 because I've never done this before. The only criteria were that they are my favorites, one song from any given band only (really hard to pin down for some), and I had to own the album. There were definitely plenty of other great/better music out there but this ended up in my collection. And to anyone in Seattle, it's blatantly obvious that I only listen to one radio station, ever.

2006 (order is alphabetical and I'm too lazy to put albums)
Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins (plus everyone else on the face of the Earth) – Handle With Care
Built to Spill – Goin' Against Your Mind (only song I have ever liked from them)
M. Ward – Requiem
Mates of State – Punchlines
Neko Case – John Saw That Number
The Roots – In The Music
Scissor Sisters – I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
Silversun Pickups – Common Reactor
TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me
Yeah Yeah Yeah – Gold Lion

2005
Bright Eyes – We Are Nowhere and It's Now
Crooked Fingers – Valerie
Death Cab For Cutie – Marching Bands of Manhattan (only because I Will Follow You Into the Dark makes me cry)
The Go! Team – The Power is One
Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc.
M.I.A. – URAQT (I'm not sure I understand this one either)
The Mountain Goats – This Year
Silversun Pickups – Kissing Families
Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!

Don't (from Myspace blog)

My advice:

Don't get all psyched for a bike ride, go down hill fairly fast, hit patch of ice while taking corner (3 blocks from home!), fall on hip. This will ruin your a) ride and b) day. Plus it will make you really bored because you thought you had something to do for 3-4 hours and now you don't. Ouch.

Also if lacing a wheel, count your nipples (yeah, ha ha) before starting otherwise you might end up nipple-less, which sounds painful but is mainly just annoying. Preferably count at the store if you don't want this and the aforementioned event to happen simultaneously so that if you're in pain, you don't have to worry about walking/riding to remedy the latter situation.

Long-winded musings

First off, WV is such a different place than Seattle. The more I'm away the more foreign it feels. It's really amazing. I mean, smoking in bars, what?! Way to go state with the highest or second-highest obsesity rate in the country. But really, it's a beautiful state, great for mountain biking and anything out-doorsy, just not so much for academia.

So I was raised Catholic. New-agey Catholoc, but Catholic none-the-less... and not go to-Catholic-school-Catholic but still go-to-church-every-week-until-you're-18-Catholic.
Anyway, I'm so not religious now, not that I really think I ever was. I'm not really into that whole god thing and don't accept 90% of what the Catholic church stands for. You know, the whole feminist thing doesn't quite jive with the anti-birth control, no woman priests stuff. I mean, I am a pretty hard-core scientist (you know 4+ billion year old Earth, climate change, evolution which actually the Catholic church is fairly reasonable about) on top of "living in sin" for a couple years before a civil wedding + a ceremony officiated by an unofficial friend (well, an official friend but an unofficial officiator), none of which are really Catholic things to do.
But, that said, I read every stupid article I see on the pope or the Church in general. In fact, I see "the Church" with a capital 'C' and know exactly what that means. I still have the whole mass memorized and could do rosaries if I felt the urge. Important parts of my brain are taken up with Niocene Creeds and Hail Marys. I also tend to stand up for the Catholic church a lot, mostly for reasonable things. I'm very unlikely to stand up for its dealings with the molestation cases and everything but for some smaller issues (evolution), I'm certainly an apologist.
So, taking a cue from some people I know, mostly of the (fallen) Jewish persuasion, I've decided I'm a cultural Catholic. I'll celebrate the holidays (my Advent calendar is justified) and follow the news in the church. I was born on Easter, so that's an important holiday for me, probably more for the bunnies than the resurrections, but whatever. I'd definitely be lying if I said that the Catholic upbringing didn't influence my life profoundly. I don't know how long this will last, but after admitting this, at least I won't feel completely silly reading every little thing about the pope.

My identity = Cultural Catholic West Virginian + Biking Feminist Yuppie-ish Glaciologist
Where the hell did all that come from?

What else? (from Myspace blog)

Computer is back, which is very good. AGU went smoothly, though 5.5 days was way too long to be thinking about science. Cripes! I was going crazy by the end. Though I spent most of the last day, when not in my research groups boring-ass meeting, at my brother and sister-in-laws (whoa). There's a bike shop near there that's expensive and single-speeded out, but it's so hot. Total rainbow of velocity deep-Vs in stock!

I did this poster presentation, very middle school science fair if it matters at all, and it went for ever (or 1:40 to 5:30, whichever comes first). I got a beer (free at 4) at about 4, and then was told that it was impressive that I was keeping up my enthusiasm in explaining my poster time after after. Thank you Mr. alcohol. Then, as I'm tearing down at 5:30, my advisor strolls up, completely missing my session. It's so very classic.
Back to WV soon, though a fair amount of time will be spent in Pittsburgh because a certain sister is graduating from college, which tends to be a bit of a big deal. Way to keep up the average college attendance length Headleys! Now to super-extend that with graduate school...
I need to get some pictures from the last cross race. I'm interested in seeing how a) muddy b) hurting and c) pissed-off I look in them. I'd also love the podium shot. Bronze cow bell!

Last cross race of the year! (from Myspace blog)

Third in the series!!
after THE hardest race ever, in which I think I yelled at everyone who was cheering for me because I felt like crap and my stomach was cramped up. To everyone who I got pissed at, I apologize. I need to channel that to something more productive.
Now to California for a week of lectures and posters. I've decided that I'll do my xmas shopping to break the monotony of being at a week long conference. Plus, it needs to get done anyway.

Pictures (from MySpace blog)

I've put up a bunch of pictures, specifically of the wedding, on my google picasa site
http://picasaweb.google.com/rheadley/

I might add more in other categories later, but I have to use Chris's computer because the easy up-loader is only built for OSX.4 not OSX.3.