Modest goals

I went to the gym tonight. Normally, that wouldn't be very interesting, but during the institutes we start early and leave late, so it can be hard to find time to work out. One of my coworkers is a morning person and is happy to work out at 5 am or other ungodly hours, but I can't do that. Unlike my dad, I do wake up fully human in the morning; unlike my mom, I'm not perky at that hour.

I was actually the only person at the gym when I got there, although another woman did come in while I was there. The owner said it was always that quiet in the evening. The gym is pretty new, and it must be a hard sort of business to start up. It's not like, say, a shoe or bagel or hat emporium, where anyone could stop in and buy a small amount of the goods. Even among the audience of people who 1) actually go to the gym 2) think your gym has enough amenities but isn't too expensive and 3) find your location to be convenient, a lot of those people will be in membership contracts elsewhere and unable to switch. I would think it would take a year or two for your potential clientele to even evaluate your product. And it's not like you can start business slowly; you can't start with one treadmill and build up. So, yeah, it's quiet there sometimes, although evenings right after work it's pretty busy.

The main point is, I did get my workout in, even if was a shorter one. This is a good thing with all the stress and food of the institutes. I don't suppose I'm keeping up with the group of my fellow students who is trying this 12-week-to-triathlete-status crazy workout program - but then, I don't really want to do a triathlon.

Volunteer Trail hike

I tried to go to yoga this morning at the gym, but the class had been permanently canceled. It's a shame because it was a good class, but attendance was poor - I know myself that a lot of Saturday mornings I have other things going on. So since I was wearing sandals instead of proper footwear, I went home and decided to go for a hike instead.

I wanted a long hike, not too far away, since it was already 9:30. I decided to hike the Volunteer Trail at Long Hunter State Park. This six-mile trail is supposed to be for backpacking, as it ends at a campsite. Actually, the length seems to be in dispute; the offical map calls it 5.5 in one place and 6 in another, but either way, it's still short enough to dayhike.

I had done the beginning of it before - almost exactly a year before, randomly - as part of a loop, but I remembered it as being more challenging than it was. The trail is almost entirely flat. Most of it follows Percy Priest Lake (impounded, of course). On the way out, I was pleasantly suprised by the trail. A lot of folks were out boating, and it was a nice change of pace to do a hike that didn't segregate hiking from other human activity. The views of the lake, not to mention the cedar glades, were attractive, even if not spectacular.

About a mile from the end of the trail, I was surprised to find a skull in the middle of the trail. I have no idea what sort of animal it is, other than a medium-sized mammal, which is awfully non-specific.

The trail ends with a whimper - you reach the campsites. Presumably the property line is nearby, because there is no natural sight that makes it a logical end point. No one was camping. On the way back, I noticed a lot more boaters had come out. At one inlet, there was an amazing number of boats having (apparently) a really raucous party. The noise carried for over a mile. That wasn't as cool.

As usual, of course, there are more pictures if you click on the photo. Most of them are of living things, not dead ones, I promise.

Pause

The weather has been brutal this week. It's in the high 80s, which is hot, but the humidity has been at least 80%, which is the brutal part. It's been especially bad for me because we've been doing a lot of shlepping at PPI.

Last night I got a break and went to go see Ocean's 13. It was pretty good. I don't know that if it was my favorite of the franchise. The first movie spent a lot of time plugging holes so their scheme seemed airtight. Now I'm no expert on casinos, although I'm sure that if in fact someone tried to pull off their deal, it would fail. But as the audience, I believed. With this one, our belief in the team's success was taken as a premise. It also felt like the cast was insanely large. I don't know if it was really larger than 12, but I found myself wondering, "OK, who was that guy again?" because it depended on us remembering the rival thief from 12, Linus' parents, etc. I also never doubted our heroes' ability to pull it off - back to our belief being a basic premise - unlike 12, which really did keep the suspense going up until the last moment. On the plus side, Matt Damon's nose was great.

Anyway, that was my big weekend excitement. The first institutes start tomorrow, so tomorrow through Thursday I'm pretty solidly busy - then we only have a week to prepare for the second round.

PhD shorts

Here is a great post on becoming an academic.

The graduate student diaspora is in full swing; on Friday the students who sit upstairs in our building were told to move because construction in their area was to begin this week. While a few student spaces will remain up there, they will be reconfigured. Some students have been relocated to other spaces, others are working at home for various reasons (ie, Mr. Kindhearted and his wife have very, very young twins), and some are just hanging out in conference rooms. I'm pretty lucky to actually have an office space at this point, although it's not going to last. This space is reverting to something else fall semester, and both me and the Real Employees who sit here will have to move.

It's over!

Maymester officlally ended itself today as we turned our paper in. Hooray!