sitting, waiting, wondering

"Academia is wonderful - you can work any 80 hours a week you want!"

Last weekend was very good to me. I got quite a bit of work done, met new people, played soccer, went running, and of course pondered good thoughts. Monday started off a bit rough (in part because my legs hurt), but quickly got better. I also managed to find "Singing in the rain," the movie, on DVD for really cheap. I had two of the songs stuck in my head and iTunes didn't have the soundtrack, so it seemed like the easiest way to solve the issue.

Thanksgiving week is ahead, my brother and parents are flying in. The food is the in fridge, the condo is clean, and with any luck there will be a place for everyone to stay. Of course there are lots of things I have to get done while the family is in town! At the moment, between cleaning and sort of studying, I'm in the midst of watching a movie, where a psychiatrist used the Rorschach inkblot test. I think part of my frustration with the test is that I once took a clinical psychology class where the professor couldn't tell us anything about the test itself other than show us some unofficial slides of it.

Quasi-story of the day: Ted's Rules of SCUBA Diving:
Rule #1: Don't hold your breath. If you do - you could do some nice damage to your lungs.
Rule #2: Never dive alone. This is just simple common sense.
Rule #3: Never dive with a stupid dive buddy. This rule sometimes overrides #2.
Rule #4: Never be in the situation where you are the most appetizing thing in the water. This sometimes overrides #3. If you're in the water and you should happen to come across a rather large shark that seems to think you might taste good, remember that you don't have to outrun the shark, you just have to outrun your buddy. This of course can be helped by always diving with a dive knife (or harpoon, but lets be practical here). See, by stabbing your buddy in the leg with a dive knife you do two important things. First you make a very clear trail of blood to your buddy that the shark will follow. Second, your buddy can only swim in circles at that point so you should be able to out swim him.
Rule #5: If it looks really cool, it's probably poisonous - don't pick it up, try to pet it, or eat it raw.

At some point I'd like to get my firediving speciality. The guy who runs the website (and teaches the specialty) was my Rescue Diver instructor and the author of the above rules.