Me

So I googled myself at work today. Yes, I'm bored. There is nothing to do here now that I am done tying strings around compressed cotton balls. So I googled myself at work today. Yes, I googled myself. You don't do that? If you haven't, you should, it's almost entertaining. Anyhow, the point was that I found articles about me and awards that I didn't even know I won. Very interesting. For example, I received an outstanding achievement award from the ASAS when I returned to the US in 2007. However, I was too busy working to ever even know it happened. Hmm. And just the other day I was wondering why I never got that award when I saw it presented to students here at OSU.

For the record, it feels weird to look myself up like that, like I'm creeping on myself. I hope nobody else does that? (on me).

Central Ohio Dairy Cruelty Video

In other news, I think that the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation adequately expressed my personal response to the recent Conklin Farm incident publicized by Mercy for Animals. Obviously, if there are issues like this occurring then they must be stopped. The cruelty captured on film is despicable and I hope the guy filmed doing these horrible actions spends jail time. However, this is not typical of farming and we must end it and not defend them.

On the flip side of the issue, I was very happy that the OFBF directly addressed my own specific concerns and frustrations with the filming by Mercy for Animals in their press release. Why didn't they put an end to this? Did they help instigate it? I also want a full investigation to the neglect that their undercover filmer exhibited when refusing to stand up for what he/she claimed to uphold. Instead he/she filmed the cruelty and made no effort to stop it over the period of a WHOLE MONTH! Shameful. Mercy for Animals once again proves to be nothing but a media front for a political agenda that is merely remotely related to animal well-being. If they cared about the animals that they claim to be serving the interests of, then by the traditional definition of animal rights they would care about each individual and stop every act of cruelty as quickly as possible to help save that individual. Read your books people, the founders of the animal rights movement would be disgraced by you.

Colbert strikes again

Most days I watch Colbert report and he's funny. Well, that's good, right, since it's his job? But then there are days when he is just fantastic. Today I watched the first week of May online, and the May 10th episode is one of his best in a while.

No offense intended to any of my European or specifically Greek friends who by chance might be reading this, but please appreciate the humor compiled into this episode. I enjoyed it a lot.

Props again

My day would not be complete without an opportunity to try out my new linking ability. And just the right opportunity has just presented itself. Colin won the local beer brewing competition in Ann Arbor!!!!! Congratulations to Colin. We were just going around Ann Arbor 2 weeks ago with him and talking about the contest. Pretty cool.

Props

So today I just want to put out to shouts to outstanding posts.

First post goes to Lauren. I will again fail to embed a link and instead copy and paste it into the text below this paragraph. This was posted on my facebook wall and I just saw it this morning. I have no idea what it's from but it made me laugh. I'm obviously proud of my raising.


Second post props go a friend from Lansing. He is currently in Rome and blogged his recent paper related to the origin of God. If you comment on the post I will give you a link to his site.

Now, Amanda just helped me embed the video. From now on I guess we will have embedded videos. Yay!!!

Grad school. Well, grad school is busy for now. We're still on a lot of pig farms. I still smell, and as of the last 2 days I have already worked 24 hrs.

And Amanda just taught me how to do links!!!! Woot!

Weight... well, I'm at 238.

End of story.

Read this...

I just wanted to give a shout out to Trent Loos for another good commentary article which I just received from Feedstuffs online. The link is below, I hope that you can access it. Otherwise, just contact me and I will send it to you.

Home, week 2

Well, it's week 2 here and I just thought I would catch you all up on what I'm doing.

I'm traveling around to pig farms starting this week and quickly becoming acclimated to the smell and sound of pigs. This isn't to say I love it or anything, but hey, it'll be ok. More than anything, the ammonia is killing my lungs after day 2. We are apparently looking for masks tomorrow, but I don't know how much they'll keep out, since they're not respirators. Anyhow, this is just a shout out to Gail who never reads this to say that I think of you daily when I'm in the hog barns wondering if I'll smell all the rest of my life like pigs.

This is the middle of week 1 of trying consciously to lose weight. In my case, this means drinking less, eating breakfast, exercising at least 30 min every day (even if it is working in the garden or walking at work) and eating less after 10 pm. I know, right? Real sacrifices here, but I think I can deal with it. ;) I'll keep you updated on my weight as I diet, but for now let's go with my last recorded weight of 241 as my starting weight for this exercise. Hey America, if I can do these simple things to lose a few pounds, you can too.

Also, I just want to say that sometime in the future when I get as emotional and depressed about leaving MSU as I did last week, there will come a time when I post a really sappy post that retells all of my fondest memories of State, but suffice it to say that it was really wonderful to be back up on Sunday to visit Tony and Kim, and Dani at Harper's after the Sprague wedding, and to see Gail and her family, and Tasha at the reception. I miss all of my friends at State and the surrounding population and will continue to do so. We had some good times there and I hope we will keep close. I would say that I hope we keep in touch, but simply keeping in touch isn't good enough for me.

Anyhow, I'm exhausted, and the week is only part way, so I'm to bed for now.

Lessons for this graduate student

Lesson 1: Today at OSU I decided to visit my assigned desk in the basement of Animal Sciences and quickly realized just how little the office upstairs knows about what goes on in the basement. For example, how about that overglorified schematic of desk placement. I didn't realize the 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper was actually drawn to scale! Well, as it turns out, the dimensions are a little out of proportion actually, but much closer to real life than I realized. I have quite the small desk.

Well, when I walked in I was immediately confronted (greeted) by one of the girls in the office. I don't know whose space I invaded or how unsure of myself I looked, but I do know when I got in there I probably looked relatively confused as there was a huge stack of papers and books on my corner desk. Well, that one being full, I deigned to decline my assignment. Now I'm situated between a girl who's in Australia with her stuff on my desk, and another girl who's just not around, with her stuff on my desk. lol. Quite the set-up. Well, I'd originally planned on putting my coffee-maker in there, but I don't know if I'll even have space anymore.

Also. As a post-script for yesterday... apparently google blogger has yet one more flaw: they upload pictures in reverse order. My apologies, but I just don't have the interest in going back to fix that. Sorry!

Graduation and Moving

Obviously it was a hectic week or so since my last post. You know I've been busy if I haven't blogged, facebooked, or even cleaned out my gmail spam. And at the end of graduation week, with my final grades coming in and my apartment cleaned out, I'm tired of telling people about where I'm going with my future and what I would like to do. Instead, I'd like to talk about my past couple of weekends.

I went to Tony's house two weekends ago. I'm in the process now of downloading pictures from his place so that I can upload them here, but I want to say first that I have never seen a pet iguana before. Gilgamesh is a pretty cool dude, all things considered, and pretty people tolerant. If I were a dinosaur, I would definitely be less cool about my environment than he is, that's for sure. Lesson learned there.... Iguanas eat catnip. Who knew?


But the big thing about Tony's house is the sheep. Scarlett said that all I would hear when I got there was sheep. While I have to argue that Caesar presented some noise competition for my oidos, Scarlett's remarks weren't too far from the truth. Tony's family's sheep farm is extensive and practical. It was fantastic to be able to help with the animals and really know that my efforts were making a positive difference. I also swear I learned far more about sheep in the short weekend that I stayed there than I did in all of my college classes and previous 4-H experience. If Tony ran a sheep camp, I would suggest it to everyone.


And then there was Tony's trip to my house. I can only sum this trip up with Tony's statement about me being my father's son. Totally true, and ever so more obvious when Dad returns home. Tony got along well with Dad since he's been living with me for the past year and we got a lot of wood chipping done and removed the big cherry tree from the top of the hill. Good times.

Attached you will see 3 pictures. First is Gilgamesh, second a couple of twin lambs, and thirdly my graduation victory pump in black and white. I would elaborate on graduation but all I really want to say is thank you. Thank you to my parents for raising me. Thank you to my siblings for teaching me perseverance through their loving teasing. Thank you to God for giving me a reason to live. Thank you to Amanda for bringing so much joy and love into my life. Thank you to Amanda's family for so much support and for trekking up to see me. Thank you to my friends and family who have shown me so much kindness in the past. Thank you to my Michigan State family who have adventured/guided with me down the exciting path to graduation. I wouldn't have wanted MSU any other way.