A Thinking Blog

Think

First of all, I want to thank Mandy for nominating my blog for a Thinking Blogger award. Also, happy birthday. Mandy is a very prolific writer, which does not dilute the overall intelligence of her writing at all. Her posts often motivate my mental matrix in ways in which it wouldn't otherwise get exercise.

Here's how the thinking blogger meme works:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to five blogs that make you think.
   
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
   
3. Optional: Proudly display the Thinking Blogger Award with a link to the post that you wrote (available in silver or gold version).

So I will nominate:

1. Jeff - For years I enjoyed reading Jeff's mass emails. Then blogs appeared and now the rest of the world is invited to read what Jeff has to say. He often posts about Christian responsibilities, the environment, justice and poverty.
2. Daniel - A litterateur as well as a connoisseur of food and drink.
3. Melinda - Thinking about Africa.
4. Scott - Generally insightful and observant commentary on life.
5. Egle - because her blog is in Spanish and reading that takes thinking... So I haven't actually read that much of it.

---

In other news

Yesterday was a net zero profit day for me at work. I only made two deliveries. The first one had the wrong address on it and while I was figuring out the correct address, by the help of a professor of medicine in the Mayo Building, I got a parking ticket for $36. So I was a half our late delivering the food and got no tip. Five hours later I've made enough in my hourly wages to pay for my ticket and I make my second delivery for a $2.80 tip. An additional two hours of work increases my income by $14 which I promptly turn over to the cinema.

The good news is that I quit working for Milio's today.

Ceri and I watched Inland Empire at the Oak Street Cinema. It was pretty good. I liked it better then Twin Peaks.


What else?

I'm headed to Vegas for the summer. I'm leaving Minneapolis on the 28th and arriving in Vegas on the 1st of April. You can see my planned route here.

I'm planning to stop in Lincoln Thursday evening. Lincoln may be the closest to home as anywhere and I'm interested to see how it has changed. I haven't been there since I left for California 3 years ago. I wonder if they demolished the apartment Karen and I lived in on 19th st. The City owned the building by the time we moved out and, knowing that they were just going to tear it down, we through a party and painted the walls.

Graffiti Party 2003

What is my summer job?

After not finding much in the way of field biology in Minnesota, I started applying to jobs I found on list serves that paid well. One of them liked my resume and interview and offered me a job. It's for the US Geological Survey - Western Ecological Research Center http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ . There are two basic projects that I am helping on. WERC is looking at the effects of alien (non-native, invasive) grasses and at the effects of off-road vehicle trails in the Mojave Desert. Both are basically interested in restoration of the desert after disturbance.

I'm excited about this because it's 80% field work and 20% greenhouse. It's also for the USGS which will be good for getting more jobs at the USGS.

California Deserts