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Pre-experiment wonko batshit crazy time; orchid photography showing

2005-03-30 - 1:54 a.m.

Trying to explain all of the work shit going on would be hell.

Synopsis:

*Presentation for Brain Damage next week: done. Easily 40 minutes long.

*Readings for Brain Damage this week: done. How, I can't remember, but my notes are on the pages so I must have read them.

*Stats project: done.

*National Science Foundati*n fellowship: still in limbo. Just tell me. If I did or didn't get it. I can move on then, and get a Teaching Assistant job for the summer...or irresponsibly celebrate. Just tell me, regardless.

*The experiment: first pair of monkeys to be put in their new cage this friday, observed and tested next week. A pair of monkeys done each week for the rest of the semester.

What has taken up so much time?

-Experiment logistics. I never thought there was so much shit you had to keep track of with monkeys. Rats were one thing. Monkeys are a whole fucking circus in themselves. For example, after juvies have been away from their group cage for a week, there's a small possibility they will be mauled by their compatriots. Possibly killed. Well fuck me! Now I have to change my schedule because of that little caveat--that and the fact that these juvenile monkeys aren't really trained to get into transport cages. So unless I want to possibly have mauled monkeys or spend an hour going into a cage full of pissed monkeys who can bite and infect me with a deadly virus, I need to re-think my schedule.

And thankfully I have. Hopefully Dr. C won't object to it. I'm not exactly thrilled about giving monkeys two days in a new cage before looking at their "normal", non-stressed behavior..but otherwise the whole project grinds to a halt.

-Getting a/v cables and cassettes for camcorder. [Repeatedly, softly smacks forehead into table, occasionally murmuring incomprehensible not good sounds]

Dear. God. I have never had so much trouble finding such simple shit. I tried the campus university tech store, nothing. I tried the campus geek tech store, nothing. Then I get an idea to get a/v connector extension bits...and thankfully there are ten foot versions of those. All I need to do is hook up two extensions to the measly 6 ft a/v cable I got with the camcorder, and we can finally feed through the connection from the monkey observation room to a closed circuit television.

That problem was the bane of my fucking existence today.

I still need to find a place to order 80 minute cassettes that are wholesale.

-Training undergrads

My undergrad assistants are supremely competent and thoughtful. Of this I am glad. I got to pick whom I wanted and got whom I wanted.

That said, this is gonna be alot of work. So far it's going ok, not much of a problem. I wish I had more time to show them basics before starting the experiment, but progress is progress.

That and I'm severely impatient about this experiment. I should've been running in March at the latest. I guess we're starting in march kinda sorta. Eh, I'll make up for it during the summer.

---

*Good shit*

*You made me smile last night. It was the first time I'd done it freely that day. Thank you.

*Today, as a break from all of this insanity, I decided to go to a photography opening for my old stats prof., over at the Sun Cafe. I'd never been to the Sun Cafe, so I thought that itself was a good excuse to go.

It was a small room, decorated in a European fashion--which apparently means glass countertops on top of tables and lots of whicker furniture. And only wine, coffee, and tea. And lots of different bread forms.

I got there early because the e-mail I'd received from Tat was misleading. I thought there was a bustling little bar/cafe thing in one room, and the opening being held in another room. I come to find out the cafe and opening space were one in the same.

Regardless, I got there 30 minutes early and awkwardly schmoozed with old stats prof. while she showed me and a few admin. aides her photos. I'll admit I don't care for most flower macro (i.e. close-up) shots. Some of these were quite good, though. Old stats prof and I talked for a little while about photography, stuff I did, how I was interested in showing in places like this. Apparently all it takes is talking with the art director of a given establishment and convincing them your stuff is good enough to show.

I'm pretty sure the Sun Cafe wouldn't care for my stuff--but you never know. Most of my night city shots are pretty as opposed to doing the urban realism thing. All you need is a theme and about 16-19 prints. I think I have enough for that. Or if not there, I can think of several cafes that'd like my stuff. Trouble with being majorly fucking busy is that you're..majorly fucking busy. You're unable to show your work and be all snazzy and talk endlessly about yourself and your stuff to vaguely nodding old people, young rude boys, and svelt things.

And after that the deluge of old people (vaguely nodding and smiling) came in. They were from old stats prof's church. I couldn't have felt more out of place if they were playing church organ music and rubbing velvet Jesus renderings. One of old stats prof's undergrads was there, and she was cute, but some disettling vibe emanated from that possible conversation. We oddly got close a few times out of (I think) mutual desperation, but in the end being awkward in general won out over being awkward around really old people.

But eventually a few grad students I recognized showed up. Trouble was they were both married/had an S.O. and decided to power mingle. I tried to get in on this action in my vague "I'll stand here for a few minutes and admire a picture 3 feet away while trying to use open body language" way. Nothing. It was couples time. I do not understand this ritual, but I left it be and looked at the same orchid photos for the 5th time.

I was also on my 3rd glass of wine. No numbers were helping. Vague, queer bodily sensations.

But later on still, thankfully, Jess, Tat, and Tat's new undergrad boy all showed up. It was just Jess and me for awhile, so we talked about grad stuff. After it was the four of us, the conversation expanded a little. Somehow my photography got brought up, and people wanted to know what it was all about.

You may have seen some of my stuff. "Conceptual" vaguely covers it, but it's really stuff you have to see to get a sense of it. I tried my best to find categories, though, and everyone seemed to think it was cool. Tat's boy in particular took a real interest. I'd never met the man before, but I very much liked him and his open attitude.

So for awhile it was just the four of us in a sea of chatting souls far closer to death than we. A few other people--like old stats Teaching Assistant, Nicole--came by, though. I felt kinda bad since she circled around the gallery a few times, looking interested but a little lost. She's a 6th year now and in a way there's some distance from we silly bastards, we 1st years. I shoulda flagged her over anyway. She's a very pleasant person. And she singly saved our asses in the stats class last semester.

So that all took about 2 hours, 3 hours.

After that was..well...all the other stuff.

Right now I could use tea, laying my head in someone's lap with some pleasant but optional hair stroking, and some suitable bedroom rock.

I'll settle for going to sleep. God(s) know I deserve that much after all this. I musta sent out 20 emails today.

But shit is getting done quickly.

I just wish I'd learn about those fellowships quickly. The wait is driving me nuts.

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