tufted puffins turn my crank

hey, guess what? i've finished my phd apps. whew! now the waiting game begins. . .

in march or so offers (or rejections) start to arrive, and then i try and bargain more funding out of each institution and then make a decision on where to go. in the meantime i keep trying to figure out where i want to spend the next five or so years of my life, and what i want to be when i grow up, and that kind of stuff. if any of youse have any opinions on these matters do drop me a line. (or if you want to know exactly where i have applied, which i don't want to put on the open interwebs).

just got back from a lightening trip to the island with miriam, which was very pleasant. lots of beaches and lunches with all her friends there. victoria is very beautiful. i also got to make a lightening visit to the royal bc museum, which was ace. my favourite bit was the woolly mammoth. or maybe the fossils. or maybe the sea lion skeleton. or the fossil replicas you could touch!

i had a slight wigout in the museum at one point, cos it was just before closing so there was nobody else around, and i was wandering through this replica forest area, which was really cool. you could identify all the trees, and the (stuffed) animals around them, and it was all quiet apart from canned animal noises, and recordings of lightening - i could hear sea lions roaring behind me somewhere - and it was low lighting and low ceilings, and then there was a stuffed cougar hiding in one of the displays, and a grizzly bear washing some food and they're kinda scary looking and then this huge BZZZT! THE MUSEUM WILL BE CLOSING IN FIFTEEN MINUTES! came out of a speaker just above my head and i leapt three feet in the air.


now i'm in soggy vancouver, also very beautiful. miriam and i rode downtown at about 7pm yesterday, and all the city lights laid out below us, with the snowy mountains behind, were stunning. riding in below-freezing temps surprisingly freeing.

i'm supposed to be working on a cv and a list of places to haul it round to, but have no motivation. stupid poverty. maybe i'll start watching the five seasons of angel ziggy just brought home. . .