the spring break buzz and special shoutouts galore!

dearest all!

so the weather is a'changing! hurray! and as several relatives inquired, the bluebonnets may or may not be a'blooming. i've googled them and am now on the lookout for the state flower of texas.

however, the live oak is a'pollinating. thanks to the great care of dr. weldon, board-certified allergsit, i am currently allergy-free. awesome! i can't believe it! i just want to thank dr. weldon, flonase, allegra, zyrtec, loratidine, allavert, claritin, that epi-shot, my mom, HI MOM! my dad, HI DAD! GO CUBS!, Andre Dawson's mvp season, and the guys over at pixar animation, especially John Lasseter. It was his vision and drive that took a story of a little orphaned fish and brought it to life and it was his... *blink* wait a second... ok, i'm back.

anyhoo, i'm allergy-free. woohoo! steroids! though my car, freshly washed, is practically green from the pollen.

so as many of you know, the life of the PhD student has its ebbs and flows. there's periods of intense boredom balanced by insane stretches of 12-16 hour days trying to teach yourself computer programming (my latest 18-page homework...) or pouring (or is it poring?) through a number of papers just before class in case you get called on. and invariably, i do get called on. so how do i do it? i've invented games and diversions that distract me from the stress but allow me to gain focus when needed. even if focus and diversions are needed in the middle of a tiresome lecture or class. and this semester, there seems to be a plethora. a plethora? si, el guapo, i'd say a plethora... reasons abound, but the general point, as was made by roommate and good irishman eugene f. is that "you're working on why your here and everything else is becoming worthless!" well, i wouldn't go so far as to say worthless, but lots of this is seemingly irrelevant. so to take my mind off of irrelevant topics, i've gone and replaced them with other irelevancies.

for example, i can name all 43 presidents (well, 42, but grover cleveland counts twice since he served non-consecutively). i compulsively draw anatomically correct sharks (always facing left for some reason), semi-anatomically correct mermaids, fairly recognizable swans (but not ducks...). i've named all 32 nfl teams by division, correctly named the predicted 25-man roster for the chicago cubs, came up with nearly all 20 teams in the premiership (i got to 16 without a problem, then incorrectly named derby county who is residing in the first division ranks), memorized the countries of europe (not hard), asia (more difficult, especially all the n-stans), and africa (damn near impossible unless i guess right on the sequence of benin, togo, mali). i discovered that ecuador is a pretty small country but that el salvador is down-right tiny. i've examined river deltas in the black sea and the sea of japan. i've pondered the ideal proportion of coffee beans to cups of water (well above 1tsp. per cup or whatever the joke standard is). and just yesterday, i had an impromptu soccer party in the office as liverpool played barcelona in the european cup (we had 5 guys huddled around the computer). which is to say that i feel like i have a ton of spare time (why else would i be writing this?). throw in my daily comics, my late-night "topkat" viewing (such a good cartoon!), fark.com, and random sites to just stare at in disbelief (try out conservapedia.com for a good idea of what it's like to be me just shaking my head and saying, "are they serious? are they %$#* serious?!! no way..." and then spending a good hour trying to rediscover the beauty of the human mind and spirit as captured by youtube (search for flamboyantly gay soccer referee). as you can see, 24 hours ain't nearly enough some days and i oftentimes think, "am i about where i should be?" and then as i flip to check the answers to the sudoku, i say, "maybe."

but in truth, there's much going on and as we head towards that beautiful thing called spring break, i'm pretty well ahead at least in terms of becoming the conceptual PhD student than i was even in January. I can't imagine how i sounded in meetings last fall. "i want to study. Fish." just today, i outlined my 7 chapters of dissertation (background, benthic assessment, fish behavior, fish migration, fishery market analysis, tourism analysis, education) and was shocked to realize that despite the 234 games of cribbage i've played on my computer (compiling a healthy 125-109 record) not to mention learning bridge, euchre, and way too much time on the game who shalt not be named, i'm quietly morphing. it's fun to do science! hurray!

so what does this mean for my spring break? well, having just suited up the lab with insane dive gear (thank you!) and about to hook up some high-def video cameras for chapter 7 - goose makes a documentary, i get to get down to what i enjoy most about school: my work. though i have yet to dive, or even get out of greater pecos county, the thought that i get to shake off silly homework assignments to write chapter proposals and dream of far-off antigua, is enough to make a boy giddy.

and with that off my chest, on with the shout-outs!

happy 50k shout-out to T3 of Jersey City, NJ. with beautiful wifey Joy S. in the audience, T3 took home $50,000 from Who Wants to Be A Millionaire this past week. As mentioned previously, i was his phone-a-friend and as it turned out, helped him on what turned out to be the last question he answered. they really threw some tough ones at him once he got to $8000. and truth be told, though i sounded smart on tv (though T3, i do "marine geography" not "marine biology"... ahem!) the absolutely ONLY question i would have gotten was the one that i got the call for. so as my mom would say, "the luck of the goose continues on!" so congrats T3! you and Joysiloo enjoy that down payment on the house. and in case you read this humble submission, i want to let you know formally that i do not want / expect / need any sort of percentage of winnings. well, at least i don't want or expect them. in fact, if you must do anything at all, if you feel totally compelled to shower mr. "knows accident statistics involving deer" with gratitude, i hereby accept a nice little double-date at say gramercy tavern? i'll get the tip even! they recommend getting reservations a full month (or more!) in advance. i'll let you know. that is, if you're interested.

on a side note: happy "what a coincidence!" to uncle nick and aunt stef. while trying to come up with the info on the gramercy tavern, i discovered that in penn plaza there's another steakhouse called "stef and nick's!" if i get there, you'll get a postcard!

happy 1st birthday wishes to the darling ones: the little lasses skylar and arianna turn 1 on the ides of march! question to my brother the good dr. carr and his amazing wife, the better dr. carr, "if they were born in philadelphia but guam is a day ahead, are you going to celebrate local time or eastern standard time OR the new improved eastern daylight time which arrives this coming weekend for the first time ever? questions questions questions. of course, it'd be no big deal, but as it's their first and they only get 1 first birthday, uncle goose says, "follow my lead, ladies and have a birthday week!" HUZZAH!

happy spring training to all fellow cubs fans: dear old dad, the aforementioned good dr. carr, lech n. of berkeley, bryan g. of eastern iowa, and... is that all of us? geez... altogether now: "CUBS IN 2007!!!"

nice "extension of the blog to get printed in the paper!" shout-out to dear friend slider's younger brother "hambone" aka cougar aka sundown of annapolis, md. the local paper back home has little columns and after the soldier in afghanistan was told to stop writing his, our man on the scene hambone was all over it. though i should warn you hambone, NOBODY outside the age range of say 19-34 gets the mariokart reference. nobody. i recommend dropping "semi-anatomically correct mermaids" as a populist appeal to the readership of theday.com...

and finally: happy spring break to everyone! i fully understand my responsibility as one of the few remaining people out there with break rights (hambone and dr. lw notwithstanding, of course). i will be sure to revel for each of you and yours! and having discovered (although yet to be re-tested) that i may not be allergic to alleve*, i say, "bring on the guinness and the hangovers!" HUZZAH!

*at least to 200mg when taken in 2 separate 75mg and 125mg doses...

=goose=