30 May 2020

0001 trivial pursuit

0552 trying to sleep (and failing)
1215 sleeping

2358 working on NSF proposal

Food: leftover steak for lunch, steak and bacon for dinner with fruit and veggies

Fact: The New Forest was first declared a royal forest by William the Conqueror sometime around 1076.  It was first recorded in the Domesday book in 1086.  It was heavily damaged in the Great Storm of 1703, and extratropical cyclone (probably with the force of a category 2 hurricane) that hit England.  When the storm hit (it also destroyed a lot of chimneys in London and killed over 1000 sailors) the Church of England said it was proof God was unhappy with the country, possibly because they hadn't done too hot fighting those pesky Catholics during the War of Spanish Succession. 

I had a really hard time sleeping last night, so much stress/uncertainty/anxiety these days.  Finally fell asleep a little after 0700, and slept fitfully until about 1400.  Spent much of the day working on the comments on my NSF.  It's coming along nicely so I think we will meet our goal.  The plant I rescued from the squirrels is really growing up nicely.  Went for a walk with mother.  We talked quite a bit about the situation in MN and all the other cities. 

Its insane than 30 years after Rodney King police brutality against African Americans is still so common, and its heartbreaking to think about living in that type of fear and knowing that so many people won't listen to your word.  The times I've been profiled suck enough, and those are limited to not allowing me into stores with my backpack even though tons of other people are walking around with theirs.  That's embarrassing but not life threatening.  Once we got back I then took the puppies out.  Schubie went first and got to bark at Georgia, the annoying dog down the road who is just allowed to roam at will whenever she is outside.  Georgia actually turned tail and ran though when schubie barked who was then so proud of herself she trotted up the hill back home.  Mother was waiting with Dumas outside and we were amused that they greeted each other like it had been years, not minutes since their last interaction.  Dumanator enjoyed his walk and then I fed them.  We had dinner once father got home (tomorrow will be a "fun" conversation about reevaluating the current situation since cases are climbing dramatically here).  We listened to the Saturday Yankees/Astros game.  Suzyn was unhappy that the replay review didn't overturn a call, even though that call favored the Yankees.  She was sure there was enough video evidence that the ball had hit the grass before Hicks gloved it.  Luckily the replay guys didn't agree and eventually we won the game although it was back and forth to the end, including the Astros bringing up the go-ahead run in the 9th.  Finished up the evening with an email from ANSP letting everyone know the museum was safe but that they were bringing in extra security and anti-terrorism was keeping an eye on our building since there had been some vandalism in the area and a few blocks away some looting.  2020 is shaping up to be the most ridiculous year ever, I just hope it all results in positive changes.

29 May 2020

1235 zoom with Drew, Steph, and Julie

1412 zoom meting with Jason
1551 going to costco

2320 trivial pursuit

Food: ribs for lunch and dinner with the last of the tomatoes and some fruit we had frozen

Fact: Polar Bears and Kodiak Bears are the largest terrestrial mammal in North America.

Woke up for the lunch meeting, Steph started the call cause we didn't think things through, so when she had to leave for class the call got killed mid sentence.  So i started up a new one for the rest of us.  Not much going on with everyone talked a bit about a preprint that is out using HMM profile alignments for covid-19.  It seems like we should be able to tie our HBV alignment paper into this somehow.  Afterwards I had a few minute break and then it was time to talk to Jason about the NSF submission.  We are aiming to get it in on Monday so he sent me all his comments this afternoon.  Once that was over I took care of a few other loose ends with the grant and then I went to costco while mother waited in the parking lot.  It was a pretty straight forward experience, masks were required (and enforced) and social distancing was maintained.  There were limits on the amount of meat (a total of 3 packets of some combination of beef, pork and chicken) you could buy.  They were out of lamb, but I got some steaks, a chuck roast, and some ground bison.  They also had no cheddar cheese or cucumbers but I was able to get everything else, even the mixed nuts I hadn't been able to find during my previous trips.  Afterwards we went for a walk and then ate before it was trivia time.  Eddie and Ania had trouble with their internet so they ended up having to skype in on his phone.  Then there was spider drama that eventually resulted in they disassembling their couch so Eddie could catch the spider and take it outside.  As usual the west coast team won, although all of us were down to our last couple of pieces.  We played the Genius 2 edition from like 1985 so entertainment was rather challenging.  I did have an issue with one question- what is the largest terrestrial predator in North America.  I said polar bear and then mentioned that polar bears and brown bears are really the same thing anyway and depending upon what genes you do your phylogeny with may or may not be reciprocally monophyletic.  According to the card the answer is Kodiak Bear, which isn't even a species.  Besides, Kodiak and Polar bears are similar in size.  So we played the rest of the game under protest!