First, let me say that, in general, nerds are the only people that are interesting to me. Doing research, being engaged, loving life and what you do is f-ing awesome. A nerds enthusiasm rubs off on me. I try to be a nerd. I want to be a nerd. A nerd doesn’t have to be in science, technology, or any particular field. A nerd is someone that is simply doing what they do to their fullest. I digress.
The reason for this post is because I read slashdot.org: news for nerds, stuff that matters. For those that don’t read it, check it out. The site is completely user-driven. It is probably the first site that used this model; it has been around since the mid-90’s. Today, there is a post about the human genome. Two scientists have colorized patterns in the human genome to produce what I would consider art. It is a fuzz of dancing ants like you would see on your TV if it wasn’t hooked up to cable or an antenna, except it is colorized. You can see the pictures at the DNA rainbow. This is truly amazing research.
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I have been trying to put this into words, so I guess I’ll start here. So I am an advisor (first of all, we can’t really decide if we are advisors or advisers. Those bastards at UR won’t let it go), now this usually elicits a couple of responses from people:
1) “Really? Man, my advisor sucked,” or
2) Indifference.
So why do I like being an advisor, b/c I like nerds and ideas.
I have a student going to nols (www.nols.edu [I’m sure you can link in comments, I just don’t know who to do it]) this summer. Nols is the Northern Outdoor Leadership Program, they have sites all of the world and students basically learn outdoor adventuring/guiding. Curt Lutrell did this. It is amazing, this student, involved in SUA and we have had this conversation about how she is going to get more out of her activities outside of her classroom than in. Did I mention she is a Betty?
I have another student who is thinking cultural geography or anthropology of social welfare or sociology, and we get to have these amazing converstations about the social sciences and what they mean. She is from my hometown of Beloit and she has a bit of a hippy soul. She is going to take Soc 132 next semester with Bob Antonio, this makes me happy.
He is from South Dakota and wants to fly planes, speaks four languages, is not impressed with linguistics for whatever reason, and is taking a class from Garth Myers and Mary Klayder. He too is thinking cultural geography. He comes in knowing he wants to fly, not wanting to join the air force, and not really knowing how to put it together, and I got to help him make some sort of connection between his education and interests, to make it seem more valuable.
So, at some point I’ll put together a more coherent post on this, but it seemed the appropriate place to share.
And not to completely hijack, to get back to the DNA–they look like those magic eyes, ooh how I hated those things. I once spent half an hour in a toy store in vail looking at one of those things. “Oh look, a schooner”
nice pull.
That is a nice pull.
Personally, I just really liked the use of the term, “Betty”. I really don’t hear that thrown around often enough, and I feel that I should cuz it’s really cool.
Probably a little uncool that “Betty” is my favorite part of this entire thread when there is all of this insightful, introspective stuff to comment on. But whatever…Betty’s rule!
The thing is that Betty isn’t being used in the she is hot term, but rather she is on the Women’s ultimate frisbee team which is named the Betty’s.
That’s what I get for not being a part of the Lawrence social scene, i guess.
So, I still contend that the term Betty (as in, “that girl is nails”) should be used more liberally by all. I’m pretty sure i’ll be moving forward with this mission and challenge all of you to do the same.
I guess the most pressing question on my mind now, for Trevor, is this: your student going to Nols, does she happen to be a Betty who plays for the Betty’s.
Chandler, i don’t think we’ve met, but damn, you are absolutely right, the phrase “that girl is nails” is “the balls” and should be used with as much frequency as possible.
or, if i wanted to use correct grammar, i would have written “as frequently as possible.”
yeah.
Trev:
Is there some sort of Derrida “différance” between advisor and adviser. This has been haunting me, mildly. Are there focus group data? Have opinion leaders been polled? And I’m really, really not being facetious. This seems important, image-wise and/or in some sort of deep psychological way.
(Unrelated Note: I spelled facetious right on the first try. this marks the dawning of a new day in my life…but then I spelled unrelated wrong, so maybe not…)
I have no answer to your question. All I know is that we prefer advisor, which is more fun to say than adviser, it sounds pernicious, but we can’t get University Relations to spell it with an O. A minor example of the sometimes overt disfunction of this place.
Ok, let’s clear something right up. Trevor, you are well-intended but wrong. Betty is both. That is the point. Chandler wins this round.