A little update

Ok, so here's a little update from what has been going on for the past few week. I haven't been posting much here, but if you've been following me on Twitter I'm using that with a lot more frequency than I have been posting here. Of course, 140 characters is far from enough to say everything properly.

Obviously the big news has been the swine flu. Things down here are pretty much normal, no many people have been confirmed with the virus; there is/was one probable case on our campus and they have just planned to close the daycare on campus for the next couple of weeks. So this does effect life there a little bit, some students who have children are excused from coming in. As for myself I'm unsure how to feel about the whole situation. I recognize the extensive danger that such a virus poses to us; and for years I have been anticipating the expected flu pandemic. Yet, now that there is a real threat it seems like everything has been overblown far too quickly. Thankfully it seems as though this virus isn't likely to be too dangerously virulent so it's not the end of the world, but then again what do I know, I'm just a chemist.

Other than that I have been biking more and more; getting in more rides to work and, other than this weekend, a routine Saturday group ride. It's still not the high volume training I used to do, I barely do 300 km a week with the group ride, but it's still pretty tiring. Somehow I had a lot more energy, and less stress, when I was in grad school. But at least I get to ride and that's not a bad thing in any way. I've also taken to listening to podcasts while I ride to work. So far I have been listening to The History of Rome; it's quite enjoyable and with only one earphone in I can still hear the traffic when necessary. I seem to be tearing through the podcasts, I'm already up to episode 31 or so. So if you have any suggestions of other podcasts to listen to let me know.

Finally, it's almost the end of the semester. Though to be honest it's coming later than I expected; the Spring semester is a week longer than the Fall semester. I made my syllabus for this semester by copying the previous one; so now I have to find filler for the last few classes. But it's just about done and then I can focus on research and training the new students to do some work. I really hope that this summer is productive, if it's not I may be really screwed; but I think that the projects are coming along to where things can really take off.