Agriculture in America

Well, I have finally (finally!) finished reading Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner, a book on water development in the western United States. Now I have been searching and searching for a decent book on agricultural economics, and it appears that part of what I was looking for was contained in a book on water. After all, most farmers in the west rely on irrigation. The chapters on California were particularly frightening, and have thoroughly reinforced my dislike of California.

Anyway, I don't want to give the book away--it takes a bit of work to read it, if you're like me and don't read history very fast. But it was totally worthwhile. This country's political system is warped, in case you hadn't figured that out already.

The Bird Strikes Again!

Well, the folks in my lab had a little holiday get-together at my behest, and the get-together included one of those classic White Elephant gift exchange. 'Twas quite fun--the gifts were very impressive this year. Somehow or another, I ended up with one of those chirping bird clocks, identical to the one that my lil' sister had hanging on her wall for several years. Oh, I'm going to love the sound of that mourning dove at 7 o'clock. It's going to go to the lab, to join the other accoutrements in my geekosphere. Ahh, the geekosphere. A crucial part of any grad student's environ.

And now I'm exhausted, and still sick.