Friday, April 25, 2008

Crunch Time

Ask me how I'm doing tomorrow at about 5:00 pm, for then I shall be done with round one of comps.

-Beth

Friday, April 04, 2008

Spring in Texas


**Warning, if you don't like links or my landscape photography, this is not the post for you.***

Yes, it's spring is finally here. I can tell this because for the past few weeks it has been difficult to breath through my nose, the weather has gone bonkers*, and wild flowers are in bloom. I finally got some free time, and went on a little expedition to the various pathways around UD and took pictures.

As every true Texan knows, Texas is at all times more beautiful than any other state in the union, and she is at her most attractive in the Spring. Bluebonnets can be found singly, but they are more often seen in great sweeping masses of them on the side of the road. One of my personal favorite places to view them is at the 121/114 merger just north of the airport. The on ramp makes a 270 degree turn, during which the smart driver will follow the recommended speed of 30 mph, allowing one a nice chance to gaze at the flowers growing in the median. Unfortunately, there is really no safe way to photograph this. The Texas driver will slow down for bluebonnets, but not pedestrians. I settled for pictures of Northgate and the railroad bridge, which have the advantage of being 1.)within walking distance of campus, and 2.)not a highway. I've seen evening primrose, Indian blankets, and Indian paintbrushes out as well, but unfortunately there weren't any within easy walking distance from the hovel.**

Some other typically Texas things I snapped include a tornado siren and a sign warning of an underground oil pipeline.

I got a few more shots along the paths at the base of seminary hill and a lot of pictures of trees. Including several bizarre looking ones which don't know when to quit. I returned to the hovel by way of Madonna Pond, the Art Village, and the Rat, which is to say, the long way.

While I'm thinking about it and have the evidence at hand. I'd like to say that for a university that prides itself on a classical education, the art department produces a surprising lack of classical style art. It can be quite difficult for the lay person such as myself to tell the difference between things that have been placed around the art village and things that have been left there to die.

I would also like to say that this swing, found out back of the raw materials lab*** looks like it came from the set of a horror movie.

These signs are from the outside of the science building. I think the one on the left is a little redundant.

This limestone altar is one of many on campus which are all that remain of a lost dwarven civilization that existed in Texas after the giants, but before the humans.


See you next time, when I promise to talk about my comprehensive exams, and cutting up fetal pigs,
Yami

*i.e. Alternating between 87 degree days, and golf ball sized hail.
**OK, there are several that are within a distance I am capable of walking, but all of them are across highways and even I am not crazy enough to try that.
***which I didn't know existed before I saw it today. I was disappointed to discover that these raw materials seem to consist mostly of bricks.