Pam Tillis

Well I was sitting in the library today, listening to my ipod when "Down by the Water" from Pam Tillis's new album Rhinestoned came through the shuffle. Now I got this cd because of a great recommendation from Kevin at Country Universe, and I haven't been disappointed.

But anyways, I have over 8000 songs on my ipod, and usually listen to different play lists I have made which usually have about 1000 or so songs each, makes listening to it like a great radio with no crappy repeats every 20 minutes that I don't want. It often means a long wait between songs that fit the perfect moment, or spark the perfect memory. As it so happed while listening to this song I couldn't help but be reminded of the wonderful weekend I will be having "down by the water", and all the fun I so desperately need to be having with friends. The words of this song almost sound like the singer has had a very brief fling "down by the water", and I have to say after the week I've had I wouldn't mind one of those either ( I wouldn't even mind if he left me alone) :) . Down By the Water
Great song, from a great artist, and here's to a Great Labor Day weekend!

P.S its not as dirty as it sounds...the fling just "talked" down by the water ;)

Science is Awesome

This is just too precious to pass up!
Animal Behaviour
Volume 74, Issue 2, August 2007, Pages 183-188
Abstract

Biologist Martin Edvardsson postulates that female Callosobruchus maculatus (Bruchid Beatles) mate when they are thirsty. Basically in a nutshell (no pun intended)the male ejaculate contains enough water and nutrients for the female to replenish if they are dehydrated. He goes on to discuss whether or not the trade off of nutrients to the female compensate for the pain of mating. Now I say the "pain" of mating, because evidently the male Callosobruchus maculatus has a very large and spiny (yes I said spiny) reproductive organ, that tears the reproductive tract of the female when copulating.



Now tell me what other major would encourage you to read fun facts like this? I love science!

New Carrie Album!

Well we finally have the news, Carrie Underwood is going to make me very happy on October 23!

carrieunderwood.fm

Nashville, TN – Two-time GRAMMY winner and reigning CMA and ACM Female Vocalist Carrie Underwood is preparing to release her new 19 Recordings/Arista Records/Arista Nashville album, Carnival Ride, on October 23.

With first single, “So Small,” already a country airplay Top 10 after only four weeks, the Checotah, Oklahoma native who went from college student to American Idol winner to six-million-selling, multi-format superstar in less than three years has clearly been on an adventure ride of her own.

In choosing the album title, Underwood found Carnival Ride (taken from a lyric line in the new disc) to be a great metaphor. She explains, “You step onto this ride called life, and it’s a crazy thing you don’t know anything about, but you get on it anyway. You do what you can to lean different directions to try and get it to go where you want it to go, but you can’t stop it – it just keeps moving. That’s why Carnival Ride works as my album title, because it describes the wonderful craziness that I’ve been through over the past couple years.”

Underwood’s debut disc, Some Hearts, was released on November 15, 2005 and spent a remarkable 27 weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, holding that position across multiple weeks in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Currently 6x Platinum, and with SoundScan sales in excess of 1.2 million copies this year alone, Some Hearts remains the best-selling country album of 2007.


It is also available for pre order on amazon.com!

Busy

Well since school has officially started, I am going to have very little time for pleasure reading...here is a great book from Alan Weisman. A World Without Us Might be the last fun book I get to read for a while.

On the Daily Show

Moving still sucks!

I am still Homeless. Now that everything that could possibly go wrong in a moving process has gone wrong, the rest should be easy right? NO...NO evidently building inspectors can make things even worse by just being slow, and not giving certificates of occupancy in a timely manner. Now I know I should be thankful that they are being thorough, and I am not moving into a death trap, but at this point I honestly just want somewhere to unpack my suitcase and sleep in my own bed (insert whining and pitiful pouting here). So day 14 and we are still not in the apartment. If I believed in all that "The Secret" crap I could positive think my way into the apartment. Hmmm....something tells me that wouldn't speed up the building inspector.

News out of VCU

Cool genetics news out of VCU
I opened up my VCU homepage to check my class schedule for this semester and caught this article.

Genetic Factors Strongly Shape How Peers Are Chosen

I haven't read the full study but I have sat through a lecture from Dr. Kendrick, I'm not really sure I remember much about it, but I think he referenced this piece of work throughout. ( it wasn't acutally my class, I was helping out a friend...that was the only reason I didn't pay attention I swear :) )

This sounds like a very interesting study, and I will be interested to see how further investigation maps a clear trace for what genetic factors are actually shaping our environment.

Moving officially sucks!

Well I am homeless. Officially for the next week or so I have to live out of my car. Oh I may stop the suffering and get a hotel, but I am not happy about it. Here's the rundown on why I hate life right now. The lease on the house we had been renting for the last two years was finally up on August 1. We were so happy to be moving into a brand spanking new apartment just up the road, this place is awesome! Clean, new, and gorgeous. The only problem is the brand spanking new apartment has not been given their certificate of occupancy, and therefor I can't move in yet. Talk about crappy week for me, the really bad part about all this, is that they are not even sure when the building inspector will be showing up to give it to them. They are shooting for August 10, but that is no guarantee. Now since I work and live in Richmond, I can't even stay with my parents for the time being, because they live 4 hours away, and I would kill myself in the commute. So the last few days I have moved all my belongings into storage, and stayed at my roommate's boyfriends house (not fun...trust me), and now I am trying to find a great deal on a hotel that I am not sure how long I will need to stay at. I am going to continue to pout and whine til something gets resolved, hopefully sooner than the 10th.

Carrie Underwood's new song is actually kinda helping at this point. I hate when songs make you stop sulking