This is a photomicrograph I had taken about eight or ten years ago when I was examining some sections of mouse arterioles. As it so happens, it was Valentine’s day when I took this, so I saved the image just because of the resemblance. Naturally, real blood vessels are round(ish) in cross-section, so the shape is obviously an artefact of fixing or sectioning. Nevertheless, I thought the coincidence was noteworthy.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I have always thought I had been a pretty good speller. It wasn’t so much that I thought I could win spelling bees, but it seemed to me that I had a knack for realizing a word “looked wrong” and then I could look up the correct spelling. Of course, these days most computer applications flag incorrect spellings as they are being typed.
One time I had the occasion to write out the word “anenome.” Hmmm. The computer flags is as being misspelled. I guess it must not have been put in the database. I dutifully open “real” dictionary, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s spelled “anemone.” How could this be? Could I have been misspelling it all my life (and thus mispronouncing it, too)? I had a sense of cognitive dissonance. If I been wrong about this thing for so long, could there possibly be something else I might be wrong about (naahh)?
Later I came to realize there a few troublesome bugbear words I think look wrong when spelled correctly.
Another New Year is upon us and I wish everyone who might read this to have a happy and healthy 2011.
There have been some changes and changes to come in my life. On the plus side, a few months ago I started a job that really like, which was an extra plus considering I have been un- or under-employed for awhile. On the negative side, my wife of 28+ years has decided that things would be better if we were apart. It’s not a decision that I agree with, but it’s something that I will have to accept and adjust to during this new chapter in my life in the new year.
Since this is the time of year in which people seem to like to make resolutions, I will add a minor one, in that I hope to keep this site more active so that it does not look abandoned.
This post is also a little late, but I had some pictures on a digital camera I needed to download (see previous post).
I went for a walk in a local park not too far from my house (Heritage Park in Fishers, IN). I usually look around at the scenery when I go, and sometimes I think, “I wish I had a camera with me.” This time I actually took one, so here a few pictures that I thought were ok.
These (see image to the right; clicking on it will also load a larger version) were some mushrooms that were growing in the mulch alongside a path on the way. I’m not sure what kind they are. The one in the foreground is about three inches tall. There were others that I took pictures of, but they didn’t come out as good.
Along the path deeper in the wooded part of the park were some very large fungus (about the size of dinner plates) growing atop a fallen tree (see image at left). They had actually been there for a couple of weeks, and I meant to take a picture earlier. By now they are partially obscured by the vegetation growing nearby, but I was able to get some shots by crowding in close and sweeping some of the brush aside.
I also snapped some pictures of some vegetation patterns that I thought looked interesting:
The park abuts the White River, which flows through Indianapolis before making its way downstate before emptying into the Wabash River at the Indiana-Illinois border.
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