I’d apologize for the lack of blogging, but I’m pretty sure most of my readers have either experienced the end of a semester or heard me whine enough to understand exactly why I’ve disappeared the last few weeks.  I don’t actually have any finals this semester, but I do have large papers and projects to turn in.  Ultimately, these end up being a lot more work than a big test, but I prefer them.  Most exams just require you to vomit up some large percentage of the information presented in class that semester, but a term paper or project forces me to think about what I’ve learned in different contexts, apply it, and synthesize it.  Much more useful and interesting than regurgitating Ohm’s law in all its permutations for plant physiology (Dr. Isis is right about everything in physiology boiling down to Ohm’s law) or listing the advantages of a hierarchical Bayesian modeling approach.

I turn in my modeling project at 7:30 AM tomorrow and my plant physiology mock grant proposal on Thursday morning.  Then I’m going to reward myself by replacing the cheap, falling apart plastic plants some of plants live in and sit on my balcony in the sunshine playing in the dirt for a few hours.

And then you might hear from me again.