…my parents' house, that is. Our apartment in Provo is pretty small (~550 square feet), so I keep some of my things at my parents' house, including books and Star Wars action figures. For President's Day we went up to see my family since we weren't able to go for my sister's birthday in January (I was sick).[1] While we were there, I decided to go through my things and dispose of some so I wouldn't be so much of a space hog.
The easiest thing to decide to get rid of were these test tubes. I originally snapped them up when one of the teachers in my department retired and moved the contents of her lab out into the hall for anyone to take. I guess the mad scientist in me saw some use for them that I can no longer recall. So I took them back to campus and stashed them in an unused cupboard in my lab. They'll probably still be there when I graduate and leave.
I grabbed my copies of The Hive, the Box Elder High School student publication for fiction, poetry, and art.[2] They're on my bookshelf, in my apartment now, alongside the publications of the BYU 38th Ward Book Club.
While I was an undergraduate at BYU, I worked for a couple years as a custodian. One day, while cleaning out the white paper recycling bins, I found a full copy of A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price, by Dr. Hugh Nibley, as loose sheets wrapped in plastic. I fished it out and kept it instead of sending it off to be recycled. This weekend I brought it back down to Provo and had it bound. It now sits on my bookshelf next to several other books by Dr. Nibley that I also haven't read.
When I did my summer internship in Arkansas, several years ago, I spent a lot of my free time running around catching insects. I was signed up for an entomology class the next semester, but even if I hadn't been, I probably would've done a fair bit of collecting—insects are just too fascinating to leave alone. Alas, a good insect collection can't be preserved without a healthy dose of naphthalene (mothballs). Both my mom and Leann dismiss the idea of their house smelling like mothballs. I'd already donated most of my insects to the Bean Museum, but I still had a few specimens gathering ice in the freezer in my parents' garage. I finally pulled them out.[5] Most were in poor enough condition that they were no longer worth pinning and preserving. But my entomology professor could still use them for DNA analysis, since that destroys the specimen anyway.
Finally, I collected baseball cards briefly in the early 1990s. Apparently that was the absolute worst time to collect baseball cards because everyone started taking care of them (so there are lots of cards available that are still in mint condition) and baseball card companies started produced a lot more (so there are lots of cards available in any condition).[6] I don't really care about keeping them anymore, so I brought them down to Provo with me. As soon as I can figure out roughly what they're worth (and that's surprisingly difficult to do), I plan to unload the whole lot.
Notes:
[1] Side note as a footnote, her husband also has his birthday in January. I gave him an alacrán embedded in a lime sucker. Well, I assume that the flavor was lime. We may never find out…
[2] Yes, Rachel correctly remembered the title of the publication. You can read one of the stories I published in The Hive here.
[3] These are much more vibrant in real life, but the flash on my camera bled them out. And I was unable to compensate for that using the GIMP.
[4] That's not a result of poor handling on my part; it's naturally that way.
[5] My mom sure was happy to have her freezer back so she can stuff it full of the bodies of dead edible things.
[6] See http://www.sportscardfun.com/baseball-cards-value.asp.
The easiest thing to decide to get rid of were these test tubes. I originally snapped them up when one of the teachers in my department retired and moved the contents of her lab out into the hall for anyone to take. I guess the mad scientist in me saw some use for them that I can no longer recall. So I took them back to campus and stashed them in an unused cupboard in my lab. They'll probably still be there when I graduate and leave.
I grabbed my copies of The Hive, the Box Elder High School student publication for fiction, poetry, and art.[2] They're on my bookshelf, in my apartment now, alongside the publications of the BYU 38th Ward Book Club.
While I was an undergraduate at BYU, I worked for a couple years as a custodian. One day, while cleaning out the white paper recycling bins, I found a full copy of A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price, by Dr. Hugh Nibley, as loose sheets wrapped in plastic. I fished it out and kept it instead of sending it off to be recycled. This weekend I brought it back down to Provo and had it bound. It now sits on my bookshelf next to several other books by Dr. Nibley that I also haven't read.
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| Top: two large damselflies. Bottom left: a smallish dragonfly. Bottom right: an adult antlion. |
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| Top: two unidentified but colorful moths. Bottom left, a Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). Bottom right: an Arizona Sister butterfly (Adelpha eulalia). |
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| Top left: an Ailanthus webworm moth (Atteva aurea). Top right: an unidentified moth with a cool snout. Bottom left: an unidentified orange moth.[3] Bottom center: an unidentified yellow moth.[3] Bottom right: an unidentified moth with cool ragged wings.[4] |
When I did my summer internship in Arkansas, several years ago, I spent a lot of my free time running around catching insects. I was signed up for an entomology class the next semester, but even if I hadn't been, I probably would've done a fair bit of collecting—insects are just too fascinating to leave alone. Alas, a good insect collection can't be preserved without a healthy dose of naphthalene (mothballs). Both my mom and Leann dismiss the idea of their house smelling like mothballs. I'd already donated most of my insects to the Bean Museum, but I still had a few specimens gathering ice in the freezer in my parents' garage. I finally pulled them out.[5] Most were in poor enough condition that they were no longer worth pinning and preserving. But my entomology professor could still use them for DNA analysis, since that destroys the specimen anyway.
Finally, I collected baseball cards briefly in the early 1990s. Apparently that was the absolute worst time to collect baseball cards because everyone started taking care of them (so there are lots of cards available that are still in mint condition) and baseball card companies started produced a lot more (so there are lots of cards available in any condition).[6] I don't really care about keeping them anymore, so I brought them down to Provo with me. As soon as I can figure out roughly what they're worth (and that's surprisingly difficult to do), I plan to unload the whole lot.
Notes:
[1] Side note as a footnote, her husband also has his birthday in January. I gave him an alacrán embedded in a lime sucker. Well, I assume that the flavor was lime. We may never find out…
[2] Yes, Rachel correctly remembered the title of the publication. You can read one of the stories I published in The Hive here.
[3] These are much more vibrant in real life, but the flash on my camera bled them out. And I was unable to compensate for that using the GIMP.
[4] That's not a result of poor handling on my part; it's naturally that way.
[5] My mom sure was happy to have her freezer back so she can stuff it full of the bodies of dead edible things.
[6] See http://www.sportscardfun.com/baseball-cards-value.asp.
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