Softball Game 1 - Them 17 Us 3

Our first softball didn't exactly go stellar - we lost by the mercy rule at the end of the 5th inning.  The important thing with intramurals is to have some fun with the game.  I hope my team did that.  I wish I could say the same for myself, but I got irritated at a few things, which I won't share on here, but nonetheless I am not sure if I want to participate again or not.

If you want more info, I can share it with you offline.

Softball

I decided to join the EAS Intramural softball team as a way of getting some recreation, dealing with stress, and trying to get outside.  For those of you who know me, I am not the greatest athlete, and my previous softball adventures have met with not so great results.  But, it's intramurals.  We're not supposed to be great, right?

Trying to Stay On Pace

The last two weeks have been a complete whirlwind, thanks to meetings, writing papers, a midterm exam, and prospective students visiting EAS.  I have been running on overdrive for too long, and I need a break.  But there isn't much room for a break in my schedule.  That's the tough thing.

I need 3 days to refocus and clear my head a bit.  I'm not sure how I'll do that, but I have to make time for it.

Paper Writing Can Be a ...

So I am in the middle of writing two journal articles, and it is slow going.

Paper #1 - A New Paradigm for Pacific Decadal Variability - This paper examines offering another framework of examining climate variability in the Pacific Ocean looking at the North Pacific Oscillation and the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation.  Traditional views observe Pacific Decadal Variability as being  both intrinsic in the North Pacific (Aleutian Low variability) as well as having a forcing component from the tropics (ENSO/the atmospheric bridge).  This new framework works differently - it focuses on extratropical North Pacific forcing of the tropical Pacific and possible feedbacks that way.

Paper #2 - Past and Future Changes in Pacific Climate Variability in the IPCC Models - this paper focuses on assessing climate variability modes in the observations and then seeing how the various IPCC models capture those modes.  Bottom line - the models are terrible and only a select few really capture the right spatial and temporal scale of these modes.

So, it's a lot of writing to do and lots of stuff to be involved in.  I really want to get both papers done in the next 2 months, so we'll see!