#1 here

Time for the second diary entry! Let me start by advertising my talk at the department next Monday, 13th February. It’s at Caldwell Hall, room 213, 1pm; the topic is ‘The Epistemology of Essence’, and you can read about it (as well as download a draft) here.

UNC Tarheel Mascot

There’s a big basketball game in town tonight: UNC vs. Duke. They’re really into their college sports here, and the UNC basketball team is supposed to be particularly good. I know nothing about all this, but I’m quite amused by the team name: Tarheels — they sure don’t sound very fast! The mascot, pictured on the left, is rather silly as well. Anyway, one aspect of all this is that all the uni gear have Tarheels branding and colouring. Now, when I was visiting NYU I was pleased to discover that their colour scheme was quit pleasant: mainly purple and black (incidentally, my alma mater, Durham University, also has a purple colour scheme!), but here it’s all baby blue. And it’s everywhere: even the fire trucks are baby blue here! I’ve attached a picture of the uni logo to show the colouring. It also features one of the campus landmarks, which I photographed the other day. The bell tower is another landmark.

UNC-Chapel Hill Logo

I’ve gotten into a reasonably routine involving work, running, gym, cooking, reviewing beers, eating cake, reading in front of the fireplace, and so on. Running and other exercise related activities are probably taking way too much of my time, even though I’m barely doing 50+ mile weeks, and I haven’t even tried to go swimming yet. One thing that has messed up my running routine a little bit in the last two weeks is a research project that I volunteered for as a subject. It’s conducted by the applied physiology folks at Chapel Hill, I saw their call for subjects at the gym. I’ll write about it in a bit more detail in a dedicated post, but basically it involves me doing a VO2 Max test on a stationary bike and then some separate test sessions. I get some data out of it as a reward, and the actual study is interesting too. The only problem is that I have to take rest days to prepare for the sessions.

..and the campus landmark which the logo is based on

Commuting to town takes a bit of time as well, and I find myself going there nearly every day. I had thought that I’d be working at home quite a bit, especially since the house is so lovely, but we do have an issue with our internet connection, so I need to go to my office (or the Open Eye Cafe!) just for that. Then there’s the gym and the occasional reading group. We do all our shopping by bike as well, so that takes additional time.

Schwinn World Sport -- my reliable commuting device

Incidentally, the Schwinn World Sport bike in the picture is what I use to get around. I got it used via Craigslist for $190. It’s ancient, but in very good shape. The old-fashioned shifting system took a little bit of getting used to, but it’s extremely reliable, and I’m using the 12 gears much more extensively than the gears of my Cyclocross back in Finland. I’m clocking between 40 and 55 miles per week on the bike, so that must count for something too. Oh, and there a few big hills between our house and the campus… We’re getting more daylight all the time, but sometimes it’s unavoidable to ride home in the dark; fortunately I’ve got an excellent torch for that purpose: the Led Lenser H14 (thanks mum!).

Chapel Hill Campus Bell Tower

The uni gym — right next to the pictured Bell Tower — is pretty good and I’ve gotten used to the equipment by now. I’m going 2-3 times per week and will try to keep it at that. I got access for the whole spring for mere $90, not bad! An additional bonus is that, as a Visiting Scholar, I was able to get Elizabeth gym access for the same price, as my partner. So, we’re effectively planning our days around running and going to the gym, but I’m fitting some work in too.

Our squirrel friend!

We’re still enjoying the house, and since my last post I’ve managed to catch a shot of the squirrels that keep entertaining us. The shot of our friend is just from our kitchen window — we’ve seen this fellow actually going into the bird house, so I doubt that there are any birds living in there! I also saw some deer on our backyard one morning and I’ve got a shot of them too, but I may just wait if I get a better one, because they’re all over the Carolina North Forest trails that we run on. I need to get out there with my camera some time. There are some interesting birds around too, but I don’t really know them. The most impressive are the red cardinals, but I need to get very lucky to capture a good shot of them with my lens (17-85mm — so not enough zoom, and not really fast enough either).

Duke Forest Exploration

We have also been out for a bit of a run in the Duke Forest on the weekend before last, and I took my compact camera with me. We explored the trails quite thoroughly, but they are not really ideal for running, as there are a lot of dead ends and sections where it’s impossible to run. It’s a nice area for getting the nature in, but perhaps better for just taking a long walk. I might go back with my SLR at some point to get better shots, but I’m attaching one to this post to give you an idea.

Last weekend we both participated in the Kappa Delta Shamrock 5k race (link to race report). It was around the Chapel Hill campus and rather hillier than I would’ve hoped, but I placed 13th out of 670 runners, so I guess it was a decent performance even though my time wasn’t great. Elizabeth was the 16th lady.

But I think it’s about MF’ing Cake Time now! Elizabeth made a tasty oatmeal cake tonight, which I believe will be featured in the aforementioned blog before long… More news anon!