Schedule for Next Semester

If I'm crazy enough to take three bio courses in one semester:

Duke

I'm finally back at Duke and am finally settled in. Finally. Finally? Yes.

Sometimes I just get caught on a word.

I'll be updating more frequently and with more worldly content in the next few days.

Biltmore Commercialism

Continuing our meandering vacation, my family stopped at the Biltmore Estate nestled in the mountains near Asheville, NC.

Biltmore House is a French Renaissance-inspired chateau near Asheville, North Carolina, built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1888 and 1895. It is the largest privately-owned home in the United States, at 175,000 square feet. Still owned by Vanderbilt's descendants, it stands today as one of the most prominent remaining examples of the Gilded Age. (wikipedia)

The whole experience is overwhelmed by a condescending commercialism. The estate is currently owned by a private corporation, not a trust or non-profit of any kind. Admission is 45$, more than twice the price of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and contains half the culture. There is a point along the unguided tour at which you must stop and have your photo taken where you can pick it up later for fee a la Disney World attractions. After finishing our tour of the house, we wandered outside near the stables which have been converted to series of elaborate giftshops which boast memorabilia printed with "Biltmore House, largest house in America (tm)." If I'm ever wealthy enough to build a larger home and do so, I'm going to sue them over their trademark. And last but not least, Lowe's is the official home improvement store of Biltmore Estates.

What a lovely little diddy of American commercialism's overreach.

The Luray Caverns

Well, the lighting conditions inside the Luray Caverns were very hard to navigate with a camera. I wasn't able to take any pictures I was happy with. Please, take this professional shot I found online in lieu of any awful photos I took.

Calculus Cookie and Road Trip

If you chuckle at this miracle of shelving, you obviously paid attention in calculus class.

So this week I'm returning to Duke University. My family and I are taking a road trip through Pennsylvania, West Virginia (yes we made it out alive - thank you for your concern), Virginia, and North Carolina, maybe even Tennessee somewhere in between. Our first stop is the Luray caverns which we will see tomorrow, and then we will visit all the wonderful sites and sights of Asheville, NC.

We ate in Red Robin. Insteresting. They had two televisions on either side of the restaurant so that our family didn't have to waste time communicating while we ate. Instead we could watch the Simpsons and Everyone Loves Raymond. In he bathroom there was a television also opposite from the urinals. To my surprise there was a mirror above each urinal angled to face the television screen. I normally micturate for less than 30 seconds so the mirror had little utility, but I can see how impressed men with prostate problems must be with the installation.
Please, pardon this blog's first instance of scatological humor.

Tomorrow, look forward to my first batch of cavern photos.