Stranded on a tropical beach

[Michele]  I experienced my own version of "What would you take with you if you were stranded on a desert island".  Being away from my office for 6 months, what books and materials should I take with me?  I also didn't consider this question until the day before I left and had minimal time to consider.  The internet is, of course, an amazing resource but there are still times when reading a lucid description in a book gets you where you need to be.

Rock fracture nerds might appreciate the books that I ended up bringing. Other readers can just skip to the next paragraph.  (This list is in no way sponsored by any particular publisher or authors)

1. Fracture Mechanics of Rock (Atkinson) rock fracture bible
2. Notebook with various notes from talks and discussions
3. Rock Mechanics (Jeager and Cook, oh and Zimmerman) rock mechanics bible
4. Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting (Scholz) Parts of this book drive me crazy but it is a wonderful resource
5. Mechanics in the Earth and Environmental Sciences (Middleton)  I really like the rheology descriptions in this book
6. Parameter Estimation and Inverse Problems (Aster et al).  I struggle to understand statistics and maybe by bringing this book all the way to Australia, statistics will have sympathy for me and jump into my head.

The box with my books arrived a couple days ago and reflecting my choices now I think that I grabbed good ones in my hurried packing.  Are there others that you would bring?

Non-rock mechanics nerds can pick up the text here -->  So my office is in the game/bar room of the house.  A huge benefit of this house is that it is gigantic and Gavin and I need not be working right on top of each other and pester each other all day. Note: this is most certainly me pestering Gavin;  once he starts working he zones everything out.  So I, the easily distracted one, get to work in the game/bar room with the billard table, roulette table and the bar.  Ah ha, the bar!  Another benefit of working in this room is that we can use the bar for a standing desk.

I've been intrigued about the ergonomics of standing desks.  Isla and Sueann swear by them and since I've got an inflamed ulna nerve in my left elbow, standing might help me work more ergonomically as well as using my core muscles while I work.  In this house, I can use the bar as my standing desk so that when I work I can do all those things and look cool (?) at the same time.  I look cool, right? Also, there is something poetic and right about my geology books resting on the bar to one side of me with bongos on the other side.

As Megan said: "Bar. It is Australian for standing desk."