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Monday, May 31, 2004 What to Do After Getting Out of School To be honest, I hate the question. What am I supposed to say in response? What are they expecting? I'm a planner, but I don't plan that far ahead since I'm aware that something might come up to take me in an entirely new direction. This is not to say that I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do once I get out of school, but it doesn't mean that I'm dead set on one career path either. So am I supposed to say, "Yeah, I want to be this" or "I don't know"? Last week Randy Schekman, a molecular cell biologist at Berkeley specializing in organelle vesicle transport and membrane fusion, gave a seminar on career options in the biomedical field. On the board, he drew a diagram that looked something like this:  Schekman also mentioned three important questions that a student has to consider before blundering onto the canonical grad student/post-doc/prof path: Do you have an enjoyable lab experience? Have you published something significant in the field? Do you find yourself daydreaming about science in your spare time? Schekman cautions that you have to answer these questions adequately before proceeding anywhere although he neglected (perhaps purposefully?) to define what an adequate response was. Which is all well and good for deciding for myself what my future will be, but it tells me nothing about deflecting nosy people from trying to pry out my thoughts on the matter before I'm ready to discuss them. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:27 AM : Saturday, May 29, 2004 Here's some brief notes just so you know I haven't dropped off the ends of the earth. I'm very busy and very stressed and I'm probably going to skip on posting anything tomorrow with a self-imposed no internet and no telephone restriction. Probably no sleep too. Recent reading: Earlier this week I had finished Mr. Darwin's Shooter by Roger McDonald. It was more like a life of one guy and his struggle between believing whether or not there is a God after working for and listening to Darwin. The main character, Syms Covington, was a real person but there's scant information on him--all the more for the author to take artistic license. Unfortunately, not all that much Darwin in the novel despite the title. I have just finished Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. Every geek in the blogosphere has probably read this or at least heard of it so I will spare you any details on the plot. I'll say that the book ends on more of a cliffhanger than I'm usually used to in other books that are in a series and there are countless places where the author meanders off. I'll also say that the writing style isn't one of my favorites. Sometimes it's so dry that it's pretty much passionless. I mean, there's tons of action going on, but I didn't feel excited. Or not as excited as every other raving fan. It's sort of like watching a high budget action flick and yawning as yet another evil henchman gets his head cut off. I do like the fact that there are natural philosophers running amok in the story and some clever cryptology--which probably saved it from being consigned to "dull historical fiction." [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:56 AM : Friday, May 28, 2004 Observation: People with annoying voices never realize that they have annoying voices. Which, I suppose, is good for them since they're the ones who have to live with it 24/7. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:15 PM : Thursday, May 27, 2004 The Thursday Threesome: From the "Summer Plans" Department: Learning to Ride Onesome: Learning-- Hey, what would you like to learn how to do this Summer? Learn to ride a motorcycle (like Sarah)? Learn PHP? Learn how to chill out and vegetate properly (lessons available I'll be learning lots of stuff. Most of it related to qualifiers. Some of it thesis related. And a bit of it random--like putting together furniture. Twosome: to-- Too? Two? Okay, two things you are positively not going to learn how to do! Ever! I am not going to rule anything out because who knows what life will throw at me? Threesome: Ride-- Speaking of motorcycles: Do you ride? Did you ever ride? ...or do you just enjoy them? ...or maybe, "No way!"? I do not ride motorcycles. I have never ridden a motorcycle. I have nothing against motorcycles although I find some enthusiasts silly in their self-perceived uber-coolness. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:38 AM : Wednesday, May 26, 2004 For Some, the Blogging Never Stops. Am I surprised that some people are blogaholics? No, but I do wonder why they dislike the real world so much that they are constantly glued to their computers. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:21 PM : On Today's Experiment: Mmm. Mouse meat. Looks like chicken. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 12:40 PM : Tuesday, May 25, 2004 Sense? What Sense? Of course it doesn't make sense. One of the people who's moving into the apartment (the one with the housemates, not the one I'm currently moving into) this summer is making a 7 hour car trip up to Hanover to see the apartment. Housing just gave him the contact info of one of the housemates so he could make arrangements when to see it. Normally, I would say it's sensible to look at an apartment before signing the lease but in this case, I'll have to ask, why? This is new college housing and if he did any research at all, the rent is much lower than any other apartment in Hanover. Besides, it's practically on campus. I think the housemate he contacted had sent him pictures of the place, but he couldn't be swayed from visiting. The reason I'm sort of annoyed with this is that this guy finally contacted all of us with the time he wants to visit without first consulting our schedules. The problem is--tomorrow is a weekday and it's a really bad time during the semester. I mean, I can't show him around. Tomorrow is the day that I begin the first experiment of a series of experiments that I've been planning for the past two months. One of my housemates is going crazy preparing for a huge presentation and another one is doing interviews for a Very Important (and Very Famous) Scholarship. As for the med student housemate, she's pretty much never here. A perverse part of me thinks, let the guy come another day, even if he has to make another 7 hour car trip. But I'm not that mean, even if my experiments are time critical and makes me break out in a sweat just thinking about them. Anyways, if I were him, I wouldn't be so much worried about the state of new housing as what psycho roommates college housing will end up sticking him with. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:27 PM : Monday, May 24, 2004 Small Luck Went to the library to drop off a book. Saw that they were giving away free books that people had donated. Noticed most were self-help books that I didn't need or want except for one--Gibson's Pattern Recognition. Hardcover, pristine condition. Asked one of the librarians if this was for real. Apparently, yes. Took it, of course. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:47 PM : Sunday, May 23, 2004 Some Observations More moving again. I've carted over all of my books and assembled a bookshelf for them. Fit them just barely. I think I'll have to go get another bookshelf. I also bought some blinds. It says easy assembly on the package, but I don't know. We'll see how it goes on Saturday. My new neighbor has bad taste in music. I know because he plays it really, really loud. Heavy death metal in the morning and top 40s easy listening rock in the afternoon. At least it's not Bolero. Gas prices over $2? That was advertised at every gas station except one which said $1.98. People were scrabbling over each other like mad dogs to get in line. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:09 PM : Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:41 AM : Saturday, May 22, 2004 Recent Reading The X in Sex: How the X Chromosome Controls Our Lives by David Bainbridge. What is the X chromosome and how does it (along with its counterpart, the Y chromosome) affect our lives and society? But in answering the question, this genetic primer by Bainbridge is far from textbook dry--his explanations are humorous and accessible for the lay audience. I wouldn't, however, recommend this book to anyone who has gone into genetics at any depth--many of the facts presented in this book would probably be old hat for serious biology students. But if you're not already into biology, this is an excellent introduction (with a tiny grumble about misplacing critical information in the form of interludes instead of an early chapter) on the X chromosome. This chromosome not only helps determine sex, but it also contributes to many other aspects to our physiology--from vision, movement, immunity, and the very blood running through our veins. If anything, I came away liking how it was written. The Paid Companion by Amanda Quick (a pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz). This was a very strange book--well, not so strange if you've read other Quick books; they're rather formulaic and after the first one or three they begin to all blur--but it's strange in that I can only liken it to a gothic bodice-ripper penned by a 1950s pulp sci-fi author. So here's the plot: in Regency England a plucky lass has lost everything because her step-father gambled everything away on a bad investment venture. In her efforts to find a job, she gets hired by a mysterious earl who uses her as a decoy to deflect attention away from himself--he's busy trying to tract down his great-uncle's murderer. The villain turns out to be a mad scientist with a Dr. Evil-like laser beam of doom. If you're scratching your head over this, you're not the only one. Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century by Katie Hickman. Courtesans--just highly paid prostitutes or something more? Hickman profiles five women of the more well-known demimonde: Sophia Baddeley--actress, compulsive spender, in love with an abusive man; Elizabeth Armistead--shrewd, lover and later wife of a well-known politician; Harriette Wilson--blackmailer and writer of a public memoir exposing her past paramours; Cora Pearl--eccentric, inventive, possible victim of political intrigue; and Catherine Walters--nicknamed 'Skittles' and as a horsewoman, had form-fitting riding clothes made to drive men out of their minds. These women were in powerful and influential positions but they were still not accepted in polite society. The men who went after them were not after just the sex (as the author argues) but the allure that these women presented. Are courtesans, intelligent and sexually uninhibited, the pre-feminists that Hickman suggest. I don't know--maybe for the successful ones--but the majority of the demimonde were constantly worried about getting more patrons to help pay for their extravagant lifestyle and some ended their lives rather destitute. Currently reading: The same as mentioned the previous week. I also managed to get a hold of a copy of The Confusion. Also in the middle of a non-fiction book (with lots of pictures) about the Silk Road and a fictional work based on one of Darwin's hired hands while he was sailing about on the HMS Beagle. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:39 PM : Friday, May 21, 2004 Moving I've slowly started to move. Heavy stuff first, of course, and that means furniture. Although most people would find moving annoying, I actually find this quite amusing even though I'm doing all of this myself. Getting a place to live is one of the most basic things in life, but I think this is quite an accomplishment given that most girls I know (even if they are going for PhDs or MDs) would rope in the first brawny guy that popped into their heads and make him do all the dirty work. Am I independent to a fault? I don't know; maybe circumstance made me this way. No guy has ever helped me move anything--if something was extremely heavy, I always figured out a way to move it myself. One of my housemates offered up her brawny boyfriend to help me move, but I declined. For one thing, I don't think a guy would be very happy having someone else volunteer his services to a strange girl. And for another, I don't like other people handling my stuff. All of this huffing and puffing and hauling things around reminded me of last summer when former housemates #1, #2, and #3 were moving out. All three of them were very smart PhD students but when it came down to moving an object from point A to point B, they stood around like stereotypical girly-girls wringing their hands while their boyfriends carted out the oversized suitcases and heavy appliances. So I think: are women supposed to let men do all this stuff? Am I weird and stubborn because I'm not going about moving in the usual way? And don't tell me that any guy would automatically help--I've done some heavy lifting and passing guys don't offer help out of their own volition let alone look at me. (Maybe red-faced girls holding large boxes are extremely unattractive.) [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:02 PM : A One Time Offer! Remember Gmail? Well, I finally got invites. I have one left (the other one you can blame on nepotism) and I'm willing to give it away. The only catch is that you have to be a blogger or journaler. By Tuesday noon (EST), send me an e-mail at this address with the subject line "5/21 Drawing on Syaffolee". In the body of your e-mail, include the address to your weblog or journal so I can check that the e-mail address you sent from is the same as your contact address on your site. To be fair, I'll collect all the names and randomly pick a winner via some lottery method I have yet to devise. The winner will be contacted with a Gmail invite by next Friday. Good luck, and please don't send me hate mail if you don't win. Gmail will be open to the public at some point. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:14 AM : Thursday, May 20, 2004 The Thursday Threesome: Beginnings, Middles and Ends Onesome- Beginnings: Are there any television shows out there that you've watched regularly from the very beginning? Or for those of you not into TV, any book authors that you've read from the very beginning? Although I might have some inkling of what people are talking about when it comes to TV shows, I normally don't watch any television. And as for book authors, I typically pick up one of their books once they've already been writing for quite a while or are already dead. I don't recall reading any first-time authors lately. And I definitely have not read all of an author's work if he or she has written more than one book. Twosome- Middles: What about shows that you came into in the middle of the season but immediately grabbed your attention and turned you into a die-hard fan? Again, for non-TV fans, have you ever begun reading a series of books in the middle and then just had to read everything else in the series? I usually don't read series if I already know the books are in a series. It's an extremely big commitment and usually I ignore such books if I feel the author is only going to be so-so. One of the more recent books I've read, The Da Vinci Code, is in the middle of a series involving the main character but I just find it amusing. If I don't have an opportunity to read the other books, that would be just fine with me. Most of the time, I begin at the first book of the series but stop reading later books when it becomes obvious that the author is only writing for fans and not himself. Threesome- And Ends: Recently, a number of big name shows have ended, Friends, Fraiser, The Drew Carey Show, and the cult hit, Angel. Did you watch any of the big finales? Have you ever been really sad to see a show go? Ok, readers, here's one for you. Have you ever read the end of a book first? Why? ;) As far as I can recall, I haven't read the ends of books first. Maybe I'm just more linear thinking in that regard. There have been occasions where I jump a couple chapters ahead--but that's only because the author is being spastic and not giving any clues where they're headed next. I'm not talking about authors who want to surprise their readers--usually I can tell if something unexpected is about to happen. I'm talking about those books that aren't exactly linear or logical about their plots, if they even have one. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:09 AM : Wednesday, May 19, 2004 Just a plug for Tangled Bank #3 at the 10,000 Birds Blog. Always excellent science reading (and this time I'm not saying this just because I'm on it, because I'm not--been too busy running around like a chicken with its head cut off the past week). [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:01 AM : Tuesday, May 18, 2004 Here's a blog survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=13854488054 I got this from Chad. Lately, I've been ignoring many of the memes going around but I took it anyway because I was feeling a bit perverse. Apparently a Famous Blogger says 80% surveyed will be male. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:46 PM : Uhh... Those lab inspection people are getting sneakier every week. While everyone in lab was out doing something else, I surprised a young woman with a bookbag, baseball cap, and a tape measure hanging off her belt loops taking pictures of the fuse box. Or am I just paranoid? [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:25 PM : Monday, May 17, 2004 Darn it! "So...I heard that you wrote a novel," says yet another MCB student. It sounds like he's blackmailing me. I should've kept my big mouth shut last year with all the beer and the persistent questions about what I do in my spare time. The only graduate students I know who write are enrolled in fancy-schmancy writing programs and they (cross my fingers) still don't know. Otherwise I'll never hear the end of their high-flying literary aspirations. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:10 PM : Sunday, May 16, 2004 Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:23 AM : Saturday, May 15, 2004 Reading Update The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. The author is a New Hampshire resident so it was not a surprise when he became the writer du jour. Practically everyone was reading his book. Even my advisor gave a hearty endorsement of the book with no prompting at all. I was skeptical--after all, I am willing to read pretty much anything, but that doesn't mean that I will like it. The Da Vinci Code is what I would call a puzzle thriller. Brown's work is nowhere in the same league as Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum though--no cerebral philosophizing as far as I could see--it was written like a bestseller destined to be transferred to the pallid, one-dimensional Hollywood movie screen. Now don't get me wrong, I readily admit that this is a fun read, but there isn't too much if you look past the surface. It got tiring real quick whenever the main character, a Harvard prof, launched into a lecture of the "sacred feminine." It made me wonder if a gang of feminists and the PC police got a hold of the author and brainwashed him. But of course, if you're planning to read the novel, don't let me stop you. I'm just still annoyed that in one scene, the prof of symbology convinced a biology student through his powers of rhetoric that all proportions in nature added up to the number phi. I would have tried looking that up before even considering taking his blabbering for fact. Other recently finished books: Truth or Dare by Jayne Ann Krentz, which is also another thriller but of a different sort. It never purports to be as high-minded like The Da Vinci Code so it doesn't fall flat on its face in the expectations department. The Krentz novel is actually a sequel to another book called Light in Shadow and basically the premise is the same--some people from the main characters' murky pasts are stalking them. The plot is pretty flimsy, but that's to be expected when the author's forte is dialogue. How to Write a Damn Good Mystery by James N. Frey is a mix of useful points, pure personal drivel, and boring-ness. The boring-ness mostly consisted of example parts where he actually plots out a mystery novel for you. This was annoying because I have the notion that one shouldn't force someone to write a certain way. Besides, I hated the plot idea he picked out. But at least there are some good general guidelines on how to plan a mystery or any other novel for that matter. In the midst of reading: I'm still plodding through Stephenson's Quicksilver. Also started Nick Lane's Oxygen which is more like an essay in 300 pages on how the presence of oxygen on earth influenced evolution (thankfully, no extensive rehash of undergrad o-chem so far). [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:13 AM : Friday, May 14, 2004 On Being Dumb At a busy intersection, I pressed a button and waited for the light to change to "walk". "Heh, heh, heh. Only idiots press the button," exclaimed a passing frat boy to his buddies. They crossed the street while the light was still "don't walk". Cars whizzed by. Oh yeah? I thought, Just wait until you get hit by a truck. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:10 AM : Thursday, May 13, 2004 Hah! I counted myself lucky last year when the college housing office let me live in their graduate housing for another year--but that kind of renewal is a semi-random thing. After your second year, they want you out of there to make room for the new first year students. This would have been fine if they had told me (and every other second year) this far in advance and not two months before we have to move out. I suppose they take a sort of sadistic glee in trapping students in a rock and a hard place right at the time when they don't need any more stress. But of course, now that I know, this is a good time to warn incoming Dartmouth graduate students googling for Dartmouth graduate housing: DON'T EXPECT TO GET ON-CAMPUS HOUSING AFTER YOUR SECOND YEAR. I'm 99.99% sure of that. Today I can officially say that I'm not going to live in a cardboard box or hide out in the library (like what one house-less student did in a news article I read a while back) for the next year. Getting a place in Hanover was definitely out of the question--rents average to about a thousand per month. So that meant looking at the surrounding towns. It amused me that I now had the option of living in one state and going to school in another but for various reasons I didn't pick any available place in Vermont. So yeah, I'm still in New Hampshire. I found a place in the historic district of this town-next-door-to-Hanover. The rent isn't so much--it's less than one of those college-owned and cramped studio apartments--I have a bedroom, a living space, a small dining nook, a bathroom, and a kitchen. In my mind, I've named it The Hole-in-the-Wall even though it's not a hole in the wall because it's pretty much invisible to the passerby unless you're really looking for it. But more importantly, I'm going to be living there on my own. This isn't because I hate housemates--in fact, I've had incredibly good housemates since I've moved up here--but because I'm primarily a loner, not a socializer. Anyway, if you've been to the historic part of any town, they're always neat and tidy and quaint and cute. Definitely cute. Maybe too cute, but I think some other things make up for it. For one thing, the local library is just a few steps away. (One realizes how geeky you've gotten when you've started calculating when is the earliest day to apply for a library card.) The very center of town is dominated by what the locals call "The Green" which is basically the park where fairs and sales are held on the weekends when the weather is nice. Another cool thing nearby is--get this--an opera house. Why there is an opera house in the middle of the boondocks, I don't know, but at least now I have someplace to go for entertainment. Sort of like this graduate student I know who said he twiddled his thumbs and stared at the blank walls of his apartment before he got cable TV. And there is a shuttle stop. I can basically use public transportation and save on gas provided that I've planned for a weekday in lab when I'm using normal people hours. Yet another graduate student couldn't understand why I would even consider using the bus when I now have a car. "But have you seen the gas prices lately?" I said. She was still skeptical--I guess she's one of those people who prize convenience over money. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:21 PM : The Thursday Threesome: Fax Cover Sheets Onesome: Fax-- Do you have access to or use a fax machine at home? Just curious... No. Whenever I need to use the fax, I use the one at the microbiology office. What I can do at home is to scan something in and send it as a file via e-mail. But I guess that's not what you're looking for. Twosome: Cover-- Hey, summer's coming! What type of cover up do you use when you're out in the sun? SPF4000? Sun clothes? A hat? "What sun; I live in a cave?" Usually sunscreen. It's SPF-I-don't-know because I don't pay attention to the numbers until I actually have to buy it. And after I buy it, I promptly forget it. (Not that I deliberately do so, of course, I just don't bother with such details unless I have to.) Threesome: Sheets-- 120 count or 180? (Okay guys, you're exempt I'm not a guy and I have no idea what the heck you're talking about. Is this something I need to know, because I'm planning on buying a bed in a week or two. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:56 AM : Wednesday, May 12, 2004 Bureaucratic Hell It's my third time at the local DMV and only now do they tell me I have to go all the way down to Concord (a 1 hour, 30 minute drive) to change over my license. Somebody please shoot me. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:34 AM : Tuesday, May 11, 2004 Brief Notes Why is FedEx in the Upper Valley located in the middle of nowhere and hidden in the trees? I got lost twice trying to find it. Today was a nice day out in the high 70's. There was free ice cream for the graduate students out in the green, but unfortunately I had to miss that. Cutting through more red tape was more important at the moment. Another question: Why does good weather always bring out the 40 to 50-something year old women who like wearing skanky teenage clothes? I am so tempted to scream, "Ack! My eyes! My eyes!", whenever they pass by. People keep telling me that the lady at the parking permit office is evil incarnate. I just think she's stuck in a job she hates a lot. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:01 PM : In Response to Cliff's Question: '99 Ford Taurus, 1.5k below what was suggested in the Kelly Blue Book. Plus three extra snow tires. Yeah, it's not fashionable, but at least it's big enough to stash my cello (or a person) into the trunk and no one will be the wiser. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:11 AM : Monday, May 10, 2004 Ugh. Practically a whole day wasted. The rest of the week is probably going to be wasted too. I can't believe owning a car requires this much bureaucratic hassle. Each place that I need to go to are located far away from each other. Why can't they all be in once place? And nobody freakin' smiles. Addendum: And Blogger changed its interface while I was out getting stuck in red tape. Maybe I'm just tired right now, but I'm not sure I like it. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:30 PM : Sunday, May 09, 2004 Happy Mother's Day! Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:19 AM : Saturday, May 08, 2004 A Note on Commuting Let's say you're a student at a certain school in Hanover but you've decided to live anywhere outside of that town because of exorbitant rents due to desperate but wealthy undergraduates. My advice is, do not look at any place further than fifteen minutes away (via driving) even if you can get an entire house for dirt cheap. You're going to waste tons of money on gas, driving in the snow obviously won't be fun, and (forget at the moment my previous rantings about Hanover being in the boondocks) you're really out in the middle of nowhere. You'd be lucky if you have a cow for a neighbor. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:05 PM : Friday, May 07, 2004 Fast Talking Buggers Trying to win me over with lots of impressive sounding words and being all chummy because they recognize "Caltech" on my t-shirt? Trying to appeal to that stereotypical drive for buying what I want and like instead of what I need? I'm not that clueless of a geek. Do that, and I'll stonewall you like there's no tomorrow. Me: 1, Car Dealers: 0 [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:03 PM : A Question Does anyone know of the veracity of this report? I've seen lots of other news articles dealing with this topic, but the links to the SSS don't work. I would appreciate citations to documents I can actually find. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:30 AM : Thursday, May 06, 2004 Car Dealers If I lived in a big city, I wouldn't have to think about it, but here I am, in the middle of nowhere, wondering where the hell I'm going to live next month and how the hell I'm going to get to lab every day. I don't understand why housing likes to end leases at critical times--which means smack dab in that particular week in June when I'm going to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off because of deadlines and presentations and qualifiers. It's not like first-year students will arrive any time before August anyway. The first step in trying to solve this problem is getting a car. Ooo, a car, you might think, why didn't you get one earlier? It would have solved all your transportation problems. Yeah, but a really good bus system could have solved that too. Do you know how much cars cost? Gas? Registration? Parking space? Insurance? Maintenance? Etc., etc., etc.? Yes, laugh all you want, but you're not living on a graduate student's stipend. I met three car salesmen today. I'm inherently distrustful of such people--always wary that they'll somehow convince me to throw all that I own away. The first guy made me think of Harry S. Truman--he even looked like him too--but such earnestness immediately triggers alarm bells. Follow an open face blindly and you'd realize too late that you're falling into a chasm. The second guy looked like he would turn into a rather oily Santa Claus in about twenty years or so. He was wearing a pink shirt with blue stripes, sleeves rolled up just before the elbows. Like a snake, you weren't quite sure when he would strike. He didn't today, but he did offer the tidbit that if you registered in New Hampshire, you wouldn't have to pay interest. Maybe he was more like the fisherman, bait the hook and reel 'em in. The third guy I liked least of all. He was the tall, affluent businessman who drives BMWs and wears gold watches from Switzerland. He's also the kind of man, I imagined, who would make short girls cry when trying to make a sale. Or maybe I've just heard too many horror stories from girls who easily cry when trying to buy cars. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:34 PM : Thrusday Threesome Onesome: Something old- Do you have anything that you've owned simply forever? A cherished childhood toy, an antique handed down through the family... I have a light green plastic pencil case that is stashed in my desk. It's what some people might consider kawaii; there's a picture of an anthropomorphic rabbit in tennis gear among some yellow flowers on the cover. I'm keeping some pencils I haven't used in some years in it. Twosome: Something new- Buy anything new lately? You probably don't want to see my grocery list. Other than that, four books: A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies by John Murray Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond Threesome: Something borrowed- Ever borrowed anything and never returned it? No. Bonus: Something blue- See anything blue from where you are? What is it? A water bottle. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:15 AM : Wednesday, May 05, 2004 The Tour Guide's Parting Words at the Underground Animal Research Center: "Oh, and one more thing. We've been lucky so far, but if an animal rights activist somehow gets in here, this is the phone. It automatically dials directly to security." It'll have to be one insane animal rights activist who'd risk his or her fool neck trying to get past those biohazard signs with warnings of infectious disease. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:17 PM : Tangled Bank #2 ...which is up at the Invasive Species Weblog this week. Go and read some cool science-y stuff. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:22 AM : The Shining in 30 seconds with bunnies. Redrum! Redrum! Redrum! De dee de de de de deee! [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:56 AM : Tuesday, May 04, 2004 Well, this is just one of those weeks. You wake up on Monday and you realize everything has just fallen on top of your head. It's a bit past 8 PM and I'm still in lab. I've been here since about 8 AM and still have a couple more hours to go. The rest of the week isn't looking much better. So if you don't see much posting from me for this week and so many odd days, don't worry. I'm just very busy. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:30 PM : Sunday, May 02, 2004 Annoying. Whoever is spreading worms and viruses through the school network--stop it! And don't give me that crap about forgetting to update your anti-virus software. Yes, I am very cranky after spending my entire morning and afternoon diagnosing and cleaning up a computer problem. (If my computer suddenly shuts down on me again, I'm going to wring somebody's neck.) Unconscious Mutterings
[posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:04 PM : Saturday, May 01, 2004 Briefly, Reading Progress I'm beginning to think I should make this a weekly thing on this blog since this is the third time I've done this on a Saturday. The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes. I've finally started it, although there's not much to say about a relatively straight forward history book without blubbering meaninglessly about the writer's style or regurgitating facts like a bored high school student. What I do find interesting is the author's motivation for writing about Australian history--he wrote it because Australians couldn't or wouldn't talk about their past. This former British colony began as a social experiment by shipping convicts off to this "fatal shore." It was pretty much a virtual death sentence because these men and women who had been deported did not know anything about surviving this strange continent's wilderness. At any rate, a far cry from American and Canadian history. The Double Helix by James D. Watson. Taking into account that all the events in the book happened before Watson turned 25, well, it's both amazing and amusing. (Amusing, because of all his antics in trying to meet "pretty girls" and besides DNA, only having one thing on his mind even if the closest he could get to it was watching bacterial mating.) I think a recommendation handwritten by an anonymous "Michael" on the cover page of the 1968 Atheneum copy I was reading is quite appropriate: You can be invincibly ignorant about science--as I am--and still relish the excitement of the book--as I did. The enormous enthusiasm, intellectual torment, honest jockeying to place and great verve make it a memorable story of men at work. I thought it splendid! Going to read: I am probably going to finish The Fatal Shore by the end of the weekend. After that, I'll be starting on Quicksilver which pretty much every nerd in the blogosphere has already read. If you look at the books read in All Consuming, you'll notice that they're on the second volume now which I probably won't get to until maybe next year. I'm also going to read Truth or Dare by Jayne Ann Krentz which is what some people call "romantic suspense". It sounds like a stupid genre (and it is) but this is the stuff you read when you want to get away from the usual stuff and don't want to use your brain. But at least Krentz does witty dialogue. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:22 AM : |
