My advisor began talking about four day vacations and my first thought was: What?! I'm only getting four days off for Christmas? Of course, he was talking about Thanksgiving break, but my Thanksgiving break was pretty much non-existent. Not only was I writing like mad, but I was in lab for three of the four days (including Thanksgiving Day). Sure, I should have taken those days off, slept in, done nothing. But I have no life and working fills up my time, so why not?
It's also that time of year again--time for Christmas parties. I view these social events with a sort of amused disgust. They pretty much sap whatever patience I have left. This year, I'm sort of obligated to go to one of them. In order to get an estimate of who's coming, the host asked everyone how many people they're bringing. I find it a not-so-subtle dig for my personal life. Since I mentioned above that I have no life, you dear reader, wouldn't bat an eye at the fact that I'm only bringing myself to the party. But they don't know that. For all they know, I could have a boyfriend locked up in the closet because I never talk about my personal life with them. They don't know about this weblog, my writing hobby, my favorite kinds of music, my bookstore hunting adventures during the weekend, nada.
And I have to get a gift for a gift exchange. What do you buy for a recipient who could be anybody?
Mother's the word. "The wordlist, which contains only one verb (cherish) which is not also a noun, emerged after the council asked more than 7,000 learners in 46 countries what they considered the most beautiful words in English language. Some 35,000 other people registered their favourites in an online poll run in the non-English speaking countries where the council operates." Of course mother tops the list. Isn't "mama" or some variation thereof the first word out of most babe's mouths?
A Course About Weblogs. Huh. I'm not sure if my school offers a blog course (I am too lazy to look it up in the course catalogue I got a couple weeks ago) but I don't think I'd take such a class unless it was required of me. You see, I'm one of those students who take courses that I either have to take or are interesting (i.e. science related). If it involves reading 18th century literature or a bunch of philosophical works, I can do that myself without going to an organized class with a talking head. A blogging class falls firmly into the latter kind. Besides, I'm blogging right now.
PhDweblogs. "PhDweblogs.net is a non-profit initiative to bring together PhD students' weblogs from all around the world." I'm not sure if I should submit. Maybe not. Most of the posts on this weblog are personal and/or meme-ish and not research related.
Newspapers Should Really Worry. I suppose they're right. I read most of my news online. I only buy a paper maybe once in a blue moon. And that's only because I need something to put my mud covered boots on.
Complete list. "This list contains the "Top 1000" titles owned by OCLC member libraries—the intellectual works that have been judged to be worth owning by the "purchase vote" of libraries around the globe."
Alexander the (not so) Great fails to conquer America's homophobes. Interesting theory, although I have to point out that conservatives have been decrying the media for moral decay ever since it has been invented. Maybe it's a flop because the movie's just plain bad. I haven't seen the movie although I have to say that Oliver Stone's past movies--I've taken a film class before which showed only Oliver Stone movies--were pretty good. Maybe they're stirring up controversy so people would go see the movie (and spend money) instead of lying about the house in a turkey-induced coma.
Yay! Last night at approximately 11:00 PM, I finished this year's Nanowrimo novel. Yesterday I clocked in at over 10,000 words for a final total of 55,817. I think the thing that helped me the most in completing this crazy challenge is that I write every day, even if it's only a sentence or two. Also, the writing meetings were helpful, even if the environment was less than ideal. I went to another write-in yesterday and did over 5k despite the pretentious babbling of cafe patrons.
For those of you curious as to what the heck I was doing this month, here are some links (I'm either shameless or masochistic in posting them):
html - read the novel in installments! rtf - download the entire novel! (rtf, 369 kb)
If you can't be bothered to read any of it (and I can't blame you--it's first draft dreck anyway), the genre is what I would describe as horror-lite. It's not exactly scary, more like crazy. Initially, I was aiming towards serious magic realism, but that just didn't happen. It's about these two journalists who go to this small farming town...well, needless to say, it also involves drunk bingo ladies, cats, and excessive violence with a cast iron skillet.
Yeah, writing a novel in a month can put anyone into a bad mood, but finishing is awesome. If you're up to the challenge, don't hesitate to sign up for next year's Nano.
I wish my neighbors had gone to a relative's or friend's house for the holidays. Then I wouldn't have to listen to their violent bickerings. You would think that for Thanksgiving break one would be able to get some sleep around here. But no. Even the earplugs are not working and I've tried suffocating the sounds with pillows too--but that's not terribly comfortable. They probably think it's their job to make everyone around them miserable.
Also, I had to go shopping for food. You know, supplies running low and all that. Otherwise, I would have just stayed put where I am. Everyone working today seems terribly unhappy.
At the moment, I'm pulling words out of my head slowly and painfully one by one. Agonizingly fun times, I tell ya'. But I'm going to finish this 50,000 word novel by the end of this month no matter what. Yes, I know it's horrible (absolutely horrible), but quality doesn't matter, right? It's also downright depressing that no one cares. Writing novels--something wannabe scientists shouldn't be doing, a waste of time, something that anyone with a keyboard could pound out. And even if one is written, would anyone read it? Of course not.
You're just pontificating, being a blowhard. It's old hat. You've done this all before. Where's the challenge? You're just retreading the ol' track. You might as well copy and paste. Copy and paste...
If only the libraries were open during the holidays--yes only a poor sap like me would actually be happy spending time in a library when everyone else would rather be at home--then maybe I wouldn't be in such a foul mood.
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For those of you who don't give a damn about writer's depression:
A Growing Gender Gap Tests College Admissions. This is not really the fault of college admissions. The problem is high school--boys should be doing well in this environment first if they want to get into a good college. But since I'm not a boy, I have little idea why they aren't testing as well as girls. Maybe teaching methods should be changed, but I don't see any changes happening any time soon.
Catch27. (via Kottke) A trading card game--trade your old friends for new hot ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yet another site for hip, young, narcisstic, and attractive people to show off. Chubby, myopic nerds need not apply.
Onesome: Christmas-- Is it Thanksgiving? ...or just the day before the start of the "Christmas Season"? (...and how are you supposed to shop if you're all stuffed with food?) Hey, is anyone going out tomorrow to save tons of money standing in endless lines with 10,000 of your closest friends? Just curious...
Excuse me for a sec.
Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!
Ahem.
Christmas itself is fine, but the Christmas season is a total headache. About a month ago (yes, even before Halloween), one of the local radio stations stopped playing regular music and started playing Christmas music. All the time. Lucky for me, there's more than one radio station out here in the boondocks, but still, it irks me to no end simply because it exists.
And I'm not going out tomorrow to buy anything. The traffic itself, I'll imagine, would be enough to scare curdled milk.
Twosome: Bells-- Okay, we'll give in and admit that maybe the season has started: what decorations are you looking forward to seeing in the next few days? ...the lights in the downtown? How about knowing you'll soon have a tree with that memorable ornament? The Toys for Tots drop off? What makes you comfortable knowing the Christmas season is really here?
I don't really care one way or another about the decorations. As far as I'm concerned, the Christmas season had already invaded with that darn radio station. And the extensive Christmas music section that has suddenly invaded the local bookstore a couple weeks ago.
Threesome: are Ringing-- ...in your ears? What song are you just dreading to hear this season? Come on, the one that just makes you scrunch up inside and want to duck into an iron foundry so you can't hear it? Weird Al? Something from "The Nutcracker"? Those dogs? I mean come on, there's some bad stuff out there ...
I think Blogger was trying to tell me something when I couldn't get the post I wrote last night to publish. So this morning, I deleted it. So what was that post about? I was complaining about secretary ladies, that's what. But this morning, in a more clear-headed frame of mind, I realized that it would have been a bad idea to publish it. Secretary ladies are the secret controllers of people's lives. If I annoy them, then it's: Oops--sorry, your transcript for the last couple years apparently has disappeared into oblivion. I guess you'll just have to do everything all over again.
So I'm at the moment waiting to have my car inspected and fitted with snow tires. Yeah, I should have gotten snow tires a month or two ago, but I've been procrastinating, as usual. At least it hasn't snowed yet so I think I'm still in the clear. Now at home, I'm hearing noises coming from the neighbors' apartment. I'm sure they're not arguing because the noises sound more like hammers and electric screwdrivers. I suppose they're trying to fix everything they broke last night (presumably in another fight).
I also figured that at the really slow pace I'm making on Nanowrimo (and I also realized I'm user number 42!), I need to write about 3k a day to reach 50k. This is really bad. The previous years, I was pretty much finished by this time.
A couple months ago, I got earplugs in order to remedy the problem of noisy neighbors. I don't use them all the time though--that's why I still hear all the ruckus going on next door. Of course, last night, they started fighting again at 3 AM so my sleep-addled and annoyed self actually got up to stick earplugs in my ear. When I woke up next, I realized my alarm clock had been beeping for almost twenty minutes. I'm sure that pissed off the neighbors--but it was their own damn fault!
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2004 Weblog Awards. They're taking nominations. I think they have way too many categories. They might has well have a "Best Microbiology Student With Noisy Neighbors Blog" and I would be all over that.
Custom Corset Pattern Generator and T-Shirt Underwear. Even if I knew how to operate a sewing machine, no one would see me in that stuff. And even if they did, they'd run the other way screaming that the end is coming.
Mammatus Clouds. Cool atmospheric phenomena. Although to my eye, they look more like twisty donut sticks--only people with dirty minds would call them "mammatus clouds"!
The Pirate Captain's Log. "A word of advice: when it comes to giant squids, don't tempt fate by claiming that they're easy to defeat."
In relation to the internet, I find the word "bookmark" to be rather unfortunate. I would only bookmark a book not a webpage. Maybe it should be webmark instead. Or even internetmark. Sitemark has a certain ring to it. At any rate, I'll continue using "bookmark" since it's probably the only word people will universally understand when I talk about link organization.
For one thing, I don't use other people's computers so I have no idea what other people's surfing habits are. But I figure, if one could snoop into everyone's personal bookmark list, we could probably get a picture of what each person finds interesting. Actually, looking at the browser history would probably paint a more accurate picture, but let's assume most people are as paranoid as I am and clear the cache fairly frequently.
I once used the browser's bookmark system to store all my links. It gets rather cumbersome especially if you're a hardcore surfer who finds interesting things all the time. So nowadays, I don't use the browser's bookmark system except for temporary storage before I enshrine them forever and ever in the weblog. The links that I visit regularly are located on an html file on my computer which my browser points to as the home page.
I say all of this because earlier today, I was editing my home page. Frankly, that page was getting way too large and I needed to prune it. Of course, I made a copy of the page so I'm not really deleting links off to neverland, but I really needed to axe the links that I hadn't visited for months.
So what did I "throw away" and what did I keep? Well, everyone listed under "042 - Blogroll" can relax. I left that pretty much intact. I did some serious pruning in "043 - Personal Weblogs" though--this is the section which I put every other blog under. I took out everything that I haven't visited in a while, blogs that were discontinued, deleted, and the ones that were just plain not interesting (there were a surprising number of those). Everything under "044 - Journals" is gone. I guess I have no patience for LiveJournals anymore.
All the news, local businesses, and the library links have remained. Everything under the 500s is still there (you can't delete any of the science links, you just can't!) as well as all the recipes under 641. Games and amusements at 793 saw some major shrinkage though. I don't have time for most games. The only notable stuff left there now is Little Fluffy Industries, Monkey Ninjas, WEBoggle, and Weebl and Bob.
I still have a whole bunch of links but it's not so unmanageable now.
On another note: So for anyone who has noticed, yeah, I changed the weblog template/layout last weekend. I have not tested it out on every browser out there, so if you see something weird happening with the layout, don't hesitate to let me know.
There She Is, 'Miss Spinster Thailand' and Proud of It. What I find amusing is all the deadbeat guys who call up the contestants for Miss Spinster and offer them to be their mistresses because they figure these women must be desperate for a man if they apply to this kind of pageant. Little do they know--the women who applied are career women who don't need men.
I'm at the point in my life where most people my age are obsessed with finding The One. You know, Mr./Ms. Right or at least Mr./Ms. Okay or Right Now or Just-Somebody-So-I-Won't-Be-Laughed-At-For-Being-Single. I'm just glad that I'm one of those people who isn't noticed so I can just roll my eyes at the whining and shut my ears. It's not that I don't think people should be entitled to finding a partner--if you find the love of your life, more power to you! I only find it disappointing that so many people choose to cave in to social conditioning and social pressure and start believing that if they don't find someone, there's something wrong with them.
Oh, I just can't wait until I hit 30 when everyone starts complaining about biological clocks and kids.
So I was thinking this morning: What's the degree of separation between bloggers in real life? This is totally disregarding linking and blogrolling. If I read about Blogger X but don't know him/her in real life, how many people do I know in real life who knows that blogger in real life?
What number are you? (via Pharyngula) I'm 9, the peacemaker. It says that I'm emotionally stable and whatnot. Maybe they actually mean emotionally numb? Whatever.
Almost half of Americans believe God created humans 10,000 years ago. Most of the time, I take Gallup polls with a grain of salt. You know, lies, damn lies, and statistics and all that. But frankly, this scares me even though it doesn't really seem surprising at the same time.
Carnival of the Recipes. I suppose if you're any kind of cook, this will be interesting. Or maybe it'll be interesting because the holidays are coming up.
The Ketchup Conundrum. "Mustard now comes in dozens of varieties. Why has ketchup stayed the same?" Good question. A very interesting history of the condiment industry.
Journos and Bloggers: Can Both Survive? These BloggerCon people are acting like weblogging is journalism but in a lot of cases it isn't. It's something different. It's like comparing apples and oatmeal. Besides, journalists have jobs that are at the whim of their publishers. Bloggers can publish anything if they have an internet connection.
World's strongest acid created. "The world's strongest acid, at least a million times more potent than concentrated sulphuric acid, has been made in a lab in California. Perhaps confusingly, it is also one of the least corrosive."
How 'Dungeons' changed the world. An article about the 30th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons--a role playing game for the social nerd. I have never played any role playing games even though some people have tried to convince me to.
Patron Saint of the Nerds. "Here in the oldest church building in New Orleans, tucked into a dark corner by the door as far away from the main altar as possible, stands the statue of St. Expedite -- the unofficial patron saint of hackers."
Hanks may lead 'Da Vinci' movie. Tom Hanks is expected to step into the scholarly shoes of Robert Langdon, the professor who unravels the mystery of the Holy Grail in the film version of Dan Brown's phenomenally successful novel "The Da Vinci Code." This only came to my attention because people I know are totally into this book. I don't know--when I read the book, I did not picture someone like Hanks to be the main character. I pictured someone like Bill Pullman in Spaceballs.
Lard crisis: mince pies threatened as supplies dwindle. "Lard fans regard it as a gastronomic delicacy which makes cakes, pastry and roast potatoes taste fantastic. But others, notably vegetarians, think it is a disgusting animal fat." Add me to the camp of people who thinks lard is disgusting. However, I find it really funny that people are stocking up on lard because there's a shortage.
Google Scholar. Yes, I found this a couple days ago. Sounds like something people can use if they're not already familiar with the other science search engines like PubMed.
Dreamer of the Dark. "Was the most influential horror writer of the 20th century a believer in the paranormal?" A very cool article on H.P. Lovecraft, my favorite horror writer.
Millenium Corral Reefs: Landsat Archive. Some awesome satellite pictures of coastlines and associated coral reefs via a NASA sponsored global coral reef mapping project.
Some people need the forwarding button in their e-mail clients disabled.
Clapping your hands at the computer will not make it open your presentation file. And no, the computer will not open the file if you make crooning noises at it either.
I discovered yesterday that I now have five times as much server space for this website than I originally had and I didn't have to pay anything for the upgrade. Unfortunately, my bandwidth allowance remains the same.
Utterly and completely abandoning realism, make up where you'll be in five years. (via Shawn Allison) I will be taking a permanent vacation in Fiji which will include, among other things, pina coladas and a hot guy who wants to be my slaveboy. If I can't have that, I'd settle for playing curling on a cruise ship.
Onesome: No one-...to talk to? Nah, who is it you look forward to seeing at one of the holidays just to be able to sit around and chat with? Sure, even someone you see during the rest of the year!
My family. (But I won't be seeing them until Christmas.)
Twosome: diets- Have you ever tried one of the "fad" diets out there? Yes, I include Atkins in this category! How did it work for you? Would you do it again or try another one?
No. People I know are trying the South Beach Diet. But they're very miserable about it.
Threesome: on Thanksgiving- What's your favorite dish? Would you be happy just pigging out on turkey, or do you need all the fixings? Does the pumpkin pie make the meal or do you prefer Mom's green bean casserole?
I really don't have a preference for any of the traditional dishes although I always get the nagging feeling that the cranberry sauce is nothing more than glorified jam. Since I will be by myself on Thanksgiving--like the Thanksgivings of the past couple of years--I am going to spend my time writing my novel (if I haven't finished it by then), studying, and experimenting with food protocols, er, I mean recipes.
The people who ate my latest experiment seemed to like it so I might as well share the recipe. Vegetables can be substituted with anything else if you wish. If you're just making it for yourself, you might want to scale it down, but this is ideal for a large group, say, a Thanksgiving gathering of about twenty people.
3 tablespoons vinegar 1/2 cup olive oil squeezed juice from half a lemon a dash of black pepper 1 orange bell pepper, chopped 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped 1/2 red onion, chopped 5-6 oz. of sliced black olives 4 small tomatoes, chopped 1/2 cup green onions, chopped 1/2 cup mint, chopped 1/2 cup parsley, chopped 2 lbs. orzo
Boil a large pot of water and add salt before cooking the orzo. This takes about 10 minutes. Drain and let the pasta cool to room temperature. Meanwhile, add the vinegar and lemon juice and stir in the olive oil and black pepper. Mix the vegetables with the orzo and then add the dressing. The salad can be served at room temperature or chilled.
The biggest flaw about this quiz is that it's multiple choice. You can only pick among those choices. And you can only pick one choice. The following are my real answers to the questions.
1. A big election that you care about is coming up. Do you...
I make sure I don't write anything about the election. You might get an idea for which side I'm leaning toward by my commentary on other, seemingly unrelated, things but you'd have to be really good at reading between the lines.
2. When you blog, do you link to other bloggers?
I only link to other bloggers when a)they've written a particularly interesting post or b)they are the source for a particularly interesting link. If I meet a blogger in real life, I would only link to them in a post if I happen to read their blog on a regular basis. I've met bloggers in real life before but I don't read their blogs on a regular basis (they don't even update on a regular basis, so what's the point?) thus no linky-dinky for them.
3. You like blogs that:
Amuse me. It doesn't really matter what kind of content it is. Whether it's a photoblog, a diary, or a pundit site, if it makes me think or laugh--I'll bookmark it.
4. People like your blog because...
I have absolutely no idea.
I could argue that most people who visit this blog don't like it because they've found it from Google via some stupid and completely random search query that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. I could also argue that most people don't like this blog because of my low rankings on certain blog directories. I guess all the college kids hate it because I don't use IM-speak and I'm just not cool. And everyone else doesn't like it because I don't write about what they would like to read about.
5. How many topics do you usually blog about?
It could be anything.
6. Your biggest blogging pet peeve is:
A lot of things. I despise political blogs because it seems as if the authors just want to find something to get mad about. People who lock their blogs under a private setting so no one can read it except them (if they want private, why don't they just keep the dang thing on their computer instead of the internet?). Blogs with no content. Blogs with bad grammar. Blogs with really, really bad template design. Snotty and obnoxious bloggers. Comment spam. Trolls. Oh, I should just stop here before I go on for another ten pages.
7. Finally, why do you blog?
Ah, it figures that the final question actually has a choice that I find acceptable: "For your own self-amusement, really."
Yep, it's that time of the week again. So go read some cool science-y stuff at Rhosgobel. And even if you're tired of reading, you can always look at Rhosgobel's cute mouse pictures. Much more interesting than my cooking tribulations, anyway.
Why doesn't anyone give me advance warning about these things? Oh, we're having a potluck party on Wednesday. This Wednesday? Somebody please bean me with a bookbag full of textbooks. (And before anyone asks, no, I cannot get out of attending the party.)
Okay, I admit to experimenting with different kinds of potato salad the past couple of weeks, but I'm a cook out of necessity--I want to be able to feed myself without killing myself at the same time. But Wednesday is way too soon. I know you're really busy. You can just buy something and bring it. Oh no you don't. You know I'm not the kind of person who will just cheat and buy a party platter at the local deli. Isn't simply buying something one of those terribly gauche things you should never do at a potluck?
So I looked up a recipe which calls for orzo. What the heck is orzo? You may ask. Orzo is pasta's imitation of rice, that's what. Well, at any rate, now my fridge is filled with colorful vegetables and five pounds of orzo is sitting on my counter. And tomorrow morning before going to school, I'm going to try very hard not to make a mess of the kitchen.
Nowadays, people just take it for granted that ulcers and a variety of other gastric problems can be caused by bacteria. But it wasn't so long ago that mainstream science completely disdained the idea. Ah, it was all about the arrogance of how our bodies (specifically our stomachs) could somehow stop the microbes in their tracks.
In 1893, Guilio Bizzozero published the observation that there were spiral-shaped bacteria in the dog gut. This was confirmed by another scientist, Hugo Salomon, three years later. In the early twentieth century, W. Krienitz saw these spiral-shaped bacteria in the guts of patients who had stomach cancers. However, the medical and scientific establishment didn't pay much attention to these findings until the early 1980's. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall noticed the presence of Helicobacter pylori in inflammed areas of stomach biopsies. Frustrated that other specialists in the field didn't believe their observations, Marshall drank a broth of H. pylori* to prove his point.
But this doesn't mean that we're all passive hosts subject to the whims of our bacterial overlords. Bacteria in our gut can either be commensal or pathogenic and the host needs a way to distinguish between the two before the badly behaved bacteria wreak too much havoc. In the innate immune system, cells can sense bacteria through pattern-recognition receptors or PRRs. For macrophages, a type of mobile immune cell not unlike a cop in a patrol car, the PRRs are expressed on the surface. So whenever the PRRs come in contact with key bacterial motifs, the macrophage gets activated. Other types of cells, such as the epithelial cells in our gastrointestinal tract, get to see bacteria all the time. One would expect that these cells also express PRRs on the surface in order to detect bacteria. But this isn't the case! The PRRs in these cells are expressed internally instead.
If these receptors are expressed inside the cell, how on earth are they going to detect the bacteria outside? Here's the rub--they can detect bacteria from the inside because pathogenic bacteria are behaving badly. Intercellular pathogens think it's a great idea to get into the cell and make a little home for themselves. Once they get inside the cell, that's when they're caught. But what about the extracellular pathogens? That's where Viala et al. come in.
These researchers were working on Helicobacter pylori and the problem of how epithelial cells could sense the bacterium. H. pylori is an extracellular pathogen so one could ask, do the epithelial cells have some sort of sensor on their surface that helps detect the bacteria? In mice without Nod1, a type of PRR, H. pylori infection was more likely. But Nod1 is found inside epithelial cells, not outside. Viala et al. discovered that Nod1 was sensing the bacteria because H. pylori was injecting virulence factors into the cell by a type IV secretion apparatus** which acts like a syringe.
So a pathogen's bad behavior--whether it invades a cell or remains outside--is its undoing. Because many noninvasive pathogenic bacteria do secrete virulence factors into host cells while commensal bacteria don't, this actually turns out to be a great way for the host to distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys without triggering too many false alarms.
*This kind of thing seems amusing in hindsight, but please don't try this at home. Or at lab for that matter. Just take this anecdote as a reminder that we should try to be clever enough to devise experiments to prove a point without endangering ourselves.
**For the curious or for those who just need your memory refreshed, a secretion apparatus is basically a machine constructed of proteins which bridge the gap between the bacterial membranes and the host membrane to transport bacterial products into the host cell. The type IV secretion apparatus is related to the conjugation machinery in which bacteria exchange genetic material.
More than once, I have wondered what my neighbors would do if they discovered that I wrote about them and their stupid antics for the entire internet to read about. I don't indicate their names, of course, so they could never google themselves and find this page--but what if they do read this and finally put two and two together?
Anyways, I just want to say that I find their arguments frightening.
Last night, I thought I was finally going to get some decent amount of uninterrupted sleep--the first in perhaps two weeks. In the wee hours of the morning, I was jerked awake by an obscenity-ladden roar and loud crashes. Yep, it was one of those screaming, kicking, tantrum-imploding, knock-down, drag out, lamp-smashing fights again.
Somehow, I managed to get back to sleep. Maybe my body was too tired to care about the ruckus.
I don't understand why some people get so destructive when they're angry. It's seems so terribly uncivilized. No, I'm not trying to be snotty. I get angry too but I don't go around throwing things and being all potty-mouthed. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I dislike how some people lose all control of themselves. If you have a disagreement, can't you just talk it out?
Oh never mind, I forgot, those people think talking is for sissies and that the only way to solve something is to beat the crap out of the other side.
In the crisp morning, a gray squirrel and a black bird stood on a step halfway on a stair that rose from the bottom of a hill that started from the parking lot to the top where a walkway led to the main entrance of the medical school. The two animals, for a long moment, did not notice me trudging up the stairs.
Beady eyes glared into beady eyes. The squirrel clutched an acorn to his chest, his bushy tail poised like a deadly katana. The black bird cocked his head, arrogant and amused. These two were the same size and evenly matched. When they finally heard my footsteps, the two moved away from each other. Dried leaves crackled as they stepped onto the ground at either side of the steps. They still stared at each other, perhaps trading silent insults.
The Electric Sheep Screensaver. The collective dreaming of computers. However, I'm too paranoid to leave my computer connected to the internet all the time.
Let them eat cake. An essay pondering on the reasons why French women (as opposed to British or American women) stay slim. I don't really care so much about the blabber about dieting and losing weight, but the point about enjoying food somewhat stuck with me. I don't eat frozen meals or food out of cans. I find myself just naturally staying away from the snacks/canned food/cereal aisles at the grocery store. But I don't take two hours to enjoy lunch. Most of my meals are hit and go and I don't really pay attention to what I'm eating. I suppose I'd enjoy life more if I did take two hours off for lunch, but everyone else would think I've totally bounced off my rocker.
Alien Loves Predator. Heh. A webcomic. Two horror flick villains live the life of horny geekboys in the Big Apple. Except all the girls run away from them.
Speaking Tonal Languages Promotes Perfect Pitch. Interesting theory. I'm the most fluent in English although I was first exposed to Cantonese and French. I always had the impression that it was innate--or maybe it was just because I read an article somewhere in which the author just made stuff up. Until one of my former cello teachers told me I had perfect pitch, I never really thought I had the ability when I tuned anything because it seemed very automatic.
Sex, Weblogging, and Power. Actually, I think a good number of people command large audiences because they pander to the baser instincts (even though that's not the primary focus).
At 50, TV dinner is still cookin'. This stuff is gross but people keep eating it because it's fast. I'm thinking the TV dinner might change in the future, but definitely not the concept. I don't see society slowing down at all--unless, say, something catastrophic happens.
Wal-Marts in Germany Redefine The Term 'Checkout Aisle'. Picking up dates at Wal-Mart. That's just too weird for me. Whenever I go into a store, I get what I need and get the heck out. I don't want to meet anyone. Except the bookstore. But I'm checking out books, not guys.
This morning, a librarian interrupted me in the midst of studying and held up a plant in a vase. "Do you think this looks good in this planter?"
How the heck should I know? I have zero decorating sensibility. So my smart answer was an, "Err..."
She dunked the plant on top of the desk and went off to retrieve a couple more plants. "Do you think these will look better in it?"
"I think they're a little too short for this vase," I replied. I had decided to just make something up so she could go away.
"You're probably right." She picked up the plant in the vase and wandered off, this time debating to herself where to put the plant.
Whew.
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Pharyngula says: "You know, the only biological advantage to males is that females need us; we’re really a kind of sexual parasite that takes advantage of the female investment in energy and apparatus to reproduce cheaply."
Thank you for reminding me of something that will probably morph into a nightmarish symbol for my school work that will haunt me in the 30 minutes of sleep I will get tonight:
Hopefully they will be no worse than the fast-moving, sentient bacteria I dreamed up about a month or two ago. Or the giant toad-sized spider I squashed in my dreams last week--only to have a million tiny spiders erupt from the corpse. Oh yeah, combined with the nightmares I mentioned in the last post, you probably don't want to see what's broiling in my subconscious right now.
So it's that time of year again. No, I don't mean the holiday where people wear black and think about dead people. You know, the day where most people expect party hats and cake made with too much shortening. For me, it started off with a bang in a nightmare about walking on a mountain road alone. Yesterday's nightmare was more impressive--lots of bright orange crawly grubs and the rodents the size of dogs with evil black eyes that gave birth to them.
Anyways, I hope most people in real life don't realize why this day is peculiar to me. Because then they'll expect me to expect something out of them.
Onesome: World-- Okay, you've been here; you've been there. ...or maybe not. Is there someplace you think it would be cool to spend a holiday? Christmas in the Alps? St. Patrick's Day in Erie? Oh, sure, take the entire family if you'd like!
Tibet, during one of their traditional holidays. I don't know any of their traditional holidays though. (And yeah, I picked that out of thin air.)
Twosome: Weary-- Have you ever had to deal with jet lag? How have you handled it? ...and which direction is worse for you, going East or going West? Just curious...
No.
Threesome: Traveler-- When you've traveled, what conveyance has bothered you the most? That camel in Morocco? The train ride through the Rockies? Your brother-in-law's Dodge? What just set your nerves on edge?
There was this boat ride from Hong Kong to Canton in which I was seasick the entire way through.
Some enchanted author. The most interesting bit of news from this article is that Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is going to be made into a movie. Usually I'm pretty doubtful that a book to film translation is going to go well at all, but I'm somewhat mollified by the fact that the same people who did Lord of the Rings got their hands on this.
Veiled Conceit. "A glimpse into that haven of superficial, pretentious, pseudo-aristocratic vanity: The NY Times' Wedding & Celebration Announcements." This blogger is absolutely hilarious (so much so that I'm tempted to use instant messaging acronyms and l33t speak). Hm, the love lives of the rich. They all sound like characters of romance novels that are so bad they end up in the slush pile.
Three years ago, I made an account on Blogger with very little idea of what I was getting into. I know, for some people, three years is an incredibly short period of time, but in blog years it's a lot. (Well, it's a lot compared to the poor blogs that just have a "testing" post and then are abandoned.) Maybe it's the equivalent of being middle-aged, but fortunately, no mid-life crisis for this blog yet. I haven't yet changed to a snazzier blogging platform or skinned the layout to bright red. The blog isn't having an affair with another blogger behind my back (or at least I don't think it is). But I do sort of feel like it's getting crankier with every post like an old man who sits on his porch ranting about kids these days. Or maybe that's just me.
The annual complaints: I am totally stressed right now because I'm trying to finish my quals before the end of the year. My sleeping patterns have gone to hell. I'm not in lab as much as I'd like to be. And when my neighbors decide to have one of their little domestic dramas, they're a pain in the ass.
This afternoon I was at the Dirt Cowboy Cafe (which for some reason, I always mentally think of as Dirty Cowboy Cafe) writing with some other Nano-ers. Of course, as expected with these kind of things, the guy who first suggested the write-in as well as time to meet never showed up. Maybe he was scared to meet people he first contacted online. Because, you know, online people can be a little kooky and scary.
On my own, I would have never gone into a cafe to work on writing let alone even getting coffee there because, well, I'm just not that kind of person. I felt really odd sitting at a table in the cafe, pounding on the keyboard of my laptop and occasionally sipping a mocha java. If I was wearing all black, it would have completed my transformation to a tortured artist who spends all her time lurking in coffee places.
Besides, it turns the act of writing into a social thing--to see and be seen--which to me seems like a completely oxymoronic activity. I've always viewed writing as solitary and somewhat narcisstic. Ah, it would have been much cooler if the cafe was completely filled with writers and not yuppies and students who are yuppies-in-training.
At least I got some words down. Definitely not as many as other people--my technique primarily consists of typing slowly because my thoughts are going slowly--but I've gotten the most done in one sitting since the month began.
The one thing I hate about the local laundromat is the television. Yes, I've mentioned that television is evil, but this one is extra evil because the only things it plays is country music videos, sports, soaps, and conservative network news. To say the least, it's a rather hellish two hours. I was only slightly amused this time because some FOX news commentator was ranting about how evil the internet is. I wondered what sites he visited to make him come to that conclusion.
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Links that I should have posted a long time ago:
Blogger's Head Explodes. Yeah, meaningless rhetoric can do that to a person if they take things too seriously.
The Loner Test. Some questions assume you have a significant other. Real loners don't have significant others.
Blog Explosion. For people who are desperate for traffic. I don't know. This site looks like it's been designed by a committee of PR people. And no, I haven't tried it. I have no desire to see my blog explode.
The Word on the Street. (via Monkeyfilter) From the broadsides at the National Library of Scotland. Broadsides could be thought of as the ancestor to the tabloid. Some really cool stuff.
OS-tan. My first thought: Some horny geekboy must have made this up.
Some election maps: By state (purple), by county (purple), another one by county (black and white...er...I mean, blue and red only). I like the purple maps because they show that things aren't so clear cut as some people would like for you to believe. Update: This link (via Kottke) has both county maps adjusted for population. Makes one wonder how many more maps people will churn out with data manipulation.
The Science of Sex: Glenn Wilson on the Coolidge Effect. Some people will try to make the argument that you can't extrapolate data from rats and sheep to predict the behavior of humans. Well, maybe so or maybe not, but all I can say is that social norms make a lot of things more complicated.
The Hidden Door Company (via Boing Boing) Great idea. If I had my own home, I might try to install one or two of these. Better yet, cover all the walls with bookcases so a first time visitor will have no idea how to get out of the room.
I feel as if someone who is really mad at me has stuffed me into a high pressure cooker and turned on the heat to high. I just want to curl up into a fetal position and whimper.
Because no one, absolutely no one, will wish me a happy anything.
I had written up a couple of posts yesterday but I couldn't post them, due to the problem mentioned in the post below. Now thinking back on it, I think that was a good thing. No need to put something knee-jerking and stupid here. Actually, it happens more often than you think--I type up a post and then for one reason or another, decide not to post it. Being a blogger can be extremely revealing, but I don't want to be too revealing.
I should have posted this yesterday. I should have posted a lot of things yesterday. But Blogger was down. I had my suspicions about why it was down, but at any rate, now I can post. And now I can tell you to go to The Sixth International to read the bi-weekly web's finest science posts compilation. I'm sure you'll find it a lot more interesting than the repetitive blabber of certain Famous Bloggers.
Onesome: Winnie the Pooh-- What was your favorite book series as a kid? Was there one you tried to find the complete set to read? ...or maybe just one book you remember well?
Isaac Asimov's Norby the Mixed-Up Robot series. They weren't the first sci-fi books that I read, but I think they were the first to really introduce me to the genre.
Twosome: and the-- holidays are just around the corner? Are you ready for things? ...or are you too immersed in life to even think about it?
Uh, no. I have enough stuff to worry about without the holidays.
Threesome: Blustery Day-- Hey, what do you like to do on a stormy day when you're not working or in school? Do you curl up with a book? Watch TV? Bake? How do you pass the time when you don't feel like going "out in it"?
