Thursday, June 26, 2008

Nick Drake, Liz Phair and the Sugarplastic

So, these are the bands that Dean liked in season 1 of the Gilmore Girls. I downloaded a Sugarplastic album from itunes because I like Liz Phair and Nick Drake and I was thinking that Dean and I have a lot in common (season 1 Dean, of course, not the later stupider Dean). It turns out that it's true, I like the Sugarplastic. So, now, I'm scouring Gilmore Girls episodes for the music that they discuss, particularly in the first season. I am using this website to help me. One exciting thing that I discovered is that I have a lot of this music on my iPod already so I made a Gilmore Girls playlist and bought another three albums, which I had intended to buy already (the White Stripes-White Blood Cells [I only had Elephant], Pavement-Westing [My Slanted and Enchanted tape won't go onto my iPod], and Tom Waits-Real Gone). I'm enjoying myself but am sensing a feeling of impending doom as my husband realizes that, not only am I spending money on music, but that I'm doing it because of the Gilmore Girls. So far, he has not put these things together, talkative as I am. I need more Bjork now, as well as the Breeders, these bands that I enjoyed while I was constantly able to hear them via the radio and other people's parties but now miss because of the passage of time. Also, I need to reinstate music in my life. I listened to my iPod a lot when I was visiting Boston and riding the train but I find that between audiobooks in the car and a ban on iPods in my lab, I'm missing some serious music appreciation in my life. I blasted my iPod from the little portable speakers at my house last night. I think Kevin liked it :) What he liked was that the music was in the kitchen so I cooked.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue...

My in-laws had their 40th anniversary this weekend. I have been married for 3 years. I have a friend who is looking at an impending marriage. Someone at my gym has a husband with leukemia. These things together have caused me to consider what it all means. I haven't come to any conclusions but I'm hoping that, with some careful attention, I may be able to do what I do in order to organize information and that is to come up with some themes. I'm going to use a numbering system and start with the easiest:

(1) Sometimes life is incredibly sucky. It is critical to me to have someone around to take care of me when things are not so great. I lost my mom last year and having a partner in the whole thing, imperfect though any partner can be, having a partner made things dramatically more palatable. My sister was very very helpful and her role was absolutely indispensible, without her, the whole thing would have been much worse, though that's difficult to believe. But, my sister and I rarely sleep together and also she was going through the same terrible thing and couldn't very well be stronger than me. So, bottom line, I was very glad to have someone who knew me and cared about me and also someone who knew my mom and cared about her and my dad and everyone else.

(2) It is good to be known. I have strengths as well as weaknesses. My family know many of them but we don't spend that much time together anymore. I need for people to know that, if I get to the place where I'm crying, things are extra bad and that, if I don't have enough food, I will become angry and that, working very hard at things is sort of new for me and I'm proud when I do it. I think that long-time friends can fill this need but I don't actually have very many of those. Also, when I'm even older, fatter, and stinkier that I am now, I would like someone to remember how I was before.

(3) Sharing is hard. So is compromising. I don't like either of these things. I don't want to do them. Not now, not ever. Probably I'm a better person, the more I do these things but I don't like it. Again, close friends and family would likely teach me these strengths but the older I get, the less those people demand from me, especially when I don't live with any of them.

(4) Being known is annoying. I have weaknesses. I know I do. I still get to judge other people and I don't want to be held accountable. Also, just because you're getting on my nerves doesn't mean that you should be allowed to point out how annoying I am. It may be fair but I don't like it.

(5) Sometimes life is good. On the one hand, it's nice when we can all recognize how good life is at the same time. On the other, sometimes things are going well for me and I don't want my bubble burst by someone else's bad day. I have a terrific day, come home, open a nice book and a bottle of wine, and start to appreciate things when Mr. Doom-and-gloom walks in and starts stomping around, watching TV, and guzzling my wine, which he doesn't even really like... the whole thing is destroyed.

(6) Having stuff that I didn't earn is fun. So, in a marriage, it's nice if what's yours is mine. This doesn't mean that I don't hate the fact that what's mine is yours. How about if I just get everything? That's fair. I think that's fair.

So, maybe the moral of the story falls into one of my themes for understanding life, which is that the good part of a situation is always also the bad part. This theme makes it hard to place things into categories in terms of whether or not I like the things because all the up-sides have down-sides and vice versa so I always end up on the fence. I guess that the thing to do is position the upside/downside list together with stars indicating how much you hate the downsides and how much you need the upsides. The grown-up thing to do then is to try and keep the upside of whatever it is in mind at the time that it's acting like its downside. For example, when my husband "joked" that he was going to "drop the iron fist" with regard to money management, I could have kept in mind that our house is nicer than the one I lived in when I was single instead of telling him that he could take his iron fist and shove it up his iron ass. Anyway, these things are very hard. Fortunately, I've already made this decision and what I need to do is learn to live with it. That's easier than the initial decision.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

It's time to talk about my gym...

As anyone who knows me knows, I'm in love with my gym. It's Sonz in Midtown Atlanta. If you watch the little movie there on the site for long enough, you'll see me. You should note, however, that the movie was made on January 18th and that I'm much better now. I lift heavier weight, anyway. The philosophy at my gym is associated with a current fitness trend called CrossFit. It's kind of a cult. I've never really been an athelete so it's fun for me to get strong and good at something. Also, as I begin to become competitive, it's also fun to win competitions. I find that the situation for me is that, it's not so much that I'm not a competitive person, it's that I don't like to lose. The result is that I rarely compete. Now, Kevin, my husband, was in a little CrossFit Challenge competition thing this past weekend and he did quite well. I'm going to put up some pictures. This is the sort of thing we do:
Yay! Fun! Kevin had quite a respectable time. I was afraid of the competition because of the pull-ups (which I cannot do) but it turns out that there were modifications you were allowed to make (such as standing on a box or using a giant rubberband) and I ended up regretting my lack of participation. Primarily because it caused all of the people around the competition to talk to me like I was an infant when, in fact, I could have kicked most of their asses :) So, you see how the competitive thing is coming out. It turns out that I'm quite strong but, in order to get good times, I'm going to have to work on my cardio (i.e., running), which I suck at. Slow slow slow. Anyway, you only get good at the things you practice so...running it is...poop. But, in the next CrossFit challenge, I plan to kick some ass.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Pig in Boots

This pig wearing "wellies" is maybe the cutest thing I've ever seen. Don't despair about the fact that his owners are in the sausage-making business. This pig is only a pet.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Water conservation and economic theory


I heard a little local piece on npr yesterday about water restrictions in Atlanta. The interviewer asked whether or not we should charge higher prices for water, just like gasoline, in order to regulate usage. Now, here's where I wish I had a degree in economics. This is my understanding of the situation: (1) We live in a capitalist society and, by these rules, supply and demand are king and queen. Regulation is based exclusively on price, and (2) We don't actually live in a strictly capitalist society because we don't like to see our poor, elderly, mentally ill, and disabled citizens die in the streets. (3) Therefore, while capitalist rules can govern issues like gasoline, lack of which hurts but doesn't kill, regulations are in place to dictate use of necessary resources LIKE WATER.

Now, if there's someone out there who knows about this, it would be good to hear from you. The interviewee in this particular npr story pointed out that, in Cobb County, the single largest user of water is a dude. A rich dude who has a lot of acreage that he likes to water. He can afford to pay the bill and he likes his grass to be green. On the other hand, working people in Atlanta are already feeling the pinch of high water prices and shouldn't have to drink rainwater to survive. Now, granted, we're probably a long way from having to drink our own urine but people need showers and clean clothes to keep their jobs. Also, kids enjoy slip'n'slides in summer and shouldn't have to give those things up while other people are maintaining acres and acres of green green grass (e.g., golf courses). So, to me, this is where regulations come in. It's related to the tragedy of the commons and the prisoner's dilemma. Also, I'm not talking fines, I'm saying, you turn off people's water when they can't pay their bills. Turn it off when they over-water. They can drive their SUVs to the closest motel and shower there...like mine...shown below...it gets good gas mileage people! And it's a LEV (low emissions vehicle). Fine! I can drive my SUV to the closest motel and shower there...my lawn is brown. I just want you to know that, for the record.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Just in case...


I'm not sure that more than one person is reading my blog, but I don't want people to lose interest because I'm posting infrequently so, I'm just going to continue. I have two things to talk about in one day. They're unrelated. First of all, I've learned a lot about selecting vehicles based on my recent vehicle purchase, and I want to share the website I found regarding emissions rankings: http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles. Now, something that I've noticed, is that you have to type in your state to get information about a particular vehicle, which made me wonder what's going on. Apparently car manufacturers make special cars for Californians. So, if you're really interested in having low emissions, the thing to do is to purchase your car in California. For the record, Kevin bought an atomic blue Honda Element EX, as shown above. The XM radio is my favorite thing about it. Also, the windows are tinted and the windshield's straight-up-and-down quality keeps the sun out so it's not hot, even though it's broiling outside.

The other thing I'd like to share is the Harvard commencement speech by JK Rowling. Fascinating. I'm not sure, yet, what I'd like to say about this speech but the jokes are funny.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

ASM2008

So, I'm spending the week at ASM and, in the spirit of mimicking my dear innocent abroad, I'm going to list some of my observations about my fellow microbiologists:

(1) Changes in schedule, spatial layout, or plans of any kind tend to cause mass confusion and anger, presumably because the talk that each individual intended to attend was/is so important to his/her life that he/she does not believe that others would neglect its importance by confusing him/her. I have been in very few crowds which respond so poorly to confusion. It's like you've stolen their luggage or lost their child if you mis-label a sign. This makes me wonder a lot about item number two:

(2) They show very little tolerance for ignorance. Social gatherings are wrought with phrases such as, "What do you mean you've never heard of a proteozome?!?" I sort of think that the more facts you accumulate, the more difficult it is for you to have organic, flexible thought processes.

(3) Dressing up for presentations is difficult for people who spend their time, primarily in the laboratory. Therefore, there is some sort of correlation between how strangely people dress and how much time they spend in the laboratory. Nude pantyhose, polyester, and ill-fit are some good hallmarks of someone who has been in a laboratory for more than 60 hours/week for more than a year or so. Time outside of the laboratory for social events and other life activities such as watching television appears to mediate this effect.

(4) Derogatory discussions of undergraduate students is a popular pasttime. In a talk about teaching, the following quote was heard, with regard to the fact that a survey suggested that students felt that the presenter's course was unlike his/her other courses, "Yeah, I bet it was." Now, as the recent nytimes article on sarcasm pointed out, without tone of voice, it's hard to translate this sentence. So, I'll try to add this information: There was a distinct drop in pitch, accompanied by a sort of growling/grunting sound associated with the "Yeah" and the rest was said sort of out of the corner of the speaker's mouth. This presentation was intended to help us all learn how to improve our teaching...

(5) The more important you are, the less you should be expected to refrain from taking phone calls during talks. Actually, there's some sort of delta(importance) factor that needs to be considered between speaker and phone-talker.

So, the up-side is that I saw two talks that inspired me [out of how-ever many half-hour talks fit into three days (so far)]. The down-side is that my advisor doesn't care about my work and I can't think of any good way to become the speakers who inspired me.

Wait, before I go, let me share the following conversation between myself and my advisor, that took place before I left for the meeting, while standing in his office doorway:

Me: Okay, well, if you don't want to see my poster again, I guess I'll call you when we get to Boston.
Him: SIGH I'm all poster-ed out.
Me: Do I have your cell phone number?
Him: Why?
Me: So that I can find you at the meeting?
Him: SIGH 678-
Me: Wait, let me get my phone.
Him: SIGH
Me: OK, 678...
Him: I won't be there for your poster.
Me: OK...
Him:
Me: I'll just see you there then...