January 2009
1 post
April 2008
12 posts
An open letter to soda fountain lurkers
Dear Soda Fountain Lurkers (SFLs)- Why do you feel it is necessary to stand really close behind me while I fill my drink cup? Do you think that your proximity might alter the mechanical properties of the soda fountain, making it dispense its hydrocarbonated water at an elevated rate? I don’t think it will. Do you think I’m leaving with a half full cup? I’m not. All you’re...
It's SCIENCE!
So guess what internet friends! I’m here in my lab waiting for my frog embryos to reach stage 27 so I can image them. It’s almost eleven pm, here in Austin. That might have sounded bitter but it wasn’t meant to. I love my “job.” I’m basically paid to screw around, take pictures, and learn esoteric facts. It’s pretty awesome! Granted, it is kind of...
novelty bars
aleck: while talking with my buddy grant last night, he mentioned i should come with him to this bar he likes alot because they have skeeball. i dont know if the ‘novelty bar’ ratio is higher in portland (ahem ground kontrol) or not, but it seems to me that it is. with that in mind i think i should start one. any ideas for a hip novelty bar? My friend and I once had an idea for a science themed...
P.s.
Meg- Can you send my zucchini bread to texas by (instant) air mail? I’ll just stand outside and catch the (hopefully) still warm deliciousness! Thanks- Eric
Safety contest
megsawardwinningblog: Please write a paragraph about how safe you feel. Just in general. The person with the most vague description wins zucchini bread. Yeah, safe. I feel…safe. The noxious chemicals are all stored according to EH&S regulations, the acids separate from the bases, the oxidizers cloistered away from the reductants. Who knows or cares that labs are dumping radiation down...
Dear internet diary...
Big things are afoot.
“I told her not to boil them because they’re so fucking expensive.”
– Tae Joo, labmate and generally reserved man, referring to antibody conjugated beads. To sum up: best lab meeting ever!
Let's put our library cards on the table
Meg reminded me of just how much I loved (and to a great extent still love) Reading Rainbow. I think it’s because of LeVar Burton, the man who can go anywhere in space and time, from the Antebellum South, to the Final Frontier, or anyplace I can think of. He even gets to hang out with Kermit
"It's the scientific community, man." - 44:05
I think I’m gonna use this excuse to steal crap from some of my neighbor labs. When they arrest me, this will be my legal defense.
Pescespada Island - 21:02
Pesce Spada = Fish Sword. I’ve never had swordfish, and I often wonder what it tastes like. I just like the imagery of the sword fish.
Bowiegese
I have just undertaken to watch The Life Aquatic again. Every time I watch it I get a little something more out of it. If I unearth any particularly great gems, I will let you, tumblr world, know.
Because I Said So - Episode 1
So I am just egotistical enough to make recommendations of things about which I have little knowledge (just about everything). Here are some things I think you should checkout (unless you want to be uncool) Movies: Tsotsi - Pretty great! Le Samouri - French new wave meets film noirBooks Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell - Orwell’s account of the Spanish Civil War and why the communists...
FbFFs; or why I am (apparently) sad and lonely
Facebook: it’s a problem. Now I have a pretty interleaved relationship with the flagship of social networking tied down with strands of one-off friendships and almost acquaintances. In fact I’m pretty sure the following is a generalized form of the process: “hey you’re that guy I met that one time at that really shitty party and said hi to, let’s be facebook friends...
March 2008
5 posts
Titular titillation, ting!
Sometimes I like alliteration. Oh and I also like onomatopoeias. A tumbling tumbledown tumbler of tumbleweeds.
Through a Glass Darkly; or, What the Hell is Going...
I’ve alluded to my burgeoning passion for old movies here before, and yestereven I watched Ingmar Bergman’s Through a Glass Darkly. This film is the first of his trilogy on Man’s relation to God, his need to know, and the idea of God as a negative presence. Bergman is semi-famous for exploring such questions in a very minimal style by reducing everything to its essentials. This...
Oh, also...
I gladly include myself in the hipster asshat category, I just don’t like having to deal with so many of them.
So you want to be a hipster asshat?
South by southwest (or, for all you hip acronym kids, SXSW) started in earnest yesterday evening. There are hipsters everywhere. Seriously, there is not a single part of Austin where you can’t find some jackass in tight jeans, black converse and his official badge proclaiming his jerk-off status. Granted I’ve only lived in Austin for eight months, but I’m just as pissed off as...
February 2008
7 posts
Tricked Again...
Re: Last Post So I couldn’t resist any longer and I typed in the web address. It took me to a sight for a terrible christian rock band called BlueEyedSoul, with the song I won’t deny you all about how the only truth in the world is Jesus Christ. There were no sexy ladies at all. I then checked the address and realized that I had forgotten an s at the end. I finally ended up at the...
Errol Flynn is Kind of a Douche
I wonder if I’m alone in having this thought. I watched Robin Hood (the one with Flynn, not that other “actor”) as part of my recent binge on old movies. The whole film revolves around Flynn being a jackass and getting away with it. This fits in well with the character as he relates to the Sheriff of Nottingham and the Norman nobility. But he’s also just generally a dick,...
Orwell Might Have Seen This One Coming
According to Personal DNA I will be your kind master, a paternalistic autocrat with a heart of gold. I tend to think that online tests of you as a person are, to use a charming Texan expression, horseshit. I mean they ask you to be honest about yourself. Clearly these people have no experience with people.
In other news
Also at Cloverfield we saw this preview. Awesome!
Ain't they just like monsters
So we went to see Cloverfield today. I enjoyed it—but I wasn’t expecting too much. What was more interesting than the movie itself was the crowd’s reaction at the end. One guy said right as the film ended, “That was the stupidest movie I’ve ever seen.” My group was running the gamut of possible views. My general apathy and thinking it was okay was bordered by...
Shifting sands...and notes?
I watched Lawrence of Arabia yesterday. A great deal has been said about this film, most of it by men and women in possession of far keener cinematic minds than mine, and so I refrain from any direct commentary. I was struck, however, by the manner in which the film’s score was able to conjure the desolate dunes of the Arabian peninsula. The bombastic orchestral pieces were, for me, strong...
January 2008
2 posts
Strange Geometry
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted to this thing, but it’s not as if anyone reads it anyway. I recently took a trip home to Cascadia for the holidays. The molecular biology program was generous enough to give me seven whole days off. I miss being an undergrad, boozing it up and lazing about. Henry shares my sentiment, but unlike him I’m not making wads of cash. In any...
November 2007
6 posts
If you could, would you?
I was going to go on a rant about the Georgia situation, unrest in Tbilisi, and the possible fall of another Bush groomed “democratic” leader (the parallels to pakistan are striking). I don’t think I will though. Today’s just too wonderful of a day to be bothered.
Instead I hope you will enjoy the following poem by Billy Collins:
I Ask You
What scene would I want to...
The most hilarious sadness ever... →
The American Policy Dichotomy...
Since the tragic attacks of 9/11 America has had two overriding goals in its foreign policy: (1) fight global terrorism and ensure stability; (2) spread “democracy” to the world. However, there is a dichotomy inherent in any policy based around these two goals. This dichotomy is readily illustrated by the current situation in Pakistan.
For those of you who live under rocks, isolated...
Fun Cubed: Day 2
Once again I am suffering from lack of sleep induced madness coupled with a day spent listening to wonderful music, so this is just a short update to highlight some excellent moments from the second day of fun fun fun fest.
I Love You, But I’ve Chosen Darkness—This is possibly the best name for an indie pop band ever. They weren’t super unique or great but they deserve an...
Fun Cubed: Day 1
Today was the first day of the Fun Fun Fun Fest here in Austin. It was incredible. I’m tired so I’ll stick to some highlights. Maybe I’ll post a more comprehensive overvies/review sometime later this week.
Day 1 Highlights
Small Sins—Small Sins were probably the single most incredible band I saw today (in fact we went to their after party this evening) . They are...
October 2007
18 posts
Regarding my last post: I’d forgotten how much I actually like the Postal Service.
And Then There Were...
I spent an inordinate amount of time today watching student film projects set to Postal Service songs on youtube. Most of them were awful, some were good.
This one is interesting, though very literal.
Zombies at the Capitol
Zombie walking was awesome! We started out crossing the Colorado on the South Congress bridge and lurched, shuffled, and otherwise slowly made our way to the state capitol where we held out on the benefits of a pro-brain policy, with strong ties to neo-zombieism and a strong anti-vampism campaign. This was—of course—all communicated by growls. Bless the kind people of Austin who just...
Wes Anderson Does it Again. Literally.
Last night I finally made it out to see Wes Anderson’s latest offering. The thing that I can say most definitively about it is that it is a Wes Anderson film.
In each of his previous films Anderson has built a world in miniature. His attention to the visual minutiae of these pseudo-realistic worlds often overshadows his study of his characters. This is on no level an indictment of Anderson...
For, Lo, There Shall Be Culture...
Having by and large turned my back on the trappings and strictures of the hollow shadow play of middle class America, I find myself a man without a culture. Granted I slot easily into that angst-riddled twenty-something hipster crowd, but that’s really a movement founded on negation and put down rather than a culture.
I pondered this today as I was walking across campus and was assaulted...
A New Low For Facebook
Being the bored, technologically savvy narcissist that I am, I was browsing facebook, when an ad caught my eye. It was directed towards those who had just broken up and guaranteed “[you will] get your Ex back”. Alright, break-ups suck, they do. Usually they happen for a reason though, and while one person may desperately wish to cling to the shards of whatever fantasy they imagined...
A (not so) Subtle Phenomenon?
So Sunday is going to be a great day! Red letter, I say!
Sunday is the Alamo Draft-house ZombieWalk here in Austin. For those of you unaware of these amazing events, everyday people show up in zombie costumes (torn rags, blood, gore etc) and march—or dare I say lurch—around a city or town. You can also come dressed as a member of the elite military counter zombie unit, but...
Letters
Letters are anachronistic in today’s world. With instantaneous messaging, something that takes a whole week to get where it’s going necessarily loses it’s importance in communicating news and current events.
On the other hand, I argue that letters have an intrinsic value in terms of the thought and effort we put into them. It takes a commitment and time to compose a letter, and...
Speaking of Discussions...
Over lunch today several of my friends and I had a wonderful discussion about politics and economy. It was refreshing.
I don’t feel like I’m going crazy; other people have opinions and ideas similar to mine.
I don’t know why we haven’t tried this before. Maybe we were each waiting for the others to bring it up.
My friends make salient, intelligent points.
On writing...
Occasionally I like to pretend I’m a good author, with both technical finesse and an ability to make the language sparkle and smile mischievously.
This is a verifiably false sentiment.
My Friends All Have Cooler Jobs Than Me
I love science, I really do. But I can’t help but be a little jealous of my friendHenry who recently landed a pretty incredible job as editor in chief of two recycling publications back in Portland.
I mean running columns is about as fascinating as watching grass grow or paint dry—and it’s slower than both. It’s not what I plan on doing for the next five years, but...
“You’ve got more vacancies now than a hotel in hurricane season”
– Professor Paul C. Light, on the numerous senior level vacancies in the Bush government.
Working Myself Into A Fervor
I was talking with a good friend of mine the other evening for several hours. I’d almost forgotten what it’s like to have the kind of in depth conversation that whiles away the hours and challenges the brain cells. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend that you find someone with shared interests and divergent knowledge.
Conversing is a skill that’s quickly losing...
A Slow, Respectful Clap for Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood joined the WWII movie bandwagon a while ago, but I just finally got around to watching his two part study of Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima.
Each of these films is independently enjoyable, but the real magic happens when you watch them sequentially. Eastwood has done something truly remarkable in presenting both sides of this story; he should be praised...