6 days left...

There's still time to inspire people to vote, and everyone does it in the best way they can.

Eminem's "Mosh"

very powerful (especially the last half)

tipsy

is it wrong to open a bottle of wine for a dinner (alone)? I just had a craving for my Shiraz.

I'm also watching TNG, "All Good Things..." part I, it's SO GOOD! It's the best series finale of any show I've ever seen. It just ties it all together perfectly. A good end to a shitty day.

fun day at work

...if you consider moving 3GB of data using 2 100MB zip disks fun.

But once I have that old Mac monster backed up, I get to set up my new Dell!

The Great Journey

Last week my friend Maggie had surgery, so I thought she could use Legolas Greenleaf ("LG") to keep her company during her recovery. She's been wanting to hang out with him for a while. So Katie and I took LG over - from tower 2 to tower 1. It was quite an adventure. Come home soon, LG. I'll miss you.

Let the journey begin: LG waits for the elevator




LG takes some time to check the mail


LG protects the residents of towers 2 and 3 from the front desk


Making friends along the way




hiding in the foliage, watching out for danger


a long journey makes LG thirsty


LG arrives at his new (temporary) home


Legolas makes himself comfortable

other weekend stuff

We watched Trekkies 2, which made me miss the whole convention scene even more. I want to buy Trek merchandise and maybe do some simming. We're slowly making our way through the DS9 DVDs, and I've actually grown to like Enterprise.

Also, Dryden isn't looking so good. Eventhough he's only 2 weeks old, in hollowed-out pumpkin years that must be 90. The mold makes him look even more menacing though.

I love my IT boyfriend

On friday, my laptop of many years died (for the 2nd time in its life). Luckily, I had backed up my important data on a whim a few days before. The proportions of the windows were all off, and there were only icons without text. The same was true even in Safety Mode. System restore didn't fix the problem. Of course getting to system restore without text was difficult. The whole thing was ridiculously messed up! Alex had to use my desktop to figure out where all the menus were and then count down the empty menus on my laptop.

He's not really into IT, but he's always useful for fixing my computer issues :) My laptop only has to last me another 2-3 weeks till our new desktops arrive to lab.

It's just really scary to step away for a few minutes and come back to find things have gone horribly wrong.

take a minute

...and be thankful for your health.

aaaaaaaaah! (tearing hair out)

I'm having a ridiculously hectic day. First there was lab meeting. I was one of the people who presented. I thought my part completely sucked while everyone else thought it was great. I hate talking about projects that I have no idea about. Both are inherited from other people so I don't have all the details. So it was just me showing a picturea and mumbling generic nonsense hoping someone with actual knowledge would jump in and rescue me (which they did).

Then I had to finish preparing samples for the microarray, which is also hectic and stressful. No one here has done this type of microarray so no one knows what to do, so its just me and the protocol, which is vague at times. I left the samples out for 20 minutes between steps which may or may not have been catastrophic.

On top of that, I have to finish a problem set for tomorrow and prepare to present a paper in class which I haven't looked at since Saturday.

I'm just in a really bad and snappy mood.

I'm going to Dallas BBQ for a texas sized margarita.

blog blog blog*

*originally from LJ

i'm still excited about blogger, so i've been posting there recently. it looks very good, but it's not the most user-friendly site, but i'm sure they're working on it. Also, i actually had 2 random people comment on my posts (well, they both commented on the same post). That's kind of weird. Does that make me obligated to read their blogs and comment??

anyways, to check out my recent (treasonous) ramblings: Anna's blogspot

tact?

I think I upset Katie last night. As we were coming back from our walk to Ft. Tryon park, we got to talking about living situations and I said something about wanting to live alone. I think she took that to mean I don't like living with her. Sometimes I don't think about how people will take the things I say. I should really think more before I speak.

Kissing Jessica Stein

Kissing Jessica Stein

It's been sitting on my TiVo for 2 weeks. I finally got around to watching tonight. I thought the acting was very good. There's something compelling about movies where people try to figure themselves out.

my first pumpkin

Yesterday Katie organized a pumpkin carving party. I've never carved a pumpkin before, or really even touched one. I got to pick out my own at a farmer's market near the main campus. Then a few people came over and we all carved together. I think for my first attempt it came out pretty well. I really like it :)

I call him "Dryden"

all lit up :)

I'll use my magic if I want to!

I've been catching up on one of my favorite TV shows - Bewitched. It's so cute and innocent in that 60s kind of way. I just don't get Darren. Why won't he let Samantha use her magic? And why does she listen to him? She asks his permission to use her magic to save lives, and then he yells at her. If you knew your wife/husband had extraordinary powers, would you try to force them to be "normal?"

A lot of people in the 60s must've been obsessed with having a normal suburban family image. Then there's the whole "the man is master of the house" thing.

Shut up Darren.

FYI: White Gold Vs Platinum

White Gold Vs Platinum : White Gold and Platinum Information ~ Gillett's Jewellers

I was under the false impression that the value increased:

• gold
• white gold
• platinum

but apparently it is:

• white gold
• gold
• platinum

I am a Trekkie.

Recently, I had an overwhelming urge to go to another Star Trek convention. "Another" of course implies that I've been to one before.. well I've been to at least 2 others (possibly 3, not sure).

My friend found information on the next one in the NY area (Creation Entertainment), unfortunately, it's during the Thanksgiving weekend. I already bought tickets for myself and my grandmother to go down to Florida and visit my parents. (Which is a topic that deserves its own post.)

Right now there isn't another one scheduled in the city. Maybe one day I can make it to the Mecca of fandom. Perhaps I'll even elope there. (j/k)

news @ nature.com - Paralysed man sends e-mail by thought

news @ nature.com�-�Paralysed man sends e-mail by thought breaking science news headlines

science fiction? no, science fact!

where's my flying car??

goodbye LiveJournal... maybe *

*originally from LJ

So I've decided to try Blogger. It just looks better and offers more free features. The problem is... what to do with my old posts. Right now Blogger doesn't support importing posts.

Also, blogger looks more professional, so i feel weird bitching and moaning on there. There's also no "private" option (at least i haven't descovered one) so i have to be more selective in what i post for the "world" to see (the 3-4 people that actually read my blog).

i'll keep you posted on my final decision.

Web access coming to electrical outlets - Oct. 15, 2004

Web access coming to electrical outlets - Oct. 15, 2004

Woohoo! Maybe I won't have to deal with stupid Columbia ACIS.

Part Deux

I can't resist a new toy. It would be a shame to not use my new blog (every 10 minutes). I don't know if this suits my style. It looks so proper and professional, I don't think I'd feel comfortable complaining and ranting on here. My friend uses her blogger to keep in touch with her family in the US as she spends the year in Israel. She and her boyfriend write entire newsletters which they post, in addition to their pictures.

Alex should get a blog because all sorts of amazing things happen to him. In the last year he's been to Norway, Finland and Austria. He's met Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, and Joe Trippi and most of the hopefuls for the Democratic nomination for president. He's been to the Google and Microsoft parties in Vienna, and given a talk to NASA.

So in conclusion, my life is boring and not worthy of this good looking blog.

p.s. I'm glad open-toe shoe season is over. I don't have to do my toe nails for a long time! (That's exactly the kind of thing that shouldn't go in a post.)
p.p.s. I'm so confused.

Working hard, working weekends...

Here I am in lab, making a new blog. I do have an experiment running at the moment, so I guess that makes me not a complete slacker. I'm curious about this particular blog service so I'm giving it a shot. If it wins my love, I will switch from LiveJournal. Although what would I do with all my old posts? Maybe I can export them onto my computer. It'd be sad to lose them, they have sort of been my journal for the last few years.

Let's not rush this relationship just yet... :)

Congratulations Richard!*

*originally from LJ

I forgot to mention that last friday I went to a "party" thrown by Columbia for Richard Axel, one of the winners of this year's Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine. Richard is a professor in the Biochemistry department, and was one of the less skilled teachers in last year's biochem class.

There were 7 speakers who talked about Richard - his background, his work, his personality, their interactions with him, etc... those were very interesting. Then Axel himself got up and talked for about 15 minutes. He talked about how he found out about the prize, how much he loved Columbia (he'd been there all of his career, and went to Columbia College for undergrad). Amazingly enough, he actually thanked all this students throughout the years and said that he accepts the prize in trust for them all. That part was surprising considering Axel's reputation as an arrogant bastard (they made fun of that in the speeches too).

Columbia was giving out buttons that said "Congratulations Axel" (with Columbia's crown emblem on it) and "Axel wins Nobel." They even went all out and had blue and white balloons (Columbia colors) that had the same statements on them. Then there were finger foods and champagne for everyone (unfortunately I had to get back to finish an experiment so I had to miss out on the actual fun).

Supposedly, there are several more people up here at the Medical Center who are possible contenders for the prize in future years.

ok, back to science (currently: preparing samples for a microarray)

:) *

*originally from LJ

my room smells soooo good:

"the perfect autumn - Apple" scented candle by the White Barn Candle Co (acquired at Bath and Body Works)

...wicked expensive, but worthit!

keeping busy*

*originally from LJ

Blue Man Group (in Boston) was FANTASTIC! It was one of the most fun and amazing shows I've ever seen. Definately recommended.

Alex also took me to the Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy - the Exhibition which is at the Boston Museum of Science till the 24th. It was really cool to see the sketches, maquettes and costumes.

I also spent a few hours with Steve and Yugaku rehearsing some of Steve's songs. Hopefully we'll get to perform sometime in the near future.

Of course there are a million things to do in lab and for class. Starting on Sunday evening and all day yesterday I felt extremely overwhelmed for no particular reason. I just felt like the world was crumbling around me. Not a good feeling. Today was better.

family sucks!*

*originally from LJ

So I have a cousin who is about 10 years older than me and has 2 kids (7 and 6 yrs old). I get a call today on my cell phone around 5:30pm from someone not in my phone book. I fumbled with the phone and actually dropped it causing the top to flip open and connect. I finally picked the phone up and said "hello" when I heard:

"Hi Anna. Do you know what yesterday was? You missed my daughter's birthday. We're not some distant relations you can just forget about. You really have no conscience if you don't call a little girl to wish her a happy birthday. What you're doing is horrible. I'm going to give her the phone right now and you tell her 'happy birthdy!'"

...then I hear her try to give the phone to her daughter who didn't want to take it, followed by: "she doesn't even remember you! See how horrible you are? You should really treat your family better. I expect you to call us more often and come to visit from now on." - hang up.

notice I didn't say a single word since "hello." Also, she spoke in Russian so that was a loose translation of her ramblings.

She called me last year and did the same thing around her son's birthday. You know what, I can't keep track of birthdays of my cousin's children. Especially since I never knew them to begin with.

At some point this summer she begged me to come visit her kids because "my chldren really miss you, you don't have to stay long, just an hour or so, it would mean so much to them, etc." So I agreed to visit them in brooklyn since I needed to see my grandmother anyway. I said I'd be there noon-ish. I ended up leaving the city 30 mins late, so I showed up like 40 minutes late. As soon as she opens the door for me she says: "You were supposed to be here an hour ago. I've been waiting for you because I need to do grocery shopping. So stay here with the kids. Their lunch is on the stove, heat it up a bit and make sure they eat a decent amount. I'll be back as soon as I can." And she walks out the door. WTF???

WITCH!!! I really can't stand her. I've programmed her new phone # in to my cell and I'm never picking it up again when she calls. Additionally, from now on I'm not picking up for any unknown caller. I feel sorry for her kids. They're actually very cute and sweet and are just innocent victims of their mother's craziness.

Just thinking about her makes my blood boil.

livin in the Heights*

*originally from LJ

About an hour ago I was about to get in to the shower when I noticed a
HUGE cockroach on the bathroom wall. We're not talking about a large
American cockroach, but one of those HUGE >1inch exotic roaches. There
it was, sitting on the wall, calm and haughty. I took a swing at it
with my slipper but the bastard eluded me. I then screamed for my
roommate Katie to come and get it.

We armed her with a Swifer and sent her into the trenches. After some prodding, she dislodged the fiend from the corner and had it running for its life. Of course she was too scared to actually crunch it so she kind of kept sweeping it back into the bathroom. In an attempt to save its life the Spawn of Evil latched on to the Swifer. But this time Katie was too quick for it! She put the Swifer over the toilet and shook the monster off, I quickly jumped in and flushed. The beast
struggled but couldn't fight the current.

Many questions remain:
how did that monstrosity make it into our apartment??
Are there more??
How could I possibly live in NY and not own a bottle of RAID?

Now i'm itchy all over. I'm seeing phantom bugs everywhere. If I had found it in my room, I'd be packing right now.

I hope everyone is having sweet dreams and I twist and turn all night with horrible visions of hideous monsters.

new obsession*

*originally from LJ

http://www.giantmicrobes.com/

A lady from Marligen (lab supply company) gave us the "beer and bread" microbe (yeast) today. I want to collect them all!!! The "Mono" and "flesh eating" bugs are the funniest. HIV and Hepatitis are also cool. That sounds horrible, I know.

I want my children to play with these (until they're old enough to figure out what these are, then they'll probably hate me).

MWAHAHAHAHA

self awareness*

*originally from LJ

Every once in a while I come to a realization about myself. I've recently realized a character trait of mine. I feel uncomfortable going somewhere without being explicitly invited. For example, if there's a house party somewhere and a friend is going and says "would you like to come along?" I will likely say no because I myself wasn't invited. As another example, my roommate was having dinner with a friend of hers (who I also know) at our apartment tonight. She asked me if I wanted to join them so she'd make enough food, but since I originally wasn't included in the dinner plans I felt uncomfortable hanging around. So I made my own dinner but then I hung out and talked with them in the kitchen, although inside I felt I shouldn't be there.

It's especially worse when there are only 2 people involved. If they're going to lunch and one of them invites me to join them last minute, I won't go because I haven't received confirmation of the invitation from the other person. Is that weird?

I don't know where this comes from. I guess I feel that if someone wanted me somewhere, they'd go to the effort of asking me there, and if I'm not invited, I must've been overlooked, or worse, not actually wanted there. And I don't want to be where I'm not wanted.

I don't know if I'm just being paranoid. Should I just get over it? How? arg. Sometimes my weirdness surprises even myself.

update 010011*

*originally from LJ

Another 2 months since my last update, so here's a bunch of randomness.

I've always wanted long hair and I've even tried to grow it out a few times. It never got particularly long before I got frustrated and cut it off again. When I cut my hair before grad school (last August) I devised a new plan to keep my hair away from the scizzors - I'll donate it! Since you need at least 10 inches to donate, I was guaranteed to get my hair at least that long. Well, the scheme worked, barely. My hair was almost down to my waist :) Of course then I got the itch to cut it again. Luckily, I had just 10", so off it went! Of course now my hair is the shortest it's been since I was 7.

I ended my summer rotation at the earliest possible moment - August 13. Then I took a 3 week vacation. Then I was in NY for a week (which included the Genetics department retreat), and then I went on vacation for another week. Well, not quite... During the 3 weeks I spent about a week in Florida. My parents moved there in July. Two days after I left, my mother had a heart attack and ended up getting a triple bypass. I needed to go to the department retreat, but I left for Florida right after we got back. My mom was actually released from the hospital the day I arrived, so I didn't miss much. I was in NY during her surgery and I was having really bad chest pains the whole day (they radiated up and down my back and it was actually painful to breathe). Everyone said they were sympathy pains, but they hurt like hell.

She turned 45 a month before the heart attack. I know that certainly doesn't mean I'll have the same problems but it just freaked me out a little. She's been obese for the last 20 years and I'm pretty sure that particular ailment runs in her family. So first, I'm freaked out about becoming obese, and then about the associated heart problems. And not only am I freaked out about myself, because I more or less have control over what I do, but I'm just concerned for everyone who is overweight/obese.

I was watching some moring news show a few months ago and they were interviewing a medical professional about obesity in America. This is sort of what he said (paraphrasing): "You're in a group of people and one of them takes out a cigarette and starts smoking, and someone else in the group turns to that person and says 'Stop that! don't you know you're killing yourself?' Now imagine you're in a group of people and one happens to be obese, it's not exactly appropriate to turn to them and say 'don't you know you're killing yourself? do something about it!'." It's true. Making fun of overweight people or even drawing attention to them is insensitive and hurts their feelings, but how do you approach them seriously and tell them that they are slowly dying every day?

Taking care of yourself is not something you do when you have time. There's never enough time for everything you may want to do. You have to make the time, and that's hard. I'm still working on that. I try to do cardio a few times a week but I know I could be doing more. My roommate runs something like 4-5 miles every morning. I wish I had that kind of discipline. But like most people I think - "well, I don't really have a problem yet, there's no rush." People also say the longer you live an unhealthy lifestyle, the harder it is to break out of it, and the longer you have the extra weight, the harder it is to get it off. I'm not really overweight but I'm extremely out of shape. I can't even run a mile, i have to speed walk at least a third of it.

I started this entry not really knowing where it was headed and now that I'm here I'm getting depressed about my life. So I think I'll stop now. poop.