Congrats on the cigarettes. Or lack of them I guess. Thatsr good. I can buy tobacco now, and I did. I bought a pipe (because a friend says I'm too hipster for the hipsters) and some mild pipe tobacco. I ground some of that into snuff to try out (plus, snuff has never been linked yet to increased cancer rates). I'm not using execessively, and for sure not getting cravings. I find I actually am even more turned off by cigarettes now. They smell terrible compared to pure, quality, actual tobacco. And they just make such a terrible name for it. It can be enjoyed relatively responsibly, and have very limited health effects. Cigarettes aren't the way to do it, and I now look down on people who smoke them more than I did before I turned 18. It's still not a great hobby though, and part of me wishes I hadn't picked it uphobby. So another congrats on quitting, and best luck and wishes for the future.
One of my co-workers got fired last friday so work has been a bit more stressful. And I'm a week out from closing on the house so life in general has been stressful. But I got in touch with a couple of old friends I hadn't heard from in a while. Aaaand it's my birthday =)
Hey, happy birthday! Best of luck with the house.
Bartender, pour tehstone a shot! Happy Birthday!
Our 1000+ person outreach even turned into 350 or so as something was on TV, some sports thing. This worked out better for us as the people there wanted to be out under the stars and ask questions. We showed people a few galaxies, and a few people suddenly had that moment where the stuff you see from Hubble? THAT SHIT IS REAL. One of our people had a 16" telescope and had a long line looking at the Andromeda Galaxy, while I was looking at M13 and the Sculptor Galaxy with my telescope. All in all it was a nice event with some nice people. The best thing, however, is the return of cold weather. I love cold nights. LOVE THEM. This weekend it is going to be cooler than anytime since April, the moon is out of the way for most of the night and I am going to be at a friend's house to look at the dark night sky and sleep all day. Fall is tough as there is not a whole lot of good targets to share with people, but there are multiple tougher targets on several viewing lists that I can knock out. I am yeven pull out a smaller scope with a camera on it and try to do some imaging.
So I went on date Monday night. It was my 7th date with this girl. She asked me if I wanted to go out and then canceled because she felt tired but changed her mind. I didn't convince her by the way as I felt tired as well. So we went out to dinner or rather I had dinner as she had eaten earlier. Anyways throughout the evening, I noticed that while talking to me, she happens to be on her phone a lot. I pointed it out and she stops for a minute and then after a couple of minutes more of conversation, she continues to get back on the phone. Later on, we are sitting at Washington Square Park on a park bench and curiosity got the better of me. I glanced over at her phone for a quick second and saw that she was on TINDER!!!! This girl had kissed me on the mouth a couple of weeks ago and now she is on Tinder while she is supposed to be on a date with me. I even saw a notification that she got a message from some other guy. Shortly after I told her I was going, I felt really bad at that moment in time and I still feel kinda crappy about this, I don't feel like talking to her at all. I didn't bring up that I saw her on Tinder but I think that was more out of shock than anything else. I don't know, it just sucks.
That's not cool. Sorry you experienced that but perhaps it is better to happen now than months from now. Still, if you otherwise like this girl, it might make sense to let her know why you aren't pursuing anything further.
Even before this incident, my feelings for this girl were going down as she had a tendency to be somewhat cold and distant. For the last couple of times we met up, she was the one asking me to hang out not me.
Today we travel to Chicago. My wife has a medical conference and I'm tagging along. I'll be having lunch with T-Dog tomorrow, I'm looking forward to some cuban sandwiches and meeting the man that crafted the below amazing bass line in person: Listen to his amazing bass skills here Also, we have been having to re-boot our servers a number of times these past few days. Sorry for that. I want to make sure the new podcast wasn't missed by anyone: Have a great rest of your week Hubski!
I'm still job hunting. Trying my best to keep my spirits up. To be honest, it's hard to even talk about without sounding depressed and pathetic. So I'll just say this, I can't help but daydream about the day I come home to the wife and tell her someone is willing to take me on. It feels good to think about, and I'm sure it'll feel a hundred times better when it actually happens. In the mean time, I just feel lucky that my 3 month overtime stretch is finally done. That was honestly 10 weeks too many.
just remember, you are an asset. You are not just something willing to take on, you are something that is a worthwhile asset to their business.someone is willing to take me on.
Lady, let me tell you. Whoever decides to take a chance on me won't regret it. Without trying to sound egotistical, I have an amazing work ethic, great communication skills, and I can supervise the ever loving shit out of any team I work with. I just need to find that right person to look past my limited skillset to see what I actually have to offer, which can be a hard thing to do when you're trying to get out of one job industry and into another. Thank you for your vote of confidence though. It's much appreciated.
Haha that's awesome. And considering that my several month AmeriCorps project in Detroit was for the Detroit YMCA, renovating facilities (read: painting lots of locker rooms), odds are good that your Y was one of the Ys we helped with.My daughter's preschool is at a YMCA, which means that I get to sauna and shower after dropping her off. Sauna, cold shower, fuck yeah.
Oh ok. Yea, their downtown Boll Family YMCA is their flagship branch, with construction starting 2005 and for like... 30 million? It's a really nice building. I applaud the Detroit Y for choosing to solidify their presence in Detroit.
Phew! Finally got rid of the last of the house invaders from thanksgiving as of this morning - except my grandma, who's never an invader. It will be nice to sleep in my own bed, and for some peace and quiet. Although there were stumbles and muss ups, I was generally named and gendered correctly the whole time. It feels good to have such an accepting family. They're not perfect, but I don't expect or desire perfection. I reconnected with one of my younger cousins as well, who was staying here. we did some shopping and just general hang outs, and got on like a house on fire. looking forward to keeping up that friendship. Hope everyone else who had Canadian Thanksgiving had a great one.
I think your friends and family are probably as grateful for your patience as you are for their acceptance. The transition is a transition for everyone in your life. I'm glad things are going well.Although there were stumbles and muss ups, I was generally named and gendered correctly the whole time. They're not perfect, but I don't expect or desire perfection.
My department had its retreat this week and it really cemented in my views about its biases. We had a rather forced event where we interacted with other researchers and tried to come up with impromptu collaborations. I wasn't exactly enthused with the idea to begin with, but I felt it devolved into churching out more and more non-sensical combinations of hype-y technologies without any attempt to carefully think about a biological question. I've spent the few days since trying to reflect and think about what other biases or viewpoints I might encounter at other universities and how they contrast with my own tech-obsessed environment. That said, here's this week's set of instrument pictures: First time I've seen a TEM before, it looked like it was built in the 80s
When you have a very expensive hammer... My favorite studies are those that aren't technologically fancy, but test a big idea. This is the study that I am most proud of to date. b_b and I just used luciferase assays for miRNA activity to demonstrate functional exchange of miRNAs between cells. The trick was that we expressed C. elegans miRNA in one population, and had a luciferase reporter for it in another. Super short and sweet, and nothing fancy involved.
It's hard for me too be too critical, given that my current project is somewhat of a hammer targeted at what I hope is a well-chosen nail. But I now have my sights focused on learning what other big-picture research views are out there. My undergrad institution had a lot of emphasis on structure. Some days I wondered why anyone would even care about that topic, but others it all clicked and I saw exactly how a particular system could be understood through the precise physical interactions of its part. But what other worlds exist within biology outside the current trends of massive sequencing, -omics, and advanced imaging?
I am in Bolinas, CA. Look it up, I can't. We stayed at Smiley's schooner saloon. In an hour, a cranky Russian carhauler drops my car off in front of our house in Seattle. I had to coordinate this with my wife's ex-boss' husband because the mother in law is busy. Also, cash. Also, via stolen wifi because the nearest tmobile signal is 30 miles away, according to the career burnout surfers sitting around doingnothing in bolinas on a wednesday morning. On the plus side, Bolinas is amazing.
"The community [of Bolinas] is known for its reclusive residents. It is only accessible via unmarked roads; any road sign along State Route 1 that points the way into town has been torn down by local residents, to the point where county officials offered a ballot measure to which the voters responded by stating a preference for no more signs." Of the 1,600 residents, current or formers include Jim Carrol, Joel Coen, Harmony Korine, Frances McDormand, Walter Murch (Academy Award-winning film editor and sound mixer), Grace Slick and Alice Waters.
That's the weirdest thing. There's just... not much to tell. I had a friend that lived nearby and we tried for the longest time to figure out why they want it to be so well hidden. It's just a town. I mean, it's absolutely gorgeous, but the best answer we have is "this is what happens when hippies are the majority."
Um, I've had about 1000 pages of reading, three exams, and two papers. I've pulled two all-nighter's this week, and I'm pretty tired at this point. In other news I'm going to be attending a show tonight, A Comedy of Tenors, never heard of it. I figured it would be better to just go in not really knowing much about the show. I'm still working my way through the classical music list, and I have a lot to say about the experience when this is all over. My mom got offered a a job by an ISP, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. My mom excels at her job and the position is a testament to that, but it is for a company that is for intents and purposes the devil.
When in doubt, hate the business division. Researchers at Novartis came up with a breakthrough drug for a form of leukemia, but it didn't stop the executives from almost killing it because it wasn't predicted to earn a profit (Turns out the numbers worked out in their favor when you accounted for the fact that the market segment was no longer dying after a year). I have a good friend who works as a network engineer and had the opportunity to revamp the network of a 60-person house during my undergrad. I found it pretty interesting work though, when I wasn't fighting for money for equipment. There's a surprising amount of thought that goes into making secure, well-performing, and reliable computer networks.My mom got offered a a job by an ISP, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. My mom excels at her job and the position is a testament to that, but it is for a company that is for intents and purposes the devil.
I'm starting to come out of the funk that's been coloring my last couple of weeks. I can tell because I'm starting to try to make plans (Long term) again, rather than just being reactive to the world. In particular, I keep dreaming about finding a piece of land up by Traverse City that I could eventually buy and turn into the type of place I could thrive in. More and more I think I would be fine with renting a small but comfy apartment for most of my adult life and use what I don't directly live on to develop my property. Work is going well, and I get a good mix of praise and correction/guidance. My new spreadsheet system has been lauded as 'Much easier to use than the old one.' Because it uses conditional formatting to alert us to important dates, and has separate pages for our intervention/data collection calendar and demographic info.
I just had a really dumb mobile app idea: You need to be physically within 100m of the Conch to pick it up. Once picked up, no one can see the Conch's location. If you hold the Conch for more than 24 hours, it is dropped back where you picked it up. You can only pick up the Conch once per year.The Conch lets you post one picture with a comment, then it is dropped. Everyone with the app follows the Conch. Once the Conch is dropped everyone that follows it can see its location.
Finishing up my plans to go home for Christmas, which my family and friends back home are very, very excited about. Despite the hammer it put to my wallet, it feels good thinking about spending some time at home. I've noticed that work goes a lot better for me if I'm working towards something that isn't work related, such as this trip. Thinking about joining up with some Bernie events over the next month or so. We'll see.
I've been learning how to sharpen and strop a knife. I tried it using the un-glazed bottom of a ceramic mug + brown paper, and it worked really well on my pocket knife. The hope is that this'll transfer to our dull kitchen knifes. Also, my friend has been trying to rent out his house for a while. He thought that he'd gotten some renters lined up, but they are throwing up a lot of red flags. So he might go back to the search for tenants. We've only got a couple of months left on this lease, and might try to snatch the house up. I really like the house (and yard. the yard is amazing), but it is located a pretty far ways away from work. The best route I can figure is just shy of 50 miles round trip; which is getting a bit excessive for a bicycle commute. We hadn't really budgeted for a move this year, but work is heading into the busy season. Lots of overtime/double-time opportunity to make up for the lack of budget. We will see.
I certainly will at some point but in the mean time, I'm the kind of person who really enjoys shoehorning items out of their intended use. The results were actually pretty acceptable considering what I was using. It was kinda rad to discover I could shave with the resulting edge.
I've been needed a stand in strop for my straight razor. Finally got it it shaving sharpness, but now I can only use it a couple of times before I need to resharped to do what a strop should. Any trick to the brown paper? Like, would a paper grocery bag work?