= Such Stupid Things =

Marie and I took the trip down to Fremont last night to meet Shashi and co. to see Rang de Basanti. This has been our second trip to the Naz8, and I just wanted to say that these folks from the subcontinent have the movie theater experience figure out. The food is better and actually affordable, there are no expectations of silence, so yells and cheers from the audience are common, and there's an intermission! As I frequently find myself having to pee during pivotal scenes, a break halfway is much appreciated.

Anyhow, I'm not sure how common Indian movie theaters are outside of California, but if you find one, check it out.

And as for the movie, I was confused on one bit: the female lead (a white chick!) said had been taking Hindi lessons, but I was later told that most of the other characters were speaking Punjabi. What gives?

Posted by Jeff at 09:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

we're currently stealing wifi from someone nearby. Thanks, whoever!

Posted by Jeff at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Natural gas issues aside, our new apartment is really quite nice. A couple nights ago our neighbor presented us with a plateful of cookies to welcome us to the building. How down-home Americana is that?

Posted by Jeff at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night Marie and I had the first disagreement of our new apartment. The furniture is more or less where we want it, and clothes are slowly diffusing from the floor to our latest IKEA faux wood living solution. The walls, however, remain untended-to and exude the sterile white warmth of an insane asylum.

So last night we gathered our posters, pictures, etc. and set about putting things in their place. After much hemming and hawing, we finally admitted the truth: neither of us like the other's décor. Marie's posters fit well in her old bedroom, but they're too girly for the living space of hip twentysomethings. My pieces, despite being elegant in their simplicity, are too stark for a room in need of color, (I'm told).

For sake of context, an archetypical his/hers set of offending pieces is shown below:

Milk Drop Coronet, Doc Edgerton



Lady of Shallot, John William Waterhouse

The differences are clear. Marie likes her romantic depictions of legend. I like my vaguely sciencey black-and-whites, and pictures of tricycles. Tensions were high, and we both resolved that the only solution was to find new art. For this, I turn to you, internet. I need suggestions for fresh, colorful art posters that can be procured on a graduate student's stipend. Basically, I'm hoping to feign artistic erudition (thus impressing friends and neighbors) without investing any time or money. In return I could clue you into some hot new scientists to name-drop at cocktail parties. That's fair, right?

Posted by Jeff at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

...about returning to the internet after a long drought is getting back in to peak blogging shape. Busy days of moving gave way to busy days at work, and after the past two weeks my Bloglines account is hovering around eight or nine hundred unread posts.

It's intimidating, but heck if I can skip a single one! If I fall behind in the uninformed punditry of today, how can I prepare myself for the world of tomorrow?

Posted by Jeff at 09:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don't worry blog-land, I haven't forgotten about you. It's been a stressful week, what with Marie and I moving into a new apartment last Sunday and all. Our proverbial ducks should be aligned by the end of this weekend, and hopefully our internet re-activated, so I intend then to restore this blog to its former glory.

And I have plenty of stories, believe you me. I can't wait to tell the one about how PG&E told us our water heater was venting into our kitchen, our oven was releasing carbon monoxide and our heater was a hazard and had to be shut down. It's a total gas*.

*Best pun ever

Posted by Jeff at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I enjoyed a quote from this article in the NYT a couple days ago from Dr. Benjamin Lewin, former editor of Cell.

"It sounds as though their processes were rather sloppy, . . . Nature and Science don't have the reputation for rigorous review."

Harsh words from the number three journal in biology.

Posted by Jeff at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Marie and I bought a DVD player together the other day. It's the first of many joint purchase for our new place, into which we'll be moving this weekend. Anyone bored enough to want to help out?

Posted by Jeff at 04:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New pictures! Or rather, old pictures, newly uploaded!

Last summer, Bethany Beach, Las Vegas, Thanksgiving

And a few from Jason's wedding in Raleigh soon, hopefully.

Posted by Jeff at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Berkeley Chemistry Christmas Party amazingly got a nod in the Chron.

It's good to go to a few wild-card events. For instance, accepting the invitation to the UC Berkeley chemistry department's annual party turned out to be a great idea. (Really.) Nestled in the quad between academic buildings, there was a dance party DJ, at least three kegs and dry ice in the fountains.

Posted by Jeff at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night's Arrested Development was, I thought, pretty fantastic. So I will follow up on Ron Howard's polite request...

Please, kind reader, on the slight chance that you don't already, watch Arrested Development in whichever form may still exist. I'll front you some money for the DVDs.

Posted by Jeff at 08:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm very confused by the use of this word, "teh" all over the blog-O-net. Thankfully, the urban dictionary provided my clueless ass with a long list of definitions, but does anyone else still think it's... you know... really stupid?

And how are we supposed to pronounce it? "tĕ"? "tə"?

Either way I'm coming down hard against "teh" and any other quirk of online text creeping into spoken language. If someone ever uses "QWERTY" on me in a game of scrabble they're going to get an earful, official dictionaries be damned.

Posted by Jeff at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The ridiculous stem cell drama continues.

Of all the words one could use to describe me as a scientist, I'm happy to say that "embattled" is not yet one of them.

Posted by Jeff at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)