happily holiday-ing

I opened presents on this, the first christmas I have spent away from my family, in the company of the Yule Log. A New York tradition, the Yule Log is broadcast with carols from 7-11 on christmas morning. If the picture looks a little funny, it's only partly because it's a photo of the television: the Yule Log, according to the indicia and warped colors, was taped in 1970. It's hypnotic to watch, though.



Afterward I headed to St. Parick's Cathedral for Christmas mass. Man, what an absolute ZOO that turned out to be. The cathedral holds around 2,500 people, and was packed full for both the 12 and 1 o'clock masses. I arrived about halfway trough the noon mass - hoping to avoid some of the crowds - and managed to get a seat for the 1 o'clock. The music was very moving, and the homily was surprisingly good. The cathedral is gorgeous, and I'd like to go back when there aren't so many people so that I could take a look around.



Through great effort, Athena convinced me to have christmas dinner with her big greek family. I was not too keen on being with a family that was not my own, but her family was very welcoming, very funny, and, in the words of her granmother, "very different" from what I was missing. The food was really good, and afterward I crashed at Athena's and we watched stupid movies on TV. This, somehow, turned into a 2-day event complete with a tour of her hometown, the ordering of pizza, and more movies. The view from her hometown is pictured here - that's NYC way off in the distance. All in all, this turned out to be one of the best times I have had since leaving Michigan. I am tremendously grateful to Athena and her family.

On the way to NJ for dinner, I passed this, which will become the first entry into my new book, Things That Should Not Have Their Own House.

Narnia and cupcakes

...it's late, I'm at work waiting for a reaction to finish, and I just watched this again for like the tenth time because I think it's hilarious.

Engaged! also: Otolaryngolojam!

Ain't no party like a scientist party...because they're always just so awkward. Athena and I attended my department's Holiday shindig the other day, and it was a pretty pleasant time in an otherwise foul week (thanks, strikers!). It took us about an hour to go twenty blocks in a cab after the party, but, whatever, the strike's over now and things can get back to normal.

OR CAN THEY? Um, no.

And I'll give you what are possibly the two most unrelated reasons:


1) My sister hilary got engaged!
The ring, designed by him just for her, is made of rose gold and other terms I don't understand. But what I do know is that she and her gentleman suitor are happy together and will continue that way and, therefore, so too am I happy. One sister married and another engaged? Weren't they just twelve and fighting with me over the front seat?


2) This bear poops prime numbers!

Tonight I'm going to see "A Christmas Story" at the Landmark Sunshine Theatre with Athena and her little sisters. I hope I don't shoot my eye out...

Yes, the strike remains on.

But the good news is the internet still works.

http://cuteoverload.com/

EDIT: what does anyone make of this? I think it's either a crazy hoax or rather frightening. And there's going to be a movie? Wha--? I loved Chappelle's show. I think it was, as Charlie Murphy once said, the Tu-Pac of television.

It hits the fan

It's about 3:45 a.m. I've been up for a while, tensely checking and re-checking the news since the passing of the 12 midnight deadline for the transit workers union's negotiations with the MTA.

And now I know - as of about half an hour ago the 37,000 workers of the MTA have gone on strike. Lord only knows how long or how bad this will get, but I am aware of a number of folks - middle and lower class workers from across the five boroughs - who will have to endure great hardship as a result of this strike. Many workers who cannot get into the city will risk losing their jobs, and heaven help parents who have to coordinate their kids' movement as well. I saw one hotel manager on the news who has said he expects his employees to reside temporarily at work. This city is all kinds of shutting down, at the cost, I'm told, of roughly 400 milion dollars a day (a figure which does not reflect the increased business that should accompany the week before christmas).

I'll be the first to concede that I know only what I have read about the cause of this strike. But when Toussaint says the workers in his union will strike and that "this is not about money, it's about respect," I don't find myself on his side. It's the week before Christmas, it's cold out, and this will be very hard on a lot of people who really don't deserve it. Is it any wonder that this strike is illegal? All I ask is that it end soon. This could get very ugly.

Official Christmas Fun

This past Saturday, Mango Pancakes, Athena, Zac, and I headed out to an unexplored area of Queens to a little factory late at night. Why?

For the FluxFactory fake office holiday party, of course! Everyone dressed for a debaucherous office party, and we were given fake name tags and, occasionally, letters of reprimand from our superiors while enjoying live music, dancing, and, of course, office-party-themed shennanigans. One of the highlights, besides the spectacular view of the city from the roof of the factory, was the video installation at the party that played those old christmas claymation specials - you'd never believe how well Mrs. Claus's song matches with one of Beyonce's. This was a great weird event. New York does it again.

So much has happened!

I've been terribly remiss in keeping up-to-date with this. There's been so much going on!



First of all, I had dinner with the fabulous Susie Schutt. I am so glad she's back stateside, because she makes me happy and we could use the help fixing the place up. Are those selfish reasons? Yes.

Second, Thanksgiving. I celebrated Thanksgiving eve with my classmate Julia at the balloon inflating for the Macy's parade. Surreal? Oh hell yes.





"The good news is, we caught Mr. Potatohead. The bad news is, the killings haven't stopped."

Thanksgiving was spent with the relatives in Connecticut. It was a very relaxing, very warm holiday celebration, and I was very glad to have been able to spend the day as I did.

In the next weeks I presented at work on homomeric vs. heterotypic gap junctions and two different models of transgenic inserts with inducible expression I had characterized. I also headed out on the town as much as possible, even visiting secretive bars on the lower East side such as this one with super-rockstar Athena. There's no sign outside, but it's a swingin' joint inside.



Then, my cousin heather came into town and we went out dancing with the Andrew and Jaina (pictured here in a ridiculous pose, for some reason looking like she has a black eye) until 4 in the morning at Plan B.

The next day, we strolled around the city and took in part of the Met - they have this Egyptian temple, the whole thing, on display. It is amazing and you must see it! - before settling in for a huge Italian dinner at Positano in Little Italy. We got back to Brooklyn at around midnight, and were too tired to do anything more than watch SNL and pass out. On Sunday, Heather had to leave early to make it back to Boston in time for a dance rehearsal, and I went to a surprisingly opulent brunch at the Medical Center. The afternoon was spent having pastries and walking around Riverside Park with the gorgeous Maria Politano, my friend from Italy, who said I could come and stay with her when she returns home this summer!

...and I think that brings me up to date. Oh, and I finished grad school. Again. Hopefully this time it'll stick.

p.s. three new Japan days are up! Check them out!

What do you mean, "update?" + update! (no, the irony is not lost on me)

Cah-razy busy right now. Work is pretty frustrating, and has been for the last while; I adduce my having to go in on Thanksgiving morning and every day that weekend to keep to a time table that is unreasonable while running experiments that are redundant. I further offer as evidence the fact - but keep this on the QT - that the other employees in the lab have all recently decided it is time to move on to other jobs because they tire of working here.

In the meantime, as I struggle to find the energy to update about having dinner with Susie and Thanksgiving dinner and the rest of my trip to Japan, I offer you the following exemplar of horrendous pseudo-science for your laughter and gnashing of teeth.

Behold: Hetracil!

Now do yourself a favor and go back to PandaCam.

EDIT: Super-awesome internet-ster Naomi found out the real deal on Hetracil, which makes the story not an awful one but rather really, really interesting. Check it out here.
Consider me fooled, and impressed!

Goodbye, productivity!

Hello, PandaCam!

[hint: the camera is controlled by the zoo, so if you don't see our little pal Butterstick, wait a minute and they'll move the camera]

She said, "that neck brace makes you look fat."

I work in a giant medical complex. There are always patients and families mulling around, sometimes waiting anxiously, sometimes just sitting together and laughing or testing an uncomfortable silence. And every now and then I overhear really funny stuff.

I've been having a particularly time lately making sense of interpersonal relationships, whether romantic or otherwise, my own or my friends'. Right now it seems like hurting each other is an inevitable human behavior, and when we are hurt, we turn right around and take it out on someone else. So the cycle goes on, whether we are aware of our part in it or not. "We are all just big wounded responses," says Carol Churchill.

And occasionally we embrace it, rush headlong into taking someone down a few notches with zeal. The daughter was being brought, bandaged, through the lobby in a wheelchair by what looked like her brother and father. They stopped next to a woman who was seated, facing the other way. The daughter said, "hey, mom," weakly. The mother turned around, gasped, and opened her mouth to speak.

Why this woman is one of the greatest people I know

The name Lindsey Sherline is one most of you will recognize, and if not, it's really only a matter of time before you do. Although forced to share the title of most creative person ever with my father and my often-institutionalized friend Jim from high school, Lindsey creates through her work and her daily life a world that is uniquely stylized and entirely captivating. Anyone would be hard pressed not to want to live there.

Over the years and many changes they brought, she and I have had our good times and bad times. But as she unveils a new and very public project, I am happy to invite you to take a look (she would ask me to remind you that it is still a work in progress; the explanation is at the bottom of the page, so you might want to work backwards):

http://tu-tutimes.blogspot.com/

Who needs "pink is the new black" when "grossly incompetent and dangerously corrupt" is the new "re-elected?"

That's twice i've bet on the wrong horse. The horse of reason. The horse of getting your job back and being able to declare where you are from without making people cringe.

So first it was GWB back in the White House, and now Kwame's back for four more years as mayor of Detroit. My only consolation is that because his mismanagement thus far has earned poor Detroit a crippling 50 million dollar a month debt, he may not have a city to be mayor of for the full length of his term. According to the accountants, insolvency - or, as my grandfather predicts, good old fashioned bankruptcy - is just around the corner.

At least we've still got the Lions, right, guys?

Two short ones

a) I neglected to mention my having gone with the fabulous Ms. Pancakes to a WAAAYYYY too hip fundraiser. Our friend Alex works at Kid Robot, which organized the event, and it was both great to see her and the incredibly creative work people had put up for the charity auction (you can read more about it at the kid robot site). That someone I think is so great finds herself working at a place that really seems to fit with her style, and that charity results, makes me happy.

b) Last night I saw Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. While yes, this is a documentary with a clearly stated bias, it does do a very good job of collecting the facts about Wal-Mart and the stories of the people affected by all levels of the corporation. If you haven't wised up to the evils of Wal-Mart yet, or if you're just interested in learning more, I strongly suggest you see this movie. [Is it out in theatres anywhere other than NYC? I'm not sure.]

Thank you, giant corporation. Oh, and I brought you a sandwich.

What happened to customer service? And what happened to Apple? My computer starts having problems, and Apple wants to charge me -upfront - $49.95 so that they can try to help me over the phone, although by their admission my problem may not even be something that can be fixed over the phone. Either way, $49.95. Thankfully, the guy on the phone mistakenly suggested that they wouldn't be able to help me, and I told them I'd figure it out myself. The Apple store here in NYC has a policy of taking reservations for tech support on the day of, but you need to go online early in the morning. I tell the apple store employee that I can't get online easily because my computer isn't working, which is, as i had already said, the reason I need the tech support. She tells me I can show up at the store to be seen as a walk-in at 6 a.m., but that I should probably show up around 5 because "a lot of people want to get help and can't get appoinments." When did Apple become Microsoft?

One brief discussion with a nerd at an electronics store later, I find out that Powerbook batteries tend to go bad after two or so years, and I needed to change mine.

Then our internet in the apt. goes out, and after making me wait several hours for the guy to show up, he tells me he can't fix it - why? who knows? - and I will have to schedule another appointment so another repair guy can try to fix the problem. My favorite was the repairman's astonishing announcement that "your internet doesn't work." Oh, really? Man, am I glad you're here.

I am so sick of the implicit corporate assumption that I have nothing better to do with my time and/or money. As I can't post about Japan or anything without going somewhere for internet, things will be slow on that front.

Perhaps the only consolation thus far today was the one pre-packaged "gourmet" sandwich in the hospital cafeteria that stood out from the rest - it lacked the usual printed label and was marked unceremoniously with a piece of tape, on which someone had written in magic marker the thoroughly baffling one-word description "EGGBEEF."

Mmmm....EGGBEEF.

Japan!

Don't call it a comeback. Call it: The Dr. Science Crazy Funtime World Adventure! Only the first day's worth is up, but I hope you like it!

No hallow left behind

Halloween is sort of the high holy day in my family. Normally, there'd be outrageous and extravagant decorations and our lawn (spilling over to the neighbor's), and hundreds of people would come from miles away to see our house. But this what not a normal year.

This year, had you traveled to our house, you would have found a simple, yet quietly ornate sign, explaining that "we, the pirates who gather here each year" were, in an act that recalls the courageous pirate captain Jean Laffite's aid in the battle of New Orleans in 1814, donating the money for decorations to Hurricane Relief in New Orleans.

Let me assure that for our family this was, indeed, a sacrifice. We still had a great Halloween time, though, dressing up as dead Gregorian monks and scaring people at a local Halloween haunted village. The folks there just assumed we were part of the show, I guess.

So it was a great Halloween, a lot of fun was had, I was once again reminded of just how much I have to learn from my parents, and we got the best Christmas card photo ever out of the deal.

gone 'til November

"Now and again, it is necessary to seclude yourself among deep mountains and hidden valleys to restore your link to the source of life."
-- Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido, in "the Art of Peace"

To this end and others, I will be travelling to Japan next week for 14 days. I will see Nagoya, Tokyo, Kyoto, and hopefully a few other places. And I will be climbing the Japanese Alps for a few days. I will, of course, take many pictures and have much to say, but I'm not sure what my internet access will be like once I'm there. So I may post again soon, or it may be the end of October when next I get the chance. I hope you'll keep checking back. And now, as is my style, I will offer an incentive in the form of a picture of the hamburglar. It's an odd one this time.

Goin' to the Chapel...

Tomorrow morning I (accompanied by my dear friend Monica) will take the first of many flights to come in the following weeks. This one, though, has a certain sentimental weight to it. We will be headed to Montreal for my dear sister Patience's wedding, an event so sure to be outstanding that it had to be held off of U.S. soil. Far, far from civilization in the land of moose-riding beavers and french fries with gravy, inside a very fancy chateau in a tiny little town called Montreal, the Atkin family will welcome (indoctrinate) a new member to its motley ranks. Welcome, Brian Jamiriquai Lufthansa Jones...now how about helping to clean the garage?

You gots to be kidding me

Yeah I said "gots." And I went to college, too. And I've begun not one but two sentences with conjunctions. Why such a nightmarish approach to grammar? Because if we've learned anything today, kids, it's that if you know the right people, you don't have to know anything else, or even be qualified for the job. OH, you headed a corrupt lottery commission, AND you're Bush's pet lawyer? Hey, that's perfect.

Seriously, Harriet Miers? What, did Laura pass on the job? Andy Card too busy? Does no one rememberthe Ohio gang? Or that we used to have three branches of government?

If the Senate confirms Miers, I might have to start cheering for the other team...

Um...are you sure you're a doctor?

This sign (you can click on the pic to make it larger) was posted on the door of a nearby conference room at work. It hung there for about a week - notice there is no date on the sign - and was the absolute first thing I took a picture of with my new camera.

Ah,science. Wooing the ladies with questionable, handmade signs since last thursday.