Andy Chronicles

Things more interesting than my ramblings.

2010-10-04T11:49:00.003-05:00

Other things of interest.

London Lion My cousin Caroline is attending a drama school in London. She is a fantastic writer so follow along on this adventure.

And check out my good friend Angel's work on China's environmental policy concerning climate change.

Nerdy Baby

2010-09-17T15:07:00.003-05:00

Funny Poster

Find more strange things for children at NerdyBaby.

Eva's Birthday

2010-08-14T21:03:00.004-05:00

We helped Eva celebrate her birth with some clams on the grill. Burgers, sausages, and marshmallows were involved as well. Shani and Eric drove up from Stanford brought some of their musical talent too!

Eva enjoyed her first s'mores! Another check in the long list of American experiences. "One of the best things about America." - Eva

Shani is taking lessons on the violin. She is quite good and just a few months in! The future 'White Stripes.' I even picked up the violin for a minute.

Roast clams on the grill are delicious.

2010-08-07T23:50:00.004-05:00

Last weekend Ahbi, Eva, Geraldine and I went to the beach. Hammonasset is no South Carolina beach but the water is salty and the sun still burns. After lying on the gravely sand we worked up an appetite building a castle and tossing the Frisbee.

After we packed our bags we stopped by the grocery, bought cheese, bread and beer, crossed the street, and sat down at The Place. We had roast clams, lobster, shrimp, mussels, blue fish and some cake for desert. Its quite hard to top The Place. Where else can you bring your own sides and beer?.... Home.

This Saturday after swimming and castleing we came back home and cooked up sausages and clams in the back yard. We even made the "Clams Special" just like The Place. Toss them on the grill, let them open, split them, add cocktail sauce, put back on grill and enjoy. I almost like them better plain. Its like eating the ocean one salty bite at a time.

Music::Music::Music

2010-07-18T21:30:00.001-05:00

Sometimes the very color of the day is captured by the music permeating my soul. At my bench I am listening to Bon Iver. Their seemingly meaningless words take nothing away from the smooth sounds that seem to blend seamlessly with the clouds outside. The sky is overcast, yet not dark. The gray is a very bright grey but the clouds give the earth and trees a very dull, flat appearance.

A week ago on the way to Mezcal Abhi, Bebiana and I walked past a van out of which was blaring very loud, very peppy, very happy Mexican music. I noted how different cultures have different musical styles. I would go crazy if I had to listen to peppy music all the time, I told them.

Abhi replied that my comment really was only my perception of what Mexican music is. And of course he is right. Yet it seems that whenever I pass over a Mexican music station on the radio its fast and joyful sounds. And complimenting the music it seems that more than most of the time I pass over a Mexican TV channel there is so much action going on that I get the same hurried feeling. My perception is that it takes a man in a suit, a woman in a bikini, a child running around, some costumed characters, music, and three or four other things all at the same time to make a good Mexican talk/game show.

Abhi said most people associate the bollywood musical music as the music of India. I suppose if I ever watch a few I will start to make that association as well. I have already stereotyped Portuguese music. Bebiana says the music of Portugal is sad and full of lament. What she has played for me sure fits the bill. But I would guess, even though she won't admit to it, that Portugal has more than just hauntingly beautiful laments.

We turned to Bebiana, the European, to find out what they thought of American music. Rap. Though she did modify it by saying, "but all music comes from the U.S." So there you have it: rap, laments, bollywood, and very fast happy music. And while there is truth to these perceptions I am glad they are not the entire story.

We arrived and walked into the restaurant finding Eva, Johanna and Kevin already there. Adam and Rachel joined us soon after. And over drinks, chips, and amazing food we were serenaded by live music. A man sang and played beautiful Mexican music on the guitar. If anything it was slightly lamentish. It may have been the "margarita tradicional" but everything seemed wonderful. Music can add so much.

All Work and No Play Make Good Results

2010-07-18T21:21:00.002-05:00

"Ah, there's nothing more exciting than science. You get all the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, paying attention... science has it all." - Seymour Skinner, The Simpsons.

Oh Science!

Sara Watkins

2010-07-06T09:36:00.001-05:00

Some Wednesdays ago down at Cafe 9 Thomas, Julie and I sat drinking Pabst and waiting. We came to see Sara Watkins. And she didn't disappoint. She is shorter than I would have guessed.

She struggled in the front door carrying boxes of discs, shirts and other mechanizable items. If I had recognized her, I would have jumped up, offered to help, and otherwise smoozed. Just another reason to always jump up I suppose.

The opening act was fine. The two guys played well though they played with little originality. Their jokes were terrible. Thankfully they didn't play too long.

Sara's size may be diminutive but her stage presence is not. She sings with such life. When her songs turn sad you can feel, see and hear the heartbreak. when the songs are boisterous and glad the joy can't be missed. Her Body follows her voice all the way though even to her stomping boots.

At the center is her voice, clear and beautiful and free: at a moment sweet and plaintive another bright and dancing and yet again soulful and illusive. Her brother accompanied on the guitar while another two men played bass and drums.

Driving back from Mary's wedding a few weeks ago I caught Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. I actually caught it about 5 or 6 times over the 14 hour trip. I kept listening for it because I heard a most hauntingly beautiful song and I wanted to find out who the artist was. When I finally heard her name I repeated "sara watkins, sara watkins, sara watkins" a few thousand times in the car so as not to forget. I also repeated the name of her song "cross over."

The next day I looked her up. I found her website, listened to some songs, and looked at her schedule. She was coming to New Haven! I bought a ticket. Sadly I could not find her song "Cross Over." Apparently it was new, too new to be on her only album.

As the evening at Cafe 9 wore on She announced that this would be her last song. I hadn't heard my favorite yet! So I yelled out "Cross Over." She heard me but replied saying she couldn't play it now, though it was a good request. I shrugged my shoulders at Thomas and Julie.

Of course they came back out for a few more songs -after much clapping and cheering- and she started with my request. She said it was a good request as she had only played the song four times. She asked me where I heard it. I felt so in the know.

After the show the crowd thinned and I was able to speak with Sara and her brother Sean. They are wonderful people. We talked about music, violin, Suzuki book 4 (we agreed that book really sucked) and life on the road. I bought her LP and she signed it for me "thanks for the request."

Run

2010-06-29T23:12:00.002-05:00

The humidity wave ended. The house, still 82 degrees when I came home felt fantastic. And now it is cooling off. the last few nights the temperature didn't drop making sleeping a sweaty affair.

At 7:30 I dropped my bag, changed into my running shorts and ran back out. I met Mike and Adam at Orange and Whitney and we headed up to East Rock Park. Its a five mile run up to the top and back. The woods, thick and green, were already quite shaded in the evening sun. But as we reached the top and turned with the road to the edge of the cliff we stepped out into bright golden sunlight streaming across the valley as the sun hovered just above West Rock.

The air, hazy and thick in the morning, cleared as the humidity dropped. Looking west and south we could see far and with great detail. At the top of the valley steeples, stereotypically poked out of the green next to the lakes dark and sparkling. Yale, in the middle, filled with its replica stone towers and halls glinted. Even the city looked beautiful spilling into the sound to the south. And While usually just a smudge across the sound today we could see houses on long island.

The run back down was easier though I still lagged behind. Adam and Mike both run often and well.

Wedding Weekend 2

2010-06-09T20:10:00.012-05:00

It worked. They are married. On their way to the airport and to Mexico she called for a last few details and a birthday wish to her grandmother. She was excited. And they were off.

We sit on the couch on the porch drinking coffee and dissecting last evening, processing the events. The air is warm and sticky: back to true South Carolina weather. Yesterday the air was pleasant and cool with sunshine and white puffy clouds that sailed by not noticing the pictures below, under the oak tree.

I am not very good at standing still with a smile plastered to my face. After the 3rd or 4th arrangement I was ready to be done. I can only imaging how Mary's cheeks felt. She was in the most pictures, of course. Nancee Lee shifted us and shot us and the rest of the wedding party. She has such talent and such a great eye.

As requested I played the prelude, starting 30 minutes before. Having more music than necessary I should have chosen more intelligently. I did get in the two that Mary requested. I started with Ashoken farewell and ended with Appalachian waltz. The second to last was Meditations. The piece hinges on the fall from the explosive section. The notes climb and the volume picks with intensity which builds until it can go no more and slows with its own weight and then quickly and with exasperation it falls back down slowly until with a final breath the them returns even softer than before. In this most critical section the piano dies away. Leaving the falling notes open and vulnerable. It is so beautiful.

I missed a few notes on easy pieces and slid around more than intended. But the church was kind. The acoustics amplified the right notes and rang them when I let them fall flat. It is great to have a room that covers for you. But much like the rest of the weekend my time was soon finished and Kathy gave the stop signal from the back and I slipped off stage with my jacket and sat down near the front.

The pastor, came in with the groomsmen. The groom sat his mother and joined them at the front. The bridesmaids came down in pink. Their dresses, the same color, and their shoes as wild as the rainbow. And then she came down. Mary Laurel in white, beaming. My father, too, smiling. A simple ring of pearls accented her dark hair in the perfect way that only happens in tales. I returned to the front when It was time for me to read from genesis.

"God said, 'It is not good for the Man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion.' So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he did not find a suitable companion.

God put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the Man.

The Man said,

'Finally! Bone of my bone,

flesh of my flesh!

Name her Woman

for she was made from Man.'

Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh. The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame."

On the porch and with the second cup of coffee we agreed with Adam - Finally! How good it is that God provides. The morning seemed to go as quickly as the wedding. Mary and Tim exchanged vows and rings and ran out shining with smiles. And with some quick scurrying around we were all at the reception.

The party was beautiful. The dancing was fun. Corrie latched on to me completely. I think we danced every other song. And for all the songs that I dance with someone else she stood to the side and glared and tried to cut in. For her age of 7 she is quite strong and very strong willed. But it was fun.

The food was good, the music better. There were smiles every where. At the beginning, when the wedding party was being introduced, the crowd was surprisingly quiet. So I did my best to clap, cheer, and make all sorts of noise when Mary and Tim were introduced. But the crowed warmed up after Mary and Tim's first dance. They dance and well. My father, nervous at following them, did well too. In fact he looked like he knew what he was doing.

Poor Drew worked hard. Drew, Katie's boyfriend, seeing my mom worried about something told her to send him instead. He found himself in a frantic search for the cake cutting knife and serving utensil. After going through the trunk and the contents of every bag in the trunk he returned empty handed. Only when we returned to the house did we realized that it had been misplaced with the piles of gifts and was returned to the car, but then only after Drew searched. When asked about the contents of the luggage of the bride Drew replied "what was in the trunk, stays in the trunk."

I danced till my shirt, tie, and jacket were soaked. I danced wild. I danced slow. I danced with Mary, my cousins, a few bridesmaids, and even, accidentally, with a married woman I didn't know. I looked for a ring when I passed by earlier. I guess I just didn't see it. Its always more exciting when unplanned. Mary, I think, was the only one who dance more, or had more fun. Mr. Yearick commented "Andrew, when you dance, you just go for it." Not quite the compliment, so I gave him my motto, "What I lack in talent I make up for with exuberance." I suppose I do believe that When it is time to celebrate, it is time to celebrate.

Before I got to eat enough, before I was able to speak to everyone, before I was able to dance with all that I wanted, we were instructed to grab the bubbles and head outside. We lined the brick path. The bubbles filled the space in between and danced in the dark night air, shimmering in a kaleidoscope of colors. At the end of the path, the Model A, looking sharp in shiny black, squawked and clamoured its horn repeatedly. It is hard to blow bubbles and yell at the same time, but we managed. And they were gone.

We swiped the flowers and made sure all the gifts were in the car. Katie, Nate, John and I took a survivor's photo. Meadors passed by and said "and then there was four."

On the porch the morning has moved on. And we slip back into the house.

Wedding Weekend 1

2010-06-08T11:25:00.004-05:00

At the rehearsal dinner we gave lots of toasts. Nate told about throwing snowballs at cars. "I don't know if Mary hit the cop car, but everyone else ran! She was left there frozen, arm still extended as his lights flashed on and he whipped the car over to the edge and jumped out."

Hello, my name is Andrew. I'm with the band.

Its been great to get to know both (pause and check hand) Mary and Tim.

I didn't grow up with Tim but I did spend some time with Mary.

I learned a few things during our time together. First She is my sister. Second she is bossy.

She is also brave. Tim if you should find yourself in one room of the house and your favorite Lego set in another room, a room at the other end of the house, or in the basement, far away from the safety and security of the light and people, Mary is brave enough to get it for you. Even at the age of three she was brave enough to get those Legos from the upstairs.

I have noticed that there was a lot of scripture quoted and read this evening. I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to share my life verse with you all and to remind us that we need to be doers of the word and not just hearers. Song of Songs, chapter 7, verses 7 and 8.

"Your stature is that of a palm tree and your breast are like clusters of fruit. I said, I will climb that palm tree and grab hold of the fruit!"

Cheers!

After the food was finished and the slide show had run its course we snuck out and down the street to the next party. All of my mother's family that was in town, but not at the rehearsal dinner, was celebrating in the next hotel. We paraded through the court yard: six women in saris, a bunch of guys dressed to kill all carrying fruit and large baskets of presents. The restaurant lining the edge was full and every eye was on us. It was great. we walked in and we owned the place.

Aunt Kathy spent the better part of the evening bombarded by grapes, cherries and assorted other edibles launch from the other side of the room. And soon after we arrived she reached a breaking point. Jumping up from her chair she swiped a handful of strawberries. And before Uncle Bruce could jump up from the couch she smashed them onto his bald head. To those who missed the quick action it really did look as if his brains had finally burst out of his skull. I suppose maturity might not be in the cards for me.

Nate and I were asked to retell our toasts and stories. Nate held the entire room captivated. The poor bridesmaids were trapped and had to learn the crazy ways of the Ritzenthalers and the SORS (Spouses Of RitzenthalerS). But before too long Mary and her maids in search of more fun disappeared and my Parents headed home.

I stayed late into the night talking, or "solving the worlds problems," as they say. The Maker's Mark dried up quickly and then the other bottles saw some use. The fruit continued to be lobbed across the room with some frequency. Aunt Laurel declared that she didn't believe in letting her kids date. This apparently had something to do with relationships and teaching your kids to break up. But I wonder if she reached this conclusion at least in part due to her daughter Kerry Anna. Just last year Kerry Anna was a sweet little girl. But now she is 6 foot tall and gorgeous with model's legs. Oh and she is starting high school in the fall.

Eventually some of the voices quieted and some started to snore. Tomorrow was coming soon and already here. so I headed back to the house and sleep.

NYC

2010-05-23T18:54:00.004-05:00

I won. And then I was famous. I picked up my prize and walked back to edge of the room. I was stopped. Two hands thrust forward. One from a woman, beautiful with dark hair, the other from a man with style.

The both knew me, and after the handshake I saw familiarities in their faces. "You are an urban legend," he said. Sadly it was nothing good. Though I was able to verify the story as true. He was from Clemson, and the same high school, but younger, so we never overlapped. She was from Furman - not while I was there - and energetic. She knew my younger sister, Mary, and a curious amount about me but I could not place her. I think I had heard of her through mutual friends. She was quite charming in person.

The reception was nice, generally. I had plenty to drink and the drinks were strong. The finger food came by, and often, on silver trays. And everything was free. The Yale Club is fancy enough where tipping isn't allowed. I like that. I am not ridiculously cheap, I just think it looks nice not to have a bucket of dollars on the bar. I was the outsider. The flyer advertised a reception for Clemson Alumni in the NYC area. But I was the only one not from the College of Business and Behavioral Science. They were almost exclusively Marketing people. There was even a class of Marketing students finishing their "Maymester." But everyone had name tags and smiled. The drinks took the edge off and I introduced myself around the room. There were a few short speeches (the student speakers were embarrassingly poor) and a raffle. I won the book. The iPod was rewarded to someone more related to their field. Such favoritism.

As things wound done I slipped back down the elevators and out of the Yale Club where four staff watched me exit. No thankyous or goodnights, just doubtful stares. I suppose the temptation to wander around the stodgy club may be too much for some. I left the Clemson bag filled with goodies. Having just moved I am very aware of dragging more junk into my house. I walked back to Grand Central and met Maeve fresh in from California.

Maeve left New Haven a year ago when her boss moved to Stanford to be the chair of some new department. She said its not as warm as people think. It is also spread out and sprawling. She is back for graduation. I walked for my Masters last year. I warned her to get the yellow hood, not the blue. We wandered around looking for a few drinks. We eventually gave up and tried for a hotel bar: too stuffy and filled with old people. There was a sign advertising a roof bar whose entrance was along another street. We walked in. The area was empty for just a moment. A very large man entered and asked if we were going up. He checked our IDs, let us into a dark hallway and told us to wait at the elevators at the end of the hall. The elevator opened and another muscular man asked "Up?" He then alerted someone to our presence with his walkie-talkie "I have two going up." At the top we were directed by yet another man through a maze of hallway and backrooms until we popped out on the roof. For all the show it was pretty normal. We were hoping for something slightly more exotic or at least with a few minor celebrities. But the view was nice and everyone was dressed up.

We enjoyed a few drinks and conversation. It is funny how time moves. I remember helping to recruit Maeve to Yale. We took her out to Bar for pizza and then Cozi for desserts. Time moves. The giant digital clock on some building near our rooftop kept track. We made our ways to the train and subway and called it a night.

I met who I hope was the most annoying person in the world. He sat in my car and yelled ridiculous lies about himself. I wanted to go up to him and say "Congratulations! You are the most annoying person in the world. Here is your prize." But I had already unwrapped my book, a biography of Thomas Green Clemson. I really should have gotten that iPod.

Moving

2010-05-18T16:51:00.004-05:00

Oh the joy of waking in a room stuffed with light. Not the splitting light of a morning after a late evening, but the fresh white of a sleep well-ended.

I packed, moved, and unpacked in an almost endless repetition Saturday which dribbled over into Sunday. Fortunately the move was only across town. Though, whether across an ocean or across town moving is deceptively difficult. After exhausting my boxes I still had a floor covered with junk that couldn't find a suitable spot to be crammed. So here's to recycling. The box in the morning that was labeled "Undies" made the trip a second time with my dishes. Its OK, the new place has a dishwasher.

Adam graciously donated his time, truck and muscles to this project. My labmate Patrick took off time from studying for his quals to help too. The three of us moved the big items from my dank dungeon and from my new roommate, Bebiana's place. Adam had to get to a wedding and Patrick back to forcing knowledge down his throat, but Beb and I kept the truck for the rest of the afternoon. And at the end of the day we had a new, beautiful apartment littered with possessions.

Leaving Beb to figure out the mess I jumped in the shower and put on my suit. Due in no small part to my terrific packing abilities I could find the shampoo but not the soap, the black belt but not the black shoes. I picked up Mazin and we headed to the Mansfield Garden party. Mazin, in a tuxedo and I in my suit and sneakers were over dressed and under "fooded" for an outdoor potluck. But I reassured him "no one has ever been turned away for being dressed too nice."

And as it turns out the party was supposed to be themed. The host was in a brown, blue, checkered leisure suit: the hostess, a long blue gown with a large sparkling black bow tied in her hair. She was strikingly beautiful, and being pleased with our getups struck up a conversation immediately. Mazin volunteered that I dance and before I knew it I was dancing in my sneakers on the grass with a beautiful woman with a sparkling bow whose glitter showered down decorating her face. It was May and lovely.

The day, one draped in cool breezy sunshine, just warm enough to start the summer, gave way to night. The fire was cheery and its warmth appreciated. The wandering smoke less so: I will need to get the suit cleaned. I was invited to the garden party through a friend of a friend and was all the more glad to go when Mazin said he would come along. My fears of being a stranger were completely unfounded as we were instantly welcomed and befriended. Certain people have a gift of welcome; within moments, and in any situation, a new person is a new friend. I wish I had that ability. I know that often I find it much easier to ignore new people while in a group. I am awkward with new people. Though I suppose with me there is always awkwardness, and in abundance, no matter how long I have known a person. So I might as well jump right in. I sure like it that way when I am the outsider.

Eventually we thanked the hosts and slipped up the street to the party for which we had dressed up. There was wine and cheese much like the name "Wine and Cheese Party" suggested. It was nice and everyone was dressed sharp. But It was warm on the third floor and my feet were tired from packing and I missed the fire and the sparkling bow. I didn't stay long. At home I tiptoed around trying not to make noise on the wooden floors. I failed. Each step creaked loud enough to wake the entire street. Our flooring system is, I am sure, used with great success in reform school dormitories throughout the country.

In my room I was pleased to find another tiny, but monumental change. I can climb into my bed from either side! My room is so big that my bed does not need to be squished into the corner. How easy it would be to make the bed in the morning. Not that I ever will.

I listened to the new apartment breath, and slipped to sleep, and opened my eyes to light!

Science

2010-05-06T12:03:00.004-05:00

I am sitting in a little room in the dark. I have been here for an hour and have two more to look forward too. Lunch will be late.

I am on the confocal again trying to take a 3D time-lapse image. The software is not cooperating. I manually set the zero position three times. Three times it changed it too 4.00. Why? I don't know. So I gave up and now am taking stacks around 4. I say "around" 4 because each time-point is drifting up or down by .8um which is about half a z-slice. I do not know how well this will track. This may change the measured value.

Often when science is portrayed in the news, and especially in film you see scientists looking, searching, for the moment of discovery: big excitement, big thrills, It's alive! But in my own work, and in the work of most others I know, there are no big thrill moments. I collect data slowly (and I mean slowly) and then pile it together and then try to build a story out of it. Perhaps its the nature of real science versus Frankenstein science. Or maybe its just the way of this field.

I would love to see a movie where scientists are show during a normal, "real" day. No need for fancy goggles or lab-coats, no exciting or shocking results, just lots of little tubes with clear liquids that do not react. Stepping into the lab I work in you would find most people puttering about at the bench or reading at their desk. The biggest excitement would stem from a depressed conversation on how many more years grad school will take. So on second thought I wouldn't like to see a movie with "real" science. Perhaps that's why there isn't any.

Some blogs that I have been reading of late: The Loom and Ephphatha Poetry. The Loom is a Discover Magazine blog by science writer Carl Zimmer. Ephphatha Poetry is by Sara and Brian Brandmeier, two self-described "mystics on a journey of faith and discovery. I find both blogs interesting. Carl Zimmer's had a collection of terrible science tattoos. Perhaps that should make it into the "real" science movies. Scientists with really bad tattoos.

Failure

2010-04-25T21:44:00.002-05:00

Last week while walking with a friend I blithely mentioned that seeing people dealing with failure was most inspiring to me. I don't mean any failure, but real failure: giving everything, making every effort, and yet coming up short. I suppose what inspires me is not the failure itself, but the actions some take in the face of failure. I see people that fight back and try again. Sometimes trying again and again and again. I see others getting up and trying something else, looking until they find success. That is inspiring.

To me, not losing hope, not despairing, when failing is true strength. We are no Spartans here. In this world in which we live there are few times when one can exhibit the courage and strength displayed in those that face failure and try again. I guess in times of war great courage is needed. In times of loss too. Failure just gives another chance see where our values fall.

Failure requires courage in part because so much of our value as individuals is wrapped up in success. To fail is to lose. To fail is to reveal yourself as insufficient. Failure forces one to question their own value. Am I good enough? Will I ever get it right? Will I always come up short? There is fear in failure. There is shame.

It also raises a very important question of how should we value ourselves? Why success? Should we measure ourselves less on our accomplishments, our successes, than on our attempts? Is a whole-hearted failure worth more than an easy success? In theory I agree. Though life seems to disagree. In science papers, no matter the effort, bring worth, in jobs clients, or sales have the same affect. There is no easy metric for measuring effort and desire.

I guess what i find so inspiring about those that truly fail and yet continue is that you know they have given it everything. They truly put themselves out on the line. They held nothing back becoming vulnerable. And when the self-doubting is the strongest they somehow manage to try again, or fight back, or get up and look for something new. Where do they hold their value? How do they measure themselves?

In some sense I wish I could know that feeling. That feeling of failure. I want to know what it is to truly go for broke. I want to know what it is to come up short. I would hope that I possess the courage to get back up and try something new. But I doubt it. I took a difficult class last year. When the going got tough, I got to dropping the class to audit. I could see the writing on the wall and I knew where I was headed. So I jumped ship.

My friend, with whom I was speaking about failure, asked whether I was just too smart and talented, or if I had not taken big enough risks. I laughed. Clearly I haven't taken the risk. I know that to be true. So here's to taking risks. I don't really want to fail, but I do hope that should it occur, I have the courage to try again, the strength to get back up, to utter my barbaric yelp to the world and announce that I, I will try again.

The Consecration

2010-04-18T21:18:00.001-05:00

Tell them, tell them Jesus loves them. Tell them Jesus died for them, tell them Jesus loves them. Tell them, tell them, tell them.

Tutu was not addressing me. He stopped speaking to the large crowd gathered under the colorful banners. As he ended he addressed Ian directly. 'Ian, you must tell them.'

Sitting on the front row I could see the pain in his old face, the tiredness that comes with a long life. His eyes were closed for much of his sermon. Just the night before, in stark contrast, smiling, asking how I was doing, he gave me the youthful 'fist bump.' I wonder what wisdom, what depth of life, is revealed in his range of expressions.

Ian Douglas is now the new bishop of Connecticut. Desmond Tutu gave the sermon at his Consecration on Saturday. I landed the front row seat through a fit of good fortune.

Over the last year and a half I served on the Transition Committee. We orchestrated and arraigned the transition from the retiring bishop to the new. The first step this entailed was bringing in the new candidates - freshly found by the search committee - so that they could see the diocese and the people of the diocese could see them. Also under our charge was the election convention, the retirement celebration and the consecration along with all other logistics in moving people about.

The experience was quite educational. I intend never to give comments to any event planners unless explicitly begged. Discussions innumerable, and lengthy, were played out over every imaginable topic. It is difficult to remain gracious when one flippantly criticizes what you have done and offers an alternative that you long ago thought of along with all of its pros and cons before deciding against it.

I learned much about the Episcopal church as well. When I started on this committee, brand new to the episcopal tradition I understood very little of anything. I can not claim to now have much knowledge of they way things work but after watching and working with this committee I have seen amazing things. I saw people live, work, and pray together. I saw tensions rise and grace overcome. I saw real people with real differences - differences of style and beliefs – work in the messiness of real life and still love each other. God must be here.

Its funny, even as I write this, reading back over it, I see that what I just wrote, that God must be present because they love each other, is not my idea. Jesus said, 'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

I had no particular role in the consecration until one member of our committee had a scheduling conflict. She was to direct the giving of the Gifts of the Office. A new bishop is given things. They receive a funny hat, the miter, a staff, ring, cross, stole, and cope along with a bible. The gifts are usually given to the bishop by people with personal significance, in this case his wife and children. And this would not be an episcopal service if there wasn't tradition and unnecessary people involved. Enter me! My new job was to pick up the gifts from the table and hand them to his children who then would hand them to their father. During the rehearsal the gifts were not there. I had never seen them nor knew what a crozier (staff) or miter (funny hat) was. So if my role was to help his children each get the right object in the correct order they couldn't have chosen a worse person to do it. It made even less sense since his children were grown, quite competent, and had seen all the items. But it secured me a front row seat so I couldn't say no.

I made it to the reception and dinner after the rehearsal, and after a long detour due to bad directions. Leaving from work earlier in the day I was in jeans and fortunately a button down shirt, but I was ridiculously under dressed. Even Bishop Douglas' kids had changed clothes for the dinner. Ever one seemed too busy to notice. I did get a few questioning looks from the waitstaff.

I sat at a table and answered questions about my research and tried my best to deal with the inevitable 'wow that's amazing you must be way smart' that I always get when I mention that I study molecular biology. The table's other occupations were priest (not surprising) and lawyer. I heard more than one joke.

It was towards the end of the evening when I passed by the emeritus archbishop Desmond Tutu. He had just given a blessing at the conclusion of dinner and was returning to the hotel as I was returning to the open bar. Coming around a large pillar he looked up (he is quite short) and smiling asked 'How are you doing?” “I am doing well, I replied, And you?” “Yes, well.” And then he held up his fist to me. And I bumped back.

Telling this tale to some friends Saturday night they suggested he was merely going to bless me. Surely I have brought bad luck upon myself for bumping his blessing, they said. But I was there. It seemed pretty clear to me.

The consecration started at 10am. When It was time for me to direct the giving of the gifts I got up and walked front and center. I felt a little out in the open. Almost 2000 people squeezed into the building to watch. Up front with me was Katherine, the Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church, her chaplain, The immediately to be bishop, his chaplain, and his family. Of all the thoughts that could be rolling threw one's mind – I was hoping my pants wouldn't fall down. Getting dressed in the morning I realized that my suit pants, like all my pants are now really loose. I punched a new hole into my belt but everything still felt too exciting.

The night before I memorized the order and looked up each item on Wikipedia. I didn't screw up. I successfully handed each item to those that would hand them to the bishop. For a few minutes after I was trapped, by design, up front. The bishop's family gathered around him for pictures as the presiding bishop proclaimed 'Greet your new bishop!” So I stood their clapping and smiling, and wondered how I looked in the background of all the photos. After a few remarks the service continued with the exchanging of the Peace. Being right there I shook hands with all the big wigs, Desmond, Katherine, the new Bishop, his family, and random other priests and bishops. And then I was able to sit back down gratefully out of the spotlight and gratefully with my pants still around my waist.

It was exciting to be apart of this, and it was fun to meet the famous people, but I really want to be changed by the message of Tutu's sermon. He drew on two main ideas. First, that Jesus, when raised from the dead told Mary to “Tell my brothers, I go to my father and their father.” And second that Jesus said, 'If I am raised up I will draw all men.' We are all in God's family. He stressed it over and over. I want to love my neighbors and the people I work with, and all the people I see with that love. Or I should say I want to want that.

“He didn't say 'friends,' he said 'Go and tell my Brothers!' This was too important of a moment to use words carelessly. This is radical stuff man. 'I go to my father and your father.'”

Spring

2010-04-11T13:49:00.004-05:00

Spring is here in New Haven. Flowers in bloom are attracting insects. Stray ants are crawling on my leg. I am sitting outside in Old Campus waiting for choir to start. I could just stay outside. The sun is shining. This weekend featured primary colors. The sky vivid blue and the flowers yellow and red. It could have been a claritin comercial.

It rained Thursday removing the pollen which has since reappeared. Friday evening after the departmental happy hour I went downtown and caught the Band's spring concert. I am not a huge band fan: the music too stiff and metronomic for my tastes. But my friend Brede, a senior, invited me. It was pleasant enough. My favorite piece included members of the band chanting and singing.

Later at GPSCY Abhi, Eva, and the rest talked me into singing myself into complete embarrassment. I butchered 'Best of You' by the Foo Fighters. One whiskey later I redeemed myself by joining Mazin, Adam, and Abhi in heart wrenching and ear splitting rendition of Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On.' Fortunately before the crowd could properly riot Bebiana and I ducked out and headed down the alley to the Cabaret.

I have never been disappointed at the Cabaret. This show was no exception: Salome, or rather, 'an adaptation of and adaptation of an adaptation' of Salome. I still have not had the time to digest and deconstruct everything that was said and done, but the talent was great, the laughter fun, and the dancing worthy of half the kingdom.

Yesterday was spent in lab. But today I slipped out for a run: up the street and over to the lake, up and around to the park, to the top of Eastrock and back down, over to Suicide Hill, (Canner St.) and back home again. All in all I think it was seven miles. From the top I could look down and see a bike race that lapped the park skirting the rock. When I ran back down I ran right through it. It was a northeast regional collegiate biking race.

Post Diet Week One:

I think my stomach has been stretched out again. The first few meals, no matter how little I thought I was eating seemed to make me super full. Most of the week I ate turkey burritos with rice, corn and salsa. Breakfast was two-egg omelets with mushrooms, tomatoes cheese and corn with a delicious side of orange juice. I spent around 40 dollars at the grocery on Monday. I need to go back (unless I want to eat left-over beans). So it does cost more to eat with flavor.

Rice and the God-Flavors of the World

2010-04-05T22:00:00.006-05:00

I promised to write a few thoughts in conclusion of my lent project. Being lazy I will copy the article I was asked to write for the Episcopal Church at Yale news letter. Please note that I wrote this quite quickly while watching the pig roast in Charleston. That distraction, and the fact that I have no discernible gifts in writing, explains the poor quality of what follows.

I still do not know why I thought this project was a good idea, though I mulled over it for a year. Perhaps I chose to do this because I came from a tradition that did not emphasize lent. I do not think I realized just how long 46 days really is.

This year for the 46 days of lent (Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday) I have eaten off of a dollar a day. Most people give up something: chocolate, I don't eat much anyways; TV, don't have one; Facebook, lets not get ahead of ourselves.

I wanted to see if it was possible to eat three healthy meals on a dollar a day. So often in the news I read that the only food many people can afford is Fast Food which is terribly unhealthy. But now I know that with one pot, one stove and one dollar a day you can eat three meals getting all the nutrients you need. Oh, a little determination helps as well.

I made rules. I would only spend 46 dollars at the grocery I normally frequent. I would not accept free food from friends. I would not take off Sundays. I would not brag nor complain. And importantly I would allow myself to drink alcohol (not included in the dollar) to ensure I did not become completely anti-social.

I didn't want to buy in super bulk and only eat 46 dollars worth. I also did not want to eat normally on Sundays as I knew I would binge eat. The same applies to the free food from friends. I hope I kept the last rule. Everyone who saw me eating asked lots of questions. It is quite tempting and easy to brag and "brag-complain."

For a healthy dollar a day diet I found myself frequently on the rice and bean isle of the grocery store. You really can't venture very far from there with out the aid of a super sale or coupon. Most days started with oatmeal and sugar. Lunch and dinner were rice, beans, and vegetables. Dry beans and rice are cheap. The frozen kale, collard greens and squash in comparison are expensive. Canned vegetables are cheap but not worth it. Between the super-veggies, rice and a mix of beans I only lacked vitamin b12. Vitamin b12 is found in meat: a serving of inexpensive canned tuna has 812% of your needed daily amount.

There were a few other items I found on sale like eggs and bread but the vast majority of my meals consisted of rice and beans. Eating cheaply can be easy though if you fear repetition down right terrifying. It is also isolating. I, and I suspect others, use food as a social medium. Almost all of my plans involve food. Sharing food is such a wonderful gift.

There were a few minor indiscretions mainly involving broken pieces of cookies. But overall I followed my rules quite closely.

People tell me that when they give up something for lent it provides them an opportunity to be reminded of something larger than themselves. I was reminded very often. Frequently my thoughts migrated to Jesus' words on Salt. For a few days I tried my meals with out salt. After adding salt back in I could taste the radical nature of the call to be the salt of the earth. Salt makes things delicious! Just a pinch transforms food from basic cardboard flavor to tastiness immediately. Jesus asks us to be salt. He wants us to bring out the God-flavors (as The Message puts it) of the world, to be delicious. This is such a beautiful call.

I also thought of Jesus' reply to Satan,“Man shall not live on bread alone.” But my temptations as the days piled on focused not on bread but on Papa John's pizza.

I did learned a few things from this project. I learned you can eat healthily for only a dollar a day. You can eat healthily even if you can not afford Fast Food! Additionally I learned a new respect and thankfulness for the food I am blessed to have. Hopefully I will hold in my memory the transformation that salt preforms on food and by analogy how I am, in Christ, supposed to influence the world around me.

Sunday I finished my project. And I ate. I spent the entire day in a completely satiated state. From the moment when i woke up (a Cadbury egg in bed) till I left Ellen's party (with an extra chunk of bread for the walk back in my hand) and the Omni Brunch (shrimp, crab, smoked salmon, lamb, omelet, fruit, juice, coffee, bloody mary, pasta) and ECY Dinner (ham, potato, salad) in between, I was eating.

I hope to eat with intention. I know that I eat because I enjoy eating. Hopefully I can continue to eat, not for fun, but only when I am hungry. If I eat sensible portions and cut out snacking and other fun eating I should be able to maintain a healthy weight.

Today, after the grocery store with Geraldine, I walked across the street to the Divinity School. The Easter Rejoicing party was tonight. Last year it started outside in the grass with story telling and then moved to a large bonfire before finishing in the chapel with singing, food, and wine. I love the celebration. It is a hodgepodge of styles and cultures, but all one voice, all one worship.

Easter Sunday

2010-04-04T01:35:00.001-05:00

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Christ is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Low Strung

2010-04-03T12:27:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was Good Friday: another day, another rehearsal, another service. It was beautiful, much like Thursday. The sun was shining and warm. The service involves prayers, singing, and communion. We sang a beautiful arrangement of God So Loved the World by Wolcott.

After the service I caught the tail end of the department's happy hour. It was our week to host it. On Thursday Mike and I went to Costco and bought lots of chips, breads, hummus, cheese and bruschetta. Patrick called a few places about wings. I kept telling them we needed more food but never having thrown big parties they thought that ridiculous. For some reason the attendance was very small. Still they ran out of food before most people arrived.

Friday evening I went to GPSCY with Liz to grab a drink before we went to an undergrad college to hear one of her friends playing in the group Low Strung. Low Strung is a group of cellos that play arraignments of rock and pop songs. We heard everything from U2, and Britney Spears, to Journey and Metallica. They were really good and the concert was quite enjoyable.

Today, I drove back up to West Hartford to pick up my running shoes. Last time I needed new shoes I went to fleet feet. Nike discontinued the shoes that worked for me so I needed to be fitted with a new pair. This time I wanted the same shoe. I could have ordered it online but I wanted to support the same store that sat down with me for 30 mins last time. Unfortunately this time they said they did not carry my size. They ordered them for me and I got to make an extra trip. All that to say, I have new shoes now.

Tonight at 11pm we have the Easter Vigil. I really enjoy this service. It will last close to 1am and then we get to celebrate the night through.

Diet News:

Today is the last day! Rice, beans and cornbread. Tomorrow I will eat normal food again. I hope that I will maintain healthy portion sizes. I will write up some concluding thoughts either tomorrow or sometime next week.

Maundy Thursday

2010-04-01T21:28:00.002-05:00

Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos.

This evening I walked down to Old Campus and sat outside Dwight Hall. This week has been long and full of aggravations. Nothing in my work is working. Nothing is going well. It was pleasant outside. Today was the first day of no rain. The grass was littered with Frisbee throwers and empty beer cans. Any time there is even a little sun people come out.

Everything started badly. First, the room in which we were supposed to rehearse was occupied by a yoga group. The side room where we could practice was reserved by some other group and filled with people. We practiced outside in the fading light. Second there were only two tenors and a lonely bass to show up much later. Two tenors wouldn't be bad except that there were two tenor parts. Never having sung the piece before, never having been given the pitch, never having a chance to hear it on the organ I had to jump in and hope for the best. I should have hoped harder. thirdly, it turns out the room we were supposed to be in had never been booked for us.

Of course things worked out. The yoga practitioners took their pallets when they finished just in time. We found enough chairs even though the other room had almost all of them, and even another tenor to sing with me on Tenor 2.

The service is striking. Maundy, derived from mandatum, or mandate, references Jesus' last teaching to his disciples before he is crucified. Love one another as I have loved you. All the more potent as Jesus has just washed their feet. We washed each others feet. We sang Ubi Caritas. We took communion.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.

Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur.

Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.

Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Simul ergo cum in unum congregamur:

Ne nos mente dividamur, caveamus.

Cessent iurgia maligna, cessent lites.

Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus.

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

Simul quoque cum beatis videamus,

Glorianter vultum tuum, Christe Deus:

Gaudium quod est immensum, atque probum,

Saecula per infinita saeculorum.

The service ends after communion. The choir sings psalm 22, the psalm that Jesus quotes from while hanging, dying. The setting includes enough dissonance and fortes to capture the violence of the psalm. It also has pianissimos that gave life to the desperate cries. During the Psalm the priest strip the alter. They take away the gospel, the bread and wine, the candles. They remove the cloth leaving the wooden table bare. And that is that. You walk out into the night in the dark.

Diet News:

Friday and Saturday are my last two days. I wonder if this week has been easy because I know the end is near. I have been eating very well. I can see that I will still have food left over.

Other News:

I just signed for a new apartment! Bebiana and I will be moving the middle of May. The place is amazing. Two large bedrooms, large living and dining rooms, and wonderful kitchen with a side room with a washer and dryer and extra sink! All through out are gorgeous hardwood floors. The back yard is perfect for grilling and there is off street parking. It doesn't get much better than that. Oh that I could move now and leave my loud roommate here in the pool/living room.

Uncle Chien's Traveling Pig Roast Show

2010-03-29T19:56:00.002-05:00

Amy and Angel model their 'Uncle Chien's Traveling Pig Roast Show' shirts. This is now quite the tradition at the Hsu house. Below you can see the thawing pig (30lbs) and the roasting box.

The pig gets injected with flavor and place in the box. Charcoal goes on top of the lid and the pig cooks for a few hours.

For the last few minutes the pig is turned skin side up. This turns the skin nice and crispy. Everyone enjoyed watching the master work.

Charleston SC

2010-03-28T06:37:00.002-05:00

I am sitting down stairs listening to Amy and Angel's parents speak Chinese. They are in the kitchen and I am in the living room looking out at the world waking up. Soon, when Jack and Angel get up we will start the 15+ hour drive back through D.C. and on to New Haven.

What a wonderful get-a-way this has been. The race was enjoyable like always, the pig roast was fantastic and the weather, well the weather was really cold. I wore my fleece and shell yesterday. That's what I wore all through the winter in New Haven.

The Hsus are wonderful people. They love to cook and they love to have people over to enjoy their food. They also adamantly refuse any offers of help. They like to serve. Angel's father, Chen's cooking is delicious. And his quick wit and hilarious out look on life make him so enjoyable.

Neither Amy nor Angel are serious runners. Getting them moving in the morning for the race was a challenge. Pen, their mother, dropped us off and I ran the 1.5 miles down to the start arriving just in time to find my corral and step in as the Anthem was sung. I wish I could have used the restroom. But perhaps the urgency helped me run faster.

I am glad I signed up for the under 50 group, and glad I made it there in time. The last times I ran the first two miles were really clogged. Starting this near the front the race cleared out significantly in the first 3/4 of a mile.

I ran very focused and as quickly as I thought sustainable. As I came down off the bridge I saw them. Right at the 4 mile mark they were passing out donuts. I have run this race three times before and have never seen the donuts. I only heard about the gut busters. I knew you had to run fast to catch them before they ran out. I really shouldn't have, but I had to! I only managed to get down about half.

After the race the park was windy, cold, and devoid of sun. I grabbed a bagel, water, lemonade, and a clif bar. I waited for an hour shivering but never saw anyone from our group. I finally headed to the corner of Rutledge and Calhoun where we were to meet to leave. We grab more food at Hominy and there discussed our tales. I was the only one to eat a donut (though everyone saw them - even the 1.5 hour 'runners') and yet Angel was the only one to throw up. She likes telling the story.

Back at the house the pig roast began. After a snafu Publix finally came through with an appropriately sized pig. This one was 30lbs. The 60lbs 'dinosaur' they tried to give us 'scared' Chen. The pig was thawed, spread out on the rack, and place into the big box. The coals added every 30 mins went on top of the lid. The pig is cooked for a few hours cavity side up. For the last 10 mins the pig is flipped so the skin can crisp. I would not have guessed that all the heat would radiate from the top. We snacked, drank beer, and huddled around the coals for warmth.

The pig was delicious and for me was a lovely end to the day. Angel and Jack later went out but I opted to write the article about my lent project which is due today. I also wanted a little more sleep since I am facing such a long drive. Even Amy stayed in. She managed to 'run' the bridge in 1.5 hours. But i think pig has a tiring affect on everyone.

Chen has started cooking pancakes on the porch and I have slipped out with him. This morning it is already much warmer than it ever was yesterday. So now to breakfast!

PS. I will post pictures of the pig soon.

Knob Creek

2010-03-21T19:16:00.003-05:00

Abhi and I played a few rounds of pool last night at GPSCY. I won the first two games, but by the third, my second Knob Creek began to work its magic and I knocked in the eight ball too soon. In my defense it was a tricky shot (as are all shots to someone with my skill level).

I now have 13 days left! People keep asking me about my eating plans after I finish with this Lent project. I haven't really put much thought into it. I spent weeks planning this adventure, and weeks eating beans and thinking of ways that would have been better. But I do not have any good ideas for after Easter. Fortunately ECY, the church I attend, is having a graduate brunch on Easter. They are subsidizing the Omni's brunch. I went last year. It is quite nice.

Any thoughts on how to celebrate? I think I will have beans, veggies, and even some rice left over. A friend suggested a bean party but I am skeptical. I have no desire for that and doubt many people would either. Maybe later in the summer I can cook up a big bean and rice meal for friends.

I have been practicing my violin. I really enjoy it. Its funny, I love the smooth feel of the strings under my fingers. I am working on songs out of the Suzuki Violin School Volume 5. It still amazes me how much my fingers remember. That said, I still have a way to go to get things back on track. Mary requested I play in her wedding so I have till the end of May.

I am ready to be done

2010-03-19T17:28:00.002-05:00

Right now I am delaying dinner. It is Friday, a beautiful Friday. The sun once warm is now setting into a beautiful dusk. I know I need to eat. I am joining everyone at Christopher Martin's for drinks and there is bound to be food. If I haven't had dinner that will be tough. Though a repeat of lunch sounds less than appetizing. At the end of the week desire for pub fare peaks.

For lunch I ate rice, chickpeas, and kale with a corn muffin on the side. It was all really good. I did over season the chick peas a little, but still nice. But I am tired of healthy food. I am tired of the same thing: thirty one days of beans, rice and veggies.

Lab:

Today I processed some of the first real data. Everything up to this point has been proof of principal experiments. But now my boss has let me collect the real thing. And it's no good! My knockdown assay shows the same velocity as my wild type control. It is supposed to be much faster. Stupid, excruciating, life-destroying science.

Flood!

2010-03-14T18:23:00.002-05:00

New Haven likes the rain. I remember my first two weeks in New Haven. The plane lowered through the clouds and into the grey rain of Connecticut. The taxi took me and my luggage into town and dropped me into a big puddle outside my door. It didn't stop raining for two weeks.

It has only been raining since Thursday night, but already the water has so saturated the ground that it is pouring through the wall and into our living room. The living room opens to the exterior hall which is cut into the steep bank. Hence the 2 inches of water that was twice cleaned up within 12 hours. It is supposed to rain all tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night, though at the moment it is windy. I hope the wind is driving the rain away. Either way the ground is still giving up water and the carpet sploshes when you walk on it.

Chick peas are simmering behind me. They smell different then the beans I have cooked before. I hope they taste fine. I went to the grocery today and spent 4 more dollars. Apparently Stop and Shop is having a 'Real Deal' sale. I found three boxes of corn muffins for 87 cents. At 6 muffins a box its about 5 cents a muffin. I also grabbed a damaged can of corn, a box of macaroni and cheese, and a bottle of seasoned salt. The seasoned salt cost a dollar and tastes much like the flavor packs of Ramen noodles, which is unfortunate. That said, its good to have any flavor.

I cooked up a batch of corn muffins: sweet and tasty. If I have learned anything, I would not have spent so much money up front. So far everything I bought originally has gotten cheaper. The frozen veggies which are tasty are now 4 bags for 5 dollars instead of just three. Even the canned food, which is much less tasty, is cheaper.

Running News:

This week I drove up to West Hartford to visit Fleet Feet. I bought my last pair of shoes, Pearl Izumi SyncroPACE III, there and wanted to support them again. I asked for the same shoe but of course they do not carry my size any more. I tried on a few different pairs that promised similar support but chickened out. I had them order my size. Now I get to drive back up sometime next week.

I ran with Mike up to the top of East Rock. There and back is 6.5 miles. I felt pretty good so I am ready, as much as I can be, for the Cooper River Bridge Run on the 27th.

I can't believe Jack and Angel talked me into driving to DC to ride down with them. The Thursday and Friday down won't be too bad, but continuing on from DC to New Haven alone on Sunday will be a lot. But you only live once. And I am young and foolish enough to think this sounds like a plan.

t-shirt:

I need a funny caption to write on my t-shirt for the race. Please leave me a suggestion. Any thing works - running related is better - moderately insulting is the best.

Half Way Mark

2010-03-11T21:47:00.006-05:00

Its been 23 days!

I am half way to Easter and half way to completing my dollar a day diet. Of course as I type at the kitchen table beans are boiling over my shoulder on the stove. I am back to black beans and am looking forward to them. I made a long detour into the world of pink beans. Pink beans are fine. Though no one seems to believe they exist. "Oh you mean kidney beans?" "No, I meant pink beans."

Mine were dry and Stop and Shop brand - but they do exist.

I am glad to have reached this milestone. I am glad now to count down the days. I am looking forward to Easter in more ways than one. I like Easter, the beautiful message of love that God proclaims through it, the wonderful birth of life as spring returns, and now the delicious return of food besides beans!

This morning started at 6am. I hit snooze to catch my breath from the alarm. I jogged to the gym and hit the weights. My word, I have no muscles! Mike showed me five core exercises that involved a large inflatable ball, myself and the floor. He made it look easy, I made it look like inflatable ball molestation.

The gym has a big scale with numbers up near your face. When I purchased my scale from Walmart I opted for a non electronic one as it was cheaper. But my eyes are getting farther from my feet every year and even now I am finding it difficult to read the dial. Today at the gym I weighted in at 188lbs. That means I lost weight the first two weeks on this diet, but the third week I held my own.

What I have learned so far:

Eating cheaply doesn't have to be bad for you. I am eating quite healthily. Yes perhaps fresh vegetables and fruits are better than frozen ones, but I do not need to eat fast food nor heavily processed foods to stay with in my budget. In fact I can't afford fast food or most of the heavily processed foods. Between the beans, rice and veggies like spinach I am getting all the nutrients the body needs save one, vitamin b12. I pick that one up with my eggs and tuna.

I use food as an activity. Before starting this diet I ate food at most occasions. Dinner, or at least beer and sides, was my main weekend activity. Even having a few friends over prompted food consumption. Now I have had to think of ways to get around that problem. I have seen many more movies. I have spent a few more days running with people.

Beans don't have to give you gas. Soak the beans before you cook them. It gets rid of the gas producing polysaccharides. I soak the beans for the recommended 8 hours and then rinse them well before cooking them. I haven't notice an uptick in flatulence.

It sucks to be on a limited diet. They say most weight loss diets do not work because people can't handle the isolation. Apparently I am not the only one who uses food as a socializing ingredient. We share food as a sign of friendship. To be out of that loop is difficult.

Salt is amazing. Try eating a pot of beans without salt. Then add some salt. It is fantastic. It just takes a few grains to make a big difference. Sugar makes oatmeal better, yes, but nothing close to the change that salt makes on beans and rice. Plus you only need a pinch. I keep coming back to the Salt of the earth picture. Jesus says his followers are to be the salt of the earth. We are to bring out the flavors that are already there. We are to make the world delicious.

If I am to help make the world delicious then I think I will need the love described as follows:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

Free Bread

2010-03-08T22:28:00.002-05:00

Chewy bread:

As I write this I am boiling my rice for tomorrow much like every evening. Except in addition I am enjoying a free loaf of "Parisian Baguette" from Atticus. I walked downtown this evening to buy some cards. Atticus, a little bistro and bookstore has the best cards. I intentionally waited until 8:50pm. They close at 9 o'clock. My first year I lived just down the corner and many evenings would wander by when they closed. For any bread that is not sold during the day is placed in a large trash bag and set outside on the sidewalk. You needed to be quick or some greedy undergrad would make off with the entire bag.

Unfortunately this evening there was no bag outside. I knew greedy undergrads had not made off with it because they are all away on spring break. So I rummaged through the cards until they started to lock the doors. At the cash register I asked the lady if they still gave out free bread at night. "If we have any," she replied.

When she handed me my receipt she pointed me to the kitchen and told me to ask anyone over there. I did. "Do you have any bread that didn't sell today?"

Walking back I began to tear off inches of the long chewy bread. It is so good. It is good as well to have something that gives your jaw some exercise. Beans and rice don't really give you much to work with. And the can of mix vegetables that I opened this evening had all the life boiled out of them long ago.

This does fit in with my rules. I am not allowed to accept "free food from friends." The idea was that I could accept free food if it was truly available to the entire community. And since any sapsucker can walk in from the street and ask if they have free bread it works. I do not eat at the departmental happy hours because I seriously doubt that random people from the street wouldn't be shooed away if they showed up.

I can't believe it took me three weeks to remember Atticus!

Cravings:

Its funny when cravings come and go. The first week it seemed that all people talked about was food. Sure we all do talk about food from time to time, but I payed attention that first week more than normal. Fortunately the desire to eat at every restaurant in the greater New Haven area has faded. Last Saturday though I came home from work and walked into the apartment and wanted Papa John's pizza. I knew they would be glad to drive it over. So good. I ate some rice and beans instead. Surprisingly the craving past almost as quickly.

Feuerzangenbowle

2010-03-07T19:10:00.008-05:00

Fire-tongs punch

Eva had us over to her apartment Saturday night to enjoy a winter treat: mulled wine with flaming rum and molten sugar. Its hard to go wrong there.

Apparently quite the Germanic tradition, it is usually enjoyed around Christmas and New Years. They like it so much that they made a movie about it cleverly named Die Feuerzangenbowle.

Mulled wine goes in the pot below the grate where the sugar loaf sits. The sugar is soaked in high octane rum and then ignited. More rum is ladled on as needed. On a side note one should unplug the smoke detectors first.

Eva Contemplates the phallic nature of the sugar loaf. It is supposed to lie on its side.

Rum soak

Adam, impressed by the high quality rum.

Its really quite beautiful. As it burns the sugar and rum drop down into the wine below.

Adding more rum.

When all the sugar has fallen through you drink! Its really quite nice.

The rest of the evening turned into a strange sing off/dance party. It caught Eva singing, but failed to get Geraldine on camera - even when being sly.

The dancing started out pretty strange and went down hill from there. I will note that the table wasn't pushed out of the way and leave the rest to your imaginations.

ScienceDay!

2010-03-06T13:16:00.005-05:00

Running:

The weather has turned mild, or at least less miserable. The sun is even staying up past 5pm. I don't like running in town when its dark. I would rather that the drivers had all the best chances of seeing me. I also detest getting out of bed in the morning, especially when it's cold. I don't mind the morning runs: cold fingers, cold air, burning lungs. I just have a hard time throwing back the covers. Now that it is lighter in the evenings I can run without fear of disappearing into the shadows which relieves the guilt of not getting out of bed in the morning.

I need to step up my daily running. Angel and Jack talked me into driving down with them to Charleston SC for the Cooper River Bridge Run. It will be a crazy weekend with lots of driving but Charleston is such a fun place. The race is great too.

Unfortunately for me, the race falls on the 27th of March. I will be entering the last week of the dollar a day project. Since we will be staying with Angel's parents I do not want to insult them by not eating their food. But I worry that any big change might wreak havoc on my internal workings. I don't want that the morning of the race! Oh well. I am sure I can burn that bridge when I get there.

Lab:

After staying up late to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland I made it to lab this morning at 7.45am. That is one way to start a Saturday. It looks like it will be a full day in lab. I was hoping to get to the gym, but work always takes longer than I think. I may not even have time for laundry this evening before Eva's Party.

Eva is having a Feuerzangenbowle. All I know is that it involves flaming sugar falling into a mulled wine of sorts. Should be exciting.

Privacy!

2010-03-04T21:12:00.002-05:00

After living the last 5 months exhibitionist style they have finally reinstalled the blinds over the glass door. No longer will I have the pleasure of staring back at the people who walk past watching me eat beans on the couch in my underwear. Just kidding, I wear more clothes than that. Though I am sure I have been spotted picking my nose or something equally embarrassing as that.

Lent News:

Today, Thursday, was day 16. I went out and bought a scale from Walmart. While there I kept my eyes opened but failed to see anyone worth of peopleofwalmart.com. I did over hear lots of conversations as apparently it is quite appropriate to yell across 4 or 5 isles to speak to your friend, mother, girlfriend or child. You can argue and scream or yell words of love. It doesn't really matter the topic as long as its yelled across the store.

The scale set me back 15 dollars. I don't know how accurate it is. It claimed I weighed 190 lbs with only my undies on. Previously I weighed myself at Erin's house (in much more than just my undies) and came in at 205. That was one week into the diet. If I remember correctly I weighed myself in SC over Christmas and came in at 210-215. It is hard to conclude too much as these were three different scales with an estimated error at +/- 5lbs. But still, I am dropping weight and fast.

Before I started this project I read that most of the weight would drop in the first two weeks. I hope that is true. I was technically overweight according to the BMI of the government at the start, but I didn't get on this project to loose weight. I wanted to see if one could successfully eat off of a dollar a day. If I continue to loose at this rate I will conclude that you can not (or at least with my method). I will also pull the plug. That said, I do have some wiggle room. I still have a beer belly and ample love handles to burn through.

For those who are looking to loose a few pounds I recommend beans and rice. Don't eat off of a dollar a day, but make beans and rice a large portion of what you eat. They are very filling (so you don't feel hungry) and nutritious too. Oh and split peas are disgusting. Black, pink, and navy beans are much better.

Eggs!

2010-03-03T18:10:00.002-05:00

Monday evening I drove up to the grocery with Geraldine a new post-doc from Belgium. As she loaded the cart with every imaginable edible I found a large bag of white rice ($6) and a cheap loaf of bread ($1).

Geraldine's first paycheck had just gone through so she was eager to eat again. And I had only spent 24 dollars of my 46. After a few necessities including the large bag of white rice (brown is too expensive) I found the cheap loaf of bread. While not nutritious on its own I couldn't resist the idea of sliced bread and went in search of something to put on it. I first checked the meats: way, way out of my price range. Even bologna was too much. Then I moved to the peanut butter. Apparently Stop and Shop doesn't have dirt cheap options there either. But then I saw the eggs, cheap eggs. All I could think of was a break from oatmeal.

I came home with my prize eggs and bread. Tuesday morning I heated up the pan and cracked an egg. It was perfect, the perfect flip and the perfect cook. I ran off to lab to inject and while sitting in the basement I ran into trouble. Inside an hour and a half the egg wreaked havoc and departed (to put it politely).

The great thing about this diet has been the wonderful effects on my intestinal health. Not that any of you care to know, but I must be allergic to some preservative or other random ingredient prevalent in foods. I didn't think I had problems with eggs. Right before this diet started I had the infamous Cowboy Burger from Prime 16 which comes with an egg on top - no problems there. A few of my friends think that perhaps the micro-flora of my intestines has changed as a result of this diet. If that is the case I will have to be careful of returning to normal food after this experiment.

I ate oatmeal for breakfast this morning!

Geraldine promised me some Belgian chocolate at Easter in thanks for the grocery run. Knowing how closely she guards it I am quite pleased.

Resolved: Beer Consumption Should Be Reduced

2010-02-27T13:26:00.004-05:00

Day 11

Thursday evening I walked down through the rain to GPSCY (Graduate and Professional Student Center at Yale). The Forestry school was hosting a fundraising auction at the pub. I arrived with soggy feet and damp pants and wadded up my jacket gloves and scarf and crammed them into the over crowded coat room. I hid my umbrella as best I could and went and found Jack and Angel.

Jack called me while at work and invited me down. A date with Angel, he said, was being auctioned off. She and 5 other 'darling doctoral dames' were part of a group. They even had a dance.

Jack and I went to the back of the room where they had PBR on tap and free. That's tough to beat. I grabbed a pint as Jack's was refilled and we stood towards the back watching all the events, dates, and vacations go up in price. The "Be a third wheel on a man date" was a funny one promising dinner, drinks, and mind bending sexual innuendos. We bid on the "weekend on the cape" but were soon out spent.

Finally Angel's turn came. Starting in the back wearing labcoats and other nerdy things they danced down to the front to Weird Al's music video 'White and Nerdy.' But halfway through their nerd dance the music switch up to the Pussy Cat Dolls with Snoop Dogg and they started removing layers of clothing revealing their little black dresses underneath. The best part had to be the girl wearing the hiking pants that zipped off at the knee. I would have never thought those would make sexy stripping clothes.

Hands went up everywhere and the price kept moving. I bid in at 280 and for a moment was mildly terrified I would have to come up with the cash, but fortunately the price took off again. I think they went for well over 300 dollars.

Some of the money raised supposedly went to an unnamed charity, but most will be used to fund their parties (and free beer) throughout the next year.

Diet News:

I think I may change my rules slightly. I have allowed myself to drink socially which is great. But I may limit my drinking to one or two beers on the weekend. This was a very busy week with way too many 12 hour days back to back. With low calories and less sleep I really do not need to drink during the week. Clearly the Forestry party is not a regular thing, but I can opt for water when out as well.

Food Thought of the Day:

One should eat rice and beans without salt for a day and then rice and beans with salt the next. I really understand the difference it makes! When Jesus said we are to be the salt of the earth to bring out the God-flavors of the world it means delicious! So much better!

Postscript:

I ran 5 miles today. Mike and I started outside my house and headed to East Rock Park and ran across the lake and down the park. It is the first day that something hasn't fallen from the sky. It rained all week and snowed on Friday. The sun was warm and the park was gorgeous draped in thick wet snow.

Meat!

2010-02-24T22:51:00.002-05:00

Today, the eight day, I enjoyed tuna. I added a serving of tuna to my black beans and rice at lunch. It is quite amazing how flavorful meat is after beans and rice. Breakfast was of course, you guessed it, oatmeal. Dinner was black beans and rice.

After injections, confocaling, and listening to the faculty candidate I was able to start my work proper. Unfortunately that kept me in lab until 10.20 or so this evening. But the last hour was actually just waiting on an incubation. Instead of diligently reading some science paper at 9pm after being in lab since before 8am, I grabbed my computer and watched Super Size Me at at hulu.com. Morgan Spurlock took it upon himself to eat at McDonalds for every meal of every day for a month. Delicious. Not only did his weight shoot up 25 or so pounds, but his health dropped off. Very interesting project, though not one I want to take up.

Tuesday evening I went to Erin's house for an evening of TV and Talking. There I got on the scale. I weighed in at 207. We will see if it drops.

Breaking news! My roommate informs me that we have no toilet. Apparently the maintenance people got pissed off at my roommate for continually complaining about the toilet not working. He contacted them 5-6 times because he had to jiggle the handle. Now the back of the toilet is removed completely. I guess I will be going back into lab tonight to pee. I had asked him not to bother about it. oh well.

Seven Days

2010-02-23T22:05:00.002-05:00

Its been a week on this Lent project. And all is still going well. I am definitely not hungry. I am not weak or malnourished. I am just a little bean-fatigued!

At the moment I just cooked up a pot of beans (four servings) and the rice is simmering behind me on the stove. So more of the same, but hey, I knew that going in.

Today I did have a welcome relief: homemade sweetbread. Through a series of fortunate and unfortunate events I ended up making bread (I think I can afford a bag of flour and sugar and a little oil). And that is almost all I ate today. It wasn't the healthiest of days, but it sure did taste good.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to including a little meat. Tuna with beans and rice and veggies. Gotta get my vitamin b12!

Today was cold and rainy/snowy; definitely the worst day of weather so far this year. All day it was gray and depressing. Though right at dusk the grey fog that saturated the view out my window turned blue. We were listening to music by Bon Hiver, a slightly whiny band. At the moment, looking at the blue mist decorated with splashes of light from the street lamps, it seemed to fit and I wished I could have just walked out into the sky. It was a long day.

Epic Success and other things

2010-02-20T17:33:00.002-05:00

Friday brought split peas and rice with more kale! mm-mmmm. Kale tastes better the second time around. It may be that the beans get dry after you reheat them at work thereby making the moist kale seem better.

To test my will Friday also brought the departmental happy hour. This wasn't just any happy hour. MB&B has happy hours all year. MCDB, my department, only does in the summer. Well not any more. And apparently we had to show off. When I ran happy hour my second year we were given a budget of 120 dollars: barely enough for a decent keg and a few sad chips. This time, organized by the PIs, not the department, they spent 500 dollars. They even had Nica sandwiches!

I didn't eat anything. I did have two beers. Remember my rules. I said I would drink socially. If one should ever do this crazy diet they should take note. You become a lightweight. After one and a half beers I was tipsy.

Friday was the success. Saturday started out well too. I ate my oatmeal with even more sugar (I have saved a few cents each day to warrant good tasting oatmeal) for breakfast. Lunch was rice and split peas with kale. It was a rather large bowl but i wolfed it all down as I ran out the door to Maia's second birthday party.

Sarah invited me a few days back and I failed to mention my lent plans. So I figured it would be best not to insult anyone so I ate a little food there. Plus Sarah and Jeremy had worked themselves silly cooking and she wanted me to try a bunch of stuff. So I ate off the diet! But I am back on now.

Driving up to their house I realized my breath reeked of split peas and kale so I popped a mint in. I keep Altoids in the car at all times. I didn't even taste the mint. It was just sugar! so good.

Sarah and Jeremy both told me I had to come back and soon. I do hope to get too. Maia is a cute, cute girl with such an expressive face. And they are such a wonderful couple. Their dog, aria, however is not so sweet. A rescue pup, she has some issues compounded by the fact that she is a English mastiff, and a large one at that. I think Jeremy said the vet weighed her at 130 lbs. Not the type of dog you would think would be great for a party of two year olds. But there were no accidents or disasters when I was there.

Rice and Beans!

2010-02-18T20:41:00.003-05:00

Breakfast this morning was oatmeal.

Lunch was black beans and brown rice.

Dinner was Black beans, rice and chopped kale.

The oatmeal is 10 cents a serving. The black beans cost 8.3 cents per serving, the Kale, 33.33 cents per serving. And its all really good. That said, I couldn't get down an entire serving of Kale - so that should go farther.

I don't remember how much the brown rice cost. I will have to get back to the grocery and check in on that.

So If I eat this cheaply I will be able to throw in some fresh fruit from time to time. Plus I have some tuna that I plan to eat at least once a week.

I think tomorrow will be split peas and rice!

Memories

While eating my oatmeal this morning I remembered getting ready for Bob Jones in the morning. Eating breakfast together, Dad singing something crazy, and riding in the car listening to the Mt. Sinai (holy tabernacle, fire baptised, snake handling, premillennial, missionary, true gospel) choir belt out "Come thy Fount". To be young again and follow behind the poultry delivery truck wondering how cold the chickens were.

"You know it is easy to load the chickens on those trucks," my father would say. "The chickens that left before on this 'field trip' loved it so much they never came back. So these chickens were really excited to get on the truck and go too."

Oatmeal was goatmeal, Katie was a starling, and school started at 8am.

Ash Wednesday

2010-02-17T22:08:00.002-05:00

This may be harder than I thought!

Today I ate a serving of oatmeal for breakfast (a pinch of sugar) and some black beans for lunch, followed by black beans and rice for dinner. I hope to be a little better about it in the future, but I did not have all the time in the world to prepare as I was out last night on a date. I know, I know, it is hard to believe that I could get a date, but it had to happen at some point.

The oatmeal is really cheap: 30 servings for 3 dollars. But even better I quite like it. The black beans were good, though I need to add more salt. Salt is nice and cheap too.

The good news, I was hungry after lunch, but a dinner of beans and rice is actually quite filling. I was tired today. I wonder if that had anything to do with the reduction in sugar and calories or just my roommate's bizarre schedule of night showers.

Are black beans supposed to stain the water so dark? I soaked the beans over night and dumped off that water and rinsed the beans, but the water kept coming up black. Is that the natural color or do they add dye?

Today at noon I went to the Ash Wednesday service. The choir sang so we had to get there an hour before. It was really beautiful music. I wish I could remember the names or post the music here.

Dollar a Day

2010-02-16T15:25:00.005-05:00

Fat Tuesday!

"His gourmandism was a highly agreeable trait; and to hear him talk of roast meat was as appetizing as a pickle or an oyster. As he possessed no higher attribute, and neither sacrificed nor vitiated any spiritual endowment by devoting all his energies and ingenuities to subserve the delight and profit of his maw, it always pleased and satisfied me to hear him expatiate on fish, poultry, and butcher's meat, and the most eligible methods of preparing them for the table." -The Scarlet Letter, The Custom House

Fat Tuesday is here. Lent is hiding right behind. Instead of choosing one thing to give up I am going to attempt to eat off of a dollar a day. So much of the world lives on a dollar a day (or less), that I thought it might be a good exercise to see if I could manage, while maintaining a degree of healthiness, to eat off of a dollar a day. I hope that this project leaves me with a greater

respect and thankfulness for the food I do have, and a desire to waste less.

I have spent much time perusing the rice and bean isle at the grocery store. And really there are not many isles holding anything that this diet affords. The Internet has only reinforced why rice and beans are a staple all around the world. While cheap they are incredibly nutritious. Rice, a variety of beans and some frozen spinach and carrots gives you every nutrient the body needs minus one. Spinach alone pulls out many of the minerals from the soil that the body needs. No wonder it is called a super food.

This diet will result in a calorie reduction. From reading other people's blogs (not scientific) it would seem that you loose the most weight and experience the most hunger in the first 1.5-2 weeks. After that you body would seem to adjust rather well. I am not doing this program attempting to lose weight. I have considered pulling the plug if I should continue to loose weight past the first 2 weeks or if the overall loss is to much. I am not overly concerned as I am a few pounds overweight according to the BMI calculations and am only eating like this for 46 days.

The only vitamin I am not getting from the above food is b12. You can only get b12 from meat of dairy. Dairy is off the table for me so it looks like some cheap meat from time to time will have to be consumed. I think some of the tuna in big cans might fit very well into my diet. Spam it turns out is quite expensive. A friend mentioned "assorted chicken parts" as a possibility. I am not quite sure I want to go there, but it might be fun. Overall I think it should be healthy or at least not unhealthy.

Rules:

1)I do not want to game the system by buying in bulk and only eating 46 dollars worth. I feel that those that are hard up for monies might not have the memberships to such big discount stores. So i will be going to the local grocery that I have been going to all along and purchasing 46 dollars of food. All food consumed over this project must total no more than 46 dollars.

2)I will also not be taking off Sundays. Traditionally in Lent Sundays are always a day of celebration and therefore are not observed when skipping out on something. I know I would just binge eat on Sundays.

3) I will maintain 3 meals a day - no skipping to make a big meal - unless it is breakfast which I already skip with some regularity.

4)I will not accept free food from friends.

5) I will drink alcoholic beverages not factoring the cost (but no olives in that sapphire!) and only when out socially. Other liquids will have to be counted in the dollar.

6) I will not complain or brag about how hard this is (thanks Hilary).

7) I will maintain my normal life.

8) I will attempt to be as healthy as possible - no ramen noodle feasts!

Of course today being Mardi Gras I will be eating the best burger ever, the Cowboy Burger from Prime 16. A huge patty topped with an egg. Amazing.

Some interesting blogs covering other people's experiments.

Less is more http://lessisenough.wordpress.com/2009/02/page/3/

One Dollar Diet Project http://onedollardietproject.wordpress.com/

Please leave some comments, encourage-ments, possible rules etc.

Birthday

2010-02-09T22:24:00.003-05:00

Listening to the Avett Brothers

Birthday

After 30 days of lab I took off last Friday, ironed my shirt, and jumped the next train to the city. It was after all my birthday weekend. Caroline invited me down to go swing dancing. It was just what I needed.

She met me at the station around noon and we headed out. I felt particularly lost on this trip. New York can be overwhelming to the visitor but this time I was completely out of it. I guess sleep, something I have been missing, is important. We stepped out and before I could locate any street sign she read them all and started moving in the right direction. I felt as if I couldn't even focus my eyes that fast.

We went to the MoMA and saw Tim Burton's work: amazing. Apparently he has never thrown anything away. Gallery after gallery was filled with drawings, sketches costumes, and models. I think we both enjoyed the one with the captioned "never shoot a constipated poodle." Even though it was great after a few miles of modern art I was ready for something less sophisticated.

For an afternoon snack we went to my new favorite place, Pomme Frites. As the name suggests they sell fries. I have never eaten a better fry. The sauces were fantastic too. I am afraid if I lived near I would die by fried potato. I suppose that's not the worst way to go.

On the ride to her apartment Caroline shared her undercover photographic account of the oddities of the human existence as displayed on the subway. And even during my short trip we witnessed the smallest feet ever attached to extremely stretched leopard print leggings.

We walked the dog, ate dinner, changed, and headed back for dancing. Swing46 is a little bar/restaurant/dance place. We walked through towards the back room and took a cocktail table right on the floor. Enjoying sapphires with olives we watched a group of left feet learning a few moves before the band headed to the stage. The band was the Crescent City Maulers. Live music is always so fun.

Caroline, not only a thespian but a terrific dancer. It is fun to dance with the most beautiful woman in the house, even if she is related. Her smile is contagious and explosive. I am pretty sure we were being watched. I know from long dancing experience that has nothing to do with me, or any moves I may be doing.

As she stepped out for a moment she said "when I come back you better be dancing with one of those ladies." So of course I turned right around and asked one of the four ladies at the next table to dance. I don't need much encouragement to make a fool out of myself. She didn't turn me down though her arms were like spaghetti (not good when dancing). But when Caroline came back she started talking to them right out of my ear's reach. Not having a clue what she was saying as she nodded back to me I figured I better cut it off quickly and grab another one of them. So I did. And she could dance. And maybe it was the second sapphire but her smile was wonderful too. She said "I want to dance with you again."

It is silly but knowing that I could come to new york and dance made me feel so good. I guess being tired for a month has a stronger affect on me. Sitting, listening, and watching people smile and dance made me feel that the world was alright again. I don't want to forget the pain in the world but I don't want to forget the real joy that exists. Otherwise it really isn't a true picture.

Fortune did not stay with me forever though. About a song after I danced with good dancer her friends drug her out and away. So I had to make due with the most beautiful woman there. Such is my life. Later in the evening more and more really talented dancers showed up and showed off. It was quite fun to watch. Towards the end one of the waitresses climbed on stage and sang. While she was skinny and not covered head to toe in blue sequins she gave a very good rendition of Etta James' At Last. And at last we headed out ourselves.

Passing up a night cap we headed back. Caroline got out a bag of chips and some salsa and we talked. How funny it is. We are so closely related and yet for all practical purposes almost like strangers. It would be wrong to try to pick a favorite part of a trip as perfect as this, but if I had to I might choose this time talking and learning.

The next morning she drove me into the city and dropped me off at the train station on her way to work. A most loving cousin, a most gracious host, and a most fun dancer - how did I get so lucky?

Before I got on the train I stopped for a bagel and a coffee. Standing in line i was punched squarely on the arm. I turned to see a stranger profusely apologizing for the "accidental punch." How one punches that hard on accident I don't know. Perhaps she thought I was someone else and when I turned and revealed myself to be someone else entirely she couldn't come up with anything better. I told her it wasn't a problem 'but good punch though.'

Of course I took my camera with me. Yet I never took it out.

birthday part two.

Angel and Jack decided to throw me a party on my birthday (also known as Superbowl Sunday). the invited my friends and decided to cook themselves silly on my account. I would never had told them I liked red velvet cake if I would have known they would search multiple grocery stores in vain and then make it from scratch. Angel did ask "what is wrong with your friends?" She had only received two replies, both negative. It was late notice and yes some of my friends would rather stay in, but we still had a good party and those that did come had lots of food. Abhi and Eva gave me a wonderful bottle of Kentucky strait whiskey. They also gave me a children's book intended to teach me not to be a racist.

Last summer after a day at the beach Abhi, Eva and I were headed to The Place. The Place is a summer outdoor eating joint that serves amazing, amazing seafood cooked over a long grill. It is byob. We stopped at a package store to pick up some beer. Looking in the cooler door I attempted to read the box of the beer I wanted. The box read "Celebrate Summer" and underneath was written "White Ale." Sadly due to my awesome ability to exchange words what I actually said was "Lets celebrate whiteness with a summer ale." Abhi, of Indian descent literally bent in half and started choking in laughter. Eva the Austrian brought up South Carolina. Having been reminded about this again and again always with the same teasing accusations I thought it had died sometime last semester. But as the beautiful little book showed, they still remembered and thought it hilarious.

It is wonderful to have friends and family so loving. Thanks for the birthday cards. Thanks for all the facebook wishes. Thanks for all the love.

Holidays

2010-01-17T13:53:00.004-05:00

Holidays!

Since October there was Thanksgiving and Christmas, oh yeah and New Years.

I just made it to New Years. USAirways tried their best to keep me in Philly counting down with the exciting staff at Vino Vollo. A few delayed and cancelled flights gave me plenty of time to secure a rocking chair in front of the big windows where I watched luckier people fly to their destinations. I even met a few interesting characters - but who isn't interesting in an airport.

Yet I made it to Mary's party in New Haven with 90 seconds to spare. I didn't even have to run that much, which is good. It was snowing a thin powder over the existing ice.

The only redeeming factor at Philly is the Chick-fil-a. But you can only eat so many of their sandwiches and drink so many gallons of the delicious lemonade. And due to a cancelled flight and a rerouting on the way down for Christmas I passed through Philly twice.

But flights aside Christmas was great. I pulled in everything on my list: underwear, undershirts, rolling pin, and bread pans. I also grabbed the fun game of BananaGrams.

Plenty of Aunts and Uncles were seen - shout outs to the Chicago relations that made it down. You two always make Christmas better. In addition to family I saw friends. Matt, Travis and I spent an evening at the cabin - not a bad place for brown liquor and cigars. It was great to all be back together if only for an Evening.

I think I agree with my Mother. Thanksgiving is a better holiday: no stress or shopping, just food, family and friends. At Thanksgiving this year the Lemasters came up and competed with us in an 8k turkey trot. John Mark just barely pulled out a W over me despite all my mind-bending trash talk. Next year though... Mile 4! Coach Captain Tommy raised the stakes and the miles at next year's half-marathon. I would be getting ready right now, but bronchitis makes it hard to run.

I can not end this post without mentioning Haiti. I was on a trip to Haiti in March. Many of you were about to receive letters asking for your support. Due to the incredible devastation our trip has been cancelled. Strangely, even though I have never been, nor know anyone there I feel this tragedy closely. Maybe that is because I had started to get excited and nervous about the trip. I do not understand how things like this happen in a world made by God - and I can not see how good can come from this - but I hope.

Plymouth and Cranberries

2009-10-11T20:29:00.004-05:00

This weekend I went to Plymouth for a cranberry festival. The festival had plenty of cheezy and slightly rickety rides, delicious and fattening foods, and booths of cheap and tacky knick knacks. The only thing lacking was cranberries.

Fortunately my friend Erin's parents have a bog at there house.

Awesome USA ride!

The train was pretty nice though it went down hill when the speakers piped in little children singing (stomping cats) Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Jumbo the Elephant (not Dumbo)

This is the Bog behind Erin's house. The bog has been flooded, the berries have been shaken free from the stem and now are floating.

This bog is in the process of flooding.

The man is driving the machine that shakes the cranberries free.

Flowers that grew too close to the bog! Sunk.

I am trying to navigate my way acrossthe moat. Apparently the bog is surrounded by a moat that when flooded is well over waist deep. Once you jump past it you can walk on the plants in slightly less deep water.

More Pictures of Life

2009-09-08T20:41:00.007-05:00

Another Beach Day

Eva

Great Picture!

Rachel and Adam

I don't think you can go to the beach without then going to The Place.

Abhi

Theater in the Park

While it wasn't Shakespear this year the Imaginary Invalid and the Holiday were both great.

Mary and Umrit

The German, Eva and Abhi

Liz

Some Pictures of Life

2009-08-17T19:54:00.008-05:00

I realize that I have not updated this blog all summer. Instead of updating, I am working and having fun. In case you doubt here is some evidence of the fun.

School Days

King of Pop Tribute

Graduation

Good Looking Suit

StayCation

Family (where is john?)

South Carolina Fire Safety

Beach Sunday!

On the Rocks

The Place!

Wednesday Hike

2009-05-16T16:32:00.008-05:00

This past Wednesday I slipped out of Lab at noon and drove up to the Appalachian Trail with two Friends. Please don't tell the boss. I don't think he noticed.

My Friends, Virginia and Caitlin, and I hiked to Rand's View, a place on the AT which I have been to many times. Upon arrival to the field with the view we found the only spot with lots of bugs and sat amongst them to eat our picnic. After the bugs won, we slipped out into the tall grass of the field and played the HaHa game. We stayed until the sun light grew long.

We made it back to the car and drove through the country side. We pulled into Litchfield in late dusk and slipped into "@ The Corner" for dinner. Perhaps we were a little under dressed - but the still served us.

The Place Since 1971

2009-04-25T19:05:00.003-05:00

Every now and then the clouds part, the sun shines and a little piece of heaven is revealed on earth.

Perhaps my opinion is slightly skewed by the ending of the long winter. Or perhaps The Place is really that great.

Last evening Angel invited me to dine with Jack and her and two of her friends. They were all going to The Place. I of course went along.

We positively flew up the road in Jack's car. The vacuum-cleaner like hum the engine gave was less than impressive though one doesn't notice when you are mere millimeters from the concrete dividing wall. We arrived in one piece with the cooler of beer hardly shaken. The Place is BYOB.

Maybe the best part of The Place is the fact you get to sit on stumps. But that seems to sell the food short as well as the atmosphere. We walked across the broken shell gravel floor to a table and chose our stumps. Mine was named spike. Our table was close to the giant brick grill. Though all the tables were rather close as the grill is so big. The menu is posted on an old billboard of sorts - and the prices are cheap.

Mussels, Clams, Steamers, Lobster, Catfish, Salmon, Barbecue, corn and veggibobs are all on the menu. Only the veggiebob seemed a little pricey. I can say with first hand knowledge that the grilled corn was delicious. It may have been their generous use of butter. For the four pieces of corn for the table, perhaps two sticks of melted goodness dripped off.

I had the clams and a bite or two of Angel's lobster. Apparently it was female. I tried the eggs. They tasted like fish which I didn't expect.

We sat outside eating and drinking the whole evening. Our conversation drifted from quadruple homicides, forestry, the south, food and how we could drop out of school and start another The Place.

The only unfortunate thing about The Place is that it is only open since yesterday and until October. Having no walls or ceilings limits them to warmer months. Oh and they don't take credit or debit. Though there is an ATM across the street for which we dodged mild traffic.

Work and Play

2009-04-02T23:37:00.006-05:00

I am working a little too much these days. I get to lab a few minutes before 8am and often go home after 12.30am. I the repeat.

This is much too short of a turn around time.

I need to get away. In august it will be two years since I slipped up to the White Mountains with Mary Laurel, Mary Ashton and McCullough.

Perhaps I can get back there. Even better would be Alaska. I may try to meet up with Matt next time he is state side and try denali. It would be pretty awesome.

Till then I will have to content myself with the fun around here. I am now singing with the choir at ECY, the little episcopal church I go to. The choir is mostly hired guns, many are in the Wiffenpoofs, the very famous group from Yale. They are all way beyond me. It is a lot of fun. I also started singing with the divinity school's gospel choir. It could not be anymore different. It too is a blast.

Birthday

2009-02-07T16:38:00.002-05:00

It is my 25th Birthday! I am now a "quarter" of a century old. In 15 years I will be 40 - that is if all goes to plan.

Thursday I walked down to the green and stepped into the Congregational church. Wynton Marsalis was giving a 'musical Q and A.' It was great. I am not the craziest of jazz fans, but watching him play live was mesmerizing. He spoke of the link between blues, swing and jazz. 'Swing is democracy' he said.

Pictures As Promised

2009-01-25T16:00:00.005-05:00

See Previous Post

Urban Camping

Inglis Family

Festive Capitol

I think Obama is on stage.

Meade found the Super Zoom. There he is.

Inauguration

2009-01-25T12:31:00.009-05:00

It was a cold January day in Washington.

I have the good fortune of a conscience that is not compromised by inviting myself along on fun trips. That, briefly, is how I managed to be apart of Obama's Inauguration Ceremony.

The 4th district Congressman from South Carolina, Bob Inglis, gave me a ticket to the ceremony and a spot of the floor in his office to sleep. Urban Camping at its finest.

Not wanting to drive in the city I opted to take the train. I purchased my ticket, and receiving a warning about extra security, I made plans to give myself even more time at the station than necessary.

It snowed (again) the night before so the streets were all unploughed. But i finally reached the station and boarded the train. At first the train ride was quite pleasant. A little warm and dry, but the scenery was great. The landscape sparkled under the fresh snow. We past little picturesque towns along the coast. Imagine a tiny town complete with an old steeple cozy over small streets with an old stone bridge clumped with snow crossing a partially frozen creek. The snow blowing from the front of the train and the ample leg room led me to believe that the train was a great way to travel.

Sadly The scenery changed. As we moved further south the snow on the ground disappeared. It was snowing but even the flakes looked dingy and yellow as we went through Philadelphia. The train found its way slowly through every bad neighborhood and depressed part of town. And we were running behind schedule.

I did make it to D.C., just an hour late. I stepped of the train and into a sea of people. The station was packed past the breaking point. Everyone had Obama's name or likeness, or both plastered on every article of clothing. And if you did not have enough team paraphernalia, you could purchase something more. Almost everything you can imagine had been co-opted to support Obama. I squeezed my way out slowly and pushed to an open area in front. McCullough came and found me.

We walked the few blocks to her father's Office. Everywhere there were people, lots of people. there were long lines streaming out of every door to all the congressional and senate office buildings. People come the day before to pick up their tickets from their representative. You have to wait outside for hours so that they can screen you at the door for weapons or other forbidden Items. You have to wait unless you with the "In" crowd. McCullough called her father and he came out and grabbed us and a couple of others he wanted inside. We proceeded past the long lines of people. The guard at the door, recognizing Mr. Inglis, (something all guards are required to do - recognize all congressmen and senators by face) said "Yes Sir." Mr. Inglis said "I have seven with me." We were counted off and pushed quickly in the door past all the poor common folk. No security for us. I was not wanded, my bags were not screened, we walked right around the metal detector. It is nice knowing the right people.

His office is pretty snazzy. Our tax dollars are spent quite liberally. No wonder so many representatives forget they are serving us, the people. There were three big rooms, two for all his staff, and one for him. Lots of people were there picking up their tickets and saying hello. We hung around the office till the reception was over and then headed out ourselves to the ice-skating rink.

The rink was outdoors right off the Mall. We walked the many blocks, the entire time surrounded by people. Crossing the Mall we saw many thousands more milling about. But when we got the the ice-skating rink it was veritably empty. It was of course very full, but compared to the numbers of people everywhere else it was sparse. I also observed the the ice-skaters were overwhelmingly white. The city was a very amazing mix of races. It was cool to see such variety of people and to realize that we are all Americans, not because of some shared heritage, but by choice. Yet the skaters were almost all white.

I have not skated in many years. Ice is something to be crossed carefully and slowly, not something to slide dangerously around while wearing sharp blades. But it was great. I didn't even fall once. We skated in a circle until night fell dark. It was so much fun. An outdoor rink is the way to go.

That evening Mr. and Mrs. Inglis had to go to the South Carolina Ball (150 dollars a ticket). We, the kids, (Inglis girls, Mary Ashton's two friends, and I) had to find provisions by ourselves. Robert was off all day meeting his many friends in the city.

Nothing is easy with the Inglis kids. After making sure we could reenter the office building we headed to a little mexican restaurant. It was packed. The estimated time was well over an hour. Around the corner was a little Thai place. At least three of us wanted to go there. The rest wouldn't say so, but they showed their immense displeasure readily. No other options were given (they wouldn't dare go to subway). We finally got into the Thai restaurant. Then I find out that Andrews has peanut allergies and is deathly afraid of eating anything there. We had a long heart to heart later where I tried to convince her that speaking up about such things was not a nuisance but a necessity. Either way Mary Ashton's two friends and I enjoyed the dinner. I cant figure out the rest of those kids.

After we made it back to the office we played cards (B.S.) and helped ourselves to a bottle of wine languishing in Bob's desk. We didn't stay up too late before we exhaustedly pulled out the sleeping bags and pushed back the table.

Mary Ashton's friends left before dawn as their silver tickets provided no seats and they needed to get there early to secure a good spot on the mall.

The rest of us tried to move pretty quickly too. If any of you know the Inglis family, you will know that this did not happen. The Inglis parents did not have to move that early. They would walk through the Capitol (that "Yes Sir" card is powerful). Finally everyone was ready. Then Rob decided to send an email or two. The rest of us were starting to get hot in our many layers. Bob, tried to talk Robert into finishing later but was unsuccessful. He then tried to keep him on task as Meade and Andrews went ballistic and were distracting him. We did make it, though were were in the very back of our section.

Our orange tickets gave us seats. We were in section 12, the last section of seats. They were great. We were right up in the action. Unfortunately we couldn't see much of the stage. We were too close to see any Jumbo screens, yet we were too far to see anyone on the stage. It was fun to listen though. There were two Jumbo screens to the sides for people who were standing to the side so much so that stage was completely blocked. Unfortunately tree's blocked our view of those screens.

The crowd went crazy anytime they saw a black person on the screen - until they realized it wasn't the Obama's. They booed and yelled at President Bush. They even sang "na na na na, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye!" It was much like a football game.

I enjoyed Rick Warren's prayer. I don't think he went over that well with the rest of the crowd. I prayed along side him. I was holding Meade on my lap (she was very warm and I provided the additional height that she needed). I pressed my face into the back of her jacket to avoid the wind and prayed that God would bless Obama, that he would capture him with his love, that he would keep him safe. I thought it wonderful that Rick included the Lord's prayer. I prayed along though I was the only one doing so.

The Speech was fine, the music was nice (though canned) and the oath was misspoken. I couldn't tell what exactly went on (i am a very visual person). I heard Obama say the first part then pause. I heard the Chief Justice then re prompt him, but I didn't realize what had happened. According to the New York Times, Obama jumped the gun and started repeating too soon. He stopped and Roberts continued, but this probably caused Roberts to omit the word "faithfully" until the end. Obama then repeated the phrase but froze after he said "execute" without the preceding "faithfully." Roberts then prompted him to finish the phrase. In the end Obama said "...I will execute faithfully..." instead of "I will faithfully execute." After he said the Oath Roberts said "Well, congratulations!"

After the speech people started to leave. I don't blame them. It was cold. Because of the noise I couldnt hear the poem. Since the poet is from Yale the daily News printed it. It is entitled Praise Song for the Day and is a good read.

The whole ceremony was very respectful (except for the crowd) until the end. I do not remember the who gave the closing prayer, but he was crazy. He had been doing so well speaking of beating Tanks into trackters, but then he started his colors. "The black wont have to get back, the brown can stick around, the yellow can mellow, and the red man can get ahead man." They say Obama was laughing so it was ok. I can only imagine what if Bush had this happen at his inauguration. I didnt think it was at all acceptable to call a native american a "red man."

We headed back to the office for hot soup and more handshaking. Bob showed us the pictures he took while sitting up on the stage with the President. He choked up when telling of how Obama, on his way to the stage, found John Lewis and hugged him. He spoke of God's grace on his life. His office was full of black and white, democrates and republicans, south carolinians and others. I am amazed at the grace and love that Mr. Inglis extends to everyone. Surely it comes from God.

Sadly I do not think Mr. Inglis represents much of the 4th district. How can he? His best friend in Congress is a democrate from Illinois. I do think he is honest. And I do think he represents God's love and grace. And that is much better than the 4th district.

All too soon it was time for me to leave. Even after such short a time in D.C. I felt the poison in my heart. Staying in such luxury, being near so much power is toxic. I better understand why so many politicians do whatever it takes to stay there. I am even more impressed with Bob.

McCullough walked me back to the train station. Or rather back to within a few blocks as they had the entire area blocked. After pushing through and around many parts of the crowd we said goodbye. I told her I would call If i missed my train and she hurried back to the office.

It was bad. There were soldiers and police men everywhere. They were pushing the crowd back and yelling. People were falling down and getting hurt. I finally managed to get the the front and talk to a soldier. He told me the station was closed and that I had to leave the area. I told him I had a ticket and finally, looking exasperated, he told me to walk past the line of soldiers and "go two feet past the last one and cross the street anyway." I did. No one stopped me. I found myself in another crushing crowd and was told that Amtrak was only availiable on the other side of the building. Some one in the crowd yelled back "thats what they said on that side." Finally I got the the front of this pack and found out that they were letting 20 people in the building at a time. They let us in through some back door. It didnt matter that they kept most people outside. The interior was packed worse than the day before. Somehow I managed to get on the train.

The ride back was long. I visited the snack car and got a filling, though not delicious, hotdog and pepsi. In baltimore I got a new neighbor. A young man from Boston. He had taken the train to baltimore a few days earlier and then "on a whim" rented a car and drove to D.C. He was really nice. He then watched "get smart" episodes on his computer. All of us continuing past New York had to move to the first 4 cars, as the train would be dramatically reduced.

I walked up the 7 cars and found a new seat. If looks could kill, the girl i would ride with had just pushed me down the razor blade slide into the pool of alcohol. She had a few more minutes of peace as i realized I left my sleeping bag back in the other car.

As the night progressed I was able to change seats away from the angry girl. But in New York, while they split the train some of my surrounding neighbors started up a conversation. They were loud. One was a highschool teacher from California. One was a highschool student from Connecticut. they were the worst. I really did not need to know so much about them. I escaped to the Snack car. And since they didnt have sharp sticks with which to break my ear drums, I settled on another pepsi.

I got back into New Haven after 6 hours on the train. We could really use a highspeed train.

I will post pictures soon.

Rime

2009-01-12T23:31:00.002-05:00

While waiting for the bus this evening around 11 I turned to the wall and played with the layer of rime covering the snow. This past snowfall unlike the earlier storms formed a hard candy like shell of Ice. Fortunately thin enough to crack through when walking, but strong enough to break off in large sheets. The snow underneath is still amazingly powdery. If one throws a large sheet it breaks like glass.

So far there has been snow on the ground this entire year. This is good for activities such as sledding and throwing snowballs at squirrels (I hit one at a pretty good distance... he dodged the first one - literally just moving his head out of the way, much like george bush - but with the second snowball I whacked him good. He then decided to run away) and crawling to work on ones hands and feet. I still do not travel with much grace and dignity on Ice.

The holidays were nice. It is always wonderful to see family and friends. I was given many great gifts. The little french press has seen much use already. My pea coat, in which I look ridiculously good looking, is very warm and well received by the ladies. And hopefully I will post a few pics with my new camera.

Its 49 Degrees In My Room!

2008-12-10T22:26:00.000-05:00

As I type I am sitting on my blue and white striped couch. My roommate is at the table playing a very loud war game on his computer (volume way up). His fiancé is on the other end of the couch playing final fantasy 10. I asked her what it was because it seemed so strange. It would appear that the game involves two big ugly monsters fighting each other with color. It is very repetitive. The monsters make the same limited movements over and over. Even the music has about an eight measure theme endlessly repeated. And here am I typing into my PC. No real person has spoken in quite some time. But since "Onward to glory!" is constantly yelled from the computer speakers and the beautiful 30 note song from final fantasy sets the mood, there is no need for human interaction. Plus I got enough earlier this weekend.

Friday I left work early to drive up to Wisdom House. Wisdom House is a Roman Catholic retreat center that welcomes any group that seeks the wisdom of God. I was sent to seek God's mind on who should be the next bishop of Connecticut. Fortunately I was not alone. A couple of weeks earlier I was volunteered/chosen to serve on the Transition Committee - one of the two committees that works to find a new bishop and transition the two smoothly. It was an interesting Friday and Saturday to say the least. Never before have I had to mark my calendar so far in advance. Actually I went and bought a calendar for this very reason.

The group of wisdom seekers was generally of an older age. They were also slightly more to the female sex. But it didn’t seem that anymore generalities could be formed. The group represented quite a spread of conservative to liberal approaches and beliefs in every category they had us line up in. I quite admired their ability to stay together and recognize that while they thought very differently than each other they were all in this together. I am sure I will have plenty of time to see the worst of any one of these, but at least for this weekend most everyone seemed refreshingly God focused.

Saturday Evening I drove quickly through the darkening Connecticut back to New Haven. At seven pm I donned my warm leather jacket and plodded across town to my Scott’s Apartment for our lab holiday party. It is a beautiful apartment well decorated with healthy plants and thick books in English and German. Scott enjoys cooking and drinking. We had a variety of appetizers including smoked trout and duck liver pate with truffles. I prefer smoked trout. The main dish was a delicious seafood gumbo. Scott played a wonderful collection of early New Orleans jazz music. Though for all the hard work and well chosen finery the group is still a collection of socially inept colleagues.

It had begun to snow by the time I left – soft sticky snow – which mostly melted by the end of the next day. Whatever made it froze hard Monday and melted quickly this morning in the 50 degree rain.

Sunday Evening I was the crucifer at the Lessons and Carols at ECY. It was a beautiful service though I was distracted by wearing a robe with a rope belt. I love following the story through the bible. Sometimes it can get lost in the details.

This is the time for parties. Tuesday evening I walked out of the apartment which smelled so strongly of onions I cried upon opening the door. Fortunately the divinity school was celebrating Advent with a large inclusive service: lots of unique music, dancing and singing. One of the chaplains spoke of Mary’s song, how every verb is in the past tense. Mary believed God would do what he said he would do. She saw the world fixed. God had exalted the humble and brought down the proud. It was an encouragement to remember that God is going to set things right. Justice will come. One should not despair at the world thinking that wrong will always get the better. In a sense Mary was prophesying. Or rather her song was her declaration of belief.

Blues

2008-11-16T22:47:00.002-05:00

Listening to Willie Dixon.

It is hard not to move. Bob Jones got that right. This isn't toe-tapping music. This is body-moving music. This is soul-moving music.

I had way too much fun this weekend. Dancing usually is.

Friday night started early and ended late. My friend Angel invited me to dinner with a group of her friends. I soon found myself at a very nice apartment. Angel was the only girl. And out of the ten of us Angel and I were 2/3rds of the strait ones. I started to wonder what Angel thought of me. We had a great dinner, though the beer I brought was overlooked for copious amounts of wine and champagne.

After dinner we migrated to a "Porch Party." The forestry school kids will find any excuse to get together. The porch was well lit with white string lights. Our hot chocolate was well spiked with Baileys. I noticed a very pretty girl oddly dressed. But we left untimely so we could go to the cabaret's late show.

Keeping with the apparent theme of the evening the cabaret was showing "Gay Play." We had another bottle of wine and watched a story of a Man "coming-out" strait to his friend. He had thought he was gay because his voice was different and because he liked glitter - the movie. Yet he had to admit he was strait. It was well acted though not the best cabaret performance all others having been fantastic.

After the cabaret finished we attempted to go to another themed forestry school party. I forgot what the theme was. It was already dead when we arrived. Not to finish the night on a sad note we headed over to the big party of the evening. The Spandex party. Apparently this type of party draws alot of men in an uncomfortable amount of spandex. One of my new friends repeated that fact that I deserved a "gold star" for the evening. But it turns out the evening was not completely without its perks. After my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the spandex dance party I noticed the same girl from before. The one who had been oddly dressed. I realized her somewhat late 80's style and excessive use of spandex was intentional.

It turns out that some girls really like being spun around, twirled and dipped. She did. Knowing a few dance moves is very very helpful in meeting people.

Though it was 2am the party didn't have to stop, it was announced. There was still a keg left.

Saturday Swing.

A year ago my friend Mellisa Boles, who just got engaged, was visiting. Congrats! We went to the swing dance after the Yale Harvard game. The Solomon Douglas Swingtet was playing. We had a great time. This year the Gordon Webster quartet played. The were phenomenal as well.

I was invited to the swing dance. It felt as strange as following is after one has lead to be asked out. She called. She came and picked me up. And we danced. I have to say it was nice not to have to do anything.

And if dancing twice in one weekend was not enough I headed to the graduate bar where a friend was celebrating her birthday. The bar was hosting a southeast Asian dance party: fun music, strange moves and high temps (slightly smelly).

Rain

2008-11-05T20:47:00.002-05:00

Soul

This late afternoon the heavy gray clouds leaked a dull rain. I wore blue, perhaps too much blue, in honor of Obama's victory. While I breath I hope.

I had bought an entire tin of altoids mints. The curiously strong ones. Now I have no purpose for them. Yes I still have bad breath, but the girl I was chasing around decided she had not the "will for a relationship." The mints, bought with the explicit purpose of freshening my breath in case the opportunity for a kiss came up, will now flavor my breath only for my own enjoyment (after a strong coffee my breath can even start to bother me).

She let me know last evening. Perhaps that is why the clouds looked so heavy. I could also be due to my work in lab. Nothing is working. This year is about over and my project remains in the same state when I started last May.

I think my soul may be tired. My body is fine; my mind is not over worked. Yet I feel worn out. I hurt.

Retreat

My department, Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, took its annual retreat last weekend. We drive up to Woods Hole, a little town in the elbow of the cape. It is about a three hour drive but my car managed to make it in five. I drove up Jamie, Maeve and Mary. Maeve and Jamie are both second years and therefore have to provide entertainment the second evening. Apparently this included pumpkins which could not be purchased in New Haven but in some out of the way town. I didnt not help that we missed the turn for the road that sounded strikingly like "shitbucket road." It really did not help that after missing "shitbucket road" we came across "shitbucket turnpike." If one does not pay attention to details they can get really lost.

We did find the farm. We did buy pumpkins (I bought them as both Jamie and Maeve managed to not bring funds). And we did find our way back to the highway. And after a surprisingly long lunch at Wendy's we managed to arrive in Woods Hole. Wood's Hole has one main drag and it was out due to bridge repair. It is quite a quaint town. Lots of old "new englandish" buildings right of the roads and water everywhere. There is one general store, one bar and a few restaurants.

Woods Hole is famous for its science. It is the home of the Marine Biological Laboratory among other institutes. The dorms are lacking in most comfort features. The food is strikingly cafeteria.

It is usually a nice weekend of food, talks, more talks, alcohol, talks and more talks. Tim, a postdoc in the lab, and I escaped on Saturday during a long string of talks and slipped down to the ferry. After a 45 minute ride we were deposited in Vineyard Haven a small touristy town on Martha's Vineyard. We spent the better part of the day walking around and taking odd pictures. Lots of pretty boats and clear cold ocean water. We were planning on spending the last hour of our trip drinking a few pints at the local Tavern. Much to our dismay Vineyard Haven is a dry town. We both felt that the "Tavern" in the name of the joint was quite misleading. We could have hiked the three miles to the next "wet" town but we decided we could survive without beer. It was rough.

Again

2008-10-06T23:29:00.002-05:00

All dry spells must end.

Life is busy of course. Life is good too. This evening during my bi-monthly meeting with Scott (my boss) my phone rang. I silenced the call. Fortunately the meeting was short and I listened to the message that was left just a few minutes later. It was my mother's friend Nancy Lee and her daughter Virginia. They were just leaving New Haven. Fortunately they had a few minutes and turned around. I gave them an abbreviated tour of the Campus leading to hot tea and dinner at Atticus. It made the day much better to run into friends. Unplanned meetings with old friends never happen quite as often as I would like.

Saturday Dorothy Camak rode the train from New York and we trounced around the Haven. At the end of the day heading back to my Apartment we saw a crowd gathered. They were waiting for President Clinton to leave the Law School. He was back for their reunion. Having nothing better to do we waited. 45 minutes later a tuft of white hair could be seen leaving the building in the deep dusk. As he approached we all cried out and clapped. This was rewarded with a quick and absent minded wave of the hand. The two of us were satisfied and proceeded home. Reading the Yale Daily News this morning I learned that if we had chased him down the sidewalk like the rest of the crowd we could have shaken his hand and grabbed a picture as he refused to ride with the secret service to dinner and walked downtown giving the police and service men a difficult job of impromptu street closing.

Sunday I spent the morning hiking on the Appalachian Trail. It was perfect. I took two friends up to Rand's View. You step out of the woods at the top of a large sloping field. In the valley you see farm lands spreading through trees and surrounding the valley small mountains turning colors and rolling into the distance. We stopped and ate a lunch of carrots and hummus, apples and pita, and chocolate. I highly recommend the trip.

Untitled

2008-05-08T08:11:00.000-05:00

A Lot of time has transpired in the last few days. Perhaps it is still the same amount of time as always, just more full of interesting things. I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church. I listened to a lecture given be a Romanian orthodox priest. And, of course, Charles Townes came to New Haven.

Wanting to be more involved in some body of believers I enrolled in the class offered by the Episcopal Church I am attending back in January. This past Sunday it culminated in confirmation. The bishop suffragant of Connecticut came and prayed over us. One of the class mates, Dan, was arguing his case in front of the Supreme Court in D.C. and was unable to attend. Fortunately a visiting, retired bishop was there the week before and Dan was confirmed then. It gave the rest of us a preview.

When Dan kneeled at the front, in front of the bishop, the bishop invited anyone to come and place their hands on Dan as well. I took advantage of this offer. I think it is a neat picture of the community, and the “priesthood” of all believers. Apparently it was not an “Episcopal” thing to do as the bishop who confirmed me did not invite others to lay hands, even after Nihal (our priest) prodded her to do so.

I hope I have learned more about the Episcopal Church. I think so. I like the emphasis on worshiping together. I like the effort given to trying to remove any obstacle that might keep someone from interfacing with God. I think it is there in that relationship that lives are changed.

The Romanian Orthodox priest came to the last lecture of the Religion and Science course I audited this semester. He won a Templeton prize for theological promise. There are many Templeton prizes; this is not the same big one that Dr. Townes won. Strangely enough most of the theology that he spoke of sounded like my parents church in South Carolina. One would not guess that much of the theology of a non-denominational church in the bible belt of the U.S. would approximate Romanian orthodoxy.

Community and communion were central to his theology, both derived from the picture of the trinity. All three members of the trinity self-gave to the others. It is only through this self-giving that even they have complete fullness of existence. Therefore we should practice self-giving (kenosis – self forgetting) to God and others. Not a self-giving that leads to self-confusion or self-loss, but a giving that will lead to perfect relationship. The final goal of the entire world is to be in union with God (reverting to garden). Sin is separation from God. Some other interesting things he said: “all of creation is made for communication,” “Christ became human to make us more human, for we are the image of God,” “the word became man so man could bear the spirit,” “through Christ we experience sonship” “healings were forms of communion,” “there is no love without respect, freedom is the risk.”

Daniel Munteanu was his name. He wrote a book. Unfortunately it is in German. His talk was hard to hear as he quoted in Greek constantly, and slipped into German accidentally, yet frequently.

I was as excited as I have ever been when Dr. Townes was coming. And he actually made it. He also talked to the Religion/Science class. Afterwards I had dinner with him, and again the next evening before his public lecture. I even got to drive him back to JFK the following morning.

His voice reminds me of Johnny Cash. It is much deeper and powerful than you expect. He even introduced himself saying, “And I’m Charlie Townes.” For the class he spoke about his involvement in science politics and religion. He has advised almost every president we have ever had. He has headed up and chaired seemingly every science committee that advises any branch of the government. One notable project was Apollo. He was the provost at MIT and there was much resistance against the project as unfeasible. He caught flack for advising the government but said what would come to say over and over, “If they are willing to listen we should be talking. Perhaps they will hear. And if they are set in their ways, hopefully we can make the best of it.” He then reminded us that Apollo came in on time and under budget.

One other project involved missiles during the cold war. I forget most of the details, but the government wanted to build a few thousand missiles that they could hide in holes around the country, and constantly move them so the soviets wouldn’t know where they were. Dr. Townes was asked to create and chair a committee to look into the feasibility of this project. Feeling it a duty, he took time away from research (he hates doing this) and built a committee of professors, retired generals and other people of interest. The entire committee, save three, voted to build the missiles. Dr. Townes, a retired general and one other wrote the dissenting position. Charles presented the group’s position to Reagan, and then told him of his own belief. Dr. Townes argued that building the missiles would only anger the Russians, transporting them through the population would be dangerous, and secrecy on placement just wouldn’t work. He offered that America should build three missiles. Three to show the Russians we had the capability to defend ourselves if need be, but that we were not aggressive. Reagan was convinced.

During his public lecture Charles talked about science and religion as nearly the same. Both endeavors have faith, experiments, revelations and results. Both require our full human ability and earnestness. And if we are seeking after truth, and courageous to change in light of the truth, both science and faith will converge towards the truth. He of course referenced his revelation about the laser. For someone who has done so much and is depended on by so many powerful people, it is amazing to see him humbly tell of his big idea coming to him, not derived from his intellect. As a friend listening to him whispered to me, “his lack of bias and humility are precious.”

He asked, “Why do we think we need to know everything right now?” I remember him asking this same question at his lecture at Furman. It is rather humbling.

Driving Dr. Townes to JFK was the best part. Although, he is not much of a conversationalist. He was distracted by his lab. He had been calling them all night to find out how the telescopes were working, and I am sure he was thinking of that the entire ride. I read a story in Nature about the laser and how when he was unsuccessfully working on it, his department chair, and the previous department chair both came to him and tried to get him to quit. They said, “We are the experts in this field. We both know this is not going to work. You know this is not going to work. You are wasting the department’s money and your time.” Dr. Townes noted in the story in Nature that both these men were “good” scientists; they had both won Nobel prizes. Since he had tenure, he replied, “No, I think it will work. I am going to keep trying.”

I asked him how he was able to keep working, how he knew it would work. He said, “My parents always taught me to do what I thought was right, not what others thought was right. They meant this in a religious sense, but it works well in science too.”

Wanting to probe his religious beliefs further I asked him what he did with Jesus. He said he didn’t exactly know. “He was a fantastic guy. And I can understand him as the son of God in the sense that we are all sons of God, but what that means specifically, I don’t know. I have great respect for him – I pray in his name.”

Sadly we reached the airport too soon (only an hour and 45 mins during rush hour on a Thursday morning). I hope he enjoyed himself. I think he enjoyed meeting family. He seemed quite interested in meeting more family as he is back in South Carolina at least twice a year (on the board of Furman).

All quotes are loosely remembered. Apologies.

Death, Life, and how I ended up at a Polish speaking Catholic Mass for Easter.

2008-03-23T21:43:00.002-05:00

I remember praying that life should not be like this. “Like this” referring to my grandfather dying in pain, completely lost and confused. I accused God of not listening, not caring, and I pleaded again that he remember his servant. He finally did.

The funeral went smoothly. The sky was soft gray and a few drops of spring rain fell. The casket was light. “I am resurrection and I am life.” It was wonderful to see so much family. It is wonderful to be around so much love.

“I set before you life and death.” Death is separation from God. Jesus’ claim to be life is that relation to God. Easter is this relation realized.

Some taught me that all my “sins” were like bricks that I was using to build a wall between myself and God. This just doesn’t make sense. If our actions could separate us from God, then any one action would be complete separation. Even a little “sin” like pre-marital sex, much less a deadly sin like pride, would separate us wholly. No, it is not this way. “Nothing can separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus.” The realization of grace this morning changed my day. It is wonderful to realize love.

Jenny, a friend in the divinity school, called Saturday night and invited me to visit a church Sunday morning. A friend of Jenny’s who has just moved from England is the minister at the church we decided to try. We headed out at 10am for a 15min drive. After driving for 45 minutes we admitted that we were lost. Since we would have missed most of the service if we ever found the church, we decided to keep driving and look for a random church to visit. It appears that most churches have early services in Connecticut. We finally found a church that had a service at 11.15 am. Unfortunately for Jenny and me, it was in Polish. Not being one to miss out on adventure I suggested that we should try it. We agreed that we would not stay for the (most likely) 2 hour service. I thought that meant we would sit near the back. Yet Jenny started down for the front of the church. I suppose we were really towards the middle, but as soon as we sat down the church packed out. So it was pretty obvious when we left early. I am sure our presence was obvious from the start as I was the only man without a large leather jacket and Jenny was the only woman without fake blonde hair.

The church was beautifully decorated with flowers, candles and icons covering the walls. It made me think of the days when the church was not in the language of the people. I would not have understood much.

Sick

2008-02-19T14:31:00.002-05:00

I can not remember a time when I have been this sick. Yesterday I started going down hill. By 9pm I had to go to bed. After tossing and turning, constantly out of breath and frozen, I finally got up at 4.30am. Sitting on the couch gave me some relief, as I was not half asleep dreaming of exhausting things. I tried to go back to bed at 6.30, but immediatly ran into the loss of breath issues and inability to relax.

My stomach was acheing so i dumped out my trashcan in the middle of the night so i could vomit (but i never did). My legs were so sore, but even with wool socks, flannel pajamas and two down blankets, I could not strech my legs out because they were so cold.

All day today I have been swinging through periods of freezing and sweating. The worst part is that i have no cold appropriate food. No comforting anything.

Birthday

2008-02-09T17:06:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday was my birthday. I am twenty four. I usually dress less than GQ; I do not have much GQ wear, and I do not like spilling fish water on my nice clothes. But since it was my birthday I decided to look good. I buttoned up a nice shirt and covered most of it in a sweater vest. It turns out that in addition to green vests, grey vests do not have sleeves either. I finished the ensemble with jeans and my new (non-sneaker) shoes. I looked good. Everyone noticed. I should have taken a picture. To treat myself I walked down to Caseus, the new cheese bistro in town. I had their grilled cheese. Though it sounds basic, it is delicious. Back in the lab, the Mexican Post-Doc gave me a hug. She said it is what you do in Mexico. The German Post-Doc put her hand on my belly. I dont know if that is what you do in Germany. I think she was trying to comment on my nice sweater-vest. I thought she was going in for a high five, but she left my hand hanging and patted my tummy.

After a long day of staring at a computer screen trying to follow gray blobs moving against a slightly more gray background, I went to dinner with my neighbor. We walked downtown and headed to a noodle house. The upstairs dinning was full so they sat us in their second room. As it turned out we were the only ones down there the entire time. I told Sarah that when you eat with me you get the private rooms. After coconut bubble tea and hot jasmine tea we headed to Atticus for dessert. I ordered the carrot cake which unfortunately was slightly dry. But that was made up for by Jamie (Sarah's roommate). When we got back home Jamie had a brownie with a burning match in it and a birthday-three-pack of beer.

Overall it was a good birthday. I received phone calls, facebook messages and presents. Today a box of brownies came in the mail and I have hidden them as to not share them with my roommate.

Lab is going well. I have formulated my committee for my qualifying exam. Zhaoxia Sun, Mustafa Khokha, and Craig Crews will be the ones responsible for grilling me. Hopefully I can buckle down and do the learning required.

Fifteen Minutes of Snow

2008-01-16T22:22:00.000-05:00

Walking home from lab tuesday evening i was caught in a fifteen minute snow storm. As I left the building i noticed how there were the tiniest flurries. Nothing was sticking since the snow melted in the morning leaving the ground quite wet. By the time I turned the coner to cross the courtyard I couldnt look forward. Not only were the flakes flying extremely fast, they were also the size of quarters. The snow kept up the entire walk back. After less than five minutes the ground was covered. Wen I walked into my apartment I was soaked. I looked in the mirror and my hair was covered under a pile.

After I dried off I slipped back out to the divinity school. The snow had stopped completely. I "shopped" the class Religion Science and Technology. It meets once a week on tuesday evenings. There are very few assignments but i will still audit it on principle. On the principle that i will never take another class for credit.

Some pictures from last Thanksgiving (hopefully i will get the christmas ones developed):

And some Yale snow pictures:

Fluid Falling Frozen

2007-12-13T19:17:00.000-05:00

Snow is amazing. It even makes New Haven look good. It started right a noon, amazingly close to the prediction.

I trekked down to the medical school in the "almost white out" at 1pm to attend a scientific writing course. The speaker might be an excellent writer, yet she was not burdened the additional gift of public speaking. I did learn a few things though. The average sentence in a newspaper includes 20 or so words, while in science writing it is 33: absolutely terrible.

The snow turned to sleet after the class. After packing down the snow for the rest of the afternoon, the sleet gave way to snow again and piled up to about 5 inches. On the way home I took the shortcut over the hill by the observatory. When I was in the middle of the hill, and sure no one could see, I stopped and fell into the snow for a snow angel. I immediately remembered the reason why most grown people do no make snow angels. As my Jeans started taking on water, my rear end recieved a crash course in cold. After a few flaps of the arms and legs (my shoes and socks now cramed with ice) I scrambled up trying not to damage the angel. It looked good.

I went back out after dinner and took some pictures. Hopefully I will finish the roll and post a few soon.

Work is busy. Life is proceeding at a breakneck pace.

Update

2007-10-27T16:52:00.000-05:00

Much has happened in my life since I posted last. Much much. Here are some pictures from my trip to Cambridge. The first picture is of Westminster College where I stayed. I am posing smartly in front of Newton's room and apparantly the direct descendent of the legendary apple tree that binged him in the head. If you are in his college (was it trinity or king's?) and at the top of your class you can live in his room. The rest are pictures around the town and college.
I had a most wonderful tour guide Aditya Saxena, who was studying developmental biology in Churchill college. Aditya took me around sunday afternoon after the course had finished. He took me to The eagle a pub that had alot to do with Watson and Crick of DNA structure fame. We also slipped down to the Anchor famed with the starting of Pink Floyd. We sat outside on the side of the river and watched the punters. Unfortunately no one attempted to punt after consuming large quantities of alcohol.

The course itself was great. It was amazing to meet so many famous people. So many famous and excellent scientists who were not afraid to ask questions that science can not. I bought a few books from some of the speakers. I highly recommend Francis Collins' book The Language of God and Ernest Lucas' Can We Believe Genesis Today? Both excellent books. Simon Conway Morris' Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe is slightly more heavy to the science, but also enjoyable.

A few weeks ago i tried to explain a tiny bit of everything i have been learning. By no means should this be taken too seriously or as a final thought. Perhaps all it can be is a summary of what i thought about one thing at one time. Looking back at it i noticed that my writing style is pretty terrible. All apologies.

What I have learned so far.
Perhaps the answers I am searching for are farther away than expected. Perhaps they are closer than I can imagine. Either way I have not found them. An indicator that they are distant is that my questions are in flux and what I want to find I do not know. When many search, they almost always find what they want to find. Yet sometimes they do not. Sometimes you know what you search for and you find the opposite. Sometimes you search and never find. So I will continue. I hope that my current expectations and desires will not steer my mind and determine the results. But that is a big hairy assumption. How can one control for themselves?

Science and Religion are in harmony: beautiful harmony. I suppose I will have to explain and qualify that statement. Yet I do not want to explain away.
If you feel that science and religion are not in harmony then most likely the fault lies with you. Not to condemn, but to draw out a point. Whether you are a scientist or a believer or both, you are not perfect and most likely are making unfounded assumptions of the other party. Like any marriage that is having difficulties both parties could be better, no one is perfect.
For me as a believer and a scientist (in the strict sense, not that I have provided anything to the community at large) surprisingly my understanding of both religion and science is at fault. I guess I should not be surprised. Religion is simple. Science is simple. Yet we have grown to see these two powerhouses of answers as unlimited in their scope and power. Sadly there are but a 24 hours of each day, of which we have been given only a few to comprehend before we must surrender. Therefore we divide our attempts. Some focus on science, some on religion, and we share our findings at the end of the day. Simple economics, everyone gets a little more then they could doing it all on their own. Yet we can forget the practice of the other, their rules, their questions, their answers, and their limitations. When we forget their answers and limitations, we tend to think of our practice as being limitless and our answers as the only viable, worthwhile ones. This is a very dangerous place to be.

I want to answer this through my perspective. This made the most sense to me in light of religion, in light of God. I will start and work under this premise. God, as I believe, and others too, has revealed himself through two books: the bible, and the “book” of nature. Since he is the author of both, we should expect to find no contradictions. We will use our tools, science and religion to understand ourselves, God, the world, and our relationships to each of these. Science, to avoid magic and mysticism has elected to accept no supernatural answer for the workings of this world. This has been the most successful move for science. Yet it limited the answers and questions that it can handle. Science is limited to asking how things work and why (in the natural causal sense) things are like they are. Religion asks what science can not. Religion deals with evidence that science must put aside. Religion asks who are we, what is our purpose, and is there anything else? They are both seeking answers, both are limited approaches to understand ourselves, God, the world, and our relationships, and I argue that God wants us to employ both, to use our “talents,” to find answers.

So what does it mean when we seem to have conflicts? Perhaps the science is wrong. Perhaps our interpretation and understanding of God through his other book, the bible, is wrong. I will use creation/evolution as one example. I will remind you of some things that you might have known but forgotten. Science can not give us purpose. Science can not ask questions about god. If there is a God then science can only tell us what method God brought the world into being, and us into the world. Contrary to Richard Dawkins, no science thoughts, questions, or answers can have any religious implications including atheism. If scientists overwhelmingly accept a specific scientific thought, perhaps they are right in how nature is showing us what laws God placed in it. Our interpretation of the bible could be wrong. If this is the case how do we reread the bible. Look to the context. In the example of creation we should ask what language is being used, what type of literature, who is the audience, and what is its purpose? According to Calvin, the language employed in the creation account is the language of appearance. The “dome” of sky translates more literally to “beaten out metal.” We are not intended to believe we have a metal ceiling. It is a figurative word picture. As to the literary style, it is not Hebrew poetry, yet it is not simple prose. It seems to fit as elevated prose, indicating that it might have some worship intent. The audience is of course ancient Hebrews, and the purpose was to refute the pagan accounts of who god was and how he related to people. The many other creation stories that were present in ancient times portray people as the slaves of the gods. The gods had to struggle against the great sea beasts and monsters of chaos to create the world. The moon and sun were objects to be worshiped.

Looking at creation in light of just these few things may be beneficial. God reveals himself as not one god in many, but the God. He did not have to subdue any great beasts or calm any great chaos, he is before all, he created the beasts of the ocean. He created all things. He placed the “great lights” in the sky, not even named (as these are completely linked to the deities sun-god moon-god) to be guides to mark time and seasons not to be worshiped. Humans are not slaves to his whims, they carry some form of his character imprinted on them, they are intended to have a close relationship with him. This is a drastic correction from what the world was wanting to believe back to the truth.

If this is the purpose, and the language is that of appearance perhaps that is all we can take from the story. God reveals himself through people, and therefore uses our understanding and limited language. We do not believe God is just a big human, yet we speak of him breathing breath into Adam after he formed him, walking through the garden that he planted. Perhaps the details of how and in what order God did things are not the important parts. If God decided to reveal himself in a figurative story, then reading more into the creation account is not respecting the text.

Science thinking for me has infiltrated all aspects of my understanding. Truth need not be conveyed only in facts and literal language. The culture of Ancient Hebrews was very different and truth through stories was just as valid truth, as plain facts.

So here we are with science telling us evolution and the bible telling us that God loves us, we are imprinted in his image, and that we are to take care of his creation. I see no trouble in both of these things being true. Science, the study of God’s creation, points that the manner in which God brought us to our present state is evolutionary. The bible, tells us who we are, who God is, and how we relate to God and the rest of creation. I do not believe this is a rejection of biblical truth. Many biblical scholars such as the before mentioned Calvin, all the way back to St. Augustine, all clearly before any evolutionary thought, have come to this interpretation of the creation account. Perhaps this is a more respectful reading to the text.

I do not want to change your beliefs. I want you to understand the limitations of science. I want you to focus on the purpose of the bible. Understand these are just ideas, most very freshly adopted by me. I would like you to consider this interpretation even with that grain of salt. It sure beats trying to make creationism stand to scientific thought. It also beats throwing out one or both of our tools in understanding this wonderful world.

White Mountains

2007-08-14T12:36:00.000-05:00

This last weekend my sister, Mary Laurel, and two of our friends, Mary Ashton and McCullough drove up to visit. After two long days of driving they jumped in the car again to ride up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

Seven hours later (not the 5 our directions claimed) we arrived at Pinkham Notch visitor center. I paid for our first night of camping and we hit the trail. I did not plan many miles for the first day. We only hiked 2.4. I was worried that the girls would make fun for doing so little, but after a long car ride, the timing was about right. The first evening we stayed at the shelters at Hermit lake, right below the bowl of Tuckerman Ravine. The shelters were nice and the care-taker was apparently easy on the eyes to the girls. Of course he reminded me of myself: rugged, handsome, muscular, etc.

We went to bed on the early side and to entertain the troops I read some of the words of warning found on my map. The girls made me stop. Apparently it is much easier to understand how one dies from hypothermia in august when you are in the Whites as to South Carolina. Mary Ashton and McCullough both wished they had mocked me less and brought more clothes.

The Next morning we hiked the remaining 1.8 miles (2200 ft elevation) to the top of Mt Washington. When we reached the top (greated by cars in a parking lot) it was foggy and cold (low 40s). Mary laurel bought a fleece in the gift shop, and we all grabbed a cup of hot cocoa. Almost as soon as we finished our cocoa the sun broke through and the views were excellent (pictures to come). After discussing our plans with a pessimistic (realistic) park ranger we headed towards the Madison AMC shelter. We took the AT or Gulfside Trail the 6 miles around the Great Gulf Wilderness Area. The entire time the sun beamed down and we enjoyed an easy breeze. Already tired, we skirted the top of Mt. Clay and Mt. Jefferson. When we came to Mt. Adams we decided to summit. This is probably the best summit.

Mt. Adams is a sharp steep peak of boulders. Freeze thaw cycles have left the mountain a pile of sharp boulders which the trail decided to climb strait up. In my opinion some parts blurred the line between rock climbing and hiking. The summit was tiny. Sitting on the top you could see in every direction. The best view was down towards the ridge and the gulf below. Between Adams and Madison there is a small lake, Star Lake. It sat shimmering reflecting the dark blue sky balanced on the edge of the gulf (another 3000 or more ft to the bottom). As I laid down on one of the stones on top all I could see was the sky. As I sat up I could see other mountains and the distant valley, but not the steep mountain I was on. It gave the feeling of being suspended in the air 6000 ft up. Before we headed down Mary Ashton gave everyone back on Mt Washington who had paid 75 cents to use the binoculars a day to remember by peeing on top of the mountain.

Hiking down was of course hard. It is tough jumping down 3 ft steps onto the narrow top of a boulder that may or may not rock violently towards the precipice. At the the Madison Hut we filled our water bottles. McCullough got more comments about her strawberry hair. Mary Laurel coloured her hair at my apartment before we left. Not to be outdone, Mary Ashton attempted to dread her hair. She curled it up into "dookie balls" according to McCullough. Needless to say we made a memorable group. We had done 8 miles of hard hiking and had about 3 more to go. The buttress trail was supposedly the best trail to take down into the Gulf. I would hate to see the other trails. The buttress trail was the hardest thing we had to do. It found every loose patch of boulders for us to scramble over. Mary Laurel lost her Platypus to a large crevise. Mary Ashton and McCullough managed to drop the lid to another water bottle moments later. Fortunately the trail did not last forever. Unfortunately the "lots and lots" of campsites in the wilderness area was a lie. We found a wide spot in the trail and collapsed a few moments before dark.

In the morning the weather again was perfect. As i pumped water sitting on a boulder in the middle of the creek, I watched white clouds stream over the mountain peaks. The breeze coming down the river felt like early november in the North Carolina mountains. We hike the last 6 miles back to the car with little excitement. Back at the visitor center we were completely exhausted and amazed at all the people headed into the mountains with little kids and giant packs. Asking for justification for our sorry state, the girl behind the counter said that many hike up and take the bus down from mt Washington. Not a bad way to do it.

All in all, it was the hardest hiking any of us had done. It was also the most beautiful.

Lazy Pilgrams, Blue Berries, And Packing

2007-07-26T21:43:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago I went to Plymouth with my friend Erin Betters. She is from Plymouth, and had suffered through enough of my questions about pilgrams that she thought it would be better to take me to see them. We went, but not before we stopped at her house for her niece's 6th birthday party. I believe I wore a green feather hat and some sparkly beads. I think everyone else was too. The pilgrams on the other hand were some what of a let down. They were quite lazy. the compound was quite worn down. The actors were less than awesome, and the overall cost was much too high. I know living in that time must of been hard, but they could have done better. They had no food unless you count some weeds behind the houses in fallen down raised beds. The inside of the houses were old and worn. The thatch was rotting and cobwebs were everywhere. Sadly the actors were a little lacking in period knowledge. And it cost 21 dollars to see. Lazy pilgrams sitting around when they should have been working in their gardens or sweeping the cobwebs out.

The Native Peoples (apparently correct term at the moment) village was about the same. When you approached there was a sign warning you of words not to say. You were not aloud to ask about "firewater," or ask what percentage the actors are. Less obvious to me was that you are not allowed to say chief, brave, or squaw.

Plymouth is a neat town. Lots of old beautiful buildings. I got to taste some cranberry wine. If you want to visit, skip the pilgrams.

This past weekend I got to go blueberry picking and then wading at the beach. The south doesnt have the only market of large ladies in skimpy bathing suits. The north can produce some sights too.

I am soon moving out of my room. I am trying to pack my small amount of stuff. The more i pack the more seems to be left.

Beach Trip and Good Books

2007-07-07T15:50:00.000-05:00

Beach

Last week I headed back to Carolina and went to the beach with the family. I did get to see a few friends right before we headed to Ocean Isle. Shout outs to all in G-vegas.

The beach house was a litte ways back from the ocean. Although nothing a golf cart that could top 29 miles an hour couldnt fix. Lots of sand, surf, sun, and "adult" beverages. Please drink responsibly. I attempted surfing and skim boarding, but was successful at neither. The waves were great for body surfing though, so I put my time to such pursuits. If you head to Ocean Isle make sure to avoid the restaurant at the west end of the island, that is of course if you dont like rotten crab meat. If that is your pleasure, please feel free to go.

I did cut my hair (pictures to come in the future i promise). I guess the change is a little drastic. Most people have not recognized me. I have been told I look 16, like a politician, conservative, weird, like a child, etc. Well my mother told me i look dignified so there!

Of good books,

I have been slogging through Plato's Republic. This book tends to put me to sleep. The best strategy so far has been to switch to Patrick McManus' The grasshopper trap. This book of surely equal social importance wakes me right back up. When fully awoken I can switch back to Plato.

Lab is still lab. The fish still will not mate. Better luck next time.

Summer

2007-06-07T17:47:00.000-05:00

I think summer has officially arrived. The undergrads have moved on, The campus is being taken over by reunions, and it is hot. That said, the weather has cooled, and there are a few very pesky undergrads with whom I must share this house with until August 15th.

I am not officially a member of the Holley lab. It is a developmental lab. The big picture is veterbrate development. My project off that involves signaling molecules called Wnts. If you get rid of different receptors for the signals you can get a phenotype indicative of convergence and extension movements. Hopefully these signals and receptor will be more directly involved in the movement and not just in transcriptional regulation as that would be much cooler.

So far the zebra fish havent been laying embryos very well for me. I have even tried singing some "mood" music, but apparently I am not that great at picking the frisky fish. Interestingly enough, a little competition can be a good thing. If you put two pairs of non mating fish together, many times the competition will get things moving.

Unfortunately I am not able to drive off this summer and spend time alone on the road and time in chicago or Idaho and yellowstone/tetons. I hope I will be able at some point in life to repeat a trip like that. Until then I will have to be satisfied by short trips.

Of big trips, I saw Rob Inglis off this past Saturday. He is riding his back from New Haven to Portland. I am afraid it could get a little dull around Nebraska, but hopefully he will make it to Portland in one piece.

For the Record

2007-05-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

After reading my last post Rob requested a correction and additional details.

He really wasnt running too fast. He claims he wasnt that nervous being nude. While we can argue about the relative velocity of his run, he does have one thing in his favor. Apparantly after the library, Rob and a few select others continued on and Struck the Law school library and two undergraduate colleges. Way to spread the love.

Labs, Housing, and Nudity

2007-05-08T22:30:00.000-05:00

Today I met with the PI (chief of the lab to the layman) of my second rotation. He said he would be very glad for me to join the lab. It looks like the competition is going elsewhere so its good I didnt have to compete. I'd rather not know how I stack up.

I also have recently secured housing for next year. I will be rooming with people after all. I had originally been set up with a friend of a friend, but after a two hour ride to new york, and a concert and a two hour ride back I knew it wouldnt work. I told her politely that I wanted to live alone. And I truly did. I looked at a few places and started to get excited. But a few days later I ran into a friend on the sidewalk. She said she was looking for a roommate and told me to recommend her to anyone I knew who was looking. I said I would. I didnt jump on the situation, because i wanted to room alone. But after considering how i couldnt afford to live alone I called her up. We will be living in a "nice" on campus apartment. It is up across from the Divinity School. The front side faces the backs of pretty nice buildings on a nice beautiful street. The back of the complex is a crime ridden dump. They had a shooting this past semester. That is basic New Haven. One street is a great street, and the next over is the worst. Either way, the location is great. I will be on Science Hill (just 3 mins down the hill) and Kate will be at the observatory across the street (she is an astronomy student).

Yesterday evening was the night before exams. It was also the night that a large group of senior men and women run through the library distrubuting candy. They do this nude. Rob claimed he would join the fun. I called him on it. Rob has expounded in great detail on the benefits of public nudity yet has always had a test or a paper to keep him from going. So I went to the library. I told Rob he better swing buy and hand me candy wearing only his cowboy hat. I actually had papers to read, so I went an hour before the run. I sat down in the main reading room, a giant room filled with long tables. The library was packed. As midnight approached the noise in the lobby grew as people apparently showed up just to watch. And then it happened. Two people ran in the reading room. Naked. Candy was tossed. Then the flood opened. In total there were probably 40 or so runners. The nervous ones were running fast and pelting the tables with candy. I started to duck as lollipops smacked into the metal lights on the tables. I actually recognized a few people. I rode with one back to South Carolina at Christmas, I danced with one at a Saint A's party, and I am kept awake by another who talks to Rob late at night.

And then there was Rob. A mere hairy phantom sporting a cowboy hat flew past. Candy landed around me as he continued on. I can not be absolutely sure he was completely naked. When the moment came where the view would have been unobstructed, I was distracted by another runner of the opposite sex. But I can say that from the hind view it seems a sure thing.

There were a few students, more comfortable with themselves in the all together, who walked around and encouraged the studying students. "Concentrate, Get that A tomorrow!" The mix was half male half female, though the males made up most of the slow walkers.

Suprisingly I wasnt able to study much after the event. So I headed back to the house. As I was walking out of the library I ran into one of the girls I recognized, now fully clothed. She was slightly embarrassed as she had thought she was not seen by anyone that she knew. But she still wanted me to walk her back to her car. Not knowing what else to say as we walked back, I said "good run" and changed the subject.

Easter and April part 2

2007-04-15T12:33:00.000-05:00

This easter was very nice. Sadly not with family, or friends back home, but the episcopal church here has some nice services. Actually they have a lot of services. I have never been this churched in my life. I had my feet washed on thursday, and carryied a torch on saturday. The neatest service was the easter vigil. I participated as an Acolyte. The service started at 11pm on saturday and outside the dark church. Everyone walks in with a candle and readings from the old testament from creation to jeremiah's dry bones were read. Then we paraded around old campus for the litany of the saints. The best part was when we walked back to the church. A few words were spoken, and then the pastor took the cross on a stick that was being carried and pounded it on the closed doors of the church. The church is an old stone building with giant wooden doors. The sound was three resounding booms. At this point the doors were opened and the church had been transformed. All the lights were on and flowers were everywhere. the alter at the front was decorated and the organ started playing. I really like the mental picture that it is through the cross, that we are brought back to God. From this point on there are many loud alleluias peppered throughout the service. The episcopals team up with the lutheran ministry for this service. Afterwards the lutherans have a tradition of meeting at their house for a party involving champagne, empty tombs, and candy. Empty tombs are like sticky buns of sorts baked with a marshmello which creates the hollow space as it turns to sugar. So there i was celebrating with other christian students drinking cheap champagne and eating chocolate (not the best combo at 3am) on easter morning. New for me.

I have quite a bit of work to do before this sememster is over. It looks like i might have found a lab i like. Hopefully they will have space for me. I also have decided to live alone. It sounds better and better every time i think of it. Hopefully i can find a decently priced place that isnt too dodgy.

April

2007-04-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

April come she will.

After seemingly endless hours in the libraries I chose a topic for my fake grant. I am required to write a postdoctoral grant proposal for a class. The outline was due and a topic and methods were included. It is hard to engross oneself in a subject in a matter of a few days so well that he knows everything that has been done, what needs to be done, and what is a feasible way to do that work. I am not saying I have accomplished that. I did read a lot. I did scratch my head a few times. I did throw together a short outline. Hopefully it will suffice. Next time I write one of these I should have about 5 more years of experience and knowledge to base it on.

I saw the play "Lulu." It reminded me of summer blockbuster movies. If you don't have a story or a message just throw in a heap of sex and violence and people will watch it. The very first scene had too much male nudity. It didn't get much better. There is a place for nudes, but when there is no purpose, or it is used just for shock value (both in this play) then it is no good. They play didn't have a story or a message. If it originally did the director and the actors did a great job of obscuring it. I went with my clinical psych friends and they felt the same way. One did admit that perhaps she just wasn't cultured enough to understand. But they all made fun of the philosophical babble that ran through the play. One undergrad was in the play, apparently a great honor as the rest of the actors and actresses had all been on Broadway and in movies. Bri, the undergrad has been over to the house a few times. I couldn't tell, due to masks and heavy makeup, but I think she was one of the topless dancers. hmm. The only points i could draw from the play is that you will never be happy in life and sex is not the answer.

Fancy Dinners

2007-03-12T23:24:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, and the weekend before, I was a guest of fancy dinner parties. The first fancy dinner was actually the meeting of the board for the Episcopal Church of Yale. I found myself eating at Mory's (old school yale place) with the board through a misunderstanding. I was talking with my third rotation professor, who happens to also be the chaplain at ECY. I thought I said yes to a group of professors meeting. Yet I learned alot about ECY. Now I know how much money it takes to have an endowment. We sat around in fancy clothes, talked money, ate rare slabs of beef, drank good wine, and listened to the crowds outside scream their admiration for Hanson (mmm-Bop!) who was appearing later that evening at Toad's Place. After the 3 hour dinner I made my way over to the Banghra dance party. I learned how to dance like an Indian, which apparently is like shaking your shoulders and kicking your legs. I felt very white, very tall, and very out of place. But the company was nice and friendly. It made for a complete evening.

This weekend the fanciness continued. Karin Reinisch, the PI from my first Rotation Invited the rotation students to join in their annual dinner party. She has the lab over for dinner. But not any ordinary dinner. She is eclectic, and "modern." Her house and food follow too. I do not like much modern architecture, yet her house was beautiful including the massive use of concrete. The entire back wall of the house was Glass. Fortunately for all involved their property backs up on a state forest. The meal was moroccan inspired. The four courses were exquisite. The wine was matched beyond my ability, the meal flowed and the presentation fit even with the house. I glanced over my shoulder expecting Martha Stewart to jump out. I felt like we were in a magazine. Before dinner we stood around drinking wine with small talk and sun light streaming.

Their dog was on best behavior. He only bit me once.

Inglis visit and Cabin

2007-02-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

This past weekend the eldest two Inglis girls came up for a visit. After a long day of cancelled flights and icy runways they arrived (only 12 or so hours behind schedule). We made up for lost time and kept sleep at a minimum and headed to the Yale Outdoors Club's cabin. Located about an hour and a half northwest of New Haven in a private forest reserve near Norfolk CT. Intending to leave at 3pm on Saturday we actually hit the road around 7.30pm. This delay was fortunate. The cabin was slightly drafty and the wood supply low. Combining these factors with a low of 5 degrees, any longer and we would have frozen. After surviving on a dinner of avocado, hummace(sp?), and jelly bellys, we attempted to sleep on very suspect mattresses. In the morning light the cabin was really neat. It was a one room log cabin with a loft, stone fireplace, and a small wood stove. No running water or electricity topped off the rustic experience. The outhouse door was blocked by snow and ice further enhancing our experience. It was cold, and covered in snow, and more snow was falling. Even Robert agreed that in this weather the best hiking was driving slow in the car.

It was a cold weekend. New Haven can be a "dark, cold, mean place." Yet Tuesday and Wednesday were gloriously springlike. Supposedly it will snow again tonight.

In the lab I am injecting fish embryos. This is done at the one cell stage. Not very easy, even with a tiny needle. The worst part of the deal is the time of arrival. To catch the fish at this stage requires me to be in the lab at 7.30am. Since that is what I am doing tomorrow, I am going to bed.

Cold

2007-02-10T17:20:00.001-05:00

Today it slipped above freezing to 33 degrees. This was the first time above freezing for over a week. It is really cold. Last weekend I took advantage of the cold and walked on a frozen lake. I was hiking in West Rock State Park and saw an ice fisherman in the middle of the lake. I knew I needed to be out their. My friend from upstate New York (who knows cold things like frozen lakes) said it looked around 4 inches, thick enough to suppport us. I walked around for quite awhile until we past a giant seem in the ice. A few feet later the ice made some horrible popping and cracking sounds. I left the ice as quickly and lightly (including much waving of the arms) as I could. My friend just laughed and said the ice was settling. But I did note that she didnt stay too long on the ice either.

Unfortunately there is no ice covered body of water between my house and the lab. But the could has limited the outdoor activities and I have been able to get some work done. I completed my first double fluorescent in situs. The fish embryos are terribly hard to dissect, but the pictures are great.

Fake Wounds and Snow

2007-01-22T20:18:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I was mountain biking in East Rock Park. After a Deer bolted in front of a buddy and me, I swerved, flew over the handles and careened into a large tree (American beech). Fortunately I was rescued by a troop of Yale undergrads who were freshly trained to administer wilderness first aid.

As my 'wounds' were mental and stage paint smeared over the 'broken' ribs and 'broken' left wrist (with a small head gash), I wasn't worried about the outcome. I was slightly worried about the temperature. It was supposedly 7 degrees. I had slipped on a pair of long underwear under my clothes and complimented that with wool socks, scarf, and cap. I topped it off with my large down jacket. This kept me pretty warm for the first 30-45 mins while we were preparing. Unfortunately to 'dress' my wounds, my jacket and shirts had to be pulled up and all my heat escaped.

Overall I was very impressed with the professional care they were able to give. I will mention that in a separate mock rescue, my roommate Rob was the only one to let his victim die. In his defense, I suppose it is hard to tend to a major leg fracture and bleeding when a friend comes up and wants to talk. But at least my buddy and I were saved Saturday night. My buddy hit his head and was to become 'belligerent' as he was given aid. Eventually he stopped responding at all and had to be carried out. I gladly chose against that assignment. When they first moved me from the tree to the pad that they worked on me from, they had trouble lifting my large frame.

This Monday evening it is snowing. Flurrying really. Yet I noticed something as I walked. I had never seen the six sides of a flake. In the Carolinas, the snow is wet and clumped. It was really cool.

Big Jacket

2007-01-11T18:31:00.000-05:00

The big jacket came this morning. Its a big red down jacket. L.L. Bean said it would be garnet, but it is more bright red than I would have wished. But it works very well. Especially on my 25 min. walk to Kline Biology Tower.

This semester I am up on Science Hill in KBT, instead of the medical campus. The 10th floor has amazing views. I can see both West Rock and East Rock. I think I can even see Sleeping Giant State Park.

I still mess things up though. Had the priveledge of running a 3 hour wait step 3 times. The joys of starting a rotation.

19 on 3

2006-12-12T17:20:00.000-05:00

So now that i am sure no one is reading these anymore....
A few days ago it was cold. Really cold. Weather.com said that it was 19 degrees (not centigrade). It also said that it felt like 3 degrees. I suppose they have a panel of professional temperature feelers. I wonder how one becomes a professional temperature feeler. Feelings are quite subjective. What makes their opinion of the feel of the temperature more realistic than mine?

While I am not sure I could feel the differences between 3 or 19 degrees, I knew it was chilly. I bundled up. With 3 shirts, a sweatshirt, a jacket, a scarf, cap, and gloves, I am sure i looked slightly out of place. The Cap was removed by a gust of wind. I then proceeded to run down the sidewalk stomping my feet vainly at the cap that was always one step ahead. I did finally get the cap back, though it was covered in snow. Not big wet flakes, but tiny ice crystals that were swirling and shearing through my thin layers.

The cold can not last even up in connecticut. It is back to more temperate temperatures.

Core Transcriptional Regulatory Circuitry in Human Embryonic Stem Cells

2006-11-12T20:45:00.000-05:00

As you might guess, that is the title of the paper I read this afternoon: a real page turner.

It has been unseasonably warm the last few days. Highs have been in the low 60s. This has been a wonderful thing. My wardrobe is very inadequate for the lower temperatures.

As for the first free weekend, it is all but gone. Saturday was a Yale sports day for me. I went to the Princeton-Yale football game, where we lost in the last 5 minutes. After that I watched a great hockey game. We soundly beat UCONN. The hockey stadium is very small so it feels like a large crowd. Some one sitting behind us had the most hilarious taunts for the UCONN goalie.

This past week saw the finishing of the NSF grants. Now I will wait and expect to not win one. Supposedly less than 1% of applicants win. I am glad to have completed a grant proposal. That's good experience for what I will be likely doing in my future. Now I just need to concentrate on passing my classes (easier said than done).

Halloween

2006-11-02T22:09:00.000-05:00

YSO gives a halloween concert. It is a big tradition. Its not just a concert. They make a silent movie and play along. The symphony is in themed costumes. The cellos were bikini clad girls from Jaws. The french horns were the band Kiss. They were all introduced with theme music.

Not to be out done, the audience is decked out in the most outrageous costumes. The auditorium is packed way beyond fire saftey regulations. Chanting breaks out well before the lights dim and the organ bellows out Beethovens 5th while the search lights roam around until the narrow and close in on the Yale emblem in the front.

The story line of the film was slightly hard to follow. A geek guy wants to impress a girl who happens to be one of the ghost busters. While taking a class "pimpz through history" where he learns about George Washington, Snoop Dogg, and Eli whitney, he hatches an idea. He steals Eli Whitneys body from the grave yard and brings him back to life. Unfortunately Eli whitney makes an evil cotton gin and starts making zombies. The zombies of course eat lots of people and then break into dance while the orchestra plays Michael Jackson's Thriller. At one point the zombies are playing football against some random yale students (the story line is hard to follow), and during a extreme slow-mo hail mary pass, a choir jumps up from the balcony and bursts into joyful joyful we adore thee.

Pretty good. Perhaps a little long (it started at midnight and finished after 2am).

Beanie Weenies

2006-10-30T22:09:00.000-05:00

Many times i have to stop and think about what i blog. I wonder, "what would my readers appreciate?" But this was such an event that no wonder was undertaken. I just ate beanie weenies. I went to the Commons dining hall and had a healthy portion of beanie weenies. Its probably a good thing that i dont have a roommate.

The most exciting weekend ever. I hope.

2006-10-24T00:29:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was, as you can tell, exciting. The inglis family (minus mr. inglis and mary ashton) came up to visit. It appears that they chose the best weekend. Any other weekend and they would have left with no real stories. So they were lucky when between the hours of 1am and 3am on saturday morning our house was vandalized. Either the perps broke in or were let in, the latter being assumed. While we were sound asleep they stole a bike, poured a 5 gallon bucket of paint on the carpet in the living room and deficated in both our washing machines. As i cleaned out the washing machine that housed my clothes and the offending "terd" i realized that i could become very, very angry.

Needless to say that put a damper on the weekend. But we recovered and on Sunday headed to north western connecticut to hike on the appalachian trail. It was a wonderful hike through gentle hills of gold and red. As we returned we were dismayed to find the car window had been busted in and a phone and purse stolen. I dont think a return trip for the inglis fam will be soon.

All considered I had a great time. I hope they could endure.

4am Party

2006-10-11T20:34:00.000-05:00

This morning at about 4am, we had a small, short (45min) party. The fire alarm went off. No fire. The giant box with the flashing lights and the buttons to push in order to stop the alarm was locked. The box didn't call the company, which didn't call 911. This is because our renter fails to pay the company to make the call. The alarm does nothing except to annoy. We cant even turn it off.
Since there was no real emergency, we searched for the fire department's number. When the 2 full length fire trucks pulled up and the four firemen in full gear surrounded the alarm box, they push out the Plexiglas and push the silent button. The alarm stopped. They informed us that we could not push the button ourselves. That was against the law. They said they would look into the fact that the alarm didn't call anybody. That's not really legit. After the alarm faded, the party was basically over. Interestingly, some in the house hadn't been to bed yet. I really don't think these people sleep.

Woods Hole

2006-10-08T16:08:00.000-05:00

The Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology department had their annual retreat this weekend. Each year it is at Woods Hole.

Woods Hole is a quaint research town. The only action is at the Marine Biology Laboratory. The rest of the town is a few small shops, restaurants, 1 bar, and a few houses tucked into the small hills that were surrounded by water. It seemed that there was water everywhere. Woods Hole is on Cape Cod, the end pointing to marts Vineyard. There was a little bay in the middle of town and only a few feet away was both sides of the peninsula. The town had one stop light which stopped cars so that the bridge could rise and let the boats in and out of the bay.

The retreat was nice. It was mainly a bunch of talks and a poster presentation. The only experiment going on was seeing how fast you could fall asleep during a talk. They would feed us and then move us to a large warm room. The lights would dim almost completely and then up in the front a soft spoken speaker would start droning. The time until sleep was very low for a majority of the students. 2 1/2 hours is much too long to sit in one place.

Saturday we were given a few hours of free time. A few friends and I found a bike trail leading out of town. It was a pretty stroll through a wooded area. It found and paralled a beach. The beach was comprised of rocks and seaweed. We skipped rocks as best we could in the waves and then sat and watched the ocean. It was the first time I was at a beach in a sweater. On the way back we stopped at "Pie in the Sky" and I had a Hard Rum Bread Pudding. I like bread pudding.

Complin

2006-10-01T23:46:00.000-05:00

This evening I attended Complin at Christ Church Episcopal. Complin is the last of seven canonical hours. The service was amazing. All the lights were off in the cathedral. Candles provided the only light. White and red candles were under the windows, on the floor, in the front, and in and around everything. The air was filled with incense. Every breath was sweet. There was no talking. The prayers were all sung. The choir was tucked into a balcony on the side where they were unseen except for the moving shadow of the conductor. They sang in English and in Latin. They started with simple melodies almost chant like. As they continued they branched more and more and developed harmonies and counter harmonies. It was beautiful. The service ended. No speaking. The song ended and it was silent.

The priest I talked to afterwards said they do this every Sunday evening at 10pm. "The students," he said "really appreciate it." I can see why. I think a lot go for the "spiritual" aspect, but it was nice to worship God in such a way.

I was intending to go backpacking in the Catskills this weekend, but the planner failed to secure a large enough car. I stepped back since I am not really in Yale Outdoors. It rained on them and filled their tents with water. I didn't miss much. I did get to attend a birthday party Saturday night instead. It was a dressy party so I put on a blazer. Its fun to pretend like you have fancy things to go to. I think that was the idea of the party. I danced with the birthday girl and take full credit for starting the dancing.

Protein Purification

2006-09-27T14:16:00.000-05:00

So far in the lab I have worked on purifying a number of proteins. I tried Tev, but failed to get it off the column. I succefully purified sec23, and am now working on sec24. If this makes little to no sense to you, then you are in good company. It makes barely any sense to me.

My computer came last night. It works wonderfully. I was only slightly tricked. I thought i bought the package with powerpoint and excell, but all I bought was word and powerpoint viewer. Powerpoint viewer allows you to look at previously composed powerpoints, but not to make them. Oh well. I can write papers, which i did last night.

My health has recovered mostly. My nose is only slightly runny as compared to yesterday's faucet. I should be completely back to normal tomorrow. Such is the level of excitement here.

And no, i did not make it into the singing group. I made call backs, but they couldnt offer me a spot this year. I am choosing to believe the descision was due to the fact that I am a grad student, and the club can only allow undergrads.

Life in the Fall

2006-09-21T20:07:00.000-05:00

It feels like fall today. I had to put on a bigger jacket than just my wind breaker.

I am now working in a lab. The primary languages of the lab are Chinese, French, German and now English!

I am glad to be in the lab. I think it will be fun. A lot better than taking classes. Which are fun too.

I haven't heard back after the call backs with the singing group. I am assuming that not hearing is a bad thing. If I don't hear by tomorrow night I will know that I was cut. I would like to make it into the group. It was so great to sing with them in the quartet during the second audition.

I ordered a computer. I will be so glad when it comes.

Shame Session

2006-09-11T20:12:00.000-05:00

Shame

Rob talked me into embarrassing myself. We listened to a great concert given by "Tangled Up in Blue," a singing group here on campus. Apparently singing is what you do when you are anyone up here. Singing groups are everywhere.
Unfortunately Rob talked up my little skill until I had to sign up. I asked if they took grad students, they didn't know. They still told me to audition. So now I am having a shame session this Thursday.

In other subjects...

I am having trouble picking labs for rotations. There are so many seemingly good choices. I am going to meet with a few of the favorites. If they are stinkers I will move on.

Classes?

2006-09-08T21:53:00.000-05:00

Yale has a neat system for choosing classes. They allow you to "shop" for classes for a couple of weeks. If you dont like the class, you dont go again. If it works, you sign up for it.

It works well until something goes wrong. I found this out on thursday. I have two required classes that i dont get to shop for, but thursday I had a little time and according to the class book schedule there was a cool vascular plant structure class.

I hiked up past science hill until i came to the forestry school. I went into Marsh hall, and my class was not there. When i asked what class was meeting my search party doubled as a girl had been mistakenly sitting in that one. As we searched the small house of offices for the class a prof saw our lost faces and told us to look in the next building. We tried. We failed. Eventually we found the prof of the class. He told us that the info for the class was written down wrong. It didnt meet in Marsh hall. It didnt meet at 2.30pm. It didnt meet on thursdays. Now i cant take it. Very dissapointing. Although next tuesday i will try a different class. One not nearly as good, but thats life.

Yale believes in free food, lots of free food. Today the free lunch and dinner came at a price. We were forced to indure a long presentation and tour of the facilities in the north campus. Mass spec is neat. Scanning electron microscopes are neater. But an entire day of squeezing into tiny rooms with big machines and computers producing heat (on top of the 15 extra people's body heat) was tiring.

This evening i happened on a free (un advertised) bluegrass concert. Doug the pirate's roommate was best friends with the lead singer. Doug the pirate told some of my friends and they told me. I in turn told Rob. Pretty good stuff.

(Doug the pirate is not a real pirate. No "rape and sack and pilage")
(He was wearing a bandana on his head)

Yale

2006-08-26T12:22:00.000-05:00

I have made it to Yale. And stuff is still falling from the sky. Last time is was snow, this time it is rain. It seems this could be a wet place.

The first order of buisness yesterday was to purchase an umbrella. I was soaked on the way to the store, and spent the rest of the day damp. But i got alot done. I gave myself a tour of the yale campus. I walked in giant circles trying to find the different offices where i needed to turn in paper work. I did find everything and did take care of most of the paper work. (I still need to sign so papers for the renter.)

Of course it is beautiful up here, the campus of course. The rest of the city could use some work. The apartment i am in is pretty nice. It is very convienent to campus. My room actually has a closet, and with a little bit of cleaning this morning the bathroom looks respectable (a mop could still help).

I am sitting in the library in a side where the computers are located. It has a low arched stone ceiling off the main hall. Cool air from the courtyard is slipping inside from the stain glass windo that is cracked open. Because of the cool temperature and the cloudiness, it feels much later in the year. I hear it should be hot all the way through September.

Last night i met some people in mechanical engineering, american studies, history, music theory, physics, and all types of sciences. All doctoral candidates. Pretty neat place

Odds and Ends

2006-08-17T13:05:00.000-05:00

I had written a post a few weeks ago about my stay in Greenville NC. It was hilarious. Trust me. Unfortunately the computer deleted the entry. All I will say is dont use U-haul.

Other things. I again worked for Wylee. Another great day. This time we were extending a roofline. Pretty neat. I only thought i would fall and die a few times.

I am getting ready for school. That means trying to pack. I am not the greatest packer. I have had a few boxes in the room for the last week, and they are still empty. Oh well. Perhaps it will happen today.

Humdidy

2006-07-14T13:24:00.000-05:00

Last week I worked with Wylie Guest. He was installing a bead board ceiling on a porch on Watts Ave. He needed someone with height. The porch had some age and was added, in parts, after the original building was built and then modified. Therefore the instillation was not as simple as it should have been. The rafters were not level, the angles were not the same, and the corner of the building did not line up with the rafter corner or the floor corner. But it was a beautiful job. The house belonged to a very rich family in Greenville. The back yard was secluded and gorgeous. That was one of the most fun jobs I have ever worked. I Listened to Wylie Coyote's many stories and adventures while getting paid and being outside. Pretty nice.

Besides working odd jobs with one of the most interesting people in the world, I have been driving. Driving here and there.

Humdidy for those who don’t know is humidity.

Its nice to be back in the Humdidy.

The Return Trip

2006-07-10T09:33:00.000-05:00

All trips must end. I started heading south through Utah. This is a nice drive with many radio stations to choose from. That is until you leave Provo. After Provo i headed across highway 6. Highway 6 is a two lane road that meanders mile after mile in desert. Brown baked earth as far as the eye can see for miles. Even the sage brush looked brown and dead. Since there were no radio stations to speak of i listened to some books on tape. The best from the entire trip was "The Good Earth" by Pearl S Buck. The worst (which i didnt finish) was "Endangered Species" written by some lady. The latter book was supposed to be a murder mystery novel, but it was a cheap summer romance novel in disguise. The author also tried to insert big words everywhere and made horrible analogys. For example, "The cuts in the seat of the truck looked like the diagrams from a medical journal showing the cuts to make when sucking the poision out of a pit viper bit on a hot day."

Highway 6 lead to highway 70 and Arches National Park. I took the little detour and stopped at arches for a few hours. I wish i had more time and a traveling companion. Arches is a neat place, but quite boring with no one to share it. That evening i camped in Colorado, and the next morning continued on I-70. The colorado bit was beautiful. Winding roads/bridges/tunnels through mountains and by big rivers was beautiful at 65-mph. It was also exciting as some of the curves were sharp.

After the mountains there wasnt much to see. I drove from Grand Junction Colorado to Independence Missouri. That was a long day. I poured out 50 bucks to stay in a less than decent motel. At this point i counted my money. I had just enough for two tanks of gas, 80$. So the next morning i took advantage of the continental breakfast (which was disgusting and took advantage of me later) and headed out. Two tanks later I was outside of Tennesee headed for Nashville. I made the trip and head 8 dollars left in my pocket and another 20 miles or so worth of gas.

Since i have been home for a few hours i have been givin many jobs. All involve me driving, either John mark to music camp, or lessons, or driving Mary Laurel to work. I guess this is because of my great driving skills.

Portland

2006-07-06T11:25:00.000-05:00

The whirlwind Adventure

I drove to Portland. In the last minute my Aunt decided to come with. Portland is about 11 hours farther west than Blackfoot. Most of Oregon is like southern Idaho: desert and sage brush. As we headed west the country became more beautiful. Trees sprouted up, along with mountains and rivers. We arrived in the evening and my cousins, Jake and Todd, were still out fishing. I met Jake in Idaho a few weeks back, but Todd who lived in Portland, I have never met. They arrived a little later bringing the 30lb salmon that Jake had caught that day.

Todd and Jake are very nice people. They seem to have a lot of fun. Its hard to remember that they are 20 years older than me (just a few years shy of my Dad). The brotherly affection shared by Todd and Jake is hilarious. Even though Todd had a nice house, I opted to sleep out in the 5th wheel. With the windows and doors open the temp was perfect. I never slept a better 3 hours. At 2.30am we got up and headed to the mighty Columbia. We hit the spot about 4.30am and fished until 9pm. We fished a lot but failed to do much catching. It was a beautiful area. The river is big and the current was suprisingly quick. Anchoring the boat posed difficulties. The plan of attack was to anchor the boat at a known "good spot" and let the lines out until a fish hit. When a fish was on, we would drop anchor and float down river until we could get the fish in. After that we would return to the anchor (left with the float) and repeat. Sadly the most we caught was each others lines. Todd even broke out the Chinook shuffle to no avail.

We did have a good time because the cooler was well stocked. Not with Fish, but with beers, pizza, soda, chips, fig bars, boiled eggs, and whiskey.

There is a law about the boat. What happens on the boat stays on the boat. And therefore I can not indulge anymore of the amazing and hilarious adventures that filled the day. You should be jealous.

After the fishing trip, Aunt Kathie (Kathy?) decided when needed to make the drive over two days and leave on the 4th instead of the 5th. Our trip was cut short, but our good luck was not. After driving for a few hours we stopped in Pendleton, Oregon. We found the most amazing motel. With our certain privileges, we got the already cheap room about 10 dollars cheaper. What made the motel so nice besides the fact that the non-smoking room actually did not smell, was the complimentary beer wine and heavy hores-douvers (I don't know how to spell). Not really heavy hores-douvers, but good enough. Instead of one long day of driving it seemed like two. But either way we returned.

Yellowstone

2006-06-29T17:47:00.000-05:00

I am back from Yellowstone.

My Aunt made reservations for a cabin at Canyon, but because of my Uncle's mishap, she could not go. Fortunately for me, Cate Raff who is working at Roosevelt, Took the days off and acted as my tour guide. We went and did everything touristy the first day. We saw the canyon, and the beautiful lower falls. We watched old Faithful. We walked around all the other pools, geysers, and mudpitts. We even fought the crowds in the gift stores and bought some ice-cream. It was a great day.

The people were suprisingly nice. Not that I was expecting something else, I was just impressed. The first night we stayed in a cabin at Canyon. It was just as described: "1950's vintage cabin with basic renovations in recent years." This means one tiny room that was brought up to the fire code sometime in the 70s.
In the evening we went to the employee pub. I had a few drinks, Old Faithful Ale, Teton Ale and Bitch Creek. Our wake up call was housekeeping, which comes at 8.30am.

The next day we drove to the Tetons. After lunch we hiked around Jenny Lake and up to inspiration point. Mistaken we stopped just short at a beautiful overlook. We were informed by others that the "point" was right above us. We decided that we were inspired enough. During the hike back the heavens opened up and rain and hail poured down. We were soaked. We thought about trying to get on the boat shuttle, but decided to walk since we didn't pay. It worked out better. We beat the boat back. They couldn't cross the lake because of the severe lightning. After a hot chocolate and a change of clothes we went in search of a spot to stay the night. We found a "Tent-Cabin" in Coulter Village. A tent cabin is 2 walls wood and 2 walls canvas with a canvas roof and a small wood stove. The bunks folded down from the wall. Mine didn't collapse until the morning when I got up.

The stars were amazing. No moon and only the shadows cast by the Tetons to lighten the sky. The milky way was unbelievable. So many stars. It was beautiful. Truly diamonds scattered everywhere. There were actually a couple of big shooting stars. Ones that burned in long enough for both of us to turn around and see them. I think this was the most stars I have ever seen. That night I slept the best I have in a long time. The fun of camping and building a fire combined with sleeping on a mattress. I laid on my back and slept without moving or waking till the morning. I never do that.

After we got up we went in search of some hiking trails. We were directed to a nice trail that would lead us to and around Swan lake. So we started off. We got to the lake, saw some swans, and lots of people hiking around and riding on horses. As we continued we headed away and around the lake. On the back side we crossed a marshy area, with foot bridges every so often. Eventually we came to a stream which we would have to ford. It looked as if a bridge was going to be built in the future. The bottom of the stream was packed down in the middle like it had been crossed before. I rolled up my pants, and since I was wearing my chacos I carried Cate across on my back. Unfortunately, I stepped too much to one side. I went up past my knee in mud. As I stepped quickly as not to fall over and dunk Cate, carrying the camera and other electronics, I lost my sandal. I had left the back strap down because of a blister. I deposited Cate in some rocks in the middle and went back to search for my shoe in vain. It is lost forever in the middle of some creek in the Tetons. We continued on. The trail continued as a raised bed of gravel. The trail then left the marsh and headed into the woods. As it did so it became smaller and smaller and disappeared completely.

I might say that all the trails were poorly marked. No blazes and no trail names. Only destinations at cross roads, and I was having trouble guessing at which direction the little arrows pointed. But even with my outdoors pride I had lost the trail. We continued to follow what had become an animal trail, hoping to pick up a sign. Nothing. Cate was sure that Swan lake was in front of us, but I wanted to back track. We were running out of time. Cate had to be at work at 2.50 and we were late. Since the mountains were in front of us, and we would have to cross a road and a large populated lake before we reached them, we started out across the country. The going wasn't too bad save the bare feet until we had to cross some boggy creeks. The first bog, saw me get muddy, but I was able to help cate avoid as much as we could since she would need to be serving food in a few hours. The second bog got us both. The water was only about two inches deep and a foot wide, but as I crept close I could feel the mud matts which I was standing on move and break under my feet. Finally I just went for it and went waist deep in mud. I crawled to the other side and tried to help cate. I think I just pulled her in worse. We were both covered waste down in thick black mud. Muddy and in the middle of the wilderness. Fortunately Cate was right. Over the next ridge the lake came into view. We walked around until we again found the trail. As we walked back to the lodge area, we got a few strange looks. We told people to watch out for the mud. A couple from New York took our picture and laughed with us. We changed back into our rain soaked clothes from the day before and drove up to Roosevelt.

I got to see Yellowstone and a part of the Tetons, which few if any, probably ever see. Thanks Cate for being my guide, and I hope some of the mud comes out of your pants.

Fire!

2006-06-24T20:14:00.000-05:00

As i was holding down the fort while my Aunt was visiting my Uncle in the hospital, a fire broke out.

Yesterday I noticed a bunch of kids playing at the bridge. Often kids are jumping off into the river. I didnt take much notice except that they were also playing with firecrakers. All of the sudden I heard yells and screams and looked up to see some smoke and kids running to thier cars. I looked at the smoke for a few minutes and wondered what to do. There was a house a hundred yards away, and the smoke didnt seem like much. I didnt know if they didnt care about such small things. But i called 911 anyway. By the time the firetruck made it to the area, a couple of acres had burned. Luckly the wind had been pushing it towards the river where it had started so it only progressed slowly towards the house. It sounded like bacon frying.

The firefighter said it would be a bad year for fires. He thanked me and that was it.

Today was somewhat less exciting. I went on erronds with my Aunt. One stop was the garage sale. The garage sale was put on by a group which my Aunt is a new member. She is also the youngest member by far. The garage sale did not bring much profit. Like all garage sales, the ancient ladies had donated some the things cluttering their houses, but the low prices were not their. I cant imagine spending 20 dollars on an old easy-bake oven. Ugly clothes that should be priced 2 dollars and under were all 15+. It was easy to see why the stuff was still there. As I helped to pack it all back, I got the feeling that alot of the ladies were glad to have their stuff back. The high prices were intended to keep their precious belongings to themselves. I could have bought the salad spinner, but for 10 dollars i could probably get a new one without a spider's nest inside.

More Unfortunate Things

2006-06-23T13:14:00.000-05:00

Uncle Bob is in the Hospital. We took him there yesterday morning. He might not be back today or the next. His x-rays looked fine, he is just in alot of pain. Slow days here. We are still planning on going to yellowstone on Monday. I might have to go alone.

I am considering heading to Portland Oregon before heading home. My cousin who lives there has invited me up. Plus i might as well make the drive home truly across the entire country. Its just another hard days drive there.

A few Pics

2006-06-20T22:44:00.000-05:00

Moving Cattle

Sand

Family Fun

Fixing Fence

Tex and Me

Rafting

2006-06-20T21:40:00.000-05:00

My Aunt and I rafted the Blackfoot river today. We ran about 7 miles. Nothing too exciting, but it was fun. If you dont know, rafting here is a two day adventure. On the first day you get the raft out and blow it up and patch it. With any luck this takes all day and half of the next. Then you deflate one last time and load up the boat, paddles, vest and other stuffs. Then you wait for Uncle Bob to get in the truck, and all the dogs, and then to get out and chain the little puppy in so he will not jump out, and then you get out to fix his collar because it is too large. So then you get a nail and a blow torch and poke holes in the collar. Then You drive off to the river.
The rafting was fun although i think i did most of the work. As we would go through the rapids i would be in need of help to keep us off the many rocks, and my Aunt would be laying down on the job. She claimed she would fall into the boat, but i am not sure. We both decided we were like Aunt Laurel, "Hey I am pretty good at this."

The trip home was a blast too i might add. Driving with the Aunt and Uncle is great. On the way to northern Idaho, my Aunt would point out every sign she thought i might have missed. "Did you see that sign, 35 mph sign?" Driving with Uncle bob its more, "Well the road is strait here," or "Here are some curves, and then the road will straiten." Thanks Uncle Bob.

Of Radios and Stations and Music

Today i was given a mission to head into town and buy some hardware stuff. I drove off in search of "Its either Eloise, 91 or 191, or hell it could be Main St." (actually 91) Then I took a right on "Either Judicial or Providence" (actually Basket St.) But on the way around, and around, town I surfed throught the fancy satellite radio in the truck. I found a good rap station and dubbed myself the honorary Thug-Gangsta of BlackFoot. This action was only deemed necessary because i have yet to see any African-americans. I have seen a few Native-Americans, and plenty of western-european-anglo-saxon-pale-face-brothers but no african americans. So i cranked the rap station loud and brought a little variety to Blackfoot Idaho.

Sand and Wind

2006-06-18T17:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I spent the passing time digging sand. The addition on the house needs sand kept away. To do this, we are in the process of building two retaining walls. I am given a shovel and instructed to dig out a place for the cross ties. The walls are going to be about 2 1/2 cross ties in length and 5 high. I dig. I move tons of sand. Uncle Bob comes by with the tracter and removes some sand. In the process he fills the channels i have dug. I dig again. This is repeated to a lesser degree on the second wall. I do learn a little. Once the area is dug we lay the ties in and level (ha). More are added and Uncle bob drills through and we hammer rebar down into the ground. This makes for a day. What topped off the day is the facet that sand can act like a liquid. It pours. While digging the walls continually break off and pour into the channel. The wind also sends sand everywhere. I thought about asking for a bandana like a cowboy.
For about an hour we slipped away. There had been a fair of sorts going on in town all day. We got there in time to watch the finals of the snowmobile races. Some of you are thinking its summer. And you are right. But snowmobiles can be just as much fun in the summer. Especially when you are racing them on a lake. The gun would sound and 5 or 6 small kids would scream out across the lake. The speed would keep the machine on top. The only problem was steering. A few kids tried to use the blades by turning the handles, these only caught the water sending the rider and craft to the bottom. By leaning back and forth and side to side (and driving screamingly fast) a few riders were able to do two laps and then finish by driving back on land. The other less fortunate racers had to wait for the divers to get their snowmobile back up from the deep.
While it was entertaining, the best part of the fair was walking with the Aunt and Uncle and slurping on a tigers blood snowcone. I felt like i was (not just with) a grandparent as we watched the skateboarders. "Well he could pull up his pants." "The kids these days..." Oh well.

Unfortunate Things

Today Uncle Bob and I headed up to the range to fix fence and move cattle. When we arrived there were a few cattle on the outside of the fence. We wanted to check if they were ours. We rode off on the horses after them. Uncle Bob got ahead of me as i took my shoeless horse around some rocks. As i turned a corner i looked up and saw the three yearlings and Bob's riderless horse. Bob was nowhere to be seen. I got the horse to calm down and then I looked for Uncle Bob. It turned out he was the blue piece of garbage i thought i had seen. His horse, one of the colts, had spooked at a creek and reered up, the ranes broke sending Uncle Bob off back. I took the horses back and removed the saddles and loaded them and the 4-wheeler into the trailer. Uncle Bob could barely get in the truck much less drive, so I drove the big truck with the large trailer the 1 1/2 hours home. He told me not to mind the cursing. If he cursed at the mormons, then i would know he was serious. He thinks he broke some ribs again. At home Aunt Kathy and I unloaded the horses and then i backed the trailer up into its place (I am very proud of myself for that). I think he will be ok. He will probably be out of commission for a while.

Home Again

2006-06-15T23:07:00.000-05:00

Home again, Blackfoot that is. On both trips we listened to The Good Earth. Amazing story. The author draws you in and makes you feel the lives of the people. We are not quite done. A long book since it is a 9 hour drive both ways.
When we returned Uncle bob was burning some trash form the construction in a giant sand dune. I helped him burn carpet. It burned hot sending thick smoke into the chilly air. The carpet melted into a liquid which the flames hid. It looked like the sand itself was burning (reminded me of a certain movie matt might know). The burning goo poured down the sand like lava. The fire was an unnatural yellow. I am sure a sign of all the pollutants being released.
Dinner was at 10pm. A delicious bowl of tomato soup from the can. My favorite.

Coeur d'Alene

2006-06-14T17:03:00.000-05:00

Good, cold, rainy, northern Idaho.
It has rained since we arrived. It is raining now. It broke enough to watch Jake's baseball game in a drizzle ( the game was a big W). Afterwards a huge group of mainly family went to the olive garden. Both Kayla and Brooke (9 years old daughters of my cousin Jake, also has son Jake)asked me to sit with them. They were so funny. I saw them once before just shy of 9 years ago. They were both incredibly friendly and outgoing. Needless to say I did miss out on much of the intelligent conversation happening elsewhere at the table. But it was worth it. They begged and pleaded to get to sleep at Uncle Marks house. We taught them to play craps.
I have gotten tired of the constant Fox News that is on here, mixed in with Roaring Rush. Perhaps my libralification giving by Aunt Kerry in Chicago has taken root. I need to develop film so that I can post some pictures.
It looks like we will be driving back to Blackfoot tomorrow.

Finally

2006-06-13T13:04:00.000-05:00

I have been away from a computer for a while. This means I wont go into detail about all the fun driving across the country and staying in places like Thermopolis Wyoming. But I have been in Idaho for a few days now. I have fixed fence, moved cattle (on horseback), and painted. The real cowboy experience.
The house is in the desert, high desert (4000ft). The range is about 6000ft. There are mountains everywhere. Like the sucker I am I have taken pictures of the snow still on the ground in June. At the moment I am in northern Idaho visiting my Uncle Mark.
His house is amazing. Styled like an old west whore house. In the house you can drive your car right up to the kitchen. A real bachelor pad. The shower located in the kitchen allows you to watch what everybody is doing through the semi one way glass and swinging doors.
Uncle Mark was just married last year so I met my new cousin Nick. After the old folks went to bed we slipped out to the casino and had a few drinks at the bar.
Back to the southern part of Idaho Uncle Bob, who I am living with is a character. If he doesn't call you a dipshit or a son of a bitch he doesn't like you. These are terms of endearment.
When I have more time and am not on this dial up I will add some more ramblings.
Plus if they stop working me to death I might not have to go to bed at 9pm.