Perennially Bellis

Block

2010-12-06T13:06:00.000-06:00

I've been writing. I'm doing relatively well with the writing more often goal with the exception of a few 13 hour days in the lab last week. I just don't like anything that I've written enough to subject the two or three readers of my blog with the accumulated drivel. The writing is saved and hopefully will lead to real, longer posts that I'm proud of.

In the mean time, a bit of academic humor pertaining to writer's block...

http://scienceblogs.com/omnibrain/2010/12/unsuccessful_treatment_of_writ.php

So much to be thankful for

2010-11-30T07:56:00.000-06:00

I am thankful for the higher heat capacity of oil and the high surface area of a turkey for allowing us to cook a 15 lbs turkey in 45 min.

I am thankful for the low thermal conductivity of ceramic, thus keeping the smoker at at perfect temperature to smoke turkey #2.

I am thankful for yeast’s ability to convert carbohydrates to alcohol, letting us to celebrate the harvest with wine, beer and champagne.

I am thankful for my bodies production of oxytocin and its help in pair bonding.

I am thankful for carbon and especially the beauty of its allotrope.

But all nerdy talk aside, I am thanking for finding the love of my life and that he asked me to marry him.

My Paper: Part 1

2010-11-22T07:34:00.002-06:00

Anyone who has watched a TV crime drama has a basic idea of DNA. Your DNA is your genetic fingerprint; it distinguishes you from your neighbor and links you to your parents. Although true, the CSI description of DNA is only a part of the story. DNA is more like an instruction manual, the longest, largest, most detailed instruction manual EVER.

Each cell in our body acts like a large international company with a couple thousand employees and DNA as the corporate handbook. In every large company there is a subset of employees that are responsible for market research; the 'receptors' of information get an idea of the current environment and reports back through the cellular hierarchy to the corporate center, ie, the nucleus. While information is working it way up the ladder, proteins within the communication route become excited, recruit others and sometime even provide feedback. Finally at the end of the communication network is a transcription factor (TF). TFs are the urgent memo that gets handed directly to the CEO. The TF is special in that it acts as a key to the DNA and only unlocks specific chapters of the manual thus giving the cellular CEO the exact information and instructions to make the necessary changes to the business practices; make the company grow, make more products, expand to a new location, shut down completely.

If you want to get a global picture of what is going on in a company, looking at all the memos that cross a CEO’s desk is a good place to start. Paralleled in the cell, looking at the ‘active’ TFs in the nucleus (how well it can bind to and ‘unlock’ the DNA) gives a good measure of cellular status and of the upstream signaling network. In a company, you can potentially find failures in communication or in the structure of the company by studying the corporate memos; did some information get pass on too quickly? did something important get left out? were duplicate memos received? We can use the same basic ideas to identify markers in disease in a cell. By comparing the TF activity profiles of cancer cells verses healthy cells we can more precisely pinpoint where things went wrong and therefore develop more directed therapy.

External signals work their way to the nucleus to effect gene regulation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Signal_transduction_pathways.png

And now for something completely different...

2010-11-19T08:51:00.003-06:00

Mainstream science reporting drives me nuts. Studies are sensationalized, taken out of context, and misrepresented. I blame scientists.

The scientific community is reclusive. We publish in journals with specific audiences that only people affiliated with an organization with the resources to pay for expensive subscriptions can read. We speak is jargon and acronyms. We are best at communicating with other scientists and often expect people who are not in the community to know what we are talking about.

This needs to stop. The focus needs to change.

We need to learn to communicate with the outside world. We need to stop having journalist reading our papers and try to translate them for a wider audience. We need to write in a way that needs no translation. We need to be more approachable. I argue that if scientist were better at communicating there would be no question to the validity of global warming, parents would vaccinate and people wouldn’t think that stem cell research is equivalent to killing babies.

I recently published my first paper. I thought it was pretty good. I thought it was written well. I thought my family would be able to read it and understand it. I was wrong. Reading it now I realize that being apart of academia has made me lose touch with ‘normal’ people’s understanding. The average person doesn’t know (and has no need to know) what a transcription factor is or the importance of signaling pathway analysis.

I want to become a better writer. I want to communicate clearer and reach a wider audience.

I have made a personal goal of writing everyday (well, every weekday). I hope that by writing everyday my communication skills will improve and writing will come more naturally (and, cross your fingers, make writing my thesis go a little faster).
Oh, and maybe this experiment will help me get my dream job of being a science correspondent for NPR... hahahaa

My first challenge: Rewriting my paper for a blog audience!

A carrot is a carrot is a carrot...?

2009-09-15T17:06:00.001-05:00

I spend about 50% of my day listening to WBEZ. My commute is mostly done standing on a moving bus and my experiments are highly repetitive. I need the company of NPR to get me through it all. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE NPR, but I've become that annoying person that starts all new topics of conversation with "I was listening to NPR..." or "I heard an interesting interview on NPR..." or "I must be supper smart because a guy on NPR believes the same thing as me..." or "Blah, blah, blah..." That being said, I heard an interesting interview on NPR discussing the role of cooking in evolution. The simplified hypothesis from this interview states that Humans evolved the way that we did (ie developing smaller mouths, smaller intestines, smarter brains compared to our primate cousin) and gained evolutionary advantage (function at a higher level) as a result of the fact that we cook our food. Basically, cooking makes us human. There is a little bit of the chicken or the egg feeling in this argument, but for the sake of this post lets go with it.

Cooking our food allows us humans to actually obtain more net energy from our food because we don't have to send hours gnawing at a hunk of raw meat or processing leafy greens. The anthropologist described two studies to back up his story. The first paper he alluded to was a study (Oka et al., 2003) of two groups of rats. Group 1 was fed normal pellets and group 2 was fed a softer, air puffed version of the same pellet. Both group were fed the same total number of Calories and all results were normalized to exercise. At the end of 26 weeks, it turns out that the soft food group was (statistically) significantly fatter than the control. The post-eating temperature of the soft-fed rats were lower than the hard-fed, suggesting that the metabolism of the hard-fed rats is 'working harder.' The conclusions drawn by the actual researchers and the NPR dude from this experiment are slightly different. The rat guys hypothesize that the different in weight comes more from neurological cues from the act of eating the different textured pellets and Mr. NPR says that the lower temperature comes from the little rat body not having to work as hard to process the softer pellet. I find both interpretations interesting.

The second scientific article (Evenepoel et al., 1999) that is mentioned was slightly more relevant to the argument that cooking food changes the caloric energy that is obtained by humans from food. The researchers in the study labeled eggs and tracked them through human digestion and determined the amount of protein absorbed by the small intestines as a function of whether or not the egg was cooked. There was a 30% difference in the amount of protein that escaped digestion within the small intestine between the two eggs, with the cooked egg having almost 95% of labeled proteins digested in the small intestine. This brings up the question of what cooking food actually does to the nutritional or energy value of foods. According to this thinking, the old dogma of 'a calorie is a calorie is a calorie' does not quite hold up. Cooking may change the amount of net energy we get from food whether the caloric discrepancy comes from our metabolism working harder with uncooked foods or that the energy from the harder to metabolize raw food isn't processed during the relatively short time it is in our digestive tract.

So what does all this mean? Well as with all science, especially science covered in the media, these results and hypotheses should be taken with a grain of salt. What I take from this discussion is an affirmation that we need to be more cognizant of what we eat and how we eat it. I am by no means at all saying that we should al be on the "raw foods diet." Our bodies evolved to eat cook food and we need it to get the energy necessary to function properly (as mentioned in the podcast, women on the "raw foods diet" often stop menstruating because they do not get sufficient energy from their diet). I do think, however, that we need to cut back on the processed foods and let our bodies do some of the processing. Those mashed up, freeze dried carrots that are puffed into chip like things are probably not as good for your body as an unprocessed carrot, period. Anyways, I thought this was interesting food for thought.

The Dreaded Giggle Loop

2009-08-20T17:10:00.003-05:00

The Time Traveler's Wife made me cry. Scratch that, it made me bawl. The end got me even though I knew everything that was going to happen in the movie before I even took the turkey sandwiches that we had smuggled in to the theatre out of my oversized purse. So here I am in a crappy theatre on a Tuesday night (free small popcorn night), surrounded by a theatre of women (with a strangely high percentage of lesbians), sitting next to my boyfriend with my nose running and tears streaming down my face. Then it happened, the giggle loop. I took one look at Mike and he saw the helpless embarrassment behind my shameless tears and we both started to giggle. The giggles got worse and before I knew it, we where laughing. The inappropriate nature of our laughing made us laugh harder. I was uncontrollably laughing between uncontrollable sobs, Mike was just laughing. Yup, we were the jackasses laughing out loud during the tragic climax of a chick flick. Damn you Giggle Loop!

Best of Chicago

2009-08-15T11:57:00.012-05:00

As of today I have been an official Chicago resident for one year. It’s amazing, I move 5 miles and the city opened up to me. In Evanston I was bound by the silly Purple line and going into the city almost seemed like a chore. Now we explore. The city buses no longer intimidate me. I feel a connection to my neighborhood. We go on missions to seek out the best sandwich, the best pizza in the city.

So to commemorate my city living, I present you my 2009 best of Chicago.

Best Coffee Shop

Metropolis @ 1039 W. Granville Avenue, Edgewater

This little coffee shop roasts their own beans, has rotating local art on the walls and is less than a mile's walk from our apartment. Metropolis will also go down in our history books as the location where Mike wrote most of his doctoral thesis.

Best Restaurant

Lula Cafe @ 2537 N. Kedzie Boulevard, Logan Square

I love Lula. It has fresh, local food put together with ease. Their menu has a good mix of higher end and more affordable food. The best food in Chicago without any pretension along with it.

Favorite Shop or Boutique

Andersonville Galleria @ 5247 N Clark St, Andersonville

With four floors and 90 merchants, the Galleria is like a mini Chicago Etsy shoved into a sun-filled old warehouse. If I had more money I'd shop here all the time, get handmade clothes, jewelery, make-up, art.

Favorite Chicago Tourist Attraction

Millennium Park @ N. Michigan Avenue & the Lake, Downtown

The architecture, the concerts, the people watching, a marvelous view of the skyline and now a bridge to the new modern wing of the Art Institute; Millennium Park has it all.

Hidden Treasure

Chicago Cultural Center @ 78 E Washington St, Downtown

Now home to the Chicago Cultural Center, the old public library is beyond beautiful. If all libraries were this magical cartoons would be unnecessary and every kid would be an avid reader.

Favorite Sports Team

The Chicago Blackhawks

Although Wrigley Field is pretty awesome, I still like the Blackhawks better than the Cubs.

More to come.....

Not funny, Yet hysterical.

2009-08-06T15:02:00.002-05:00

I think that phdcomics are very funny and very unfunny at the same time. Sometime the comics on that page satirize my life a little too well, hit too close to home. I know this is the second comic I've shared in as many posts, but honestly I can't help it. I believe this comic is a direct paraphrase from a conversation I had last week with my sister... except that conversation didn't seem so silly and included stress filled tears. At least I can use the comic to give me a little prospective if not a laugh.

False Assumptions

2009-07-24T13:51:00.006-05:00

Often in science, when trying to solve a difficult problem or model a complex system, researchers make simplifying assumptions. A good scientist will constantly reevaluate their assumptions to make sure they are still valid. As a community of scientist and researchers we need to begin to question whether the main assumption governing the current structure of academia is legitimate. We assume that because a person is smart enough to get a PhD, land a good postdoc position, publish some papers in high impact journals makes them a qualified teacher, manager and mentor. Currently, university faculty receive little to no direct training on how to be a professor. I actually find it had to believe that in most states you need a postgraduate degree in education to instruct kindergartners on how to say their ABCs but no training on effective teaching is needed to teach the future doctors, engineers, business superheros the intricacies of their respective trades. Tenured track university facility are also expected, immediately upon hiring, to create, run and fund a productive lab. From experience and observation, many principle investigators lack the managerial know how to effectively coordinate the efforts of their students. If research facility was given training on how to effectively run a lab research endeavors would progress forward at a far faster pace. AND if college professors were forced to focus on how to improve their teaching, the students that graduate from college and grad school will be better informed and possibly better members of society.

New things in the R.P.

2009-07-15T17:30:00.002-05:00

Over the past few weeks Rogers Park has seen the opening of a few new things. Is this a sign of the economy getting better? I guess we will just have to wait to see.

First up, Royal Coffee. Good cheap coffee but the same old sandwiches as the previous cafe.

Next, the movie theatre that I wrote about in January has reopened. The New 400 is a dollar more expensive, doesn't have the BYOB (bring your own bag) but it's nice having a movie theatre that you can go to on a weeknight and be in bed 7 min after the movie ends.

Third, CVS opened right where I pick up the bus for work. I don't know why I am so excited about this opening but I AM! Their prices seem a little steep though...

No wonder my parents wouldn't buy us lunchables, they ARE expensive.

Finally, Rogers Park now has a Five Guys. Is it possible to overdose on French fries?

iPhone app

2009-07-09T10:47:00.001-05:00

In order to try and update more I impulse bought an iPhone app to help. I like BlogPress so far.

It even let's me easily post pictures. Alright back to work.... I get distracted easily when I try to work form home.

Orphaned blog

2009-07-09T10:14:00.002-05:00

I know it's been a LONG time.... I bet the select few who actually read this blog thought that it had become part of the 95%... poor abandoned blogs. Well, my new goal is for a new post every week. Lets see if I can parent this blog again.

Turning Over a New Leaf

2009-04-05T17:48:00.012-05:00

I love my neighborhood and after an accidental discovery made yesterday by Mike and me, I think I'm going to love it a bit more. Yesterday, after what has turned out to be our bi-Saturday trip to get fresh roasted coffee and to our local butcher (not to mention a quick stop at the fabric shop), we took a different route home and stumbled upon a tiny organic grocery shop. New Lief Grocery itself wasn't that exciting, a very small amount of organic fruits and veggies and a lot of packaged soy and gluten free products. However, the store is basically just a front for an organic co-op that offers weekly boxes of assorted fruits and vegetables for only $15 for 1-2 people. Awesome! You just put in your order a week ahead of time and BAAAM a assorted selection of locally grown produce. Hopefully this will help Mike and me be a bit more diverse and healthy in our weekly eating habits. I can't wait to pick up our first box but we will have to wait a week because we head to California to visit my Dad and Stepmom on Wednesday night! I'll try to give updates during our trip from my new fancy dancy iphone.

Graphophobia?

2009-03-24T16:04:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the hiatus in entries but I have really been trying to focus on lab work lately. Mostly, I have been trying to put together and write a paper. The key word in the previous sentence is ‘trying’. It has really been a struggle to just get words on paper and I feel that the words I have been able to spit out are inadequate. I feel my words and my work needs to be meatier but I’m having trouble beefing it up. I think that some of my graphophobia results from this being my first first-author publication and firsts always scare me a bit. As I admitted in my 16 facts, I’m afraid of being wrong or of people figuring out that I am not as smart as they believe me to be. I think a small neurotic part of me feels like this paper (or my inability to put it together) will be the proof that my fears are grounded in some sort of reality and it is really a mistake that I’ve made it this far in science. Okay, so I’m a little dramatic and have anxiety problems, I know, but it doesn’t make these feelings any less real. Well, either way, this has to get done soon. I’m hoping to have a rough draft to my adviser by Friday (I just have half the results and all of the discussion to write, blurg). Oh and I was told today that I have to present at group meeting next Wednesday. So, long story short, I probably wont be updating the blog much in the next week or so. Sorry.

Send me energy.

Over it

2009-03-02T16:04:00.000-06:00

Snow was once magical; it was powerful and mysterious. Snow could cause the world to stop or at least substantially slow down. The thought of impending snow had the ability to cancel school and clear grocery store shelves. I loved snow and welcomed it with open arms. As a child, and even a teen, I would even go as far as trying to invite snow to visit by wearing my pajamas inside out and backwards. The sight of snow made me giddy and made me feel as though anything could happen.

Not any more. Chicago has sucked away all of snow’s power and stripped away its magic. Snow is now just a nuisance, something that makes life more difficult and cold. Snow, I am so over you.

Theatre Geek

2009-02-26T16:11:00.001-06:00

Now that I’m back in the blogging mood, I would take a moment and thank my wonderful boyfriend for taking me out last night. He surprised me with theatre tickets. As a recovering theatre geek, I still have a very warm place in my heart for live theatre. Don’t Dress for Dinner was a very entertaining show albeit is was jammed pack with some stereotypical comedic theatre themes; the dumb blonde with a squeaky voice, miscommunication that leads to comical misunderstanding, multiple adulterous characters, an over the top French cook, … you get the point. Nevertheless, like a recovering alcoholic’s need for more and more alcohol after falling off the wagon, going to the theatre has unleashed the former theatre addict in me and I just want more and more theatre tickets. Luckily (or maybe unluckily) for me Chicago isn’t hurting for theatre. Mike, you may have created a monster.

Adventures in Sinusitis

2009-02-26T15:21:00.003-06:00

I don’t want to make this statement prematurely, but I think I feel almost human. For the few of you out there who don’t know, I’ve been struggling with some serous sinus trouble. Who knew that a pluggy nose could knock you on your ass so badly? With a chronic sinus headache coupled with a case of winter blues, I’ve been in pretty bad shape for probably the past 3-4 weeks. I finally was able to see an ENT specialist this past Monday. After sticking a camera up my nose (yes, it’s as unpleasant as it sounds), he sent me home with corticosteroids, antibiotics, a referral to get allergy tested and an appoint to check back in a month. I think the drugs are working and I can even put up with the TERRIBLE taste in my mouth caused by the antibiotic because today I didn’t feel worthless, haven’t taken any painkillers, and was motivated enough in lab to do a bunch of cleaning that I have been putting off doing. Tomorrow I become a pincushion in the name of determining if the cause of my sinus issues is allergy related. Lets just hope I keep on improving and I can somehow keep this from happening again.

Sew What?

2009-02-15T22:28:00.016-06:00

I've been making pretty good use out of my sewing machine. So far I've made 4 pillows including 2 new pillows for our couch to match our new rug (pictures to come, hopefully sometime this week), yesterday I made an apron (I'll hopefully get a picture on here of that too) and I've made a few bags (pictures below). I'm really enjoying the creative outlet that these sewing projects are giving me. My research is pretty continuous with a big focus on the long term, so it's nice to be able to come home, start and finish a project, it gives a sense of closure and completeness that I'm lacking at work. And to top it all off, I think I'm making pretty cool stuff.

Love muffins

2009-02-14T12:19:00.007-06:00

Nothing like love muffins and a latte for breakfast!

May you find love everywhere you look....

Happy Valentines!

Dakota Fanning is Cramping My Style

2009-02-08T23:08:00.003-06:00

Mike and I watched The Secret Life of Bees tonight. A good movie, although not as good as the book. Is the movie ever as good as the book?

Anyways, I am not sure if I will watch any more movies with Mike that have Dakota Fanning in it because he is convinced that she looks like me and keeps pointing it out. Should I think it's strange that my boyfriend sees me when he looks at a 15 year old girl? Well at least he'll watch movies like Life of Bees with me with out complaining, I guess I shouldn't complain about Ms. Fanning cramping my style.

What do you think? Do we look alike?

Need More Bacon in Your Life?

2009-02-06T09:14:00.004-06:00

Let see if the old adage is true, is everything better when you add bacon?

what about Perennially Bellis with a side of bacon?

Google bacon?
Chicago Police?
George Bush Bacon?

Need more bacon in your life? Baconize your web surfing!

Thanks to How About Orange for finding and posting this!

Fiddler Crab

2009-02-03T14:25:00.002-06:00

I am a little afraid that the experiments that I’ve been doing in lab lately will turn me in to the little guy pictured above. Not because we do crazy gene mutation in the lab (we don’t) or because I was bitten by a radioactive crab (I wasn’t), it’s because in the past two days I have I pipetted approximately 3637 times. That number isn’t a hyperbole, it’s an actual engineering estimate with an error of plus or minus 8. The experiment I started yesterday has 35 conditions that I deposit in quadruplicate on 5 different 384 well plates followed by seeding cells into each well of each condition, add in the initial reagent dilutions to total of pipetting approximately 1516 times, then today I pipette in to each well of each plate 3 times in order to first induce a signaling pathway and then to image the response, add in a few extra uses of the pipette to dilute the imaging substrates to reach a total of 2121. And BAM you get 3637 times. Luckily, I can use the repeat pipettor 2800 of those times since I am delivering the same thing to each well but since using the normal pipette you have to push the button two times, once to suck up the solution and once to expel, that means that I in the past 2 days I have pushed a pipette button a total of 4474 times. Anyway, I’m going to be repeating similar experiments for a good long time in the foreseeable future and therefore I will either get carpal tunnel or have a really buff right arm.

3 years!

2009-01-30T10:23:00.003-06:00

Happy Birthday Sammy!

Idol

2009-01-28T14:36:00.003-06:00

Hey, did you guys see my boyfriend on American Idol last night??

What is it about physics boys and beards?

"Where do you see your self in 11 years time... in your wildest dreams"
...
"I'd probably have a simple house with nice floors, I want marble"

The Inauguration

2009-01-20T19:18:00.002-06:00

I, like many others, watched the swearing in of our 44th president today. It was a pretty amazing event. A day to be remembered. I really hope this power transition is the start of something spectacular for our nation. I witnessed history today.

Watching the national coverage of todays events I was happy to see the number of families that braved the cold and the crowds and ventured out onto the mall. What will the children that attended todays events remember from it? what message did they take home? I have some strong yet fractured memories from an inauguration and the associated festivities that I attended in January of 1993, I was 10 and William Jefferson Clinton was being sworn in to the office. Somewhat sadly, my strongest memory of the celebration was the commemorative Metro passes. Printed specifically for the weeks event, the cards had Clinton and Gore’s signature on them. Although, the memory of the Metro cards seems somewhat trivial to me now, as a 10 year old I think I saw it as proof that it was a big deal, I was apart of something special and that these men were very important people. And indeed they were both important and influential figures in our nations history. President Obama and Vice President Biden arguably have the potential to be far more important and have broader reaching influences. I just hope the children watching today's event realize how important this is and that they are apart of history whether they take their proof from metro cards or from the tears of joy on adults faces or from some other detail unnoticed by adults....

Anyways, welcome to a new beginning. Happy Inauguration Day.

(So, with just minimal searching I actually able to find the aforementioned metro pass.... apparently I'm a little bit of a packrat)

Self-Assigned

2009-01-19T17:04:00.002-06:00

I’m having computer issues, very frustrating ones. My Macbook is having trouble connecting to wireless networks, but not all networks and not all the time. Most of the time when my computer is able to connect, it somehow has trouble getting an IP address and just gives a ‘Self-Assigned IP’ (example 169.254.113.197). This IP address is completely worthless and it means I can’t get on the internet. Sometimes I can’t even connect to the networks at all, it gives me an error of ‘Connection Timeout’ when I try to submit the network password. I have been tracking my connection status through my System Preferences, however, my network preferences will crash and unexpectedly quit. This problem has become very testing and frustrating. One very frustrating aspect of the issue is that I haven’t been able to recreate my problems the two times I’ve been to the Apple store to consult a “Genius”. The last time I was there (Saturday) the Genius said that he thought the problem was most likely hardware related, not a bad guess, and that he would swap out the airport card and hopefully that would fix the issue. It didn’t work. Now I don’t know what to try, I’ve talked to a number of people and Mike and I have talked a lot and I think my four options include 1.) reinstalling OS X 2.) getting my internal antenna replaced 3.) cry 4.) reject all technology and live a duller simpler life.

Any ideas? I’ve decided to tell everyone who will listen about my issues just incase someone out there can help me.

Brrrrrr....

2009-01-15T16:51:00.004-06:00

Don't let the sunshine fool you, the high today, according to my widget, was -5 degrees.

RIP Village North

2009-01-15T16:31:00.017-06:00

It’s official the economic recession has weaseled its nasty little head into my world. My favorite bargain movie theatre has closed its doors. Only a half a block away from my apartment, with $6 student tickets and free popcorn on Wednesdays (BYOB, bring your own bag), this place will surely be missed.

As a grad student, I have not been been greatly affected by the economic crisis. My paycheck, although small, is stable. Nothing has really changed in my finical life but I’ve still felt the need to scale back just like much of the country’s population. However, I’ve been thinking lately, maybe it’s best if I don’t change my spending habits. My local restaurants, bars, shops and entertainment venues need my money more than ever. So I think it may be my new goal to patron a non-chain store/restaurant in my neighborhood at least once a week. I know my money wont make a big difference but it couldn’t hurt.

Buy local, think global.

Research Makes You Stupid

2009-01-11T23:18:00.002-06:00

I’ve been thinking a lot about this article I read last week. The overall theme of the essay really resonated with me. Grad school has made me feel stupid. It feels both reassuring and bit demoralizing to find out that I am not alone in this feeling. I was first drawn to math and science because it’s not subjective. In high school and later on in college, I loved the certainty that the STEM classes gave me, whether or not my answer was right didn’t depend on the teachers opinion. However, now, as the science gets newer and newer and the research tries to be more novel, the answers become more and more subjective. And the less solid my answers become, the more nervous and self conscious I get.

Happy Birthday

2009-01-11T22:48:00.001-06:00

And a Happy birthday to baby D.

Pillow!

2009-01-10T16:49:00.005-06:00

So today despite the snow, I took Sewing 101 at The Needle Shop. Besides it taking me 30 minutes to find a parking spot I could get into, out of and not towed because of the snow and it taking me 30 minutes to find the cell phone that I apparently dropped into the snow once I got home, my day was great. Below is my finished pillow, zipper included. Now I just have to buy a sewing machine to finish up the other one.

Chicago on Film

2009-01-07T21:48:00.002-06:00

So Mike is out of town. He is on a road trip of sorts driving to California with his old roommate. So long story short, I’m home alone. What does a girl do when her boyfriend is out of town and has the apartment all to herself? Well, eat popcorn and watch the most girlie movies I can get my hands on of course.

I am currently watching My Best Friend’s Wedding. Apparently it takes place in chicago, didn’t remember that. It is really amazing to me how many movies take place here and I get overly excited to see my city on film. I really do love Chicago. In addition, I take pride in being so “Chicago” and knowing my city well enough to get piss off when the exit they take in a movie does not match where they end up.

Other Great Chicago movies:
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Adventures in Babysitting
While You Where Sleeping
The Blues Brothers
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
High Fidelity
Home Alone
Kissing a Fool (no one likes this movie but me)

Anyway, back to the movie.

I'm Not Working

2009-01-05T14:32:00.019-06:00

So it's the Monday after the holidays and my first day back at the lab. Am I doing doing any work?? Judge for yourself.....

This is a video I put together with clips from our trip to visit the family in Maryland. I am absolutely enamored with my nephews. I know that I am totally biased but they are truly the most amazing kids. Sam has more personality than most adults I know and he also has negotiation skills that could rival any UN mediator. David is beautiful, his big brown eyes could melt anyone's soul, not to mention he holds his own pretty well against Sam (second born are always tougher and less documented).

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the video. Let me know if you have trouble watching it. You should expect more video posts in the future, the new little Flip my mom got me for Christmas is pretty fun.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Happy holidays

2009-01-02T15:45:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple of weeks but the holidays kept me pretty busy. I'll try to upload pictures/videos to share.

16 things.

2008-12-10T08:20:00.004-06:00

'Here are the 16 things that I have spent more than 16 hours thinking up. 16 random things, shortcomings, facts, habits or goals.The deal is, if you read them, you should write 16 of your own. Maybe we will get to know each other better or maybe it will be cathartic?'

My sister tagged me with this on facebook but I though my blog was a better place for this list.

1. Since seventh grade, or perhaps before, I’ve been setting my alarm clock so the last digit is always a 3.
2. I will always remember the first time I met my nephew Sam as the moment that I realized that ‘Love at first sight’ could really happen.
3. I have a extremely hard time initiating communication. This translates to pretty bad phone anxiety. Calling anyone, except my sister, mom, dad, Mike, Courtney and Elizabeth, gives me at least a slight twinge of anxious butterflies in my stomach and sometimes makes me procrastinate phone calls (and even emails) a lot longer than is reasonable.
4. I’m as sure as you can be, that I will be with Mike for the rest of my life.
5. I enjoy making things; food, crafts, messes, it doesn’t really matter.
6. I have low self esteem in regards to my own intelligence. I am perpetually afraid to make mistakes because people might find out that I am not as smart as they think I am.
7. I am a big day dreamer. At any given time I have at least 3 fictitious scenarios playing out in my head.
8. If you ask me a direct question or for my opinion, I will give it to you (even if I don’t think you want to hear it). If you care enough to ask, I’ll tell you anything.
9. Spell check is truly the greatest thing to ever happen to me. If it weren’t for the red squiggly line telling me that a word is wrong, I wouldn’t be able to communicate and about 1/4 of all words in this post would be misspelled.
10. Hulu and full tv episodes on network websites have the potential to be my complete downfall.
11. Chips and dip are my kryptonite and UTZ sour cream and onion chips are my crack equivalent.
12. I’ve been told on multiple occasions that my brush stroke while brushing my teeth is ridiculously fast. But when I try to slow down, I feel like I’m not getting quite as clean.
13. I love earlobes and I always have. I find comfort in playing with them.
14. I am terrified of house fires and hate the sound of the any fire alarm. I can trace this fear directly to a video they made us watch in the 3rd grade where they showed a black screen and said ‘this is what you see in a fire’.
15. I love lattes, especially when Mike makes them, but I never drink the last sip.
16. I hate the feeling of being late, so I’m usually at least 5 minutes early for everything.

Other People's Crafts

2008-12-07T19:47:00.006-06:00

It seems a little off calling the event we went to on Saturday a craft fair, but I guess that’s what it was. Craft fairs, especially during the Christmas season, conjure up images of overly crowded gyms filled with old women looking at over flowing booths containing cutesy-wootsy, potpourri smelling decorations that people with names like Bambi or Candy put out for every different holiday season. The Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale, however, is basically the opposite of almost everything I associate with the stereotypical craft fair. First of all, the event had the highest concentration of people from the Indie crowd that I have ever seen in one place. Mike and I both felt that our jeans weren’t tapered enough, because they weren’t at all, and that our shirts didn’t make ironic enough of a statement. We basically felt totally uncool. Second, instead of household decorations, the booths were mostly filled with screen print t-shirts, hand-made jewelry, and other things similar the stuff you can buy on etsy and manned by people with multiple tattoos and piercings. To top it all off, the whole affair was in the Pulaski Park Field House, an incredible building from 1914. Anyway, I really had fun and got a few people checked off my Christmas shopping list.

Here are some of my favorite vendors:

(family, be warned; looking at some following links may give hints of your Christmas presents)

http://www.shoporangeslice.com/ - This is like the fourth indie craft related thing I’ve seen that includes orange in the name. Orange is the color of indie.

http://tugboatprintshop.com/ - Cool prints, they just ask for storybooks to be written around them.

http://theneedleshop.net/ - my first stop after I get my new sewing machine.

http://www.sosillystuff.com/about.html - cute kids clothing.

http://www.nomadicant.com - neat looking earrings, but some of posts looked a little thick and heavy.

http://ellembee.etsy.com/ - hand printed clothing, mostly organic looking prints.

http://www.freshieandzero.com/index.html - I like the simplicity of the things here.

http://pacificpuzzleworks.com/ - Awesome puzzles, beautifully crafted, but a bit out of my price range.

And of course, I have to give a shout out to the only storefront of the Renegade movement, Renegade Handmade.

My boyfriend is better than yours

2008-12-07T18:50:00.002-06:00

- On thursday, we watched a musical on Netflix, he actually liked it and I liked it because Mandy had a small part.
- On Friday, Mike took me to see Twilight without complaining too much.
- On Saturday, we went to a craft fair and it was his idea.
- Today, we took my grandparents to a see ‘The Norwegian Singers’ and then had more of my family over to our place.

AND to top it all off, I think we both had a fun weekend. Man, I’m lucky.

Split Personality

2008-12-02T11:01:00.002-06:00

From reading another blog, I found a website that, through some unknown method, analyzes your blog entries and determines your blog’s Myers-Briggs personality. According to this site my blog in an ESTP or an Extraverted, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving person. I wanted to see how accurate my blog represented me, so I went to another site and took my own Myers-Briggs. According to this site, my blog represents my personality’s polar opposite. This sites says that I am an INFJ or an Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging person. I find it interesting that our of 16 possible personality types that my blog and I did not share a single common trait. Am I not representing myself well on my blog? or is my inner voice that different from the outer? or is all of this just hooey?

Waking up from the Turkey Coma

2008-12-01T16:11:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Great food without the stress of christmas gifts. Mike and I hosted a fried turkey festival at our apartment for those who had nowhere else to go. We ended up with about 20 people at our place, with a majority foreign grad students. However, we had a better american showing than last year, I think there about 5 of us. Where as last year, Mike and I were the only ones who actually celebrated Thanksgiving.

Fried turkey is wonderful and not quite as dangerous as many youtube videos make it out to be. The turkey friers you buy in the store have more safety features than your average car. First, you have to pass an IQ test to properly put it together. Second, there is a max-fill oil line on the pot that helps remind you that you have to account for the volume of the turkey and the expansion of the oil. Finally, the gas valve to the system has an automatic shut off valve to ensure you don’t leave the turkey unattended for more than 20 minutes. That being said, I can still see how many people can burn down houses with the apparatus. Case in point: our neighbor saw us getting the frier set up and came over to make sure that we knew that you shouldn’t fry a frozen turkey. He then proceeded to tell us that he thought it silly of us to fry the turkeys on the cement patio in the back of the building and that we should just do it on the deck of our place. He also recommended that we cover our deck with tinfoil incase there is a spill, just to be safe. He then asked us if we “liked to party” and said that he had many flavors of marijuana in his apartment if we wanted any. We graciously declined his offer and his advice. Moral of the story, frying turkeys is dangerous if you do it while high on a tin foil covered deck, but not very dangerous if you are sober, responsible, engineering/physics grad student.

Happy Holidays.

The subtle sexism of conferences

2008-11-21T15:37:00.005-06:00

After waiting in a sea of the stereotypical engineer on the first day of the conference to register, I finally got a program of the talks for the week that resembled a small town’s phonebook and my name badge. As I tried decide the best place to clip the over sized badge to my shirt I came to the realization that those types of badges are really meant to be worn by men. They clip perfectly to suit jackets or the front pocket of a men’s collar shirt, they did not however clip well to any of the outfits I brought for the week (with the exception of the suit I planned to wear to my talk). As someone who is a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl I find it hard enough to put together a week of business-ish, conference appropriate attire. I only own one suit and I really don’t have the need (or money) to buy another one and I don’t want to be the stinky girl who wears the same suit all week. So not only was I stuck in heels for four whole days but I also spent the week trying to find the perfect place to display my name. BAH.

Fig 1 - yup, I look dorky. Stupid name tag.

I'm Crafty

2008-11-15T16:33:00.012-06:00

So the past month or so I've been flexing my fine motor skills by crocheting what seemed like a million potholders. This week I've finally stitched those potholders together to form a full afghan. I will admit that I'm pretty proud and impressed with the end product. Crafting, in general, brings me pleasure and a big sense of accomplishment.

The yarn dust is just starting to settle on this project and I am already trying to figure out what my next project should be. I'll admit that my reinvigorated interest in making 'things' is getting a little out of hand. Proof: I really want to buy a sewing machine, soon.

Well anyway, no crafting for me this upcoming week. I'm headed to Philadelphia tomorrow for a week long conference. I'll let you all know how the cheese steaks are when I get back.

Blogonymity

2008-11-14T10:55:00.001-06:00

So I’m having a little trouble with this whole blog thing lately. I started this blog as a way to share my ideas, my opinions and daily life with people who want to get to know me better. But what happens when my opinions and daily life involve negative views of work, of the scientific community and of social interactions? I feel that if I write honestly about my feeling that somehow it will come back to bite me in the ass. I can’t vent my frustrations about my research or academic interactions in this forum because a future employer might stumble across this blog and not like what she reads. We all feel a false sense of anonymity sitting in front of a computer. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t feel like I can be a hundred percent honest with this blog and I don’t like it.

Now where's my sticker?

2008-11-04T10:37:00.011-06:00

I voted and all I got was this lousy piece of paper. Well, this piece of paper and hopefully Sen Obama as our next president. But I honestly do miss having the "I Voted" sticker to display to the world. I even chose my outfit today to with the sticker in mind. Well, regardless, I love voting and today was no exception.

Lucky for me, Illinois is not only the land of Lincoln but also the kingdom of Obama. Chicago has been the perfect place watch this election unfold and I really hope that the 'party' in Grant park tonight will be a joyous conclusion to election season. Mike and I don't have tickets to the actual rally but I think we are going to head down town to just see. Hopefully, I'll have pictures to share with you all tomorrow.

Things I am looking forward to this week:

2008-11-02T16:11:00.000-06:00

1. Making a big pot of chili today and watching Mr Smith Goes to Washington
2. Voting. Hopefully my 0-3 voting record, 2 presidential and one primary, won’t continue and the person I vote for will actually win
3. Making progress on the afghan I’m crocheting (only a few more granny squares to go)
4. Mike’s mom coming to visit
5. Seeing Jersey Boys
6. More beautiful weather

I like Vampires

2008-10-30T10:20:00.004-05:00

I enjoy the supernatural, especially vampires. I like ass-kicking vampires, vampires with consciences, interviews with vampires, parting gang vampires. But I’m not sure I understand the hype behind teenage vampire romance stories. The Twilight series of books is a best seller, the basis of a new motion picture and some say the series will be/is the next Harry Potter. I just finished the first book in the series and I’m not that impressed. Was it an easy read? Yes. Did it kept my attention? Yes. Was the story line unique? Yes. Did it live up to the hype? Nope. Will I read the the other two books in the series? Probably.

Winter

2008-10-27T18:17:00.004-05:00

Winter has officially begun. I am pretty sure I saw my first snowflake today.

On a side note: The baking/cooking master now has her Masters Degree! A big congratulations to Ms Sophisticated Pie M.S. It was lovely seeing you this weekend. I am so lucky to have you as a friend.

It’s getting cold and I’m getting a cold...

2008-10-19T17:11:00.010-05:00

... and that means it is the perfect time for a spicy soup. I am currently coming down with the same funk that Mike is recovering from. Therefore, last night was the perfect night to cook up a big pot of soup, relax and watch college football (poor hokies and their lack of offense). Since my taste buds are kind of cattywampus as a result of the stuffy nose, I wanted something with a little more flavor than your plain old chicken noodle. There is no one to turn to but Bobby Flay if you are ever looking for something with a little spicy southwestern kick. I know some people don’t like him because they think he’s arrogant and kind of an ass. But hey, he is a native New Yorker, what do you expect? I think I would be cocky too if I could create dishes as well as he can. Regardless, I’m a big Bobby fan (I get that from my father). Anyway, the Roasted Cauliflower and Green Chili Soup from his newish Mesa Grill cookbook is wonderful. In the book, he suggests serving it with a blue corn-goat cheese nachos of sorts, but tonight Mike and I were looking for something heartier to accompany the soup in order to make it a fuller dinner. We finally decide to grill up some chicken quesadillas. The dinner really hit the spot!.

Roasted Cauliflower and Green Chili Soup

2 heads cauliflower, cut into florets
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 cups Chicken Stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 poblano chilies, roasted and pureed (we ended up using 5 small poblanos from the farmers market)

To roast chilies
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Rub a small amount of olive oil and season with salt and pepper, place in the oven on a baking sheet, and rotate until charred on all sides (this can also be done on the burner of a gas stove or on a grill). This will take somewhere between 15 to 17 minutes. Remove from the oven and place the roasted peppers in a paper bag, and let sit for 15 minutes to allow the skin to loosen. Then peel, halve, and seed before throwing the pepper flesh into a food processor. Add a small splash of water and puree.

Meanwhile, toss the cauliflower florets in approximately 3 tablespoons olive oil and place in a baking dish, salt and pepper and cover with foil. Make sure to puncture the foil to allow for some steam to get out. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cauliflower is soft. Transfer the cooked cauliflower to a big soup pot and add chicken broth. Let simmer for 15 minutes. In batches, carefully, puree the the cauliflower and return to the pot. (At this point the recipe says to strain the soup, but that seems like way too much work and mess for me to deal with). Bring pureed soup to a simmer, adding more water or broth to reach desired consistency. Whisk in the cream and the poblano puree to taste. Since poblanos are a mild pepper, they add more flavor than heat to the soup so don’t be too worried to add a lot of the puree.

Abbie and Mikes Grilled Quesadillas

1 chicken breast
1/2 tablespoon ancho chili powder
bit of olive oil
half a red onion
splash of balsamic vinegar
Goat cheese
Corn Tortillas

Sprinkle the chicken with a small amount of the chili powder and grill. In a small saucepan, over med to low heat, saute the onions in the olive oil. Once onions are really soft as a splash of balsamic vinegar and cook for an additional minute. The vinegar will add an extra layer of sweetness. We decided to make more of an open-face quesadilla because the goat cheese doesn’t make quite as good cheese glue as other gooier cheeses and the prospect of flipping the quesadilla sandwiches seemed grim. To put the open-facers together, put a small amount of olive oil on one side of a tortilla, so it doesn’t stick to the grill. Then, crumble goat cheese on to the tortilla and add some sliced grilled chicken and the red onions. Place on the grill or a few minutes. These guys turned out pretty tasty and folded in half nicely for easier eating. However, next time I would add a thin layer of cilantro mayonnaise for some added creaminess and consistency. Overall, I think we came up with a pretty good side for the soup! Enjoy!

Some people run 26 miles, others walk 8

2008-10-13T17:49:00.053-05:00

Sunday was the Chicago marathon. Inspired by the beautiful weather and the insane runners, Mike and I decided to walk. We ended up walking about 8 miles south of our apartment (map). One of the things I like about Chicago are the diverse neighborhoods that, together, make up the city. And there is no better way to get to know a neighborhood than meandering through the streets.
We began our journey by walking through the Loyola campus on our way out of Rogers Park. Since we got kind of a late start, we needed to stop for lunch pretty quickly. We had our first stop at a diner in Edgewater. Mike has a true love for somewhat sketchy dinners that give you the feeling that you've been transported back in time when you enter them. I humor this love. Standee's was tasty and my steak sandwich definitely gave energy to trek onward.
Crossing the border into Andersonville we happened upon the Senn High School, my mom's school. It is a very beautiful building/campus but from the stories that my mom has told me, it wasn't always such a serene environment, at least not for her.

Chicago has some really neat architecture. You can see influences from all over the world just by walking down the street and looking at different buildings.
Onward from Andersonville, we passed through the north side's mini Asia-town. This area is not as impressive as China town, but not much is. For some reason I really like the Uptown area and I can't wait to see what happens to the big Uptown theatre now that it has new owners. Next stop Lakeview-Wrigleyville. Along Halstead, this area is more commonly referred to as Boystown. Notice the Hancock building peaking out from behind the corner building.
In Lincoln Park, we stopped for nourishment at a cool little coffee/tea/sandwich shop called the Bourgeois Pig. I have a feeling that if I lived anywhere near this place while I was taking classes, I would have spent a million hours here.
Next stop, quick peep into Crate and Barrel and CB2. Small world, we ran into my cousin and her husband. Lauren could not, or maybe did not want to, believe that we had walked that far when we could have just driven or taken the CTA.
To round out our day, we had dinner at Goose Island and had a pint or two of good Chicago beer. I really do love Chicago and I can't wait for more long walks with Mike.

I got macaroons

2008-10-10T17:19:00.014-05:00

I got homemade birthday macaroons in the mail from the one and only Ms. Sophisticated Pie. I predict that they will be gone before my actual birthday.

The macaroons also came with a very cute card (left). It plays a royal fanfare of sorts and then applause when you open it. For the rest of the weekend, I'm going to carry the card with me and use the music to announce my entrance to every room. Good idea? doot-da-da-dooo, doot do da-da, doot-da-da-dooo.

In other news, Mike and I are celebrating my big 26 tonight by going to a new wine bar that opened up about a block from our place and then going to a new theater that's two blocks from our place to see Taj Mahal. Today is a good day.

soup's on

2008-10-08T20:22:00.011-05:00

I'm no Sophisticated Pie, but I made a tasty soup for dinner tonight and wanted to share the recipe. Yesterday, in addition to the mini pumpkins I also got a couple of beautiful squashes. I've made this recipe a few times and it's always good for a cool fall day.

Butternut Squash Soup

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 1/4 pounds)
Vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups chicken broth
water, as needed
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream for garnish

Preheat oven to 400F. Cut squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Arrange the halves cut side down in roasting pan that has been lightly oiled. Bake squash in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until very tender. Set aside to cool. When the squash is completely cool, scoop the flesh from the skin. While the squash is baking, cook the onion and the ginger in the butter in a saucepan, over moderately low heat, for 5 minutes or until the onion is softened, Add the broth and simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, covered. Add the squash pulp to the sauce pan. Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor, in batches, and puree until smooth. Add enough water to achieve the desired consistency, and salt and pepper to taste. Return the soup to the sauce pan and cook over moderate heat until it is hot. Garnish each portion with the heaping teaspoon of low-fat sour cream.

I also like to garnish the soup with toasted seeds. To roast the seeds rinse them a few times with cool water. Let seeds soak for a few minutes in salt water. Spread the seeds out onto a baking sheet and put in oven with the Squash for the last 10 min of baking.

Enjoy!!

Pumpkin

2008-10-07T21:26:00.010-05:00

I love the fall but I love pumpkins even more. Today I bought the most incredible little pumpkin at the farmers market (left). He is almost perfectly round, he can easily fit in the palm of my hand and he was only fifty cents. Walking back to lab from the market I wanted to stop everyone I saw and show them how cute my pumpkin was. I hope this picture of my new little pumpkin brightens your day as much as it brightened mine.

home, sweet home.

2008-10-05T21:32:00.027-05:00

Our new apartment from the front to the back. We still have a lot of pictures to hang and a few things to buy here and there but I think that our stuff mixed together pretty well. let me know what you think! Click the pictures for bigger images.

Living room/Sun room

Bedroom
HallBathroom
Guest bedroom/Elizabeth's RoomDinning RoomKitchenBack deck
Back garden/Parking
Hope you enjoyed the tour, now come visit.

Ultimate

2008-10-04T18:31:00.001-05:00

So it seems that it is physically impossible for my frisbee teem to win the first game we play on any given day Saturday. I really think that we, as a teem, need a few beers in our collective system in order to really be competitive. However, we are almost always golden by the second game. Todays second game we were leading by a significant margin, and so it was determined that we would switch up positions. Not playing any sport as a kid, my athletic self confidence is pretty low and therefore I really wasn’t interested in doing much more that my usual stay out of people’s way and try to make a few cuts to the disk. So, anyway, long story short, I was totally peer pressured to be one of the handlers (kind of like one of two quarterbacks for the team) for a couple points. I did alright. It was fun. I had a few good throws and my team was proud. So I guess i might not be quite the athletic dolt that I though it was. A little less of a sports wallflower. Go team!

Go Cubs Go?

2008-10-03T17:18:00.009-05:00

This is a pictorial representation of one of the reasons Mike doesn’t like the cubs. With fans like this guy, home field advantage might not really be an advantage. We can only hope that going to LA may actually help the cubbies. Good luck tomorrow boys.

Experimentally Insane

2008-10-01T19:26:00.004-05:00

A great man once said, and I paraphrase, that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.' I say this man never did experimental research. I just wish that I was insane because I keep on doing the same experiment over and over again and can’t for the life of me get repeatable results.

Hello, my name is Joe.

2008-09-30T15:56:00.004-05:00

I was approached by a man in a tan three piece suit this morning as I was walking out of Starbucks with a small (I refuse to use their lingo) skim latte. He introduced himself and asked if I was registered to vote. I immediately recognized his name, as well as his face, from the numerous Rogers Park blogs I read. I have read very few good words about my ward’s alderman. If I trusted those blogs, I would believe that he is solely responsible for all the poverty and violence in my neighborhood and that he may very well be the Antichrist. But in all honestly, I have no clue about anything related to this man. Heck, I don’t even know anything about the responsibilities of an alderman. So, there I was standing in front of a controversial elected representative of me, a man who I have a lot of questions about, and in true perennial wallflower fashion, all I say is “yes, I’m registered.”

Even though I now look at this interaction as a missed opportunity, it did get me thinking. Lately, I’ve heard several people mention that they don’t want to register to vote in Illinois but would rather file an absentee ballots from their ‘home’ state (the state their parents live in) because they believe their vote would “matter more.” I don’t know if I agree wholeheartedly with this logic. I understand that the whole blue state, red state thing makes the presidential vote more complicated but I still think my vote for local politics matters just as much as my presidential one. Don’t get me wrong, I know this is the most important presidential election in a long time but I just hope it doesn’t completely overshadow the other elections that are also taking place on November 4th. That being said, I think I need to get googling and educate myself on what else will be on the ballot.

blogs, blogs, blogs

2008-09-29T18:34:00.003-05:00

I read blogs. I read blogs of old friends, new friends, friends of friends and sometimes of people I’ve never met. I read gossip blogs, science blogs, food blogs, local blogs, crime blogs and sometimes the occasional reality television blog. Blogs are fascinatingly voyeuristic. They give me the ability to remain invisible while being able to peer into other’s daily life, read their opinions and discover their sense of humor. Blogs allow me to get to know people without having to worry about what they think of me or how should I act or respond or what I should say. So, I guess by starting a blog of my own I’m trying to stop being the constant observer, to open up a little to those who care to get to know me better and to stop being such a cyberspace wallflower.