I'm not going to discuss how the blog proposal went, but instead I'm just going to say this:
I have launched a new science blog, and I encourage everyone to check it out. I am not a scientist, I dropped out of my college chemistry class, I changed my major from neuroscience to journalism approximately six weeks into my college career, but it's still something I love and am constantly awed by and therefore I want to write about it. Even if you're not a science person, try it anyway. Hopefully it will appeal to you, too.
The Dork Reporter
Showing posts with label scijo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scijo. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Photo Links
I may throw some random pictures up here later this evening, but I thought I'd share photo links for everyone who hasn't already seen them on Facebook.
These are some photos of the city and of the California Academy of the Sciences, including the damning photo of a giant puddle in the middle of the floor. I'm hoping that the Academy will pay me an exorbitant amount of money to get me to take them down. I would, and then I'd send the photos out to everyone I knew.
Here are super touristy photos, including lots of scenic views of boats, seals, trees, water, and a giant bridge that kept getting in the way of my view of the sky.
The final album are an assortment of people dressed up for Halloween.
There are cupcakes in every single album. I'm considering seeking professional help for this.
Also, can I sing the praises of film cameras? Digital cameras are good when you need to be assured of a great photo, because you have instant gratification, but film has that element of surprise which makes it fun to work with. I have a bunch of rolls from the cyclocross race on Monday night which I'll probably post this evening, so expect more links tomorrow.
For the past year and a half or so I've been kicking around the idea of starting a science/health blog. I'd post links to breaking news or interesting information, ask a bunch of questions, maybe just spur people to think about the topic for a moment. I do have a day job that dovetails into this, sort of, but I probably wouldn't have the time to post a ton of in-depth analyses. It sounds alluring. It sounds alluring because, frankly, I'd like to morph into Carl Zimmer, and I'd very much like his day job.
These are some photos of the city and of the California Academy of the Sciences, including the damning photo of a giant puddle in the middle of the floor. I'm hoping that the Academy will pay me an exorbitant amount of money to get me to take them down. I would, and then I'd send the photos out to everyone I knew.
Here are super touristy photos, including lots of scenic views of boats, seals, trees, water, and a giant bridge that kept getting in the way of my view of the sky.
The final album are an assortment of people dressed up for Halloween.
There are cupcakes in every single album. I'm considering seeking professional help for this.
Also, can I sing the praises of film cameras? Digital cameras are good when you need to be assured of a great photo, because you have instant gratification, but film has that element of surprise which makes it fun to work with. I have a bunch of rolls from the cyclocross race on Monday night which I'll probably post this evening, so expect more links tomorrow.
For the past year and a half or so I've been kicking around the idea of starting a science/health blog. I'd post links to breaking news or interesting information, ask a bunch of questions, maybe just spur people to think about the topic for a moment. I do have a day job that dovetails into this, sort of, but I probably wouldn't have the time to post a ton of in-depth analyses. It sounds alluring. It sounds alluring because, frankly, I'd like to morph into Carl Zimmer, and I'd very much like his day job.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Next, A Dog
Saturday night was the first wedding of any of us out of our scijo class at BU. Some came into the class already married, like Molly and Andrea, and lots of us were dating people, but Liz and Pat were both students in our class who fell in love over science magazine articles and I am crossing my fingers they will now go on to produce a lovely second-generation of scijo dorkiness, hopefully in the form of a cute dog with an appropriately geeky name.
(I'm not ruling out children in the long-term, but seriously--everyone who starts asking married people when they're going to have kids should STOP. Immediately. The married people will have children when they want to have children. However, they should have pets when I want them to have pets. I like cutesy animal photos.)
The wedding was fantastic. Kirk, Karen, Eric, Dan and I shared a cab from the Union Square area out there, and Kate met us there. It was at the Park Chalet Garden Restauarant, and even though it was raining and blowing like a hurricane, it was very pretty and simple inside, with the giant fireplace decorated. All the friends and family stood around the fireplace as a justice of the peace married them, and then there was lots of drinking of the handcrafted beer and partaking of wines and appetizers. Food was good, later on, and the whole thing was simple and fairly casual, with about 120 people in attendance.
It was good to have most of the scijos from our class there. It made me realize how much I miss them all and that it's already been close to two years since we graduated and left for traveling or jobs or internships. These are people who came from various backgrounds but all came together to spend most classes with each other. Doug and Ellen said more than once that we were the most united class they'd ever had, and I think that's still true. Yeah, I'm shitty at keeping up with people, and I may not talk to someone for months at a time. But this weekend it felt as though when we're all in the same place again, there's that easy familiarity that comes with having seen people at their best and worst, all thrown into a new (and yet the same) situation.
There were toasts later on in the evening, and all these friends of Liz and Pat's stood and talked about hearing about them for the first time, meeting the other and hearing that they were going to be married. In the back corner of the bar, us scijos were talking about how they would come into class at the same time (usually just in the nick of time or a minute or two late) with coffee from the same place. We all knew it was a relationship before they admitted it. Perhaps one of us should have stood up and made some sort of speech, but we didn't. That's ok. Liz and Pat knew we were there; that's why we were all invited as a group.
Also, Liz and Pat (probably more Liz, if I had to guess) opted for cupcakes instead of a big traditional cake. I think I had three of them, and they were fantastic. I have also realized that I don't think I took any photos at the wedding except of the cupcakes. I'm a bad friend like that. I did see a professional photographer wandering everywhere, though, and flashing her camera in our faces, so I am hoping for a link to an online album soon.
Overall, it was a successful and wonderful trip to San Francisco. I ate cheap Asian foot, walked until my legs were going to fall off, went tourist-trap and locals-only, saw rocking Halloween costumes, got two friends married, and ate a ton of cupcakes. I even made it to the airport on time the next morning, despite being near drunk, crippled from high heels and confused by a time change.
(I'm not ruling out children in the long-term, but seriously--everyone who starts asking married people when they're going to have kids should STOP. Immediately. The married people will have children when they want to have children. However, they should have pets when I want them to have pets. I like cutesy animal photos.)
The wedding was fantastic. Kirk, Karen, Eric, Dan and I shared a cab from the Union Square area out there, and Kate met us there. It was at the Park Chalet Garden Restauarant, and even though it was raining and blowing like a hurricane, it was very pretty and simple inside, with the giant fireplace decorated. All the friends and family stood around the fireplace as a justice of the peace married them, and then there was lots of drinking of the handcrafted beer and partaking of wines and appetizers. Food was good, later on, and the whole thing was simple and fairly casual, with about 120 people in attendance.
It was good to have most of the scijos from our class there. It made me realize how much I miss them all and that it's already been close to two years since we graduated and left for traveling or jobs or internships. These are people who came from various backgrounds but all came together to spend most classes with each other. Doug and Ellen said more than once that we were the most united class they'd ever had, and I think that's still true. Yeah, I'm shitty at keeping up with people, and I may not talk to someone for months at a time. But this weekend it felt as though when we're all in the same place again, there's that easy familiarity that comes with having seen people at their best and worst, all thrown into a new (and yet the same) situation.
There were toasts later on in the evening, and all these friends of Liz and Pat's stood and talked about hearing about them for the first time, meeting the other and hearing that they were going to be married. In the back corner of the bar, us scijos were talking about how they would come into class at the same time (usually just in the nick of time or a minute or two late) with coffee from the same place. We all knew it was a relationship before they admitted it. Perhaps one of us should have stood up and made some sort of speech, but we didn't. That's ok. Liz and Pat knew we were there; that's why we were all invited as a group.
Also, Liz and Pat (probably more Liz, if I had to guess) opted for cupcakes instead of a big traditional cake. I think I had three of them, and they were fantastic. I have also realized that I don't think I took any photos at the wedding except of the cupcakes. I'm a bad friend like that. I did see a professional photographer wandering everywhere, though, and flashing her camera in our faces, so I am hoping for a link to an online album soon.
Overall, it was a successful and wonderful trip to San Francisco. I ate cheap Asian foot, walked until my legs were going to fall off, went tourist-trap and locals-only, saw rocking Halloween costumes, got two friends married, and ate a ton of cupcakes. I even made it to the airport on time the next morning, despite being near drunk, crippled from high heels and confused by a time change.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Need More Sex In Headlines
Today was press day (hooray!) and I spent half my day proofing pages and the other half at a board meeting for the county hospital system. The board meeting was pretty successful, in that it was exciting enough to keep everyone awake and people were throwing out tons of numbers and stats. I adore stats and numbers, and I tell everyone this. All of my coworkers have probably heard me say this like 1,000 times, but it's because grad school put the FEAR of BAD STUDIES into my heart.
Anyway, a bunch of us reporters were milling around looking at final pages when Aleshia commented on the headline "Get your groove on to put food on the table." It was about a '60s music festival kind of fund raiser thing for a food bank, and it's something I wrote in the morning because we needed a long headline. Groove is totally '60s music, right? It's also kind of a euphemism for sex, as Aleshia pointed out. Whoops. I completely did not see that.
Nor did I see it when John pointed out a headline on one of his stories, which said something like "CEOs expect more blows during holiday season." I bet they think it's an awesome Christmas gift.
I was going to ride Topper today, but I'd completely forgotten it rained a lot this week. All of the arenas (except the big covered one) and the lunge pen were flooded into quicksand, and there were 8 horses and show jumps in the covered arena. I was not going to fight with two lessons, that many horses and the arena all blocked up with jumps. Not worth my time. That's part of the reason we moved to this barn; the last one only had one medium-sized arena, and when there were more than 3 horses it was just too damn crowded to function, and Topper would flip his shit and start getting the other horses riled up. If it hadn't rained, it would have been a great night, but oh well. I grazed the horses for a bit in the cool weather instead.
When the horses were busy stuffing their horses, I tried calling my parents, but I think this is the weekend where they're down in Florida at a wake for the MH-53J. Let me explain the 53: This was one of the biggest definers of my family while I was growing up. It's a massive helicopter used for special operations, and my dad piloted one of these for most of his career. He lived and breathed the 53. It was a cool-looking helicopter, lots of guns and rockets hanging off it, and there was a very small community of pilots and their families, and a very small number of bases the helicopters were based out of, so we all knew each other really well. It was the extended family that comes with small niches in the military.
Anyway, they finally retired the 53--it was basically a Vietnam-era aircraft, and while it was effective, the Air Force is moving toward other types of aircraft, like the tiltrotor V-22. All of the 53 pilots are sad, since it's the end of an era--the end of their era--and there's basically a wake for the 53 and its programs and its pilots down in Florida. My mom and dad are going and will probably get tipsy-giggly and trade stories with others, stories about flying incredibly low between the hills in Scotland in thunderstorms and taking Navy SEALS into snow-blinded areas to drop them for missions.
It kind of makes me sad, too. This is something, a career of my father's, an identifier for so long, and now it's gone. It's this reminder that my life is no longer defined by what my parents do but what I do--something that still takes some getting used to. When you're in school, everyone asks, "What do your parents do?" Now, people ask, "What's your job?" It always seems strange to me to say, "I'm a reporter" or "I'm a journalist." (It will be stranger yet when I say "I'm unemployed" because newspapers disappear into a black hole, but hopefully I don't have to get to that point for a while yet.)
Anyway . . . while my parents are mourning, I am not! Not yet! The Red Sox somehow dug themselves out of a hole and won the game tonight and are now 2-3 with the Rays. Whew! I was preparing myself for commiserating comments to others when I wear my Sox hat this weekend (because I hate brushing my hair or showering on Saturdays unless I have to), and now it looks like I have a bit more time. And since we're focusing on headlines today, ESPN's headline of the game story on the main Web page is "Don't Stop Believing." Am I the only one who will now always associate that song with the last 4 minutes of the Sopranos?
Anyway, a bunch of us reporters were milling around looking at final pages when Aleshia commented on the headline "Get your groove on to put food on the table." It was about a '60s music festival kind of fund raiser thing for a food bank, and it's something I wrote in the morning because we needed a long headline. Groove is totally '60s music, right? It's also kind of a euphemism for sex, as Aleshia pointed out. Whoops. I completely did not see that.
Nor did I see it when John pointed out a headline on one of his stories, which said something like "CEOs expect more blows during holiday season." I bet they think it's an awesome Christmas gift.
I was going to ride Topper today, but I'd completely forgotten it rained a lot this week. All of the arenas (except the big covered one) and the lunge pen were flooded into quicksand, and there were 8 horses and show jumps in the covered arena. I was not going to fight with two lessons, that many horses and the arena all blocked up with jumps. Not worth my time. That's part of the reason we moved to this barn; the last one only had one medium-sized arena, and when there were more than 3 horses it was just too damn crowded to function, and Topper would flip his shit and start getting the other horses riled up. If it hadn't rained, it would have been a great night, but oh well. I grazed the horses for a bit in the cool weather instead.
When the horses were busy stuffing their horses, I tried calling my parents, but I think this is the weekend where they're down in Florida at a wake for the MH-53J. Let me explain the 53: This was one of the biggest definers of my family while I was growing up. It's a massive helicopter used for special operations, and my dad piloted one of these for most of his career. He lived and breathed the 53. It was a cool-looking helicopter, lots of guns and rockets hanging off it, and there was a very small community of pilots and their families, and a very small number of bases the helicopters were based out of, so we all knew each other really well. It was the extended family that comes with small niches in the military.
Anyway, they finally retired the 53--it was basically a Vietnam-era aircraft, and while it was effective, the Air Force is moving toward other types of aircraft, like the tiltrotor V-22. All of the 53 pilots are sad, since it's the end of an era--the end of their era--and there's basically a wake for the 53 and its programs and its pilots down in Florida. My mom and dad are going and will probably get tipsy-giggly and trade stories with others, stories about flying incredibly low between the hills in Scotland in thunderstorms and taking Navy SEALS into snow-blinded areas to drop them for missions.
It kind of makes me sad, too. This is something, a career of my father's, an identifier for so long, and now it's gone. It's this reminder that my life is no longer defined by what my parents do but what I do--something that still takes some getting used to. When you're in school, everyone asks, "What do your parents do?" Now, people ask, "What's your job?" It always seems strange to me to say, "I'm a reporter" or "I'm a journalist." (It will be stranger yet when I say "I'm unemployed" because newspapers disappear into a black hole, but hopefully I don't have to get to that point for a while yet.)
Anyway . . . while my parents are mourning, I am not! Not yet! The Red Sox somehow dug themselves out of a hole and won the game tonight and are now 2-3 with the Rays. Whew! I was preparing myself for commiserating comments to others when I wear my Sox hat this weekend (because I hate brushing my hair or showering on Saturdays unless I have to), and now it looks like I have a bit more time. And since we're focusing on headlines today, ESPN's headline of the game story on the main Web page is "Don't Stop Believing." Am I the only one who will now always associate that song with the last 4 minutes of the Sopranos?
Monday, March 31, 2008
Delicious
Dan and I took a trip down to Austin for an overnight stay downtown, food, bikes and seeing Molly and Scott. Now that I'm back at work on Monday, I keep thinking back to Saturday. It's that time of year where you wish weekends lasted five days and you only had to work two.
I had been smitten with the idea of going to New York City for a kind of spring break; I'd never been to the city, and Dan has an uncle who could have housed us. After a few weeks of imagining strolls through Central Park with spring leaves and buds overhead, I nixxed the idea due to financial concerns. (Sure, air tickets were cheap, but my credit card is still the bane of my existence and then I found out I owe major money for taxes. Gross.)
Instead, I figured taking a trip down to Austin and making it a swank affair would be better for the wallet. The last time I was in Austin was almost three years ago, when Dan was serving an internship at the Lance Armstrong Foundation and I went down almost every weekend. For this trip, I convinced Dan that we should get a nice hotel room in the Embassey Suites downtown, right off Barton Springs, which is a street that has tons of great restaurants and cool shops. We booked a hotel room (no need for a suite, we figured; it's just the two of us for one night, and we'll save $50), Dan registered for the circuit race and I made sure Molly was available for lunch.
The drive to Austin was quick and uneventful, and the hotel check-in was the same; the person working didn't even charge us for parking. We lugged our backpacks and the bike upstairs to our floor, and then found that our hotel room was miniscule. Tiny. A glorified broom closet. It was all very nice, but it was small. The bathroom took up about half the room. I was incredibly ticked off about it, and while it wasn't going to make or break the trip, it did annoy me. I guess when you try to splurge, you have to go all the way and just book the whole decadent suite, even though you'll probably only use one room.
There was a free happy hour Friday night, and I decided to at least get our money's worth in alcohol. We arrived in time to catch the last 15 minutes of it, and I downed two drinks quickly enough to become rather giggly. Dinner was Romeo's, a great Italian food place that's very tasty (although their rolls are kinda weird) and still relatively affordable (about $15 a dish), and then dessert was ice cream from McDonald's. After driving out to the bike course to take a look around, we headed back to the hotel. We were to bed pretty early in preparation for the next day.
The bike race was a circuit race, meaning classes of riders started off and had to do laps around the course over a certain amount of time. There were tons of colorful bikes and jerseys, kids and families coming to cheer on brothers and fathers and mothers, and thankfully it didn't rain. Dan didn't get wiped out by the massive crash in his class, and was happy with his finish.
There's a hill in Austin called Jester, and it's this half mile (I think) road that has a ridiculous incline. It's out in the hill country to the West of town, and Dan had always wanted to try it, so we drove there after the race and Dan got up it. Twice! In a row! I was very proud. It looked ridiculously hard. He was creeping up, and he's a really good climber. I would have crapped out after about 10 feet and three pedal pushes.
Molly and Scott let us come to their house so Dan could shower and stow his bike during lunch. I got to meet Tillie, who has some of the biggest eyes ever and these long eyelashes. She seems to consider everything. I haven't seen a baby like that before. She was also pretty cheerful, and although she got a bit fussy, she never started squalling or anything. (Chalk part of this up to good parenting and knowing how not to aggravate a tried child. I love that Molly knew when to walk away and let Tillie settle herself down quickly.)
The four adults and Tillie in her stroller took a walk down to a nearby Mexican food restaurant. The weather was pleasant, and Tillie quickly fell asleep in the stroller, and it was nice to see all the houses and gardens. Spring treats Texas well. The food was delectable--I can't stop thinking about the cerviche, this concoction of diced tomatoes and onions and cilantro, salt, lime juice and fresh tilapia. I can't believe I've been missing out on this all my life. Also, I can't stop thinking of it. I've decided I'm going to have to try making my own later this week.
It was so good to see Molly again. She makes me feel good about myself. She's level headed (babies are supposed to play in the grass and explore twigs and dirt) and friendly and smart and also is a real connection to grad school in Boston. I suffer from this thing where I feel like entire sections of my life are just an elaborate dream, and they never really happened. I blame it on the fact we moved around so often. Whenever we moved, it was like that whole previous period wasn't real. Seeing Molly and Scott made me feel more grounded, an affirmation that Boston did happen, I did buy a lot of pizza and see a lot of movies and ride the T to school. Seeing people from previous times is so much better than just an e-mail or phone call.
Dan and I told Molly and Scott that Austin is the only other place in Texas we'd be willing to move. The people, hills, trees, restaurants, architecture, and everything else makes me contemplate very seriously how to get down there. I want to go back for seconds, and I'm glad that we'll be visiting again in early June.
I had been smitten with the idea of going to New York City for a kind of spring break; I'd never been to the city, and Dan has an uncle who could have housed us. After a few weeks of imagining strolls through Central Park with spring leaves and buds overhead, I nixxed the idea due to financial concerns. (Sure, air tickets were cheap, but my credit card is still the bane of my existence and then I found out I owe major money for taxes. Gross.)
Instead, I figured taking a trip down to Austin and making it a swank affair would be better for the wallet. The last time I was in Austin was almost three years ago, when Dan was serving an internship at the Lance Armstrong Foundation and I went down almost every weekend. For this trip, I convinced Dan that we should get a nice hotel room in the Embassey Suites downtown, right off Barton Springs, which is a street that has tons of great restaurants and cool shops. We booked a hotel room (no need for a suite, we figured; it's just the two of us for one night, and we'll save $50), Dan registered for the circuit race and I made sure Molly was available for lunch.
The drive to Austin was quick and uneventful, and the hotel check-in was the same; the person working didn't even charge us for parking. We lugged our backpacks and the bike upstairs to our floor, and then found that our hotel room was miniscule. Tiny. A glorified broom closet. It was all very nice, but it was small. The bathroom took up about half the room. I was incredibly ticked off about it, and while it wasn't going to make or break the trip, it did annoy me. I guess when you try to splurge, you have to go all the way and just book the whole decadent suite, even though you'll probably only use one room.
There was a free happy hour Friday night, and I decided to at least get our money's worth in alcohol. We arrived in time to catch the last 15 minutes of it, and I downed two drinks quickly enough to become rather giggly. Dinner was Romeo's, a great Italian food place that's very tasty (although their rolls are kinda weird) and still relatively affordable (about $15 a dish), and then dessert was ice cream from McDonald's. After driving out to the bike course to take a look around, we headed back to the hotel. We were to bed pretty early in preparation for the next day.
The bike race was a circuit race, meaning classes of riders started off and had to do laps around the course over a certain amount of time. There were tons of colorful bikes and jerseys, kids and families coming to cheer on brothers and fathers and mothers, and thankfully it didn't rain. Dan didn't get wiped out by the massive crash in his class, and was happy with his finish.
There's a hill in Austin called Jester, and it's this half mile (I think) road that has a ridiculous incline. It's out in the hill country to the West of town, and Dan had always wanted to try it, so we drove there after the race and Dan got up it. Twice! In a row! I was very proud. It looked ridiculously hard. He was creeping up, and he's a really good climber. I would have crapped out after about 10 feet and three pedal pushes.
Molly and Scott let us come to their house so Dan could shower and stow his bike during lunch. I got to meet Tillie, who has some of the biggest eyes ever and these long eyelashes. She seems to consider everything. I haven't seen a baby like that before. She was also pretty cheerful, and although she got a bit fussy, she never started squalling or anything. (Chalk part of this up to good parenting and knowing how not to aggravate a tried child. I love that Molly knew when to walk away and let Tillie settle herself down quickly.)
The four adults and Tillie in her stroller took a walk down to a nearby Mexican food restaurant. The weather was pleasant, and Tillie quickly fell asleep in the stroller, and it was nice to see all the houses and gardens. Spring treats Texas well. The food was delectable--I can't stop thinking about the cerviche, this concoction of diced tomatoes and onions and cilantro, salt, lime juice and fresh tilapia. I can't believe I've been missing out on this all my life. Also, I can't stop thinking of it. I've decided I'm going to have to try making my own later this week.
It was so good to see Molly again. She makes me feel good about myself. She's level headed (babies are supposed to play in the grass and explore twigs and dirt) and friendly and smart and also is a real connection to grad school in Boston. I suffer from this thing where I feel like entire sections of my life are just an elaborate dream, and they never really happened. I blame it on the fact we moved around so often. Whenever we moved, it was like that whole previous period wasn't real. Seeing Molly and Scott made me feel more grounded, an affirmation that Boston did happen, I did buy a lot of pizza and see a lot of movies and ride the T to school. Seeing people from previous times is so much better than just an e-mail or phone call.
Dan and I told Molly and Scott that Austin is the only other place in Texas we'd be willing to move. The people, hills, trees, restaurants, architecture, and everything else makes me contemplate very seriously how to get down there. I want to go back for seconds, and I'm glad that we'll be visiting again in early June.
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