Now for something completely different

So, I totally didn't call my friend to catch up today, but I did have lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in months... so I did keep my resolution to be better at staying in touch.  Yesterday, I did decide to try to be mostly vegan, except for sushi and special occasions...and today I had sushi for lunch...luckily I had the foresight to add that stipulation yesterday!

And now for something completely different, I have had a strong urge to re-watch all the Monty Python movies.  Unfortunately Netflix and Hulu don't have the movies and I only own Life of Brain.  I used to own The Holly Grail on VHS but got rid of it years ago.  Sooo many funny lines!  I don't even know where to begin!

Here's French Taunting from Holy Grail: I fart in your general direction.  Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.


And the killer rabbit with nasty, big, pointy teeth.  Run away!  Run away!


And this one, takes you back to school days, form Life of Brian:


And haggling lesson, get your haggling lesson for $10:


Remember, kids, never be an organ donor, no good deed goes unpunished:


And the galaxy song:


And who can forget that every sperm is sacred!


And where does that sperm come from?:


And lastly, remember you don't have to go leaping straight for the clitoris like a bull at the gate:

K.I.T. (Keep In Touch)

I started reading the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin last year (note how I said started reading and not finished reading).  If you’re familiar with the book, the author suggests making monthly resolutions and checking them off everyday or however often you decide to do the resolutions, this methods is effective for those of us who are check-mark addicts, like myself… nothing like seeing that check-mark and knowing you’ve stuck to your goals.  Since August is practically over (can you believe it!) I've been thinking about my resolution for September, as well as reflecting on my resolutions for August.

One resolution I have had in the past and pops back up when I see myself slipping is being better at staying in touch.  I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to call people and catch up over the phone.  I feel like I would have to talk to the person for an hour or two and I don’t have that time to be on the phone.  I also never know when is a good time to call.  Also, sometimes I feel calls are boring and take too much mental effort, you have to actively listen to your friend for sometime and then switch.  I feel like reading a letter or e-mail is easier in some ways because you can read at your leisure and if something comes up in the middle that you have attend to or you lose focus, you can just come back to it when you want.  Maybe I should start collecting mailing addresses and sending letters.  It would be a nice surprise to get a letter from a friend instead of bills or junk mail…

Yes, I do know better

It's soooooooooooooooooo hot, I'm melting.  Ugh, I don't know how I will do Aikido in this heat.  Why not have cooler uniforms, like capoeira, simple white t-shirt with loose white pants. 

Too tired to think of a title

So I finally received feedback on my dissertation, intro chapter and all the empirical chapters.  We had a lab meeting today, after hearing about one student's R&R (in academia that stands for revise & resubmit, not rest & relaxation) issues for over an hour we finally moved on to other students.  I got my feedback in the form of chicken scratch on hard copies of my chapters.  Nothing too helpful or precise, just tighten, clarify, and make the rationale clear at the outset.  Doesn't sound too difficult, does it?  Well you'd be surprised.  It's hard to come up with a rationale when your advisor has told you take out everything that could give your dissertation some greater purpose.  So I'm thinking of a dissertation coach for the next few months but don't know how helpful it will be for the money it will cost.  Yelp should have reviews for dissertation coaches…and yes, I've checked and no, they don't.  So, what to do what to do?

These meetings are so mentally and emotionally draining, I feel like all I need is a nap afterward.  It doesn't help that I usually have breakfast at 8am and by the time the meeting ends it's past noon so I don't get to eat lunch until around 1pm.  The meetings start late and end late and it's usually just one or two people or monopolize the meetings.  Time would be better spent if we only half of us talked about our problems each week or a brief overview of the problem was presented, we discussed, and the details were hashed out between advisor and student after the meeting.  Ever since I finished my coursework I just can't focus on things for longer than 30min.

Neighbors...assholes

People who have drive-ways and don't use them on street cleaning day, forcing their neighbors with no drive-way to park a block away from their home are assholes and deserve to have their cars keyed.

At least it forced me to wake up early to move my car and I finished running all my errands by noon!  Yea for productivity!

Eulogy to Mike

*********************************************************************************
This post is about the AMC show Breaking Bad.  If you have not seen up to season 5 episode 7 this post will contain spoilers.
*********************************************************************************

Watching the opening scene of this week's episode I honestly didn't think anything could detract from Walt's complete transformation into Heisenberg, but something did.  How could you, Walt?  How could you?  How could you kill Mike?  Mike was actually one of my favorite characters in recent episodes, I thought the writers had developed his character quite well.  He had moved on from the forgettable muscle to a more integral character with dimension.  Mike was an honorable person and a real family man.  You could see the love he had for his granddaughter and the internal conflict he was struggling with between staying and being arrested or fleeing and leaving his beloved Kaylee.  Even Mike's parting words were true and honest to his character, "Shut the fuck up and let me die in piece."  Mike was like that, just honest, a real straight-shooter, with Mike you always knew where you stood, he wasn't about games or deception.  Mike was brutally honest and pure, even when he was killing or threatening someone Mike was pure of heart, everything he did he did for his family, biological and work, and he was loyal 'til the end.  We'll miss you Mike.

Thought Exercise

I was listening to the NPR show called Radio Lab today (see below for the exact show), today's episode was about morality.  I'm sure all of you have heard about those evolutionary psychology studies on kinship where they ask the participant, through a series of different vignettes, how many non-relatives would they sacrifice in order to save one of their own relatives.  Generally, people are more willing to sacrifice more non-kin to save closer kin, but the farther you are, genetically, from that that kin the fewer people you are willing to sacrifice.  The radio show referenced that last episode of MASH.  I vaguely remember watching the show as a child when I would stay home sick from school and I get parts of it mixed up with F-Troop... Anyway, in the last episode of MASH a village is being attacked by the enemy (I'm not sure if it's the Vietnam War or Korean War) and a women, her baby, and the rest of the village are hiding from the enemy.  The baby is sick, runny nose, coughing, sneezing, the whole shebang.  Here is the woman's predicament: don't smother your baby and the baby eventually coughs or sneezes, thereby alerting the enemy to your location where they find you, your baby, and the whole village and kill all of you.  Or, smother your baby and save yourself and the rest of the village.  Researchers gave participants the same theoretical moral dilemma to ponder while they were in an fMRI.  They found that two parts of the brain are at odds with each other over this quandary, the empathetic part and the logical part.  Eventually, one part wins over the other and you either make an empathetic decision or a logical one.  Personally, I think the logical one is also the empathetic one.

Reading Rainbow, Comrade

Recently I came to the realization that I do actually have the patience for books...just not non-fiction books...at least not while I'm in a PhD program.  I guess, as with any other source of entertainment I want books to entertain me rather than teach me.  Though I do like educational shows........ Ok, so I guess if it's an active form of entertainment, such as reading, at this point in my life I just want it to entertain me, but if it's a passive form of entertainment, such as watching TV or movies, I don't mind if it educates me as well.  I suppose that has to do with the fact that it's far easier to focus on an educational show or movie for an hour or two than it is to focus on a non-fiction book for days or weeks.  I'm glad I'm not alone in this feel, as I was talking to other graduate students in my department and they feel the same way.  It's just too mentally taxing to read informative articles and books for work and then go home and do the same to unwind.

I leave you with this Soviet area poster:

Translation: If you don't read books, you will soon forget your grammar.

Patterns

I Love (yes, that's right, love with a "L") patterns.  In fact, I love patterns so much, I study them.  Then why is it whenever it comes to work, if I do something work related 3 days in a row, like say waking up at the same time, I HATE it (yes, hate in all caps).  And having the same job for more than 6 months, torture.  Especially if the job isn't stimulating.  So why is it that I can go through my morning routine, and a bunch of other things, in the same way everyday, but can't manage to get out of bed at the same time everyday?

Notes from Public Transport

Taking public transportation and not having a car at the ready after campus has definitely made me have to re-think my errands.  For example, today I needed to go to the post office after campus.  I had to find one that closes after 5 on the way to or near home, fortunately that wasn't difficult.  Then I had to leave half an hour earlier than I would have had to if I drove, especially considering there is one a couple blocks from campus.  Then, Google maps had the wrong timetable and I had to wait 15 min for the next one.  Fortunately, I did make it to the post office with plenty of time to spare.  Something I have to constantly remind myself of, is that I can't just meet-up with friends who live near campus for dinner anymore, unless they pick me up and drop me off at the public transport stop.  It's going to take some getting used to, but at least it saves me a bundle in parking permit fees and frustration :)

First day back

So, today wasn’t that bad.  I was actually quite productive!  Taking public transportation to work has done two things.  First, it has made it easier for me to wake up early since I don’t feel like I’m waking up early just to sit in traffic and I’m not waking up later to avoid it.  On the contrary, I’d rather be at the park-and-ride lot earlier so I don’t have to park farther away…human nature, we’d rather wake up earlier than have to walk more.  Now, if only I could get the going-to-bed-earlier part down.  Second, using public transportation has made be less stressed since I don’t have to deal with idiots on the road and traffic, which has made me more focused when I’m on campus.  But…

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

So, classes start up again tomorrow...and my advisor is back...good-bye, freedom.  In this day and age, why hasn't it become the norm for academics to do most of their work from home?  I can do my work from anywhere, even my toilet.  I don't even need the internet most of the time, except for when I'm doing a lit search.  True, there are benefits to having some facetime with your advisor but that can easily be done by scheduling weekly or bi-weekly 30 min to 1 hour blocks of time to meet with them.  I mean somedays I only say hi to my adivsor anyway (some days not even that).  So why do I need to waste the time to commute to campus and be in that stressful and tense environment?  I'm so much more productive without a micro-managing psycho looking over my shoulder.  I'm also a lot more productive working from 9am-1pm then running errand or getting out of the house for a couple hours then working 1-2 hours before dinner and working another 1-2 hours in the evening.  Even though it doesn't add up to 8 hours, I get so much more accomplished than when I'm in the office for 8 hours.

Breaking Bad

*********************************************************************************
This post is about the AMC show Breaking Bad.  If you have not seen up to season 5 episode 6 this post may contain spoilers.
*********************************************************************************

Dear John...

As a child, I liked a lot of different activities, swimming (lap swimming, not splashing about in a pool), riding my bike, rollerskating, rollerblading, jump rope, handball, tetherball, tennis, iceskating (once my parents bought me gloves and I stopped falling), climbing trees (despite the dearth of good climbing trees in my neighborhood), baseball, basketball (when I wasn't playing with my cousin 5 years my senior and his friends).

It's Raining Cats and...Cats

I was overcome by an odd feeling today.  After waking up at my usual time, doing my usual morning routine, and jumping right into my work (not usual for me), I found that I sent off my tables and graphs to my co-author and had nothing else to do by noon.  Of course there were the random e-mails from my advisor asking for some file or answer to a simple question, but I didn't have anything substantial to do by lunch time!  I had even run all my errands for the week earlier in the week.  So, after going out to lunch with a friend and spending way too much time trying to decide on something to spend my Best Buy Reward Zone certificate on* I came home and found myself in a situation I'm not often in...what to do with my time.  Let me clarify that, what to do with my guilt-free-I-just-sent-some-things-off-and-I don't-have-anyting-pressing-to-work-on-and-I'm-not-streaming-Netflix-just-to-procrastinate time.  So what did I do with this vast expanse of time?  Why, I spent three hours on YouTube watching cat video after hilarious adorable sickeningly sweet cat video.  What is it about cat videos that seem to take up so much time?  Every click led me further down the path, at every turn there was another enticing title and cute cat to lead me deeper into the dense overgrowth of cat videos.  That forest quickly gave way to an abyss of other animal videos, Baby Panda Trying to Escape Play-pen, Dog Playing Dead to Escape Bath, Zebra Drowning Lioness, Lioness Saving Human from Lion, Baby Porcupines, Baby Bat, Lion Wants to Eat Baby, Chameleon Takes 1min to Change, Gorilla Kicks Man in the Head, Cheetah and Dog, and more baby animals than you can shake a stick at.  In all this madness I thought about turning on the TV and flipping through the channels until I found something to watch, but that seemed like too much effort.  Afterall, the remote was all the way by my TV, which is two arms length from my desk chair on wheels (though in my defense I have carpeted floors so rolling isn't as easy as it sounds), not to mention all the button pressing and channel surfing I'd have to do (600 channels and nothing's on).  I was already sitting behind my desk, in front of my computer.  Finally, I found some relief from the power of YouTube animal videos, I got thirsty!  And had to get up to go to the kitchen for a glass of water!  Salvation at long last!





Footnote: *I'm always worried I'll spend my gift cards/certificates on something frivolous only to find something practical and necessary to buy soon after.

Cleaning off the plate

Yesterday I met with a professor I worked with in Japan.  He was visiting with his family and stopped by the university to go over a manuscript we had been working on.  He wanted me to re-do part of the analysis and change the model and make some changes to the intro.  I managed to finish all of that today and just sent off the paper!  Now that manuscript is off my plate and on his!  Sending the revisions to him felt so good, I love that wonderful feeling you get when you've just taken something off your plate and it's totally out of hands at the moment.  Frankly, I don't care if he takes a long time to get back to me, I have enough to do as it is with trying to defend by December/January.

Summer Schedule

Mondays
Grimm 10-11 PM NBC

Thursdays
Burn Notice 9-10 PM USA

Sundays
Breaking Bad 7-8 PM AMC


Waiting for True Blood and Weeds to end so I can marathon watch them...not every episode is a winner so I find that marathoning them helps improve the shows overall.



P.S.  Ha!  Two posts in 1 day!!!

P.P.S.  Now I have to go and write in my one-sentence journal :(  Maybe I can refer my future self to my blog post :-\

Screw you, Ernest Hemingway!!!

The title has to do with a particular scene in Hemingway's novel, To Have and Have Not, which has made me associate stubs with...well if you've read the book then you know.  If you haven't read it, then don't; it will make you see stubs differently and it's a boring, repetitive, horrible novel, almost as horrible, repetitive, and boring as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

Wow! 10 months since my last post!

I can't believe it's been 10 months since my last post!  That's pathetic!  I WILL get better at this!