So, Brooke and I went to Best Buy tonight and bought the new Audio Adrenaline album, “Adios” (their last one, apparently). While we were there, we found some $6.99 movies.
We bought “Wayne’s World” and “Adventures in Babysitting.”
Oh yes. We’re watching 1987’s greatest movie starring Elizabeth Shue, Vincent D’Onofrio, Bradley Whitford, and Penelope Ann Miller.
Could life be any better?
Haven’t posted recently, mostly because there hasn’t been much going on besides the same ol’, same ol’… I’ve just been keeping up with Biostatistics for the past 5 weeks, and getting some experiments done before the school year starts up on August 21st.
I guess I’m generally ready for classes to start, but only to an extent. While I’m perfectly fine getting to work around 9:30 and leaving by 4:00, I’m also ready to get into learning a bit more about my chosen field, as well as moving on with my research beyond where it currently lies. I’ve actually been getting some pretty good data, recently, so hopefully that continues (otherwise…well…graduation may be “delayed”…).
Anyway, this week marks the end of Biostats (woo hoo!). Brooke’s also got a few interviews for jobs, so hopefully that goes well. Otherwise, I’ve got from August 9th to the 20th to be lazy and worthless…maybe I’ll drop into Columbia and see what’s going on there (you know…frisbee golf and the like)…
But, I had my first gambling experience last weekend. My parents came down for their anniversary (26!) and so I met them at Ameristar for dinner. We ate, then Dad gave me $20 so I wouldn’t feel guilty wasting away my own money. Mom and I went to the penny slot machines where we bet 5 cents a time. We changed machines every so often since Mom has a policy of not losing more than $2 to a single machine. Mom kept losing, but I won $13 and some change on one machine, then lost about $5 of that to end up with $10 more than I started with. So, woohoo to me! Plus, it was quite entertaining to see my parents away from the way I normally see them and to spend some time with them by myself..it made me feel very grown-up!
Big posting day already on the blog, but when I found this, it simply couldn’t wait….
On March 30th, 2007…a new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle” movie is being released…computer animation…
w00t!!!
I must say…I’m being paid to sit here in Biostatistics class…
…but I don’t think I’m being paid enough…
So, last Wednesday night, our power went out due to a storm that hit St. Louis. According to weatherpeople (who know more about such things than I do), the most destructive storms to directly hit St. Louis have come from the northeast. Usually, when a storm or rain is heading toward St. Louis from the west, the heat from all the concrete (among other things…) dissipates the storm before it really hits with much force. When a storm comes from the northeast however, it’s open season on the city…and that’s exactly how this one worked. Before it hit, there were warnings in effect for, like, two counties in Illinois. All the sudden, it’s storming and we’re getting 80 mph winds. wtf…
Anyway, the storm knocked out power, presumably due to fallen trees more than lightening strikes… Luckily for us, the power was back on ~18 hrs later, on Thursday around 1:00 pm. According to STLtoday.com (run by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch), there are still almost 300,000 people who are without power. AmerenUE is expecting that full restoration will happen sometime on Wednesday, nearly a full week later.
So yeah, I was out of town for the weekend visiting the Lewis family in Chattanooga, TN, so I didn’t see much around here. Brooke hung out here, so she gave me updates whenever possible…thankfully, she wasn’t stuck without A/C for long… If you know anyone living in the St. Louis area, check in with them and see how they’re doing. Otherwise, be happy that you had air conditioning for the past week, ’cause there were a good half million people around St. Louis that didn’t…
Sure makes me appreciate the situation in New Orleans last year…can’t even imagine…
So, whenever our department at school has a seminar speaker in town, we (the grad students) get to have lunch with them and chit-chat about what we do, what they do, research in general, etc. This guy, Dr. Christopher Ellis, is from the University of Western Ontario and is in the Department of Medical Biophysics. Anyway, coming from Canada, he’s exposed to a relatively different research and academic environment than we are, so he had a few fresh perspectives on scientific research in general.
The thing that struck me most, though, was a story he told us about a class awhile back where he asked graduate students: “Why do we publish papers?” He said the responses were very interesting, ranging from “To get grants” to “To get a good postdoctoral fellowship (i.e. job).” He couldn’t remember if anyone said “To further our understanding of science.”
His point, as he then told us, was this: researchers create knowledge, and that’s something to be admired and respected.? While promotions and funding are important, we should never forget that we’re finding new things out that no one has done before.
Regardless, I had just never heard to anyone refer to research as “creating knowledge.” Certainly an interesting concept, realizing that for all the knowledge and information that there is on Wikipedia and in the Encyclopedia Brittanica, there’s still more to be found.
Sounded pretty cool to me, I guess… 😛
“Oops…my squirrel is burning…”
— Les Stroud
So, there was a show on Discovery Science Channel in 2004 that’s now being re-run on the regular Discovery Channel called “Survivorman.” We first discovered it as a stripped down, half-hour version of the full-lenth, hour long TV show about Les Stroud (Wikipedia? & Official), a guy who is dropped off in the wilderness with his camera equipment and a pocket knife and then left alone for a week. Recently, the Discovery Channel started showing the full-length versions on Friday nights, so we’re getting to watch a few that we missed, as well as watch the rest of the episodes that we have seen.
It’s just crazy what this guy does… For example, “this week’s” episode, Les is left in Canyonlands, Utah with a mountain bike and his pocket knife. He cannibalizes the bike for parts (uses tubes to drink wanter and stoke fires, uses the inner tube to act as a canteen when he rarely found water, used the frame as part of his shelter, etc.), used ancient techniques to set up traps to catch animals, and built shelters to help withstand the 15 F nights (i.e. cold, if you don’t have a sleeping bag…which he didn’t…).
So yeah, if you can, you should record this show and watch it. Or if you’re at home on a Friday, check out the Discovery Channel. w00t!
P.S. Nathan, next summer, we’re going to get dropped off in Alaska. We’ll have to eat Grizzly Bears to survive. It’ll be stupendous.
If I ever got lost in the woods, I hope I have a deck of cards on me. I’d play solitaire. Eventually someone will show up and say “Black nine on red ten.”
So I’m at the lab, killing time until my 96-well plate is ready to be read… Figured now was as good a time as any to update the world on happenings…
Brooke and I went up to Hannibal for last weekend to visit with family and friends… Saturday was really good in that we got to shoot off fireworks, had an excellent dinner via Brooke’s Mom, and I got a lovely sunburn whilst laying on a raft in their pool. Overall, a successful weekend! My parents came into St. Louis on Monday night for some BBQ and we made some really good ribs. Brooke put them in the crock pot for a good 6 hours along with brown sugar, paprika, and just about everything else on the spice rack. They were some of the best ribs I’ve ever had, honestly…very tender and tasty… It was also good to be my parents for once! We didn’t really do anything for the actual 4th of July holiday, however. The weather wasn’t terribly cooperative in St. Louis…but we didn’t really feel like going anywhere, either. It ended up being a relaxing day, which is all I could really ask for.
Otherwise, my Biostatistics class started on Monday (yes, July 3rd…seriously…who starts a summer class the day before the 4th?!). While I’m telling myself that extended knowledge of statistics is useful for my chosen career path, I just have to wonder if reminders of Confidence Intervals, hypothesis testing, and SPSS are really worth 3.5 hours of class twice a week… Needless to say, I’ll be ranting about this waste of time for the duration of the class (another 5 weeks remain…).
I guess it’s time for the weekend again… I think Brooke is heading up to Louisiana, MO (Ma’s garage sale…) on Friday, so I’ll need entertainment Friday night (’cause Sci-Fi Friday doesn’t start up until next weekend). Keep me posted.
