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Life Update (part 1 of 2)

2006-03-01 - 1:02 a.m.

Somewhere in the land of my foremothers, a bell chimes out some distant tune across the moor. The sky is faded, grey, and earth is as an afterthought. The dew drops on the heather, stroking clothes and skin alike, fold some concrete thought around an existence otherwise carried away by the wind.

And on one such a day I will sit. I will be ancient, perched on a palatial rock 5km from nowhere, looking out to sea. And I will remember back to all the times I looked forward, to that one time. And I'll smile, and realize that everything was good.

It's just a question of what gets inked between the lines.

* * *

Work

I have nothing in the least to complain about. Dr. C hasn't yet had a chance to review, critique, and send back suggestions for my manuscript's intro section. He's had a lot on his plate recently, including two talks he's given later this week at some place. I keep telling him that it really doesn't hold me up, that I've got plenty else to do. He's dedicated to following through quickly, though.

It seems like he's been treating me especially well lately. Maybe it's because I finally loosened up around him (and in general). Something as simple as joking around in an e-mail can do such a thing. The seminar course I'm taking with him has been a breeze, really. True, I know most of the material he lectures on, but even the insanely hard 20 page articles with lots of biochem aren't bad. Boring as shit, but not bad.

Besides that, I've been working on an NRSA proposal to get money from the Nat'l Institutes of Health. The final paper for Dr. C's seminar IS such a proposal, so I'm really killing two birds with one stone. I spent about 8 hours on saturday doing online research for the background section. 6 single-spaced pages of justification, for why inflammation proteins and immune development and brain dysregulation are really bad ass cool. The developmental part is what I need to work on. Thankfully, though, I can mostly lift certain sections or paragraphs from my advisor's flu and development grant.

The last few days, though, have been dedicated to learning Hierarchical Linear Modelling. It allows you to, for example, look at student performance on the individual level, average performance on the school level, and to figure out what factors are affecting one level or the other. I'm almost through the book I'm reading by Kreft and De Leeuw. It's kindof pleasure reading, actually.

Yeah, I'm kindof a fucking nerd, actually.

I also finally stopped dragging my ass on recruiting more undergrads. I sent out a mass mail to my abnormal psych class, asking for volunteers to do data entry. So far, out of near around 400 people, I've gotten...drum roll please... thank you...

1 reply.

By comparison, last year I had about 18 over-eager applicants in Dr. C's Primates course.

I'd been shooting for 3 students to help with entering in this 1997 survey data I want to analyze and publish. As is, I'm wondering if I'll even get that many people replying. If worse comes to worse, I'll put up flyers laced with crack or something.

And finally, I heard back from the APA fellowship people. No go on that one, but it doesn't bother me. I've still got the Ford one, the emotions training grant I applied for, and this NRSA thing. One of those is bound to work. I sure as hell ain't gonna be a TA for the rest of my time here. I have better shit to do than field make-up exams and answer questions already answered on the syllabus.

In all, things are productive.

* * *

Life Necessities

Ok...

*Taxes: I can use the 1040 EZ and still take off my fellowship. No 1040 A. The gods of convenience kick the gods of mindless bureaucracy square in the nuts. 1-0, score.

*The Captain and Selene's wedding: After wondering how in the hell I was going to pay to fly out to California, rent a tux, attend a rehearsal, and be a groomsman, I learned the wonders of family. The minute I told my gran about it, she said she'd pay for it. I love my grandma. Not only because she can tell jokes that'd make a sailor blush, but for so many reasons. So yeah, I gotta email those two and kinda sorta confirm that I can attend the wedding of my two oldest friends. This sure beats asking if Dean and his rig are doing any cross continental runs and, hey, could I come along.

*Finding a house to rent with Brian: For those who might not recall, Brian is one of my closest friends here. We've always gotten along really well. I'm more 'classic' and straight-laced, he's more 'geek-sheik' and fucking goofball but in an R-rated after-school special way. Generation X odd couple.

Anyway, both of us are sick of living near obnoxious frat people, so we're getting a 2 bedroom apartment. We've looked at 4 places so far. The best we've found is a place on Jenifer St., which is near Bohemian Central of this city. Brian is iffy on it, wants to see more places. I'm inclined to agree, since the 2nd bedroom is a kid's room. And we're not children. Mostly.

* * *

(turn to other side) --->

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