good shit, not so good shit.

So I'd found some significant differences between my manipulated experimental group and control group--but only up to about 2mo. of age. For some reason the differences just drop off after 4mo. Just last night I analyzed some caregiver-offspring observations from 1-3mo. of age. And lo and behold, I find more differences that make sense--and correlate with physiological parameters in predictably good ways.

So this may mean that there's some neural retuning around 3mo. This could prove to be quite interesting. It might be that the 4mo. assessment data is just shite, though. That is a common thing in the research world, especially when your statistical analyses have all the power of a flea attempting to bench press a french fry. Possible, but not likely.

Other good shit includes the finale, the spectacle, the very last real person sketch that we are to videotape for the first year project presenters (i.e. people who are a year behind us in the program). It's in the style of that extremely wacky Japanese show where contestants have to, say, get into marshmellow costumes and then run across rotating sabers while dodging coconuts on strings. That one. We're doing a version where we dash for the vending machines during undergrad rush hour. It's far more menacing than it sounds. My planned 'costume' includes:

*My sky blue boxers--on my head
*Red marker on forehead. Front - "#1!"; Back - "I heart Chairman Kaga!"
*Shades
*Askew red tie
*Basketball jersey
*Phat bling
*Long johns
*Shorts
*One purple slipper (courtesy of mom), one black boot
*Mismatched socks

I will later dub myself swearing in Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. It will be...something!

Also of interest is this weekend. I haven't done table-top roleplaying in nigh on 5 years. However, a good friend of mine in Chi town wants me to come down to help playtest a new system with her and around 7 other people. I'm apparently the beta tester for what will be a 2007 GenCon extravaganza.

Hey, if I can help streamline a process that brings joy to countless unwashed (oh so, so unwashed) masses of geeks, hot. It'll also give me a chance to hang out with Mari. This should be cool, and only take saturday.

The Inferno will have to sit on its ass for a week without me.

Brian and I also finally got all of our furniture ducks in a row. This past weekend, he built a foot high, 5 foot long stage by himself from scratch, built another small stage, took the vaudeville era theatre chairs he bought online, screwed them in, and made stadium seating. But what is stadium seating without, well, more than one row of seats? So I looked around online, he looked around, and we discovered a couch/recliner set that was priced nicely. Trouble was, when he, I, and our mutual friend Liz travelled out to the boonies o' M-Town to get the fuckers, we discovered a fact:

The couch weighs a goddamn ton. It seriously weighs around 125 pounds. It's an antique and in good condition, but it's a fat bastard. The recliner was much easier and just as good looking. Curiously, 77 dollars later, these items are now officially mine. To think: it only took around a quarter of a century for me to buy non-office furniture. Go me.

We ended up hauling the things downstairs, jamming them and various cushions into the back of Liz' truck, securing them with feets of ghetto-tastic twine and rope, hauling them, nearly busting out our front door frame and couch frame to get the couch in, then went off to Pedro's for mexican food. I was demure and ordered some friend ice cream thing for dessert. It was a'ight. They ordered actual food. They didn't care for it much. It looks like Pasqual's will be our continued authentic mexicano place.

And finally: also this thursday, Brian and I are hosting a movie night. I don't know what's playing exactly, but B-dawg seems to have something in mind. I think.

So far as he goes, he's kinda sorta gotten his hacked x-box back in working order. It'd been fucked in the ear somehow, so to speak, because of some error in copying a game cd-rom to the x-box harddrive.

In all, lots of good shite.

Short list, thankfully. No word from T yet. I'm starting to think something on my end was misperceived as being vile. Granted, some people have called me a "playa". I don't think that's a fair interpretation because I don't actively date multiple women. I flirt, yes, but it's never been serious and those few (yes, few) of you I flirt with know this. It's fun, it's light-hearted. So far as my trying to date Erin (emphasis on trying), I let people know that something might work out on that end and, if so, I'd commit fully. Seeing T come back was unexpected. I saw nothing wrong with still pursuing Erin while I waited to hear what was going on with T. People change, people date other people, and I didn't want to presume anything.

Regardless, though, I'm not sure if I'll hear back from T again.

Erin herself seems distant lately. Likely that's just the workload. I'd been hoping to finally get a sense of whether or not my pursuit was in vain. I figure I'll get a chance after early October, when she presents her stuff to the department. I feel I should ask her in person. I'm guessing she's not interested given the sum total of everything, but then I'm going to ask anyway.

If that doesn't work out, I have no forseeable local prospects for the time being. That may actually mean I'll have to do something completely unlike me, like actually meet people in clubs who aren't male and have Ph.D's. It could happen.

I need to finish a spreadsheet for my advisor, so I should book.

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