Via ferventsquirrel, whose internet carpet I will now vacuum free of charge in perpetuity, I bring you:

NCBI ROFL

NCBI is the major database for biology/medicine papers, just by way of a bit of explanation. I love science. Though I clearly need to change the focus of my research.

Happy Fourth, weirdos!

H/T to cousin-in-law Carly, who posts all the best Muppety goodness!

The first-ever SYTYCD classical (aka ballet) pas de deux was performed tonight, much to my excitement. Melissa is one of my favorites, and the first ballerina to make it past week 1, so seeing her get to bust out the pointe shoes was very cool. Romeo and Juliet isn't my favorite ever, and Andrea and I got to talking and I realized what I *wish* they'd done. And you know, I always bring up my go-to example-- when I took beginning ballet on campus we spent one day watching clips and learning about virtuosity, and I spoke up and mentioned that aggressive female virtuosity *does* in fact exist. So here 'tis: the black swan pas de deux from Swan Lake. Technically, the pas de deux is only part 1, but the variations that follow (particularly the one starting about 3:00 into part 2) are not to be missed. It's a little detail, but I am completely in love with the way Gillian Murphy curtseys after the pas de deux-- she bows deeply, all the way down on one knee, but doesn't dip her head. Perfectly in character. I love the mischief and malice involved, and what a dupe the prince is! So enjoy :)

Just because it popped into my head today, and really, when is it NOT a good time for Chuck Jones? It's not that I forget, but every time I watch his work I re-remember just what a genius he was. This is one of the all-time great cartoons, in my opinion. So enjoy!



[embedding for this video has been sketchy, so if all else fails go here.]

That is a "barbecue sword" he's wielding. The mask came with it. And you can clearly see the dogs are in awe of the sheer dudeliness.

John Hodgman is one of those people that I could just sit and listen to for ever and ever.

Sal's been annoyed lately. He says he doesn't know if he's just more aware or what, but the constant messages about what is and is not manly, and what men do and do not do, are starting to get to him. So now I know sort of what I sound like from the outside.

I do understand. I often think that gender roles as they stand might be harder on men-- I mean, at least women have a movement and a name. Plus, it seems to me that men's assigned roles are more rigid. I mean, as a woman at least I'm allowed to have emotions occasionally (though it is likely to be blamed on hormones, etc). The reaction to men poking at the boundaries of their strictly delineated role seems more violent to me as well. I mean, I'm not setting this up as the oppression olympics, since obviously the roles men and women are stuck in are each oppressive in their own fun and exciting ways.

He's tired of the whole thing-- of being assumed to be emotionally incompetent, of being expected to neglect children and relationships, of being disappeared from every discussion of the institution of marriage.

So when he saw Andrea's link to this article piece on CNN he snapped. And when Sal snaps, he's very, very funny. A warning: that link leads to an extremely annoying place. Protect your head if you read it (repeated contact with the hard surface of your desk is bad for it). Regardless, Sal fixed up the article in his own inimitable way. (He wants me to note that the jokes are funnier if you read the original, but I had only seen parts of the original and still was highly amused).

( parody AWAY! )

I gave a talk at department seminar today. I was more nervous than I expected, which in turn made me annoyed at myself, which made me more anxious. But the talk went pretty well-- I didn't feel super great about it, but then, I didn't feel super great about it when I won the very prestigious (hah) award at our tri-lab retreat in April. Feeling competent is typically sufficient for me, so that's good. Sal thinks I need to "sell" the work better-- I'm sort of an advocate of letting data speak for itself unless you're begging for funding, in which case you kind of have no choice but to become Dr. Billy Mays. Anyway, that may be something I have to work on. It's not like I don't think the work is interesting or useful, I just don't want to overdo it, you know? Anyway...

What made today kind of special for me was the audience. Technically, last friday was supposed to be the last department seminar of the year, but my Advisor and one other prof had forgotten to sign up 10 months ago, so the department went ahead and had another one. But it wasn't highly advertised (usually we get 4-5 emails about these things, but not this time) so there weren't many people there. Hell, there were only two from my lab there, counting Advisor! But it was the people who came that mattered-- a handful of classmates and friends (who all sacrificed a full hour of their friday to come support me!), a postdoc I'd chatted with about my project while using equipment in her lab, the PI of the other speaker (who asked a great question for which I had specifically prepared a great answer for!) and, best of all, my parents were able to come.

Now, I know it's no Charger game, but this is what I do, and the work I present is good (IMHO) so to have them there watching was incredibly cool. I think a little of my extra nerves were due to wanting to show off for them, but the payoff was well worth it. Made me realize exactly how exciting my (eventual) thesis defense will be! That, coupled with the two or three defenses I've been to recently are actually pretty motivating!

I learned a lot about nematodes today. Also I got a new icon.

This little guy's name is C. elegans and he's my new bestest buddy in the whole world. When I don't accidentally smash him or slice him in half. Adults are about 1mm long to give you a sense of scale.

Today I set up a cross to make a background strain for the cross I actually want to do. Having never worked with any animals, it feels a little odd to be encouraging little critters to mate. But I persevere. It was fun to learn a totally new protocol, and I feel like I learned a LOT on the first go-- the mechanics of picking worms from one plate to another, as well as basic stuff like identifying genders, growth stages and mutant phenotypes. Dunno if this project will go anywhere, but at the very least it's good for me!

Though it also meant that I *just* got back to lab to eat lunch, so I'm a little dizzy. Water and sodium time for me.

Also, I got a new icon ;)

My lovely and romantic husband made me a new lj icon! And it's awesome! He took the images from one of our favorite bits of phd comics history, then changed the base color to suit my needs (i.e. everything must be green) and the hair colors to look more like me (yes, though only a few of you have actually seen it, my hair was at one point brown). WAY better than stinky flowers, and a close second to anything involving chocolate.

Now, off to Dittmers to grab reubens, then to Spamalot! It's a rough life, lemme tell you.

Last weekend, I referred to NIF as a Magic Kingdom in which Dad is Goofy. However, Stephen Colbert has won the analogy olympics:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
We Have a Death Star!
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Keyboard Cat

H/T to... well, Dad, actually

I'm finding out that many California school districts are cutting back or even eliminating summer school. Santa Clara and LA are two such districts.

Now, education is very expensive, I understand that. But summer school seems pretty important to me-- I mean, it's the best chance some kids have to catch up to their grade level and keep from being left behind more or less permanently.

And then there's the mail we've been getting lately. We've seen a severe uptick in charity mailings in the last 6-8 months (and strangely the offers to consolidate our loans have completely dried up!), and it's hard to see all the causes that need support. Yesterday we got a mailing from Second Harvest pointing out that in the absence of summer school, and hence school meal programs, many kids are going to go hungry this summer.

I know I take these things harder than most people, and I'm learning to deal with it, but this one felt kind of like a punch in the gut. Kids getting neither the education nor the nutrition they need is wrenching. We gave what we could (we've been told that actually donating money to food banks is often more efficient than donating food, since the banks have deals with companies that make the dollars stretch even farther), and I wanted to post the information in case it's of use to anyone. If you can't, or if it's not your cause, that's fine, I don't want to make this a place of guilt and I know that the same reason I'm getting all this mail means most people aren't in a position to be too free with a dollar. Just putting the links up in case they help.

Disclaimer: yes, I am pretty likely to see Up. I own most Pixar movies (Cars didn't really do it for me, and we don't own Nemo or Wall-E for some reason, but we have all the others AND the collection of shorts). I love Pixar. That's why I was so uncomfortable when it finally dawned on me that there are only a handful of women/girls in any their movies, none of whom are leads. Points for Dory being funny (I still haven't gotten around to writing my rant about how few comic leads are women), and for basically anything Collette says in Ratatouille and Edna in general. But... why no movies about girls?

Anyway, I'm not the only one, it seems. I've seen this story re-tweeted by half my follow list, and it's definitely worth posting here:

Dear Pixar, from all the girls with band-aids on their knees

So. Any bets? Is optimism warranted? After finding out the somewhat dismal recent history of lead girls in other genres (in the finale of Kim Possible it was Ron who saved the day, and that the entire character of Wybie was added to the Coraline movie (and of course ended up saving the day)), frankly, I'm not sure I should hold out hope. I want to, though....

Or at least the Goofy of the Magic Kingdom that is NIF. We were there for family day today (even got our picture taken with Niffy the mammoth) and everyone working there knew him and wanted to say hi. It was pretty cool. Well, so's NIF, actually. In addition to the mammoth pic (which I'm hoping to post when they upload it) we also got a great souvenir photo (seriously, NIF was like a Disneyland attraction) of us with Mom and Dad next to the target chamber. It's pretty badass.

After the tour we even stopped by one of the little wineries out there-- El Sol. I think my tastes might be changing since I enjoyed all five reds we tasted-- four right out of the barrel. And we got to meet the guard kitty of the barrel room since we trekked out there for two of the tastings. It was a very nice afternoon for a glass of wine too. Then we came home and demolished an entire bag of potato chips.

We're home now, and it's time for some co-op Halo. Maybe some Ben & Jerry's later (Americone Dream, mmmm). Not a bad Saturday, even if not terribly restful ;)

From Em, with the subject line: "*that's* my problem!"

Where'd I leave off? Ah yes:

( very, very long )