The Color Yellow

eat your vote

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:48:10 GMT

We're having an old friend of ploamphed's over for election night. I enjoyed planning our dinner menu: chili (Obama's recipe), ribs (McCain's specialty), cornmeal bread, and broccoli (Obama's favorite vegetable, and Bush Sr.'s least favorite). It's a bipartisan meal, with a liberal bias. For dessert, I'm either going to make apple pie (what could be more American?) or more donkey/elephant cookies. Yay!

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:02:23 GMT

For wildrice13 , who requests that this become a meme: perhaps my most often-used quote from Princess Bride is "Anybody wanna peanut?" In appropriate rhyming situations, of course. While we're on the subject, I think it's really hard to decide which is better, the book or the movie.

I'm at beamtime in Chicago right now. I'm running my experiments on the night shift, so I'll get back to work soon. I slept from about 8-4 today, after staying up 24 hours. I was not in suitable shape to continue experimenting at 6 am. I don't know how I convinced myself that Duty required I keep working and not break for breakfast. When I was relieved, I wanted a shower, I wanted food, but sleep trumped all. And that's saying something, cos I didn't get anything to eat all night. Poor preparation on my part.

While I had dinner/breakfast, I snuck in some time with Dzur. There are some indications that Steven Brust's Vlad novels aren't really high quality reading (for example, http://xkcd.com/483/, and he's clearly having too much fun cramming too many fantasy conventions in at once: vampires, magic, and genetic manipulation by an alien race?), so sometimes I think it's my guilty self-indulgence, like unequilibrated 's romance novels. But definitely enjoyable stuff, and one of the few authors I've convinced ploamphed to read for fun. Ah, and this book is so foody! Yum...

I just went looking through old LJ entries to see if I'd posted anything about that before. If I did, it was a long time ago... On the way I found this, from my reaction the day after election day 2004:

I walked outside and was a little surprised to see the sun shining.

I'm more rational now, of course. I spent the rest of the day trying to convince myself that Bush can't actually do that much harm. That maybe we'll come out on the other side of Bush's lame duck presidency with just some nasty stains on the environment to clean up and wealthier fat cats.

Gosh... that feels funny to read now, with the economy how it is.

Right now I'm also working my way through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. Ah, if only I didn't feel bad about taking library books on trips, I'd be sneaking time to read that too.

Yakitate! NY Times

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:12:05 GMT

Today's NY Times has a reference to Yakitate! Japan, if you recognize it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/dining/01rice.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Ryosuke Tokuji, a graphic design student in Tokyo who lives in a dorm room with no kitchen, does all her cooking in a rice cooker. Like many larger models, hers has a built-in steamer, which she uses for dumplings, savory egg custards (chawan mushi) and fish.

Ms. Tokuji has even baked a sweet, buttery loaf of bread in her rice cooker, based on a recipe from a popular television show about a superhero’s quest to develop a "national loaf" for Japan. "It took all day, but it was very interesting," she said.

Woohoo!

rubbing salt into the wound

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:14:03 GMT

To make it worse after Pluto suffered demotion from planethood: in Chaisson and MacMillan's Astronomy Today (the text for the class I'm TAing), the section on Pluto is in a chapter entitled "Solar System Debris." Double-ouch.

keeping the neighbors awake with my screams

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:19:54 GMT

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH the US women's foil team made the finals!!!!!!! First time medal for US women's foil!

pre-wedding post

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:06:48 GMT

It's on Sunday! Outlook from Weather Underground currently good (as long as you think a low of 70 is good), but I'm still holding my breath. I intend to be gorgeous.

FAQ:

What will your new name be?
The same as my old one. I've got excuses, including "it's simpler for all my scientific publications to be under the same name (not that I've really been published yet)," "I've heard they do it that way in Asia," "hyphenated names are unsustainable," and "I'm lazy." That said, I won't be annoyed if I'm referred to as Mrs. ploamphed... until I get my Ph.D.

What are you doing after the wedding?
We're going to England! And then we're moving to a bigger university apartment! And then I have beamtime! And then we're going to Taiwan and Hong Kong! And then I'm to try to do a summer's worth of research, in a month, while my advisor's on vacation! And then...

Are you nervous?
This cropped up suddenly this week. I suppose it's supposed to be time for Pre-Wedding Jitters. I'm not nervous about getting married--for one thing, I've been engaged for 2 1/2 years--but I'm nervous that someone will get heat stroke during the ceremony, or I'll step on my dress and tear it to bits, or my music mix for the dancing will be b0rked, or that someone will get offended about something, or something like that.

I mean... are you NERVOUS, wink wink, nudge nudge?
*raised eyebrow*

Can I come?
Er... awkward...

Aren't you supposed to be working right now?
Er... yes.

haiku

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:41:18 GMT

my poor bread machine
finally kicked the bucket
zojirushi time

online MIT Risk-like tournament

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:26:58 GMT

Ooh boy, I've been waiting for GoCrossCampus to start an MIT tournament ever since I signed up for the All-Ivy Championship! It's a cross between Risk and an MMO, and the map is MIT (not including off-campus territories). The only thing that's really bothering me is that they have names for most of the buildings instead of their proper numbers. Raise your hand if "McLaurin Buildings" means anything to you. Anyone? I might be able to figure out that "Bush Building" is 13, but if someone asked me directions to "Pratt School" or "Pierce Laboratory" I'd have no clue. This is apparently the fault of the UA.

The site's gotten a lot better since November. They're handling a heavier server load than they ever expected, and they can now run the interactive maps without crashing! I bet the only reason it's taken them this many months to start it up is the fear of our MIT hackers (what are the chances that the game will end before somebody writes some dangerous army-placing scripts?).

Us alum folks can sign up with our alum email addresses. Thetans should join me and fclbrokle in the Boston West team!

am i evil or not (dot com?)

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:53:24 GMT

Every time I try to make my Sim, Ben Bitdiddle, cheat on his fiance, Alyssa P. Hacker, I seem to get a nasty video card crash and blue screen of death. Coincidence?

For Christmas I asked for and received a pattern to make a medieval dress. It requires a whole lot of cloth, partly because of the huge bell sleeves. I've been stressing about where to get cheap fabric for it, and even looked in Boston. I feel dumb now, cos I just noticed yesterday that there's a Jo-Ann's fabric store practically next door to the Shop Rite I got to every week. They're even having a 1/2 off sale for President's Day Weekend. So I found some cloth I liked for the outside for $5.50/yd, and some satin for the inner lining of the sleeves. When the girl at the cutting table printed my total, she did a double take: "wow, that's really cheap!" I'm thinking, "yeah, 1/2 off, but shouldn't she know that? ..." and then I read the receipt on my way to the cash register and see the total is only about $15. It takes me a while to decipher the receipt, but then I figure out that she charged me for 1 yd of the main fabric instead of 7. The guy at the cash register doesn't even blink. So now I feel guilty... was that tantamount to stealing 6 yds of fabric? Or is salesperson incompetence just part of capitalism? That's a standard morality question on online dating quizzes, isn't it?

We're going craaaazy

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:31:53 GMT

The postdoc in the lab cuts his fingernails using the lab wirecutters. He insists they work better than nail clippers.

My officemate was mixing up a methanol-ethanol blend to use as a sample medium, and suggested that I smell it, because "it has a very nice smell." Even better, she thinks it improves after aging for a few days in the dropper bottle.

And me? I'm Latexing my overdue research report, because it feels less like work than data analysis.

plasma (not physics)

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:53:35 GMT

I've been making a lot of noise for a while about my "useless blood". I'm type AB+, the universal acceptor. My understanding was that most AB+ blood just gets thrown away, because only about 3% of the population can use it at all, and even they could take any other bag on the rack. My dear fiance was pushing me to do it anyway, in case an AB+ person happened to show up in the emergency room to take it. I was doing a little online research just now to see how likely it is that anyone would want my blood. I still think no one wants my red blood cells. But apparently everyone wants my plasma.

What I didn't know (maybe I'm the only one who didn't) is that while O plasma is full of antibodies for A and B antigens, my AB blood lacks those antibodies. That makes AB the most pure/basic plasma. All they have to do is separate my blood, and suddenly I'm a universal donor. Uh-oh. Now instead of having a convenient rationale for avoiding needles, I have an obligation to go through the extra-fun process of apheresis. It takes an extra 20 minutes or so, because not only do they take out my blood, they put back the unattractive antigen-covered red blood cells. Sounds creepy, but I guess I'd better call them up.

top ten careers for me, decided by a machine

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:39:38 GMT

From astra_nomer's suggestion, my top ten results from the careerbuilder.com quiz:

1. Brewmaster
2. Chef
3. Food Scientist
4. Petroleum Engineer
5. Planner
6. Industrial Engineer
7. Environmental Engineer
8. Electrical Engineering Tech
9. Electronics Engineering Tech
10. Chemical Engineer

Hah! Ok, quitting the Ph.D. now to start brewing beer.

reading about food makes me hungry

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:37:35 GMT

My recent recreational reading has been The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. Pollan's one of my favorite journalists out there these days, partially because he writes about food (do I love to read about food!), partially because of his straightforward, logical, entertaining style, and partially because I'm a filthy hippy. While I read his writing, I often feel a need to read it aloud and share with others. This doesn't really work with my dear fiance (who is too much of a mathematician to stomach arguments aimed at regular people, which aren't perfectly rigorous), so I'm advertising to You.

Critics have complained that Pollan pushes his agenda too much. As a journalist, he should spend more time on fact and less time on opinion. Perhaps I don't mind because I think the points he makes are important ones. I've said before that I think of buying organic as tasty charity. I really do want to support converting pesticide-ridden farmland and factory farms into traditional, rotated, organic farms. I have a fantasy of modeling my own garden after diagrams in a book I had as a kid: Native American style gardening, where the cornstalk serves as a beanpole and the squash running over the ground stifles the weeds.

However, Pollan demonstrates that buying "organic" (as certified by the government, Whole Foods, etc.) is not necessarily supporting the type of farms you imagine. The chicken from the organic supermarket may be antibiotic-free, but it probably never had the chance to walk outdoors and eat bugs. Industrial-scale food production simply can't be as natural as small-scale, local farming. So go apple picking at your local farm, before it goes out of business, like the lovely one near my parent's house did. It's now giant houses and lawns.

---

For a high school research paper assignment, I wrote a paper on the intelligence of birds. My inspiration was a TV special I'd seen about Dr. Pepperberg's African Grey parrot, Alex. He has been the main proof that non-mammals are smart, and suggests that many other animals would prove their intelligence (or even consciousness) if only their vocal chords could produce human language. The research got me much more interested in parrots too, leading to the eventual purchase of my cute lovebird, Oz (even if he's nowhere near as bright as an African Grey). The sentiment is delayed a few days, but anyway: Rest in Parrot Heaven, Alex.

gettin' hitched

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 04:29:11 GMT

Before I celebrate my next birthday, I will enter into (heathen) matrimony with my dearest love! No, that's not a birthday-cake-hunger-strike threat, it's a PLAN!

-----

I find I really do want to settle down. One of the things I hate about the academia track is the uncertainty in my location. My family never moved from our hometown when I was a kid. I don't like the idea of searching for faculty jobs and moving to whatever city will take me. I want to pick my favorite place, put down roots, and Stay. And I want all my friends and family (and, er, restaurants?) to settle down right near me. How selfish of me.

My cousin and I were great friends when we were little, but only got to see each other a couple times per year. When we left my aunt's house, we'd try to sneak her into the car with us. I remember saying that, when we grew up, we should be next door neighbors, and our kids would be best friends even though they'd be second cousins and I don't know any of my second cousins.

At college I got similarly attached to the people and places in Boston. It tears at me to have that sense of "home" in two places. When I'm here, I miss there, and vice versa. The upside is that wonderful habit of "cruftiness" that keeps so many people in Boston after college. I worry that it's inevitable that everyone will scatter and I'll just never get to visit them again.

Well, I've got plenty of time to figure out how and where to settle, I suppose. But thinking of moving from postdoc to assistantship to tenure--even though tenured professors do tend to put down roots and stay for life more than other professions these days--seems like too much floating around.

Mandy's wedding

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:18:05 GMT

My sister and my fiance and I took turns driving all the way out to Chicago for my cousin's wedding. I'd never given a map of the midwest really serious study before. My main conclusion was that everything in the midwest is farther south than you think it is. As we were driving along route 80 through Ohio and Indiana, I discovered that 80 follows the border with Michigan very closely, and so for over a hundred miles we were a farm or few away from Michigan. What if the Michiganders coveted the toll road revenues, and sent their militia storming southward to seize the interstate?

The wedding was actually in Oak Park, which turned out to be a very nice college-towny suburb. On Friday night, we walked a couple of blocks away from our hotel to a street with three bookstores within two blocks. The costumed Harry Potter fans swarmed. At about 9:30, my mom and I went into the Barbara's Bookstore to scout out the HP situation. I was very surprised that they let us reserve copies, at that late hour. I mean, they weren't going to be able to order more, so why let people keep making reservations? So we found ourselves on the special line for People With Reservations, and were among the first 10 people to get in the door at midnight and buy our copies. On the other hand, we were on Central time, so we had to wait an hour longer than we would have back home.

I tried to get my family members to make bets on how many people would sneak HP7 into the church itself and read during the wedding. I figured there'd be parents who let their screaming kids bring their copies to keep them quiet through the ceremony. I was wrong! Although people were certainly reading all morning before the wedding, I saw no evidence of Hallows in church. What strength, what self-denial!

The wedding was beautiful, just like the movies. I cried in the ceremony, for the first time. I think I was overwhelmed by how emotional my aunt and uncle looked. Before the wedding, I realized I couldn't imagine my cousin in a wedding dress, just because she always wears such bright colors. She did appear in white, but the color scheme of the flowers and the bridesmaids was purple, hot pink, and orange. She never did toss her bouquet. I wonder if that's gone out of style? I think I've never seen the bouquet or garter toss in any of the 5 weddings I've attended. Maybe they're worried something will go wrong--angry fighting and bad feelings over the bouquet, or, more awkward, an unwanted bouquet falling to the ground in front of a crowd without any marriage-minded guests. At least in my part of the family, everyone expects that I'll be the next to marry anyway, being engaged already and all. Everyone asked when the date will be.

During the ceremony, the priest read and interpreted the Gospel passage about Jesus' first miracle. It is significant, he said, that Mary told Jesus to reveal his holy powers in public for the first time by turning the water into wine at a wedding. Jesus' first miracle happened at a wedding because weddings are joyous, holy celebrations, just like weddings. Weddings are miracles. But the priest also put a lot of emphasis on the drinking part of the joy. It was so important to have enough wine for everyone to get drunk at the wedding that holy intervention was needed. My mom pointed out that this was biblical justification for the open bar at the wedding reception, which was apparently very expensive.

My brother and sister and I took the opportunity to try a lot of new drinks, and we drank more than we ever had (especially my sister, who was more or less a teetotaler). My aunt suggested a cosmopolitan. I had a glass of champagne, and then more for the toast. My cousin's husband is Mexican, so they added an extra touch to the toasts at the reception. In addition to the bar drinks, in front of every plate was a glass of champagne and a shot of tequila. The maid of honor, my other cousin, gave her speech, and then we had the champagne toast. After the best man, my cousin's husband's brother, spoke, we all did tequila shots. I couldn't finish mine. Gack, tequila is hard to drink! I had to cleanse my palate with some of ploamphed's gin and tonic (he was ordering drinks he'd heard of in Kingdom of Loathing). So, let's see, four drinks before dinner. I was definitely feeling tipsy. After dinner, though, I felt quite normal. Lowered inhibitions, perhaps, enough to allow me to shake my booty on the dance floor. But certainly not drunk. My cousin (the one who wasn't getting married yet) and I went to the bar, and I told her I was too shy to order a Sex on the Beach (one of the only drinks I'd heard of, and even tasted, when Mo mixed one for me and unequilibrated at lokiect and ilai's party). So she ordered me one, and I ended up ordering two more on my own later for a grand total of 7. According to high school health class, that's binge drinking. The odd thing was, I still didn't feel particularly drunk, not even as tipsy as I was before dinner. I guess the food soaked it all up. My large and intimidating brother totalled 10, and I think that they were all different drinks. My mom was a little shocked to hear this, but not at all upset.

On the way back in the car, my sister and I both finished HP7. I think I'm not allowed to talk about it yet, so I'll leave this trip at that.

fencing and beamtime recap

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:01:09 GMT

I'm back from the APS with over 8 GB of high-quality and intriguing data! This beamtime, all the experiments my group brought were my experiments. As lead experimenter, I was working pretty much the whole time, with short breaks for food and a little sleep (about 5 hours per night). I was so busy adjusting pressure and temperature and making decisions and looking at data that I didn't really even have time to check email. And that was even with my whole group there as support, helping to take notes, analyze data, and taking over when I was asleep. I slept about 10 hours last night, and I'm still tired. We got really good data, and lots of it, so I should be busy for a while. I was particularly pleased that one of the samples I prepared all by myself was very successful. I'm finally somewhat competent! And when the new grad student arrives in September, I can pretend I've always been capable and knowledgeable. I'll be the senior x-ray crystallography student! Unless she decides to do spectroscopy instead...

-----

A few more things about the tournament in Miami:

I wasn't happy about how I finished my last two tournaments. In the Div II, I hoped to make the top 8 for the first time and earn my B, but I failed by fencing badly against an unimpressive girl in the round of 16. I had really been looking forward to a rematch against the girl who won, too. I was really happy about the bout in the 32--some of my cleanest, smartest fencing in a long time--but it seems that bout used up all of my energy. The next day, in the Div IA, I was tired and sore and not moving well. I thought I could still come back, but the reverse happened; my opponent in the 64 overcame my 14-10 lead to win 15-14. Losing like that is humiliating.

But, well, a lot of good did come out of Nationals, and I've already written about a lot of it. My best finish was in the hardest and most critical event, the Div I. That's also the only event which has any effect on my national ranking. I'm disappointed I didn't earn a B or an A rating (I've been a C for 7 years now, and the last two times I've renewed it have been by finishing top 24 in the Div I. C's almost never do that, so I'm clearly under-rated), but all ratings really do is give you a better initial seed in tournaments. A national ranking is a much more significant achievement.

After doing well in the Div I, I decided to treat myself to new shoes. Real fencing shoes, that is. I've been very happy with squash shoes for a while. They hold up well, have great traction on a variety of indoor surfaces, and they're cheaper than fencing shoes. Fencing shoes, however, put your feet closer to the ground and have better heel support (important for lunges). The best quality ones are asymmetrical: rounded, shock absorbent leading heel, and a bouncy flat rear shoe with a reinforced area on the side for the lunge push-off and roll-over. I visited a vendor and saw a lefty pair of Adidas' discontinued asymmetric shoes, regarded by many fencers as the best shoes ever. The vendor said they were the last pair they had, but if they fit me and I happened to be left-handed, they might sell them to me. And lucky! They fit perfectly. Normally they'd be over $200, but the guy offered them to me for $120. And I had birthday money... I was still waffling a bit, and I put them down to find my brother and get a second opinion. Just then, one of the 14-and-under fencers runs up with a friend and snatches them up.
"See, look, they're left-handed, and they're your size! You have to buy them!"
"Hey, wait," I protest, "I was here, and I'm a lefty, and they fit me, and I got a price from the guy here, and I'm going to get them!"
The kid looks doubtful, then gets an idea. "Are you a foilist?"
"Yeah."
"You two should duel for the shoes!"
I'm considering this (the rest of my equipment is back at my hotel, but the awesomeness level of this option is high), and the lefty friend sizes me up. "Well... She should have them. I'm still growing, and I'll grow out of them, so I wouldn't be able to use them that long anyway."
Maybe he's a really mature-minded little kid, or maybe he figured I'd kick his ass. Too bad we didn't fence, since that'd make a better story. Of course I had to buy the shoes then, and they feel great. Yay, real fencing shoes!

I spent some time hanging out with my brother's friends my last day in Miami. I would describe them as awesome, but I think I am using this word too much. Unfortunately, I can't think of an a synonym that really captures "awesome." Cool, fantastic, terrific... none of these are quite right. And is "awesome" fashionable, or does it make me geeky/dated? Surely it's much better than "totally tubular." Anyway, my brother has good taste in friends. We had a great time in the beach (there were actually little waves! You could almost kinda bodysurf!), I helped one of them prepare for the referee exam, and then we had a wonderful meal at a place they'd found the previous day. I was all Italian-ed out after carb-loading for all those tournaments, and Asian food hit the spot. They erased my post-embarrassing-loss funk!

-----

Looks like I be needing to plan a Boston trip. I've been thinking about going to Boston a lot lately, whether or not to see Ratatouille ;). My advisor actually independently suggested the other day that he might send me up to MIT for research. His old student, who helped me when I was applying to work in this field, has a laser-heating system in his lab. He might ask this professor if I could work in his lab for a couple of days to heat some samples. We'll see if this works out. I don't regret that I chose Princeton over MIT for grad school, but I'll take any opportunity to get back and visit. There's a very good chance I'll be in Beantown before the summer is over, cos I just can't stay away!

greek personality test

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 01:30:00 GMT

True?

Your Score: Nemesis

33% Extroversion, 100% Intuition, 83% Emotiveness, 47% Perceptiveness

You are a normally quiet person with very strong convictions and a marked activist streak. You have a clearly defined sense of right and wrong, and you like seeing people punished for their transgressions. You are Nemesis, goddess of punishment. You are a champion for the defenseless, you love poetic justice and, if karmic retribution doesn't have its say, then you'll have yours. You are astute, rarely fooled, and idealistic.

Your defining characteristic is your internal and inflexible system of morals. Because of your highly intuitive nature, you possess the theoretical nature required to define those morals, but you sometimes lack the ability to verbalize and expound on them, especially on the more nuanced parts of your worldview. Regardless, you have strong instincts which often prove to be correct, and rather than preaching, you act on them. You don't compromise -- ever.

You can sometimes be a person of great internal stress. You don't have double standards, and so you expect the same of yourself as you expect of others. You might find, sometimes, that you have just as hard of a time in living up to those expectations as the people around you. As a result, you are rarely at peace with yourself, but you're also likely to think of this in a positive light -- you're always forcing yourself to improve, and you avoid making mistakes.

You tend to be a private person, and don't like to talk much about those staunch morals of yours until, that is, they become violated. Once that happens, everyone is going to know exactly where you stand. You have a distaste of nihilism and intellectual relativism that will make you naturally compatible with scientists and certain kinds of philosophers, even if they don't share your activist streak.

Famous People like you: Goethe, Voltaire, Susan B. Anthony, Robert Burns

Similar Personality Types: Prometheus, The Oracle, Hermes, Orpheus

Avoid: Icarus, Dionysus, Agamemnon, Atlas

You may or may not be able to get along with an Odysseus -- it will depend on his/her upbringing.

Link: The Greek Mythology Personality Test written by Aleph_Nine on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

independent Independence Day

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 00:35:34 GMT

Happy 4th from me in Miami Beach! My great uncle told me he thinks Florida is the closest it gets to earthly paradise, but it's been thunderstorming every day. Nonetheless, I did get a chance to hit the beach in between lightning strikes and fencing matches. The ocean water is amazingly clear and calm, with perfect rippled sand. The dry part of the beach is a bit sketchy--we've found a few used condoms left on the sand. I'm a little sunburned.

So, yes, fencing. I'm here for the Summer Nationals competition. Saturday I fenced the National Championships, and took my all-time best placement (20th). I fenced a fabulous pool, and drew 12th seed, but lost a direct elimination bout in the round of 32. My ranking's going up! Yesterday I fenced a team competition with some of my high school-age clubmates. Tomorrow I have the Division II (a tournament that excludes the highest rated fencers), and Friday Division IA (top fencers, but you can't earn a national ranking from it). Today I took the referee test, which they offer every day. Apparently, I'm one of the only people to pass any section of the test all week. I passed in foil, but not epee or sabre. The big benefit is that now I'll be able to referee at high level competitions, so I'll be able to save a lot of money. If I want to travel to a tournament like this, my travel expenses will be covered as long as I officiate on my free days. I'll just have to make sure I have the uniform (blue blazer, grey skirt/pants), the equipment (timer and penalty cards), and lots of practice.

At the tournament, I feel kinda like I'm a teenager all over again. There are so few people my age competing. Most everyone here is either a high school student or a parent or a coach. I feel like I should be hanging out with other fencers, but they're all so much younger than I am. I was at the beach with my teammates, and at one point a girl was going to spill some juicy gossip, and then stopped because she didn't want to talk with a grownup here. That's me. And when I hang out with the parents, they're talking about their awesome fencer kids, who are doing better than I ever did. Sometimes it's just depressing to hear about these girls who are 10 years younger than me and kicking my ass. For years I've been the best fencer on my team, and now I'm the C fencer. I want some respect, yo. Since I don't have any real peers here to hang out with, I'm bumming around South Beach on my own. I've been rather independent this Independence Day.

ploamphed complained the other day that I complain all the time on the phone. I realized I shouldn't be complaining over the phone, since that's what LiveJournal is for! Final complaint: everyone's going to see Ratatouille without me! I told ploamphed months ago that I wanted to see it with him, and what does he do but call me up today and tell me he's going with his sister (he'll see it again with me, but it's not the same). I call home, and Daddy tells me he went to see it with Mommy already. Argh!

wordsearch

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 17:51:18 GMT

Our current mini-obsession is an old board game ploamphed's sister brought home: Word Search, by Pressman toys. As in Scrabble, you have a number of letter tiles with assigned point values. Unlike Scrabble, you lay out all the tiles randomly on the board at the beginning and remove words from the board. Scoring is (sum of letter values)*(number of letters in word). And unlike your standard word search puzzle, you can move the letter tiles that form your word as you would move a queen in chess--any direction, one direction per tile per turn, no jumping. The game opening is like a word search puzzle, but the endgame is more like Ricochet Robots. For example:


		H	Y

		R
			C
R	E

You can move tiles to make:

	C
	H
	E
	R
	R
	Y

As you can see, the order in which you move the tiles matters. And you're only allowed to move letters if you're using them in your word.

My mom suggested I make a computer version, and this is an increasingly appealing idea. There are lots of opportunities for variations to this game. Hexagonal board? 3-D board? Bonus spaces a la Scrabble? Random tile drops and bombs a la Tetrinet? Special tiles a la Bookworm Adventures? Working on this would help me to ratchet up my geek level (I'm such a computer geek wannabe). But it's been a long time since I coded anything from scratch, and the last serious programming I did was, er, 6.001 Scheme? Probably my ancient C++ skills (not good enough to call them skillz) would serve me better. I brainstormed some architecture for the program on paper yesterday. I think I'd be able to put together something that can construct a board and run a game, but I've never worked much with even the simplest graphics libraries. And I know I'd be hopeless at making an AI. Le sigh.

reunion weekend

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:02:16 GMT

The campus is full of alumni this weekend. PU reunion this year has a Vegas theme, so each class year's meeting place is marked in lots of lightbulbs. In addition to the usual construction noise, we had the extra roaring of the workers putting up those signs. Sigh.

I sure did leave part of my heart in Cambridge, even if the rest of it was tugging me down here towards boy and family. Last night I watched Desk Set, a 50's film with Spencer Tracy as an MIT-trained (the girls even give Spencer a cardinal and grey scarf) computer engineer and Katharine Hepburn as a head reference librarian who fears his machine will put her and her staff out of their jobs. 50's punchcard computer awesomeness! IBM helped in the movie production. When the computer is installed, as big as a room and with everyone's favorite movie-style blinking lights on the screen, it works like Ask Jeeves!. Of course, we find out that the flexible human mind can do things no computer can. But once they realize they're not fired, they learn to appreciate the computer. When they receive a really hard and time-consuming question, the machine can calculate in no time. However, the tough question--what is the total mass of the earth--seems an odd choice. Don't they have that in their books in the 50's? Anyway, it's a cute blast back to the pre-internet world.

Barack Obama is left-handed! As if I needed more reasons to support him. I was disappointed to hear he likes the idea of coal-to-liquid fueled cars, but I suppose he can't afford to alienate coal mining West Virginian Democrats. And if that's the only policy question he's got wrong... well, it could be a lot worse. At the same time, with the media's persistent speculation about Al Gore, I can't help wondering if there's a way he could make that work. It sure seems to me that he's more famous than ever and his image is a lot different. He's not Boring Gore now, he's Environmental Crusader Gore. And the more people talk about him not running, the more it feels like he could jump in at the last minute and grab all the attention away from Hillary.

my brother's gory summer

Wed, 30 May 2007 18:48:23 GMT

My brother is an neuroscience intern at a hospital surgery lab this summer. He started a blog last week to chronicle his adventures. I don't recommend it to those of you with weak stomachs, full bellies, or hatred of animal research. It's got all the gory details of medical experimentation and training. But if a little (ok, more than a little) brain harvesting doesn't bother you, check it out, 'cos he's a funny guy and he has great stories to tell.

creation museum

Fri, 25 May 2007 19:23:55 GMT

Last night at our Geosciences department retreat, a professor noted how odd it is that "only three of the undergraduate research projects presented this year would offend creationists" in a department with such strong traditions in plate tectonics and other classic geology. He figures that the 60% of the American population that interprets Genesis strictly and rejects evolution has no issue with science that shows the way things are now, only science that gives ages for rocks over 6000 years. Soil chemistry, hydrology, and mineralogy are no problem, but paleomagnetism and tectonics are "fake science" from the secular conspiracy.

And if that's the case, the Creation Museum is right on. The museum is opening Monday, and it's all over the news. I saw it on Good Morning America (what a crappy news show) at home this morning, and then noticed a review of the museum is very popular right now on nytimes.com. It's scary. The exhibits are exciting, fun, colorful, high-tech (designed by a veteran theme park designer from Universal Studios, even). The New York Times article gives some examples of the "science" presented in the museum:

"Fossils, the museum teaches, are no older than Noah’s flood; in fact dinosaurs were on the ark."
"We learn that chameleons, for example, change colors not because that serves as a survival mechanism, but “to ‘talk’ to other chameleons, to show off their mood, and to adjust to heat and light.”"

It's a retaliation, isn't it? People are sick of those know-it-all nerds telling them how the world works. Where do smart people get off feeling so superior? Turns out the hoi polloi can figure it all out by themselves. And now they can use the same tools that the nerds use to teach kids at heathen places such as the Smithsonian.

I don't think the impact of the museum worries me. Parents will take their young, impressionable children there, but that type of parents would be teaching their children this mythology anyway. It's just a symptom of the much greater problem. Not only do lots of people really believe this is true, they're organized and reinforcing each others' beliefs. They've got "authorities" behind them. The thing that worries me is that the creationists are so confident now they've got it right and that they're in good company. It sounds like that 60% number is increasing, or at least becoming more vocal.

What's the solution? Get more smart people to reproduce? Good Darwinists should see that large creationist families and childless intellectuals are a bad combination.

Greens and library tech

Wed, 23 May 2007 18:09:37 GMT

unequilibrated pointed me to Brotherhood 2.0 recently, the project of Green brothers John and Hank. Perhaps I should have known about it already, as other internetters have voted it the #1 video blog on the web at the Blogger's Choice Awards. Regardless of my obliviousness, I now know and have watched all the videos with ploamphed. I wonder whether Hank became ecogeek in part because his name is Green? My partner-in-geekhood (more accurate than crime) claimed last night that I was talking like Brotherhood 2.0. Shrug? I was just describing bagels. And how I want to eat them, but I can't, 'cause they'd pull out my tooth, which is more wiggly by the day. And how I don't have any anyway, but if I did... Maybe something about the tone? Or the passion about insignificant little things?

I'd also never heard of author John Green until Brotherhood 2.0. I took a peek at my local library's online catalog to see if I could read An Abundance of Katherines, that book of his he's always talking about. Not only do they have dead tree copies, they have audiobooks. Not only do they have audiobooks, this fabulous library has downloadable audiobooks. Now that's cool! With my library account, I can "sign out" the file online and access it during the usual sign-out period. I can download it, burn it to CD, copy it to my iPod, whatever! Clearly if I took out the CD itself I could copy it. Having the same policy on the internet shows that someone sane and sensible set this up. They also have paper-free e-books, but doesn't look like there are as many, and that's not as appealing somehow. I still love the feel and experience of holding a paper book and reading, and it gets tiring to read on a screen.

I get a big kick out of flashy library technology. My favorite thing at the library now is signing out books by RFID. You just plop your books and the card down on the counter, and it knows what's there and does it all automatically. Soooo cool that I don't feel any nostalgia for stamp-wielding checkout librarians.

Tooth fairy policy for adults: leave the tooth plus $400 service fee

Mon, 21 May 2007 18:57:42 GMT

I was 12 when I slipped on a mossy rock in a waterfall and snapped my two front teeth in half. If you didn't know that, it's because I've had caps on them ever since. A couple of years later, the delayed effect of the tooth trauma was horrible pain and then two root canals (the root canal isn't the cause of horrible pain, it's the wonderful solution). The dentist warned me that eventually I'd need porcelain crowns, but the cheaper caps held for a good 10 years, with only minor repairs. Until Thanksgiving, that is.

At Thanksgiving dinner, I bit down on a particularly tough piece of turkey skin and the cap pulled off the remaining tooth fragment. Of course, this happened in the one year in my life that I'm without dental insurance (because I missed the notification and the signup deadline while I was in China, and they said Too Bad). My mom forked over $400 to get the tooth fixed for me on Thanksgiving Saturday.

So, why talk about Thanksgiving in May? Because, only 6 months later, the cap is loose and threatening to fall off again. I went to a lovely fancy dinner last night to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Newark Star-Ledger's scholarship program (of which I'm grateful to have been a part). I felt that same tooth come loose in my dinner roll. Grrrarg. It hasn't fallen out, but a couple of chips broke off and it's wiggly. I'm sure it's not going to last until August, when next year's dental insurance starts. Paying another 400 for a new cap (or 1000 for a crown) would NOT BE COOL.

Except for worrying that my tooth would drop out any moment, the rest of the dinner was great. There were fillet mignon and classy orderves and friends in pretty clothes. They had some hundreds of copies of the special section of the newspaper about the scholars. The newspaper published our responses to an email survey. I hadn't realized they'd be publishing my response to the survey verbatim. I figured the reporter would just quote from the survey or summarize. Oh well. The only thing I wouldn't have put in if I'd known is probably a link to this livejournal. I don't suppose the readers of the Star-Ledger are actually going to type the URL in and read my journal... are they? Well, this is a public journal on a public website anyway. And it's a boring journal. Who's going to keep reading after the turkey skin story unless they really care?

kitchen luxuries

Fri, 18 May 2007 02:54:28 GMT

The New York Times has a food columnist who calls himself "The Minimalist." He writes about the basics of good ol' American cooking, and I enjoyed reading his items on such things as homemade peanut brittle and bread. Last week his article was about kitchen equipment. Lots of people, he said, have far more kitchen appliances than they need, and spend far too much on cooking utensils such as name brand pots and pans. Having high-end cookware doesn't make you a gourmet chef, and good cooks don't need all those expensive tools. I surely agree with the first, and I understand the point that he's trying to make. However... it is really wonderful to cook with quality tools, and I felt a little defensive when he disparaged some of my favorite kitchen toys.

He made a list of the top 10 appliances that you don't actually need. On the list were a number that definitely make my life better. I don't have a microwave right now, and that galls me. I'm used to making enough food for leftovers and reheating. There are some foods you can't reheat without a microwave! Any ideas for leftover couscous? I have to go into campus to use a microwave, so I save my leftovers for lunches only. Only reason I haven't bought one (you can get simple ones Really Cheap at Walmart) is that ploamphed's right, and we don't have any place to put it. I also don't have a stand mixer. I don't have room for one, but I wish I did. Whenever I make cookies, I itch to use Mom's mixer. It's not just about convenience. To make really good cookies, you have to cream the butter and sugar. If you're beating by hand, it's hard to make the butter-sugar mix truly fluffy. Too much speed and force for too long. Cake batter you can beat with a hand mixer, but cookie dough is too stiff for to mix with any less powerful motor than the one in a stand mixer. And then, the bread machine. Ok, truly non-essential kitchen appliance there. But I use it all the time. I'm not willing to put in the time to make it by hand, but with the machine I make my own bread and pizza dough regularly. I agree that I can live without the rice cooker (of course we have one, it's small and cute and doesn't have any English on it), and I did return the countertop rotisserie to my parents after a year of rarely roasting things. ADDENDUM: he said a stockpot wasn't necessary either. How could a stockpot be unnecessary? How would you make soup?

The past two Christmases I received a lovely set of knives and a set of Emeril brand pots and pans from my grandparents. I wouldn't have bought such nice things if I had to spend my own money because I'm frugal, but they were fabulous gifts. I love my sharp, beautiful knives. And I didn't expect it, but working with good new pans is really different from cooking on the hand-me-downs from my parents' basement. A lot of care was put into the design of these pots and pans. They're don't have non-stick coatings, but food never seems to get stuck (maybe this is just 'cos they're new and not too scratched up yet). The no-drip pour edges actually work. And they're beautiful. Sure, you don't need them to cook well, but they make me happier.

Also ADDENDUM: That bridal magazine I got also had an interesting take on kitchen essentials, from the perspective of making your registry. Apparently, you must have these things my kitchen lacks:

butter dish
sugar bowl
creamer
martini glasses
highball glasses
salad spinner
potato masher
slotted spatula
coffee maker
ice cream scoop
microwave
food processor

But the following things I have are optional for "foodies":

colander
pizza cutter and pan
strainer
ladle
rolling pin
bread maker
rice cooker
waffle maker
mini chopper

I won't say All of those are necessary (and for some reason I have three whisks), but Huh.