Week in review

Huh. I've got a whole week to cover.

Not much happened last Monday. Since Lab Tech Holly had been kind enough to courier Jeff and my concert merchandise from the Arcade Fire show, I went by her lab to pick that up, and we made a date ("date?") for beer on Tuesday night.

Also, I was part of the group giving the journal club for our program this month. One the one hand, that means a free meal. On the other hand, it means I have to give some sort of half-assed presentation. Consequently, I spent Monday putting off working on it, and finally got started around 9:00, but didn't really put my presentation together until the next morning. We did Chipotle burritos, though. I dropped by Soundwaves to pick up the new Trail of Dead album (and noticed that they had failed to stock any of the other five our so albums I wanted) and then went back home until the "date" (date?) with Holly.

By way of a refresher, I met Holly at the Summer Hymns show last spring, and in a completely unprecedented move, asked her for her number. We attended a few concerts together, but really only saw each other sporadically. It took six months for the fact that she had a boyfriend to come up in conversation. Things had generally been a bit awkward, so I didn't attempt to push on.

However, she had been suggesting that we go get a beer together (she's probably a bigger beer fan than I) for some time, hence the get-together on Tuesday. It went really well (my non-dates always seem to go much better than my dates; I swear it's a coincidence). We've got lots in common, and she suggested that we should hang out more often.

Wednesday I had planned to hang out with some of the first-years (Oliver, Anup, and David). We got some star pizza and hit dollar beer night at Two Rows, and I discovered that their wheat beer is pretty tasty. I cut out early with the intention of catchingup on sleep.

Thursday was low-key. Stephanie invited me over her place for the OC too late for me to make it without missing the opening, and clearly, there are priorities to consider here, so I stayed home to watch it. I think she's still mad at me. Eh.

Talked to the parents a bit, and then, Nathan and Melissa called en route to Two Rows, and I elected to join them.

Friday brought the Keck seminar, and, finally, my iPod shuffle (more about that over on the music page). I caught Million Dollar Baby with Lisa & co. It was a quality, straight-forward movie, but a tear-jerker. I stopped in at Woodrow's after that.

Not much on Saturday; I played some Halo with Jeff and then we got some late-night La Tapatia.

Sunday, I made a big trip to the grocery store and used some stale wine to make sangria (which turned out well for a first try). Will and I saw Assault on Precinct 13, which was nice enough as a straight-forward action movie.

And with that, I'm caught up. Excellent. Next weekend is recruiting (free food and booze!), a graduate school pool night, and the super bowl. Hopefully, it will prove more exciting.

The Arcade Fire

Saturday was mostly uneventful. I had long wanted to see Sidways, having gotten interested in it when I saw the preview run in front of Garden State, and having had my interests piqued by Bryan's review.

I thought it was good. The last third or so, I thought, didn't live up to the potential of the first part of the movie, but it was a very honest movie in its portrayal of the dynamic of male friendships and the effect of women on them. Most people (well, guys, at least), should be able to find something they can relate to.

Sunday, as part of my New Year's resolution to be more social (first sub-resolution: goof off with people instead of goofing off alone; second sub-resolution: expand circle of friends), I joined Will and his crew at K.C.'s Bar & Grill to watch football. Those of you who know me well know that I get no enjoyment out of sports, but there was beer and food, and I was being social, so it was nice.

After the Philadelphia game, I headed home and got read for the Arcade Fire show. The Arcade Fire put out my favorite album of last year, and I had been very much looking forward to their show since I heard in December that they would be coming here. My anticipation was further increased after the hype around their live show started to build. Jeff was skeptical of their ability to live up to it; I remained optimistic.

The show was at Mary Jane's, which, considering the hype surrounding them, was way to small. Tickets were sold out. Lab Tech Holly was going to join us but didn't listen to me when I told her that she needed to get tickets ASAP. She did, however, manage to get in to say hi (at the temporary expense of her driver's license), which was particularly convenient since we were able to divest ourselves of the merchandise we had purchased (particularly Jeff's poster).

Mary Jane's was decorated for the occasion with Christmas lights, wire-frame reindeer, and animals from a nativity scene. Owen Pallett, calling himself "Final Fantasy" took the stage with his violin, and proceeded to play his chamber pop songs by building up layers of violin loops, captured live, one on top of the other, becoming his own violin trio (or quartet, or quintet). Pretty cool, if a little gimicky.

The Arcade Fire took the stage in a—at their request—smoke-free environment. They rocked. Violins, auxillary percussion, guitars, string bass, accordion, and keyboards were all switched up amongst the various members of the band. Walls, guitars, and motorcycle helmets were truned into percussion instruments. The band had huge energy, and the crowd was into it. The set lagged a bit in the middle, and I question their decission to put some of the most climatic songs of the album at the beginning of the set, but it really doesn't matter. It was a spectacular show, and the band met my lofty expectations, even if they didn't completely surpass them.



On an unrelated note, various members of hte lab have a habit of doing white board drawings of other members of the lab. I saw this up today, courtesy of Sri:

Rock star scientists

Friday, I experienced the science equivalent of a rock concert. Nobel prize winner James Watson (formerly of Watson & Crick, known for their discovery of the structure of DNA) was at Baylor doing something related to our genome sequencing center, and had agreed to speak to the graduate students. The place was packed, first of all. Will insisted that the combination of Watson and free food was so enticing that it had to be a trap. I wouldn't have been surprised if it was.

Watson gave one of the more humorous scientific talks I've ever seen, though it was light on the science. He recounted the history of his scientific career, stopping along the way to trash various colleagues and rivals and express misogynist opinions. I'm not sure whether to chalk it up to fame or age, but he had no reservations about speaking his mind. Some found it off-putting; I found his honesty (assuming he was in fact being honest) enjoyable.

I wasn't one of the little fanboys and fangirls there with my camera. I thought about using the camera phone, but it would have turned out horribly as these things usually do from a distance. Instead, I have this picture for you from the walk over to Rice for the Keck talk (which we arrived late for, but still took advantage of the pizza and beer):



Now the question isn't so much why there would be cars on a sidewalk. The sign was actually positioned in front of a drive way. The pertinent questions are: why do the pedestrians have to yield to the traffic (I've rarely seen cars going in that gate), and why is it important to establish that you are, in fact, walking on a sidewalk?

Not much went on that night. Went up to Woodrow's to see Will; hung out with Graham and Kennedy a bit at West Alabama (too late for hot dogs, sadly); and then returned to Woodrow's, where I was pleased to discover that I had missed that girl that I mentioned in my last post. I'm thankful for the luck.

Also, Martin from lab took a couple of pictures of us at the retreat. Here's the lab, a picture he entitled "Street Gang":



And here's me, drinking my coffee, after having skipped talks to set up my poster:

Camper Van Beethoven and the Hackensaw Boys

Most of last week was uneventful, so as part of my new efforts at brevity (now 50% more diligent!), I'll skip all but the highlights.

Thursday night, I accompanied Jeff to see Camper Van Beethoven. They're his thing, really, but I enjoyed hearing them play their violin-infused rock. I once heard them referred to as a jam band that knows the importance of brevity, and I think that description is accurate.

The Hackensaw Boys opened. I had previously seen this folk/blue grass/roots group open for Modest Mouse back in 2003. They're fun, if not something I would really enjoy with much frequency. They won me over, forever, though, when they came down off the stage and stood at the front of the crowd and performed their final song completely unamplified.

The goal of hi-fi sound is to hear the music as it would sound live. However, when you go to rock shows, where everything gets amplified, it's no longer live in the pure acoustic sense. It's filtered through whatever PA equipment the venue has, and often it sounds worse than it does through a decent stereo system.

So it's a rare experience, then, to hear the pure, unadulterated sound of acoustic instruments when you just go to rock shows. It was absolutely beautiful. The mandolin, the string bass, the fiddle, the percussion, the guitar, and the banjo all sounded incredible. It was worth the price of admission.

Genetics retreat and MLK weekend

This is going to be long again. My apologies; I'm trying to learn the art of brevity, but I think I just wait too long in between posts. I'm not always in the mood to write lately, especially when there's books to be read, music to be listened to, and video games to be played.

Sometimes, it catches me off guard when I realize the limitations that my introversion imposes on me. I think of myself as a fairly social creature (particularly in comparison to some of the people around here); I crave a certain amount of social contact. But being at something like the retreat last Thursday, with large numbers of peopel whom I don't know, many of whom are also in various positions of power, I get drained very quickly. I snuck away once intending to grab a nap (skipping a poster session) and once, which I happened to time perfectly to catch "The O.C.". The stuff Thursday was mostly uneventful; a bunch of talks that weren't particularly relevant to me. The genetics students do skits (competing for a sizeable award), which were of pretty high-quality—lots of iMovies.

There was a party that night. They only gave us two drink tickets a piece, thinking that would keep us out of trouble. I suppose it did, for the most part. Melissa donated one drink to my cause after realizing that 7&7 involves neither Sprite nor rum. Sri was kind enough to scam one for me. I bought one myself, because I wanted some change with which to tip the kick ass old bartender. "You take care of me, I take care of you," he said.

I danced, eventually. It's getting easier. I did finally meet the two girls that work across the hall from me, which was probably a good thing. At the after party in somebody's room, I ended up once again spent some time talking to Former Louisianna Cheerleader. And we once again had a discussion about her former cheerleading ways, and she once again forgot that she had told me that and once again told me that was priveleged information; nice to see I make an impression. She (and a couple of other people) were surprised to find out that I was from Waco and went to Baylor—glad to know it's surprising, I guess. She did allege that Shreveport is a better town than Waco. In support of that is Strawn's Eat Shop, home of the best peach pie I've ever had. Against it is that fact that it's in Louisiana. It's a tough call.

I realized something interesting: I like the fact that she's from Louisiana. I've been trying to figure that one out, because it was something I liked in Rachal, too. In fact, it's a bit disturbing, because I was planning to implement a "no Louisiana" rule, sort of like the classic "must like dick" rule (thanks Sabrina!), only to find that it's something I may be inherently attracted to (Louisiana, not dick).

Maybe I feel like I can relate to coming from a small, conservative place, though I feel Waco to Louisiana is oranges to tangerines. Maybe I respect coming from a place like that and managing to cast off its shackles and grow past it, while still learning from the experience. Maybe it's just an association with a place that still has some positive memories associated with it of childhood, family, and friends.

After-party pictures:







Anyway, I slept through the first round of talks the next day and then stood by my poster for two hours. One girl (who was kind of cute) took a particular interest in it, saying my methods would be useful for her protein—maybe that was a euphemism. I also had a professor whom we've colaborated with in the past who was ready to turn me lose on some stuff that she works on. One of the post-docs in my lab, who had been distrustful of my results, told me she thought I was close to a paper. The encouragment was very edifying, but I still feel, though I'm 90% of the way there, the last 10% will take most of the effort. Here's the poster:



I left after lunch, and came back and vegged for a while. My SuperZeroes came, so I picked them up from FedEx (damnable signature requirement) and hooked them up. A girl who I'm pretty sure has a thing for me—which is unreciprocated—had invited me to dinner with her and some friends, and I thankfully had other plans. Those plans failed to materialize, so I went to visit Will at Woodrow's, only to find them there. That was awkward. I felt bad for her. She's trying to be subtle about it, but it's still painfully awkward. I feel like I should probably tell her I'm not interested, but then again, maybe I need to wait until she decides to be straightforward about it. I'm not very good at this sort of thing, as Sabrina would probably attest. Any advice?

Thankfully, I had told Dan and Kristin I would meet them elsewhere, which provided a convenient excuse.

Saturday night, Sri (and others, I'm sure) had organized a Tsunami relief fundraiser at the Gatby Social Club in the village. I went with Stephanie, Stephanie's post doc and lab tech friends, and administrator Wanda and her sister. I danced (again!) and bought expensive drinks. Everybody had a good time, with the exception of Stephanie, who wouldn't have a drink because she drove, and wouldn't dance because she hadn't had a drink. She left, eventually. We hit Whataburger when the club became overly crowded.

Sunday and Monday were uneventful. Hung out around the apartment, spray-painted some cinder blocks to use as speaker stands for the new bedroom speakers, read, watched movies, etc. It was the break that I really needed when I got back from Waco, and I enjoyed it, even if it was delayed.

That's about it, for now. I will finish up Christmas blogging soon, but it would happen faster if someone would give me incentive rather than just empty promises... Birdie.

The CD Fairy

I came into work one day last week to find this on my desk:



There's only one explanation, of course—a visit from the CD fairy. The CD fairy comes during the night (that's why graduate students have to go home at some point to sleep) and bring blank CDs to all the good little graduate sutdents and post docs. If you're extra good, she'll leave you a tootsie roll, too.

Vintage clothing, salsa, hopes, and dreams

I haven't written the Christmas day story up yet. It'll happen eventually.

When did I update, Saturday? I went out and played pool with Nathan, Melissa, and Sara, and had fun despite myself. Sunday, I took care of some errands—Jeff called me, bored, so we went to SoundWaves where I made some new purchases, and then to check out the vintage clothing shops in Montrose. I had been wanting to pick up a vintage sport coat to go for the t-shirt and sport coat look, and though I didn't find much, I eventuallly found one item which, for its price, was good enough. I also bought a sweater. I then dragged Jeff to the grocery store with me (he found it amazing that I actually buy food to cook), and we grabbed some Star Pizza before I returned him home for the debut of 24.

On Monday, I decided that I would use the new chopper my parents got me for Christmas, along with some of the groceries from the Sunday trip to the store, to make fresh salsa a la Rebecca—that is, tomatoes, peppers (she likes cerranos, I prefer jalapeños, though I learned that three is too many), onion (just a little), garlic (and plenty of it), salt (plenty of that too), cilantro (plenty of that) and lime juice. It turned out way too hot, but otherwise tasty.

I've got to go to the Genetics departmental retreat, as the Boss belongs to the genetics department. On the one hand, that means partying with the genetics girls, which (I hope) has potential. On the other hand, that means doing a poster (I spent an hour tonight trying to get the printer at work to print purple instead of the sickly grey that was coming out) and listening to lots of boring talks. I picked up a bottle of tequila, just in case a party breaks out. At least I don't have to do real work tomorrow and Friday.

In the electronics arena, I've just spent way too much money. I decided I finally had enough money to go for the subwoofer, so I wrote my audio dealer friend, and he offered me an excellent price. It's backordered, but I'll put up with that to order from someone helpful and trustworthy.

Then, I found that One Call had NHT's vintage SuperZero XU for about half of normal price, more or less what they go for used. I'd been wanting a pair of nice speakers for the bedroom, and I thought it'd be fun to have this "classic" model, so I went for it while the deal was still there.

Then, Apple announces a new iPod and it's so tiny and sexy and it will fit in my pocket very easily, so I figured it would be nice to have for general use and working out and the car, for all the times when I don't want to risk the full-size iPod being stolen or broken or otherwise weighing me down. And if the iPod mini was any lesson, this could be backordered for a while, so I went ahead and got my order in.

Hopefully, something will ship soon, and something will wait until the next credit card cycle to ship. That would make life easier.

Anyway, I should pack and sleep. Hopefully, there will be fun tales of drunkeness when I return (in addition to the ones I'm behind on telling).

Catching up on Christmas, pt. 1

I'm glad it's the weekend. The week has seemed long, and it's been tough getting back to work, but I things are getting better. I played poker last night—it was tournament style, which doesn't fit well with my style of play—and came in fifth of eleven, which didn't get me any money. There are other things I would have rather done with a Friday night, but sometimes, you have to play the hand you're dealt, or somethiing.

Now, on to catching up from Christmas. Monday, 12/20, was almost entirely spent cleaning my apartment. I really hate doing that. It takes several hours. But it was shameful before, and now it's not, though it never seems to stay that way for long. Tuesday, 12/21, I dutifully spent the day at work, and even managed to get a few things accomplished. Webmistress Amy had invited me to stop by for some goodies; so I ended up hanging out with her and some of her office-worker friends for a while eating unhealthy things. It seemed to go well. I'm not surewhere that's going, but I enjoy her, so hopefully it won't hurt to hang around and find out. I've resolved not to stress over it.

I came home to tackle packing and to blaze through the rest of my closet cleaning. I'd say that the volume of stuff in my closet is down by a good 2/3. I had bought a ticket for the Unicorns that night, since Holly had been planning on going (but backed out) and I had gotten the idea that Dan might be going (he didn't). I went to the show anyway, because they were excellent when I saw them in New York back in May. Instead, I got something very different.

The lead singer seemed very bitter, disillusioned, and pissed off. The crowd started heckling him to play some songs, and he didn't take it well. They would stop halfway through songs, and the performances that they made it through were generally half-assed. He kept referring to an impending breakup (which I had heard faint whispers of), talked about how much he hated being on the road, and so forth. He seemed generally pissed off to be in Texas (which is not uncommon, but it that was an issue, why agree to play a one-off show here?). At the end of the show, he poured a bottle of wine out on some girl and then threw water on the rest of the crowd. It was entirely bizarre, and though the spectacle was interesting, I missed seeing a repeat of the great NY show. Here's a picture of the show, which looks the way my show pictures from my phone usually look:



Will had called to say hi, so I dropped by Woodrow's—knowing that would ensure that I didn't drive to Waco that night—hung out a bit, and then went home and loaded up the car.

The drive home the next morning was nice. I had decided that I would listen to the entirety of 69 Love Songs which is almost the pefect length for the drive to Waco. That was a good experience; an album that is two hours and fourty minutes is normally outside of my attention span. I also had a Whataburger, which is always amazing.

It was good to return to Waco. It was nice and cold and felt like Christmas. Rebecca and I went to HEB to buy supplies for making salsa and chai tea. Dad cooked ravioli that night. I enjoyed some time with the family, made some fudge, and then went out with Thomas and Win for a few beers at Cricket's.

I got a haircut Thursday (12/23), ran a few errands, wrapped a few presents, and we visited some family friends. I caught up with Win, Thom, Bennett, and Goates at the bowling alley. The beautiful Kacie McClain showed up, which was absolutely thrilling as always, and we stopped off at Hemingway's for a few drinks (and were a decidely boring group) before returing to Kacie's to partake of her extensive collection of liquor samples from her new job for a liquor wholesaler. Apparently, Kacie makes excellent margaritas.

Inspired by David's past tales of a pants-optional lifestyle, Thomas decided that he would partake. I encouraged this, because it was funny, and was told by Thomas that I was "an enabler". Thom eventually got nekkid, and some nice discussions about his member ensued, providing a couple of particularly choice quotes.

Here's Thomas's progression towards partial nudity:






I stopped by to visit David on Christmas Eve before we went to church. The Ward family ate at Ninfa's afterwards, and I had the novel experience of ordering alcohol in front of my parents. Mom tried my Ninferita, but I don't think she appreciated it. It came out a little late, and as I was still working on it when we finished our meal, Dad suggested that I take it to go. I had to explain to him the concept of open container laws, and bars that don't let you remove alcohol from the premises. Oh, to be that innocent...

Thom was consigned to Groesbeck for the evening, so David and I met Win at work and got a tour of the Trib newsroom. We then went out in search of something to do, not really finding anything. We did get some Christmas Eve Taco C., and I have the observation to offer that, though the post-midnight Taco C. crowd in Waco is generally odd, it's worse on major holidays.

The Ward family opened presents on Christmas morning. In addition to the CD rack, the parents got me some socks and boxers (which I needed), a nifty tabletop bowling set, and a little food processor. Rebecca got me a sexy shirt from The Gay Latino Store. Afterwards, I was getting ready and hovering over my computer when Stephanie IMed me, started talking about how bored she was, and invited herself to drive in from Houston for a visit. Not understanding the extent of her boredom, I tried to convince here that it wasn't worth the drive but she would not be swayed or dissuaded. Lord knows whether there were ulterior motives behind that visit.

The Torrances showed up, including the illustrious Cousin Jer. We had a nice Christmas meal. Stephanie got here around 5:30 and had a plate of leftovers. We passed on going to see Meet the Fockers (thankfully), so I took her on a tour of Waco, and did a poor job of conveying mystical significance of the ALICO building. I guess you have to live here. She was most impressed (distressed?) with the bear pit on campus, to my surprise.

Stephanie declined to participate in the traditional Christmas day bar crawl, and headed back to Houston. Thomas and David showed up, and they, Cousin Jer and I soon departed for the bars. And that's when the weirdness began.

But you'll have to wait until next time for the Weirderst Christmas Day Drinking Experience Ever.

Welcome back

So, I'm back in Houston, after a great but too short holiday break. I've got great stories, I think, including tales of Carlilian nakedness, shirts made for gay Latinos, my first visit to a certain Waco establishment, a trip to the emergency room, a long drive for someone with nothing to think about, and Sabrina's glorious west Texas wedding. Additionally, my big Christmas present is here and assembled; I should have pictures.

The first half is written up but not edited. Until then, there are wedding pictures for those [1, 2] who requested them. If anybody wants full-size copies, e-mail me.