Lots of Catching Up
Wow, I am behind. Actually, it has not been all that long since my last post, compared with similar unintentional hiatuses (hiati? -- it is a Latin word, after all) in the past, but it does not feel that way. It has been a busy couple of weeks!
For one thing, angharad and I flew to Houston a few weeks ago to attend a brother's wedding. I had to suspend a number of lab activities to accomodate the break in my schedule (lots of things in the lab are done over several days, which means that lots of things cannot be started before such a trip). I took advantage of the opportunity to take stock of my cultures and do various little things around the lab, but it was still a fairly weird time. Some might call me a workaholic, but really, I just love what I do, and have a hard time stopping doing it. I do not think that one can really feel good as a scientist unless science is as much a hobby as it is a job, and doing it as exciting and rewarding and fulfilling as any recreation could be.
Houston was not as I had remembered it. In the four years (almost to the day!) since I had last visited, downtown Houston has transformed itself: it is now a place in which people actually voluntarily live and dine out and relax. Before, the skyscrapers were offices all the way down to the street. Now there are hotels and restaurants and stores and other such attractions. People are there after hours who are not bums. It is quite refreshing. Houston has moved up in my estimation from pretty much the last place in the States that I would consider spending any time in to about the same notch as Los Angeles: not a bad place to visit, under the right circumstances, and one that I might catch myself thinking that I might not hate living in, but still far from anywhere that I would settle voluntarily. It is still a sprawling tribute to the American suburb, with horrible public education and the country's worst air quality, where the pockets of liberalism endure at best against overwhelming conservative sensibilities.
The trip was also a reunion, being the first time in I cannot recall how long that my entire family was together. That having been said, one of us getting married (not to mention living in a house instead of visiting in the same hotel) meant that we did not see him much of him. Still, it was good to spend time with everybody. We also spent a lot of time with a family friend, who I had not seen in well over a decade, which was quite a treat. He brought his four-year-old son with him, which was an interesting spectacle. The boy was impossibly energetic but also curious and respectful and obedient: he would run off and do his own thing, but if it looked like it might be too far from Dad, or too unsafe or impolite or whatnot, he would respond well to being told to stop or come closer. Of course, he would forget all about that in a couple of minutes, but at least he would respond again when reminded. I am definitely not ready for that sort of drain on the attention, but he did seem like a fun sort of pet.
The wedding itself was fun, taking place in a historic brewery building and officiated by a friend of the couple. My brother has quite a sense of humour, to the point that the request to do the entire ceremony in a bad fake Polish accent was politely declined, although not the request to comment simultaneously on the upcoming presidential election and NASCAR racing. The wedding was the most formal that I had ever attended, and involved the whole featured-person-dancing-with-other-featured person things. My father was required at one point to dance, which he did with obvious though unstated resistance. At that point, angharad nudged me and said, "your poor mom!" Certainly, my mother was doing her best to humour my father's disgust with the music and his discomfort with being seen responding to it, but at the same time, I would have shown the same myself, a long but not unmemorable while ago, and responded with, "my poor dad!" I was encouraged by one non-married brother to get on the dance floor myself. I have never been dancing, and would not know where to start. This was the same point made by the other non-married brother when similarly encouraged, but he was also encouraged to do so by a couple of girls, who told him simply to pay attention to what they were doing and to follow suit as appropriate. He later said that he (the only one of us not presently in a long-term romantic relationship) had forgotten how much fun it was to be with a girl, "as opposed to not being with a girl," and took to it quite rapidly. I must admit to having been tempted myself. As the first-mentioned brother (the one who encouraged us to dance in the first place) pointed out, alcohol helps with these things. I had been drinking a bit, but for some reason it was making me feel tired rather than uninhibited, and so I declined. I suspect that I will regret that, although not very much: I really was quite tired!
All too suddenly, it was over. We headed back to Halifax, having picked up some musical-instrument things that I had ordered and had sent to my parents' house (some of it was simply not available in Canada!), as well as a carefully-boxed-up Pianet that had been sitting around my parents' house for a while. This is an impressively simple and effective electric piano, which somehow wound up being acquired by one of my brothers, and which had fallen prey to the standard Pianet problem: the sticky pads that pluck the reeds to make its sound had stopped sticking. I had discovered an online resource that sells replacements, and once I have the hundred dollars that it will cost to do so, will order them. Then I can finally start practicing keyboards again! In the meanwhile, I now have a headphone amplifier, and can connect a bass to my computer or iPod and play along without bothering angharad or the neighbours, something that I have been wanting for ages now. I am feeling quite good about this.
We took advantage of having another big thing in the apartment to clean the place up a bit. This was a long-overdue undertaking, but it was surprisingly easy to keep going until things actually started to look presentable. Unfortunately, we stopped at that point; things are not yet actually fully presentable. I am optimistic, though, that we can finally get rid of our moving boxes, and clean off the remaining horizontal surfaces. Then we might actually get around to having friends over!
Things took a while to step back up to speed at school, since the only other lab that uses the electron microscope was sending their EM tech off to a two-month workshop, and so they were monopolising the 'scope until he left. I have taken advantage of the time to start analysing the reams of data that I have collected so far, as well as to learn more about what I need to learn about. For a while I found myself feeling like I was working on somebody else's thesis project, in that I am simply not familiar with protist anatomy. Probably only half a dozen people in the world are, though, and my advisor is one of them, so that problem will be overcome. My advisor and I had a brief talk about that, and all will be well there. I have a lot of reading to do, and perhaps more importantly, a lot of thinking and doodling and internalising, but it seems possible, and more than that, inviting.
Adding to the impression of business has been my adoption, at long last, of two activities that I have been promising myself for many months. The first was finally to start attending my advisor's swordfighting practice sessions, along with our other grad student. This is not fencing: it is full-on medieval reenactment, with armour and shields and heavy, heavy swords. The swords are not real, I hasten to add: they are rattan poles, usually with PVC hilts, and always with light padding and copious duct tape along the blade. Still, they are probably not far off from how authentic swords handle. They seem like no big deal until one is given some training, at which point it becomes obvious that there is a surprising amount of skill and practice involved simply with swinging a stick at an opponent. After two sessions, I have blisters and bruises, and I have still to get into any actual combat, on account of my lack of expertise with the "blade". It is still a lot of fun.
The other thing that I have started doing is swimming. I was doing about four sessions a week at UBC, and was on the verge of swimming 500 metres each time, but I have not been swimming for over a year and a half since I left. I finally got to Dalplex and got in the water, and was astounded at how out of shape I am. I had no trouble falling into the pattern of breathing, but had difficulty dealing with getting air only at sparse intervals. I was also surprised at how much effort it took to inhale when one's chest is submerged. I managed 150 metres before my limbs felt ready to eject themselves from my body, but resolved to go back soon. Going back soon turned out to be with my friend and lab-mate (who also goes to the swordfighting practice); I managed 200 metres -- and with far less difficulty than the 150 before: I will catch up to where I left off at UBC soon, I think -- while he did 500 metres, and after almost a year's hiatus. He is very eager to make a habit of swimming together, which I hope will help.
Finally, the last week has been amazingly busy all by itself. Wednesday evening was the term's last DAGS Trivia game, which the Biology team failed to win, although our cumulative score was easily the best over the whole academic year, winning us a place on the DAGS Trivia plaque. I was voted the team's Most Valuable Player, a position that I still dispute! (It really was a team effort.) I have been encouraged to take over as the trivia master for next year, and I am thinking that I might actually do it -- at least if I can get some relief from running BioBeer! In any event, as per usual, we did not get home until well after 1:00 am. Thursday was the swordfighting practice, which was followed by an evening at a pub, which again had me coming home at well after midnight. Friday was a party at my advisor's house, from which I returned home closer to 2:00 am. Yesterday was BioBall, where I once again failed to dance (not enough alcohol, I think!) but had a great time with numerous friends, and returned home at around midnight, but stayed up late afterward.
Today will be spent sleeping in and doing laundry and generally relaxing. I have a serious shortage of hard drive space, and lots of music to import from classical CDs from the library, which are now overdue. I would like to practice bass some more, and I would like to kick back and relax with video games and books and napping. It should be a good time. And tomorrow I have a date to go swimming at 8 in the morning. Wow.
For one thing, angharad and I flew to Houston a few weeks ago to attend a brother's wedding. I had to suspend a number of lab activities to accomodate the break in my schedule (lots of things in the lab are done over several days, which means that lots of things cannot be started before such a trip). I took advantage of the opportunity to take stock of my cultures and do various little things around the lab, but it was still a fairly weird time. Some might call me a workaholic, but really, I just love what I do, and have a hard time stopping doing it. I do not think that one can really feel good as a scientist unless science is as much a hobby as it is a job, and doing it as exciting and rewarding and fulfilling as any recreation could be.
Houston was not as I had remembered it. In the four years (almost to the day!) since I had last visited, downtown Houston has transformed itself: it is now a place in which people actually voluntarily live and dine out and relax. Before, the skyscrapers were offices all the way down to the street. Now there are hotels and restaurants and stores and other such attractions. People are there after hours who are not bums. It is quite refreshing. Houston has moved up in my estimation from pretty much the last place in the States that I would consider spending any time in to about the same notch as Los Angeles: not a bad place to visit, under the right circumstances, and one that I might catch myself thinking that I might not hate living in, but still far from anywhere that I would settle voluntarily. It is still a sprawling tribute to the American suburb, with horrible public education and the country's worst air quality, where the pockets of liberalism endure at best against overwhelming conservative sensibilities.
The trip was also a reunion, being the first time in I cannot recall how long that my entire family was together. That having been said, one of us getting married (not to mention living in a house instead of visiting in the same hotel) meant that we did not see him much of him. Still, it was good to spend time with everybody. We also spent a lot of time with a family friend, who I had not seen in well over a decade, which was quite a treat. He brought his four-year-old son with him, which was an interesting spectacle. The boy was impossibly energetic but also curious and respectful and obedient: he would run off and do his own thing, but if it looked like it might be too far from Dad, or too unsafe or impolite or whatnot, he would respond well to being told to stop or come closer. Of course, he would forget all about that in a couple of minutes, but at least he would respond again when reminded. I am definitely not ready for that sort of drain on the attention, but he did seem like a fun sort of pet.
The wedding itself was fun, taking place in a historic brewery building and officiated by a friend of the couple. My brother has quite a sense of humour, to the point that the request to do the entire ceremony in a bad fake Polish accent was politely declined, although not the request to comment simultaneously on the upcoming presidential election and NASCAR racing. The wedding was the most formal that I had ever attended, and involved the whole featured-person-dancing-with-other-featured person things. My father was required at one point to dance, which he did with obvious though unstated resistance. At that point, angharad nudged me and said, "your poor mom!" Certainly, my mother was doing her best to humour my father's disgust with the music and his discomfort with being seen responding to it, but at the same time, I would have shown the same myself, a long but not unmemorable while ago, and responded with, "my poor dad!" I was encouraged by one non-married brother to get on the dance floor myself. I have never been dancing, and would not know where to start. This was the same point made by the other non-married brother when similarly encouraged, but he was also encouraged to do so by a couple of girls, who told him simply to pay attention to what they were doing and to follow suit as appropriate. He later said that he (the only one of us not presently in a long-term romantic relationship) had forgotten how much fun it was to be with a girl, "as opposed to not being with a girl," and took to it quite rapidly. I must admit to having been tempted myself. As the first-mentioned brother (the one who encouraged us to dance in the first place) pointed out, alcohol helps with these things. I had been drinking a bit, but for some reason it was making me feel tired rather than uninhibited, and so I declined. I suspect that I will regret that, although not very much: I really was quite tired!
All too suddenly, it was over. We headed back to Halifax, having picked up some musical-instrument things that I had ordered and had sent to my parents' house (some of it was simply not available in Canada!), as well as a carefully-boxed-up Pianet that had been sitting around my parents' house for a while. This is an impressively simple and effective electric piano, which somehow wound up being acquired by one of my brothers, and which had fallen prey to the standard Pianet problem: the sticky pads that pluck the reeds to make its sound had stopped sticking. I had discovered an online resource that sells replacements, and once I have the hundred dollars that it will cost to do so, will order them. Then I can finally start practicing keyboards again! In the meanwhile, I now have a headphone amplifier, and can connect a bass to my computer or iPod and play along without bothering angharad or the neighbours, something that I have been wanting for ages now. I am feeling quite good about this.
We took advantage of having another big thing in the apartment to clean the place up a bit. This was a long-overdue undertaking, but it was surprisingly easy to keep going until things actually started to look presentable. Unfortunately, we stopped at that point; things are not yet actually fully presentable. I am optimistic, though, that we can finally get rid of our moving boxes, and clean off the remaining horizontal surfaces. Then we might actually get around to having friends over!
Things took a while to step back up to speed at school, since the only other lab that uses the electron microscope was sending their EM tech off to a two-month workshop, and so they were monopolising the 'scope until he left. I have taken advantage of the time to start analysing the reams of data that I have collected so far, as well as to learn more about what I need to learn about. For a while I found myself feeling like I was working on somebody else's thesis project, in that I am simply not familiar with protist anatomy. Probably only half a dozen people in the world are, though, and my advisor is one of them, so that problem will be overcome. My advisor and I had a brief talk about that, and all will be well there. I have a lot of reading to do, and perhaps more importantly, a lot of thinking and doodling and internalising, but it seems possible, and more than that, inviting.
Adding to the impression of business has been my adoption, at long last, of two activities that I have been promising myself for many months. The first was finally to start attending my advisor's swordfighting practice sessions, along with our other grad student. This is not fencing: it is full-on medieval reenactment, with armour and shields and heavy, heavy swords. The swords are not real, I hasten to add: they are rattan poles, usually with PVC hilts, and always with light padding and copious duct tape along the blade. Still, they are probably not far off from how authentic swords handle. They seem like no big deal until one is given some training, at which point it becomes obvious that there is a surprising amount of skill and practice involved simply with swinging a stick at an opponent. After two sessions, I have blisters and bruises, and I have still to get into any actual combat, on account of my lack of expertise with the "blade". It is still a lot of fun.
The other thing that I have started doing is swimming. I was doing about four sessions a week at UBC, and was on the verge of swimming 500 metres each time, but I have not been swimming for over a year and a half since I left. I finally got to Dalplex and got in the water, and was astounded at how out of shape I am. I had no trouble falling into the pattern of breathing, but had difficulty dealing with getting air only at sparse intervals. I was also surprised at how much effort it took to inhale when one's chest is submerged. I managed 150 metres before my limbs felt ready to eject themselves from my body, but resolved to go back soon. Going back soon turned out to be with my friend and lab-mate (who also goes to the swordfighting practice); I managed 200 metres -- and with far less difficulty than the 150 before: I will catch up to where I left off at UBC soon, I think -- while he did 500 metres, and after almost a year's hiatus. He is very eager to make a habit of swimming together, which I hope will help.
Finally, the last week has been amazingly busy all by itself. Wednesday evening was the term's last DAGS Trivia game, which the Biology team failed to win, although our cumulative score was easily the best over the whole academic year, winning us a place on the DAGS Trivia plaque. I was voted the team's Most Valuable Player, a position that I still dispute! (It really was a team effort.) I have been encouraged to take over as the trivia master for next year, and I am thinking that I might actually do it -- at least if I can get some relief from running BioBeer! In any event, as per usual, we did not get home until well after 1:00 am. Thursday was the swordfighting practice, which was followed by an evening at a pub, which again had me coming home at well after midnight. Friday was a party at my advisor's house, from which I returned home closer to 2:00 am. Yesterday was BioBall, where I once again failed to dance (not enough alcohol, I think!) but had a great time with numerous friends, and returned home at around midnight, but stayed up late afterward.
Today will be spent sleeping in and doing laundry and generally relaxing. I have a serious shortage of hard drive space, and lots of music to import from classical CDs from the library, which are now overdue. I would like to practice bass some more, and I would like to kick back and relax with video games and books and napping. It should be a good time. And tomorrow I have a date to go swimming at 8 in the morning. Wow.