Invisus Manus
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Below are the 9 most recent journal entries recorded in the "herithoth" journal:
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11:41 am
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Grants progress
I've writing grants for eight weeks now. Last week sent out grant #1 and tomorrow will send out #2. Unfortunately, no time to celebrate my birfday last Monday. I had hoped to turn grant #2 in Friday, but helping my boss with #1 and him writing a second one at the same time made everything overrun into the time I wanted to be finishing my grant. Due to grant writing I was unable to do the following plans: celebrate Octoberfest at St. Arnold's brewery, listen to Houston Symphony play "Ode to Joy" (one of my favorites), go to the farmer's market, attend the Rice festival, and bake a pie. Unfortunately, I need to get some funding to keep working after next July so I have to stick to priorities. Only 10% of grants are getting funded, so my boss and I are writing four grants hoping to get at least one. It's tough when Houston has finally hit fall weather and is prime for all kinds of activities. I am glad for the opportunity to learn grant-writing and I am finally getting along (mostly) with my boss. I enjoy the grant-writing, just not what has to be done in the last week to meet the deadline. After this grant is done I still have another grant and a paper to write so I may be missing more activities that I had planned for the rest of the month.
I did at least go see Moby in concert with Zen_oven last night. The concert was great. I especially liked the dancing by his African American singer and his playing of the bongo drums. They do a great job with the lighting. I'm getting too old to stand for four hours. My back starts to hurt although dancing did help. I guess the lesson is that if things don't move, they hurt. That has some spiritual meaning too. We were distracted by some obnoxious woman smoking in the club next to us and hollering in her drunken excitement in my ear. Grayanna got into an arguement with her because she is sensitive to smoke. I spent too much of the time afterward thinking about revenge fantasies. I even thought about carrying some handcuffs and slapping her in some so the cops could catch her with her pot. Afterwards I thought that I should treat this like I do in meditation - label it as "thinking" and refocus my mind. I think this strategy might have promise.
Tags: moby, work
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04:48 pm
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Publication news
I received the news this morning that my manuscript was accepted to PLoS Genetics! This is my first post-doc publication so I need a few more before I can look for my next position. It's been a long time in coming, but hopefully the time to the next one will be shorter.
Tags: paper, work
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11:09 pm
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Work and division planes
My research meeting was very enjoyable. I asked a lot of questions that got excited responses from the speakers. Unfortunately that didn't translate into appreciation from my boss. I did get promises from competitors to share materials. That the majority of the talks were related to my project has led my boss to reconsider ending my project and even thinking about writing a grant to expand the work, but he still doesn't trust me to do the work. No recognition that most of my past interests and predictions were at least partially validated by my work and several others. I have heard that some bosses play head games where they tell their employee that they don't think they can accomplish something in order to get them to prove them wrong and work harder to get the work done. I wonder if this is what I'm experiencing. I'm planning to spend some of my remaining training grant period looking into other career possibilities. I used to think that I was going to pioneer a novel career path. Maybe that's still possible.
I had an idea that came up after a discussion with a colleague who noted that some people have a "clinical eye" to see meaning in details that others often miss. Some say that autistic spectrum disorders cause individuals to lack a filter for much of the data they receive which forces them to develop novel strategies to cope with data and to see novel relationships. I also read that some speculate that Einstein would have been diagnosed as ADHD and might have not developed his theories were he medicated. I often take the perspective of the "riding on a light beam" thought experiment to explore a new problem. On several occasions I have thought that the branch pattern of trees and the branching of vasculature (as I saw in the latex forms in the BodyWorlds exhibit) display particular branch patterns that reiterate much like a fractal. Fractals can be derived from simple mathematical formulas. Each of the branches must ultimately be tied to the angle of a division plane with respect to the prior division. The outcome of a division in stem cells, either to renew as two equivalent stem cells (symmetric) or as one stem and one differentiating daughter cell (assymetric), is determined by rotation of the division plane in fly germ cells. So the division planes of a vascular bed over space or the stem cell divisions in an organ over time could be depicted like Morse code and compressed into a simple formula. Not being a mathematician or a programmer, I'm not sure how to derive a formula from observed measurements.
Tags: division planes, work
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09:52 am
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Sunday 11/16/08
Last Friday had to pull an all-nighter because my boss demanded draft of paper Friday afternoon before his flight at 8 am Saturday morning. He pulled the same Office Space boss routine this Friday at 5pm. Luckily I finished by 11:30. I went home and made pasta carbonara with two soft poached eggs, grated pecorino, and pancetta that was outstanding. This fusion of breakfast food and pasta makes a great late night dinner.
Yesterday I went on a mushroom foray with the Gulf States Mycology Society in the Big Thicket. I have been trying to go on one of their forays for two years, but always have had a scheduling conflict. I gave up going to the Scottish weekend of the Renn Faire. There is really almost nothing on I-90E on the way there. Luckily they were in the parking lot of the ranger station to pick up some other late arrivals or I wouldn't have found the group because I got lost at the end and there is no staff in the station. I thought of a great use for Twitter en route. If the folks that went to the foray twittered that they went looking for mushrooms, I could search Twitters locally for "mushroom" and then sent a text to their cell phones when I was lost. I like the idea of our technology alerting us to people nearby that have something interesting/in common with us. Just wait until some sex partner finding sites take hold of that technology. The mushroom discussion after the foray was very good and we collected a big tooth fungus. Then I went to the Dewberry Farms corn maze in Katy. The maze was disappointing, but I bought blue moon and cinderella pumpkins to bake pies with. They also do a lighted carved pumpkin display (they're actually carved foam forms, but better than some Christmas lighting shows I've seen elsewhere. I ate dinner at El Rey on Washington and N Shepard. This is a Cuban restaurant with a drive-through, but that said, actually has a good tortilla soup, guacamole, and ropa vieja. They do caneloupe agua frescas and rotisserie chickens too. I may convert Zen_oven to liking Cuban food yet. Today I'm eating BBQ for lunch and Indian food at Himalaya with the Houston Chowhounds.
The winter switch got pulled yesterday. Very windy Friday night but our heat is working. It's 45F in the shade outside and the house is holding at the temp I set the thermostat at and not running constantly. This is a big improvement over the old system. The cold has me wanting to bake bread and do my Christmas shopping.
We've been watching Family Guy and the second season of Dexter. I don't know how I didn't watch Family Guy before. The fact that my childhood friend managed the writers on this show means that the humor is coming from him in part and makes it all the better.
I have been talking about wishing that there was a lolcat translator. I stand by my prior comment that the internet is a possibility engine that responds to our unconscious desires.
I HAS LINK 2 SHOW U BOUT TRANZLATIN SENTENCEZ 2 LOLCAT
www.speaklolcat.com
Tags: corn maze, family guy, heat, lol cats, mushrooms, work
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11:57 am
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Paper submission, arts, shopping
After a number of nights at work this week, I finally gave birth to the big paper yesterday. Excel kept crashing when I tried to modify figures. I still need to figure out how to convert a large supplemental Excel table into a Word table that fits into one page width. I converted it into a PDF but that broke it into two halves vertically so it looks weird. Hopefully the paper will get accepted and I won't have to go through more months of writing.
We missed Art Houston yesterday (www.arthouston.com) and the opening of the Big Show at the Lawndale Art Center while I was writing. There are a number of arts events this and next month. The Galleria is hosting Red Bull Art of the Can (www.redbullartofcan.com) for the next week. August 2 is an open gallery day in the Heights called White Linen Nights.
I visited a shop on W. Alabama called Foxglove. This place has a lot of chandeliers, wine carafes, corals, antique natural history prints, and furniture. They own another shop called Boxwood on W. Alabama next to the Fiesta nearby. Zen_oven and I tried Catalina 2201 Washington Ave for breakfast. They sell coffee within 3-5 days of roasting and serve pastries they toast up. The place reminds me of Open Eye in Carrboro when it first opened. I'm going to try their beans next week and see if they are as good as 3 Cups.
Tags: art houston, catalina, foxglove, lawndale, red bull can art, white linen nights, work
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06:50 pm
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June 29 catchup
Just skimmed the last two weeks of LJ friends pages. I've been gearing up for another submission of my manuscript. This week we got a bunch of new data that's looking good, but still needs bioinformatics analysis to figure out the really novel findings. I'm feeling more positive about work as a result. I just hope I can get my boss to let me do a little more thinking about it before we submit.
This weekend Zen_oven and I went to Classic Numbers and danced to goth 80s. I made lasagna with my new pasta maker KA attachments. I can haz fresh pasta! Anyone know where I can get squid ink to make into pasta?
Saturday I picked up my BBQ for our Chowhound BBQ tasting event at the Pearl Bar. I'm still not a big brisket fan, but there were some great ribs with a nice smoke line on them. There was also some weird smoke and oversalted meat and a lot of sauces that I thought didn't qualify as BBQ sauce unfortunately. I thought Luling City Market was the best ribs and they are right by our house. The avocado potato salad was also nice. I have a big crush on our Chinese leader who is quite the foodie and may become our local Yelp director if she gets the job. We even got to meet some of our local food writers like Jay Francis. We may be able to help set the food trends in Houston. (evil grin) I could have gone to a crawfish boil with the Houstonist staff (since one of them is a HoustonCH member) but our LA friends recommended against eating crawfish this late in the season. We watched "Shore Things" on PBS (the guy that did the hot dog show, the sandwich show, the ice cream show, flea market documentary, and strange buildings) which was another nostalgic trip down memory lane. Zen_oven and I talked about going "down the shore" as kids to Ocean City, NJ and Ocean City, MD. Living in south GA, I got spoiled by easy access to the FL panhandle beaches with the perfect white sand. We realized that we might become those people that rent a beach house in the Outer Banks so we can have some good beach time since there aren't really any good beaches nearby Houston. Then we checked out the many baby dykes at the Gay Pride festival and watched the parade. We closed out the night with sandwiches at Katz's Deli.
Today I made blueberry pancakes, cleaned house, and took Zen_oven to swim at our city pool on Dunlavy. Not too bad of a pool and adjacent to the dog park. We hatched plans to have a sleep-over party with sugary cereals, video games, bike-riding, etc. I was disappointed to learn that the new Bowl restaurant was not going to be like the one in Raleigh that serves cereal. Zen_oven really likes cereal as you may already know.
http://www.myspace.com/bowlsraleigh
Now we're having a restful period on da interwebs with rain outside.
I'm looking forward to a long July 4th weekend with no major plans other than eating through Chinatown with my Chowhound group on Sunday. Unfortunately no major vacation planned until October. Going to Yellowstone with greyanna and baalin would be perfect for my wilderness starvation, but Zen_oven doesn't have enough vacation time to do both trips. So I'm looking into taking a long weekend to Albuquerque/Santa Fe, Portland, San Diego, or Chicago since we can get some direct flights on Southwest that take under 4 hours flying time. I also considered taking the train to Big Bend National Park in west Texas and reading for nine hours on the train, but it will be really hot there right now. Houston always seems a lot better if I can leave it for a while. Unfortunately, I'm running out of new Texas places to visit.
Tags: bbq, beaches, cereal, gay pride, numbers, pasta, vacations, work
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09:04 am
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March 1
I distributed my paper and figures to my boss and the co-authors yesterday after staying up until 2am Thursday night. I did manage to get a catfish po boy from BB's before crawling into bed afterward that was pretty good. One of the good things about Katrina was that it relocated some good things like that from New Orleans. Hopefully the paper will get accepted, but at least I can enjoy the weekend without stressing about it for a few weeks.
Congratulations to mystictrance on her job promotion! Now we just need to get ladakalana a good job and everyone's job situation will be improved.
I went to the Rodeo parade today. Lots of folks do a trail ride of several days length into Houston for the Rodeo. I enjoyed seeing the miniature horses pulling a chuck wagon with kids in it. It was one of the longer Houston parades I've been to. I ate a gyro from Niko Nikos for lunch today. The weather is beautiful so we were able to walk there.
George Carlin is coming to Houston. Might be worth checking out.
Tags: george carlin, rodeo, work
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07:45 am
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Work and March events
Yesterday was a good work day. I added a piece to one of my figures that helps my argument and my boss will be moving me up to second author on the paper. I will be working over the weekend so we can submit to PNAS next Friday.
I'm looking forward to finishing so that I can relax on the weekend again. I've got some plans for March. They Might Be Giants is playing Mar 6 at Meridian. $20 tix. I think we'll try to get tickets. I enjoyed their show at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro. They did "Some Fantastic Dead Guy" with mannequin doll heads on long poles that they manipulated to look like they were singing along.
The Azalea Trail will be held March 8-9. I'm seeing some azalea flowers on my neighbor's bushes and our witch hazel is starting to flower too. Hopefully we'll have a good showing this year. Last year I missed seeing the purple ones at Rice University so I'm keeping my eyes peeled this time. We'll be in the 70s while the east coast gets blanketed with snow. This is the time of the year that Houston is a good place to live.
http://www.riveroaksgardenclub.org/AzaleaTrail.cfm
The St. Patrick's Day Parade will be held downtown in Houston on March 15 at noon in the usual parade location.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Irish_Aires/stpatspa.htm
We're planning to go to Corpus Christi Easter weekend. Hopefully it will be warm by then. I'm hoping that if we get far enough away from the ship channel that the beach will look better. Our forays to other beach towns west of Galveston has been unimpressive. Galveston may be only an hour away but it doesn't have nice beaches. Galveston island state park may still be worth checking out. It's on my list of Texas state parks to visit this year. We went to Sheldon Lakes last weekend. I thought we'd hit Goose Island state park on the way to Corpus Christi and visit the biggest oak in Texas. One of the barrier islands has a state park called Mustang Island also. This is the time of year that south Texas gets a lot of migratory birds so maybe we'll see some.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/goose_island/
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/mustang_island/
Tags: azalea trail, corpus christi, st. patrick's day parade, they might be giants, work
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08:50 am
[Link] | I forgot to mention that Abby took me out for po boys at BB's on Montrose for lunch Saturday. We had a fried oyster po boy and one that was roast beef cooked in gravy with chipolte mayonaisse. The latter was really tasty and fatty. I think the owners moved to Houston after Katrina and are catering to the late night crowd staying open until after the clubs close until the wee hours of the morning.
I had a productive day with paper planning yesterday and making figures. We still have several additional experiments that we need to get done this week, but getting the paper written is seeming more feasible than I originally thought.
I've been saying to Zen_oven that there will be a number of service companies that operate with a model like Netflix. I just heard about Baby Plays that allows parents to 'rent' 4-6 toys depending on fee level for 6 months. Then they can send them back when they outgrow them. http://www.babyplays.com
New ways to Opt Out of mass marketing:
www.worldprivacyforum.org "Top Ten Opt Outs"
www.dmachoice.org Direct Marketing Association allows persons to selectively opt out of various mailings
www.optoutprescreen.com or 888-567-8688
www.catalogchoice.org contacts catalog suppliers to block catalog delivery for free
Tags: baby plays, opting out, po boys, work
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herithoth's journal