Episode LXXIII: Games & Fun

Rafael and I went to St. Louis last weekend to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra play, and yes they do put on quite a spectacle. Also, while we were there, we went to this place called The City Museum (although I am almost certain it is a completely private enterprise). Basically it is nine stories worth of caves, tunnels, ladders, slides, chutes, mazes and tubes for you to walk, climb and slide through. It was the most fun I've had being a kid since Kindergarten!





They even had a human-sized hamster wheel to run on.


I wound up with minor scrapes and bruises on my shins, knees and hips, plus a button on my shirt got ripped off. Which means it must have been a good time.



Also, guess what? My sister is in town! And she even graced me with her lovely presence. Here we are watching Avatar in 3D. Those glasses worked like a charm. It was like I could touch her!


California folks: hope to see you all soon. In fact, I am at the Kansas City airport as I write up this post. Everyone else: Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc. etc. See you in the next decade.

Episode LXXII: Giving Thanks in the Big Easy

In keeping with my newly-established tradition, this Thanksgiving I went on a seat-of-the-pants road trip. In keeping with last year’s tradition, I went with Rafael. On this particular occasion, our main goal was to get to New Orleans, but on the way we wound up hitting numerous cities, in eight states, in just about five days. Here are a few snapshots.

As you may know, I am fascinated by American history, including the Civil War, which made a trip south to Vicksburg, Mississippi quite fascinating, as it was the site of one of the most strategically important battles of the war. You can see that we took our tourism duties just as seriously.

One of the things I liked most about The South was its food. Both the fried-chicken/grits/okra side of things and the seafood/gumbo/jambalaya/crawfish side of things were very pleasing to my palate, and I availed myself of them quite substantially.

Even more spectacular to me was the music scene in New Orleans. Say what you will about New Orleans and the French Quarter (past or present), it must be the most happening jazz & blues scene in the world! The variety and quantity of music in such a small area was astounding. Of course the range of quality was also remarkable. For instance, we went to the Preservation Hall Jazz Ensemble show, where a six-piece band played very traditional New Orleans jazz to a small, jam-packed hardwood-floored room. After the show we hadn’t even walked half a block before we passed a club blaring lousy hip-hop karaoke music, speakers in the windows pointed out toward the street.

[In this photo, I join in the musical festivities:]

We took an additional trip down to the Gulf of Mexico, because- hey, why not? Sure it was windy and cold, and it may have been “against the rules” to jump over the protective sandbags, but you only live once, right?

We did eat a Thanksgiving meal on Thursday night. It just happened to be a Fancy Thanksgiving meal, with, for instance: duck-sausage-stuffed turkey, Creole mashed potatoes and a delicious caramel bread pudding.

Finally, no trip to The South would be complete without a visit to a plantation, no? These particular folks owned about two hundred slaves up until the Civil War!

Oh, and one last thing on the music. This was my favorite part. Here on the corner of a really noisy street, a bunch of kids- all teenagers, I think- got together on the sidewalk and played some really rocking New Orleans jazz. Band members, dancers and spectators came and went as they pleased, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it went on for six or seven hours both of the nights that we were down there. Good times…

Episode LXXI: A Slow Month

These last few weeks have been fairly unremarkable, except for the fact that we got our first snow on November 16^th, the earliest snow I can remember in my 3½ years here (don’t worry, it has warmed back up since then). While I’m waiting for something exciting to happen, here are a couple of recommendations:

A Book About Everything

If you are a fan of interesting things, then you should check out the book Freakonomics and its successor Superfreakonomics (the latter of which I just finished reading). Both books aim to use “economic” reasoning to look at all sorts of interesting and random behaviors, from sumo wrestling to realty to suicide bombing. What they are really doing is using science, and data, to look at the world in a different way. On the subject of fear, for instance:

-Should you be more afraid of terrorism or suicide? The average American is 575 times more likely to die of suicide than of terrorism.

-Should you be more afraid of guns or swimming pools? The average American child is almost 100 times more likely to drown in a swimming pool than die from a gun shot.

-Should you be more afraid of sharks or elephants? Worldwide, elephants kill at least 30 times the number of people sharks do.

I should note that some of the things analyzed in this book are fairly grisly, like drugs, violence and harlotry. So I amend my above statement to: if you are a fan of interesting things, and an adult, you should check these books out.

A Wicked (in a Good Way) Musical

I went with some friends last weekend to Kansas City to see the new musical “Wicked," a retelling of the Wizard of Oz story from the viewpoint of the Wicked Witch of the West and of the Good Witch of the North. It is quite a show, and has everything that the perfect musical should have: drama, action, lights, powerful music, comedy, plot twists, and fantastic performers. So, if you’re interested in really fun things, you should check it out.

Now I had gone super early to the show to see if I could get an extra (cheap) ticket for a friend, as all the affordable tickets (less than $70) had sold out. What they do is run a drawing for a limited number of unclaimed tickets for $25 a piece. I was a winner of the drawing, and the ticket I got for him was in the very front row (which normally would have cost $200!) And as it turned out, the seat next to him was empty and I got to sit front row as well. I also won a "Wicked" button along with the ticket, and wore it the rest of the evening after the show, until I started running in to people who had never heard of the musical, and thus thought I was endorsing wickedness. Which is in fact not what I was going for.

Finally: Happy Thanksgiving to everybody! Sorry to all my California peoples that I won't be there, but I should see you all soon.

Episode LXX: Paper

Hi everyone. I am happy to announce that my first scientific paper has just recently been published, in the journal Neural Development. The title is... (deep breath)... "The Arp2/3 complex, UNC-115/abLIM, and UNC-34/Enabled regulate axon guidance and growth cone filopodia formation in Caenorhabditis elegans". If you are interested, you can find it online at neuraldevelopment.com, or if you prefer, go to Google and search "Adam D Norris" (in quotes) and the first hit will be a link to my paper. How's that for fame and glory? [editor's note: subsequent to its publication, this very blog post beat out my paper as Google's 1st hit. Oh the irony...]

If you lack the time or the interest to actually download the PDF (and I wouldn't blame you for it), here is the title page for ya (note the authors- Adam D Norris et al.)-



If you want the interesting part of the publication, without the boring parts (that is, 99% of it), here is an example video of what I do. The point is, you see a neuron as it grows from the bottom of the worm's body to the top, similar to the way a neuron from our spinal cord would grow from the spine, around the body, and up to a muscle cell on the abdomen, for instance. Unlike in humans, however, we can keep the worms alive, light up their neurons with green fluorescence, and image them as they grow. Then we can ask questions about how certain genes and gene mutations affect the process of neuron growth.

(If the video gives you trouble, just rewind it and start it over again. And blame it on blogger.com)

So, getting a publication as a first author is very important, as it is usually a necessary step toward graduating with a Ph.D. Which is not to say that I'm about to graduate, it just means that I'm on the right track. No change on that front, as I still hope I can graduate in about a year and a half (assuming all continues to go well).

Episode LXIX: Canada- Land of the Canadians

One day Thomas Kuhn sent me a text message saying “I hear Vancouver is a nice city”. I replied saying “OK, sounds good, let’s go”. And that is the amount of planning that went in to our vacation last weekend (I exaggerate a bit, but only a bit). What follows are some anecdotes from the trip, neither exhaustive nor representative, but hopefully interesting.

The Stang

The first thing of importance is that while I was using the restroom at the airport, Thomas was secretly upgrading our rental car to a 2010 convertible Ford Mustang. Which, in the long run, I can’t say I criticize the choice at all.

Now one piece of advice, if you happen to have a 2010 Ford Mustang lying around (or a comparable vehicle thereto), do yourself a favor, and get someone to drive you up a mountain road with the top down on a crisp autumn day. Even better, sit in the back seat. Push the passenger seat forward, and use it as a footrest. Result: bliss.

Victoria

Victoria is a very lovely city, on an island that is only accessible via sea. It has nice old European-style buildings and gardens, and an excellent museum.

Speaking of Europe, I was surprised to see how much love there is for England in this region of Canada. Most countries are proud that they threw off the yoke of colonialism and became a free country, but it seems that in Victoria particularly they still think that they are a British colony. Every Canadian coin, in fact, has the face of the Queen of England on the front of it. Not a Canadian politician, or a Canadian leader, or even a Canadian citizen, but the figurehead of a foreign government! And the British Columbia flag has the Union Jack right on it:

Anyhow, guess what the $1 Canadian coin is called? A loonie! And guess what a $2 coin is called? A toonie!! No kidding. And believe you me, these coins are used all the time. Thomas and I got a big kick out of every time a cashier, waiter or panhandler would say the word ‘loonie’ or ‘toonie’ with completely straight face. Ha!

Not to be confused with their American counterparts:

Vancouver

So now we come to Vancouver and the post is already longer than I was hoping. Thanks a lot England! OK, less commentary and more pictures:

This postcard-esque location is a ‘clothing-optional’ beach. Don’t worry, it was cold enough that everyone (even Thomas) was wearing at least two layers of clothing.

The Winter Olympics are swinging into gear in just three months in Vancouver, so we went around seeing some of the sites. The figure of this statue is also the official logo for the ’10 games.

I will leave you with a pretty little waterfall north of Vancouver on the way to Whistler. If you want to see more pics check out the face book here (no purchase necessary).

LXVIII: My Country Estate

I recently spent a couple of weeks house-sitting for Tom and Beverly Griffin while they took a trip to Alaska (you may remember I lived at their house for a month or so, back before buying my condo). My job was to take care of the house, the mail, the plants and the pets at their lovely house south of town, which shall henceforth be referred to as: My Country Estate.


It was pleasant to become reacquainted with the pets, who were fairly well-behaved. One funny thing about them is that at dinner or breakfast time, each of them would try to eat out of someone else’s bowl, and would only return to theirs if the other two were already taken. For instance- here is a picture of Bandie (the dog) waiting for Millie to get out of the way so that Bandie can eat Millie’s food, while Raton leaves her bowl alone in favor of Bandie’s dog food:


Later, Bandie eats Millie’s food, while Millie looks on longingly…


So Millie approaches Raton’s bowl, which unfortunately had already been licked clean by Bandie:


One unfortunate thing was that Bandie tended to wake up at odd hours and bark incessantly until I would get up and let her out to relieve herself. For that reason I had the unusual (and involuntary) pleasure of seeing the sun rise.



I also had fun hiking around in the country. And these stacks of Brome hay doubled as acceptable Frisbee golf holes.


Being in the country, I saw quite a bit of wildlife. The weather was beautiful, so I ate almost every dinner on their back porch, where I could see acres and acres of country. I saw a group of five deer playing in their yard, as well as field mice, hummingbirds, fireflies, all sorts of unusual bugs, and a flock of wild turkey. Finally, speaking of animals, in the interest of being one with nature, I learned to enter and exit the house through the cat door.

Episode LXVII: The Summer That Was

The summer is over! School just started here in Kansas, and guess what? I’m actually taking a class for once! It is being taught by one of my ‘mentor’ professors, and hopefully I’ll learn a lot. Anyhow, here is a short list of some things that happened during the summer that was:

Rafael and I went this event called Symphony in the Flint Hills. The idea is, each year the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra plays an outdoor concert somewhere in the middle of the Kansas prairie, the exact whereabouts of which are not revealed until you purchase tickets. The day of, you get to drive out to the middle of nowhere, where you park in a prairie, then hike out to a field, where there are day-long festivities, capped off with a Kansas-themed symphony performance. It’s really quite remarkable, watching a top-notch performance, outdoors, in the middle of nowhere, as the sun sets, and cows and horses wander around you. I recommend it.


While my siblings were out here in the Midwest, my mom and dad, being the spontaneous folks they are, decided to fly to Florida, pick up a Pontiac Solstice, and drive it all the way back to California. What a crazy young couple, eh?


Readers of the Ballade with acute memories will remember that last summer I went to a carnival, where I won that horse-racing game, and got a stuffed animal who I named Billy the Boar, and who guards my truck from thieves and criminals. Well, I went back to the carnival again this year, and guess what? I won the horse-racing game again! Which means now Billy has a tag team partner, a cute but ferocious-looking cheetah who is as yet unnamed.


From the outside, of course, the only thing people get to see is their ferocious and menacing rear ends.


I have a roommate! Remember Rafael, my labmate? Well, beginning in August, he became my roommate as well. So far, so good. He (and his mom) have helped the condo look a bit prettier, and so far he has been an excellent roommate (he has even cooked dinner for me a few times already, though I have yet to return the favor). In the picture below you see that we had to remove the camper shell from Trusty Rusty to fit Rafael’s mattress (and even then it wasn’t a great fit).


And finally: one of the professors in the department was having a party at his house, and it included a couple of inflatable pools for the kids. His son was playing around with a squirt gun, squirting me in the back as I sat on the deck. So I dove into the pool, tackled him and splashed water on him. He then proceeded to cry for the next half hour. See? I’m good with kids! I learned him a good lesson!

Episode LXVI: The Siblings Cometh

Guess what? My siblings came out to the Midwest recently just to see me! They were here for about two and a half weeks, and spent a total of almost three days hanging around with me.

I suppose I was having too much fun to take very many pictures, but here are some that I have.

Here is Kyle driving my truck. He did a very good job learning how to drive good old Trusty Rusty, if I do say so myself.

One day the boys and I played some sand volleyball with some of my homies. After a few hours of hard work, we refueled ourselves with some all-you-can-eat pizza before jumping into the lake (that other Brazilian-looking guy in the picture is Rafael, my labmate [and now roommate, but more on that in a later episode]).

Most of my siblings’ time here was spent at a church meeting. Here is a picture from one evening where the upstairs meeting hall was so full that we had to go down into the basement and watch a live video feed (church on TV!!!)

We did lots of fun things in the Kansas City area, such as eating, driving, throwing a frisbee around, skating, bowling, playing volleyball, eating, skating, seeing old friends, driving, eating, and here: getting ready to play ULTIMATE FRISBEE!!!

OK, that’s about all I’ve got as far as pictures, I’ll try to do a better job next time my siblings come out to see me (wink wink, nudge nudge). I will leave you with two pictures that I managed to snag featuring myself with two different lovely ladies.