Scott's MD-PhD Adventure

Friday, September 29, 2006

Yours, sincerely

We all have to pick a paper for our grant-writing course. And some girl named Sakina picked one by Summers and Mason, whose papers I gather are notoriously difficult.

Rob, a white guy, emails everyone in our class:
Subject: another summers and mason!
Date: September 29, 2006 2:30:11 PM CDT

sakina, how could you? i thought we were friends...
rob


And then we get a reply to all:
Subject: Re: another summers and mason!
Date: September 29, 2006 6:02:09 PM CDT

Hahaha, interesting....

Yours, sincerely

Yijie Ma

NAMBLA! Part 2

Mark Foley resigns.

The whole thing is just funny. Apparently he tried to sponsor an anti-any form of potential child porn of any kind on the internet. But it was like no pictures of 12 year olds or anything, no more models at all.

New CNN article:
ABC News Friday evening reported details of three exchanges of instant messages sent between teenage male pages and someone using the screen name Maf54, which ABC identified as Foley. The congressman's initials are MAF, and he was born in 1954.

In one of those exchanges, Maf54 advises the teen to "strip down." In another, when the teen says he's wearing a T-shirt and shorts, Maf54 replies, "Love to slip them off of yhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifou." And in a third, Maf54 asks, "Do I make you a little horny?"

Wonkette has the ABC video! The re-enactment features one-handed typing! LOL

It's like how on Colbert, when he describes Fight Club, "Brad pitt! you can't be so hot in fight club! How am i supposed to stay straight when you're flashing those abs around!"
Foley instead is all "Stop showing me images of under18 boys! How am i supposed to stay a not-dirtyoldman Republican when I'm clearly tempted by 16 year olds!"

Thursday, September 28, 2006

NAMBLA!

Lili:

I heard a scary story this morning from oprah's show this morning. There is this association of people. They live around the school. They are called pedophile. They interview this woman. She is a doctor. Her ex-husband is a dentist. He was arrested. Then she find out he pedophile.

:)

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Pol I is shitty

I was googling to find some different descriptions of DNA replication for my exam tomorrow. I found this site which, while it's not quite fully detailed, it's a very good version of more detailed than average and explained in lay person's terms.

"Ironically, it is a shitty DNA polymerase. Whereas DNA polymerase III can replicate for several hundred nucleotides, DNA polymerase I has difficulty getting past a few dozen."
The drawings are so cute! With a little more zazz, the fish could be a fiend.

Why is the Daily Show being covered on CNN?

Last night the President of Pakistan was on the Daily Show. Weird.
Whitney Pastorek wondered, Why is the president of Pakistan on Comedy Central?
But I want to know, why is the Daily Show being covered on CNN? "Reporting" on the seat of heat sounds so funny and contrived.
Watch it here (I'll upload when youtube has it up).

Monday, September 25, 2006

Audra McDonald

New album coming out. Apparently they talked about it on ATC weekend.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
There's even one from a couple years ago I never heard of.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Chicken Noodle Soup

I was sick this week, and fortunately had some Chicken Noodle Soup with matzah balls on friday night for rosh hashanah dinner.

Janiece wished me a Happy 5758 this morning, and assured me that she does not eat her Chicken Noodle Soup with soda on the side. :)

Saturday, September 23, 2006

YouTube: Fry That Disco

Last night the over-30 crowd I was with said "What is you tube?" I remember back in the day telling them what a blog is! ;)

So I thought I'd post a few youtube links:

Fry That Chicken (from Janiece, Nikki, etc.). I think she's a man. I don't know though.
Daily Show piece on gays in the military, featuring a disco ball and "back fat"!

One can imagine typing in things like "Sondheim" and finding, I don't know, 214 results featuring performers singing his songs and old interviews with him. I don't know anyone who would enjoy that. ;)
You can even do a search for Sherri Shepherd on Ellen and bring up an old favorite

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

JT

Jeanna had a post about JT (Justin Timberlake to the un-cool) and I commented that Steve likes him too.

Today I get a text message:
"I was so embarassed today. I bought justin and clay at the virgin store, and there was a rap artist there signing autographs. I am so gay."

He didn't even know who the rap artist was.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Kool-aid

Some crazy Christian Zionist was on Fresh Air today talking about the rapture and why Jerusalem shouldn't be divided and how the gays caused Hurricane Katrina.
Drink up the Kool-aid and have a listen.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Bagel & Eggs

My parents are coming for Thanksgiving. Yes, that is over 2 months away.
Today's conversation featured:

Mom: So I thought we would maybe send you a check for food money, and you could go buy the things we like for breakfast.
Me: What???
Mom: Well your dad likes a bagel and eggs for breakfast, and I usually eat oatmeal. We're not too worried about lunch and dinner but we want to make sure breakfast is ok. Do you even have a coffee machine?
Me: No, but if you want coffee, we have a French press and real coffee. And you can't just eat what we have for food?
Mom: Well, your dad likes certain things and...
Me: Ok, well how about this. It's september, maybe when you get here, in november, we can see what food I have then, and if there's something you want, we go to...I don't know...the store. I know you have nothing going on in your life, but come on.
Mom: That's not true, we have things going on in our lives. But ok, we'll wait and talk about it when Thanksgiving is closer.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Wet Carpet

Apparently with all of the rain, some rolls of carpet got wet in this building. What's the best place to put rolls of wet carpet, and a bucket for them to drip into? Why, right by the elevator, naturally. My school = ghetto.


Yes that brown stuff on the bottom left is the gross water pooling.
Feel free to leave inappropriate wet comment jokes in the comments. ;)

Thursday, September 14, 2006

?

What's the deal with the question mark, question mark. Not since Mike's story of Jim Gibson has the question mark been so...funny. Last night's daily show was one of those moments where Jon Stewart reminds everyone why he keeps winning Emmys and why Joe Scarborough and others are full of shit when they say that the Daily Show makes young people cynical.

Watch it here and tell me whether it's the Daily Show making me cynical or Fox News making me cynical. And to think my dad loves Neal Cavuto!

Runway

Most recent recap.

"Angela designed a 'shrug' (that's fashionspeak for 'bizarrely tiny doggie jacket that real humans don't wear') that made her model look like Little Bo Peep — that is, if Little Bo Peep had slaughtered a lamb, skinned it, buried it, and worn the little furry pelt to its funeral."

Enjoy! :)

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Hell to the no!

Whitney files for divorce!
I hope there's a second season of Being Bobby Brown where we can watch it unfold.

Radiation Safety

All schools/states make you take this stupid course so you can be certified to work with radioactive materials in your lab. Of course, everyone just asks the postdocs in their lab "what do i do?" for any questions, and you get told where to throw things away and how to be safe. At the end of this 3 hour lecture, we have to take a quiz, which is open notes - we get to use the power point handout that the guy is reading out loud.

I'm the only one here with a laptop. there's about 12 Asians, 7 Indians, and a handful of white people. So I'm doing work while others look bored/falling asleep. I'll update periodically.

1:30 1 Asian asleep
1:54 2 Asians asleep
1:55 No, 3 Asians alseep! one was behind the pole.
2:00 2/3 Asians woke up. 1 Indian is down though.
2:02 Everyone woke up after a loud "This may be on your quiz!"
2:11 Another Asian is asleep. The Hispanic guy in lab coat looks like he's deciding whether to kill himself or the instructor
2:15 Instructor just explained that "radioactive Iodine will magically go to just the thyroid." Clearly not an MD. It sounded just like Sarah Silverman: "Jesus is magic!"
2:22 "Radiation can cause cancer."
2:23 If you're pregnant, fetal radiation monitors are available!
2:42 "If you sleep with another human being, you expose each other to 0.1 mrem/year. I like to think that's a risk worth taking."
2:50-2:57 break. "refreshments" consist of a box of wafer cookies and diet lime pepsi. A few Asians read the posters on the wall
3:20 Skin decontamination? "remove it with sticky tape." yes that's right. you can take some scotch tape, tape your skin, pull it off, and you're decontaminated. Or you can "sweat it out." It's like Beauty Shop! Syrup on your white sofa? Shout it out!
3:27 Their policy (with an allegedly memorable acronym) ALARA: As Low As Reasonably Achievable!
3:31 2 Asians asleep!
3:37 "You must keep your labs locked so nobody will steal your isotopes. They can make a dirty bomb with some firecrackers and P-32." Right. Someone doesn't want to steal my laptop, after taking my ghetto elevator to the 8th floor. If I don't lock the lab, the terrorists win!
3:46 I realized I'm sitting next to a professor I've had. He has his sandals off and he's writing lecture notes.
3:54 "We have on the waste containers 'Do not touch! Radioactive!' so that no one touches it. The housekeeping staff knows not to do it. We even have the warnings written in Spanish." This guy is such a Republican.

Bacteria + Aerobics?

This woman is just awesome. I heard it on NPR and got all giddy.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

It's back

The map at electoral-vote.com is being updated daily with Senate polls. Exciting!

Is he tall?

We'd been talking about going to Chinatown for lab lunch. Amy is kosher, so she doesn't come. Well Bob had to stay and do work, so Lili and I volunteered to go buy the stuff and bring it back.
Of course I wanted Spring World $4 lunch special, followed by Joy Yee's Bubble Tea.
As some of you may know, I'm a big fan of the $4 lunch special. It's actually really really good, and they could probably charge 5-7 and still get away with it. I went many times during M2 year when we skipped pharm and/or had a late afternoon workshop, usually with different people depending on the week.

Anyway, I had Lili call them and make sure they would let us get lunch special to go. She claimed she'd never heard of Spring World, even after I described the food and location of it. Well she called them and spoke in Chinese and confirmed it all it was ok. Now that she knew the Chinese name, she had in fact been there many times, and said it was "#2 best!" so I was happy. (When I first did my rotation, we went to #1 best! Lao Sze Chuan.)
So we go there, get the lunch menu, order some things to bring back, etc. The other waitress who she talked to on the phone comes out, says hi, and they talk in Chinese for a minute. We left to go get our bubble teas while they cooked the food.

On the walk, Lili explains that she had asked the woman on the phone originally "Which restaurant are you? American guy in my lab like very much!" and then realized what it was when she heard the Chinese name. The woman had asked "Is he tall?" and Lili said yes. Well their conversation after we ordered consisted of the watiress saying: "Yes! That is American I think of! He come here lot!"

Apparently I'm famous in Chinatown.

And on the drive back, I pointed out Nuevo Leon to Lili - now she wants our next lab lunch to be there. "I have had Mexican food, but never in restaurant." We'll be changing that. :)

Monday, September 11, 2006

6

I work on 8th floor. The main elevator I use is old and ghetto. It stops on the 6th floor on the way down every time. It's gotten to the point where I stand by the button, ready to press doorclose as soon as it opens. Oy.

p.s. I'm blogging again :)

Fall TV Shows

Here are the ones I plan to check out:

Ugly Betty
Studio 60
30 Rock
Maybe Brothers&Sisters

and of course House and The Office