Signs of Trystero

Last night I was working very late in the lab (hopefully for the last time), and the whiteboard in the hallway outside my office was oddly adorned. Usually this whiteboard is filled with information regarding what the lab next to mine has to order, but this time all it had was a single small image of a trumpet. So I added what I deemed an appropriate reference.

The Ninjas of Rock on Video!

Hello all,

In case you missed the rockin' show, my friend Torque from our haiku band The Five Seven Fives posted a video from one of our shows for all to enjoy (or despise). Feel free to check the clip out here. Or I guess you can just watch it here.

History of the World Part I


Families to feed,
To pretty for poverty,
Buy our album now.

(no seriously, I've got albums for sale).

Art of the North Part 1

So I've been in Alaska for a while where I've been seeing lots of mountains, water, glaciers, wildlife, as well as spending quality time with my parents and my girlfriend and her brother. I've got some wonderful pictures along the way, but those will have to wait to go up (and will probably be on ye olde facebook page).

But I thought I would put up some of the favorite artwork that I saw at the beautiful and absolutely charming Museum of the North in Fairbanks, Alaska. I believe that most, if not all, of this artwork is from Fairbanks, or at least Anchorage, natives. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed in the special exhibit, so I can't include adorable pics of those devastating killers of the North, the polar bear. I didn't generally write down who the artist was, nor what the title of the piece was, but I will include it if I remember it. If you ever get a chance to get up to Fairbanks, Alaska, I highly recommend it. But enjoy these for now!
This was the Listening Room, which uses music and lights to document the Earth's movement, the sunlight, as well as the tectonic and aurora borealis activity. Pretty cool.

"Ben Chagaduk moves a home to Takanok Bay" by Dan Doll (spelling questionable)
Traditional Yupik and Inupiak masks.
Billy's First Haircut by ?????
The Last Supper by ?????
Safe Sex by ??????
The Raven by ?????
Bringer of Nightmares by Mike Croskrey
Prom Night by Lisa Gray

Random Thoughts on Being in Atlanta

So I decided to take a last-minute trip down to the Peach State to visit my sister and brother-in-law and niece and have had a wonderful time doing so. Tomorrow is the flight back home to Mad Town before another extended trip North to Alaska. I don't really have a story to tell, but here are just some thoughts I've had.

First of all, my niece is absolutely delightful in every sense. She is probably one of the happiest and smilingest babies I have ever met the acquaintance of and I'm happy to know that she's part of the family. It was particularly endaring to see her like Dr. T's toys so much and the book we picked out for her, as well. Of course, she's at the phase of shoving everything into her mouth regardless of whether it belongs there or not, so needless to say the toys and book are now fully saturated in baby saliva. But I hear that phase passes at some juncture so perhaps future toys will fare better. Regardless, she is extremely even-keeled and has a wonderful and sunny disposition, in no small part due to her awesome parents, I'm sure. When she and my equally awesome nephew are old enough, Dr. T and I have already requested a week when they can both be sent to us to spend some time getting to know us and each other. We live all over the country, which makes it particularly hard for us to spoil them rotten, but perhaps an arrangement like this will make it easier. I have learned a lot about spoiling nieces and nephews rotten from my aunt, who was down here for a bit of my stay and was such a delight to spend time with as usual, so I'm hoping I can return the favor to the newest generation as she did with us.

My second thought is on Atlanta itself. It really is a pearl of the South, and I am increasingly endeared to it with each subsequent visit. It's such an interesting and refreshingly awesome mixture of people and demographics that is just completely unrivaled by Mad Town. Although it was also a bit of a shock to me when I found out that walking the half a mile back to the house where I was staying from the Braves Stadium (3-0 Brewers win. Go Milwaukee!) risked a run-in with a mugger at that time of night, necessitating a car trip instead. As much as I would like to live in a city, I think it's a shame that I will have to give up my privileged security that I've enjoyed in my times in Wisconsin.

I wore my "I will provide complete reproductive health care for all my patients" t-shirt today in a day-late-solidarity gesture for Dr. Tiller's funeral that I thought was today. I didn't realize how risky of a move it was as apparently there is a good portion of this city that, according to my sis and bro-in-law, would have become quite confrontational about it. However, my sister and I were at the Farmer's Market today and I was pushing my niece around in a shopping cart, when a woman came up to me and told me point-blank: "I really like your shirt," and then, with seriousness, gravity, and solemnity, and looking me straight in the eye, followed it with "Thank you." Only by speaking out and banding together are we going to ever get through this one. If people know that the newest generation of doctors are still willing to fight, then I think I've done my part. And I'm reaallly glad that it wasn't a scolding or violence that I had been otherwise warned to expect. But, of course, I suppose my best chance of avoiding that would be at a farmer's market, right?

Finally, my brother-in-law is a public defender in one of the counties in the area and it was interesting to hear generally about the legal system and the kinds of crimes (not ones he's trying) that go on down here. It's amazing to hear how completely stacked the cards can be against people of lower socioeconomic status. I mean, there's an academic part of me that appreciates that this kind of disparity exists and that it's a regular thing, but it stands in stark relief when I can actually talk to somebody who is on the frontlines. So after talking about that for a while, I decided we needed to lift our spirits with one of my favorite Chappelle Show episodes where Law and Order is parodied to show this disparity in the legal system. He had never seen it, and I think it probably hit a little closer to home than I could certainly own up to. If you haven't seen it, it is a must-see and absolutely worth your time.

Chappelle's Show
Tron Carter's Law & Order
comedycentral.com
Buy Chappelle's Show DVDs Black Comedy True Hollywood Story

Michael Bay-Splosions!!!!!

Hey, just because I'm a doctor doesn't mean I'm going to give up my rampant immaturity or my odd sense of humor.

Now, I'm no Robot Chicken fan, mainly because I think it heavily relies on obscure pop culture references and over-the-top violence, usually in combination, to get its yucks. However, it is for this reason that I deem it absolutely appropriate - nay, essential - that this show spoof a similarly one-trick pony like Michael Bay, producer of such oratorially challenged, eye candy like "Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor," and "The Island," not to mention the only marginally better "Transformer" movies.

In any case, Robot Chicken succinctly captures the best of the purified essence of Michael Bay movies in this short preview clip:

Well, I Guess That's That: On Becoming a Doctor of Philosophy

Well, I have my dissertation defense today and I was somewhere between doing really well and rocking it. While several of my questions were issues raised with technique and methodology, and while I completely bombed the line of questioning regarding basic chemistry stuff (eep!), most of the discussion was about the implications of the research, the future applicability, the meaning of certain findings and what relevance they had to the project and the development thereof. In essence, while it was still a grilling, it really felt like a discussion among...dare I say?...colleagues. And then, all of a sudden, I found myself being called Doctor.

I don't feel any different. I feel just as incompetent as before. But apparently I'm an expert in this field now, driven home even more by not one, but two, of my committee members strongly encouraging to re-write my introduction and add a little bit more info to turn into a mini-review about the topic. Because, from now on, that's kind of what I do.

This week has actually been a good week for MadDR2. I received word that my manuscript is being at least tentatively accepted for publication, provided I address the concerns raised by the referees of my paper, but in a very good and respectable journal. I also turned in another draft of a manuscript and am meeting with the proprietors of that data today to discuss changes that need to be made before submission, and, of course, I became a doctor. What should have been one of the most stressful weeks of my life ended up being 4 hours of anxiety and the rest of relief and celebration. Wish I had more weeks like this.

In any case, I received three very flattering congratulatory items from two separate people. The one was from my successor in the laboratory, a new graduate student named LC. He's an old-school punk rocker (I mean, he was actually alive and part of the scene back in the late 70s and early 80s), which totally rocks my face off. But he's not so hardcore that he'll discount anybody else's rather paltry punk rock past, such as mine, and still respects that while not a part of the scene, it still left a lasting impact on me during my younger years. So he rewrote a Minor Threat song for me to commemorate my recent accomplishment.

Here's the original:


And here's the re-write of the lyrics:

I'm a person just like you
But I've got better things to do
Than sit around and pass my cells
Go blind filling 96 little wells
Snort pink media up my pipetter
Now I’ll speak in words instead of letters
I don't even think about B82L
TKD can go to hell

My scalpel’s got a straight edge

I'm a person just like you
But I've got better things to do
Than rot indoors and write a thesis
I think I’d rather treat diseases
Laugh at being an academician
I’m on my way to become a physician
Sick of all these damn transfections
It’s time I made a defection

My scalpel’s got a straight edge

The second awesome thing I got was a certificate from Dr. Bizzarro, whereupon I have become the first degree-holder of a new illustrious degree awarded from the B.S. Institute:

For demonstration of unsurpassed erudition in a field other than sociology, and for extraordinary aesthetic achievement in Microsoft Powerpoint, the degree of

Doctor of Languorous Science (LS.D.) is hereby awarded to MadDR2

Bewilderment, Perplexity, Obfuscation

We believe because we do not understand

Yes, I have an official looking certificate that says precisely that. That will look good next to my Ph.D., my M.D., as well as my other BS Institute degree certifying that I am sociologically interesting.

Finally, Dr. T comes up clutch with the very generous gift of an iPod Touch. I need a PDA for the clinics and my old one just can't hack it without some major, and expensive updates. Because iPod touches can do the exact same thing, and are totally badass on top of that, she decided that she would spring for one for me for clinic.

Conclusion: the week has been surprising levels of awesomeness.

asdf

Doughboy

Image from here, to give due credit.

That's me. And I don't mean this one or the other good kind of doughboy, either.

I am now firmly and officially overweight. For my BMI tells me so. I'm usually pretty blasé about the validity or applicability of the BMI, and usually pooh-pooh the results, but there's no denying it this time: I'm overweight. I weighed myself yesterday at the gym (where, unhelpfully, I was unable to do nearly as much as I was able to last year around this time) and was just a couple pounds shy of 200. That's not good for a person my size. My usual weight of 185 is pretty solidly in the "overweight" category of the BMI, but now I'm actually nipping at the heels of being obese.

Now I've panicked about this before, and it's usually subsided, but this time it's different. I am now officially losing my pectoral definition. It's not that I ever had much to speak of, but you could at least see the chest outline clearly, albeit not particularly muscularly. Well, now that' just fleshed out into a dougy mass, and that's starting to make this thing all the more real for me. The paunch I've hated but have gotten used to, but this is going over the line (and, of course, the paunch is worse, too).

Take home message: graduate school makes you overweight. So does living in America, for that matter. I fear the physical consequences of rotating in medical school this upcoming school year. Maybe I'll just lose weight simply because I'm on my feet all day and don't have any time to eat. That's the way that works, right?

Ode to Jenny from Her Friends Measles, Mumps, and Rubella

I'd say this is a little bit harsh, but if she's going to be the face of the anti-vaccination movement, thereby embracing a profoundly anti-scientific attitude and a setting herself up as a menace to the public health movement, then I guess this kind of attack is going to be inevitable. Personally, I think it's kind of hilarious in a deeply sad kind of way. (Warning to non-science or -medical geeks who read this: there are some fairly upsetting pictures of children with measles, mumps, and rubella, but they aren't too gross, I promise):



[First seen at Respectful Insolence]