Archive for March, 2007
Saturday, March 24th, 2007
Old Age
I went and got a haircut this afternoon. As I’ve passed the ‘30′ mark, I’ve begun to monitor my hair a little more closely. Not how it’s cut or combed, but the overall ‘level’ of hair. Is there less of it? Has my forehead been gaining ground?
Today, however, the lady cutting my hair only said one sentence to me while she was working: “You have thick hair.”
Thank you. Every time I’ve gotten my hair cut by someone new they’ve remarked at how thick my hair is. I haven’t heard it in the last year or two (probably because I’ve been going to the same place), so I can’t tell you how happy I was when she told me that. She made my day.
1 Comment » - Posted in Life by blaine_5
Friday, March 23rd, 2007
Finding Nemo
The E-man loves “Finding Nemo”! There’s fish, sharks, whales, and birds. All the favorites! I was just wondering though, am I the only one who skips the beginning of the movie (when the shark eats Coral and the other eggs)? In the E-man’s world, Marlin is single and has a single child for no apparent reason!
1 Comment » - Posted in Life by blaine_5
Friday, March 23rd, 2007
But I worked all summer for that Atari!
If you’re a parent, it’s probably happened to you. You’ve finally found the toy, in mint-condition, that you played with as a child, but when you present it to your toddler she only uses it once before it becomes the property of the closet. Or you take your child to see a park or a monument that you vividly remember visiting when you were just 10 years old. Instead of expressing amazement and wonder your child asks if he can go back to the car to watch a DVD. My son is only 23 months old and I’ve experienced a situation just like this. As parents our fondest wish is that our children will have a childhood that is as happy or happier then the one we had. We want to share our memories with them, to foster the same interests and loves that we value so dearly.
But as we all learn, you can’t force your children to have the same fond memories of childhood that you have. You probably can’t even recreate the same situations in the hope that they will grab onto the same memories. Maybe they don’t care about picking out the perfect Christmas tree or playing with that toy you found for only $150 on Ebay. All we can do as parents is to give them the opportunity to create their own memories. Each child is different and has their own preferences and desires. I’m sure that when we look back in 20 or 30 years we’ll be amazed at the things that our children associate with their childhood.
Here are two great articles (here and here) from the Wall Street Journal that talk about the disappointment parents can feel when their children don’t have the reaction they expected.
1 Comment » - Posted in Life by blaine_5
Saturday, March 17th, 2007
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
A while ago, for fun, I calculated the percentage of my and my wife’s Irish ancestry. It’s a rough estimate but as accurate as I can make it. My percentage is roughly 16% while my wife’s is roughly 20%. So I wanted to wish a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to 16% of my ancestors!
Comments Off - Posted in Life by blaine_5
Friday, March 16th, 2007
Spring Break
I was on much-need spring break this week and got to spend some great time with the E-man. The other night I introduced him to Play-doh for the very first time. He loved it of course, and played with it for almost 2 hours.
Today we went to Target for a little shopping spree. I bought “Stranger Than Fiction”, which I really enjoyed. The E-man got a “Diego” video. Then we went to the pet store to check out the animals. We loved the fishes and the birds and the cats! The small mammals were all missing though. Hope nothing terrible happened (like a snake got loose!). Then we went to Price Chopper to get some supplies in case coming Noreaster gets too bad. He feel asleep on the way home. We had a great day. I really wish spring break wasn’t almost over.
Here are a few pictures:
Comments Off - Posted in The E-man, Life by blaine_5
Tuesday, March 6th, 2007
I’m done!!
Last week I completed my final task as a graduate student. I had to stop in at the lab to sign a release for my last paper, which will soon be published. That signature was my last obligation to completing my graduate work. I was both exciting and a little sad.
In total, I finished with five papers, a very respectable number for the school I went to. To see a list, see Pubmed (there’s only four right now, the fifth hasn’t been added yet). I was a supplementary author on two of the papers, but for the other three I worked my a** off and as a result I am the first author. The review I wrote as a qualification requirement (which, by the way are seldom published!) has been cited by over 50 other papers since it was published! My second first-author paper is the data paper that I spent years doing experiments for. Ironically, that paper will get the fewest cites! My last first-author paper is a review of my research topic (a certain human protein), so I expect that will get a number of cites over the next few years since so little is currently known about it and I think it has a huge role in mammalian cells.
So, I’m glad to be finished. No more waiting for acceptance decisions or reviewer’s comments. Instead, I have a ten page paper legal memo to write!
