White People Like...

Heres a link to a blog I found a while back and have been meaning to post.

Stuff White People Like

Its exactly as it sounds. He has a pretty comprehensive list of things that white people do in deed like. Of the 90 items currently listed, I would say that I like 42 of them or approximately 46%. At first I thought, "Damn it I am soooo white...what a cliche I must be living." Of course then i figured that its taken me this far might as well just keep on with it. So with that, I am probably going to be putting a down payment on the new prius before going to see Juno for the fifth time after meeting up with my gay friends for sushi at the little japanese restaurant thats right next to the quaint little coffee shop and breakfast place I like to go to and read the sunday new york times. ahhh...i feel right at home now. Anyways, check the list out and let me know how you score. Patrick OUT!!!

March Madness

So its that time of year again when the snow has finally started to melt away and the sound of birds can once again be heard echoing through the newly flowering trees. Unfortunately, the other thing we have now started to hear echoing is the voice of the inimitable dick vitale. The voice of college basketball and the NCAA tournament is back BABY. Another year of listening to his rants about the quality of the Duke program and coach K...when they aren't even playing. They made the tournament this year...again and as a #2 seed no less. I hope they lose. Don't get me wrong, they have a strong tradition but they are the yankees of college hoops and just the fact that I can reasonably make such a comparison means they must be despised to their very core. Of course, when I fill out my bracket they will do well...not because I favor them but because I know better than to fill it out on tilt. However, my pick for the end...the other ACC powerhouse, North Carolina. Sure, i've only seen two of their games this year but I can already tell that they are going to win it all...its a lock. UMass didn't make the tournament this year, which is good because now I don't feel the obligatory alumni response of pushing them exactly one round further than they could ever be expected to get. There are a few new teams in the tourney this year though and I figure if I've never heard of the school then what are the chances of them actually winning. I mean seriously, is UMBC actually expected to go anywhere or Coppin St., I have absolutely no idea where that even is. I think that all state schools should have at least somewhere in their name, the state that they represent. Another surprise for me was Oral Roberts University, which together with occidental should, in my mind, turn out the finest dentists and orthodontists in the world. In stead they turn out religious right conservatives and california uber-liberals...ahhhhh, the worst of both worlds and neither one has a dental school. Furthermore, neither is going to win the big dance this year. Anyways, we started a pool for the lab /office so people can get their gambling fix in regardless of what deval patrick and sal demassie figure out. I still need to fill out my bracket and I'm thinking about filling it out based solely on the number of graduate students they have. Those with lower percentages of grad students indicate to me that their focus lies elsewhere...like in basketball. Thus the number of grad students is directly proportional to the importance of graduate research to the administration and thus inversely proportional to the quality of the athletic program for a good example see WPI Div III champions in lots of stuff. The inverse being UMass...lots of grad students but a somewhat lackluster athletic program ( I know the swimming team and gymnastics teams are both top notch but nobody really pays attention to them anyways.) Following the tournament, an update will follow as to how my strategy turned out relative to random guessing and picking higher seeds. Patrick OUT!!!

Chuck Norris is BACK

In a crazy mixed up place like Iraq...there apparently is one ounce of sanity and its name is Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris in Iraq

The last line is by far the best thing I have ever seen in a reuters news article and truly sage advice for not just the Iraqis but for us ALL. Patrick OUT!!!

Playoff Odds

Kevin Garnett Shoots the Ball
Originally uploaded by interbasket

So last night the Celtics won against the Pistons and in the process have gained the first clinched playoff spot. First of all this is absurd and its really an oddity in professional sports. The NBA has a playoff scheme with less sense than some fraternity beer pong tournaments. Here's how it goes...the top 8 teams from each conference (there are two for you non-sports fans) make it to the playoffs. As I do my math...thats 16 teams vying for a championship. Heres the catch...there are only 30 teams TOTAL. Thus, the entire season doesn't even eliminate half the teams from contention. In my mind...this would be like the presidential primaries going on for 8 months only to eliminate Dennis Kucinich and Tom Vilsack. Just isn't satisfying...I want to see people go down in flames and other really fight to win as they teeter just on the edge of contention. Why do we bother with a season at all...why not just extend a playoff bracket all the way to the beginning and seed teams based on last years performance. Ok, so I don't really believe thats a good idea but I think it would save a lot of time. But seriously, if they playoffs started today the celtics would be playing the NJ Nets who dont even have a winning record. If you can't manage to win even half your games over the course of a season then why should you ever be considered a contender for the championship. My solution...turn the NBA playoffs into the NFL playoffs. Each division winner (3 per conference) and then a wild card team. That brings down you numbers to only 8 total teams in the playoffs which means we eliminate 70% during the regular season...thereby giving people a reason to watch the regular season. I'm kind of feeling like...we have now played just over 70% of the season...so why not just give our team a rest for 20 games or so to get really refreshed for the playoffs while the rest of the rif-raf duke it out for the remaining 15 spots. Go Big Baby!!! Patrick OUT!!!

How does this even happen

So it all comes down to not so super tuesday. John McCain will almost certainly clinch his nomination for the GOP and hillary and barack with duke it out for potentially the final time. I think the rest of the world would agree that under no circumstances should Texas and Ohio be involved in really deciding the outcome of an election. I saw yesterday on the news the department of commerce estimated that Ohio has the 7th largest GDP in the country and the 17th largest in the world falling somewhere in between the netherlands and belgium. In addition, Ohio is the nations leading producer of swiss cheese (according to their department of commerce). I'm not sure why they would admit to such a thing...a clearly defective fromage if I've ever seen one developed by a nation that can't take a stance on anything except suspicious banking practices. Now if they were the leading producer of american cheese in all its orange, melty, individually wrapped goodness then I might be able to get behind their power over the political system. If there was ever a more appropriately named national food than American cheese, i've never heard of it. I mean seriously it a hyper processed amalgamation of cheeses with foreign heritages melded together and then individually packaged and sold. Further than that...the color...orange is not a cheese color. BUT...its not always orange...sometimes its white which kind of makes sense. Kind of like americans...they don't always fit into categories but you know one when you see one. I guess my tirarde on the societal implications and clear metaphors regarding processed dairy products can wait until later (i haven't even touched on cool whip yet). But seriously, why Ohio and Texas? Hasn't texas done enough already? Shouldn't they have their say removed for a while...like a punishment. I mean really Tex...you did alright with LBJ and all but then we get dubya...i think that deserves at the very least a "time out" in the corner so you can think about what you've done. Don't get me wrong here...I don't think my home state is doing much better in the political arena...Romney was less than spectacular and dukakis was somewhat embarassing (to say nothing of TEDDY). Going back a few years we did have JFK hailing form the Bay State buts its been kind of downhill since then and I'm not sure we can claim to be number one in anything except maybe, "Most Dropped R's per capita". And then of course, most NBA championships all time, most NHL playoff appearances all time, and most NFL and MLB championshipsin the last 5 years. That makes me feel better. Patrick OUT!!!

How Does This Happen

So it all comes down to not so super tuesday. John McCain will almost certainly clinch his nomination for the GOP and hillary and barack with duke it out for potentially the final time. I think the rest of the world would agree that under no circumstances should Texas and Ohio be involved in really deciding the outcome of an election. I saw yesterday on the news the department of commerce estimated that Ohio has the 7th largest GDP in the country and the 17th largest in the world falling somewhere in between the netherlands and belgium. In addition, Ohio is the nations leading producer of swiss cheese (according to their department of commerce). I'm not sure why they would admit to such a thing...a clearly defective fromage if I've ever seen one developed by a nation that can't take a stance on anything except suspicious banking practices. Now if they were the leading producer of american cheese in all its orange, melty, individually wrapped goodness then I might be able to get behind their power over the political system. If there was ever a more appropriately named national food than American cheese, i've never heard of it. I mean seriously it a hyper processed amalgamation of cheeses with foreign heritages melded together and then individually packaged and sold. Further than that...the color...orange is not a cheese color. BUT...its not always orange...sometimes its white which kind of makes sense. Kind of like americans...they don't always fit into categories but you know one when you see one. I guess my tirarde on the societal implications and clear metaphors regarding processed dairy products can wait until later (i haven't even touched on cool whip yet). But seriously, why Ohio and Texas? Hasn't texas done enough already? Shouldn't they have their say removed for a while...like a punishment. I mean really Tex...you did alright with LBJ and all but then we get dubya...i think that deserves at the very least a "time out" in the corner so you can think about what you've done. Don't get me wrong here...I don't think my home state is doing much better in the political arena...Romney was less than spectacular and dukakis was somewhat embarassing (to say nothing of TEDDY). Going back a few years we did have JFK hailing form the Bay State buts its been kind of downhill since then and I'm not sure we can claim to be number one in anything except maybe, "Most Dropped R's per capita". And then of course, most NBA championships all time, most NHL playoff appearances all time, and most NFL and MLB championships in the last 5 years. That makes me feel better. Patrick OUT!!!

Back at Last

So I watched my first baseball game of the new season today. Really a magical moment every spring (i know its not quite spring yet but still) when the memories of football season have started to finally fade and something new most come to take its place. While the celtics are doing as well as I have ever seen them, baseball will always be something a bit more. To see them on TV is also something of a constant that I need again. Its like an old friend that is always there for you...usually predictable but punctuated with moments of excitement that keep you coming back. To some degree this week has been about old friends for me. After meeting up with someone from my past whom I hadn't seen in eight years or so, it really got me thinking about where I've been in the last eight years and how much has changed and how much has stayed the same. A good chance to reevaluate things and take stock. Perhaps the draining winter months play a part as well but it was certainly a bittersweet moment through and through. On a much shorter time scale my best friend asked me to be his best man which is quite an honor and I'm certainly looking forward to all that it brings my way as both a challenge and an opportunity. Furthermore, i hope that in the coming months I can reconnect with people like I have not done in the past and really make an effort to reach out to some people whom I have unfortunately left out of my life. With that said and a promise made to myself in that light it is also worthy to note that we are approaching (technically i guess it already started) WPI's spring break this week. Not so much of a break for me perse but it is a marker of time passed and a harbinger of the ending school year. Of course, this means that the undergrads I have had the privelage of working with these past few months will be leaving. Jobs for some, more school for others. That too, unlike most other years, will be bittersweet. As they go, for the first time, I feel like I have had some influence over their futures maybe taught a few of them a thing or two they just might use and hopefully made them better and more thoughtful scientists in the process. While I had all but sworn off the realm of academia as the provider of my future employment, I find myself reconnecting a bit to its higher ideals. I wonder if the point of it all is not necessarilly making ground breaking a lucrative scientific discoveries and if maybe I would find more joy and empowerment in the knowledge that I was passing on a scientific tradition to others. While I haven't quite sold myself on the idealized rhetoric of the college viewbook ilk...i can no longer count it out entirely. Perhaps, I've been listening to too much Obama but maybe a bit of my cynicism will melt away this spring. Of course, if the red sox stage a monumental collapse in august...all bets are off in that department. Patrick OUT!

Choices

So I figure I have two choices for this entry. I can either write about the political drama that is quickly unfolding before our eyes or I can write a review of Jumper. Being that I saw jumper more than a week ago, i'm not sure I could really do this film the justice that its scathing review really deserves. What I will say is that it was an hour and half of an insult to celluloid. Seriously, if I was a film roll and my fate was to be printed with the likes of Jumper...I would be totally pissed right now. That said, it may be both hayden christianson's finest performance and perhaps sam jackson's worst. That not withstanding, sam jackson is still better than hayden...though not by much. In short...this movie SUCKS.

On to the political season of a lifetime. Clinton vs. Obama...steel cage match of a lifetime. I watched the big debate on tuesday between these two democratic demagogues and I was thoroughly impressed. Not so much by either candidate but by a political process that allows for a neoliberal neophyte like the big O to go so far without so much as a clue as to what he is really doing. I am really blown away by the sheer number of voters out there who are eating his "hope for america" and "america's soul needs fixing" stuff for breakfast. It reeks of jonestown and the peoples temple but on a massive scale. No end game in sight...no need he is going to walk away with the nomination and just might stroll into office. I remember an SNL clip (unfortunately I couldn't find it on YouTube this time), wherein Mike Dukakis is listening to George H.W. Bush in a "debate" and remarking..."I can't believe I'm loosing to this guy." I think it followed some lines about "staying the course" and "thousand points of light" or some bullshit like that. If you replace...those "thousand points of light" with "change we can believe in" you have barack obama with a bad haircut and a more palatable spouse. Normally, I wouldn't pick on the family of a candidate...unless that candidates last name rhymed with "blinton" and then of course all bets are off. BUT...Michelle Obama kills me...not proud of america until just now. I mean maybe she means politically but even still...what about all the great politicians of the past. Even as a liberal...she must be a little proud of reagan and the end of the cold war in 1989. She is old enough to remember when MLK was alive and the great advances made politically during that time. The passage of the civil rights acts of 1964 and 1968. Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969 etc. It is really a sad state of affairs when a candidates family is willing to sell out the accomplishments of a country for a cheap political ploy. But back to the main event...Barack. Where did this guy even come from...he has no right to be a successful candidate. In any other election year he would have been out many months ago but this year the rules are seemingly a bit different and he is the benefactor of that change. Had America changed...i don't think so. I think they are being fooled and will quickly be made fools of when he is allowed into office. I am no fan of hillary but I can acknowledge that she is intelligent and a leader with a track record of achievement. I disagree with her on most everything but I understand why she is a viable candidate and could understand her presidency. Obamas got nothing but the support of limousine liberals and short sighted college kids who have become so wrapped up in his speech that they forget about the substance of it all. The debate makes it clear...hillary tries and tries to poke holes in barack's armor bestowed upon him by the media and political elites but to no avail. He makes her look foolish without ever saying a thing. How frustrating must it be to know you haven't a snowballs chance in hell to win a race that you should be winning...if logic was still the rule. Meanwhile McCain sits back and waits for his opponent and he must be worried...watching what is happening to the clinton campaign machine...perhaps the most well oiled and battle tested of them all. It would take a "vast right wing conspiracy" to defeat obama now. Maybe hillary should have been focusing more on gaining a vast left wing conspiracy back in '98...then she might not be in such a bind today. I guess it comes down to Ohio and Texas but even those are looking increasingly out of reach for the she-devil. I guess we are too far past the old "ask not what your country can do for you." We've moved on to "ask not what your candidate can do for you but ask what you can do for your candidate." My answer...not much. Patrick OUT!!

Registered Gift Offender

So my sisters (and my fathers) birthday was this past week. She is getting married in June and so for this birthday we had the benefit of a gift registry to figure out what she really wanted. There could really be nothing easier and it is a sure bet for a good gift. This got me thinking...why don't people have gift registries all the time. Its acceptable for weddings and perhaps for baby's and stuff like that so why not have a birthday registry. It really seems like the most pragmatic way to do business. I figure I should start a constantly updated registry that would be open to the world. Thus, anytime someone wanted to show their adoration, admiration, or appreciation...they could look at the registry and pick out the perfect gift or I guess to be more precise they would purchase the gift that I had already decided on as being the perfect gift. I'm really taking the time out of my own busy schedule to make it easier for other people to buy me things. That in and of itself is probably worth a gift here and there. Of course with any registry you run into that unavoidable problem of figuring out how much people want to spend. Of course there is always the big ticket item for that long lost billionaire third cousin twice removed that now wants to reconnect through material goodness (i'm still waiting on that one). For them I would probably have something like this

but I would have it in black...goes better with my eyes.
I also think it would be a neat opportunity to indulge and perhaps expose some of the more obscure desires (i'm not talking fetishes here...though that might be an option for some). More like the overwhelming desire to have three pounds of red, green and yellow skittles in 5:4:3 ratio thereby creating the most delicisous combination in every bite and also allowing for the easy creation of a gigantic right triangle with monochromatic sides (look it up). It would also serve to eliminate those gifts that I clearly dont want. Like www.starregistry.com . I mean seriously...naming a star after someone??? Who falls for this? Do they really believe there is a registry for star names and that for the rest of eternity scientists and school children will be remembering the name Nancy Joe Watson in the Upsilon prime nebula. I think not... Furthermore who buys that sort of thing...its almost like one of those, " a donation was made in your name to..." Except in this case it would read, " A donation was made in your name to a crack pot company of dubious repute for the fictitious naming of a star in an international registry which is only international because the money goes to an american and the call is taken by an underpaid worker in bangladesh...have a great day." To those people I say...forget about naming a star after me or anyone else...focus on visiting it yourself. Patrick OUT!!!

Presidents Day

So tomorrow is Presidents Day. Of course, I don't get that day off because WPI is rather miserly with not only holidays but also weather cancellations. You would think in a city like worcester with its massive hills that we would have more frequent weather closings...alas it is not meant to be. Back to the original subject: Presidents Day...i'm actually not all that upset about not getting this monday holiday off. In my mind, this amongst all the major monday federal holidays is the least deserving of a day off. Seriously people...who celebrates presidents day besides used car salesmen. Are there any families out there that all gather around to remember the greatness of george washington and abe lincoln. Does anyone light two candles in remembrance or sing presidential carols around a replica white house shrub...I think not (though they might be traditions i would start in my own family). I totally understand things like memorial day and veterans day...people go and do things on those days and its right to give people the day off to memorialize those who came before us and defended our country. Martin Luther King Day...certainly an important holiday for personal reflection on this nations sordid past. Even Labor day makes sense...leave it to the unions to celebrate the power of the labor movement by taking a random day off for a long weekend...how brutally ironic and yet seemingly appropriate. Columbus day gets me a little bit...i never could understand why only the capitol of ohio gets its own holiday, or do i misinterpret things here??? But Presidents day...i think not. And really if there is going to be a presidents day we need to specify who we are talking about. Washington and Lincoln day makes a bit more sense. "Presidents" is just too vague for my liking...it leaves too much to personal interpretation. Do we really want a federal holiday that could be mistaken for endorsing the administrations of Millard Fillmore, Frankling Pierce, and James Buchanon. I will now take a moment to appologize to my readers who are also members of the Franklin Pierce fan club...i mean no disrespect and I'll be at the regular meeting next thursday. Anyone else interested we meet at VFW post 697 right after the womens AA meetings. Patrick OUT!!!

Movie Review: AvP

So last night, after getting back from dinner with Elsa. The two of us and her roomates watched perhaps the finest cinematic gem of the last half century. I am of course referring to the classic romantic comedy...Alien vs. Predator. I know some of you may be saying, " But Patrick...AvP is not a romantic comedy." To you I say, of course its a romantic comedy. Furthermore, I would argue that it is the archetypical romantic comedy. A fine merging of two classic genres into two seamless hours of movie gold. Of course, I take romance in the sense of classical european definition being characterized by Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and of course the seminal Beowulf. As I'm sure you've probably guessed...I take comedy in the more modern sense as exemplified in the classic Farrelly brothers farce "There's Something About Mary." In other words, it was HILARIOUS. Now for a plot summary. The movie begins realistically enough with the discovery of a massive pyramid under the arctic. While this may seem a bit uninspired to some of you, I can assure you without giving much plot away that this is no ordinarry underground arctic pyramid we are dealing with here. A team of heroic arctic archaeologists (which must be a lonely gig when you aren't discovering alien temples) begins to explore buried pyramid through a mysterious hole in the ground near an abandoned whaling station. A call them heros here because only a movie hero would venture 300 feet down a hole that appeared over night without the thought of calling the rest of civilization for input on the matter. Once down within the pyramid structure they find a mixture of egyptian, aztec, and mayan symbols which is really the first major revelation of the film. I know I was always taught that these people were located on two distant continents while in fact they were united in antarctica the whole time. Once you think about it, it makes perfect sense that people from the hottest part of the planet would undertake massive construction projects deep below an ice shelf in the arctic. Why nobody thought of this before AvP, I will never know. Come to find out the mayans and egyptions were taught how to build pyramids by the predators who were subsequently treated like gods. Again this makes perfect sense. Picture yourself in the mesoamerica of classical antiquity and appearing from the sky comes a ship of some sort carrying a masked creature with dreadlocks. Said creature teaches you to pile stones up into big shapes for years on end for his own personal enjoyment...would you not be totally enthralled by his very presence and treat him as a king. I know I would...because if I didn't I would probably end up with a giant predator scythe coming through my abdomen. More on that later. After our intrepid explorers decode years of mayan history from the temple walls, it turns out that the predators desire the ultimate hunt and thus breed aliens that need humans as a host. Again this makes perfect sense, aliens from a different planet need humans to reproduce. I don't want to get into the chicken and egg thing here but i think that the movie was written by some intelligent design folks because this system just works despite reasoning and logic. So after having my faith in evolution destroyed and my sense of history shattered, the movie stuns us again when one by one main characters are slaughtered by either aliens or predators but then makes a total turn when we discover that actually the predators are our friends and are really pretty damn cool. I mean out of all the aliens you could have a pan-galactic garglebaster with...predators are clearly the bloodthirsty extraterestrial of choice. Skipping forward a bit, last surviving human and last surviving predator team up to kill mother alien. After all that the predator dies and some others come to take his body away and leave the lone human in the arctic alone. This was really the disappointing part...after 2 hours of epic movie the clearly relies on scientific fact and sound reason...how on earth are we supposed to believe that this woman survives on her own in the arctic. That is just absurd and to be honest it ruined the last 5 minutes of the movie for me.
In short, go see AvP! Patrick OUT!

Valentine's Day

I'm going to do my best to not sounds like a stick in the mud but...I really don't like valentine's day. If there was ever anything so pure as a loving relationship between two people...why ruin that with an overly commercialized over hyped sell-out one day a year holiday. I mean really, if your relationship boils down to a specific day each year where you and your significant other judge each one another, then there are some serious issues. Don't even get me started on people who propose on valentine's day. Is there anything more anti-romantic than popping the big question on a day that someone else (in this case the decidedly unromantic catholic church) decided on years ago. In a silly attempt to get people to be personal with one another it has become the most impersonal of holidays. I suppose it all starts back in elementary school when everyone gets a candy and card from everyone else. I think somebody missed the point there...its a little communist if you ask me. Does it bother anyone else that the predominant color is RED. Furthermore as a guy, imagine what would have happened if I had followed the advice of my beloved grade school teachers and given valentines indiscriminately to everyone I knew. In this day and age of sexual harassment and unwelcomed advances I would probably be put in jail for such denial of proper valentine's etiquette. If I were a young woman (please note that this phrase will never again be written in this blog for any reason...EVER), and a gentleman suitor came to woo me on valentine's day I would be a bit suspicious. Here comes a man with chocolates in hand trying to make up for 364 (365 this year) other days this year when he didn't do such things. Should I then bow down and say...oh, I knew it was worth putting up with his crap for this one day when I would be showered with flowers and heart shaped boxes of chocolates. My answer..."NO". I would much rather a spouse who was of only mediocre quality every day than an idiot who put on a romantic flair one day a year. With that in mind and in the spirit of full disclosure; after work today... I'm buying flowers and chocolate. Nobody's perfect. Patrick OUT!

Pimped Out

First of all...read this story.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UMAS3O0&show_article=1

I'm kind of upset about this whole story from start to finish. On a lesser note, I'm not sure why anyone would listen to chelsea clinton stumping for her mother. Exactly what we need, a young college graduate who is anything but impartial telling people how to vote. Or perhaps she is selling herself the same way candidates sell their spouses to the country. I think it might have worked when Bubba was running and she was an awkward little girl with braces. Now, she is a political nobody that no one would pay attention to otherwise. Beyond all that, for David Shuster to say she was "pimped out" is outrageous on a whole other level. Have we come to a point in american media and american culture where a (formerly) respected news man can use the term "pimped out" and not laugh himself off the soundstage. Maybe next week David Gregory can pester the president about his "bitchs" and if an Iraq pullout is fo shizzle or not a realistic possibizzle given tha geopolizzles climatizzle of tha regionizzzle. On the same lines check this out as well...snoop dog + larry king = hillarious



With that...I am officially joing the Gangsta party for the coming election. I think I should fit right in with that crew. I really hope I don't need to pick a side in the crips and bloods feud ...i feel like i look good in both red and blue pinpoint oxfords and if that whole east coast west coast battle starts up again i just don't know what i'll do. Problems for another day I suppose...Patrick OUT!

By Popular Demand

Yes folks, I'm back...tell your friends and family that the worlds best blog is now back on-line. Ok...maybe not the best blog, second best perhaps??? Maybe the best blog by a young graduate student in the city of worcester? Anyways, put in your nominations now and I can take home this prestigious title next year. Contrary to what you might be thinking I didn't die over the past few months...in actuality I was just ignoring this whole thing. Not that I had really more important things to do I just wasn't feeling up to the task...but now I'm back and maybe not better than ever but at least as good as before. A lot of stuff happened since my last post though. For one, I submitted my first manuscript for publication. In short, that was a major pain in the ass...i'm fairly certain i've never worked as hard on a written document as I did for that. It is out for review now and hopefully we will hear back in a few months on that one. In the mean time how do I relax you ask? Answer: we started on paper number 2. Ugh, I am loathing the thought of really digging into that one. In lighter news I got kinda of into climbing over the winter and i remembered how much fun that can be. Its obviously just been in various rock gyms recently but in the spring I look forward to getting out on the real thing for a change. In other more recent news, there was THAT patriots game...I refuse to comment on it for fear of sinking into a deep dark depression that I might never emerge from. I will leave my feelings on all that at disappointment with a touch of astonishment. Nevertheless, the problem remains that like every february my sundays are going to now be brutally empty. If only I was religious then perhaps Sundays would now still retain their significance. As it stands now, besides the occasional Sunday brunch...we could really stand to just have a 6 day week until September roles around and football begins again. In other news, I am officially on my way to China in just under 4 months. Obviously many of the posts in the coming months will be dedicated to the whole process of getting there and then obviously the culture shock that will surely ensue upon my arrival. Of course, I couldn't let my return post go by without a little rant from my inner political junkie. Super Tuesday! I'm still trying to figure out exactly what is super about it. It didn't decide anything this year...it didn't even effectively knock anyone clearly out of the race (this just in...Romney is out, I stand corrected). We can't call it super on account of the candidates. What do we have left...a whole bunch of firsts? First African American, First Woman, First Mormon, First really old guy (strike that last one...we've had that before). We've also got a lot of things that are not the first. Not the first time I've felt abandoned by the political system. Not the first time I've been without a candidate I really thought was right. Alas, another political season of settling for least bad...i think i'm starting to get used to it. With that sour note...Patrick OUT!

New Deal

So the lab is once again full with four, count em...four new undergraduate peons...I mean students. WPI requires each graduating senior to do a senior project, their MQP, which typically focus on some form of original research. I now have two of these MQP students working directly beneath me. In addition, two more undergrads doing an independant study under me in plant tissue culture. They all work half days but, unfortunately, more often then not they work the same half days. Questions abound and I'm starting to think that I should get one of those big red deli ticket dispenser machines for the lab. That way each could take a number and I could answer questions when i was ready to do so and in turn...first come first served. They are actually making some significant progress which makes up for the slow down in my own work when they show up. In something almost unrelated, the WBDC is razing a building across the street that used to be part of Worcester Voke. In short, it is soooo cool. All the big machines I would see as a kid and want desperately to drive around and demolish things are now right next door. Huge arms painted in caterpillar/tonka colors ripping apart bricks, mortar, I-beams, and concrete. Once again, even at 24 I want to be down there maneuvering in and out of piles of rubble ripping a perfectly good building to shreds in the name of progress and reinvigorating a community. There is a certain purity in working with your hands and creating (or destroying) something physical and real and outside of intellectual pursuits. I often wonder what my life would be like now if I devoted my time to some other more concrete vocation. Could I be a welder? A carpenter? A mechanic? Maybe some day when i retire or sell my first company I will find a new life as a tradesmen...doesn't seem half bad. I'm sure they look up here from time to time and think the same...the grass is always greener. Patrick OUT!

Another Sports Entry

So its taken me a while to write this entry because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to say about boston sports and wanted to make sure I did it justice. So my beloved Red Sox have won the world series and in such are moving ominously closer to being the Yankees of the late 90s. At first, I was a little put off by this whole notion but I guess in the end I will always be able to revel in the dominance whether or not we are "buying" championships. Its true that the red sox had the second largest payroll in baseball last year (a mere 50 million behind the yankees). I would contend however that the issue is what does one do with the payroll. The red sox suffer from the same inflated bankroll syndrome that the Yankees do that makes them take on large contracts for people who rarely deserve the money. On the other side, they seem to have a value set for certain individuals and rarely waiver and would instead see quality players go into free agency. Now, I'm not one to criticize management of a team who just won a world championship but it does seem strange. Either way, this past post season was not dominated by Manny Ramirez or David Ortiz, or Manny Ortiz as John Kerry would know him/them. In stead, the lesser known players, with lesser salaries made the most difference...dustin pedroia, jacoby ellsbury, and mike lowell (series MVP). These names also give me the most hope for the future when the red sox will be able to ride out ridiculous signings of high price free agents (see J.D. Drew, and Edgar Renteria/Julio Lugo) with the strength of a farm system there in returning baseball to the way it should be. A team homegrown from start to finish with young talent peppered with the superstar status of a few key veterans.
In other news, my lab life is once again full. Research is going ahead full steam once again and we have a bunch of new faces in the lab. At least three new grad students between the two groups and a slew (6) new undergraduates running around with a whole host of projects. Its nice to see the lab bustling again as a return to normalcy ensues. A salesman from a bio supplies company came in today and remarked that we seemed like the closest knit lab that he had encountered in the building. I am more than a little proud of that and I think he's right and I wouldn't have it any other way. Patrick OUT!!!

An Update???

Woah!
Ok, so its been a long time since I updated here but believe me, it was a justified hiatus. Since my last post, the vast majority of my time has been split amongst three things with the first taking the lions share: PhD qualifier, Red Sox, and Patriots. I guess I should probably address all three at this point and that should cover about 90% of what I've been up to and thinking about for the past month. First off, my qualifier. My topic ended up being about a new technique for detecting metabolites in maize (corn). It could have been fairly cool but ended up being a nightmare and I'm glad that I only had to write about it in theoretical terms. Doing the work I outlined would have been a bitch and a half. The extra half bitch is because we are getting to be on par with paris hilton, naomi campbell, amarosa, and for those biblically inclined, delilah (go ahead, look it up...she was pretty bad). In the end, after all was said and done, I produced a fairly dense 15 page (a pretty short limit if you ask me) proposal for research that I submitted to my exam committee to look over and critique. Then last week, I gave a seminar on the proposal to the department. It went, OK but not great. I think I should have focused on some parts more than others in hindsight and that some important points might have been lost in minutia. Either way, I then proceeded to the private defense in front of my committee. That was less than pleasant all in all. I suppose I got off kind of easy because it only took about an hour and fifteen minutes, which I gather is a good deal shorter than some of them. Questions were not unreasonable but I certainly couldn't answer all of them. They did a good job of finding every weakness that I had found and exploiting them though I was hoping they might not notice. I guess, in hindsight, that was a less than stellar strategy for such a thing. In the end, after tearing apart my proposal and telling me it wasn't very good, they kicked me out of the room to discuss and eventually took me back in to say that all was well and that I passed. PHEW! After that, we went to lunch and I attempted to calm down for a while before heading back to the lab for more experiments. The whole thing was a little anti-climactic in that I spent a lot of time over the preceding two and a half weeks preparing the work to have it boiled down to an appraisal of "its good."
Tuesday followed, with Ally's thesis defense for her masters. She seemed nervous to start but all in all it was pretty good and she was very funny. She is quite the character and has a certain way of pulling people in and speaking in a way that makes it easy to understand. These are things that I certainly do not do and could probably stand to learn a few things. Long and short of it is that she is actually done, though she isn't leaving the department quite yet. After she finished, she announced that she had bought me a cake and we got together with the department later to have it and some champagne that her advisor had brought in. It was really great in all respsects. Besides all that excitement the only things that have been pulling at me are sports related. This has been a long post so I will just say a few words on boston sports. First off, the red sox are starting to drive me crazy...i'm starting to return to the mindset that is just waiting for a monumental collapse and the ensuing collective guilt/dismay/hope for next year mentality that beset red-sox nation before 2004. It might not be all bad, it could weed out some of the "pink hat/green jersey" crowd from making tickets impossible to get for the rest of us...you know who you are. The patriots on the other hand...are becoming the Yankees of football. The only difference is that instead of overpaid superstars that flounder when the games really matter we have superstars that are willing to take a pay cut to keep the team competitive (see Randy Moss and Tom Brady) and still come through in a clinch. When do the, "Patriots Suck" chants start...that will be a good day. Depending on how this evenings game goes...this might be the last sports mention for a while or at least until i recover from the astounding victory/defeat of the Red Sox. Patrick OUT!

Whats in Store

So, over the past few days, I have finally recieved a qualifier topic. I don't want to talk a whole lot about it here but its pretty cool and in another incarnation could lead to a grant for the research to actually be done. For those who are not familiar, part of getting a PhD in this country is the passage of a qualifying exam. This is typically a written document of some sort, in my case a proposal for original research, that one must defend in front of a large public audience and then in a smaller closed door exam. It is the first major milestone on the road to completing a degree and entitles one to be called a "PhD candidate". Thus, after Oct. 15h...you can all refer to me as such or maybe just "The Candidate." Whatever you feel would be best. Anyways, its also marking the beggining of a fairly stressful part of the process because in the event one doesn't pass their qualifier they are invited back to try once more and if that does not satisfy then they are asked to leave the program (essentially empty handed). I'm not particularly worried about that whole prospect but I do want to make sure I get it right the first time around. I know I promised a movie review and so here it is. Last saturday and part of Sunday, I watched "The Last King of Scotland." It the story of a doctor in Uganda and a brutally honest biopic of Idi Amin. Forest Whitaker is downright scary in his portrayal of Amin and the rest of the cast does almost as well. The movie slowly moves from hinting at Amin's brutality to an eventual visualize climax resulting from one of the more graphic and violent scenes I have ever encountered. The movie is totally worth a watch but it is far from mindless and should be given its own time for viewing. It will not leave you happy or optimistic on the human condition but will be eye opening to the effects of power in the hands of those not fit to weild it. That is all. Patrick OUT!!!

Are you ready?

Well, the rest of last week was fairly uneventful. Hung out with Elsa and Marie on Friday night after going to Jillians with the guys from the lab. Jillians was kind of a strange place...half sports bar and half Chuck E Cheese. If nothing else, the clientele was in the same age range as us. This could not be said for the Northworks grille around the corner that is clearly aiming for a more "seasoned" customer. I'm not sure I would go back to jillians again but the beer was OK and they have huge TVs tuned to nothing but sports so I could probably get used to that. Saturday morning, Elsa Marie and I went to IHOP for some pancakes and eggs. I got corn cake pancakes again that were as heavenly as ever. After that I went home and helped my dad hook up some of the stereo set-up for the new media room. It necessitated us taking a trip to the mall. This was something of a frightening experience at first. What had always been the natick mall is now the *ahem* Natick Collection. The architecture inside is really amazing to look at. Very open and full of light with some faux folliage thrown in for good measure. With a Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton, and an Apple Store...it is a shrine to conspicous consumption like you have never seen. We really only had to go to Sears and radio shack so we didn't exactly look our Sunday best but the nice thing was that we didn't look out of place. One might think with such high-brow drastically overpriced retailers you would see more ritzy clientelle. Alas not, the same crop of slovenly american shoppers persists even amongst the $300 hoodies. The highlight was the older gentleman in the white bermuda shorts, white undershirt, and black socks to his knees...at that point, in comparison, I could have been Cary Grant on the red carpet. Sunday, of course, was filled with FOOTBALL. Patriots played at 1 and they demolished the Jets. My fantasy team also did well, amassing the most points of any team in the league. That being said, Sunday was the most unproductive day I've had in quite some time...it was great. More to come on those fronts and a movie review for tomorrow. Patrick OUT!

At Last

So its been a while since I updated which is I guess somewhat indicative of my lack of time to do such things. This past weekend was pretty good. My parents and sister went to a soccer tournament in Agawam and I saw Elsa for quite a bit. We did a few things around the house and eventually found ourselves in a hobby shop. We bought a model plane to build that was a "level 2" Box said it was for ages 12+ which should be about right for the two of us. With all the painting and cutting a glueing it ended up easily taking 8 hours to complete spread out over two days. We also went to Wild Willies in Watertown to get some truly delectable burgers and hand cut fries. If you haven't been there, I would highly recommend it. There is one just off the pike in watertown and then another in York, Maine. Both are quite good and worth the drive from wherever you are. On Monday, we got up early (like 5:30 am early) and drove out to Agawam to see my sisters first playoff game. They didn't win but put up a good fight none-the-less. After that, Elsa and I drove back to worcester so i could get some work done and she could try and tackle her thesis writing. I did a few experiments and we were on our way. We stopped by Uncle Cheungs in Framingham for a quick Chinese lunch before returning home for the night. The food was good but much more noteworthy was the first time that I found myself eavesdropping on a chinese conversation. I have picked up enough mandarin at this point to almost figure out what people are talking about. Elsa taught me a few new phrases that I, of course, can't remember now and made the waiter laugh at us a bit. Yesterday ws Marie's birthday so some of the old crew went out to dinner and had a marvelous time. We went to the Naked Fish and I had what amounted to steak au poivre but with tuna in stead of beef. It was fairly good but a bit overdone. I like my tune closer to sushi than canned white chunk. After dinner the table began to reminisce a bit about the old college days which was nice but also a little melancholy at times. Most of the conversation revolved around the general debauchery of 18 Sunrise Ave. For those that are familiar I will give the highlights of times remembered
Thadeus is living in the basement?
Jen tricks us into thinking she went to bed
Artie slides down the stairs one at a time and punches the wall
Sarah you can not sleep here
The porch collapses
Kimmy and Ever...in the bathroom???
Hiding Greg's Vodka
Utah Stephanie and Seagrams 7
Kimmy cries over her scrapbook...twice
Sarah...its for you (sarah answers the phone).
DP Dough drinks a gargleblaster
Puke on the flowers
Jillian and butch...in the basement

and finally...Marie: " Remember when you had huge parties 5 weekends in a row?"

Amazingly, I do and happily I think a lot of others do too. Patrick OUT!