The Dark Knight

Soooo, I saw The Dark Knight (i.e Batman). In short, I give it my approval...wait, is that two good movie reviews in one week...i must be feverish...nope, just good films. Either way lets begin.
To start, the movie is directed by christopher nolan and stars christian bale, heath ledger, morgan freeman, maggie gyllenhall, and that guy from thank you for smoking (which also gets a healthy seal of approval). Obviously the movie focuses around batman and his associated dering-do in battling the JOKER. Heath ledger as the joker is really quite spectacular. It is further than I ever imagined he could go with a character and makes the old TV series Joker and even Jack nicholson's Joker, look downright silly. Seriously, this joker is flippin creepy. The plot has him pretty much appearing out of nowhere with no backstory whatsoever which was a little strange but I'm glad they didn't waste time with something really campy. Of course, the movie is two and a half hours long so whats another 30 minutes...but I digress. Anyways, the Joker appears and begins a not so sophisticated scheme of stealing money from mob bosses and pretty much scares them into believing that the real problem is batman. Of course, we the audience know this is only half way true but the mob bosses are fairly easily convinced and essentially hire the joker to kill batman...so now we have a movie. There is a somewhat convoluted plot with a chinese business man and shady business dealings that really felt like a relic of an earlier script but it did allow for some cool action sequences in the high rises of hong kong. Without giving too much away, lots of plot twists ensue and new enemies are made and other defeated. Among those defeated is one of the heads of the mob who is played by Eric Roberts (Julia's brother) who still sucks...this guy really can't act at all and should be barred from the studios at the first opportunity. Apprarently acting ability is not genetic...who knew??? Anyways, back to the movie itself. The acting was well done on the part of ledger, gyllenhall, and freeman. Christian bale needs some work in places but part of the problem was some really cliche dialogue for his character. In addition, he has a certain voice as bruce wayne and then another voice as batman. Unfortunately the batman voice just sounds like bruce went on an alcoholic bender the night before and has not fully recovered. That got really old really quick. Batman also has a lot of new toys to play with in this one...including a bat cycle (motoycycle with guns and really big tires), a new costume (still has pointy ears but not with projectile razor blades on the wrist), and a weird kind of sonar thing. Morgan freeman plays lucius fox who is essentially batman's R&D and makes all of the neat stuff for batman to use. At one point in the movie he threatens to quit over this sonar system thing saying, "this is too much power for one man and I won't be a part of it." OK...let me get this straight...you have no problem building, rocket cars, machine gunning motorcycles, bat grenades, razorblade projectiles, and other objects of mayhem but when bat sonar comes on the table, "oh no batman...thats going TOOOO far!" Please...that is rediculous...ok, so you need a reason to not have it in the second movie (and there will be another movie) but please don't let that reason be some half-assed moralizing. Along those same lines, the movie tries real hard to be really profound in its address of civic virtue, heroics, self-sacrifice, and public service. A little of that would be fine but they wanted more...and I wanted more too...more of batman pounding heads together that is and less talk about who is a bigger hero and guy in rubber bat suit, the DA, or commissioner gordon. Lets be simple here...the hero is the guy willing to go out in public and pick fights in a bat costume....ummm, thats bravery my friends. Overall, aside from those minor miscues, the movie is definately worth seeing...if you can get tickets...apparently it already setting records for attendance. Fandango is selling 12 tickets per second, ALL DAY. A blockbuster if I ever seen one...Patrick OUT!!!

New Favorite Blog

Just a quick note...my new favorite blog on the subject of food science

www.ideasinfood.com

Its really great...written by a husband and wife team who have cooked all over new england and new york. They have lots of neat posts on the science and experimental side of cooking and really do some innovative things with food. Also, their photography is excellent. I'm thinking about including a link-out to some other blogs here on this site and they would certainly be close to the top. Check them out

Patrick OUT!!!

Movie Review: THERE WILL BE BLOOD

So last night, I saw "There Will be Blood" directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and staring Daniel Day Lewis. My verdict you ask...awesome. For those of you looking for my usual scathing reviews...turn back now. For those of you looking for a good movie to watch...go out and rent it...either way its probably not worth reading much further.
The movie focuses around the slow descent into megalomania of a California oil man at the turn of the century and into the 20s and 30s. Day-Lewis is absolutely phenomenal...though I admit I set myself up to like this movie because I am such a fan of his...that not withstanding the movie did not disappoint. He was so consistent in his portrayal yet laying down that ever so subtle change from beginning to end that his very complex character demanded. Furthermore, the movie has strong undertones (is a strong undertone an overtone...i'm not sure) of revenge which culminate in perhaps the finest movie bludgeoning I have ever seen (not that I can name very many outside of fight club...but this is better than any of those...besides the first rule is you don't talk about fight club...or is that the second rule???). Anyways, there are also a lot of neat religious elements that really get me going because I am becoming more of an atheist every day and a movie that shows the corruptive power of religion has a not so subtle appeal to me. Of course, we can always extrapolate the movie a little further to say that its a battle really between two men who represent the worst of business and the worst of religion. Each of them is trying to capitalize on and take advantage of a generally ignorant population. Anderson is content to have them fight amongst themselves but is this an allegory for our modern situation...I tend to think the model still fits. Though I might vote republican anyways. The soundtrack while mostly scored is also great...really adding to the tension of the film at just the right moments and to exactly the right effect. My only gripe about the movie is the clear distinction between those who know and those who don't. In short, a few characters seem to be absolutely brilliant...most others are nameless faces in the crowd...and i'm not just talking about extras here. Characters with dialoge often come across as robotic without real need while other characters show such depth it makes their idiot counterparts all that much harder to tolerate. Either way, the acting of Day-Lewis carries the film...and its a good thing it did because he is in almost every scene of the film. Before I close out this review let me share a particularly good quote in relation to oil drainage.

Drainage! Drainage, Eli, you boy. Drained dry. I'm so sorry. Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. And my straw reaches across the room, and then I start to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake! I DRINK IT UP!!!

I understand that all that might seem like a silly quote...but once you see the film you'll understand...until then, count the days until that happens. PATRICK OUT!!!

100th POST!!! and more about the Obamas

So the New Yorker has been getting some flack recently for a particular cover they did satirizing the false accusations against Barack Obama.



The image plays upon a lot of the things that have plagued obama over the past few months including accusations of him being a muslim, the fist bump with his wife (apparently a terrorist greeting...I always thought it was just something college kids did), and of course the ever present idea that he is somehow anti-american. In response both the Obama and McCain campaigns issued public condemnation on the New Yorker for I guess encouraging these negative images. So I suppose the thinking is as follows: most people are stupid, these people will see this cover, stupid people will not get the satire inherent, most people will therefor believe that this is a commentary on actual events on the part of the new yorker editorial staff. Now I don't claim to be the smartest guy in the world (OK, I have made that claim on a few occassions but not right now), but this cover seemed pretty clear to me. I can see why the campaign might be a little bit disappointed in it but at the same time to issue public condemnation is pretty lame. I think the real problem presented by this flare-up is not that the new yorker is going after barack or michelle obama, not that there are undertones of bigotry or racism, not even that the cartoon is in bad taste...its more that the cartoon is edging on that line of being too hard to interpret for the average person (in the opinion of the Obama and McCain campaigns). This of course suggests that these campaigns are counting on the votes of people who are less intelligent than me and, for that matter, anyone I know because I have yet to meet someone who interpreted this as anything different than I did, mainly SATIRE. Of course, the other problem is that many of the cartoons in the new yorker that are so lauded over, really are over the head of the average person (assuming you take my head as that of an average person). For instance the following cartoon appeared recently.




What does that even mean? Is this humor? Should I have laughed when I saw this? Is it social commentary on something I've never heard of. I would seriously encourage anyone to leave me their explanations of why this clearly elitist dribbel deserved to be published and what I as consumer should have gotten out of it. The New Yorker's humor pages, which they take great pride in, are absolutely useless. They far too often forget that if people don't get the joke...its not funny. That the fundamental requirement for writing, humor, and communication in general is that people understand. Language bogged down in obscure terminology or arcane references is not communication at all, rather it is boastful in its superiority to the desired reader. I believe that too many readers of the New Yorker are ashamed to admit that these things just don't make sense. Of course, after looking at the latest cover...I think I know why it all works out this way. For once, the magazine publishes a comic that is an effective satire of topical and familiar nation wide events...the response, public damnation. Go on New Yorker comic writers...keep on being obscure...its safer. Patrick OUT!!!

A Family Affair

So while I'm in Arkansas I'm staying with Pam, of course, we didn't really think these things out as clearly as we should have because she ended up having family over for the weekend. I'm going to blame it on the immense effort put into our NIH grant submission, the end result is that while her house is sizeable it is not quite big enough for her family (4 additional people) and another student besides myself already staying there. So while, could have taken the floor in a sleeping bag, I am opting to stay with friends in the area and be a bit of a bum. This is actually kind of nice because I always feel a bit weird about my schedule around Pam and the idea that I know she's lonely so I feel bad about going out a bunch plus the fear of judgement (which is likely totally imagined on my part). Anyways, with her family here...all those things are gone and things have been pretty good. Work in the lab has been a bit slow just on account of some supply issue that should be taken care of next week early when i can begin my more important projects in earnest. Tomorrow, at some point, we're going floating again which is something we did last year. Essentially, for those that don't remember, its drifting down a very slow moving river over the course of 3 hours or so on an inflatable raft. Not a bad time really and definately relaxing. I think it is being followed in short order by a BBQ of some sort which should be even better. After being back down in AR, I remember all the thing I found attractive about this place and its people and yet all the things that still are enough to drive a good yankee mad. For one, can you believe that the news doesn't cover the red sox. I don't know how they sleep at night...don't they understand that red sox nation is everywhere. I hear, however, that there is a nationally televised game coming up soon. It will probably be on ESPN or FOX which, of course, Pam doesn't get with her limited cable. Might have to find someplace else to watch that. Other than that, things are pretty much as usual in jonesboro. Patrick OUT!!!

Oh Jesse...

So, the media has been bombarded once again by people close to presidential candidates saying stupid things. This time, Barak Obama's campaign was actually just caught in the cross-fire as the Rev. Jesse Jackson declared he wanted to cut his "n--ts" off. At first I saw that headline and literally, could not figure out what the n--ts was supposed to represent. I was having trouble brining myself down to that level of political discourse and to believe that someone of such prominence and who speaks so often could only come up with that. Of course that was followed by the quick apology and return to full support from the reverend. This of course makes perfect sense because often times when I feel a need to support someone in something I will say, "Man, I would really like to limit your ability to have children!" or "Gee whiz, if only I could horribly mutilate your genitallia?" These of course, give the sense that I support that person and of course could never be misconstrued as anything other than that. Beyond the pure ridiculousness that this story embodies is the more profound point that the reverend jackson was making. For those not following to close...the question became...WHY does the Rev. Jackson want to tear away barak obamas testicles. Did Obama have a marital indiscretion? Did he refer to new york as hymietown? Did race-bait an entire community by supporting a stripper in her false accusations of rape? No...of course, none of those things...that would be just crazy. Actually, he wants to hurt poor barack because barack had the (pardon the pun here) balls to call out the black men of the community to stop acting like "boys" and start acting like "men." He wants them to stand by their familial commitments, raise their children and not lead them in a direction that says the only path to personal success is through thug life or the NBA. Now it all makes sense, the Rev. Jackson thought those remarks were aimed at him. "Be a man" says barack...what a horrible message for the black community or any other community for that matter to hear. Shame on you, obama for preaching of personal responsibility and community salvation...listen to the pastor who certainly knows whats best.

Leavin' on a Jet Plant

All my bags are packed...i'm ready to go...ok, so neither of those two things is true. But I am leaving on a jet plane tomorrow, bound for a second southern odyssey to Jonesboring. This trip should prove to be a productive one, though I only have two weeks this time. I just hope that my results come through and that I have something good to show for the past months of work. I suppose, besides all of that, I am looking forward to seeing the people down there again for what might be the last time (hopefully not, but who knows). Of course, I also had a pretty subtantial dose of some long unseen faces this past weekend at Brian's July 4th party at the family compound (the shire?). A lot of old faces from my college days made an appearance which was good, and a lot of beer made an appearance in my cup which was also good. Food was eaten, including some pretty damn hot indian curry burgers made by Yukeshan. It got me wondering, maybe someone like yuke made burgers like that in some ancient time for some tribal elder and from that point forward it was decreed that no one should eat meat in india for fear of such a frightful concoction be put together once again. I'm not entirely sure what was in them but I know it included some form of curry powder and yogurt...it made them a trifle bit loose and also orange. We had regular burgers too that Dan made which were just fine. Dan even brought his own grill tools with him for the occasion. They came in a burshed aluminum case that looked like it should house a shiny .357 magnum revolver but instead contained tongs and a spatula. Besides the food, much converstion was had including an argument with a particular reader of this blog. It was perhaps the one and only time that I would consider half-drunkenly arguing about the propriety of purchasing stocks and bonds for an inexperienced investor and the investment in index funds for people under 45 rather than a higher risk portfolio. I don't remember our parties ever being like that but I guess it just comes with the territory of getting a bit older...or maybe I just don't remember much of our other parties (both scenarios are equally likely here). Drove back somewhat early on saturday to get some time in the lab for some last minute experiments before I leave. Along the same lines, my undergrad assistant came in today and I had her doing a bunch of clean-up type stuff to make sure that lab looked in order before I left. After all of it she said (in slightly broken english), "when you get back...could I do something else?" Which for her I think meant, "Patrick...today sucked...can I not do your bitch work anymore?" I told her I would try and figure something out in that department...but really i'm just glad that she stuck up for herself a little bit and a little disappointed that she doesn't want to do my bitch work anymore. Perhaps, I can disguise the mundane as something more exciting, "please wash these dishes...the fate of the world depends upon their cleanliness...if there are any soap spots, puppies will be tortured in afghanistan...no pressure." Patrick OUT!!!

Opening Ceremonies

So it was announced today that President Bush will be attending the opening ceremonies of the olympics in beijing as part of a trip which also includes thailand and south korea. In general, I suppose I am supportive of his going to the olympics as a show of support for the ideals of the olympics and for US athletes but I am still opposed to the beijing olympics in general. Actually, I think its a travesty that beijing was allowed to host the games for a whole variety of reasons. For those who don't remember, Beijing beat out Toronto and Paris to be the host city with an absolute majority of voters ( would have picked toronto...based mostly on proximity but also a distrust of the french to play fair...jk). Upon the announcement, a vice premier announced, "The winning of the 2008 Olympic bid is an example of the international recognition of China's social stability, economic progress and the healthy life of the Chinese people." I'm not even sure I know where to start with this one. Having just been to beijing I think I have a particular perspective on this that many others may not (except of course for the 12 million chinese living in greater beijing). If the beijing olympics are really a recognition of all these things then the olympics committee must define their terms differently than I do. With that in mind, I present an IOC glossary as interpreted by the PRC

Social Stability: The ability of a government to suppress free speech and action as a means of limiting descent and the inate rights and liberties of its people.
Economic Progress: The forced relocation of millions of impoverished citizenry for the purpose of providing labor conducted under inhumane conditions with little economic benefit for those performing said labor.
alt definition: halting humanitarian intervention in foreign countries committing genocide for percieved economic benefit
Healthy Life: Living in a city where the average person loses 7-10 days/year of productivity due to air pollution close to 5 times above WHO safety standards.
International Recognition: Inability of IOC members to see past heabily censored media coverage of a country with more skeletons in its closet than an anatomy lab.

On a more positive note, I was able to visit some of the olympic venues while I was there and they really do look spectacular (through the smog). The birds nest stadium is huge and really a sight to behold as an engineering marvel of the highest kind. The aquatics building sits just across the way and is equally a sight to behold. These both sit fairly close to the center of the city which I think will provide an interesting cultural backdrop to the games. A nice mix of an event determined to bring all countries together for competition and fair play and a government determined to eliminate competition to ensure its own survival and ignore international standards whenever possible for whatever reason. All that being said, China was a very interesting country and I wish I could have seen more because its seems impossible that a country with more than one city like Beijing could survive in a modern world. For certain, China has a long way to go before they will be up to my standards. Hopefully these games will have them on their way sooner rather than later and that the international attention will do some good to expose not only China to the world but also the world to China and its people. Patrick OUT!!!

Ex-POUNDING on China #1

So I think its now time to write a little about my China experiences before they become too far out of mind and I make up fanciful romanticized memories to replace the gritty gory details of my two weeks in China though I admit the inverse change might be more likely. To start I think its appropriate to cover the most basic of human needs regardless of culture...food and shelter.

Brian and I checked into our hotel/hostel on the first day and I would say I think we were both surprised by it. To begin with, it wasn't really a hotel...actually it was a church with some guest rooms in it. You wouldn't have necessarilly known it was a church but you definately knew it wasn't a hotel. Luckilly it was only about 3 blocks from Elsa's family's apartment complex. The room was pretty tiny...though I imagine not so much by hong kong standards. To put that in perspective, the whole thing would have probably fit into my youngest sisters bedroom...which is fine for one young girl but not as good for two guys with lots of luggage and such. All in all, we ended up fitting in OK there without too much adjusting save for two things in particular. Firstly, the beds were quite firm. Of course by firm I really mean...hard as a rock. OK, that might be overstating it, but not by much. It was firm enough that when I lied straight on my back, there was a space beneath the small of my back where the spine curved because the bed had no deflection at my shoulders and hips. I guess I kind of got used to it but it still felt good to be back in a western bed. The second issue was with our hot water. First two days we had fine hot water and actually exceptional hot water pressure (one of the few improvements hong kong utilities have over their US counterparts). Then suddenly, we no long had hot water. Brian and I showered in the cold one day (not togther but it was cold enough that it seemed like less of an absolutely absurd idea by the end) but didn't have a chance to talk to the hotel management on account of a busy schedule, so we showered in the cold for a second day. It wasn't until day 3 that we finally figured out that every room has their own hot water heater that can be turned on and off. That big box we thought was an exhaust fan was actually behind our water supply. Upon flipping the proper switches...proper water was restored...our pride was not.

Food...this could easily fill 3-4 posts but I will try to give highlights here. First off...food is abundant, and cheap, and you eat a lot, all the time, everywhere, with everyone...but I lost weight (that is the great conundrum...its like the french paradox but with chinese food). Also, as I'm sure you might have imagined the chinese food is quite a bit different there than here. In general, many more things are steamed and almost nothing is deep fried. Also, the chinese have a knack for backed goods of all sorts that is strangely ignored here. Food also tastes like the ingredients...which might sound like a truism of sorts but really the most notable absense is in the heavy sauces usually surrounding chinese food in the states. Outside flavors are much lighter and so food there tastes like its primary ingredients and not like the spice applied to them. Restaurants are different too...first off, they are a bit chaotic with lots of staff moving around serving lots of tables. Individual tables usually dont have a particular waiter or waitress but instead you can ask for anything from virtually anyone. Usually this is convenient, but sometimes you just don't ever get what you wanted. I guess that system is a toss up for me in terms of improvement over our methods. Menus were almost always in chinese which made it difficult/impossible for us gwailo to order but its ok because even when the menu had english i usually had no idea what things were. We typically ate whatever was placed in front of us. Thankfully (or perhaps not) things tend to not only taste like their ingredients but also look like their ingredients. One particular instance involved the ordering of pigeon (dove). The bird was roasted and quartered and put on a plate. It was cut and prepared to little that with a little stiching you could have reassembled the animal at the table and maybe even shocked it back to life. Along those same lines, after finished the bird, one piece remained that brian though he might try. After reaching across the table and fumbling with his chopsticks he managed to get the last piece that he was shocked to find out was actually the roasted head of the recently deceased. He didn't eat it (most people don't, but unsurprisingly some do). Also, everything is shared by the table which is not uncommon in the states but usually all the food is eaten, which is a bit more uncommon. Often times towards the end of the meal, it was a trial to see who would finish the last dishes. Sometimes even resorting to rock paper scissors to see who would take in the last bits of tofu soup or char siu bao (though that was a dish rarely left untouched, and unlike revenge...it is best served warm). More on food to come in my post of chinese commerce...also pictures. Patrick OUT!!!

Most depressing post ever

I knew I should have quit after highschool.



How many years until I'm not a grad student???
Patrick OUT!!!

Flying Time

So I just got back from my fourth trip in a month with one more to come. All told, so far I have flown 14 legs, and landed at 9 different airports, flown in 6 different kinds of plane, and gone through customs 6 times. All told I have flown more than 25,700 miles. To put that in perspective...the circumfrence of the earth at the equater is a mere 24,901 miles, or if you prefer that is five round trip flights between new york and LA. To make matters worse...I have yet another flight coming up to tack on another 2,200 miles, bringing the grand total to a staggering 28000 miles over 6 weeks (averaging 600 miles/day). I think I have singlehandedly become the greatest contributor to global warming. At this point, i have just about memorized that preflight boarding announcement. "If you are seated in an exit row, please take out the safety card in the seat back pocket in front of you, if you do not feel you can complete the tasks outlined because you are in idiot or drunk...please give up your seat to someone who will appreciate the extra leg room." Also, the mark of a good airline is whether or not they give you the can. I'm not talking about the suction flush toilets here but actually the drinks. Some airlines, give you half a can in a cup full of ice and others leave the whole can. These little things really make the difference for me. I'm not one to drink on planes, and they have all but cut out snacks entirely, so the shining moment in the flight is the drink service (though I slept through the drink service on four of my last 6 flights). Pay $600 for a flight and they can't even leave the whole can. These are the same people who determined that you could save thousands by eliminating a single olive from airplane salads. Could they just tack on the additional $0.25 it costs for the other half of the soda and leave the can instead of leaving me feeling cheated and wondering who got the other half of MY SODA. Continuing with my rant, people who set of the metal detector. And then proceed to take pounds of metal out of their pockets and wonder why it went off. In Boston this past weekend, I watched a man set off the detector. He then took out two large sets of keys from his pocket...set it off again...took off his hugh stainless steel watch...set it off a third time and was wanded to discover a rodeo king sized belt buckle...what the hell is that about. In stead of a first class line there should be a quick test to determine if the concepts of a metal detector and airport security are confusing...if so, shuffle all those people elsewhere so they don't interfere with the people without metal plates in their head. Furthermore, the whole shoes thing. We've now gone 5 plus years with having to take our shoes off to get X-rayed. If you go to the airport wearing a set of boots that cover your calf and which require the aid of sherpas to help you put on, they should be taken away and for petes sake...don't stand in line trying to put them on. Swallow your pride and walk 10 feet barefoot then put them on. OK...I'm DONE. What day is it again? Where am I? When do I leave? Patrick OUT!!!

Weddings Galore

So this was my busiest weekend in quite a while, which is really saying somethin given the events of the past month. It started on Friday evening when i left work early to go to Emily's wedding rehearsal. I don't know if I ever mentioned that she was getting married but she is/did. I wasn't in the wedding persay but she volunteered me to be an usher which was fine. The minister was a bit crazy and at one point told me that the whole ceremony hinged on me as an usher, not sure where he got that from but I tried to act like I was taking his words seriously. Afterwords I kind of thought he was doing one of those little white lies you tell to children to get them to do something or so they feel better, ie. "the crust is the best part...you don't really want me to cut it off." So I think he thought I must have not felt good about the whole thing and figured he would make my day by reaching out with some grandiose job description of walking people to their seats. Of course the ceremony went well and so I guess I can take the credit for that one : ) Emily was going a bit crazy during the rehearshal though and was making every attempt at removing god from the service (that made me proud but I also felt sorry that she had to deal with a minister who at one point told them, "this is MY wedding"). None the less, things turned out OK and the ceremony was short but complete in every sense. On to the reception where once again things went quite well. Food was pretty good and the DJ was great...played music that certainly fit the mood at every point and was not at all intrusive or dominating over the event (in my mind that is the fatal flaw of all wedding DJs...trying to be the star of someone else's show). Saw lots of family and friends, most notably cousin marty (from now on dubbed "Party Marty") who danced like there was no tomorrow and got more than a few others to do the same (including my mother). Things ended a bit early on account of the reception hall but we still didn't get home until close to midnight. Upon returning home, I promptly went to bed only to awake a mere 3.5 hours later to put on the same suit as the night before, drive to the airport, and get on a 7am flight to raleigh for Brian's wedding. We got in a bit early and picked up our rental car where I had to explain to the clerk that even though my license says "Under 21 license" (a peculiar massachusetts thing) that if he looked at my birthday and did the math I was in fact 25. He told me twice that they don't rent cars to people who are 21. I then told him that if I see anyone who is 21 I will let them know...I felt a little bad about that but I'm not even sure he heard me. Eventually, he put two and two together actually he subtracted 1983 from 2008 and eventually figured out that I was OK to leave with his precious hyundai accent that smelled vaguely like marijuana and cigarettes mixed with fabreeze. We made our way fairly quickly to our hotel where we saw simone (brian's fiance/new wife and a good friend of Elsa's), and eventually met up with brian. He seemed relatively calm and was pretty put together for a guy getting married in only a few hours. We got our boutaineers (sp?) and made our way to the park where the ceremony was being held. The only potential crisis was when brian asked the rabbi if he had the rings to which the rabbi replied, "did you give those to me, I hope they aren't in my office." *GULP* I quickly called Simone who, without a bit of nervousness, told me her mother had them (she did have them all safe and sound). Aside from that very minor snafu everything else went great. Simone looked fantastic and the rabbi was very informative and I felt like I learned a lot about jewish tradition (an added wedding bonus). We took pictures and went to brunch with the family and friends at a place not to far away. Everyone was quite nice and I had an extended conversation with the rabbi and his wife over breakfast who were both extraordinarily pleasant. I also gave my best man's toast to the new bride and groom at which point I may have alluded to brian being a poor jew (as a note: this refers only to his particular observance of jewish customs...mainly kosher food), but I don't think anyone was offended and I really didn't mean it as an insult to brian or his family. Though I now wonder if the rabbi who may have liked me before may not like me so much now. After all this was said and done Brian and Simone went to spend some quality time with just their individual families and the rest of the crew from massachusetts and one of simone's friends from pittsburgh went out to explore raleigh a bit. We ended up walking around in a park, riding paddle boats, and eating dinner at a place whose theme was getting stoned (food wasn't bad despite us not being high). Ended up meeting up with brian and simone later for a little relaxation. Kept them up too late which had the double effect of delaying their wedding night and delaying any sleep they might have gotten before a very early trip the next morning to Costa Rica for a honeymoon. They didn't seem to mind too much but they might have been miffed during the next mornings 4am wake up. We said our goodbyes and let them get to whatever one gets to in that situation. All in all, a pretty phenomenal set of couples that I'm sure will have bright and happy futures together. Patrick OUT!!!

UPDATE

So I'm not dead. I know its been far too long since my last post especially given all the pretty cool things that have gone on since then. I returned from China about a week and a half ago and had two of the most interesting weeks of my life. I'm going to be writing about those experiences here over the next few weeks. I was thinking about doing a travel log kind of thing but I'm not sure that would be very entertaining or informative so I'm thinking about writing all about certain types of experience (food, art, culture, language etc etc.). I think that will allow more personal commentary on my part and hopefully on your part too. I will also try and post pictures of certain portions of the trip. These entries could be slow to come on account of a very busy travel schedule which includes 5 different states over the course of less than a month. Anyways, stay tuned for more updates and rantings about life in the far east. Patrick OUT!!!

Hong Kong Fooey #1

Its official, my first overseas blog entry. Its curently, day number 2 in Hong Kong. The flight in was longer than I could have ever anticipated but it wasn't entirely painful. We had a quick jump from logan to JFK that was pleasant enough and was pretty cool because the plane wasn't flying very high which let me see very familiar landmarks from the air as we traveled down the RI and CT shores towards Long Island. We then waited in JFK for 4 hours to board our long haul flight into Hong Kong. The plane was nice...of course not enough room to be really comfortable but certainly better than most airlines I've been on. The seats had a bunch of video on demand available so I could watched 4 movies and a bunch of other stuff and slept a little. We had two meals on the flight which were both pretty good and a few snacks in between. Additionally, the airline including free beer, wine, liquor, etc. at any time which was pretty nice and so we took advantage of that during meals. The flight attendants were almost all Asian and most were at least bi-lingual. They were also all very attractive and Elsa told us its because they have an upper age limit and the women have to be a certain height...this should be a selling point for the airline. One of them even corrected Brians mangled Chinese when he tried to order coffee in cantonese. After 16 hours in the air we landed a hong kong international (which is rediculously large) and made our way to customs. Here we were quickly segregated into HK ID holders and foreigners. The lines were essentially Asian and Non-asians. Brian and I segregated ourselves appropriately and quickly made our way through customs without a problem. We picked up our luggage and rode the bus for an hour towards Elsa's home and our hotel. There we met her parents and dropped of our luggage before going out to grab a quick bite to eat. I was pretty excited for our first meal and a little scared that I wouldn't know anything we were eating. We found a little stall and sat down. Elsa and her mother ordered for us because brian and I wouldn't have a chance. We thought we were getting tripe but it ended up being a beef dish that was strikingly similar to yankee pot roast and a iced lemon tea. Thus our first meal in China was potroast and ice tea...how very authentic. I'm sure we'll be moving into more uncharted territory soon. Pictures to come...Patrick OUT!!!

Really quite brilliant

So we're getting down to the wire on the big trip. Of course some details still need to be ironed out but I guess thats to be expected trying to match three peoples visions, schedules, and budgets. Things at work really couldn't be busier right now which makes me feel good and just a tad bit guilty about leaving it all. I will say that I am slowly coming around to believing that I "deserve" this vacation and that I should leave without remorse over the work I'm leaving others to do (to be quite fair it isn't really my work to begin with...so I'm kind of just handing it back with a smile). Anyways, along the way I've been inundated with meetings about the grant the group is writing and what I need to do to prepare for that. We have been facing some pretty substantial problems recently and I proposed a solution yesterday that my advisor described as "really quite brilliant." Which is pretty simple but totally made my day. Made my day enough that I'm still talking about it the next day. Just that ever so slightest bit of approval made me feel like a little kid again bringing home a math test with the big red "A" on the top and getting a "good job kiddo." I guess I'm just that kind of person that needs a little affirmation every so often so I can convince myself that I'm as good as the facade I put up. Way down deep, in grad school especially, there is this sinking feeling that everyone knows more than you and that at some point you will be exposed as a fraud. Of course, after only 25 years on the planet, I've kind of started to figure out that everyone feels that way...except for the people that really should feel that way. Which leads me to perhaps one of my favorite research papers of all time. It appeared in 1999 in issue 6 of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and is entitles Unskilled and Unaware of It: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. For those unfamiliar with this seminal work...I will summarize.

There are essentially two kinds of people for every field of knowledge or skill: the incompetent and the competent. In relation to the incompetent among us the authors state that overestimation of ability is a consistent problem.

"The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it." More plainly, idiots tend to think they are not idiots and overestimate their own abilities because they have no ability to realize that they are in fact idiots. Perhaps this is all a truism and while I find the paper entertaining, it also gives me cause for worry that I might be in that sorry group and that I would never know it if I was. The other group, those top performers in society, tend to perform in the reverse...there by assuming that they are less competent than their actual abilities would suggest.

This,I suppose puts me at a bit of a cross-roads...a mix of extraordinary self confidence in some situations that may betray my ineptitude and a constant need of outside affirmation suggesting the opposite. It then follows that I am left somewhere in the middle of mediocrity. Of course, the theory breaks down a bit when for instance I know that I really suck at dancing and that I am not in that top tier that tends to underestimate their abilities...or maybe I am...dancing with the stars anyone??? Patrick OUT!!!

TGIF

I know its only monday but I am already feeling done with this week. Perhaps it was the relatively busy weekend but I have a feeling its my upcoming trip. I am just totally ready to be on vacation at this point and now this week is a lot of waiting to do very little. I can't start a lot of things because they will either not be done in time or done too early for my return. I've already cleaned the lab and done all the little nagging stuff thats been hanging around for the past month. Now, I'm writing blog entries while I should be working. It doesn't help that my boss is back in town for a few days and she will, of course, expect to see me working away when there isn't that much i could be doing. Furthermore, WPI had its commencement this past weekend which means that all my assistants are gone for good now and so I'm on my own again in the lab. This makes things a little slower and definately a lot more empty. Over the weekend, my sister had her bridal shower which went fairly well it seemed. I, of course, was absent from the affair and so I could only judge its success by the food remnants left behind, the various states of inebriation, and the pile of gifts that now dominates the living room. Of course, any party that leaves the benefactor with a full stomach, an empty glass, and a pile of gifts is a good one in my book. In the mean time, I saw Ironman. This was a pretty good movie I would say. A well done superhero movie with lots of good effects and relatively good acting from robert downey junior who apparently managed to put down the blow long enough the get to the gym quite a bit. Gwyneth paltrow was also in it but was sidelined a bit and I think could have been in it a bit more for a more complete movie. The upside to her character is that she is not nearly as whiney and annoying as Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane character from spiderman. Plus Gweneth is faaarrrr more attractive to look at on screen than ms. dunst. The movie was directed by Jon Favreau who manages to insert a bit part for himself as a limo driver in the very begining...of course I didn't realize he directed the movie at first. When he first came on screen I noticed him right away and figured that the limo driver must play some important role later in the plot of favreau wouldn't have taken the role. So for the whole movie, I waited for his return (I'm not spoiling anything when i tell you he doesn't come back) only to finally discover with the closing credits that he directed the movie. My only gripe about the whole film was the half-assed attempt at including a moral to the story about the evils of weapons development and the american millitary-industrial complex. Now, I am all about arms reduction and scaling down defense spending but this was not even close to a realistic representation of reality and the whole thing does not at all fit in the summer blockbluster vibe of the rest of the movie. It was like at the last minute, Favreau decided he wanted to make a run at the Palm d'Or but was stuck with a comic book hero and decided to go for it anyways. Of course, this probably wont win any major awards...but it doesn't have to...its just fun and it should make a ton of money for some studio execs which will quickly greenlight a sequel (which was set up so well in the first one) and I will pay my $10 to see it next summer. Patrick OUT!!!

Getting Closer Everyday

So its getting closer every day to when I finally make my pilgramage to the lands of the far east. Of course, when I plan my trip the state department issues travel advisories, the chinese government launches a crackdown on dissidents, makes it harder for foreign nationals to get visas, and the country has a HUGE earthquake. Besides that, trip planning is going swimmingly. Of course the upside to all of this is that unlike a trip to Europe my money is still worth something in China. After three years without a real vacation I am looking forward to this more than I thought I would those many months ago when we started planning the whole shebang. Though I am admitedly a bit nervous about the whole affair, I have confidence that things will turn out as planned or at least turn out OK. On the other side of things, I am doing my best now to wind things down at work so i can leave without guilt. I am going to do my best to not bring any work with me when I go, but I'm still contemplating the possibility of bringing a bit of nagging writing along for the plane ride over (23 hours shouldn't be wasted on crosswords and bad food). On the other hand, I feel like I should ignore all that on purpose out of principle for what a vacation should be. Time will tell as to what kind of a work-a-holic I really am.
Of some other note, I am now approaching the one-year anniversary of this blog. This is my 86th post here which seems like a lot to me as I'm rarely as consistent for this long. I guess I had originally intended it to be a travel log of sorts and not the scattered vent session it has become but i'm happy with its direction thus far. I've also recently surpassed my 2000th hit and I am approaching 2500 page views. For those of you keeping track, that is just over 6 hits per day. So if I take out my family (4 people) plus my girlfriend (1 person). That means, on average I have 1 reader per day. So to you...unknown reader...thanks. I'm just kidding of course with that breakdown...I probably have two unique readers at least...maybe more because I know some of those listed above are not as consistent readers as they would have me believe. To that I raise my virtual glass and hope for twice that number by this time next year...tell your friends. Patrick OUT!!!

A gym divided

So as I've already mentioned a few times, I've started going to the gym again...and I've been pretty consistent with that. Of course, the YMCA was threatening that with a series of renovations that had entrances moved and for today they were going to be moving the "wellness center" (cardio and weight training), so it was going to be closed for a while. In the mean time they suggested going to their sister branch. We had been going to the central branch for some time and it suited us OK. It was downtown, not the nicest area but not awful either (we did see someone get arrested as we were walking in one time but I guess thats a small price to pay for such cheap membership). Their other branch "greendale", I had never been to. I always just assumed it was a satelite branch or something like that and that it must be smaller so I never investigated. Well yesterday I was forced to and it came as quite a shock. The place was huge and the parking lot was full. We walk in the front door and it is immaculate. Everything was clean and nice, no construction debris and the gym itself was phenomenal. Besides the nice facility though, one thing hits you over the head time and again. The place is almost all caucasian. This is in stark contrast to our previous gym which was the exact opposite where it would not be uncommon to find that I might be the only white guy there. Even the music at greendale was different...we went from 50 cent and Akon to james taylor and bonnie rait. I guess we just never got the memo about where the white folk were supposed to be. These places are all owned by the same group, so why the disparity? If I didn't know better I would think we has been timewarped back to the 1950s, when segregation still rained. Of course, now I have the crisis of conscience that wants to go back to the nice gym in greendale but feels like I would just be extending the problem further. White guilt strikes again as I can not help but feel like a heel for enjoying the amenities that are placed before me. I don't have an option today but next week the guilt will begin. I'm sure I will eventually forget about the central branch, just like the YMCA already has. I will sink back into my realm of racial homogeneity...but I will have a nice gym in exchange.

Forbidden to Die

So a mayor of a town in France has forbidden his residents to die. The stated reason behind this is of course, cemetary overcrowding. The mayor also promised, "severe punishments" for those who do not follow the ordinance. I for one have trouble guessing what sort of punishment they could inflict on someone allready dead. I guess the upside of the whole thing is that I bet whatever punishment they choose...the recidivism rate should be awfully low. Patrick OUT!!!

I think I'm getting old

So i think it might have finally happened...I just might be an adult, though I must admit I'm still not sure. My little sister, just graduated from college and is off to get married in a little more than a month. It seems like just yesterday that she was running around in pig tails being a royal pain in my ass. Now, a young woman who still has a way of being a pain in the ass. I'm just kidding about all that of course...but it will be a good test to see if she reads this or not. In actuality, i'm pretty proud of her and happy for what she's got and where she's going but at the same time, she makes me feel a little behind in life. Like I'm watching the life train pull away from the station and I'm stuck in my lab coat telling the conductor to wait because i'm in grad school. He laughs and the train keeps moving and i'm on the platform hoping to catch the next one. Getting a bit older and yet a bit further behind...I thought it was supposed to be the other way around. Anyways, I've also been a bit sick recently (which rarely happens to me). With a combination of a new gym regimen and an ear infection, I'm probably that only 25 year old that had trouble walking down stairs and couldn't hear a damn thing. I'm doing better now though, and have regained just about all of my hearing (without the aid of the Rx I was given, one's immune system can do marvelous things when given the time). But still, it was a scary forshadow of things to come and at such a tender young age I was brutally unprepared. Of course, I have immense advantage of being able to just try these things out and not have to deal with them on any permamnent basis which is more than I can say for a lot of people.
Switching gears, my lab life is starting to shape up a bit for the summer and next year. It appears that I will be going back down to AR for a few weeks this summer and then to a conference in washington state anothe week. In addition, a new student is going to be volunteering for 15 hours a week over the summer which is great because I will not be alone in the lab, and she can do the things that usually bore me to tears. Also, next year...I few more undergrads to work in the lab with me. I haven't met them yet but hopefully they will be OK. I've heard that one of them did less than spectacular in the intro biochem course...which makes me worry a little bit but hopefully he will turn out OK. Still waiting on a few others that might be interested in working in the lab, which I guess is a good sign that the undergrads I had this year didn't go running back to campus to tell people what an awful person I was to work for. Or maybe they just don't care enough to warn the next generation...either way, my gain. Patrick OUT!!!