Here, There, and Everywhere

Summer fun coming to an end : (

2010-08-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

Big summer this year. I'm sad to see it end, but this semester should be really good. I've shaken some things up in the lab. Actually, I've changed labs. I am now a member of the Robertson Lab! This means that this might me my last semester teaching at Berkeley, because hopefully, come spring time, I'll be funded by Lynn. But even if I'm not, this change was much-needed and is very much a happy thing.

I'm finishing up an EEG project... or trying to. Why are there always problems with my data? Argh. I'm confident this study will wrap up in a good way, it's just taking longer than I anticipated. This fall should see its completion and a manuscript submitted. Then I can focus on a new track of research in my new lab.

Nathan in the EEG cap

Nathan and I spent all day yesterday rearranging our apartment, because we got a foosball table. A friend of a friend is going to be wandering about the country for a year doing doctorly things, and so we're storing his foosball table. So it's only a loaner, but still pretty cool. Do you know how many ways you can improperly put together a foosball table? Well, I do! After much time spent constructing and reconstructing the table yesterday, Nathan and I played a best of 5 tournament. I killed him in the first match (think 10 to 1, booyah!), but sadly, and I swear through illegal means, Nathan beat me in the next 3 matches. Alas, I lost the tournament. And I ended up with a sore elbow, acquired no doubt through overly- excited and turbo-charged playing.

Whoo-hoo Foosball!!!

The apartment looks really nice now. Nathan and I have created an office space in part of our living room that was previously a box storage spot. So now we've got a desk set up at a window with a fabulous view of the Bay, Cesar Chavez park, Alcatraz, and Berkeley. The foosball table is quite a bit bigger than I was expecting, but we made it work. I actually really like the way we rearranged the furniture and I'm going to enjoy our "new" apartment. In fact, I think I'll get to that now while I celebrate the last day of my summer with a cup of coffee in my Berkeley mug and some Little People, Big World : )

Desk area

View from desk

Pretty People = Alyson Hannigan & Alexis Denisof

2009-09-28T01:23:00.000-07:00

'Willow' and 'Welsey', also known as Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof, are pretty people and a beautiful married couple. I've been watching "How I Met Your Mother" recently. Good show, though I have a hard time watching it without a beer in hand. I wish Alexis Denisof was in more stuff.

Heh heh, it's bacon!

2009-07-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

Nathan and I are going to a friend's birthday party today. This friend likes bacon, so naturally I'm gift wrapping a package of bacon as his present. That's normal, right?

Delicious!

Someone's really proud of this package of bacon. Look at the care with which it was placed on this red fabric.

I think giving bacon as a gift is pretty awesome. Who wouldn't love getting a pound of bacon for their birthday? Well, maybe a vegetarian. I happen to love bacon. In fact, I convinced Nathan to cook 3 lbs of bacon just last week. I was giving myself "bacon rewards" all weekend.

Sleepy time

2009-07-13T22:51:00.001-07:00

I love to sleep. I hate to get up in the morning. Thank god for coffee or I'd never get out of bed. You know who else likes to sleep? Animals. Animals like to sleep. Pandas, puppies, kittens, my cats especially. I love to watch my kitty boys sleep too, they're so cute and furry. Check out all these adorable sleepyheads.

And the kitty boys de resistance...

Upside-down kitty head in all its glory.

Harry Potter...this shit just got real

2009-07-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

I'm all for short blog posts these days (if blog posts happen, period). This one is about revelling in the upcoming release of the new HP movie. Nathan and I just bought our tickets last night, and we can't wait. Sadly, we missed out on the midnight show's tix, which we usually attend.

The last time a new HP movie came out, I, in true uber-dork form, knitted us some Griffindor hats. Thankfully a shred of everyday-garden-variety nerdiness still lived in us and we successfully suppressed the urge to actually wear these hats at the movie. We were still nerdy, don't get me wrong, we went to the midnight release. This being said, I do have a fake HP wand that came with candy lightning bolts in it, which I might have to sneak into the new movie. We'll see what Nathan has to say about that. He'll probably try to steal it from me to use himself. Oh, I just remember that my mom got me a time turner necklace...so many possibilities. I wonder how far Nathan would let me go in my pursuit of dorkdom...I'm guessing far.

And our orange-haired tabby cats are named Fred and George. And they're twin brothers. And, no, it's not a coincidence.

We both have shiny, happy fits of rage

2009-07-11T17:39:00.000-07:00

Not much to say, but I like the Moldy Peaches. Oh, and we sure are cute for two ugly people.

Anyone Else but You

Jorge Regula

Lucky Number Nine

Who's Got the Crack?

A new post

2009-06-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

It's summer vacation and I've survived another semester, another year really, at Berkeley. Nathan and I have a beautiful new apartment with a window ledge for our kitty boys to sit on. We took an awesome vacation to Disneyland and Tempe. And right now we're both on our computer waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. The agenda for today: Coffee, reading (for fun!), Monopoly, and a game night with some friends. All and all, I think it's going to be a pretty good day.

I so very much enjoy my out-of-school time, I just wish I could channel more of this enjoyment into my research. Graduate school is an interesting entity. You begin a program knowing that you have an interest in this field; knowing that you would like to work in this area and figure out things that no one else ever has; knowing that you're ready to make a huge commitment to your education. How are you welcomed into this program? With a spirit-crushingly strong hug of toil. After two years in my program, my sharpened interest has been whittled down to an almost-dull point.

I haven't written on my blog in so long that I just wanted to post something here. I should make the effort to post some new pictures, but I'm too lured by the aroma of coffee in the kitchen.

Ok, just a few. These are pictures from my mom's visit in March when we spent a super fun day wandering around San Francisco.

Can I just say "Oy Vey"?

2009-02-27T11:44:00.000-08:00

Man, I'm happy this semester is so nice and easy. Not too many classes, easy teaching, simple research, all the makings of a nice semester. Oh. Wait. That was just a cruelly blissful dream and I'm awake now. Seriously, this is probably the worst semester of my life. I've got three classes, I'm moving into my EEG phase of research, and I'm teaching statistics and research design to undergrads. Oh yeah, and I'm moving this weekend and all next week. AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Too much!!!!!!!!!

I suppose if this semester doesn't kill me it'll make me a PhD...in another 3 1/2 years. Proof positive of my dire term: the date of my last post. I enjoy adding to my blog yet I've not had the time to do so for over a month. More proof positive: my multiple panic attacks (and at least one of these is not an exaggeration).

But enough about my currently sad existence. The new apartment Nathan and I are moving into is quite nice. It's actually the lower part of a person's house and it's in the really nice part of Berkeley up in the hills overlooking the Bay. It's two bedroom, has a washer/dryer, access to a cute backyard garden, and a 4-window panoramic view of the Bay! I'm very optimistic that we'll be happy in our new home and will not have to move again the rest of our time in the Bay Area.

The move's not coming a moment too soon either. Our current cruddy apartment has again been overwrought by a horde of vicious ants. The battle has been waged and I was victorious, but it was a hassle none the less. Our apartment complex has also been involved in a tête-a-tête with the neighboring house regarding recycling. I don't want to go into it, but it's rather funny if you can get over how petty it is.

Well, I'm off to fix lunch and write up a lesson plan for next week. I'll post pics of the new place when I get a chance.

Time to put on my business socks

2009-01-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

I'm getting down to business today with the help of my handy dandy business socks of flying monkeys. Check it:

I love socks. I never wear plain white socks and I like to match my socks to my mood or goals of the day. Today's socks, though, are inspired by a website I just discovered. An old friend from back in the days of first grade and onward is a Flash animator and has a web cartoon of Space Monkey Mafia. It's really cute and quite hilarious. So my socks today are about flying monkeys.

Flying monkeys aside, however, I am getting down to business, hence the business socks. I'm going to dig into statistical analysis (delicious) and dive into a journal article for class (everyone needs exercise). In addition to the help I will be receiving from my socks, I've also got two kitties to help me along.

Fred's business is sleepy time. Where's he going? Sleep. Sleepy town.

I hope I don't doze off looking at the cute guy's cute face.

Time for another panda post

2009-01-18T13:11:00.001-08:00

Due to the looming semester on the horizon of tomorrow, I felt that posting a bunch of cute, fluffy, happy, chubby panda pictures would cheer me through this dark day. Let's delve right in, shall we?

This guy is in a bind, but you gotta love that fluff butt.

There's nothing better than yawning in a tree.

When my boys stand like this, I call them gopher kitties. This guy looks more like he's doing tai chi.

Geez, these frickin' guys are cute, and helpful.

More cubby panda butt.

To me, this guy looks like he's doing a dangerous downhill cartwheel.

Just how much chubby cuteness can you stand? Because I'm almost at my limit.

Oh for crying out loud.

This guy looks sad to me. All alone with a ginorm bootab.

I like this dude's nosicles.

And finally...? I don't know what's happening here, but it reminds me of The Mystics from "The Dark Crystal".

Ewan McGregor

2009-01-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

This post is going to make my husband mad/sad, because he knows my sentiments for Ewan McGregor. However, I would like more people to randomly land on my blog by doing google searches for famous people and movies. Therefore, I am posting a bunch of McGregor pictures. Plus, the man deserves it, people!

Ewan McGregor has been one of my favorite actors for about 10 years (others include Cary Elwes, Gene Wilder, and Hugh Jackman). I discovered him in high school in movies like "Trainspotting", "Shallow Grave", and "Eye of the Beholder", but "Moulin Rouge" really cinched the deal for me. Before "Moulin Rouge" came out, I'd told my then-best friend that I thought Ewan McGregor was really good looking. She flat out laughed at me (crazy!). After she and I went to see "Moulin Rouge", however, she came crawling back and bowed down to the McSexy McGregor. We then proceeded to see "Moulin Rouge" six more times in the theatre (thankfully, half of those were in the dollar theatre, movies are too expensive). People gave that movie a lot of shit, we even witnessed people walk out of it. But if you notice, the following year "Chicago" came out and got raves. Rip off. I refused to watch that movie for years. I have seen it now and it's ok, but I can't stand Richard Gere singing and I still think it's bogus.

"Moulin Rouge" was actually the first DVD I ever bought. Why do I even remember such a thing? It's a funny story...at least to me. My friend and I watched and waited for the movie to be released on VHS. We finally saw an ad saying it was due to be out on such and such a day. Hooray! That day came, we drove to Best Buy, looked all through the VHSes, and nothing. No "Moulin Rouge". At least, not on VHS. It was first released on DVD only. Blasted! Neither of us had a DVD player (can you even believe that?). So what did we do? Well, we each bought the DVD and then I bought a DVD player. Yup. I bought a brand new DVD player just so I could watch "Moulin Rouge". Heh. That's very unlike me, as I am...how do I put this delicately...cheap. Yes, I love money, I love saving money, I love checking my banking account to see how much money I have, I love finding money. In the words of Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel), "I WANT THAT MONEY!!!" Anyway, so I bought a DVD player and we proceeded to watch "Moulin Rouge" way too much, even attempting to learn the dance that Kylie Minogue, AKA The Green Fairy, does...no success. Super fun times were had.

Sadly, I started watching "Moulin Rouge" a few months ago and it no longer gripped me like it once did. I'm pretty sure part of the problem is my living in a crappy apartment with no sound proofing, which inhibits me from singing along. I'm going to give it another chance after I finish this post though, neighbors be damned!

Too much talk. On to some pictures!

I love him for more than his "Moulin Rouge" days though. He's a mothertruckin' Jedi, people! Come on!

I like to think that he's enough of a geek that this picture, while somewhat sarcastic, shows him genuinely enjoying some "Star Wars" nuts. Afterall, his uncle played a fighter pilot in one of the originals.

Ok, Ok, in this picture he looks a little...umm, Nathan knows the word I'm searching for but won't print. Happy, yeah, happy. The guy's got a great smile.

No words neccessary.

Words neccessary? His head is in a lion's mouth. Words done.

Hah, words definitely neccessary! He's Scottish. He sometimes wears kilts. He sometimes doesn't wear a shirt when he's wearing a kilt. And sometimes he casts "Come hither" looks when he's wearing a kilt with no shirt.

Bespectacled, a bit nerdy, and great. Note: the people who did Rob Pattinson's hair for his character of Edward in "Twilight" totally ripped off Ewan's look (see picture below).

Just posing.

Black and white pictures are always nice.

I mentioned Rob Pattinson having McSexy's hair in "Twilight", but he also has Ewan's expression. I've only put one picture below and if you're not convinced you need to watch a "Twilight" clip. It's true.

The hair. The look.

Other great McGregor works to check out:
A Life Less Ordinary
Velvet Goldmine
Down with Love
Star Wars prequels
Big Fish
Night Watch
Brassed Off
Emma
Long Way Round
Long Way Down

Back from vaca, the weath was great

2009-01-14T12:46:00.000-08:00

I save actual seconds each week abbreviating words. It's phenom!

Nathan and I are back from our trip to AZ and Disneyland. It was pretty fun, and I've got pictures to prove it!!! I believe I shall do this in snippets, because there are many pictures from the many phases of our trip.

Phase 1 - The drive to AZ, Jan 1st, 2009

As much as I often detest this place called home, AKA the Bay Area, it really is quite beautiful.

It was soooo foggy on our drive that morning. All the way from our home in Berkeley to just before LA. Fog fog fog fog fog. Kind of scary in some places actually, because we'd be driving up a mountain with very low visibility and people would still be zooming around. Dangerous a-holes.

Wide open and amazing. Get a load of that vanishing point!

Yup, that's snow. This was somewhere still in CA called Tehachapi. We visited a fine establishment in this town. You may have heard of it, Walgreens.

Phase 2 - The fam, Jan 2nd to Jan 7th, 2009

From left to right, mom, Piggy, Nathan.

Awww, Piggy loves Nathan. Frickin' adorable!!!!

Oh, poor old Floppy. She's got no hearing, hardly any vision, but a strong sniffin' snout. This old puppy loves to mooch, and the habit has gotten more aggressive with old age. Perhaps she thinks she's alone in the room since she can't see or hear us, and so she thinks, "Why don't I put my cute little puppy paws on this table and try to get Allison's food? She'll never know it was me. Woof!"

Mom and G-ma. My mom insisted on getting some family portraits taken when we were in town. They turned out pretty funny because my mom has her mouth open and laughing in all of them (I'll have to scan in a couple maybe). In her defense, my nephew Daniel, 2, was cracking her up the whole time.

My little Pigglet. Piggy loves laying on laps. It's probably her favorite thing in the world. Other favs of Pigglet include chasing the Trash Truck Monster, barking at hot air balloons, mooching, sleeping, and barking at the neighbor dogs. Oh Piggy, you're so cute!

Phase 3 - DISNEYLAND, Jan 9th to 11th, 2009

Here I am outside of Splash Mountain in Disneyland. Nathan got the brunt of the splashing that day, but out of the shot my pants are soaked. I didn't mind, it feels nice when you're walking around in the sun. Yes, it's warm to hot even in January. Add to that my sissy-hood when it comes to heat. Equals, SPLASH FUN TIME!

Big Thunder Railroad broke down when we were on it. Not just temporarily either. We were stuck sitting stopped on the tracks for a good 10 or 15 minutes and then had to walk through the attraction to get out. There were two pre-teen girls sitting in front of us who kept talking to us and were pretty funny.

We had a very delicious lunch in Downtown Disney at this place called Naples. It was pretty expensive (thank you, greedy corporate such-and-suches), but did I mention delicious? It was delicious. There was a really creepy chef/clown thing projecting out from the restaurant that this picture is supposed to show. But you can't expect too much from a random person taking your photo, at least they got me and Nathan in it.

I'm sad here because Nathan didn't want to go where I wanted to go. I don't remember where I wanted to go, but it was somewhere, I know that much. You can see Nathan trying to worm his way into the photo, heh heh. I also like that you can see the big ship in the background and all the crazy people.

Here we are on Space Mountain. I love riding this ride with Nathan because he giggles the whole time. Giggling is funny any time, but Nathan giggling is hilarious. He sounds like a mixture of Mickey Mouse (no joke) and a giddy schoolgirl. And for some reason, this ride in particular elicits the giggle fits from my goofy dear. He always looks so funny in these pictures that they take on the rides (here he is making sure nothing falls out of his pockets), while I look calmly happy.

Beautiful Disneyland. It really is beautiful too. The amount of details they have around the place is just amazing. You don't even need to go on the rides to enjoy the place, just keep your eyes open for unexpected decorations around the entire park.

This is over in the other park, California Adventure. Nathan doesn't like this side as much because it's not so Disney oriented. But I love it because it has the biggest roller coaster, California Screamin'. This, however, is their newest attraction, which is the 3D Toy Story Midway Mania. For your line-ly entertainment, Mr. Potatohead. Potato Potato, Potato Potato.

One of Nathan's favorite Disney movies (the favorite?) is Pinnochio. We found this little restaurant within a part of the park we'd never seen before, tucked away in behind the Dumbo ride and some random princess stuff for little girls. I really like this picture, because as Nathan pointed out when looking at it last night, it looks like his thought bubble.

This is in CA Adventure again heading into the Hollywood side of the park, which houses the Twilight Zone's Tower of Terror. We finally decided we were going to do this ride though it frankly terrifies us just to look at the building. It's a tall hotel looking building with a flickering neon sign. Our friend Richard and his new lady friend were at the park with us this day, and they were going to ride it together, even though she gets motion sick. Nathan and I thought, if she can do it, so can we. So we did. I was so scared waiting in the line and walking into the elevator where the ride actually happens. But it wasn't too bad at all. The ride shoots you up real high in the elevator and drops you, up, down, up, down, in various stages and heights. BUT, you're inside a building and can't really tell how high you are. The scariest part for me actually was when you get to the very top, there's no wall between you and the outside and you can see just how high above the park you are. THAT was the scariest.

Every time Nathan and I go to Disneyland, we each buy one pin for our lanyards to mark the occasion. This was our 5th trip. I first took him to Disneyland to celebrate his graduating from ASU. He hadn't been since he was a little kid, and was very excited. Needless to say, he loved it! So, when we moved to Berkeley and he started working at a coffee shop, I started saving all of his tip money to fund two year-long passes for us. He made pretty good tips, we bought the passes, and we've been 4 more times. We'll probably only make it back one more time before they expire on June 4th, boo. Anyway, the point in my telling this story is that Nathan's pin for this trip was sorcerer Mickey and we found this statue in CA Adventure of sorcerer Mickey. Picture needed. Picture taken.

If Nathan were here right now (and not on his way to his first day at a new job, to be described at another time), he would say that this is an epic blog post. Yes.

The end.

The handmade homemade christmas present extravaganza

2008-12-30T15:01:00.000-08:00

Since the completion of my semester, I've been a-craftin' up a storm. I've made a hat and scarf for a cold friend in Michigan, started a new super-secret scarf project for an unnamed beneficiary, painted a box for Nathan, painted a box for my grandma, painted some holiday thingies for me and Nathan, and painted a Noah's arc thingy for my nephew. I've been working on these things for probably 5-8 hours a day, no joke.

Here's the hat and scarf I made. I wanted a picture of them before I mailed them off to the midwest. I'm still waiting to hear if they've been received and dutifully loved.

This is a Christmas thingy that I started painting years ago. The last time Nathan and I were in AZ, I found a tub full of my old craft supplies and decided to bring it back to Berkeley. I was digging through it a few days ago and found this half-painted thing and decided to finish it. Below it is the box I painted for my grandma, who I will be seeing in AZ in just a few days. Grandmas always love little knickknacks, right?

I just finished this present for my nephew Daniel last night. I think it turned out pretty cute. My brother has some weirdly strong urge to decorate the kid's room with Noah's ark stuff, so I guess this should fit in nicely.

I'm looking forward to giving out all these presents. Nathan and I are leaving for AZ on Thursday, but we're not having our replacement Christmas celebration until Saturday. So I've got a few more days to wait. In the mean time, I've got about a million things to do around this place before leaving, including coming up with some new way to thwart the invasion plans of the ants that live in our crawl space. (If it's not a raccoon it's another thing.) I'm really looking forward to our trip though. We're going to be staying with our friend Richard in his new house, and then Richard and us are going to Disneyland!!! Anyway, fun times ahead, I'll post about them when I'm back.

Conclusion of the raccoon saga

2008-12-30T14:30:00.001-08:00

The raccoon has been captured!!!

We've had a raccoon living under our apartment off and on for over a year. Recently, he started chewing at the walls to get in to our warmth, and therefore, he had to go. We had some critter control people come out and set some humane traps to catch the little dude. At first, he proved elusive. Maybe he wasn't interested in the marshmallows with peanut butter or maybe he wasn't interested in being in a trap that smelled like purified skunk stink (true story, stupid critter people). Nevertheless, we did eventually hear little raccoon scuffles outside our bedroom window where the traps were located. Now begins our story.

The setting: A small cruddy apartment in Berkeley, CA, USA

The time: The deep cold of night, the witching hour, 12 midnight

The players: Nathan (brave giver of food), Allison (the photographer), raccoon (the antagonist)

Scene: (There is an eerie noise outside.)
Nathan: Do you hear that?
Allison: Yeah, it sounds like something got caught in one of our traps.
N: Let's go check it out.
(Nathan and Allison grab coats and a flashlight and head outside. They see an animal-shaped lump in a trap.)
A: Look, it's the raccoon!!!
N: Oh, he's looks so sad in there. Maybe we should give him some food. We've got carrots, right?
A: Yeah, but let's use the celery, it's longer.
They head back into the apartment to get the celery. Back outside, Allison takes a couple of pictures of the raccoon.
A: Go ahead and give him the celery.
(Nathan pushes an end of the celery through the slats of the cage. Unfortunately, he keeps on pushing, hoping to make the celery more accessible to the raccoon. The raccoon, however, interprets this act as a threat.)
Raccoon: {snarling and lungeing} Grrrr, I'm gonna get you!!!
N: Ahh! Don't get me raccoon!!!
(Nathan drops the celery and he and Allison run back into the apartment.)
A: That raccoon was angry!
N: I don't feel sorry for him anymore. I could have lost a finger. He bit right through that celery, stringy bits and all!
A: Phew! He's a rodent, not friend...even though he's not a rodent, but you know what I mean.

End Scene

Look at the evil red glint in his eye.

Ok, ok, he's still cute, but don't try to feed him.

Cute kitties yeah yeah!

2008-12-30T14:19:00.000-08:00

Fred and George boggle my mind with the extent of their cute. I can't even take it sometimes. And, boy, do they love sleeping on their dad!

George loves his dad

George loves sleeping on his dad

George REALLY loves sleeping on his dad

Fred loves being a sleepy rag-doll-like lump on his dad

Random Musings...Fat and The Simpsons

2008-12-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

For some reason, when I woke up this morning I remembered how in the sixth grade I dissected a frog. Even more oddly, my brain connected this event with The Simpsons. Let me explain.

In the sixth grade, my friend Amie and I were lab partners assigned to dissect a dead frog. This is the one cutting-an-animal-open-for-science school assignment which I did instead of opting to writing an excessively long report about the animal's physiology (i.e., the humane option). While I was working through the assignment, Amie was cutting out the frog's tongue and stretching it, but that's beside the point. Within the frog, I discovered short yellow tubular thingies. I asked the teacher what they were, and he said it was fat. Yellow tubular thingy = fat.

Are you seeing the connection?

So, this memory floated to the surface of my mind this morning and then latched itself to The Simpsons. The connection thread that my brain used is that the Simpsons are yellow tubular thingies AND they're fat. Not really an interesting connection, but I thought "how appropriate." Jumbo-sized Homer, with his substantial gut, is a fat yellow man. The fat in the frog was yellow. Almost all of The Simpsons' characters have bulbous midsections. They're chubby and cute. They're yellow and fat (except for the ones that aren't, LOGIC).

That was my morning. Why don't you tell me about yours?

The final hurdle

2008-12-14T11:40:00.000-08:00

Test grading. Hmph. Start the "Chariots of Fire" music and let me at them. I am going to grade tests like there's no tomorrow. Final exams, re-take exams, entering of grades, work, work, work. I will get to my winter break!!!

The jibberish above is attempting to convey the sentiment that I'm not really wanting to grade, but I do want to start my relaxing, and so will suffer through this last hurdle. Is a necessary post? No, probably not. Am I doing it anyway? Umm, are you looking at it? Yeah, I'm doing it anyway. Am I a bit aggressive currently due to my distaste for my present predicament? Indeed! Careful, Nathan, don't get within fist reach.

By the way, there are no pictures for this post. You'll take it and like it!

Obama : Smoking :: Kooky Aussi : Oil Spill

2008-12-08T22:27:00.000-08:00

The other day, Nathan read me a yahoo news report about Barack Obama and his deathstick addiction and his supposedly quitting smoking. Here's what stood out to me:

"Appearing on NBC's 'Meet the Press' program, interviewer Tom Brokaw told Obama he had ducked answering the question during an interview last month with ABC's Barbara Walters.

Noting that the White House was a no-smoking zone, Brokaw asked Obama, 'Have you Stopped smoking?'

'I have,' Obama replied, smiling broadly. 'What I said was that there are times where I have fallen off the wagon.'

'Wait a minute,' Brokaw interjected, 'that means you haven't stopped.'

'Fair enough,' Obama said."

Heh heh. This exchange really tickles me for some reason. Obama first answers with, what I can only imagine to be, a shit-eating grin (= "smiling broadly") and then immediately flips his answer from a flat out statement of having quit smoking to basically saying, "Nah, I was just joshin' ya, I smoke all day everyday."

I don't give two flying squirrels if Obama smokes. But the fast-paced (and to me, quite humorous) exchange reminded me of an hysterical video clip of an Australian "politician" talking about the front end falling off of a big boat and causing an even bigger oil spill. I honestly don't know if this guy is a real politician and this interview is legit, or if this is a genius parody. (Oh, please, be a parody. I fear for our world.)

I could watch this a dozen times in a row and still laugh out loud.

I've got vision on my brain grapes

2008-12-08T21:27:00.001-08:00

A fellow graduate student e-mailed me this awesome picture...I mean...Look at this awesome picture I took back in the early 1900's.

{phew, that was close}

Before I tell you anything about this picture, take a quick look at it.

You probably see a large Jesus-shaped head floating between two people. Yes? Take a second look at the picture, and try to get a different perception of the "hey zeus" patch. This is a bit trickier. What if I told you that you could also see that patch as a child sitting on the left man's knee? Still can't see it? Cover up the floating head's hairdo. Still nothing?! Come on, people! Ok, ok, the floating head's "eye" is actually the child's face cowled under a white hood, and the giant head's mouth is the kid's arm coming out of a white sleeve. Got it? Finally, I was beginning to worry about your brain grapes.

So this is my awesomely ambiguous photo for which I've won numerous Nobel Prizes. What's causing this double perception? Perceptual grouping at its finest, AKA figure-ground, betches!

You may be familiar with the concept of figure-ground from the ambiguous vase/face picture. I've just found a rather unique example of this:

This drawing can be perceived as either one face or two, depending on what you group as the figure and what as the ground. If you perceive the vertical object under the candle as being closer in the picture plane, then you will perceive the eyes, nose, and mouth as belonging to one face that is behind the candlestick. BUT, if you can split your perception to include two faces looking at each other head on, then you will see those faces as being in front and the shape under the candle as being farther (and maybe not even a candlestick anymore, but an accidentally candlestick-shaped space formed by the contours of the two faces). For me, this picture is also bistable, meaning my perception of what's in front switches automatically as I continue looking at the image.

Another famously bistable image is the Necker cube:

From this single simple wire-framed cube, you can get two depth perceptions. The front face can look like it's pointing down and to the left {"Back and to the left. Back and to the left."} or up and to the right. What you "see" will flip back and forth as you continue looking at it. Wh-Wh-What?!?!? Oh my god, it's wonderful!!! {that's for you, Nate}

Awww, perception. My one and only friend. Maybe Perception and I should get together for a round of Boggle this weekend. I sense good times on the horizon, people!

Old-timey photo from some crazy website.
Figure-mutha-truckin-ground from some other such site.

I'm helping!!!

2008-12-06T13:41:00.000-08:00

I'm helping Nathan write his papers right now. Nathan's had a bit of a hard time getting to work, so I implemented my love for violence and punching to motivate him to start. I told him (as he perused facebook with glazed over eyes) that I would punch him every 5 seconds until he got to work. I then sat in a chair behind his chair and counted down "Five, four, three, two, PUNCH!" and punched his arm. Don't worry, I was gentle, I didn't bruise the precious little peach. "Five, four, three, two, PUNCH! Five, four, three, two, JAB! {poke in the rib} Five, four, three, two, CHOP! {karate chop to the arm} Five, four, three, two, TAP {smacked the top of his forehead}" Needless to say, he's now working. Hooray ME!!!

Side note: He was so cute and twitchy with fear as he got to work. Man, I'm a good wife!

Look at him go!

Blog on facebook (A.K.A. The story of the raccoon)

2008-12-02T15:12:00.000-08:00

I've just uploaded my blog on facebook, and am curious to see if facebook will automatically import new blog posts. So this is my test run, but I might as well tell an interesting story while I'm at it.

Nathan and I live above a raccoon...or, a raccoon lives below us. There's a crawlspace under our apartment, and some ingenious raccoon discovered how to get in there about a year ago. He/she has been our little rabid friend every since. He/she (that's getting old, so lets name the raccoon Dragon)...Dragon typically lives under our bathtub. Quite disconcerting when you're showering, let me tell you. But sometimes in the middle of the night, Dragon will crawl under our bedroom and scratch at the walls. Last night was the worst. Dragon, or maybe one of Dragon's rodent friends (i.e., rats) was chewing at the drywall and trying to home invasion us. It was pretty terrifying to wake up to at 4 in the morning. Because of this breach of our cohabitation contract, I've had to call the apartment company about Dragon. Frankly, this situation has gone on for far too long, so I won't be too sad to see Dragon go. Plus it will be nice to have a full night's sleep sans wild animal attack.

As much as I'd like to believe Dragon is like this cute little fella

He's probably more like this big dude.

Goodbye, Dragon friend.

Presentation time, booyah!

2008-12-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

Today is the day of my big fMRI presentation. Well, not "big" per se, but presentation is true enough. I'm still a bit nervous, but I practiced a few times last night, ran through it with my advisor and got his feedback this morning, and have practiced it a few more times on my own. So now I'm feeling ok. It will not be phenomenal, but it will be pretty good.

I wonder what a presentation by Chuck Norris would be like...

"Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs."

"Scientists have estimated that the energy given off during the Big Bang is roughly equal to 1CNRhK (Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick)"

"Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice."

"Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship."

"A Chuck Norris-delivered Roundhouse Kick is the preferred method of execution in 16 states."

"Chuck Norris doesnt shave; he kicks himself in the face. The only thing that can cut Chuck Norris is Chuck Norris."

For more on Chuck Norris, visit chucknorrisfacts.com .

Fact: Chuck Norris was the best man at my uncle Kenny's wedding.

fMRI presentation : (

2008-11-29T14:30:00.001-08:00

I would love to slack off for the rest of the long Thanksgiving weekend, but I have a presentation to prepare. Boo! I have to present an fMRI research paper to my fMRI class on Monday, and I believe I'm the first unlucky soul to present. So that's what I'm doing today and tomorrow. I guess it's a good thing I finished all of the Stephenie Meyer books I was reading, because now I can concentrate more on my work (though I am going through intense withdrawal from the books).

I've never presented fMRI work before, and I'm supposed to comment on the methods and their appropriateness. Since I'm not a pro in fMRI methods, hence my taking this course, I'll try to gloss over those details as much as possible. I don't really mind standing up in front of the class and presenting, but this will count as almost all of my course grade, and that does make me nervous.

At least I can have "Frasier" on while I'm working.

Thanksgiving without all the cooking

2008-11-28T14:06:00.000-08:00

Nathan and I decided to not do a big cooking kick this year for Thanksgiving. Instead, we went to the way overpriced Andronico's market up the street (or as our friends call it "Astronomico's") and bought some precooked turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. I made scalloped potatoes and stuffing, both from a box and both delicious; and Nathan steamed some carrots. What does all of this food equal? DELICIOUS THANKSGIVING FOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!! Check it.

Nathan's crazy face aside, that's some fine lookin' Thanksgiving food steam!

Yeah, Nathan's excited.

I think I should probably go eat some of that food right now. The talking walnut told me to, that way it's not my bad thing.

Explanation time

2008-11-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

I've been preoccupied for the past couple of weeks, hence, no blog posts. Let me explain (by the way, it's all Nathan's fault).

For my birthday, Nathan bought me a new book, "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer. I was hesitant about the book because the author is mormon (yes, yes, I should be more open mided and/or accepting...) and because of it's crappy movie trailer. But Nathan said the book was right up my alley because it is "about a teenage vampire." So I gave it a try. As I began the book, my first impression was, "You can really tell this is a first-time author." It was not very gripping initially, and the chronology of the first person telling was muddled because of the author's stylistic choices. But that rapidly changed into an amazing book (and I don't know if it's my imagination, but the writing got a lot better too). The story is written from the perspective of a teenage girl, and the way it's written you really feel like you could be that girl. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that when the girl experiences an emotion, the reader experiences the emotion. For myself, I could really feel as if I was in the story and not just sitting on my bed reading a book. Oh, by the way, I finished the book in two days (498 pages).

So naturally I wanted to read the rest of the books in the series. Nathan and I walked up and down Shattuck and looked in two or three bookstores, but this being the sh*thole that is Berkeley, they didn't have the second book. Especially irritating is the fact that it took us about 15 minutes just to find a parking spot, but that's life in Berkeley. When we got home I hopped on Amazon, and much to my delight, I found the next three books all on sale. I ordered all three and spent the next few days anxiously awaiting my delivery, which got here last Thursday or Friday. Much to Nathan's chagrin (though it's all his fault, remember), I dove into the second book. And finished it. I dove into the third book. And finished it. I dove into the fourth book. And finished it just last night. So....um.....that's why I haven't posted anything for a long while. I've been reading reading reading, 2,442 pages of reading.

Here are the four beautiful books.

Apparently, I'm not the only on in the family who likes the books.

George does too! Although Fred feels they're "below him"...

...really they're below George (heh heh heh)

Anyway, I loved all of the books. Stephenie Meyer was able to write the characters as growing, but in a satisfying way, so that the reader is just as happy with each subsequent book even though the characters are not exactly the same, but changing. That probably sounds silly or "d'uh!" but I would imagine it's very hard to do. I loved the first book for one reason (and in the attempt to not ruin the reading experience for anyone else, I'm not going to say what that reason is), the second book for a similar reason but also many different reasons, etc. I see my generalities in attempting to hide the plot of the books is making my explanation a bunch of vague gobbledygook, so I'll stop here. Suffice it to say, I loved the books, and I want more!

Check out Stephenie Meyer's website here, did I mention she's from Tempe and does signings at Changing Hands? (I know I didn't, but I am now). Another reason to miss AZ, I'd love to get a signed copy of one of these books.

Also, I saw the movie "Twilight" and it's very "eh". When I first saw the preview (before I knew anything about the books), I thought to myself, "Wow, another crappy vampire movie. Great! Oh look, it's the guy that played Cedric Diggory in 'Harry Potter'." After I finished reading the book, I really wanted to see the movie. It was bad. I knew it would be bad. But it was bad. Neither of the two leads could act. Period. And the vampire special effects left a lot to be desired. I will say, however, that the guy that played Edward looked that part. So whenever he was quiet, he did a decent job, you know, just having a face and being seen. I'll still get it on Netflix when it comes out, but not for itself, for the book.

Awesome 90's videos

2008-11-09T12:53:00.001-08:00

In case you haven't heard, MTV has started uploading ALL of the music videos they've ever aired at mtvmusic.com. Naturally I've been taking advantage of the prolific-ness and free-ness of this, and this morning this taking advantage took the form of AWESOME 90'S VIDEOS!!!!

First, we have 4 Non Blondes. Do I even have to put the song name? Probably not, because there's really only the one. This is the pop-up video version, because pop-up videos were awesome and I miss them with all my heart and soul (overly dramatic moment!!!!!):

4 Non Blondes |MTV Music

This song reminds me of summers in Missouri for some reason. There was a playground right by my dad's house, and I would spend loads of time there. I would usually sing to myself, and this is one of the songs I would sing. Before this morning, I hadn't heard this song is years and years, yet when I heard it today I was able to still sing along. Isn't music amazing? Also, does anyone else see Angela's friend Rayanne from "My So-Called Life" in the wardrobes of this video, they're both epitomes of 90's "fashion" and 90's-ness in general.

Second, we have Pearl Jam's "Jeremy":

Pearl Jam |MTV Music

My memory with this song has to do with carpet cleaning. Let me explain. My mom used to get our carpet cleaned once or twice a year, which would mean us moving all of the furniture out to the garage for a day or two. Because of that, the living room would be just a big empty space waiting for some kid to run around on it having a good time. I was that kid. One carpet cleaning day, MTV was doing a Top 100 or some such video countdown, and this song was the #1 or 2 video. I remember jumping around the living room and "dancing" in awesome 90's fashion, just basically jamming out to this song. Sort of embarrassing, but a guaranteed good time. Nathan told me that this was the last music video Pearl Jam ever made, not because they broke up or disappeared into obscurity, but because they decided against participating in the commercialism that is music videos. I think that's pretty cool, though you know they still made gobs of money and bought many pointless belongings for themselves.

And finally, "Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum:

Soul Asylum |MTV Music

I believe this song was also part of that song countdown I mentioned above, but this is based on probably-faulty memory. Anyway, I would dance around all crazy to this song too. Nathan told me something interesting as we were watching this earlier. He said that when this video first came out, all of the missing children that were shown in it were found. So the band started cycling through pictures of other missing kids, and they kept getting found. As long as that song was popular and getting regular play, they kept finding more and more missing kids. Awesome not just for the song, but for the impact as well.

Plans for the weekend

2008-11-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

Grade Midterms, play soccer, read about fMRI, knit and watch Netflix ("Project Runway" and "Friday Night Lights")...oh, and drink coffee. I guess the good outweighs the bad, but I really, really, really, really, really, really hate grading exams! Bright spark, I grade with "Frasier" on, which helps keep me sane and offers distractions when I need a nano-break.

I've finished the hat I was working on, and I started the scarf last night. I might unravel that though, I'm not sure how the design is going to look. It's just a 3x3 ribbed stripe pattern all the way up, because I thought (and Nathan agreed) that the basket weave pattern that I was planning might be too feminine. I love the basket weave ("I love Santino!" ~that's for you, hon). I've made myself three scarves of that pattern. Take a look.

The coffee just a-finished a-brewing, so I'm gonna get what I want, which is coffee. Adios.

Follow the election tallies, courtesy of MSNBC

2008-11-04T11:01:00.001-08:00

Election 2008

2008-11-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

Today is the presidential election. I've got butterflies in my stomach because I do not want this country to continue down the same path that it's on. I've cast my vote via mail ballot already. Let's just hope that the people's voice is properly heard this time and that there's no funny business with hanging chads, too few voting sites in Democrat areas, or whatever evil nonsense the Republicans can cook up. Go out and vote!!!

Weekend fun...knitting

2008-11-02T21:04:00.001-08:00

I'm nearly finished with the hat I'm knitting for a friend. I haven't made a hat in a really long time, so I've had to sort of relearn how to do it. I think it's turning out ok, and I should have enough yarn left over to make another one.

Mocha and Dark Leaf

I really like making stuff with my hands, as silly as that may sound. Even sillier, I was thinking about trying to sell some of my knitted stuff at one of the copious Bay Area farmer's markets. I think that crazy anti-mass-production Berkeleyites would be willing to pay pretty well for handmade things. Maybe I'm cuckoo.

Weekend fun...soccer

2008-11-02T20:45:00.001-08:00

The weather cleared up today, so I finally got to try out the new cleats that Nathan bought me for my birthday. They were so pretty and clean that I wanted to take a picture of them before running around in the mud.

So pretty!

I love my new cleats!!! I can't wait to join a game. There's a neighborhood game and a psych grad student game that I'd like to try out. We'll see what happens, either way I had a lot of fun running around in my new shoes today.☺

Weekend fun...food

2008-11-02T20:28:00.000-08:00

Nathan and I splurged a bit this weekend by having some delicious food. We bought bagels on Friday, so we decided to get some smoked salmon and have bagels and lox for lunch Saturday. Yum!!!! Here's Nathan about to dive into the deep end of delish:

Here's a close up of my bagel, complete with cream cheese, tomato, and red onion (no capers because I'm cheap and I can admit it).

To top off the yummy food, I made some chai tea in our slow cooker (water, black tea, cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger, and cloves). It was really easy and turned out nicely. Plus it made the apartment smell pretty after the onion slicing that happened for the bagels. Overall, a very good complement for the cold rainy day that was Saturday.

I'm gonna get my knit on!

2008-10-31T20:17:00.000-07:00

I friend of mine is living in Michigan now, and because the weather is leaning into winter that far north, I'm going to knit him a hat and scarf. I've been thinking about adding a series of posts about my knitting projects anyway, so I'm going to start with this. Here are the colors I chose:

I'm going to make the hat striped brown and green, and the scarf will just be green. If I have the energy, I'll do the scarf in a basket weave, otherwise I think I'll just do a really basic one-side knit one-side garter or chunks of rows of knit then garter repeating. Anyway, I'm excited to get started, I haven't knitted anything in about a month.

On the sadder side, I'm going to start grading 100+ pop quizzes now. Boo (not Halloween "boo" but sad "boo"). Thankfully, this grading is mindless enough that I can have "Frasier" on while I'm doing it. Being set in Seattle, this show is the appropriate choice for this evening. After I'm done grading, Nathan and I are going to watch some "X-Files" and I'll start my hat. Yay! I'll post some pictures as I progress (on the knitting, not the grading).

I ♡ MOVIES

2008-10-31T16:14:00.001-07:00

I "heart" movies. Wow, I'm annoying even myself. I hate when people "heart" things, but I just found out how to insert symbols on Firefox (for macs, press apple/option/t).Here's another one: because it's raining today in Berkeley, don't forget your ☂.

Alright, Nathan and I are about to go to see "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" in Emeryville.

I've got quite the warm spot in my heart for Jewish guys: Seth Rogen, Zach Braff, Adam Brody, Adrien Brody, Adam Goldberg, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David...awww. Yeah, it's a little weird...I'm a little weird. Gotta hurry to the movie now.

UPDATE:

Just got back from the movie. Wouldn't recommend spending the $10. Parts of it were sufficiently funny, but not enough. I like Seth Rogen, but he was doing his same-old same-old thing. The plot was surprisingly transparent, even for a comedy. The most disappointing thing was that you never get to see if their porno was successful. I give it a ::shrug:: m'eh.

Grey weather makes me happy

2008-10-31T15:34:00.001-07:00

Today is one of the first really grey, damp, chilly days of the semester. I love this weather! Because it was so cold when I left for school, I had the pleasure of wearing some of my knitted gear. I taught myself how to knit and crochet from books about a year and a half ago, and have enjoyed making way too many hats and scarves ever since. Here's a picture of one of my basket weave scarves and the most complex hat I've ever made (it's got fair isle color pattern, some lace which make the scalloped bottom, and some cabling at the top, very cool).

Nathan gave me this pretty sweater for my birthday : )

I also had the pleasure of leaving school early today ~1:30. When Nathan picked me up, we decided to get some bagels from Noah's. When we got home, I put on a pot of coffee, Nathan toasted up some bagels, and we enjoyed some happy bellies while watching "Friends." Oh, and of course I changed back into my pjs before snuggling into my chair for caffeinated delicious time.

Last night some super warm and crowded snuggling was happening in the living room. Nathan was in his orange chair, covered with a blanket, joined by George, and then buried under Fred.

Here's a cute-tastic pic of Fred (right) and George (left) encompassing all of their dad's lap/abdomen. Soooo sleepy!

And can you believe how adorable George is???? Because I can't. I love how Fred's and Nathan's heads look to be tumorous growths of George's back. Doesn't sound cute, but it is!

Blah!!! I hate doing homework

2008-10-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

I haven't written for a looong time because I've been so busy. My mom was out visiting for my birthday. That was fun and took up all of my time. Then after she left, I had mucho work for school. And now I'm having to do another batch of delicious bullshit essays for the class I'm teaching! YAY! I teach my sections on Thursday, which means I cover material immediately after it's covered in lecture on Wednesday. Because of this, the students are rarely well prepared, and this becomes a much greater issue before a test like now. I'm supposed to hold a review session this Thursday for chapters 4-7. We haven't even started discussing chpt 7 in lecture. The essay questions for chpt 7 have not been posted yet. But I'm supposed to be well prepared and be able to cover all that in two days. What's wrong with this picture? I'm pointlessly ranting right now to avoid writing out these essay questions, but every second I waste I can feel my stress level increase. So adios.

sad and crazed

Why is grad school so much work?

2008-10-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

Can't they just give me my PhD already? Ugh, I'm so tired! My mom is coming out to Berkeley this weekend for my birthday, which is great, but that means I'm going to be severely limited in time to do my work. I'm a pretty bright spark, I figured this out before she got here. I've therefore been working like a drunk panda on crack for a week to get ahead of the work curve (I don't really know if drunk pandas take crack or if they work harder than non-crackhead sober pandas, but it feels appropriate). Inebriated pandas aside, I taught my three weekly sections this morning and have finished mounds of reading, so now I'm looking forward to a few days of relaxing and eating birthday pie.

Interesting videos

2008-10-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

I came across this video weirdly enough when doing a google search for "magic eye," but it's John McCain clips spliced together. He basically goes back and forth in what he claims in order to suit the current atmosphere.

John McCain seemingly believes that everyone is his friend. He's constantly referring to...well, anyone, as "my friend." Frankly I feel nauseated when I hear him say that. I'm not your friend, buddy; I'm not your buddy, guy...Here's a humorous take on McCain's near Tourette's-like compulsive usage of "my friends."

You just have to laugh sometimes (corny cobby pal, come on!).

You can find almost anything on youtube these days. Here's a compilation of "my friend" from last week's presidential debate (I still can't sit through it).

It would appear that my OCD has latched onto politics. Must. Stop. Posting. About. Politics!

I just voted! Wait, I just voted?

2008-10-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

I received my ballot in the mail yesterday. I didn't request this ballot. I was sent it because apparently the precinct of which I'm a member "contains less than 250 voters" and "has been designated a mail ballot precinct."

I thought this sounded a little odd, since I live in a highly populated area. Surprisingly, when I told Nathan what the letter said, he immediately jumped to the conclusion that it's a right wing conspiracy. It does feel fishy. I live in BERKELEY, CA, perhaps the most liberal city in the country, located in the bay area's Alameda county, population ~1.5 million. And I'm being told there are too few voters in my precinct? Admittedly, I don't know how "precinct" is defined, but I can't think of one definition that would equal fewer than 250 registered Berkeley residents.

For the past two presidential elections, there have been odd occurrences with regard to historically blue or swing-likely-to-go-blue voting areas. And it looks like politics as usual this election. Theoretically, whether I cast a mail-in ballot or physically mark my ballot at a polling site should make no difference. But if my ballot gets "lost" in the mail, maybe because it's coming from a liberal locale, then my vote doesn't get counted. Period. If that were to mysteriously happen, I don't suppose it would make a huge difference for CA, because it's nearly guaranteed that CA will go blue. But if a bunch of Berkeley, San Francisco, etc mail ballots get "lost" then what? I dunno.

Opinions welcomed.

Fun in the park!

2008-10-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Nathan and I discovered this really cool park near our apartment over the summer, and have been taking regular walks there ever since. More recently, we've been playing soccer there. Really we just kick the ball back and forth and try juggling. But it's a good work out. I'm hoping to join a neighborhood pick-up game after I buy some cleats and get in better shape. Here are some pictures of tonight's fun.

Really beautiful park.

Juggling the ball. You can see the new bag I just knitted on the ground.

Notice the tight-rope walkers practicing in the background. Berkeley's crazy.

Whatcha doing, Nathan, kung fu fighting?

Nope, he's juggling too.

I was talking to my mom earlier today, and she said I should post more videos. So here are two of us in the park. Unfortunately, I'm still trying to get the videos off of our proper video camera, so this is from our picture camera, which has no microphone. Hence, no sound.

Mom, you should get facebook, because I put a bunch of pics on there.

Palin guilty of abusing gubernatorial power

2008-10-10T19:21:00.001-07:00

The republicans tried to delay the release of this report until after the election, but failed (as they do with so many things). Now the public can read all about how Sarah Palin, the vice presidential nominee of the Republican party, abused her gubernatorial powers in Alaska (300 page report). The bipartisan panal found her to be "... in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain."

On an even more disgusting note, attendees of McCain/Palin rallies are turning into future lynch mobs. I use this term literally. They have been heard to chant "Kill him" at the mention of Barack Obama's name. Does this scare anyone else? Palin's response to this, "Boy, you guys just get it!"

Full "The Daily Voice" article:
"Senator John McCain and his running mate Governor Sarah Palin have been accusing Senator Barack Obama of associating with terrorists in recent days, and as a result, audience members at McCain and Palin rallies have called Obama a "terrorist" and threatened to kill him.

"Sarah Palin was on the verge of inciting a race riot in northern Florida" this week, the Nation reported. The paper said Republican audience members "hurled a racial epitaph" at an African American member of the media while other audience members yelled "kill him" and "treason!" when Barack Obama's name was mentioned. Palin did nothing to stop the attacks and reportedly responded: "Boy, you guys just get it!"

Palin began the attack on Monday when she told 8,000 fans at a rally in Florida that Obama "launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist," according to the Washington Post. "This is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America," she said.

The McCain-Palin ticket has become increasingly negative in recent days and some have called their attacks "dangerous" and "racist." But it's not just Obama who has come under attack.

Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank describes the scene at a rally in Clearwater, Florida this week, where he said "arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin blamed CBS News anchor Katie Couric for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." Palin supporters then "turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse," Milbank reported. "Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, 'Sit down, boy.'""

Just 'cause.

I got my stew on!

2008-10-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

I decided I wanted to cook something the other day. So I went to the store and bought random and various ingredients thinking that I would throw them in our slow cooker to make a "stew." I threw together brisket, potatoes, an onion, mushrooms, carrots, a can of beef broth, a Negra Modello beer, some Worcestershire sauce, butter, salt, and pepper and set it a stewin'. Here's what it looked like cooking:

Eight hours later (10:30 at night), we had ourselves some delicious meat and veggies. Yum.

Here's what it looked like after it was done cooking:

On a fluffier note, when I got home from school the other day, George-the-bully was smothering his friend, Grumpy.

Meanwhile, Fred was pompously taking a nap (note the delicately crossed paw-paws).

Do you smell that?

2008-10-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

"It's poop again!"

Ok, this is completely gratuitous, but here's Sarah Palin talkin' to Katie Couric about her gosh darn experience in foreign policies 'cause she been golly livin' right next to Russia and doggonit Canada.

I'm not going to watch the debate tonight. I just can't take any more b.s., and it's not like I'm an undecided. If you're watching, feel free to post some highlights in the comments.

In case you missed it, here's SNL's summary of the VP debate last week.

Say what you will about "Friends" but it's hilarious!

2008-10-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

I used to consider my enjoyment of "Friends" to be a guilty pleasure. But screw that! This show is full on hilarious. Every episode is consistently funny. Even if you're watching it alone you can catch yourself laughing out loud and then looking around embarrassed.

My beautiful "Friends: the complete series" box set

Pretty people, pretty clothes, pretty apartment, what's not to like? I don't even mind the stereotyped characters. Normally, it's really annoying when a show locks a character into such an outrageous caricature, but these people do it well (alright, it is still annoying sometimes).

Even Nathan loves the show, though I think it is still a "guilty pleasure" for him.

Phoebe's songs are usually a perk. Particularly goods songs include "Little Black Curly Hair" "Blackout" "Two of Them Kissed Last Night" "Barnyard Animals" and "Jingle Bitch". The lyrics for these songs can be found here, though to really enjoy them you have to hear them.

Also well done is the cast addition of Paul Rudd late in the series. Line of particular note, "Why don't we not let the box of rat babies ruin our lives."

My little study buddy

2008-10-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

My kitties don't understand the concept of mom working. I'll be reading an article or textbook and they will walk on top of me and lay down for a nice long nap. George likes to lay on textbooks in particular. Here is George helping me study earlier tonight:

And here's my view of his fluffiness:

On a related subject, George was helping his dad both study and eat his lunch earlier.

What a good helper!

Free bluegrass music in San Fracisco

2008-10-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass free concert at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Aerial view of Golden Gate Park

Elvis Costello is playing tomorrow at 2:30, but we're not going to be able to go. I'm stuck grading midterms, analyzing EEG data, reading articles, and trying to get to my fMRI book a little, and Nathan always has loads of reading for his school. Boo! In lieu of said concert, I will have to gaze at this picture whilst listening to a cd.

The VP debate

2008-10-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

First off, thank you to PBS for broadcasting the debate so people like myself who don't have cable could watch it. There are two more Presidential debates coming up, October 7th and 15th, don't miss them.

Second off, I needed a beer to get through listening to Palin talking period, but especially her talking through that plastered on smile.

Third off, Ugh! I pray that the Republicans don't take the White House!! If you didn't catch the debate, here are some of the things I pulled out of it.

First, it was nice to have the split screen view of the candidates. It was nice to see them react to each other's claims, something I would have liked to see in the Presidential debate last week and will hopefully be changed for the two upcoming.

Palin rarely addressed the questions asked by the moderator at the beginning (got better at this as the debate continued), even went so far as saying [paraphrase]: I may not answer the questions the way the moderator or you (Biden) want... NO CRAP!! First, because you aren't answering the questions, and second because you've got some outrageously poor/dangerous views.

Palin constantly pulled her responses back to energy. I can't blame her much for it, because it's one of the few, or only, topics she can speak intelligently on, but enough is enough. I was glad to see that one of the analysts speaking after the debate was just as sick of that as I was (former female VP candidate, I think).

Palin spoke at the beginning in such broad generalities and sound bytes without any substance. She got more focused through out, but still offered few concrete plans and facts.

I am soooo sick of hearing her, and everyone, call McCain a "Maverick"!!! I started keeping count of the times she used the word, it was between 6 and 7. Thankfully, nearing the end, Biden finally called her out on the "maverick" claim pointing out numerous and specific instances when McCain was lock-step with the Bush administration. And as was pointed out by an analyst post debate, calling McCain a maverick is looking back; something that Palin consistently criticized Biden for doing with the Bush admin.

I'll show you a Maverick...

...complete with Iceman (though admittedly, you need to subtract current Scientology insanity).

Also, I hate hearing Palin say "hockeymoms" and "Joe six-pack" reminding everyone that she's a hockeymom. THAT DOES NOT QUALIFY YOU TO BE THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!!! I was listening to NPR a couple of weeks ago when the Republican National Convention was going on, and the reporter asked one of the attendees what they thought of Palin. The woman responded that she loves that Palin was a woman with a family, that she was a hockeymom. Thankfully, the interviewer (gently) followed up by asking the person which of Palin's policies and political beliefs the attendee agreed with, and again the response was something along the lines of "Palin's a mom." It is so frightening that this woman could become President of the United States if McCain is elected and passes away during his term.

Is the woman who likes hockeymom Palin actually the kid who likes turtles in disguise?

I like how Biden's style was in stark contrast to Palin's in that he spoke in facts and solid numbers. I don't know enough of the facts myself to know whether everything he was was true, but the fact checkers will be looking into that tonight and tomorrow. Post debate, I did hear that some of the "facts" that Palin stated where FALSE, while some of the facts that Biden stated were just less strong (e.g., Biden said McCain was reported in a large magazine to be against regulating Wall Street. One of the fact checkers on PBS said that it wasn't really a large magazine. Eh, not too bad).

In the beginning, Palin frequently and vehemently bad mouthed our government. I bad mouth our government too, but I'm not working within that government and campaigning to be even more deeply entrenched in that government. It's scary because, HELLO, you're trying to become government, lady.

Palin joked about how short a time she's been on the campaign. It's not funny, it's scary. Get some experience!!! In fact, here's a video of her asking just what it is a VP does (during the debate she claims it was "a lame attempt at a joke," but jokes have a grain of truth).

I was glad to see that Biden/Obama were for same-sex rights. All people are created equal, remember??? I'm more than for gay rights, I'm for gay marriage too. What is it with this archaic notion that marriage is between a man and a woman? People are people. People can love other people. People itself is a noun without sex or gender. I've been cold called twice about California's Proposition 8 which is seeking to eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry. Once by a group for it, and once for a group against it. I was very glad to tell them I'll be voting against Prop 8 and therefore maintaining the right of all peoples to marry whom they choose. While Obama/Biden aren't for gay marriage, they do at least respect the rights of those couples in terms of everyday rights like hospital visitation.

Palin criticizes Biden/Obama for looking back at the Bush administration and laying blame. Ummm...yeah, they're looking back. You know why? Because Bush and his administration are EVIL! Hello accountability and respecting history so that we can learn from it.

I liked how Biden really drove home his points. For instance, when speaking about how the McCain administration would be different (or NOT different) from the Bush admin. He ennumerated example after example of how McCain's policies are no different from Bush's.

I loved to hear Palin state [verbatim] "I am a Washington outsider." No shit! And that's where you belong.

When talking about Vice Presidential powers and being VP, Biden said that he is an "independent judgment, not afraid to disagree" with Obama when he's asked his opinion. It was great to hear that, because he's an experienced politian who can add some valuable perspective to Obama, but it was also nice to hear him describe himself that way without saying the exceedingly overused term "maverick"! Biden also added that Cheney is the "most dangerous vice president we've had, probably in the American history." Yes! There are Constitutional limits on Vice Presidential power. Cheney doesn't give a flying squirrel about these limits, and it's terrifying (here's the terrorism we should be fighting).

Palin explicitly stated that she believes America is a nation about tolerance and equal rights...apparently that is heterosexual America. Where do gay right fit within that ideal, Palin?

It was touching to see Biden get emotional when talking about the death of his wife and daughter and having to raise two sons on his own. It felt honest.

Ironic, or not, Exxon bought up the first commercial spot following the debate. Exxon was brought up many times through out the night, specifically by Biden pointing out that the McCain/Palin ticket are wanting to give them (Exxon) another $4 billion tax cut (I think that was the amount).

One of Palin's factual errors that was immediately pointed out post debate was her calling the commander of the Afghanistan campaign "McClelland," when it's actually McKiernan. Ooops. I am quite sure there will be many more where this came from.

And now, a pictorial summary:

I feel like I should post something...

2008-10-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

...but I don't really feel like it. So what I'm going to do is put in what I think are some awesome pictures and leave it at that.

A little Star Wars awesomeness. Doesn't Chewbacca look like Keith Moon on the drums? I can imagine him head banging and making crazy eyes.

Must have Star Trek. I've always been a fan of Next Generation and have to admit I don't know much of the original series. But, I have seen most of the movies, The Wrath of Khan most recently (gotta love free movies from the library!). I'm looking forward to the remake (which will suck) because Sylar from "Heroes" will be Spock, and I think he'll do a good job in addition to looking eerily like Leonard Nimoy.

And, if I'm not mistaken, this is a little NPH action via "How I Met Your Mother." It's going to be legend...wait for it...dary, high five! Suit up!

Test grading

2008-10-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

The undergrads in the class I'm GSIing just took their first midterm today. This means I've got hours and hours of super outrageous fun grading!!! {quiet sobs}

Thankfully, they don't have to write a term paper in this class, which are like 3 times harder/longer to grade than tests.

I would rather be in the park playing soccer.

Let's kick off the morning right...

2008-09-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

...with an awesomely hilarious video!!!

::warning, there's some cursing in this, so it's maybe not school/work appropriate, unless you have headphones::

"Shoes" by Kelly (AKA Liam Kyle Sullivan)

That guy looks so funny when he's Kelly, with his making crazy eyes and valley girl mouth. And don't you get the Canadian vibe off of him? Any way, my new favorite thing is to call people "Betches" and tell them I'm going to "betchslap you, shetbag." By people, I mean Nathan. There are just so many funny things about this video, if you don't enjoy it, I think there's something wrong with you, betch.

It's sleepy time

2008-09-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

Clearly, Fred agrees with me that it's bed time. You don't take my word for it? Ok, then I have to show you this. If you go into shock over the sugary sweetness of this, just remember you made me do it.

BEHOLD!!!!!!!!

Yeah, he's that sleepy. Night night, Fred-Fred.

A couple of great songs

2008-09-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

"Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer
This song really takes me back to high school (middle school? When did it come out?). And Nathan was kind enough to locate it and include in on our Wedding Soundtrack. He did all of the music for our wedding reception. He put a lot of time into it and came up with about 5 or 6 discs of love-related songs that helped to make that day really special.

"Nothing Compares 2 U" Sinead O'Connor

This song also has a lot of memories for me. Especially, for some reason, with me and Darren. One summer I was having a hard time and Darren was really there for me. We would hang out every single night and have the absolute best time. One of our activities was driving around and listening to all sorts of music and singing insanely loud. Our favorite lyric from this song was "all the flowers that you planted, mama" but she says "mama" really fast. We thought that was great fun.

Fiddler on the Roof

2008-09-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

In honor of the Jewish New Year, and because it's awesome, I give you...

Fiddler on the Roof

I really love this movie. It's got a great story and so many awesome songs. And how can you not love Tevye (played by Topol)? My mom and I used to rent movies together fairly regularly, and this is one that we got a few times. I'm not particularly one for the "classics" but I have to watch this movie at least once a year.

I love how even though the men are rushing to get home for the Sabbath, they still take the time to argue about the news, and Tevye kindly gives the beggar some of his milk before leaving.

I love the dance he does during this song with his arms waving in the air with abandon, moving around just completely lost in the song. Those of you who know me well could take a guess at what else I love about this song (hint: it has to do with the content).

I like to study with something on, be it a cd or a movie. This is a great movie to study to, and it's even enjoyable when you have the songs stuck in your head for the next week.

I've always been fascinated with Jewish history and faith. If you are interested in learning more about Rosh Hashanah, you can do that here.

What I'm reading

2008-09-28T12:40:00.000-07:00

Martin, A., & Chao, L. L. (2001). Semantic memory and the brain: Structure and processes. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 11, 194-210.

Levine, B., Turner, G. R., Tisserand, D., Hevenor, S. J., Graham, S. J., & McIntosh, A. R. (2004). The functional neuroanatomy of episodic and semantic autobiographical remembering: A prospective functional MRI study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16 (9), 1633-1646.

Ashby, F. G., & O'Brien, J. B. (2004). Category learning and multiple memory systems. Trends in Cognitive Science, 9 (2), 83-89.

I have to read these articles for my Learning and Memory course with Prof John Kihlstrom. It's not my area of research, so it's nice to be exposed to the material. However, much more reading is assigned every week than I'm willing or able to read. For instance, one week there were 4 chapters in a book and 9 articles assigned. That's a lot, but I learned my first year of grad school that there's really no way you can get everything done that you want/need to, at least not at the super-high-absolute-best-of-your-abilities level. So that week I only read 2 of the chapters, which were each 30 pages, and part of one article. Recognizing that you can't spend as much time as you would like on all areas of your work is a grad school life saver. When I was an undergrad, I was a super overacheiver trying to maintain my 4+ GPA. That's just not the way it works in grad school, and grades no longer matter because no one's ever going to look at them, not when you're applying for a job nor when you're applying for a grant. So in that one aspect, grad school is less stressful than undergrad. I've shared this life lesson with Nathan, and I think it's helped him a bit with his recently acquired grad school stress level. But that's enough about this, because I've got reading to get back to.

What I'm listening to

2008-09-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been listening to The Nightmare Before Christmas sountrack; Danny Elfman is a genius! "What's This?" is below for your listening pleasure. I love how you can hear a piece by Danny Elfman and know it's his, but you can ID which movie it's from. He's able to maintain a very particular style and sound yet have enough distinctiveness in each song or movie soundtrack to distinguish between them. That's skillful. Plus, he seems like a nice guy. A friend of my sent him a picture to autograph in high school and he did and mailed it back to her.

It's coffee time!

2008-09-27T11:39:00.001-07:00

It's coffee time, it's coffee time, won't you drink this coffee of mine???? Sung as a dirge or a peppy morning wake-up song, it captures my mood right now...COFFEE!!! We went to the grocery store last night (finally) and bought a whole bunch of crap. YAY! Some of which is coffee. Ever since our honeymoon in NYC, I've been an avid coffee drinker, so for slightly over 2 years now. And with my being in grad school, it is a morning must. Please enjoy this picture of coffee. There's something off about the picture, let me know if you find it , hah ahah ahha {evil laugh}.

Once you've found it, it's there for life. This is an example of one-shot learning. Nathan found it super fast, like 3 times faster than me.

And now for something a little lighter

2008-09-26T21:25:00.001-07:00

Why is the Adelson's checkerboard illusion (shown above) an illusion? Nothing looks weird about this image. Right? For instance, checker A is a darker checker and B is a light checker. View the same image below, but now with a homogeneous patch of grey overlaying the checkers. A and B are in fact identical in luminance, but our perception of them is quite different from their physical reality. This is an illusion of lightness constancy.

I'm teaching (as a GSI) a course in Perception this semester with Steve Palmer, and I taught Sensation & Perception last fall with my advisor, Bill Prinzmetal. One of the most striking things I've learned from doing this is just how many illusions there are, and not just visual (if I can figure it out, I'll post some auditory illusions I have). The more I learn about how the body is formed at the cellular level and how the body functions both biologically and perceptually, the more I am amazed by how amazing humans are (and other animals). Yes, there are a slew of illusions that humans are prey to, but we also have overwhelmingly accurate perceptions most of the time. There are so many areas and ways that our system/body could breakdown, and it does don't get me wrong, but it also doesn't a lot. I don't know, I don't really have a point except that evolution has done a pretty good job.

(images acquired from this MIT website)

Presidential debate is back on!

2008-09-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

McCain had bitched out over tonight's debate, but he must have gotten enough slack about it, because he's back in. Nathan and I are going over to my advisor's house tonight to watch the Presidential Debate. I am so sick of America and our politics! But I'm hoping that tonight can help rebound Obama's campaign to it's previous high. If McCain gets elected, I may just move out of the country...after I finish my PhD, of course.

You've probably already heard

2008-09-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

John McCain recently skipped out at the last minute from his appearance on David Letterman. And Letterman was pissed. Supposedly, McCain was halting his campaign because of the country's financial crisis. What, he's never heard of multi-tasking? So, what, if he's elected and there's another "crisis" he'll just drop everything, like healthcare reform, education issues, etc to handle the crisis??? Come on! If you haven't seen Letterman's rant, I've added it below. It's a little over 9 minutes, if you don't want to watch the full clip, skip to the 6 minute mark. It's certainly worth a view.

It took me a long time to track down the clip of McCain on Couric (fishy), but here it is. The portion with McCain ends at about the 2 minute mark.
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Update:
This video clip is no longer available, and I can't find it on the web again. Fishier and fishier. But here's a picture of McCain on Couric's show, post make-up application.

Let's hope this nonsense hurts their campaign. Save us, Barack!!!

Remember Mr Wizard?

2008-09-25T22:38:00.001-07:00

I am not, nor have I ever been, a morning person, but when I was a kid I used to wake up early (like 6am early) just to watch this show. One of the things I remember learning about is the difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound. In fact, this show is probably the reason for my interest in science. The awesome Don Herbert (Mr Wizard) began teaching science to America via his television program in 1951, and he was still at it nearly 4 decades later when I discovered it on Nickelodeon. He passed away just last year, just before his 90th birthday.

Then:

And now (roughly):

Pictures of my kitty boys

2008-09-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

I've just uploaded a bunch of pics of my beautiful kitty boys to my facebook page. My mom should get facebook so she can view our pics (it's free and easy mom, I could walk you through it). Here's a taste of what you'll find.

Fred's inFredigating how to be especially cute with his bell-bell in the air.

Crescent-moon kitty stretch George.

Speedy recovery

2008-09-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

My mom just had surgery on her elbow today, and she came through alright. Here's wishing her a speedy recovery.

This is from my birthday last year. My goofball mother brought a "Happy Birthday" banner to hang, but you'll notice it doesn't say happy birthday...goofball.

A Clockwork Orange

2008-09-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

This is one of the better adapted movies I've ever seen. I enjoyed the book and enjoyed the movie, a rather rare combination. Kubrick and Malcolm McDowell made a brilliant combination of precise creepy. The lyrical quality of the Burgess' fictional slang help sell the slang and the setting of the story. Unfortunately, it's not one that I can watch over and over, it's too dark for that.

A bit of the old ultra violence, now available in slow motion. Bad droogs!

This is pretty much what it's like to be a participant in one of my experiments, except without getting to watch the cool video clips.

An eye-conic picture, if you will. Moloko anyone? Cheers!

Timing is everything

2008-09-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

When we were in AZ over the summer, our friend Richard introduced us to an internet phenomenon. A youtube video of a song called "What what (in the butt)" by Samwell. I will not post the video here, as I hope to never hear the song again and therefore someday not have it stuck in my head. One of the highly memorable lines from this fine music video is "I won't bite...not that hard."

Ok, now that you have that information, I can tell the story.

After Nathan missed his shuttle today (see post below), he decided to stick around campus with me while I finished up (I needed to attend a practice conference talk for a fellow graduate student). After the talk, one of the girls from the lab had to leave, but she came back when she realized she'd forgotten her keys somewhere. Rather than coming all the way back in the room, she just tentatively poked her head in the door. My advisor then said, "We won't bite" at which point I turned to Nathan and said "Not that hard." A more perfect set up could not be asked for.

The moral of this story: Always keep Nathan around so he can laugh at your jokes.

Coincidence?

2008-09-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

A funny thing happened today. Nathan missed his shuttle to school and so missed his class. That's not so interesting, he just left the apartment a bit too late and the shuttle departed a bit too early. What is interesting, is that a couple of hours later (6:15, just before he would have been leaving class), we got a call from his school. Apparently there was some "police emergency" happening on campus very near to where he would have been in class, and everyone was advised to stay locked in their classrooms. We weren't told what the "emergency" was, but we got another call at 8:30 telling people it was now safe to leave campus. Whatever it was, I'm glad Nathan missed his shuttle and wasn't at school today. I'm also glad that Mills College has a functioning emergency contact plan in place for their students to warn them when things like this are happening. Berkeley just started a notification system like this over the summer, but thankfully I've never gotten a call.

This is the view of campus from the steps of Mills Hall (Nathan's building).

Kitty dinner time!

2008-09-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

My boys are not stupid when it comes to putting food in their bellies. They get fed breakfast every morning and kitty dinner at night, and they know what time of day it is and when to start begging. Kitty dinner time is 9pm (residual from when Nathan and I used to work at the Tempe Public Library, which closed at 9 and we'd feed the boys right when we got home), but the boys start their impatient cat chirps at 8:50. Every night. They've got some good internal kitty clocks. They also know when to beg in the morning. This is a little more sophisticated, because if they piss me off by waking me up, they know their breakfast will be delayed. So to avoid Mallison (the name given to my furious counterpart), they keep their begging in check until the alarm clock goes off. Smart little fluff balls, if you ask me. George is much more vocal about food time than his brother, so it's always a joy when little Fred squeezes out a mooching meow. Awwww...cute cute cute.

George is in the red collar in front, and Fred's sporting the highly fashionable blue in the back.

Happy Birthday

2008-09-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to my mom! She got stuck with babysitting for my brother tonight, but I believe she enjoyed a free birthday dinner beforehand. She'll shortly be out here in Berkeley to celebrate my birthday.

My present to my mom is this super cute dachshund puppy. Yay, birthdays!

DAMN AT&T!!!!!

2008-09-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

I've had internet service with AT&T for less than a month and have had to call them about problems 9 times. What's wrong with this? The most recent problem occurred last night. Nathan and I got home from my eye appointment debacle and tried to check our e-mails to no avail. We called AT&T to find out that they'd canceled our service and even they didn't know why. That's not all, the people who could help us fix this problem weren't available because it was after 5 on a Sunday. So I called back this morning and spent 2 hours on the phone with them (no joke) and the problem still wasn't fixed. Thankfully, my honey took it upon himself to call them back while I was at school and got it all worked about, which took almost another 2 hours. And now that I've got internet access again, I'm spreading the word of their evil works. If you have AT&T service, I would recommend hanging garlic above all your doors and lighting some frankincense for your protection.

Attempt to post video clip

2008-09-22T00:54:00.000-07:00

My crazy cat Fred was just being crazy on his kitty tower, but of course stopped when I went to video him. I did, however, catch a bit of the old Fred-George Fred-George, which I'm attempting to post (p.s. there's no sound, there's not a problem with your computer).

My favorite part is when Fred smacks at the toy in rapid succession.

The Princess Bride

2008-09-21T22:29:00.000-07:00

I have to retract an earlier statement that Harold and Maude is my favorite movie. I don't know how it's possible, but I was forgetting about The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride has everything, torture, revenge, fighting, giants, true love,Cary Elwes, Christopher Guest, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, come on! On top of all that, there's a rad 80's score trying to bring techno to medieval romance, and some many memorable phrases that you could quote along with the entire movie (which I always do).

In high school, a couple friends and I actually dubbed over a copy of the movie with our own dialogue. It was really funny, and still an entertaining movie. Excerpt: "I have fish" replaced "As you wish" which spurred many fish-related gift exchanges between the three of us. And, there was the creation of The Cary Elwes Fan Club, complete with membership badges. Yes, I was and will always be a dork.

"Anybody want a peanut?"

Redefining cute

2008-09-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

But on the bright side... when we got home, Fred-Fred was super cute and joined his dad in the chair to help him surf the internet (I'm not the only one addicted, Nathan). Thankfully, I captured the moment in pictorial history. No matter what's happened in my day, these kitties can always make me smile. It's no wonder having pets is correlated with longer lifespan.

I can't exclude George. We love them equally.

Is Berkeley actually pure evil?

2008-09-21T21:08:00.001-07:00

I have to ask myself this question practically everyday. Today, I ask it because of my alleged insurance. I was trying to buy new frames and lenses after my appointment, when I was told that I don't have insurance. But I do. As a graduate student in the psych dept I get full tuition and fee remission, including full health insurance. But since Berkeley is pure evil, they're claiming I don't have this. This is one of about a dozen problems I've had with them this semester. Last year was fine (they were fresh out of the wooing me to their school phase), but this year I've spent so many hours in various departments across campus, I could cry. First there were issues with my residence, then financial aid, then getting my friggin bus pass, then registering for classes, and now insurance.

Don't let the picturesque campus deceive you. It seems Nathan was correct in suggesting that I should combine "Berkeley" and "complaints" into a single malicious post label.

Hey everybody, come and see how good I look

2008-09-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

I had to have my eyes dilated at the eye doctor, so I needed light protection when I left. Hence, this picture. I think I should walk you through it. First, the awesome wrap-around sunglasses are in essence super cool, but the fact that I need to wear them under my regular glasses to keep them on my face...masterful.

Here's an attempt to capture my crazy dilated eye. It's pretty creepy looking actually. Nathan said that when the doctor held my eye open to shine lights in it, it looked like I was dead. I think it looks like my cats when they're about to pounce something.

What I'm listening to

2008-09-21T13:37:00.001-07:00

I usually need music on to study, thanks to the shithole that is Berkeley and their crummy old buildings. What this means, is I can hear our upstairs neighbors yawn, giggle when the pee (yeah, it's creepy), stomp around their place, and have yelling fits in the mornings. Therefore, whenever I'm trying to concentrate on studying or sleeping, I generally have to have headphones on. I'm fairly used to it by now and the near-constant headache that accompanies nonstop auditory input. Another consequence of this is I listen to a lot of music. Now, I'm a bit of an obsessive person, shocking I know, and so I'll usually put on one cd and listen to it 5 times through. What I've been listening to lately is:

Works for violin and piano - Paganini
No need to argue - The Cranberries
Amarantine - Enya
The Celts - Enya
Watermark - Enya
Luna's Fancy - Sarah Marie Mullen
Wild Woods - Sarah Marie Mullen
Celtic Spirit - ???
Greatest Hits - Cat Stevens
Let it be...naked - The Beatles

Bellow is "Across the Universe" sung by Fiona Apple. This song is an absolute must for calming one's nerves before a test or any stressful situation. Instructions: 1.) Listen to song, preferably with eyes closed, 2.) Take deep breathes and saturate your brain with highly oxygenated blood, 3.) Repeats steps 1 and 2 as necessary.

An old friend is newly happy

2008-09-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

As you know, Nathan and I have rediscovered technology via facebook. And with that, we've rediscovered many friends. One of our really good friends in AZ has had a hard year (I won't go into it), but we've been chatting with him through facebook's IM and can tell that he's taken a turn for the happy. Congrats to him and bonne chance avec la nouvelle fille.

Eye Appointment

2008-09-21T12:04:00.000-07:00

My mom will be glad to hear that I'm finally going to get my eyes checked today. I was up at Minor Hall on campus Friday to hear a talk by Miguel Eckstein of UCSB, and Minor also happens to house the university's eye center. Two birds, one stone, you know how this is going to turn out. So I'm going there at 2:30 for a 90-frickin'-minute appointment. I guess it's going to be so long because they're dilating my eyes. It was really funny actually, because the guy who took my appointment was like "now, with your eyes dialated you'll be really sensitive to light" yadda yadda yadda, and I was like, "Yeah, I'm a vision researcher..." (but not like a biatch).

So, I'll be doing that today. Also, my school's insurance has added coverage for frames, so I'll have a free $120 to work with to get frames and lenses. Yay, no spending my own money. I'll miss my old glasses though.
Goodbye, old frames (don't worry, I'm keeping the creepy eyes).

Movies make the world go round

2008-09-21T01:41:00.000-07:00

I'm heading off to bed now, finally. I like to watch a movie or tv show to help me relax and fall asleep. Lately, I've been falling asleep to The Simpsons and Starwars: A New Hope. But tonight it's Willy Wonka. Gene Wilder is Awesome (note: that's with a captial A) and the music is great, though I always skip the Cheer Up Charlie song and the song where his grandpa learns to get out of bed.

Another illusion

2008-09-21T00:42:00.001-07:00

After I posted the rotating snake illusion, I got a bunch of hits from various people. Coincidence? I think not. To test this, I'm posting another illusion, the Fountain Floor.

This one is courtesy of Akiyoshi Kitaoka.

Not one to be left out

2008-09-21T00:27:00.000-07:00

FRED! Can't forget inFredible Fred-head (who, by the way, is sleeping on the top part of the chair behind my head as I type).

The boy can sleep!

George just fanned the flames with his cuteness

2008-09-21T00:16:00.000-07:00

Our crazy cats are basically little people to us (substitute children, really). We love them so freakin' much that we could seriously sit and stare at them all day and then talk about how cute they were all night.

Case in point, George just visited me while I was trying to study. What this means is that he walked on top of my textbook and stood there for a while. Then he slowly walk his front paws off, and stood there for a while. At which point I pushed his fluffy behind out of the way. Anyway, it was really cute, and because I'm full-blown addicted to blogging now, I had to post about it. Here's a little George for thought:

What can I say, the boy likes laundry.

Live traffic feed courtesy of feedjit

2008-09-20T23:38:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that I've been pinged by a few people from around the world. I'm sure they ended up on my blog by accident, or were maybe searching for The Beatles and got my youtube post, but it's still exciting. A few in France, India, elsewhere in America, someone in Hungary have popped over. I know this thanks to feedjit, which tracks traffic. While I feel that's a little creepy, like I'm spying or something, it's still really cool to get to see when people stop by. Keep it up people, you're making my day (or night).

Hooray, Earth.

I'm working, I really am

2008-09-20T22:35:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I'm writing these essays. But I'm referencing the lecture slides to do so, and because this a course on perception, I came across a visually interesting picture:

I've forgotten the proposed explanation for why we see illusory motion in this image, but I know it has something to do with the contrast. If you're interested in visual illusion, visit Michael Bach's website. By the way, this is just an image, it is NOT moving...that's the illusion.

I've made a huge mistake

2008-09-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

In the words of Gob Bluth, "I've made a huge mistake." This whole blogging nonsense is too fun for someone whose nose is generally stuck in a book or a research article. Must. Stop. Posting. No, shush.

I'm going to get back to writing bullshit essays for the class I'm teaching now. The undergrads have a test coming up on the 1st, and I'm supposed to hold review with them on Thursday. Therefore, I need to do everything that they're supposed to do before that time. It's not like I haven't gotten anything done today, it's just a lot less than I could/should have. Bagh! Hmm, that makes me want to watch The Fellowship of the Ring... Maybe I can write these essays and watch the movie at the same time... In the words of Cat Stevens "Why not?"

Harold and Maude

2008-09-20T20:59:00.000-07:00

I watched Harold and Maude this week, and I love this movie soooo much. It might just be my favorite movie. There are so many great things about the movie that it's hard to even start talking about it so I'm not. Instead, I will express my love of this movie visually.

And for your listening enjoyment...

I'm all about the technology, baby!

2008-09-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

I've just joined Facebook. Hooray, me!

This aggression will not stand

2008-09-20T18:06:00.001-07:00

This is ridiculous. I've got "pandas" in my description and haven't yet put a picture up?!?! Ahhhh, that's better.

The votes are in

2008-09-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

Is blogging addictive?
Votes for "Yes" = 1 million gazillion
Votes for "No" = 0

Let's hope I can get my brain on more important stuff for longer than 30 minutes at a time (~ average time between posts). O Mighty Blog Gods, please lessen the shiny and new aspects of blogging and redirect my attention elsewhere!!!

Explanation of blog name

2008-09-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

Here, There and Everywhere by The Beatles is Nathan's and my song. This was the song we danced to at our wedding. When we first started dating, we bonded over The Beatles. Nathan's a really good guitar player and singer, and he would play me Beatles songs, which was very romantic. And I would sit there and listen to him and imagine spending the next 50 years listening to him play music.

This is us in the AZ airport about to get on the plane to NYC for our honeymoon (8/6/06)

Pic of my honey

2008-09-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

Nathan was disappointed by the picture of him I chose to put on here, because you can't see his face very well. So here's another one. You can only see half of his face, but I like this picture. This is from a short vacation to San Diego in March 2007.

What I'm reading

2008-09-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be nice to keep track of things I'm reading. I'm compulsive about a lot of things, one of which is archiving my life for fear of forgetting. This fear was recently reinforced by the crash of my computer's hard drive. Thankfully, I had backed up a few days earlier. Unfortunately, I'd mistaken the structure of my data, and while I thought I'd backed up everything, I'd in fact not included photos from the last 2 months and various other things. Also, my mac's hard drive was partitioned into a smaller windows hard drive, and I lost everything on my windows side. Nathan and I went out the next day and bought two external hard drives, and I've now cloned my hard drive. Let's hope that keeps my fear/stress demons at bay.

But the point of this post is books:

Palmer, S.E.(1999), Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology, MIT Press. I'm reading this book because I'm teaching with Steve Palmer this semester. In order to get my tuition and fees paid for by the school, Berkeley requires that a graduate student either be hired as a GSI (graduate student instructor) or GSR (graduate student research). If you or your advisor has funding, then GSR is the way to go. Unfortunately, my advisor, Bill Prinzmetal, and I are severly lacking in monetary bulk as of late. Therefore, I've been teaching as a GSI for the past 2, and now 3, semesters. Anyway, it's a pretty good book. Steve is a world famous vision researcher, so it's really an honor to get to teach with him and whatnot. But it's also a pain in the ass to be a GSI and take classes of your own and try to run research and try to keep your RA busy with research and try to make time with your husband and try to not have a panic attack. But, that's a day in the life of a graduate student.

Huettel, S.A., Song, A.W., McCarthy, G. (2004). Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Sinauer. This book is for a class I'm taking on fMRI from Mark D'Esposito. I learned how to run EEG over the summer, but the future of cognitive psychology involves neuroscience, so I'm bolstering my neuroscience chops by taking this class. Plus, it's a requirement if at some point I want to use one of Mark's scanners for a project. It's a good class, but jam packed with knowledge which is covered at a lightning pace (how I long for a medium pace). So I'm hoping reading the book at my own speed will complement my weekly mental barage of info.

Luck, S.J. (2005). An Introduction to the Event-Related Potential Technique, MIT Press. I'd intended to read this book over the summer while I was learning EEG. I started out strong, but didn't get anywhere near the finish. So, I'm trying to plug on through.

"The Red Wyvern" by Katharine Kerr. This I'm reading entirely for enjoyment. Usually, I'll get through a couple pages a day when waiting for the bus or a class to start. It's part of a cheesy (but delicious) fantasy series that I've read a couple of times in the past, complete with magic, elves, dragons, and geeks (when you count the readers). I'm hoping the author finishes the series soon, because it's already something like 11 books. When I finish this, I think I'm going to re-read Harry Potter again. I re-read of the Ender's Game books over the summer, which are also great, more sci-fi than fantasy.

Bugs, what are they good for?

2008-09-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

Nathan and I started composting about 6 months ago. We like to pitch in (no pun intended), though we'd probably be shunned by the community if we didn't. That's just one of many "great" things about Berkeley. A result of this composting is bugs. This is partially our fault, we didn't take the compost out for like 2 weeks. But now there are little gross flying bugs all over the apartment. This means I'm on a rampage. I'll lie in wait in the kitchen, armed with Raid, and when one of my foes lands, I pounce... and always feel bad after they die. I don't particularly dislike bugs, except when they're in my home, and then it's war. Berkeley has a lot of bugs too. There are spider webs on practically every car and bush outside, and plenty of spiders inside too. And I'm not just talking about daddy long legs. I'm talking about black-bodied, have-some-substance-to-them, look-like-they-could-kill-you-in-your-sleep spiders. And ants... oh ants, the bane of my existence. I find ants in random places throughout the apartment throughout the year. Ugh! There's no winning, but I shall continue the fight!

If you haven't discovered Netflix, you should

2008-09-20T13:51:00.001-07:00

I love Netflix! It's pretty much my favorite stress reliever. This venerable slot used to be occupied by books (merely gazing adoringly at them or reading them), but when you're a graduate student working on a PhD, more reading is pretty much the last thing you want to do to relax. Netflix occupies two relaxation niches I didn't even know I had: 1.) It allows me to watch TV shows I've either missed because I don't have cable or because I have a life, and 2.) Access to guilty pleasure movies, like My Stepmother's an Alien and Crocodile Dundee (I and II, thank you very much). Nathan used to think I was crazy for watching so-called-mindless movies, but now that he's in a Masters program, he understands the alure. Anything that keeps you sane.

Is blogging addictive?

2008-09-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

We'll see. But here I am adding more already. It's cheap and easy, why not?

I'm sitting here watching "Friends" and wasting time on the internet when I should be reading my fMRI book for class. Boo! Wasting time is fun, in part because of the nervous "I shouldn't be doing this" feeling, and of course in part because wasting time is fun.

Nathan was very concerned that I add a link to his blog from mine. So if you want an insight into the workings of his crayzee mind, click on Booktapes to the right. By the way, here's Nathan.

My first post (boring, but appropriate)

2008-09-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

It seems like everyone is blogging these days. I've avoided it for as long as possible, partially because I hate doing something that everyone else is doing, and partially because I think the word "blogging" is stupid. But I've decided... screw that; I want to talk about random things I like too. I want to post pictures I like, or songs, videos, basically whatever. Soooo, I'll start with a photo of my beautiful kitty boys, Fred and George (their names should make sense to you when you see their pic).