Divine Comedy of Errors

Oh sheet

2012-01-25T17:21:00.000-05:00

Not long ago I discovered that something I took for a fact is not always true. How do you make a bed? Fitted sheet on the bottom, then a top sheet, then a comforter/duvet on top, and an extra blanket in between the sheet and the comforter if it's cold. Right? This just in: not everyone makes their bed this way. Australians typically use the fitted sheet on the bottom and then a duvet on top- that's right! No sheet! They routinely wash the duvet cover, so it's not as gross as I originally thought, but still, how do they regulate temperature when the only choice is duvet or no duvet? The sheet has its place- namely, when it's too hot to sleep with a duvet on top of you but you don't want to be completely uncovered.

I once said to my Irish flatmate something along the lines of "isn't it weird that Australians only put duvets on their beds and not a sheet?" and she responded that that's how they do it in Ireland, and "sheets are for hotels and Americans." I still think it's weird. Who sleeps without a sheet?

Anagram Generator

2012-01-17T15:37:00.004-05:00

Time for some mindless fun: I found an Anagram Generator online and the top anagram for my name is Needle Ennui. Then I tried my sisters' names: Drunken Rye and Reined Nun. The anagram generator is now my favorite thing.

Hot in Herre

2012-01-13T18:35:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday, I decided that I was up for some sort of exercise but didn't feel like going for a run. I googled nearby gyms and yoga studios to see what places had drop-in classes on Sunday afternoons, and the only one I found was a bikram yoga studio. As in that hot yoga that's done in rooms typically over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and all classes are 90 minutes. I've heard of it but never tried it before, mostly because it sounds horrible and disgusting. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot.

The studio was very beginner friendly, which was nice, and since everyone is still on their January exercise kick, I wasn't the only first-timer. They also didn't mention any bullshit about purifying your body of toxins or anything like that (scientist pet peeve: misuse of the word toxin). When I checked in, they told me to stay towards the back of the room and my goal would be to stay in the room the entire time, and to lie down if I didn't feel well. I mentally added "don't faint or barf" to the list of goals.

I entered the room, and was a bit surprised to see lots of dudes (about 40% men, whereas every other yoga class I've been to is about 10%), and everyone was half naked. (me, not so into working out in a sports bra). So it began, and within the first ten minutes I was absolutely dripping in sweat, to the extent that I had trouble keeping my grip on some of the poses. I did start to feel lightheaded a couple of times, but a quick glance around the room led me to discover that there were already a handful of people laying down on their towels so I followed suit until I felt better. The second half of the class was all poses where you were already sitting or lying down, so that was a lot easier. And it actually went by pretty quickly- before I knew it, we were on the final breathing exercises. I didn't hate it but I must say I prefer regular yoga.

The studio charges $19 per class, but they run a special for first-timers in which the next nine days after your first class for free. The cheapskate in me loves a bargain, so I did go back again a couple of days later, with the new goal of actually doing all of the poses and not lying down on my towel. It was a lot easier the second time, although still as sweaty as ever. And I just might go again today.

I haven't become a bikram yoga convert or anything, but it does seem like a good way to keep my muscles loose for the upcoming soccer season, so I think I'll try to fit in a class every couple of weeks or so.

Home for the holidays

2012-01-07T16:32:00.006-05:00

I'm not a big fan of holiday travel...basically, if you want to fly internationally during late December, it's double the price, and seems to come along with a greater risk of delays due to weather and business (or maybe the risk is the same, but it's way more annoying when your $2900 flight gets cancelled than your $1400 one). And maybe I'm a bit of a Scrooge but I'm just not that into Christmas- Thanksgiving is more my speed in terms of holidays. However, since I was in Australia for the last Christmas I felt a bit bad about missing two in a row so I made the trip back to Massachusetts.
Of course my flight got cancelled, which put in in a pretty sour mood, but at least the one day delay allowed me to attend my institute's Christmas party, where once again, the nutbush happened.
In total, I was home for 7 days and it was pretty jam-packed. I packed a couple of boxes of Christmas crackers in my suitcase (and did start worrying about halfway through the flight that they might be considered an explosive...whoops) and brought them to Christmas dinner- my nieces were not that impressed but the adults really enjoyed the bad jokes and paper crowns. My grandmother kept her crown on for the whole day. The rest of the week was spent hanging out with the family, catching up with friends, and eating at some of my favorite places (Mexican! Sushi! La Cantina! Framingham Bakery Pizza!). Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do a big night out in the city with my Boston friends, nor a lengthy trip to the mall- two of my favorite vacation activities. So although I had a great time, I'm already looking forward to my next trip back.

What I read and watched on the plane:

Books:
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin. I picked up this collection of short stories set in Pakistan due to the National Book Award finalist seal on its cover, but it lingered on my bookshelf for ages. The stories feature various characters in modern Pakistan, most of whom are somehow linked to K.K. Harouni, a wealthy landowner whose fortunes and influence are on the decline as the feudal system becomes outdated. Despite its critical acclaim, I didn't like the book- it all felt a bit too cold and distant, and my biggest problem was with the depiction of women, the majority of whom were young peasants who sleep with their employers, with the main exception being a rich socialite who cheats on her new husband. I don't know much about Pakistan, but surely there are Pakinstani women who aren't sex slaves or sexpots.

Nightwoods, by Charles Frazier. This novel, which tells the story of a reclusive young woman who becomes the caretaker of her niece and nephew after her sister's murder, was very different (much shorter and paired down) from the epic Cold Mountain, and I didn't love it, but I did like it.

Movies:

Our Idiot Brother- Paul Rudd as a stoner who causes upheaval in his sister's personal and professional lives. Pretty good.

The Way- Martin Sheen stars in this Emilio Estevez-directed film as a man who ends up walking El Camino de Santiago, a famous pilgrimage route in Spain. Not surpising that they didn't find a role for Charlie. The kind of movie my parents would love.

A Better Life- A father in struggling to raise his son as an illegal immigrant in L.A. A surpising choice for an airplane movie.

Real Steel- Hugh Jackman, Kate from Lost, a little boy, and fighting robots. Awful but entertaining at the same time.

Crazy, Stupid, Love- Steve Carrell stars as a family man who goes through something akin to a mid-life crisis after his wife cheats on him. I had high expectations and thought it was okay but not as funny or edgy as I would have hoped. The babysitter was my favorite character.
Crazy, Stupid, Love

2011: The Year in Review

2012-01-02T02:07:00.004-05:00

So I've been a bit slack with the old blog lately, but I'll stick to my tradition of the year end post. 2011 started of shaky but ended up turning into a banner year- I finally had some scientific success that included two publications, I paid off the credit card debt that had been haunting me since 2003, and I found a great group of friends here in Melbourne, people who make me feel like myself and make this place feel like a home.

I can't really list a song of the year, nor a movie of the year, because, frankly, my finger has slipped off the pulse of pop culture. And a lot of the Oscar buzz movies haven't been released in Australia yet. The Muppet movie opens Jan 12th and I am stoked!

But without further ado:

TV Addictions of the Year:
1. Top Gear (British version)- who would have thought that a show featuring British men and cars would be so damn entertaining? But it's great!

2. The Graham Norton Show- My fellow Americans, we have been deprived of the BEST talk/interview late night show in the world. It's so much better than celebrity appearances on Leno or Letterman- Graham's guests have actual conversations, I mean, you get to hear Rhianna talk about an awkward experience with a bikini waxer rather than 30 seconds of plugging her latest album. The format helps viewers get a sense of what celebrities are actually like, as does the fact that the host is a quick-witted gay Irishman. Bradley Cooper? As charming as you think he is. Rob Lowe? Kind of a stiff. Chris Martin? Way less of a douche than I imagined! Elijah Wood? Not only is he the star of Lord of the Rings, he's also a complete nerdy fanboy.

3. Deadwood. I never caught this HBO Western when it aired a few years ago, so I've been watching it on DVD and love it! The characters and dialogue are fantastic; the writers must have had such a great time working on this show. And if you don't like it, you must be a hooplehead.

Places Visited:
Helsinki, Finland
South Island, New Zealand
Newport, RI
Mt. Hotham, Port Fairy, and Dalyesford, Australia
Framingham, MA

Visitors (new category!):
Ern in March
Yuki and Jonathan in April
Kim in October

Most shocking event of 2011:
I went skiing...and liked it.

Most commented post of 2011:
This somewhat melodramatic (and embarrassing in hindsight) one about my break up. But thanks for the love, people.

Literary Addiction of the Year:
The Hunger Games trilogy.

As always, thanks for reading and commenting, and I will try to post with a little more frequency in the new year. Best wishes to all for a wonderful 2012!

The 12 Pubs of Christmas

2011-12-18T05:40:00.006-05:00

My flatmate Susan is from Cork (in Ireland), where apparently a pub crawl called The 12 Pubs of Christmas is the norm in December. The title explains it all- one outing, 12 pubs, sometime around Christmas. We decided to organize a Melbourne version in our own neighborhood- apparently 34 is not to old to be a co-organizer of a pub crawl, for the record.
One of the perks of planning activities is that you get to make them convenient for you (pub #12 just happened to be located around the corner from our apartment, what a coincidence!). Plus, there are a lot of good bars and pubs and I haven't had a chance to check all that many of the out, so why not hit 12 in one day? A few weeks ago we did a reconnaissance mission on our bikes and mapped out a route containing 12 pubs. The date was set, the route and schedule arranged, the flyer designed, and we sent it around to our Melbourne friends, not really knowing how many people other that the two of us would partake.
The big day arrived and we headed out to Pub #1 with our props, a red felt cowboy Hat of Shame, which would be worn by anyone whom arrived late or was deemed to have committed a shameful act. We also happened upon a harlequin romance called Gentle Rouge, with a ridiculous cover and even more ridiculous (and very porny) conent. All latecomers had to read aloud a passage of Gentle Rouge (and there were some doozies, full of words like 'bountiful' and 'thrusted')and through the course of the evening, a few strangers got roped into dramatic readings as well.
One thing that came in handy is that Australian bars typically serve pots, a half-pint size of draft beer, which we drank instead of full pints. Even in my college days I don't think I could have handled 12 pints in a night.
The evening went along much more smoothly than expected- we had about 16 people at the max, and at least some of the group did make it to all 12 pubs, with much hilarity along the way. One bar turned out to be a classy restaurant (oops), one bar was completely sketchy with the worst entertainment I've ever seen (a man playing keyboard and singing along to recorded hits in a room covered in wallpaper and lava lamps...I can't even describe how bad it was), a digital scale provided much amusement to the scientists of the group, and pretty much everyone wanted to talk to us wherever we went (a trashy paperback is a great conversation piece).
I did post the pictures on Facebook and felt a little bit silly- "oh, that's a lovely photo of your baby in front of a Christmas tree. Here are some photos of my friends on a holiday pub crawl! Totally the same thing."

Tortilla Española Failblog

2011-12-13T06:27:00.004-05:00

If you've ever been to a tapas restaurant, you've probably had tortilla española, which is essentially the Spanish version of a potato omelet. Although the ingredient list is simple (eggs, potato, onion, oil, salt, and pepper), I've never actually tried to make one, mostly because I was intimated by the process, which typically involves flipping the semi-cooked tortilla halfway through cooking. I mean, that's just asking for a kitchen catastrophe. However, today I was craving some potato eggy goodness, so I found this recipe and decided to give it a shot. As directed, I cooked the potatoes and onions in oil, then added the egg mixture and cooked and rested. Then it came time for the big flip...at which point I learned that the bottom half of the tortilla was stuck to the pan and the top was a blobby mess. Well, that's what I get for buying my non-stick cookware at the Australian version of Walmart. I reassembled as best I could, but the result was more like scrambled egg with potato than the beautiful tortilla española I had envisioned. The side view wasn't as ghastly, and at least the blueberry muffins (clearly, a reasonable accompaniment Spanish food) I made while the the potatoes were cooking came out well.

Score: Tortilla española 1, Eileen 0.
Now on the Christmas wish list: a decent non-stick pan

DYAC

2011-12-10T18:41:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts- I've been meaning to take photos of the new hospital and post about it but haven't had a chance.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
So in the meantime, check out the Top 25 Damn You Auto Correct entries of the year.

I do suspect some of these are fake, but even so, I still laughed so hard tears came out of my eyes.

Reviews- four books

2011-11-29T05:43:00.004-05:00

Lately I've been on a reading-in-bed-before-I-fall-asleep kick, so I've gone through a few books lately, namely:

Room, by Emma Donoghue. You know those creepy news stories where a man kidnaps a girl, keeps her prisoner for years, and the girl ends up having her rapist's child, Austrian basement style? Well, Room is a novel with a similar premise, only it's told from the perspective of a five year old boy, Jack, who has spent his entire life in a single room with his mother, not understanding that a world outside exists. His friends are Rug, Chair, and Dora the Explorer, and he sleeps hidden away in a wardrobe because his mother doesn't want the bad man who comes in at night to be able to look at him. The book is disturbing and completely addictive, and very cleverly written. My sister Kerry sent it to me and I couldn't put it down.

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett- after Room I needed something a bit cheerier, so I finally read the book that everyone I know had already read. The Help, set in the segregated South in the 1960s, is the story of white housewives and the black housekeepers who do their chores and raise their children. Although they spend their days together, they don't interact outside of strict societal norms, until one of the town's socialites, Skeeter Phelan, returns from college and decides to scratch below the surface. The Help is an enjoyable read, full of lively characters and a bitchy villian who is just so fun to despise, the type of book you could recommend to nearly anyone and know that they'll like it. My one critique is that I feel it's been overpraised as an "important" book. If it were written during the 1960s, maybe that would have been the case, but since the book was written 50 years after the troubled times it describes, it certainly isn't an Uncle Tom's Cabin or even a To Kill A Mockingbird. However, it's still a great story and well worth a read.

The Wonder Boys, by Michael Chabon. Michael Chabon is one of my favorite authors, so I had high expectations of this book. However, I wasn't a huge fan, mostly because I didn't like the protagonist, frustrated writer and college professor Grady Tripp. He's a 40 year old man who cheats on his wife, obsesses over one of his students, smokes pot all the time, and basically needs to grow the fuck up. He's not quite as awful as the husband in On Beauty or the dad in The Squid in the Whale, but is pretty much a rehashing of the pompous, male academic stock character. The side characters were a lot more likeable and entertaining, despite (or perhaps because of) their flaws.

Lastly, I read We Need to Talk about Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. I thought Room was disturbing, but it has NOTHING on Kevin. This book is the story of a school shooter, written by his mother in a series of letters to her estranged husband. She wasn't sure she wanted to have children, she resented giving up her former lifestyle, and then her child turns out to be...evil. Is she somehow to blame, or was he just born that way? We know at the start how Kevin turned out, but Eva tells the story in chronological order, from all of her doubts during and after pregnancy, to how difficult Kevin was as a baby, and then things go from bad to worse as Kevin displays an ever deeper streak of cruelty, to which his father is willfully ignorant. As a narrator, Eva writes beautifully and certainly reveals her own flaws...but with every chapter, the story grows darker and the sense of dread expands. I feel traumatized after reading it, but I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. I'll tell you one thing, though, I will definitely not be seeing the movie- the book was haunting enough. I'm going to have to read some Jennifer Weiner next as an antidote!

You'll pry the Oxford comma out of my cold, dead, and unambigously described hands.

2011-11-22T04:33:00.007-05:00

Earlier this year, mayhem erupted (in certain circles) when a rumor that the Oxford style guide was no longer in favor of its namesake serial comma hit the press. Since moving to Australia, I've noticed that none of my coworkers use a comma after the word before "and" in a series -i.e. "please invite Ron, Belinda and Steve to the meeting." I think it looks weird and makes it seem like the last two on the list are a pair rather than separate, serial entries. Apparently the Oxford comma is standard in American English but only used to avoid ambiguity in British English. But I think it always makes the meaning clearer, and I refuse to stop using it! The sandwiches on sale are ham, tuna and peanut butter. See what I mean? Long live the Oxford comma!

World Pneumonia Day

2011-11-12T23:19:00.002-05:00

November 12th is World Pneumonia Day. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death of children under the age of five worldwide, and not surprisingly, 98% of these deaths occur in developing countries. The sad part is that the vast majority of them are preventable- these children die because they lack access to vaccination, antibiotic treatment, and basic medical care. The World Pneumonia Day website is a good source of information and ways to help in the fight against a disease that belongs in the past.

My laboratory performs research on the bacteria that cause pneumonia, and recently received a large grant to run a pneumococcal vaccine trial in Vietnam (a grant that pays my postdoc salary- yay!).

On a related note, when I hear the anti-vaccine loons from the US and the UK spouting nonsense and misinformation, it makes my blood boil. Vaccines are safe, and people who are fortunate enough to live in countries where they have access to them should be grateful.

Beyond the pale

2011-11-09T05:26:00.003-05:00

At the end of winter, I am so pale it borders upon light blue. I've never gone into a UV tanning bed because, hello, thymine dimers much? This year for the first time, I was considering trying to reduce the pale so I didn't spend the first couple of months of summer with lunar legs. I was thinking about getting a spray tan, which has the benefit of not causing skin cancer, but after some discussion with friends I realized they don't work how I thought they worked. "Oh they look pretty good but make sure you exfoliate first because otherwise it will flake off unevenly." What? It comes off? Somehow, even though it is essentially sprayed onto your skin, I thought it just sort of coloring that gradually faded and that I could get one at the start of summer and just build up from there. Apparently not. So I opted for a third choice, a tinted moisturizer. Dove makes one called Summer Glow- "mosturiser with a hint of self tanning agent gradually builds a self tan." Despite the lack of proper grammar and the z-less Australian spelling of moisturizer, it sounded like what I was after. Something to bring my legs from translucent blue up to pale before my trip to Queensland. And it worked! I used it 5 or 6 times before the trip and got just a hint of color, with no streaks! So I thought I'd share in case anyone else is looking for such a product.

For my next consumer report, I'll post a review of the new potato chip flavor to hit the Australian shevles: meat pie and sauce. I kid you not.

Weekend Report

2011-11-01T06:54:00.003-04:00

The first Tuesday in November is Melbourne Cup day when the biggest horserace in the country is held, and a public holiday for the state of Victoria. The spring racing carnival is known as much for the fashion as the races, and I went on the Saturday prior to Melbourne Cup, known as Derby Day and traditionally when all racegoers where black and white. I do love a dress-up event, and this is one of the few occasions where fascinators and hats with netting are standard attire. I went with my friend Lauren, we drank lots of champagne, and lost all of our (fortunately very low stakes) bets, but still had a blast.

On Sunday, I decided to show some Halloween spirit- I didn't really get my act together in time to organize a costume party, so instead I invited a few friends over to carve pumpkins and eat pumpkin pie (made from canned pumpkin, not the carving pumpkins). Proper pumpkins are difficult to find in Australia- what they call a pumpkin is actually a squash, and two people did end up bringing acorn squash instead of pumpkins. None of the Australians (or my Irish flatmate) had ever carved a pumpkin before, nor tried pumpkin pie, and found both quite enjoyable. And now the pumpkins look great sitting out on my balcony. And I don't even have to worry about punk kids smashing them because they don't have that tradition here either :)

Reviews- one book, one movie, and one show

2011-10-17T06:03:00.003-04:00

The first part of this review is a book-movie combo: One Day, by David Nicholls. The book tells the story of Emma and Dexter, college students in the UK who become friends on their graduation night, and follows them for twenty years, through bad jobs and bad relationships, tracking the ebbs and flows of their sometimes friendship, sometimes romance. At first I wasn't crazy about the book- I found Emma self-righteous and irritating, and Dexter self-centered and obnoxious- but they got better as they got older (although Dexter remains a bit of a dick for most of it), and a couple of chapters in, and I was hooked. It's funny and clever and you feel like you actually know the characters, but I must warn you, the book takes a completely unexpected turn towards the end that might leave readers a bit upset at the author.

Onto One Day, the movie. I saw the movie just a few days after finishing the book, so I was interested to see what they would do with the characters who were still so fresh in my mind. The two leads were great- Jim Sturgess is English and handsome and a natural choice for Dex. Anne Hathaway's English accent was a bit hit-or-miss, but she fit the role well, capturing both Emma's sarcasm and self-doubt. The minor characters Ian and Sylvie were perfect but they totally missed the mark with Suki, who was more like a cartoon character than a real person. I liked the movie, but not sure how I would have felt about it if I hadn't have read the book first, because I enjoyed seeing what parts they used for the movie and what omitted.

And now for the show- Okkervil River at The Forum. This Austin indie rock first hit my radar a few years ago with Black, the type of song that has you listening to the lyrics to see if you can figure out the story. To be honest, I wasn't very familiar with their newer stuff but hadn't seen them live before, and a $50 ticket is a bargain by Australian standards. (oh how I miss the Boston live music scene!). They put on a great set that was a nice mix of mellow songs with some peppier rock tunes as well, and inspired me to download a few of their new tracks the next day. (obligatory concert photo lifted from my friend Vinnie)

Haircut

2011-10-16T02:33:00.003-04:00

The haircut I wanted vs. the haircut I got.

Oh well.

Kim's visit- Part 2: Adventures on the Great Ocean Road

2011-10-15T02:25:00.006-04:00

After spending a couple of days exploring Melbourne, Kim and I rented a car and drove down the Great Ocean Road, one of the most scenic spots in Victoria. On the first day of the trip, we checked out Bells Beach and spent the night in Lorne. Day 2 we stopped at the famous 12 Apostles (of which there may or may not be 12) and continued on to Port Fairy, a old timey little boating down past the end of the Great Ocean Road. Day 3 we drove back to Melbourne on the inland route, taking a small detour to check out the town of Fram(l)ingham, where we saw a lot of cows and sheep but did not spot a single human inhabitant. I had never been to the far end of the Great Ocean Road before, so it was fun to go somewhere new, and we had nice weather for most of the trip, although it is still far too cold to go in the water, so our surf lesson idea was abandoned.

Back in Melbourne, we did a little more sightseeing and visited Queen Victoria Market and the Ian Potter Centre, an art gallery featuring Australian art, which we were pleased to discover is free admission! We had a farewell dinner at Anada in Fitzroy (yum!) and took some silly photos at a nearby park. And just like that, it was time for Kim to fly back to Massachusetts. I had a fantastic time and it was so fun to just hang out and enjoy Melbourne and its surroundings with a friend whom I've known since I was five years old.

Kim's visit- Part I: Adventures in Melbourne

2011-10-10T06:07:00.006-04:00

Last week I was graced by the presence of a very special visitor, my friend Kim! After she somewhat recovered from jetlag, we spent the next couple of days exploring Melbourne.

On Sunday, we checked out the weekend art market in Fitzroy, made a quick trip to the city center (known as the CBD- Central Business District) and then partook in some local sporting activities, with a visit to the Fitzroy Lawn Bowls club. My flatmate Susan had made me some birthday cupcakes decorated to look like...lawn bowling! Aren't they great? Tasty, too.

Monday we headed back into the city for a delicious lunch at Flower Drum, a restaurant that a man on an airplane had once told me was the best Chinese restaurant in the world. (I take advice given on airplanes seriously.) We had the four course lunch tasting menu and it was delicious and definitely a good amount of food- the steak pictured would have been sufficient as a meal on its own. After that, we did more sightseeing and shopping in the CBD and went up to the Eureka skydeck- the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere! (Australia loves those southern hemisphere superlatives.) It was a cool but clear day so the view was great, and we ate footlong gummy worms and I got mugged by a toddler who snatched a brochure out of my hand. Good thing he didn't go for the gummy worm because I would have fought back for that.

Stay tuned for Part 2: Adventures on the Great Ocean Road!

Link!

2011-10-08T07:09:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I am a blog slacker and I have lots to post about (Kim's visit, mostly), but to tide you over I offer this link:

Apparently a haunted house in upstate NY takes photos of people while they are scared. It turns out that these photos are hilarious. Enjoy!

One of my faves.

via Metafilter

Mad about Vlad

2011-09-15T05:06:00.002-04:00

One of my friends and I share a strange crush/fascination with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Okay, so maybe his politics can be a bit shady, but you've got to admit that he's one cool dude. Just look at the pictures! He drives race cars, rides a motorcycle, scuba dives, expresses interest in science, plays piano, and snuggles puppies.

(link via Kris)

Another year of soccer

2011-09-13T06:39:00.004-04:00

One of the first things I did when I moved to Melbourne was to join a soccer team. Last year's team was a lot of fun, but also a bit on the Bad News Bears side- several players had never played organized soccer before, and we weren't the best at actually getting 11 people to show up for an early Sunday morning game. Our old coach (yes, rec sports here have coaches and practice- it's crazy) resigned right before the new season started due to work commitments and things were looking a little bit bleak for the Port Melbourne Sharks. However, as the season began, we ended up getting an awesome new coach and recruiting a few new players from the US, Canada, and England, and well as an Australian who is actually good (no offense but women's soccer is definitely not Australia's forte). We even got new uniforms so we didn't have to wear hand-me-downs from the men's team that were the size of circus tents (although I do miss the old Pinkles pink). We were good, but more importantly, we were fun, so playing this season improved my social life as well as my fitness. We won our last game on Sunday and finished at the top of the league.

Ten years later

2011-09-10T20:44:00.001-04:00

September 11th will never more be just another date on the calendar. For Americans of my generation, it's the event that stunned us, burned forever in our memories the way that our parents recall exactly what they were doing when they found out that John F Kennedy was shot, or our grandparents remember Pearl Harbor. Ten years ago, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua, listening to the radio in the morning while I got ready for the day. I heard something on the news about all airports in the United States being closed, and knew right away something bad was happening. I turned on the TV and CNN en Español was broadcasting live from New York, where the first plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. At this point, it was unclear if it was just a freak accident or something more sinister. Moments later, the second plane hit and everyone's worst fears were confirmed.

I spent the rest of the day watching the news, trying to figure out what had happened, and worrying about my friends in New York City and my father, who travels frequently (I knew one of the planes had left from Boston). The town where I lived only had one phone, and I did manage to get in touch with my parents. The next day, I headed into the city to get together with my Peace Corps friends to share information we were getting from back home, and to just be together- it was a strange time to be living overseas, and everything felt a bit confusing and surreal, as I'm sure it would have no matter where you were located. "Dark days ahead" was the message my friend Courtney received in an email from her uncle.

On this anniversary, I'm living overseas again, on the outside looking in, partly spared the inundation of 9-11 reflections and commentaries sure to be taking over the headlines and airways back home. Praise for the bravery and kindness of ordinary people caught in a nightmare, derision for those who used the tragedy for political or personal gain, over the top rah-rah nevar forget! patriotism, and callous cynicism of those who claim we had it coming. I suppose I still haven't sorted out my own feeling on the subject, other than sympathy for those who died and their families, and a vague wish that the feeling of unity and goodwill that rose up out of the aftermath could have lasted longer than it did.

What I've been up to lately

2011-09-08T07:35:00.005-04:00

- Watching Deadwood. I love a good Western.

- Reading...just finished Runaway, a book of short stories by Alice Munro, all set in Canada, all featuring women. Some I really enjoyed, some left me a feeling a bit empty.

- Listening...Big Boi (a.k.a 1/2 of Outkast) is touring to promote his recent album and I went to the Melbourne show last weekend- super fun! He took the stage with another lead rapper, a DJ, a guitarist, and two trumpeters dressed in matching Adidas jumpsuits and played a few of his new songs and a lot of older Outkast tracks.

- Hosting! Kris and Rodd came down to Sydney a couple of weeks ago for a weekend visit. Kris already provided a detailed account but I will cover the highlights:

We attended a Rubik's Cube Tournament (as spectators, not participants). As one would expect, the majority of the contestants were nerdy boys, most of them teenagers. We caught the blindfold round...the time starts when the contestants receive a scrambled cube. They look at it, try to memorize the pattern and the required moves, and when they're ready, the blindfold goes on and they attempt to solve the cube from memory. Holy shit, right? There were a couple of kids who finished in under 40 seconds, which was pretty amazing. I had no idea such a competition existed.

We took a jaunt down to one of my favorite spots in Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula. We drank wine at a winery, beer at a brewery, and ate cheese at a cheesery. And we spent the night in a lighthouse keeper's cottage! It was windy. And then we played Settlers of Catan by the fire as we drank our wine purchases. I had a great time, and now I guess I owe them a trip up to Sydney.

Science baking competition

2011-08-31T05:39:00.007-04:00

This week my workplace held a special science-themed baking competition. Entries had to be cookies or cupcakes so they could be easily shared, and groups were encouraged to make entries related to their own research. My original idea was to make a periodic table of mini cupcakes (oh come on, you think it's awesome), but since I was off gallivanting with my Sydney visitors (will post on that later) I didn't have a chance to bake, so I was a spectator and taster instead. My group stayed true to our research and submitted bacterial-themed treats that resembled colonies growing on agar plates. I was very impressed with the entries, and my favorites included macaroons shaped like chromosomes and mitochondria eclairs. The winner was cupcakes decorated with sleeping babies from a group who does sleep research on infants- they were cute but the edible baby decorations were a little bit cannibalistic for my tastes. I really hope they hold the contest again next year- it was really fun and tasty!

Links!

2011-08-19T22:13:00.002-04:00

I still look at Boston.com nearly every day and was surprised to see a photo essay on a pink, 26 room mansion in Framingham known as the Owl's Nest. How have I never heard of or seen this place? And it gets better- the current owner has three pomeranians, a massive doll collection, and an Egyptian room. Apparently he's rich enough to be considered eccentric rather than crazy.

In other news, earlier this month, a man broke into a house in a wealthy Sydney suburb and clamped a device around teenage girl's neck, claiming that it was a bomb and demanding ransom. The authorities eventually determined that it wasn't a real bomb and removed the device. Earlier this week, the police tracked down and arrested the suspect, a middle-aged investment banker, in Kentucky. Weird!

Lastly, here's a website about the new Royal Children's Hosptial where my lab will be moving to in November. The current hospital was built in 1963 and the facilities are very outdated- for example, there are no vacuum or gas lines in the labs, and renovations are impractical due to the presence of asbestos. They ran out of office space so many staff members, myself included, have desks in a temporary trailer structure known as The Gantry. Although the move itself will undoutbedly be a bit of a hassle, I've been looking forward to the new digs and having my desk in the same vicinity of the lab. I do think that despite that dated surroundings, the current hospital does a great job of making it a positive, happy environment for the kids in for long-term care. They're continuing that tradition in the plans for the new hospital- they polled children to decide on color schemes, and the foyer will feature a two story aquarium.

What I didn't know until yesterday was that the new hospital will also feature a meerkat enclosure, presumably to entertain the pediatric patients. How awesome is that?? Here's an article on the first patient to tour the facility.

Movie review: Jane Eyre

2011-08-16T08:28:00.003-04:00

I saw the new film version of Jane Eyre earlier this week, and I liked it much more than I expected. I remember reading the book by Charlotte Bronte in 9th grade and I recall disliking it, which is strange because I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the other Bronte/Austen novels I've read. Perhaps I was too young for it when I read it, or I had trouble getting past the lengthy starting section with Jane as a young child living an unhappy life (orphaned, she ends up in the care of a nasty aunt who then ships her off to a nasty boarding school). All I really remember of the book was someone mean whacking young Jane with a book, and a crazy lady kept hidden away in a tower. Thankfully, Jane's dreary childhood only takes up a small portion of the movie, and we encounter her at the age of 19, employed as a governess at a lonely mansion owned by...surprise! a handsome, rich, and enigmatic bachelor. If I lived in 19th century England, surely such men would be utterly charmed by my wit and spirit and seek to marry me in spite of my plainness and low social standing. And so it is with Jane and Mr. Rochester, however, this story does not have a classic happy ending like many of its counterparts.
I thought the movie was very well done and the strength was mainly in the casting. Australian Mia Wasikowska was perfect as the heroine- stoic yet passionate, wise beyond her years, and not too pretty. And what is a BBC period piece without Dame Judi Dench? I think this might be a rare case where I actually prefer the movie to the book.

Weekend Report

2011-08-14T05:10:00.005-04:00

This weekend featured a LOT of eating. On Friday night, a Pakistani coworker had invited my labmates to join her for the fun part of Ramadan- breaking the fast at sundown. We went to a Lebanese restaurant that does a special set menu service for Ramadan. Diners are seated at 5:30 to tables spread with an impressive array of appetizers. See all that food on the table? That's just the first course. About ten minutes later, the call to prayer is played, signaling that it's time to break the fast, and everyone digs in. Traditionally, dates are eaten first to get blood sugar up. The mains course included lots of slow-cooked meats and kebabs. The food was so good it almost made up for the fact that the restaurant is alcohol-free.

On Saturday, I stuck with the Subcontinent culinary theme and went to lunch at an Indian colleague's house- she had made biryani, chicken curry, mushroom curry, salad with yogurt, and two types of bread. Face stuffing ensued. I tried traditional Indian lime pickles, which have some much red chili on them they no longer resemble limes in any form, and I actually really liked them- I am a fan of spicy foods, and these hit the hot spot without venturing into pain territory.

Saturday night I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I saw the trailer a couple of months ago and it looked like the type of movie that could go one of two ways: it could be dreadful, like comically awful, or it could be really good- there was no way it was going to be a "meh, mediocre" type movie. I think feel squarely into the Really Good category, minus a couple of over-the-top scenes towards the end (the chimp riding a horse? come on now.). The science-heavy plot was interesting and the special effects team did a great job with the chimps- they seemed real rather than computer-generated, and they did a great job of giving them personalities without dialogue. I must confess that I haven't seen any of the Planet of the Apes film and all I really know about them is Charlton Heston and the Statue of Liberty scene, so I likely missed out on all sorts of nuanced references to the series. All I can say is that I'm glad my line of research involved bacteria rather than apes.

In other entertainment news, I finished the third and final book in the Hunger Games series. The style of books two and three is similar to the first, and I'll leave out plot descriptions so I don't spoil things for anyone. The third book is the darkest of the three and proceeds at a frantic pace until the ending, which seems to come about suddenly. I adored the characters and was dying to know how the story would end, but at the same time I didn't want it to be over. Now I can look forward to the movie- I had avoided reading about the casting because I didn't want it to influence my mental picture of the characters, but now it's kind of fun to see who will be playing different roles

Census time

2011-08-11T06:16:00.002-04:00

The Australian census took place earlier this week- on Tuesday, August 9th. I don't recall ever filling out a census form in the US but they seem to be much more serious about it in Australia- everyone fills out the census form on a specific date, and everyone staying in your house that night goes on your form, even if they are just a visitor. And it's mandatory- you get fined if you don't complete it. Because I am a nerd, I was kind of excited about being part of the census. The questions were fairly standard, age, sex, marital status, a lot of questions on heritage (where you were born, where your parents were born, etc..) and employment, although some of the examples they gave made me laugh- "What type goods or services does your employer provide? Examples: hairdressing, sheep and wheat."
If you like looking at graphs, here are some census data- enjoy!

You learn something new every day

2011-08-10T08:06:00.002-04:00

Did you know that there is a contraption on the market that allows women to pee whilst standing up? It's called the shewee. After post-soccer beers last weekend, we were talking about peeing, as you do, and one of my soccer teammates told us about the shewee and that she owns one. The conversation rapidly spiraled downhill from there. We asked her to describe it- I was envisioning a catheter, and she said "no, it looks more like a paper airplane."
??!
It actually looks more like a funnel or a plastic chute, at least on the website, which states "It is ideal for outdoor pursuits and long car journeys or for travelling abroad." I'm sorry, but long car rides? That's what rest stops are for. As much as peeing can be an inconvenience, I don't really see the appeal of the shewee. The big problem is that to use it, you'd have to carry it around with you. Where? In your purse? Gross! And you'd presumably have to rinse it, as well. Although it would make for an excellent conversation piece!

Short and sweet

2011-08-03T18:25:00.002-04:00

My posts have been a bit on the long side lately, so here's an interspecies friendship story to mix things up a bit:

A chimpanzee babysits tiger cubs in a Thai zoo. Said chimpanzee also wears jean shorts, also known as jorts.

Thanks for the link, Caro!

How I learned to stop worrying and like skiing

2011-08-03T07:58:00.009-04:00

I went skiing last weekend. Those of you know know me well realize that this is the equivalent of watching a friend who has been a vegetarian for over a decade chomp down into a t-bone steak. You see, I do not participate in a category of activities I refer to as Non-Shoe Sports. Non-Shoe Sports require putting something on your feet or standing on something that is not a shoe. To wit: skiing, rollerskating, snowboarding, surfing, skateboarding, ice skating, and the like. Poor balance, bendy ankles, fear of injury, and bad memories of being the child who had to get towed around by the hand at roller rink birthday parties all contribute to two imminent truths: 1. I am terrible at non-shoe sports and 2. I hate them.

I attempted skiing a few times from the ages of 18 - 22 or so, and the big problem was that I didn't know how to turn, so I'd just end up fucking flying down the slope, too fast to brake, so the only option was to tip over and tumble to a stop. Not fun. The other problem was that I always went with friends who were really good skiers, so I'd either end up by myself and miserable, or with someone else and feeling really bad they they were stuck on the bunny slope with me and my disasterness rather than off enjoying themselves on the real slopes. Plus, if I wanted to spend a lot of money on something that I didn't like, I might as well just go to the dentist. I soon learned that I enjoyed ski weekends much more when they didn't involve skiing, and happily opted to sit by the fire and read, drink cocktails in the hottub, or go snowmobiling or hiking while others did the whole ski/snowboard thing.

However, when one of my soccer teammates organized a trip to the snow (That's what they call it here- "going to the snow"- which never ceases to amuse me because I come from a place where the snow comes to you), for some reason, I decided to give skiing a try for the first time in over ten years. Maybe it was the novelty of skiing in Australia in July that drew me in or the assumption that there would be other novices on the trip, an assumption that proved to be entirely incorrect. We drove up to Mt. Hotham Friday night, spent the evening with wine and boardgames by the fire, and Saturday morning rented our gear and headed to the slopes. One of my friends is a former ski instructor and offered to give a mini-lesson, and she soon realized that I was not exaggerating in the slightest when I said I may possibly be the worst skier in the world. The plan was to learn how to turn, thinking that might be the key skill required to avoid the whole crash landing problem, and the first hour was pretty rough. It took me almost an hour to get down the easiest slope on the mountain because I fell on my ass about every 15 feet. When we finally reached the bottom, I dismissed my very patient instructor and practiced on my own for a little while. I had signed up for an afternoon lesson so I decided to stick around and give it a shot. And guess what? It was great! Being around other people who also sucked made it so much more fun! And I even started to get the hang of it...I got off the lift without falling (okay, 50% of the time) and I figured out the turning thing, to the point where I could make it the whole way down the mountain without falling. Granted, I was doing the snowplow most of the way, but I felt like I could actually control where I was going, and I started go a little faster and practicing keeping my skis parallel instead of in a V, and then hey, I realized that I was enjoying it. Then I got cold and decided to quit while I was ahead. The rest of the weekend involved lots of relaxing by the fire, but overall I had a great time. I'm already looking forward to my next trip to the snow, but I definitely plan to stick with the lessons for a while.

What's cooking?

2011-07-27T08:30:00.003-04:00

So my new favorite thing is an immersion blender, you know, the electric stick thing that you stick in a pot and BRRZZZZZZZZRRRTTTTTT, and now your soup has a pleasant texture as opposed to the standard "broth with stuff floating in it." However, be sure not to pull the immersion blender out of the soup while it is still on, lest you end up taking a soup shower- and that's not a euphemism.

So the immersion blender and the winter weather (Southern hemisphere shout out!) have put me in the mood for soup. Here are two I've tried lately:

1. Moroccan sweet potato, carrot, and chickpea soup. Yummers!!

2. Tortilla Soup. I did change this one a bit since I wanted to share with my vegetarian flatmate. I subbed veggie broth and didn't add the chicken put put in some diced zucchini, corn, and kidney beans to bulk it up, and then I hit it with the immersion blender- not a full puree, just about a 50/50 mix. I also used tortilla chips instead of frying my own corn tortiallas, because who has time for that shit? Okay, so essentially what I cooked had little to do with the recipe, but it was really easy to make and tasted very good, especially with avocado and cheese and cilantro all over the top.

And to continue on the vegetarian kick, I had friends over for dinner recently and turned it into a parma party and ended up making Martha Stewart's Baked Eggplant Parmesan (I like how it has aubergine in parentheses, cause Martha's so European) in addition to this oven baked chicken parm. The eggplant was a little more work than the chicken but both came out well and made for a perfect winter dinner, served up with pasta, salad, garlic bread, and plenty of red wine.

Sorry, no photos this time around- you'll have to settle for my witty commentary.

Links!

2011-07-22T19:58:00.005-04:00

Here are some links of interest:

Reagrding the women's world cup, I watched a few of the later round games and the final- which was a great game- exciting goals, tough play by both teams, and even though most soccer purists hate it when a game is decided by penalty kicks, I can't help but love the drama. It would have been nice for the USA to win and they did play a great tournament, but I did feel happy for the Japanese team- they were underdogs who didn't give up when they fell behind, and they deserved to win. Something felt different from the men's world cup, and I couldn't put my finger on it at first- in women's basketball, the game always seems like it's being played in slow motion compared to the men, but that's not the case in soccer. And then I realized- the game seemed to run so much more smoothly because there were relatively few stoppages of play- in comparison to the men's world cup, hardly anyone was diving! They were just out there playing soccer, not rolling around and feigning injury every time they lost the ball. It really made the game so much more enjoyable to watch. I'm not sure if the difference is due to the fact that women tend to dive less than men, or that the final was played between the USA and Japan, whereas South American and European teams are much more notorious for diving. Here's a nifty NYT article about less diving in women's soccer (thanks, JR!).

Other links- Perfectly Timed Photos. Crappy layout aside, there's some great stuff on here.

My new favorite talk/interview show: The Graham Norton Show. On this BBC program, Irish host Graham Norton interviews celebrity guests, but in a much more interesting format that the typical US late-night shows. Kind of like on Conan, all the guests sit together so it's more of a conversation than a series of quick one on one interviews. And because it's British television, they're allowed to swear and tell raunchy stories. Here's a great episode with Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Alex Kingston, and Rob Lowe. Rob Lowe comes across as a bit of a tool but the other three seem relaxed, witty, and hilarious.

Lastly, Rihanna is hilarious in a lot of these photos with fans. It makes me like her even more. (via Metafilter)

Adventures in Massachusetts

2011-07-17T01:46:00.009-04:00

Okay, I promise this will be the last post on my big June/July trip. In my mind, it's a summer trip, but the whole winter in the southern hemisphere is kind of throwing me for a loop.

After Helsinki and Newport, I spent a week and a half back in my hometown, spending time with the family and catching up with friends. It was great! I must say, though, when you live far away, returning home for a visit is definitely not a relaxing vacation. The entire time was a whirlwind of activity- seeing friends, running errands for my parents, spending time with my nieces, visiting my grandmother, meeting new babies (and getting spit up on by one- I considered it a sign of affection). I did manage to accomplish my two priorities- eating and shopping. Fried clams at Harry's, sushi in Boston, good Mexican food, nice crispy American bacon, Dunkin Donuts iced coffee, and all the things you just can't get in Australia. Since it was 4th of July cookout season, I also packed away my fair share of hot dogs. As for the shopping, between the Natick Mall, DSW, and the New Balance outlet, I may have singlehandedly stimulated the Metrowest economy.

Highlights included an overnight in the city with my sister Kerry and my nieces, and an evening that culminated in a distasteful photo shoot with my arch nemesis: Edible Arrangements. One of their stupid vans always hogged the best parking spot in front of my apartment for my last couple of years in Southie.

Around the World in 22 Days

2011-07-12T07:35:00.006-04:00

On my last trip, I ended up traveling around the world: Melbourne -> Singapore -> Helsinki -> Reykjavik -> Boston -> LA -> Sydney -> Melbourne

I spent a lot of time on airplanes, and probably took enough weird one-way flights to earn myself a spot on the TSA watch list. One effect of living in Australia is that I've become accustomed to long flights. Here are some tips:

1. Neck pillow and eye mask. I look like a huge dork, but at least I get some sleep.
2. On overnight flights, I try to stay up for the first 2 or 3 hours, during which time I consume 2 glasses of red wine. 1 is not enough, 3 causes too many trips to the bathroom. When I'm ready to sleep, I pop a couple of whatever mild sedative I was most recently able to legally acquire- lately codeine has been my airline drug of choice.
3. Be polite, but keep quiet. Don't run the risk of getting trapped in an awkward conversation with someone you're stuck next to for 10 hours.
4. Bring your own headphones.
5. Bring an empty water bottle through security and fill it up before you board.
6. Movies and books are your friends.

On this last trip, I watched the following:

1. Red Hill- a modern western set in Australia. Really good!
2. The Apartment- A young Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon in a Mad Men era comedy. Enjoyable but not as good as I was hoping.
3. Terms of Endearment- A much older Shirley McLaine stars in a movie about a mother-daughter relationship. Apparently I was on a Shirley McLaine kick. How did I not know until I just looked at IMDB that Warren Beatty is her brother? Anyways, the movie was pretty good, and Debra Winger was fantastic as the daughter.
4. Adam- Girl meets boy, boy has Asperger's. Meh- their relationship never seemed believable to me.
5. Win Win- Everyone's favorite loveable loser Paul Giammatti ends up taking on a troubled teen who turns out to be a star athelete. A bit predictable but highly enjoyable.
6. Just Go With It- A rom-com starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. Just as bad as I expected it to be.

and I read the following:

2666, by Roberto Bolano. I've actually been reading this for the past few months and I finally finished. It is LONG and also a slow read- despite excellent writing and an interesting story (the backdrop of the book is the serial killing of women in a Mexican border city), the sheer length of the book made it feel more like a chore than a pleasure. The book is divided into sections with a variety of characters (a reclusive German novelist, a group of four literary scholars, a Mexican policeman, and American sportswriter) who all end up in Santa Theresa, a fictional city based upon Ciudad Juarez and its femicidos. Bolano died before the novel was finalized, and I can't help but think that it would have been better had he lived long enough to fully finish and edit it. The numerical title is never explained.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I do love good Young Adult fiction and this one is a winner. Set in the future, the United States no longer exists and has been replaced by a number of territories ruled by a Capitol City. As punishment for a previous uprising, every year each territory must send one teenage boy and one girl to The Hunger Games- a fight to the death. Think Stephen King meets Harry Potter, with a female protagonist. I loved it! A creative premise, great characters, and fun and quick to read. It's a trilogy so now I need to hunt down the next two.

Wedding report

2011-07-09T08:10:00.007-04:00

After Helsinki and a night in Framingham, the next stop on my trip was Newport, RI for Ern and Pat's wedding. As expected, the festivities were an absolute blast- the bride and groom looked fantastic and so happy, the ceremony and reception were pretty much perfect (seriously, it was like a magazine wedding), and it was great to see so many friends. I was a bridesmaid, which was especially nice considering A. I loved my bridesmaid outfit and B. I didn't have to do anything except show up a couple of days early to drink cocktails with Ern and friends.

It had been cool and rainy all week, but fortunately, by the afternoon of the wedding the weather had completely transformed into a sunny summer day. Ern's uncle performed the ceremony- it's always nice when someone who knows the couple well takes on this role, and he did an excellent job. Plus, we didn't have to sit through a mass. The reception was a traditional lobsterbake (my first!) where lobster, clams, corn on the cob, potatoes, sausage, and a few other goodies are slowly cooked on hot rocks and a bed of seaweed. Deliciousness. As for the entertainment, they had a great bluegrassy-type band and an assortment of lawn games, as well as giant picture frames you could pose in for photos. I enjoyed checking out everyone's outfits- lots of polo and nautical themed attire, as well as hats and gloves. I didn't take too many pictures but here are a few of my favorites (some pilfered from Liz).

Congratulations to Ern and Pat! Thanks for getting married so the rest of us could go to your awesome party.

Five Days in Helsinki

2011-07-04T20:25:00.006-04:00

My trip started off with a whimper when the ash cloud disrupted my original travel plans, so instead of spending a few days in Boston prior to a work trip to Helsinki, I flew the other way around the world, stopping in Singapore and continuing on to Helsinki. It’s a lovely city- beautiful buildings, parks, and a lot of coastline- the city sits on the Baltic Sea and is surrounded by small islands. The architecture of the city is dominated by two huge churches, a white, modern looking one and a red brick orthodox one. Since it’s close to midsummer, the light was constant so I never felt any jetlag, partially because I never had any idea what time it was- good thing I brought a sleeping mask. Visiting Finalnd in the winter would likely be a vastly different experience. I had been warned that Helsinki was expensive but it didn’t really seem any different than Melbourne to me.

I arrived a couple of days before my meeting so had a chance to explore the city a bit, mostly on foot. My favorite stop was the market along the waterfront right at the city center. Fresh berries, reindeer meat, furs, knives, and herring- all of your Scandinavian favorites! My prize find was a pair of clip-on amber earrings for my grandmother, who loves jewelry but never got her ears pierced. I also checked out some of the local landmarks and took a ferry out to Suomnelinna island, which has an old sea fortress and a brewery.

Monday afternoon was my big meeting, in which I gave a two hour presentation to a bunch of pneumococcal bigwigs and representatives from the Gates Foundation, who are funding the project. My supervisor is the project coordinator and since she’s on maternity leave I was tasked with giving our steering committee an update on the laboratory portion of the project. It went very well, so yay for that. The next couple of days I attended the conference, which was largely focused on pneumococcal vaccination. The amount of research, time, thought, and money that lays the groundwork for introducing a vaccine into a country and ensuring that it’s safe and effective is astounding. Since pneumococcal vaccines are now being introduced to developing countries (where they are most needed), a lot of scientists from places like The Gambia and the Thailand/Burma border were at the conference, so it was really interesting to hear about their experiences.

Aside from the science, the conference had some other highlights. The hotel we stayed in was a converted prison- the rooms were obviously modified and really nice, but the hallways had a distinct prison feel and the restaurant used tin plates and mugs. The Finnish organizers of the conference had arranged for two social activities: birdwatching at 5am and “traditional Finnish evening with sauna.” I skipped the birds and went for the traditional evening. I was a little suspicious about the sauna when I noticed that there were separate sauna times listed for men and women. It turns out that the in a traditional Finnish sauna, everyone is naked. I walked in wearing my bathing suit but felt like a weird foreign prude so I ended up slipping out of it and just going with the naked Finnish flow. These people seriously love saunas- nearly everyone has one in their house or apartment, and apparently one Finnish prisoners have the right to a daily sauna. The World Sauna Championships were an annual event in Finland until one of the finalists died last year.

After the sauna, we went for a dip in the Baltic Sea (with bathing suits on) and then played a few games of Mölkky, a lawn game that's apparently Finland's answer to cornhole. After dinner and drinks, we participated in another Finnish tradition- cooking bread over the campfire. Instead of marshmallows, they toast sweetened bread dough on sticks over the fire. Yummers!

Overall, I really enjoyed my few days in Helsinki- the city was pretty and clean with a lot of do, and the people were friendly, almost all blonde, and fond of nudity.

Eileen vs the Volcano

2011-06-14T03:00:00.002-04:00

So that big volcanic eruption in Chile a few days ago (here are some crazy pictures) created a massive ash cloud that's currently hovering over southern Australia and wreaking havoc on flight schedules. I was originally supposed to fly out today (tuesday the 14th) to Boston, hang out for a couple of days, and then fly on Friday night to Helsinki. That original flight was canceled and they couldn't get me a new one until Friday, so I scrapped that whole plan and will be going the other way around, via Singapore and onto Helsinki. (I will still be heading to New England after a few days in Helsinki)

Since I spent much of the day on hold with various airlines, I did catch up on my web surfing, in particular sports coverage- something that I used to be really into but I generally don't follow much anymore. There's been some excitement lately so here's what I've caught up on:

- Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat to win the NBA finals. Yay! I've had a soft spot for Dirk ever since those pictures of him and Steve Nash wasted and posing with a fan circulated around this internet a few years ago. And the Mavs beat my two most hated teams, the Lakers and the Heat, en route to their championship, so good on them.

- The Bruins are going to be playing in Game 7 of the NHL finals, a sporting event that features two of my favorite things: the Stanley Cup, easily the coolest trophy in all of sports, and the Canadian national anthem. I have anthem envy; I admit it. Canada, your bacon is a sorry excuse for ham but "O Canada" was written to be belted out at a jammed-packed sporting arena. Sadly, due to my travel difficulties I will me watching Game 7 in my workplace cafeteria rather than at a beer soaked bar in Boston.

- Bill Simmons has started a new sports/pop culture blog called Grantland (it's named after a sportswriter, not a mythical place that torments academic scientists). I'm not feeling it. I guess I'm over Bill Simmons- I used to really enjoy his columns on the NBA, but his sexist attitude towards female sports fans (see this article as a prime example. Seriously??) sometimes makes me want to punch him in the face. While wearing my Celtics jersey dress. And yeah, his writing can be downright tiresome. Bill, so you like The Karate Kid, trips to Vegas, and the Wire? WE GET IT. As for some of the other names attached to Grantland, I've written about Dave Eggers before and overall I do love his writing, but maybe he should stick to novels and McSweeny's. I also like Chuck Klosterman. But Malcolm Gladwell? Don't even get me started. I read the Tipping Point and thought it was awful. He is my least favorite kind of non-fiction writer, an essayist who portrays his own ideas and theories as facts rather than opinions. He cherry picks examples to support these ideas and often uses correlative data to make causative arguments. The hard scientist in me just can't get past the inherent bias. So basically, I think the whole Grantland concept is stupid, but that's just my opinion.

Upcoming trip

2011-06-11T19:46:00.002-04:00

I leave in a couple of days for a multinational, multipurpose trip. First I'll have a brief stay in Boston prior to heading to Helsinki, Finland for a work meeting and conference. My boss is on maternity leave so I'm filling in for her and will be presenting to a group of Very Important People who serve on the steering committee to a big Gates Foundation project our lab coordinates. Wish me luck! Also on the agenda are eating reindeer and herring and going to a Finnish sauna with the other conference goers, and activity that possibly involves seeing my colleagues naked.

After Helsinki, I'm off to Newport RI for a few days for Ern and Pat's wedding, yippeee!

And then it's another week and a half back in MA, catching up with friends and family before I fly back to Melbourne.

I'll do my best to post some updates along the way, so stay tuned here at DCoE.

Free music mix!

2011-06-08T18:20:00.002-04:00

My friend Kelly organizes a music club that I participate in. By music club, I mean that we exchange mix CDs, not that we get together and play the recorder. We used to burn CDs and mail them, but for the latest round, we've gone high tech.

Here's a link to my mix if you're up for checking out some new music.
It downloads as a zipped folder. I tried to include a lot of Aussie bands I like, as they don't get much radio play in the US.
Get it soon, though, as the link will expire in a couple of weeks.

RSVP

2011-06-08T07:35:00.002-04:00

Warning: rant ahead

So, I've noticed a trend in the past several years, a trend that I'm not at all fond of. People no longer feel the need to respond to an invitation. And this bothers me.

I like organizing events and throwing parties, and despite my laissez-faire facade (whoa! I sense a theme: French terms commonly used in English), I am something of a compulsive planner. When planning an event, I don't need to have an exact number, but I do like to have a rough idea of how many people will be in attendance. I mean, there's a big difference between preparing a dinner party for 6 and setting up for cocktails and nibbles for 36. Back in the 2000s, we had Evite, but even by 2005 or so that was starting to lose its charm, and people stopped replying. And Facebook Events never really caught on- partly due to the horrible layout, and partly due to the fact that even to this day, not everyone uses Facebook. It's a good way to announce and event but no one feels the need to respond. Generally, when inviting people to something, I send out an email. How quaint. I've come to accept the fact that people generally don't respond to invitations anymore, and in some ways I blame the advent of the cell phone and other technologies. We used to have to be on time to meet someone at a designated meeting spot, otherwise we would never find each other. Now it's all "sorry 20 min late meet me at the bar on the corner thx!" I'm guilty of tardiness as well, so I'm certainly not pointing fingers.

However, not responding to an invitation is something I would never do. Sure, I get annoyed when someone doesn't answer yes or no to a group email about a Halloween party, but I get over it. Lately I've heard from a couple of friends that they've had to chase people down for a response to a wedding invitation. COME ON! Who doesn't respond to a wedding invitation?? Now that's just rude. Imagine my horror when I received an email a couple of weeks ago with something like "Just checking in because I never heard back, I know you're in Australia but are you coming to our wedding next weekend?"

Turns out that I wasn't going, but I had never received the invitation. (Damn you, international post!) And I was absolutely mortified that I was lumped in with the deadbeat non-responders. I always RSVP, even if with regrets.

In summary, if there's one courtesy I believe modern society should hold dear, it's the necessity to respond to an invitation, especially to a formal catered event. Even if you're a maybe, or might run late, at least provide a response. It's the polite thing to do.

Ode to convenience

2011-06-01T06:30:00.003-04:00

As a city dweller, I've become a big fan of the corner store. Not those soulless chain 7-11s and Store 24s, mind you, but the little independent ones where the selection need not abide by corporate regulations and is therefore far more interesting. In Southie, I lived across the street from a convenience store known simply as The Hub, or as I like to call it "the most convenient convenience store." For a small shop, they stock pretty much anything one could ever want. In addition to the typical eggs, toilet paper, Gatorade, and other convenience store staples, they also sell booze and rent DVDs. Win! And you can even play Keno if you are so inclined. The staff were on the surly side but it added to the overall atmosphere.

Here in Fitzroy, my local corner store (generally called newsagents or milk bars in these parts) is more like a Building 19 version of a convenience store. I mean, look at that store front! I can't even figure out what the store's name is, so I just call it the Crazy Shop. It's fairly large for a convenience store and sells the standard fare plus any random item you may be seeking. A large tinfoil roasting pan? Check. An ashtray? Check. A "No Junk Mail" sticker for your mailbox? Check. Unfortunately, no alcohol sales or DVD rentals, but they do offer a dry cleaning service and sell tram passes, which almost makes up for it. I love the Crazy Shop and average a few visits a week, but I do avoid the food section, as many of the items look like they've been sitting on those shelves since the mid 1980s. The staff consists of three people: Young Guy, Middle-aged Guy Who Wears Suspenders, and Middle-aged Guy With a Bowl Haircut. Or so I thought. A few weeks ago Bowl Cut was wearing what was clearly a woman's blouse with a brooch. I went back to my apartment and expressed surprise that the man from the Crazy Shop was a transvestite. My flatmate's response? "That's a woman." Yikes!! I thought she was a man for an entire year. I kind of feel bad about it, but someone's in serious need of a makeover.

Weekend Report

2011-05-23T06:31:00.003-04:00

Haven't done one of these for awhile...

Friday- Dressed up like a pirate and went to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie with a bunch of my soccer teammates. Since I left my old costume collection back in the USA, I had to improvise- a silk scarf with whales on it that my mother had sent me was put to use, and I fashioned a hook hand out of a coat hanger, cardboard tube, some tinfoil and a sock- MacGyver style. As for the movie, it was fun, and I do say it's more enjoyable if you're dressed as a pirate while you watch. And another lesson learned is that if you ever want to pick up men at a bar, go with a bunch of girls dressed in pirate attire. Seriously, EVERYONE talked to us.

Saturday's most notable achievement was paying off my the last of my credit card debt. Hooray! During grad school I had a bit of trouble living within my means (in my defense, my means were unreasonably low) and managed to rack up over $8,000 in credit card debt within a year. And like a mullet, that shit takes ages to get rid of, especially when you're living on a stipend rather than a salary. However, now that I have a real job and the Australian dollar is doing well, I'm finally starting to get my finances in order. Next up: outstanding student loans.
The rest of Saturday was spent running errands, then going to dinner at a local restaurant and watching a movie (Vicky Cristina Barcelona...Woody Allen goes Almodovar and Penelope Cruz steals the show).

Sunday- Some soccer, some beer, and a trip to Wagamama- a winning weekend, overall.

Australian planking meme goes global

2011-05-21T19:21:00.003-04:00

Someone recently asked for a post on planking, and who am I to deny a reader's request?

For those of you who aren't aware of Planking- it's an internet meme that began in Australia where you post a photo of yourself lying facedown and straight like a board (or a plank...get it??) in an unusual location. Sounds innocuous enough, right? And it was, until some kid fell off a balcony and died, prompting a ridiculous amount of planking press and a planking backlash. Now schools are banning planking, which just strikes me as absurd. What if the "dangerous trend" were sitting? Would sitting be banned as well? For the record, I do find some of the planking photos humorous, but I'm so tired of the hullabaloo (grandma vocab!) that I might just have to go plank in my bed.

Eurovision and Moldova's amazing hats

2011-05-18T17:34:00.005-04:00

For those of you unfamiliar with Eurovision (i.e. most of the world other than Europe), it's an annual song contest in which several European countries compete for the best original song, performed live. It's also the contest that brought the world ABBA. I watched Eurovision for the first time this year and it is oh so much more ridiculous and entertaining than I ever imagined. The costumes, the variety of music, the over the top performances, the fact that the voting is unabashedly biased (Finland votes for Norway, the eastern European countries all vote for each other, etc...), the whole thing is amazing. There were way too many cheesy ballads, but aside from those we were treated to the likes of Jedward- Ireland's ridiculous twin singers and Icelandic men in vests.

But the country who stole my heart was Moldova, with their ska music, a girl in a fairy costume riding a unicycle, and the tall, pointy gnome hats. Behold the hats:

I fell in love with the hats, and I wasn't the only one to appreciate their awesomeness, as this photo soon circulated around the internet. Moldova hats are the new Aretha inauguration hat! YES!

My friend Maria, clearly a photoshop genius, made these for me.

The new pinnacle of cuteness

2011-05-15T06:11:00.002-04:00

I've found something EVEN CUTER than interspecies friendships! OMG you guys...

Animals with Stuffed Animals

Seriously, I cannot even handle some of these. Eeeeeee!

Movie review: Incendies

2011-05-10T07:35:00.003-04:00

I went into the movie Incendies knowing very little about it, other than the fact it was nominated for Best Foreign Film and was some sort of family drama. The story begins when Jeanne and Simon, twins in their 20s in Quebec, are given some unusual instructions following the death of their mother Nawal- rather than a traditional will, the notary hands them two sealed envelopes addressed to the father and the brother they didn't know existed. Their task is to find the recipients and deliver the letters, and in the process they must travel to their mother's middle eastern homeland and learn about the history she had kept hidden from them. When you see what Nawal lived through, in a series of flashbacks, you fully understand why she never spoke of her past.

I spent the first thirty minutes racking my brains trying figure out what country the movie was set in...it looked the the middle east, but I hadn't heard of any of the cities mentioned, and the two warring factions were Christians and Muslims so it couldn't have been Israel. It turns out that my confusion was intentional- the film is set in a fictional country so the names of the places are made up, although in truth it's filmed in Jordan and takes place in Lebanon- the home of the playwright (the film is an adaptation of a play) and the setting of a lengthy civil war between various armed Christian and Muslim militias (of which I was completely ignorant).

Early on, Nawal's boyfriend is shot dead by her brothers, who do not approve of their Christian sister dating a Muslim refugee. She's pregnant, and in a moment of sympathy, Nawal's grandmother tattoos the baby's heel before he is taken away to an orphanage, giving Nawal hope of finding him again someday, but a brutal civil war gets in the way. I won't divulge more of the plot but let's just say Nawal's life gets a lot worse, and the story unfolds like an ancient Greek tragedy as the twins unravel the mysteries of their mother's past. Incendies does have a few lighter moments, mainly involving dedicated notaries and the drinking of tea, but it's definitely one of the most intense and haunting movies I've seen in a long time. For that reason, I can say that it's a very good movie and certainly captivating, but traumatic enough that I can't quite say I recommend it, even though it's been on my mind ever since. It did inspire me to read up a bit on the history of Lebanon, though. Here's the New York Times review.

Hot cross buns

2011-05-05T04:32:00.007-04:00

Before I moved to Australia, my only exposure to hot cross buns was that song you play when you're first learning the recorder...a la these kids. However, in many countries they are traditionally eaten around Easter, on Good Friday in particular, and it turns out they have an interesting and somewhat controversial history. Considered a symbol of Catholicism, they were banned in England during reign of Queen Elizabeth I but eventually allowed to be sold at Easter and Christmas. To be honest, I've never been a huge fan of raisins in bread products- but here in Australia everyone eats them on Good Friday, and the lapsed Catholic in me still loves a tradition, even if the idea of eating baked goods to celebrate a crucifixion strikes me as a little odd. And this recipe for hot cross bun french toast looked like a winner. I'm happy to report that it was delicious.

New Zealand vacation

2011-05-01T03:25:00.008-04:00

My friends Yuki and Jonathan came to visit Melbourne, and then the three of us took off for a week on the south island of New Zealand. Six days, four stops, and 1900 kilometers later (that's 1180 miles for you non-metric folks), we saw and did as much as we could pack in and ended up happy and exhausted. The south island is sparsely populated (the major highways are all two lane roads) and the oft-quoted statistic that there are more sheep than people is indeed a fact. We lucked out with absolutely gorgeous weather- it's late fall (or autumn, as they say in these parts) and it was a bit chilly but sunny and clear for our entire trip. We started off for a couple of days in Queenstown, which feels a lot like a ski town and is famous for adventure sports- bungee jumping, skydiving, zorbing, etc. We decided to partake in paragliding. Tandem, of course, as even in New Zealand, letting novices jump off of cliffs on their own in generally frowned upon. The day I went the winds were quite strong, so rather than running and jumping, once the parachute was unfurled we were pulled backwards and lifted off the ground. It was really fun! I'm not a big fan of the idea of free-falling, but this was much more like flying or floating through the air, and therefore quite enjoyable. In addition to the paragliding, we took a scenic drive up to Glenorchy and took the gondola up to the Skyline restaurant and had some fun on the luge track- an alpine slide, essentially a go kart track down the side of a mountain (see photo).
After that, we drove down to Milford Sound for an overnight cruise in the fiordlands. In addition to sheep, the south island has a lot of lakes and waterways surrounded by mountains. The boat set off in the late afternoon, and we did have the chance to kayak before the sun went down. After that, all of the passengers hung out for dinner and (many) drinks and then eventually retreated to our tiny beds.

The next day we had a looong drive back to Queensland and up the west coast, finally arriving at Fox Glacier. Based on a friend's recommendation, we signed up for an all day hike on the glacier. What goes on your feet and rhymes with tampons? Crampons! They actually work better than I had imagined, although my legs were pretty tired by the end of the day. We had a lovely meal at the Plateau Cafe- good food, a friendly staff, and a free glass of wine is enough to win me over any time.

We left bright and early the next morning for our last adventure, a cave exploration trip further up on the west coast. Decked out in wetsuits and flashlight helmets, we hiked up to the top of a cave and crossed the top level on foot until we came to an underground river and floated through on inner tubes. They don't have many bats in New Zealand, but the roof of the cave was covered in glow worms that look like stars, so we all turned off our lights and floated our way down to the cave's exit. It was really cool and nothing I've ever seen before.

We spent our last night in a cute little seaside town called Punakaiki. I was feeling a little bad that Yuki and Jonathan didn't get a chance to see the Great Ocean Road while they were in Melbourne, but sunset at Punakaiki was almost as good. After that, we drove across the center of the island through Arthur's Pass and made it to Christchurch in time for our flights home. The driving wasn't so bad- Yuki and Jonathan did fine driving on the left, and although Jonathan was by far the speediest driver, an ill-timed passing attempt led me to keep my title of the scariest driver. And luckily for us, the only animal we hit was already dead. (lots of roadkill on those windy mountain highways) The only snag of the trip happened right at the start, when Yuki got nabbed at customs for forgetting to declare her hiking boots- a $400 (!) fine. So look for us on Border Patrol, right behind the Vietnamese father and son with the enormous bag of mushrooms. Almost everyone we met was really nice and friendly, and good thing I'd been watching New Zealand's Next Top Model, because I could decipher the accents. I'd love to go back, especially to check out what the north island has to offer.

Odds and ends

2011-04-18T07:29:00.004-04:00

Links:

The fantastic mating dance of the Australian peacock spider. If I were a lady spider, I'd totally go back to his web. (via Metafilter)

Dolphin + kitty = BFFs (thanks, Jos!)

Peep dioramas- the winner was a Peep reenactment of the Chilean miner rescue.

What I've been up to:

Running a bizarre distance (14.38K, or 8.9 miles for you metric haters) to raise money for the Royal Children's Hospital.

Checking out the King Tut exhibit at the Melbourne Museum.

Right now I'm waiting for my friends Yuki and Jon's delayed flight to get in. Yay for visitors!
Hilariously, when I checked their reservation for the flight number, I discovered that they had booked themselves with the titles Master and Reverend. They'll be in Melbourne until Friday, and then the three of us fly to Queenstown, New Zealand for a week on the south island. Woohoo!

No Reservations in Southie (as if you'd need them)

2011-04-15T08:01:00.003-04:00

So, this morning I checked my email and three people had informed me that traveling food reviewer Anthony Bourdain had done a show in Boston- thanks, guys! Boston.com posted details and photos here. Props to him (people still say that, you know) for including The Quencher and the South Boston Bowlarama on the itinerary. If you like beer and bars and haven't been to The Quencher yet, you should consider yourself incomplete.
However, I have one major criticism:

"Bourdain and Ruffino made the first stop on a pub crawl through Southie at Murphy's Law."

Wait, wait, wait...everyone knows that Murphy's Law is the LAST stop on a pub crawl, not the first! And here is when I tell you a little anecdote that epitomizes Murphy's Law:

Several years ago, my roommate Maria and I attended a beer festival at the Harpoon Brewery with our Irish neighbor Peader. Anyone who's been to a Harpoon festival knows that they're essentially a recipe for intoxication. Seriously, it's as if they serve blackout juice. When the doors closed, we decided to walk back to our apartment and stopped in at The Law for a couple of late-night drinks. Peader ordered a flaming Sambuca, as you do. He knocked it over and next thing you know the entire bar was aflame. Without batting an eye, the bartender, a gruff looking woman in her 50s, snuffed out the flames with a a wet rag. I mean, that shit was nonchalant! Like it had already happened five times that same evening (which, in truth, it may have). We had a good laugh and next thing you know, we woke up the next morning, the three of us scattered among living room furniture. Because when you end your night at Murphy's Law, you may just teleport home.

And I am looking forward to the No Reservations Boston episode.

Full Indian dinner (almost)

2011-04-10T07:09:00.002-04:00

My new flatmate is a vegetarian, a fact that has led me to expand my vegetarian meal repertoire a bit...I mean, there's only so much meatless pasta and pizza one can stomach. I decided to give Indian cuisine a try- aside from Trader Joe's (sigh...), I've never made Indian food from scratch. I did some online searching and found a couple of recipes that looked tasty and relatively easy to make:

Aloo gobi (cauliflower and potatoes) and chole (chickpea curry).

Then I bought some naan from the grocery store...so not entirely from scratch. The dishes were fairly simple to make and very tasty, although I did prefer the cauliflower one (add cauliflower to the list of veggies that are surprisingly good! See also: brussel sprouts) to the chick peas. Served with rice, the meal was certainly filling enough, although I may have to try my hand at samosas next time.

Links!

2011-04-06T07:09:00.002-04:00

An old nemesis of mine, Edible Arrangements, has been thoroughly mocked in The Onion:

According to experts, the Connecticut-based franchise, which arranges skewered pieces of fruit into displays vaguely resembling floral bouquets, has defied all modern economic models, expanding continuously for the past decade despite its complete lack of any discernible consumer appeal.

I feel pleasantly vindicated. Thanks to Jeff for the link.

In totally unrelated news, an Australian sniffer dog was given a military award for bravery. Awwwww.

Are you ready for some pain(t)ball?

2011-04-04T04:49:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I played paintball for the first time. One of my friends from work organized a lab outing (boss included!) to a paintball facility about an hour outside of the city. There were 14 of us total, so we were divided into two teams and everyone equipped with a camouflage jumpsuit, a face shield, a vest, a paintball gun, and ammunition (600 paintballs in total). We played a series of games, most of which were variants of hide-and-seek or capture the flag, on three separate courses- one had two large wooden forts, one was all natural woods and brush, and one had a bunch of barricades and barrels to hide behind. And onto the paintball...it was really fun and exciting and overall I had a blast but...it fucking hurt!! The very first time I got hit, I was hiding behind a log and poked my head up and BAM!, a paintball to the noggin, right above where my face shield ended. I felt a little bit woozy afterwards, but I recovered, and at least I knew what to expect from then on. I quickly realized that shooting wasn't my strong suit, so tried to make up for it by hiding and scampering, but based upon all of the welts and bruises on my ass, I wasn't so good at that either. I'd post a picture if it weren't so obscene. After the paintball ended, we had a barbecue and a good laugh about all of the funny stuff that happened during the action. Unfortunately, no one brought cameras out to the paintball pitch so I only have the before photo, not the after one of me covered in paint. Someone (JR!) said that paintball is dangerously close to World of Warcraft territory, but even though I had a great time, I don't think I could handle it more than once or twice a year, so I don't think I'm going to join the Victorian paintball militia or anything like that.

Conference time

2011-04-03T07:27:00.002-04:00

I recently attended the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases annual meeting, which was held in Lorne, a beach town a couple hours from Melbourne, located right on the Great Ocean Road. I had been through the area once before, when I was on vacation before I moved here, and I can't believe I waited so long to go back- it's so beautiful and relaxing. The conference started out on a positive note- my lab is on a tight budget so I booked myself into one of the cheaper hotel options rather than staying at the resort where the conference was held, but I got upgraded to an "executive apartment" that had a jacuzzi and a patio with a great view. Holla! The conference itself was really good- it's nice to feel like I'm actually part of a field (as opposed to grad school where I was more or less a lone wolf in terms of research area)- all of the Australian researchers who work on pneumococcal pneumonia know each other and seem friendly and welcoming rather than competitive. This meeting was more geared towards clinicians and did have some pretty interesting talks mixed in, like the history of infection control in China and that sort of thing. And everyone seems to be in love with worldmapper.com, which resizes countries according to statistics relating to a certain subject, like pneumonia deaths or prisoners (holy crap, the US has the highest percentage of population in prison).

I was the only one from my lab who attended, but there were several people from my institute there, so I always had someone to chat with on breaks or join for dinner, which was a relief. Overall, the science, the scenery, and the socializing were all great, so I hope to go back to ASID next year!

stay tuned for more posts...paintball, cooking, etc...

Field trips

2011-03-26T20:16:00.006-04:00

Over the past couple of weekends, I've done some exploring in other regions of Victoria. I have always loved a field trip, after all and my flatmate is also new to the area and up for sightseeing. Last weekend, I went to Ballarat, an old mining town about an hour outside of Melbourne. The first stop was Sovereign Hill, one of those historical reenactment towns (nerd alert!) a la Old Sturbridge Village. The highlight was the mine tour, where you actually ride carts down into an old mine- it was dim and dusty and downright scary, especially if you're prone to daydreaming about disaster scenarios. The photo doesn't quite do it justice. Then I panned for gold, but didn't strike it rich, alas. After that, we headed into downtown Ballarat...it was 6pm on a Saturday, all the shops were closed, and the place was absolutely deserted. I was half expecting to see a tumbleweed blow by. We did manage to find a (surprisingly good) Thai restaurant, though.

This weekend's field trip was to Geelong, a small costal city about an hour West of Melbourne. Again, it was pretty quiet but not nearly as void of inhabitants as Ballarat. And they had a ferris wheel set up on the beach- bonus! We walked around the waterfront for a bit and bought some mussels from a Spanish man who sells them from his boat, before we headed to our main destination- the Mt. Rothwell nature reserve for a guided nighttime walk. (I already mentioned the nerd thing, right?) My boss had recommended it as a unique experience and a cool way to see a lot of native Australian animals in the wild. I didn't bother trying to take pictures in the dark, but we did see lots of strange little marsupials, my favorite being the quoll. And now I can add another qu word to my Scrabble repertoire- double bonus!

Adventures in Strange Fruit: the kiwiberry

2011-03-21T05:15:00.004-04:00

I spotted these little guys at the grocery store and just had to give them a try. Mini kiwis! They don't have a furry skin so no need to peel, you can just eat them like grapes. Plus, maybe they don't share a trait with their full-sized, furry relatives: kiwis make me fart. There, I said it. I mean, what is a blog if not a portal through which to share details about your bodily functions with the entire internet?
And the verdict is...kiwiberries taste just like regular kiwis, and the inside looks just like a big kiwi, only smaller. And now 100% fart free!

What I've been up to lately

2011-03-15T03:58:00.004-04:00

The rest of Ern’s visit:
After a relaxing trip to the Mornington Peninsula, Ern spent a couple more days in Melbourne before flying back to Boston. We shopped for foodstuffs at Queen Victoria Market - which I recently learned is situated on top of an old burial ground…cue eerie noises. We had a bunch of friends over for a barbecue, did some more shopping and eating – I finally went to this restaurant that I’ve been curious to check out for ages, and it did not disappoint. Blood orange Campari cocktails and a seafood tasting board? Yes, please! Then Ern left :( Overall it was a fantastic visit- nice to be on vacation for a week, and obviously wonderful to get to spend time with a great old friend- it really made me feel like myself again.

Other than that, I saw one of my new favorite (or shall I say favourite) Australian musicians, Darren Hanlon, play at the Thornbury Theatre, which is essentially a giant version of my grandmother’s parlor- paisley wallpaper, rugs, and lots of plush furniture. He (and his backing musicians) were really good, and the tickets only cost $24, which is extremely low for Melbourne.

And it’s been back to work as usual, very busy but in a good way. I gave my first presentation at my institute and it wasn’t a disaster, and nobody fell asleep, even though it was about mass spec.

Happy (belated) 50th Birthday, Peace Corps!

2011-03-09T05:52:00.003-05:00

Last week, the Peace Corps celebrated its 50th birthday. Most of you know that I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua from 1999 - 2001 (wow, that seems like a long time ago) and I must admit that despite the program's shortcomings (mainly, that it largely benefits the volunteers more than the host countries), I am very glad that I had the opportunity to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. Sure, it was incredibly frustrating at times and I had to deal with things like giardia, bedbugs, and constant unwanted attention from strangers, but overall it was an immensely positive and rewarding experience and the source of a lot of great friendships. From a political standpoint, I think it is important that some Americans do know what daily life is like in a developing country, as much of the world lives without access to things we take for granted, like clean water. Plus, in the scheme of government spending, Peace Corps is dirt fucking cheap to run: in 2010, Peace Corps requested an amount equal to 0.01% of the total federal budget.
And now, some Peace Corps themed links:

Does that commemorative poster look familiar? Maybe because it's the work of Shepard Fairey, whose sister was a volunteer in Togo.

The Peace Corps Times 50th anniversary edition- with one of my fellow Nica 20 Ag volunteers representing Nicaragua!

A nice little article about the Peace Corps with some interesting historical tidbits.

My cousin Carolyn is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama, working in a remote indigenous community (yikes! no weekly trips to the discoteca), and writes about it on her blog.

Ern's visit Part II: Mornington Peninsula

2011-03-03T17:29:00.011-05:00

During the week, Ern and I spent a couple of days in one of my favorite areas of Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula. It's sort of like Cape Cod, a summer weekend destination for city dwellers, only with better wine and more kangaroos. We started off the trip to the hot springs where we soaked in pools of natural warm mineral water and also witnessed an entertaining photoshoot involving a girl who looked like a stripper in unfortunate tiger print bathing attire.

We went on a couple of hikes (aka "bushwalks") in two parts of the national park- Cape Shanhck and Point Nepean, where we got rained on and deftly avoided dangers such as snakes and unexploded bombs. (we did see a snake, and a bunch of kangaroos.)

A large portion of the trip touring vineyards. I know, you're shocked. Our favorite wines came from Tuck's Ridge, partly because the guy pouring tastes reminded us of Colin Frizzle. He also recommended a great lunch venue...hello, polenta fries!

We stopped in Rye on the way back to Melbourne and took some photos of their brightly colored beach sheds, something of a symbol for the region.

Ern's visit Part I: Weekend in Melbourne

2011-03-03T05:53:00.003-05:00

My friend, former roommate, and DCoE star Ern arrived midday on Saturday after a tedious journey from BOS to MEL. Ever the good sport, she did not object to my plans to drink beers all afternoon at Little Creatures Dining Hall in Fitzroy. I allowed her to take a short nap, after which we headed out to the Forum to see one of my favorite musicians (and fellow Masshole), Amanda Palmer. I realized I've now seen Amanda perform six times (three of those were with the Dresden Dolls), which kind of puts me into fangirl/stalker territory, but I never get tired of her live shows. Her music and songwriting are both clever and captivating, and above all, she is never, ever boring. To wit- her current album features a song called "Map of Tasmania" about pubic hair. For reals. On Sunday, we toured the Old Melbourne Gaol (creepy!) and then stumbled upon an Italian festival featuring the World's Longest Pizza (amazing! and really long!). We hit up the local vodka bar for dinner and then off to bed.

On Monday (hey, it's part of the weekend when you're on vacation), we drove out to the Healesville Sanctuary to check out some Australian wildlife. I saw my first echidna (very cute and larger than expected) and platypus...and learned a new word: platypussary, a platypus breeding ground. Please, somebody get James Bond to Australia to make a movie called Platypussy. The highlight of the day was a close encounter with a lyrebird, who have awesome feathers and make awesome noises.

My "new" furniture

2011-02-24T06:13:00.007-05:00

Oh hi there, blog! Sorry for being so neglectful lately- I had a couple of weeks without internet at the apartment, and now that I'm not a grad student anymore I can't spend time at work posting pictures of furniture to my blog. So onwards to the furniture- I needed some, and I just couldn't bring myself to make yet another trip to Ikea. Inexpensive tea lights and tasty meatballs be damned, I've become something of a hater. However, I couldn't bring myself to spend thousands of dollars at a proper furniture store either, and the few cheap ones I found also sell items that require assembly. Do I make my own sandwich at the deli? No. When I spend money, I want the finished product. I lucked out and saw an ad for a sofa and a refrigerator on the bulletin at work, so I hired a man with a van and snapped those goodies up. Those were the only essentials, so I had a little more time and thought to put into items. I asked around at work on where to buy inexpensive furniture that isn't Ikea, and a coworker recommended a shop called Furniture Revisited. It was perfect! I feel like I won the used furniture lottery. My main goal was to find a dining table and chairs, ideally one that sat four but could be expanded to fit six, and they had exactly such a set in the shop. I told the owner that I would buy them, and since it was a fairly substantial item, I bargained down the price of a couple more items I was interested in, namely, a cute coffee table with a tiled top and The Most Awesome Chair in the World (which was the only brand new item I bought). Best of all, Dieter the shopkeeper delivered it all the next day for $25. Behold my furnishings!

Am I really becoming the type of person who gets excited about furniture? Yikes. Whatever, I still love that chair.

More movies

2011-02-10T04:17:00.002-05:00

A nearby movie theater does $7 Mondays (as opposed to the $18 it normally costs to see at movie in Australia), so I've been catching up on the end of 2010 releases lately, just in time for Oscar season. Here's what I've seen lately:

Black Swan stars Nataline Portman as a young ballet dancer who wins her dream role as the lead in Swan Lake, but unravels under the pressure of playing both the innocent white swan and the sultry black swan. I thought it was creative and compelling and an excellent film overall. It's certainly not your typical dance movie and is essentially a dark psychological thriller. Highly recommended!

Blue Valentine is a brutal movie about the end of love, starting Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. We see both the beginning of their relationship, when they meet and fall in love, and the bitter end, as it becomes obvious that their marriage just isn't going to last. It's realistic and depressing as hell. Although I think Natalie Portman is a shoe-in for the Best Actress Oscar, I actually believe Michelle Williams would be a more worthy recipient, as she gave a completely believable performance of a character with real depth, both as a troubled teenage girl and an unhappy woman drowning in a failed marriage. All Natalie had to do was lose a lot of weight and act scared.

The Fighter- Sports movies and gritty Massachusetts families have been done before, but The Fighter turns a premise that could have been a cliche into a fresh and fantastic movie. Set in Lowell in the 1980s, Mark Wahlberg plays a Micky Ward, a boxer making a final run for the title and eager to step out of the shadow of his older brother Dicky, who rose to fame by knocking out Sugar Ray Leonard but now spends most of his time at a crack house. The casting was spot-on, and Christan Bale absolutely shines as Dicky. Kudos as well for being one of the few movies where the Boston accents sound realistic. I loved it- if you haven't seen it, go!

True Grit- I've always had a penchant for westerns, and when I heard that the Coen brothers were doing a remake of an old John Wayne film, I had high hopes. I was not disappointed- True Grit is great! Hailee Steinfeld stars as 14 year old Maddie Ross, who hires two lawmen to help her track down her father's murderer. Jeff Bridges provides the grit, and Matt Damon assists as the less gritty and more talkative Texas ranger. True Grit feels like an adventure story, full of wonderful dialogue, tense action, and beautiful scenery. Loved it! You know, I thought that 2010 was a weak year for movies, but Black Swan, The Fighter, and True Grit changed my mind.

Speaking of the Oscars, Kris' annual Oscar contest is up and running, and the prizes are SPECTACULAR...check it out for yourself!

Lastly, did everyone catch the triumphant return of Wayne and Garth on Saturday Night Live? I'll have you know that they totally stole my Winter's Bone joke. No lie, just ask Kelly McMahon.

Weekend in Daylesford

2011-02-08T05:56:00.009-05:00

Last week, my friend Sofie texted me to see if I wanted to go to Daylesford for the weekend.
me: What's Daylesford?
Sofie: It's known for spas and wineries
me: YES

and away we went. We started off the weekend with a trip to the spa for massages- unexpectedly, mine was given by a large Australian man with a ponytail who may have seen my buttcrack. After that, a trip to the wineries, where we sampled the goods and met a pair of dogs who lead a double life as cover models. Daylesford is one of those small country towns frequented by tourists from the city who use antiquing as a verb. These people love their doilies. I can no longer judge, as I fully admit to purchasing some decorative pillows and hanging out in our hotel's sitting room, oddly reminiscent of my grandmother's parlor. The rest of Saturday night consisted of a delicious dinner, an inadvertent trip to a lesbian bar, and ended with us getting shooed out of the bowls club at closing time.
On Sunday, we checked out more of the local sites, hiked to a disappointing lookout, and drove to a better lookout. We also met a baker who showed us her Boston Buns. All in all, it was a very relaxing weekend and a nice trip to an area of Victoria I hadn't seen before.

Links!

2011-02-01T05:15:00.005-05:00

I'm sorry, I know you shouldn't joke about tyrannical regimes that cause the suffering of millions of people, but whoever came up with Kim Jong-Il Looking At Things is a comedy genius.

Update: this must be something of a trend. There's a similar blog for Vladimir Putin, who sometimes does more than just look at things.

It's been a running joke among some of my friends that I have the tendency to buy flights when the prices reach their absolute peak, and as soon as I book mine, all prices drop. Like when we all met up in Hawaii one year and I paid $1100 and everyone else's flights spent like $450. I've improved my track record in recent years, but I still found this WSJ article on when airline prices are lowest handy.

And now for some good news

2011-01-30T04:33:00.002-05:00

So Kris requested more info about the fellowship I won, and it's about time to bump the break-up post down the page a bit, so here you have it. Working as a scientist in an academic lab is a bit like running your own business. Generally, the institute or university does not provide money for salaries and supplies, it's up to the scientists to bring in their own funding, generally by applying for large grants from places like the NIH but also from private foundations (you know how people do those fundraisers for cancer research and the like? Some of that money does go to researchers like me.) There's no real job security and funding is a constant source of stress. When I was a grad student I didn't personally have to worry about it as I joined a lab with a few years of solid funding, but I saw the way the faculty members in my department constantly worried about financing their research and spent so much time writing grants, the vast majority of which end up getting rejected. I swore to myself that I wouldn't go down that road, that I didn't want that sort of career. But now I've ended up in a situation where I really like my job and my research projects and want to keep them going, so I have no choice but to reluctantly start playing the grants game. I'm fortunate in that my group had some money to get me started and my institute does provide some internal funding for research projects, typically smaller pilot studies that, if successful, can be used to attract more money from external sources. My biggest obstacle is that I'm still very junior and have a lousy CV (I'm not being modest. It's shite.) so my strategy has been to look for smaller awards designed for early career scientists. It helps that my research area is an easy sell: we study pneumonia in children living in developing countries. Now who wouldn't want to support that? I applied for a science and engineering fellowship from the American Australian Association and they ended up awarding me the Morgan Stanley Pediatrics Fellowship for $25,000. Hooray!! It's great news for my project and for my career, as now I'll be bringing in some grant money of my own rather than solely siphoning it off of other people.

Status update

2011-01-27T07:05:00.002-05:00

So, I normally don't blog about very personal stuff, partly because, hey, it's personal, and partly because for some reason it feels unlucky. And for a very long time, there wasn't much to write about. I've never been much of a dater and generally feel like being single is part of my nature. I mean, it does allow you to make entirely selfish decisions like "hey, I think I'm going to move to Australia" without having to take anyone else's wants or needs into account. But then I met someone and got into a relationship and I really liked that, too. We had fun, we traveled together, we moved in together, we talked, we laughed, and everything was great. Until it wasn't anymore. And now it's over. Although part of me knows it's for the best, another part of me can't help but succumb to that horrible habit of going through things over and over again in my mind, cataloging all of the things I could have said or done differently. In the end, the why and how of it doesn't really matter, and there's nothing like a Super Hit of the 70's to summarize a break-up.

Australian Open

2011-01-23T16:03:00.003-05:00

The Australian Open is taking place in Melbourne right now. To encourage the locals to attend, they offer a weeknight "After 5" ground pass for $20. You can't enter the main stadiums, but during the first week, you can catch a lot of good players on the smaller, outdoor courts. I went twice last week- on Tuesday, I lucked out and got great seats and saw two men's matches; Robin Soderling won his easily, but the second game between the popular French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (pictured) and the German Philipp Petzschner was a lot more exciting. Tsonga lost the first two sets, then went on to tie it up and win the 5th. I had never seen tennis before in person, and it makes a huge difference seeing the players up close- the top men routinely hit the ball over 200 kilometers an hour, and you get a much better sense of how they can curve the ball and the strategy involved. Oh, and to be honest, I never really understood the scoring until my friend who I went with explained it to me, so that helped. I always pictured tennis crowds as somewhat subdued, but that certainly wasn't the case, at least at the Australian Open. People are quiet while the ball is in play, but overall it's a really fun and lively atmosphere with tons of international fans. I went back again on Thursday and watched a women's game between a couple of eastern Europeans. We tried to watch Andy Murray but couldn't get a seat, so ended up sitting on the lawn in front of the big screen instead- on a nice summer night, you can't really complain about sitting outside and drinking wine.

Movie review haiku

2011-01-17T02:57:00.003-05:00

Here are reviews of some movies I've watched recently, in short, poetic format.

Taken:
I never knew that
Liam Neeson could be such
A fucking badass

Tron:
Tron is worth seeing
In 3D at the IMAX
If you like neon

The Fantastic Mr. Fox:
Claymation foxes
Are very cute and witty
But the possum rules

The King’s Speech:
Colin Firth stutters
In this royal fam bromance
And Geoffrey Rush helps

Despicable Me:
Wanna-be villain
Adopts three cute orphan girls
The minions rejoice

Adventures in Strange Fruit: The Durian

2011-01-16T00:45:00.007-05:00

The durian is a large tree fruit native to tropical Asian countries but most well known for its pungent odor. How bad do durians smell? Well, in countries where they are popular, it is forbidden to eat them in many public places- Exhibit A: the "No Durian" sign. A travel writer reported the following: "its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock.

I've been wanting to try one for ages. What can I say? I'm a glutton for olfactory punishment. I saw them for sale at the local grocery store and picked one up. A few days later, I went to the beach with D and a couple of friends and we brought the durian along. A durian is approximately the size of a human head. They can be somewhat tricky to open, but luckily our group included one experience durian eater, my friend Sook-San from Malaysia. However, when we decided to cut open the durian...it was covered in ants!! I rinsed it off in the ocean to get rid of them, which probably looked quite strange to our fellow beach-goers. It had already been notched at the top so you basically peel down the skin into sections that contain large seeds covered in a mushy yellow flesh, akin to some sort of alien organs. Our durian didn't smell too badly- the beach wind helped and apparently durians sold in Australia come from Thailand, and Thai durians are not as stinky as Malaysian ones. I did give it a try and it wasn't horrible but it wasn't very pleasant, either (please refer to my "I just ate a durian" face).

Overall, the taste and smell reminded me of an overripe papaya. I must admit that I was a little disappointed that it wasn't more disgusting. We did get a whiff of the durian's true power a few hours later. I had dumped the durian remains in a garbage bin right after we ate it, and as we were leaving the beach, we lifted the lid of the bin to throw away some more trash and it absolutely stank like something rotten. It was the durian! I guess the smell built up as it sat in the bin (in the sunlight) for a few hours, with no breeze to disperse the smell.

Foxy

2011-01-13T05:35:00.002-05:00

If having a crush on an animated fox is wrong, then I don't want to be right.

What?

What's cooking

2011-01-10T15:42:00.004-05:00

One of my goals this year is to start cooking more, mostly because then I'll have leftovers to take to work and won't have to buy sad hospital cafeteria food for lunch. Here are a couple of dishes I made last week:

1. Paella with Chorizo and Shrimp. It's sort of a cheater's paella, without any chicken or mussels but it was really easy to make and really, really good. I added in half a can of diced tomatoes and some frozen peas to up the veggie quotient, and only used one onion. Can I say that chorizo and I are in love and running away together? Don't tell anyone. It did have a fair amount of kick to it, so you wusses might want to cut down on the cayenne pepper.

2. The Barefoot Contessa's Real Meatballs and Spaghetti. Ina Garten strikes again! For this one, I didn't use veal, because tortured baby cows and all, so I subbed it with extra ground pork. It was fun making the meatballs but the recipe made way more than I anticipated. Not that I'm complaining- I had a meatball sub for lunch the next day and I froze the rest.

Book review: Run, by Ann Patchett

2011-01-08T22:42:00.003-05:00

One of the best books I've read in the past few years was Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. I also read The Magician's Assistant, which I enjoyed but didn't grab me quite like Bel Canto did. When I learned that she had written a novel called Run that was set in Boston, I immediately bought a copy. Run tells the story of the Doyle family- the father, Bernard Doyle is the former mayor of Boston, whose career dwindled after a messy accident caused by his (now estranged) eldest son, Sullivan. His wife, Bernadette Doyle died many years ago, not too long after the couple adopted two young black boys, Tip and Teddy. However, Run is not a story about race, it's a story about family. Despite Bernard's kindness and devotion to his sons, his hopes and expectations that they follow in his political footsteps are stifling. One accident tore the family apart, and another one brings them together- the Doyles meet a pair of strangers, a woman and her young daughter who, as it turns out, may know them better than they know themselves.

It was fun reading a book that takes place in such a familiar setting- the Doyles live on Union Park in the South End. And Bernard exemplifies my favorite type of politician, the Massachusetts Democrat (yes, the Kennedy family allusions are pretty blatant). I did like the book a lot, however, I felt a little disappointed, like it could have been so much better than it actually was. Something about it came across as a little too contrived, like the characters were characterizations rather than actual people. I guess that's the problem about writing an amazing book like Bel Canto- nothing else can quite live up to it.

Adventures in Gippsland

2011-01-07T23:27:00.009-05:00

After Christmas, D and I spent a few days touring around the Gippsland region of Eastern Victoria- a farming region along the coast that is also the home of Wilsons Prom (short for Promontory; it's a national park, not a high school formal). We spent a day at the park itself, which is really beautiful- they say the landscape resembles New Zealand. Although I had imagined myself lounging on the beach, it was extremely windy and quite cool, even though it's the middle of summer. We hiked along the coast for a bit to check out some of the views, and then went inland to look for animals. No wombat sightings, nor the elusive echidna, but we did stumble upon a mob of emus. "Mob" is the collective noun for emus- it's no parliament of owls, but it will do.

The rest of our time in Gippsland was spent cruising driving around checking out waterfalls, wind farms, and tiny costal towns. We also played a round at The Saddest Mini Golf Course in The World- a dingy course at a caravan park, complete with a dead bird on one of the putting greens. It was so bleak one couldn't help but laugh. Overall, it was nice to get out of the city for a few days and see a new (to me) part of the country.

TV recommendation: Battlestar Galactica

2011-01-05T05:18:00.003-05:00

I was going to start this blog post by stating that I'm not normally a science fiction fan, but that's not entirely true. I mean, I love Star Wars (except for those crappy new ones). And I did watch Lost. But I've never been able to sit through 2001: A Space Odyssey without falling asleep, and as for spaceships in general, hey, I can take them or leave them. However, given how much I loved Battlestar Galactica I may have to start self-identifying as a science fiction fan, or at least a fan of space dramas. I do recall watching a couple episodes of the original when I was a little kid, but somehow the new version that ran on the Sci-Fi (aka SyFy) channel from 2004 to 2009 slipped under my radar...or, shall I say, dradis (let the nerdy in-jokes begin!). Maybe because I didn't have cable. Good thing you can get TV shows on DVD now and watch them at your own pace.

A few months ago I started watching Battlestar Galactica, and I was hooked from the start. The premise is fairly straightforward- in a galaxy far, far away, humans invented robots called Cylons to serve as worker drones, and the Cylons eventually rebelled against the humans and disappeared. Forty years later they returned with a vegenance- dropping nuclear bombs in a surprise attack that decimated the human population and renedered their home planets uninhabitable. Now the surviving humans live on spaceships, on the run from the Cylons and searching for a new homeland, led by the sole remaining military ship, the trusty old Battlestar Galactica. Oh, and the Cylons have evolved and can look like people. And some people are Cylons and don't even know it. And some of them are on the battlestar! So yeah, there's plenty of shooty action stuff, but what makes the show great is the writing, the acting, and especially the characters. A friend of mine had recommended the show to me a while ago, saying that it had the best kick-ass female character of all time (Starbuck), who does indeed rule, although my personal favorite lady is the President. Oh, and there are plenty of hot dudes. (Hello, Helo.) And Edward James Olmos!

I just finished the last episode of the fourth and last season, and although I enjoyed the ending, it was bittersweet as now I don't have anymore episodes left to watch. One thing's for sure, and the finale really cemented the point- Lost was a piece of crap compared to BSG! If you're looking for something to keep you entertained for several months, I highly recommend giving Battlestar Gallactica a try. I like it so much that I'd go to a convention. So maybe I am a science fiction fan, after all.

2010: A Year in Review

2011-01-04T04:47:00.007-05:00

I must say, 2010 was a banner year here at DCoE. After finally finishing grad school at the end of 2009, I was in need of a fresh start and I got one- new country, new job, new apartment, new manfriend. Considering I moved halfway across the world to a city where I knew exactly no one, it's worked out quite well.

Here's my 2010 in review:

Song of the Year: Dog Days are Over, by Florence + the Machine (right click and save as). I think it was technically released in 2009 but I didn't hear it until 2010. The girl can wail. I dig it.

Movie of the Year: Kind of a slow year for movies, in my opinion (although I haven't seen the latest releases, like The Fighter, yet). I'd have to say that my favorite of the year was Animal Kingdom, a crime drama set in Melbourne, complete with the creepiest, most evil grandmother to grace the screen in a long time. Jackie Weaver deserves an Oscar nomination at the very least. And it also stars my...

Celebrity Crush of the Year: Guy Pearce. He's just so...cool. I mean, not everyone can play a both a tattooed, vengeful amnesiac and a flaming drag queen.

TV Addictions of the Year:
True Blood and Battlestar Galactica.

Places I visited in 2010:
Munich, Berlin, Dresden, and Weiden in der Oberpfalz, Germany

Vienna, Austria

Sydney, Canberra, Magnetic Island, Surfer's Paradise, Hobart, Freycinet Penninsula, Scottsdale, Sunshine Coast, and Darwin, Australia

Technological Breakthrough of the Year:
My first smart phone, an iPhone 4. I also learned how to make a heart on Facebook- just type <3.

Best Mode of Transportation:
a bicycle- I hadn't owned a bike in over ten years, and now I ride one to work every day and I love it!

Shocking/most awesome injury of the year:
The black eye I got from knocking heads with a soccer opponent. It looked worse than it was.

I know I was pretty crap at posting for the past year, but I miss blogging and one of my goals of 2011 is to spend more time doing it. Another one is to blog more. As always, thanks to everyone who still stops by DCoE from time to time, especially those of you who leave comments. Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year!

Update! How could I have forgotten this category? Thanks for the reminder, Timm.

Most Commented Post of 2010:
A tie, with two posts racking up 14 comments each. The book giveaway and...DCoE Field Trip: Adventures in Building 19.

Christmas bon bons

2011-01-03T05:10:00.005-05:00

Towards the end of November, decorative paper tube thingies started appearing in stores all over the place. I saw a box of them labeled as "Christmas crackers" so I assumed they were packs of some sort of holiday cracker/biscuit/cookie/fruit newton. However, when I asked my coworkers about them, they were all amazed that I hadn't seen them before and informed me that they are not cookies at all, but rather a sort of Christmas tradition known in Australia as a bon bon. You put them on the table at Christmas dinner, and two people grab an end each and pull it apart, wishbone style. And guess what's inside? A toy, a paper hat, and a printed joke. Weird, right? The jokes are notorious for being super lame, but I kind of liked mine:

Q: Why was Cinderella so bad at football?
A: Because her coach was a pumpkin.

Waka waka.

Here's an action photo of D's parents cracking the bon bon (not a euphemism) and another of us modeling the paper hats.

Snow

2010-12-30T16:57:00.005-05:00

The New Year's Eve forecast in Melbourne is a balmy 104 degrees Farenheit. I'm missing the snow, but not parking in the winter in Southie- check out this NYT article on people saving their shoveled out spaces. My favorite space savers I observed during my Southie tenure were an ironing board and a Christmas tree. A cone, a barrel? Come on people, show some creativity! (thanks for the link, Buddes)

And now for a nerdy snow link: snowflakes, as seen under an electron microscope. Purty.

P.S. More posts coming soon- Christmas bon bons, Wilsons Promontory, and more! I promise :)

P.P.S Happy New Year, everyone!

The Nutbush

2010-12-17T17:57:00.002-05:00

Most of the time, life in Australia isn't all that different from life in the U.S.- same language, same ties to colonial England. Sure, they've got weird animals and they drive on the left, but overall it doesn't feel that foreign to me. However, it's the little cultural differences that completely blow my mind. Like the fact that people here put beets in sandwiches. And just recently, I discovered that Australians do a line dance called "The Nutbush" to the Ike and Tina Turner song "Nutbush City Limits." WHAT??!?
I was at my institute's Christmas party, which was a really nice luncheon at a hall, complete with assigned tables, free booze, and a DJ. At one point, a song came on and everyone got all excited- "the nutbush! the nutbush!" and started heading to the dance floor. A group line dance, a la The Electric Slide, was in progress. I was befuddled. "But you must know the nutbush, it's Tina Turner and you're American!!" No seriously, I have never seen this before. However, the steps are quite simple and soon enough I was nutbushing with the best of them. Apparently The Nutbush is known by everyone in Australia and is a popular occurrence at school formals, weddings, and the like. Here are some nutbush videos:

1. a wedding Nutbush

2. hipsters doing the nutbush at a music festival

3. close-up of the steps to the nutbush

The Nutbush? Kicks the Electric Slide's ass.

Links for laughs

2010-12-15T15:11:00.002-05:00

Animals with British voiceovers. (via Eri)

Also, I saw a link to Damn You, Auto Correct on a friend's Facebook page and spent almost a hour reading old entries- I was literally crying. I do love a good typo, after all. And there's even a Notre Dame-themed entry!

Bowls and burgers

2010-12-06T06:49:00.007-05:00

This weekend I ticked two Australian traditions off the list. The first was a popular sporting activity, primarily among senior citizens: lawn bowls. It's sort of like bocce- you throw out a little white ball ("the jack") and roll out some heavy black balls, and whoever's ball gets closest to the jack wins. The tricky part is that the black balls are weighted on one side, so you sort of bowl them out at an angle and they curve back in towards the target. Bowling takes place at a bowls club, and these folks are serious about their hobby- just check out the snazzy uniforms.
For the less serious competitors, it's much more like American bowling- a good excuse to drink beer and hang out with your friends. Our bowling outing fell into this category. I had a great time and can't wait to go again...I only wish I had a uniform and a hat.

After the bowls, I decided to take on another Australian tradition: the burger. You see, the traditional Australian burger comes with a beef patty, lettuce, tomato, onions, the undercooked ham they try to pass off as bacon, a fried egg, and beetroot (a.k.a beets). Yes, you read that correctly. A fried egg AND beets. People put beets on everything down here. It's messed up.

Behold the burger:

You know, it was pretty darn good. I couldn't finish it, though...although I did manage to polish off the fries.

U2 in Melbourne

2010-12-04T21:01:00.006-05:00

The very first concert I ever saw (aside from going to the Beach Boys with my parents) was U2 in 1992 on the Zoo TV tour at the old Foxboro Stadium. My sister Kerry gave me her ticket so I could sit with her (furious) friend while she sat with her then-boyfriend in better seats. I didn't care about the seating. I was 15 years old and thrilled to be there. And it was fantastic.

I wasn't planning to catch U2's latest tour, mostly because I just wasn't willing to pay $200 to sit in the upper balcony of a large stadium. Apparently this sentiment was shared- the crappy seats didn't sell so they dropped the price. When D emailed me on Monday asking if I wanted to get tickets for $40, my answer was an enthusiastic YES! We were joined by a couple friends and fellow U2 fans.

Jay-Z was opening, which definitely struck me as an unusual choice, but we ended up going into the concert just after he finished so I didn't catch any of his set. I'm just glad that Beyonce didn't make a surprise appearance because that I would definitely have wanted to see. Like most U2 concerts, the stage was huge and impressive and has been dubbed "The Claw." The band started the night off right by walking on stage to David Bowie's Space Oddity. I had been a little worried that they'd focus on their newer material or Bono would get preachy, but that wasn't the case at all. They played an excellent show and the set included many fan favorites such as New Year's Day, Sunday Bloody Sunday, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and Mysterious Ways. Even though it isn't one of my favorite songs, Bono made a nice dedication to (Aussie) Michael Hutchence before performing "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of." Even though Bono does have a great voice and stage presence, I give The Edge's guitar credit for that distinct U2 sound. They played for a couple of hours and then performed a short encore that included Ultraviolet (Light My Way), which was rather unexpected and, for me, the highlight of the night. When With or Without You came on, I was feeling nostalgic and got Dean and our friend Mel to hold up lighters with me, only to realize that...NOBODY DOES THAT ANYMORE. The crowd was a mix of ages (exemplified by two ladies with their 12 year old sons behind us), but I reckon no one under 20 had ever seen the lighter thing before. Bono did have everyone hold their cell phones up- my how the times have changes.

In the end, it seems like U2 knows what the fans want, and on Friday night, they gave us exactly that. I'm just glad I was there to experience it.

Who whoooo

2010-12-02T06:46:00.002-05:00

Hungover owls (via Kris)

Baby owl hunts invisible prey (via Metafilter)

Google images of baby owls (Via my own procrastination)

Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. An Australian 3D animated film starring...owls.

Disturbing Australian ad campaigns

2010-12-01T06:11:00.003-05:00

Australian commercials are clearly not made for the squeamish. Worksafe Victoria, the government agency in charge of workplace health and saftey, recently launched an ad campaign that is disturbing, to say the least. First, they aired some commercials that showed people throwing our their backs and breaking their ankles that were pretty graphic- cracking sounds, visuals of snapping bones, etc. Then, billboards like these started popping up around Melbourne. However, the worst was yet to come: a television ad showing a girl getting her hand caught in a bread slicer, including a close-up shot of...a severed finger! C'mon now, nobody wants to see that while they're watching Australia's Next Top Model.

Apparently Australia has a history of shocking advertisements- the pioneers of this tactic, the transportation authority TAC, recently put out a montage of (in)famous commercials for their 20th anniversary. Because nothing says "please drive safely" like a mangled corpse in the road.

An Australian Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T05:07:00.004-05:00

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, as it's all about eating. No presents, no church, just food. Lots of delicious foods- turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash. I do have the snobbish belief that New Englanders do Thanksgiving best- I mean, the first one was celebrated in Massachusetts, after all. I spent three Thanksgivings in Nicaragua- the first year I went to a dinner at the embassy (good!), the second some friends and I cooked up a feast in Esteli with the help of a local bakery and a diesel powered flame thrower (awesome!), and the third was dinner at TGIFriday's in Managua (depressing!).
This year, I had originally considered hosting a dinner but with D in Hong Kong for work I decided I wasn't up to hosting a big dinner myself. I had heard of some Thanksgiving events going on over the weekend, but I want my Thanksgiving on a Thursday, like it's supposed to be, darn it! Luckily my American friend Sofie decided to have a few of us over for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Since she's a vegetarian, I volunteered to do the turkey and made this recipe for turkey hindquarters. It was plenty for the four carnivores in the group and was a lot faster and easier than preparing a whole bird. Plus, I like dark meat and it's less likely to suffer the cardinal sin of turkey roasting: dry meat. We also made stuffing, mashed potato, cranberry sauce (from a jar, alas), green beans and salad. Oh, and very large quantity of wine. The meal came out very well and we all had a lot of fun. Plus, it was sort of neat having Thanksgiving with people who had never celebrated it before- our guests were from Australia, England, and Burma, and were very intrigued by the concept of stuffing. The only downside was having to work the next day.

I'd also like to thank Kelly McMahon for providing the Thanksgiving day laughs...her photo of a cornucopia and invention of the term "pornucopia" on Facebook spawned some hilarious pilgrim-themed porno ideas...sailing on the Mateflower, Pilgrim word-that-rhymes-with Rock, etc...Okay, I'll stop now.

I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving!

Music in Melbourne

2010-11-24T06:14:00.004-05:00

Oh hello! Apologies for the recent radio silence, I've just been busy. And by busy I mean completely addicted to Bejeweled. But I do have some concert reviews to report.

1. The New Pornographers at the Hi-Fi. The New Pornographers are a conglomerate Canadian/American rock band full of extremely talented musicians. Their tunes are catchy, and they kind of have a Fleetwood Mac type thing going on with both male and female lead singers. I was lucky that they brought Neko Case along on this tour- since she's very popular as a solo artist she doesn't always tour with the band. And I think she's awesome and fully admit to having a girl crush on her. The show was great and I liked the venue, small enough but not horribly crowded. The only downside is that Neko didn't perform any of her own songs, but I guess I'll just have to wait until she goes on a solo tour.

2. I went back to the Hi-Fi a few days later to catch the Australian World Music Expo for a New Zealand themed show. The headliner was hip-hop artist King Kapisi, but my favorite act of the night was the funky Electric Wire Hustle. Overall, it was an interesting show and good for people watching. The audience was almost all New Zealanders, including a lot of young Maori guys with spiky hair and tattoos.

3. One of my labmates invited me to go see Paul Kelly, a legendary Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist who Kris once described as "Australia's Bob Dylan" so of course I said yes. Here's a video of a much younger Paul Kelly performing To Her Door, his most well-known song. The show was at the Corner Hotel, which reminds me a lot of the Paradise in Boston, right down to an annoying pole that I somehow always end up standing behind. He definitely lived up to his reputation- Kelly and the band sounded fantastic and they all looked like they were having a blast on stage, just enjoying playing music together. Tim Rogers from the opening act joined the stage for their encore performance of Neil Young's Cinnamon Girl. Even though I wasn't familiar with most of his songs it was easy to enjoy myself and appreciate an excellent musician putting on an excellent show.

World Pneumonia Day

2010-11-11T16:08:00.002-05:00

Since I'm now working on Streptococcus pneumoniae, I thought I'd let you all know that November 12th is World Pneumonia Day. Did you know that pneumonia is the leading killer of children under the age of five? Most of the 1.5 million annual fatalities occur in developing countries, and many lives could be saved if antibiotics and vaccines were more widely available. If you're interested in donating, the GAVI alliance promotes children's health by facilitating immunization in poor countries.

Book reviews

2010-11-11T05:29:00.000-05:00

Here what I read on my long flights from Melbourne to Boston and back...the movies were absolute crap so I'm glad I brought several books.

1. Oscar and Lucinda, by Peter Carey. I made it a goal of mine to read more books by Australian authors, and decided to start with Peter Carey, who has twice won the Man Booker prize and was on the short list again this year. Oscar and Lucinda isn't a traditional love story- set in 19th century England and Australia, it tells the tale of two people who don't quite fit into society and connect through their mutual love of gambling. Oscar is a kindhearted but misunderstood clergyman, and Lucinda is a lonely orphan who buys a glassworks in Sydney with her inheritance. It's a long and dense book, but an enjoyable one, with a refreshingly unexpected ending. Now I want to see the movie.

2. How to Be Good, by Nick Hornby. Although I've seen several movies based upon his books (About a Boy, which I loved, and High Fidelity, which I disliked), I've never read anything by Nick Hornby before. Unfortunately, I think I made a disappointing choice. In How to be Good, the protagonist Kate Carr is fed up with her marriage to bitter and sarcastic David. However, David soon changes his tune and decides to become "good," in the most sanctimonious way possible. The book didn't do too much for me, as it's about two unhappy people in an unhappy relationship, but lacks the depth to keep things interesting.

3. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh. First off, Evelyn Waugh is a man. Who knew? And Brideshead is a place, one of those big fancy English houses where the idle rich dwell. The protagonist Charles Ryder befriends wealthy and charming Sebastian Flyte during their first year at university and becomes a witness of and participant in Flyte family dramas for decades to come. Supposedly Catholicism is the major theme of the novel (Waugh converted to Catholicism as an adult), but I didn't notice it as much as the alcoholism and repressed homosexuality. I liked the book but wasn't crazy about it...could it be that I've finally tired of reading about rich English people who live in houses with names? Perhaps.

4. Brava, Valentine, by Adriana Trigiani. Hey, one can't be high-brow all the time. Brava, Valentine is the second in a series about Valentine Roncalli, a New Yorker from a boisterous Italian-American family who takes the reigns of the family business, custom women's footwear. This is the type of book that when you're reading it on an airplane a woman in her 50s with enormous hair, leather skin, and an abundance of gold jewelry will lean over and say to you conspiratorially, "great book." Strangely enough, both of my parents are hooked on the Valentine series. Sure, they're fun to read, and I much preferred Brava, Valentine to the first book of the series, Very Valentine. Still not Pulitzer material, but at least the author dropped the annoying habit of meticulously describing each character's outfit every time they appeared. So I guess this means I'll be reading the next one :)

Visit to Massachusetts

2010-11-09T04:31:00.005-05:00

I got back on Sunday after a long flight and a quickish (8 days) trip back home to Massachusetts. The main purpose of the trip was to spend time with my grandmother, who has been having health trouble in recent months. Currently, she's doing well and it was great to see her as well as visit with the rest of my family and catch up with friends in the area. Fall has always been my favorite season, and there's something about fall in New England that you just can't find anywhere else. My mom had planned a big family dinner and surprised us with Early Thanksgiving- turkey, stuffing, and the whole shebang (otherwise known as "all the trimmings")- it was awesome! I was home for Halloween, but this year, instead of attending (or hosting) a wild party I opted for the kiddie version and took my nieces trick-or-treating. I did wear a costume, though. It was super fun; my nieces had a blast and there were TONS of people out- apparently the parents of America no longer live in fear of malicious neighbors distributing poisoned candy. Thank goodness. Check those apples for razorblades, kids! I was also home for election day, which came in handy because I had forgotten to request an absentee ballot. I voted in Waltham and felt reassured that Massachusetts is still the bluest of them all.
Overall, the trip was great but exhausting- I tried to pack too much visiting in for the time frame, and I also ended up scheduling three work-related meetings. Lesson learned: next time I'll be sure to leave myself a couple of empty days where I can chill out and actually feel like I'm on vacation. Or go the outlets and stock up on clothes and shoes- so much cheaper! My best night out was when I acted like a diva and requested that all of my friends meet me at one of my favorite bars, the Beehive.

I must say, though, I'm starting to get used to the long flight. It helps that I'm now a "Premier" customer on United, so I automatically get seated in Economy Plus (more legroom! woohoo!). Oh, and the red wine + codeine combo works wonders for in-flight slumber. On the way back, I had a 5 hour layover in San Fransisco and journeyed into the city to meet up with my SF friends for dinner; it was great to see them and nice to break up the flights a bit.

As for my next entry...reviews of the 4 books I read on the flight.

And I'll leave you with one last photo- one of the breakfast specials at the fabulous J&M Diner, where I had breakfast with my parents before they drove me to the airport. Nothing says Massachusetts like fluffernutter french toast.

Movies and an update

2010-10-27T18:14:00.003-04:00

Oh hello, Neglected Blog. I've had a busy past few days- gearing up for a big two day training session at work and preparing for my trip home to Massachusetts...I leave in about three hours (so I should probably finish packing). I'm really looking forward to catching up with family and friends and enjoying some Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and Mexican food cooked by real Mexicans rather than Australian teenagers.

I have seen a couple of movies recently:

1. All About My Mother. This Spanish film from 1999 comes from the famous director Almodovar, known for his unconventional characters and the fact that most of his movies are about women. I've seen several of his movies, and my previous favorite was Volver. However, I must say that now I consider All About My Mother Almodovar's best. It's a stunning film- interesting and creative and a treat for movie/theater buffs, as allusions to All About Eve and A Streetcar Named Desire pervade the movie. All About My Mother is about a mother, Manuela, whose teenage son dies in an accident at the beginning of the film. She travels to Barcelona to find his father, a drag queen named Lola who never knew that he/she had fathered a child. However, instead of finding Lola, she befriends and unlikely group of misfits: a transvestite ex-prostitute, a famous theater actress in love with her troubled co-star, and a pregnant nun (played by a young and adorable Penelope Cruz). Almodovar's movies aren't for everyone, but one of his strengths is that he portrays the types of people who live on the edge of society, the freaks, weirdos, and misfits, with compassion and without judgement. I thought All About My Mother was fantastic- highly recommended!

2. The Social Network, a.k.a the Facebook movie, stars Jesse Eisenberg (from Adventureland and Zombieland...perhaps they should have called it Facebookland to continue the trend?) as Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. It's written by the people from the West Wing, and as expected, features some great dialogue and good acting, notably Justin Timberlake as the egomaniac developer of Napster, Sean Parker. The Winklevoss twins (played by just one guy, I wonder how they did that?) were hilarious. However, the movie didn't do much for me, basically, because Mark Zuckerberg is big jerk. He has a big chip on his shoulder for being a geek, and if that's supposed to make you sympathize with him, it didn't work. Hey, if you're brilliant and go to Harvard, don't expect people to feel sorry for you. In the movie, he's mean to his ex-girlfriend, he steals the idea from Facebook, and he royally screws over his best friend. I guess I have trouble enjoying a movie when I don't like the main character.

Redneck cooking: Buffalo Chicken Sliders

2010-10-18T07:09:00.002-04:00

A while ago my sister Eri asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted her to send me. Having recently stocked up on peanut butter, I requested another American favorite that is unheard of in Australia: buffalo sauce. She sent me three bottles of it along with a NASCAR-themed birthday card. I decided to make buffalo chicken sliders and used this recipe- I love the description: "like chicken wings on a sandwich!" Basically, you buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, pull the meat off of it, and stir in some diced celery, blue cheese (I suppose real rednecks use ranch dressing), and buffalo sauce, warm it up in the oven, and serve on little rolls. YUM!! So easy and really tasty- I served them up for dinner with corn on the cob and salad, but they’d make a great party appetizer.

Movie Review: The Town

2010-10-18T06:29:00.005-04:00

After hearing how all of my friends and family back home liked The Town, the new movie starring and directed by Ben Affleck, I was looking forward to it coming out in Australia. I saw it over the weekend, and I must admit, all those aerial shots of the city of Boston made me a little bit homesick. The Town, unlike the recent string of Irish-American crime dramas set in The Hub, takes place in Charlestown rather than Southie. I knew that Charlestown was considered a rough neighborhood but wasn't aware of its reputation as a hotbed of bank robbers. The Town centers around of group of friends who make their living by robbing banks and armored cars. Ben Affleck's character Doug is the ringleader and the likeable one- we see that despite his trade, he's not a bad guy. On the opposite end of the spectrum is his best friend Jimmy, brilliantly played by Jeremy Renner- he's tough, unpredictable, and dangerous. Things get complicated when Doug falls for Claire, a bank employee they briefly took hostage during one of their exploits. I could relate to Claire as the suburban girl who moves into an insular city neighborhood. Overall, I enjoyed The Town but didn't think it was as original as his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone (which is fantastic btw). However, it's definitely entertaining and worth seeing- especially if you're prone to smile at shots of Fenway Park and the North End.

Links! (science themed)

2010-10-13T07:17:00.002-04:00

A fascinating article about sabotage in the laboratory, which allows me to use one of my favorite words- saboteur! (thanks, Mike)

Fun chemistry video. No, really. (Thanks, JR!)

And now for something a little more sinister- earlier this month, the US apologized for a study run during the 1940s in which Guatemalans were deliberately infected with syphilis. Yikes! I'll try to remember this when I'm complaining about my latest human ethics application.

What I've been up to

2010-10-11T05:23:00.009-04:00

Books read:
1. Howards End by E.M. Forster (I'm still following along with my Boston book club, just like a long-distance stalker). Published in 1910, this English novel tells the story of three families from three different classes, whose paths frequently cross. The two Schlegel sisters, the thoughtful Margaret and the beautiful and immature Helen seem like they jumped straight out of a Jane Austen novel. In one of the major plot points, a valuable object bequeathed by a dying woman to a kind acquaintance was hoarded by greedy relatives only to end up, in entirely unexpected circumstances, in the hands of the rightful recipient. This reminded me of the book On Beauty, which I just learned (from wikipedia) was written as a homage to Howards End. I enjoyed Howards End and would recommend it, especially to fans of britlit.
2. Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, by Warren St. John. This non-fiction book tells the story of a New York City journalist and Alabama native who returns to his home state to investigate life and times of diehard college football fans, specifically, those who cry "Roll Tide," worship a man named Bear Bryant, and spend every weekend in red RVs. He spends one football season traveling in motor homes to every University of Alabama home and away game and makes a point to meet everyone in the fans' orbit- the legendary crazed fans who stick out among their fellow fanatics, the reviled sports journalist who makes his living criticizing Bama, and the scalper ("ticket broker") who has the tickets they want. Luckily for Warren (and his readers), his gateway companions, the Bices, are a pleasant couple who just plain like their Bama football and add a refreshing balance to the less savory fans in the mix. I'm not normally a big fan of non-fiction, but Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer is both funny, insightful, and well-written, and a highly enjoyable read, even for a Notre Dame fan.

Concert attended:
Cloud Control at the Corner Hotel, Melbourne. One thing I miss about Boston is the abundance of live music venues where you can see good bands for under $30. Melbourne does get a lot of good music, but the international bands (i.e. all the ones I've heard of) all charge $80 or more- and as much as I like Todd Rungren, that's just too much to ask. Imagine my delight when I saw that an Australian band I like, Cloud Control, was playing a show that cost a mere $18. Sold! The Corner Hotel is somewhat of a Melbourne institution, similar to the Paradise (it even has a giant pole obstructing the stage). And the show was great! A four piece band from the Blue Mountains who play mellow modern rock.
Download here:

Gold Canary (right click and save as) - Cloud Control

And what concert is complete without a blurry concert photo? None, I say.

Soccer tournament played in:
My friend Alison invited me to join her North Sydney team in a women's over 30 tournament on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Despite the fact that there were literally monsoon-like rainstorms the entire weekend, I had a fantastic time. The team was full of good soccer players who also like to have a good time, and the weekend was an fun and exhausting mix of soccer and partying. The trip reminded me of the time my old co-ed team went to a tournament in Miami, but at least this time we won a couple of games. Seriously, though, I have never played on a wetter or muddier field, and the tournament organizers ended up canceling the last day of games, which was annoying but understandable considering one of the players in the men's tournament broke his leg in two places the night before. They consoled the disappointed footballers by hosting an open bar at 10:30...AM. Since I didn't manage to get a photo of the team in our uniforms, here's one of us at the surf club and another of the waterlogged field (complete with a giant wooden squeegee that the club used in a feeble attempt to remove water from the field).

What's cooking

2010-10-05T03:22:00.004-04:00

Now that the weather in Melbourne is warming up, it's grilling time! I made these chicken satay skewers and served them with this peanut satay sauce, basmati rice, and grilled veggies. Yum city.

My other recent achievement was to make homemade pancakes, due to the lack of Bisquick down under. I used this recipe and added a cup of fresh blueberries. Super easy and tasty. I didn't take a photo, but picture some delicious blueberry pancakes and there you go. My parents had brought me some real New England maple syrup so that made them even better than the ones you're imagining.

Science in Darwin

2010-10-02T06:54:00.005-04:00

Last week, I went to Darwin to do some lab work with collaborators at the Menzies School of Health Research. Darwin itself is a very unique city, located at the very top of the remote Northern Territories. It's surrounded by beautiful beaches, but you can look but not swim due to crocodiles and poisonous box jellyfish. The heat is sweltering, and the residents are very relaxed and friendly. I was very impressed with Menzies- their facilities and equipment are top-notch, and the scientific staff is both talented and welcoming. The institute does a lot of work with Aboriginal populations, who have high rates of disease and a life-expectancy 17 years shorter than non-Aboriginal Australians (more info here). I went to a seminar on a rare type of cancer that's striking young Aboriginal women in one region of the NT- they did a study on HPV rates in women in the area, and the acknowledgments included a group of tribal elders that assisted in recruiting women to the study.
One reason why I enjoyed the trip so much is that I'm starting to feel like I have an actual career- working with people in my new field (bacterial pneumonia), talking about ideas, discussing projects, making plans for that conference in Brazil we all want to attend, etc...

On my last day in town, they set me up on an eco tour that went to the Adelaide River and Litchfield National Park. The highlight was the jumping crocodile boat ride, where they dangle hunks of raw meat off the side of the boat to attach crocodiles (and the occasional eagle). Here are a couple of pics I took:

Oprah, you've outdone yourself

2010-09-28T07:47:00.002-04:00

First the trip to Australia, now this?? I fucking love The Sound of Music.

Magnetic Island

2010-09-22T06:31:00.006-04:00

I got back yesterday from a lovely four day trip to Magnetic Island, located off the coast of Townsville in northern Queensland, not too far from the Great Barrier Reef. The majority of the island is a national park, but luckily for me, D has friends who live there and love hosting visitors. And they also have an adorable puppy. It's funny, most people outside of Australia assume it's all beaches and tropical weather, but I hadn't yet experienced that side of it. Magnetic Island is indeed a tropical paradise- beautiful beaches, lush palm trees, and warm weather. And since it's not on the main tourist track and only has 2000 residents, nothing is ever crowded. The landscape reminded me a bit of Hawaii, and yes, a little bit of The Island from Lost (especially with that whole magnetic business). Over the four days, we did a lot of relaxing as well as a bit of exploring, inlcuding a hike up to n old WWII gun tower and snorkeling at a coral reef, where and managed to get a sunburn on my ass, which made for an uncomfortable plane ride home.

Items of interest spotted: tree frogs (even saw one in the toilet, aka a "dunny frog"), sea turtle, mama and baby koala, snake, shark (not a scary one, just this guy), lots of birds (including the Magnetic Island curlew) and last but not least, a Dip Sign!! I can't wait to go back- four days was not nearly enough.

The redesign

2010-09-16T05:28:00.004-04:00

So I decided to clean up the blog links sections to remove links to some blogs that no longer exist or have been inactive for months, and while I was at it, I started playing around with the new (to me) Blogger templates- DCoE was looking a little too 2006. And ever since I swicthed from Internet Explorer to Firefox, the formatting has been a little off. So, do you like the new look? I'm not crazy about the birds in the upper right corner but couldn't figure out how to get rid of them, and birds aside, I did like this template the most out of the ones available. Maybe I'll insert a cartoon stick figure drawing of me next to the title shooting at the birds. That would be totally normal.

List #44....Secret Australians

2010-09-15T08:08:00.003-04:00

Do you remember how Adam Sandler had that Hannukah song about the people in Hollywood who are Jewish? Well, I feel like Australia could do somethig similar. I mean, everyone knows Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman are Aussie, and we all saw Toni Colette in Muriel's Wedding. However, since I moved here, I've been trying to watch some classic Australian films (you know, like Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), and in doing so have realized that many actors I had assumed were American were actually from Australia.

So now I present List #44... Secret Australians
1. Cate Blanchette
2. Guy Pearce
3. Anthony LaPaglia (from Without a Trace)
4. Elle Macpherson
5. Olivia Newton-John
6. Geoffrey Rush
7. Hugo Weaving
8. Ryan Kwanten (better known to True Blood fans as Jason Stackhouse)
9. Not an actor, but Rupert Murdoch is also Australian.

and as for Mel Gibson, turns out he's a Secret American.

Cats in IKEA

2010-09-11T03:12:00.004-04:00

I have a love/hate relationship with IKEA. I hate the store's layout, I hate the lack of customer service, I hate their cheaply made furniture, and I really really hate assembling their cheaply made furniture*. Okay, so this love/hate relationship is skewed towards the hating. I do like their meatballs and the fact that you can buy a bag of 100 tealights for like two dollars. And to be honest, when you need a new coffee table because a big, drunk guy fell onto yours and smashed it into bits at your housewarming party, IKEA can come in handy.

I also really like this commercial that was filmed when 100 pet cats were let loose in an IKEA after hours. Here's some additional video footage about the making of the commercial. (via Metafilter) If my catphobe mother catches wind of this she'll never set foot in an IKEA again.

*I came up with a new money-making idea to add to the list: become an expert in assembling IKEA furniture and hire yourself out to put it together in people's homes. I would gladly have paid someone $50 (or more) to piece together six of these BÖRJEs.