Eurovision 2012

Last year, I watched Eurovision, the annual European song contest, and became completely enamored- pure camp, at its finest!  This year's competition did not disappoint- aside from all of the ballads (BO-ring), performances ranged from dancy Europop, heavy metal, and the downright bizarre, and the costumes ranged from slightly ridiculous to completely ridiculous-  sparkly blindfolds and Native American headdresses are just the tip of the iceberg.  I'd say a solid half of the acts looked like they were dressed as space aliens from 1960s television.  Now that I've discovered Eurovision, I'm a bit sad that the US is excluded from participation.  Hopefully they'll start broadcasting Eurovision on US television so Americans will at least have the opportunity to witness the spectacle.  An evening spent with friends, drinking wine and watching Eurovision, is just about the best entertainment around.

Some highlights:

Jedward, the hyperactive twins, were back representing Ireland, and their new dance move inspired my housemate Susan and me to try our own.

Sweden's winning entry was actually pretty good, a catchy pop song by Loreen, who had angered authorities from host country Azerbaijan by meeting with political activists.  Turkey had the most creative costumes- caped male dances who turned into a sailboat. Too bad their song was rubbish.  England trotted out Engelbert Humperdinck but his performance was far too snoozy to win many votes.

However, Russia's entry brought down the house- six elderly Russian ladies singing "Party For Everybody" and dancing around a revolving oven. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Book reviews

So in all that time I wasn't blogging I was doing a lot of traveling, and long flight = lots of reading time.  So here are some very brief summaries of what I've read lately:

State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett. One of my favorite authors writes a book about a female scientist who travels to the Amazon to investigate the mysterious death of a colleague. Could a plot line be any more up my alley? Unlikley.

The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis. Apparently it takes two authors to write a thriller that's like a low calorie version of Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  Confusing at first but got more enjoyable when I got used to the Danish names and figured out who was who.

The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay. An excellent novel about a young boy growing up in South Africa during World War II that chronicles his difficult childhood and the people he met who have a long-lasting impact on his life. So much better than the movie! Highly recommended!  Even though it was a long book, I was sad to come to the end, as I don't think I could ever get tired of Peekay.
The Book of the Night Women, by Marlon James.  The story of Lilith, a slave girl growing up on a sugar plantation in Jamaica in the 18th century. Heartbreaking and brutal as hell. I'll be happy if I never have to read another whipping scene ever again.
The Opposite of Me, by Sarah Pekkanen. After finishing with the night women, I needed some lighter fare to brighten my mood, and this somewhat formulaic chic lit did the trick.  Twin sisters who are opposite in looks and personalities!! 
Straight Man, by Richard Russo.  With this novel about a middle-aged English professor undergoing something of a mid-life crisis, Richard Russo succeeds where Michael Chabon fails, creating a protagonist who is likeable despite his flaws.  Also, serves as a warning to anyone hoping for a career in academia. Recommended!

So I'm currently reading the infamous Fifty Shades of Grey for my book club...let's just say it's terribly written and super porny, but somehow addictive at the same time.  I can't even read it on the train because I'm ashamed to be seen reading it in public.  Although I must admit it will certainly make excellent book club discussion fodder.

Links!

This one's been making the rounds but is definitely worth a look if you haven't seen it yet- artist Nina Katchadourian has come up with a novel way to keep herself entertained on long flights- by taking self-portraits of herself in airplane bathrooms, dressed in the style of Flemish paintings. 

And on the theme of head shots, over on Kristy's blog I spotted a link with information that would have come in handy for, oh, my entire adult life.  How to avoid having a double chin in photos.  The video's a bit long, but if you watch the first minute or so and then skip to the example photos at the end, you'll get the gist.

Back on the Blog?

So I've been neglecting this poor little old blog for a while, for a variety of reasons- mostly because I'm busy, and my workday gets so full of data analysis, writing, meetings, and lab work that it leaves me brain tired at the end of the day, and therefore uninclined to spend more time in front of a computer.  The other reason is somewhat less easy to describe- in a way I've become a little more discreet, hesitant to share my goings on with the internet.  Not because I'm doing anything all that exciting or clandestine, but rather, the opposite.  When I was a bored and depressed grad student it was a relief to sound that trumpet, but now that I'm happy, it feels almost like tempting fate.  Happy people make boring bloggers.
However, I do like keeping a blog, and since I'm so far away, it is a great way to keep in touch.  So I've decided to put a little more effort into DCoE for the next month or so- not anything like the blogging heyday of 2006, but I'll aim for two or three posts a week.  Stay tuned!

Time to Boogie

So Australians are really into music festivals- those multiday outdoor events that involve camping and listening to a lot of bands.  Being from Boston, which is not at all near any of the big music festivals in the US (Cochella, SXSW, etc) means I've never been to one before- Great Woods doesn't count because no one actually spends the night, at least not deliberately.  Part of me thinks I'm getting too old for these sort of events, as porta potties and intoxicated teenagers tend to be things I avoid.  However, one of my friends from the lab invited me to Boogie, a music festival on a farm an hour or so north of Melbourne.  It's small (around 1000 people) and has a reputation for being very fun and chilled out, so I decided to go.  The lineup was pretty good- featuring Justin Townes Earle, Jim James (from My Morning Jacket), Eilen Jewell, and a whole bunch of Australian acts.  Drinks were cheap and tasty, and the food was to my liking- I ate from the Melbourne Taco Truck for three straight days.  Luckily, the weather was just about perfect- cool and sunny.  My favorite thing about the festival was the special effects guy: they had a screen behind the stage showing images that looked like a kaleidoscope, and when I got closer, I realized that they were created by a guy with an overhead projector- he would put a drawing on the screen and wiggle it around in time to the music.  Fantastic! I tried to snap a photo but I don't think it captures the genius.

Although I did have a good time at the festival, by day three I was most certainly tired of disgusting bathrooms and sleeping in a tent, so unless the Arcade Fire make a festival appearance down under, Boogie may have been my first and last.

Updated to include one more photo: my coworker Jayne and I with Beaker!

A Brazilian (vacation)

Hello there blog! I'll come off of unscheduled hiatus with a post about my recent trip to Brazil.  So, there's a big pneumococcal research conference every two years, and the most recent one was held in Iguazu Falls, a huge waterfall park/nature preserve on the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Not a bad spot!  All of the conference attendees from Australia were on the same flight from Sydney to Buenos Aires (aka the Pneumococcal Party Plane), and after a night in Buenos Aires, we flew to Iguazu Falls, and due to a slight planning mishap, landed on the Argentinian side and had to cross the border into Brazil in a taxi to get to the conference, when went a lot more smoothly than one would suspect.  The conference itself was very good but the schedule was jam packed, and between talks and meetings and dinners, I didn't see get to see the falls until after it ended.  We did visit both the Brazillian and Argentinian side, and they were both very beautiful- in Brazil you're at the base of the falls looking up at them, and in Argentina you're at the top, looking down. 

After that, back to Buenos Aires for a night, I flew to Rio de Janerio to meet Ern for a week's vacation.  Guess what? It was awesome!  First off, way less dodgy that anticipated- I figured we'd get constantly harassed as foreign tourists, but to our pleasant surprise, everyone pretty much left us alone.  Granted, we didn't go try to buy drugs in a favela or anything (hey, I've seen City of God, too) but everyone makes such a big deal about how dangerous Rio is, and it didn't seem like that bad at all to me.  Rio is an absolutely amazing city, mountains that give way to beautiful beaches with an enormous city somehow perched within the landscape.  We spent the first couple of days in Rio, doing the typical touristy things- checking out the views from Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf, walking the beach at Copacabana, drinking a thousand caipirinhas, and people watching- let's just say that Ern and I had double the amount of fabric on our persons as the average Brazilian.

 After that, we took a bus about three hours down to coast to Paraty, a small colonial town with a relaxed vibe, which as we soon found out is a popular destination for Brazilian honeymooners.  We took a boat ride and swam at some nearby islands, took a cooking class, and walked around Old Town. It was great, and even though I loved Rio it was nice to see another part of Brazil. After that, back to Rio for one last night of caipirinhas and samba music, and the sadly, vacation was over.  I had a fantastic time and would love to go back and see more of Brazil.  It's hard to sum it all up in one blog post, so I'll just throw in a few photos.

Adventures in Sydney

Last weekend I went to Sydney with my flatmate Susan and our friend Nicole for a touristy fun summer weekend.  We caught up with Kris and Rodd for dinner on Friday night for some delicious tapas and they brought us to a shady nightclub for after dinner drinks.
On Saturday it was time for the primary purpose of the trip: the harbo(u)r bridge climb.  There's a company that leads guided climbs up the top of the big bridge in Sydney harbor, and I had heard from friends that it's a lot of fun and not scary, even if you're not overly fond of heights.  You're not allowed to bring anything up with you (they don't want you to drop your camera onto the passing traffic below), which was actually kind of nice because I didn't have to carry anything extra and wasn't distracted by my camera and iPhone.  Everyone wears grey jumpsuits - I think the idea is to blend in with the bridge, and it was a warm, sunny day so the guide recommended we only wear underwear under the jumpsuits.  Thank goodness, because I would have been roasting if I had kept my jeans on.  I wouldn't say I'm afraid of heights, but I am afraid of falling, and it didn't feel scary.  You have to climb up and down a few ladders, but you're clipped on by a safety wire the entire time, and one you get on top of the actual bridge it feels like you're walking on a rampway- you're not ever right along the edge.  We lucked out and got perfect sunny, clear, and breezy weather, and the views were amazing.  There are a lot of stairs, but they aren't steep, so I didn't really notice at the time...but my calves felt like they were on fire for the next two days.  The bridge climb is fairly pricey but I'd say it's definitely worth the money- highly recommended by DCoE!

After the climb, which takes around 3 hours in total, we went to a German restaurant and drank enormous (1 liter) beers and ate pretzels.  After that, a scenic walk around the Sydney opera house that included a homeless nap in a park.



Sunday we spent the day at Bondi Beach, and it definitely felt like an Australian summer, much more so than in Melbourne.  All in all, it was a great weekend trip- best of all, we flew on Tiger Airlines (which is essentially the Fung Wah of air travel for your Bostonians) and made it there and back without any dramas!

Oscar Contest

Only a couple of days left to enter Kristy (aka Web-Goddess)'s annual Oscar Contest.  Once again, the prize is absolutely amazing- I have no idea how she manages to come up with something so clever year after year.  I don't think I'll do so well, considering I've only seen two of the Best Picture nominees- The Artist (silent! cute!) and The Descendants (depressing! George Clooney in pleated pants!). 

Scientist

 You know that meme going around about various professions and people's perceptions of them?  I hadn't been paying much attention until I saw the Peace Corps volunteer one- the bucket bath shot at the end is classic.








Well, a couple of scientist friends of mine and I had some time to kill while waiting for a flight to Sydney so we came up with one for scientists.  Eureka!

Oh sheet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.
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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

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.

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

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.