Dunno, just random stuff

So I could say I was busy in finals, but that lie won't be believed by anyone.

I did wanted to post about a firealarm that went at 1am in my residence... no kidding, seriously, false alarm, but DAMN was that cold.
I asked a guy that had a camera to send me a pic he took of bunch of people freezing waiting outside our building, but pics never arrived, so I didnt blog about it.
Though IM doing it now, aren't I?

Well, you can imagine how fun was that.

On other ODD news... what the h is this?

Endgadget was recommending it as a mom holiday gift for the seriously disturbing moms.

Which brings me too... I have no gifts for anyone. So you guys better tell me when Im there.

Funny tip, screenshot (CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE TIP)

HA HA HA, they think I have friends HA HA

About my thanksgiving

It was just at my boss's house. Whith his family a friend of him from Argentina, and the two parentless graduate students :(
TONS OF FOOD, and overall a nice night. It is really a shame that my boss's lab is so disorganized, otherwise I would know what lab I would pick... oh and if he change the arrogant grad student he has now :P

There is no console war

I've realized this while looking for apartments for next year.
Several places we saw had a PS2 AND Xbox in their houses (there was one GC in a girls house :P actually with an old nintendo). I don't know how they do it, I don't even have a TV to plug it in, but there is no war, everyone except us is getting every console.
I think the console war is just another marketing thing. But not sure, I can not see enough TV cause I don't have one :(

We3 Now in my top 10

Which, I don't really even have 10 beloved comics... more like 4 or 5... but anyways. Now We3 is definetly on my favorite comicbook list. It has the animal=good, humans=bad of my favorite quote "Mientras más conozco a la gente, más quiero a mi perro". It is really short, specially since several parts of the story are just told by images, no dialogues whatsoever, and obviously animal dialogues are short, and extremely nice.
It is quite graphic, showing a lot of violence on several panels, so not for the weak stomach people.

I found this long interview whith Morrison about it. Guess I might have to buy animal man now.

ANIMALS protecting each other.

So that everybody can say my name

This is the correct pronunciation of my name :D
So, no excuses... unless you don't know IPA - International Phonetics
Alphabet :P
So, if you don't you can learn some of its meaning here

Just wasting some more time

My trial account ended so today its back to procrastinating with web surfing. So bored today I went back to this tests.

Pion You scored 75 Bosonic, 60 Momentum, and 47 Reactivity!

You are the pion, the key particle in keeping the nucleus of an atom together. While your strong drive and intuition helps you take orders from the gluon, and help to cement the relationships between protons and neutrons. You complete projects that you start and willingly follow directions which make you a great team player. While you may not have the passion to become a leader, you are a very valuable asset to any society, as your imagination and intuition help form the cement that keeps organizations together. Just be remember to assert your own voice now and then. Is this description not accurate? Since this is my first test please let me know. I will gladly take any advice to make this test more accurate. Other Categories Neutrino Electron Neutron Proton Graviton Photon Gluon

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 47% on Bosonic You scored higher than 37% on Momentum You scored higher than 7% on Reactivity

Link: The Which Subatomic Particle are U Test written by tachyonman on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

well... back to updating the lab notebook

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

PS3 launch madness

You guys might already seen this

I'm just glad stynky is the one getting the PS3 so that I don't have to go through THAT

Howling Night

Since I first learned about the wolf park when I visited Purdue for the interviews, I've been wanting to go there.
When the semester started however, some people told me how disappointed they were about it :( Still, there were wolves and no matter what it should be fun for me.
So, luckily a group on my residence hall decided to go on Howling night, for which I obviously sign up, and thus finally get to see the wolf.

True true, the park is nothing big, I didn't get to see coyotes, and the wolf part was nothing extraordinary.

However I got to hear them HOWL. Which was totally worth the trip and the rain that fell after.

The videos I uploaded are but a small treat, far from the true experience.

MY BOSS KNOW "THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS"!!!!

Don't remember exactly, but somehow a protein protein interaction turn into superheroes movies and at some point my current boss accepts how he got to read comic books again when someone lend him "The dark knight returns".

SHOCKING!!!!!!!
He then comment on how dark it was, so I obviously I commented about true dark visions of Batman like Arkham Asylum, and turned out he had read it also.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!

Still he didn't knew who exactly was Dave Mckean but it was pretty impressive nonetheless.

Have I found my future lab?
Can I ignore how his funding is still uncertain, as its a new lab, or how disorganized it is that I can not find a proper protocol for what we do, and just join because...
MY BOSS KNOWS "THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS"!!!!!!!!!

I'm the king of the world

Bold statement from a low level druid, but , you know it was according to the pic :P.

I'll post more about it later, I just want the tension to build up :P

Improvement

OK, shape getting better, still flavor far from its true taste.

But, now I got arepas for all my breakfast :D

Once a kid, always a kid?

At least for me

Yesterday was somewhat memorable for many things, however I will just point one.
I still see it as a good thing, but what would you guys say?
Shopping at Walmart, after finding out I'm joined by 20 year old grad students ,undergrad age but still really nice people, I'm handed out a children's book as she says "For you"

An undergrad age handing ME a children book.

I can not help but feel flattered :P, I like to keep a child spirit, though I accept I sometimes just go into childish behavior and I don't know where to stop.
So, when have I gone too far?
Is there really a time where I should stop wearing the SUNRISE T-shirts and go with the neck and tie outfit?

EWW, I hope not.

MOST HONEST QUESTION

Yesterday was one unusual day as I was forced to socialize since people kept telling me that is better to study in groups.
So in need of a good grade I went ahead with the awkward plan of mingle with total strangers and then ask "So who is going to explain me everything I don't understand?"

Anyways after some hours of study, someone felt comfortable enough to ask me the question that probably everyone that know where I'm from, might have in their heads.

"So, do you know any drug-dealers?"
A little surprised by the question, but I didn't saw any malice in her face, it was just an honest curiosity, so I answer as honest as I could
"No... that I know of, you never know"

Faces on the rest would make it seem that everything was going to be weird now, so one friend of her immediately ask her in a sarcastic tone "Why, do you need a fix?" And then on we kept joking about it and all was normal.

Still, I was amazed at the honesty, and actually was somewhat easier for me to talk about it, now that I knew what the other person truly thought.

Way to cool, not to Blog about it.

Why does it always fall on me, the biologist to blog about your engineer geek sightings/news?? Ah?

Have you seen this.

The coolest thing is that people are still asking "WHAT THE ..."
The mystery surrounding it makes it even better.

What do you guys know?

OK, exam in 2 hours, back to study.

Procastinating with style

The plan was simple. This weekend I would study for my exams on tuesday. Saturday went well, though there was the usual procrastination of surfing the web, I did manage to finish a review I had to do for the class I hate the most.
Today however,well... First I wake up late, only to realize I was one hour ahead anyway, The morning proved little fruitful for studying, and this afternoon, well ... I had to go see Carmina Burana played here at Purdue. This is somewhat acceptable procrastination right?
I only knew the famous "O fortuna" part, the one I thought way too cool, and the reason I had to see the complete work,
Which I liked, the ballet performance was very nice, still I'm not a fan of ballet, but the lighting and music and dance at some points was done is such a way that was mesmerizing for a lack of better word.
Still, in the end the power of the first and final part of Carmina Burana is unequaled, at least for me. It strikes me someway similar like the picture I took at the exit of the playhouse, seen at the head of this post

But thats it, I'm going back to study... after I check my mail one last time :P

Dang it... ran into my brother and ended up talking Cyrus and spartans... ok, now seriously I will go study.

Arepas

Quick post since I'm supposed to be studying for the class I'm...

Last weekend I went to a potluck party to say goodbye to a grad student in my previous lab. Now it might not seem true at first, but my skills on Colombian cuisine, are FAR FAR from the true flavors of my country.
Still I couldn't show up as the only empty handed, so, after discussing (emailing :P) with some friends, it was decided that the only thing I should dare to try are some arepas. In this case "arepaequeso".

Now, depending on your knowledge of this treat you will notice from the pic how was my improvement from an early version to the later ones.
Obviously you can not taste them, but believe me there was also an improvement on that department.



In the end the surprising thing was that I HAD FUN making them, even in this damn crowded kitchen of Hawkins, I had fun. And since they tasted fairly ok in the end, I've decided to keep on practicing for my weekend breakfasts (After this weekend since I will try my best at studying).
So next time, if you want, I can share with you some of my "arepas"

Hmm not so quick post after all... gtg

Wonderful

It is quite interesting to see how chinnese simbolize something wonderful.
My latest work at calligraphy has been this word, which you can see in the picture. It is composed of two radicals or roots, and their meaning is going to flatter all my femal fans... yes ALL one of them :P
According to chinnese calligraphy, to simbolize this word they use:

Left symbol = Women
Right symbol = Young

I can only say that I agree.

EMERGENCY: Whale mayhem :(

Haven't post in a while, but this news require emergency posting:
Japan backs Iceland's whaling decision

I used to think Vikings were cool, but now they come up with that? I don't know what to make of Iceland, at least Japan kept bombarding me with good animation and games so I can not hate them... but what is there in Iceland?

So, if you feel at least displeased with this news, the only little thing I found we could do is this:
STOP ICELAND WHALING


Oh and the pics are from here:
Endangered Whales

We are going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo

How about you, you, you.

Actually I already Went to the Zoo, therefore I will post about it.

Guess were it was?

Anyways it was a Helping Paw event.
It was just $5 so I obviously took advantage of it. And do you guys also think that is kind of weird that I paid $7 for a hot dog and soda, while a trip to Indy Zoo + dolphin shows costs $5? ? I think there is something odd there.

OK, getting back on track I had to wake up early, we were supposed to leave at 7:45 am, on a Saturday. AND I KNOW that my readers are also lazy so don't try to pretend it is not early.

It took less than 1 hour and a half to reach the Zoo, and it was COLD. Actually a lot of the events or shows were close during this season :( But still I got to see cool cute awesome animals.
I'll just post some of them.

First the Walrus that sucks his "thumb? Fin?"


It is not clear in the pic, he was giving me his back, but trust me, he kept sucking his thumbs for a while, it was really funny.

Next this cute Kangaroo that came so close I almost got to pet him... but alas, it was almost, I didn't get to pet him :(


One of the nice things of the Indy Zoo was that I got to feed a giraffe. Unfortunately the guy who I asked the favor to take the pic never manage to catch one of the moment, so the woman that worked with the giraffe came and manage to keep the giraffe on place for this pic.


Also a performing elephant and the next pic, a cute baby elephant that kept me entertained for a lot LOT of time as he played with a small tree branch.




Polar Bears playing in the water, seen them like that is hard to think of them as powerful predators of seals :(


Lets continue with this Baby Green dragon Level 6... Seriously I kept looking at his face and wonder what powerful items he might have.
Should I try to out-smart a dragon (Is it impossible still with a baby one?), or just cast Summon Elemental and go for it?



Hmm anyways lots of animals, still the zoo is not that big, but there were some cool things.

At the end we saw the dolphin show, and for that I had to take movies, so does anyone know how can I put a .mov file here?

For now, I'll leave you with the pic I took from underwater at the time of another show.


LOOK FOR THE FULL SET OF PICTURES ON FACEBOOK :D

The mac commercial don't lie

You have seen this, and I'm sure you all knew the greatness that is a mac compare to a PC ... except gaming :( ...
But I just keep getting surprises.
I have no idea why I hadn't done it earlier, but I just synchronize my cell phone with my macbook :D

It was really easy, all the commercials that said how the mac is ready to connect with everything "out of the box", are true.

I just turn the bluetooth for both, made a scan on iSync.
And the mac by itself recognized the N-gage and asked my permission to start merging my contacts and calendars.
It did a little bit of a mess when it didn't realize two similar entries were actually the same. But that is just one delete away.

Anyway I thought it is cool. Stynky should do it on his non-gamer-boring-regular-camera cell phone.

OCTOBER BREAK... for the rest

SO October break started last weekend and everyone has left the university to go back to their families, except me :( For me there is still work in the lab, but it seems its the same for all grad students :(

Thing is that the University seems a Ghost town.
Last sunday I went to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon which is as much FEAST as an orgy of one.
Not much food, and it was really expensive. (Though the corn was good, I missed that roasted corn I used to try back home)

Most of the part I kept myself docmenting the force child labor they had there




On all this pic there is a kid with the most bored looking face ever.

The only kid that seem to have fun is this one:

It was a war renactment, and the kid though having fun, didn't seem to play enough FPS to know the importance of cover.

But that renactment was kind of fun.

There was a guy that ate fire and... that was it.

Sadly this is supposed to be one of the biggest events in Lafayette... oh the horror ....

Definetly MSN University

I'm thinking you guys are well aware that Purdue has a nice relationship with micrososft, right?
If you didn't, let me tell you I can buy some microsoft software for like $10 or something. It is cheaper.

But Now, they have gone even further.
In "The exponent" a newspaper by students of Purdue, the article in the picture appear
(I wanted to link to the online one, but haven't seen the site work this semester)

Anyways here is the pic of the article.

Interesting site

I found it out through Cecilia's Blog I still have to browse this site a little bit more, but in their store, the Just shy T-shirt cought my attention.

THERE IS HOPE

In that I'm not the only biogeek around.

Last week I saw a bag with the funny legend I post about it, and today while having lunch with some people, that person said something close to this:
"In the grand scheme of things is not that bad, I pay $12 a month (I think) and that is what other people pay for one drink on a night out, and I get to play all month"

The context was discussing World of Warcraft wanting me to pay the monthly fee.

Not a common topic on the biology crowd, and thus afterwards I was teased for the ongoing conversation.

A great casual pic of Bogotá

I have to blog about it.

I think this post has a great picture about the oh-so-crazy things you might find in my beloved Bogota.

Donkey didn't park well, and has caused a traffic jam :D

I'm all for dungeons

But not the one I'm workin in :(



There seem to be no magic or monsters in this one.
Plus having forgotten my "cloak" at MD, it is harder to get in charachter :P

Just when I thought I was safe at the University

Reality TV is here! At Purdue! A place to move knowledge forward by promoting creativity.
WHAT HAPPEN?
And Jackass 2 movie keeps getting more money.

I hope whatever is going on around in the US, doesn't spread worldwide. Natural selection where did you go wrong?

On a chipper note

Does anyone know who this is?

They are as abundant as squirrels here, yet they are smaller, cuter and faster.

:(

Can't really post what I found out today.
So,
I'll post a quote from MAUS by Art Spiegelman just for... I'm not really sure why, I just need something to remind me of ...

"Samuel Beckett once said: Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence & nothingness"
"Yes"

...

(silence)

...

"On the other hand he said it"

YAY :D Enviromentalist geeknes

Some tips here on how to be "green" gamer.

I'm getting one of the bags of tip #2

Chemistry geekness

Saw something funny today, not entirely biogeeknes, but since it was a biochemistry thing, I might as well blog about it. Specially since I have not post much about biogeeks.

It reads:
"If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the PRECIPITATE" =))

Apparently it is on every chemistry department, but I just saw it today on a bag.

Where is W... Juan?

at the opening of LCC

At first I was kind of bother about the US flag in the middle, but after all it shows how it is going.
Everywhere you look in the USA, there are latinamericans. (Phase one completed)
Now, if only we had better representation.

Peace and Harmony ... IN WAR >:)

So, anyone wondering in what student organizations I ended up?

Nope?, no one?

Well, since you are still reading I'm going to tell you anyway.

I finally joined OFFICIALLY, the Helping Paw organization.
Actually I'm a little disappointed they don't do as much as I expected.
All I've been doing is to go on Saturdays morning, just for 2 hours, and clean some cat cages and take dogs for a walk on a nearby kennel.

And every time I'm relaxing and playing with some dog, they decide to go.
And there is not going to be anything this week :(

On another organization which kicked the ballroom's ass and even beat up anime club, is the Chinese Calligraphy club.
I already know how to make the horizontal stroke, relatively well, the vertical one is tricky, and any diagonal one is just a different mess anytime I tried.

But I'm getting better, here, let me show you how I write "Peace/harmony"

My peace/harmony is surrounded by the Chinese chess pieces, which I LEARNED HOW TO PLAY :D
But only in this set, there is another set with more complicated symbols for the pieces, so I keep confusing my cannon for and elephant and so :P

It is quite challenging but I enjoy it a lot.
overall Chinese Calligraphy has been the best experience so far here at Purdue.

...


cause tango wants me to pay them $35!!!!!!!.
I wanted free. X-(

Do I fall in the cheaters or don't ?? Hmm

According to this 49 percent of medical and health-care students admited to cheat (admited, what about the rest).
Thing is... for now I am in basic medical sciences, but I'm more molecular biology, I would consider me a little bit different from just health-care.
But alas, my first internship was at a clinic, then at NIH. And my parents would still encourage me to go M.D.

I'm trapped

AAAAAAAAA

Indiana Dunes

Hawkins hall (the graduate dorm I live) organized a trip to lake Michigan.
it was a 2.5 hour ride there and it was looong, specially since they tried some bad unsuccessful Icebreaker games.

But anyway I was able to arrive to Lake Michigan


It was incredibly windy so it was kind of cold, but make a cool effect on seagulls, which started "floating" on top of us without moving winds whatsoever.

Some people went to the water, some just took pictures of themselves in their swimsuits, and some went to play volleyball.
I had not played it since high school, but it turn out that was more than qualify this time.
This is a bad picture of the Volley ball team 8th floor.

For unknown reasons we were reluctant to leave the water a side, and no one threw the ball when they were supposed to.

Before heading back we saw some cool frogs that camouflaged pretty well, and not only that, they burrow themselves on the sand and disappear.


It was a nice trip, I met some nice people, and learned that Bogotaá has twice the population of Singapur.
I checked on wiki, it is true.

The reception... Finally

OK, so lets try to wrap up.

We arrive at the reception, time to hit the buffet, drinks and try to dance with full stomachs.
First thing to get the attention, was the Sofreh Aghd, which we can see in the following picture, and the explanation here


Since I'm writing this almost 2 weeks after the event, I'm forgetting the order of things, so I will move to mention the toast of my cousin Charles III a.k.a. Charlito

His speech was so nice and funny, no one dare to follow him. At every single moment people were laughing and he took some of the spotlight from the couple.

After that it was dinner time, and what I would like to mention here is, how the tables had those ... Forgot how you call them... But you can make soap bubbles from it. It was really fun, and made for a pretty magical moment, as Pamela and Jill are showing.


Now then something which I had objected, was announced.
Since Gelareh would only used that dress once, I think it was her uncle, who came with the idea that the dress could be signed by everyone at the reception.
According to my bro who saw the faces of everyone when it was announced, more than one look to each other in disbelief. But as soon as some people started signing, it was non-stop signing all night.
The idea was so appealing to me in the end, that I signed three times, one in english, farsi, and Espanich.
Gelareh somehow manage to start dancing while there was still people signing her dress. It was a lot of fun.

Now I hope you guys remember that one of the things I was supposed to do, was the turn off the music and kick everyone out. However, someone did that for me. I really didn't wanted the reception to end... and so did a bunch of my brothers friends.
Since the music wasn't coming back up, and the ...uhm... older generation, decided to head back home. A group of people, lead by Ricardo, went to continue the party until 4:00 a.m at his house.
At some point the party had a hint of baccalaureate party, but all that is worth mentioning is that women don't tip that well.

It was a nice way to end this amazing weekend. I wish it could be repeated, but Alvaro didn't threw the band to see who was going to marry next.

Oh well, good luck to you guys, seems you are prepared for what comes next right?