just to follow up on my rilo kiley plug, i think i've listened to more adventurous 119 times so far. perfect backdrop for walking in the first week of autumn-chill winds, dodging co-eds all over campus, wearing cute new blazer and flats, and reflecting on how emotionally long it's been since last september.
a very exciting thing happened this week. i moved. not apartments though (i'm perfectly content in my cute basement/sauna/fireplace situation - now that i have that couch). lab benches. yes, i am now the proud occupant of, arguably, the most prime piece of real estate in the VRMDL. the equivalent of rent-control on the upper east side, or whatever.
consider the amenities:
1) room for legs to tuck in under bench while sitting on lab stool (not available at previous corner spot, where my knees would consistently bunge up against the drawer pulls)
2) availability of overhead shelving (again, not available at previous spot - i was right next to the chemical storage cabinets, and all room was thus taken up by alphabetically arranged reagents)
3) correct amount of sunlight (not direct like in the western-most corner, not dark like in my previous eastern-most corner, but just in the middle and just right)
4) proximity to sink for washing dirty tissue culture dishes/hands/etc.
sigh. the benefits of slowly becoming a higher ranking graduate student. maybe one day i'll have my own internet connection... we can only dream.
in other news, i had the most draining exhaustive day of wrestling with old data. was picked up for a second wind by a phone conversation with an old labmate, then officially lost steam around 8:30 pm. to permit relaxation, treated myself to take-out ginger basil chicken, from the little thai neighbourhood place that has turned out to be my hands-down favourite, and the october vogue. then got fed up with the annoying cast of this season's apprentice, not to mention their poor design choices for a lamborghini ad campaign task, and stuck with the vogue instead.
back to work in T-7 hours...
30.9.05
24.9.05
22.9.05
almost as good
as some know, i exact high standards of my food products. particularly of my frozen dessert products. ice cream.. is alright. but i truly adore gelato. and not just any gelato. a brief stint as a gelato scooper in the summer before i started my undergrad instilled in me a passion for handcrafted italian gelato, and for this i thank steve at piccolo grande. if you are ever in ottawa, a piccolo cup brimming with amaretto, bacio, and hazelnut is obilgatory. or, if you prefer something liquid, a coconut gelato milkshake is perfect on a summer afternoon. might i also take this opportunity to remind everyone that i came up with the name for cherry cha-cha, just in case you have forgotten.
i digress. the point i am getting to is that i have discovered a close second to piccolo grande, in the grocery store packaged variety. after sampling numerous hand-crafted gelatos in store around the country, i have to say that this product is truly impressive. in fact, their toasted hazelnut is so outstanding that i would be interested in pitting it in a taste test against PG nocciola. yes, my toronto friends, i am officially endorsing gelato fresco and their tasty gelatos. so far, i have tried 4 flavours of the 'low-fat dairy ice' variety: creme caramel (lovely burnt caramel flavour), devil's chocolate (so dark, and so good), cafe latte (my second favourite), and toasted hazelnut (my hands-down favourite). i also tried the alfonso mango sorbet, which was alright, but not as good as PG mango. last night i decided to sample the milanese vanilla (which is an actual ice cream, rather than a gelato), and it proved to be creamy and fragrantly delicious. unfortunately, it seems to me that GF is only available in toronto. pity for all of you.
i digress. the point i am getting to is that i have discovered a close second to piccolo grande, in the grocery store packaged variety. after sampling numerous hand-crafted gelatos in store around the country, i have to say that this product is truly impressive. in fact, their toasted hazelnut is so outstanding that i would be interested in pitting it in a taste test against PG nocciola. yes, my toronto friends, i am officially endorsing gelato fresco and their tasty gelatos. so far, i have tried 4 flavours of the 'low-fat dairy ice' variety: creme caramel (lovely burnt caramel flavour), devil's chocolate (so dark, and so good), cafe latte (my second favourite), and toasted hazelnut (my hands-down favourite). i also tried the alfonso mango sorbet, which was alright, but not as good as PG mango. last night i decided to sample the milanese vanilla (which is an actual ice cream, rather than a gelato), and it proved to be creamy and fragrantly delicious. unfortunately, it seems to me that GF is only available in toronto. pity for all of you.
19.9.05
music note
in other news, before i finally give in and go to bed, i've been listening to folksy music all weekend while trying to write my grant proposals. harkens back to ani difranco days of high school.
top 7 songs of the weekend, from iTunes playlist "Grant Writing":
1. strawberry blonde - ron sexsmith
2. lowlands - gillian welch
3. only in the past - the be good tanyas
4. jesus, etc. - wilco
5. ain't got no money - tom waits
6. city i go - rose cousins (yes, from the DSU! she pinned my alumni insignia on my gown at graduation!)
7. runnin' out of fools - neko case
and in between repeats of the folksy playlist i looped new slang (live version) by the shins. Q had been insisting that i watch garden state, so i finally did and totally fell in love with this song. kind of like zach braff does when natalie portman passes him the silly earphones. how old is she supposed to be in the movie anyways? something about the pigtails makes her come off as being 12, max 15.
top 7 songs of the weekend, from iTunes playlist "Grant Writing":
1. strawberry blonde - ron sexsmith
2. lowlands - gillian welch
3. only in the past - the be good tanyas
4. jesus, etc. - wilco
5. ain't got no money - tom waits
6. city i go - rose cousins (yes, from the DSU! she pinned my alumni insignia on my gown at graduation!)
7. runnin' out of fools - neko case
and in between repeats of the folksy playlist i looped new slang (live version) by the shins. Q had been insisting that i watch garden state, so i finally did and totally fell in love with this song. kind of like zach braff does when natalie portman passes him the silly earphones. how old is she supposed to be in the movie anyways? something about the pigtails makes her come off as being 12, max 15.
procrastination in absentia
Now that the initial excitement of owning a blog has worn off, it appears I have settled into a nice regular schedule of posting... never. The most plausible explanation? I am a notorious procrastinator and tend to get myself swamped with last minute writing and project-finishing. At times like these, I would rather occupy myself with unnecessary tasks like (a) repeatedly cleaning my bathroom, (b) organizing old utility bills, (c) re-categorizing my iTunes library, or (d) making lists of books that I would like to read when I finish said last minute writing and project-finishing. One time I even felt the sudden need to make a list of people who I plan to send holiday cards to this year. I've brought up these tendencies of mine in conversation occasionally, and am happy to know that I am not alone in my distraction. One person painted their apartment when they were supposed to be writing a comprehensive exam. This makes me feel much better. Another story revealed that a notorious investigator had a friend at the post office who would post-mark his grant application envelopes for the day before, when they took an extra day at the last minute to finish up. Academics are supposed to do everything right before it needs to be done! We're too busy dreaming up experiments and reading articles that have no obvious implications for our research. And, more realistically, spending long hours in the lab doing tedious repetitive stuff.
So I ask myself, will I ever succeed in being prepared a week in advance? Will I have the slides for my student seminar finished and my talk rehearsed and tailored impeccably with time to spare? Will I submit my next conference abstract days, or even hours before the deadline.. rather than minutes?
Insight into these tendencies unexpectedly came at a TA training seminar this past week: Teaching to different learning styles. We covered Kolb's system of classification - the Converger, Diverger, Accomodator, and Assimilator. For anyone who is not familiar, this is just a general 'personality/learning theory' similar to Myers-Briggs. After filling out my copy of the inventory, I charted my results and came out a Strong Diverger. Apparently, Divergers like to relate everything they learn to the real world, creating a narrative into which new information and concepts are incorporated. They also like to talk about concepts with other people, rather than focusing inwards to sort them out. I had to laugh when the facilitator used an example of how the Converger vs. Accomodator vs. Assimilator vs. Diverger would put together a bike. Something like.. the Converger would study the instructions, follow them word for word, and work alone. The Accomodator would throw away the instructions and figure it out based on what they thought a bike should look like. The Assimilator would do a week's worth of background research on bikes, then evaluate their compiled information and use the most relevant to assemble an ideal set of instructions for bike putting-together. And the Diverger would invite their friends over for a barbecue and some drinks, then talk them into putting it together for him/her. This sounded uncannily like the time I had my cousin over for dinner the night my new sofa was delivered... which required assembly.
Point being: those with Diverger tendencies take a more relaxed approach to information gathering, and feed off the energy of others. While I don't necessarily buy into the fact that I can be neatly categorized based on Kolb's inventory, I can see that I have certain characteristics that are identified with the typecast Diverger. Compared to my previous lab environment, my current grad student life is somewhat devoid of collaborative efforts/informal science conversations... and I can see how this has impacted my creativity and energy. More socializing = More productivity? I sense an experiment coming on.
So I ask myself, will I ever succeed in being prepared a week in advance? Will I have the slides for my student seminar finished and my talk rehearsed and tailored impeccably with time to spare? Will I submit my next conference abstract days, or even hours before the deadline.. rather than minutes?
Insight into these tendencies unexpectedly came at a TA training seminar this past week: Teaching to different learning styles. We covered Kolb's system of classification - the Converger, Diverger, Accomodator, and Assimilator. For anyone who is not familiar, this is just a general 'personality/learning theory' similar to Myers-Briggs. After filling out my copy of the inventory, I charted my results and came out a Strong Diverger. Apparently, Divergers like to relate everything they learn to the real world, creating a narrative into which new information and concepts are incorporated. They also like to talk about concepts with other people, rather than focusing inwards to sort them out. I had to laugh when the facilitator used an example of how the Converger vs. Accomodator vs. Assimilator vs. Diverger would put together a bike. Something like.. the Converger would study the instructions, follow them word for word, and work alone. The Accomodator would throw away the instructions and figure it out based on what they thought a bike should look like. The Assimilator would do a week's worth of background research on bikes, then evaluate their compiled information and use the most relevant to assemble an ideal set of instructions for bike putting-together. And the Diverger would invite their friends over for a barbecue and some drinks, then talk them into putting it together for him/her. This sounded uncannily like the time I had my cousin over for dinner the night my new sofa was delivered... which required assembly.
Point being: those with Diverger tendencies take a more relaxed approach to information gathering, and feed off the energy of others. While I don't necessarily buy into the fact that I can be neatly categorized based on Kolb's inventory, I can see that I have certain characteristics that are identified with the typecast Diverger. Compared to my previous lab environment, my current grad student life is somewhat devoid of collaborative efforts/informal science conversations... and I can see how this has impacted my creativity and energy. More socializing = More productivity? I sense an experiment coming on.
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