I told you it was good coffee!
And yes, the Metro is a great source for important news.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Marvelous Monday Morning
After a rather epic weekend of fun, Monday mornings are not so bad. The glow of all the different fun parts hasn't worn off yet, and stopping at this little coffee cart on the back of a bike (so naturally I was totally sucked in) outside Charles/MGH pretty much made my day. Yes, already. That coffee was outstanding, especially to my not so picky and sophisticated coffee palate. After an epic (yes I'm using that word twice in one paragraph, mostly because I like it) bachelorette party on Saturday night and a late night impromptu ER trip with a certain blood peeing, air-sitar playing friend last night, it was not only delicious, but also vital to getting through today. You should 1) definitely try that coffee and 2) probably read all of this post as fast as possible because it was written on caffeine, so even if you're not caffeinated, that's how it would be best understood. Expect lots of errors and such. The best part of this morning is that now we're close enough to lunch that I can look forward to that!
So I finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett this weekend. I once read a book review in the New York Times for a different book where the author said the only time he stopped reading was to chase his wife around the house and talk to her about how awesome it was. Unfortunately, I am not paid to review books and had to put it down more frequently than that, BUT similar to him, I have been chasing pretty much everyone around talking about how awesome this book is. It's about this white girl, Skeeter, who writes a book about what it's like to be a black maid in Jackson, M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I, pretty much immediately pre-civil rights movement. Reading this book included many moments of blatantly cracking up on the Red Line with a bunch of grumpy commuters, who were probably some combination of jealous and judging me as crazy. Oh well. I contemplated including some of my favorite quotes, but I don't want to ruin any of the book for any one who might possibly read it. But wow, consider yourself chased around the house.
I have lots of recommendations this morning, apparently. Drink good coffee and read good books. The end.
So I finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett this weekend. I once read a book review in the New York Times for a different book where the author said the only time he stopped reading was to chase his wife around the house and talk to her about how awesome it was. Unfortunately, I am not paid to review books and had to put it down more frequently than that, BUT similar to him, I have been chasing pretty much everyone around talking about how awesome this book is. It's about this white girl, Skeeter, who writes a book about what it's like to be a black maid in Jackson, M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I, pretty much immediately pre-civil rights movement. Reading this book included many moments of blatantly cracking up on the Red Line with a bunch of grumpy commuters, who were probably some combination of jealous and judging me as crazy. Oh well. I contemplated including some of my favorite quotes, but I don't want to ruin any of the book for any one who might possibly read it. But wow, consider yourself chased around the house.
I have lots of recommendations this morning, apparently. Drink good coffee and read good books. The end.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
I now pronounce you...
Admittedly, this is much belated, but I wanted to give props to New York for passing the Marriage Equality Act in their State Senate on June 24. I'm sure opposition exists, and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but hearing people talk about how happy they were and seeing people celebrate in New York, which was already preparing for their annual Gay Pride, was nothing but joyful. I was thrilled and honestly overwhelmed by how incredibly lucky I felt to be surrounded by people from all different venues of my life who were celebrating equal recognition by the law for thousands of people in New York who are now able to marry the one they love.
Historically, we have denied certain groups of people this right based on all sorts of silly ideas. For instance, in ancient China, people with the same surname were not to marry as that was considered incestuous... but marrying one's maternal relatives was a-okay! In the United States, Jim Crow laws prevented marriages between blacks and whites in many states all the way into the 1960s.
Some would argue that the Bible (and perhaps other religious doctrine, though I do not know for certain) is opposed to same sex marraige, but I say any God/Being, who is as lovely as all religions claim them to be, would celebrate the happiness of their followers in their faithful, loving relationships.
Now, this is not to say this is a perfect institution. There are certainly internationally condemned traditions such as forced marriage, child brides, and many more I'm sure I've never even heard of. But as we celebrate with our friends and family this wedding season, we can all be a little happier that more people have the option of choosing marriage to recognize their love with the one they love.
Historically, we have denied certain groups of people this right based on all sorts of silly ideas. For instance, in ancient China, people with the same surname were not to marry as that was considered incestuous... but marrying one's maternal relatives was a-okay! In the United States, Jim Crow laws prevented marriages between blacks and whites in many states all the way into the 1960s.
Some would argue that the Bible (and perhaps other religious doctrine, though I do not know for certain) is opposed to same sex marraige, but I say any God/Being, who is as lovely as all religions claim them to be, would celebrate the happiness of their followers in their faithful, loving relationships.
Now, this is not to say this is a perfect institution. There are certainly internationally condemned traditions such as forced marriage, child brides, and many more I'm sure I've never even heard of. But as we celebrate with our friends and family this wedding season, we can all be a little happier that more people have the option of choosing marriage to recognize their love with the one they love.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Music and picnics and drinks (oh my!)
As the Charles River banks are cleaned of their red, white and blue scraps, lingering from yesterday's festivities, I feel the summer outstretched before me like a nice blank sheet of paper, fresh in its newness. As blank as the sheet can be, already quite full of much awaited parties, weddings, family obligations, etc. etc. etc. I know this summer, like many in my past, will go by in a blink, probably because it is so full of happy gatherings, and I'll find myself reaching for that jacket as the leaves turn pretty shades of yellow and orange and the chilly wind sends them soaring.
One way I'm planning to absorb as much summer as possible is by attending Concerts in the Park on Thursday nights at Hastings Park in Lexington to see the Metropolitan Wind Symphony play. There really isn't a whole lot about picnicking in the summer while listening to good music one can complain about. Not only are they incredibly talented as a group, but one of their saxophone players is strikingly handsome. You should probably come join me for some music and picnics and drinks (oh my!).
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Bzzzz... wack!
One of the huge perks to my job is the vast amount of speeches taking place daily about genomics related to a lot of really interesting topics, including but not limited to mental illness, heart disease and infectious diseases. I am really thankful for this environment, where intellectual curiosity is the expectation and attending these talks is encouraged, in addition to taking the time to eat your lunch (if it's not being provided at the talk) and have a life outside of work. This is sort of a long entry, but your brain likes to read things longer than a text message ;-)
Today's lunchtime talk was by one of the scientists researching mosquitos and malaria. Mosquitoes are a common frustration at many summer gatherings, often forcing the retreat indoors or at least behind screens, but lucky for us in this part of the world, they typically don't carry malaria with them.
SO, I learned all about transmission of malaria, which literally means "bad air" in Italian, because for a long time, no one knew how it spread. Mosquitoes, specifically Anopheles gambia, bite an infected animal to feast on a blood meal that will eventually help them hatch their eggs. Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria-causing parasite, infiltrates the gut of the A.gambia along with the blood, then migrates to their salivary glands. From here, they then infect other animals after feasting on another blood meal, roughly 10-12 days later. Eradicating malaria is complicated by a myriad of factors, mostly involving the mutating genomes which contribute to resistance to drugs and insecticides we are using to cure and protect people.
Interestingly enough, there has been no observation of resistance to quinine, the natural cure for malaria found in the bark of the cinchona tree. Crazy, right? Here we are, scrambling to find targets on their genome to develop insecticides and drugs that will squelch malaria every time we see an increase due to resistance to our previous "cure-all" and there is just this thing in nature that cures malaria in its natural state.
Another interesting factoid: different species of mosquitoes like to eat their blood meals from different animals, often having a ranked preference of their commonly available options. Turns out their kind of picky eaters.
AND they are picky maters! Females like to "swarm mate", meaning they observe this cloud of male mosquitoes showing of their aerobatic skills and then swoop in on the one they want. If you want a female to mate with a specific male (to witness a certain genome in their offspring) and just put the two of them in a little mating cage, she will oftentimes entirely refuse due to lack of options. Who wants to put in all the effort of hatching eggs if the male can't even fly well?
At a recent outdoor gathering where mosquitoes descended, Courtney, Ben and I pondered why mosquitoes biting people don't spread HIV, or if they did, and we had not heard of it. Since I had this mosquito expert sitting in the same room, I descended, much like these pests, after his speech to ask this rather unrelated question.
Between his knowledge of mosquitoes and others' knowledge of viruses, and HIV specifically, it was determined that there is no way the very sensitive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) could survive in the chemical environment of the gut of a mosquito after it had been ingested as part of a blood meal, nor had any of them heard of any instances of mosquitoes spreading HIV. Phew...
Knowledge dropped!
Today's lunchtime talk was by one of the scientists researching mosquitos and malaria. Mosquitoes are a common frustration at many summer gatherings, often forcing the retreat indoors or at least behind screens, but lucky for us in this part of the world, they typically don't carry malaria with them.
SO, I learned all about transmission of malaria, which literally means "bad air" in Italian, because for a long time, no one knew how it spread. Mosquitoes, specifically Anopheles gambia, bite an infected animal to feast on a blood meal that will eventually help them hatch their eggs. Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria-causing parasite, infiltrates the gut of the A.gambia along with the blood, then migrates to their salivary glands. From here, they then infect other animals after feasting on another blood meal, roughly 10-12 days later. Eradicating malaria is complicated by a myriad of factors, mostly involving the mutating genomes which contribute to resistance to drugs and insecticides we are using to cure and protect people.
Interestingly enough, there has been no observation of resistance to quinine, the natural cure for malaria found in the bark of the cinchona tree. Crazy, right? Here we are, scrambling to find targets on their genome to develop insecticides and drugs that will squelch malaria every time we see an increase due to resistance to our previous "cure-all" and there is just this thing in nature that cures malaria in its natural state.
Another interesting factoid: different species of mosquitoes like to eat their blood meals from different animals, often having a ranked preference of their commonly available options. Turns out their kind of picky eaters.
AND they are picky maters! Females like to "swarm mate", meaning they observe this cloud of male mosquitoes showing of their aerobatic skills and then swoop in on the one they want. If you want a female to mate with a specific male (to witness a certain genome in their offspring) and just put the two of them in a little mating cage, she will oftentimes entirely refuse due to lack of options. Who wants to put in all the effort of hatching eggs if the male can't even fly well?
At a recent outdoor gathering where mosquitoes descended, Courtney, Ben and I pondered why mosquitoes biting people don't spread HIV, or if they did, and we had not heard of it. Since I had this mosquito expert sitting in the same room, I descended, much like these pests, after his speech to ask this rather unrelated question.
Between his knowledge of mosquitoes and others' knowledge of viruses, and HIV specifically, it was determined that there is no way the very sensitive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) could survive in the chemical environment of the gut of a mosquito after it had been ingested as part of a blood meal, nor had any of them heard of any instances of mosquitoes spreading HIV. Phew...
Knowledge dropped!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Sunshine Fun Time
Summer Solstice - #4 and #8 are how I would have celebrated if it'd been a bit more sunny here :)
Happy weekend!
Happy weekend!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Adventures in Grocery Shopping
I can finally say that I understand grocery shopping. Jane and Pat, my oh-so-fortunate previous roommates, will attest that I went through phases of buying too much food after discovering Haymarket, Peapod, and Trader Joe's. I still think all of those places or delivery services are truly awesome, in very different ways, but now I understand that I simply couldn't eat all that I was purchasing before it went bad. This lead to lots of smelly produce occupying our trash more frequently than I'd like to admit.
These days, I am kind to my pedestrian/biker self and frequent the grocery store for small, easily mobile (read: fits in my backpack) amounts of food. I tell myself it's very European and "green" of me and that it has nothing to do with my lack of a car. And yes, I'll keep telling myself that until I graduate from school.
Regardless, on Monday night, after a black bean burger experiment gone awry (and a chocolate chip cookie experiment gone quite wonderfully) I headed to Shaw's with Hannah and Rachel. We gathered some fruit, yogurt, and other staples and headed to the check out.
It's rare that I am jealous of other shoppers or the content of their carriages, but the middle-aged couple in front of me in the Express lane had two items: one PBR pounder and one Heineken pounder. How carefree! They had even less to carry than I, and they were chatting about where to go on their walk now that they had their beer.
After discussing this scene, arranging our groceries in comfortable carrying position and exiting the store, we decided this was really an excellent idea, and we were silly to not take advantage of it on such a wonderful summer night. Re-enter the store.
Turns out... it doesn't really matter how much or how little food you buy. If you're walking home from the grocery store, you should DEFINITELY get a pounder to drink out of a paper bag while playing drinking games on the way home. :-)
That's all.
These days, I am kind to my pedestrian/biker self and frequent the grocery store for small, easily mobile (read: fits in my backpack) amounts of food. I tell myself it's very European and "green" of me and that it has nothing to do with my lack of a car. And yes, I'll keep telling myself that until I graduate from school.
Regardless, on Monday night, after a black bean burger experiment gone awry (and a chocolate chip cookie experiment gone quite wonderfully) I headed to Shaw's with Hannah and Rachel. We gathered some fruit, yogurt, and other staples and headed to the check out.
It's rare that I am jealous of other shoppers or the content of their carriages, but the middle-aged couple in front of me in the Express lane had two items: one PBR pounder and one Heineken pounder. How carefree! They had even less to carry than I, and they were chatting about where to go on their walk now that they had their beer.
After discussing this scene, arranging our groceries in comfortable carrying position and exiting the store, we decided this was really an excellent idea, and we were silly to not take advantage of it on such a wonderful summer night. Re-enter the store.
Turns out... it doesn't really matter how much or how little food you buy. If you're walking home from the grocery store, you should DEFINITELY get a pounder to drink out of a paper bag while playing drinking games on the way home. :-)
That's all.
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