Tina Turner (R&R singer/actress)
William Burroughs (homosexual writer)
Bette Davis (fierce actress)
Gregor Mendel (geneticist)
Barbara McClintock (geneticist)
Maria Callas (opera singer)
Charles Darwin (scientist)
Guiseppe Verdi (composer)
Deitrich Fischer-Dieskau (singer)
Francis Poulenc (composer)
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tosca, mi fai dimenticare Iddio!
Craig came into town for the weekend and here's what happened:
Friday: went to get Indian food and tried my best to die from an acute peanut allergic reaction. Forgot to give Craig the key and my phone is lost and his phone was dead, so I couldn't call him, so I sat in the ER waiting room while he ate ice cream outside my front door, until we finally met at 10PM. And by then, I just crawled in bed and tried to sleep off what felt like a stampede of water buffaloes across my stomach. Good times!
Saturday and Sunday we got to hang out and enjoying picnicking and brunch. Drank enough mimosas to awaken said water buffaloes and had to sleep off an impending hangover by the pool. What a hard life.
Monday: trip to San Francisco and the California Academy of Sciences (where nerds go to have fun), the musee mechanique (very touristy, but full of fabulously disturbing player pianos), tour a real retired WWII submarine in the harbor (just thinking about all those sweaty sailors stuck down there for 75 days made me want to have a smoke afterwards...and I don't smoke), go thrifting at the apty named thrift-town (where I got bambo shaped tumblers and matching blue willow patterned Japanese stoneware...recycle, reuse, reduce in action), and swing by El Farolito (my favorite hole-in-the-wall Mexican in the Mission).
Back in PA, we went to the Nut House (despite all my recent adverse peanut experiences) where Craig got to meet more of my grad school friends and get most of the way hammered.
All in all, a pretty fantastic birthday!
I also got to spend a lot of down time with my sweetest baby Craiger, reaffirming a love for my very own life-sized hunky ken-doll.
This week will be spent reading everything I can get my hands on concerning DNA replication timing, human repetitive elements, and nuclear compartmentalization. Yay for exciting science.
What will 24 have in store?
Is it time to quote Fried Green Tomatoes: "Face it girls, I'm older and have more insurance"?
Friday: went to get Indian food and tried my best to die from an acute peanut allergic reaction. Forgot to give Craig the key and my phone is lost and his phone was dead, so I couldn't call him, so I sat in the ER waiting room while he ate ice cream outside my front door, until we finally met at 10PM. And by then, I just crawled in bed and tried to sleep off what felt like a stampede of water buffaloes across my stomach. Good times!
Saturday and Sunday we got to hang out and enjoying picnicking and brunch. Drank enough mimosas to awaken said water buffaloes and had to sleep off an impending hangover by the pool. What a hard life.
Monday: trip to San Francisco and the California Academy of Sciences (where nerds go to have fun), the musee mechanique (very touristy, but full of fabulously disturbing player pianos), tour a real retired WWII submarine in the harbor (just thinking about all those sweaty sailors stuck down there for 75 days made me want to have a smoke afterwards...and I don't smoke), go thrifting at the apty named thrift-town (where I got bambo shaped tumblers and matching blue willow patterned Japanese stoneware...recycle, reuse, reduce in action), and swing by El Farolito (my favorite hole-in-the-wall Mexican in the Mission).
Back in PA, we went to the Nut House (despite all my recent adverse peanut experiences) where Craig got to meet more of my grad school friends and get most of the way hammered.
All in all, a pretty fantastic birthday!
I also got to spend a lot of down time with my sweetest baby Craiger, reaffirming a love for my very own life-sized hunky ken-doll.
This week will be spent reading everything I can get my hands on concerning DNA replication timing, human repetitive elements, and nuclear compartmentalization. Yay for exciting science.
What will 24 have in store?
Is it time to quote Fried Green Tomatoes: "Face it girls, I'm older and have more insurance"?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Drinking and oath, and smutty jest
I haven't been this happy in a long time. I think I have finally settled in to the whole grad school thing, have a support net, still long to live in glamorous SF, etc.
The past couple months have been an extraordinary surge of (scientific) creativity and fulfillment. I can't remember the last time that I was this excited about science.
I have picked a thesis lab and start next week (after my birthday, the big 2-4).
And yet, a little of me is missing. My Craiger and my zipper are still living in Missouri, and although he is coming to visit this weekend, he will have to go back on Tuesday. When we finally live together, I wonder if I will appreciate it after being apart so long? Will I get used to coming home before it's dark every night? Will I get a motorcycle so I can keep up with by BF who is now officially a biker daddy?
One thing is for sure: I have found a group of friends that make me happy, and I hope I do the same for them. This weekend we hung out at an out-of-town profs house. Drinking ensued, and Lia and I may or may not have cross-dressed and posed with said professor's Lasker.
The past couple months have been an extraordinary surge of (scientific) creativity and fulfillment. I can't remember the last time that I was this excited about science.
I have picked a thesis lab and start next week (after my birthday, the big 2-4).
And yet, a little of me is missing. My Craiger and my zipper are still living in Missouri, and although he is coming to visit this weekend, he will have to go back on Tuesday. When we finally live together, I wonder if I will appreciate it after being apart so long? Will I get used to coming home before it's dark every night? Will I get a motorcycle so I can keep up with by BF who is now officially a biker daddy?
One thing is for sure: I have found a group of friends that make me happy, and I hope I do the same for them. This weekend we hung out at an out-of-town profs house. Drinking ensued, and Lia and I may or may not have cross-dressed and posed with said professor's Lasker.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Creature of the night
My nocturnal state has once again reared its ugly head. The relative absence of classwork commitments coupled with my flexible hours as a scientist extraordinaire has caused my whole-sale shift from the diurnal schedule on which the rest of the world operates.
This has been a longstanding struggle. Ever since I was a child I was always a night owl. Recent experiments show that ex-vivo cell lines of extreme larks or night owls maintain their altered circadian rhythm as assayed by florescent reporters. So I am biologically justified in bizarre habit.
I always used to dream of becoming an entomologist that studied moths so I would have an excuse to stay up late. Watching Dave Attell's Insomniac proves conclusively that the late night folk are way more interesting anyway.
Today we will see if I can get back on track. Not so much out of necessity, but just out of principle. Here goes cold turkey: twitching, sweating, the whole nine yards.
Update: By the way, epic fail.
This has been a longstanding struggle. Ever since I was a child I was always a night owl. Recent experiments show that ex-vivo cell lines of extreme larks or night owls maintain their altered circadian rhythm as assayed by florescent reporters. So I am biologically justified in bizarre habit.
I always used to dream of becoming an entomologist that studied moths so I would have an excuse to stay up late. Watching Dave Attell's Insomniac proves conclusively that the late night folk are way more interesting anyway.
Today we will see if I can get back on track. Not so much out of necessity, but just out of principle. Here goes cold turkey: twitching, sweating, the whole nine yards.
Update: By the way, epic fail.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
For God knows how long, I have been morbidly fascinated with LBJ and Lady Byrd.
Today as I picked out tomato, pepper, and tomatillo plants for my garden, I was reminded of Lady Byrd's fervent support of highway beautification saying, "And ahn evreh street coh-nuh, there woood be a shuh-rooob."
My grandpa lived through the Johnson administration, and always joked that highway beautification should be "riding with the top of the convertible up so no one would have to look at Lady Bird's ugly daughters".
The genteel Lady Bird was also a strong woman, one of the few who could reason with her heavy-handed husband. Against the wishes of LBJ, she used her inhertence to invest in radio and television stations in Texas, ammassing a $150 million dollar empire.
Playing second fiddle to Jackie Kennedy, devoted to her brutish and filandering husband, Lady Bird strikes a tragic yet stoic figure. Enduring the scorn of her contemporary liberals, Lady Bird--revisionist history notwithstanding--remains one of the most influential first ladies.
Despite their outdated gender construction, first ladies hold a special place in my heart. That's why Theresa Heinz Kerry would have never done: her eccentric accent and silk scarves were just too much for an America weaned on graciousness and accessibility.
Michelle Obama, seemingly overcoming her "strange mix of priviledge and victimology", has already won me over by planting a garden outside the Whitehouse. It's true, the path to my heart is through subsistence agriculture.
Today as I picked out tomato, pepper, and tomatillo plants for my garden, I was reminded of Lady Byrd's fervent support of highway beautification saying, "And ahn evreh street coh-nuh, there woood be a shuh-rooob."
My grandpa lived through the Johnson administration, and always joked that highway beautification should be "riding with the top of the convertible up so no one would have to look at Lady Bird's ugly daughters".
The genteel Lady Bird was also a strong woman, one of the few who could reason with her heavy-handed husband. Against the wishes of LBJ, she used her inhertence to invest in radio and television stations in Texas, ammassing a $150 million dollar empire.
Playing second fiddle to Jackie Kennedy, devoted to her brutish and filandering husband, Lady Bird strikes a tragic yet stoic figure. Enduring the scorn of her contemporary liberals, Lady Bird--revisionist history notwithstanding--remains one of the most influential first ladies.
Despite their outdated gender construction, first ladies hold a special place in my heart. That's why Theresa Heinz Kerry would have never done: her eccentric accent and silk scarves were just too much for an America weaned on graciousness and accessibility.
Michelle Obama, seemingly overcoming her "strange mix of priviledge and victimology", has already won me over by planting a garden outside the Whitehouse. It's true, the path to my heart is through subsistence agriculture.
Friday, May 15, 2009
I used to think it was foolish to pander to Middle America: "We're just like anyone else, living in committed, monogamous relationships" or "We deserve the pursuit of happiness".
These arguments are intrinsically flawed because they seek the sanction of the heterosexual oppressors. I know I'm being dramatic, but did reasoning with the plantation owner emancipate the slaves? The "arc of justice"--it's now fashionable again to quote MLK--is usually steered by the courts not the electorate.
The more I think about it, I'm not sure if I like the direction of the contemporary LGBT movement.
Chasing after the double-strollered suburban dream somehow negates the long history of gay counter culture. I'm confused. Are we saying we want to be like everyone else, or we want everyone else to be like us?
When GLAAD protests the portrayals of lesbians in "Basic Instinct" or gay promiscuity in "Crusing" I want to stomp my feet and scream, "Who cares?!". When the day comes that dykes can't be sensual murderesses or fags can't be sweaty cock-fiends it's the day I get off this motherfucking train.
Supposedly, the movement dropped NAMBLA as a liability along the way. I guess distancing themselves from pedophiles served their purpose, but when will the assimilation stop?
The sad part? I would rather have gay marriage banned in all states immediately and see that mental midget with the plastic tits be the poster child of the intellectual meritocracy than have snivelling Perez Hilton be a flag bearer for the LGBT cause.
Opposite marriage indeed.
These arguments are intrinsically flawed because they seek the sanction of the heterosexual oppressors. I know I'm being dramatic, but did reasoning with the plantation owner emancipate the slaves? The "arc of justice"--it's now fashionable again to quote MLK--is usually steered by the courts not the electorate.
The more I think about it, I'm not sure if I like the direction of the contemporary LGBT movement.
Chasing after the double-strollered suburban dream somehow negates the long history of gay counter culture. I'm confused. Are we saying we want to be like everyone else, or we want everyone else to be like us?
When GLAAD protests the portrayals of lesbians in "Basic Instinct" or gay promiscuity in "Crusing" I want to stomp my feet and scream, "Who cares?!". When the day comes that dykes can't be sensual murderesses or fags can't be sweaty cock-fiends it's the day I get off this motherfucking train.
Supposedly, the movement dropped NAMBLA as a liability along the way. I guess distancing themselves from pedophiles served their purpose, but when will the assimilation stop?
The sad part? I would rather have gay marriage banned in all states immediately and see that mental midget with the plastic tits be the poster child of the intellectual meritocracy than have snivelling Perez Hilton be a flag bearer for the LGBT cause.
Opposite marriage indeed.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Walk. Now walk.
Yay for drinking mimosas at work on a Friday afternoon and then grinding worms while listening to RuPaul's "Cover Girl (Put the Bass in Your Walk)" when totally buzzed.
Later tonight we're having a Seder celebration (Go Jew Party!).
I love Stanford.
Later tonight we're having a Seder celebration (Go Jew Party!).
I love Stanford.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
