Announcing: Send Her On Her Way

Owing to the immense success of Pony Nuzzles and Slothy Snuggles, which had a first printing of five copies in two countries, I am undertaking my next non-fiction project.

Send Her on Her Way: Kat's Guide to Camping Properly is currently set to be released July 1st 2009 in .doc format!

What I do At Work, volume 8

Hi!  Greetings from...work.  This week I'm designing primers--little chunks of DNA that seek out and bind to their complimentary sequences in busted up genomic DNA samples--so that I can amplify two genes that are missing from our Complex I subunit set. 

One of those genes hasn't been sequenced in Fundulus or Danio, so I'm making some degenerate primers for identifying it.  Whatcha do with those, is make an alignment of protein sequences from closely related organisms--other fish in this case--and figure out what the possible combinations of nucleotides are for the amino acids in highly conserved regions, and then design a primer from those. 

Most amino acids are coded for by more than one set of nucleotides, so you need more than the typical four letters--A,C,T,G--to describe them.  The degenerate code contains letters that mean things like "any thing but T" or "A and C only".  So, while I was digging around in my protein alignment, I came across this potential primer, which I think may be the best one ever designed:

GAY MGN GAY AGN GAY

Too bad it's so repetitive...

Free Form Book Club

Thanks for everyone who participated in our last meeting of the FFBC.

Here are the results of the discussion:

1. Abortus is gross, so is preserving bodies in honey
2. Anna would like to be under a tree for eternity
3. We're invaluable, maybe.  Gold teeth help.

So...this week I'm reading Continental Drift by Russell Banks.  It's pretty good, you know for a book about typical American life in the 80's that was written by a Brit.  Any one else read it?

H1N1 and You

I'm taking the H1N1 flu seriously. It's probably only because I like post-apocalyptic movies, or maps that include markers for Death. No, no, it's not that. It's really because I love stocking up on canned food and having an excuse not to go to work. Hurricanes, snow days, pandemic disease. You name it...I'm on it.

You may know that WAGGGS, that's the World Assocciation for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts NOT Wives And Girlfriends you brits, has a world center very close to Mexico City. The news from the Chalet regarding the Cabana is this:

"Hey,

All's ok there at the moment so far as we've heard, although they have lots of people cancelling trips (some are coming here for summer instead now). General advice seems to be not to go to mexico at all, but some people will keep going i guess. i'm not sure if they'll stay open or close for a time as a precaution and send their staff home, but at the moment they're just being careful, wearing masks, washing their hands every hour etc. I'll try and keep you updated as I hear more though."

So, that's good news, I guess.

In other H1N1/me related news: Laura's been sick. I'm not saying she has the H1N1, but she did keep me up half the night with her Oinking...

Overwhelming

It's okay, I'm still here, but don't get too comfortable--Swine Flu is coming!  Much like the seasonal flu, car accidents, violence, cancer, and natural disasters, people will die from it. 

To be safe, I'm stocking up on Purel, bottled water, face masks and rhinestone studded gloves.

I'm also writing my proposal.

www.icanhascheezburger.com

Free Form Book Club Meeting #1

Thanks to a miserable 1.5 hour journey to school by bus this morning, I've finished Stiff.

There are some really banal discussion questions in the back of the book, like "Why do people want to work with cadavers?  Would YOU want to work with a cadaver, or is that Icky?  Discuss."  Common' it's someone's job to write these things.  It might as well be mine.

So here are the new discussion questions, and you don't even have to have read the book to weigh in:

1.  Which is a more offensive word made up specifically to describe something yucky, abortus or cremains?
2.  Where do you want your left overs to end up?
3.  How much is a cadaver worth anyway?  I saw figures around $500.  I think I'm worth more, what about you?


I'd like to be cremated (or freeze dried, should the technology ever catch on) and dumped under a tree somewhere at Camp St. Albans, preferably in the chapel area.  I realize that this will probably have to be a clandestine remains scattering, and I hope that there is lots of fence climbing and middle of the night shenanigans involved.  Don't tell Lav. 

Wow!

I can post by email now. 

This morning I had to go to the Social Security Administration to order a new Social Security card.  I don't know where my last one went.  I suspect it is floating around somewhere in a box and that it's been there ever since the Shuffle (moving to Switzerland that is).  Turns out I need it to get fingerprinted for my next adventure.  Middle School Science.

I've recently been awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship--with the attached strings of bringing science to the public.  The snotty, self-involved, sometimes difficult 11 to 13 year old public.  I'm really excited about it.  Not only will it get me off the Island, but maybe I'll have a bit of fun every once in a while.

So the SSA wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Actually it was really easy to get a new Social Security card.  I showed up, sat down for about 10 minutes and then talked to a guy at a counter for less than 5 and I was on my way.  I also got to enjoy the small victory of understanding where I was supposed to go when they announced my ticket number and window.  See, it was all in spanish.  Ahhh Miami.  But I'm learning some good solid nouns, like la ventana.  The Window.

Open letter to The Best Team In Baseball (for now):   Seriously Marlins?  The Pirates?

Really?

Playboy names Univ. of Miami top U.S. party school

Top. Notch. Education.

But check out this awesome picture I made today. Ahhh, gene expression correlations.

What Laura Does

When she is volunteering.


from www.miamiherald.com

Who says we can't?

The Stranger blog says that The Onion blog is nuts for trying to start a book club. I bet that someone said that about Oprah, too!

I think it's a good idea.

I'll be the first member. Since I'm reading Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach right now, that's what we'll start with.

Here's what you do:

1. Run out RIGHT NOW, buy the book. (or get it at the library, or from a friend)
   
2. Read it.
3. Check back here later, we'll have a discussion.
4. It will be fun.

That is all.

Haircut, a play in one act

Laura got a new haircut today. Why? Why?

This is why.

Scene: 10:30 at night, a dimly lit Miami apartment.

Laura: Hey, I want you to cut my hair.
Me, tooth brush in mouth: Uhh mhh isshhh lllahhhhhttt
Laura: I don't care, I really need a hair cut.

I walk to bathroom, spit out foam.

Me: Laura, I've had a beer, it's 10:30. This is a really bad idea.
Laura: No it's not, it's easy, you'll do fine.
Me: Ok, whatever. Let me grab the scissors.

10 minutes later. Laura is looking intently at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

Laura, hesitantly: Well, it's not atrocious.
Me, frantically: I told you it was a bad idea!

Wanna see $800 worth of baseball tickets?

Best. Team. In. Baseball.

What Laura Does.

When she's not volunteering.

Eggs come from Easter Bunnies. Right?

Laura and I celebrated Palm Sunday, or Jesus' Triumphant Arrival into Jerusalem the traditional way.

Careful, they're slippery.
Blue goes with orange, right?


Kinda boring, actually.
Laura's masterpiece. Notice the snowflake pattern. This is caused by shell-shatter, which describes the condition of an Easter egg after you drop it on the table 6 times.
My egg (right) was prettier than Laura's (left). Because I tried.

My Fish Tank

This is my fish tank. I actually have a fish in there. I've seen him one or two times. He's a little goby and lives in the oyster shells.

It's not a very exciting tank. If you look closely though, I have some cool critters in there. I've collected them on field trips and locally in Biscayne Bay.Find the mud crab. She's gravid. Perhaps we have some baby crabs in our future?
Connor put something decent on for the photo shoot. This is his original shell. I dug it up the other day while trying to release some of the built up hydrogen sulfide from the sand. Nasty little anaerobic bacteria produce hydrogen sulfide--which gives off a characteristic rotten egg smell. The gas gets trapped below the sand and if large enough pockets build up, it can break free and kill aquarium animals. So I try to stir it every once in a while.

My brittle stars, Stumpy and Stella. They're new additions, came in with the mud crabs.

Laura and I attended a lecture about invasive lion fish tonight. They're a major problem in the Caribbean. Word on the street is that during Hurricane Andrew several of them were accidentally released into local waters. The rest is history. Luckily they haven't established themselves in the Keys yet. I hope to never cross paths with one in the wild--they are aggressive and cause painful stings--but the lecture did make me want to keep on in my house. I'm not sure if that was the point of the talk...

We've got a 20 gallon tank just hanging out in the spare room closet... Maybe I'll find a lion fish floating around at Hobe beach or something.

An assortment of merriment, Easter Special

Easter is coming up. Here in the USA we celebrate Easter by PUTTING THINGS IN BASKETS!

Like, lotion.








If you're still around after watching that filth: Scott will most certainly be sporting the Lion Cut in the future. His fur needs to grow out a bit more for it to be most successful though I think. Plus: I'm broke, hair cuts are expensive. This is the same dog who is afraid of kittens and plastic bags, there's NO way he'll let me cut his hair myself.

Scott's next haircut

BEST IDEA EVER


from failblog.org

I found my camera cable

Jen and I do St. Augustine, Florida. Photo Essay.

First stop: The Cemetary.

Which is awfully well maintained by a team of elderly people. No one has been interred here since 1864, but still they come daily and...water the graves.The cemetary was created in the early 19th century for non-Catholics and yellow fever victims. For those two reasons it was outside the city walls.
They were more straightforward back then...
Next Stop: Castillo de San Marcos, oldest masonry fort in the US. Also, home of the oldest men in full wool uniforms in 90 degree heat.

"Would you mind if my friend took a picture of us?"
"Not at all, come closer, grab my gun"
"Ok!"
"Hey, does anyone else have a problem with nipple chafing?"
"Oh, like you wouldn't believe!"
"Can someone help me with this wheelbarrow of gun powder? Seriously you guys, I don't have the patience to stand out here and shoot the breeze. My breeches are SOAKED."
They march too.
Then they set off cannons.
"Excuse me, colonial reenactor, would you take a picture of me and my girlfriend?"
"ok..."
--It's too bad I didn't get my camera out fast enough, but imagine if you will this guy with his musket propped up against his hip, taking a picture of the smiling couple.
When they weren't taking photos of tourists, they were shooting their muskets over the edge of the fort.
Jen made some new friends. Really we were just very hot and wanted to go somewhere with air conditioning. We found this indian stuff shop. It was going out of business and was very depressing inside. But it was cool enough.
This is our pirate hostel.

These are REAL PIRATES. They roam the streets of St. Augustine after dark.
Al Capone and I had a chat.
This is a group of Girl Scouts singing "On My Honor" in the town square. They're EVERYWHERE.

It rained REALLY hard overnight. Here's a new pond. I think I'll go for a swim.

And then I drove home. The End.

What I do at work...

My own mother called me BORING. Humph. It really can't be helped, though. See: I used to have a job that was interesting. I spent a pretty large part of every day doing something interesting, or at least thinking of interesting things. If I had down time, I could write down those interesting things and other people could read them. And thus, my blog wasn't terribly boring.

These days, my work is pretty boring. Even if I could describe the things that I find interesting about it...any audience that would also find that interesting is probably vanishingly small. So I just skip it. When I find myself with a little bit of free time, I'm up to my eyeballs in Girl Scout stuff. Planning program, responding to parent emails, filling out paperwork. Then, by the time I get home, staring at a computer screen is really not on my list of things to do.

However, we all know that this is an excuse. Really, the reason that my blog has been boring, is that I'm bored. See how that works? Boredom begets boredom. Stay tuned....

im so bored

im so bored im so bored. Isn't there a program to do this FOR me?

I won't even bore you with the details about why I'm bored.

I can't find my camera cable. When I do: hilarity will ensue.