CHELSEA LATELY AMY SEDARIS INTERVIEW

This is amazing. I love Amy Sedaris and David Sedaris. Funny!

Mr. Green Genes!

The Science Blogs weekly recap is always fodder for my blog.  You should check it out.  Anyway, here is a transgenic kitty.  His name is Mr. Green Genes.  Those silly scientists!  I mean, they spend a lot of money of fruit flies in France!  FRUIT FLIES! I kid you not!

This comes after I introduced a speaker for the Animal Science seminar yesterday (I was volunteered for this committee...). His talk was entitled: "Cloned livestock for food: hazards and benefits"  Kind of interesting.  Did you know that Mad Cow disease is not really a disease? It's more of an interaction between cow genes and human genes (prion).  You have to have a particular amino acid at a particular site in a particular protein to be susceptible to it.  In fact, the way that it works is sort of a domino effect...reminds me of Ice 9 from Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.  Crazy.

What are you pretending not to know?

I copied this from an article in the Huffington Post about the body language between Cindy and John McCain.  The context is: How could John McCain not have known that his wife had a drug addiction?

The article strikes me because I think I (and others I've observed) have a tendency to ignore the obvious.  How many of us have dated someone, only to break up and think later "how could I have been so blind/stupid/idiotic/such a sucker?"  And the mechanics of the mind that make habituation and oblivion (compartmentalizing?) possible for coping are not restricted to relationships.  I remember thinking that when I couldn't walk, my whole body was tingling and I couldn't use my right hand...that I'd just climbed too much, even though I'd had an MRI and the doctor ordered another one because he was concerned.  In hindsight sometimes I say "I always knew something was wrong."  Or, a part of me did.

Super-cliche, but put well below:

"There's a deeper answer, though, to the question of how partners gradually become oblivious to the painfully obvious. It speaks to something every conscious couple needs to know. A few years ago a car passed us with a bumper sticker that had an intriguing question written on it, "What are you pretending not to know?" It's a question that all of us should ask of ourselves on a regular basis. It takes a heroic act of unconsciousness not to notice so profound a thing as drug addiction in one's partner. In our work with couples in devitalized marriages, however, we've found that we humans are highly skilled at sealing out awareness of deep unhappiness from within ourselves. Because we get so skilled at blocking the flow of awareness inside ourselves, we also get good at averting our eyes from the obvious signs of distress in our partners. Eventually, if we continue to look away from our own inner distress and the outer signs of distress in our partners, we gradually dam the flow of intimate contact with our partners as well as ourselves. Without the lifeblood hum of genuine intimacy, the relationship becomes a devitalized shell characterized by perfunctory hugs and chilly smiles in public, and much worse behind closed doors. Any experienced relationship therapist is familiar with the devitalized marriage; we've probably worked with more than 500 such relationships over the past 30 years. In order to be successful in re-vitalizing these relationships, it's essential to help them straighten out a terrible misunderstanding about what love is.

The misunderstanding is caused by a false belief about love. It's the twisted notion that loving someone means that you'll lie for him or her. "

Not in Yosemite.

I'm not in Yosemite anymore, and keep in mind that it is Saturday.  I feel that this is a testament to how freakin' restless I am.  Why couldn't I hang out for another day and wait 'til the crowd from the Bay came in?  The thought "wasting" another day drove me back to Davis.  Yeah, I could have hiked, done some studying, bouldered by myself, whatever.  I mean, Christ, I was in Yosemite during the prime season, surrounded by beautiful fall colors.  

But I left.  So now I am home doing laundry.  I am a loser.

Part of the reason is that partner after partner bailed on the weekend.  Drew bailed, Rob Miller bailed, Dan has partners.  Even people like me, who have backup plan after backup plan get hosed with partners.  Maybe I'll start bouldering more.  

Who out there is always psyched?  Who is always motivated?  Who has no other priorities except for rock climbing with me?  I wish I could clone myself so that I would always have a partner.  On the other hand, I'm quite sure I would hate myself after one day of climbing with myself, so I guess I should be grateful for the partners that I have.  Plus, who would lead the hard pitches?

I can make list after list of things I should/could get done, but I always end up with my ass parked in front of my computer trying to connect with people via gchat, FB, or whatever.  Loneliness and ennui suck.  Add a healthy dose of restlessness to that and you have...me.

David Sedaris on undecided voters

“I look at these people and can't quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention? To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. "Can I interest you in the chicken?" she asks. "Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it? To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked."

Still in Yosemite

This week has been a little weird.  My parents decided to cancel the credit card (that they pay for) to which I charge my medical expenses, which as you can imagine are significant.  So I've been getting phone calls from the hospital and doctor's offices saying "you're card was declined."  Lame.

That isn't the lamest part.  The lamest part is that they didn't tell me that they were canceling the card.  Doesn't that seem like the sort of thing that I deserve to be told?

In other news, my thyroid biopsy indicated no malignancy, so I can move on from that stressor, and on to the stress of studying for my qualifying exam on December 8.  Yay?  In some twisted way I was hoping I would have to have surgery so I could put off the exam a little bit longer, but this is good. It will be good to get it over with.

I'm still in Yosemite.  I rested Monday and Tuesday (for lack of partners) and did Astroman with Dan yesterday.  He led everything and hauled, because he is a rock star and I am not.  I fell getting into the slot, but had learned from a previous attempt to tell the leader to put gear in the back so that I wouldn't be dangling in space.  I was able to get into the slot and just got worked.  Other than that, I thought I was going to send everything 'til I fucked up on the last pitch and fell.  Lame.  On the whole I felt better though, probably because I'm a better climber now and also because we had plenty of water (but still not enough).  There was a party of Swedes behind us the whole way.  They had just sent Golden Gate and were pretty fun to hang out with at the belays.  One of the guys had gotten worked in the Monster Offwidth, causing lots of bloodshed.  Doing the Harding Slot 2x (he lowered to redpoint) tore off all his scabs and he was bleeding profusely.  Savage.  Also they had just spent 2 days on Quantum Mechanics and had little water and no chalk.  Supremely savage.

I'm not sure what is going on this weekend, but I'd like to go cragging.  Unfortunately, most of what I'd like to do gets lots of sun exposure and the temps have increased by quite a bit.  

In other news, I've been fortunate enough that Justin is a nice person and has let me stay at his house.  But I have been unfortunate in that Turtle, his dog, has eaten quite a lot of my food by jumping up on the countertops (I should put the food crate up higher, I know, I know).  

Here is a list of the things of mine that Turtle has eaten:

1 Odwalla bar (Super Protein flavor)

1 package of rice cakes

half a package of Newman O's

1 block baked Tofu

1 container of Parmesan Cheese

The Newman O's were the most tragic because I had been thinking about them all through the last half of Astroman.  I was bummed.

Sorry Justin.

atheist bus: all aboard!!

check this out.