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Llamaduck.blogspot.com

flight

I came into work this morning and as I sat down at my desk, I heard a very determined "PEEP! PeeP!" It was yet another hummingbird, attracted somehow to our lab! She was pretty distressed, but she seemed (unlike the one 2 weeks ago) to trust me to help it get free. When I walked over to the windows, she followed me, but didn't fly out. (arg) Finally, I lured her successfully out the window by taping up a piece of red paper. I heard her peeping to find her friends outside. poor thing. we need to get some screens.

The second flight-oriented comment - SpaceShipOne has done it! It took off at about 6:50am this morning, detached from it's momma plane, and shot up to 47,000 ft and was weightless. pretty dern cool. That and the news story from last week about humans being able to control video games with thoughts make the world of science fiction that much closer...

blogging in a vacuum

well, I apparently am not hitting on topics that generate comments OR I have no readers. will that stop me?? NO! jeez people, did you think I wasn't into blathering about my life on a semi-public forum or what?

So, this morning I got up and biked up to the Cheese Board. very nice ride at that hour. Dan took his break at 8:30am, so I met him for "lunch" (he started at 5am). I had the yummy chocolate thing. mmmmm mmmmm chocolate. Anyway, then I tried one of the most popular cheese, the Explorateur triple cream. Yeech! It was creamy, but then a horrid cream cheese after-taste. I told Dan not to bother...bleah! and that was cold. imagine it warm. eeeeeeew.

ramblings about takeshi kovacs

Takeshi Kovacs is the main character of Richard K. Morgan's first two works of fiction. The first was Altered Carbon and the second Broken Angels. The major category they fall into is SciFi. But the first one is really influenced by Noir, and so gets the sub-genre of Future Noir. Lovely! The second on is more straight SciFi, with some aspects of noir, but not enough to call it such. The main new idea in these books is that "real death" is usually avoided since human consciousness (memories, intellect, etc) has been digitized into a little drive, called a stack, which sits at the base of your skull. So when your body, or sleeve dies, your stack is downloaded into a new sleeve. nifty, but a bit trying. So Tak lives life after life, first as a regular maruading teenager and then as a member of the elite military group, the U.N. Envoys.

But the real question is, what is so appealing about Takeshi Kovacs? He's got ultimate control over his physical being, plus he always seems to have on a sleeve that has extra bits of perception via neurochemical enhancement. He doesn't stick to one body and Morgan isn't really into heavy description of his main character (the 2nd book only tells us that he's in an afro-caribbean sleeve). He's smart, but not thaaaat smart. I'm thinking that maybe it's power. Perhaps I am attracted to the idea of such a powerful person. He can manipulate people, read their emotions, tell if they're lying, lie, separate himself from reality to get shit down, etc. My other potential vein of thought was that he is knowledgeable and educated (about politics/war/violence/psychology), but he shirks all responsibility to act because of that knowledge or ability.

ahhh a powerful man who isn't driven to responsible. is that it?

food for peace!

Hi all - just fresh back from the berkeley farmer's market. And boy am I caffeinated to the gills, thanks to the blue bottle coffee folk's new orleans iced coffee. Man, that gets me everytime. And this time, I was sipping it, trying to remain calm, cool, and collected....when Taylor asked me to watch his stand for a few minutes (so he could pee). So there I was, trying to wheel and deal meats for the Fatted Calf, and almost gulping my coffee down. result? instant cracked-on caffeine high!

Let me be the first to say that my earlier post on the potential of coffee to unite the world in peace was a somewhat incomplete plan. I think that food needs to be a part of the peace effort. Sure, I'm not original in thinking this, but it is the path to peace that gets me most excited. I also think it could work. What better way to understand other people's lives and work than through agriculture?
Earlier this year I got excited about the idea of taking back the suburbs. The plan was to knock down fences and start up fields. Organic, of course. I envisioned the good orchard land of Walnut Creek being turned back into orchards. Instead of just competing with other neighborhoods at the swim meets, kids could compete for best peaches or best cherries or best walnuts, for god's sake. The big blockage there is that commercial agriculture gets commercial agricultural water prices. So, that's a pretty big problem. Not insurmountable.
Even without the suburbs retaken, farming and food could still lead us to better understanding with our neighbors and "enemies". What date farmer in the middle east wouldn't want to chat with the date farmers in CA about ways to make dates tastier and grow better? What snooty food yuppie wouldn't want to brag about how she spends one weekend a year at the farm, helping milk the goats for the goat cheese she eats by the pound? I think it could work. The more we emphasize our similarities the easier it is to get along and the harder it is to kill each other. Sure, the plan needs more fleshing out. Sure, I'm totally caffeinated, but it's good to dream.

more ballerina...

..so, avid readers...one of you will be receiving a hunk of the ballerina, straight from Matteo to you! I took M in to see the Cheese Board, and had to purchase a little hunk of the ballerina for her to take on her road trip. After all, it'll be 4+ hours in the car and so the cheese will be perfect for eating!

reflections

I imagine that everyone has those marker points that they can look back at and say, "then, that's when I woke up." It's that feeling of coming awake to the complexity of global power struggles, to the solid (but flitting) understanding of certain buddhist tenets, and to the hundreds of other things that you know but don't really feel deep down. Now, I'm realizing that I awaken to certain things over and over.

I'm not sure where I was going with that. Some arse is using a chopsaw in the yard nextdoor. it's 9:40pm, what are you doing? my husband is trying to sleep, you sh@t! oh, someone deliver us to a nice neighborhood!

all was delish!

the Ballerina goat gouda was fantastic. Matteo was totally right about it being a good picnic cheese. You can see it is a lovely color - caramel with white dots. It's 1.5 years old, so it's got a bit of a bite. It's not very goaty and not very salty, but it's got some other nice flavors which defy description. I'd give it an A.

Others conspired to bring additional tasty food to our post-swim picnic, and were successful (thanks ya'll)! Must mention that Jeanine also brought ECLAIRS. Eclairs! one had coffee-flavored icing and filling. soooooo tasty. Yes, I would like to have a pastry soon. If this is the kind of treatment I get after open water swimming events, then I will do alllll possible open water swimming events! So, I swam slightly slower than I'd expected, at about 37 minutes for the 1 mile. Dan also thought I'd swim faster. hmph, will have to start lifting weights.

ballerina goat gouda

more on it tomorrow....
...I do my 1 mile open water swim at Lake Berryessa, followed by a picnic during which the headlining cheese will be consumed. yum.

cute story: I went into the cheese board today to get cheese. I got the 3♥. I was served by one of Dan's mentors, Matteo. He made Dan some "medicine," since I told him that Dan was home sick and in bed. He sent me along with 3 dried figs, halved and stuffed with blue cheese. He directed me to have Dan eat them with a glass of wine. I did this when I got home, and Dan was very happy.

getting ahead of myself: postdoc locations

lancaster university, UK - clearly, I should have gone here for my PhD work. CLEARLY.

1. I almost applied to do my Ph.D. with Prof. Peter Diggle on issues of spatial statistics. I was smitten because he's published a few books & articles on environmental health and spatial stats. I wimped out because I didn't want to live in dreary grey England.
2. It turns out that one of the predominant research groups in vegetation uptake of persistent organic compounds in at Lancaster, led by Prof. Kevin Jones.

So, how perfect is that? Now we could move to England and I could get to know my sister-in-law. See? life can be easy.

university of catania, IT - Catania is nice (so long as mt.etna isn't erupting), and there is a professor there who has published a mess o' articles on PAH uptake by plants. Sadly, the most useful of the articles is published in Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds, and Berkeley doesn't buy that journal.

university of california, berkeley - well, very convenient location (as long as mt.diablo doesn't awaken). professors who are interested in vegetation-air hooha, and some that even know all about it!

university of siena oh yes, very nice. near lucca! I wouldn't need to find a dentist! And, one of the big names in the field is there...

sigh. I guess I have a long way to go before I need to worry about this kind of thing. But it sure is fun.

for the record..

I have always loved this quote, probably all three of my readers have seen it. It's from awhile ago in the NY Times, March 16, 2003:

To me the question of the environment is more ominous than that of peace and war. We will have regional conflicts and use of force, but world conflicts I do not believe will happen any longer. But the environment, that is a creeping danger. I'm more worried about global warming than I am of any major military conflict. - Hans Blix,

and so it begins...

Today after work Dan and I motorbiked over to the Cheese Board. Everyone knew him. Everyone was friendly (which made them seem younger, oddly). I even got to go in the back and schmooze with various members about housing and school. fun!

what cheese did we experience, you ask? many. my card was the king of clubs. I wanted something goaty and fresh, but a bit ripened. So Paul let me taste about 5 different goat cheeses. The first was a reallllly strong goat cheese. there was goat right up in my face wagging its little tail. Then a really salty one. Then 2 non-strong. And last, the winner, >garotin<, from southern france somewheres. It comes as one of those cute little cakes, with a washed rind. After I decided, Paul said that we had to taste the organic cabot chedder that had just come in. So we did. it was tasty too! We ended up getting a little cake of the Garotin and about a 1/4 lb of the chedder.

yum! so we just finished our second cheese plate of the evening (one early, one late, no dinner). We added in our Italian-bought balsamic vinegar and the last of the farmers market peaches. siiigh. I am a lucky llamaducky.

time to get serious

ok people, what's the deal with American coffee? why in god's name does it taste fruity??? Seriously, this is a problem. Coffee should be sliiiightly bitter, strong, and be able to stand up (at least!) to half-and-half. This is probably why Americans are less informed than, say, Italians about world events. For one, we aren't awoken, standing at the coffee bar by a nice macchiato. For two, we are left feeling unsatisfied by the fruityness and so become frustrated. then some people who are frustrated get violent, hence the world situation. And three, we don't congregate in the mornings at our favorite coffee bars and stand chatting with whomever else has just powered-up, so that many people don't even know their own neighbors. I think that Americans have a lot to gain by improving the state-side coffee situation.

♥ ♥ coffee for peace.♥ ♥


let's brainstorm - is it the beans? the grind? the execution of the espresso pull? it is the water? (perennial assumption) is it our dark and grimy hearts?

note: I think that as far as beans go, this guy r0cks.

bring on the doughnuts!

yes! I had a big, fat, glazed, twisted doughnut for breakfast! YUM! Something about my current hormonal-cocktail must be making it possible, because usually these things are totally disgusting to me.


So, I am realizing that there is a dark side to having a husband working 2 jobs - less vacation for him. very sad. We usually go somewhere mountainous together over the July 4th holiday, but he is skeptical about it this year. I am also doing my yearly backpacking with the backpacking crew, and he probably can't get time off for that either. Sigh. what's a wife to do?

wonderful quote!!

from Hilaire Belloc,
"Statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death."

turns out, he was the guy that wrote "cautionary tales for children" that Edward Gorey later made funny drawings for. (like "Jim, Who ran away from his Nurse, and was eaten by a Lion.")

(mostly) relaxing home life

a much more friendly topic, eh?

So, I had a nice weekend. Had pancakes at Elaine's one morning, and some fabulous thingy from Tacubaya the next. Hung out all day Saturday, shopping and laughing and eating. Lounged most of Sunday *and* went grocery shopping. I also bought three new herbies for my front "patio": cilantro, sweet basil, and MINT! I love mint. I hope it takes over everything, what could be better? And does anyone know if cilantro is an annual or a perennial?

here's a cute little pict of the mint:


The only dark side of my weekend was realizing how much I'm sick of living in this apartment.
^ ^
o.O bleah. (patented unhappy monkey face)
-

many many reasons, but primarily that the inconvenience of the noise and non-perfect internal layout is not being balanced by other factors as it once was. So, the hunt for a nice new-to-us home is on. If anyone hears of a nice 2 bedroom flat let me know!!

baghdad blogs

I don't know why I didn't think of this a long time ago, but there are a plethora of blogs written by Iraqis and non-Iraqis who are in Iraq right now. It's an interesting (if depressing) thing to read what they are thinking and experiencing as they live through the war/occupation. It makes it easier to understand what's happening since they aren't sanitized reports of the violence, disrespect and loss.

Yesterday I found this blog called Baghdad Burning, and have been "enjoying" reading it. I was especially struck by the descriptions she offers in her March 19, 2004 post.

There is also a very well-known blog from Iraq called Dear Raed that has been writen about in The Guardian, etc.

Nice to have the opportunity to personalize and humanize the war for which my taxes are paying...

more cheese to come!!

oh yes, the wonderful man whom I call my husband is now employed at the Cheese Board Collective! Communitistick cheese, bread and olives are upon us!!!

new commenting...

...new commenting, old comments lost lost lost forever (I guess).

done with departmental exam!!

woooooo! yay!!! done with my 1st required departmental exam. yesssssss.
now I am relaxing on the couch...today I will contemplate such difficult thoughts like "should I go up and swim at 11:30 or not.) instead of yesterday morning's thinking processes, "oh my god, my committee is adding more sampling to my list, ack!" or "oh my god, I'm sweating like a pig!"

yes, today will be mellow.
and it's Dan's birthday! double fun.