More Where's Waldo...

The McCain Family, adopted bangladeshi daughter and all:


I'm trying to figure out if I feel sorry for her or not... My dad's from Bangladesh. That makes me Bangladeshi. And frankly, I'm glad my dad's not John McCain, because aside from campaign finance and some war stuff -- well, brown people do better with brown parents to teach them insecurity the good old fashioned way.

In other news, Elliott Smith killed himself a while back. But he was working on a new album, which I was waiting for. And well, now that he's eligible for the Selena treatment, he can finally do better than the soundtrack to a Gus Van Sant movie. Anyhow, the new album, milked right from the graveyard, comes out in October. I care.

I'm down to one key. The one to my lab. It's just kind of sad.
Yeah, enough of that.

.05 microseconds of baldspot fame

Today the moving out process has completed. Stereo system... sold. Computer... dumped (after this). Clothing... trashed in an optimistic weight-loss fury.

It's funny. Four years ago, when I got into MIT, I secretly said to myself, "Dev, if things go well, you might be telling your kids someday: 'Son, your mother and I met back when we were in college at MIT.'" Yeah, well that never happened. I now get to cling to the amusement of renewal of that quotation with 'UCLA' in MIT's place.

It's official, folks. I'm in 'Nature,' the premier publication for biologists everywhere. And though my research isn't in the journal, and though my name isn't printed anywhere, I'm going to take pride in the fact that the back of my head is in the most prestigious journal in science:

Yes, that bald spot waiting to happen is my glorious self. They wrote an article on the AFI thing I went to. Much to my parents' chagrin, I didn't rush the journalists with an inkjet-printed business card, and so they didn't even quote me. Who knows... it could have resulted in that lexis nexis hit that I've always dreamed of.

Ok, well take care everyone. I've been better, I've been worse.

i thought he'd look like dr. strangelove...

Kind of disappointed after learning that Joseph McCarthy looked like this:


I was hoping for a more disarmingly evil look, frankly. How can you lead a crusade against the USSR if you kind of look suspicious and Russian yourself, you know?

Fun, fun olympics watching last night. Until that got boring and we flipped to watch Bruce Willis in some movie where he revisits himself as a child and beats up a childhood bully, and voila, queues the costume change into a Porsce-driving executve.

There was an artist in Britain who had a very successful gallery exhibit called "Break down." It was a live exhibit where the guy destroys everything he owns. I get to do that pro bono this weekend, as I move out of baker.

for racists and farmers (or both!) everywhere...

had to put this up...

news that bugs me

I suppose I'm one standard deviation too far removed from the athlete's mind, but I'm just not getting this doping stuff. Two Greek athletes got screwed for being drugged. Big national controversy. But, if you know you're going to be tested, how is it that you can be sooooo terrifically dumb as to get yourself into national controversy when the olympics are going to be on your home turf after decades and decades? Even so, you're actually allowed to miss the first drug test. These folks missed the second, and in the process let down a nation.
[Oh well, nobody cares about the olympics anyhow.]

It's come to my attention that 60% of companies doing business in the US pay no income taxes. This, I do not understand either.

The whole "Christmas in Cambodia" story annoys me. John Kerry is a flaming exaggerator. I'll still vote for the man, but I was hoping I'd lose faith in him after the election, rather than before.

diet coke has changed my life

As an expert dieter, I can now open a bottle of diet coke from a vending machine so well that it doesn't fizz over. Took a while, but now I can never go back.

Enamored with this site.

As to my aversion with/for/of (?) the f-word, it's because my dear mother reads this and I wouldn't want her to hear any more expletives than she already has to coming from me.

There's a new-ish book about Bush -- basically a full psychoanalysis of him, going back to how he wasn't terribly bright in elementary school and compensated with gusto. It got me thinking -- there's money to be made. As much fun as psychological deconvolution of politicians is, wouldn't it be more fun and profitable to have a whole series of books psychoanalyzing celebrities? I'd read a psychoanalysis Paris Hilton and Kim Cattrall, at least...
(I later realized that what I'm longing for here is basically an E! True Hollywood Story.)

My life has boiled down to all research, all the time. On the plus side, I get a lot done before I get kicked out of Boston. On the downside, however, it just means I'll burn out by my second year of grad school, rather than my third.

Finally, I find most people are more excited about the olympics than the RNC. This, I do not get. It's like those people who'd rather be blind than deaf. Get with it, folks.

the where's waldo of expletives

1. How is it that Americans prefer golf to soccer? One is the professional executive's equivalent of bowling -- his struggle against, what, wind and sand? The other is an athlete's game against (whoa now) another f-ing team. I just don't get it. Hollywood even thinks it's exiting -- when's the last time you've seen a soccer movie? But they'll keep making "Bagger Vance" or "Tin Cup" (with Kevin Costner, no less) and seriously expect it to make money. I'm at a loss.

2. I saw "Garden State" today. Cleverly written, well done, well acted -- I think what it lacked is an f-ing plot. I never wanted to see that guy from "Ed" make it to B-list anyway.

3. Decided that there are two reasons we ask people questions. Rather, there are two kinds of people that will get a question from me. One is a respected expert in something, and he will get a question to get a fact or a philosophy that I will thereafter treat with care and esteem. The other, however, is more social-experiment. This type of question is directed towards a person to see how they will react, a poll of sorts. For instance, you'd ask a swing voter friend how they liked a speech not because you esteem their opinion, but because you're trying to connect with america. You'd ask your midwestern, male, age 18-24 friend how he liked a movie, not because you value the fact that he has the critical skills of an f-ing gnat, but because he represents what hollywood wants to impress. This type of question is inherently patronizing, and I find that I'm slipping into the indulgent habit of asking mostly type II questions. I guess that makes me an ass.

4. Jeremy Baskin is visiting Boston. We have renewed our vows, and he is still on the wedding invite list. If you don't know who he is or don't care, just think of this as one of those mentionings of boldface names in gossip columns that you skim right over but assume it's someone really f-ing important.

5. Ooh, just realized that my reference to Jeremy will be high on his google list (as well as googlism, but nobody cares about that anymore). That amuses me, given my choice diction surrounding his name. I bring this up because it amused me that I'm within the top 10 hits for a google on Brian Loux, the f-ing jackass who will forever compensate for underendowment. Maybe now I'll have 2 hits in his top 10.

6. I find it appalling that I will have to leave Boston within the month. It's finally hit me, and I've finally realized that it sucks. My research will no longer be mine. My social and cultural universe will be supplanted with the occasional vapidity of f-ing LA. And my entitlement to arrogance will be all but flushed (still in its first trimester, after all -- someday i will be indelibly arrogant...)

1/1/1900

I got bored and looked through the NYT archives, thinking that last turn of the century might have been more fun. Turns out the paper was much more of a Wall St. Journal back then...

"Where stood 25 years ago the word 'materialism' now stands the word 'psychology.' We have passed from the adoration of things to question whether they are there at all. We have passed through an arid belt of materialistic conclusions based upon the physical discoveries of science and experiment with the soul itself. We have lost our standard of measurements. We must find out way or be left by the march of philosophic thought to the dregs of our ancient supersition"
--Rev. Thomas Slicer, NYT, 1/1/1900

"The course of empire in past historical times has ... [been] markedly to the north. I think careful investigation will show I am correct in saying in general terms that no conflict between the North and South, whether political or commercial, has ever been waged in which the North was not successful."
--Gov. John R. Rogers of Washington State, NYT 1/1/1900

"All our Consuls ought to be men of business rather than of political ability, to aid in finding markets for our manufactured goods all over the world."
--William King, President of the Merchants' Assn of NY, NYT 1/1/1900

"ODD VISITORS AT THE MORGUE.; Woman Goes There Daily to Pray and Spank Her Children." --Headline from NYT 1/2/1900

There's no life news. No daily hallmark. Things are just plain flat out boring. booooooring. My daily highlights come out to be little more than tiffs about Michael Moore with my mother. And evenings usually mean Law and Order and lab. Aiming to do situps these days -- it's no longer a physical impossibility, which i suppose is a start.