Annabeth: The Collected Ramblings

P.S.

2012-01-22T06:38:00.000-08:00

There is a magnet on the fridge at the new house that reads:

Having someplace to go is HOME
Having someone to love is FAMILY
Having both is a BLESSING

(I'm sure you can picture the cutesy font and floral background).

It is taking all the self-control I have not to add an extra line underneath:

Having none of the above is GUELPH

Never mind! I will just have to make sure that I do what I have to go to get out fast...

New Year, New House, New Students... New Thesis Draft?

2012-01-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

So, new house. I moved in straight off the plane from Alberta, at about midnight on a Monday. It took me two days to meet any housemates, so that was deeply weird. Luckily there is a super chatty one called Kate who caught me leaving on the third day and gave me the lowdown.

New House Pros:
- SO CLOSE TO WORK. I am still excited about this. I used to walk past this place every day and then keep walking for 40 minutes until I got to 127. Now, if I forget something at home/school, it's no big deal! I could even COME HOME FOR LUNCH! (not that I ever do).
- Someone is designated to clean! That person does not require nagging! The bins even get taken out and the toilet paper replaced. Heaven.
- If something is broken, in theory someone will come fix it. About to test this out with a burnt-out lightbulb, as soon as my room is in a state that I'm not embarrassed to let the landlord in :/
- Big huge window. Natural light rather than a view of next-door's hallway: bliss!
- Never see housemates unless I want to, and way less kitchen and bathroom crowding than you would expect.

New House Cons:
- That one weird dude who told me he's been "watching my room to see when my light would come on" right after I moved in. (Have avoided the heck out of him since). Creepy, or just slightly socially awkward? I don't necessarily care to find out. Luckily, as above, you pretty much never see anyone if you don't want to.
- Small room, right next to the bathroom. Awesome.
- Coin laundry.
- People who beep the microwave a million times at 6am. Although lately it seems I'm able to sleep through this, so dropping down on the cons list. In general people are pretty good about not making noise in the common areas.
- For some reason, all the S1 shelves (my room's name) are the highest ones, so I can't actually reach anything without climbing on chairs.

The setup is basically a big house that's been made into a sort of boarding house. It's like if you lived in a hostel for months on end, but with fewer Australians. When I come upstairs it's just a hallway full of closed doors, unless someone is cooking (rare). Mind you, I'm generally in the lab from 9 until 8 or 9 or 10, so maybe I'm just missing the majority of activity. Everything is hilariously labelled ("Put shower mat HERE." "Do not use this soap dish." "Men: please consider sitting down for all your toilet activities" "Only two pairs of shoes per person in front hall please.") including all the shelves in the kitchen, so there is no question where your stuff goes. It's going to be a tight squeeze once I get my stuff back, but I will manage...

Anyway, at this stage it suits me fine. So nice not to have the drama (or the sullen boyfriend spending weeks on end sleeping in till noon at our place and then using our shower).

Work-wise, it's going to be a crazy semester. I'm wrestling with my thesis because I REALLY want to have a draft to my supervisor by tomorrow, and let's just say there's a way to go. I just want to be done with it for a while, though, so probably worth pushing hard now. Today won't be fun, though. I've promised myself all the caffeine and chocolate I want today in return for exerting some self-regulation in thesis-related areas.

Apart from that, I'm teaching two seminars and TAing/marking for two classes. I've acquired another student, meaning I'm supervising three projects this semester plus keeping an eye on Asma's students (as she's in Bangor learning to do fMRI, lucky toad). I also am collecting data on two other projects since I keep thinking this might be my last chance for a while.

So in theory I should also be freaking out about postdocs and What Do I Do After? - but I find I just don't have time. I will have to assume something will sort itself out. Will start applying again after thesis draft is done, I suppose...

We were on Korean TV this week! Mostly my supervisor, of course, but I starred as "Girl in Fake fMRI Scanner". I'm sure it is merely a small step to superstardom in Korea. The program, by the way, was called "Brain Garden" (as far as I can tell) and featured a flower garden in the shape of a brain!

2012!

2012-01-04T21:19:00.000-08:00

I have high hopes for this year. We will see how it goes.

If I had a ridiculous run of good luck, my semester could look like this:

Jan 31: Thesis totally approved by supervisor and sent to committee (who have never even met with me and have not heard from me since my thesis proposal - not that they seem to mind).

Feb 29: Committee approves draft.

March 31: Changes suggested by committee made and everything fixed up. Draft sent to external

April sometime: Defend

Since everything seems to take at least three months as long as it should, though, I ain't holding my breath.

Plus, after that comes this part:

Summer 2012: No job, no plan, no idea.

But hey! It should be interesting.

In the meantime, in honour of the New Year, here are some things I did for the first time last year:

- Lived in America, Social Security number and all
- learned how to collected EEG data (i.e. wrestle a wet, soapy net onto the head of a recalcitrant teenager and try desperately to get the impedances down)
- learned how to analyze EEG data - sort of. Require heavy supervision with this one.
- Moved to Connecticut, met some cool psychiatrists, did a lot of clothes shopping
- Went to an amazing Catalan wedding and learned to say "fantàstic!" and dance some random Catalan folk dances
- Discovered and semi-stalked Josh Ritter
- Drank a Dunkin' Donuts latte, and then about another three a week depending on Helena's level of sleep deprivation
- Got two papers in press, woo hoo! (One, we just found out, has just been for real published)
- Was on Korean TV (this I assume is true, although I have not seen the evidence) and did a photoshoot in a fake MRI scanner

One Good Thing about Guelph

2011-11-05T12:57:00.001-07:00

I will give Guelph this: its autumn is the nicest I've ever seen. Almost a week past Hallowe'en and no snow, gorgeous sunshine, pretty leaves... stuck in a basement most of the time, but today I walked in to work to enjoy the weather.

This last one is the fort I wish I'd had... although would have skipped all the "no girls allowed" signs!

Comparing myself to others

2011-10-29T08:35:00.001-07:00

Went to a Ph.D. completion party last night, for Frank, who is the awesome and very sweet boyfriend of the awesome and very sweet Erin, who is doing her Ph.D. on the animal side. Frank's Ph.D. was in Comp Sci and it sounds like he kicked some thesis defense butt. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

We went to dinner (that's three times in two weeks, yikes - but there keeps being things to celebrate!) and over to someone's house for drinks. And this is where I wish the dept was less segregated to so I could actually talk to other Ph.D. students more often. It really helps to have some idea of how other people work things and what their experiences have been.

First of all, I found out that some people who I thought would be kicking butt financially (due to having got one of those big scholarships that I have no hope for) are actually living on credit and begging for TAships to at least pay tuition. It seems that being insanely cheap and putting up with a not-great living situation because it's the least expensive option is actually working out pretty well for me, relatively speaking. At least I haven't taken on any new debt since starting the Ph.D. (not saying anyone else has, but I think that is still a win).

That said, I'm seriously considering giving my notice at the house on Nov 1 (they want two months notice of moving out??!!!) and finding something else for next semester... since it seems to be pretty clear that sticking around even after the writing up is done and collecting more data is probably a wise career move. Going straight to Oxford would be awesome but leave me with a pretty large CV and productivity gap. Sigh.

[The house isn't so bad, but it isn't great either. The undergrad housemate (UH) told me he was going to "have a few people over Thursday night" a couple of weeks ago. Come home Thursday night to find a raging kegger and screaming undergrads puking on my lawn. Awesome. Our neighbours hate this sort of thing, understandably, and I for one had to get up Friday morning and work. So, Mark and I tried to corral them into the house and convince them to stop screaming. Sort of worked: now they were screaming outside the door to my room. Apparently one of them puked in the sink and another broke Mark's expensive vase and another spilled a pitcher of beer all over the downstairs couch. The UH, when confronted, said, "oh yeah, I didn't think there would be that many people" and wandered off to class to leave Mark to clean up.

This was also the night I heard about poor Matt, so needless to say I was not in the mood to deal with screaming morons... kind of a bad night, all in all.

Anyway, that isn't typical, but the lack of cleaning (mostly by UH) and the boyfriend slumped on the couch seven days a week using our electricity but not paying rent ARE. Not the end of the world and the non-UH housemates are pretty respectful, but I'm about ready to get gone.]

Anyway, next semester will necessarily be more expensive, so saving like crazy now... we'll see how it goes.

(Speaking of finishing up soonish, I forgot to send my proof of student status to the student loan people this semester, resulting in a repayment notice - reversed, of course, but yikes, gotta be saving hard for that too in case I don't have a postdoc to jump into right away!)

Apart from that, seems like most people are taking at least four years (plus) to finish, despite Guelph's weird assertion that three years of guaranteed funding should be PLENTY to get a Ph.D. done. This leads to a lot of financial stress at the end. I'm still (knock wood knock wood) more or less on track to hand in at the end of my third year, plus a semester for the committee to read it and a defense committee to be formed and all that rigmarole. So that's only a semester over the three year funding guarantee, and they will probably throw me a TAship for it.

That said, getting through quick necessarily leads to fewer pubs (one girl is graduating with NINE of them) which might hurt me. Not more than sticking around Guelph for an extra year for that reason would, though. Am still hoping to get at least one from my practicum, and have started a number of collaborations that might be productive enough to get a few things out the door. Fingers severely crossed.

Did I mention, though, that we have two in press?? Both online now, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance and Acta Psychologica, woo hoo!

So yeah, could be doing better, could be doing worse... but nice to know what the rest of my cohort is up to rather than totally having to guess.

(plus - they are good to talk to and throw fun parties!)

There's a Reason that I Hate This Town

2011-10-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

Most of the streets in Guelph are named after cities/counties or girls (Dublin Street, Surrey Street, Elizabeth Street, Alice Street).

There is also an Edinburgh Street and a Delhi Street.

How are these pronounced by Guelphites?

Edin-BURG and Del-HIGH.

Get me out of here...

ADHD M.D.

2011-10-23T17:14:00.001-07:00

Just got back from an awesome weekend with a friend from New Haven (who was in Toronto for a conference). We went to see Josh Ritter do a reading (yes, he's written a book!) went to dinner and went out to a place with ants on the walls. Great fun and it was awesome to see her.

Today we went for brunch with another friend who lives in the city, and we had the most interesting conversation about ADHD and getting things done. One of my friends is a psychiatrist and took a "tendency to ADHD" measure when she was working with kids - and came out in the "probably a problem" range. The other one has actually been diagnosed. I've never been assessed for it, but a lot of the things they were talking about sound veeeeeery familiar. I know I have to leave twice as much time as a normal person would take to write something, because I will write one sentence and then go off and check email or make some tea or something. (I have ducked out at least six times while writing this paragraph). Not the most efficient, but on the other hand I allow for it and things still get done - eventually.

The thing is, the other two do exactly the same thing. It was really comforting to hear that I am not the only one who does this, although it is kind of depressing to think about how much time and brainpower are being wasted on workarounds to get us to the same point someone who can focus for more than two seconds is already at.

That said, all three of us have been relatively successful despite the fact that we can't focus for more than two freaking minutes. I wonder how many other people are in this boat (I know not everyone is: I have watched Helena sit down and write - actually write, not hopping around to 20 other things! - for 45 minutes at a time and get a paper out in a week or so). I also wonder how much I could accomplish if I could just figure out how to focus - and how much time I've spent developing workarounds. Anyway, I thought this was really interesting. (For the record, other things I do are keeping a list of stuff that needs to get done and trying to match my energy level with an appropriate item, otherwise there is no hope; and giving in to my slightly bipolar work habits and, when I have a totally unproductive week like last week, sometimes just take time off rather than trying to push through. I usually find that after going away for a while I can bounce back and have a much more productive week the next week).

Anyway, in other news my life is pretty boring. Back living at the same place in Guelph (cheap rent!) and doing pretty much nothing except work. This weekend was the first time I went to the city, and the second time I went out, since I returned to Ontario. I've been laying pretty low on the weekends and trying not to spend money. My goal is to have a thesis draft by December, and so far I've got two experimental chapters and most of the intro written plus another half-chapter (experimental). I think I'll probably end up with about 3-4 experimental chapters plus an intro and discussion - the intro is usually pretty extensive, though, so getting most of that out of the way is a big deal. I'm also running a couple more experiments, supervising a couple of students and starting up some new things, as well as TAing (always TAing). It's SO much more chill than this time last year, though. That was insane. This is a lot of hard work, but a lot less intense than last year.

Spain! (Marina's wedding)

2011-09-05T02:38:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Del's friend Marina's wedding in Catalunya. I've never been to a Spanish wedding before, let alone a Catalan one. It was amazing fun. Marina got married in an oak grove outside a hermitage (an old, simple church, as far as I could tell) and everyone just stood around in the woods. To get there we had to take a train from Barcelona to her town (Moliet) and then borrow her car and drive for an hour into the mountains, through a bunch of crazy hairpin turns. We actually managed to be 15 min late for the wedding, but luckily it was a small one so the bride waited!

Afterwards we went to the reception, which started with a few hours of cava and "pica pica" (tapas) - we stood around outside while waiters brought more and more food, plus stations with risotto and a good bit of a pig. At about 3pm we went in for lunch, which was five courses and took us till about 7.30 or 8pm to get through. The whole time they would stop once in a while and do something - speeches (in Catalan, so we foreigners couldn't follow) or a song, or a gift for the couple. There was also a game where there was a giant locked chest full of money for the bride and groom, and every table was given a key. Each table gave the bride and groom a task to win their key, leading to something I've never seen before at a wedding - the bride and groom being handed a baby and a bag of nappies, and clearing off a table at their wedding in order to change a baby's diaper! At first I didnt' realize about the game and thought maybe this was an extension of the constant references to babies at the (very Catholic) wedding - I though, wow, they really take this fertility stuff seriously here!

Once we finally managed to gorge our way through the four or five hours of food, there was dancing and an open bar. There was no DJ - five people from the groom's family just kept randomly selecting songs, meaning that you would get two verses into a traditional salsa tune with everyone doing the moves, and suddenly the music would switch to Abba. Gave it a very unique vibe...

The reception was held at a huge stone house in the countryside, with the party being held at a sort of hall attached to the side. However, they had rented the whole house for the guests, so everyone who wanted could stay over. The only trouble was, there were no assigned rooms, so you just had to go find a bed and try to claim it. Unfortunately that meant that we ended up in a giant room with Del's friends Cristina, Paco and Pablo, but then four or five other people also ended up sleeping all over the floor. No big deal, until about 5am when an enormously drunk man who nobody seemed to know crashed heavily up the stairs, stomped around on the echoing stone floor for twenty minutes or so, stepped on a few people, dropped his shoes on the floor once or twice, then crashed down and started snoring the most epic snores I have ever heard in my life. It was insane. There was no way I could sleep after that, so I ended up on a tiny loveseat in the entrance hall three floors down - and you could still distantly hear the snores echoing past three flights of stone floors!

The next morning there was a pig's leg, trotters and all, for breakfast, plus bread and Nutella. Sadly, Cristina and Paco had a flight back to the south of Spain to catch, so we had to leave early. It was too bad, because apparently the house also had a small building with a swimming pool! It was an amazing place for a wedding.

We've been in Barcelona for the last five days, except for the weekend where we went to the wedding. We've been staying on a Nordic folk boat in the Port Olimpic harbour. We leave today, but I'm hoping to see a few of the Barcelona sights before we go....

Post more, you say? All right then!

2011-08-03T17:37:00.000-07:00

Uh oh, somebody asked about an aspect of my research in the comments! That's all it takes for me to ramble on for an hour.

Aside: A few months ago, Rebecca called at the last minute and asked if we would like to go see Josh Ritter in concert in Milford (home of our infamous beach walk). No idea why Josh was playing a 6pm gig at a tiny little venue in a tiny little Connecticut town, but we had seen him in NYC previously and loved it, so Ayelet and I agreed to accompany her. The gig itself was awesome in the way only a tiny-venue small-town gig can be, and afterwards we hung around outside until Josh and bandmates came out to sign autographs. We strategically waited until the queue had dispersed, and lo and behold, Josh came over to chat to us.

"What do you do?" he asked me. So I told him. "Oh wow, my parents are both neuroscientists.... what kind of work do you do?" he asked. Wrong question! The lucky man got to hear a monologue about attention-emotion interactions as they related to motivationally-relevant stimuli for quite some time. Have to say he looked interested, though. (Although possibly drunk). He said it sounded very cool and gave me a big ol' hug and a kiss on the hand (just for doing such awesome research, I guess!)

Anyway, so attentional bias in parents. Attentional bias to a stimulus just means that that particular class of stimulus attracts your attention, and is difficult to disengage attention from. Interesting research has shown, for example, that very anxious people show a much stronger attentional bias to threat than non-anxious people. When faced with a threatening image (in the lab they use angry faces or scary animals - in the real world it could be your boss!) these people notice it more quickly than others and have trouble tearing their attention away in order to do something else. Also, people struggling with a substance dependence show attentional bias to their drug of choice. An alcoholic, for example, has difficulty not paying attention to a bottle of booze when it's in sight (or they know it is there). This is theorized to be one of the reasons that it is so hard to stop using drugs: your brain is sensitized to the very sight of them, and you just can't ignore them if you know they're available.

We test this in the lab by showing two pictures simultaneously very briefly (~ 250-500ms). One of the pictures is then replaced by a probe (like a *) and the participant's job is to report where they saw the probe. If, for example, there was a rose on the right and a scary dog on the left of the screen, and the probe replaced the scary dog, you would expect an anxious person to be quicker to respond to the probe than if it had replaced the rose. This is because their attention would already have been in that location. If the probe replaced the rose, they would have to disengage their attention from the rose location and move it to where the probe is. (We think of attention as being like a spotlight that can be moved around, even if the eyes stay in the same place).

Previous research has shown that non-parents (they used undergrads) show attentional bias to infant faces using this task. That is, they are quicker to report a probe that replaces an infant face than an adult face, which we take to mean that they were paying attention to the infant. The lab here at the Child Study Centre is interested in parenting research, so they would like to know if parents show the same effect, and if so, is it stronger than the effect in non-parents? If this is the case, it would then be interesting to look at individual differences in parents: for example, do poorly-attached parents show less bias to infant faces? Do substance-dependent parents or depressed parents show the same effect? Certain groups of parents have been shown to spend less time interacting with their infants in general, so it would be interesting to see if this extends to subconscious attentional effects and the brain areas that produce them.

Of course I have a whole host of plans to extend this more into my area of research, but that will have to wait until we have explored the basic effect more thoroughly!

Man, you are right that I should blog more often though. Although things are deathly quiet right now, I had an exciting few months what with a conference where I had to present, all kinds of excitement with customs, a visit from Del, a quick trip to the Vermont border... maybe I will try to catch up on relating everything this week.

Summer in the city

2011-08-02T03:32:00.000-07:00

Oh man, summer on the East Coast kills me. I've had two miserable summers in Guelph, so this time I wangled an escape by staying in New Haven. But nope, it's just as gross weather-wise... although I'm definitely still much happier than I was in Guelph :)

I took a six-week sublet of a tiny little studio that is very close to work (and the gym), and MAN what a great idea. Not having the psychological barrier of having to wait for the shuttle or walk for 40 min makes it so easy to pop into work (or the gym) anytime I think of it. I'm getting a lot more done suddenly.

It also doesn't hurt in terms of productivity that both Helena and Rebecca are away visiting family. I have to say that it is very, very boring around here without them - but it is definitely an incentive to spend weekends in the lab. Not only is it air-conditioned, but what else am I going to be doing all by myself?!

The downside is getting enough sleep. It is SUPER hot and humid here (week-long 35C+ heat waves with 80-90% humidity) and my body just can't take it. My place does have a window A/C unit, but I am paying for my own electricity (and cheap, so don't want to run it much) and also too much A/C tends to make my throat hurt. In lieu of A/C at night, I keep the windows open (I have a corner unit, so it's a pretty good cross-draft) but that means the blinds are open over the windows so it's also really light in here. So, I've been waking up very early in the morning as soon as the sun is up.

Overall, though, the upsides of the move outweigh the downsides (I would have been dying in the heat on Nash St as well, and no A/C there!) If I was living in New Haven long term, Howe Street might be the place to be. True, it borders on the dodgy side of town (so far walking home have seen one car accident, one cyclist get hit by a car and two arrests) but the police are very active in patrolling this area and the headquarters of Yale security are here. And yeah, a lot more gymming and working are being done.

Anyway, two more weeks before I head out. I've finally finished data collection (!!!) - it took months longer than I had hoped, but that's research for you. The results are looking interesting. We should definitely be able to get a paper out of this one. There's a slight possibility we could even get two. I've started a new project with Helena too, to do with attentional bias to infant faces in parents. We've got it off the ground, and she will do the data collection while I will do the analysis from wherever I happen to be. It's been an interesting and fairly productive year, and to be honest it's also been a complete holiday. Being away from Guelph = no sitting through a million talks about rats (I've been to an equivalent number of talks, but on much more interesting topics), no students constantly wanting something, and no time being taken up by annoying departmental things. I just do my work quietly and then go home. This must be what having a sabbatical is like! Love it.

I had sort of planned to do some travel around the US with my last few weeks, but that was before Rebecca had to go home because of her mom's illness. I still could go by myself, of course, but summer is always tight money-wise, so am thinking maybe it's best just to sit tight unless something interesting comes up, and save my money for the UK trip in two weeks.

Reflections on a Pizza-Cone

2011-06-12T20:36:00.001-07:00

Hmmmm. Just was looking through old photos of me on Facebook (sometimes I do this and wonder what someone who didn't know me would gather just based on these photos... which is less self-obsessed than it sounds because sometimes I do go through the photos of relative strangers and see what I can figure out about them. Oh social networking, life is so much easier now that I don't have to just casually peer through windows while out for a walk when I am curious about the lives of others).

Anyway, long asides aside, I saw the set of photos posted almost exactly a year ago, after I went to New York for the first time. In fact, I saw a picture of us with pizza cones, and only last weekend I saw that exact same shop (now closed, boo) because Helena and I hopped into the city on the weekend to check out the charity shops. And that is so weird. A year ago I spent 18 hours total in a car on a three-day weekend to head into NYC, and I had NO IDEA that 365 days later I could casually jump on a train and for 1.5 hours and $14 each way go to the city whenever I wanted. Amazing. Makes me wonder what this time next year will look like - barring disaster, it's not inconceivable that I could be finishing/finished and...??? Stuck in Guelph, off on a awesome postdoc, scampering off to Oxford? Who knows. Should be interesting to find out, though.

It also occurs to me that is it difficult to overstate how much happier I am this year. It's pretty tangible: 8 blog posts for all of 2010?! Yeah, that was not a good year. Couldn't even bring myself to write about it. Stuck in Guelph, very few people who genuinely cared about me in town, Ph.D. projects going incredibly slowly, being constantly abandoned by Guelph-based "friends"... awesome. Obviously nothing earthshattering or tragic, but it's pretty excellent to be living somewhere I enjoy (except for the stupid pollution - I have conjunctivitis to rival London, yuck. No contact lenses for me) and having ACTUAL care-about-me awesome friends, and fun work... it's amazing.

Yep, am really having a great time at work these days. Sad but true, Helena and I both spent the entire weekend in the lab (well, 1pm-6 or 7pm, anyway, both days). Got a couple of projects I'm keen to get moving, and some EEG data to analyze, and since both experiment design and data analysis are my idea of fun, had a pretty great weekend. Sad, but I gotta own my nerdiness since it sure ain't going away.

Asking Americans for Directions

2011-05-29T20:02:00.001-07:00

So Helena and I tried to go to the beach today. There is a town called Milford a 10-min train ride from New Haven, which the Yale website advertises as having a beach. Furthermore, the internet told us that there is something called Silver Sands State Park in Milford, and that there are busses to the park from Milford even on weekends and holidays. Perfect! (It's something called Memorial Day long weekend down here... apparently in honour of veterans, although no one could explain to me how this differs from Veterans Day).

So, we hopped on the train, and as promised arrived in Milford in ten minutes. As we got off the train we heard gunshots. Turns out it was the Milford Memorial Day parade, and we all know Americans cannot have a parade without firing off guns as often as possible. We went down to where the parade was on the assumption that it was likely to be the centre of town, and therefore probably a good place to catch a bus.

Parade-watching Americans:

After watching the parade for a while, we asked a nearby woman how to get to the state park.

Woman: "Park?"
Helena: "Yes, there is a State Park in Milford?"
Woman: "Oh, the State Park. You can't walk there."
H: "Yes, ok, but we were told there's a bus...?"
W: "No, it's way too far. If you want water, you can go down to the harbour. Why don't you just go down to the harbour and then you can watch the rich people on their boats!"

Awesome. Very helpful. However, we thought maybe there might be something to see down by the harbour, so we headed down. But all we saw were rich people on their boats (and not even sailing - they had literally pulled lawnchairs up to their boats and were sitting beside their boats, drinking).

Then Helena spotted a Bird Sanctuary sign. Perfect! That would do nicely for a little walk and maybe a nice place to sit. There was a little road going in beside the giant Bird Sanctuary sign, and so we followed it into the trees.

Five minutes later we were looking at houses.

The "bird sanctuary" was about twenty metres deep, with a suburb on the far side.

Huh. America, hey? So, we headed back toward the harbour and stopped at a marina and asked a man sitting there how to find the beach.

Man: "Beach?"
Me: "Yes, we heard there is a beach near here. Maybe at the State Park?"
Man: "Oh, that's too far to walk."
Me: "Yes, THANK YOU, but apparently there is a bus."
Man: "Bus?"
Me: "A bus to the beach?"
Man: "Oh, the SHORE bus."
Me: "Yes! Probably the shore bus."
Man: "I think there is a bus stop somewhere in town." [sends us back exactly the way we came]

So, we trudged back to the centre of town and saw the original woman again. "Oh hi! Did you find the harbour? I could give you a ride to the park, but I won't because then you'd have to hitch-hike back, ha ha! Bye!"

Awesome.

We didn't have a map (mistake!) but Helena remembered roughly the layout of the town and the direction of the park. She said it didn't look too far, and we were assuming that an American idea of "too far to walk" might differ from ours. So we started walking toward the park. It was boiling hot and uphill, and after a while Helena mentioned that on the map she saw, it looked like there were beaches BETWEEN the town centre and the park. So we took a sharp left in the direction they should be and kept walking.

Eventually we came across a man gardening. Helena stopped to ask directions.

H: "Hi, could you tell us how to find the beach?"
Man (strong non-American accent): "Yes, keep going straight for about another half a mile. At the end of this road you'll see the beach, but you have to go between the houses to get to it."

Directions! Actual directions!

Moral of the story: if you need to know how to get somewhere, find a non-American.

So, we thanked him profusely and trudged down the road. We were starting to lose faith when we noticed some reeds and other waterplants behind some of the houses. This seemed promising, but we were starting to think we might never find the elusive beach. And then, as we came around a corner - silver sand! There was a sand-covered path between the houses, as promised, and then a glorious silver beach off in both directions.

So, long story short, we found the beach and it was wonderful.

While sitting on the beach, we noticed that all the boats seemed to be going in one place along the shore, and surmised that this must be the harbour. We walked along the beach in its direction, and then cut through the residential area that abutted the shore. After a short walk, we found - the end of the road we were STANDING ON when we asked the first man how to get to the beach. ARGH.

But never mind. We found the beach! And next time, bus or no bus, we can get there the fast way.

Here is a handy map of our adventures:

Legend:
Red X: Talked to man at marina.
Red line: original path
Star: Talked to helpful non-American man
Smiley: Beach!

Blue line: route back to town
Blue dotted line: backtracked to check what we suspected... that the marina where we talked to the first man was just around the corner.

Please note that we were right beside the state park. Non-walkable, my foot.

Up in the air as usual

2011-05-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, just checked the family blog and choked on my spaghetti squash. Good lord, dad. And also, naked gardening sounds very uncomfortable.

Also sad to hear about the Slave Lake fire. I donated a bit to the Red Cross 'cause there's not much else I can do. Scary stuff.

Ironically, it's been pouring here for a week. I really wondered if we were going to get floods. I walked home from work yesterday, umbrella in hand, and was soaked to the skin by the time I was halfway home. I think the rain was hitting so hard it was bouncing off the umbrella and drenching me. Even my socks were wet - boots were still waterproof, but the water was leaching down through my jeans. Yikes.

Still no word on my visa, and starting to do the hamster-wheel thing in my head. Can't make summer plans unless I know how long I can stay in the US, but there's nothing I can do about it. Doesn't stop me constantly worrying at the problem, though, and trying to think of some way I can control it. The girl from OISS (Office of International Students and Scholars) has consistently ignored my emails, and now is out for a "family emergency". Her bounceback message referred me to another person in the office. That person has refused point-blank to help me, and said the original girl will sort me out when she gets back. Whenever that is. In the meantime, Del has booked a flight to New York for the end of June, so if I can't get back into the country to meet him I will be mad.

(The deal is: my visa currently ends June 30. I have a conference in Winnipeg June 24-26. I could re-enter as a tourist July 1, but am worried they would be suspicious of someone whose J-1 visa ended the day before and refuse me entry. Or I could come back in the last days of my visa, but again am worried what the customs people would have to say about that. I can extend the visa till July 18, but that would require the cooperation of OISS no-show girl. ARGH.)

Despite all this, I've set up a summer sublet anyway for July and the first bit of August (allowed to stay in the country for 30 days after my visa ends apparently - may as well get some thesis-writing done). It's a studio, small but in a secure building, right beside Helena's building. It's pretty cheap if I take it for only the six weeks and it's very conveniently located. Luckily they didn't want any money up front. In some ways staying at my current place would make more sense, but still grouchy about being left out of the conversation about the new housemate. She has arrived, by the way. She said she'd move in Friday at 4pm, and showed up Saturday night at midnight instead. Scared me half to death, since my housemate had gone to Cape Cod and I was NOT expecting someone to unlock the door at midnight. Good times.

Things otherwise about the same. Still having a jolly old time hanging around the Child Study Centre and feel pretty lucky about the whole thing. (I suppose it's really more of a hobby anyway, since I'm certainly not getting paid!) I analyzed the EEG data from my original experiment, but it looks like we just don't have enough power (there might be effects, but it's hard to see because the data are noisy because we don't have enough participants). Need to run some more people, but having trouble getting them in. However, I've been liasing with the new RA at Guelph, who is running some experiments for me there, and have been developing a new one to run at Yale as well, so one way or another should get some good data this summer. May as well take advantage of working somewhere that encourages productivity - summers in Guelph tend to be just Asma and I hanging around the lab, staring morosely at our computers.

Spring in New Haven is insane - millions of flowers on all the trees and petals everywhere. And pollen. I didn't think I got spring allergies, but I'm allergic to this town. My eyes have been itchy and sore for a month. Sure is pretty though.

Rodent of Unusual Size

2011-04-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

Yikes! Just ran across what I can only imagine is an opossum while walking home. Like a giant white rat with a horrible naked tail. It was scraping through some leaves by the sidewalk. We scared each other and ended up in a standoff, staring at each other with nobody making a move. Finally I moved my foot and it ran off into the bushes.

Okay, just looked them up and the title is a misnomer, as apparently they are marsupials. Weird. And apparently if I had "threatened or harmed" him, he might have "played possum" and secreted a foul-smelling liquid from his anal glands. Awesome.

Learn something new every day.

Dustin Recipes

2011-04-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

My housemate Dustin grew up in Iowa and did not realize until he moved for university that there was such thing as an independent, non-chain restaurant. He was amazed to discover whole streets of Thai, Indian, Lebanese food... and was confused because there was no Applebees. He told me that at first he was slightly appalled, because each independent place is different, and how on earth are you supposed to know which ones are good?! An Applebees is an Applebees, and you always know what you will get.

Tonight for dinner he made:

2 cans mushroom soup
1 bag frozen green beans
1 box stuffing
3 chicken breasts

in the slow cooker.

Last week it was

2 cans spaghetti
half block Velveeta cheese

in the slow cooker.

The week before that it was

2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 box stuffing
half block Velveeta cheese

in the slow cooker.

I am eager to see what Iowa-style recipe he will come up with next.

Living in America is creepy.

2011-03-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

In the last week, some poor bike mechanic got shot, and somebody opened fire at a gig. Suddenly pretty happy I went for the house in the "nicer" part of town. My housemate went on a Critical Mass ride in memory of the dead bike dude. He says the cycling community is pretty shook up.

However, luckily I pretty much work all the time, and our participants are unlikely to shoot us because being associated with the lab is pretty lucrative for them (longitudinal studies pay well and usually include travel costs, and you're guaranteed that money as long as you show up to be tested every six months). I've finally, FINALLY started testing and have two participants run, although not without a lot of drama. The first girl turned up with braids on Monday, meaning we were not able to fit the EEG cap on (it fits like a swim cap, so no room for giant bunches of hair). We rebooked her for Wednesday at 6pm, after she had taken her braids out, and her mom was there by 5.45. Said her daughter was on her way. 6.30, no sign of the kid. It's getting dark and mom is freaking out. 6.45, still no sign. Mom is calling every relative she can think of, but they won't pick up because they don't recognise the number. 6.50, kid finally appears. Luckily her hair is down. We run her anyway, since she seems up for it, getting the net on as quickly as humanly possible. Study ends, we pay the participant, and mom starts yelling - "What do you MEAN we don't get travel costs?!" eek.

Thursday, participant is half an hour late. No, make that an hour late. No, make that cancelled entirely. Rebooked for next week. Friday, I'm calling around trying to get people in for next week. Mom says her kid could come - if we can fit him in that day. Check the schedule, there's a tiny one-hour slot available in the testing room. Book him. Luckily he showed up braid-free (perfect hair actually: very short!) and was a nice, cooperative kid. However, the person who needed the room ahead of me ran late and so had to spend 15 minutes trying to make conversation with a taciturn adolescent. However, data is data.

I did make it out to a performance of the Bach mass in B Minor in support of Japan last night, though. We got there late and got pretty bad seats, but luckily could see the conductor, who was very entertaining. Complete with flying white hair and hopping on his toes and giant arm gestures. Everything was sung in Latin, so I was kind of losing focus until out of desperation I read the liner notes, which explained the similarity between Baroque architecture and music - both were obsessed with symmetry. It used the Palace of Versailles as an example. After that it was easier to know what I was listening to, and I was much less fidgety.

In other news, now that the snow has melted there are three blue jays, two robins and countless squirrels hanging out in my yard. Much more fun to watch them than do my marking, although I'm trying to make inroads. I have never encountered more whiny students than with this course. They seem to think that "Distance Ed" = "Don't have to work", and they send extremely nasty emails should they get a lower mark than they thought they should have. Highlights have included, "I don't know if you realize, but I'm a 90% student and you just gave me a 70%", and "I don't agree with the mark you gave me. I technically did the bare minimum requirements, so clearly deserve a high mark" and slagging me off in a series of public posts on the course forum, claiming I should not be doing the re-grades. Luckily the prof has supported me 100%, but it ain't the most fun I've ever had.

Ah well, it pays the bills... sort of.

lots of exciting stuff

2011-02-11T19:05:00.000-08:00

Del got the job! Interview within a week, new job within two, AND a pay rise. Not bad going, no?

Going to a Josh Ritter concert in New York City tomorrow with the girls (i.e. Helena and some of her friends). So pleased that I HAVE girls to go with. We're taking the train down in the morning and back up after the gig. We are THAT CLOSE to NYC. Craziness!

On Monday we are celebrating Valentines' Day with heart-shaped donuts (Helena was adamant) and a girls night.

We have decided that Thursday night is for going out to the Yale grad student bar. It is a big old nerd party, plus there is free (wimpy American) beer till 10 on Thursday. Last night the School of Management students were auctioning each other off, so after they were done we snuck into the room and I ate my body weight in expensive canapes. (Marinated red pepper and fresh olives!) Pretty sweet. They also advertise "$2 Wells Drinks" on Thursday nights, which we both assumed was a type of beer. So we went up and ordered two Wells, only to have the bartender burst out laughing. Apparently "wells drinks" are just drinks made of the standard house liquour. Whoops. Now I know!

Going to go into work on Sunday, I think. Things have stalled a bit with the project, and part of the trouble is that I have to photoshop all my stimuli. Going to have a giant pile of marking to do starting tomorrow, too.... looks like a busy week but with some cool stuff crammed in there!

Upheaval and drama!

2011-02-05T10:44:00.001-08:00

Man, it's so nice living somewhere I don't hate, so that I actually feel like posting! This practicum was definitely a good call.

So, just to keep everything interesting, the drama has been ramped up even more this week. I moved into my place last Wednesday, not quite realizing that the previous occupants had no intention of moving out until the Friday. However, the room I was moving into was free and they gave me an air mattress, so fair enough. Except that it was so cold on that mattress that I couldn't sleep without wearing my hoodie and toque over my PJs and piling my coat on top to keep warm... brrr. The house was in total disarray because the previous people were, in theory, packing to move out. However, I wanted to give Helena back her space, so just put up with it.

By Friday, not very much was packed and NOTHING was cleaned. I was told that they were having a party that night at a local restaurant and would leave first thing Sat morning. Got home late Friday night to find that STILL nothing was packed. I did have a bed, though, in pieces on the bedroom floor. Dustin and Marshall (guy moving out) helped me set it up at about 1am. Apparently Cecelia, other person moving out, rolled in at 3am.

Not surprisingly, Saturday morning was hectic. Cecelia spent the morning haranguing Marshall while Marshall threw things in boxes. They packed Cecelia off on the train by noon and then Marshall was MIA for a few hours while Dustin and I attempted to shove some of the boxes out of the way so that new housemate Jeff could move his stuff in. And let me tell you, there were millions of them. When Marshall came back I tried to help him pack, only to be constantly corrected: "Oh wait, I had a plan for packing that. Hold on, those things shouldn't go together..." so I gave up.

At 4.30 pm, Dustin took me shopping outside of town (since it is not possible to buy useful things in New Haven*) and then I went out for dinner. When I returned at 9pm, Marshall was still packing. I heard him cleaning until about two in the morning. He asked very humbly if he could crash in the living room for one more night. Sunday, he dumped all the boxes in the basement, having realized that they would not fit in his car and asked if we'd mind if he came to pick them up later. Then he and his corgi left around noon.

Incredibly, I heard from Jeff that Marshall came BACK around 2pm to grab a few more things before starting the 6-hour drive back to his hometown.

This meant that Jeff and I couldn't get set up at the house until the work week started, and things are still kind of in disarray as there seems to be a lot of the previous occupants' stuff still around (fetus-shaped cookie cutter?!)

Meanwhile, I was at the lab quite a lot trying to get my experiment programmed. Was having a major problem getting the number of trials per condition to balance and was spending a lot of time working on it. I was testing it yet again when I heard from Del, in total shock, having suddenly been called into a room on a Friday morning, along with about twenty of his colleagues, and made redundant (laid off).

Heck of a week.

Del's had an interview within the first week, though, and some of his colleagues have already found jobs... good news there at least.

While all this was going on, we got about three feet of snow and then an ice storm on Tuesday. After the snowstorm, the city refused to plow our street because they told us it was too narrow. So Dustin ended up organizing the neighbours to spend the whole afternoon digging out the street with snow shovels so people could get their cars out! I walked to work and saw people on every street, trying to unearth their cars. Many of them were totally buried due to snow plow action. After the ice storm, they switched to attempting to knock the ice off by using various implements to whack their cars. It was crazy.

The ice storm made walking treacherous, but it made the trees all frosted and beautiful. I tried to take some cell-phone pics, but not surprisingly they did not come out all that wall. Nevertheless:

(Houses here tend to be insanely huge and gorgeous too. I almost moved into one with 11 bedrooms and a conservatory!)

Luckily Yale runs FREE shuttle buses every day, one of which runs two blocks from my place, so I can get around even if the sidewalks are icy. (Except that they are cancelled in the event of very bad weather, bah!)

In other news, I finally got my experiment program working, did behavioural pilot testing with three participants (it looks great!), got the EEG tags put in (had to get help with that one) that tell the EEG system when to start recording brain waves, and pilot tested the whole shebang on myself! The EEG setup they have here is pretty cool. It is a big translucent net containing electrodes, and you only need to add water (with salt and baby shampoo in it) to get them to conduct. When I think of all the time I spent at Bangor fiddling around with electrode gel and making people wash their hair in the lab... this is pretty awesome. Fingers crossed we can start participant recruitment soon.

* New Haven is what is referred to as a "Food Desert", apparently a common phenomenon in America. There are no grocery stores in the city. Zero. There was one, but it closed. There are a few insanely-priced gourmet shops, delis and Asian markets ($0.85 for ramen soup and $7 for frozen dumplings!) and the drugstores sell milk and bread, but apart from that you need a car. So, I am relying on the generousity of my housemate and one of Helena's friends to help me get groceries once in a while.

The ironic part is, if you want fast food or a restaurant, there are millions. (There's a Dunkin' Donuts practically every block!) But if you would like to cook healthy food, sorry, out of luck unless you have a car... It's a 20-min drive down the highway with no transit options (apparently).

Same goes for homewares and kitchen supplies. If you can drive, you can get to IKEA or Target or Walmart or thrift shops. Otherwise, nothing. I did find one dollar store, but it's in a dodgy part of town... So insane.

p.s.

2011-01-26T18:11:00.000-08:00

Both people living here now are Environmental Studies majors and both drive SUVs.

Also, I saw a cop car parked outside a Dunkin' Donuts today while one of them ran in for donuts.

Americans!

No Longer Homeless!

2011-01-26T17:34:00.000-08:00

So, as of today I have signed a lease and have a home. Hope it works out. I am sharing with Dustin (from rural Iowa and so far very sweet) and Captain Wilson, a wire-haired fox terrier. Like Snowy! Unlike Snowy, he doesn't bark (not even Wooah). There is also a super-hyper Corgi running around at the moment. He is supposed to be moving out on Friday with the people I'm subletting from. Captain Wilson is like a robot dog. He doesn't say anything and doesn't shed, just comes and hangs out. Five minutes after I moved in, sitting on the floor booting up the laptop, he wandered in and unexpected sat down on my lap. I think Captain Wilson and I will get along just fine.

We have the main floor of a house, two bedrooms, sharing with Dustin and one yet-to-be-encountered housemate (both guys). The house is in a nice quiet neighbourhood (kinda far from work, but there are FREE shuttles). I talked the outgoing housemate into leaving me the bed/furniture, so should be quite comfortable here. It's not the cheapest place I looked at, but I had a good feeling about Dustin and Wilson so fingers crossed it was the right choice.

at the airport

2011-01-18T04:13:00.000-08:00

At Pearson Airport, making use of their free wireless! Awesome. So I'm on my way down to Connecticut to do an Ivy League practicum. Crazy stuff. I got hammered HARD with baggage fees at stupid Gatwick (didn't have my luggage scale, bad call) on Friday, so have managed to pack for six months in the States using only one checked bag and one carry-on (plus the allowed laptop bag and "small purse"). I had it exact to the pound this time around, and of course they never even weighed anything. However, travelling light has its own rewards in terms of actually being able to move everything by yourself without dying. The old couple in the Redcar on the way to the airport had three bags EACH. The woman told me, "Well, it's difficult, dear, when you're going away for two months." I almost one-upped her by mentioning that I'm going for six, but stopped myself in time. Nobody wants to get into a travelling-light oneupsmanship contest at four in the morning.

That's right, Air Canada bumped my flight twice, from a nice 2pm flight to an 11.30am flight to a stupid 7.55 am flight. I am TIRED. I am also wearing a million layers because I was worried about luggage weight. I've got a dress over jeans and a long-sleeved top, plus boots, plus two belts, one scarf and one jacket. I also got to try out the new US body scanners. Anticlimactic. Also got through customs just fine, which is a big relief. They sent me my visa paperwork, but I was worried I had missed something or they would grill me. But nope, all is apparently well.

I'm also not sure what to expect when I get there. Spent yesterday running around like a mad thing when I realised that my bank "can't guarantee" I can access my money from the States. Tried getting travellers cheques at CIBC, but they were incredibly slow and couldn't debit my account. They sent me a travel money place down the road, but they could only take $1000 by debit and needed a cheque for the rest. So I ended up calling and BEGGING my housemate to bring my chequebook along on his way to the gym, so I could pick it up, so I could run for six blocks and get to the place before it closed. (I also didn't have a bus pass - they didn't give me one this semester, so this was all on foot in -20C). I also found out at 4.30 pm that there is a form I was supposed to fill out for the university, which of course had to be signed by seventeen people. I think it's all good now - but if not, I'll be trying to sort it out by email from Yale.

Yikes, the next few days will be crazy. This time last week I was in the UK, chilling at Del's house. Next week, with any luck I will once again have a fixed address...

Zooming Around the UK

2011-01-09T14:49:00.000-08:00

Having a lovely time in the UK. I am now in a place called Upper Tadmarton, which makes me laugh every time I hear it. It has been a super busy week. Flight went fine, no major delays, and Del was waiting for me at the airport. Drove straight up to Edinburgh and spent Hogmanay there, although we didn't do much since everxyone but me seemed to be suffering from a stomach bug. We went up to Calton Hill to watch the fireworks, but then everyone else had to go home and lie down, so I soldiered on alone and went out to a house party with a friend I knew from living in Edinburgh. Much drama ensued, but made it home all right in the end.

Spent a few days in the city, staying at a furnished apartment type thing (staying on Del's friends' floor was getting to be a bit much after a few nights). Saw Matthew and Jen, went to a lot of gorgeous pubs and generally had a nice time. I cooked Del's friends butter chicken using the recipe Judith put on the Badgers' Grub wiki and it went over extremely well! Then we drove down to Liverpool to visit Del's friends Pauline and Gary and their little girl, Chloe. She is nearly two and took a huge shine to me for some reason. By the end she was howling every time I left the room, which was a bit awkward! I got a big tear-stained farewell when we left.

It was snowing when we left Liverpool, but pushed on to Bangor to visit my former supervisor and my friends Ralph and Thandi. R and T are both doing their PhDs and it was great to catch up. We stayed with Ralph, who was the soul of hospitality and brought cups of tea in bed in the morning! We stopped by to see Thandi's house in the morning, which is miles away in Porthmadog, making it the first time I've ever driven 30 miles for a cup of tea! She has a lovely house with amazing views, but I really can't imagine doing that commute every day.

The tea stop meant we had to drive through Snowdonia to get to Oxford, which was insanely gorgeous but pretty tough on poor Del. All those tiny windy hairpin turn-filled B roads were pretty icy near the top of the pass, so fairly unpleasant driving. I had a great time looking at the scenery, however! Made it safe to Oxford in time to go out dancing and have an amazing night out with my friends Jo, Roxie and Aonghus, and have now collapsed in Upper Tadmarton for a much-needed rest!

Qualifying Exam

2010-12-10T05:19:00.000-08:00

I passed my qualifying exam!!!! I think it went really well (all things considered) and spent the first half of yesterday being inordinately pleased with myself. It has been weighing on my mind for almost a year now - it is a long process, with two written and one oral component (plus supposed to be two meetings, but I only got one). I finished the initial written bit by mid-summer, but they couldn't schedule the meeting until September. Spent this semester stressing about the long written bit but got through it with the help of our postdoc, Alex. Then finally yesterday they got around to doing the oral exam. My labmate got pages of feedback to her written component (11 pages!), which the oral exam was based on, so that was what I was expecting. What did I get? Two sentences of feedback. So I was quite worried because I therefore had no forewarning of what to expect from the final. (I complained about the lack of feedback to the Chair, but he slapped me down with, "I can't believe you're complaining about NOT ENOUGH negative feedback!" He may have a point).

I felt like the meeting went really well. I DO know my stuff (thank you very much), and although I've never been a grade-grubber, I really like research and am therefore reasonably good at it. And luckily, that's what this exam was designed to measure. I definitely got more feedback from the meeting, some of it quite positive. There was one horrible moment when my supervisor asked me a question I had no idea how to answer, and there was a.... long.... uncomfortable...... pause......... while everyone stared at me. But then I just told him I don't know, said there didn't seem to be much in the literature on that point, and everyone moved on. At any rate, they only deliberated for a few minutes about whether to pass me (they send you out of the room! uncomfortable) so I guess that's good.

I'm proud of myself for how I am handling the pressure at the moment, too. Because I didn't know how to prepare for this exam, I was pretty stressed about it, and it comes during a week where I have to finish up all my work projects, mark 200 papers, and pack up and put my entire life into storage. But I've been trying hard to use exercise to manage the stress, and yesterday when I was nervous about the meeting I used my yoga breathing - sounds corny but works great! So I was able to walk in there feeling confident and somewhat relaxed, and paradoxically I think that always makes people go easier on you since you already seem capable.

Unfortunately yesterday didn't end as well as it started. I have a ton of papers to mark, and they're due in Monday (eek!), but I would have like to go out quickly to celebrate. My housemate was going out and said he'd text me when he got there. Needless to say... not a word (although I did get an apology text this morning). Guelph is reminding me more and more of how I felt in London.... NOT, I should note, a good thing. It's weird how some places you live work out right away, and some are just never going to be happy places. Generally speaking it comes down to the people. Fingers crossed Yale will be a good one (at least I already have one friend there!) and I can wrap up Guelph quickly. Getting past this exam is a huge step in that direction, for sure.

So on to the marking, the experiment-making, the paper-writing (we hope to have one ready to submit before I go!), the fMRI analysis, the packing, the moving and the leaving do. This is all going to be totally worth it when I get to spend an entire month with all my favorite people! (So screw you, Guelph.)

29 and counting

2010-11-09T20:23:00.001-08:00

Officially my last week of being 29, holy crap. I wanted to do something awesome for my birthday (like get out of Guelph, for example) but unfortunately there's no time and money must be saved for my practicum*. Reggie has been hinting that she has something planned, which is awesome because true to form I have not planned a thing. I really wish I could spend the day with people who actually care about me (of which there are exactly zero in Guelph - luckily I'm importing Reggie, who moved to TO) but hopefully I'll have fun anyway and at least will get to see a huge amount of awesome people over Christmas and New Years.

Darn, though... if there was ever an excuse for a massive party or some kind of epic roadtrip... I just wish the timing had worked out! November birthdays are not ideal.

*Doing a practicum at Yale Jan - June, which should be pretty awesome, if perhaps insanely difficult. But exciting! Need I also point out, it's not Guelph...

busy!

2010-11-08T19:07:00.000-08:00

Handed in my qualifying exam! So relieved. Sadly, I still have to do the oral defense, but I am very happy to be rid of the thing for now. I will have to do the defense sometime before Dec 10, so fingers crossed it goes well...

(The written component was a 10-page, five-year NSERC grant application: five years worth of experiments that are in my field but far enough from both my research and my supervisor's to be considered a unique line of research).

So this semester has been insane. Super intense. I've barely been keeping it together - I agreed to do an extra half-TA to try and save up some money for my practicum, but it's a lot of extra work (it's a stats lab, so lots of prep time and marking, plus the kids are constantly freaking out about something and emailing me). I've also been trying to get the qualifying exam done, of course, and have been auditing a Multiple Regression stats course as well. It's a subject I probably ought to know more about, but I don't need the credit so auditing seemed like a good idea... Also I'm supposed to be learning fMRI analysis, which has been stressful beyond words, and of course collect my data and do some writing to try and get some publications in. It's all important but I'm starting to flag a little.

But anyway, got a birthday next week (not that I've had time to think about it) and it's only five more weeks till I escape for Christmas, so I will just have to step it up and try to get everything done by then.

But! The written exam is handed in, so hooray!

City that never sleeps

2010-04-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

The semester is over! Goodbye, semester, and good riddance.

It was another busy one - busy TAship, intense class with lots of reading and writing, thesis proposal, and so on.

But! Let us leave such depressing thoughts, because I just returned from N.Y.C.!

The trip was originally "planned" (and I use that word very loosely) as a spur-of-the-moment Saturday-through-Monday road trip before Reggie left town. However, by 2pm on Saturday someone thought to check the drive time, and the idea was abandoned when we realized that we would be driving about 24 hours in return for 48 hours total in New York City.

So, we postponed it till this weekend instead. As promised it was about 12 hours to get down there (although that included duty-free, stops, and two detours somewhere in upstate New York through various little two-bit towns) (where for some reason almost every house seemed to have a single metal star fixed to the wall somewhere...) but we arrived in Brooklyn by about 8pm. Had an excellent hostel party with two Kiwis, an Aspergers-style American and an Irish guy who had just finished cycling around the world when he got stuck in NY due to ashfall. Oh, and a bottle of tequila thanks to the duty-free. The Irishman was impressed by our stamina and the rate at which the bottle disappeared.

Saturday we were up with the lark and very excited to get into town. The subway was close by and easy enough to manage, so on the advice of the hostel desk-person we went to Union Square and made our way up 5th Ave all the way to Central Park. It was bizarre. In my head, New York was fictional. You constantly hear about all these places, but much like Narnia I suppose I never really expected them to actually exist. However, every block it seemed there was another oddly familiar landmark. Saw Broadway and thought of Hildegarde Dolson hanging out her window by her heels to see the lights; saw Times Square and thought of the cricket; saw Mott street and thought of "sweet pushcarts gently gli-ding by." We went to the Empire State Building but didn't want to cough up the $30 to go up it. We bought cheesy souvenirs and ate pizza cones and got bustled around in Times Square and spent most of the afternoon in Central Park. It was a glorious sunny day.

I was pretty exhausted after that but got dragged out anyway that night, to what turned out to be an awesome little dive bar. Got home late again and didn't get up so early the next morning, which was sad as it was my turn to choose an activity and I picked the Metropolitan Museum. We walked along Park Avenue to get there (no princesses in view, though) and got in for very cheap, due to a combination of a free ticket donated by a random Albertan guy in the hostel (who had been to Rocky and knew Shawna Ritchie; small world!) and student discounts.

It was amazing, of course. I loved every minute. I took a "highlights" tour to get an idea of the layout, and then just wandered around staring at everything for a few hours. The best part wasn't discovered until the very end, when my companions were champing at the bit to leave: a whole exhibit on illuminated manuscripts! There were the usual Bibles and books of hours, but the best part was a whole book about the life of St. Jerome, beautifully illustrated with minute, impeccable drawings. They were gorgeous - and totally hilarious. According to the illustrations, St. Jerome was a monk who took a thorn out of a lion's paw, and from then on the lion hung out with him at the monastery. Then one day the lion was in a field with the monastery donkey, and someone came along and stole the donkey. The monks blamed the lion and made him take over the donkey's old job, leading to an awesome picture of a lion carrying around bundles of sticks, complete with flourishes of gold leaf everywhere. But luckily the lion saw the donkey and rescued it, and from then on never had to carry sticks again. Or something.

The best St. Jerome story, though, involved the saint being woken by the bells after a heavy night's sleep. One of his colleagues (so said the explanation below) had nicked his usual monk's robe and replaced it with a blue woman's dress. Jerome, being half asleep, grabbed what he thought was his robe and donned it before hurrying to mass. Cue the illustration of the saint, running into mass, complete with halo and lovely blue dress. The look on the other monks' faces was priceless.

Anyway, sadly I didn't get to see the whole exhibit, and I think it was a temporary one. Boo - I don't suppose I'll be back before it finishes.

I was totally drained after the museum, meaning that when the neighbour suddenly decided to run for the subway as the doors were closing, I didn't quite make it aboard. All I knew was that they were planning to go to Soho to find dinner. However, I did have a map and after the shock of abandonment had subsided, went to Soho myself and found myself outside a gorgeous stationery shop called Kate's Paperie. Heaven! I was perfectly content there until the others turned up (I made them come to me for abandoning me in the big city!)

We had a lovely dinner at a wee place with a live band, where conveniently for me (if not for Andrea) the waitress totally forgot about one of the entrees. Cue free drinks for the whole table. The food was delicious, the service couldn't be friendlier, and that one guy in the band was totally getting into shouting the song lyrics in Italian.

After that the evening went downhill, as we went to look at a building site (formerly the World Trade Centre) in the pouring rain, and then to another dive bar where they managed to scrounge me a tea from somewhere (but served it in a tall glass such that it was impossible to drink without burning oneself before it got cold). I gave up early, being all old and whatnot, and went back to the hostel to chill while the others partied it up.

Monday was our last day. Sadly it was marred by a parking ticket (we were promised free parking outside the hostel, darn it!) and even more rain. However, on the way out of town we made one more stop, at the Staten Island ferry terminal. We went across to Staten Island, saw that Statue everyone keeps talking about, and then turned around and went back the other way. Got out of town by about 1pm, drove another 12 hours... and, back in sucky old Guelph. However, it did mean that for the first time all weekend I got a decent cup of tea...

Sandy Balls

2010-01-21T20:18:00.001-08:00

Bwah-ha-ha, these guys were our competitors when I worked at Forest Holidays in Edinburgh. Never failed to make me giggle.

Soap again

2010-01-17T07:27:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a year since I moved to Guelph. Crazy. (also means I should be 1/3 of the way through my PhD, but let us not think about that). Which also means it's been about a year since I first tried making laundry detergent! I am still going strong with it. I have lost track of batches, but I think this must be about my fourth - so that is pretty good going for a whole year's worth of laundry. It cost me about $5 for the Borax, about $5 for the washing soda, and less than a dollar per bar of soap that goes into the detergent. Even if you get the cheapo store-bought detergent, that's significant savings (I still have 3/4 of a box left of both Borax and washing soda). Money far better spent at the pub, if you ask me.

Anyway, I made another batch last night and just wanted to update to note that I may have solved the texture problem. It seems that adding more washing soda makes the finished product more lumpy and gelly. This is fine to a point, but sometimes it doesn't dissolve properly in the washer and leaves soap spots on my clothes. This time, I made the soap and stirred everytime I went by while it cooled. Then, a few hours later when it was set, I poured in some boiling water (about a cup, maybe?) and stirred that all up like crazy. This dissolved all the lumps and now, the next morning, the whole thing has not reset into lumps but remains a nice, even, liquidy texture. I think I will add this to the standard process.

My recipe at this point is:

Dissolve one bar grated Ivory soap in 6 cups boiling water. Stir till dissolved.

Add 1/2 cup Borax and one cup washing soda. Stir till dissolved.

Pour into giant bucket and add 6.25L (25 cups) HOT water. Stir.

Let cool, stirring as often as possible.

When cool, add 1 cup (ish) boiling water. Stir vigorously to break up any lumps.

Use 1/2 cup to one cup (I use one due to Guelph's horribly hard water) as liquid laundry detergent.

A Sorry (disconsolate, rueful, meloncholy) Tale

2010-01-14T13:25:00.000-08:00

This made me laugh quite a lot.

happy!

2010-01-12T18:10:00.000-08:00

I am feeling very lucky right now. I am hesitant to admit it in case it bring on some kind of voodoo-like surge of bad luck. However, I had an amazing Christmas in Alberta and got to spend some time with some of my favorite people, and now I have a quilt project to work on and the lab to myself quite a lot, and a Del visit and trip to Alberta to look forward to in February. I am going to enjoy this while it lasts.

fashionable academics?

2009-11-12T19:00:00.000-08:00

I find it hilarious and yet kind of awesome that this exists. Thinking about what you wear can be fun (especially for academics, who like to think about things). Reggie brought me back some amazing tights from Germany: one red pair and one blue pair. They are the thick ones (kindergarteny, my undergrad internship student says), so comfy and bright and unlikely to run. Pleased.

In other news, this sentence analysis thingy is also super awesome... I think I have a decent ear for what "sounds wrong" in academic writing, but fixing it is another matter altogether. Although of course I could always go with randomly generated ones.

October

2009-10-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

So Steph had to call and tell me what is going on with my family, as per the blog. Possibly something wrong there. I go through phases where I forget to check. I am so jealous of all those going to Scotland... if only silly old Ontario had Fall as well as Spring Reading Week! But alas. I am just counting down the time until Christmas. And my birthday! Although that will likely suck, because... Guelph. But maybe something nice will happen.

Sophie came to visit last weekend and I was SO VERY VERY excited to see her. Love having visitors (and have tested out the futon and know it is comfy, so sort of feel like I have a guest bedroom to offer) (even if only one duvet cover! But don't worry, the duvet cover is always offered to the guest). We had a lovely time doing not very much except chatting - it has been a LONG time. Katie the Newfie came over Saturday night for a bit of an impromptu girls night/craft night (she is attempting to knit a toque and I am making a sock monkey for Del's friend Pauline's baby Chloe) and on Sunday we just sort of wandered around Guelph. Discovered that what I thought was a bakery was a gorgeous upscale-food shop like the one that was down the road from me in Edinburgh. We had some 75% dark chocolate and I got chai masala and some smoked garlic (I am a sucker for spices in lovely tins). Sophie bought me something called Mayan Hot Chocolate: ingredients cocoa liquour, organic sugar, cocoa powder, chili peppers, ginger, orange peel, Madagascar vanilla and "a unique blend of spices". It is amazing! It may or may not be the same thing I had at the Hillside festival, but I love it. Too bad it's so bloody expensive... but since Sophie totally rocks, now I have some :)

Work's going well. I had a look at my data on Friday and it is looking good! very happy about that. This week I have to collect the rest of it (sigh) and then start on a write-up, I guess. I feel like this is a really big deal on one hand, but on the other need to keep thinking about the next thing...

My supervisor also went to a conference last week, so I took his class. I only had to talk to them for ten minutes or so and then meet with groups individually, so wasn't too scary. Felt like it was good experience, though. Oh, and it also wasn't too scary because I had to give a presentation to my Neuroscience class (that I am taking, not teaching) the week before, and TOTALLY STUFFED UP* the powerpoint - so after surviving that, ten minutes of talking to a bunch of fourth-years did not seem scary.

Apart from that, have been very much a homebody lately. It is boring, but on the other hand I am richer and thinner from the lack of alcohol (though the late-night visits to the Salsateria have persisted). I've been to a few gigs, though, because a friend hooked me up with his former roommate Melissa, on the basis that we both hate Guelph. She is doing an internship here and is a big ol' music geek (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) and keeps her ear to the ground about shows and then drags me along. It has been excellent. Last week we saw Ohbijou as well as the Hidden Cameras, because Melissa knows a band member. Yay for getting to hang with the band after the gig! makes me feel special.

Anyway, have done my yoga and had my tea, so off to bed before 11pm hits. Good lord, I am turning into Steph...

*[I made a beautiful, gorgeous powerpoint, emailed it to myself, saved it on my USB drive {or so I thought... dun dun dun} and then went to give the presentation. Two slides in, I realised that half of the slides were wrong - and suddenly came to understand that when I had backed it up to the desktop, I forgot to re-save on the drive... so all my three hours of careful edits were no longer there. However, I had already started talking and it was a bit late to ask to start fiddling about with my email... so I just gave the talk anyway, and had to draw my diagrams that should have been on the slides in living colour on the whiteboard, from memory. Ridiculous. I thought I screwed up bigtime, but after the talk was over, one of the profs told me it was impressive that I didn't need my slides to explain and could do it all from memory... so maybe I pulled it off!]

I MISS THE FENCERS

2009-10-13T19:43:00.001-07:00

Cheap like borscht

2009-10-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

I just made some seriously rockin' borscht. This recipe is pretty confusing to follow, but the end result is YUM (and a lovely shade of red). The beets, carrot, potatoes and dill are all out of the garden!

Unfortunately, I am home making borscht on a Saturday night instead of at Nuit Blanche in TO like I should be because I am ill. I'm not as ill as yesterday, so was tempted to go, but it struck me as possibly a bad idea to stay up till 6am in the rain (first Greyhound back is at that time - I have no crash space in TO) while still recovering. I find it odd that no matter what I catch, the main symptom is a massive fever. It's usually one to two days of no ability to thermoregulate whatsoever, and then another day or two of feeling really burnt out and exhausted. I guess it must kill the germs, though - or something.

So, as expected, it's an incredibly busy semester. I am taking a Neuroscience course that is pretty full-on - lots to learn and lots of work. I am TAing two courses, one of which requires the kids to update Wikipedia on a cognitive neuroscience topic as one of their assignments (so I am responsible for first learning to do this, then teaching them to do it!) I managed to end up joining both the TA Administrative Council and the executive of the WiSE (Women in Science and Engineering) club, both of which have millions of meetings. And of course I'm writing a review paper and attempting to get some research done. And maybe exercise once in a while (joined an intramural soccer team!)

I think it could be quite a fun semester, as long as I can figure out some way to get everything done. There's always extra stuff too - scholarship applications, helping out the honours students, going to lectures and seminars. It's mostly all stuff I like, but when the pressure is on nothing is fun. Need to figure out how to fit everything in such that the pressure is hardly ever on.

Not being sick would be a good start. Oh well.

Had an excellent trip out to Killarney Park right before the semester started. I went with Mark the neighbour and Reggie, who is German (and therefore did all hiking and portaging in a bikini - and wore less than that the rest of the time). The lakes were amazing. I forget sometimes that Ontario is not all cities... There are only a few campsites per lake, so most of the time there was no one else around at all.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some pictures.

So beautiful. The portaging was hard-core but enjoyable, and it was so nice to be outside for four days straight. Well worth missing the first week of class, I would say! I am definitely going back.

finally some excitement!

2009-09-07T15:12:00.001-07:00

Sorry about the long silence. August was crap and not much worth writing about. Yuck.

But! It is September and I am feeling better. This weekend I got to both check out the Elora Quarry (a quarry with a spring in it and a little sandy beach - I swam around for over an hour) and a conservation area near Guelph (the downstairs neighbours were kind enough to bring me along on that one). It also had a little pond to swim in, which was quite cool. (Although then we went and sat by a stinky lakeshore for hours - didn't quite get that one, you couldn't even swim).

And now I have been invited along on a portaging trip to Killarney, which I am very excited about. It was a tough call, as this is a terrible week to be gone - I will be missing all the orientation stuff at Guelph once again, plus my first Neuroscience class. Bad. But I am SO dying to get out of here, and I couldn't pass up the chance to try portaging! We are renting a canoe onsite and (according to Neighbour Mark) not doing more than 5-6 hours paddling and portaging per day. It looks gorgeous and it's not supposed to rain (though I can imagine it will be freezing). I am currently packing massive piles of trail mix and quinoa for the trip. Exciting!

So see you after, if I don't get eaten by a bear... we should be back Saturday night.

Accomplishment

2009-08-11T18:20:00.000-07:00

Today I ran up the insane steps that separate the Ward (where I live) from the posh bits of Guelph. RAN up them! I walk up them on a weekly basis to get groceries, and even that usually kills me after. On the way down I counted them. 106 - and pretty steep at that. I suppose it would be a very cheap fitness challenge to try and work my way up to running up them and THEN not collapsing afterwards!

the kindness of strangers

2009-08-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

Things have gone all to heck with work. We should have been able to start testing my first real experiment for my PhD (code name Hot or Not) tomorrow. All was ready to go... until my undergrad assistant happened to mention today that she just remembered that one of the people she tested earlier in the summer while I was away had invalid data because the computer died halfway through testing. This data was what we were basing tomorrow's stuff on, and now I find it is all wrong. Everything has to be reanalyzed without that guy's data included, which takes ages.

So I found myself at the lab late today. I started around 3. It was almost 9pm by the time I looked up, so thought I should be getting home. I got outside, and the storm of the century was upon us! (see above).

It wasn't raining yet, but there was a HUGE lightshow above me - sheet lightning every few seconds, flickering all over the sky. I was terrified (I fear being hit by lightning!) But buses stop at 6pm on Sundays in Guelph (STUPID GUELPH!) so I couldn't catch a ride home.

Then the rain started. Torrential. I didn't have a coat because it was incredibly hot and muggy today, so I was soaked through within minutes.

I was huddled under a tree*, praying (SCARED OF LIGHTNING!) when a guy in red car pulled up and asked if I wanted a ride.

THANK YOU!

My rescuer said he hoped he didn't seem creepy, but he remembered being a student with no car (and he had rescued an old lady and her shopping during Tuesday's storm). I said, nope, not creepy, and I am incredibly grateful. He was a pilot called Cory who was just on his way home. He drove me to my block (not the exact house - I'm not THAT trusting) and now I am watching the storm with the lights out because the power keeps dying anyway. Incredible light show. My rescuer said he heard there were tornado warnings too, but haven't seen any funnel clouds yet.

I hope Cory got home safe**, but I will forever be thankful... and pick up all soaked pedestrians during lightning storms if I ever get a car.

* contrary to my dad's opinion, I DO know enough to come in out of the rain, even if trees might attract lightning!

** and that the rain hasn't knocked all my tomatoes off - they are almost ready!

There's a Reason that I Hate This Town

2009-08-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

Well, there are many and none. It's not Guelph's fault, I suppose, but I want out of this place. I wish I'd coughed up the money/time away from work and gone back to Alberta for Folk Fest/Leslie's wedding/family holiday. Bah. As it is, I'm stuck here in the rain and everyone I remotely enjoy the company of has left town en mass. Lucky rats.

Lego masonry

2009-07-31T12:33:00.001-07:00

Excellent use of Lego... Bricks are bricks, I guess!

Awesome.

2009-07-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

baked lard
Serves 3
You will need:

* 150ml brandy
* 150g lard

Preparation:

* sift the brandy
* barbeque the lard
* throw it all away

Get your own random recipe here!

WJ

2009-07-22T04:56:00.001-07:00

Oh yeah, forgot to mention last night in my exhausted haze that Will's beard stole the show.... all of Wales was very impressed (or horrified, I couldn't tell which!) My friends were a little surprised by his penchant for composing sermons at parties rather than dancing, but pronounced him "cute as a button".

a post through the jet lag...

2009-07-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

Back safe from the UK. Back in Guelph. SIGH. Man, was it ever hard to leave. I kept thinking, "oh well, at least the weather is generally nice in Guelph" and returned to pouring rain. Hmph.

Had a great trip, though. Far too much rushing around the country (there was an extra trip to Bournemouth that I totally could have skipped but didn't want to disappoint Del) but a great time in general. I got in to Gatwick after telling my ride that it was Heathrow (oops). Luckily he checked the e-ticket I sent him before leaving, but it was an extra hour's drive for him. Double oops. But since we were down in that end of the country anyway, we decided to see Brighton while we were there. We drove down and had a gorgeous English breakfast - exactly what I needed. Brighton was pretty awesome despite the rain. I happen to like crashy waves, and there were plenty of those. We also played around on the pier and I got to ride on a Mary Poppins-style carousel. I rode side-saddle, of course.

Brighton is actually a really cool town. I wish we could have stayed longer. Even in the rain, we had a great time. I remember trying for weeks to get down there when I lived in London, but there were railworks at the time and the only option was a four-hour coach ride. Needless to say, I didn't bother. Will definitely have to go back some day, though. Lots of tacky seaside stuff, jellied eels for sale, excellent-looking places to go out and (for some reason) a designated gay charity shop.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday lying low around Oxfordshire and recovering from jet lag - one day out in Oxford, one in Banbury. Nothing too exciting. On Friday we drove up to London for Del's friend's wedding. We had two nights in the hotel where his friends were staying, which was excellent as his friends were awesome. My mate Aonghus from my Masters was there too. I was very pleased to see him, as he skipped grad. We also ended up randomly going to a tiny Italian restaurant run by tiny Italian women - the food was AMAZING. It was clearly the kind of place where you have to reserve days in advance - but we happened to wander in just as a two-person table came free. Yum.

The wedding itself was amazing. I loved it! It was a backyard wedding and absolutely lovely. They had set up a tent with a table for the wedding party and family, and the rest of us were on rugs on the grass under a marquee thingy. Each rug had a picnic basket with a loaf of French bread and two or three types of cheeses, plus a bottle of champagne. (There was even a seating plan - "You're on rug two, back corner"!) It was BYOB, but all the alcohol was put on one table and served to you as you asked, so it was essentially a full bar for the cost of a bottle or so per guest.

The ceremony was Humanist - new one to me, but pretty nice. Lots of stories about the happy couple and lots of poetry readings. After the ceremony, we all queued for a fish supper - they actually had a fish'n'chip van parked outside the house! This was the only party that sucked a bit, as it took a LONG time to serve everyone. Still, the fish was really nice so I can't complain. Then, later in the evening, there was a hog roast and everyone got a bun with meat and apple sauce. This must be some kind of tradition, as it has featured in both UK weddings I have attended.

The best part, of course, was the 1940s theme. The wedding invitations were designed like ration cards from 1947 and looked amazing. Everyone really got into the challenge of dressing the part. There were a lot of RAF and army men, one Biggles, one Rosie the Riveter, and countless women in excellent hats. I even saw Indiana Jones wander past. Del was in an RAF uniform (very dashing, although one of his friends commented, "Although I don't dislike the uniform, you have to admit that there is something of the bus conductor about the man.") I cobbled together an outfit from the Vintage Advantage here in Guelph, pulled together by a few key accessories. I found a perfect red necklace at BHS for three pounds (plastic jewellery had just come out right about then, and was all the rage) and made Del pick me out some red lipstick because he is so much better at that sort of thing. I think it made the outfit, in the end. Black dress, black lace top, black pillbox hat with veil, black shoes, stockings with seam, and then red necklace and lipstick. Very striking. I also attempted victory rolls (that 40s rolled hair look) and Del was kind enough to curl the hair down the back for me!

Of course, everything didn't go as planned. Someone had told Del that the wedding was "five minutes around the corner". We were late getting ready, of COURSE, and late leaving. However, we decided to walk so as not to have to worry about the car. 25 minutes later, my feet were bleeding and there was no sign of the wedding venue. I asked Del if he had Mapquested the route, and he said yes. "How far did it say it was?" "Er, 2.3 miles" "!!!" There was no way I could walk that far in my fancy shoes, so I sat down on a wall in full 1947 regalia while Del ran back to get the car in full RAF uniform. In the end, we turned up almost 45 minutes late - and missed nothing at all. PHEW!

The most amusing moment of the wedding was during the ceremony. Del's friend Edelle was giving a gorgeous rendition of "Danny Boy" and it was totally silent. Suddenly, there was a huge BANG as the person beside me accidentally let off a champagne cork. In his struggle to control it, he caught the cork with his face! Champagne sprayed everywhere and it was almost impossible not to giggle through the remainder of "Danny Boy". Sorry, Edelle.

Being an Irish wedding, it went on all night and I had a great time. The next morning was not quite so pleasant, but never mind. I definitely wouldn't have missed it.

On Monday, I went back into London to see some friends. Man, I don't miss that place. I felt grimy, stressed and exhausted by the time I got back to Banbury. And my eyes were itching! I totally blamed it on London when I got conjunctivitis twice in a row when I lived there, and I think I was right.

Following London was a flying trip to Bournemouth (about 3 hours' drive) to visit Del's friend Ciara. I was promised beaches, so despite being exhausted I went along. We got there and sat around in Ciara's backyard chatting for a while. Finally, we packed up the gear for a picnic on the beach and headed down. We arrived, sat down, and... the heavens opened. Ciara's boyfriend made a run for it back to town, but luckily for me she was made of sterner stuff. We grabbed our gear, found an arch to shelter from the rain, lit the portable BBQ and had our picnic while watching the storm!

Wednesday, we drove back from Bournemouth and then up to Bangor. Long, crappy journey, not helped by the roadworks that diverted us through Flint - INTO another set of roadworks. The queue of cars was endless, and so slow that the locals were sitting on the walls of their gardens, chatting with passing (sort of) motorists. Once we were through that, the detour then directed us up a mountain... ah, Wales. Sigh.

Having finally escaped Flint, I texted Thandi for directions. "Take Junction 9", she replied. So we duly took Junction 9, only to find that none of her other directions seemed to apply. After some discussion, Del managed to bring up a map on his Blackberry. It told us to do a loop, head back in the same direction, and take Junction 11. After finally arriving, three hours late, Thandi said, "I DID say Junction 11, right?"

Grad itself was quite good, and not nearly as long as I had feared. Everything was in Welsh and English, but they kept it quite snappy. One shortish speech and a nice harp recital, and that was about it. Walked across the stage, collected degree, took obligatory photos. I was quite excited that Will was able to make it, though. I didn't think it would matter, but it made a huge difference having a family member in attendance. And anyway, he gave me a gorgeous necklace for grad!

Anyway, this is getting insanely long and I want to go to bed (jet lag!) Suffice it to say that the after-grad party was seriously fun, Bangor was same as always, complete with pouring rain and restaurants that are always closed just as want them to be open, and a good time was definitely had.

Oh,and I managed to collect a bunch of stuff I had left with Thandi and Del and bring it back here. My bags were 10kg overweight, but the guy didn't even mention it and just waved me through. Del was watching and later told me he looked at the scales, looked at me, looked at the scales, looked at my chest and waved me through. This is unconfirmed, though (ie. I totally didn't notice) so I will just be happy for the lack of extra fees!

one degree of Kevin Spacey

2009-06-19T05:44:00.001-07:00

Am in Hamilton at a conference. (Yes, I know - I get to go to all the most exotic ones!) The conference is pretty informal, but it's all people from the universities in the area who study attention and performance. So pretty interesting. It's only a two-dayer, but my supervisor put us up in the dorms on campus. It is kind of fun, as I never actually lived in a dorm room in undergrad. It smells exactly like camp rooms did. I have to say, living in a one-bedroom basement suite with Stephie was cozy, but I never would have survived sharing a three-meter-wide room with some random roommate for an entire school year.

Anyway, the most interesting part of the whole experience (sorry, attention researchers) was watching the filming of the movie Casino Jack. We first realised something was going on when some guy brandishing an umbrella started yelling at all the passing academics, rolling his hands above his head and yelling, "Quiet! Rolling! QUIET! ROLLING!!!" You could practically see the question marks above the heads of the venerable academics. ("Rolling? What?") But they had a big crane with a camera on it pointing at a balcony just above our heads.

Turned out the balcony in question was attached to the grad lounge, so there was nothing for it but to go have lunch there. Alex, the post-doc, Asma, my labmate, and I managed to end up seated right in front of the window to the balcony. We were gazing right over the directors' chairs (who knew they actually use chairs like that?!) and into the monitor showing what was being filmed. We watched Kevin Spacey on the monitor screw something up and burst out laughing, and just as I said, "I wonder if we'll actually see him?" he came wandering over to our section of the window. Neat! We walked past the equipment trucks on the way back - so many cables and bits of equipment, and like 50 shades of what I assume were filters for the lights. To anyone in the film industry: I will happily give you a tour of my lab if you show me what all that interesting equipment actually does!

Oooh, speaking of our lab, my supervisor has managed to secure the funds to build a brand new one. And in the meantime, they are moving us out of our basement dungeon (accessed by walking THROUGH the janitor's closet) and into a new space with WINDOWS! I am very, very pleased with this turn of events.

Cold or hot, Spam hits the spot!

2009-06-17T18:39:00.001-07:00

weekend stuff

2009-06-15T06:12:00.000-07:00

Oops, started this Saturday and forgot to post:
"
Wow, looks like a beautiful day, and I am feeling motivated. Going to make a cheesecake for the neighbour's birthday and work on some projects. I love Saturdays.

Projects = making lampshades for two AWESOME kitschy lamps I found at Value Village last week (although as they are clearly from the '60s, I am going to get dad to check that they are actually safe to use!) and making a coffee table out of a board covered in trashy romance novel pages with a fruit box base. You may ask why my house suddenly looks like someone lives in it (rather than as if the occupant were still in the throes of unpacking, as it did for the first six months) and the answer would be that Steph came to visit. Stuff happens when Stephanie is around. She bought me a bookshelf, for one thing. TECHNICALLY my arrangement of fruit boxes was working, more or less, but I have to say having an actual piece of furniture certainly adds something. And since we had a lot of time to play (as I skipped out on most work for her visit) there were crafts galore.
"

And now it is Monday and the cheesecake was delicious (did NY style with a strawberry-mango topping that turned out AMAZING - the neighbour was very pleased) and I got lots done. Went to Costco (and spent too much, but it is all useful stuff), cleaned the house, and spent most of yesterday in the garden with Oliver and Katie. Everything is coming up and now that it is weeded it looks so good. Also went to two bonfire parties and stayed out till 5am again. Pretty awesome weekend, in fact, in a quiet kind of way. This week, like last week, will involve much hard work to get a few projects off the ground before my parents arrive. I'll still have to work during those two weeks, but with a bit of effort now I should be able to escape for a while here and there as well. And I fully plan to do nothing at all useful (well, very little) while I am in the UK in July!

And with that note, back to work. Am trying to learn how to program in Python... getting there, but we have skipped straight to Classes in three lessons, and I have had to get a book out of the library to try and catch up! My last official programming experience was intro Comp Sci in second year undergrad...

I didn't think I looked addicted...

2009-05-26T04:53:00.001-07:00

Did my first day of testing at the addictions treatment facility yesterday. It went remarkably well, in that I had one person booked and three actually agreed to be tested. They are super disorganised there, but also super friendly and helpful (which I think I prefer). Anyway, it is a pretty boring experiment involving pressing buttons on a computer, but at least it is short. I set up the laptop for them and gave them chocolate afterwards - that seemed to go over well. And nobody was phased by being asked pointed questions about their drugs of choice. They were all lovely about sitting through the experiment and happy to help, and also curious about what the point was. Much better than bored/hungover undergrads any day!

The best part, though, was when I showed up to the Admissions building to try and get someone to show me the room where I could test, and some woman asked if I was checking in.

In other news, Oliver gave me a giant box of asparagus from a yield trial (where they just need to weigh the produce and then get rid of it). It has taken over my fridge. I have made asparagus quiche, asparagus soup, asparagus fried rice, and asparagus tacos (not really recommended, though), plus have barbequed them a couple of times with butter, PLUS have had a lot of normal steamed asparagus. Am running out of ways to use it before it all goes bad! I used to hate asparagus as a kid - good thing that changed before now.

Garden!

2009-05-22T04:55:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, my leg didn't fall off. Only the skin on my ankle did (after two weeks of two kinds of antibiotics). Now I have nice pink new skin there and all is good.

Had a pretty busy couple of weeks getting a studentship application in. They are a LOT of work and I don't feel it's very likely I'll get this one, so a crappy return on investment. However, when your supervisor says "apply for this", you can't really say "No, it's probably a bad ROI." I suppose it's good experience, blah blah blah, writing up research proposals and all that. No fun, though.

So I killed myself working on that all last week, handed it in*, and promptly got completely ill and stayed that way for the whole long weekend.

Unfortunately, we also put a good bit of our giant garden in that weekend, and I felt compelled to get out there and do some work despite being diseased. Don't think that helped me heal too quickly. Garden looks great, though. It is actually in two bits - our grand plan for MY garden fell by the wayside when the landlady's husband's daughter and her boyfriend moved into the bottom of my house. They seemed very nice, so the first thing I asked them was, "You guys don't like gardening, do you?" The answer, sadly, was an enthusiastic "YEAH! We can't wait to get out there and get a garden in! We can share the space, right?" Sigh.

So, it was time to rethink. We didn't want to halve our grand garden plans (considering there are five of us in on this, and a tiny garden = not much yield per person). So I cut a deal with the Boys Next Door, who have a massive yard and had just let it all go to weeds. Oliver and I dug a 1050sq ft garden on their side of the fence in return for cutting them in on the food produced. So then the garden looked great but the yard was a mess. This guilted the Boys N. D. into mowing the weeds, getting rid of the garbage, and making a gorgeous fire pit plus two benches. Now their yard looks amazing, we have our garden (half in their yard and half in mine), and the unemployed downstairs neighbour is spending all his time landscaping our yard, so now it looks great too. Moral of the story: always make nice with the neighbours.

So far we have planted potatoes, rocket (arugula), lettuce, cilantro, tomatoes, tomatillos (which Del thought would be a cross between a tomato and an armadillo), and huckleberries, which are mysterious to all of us but someone gave to Oliver. This weekend we will do the big plant, although I'm not sure when we will fit it in. I have a conference on fMRI all weekend (organised by my supervisor, so no skipping), a party tonight, and the Boys N. D. are hosting the Beer Olympics tomorrow afternoon at their place. Probably a bit difficult to plant a garden in the midst of people performing the Keg Put and the 100 Litre Dash.

*not without drama - my supervisor did not give me his letter of reference until 2.30 due to printer issues, and the post office closed at 3.00. Although I was only sending it across campus, the instructions declared that the envelope had to be postmarked by 5pm on the deadline. So I ended up sprinting across campus clutching an envelope in one hand and all my attachments in the other, bursting into the post office two minutes before it shut, and frantically scribbling the envelope while the post office lady (who was keen to get started on her long weekend) stood over me ranting about how the mail guy would be there AT 3PM and I better hurry. I only hope it was somewhat legible...

Infection!

2009-04-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

Woke up on Monday with an extremely itchy ankle. By Tuesday it was hugely swollen and bright red and sore, with a little white scab on top. Del badgered me until I went to the doctor today, even though they are always dismissive and only ever tell me nothing's really wrong. Or if it is, they can't fix it. Anyway, the lady at the front desk wanted to give me a Friday appointment, but agreed to let me hang out in the waiting room, be seen by a nurse and maybe sent to a doctor if it was urgent.

So the nurse came along, took one look and went "WHOA! It's a good thing you came in when you did - that thing would be halfway up your leg by Friday!" eek! Anyway, so she sent me straight in to the doctor, who was lovely, and now I have an oral antibiotic and an antibiotic cream, so hopefully my leg won't fall off. Oh, and a talking-to from the nurse about going in to check if I'm still allergic to penicillin, and getting a medic alert bracelet if I am.

In other news, I learned to make quiche from scratch this week! Very exciting. I need to stop making them soon because it is probably sending my cholesterol levels through the roof, but SO GOOD!

Neighbours

2009-04-16T17:51:00.001-07:00

I pruned my vineyard today.

Okay, let's be honest, ERIK pruned my two lines of grapevines. But it was still pretty cool.

Met the neighbour on the other side. Her name is Frankie. Hers is the small yappy dog I keep hearing. Her husband is bedbound and when they tried to take him to the hospital for his lungs, his heart stopped. Now his leg is falling off and one toe is entirely black and they are trying to decide where to amputate. He lost 150 pounds and now he weighs 120, but he can shuffle around the house.

Frankie also told me about the old Italian guy who used to own the house, which explains a LOT. Apparently the downstairs windows are covered with home-made booby tracks to electrocute burglars. Have to keep an eye out for that one...

The other neighbours are having a bonfire tonight, though, so must be off.

neuroplasticity and addiction

2009-04-14T18:31:00.001-07:00

I would like to take the opportunity to say a big huge THANK YOU to my parents for the great job they did of not screwing me up. Seriously. The more I learn about this whole turning genes on and off business (which is referred to as epigenetics, apparently) the more I realize how lucky I am.

Which is to say that I saw a very good talk tonight by Dr. Gabor Maté called The Four Compassions: A humane response to addictions. Lisa, if you haven't heard this guy you should make an effort to check him out. This stuff is right up your alley.

It was a perfect counterpoint to the talk by Bryan Kolb last week. Dr. Kolb was talking about animal models of attachment and stress responses in the context of brain neuroplasticity. Dr. Maté was effectively talking about the exact same thing, except he's talking about the examples he sees every day on the street. He works in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver at the Portland Hotel, working with people with mental health and addiction issues. He took great pains to point out this sort of research that has been done - he cited a study I hadn't heard about. It was an ERP study on six-month-old human infants. He said that they could tell from looking at the pattern of the EEG which babies had depressed mothers. Good lord. It makes perfect sense that this kind of thing would have an effect on infants, but I don't think I ever realized the huge amount of brain plasticity involved. The effects of stress and depression (parental or the child's) can have enormous consequences later in life.

Anyway, Dr. Maté's point was that if you take that into consideration, there is no choice BUT to respond compassionately to addiction. They're not doing it because they're bad people, and they're certainly not doing it just to annoy us. They're doing it because their brains have been changed by (often horrible) childhood experiences, and they are using the drugs to medicate the pain. Criminalizing addiction won't do anything. Of course I've been reading a ton about this stuff from the brain/cognitive side myself, and Dr. Kent Berridge has a theory that addiction represents a dissociation of liking and wanting. Addicts don't like the drugs - they cause nothing but problems. But their brain wants them, and that is a primal kind of craving that is difficult or impossible to resist.

(As a sidenote, I have been thinking about starting a wee side blog where I take the pretty fascinating finds I read about all day and translate them into language a person without a lot of very specific education would understand and sort of write them up that way. I think it would be good for me, plus it's pretty crazy interesting stuff, but hard to get into without access to the databases).

Anyway, this was a very timely lecture for me to hear. Sooner or later I will probably end up working with substance-dependent people at the local treatment facility for my PhD, and it is a bit scary. Let's face it, my main interactions with addicts so far have been scary people shouting at me on the street or demanding money. A whole lecture on "judge not lest ye be judged" was just what I needed.

The lecture, by the way, was at St. George's*. It was billed as "St. George's gift to the city of Guelph". Good on them for getting a speaker addressing this topic, I say.

Besides the drug addiction stuff, my supervisor has asked me to apply for a studentship to do with problem gambling. These things are a huge pain to apply for - letters of reference, research proposal, letter from the university, transcripts, etc etc etc. But if I did get it, that would be amazing, so I guess it's worth a try. There sure isn't much literature out there about problem gambling, either.

In other news, I finally ran out of homemade laundry detergent and had to make a new batch. This time I melted the soap in 6 cups of water and added 9 litres of water after the washing soda and Borax, and stirred it a heck of a lot more while making it and as it was cooling. And it came out so much better! No more clumpiness, this is nice homogenous slime. I added a bit more washing soda (one cup) too, since Guelph's water is so stupidly hard. Have also been busy becoming very well-acquainted with vinegar's hard water deposit-removal properties. Anyway, I think I will declare the experiment a resounding success and not go back to store-bought detergent. This is cheaper and way more fun. Enough said.

Not much else new. Went to church on Easter, which was nice and I was very pleased when we sang the "Christ the Lord is risen today, A-a-alleluia" hymn. But after that it sucked. It was hard not to think of last Easter, in which I got to wander around Britain (and a bit of Ireland) with my family, packed into a tiny car with Lisa in the boot and dad at the wheel, tearing through roundabouts. Man, now THAT was fun. We were going to have a little planting party and plant our peas, but everyone involved either got sick at the last minute or couldn't tear themselves away from schoolwork. We had planned a potluck so I made cabbage rolls, but then only Katie the Newfie and her boyfriend (who was lovely) turned up. And neither of them really eats meat. Sorta disappointing. On the plus side, freezer is now packed with cabbage rolls...

* If you go to the St. George's site, do the virtual Easter egg hunt! It is pretty cool and they have some amazing stained glass windows.

up and down, up and down

2009-04-09T04:41:00.000-07:00

Today I get to learn how to make a wiki to manage a project. Our postdoc made one to write a grant, and I was pretty impressed with it. Everyone can contribute drafts, and you can see the old version too if you're so inclined. I've been told to write a review article on attentional effects in substance dependence with a colleague, and am nerdily excited about this new (to me) use of technology to collaborate. Grad school is fun!

I actually had a really good meeting with my supervisor yesterday that was quite motivating. He cleared up some of the mysteries (like "what exactly am I expected to know by the end of this?") and put forth a pretty good argument for having me switch into the new PSYC + NEURO designation they've just come up with. It's a collaborative program between a whole bunch of faculties and would basically make this into a full-on proper neuroscience degree, as far as I can tell. It will also involve a class that I will probably find pretty challenging given my background (hint: lacks biochemistry), but I think it will be worth it.

He also explicitly said that he's planning to ensure I learn management skills. This appears to translate into Convincing Undergraduate RAs That They Would LOVE To Run My Subjects For Free, so that sounds good to me.

On the minus side, I've been constantly tired for the last week and seem to be fighting something off. I have a bit of a cold, but lately I've been totally wiped and ready for bed by about 3pm. Mysterious. Trying to get sleep, drink fluids and be as supportive as I can to my poor embattled immune system...

Of course I did NOT do this last weekend, when I saw the Weakerthans (finally!!!) and also a great opening act called Bahamas. I was actually motivated to buy this guy's CD, despite the fact that I'm broke. Mark my words, this guy will be worth listening to... I went to the gig by myself, which I hate, but afterwards the neighbours invited me out, so that stopped me from completely feeling like a friendless loser. Er, but possibly contributed a smidgen to any germs I was incubating, as we stayed up till 3am drawing pictures with mustard on the arms of passed-out people.

stupid weather

2009-04-06T05:33:00.000-07:00

Gah! SNOW?! I was supposed to be safe from this! The garden committee was going to plant yesterday - thank heavens we didn't (it was determined that the soil was too wet) (and now it's under two inches of snow). The garden committee, by the way, consists of four other people who are going to help me sort out my garden - "help" as in do most of it and tell me how to do the rest. We are going to split seeds and supplies five ways and share the harvest. I am so excited that we can grow tomatoes, peppers (!), and even things like okra and watermelon outside. Two of the committee are currently doing their masters in asparagus, so I'm pleased someone knowledgeable is in charge.

Today is Neuroscience Day at Guelph, and I have to present my poster. Blahhhhh. However, the keynote speaker is Bryan Kolb of undergraduate neuro textbook fame, so I am looking forward to that.

money for eating bread

2009-03-31T10:16:00.000-07:00

Got $5 for tasting bread today. And last week I got $5 for tasting yogurt. Not quite as lucrative as being in peoples' behavioural psych experiments, but much more fun.

There seems to be a pretty big Food Science department here, and occasionally they do consumer testing. This is the best deal ever as it takes less than half an hour, and all you have to do for your cash is make a few comments about whatever product they've come up with this week. They have a gorgeous consumer testing lab, as well. My Masters supervisor would be drooling. It is a little L-shaped room with about ten little computer desks set along the inside wall of the L. Each one has a little sliding door, behind which is a kitchen. Each also has a wall-mounted computer screen and a keyboard. They're clearly running E-Prime (I'd recognise that font anywhere!), so you just go in, type in the subject number they give you, and someone slides your little pot of yogurt or whatever through the hatch. You taste it, answer the questions, have a drink of water and they take it away and give you the next one. This would have been SO useful for the Consumer Psychology lab!

Busy week this week. I counted up my TAing hours and found I've almost worked all my hours for one of my TA-ships (I have two half TAs instead of one full one). I've done 65 out of 70 hours, with one assignment still to be handed in and the final exam to be marked. Ideally, the prof would then just pay me for the extra hours worked, but that ain't likely... he will probably just do the rest of the marking himself. Either way not so bad, I guess.

Also am making a poster for Guelph's "Neuroscience Day". Sounds pretty silly, but the keynote speaker sounds interesting, and at least it's something accomplished...

graduation (again)

2009-03-28T19:08:00.000-07:00

So, does anybody fancy attending my graduation? you only have to travel to Wales... Got the letter yesterday (thanks for forwarding, Mom) saying I'm allowed two tickets. I certainly hope William would be taking one, should he be in the country! But I imagine it will be pretty boring, so I would settle for him meeting me for a pint.

I also got the letter saying I got distinction, which was a huge relief as I was starting to worry that I hadn't. Not that it makes a blind bit of difference to me now, but... somehow it does.

I see I also have to wear "academic dress supplied by Ede & Ravenscroft". So far, so Harry Potter...

the run-around

2009-03-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

So I'm a bit stressed about money just now... rent is expensive, but I didn't worry about it too much because I was promised a certain amount of funding for deigning to do my PhD at Guelph (!) However, summer tuition is due soon and my TA-ships will concurrently end. I guess I sort of assumed that they would just give me equal increments all year, but had a word with the graduate secretary (during which I sat down heavily on her chair, which turned out to have wheels on it and leapt backwards, and I ended up on the floor) and it turns out that this is not the case. It's tied to TA-ships and things, apparently. And they don't think they'll have any available during the summer. I really don't understand how this works, as I have a signed bit of paper saying they have to pay me the money... so why not now?! Grrrr, universities. Anyway, she was as helpful as she could be, but had to say she didn't know if anything would be decided before tuition was due. And even if it was, she said, there are hardly any summer TAs.

This was worrying, so I went over to Student Financial Services to see if they could help me out. Person A sent me to the front desk (take a number, wait in line) to ask Person B to help me make an appointment with Person C. But this confused Person B, who kicked me over to ask Person D about it. Person D said, "What? You're supposed to make the appointment with Person B! Oh, for crying out loud..." and brought me back to Person B who then agreed to make the appointment with Person C.

So the appointment was this morning at 10am. Unsurprisingly, I was running late. Managed to get my disheveled self to the bus stop only to find my bus pass missing GRRRRR. But I didn't want to be late for my Person C appointment, so I coughed up the cash for the bus but was very annoyed about it. Bus was late, of COURSE, and crowded, and by the time I finally made it to school it was nearly 10.00. So I ran upstairs to the room where I'd been told to wait, and... no one.

Ten minutes later... no one. Fifteen minutes later I threw myself on the mercy of Person D again, who shrugged at me and said Person C would come get me eventually. After ten more minutes Person D took pity on me and dragged Person C over.

Person C was useless.

I was told she could help me fill out a form which would put me in the running for bursaries (even at this late semester date) and maybe help with scholarship information. But she refused. Said, sorry, can't help you, try reapplying in summer, bye. Then I asked about scholarships and she said, oh, that's Person A's job. Bye.

Person A, however, was awesome. (Had I known this I would have skipped the whole rigmarole in the first place!) She helped me fill out the form (which she said WAS Person C's job) and said she would bring it to the right person and explain that I was applying so late in the semester because I only started in January and no one explained this to me at all.

About six hours later, I got an email saying they're giving me $500. SCORE! Suddenly I feel perhaps the legwork was worth it. That will help, and I guess I'll just keep bugging the grad secretary about when they might know about summer appointments and things.

all in all, not a bad day's work... I HATE uni administration, though!

ps. yes, I sent a nice thank you email.

Intrepid Explorer

2009-03-13T15:47:00.001-07:00

It is so gorgeous and sunny out! (Alberta, eat your heart out). I almost like Guelph when it is like this. I missed my bus this morning, so I finally went exploring in my back yard. And yes, exploring is what it is. It is HUGE! It is also full of random buildings, at least six of 'em. Sheds and greenhouses and garages, it would appear. Also, there is some sort of vineyard (?) or at least a bunch of vines growing on poles. I cannot ID them. Mom, you have to come check this out! There is also a BBQ/firepit type thing and a lot of random stuff. And a clothesline I didn't notice when the snow was three feet high. I would like to do a bit of a garden but am not sure where - maybe among the vines? Anyway, the ground is still frozen so I guess I have a while.

The Mountaineer

2009-03-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

Man, did I ever miss getting the Mountaineer every week. Life is not the same without the Police Report.

"Woman assaults man with snow shovel"

"Area man breaks into home, steals ladies' panties"

Ahhhhhh... nothing quite like it. Thanks Mom!

other stuff about Guelph

2009-03-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

There is a Dutch store in Guelph! Full-on, two whole aisles of dropjes and chocolate sandwich sprinkles kind of thing. (I still don't know what is up with that - sandwiches made of chocolate sprinkles and loads of cheese, and I don't think I saw a single obese person in the Netherlands). I guess it must be pretty Dutch around here. My landlady just married a guy who owns a honey business called Dutchman's Gold. (By the way, she is by far the best one I've ever had [except Judith, of course] - this is an old house and things keep breaking, and everytime I mention something that needs repair she has her husband in to fix it the next day. Except the dripping tap, but she did have a plumber in to look at it so I can't complain too hard).

Went to check out the Anglican church today. St. George's. It is GORGEOUS - proper full-on cathedral style. Built in 1873, according to the literature the church ladies pressed on me. It was a nice service too, mostly sung Morning Prayer with a choir. (Bit hard to follow, though - they kept switching books and didn't use the BAS). And then everyone sitting around me said it was nice to see me (? maybe I looked particularly good today!) and loads of people introduced themselves and invited me to coffee. Three of them offered me rides home. It was a bit overwhelming, in fact, so I got a bit freaked out and skipped the coffee - but after barely a soul talking to me for three months, it was a nice change. Looks to be your typical Anglican congregation, average age about 73, but they were all very sweet and I will definitely be back.

I Heart Reading Week

2009-03-02T19:06:00.000-08:00

Once again I am getting in trouble for not blogging. February was pretty crazy, though - Del came to visit and we went to Montreal for a couple of days, and then I had a conference in Niagara Falls for a couple of days. Montreal was awesome, although the 9ish-hour bus journey was not so great. (Oh, to some day not be a starving student and be able to afford the train!) I had been there once with Grandma, en route to Halifax - we just had a quick change-over, but she was kind enough to watch the bags for a few minutes so I could pop up to street level and have a look at Montreal. And I loved it! I vowed to go back, and poor Del got dragged along for the ride. (He wasn't complaining too much, though - although I did discover roughly 8 bus-hours in that he gets bus-sick).

We stayed in the Latin Quarter, which was funky and interesting. It was walkable to all over the interesting part of the city, so we explored Old Montreal and the Chinese Quarter and McGill area on foot. The weather was cold but clear, but Del was very excited about the Underground City, so we stayed indoors a lot. We just missed a winter festival (boooo!) but did get to see pot-smoking workman building a giant ice slide that extended down a few city blocks, and an ice restaurant outside! Very cool (har har har).

Back from Montreal on Wednesday night at 11, clothes into the wash, fell into bed, up at 8 am and off to Niagara with my entire lab! My supervisor hired a car that fit all of us (including Del, who I couldn't exactly ditch in Guelph by himself) and booked us hotel rooms. The conference was small but enjoyable, and as my labmate Asma isn't from around here either (she's Indian, in fact) we were both excited to go take the obligatory tourist photos of the falls. We went out for dinner that night and GOOD LORD! They said it was tacky, but I was expecting sort of English seaside tacky. But this was a whole other level of incredible tack. The flashing lights, the screaming Pharoahs and Frankensteins, the six or eight 4D RIDES!!!!!... man, it was something else. I was fascinated. Sadly, I was there to be all thoughtful and academic and didn't get to explore much. Lucky Del got to wander around all he wanted, though. (And what did he do? Bought $20 worth of fudge!)

So that was Reading Week, and it was fun. But sadly it's over, I'm much poorer (though very pleased with how it went down) and way behind with work. So this week (month, in fact) it is nose the grindstone and spending down to the bone!

the Kiwi would approve

2009-02-02T06:17:00.000-08:00

I made dinner for the neighbours last night. I tried roasting a chicken for the first time (technically I've done it before as a joint effort, but previously always made Del be in charge of the meat). I sort of vaguely followed a recipe, although a few changes were made due to the unavailability of fresh rosemary. I really need to start a herb garden at some point.

I also made roasted root vegetables, golden couscous and Remkes' cornbread. And gravy. It was delicious. The neighbours, who are all very single guys' guys who technically can cook (they claim) but don't, were very impressed, so therefore I was pleased. Also they brought dessert and a bottle of homemade plonk, AND did the dishes. Very satisfactory guests. They are a lot less guy-ish when not on their home turf, as well.

Things are going pretty well. This is a week of heavy, heavy marking due to circumstances (one of my co-TAs has a trip to Africa, so my half of the work is all being dumped on me now instead of being spread out over the course of the semester). As well, I think I might actually be starting to test participants this week. It's a study that was already ongoing, but that relates to what I am doing. Will be nice to get started, I guess.

Anyway, I should go do some marking. The pressure is on - this stuff is due tomorrow :(

Giant Bucket of Slime

2009-01-26T19:44:00.000-08:00

So I tried something really cool on the weekend. (Being bored and having no friends at least means I have lots of time to mess around in the kitchen and such). I read a couple of articles about making your own laundry detergent, and it sounded easy and kind of fun. So I gave it a try! I used a combination of this recipe because it was the easiest to follow, and this one, where I first saw it. (The description of making your own giant bucket of slime totally hooked me!)

I ended up sort of combining the recipes, while simultaneously getting a bit confused about the amount of water to use (silly Americans - they have these weird things called gallons that are basically 3.8 litres, but they also switch to cups occasionally. Confusing!)

So basically I used Ivory soap, washing soda and Borax. I used the cheese grater to grate the soap - it was way easier than I expected. Then melted it on the stove on low heat in about 8 cups of water (because I meant to use four cups except forgot my measuring cup actually holds two cups of liquid). Then I dumped in half a cup of Borax and about 3/4 of a cup of washing soda and stirred it. Dumped the whole works into a giant bucket and added an indeterminate amount of water - this is where I got confused about the whole gallons and cups thing. I think it ended up being about 6.5L. Stirred it really well and let it cool with the lid off, so some of the (possibly) excess water would evaporate.

The hardest part was waiting all night for it to cool, but this morning I had my promised giant bucket of slime! It's white and sort of gelatinous, but a bit liquidy. I did some laundry with it this morning and it seemed to work fine, except that the things don't smell perfume-y like they do with regular detergent. Which is fine with me. So now I have a big old bucket of detergent, plus enough to make at least three more vats of it. It was about $6 each for the washing soda and Borax, and $2 for three bars of Ivory (you're not supposed to use anything with too much colour or perfume or additives). Which is a pretty good deal for enough soap to last me for at least a year, plus the amusement of making it.

While I was hauling home my giant bucket from Home Bargains to make my detergent in, I saw the neighbour next door and said hi. He seemed very pleased to see me and invited me over to their house later. I said sure, but I don't think he believed me, because he turned up at the door an hour later and got my mobile number to go out later on. I really didn't feel like braving a bunch of new people, but sucked it up and went over and was SO glad I did. We went to a hippie bar called the Cornerstone to see live music, and then went out dancing. And it was FUN! Met tons of new people (though no contact info) and got free cake and a couple of free beers. Heck yes! Also, it is nice to know the neighbours. The one who talked to me seems to only live there part-time, but there are a bunch more of them - some combination of students and just-done-being-students, I think. Feeling much better just for having been out to socialize, and not feeling so much like a recluse.

2009-01-21T07:46:00.000-08:00

I am taking a break from marking! I'm not taking any classes this semester (only a required seminar where I just have to turn up and listen) but I have a sinking feeling that I'm going to be learning a huge pile of stuff per week in order to be able to mark for two classes. One's a 4th-year neurobiology seminar dealing with learning and memory (haven't done any of that since undergrad) and one's stats (UGH). However, the nice thing is I can mark from home in my PJs. Can't argue with that.

Although still a pretty empty house, it is starting to look reasonably home-like around here. The landlady left me a bunch of student-grade furniture she didn't want anymore (for which I will be forever grateful) and I bought a bunch of stuff from the dollar store, a few pans and a cheap futon to use as a couch. You would not believe the number of people who seem to think their old crappy futon is worth $200. Good lord. Mine is not the loveliest thing in the universe (and it required extensive cat-hair removal), but it was cheap and delivery was included! And now I have somewhere to sit. And a spare bed, when you all come for a visit!

Here is a post I started last week but was too lazy to finish then:

Canadians are so cute. Today waiting for the bus they formed an orderly queue as a woman in a wheelchair slowly descended the ramp. But then after she left, nobody wanted to be the first to move. Eventually the bus driver said, "C'mon you guys, it's too cold to stand around out there! Get on the bus!" and there was a minor stampede. Brits are champion queuers, but they are DEFINITELY NOT SHY about moving forward if they are first in the queue, or even if the first person is showing no signs of going anywhere. Also, the first thing I noticed starting school here was the sheer number of people holding doors for me. They will even hold a door if you are five or ten metres away, necessitating a bit of a sprint to get to the door if you don't want to make them wait forever. Which Canadians generally don't.

Anyway, it's less cold here (or less consistently cold) but way more snowy. Perhaps a house with a lease saying I have to shovel it was a bad call! But the bus system is pretty good and goes right past my house. I have found bus routes to a grocery store and a Zellers, so that should hold me for now. I think when the snow goes away I should be able to walk to work with relative ease, as well. The bus is free, but it would be nice to have the daily exercise.

Here are some pictures of a snowman I made at the bus stop. And a buried bicycle.

book spree

2009-01-10T16:54:00.000-08:00

I went on a book-buying spree at Chapters today. THANK YOU, Grandma and Tim! So exciting to be able to actually buy stuff for once.

Also checked out the Farmers' Market, which seems to be a good one. Only problem is that Farmers' Markets make me nervous. Always so crowded and shovey, you can't really see the prices, everyone wants to TALK to you all the time... makes me very uncomfortable. Silly but true!

I tried buying some shampoo bars at Lush today too. They are expensive, but I was told by girls I did my Masters with that they last forever. Seems a weird concept but worth a try! Also apparently they travel really well, which makes sense. Definitely smaller and more compact than liquid shampoo.

Okay, off to read my new books...

house drama

2009-01-08T06:05:00.000-08:00

OH, the drama!

Right, so I was staying in a B&B/lady's house where students rented out rooms, and I wanted out. For one thing, she needed the room back, so I would have been on an air mattress in the living room. For another, I felt uncomfortable. She kept doing things like not telling me a time for breakfast, so I just wandered down whenever I felt like it (it was not cooked, just cereal and make-yer-own toast). The last day I was there, she told me pointedly when I came down (at 9 am) that she "usually stops breakfast at 9..." making me feel totally guilty, even though there was no indication of this earlier. Argh!

So in my haste to get out, I decided to go with the dingy basement suite, having negotiated a shorter lease. I dumped my stuff into a cab and moved over there. But once in, I discovered it was FREEZING... and once all the lights were on, you could see the filth of the place. The floor was disgusting, the walls were dirty, there were cobwebs everywhere and dust on everything. To top it all off, the fridge wasn't working. I found the latter out AFTER I had put my milk into it.

I had another house to look at that night, mostly because I forgot to cancel the appointment and would have felt guilty cancelling right before I was supposed to arrive. So I went to the house, and it was an older house with two apartments in it. Both had separate doors and separate access to the basement for laundry and that. Wood floors, lots of windows, BATHTUB... it was pretty nice. (At least in comparison). I wished I hadn't seen it because it was so much nicer. I fretted all the way back to horrible basement suite of filth, and spent a freezing and uncomfortable night there. And I called the landlady of the other place and asked if I could move in right away. She said not only could I, but she would throw in a bed and some other furniture if I wanted.

I hadn't signed anything at the basement suite or paid any money yet. So I went and hid at school (had lots to do!) and waited for the landlady of the new place to call and say I could move in (she was checking references and all that good stuff). It was a horrible day - basement suite landlord doesn't really speak English and I wasn't looking forward to a scene. Plus, there was no guarantee that new landlady would get all the references and that before the basement suite guy was pressuring me to sign something. So stressful. Stomach hurt all day.

FINALLY, around 6.30 pm, she called. I grabbed a cab from uni, went to the basement, grabbed my stuff, left a note, the keys and some money, dumped my stuff into the cab, and legged it for the new place. Having seen the suite, the cab driver said there's no way SHE would have stayed there and it was a good idea to get out.

New landlady is very helpful, new house is above ground with windows galore and an ENORMOUS yard, and I have been given a queen-sized bed and a bunch of furniture! I feel sort of bad about the whole fiasco, but am so happy to be somewhere nice. It is a bit further away, but quite possibly still walking distance.

So now only the small matter of a PhD to sort out...

busy day

2009-01-05T20:08:00.001-08:00

Just a quick one because I am exhausted (from not being able to sleep last night, and having pigs texting me at midnight did not help!)

I looked at one more place today, which was super nice (still a basement suite, but enormous windows and loads of light) but far away from uni and expensive, relatively speaking. It was not that big but had loads of storage. But no furniture. And no taps in the bathroom, but apparently that was being fixed as we spoke!

On the way back I miscalculated the bus and stood in the freezing wind for half an hour, and 20 min more when I had to change busses at the university. This did not help convince me that moving way up there was a good idea.

Also today I met the wonderful Graduate Secretary, got a mailbox and an office and keys for both, found out my TA assignments, found out I didn't KNOW about my TA assignments because there is yet another mysterious email address that has been set up for me that I'm supposed to have a password for but was never given, went to visit IT about this and made friends with them, explored a tiny bit of campus, and got my student card and bus pass.

Tomorrow I meet my supervisor. But the grad secretary said you can tell when he's in because music is playing, which seems like a good sign.

And finally, I think I will just take the first place I looked at. I bargained him down to an 8-month lease, which will take me to Sept when there should be a lot available. I hope this is a good idea. I just want to have somewhere to put my stuff, and the thought of having a mattress already is an alluring one. A mattress that I then do not have to move!

whether this is a good call or a rash move remains to be seen.

In other hilarious news, the girls who are staying in this house invited me for a (secret) glass of wine (the landlady doesn't let them take glasses upstairs, apparenty). Anastasia the Russian girl told me she was going to move out four months ago, and had a place set up in a bachelor suite with an older woman in the rest of the house. This woman was really bossy and kept trying to dictate her every move, and then got really upset when Anastasia said she did not want to hand over the money order for the rent until she could move her stuff in. The lady told Anastasia that she should give her (the lady) more respect because she was a retired professor, and kicked her out of the car (the lady had insisted on giving her a lift). This was all starting to sound oddly familiar...

I asked the lady's name, and it was indeed my friend from yesterday's kidnapping and tea adventures. Good lord. Anastasia thought it was hilarious that she apparently has still not let her "apartment" (apparently it didn't even have a stove). Narrow escape!

Oh, and I agreed to go to Toronto with the girls on the weekend. Couch-surfing. What the heck, it's not like I was doing much else... or know anyone else in town!

I have to say, I am finding it strange not being the international student of the bunch. When Anastasia asked where I was from, I automatically said "Canada", until she patiently asked me which province.

kidnapped by a helpful lady

2009-01-04T14:18:00.000-08:00

Well, I feel like I've explored Guelph fairly thoroughly! I waited till noon to call about houses, which was probably silly but I don't want to piss off potential landlords. So I called the overly friendly lady that I spoke to last week and she said she would come pick me up. And she did, and had a chat with the overly friendly lady I am staying with temporarily, which let me off the hook for once. Once I was in the car, the lady said that she didn't have the one-bedroom available any more... but she decided to take me on a driving tour of the university anyway. !!

By then it was too late to escape (plus it was a nice thought, if strange not to tell me the place wasn't available BEFORE she picked me up). She then added that her friend Jocelyn had a room and she was taking me to see her. !!! So off we drove to Jocelyn's. I actually really liked Jocelyn - she reminded me of Auntie Barb, which can only be a good thing - but rather than a self-contained suite like I was looking for, she had a room with a pull-out bed. We had tea with Jocelyn, which I found quite surreal since I had basically just been adopted by this lady out of the blue! Good tea, though.

Then Lady 1 had to go to the mall, so I caught a ride out there and thanked her profusely for her "help", and scampered off. So a bit of a strange experience, but clearly well meant and anyway, I did get to see a good portion of Guelph.

At the mall I bought a mobile (email me for the number!) and, after going round the mall three times because people cannot seem to give good directions, found the bus stop. However, I misread the signs and ended up on the right bus going the entirely wrong direction. (Steph, sound familiar? but the 9 and not the 6 this time). I was on my way to see another house, but took 45 minutes to get there in the end because of going along the ENTIRE bus round. Hi Guelph! You're looking awfully familiar by now!

The house was actually a basement suite. So here's the deal:

Cons:
- dingy, kinda ugly
- not a whole ton of light
-shower but no bath
- landlord doesn't speak English so much
- separate entrance, but steep and narrow/scary stairs

Pros:
- big for a basement suite
- quite liked the landlord, although he barely speaks English so communication was difficult
- landlord says I can paint away the dinginess if I want
- laundry and utils included in rent (which isn't bad, $675)
- biggest pro is it come more-or-less furnished - couple of couches and chairs and a BED! That would save a lot of trouble in the mattress department.

So? What do you think? I have one more to look at tomorrow or Tues, but really need to decide fast because I can only stay here till Tuesday morning...

I will be so glad, by the way, when I have my own place. Two days of being uber-polite at all times is starting to wear! Every time I go downstairs it's a half-hour chat, which is fine, but bring on a solitary lair...

2009!

2009-01-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! I am stressed. How come two weeks in Alberta seemed like such a long time when I planned it? Now it is nearly gone and by this time next week, everything will have changed.

However, I have a flight booked, a ride to Guelph, a B&B to stay at for the first few days, and a few houses to look at on Sunday and Monday. And the promise of a TA-ship that only involves marking - hoorah! Marking, I don't mind. (Teaching = scary). So really I'm as sorted as I can be, considering. Except that there's a lot more work to do before I'm really properly sorted (as in, have a home and an internet connection).

Oh well, I have had a great time at home. Lots of sitting around reading (yay!), some skating, some cooking, lots of sorting boxes (less yay). Lots of family. Lots of Corner Gas. It was fun.

So I don't really do resolutions, but I do try to reflect on things I've learned/new places I've been in the past year, because it makes me feel less pathetic. So:

New places:

- Prague
- New bit of Germany
- Cornwall (definitely have to go back)
- the Cotswolds
- Liverpool
- ermmmmm... Banbury? Okay fine, not too much travelling this year...

BUT I did get my masters, learn how to fence epee and sabre (kinda), learn some E-Prime (useful for programming experiments), try kick-aerobics, crash a lot of parties and convince some hapless university to let me into their PhD program. I've had worse years.

I'd say bring on 2009, but that would work better if I weren't dreading the next week. Hmmmm. Well, it can't fail to be interesting!

Happy New Year, everyone.

Thank you Shawnie Fever!

2008-12-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

Also, Merry Christmas to all! So happy to be home...

slip sliding away

2008-12-05T01:34:00.001-08:00

Eeeeek! Somehow time (as it is wont to do) has flown by and suddenly I have less than two weeks left before I leave. There is WAY too much to do... and this time no Steph around to help me do it! However, the local charities have been very helpful. Every week or so a different one seems to leave an empty bag in our mailbox asking for donations. In this manner, I have got rid of several bags of stuff without having to move it anywhere. It even beats putting up a freebie ad on Craigslist.

Work continues apace. My supervisor came back, still deathly ill, and had two solid days of meetings during which I managed to see her once or twice. Then she asked me if I would mind running down to London to pick up some important documents for her. I found out for sure I was going on Tuesday afternoon at 2pm. Caught the 4pm train to Banbury - it's about a 4.5 hour train ride. Stayed that night, got up early, went into London, picked up the stuff, shopped for 45 minutes, and got back on the train to Bangor. Talk about your whirlwind trips. Unfortunately, the train back was 20 minutes late leaving and decided to go insanely slowly on the journey, so I missed my connection at Crewe (since we were 45 minutes late by that point) and ended up spending an extra hour hanging around Crewe station. YUCK. Oh well. All part of the job, I suppose. Supervisor is now in India, and by the time she returns I will be nearly out the door.

Also the train was full of chatty people. One guy who couldn't believe I was old enough to do my PhD ("You must be older than you look!") - I didn't have the heart to tell him I also spent five years bumming around and am even older than he thinks. Then he left, and a Singaporean businessman got on and started asking me detailed cultural questions about Britain. No matter how many times I explained I'm not from here, either, he didn't seem to get it. "What is the age of marriage in Britain? Is the nightlife better in Manchester or Liverpool? What should I get my British business associate as a gift?" good lord.

In other news, saw Lily Allen in the paper wearing this dress, the day after I wore it to Club de Fromage in London. Clearly, Lily is taking style tips from me. Also, thanks for the dress, mom!

CREEPY BRAIN

2008-11-12T08:49:00.001-08:00

Was just speaking to my supervisor (who is deathly ill, has an ear infection, and is climbing on a plane tomorrow to go give a talk a huge conference, then flying to Argentina - while concurrently attempting to direct the renovation of her bathroom and supervise a PhD student who's finishing next week). She's got her talk nearly written and gave me some advice about talking in front of people.

She says she always makes sure she has the first and last sentences written, and delivers them exactly. She ad-libs the middle, but this way the beginning (when you're nervous) is always okay, and the end (when you're running late) is concise. Sounds like good advice to me.

She also said that when you're speaking in front of scary people, you have to remember what really matters (aka the "Apple Pie Trick"). She's been told she makes the best apple pie in the world, which is what she remembers whenever she's up there at the podium: people might heckle, but they probably can't make apple pie nearly as well - so who cares what they think? :P
Sounds dumb but have a feeling it might work for me! Will road-test this next time. Anything that will help me convince myself it's not important seems to automatically make me do better at anything nerve-wracking, like public speaking or interviews.

in other news: Madge has sent me some brain pictures with boggly eyes! Thanks Madge! Creepy, eh? The section has been taken right through the eyeball! SO COOL.

Anne has a Brain

2008-11-11T06:54:00.000-08:00

How freaking cool is this??! Almost makes all the time stuck down there scanning OTHER peoples' brains worthwhile.

Happy Remembrance Day. I was probably silent at 11.00, but sadly it's because I was stuck in the scanner running yet another subject. 19 down, one to go... and that one is proving impossible to find.

Popty-ping!

2008-11-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

Things I learned at the pub:

The Welsh word for microwave is popty-ping, from popty, meaning oven or bakery, and the microwave sound PING.

That is by far the coolest Welsh word ever, and I will be keeping that one for future use.

Money worries

2008-11-03T04:01:00.000-08:00

I got paid!!!!!!

Sorry, but I am excited. It has been a LONG year of not being entirely sure where the rent is coming from. The problem is that the university's casual payment system requires that you submit your timesheet by the 15th of the month, meaning you only ever get half that month's pay by the end of it. As rent is due on the first of the month regardless, this is a pain. In August I actually had to request an "emergency cheque" be issued. However, this month I got my October pay and the second half of September as well, and am very excited to have money left over. Having the Kiwi around is helping too - very nice to have a housemate who consistently pays rent (and if he notices I'm worried about money towards the end of the month, he always pays early, which is a huge blessing).

In other good news, I just got the unofficial word that I did "very well" on my thesis. Official marks are not released till March (!) but I am very very happy to hear I did well. 'Twas a lot of work. So here's official thanks to Steph, Del, Claire and the Kiwi for their help with editing/data analysis! Think it made a huge difference to the end result.

Back into the fMRI scanner this afternoon to run one more subject, but the bigwigs for this project were up from London last week and so the worst of the stress (on my part) is now over. Spent the day with a film crew following me around! That was a new one and will probably never happen again. Jordan I ain't. Was very weird having boom mikes hovering above me and giant bright lights shining in my face as I ran subjects. However, the film crew was lovely and easy to get on with, and I learned some interesting things about their jobs (plus they let me ramble on about what I will be doing for my PhD!) So in the end, despite the worry, it was quite a fun day and all went relatively well. (And by relatively well, I mean the program for the scanner didn't crash until AFTER the bigwigs had left - although the film crew was still looking over our shoulders!)

Pumpkin Soup!

2008-10-21T07:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the pumpkin soup-in-pumpkin, and one of the Kiwi dishing it out.

I have been asked for the recipe, and don't have one per se. However, I have muddled this together from the correspondence between the Kiwi and his sister regarding it:
PUMPKIN SOUP

Cut a lid in the top of the pumpkin, with your knife angled so the lid doesn’t fall in (like a Jack-o-lantern, with the stem as the handle). Scoop out the insides.

Fry some onion and garlic and throw it in the pumpkin. Add salt and coconut cream. Fill with boiling water and add some red lentils and nutmeg.

Put in a shallow oven-proof dish and bake at 350F for about an hour. Keep checking to see if it looks done. When it looks finished, mix up and scoop some of the pumpkin into the soup (being careful not to pierce the pumpkin-bowl or make it collapse!)

The Kiwi’s sister Rosalie says she sometimes makes one of these for each guest in a small pumpkin, but the Kiwi did one enormous pumpkin and it worked fine.

Here is a picture of the added-sugar-free banana split:

Think it looks pretty nice and dessert-ish! It's just a banana filled with pineapple, with coconut cream on the top.

And finally, since I'm posting photos, some Iron Age huts we came across on a walk near Holyhead (South Stack - it's a sort of bird sanctuary, and you can sit on the mountain and watch the boats to Dublin go out).

And this I just thought looked cool!

Kohlrouladen!

2008-10-20T05:15:00.000-07:00

The cabbage rolls turned out amazing! The Kiwi made pumpkin soup, which he was very proud of - in an actual pumpkin! He put all the soup ingredients in the pumpkin and baked it. Will try to remember to post some photos. Claire made candied yams (mmm, coconutty) and besides the cabbage rolls I tried a carrot and parsnip mash (delicious) and made apple tart. We had Thandi and her mum round for "Thanksgiving", but then had so much food we invited the neighbours, Tobias and Daniela, too. Tobias works in the Kiwi's lab and Daniela's his girlfriend. They're German - Daniela's a pharmacist who works in town. But the Kiwi had made his soup in such an enormous pumpkin that there was STILL some left over even after the last-minute invitees arrived.

So it was, "Anne, can I invite the neighbours on the OTHER side too please?" "Erm, sure..." So suddenly the party included three slightly bemused undergrads who'd never met us, eating soup out of an enormous pumpkin!

Thandi and her mum are off sugar till Christmas, so we made an added-sugar-free dessert, too - a banana split filled with pineapple and topped with coconut cream. Went over very, very well with the healthy-eating crowd.

Oh, and turns out that cabbage rolls are "kohlrouladen" in German. Cool!

Thanksgiving

2008-10-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

Yay for September being over! Well, it's halfway through October, but who's counting? Hope everyone (Canadian) had a great Thanksgiving. As it was on a Monday and it wasn't a long weekend here, I wasn't going to do much for it... but my wonderful housemates had other plans. The Kiwi made chicken (he used the Orange Chicken marinade, but put it on chicken thighs instead of the classic chicken breasts) and roasted sweet potatoes. Claire had just returned from a wedding in the Philippines and brought us chocolate and wine.

Did I mention Claire and the Kiwi? Maybe not - things have been a bit hectic. Claire's from Australia and is in the lab for three months as an exchange. I knew that she was coming and was thinking about offering her my back bedroom if she was interested. Just before that, though, the Kiwi (who had been on my course but was supposed to be doing a funded PhD just afterward) had to quit his PhD and was left stranded, with no plans, no house and no income. He begged me to let him move in and I thought he'd be a pretty good housemate... and so it came to pass.

But then Claire turned up. I offered her a place to sleep for as long as she needed, as both the Kiwi and I felt bad that he'd effectively nicked her room. She ended up staying in the attic, and as she had an impossible time finding a short-term lease the week turned into weeks and then a month... However, Claire is so lovely and so good to live with (and insisted on paying us rent even though we didn't ask for it and were happy to let her stay) that we agreed she could stay as long as she wanted. She arrived Sept 5 and has only just now found a place to live in Menai Bridge. It's been great, though. Never would have thought my tiny house could happily hold three people, but I was pleasantly surprised!

Anyway, on Thanksgiving night I went to kick-aerobics class and came back, tired and disgustingly sweaty, to find the table set, food ready, lights dimmed, music on and Claire and the Kiwi wearing nice formal top/dinner jacket & tie! (and trackpants/shorts on the bottom...) It was really sweet.

I had planned to make pumpkin pie but just didn't have the time or energy. However, the Kiwi had bought a pumpkin and I tried making it earlier this week. It turned out perfectly! I've never tried making pumpkin pie by actually roasting a pumpkin (Canadian pumpkin comes in cans) but it was easy enough and gave an excellent result. The upshot is that we are having a sort of potluckish Thanksgiving celebration on Sunday as well. I will make more pie and cabbage rolls, the Kiwi has plans for some kind of pumpkin-coconut soup, and Claire is making Filipino green mango shakes. Perhaps not very traditional, but should be interesting.

And yes, I did get my thesis handed in. It was finished a week early (ie. before the extended deadline) but I was busy trying to write a scholarship application while working full-time. So the Kiwi, brilliant housemate that he is, ran it to the bindery for me and I did manage to hand it in before my trip to London. Now all academic pressure is off, everything is done, and all I have to do is work my hours and go home. big sigh of relief....

Happy Friday Song

2008-10-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

I'm printing off my thesis, la la la!

Never mind that it's currently 10.37pm and I'm still in my office... Tis all worth it to see that giant pile o' paper coming out of the printer. To be totally accurate, I'm only 93.3% done my thesis as I have to go back and finish filling in a bit of my Results - three pages worth. I just need the Degrees of Freedom (don't have the stats package on this computer to see them in order to shove them into the thesis), so it's pretty much done. I'm printing the rest and shall sort out the last three pages tomorrow or Sunday. Then it's off to the bindery and I will have it in a mere five days into my extension! (Which I still haven't heard about, but no one has told me I'm not getting my degree so I have to assume they've granted it).

Wow, am feeling a bit manic. I have to say, extensions are the way to go, as I had my thesis 90% done by the official due date and got to spend the last three or four days touching it up, playing with graphs, and fiddling with all the stuff I don't normally have time to do. I can see how it would be nice to be one of those prepared people who always has assignments done early. Ah well. It ain't gonna happen, so I will enjoy the feeling just this once.

quick update

2008-10-01T04:41:00.001-07:00

Got my thesis extension (I think... no one officially said, but also no one has shouted at me for not handing it in) in return for all the hours I put in as a research assistant in September. I ended up working more than my visa says I'm allowed to, but with any luck no one is really checking... besides, surely if it averages out over the course of the month it's fine. This project really is a LOT of work. Scanning participants in the fMRI scanner takes about three hours per participant, but getting the stimuli ready, recruiting participants, getting the money to pay them from Finances etc take about another two or three hours per. (And I swear I should get extra for the stress I go through when they don't turn up!)

Today is my first official day as a full-time University employee. However, until I get rid of this silly thesis I'm also still a student. Hoping to have it in by the end of the week. Bit harder while working full-time, but people manage it so will sort something out. I've been catching up on stuff to do with the fMRI experiment but also helping Helena, who is attempting to hand in her PhD thesis. She's managed to do her PhD in three years AND sort out a post-doc at Yale. (Helena is an overachiever). However, the stress is driving her mad so it's been my job to be a Solid and Reassuring Presence and help collate references and things to try and get this thing done and handed in. Getting a thesis in is a whole-lab effort, generally speaking. Thank heavens for supportive labs.

Fencing has started up again and I am very excited. Have fenced twice and only lost one bout that entire time - and yesterday's wins were in foil! Apparently the giant leap forward I made at the end of last year is sticking around. I am so pleased. Watching the newbies gingerly hold the swords is very funny - can't believe I was there not very long ago. This year has felt like about six in terms of cramming in experiences.

oh well, off to finish cleaning out the testing room and find some food...

Warning: hilariously British bad language: do not read if easily offended

2008-09-07T09:24:00.001-07:00

Got this email from the fencing women's captain today.

"Subject: A few important sport team chants - MUST learn for BUCS, and it's still fun for everyone else to know

Roughly to tune of "She'll be coming round the mountain":

Is it me or isn't rugby gay?
Is it me or isn't rugby gay?
When you're underneath a pile of men,
Who take it up the arse again,
Oh is it me or isn't rugby gay!

You can shove your f*cking ball up your arse,
You can shove your f*cking ball up your arse,
You can shove your f*cking ball,
Shove your f*cking ball,
You can shove your f*cking ball up your arse!

If you played a real Uni,
Clap your hands!
If you played a real Uni clap your hands! (etc)

You've prob heard the guys sing these:

If I had the wings of a Sparrow,
If I had the arse of a Crow,
I'd fly over ....... tomorrow,
and shit on the bastards below!
Shit on,
Shit on,
Shit on the bastards below!

I'm Bangor til I die,
I'm Bangor til I die,
I know I am,
I'm sure I am,
I'm Bangor til I die!

This one is to the tune of "Frere Jacka" (or however you say that):

Men are slackers,
Men are slackers.
That means you,
That means you.
You need to be tougher and meaner,
We're better and we're leaner.
Utter mongs,
Utter mongs."

Ah yes, welcome to the rarified world of university-level fencing... I can tell already that I will be learning a thing or two.

weird analogy

2008-09-02T07:05:00.001-07:00

I sometimes feel like my life is a wave. I'm not really living it, just sort of riding it. Most of the time I can more or less keep on top of it, and sometimes it all comes crashing down on my head. And then there are weeks like this, where I feel like I'm surfing the very edge of it and barely holding on - scary, but also exhilerating. One false move and I'm in big trouble, but look how high up I am!

Specifically, my thesis is due in a few weeks, I have a giant scanning project that is supposed to go next week for which I don't really have participants lined up, and I just spoke to my future PhD supervisor about applying for an NSERC grant (which not only requires filling out a huge form and writing a research proposal, but will also be the first he sees of my writing - so it's gotta be good).

As well, I just got back from a weekend in Inveraray at a festival, and before that it was Liverpool for the weekend. I also am going to try to get to Oxford for a birthday party in September and want to make it down to London in October as my aunt Judith will be visiting. This is the stuff that makes life worth living - but it's hard to cram it all in around thesis and the work and all my other projects.

However, I can certainly not say that I am bored.

Full reports (with pictures, maybe) on Liverpool and the Connect festival when I am not in quite so perilous a position on the wave...

ps. Just to make things more entertaining, I just got a new housemate (verdict so far: lovely). I got home from 10 hours travel back from Scotland and he made me dinner, so I went to grab a drink from the tap. That was when I saw that he had helpfully left a note above the sink, warning me that Bangor's infected with cryptosporidium. We're on a boil-water advisory for the moment. Good times! ... but suddenly extremely happy I have a housemate to warn me of these things, as otherwise I'd probably be racked with horrible diarrhea by now.

helpful people rock

2008-08-21T01:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the strangest of experiences: a GP who, despite the lack of obvious physical symptoms (like a broken arm!) didn't tell me it was "all in my head" or pooh-pooh me. In fact, he was actually kind and helpful! I've been waking up more and more often (twice this month) in excruciating pain in my shoulder, neck and all down my arm. It makes it hard to do anything for a day or so, and goes away in about a week. Hardest of all is computer work, which sucks for obvious reasons.

I had another attack on Monday and was starting to get worried, so I reluctantly hied myself to the surgery (which is what they call doctor's offices here). I was all geared up for another bout of "you're-fine-why-are-you-bothering-me?", but instead I got the lovely, incredibly Welsh-named Dr. Rhodri Wyn Owen. He listened to what I had to say, did a quick check of my range of motion and told me I keep getting a pinched nerve down the side of my neck. He said one of my discs is probably slightly out of place and occasionally pinches the nerve. It's the neck version of sciatica. Didn't mom have that at some point, or am I confused? Anyway, helpful Dr. Owen gave me some stretches to do that will help the pain a bit. Sadly there's no preventative measures to be taken, although my supervisor has recommended a memory foam pillow. I shall look into that when I return to the homeland.

My supervisor has been full of helpful advice these days in general. Last week it was how to have a long and happy marriage (always let the man think he gets to decide, but if he decides wrong subtly guide him to the right decision, apparently) (seems to work for her!) This week it was how to get on with a new supervisor. Congruent goals, that's the key. You both need to want the same things, as everyone is essentially selfish and using everyone else to get their goals. They will happily be altruistic, as long as it also advances their own goals a little. I found this hilarious and refreshing to hear, as I'm willing to bet most people operate on this system but no one would ever say it aloud. She's completely right, though. Both of us want the same things (to do well with our projects, to get me through my degree successfully, to publish if we can) and we're using each others' skills to get there. Luckily I enjoy her company as well. My mate Jo's supervisor won't answer her emails, rarely meets up with her and generally makes her feel like an extraneous pest. I'm pretty sure I lucked out.

Perfect!

2008-08-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

Today I was told I was the perfect participant by a post-doc running me through an eye-tracker study. Unfortunately, this was because I'm apparently very good at staring blankly at an eye tracker while it is being calibrated, which doesn't seem like a skill that will come in handy in later life.

It was the best of Bangor, it was the worst of Bangor

2008-08-17T02:18:00.000-07:00

Whoa-ho, man, what a good night last night. I did not intend to go out at all because 1). Bangor is boring in the summer; 2). I'm trying to save money, and 3). it's the Contact the Elderly coffee group today (albeit not till 2.30 pm). But events conspired for a fun, cheap night with the other (non-octogenarian) people who will be attending the coffee group today, so who was I to say no?

I never realized just how cliquey our Masters students were this year. Somehow I managed to get myself smack dab into the middle of the biggest one, so of course I wouldn't have noticed. But last night Jo brought along some Irish girls off the course that I barely knew, and they told me that they always felt like the outgroup. Apparently one person in particular deliberately excluded them from things at the beginning of the year and then they felt like they couldn't approach anyone else. oooooops. Had I known this they would have been welcome at my place anytime (as they're fun and hilarious). However, will have to make up for lost time in this, the last month.

Anyway, they came over and told of a party at the Anglican chaplaincy (which is effectively a giant student residence, mostly for foreign or short-term students). We wandered along around midnight, which seemed perfectly reasonable to us. Called the girl who invited us, and she was in bed. oops. So I was designated to go find out if the party was worthwhile, or, in fact, happening at all. I was lurking around the giant oak door (the building is a huge stone couple-hundred-years-old one) and a guy came out, so I tried to push past him in my best party-crashing manner. Unfortunately security is drilled into them there, but once I produced the name of the girl who invited us he took me through a maze of passages to the "party". Which turned out to be 10 people sitting around and two people dancing salsa. I saw an open door to the garden and made a run for it.

Bangor is ridiculous in the summer and no bouncer will let you in ANYWHERE past 12.30 a.m. Anywhere except the Skerries, that is. The Skerries is a pub in Lower Bangor that is sort of of a locals pub (pubs here are divided into student pubs and locals pubs) except that they don't mind students. Rare, actually. Anyway, the Skerries stays open till the owner feels like shutting it. I've turned up at 11 and found it closed, and other times they've let me in at 1.30 a.m. This time they let us in no problem, and there turned out to be a local Welsh Beatles cover band (!) who were really, really good. After a while they started to pack up and the Irish girls were banging on the table for more, so they began to sing gorgeous a cappella versions of various '50s and Oasis songs (they were eclectic!) The harmonizing was incredible, and of course we were all singing along in full voice. By this point we were locked-in (but they were still serving!) and, as the Irish girls are really pretty, one of the band guys got out his guitar again and we all sat around a table in the back of the pub and jammed for another hour. Then we hung around talking to the owner and his friends (and I briefly learned the apparently common Welsh phrase for "a$%hole English people" but then immediately forgot it) until they finally kicked us out at 2.30 a.m. or so. It was the best night I've had in a while. The student venues all feel the same after a bit, but I don't think I've ever had a bad night at the Skerries. And last night sort of encapsulated the very best things about Bangor.

The worst thing about Bangor is that it won't stop raining. WON'T STOP. Argh. Luckily (?) I've been stuck in the lab all week anyway. I'm working as a research assistant for a project that is taking up a lot of time (29 hours last week), plus, erm, trying to finish up a thesis at some point. I was floundering with my data analysis (while my supervisor was in France for three weeks and out of email contact) and then had a bad moment when she returned and told me everything I had done up until that point was wrong. I was too depressed to even look at the thing for a week, as I had just re-written my introduction based on my preliminary results - so if they were wrong, those three weeks of work would have been for naught. Then she called me back in the next week, said she had been mistaken and the data were fine, and went through everything in detail with me so I now know exactly what to do. Which is brilliant news, of course, but I am still catching my breath from the rollercoaster!

So have been in the lab on weekdays, mostly, and doing fun stuff on weekends... but THAT is fodder for another post.

Two Words That Always Make Me Giggle

2008-08-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

Snib.

Dongle.

Penrhyn Pictures

2008-08-04T04:04:00.000-07:00

So last weekend (or wait, was it the weekend before? It's all blurring together) the sun shone. Jo and I figured we couldn't let a sunny Sunday go to waste, so we made plans to go to Llandudno to the beach. Then we ran into Kiwi Ian, who wanted us to go down to Bangor Pier for tea and scones with him, so we added a detour to the plan. En route, the three of us ran into two of Jo's friends who were just setting off on what they claimed was a three-mile walk to a beach near Penrhyn Castle (just outside of Bangor). Open to suggestion, as always, we gave up on both Llandudno and the Pier and joined them for the walk.

Contrary to the estimate we were given, it ended up being a 7- or 8-mile round trip (as measured by a bit of string and a map) and didn't involve a beach so much as a mud flat by the sea. However, there was a river to be forded, a crumbly stone wall to be climbed, and a bit of grass to have a picnic and a nap on. Plus the spine and ribs of SOMETHING - the kiwi claimed it was a fish, but I reckon either a sheep or a dog. (Didn't take a photo of that, sorry guys!)

All in all, very Famous Five.

We walked back along the shore - turns out you can get all the way back to Bangor, if you don't mind a little bit of a scramble through some bushes if the tide's in. (I got very excited about watching it come in - although I understand the theory of tides, I'm hardly ever staring at the ocean long enough to see one). It was a very cool walk as most of it was beside the crumbling sea-wall of Penrhyn Castle. We came out at the Bangor docks, tired and in need of ice cream...

(sorry about the darkness of the photos - beer was spilled on my camera in a mysterious incident a few weeks ago and it is still recovering!)

In which Anne is allowed to keep her house

2008-07-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

Small bit of good news! I spoke to my landlady Ellen today and she says she's fine with me keeping the house till December. YAY!!! I love my little house. I will, however, probably have to get a housemate. There isn't much room for one, but if I'm only working half-time for Jane I should probably make an effort to save money where I can. An Australian student is coming to work with Jane for three months, and it sounds like she might be interested in sharing. The timing would work out perfectly, anyway. And I would get a whole month (August) of house-to-myself first.

I went on a long LONG walk all the way around the Penrhyn Castle grounds and then back along the shoreline on the weekend. We checked on a map with a bit of string, and it was between 7 and 8 miles round-trip (between 12 and 13 km). However, I think I will try to download the photos and do a proper entry with photographs, which is a feature of Blogger that I don't take advantage of nearly enough. Coming soon! (maybe.)

I did promise to post the entry I started right after having got back from Canada, and then I looked at it and it's not interesting at all. But anyway:

"Sooooo tired - but back safely in Wales. And after an unusually pleasant trip, even. I was expecting the worst, as I had to take the 8am bus from Red Deer to the Calgary airport.... for a 5pm flight. However, hanging out in the airport for seven hours wasn't too bad, although the flight was further delayed due to lightning. But in the end we got into the air, and then the stroke of luck - the old lady with the 15 gold chunks of jewelry in the seat beside me (originally from Liverpool, by the accent and the orange skin tone) moved into an empty row of seats an hour into the flight, leaving me with two seats to stretch out on. But not before whipping out a needle and, without a word of warning, stabbing herself in the stomach. I assume it was insulin and it didn't really bother me, but I can only think what the effect would be if I had happened to have a needle phobia!

I still can't sleep on planes, but at least with room to stretch my legs out it was much more bearable. And the food wasn't burnt this time. Must learn to count my blessings.

Had such a great couple of weeks in Canada and not that thrilled to be back. Thandi's in South Africa, the fencers are all gone for the summer and even my lab will be empty. Think it might be a quiet summer. "

Affordances

2008-07-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

I would just like to note how annoying it is that often I can be perfectly good at analyzing things - breaking ideas down logically, figuring out how machines work, and all that sort of thing. But then when confronted with the simplest objects I will be totally clueless. And it usually has to do with affordances.

I'm talking about the second Wiki definition - an affordance tells you how to use something, basically. If you see a handle, you know to grasp it. If you see a door with a horizontal bar, it's easy to know you should push it in, rather than (say) pulling on it or trying to twist it. One way of telling if something's a good design is by whether it has good affordances - you can tell by looking at it what you should do with it (even if it's totally new). Like the little wheely thing on iPods - circling your finger around it is obvious and makes immediate sense.

Anyway. I have great trouble, it would seem, with objects that lack good affordance. I couldn't make tea in the lab for months because I couldn't seem to turn the electric kettle on. I'm not kidding. I had to text Helena and ask if it was broken. (As my dad would say, "HOW much education does it take?!") In the end it turned out that you have to press the little lever up to turn it on, instead of down like every other kettle I've ever used. Somehow this totally baffled me. Is this how people become absent-minded professors?

And then yesterday I had to get my mate Lola to show me how to lock my back door. It's been unlocked for days because I couldn't figure it out. (Don't worry, my "garden" is about three feet deep, walled on all sides and looks out onto other peoples' gardens, so it would be very difficult to be burgled from that side, even given an unlocked door). Turns out you have to pull the door handle up while turning the key. Why does everyone else seem to know this?! It was a complete surprise to me. Now I'm wondering if I'm just really bad at common household objects and what is an obvious affordance to everyone else in the universe is totally baffling to me. Sigh.

The only solution is to become very rich and employ someone to make the tea and lock up from now on :)

Grade Grubber

2008-07-23T05:57:00.001-07:00

I got my grades back... looking good! (er, if I do say so myself). Fairly pleased with all my marks except stupid Stats. The exam was very difficult indeed and I dropped two letter grades (!) from the midterms. Not cool. I've decided not to bother contesting it or following it up... if I do well on my dissertation I will do well overall, and I've already got my PhD funding. So no point in quibbling now. Man, though, if stats hadn't mucked it up I'd be gunning for straight As. Even Cognition and Brain, the worst class I've had since, er,... Cognitive Psychology in undergrad (how ironic is it that I've decided I like cognitive neuroscience? I've always detested the lectures) came out all right in the end, as I surprised myself by doing relatively well in the final. (The confusing, misspelled, badly-written final). Maybe they dropped some questions!

Bangor's kind of nice with all the undergrads gone. The other day I had a 20-minute conversation with a nice man called Bill who appears to love people and be desperately bored. (He told me he's 78). All the shop assistants are a lot nicer now too. Such a strange town - it's like two different places when school's in and when it's out. I'm enjoying the out, but will be very, very happy to see my fencers again.

Ooh, and last but definitely not least - my mate Jo got a job! She'd applied for loads and finally got an interview in London. However, she was nervous about interviewing so I sat down with her on Monday and spent hours going over E-Prime (experiment-writing program) and giving her mock interview questions. She's got all the qualifications but tended to answer questions with one word and not really sell herself... so we worked on that, she went down to London, ACED THE INTERVIEW and got the job! I am so pleased. It's a six-month post as a research assistant on a project with alcoholics, just the sort of thing Jo will shine at and useful experience. Yay!

Things I learned this week

2008-07-21T03:03:00.000-07:00

The guitar shop in Bangor is called Bron-yr-Aur, which is also the name of a Led Zepplin song (Bron-y-Aur Stomp), although the song is misspelled. It also means "Breast of Gold" in Welsh. I have all this information reliably from my mate Lee from Rhyl, although he did contest my opinion that this means the Welsh are obsessed with breasts (he seems to think it refers to golden hills. I have my doubts).

Bangor was bombed once during the war. Only one person died. Due to the fact that no one really wanted to bomb North Wales (go figure!), the BBC moved all its operations up here for the duration of the war. I learned this from Phoebe, who is cool. She is one of the women that comes to my friend Jo's coffee morning she runs in conjunction with a charity called Contact the Elderly. I'd been meaning to go for months but never quite managed it, and now I'm so glad I finally did. The guy who died in the bomb was a taxi driver, and a friend of Phoebe's.

Jo's coffee morning runs once a month on a Sunday, and it's a great idea. Contact the Elderly pays for a taxi to get the women there, and then they hold a raffle (a pound each to get in on it) that generally covers the cost of tea and cakes for the next month's event, plus raffle prizes. The prizes this week were: two china cats*, a packet of biscuits, a packet of chocolate biscuits, a bag of potpourri, and a can of soup. All the ladies who won were thrilled to win, and quite happily carried home their cans of soup saying things like, "Wow, I usually never win anything!" It was really sweet actually. I get the impression some of them are REALLY bored, especially Phoebe, who lives five miles out of Bangor by herself, can't afford a taxi in, and spends all day watching TV. Jo and I are trying to scheme a way to either go visit (if Contact the Elderly thinks it's ethical) or get her out more. Imagine being stuck inside all day by yourself - EVERY DAY! yuck. Everyone else in the village works elsewhere (there's only about 12 houses) so she is really stuck for companionship.

I think next month I might try to convince Old John from fencing to come be a guest lecturer. He is our 78-year-old fencer, but he is also an expert in archeology and classics. I have had some fascinating conversations with him at the pub after fencing and am dying to hear him give a talk, so if he agrees to do it for free this might be an ideal opportunity. Plus the ladies would probably be interested. Plus he speaks Welsh, and as about half of them are Welsh speakers and the volunteers are all English, it might be nice for them to have someone else to converse with in Welsh.

Have to say I really admire Jo for starting this group. It seems like a really positive thing! And a great way to get a cup of tea, a biscuit and some interesting stories.

And finally, I've learned that fencing TOOK UP A BIG PART OF MY LIFE! Are you surprised? But I have to say, I feel kind of adrift without somewhere I'm supposed to be three evenings a week. And my fitness level has really shown the difference. So I've decided I need to try something else. Aonghus says there's karate and they teach beginners... as long as it's not expensive I might give it a go. Besides, Kevanne the fencing women's captain is a black belt in karate (at the age of 21, sigh) and you can really see how it helps her fencing. Couldn't hurt, anyway!

Had a post somewhere about the trip back from Canada. If I can find it I'll post it (out of order, but at the rate I post nothing is news anyway!) Think it's on my laptop. Anyway, the trip was amazing and I'm so glad I went. The houseboat was glorious, of course, and I got to see all my family and a good portion of my friends. Also (in the less fun category) got a lot of admin done: sorted out my RRSPs, did my taxes, sold Mabel. Nothing in Bangor had changed when I got back, and mom said my visit was like a dream. At least she didn't say nightmare...

My supervisor has wandered off to France for two weeks, but before she left she dumped a project in my lap. Luckily it's not mine alone (a postdoc called Madge is actually in charge of it). I should get a couple hours pay a week out of it - I hope - and Madge is a down-to-earth Scot who I immediately got on with and who seems very with it. So while the project may or may not go well, at least I get to work with someone cool! all good...

* The most hilarious moment of the coffee event was when a blind lady called Ruby won the raffle prize of the china cat. She obviously couldn't see her prize, so she was sitting there saying, "Oh, let me touch the pussy! I need to have a feel of the pussy!" while Jo and I stared at the ground so as not to catch each others' eye and burst into hysterical laughter.

when lilacs last in the door-yard bloomed

2008-06-21T17:47:00.000-07:00

Things I missed about Alberta: lilacs. Perogies. That accent. The big huge sky. Cars that stop and wait patiently for you to cross the street.

How come I never realized that there are no lilacs in Wales?

Of course the main thing is the people. It’s been great seeing everyone. I spent yesterday sitting on patios with people whose company I enjoy. Life is good.

The trip over was long but kind of hilarious. The plane was furnished with the usual orange flight attendant (only one orange one this time) with peroxide-white hair. However, I was also sat next to the most hilarious possible seatmate – a Geordie who was at least six pints down and hadn’t slept in 24 hours. He started off the flight in fine form by doing an increasingly jiggly dance in his seat as the plane waited to take off. Finally, with six pints straining at his bladder, he could stand it no longer and made a dash for the loo… just as we began taxiing down the runway. A series of increasingly stern messages was broadcast over the intercom: “Passengers are reminded that the fasten-seatbelt sign is on…” Eventually they caught him and frog-marched him back to his seat. As soon as the plane was in the air, he was off like a rocket, running back down the aisle toward the toilet.

By about Hour Three he had hit the sentimental stage, and was telling me (actually quite touching) stories about his “wee bairn” who got leukemia at only three years old. Eventually he went back to listening to music and I was half-watching the film (Dumb and Dumber, inexplicably) when he leaned over and poked me and whispered something about the toilet. I looked back, and sure enough the flight attendants were gathered around the back loo. Turns out he had been caught smoking (!). Sure enough, the stern announcement came over the intercom: “Passengers are reminded that the toilets are fitted with sensitive smoke alarms… passengers caught smoking may be removed from the flight, have their passports confiscated and may be refused passage on the airline”. Then one of the stewards came marching down the aisle with a long legal document and read it (ALL of it) out to him. He seemed very contrite. He wasn’t a bad guy, just a drunken dumbass.

Once off the plane, things got far more annoying. It is always my nightmare that my luggage won’t arrive, and this time it came true. There were only about twelve bags with Vancouver tags left on the luggage thingy, and my bag had not appeared. (The plane was to fly onwards to Vancouver after dropping us in Calgary). Several large scary Aunt Agatha-style Englishwomen were in the same boat. We went and badgered an airport employee, and it transpired that they had accidentally unloaded some Vancouver bags and left the same number of Calgary bags on the plane. They loaded the Vancouver bags back on – and then took off with our luggage! Turns out there was a Globespan executive on the plane, who told them to IGNORE US AND FLY OFF TO VANCOUVER WITH

Anyway, I got a trip to Tim Hortons and a new dress (two, actually!) at Winners courtesy of Mom, so I wasn’t as upset as I might have been.

The high school reunion was weird. Loads of people have barely changed. They nearly all have kids, though. I was told that I have changed completely, that I never used to wear dresses, that I should be in jeans and a t-shirt (thanks Jonathan), that I have an accent, that I don’t have an accent, and that I’m way more outgoing now than previously. Looking at the little slide-show of high school life… I HOPE I’ve changed! There were a couple of extremely cool people to hang out with, though, and some interesting conversation was had. Better than the first half, which was all, “Sooooo…. What have you been up to for the last ten years?”

Have spent the last week in Rocky and Edmonton. Rocky was mostly sorting out my affairs (the financial kind, not the interesting kind) and have been having a slow start in Edmonton as I always forget to warn people in advance that I’m turning up. But there is a dance tonight and a tea party tomorrow, so should get to see a fair few people.

all work and no play

2008-06-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

Have only been updating when fun things are happening, so thought I ought to drop by to mention that it's been 13-HOUR DAYS ALL WEEK! (Er, except for Tuesday, which was 3 hours work and many more hours on the beach with the fencers). We are giving our final thesis presentations tomorrow and we're all stressed.

My stress is compounded somewhat by the fact that I only sorted out my results, er... today. Had a pile of data and no idea what to do with it, and the supervisor's been off gallivanting lately. But Jen the PhD student came to my rescue yesterday. We spent 4.5 hours looking at it last night, with an additional four or so hours this morning. This is merely a drop in the data-analysis bucket, but I am so grateful it is done. And.... it was kind of fun! We are both nerdy nerdy nerds and both extremely curious to see what would come out, so the time flew by. Dear lord. I have been forgetting to eat and everything! PhD studenthood, here I come.

Have also been chairing 3rd-year undergraduate presentations (and marking them). This was more fun than it sounded, plus ten quid a go, so I've done a lot of them this week. But perhaps I need to learn to say no...

The fencing beach BBQ was awesome, though. Proper British seaside fun. The fencers are all leaving this week and I'm going to miss them horribly....

Summer Ball baby!

2008-06-03T02:23:00.000-07:00

I finished my last final exam on Friday afternoon. It was horrible (confusingly written, badly spelled and the "multiple choice" section included random short answer questions. And they accidentally printed the answers to one of the questions on the exam. "Excuse me, it says to draw a diagram, but there's a diagram already there!" "Oh! Er... maybe just don't answer that one." "Maybe you should tell the rest of the students?" "Oh! Right. Er, do you know where your colleagues are?" ). (oh yeah, and the lectures were given by two lecturers. However, only one was there at any given time. I asked one to clarify a definition, and she told me, "Hmmm, I don't know what that means. It was Martin's question. Just answer it as best you can." Yikes!)

Ooops, that was a longer rant than I intended. It really was a horrific exam, though, to cap off a really rotten module.

ANYWAY. Point being: the weekend was free! And man was it fun. Friday night one of the cute li'l fencers cooked me dinner. Saturday was the last fencing session of the year (sob) but it was a good one - I finally seem to have got the hang of timing my lunges properly and did really well in all my bouts. Very depressing that this didn't happen until just about too late - it's only been in the last month that I've gotten past my plateau - but at least it DID happen and I now feel like I can hold my own.

Saturday night was the Summer Ball, which is sort of a Brit equivalent of the prom, only more so. They cordoned off the Main Arts complex (the old and pretty bit of the uni) and had several marquees, bands, a disco ball, and a FERRIS WHEEL! The evening starts at 9pm and ends at 5am. Everyone gets dressed up - like REALLY dressed up, we're talking ball gowns - and it's actually really cool. It was expensive, but I reckoned it was my only chance to check it out, so in the end I decided to go. I didn't have much time to throw together an outfit after fencing, but I gave it my best shot and the end result did not look out of place.

The ball was a spectacle. I think it was worth the entry cost just to see the sheer number and variety of frocks! (The men in kilts did not hurt matters either). There was a free casino, several bands (Athlete, the Fab Beatles and the Cuban Brothers), a couple of cocktail bars and that sort of thing and the ferris wheel. The best part, however, was being declared a VIP. I was hanging out with some of the fencers, one of whom has political aspirations and is mates with the AU (Athletics Union) president. Somehow the AU president ended up producing VIP passes for me and the other fencer. This allowed us into the VIP tent and to sit in the balcony of the hall where the bands were playing. It was great - swanning my way past the massive bouncer, flashing my VIP pass. The balcony had seating (carved benches covered with red velvet, naturally) and a great view of the stage.

I did manage to stay till the very end. We danced to the Beatles tribute band until 5 am, at which point we were booted out to full daylight. Heck of a night, though.

London Town

2008-05-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

Down in London for the Bank Holiday. (Actually, am down in London for Broken Social Scene, but it happened to coincide with the bank holiday, so...) As usual, forgot to book the train ticket early enough and the only cheap one got in at 6.21pm. Gig technically started at 7pm. However, Jason managed to find out that they weren't playing until 8.45, so managed to make it to his house in Kilburn to drop off bags prior to the gig. This was preceded by a series of text messages: "I'm at home and will meet you at Kilburn Tube Station." "Never mind, at the boozer. Text me when you're on your way and I'll come find you." "Pip's just gone up to the bar again. Not gonna come find you. Just walk down the hill and you'll see us..." Might I point out, by the way, that in no way is there a HILL of any sort running past Kilburn tube stn. At any rate, I remembered where the pub was (good memory for useful things like that) so we did manage to meet up. He got the Look of Death for that one, though.

Broken Social Scene was good. To be honest I've only properly listened to one of their records, so I recognised a grand total of one song. They're a jammy band anyway, though, and I was in the mood to chill, so it was fun anyway. The place was packed full of Canadians - the accent was everywhere. There were also 13 musicians on stage, which, for a 16-pound ticket, gives a pretty awesome musician-per-pound ratio. I had managed to get a ticket for a different section than Jason and Pip, and the doorpeople were being very stern about making us sit in our designated areas. However, it wasn't assigned seating and I did NOT want to be by myself two balconies above Pip & Jason. So I ducked in the bar door when no one was looking, and found that the second balcony was more than half-empty anyway. Bah!

Was kind of fun being up so high, actually. Could see the idiots crowd-surfing in exquisite detail. And also the bit where the security guards grabbed one of them by the seat of the trousers and carried him out of the hall. Two seconds later he ran back in, and I watched him stumble through the crowd and duck down until the security guards gave up.

After the show we went to the dodgiest chippy in all of London (though I had chicken nuggets that were somewhat edible. The chips, however, looked disgusting). Pip and Jason had big plans to go out, but both were asleep in their pints about ten minutes after arrival at the pub. So we trundled off home and had an early night.

Yesterday I went to meet Michael at Twickenham to watch the Rugby Sevens. This is (seven-player (as opposed to something else - 15-player, perhaps). Canada got creamed by Aussie (no surprise there) and lost respectably to Portugal. NZ kicked some butt, so Michael and his friend were happy. It was surprisingly fun to watch and I'm glad I went along. Walked from Twickenham Station with a bunch of pirates, too. There was a guy standing by the side of the road going, "ARRRRR!" every few minutes just to see all the pirates go "ARRRRRRRRRR!!!" back at him. Saw some Smurfs, as well, plus assorted people in England colours, devil horns, afro wigs etc.

Our side of the stadium was in the sun, so was absolutely dead by about two hours in. We switched to the shade, but I was still pretty tired. Dragged ourselves home after watching New Zealand play, only to find Michael's flatmates holding a barbeque. (He has a rooftop terrace sort of thing, which is accessed by climbing out the kitchen window!) Managed to stay awake and be halfway friendly, and watch most of Eurovision... which was exactly as bizarre an experience as I expected.

blah blah blah

2008-05-23T00:27:00.000-07:00

Off to London today! Broken Social Scene is playing and Jason informed me I should come down. Unfortunately it's a Bank Holiday (otherwise known as a long weekend) so rather than coming back Monday I'll be back on Tuesday. Trains were expensive and delayed otherwise. Not really a good time to be out of Bangor, but hey... not worth paying four times as much on the train for.

Had my first final exam (in six years) on Wednesday. It was Advanced Statistics and it was horrible. Very annoying, because I did revise (which I have begun to say instead of "studying" because it is the word on everyone's lips at the moment). I went over the practice exam, and it turned out to be a million times easier than ours. Ah well. It is done!

Other than that, have collected a wodge of thesis data but am still waiting for my supervisor to get back to tell me what to do with it. (She was in Florida at a conference and then at Anne Triesman's party!) I am expecting to be told to modify something and go do it again - which will be no easy feat with most of the students gone. Fingers crossed.

One more exam to go, and it will be a horrible one. It is one of my favorite topics (Cognition and Brain) but was so boringly and badly taught that the lectures became an aversive stimulus. In a class of eight or so, someone was nearly asleep at any given moment. I should have switched after the first lecture. However, I did not, and it only got worse. As a final touch, the module organizers forgot (forgot!) to tell anyone in the office there would be an exam, so it was not scheduled and was left off the exam list. We queried this, and so the people in the office had to schedule it in the only slot left: last day of exams, Friday afternoon at 2pm. I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS. However, it does give me a week to revise, justifying a quick trip to London!

Oh well, at least you can comment here

2008-05-12T04:27:00.000-07:00

As per dad's grumbling on Family Ramblings, I've moved over to Blogger so that you can once again comment. I quite like Diaryland, actually, but as a starving student just can't justify paying for the comments and all that. It's been a good run, though. I originally started this blog in January 2004 as I was getting ready to move to Britain. Since then I've lived in:
London, England
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Edinburgh, Scotland
Edmonton, Alberta
and
Bangor, N. Wales

and have worked as a

shipper of gap-year students to Heathrow
kitchen peon
hostel night-gatekeeper
lunch-rush prep person
reservations manager
Forest Holidays reservationist
Value Village "Operations Team Member" (ie. picking clothes off the floor and hanging them back up)
Alberta gov't "Operations Administrator" and data analyst
MSc student
marker of essays
invigilator
and
research assistant

So I can safely say it hasn't been boring. Haven't been updating much lately because it turns out doing a Masters takes a lot of time, but at least now you can comment! So that might keep things more interesting.

Have lots of time to post today, because I'm running subjects all day. The experiment takes about an hour and they're scheduled at half-hour intervals, but that still leaves dead time while they're doing the (computer-based) experiment or I'm waiting for the next one to arrive.

Mind you, today was a bit flustered as my alarm didn't go off, and I managed to wake up at 9.28 for a 9.30 participant. I raced over to the lab (luckily it's close) and found him waiting outside, very apologetic because he couldn't get into the building! YES! I'm running ten of them today on no food (but lots of sleep!) and feel like I'm at least accomplishing something. Sucks to be a participant today as I haven't showered, but what can ya do?