-- As of today and in no particular order --

1. Propose. Propose. Propose.



2. Finish that grant paragraph/page.



3. Learn how to bake bread.

(I love the smell of bread, but I have never dealt with artificial yeast before. I am somewhat worried that whatever bread I do manage to make will come out smelling yeasty. This also seems like a ridiculous fear especially since I haven't even attempted to make any bread till now.)


4. Learn how to low vault that wall on my way to Roswell. (I think I might need strong arms for this trick. Did I mention that my arms are out of proportion to the rest of my body? They look like sticks. If someone were to whack my forearms hard, I think there is a strong likelihood that they might break in two. Both ulna and radius in one go.)



5. Get some wool yarn for my halloween costume.



6. Actually sew my halloween costume



7. Finish this literature search I am doing and write it up ASAP.


8. Get a haircut (OMG, my hair is so long and untidy, its covering my ears now. UGH)


9. Learn to make that perfect cup of coffee that I once had at this Italian restaurant called Pane Vino's in Rochester. Seriously, that coffee must have come from bean heaven because I was so enamoured that I had 7 cups of it. I skipped dinner altogether in favour of coffee. I know it must have made a weird impression on the faculty but hey, truly good coffee can only be appreciated via loon worship and erratic behaviour. I tried to explain later that it was done in the spirit of coffee but hardly anyone at the table agreed. Oh well. That coffee was awesome.



10. Start on the practical part of my dissertation research. (And learn some cool laboratory basic sciency things on the way.)

Overheard conversation on the bus:

Girl with a paper shopping bag that had "Coach" Leatherware written on it: *Holds up a small handbag for the inspection of the bus driver* I love Gucci. You know, Gucci as they made it in the 60s. You can tell the difference between the real thing and the fake. You touch it and you can tell the difference.

Bloke with apparently "designer" shoes and huge eyes: Yeah, folks here won't know it. Does an eyeroll with those especially huge eyes. You know, this girl at school flat out denied, I MEAN DENIED *taps the bus seat for effect* that outlets like Coach and Nordstrom even existed. These people...

Coach Girl: I am proud to say I wasn't born in this poor ass city. I was born in Chicago, that's where I was born.

Huge Eyes: *Rolls huge eyes* I went to Colombus *pulls out a mall map and waves it around* *Bus driver turns around 180 degrees in her seat while navigating an intersection, I almost pass out in fright* Now here's a Nordstrom, here's Gucci. Now that's when you know the economy of a city is doing well. When you have stores like Nordstrom. Here, there is no hope. I mean people don't know Coach and Nordstrom exist. You see here *waves around mall map once more* there are all these stores.

• Here Coach Girl and Huge Eyes go off into a long long long prattle about the merits of designer stuff and the general ignorance of buffalo, making sure that the whole bus gets to know that they are really not from here.* *I zone out and my eyes glaze over.*

• Ping: Now approaching Bird Street* *I shake out of my vanity-drivel induced reverie.*

Coach Girl: This here is an original Coach bag, I go there all the time. You know imitation, it just isn't the same.

Huge Eyes: Yeah, I am from New York City. I know. We can tell you where you get the real nice stuff. *Coach girl gives emphatic nod, clutches the "genuine Gucci" bag closer*.

• Their stop comes around, they get off and bus driver hands her card to them and says, "Yeah give me a call. I like the good stuff".

---

I honestly couldn't believe this was not some kind of a sloppy ad-placement daytime TV show. Hahaha :)

Watch that alcohol intake this holiday/party season... oh wait, better watch it ALL the time because:

From:
In contrast to studies on cardiovascular disease, this study found that moderate alcohol consumption was not protective against normal age-related differences in total brain volume. Rather, the more alcohol consumed, the smaller the total brain volume*.

Yeah, I *love* to be the messenger of any news against my favourite two HUGE preventable causes of >60% of morbidity and >100% loathsomeness around the world.

---

Reference:

• Paul CA et. al. Association of Alcohol Consumption With Brain Volume in the Framingham Study Arch Neurol. 2008;65(10):1363-1367.

I was looking up good presentation software alternatives for the PC (yeah, I do not have keynote, you elite mac owners!) when I found this very cool whiteboard explanation of the credit crisis. With my fascination for the KISS (K.eep I.t S.imple and S.tupid) principle for presentations and additionally, a new-found fascination for understanding what the hell is going on with the economic situation facing the planet, I could not help but appreciate the wonderfully coherent way, in which Paddy Hirsch explains it all.

Basically, its a champagne and whiteboard enhanced version of (e:jim)'s detailed and awesome explanation ((e:tinypliny,45704)).



It strengthens my opinion that the whiteboard is the most effective presentation software out there. I am still playing with the idea of going the whiteboard way for my dissertation proposal...

There are some other alternatives for out-of-options PC users who are sick of the clunky and ugly PowerPoint or even the open-source OpenOffice Impress (yeah, opensource is very appealing, but after 5 years of non-stop use, I think Impress is still not up to snuff with what makes an appealing presentation). Google Docs is at an embryonic bare-bones state. 280slides.com might be a messiah but I need to try it out first to be sure.

The real questions are, however:
1. Am I coherent enough to take this risk and let go of the presentation software crutch altogether?

2. Though my advisor here is at the leading edge of creativity, super-awesome, very open and receptive to experimentation, my remote advisor is old-school-by-the-book, too practical and grounded-to-rules kind of a person and might be difficult to persuade. The contrast between them is so striking when I think about issues such as these. :)

Yeah! It finally happened! I was walking out the main hospital and I thought the face in front of me was really really familiar - like a friend you see in a 125px x 150px window almost everyday. It was the evil (well, not really but it sounds so cool!) Dr. Fing!!!!!!

It was wonderful to finally meet you (e:fing)! I wish you and your wife good luck with the baby!!! Hope it all goes well when the exciting time rolls around. Personally, I am just jealous of the baby already. I always wanted my own room with orange-accented walls and cool artwork! :^)

PS: I actually can't believe I am so involved in my (e:strip) screen persona that I forgot to tell you my real name and introduced myself as tinypliny! Yikes.