Government-Mandated Hour of Happiness with the mol-bio geeks at Margarita's. Even when molecular biologists are drunk, they're still molecular biologists. For that matter, even when mol-bio types are drunk, they're still drunk. I'm not sure which is the more profound observation.
Also, it appears that my owning the entire Star Trek animated series on DVD is actually a positive thing with the mol-bio/computer nerds. Now I'm scared.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
A Place
Found a place. Other side of The Bridge. No fireplace. Or balcony, for that matter. On the other hand, it does have a Sound view (if you crane your neck). Also, cheap to heat: once all my furniture and I move in, there won't be that much space left over for air. So, some pluses, some minuses. Definite plus is, the building is new, and the usual infestations by rodents and insects whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower, aren't there.
Town is called Milford. Following New Englandish tradition, I think I'll call it New Birmingham, since it reminds me of that sub-town of Detroit. Very new, yuppy-ish neighborhood, trying hard to have Character. This is strange, since the town actually dates back to Colonial times. But, now it's got Ye Olde Irish Pub and Ye Olde Poodle Groomery and Ye Olde Sushi Jointe. The main road then, will be called New Woodward, since it contains one of every type of store that is required for life, and indeed, runs past what seems like the only shopping mall in the entire state. Minnesota, you used to get a mall every twenty yards, Connecticut, not so much. Milford has a small harbor where some very pretty boats likely live (shrink-wrapped for the winter now, but should be getting plonked into the water soon). Looks like excellent kayaking. There is also a place called Charles Island, which is connected to the mainland by a sandbar, but only at low tide. Charles Island has several ghost stories. Sounds like a trip, once I get moved out of the hotel.
Town is called Milford. Following New Englandish tradition, I think I'll call it New Birmingham, since it reminds me of that sub-town of Detroit. Very new, yuppy-ish neighborhood, trying hard to have Character. This is strange, since the town actually dates back to Colonial times. But, now it's got Ye Olde Irish Pub and Ye Olde Poodle Groomery and Ye Olde Sushi Jointe. The main road then, will be called New Woodward, since it contains one of every type of store that is required for life, and indeed, runs past what seems like the only shopping mall in the entire state. Minnesota, you used to get a mall every twenty yards, Connecticut, not so much. Milford has a small harbor where some very pretty boats likely live (shrink-wrapped for the winter now, but should be getting plonked into the water soon). Looks like excellent kayaking. There is also a place called Charles Island, which is connected to the mainland by a sandbar, but only at low tide. Charles Island has several ghost stories. Sounds like a trip, once I get moved out of the hotel.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Two Small Observations
Molecular- and microbiologists come in two flavors, with nothing in between. One washes its hands to make Lady Macbeth look like the short-order cook at Greesee's Hamburger Joint and Bacterial Emporium. There are things out there, after all. Scary things. And these people know them all by name, symptoms, and exactly how many minutes it takes them to kill an average sized adult bull elephant. The other, deciding that it will never get all the bugs off anyway, forgoes hygiene altogether. However, both types drink beer. Because hey, these folks tend to be on the smarter end of the bell curve!
Second small observation: eating sushi must be a whole different experience for a microbiologist!
Second small observation: eating sushi must be a whole different experience for a microbiologist!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Are-wa Kamo Janai!
At the gym, saw a guy practicing kicks with poor form. Thought, "that ain't ushiro-geri, that's ushi-no keri!" And then I was amused. Because I'd just made a pun in Japanese. And I'm easily amused. Also, probably due for some tough love from my seniors.
Apartment Hunting (Be Vewwy Vewwy Quiet!)
My new employers are generously putting me up at the Holiday Inn Express until I find myself a place. Between the fridge and Trangia stove I packed in my short-term luggage for some reason, I'm doing OK, but my employers' generosity has limits. Two months, to be exact. So I go apartment hunting.
New Haven has two major roads, not counting the various fossilized Colonial-times cow paths: I-95 and I-91. 95 runs from New York to Rhode Island, and 91 from New Haven to Hartford. Their intersection is a case study in poor engineering---of the 10--15 times I've been through the area I've seen emergency vehicles twice or three times, and 91 is permanently backed up for several miles before the intersection. Since anything from north of New Haven must pass this point, this eliminates the northern sub-towns from consideration as places to stay, and the question becomes, how far east or west on 95? I'm leaning to right here in Branford, where the office and the temporary lodgings are. It is slightly more expensive than some places on the other side of town, but adding in a 40-mile daily commute (total), and having to go over The Bridge, I think I can allow myself a few hundred dollars more for rent and still have money for some beer. Apartments in Branford often have fireplaces, something I enjoyed in Minnesota, and it should be possible to find something close to the water of Long Island Sound.
The locals also appear to dread going over The Bridge, by the way. TV ad I caught a few days ago. Parental unit: "We're going to buy furniture!" Teenager: "Do not make me go over The Bridge! I have hardly yet tasted the joys and sorrows of life, and I have so much to live for!" PU: "We're going to (some furniture place in Branford), so we won't have to go over The Bridge." T: "Hurray! I will live to smell the flowers once again!" I think this is more of a paraphrase than a direct transcript, but it's pretty close. I have been told that the CE who designed this intersection, was killed driving on it. He and many of his neighbors, I would imagine. If I wanted to come up with something as inimical to human life I think I'd chuck the thought of designing bridges and just build a gun!
New Haven has two major roads, not counting the various fossilized Colonial-times cow paths: I-95 and I-91. 95 runs from New York to Rhode Island, and 91 from New Haven to Hartford. Their intersection is a case study in poor engineering---of the 10--15 times I've been through the area I've seen emergency vehicles twice or three times, and 91 is permanently backed up for several miles before the intersection. Since anything from north of New Haven must pass this point, this eliminates the northern sub-towns from consideration as places to stay, and the question becomes, how far east or west on 95? I'm leaning to right here in Branford, where the office and the temporary lodgings are. It is slightly more expensive than some places on the other side of town, but adding in a 40-mile daily commute (total), and having to go over The Bridge, I think I can allow myself a few hundred dollars more for rent and still have money for some beer. Apartments in Branford often have fireplaces, something I enjoyed in Minnesota, and it should be possible to find something close to the water of Long Island Sound.
The locals also appear to dread going over The Bridge, by the way. TV ad I caught a few days ago. Parental unit: "We're going to buy furniture!" Teenager: "Do not make me go over The Bridge! I have hardly yet tasted the joys and sorrows of life, and I have so much to live for!" PU: "We're going to (some furniture place in Branford), so we won't have to go over The Bridge." T: "Hurray! I will live to smell the flowers once again!" I think this is more of a paraphrase than a direct transcript, but it's pretty close. I have been told that the CE who designed this intersection, was killed driving on it. He and many of his neighbors, I would imagine. If I wanted to come up with something as inimical to human life I think I'd chuck the thought of designing bridges and just build a gun!
Mad Science, Week One
First couple weeks on the job. Impressions? LOUD! Stentor clearly has descendants in this generation, and they all stand around outside my cubicle shouting at each other. Either that, or a business consisting of two guys in a garage expanded rapidly, guy-wise, but the garage stayed the same (I'll stick with the Many Stentorides Theory, as it amuses me). I spent my first week trying to figure out how anyone can concentrate around here. End of first week, I went to the firearms department of Wally World and purchased a pair of ear muffs. 35dB attenuation, makes a rifle going off next to one's ear sound sweet and well-mannered. Just about right for the office. I notice that a lot of the office-mates keep iPods, set permanently to 11 no doubt, on their desks.
The Science Here Ain't Mad, But It Sure Ain't Sane Neither
(2-23)
Stopped at the Parthenon Diner to ask for directions to the office. Bunch of lantern-jawed New Englanders, the regulars, sitting around their tankards of Localbrau (tm). "I'm new in town! How can I get to Biotech DNA Sequencing Place?" I ask, as ominous thunder happens outside, even though the sky was clear when I walked in. Conversation stops dead. The regulars all look up from their beer, but none meets my gaze. "I said, where is Tampering In God's Domain Drive? I start a new job there today!" More ominous thunder. Fat barkeep with a stained apron says, a trifle too loudly, "There is no such place by such a name here, stranger! Leastwise, none as we talk about. Not about what happens in the House on the Hill [thunder], and if you knows what's best for you, you'll do the same! If'n I was you, I'd not inquire about it." "But I must get in touch with my new manager, Mr. Alucard (played by Christopher Lee), in order to start my new job." At which point I found myself out of doors, with the door slammed in my face. One of the waitresses rushed out, looked around nervously and pressed a small silver crucifix into my hand. Must be some sort of quaint New Englandish welcoming ritual. How nice to be making friends already!
Stopped at the Parthenon Diner to ask for directions to the office. Bunch of lantern-jawed New Englanders, the regulars, sitting around their tankards of Localbrau (tm). "I'm new in town! How can I get to Biotech DNA Sequencing Place?" I ask, as ominous thunder happens outside, even though the sky was clear when I walked in. Conversation stops dead. The regulars all look up from their beer, but none meets my gaze. "I said, where is Tampering In God's Domain Drive? I start a new job there today!" More ominous thunder. Fat barkeep with a stained apron says, a trifle too loudly, "There is no such place by such a name here, stranger! Leastwise, none as we talk about. Not about what happens in the House on the Hill [thunder], and if you knows what's best for you, you'll do the same! If'n I was you, I'd not inquire about it." "But I must get in touch with my new manager, Mr. Alucard (played by Christopher Lee), in order to start my new job." At which point I found myself out of doors, with the door slammed in my face. One of the waitresses rushed out, looked around nervously and pressed a small silver crucifix into my hand. Must be some sort of quaint New Englandish welcoming ritual. How nice to be making friends already!
Inaugural Post!
Report from the road (2-18)
Left MN Thusday afternoon. Drove all day Friday, dropping south then southeast to get out of the cold and icy weather. Started seeing signs for Indianapolis, and decided to keep driving in order to make Saturday morning practice. For those who are not in the karate group, Indianapolis is where a high-level senior, J--- T---, lives, so something like making a stop at Dagobah to hang out at Yoda's place on the way to somewhere else. Spent Saturday with J--- and the Indianapolis dojo. Practiced levitating the Jeep into and out of swamps (you know, in case I don't feel like putting it into compound low 4WD and just driving it out for some reason---much more relevant if one drives a spacefighter spaceship airplane thing than a Jeep). Rest of Indiana, then Illinois, which if anything is even more flat; Ohio, which is to Michigan what Wisconsin is to Minnesota and New Jersey is to all the rest of the world; the Land of the Bitter Clingers, whose villages cling (bitterly) to the sides ofmountains; and finally, Connecticut, home of the yankees. The Midwestern flatness started to turn into rolling hills in Ohio, then full-blown mountains in WV/PA. I kept my tank >= 1/4 full in PA, because I really didn't know when I'd see the next gas pump. Wolves howling, that sort of thing (werewolf? there wolf! there castle!). People in CT sound like Edith, Archy Bunker's wife, and I'm not sure that what the Clingers speak is actually English. The Clingers wear square beards with little flappy bits on the chin, whereas the Midwesterners like to wear mesh-backed baseball caps.
In CT a few days now. I have discovered the local Walmart, Parthenon 24-hr. Diner and gun shop. Must still find the Chinese restaurant that's called Great Wall. So far, place looks a bit run-down, as if it hasn't been swept since Colonial times. Small winding roads, whitewashed wooden buildings, which seem to have been rotting^Wbecoming more and more picturesque ever since about 1677, and like that. As in upstate New York, I noticed several instances of really run-down looking places right next to pretty nice-looking ones. A "town" in this place is about a five minute drive from the next "town". New Haven, which passes for a city round about these parts, seems to be about the size of Albany, or Ann Arbor if the students are in. Interesting to note that I am actually getting use out of my Jeep's gearbox now: this place has terrain.
Left MN Thusday afternoon. Drove all day Friday, dropping south then southeast to get out of the cold and icy weather. Started seeing signs for Indianapolis, and decided to keep driving in order to make Saturday morning practice. For those who are not in the karate group, Indianapolis is where a high-level senior, J--- T---, lives, so something like making a stop at Dagobah to hang out at Yoda's place on the way to somewhere else. Spent Saturday with J--- and the Indianapolis dojo. Practiced levitating the Jeep into and out of swamps (you know, in case I don't feel like putting it into compound low 4WD and just driving it out for some reason---much more relevant if one drives a spacefighter spaceship airplane thing than a Jeep). Rest of Indiana, then Illinois, which if anything is even more flat; Ohio, which is to Michigan what Wisconsin is to Minnesota and New Jersey is to all the rest of the world; the Land of the Bitter Clingers, whose villages cling (bitterly) to the sides ofmountains; and finally, Connecticut, home of the yankees. The Midwestern flatness started to turn into rolling hills in Ohio, then full-blown mountains in WV/PA. I kept my tank >= 1/4 full in PA, because I really didn't know when I'd see the next gas pump. Wolves howling, that sort of thing (werewolf? there wolf! there castle!). People in CT sound like Edith, Archy Bunker's wife, and I'm not sure that what the Clingers speak is actually English. The Clingers wear square beards with little flappy bits on the chin, whereas the Midwesterners like to wear mesh-backed baseball caps.
In CT a few days now. I have discovered the local Walmart, Parthenon 24-hr. Diner and gun shop. Must still find the Chinese restaurant that's called Great Wall. So far, place looks a bit run-down, as if it hasn't been swept since Colonial times. Small winding roads, whitewashed wooden buildings, which seem to have been rotting^Wbecoming more and more picturesque ever since about 1677, and like that. As in upstate New York, I noticed several instances of really run-down looking places right next to pretty nice-looking ones. A "town" in this place is about a five minute drive from the next "town". New Haven, which passes for a city round about these parts, seems to be about the size of Albany, or Ann Arbor if the students are in. Interesting to note that I am actually getting use out of my Jeep's gearbox now: this place has terrain.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
