Guest blog

wel, tha hoomin iz bizy dooing werk, so it iz uppto me, tha pi, too maek blogge poast.

-poleese left note at doar, them tryde too come, butt we knot hoem. them call on fone tomoro.

-thar iz ise al over tha plaice, well frost aneewae.

-we feeded them krowes in tha park, az evry dae we duz. thar ar 5 ta 9 yooshually. tha mag-pi's are getin moer bold.

-weez all went fore walk with ambr and krokus, and other hoomin. it wuz funn.

-tha hoomin haz nott sleeped enuff, butt i haz.

-the snaylz are getin verry bigge.

tha end

Why don't you just take my soul while you are at it

The plant thief has struck again! Last night, I pointed out my new plants to my brother-unit. This morning at 9am, they were gone. Well, the two large ones anyway. Sure enough, later I walked by the house where my old stolen plants are, and saw that they have my two new ones.

Well.

I called the police. They are supposed to call me back later. I also took photos of the yard with (all) my plants in it. I hope they don't ask to see photos of the plants in my yard, prior to being stolen. I have such photos, but they are photos of action figures that just happen to have the plants in them. "See here, officer, these are the plants in the corner of the photo." "Uh huh. Behind the Transformers?" "Oh, uh, those aren't mine, I was just borrowing them..."

Amazingly, I also ran into the neighbor whose monkey puzzle tree was also stolen, by chance, and told him about the situation.

Honestly, these people live less than 300 meters from my house, did they NOT think that I would find my plants? How stupid must they be to steal from my house AGAIN?

*dramatic sigh*

Crayfish science

In celebration of getting a scanner (that works), I've brought home some of my lab books in order to share the crayfish drawings on the covers. There are about 6 books now, here are my favorite images. Oh, 6 books sounds like alot, but actually I use rather small books compared to the normal size around here. Its not the size that counts, or so I hear, anyway.

Here's the crayfish on my second lab book:

Here is a more recent book, moving away from realism as you can see:

If you are thinking, "Crayfish Mona Lisa," then we are on the same page.

Here's my current lab book cover image:

Contrary to what you might think, all this doodling does not equate to goofing off. In the molecular lab there is always something to wait for. Waiting for a gel to set firmly. Waiting for the gel to run. Waiting for the centrifuge to stop spinning. Its easy to run out of things to do, so I escape to my happy world of cartoon crayfish, ha ha ha. Actually, I do manage to goof off alot in the field lab where there is no excuse! XD

The house of greatness. sort of.

Not much terribly exciting happening lately, but I'll just give an update anyway.
Today's activities included:

Approached by man, with one more dog than he usually has, in park who asks if I have seen this one dog before. Apparently he found it tied up to a fence in the park. Obviously it was abandoned, it was a puppy wearing a chewed up collar, tied to a fence in a park at 7am with no owner to be found after much searching. >:(

Continued training of new people at work. I know this is going to sound conceited, but I really think I'm doing a much better job than whoever trained me. Except the student in London, she was a great teacher. Anyway, my trainee today was the new PhD student, and she did swell. She has guinea pigs, she lets me come over and hold them. Now I reeeeaaally want guinea pigs >.<

Had lunch with labmate and adopted labmate. Ate sushi. Gave shrimp one to someone else.

Requested updated crayfish licence. I'm sure that will take WEEKS. Ugh!

Sewed large piece of fabric into curtain for stairway, to prevent heat escape, while watching a movie. Fabric was fairtrade AND on sale. I am a consumer masterpiece.

Went to Ikea, the Swedish castle of dreams, to purchase a foam mattress for the foldout bed. This is in preparation for the impending visit of Soontar. It looks like I'll be taking the foldout bed, because it is just about the same length I am. Well, what do you expect from a bed frame you find by the side of the road? Also at Ikea I scored a large rug from the bargain bin for 50 pence. WIN.

So, this post is mainly about how great I am, now that I read over it again. Ha ha ha. That's terrible. Let's switch to the Pie, and how great she is, instead.

Pie is so great, that she will stand on the back patio letting my neighbor's cat try to catch her tail, while a squirrel on the next patio over scurries around. Even when cat sees squirrel and runs after it, right in front of the Pie, the most excellent Pie merely watches. Astonishing, because she LOVES to chase squirrels, at the park. The Pie has more restraint than *I* do at times.

Pie is so great, she recently cut her paw slightly on some glass (presumably-its everywhere), and has to wear a sock taped over one foot outside. She does not like the sock. Does she resist? Does she try to remove it? NO. and if it does fall off, she will go back and pick it up and bring it to me, so I can carry the foul, wet thing for the rest of the walk...

Pie is so great, she brings joy to those at that-place-we-go-to-for-therapy-dog-stuff-that-I-can't-actually-name.

That's all, please enjoy basking in the glow of our presence. XD
Ha, to even it all out I guess I'll mention that I ate foul McDonald's on the way back from Ikea, and I thought evil thoughts about whomever blocked my driveway with their car, and that the Pie does in fact lick her butt.

Voting, an absentee's tale

It's that time of year, folks. The time when our thoughts turn to our elected officials more than ever, and we are reminded of our right and duty to select them with due care. Living in the UK, I have already voted by absentee ballot. Today I will present, for your amusement, the steps to absentee voting, and, for your information, some of the websites I used to research candidates.

Step One: Find out where I'm registered. I used the county clerk's website from my last place of residence in the USA, it allowed me to confirm online that I was registered there.

Step Two: Request an absentee ballot. I was able to do this online, although I did telephone the office to ensure that I was in fact still registered and eligible to vote.


Step Three: Receive ballot in post, lovingly crumpled by USMail/Royal Mail/we'll never know who. Open ballot, smooth out. The ballot lists the candidates and you use a pencil to fill in the bubbles next to your choice. Just like standardized tests back home in school.


Step Four: Research the candidates on the internet. Easier said than done, I had almost no idea who was running for Missouri offices, Boone county offices, etc. Luckily I found a handy website that listed all the candidates running in each state, and their campaign websites. You might say "can you really learn about the candidates from 1,000s of miles away, using the internet?" Well, yes. I probably know more about each MO candidate than I did about the Ohio candidates last time I voted when I was registered there during college, and I'm betting more than many resident Missourians who are voting. So there.

Step Five: Complete ballot. Making sure to use number two pencil. (optional - spill lemonade on ballot. )


Step Six: Stand in queue with irate middle-aged women, bored-looking office dudes, and friendly old ladies at post office for half an hour. Pay extra for confirmed delivery option. Yay, my civic duty has been completed!




So, you want those websites?

For state candidates:
http://www.uselections.com/ (just do a search for your state name)
shows candidates' names and parties, has link for their websites if they have them.

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
you can search by state, candidate name, even for propositions and such.

and of course there's the good ol' Google search and Wikipedia entry for many candidates/issues

For presidential candidates:
http://obama-mccain.info/index-obama-mccain.php
a fun and unbiased side-by-side comparison of the two main candidates, very easy to use.
Also has transcripts of the debates.
Did you know? Obama's car is slightly less fuel efficient than McCain's. And he has no pets?!
Did you know? McCain...well just read the part about 'spouses.' Shocking.

http://www.votesmart.org/
Probably the largest, most popular source of unbiased candidate info.
Has detailed voting records, speech transcripts, LOTS of info. A bit harder to use, but more info.
Can also look up state candidates and such on this site!
Why will neither major prez candidate take the Political Courage Test?

Well, those were the best sites I found as far as actual, factual information on the candidates.

One of the interesting aspects of this particular election is the age difference of the candidates. Its massive at 35 years. McCain would be the oldest president should he be elected, and Obama is only 47, pretty young as far as presidents go, if I recall correctly. I don't think it influenced my vote much, as I don't think McCain is likely to keel over while in office, nor do I think Obama's comparative youth is a big problem, but I wonder if it will effect the voting public at large.

Prague 1.1 (the somewhat offbeat stuff)

(read the other Prague post first)

Our conference accommodation was a dormitory at the university where the meeting was being held. Actually, several dorms. Which was a bit odd, because none of them seemed remotely full... Well, after we had all separated to unpack (there were four of us in three rooms in two dorms, *unnamed female coworker* and I shared a room), we reconvened later at the first conference session and a conversation like this ensued:

Friend 1: Oh, man, my room is so awful, I can't believe they'd put us in something so bad.
Friend 2: (who is in same dorm as friend 1, but different room) Mine is not so great either.
Me: wow, that's too bad, our room is awesome. (I am soooo tactful)
Friend 3: (sharing room with me) Is it really so bad? what is so bad about it?
Friend 1: I have to share a disgusting bathroom with someone, and the whole place looks like a prison, and its generally icky.
Friend 2: Yes sharing the bathroom with a stranger is questionable for people such as conference attendees, particularly as the doors between don't lock.
Me: Its a dorm, of course it looks like a prison. That's not good, though, about the doors not locking - horrid.
Friend 3: We'll have to come over and see yours to compare.

Well, later we went and saw Friend 1's room, which we gathered to be the worst. It is hard to know, since Friend 2 lived in a tent in Africa for two years, her standards are very flexible. Anyway, Friend 1's room was virtually identical to the one I shared with Friend 3, except for the creepily shared bathroom, which was, I concede, somewhat gross, but not terrible. Anyway, this just goes to show how one man's trash is another man's food. I mean treasure. Or perhaps, one man's cardboard box is another man's 4 bedroom fully serviced condo. WELL. Czech out this massive and terrifying fern that had taken over an entire floor of the dorm building:

The camera angle is not the best, but the tallest frond there is over my head. In fact, it appears to be reaching for my head. It was most frightening at night, as there were NO HALL LIGHTS WHATSOEVER. Heh heh, we actually used my cell phone as a flashlight.

Okay that's it with the university photos, back to Prague itself. Here we have an incredibly long and thin glass window. It looks like I'm just doing a trick with the camera angle and making it long and skinny, but really, it is crazy:

Walking along the riverside south of the Charles Bridge and castle, we saw some unusual 'houses.' This one is not a log cabin but a plank cabin, with a plexiglass roof and a decrepit old chair inside:

And this one was a strange eye- or egg-shaped wooden structure, covered with canvas:

I am the apple of Prague's eye, ha ha ha! Or perhaps the irritating speck of dust stuck in there...

Next up we have some cute graffiti, these guys are from the movie "Princess Mononoke" which came out in 2001 I believe. Well, the little fellers are alive and well on the back roads of the not-so-touristy area near the children's hospital:

We spent a lot of time walking along the river, here's a funky structure that was on an island. We never found out what it was for - its not a touristy area, so there was no sign or anything, and it appeared to be bricked up, at least the door on the ground floor did. Note guy fishing.

Maybe he was getting ready for the Fish Festival:

Maybe he has a cute van like this at home (its a Subaru):

Perhaps he is even an off-duty policeman. I would not be surprised, given how many cops I saw, and the excellent police recruitment posters which resemble movie posters and are complete with cops looking serious, brandishing handguns, and doing wheelies on motorcycles:

Who can look at that and NOT want to join the police?

Finally, this is a common notice that is posted at bus stops. The pink one is particularly funny. Apparently, one should not mash others' breasts with one's backpack, nor ream navels with one's walking stick. (if the photo is not hi-res enough let me know and I'll put up the full size one for download).

Fun fact: the word 'robot' derives from the Czech word 'robota' which means 'labour.' It was first used in a Czech play (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Capek just after WW2. His robots were basically humans, but were constructed on an assembly line like any mechanical robot. Its kinda like the golems of Jewish folklore (wiki 'golem' - its really interesting and particularly relevant to Prague) Anyway, if you are interested you can read the play translated into English here: http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/capek/karel/rur/

Prague 1.0 (the touristy entry)

My search for crayfish betterment has taken me on yet another epic European adventure. This time I journeyed to Prague in the Czech Republic, considered to be one of the most beautiful European cities, to attend a 3.5 day conference on biological invasions. "Wait, what" you say? Things like phragmittes, rusty crayfish, that huge vine growing along the highways in the Appalacian mountains...you know, things living in places they shouldn't, destroying the indigenous ecosystem. ANYWAY. Prague. We spent an evening and then the next whole day wandering the city.

Here is lovely, ancient Prague castle at sunset:

Here we had climbed a tower on the Charles Bridge, and were afforded an amazing view over the city on both sides of the river. We would have walked up the hill to the special observation tower, but one of my companions was limping, the other had a sore neck, and I had a headache. So we settled for this:

And here's the view looking to the right, you can see the river:

There were lots of large bats flying around. I made a video to show my friend who is studying bats. Now here we have a view showing the bridge and castle, taken from the top of the tower on the east side of the bridge:

So, the next day we had lots of time for cruising around the city. There were swarms of tourists. The main souvenirs appeared to be blown glass, crystal, jewelry, and for the kids wooden marionettes. Police cars seemed to be everywhere, but I never saw anything remotely criminal, and the only one I saw with sirens was going with two amubulances on the outerbelt around the city. Overall the city was very well-kept with clean streets, excellent public transit (including buses, subway, and trams!), and amazingly beautiful buildings.

There were several horse carriages in the main square of the old town district, all of them looking shiny and happy:

(the ear hats are to keep insects from entering their ears, f.y.i.)

Here is a view of the famous astronomical clock, it shows....lots of things...heh heh, but I forget what they are. Position of the moon, time, date, stuff like that. Below it is a calender disc. On the hour, a skeleton pulls a rope to ring the bell, and some doors open revealing different apostles. At twelve o'clock ALL the apostles are revealed. We saw 4pm, though. Also note the lovely police and swarms of tourists. Yes.

The large mainly-white building with the two towers was a church, whose name eludes me, but it was very amazing on the inside. Phenomenal decorations considering the small number of pews. Well. Someone had money... As for the statue, we never did figure out what it was. Rather ambiguous-looking:

Yet another view of the castle. With a different bridge, this one is more modern. And by more modern I mean built after 1600, ha ha:

That's all folks, I'll make another post with the fun stuff.