You can read about the Bay Area exploits on my WordPress journal.  I use it because it is prettier and has fewer adds for Twilight.  

In what looked like a last-minute effort, UCSD also asked me to fly out on their dollar.  I’ll be at 67 degrees by Tuesday.  I’ll be hiking on the beach and thinking about the desert. With the ocean to my face, Joshua Tree will be only a handful of hours behind me.

An old climbing partner is at UCSD. I have a soft spot for his face because he was ( Read more... )

The post-doc’s wife gave birth on Sunday. The baby, aimed for Valentine’s day, was early but perfectly formed and a healthy weight.  He came in late yesterday, as I was finishing up, and we talked about her pink, scrunched-up face.  He looked older, calmer, and like the distance his eyes focused on had increased by a number of feet.  What struck ( Read more... )

I can call it self-medicating.  After my 14hour work day yesterday, I drank wine out of a mug and read. Why is there this reach for alcohol? The volume of cultural lore on the topic (a pint after work, etc etc) makes me think that this is a shared human phenomenon.  We need an aid to make our heads lighter after all the heavy pulling and pushing ( Read more... )

I don’t often write about my biologist self - the one who is currently sitting in a white lab coat, waiting for some nematode worms with Alzheimer’s to sink to the bottom of the tube. To tell you the truth, almost everything I do outside of the lab bench, including bouts of writing, is to escape her fate. Right now, the long tendons stringing my ( Read more... )

On January 29, 1979, an Elementary School was under shotgun fire. During this first school shooting, a reporter started calling the houses in the area to find an eyewitness. At the house nearest to the building, a girl’s voice picked up. “Can you see what is going on at the school?” “Yes.” “Can you see where the shooting is coming from?” “Yes.” She ( Read more... )

a friend’s post jogged a memory…

in elementary school, my first year in the “american” system, the upper grades made a musical instrument out of the multi-story playground complex. we spent weeks designing it and a month converting the slides and staircases and bridges. i wish i could remember what we named it.  the structure was the size of a ( Read more... )

i may be migrating over to greybird.wordpress.com.  there is a simple way to transfer all the livejournal mess to their site. plus, their user interface is cleaner and everything is pretty much add-free.  want to join me?
i've had this journal since sophomore year in high school.  as i was uploading my entries, i watched the terribly embarrassing ( Read more... )

a dynamic time.  my muscles changing a bit each day.  the news about my future filtering down from the mountains that make decisions about the future.  i'm glad i have direction, priorities.  i want to become stronger. i want to lose weight. i want to read more books. i felt betrayed when i noticed i was changing without permission.  at 23 it was a ( Read more... )

i heard back about interviews! stanford and berkeley want me.  they will wine me and dine me for nine days total during the process. i have the grand teetering scheme of a california adventure hatching. i want to travel from san diego to san francisco.  (how far can that be? its one state!) the mode of transport is to be determined. and i'll climb ( Read more... )