There is no Justice

When you have to show up at 6 in the morning so that you can use the clinical scanners before those pesky patients start using the clinical scanners that you need data on, you would think that you would at least not get sticky on your walk from the garage to your office.

That is not the case, at least not in Houston on the last day of August.

Improbable Office Downloads

Did you know that the you can download an Irish spell-check update for Windows Office XP?

Get it here.

Today, I am a Pseudo-Yuppie

I bought and cooked with tofu today.

My East Texas heritage tried to rebel...it's not red meat, but I managed to get it down.

Being a grad student helped; tofu is cheap.

Today, I am a Blogger

I now have links to other blogs on my sidebar. And, I have finally started receiving comment spam. I'm moving up in the world!

*Does the happy dance, which frightens just about everyone*

Today, I am a Grad Student

I had my first major grad student defeat today.

The short version is that GE isn't doing what we thought they were doing in their image reconstruction code. It's sorta like buying a car that you think runs on gasoline and having it not work the first time you fill it up.

Once you disassemble the engine, you learn that it is some sort of gasoline-diesel hybrid.

On the bright side, I have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. I knew things wouldn't be as easy as they looked :-)

Feeling Old, Again

A second crop of new students has begun their orientation. My goal is to have the next group of students address me as "Master" when they come in ;-)

Credits Rolling

My dad is scheduled to leave Iraq in a couple of hours...my fingers are crossed and I'm wearing green to get in touch with my Irish ancestry...

Roger Ebert's Movie Cliches

Movie Cliches

Roger Ebert has a list of movie cliche's on his website, collected from film geeks around the world.

My favorites:
Dramatic films dont have crew member nicknames in the credits. Comedies do.

If a critic uses the word "ennui" positively in a review of any foreign film, the film will be a pretentious bore, i.e., the collected works of Michelangelo Antonioni.

Tommy Lee Goes to College

I'm watching TLGtC. The physics professor just called a "rad" an angular unit...I'm trying to avoid writing in protest :-)

How Rats Leave Sinking Ships...

http://www.kthv.com/news/KitchenSink/story.aspx?storyid=18675

This is one of the coolest things I've heard of...decidedly more reason to be pro-rodent. Not only are they cute, but they're beach-suitable!

Church Fun

I was asked earlier in the week to be one of the communion servers at church today. Having no reason to object, I said yes.

(Some exposition for people with different backgrounds: we practice multiple cup communion, where plates with matza and small cups of juice are passed among the pews, as opposed to the congregation approaching a minister one-by-one at the front of the building. Note also that there are at least 3 things in that sentence that Churches of Christ have split over, and I probably missed a few.)

To ensure that the service went smoothly, we had a meeting just after Sunday school. My partner and I were told to "handle the left side." I, of course, asked "patient's, er, preacher's left?"

Bad Pun of the Day

Whilst discussing Utah and its rather dull attitude towards what kind of beverages can be imbibed, someone asked "so how do you live without caffeine?"

My response: "Well, it's a half-life, really. You just sorta decay away."

*rimshot*

Why Women Should Want Graduate Students

1. In the face of countless irrational requests from our advisors, we have the "smile and nod" reflex down pat.

2. Studies have shown that romance is best cultivated by the giving of intangible, experience-based gifts. Grad students can't afford jewelry, so all we can give you is intangible.

3. If you don't know where they are, it's a safe bet that they are in the lab.

The Post I Wished I Could Write

I wish I could say that I was finished with my radiation protection class tonight. However, through a freak chain of events that involved lost pudding, I was distracted making food for a potluck.

I feel like I'm being taunted...

The New Hot Spot

My apartment is the newest hot spot in Houston.

Well, at least it is until someone else buys a wireless router. ;-)

Great Moments in Bad Teaching

We got a take home final yesterday. After the mid-term fiasco, the professor promised us a shorter, multiple-choice exam.

Number of questions: 11
Number of questions, counting sub-questions separately (trust me, it's fair): 20
Number of multiple-choice questions: 1
Number of multiple-choice questions that don't require justification of your answer: 0
Number of terms used in final that are not defined in any class in my school: 2
Number of non-existant members of the periodic table referenced: 1

And just for fun, one question tells us to approximate concrete as the average of iron and aluminum.

It Begins!

My Taste In Movies Grows Weirder

This weekend I watched, off of Netflix, "Six String Samurai".

This movie is set in post-apocalyptic Last Vegas, where various aspirants to the throne of King Elvis are fighting over who gets to be his heir. It ends in a climactic battle between Elvis and Death, which is really a metaphor for the social struggle between classic rock & roll and heavy metal.