Adventures in Hooterville

12.11.09

Testing, test test, one, two...

Well, the formatting default seems to suck pretty bad. At least it did the work of linking to the article I wanted to share, even if it didn't preserve the youtube video embedding. You can't have it all.

Anyone else impressed by Carl Sagan's new single? Love it :)

Reader

Does anyone know how to grab links from google reader? I think I've got a good thing going on over there... at least I find my shared items entertaining. I'd like to share (at least some of) them here, but I'm not sure how to do that without creating a new blog post each time. Hrm...

Update: Here is something that might make reposting easier. Not quite the quick fix, but seems like it will minimize the number of clicks required, at least. I'm gonna give it a shot, but if y'all (all three of you) find something easier lemme know.

24.10.09

Travel bug

I'm getting pretty good at this travelling thing. My most recent adventure was prompted by the Society for Neuroscience annual conference, i.e. the biggest conference ever as far as a neuro-geek like me is concerned. My lab goes every year, because my advisor is wonderfully generous with travel funds. So, off to Chicago we went.

Unfortunately, after a science-packed first two days, I came down with a nasty head cold. So I didn't get to see much, if any, of the Chicago night life but I appreciated the city from afar, let's say. That turned out to be, though not ideal, alright with me because I got to spend some quality time in our incredible accommodations. We rented a pair of condos, both right downtown. Condo #1, where I was staying, was right on a park in an brand-new high-rise complex. We were on the 7th floor, not too high (thankfully) but high enough to have a really nice view out of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Add to that some ample floorspace, king beds, giant flatscreens, wifi, washer/dryer, full kitchen… TWO bathrooms!... and you have a recipe for a very comfortable week-long stay. Condo #2, on the other hand, was really lame. I can't believe I didn't get more complaints from my labbies who were, unfortunately, staying there instead. This place was on the 57th (!) floor of the Hancock building. The view was.. well… take a look:

(click to embiggen)

Not much to say about that, but you wouldn't know it from the way my co-workers went on and on ;)

I also felt like this was the most productive year, for me, when it came to making contacts and learning about interesting science. Considering I was sick for more than half of the conference, maybe the lesson here is that less is more? Maybe, or it could be that the timing was excellent: I'm in the market for the next step in my thesis project, so collaboration ideas and possible new directions are a welcome distraction. Either way, I'll take it.

PS- To the guy I sneezed on during my poster session, I'm really very sorry. I hope you have a killer immune system and an abundant supply of vitamin C. Though I didn't get your name, if you care to identify yourself, I would be more than happy to send you a care-package of noodle soup and lemon tea? Thank you so much for your interest and your gentlemanly demeanor.

24.9.09

Thank you Natalie Dee!

6.8.09

Cooking: domesticate thyself.

I've been a bit preoccupied by food and where it comes from since I turned 13 and decided I was going to vote with my diet. As the story goes, I read an article in one of my teeny-bopper magazines about vegetarianism and the myriad of reasons people choose to eat that way, and declared that I, too, would be a vegetarian. What made such an impression on me, besides the sheer number of valid reasons to eat vegetables, was that vegetarianism is one way to protest the cruel and unhealthy conditions in factory farms. (MRSA, anyone? Shudder...)

Because of my choice of a (mostly) vegetarian lifestyle and my tendency toward excessive research, I've read a lot about food. I've seen my share of propaganda on both sides of the argument. Last year, I read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and I was impressed. Strangely, he was using a lot of vegetarian-propaganda stand-bys (in my case, preaching to the choir) but for an entirely different purpose: he's not a vegetarian. He is just a dude who thinks the American food culture is broken.

In addition to being a regular "Joe Omnivore", he's logical, reasonable and a terrific writer. The combination of these attributes make him someone that people will actually listen to, which gives me all sorts of butterflies in my stomach. A figurehead for reform in American agriculture? Hot damn, I've been waiting for this guy to show up for awhile now*.

So I recently read his second book, In Defense of Food, and I liked it. He trash-talks scientists in the first part of the book, and that is a little weird because he uses a fair amount of science to back up his arguments in subsequent chapters. Besides that minor offense, he makes some good points. Let me sum it up thusly:

Book #1: By following 4 meals from the soil to the table, demonstrate that the American agricultural system is... not ideal.

Book #2: By examining the American eater, compared to eaters of traditional cultures (primarily Europeans - French, Italian, etc), demonstrate that the American food culture is unhealthy. Then give some recommendations on how to fix it.

and then there is "Book" #3, which I stumbled upon a couple days ago. It's his most recent article in the New York Times, where he's a contributing writer. Believe it or not this entire rambling love-fest was intended to properly introduce this article... ha... Anyway, this article describes another part of the American food culture that seems to be broken: cooking. Americans don't cook the way other cultures do. We reheat, we take-out, we snack-pack and (maybe) assemble. Read the article! It's interesting! I won't be able to do it justice.

So, in an effort to get off the couch and into the kitchen, and to open a dialogue about how to cook food (versus how to order food... read the article!), this is what I cooked tonight:

Curried Kale and Apples

2 Tbs olive oil

1 onion

1 apple

1 bunch kale

1 Tbs curry powder (give or take)

a small amount of water

salt, to taste

Chunk onion and apples, 1-inch pieces work well but don't worry about uniformity. Wash and strip kale greens from tough stems.

Saute onions in oil in a large skillet, until they look delicious. Add apples and curry powder and saute for another minute. Add kale greens and a bit of water for steaming. Stir briefly, and cover. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes (I'm guessing here) stirring once or twice. It's done when the greens are tender.

Yum :)

That's chipotle baked tofu in the background, if you're wondering. Tonight was the first time I had tried this tofu recipe and the chipotle marinade, big surprise, totally overwhelmed the curry. But, that's okay, the sweetness of the apples/onions came through and that was a good contrast for both types of spice.

* To be fair, the meat-eating Eric Schlosser wrote Fast Food Nation in 2000-ish, and I was (and am) a big fan. But for some reason I can never get my omnivore friends to read this book. It might have something to do with the Sinclair-esque detail with which he describes industrial agriculture...

2.8.09

Berlin

... is a fantastic city. I didn't really know what to expect, but turns out I love this city. It's got a really laid-back feel to it, and after Paris I was definitely in the mood for laid-back. I also loved the fashion in Berlin, but when you have maybe 5 outfits for 2.5 weeks (all using the same pair of pants), I think you will like the fashion anywhere...

Since most of my time in Berlin was conference-going*, I'm not going to do a day-by-day account. Instead, I will list some highlights.

Highlight #1: The conference.

Haha okay so maybe I just put that here to make fun of myself and my nerdiness. But in truth the conference was fun and my work was well recieved. The comp neuro community is pretty chummy because they, as a general rule, get a lot of flak from biologists. So they are supportive of eachother which makes for a productive, laid-back, collaborative atmosphere. Yay, science! Here is a picture of my coworker Tomasz presenting at one of the workshops:

Yes, that is an actual slide in his presentation and that is an actual serious 'thinking' face on Tomasz. This is during the Q&A after his presentation. Which means that someone actually asked a serious question pertaining to this slide. I love my job.

#2: Beer.

The beer gardens were a lot of fun. Does anyone know why beer plus manicured landscaping does not equal good times in the states? It seems like someone could make some money off of this obvious oversight.

The above pictured beer garden had some live jazz while we were there. I got a crepe here with orange liquor as the filling. I don't think I'll be making that at home, but it was interesting.

#3: Mosaics.

So there are statues and public art all over Berlin, and they are all very impressive. However, I think my favorite works were all mosaics. I was really, very impressed by the quality of the colors, contrast, etc that can be achieved by glass and stone. I think I embarrassed my fellow travelers when we got to the top of the Victory Column and instead of looking at the view of the city like a normal person, I just gawked at the mosaic on the building itself. They had to tear me away. Some examples shots:

Amazing.

#4: Shopping.

Okay so maybe this wasn't so much the city as it was the fact that Nick and I no longer had to carry all our belongings on our backs, but I was nevertheless entertained by the shopping districts. We stopped by KaDeWe, a department store of second-largest-in-Europe fame, and were awed at their rediculous assortment of... everything. On the top (7th) floor they have an impressive food court. We didn't really eat there. No, I was impressed by appearances alone. Behold:

Notice that this fanciful display is mostly mushrooms (a large variety of mushrooms, but still). There were displays like this for all sorts of fresh foodstuffs: fruit, veggies, legumes, you name it. And it was all worked in seamlessly with the wares.

I swear their decoration budget has to be more than the kitchen budget. Well, maybe I am being naive. Do they use the veggies that the tourists have gawked at, sneezed on and fondled? (the other tourists... I only gawked...)

to be continued...

*and eating - the falafel was amazing and I actually found a roadside currywurst stand that had some fish sausage!!

25.7.09

Photos!

EuroTrip - selected photos

A few highlights will be posted here shortly, but in the meantime Picasa has the 300-picture version of our trip (in actuality, we took 850 or so...). This album has comments and is linked to a map, where I linked pictures to where they were taken. This allows you to see our basic hiking route, etc.

I also plan to update soon with stories from week two, but right now, it's just good to be home. Hello, lazy weekend!!

18.7.09

Day by day

I am writing this during our 9-hour first-class train ride from Interlaken, Switzerland to Berlin, Germany. By some miracle, we don’t have any transfers on this trip (yay!) so I have lots of time for writing (double yay!).

Before I start, I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of day-by-day travelogues, but there’s just so much to talk about that I gave in and succumbed to order. Not much to be done, there.

Day 0, Pardon my French

The day before we left, I called into Paris to make a dinner reservation. I was really, really proud of my solid 30 seconds of talking in French, until the guy on the other end started talking a little too fast (presumably to confirm the reservation?). Who knows. After a minute or two of dead silence (ummmmmm, desole!) they found someone to assure me that I had in fact just made a reservation. Le sigh.

Day 1, A 7-hour plane ride and the City of Lights

We had a red-eye flight that left Atlanta at 11pm and got into Paris at about 1pm. After a bit of a delay at the airport due to some unattended baggage (we heard they blow them up wherever they are found, can this be true?), we hopped the metro to our “bed and breakfast” which was really “the spare bedroom in someone’s apartment”. This turned out to be the best thing ever, because our hosts, Marie and Jean, were incredibly helpful and welcoming. After settling in, we were off to dinner at “A la Biche au Bois” or “A doe in the woods”. This was our most formal eating while in France, the whole nine-yards with 4 courses (5 if you count the appertifs) and traditional French food. Wow, so much butter! I was most impressed by the cheese course – big surprise there – wherein our waiter brought out the cheese plate and we naively asked “how many?” and he waved his hand over the entire plate. Well, okay then, if you insist!!!

From dinner, we walked. And walked. And lost track of time and walked some more. We took some goofy pictures of the Seine, Notre Dame, the Bastille, and some dimly-lit streets that had all sorts of charm. It was a lot of fun and by the end we were crazy tired, so we tried to catch the metro back… oops, ferme. Closed. So there was a long tired walk at the end of the night (2am local? Damn how did it get so late?) but we got there!

Day #2, Perfume and pipi

After a fantastic and simple French breakfast, we started our day close to home base on the recommendation of Marie, at the Père Lachaise cemetery. We took too many pictures and stopped by Jim Morrison’s grave before heading to Sacre Coeur, not so much for the church itself as for the fantastic view of the city. Next we stopped at a brasserie on Rue Lepic for lunch, another recommendation from our wonderful hostess. Nick’s crepes were way better than my (rather odd) salad, but I had the distinct pleasure of sitting next to a drunk, chain-smoking, bar-song-singing local (probably in his 60s). When Nick ordered an appertif and I requested water, he laughed a big belly laugh and exclaimed “Ohhh, le bebe!” before going back to his singing. It was awesome.

After lunch we hit the Arc de Triomphe and Le Tour Eiffel, before trying and failing to do a picnic at Jardin du Luxembourg. We had meant to go to a bunch of famous little shops, one for bread, one for cheese, etc that Nick had done some research on. But everything was closed. Instead, we stopped at the one place that was open (famous for its butter, but also a street cafe) and got some delicious but overpriced nouveau cuisine. The butter was ok, maybe they didn’t give us stupide americains the good stuff?

We routed our after-dinner stroll through the Louvre’s courtyard and admired all of the crazy, and intricate, sculpture adorning the building. Closer to the B&B, I witnessed something that explained a lot about this city: it was a local, peeing in the streets. That, and well I can only assume that “fresh lemony clean” doesn’t have a French translation…

Day 3, Tah-may-toh… Ta-mah-toh…

After breakfast, it hit us that we didn’t have any travel or lodging plans for the next week, and due to the upcoming Bastille Day (French day of Independence), it was going to be a busy travel week. So we meandered down to the train station to assure (at least) that we would be in Berlin in time for my conference. We also booked a trip from Paris to Chamonix (south of France, see day 4).

From the station we walked to and along the Viaduct de Arts, a collection of artist studios/galleries built into an old railway. On top is a beautiful park, lots of gardens etc that we were able to walk through and admire. After a morning of walking, we walked some more, this time implementing the plan of day 2: rounding up goodies for a picnic in Jardin du Luxembourg. At one of our many stops, I had an encounter with the stereotyped French/American friction, and the shopkeep refused to sell me a tomato. (I may have deserved that, but I swear I meant to say “Bonjour, Monsieur”… ).

After lunch we went for more sightseeing. This time we actually went inside the building we were looking at (gasp). Le Sainte-Chapelle was tres joli. Nick had thoughtfully brought along a walking-tour-on-tape that included this chapel, and the history was as interesting as the stained glass was impressive. We sat, we stared, and we eventually moved on, because, we were tired. Especially me. I was really, very tired. So we went back to the B&B and I was going to take a nap but Marie and Jean offered us some wine… and well, can you say no to French wine? We were recounting our day and my frustration with all the meat and delight at all the cheese on French menus when Marie exclaimed that she had just the souvenir for me: cheese plates. Hand-painted, darling little things that had (apparently) been sitting in her cupboard for 20 years. I will post pictures soon, but needless to say I went to bed happy.

Day 4, Nick gets déjà vu

We meant to wake up early and sneak out without a fuss, but Marie was one step ahead of us and made breakfast against our protests. In her words, “Sorry there isn’t any French bread, but the bakery isn’t open yet, you know.” So we sat and ate and enjoyed it too much because we missed our bus and had to power-walk to the train station, where we jumped on our train last-minute, like something out of a movie from the 60s. It was a relatively short train ride, but I loved every minute of it. Chamonix ended up being too touristy for Nick “It reminds me of Vail” but we were able to get a campsite far enough out of town that the beautiful mountains weren’t spoiled by, well, anything. As a bonus, Nick’s sister’s boyfriend, Paul, was in Chamonix by some crazy coincidence, and we got to meet up with him for an hour or two.

Day 5, 98% water

This was a hiking day. We hiked from Chamonix, in France, to a little town called Le Peuty, in Switzerland. Everything in between was amazing. I’ll have to let the photos do the talking for me, because I can’t do them justice. I will say that it was a strenuous hike. After about 15 minutes of walking (barely even uphill) I had to dump out all my water to lighten up my pack. But I manned up and we made our goal of reaching Le Peuty in good time, even if my hip bones looked like someone had punched them repeatedly (I guess backcountry packs aren’t made for skinny nerdy types). My favorite part of our trip so far was going to sleep that night. Totally exhausted, gazing at the mountains and the sky while being serenaded by the jingling cowbells from the pasture next to the campsite. It was surreal.

Day 6, I find a little piece of home in Switzerland

We woke up to cowbells and I had a really hard time convincing myself to leave (as many of you know, I’ve been a fan of cows since I was a kid). The day was a little muggy and our hike to Martigny (nearest train station) wasn’t nearly as pretty as the one of the day before. But we made it even though the trail signs disappeared halfway there and we had to catch a ride into town. Our original plan was to continue on to Zermatt that day, but plans change and we stayed in Martigny. The town has a few Roman ruins that were interesting but not so impressive. For example, the amphitheater has been turned into an outdoor movie theater. Nothing says ancient and awe-inspiring like plastic theater seating and projector equipment. I called this town the Kent,WA of Switzerland. Needless to say we didn’t stay more than one night.

Day 7, Bernese bears and more happy Swiss cows

We hopped a train early for Lauterbrunnen, which is in the Berner Oberland, a region of the Swiss Alps a little south of Interlaken. To get there, we took the “Golden Pass” train, which is a scenic route. Again, words won’t do this justice. So many adorable little farms with flowers in the windows and happy cows wearing bells. The mountains towering over them were unspeakably beautiful. On our way, we stopped briefly in Montreux (loved this city!) to see a castle (one of my check-list items for this trip: see some old stuff) called the Chateau de Chillon. The history is worth another 4 pages but I’ll spare you (for now, mwahaha) but to get an idea, the first written account of the castle was in the 11th century, and it’s been maintained ever since (never plundered or damaged in an attack). So, it was really fun to explore the dungeons, banquet halls and chapels etc, though we were halfway through the tour before someone told us that we could check our packs at the door (doh!).

Sore backs aside, this was a fantastic day and we got to Lauterbrunnen early enough to snag one of the best campsites ever.

Day 8, The price of beauty

Lauterbrunnen is in a deep valley with mountains on 3 sides. The two side walls are just that – walls of rock, steep cliffs with waterfalls everywhere. Our campsite was situated just out of town, with a fantastic up close view of the biggest waterfall. We’re going to guess between 1K-1.5K ft tall, but I’m not 100% on that. Anyway it was really a trip to wake up and have that staring you in the face. After much grumbling on my part (“buuut it’s so pretty here and my feet are tiiiired…”) Nick convinced me that we came here for a reason and we put our hiking boots back on. Holy happy cows, am I glad for that. We took a train up the left wall, which revealed more mountains on top of mountains, and caught a gondola when the train couldn’t take us further, to our final destination of Mannlichen. Here we had a 360 degree view of snow-capped peaks, rocky cliffs, rolling hills and I swear I heard a cowbell or two from the valleys below. We started our slow hike down the mountain by passing in front of the Eiger north face, which I hear is pretty famous. I can see why! It was incredible. We had a nice picnic lunch staring at it and a few other notable peaks (jungfrou, etc). I would recommend this hike to everyone I know, that is, if you can afford the ridiculous touristy train/gondola prices. I’d say it was worth every penny.

Day 9, and that brings us to…

Today! It has been the perfect day for traveling because we woke up to thunderstorms and it’s been raining ever since – thankfully, this is the first bad weather we have encountered all week. I have to say though, the thunder this morning was pretty fantastic due to the acoustics of the Lauterbrunnen valley, so awesome. Luckily, our neighbors in the campground (a lovely older couple from Belfast with endlessly entertaining accents and Irish slang) offered us a ride into town so we avoided the long walk in the rain. I have sore feet and a full belly and I am looking forward to more adventures in Berlin.

2.7.09

I like dirt.

Last night, Nick and I went to a birthday party in Little 5. It was here that I discovered that Nick's co-worker Scott had been offering him tomato plants for several weeks, and Nick had failed to mention said offer. Whaaaat? Of course this could not stand. We drove straight from the party to pick up the plant at 11pm last night. After work today, I went straight to the garden to give the new addition a proper burial. Or, no... um, new home? I don't know what the terminology is, but there is a live tomato plant in the garden now.

I used the occasion to take a few photos of my favorite plants at the moment. We had more lettuce (red, green leaf, and romaine) than we could eat last month but it's looking pretty sad now due to the heat, so there aren't any pictures of that. Ditto on the fennel and dill. The basil, thyme, oregano and mystery plants are doing great, though! Mystery plants are probably pumpkin, but that's another story.

The link above also directs to pictures of our latest camping/hiking adventure and some other domestic stuff I was pleased enough with to take pictures of. Namely a key lime pie (my first!) and a t-shirt "refashion" that was actually successful.

Anyway, I have way too much work to do so I'm going to keep this short. I probably won't post much before or during my trip, but the trip should be good blogging fodder. Take note Blogger, and be sure to beef up your servers before August 1...

21.6.09

Mr. President

Apparently, the White House has an official photostream on flickr. They're fun to flip through and an excellent example of how tech-savvy this administration is. I mean, is there a networking site they haven't infiltrated?

Regardless, I like the caption posted with this photo:

"At center-right is the hieroglyphic that the President comment on saying it looked like him."

Gramatically incorrect, but amazing nonetheless.

Thanks to Kate for the heads up.