Finally, some good (science) news

Yesterday, Dr. Boss finally agreed that I was finished with this Most Terrible of Experiments (that tedious thing I've been working on since July, to get around a problem I've had since... last January? Ugh). We both agreed to make some conservative conclusions about the data, and leave it at that. Which is the last figure I need for my manuscript, which means we are back on track. The document is nearly written, and all the figures need to be reformatted (to 8.4cm wide and large bold fonts and some other tedious things to change on graphs), so we are on track to get this out to the collaborators soon. We haven't yet discussed a submission date- I don't really think this will be until late Jan (ergo, my interest in getting this moving ASAP).

I'll write a little more later about how I expect this process to go for my paper (spoiler: Slowly), since this is directly correlated to my ability to graduate, but for now, please join me in an Epic Happy Dance.

A brotherly response to sandlin

I enjoyed your movie so much...



-N

Bioethics- the movie

This is the video I made to show my students in class, summarizing our time together. It is laced with reference, from the total meltdown my students had about the Personal Genomics Contest that declared Migraines the "winning" disease for more research, their resentment money (and the public) interfering with science, and perhaps even the super abrupt way I tend to start and end my class. I guess what I am trying to say is if you don't think it is interesting- that's way. They giggled and then politely clapped. What darlings.

Here is the video- BIOSCI1590, as retold by robots.

Bart, amplifed

It's been three or four days since my bionic left ear was installed . . long enough to begin assessing how much difference it's made.

It's not a miracle cure . . I still ask Jane to repeat herself, but clearly that's a function of being mentally focused elsewhere (like maybe the sports page) and I can work on that without the aid of biomechanical augmentation. (with the aid of divine providence, perhaps yes)

The thing I notice most is when I'm puttering around the house by myself, actually. The sounds of day to day, getting silverware out, food from the fridge, etc. are amplified in a way that feels like the sound track of a movie. Does that make sense?

Even (maybe especially) talking to myself sounds different. Not in a bad way, just different. If you've ever had the experience of talking to a crowd with the aid of a good sound system, you get some idea of the effect.

It's too soon to tell how much difference it makes in overall interactions, but I feel far less likely to lose the thread of a conversation, or to have moments of . . . what was that? Jane thinks my body language will be more alert, less-geezer like and I certainly hope that's true.

Almost done!

You may have noticed I've been a bit distant lately. I can't promise to fix that, but I am going to run out of excuses soon. Tomorrow is my last day of class! I am currently up creating an Xtranormal video to summarize some of the highlights from class. I think I should probably have someone else look at it tomorrow before I show it to my class (in case my subtle sense of humor doesn't translate well to alien robots talking in Stephen Hawking voice. As if.) If it passes QC, I'll share it up here. It's kind of nice to have a 5 min summary of the course content, major themes and running jokes. Right now I am totally cracking myself up with this- but that may just mean it is bed time.

I managed to donate blood today. It's been a while, I was on a 1 year deferment after we went to Mexico, and then I was sick so often I was usually getting on or coming off antibiotics. Finally had success today, only to find out I'll have to wait another year after we get back from Belize. Totally worth it.

Pre X-mas Celebrations

I’ve been hacking away at my to-do list this weekend. Between getting Christmas stuff ready and doing some things with Jessie, it’s been a full couple of days. Here’s the breakdown.

Friday we went to the Ticom Holiday Awards Banquet. We had a nice time, and I got to dress up all fancy in my suit and everything. Jess looked *beautiful* AND she got to go up go stand with all the people who had received Quality Awards. She got one of those because she’s so great and fantastic. Then there was open-bar silliness and the best thing of all, the photobooths were back in effect this year. They snap four pictures of you, and then print out a couple of copies. We took a bunch, and they all came out very nice. Maybe next time I bump into a scanner I’ll get them up on the internet.

Saturday I did some shopping for some...stuff for...people. And then in the evening, we went out to a hockey game. AHL, not NFL, so something like semi-pro, but we went out with some of the derby/hockey girls so Jess got to see her friends again and we got to watch some *fast* hockey. I had a good time, but I gotta say: I really don’t like sports fans. Cheering whenever someone gets smashed up into the wall, booing at the other team, cheering whenever a fight broke out. The ‘home’ team was from Dallas, and the ‘away’ team was from Houston, so there wasn’t even any good reason to have regional attachment. It all seemed very tribal and vaguely unsettling. Good skating, though.

Sunday was put up lights day. Actually, I had something else to do first. I wanted to vacuum, because eventually I’m going to want to put a baby on these floors and I want them to be clean. So I vacuumed the whole house and even moved the cat litter to a more out-of-the-way location so as to minimize tracking litter around on my feet. After that, Jess decided she wanted to put up Christmas lights on the trees, and I didn’t *have* to help, but if you think I’m letting my pregnant wife climb ladders unassisted, you’re crazy. So we got some lights and wrapped up all the trees in front of our house. We would have done the house itself, but most of the front of our house is either stone, two stories tall, or both. So we’ll stick with the trees, for now.

-N

I JUST FELT TYLER KICK!!!!!

He's been kicking for a while (just ask Jessie) but I've never been able to feel it from here on the outside. But today when going to bed (isn't that always the way) Tyler was really active and Jess had me put my hand on her belly, as much because he seems to get shy when I put my hand there as to see if I could feel anything. It's also kinda neat because when I talk to him, sometimes he'll kick in response, which is really neat.

So Jess was laying on her side with my hand on her belly and I felt it! Just the littlest, tiniest little kick! I just stared at Jess with this wide, open-mouthed expression. "Was that a kick?" "Yeah!" "I just felt it!" "You did!" "Yeah...is that another one?" "Yeah."

I can feel his kicks! I'm going to have a baby and he's going to kick things. Woohoo!

-N