Yesterday a friend and I went to dinner. We got one of our favorite servers. As soon as we sat down I asked her if she was giving out complimentary neck rubs. She said, "Of course."
About halfway through our meal, she walked up behind me and started giving me one. Without turning around, I said, "Alright, now that's service."
My friend looked across the table at me and said, "Except it's not her. It's just some fat chick."
"I don't even care."
Friend: So, the last girl who apparently knows me from high school and sent me a friend request on facebook just tried friending me again after I denied her last one. WTF, people? I have no idea who you are.
Me: That's pretty funny. She totally wants your hog.
Friend: Well, she can't have it.
Me: Don't tell me that, tell her. Send her an email back saying, "YOU CAN'T HAVE MY HOG - STOP ASKING!!!"
Last week I had lunch with a girl I haven't seen since we hung out at the European style (top optional) pool at Wynn Resorts.
Somehow, during the course of the meal the topic of conversation turned to cholesterol. I'm pretty sure it was her that brought it up, not me.
Her: I don't eat a lot of meat.
Me: I've really cut back over the last few years.
What I wanted to say: That's not what I heard. Ooooohhhhhh.
And you didn't think I had an internal filter.
A few months ago I submitted a manuscript for publication in a scientific journal. For those of you who don't know how the process works, the manuscript gets an initial look to make sure the formatting requirements are met, and that the subject matter is appropriate for the journal. If both those things seem to be okay, then the editors send the manuscript to other researchers who are familiar with the subject for external review. Those reviewers will go through the manuscript, and produce a list of concerns such as problems they see with the analyses, problems they have with the conclusions that are drawn based on the results, etc. The reviewers then send those comments back to the associate editor who is handling the manuscript, along with a recommendation of whether or not they feel the paper should be published in the journal. The associate editor will also read through the manuscript and provide comments, and based on those and the recommendations of the other reviewers will make a recommendation to the journal editor. All of this usually takes a few months.
Last week I received comments for the paper I submitted, and they were all favorable. However, there are some issues that one of the reviewers felt needed to be addressed, so I've been revising the manuscript to deal with those. Some are more time consuming than others, and that's when I begin to wonder why all the comments can't be like some of those from the associate editor:
"Line 35: Please include references that support this statement.
Lines 311, 323: may be extra spaces at the end of sentences.
Line 408: Period at end of sentence is strange - possibly bold or larger font.
Line 415: large-water not large water"
Those are the easy ones to deal with. That said, I'm almost done revising, and the paper will be accepted once I resubmit it to the journal (which will hopefully be in the next couple days) . The only bad part is that it's merely a side project that should've been published years ago.
A week or two ago I went and saw The Hangover on a Saturday afternoon. Very funny movie. I watched it at an outdoor shopping mall where Girl Who Won't Be My Girlfriend likes to hang out. As I left the theater and walked to my car, I saw her car in the parking garage. I gave her a call to see if she wanted to meet up.
She didn't pick up.
I didn't leave a message because I was just going to go along on my way, but knowing that she likes to hang out and study in a nearby coffee shop, I thought that I'd walk over and say hi real quick*. So I called her again. This time I left a message saying, "Hey, I just saw you parked near me, so I'm going to stop by real quick in case you're there. I'd like to say hi."
I went to the coffee shop.
She wasn't there.
I walked back to my car.
Hers was gone.
I couldn't help but think that she hurried and left because I said I was stopping by. I called her again and left a message telling her that I was sorry I missed her, and to give me a call.
Nothing says "stalker" quite like that sequence of events**.
It made me feel a lot like Mikey***:
*I realize how pathetic this makes me look.
**Even though it was just coincidence***.
***But at least I wasn't wearing a wife beater.
****I swear!
I love that I can wake up at 3 a.m. with an "Aha!!" moment, and rather than get up and scramble for a piece of paper and a pen, I can just grab my cell phone and text it to myself so that I don't forget what it was once I go back to sleep.
Technology is great.
Suck on that, Darwin!
During yesterday's lecture, I started talking about how changes in temperature can cause a protein to change its shape and lose its function.
Then, for an every day example, I gave my students the example of a fried egg. Here's my quote:
"When you heat the egg, the protein changes shape, and the clear part becomes white. When you cool it back down, the egg stays white, so those proteins do not regain their function. They do however, retain their deliciousness."
I repeated that to a friend later in the day. He said it's a wonder that I don't have at least one student off him/herself every lecture.
