wasabigreen

Obama is up 3% in Missouri.
Whoever MO chooses, has won the election (with only 1 exception) for over 100 years.

More about the Missouri bellwether

Oh. And I sent in my absentee ballot for the Canadian election, which can't compete with the American election-mania down here. I voted NDP, as I usually do...

I'm volunteering for the Obama campaign today. Going with my friend Geoff and we're going to knock on doors and register voters.

Yup, I don't have a vote, so this is my contribution to trying to stop the Republicans from getting in. Congratulations America, you got me involved in a campaign when no amount of Canadian politics could!

ps. I'm sure everyone's seen this clip already but ajfklas;fja; gah.

my one week of pre-summer is over - summer school starts on Monday.
I'll be out again in July - I'll be in Tbay mid-July, and going to Costa Rica in August.

It's been a productive week, I crammed in a ton of data collection, worked with the postdocs to fix all my data analysis scripts, and met with another research group to talk about data collection issues for a new fMRI study we are trying to get started. I also met with the summer work-study, made arrangements to add him to my research ethics, and started training him. Basically everything I haven't had time for over the previous month and a half, so that's great.

I also saw Radiohead on Wednesday and it was a beautiful show. Seriously. It's been ages since I could actually say that. It was outside, the weather was perfect.

I went to a contemporary art walk thing yesterday and saw some fun and trippy art, got some free booze, and we got little passports that get stamped at each stop. (You're supposed to enter them in for a prize draw once you fill the passport up, but we started late and just got the passport stamps for a sense of accomplishment.)

Last weekend I went to wine country with friends, we brought a picnic and bought a bottle of Missouri semi-dry red, which was better than I expected it to be. We passed a very pleasant afternoon eating and drinking while Neil Diamond covers were played by a mulleted dude in a Hawaiian shirt. Then on the way home we visited the Daniel Boone Historic Home, which was sort of fantastic.

Also, I tried rockclimbing with my nextdoor neighbour, and it went very well. I'm glad, because I tried climbing with another friend here, and she didn't really enjoy it, so I've been trying to look for a partner unsuccessfully. We are going again this weekend, I think this will work very well. If we commit to it, I will look into buying my own climbing gear.

Today, groceries, date with Matlab, maybe getting my bike fixed, and a bbq at my advisor's house.

I'm pleased by the fact that it was a productive week AND with a lot of fun stuff happening. I guess that's what happens when there's no classes, and that 10 hours you spend at school is all spent on research instead... !

spatial reference frames,
multisensory integration,
san francisco,
broccoli and cheese quiches,
new order,
elected to psychology students council office,
have an assistant for the summer,
won 2 fellowships and can hold both,
excited because i can afford a nicer place,
planning costa rica,
done exams on wednesday,
so behind on research,
anticipation of happy hour,
free indian spices,
monkey brains,
human brains,
barbeques,
possible roadtrip to memphis,
back on the bike,
earthday volunteering,
playing lots of kickball,
going home in july,
toronto misses me,

need to finish takehome exam,
then complete sentences again.

again, way too long since i updated LJ. what to tell you... ?

- working like hell. first-year project is spawning all sorts of follow-up experiments, plus i am assisting with another grad student's project plus doing a new analysis of some old data. work work. but this is good. depending on the results, this will turn into an imaging experiment, which will make a nice study for my MA.

- presenting first-year project at CNS (san francisco) in under a month. lots to be done to whip my poster into shape, but feeling much more confident than i did when i went in 2006.

- before spring break, had systems neuroscience takehome exam, which was a ridiculous, traumatic experience. 10 essay questions, which translated to 14 single spaced pages, plus a full-page flow chart, plus a full page of graphs. and getting nothing done for the rest of the week!

- first monday back after spring break. i went to toronto for half the week. it was so good to go back - i miss TO like crazy. too bad i picked the worst flying day of the year (snowstorms everywhere) 15 hours, 4 airports, including spontaneous minneapolis transfer, before i landed at pearson. this is basically all i did: visit friends, drink beers, EAT ALL THE TIME, shop a little, visit the harbourfront. so pretty with the water and the snow. after all, misssourah doesn't have any water!

- joined a kickball league. in canada the only name i have known this sport by is soccer baseball, which is pretty accurate. half the team is psychology grad students and the other half is assorted other grad students and their allies. first game was yesterday and the diamond was muddy and smelt like spring. we have spiffy matching teamshirts with nicknames and numbers on the back. tied game 1-1.

- joined a CSA! it's a combined CSA: they will have local produce, humanely-raised meat, dairy, eggs, and other goodies (honey, coffee, etc.) on a rotating basis. i am halving my subscription with a postdoc who works next door in the biology building. i am really pleased about this because i have been on a big environmental kick in the past while and interested in the ethics of food in particular.

- been thinking about 'home' a lot lately. where is home? thunder bay is where i come from, but it is not my home anymore. toronto was great to see, but it, too, doesn't feel quite right: a place i have outgrown, at least for now. (i wouldn't argue if it was an option for say, a job...) st louis is definitely not my home. so... now? i would love, love, love an anchoring influence in my life.

- that being said, i'm going to central america in august.
(australia's not in the cards. maybe another couple of years.)

although i don't keep in good touch with most of the people on this list nowadays, i hope you're all well these days.

ok, so facebook seems to have way superseded livejournal as everyone's internet communication of choice, so this should be old news by now - but here it is anyway:

time to join the brain drain! i'm moving to St Louis!
(that's in missouri, folks)

hi there internet,

we're back from new york. we went all over the place, never been there before so we didn't try to do anything really original, just the cliches. went to greenwich village, soho, the met, moma, central park, statue of liberty, etc. had a FABULOUS time even with the killer weather and the surreal part about being stranded in upstate ny. now work and prepping for interview and everything is really busy here, and i haven't really slept in the past few days, so i'm going to sleep very very shortly.

oh and i got to see randy buckner give a lecture today - that was pretty cool.

i hope while i was away, at least some of you in toronto made it to the new pornographers show. i am jealous! ... but not that jealous ;)

things to be happy about, i am listing them here.

1. i'm home for christmas!
2. i'm done my grad school applications!! (thank god)
3. if i have the nerve to go on working holiday, i have a summer job offer in australia. stay tuned!

ps. GNO/BNO was a ton of fun!

I made these today. they are amazing - i almost took a photo, but got too lazy. regardless, bask in the domestic godliness!

I am trying to finish up my grad school applications before I go home (wednesday!) so I am sweating over these things tonight... 3/5 done! one school wants three statements that basically say the same thing - it's so pointless. once those are through its pretty smooth sailing though.

yeahhh finally some happy news in the papers!
map for gloating purposes

also for toronto people, check out the 2006 toronto municipals wiki and do some voting of your own on nov 13.

/psa

food for thought on america's public school system.

the heat is still not working in the apartment. it's freezing!!!! :(

yesterday i went to the CNE where philly cheesesteaks, beavertails, funnel cakes abound and it was a day of gluttony. a tasty day of gluttony to cap off what's been a fantastic summer.

the breast cancer project is almost ready for journal submission, yay! it feels good to get those off into the world. just in time for grad school apps.

(count this as my contribution to staving off the livejournal silence)

hey y'all:
after a fab visit with steph in calgary, i'm now in tbay for another week of vacation time :)

it is like hot like disgusting.

dies

pomesumoe makes me happy.

i feel really faint, even though i ate at regular intervals today, which makes me a bit concerned. my blood sugar has gotten progressively more hostile over the past year.

we discussed the best paper at lab. it was about monkeys' emotional reactions and brain lesions. they used toy snakes and monkey heads as social stimuli. and the methodology notes "taxidermied monkey head (thrown forward after 10 seconds exposure)" the cheeky french! they know noting this permits us the mental image of a monkey head flying through the air, far more humourous than its partner the toy snake doing so.

i bought my plane tickets, august will be toronto --> calgary --> home --> toronto. yay!! family time PLUS non-family vacation and the seat prices were good.

i think i am in the process of tying up some loose ends, this is good. but i always second-guess myself.

i want a container garden on the balcony. i think i'm late to the party though, it's already june. but i was afraid of the raccoons (which seem to have left us) and didn't want to put anything out there because it would get ruined. hmm, maybe i will go tomorrow and buy seedlings and pot some plants. i hope they won't die.

speaking of dying, sushi the fish is dead. he was three years old, and he has had a tumour for at least a year. at the end he was blowing little bubbles in the water which suggested he was happy, so hopefully he died happy. rip sushi, you will be sadly missed. :(

it's almost over, but i just realized today is 06/06/06. hmmmm.

(i nixed the bike idea)
i am home.


AFTER
1) $50 in cab fares
1a) 3 snarky cab companies to deal with
2) 1 failed attempt at taking the GO transit instead
3) 1 interview with CBC radio
4) 2.5 hours walking in blistering weather worthy of the year's first smog alert
5) 2 fabulous suburban destinations that i had to travel between with no TTC


... i conclude that the TTC, GO, and taxi companies ALL SUCK. BY FAR the best transportation method i enjoyed all day were my feet and i was travelling BETWEEN DIFFERENT MUNICIPALITIES!!!!! DID YOU HEAR ME TTC!!! GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

ahem.

moral of story: STAY HOME ... if you don't have an MRI scan scheduled at faraway hospital #1 and all the necessary shit you need for it at faraway hospital #2. sigh

moral of story #2: reason 3428794 to hate working in the burbs.