People known:

First Order:

Second Order:

Third Order:

Fourth Order:

Not too much to do at work today...just cleaning up and dealing with a few final matters and paperwork.

Tomorrow is the big day...I'll do some final preparations tonight, listen to some insiring music and watch Iron Chef.
Added to the literature: Friday, August 17, 2001 at 07:54 a.m.

Winding down

Interesting article for me to look at some time:
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v412/n6848/abs/412739a0_fs.html

Time is winding down...Friday is my last day of work formally...and I'll be headed home early that day. There isn't much to do experimental wise...just some analysis of data that's coming back to me. I have to clean up my bench...^^;;; (which can be done...it just that it rarely is really tidy ^^;;) Tonight is the barbeque for the entire institute, so I'm looking forward to that greatly :) Saturday is the exam...

Future minor project: stop by the Health Sciences' Library and research up on two separate topics. One of them, Tin and at least one anonymous reader will be interested in ^^; (I'll probably go and produce an 'information package' for mailing. If anyone else wants this particular information package, e-mail me ^^;;) The other...well, another person will be interested in ^^;; (I don't know how this topic came up, but whatever ^^;)
Added to the literature: Thursday, August 16, 2001 at 08:04 a.m.

Well...

I did my presentation, all nicely dressed up (except the shirt was a bit wrinkled...but there was no iron in the house @_@ (also, it probably would have gotten a bit wrinkled in transportation from home to work...as that clothing isn't suitable). Gah...almost a year since I last wore those pants ^^;;

The presentation went pretty well...except for PowerPoint mangling one of my slides (it was an animated one...worked fine on every computer (PP 97)...but things disappeared before they should have on the computer in the presentation room -_-; It was a bit flustering, but I managed to survive and keep going with minimal disruption. It was funny...but somewhat embarassing, in that I ~did~ code it correctly -_- I think it was well received; the people from my lab liked it :) (and of course, it was the first time they'd actually heard my lecture part of the presentation...only the slides had been known).

Katelynne...point Pix-bell towards this particular entry for me ^^. Pix-bell...what's wrong with the elipse? (I'm curious) Oh...and if you thought Katelynne was bad...you haven't seen anything yet. I seriously abuse the elipse on a ~daily~ basis...especially in my non-formal writings, or in e-mail. ^^; (I don't use the elipse in formal work, as one would expect :)

Hmmm...while I think about it...although this blog is semi-private, if you're reading, feel free to link it to your own blog. For those who just type in the URL...I'm impressed :). Being able to spell my surname correctly is a skill that quite a few don't have (usually toss in an extra 'e') -_-; I did think though...my visits to the blogs of others are almost never tracked which kind of defeats the purpose of the visitee's tracker in my case. ^^;;; I use Lynx to do most of my browsing, and look at the blogs in Lynx. Lynx doesn't load the image, so there is no record I even showed up ^^;;; {shrugs} It's a trade-off...Lynx is hyperfast for me, so I like it a lot and will keep using it ^^;

Here's another sobering thought. Of all the people I interact with online...99% are female. Discounting the people in RL, I think the number is much closer to 100%. For instance, looking at the blogs read...only one is a male. Hmmm...I wonder what one can read into that ^^;;;; Probably my particular tastes or something like that...I think ^^;
Added to the literature: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 at 08:05 a.m.

Last minute preparation

The seminar is at 1:45 today. I'll probably get changed into nice clothes about 12:30ish...and then head up about 12:45 to see if the most updated file is there...and try working with the laser pointer.

I can't figure out how PowerPoint file sizes work...I make one addition, it loses 2 Meg...spell check it and make one correction...gain 1 Meg. I finally got it down to as small as a size as it'll be...but to do that, only a certain computer could be used o.o;

Tin...whap livejournal very hard ^^;;
Added to the literature: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 at 12:00 p.m.

Rounding the last bend

Under a week to go, my seminar tomorrow and my exam on Saturday. This is a week of chaos and other such stuff. The seminar is ready to go...but I want to practice it a few times more. (eeep...have to remember to get it put onto the laptop). I should do that now.

I'm thinking of eventually redesigning this blog soon. WMC made some cracks about my lack of design skill and suggested that I hint for Tin to do it. For some strange reason...if that were to occur, I think I'd have to demand veto power ^^;; (something about maintaining a dignified decorum ^^;;;) BIDAH to WMC though about my design skills...I have them...it's just that they are too far advanced for anyone to really appreciate them =P (^_-)

Tomorrow *gasp* I'll actually be dressed up (for the afternoon) to give my talk. It isn't a common occurance...not by any stretch of the imagination ^^; Nothing too special...dress shirt, tie, dress pants, black socks...but black running shoes ^^;

All right...one more practice run...and then it's time for soccer.
Added to the literature: Monday, August 13, 2001 at 05:16 p.m.

Serious thoughts and a bit of humour to boot

A few new products appeared in our lab recently. The titles are hillarious: Baby BBQ, Baby Dump and Baby Incubator ^^;;; The BBQ is something that rotates samples, while the Dump is meant for shaking test tubes. We all sniggered several times at the titles ^^.

It's a bit strange to see the seminar posters everywhere detailing the seminars for next week. Each of the students has their own poster...so it's strange seeing my name up around the institute...it seems so formal O.o.

Gah...the tracker is not working properly. It counts people, but doesn't track referers -_-; It seems like it's working for others...waaah. :(

05:08 p.m. --All right...I got ticked off at the old tracker and switched to Nedstat...which seems to work quite nicely. May be I'll see referers now. I apologise to anyone who was looking for a mention/link, etc. since 28 July...as the old tracker was busted in that regard >_<

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Ummm...not the greatest title I must say...but I suppose it's not the worst. That reminds me, I still haven't seen Episode 1 yet...but there's a copy at home. May be when I get back I'll eventually get around to seeing it.

This conveniently leads to the issue of human cloning that is just in the forefront of news. The US is debating over its laws on this matter right now...and testimony is occuring in front of some committee or another (impressive I know even this much about US politics o.o;;). I'm not sure how much the average layperson knows about cloning...I think that the desire of some to create clones would decrease if they realised that a clone would just be a physical copy of themself (assuming that everything went perfectly in the cloning...which is rather unlikely at this point in time). They wouldn't get the same personality as the original: as any genetist will tell you, genes and environmental influences go hand in hand to determine phenotype. Sociologists and other such types know about this matter through the "Nature/Nurture" debate (I'm a little more on the nurture side, which might surprise a few...considering my current path ^^;). I had a very interesting prof for that course...(just the intro sociology ^^;) Also...you don't get a full grown thing (which should probably be self-evident, but anyhow)...you have an embryo that has to develop.

I'm not very keen on the idea of cloning humans...mainly due to the ethical quandries of the matter...not to mention the question of "Why would you want a clone" when you think of the facts. The idea of them being used as organ banks is repulsive (as they would be human too). I see the idea for 'infertile couples'...but it seems to me (I haven't read up on the topic though) that IVF is more safe and has a better shot of working than cloning. I'm not very sure on this point...so correct me if I'm wrong please. Interesting thought...I know there were many failures before Dolly, the cloned sheep was created. Also...a large number of fused sperm & ova are aborted due to genetic disorders naturally (I don't have the statistics here, but it was a surprisingly large number). It makes me wonder how exactly successful it'd be. Probably, the latter point should be discarded though, as I'm sure it's dealt with in IVF.

Thanks WMC for that informative link about female samurai. I don't recall any mention of them during the Bakufu proper, but that's probably to be expected, as it was a male dominated world. I thought though that the male/male relationships occured even in the beginning of the 2nd millenium. I could be wrong though. I'll also acknowledge her full descriptor of the new RK OAVs with prices and what not. ^^.

Janaki...I follow F1 just a little bit...so I can cheer for Villenieve ^^. I don't really follow automotive sports that carefully...but I do watch it on TV every so often. I like Indy better than F1 much better than Nascar. F1 is just a little boring to me as lead changes don't often occur. It's such a technical race...and basically due to machine engineering. Hmmm...I suppose I shouldn't think of the environmental effect of automotive sports should I? @_@.