Sadly Harrison Ford-less
My apartment is no longer the temple of doom. After my air conditioning completely died on Thursday night, on the eve of the hottest weekend yet this year, I saw a significant increase (Well, we're still talking fewer than 10 but I'm not camping so that's not acceptable.) in the number and size of bugs in my home, likely due to keeping the sliding door open to get some airflow. I'm on the ground floor so I have the occassional carpenter ant but the last few days have included giant brown spiders and earwigs, which, I imagine, crawl on me in my sleep. It's not totally unfounded as I've seen them on or near my bed while awake and actually woke up with an earwig on me, but it is a bit irrational in that I completely fear spiders and insects with pinchers or stingers. It's their own fault for being gross. But the AC is back, so the bugs better move on out.
- posted by meg @ 9:12 PM

 
Take me to vegas baby
I just put a $1 in a vending machine to get an $0.80 twix bar. When it didn't give me my change back I tried pressing the change return button but must have hit the coinage button by mistake because it gave me $6.65 back in change. Assuming my mp3 player isn't permanently broken this totally makes up for the crapgasm that was yesterday.

Also, this was the second time in a week that I created something out of nothing. I'm not going to joking call myself god this time though because last time I was visited by a proselytizer who stood WAY too close to my body and refused to believe that my not wanting to discuss my faith with him, a stranger, was not the same as watching someone die in a lake of fire and saying 'meh.'

On a related note, I now know that the Wisconsin quarter has corn, cheese and a cow on it. As well as a banner reading Forward. Because really, that's the only place to go for Wisconsin. :P
- posted by meg @ 3:49 PM

 
my learning curve is in its logarithmic phase
I've been working a bit much lately and I think it's noticeably affecting me. I've been doing a lot of work, not just reading up on stuff, but all the experiments I've been doing lately are new to me. Basically what that means is that I look back on a week's worth of work and don't see much data that gives me an answer to something. I have tools for doing experiments and such, but not as much data as I thought I'd have at this point. I have some, and I'd have more if the sequencing core didn't suck, but I'm still feeling pressure to get something that could be a publishable figure.

I am really starting to believe that sleep is required for the body to process new information. I'm not sleeping much beyond 8-9 hours, including weekends when I sleep more, but it seems like I'm spending a lot of my non work time not doing much. I'm not running as much as I should and I have been neglecting the video games and guitar a bit lately. I think I might have to make myself work out on certain days so I don't have that whole should I work out today or take a nap or play a game, no I won't play a game I'll read because it takes less energy debate with myself. I think I'll also feel like I'm catching up on my reading list after I finish Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Each book in the Trilogy is about 900 pages long, so they take a while. I've been reading them since the fall, with other books in between as a break, and I'm in the home stretch now, the last 600 pages of the trilogy. It's wrapping up the story though so I don't want to stop reading.

This is just a brain dump. I realize that. My memory is flakey sometimes so I may or may not have had a point in all this. My summer is flying by. There, that's my topic sentence. The weekend flew by, the week before flew by, this week will fly by. I have to make sure I swim again before it's winter.
- posted by meg @ 4:58 PM

 
crazy, but cool
My dad sent me an e-mail today saying 'have a nice weekend, see, I keep in touch.' I have to chastise him now and again because he'll pull out the 'haven't heard from you in a while' when I do call after a few weeks have passed with me sending e-mails (with or without responses from him) but not calling. Or if I call him when he's not home and I send an e-mail to let him know I've been calling, since he doesn't check his messages. That way he can pretend his parents don't exist.

Anyway, there is much evidence for his craziness and even more that could classify him as just quirky, but there is some evidence for my inherited/nurtured coolness.

I responded to the e-mail telling him to have the same and that I'll call on Sunday. And, since I dropped the ball on Father's Day (it's not like I've been busy trying to cure cancer or anything :-P), I asked him if there was a movie or something that he'd like. He gave me this list:

1. Fifth Element
2. Braveheart
3. Blade 1, 2, or 3

Now, my brother likes those movies too and he is very much not a geek, but I think the fact that my Dad also likes the movie Dune (all 3 actually) tips the scale to geek appreciation.

(I haven't seen Blade 3 so I don't know if I'll have to pretend it doesn't exist, like Godfather 3 and Tom Cruise, but I'm also not sure he has seen it. So he might just be going for completion on that. Or he heard it was good. Or he doesn't care because he likes Tremors 3. Although I suspect half the reason for that is because it pisses me off.)
- posted by meg @ 3:25 PM

 
PSA
To Michigan drivers: If the person in front of you gets to the intersection first, I get there second, and you get there third, you do not get to draft off the person in front of you and go right ahead through the intersection.

I'm not saying I'll try to hit you next time, but I'm not saying I won't.
- posted by meg @ 10:26 AM

 
This is why I should work for Access Hollywood or E!
I would totally play footage of this arrest, where Christian Slater is arrested for allegedly drunkenly grabbing a woman's ass, with this song. If you look at the link Abra Cadabra is considered a great love song by someone. I know I melt when some guy grabs me and asks to be touched with a velvet glove.

As for reasons why I would not work for E!:
1. I don't know why I'm supposed to care about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
2. I have a soul.
- posted by meg @ 8:15 AM