Monday, May 28, 2007

Week Thirty-two

05.28.07


Memorial day. Had the day off. Decided to make a nice breakfast.
I don't remember what these are called exactly but for now I'll call them "egg in a basket". They're really simple to make: Just make a dimple into the middle of a slice of bread, break an egg, cover with whatever (in this case tomato + colby), salt, pepper, 350F for about 10 min or until bread = toast and egg whites are cooked.
These came out ok but I cooked them for too long -- I like the yolk to be a little more runny -- and they were missing something green, like asparagus or green onion. Cilantro? Beside that they cost me dearly - a chunk off my index finger's knuckle. I was a little too enthusiastic in my cheese shredding. I won't go into gruesome details. Lets just say, I have no kind of dermis left. Ouch!

05.27.07


One of the many murals in Philly. This one on the walls of an overpass above I-76. I've been pondering my next picture oriented project and decided that it may be about all the (or most, I should say) murals throughout the city. There are at least 2700 of them. OK, maybe just my favorites. This is hardly a novel idea. Maybe I'm just being sentimental about Philly in general. Who knows where we'll land next year.

05.26.07


Shadows, lines, the man I wake up next to. Need I say more?

05.25.07


Shoes. Shoes. Lets get some shoes.

05.24.07


My books are here and I can't start reading them. I promised.

05.23.07


During lunch, on the green square, while Megan gives me that look. You know, oh that picture thing again look.

05.22.07


On my walk home from work, I looked down.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Hair Helmet Night

One of my guilty pleasures (besides shoes, yarn, books, and so on) is HBO.
Every time I tell myself to cancel my subscription something else keeps me hooked. First it was Carnivale (that died out terribly), then the cathartic genius of David Miltch's Deadwood (also dead but one of the best written shows on tv ever). Now it's Six Feet Under "on demand" and soon it'll be Flight of the Conchords.





This show is like the live action version of Home Movies on Adult Swim. Random. But instead of movies it's music, hilarious music. You can watch the whole first episode here so you see for yourself what I'm talking about. Granted, this humor is not for everyone. If you like to see silly (New Zealand) boys acting out, you'll love it as much as I do.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Who am I living with?

Upon getting his grade for his surgery rotation -

V: "See. I told you not to worry. Why are you so silly and worry so much."

J:"I have to do good so I can crush my enemies. I have lots of enemies. And I have to crush them all."

Imagine, while he says this, his hand formed into an upturned claw "crushing" an imaginary small "enemy". All this with a straight face.

Me, rolling my eyes.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Women and their Choices

I'm so disgusted this morning I fear this won't come out right.
Yesterday a 60 year old woman gave birth to twins thanks to the marvels of invitro. Need I say more?
In the interview she talked a great talk about choice and how as a baby boomer she's paved the way for future generations -- "I hope to be a role model to other women out there. To show them that anything is possible".
What kind of SELFISH future is that to have. Woman, I don't want any part of it!

Then you get to the whole mess of the life these children are in store for. More importantly, their health. C'mon, at 60 that uterus is far from functional. That means that not only did she conceive by artificial means (a treatment out there for women of bearing age who have difficulties) but she was probably also pumped with hormones throughout her pregnancy just to be able to carry them to term.

When are people going to understand that maybe things are designed a certain way, for a reason beyond the confines of science, that just because we can do certain things thanks to technology doesn't mean we should. If you're so attuned to your choices then make them and stick to them. I know that you're allowed to change your mind, you can make mistakes, but to defy nature so blatantly just because you had a fleeting fancy...

We've reached an age where women must be superheros, capable of doing anything and everything, all at once and in a perfect manner. Have your career, and your children. Get married, change your mind, or don't do it at all. But we don't stress the responsibility that comes along with those choices. So choose, and choose wisely. Live in the moment while not being crippled by the past but don't even set foot without a slight notion of what your choices mean for tomorrow. You're an individual and have every right to choose how you live but you're not in bubble. This world was not made for you and you alone.

Yeah, this means I'm back to the news in the mornings...where is the lull of the new peter bjorn and john song when you need it?

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Have you heard this one before?

Seeing that this evening was really beautiful, Jason and I went for a long walk up and down Spruce Hill. On the last leg of our stroll we were approached by a young woman who appeared to be pregnant and asked us for some money to help her get to Newark. She's pregnant, her boyfriend left her stranded, she has no way to get home and not enough money to buy a $25 dollar bus ticket.
She emphasized that she has nothing to her name and if she did would not be standing in the middle of the street asking for money while pregnant. She doesn't know anyone in Philly and is in no condition to stay in a shelter.

Here's the kicker: we ran into the same exact girl a month ago, a few blocks from home. She told us the exact same story with the same key points. The only difference was that it was raining that day. I suppose that's why she couldn't remember us. Or maybe it's that we look like all the other bozo kids who live in this neighborhood. Who can blame her. In both cases, since I was on a walk, I didn't have my wallet on me. Jason only had a few quarters. I guess seeing that her pregnancy seemed evident, he felt bad and gave her what he had. What's worse is that, even though she said she would take anything, she complained that she was getting change and asked if he didn't at least have a dollar. Although I felt bad for her the first time, I'm not quite sure what to feel now. If she's really truly pregnant, then that's just sad in so many levels. I can't even begin to explain.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Week Thirty-one

05.21.07

Here are the Gladiolus growing in front of our building waiting to greet us home on a beautiful afternoon.

05.20.07

On Sunday we went with Josh and Alia to the Italian Market Festival on 9th St. It was rather fun and the food was really good. Alia and I shared the greatest cannoli I've ever had. It was definitely crowded, as you can see. Frank Rizzo in the background really gives this picture a different feel, i.e. kinda creepy.

05.19.07

On Saturday we took Josh and Alia on a stroll around the neighborhood. We came across this beautiful peony on Baltimore while on our way to Clark Park. I saw it again on my way home today and was saddened to see it wilting already. Beauty is so fleeting.

05.18.07

Great times at Ten Stone.

05.17.07

More candies at work...These truffles come all the way from Russia. A coworker who went back to visit brought them back to share.

05.16.07

I never thought that in my adult life someone would still make fun of my lunch. This was though one of the smallest oranges I've ever seen. Instead of crying in shame I thought I would use some perspective to make it look ginormous.

05.15.07

Here is "cat" (I'll find out his/her name one of these days) who frequents Sam's Place. It was really early in the morning on my way to work. Sam's wasn't even open yet, that's really early. I think cat was pretty upset about that.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Tee Hee

This was in an article in The Economist a coworker forwarded me:

"As one of the most prominent female

baby-boomers, Mrs Clinton is whatever people want to see in her. She is lionised by feminists and demonised by cookie-baking traditionalists."

Oh my, what would a cookie-baking feminist see?

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Travesuras de la nina mala


Not too long ago, hours in fact, I bought 2 new books in Spanish. I've had this craving lately for something different. So, why not another language. They haven't even processed the order and I'm already really, really wanting this book.
I'm so bad, I should just finish reading all the half read book I already own and finish the next two in line before I even think about this one.
Besides, isn't that why I asked for the New Yorker, so that I can read the short fiction stories. Those are piling up too. I just read "still life" by Don Delillo and have a Sadie Smith waiting. So much to read, too little time.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

How do you cry and laugh at the same time?

You read Dave Eggers.
Here's an excerpt from what I'm reading right now (thanks for the quote idea Matt) in A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius:

But six moths later she began to have pain again -- Was it indigestion? It could just be indigestion, of course, the burping and the pain, the leaning over the kitchen table at dinner; people have indigestion; people take Tums; Hey Mom, should I get you some Tums? -- but when she went in again and they had "opened her up" -- a phrase they used -- and had looked inside, it was staring out at them, at the doctors, like a thousand writhing worms under a rock, swarming, shimmering, wet and oily -- Good God! -- or maybe not like worms but like a million little podules, each a tiny city of cancer, each with an unruly, sprawling, environmentally careless citizenry with no zoning laws whatsoever. When the doctors opened her up, and there was suddenly light thrown upon the world of cancer-podules, they were annoyed by the disturbance, and defiant. Turn off. The fucking. Light. They glared at the doctor, each podule, though a city onto itself, having one single eye, one blind evil eye in the middle, which stared imperiously, as only a blind eye can do, out at the doctor. Go. The. Fuck. Away. The doctors did what they could, took the whole stomach out, connected what was left, this part to that, and sewed her back up, leaving the city as is, the colonist to their manifest destiny, their fossil fuels, their strip malls and suburban sprawl, and replaced the stomach with tube and a portable external IV bag. It's kind of cute, the IV bag. She use to carry it with her, in a gray back-pack -- it's futuristic-looking, like a synthetic ice pack crossed with this liquid food pouches engineered for space travel. We have a name for it, we call it "the bag."

On Being an Independent

Today is the Philadelphia primary for the Mayoral Election and perhaps one of the only occasions where it sucks to be registered as an independent.
No voice for me.
Philly is pretty much a Dem town (5 candidates running for Dem party). Unless one of these guys decides to run as an independent after today (I don't know the logistics of that and whether this is even possible), the choice will be made today.

In other news, I'm at work and wondering why the hell I'm here. I thought I felt better but quickly loosing energy. I hope my workaholic guilt (the little bit that I have that is) won't bite me on the ass tomorrow. It doesn't help that it's evaluation time. I expletive hate expletive expletive self evaluations (open avenue for self deprication or self exaltion -- either way you loose). I'm not in the habit of censoring my blog from four letter words but using them right now would just be too obvious and I'm afraid you wouldn't grasp just how much I hate them.

In other other news, I saw the most depressing documentary on Sundance last night. It's called Shakespeare Behind Bars and is about inmates in a Louisville prison who put on a Shakespeare play every year. This particular year it was The Tempest. The documentary came out in 2005 so all you NetFlix/BlockBuster people can most likely rent it. It's worth it. Not just because of Shakespeare but because there is so much tragedy and so much heart in the lives of these men who we often forget are men at all.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Week Thirty

05.14.07

Seeing how I didn't do myself the favor of staying in bed over the weekend, I stayed home sick today. I have this really dry cough (sound like a dog), a slight fever, and an eye that won't stop crying. Don't worry guys, I'll be better by Friday when you're here.
So, since I stayed home, I got to see multiple episodes of The Twilight Zone. This one featured a very young Denis Hopper as an American post-WWII neo-nazi that "has a hunger that craves for a greatness in his diet". I think the episode was called He Still Lives. To satiate his hunger he gets Hitler's ghost as a mentor. The episode ended with telling words by the narrator stating that while hate exists so does the spirit of those who before us have acted on and lived off of hate. Raising them back from the dead so to speak. Now that's good TV.


05.13.07

We were so close to AC and seeing how I'd never been I agreed to be a trooper and tag along. New sites, new pictures, gotta at least do it once so you know what it's like. I was feeling slightly shittier with my cold and being in a room with countless machines chiming in at once (chiming is not quite right, it's more like a hypnotized lull induced by meds) wasn't quite the best thing I could have done to myself. Again, I was being a trooper. I took this at Cesar's. There were a few other good ones, especially of the boardwalk and the sea, but I have this thing for lines and light. In other news, I don't see myself going back to AC, even when I'm better. Maybe I needed to be drunk. It wasn't as depressing or terrible as I though it would be (these are all adults right) but there was definitely a lot of gaudiness and I did feel pretty dirty on the way out. Meg was the only one who really gambled (Jason did a slot and won 15c). It was funny because Jason was her "cooler". She would loose when he was around and win the minute he walked away from us.

05.12.07

We went to the Jersey shore for the first time this weekend --Brigantine beach to be exact. Megan's parents have a shore house there and she was kind enough to invite us. Sadly, it was way to windy to sit out and watch the waves come and go. It didn't help that I was starting to come down with something. I was trying to capture this tumultuous environment and came up with this (otherwise I would have posted one of my hair going crazy in all different directions but you know how self-conscious I am about self portraits).

05.11.07

This was a pleasant surprise when I uploaded it to my computer. At first, when I took it on Hamilton walk on my way back home, I didn't think it would be this vibrant since the light just wasn't quite right seeing that it was already later in the afternoon. Then again, we are getting more light this time of year. No complaints there. One more to attest to my love of green. I think I could stare at this one for a while longer...

05.10.07

We get lots of candies at work. If you ever want to see sweets disappear in a matter of minutes, this is the place to be. These guys just look so bright sitting there I had to take a picture.

05.09.07

At first it was the tandem bike that caught my attention. Then it was the fact that it was a Shwinn and that there were lines and shadows dissecting it. But finally, it was the vacuum that convinced me.

05.08.07

I don't know quite how to start for this one. It's a quote from one of my coworkers that resulted from a previous discussion of an incident on the news. He felt so strongly about it that he thought it would be funny/assertive to put it down in writing. I don't quite think it's funny but rather telling of an underlining symptom that is more prevalent than I would like to know. He (along with others) believes it to be so shameful for a man to be raped by another man, that death or never confessing to it are the only options. Death preferred over silence, silence over claim. More importantly, no man in his right mind would allow another to commit such a crime against him. This leads to thoughts of what exactly makes a man and the idea of a double standard when it comes to the victimization of the male gender. Sadly, I need this picture to remind me that homophobia, bigotry, and misogyny are still very much alive, even in the "educated" world.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Waitress

Can we please, please, please go see this? You know I could never go to the theater on my own, all by my self. Who does that? Anyway, baking as catharsis? I'm in.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Cupcakes Galore




Some are mine, some Nigella's, and some (most) Chocklylit's. I agree that you can never make too many and thanks to The Cupcake Bakeshop the variety seems endless. Now that we do monthly birthday celebrations at work, I've had the perfect excuse to try out these recipes. My latest (raspberry mint pictured at the end) has me a bit apprehensive. I'll get feedback later today but I'm worried about the raspberry mouse as icing. Too much heavy cream? Did all the gelatin fully dissolve or are people going to be unpleasantly surprised? I'm my worst critic when it comes to my cooking. I always have a idea of all the flavors in my head but never satisfied with the final product.
Also, now that I've been bringing them to work I found the coolest carrier ever. Although I OBSESS over the color GREEN, I thought the sage was too muted for my taste. So, I went with the sky blue and I love it.



Thursday, May 10, 2007

Two Words:

DADDY
ISSUES

That's what I think of Lost.
Prevalent throughout the characters.
Confirmed in last night's episode.


I forget our culture still lives under a patriarchy.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Are you ever too old for videos?

Music videos that is?
In the past couple of weeks I've grown tired of the news. It's actually not a fun way to start your day. Who really wants to be informed? The world sucks and most people in it are shitty people. Tell me something I don't already know.
So, I started adding music videos as part of my morning routine. Like when I was in college. Yeah, I know, kinda pathetic.

I tend to prefer Fuse to the other two channels but still change between commercials. Again, who wants to wake up to that? And I have to say, that while reclaiming my youth (wow, I take myself way too seriously), I feel very very old. OK, I exaggerate, but still. I don't know (and perhaps more so don't care to know) most of today's so called musically talented. As always there are diamonds in the rough. Sadly, I feel that without the video half the songs I like I may not have even payed attention to if it was on the radio. The video completes these particular songs, I feel. Right, video killed the radio star and what not...

One particular video is Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups (who are they?) where these two cute emo kids (girl with very short hair, boy with shaggy long hair) do the eye game where you're looking for the other person all over the bar (in this case) but when they're around you pretend they're not even there or you could care less. Actually, it's the girl that does this (here is where Jason would chime in and ask why girls have to be so cruel). I really like this song, can't seem to get it out of my head, but if it weren't for the emo kids I would have paid no mind.

There's this other video by a band who's name is not worth remembering, much less their song, but I'm hypnotized each time by the frailest of frames on the lead singer. He wears the skinniest of skinny jeans I've ever seen. It's like a wreck I can't stop staring at.

Maybe in a month or two, when the repertoire gets too repetitive, I'll go back to the news and wonder what it was I was thinking.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Week Twenty-nine

Once again, first three are spring...
On Friday I waited for Jason, a really long time, at the Green Line. I had a chamomile and something tea and read a really, really long
article, as is usually the case for The New Yorker, on Obama as the conciliator. We'll see how things play out but I'm definitely excited.
On Saturday we sat around at Clark Park and watched these cute kids play soccer and on Sunday I made the Lemon Sandwich Cookies from this month's Everyday Food. They disappeared in less than an hour at work.
Monday's pic is of media we use throughout the lab for our tissue culture cells.

05.07.07


05.06.07


05.05.07


05.04.07


05.03.07


05.02.07


05.01.07

Friday, May 04, 2007

They're up

Finally!
Here are the pics if you want to see what we did on our San Francisco etc. trip.
It only took me almost two months. Honestly I don't know why.
And I'm not apologizing.

Green's Return

It's days like this that make you aware of every breath you take and how precious they are. How amazing everything around you looks and feels. The fear that you're about to miss everything starts to creep up but beauty impedes it, for just another minute. Possibility is but a few steps away.

All we take for granted starts to lineup neatly and endlessly.
How is it that we have faith that it will all come back next year?
Here are the leaves, just as before, as if they had never left us.