When I received my security deposit refund today, I found that The Tool decided that I paid $40 less than I actually did. I just knew he would try to pull something like this. It's a good thing I kept my lease and that my bank has scanned copies of all the checks I write.
Definitive proof that I am a giant dork is below. While biking home the following visual pun wormed its way into my brain and hasn't left since. I'm hoping that actually making and posting the image will help it go away.
Tool troubles again. This time over paying a housecleaner and a painter to go through a room that I already spent two hours scrubbing.
"I don't see what the big deal is," quoth The Tool. "It will only be fifty to one hundred dollars."
I just have to keep telling myself that it will all be over soon.
I'd like to learn how to weld at Laney College. Who wants to join me? The class is either MW or TTh from 6-9pm and runs from Jan 11th to May 25th. Total cost is only $62!
Just to allay any fears about ease of registration, I was shocked at how easy admission was. I filled out a single webpage with perhaps 20 fields/checkboxes, most of which were for SSN, phone number, &c. Ten seconds after pressing "submit," I received an email congratulating me on my admission and giving me a link to enroll in classes.
Today I discovered that The Tool is even more of a tool than I thought. While I was at work he opened the door to my room, took pictures of everything I own, posted them on flickr, and tagged them with my full address (including apartment number). Even after I made him take them down, he didn't understand why that would be a bad thing.
The last Port Townsend entry, and this one with nothing of substance. Except for pictures!
PS - I love you, California weather.
Different cafe, different wireless, better coffee. Fewer underage girls.
As you might have guessed, boredom/isolation has pressed some sort of big red writing button in my head. I even started another short story. No, you can't read it.
Tonight's forecast calls for rain, freezing around midnight. Hopefully I can make it to the airport tomorrow. The roads seem clear once one hits the freeways, so we should be OK if we leave 6-7 hours before my flight. To clear up any possible confusion (though you guys have probably clued into this already), I've been backdating the entries to reflect the date of composition, not the date of posting.
See you all soon!
Casino Royale is not to be, as it doesnât play at the local one-screen until 4pm. Since the temperature is only 24 degrees at the height of the day, we decide to head back to the condo rather than braving the re-iced roads later in the afternoon.
As the sun dips below the horizon, I walk down a thin trail to the beach. Snow crisps and crackles beneath me. A trickling sheet of ice, where the snow has melted and refrozen, encases a steep road paralleling the path. Itâs so cold that Iâm having trouble breathing. Having braved fifty below winters, my friends from Alaska would laugh at that last sentence.
Reaching the strand, I tramp across a formerly verdant park towards the water. Tall, wiry grasses struggle through the ice in clumps. I sway atop a snowy dune, buffeted by weather off the ocean. A copse of windblasted pines is to my right, but whitecaps off the Sound are to all other sides. In the failing cobalt light I can see a bridge in the far distance, linking an island with the dark peninsula. The sun goes down and I turn to leave. My hands are so cold that my thighs burn like kilns through the thin material of my pockets. A news report later shrills that the windchill-adjusted temperature hovers around zero. My parents cue up an uplifting movie about an abused child killer in South Africa to watch in the freezing gloom. The weather has clearly driven them masochistically mad.
Itâs time for some past tense and a departure from Port Townsend, as I air some thoughts on my future.
Exactly a week ago I had a meeting with my thesis committee and was told that I should leave Berkeley within a calendar year. Between now and that ominous date I must submit two manuscripts, help author a third, and write a thesis. I must also decide on a lab for a postdoc, which is where this entry comes in.
In the comments of a Port Townsend entry, Michele suggested that I look to Portland for employment. Unfortunately, my scientific interests and long term plans rather limit my options. Only a few labs do the kind of work Iâm interested in. One is at UCSF, another at Duke, and the last at University of Washington.
The lab at Duke is doing amazing things, but is headed by someone described to me as âweird and intense.â This depiction came from the weirdest, most intense professor I have ever met. Not a good sign. To make matters worse, Iâd like to stay on the West Coast. So much so that, even though precautionary strong ropes tie me to the mast, my deaf ears can not even hear North Carolinaâs siren song. Then again, Iâve never even visited the South, so who am I to say that Iâll dislike it?
The lab at UCSF seems a fun place and is filled with experts who could teach me just what I want to learn. However, the boss has just started her own group. Generally, this means that Iâll be the only âwetâ biologist in the entire lab and that Iâll have to reinvent the wheel every time I want to do something on the bench. Specifically, the professor does not yet have tenure, and if she fails to receive it Iâll be suddenly cast adrift after only a few years. On the other hand, it would be nice to stay in the Bay Area, as well as to finally explore San Francisco more thoroughly. But part of me feels that staying here would be treading water. This geographical question is where Iâm most conflicted. I have a great group of friends here in the Bay Area, and would hate to leave you all behind. But a perversely masochistic piece of me thinks that it would somehow build character for me to be jostled by an area Iâve never lived and where I know no one. Realistically, this may not be a good plan. But every time I think about staying in the Bay Area for another 3-5 years, I feel a little guilty.
The UW group is kicking ass and taking names. Despite his young age, the boss is internationally known as a genius, and the lab âwinsâ what are essentially interlab method competitions by a large margin every year. However, fame has its price, and the group has ballooned to forty members, all of whom are complete bad asses. New postdocs are essentially required to bring their own money with them, in the form of fellowships. Thatâs a lot of people and a lot of pressure. The boss has a good track record of helping alumni find research positions, both in academia and biotech. But I worry that I could slip beneath the anonymizing waves of such a large group. And my recent experiences with northwest weather have made me realize just how much I like California. Could I re-acclimate to nine months of rain? Several people I know from high school and college are in Seattle: would that be a nice safety net, or would I feel guiltily stifled, as I worry I would in San Francisco?
Iâll be interviewing at all of these labs in approximately half a year. At that time, Iâll be able to make more concrete decisions, since labs that look great on paper could be disasters in person. But at the moment I canât seem to get my mind off these choices. Iâd love to hear comments and suggestions from you guys.
More Entries
MOTS - January 05, 2007Suitcase - January 02, 2007
Splitting - December 18, 2006
The Real Tuesday Welding Class - December 11, 2006
Oon - December 05, 2006
Monocle - December 04, 2006
Townsend 9 - November 30, 2006
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Townsend 7 - November 28, 2006
Biscotti - November 28, 2006
Townsend 6 - November 28, 2006
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Starling - November 11, 2004
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Two Three - July 05, 2004
Ironing - June 15, 2004
Weaver - June 06, 2004
Because I'm a leftist Commie - May 27, 2004
Super-Boop - May 11, 2004
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Houllier - March 03, 2004
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Huff - February 19, 2004
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Oh Buoy - January 14, 2004
Mund - January 09, 2004
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DOT - December 26, 2003
Ewe - December 24, 2003
Blink - December 12, 2003
The Owls Are Not What They Seem - December 06, 2003
Bloop - December 02, 2003
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Dumb Waiters - November 26, 2003
FPH - November 25, 2003
Chance - November 24, 2003
Jolt - November 15, 2003
Exhibit - November 07, 2003
Vampire Can Mating Oven - November 05, 2003
Juicy Fruit - November 01, 2003
Salt of the Earth - October 25, 2003
Get a Jobs - October 17, 2003
Too - October 16, 2003
Poppin' - October 02, 2003
Let's See About This Ham - September 30, 2003
Oughta Leave Ya - September 27, 2003
Landover - September 12, 2003
Christmas Steps - September 11, 2003
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Lowe - August 31, 2003
Baum - August 29, 2003
Griep - August 25, 2003
Scream, Dracula, Scream - August 24, 2003
Screaming hello - August 20, 2003
300 - August 20, 2003
Chomp - August 19, 2003
By the sea - August 17, 2003
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Snick - July 31, 2003
Urmur - July 27, 2003
Point - July 24, 2003
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Character - June 11, 2003
Mushrooms - June 08, 2003
Black Gang - June 05, 2003
John Cage - May 28, 2003
6.22 - May 25, 2003
Sweetbreads - May 25, 2003
BFtP - May 24, 2003
Cones - May 22, 2003
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Glide - May 18, 2003
Sincerely - May 14, 2003
Jean Genie - May 07, 2003
Vandal - May 03, 2003
Dinner Bell - May 03, 2003
Dragging - April 21, 2003
Yardtep - April 20, 2003
Dicer - April 15, 2003
Cheek - April 13, 2003
R-Troll - April 13, 2003
Mal - April 10, 2003
Red - March 31, 2003
Ventana is Gorges - March 28, 2003
Restproof - March 28, 2003
Bok - March 27, 2003
Sheesh - March 23, 2003
Foot - March 23, 2003
Des - March 21, 2003
Shock and Bomb Homes - March 21, 2003
FDJSKLFKLDSJFJSDJFSDFAASD!!!!!!! - March 16, 2003
Kreskin - March 16, 2003
Magic Finger - March 15, 2003
Feel the Burn - March 08, 2003
Indio - March 03, 2003
Glee - February 24, 2003
nonononono - February 22, 2003
Narcissism - February 22, 2003
Mometasone - February 21, 2003
/'(\C+)'/ - February 20, 2003
Wonderland - February 17, 2003
Making His Way - February 12, 2003
Fist Shaking - February 10, 2003
Spoils - February 08, 2003
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Lowbrow - February 06, 2003
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I'll come around - February 03, 2003
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Binned - January 21, 2003
Flaerke - January 19, 2003
Rays - January 09, 2003
Trepidation - January 06, 2003
Movin' on out - January 03, 2003
Informational Menace - December 29, 2002
I hurt my thumb. - December 27, 2002
Get outta town - December 10, 2002
Booooooored - November 30, 2002
Sir Rockaby - November 27, 2002
Double strand break - November 22, 2002
2Fo-Fc - November 18, 2002
Whack - November 13, 2002
Dr. Watson - November 11, 2002
Trying to remind her - November 08, 2002
Panhandling - November 08, 2002
Beat - November 04, 2002
Factor - November 03, 2002
Full of Zan - November 02, 2002
Freeze - October 31, 2002
Rapier Wit - October 31, 2002
Turkey Day in the Woods - October 29, 2002
I spy.... - October 22, 2002
God Bows To Math - October 21, 2002
Action Jackson - October 20, 2002
Give yourself a present - October 20, 2002
THE TRAIN!!!! - October 19, 2002
Willow switch - October 17, 2002
A kinder, gentler Skeletor - October 09, 2002
Shippin' A$$ 'Round the Country Since 1999 - October 02, 2002
Granlibakken - September 29, 2002
Supplies - September 19, 2002
Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde - September 17, 2002
Buzz - September 10, 2002
Rockets from the sockets - August 30, 2002
Leash laws - August 30, 2002
I'm a magic elf living in a universe made out of candy. - August 27, 2002
The pain of secondary structure packing. - August 26, 2002
Vrrrrrrrrrrr - August 20, 2002
Finger pointed, eyebrows low. - August 19, 2002
Procrastination - August 12, 2002
Velamints and Cobwebs - July 28, 2002
Wiping The Brow of The World - July 23, 2002
Up and Down - July 22, 2002
Yo Joe. - July 18, 2002
Lesen - July 14, 2002
A rum-pum-pum-pum - July 07, 2002
2400 baud - July 07, 2002
*Deep shame* - July 06, 2002
Brain Disorder - July 05, 2002
Directine - June 30, 2002
Catalysis - June 27, 2002
The siren song of Communism - June 26, 2002
Koyaanisqatsi - June 25, 2002
cutcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcut - June 23, 2002
Fukuoku - June 20, 2002
Talk to the hand, Hitler. - June 19, 2002
Discipline and Punish - June 18, 2002
Wherein Pigs Fly and The Devil Breaks Out the Ice Skates - June 17, 2002
Pardon Our Dust - June 01, 2002
