Trendy Omnivore

There's a blog making some waves in the news. Apparently Jill and Andrew from Very Good Taste decided to make an intriguing list of foods of the homo sapien palate. The contents of the list is of course debatable. But from reading what's on it, I must agree that it comprises a good blend of world foods. It's funny though that Big Mac Meal, Poutine, and Krispy Kreme donuts make up of the North American choices... goes to show how fat the North American diet really is.

Now I'm not a picky eater, especially compared to some close friends of mine. When ppl send me those dreaded "My fave...." lists to complete, the part where it asks about your fave food I always put "ethnic". Which may seem like a cop-out. But it's the simple truth.

So without further suspense... I've bolded the items in the list that have graced my lips. Apparently I've tasted 52/100. I'm not sure if that's bad or average.

1. Venison my Greek dad hunts deer... it's very good meat. But I like moose better.
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros thanks to befriending some Mexicans of late, I've been enjoying many of their dishes!
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile I remember eating this with friends over Christmas. It's tough meat!
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart best memory... a vender on Young Street in Toronto. I was 11.
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23.Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters but sorry no... shellfish aren't my fave
29. Baklava mmmm, my Greek mom's the best!
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl not in specific bowl...
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar sadly not together
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O can we say Jell-O shots?
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat and chicken, lamb, beef, shrimp...
42. Whole insects according to my mom I used to eat ants by the dozen
43. Phaal (sorry I like my tastebuds untorched)
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more I'm a student, you think I'd spend $60 on Whiskey? Sorry Tullamore Dew is my "uppercrest" Whiskey
46. Fugu after that Simpson's episode, I doubt many will try it
47. Chicken tikka masala oh gawd... this with naan is heaven!
48. Eel on sushi... ick ick ick
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut this is the god-given purpose of glaze
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear in Mexico they call it Tuna... which causes some misunderstanding when someone orders a tuna sandwich
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer mmmm cheeeese
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal sadly any McD meal since I was raised behind a McDonald's (true story!)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini shaken, not stirred
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine I'm Canadian.. duh!
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. SweetbreadsIt wasn't what I thought it would be... but not bad tasting
63. Kaolin I've no idea what this is
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain though I'm not sure if simple fried bananas count...
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette for the the love of God, no no no! I've been offered it, but passed
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini sadly just caviar
73. Louche absinthe they still allow this to be consumed?
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill seriously... what is THIS doing on a list with Krispy Kreme?
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong thanks to Steeps, I get to try exotic teas
80. Bellini three words: Cactus Club Cafe
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant wtf?!!
85. Kobe beef hmmm, unsure if kobe beef on sushi counts?
86. Hare
87. Goulash my granny often makes this...
88. Flowers I've had dandilion soup, but edible flowers as garnishes
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano ole!
96. Bagel and lox part of the joy of dating a Jew
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee funny... this is now the 4th time I've seen this coffee mention in the past 30 days. Weird.
100. Snake

Sex and The Crease

Funny thing happened to me... again.

I was telling a few friends of mine that I was happy to be back in the crease, and suddenly the conversation went sexual. For some apparent reason some men find a female goalie sexy. I'm not sure why, especially considering that you're not dressed in lingerie and smelling like roses. If you've never suited up as an ice hockey goalie, it's like padding yourself with an extra 40-60 lbs of foam and still be "agile". Maybe that's part of the point... you can show off your flexibility in spite of the equipment. Or maybe it's like a steamy package waiting to be unwrapped.

But whatever the reason, sex and goaltending seems to go puck in glove. I have had the interesting experience of being courted right after a practise. Apparently watching and the thought of pucks slamming against my goal jill got him all giddy. It was a definitely the best "cool-down" session I've ever had after a practise. I thought it was an isolated incident, but here again talking about protecting the crease got other men aroused.

It's not just me... it's apparently in the culture. For example, in recent jabs at the American 2008 VP-hopeful Sarah Palin, Conan O'Brien couldn't resist a joke about her being a hockey mom and her pregnant teenage daughter. "It's not known what positions her children play," Conan said, "but one of them's not good at protecting the crease."

So ladies, if lingerie isn't working for you in the bedroom, go to your local sport store and opt for goal equipment. At the very least, invest in a sexy goalie jill strap. Believe me, it's far more comfortable than a teddy thong.

holy sh!t it's fall already?

Maaaan this summer was a blur. Okay 30 second update:

The most vivid memories were the 10 days in Canada's Ocean PlayGround (aka Nova Scotia). I took my mom there for her 60th bday. Although she turns 60 in November, I decided in July that I'd take her for three reasons:

1. the maritimes in November don't have the best weather
2. the November I'm finishing my thesis, thus I don't have time for a 10 day retreat (though come November that's exactly what I would wish to have)
3. summer holidays are meant to be in summer

So we had an awesome time. Spending 10 days with your mother may seem irritating, but we managed not to get on each others nerves for 9 days. The 10th day, I think we were just cranky due to the whirlwind tireness of running around the province. We did all the tourisy things, but will definitely return to the fave spots. There's a cove in the highlands with our name on it, definitely going back there!

SoCal Kelly visited me again, she braved leaving her nirvana of sunny California to northern Canada. Sadly I was preoccupied with experiments, but managed to take off nights to enjoy the visit with her. We always enjoy our time together.

August... back to the bench, madly doing new experiments for a manuscript resubmission and then more experiments to leave what I'm calling a "legacy" for my lab. The data coming from it will jump start endless projects for the next decade or more. The downside is that I'll have to wait that long before getting credit for it in journal form. Woe well.

September - the return of undergrads underfoot. I think the more time you spend in university is porportional to the underlining dislike of lost undegrads. They can't help but be clueless and immature. But seriously, don't ask me to hold your hand to show you where the bathrooms are. I often just screw with their minds, "Oooooh you want THAT room... well you're in the wrong building."

The good news about fall - ice hockey begins again. I'm back in the crease. This time I'm going to improve on a few things: butterfly stops with my stick where it's SUPPOSED to be. The other is working on my weight. I'm not thin, neither pudgey. Clincally I'm obese, but I'm wanting to really work on that. Nothing drastic, just better eating and a lil more active. Who knows, I might shave off a dozen stones.

What's an intreresting blog without photos? All text and no eye candy make a scientist unpublishable (ick, need to work on catchy sayings too). So me will try to find some comics/pics that I enjoy. Maybe state my mood of the day.

I rented a van over this past weekend to pick up a TV from a friend. It had a GPS system on it (free of charge) which reminded me of this comic from XKCD.com

lil mouth o' pain

My mouth is blessed.

For the 3 decades of my life, my mouth has been blessed with good teeth. I give credit to my maternal grandfather's side for being Darwinian and carrying "good" teeth genes. Not one cavity, filling, maybe a touch of gingivitis, but hell who doesn't have that.

However there's a draw back of having good teeth... you never experience the pain in your mouth. So this week my wisdom teeth decided to migrate a lil north. They have moved before, even cut. It produced some discomfort, but nothing I couldn't handle. My dentist has always urged for me to get them removed, but there's a quirk with me. Thanks to my patneral side, I inherited a blood disorder. Nothing too life threatening, just that I bleed much more and it's hard to get it to stop. So... teeth extraction requires more than a trip to the orthodentist, it requires hospitalization. Which then there's a lot of questions about the cost involved, yadda... And me being a poor grad student, it's not on my list of priorities.

Though soon I'll probably find out. Holy sh!t my toothies decided to migrate this week. My lower right wisdom tooth has impacted in my mandible and I pleaded for pain killers all yesterday. The codeine is working, though my mouth and face have swollen up, and can barely extend my jaw. I find out my fate tomorrow at the dentist... so it'll mean surgery within the next few weeks if not months. I'll keep ya posted.

Now off to spoon feed myself some soup.

the (continuing) woes of being a grad student...

For those who don't know, I've been a grad student since the turn of the millennia. So you do the math and that means I've been a labrat for 8 years now. I think it's due to my mild masochist nature why I've stayed so long being a grad student. That doesn't mean I've been 8 years on this project alone. The first three tender years were spent on my try at eukaryotic genetics for my Masters. They say that a Masters is a buffer degree. When you graduate with your Bach, there's still too many directions to go. So I ventured to watch worm porn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXx35u7zLxs) for three years and thought... ehhh, no. So I went back to my first love: bacteria, and I've been happy ever since to work in the field.

That's not to say that I'm a happy grad student. I think the number of years you spend in grad school is porportional to the bitterness of being a grad student. Seriously, we're slaves. Sure it's a full circle as the advisors were once mistreated as grad students long ago and now it's their turn to hold the whip. I think Gandhi was onto something with that "eye for an eye..." way of thinking.

yeah... I'm bitter, but it goes with the territory... c'est la vie!

once more with feeling...

It's amazing how easily your "no plans" weekend can quickly change into "cultural" weekend.

A labmate o' mine picked up tickets to see the latest local production so we put down our pipettors and took in an evening of theater. It was a 2 fer 1 billing, "What Gives?" and something about a "South Sea balloon" (the latter was less memorable than the former apparently). Same actors in both skits, a foursome troop and actually it was fairly entertaining. "What Gives" was a musical of sorts which are the productions I enjoy the most. Call me corny, but I enjoy the idea that you could be sitting on a bus or even working at your lab bench and suddenly you hear a music intro, you begin a melody, and everyone around you knows the words, bursting into the song with a smart choregraphy display! I think the world would be a better place if every now n then that would happen...

...and all that jazz!

Hockey year in Canada...

cue the "Hockey Night in Canada" theme....

Well that was a weekend. I had a ice hockey tourney Fri, Sat, Sun, then ball hockey practise on Sun afternoon. Can we say OVERKILL?

We didn't fare well in the tourney, only winning the final game of three, which meant that at least we didn't finish last. It was a close game too. And I swear the ref was blind... at least a landlubber - literally as the tourney had this priate theme where the refs were dressed up as pirates and instead of yelling "YAY" it was changed to "YARRR!"

So ice hockey season came to an end and within 6 h ball hockey season began with a practise. I won't groan too much about it as it's mostly the same ppl I play ice hockey with, so everyone was tired. Which do I enjoy the most? It's a toss, but I like being on the ice. In ball hockey, you play either on cement or rubberized field. So sliding/gliding is limited to make sweeping saves. Not that I'm a pro in those style of saves... it's just easier to lunge your body across an area on ice. The other pro about playing on ice with 20kg of equipment on... ice is COOL... muggy rubber arenas are not. I sweat BUCKETS under the equipment in ball hockey. So it means major water treatment during and after the game. I'm not the idea person to hug after a game.

Our first game is tonight. Hopefully my team will be committed in attendance this season. It's hard to hold the line with 6 runners and yourself standing in front of the firing squad.

Tally ho!

your tax dollar at work...

Well I have returned from my homeland (which is just an 8 h drive from where I currently live) from reaquianting myself with a past profession: making rubber stamps. If you're never trained for such a practise, I'm not surprised. It's not your normal run of the mill job. But this family business has provided a roof over our head (though there were many months where we pondered putting up a FOR SALE sign on the front lawn) and as well as valuable trade skills from working heavy machinery (table saws, bench drills) to finer details with properly cutting rubbers carefully to account for the correct pressure applied in stamping to computer designer skillz to make custom stamps to even proper book keeping and dealing with retail.

However among the skillz for making rubber stamps, one does not still learn how to deal with impossible idiotic people. The target of the past week: lazy ass govt employees. We tendered to make 350 new stamps and 30 repairs... they send us 500 new stamps and 65 repairs. We call back, "this isn't what we agreed"; they answer, "so what?"... drama ensues. To top it all off, if we did what they requested, 60% of the final product would be wrong due to wrong addresses and/or postal codes. It's our job to make the stamps... not question "hmmmm why does 1900th block have the same postal code as the 2000th block?". At the end of the week at home helping with what could be done, only 30% of the order was completed. My mother was thankful for the help, but I wish I could have done more.... woe well.

So I'm back at my bench... need to figure out a few things before fresh minions enter my lab to be trained (I'll save that for another post), plus prep a "fascinating" abstract for a conference in late May. ye gawds.... it's May already!

being Nanc the Net

Okay, I'm stoked.

I still can't speak much and hack a liter of phelm around hourly.

But... I'm pretty stoked.

I have a hobby, like about 1/3 of my fellow canucks have: hockey. I watch and play it. Ice and ball hockey, so it's an all year activity for me. I luv it. It pumps my adrenaline plus is a great stress reliever. I started playing as a forward before my training bra years. However I am the antithesis of the song "She's like the wind". I'm big boned and according to the BMI index obese, so I wasn't banking on hockey to build my nest egg. However one year, my coach suggested that I could put my physique to good use: play net. I'm big... but that meant I filled up the net. I groaned, I moaned... playing net is like being the sacrificial lamb. Usually if you played net, it was because you drew the shortest straw in the dressing room. However I decided to give it try. The first game I hated it... the second game, meh. But somewhere after that, the position started to feel right. Soon, I traded in my gloves for a blocker and mitt, and for the past 15 years never skated outside the crease unless of course I knew I could play the puck to my D-wings

Am I good? Naw, I consider myself average. However this depends on which team I play with. My provincial league is high-caliber, thus I'm just an average goalie. I can make some big saves. But I also allow crap shots in as well. However with unversity rec teams... it's a lil different. I'm one of more experienced players and plus since I call the goal position, everyone else on the team is relieved that there's no dreaded straw drawings. Thus to my rec teams, I'm considered "amazing".

Tonight we had ball hockey finals for my university rec team. A T-SHIRT was on the line folks. That's our holy grail in which we strive for: a 100% cotton T-shirt. So, despite my lungs at 50% capacity, filled with phelm and a voice softer than a mouse, I'm committed. I still suit up. We believed that we had a pretty good shot in nabbing it. However within 2 minutes into the game we're 0-1. FUCK! The opposing team had us on the defensive for most of the 1st period. We weren't getting any chances in their zone. Despite the goal that was my fault (I do take blame for some goals and that was definitely my error... I was late shifting), I was doing pretty good. I figured they had about 15 good chances which I denied them.

2nd period, we're determine to get even. Half way into it: BINGO! 1-1

Alright, now we've got a game. But still need another for the win. They have us on the run. We're getting more chances though in their end. However 3 minutes left in the game, a shot into back boards... which you need to know are just make-shift boards from 1 ft benches on their sides. This is a REC league, we're playing in a standard gym. Unfortunately, the boards aren't continuous and easily moveable with minor scuffles. My D-wing passes behind the net to my other D-wing, however the ball catches an exposed bench edge and gets deflected outward... to THREE tangos! Scuffle.. shoot, save, scuffle... rebound, I dive... too late. 1-2.

The clock is ticking. FUCK FUCK FUCK

However, I see determination in my team mates. They are pissed just as me over that frickin' board edge. Being pissed about something can work to your advantage though... you start to REALLY play. But the clock is ticking, the ball is passed back to zone from zone... no real chances.

45 seconds left, nothing much to gain, the opposing team is stick handling the ball to tick down the clock.

30 seconds, we're starting to think who wants another crappy Tee anyways...

23 seconds, Laura takes the ball and runs it to their zone, bats it to the back boards

18 seconds, they try to dump it back out, but fail, my D-wing blocks it, dumps it back in

10 seconds, a shot! DANG wide

7 seconds, well there's always next year

5 seconds, a scuffle in front of the net, a shot! nope, rebound! AUGH... but Connie's able to get a piece and...

2 seconds, SCORES!

ZOMG! UNBELIEVABLE! Even the refs are in shock.

But but but WAIT... this is the FINALS... tied game. Only enough crappy Tees for one team!

Now the words that every player dreads to hear: SHOOT OUT

At this point, I honestly don't care... I run over and congrats my team for pulling off a HUGE upset. Is the pressure on? Sure... but honestly I've handled this scenario before. Both good n bad outcomes. I'm just stoked about that last second game tieing goal.

The refs come over, the captain needs to choose the shooters for our team, I go back, don on my painted mask and start focusing on what's going to happen next. I see that the opposing team is picking their best player to start in the line up, so the first shot will set the tone.

Now I must let you all in on an aspect about myself. When I play hockey, I'm deaf. For day to day living, I wear two aids which enable me to function so-so and I speak two languages fluently. But the mask make it impossible for me to wear aids while playing. So I just go au naturelle. This is often a plus for me, as I can maintain total focus during the game and not be distracted by colourful remarks from players and fans. My team mates know this. So in order to pump me up, they bang HARD on the wooden floor to cheer as I can feel the vibrations.

It begins... I size my opponent up right away. A lot about being a goalie is psychological. You must read your opponent's body moves, but also become menacing to them. Stand your ground. So bring it on biatch! She fakes a shot then just shoots straight ahead, easy save, I smother that ball and feel the floor come alive.

Our forward Sara L is up first for us... she takes her time, shoots. BOOM! 1-0 for us.

Half way there girls!

I look at my 2nd opponent. She's predictable... she'll try to shoot left, I make a half butterfly slide to my right and bat that orange beaner away. The floor comes alive again.

Next for us Christine. Strong player for us again. Like Sara, she takes her time, shoots, but too late, their goalie bats it away.

Final player... if I save this one, we go home with our holy cotton grail. The floor roars for me. Then all goes quiet. The player advances, I get into position, the ball comes closer.

Now freeze.

Looking back on it, I see everything in slo-mo. The tension in the gym was high and all eyes were on me. Eventhough I don't hear it, I feel the gasp of the shot and my decision on how to bend my legs. Thinking about this, this is why I'm majorly stoked. Because eventhough it's a rec league for a crappy Tee, for 5 seconds there tonight, it was up to me. There are few times in a person's life that you have a moment like this. This is why I LUV hockey and being a goalie. This is my moment. Whatever happens, I own it...

... along with a shiney new crappy T-shirt.

Final score 3-2, WTG Roaches!

speaking of MAD things...

Well this weekend has been a write-off. First I must point out that I have been ill. Ppl ask me, cold or flu? I'm a microbiologist dammit, not a "real doctor". A microbe definitely, but honestly the line between cold/flu symptoms is far too blurry. I usually define flu with fever, so in that respect not a flu. However it doesn't dimmish the capacity of constantly waking up in the night, coughing and hacking til my throat feels that it's bleeding and my lungs are on fire.

Anyways... enuf of that ramble. Saturday I figured that I'd at least could go out and walk around a lil bit, just enjoying the weekend. But Mother Nature decided dump 5 inches of snow on us. Yes, for anyone below the 49th parallel, it does snow in April. Five inches of the white stuff doesn't scare me, no, it's those 300K idiot local city drivers that apparently lost their winter driving skills from the past 5 months. I'll admit that I'm an angry driver... not flipping the bird kind, and not definitely the type that will start a scene. But I do swear at ppl who make greenie decisions driving. So feeling not up to snuff and weary of bumper benders, I decided to shack up at home til Monday.

Which brings me to today. Throat: raw n scratchy. Lungs: I believe my bronchitis is making a come back. Snow: still there, I'm pondering seriously of brushing off my car though before the AM rush tomorrow. Which reminds me, I have an oil change tomorrow AM.

Among searching online, msn messenger kindly announces that the dear ol' Material Girl has made a new video. I'm an 80s child. Madonna is part of my upbringing. She's done it all, in the definition of what an entertainer can do (I say entertainer, as she isn't just a singer, but an actor, a writer, a producer, ahh.. ahh... whatever else). I'm not a PRO-Madonna fan. However I do respect her more than Michael Jackson for argument sake. But where both are concerned, I just enjoy their music. So here... in case you haven't watched it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN7s1q3L-S0

This is where my Mystery Science Theater 3000 skills show off. I like poking a lil fun at videos and movies. I also lmfao at MuchMusic "Videos on Trial" for the same reason. Bashing multimillion (and some multipenny) vids is fun!

So... Timbaland gives his "50-cents" (snicker) intro. And we note that a "bomb" is going to go off in 4 minutes. Ooooh suspense. Apparently his voodoo chants are changing the world into origami nightmare... reality is folding closer n closer. But of course, there's 4 minutes left, tons of time to "save the world", so cue da music!

YES! Ladies and Gents... Madonna's first appearance in like what a 5 year, baby making hiatus is her ass! In a corset nonetheless too! Maybe this is a "stick it to you Britney" moment.

Ooooh she ran out of gas, that's why Madonna needed to make this video. Pushing her black maffia cadillac in her seemingly dominatrix boots. Yes, yes some soccer moms show up in their Dodge Caravans with Tang and watermelon in the back. Not Lourdes' mom. She shows up in full Femdom attire in a black caddy with bond daddy in the trunk.

Hmm, I really like those boots.

The origami bomb effects are cool. Gotta admit that in a Dr. Evilish way.

Whoa! A "rugged bearded" J. Timberlake? (Timbaland... Timberlake... who's next Timbariver? Timbersky? Did Madonna's rolodex get stuck on the "Ts"?) So Madonna and Justin together, me smells wardrobe malfunction coming up.

Okay, we're into voyeur mode watching hohum foreplay but eww! Hmmm, disgusted eww? Fascinated eww? The origami bomb folds off skin. Somehow I feel this is a Robbie Williams' rip off. Lawsuits to follow most likely. (5 seconds later) Ok...future making out is now permanently scarred for life. Thanks Mads!

Apparently the foreplay was boring for Mads and Justin... moving on... to a used car lot?

Note that all the cars were made before the car alarm systems were invented. This is ESSENTIAL folks. Otherwise the Madonna beat would clash with the annoying "whooop whooop whooop" sounds as Mads and Justin hopscotch their way around.

Oh yes! car sex! oh blink.. there it ends. And that boys n girls is what we term a "quickie".

More leap frog on cars... I wonder how many takes this scene took in reality.

Onto grocery market... me is thinking that this is a typical day for Mads. Pick up kids in black maffia caddy, voyeur a couple, trash a used car lot, oh yes... need to pick up milk, bread, condoms...

"Pick up on aisle 9 please!"

"Don't be a pri(hey)ma donna"???? me groooooans to the play on words.

Gotta hand it to Mads... watching my food move on the conveyor belt has now changed. But I'll give a Mad scientist's beaker nod to the usage of the conveyor belts in a dance number. Original.

Those boots again...

Where are we? Workoffice washroom? Shared washroom it would appear. This must be from Ally McBeal's tv set. Stripping... hmm, but I don't feel the chemistry. And I'm still awaiting that wardrobe malfunction ppl.

Look out Mads! The origami bomb iz gonna get you!!!! And she leaves JUST(IN) the nick of time (hey if Mads can get away with "pri(hey)ma donna", I get my 15 seconds of fame for JUST(in) the nick of time).

Speaking on time... gawd there's STILL 53 seconds left before the origami bomb blows the world to kingdom cum. And what do our video heros do? Dance of course!

I'm actually paying more attention to the clock behind them than actually their dancing. What I'm looking for is screw ups in the time sequence. That's me, I watch clocks in movies to note if time goes backwards. The trick is in a short, 1 minute scene - the clock is broken. Thus no hint that a 3 minute scene took 5 hours to shoot. But here, they don't have that luxury. I noted 2 mini flaws, but albeit, they are minor. They got the timing sequence pretty well done.

Ohhh! clothes come flying off! 30-seconds til wardrobe malfunction.

Wait fer it....

Wait fer it....

So Mads on her knees pumping in front of a guy... now this vid definitely needs to be renamed "Tuesday"

Still waiting fer it....

Tick tock... the clock counts down and SHOCKER the origami bomb has boxed them in!

OOOOOH! Is that's the wardrobe malfunction? Justin and Mads losing skin/flesh/muscle/vital organs? Janet is envious.

I give this video 3 Mad scientist's beakers out of 5.

Hmmm... apparently I'm not the only self-proclaimed Mad Scientist out there. For sake of personal interest, I did a google search on "mad scientist blog". Lo 'n behold there is an apparent population of us that could raise a kid (brilliant Hillary Clinton reference there). Should I be shocked? Hell no, it's internet age. Pet rocks probably even have blogs of their own too (I'm now secretly suspicious that blogging is what my cat does during the day I'm away).

It's Friday, so that means I need to find something FAB to spend my time. However seeing that my past days have been spent on prepping for my FINAL seminar (which went very well, my boss was pleasantly surprised that I could prep one without input), I should do bench work over the weekend; however! it's spring... cleaning. Hmm, research or cleaning. Tough call.

8 h laterz...

Well my body decided for me: my lungs are on fire and can barely breathe. So that means a weekend in bed napping with the cat. Tis fate not *so* bad...

the BIG BANG theory

Hello all,

Alas another blogger! If you're reading this, I've no idea how you got this link. But welcome to the Mad Scientist's bench. To introduce myself, I am a bona fide scientist. I'm currently writing my PhD thesis in the field of molecular microbiology. What will I do in the next 12 months is anyone's guess, so AHA! the suspense!

About me: I've entered my 30s and inherited two X-chromosomes from my parents. I'm a proud Canuck. If you don't know that term, then you should look it up. I'm not certain HOW much of myself I'm going to reveal on this blog, we'll see how it goes Truth be told, there's more to meet than eye than a scientist. Not to say that I'm not a geek. Oh yes, I attend geek anon monthly. Just that I do have many interests not concerning a test tube.

So what this blog is about? Not sure yet... but most likely a forum for me to ramble on about things about my day and general public interest. You're welcome to email or comment. Though warning, psychos aren't premitted. If you sincerely want to get to know me beyond this blog, you're going to need to show some glimmer that you have a brain. Commenting on my views... it's free world (at least in North America), but if you want to rant - start your own blog.

laterz