Sky of Blue, Sea of GREEN

Green is the colour
Football is the game
We're all together
And winning is the aim
So cheer us on through the sun & rain
Saskatchewan Roughriders... that's our name!

Above is a chant I learned along with "itsy bitsy spider" and the alphabet song.  Often the word "sun" would be appropriately replaced with "snow".

Whilst hockey is a dear sport of mine, I am a bigger fan of Canadian football. Specifically, a fan of my home province's team: the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Any Canadian would tell you that the biggest, most hardiest team fanbase of any Canadian sport (yes, shockingly this includes hockey teams) is Rider fans.

An example of the pockets of Roughrider green among
the hosting team crowd (Calgary).
Yes, this isn't a home game.

The evidence is in the stands. No matter where Saskatchewan plays their away games, almost half of the stands are the team colours: Green n' White. I thought this was untrue until I first moved to Vancouver. When the Roughriders were visiting the first time I was there, I hesitantly put on my Green n' White jersey and went to the stadium, thinking that I'd be outnumbered. To my surprise, I found myself sitting with a pocket of other Rider fans which riddled the entire stadium evenly between the Orange n' White (BC Lions colours).

I wondered and asked the people sitting around me, "Are you visiting from Saskatchewan?"

General answer: Oh no, we've lived here for the past 5 (10, 20, 30, etc...) years. Once a Rider fan, always a Rider fan.

The huge fan base is very ironic considering that Saskatchewan is a large (600K km²) small (population lingers around 1 million) province. However, due to the continuous emigration from the province (myself included), the RiderNation population is probably 5x that. We breed Rider fans. I don't know where my future husband's home roots are, but our children will bleed green (sorry, dear).

This past weekend, "my boys" (as I tend to call them) were in the Western Final. Another nail biter game, but we emerged victorious! Onto the Grey Cup final (for my American friends, that's the SuperBowl of Canadian football)! Where? Right here in Edmonton! Although I don't have tickets to the game (they go for $500/pop now, it's sold out, plus it's -35oC outside), I'll gather all my RiderNation fans around the TV to scream "GO GREEN".  Win or lose - I'm still proud of my team. It's Grey Cup week in the city. Awesome place to be!

Wow, you're so smart...

I met someone new the other day.

No, this isn't going to be an account that I met a significant other and for the next few paragraphs will be of gushing, sunshine on a cloudy day, and bluebirds singing. Besides, this new person isn't of the opposite sex. So alas, my hunt for Mr. (doesn't have to be) Right continues.

I became newly acquainted with a nice 20-something young woman who was intrigued that I was a molecular microbiologist. She had some insightful and intelligent questions about my profession. And on the turnabout, I was delighted to hear about her own experiences with being a test subject for the latest vaccine for HIV. Wow, she's braver than me!

During the conversation, once again I heard the words: "Wow! A scientist! It must be nice to be so smart!"

I've learned to kindly accept this compliment that comes with having a Ph.D. or being in the science profession. I have protested the exact opposite, in which people think I'm joking.

"No... SERIOUSLY, I'm not as smart as you think I am."

"Ha ha... you're smart and funny too!"

Le sigh.

Yes, I was an A-average student. But low A average. Most of my science classmates scored 97% on their exams, while I was happy with a nice 84%. I had this idea that if I hung out with incredibly smart people, their smartness would rub off onto me, or maybe an osmosis effect. My chances of nabbing scholarship awards/grants were next to nil. I was competing with 99.9% averages. There's no way that I'd win over those folks. I just accepted that I wasn't brilliant, but it didn't deter me from pursuing a career in science. Just made things that much harder.

My first job in science is the shining example of this fact. Actually it wasn't a job... more like a volunteer position. The last year of my undergrad, to get an Honours nod you had to do a research project. From my tiny university, there were only two choices: protein biochemistry or nucleotide biochemistry. My friend Dana (one of my brilliant friends) had her eyes set on cancer research, so the protein biochemistry lab was the logical choice. That left me with the nucleotide research lab headed by a professor whom had previously told me to my face that I was "an idiot". I wasn't overly eager to join his lab, but there was no other choice. And I kinda like DNA. So I attempted to muster courage to ask him if he'd be willing to be my Honours research advisor. It took me 3 days standing outside his closed door, panicking about the prospect of knocking on his door. It wasn't until Dana stood beside me and forced me to knock on his door...

Eying me ruefully, "What do you want?"

"Uh, hi. I've been seriously considering doing an honours project next fall in your lab. I'm wondering if you'd accept me."

"I only accept people on scholarship. Are you on one?"

"Well not a science one..." (I was on a scholarship for Deaf and Hard of Hearing folks, apparently I was a smart Deaf person)

"I thought as much, you don't have enough brights for my lab," while he started to close the door.

"Wait! That may be true. But how about I volunteer to work in your lab over this summer? If you're still convinced that I don't have what it takes, fair enough. But I'm hoping you'd give me a chance to prove myself."

"Wha? You're telling me that you'll work in my lab for free all summer?"

"I'm only asking for a chance to work in a lab to see whether it's really for me. I'll do anything, even wash test tubes."

Which was exactly what I did for the first month. I wasn't "allowed" to do any type of experiment or touch any scientific devices like a simple PCR machine or micropipettor. Just brunt work: washing test tubes, making agar plates, autoclaving waste, washing more test tubes. But I made the most of the experience, observing anyone doing an experiment or procedure. Apparently my curiousity permitted me one day to actually isolate DNA. I was so proud! I think I still have that agarose gel picture of it too. 4 months of working 40h/week without pay (I did night shifts and weekend work at my regular job) apparently impressed the prof and I was accepted to be his Honours project student. The project itself wasn't all exciting, just testing the efficiency of something, but I learned a lot from my first science job and the prof later told me that he learned that not all scientists are good on paper alone (aka transcripts).

Years later, while I prodded onto a Masters project, doctoral project, and now even a post-doc position, my IQ hasn't improved much. Experience, definitely. But I'm still not smart enough on paper.  Even the science that I do today, some of the concepts, I can't get my head around them. But being industrious, at least I have that. So while appearances may be that I'm brilliant - like developing a vaccine brilliant - honestly I'm just like the normal person in an everyday job. The trick remains to convince a dinner party of that...

Music today - I'm purifying proteins this week which means loong looong loooong painful days of spinning and watching things drip. Thank goodness for my mp3 player. The Shout Out Out Out Out's "Dude you feel electrical" is one of my new faves to techno groove.

Mi familia

This weekend started off with a huge surprise from my extended family. Where I currently live, I have about 20 cousins. The sad part is that I rarely see them and I hate inviting myself over for tea. But a week ago I decided - hell, I'm going to ring a doorbell no matter what. I kindly let my cousin Tara know that I was coming over for a "tea-cap" and when I arrived I was greeted by her entire clan from 3 different cities/2 different provinces. It just worked out that everyone was visiting this weekend. While hanging out with your cousins may scare the bejeezus out of some folks, this side of my family rocks. There's a lot of history between us while I was growing up. Some of my best memories come from the homestead farm & family motel during the seasonal and summer holidays. I felt so blessed to be able to spend some time with them while we laughed our arses off around the kitchen table.

In this blog, I've chatted a few times about my "adoptive" Greek family. They are a great bunch of folks, have supported me throughout my life, and I'm always proud to be apart of their lives. This is not to suggest that my biological family isn't equally cool - they are awesomely cool. This weekend was just another example of their coolness. What is weird is that these cousins who I feel so close to aren't really so close to me on the family tree measuring stick. I don't have any immediate uncles/aunts. I barely have great uncle/aunts. These set of cousins come from my maternal grandparents side. Yes... for family I must go *that* far back.

My immediate family is very small - like 3 people small, one for each generation: me, my mom, and my granny. It wasn't planned this way. My grandmother did plan to have a large family, but fate would intervene and she contracted polio during the epidemic outbreak in the early 1950s (yeah, this was a factor of why I'm a microbiologist today). My mom was only 3 at the time and the resulting paralysis usurped any logical reason to have more children.


Fast forward things to my mom and her dreams of a nice nuclear family. But once again life circumstances would intervene - one night, her and I ended up on our own when I was 4 months and have been so ever since. I get a lot jokes about my tiny family plus the fact that I'm an only child, but I believe that my mom did her best and if anyone argues, I own several goalie sticks and know how to use them.

This brings things to me, I'm in my 30s and hear the biological clock ticking. I love kids and sincerely would like to have a couple. I have found a lot of people are shocked to hear/see that I'm a "baby-person". This has kinda irked me as it shows that many don't know who I really am. Maybe it's to do with being so "career-orientated" and my academic studies. While that has been a huge focus of my 20s, it doesn't mean that it's my only life focus. I think having kids are important - not just to continue the family line (well within my family, it is all on me), but having kids puts everything in a different perspective. I love the magicalness (yes, new word in the dictionary) of a child's world. Everything is a discovery, everything is an adventure. Those are two things you relearn with having kids. My mom has expressed a profound want of having grandkids. So far I've just pacified her with  a grandcat. I've joked that it would be *too* easy to give her one. She kindly replies, "Thanks, but I'll wait for a son-in-law first." So yes, kids are on my list, can't wait to meet them.


Off to errand land. Cowboy Junkies have been re-appearing on my playlist this week. "Sweet Jane" is one of my favourite mellow tracks. The repeating chords gets you mesmerized. Ciao!

the Old Black Rum's got a hold on me

It's been an eight year repos, but this past Saturday I finally got to dance in my seat (and out of it) once again thanks to five delightful fellas from a lil' rock we Canucks like to call Newfoundland. Great Big Sea stopped by for an evening of songs and comical anecdotes to a sold out crowd. I managed to snap up the 2nd last ticket (great seat too, front centre, 12 rows back) thanks to Dawn with her mentioning "oh yeah, we're going to Great Big Sea this Saturday" when I enquired about her weekend plans. I think my face went all crumpled-fetal-position like upon hearing the news as she later asked her boyfriend to give up his ticket for me (awwww, I'm touched). Never to fear! I have ticketmaster magic!

So after a delightful dinner with a group of friends, off to the concert hall on campus. We split up making our way to the theater (different autos) and whilst walking to the venue I was soon approached by an elderly lady (my guess in her early 70s) with a cane who looked lost. I put on my helpful smile as she beelined for me, apparently a lady on a mission.

"Excuse me, but where's the Jubee?" in her small adorable voice.

"Oh, are you going to see Great Big Sea?" I asked.

Her face lit up, "Oh yes, I've been waiting for this all year!"

Doris apparently has never seen GBS preformed live, but "listened to them many times on TV." We chatted more about ourselves. We discovered that both of us were prairie folks, me being from Saskatchewan and she from some small community in Manitoba. But less chit-chatter, more walking to the venue, she was shuffling so fast that I had to sprint a bit to keep up to her. I later spotted her in the front row, dancing with her lil' cane in hand - man, there's a fan!

Speaking about fans, there were all types - including dogs. I found myself sitting next two blind ladies who brought their guide dogs. I mentioned to one with the black lab (Jeb) that I bet her dog was a bigger GBS fan than her. She giggled back. We were quite the group - two Blinds, two dogs, and the Deaf chick. I must apologize to Jeb though, I think I stepped on his tail a few times while dancing. Yes, we danced - very few times the crowd was sitting for the entire three hour show. The band did two full sets, then two encores.

The opening song got everyone to their feet right away: Donkey Riding. Oh Tawnya, I wish you were there! Everytime I hear this song, I think of you cracking up. The rest of the show was filled with great foot stomping music and laughs as Alan Doyle would chat about the Liquid Angels. I also found out this evening that Alan was able to get a spot on Russel Crow's latest version of Robin Hood. More reason to go rent that one.

Before the show I said to Dawn that I hope that they would play two of my fave songs: Excursion Around the Bay and Old Black Rum. The first was one best memory of GBS concert I attended on Parliament Hill one Canada Day eight years ago. The Black Rum has a special place for me for the past 5 years. In my pixelated gaming life, I named my crew "Black Rum" in honour of GBS. My crewmates have all heard my version on this song on Ventrilo. A lot of my pixelated pirate life has been singing sea shanties with many folks around the world, GBS songs included. I was ecstatic when Excursion was played in the first encore. And the final song of the night... 

 

It's safe to say that I'm bias for GBS, but truly, if you ever want to hear Canadian music at its best, definitely do yourself a favour to go see them when they are in town. All they are missing is lumberjacks, maple syrup,  and beavers to complete your Cdn experience.

This time it's personal.

Every now and then the ever pondering student of science will lean back in his/her chair with a blank look on their face after the "yet again" realization that whatever they are researching doesn't *really* matter. Oh sure, it matters to themselves, their supervisor, and the powers that may be of funding/thesis committee, but to matter within the realm of the BIG PICTURE, the actual research most people do means diddly squat.

My scientific journey is a shining example:

4th year Bachelor's research project: Determining how well circular pieces of DNA (plasmids) can enter a Salmonella mutant. (For those genetic savvy: the transformation efficiency into a recD mutant).

Personal relevance: I received my B.Sc. honours degree.

BIG PICTURE relevance: on a scale of 0 to 10? Negative eleventy eleven.

Masters' project: Developing a killing assay between human bacterial pathogens and tiny soil worms for a model.

Personal relevance: Killing worms got me a Masters in Genetics.

BIG PICTURE relevance: Yawn.

Doctoral project: Figuring out which genes are actually being affected by an envelope stress response in E. coli.

Personal relevance: I'm a doc! YUSH!

BIG PICTURE relevance: So you reorganized some genetic system in E. coli - wooo.

The irony is that I got into science with the idea that my research would count. Of course every science undergrad has the same idealism. I lost my innocence somewhere between my Bachelor's and Masters. But that did not deter me from continuing on with the Ph.D. for another 7 years. Maybe reality didn't set in quite yet. Anyways, my search for post-doc positions, I really wanted to find something that would be *really* relevant, really contribute, REALLY REALLY MATTER! This was one the key factors why I took my current posting: pneumococcal vaccine development. I knew from the start that even if I developed the vaccine, my name wouldn't be remembered at the end of the day. But at least I could say to people: oh you got that vaccine shot? Heh, I helped made it. Plus the idea that I could contribute to saving millions of strangers annually was nice to know, albeit it'll be still strangers.

That is until this month.

I got a call from my Greek sister-in-law: my niece was in the hospital with pneumococcal meningitis, the exact same bad bug that I'm developing a vaccine against. First, I was highly worried about my niece, immediately took a 48h work leave to drive to another city just to "be" there for her, my Greek bro, and the rest of the family. While road tripping, it suddenly hit me: WHOA! My research matters! Like BIG PICTURE matters! 

While at the hospital, watching my niece sleep (or try to, she was so uncomfortable and it's hard to console a 20 month old lil' tot), things were racing through my mind, wondering if I was even doing enough, was I doing things right? I've griped about the long hours I put in the lab. In fact my Greek brother has mentioned to me countless times "You work too hard". But this time he said, "Work faster."

36h later, I left the hospital with assurances that my niece's condition would improve. She was responding well to the heavy cocktails of antibiotics being administered and just before I left she was playing a little bit and smiling. Driving back, I found a new interest in the project. It wasn't that I was never interested in the project before this ordeal. Just that now, it was personal. My renewed interest wasn't just felt by me. My family (both biological and Greek) seems to be prouder that I am working on something that would prevent this happening to the family again. My bosses are highly more motivated for this project to succeed as the current pneumococcal vaccine isn't sufficient to protect all children* - hence the urgent need for a new vaccine.


It's nice working for the BIG PICTURE team.


My niece is now home and continues to improve. Now it's up to Thea Nanc and the rest of the Strepto Vaccine unit to get this vaccine off the lab bench and into the ampules for vaccine administration. 


* I would like to emphasize that the current vaccines for pneumococcal meningitis are NOT defective. These vaccines as well as various others have saved millions of lives and continue to do so everyday. The limitation is that biological organisms have their quirky way of finding ways around road blocks we set up. This is the challenge that scientists work against always, the constant need to adapt, to learn, to improve.

Can you hear me NAO?!

Personal things this month. Back in June I had yet another amusing adventure that my phone wasn't working which I quickly concluded that this time it was my hearing aids and not the phone itself. I say "this time" as there have been a few adventures of me buying/trying half a dozen phones out before coming to the realization what was the exact problem.

So the T-coil option on my aids (which enables me to hear on phones) clunked out... again. It's the 3rd time in six years with these aids. Because the aids were 6 years old and the cost to fix them was now half the price of a new aid, my audiologist and I mutually agreed that it's time for new aids. I really can't afford new aids right now, but I decided to suck it out and purchase some shiny new $4000 aids. It's like buying a new laptop for each ear. And of course people think that because these aids are NEWER, BETTER, FASTER, it'll mean that I can hear NEWER, BETTER, FASTER!

Newer? Actually yes. Very much so. When I was fitted with the new aids, everything and everyone sounded completely different - either an octave or two in different directions. Or sharp/flat tones in several voices. This wasn't a shock to me. I've expected a lot of transition to the new sounds over these past few weeks. This involved two things: me looking like a foreigner in new country (you know, those ppl who look totally dumbfounded and lost trying to understand their world around them) and headaches galore with trying to mentally reteach myself to hear. It is quite mentally tiring.

Better? Most people make the mistake that hearing aids "fix" the problem. No, I am still deaf dammit. Can a guy on crutches walk normally? Of course not! They hobble along, but its still considered "walking". Same goes with hearing aids - do I hear normally? Hell no. But with them I can communicate with the Hearing world much better than without. For the record though, some sounds/voices do sound clearer. But I still can't hear some tones/beeps. Nor filter out the accents in people's voices. And of course when some folks yell at me, it's like I'm watching their lips flap away with a vuvuleza buzz filling the air.

Faster? What is this? The gimp Olympics?

For settling in with the new gizmos, so far, I've been impressed. My audiologist (bless her patient soul) and I have tweaked around with the aids to my personal settings. She also made me aware of some nifty T-coil wire loops that connect into your MP3/ipod player. Rather than using painful headphones that pinches the aids against your skull, these babies connect into the T-coil option. Now I'm enjoying ipodish music relatively looking like most folks and the sound quality would be considered surround sound in your head. Of course I've never truly heard what surround sound is. But what? You're going to argue with the Deaf chick?

So then - phone back, MP3 crisper, and everyone sounding like different people. Interesting month indeed.

Music then - how about some Bob Seger's Old time Rock n' Roll? I was karaoking last Friday night... it was on the playlist. No, no one took off their pants and paraded in their socks.

Once upon a fabled time...

Tonight's Sunday night TV flick is X-Men 2. As previously chatted about, Hugh Jackman is one of my MILFs. Though most of his movies eliminate his secksay Aussie accent, he's just awesome eye candy. As Wolvie, well now, that's just one fantasy come true.

With X-Men on the telly, it got me thinking to blog about comics again. It's no secret that I'm a comic book/graphic novel fan. Over the recent years, my collection of graphic novels has expanded exponentially (I realized this more so with moving many many boxes of books). Many people dis the DC/Marvel universes as ridiculous reading. I tend to admit that it's partly true. My main reason why I read them is that they are *extremely* light reads. After spending all day reading journal articles, I want something that doesn't require any thinking.

However there are some reads that I highly recommend to anyone. I've already talked about "Y: The Last Man" series. This time around I'll chat about Snow White, Red Riding Hood, the three pigs, and the Big Bad Wolf. No, I'm not talking about Hans Christian Andersen collected work, Aesop's stories or the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, well not exactly. I'm talking about Fables the ongoing comic series by Bill Willingham. This series has to be one of most faves, if not of all time. It takes all that you know (and everything you didn't know) about fairy tales and wraps it up into this brilliantly written story about every known Fable living in modern day New York. The series has now grown into two spin offs (one about Jack of... well, Jack. I never realized that so many fairy tales had Jack as the hero) and an upcoming release series about Cinderella. There's also one novel (yes, an actual BOOK!) regarding the real story of Peter Piper.

Before you yawn and think, "oooh fairy tales - wowie", it's not just fairy tales, it's fairy tales redux. This series goes beyond the Prince Charming (oh he's there, but as the womanizer you always knew yet the original tales sugar coated that drama), the witch with the gingerbread house (she's still wickedly evilish, but honestly just misunderstood), and the wooden boy Pinocchio (who laments about still being a boy - see inset). The material Willingham has to work with seems to be endless - which I'm glad, as I anxiously await the next publication release.

Since we're on the topic of comics, some comic music to accompany. One of my long time faves is the Superman's Song by Crash Test Dummies. This song is a sweet sorrow ballad of probably the most recognized superhero. I'll admit that I'm not a big Superman fan (too much of a good boy scout, I'm more of a "dark knight" lovah), but I do read some storylines of Supes. This song hits it on the nail of the reality of Supes. Bill from the Kill Bill movie also had a good explanation of Mr. Kent. But that's for another day and another blog. Night folks!

A room (or townhouse) with a view...

Before June flies by like May did, I decided to stop staring at unpacked boxes and stare at the blank blogging screen. The move "eated" up the month of May and then some. I'm sitting in my new living still surrounded by boxes still. But in 72h things should be (or at least look) as if I'm settled in. Reason for the rush is that my mother will soon visit, soon followed by my father with soon-to-be wife #4 (or #3 depending on who's counting), then a good friend from my hometown who is leaving on a fabulous 2 year adventure in Lao. I think the move is following the Field of Dreams karma: if you build it, they will come.

My new place has been interesting so far. The windows and backyard overlook a large park/school yard field, in which I am a firm believer that everyone who owns a dog in the neighbourhood uses the grass as nature's lanteen (the dogs not the owners). Other musings have included an interesting stone/drunk/psycho fellow with his holy grail backpack. Needless to say, the blinds went up soon after that display. I also have an overly friendly 4 year old neighbour that insists on helping me with groceries, hockey gear, or simply opening my doors. I'm not sure whether this is a sign of her boredom or more so a sign that I'm aging.


Some personal wishes are coming true with having this new abode. One is having a hammock. I've wanted to own space for a hammock since my elementary years. If you're never had the chance to spend some time in a hammock, I suggest you put that on your "bucket list" pronto. The hammock has been ordered and will arrive next week. Just in time for my mom to marvel it as well.

Another personal wish is having a wood burning fireplace. I so love the smell of wood fire. Though they are a pain to keep clean, I'm looking forward to a cold snowy winter night in front of the crackling wood. Of course having a nice XY to share it would be the next step, but one thing at a time. Maybe the karma includes "if you have a townhouse, he will come".

Hammock for summer, fireplace for winter, I think I'm set for all Canadian seasons.

Music music music... life needs music. I've been listening a lot to Lady Gaga of late, like everyone else it seems. The TV sensation "Glee" devoted a whole episode to Gaga music. Let's "just dance" folks.

It's not a game... it's a lifestyle

After a few weeks of repos, hockey heated up for me this weekend. My ice hockey team (MsFits) participated in the annual Boomerang tourney and my winter ball hockey team (the Grrrz) had the championship game on the line. Schedules clashing is common for me, but I have a rule that certain teams get priority. So I missed one tournament game in lieu for the championship game on Sunday (sorry MsFits, but you understand...).


The annual Boomer tourney is one of the best tournaments I've participated in ever. This is my 3rd time playing in this tourney and eventhough my team has yet to win a single match in 3 years, it's still tons of fun. Every year the tourney has a different theme. My first year it was "Pirates of the Boomer" with swashbuckle theme everywhere. The refs were all decked out as Capt Jack Sparrow. We joked that some of the refs wore two eye patches at the same time with some "questionable" calls. Last year was "Budda-Bing-Budda-Boomer" with 1920s gangster theme. Refs this time around were of the Al Capone variety. This year was "SuperBoomer" with superheroines everywhere. There was definitely a bunch of "Ka-POWs", "SMACKs" and "ZAPs!!" on the ice with the hockey action. Asides from the good hockey, it's also for a good cause as proceeds from this tourney go towards city Art Therapy centres which uses art as part of the recovery process for cancer patients. In the 8 years of this tournament, they've raised over $14,000. Pretty sweet for a group of 18 women to organize such a thing!

So three games of ice hockey, followed with one winter ball hockey match to decide the city league champion. The Grrrz faced this team countless of times successfully but we were shocked when they owned us in the playoffs. This time around we made sure not to take anything for granted and my team put the pressure on for the entire game, player on player, no one giving up any pass, just go and get'em. It was a hard hitting game, but in the end we took home the (invisible) cup! Congrats Grrrz!


So end of hockey? Nope. Next week is the start of Summer Ball Hockey (definitely circle of life feeling). This time, I'm back in the MsFits net as they have a team for this league. But so does the Grrrz. So I'm switching teams and face the same group of women that I just won the Winter league cup with. That's one thing I've come to like about being involved with women's hockey: you meet a large group of women whom you become fast friends no matter which side of the line you're on. Sure there's always the odd chickie who gets her feathers ruffled, but overall it's about sport camaraderie more so than individual teams. I think this sport for women is important regardless of what some IOC president may feel about the program. My life has been deeply enriched these past 4 years playing with this hockey family.

During the tournament, we were treated to music between faceoffs... making the game feel more professional plus it gets everyone in a lively mood. One song that always gets me pumped is the Wiseguys' "Start the commotion". Ciao folks!

No joke!

So then, a lil' MIA but I'm back for updates.

News! News! News! After much thought and afterthought and afterafterthought, I decided to accept a post-doc position in the current lab I've been working in for the past 8 months. Yep, starting today I'm no longer a "tech" but have the privilege title of post doctoral fellow. Sounds snappy? Well the name is probably the only prestige thing. Funny thing about working in the sciences, you have to remind everyone who isn't in the science field that we do this for interest, not money. After 14 years of post 2ndary education, you'd think I'd land a high paid job. Nope, a PDF is not even an actual job. It's a trainee position. That's right. I'm a trainee, just like you see in the supermarket cashiers, the lil' labels under the name tag. Supposedly those labels are for your info to excuse any mistakes they so happen to make a mistake OR that they flip through the rolodex trying to find what's the number key for kumquats. So why a PDF? What's the point? It's for the long term career plans. If you want to do something with a PhD, you should have a few PDF years on the resume. It's just the way things work.

Aside from switching job titles, today marked the official move of the newest post-docs (moi and another PDF) into newly designated space for the vaccine project we're working on. It's not brand new lab space, but rather a former lab that recently retired. For the past month I've been actively cleaning out this old lab to make way for our project. It's been interesting with the things we've found during this cleanup. There's a few vials of unidentifiable things. Being an old microbiology lab, you never know truly if it's safe to chuck... or autoclave it.

We're sharing the lab space with a teaching lab course which has some interesting equipment. This photo is one example, it's kinda creepy. If you're wondering what they are, it's light source boxes for microscopes. Still, I dunno... creepy.

It's Easter weekend, I'm heading back to my old stomping grounds. Enjoy the weekend folks!

Lab OCDness

Today in the lab I was having this conversation with my fellow post-doc about people with OCD. He was recanting his experiences working in a previous lab about some bloke who had what we would classify as borderline-clinical commitment OCD. Some examples:

When using pipette tips, this guy picked them out in line-order from his box compared with random selection. FYI: Apparently this technique is called the anal-retentive tip usage method (ARTUM).

Ordered tip-usage:


Random tip-usage:



Another example was the reagent bottles and microcentrifuge tubes on his bench would be perfectly aligned:



The best example was that if you needed to take one glove from this guy's latex glove box, you had to take TWO. Never one. Otherwise there would be an unpaired match left in the box. Ohhhhh! The HUMANITY!

Now I have a few friends who have either openly admitted to having OCD or have closeted OCD (they exhibit the behaviour but haven't admit that there's a problem). I know that this is a legit psychological disorder. However, personally I think everyone has an OCD quirk in their daily routine. I found out mine a few years ago. It has nothing to do with lab work, but personal grooming. If I notice an aberrant hair on my face, I HAVE to pluck it out immediately (otherwise it really annoys me for the entire day/night). As for lab OCDness, I'm more a of random tip-user and although I like keeping my microcentrifuge tubes in order, if one's facing the wrong way... eh. As for the glove box issue. I will have to admit that if I take one glove, I do think, "but that will mean an odd number of gloves in the box". But that doesn't stop me. I'd like to think it's more environmentally friendly. Yeah... that's it.

I'm with the Jules

A few weeks back I was treated to a delightful night of modern and contemporary dance. I'm no an expert on dance styles and neither know the difference between a dosado and chassé. But I do enjoy watching dancers take the stage with imaginative choreography and unforgettable music. What made this performance extra special was that a friend in a former lab was one of the performers. There's a stereotype that scientists are married to their research. While that may be sadly true, we do have interests outside the lab (much to our supervisor's displeasure). Mine being obviously hockey. For Jules, she has recently rekindled her passion for dancing. Her enthusiasm and dedication to dancing is contagious. I often wish I had the grace in my muscles to move like she can. A Mad Beaker award to you Jules! She started a blog about her experiences if you'd like to follow along.

Back to the performance which was Orchesis Dance Motif 2010, I wasn't able to sneak a camera in and record some moves from the show. However I was able to make a soundtrack of the night with the selected music in which I'll post a few links in the coming weeks. Today's music is from an old group called Vitamin String Quartet. It's a group which could be classified part of the Baroque Rock genre. They take rock/pop songs from Coldplay, Evanescence, Linkin Park, even Eric Clapton and Enya and rearrange the music into a classical tribute. The result is you hear a great song remade into another great song. Radiohead's Reckoner remake is simply fabulous!

All good things...

Alright - hockey announcement time:

I'm retiring.

Yes, this die-hard hockey goalie is hanging up the pads and glove with the first team that got me back on the ice: Bio Sci Roaches. 7 years ago when I started my Ph.D. studies I heard about a women's intramural recreation ice hockey team in my department. They were looking for a goalie. I've been long interested in returning between the pipes for ages, but dilemma, I had no goal equipment. Not a problem, the rec league provided all equipment except for skates. Although I had to brave wearing common, smelly, damp, psoriasis causing equipment (ew!), I returned to the ice and rekindled my love for stopping pucks.

During the early years, I decided to add my own equipment time to time. Saved up enough for a helmet (painted no less!), then blocker, then goalie skates (I started out using just normal ice hockey skates. Goalie skates are about double the price of regular skates), until the point that I was proudly toting my very own full gear with the last purchase being my $900 hockey pads (a gift to myself for my 30th bday). But something was still missing. One game every other week wasn't enough to justify the money spent on equipment and I was wanting more athletic workouts. So I started to look elsewhere, finding women's leagues in city ball hockey and provincial ice hockey.

I still kept playing with the Roaches, them being my #2 team. I had to devise a commitment schedule with the provincial team having first dibs on me, then the Roaches, then city ball hockey, then rec ball hockey, then pick-up goalie status. Soon I went from playing once every other week to playing 5 times a week. People started calling it an obsession. But I found it therapeutic. This was "me" time. I could shut out all the noise (literally!) and daily problems between those pipes. And most of all, it was the only place that it really mattered that I showed up. People were always glad when I entered the dressing room to suit up. And even when I played like crap some nights, I was still accepted, still cheered on, still got "see you next game!". No other place, no other group of people has given me that feeling.

But to cliche things: all good things must come to an end. The 5 nights/week are a lil' excessive and I had to cut back somewhere. Because recreational intramurals are no longer my level of play, I decided to retire from the Roaches. I do so with a heavy heart. Although the roster has changed over the years, this team remains a great bunch of women.

And what better way to leave the team, being on top, undefeated, and the Champions of the Winter 2010 recreational intramural women's ice hockey. Congrats ladies! You did me proud!

Oh Canada!

The party's over in Vancouver. I did catch Olympic fever throughout the entire 17 day competition. In the lab, people were constantly refreshing their web-browsers for up dates on the daily results. At the start of the competition, Canadians were moaning about the lack of performance from their athletes. Team Canada organizers made a very boastful prediction that Canada would take home the most medals. I love Canada (natch), but to put that expectation on our athletes is just unfair. Especially when you're competing against powerhouses like USA and Germany. The "Own the Podium" program is a good thing, as Olympic athletes are severely underpaid for what is expected of them (hmmmm, that sounds familiar). Well, everyone except NHL players. But let's not go there. When I was living in Vancouver, I befriended a lot of people from Team Canada Field Hockey. From them I admired the commitment to their sport. Especially when they were expected to train for 6-8 h/day and be paid only $50/day. How could anyone live on that? In Vancouver no less! I'm not sure what "Own the Podium" has now done for the athletes pay-wise, but at least it's bringing to light that if we Cdn taxpayers want the golden glory - we better be ready to dish out the funds to support those who compete.

Back to the Vancouver 2010 games. So then, Canada didn't win the most medals. But quality over quantity people. Canada did take home the most gold medals and broke records doing so (most gold medals in any Olympics and most gold medals by hosting country). If we complained about a gold drought on home soil, I think it's safe to say that we've got our fill now. And what a finish! Gold medal in both women's and men's hockey. I think that is probably the only thing that matters to Canada. We acknowledge that we're not perfect in many things (even trying to get the cauldron up), but when it comes to hockey - that's our game you're playing.



So congrats to the ALL the athletes. You did me proud along with the rest of Canada. Someone asked me whether there would be a holiday on the following Monday. I said "no, but whenever you see a Cdn, you'll note a small satisfied smile." People will carry that feeling around for a long time. Like the '72 summit. "With Glowing Hearts" indeed.

Let them begin...

Following up a previous post regarding me playing hooky from work (for 30 min), today is the opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympic games. It's been a long road for these games in Vancouver. In fact back in 2003, I remember being in LA at a science conference when we heard that Vancouver won the bid to these games. Someone rushed in and yelled, "VANCOUVER 2010!!" And surprisingly I was part of a large chorus of cheering people in the lecture theater.

As a personal tradition, I've always watched the opening ceremonies. In fact as I write this, Portugal's team just entered the stadium. I am a fan of the Olympics, the idea of these games is a noble one. But just like anything with good intentions, there will always be some dark spots. Today is no exception, just within hours of the opening of the games, a Georgian luger was killed on a training run. Georgia put on a brave face tonight walking into the stadium.

Oooooh: now USA entered.

This will be Canada's 3rd time hosting the Olympics. Montreal hosted the summer Olympics in 1976. I wasn't around for that one, but I remember Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics vividly. What I remember the most is the theme, simply called "Winter Games". For these Olympics, the current theme plug is "I believe". I'm not sure if it'll be more popular as David Froster's Calgary theme.

I work in a multi-nation lab. We have a good mix of counties: Canada, Argentina, Swiss, Japan, Spain, and Ireland. All countries are competing in this year's Olympics, so it'll be a subject of talk (and ribbing).


Oooh ... I hear cheering: Yep, it's Canada! TV shots of people cheering in Whistler, cheering in Khandahar... and me cheering right here. Go Canada Go!

Watching the ceremonies more. I really enjoyed the fiddler/tap dancing segment. Beautiful Cdn maple leafs everywhere.

Nice Olympic flag bearers choices, including Terry Fox's mom and a famous UN Cdn peacekeeper (now Senator) Romeo Dallare.

Amazing Measha Brueggergosma's operetta was breath-taking.

Oh, this is better - 5 people lighting the cauldron...

...O - M - G... they flubbed the opening lighting of the cauldron! I can just see it now with Americans ribbing that Canada can't get it up. And then what? Watching a hockey player in a pick-up truck for 10 minutes to light the external cauldron? Well, I guess that's uniquely Cdn. Great show... poor finish. I hope this isn't foreshadowing Canada's performance at these games. Rated E for "effort"?

Julia & me

It's been a whirlwind of health issues for the past few weeks. Last blog was about my first hockey injury. My back was put back into place within a week, only to be just the prelude of a series of "unfortunate" adventures which included a mild concussion and an unrelenting stomach bug.

But today I'm feeling back to my normal crazy-self. Working this weekend to make up for lost sick days (which currently I have none - something that I'm thinking about changing). But tonight while doing the ritual laundry dance I found myself renting a few movies to pass the time. One of which is "Julie & Julia". My interest of the film was primarily of watching Meryl impress me once again with her acting talent. A critically acclaimed performance and deservingly so. The 2nd reason is that I do remember watching a flutterly woman discuss the finer points of baking during my childhood (thanks PBS!). I didn't understand much of what was going, other than Julia Child was litterly off-her-rocker. Please don't misunderstand, that isn't an insult. It is a sincere compliment. Because I think I have a bit of Julia in me - especially when teaching science. I think next time I teach a class, I shall wear a pearl necklace in homage. Thanks Julia.


Music... I have been busy with music again of late due to a recital. However that will be a topic for a future blog. Tonight, a lil' more of Tracy Chapman's bright, "Sing for You". I often think about her concert I saw last summer, she performed this song with a lil' intro that she was curious of how Cdns would sing the chorus. Apparently there are different takes of how people pronounce "Do, do-do, do-do-do, do".

Oh snap!

Last week was an interview for a possible post-doc position. The research is awesome! Just the timing is crappy. I'm not giving up the ghost with this lab as of yet, and play the wait n' see game. In the meantime, sending off more emails to more labs for more possible positions. So nothing fruitful so far in the job hunt. But the trip to the city was a fruitful one on a personal note. I got to visit three set of friends in 36h. If anything was successful it was the laughs over the table chats.

Hockey wise, I had my first injury of the season. There was a scuffle in the cease which resulted in a pile of women on top of each other, with me at the bottom. The picture here isn't from the night, but it's a close approximation. Most times this is alright, providing that everyone lays pancake-wise. But this time, an opponent's elbow dove right onto my spine and I swear I heard a "crack". We did end up winning the match, however afterwards I did required a few chiro appointments, a bottle of muscle relaxants, and 8 days of no hockey. This meant 4 games I was sidelined. But all the recoup did me some good as I can play pain free (knock on wood).

In other nuances... I started to play with Wii again. I'm slow on gaming consoles and current hot games. Me, I'm just happy playing Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess, which came out 4 years ago (Yeah, I'm THAT slow). It's a good game being the level of slash n' dash is equally balanced with logic n' puzzles to solve. I haven't found a game that brings back memories like Super Mario Bros 3. Man, I played that game morning, noon, n' night. A lot of my childhood was spent/wasted learning jump sequences and the gaming soundtracks are embedded in my head for eternity.

Speaking of music, a lil' Moby with his "Honey" classic. I rewatched the video for this one, it's how I feel these days, just wandering around trying to figure out where my life is going.

Laterz!

Me and my camera...

By now you know that my #1 hobby is being a hockey goalie. If you don't, you haven't been reading this blog much haven't you? I do love hockey, but it always amazes me that my personal/work life rarely overlaps with my hockey life. None of my close friends play hockey. In fact, come to think of it, I'm probably the only person in my close friends circle that actively plays a team sport. I could go off and analyze this til' I'm blue in the face but it's obviously not a dealbreaker. I just became more aware of this fact when my mom visited me a few months ago for my PhD convocation and attended two of my games. It's nice to have someone on the other side of the rink cheering you on. Maybe this should go on my "future-mate" list somewhere: item 9 = must like hockey.

Speaking of hobbies, there's another one of mine: photography. I really really want to take some courses to learn how to get cool pictures. Of course this will involve the investment of an awesome Leica or Cannon camera. So it's on my list. As mentioned above, my mom visited me a few months ago and we headed out to Jasper/Banff for a few days. I brought my camera along:








Yeah, nothing groundbreaking. I think I do have an eye for the interesting scene. It's just the matter of being able to have the skills to capture it. Something I shall work on.

Music wise today: Edwyn Collins peeps with his classic "A girl like you." I'm outta here!