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!