My post-debate two cents

I'm so glad I watched the debate last night. This whole election cycle, I've known that I'm voting for the Democrat, and I'm honestly glad that it's Obama, and not Hillary (there is not enough time to explore my complicated feelings about Hillary here; maybe some other time). But I haven't been really excited about Obama, I just think that his proposed policies are more in tune with what I'd like to see happen in this country. And his world-view doesn't seem to be as hostile & arrogant as the whole Republican field's view. Still, I wasn't convinced that he would win. (I'm still not, but that's another story as well).

But tonight, Obama really impressed me. McCain seemed to endlessly spout campaign slogans and stories (that always sound fake to me, no matter which politician is telling the "let me tell you about this american (insert mother of a soldier here, usually) that I recently met who told me something that appeals to patriotism and therefore endorses me as the more patriotic candidate" story). After McCain's long "bracelets" story, Obama told his own ("They're mothering off!" was the comment in our party at this point), and made the point that there are mothers who've lost their sons to the Iraq war who don't support our continuation of the war - e.g. Americans are different, and many don't agree with McCain/Bush that we're winning with our current strategy. I certainly don't, and I know I'm not the only one.

Overall I thought Obama was much more substantive, though not too bogged down in details, and I hope that that level of detail will be appreciated by the American people. All over the web, I'm reading that people think Obama's sentences were too complicated for the American people, so maybe it was a bad thing. But I'm getting kind of sick of the assumption that the majority of the country prefers to be treated like they're stupid. I found Obama's respect for the intelligence of the electorate refreshing. And I think he did a fairly good job of not sinking into mudslinging mode, but rather focussing on his specific vision and what he sees as important challenges facing the nation. Come to think of it, I have felt in the course of this election that Obama has been pretty dignified as politicians go - so I'm probably biased, sue me :)

I won't go on too much about McCain comments that made me scream at the screen. (FREEZE ALL SPENDING EXCEPT DEFENSE????? Are you kidding me? And keep the Bush tax cuts permanent at the same time? With: 1) a serious financial sector crisis; 2) crumbling infrastructure (think Minneapolis bridge collapse); 3) natural disasters causing more damage lately (think Katrina, and Ike); 4) challenges to our educational system (we need better science & technology education, a better trained workforce, and probably better financial education); and5) a major shift in approaches to supplying energy needed, we can't freeze spending. At least they could repeal the Bush tax cuts to pay for the damn war - if the ultra-rich (i.e. people who run oil companies & defense companies) are going to reap huge profits from American military actions, let them pay for it, not the taxpayers who earn much less (but have fewer loopholes available to them, and are much more numerous). Let us get something in return for our taxes, and people might be a little less bitter about paying them.

Obama's economic policy excited me. I really don't think the health care reform thing has a good shot at happening, but increasing taxes on the over $5 million crowd does not bother me. I'm waiting to see what happens on the Wall street bailout, and fully expect it to be unfair (I say let them fail, possibly provide some home-ownership relief for actual individuals or maybe a low cost loan program + tax exemption or deduction for down payment + closing costs (if people refinance at better terms or buy a house), and invest some money in emerging technology (and maybe, just maybe in manufacturing?) to boost jobs in those sectors. Wouldn't it be nice if American companies made something again?). Plus I had extra excitement left over from an NPR story on three companies that are opening in Western PA, that all make different kinds of solar panels (traditional polysilicon, some kind of carbon-paint, and the parabolic mirrors for the heated oil kind), so I'm on a pro-alternative energy industry kick right now. Maybe I'll look up some stock in that sector & start following it.

Okay, that's enough swooning for now. Got to go attack the weeds that are taking over the sidewalk.

tomato preserves time

Yay! I have enough tomatoes to start making preserves. So I boiled some up last night, & the slurry is now in my fridge, waiting until I have 16 hours to reduce it, then can it. Sadly, I could not locate the meticulously kept notes from last year, so I had to wing it - but it smells like it did last time around! I'm taking that as a good sign.

I went to the eye doctor yesterday - a new one near my house, and they're not jerks. Contrast this with the last time I went to the eye doctor - I was seriously overcharged & in the end given a pair of glasses that gave me a migraine within 3 minutes of putting them on. But I should have known that anyplace that gave me a 5 color printout of a map of the surface of my retina (???? wtf am i supposed to do with that? i just want some glasses!) would probably rip me off. That particular organization has since moved to a much trendier retail location, so I'm sure it now costs several thousand dollars to get your eyes examined.

But, my new guy is good, just did a standard eye exam. Is getting me some new type of contact to try. And I found a pair of glasses I like off the "frames provided by your insurance company" rack. Which usually only has Gary Larson-esque glasses that are hideously ugly. The ones I found actually look better than the 5 pairs I tried on from the "designer" section (which would have cost me a couple hundred dollars that I don't have). So I got free glasses, splurged for polycarbonate lenses ($30), and will pick up the tab on the contacts when they come in. I also asked about laser eye surgery (for which I am a candidate, but I'm pretty sure it would cost ~7k, and for that much money, I can think of a lot of other things I'd like instead.) I also found myself wondering if there is some physical attractiveness standard for opthalmologists. Except for last time, the ones that I've had have all been improbably cute. This guy is no exception (and the last time, that guy was old, so maybe he was really cute when he was younger?). Do they turn them away from opthalmology school if they're not attractive enough? Or do they get extensive cosmetic surgery before being allowed to practice?

Plum Harvest

We had a plum tree mishap this week - it seems there were ants eating away at the tree, so 1/2 of it fell over. So we harvested plums on Thursday, & had a small plum sorting session with me, D & his friend M. I got a chance to check out the new jazz CD that I picked up in Newport last weekend, & we discussed making a videogame called Virtual Migrant Worker. Or alternatively titled Plum Harvest II. (I think the II makes it sound better, but am not sure if you have to come out with Plum Harvest original before using the II designation.)

Today we had planned to go to Ikea early in the morning. But D felt sick last night & this morning, and I can't say I'm 100% today either. I cleaned up the kitchen instead, dealt with the significant volume of recycling that we have accumulated in the last two months, & petted the black kitty (who had a multi-day adventure & only returned last night). Oh, and laundry (which I have to go switch).....

Done & done. It seems there is no hot water running to the washing machine, though I am not upset enough by this to go figure out which valve is incorrectly closed.

I'm hoping we'll make it to Ikea tonight, and get a new mattress. The current one is, well...., it's time for a new one. And new pillows. And lingonberries. (And I'm sure D will sneak several tubes of fish paste into the cart)

Kristen posted her menu for the week, and it's inspired me to take another stab at getting D to sit down with me & plan menu/shopping for the week. While I don't have the whole week planned out yet, here's tonight's dish:

Yellow-fin tuna (grilled, with a Sesame Garlic & Worcestershire sauce), mixed grilled vegetables (if they're still good from Thursday) and brown basmati rice. Also whatever kind of salad I can pull together from vegetables-that-must-be-used-or-composted-in-the-next-couple-of-days. Well, I'm off to help with stick reduction in the backyard (cutting sticks into smaller sticks).

Silver Enhancement

Well, I went ahead with my silver-gold staining today anyway. I figured that the expensive reagents from this experiment had already been used, so I might as well prepare sections for EM. This necessitated another 12 hr day, but I think it was the right call. Tomorrow I'll re-run the c-fos staining & urotensin staining to make sure that I didn't just mess something up.

In response to an earlier comment, my birdhouse (oops, it's actually a bird-feeder) looks like this (so far):



I want to paint some leaves & such on it, and I'm finally getting to use the paint brushes that my sister sent me many years ago! I like doing creative stuff, but I never seem to get around to it.

That's all for now - it's late & I stood all day today at the bench. I need some sleep :)

Crappity crap crap

Urgh.... well, my c-fos staining did not work, my urotensin staining did not work, and now I'm not sure whether it's worth doing the EM staining for choline transporter. Another fun day in the lab.

I'll try again tomorrow, maybe I just messed something up - but I suspect that the urotensin antibody I'm using is no good, and I probably did not hit my target either.

At least I got to go home a little early, and even picked up some paint in order to finish painting the birdhouse that I started quite awhile ago.

Return from FL & Another Day off

We made it back to Pennsylvania rather uneventfully, and had a long drive back to the house due to highway traffic & some creative use of backroads. But it was a beautiful afternoon, sunny but cool, so it was pretty enjoyable. When we reached the house, we took a walk through the backyard & looked at our produce.

The peaches are just starting to ripen, the plums & pears too, and the tomatoes aren't far behind.

(Okay, I meant to post pictures of the trees & peaches & such, but apparently I don't actually take pictures, I just think about taking them). Perhaps later.....

In other news, my insane experiment that was supposed to happen on Monday (and was the reason that I went to work all day on Sunday to prepare) did not happen. We were out of anesthetic, & I didn't know where to borrow any at 7 am. I actually did this experiment today (Friday), and it took over 14 hours, so I'm glad that I scrapped it on Monday, since I wouldn't have gotten out of work until well after midnight. Science really stinks sometimes.

Thankfully, all of the adverse event stuff that was happening after my recent surgeries has stopped. DR #11 is alive and frisky after a ~ 4 hour procedure on Wednesday. And my two guys today went pretty well - we'll see if I got the activation I'm hoping for on Sunday. Sorry for the dorky stuff - I'm injecting this peptide into the brain that is supposed to cause increased neuronal firing in the brainstem cholinergic neurons, but so far it's only been published for live animals by one group - and they didn't show any c-Fos staining (a protein that is a marker of increased neuronal activity). This is what I'll be doing this weekend, but keep your fingers crossed for me - I've never done this staining before either! Love you all, & I'll post pictures when I get them. In the meantime:



I figure I can post this because it's not data, just an example of how coverslipping errors can produce cool-looking things. This is an area of my tissue where the mounting medium didn't completely cover the section, so there are air bubbles between the coverslip & the tissue - not good for data collection, but I liked it enought to shoot the image anyway. It's also the background on my desktop computer now.