Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Gas prices

Yes, I know, I don't drive a car. So why am I talking about gas prices? Well, I was alternately amused and disgusted that Exxon Mobile, one of the largest public companies in the United States, recently announced earnings of $10.7B for the fourth quarter alone. Last year their earnings were $36B.

Their fourth quarter earnings are the most by any American company. Ever.

So much for an oil shortage driving up gas prices. My eco-sensitive/activist friends (you know who you are), feel free to rant in the 'comments' section of this post, or correct me on any errors or omissions. (We all know I care very little for business or politics.)

Perhaps I should be an oil tycoon... Better yet, I am moving to the middle east to become a sheik. Sheik Abdullah Mustafa Josh, the infinitely wealthy oil tycoon who is chauffered in a Mercedes-Benz limo across the desert.

What? I already have the beard.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Return of the Tax Returns

I had previously posted on January 5th that I finished my tax returns (last sentence of the post). While this is true, I haven't been able to file them because Columbia University doesn't give out W-2 forms until the very end of the month. This weekend I received mine, but have been thinking about changing the way that I complete my tax returns.

Last night I was going through forms, receipts, publications, and instructions in an attempt to figure out Yilin's tax status. In the course of such homework, I came across a lot of interesting tax laws. For instance, if you are a whaling captain, you can deduct up to $10,000 per year for whale hunting expenses including weapons costs, food for your crew, and costs to butcher, store, and distribute the whale. Another interesting example is that if you received payment as a death benefit for an astronaut who died in the line of duty, you don't need to claim that payment as income. The last interesting exemption is for donations: donations of $5,000 or less do not require the submission of appraisals. This includes works of art donated by the artist.

So, in light of this new information, if anyone asks you about my tax status, tell them that I am a whaling captain two months out of the year, that my income from Columbia University is actually a death benefit (paid monthly) for the passing of my dependent who died in the line of duty as an astronaut for the University, and I am a well known artist whose works typically command $5,000 or less. There will be a small monetary reward in it for you if all goes as planned. If not, then you may be the recipient of a *small* federal sentence instead.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

...

Yesterday morning my Uncle Rob passed away. I debated as to whether it would be appropriate to discuss it on my blog or not. I thought that it might make certain family affairs too public. I then realized that if this really is a journal of events which affect my life, a reflection of me, then I should talk about it here. Certainly he deserves mention on my blog if I commonly discuss such trivial matters such as the stupidity of people calling me at work.

I won't go on at length as it is still too painful, but I just want to say that he was someone that I always respected. He was level-headed, logical, and had a great deal of common sense (something my mom will tell you that I lack, which is probably part of the reason that I respected him). He also had a unique sense of humor which was revealed only at key moments. I will miss him very much.

Out of respect and
as an internet version of a "moment of silence," please do not comment on this post. I am probably not going to write much in the next few days.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Iron Chef Washington Heights

I will discuss this post's title later. But first...

This weekend was rather busy, culminating in much buzzing about yesterday. Friday night Yilin and I ate dinner at Corner Bistro, which has potentially the best burger in town. Read all about it!

Saturday marked a day of lab work and Yilin's roommate's engagement party (read as "Sarah's engagement party"). (The situation is interesting because Sarah and her fiancee Mark met after Yilin and I had already started dating. Saturday night was 6 months to the day since they had met! I am happy for them that they can come to that decision in such a short period of time.) At the party we ate and chatted with people. I had met some of Sarah and Yilin's mutual friends before, so I wasn't totally lost in a sea of strangers. All in all we had a good time.

Sunday was a busy day. It began early with pastries from Patisserie Claude (yeah!) and ended with more great food at the first Iron Chef Washington Heights battle! Well, actually the second. The first battle ended before it even started when Mike Halas, aka Iron Mexican (Hyunmi says he cooks only Mexican food), succumbed to fear and doubt and chose to forfeit his match vs Katie rather than face a humiliating defeat.

Hyunmi, however, stepped up to the challenge at short notice and battled the now undefeated Katie in Kitchen Stadium (aka my apartment)! This battle would go down in history as Battle Pear! (The secret ingredient was pear, and I had 4 varieties for the contestants to choose from.)

Hyunmi cooked furiously for the pride of Korea, as did Katie. Of course, Hyunmi was outraged that Katie also intended to cook for the pride of Korea, and as such, the two often engaged in fisticuffs during the one hour time limit. Meanwhile, Mike, Yilin, and myself sat back, watched Iron Chef America on FoodTV On-Demand, and relaxed.

Katie had prepared a salad containing pear, walnuts, and feta cheese to start her meal. The entree was a stir fry dish with white rice, red bell pepper, red pear, and chicken. She did a wonderful job, but the battle was far from over.

Hyunmi fought back with a mango-pear guacamole and tortilla chips as an appetizer. Her entree was chicken with a pear puree sauce,= containing small chunks of pear. There was also a pear/tomato/Bisquick dish that was used as a starch to balance out the chicken. She finished off the battle with a dessert featuring baked pears topped with a special goat cheese.

The judges convened and tallied their scores, and in the end Hyunmi stood victorious. We then devoured the rest of the food. Not a scrap was left of this delicious feast, that is for sure!

This left our contestants with the following records:

Hyunmi 1-0
Katie 1-1
Mike 0-1
Yilin ---
Josh ---

Next battle: Mike vs Josh! (Katie will decide the secret ingredient.)

Photos are available for your viewing pleasure here. Also, read the delayed restaurant review of Chow Bar here.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Expect interruptions in service

I am switching wireless providers for my cellphone, so within the next few days I may experience an interruption in service. I will be keeping the same phone number, however, so don't worry about updating your phone books.

I was happy with T-Mobile, as it allowed me to have a (relatively) cheap plan. Until I met Yilin. Since we started dating, I have upgraded my plan twice in order to have enough minutes to satisfy her demand for a constant connection. (Just kidding; it was I who wanted to talk to her more, and therefore upgraded my plan without any insistence on her part. In fact, she probably preferred hearing from me less at the beginning of our relationship. "Who is this guy that calls me every night? We only met last week!")

Since a brief survey of my phone bill indicated that 80+% of my minutes are spent calling Yilin, it made sense for us to have the same provider. She is almost halfway through a contract with Cingular, while I am finished with my contract with T-Mobile. So it wasn't really a choice; I was switching. This should save me quite a bit of money, as all my minutes used talking to Yilin effectively will be free.

Don't pretend that you don't care. You knew my blog was cheesy like this, and continue to read it anyway, so there.

Friday, January 20, 2006

I'm sure that you heard...

But I will tell you anyway (I wanted to a few days ago but didn't have time): Researchers in Taiwan have created green fluorescent pigs. Yes, that sounds ridiculous and frivolous, but there is a good purpose, I assure you. While this had to make news ("Look at what those crazy scientists are doing now! That's cool!"), the public's reaction is totally diverted from the research and medical benefits of such an organism, and focused on "designer babies" and "eugenics." I won't go into a tirade here, at least not now, but instead briefly discuss why this is good for research.

Scientists have been doing this sort of thing for many many years. I have used mice that fluoresce green in order to visualize what happens to specific cells when their development is perturbed. Without the green fluorescent protein (GFP), such studies would've been nigh impossible. If I implanted a slew of bone marrow cells into a recipient animal, I would want to know where all of those cells went. People use donor animals with genetic markers, like GFP, to track the fate of the donated cells. Pigs are used mostly for organ transplant experiments as their organ structure is remarkably similar to humans. In fact, I believe the first ever successful xenotransplant (cross-species organ transplant) involved a pig heart into a human male. (Can anybody correct me on this?)

So while it is good for science, it is not "new" and "exciting" for the most part. Just another day in the whizbang lives of us genetic engineers. In fact, I have to manipulate the DNA of several chick embryos later today. Yes, GFP will be involved.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Briefest of updates

As my internet connection has recently been restored, I have posted select digital photos from my Christmas vacation. Film photos won't be available until I purchase a film scanner, which may be awhile. Don't hold your breath because the model I am looking at is $500; less than that is less than perfection. Less than perfection is unacceptable. ;)

View the slideshow... HERE!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

How to write a story

Many a person undertakes the daunting task of writing a story. My good friend Dan is a perfect case in point. I myself have begun writing a story, albeit nonlinear in nature (like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure). Within the infinite number of problems that come with writing a story, one usually takes focus: plot. Where to come up with a right good plot?

My man Robert Louis Stevenson, RLS to those in-the-know, had a... unique, shall we say, method of coming up with a plot. He would go to sleep. Once asleep, the little people that lived in his head put on plays for him in a theater. He woke up and wrote down these plays. I am serious. This was discussed this past weekend on NPR (I can't find the link, unfortunately) and I sought the essay in which this is written. Amazing. Even more amazing, according to the NPR story, was that he would lie on his bed, raise his right arm above his head, and summon the little people. They would answer his summons and perform a play.

So the next time you need a good story, lie down, raise your right arm, and summon the little people in your head!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Something new...

Last night Yilin and I finally saw Memoirs of a Geisha, which she had been wanting to see for a long time now. While we were sitting in the theater waiting for everything to start, we saw something we had never seen. Something new. A man with a long white cane came into the theater with a woman (presumably his wife) and sat down. She directed him. He was blind. Amazing.

This guy was willing to shell out $11 just to sit next to his wife for 2 hours and 25 minutes and listen to a movie that he can't even see. That is love. Of course, it would have been a far greater act of love if the movie were in Japanese and subtitled. (But then again, when all of your leading female roles are Chinese women pretending to be Japanese, well, the original language idea goes out the window.) But it was still amazing on his part.

Oh yeah, and the movie itself was very good. Great acting, beautiful cinematography. All around entertaining.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Busy bee

I've been working hard this weekend and last week, so my blog posts have suffered. I will try to keep it updated, as well as post more photos (I've had requests).

This weekend was nice. I got a lot done in lab (which felt good), and got to see Yilin (which was better). She had a bit of a cold, so I tried to take care of her while I wasn't working (cook for her, get her medicine, things like that). We didn't do much else worth mentioning right now.

Until next time, listen to this. It is an mp3 of Dr. Martin Luther King's speech in Washington D.C.; the famous "I have a dream" speech. I think it is perhaps the best speech I have ever heard; certainly one of the most stirring. Beware, however, that the mp3 is about 17 megabytes, as it is a 16 minute speech. So, download it and plug your headphones in while you sit in your cubicle and... Oh wait, nobody else is working today because it is a national holiday. Silly me. (I will leave the mp3 up for a week or so, but I will have to take it down as I don't really have web hosting.)

Rock on.

(News flash: Check out Katie's blog aka My Favorite Fantazy for info on the most ridiculous half marathon time ever, which was run this weekend. It's unreal.)

(Newer News Flash: check out this post on Dan's blog. Hilarious. I knew there was a good reason why he is writing the Great American Novel.)

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Food & Photos

As I am sitting here in lab during a loooong incubation, I decided to write about my dining experience last night. Yilin and I went to New Leaf Cafe, which is in Fort Tryon Park, and which I pass by very regularly. For years I have told myself that I would eat there one day. Well, that day was last night, and here is the review. Bon jour, good night, and thanks for all the bacon.

On another note, I have been a bit discouraged by the length of time it took to get my slide film developed for Thanksgiving (it arrived just before Christmas), so I bought the chemistry to do it myself. Despite never having developed slide film (I have only done B&W), it turned out well. Very well, indeed. But now there is a conundrum that I would face regardless: our scanner in lab, the only film-capable scanner that I have immediate access to, sucks as a film scanner. Allow me to demonstrate:

The following slide from my Mount Washington expedition was scanned in as is seen here:

This is a bit disappointing because the slide looks brilliant. So after about 30 minutes of Photoshop we get this:

This is much better in terms of tonal range, brightness, color cast, removal of dust, scratches, and moire, proper orientation, cropping, etc. But it still doesn't compare to the original (the vignetting you see is due to the low light in an early morning snow storm; removal of this would take probably another 30 minutes). Hence the need for a real film scanner, preferably one that can scan medium format (6x6 and 6x9) as well. Perhaps that is what I will do with part of my tax return...

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Get Used to Disappointment

So much happened over the 2 weeks that I was away on vacation that I would have to spend an inordinate amount of time writing it down. So, to quote one of my favorite movie characters of all time:
Let me 'splain. [pause] No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

(Bonus points for whoever can identify the character without using a search engine.)

So, in the spirit of Brevity, this is what happened:

Yilin and I went to see Handel's Messiah at Riverside Church, which was so overheated that an 80 year-old man in front of us had a heart attack. We took the midnight bus to Montreal, where her family warmly welcomed me. I felt as if I were at home when I was with them. It was great. Yilin got to try out her snowshoes when we visited some of their family friends. She likes them! (Plus one point for me!) I took the midnight bus from Montreal to New York, where we had to wait nearly 6 hours at customs.

I then took a train to my parents' house that evening, and got to see them and brother. We had a great time together, and hung out and relaxed a lot. Christmas brought the revealing of the nasty clothes in our annual contest. (Don't worry, I will explain the contest later, as well as provide photos.) My brother and I took a trip into the White Mountains of New Hampshire in a bid to complete the Presidential Traverse in one non-stop push. You can read about it here. We hung out in Connecticut a few more days, and then I came back to NYC for New Year's Eve.

Yilin arrived in Penn Station on December 31st, where I picked her up and then went on to make her dinner that evening. We had a quiet relaxing New Year's Eve to ourselves, complete with a bottle of Champagne at midnight. Sunday was a lazy day of sitting around, reading, DVD-watching, and total relaxation. Monday we walked the entire length of Riverside Drive (the west-most street in upper Manhattan), from the end at 165th St to the beginning at 72nd St. If you ever want to see large single-residence mansions in Manhattan, walk along Riverside. Simply amazing.

That's it in a nutshell. We ate at some great restaurants, some of which I would like to review eventually. Photos will be up once they are developed/scanned/uploaded. Digital photos will be up once I get them on my work computer (my internet connection is down and Verizon isn't fixing the problem; guess who isn't paying their bill?).

In conclusion, I would like to state that Uncle Sam is giving me a four-figure return on my income tax. Merry Christmas indeed!

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

I'm back!

I have returned from my holiday adventures! There are many, many things to discuss, so I will not even begin today. (Well, I will begin typing it, but probably won't finish until tomorrow.)

I just wanted everyone to know that I will start updating regularly again, and that I hope that they had wonderful holidays.

Take care.