Archive for October, 2006
Cute little bundles of baby!
Ironically, recent comments on this blog have been oriented towards babies and their extreme cuteness AND this past Thursday, my aunt gave birth to a beautiful sweet little baby named Nikhil. Despite popular opinion that most babies appear slightly extraterrestrial after birth, he was simply adorable. I have no way of fully articulating how happy I am for her and how I can’t wait to see this little baby grow up, but it is overwhelmingly exciting.
As most of you know, I love babies/kiddos/little people for a few key reasons:
1) I am fascinated by embryology. I think it’s absolutely amazing how a couple cells dividing in synchrony can find their way into becoming a human being as we know it. For anyone that is interested in how things work or how they are formed, I think embryology is ultimately the most applicable and basic field of study.
2) The ‘blank slate’ that is a baby – I like how you can see what sort of personality the baby tends to have free of any influences. What their key tendencies are. What will make them smile, laugh and cry. How babies still exhibit eye saccades
(my professor tested this on his baby by holding him up and rotating him, but I restrained myself from doing this to little baby Nikhil. That’s willpower.) How cooling will stimulate a baby to breathe, an adaptive response resulting from the need to take a first breath at birth. Ah, it’s all so exciting.
3) They are just so CUTE! Cute, cute, cute. I met someone recently who told me that she volunteers at Sick Kids Hospital, and she basically just has to hold babies for a few hours each day. How cute would that be.
On another note, JUST to clarify, fish are not substitutes for babies, although my fishie (Blueberry) is pretty damn cute.
There’s a monster on my bed
I live in a solarium (think: windows) therefore I am basically at equilibrium with the temperature outside. Cold, heat, it’s all fair game in my bedroom. Kinda like sleeping in your car. Due to these recent cold and dreary nights I, having really poor temperature regulation, have been desperately in need of something to keep me warm, all alone in my hugemongeous queen-size bed. Solution: sleep in the midst of a large group of stuffed animals (And yep, I am 22 years old).
One of these warmth-providers is Patty. According to her creators, Patty is the lead singer of a group called The Sugars. Her tag continues with: “She considers herself to be a natural beauty, despite the fact that her awkward stages are well documented in her family photo album”. Okay, yes, I am writing about a stuffed animal in a blog entry (In my defense, it clearly states ‘for all ages’ on the tag).
I first saw these little monster creatures at the One of a Kind Show, in Toronto. They are ridiculously over-stuffed, super soft, completely random monsters; each of which has it’s own unique character. According to their website, these monsters are the collaboration of three friends in Toronto who “are in the business of in character development, illustration and most notably the creation of plush monsters”. Basically, I think they are really cute. Extremely random. If I had kids, I would totally innundate them with these little guys (and until then, I shall enjoy their company myself).
Check out their website here: Monster Factory. Really, check it out! It also satisfies the cute-requirement, and it has all of their current animals on the front page. Secondly, and another reason that I love them so much, they have a blog! The Monster Factory creators are part of the blogging world, you can visit their site here.
One of my favourite pictures from their blog (‘Storm Trooper and Wayne‘)
The quest begins
I have been on this perpetual search for “the right jeans”. Perpetually unsuccessful. They’re either too big or too small. Too short or too long. Too ugly. Or if I like them, too expensive.
Yesterday, I went shopping at the Eaton’s center. Found: the perfect pair of jeans. They were skinny leg, not too dark/light, had some nice work going on, and from Zara…therefore not a million dollars. Of course, they didn’t have my size. Apparently, it never even came in my size. The irony! The torture. So the quest begins.
I must admit that I have a really bad habit of, out of pure desperation, buying the first pair of jeans that look semi-decent. The jean-purchasing standards have dropped considerably in recent months – again, out of desperation. Consequently, my closet is filled with these random jeans that I don’t wear (too big, too small, too long, too short…you get the idea).
Ah well, I shall stop this jean-ranting now, before this post becomes ridiculously materialistic and I feel the need to delete it at a later date. Some pretty pictures:
When under the influence…
Today was a very stressful day. An Eight AM meeting (after staying up late preparing for the said meeting), and working until 7:30pm on a super long rtPCR (for those of you that can relate). The solution to such stressfulness = wine and an excellently yummy Italian dinner. Ah, it’s so relaxing. Recently I’ve been on this wine-drinking trip. Not for the sake of drinking, but for the sake of enjoying (and acquiring a taste for) good wine. Brings back good memories of our wine & cheese (mostly wine) housewarming party last year; still reminiscent in the wine stains on the wall. Argh. Newly found, previously hidden behind the futon.
So of course, while under the influence of wine I felt the need to write a blog entry. I feel like this should be on our blog-celebrity friend’s site Wasted Time. It could potentially be as coherent (or incoherent) as one of their entries. All I need now is a tipsy-blogger pseudonym.
So, what have I learnt from these wine-drinking experiences?
1) Portuguese wine is excellent, excellent, excellent.
2) The fancier the restaurant, the bigger the wine glass.
3) Sangria is soooo much better in Spain than in Canada.
3) ER is really interesting after a few glasses of wine. Or else this season is really good?
That’s all the wine-education I can handle for now. For those of you that are in Toronto, the Hart House at U of T is hosting a wine tasting series, beginning Nov 2nd if anyone is interested :)
The Inaugural Entry
This past summer I stated the following reasons for starting, and attempting to successfully maintain, a blog:
1. My inner geek misses having a website.
2. I have been provoked by certain people with the challenge of keeping a non-boring blog.
3. Court was recently crowned “blog-queen” and I feel the need to be royalty as well (refer to title)
4. I like to talk a lot and I think people at work are going insane.
Therefore, I obviously would like to extend this insanity to the online community as well.5. Lastly, I believe that I am brilliant and fascinating (at least online), and therefore have the right to rant about my life in this little space.
I have to add one more reason to the list, of many commendable reasons, for blogging. Namely…efficient procrastination.
Now the tradition (and the insanity) is doomed to continue at a new location, in this handy blogging world of wordpress.com. Feel free to lurk, observe, peruse, comment and (above all) enjoy!
“Las Meninas” once again
VELAZQUEZ, Diego
Las Meninas
1656
Oil on canvas
10′5″ x 9′1″
Museo del Prado, Madrid
This is a blog entry I wrote a while ago, slight altered, but with the same ideas intact. Recently the inspiration of an essay I’m writing, I thought I would post it again here.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to travel around Spain with my aunt. It was absolutely amazing to go for so many reasons. Despite the overabundance of museums in Spain, El Prado still enticed us with promises of works by Picasso, Gaudi and El Greco. Our vacation had become a lesson in art history prior to which I had not heard of Velazquez, a 17th century court painter from Madrid. Yet his painting stood before me – overwhelming, magnificent and precise. An amateur painter myself, I approached his masterpiece with eager anticipation. On the left-hand side, Velazquez himself contemplates an oversized canvas that we cannot see. Infanta Margerita, daughter of the Spanish King and Queen, stands dignified in the center. She is surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, who appease her by bringing court-appointed entertainers: the jester and a dwarf.
The painting gained artistic merit by Velazquez’s departure from the norm; he reversed the role of the viewer by painting himself inside the frame, breaking down the boundary inherent in art. However from the perspective of a scientist the painting reveals other meanings. In 17th century Spain it was common practice to promote mating between people afflicted with dwarfism in order to select for the same condition. Oblivious or indifferent to the additional health complications that could arise, this was done purely for the entertainment of the court. Scientifically accurate, one can observe that Velazquez portrayed two types of dwarfism in his painting, achondroplasia and growth hormone deficiency. Maribarbola, the female dwarf standing closest to la infanta Margerita, had achondroplasia, a type of dwarfism where they have a normal size trunk with short limbs. Apparently this is the most common type. The other dwarf (introduced as the court jester in the audioguide), Nicolasito, had a growth hormone deficiency as his limbs and features are in proportion with the rest of his body. By depicting the Infanta and the dwarfs on the same level, Velazquez tells of the injustices in society facing people affected by a genetic condition and of our continual struggle towards equality. However, it is inspiring that education about the biological basis for a condition may help to dispel judgment.
Velazquez’s painting shows how science can define itself within other disciplines, and how it can provide an explanatory framework in an unexpected context.
