I AM COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pinkie (my office mate) was telling me that Denver ranks #1 as the best place to live for singles, as stated in Forbes. So, first off, that's BS, at least from a dating perspective. But, it led to an interesting side note:

I am so cool.

One of the criteria is a city's Coolness factor. It is computed as so:

"Coolness: Coolness is determined by an area's diversity and its number of creative workers (i.e., those whose jobs require creativity, such as artists, scientists, teachers and musicians). "

Note the word scientists. Yes, scientists are now officially considered cool. It's only taking me 30 years, but I am now one of the cool kids.

Yippee!!

Remember

Just saw the V for Vendetta trailer. It looks quite fun. It also brought me to this poem:

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

It's about Guy Fawkes day.

I kind of like the fact that my birthday is associated with the ....

(Ok, wierdness... as I was typing the words "my birthday", Grizz called and asked when my birthday was, for completely unrelated reasons..... freaky thing, this universe)

anyway, I like the fact that it is associated with the re-evaluation of a government by it's citizens, albeit a violent, unsuccessful, and generally held as traitorous one.

Interestingly :

"Some of the English have been known to wonder, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, whether they are celebrating Fawkes' execution or honoring his attempt to do away with the government."

Intimate Details

The other night Grizz was made aware that I have a blog. He suggested that he was going to have to read it, to see what I had been saying about him. I was shocked (ok, only a little). I mean , I've always thought that, even with my limited exposure of -3 readers, that I shouldn't really talk abotu others. Isn't that an invasion of their privacy? I'm not talking from a legal standpoint, but from a courtesy standpoint.

Then I started taking a look at the other blogs I read, and they have varying degrees of descirpiton of others, some more and some less than mine. Its appears to be personal preference. Girlzoot gets into some pretty personal stuff, both about herself and her son (although he's still a little too young to really summon up that teen outrage). I guess I am always a bit too worried about what my friends will say if I talk about them, especially since my immediate friends are my most common readers.

So, I guess I will continue to limit my discussion to my intimate details, not others.

Current mood: I feel like I'm in high school again.

Popsicles

So, Rochie (who doesn;t like her nickname, but, tough titties, its my blog) was over last night for a little girl night pick me up. We went to the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner (lettuce wraps) and for me to try to completely decarb my flourless choclate cupcake recipe (I got it down to 5g carb/cupcake, and 3 of those are fiber... gooo me!). While we were there she pointed out SoBe's new LEAN line, made with Splenda. Yippee!!!! I can now satisfy my fruit juice cravings (I LOVE the Energy drink). She also suggested a new treat, perfect for this sweltering weather: SoBe ice pops. I poured a bottle of the LEAN Energy into my ice trays, and froze them. Tonight, after work, I will put them in the blender and, assuming the magic smoke doesn't pour out, have a South-Beach Friendly slushy. I may even share with Grizz, Merlot and Rochie, who are coming over (supposedly) so we can all go to the drive-in tonight.

Sniff.... Goodbye Scotty

So, I wouldn't consider myself a Trekkie, or a Trekker, but I have always held a warm place in my heart for Scotty, the lovable, ornery engineer on Star Trek, played oh so memorably by James Doohan. Mr. Doohan passed away today. Goodbye, sir, and may you journey into that unknown you took us into so long ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1493093.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4701167.stm

Nick names

Well, since Grizz got his new nickname, I should probably give a new one to his hetero lifemate. Ok, kind of a stretch on that one, but these two have been roommates 4 EVER!!! So, Thing 1 and Thing 2, A.K.A. Pooh and Bear, are now (drumroll please).... Merlot and Grizz. Also, there is a new chicky hanging around....so please give a warm welcome to Rochie!

That's all for today. Gotta get back and make buffers.

Princess Sophie

I have been neglecting my cat. Now, before you call the ASPCA, she has plenty of food, water, and litter, and an apartment all her home. My neglect has been in the lovin' and pettins' department. I've been away a lot lately, between seeing Grizz and going camping and going to conferences. Psychokitty's response has been to get VERY mewy at me when I come home. She also has a new little mew/growl which she greets me at the door with, which sounds suspiciously like "mama". I may be reading a little too much into that. Anyway, since I am feeling VERY guilty, tonight it's all Psychokitty, all the time. We'll open a can of tuna, get out the favorite toys,a nd I'm going to try and wear her out.

Henna

I went to the Ren Faire yesterday, and saw T-Rex and BigFoot in their full court regalia. I was dressed as a serving wench, and got many a compliment. I also got a Henna tattoo on my hand. I will try and figure out this picture thing and upload a pic of it. It's quite pretty.

So, everyone has a nickname....and now that I'm dating someone, I should give him one as well. It's hard giving someone a nickname. He has one on another site, which shall remain nameless, but, knowing him somewhat better than the other blogger, I'm renaming him. So, welcome Grizz. You've been blogged.

My timing is great, isn't it? Finally start dating again, just as I potentially get ready to move to another state for a job. Yes, the job hunt is progressing, and I have a line on jobs here, in Chicago, and in California. The thing that is rerally hard is that when I'm first in a relationship I get emoptionally involved pretty fasst. Now, this is the "honeymoon" effect, and I recognize it as such, but it still makes it hard to not figure the relationship into any career decisions. Oh well. Just one more thing to do in life.

Goodbye stress

I made a life decision last week. I found myself sitting in my office, ready to cry my eyes out, and I didn't know why. So I started some soul-searching. What I came up with was I wasn't happy, and hadn't been for a very long time.

What a stupid way to go through life. But why, you ask? What caused this morass you found your soul in? The answer: my own psychic hang-ups. Lemme 'splain... no, it take to long.. lemme sum up...

I have issues with disappointment. This manifests in various ways, but the most troublesome manifestation is that I will go to extreme ends to not disappoint those I care for. And so, I have been following a path that was not right for me.. I think. My career choices at this point are to go find a job in industry or to stay in academia and try to set up my own laboratory. About a year ago, after much waffling, I decided to go into academia. An academic's life is hard, especially with the difficulties in getting funding, and I have serious doubts as to whether I would be successsful, but I decided to do it anyway.

Why? Well, because I like the academic life and the freedom to choose my own projects, etc., etc. Good reasons. The ones I didn't admit to myself are because I felt I SHOULD go that way and because I felt like a cop out if I didn't. I was holding myself up to a perceieved, nonexistant standard for my career.

This was my realization last week. So I started to think about what would make me truly happy at this point in my life. Here's the list:

Get a job that I can leave at work
Be respected by my peers.
Be a good scientist
Stay in Colorado
Be happy

That first one is the one that made me make a decision. If I take the academic route, I will spend the next 5-10 years sweating, lying awake at night (as I am alredy doing), worrying about getting funding. In industry, that stress, at least, goes away. And I will do well in industry. I have appropriate skills and a good work ethic.

So that's that. I'm looking for a job in industry. As far as staying in Colorado, well, in academia that chance was none. Now its risen to slim.

Construction

My kitchen is going to look silly soon. I cannot keep Princess Sophie (a.k.a. psychokitty) off the counters. She has also figured out how to jump from the counters to the top of the refrigerator. So, I have begun constructing a barrier. Of course, actual construction is too difficult, so I have regressed to my childhood fortmaking.... I am slowly piling heavy things up, preferabloy with sheer sides, in areas that I know she uses to get up there. I wonder if I can reach the ceiling?