Not again

Our lease is up again in about two months. It's not that I want to stay, but I really don't want to move. The only thing worse than moving is helping someone else move. Our place is cramped, but not much is cheaper. Buying a place seems unlikely since we should only be here another 3 years.

Still, it'd be nice to have a yard. Kyle has really enjoyed the great outdoors via our back patio.

Biology vs Comedy

People in biology related fields think they are funny. I haven't decided if I'm laughing at them or with them.

I'll give 2 examples:
1) Dr. Southern developed the "Southern" blot, used to detect DNA after gel electrophoresis. Another guy then did the same thing with RNA and called it a "Northern" blot. Another one did it with proteins and called it a "Western" blot.

2) The group describing "Western" blotting to the class today decided it would be fun to dress up as cowboys and do a mini dance prior to their demonstration. I'll remind you that this is a graduate level course.

Christian Rock

Only the Onion tells it like it is.

Dilemma

You may remember me talking about a frame and some other parts I bought or was given a while back to build myself a road bike (the Fetish). Since, I've received a VERY nice road bike as a gift (the Colnago, thanks again Jerry). Yes. That's right. I recieved a free Colnago. How can there be a dilemma when a Colnago is involved?

You may also remember that I built a single speed a while back to commute on (the Nishiki). I really like the bike, but since the parts are mostly used it requires a lot of maintenance - the wheelset is completely shot. The headset should probably be replaced too, but I'm less worried about that. My plan was to put the wheelset I bought for the Fetish on the Nishiki, but it turns out the rear wheel spacing is off by 4mm.

Lets review: I have a bike that's too nice to ride to school, a bike that's too crappy to ride to school, and 1/3 of a bike in pieces around the house. The last few months I've been riding Mindy's road bike to school; however, the weather is getting nicer, and she would like to go on rides with Kyle during the day.

The optimal solution is cheap, requires little maintenance, and leaves me with few extra bikes/parts. I could:
1) Buy crappy parts and put them on the Fetish.
2) Buy nice parts & put them on the fetish to (a) sell or (b) commute on.
3) Buy a cheap wheelset to put on the Nishiki and continue to ride it.

Feel free to tell me I whine too much, and give your input.

Office Hours

Step 1: Spend hours working on a single math problem which makes senses, but seems impossible to solve using the hints given on the assignment.
Step 2: Go to your professors office hours, only to have him point out a single error in the problem as it is written. As a purely hypothetical example, "dot product with y" instead of "dot product with b".
Step 3: Figure out the problem in your head in the next 15 seconds sitting in his office.

You have no idea how common this scheme has become this semester.

What did you expect?

2006 Ig Nobel Prize awards are up. Good Stuff.

Oh, I almost forgot. Math is weird and illogical. 

Question of the day

How is it that silencing RNA gets the Nobel Price for Medicine, while the basis of eukaryotic transcription gets the Nobel Prize for Chemistry?

Update 10/12: I'm not the only one asking this question.

Arizona Football eh.