Someone tell Steve Parker

ODB, may you rest in peace, by which I mean may you rest in a pile of ladies and money.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6479388/

Long time no see

So it looks like I haven't been posting here much. One possibility is that I'm getting deeper into the semester and thinking less about the blog. Another (more real) possibility is that this was all simply an excuse to vent about the Sox. But now, there is no more venting. There is only joy. Thus, it's been sort of a blank slate of late, and for that I apologize. Things on the radar of late:

-Blockbuster, although evil/corporate/scum, has been friendly to me recently. "In America" was outstanding. Many gorgeous moments. Yes, I know you've already seen it. Screw you. "Triplets of Belleville," although I felt I was maybe missing something, was juicy cartoon fun. I like watching old women eat frogs. And "Supersize Me" made us wonder if we'd ever go to McDonald's again. Laproscopic surgery is something we need to see more of in movies.

-I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time ever in my brief time on earth. I cooked a turkey. I basted. I stuffed. I carved. I did not carve well. But there were pieces of turkey on the plate at the end, and that, my friends, is the point. In attendance were my mother, father, sister (Kate), Kia's sister (Kristin), me, and Kia. All in all, a very good time. And I will be eating turkey sandwiches until Christmas.

-I turn 26 in 2 weeks. Some of you who have done this: suggestions?

Dy-no-mite!

Did I mention that for a Halloween party I went to, I was Napoleon Dynamite? Probably not. Kia's parents and sister were in town at the time, and I was a little distracted. Anyway, I was Napoleon, except I couldn't find an auburn-reddish, medium-sized afro, so I had to settle for a huge black afro instead. And I didn't think until it was too late that I should have made a t-shirt that says "Vote for Pedro". But I did have some kickass moonboots. They were perfect, so dead-on it was scary. $25 from Payless.

You stay classy, San Diego

In all of the Red Sox-Election hubbub, I just realized that I never gave an update on my trip to San Diego for the Society for Neuroscience conference, which I'm sure you were just waiting with baited breath to hear about. Without further ado, highlights:

-Fish tacos. Damn, they were good. Maybe not the best, but I don't have much to compare them to. I had them at a place called McGilicuddy Moose's, or something like that. With a big beer and the Sox game on. After having travelled all day and eaten basically nothing. It really hit the spot.

-Right by the convention center where the conference was happening was a little area of bars and shops and restaurants called the Gaslamp Quarter. Really a nice thing to have right there, and they probably clean up in terms of business from the convention center, and it's right by the new ballpark where the San Diego Padres play baseball. The area sort of reminded me of Bethesda, except a little hipper and not quite as yuppy.

-While standing and presenting my poster, I got to see and talk to lots of the old NIMH characters who I used to see on a much more regular basis. It was fun seeing them all again. For the most part, everyone is pretty much the same, which in a way is sort of comforting. By the way, there were an enormous number of posters at this thing. Row after row after row. You could spend all day walking up and down looking at them. And then there were the vendors, selling all kinds of crap I didn't need, like pipettes and microscopes and crap. It didn't stop me from taking free stuff from them, though. I got me a squishy red foam apple and a yellow foam light bulb and some candy.

-Had Moroccan (sp?) food in La Jolla at a place called Marakesh (sp?). It lasted two and a half hours, including belly dancing. It was all on the lab. Sweet. Good food, too.

-There is an entire street in downtown San Diego devoted to shops that sell bail bonds. There are also ads for bail bond places everywhere. Is San Diego just a more arrest-prone city than most? I was stunned.

-A bunch of us from Wash U took advantage of free events on the Monday night of the conference, first getting some free munchies at the Wash U neuroscience reception, then making our way to the party sponsored by MIT, which included open bar and a DJ. I had some free drinks and got down to that milkshake song. Best part: when you're on the dancefloor and you look up, all of a sudden you realize there's no roof.

-On the last day I was there, I got a chance to go to Balboa Park, which is where lots of museums and the zoo are, and then to Old Town San Diego, for some good authentic Mexican food. It was probably 11:30am and we saw a couple of old ladies with margaritas that were bigger than they were. Aye chihuahua!

A New Curse

Since the Red Sox stunned the Yankees and crushed the Cardinals on the way to a thrilling World Series victory, I have been sorely in need of another curse to fill the empty void in my soul where the Curse of the Bambino once stood. I think I have found a suitable substitute.

For the second year in a row, the psychology department IM flag football team marched throught the regular season and playoffs, arriving undefeated and unscathed in the championship game. And for the second year in a row, we fell to the very same team from the law school, shattering our championship hopes once again. This year was a closer game, and it was on the actual football field in the stadium, which was kind of cool, but the end result was the same. Hey, it's no Red Sox-Yankees, but I think we've got a rivalry on our hands.

Now all it needs is a name, preferably something rhyming with "Bambino". What does "Curse of the Cappuccino" do for you? Maybe it originated when one of our players spilled cappuccino on himself the day before the championship.....

Sabbath, Spears, & Smoke

Saturday I headed down to the Landing here in STL, which is a spot right along the river where lots of clubs and bars and individuals of ill-repute tend to conglomerate, to the club Mississippi Nights to see the Dresden Dolls, a band of very GOOD repute. Partially I was going because I haven't had lots of chances to see live music here, and partially I was going so my clothes would get absolutely saturated with second-hand smoke, and partially I was going because I've heard some good things about the band, and partially I was going because I went to high school and did theater with Amanda, one of the band members. They're an interesting group. It's just Amanda on keyboard and another guy on drums, and that's it. But they can make some amazing music together, and the crowd was big and very into it. I was impressed. Not only by their musical prowess and ability to generate a great sound with just drums and a keyboard, but also because they covered "Hit me baby one more time" and "War Pigs" in the same set. Back to back. Now tell me, how often do you go to a concert and hear Britney and Black Sabbath in one sitting? Yeah. "War Pigs," by the way, was phenomenal. These guys are picking up lots of steam. There were lots more people there than I thought there would be. They were also supposed to play Lollapalooza this summer, before it got canned. Be on the lookout.

So this marks the first time that a band with a geographic name has actually been good. Well I'll be darned.

Spamusement

To take our minds off the inevitable next four years, I submit to you: spamusement.

http://spamusement.com/

I found this on another blog. Subject lines from spam emails are converted to amusing and witty cartoons. Enjoy!

Seeing Red

How can 58 MILLION people be so foolish? How is it that we have been fooled again by a man and an administration so clearly unfit to rule? In the glorious words of W himself, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, you won't be....uh....you fool......uh......we won't be fooled again." But we were. The idea that the majority of this country chose the current leader, the status quo, over ANY CHANGE AT ALL is beyond me. I can't get inside the heads of people who see things as going well. It's just absurd when you think about it.

I'm no politico, and admitedly I have really no basis for saying this, but wouldn't it be good for the Dems to get another candidate from the south, as opposed to one of these stodgy liberal intellectuals from the north, to run again? Unless I'm mistaken, I believe the last two democratics presidents have been Clinton and Carter, both from the south. Arguably, Gore was from the south (Tennessee), but he didn't exude that "everyman" feel very well. We need an everyman.

And on that note, I heard lots of people saying that they liked Bush in the debates, BECAUSE HE SOUNDED LIKE A REGULAR GUY. I don't know about you, but frankly I don't really want a "regular guy" running the country, with his hand in reach of the big red nuke button, deciding whether women get abortions and gay people get to be together. I want a really SMART guy, who thinks things through and uses evidence and logic to come to rational decisions. That's who I want. I like regular guys too. I just don't want them to run the USA.

Well, here's to hope for the future.

Obama in 2012!