Tomorrow 9.30 am Boston time is the Cricket World Cup final between Australia and those dodgy Sri Lankans *cough*Murali*cough*chucker.
Saturday 9.30 am is mighty early for a late-riser like me, nonetheless, being the loyal Aussie I'm heading off to Tommy Doyle's, an Irish/semi-Aussie pub near Harvard square to watch the game. Bay-buddy and another work colleague invited me which was nice of them and I also know that a significant contingent of Aussie postdocs will be there (of course).
Having no TV, I haven't really been following the cricket very intensely, and although I'm confident the Aussies will win, I'd like to see a hotly contested final tomorrow. The only question I have is, when will the drinking begin?
Go Aussies. Ponting's men FTW!
27 April 2007
26 April 2007
Working at lunch
A significant mile-stone was achieved in the settling-in process at work today, I was asked to join a group for lunch. Even though I've been in my new lab for almost a month now, I still feel like the new guy and am still in the process of feeling like 'one of the lab'. Everyone has been very helpful and friendly since I arrived, and my bay-buddy (the guy who works on the bench behind me in what forms a ' lab bay') even volunteered to drive me to Target to buy stuff for my flat (as mentioned in the Kung Pao chicken post), so I've definitely made inroads into being accepted into the lab, but being asked out for lunch had so far eluded me.
I've been asked out for coffee, tea and even ice-cream, and only today had I finally been asked to lunch. Success came with the smell of a beef burrito with jalopenos. It was huge, tasty and shamefully calorific. Yum.
Usually the same handful of friends, out of the lab of 20 something people, hang out at lunch together and it's not uncommon for people to eat alone due to busy experimental days. My usual lunch-buddy is Bing who is working in a lab downstairs to mine which is an ideal situation for scheduling lunch, and we have a selection of eateries on our lunch rotation menu. From burrito places which are really good here and would go really well in Australia where they are basically non-existent, to a Cajun chicken place that has a lunch serving of yummy chicken with rice and veges that is easily enough for the two of us, to a very tasty $2.75 clam chowder soup in our buildings cafeteria.
Apart from the social fitting-in process, my actual scientific work is still in its infancy. I've done a few experiments, but am still figuring out where reagents/equipment are and basically how the lab runs. My boss is a little scary as in my first two group meetings she was yelling at another postdoc for not having any results and basically not having a clue about his experimental methodology. From what I gather he kinda deserved it but I felt really sorry for him, especially since I get the feeling that not many people in the lab like him too much. To be blasted by your boss two weeks in a row seemed a bit much. I have a little expertise in what he was trying to do so I gave him some tips after the second yelling/meeting which he seemed grateful for.
Bay-buddy told me that my honeymoon period in the lab was coming to an end and that I should be wary with The Boss from now. He was only half-joking so now I'm scared of what kind of lab I've gotten myself into. My question is why the hell none of the postdocs mentioned The Boss's scariness when I visited the lab for my interview?! Hopefully I can get enough results to stay in her good books. We'll see.
After dinner tonight Bing told me he has already planned tomorrows lunch. It's a place a work-mate showed him the other day that does a mega steak and cheese sandwich that can easily feed two. Time to loosen that belt.
I've been asked out for coffee, tea and even ice-cream, and only today had I finally been asked to lunch. Success came with the smell of a beef burrito with jalopenos. It was huge, tasty and shamefully calorific. Yum.
Usually the same handful of friends, out of the lab of 20 something people, hang out at lunch together and it's not uncommon for people to eat alone due to busy experimental days. My usual lunch-buddy is Bing who is working in a lab downstairs to mine which is an ideal situation for scheduling lunch, and we have a selection of eateries on our lunch rotation menu. From burrito places which are really good here and would go really well in Australia where they are basically non-existent, to a Cajun chicken place that has a lunch serving of yummy chicken with rice and veges that is easily enough for the two of us, to a very tasty $2.75 clam chowder soup in our buildings cafeteria.
Apart from the social fitting-in process, my actual scientific work is still in its infancy. I've done a few experiments, but am still figuring out where reagents/equipment are and basically how the lab runs. My boss is a little scary as in my first two group meetings she was yelling at another postdoc for not having any results and basically not having a clue about his experimental methodology. From what I gather he kinda deserved it but I felt really sorry for him, especially since I get the feeling that not many people in the lab like him too much. To be blasted by your boss two weeks in a row seemed a bit much. I have a little expertise in what he was trying to do so I gave him some tips after the second yelling/meeting which he seemed grateful for.
Bay-buddy told me that my honeymoon period in the lab was coming to an end and that I should be wary with The Boss from now. He was only half-joking so now I'm scared of what kind of lab I've gotten myself into. My question is why the hell none of the postdocs mentioned The Boss's scariness when I visited the lab for my interview?! Hopefully I can get enough results to stay in her good books. We'll see.
After dinner tonight Bing told me he has already planned tomorrows lunch. It's a place a work-mate showed him the other day that does a mega steak and cheese sandwich that can easily feed two. Time to loosen that belt.
24 April 2007
Reality is a state of mind
Another b'day shout out, today (Sydney time, April 25) is my elder and only brother's birthday. I don't want family reading this blog so he won't be reading this but what the hell, Happy Birthady Big Brother. It's also Anzac day in Australia, a public holiday to commemorate Aussie Diggers who tragically died in WWI and Gallipoli in particular.
For the first time since I arrived in Boston about a month ago, I called home (I did send a few emails though) to say Hi to Mum, wish Brother happy birthday and to give an update on what's been happening in Boston. Brother seemed pretty happy that I called and we had a good laugh over the phone. Although Brother is a year older than me he's still living at home and is unemployed. This is due to him being mentally ill, as he suffers from 'psychosis'. Basically its the same as schizophrenia, in that he thought people were spying on him constantly, putting listening devices in the house, sending him secret messages through junk mail, TV and radio, and it got as bad as him thinking that they were controlling every facet of his life and basically the world he lived in. For a time he thought he was living in a Truman-world situation where even I was part of the conspiracy. Brother's condition is similar to the main character in A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe. It's a great film by the way and I recommend it highly.
Brother and I have always been close although less so since I moved out of home in Sydney. Still finishing his second university degree, he couldn't afford to move out and lived with my parents (that's another saga in itself). I feel guilty sometimes that I was too involved in my own messed up life at the time he was falling ill, a time frame of 3 months or so, to notice that he wasn't well. I became aware of his illness a few months after we had returned from a 6 week trip around the world, a time I'm grateful to have had with him before he got sick. We hadn't spent a lot of time together preceding that trip as I was living away and busy with my PhD, so it was a good to reconnect with him and we shared many laughs and misadventures along the way.
During our travel it was mostly me who organized everything, but there were times when I needed the assurance and help that a big brother instinctively provides. It was Brother in the beautiful citadel of Mont Saint-Michel, France who cheered me up when for no good reason I was feeling miserable and depressed. It was Brother who miraculously located some bandages and burn cream in hot, humid Saigon, Vietnam while I lay in a air-conditioned hotel room, nursing a burn on my leg that I foolishly received from a hot motorbike exhaust. It was the same Brother who had looked out for me during our childhood, and who I looked up to as we grew up. This is now a sad memory.
Brother and me had a great time travelling, he was celebrating the end of his degree and I was getting much needed R&R from my PhD. He seemed a little quieter than usual at times but still seemed the Brother I had always known. I was wrong. Little did I know that his comments that he wasn't sleeping well during the trip would be a symptom of his developing psychosis.
Brother had always been quiet and a bit of a loner. He did have his small circle of close friends during high school but over the years he had seen them less and less, much like the case with his university friends. I'm not going to go into detail about the dreadful process of finding out that he was mentally ill since just typing this is making me tearful, but needless to say it was a massively distressing event for me and the family. The Scot, Ace, GK and Ex-flatmate have an inkling of that terribly confusing and scary day. What I will say is that seeing your own brother in basically a mental asylum is unspeakably awful.
Despite my aforementioned guilt, I take solace that he finally reached out to me to share his problems which finally led to him receiving treatment. At present he's on very strong anti-psychotic medication which has made him less irrational/paranoid but he's still not the Brother I used to know.
Despite the medication, after 15 months or so after getting treatment, Brother still denies that anything is wrong with him, insists that he doesn't suffer from psychosis, and is adamant that everything he 'experienced' was real. Now he's extremely quiet and doesn't seem to enjoy doing anything, although he is more rational than before. He spends his time watching TV, and just sitting, trying to puzzle what 'They' want him to do and what 'They' want from him, basically trying to work out what the fuck is happening to him. I'm told he'll be on medication for probably his whole life. When I think of his long-term prospects as he is now I feel a sense of despair, not just for him but for the extra burden on Mum who is obviously distressed about the whole situation, particularly because they didn't get along for many years, including the time Brother fell ill. However, I hope that gradually he'll get better and one day he'll be able to rejoin the workforce, live independently and just simply enjoy life again.
Even though you'll never read this, Happy Birthday Big Brother.
For the first time since I arrived in Boston about a month ago, I called home (I did send a few emails though) to say Hi to Mum, wish Brother happy birthday and to give an update on what's been happening in Boston. Brother seemed pretty happy that I called and we had a good laugh over the phone. Although Brother is a year older than me he's still living at home and is unemployed. This is due to him being mentally ill, as he suffers from 'psychosis'. Basically its the same as schizophrenia, in that he thought people were spying on him constantly, putting listening devices in the house, sending him secret messages through junk mail, TV and radio, and it got as bad as him thinking that they were controlling every facet of his life and basically the world he lived in. For a time he thought he was living in a Truman-world situation where even I was part of the conspiracy. Brother's condition is similar to the main character in A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe. It's a great film by the way and I recommend it highly.
Brother and I have always been close although less so since I moved out of home in Sydney. Still finishing his second university degree, he couldn't afford to move out and lived with my parents (that's another saga in itself). I feel guilty sometimes that I was too involved in my own messed up life at the time he was falling ill, a time frame of 3 months or so, to notice that he wasn't well. I became aware of his illness a few months after we had returned from a 6 week trip around the world, a time I'm grateful to have had with him before he got sick. We hadn't spent a lot of time together preceding that trip as I was living away and busy with my PhD, so it was a good to reconnect with him and we shared many laughs and misadventures along the way.
My sadness at Mont St-Michel as captured by Brother
During our travel it was mostly me who organized everything, but there were times when I needed the assurance and help that a big brother instinctively provides. It was Brother in the beautiful citadel of Mont Saint-Michel, France who cheered me up when for no good reason I was feeling miserable and depressed. It was Brother who miraculously located some bandages and burn cream in hot, humid Saigon, Vietnam while I lay in a air-conditioned hotel room, nursing a burn on my leg that I foolishly received from a hot motorbike exhaust. It was the same Brother who had looked out for me during our childhood, and who I looked up to as we grew up. This is now a sad memory.
Brother and me had a great time travelling, he was celebrating the end of his degree and I was getting much needed R&R from my PhD. He seemed a little quieter than usual at times but still seemed the Brother I had always known. I was wrong. Little did I know that his comments that he wasn't sleeping well during the trip would be a symptom of his developing psychosis.
Brother had always been quiet and a bit of a loner. He did have his small circle of close friends during high school but over the years he had seen them less and less, much like the case with his university friends. I'm not going to go into detail about the dreadful process of finding out that he was mentally ill since just typing this is making me tearful, but needless to say it was a massively distressing event for me and the family. The Scot, Ace, GK and Ex-flatmate have an inkling of that terribly confusing and scary day. What I will say is that seeing your own brother in basically a mental asylum is unspeakably awful.
Despite my aforementioned guilt, I take solace that he finally reached out to me to share his problems which finally led to him receiving treatment. At present he's on very strong anti-psychotic medication which has made him less irrational/paranoid but he's still not the Brother I used to know.
Despite the medication, after 15 months or so after getting treatment, Brother still denies that anything is wrong with him, insists that he doesn't suffer from psychosis, and is adamant that everything he 'experienced' was real. Now he's extremely quiet and doesn't seem to enjoy doing anything, although he is more rational than before. He spends his time watching TV, and just sitting, trying to puzzle what 'They' want him to do and what 'They' want from him, basically trying to work out what the fuck is happening to him. I'm told he'll be on medication for probably his whole life. When I think of his long-term prospects as he is now I feel a sense of despair, not just for him but for the extra burden on Mum who is obviously distressed about the whole situation, particularly because they didn't get along for many years, including the time Brother fell ill. However, I hope that gradually he'll get better and one day he'll be able to rejoin the workforce, live independently and just simply enjoy life again.
Even though you'll never read this, Happy Birthday Big Brother.
22 April 2007
T-shirt weather
This weekend has been sunny, warm (well relatively warm at up to 15 degrees C) and generally pleasant. I even strolled around without a jacket on for a bit. The only downer about the weather was me having to go into work both days of the weekend, although Lulu, Bing and myself managed to coordinate a trip to the Arnold Arboretum (the pic below is from their site) in Forest Hills, a 25 min train ride away from Downtown Boston.
The arboretum is a large park (free entry) filled with trees as the name would suggest that's divided into different sections like the Rhododendron garden or Willow lane. It was nice to laze in the sun and walk around the park for a few hours but almost all the trees were still leafless so we vowed to go back in the depths of spring to see the arboretum in all its leafy glory.
I'm still new enough to Boston to get childishly excited whenever I see a squirrel scurrying around and it was fun to watch them dig and nibble around the oak and walnut trees in the park. I've spotted a handful near work and my apartment but I expect spring-time to dramatically increase their numbers so the novelty factor should fade soon.
This weekend has also been an eye-opening feast of cute guys, just tonight I bumped into two attractive lads who don't necessarily live in my building but I met them going out the main door. The hotter of the two guys was wearing a gray Harvard hoddie, tall, smoking hazel eyes and had a cute smile as he said hello. I'm looking forward to seeing him around. But at the arboretum, it was just crazy how many cute guys there were; walking dogs, riding bikes or just sleeping in the sun. The typical college-jock, clean cut, All-American type, hot. Must be the weather.
The arboretum is a large park (free entry) filled with trees as the name would suggest that's divided into different sections like the Rhododendron garden or Willow lane. It was nice to laze in the sun and walk around the park for a few hours but almost all the trees were still leafless so we vowed to go back in the depths of spring to see the arboretum in all its leafy glory.
I'm still new enough to Boston to get childishly excited whenever I see a squirrel scurrying around and it was fun to watch them dig and nibble around the oak and walnut trees in the park. I've spotted a handful near work and my apartment but I expect spring-time to dramatically increase their numbers so the novelty factor should fade soon.
This weekend has also been an eye-opening feast of cute guys, just tonight I bumped into two attractive lads who don't necessarily live in my building but I met them going out the main door. The hotter of the two guys was wearing a gray Harvard hoddie, tall, smoking hazel eyes and had a cute smile as he said hello. I'm looking forward to seeing him around. But at the arboretum, it was just crazy how many cute guys there were; walking dogs, riding bikes or just sleeping in the sun. The typical college-jock, clean cut, All-American type, hot. Must be the weather.
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