polyvore is the most fun thing in this whole wide world of fun things. It just ate up all of my evening and I can predict it will eat up many, many more. It’s a site where you can make digital collages but the items link back to where you can purchase them. So fun!
Here is what I made:
if anyone wants to buy me a vintage-palm-tree-inspired-chandelier, you know where to send it!
Besides drinking sparkly water, laying around in bed until 11am and the smell of my boyfriend’s neck, my favorite thing in this whole wide world is dilapidation. If I could use a camera (besides my fave Fisher Price standby), I would use that camera to take photos of dilapidation and share those images w the world. But I can’t so here is some amazing stuff I have lovingly jacked from the internets:
Abandoned heavy machinery
what i assume are abandoned railworkers' shacks
This second photo is from a series taken at an abandoned railway in Siberia. I especially love shots that let you have a glimpse into the lives of the people who worked at this site: the pickle jar, the vodka bottle.
Remember that series of 100 abandoned houses in Detroit from a while ago? You can see all of Kevin Bauman’s photos here and revel in the overgrowth and safety hazards.
one of Kevin Bauman's abandoned houses in detroit
And if you can’t get enough Detroit, there’s another website with extensive photos of the interiors of more abandoned real estate: www.forgottendetroit.com. Also, these ones of the abandoned public school book repository are pretty amazing (the photographer’s explanation here is interesting too).
This is my blog so I guess I don’t have to censor myself, but I see these photos of Detroit and am always shocked. (I guess that was partly the artist’s intent so that’s good.) What the hell is going to happen to Detroit? Do we have any sort of protocol for dying cities? There have been some interesting stories in the past year on NPR about the burgeoning Detroit renaissance. How it is a haven for artists since they can afford to buy foreclosed homes for cheap and get studio space. How there are business opportunities for enterprising young people and how it’s like a second frontier. But all those things are dependent upon the federal government continuing to support the city via the domestic auto industry.
I think bailouts for corporations are wrong and so I guess I am complicit in letting Detroit die. But I can handle that. (And I swear it’s not because I love dilapidation.) Corporations aren’t people and they don’t deserve or warrant charity. However, we can not continue to ignore the people who don’t have the money to leave Detroit though they may want to. One reason the buildings in those images are so poignant because can be seen as a metaphor for the citizens of Detroit. I wonder what we could have done for the people who remain in Detroit if we had spent that money relocating them to a place w a more diverse economy, more tax dollars coming in, better schools, more opportunity for advancement for working people. I don’t know. It’s just a thought.
The best thing about flying 30000 miles in less than one year is becoming a preferred member and then getting a free upgrade to first class! Woohoo! (I know all those kids in consulting fly a lot more than that but for me it’s a big deal.)
Not only do I get to board first but I get a Coke zero right as soon as I sit down. They still have pillows and blankets up here btw. That’s where they’ve all gone!
Now this picture is boring as shit but it’s just to demonstrate how much more room there is up here! It’s awesome! I wouldn’t pay first class prices but I’ll gladly ride up here for free!
sorry guys. I’ve been at this school that really cares about sports for more than three years. I tried hard to care. My sleep and my “laying on the couch in sweatpants” time was sacrificed so I could try to like sports. I even camped out for basketball tickets three years in a row. But I can say with certainty that this dalliance is over.
My all-girls high school and college without school sponsored sports did not prepare me well for the hysteria that this community engages in during basketball season. Being around people who are that happy and excited is often enough for me to feel engaged (even though my parents raised me with the belief that sports were a waste of time and just watching sports was pathetic). It was a stretch for me to try to learn the actual rules of basketball and the history of the local teams and about the individual players here at Duke but I tried. ”This can’t be any harder than science” I thought. That wasn’t a fair comparison though. Learning about sports may not be harder than learning about genetics but I don’t give a shit about sports and thus it is difficult to pay attention.
With the recent news coverage of the World Series, I thought: “hmm, baseball? That’s still happening? I thought that was a summer time thing…” And I saw this picture of my favorite first lady:
Michelle Obama and Jill Biden care about the World Series?!
Honestly, I don’t think Michelle’s face indicates that she actually cares about the World Series all that much. Which is good bc again, I love that woman so much and I also do not give a shit about sports. I want my friends to stop filling my facebook news feed with inanity like “GOOOOOO PHILLLLLIIIIEEEESSSSS!!!!” and such. When I watch the evening news sports coverage of this stuff, it makes me sad. These major league teams seem like such a simulacrum of community. Why do people want to try to connect with their neighbors over such an artificial and manufactured entity?
The only thing I am happy about in terms of sports is this story about A-Rod:
“He had not one, but two painted portraits of himself as a centaur. You know, the half man, half horse figure,” scoffs an ex-girlfriend to the magazine. “It was ridiculous.”
This is not an Onion article people. This is one of the heroes of Major League baseball just trying to express himself. And reason 3 million why I am over trying to care about sports.
this is as surreal and stupid as that peanut butter jelly time banana I swear. I think it’s Will Ferrell under there. Anyone?
Also, this has been all over facebook but I got it from a friend of mine and now I can’t stop thinking about witches praying over bags of bulk candy in the aisles of Target.
And if you haven’t read the article from Wired about the crazies who don’t believe in vaccination, read it already! There was also this good commentary in Slate about the effect of unvaccinated children on other kids who can’t be vaccinated.
and and and I am gonna replace my stupid “Keep Calm and Carry On” print with this one. Now everyone will have a better idea of the sort of person I am: an angry one w a serious sweet tooth. Done.
this is an adorable print but this lady needs a better camera jeeeeeez
I started book two of the Sookie Stackhouse series last night. ZOMG love them so so much in their trashiness! love love love!!! So here’s where I’ll be if you need me starting in 30 minutes from now when I get home:
did you know marilyn monroe could read? bc she could. and apparently she liked art.
(photo jacked from Jenny of My Favorite and My best. She’s a crazy bitch but I love her and that blog she writes is full of gorgeous beauty all the time.)
I believe it’s never too early to start shopping for christmas. I think gifts are an important part of christmas and having a gift for the people I care about (that matches their interests and taste) makes me feel good.
Firstly: This Cath Kidston 2010 planner. Mom, if you’re reading this, don’t peak bc this might end up in your christmas stocking:
Cath Kidston planner, love those vintage prints. always have.
and for the man who loves to bake and calls his cat his best friend, some matryoshka measuring cups:
Russian Doll measuring cups are adorable and useful!
for the friend who likes birds (read: all of them), a bird calendar that doubles as art:
bomobob's "A Year of Birds - 2010 Fine Art Calendar
and lastly, For me- This lovely silver pine cone necklace:
GurKimel silver pine cone necklace, lovely yes?
Apt therapy is doing their seasonal home decor deathmatch where they try to get the readers to choose the favorite room from hundreds (probably thousands). This means the blog just abounds with inspirational photos of real rooms. Here is one that really stood out to me:
look at that rug and the wall color: love
Strangely enough, this woman makes and sells the cushions on her couch on etsy here at Plum Cushions. AND she just became a sponsor for one of my new favorite decor blogs “Little Green Notebook“. This woman is admittedly a professional decorator but her DIY transformations on her house still look quasi-possible for a mere mortal. Her office redo is a real gem. 
I love her office and I’ve also been saving this other image of an office as an open tab in my browser for about two weeks so I ought to just post it here:
lovely study nook from desire to inspire
See that chair? Ghost chair of my dreams. See that topiary? Ridiculous. No one needs a topiary of that size in their house unless they want to kill it stat. Despite the suspension of disbelief that this image is steeped in, I love it. Added to K M dreamhouse hardrive.
I can’t believe I only just found this now, but there is a faithfully updated slideshow of all the outfits Michelle Obama has worn in public since the inauguration. It makes me want about 300 more fancy cardigans and color-coordinated vintage broaches.
just another excellent outfit from J Crew that I covet.
When you see them all one after another, all I can do is think about the endless (immaculately organized) dream-closet she must have! Just like Marie Antoinette Imelda Marcos Maria Carey!
This is really mariah carey's shoe closet.
Check it out here: http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/04/michelle_obama_slideshow.html#
I have been locked in battle with the sequencing core facility here in the Jones building for the past couple months. Sequencing isn’t cheap and money is always an issue for academic labs. Sequencing is actually our largest cost and that’s when it’s efficient. Well, efficient is the last word I would use to describe the sequencing center here.
Because we do such a large volume of samples, the sequencing facility actually purifies our PCR samples, runs the sequencing reaction and then uses the sequencing machines to read out the samples. (I’m talking about old school sanger sequencing here, none of that fancy illumina or solexa stuff). Consistently, when they let the robots do all three steps listed above (purify, run sequencing rxn, transfer to machine), my samples look good and I get useful data.
However, when I follow the protocol that everyone else here is supposed to use, I get ~50% of samples with no useful data. That’s not because of improper primer concentration or not enough sample or too much sample. I follow the instructions to the letter. And generally I get the information my boss is asking me about DAILY for only half my samples.
Well today I got a sequencing order back and I got 8 out of 9 samples with useful information! Amazing! Here is an example:
look at the clean sequence
What I’m looking for is the base at about 55 where there are two peaks on top of eachother. That means there are two different types of sequence represented in the same sample. In the case of the experiments I am doing, it means that when recombination occurred in this gene, two different sequences combined at that location. And that tells me something! and That’s science kids!
