I just listened to a live acoustic version of the Ride classic "Time Machine" performed by Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, and it may be the most beautiful thing i've ever heard.
Holiday wrap-up forthcoming ...

If you click on the notes on the toolbar, you're no longer whisked away to my increasingly cumbersome mp3 index and my listening statistics. As mentioned a while back, my transition from Winamp to iTunes has complicated the acquisition of listening statistics suitable for my web interface. Therefore, after much deliberation i decided that a worthy new music page would be my comments on my Album of the ~Week (ie, sometimes album of the day, week, or month). The inaugural entry has been posted, so have a look if you're interested in getting my thoughts on whatever's been popping up in my iTunes lately.

The mp3 library is still around, it's just not updated very frequently. Listening statistics are there too, which are updated never.

Been picking up album after album lately, completing more and more of my music collection and further exploring artists that have interested me but that i've never fully investigated. I completed my Doors collection by snagging The Soft Parade and Morrison Hotel. Also corrected my unforgiveable lack of Hendrix by grabbing Are You Experienced? and Electric Ladyland. I'm in the process of filling out my XTC collection, which as of a week ago consisted solely of the singles collection Fossil Fuel. Odd that i had little to no interest in these guys as recently as a year ago, only having Fossil Fuel because i thought i should be up on such a frequently-referenced band. I heard "Life Begins At The Hop" on the new wave music channel on digital cable, of all places, and realized "Wait a minute! I own this!" On second listen, Fossil Fuel sounded incredible. Now i'm listening to Skylarking for the first time. Truly a pop masterpiece.

I got the Nation of Ulysses album Plays Pretty For Baby, that had been eluding me for quite a while. The first Explosions in the Sky record Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever is also waiting for me. Their latest, The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, is a worthy descendant of the brilliant mood rock of Mogwai, so i'm eager to hear their beginnings.

I'm not one for listing a lot of links, but Rob had this one on his site and i thought it was nifty: Make-a-Flake. Take a few minutes to design a snowflake, and while you're at it maybe you'll see mine float by. Makes me feel like i'm back in Boston watching the snow engulf my car.

A lot of people think the phrase "jack of all trades" is a compliment. That's primarily because the key to the saying is most often omitted. The full version is "jack of all trades, master of none". The fact that the term "jack" is used is a tip-off, what's really meant is that the person is an apprentice to many disciplines but hasn't become a true master of any of them. Why am i doting on this? I have a feeling i'm painting myself into this corner. In grad school i studied magnetic resonance imaging, for a postdoc i studied fluorescence imaging. Now i'm faculty and i'm starting work on positron emission tomography. While my intellectual curiosity is thrilled that i'm getting to experiment with a bunch of different imaging modalities, i'm fearful that i'm screwing myself in terms of career development.

Of course, i had bad initial periods in both grad school and my postdoc. When i joined the lab at UCSF (the MRSC) in which i did my Ph.D., i had no idea where i fit in. I couldn't see the importance or value of my work, and i figured everyone else must think it (and i) was useless. In retrospect, it wasn't until i gave a talk at the ISMRM meeting in Philadelphia that i began to understand that my work was significant and that people around the lab appreciated me. That's over two and a half years that i spent seriously doubting myself, nearly quitting grad school at one point to get into web design (thank god i stuck it out!). When i graduated two years later, i found it hard to leave because all my colleagues there were now very good friends. But for my own good i went off to Boston to get experience in another lab. In my postdoc the growing pains didn't last quite as long, maybe six or nine months, but they were just as fierce. I remember applying for my current position and wishing they would hire me straight away, because i felt i was completely out of place at the CMIR. But when i did leave a year and a half later, again i was saying goodbye to people to whom i was now very attached.

So now here i am in Stanford Radiation Oncology, again wondering what i'm doing here, what i bring to the table, and if both Stanford and myself would be better off if i was somewhere else. Experience tells me this feeling is temporary and things will improve given a little time. True as it may be, it doesn't make the present any easier.

Anyhoo, life is not all bad. Christmas is almost here, decorations are up, and the smell of pine is in the air, making me feel like i'm eight years old again. Some people knock it, but nostalgia is a wonderful thing.

It's very odd, this feeling of sheer and undiluted joy you get when your football club completes a momentous victory. I'm reading the match report to Chelsea's 2-nil victory over Turks Besiktas, avenging our earlier loss to them and sending us into the knockout rounds of the Champions League on top of our qualifying group. A resolute performance capped by two late goals by JFH and Wayne Bridge. The quote of the night came from defender Wayne Bridge, on his first Chelsea goal: "I didn't know what to do once I'd scored - I don't get many so it was nice to get that one". This more than makes up for our underwhelming draw over the weekend against cellar dwellers Leeds United.

Music sounds better. Food tastes better. Birds sing. Okay, i'll cut it out now.

Back to earth ... we took our new housemate Cobi to a veterinary oncologist yesterday. She had some lumps removed from her lips a few weeks ago, and the histopath came back as lymphosarcoma. She seems fine thankfully, active and happy. The oncologist recommended removing a few new lumps from her back, and sending them for more definitive immunohistochemistry (staining for CD3 cell-surface antigens to identify the specific lymphoma cell type). So she had that done yesterday, and has a few new staples on her side from the surgery. We decided against giving her a complete staging exam (including painful bone marrow sampling, and more anesthesia). We probably won't put her through chemo either ... at her age, we think it's best to let her have fun in the time she has left. And as she seems fine now, hopefully she can have a while yet. She's been very good since arriving about a month ago ... she waits patiently at the window when we go out, doesn't do any nasty business in the house, and is generally a lot of fun. She gets a little jealous when i give Veronica a hug or a kiss, though. And she's so protective of Veronica that Cobi will bark at me or give me a nip if i make sudden moves toward V.

Been on a several divergent musical kicks lately. Picked up a Best Of album by The Spencer Davis Group after dropping off Cobi yesterday, mainly to get the kickass "Gimme Some Lovin'". It's all terrif though ... apparently Steve Winwood was cool before descending into schlock like "Roll With It". Also been completing my Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd (strip me of my indie cred if you will, but Dark Side Of The Moon is enthralling), Led Zeppelin, and Talking Heads backcatalogs as well. I managed to find a Stones song, "Backstreet Girl", i remember hearing from Sean Cavanaugh way back when. The reason i remember it is that i was interested to learn that the Shed Seven song "Out By My Side" is a complete rip-off of the aforementioned Stones tune. It's not like it's an rare Stones song either ... couldn't they find something a little more obscure to copy? I don't have my copy of A Maximum High handy, so i can't check if perchance the Sheds give writing credits to Jagger and Richards. I also finally managed to check out Nick Drake's work ... wow. Awesome folk rock that predates bands like Belle & Sebastian by about 30 years. I also ... umm, *cough* ... got my hands on ... well, erm ... Iron Maiden's Live After Death. A really fantastic summary of the heavy metal icons' work in the early eighties. As for more recent music ... nothing much to report.

Been alternating between FIFA 2004 and Rainbow Six 3 in the Xbox. My preparations for the next SMFA Cup are coming along nicely. Gary and i discussed potentially rotating squads, so Sean and i can't take advantage of the superior squads of Manchester United and Chelsea. I'll have to practice with some other sides to handle that possibility. Rainbow Six is quite good ... there's a certain perverse thrill in storming a room from two directions. It's no cakewalk ... i've made it about halfway through the game, but i have trouble completing missions without taking significant damage to either myself or members of my team. Still have to give our as-yet unopened copy of Mario Kart Double Dash a whirl, as well as get back to Viewtiful Joe, SSX 3, and perhaps even Winning Eleven 6. This winter is shaping up to be even more video-laden than last, when i was simultaneously occupied with Splinter Cell, FIFA 2003, Metroid Prime, and Grand Theft Auto Vice City.

i can't stop smiling, and i don't know why i'd want to anyway
so many times before i could hardly even force one to my face

Meeting up with Lance proved to be more than a great time with an old friend ... it let me pick his indie-addled brain about cool new music as well. He raved about The Wrens, so i downloaded their latest album The Meadowlands. And whaddaya know, Lance hits another home run.

A good insight into my current musical moods is the tracklistings of a bunch of mix cds i burned recently. As much as i've enjoyed them, Veronica's Car Songs 1-6 mix cds have occupied my cd changer for a little too long, so i set about replacing them with a new crop of mixes. Here's the contents of Indie Mix 2 - Moody:

1. New Order, "Such A Good Thing"
2. South, "Paint The Silence"
3. Doves, "Pounding"
4. Moose, "Pretend We Never Met"
5. Pale Fountains, "You'll Start A War"
6. Brendan Benson, "Metarie (Wellfed Version)"
7. Coldplay, "Green Eyes"
8. Yo La Tengo, "Let's Save Tony Orlando's House"
9. Broken Social Scene, "Alive In 85"
10. Lilys, "Perception Room"
11. Spoon, "Back To The Life"
12. Cat Power, "He War"
13. The Kills, "Fried My Little Brains"
14. Read Yellow, "Read Yellow"
15. At The Drive-In, "Sleepwalk Capsules"
16. The Boxer Rebellion, "Watermelon"
17. The Rain Band, "Knee Deep And Down"

Chelsea are going to be the death of me. I awaited Sunday's showdown with Manchester United with baited breath. Seriously, i could barely sleep Saturday night, and Sunday i woke up with only thoughts of the Blue/Red battle in my head. Thanks to loose-lipped Jeremy, i was tipped off to the result before heading off to Mad Dog In The Fog for the replay. Michael and i had a quick spot of bangers, mash, and beans while the Arsenal/Fulham match played out to a nil-nil draw. Because of that, the winner of my match goes top of the table ... how's that for drama? Of course i already knew the result, but i would've found out well before the final whistle in the replay as a couple of Chelsea fans in the pub were chanting "Top of the table!" Michael and i enjoyed the match anyway. We enjoyed hanging out with Susan, Scott, Mike, and Sarah too, but i won't make the transitive leap and say Susan enjoyed the match seeing as she was wearing a red scarf. The result? A 1-nil victory for new table-toppers Chelsea, on the strength of a Frank Lampard penalty given for a Roy Keane challenge on Joe Cole. The United fans seem to be up in arms about whether a penalty was warranted. Let's get the facts straight: Keane tackled Cole FROM BEHIND and IN THE BOX. This equals penalty. I've heard the following arguments: 1) Keane got the ball first. Perhaps. But he also took Cole down with a knee in the back. Can't do that, regardless of whether you touched the ball. 2) Cole didn't have control of the ball. Again, perhaps. But he could've regained control if Keane hadn't brought him down. 3) The silliest of the lot is Alex Ferguson's claim that Cole was heading away from goal. What compass is Fergie using to judge that? And moreover, what the hell does that matter? Let me restate: Keane tackled Cole FROM BEHIND and IN THE BOX.

The match didn't showcase the prettiest football i've ever seen, but it was decent. Chelsea deserved the win in my (albeit biased) opinion. Chelsea created a number of good scoring chances, while i can only think of one or two genuine opportunities created by United. Our defense had a couple of miscues early on that might've resulted in errant goals, but once Terry, Gallas, and co. gelled United had a tough time setting up decent shots on goal. Their midfield looked horrible. They'd better put Cristiano Ronaldo in the starting lineup, as he was the only player who seemed to offer any inventive solutions for cracking the Chelsea defense. Diego Forlan and Quinton Fortune certainly weren't going to.

Thanksgiving was a low-key affair spent at my uncle's parents house in Burlingame. Lots of good food ... the stuffing in particular was awesome. I managed to get up at 6:30 the next morning to drive down to the Great Mall in Milpitas, where i picked up two blazers and a shirt at a serious day-after-Thanksgiving discount. Veronica and i managed to see a late showing of Elf on Friday night as well. A nice warm fuzzy Christmas movie, but featuring a great comic performance by Will Ferrell as a four year-old trapped in a 35 year-old's body. As Veronica was at work Saturday, i got to hang with Cobi and play a lot of FIFA 2004 and new purchase Rainbow Six 3. RS3 isn't quite the mesmerising affair that Splinter Cell was, but it's worthwhile nonetheless. It offers the experience of controlling a team of anti-terrorism commandos on various hostage rescue missions. Not bad at all.