Continuing with my "depressingly disinterested" phase, i've discovered This Mortal Coil recently. Perhaps flaunting Patton Oswalt's rant on KFC, i listened to their virtuoso 1984 album It'll End in Tears without eating a Famous/Failure Bowl. If that doesn't make sense, go listen to track 2 on Oswalt's hilarious Werewolves And Lollipops.

these thoughts i must not think of
dreams i can't make sense of
i need you to tell me its ok

I completed a month-long search for the KCA-SC100 Sirius adapter for my relatively new Alpine IDA-x001 car stereo. I ordered the item from several online retailers, and despite the "in stock" emblazoned across their product web pages, i got a number of "wait, you know that's backordered right?" emails shortly thereafter. After several such frustrating encounters, i tried ordering it through Amazon (who in turn passed it on to "Car Toys"), and to my amazement just two days later i got the shipping confirmation. The subsequent weekend i drove over to Circuit City in San Mateo to buy the requisite Sirius tuner and have the complete package installed. After a brisk mile walk to the Starbucks and a few hours spent playing with my Macbook and listening to my iPod, i returned to CC to retrieve my car. I wasn't able to activate Sirius all day because of some computer issues at the satellite conglomerate's headquarters, but by 5pm i was listening to Howard Stern directly through my stereo. And without that clumsy unit screwed into the side of the center panel of my car. How did i survive for two years with that behemoth?

Although that last sentence accurately describes my satisfaction with my new toy, the tongue-in-cheek complaint does make me wonder whether all this technological evolution is providing diminishing returns. I didn't really *gain* anything, persay ... just a sleeker way of accessing entertainment that i already had. Is that progress?

I've been listening to the "History of Howard Stern" on my new unit as the gang is on holiday. It's a briliantly constructed collection of interviews and old shows tracing Howard from childhood through his beginnings in radio and on to his professional career. He's been through Washington DC, Detroit, and WNBC in New York so far.

V and i had a lovely weekend last week. We began on Friday night by attending my friend Craig's holiday party at his house in Palo Alto. He and his wife Nicole are fantastic hosts, and their son Aidan and his boundless energy kept everyone entertained. I am really lucky to have moved through three large academic research groups (MRSC @ UCSF, CMIR @ MGH, and MIPS @ Stanford) and have made such great friends in each. On Saturday morning i took care of the aforementioned car improvements, then got some laundry done at home before V and i met up with Frank and Jennifer for dinner and a movie. Actually movie and a dinner ... we caught Dan in Real Life to bide the time before our 9pm reservation at the exquisite Palo Alto Greek restaurant Evvia. Simply put, i hated Dan in Real Life. Hated hated hated. Was physically offended by it. Mentally too. If i grew up in Dan's family, i would've killed myself. But as much as that flick bothered me, dinner was wonderful. Frank, Jennifer, and i all had the whole sea bass roasted with olives and potatoes. The brussel sprout with bacon appetizer was also fantabulous. Joy. On Sunday i drove over to Oakland to meet with Fred, Sandip, and co. and watch the world champion Indianapolis Colts take on the bad boy Oakland Raiders. Fred grew up in indiana and is a vocal Colts fan, but the rest of us warned him that the "black hole" might not take kindly to his friendly rivalry. And ten minutes into the game, a Raiders fan and a Colts fan got into it not six rows in front of us. The Colts guy took exception to something the Oakland faithful had said, and responded by pouring his beer on his head. For that he got punched in the face, and then the cops descended. That incident kept Fred in line. The lowly Raiders played very well, and took a 14-13 lead with 8 minutes left. Manning and the Colts then mounted a long scoring drive and with a two-point conversion led 21-14, which ended up as the final score. I left right after the final score as i had to get home to prepare for Veronica's Christmas party in SF. That entailed hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and dinner at Jack Falstaff, followed by a jaunt with some of V's coworkers to Harry Denton's Starlight Room off Union Square for a nightcap. As usual the price to pay for such an eventful weekend was a yawn-filled Monday, but as always it was worth it.

I'm looking forward to a relatively uneventful holiday. I'm taking my parents to the airport tomorrow as they head off to see my sister, brother-in-law, and iittle nephew in Texas. We're having friends over for Christmas eve and/or morning, then visiting my aunt in Burlingame for Christmas dinner. I'll get some work in later in the week, but will enjoy a lot of downtime too. Work has been going great ... got two new students coming early next year (a chemist and a physicist), and i'm trying to hire a third (a biologist ... that covers all the fundamental sciences, right?). My grant should arrive early next year, and we're making progress on two large industrial-sponsored research projects that would further expand my research program. It's amazing to think that a year ago i had no major grants and was thinking of moving to Duke. A year later and i have two NIH grants and am suddenly a "senior faculty" in my division. Now how in the hell did that happen?

a lot of f@$#ing hard work, that's how ...

Last week i got a call from my colleague Amato, who told me he'd appointed me to play Santa at the Radiation Biology Christmas party. No sweat, i thought. The moans of "don't make him do that" from the postdocs should've warned me. The day before the party i got an email from the party organizer informing me of the location of the Santa suit and the party schedule. Suit? What? I soon found out i was expected to wear the whole suit, including boots, padding for my belly, and wig and beard. And then to moderate the white elephant gift exchange and bear the ribbing of my radiobiology colleagues. It was a good time. And produced a bunch of ridiculous pictures like this one.

We drove over to Oakland last night to catch Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the lovely Grand Lake Theater with Sonic Living founder Gabe and co. I wasn't especially juiced to see the latest Tim Burton/Johnny Depp effort, but was happy to revisit my old haunts. The movie wound up greatly surpassing my expectations, and was an interesting juxtaposition of the whimsy of the musical format and the gore and brutality of the story. Gabe mentioned that Burton and longtime musical partner Danny Elfman had recently split, apparently because Danny accused Tim of making the same movie over and over again. Something i'd recently harped on. I'd have loved to hear Danny tell Tim, "Hey Tim! Why don't you make a movie about a loveable oddball who wins over his so-called normal peers? And i've got a great idea for the lead! Johnny Depp!" After the flick, we had a few drinks at the Alley, which was a real trip as the last time i was there was for my old friend Bill Sass's birthday, circa 1999. I love that Lake Merritt area. Old denizen, good friend, and current Vietnam resident Michael is coming back to the states for a couple of weeks in February, perhaps i'll be hanging in Oakland again soon.

My season tickets to the 49ers only got me to three games this year due to my busy schedule. And they got clowned in each of those games. It was fun nonetheless, and i hope to see more next year. Football is an interesting sport to watch live. A much different environment than a baseball game, where (at least in the bay area) people are pretty mellow. Football games are a chance for rabid home fans to berate anyone in support of the away team. And vice versa. It's cool to see people take things so seriously. The Raiders near-win was almost a religious experience. In the third quarter, Peyton Manning threw a ~30 yard pass to #86 (Ben Utecht, according to their roster), who was then levelled by one of the Raiders safeties. Utecht got to his feet but motioned to the sideline that he needed to come out. He spent a few minutes on the Colts bench before apparently deciding he needed to get treatment in the locker room. His trip there took him around the endzone that we were sitting above. As he walked by, one of our section-mates stood up and lit into him. Something along the lines of, "That's right! You can't handle it! You're a pussy-ass bitch, 86! Go in the locker room and grow some balls!" This went on for a good two minutes at Utecht hobbled off for treatment. That's the kind of vehemence i'm talking about.

My top ten albums of 2007. Based purely on what new music i found myself listening to, not any grandiose estimation of worth.

1. The Arcade Fire, Neon Bible: V and i were arguing over this album the other day. She says they're one-trick ponies. I say this is the most diverse and engaging album i've heard since Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People. Those Canadians.
2. Editors, An End Has A Start: I totally expected this to be their sophomore slump. Looks like they passed that curse off on Bloc Party. A hooky yet profound record.
3. Daft Punk, Alive 2007: 2007 was apparently the year i embraced my inner raver.
4. Patton Oswalt, Werewolves And Lollipops: I listen to more and more comedy these days, and Patton has had me rolling since September.
5. The Horrors, Strange House: I can't make any sweeping proclamations about the originality or significance of this album. It's just fun to listen to.
6. LCD Soundsystem, Sound Of Silver: I think i didn't really appreciate James Murphy's krautrock roots until LCD's second record. "Someone Great" is a candidate for song of the year, along with the Arcade Fire's "No Cars Go".
7. Band Of Horses, Cease To Begin: Another band i didn't pay much attention to until their sophomore effort. Add "Is There a Ghost" to my song of the year list.
8. Battles, Mirrored: And "Atlas" too. What a freakin' amazing collection of sounds spun into a mesmerizing groove. Veronica says the song creeps her out. "it's my happening and it freaks me out!", i say.
9. Life Without Buildings, Live At The Annandale Hotel: A fascinating epitaph to an innovative band that came and went all too fast.
10. Simian Mobile Disco, Attack Decay Sustain Release: More raving. This album was my favorite of the dance onslaught of bands like Justice and Digitalism.

My biggest musical query of the year: Happy Mondays, Uncle Dysfunktional. Was anyone really waiting for this?

i could sleep, i could sleep
when i lived alone
is there a ghost in my house?

As for my favorite shows of the year, i'd have to rank them ...

1. Daft Punk at the Greek Theater, Berkeley, July 27
2. The Arcade Fire at the Greek Theater, Berkeley, June 1
3. Daft Punk at the LA Sports Arena, Los Angeles, July 21
4. LCD Soundsystem at Mezzanine, San Francisco, April 30
5. Jarvis Cocker at the Fillmore, San Francisco, April 28

Crappiest show: Placebo at the Fillmore. A band that had always exceeded my expectations suddenly looked like they were going through the motions.

My gaming experience of the year was definitely Bioshock for the 360, despite the fairly crappy final boss. It was a fully-realized undersea world, done in an authentic art deco theme. I can't imagine how they would construct the story for a sequel, but i'd love to revisit Rapture. I'm hoping to get a few new games for Christmas, as i've been in a video lull for a while. Other than rocking out to Guitar Hero 3. I tried Metallica's "One" on hard, and my fingers melted and the crowd booed when we came to the "Darkness! Imprisoning me! All that i see! Absolute horror!" part. And i can't even get past the intro to Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast" on the hard difficulty.

I watched Chelsea's recent 1-nil loss to Premiership frontrunners Arsenal with a sense of resignation. Although Chelsea could've equalized on the break (and should've ... damn Shaun Wright-Phillips), Arsenal looked solid at the back and were a crimson tide surging forward on the counterattack. I'm not totally down on the Blues ... after José departed, Avram Grant/zombie Israeli has got the team playing more fluidly and with more attacking verve than in recent memory. But the squad just isn't well constructed ... Ballack and Shevchenko don't really add anything, and our defensive purchases have been decidedly subpar (Alex is ok, but Tal Ben Haim ... my god). With both Didier Drogba and John Terry suffering through injury-plagued seasons, we don't match up with Arsenal or Manchester United. We'll probably finish in the top four again, but the title is out of the question and i doubt we'll get past the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Currently the rumor that won't die is the signing of all-world midfielder Ronaldinho in the January transfer window. I'm fairly sure it won't happen, but even if it does i can't see Ronnie making a huge splash in England at this stage of his career. The grim reality of the Roman Abramovich "marketing over football" era.

I've been pondering this ad for years, and i still don't get it ... with a name like Smucker's, why does it have to be good?

For some reason i keep putting off posting until i get home from work ... well, for an obvious reason: i've got work to do at work. Then when i get home, i zone out in front of the TV or the Xbox/PS3. Not the Wii, as i still haven't found the game to hold my interest in the Nintendo gimmick. And so the journal has languished unattended, night after night, week after week. I can't promise the same won't happen after this post, but hey ... i'm aware of the situation. At least i got in one November post.

As i can barely remember what the hell i was doing when i last posted, i'm going to start at the present and go backwards. Like that Seinfeld episode. Only less Seinfeldy.

Just finished watching Scorsese's Oscar vindication in the Departed. With just me and the dog at home, i turned off all the lights, cranked up the surround sound, and queued up my HD tivoed copy from last night. I've never been a huge Leo fan, but Di Caprio was flawless in this role. It was odd listening to Boston accents for two and a half hours, but the cast seemed tailor-made for the locale. I was surprised to learn that Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg were the only true beantowners in the group. I've been into the brutal, intense downer movies lately, having seen the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men in Iowa while the de la Moras and Dispiritos opted for Enchanted. Guess i've just been in a fatalistic mood these days. Must be, since i particularly resonated with the "no longer understand the evils of the world" ennui of Tommy Lee Jones in No Country and the "we're all corrupt in some way" existentialism of the Departed.

I flew back from an eighteen hour trip to L.A. Thursday morning, after attending Matthew and Dionne's ten year wedding anniversary/vow renewal and picking up a head cold. Flying sick is always pure torture. I spend my time leaning my head from one side to the other to drain my sinuses. After landing in San Jose, shuttling to the long-term parking lot to get my car, fetching my dog from my parents' house, then driving home, i promptly fell asleep. I woke up for an episode of the abysmal Law & Order: Criminal Intent, what a freakin' joke. Watching a subsequent episode of the original on TNT, aka the L&O network i learned that recent episodes aren't much better than its spinoffs. Back to sleep. I managed to recuperate enough in a day to handle giving a two hour lecture this morning. Thank god for vitamins.

Only two days earlier did i return from Thanksgiving in the heartland. V and her grandmother stayed for one more day, returning instead to LA, with V's eventual homecoming happening tomorrow. 10 days of rest and relaxation with Arlene, Alan, and Ana in Ames. As the AAA house now sports a wireless network, much of this time was spent at the dining room table with Arlene, Veronica, and i parked in front of our respective laptops. Which now makes me wonder how i went 10 days in front of a computer doing basically nothing and still didn't manage a single journal entry. Well, i did tag and sort all 5300 of Veronica's mp3's. Don't laugh, that took a good 15 hours or so. They were added to my iTunes library when i returned to work. Today i produced a 13 page list of albums for which i now need to locate album art. 850 of them. Not a pretty thought, considering my exacting standards for cover images.

Other Iowa activities included the aforementioned movie Saturday, a Sunday afternoon spent driving a few towns north to see presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, aiding Ana's ill-conceived snowflake manufacturing and sales business, winning all the cups on Super Mario Strikers while my teammate Ana took more interest in tackling me than scoring or defending, and missing Ana getting her ears pierced because i was down the mall in the Apple store getting my squeaky Macbook space bar fixed at the Genius Bar (which despite my recent pro-Apple conversion still sounds like *the* most pretentious name ever). Thanksgiving itself gave Alan a chance to organize a few more culinary masterpieces ... in addition to the breakfast, lunch, and dinner he prepared every other day. Home-cooked food in the heartland, right?

I dropped Tara off at the kennel the day before we left for Iowa, where she suffered for 10 days until my parents picked her up before fetching me at the airport. Seeing as she was left with my parents for another overnighter just two days later, she must think we're torturing her.

Veronica's grandmother stayed with us for a week in anticipation of our trip to Iowa. However this visit meant she had to somehow arrive in Redwood City from V's aunt down south. We resolved that we would make a one day trip to and from SoCal to fetch her, and scheduled it for the Saturday a week before our flight. However when i arose at 6:30am that morning and readied myself, V groaned from bed. She wasn't feeling well, so i convinced her it was no problem that i go by myself. That old ruse. I hit the road at 7:15am, arriving in Whittier at 1pm after spending the drive down the 5 listening to Howard Stern. After lunch with Bob and talking with Annabelle, Jose, Arman, and Austen for an hour or so, Ramona and i hopped in the Jetta and drove back north. The L.A. traffic had me yawning before the grapevine, worrying me that i wouldn't retain consciousness all the way back to the bay, but a venti coffee at the La Val Starbucks provided me the energy to go the distance. I however announced to Veronica upon our 10:30pm return that i would be doing absolutely nothing the next day.

My sister loaned me a book on Mormon fundamentalists, which i finished a few weeks ago. An odd suggestion, but it was spurred by the fact that the book was written by Jon Krakauer, the author of the recently movie-fied Into the Wild which i'd read on a fall trip to D.C. to review grants. How to put this delicately ... Mormons are f@$#ing insane. Native Americans are the lost tribes of Israel and Jesus came to America after the crucifixion? WTF?!?! And it's odd that the proclamations the prophets receive from God all happen to enable their individual vices. Gee, i always wished my wife would let me sleep with other women ... maybe if i tell her that it's God will. Hey, it's not me honey, it's God. In other religious nutjob news, i found a great review of the "Creation Museum" in a blog. After getting my fill of Mormons, i finished off Douglas Coupland's Microserfs. A somber homage to nerd culture, rife with philosophy. I dog-eared a lot of pages in that one. I occupied myself going to and from L.A. this week reading Howard Stern's autobiography Private Parts. You get a lot of weird looks reading that in a public place. It's odd perusing a 14 year-old memoir and comparing it to my knowledge of Howard from listening to his show for the last three years. His perspective has certainly evolved ... especially considering he defends Jay Leno in the book and now considers him a douchebag.

My memory is getting hazy now. I recall watching Idiocracy on Tivo ... great concept (idiots outpopulate intellectuals and reduce the world's average IQ to 35 by 2500), lousy execution. I'm waiting impatiently for the Alpine Sirius adapter to become available, so my car's superstereo can play Howard without the intervening Sirius unit. Despite the deluge of good games coming out (Call of Duty 4, Rock Band, Assassin's Creed, Half Life 2: Orange Box, hell even Super Mario Galaxy has got me interested), i've only picked up Guitar Hero III. If you like metal, which i DO, this installment is the best yet. I watched a Chelsea match weeks ago ... ah yes, it was the 6-nil drubbing of Man City. A great display, but whether we've turned the corner is still up for debate. Wait, strike that ... it's not up for debate. The answer is no. We're not beating United or Arsenal this season. No Champions League glory either. A few lucky breaks and we may wind up with the League Cup, or god forbid the FA Cup, but that's about it.

Okay, anything else that's happened to me is lost in the mists of history. Maybe i'll recall a lost morsel of wisdom in a waking dream. Or a sleeping dream, just before a snake in a vest rolls a donut past me. Yawn.