Subterranean Homesick Blues

I'm not sure why there is a smokestack in the middle of the road between my apartment and Stony Brook Hospital, but it is certainly not a driving hazard... not at all.

I like to think that mole men have finally reached the industrial age and this is just the first sign. By that I mean that I prefer to think its something ridiculous rather than Stony Brook wasting a huge amount of money because they failed to fix a broken steam line for weeks.

The title, of course, is a reference to this.

Refrigerator Art

Don't keep food until it go bad!~ Now a permanent reminder on my refrigerator door.


This was written on my fridge a week or so ago. Whoever wrote it took all the food out too.
It was written in pen before, now we're up too permanent marker. With the free food removal service, apparently they weren't kidding when they said it was a privilege to live in Chapin Apartments. Also, none of the food had actually gone bad.

Sorry about the crappy picture, there is a wall about three feet from the front of the fridge.

When Phobias Collide

Paraskavedekatriaphobia- The fear of Friday the thirteenth.

Malecinemaphobia- The fear of bad movies. Which I completely made up.

What! Why? *Head Explodes*- My reaction to hearing that a re-make of Friday the Thirteenth is coming out today. By the way... its the 12th in the series.

My Homework for Memory...

...is to watch Memento. Man, grad school is tough.



On a semi-related note, here is the trailer for Quentin Tarantino's latest. I'm not exactly impressed, but I'm guessing that the trailer is not at all representative of what the film is really like. The script doesn't read like the generic action movie the trailer portrays and I'm sure the soundtrack to the actual film won't contain any heavy metal. I'm (cautiously) optimistic.

Lots and Lots of LEDs

The Nine Inch Nails footage is I mentioned in an earlier post is starting to show up in edited form. Apparently what's appearing on youtube and vimeo are rough cuts of what will be be included in a fan-made DVD project. I know NIN isn't to everyone's taste, but I wanted to follow up on this. Plus, the footage looks fantastic.


Nine Inch Nails: Only (Live in HD) from WhoRu? on Vimeo.


Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts 31 (Live in HD) from WhoRu? on Vimeo.


Nine Inch Nails: In This Twilight (Live in HD) from WhoRu? on Vimeo.

So A-Rod used steriods...

In case you missed it, Alex Rodriguez using steroids is the most important thing to ever happen. Apparently its surprising that someone who puts up these kinds of numbers would need to use performance enhancing drugs to do so. What is surprising is that using steroids apparently make you a terrible hitter in September, October, or anytime you're in a clutch situation.

The hitting records will probably always be tarnished by steroid use, even if A-Rod had remained drug-free, there would still be the legacy of Bonds, McGuire, and Sosa. Maybe MLB should just give the career homerun record back to Hank Aaron.


No one liked A-Rod before this anyways, so the only real change will be that the Fenway faithful will have something new to yell at him when the Yankees come to town. Oh and he should probably give up all those bonuses he gets for breaking hitting records...

Finally, in an unrelated note look at which two teams are predicted to have the best records this season. Not that a Red Sox/Cubs world series will ever happen... but I'll take another championship thank you very much.

electromagnetism!

So after much delay, our new magnet arrived today. When I first arrived here, I was told that it would be arriving within weeks. When my adviser did her job talk here she was told the same thing... that was seven years ago.

Once the new fMRI facility is up and running we'll be able to do research without having to deal with the ludicrousness of Stony Brook University Hospital. This week alone, we've been chided for simply using the scanner to do research, had our equipment tampered with, and had the hospital's network go down. Furthermore, we'll be able to do scans during the day (as opposed to 8-10 at night) and we won't have to negotiate through hospital waiting rooms and clinical areas.

I'll post some pictures once the building is finished. We're not allowed in the building yet as they are still finishing up some of the construction and delivering the liquid nitrogen.