Cool kid gets cool shot...

This story in the Toronto Star just has to make you smile. This kid gets a new shot on life, and a great shot in net, getting to practice with the Leafs after receiving a double lung transplant to treat his cystic fibrosis. He must be feeling on top of the world right now, and rightly so.

Way to go kiddo... keep it up. Hope to see you in nets for the ol' Maple "buds" for real someday! (a lot of times it seems they could use the help...)

The first roll...

the couple, originally uploaded by physics*chick (aka saburke).

... from the OM-1 I got for Christmas!

Specs:

• Olympus OM-1 body
  
• 50mm f1.8 Zuiko lens
  
• Kodak 200 ISO Black & White film
  
• Developed and scanned at a shop here in Montreal (not developing anything myself just yet)
  

The rest of the roll can be found in this photoset (minus two that were poorly exposed, 1 of hubby, and 1 pretty out of focus dog).

Now it's loaded with 125 ISO Ilford Black & White. I've already taken a few, but it's a 36 exposure roll, so it might be a little while before I go through it and get them developed. I can't wait to play with it more though!

people must be disappointed...

Inspired by StyleyGeek's Tuesday space-filling post on search terms bringing readers by...

Here are the last 21 search terms that directed to this blog:

1. mad scientist quotes
   
2. knit blog erika knight classic military
   
3. a story of something good happening when someone kept a exotic pet
   
4. funny mad scientist
   
5. mad scientist cake
   
6. jule' malet-veale flickr
   
7. knitted hockey washcloths
   
8. mad science birthday show
   
9. bart simpson grad student
   
10. mad thumbs
    
11. mac mad flickr
    
12. graduate students terrible life choices
    
13. jule malet-veale
    
14. mad scientist quotes
    
15. kelly cardigan knitting
    
16. nova scotian who had a hit with testing 1-2-3
    
17. texshop photographs
    
18. you might be a nova scotian if
    
19. mad about stitching
    
20. organizing pdf papers bibtex freeware endnote
    
21. funny crossed eyeglasses
    

Granted the oddity of this list speaks somewhat to the eclectic (ie. scattered) nature of this blog, but I can't help but think that many people must be disappointed when they get to my blog and there are no tips on giving "mad science birthday shows" or recipies for "mad scientsist cakes".

Oh, and for those of you looking for our wedding photographer: Jule Malet-Veale's website (if you're actually looking for a wedding photographer in Halifax, she was very good by the way! ... um, if perhaps a tad slow with the prints).

And if you are a knitterly type and don't care about the sciency stuff, or the grad school stuff, click knitting in the sidebar under "filing system".

If you want Bart making fun of grad students go here.

If you're looking for exotic pets, I can't help you!

Je Vote

As it's election time around here there have been signs going up saying "Je Vote"... an encouragement I guess for all of us to get out to the polls on election day.

That has nothing to do with this post.

I want you to head over to Jim Gibbon.com to vote on the Haiku contest. You can vote for my contriubtion under physical sciences (I'd be thrilled!)... or not.

Just go vote.

Why?

Because.

photographic lull... old pics to keep you amused!

curiosity, originally uploaded by saburke.

I've been in a bit of a photography lull these days. Mostly because it's been so cold outside; I just can't imagine pulling my fingers out of warm mitts to take pictures... even after a beautiful fresh snowfall. I also need to get over to the place I get film developped to submit my first roll from the Olympus OM-1, and pick up some more film. I'm still really excited about it, just haven't had a chance to do anything with it.

Anyway, to keep you all amused, I've posted some of the pictures I took last year in Germany when I went to the Duisburg Zoo to Flickr. I like the way a few turned out, and animals are generally amusing anyway!

new and improved blog! new features!

Ok, well, one new feature. I added a weather box to my sidebar. Now you can see how cold it is in winter (ok, not very cold today) here, and how freakin' hot it gets in summer!

As hubby said the other day: "You know you live in a crappy climate when it makes you uglier."

No, that wasn't directed at me, or he would have gotten a pretty ugly stare down rather than a chuckle. Though... *sigh* ... no amount of special soaps, or "potions", water, or vitamins can save my skin and hair from this climate. Thank goodness spring is around the corner! *fingers crosed* Meanwhile, I need to work on getting us out of here and into healthier climes! California sounds good, no?? ;)

where am i?

I guess I haven't posted in awhile. I had planned to put up a birthday post on Sunday, and possibly even do a birthday self-portrait photo shoot... but since I spent most of the day in the lab I was cranky. So no post for you! Sorry... not your fault, I'll try to behave.

Anyway, I'm tired of complaining about work here, so I'm trying a new policy akin to the "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" advice. I'm going to make a concerted effort to avoid the "waaahhh, everything sucks" post. That may mean a sparser blog for awhile, but I don't want my blog to become a negativity feedback mechanism, and honestly, who wants to read a whiney blog?!

Related cute, anecdote: When I was still just a little tot, my mother claims she tried to sit me down and talk to me about "whining". Knowing my Mom, I'm sure she sat with me and tried to reason that there was no purpose in mere whineing, and tried to make sure I understood as she went. At the end she asked once more if I understood, and I apparently nodded knowingly and with a big smile on my face said "No wine, apple juice!"... a reference to getting apple juice in a wine glass at dinner parties where the "grown-ups" were having wine. Clearly I had missed the entire point... I guess she just laughed and accepted that I might just be a bit young to grasp that one.

So, turning a new leaf here. Mad Scientist will (hopefully) no longer be Whiney Mad Scientist.

No whine, apple juice!

Academia!Entertainment is Haiku:participate you.

Check out this fun contest over at Jim Gibbon.com, challenging the academic blog-o-sphere to write their research in Haiku.

Here's my contribution:

Buckminsterful|erene on KBr studied by High Res'n NC-AFM: Molecu|ar nucleation and growth on an insulator*

C₆₀ islands.
molecules do not like salt;
strange shapes resulting.

Yup. Acutally that's pretty much it in a nutshell. Sad that it boils down to 17 syllables...

*(Excuse the "typos"; I deliberately messed with the title a bit to make it not appear when googled...)

Knitting: first article of real clothing!

My new vest... made by me!, originally uploaded by saburke.

Ok, so it's a chunky knit vest (hahaha... take that sleeves!), that took me less than two weeks to complete despite being insano busy. Here's the run-down on the details:

Pattern: "Tank Top" from "Classic Knits" by Erika Knight

Yarn: Substituted suggested Rowan Big wool for Araucania Limari, a hand-dyed bulky weight wool/alpaca/silk blend, in "black" which is actually more like a charcoal grey. 2.5-3 skeins, each 100gr/56m.

Needles: 10mm and 12mm.


Gauge: pretty close to the specified 8sts/4in on 12mm (ahem, there is an error in the pattern gauge, it reads 18sts when it should read 8sts). I was going to knit a size up with this yarn, but since the gauge was reasonably close and the garment meant to fit snugly I stuck with my original size.


The pattern is written in a reasonably understandable manner for someone who has done a bit of knitting. That said, I got a bit confused with the neck shaping, and I have some suggestions for the decreases.


In particular, the pattern for the front of the vest is written out for only one side of the v-neck. The other side is stated merely as "complete to match first side, reversing all shaping". Ok, I'm decent at geometry and all, so this isn't so hard. However, the decreases for the first side (right side as you look at it) read k2tog tbl (knit 2 together through the back loops) to make a left slanting decrease. Naievly, I assumed that I could just use k2tog on the other side to make a right slanting decrease. Except these two decreases bare no resemblance to eachother but in name! k2tog tbl creates loops that cross the stitches knit together, this doesn't happen with k2tog at all. I stared in horror (ok, so I was being a little over-dramatic, but this is my first garment ever, I wanted to love it!) at my totally completely asymetrical vest. I took out the row. I knit it again. I stared in horror again. Repeat. On the third attempt I started looking for alternatives as I'd determined at this point I was decreasing quite properly, but using the wrong one. Upon consulting the great internet I came across: the great life-saving visual chart of decrease techniques (there's one for increases too). Thank-you Amy Finlay. Thank-you for explaning knitting in ways I understand, and sharing with the world through the power of the internet.


I used the "crossed right slanting decrease" on the second side of the front, which matches k2tog tbl satisfactorily.


Alternatively, I might have used an ssk on the first side and merrily k2tog on the second to match.


Interestingly, the photograph in the book appears to have the garment knit as I started to do, with k2tog tbl and k2tog... but it really seems strange for me to have two sides of a vest not be mirror images of each other!? Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist...


The other note I have is that the armhole shaping suffers the same mismatch, and I'd suggest using ssk rather than the k2tog tbl as it won't be loopy... I don't really care that I didn't notice at that stage however as this more or less ends up in your armpits... so, as you wish. ;)


Anyway, I enjoyed making this, and I've already enjoyed wearing it. The bulky yarn is super-warm, so even without sleeves I was toasty. Ok, so I wore a thin cotton jacket over it...


As for the rest of the book, I've got my eye on both the "military cardigan" and the "kelly cardigan" (I like cardigans...). But I'm really excited to try the "Bardot sweater" which is a rolled top, sortof off the shoulder sweater in a less bulky, but still fairly chunky gauge.


More photos (L-R: yarn ::"knitting with pylons" aka, orange, plastic, 12mm needles :: in progress :: finished!):

click image to view on flickr

too many monkeys

Lately, for both hubby and I, work has primarily been a case of too many monkeys on our backs. You know the feeling? Like there are always a bunch of little things naggling at you, and you can't get any real work done becuase you are carting around a bunch of hairpulling, noisy, little monkeys? To add to it, we've both got home monkeys as well as work monkeys on our minds... little stuff like appointments that need to be made, projects around the apartment, etc. Of course the work monkeys have taken priority for the most part... meanwhile, I still need a haircut, a doctor's appointment, new eyeglasses, and a trip to the dentist. At what point is it reasonable to say, no, I need to look after myself?

Anyway, Hubby brought up the monkeys analogy this morning (as he was sorting through online optics catalogues for work.. on a Saturday morning), and so all day as we've dealt with various assortments of them, we've peered over our shoulders at the imaginary monkeys and made little monkey noises. Sometimes I think we are losing our sanity...

The whole thing reminded me that my Dad got quite a kick out of the phrase "Please check your monkeys at the door", to the point in fact where I made him a sign for his office. Not sure if people really stopped passing off their monkeys to him... but humourous none-the-less.

I wonder if I made a sign, or added it to the signature line of my email if people would get the hint??

(Note: Graphic shamelessly stolen from Telus Mobility site)