A few highlights:

- The cats are okay (the bat, less so). In the process of taking care of this, I’ve also found a good vet to look after them, and all their vaccines were updated. Joy! Here’s the obligatory photo.

- The vacuum food saver I picked up earlier this year has been proving a very good investment, as the bags of food I froze months ago have kept me fed during these busy times. But now I need to do some more cooking- especially if I’m to be ready for the annual dessert contest!

- I tend to miss the coverage of the Olympics- partly because the games tend to fall during cycles when I’m busy, and partly because I rely on antenna signals for TV (a poor strategy in my current location). For this cycle of the games, though, I’ve made a point to watch the stranger Olympic events online, which is a wonderful change from the last few years. Still- what really excites me is the paralympics, as an old acquaintance of mine has garnered his own Nike commercial. (Rohan was never one to let his lack of legs bother him, and the grin on his face fits him to a tee- it’s worth watching)

- The local art fair has come and gone, and I took the chance to learn all sorts of neat things about woodworking. If my coordination was better, my apartment would be full of exotic hardwoods and power tools right now. (There was also the usual consumer art and photography, but I’ve always loved the tiny variations that give wood such depth and character, and learning the technique involved in woodworking only made the items more amazing to behold. By contrast, about half a dozen photographers were selling variations on an image of the same gargoyle- hardly a shining example of artists training themselves to see the unseen).

The summer is flying by- still lots to see and do!

By itself, that’s pretty bizarre, even if I do live on the first floor-it’s pretty hard to get even a housefly by my cats, much less anything larger.

Then I realized two things, in quick succession:

1. The frog was furry. (Problematic)

2. Come to think of it, that squat, hopping shape near my pantry was actually a bat- albeit one with the wings folded under the body.

For a pet owner, finding a bat inside your home is a pretty scary thing- there’s always the fear of rabies, and with such small teeth, it’s not always clear when your pet has been bitten. Given that my cats regard bats as “Mice with wings” (aka, the greatest toy EVER), the risk of contact is… somewhat higher.

As for what to do? The good news is that the county I live in offers a free rabies-testing service, and I’ll know in a few days just how much a concern this will be.

The bad news is that my cats (lovable purrballs that they are) are somewhat at the far edge of the timeframe for a rabies shot to be effective- and a quick survey of cat owners I know has suggested that I’m not the only one who’s been slow to renew vaccinations. As I’m now finding out, just keeping the cats indoors isn’t any guarantee of protection. So if you’re reading this, go forth! Make sure your pets are up to date on their medical visits, even if they seem healthy now.

The other aspect of this situation that bothers me is that the actual rabies test is not, in fact, particularly humane- even if I did bring the bat to the humane society for testing. Essentially, it involves examining labeled brain tissue under a fluorescent microscope– and so merely because it wandered into my living room, I found myself owning and signing away the rights to euthanize and test the furry frog.

It’s upsetting on many levels, but as a chemist, I know that there have been some fantastic recent advances in non-lethal sampling and identification of substances in the brain. I’ll have to ask around, but there has to be a better way to do this- executing something just to find out if it has rabies feels too much like the modern equivalent of a witch dunking. And that’s not sitting well with me tonight.

For example: I’ve got a bit of a lisp, but it’s one that I’ve had for years (much to the annoyance of speech therapists everywhere). It’s not something I even realize anymore… until I went to execute another experiment tonight, and realized that I was suddenly thinking with a lisp.

It’s really pretty irritating. I’m supposed to arign the waser? What’s that supposed to mean?

This is an idea that I first began to float last year, and it’s become more pressing as I’ve watched a good friend finish her seven-year quest for the PhD: I’ve set a specific goal of seeing at least one new thing every month, and at least one bigger trip in the area each year.

There’s a big disconnect at work here, though: grad school isn’t something that encourages broadening your horizons beyond the bounds of the office, and when we travel, we go far (as for conferences). The result is a set of people who might have packed across most of the world, without ever seeing much of the neighborhood near their home of so many years.

And for me, that misses the point of travel. “Tourist” spots have never really held much excitement for me, and when I go somewhere new, I try to live it, not just visit. Sometimes that means sneaking through back alleys to unusual ethnic restaurants, and other times it means kicking my shoes off in a little corner of parkland paradise in the late evening, before an outdoor concert. If I do end up in a tourist attraction, it’s usually something with a twist- like sneaking through the back ways at Ellis Island, or calling a friend to make sure that I line up exactly the same shot to compare to a photo they’d taken, six months earlier.

(The latter is partly a way to see a favorite spot change with the seasons- but there’s also something very intriguing about matching footprints with those of someone I otherwise may not have seen in years)

So- the point? Oftentimes, it’s all too easy to seek the exotic with the help of a plane ticket. But especially as travel becomes more expensive, I think it’s important to realize just how much fun can be had by playing the tourist in one’s own home. I may never live in this part of the country again- but I will be able to see that I’ve actually done more than just pass through. And as I keep looking for the little things, it’s a real treat to bring those around me along for the ride, and to see that wonder of discovery all over again.

I can’t say that I ever enjoy these things, but in a way, my labmate’s family did a good job of making it more about a memorial for his life than about the fact of his death. I realize that black clothes and tears are traditional, yet at the same time, they often seem out of sync with the person being mourned… by contrast, his family wore comfortable, brightly colored clothes and invited his labmates over to swap memories over mexican food  (J’s favorite). As strange as this may sound, this was perhaps the most respectful funeral imaginable: a final memory that captured the spirit of who he was.

That said, it’s also remarkable in a broader sense: it’s very rare to see all the aspects of someone’s life in one place that way, as I’ve noticed that many people compartmentalize their lives to present different sides to different people.

In the end, there were stories that surprised me, but all were things that (in retrospect) fit perfectly with the person I’d known all along. After two years of working together, and even after knowing someone well enough to read their next response from a simple gesture- it’s easy to think that seeing someone every day equates to knowing them well. But that’s not always the case.

A sad occasion for many reasons, but in the end, I’m glad I was able to make it there.

Nowadays, the internet makes that almost easy. Most of my the people I know keep a blog (or three!) , and sites like Twitter make it possible to preserve even a record of life by the minute. (Which might be entertaining, if someone ever decided to record their thoughts as a hangover sets in…)

These ideas had been kicking around in my head for a while, but what really crystallized them was a reminder that people are creative- and that records of daily life have existed for centuries. Yet although Samuel Pepys certainly became known for his diary, somehow, the age of photography brought whole new ways to track life.

The story I have in mind is aptly titled “He took a Polaroid every day, until he died“- it ran a few months ago, and it’s been making the rounds since. Really an amazing read- what started as a college project lasted some 18 years, cut off only when the artist died of cancer. The result runs the gamut of work and life. Some of the images are funny, while others are deeply personal- but what they have in common is that they all capture a moment of someone’s life, frozen in time for all to see. The entire collection is well worth looking at, because in the end, it’s not contrived- it’s all about noticing the little joys that come every day.

—

I’ve toyed with the thought of doing this in my own life, solely for personal curiosity- though given my refusal to buy a modern cell phone, I’ve quickly realized that just having a camera handy is sometimes a challenge in itself. That’s particularly true when I travel (ZOMG! No photographing the security checkpoint- we don’t want the terrorists to know we have metal detectors!!)… so if you think you’ll be out in public often, the handy portable Guide to Photographer’s rights might be worth packing in your camera bag.

Dude: I’m bored- let’s go streaking!

Dudette: Ok! But we need a reason.

(long pause. Then, inspiration strikes) 

Dude: For OBAMA!

And, rather unexpectedly, I learned how dragonflies mate. (Hint: they’re talented little critters)

It took me a little bit to realize what the head-to-tail position meant, but I suppose it would offer a few advantages for mates that want to fly together.

But, there you have it: half a dozen pairs of dragonflies had sex on my leg today. Witty remarks fail me.

FDA Budget Swells as Administration Bows to Congress

In a nutshell, the FDA is the federal agency responsible for regulating the quality and safety of a variety of products. As more manufacturing of drugs has moved overseas, this job has become harder- and a few notable disasters (like the issue with contaminated heparin from China) have highlighted the issues with regulating plants in another country.

One of those issues is simply financial- it’s hard to project a government agency’s influence onto another continent without establishing a real presence there. Yet until now, the FDA hasn’t asked for more money in congressional testimony.

And that’s when the story came out: OMB rules forbid officials from doing so.

“Witnesses will avoid volunteering personal opinions that reflect positions inconsistent with the President’s program or appropriation request.”

There’s been a lot of talk about government officials being muzzled before, but in some ways, this is worse- partly because it’s an explicit rule, and partly because the normal process of debate is losing the feedback of the people in the best position to assess their own needs.

Hence if the administration screws up getting out of bed in the morning the budget, that’s too bad- we’re out more more cog in the system of checks and balances. Ugh.

It was a bit warm, but overall pleasant, and I got some needed rest.

I say it this way, because what followed next makes almost no sense in that- or any- context. At some point in the evening, I turned on the computer to check email- and learned that sometime over the weekend, a coworker from my lab’s California contingent had passed away in his sleep. We’re not sure why, and although this is hardly the first (or fourth) acquaintance my age to pass away since I began grad school, it’s perhaps the most inexplicable.  Far from being a party animal, he was one of the most soft-spoken people I’ve ever met: I once spent ten minutes coaxing him to admit his guilty secret, which turned out to involve watching HBO series on DVD during the weekends (instead of working).

His roommate is also from our lab, as they’d recently moved out there when the advisor did. We’re not sure what happened, but it’s hard- both to find words to fit this situation, and to do anything tangible from such a distance. We’ll have to see what happens from here.