You know they are good doughnuts when...

Roger Ebert's thoughts on God

Just a quick link. Mr Ebert shares some interesting thoughts on theism and critical thinking:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/04/how_i_believe_in_g.html

I think most Americans (at least most of the Americans I know) fall into this category. Most people have the feeling that religion isn't much more than very old snake oil, but they just can't shake the desire to believe in some kind of deity or at the very least, some unifying human essence (spirit?). From there, most of us decide to tolerate the snake oil to one degree or another, or we decide to leave the whole topic on the shelf and religion/spirituality largely becomes irrelevant. It seems to me that Mr Ebert is riding the uncomfortable fence between those two options.

Thoughts from a first time homeowner: part 1

It never occurred to me a man could become so enraged at something as seemingly innocuous as a sprinkler.

Science and the Gift Horse

I learned a valuable lesson in the past month. I've been banging away at my postdoctoral project now for almost a year. About six months of that I've spent trouble shooting one very simple (and what should be routine) assay. I've wasted a lot of time doing so, but it had to be done. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going wrong. So, one-by-one I began replacing reagents and changing conditions. I had people show me how to do the experiment, watch me perform the experiment, give suggestions and repeat. Nothing worked.

Finally, I remembered that one of the reagents that I had been using was given to me by a coworker. He had ordered extra bottle and thought I might need some. I should say at this point that this individual is a very helpful person. He has been an invaluable resource and a good friend and I have no reason to think that he would ever knowingly cause trouble for me or anyone else. But... as soon as I replaced that one gift everything started working.

The lesson, as I see it, is that in science (maybe true for other fields as well) it's just not worth your time to trust anyone else unless you must. Order your own reagents, do the experiments yourself, and if you must take a gift then make sure it is what they say it is. Most people have good intentions and 9 times out of 10 you will be fine. But, that one time can cost you 6 months or more. Your time is worth too much.

Why I do not "tweet"

I love this post.

My favorite reason not to use twitter: "You don't see the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise engaged in anything analogous to tweeting, do you?" -James Hrynyshyn. 'nuff said? I think so.

Seriously, why do we need yet another way to get news? If you feel like you have something to say, then start a blog. If it's interesting, then I'll probably find it and read it. If it's not... well... have you seen blogger.com, wordpress.com or livejournal.com lately? You won't be alone.

Welcome home, Tomme

Well, we did it. Sara and I are now the proud owners of a 1 year old male boxer, Tomme.

At first I thought I'd post a list of all the reasons we love him or why we wanted a dog, or why he's a great dog for us, but nobody wants to read that. So, here's a run-down of all the things we ignored when we decided to commit to dog ownership:

Number of other dogs Tomme scared half to death: 3
Number of times said dog urinated on the hardwood: ~15
Number of times the dog crapped on the hardwood: ~8
Number of sofa/couch urination incidents: 1
Number of carpet urination incidents: 3
Number of shits on the dog bedding: 2
Number of glass hydrometers eaten by the dog (yes, glass!): 1
Number of shoes chewed on by the dog: 10
Number of dominoes taken from the living room and hidden in the backyard: 1
Number of pieces of Matt's berry pie eaten by the dog: 1
Number of Matt's sandwiches eaten by the dog: 2
Pounds of food eaten by the dog: ~150
Pounds of shit deposited by said dog inside our new domicile: ~250
Number of doorways chewed to hell by the dog: 1
Number of chew toys destroyed by the dog: 5
Number of $150 crates eaten and ruined: 1 (in 2 days no less)
Number of times Matt said the words "Jesus Christ, Tomme": we lost count somewhere after day 3
Rough cost of keeping the dog for two weeks: $700

With all that said, he really has a good temperament. He needs a lot of exercise and learns really quickly and most importantly, he's a very friendly dog who has made himself a place in our home.

What's the difference between a police man, towing company and a thief?

Our car was stolen almost two weeks ago on a Sunday night. Granted, we left the keys in the car and the back seat had a half case of wine sitting there, waiting for an unscrupulous individual to help themselves, but I was still surprised and more than a little angry to find the car missing in the morning. I had pretty much written it off as gone and we've since been shopping for a new vehicle. In the mean time, I've been learning of all the other goodies we left in the car for the thief to enjoy. First, there's the FasTrak. The car (and FasTrak) was used 3 times to cross the Richmond bridge. They even have a picture of the guy in our car... which seemed like good news for us, but it turns out it doesn't really matter (I'll tell you why in a minute). I also found out that we had a check book in the car. The genius paid his water bill (of $179) with our bank account. It seemed to me that this case was nearly at an end, so I contacted the wonderful Concord police department to forward all my information to and they gave me the the phone number of the detective who was assigned the case. Everything seemed pretty open and shut to me. All they'd have to do is match the name on the water bill with the FasTrak picture and we could have our criminal and our car back. Easy as cake... That was a week ago. I still haven't had any of my calls returned.

In the meantime, I decided to do some of my own detective work. I called the water utility company and tried to get a name or account number of the bill I paid. Unfortunately, they don't give out any names, even if you're the one that paid the bill. They need a court order to do so. So, Sara tried to get the pictures from the Richmond bridge. Apparently that's not possible without a judge or police officer either. So, right about when we started to feel totally defeated, we got a call from the Petaluma police depot claiming that they found our car and it's at a towing yard. I said, "Great. I'll come pick it up tonight... but, Do I pay for the towing or does the police department?" She replied, "I think you'll have to, but your insurance will cover it." I told her that liability insurance doesn't cover towing and she assured me it would be a small, "nominal fee." So, I called the towing company and quickly learned that "nominal fee" means $329 (which is roughly 1/3rd the value of our little Kia Spectra). He assured me that he was very sorry and that I was an unfortunate victim, but I was still going to pay the fee, which is increasing by the hour, and if I pick it up after 5 or on the weekend then there's an extra "after hours fee." He added that if I don't pay then he'll put a lean on the car and keep it. But again, he's "very very sorry for my circumstance." So, Sara and I left work and we trucked out to Petaluma (thank you Meaghan for driving Sara from SF, that was a huge help).

To make a very long story into a short lesson, I'll just say that arguing with a police officer does no good. The truth is, I kinda lost it. I still think the system is disgusting and I can't imagine how anyone could make a living by preying on car theft victims like that, let alone how a city could hire towing contractors to sanction the whole thing, but I have learned my lesson. It does no good to ague with cops, thieves, or towing companies. They all have you buy the covered bits and they know it. The only difference is that the thief has to steal your car when you aren't looking. The towing company and the police get to do it right there in front of you. Either way, there isn't much you can do about it... of course, unless you have theft insurance, which - poetically - does not distinguish between theft by criminal, theft by towing company, theft by the police, or any combination thereof.