Mrow purrrr......

I have submitted my application for grad school. Now begins the waiting process...

My tasklist at work has officially hit the bottom of three college ruled 8.5" x 11" sheets.

There's nothing quite as fun as "going to lunch" by sitting at your desk, putting on a pair of headphones and watching rammstein videos on YouTube. It's been a rough week. I got a lot of stuff done, but I'm tired and my head hurts. Friends invited me to come camping with them. They even lent me their car so I could drive up. I wasn't really looking forward to it this morning but at this point I've very much warmed to the idea.

Please join me in a Rammstein video to celebrate getting to leave work in the next hour or so.



p.s. I'm getting to lunch at 2:30 when I arrived at 7:30. We're ignoring that fact.

I'll be bartending this event on Sunday, so anyone who's from Philly should drop by!

Whew!  i'm having a blast.  The Gryphons came to town over the last two days and tonight was the big meet 'n greet party at The Dragon.  I met a very handsome guy from the Muddyyork (Toronto) team.  The Gryphons closed the party down.  We were out dancing and whooping it up.  We got there around 8 pm and didn't leave until around 2:30!  The whole thing was an absolute blast!

Some teammates and I also took the Jameson Whiskey distillery tour this afternoon which was fun as well.  Plenty more pictures to come!  Have a great night y'all as I see the first hints of dawn coming over the horizon.

So, it's 10:30. I'm waking up slowly, flexing various muscles, trying to pinpoint what hurts. I'm a little hungover but really not that bad given that I was out until 3 am.

Brian and I set up a meeting at 3 pm at The George (the generic, everyone knows this place gay bar). We went from there walking around for a bit, found some food and then hit the National Gallery. The Gallery was very nice. We got there fairly late and I'd like to go back and see the Caravaggio wing. Brian found a modern wing which i didn't really care for, except the part where he couldn't find the door to the gallery because it looked continguous with the cement wall.

We also found a store with rugby gear (on the cheap comparably too). They had some boots for 15 - 30€! The cheapest ever in the States is $60 because of the import costs and such. We both plan on going back there to get some boots and shorts. I'm also hoping to get a nice rugby jersey that I can wear to work. I technically can't wear the team jersey because Tylenol PM is a sponsor and their logo is printed up on it. We have to be impartial about the various drug companies you know.

Brian is staying with friends so he needed to move his stuff from one house to another. We took the bus together out to Ballydoyle, so I got to see the suburbs a bit and views of the ocean. From there, his friend's pop drove us to his other friend's place. (Brian is an anarchist so has social networks for staying random places) They were a very sweet couple living in a "rough" neighborhood that looked mostly like a suburban apartment/condo area. We had a few drinks and they made us ham and eggs with toast since they noticed we were ravnesly eating their cookies. After they gave us directions to City Centre and we headed off for the bus and a lurid evening.

Anyway, I'm going to seperate out the lurid details, so comment me if you want those as they'll be friends only...

Having been asked to post often, and trying to follow-up on a M.I.A. friend, I am posting yet again today.

I'm beat. It's approaching midnight and I've been all over the city today. I still haven't decided about London, but will do so before I head back to the hostel. The price of things blows, but I got dinner on the cheap at a supermarket.

I sent my friend Brian a message asking to meet at one of the gay bars, The George. I told him I'd go on the hour each hour looking for him. I didn't find him. I did get bought a drink and meet four nice Irish guys though. Barry, Kilron (spelled Cailran or some such - but he was a sweetie, hope to see him again), Shawn and Robert. I also met a hottie Eddie, but he was a bit pissed and full of himself.

Apparently, "massive" is a compliment I guess something like "stacked" or "built". I was called that by Shawn. I kidded in a good natured way that he was calling me fat. He and Robert tried to explain how "massive" was a compliment.

Lesson learned: being foreign works just as well if you're an American in Ireland as if you're Irish in America.

I'm going to head back to the hostel, shower up, write in my own journal and pass out.

Here are the rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions of a very personal nature.
3. You will update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.

enlabelleaurore asked me the following questions:
1. When encountering opposition to something you feel strongly for, what is your first mental impulse?

2. What is the last book you read for leisure? Would you recommend it?

3. Did you think that when you started your degree, that you'd end up working in a lab? Or did you envision a more field-work approach? Are you pleased with the way things are turning out?

4. What's your favorite lube? Why? I'm something of a connoisseur, and I always like new ideas.

5. Smell is the strongest sense tied to memory. According to some commercial somewhere. What smell is the one that completely transports you? Where does it take you, and is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I had Irish Breakfast this morning.  It consisted of an egg over easy (i ate the white), a white & black Pudding (some kind of oat pattie), a sausage and a piece of ham, with coffee and toast.  It was decent but not the cheapest.  Still scoping out reasonable eats. 

I did the Book of Kells and Trinity College (have to go back to take a pic of a statue).  I went to Dublin Castle and the Charles Beatty Library.  I took some pics of Christ Cathedral and generally walked around.  I was carrying my satchel as it had my travelguide, journal and notebook in it.  My back is killing me at this point, so that's the last time I bring that (at least with that much shit in it).  I've also been at it since 8am so I'm feeling the jet lag.  Have to find something to eat since it's been 7 hours snice I ate.

No major foul-ups or cultural shocks yet.  Though I do suspect I will have a near miss with a car during my time here.  Still trying to decide on going to London.  Given that I did half the touristy stuff Dublin has to offer today, I'm considering it.


Oh I almost forgot!  I hung out watching some Irish kids freestyle walk for awhile.  I took some nifty pictures of that, as they lunged between concrete pilings and hand-rails.  I also got some pics of their cello accompanist who was playing "This is Ironman" and would pick it up and sneak around playing "In the Hall of the Mountain King".  It was amusing. 

I have safely arrived in Dublin.  I took the bus and got to my hostel without
issue.  I have become a member of a local internet cafe and expect that I will
have daily access to email.

Here is a transcript of the first email I wrote:

I'm not sure what to tell you except that Irish keyboard's have friggin' extra
characters all over.  \Left Shift is shortened and has a backslash \  where it should be and the pound sign is where
enter should be damn it! ####  \(FUCK!\0)#

I can't take it!  Just writing to say that \i have arrived safely and have
safely found my home internet cafe next to my hostel.  ##

I have boarded my flight to Dublin, Ireland to play rugby in the Bingham Cup. The Bingham Cup, an internationalgay rugby tournament, honors the life of Mark Bingham - hero of 9/11 - the SF Fog player who lead a charge against terrorists on 9/11 on the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania. This image always come to mind when boarding a flight and especially so now.

However, nothing makes me as proud either. I am playing a great sport, with a great group of guys who have changed my life. I have been playing for five years and couldn't be prouder.

Wish us luck!

I'm currently applying for a $2 million grant from the NIH. It's due at 5 pm and the Office of Research Services and I have been going back and forth making corrections. Dr. Rosas sent me the final document around 2 pm today. It's been an interesting week to say the least. I'm taking a moment to blog here as I wait for them to call me back with the next issue.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned the weekly party that DJ Barney started before this. It's called WOOF! and it's every Sunday night at Sal's. It's very fun, laid back and just generally good. He brings in DJs to spin for the night and gets a decent crowd. There's a $5 cover to keep out the riff-raff and you get a drink ticket (which counts for $3 towards a drink). Steve and I have been going regularly.

Anyway, I bring this up today specifically because I will be guest bartending. If you're in the general vicinity of Sal's tonight swing-by. I'll be there from 5 pm to 1 am (open to close). Did I mention it's free-pour? *grin*

I have no idea how far I am into this movie. If you haven't seen it the premise is there's a viral outbreak and all of England has been quarantined to an island. (It's a zombie flick) I'm usually ok with these flicks. They're not my favorite. This one gets me.

This movie chills me to my core. Why? Because, if it were to happen, this is exactly what would occur. Military rule, infection and chaos. No regard for people or families. No regard for solutions beyond total annilliation.

Step 1: Kill the infected.
Step 2: Containment. If containment fails, Step 3.
Step 3: Extermination.

Now they won't stop until everyone is dead

I only have broadcast tv right now.  This usually doesn’t effect me much since I’m just home from work and watch some Simpsons or prime-time tv.  However, Saturday morning around 10:30 is rather devoid.  I just watched a deaf children’s bible teaching show.  It was sponsored by Silent Blessings - Deaf Ministries and Deaf Missions.  I don’t even know what this channel is but I’m a-scared.

Next show.... "you need medicine, god's blessing.  Just like you'd put medicine in your mouth, we'll put these scriptures in your head."  Why is there a clown reading a bible?

I contacted the central transplant database folks here.  I noticed that our students were copying data from the computer and putting it into our system.  I noticed also they were making errors.  I said "this is ridiculous."  So after three months of trying, someone finally contacted me today about downloading patients lab reports.  The woman was none too happy when I said I wanted every lab for every transplant patient since 1997.  However, she did it for me. 

n=197,146

Of which, 87,743 match with patients in our first transplant study and 19,125 match patients in our second transplant study.

Rock on!

Thursday, May 1 was my Dad's birthday.  It would have been great to do family dinner but I was Dining In for Life.  So, instead the family will be doing dinner for him and my uncle's birthdays tonight.  Some of my cousins are in town with their new baby and it should be nice.

Now, you might be wondering why I started a post about my Dad's birthday with an Eddie Izzard picture.  As it turns out, Dad really likes Eddie Izzard.  It's become one of those things in the family.  At first, I demanded we watch Eddie one night.  I said I thought he was really funny and that my step-mom and he would like him.  Dad was uncomfortable at first with the whole transvestite bit of it, but by the end he'd had some laughs.  We watched a few more over a couple months.  He would call me down from my room to watch if he noticed it was on. 
Then, a month ago, I went home for family dinner.  I just came in and heard Eddie Izzard on the tv.  Dad had been watching it on his own and subjecting my all too straight step-brother to him.  We ended up all eating dinner to a series of Eddie Izzard specials.  I had no doing in it either.  So, Eddie Izzard is coming to town next week and I got tickets.  I'm psyched.

We recently started a new study on the dialysis population.  Patients are within their first three months of dialysis treatment.  They will get a chest and abdomen CT and a bone density scan.  The exciting part is we will be trying a new CT technique for bone density.  Everyone in radiology seems psyched to start that up. 

I just had the first patient for the study.  He was in very good spirits and was glad to have something to do today.  It was kind of nice as often patients think the visits are long and have other things they want to do.  Visit went very well.  The wait for CT was long, but I got to watch as the technician ran the scan.  It's ECG-gated which means they hook up a ECG and the scan only occurs when the heart isn't beating.  It showed a graph of the ECG and then little blue windows overlaid when the radiation was on.  Very cool! 

My part of the study went pretty easy as well.  The pulse wave analysis and velocity are a snitch now.  PWA estimates the aortic blood pressure based on the radial pressure.  PWV measures the velocity of the blood moving through the body.  I'm still shaky on ankle brachial index.  I'm not sure where to put the cuff to measure blood pressures in the feet.