Its pretty true that I had been feeling kind of disconnected at work, because I do spend a lot of time at work, but I didn't really know anyone. I tried to attend our happy hours on Friday, but it was pretty slow going. All I learned is that I work with a lot of people who love free beer. I'm pretty sure that most of the adult world loves free beer, too. Intra-departmental sports has solved that problem. I've started having random conversations with people that used to get only pained smiles from me. Granted, its about sports, but, improvements are improvements.
Damn. Its been a long time since I've been enthusiastic about something artistic that wasn't related to popular media. Check out Art From Steel. They make art . . . from recycled steel. They are physically based in Thailand, but sell internationally.
Not only do they make interesting little sculptures, but they make to order. Its the best of both . . . no the best of all worlds.
I mean, a 20 cm sculpture of Wall*E? For only $60?
Yes, even Wall*E looks confused that he'd be that cheap. Disney raised his expectations.
They've got lots of fun stuff to look at. I probably wouldn't end up ordering anything from them because, well, small apartment and shipping costs, but the site is fairly enjoyable anyway.
EDIT: Also found neat animal sculptures by Andrew Chase at Chase Studio. Check out this cheetah face below. The cheetah actually moves, too.
Recent attacks on Google, YouTube, Facebook, LiveJournal and Twitter yesterday forced me to spend most of my day yesterday actually working, and/or being more chatty with my co-workers than usual. I was forced to face the facts that most of the sites I visit are not related to work, except for Google and internal work sites, both of whom I consult on a regular basis to double-check protocols and procedures. My work is related to science, and as such there are many 'hurry up and wait' moments where I've got 5-10 minutes of either sitting around and staring into space or Internet browsing. Because of the way the working world has shifted to take advantage of the Internet with internal applications, I consider Internet access a necessity, and I don't see myself able to exist in a job where I wouldn't have Internet access.
What's your opinion? Could you survive without the 'Net at work? Do you survive without the 'Net already?
Hey, only 10% of the people who've taken this 'science-in-the-news-related' quiz have gotten perfect scores like me. Seriously, its not that hard. I'd like to think at least 25% of the people who take it can rock perfect scores on the first go-round like me. So, come on, let's destroy that percentage!
Most dance parties in the Boston area require ID, a cover charge and a decent outfit. Not so with the annual Cambridge City Dance Party, which originated in 1996. Going to these dances reminds me why I love Cambridge. Cambridge's residents are diverse, fun-loving and hard-working.
Of course, most of the music tonight was dominated by Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, who passed away last night. Despite the solemnity, the crowd of all ages, races and sexual orientations was intent on having a good time. DJ Joey Demers produced a great mix of hits from the past thirty to forty years when I finally flipped onto the dance floor or rather street, occasionally mixing out a song if it failed to produce the desired reaction: happy faces and bouncing, gyrating bodies. Holly Gettings made the area in front of City Hall appear to be a large one-street Mardi Gras with her interesting lighting designs, which included rotating gobos, and that lovely dancehall standard, blacklight.
Many Cambridge notables were in attendance. Most notable was the lovely Mayor E. Denise Simmons, who was still boogie-ing down near the end of the night. She looked less tired than I felt! I think she outlasted the capoeira class, the hula hoopers and the requisite kids with glowsticks. Kudos to the many Cantabrigians who made this fun party a reality: the police officers who provided security and re-routed traffic to create the dance floor, the numerous roadies who set up sound and lighting equipment and the planners of the event itself.
Wanna dance with as many people as possible with actual dance-able music? Well, have no fear, the Annual Cambridge City Dance Party is coming this Friday! The #1 bus through Central Square gets re-routed, and people of all ages get down and party.
Annual Cambridge City Dance Party Friday June 26th, 2009 7pm-11pm 795 Mass Ave Cambridge, MA 02139 Featuring: DJ Joey Demers Official Cambridge Chronicle article here
Sometimes, being a Cantabrigian is wicked awesome. Music early in the night will be smooth ballroom, moving on to family favorites and then more contemporary music towards the end. Come early, come often, come celebrate the many different people of Cambridge.
But, I was wrong. This woman's list (and links) to various periodic tables will amuse you for at least 15 minutes. I found these while bumming around on a Chemistry blog and following a bloggers links.
The amazing bunnies re-enacting movies in 30 seconds, more or less, can be found at the website of Angry Alien Productions. It is amazing. Please watch the Brokeback Mountain reenactment. The website itself won three Webby awards last year. I'm shocked that I hadn't heard of it before. Clearly, I must become better at surfing the internet.
The Longwood Players are currently producing Nine, a musical in English adapted from Mario Fratti's Italian play/musical that was based on the movie 8 1/2, which began its run on the 24th and has shows this week on April 30, May 1 and May 2 at the Cambridge Family YMCA Theatre, located in Central Square across from City Hall. Nine's book was written by Arthur Kopit with lyrics and music by Maury Yeston.
The Cambridge Family YMCA Theatre is an interesting space, there is both seating in the balcony as well as floor seats, which, for a small theatre in Cambridge is luxurious. It officially opened in 1897, but was not used for nearly about thirty years before its restoration and eventual re-opening in 2002, funded through the generous donations of time and moneys from community organizations in Cambridge. The production is an interesting romp in and out of a man's mind as his fantasies and his corrosive indecision shake the foundations of his lifestyle as an artist. I was lucky enough to catch the opening night, and I'm likely to see it again sometime this weekend, I enjoyed it that much. Due to the fact that I am not actually a member of the press, I'm not releasing any of the names of the performers or directorial staff, but they're all local, and you may have seen them in other shows before.
Get a load of Tales from the NeverEnding Story, released in 2001. The IMDB review makes me want to cry buckets and laugh loads. But the best piece of information regarding the value of the movie is the Amazon page here. You know that if a DVD is selling for under $2, that it must really, really . . . not be a good movie.
I don't know whether to laugh hysterically or cry at the ruination of my childhood memories. This is almost as bad as Land Before Time and its twelfth feature length sequel.
Tonight, a young woman went into a seizure about twenty-thirty minutes ago at the intersection of Mass Ave and Prospect St in Cambridge. Thanks to the quick response of some of my fellow Cambridge residents and I, she was put into an ambulance within five minutes of when her seizure ended. We kept her warm and comfortable on the ground with our jackets, called the authorities and made sure that she and her friend were kept as calm as possible.
Medical emergencies happen a lot in a big city, and its nice to know how to respond to one. If you see a medical emergency, and it looks like three people are attending to the problem, you're probably not necessary if one of those people has a phone out. However, if no one else is around or if no one is responding to an injured person, you are that person's best chance for survival.
General Medical Emergency:
Stay as calm as possible. Limit your movement and noise to a minimum and remain observant. The other person is hurt, not you.
Get someone to call for help or call for help yourself. You will need to provide a location, a general description of the injured person and a general description of the medical emergency.
Allow only one person to converse with the injured person. This reduces stress in a lot of situations.
In a medical emergency, use common sense. If the injured person looks cold, figure out a way to warm them up. If someone is bleeding, try to staunch the bleeding.
When in doubt about how to help someone lying on the ground who is either confused or passed out, keep them on their side and make them as comfortable as possible.
Obviously, if you know advanced first response techniques, feel free to use them, but do not attempt to practice medicine anywhere outside of a doctor's office or hospital without thinking hard about it first. If anyone else has any helpful hints, feel free to post them in the comments.
. . . or at least felt the pain of the recession, and its a bit like hindsight is 20/20, but its still interesting. Green is stock returns at greater than or equal to -10% (yes, negative 10, which is actually not that horrible), Yellow is the range of -10% to -25% and Red is less than or equal to -25%.
Watch stock returns incrementally spiral by day or month here. The creator of the video also discussed his method at The Citizen Scientist here.
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