Mississippi Court Jesters

Enough said.

As for me, not too much going on, lots of work and planning for our honeymoon and stuff. James stopped by for the weekend. That was fun :D. Work is the same as usual but I might have to work overtime this week in order to appease the people at the top of the food chain.

On a note of general observation, FALL IS HERE! Allison and I are really excited about it, and have turned off the air conditioning and opened the windows in order to fully appreciate the weather. Also, does anyone know what happened to all the pumpkins!? Allison managed to scrounge up a few cans for us, but she had to wrestle an old lady to get them. I'm serious too, they were in a mud ring and everything, it was actually kinda creepy. I didn't even know that Publix had a mud pit. But hey, you learn something new every day.

Well, that's all I have for now, just a short how the heck are ya. So post up!

Right. So, after two weeks, I can say that I'm loving grad school. So far, we've gotten free lunch almost every day, and lots of free time to hang out in the GS/MS student lounge (which, by the way, has ping-pong, pool, foosball, and air-hockey). We've been getting free lunches because each program gets one day to introduce us to their research and whatnot, and they feed us. (Also, there is usually beer and some kind of dessert). We have another entire week of this. It's awesome.

There is some really cool research going on, so I've had a couple post-food afternoon meetings with professors to talk about their research and potential rotation projects. I have several more this week, so that's exciting. Also, there's this bar in Nashville called "Flying Saucer" that has, seriously, over 200 different types of beer. We were just there last night and we're going again on Monday.

Also, just FYI, there may have been some karaoke in there somewhere...

Hey guys, long time, no post. Anyway, orientation for my program at Vandy was yesterday and today. I guess just as a change of pace for them, we met at the zoo yesterday, actually. During some free time we all went and saw the elephants and giraffes...one of the giraffes was licking a tree. I'm not sure what that's about. Basically yesterday was about what we should expect in terms of classwork and overall experiences, although they can't be too specific about lab rotations and such because it varies so much between labs.

Today all the program directors introduced their programs (by which I mean they reminisced about their grad school orientation). Then we spent the rest of the morning getting our ID's and parking passes. Since most people went for the ID first, a few of us got the bright idea to try to get our parking passes and skip the ID line for later. As it turns out, you need your ID to get a parking pass, so we ended up in the very back of the ID line. Good times. They budgeted way too much time for that, though, so we managed to get everything done, eat lunch, and play pool in the student lounge for like an hour. By the way, Indian food is kinda tasty...there's a buffet across the street from campus. More importantly, I met a couple people that play racquetball, which is exciting.

One thing that is really crazy is that the students are from all over. There are probably more international students that students from Tennessee. For example, my conversation with a girl on the shuttle to the parking lot went something like this:

"Where are you from?"
"New Hampshire"
"How long did it take you to get here?"
"Twelve hours the first day and eight the second."
"Holy crap!"

And so on.

So I guess James and Mary Ellen are starting at their respective schools pretty soon, I can't wait to hear about it. We have a bunch of safety training tomorrow then we start class Thursday, so it's getting to be that time.

What an adventure! Sunday I flew up to visit with Mary Ellen (whom I haven't seen since our little reunion in June) and it's been a busy week! Early Monday morning we drove with her mom and sister to DC where we shopped till we dropped!

We had no problem navigating the subway system, and with our map, guidebook, and fanny-packs we fit right in!

Joe Biden offered to take the picture for us so we could have one of us together, thanks Joe, you still owe us those drinks you promised!

Don't be fooled, you may think we are still in DC but we are actually in Baltimore, MD. While I was focusing the camera my ipod was being stolen by a 13 yr old sk8r boi. He was rocking out to some Jonas Brothers and looking a little too suspicious. We chased him down and gave him a few good kicks to the ribs before he finally gave it back. When we got back in the car, we realized my ipod was there all along... we hightailed it back to DC with sirens blaring the whole way.

We ate dinner at the white house, Michelle was such a great hostess! B-rock talked to the cops for us and got us off the hook and then Sasha showed us her American Girl Doll collection.

To make up for the altercation in Baltimore we were sent first class to Wiltshire to see Stonehenge. It was neat although there was an unfortunate incident involving Jada and a colossal furry caterpillar (the bugs in England are Land of the Lost or SyFy esque).

All in all, it's been a rather uneventful week in the lives of Allison Volek and Mary Ellen Moomaw.

 Only 16 weeks until Roger and Allison get married!!

In other news, I am finishing up my classes online, I am working on 2 dresses for my culminating project and I have 2 other classes that end a week after graduation... lame! But I am graduating in less than a month! Woohoo! I am super psyched. 

So now for the bad news, most of you guys met my beloved kitty Fonzie, some of you even had the pleasure of sleeping with him or sharing your water with him. Well a couple of weeks ago his kidneys started to fail so we took him to the vet and gave him tons of fluids, but to no avail. We had to put him to sleep because he was suffering and really had no hope of recovery. He was a cool cat and will be missed. 

So our blog is sort of lagging, no one except Jami seems to have anything decent to say, so we should get on that! Hope everyone is doing well, when does grad school start for everyone? Update!

Have any of you guys seen the movie Knowing with Nicholas Cage? It's pretty wild, you should see it...I'm not going to ruin the movie, it's really out there and borrows some biblical imagery and such. But yeah...go to red box and rent it. Then we can talk about it. It'll be awesome.

So, back during our Cinco de Mayo festivities, I think I explained my philosophy of decision-making. Or, how it is that I think people arrive at their decisions. Briefly, I think that when faced with a choice, people unconsciously decide what to do immediately, and the conscious decision process is simply rationalizing it. Today, while reading Children of the Mind, one of the Ender books by Orson Scott Card, I figured out where I came up with that.

"Nobody's rational. We all act because we're sure of what we want, and we believe that the actions we perform will get us what we want, but we never know anything for sure, and so all our rationales are invented to justify what we were going to do anyway before we thought of any reasons."

I think that's more or less my jumping off point. Of course, you have to read in there that unconsciously we're sure of what we want. I'm sure all of us have had the "pleasure" of being consciously uncertain of what exactly that is-I know I have. And, believe it or not, this is actually a fairly foundational presupposition that I use to evaluate other people's actions and provide a framework for issues like free will vs. predestination, nature vs. nurture, etc. So, what do you think? Are the real decisions made unconsciously or is the conscious decision-making process more significant than simply rationalizing what we were going to do anyway?

So, in light of the upcoming Independence Day, it might be nice to reflect on the two secessionist crises in American history and the very different results of the two (that would be the "Revolutionary War" and the "Civil War"). Actually, Let A Thousand Nations Bloom is running a secession week talking about secession in general. It's pretty interesting stuff...you should check it out.

Also, just out of curiosity, what are you guys' views on secession? Is it a justifiable course of action under any circumstances?

So, I had my interview(s) at Vanderbilt today for the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. It's a pretty cool program, you spend the first year in one big class with everyone and doing lab rotations to figure out what you want to specialize in. Then you choose an advisor and start thesis research after that, along with whatever classes are required for the particular program.

I talked to three different people. The first guy, Dr. Patton, is the director of the program. He basically gave me the details of what goes on the first year, the way the classes and rotations work and such. Then I talked to Dr. Osheroff about choosing lab rotations and such in general, and his research area specifically. His research is on DNA Topoisomerase II, which is involved in a whole bunch of DNA related functions and, apparently, is the most common target of chemotherapy drugs. Pretty interesting stuff. Finally, the assistant director, Dr. Grundy, interviewed me. Actually, that last one was the only part that really felt like a traditonal interview, with me mostly answering questions. Though I got to ask a couple, especially about what students generally find challenging about the program, especially just starting out, and stuff like that.

Overall, I think it went really well. It sounds like it's going to be tough, but rewarding. They claim that 85% of their students finish their degrees, which is excellent. So, they're going to confer with each other and let me know next week...I'm very optimistic.

So, today Allison was passing through Franklin on her way back to Alabama and stopped to eat lunch with me. We went to Blue Coast Burrito and had some tasty burritos. By the way, don't get the combo there, the chips are oily and have zero taste. Rookie mistake by me. Anyway, Bermuda tried to steal some little girl's Popsicle while we were eating, but she got away in time. So, that was a lot of fun - we need to try to get everybody together again before the end of the summer!

A little while later I went to see The Proposal with some friends. It was quite entertaining...you need to go see it immediately, it's hilarious. I was a little disappointed with the ending, but whatever. It has Oscar from The Office - his character is pretty entertaining. And stay for the credits, they show some funny clips of people answering questions in the INS office.

So yeah, good times. I'm also building a new computer to replace my laptop...it's served me well for the past 4 years, but it's starting to die, I think. I ordered all the parts from newegg monday night, and they should arrive tomorrow, so that'll be exciting. Okay, good stuff.

First: The author brings up a really good point when it comes to gender associations. When we think of the word gender usually females come into mind, right? Does this mean that only women have a gender? Let me explain. "The very processes that confer privilege to one group and not another group are often invisible to those upon whom that privilege is conferred. What make us marginal or powerless are the processes we see. " I mean that when it comes to gender, race, class, and power, when we have the upper-hand that privilege is invisible to us. I'll try to clarify using an example from the book: the author overheard a debate between a black woman and a white woman. The black woman asked what the white one saw when she looked into a mirror, she responded that she saw a woman. The black lady said that's where the trouble is, that when she looks into the mirror she sees a black woman. The author (who is a middle-class white male) said when he looks into a mirror he sees a human being. *Is this making any more sense?* Being Caucasian has for a long been looked at as a superior feature, as has being male, so since white males have the "upper-hand," at least as far as society is concerned, they have no race or gender. Everyone else has to declare themselves if they are seen by society as inferior, like women for example. Look at email addresses, why is it that the US is the only country that doesn't have to put a country code at the end? We are considered a very powerful nation so why should we have to declare ourselves to anyone less powerful? 

My point is not be sexist or racist but more to get your minds turning about our invisible privileges. Thoughts?

Secondly (and in reference to the title of the post): Here is the quote according to evangelical preacher Jim Rutz:

"He argues that homosexuality is caused by insufficient amounts of the appropriate sex hormone and that therefore gay men are more 'feminine' than straight men. And, he claims, soy products, like tofu, contain large amounts of estrogen, so 'when you feed a baby soy formula, you're giving him or her the equivalent of five birth control pills a day.' Eating tofu can turn you gay. 'Soy is feminizing,' he claims, 'and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality.' This idea was recently translated into a commercial for Hummers, the ultimate compensation for insecure gender identity."

I thought everyone would find that amusing at least since our ongoing debate over vegetarianism. 

So, anyone have any bets on when the economy will turn around? I just read this article on Reason online, and it got me thinking about just how humorous these predictions can be. Since the best outcome of our guessing is generally a "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" fallacy anyway, I'm going to say that the economy will begin recovery within the year in spite of Congressional meddling. And, just for fun, I'll add that if Congress had done nothing the economy would already have recovered. That second part has the advantage of being plausible yet completely untestable. Thoughts?

So, has anyone else seen "The Hangover"? I went to see it with some friends Tuesday afternoon. It was also dollar drink and popcorn night at the theater, so I got some cheap refreshments to go along with the matinee price. It's pretty ridiculous, but entertaining. It's worth seeing - maybe not in theaters since that's pricey, but definitely a redbox.

I also got to do some more tie dying on Monday night with my brothers & sister. Oddly enough, the Hobby Lobby here didn't have any shirts between youth medium and adult extra large...it was very strange. Fortunately, Wal-mart came through for us...after I checked with Mary Ellen, of course, to make sure Wal-mart shirts are OK to tie dye.

I haven't heard anything back from Vandy yet about grad school...the longer it takes the more I think it's not going to work out for this fall. So, I went ahead and applied for a couple jobs in Nashville. Hopefully, I'll hear something next week. Hmm...I'll try to do something more entertaining next week so I have some good stories...

http://www.reason.com/news/show/133859.html

I can't figure out how to make a cool link to this, but check this journal out you guys, I'm curious to hear what everybody thinks.  One of the most shocking aspects of the article for me was the fact that the author expresses a desire to erase his positive memories.   Even though he says it's for the sake of rediscovering them for the first time, if things are truly good they ought to stand the test of age.  I want all of my experiences and relationships to build on each other and mature; I would hate to remain in a perpetual state of infantility.  

Even my worst memories are valuable to me because of what I can learn.  Those memories prevent me, (or at least discourage me), from repeating mistakes.  

What do you think, would you guys selectively erase your memories?  Aside from personal preference, do you think there are any moral/ethical dilemmas associated with that?