They'll turn me into a biochemist yet.

Chalk up another triumph for Mike's crazy technical skills...

See that big fat band all by itself in the right-most lane? That there is pure BluB protein from Rhodospirillum rubrum. It's also one metric buttload of the stuff, which means lots of good juicy experiments to do! The only problem in the whole wide world is that the stuff doesn't seem to like my elution buffer and crashed out after a couple of hours, but that's no big deal. I can make more and dialyze it into something friendlier.

Now, now I'm getting somewhere.

Oh, I'm rockin' now.

So, over at florn.net Mr. Adinolfi is preparing his 50th podcast, which is pretty dang awesome. I'm given to understand that he's soliciting sound recordings for said podcast, so I decided to get off my butt and record something.

Tune your internet-caster to Old Timey, Dammit for my latest musical extrusion. It's an old Appalachian dance tune called "Cluck Old Hen", has lyrics that make not one lick of sense, and is an absolute hoot to play. I need to find me a fiddle player, darn it. But first, I need to finish this beer. Mmmmm.

Time For The Happy Cloning Dance!

Spectacular success! The damn construct I've been wrestling with for 6 months finally came together, with all the pieces lined up and restriction sites just so. Need to stick it into Rhodospirillum and we'll have something really interesting to play with.

I've had more success today than all last week. Damn, it's nice when things actually work.

Not too much else to report, except that I despise grading exams. I recently bought a rubber stamp that prints "Complete And Utter Bullshit" in big red letters, and I've been sorely tempted to break it out, but grading is enough like shooting yourself in the foot as it is. I think I'll just settle for giving a penmanship prize. Positive reinforcement, right?

While We're On The Subject

Well, heck, while we're gossiping about martial arts...

About a month ago, I spent a weekend at the Western Martial Arts Workshop, which was in Racine this year. It was 3 days of fun and intensive training in all sorts of European historical fighting methods, and was generally a blast and a half. Great mayhem ensued, and I'm sorely tempted to go again next year, even though it's going to be in Dallas.

Anyway, some pictures:

Here I am taking a knife away from a very nice fellow named "Chris", I think. This was in Roger Siggs' class on dagger techniques from Marozzo's Opera Nova, written in 1536.

And here I am being cleaved neatly in twain by Rob Lovett, who is a very large, surprisingly graceful man, and who was teaching a class on Fiore Dei Liberi's Flos Duellatorum from around 1410.

I haven't had a chance to browse through all of the pictures they've posted, but at least in these two I don't look too excessively bald. Sigh. Ah, well. I suppose I wasn't all that good-looking to begin with... :-)

I do get to have fun playing with swords, though, which makes up for a lot!

Seasonal Mood Swings

Yesterday, it was 85° and sunny. Today it's 50°, grey, and damp. Ick. Now, don't get me wrong, I like Fall. I really do. However, I could do with some sort of even transition. I've made myself a mug of mulled cider, and I have a lap full of cat, so I believe I'm ready to face the rest of the evening, but still...

I could easily write a grumpy treatise on the miseries of the week, but that would be boring. So, in the positive column, I did have a jolly good sparring session at martial arts class last night. I'm starting to internalize some of that krabi krabong, much to the dismay of these JKD guys. I do, however, need to stop letting the jiu-jitsu players get ahold of me. Good fun had by all.

And now, it's time to adjourn the proceedings to a nice hot bath.

Planning Ahead

It is fairly certain now that I will be coming to NY to visit in the middle of March. (Spring break runs from the 11th to the 19th, I think.) I am, of course, planning on making the drive down from my parent's place to Ithaca. Who all might I expect to be around?

Obscure, but entertaining

Hey, anyone remember text adventure games? Turns out people are still writing them, and the Annual Interactive Fiction Contest just started. A couple of dozen free games to download and judge - it's actually kind of fun. If last year is any judge, there will be a couple of incredible duds, some laughable failures, some interesting attempts, and a handful of really good games.

Oh, and if you're interested in free text adventures that people agree are good, Baf's Guide isn't a bad place to start.

Where We Live Now

So, this is our new house. We live in #14, which is the left side of the building. The people next door are very pleasant, even if they do own a chihuahua named "Kiwi Martini".

Out back we have a little patio, and we bought a charcoal grill to cook with. (Thanks, Dad!) Grilling combines three of the finest joys in life: playing with fire, poking stuff with a stick, and eating tasty meat!


Two shots of the living room, trying to get the feel of the space. It's actually quite nice. Almost looks like real people live here. I, of course, had very little to do with the interior decoration, but I do try not to mess it up too badly. Upstairs we've got a bedroom and a study, and of course there's a kitchen, which is pretty nice. In the Department of Ridiculous Excess, we've also got 2 and a half baths, but that mostly just means the cats have their own bathroom to stink up.

Speaking of cats, here's our furnished basement, which we haven't really figured out what to do with yet. It makes a good retreat for cats and other folks trying to hide from the world. I keep my instruments down here, and while the acoustics are a little strange, it's a good place to keep to myself.