it was quite toasty in the classrooms today... and sweltering in the lab.

it will be april tomorrow... time is flying, but each day feels like it's crawling.

i don't even want to look @ my credit card account balance online... i'm really scared of my next bill. i had to put down over $300 just for plane tix to asheville (that's almost half the cost of plane tix for my hong kong/taiwan trip). still have to rent a tux, and pay for a hotel room for that wedding trip in july. bought a new canon digital camera, an extra battery, and camera case in preparation for said trips.

today i found out i got most of the grant money i requested to fund my research... pretty psyched about that. now if only i could find a way to apply that money for "other purposes"... ie. credit card bill... hehe.

so the RNAi stuff that i've been doing in lab my lab has worked out well so far. PCR reactions turned out ok, and i got a nice looking northern blot with a single RNA band showing up clearly in each lane (no contamination!). never in a million years would i have thought i'd actually be recombining genetic material... even a year ago i would not have guessed it. it doesn't mean i actually KNOW what i'm doing just yet... but i'm getting a little more well versed with every week that goes by. i can't really publish the specifics of what i'm actually doing to the world, until the initial paper submitted by the PI is published... but i can say that a couple of unknown proteins were found in my advisor's lab during a cellular process, and my research is focused on trying to distrupt the RNA that makes one of the proteins in order to assess changes to the cellular process. it's exciting stuff.

yesterday i had the windows down and treble charger's wide awake bored playing in the car. is there anything better than rocking out in a car while driving when it's nice outside? i probably looked like a frickin tool... but whatever... so was everyone else =].

enjoy your weekends.

i'm itching to go somewhere this next weekend, and taking a mini spring break since i didn't really have one. i'm thinking either new york or toronto.

maybe if it turns out i get bombarded with work, i'll swing a trip up to TO... otherwise maybe new york will work out.

so... that being said... anyone know of any special happenings this coming weekend in either locale?

another question. does anyone know of a plug-in for winamp 5.1x that will allow me to play m4a files? i think the files in question have some sort of apple drm, cause they will play in quicktime, but not in winamp even though i have the aal, and apl file types selected.

ugh. it's 10pm on sunday. another frickin week is about to begin. boo to that.

ouch... 4 straight games... after winning 8 straight. these are some bad times... ottawa clearly has our number we're 1-5 against them this season. we aren't on the same level as the best of the east ottawa, and carolina who have dominated us for at least 2 of the 3 periods each game the last couple games. i went to the game last night, and the sellout crowd was disappointed we didn't bring it like we should've. checks weren't finished, shots weren't taken, passing was sloppy. against ottawa, those types of plays mean you'll get scored on, and the sens speed was on display. obviously it doesn't help that 2 important pieces (hecht, connelly) of 2 productive lines have been out for 4 games (hecht's out 4, connely's out 5)... and the lines don't seem to have the chemistry they once did. our special teams have been stagnant without those 2. maybe if we had a game against the leafs... we could unslump ourselves (sorry leafs fans... kicking you while you're down. =p). tonight it's boston... which could be a plus since we've dominated them so far this season. let's hope we get it turned around.

hmmm... i have to pay a bajillion dollars to get down to this wedding in asheville north carolina in july... cause apparently there aren't any large airports close by anywhere. it's like i'm travelling to frickin east timor.

tim horton's did well in their ipo yesterday. i'll probably watch it for a bit, and see where it settles before i jump in on this one. i'd almost rather settle for... instead of possibly gaining future retirement income in my ira, settling for coffee and donuts in the present =]. i'd say that would be a good return on investment huh?

dell is buying out alienware. interesting acquisition on dell's part since they are into the commodity market, hawking low price and profitable but thin margins... and alienware is in the highly custom/specialized gaming market with higher expenses, but very high profits.

finally... hasselhoff, hasselhoff's his wife. the best part of the story...

He also starred in the 1980s TV series "Knight Rider," in which his character, Michael Knight, teamed with a talking Pontiac Trans Am sports car to fight crime.

now i'm not going to say that i didn't like knight rider, and i didn't watch the show religiously when i was young... but this story makes it sound like the most retarded show ever. looking back... sure... it was an absolutely ridiculous premise. you had a character named michael knight played by david hasselhoff (which is already funny to begin with if you think about it)... who had this talking car named kit... which was a pontiac trans am from the 1980s, and there was this blinky red light which served no purpose... that lived in a trailer of a semi. yes quite stupid... but c'mon i was like 7 years old... thanks for making me feel like a total idiot for liking the show when i was in grade school yahoo/ap news.

(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
"Hi kids, don't mess with Texas."

enjoy the rest of your weekends.

UPDATE: here's an idea... come up with your own caption for the pic, and share in the comments section.

i used to be pretty good at bs'ing papers. i think i've lost that skill, cause i haven't really had to write anything in so long. the 2 papers i cranked out through (more like after) break... were terrible. i used to be able to sit down after procrastinating and just make up stuff off the top of my head. it would just kind of flow out... but now... i'll sit at the computer and just get a big ol mental block. ap english lit was the zenith of my bs'ing skills i think... from that point on... things just weren't the same. this goes with my theory of the older you get, the less creative you become... because life goes from an exploration to tediousness (at least for most people it seems). you kinda forget how to dream... how to feel weightless, with real friends close by, and summers off. i can't even tell you the last time i played a good game of pickup roller hockey... or b-ball with close friends.

anywho... from the last rankings for high school hockey in the country, mine's (will-north) got the 14th spot. east has 90th, and south has 191.

sabre's have lost 2 in a row, pretty badly i might add. not good news. a friend's picked up tix for friday's game against ottawa. i hope we don't allow ottawa 40 some shots to our 20 like we did last saturday.

this is kind of scary. there are some people that are pushing for the fda to allow more drugs in the US to be fast-tracked to the market, because it seems like the US is very much behind EU countries in new drugs on the market. though the fda process is painfully slow at times, it allows for ample testing (though what really is ample testing since the actual long-term results of taking new medication can't be known years from when it's released to market) compared to many other countries.

woo-hoo... i can get cheap flights to boston now.

more timmy ho's ipo news. due to the expected higher demand, ipo price has gone up.

i'm sitting @ being up ~70% on transmeta so far this year. can you say dot-com stock jump? here's some interesting news about them partnering with microsoft for another one of transmeta's secret projects. the recent news really made the stock jump. i'm happy... cause it's balancing out the losses i've taken in some other investments.

we lost to syracuse again this year. we're WAY under average with the snow this year.

i started doing my rt-pcr reactions for my controls today. kinda happy that i finished the first day without messing up too much. i'm using a leftover reaction kit from a previous grad student. kinda interesting that < 1mL of combined primers, promoters, terminators, sense, and anti-sense dna strands in the kit we're using will run you over $600.

need a laugh? do you hate the bermuda triangle?

well maybe not all others just yet...

the sabres beat toronto... again (woohoo!), and ottawa lost to boston in a shootout... so now we're 1 point behind the sens for the northeast division lead. the habs lost to carolina, so we're still 3 points behind the 'canes for first place in the eastern conference.

craziness.

mini polar bears. went to the zoo last saturday and saw the 5 polar bears that live @ the buffalo zoo... though we don't have mini ones.

the notorious msg.

global warming.

why is it the first full day back @ work is always the loooooooongest frickin day? i really need a nap. i have a good amount of space under my desk, and i'm tempted to curl up and shut my eyes for a couple hours. it doesn't help that it's all yucky, rainy, crappy outside.

got any ideas how i can put together 15 pages on the topic of pharmacoeconomics?

sabres are totally rocking. our roster's back to healthy with the exception of mair.

willie north won the state championship.

i am gonna be in complete laz-mode this weekend... so frickin happy about that.

i've got a bunch of things saved up... but first... kinda related to my ability to pay attention only to the most useless things that will get me nowhere in life... i think that is the reason i like dewey's character so much in malcom in the middle. i forgot which season it was, but there was a season finale early on where dewey finds a balloon all freely blowing in the wind and chases it, ends up in the middle of nowhere far away from his house... the balloon eventually pops, and he kind of looks around realizing that he doesn't know where he is. then a plastic bag happens to float by in the wind in front of him, and so he likes floaty things and starts chasing that... even though it's only a plastic bag. that's exactly how i am sometimes... quite useless... but i don't know, it can be fun. nevermind the fact that dewey daydreams about having extra arms so he can eat more ice cream at one time by having a cone in each hand. the kid that they made up for the show is seriously me.

since i'm not really doing anything spring break-ey this next week with the working and papers... i was thinking about making a mini spring break trip the first weekend in april to the city. drive down fri after my class, and come back sun. i kind of feel like i need to get away for a bit, but give myself enough time for the final push into may and finals.

so TC is in for the asian adventure... i booked my tix for nyc today for may. also sent in my preorder for first 2 rounds of playoff tix... good stuff.

got a copy of this from my friend in the mail today. for those of you who like jack handey... it's quite entertaining.

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exciting... exciting buffalo waterfront stuff.

here's an article on the proposed plan for the inner harbor with plan details.

delta's expanding service to new york from buffalo... there's so much competition on that route now it's not even funny. the old buffalo airport was the frickin most expensive place to fly out of... until jetblue came in. the new buffalo-niagara airport is a good example of how the free market works though. it would be a good case study for an econ class examining monopoly pricing for the old structure, and a shift to competitive markets, and how it has spurred demand, increasing economic output. note for anyone who hasn't heard this parody delta ad by mad tv... you need to.

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here's some biz/tech stuff. i wish nortel would get their shit together a little bit faster... their stock keeps taking hits. they have a good product portfolio... and they seemed to finally have a decent management team in place after all those accounting issues over the last couple years. their stock/and my portfolio has taken a huge hit with their seemingly unending delays in restating financials. ugh.

more canadian biz stuff. timmy ho's ipo! unfortunately i can't get in on the ipo cause i don't have the income requirements to get a crack @ buying shares. however, i am planning on purchasing some shares depending on what price they settle to. they have good potential for growth in the states. i do wish though that they would have offered a larger allotment of shares up in canada. it would only be fair.

the telecom industry really is going to be owned by at&t again... after the gov't broke it up only a few decades ago. if you're out of the loop... at&t was bought by sbc which used to be owned by at&t before the gov't seperated at&t from it's local service and broke the locals up to the baby bells. some baby bells (new york telephone) merged with others (new england telephone) after a couple years and formed companies like nynex, which merged with other larger entities like gte to form verizon. verizon and sbc becamse the two dominant locals, with holdouts like qwest (which is also big) and bellsouth. so when at&t was having trouble, sbc bought them out and changed their name back to at&t, and recently verizon merged with mci, and sprint merged with nextel. in order to compete... with the new at&t i wouldn't be surprised if either sprint/nextel merged with qwest or verizon. at the end of the day... it seems like everyone will merge again and the country's telecom industry in terms of traditional long distance and local phone service will be back to at&t owning everything outright again. of course this time around, they will have to compete with voip providers and a larger global field... but i've always been fascinated by mergers and acquisitions. i find it funny that the break up of at&t resulted in the reformation of at&t. this kind of thing was also happening in the investment banking/banking/accounting industry during the dot-com era. with salomon brothers merging with smith barney, which got bought by travelers, which merged with citicorp. other examples... morgan stanley merging with dean-witter discover which was spun off by sears roebuck. csfb, boa-fleet, jpmorgan-chase, price-waterhouse and coopers lybrand (which subsequently sold it's consultancy to ibm to create ibm global services). in the end... it seems like everything will be owned by this one giant mega corporation as companies will continue to merge.

for all you razr owners... check with your provider over the next week to see if your phone is affected by new issues that are coming up with them.

maybe i'll do this the summer before i go onto my next degree and after i finish the ones i'm currently working on.

i do feel this is true much of the time. technology makes things a little harder... since we have to do more and be more efficient. yes we get cool toys to play with... but i'm not sure how much more efficient we are.

this is kind of cool. i think this may be the best way to bargain with north korea and bring them more into the international community. economics, trade, business can be a big influence in decision making. while i think china has a lot more to do in terms of reforms... they are at least making progress in opening up... it all starts with the biz end. once people get wealthy, they demand a bigger voice, and they will want to control their destiny.

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here's an oddtodd post with a buffalo link to it... if you look @ the 3rd page with the patents... there was one filed in buffalo in 1920. for those of you who don't know what an oddtodd is... where have you been? start here.

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after the succes of brokeback at this year's oscars (minus best pic, part of me was hoping they'd sweep, but i am not unhappy that crash took best pic)... there were a couple articles in this past week's spectrum (ub's student newspaper) which dealt with homosexuality. some of the things i found interesting...

in this article exploring two sides to the debate. i liked this quote from a student against gay marriage.

"There's right and wrong in the world, and it's wrong," said J.C. Gannon, a freshman chemical engineering major. "Two men cannot have children, two women cannot have children. They're the point of marriage."

then in this editorial... i liked this quote that kind of counters what the above says.

Marriage is for procreation they say; yet old and infertile couples are allowed to marry.

i would argue that having children may not be the point of marriage. for some people it plays a role, and for others it doesn't at all. i think the main point of marriage is that people want to find a committed partner to share life with. this may or may not involve a child/children. so whether someone is gay or not... they should be given the chance to find a partner... and if they want to get married... why not? in either case, it is a demonstration of ones committment to their partner... i don't think people see it as a commitment to have and raise children.

this article is about the man date. my question is... is the steer really that nice? and... what's wrong with getting food with a friend to happens to be a guy? i mean i can think of some places where i probably wouldn't go with just a guy friend to get dinner (the blue water grill @ union sq)... but the steer? i'm also not sure about the buffer seat thing either... maybe if the movie theater is more empty than not... but in nyc if you're going to see a movie with a guy friend... most likely you'll be sitting next to each other. there is definitely a buffer urinal rule... unless @ a sporting event during halftime/intermission/7th inning stretch/etc. even @ the urinal troughs... you have an invisible air buffer between everyone. on the topic of bathrooms... i saw a magic towel dispenser a couple weeks ago when i went to a restaurant downtown with some friends. you know those looped cloth towels that get pulled out and retract into the back of the dispenser? i'm not really a fan of those things. paper towels kill trees and i feel bad about that... but magic towels are so ew.

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here's some sports stuff. pat lafontaine was a great player. we really haven't had anyone quite like him since he left. peca was close in terms of leadership and community service and outreach, but he wasn't the finesse player that lafontaine was. lafontaine deserves to have his #16 retired.

well... the guy broke the system when he came in... that's why there was a lockout last season. he's only correcting what he broke. plus i'm still mad about hull kicking in the frickin goal... so i'm not giving him props. maybe if the sabres win it all this year i'll consider it.

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random cute news i don't know how you can say that 2 women can't belong together, or 2 men can't belong together if a frickin cat and an oragutan can comfort one another. their different species... everything that lives wants that comfort.

this is absolutely ridiculous. two male penguins decide to raise a kid together. it's about working together, creating some kind of family unit, maybe they are gay penguins, maybe they aren't... but that's not what the story is about. "blindside"? give me a break.

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holy crap that's a lot of stuff. i'm blogged out.

everyone enjoy their weekends!

i have a huge amount of stuff to go over, but i think i'll procrastinate a little more.

this might be the last night of no sleep. have a bioseperation techniques midterm @ 9:30am. some time off, class from 2:30-4:30pm... then i'll prepare for my last midterm on friday. i might get some sleep tomorrow night though, since my lab management midterm isn't until 1pm friday. then i'll be semi-free for a week... no classes but will work and write some papers. no doubt i'll be trying to crank out a paper sunday night before class starts again, and the following tuesday night before the 2nd one is due. if procrastinating were an olympic event, i'd get a gold medal for not showing up on time... or rather not even showing up.

here's the amount of ADD that i possess. so today in my environmental health midterm... a ladybug flew onto my desk and was just hanging out walking around and all that. i'd answer a question and then i'd try and get the ladybug to walk on my pencil, or eraser, or hand or something. we had a short answer section, and i was almost done with the exam... just had to write down an answer for the last part of the last question... but i'd keep on switching my focus to the ladybug. while switching focus back to the test, i'd forget what i was gonna write as the answer... so i'd go back to observing the insect. it seriously took me about 20 minutes to complete that last thing on the exam... when it should have taken me 3 minutes.

ok... seriously... i need to go study some more now.

have good nights.

have you ever seen a more sexy 1u server?

yes... i still have a crap load of stuff to do... and i'm procrastinating.

presentation, quiz, midterm, midterm, midterm, spring break. this friday will bring more happiness than previous ones i think.

i'm working on a secret piano project.

maybe oscar thoughts next week... but congrats to fellow alum ang lee!

booked tix to taiwan and hong kong. need to book flights to new york and asheville. don't ask me how i'm going to afford all this and sabres playoff tix... cause i don't know.

friday, friday, friday, friday, friday...

the first austin powers is one of my favorite movies. remember this classic one?

Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here!

well... they're not sharks with laser beams yet... but maybe in the near future?

this kid is a douche.

c'mon people! can't even do 3 out of 5? the most basic reasons why people came to the US and formed their own government? ugh! are these the same people that argue for fighting overseas, in order to "protect" our freedoms? they don't know the reason's we should be protecting it? religion, speech, press! the 3 most basic! what is wrong with this place?

sabres 6 leafs 2 --> me = :)