Nightmare Nuggets

It struck me that I was about to venture to the other side of this very large country to stay with a household with two small children a month before my thesis is due, and that I may be better served to just jump directly into a cesspool of germs. In attempt to ward off a (likely imminent) viral illness, I started to pop some preventative ColdFX pills. These Canadian nuggets of ginseng extract are supposed to do the trick for those feeling ill (or expecting to feel ill soon). But a word to the wise: avoid taking these just before getting into bed.

I woke up at 3 AM covered in sweat, after having the most atrocious nightmare(s). Which is saying something, because on a normal day I can recount the entire extended dream sequence of the previous night. I dream vividly all night long, and remember everything in the morning. Sometimes I go to sleep more rested than I feel in the morning after waking up, but alas sometimes the dreams are real hilarious gems. Night before last I was watching the television show House. That night I dreamt that my cat was on methadone (just like House!), and had to be extra careful bringing him around on errands because he was spazzing out (for the record, my cat does not leave the house nor really the back closet corner because he is a paranoid kitty). But man, ginseng + Natalie's already freakishly realistic dreams = fetal position. Won't be doing that again.

shizz

So I figured I would check the listings for Vancouver (where we will be next week) for live music. I thought that there would be lots of choice of live music concerts by bands that I listen to (Beast, Woodhands, Hey Rosetta!, Rose Cousins, The United Steel Workers of Montreal, somebody) They are all Canadian bands. It's not like I was checking to see if Ani Drifranco was playing Vancouver. And damn, even Danny Michel is playing here on the East Coast. But holy shizz, there is nothing that interests me. Granted, I don't know which websites to check for local listings, but the ones I've come across are not sparse - just sparse of anything catching my eye.
This is the only listing that raised my interest:
Hawksley Workman, Chad Vangaalen @ The Commodore Ballroom (No Minors) $28.50+ 8pm Presented by: Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad/ Olympiade Culturelle

BUT they're playing the day before we arrive so no good. Cadence Weapon and Thunderheist are playing the night we arrive, but I'm not so sold on that one. Boo. I guess I'll just have to spend time with family and friends. Jeesh.

The Golden Days

ROAD TRIP!

We decided yesterday morning to race back to Hometown to check out a plot of land for sale. What would warrant a 3+ hour one-way ride? 100 acres of forest + pasture land for $50,000 including a house, 25 minutes from city centre. SOOOO...we jumped into the car and headed to the mountains. This is a private sale and a ridiculously good price, so she was swarmed with interest. About 25 other buyers had visited the land, and I imagine she will be able to fetch higher than her asking price. But just in case she really wants an awesome, handy and friendly young couple to have it, we are going to put in an offer. We can only afford the asking price (no more) but we won't be carving up the land to sell off for profit so she may look kindly on us. I could imagine living there, once the house is dismantled and put together a little more to our taste. There are apple & cherry trees on the property, two brooks, lots of firewood, raspberries and blueberries galore. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but if we bought this land we would be mortgage free with 100 acres. Cool, eh?

"...gone tomorrow"

As part of my Procrastination Plan™, I've taken to cruising the www.mls.ca listings in Hometown. And I had my heart set on this fixer-upper just next to amenities selling for a great price (around 86,000). It was in an area of homes selling between 119-165 K, so with a little investment and a bunch of sweat equity I was convinced this would be a great investment. I emailed everyone who would listen about this little gem but never actually made moves to view the house in person nor inquire from the realtor any more specifics. I assumed the house would still be there in two months. And every week I would check mls, and every week the house was still there. But today, today, I actually go to the realtor's website and see that this diamond in the rough has sold already. Whoops. Guess I shouldn't have sat on my ass on that one.

I'm more heartbroken about it then I would have thought given my total lack of action. I guess it wasn't meant to be, and it was only a few days ago that hubby and I were discussing the prudence of jumping back into the realty market right away. On one hand, it is a Buyer's market and the cost of building materials is much less than when we built this first house. On the other hand, if the economy continues to tank and we cannot find work, it would be a nice financial net to have the money sitting in an account (or under the mattress). But as this situation proves, houses are still moving in my Hometown, and will likely continue in the foreseeable future, with a likely spike in prices once the economy recovers fully (if it recovers at all). So if we were going to buy at all, this was the best choice for us. But now it's gone, and I can't really find anything comparable in the city so we can either wait it out and focus entirely on the tiny house in the meantime, or forget the reno and invest in other things (like a large chunk of raw land, or even the stock market...maybe).

Right. Back to writing now.

Timing is everything

Yesterday I attended a free screening of the documentary on James Orbinski called "Triage". The film is about his time spent on the frontlines of the genocide in Rwanda while working for Medecins Sans Frontiere. Concurrent with the screening of the film was a separate but related photo-journalistic installation in the lobby of the building highlighting HIV/AIDS work in Rwanda called "Living With" by a Canadian group called "Photosensitive". There are probably 75 photos throughout the extensive first floor of the building, and every time I have gone down to the coffee shop there are at least a few people milling about the photos, reading the captions. The black and white pictures chronicle the effects of HIV/AIDS in a country devastated by a genocide where systematic rapes were used during the killing campaigns. I myself went through the whole installation a few days ago, and so when I found out very last minute about the "Triage" documentary, I decided to watch it. This is a definite change of heart for me, because although I know about the genocide (numbers killed, the ethnic groups involved, the rough timeline, etc.) I have, until a few days ago, completely avoided media about this event. Don Cheadle did a movie called Hotel Rwanda which I could not watch, and I have avoided both the autobiography and subsequent film based on the experiences of Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire (who used to maintain a summer cottage literally down the road from where my mother grew up) called "Shake Hands with the Devil", because I can't handle it. But these instances where I can educate myself about the past and current conditions of the genocide keep throwing themselves in front of me, and I cannot avoid them any longer. In a way, this is my tiny effort to honor those who died for nothing - to acknowledge the circumstances and be able to recite to others who may not know as much. And if the timing of these events were coincidental, they keep happening: Romeo Dallaire himself will be speaking at the university in two weeks.

Oddly, about 1 1/2 years ago he was to present as well, and although myself and some other students tried hard to get tickets to the extremely poorly organized event (Shout out University Student Union!) and failed, the talk was cancelled last minute anyway. So now I see that he is scheduled to speak again, and I would very much appreciate his talk in the context of my new knowledge surrounding the genocide. But lo and behold - he is speaking the week we will be in Vancouver. So sadly, I won't be attending this time either. Perhaps one day the timing will be right, and I will pay money to a non-profit organization to get the privilege of hearing Lt. Gen. Dallaire speak about the most horrendous human-lead tragedy to occur in the last fifty years.

Imperial Diplomat

This guy is coming to speak tomorrow. That scarf!

Update: His Science is pretty awesome and he handled a question from a once-genius-but-now-only-sad old man who attended his seminar incredibly diplomatically.

I read a lot of celebrity gossip (what compels me, I'm not so sure. Schadenfreude, maybe? But it is especially true nowadays, when I'm supposed to be furiously at work on a thesis. Sigh). I like to read about bitchy behind-the-scene antics, who wore what to the award show, and who is dating whom. But I can't understand why anyone would want to emulate Victoria Beckham. She crazy.



I would not consider this beautiful at all, and I'm always amazed by the gossip authors who do. Those who think her hair cut is fierce? Don't get it. The only reason she cut it was not to "stand out" or "be brave" but because she was probably losing so much of it due to starvation the extensions wouldn't hold anymore. So. Gross.

Anyway, those are my deep thoughts for the day. I am working on my thesis, finishing up the genome sequencing (I ordered twenty primers yesterday) and planning for a mini-vacation in Vancouver in just over a week. Two months until I defend my thesis, month and a half until I pass in my written work. My eyeballs are starting to bleed from staring at the computer for so long. :)

Oh, and PS why do the startlets always wear their shoes one size too bog? I could fit one of my fat fingers in the heel of Mrs.Beckham's shoe up there. Is it because that is the best way to avoid the blisters us mere mortals are prone to developing? If you are lucky enough to be driven from one place to another, walking is optional so a too-big shoe is possible? Curious.

Telecommunications fucknuttery

AGH!! I just got off the phone with Bell mobility. They sent my rebate cheque to the wrong address, which means that after waiting six months I probably will never even see that money ever again!
AND THEY HAD THE GALL TO TELL ME THERE WAS NO WAY TO PUT A STOP PAYMENT ON THAT CHEQUE TO SEND ME A NEW ONE!

Timeline: Mid September I cancelled our account. It takes 30 days to process (WTF #1). So that means we would get billed until mid October. Mid-October rolls around, we get our bill, but because Bell Mobility bills one month ahead (WTF #2) we are paying for service we are not receiving anymore. We are entitled to a rebate. Said rebates takes 90 to process (WTF #3). This riDONKulous process is repeated for every single closed account, I presume (WTF# 4). Cheque was sent out mid January. It still hasn't arrived by mid February, so I start calling around and they tell me they sent it to my old address. Canada Post is no longer forwarding my mail because it has been more than six months since we've moved. So now the tenants in my old apartment will be getting my Bell Mobility rebate because it took SIX MONTHS to cancel the account and I've since moved. WTF BELL. WTF!!

Stupid goddamn telecommunications companies I hate them all. Fuck them. I'm moving to the woods. AGGH!

cake anyone?

Both Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day (this day, 200 years ago).

How did I get this far in life without knowing that? I must stop reading the celeb gossip, lord.

Officially SOLD

In my inbox today:


woot!

complaints for the ether

I'm trying to go back to my sequencing data to verify the quality of the contigs but when I open the raw quality file and search out the four contigs of interest they are there, but much much shorter than the contigs I'm dealing with now. So either the numbers don't correspond like I assumed or I have amalgamated multiple contigs into one long one, and they mis-leadingly maintained the name of a single contig. If option 2, I can't remember exactly my steps and I don't think I wrote them down. I don't know how to retrace my steps, and so I am screwed in terms of determining quality scores for my contigs of interest. F&ck.

Horoscope

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Creativity is important. Even Patrick Ewing took time off from being an NBA superstar to play the Angel of Death in The Exorcist 3. The first week of February will bring on a period of personal creativity so intense it borders on manic. The Great American Novel remains unwritten, Capricorn! This week, said novel is your responsibility. Remember: good writing can get you [deleted for family audiences].

Better get working!

knock knock

I stayed home this morning during an Energy efficiency test I asked to have done last week.  For $150, the inspector will come to complete the ~1 hour test (most notably by completing a blower-door vacuum test).  I will get the result in a week (energy efficiency on a scale of 1-100).  Because our total income is measly according to income tax returns (my stipend is not included therefore I make <2500/year), we will get the entire $150 refunded. If we rate 77 or higher, there is a potential rebate for CMHC that would total $450, but other than that, we don't qualify for the multitude of other provincial rebates because we didn't follow the proscribed (yet asinine) method of rebate procedure in our province. In order to qualify after the building is complete, you must pay $250 to get your plans verified before you started building. We were informed consumers and already knew what we could afford/what would make the biggest difference in terms of insulation and environmental upgrades (and didn't want to shell out $250 for someone else to tell us that) so we don't qualify.  We must retain the expensive services of a third party to get a rebate for upgrades like LowE windows, high efficiency fireplace and extra insulation. There is no going it alone. So now the only rebates we could get (other than the CMHC rebate, and that is dependent on score) is a big fat pat on the back.

Anyway, there was also a second inspection going on today: that of our buyer's.  At noon, a separate home inspector guy come out to climb on the roof and poke at our walls.  I was home, but I stayed out of the way in the master bedroom with my laptop, my cat, my lunch and my headphones.  I was instructed by my realtor (who is also representing the buyer) to not engage the buyer at all.   Apparently he is prone to weelin' and dealin' and she didn't want our (still tentative) agreement to unravel.  Fair enough.  

All in all, the inspection went well.  There were only a few things which were mentioned: apparently there is problematic condensation occurring around our North-wall installed breaker box.  My electrician did a shitty job of insulating it, so there is condensation accumulation.  It is an easy fix, it just requires some weather-proofing with caulking.  I am very glad the inspection was done and that this minor problem (which could have eventually lead to a much bigger problem) was found right away.  I will tuck that into my inventory of "things learned on the first build".

So I guess in the next few days we will be receiving an amendment from the buyer with clauses to address anything mentioned by the building inspector.  If we refuse to comply the deal could collapse but given that there were no major surprises, we expect to be able to fulfill any clauses they mention.  

First offer

The couple who viewed the house today liked it enough to put in an offer. Unfortunately, the offer was lower than I had hoped - at 194,200 it is about 12,000 under asking price. We aren't really in a rush yet, so we countered with 203,900 (only three thousand under asking price) and they countered with 199,250, but this time with the requirement of completing the basement drywall (taping and mudding, and sanding in preparation for paint). We have until noon tomorrow to decide, but I think we've both decided that 199+ with extra work is too little, given that our realtor has had activity from two or three other couples.

So position: hold tight.

Update: They were bluffing. Either that, or the pregnant lady was able to convince her husband to accept the offer at 203,900. But they just faxed in the accepted counter-offer and we are now proceeding with final details. Hopefully it doesn't all fall through :) Four days on the market, with an accepted offer by the very first couple to see it at 98.5% asking price. It is all going according to plan :)

Fire his ass ... (?)

Last week, this news story made the rounds. John Ross, the head of emergency medicine at the hospital, set off a "code orange" - an internal mass casualty alert for hospital staff - in response to a flood of untreated patients in the ER.

This week, it is quietly being announced John Ross is no longer the head of emergency medicine at QEII.

From the memo on the Capital Health website:
"We are writing to let know that we have re-aligned responsibilities within the Acute Care Portfolio and put a new leadership team in place at the QEII Emergency effective Monday, February 2. "

Re-aligned, eh? You mean, "re-assess how badly we need you versus how bad you make us look in public"? Health care in Canada, although free and accessible, costs a shitload of money to run. And the sad truth is, the emergency room is often the first stop for non-urgent medical problems when people can't fit in an appointment with their over-worked GP or can't make it to the local clinic (often open for fewer hours due to budget restraints). I don't know John Ross, but I am willing to bet money he was just dealing with a horrible situation the best way he knew how: call a code orange and let every capable person in the hospital be ready to treat patients. Put down the incessant paperwork, and clear the hallways. I applaud this sort of action-driven protest against how we run our hospitals, and I wish he wouldn't be demoted because of it.

It hasn't escaped my notice that the bloated healthcare system with all it's redundancy, paperwork and red tape is just mimicked in these new leadership roles. To wit, Dr. John Ross has now been unceremoniously replaced with not one, but two other people:
"Sam [Campbell] and Sandra [Janes] will work collaboratively in a co-leadership model to ensure we are positioned to optimally deliver quality and safe patient access and flow"

Right.

It'll suck

But I'll still see it.

Please like it, please like it, please like it...

We have our first showing tomorrow.

The house went up on the market officially on Saturday Jan. 31st. We spent some time fixing up the exterior (placing shutters, and replacing the vent covers that blew off a few weeks ago) as well as tidying the inside.

We made a custom cabinet for the stacking washer and dryer, which I think turned out really well. It is big enough so that if the new owners need an over-capacity washer/dryer, they can swap out the existing (smaller) set for a larger stacking set in the future.

*fingers crossed*

Hour two

Nice and cozy here in the lab though :)

Little things

1. Past midnight. Still in the lab.
2. Annotating this genome for a second time thanks to my inability to transfer files over from new assemblies in Artemis
3. It's nice when I come across this:

It makes me happy when the subject line and query line match up at the 1's.

Two more months. Phew...

Black Mountain

I can't pin-point who this reminds me of...Sinead O'Connor / Holly McNarland or someone else ?