PERSPECTIVES OF AN ASPIRING NOVELIST

My Review of Roku 2 XS Streaming Player

2012-01-30T13:21:00.001-08:00

Originally submitted at Roku

Adds an enhanced remote for playing games, plus extra connectivity options.

Love it, even my 2 year old :-)

By Emilio from Gainesville, Fl on 1/30/2012

Pros: Great value, Easy to use, Built in Wi-Fi, Easy to set up, Compact

Cons: Want more video choices

Best Uses: Living room, Primary TV

Describe Yourself: Early adopter, Home entertainment enthusiast, Technophile

I like the simplicity of the product and the design. Easy to set up and my 2-year old love to play angry birds using your remote. I'm from the Philippines so I watch some shows from my country using this device Love it. I wish there's a youtube channel that I can surf so I can watch some of the interesting stuff from that site.

(legalese)

Lee Child's Reacher is going to the movie?

2012-01-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

I'm a Bourne series big fan. So this will a a winning combination.

By STEVE ONEY

Harry Zernike for the Wall Street Journal

Reacher Creature: Author Lee Child, shown in his New York City apartment, says of Hollywood: 'I was initially seduced by it all.'

As cameras roll, a police sergeant returns a toothbrush to Jack Reacher, an ex-Army MP major portrayed by Tom Cruise. It is pretty much Reacher's sole possession in life.

The acting unknown cast as the sergeant is Lee Child, author of the Reacher books. The scene, filmed last fall in an ornate old Pittsburgh library, depicts Reacher's release from jail after a brief incarceration. It comes near the end of "One Shot," a much-anticipated, big-budget feature scheduled to complete production later this winter. For fans of Reacher—the laconic protagonist of 16 popular suspense novels with more than 50 million copies in print—the moment will be monumental. By passing the toothbrush to Mr. Cruise, Mr. Child is passing one of publishing's most coveted batons to Hollywood.

Vote: Who Would Make the Best Jack Reacher?

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Although the Reacher novels have been huge sellers, getting here has not been easy. During the last 15 years, many have tried and failed to bring Mr. Child's iconoclastic character to the screen. Some of the difficulties arose from the challenges inherent in adapting any literary work, but most were particular to Reacher. An unbending nonconformist, his personality runs counter to the prevailing Hollywood notion that a film hero must undergo an enlightening transformation over the course of a picture. Then there's the matter of Reacher's size. At 6 feet 5 inches and 250 pounds, he all but demanded the sort of larger-than-life movie actor not seen since John Wayne. Reacher fans are already carping online about the choice of the diminutive Mr. Cruise for the role. There's a Facebook page called "Tom Cruise is not Jack Reacher."

Yet in an era when Hollywood seems more enamored of comic-book superheroes than literary crime fighters, this could be the beginning of a genuine film franchise. Not only have the Reacher books been best sellers—"The Affair" topped lists last fall—but the 49-year-old Mr. Cruise, after a descent into odd behavior (the "Oprah" sofa-hopping incident) and desultory box-office performances, returned to commercial form over Christmas with "Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol." The film, which in three weeks has grossed a remarkable $390 million world-wide, is the fourth in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise.

Jack Reacher will soon be portrayed by Tom Cruise in a feature film, but the road from book to film for author Lee Childs was long and rocky, Eben Shapiro reports on Markets Hub. Photo: AP.

"Tom Cruise is a global star, and you can't have a franchise if it's not global," says Sean Daniel, a former president of production at Universal Pictures who, while uninvolved in the Reacher project, was a producer on "The Mummy," which has spawned three sequels. "A franchise has to strike a nerve in every audience in every country in the world." Mr. Child's books have been published in 95 countries.

Hollywood's flirtation with Jack Reacher began in 1997 following the publication of "Killing Floor," the debut Reacher novel. Mark Johnson, who as a producer collected a best-picture Oscar for "Rain Man" and now is an executive producer on the AMC TV series "Breaking Bad," optioned the book for $100,000. Mr. Johnson had a deal with Polygram Filmed Entertainment, and he commissioned Brandon Boyce ("Apt Pupil") to write the script.

Mr. Child, a native Englishman who pens decidedly American books, had been an unknown author, recently fired from a directing job by Great Britain's Granada Television. He'd changed his name (from Jim Grant) and given himself a year to write a novel. For Hollywood to come calling was heady. "I was initially very seduced by it all," he says. "The meetings and the phone calls and that kind of stuff."

The project, however, went nowhere. " 'Killing Floor' is set in a small Southern town," says Mr. Johnson, "and the people we wanted to make the movie wanted a big, urban setting. I don't think they understood Jack Reacher."

Mr. Child was disappointed by the setback, but he believed that if he continued writing Reacher novels, his stock in Hollywood had to rise. "Instead of just grabbing something and running with it, producers would be forced to pay close attention to the text," he says. "As long as I kept getting paid—and if you look in the dictionary under free money, that's what a movie option is—I was pleased."

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Associated Press (Jackman, Vaughn); Getty Images (Pitt, Smith, body); Reuters (Cruise)

HEAD SHOTS: Left to right: Hugh Jackman, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Vince Vaughn and Will Smith. All were discussed for the part over the years; it eventually went to Mr. Cruise.

Mr. Child cranked out a new Reacher novel every year. In the process he fashioned a fully realized protagonist. Reacher is by turns nomadic (he traverses America by bus), brainy (he's a West Point grad) and old school (he uses the names of forgotten New York Yankees as aliases). Moreover, he bears a resemblance to the heroes of several of Hollywood's longest-running film franchises.

Like Jason Bourne, the ex-foreign-services officer in "The Bourne Identity" and its sequels, Reacher is an erstwhile insider with knowledge of everything from weapons systems to Pentagon politics. Like Clint Eastwood's Detective Harry Callahan—aka Dirty Harry—Reacher exhibits little respect for protocols, including due process, presumption of innocence and other Constitutional rights. In a world filled with shades of gray where civil society is often helpless in the face of evil, Reacher possesses a clear moral vision, a willingness to cross lines and the ability to inflict enormous physical pain and damage. If a malefactor is beyond the grasp of justice, he simply kills him.

"Reacher is a concept that has essentially been market-tested for 3,000 years," says Mr. Child, who on a sunny morning sits in his Manhattan office. "Reacher is the noble loner. He's straight out of the movie Westerns, but he was not invented by them. He's copied from Europe's medieval knights errant, which were copied from earlier Scandinavian figures. "

Yet even as Reacher evolved, Hollywood remained unwilling to pull the trigger. Mr. Johnson shopped the idea for three years until Polygram suspended business. "I couldn't bring it home," he says. The rights lapsed.

In 2002, New Line Cinema picked them up. "It was a good deal," says Steve Fisher, Mr. Child's movie agent. The author got $250,000, 2½ times the money he received on the first option. New Line developed a script by John Rogers ("Transformers" and, more recently, TNT's "Leverage") and hired director Clark Johnson ("The Wire" and "Homeland"). "They showed it to some talent, but nobody bit," says Mr. Fisher. "People said it wasn't high-concept enough, but I don't know what that means. The difficult thing when you're a literary agent in Hollywood is that studio executives are notoriously inarticulate when they pass on projects."

Jack Reacher: Heavyweight Heartthrob

Height: 6 feet 5 inches

Weight: 220-250 pounds

Chest size: 50 inches

Hair: Dirty blond

Eyes: Ice blue

"His arms, so long they gave him a greyhound's grace even though he was built like the side of a house.... His hands, giant battered mitts that bunched into fists the size of footballs.

Barehanded Brawler

"He put all his weight on his back foot and lined up a straight drive aimed for my face. It was going to be a big blow. It would have hurt me if it had landed. But before he let it go I stepped in and smashed my right heel into his right kneecap. The knee is a fragile joint. Ask any athlete.... His patella shattered and his leg folded backward. Exactly like a regular knee joint, but in reverse.... He screamed, real loud. I stepped back and smiled. He shoots, he scores."

Mr. Child's background in television led him to develop some theories about what was happening. One is that Hollywood storytelling typically relies on character arcs in which the hero faces a number of moral dilemmas so he can change and grow.

Reacher is the opposite of that, Mr. Child says. "His appeal is that he does not change one iota. He's the same at the end of a novel as he was at the beginning, and he doesn't learn anything either, because he knew it all to start with."

Mr. Child cites another book-to-film difficulty—movies have trouble with interior monologues. "Readers like being in Reacher's head, thinking along with him," he says, "and my novels have a lot of long, internal passages that depend on Reacher's thought processes, his own quirkiness, his intuition, his mental capacity. There's no movie way of showing what an actor is thinking."

Casting, however, was the main stumbling block. Reacher's size is central both to his ability to prevail in violent encounters—he has a propensity for taking on gangs of thick-necked thugs—and to his self-concept. "To be born tall was to win life's lottery," Mr. Child writes in "61 Hours," a 2010 Reacher novel.

"Subliminally," Mr. Child observes, "everybody was saying, 'Find the biggest guy we can find,' which in Hollywood is not very big. Actors just aren't big guys."

Whoever played Reacher would also need to convey his intelligence. "There aren't a lot of actors who can do intimidating physical stuff and look smart on camera," says Mr. Rogers, author of the New Line script.

For a while, such names as Hugh Jackman, Brad Pitt and Vince Vaughn were bandied about. "We went through a period," adds Mr. Child, "where we talked seriously about a black Reacher, which would have been interesting." Jamie Foxx and Will Smith were both discussed.

More: Casting the Detectives: Crime Fiction's Biggest Movie Stars

Warner Bros. Pictures

In 2005, just when the pieces seemed as if they would never come together, Paramount optioned the newest Reacher novel, "One Shot," plus the entire Reacher ouevre, for Tom Cruise's production company, where producer Don Granger ("Snakes on a Plane") was employed. Along with Kevin Messick ("The Other Guy"), Mr. Granger had worked on the aborted New Line effort.

The timing was propitious. "One Shot" was receiving rave reviews and selling briskly. The option was for big money—three times what Mr. Child received from New Line, bringing the total amount he'd earned from Hollywood to well over $1 million. "For the kind of money Paramount was paying," says Mr. Fisher, "I knew they were going to make this movie a priority, and that turned out to be the case." In 2010 the studio upped the ante by extending the rights further into the future. The picture was a joint production of Paramount and Mr. Cruise's company. Later, they were joined by Skydance, the film-financing company owned by David Ellison, son of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

To get at the interior Reacher, director Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Oscar for writing "The Usual Suspects" and will likely share the writing credit on "One Shot" with Josh Olson, scripted sequences during which the camera holds steady on Reacher's silent, pensive face. (Paramount declined to make the filmmakers available, saying it wanted to restrict publicity until closer to the movie's expected 2013 release date.)

PUBLISHING POWER: Lee Child's Reacher series has been published in 95 countries and 40 languages. Fifty million copies have been sold world-wide.

This left only one dilemma: casting Reacher. In 2000, Mr. Child told England's Birmingham Post (his hometown paper) that he liked Russell Crowe or former football player Howie Long for the role. "Definitely not Tom Cruise," he cracked. "He's too short." But he added, "what is most important is that it's a good movie."

Now Mr. Child has done an about-face. "What they ultimately did," he says, "was to decide, 'Let's just forget about finding an exact physical facsimile.' And that was liberating. It was an epiphany. Tom Cruise was always interested in playing Reacher, and he has the acting skills to pull it off."

Despite the author's endorsement, the outcry over Mr. Cruise's 5-foot-8 height continues. On the "Tom Cruise is not Jack Reacher" Facebook page, one commenter posted, "Once Cruise starts to pervade the Reacher character in your mind—it makes reading any of the books kind of weird." A number of so-called "Reacher Creatures" voiced a preference for actor Ray Stevenson ("Thor," "The Three Musketeers"). Mr. Cruise, who Paramount said wouldn't comment, told the movie magazine Empire last summer that he was "sensitive" to the demands of the role and proud that Mr. Child blessed him for it.

Says Mr. Child: "With another actor you might get 100% of the height but only 90% of Reacher. With Tom, you'll get 100% of Reacher with 90% of the height."

Not that the film version of "One Shot" will be a slavish re-creation of the novel. The book opens with a series of apparently random slayings in an anonymous outdoor plaza; the movie will begin with a sniper scanning a crowd at Pittsburgh's PNC Park (home of the Pirates) before focusing on a group walking down a nearby path. Moreover, the ethnicity of the book's villain, "the Zec," has been changed from Russian to German to accommodate the casting of director Werner Herzog in the part. The overall number of characters has also been reduced—a typical book-to-movie mandate.

But in the main, says Mr. Child, "One Shot" the film will be extremely faithful to the novel. "That's the upside of having waited. The Reacher series is now so strong and well-established it would have been completely perverse of them to have ignored the spine of the novel."

Observes Mr. Johnson, Reacher's initial Hollywood suitor: "This feels like Reacher's moment. In a franchise, what matters is not the universe but the main character. With some exceptions, the 'Star Wars' films being the most notable, it's about someone we find fascinating. Reacher is like Indiana Jones—you'd follow him anywhere."

Mr. Child says he's superstitious even talking about sequels, but if "One Shot" flies, "Killing Floor" would probably be the next Reacher feature. "61 Hours" was considered, but its snowy South Dakota setting would be tough to create or work in. "Bad Luck and Trouble" has been discussed as a possible No. 3.

Even if "One Shot"—true to its title—doesn't generate sequels, Mr. Child says he'll be OK. "If I can go to my grave feeling that I contributed one tiny thing to the world of film, I'll be a slightly happier man," he says. "It's a bit like if you get one at-bat in the major leagues. Then you're in 'The Baseball Encyclopedia' forever."

Copying?

2011-11-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

Spy Thriller: 'An Instant Classic' Vanishes Amid Plagiarism Charges

Publisher Recalls Novel After Passages Discovered Mimicking Bond, James Bond

By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG

The biggest mystery in Q.R. Markham's new spy novel "Assassin of Secrets," it turns out, is the number of books the author borrowed from.
The book is a thriller about an elite CIA agent chasing a shadowy international group of assassins. But Tuesday, publisher Little, Brown & Co. recalled all 6,500 copies of the novel on the grounds that passages were "lifted" from other books. One sharp-eyed observer says he had identified at least 13 novels with similar material.
Little, Brown hasn't put a number on it, saying just that many passages in the book were "taken from a variety of classic and contemporary spy novels." But it is still early: the book was published Nov. 3 and similarities were only discovered since then.

One example, noted by spy novelist Jeremy Duns, is this passage from "Assassin of Secrets": "Then he saw her, behind the fountain, a small light, dim but growing to illuminate her as she stood naked but for a thin, translucent nightdress; her hair undone and falling to her waist—hair and the thin material moving and blowing as though caught in a silent zephyr." The same sentence appears precisely in "License Renewed," a James Bond novel by John Gardner, a search of Google Books shows.
As to the author, he could be a character in a mystery novel. "Assassin of Secrets" is credited to Q.R. Markham, which Little, Brown says is a pseudonym for the poet Quentin Rowan. Mr. Rowan's writing has appeared in The Paris Review and the compilation "Best American Poetry 1996." He is also a small investor in Brooklyn, N.Y., bookstore Spoonbill & Sugartown, where a spy-themed book party for "Assassin of Secrets" was held last Friday.
Mr. Rowan couldn't be reached for comment.

Pages From the Book

Compare Q.R. Markham's book with others.

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On the first page of chapter one of "Assassin" is this paragraph: "The boxy, sprawling Munitions Building which sat near the Washington Monument and quietly served as I-Division's base of operations was a study in monotony. Endless corridors connecting to endless corridors. Walls a shade of green common to bad cheese and fruit. Forests of oak desks separated down the middle by rows of tall columns, like concrete redwoods, each with a number designating a particular work space."
In the book "Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency" by James Bamford is this: "In June 1930, the boxy, sprawling Munitions Building, near the Washington Monument, was a study in monotony. Endless corridors connecting to endless corridors. Walls a shade of green common to bad cheese and fruit. Forests of oak desks separated down the middle by rows of tall columns, like concrete redwoods, each with a number designating a particular workspace."
Of one character, "Assassin" says: "He knew the names and pseudonyms, the photographs, and the operative weakness of every agent controlled by Americans everywhere in the world."
While in "The Tears of Autumn," by Charles McCarry, it says: "He knew the names and pseudonyms, the photographs and the operative weakness of every agent controlled by Americans everywhere in the world."
In at least one instance, the similarities flow cleanly from one scene to the next.
On page 128, the book pivots from a nine-paragraph passage pulled largely from "The Prometheus Deception," by Robert Ludlum, and moves into a seven-paragraph passage, lifted almost entirely from "Nobody Lives Forever," another James Bond novel by Mr. Gardner. The only differences from the originals are proper names, some deletions and a few stray phrases.
The recall is a turnabout for the book, which received some excellent reviews. Publishers Weekly, for instance, observed that the author "strays far enough into James Bond territory to border on parody, but the fine writing keeps the enterprise firmly on track, and the obvious Ian Fleming influence just adds to the appeal."
"Our reviewer didn't pick up on anything suspicious," said Jim Milliot, co-editorial director of Publishers Weekly.
A reader commenting on an online forum devoted to James Bond noted the similarity in the material. Among those reading the comments was Mr. Duns, a writer of spy novels such as "Free Agent," who liked the book so much he was quoted on the cover of the U.K. edition calling it "an instant classic." The U.K. edition was due to be published on Nov. 10 but the status of that is now unclear.
Intrigued by the online comment about the similarity to James Bond novels, Mr. Duns, who lives in Sweden, did some research online. Plugging certain material into Google Books, Mr. Duns said that he was able to identify at least 13 novels from which material was similar for "Assassin of Secrets."
"Entire sequences are from other novels," said Mr. Duns. "He didn't even bother to rework anything. It must be the worst case of plagiarism I've ever seen. How did he think he'd get away with this? He fooled me, but others were bound to notice eventually—as they did."
A spokeswoman for Little, Brown, which is owned by Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, said the publishing house learned of the plagiarism accusations Tuesday morning. The publishing house did some checking, concluded that passages had been "lifted" from earlier works and decided to recall the book. Those seeking a refund should return the title to the retailer from whom they bought it.
—Christopher S. Stewart and Sam Schechner contributed to this article.

Best Novels?

2011-10-25T20:27:00.001-07:00

Cleaning out bookshelves, I found a copy of a book called "The 200 Best Novels in English Since 1950." Do you have an opinion of this?
—J.T.R., Gainesville, Fla.
Although the Modern Library's "200 Best Novels," edited by Colm Toibin and Carmen Callil, was published in 1999, and I'm always interested in "best of" book lists, I had never run across it until I received this question. It's no longer in print in the U.S., but I found it on a used-book website.
The purpose of any list of best books is to get people riled up, and the "200" did its job on me. Colm Toibin is an Irish writer whose fiction I have enjoyed and admired (a new collection of his short stories, "The Empty Family," will be published in the U.S. in January). I wasn't familiar with Ms. Callil; it turns out she was a founder of Virago Press, a British publisher of past and current books by and for women. She also set off a literary kerfuffle earlier this year when she resigned as one of the three judges of the International Man Booker prize because it was awarded to Philip Roth. "I heard the swish of emperor's clothes," she wrote later.

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Everett Collection

"Sophie's Choice" by William Styron did not make the Modern Library's list of the "200 Best Novels."

It's a useful exercise for any reader to create his or her own best list if only because nobody else's list will be as incisive and brilliant as one's own. I did this several years ago (my 50 favorite novels of the past two decades), and it was surprisingly difficult—some books acquire a retroactive glow because they are associated with the time or place they were read. I revised the list a few years later, which was even more taxing because I had to knock off some earlier choices to make room for new ones. Sure, I could simply have increased the size of the list, but it's more intellectually challenging to stick with an arbitrary number.
In their introduction, Mr. Toibin and Ms. Callil acknowledge than any such list is "entirely personal." They say each of their choices had qualities of genius and excitement and gave the reader "a feeling that you would love to hand this book to someone else to read." Fair enough, although genius is often in the eye of the beholder. I was perturbed by their admission that neither cares for science fiction, fantasy or most historical novels. Most of all, I was troubled by their—or their publisher's—claim not that these were their favorite books but that they were the best. I love Carl Hiaasen's novels, but I don't believe his "Double Whammy," which appears on their list, is one of the best novels of the second half of the 20th century. It's nowhere near as good as "Sophie's Choice" by William Styron or "The New Confessions" by William Boyd, neither of which made the 200.
There was some overlap between my list and theirs, including some lesser-known novels like "Asylum" by Patrick McGrath and "The Winshaw Legacy" by Jonathan Coe (the British title is "What a Carve Up!"). We all liked Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove"; Pat Barker's "Regeneration" trilogy; and Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance."
Then, inevitably, I started to quibble: "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis? Definitely worth reading but a leaflet compared with Barry Unsworth's majestic "Sacred Hunger." I read Richard Ford's "The Sportswriter" (on their list) and have never been tempted to read another of his novels. Yet they made no room for Richard Russo's "The Risk Pool" or Kazuo Ishiguro's "Remains of the Day." In my opinion they chose the wrong Anne Tyler book ("Breathing Lessons" rather than "St. Maybe") and the wrong T.C. Boyle ("Tortilla Curtain" instead of "World's End"). But this likely qualifies as the "petty snobbery" Clifford Fadiman referred to in his introduction to "Good Books," a 1982 compendium edited by Steven Gilbar. Mr. Gilbar judges a book worth recommending (he mentions 9,000 titles) if it is "rewarding and pleasurable."
A few other book lists to entertain and infuriate you: "The Best Novels of the Nineties" by Linda Parent Lesher; "The Reading List" by David Rubel; "The Novel 100" by Daniel S. Burt; and "The List of Books" by Frederic Raphael and Kenneth McLeish.
Anthony Burgess, who edited "Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939," was later asked about the furious reaction his choices had provoked. "That was the intention," he said. He added, "I think one has to do this kind of thing occasionally to make people wake up and start considering what really makes a good book."
—Send your questions about books and reading to Cynthia Crossen at booklover@wsj.com. Write to Cynthia Crossen at cynthia.crossen@wsj.com

Is this the future of panctuation?

2011-10-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

By HENRY HITCHINGS

Punctuation arouses strong feelings. You have probably come across the pen-wielding vigilantes who skulk around defacing movie posters and amending handwritten signs that advertise "Rest Room's" or "Puppy's For Sale."
People fuss about punctuation not only because it clarifies meaning but also because its neglect appears to reflect wider social decline. And while the big social battles seem intractable, smaller battles over the use of the apostrophe feel like they can be won.

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Yet the status of this and other cherished marks has long been precarious. The story of punctuation is one of comings and goings.
Early manuscripts had no punctuation at all, and those from the medieval period suggest haphazard innovation, with more than 30 different marks. The modern repertoire of punctuation emerged as printers in the 15th and 16th centuries strove to limit this miscellany.
Many punctuation marks are less venerable than we might imagine. Parentheses were first used around 1500, having been observed by English writers and printers in Italian books. Commas were not employed until the 16th century; in early printed books in English one sees a virgule (a slash like this /), which the comma replaced around 1520.
Other marks enjoyed briefer success. There used to be a clunky paragraph sign known as a pilcrow ; initially it was a C with a slash drawn through it. Similar in its effect was one of the oldest punctuation symbols, a horizontal ivy leaf called a hedera . It appears in 8th-century manuscripts, separating text from commentary, and after a period out of fashion it made an unexpected return in early printed books. Then it faded from view.
Another mark, now obscure, is the point d'ironie, sometimes known as a "snark." A back-to-front question mark, it was deployed by the 16th-century printer Henry Denham to signal rhetorical questions, and in 1899 the French poet Alcanter de Brahm suggested reviving it. More recently, the difficulty of detecting irony and sarcasm in electronic communication has prompted fresh calls for a revival of the point d'ironie. But the chances are slim that it will make a comeback.
In fact, Internet culture generally favors a lighter, more informal style of punctuation. True, emoticons have sprung up to convey nuances of mood and tone. Moreover, typing makes it easy to amplify punctuation: splattering 20 exclamation marks on a page, or using multiple question marks to signify theatrical incredulity. But, overall, punctuation is being renounced.
How might punctuation now evolve? The dystopian view is that it will vanish. I find this conceivable, though not likely. But we can see harbingers of such change: editorial austerity with commas, the newsroom preference for the period over all other marks, and the taste for visual crispness.
Though it is not unusual to hear calls for new punctuation, the marks proposed tend to cannibalize existing ones. In this vein, you may have encountered the interrobang , which signals excited disbelief.
Such marks are symptoms of an increasing tendency to punctuate for rhetorical rather than grammatical effect. Instead of presenting syntactical and logical relationships, punctuation reproduces the patterns of speech.
One manifestation of this is the advance of the dash. It imitates the jagged urgency of conversation, in which we change direction sharply and with punch. Dashes became common only in the 18th century. Their appeal is visual, their shape dramatic. That's what a modern, talky style of writing seems to demand.
By contrast, use of the semicolon is dwindling. Although colons were common as early as the 14th century, the semicolon was rare in English books before the 17th century. It has always been regarded as a useful hybrid—a separator that's also a connector—but it's a trinket beloved of people who want to show that they went to the right school.
More surprising is the eclipse of the hyphen. Traditionally, it has been used to link two halves of a compound noun and has suggested that a new coinage is on probation. But now the noun is split (fig leaf, hobby horse) or rendered without a hyphen (crybaby, bumblebee). It may be that the hyphen's last outpost will be in emoticons, where it plays a leading role.
Graphic designers, who favor an uncluttered aesthetic, dislike hyphens. They are also partly responsible for the disappearance of the apostrophe. This little squiggle first appeared in an English text in 1559. Its use has never been completely stable, and today confusion leads to the overcompensation that we see in those handwritten signs. The alternative is not to use apostrophes at all—an act of pragmatism easily mistaken for ignorance.
Defenders of the apostrophe insist that it minimizes ambiguity, but there are few situations in which its omission can lead to real misunderstanding.
The apostrophe is mainly a device for the eye, not the ear. And while I plan to keep handling apostrophes in accordance with the principles I was shown as a child, I am confident that they will either disappear or be reduced to little baubles of orthographic bling.
—Mr. Hitchings's latest book. "The Language Wars: A History of Proper English," will be published in November.

DAY 16: Act 3: The Final cluster of scences

2011-10-19T02:40:00.000-07:00

In the final days of the Novel, Lee realized he needed Farzad. But it's not going to be easy, since Lee harbors a Deep-South bias against Muslims, that Islam is not a "Religion of peace". Lee's convinced that "more of Mohammed Alta's spiritual brethren already infiltrated our shores."

Here's my 20 Novel-ending lines (as part of the assignment).
1. It has to end, and it begins with him.
2. After all it was America, where they both belong.
3. A crowd is a company.
4. The map was full of tacks.
5. He lost some but win some.
6. America spread before him.
7. He knew science and people and what to believe.

DAY 15: Act Two: The Second Clusters of Scences

2011-10-19T01:54:00.000-07:00

In this day, act two of the story is the realm of conflict and deepening the conflict. It's where bad things happen and confrontation. In act one, I introduced Lee as very religious person from the the south, yet very logical and scientifically minded. Also introduced in act one is Jonathan, the ex-navy seals that will become my villain. One person of interest is Farzad, the Iranian that came to the US to study.

In act two, the professor, Lee's adviser speculated that the leak of confidential technologies came out from his laboratory and his research. In here I described the wreckage of the plane. One unexpected problem arose when Lee realize the plotters knew something that Lee was not aware of. Maybe the post doc Oleg knew and supplied it to the plotters, but how? Was it Farzad? Lee will try to connect the dots.

DAY 14: Act One: The First Cluster of Scences.

2011-10-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

By the end of act 1, you should answer

1. What's the "significant event" of the novel

2. What's the character's motivation? What is at stake for her?

3. Have you included enough background for him?

I already answered those questions in my draft, so I'll go straight to the assignment.

ASSIGNMENT:

1. Come up with the 20 first lines of your novel. (There should be tension involved)

1. Lee showed no emotions after the professor told him that traces of LLM 106 were found in the wreckage of the airplane.

2. The smell of money was crisp, wafting in the air after Lee opened the duffel bag.

3. Lee closed the doors behind him, confused, trying to forget the pictures he saw on the television, images of a passenger plane, possibly Boeing 747, images of burned passengers, knowing that he has a part of the blood-boiling terrorist attack.

4. Lee called his brother and told him "they got us, again", tears welling in his eyes.

5. Lee slammed the phone, frustrated, after letting it ring for the 10th time.

THIS IS ONE SCENE AFTER LEE TOOK THE MONEY FROM THE COUNTERTERRORISM AGENTS.

Back in his lab, Lee made a little bit of work in front of the computer. He had smelled the oil from the lab before, but this time, he’s more aware of it. Like a car, the instrument he was working on periodically needed an oil change. By today’s standard, the machine looked like a primitive device. But what it was capable of detection will definitely change airport security. For now, it can only be operated by experts, but sooner or later, a trained operator can man the instrument behind the hustle and bustle of an airport security screening line.
Lee stared at his computer monitor. The proposal from the guy Lee assumed to be working with the counter terrorism task force was not easy to pass. But still, he has four choices.
The first choice was to do nothing at all. Second, was to call later on the number in a business card that was handed to him during the meeting. Third, was to call his adviser, and the fourth options was to call 911. He ruled out option number 1—part of the money was already in his position. It was past the point of no-return, past the red light or stop sign. Option number three and four will take him somewhere. But then again, the money is too grand to pass.
He opted for the second and conducted himself like someone who just found out that he was holding the winning lottery ticket. He wanted to shout. “So, this is how someone feels after winning a lottery” he whispered to himself. The combined smell of used oil and crisp money wafted through his nose as he fanned through the stack of bills, totaling ten thousand dollars, two inches of Benjamins bundled together neatly by blue rubber band. He can’t contained his heart racing.

Lee’s decision was about money—and more. Jonathan definitely complemented him and got his attention, an attention he didn’t get from his peers. Lee’s age is just north of 30. And he was angry to himself for being still in the stupid graduate school program. With his caliber, he could be a head of a company by now. But he sabotaged his life in every possible way. His contemporaries were working already big time. Former classmates in high school have stellar career trajectories. While his contemporaries were setting aside money for the money market and 401K, Lee’s mom still sends extra money in order for him to survive. Without mom, he’s only a phone call away from eviction. By many, he is a failure: He’s probably better to be shot in the back than living in a dingy apartment.
There’s no money in science, but the science he knew is worth a million dollars. With a less stellar career trajectory, and no reputation to loose, taking the money was the best option. No more bidding from eBay for the pistols he wanted. No more credit card debts. No more elementary students asking what’s inside the cabinet during a field trip to his lab. Weekends will be spent in firing range. Lee opened the crumpled pistol magazine sitting at the bottom of a pile of papers and books.
It was almost 2 AM when he left the lab. During his night shifts, when he decides to work at night alone at the lab, he drives his dented 1994 Honda Accord. Inside the old car, he cracked his knuckle and drummed his huge fingers on the small and worn steering wheel, and then wildly imagined what his new life would be.
However, he was specifically instructed to not flaunt his wealth. He’ll still drive his shit-box for now, but definitely, no more debts in his cards. For sure, weekends will be spent in firing range—to stay away from labeling tubes and pipetting liquids, in his shitty, windowless laboratory. Scientists deserve monetary rewards too, not only Nobel prize winners.

DAY 13: Scene or Summary, or, Taking the Dull Parts Out

2011-10-13T18:38:00.000-07:00

Day 13 of my 90 Days to your Novel challenge. And this post it's about scene or summary and taking the non-essential parts of the writing. In this scene, a construction worker who works inside the the Dulles International Airport is preparing to work.

Mark Weed pulled up his white truck, grabbed his badge and coffee cup from the cup holder and moved to the back of his truck. After grabbing his stuffs, he mentally noted the row letter of his parking spot, knowing that he’ll be lost once the Charlotte Douglas International Airport parking area is packed.
Yesterday, he and his truck were subjected to a random inspection. Although he already went through a thorough background check before he took this job, the random pat-down for screening airport contract workers surprised him. It was a minor inconvenience.
Mark put on his badge and walked straight to the area of the terminal that was cordoned off by a black rotabelt. He aligned more orange safety cones to clear his work place from passengers. Although it was still early, the airport can be a theater of scenes, ranging from emotions of tears after a goodbye kiss to a panicking student with hangover streaking past the unfinished floor. The emotional scenes can pop out anytime.
Today, his job was to replace the tiles near the bathroom but he went inside the bathroom, taking him almost 40 minutes.

DAY 12: Making the Most of Minor Characters

2011-10-12T18:35:00.000-07:00

What kind of individuals will your protagonist encounter throughout the pages of the novel?
Since Lee is a graduate student, most of the minor characters that he will encounter will be fellow graduate students, especially international graduate students. Some of them will be scientists, bomb experts, post doctoral fellows and airport screeners.
In what ways will these individuals react? This will give clearer picture about your protagonist.

One of Lee's research group mate came from India, from Bangalore University. His name is Satish Patel. Satish was born poor, but his Slum-Dog Millionaire flare have gave him the opportunity to study Pharmacology. Science was cool for him and started applying for graduate schools in the US. In 2005, he came to the United States with $50 dollars in his pocket. His dream was big, however. The dream will propel his life to greatness. He envisioned of buying his parents a house when the day came.

The first time he came to the United States, he felt everything was different from his previous life. Life was easy in the US. Water comes out from the faucet, whereas in his hometown, they have to walk and fetch water from the town's well. He tried to use his hands to drink water from the water fountain once he arrived in Detroit. People were looking at him.

DAY 11: CONFLICT

2011-10-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

In this novel, the major conflict is that Lee wanted to be patriotic and help his country, but in the end he helped the other side.

Here's some minor conflict.

Farzad looked around the cubicle and found Lee.
"There's UPS box in the warehouse that needs your signature in order to receive. " Farzad said, setting down his 2 boxes.
"Where is it from?"
"The label says Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory." Farzad said. "I didn't know we have collaborations with them?" Farzad added.
"Actually we do."
"What department?"
"To be honest, the High Explosives Applications Facility, that's where they study explosives in general."
"Have you been there?" Farzad asked.
"Twice, maybe. It's a highly secure lab since they deal with explosives. There are areas that are restricted, as you may know. One secretary told me that one area was highly classified you need 7 passwords to enter 7 doors, different pass code for every door, just crazy."
"And the facility I would imagine is state of the art?"
"It is, but I probably won't work there. It's dangerous. I'm a little bit clumsy sometimes. The last time I visited there, our host told us that people carrying explosives sample through the hall must stay on the white path, so that if accidents happen, it won't affect the adjacent lab."
"Crazy." Farzad said nodding. "How come I didn't know about this collaborations?"
Lee didn't answer.
"Is it because I'm an international student? An Iranian?"
"It's not that? Why not just tell me because I'm a Muslim."
"Because you are not a US citizen." Lee said lying, but his Deep South roots is biased to Muslims.

DAY 10: CHARACTER MOTIVE

2011-10-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

I Been late in this writing assignment, and in this day 10 writing assignment, it's already done, not here in the blog but in my draft.

HINDSIGHT IS ALWAYS 20/20

2011-10-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, this was President Obama's response to the critics of Solyndra, a solar panel company that went bankrupt, losing all the money the government invested on it.

The remarks reminded me of the Black Swan, a controversial book with the recurring theme that we cannot predict the future.

Nassim Taleb is the maverick thinker and author of the book. When I first read the book, it became apparent to me that the sentences were long. I was always told, as a science writer, to be concise and direct to the point. His however was long. Nassim infuses a lot of statistics in his book, and I must say, I was seldom lost.

The Black Swan showed me that long sentences has its place in scientific books, and also showed me the idea that we cannot pinpoint any reason for anything.

How Google became the wealthiest company? We may never know never know, but in hindsight we can pinpoint explanations.

HOW MALCOLM GLADWELL'S SUSPENSIVE SENTENCES.

2011-10-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a sad day for the Apple cult followers. I'm too, even though I'm not an iFan (I only have iPad). Which is why I'm posting an article related to Jobs, written by Malcolm Gladwell, a master in writing sentences, particularly suspensive sentences.

I "read'" most of his books in an audio form, while training for a marathon. If I read the sentences aloud here, I know its his writing, no doubt. Take a look at his delaying tactics.

He was the co-founder of a small computer startup down the road, in Cupertino. His name was Steve Jobs.

And this one too.

If you were obsessed with the future in the seventies, you were obsessed with Xerox PARC—which was why the young Steve Jobs had driven to Coyote Hill Road.

Here's the whole article:

In late 1979, a twenty-four-year-old entrepreneur paid a visit to a research center in Silicon Valley called Xerox PARC. He was the co-founder of a small computer startup down the road, in Cupertino. His name was Steve Jobs.

Xerox PARC was the innovation arm of the Xerox Corporation. It was, and remains, on Coyote Hill Road, in Palo Alto, nestled in the foothills on the edge of town, in a long, low concrete building, with enormous terraces looking out over the jewels of Silicon Valley. To the northwest was Stanford University’s Hoover Tower. To the north was Hewlett-Packard’s sprawling campus. All around were scores of the other chip designers, software firms, venture capitalists, and hardware-makers. A visitor to PARC, taking in that view, could easily imagine that it was the computer world’s castle, lording over the valley below—and, at the time, this wasn’t far from the truth. In 1970, Xerox had assembled the world’s greatest computer engineers and programmers, and for the next ten years they had an unparalleled run of innovation and invention. If you were obsessed with the future in the seventies, you were obsessed with Xerox PARC—which was why the young Steve Jobs had driven to Coyote Hill Road.

DAY 9: POV&V (Point of View and Voice)

2011-10-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I didn't blog what I wrote, but I'll re-write it here as day 9 assignment.
My assignment: Just re-write what's in my notebook in a third person, omniscient.

Lee took the sheets to his cubicle and read the confidential fax again. He knew he has a hand on this, the troubles besetting Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. But he can't tell Chuck, not now. The situation was not ideal.

It's not a secret that most of his groupmates harbor fear and hate towards the man who demands perfection in their experiments and data. It's not a secret that their adviser is a slave driver. But Chuck's been very nice to Lee and chuck trust Lee.

Professor Morrison's God complex had irritated most of the faculty in the department. If firing a tenured faculty is possible for being an ass, by acting like horrible drill sergeant, Chuck's the first one to go. But unless he's not caught fucking his own graduate student, he is untouchable. Despite the hatred toward Lee's adviser, Lee knew he's one of Chuck's favorite. Lee was like a favorite son. He doesn't want to destroy the trust now, by confiding to the professor that he may have a hand in these troubles. He may have a hand, unless he sort things out first and call Jonathan. They were the only people, besides his groupmates, who knew the details of his findings.

He needed to get into the bottom of everything.

Lee took out he business card out from his old, fat wallet. He cautiously looked around making sure he's alone in the office and dialed the number.

DAY 7: Writing a novel challenge-Dialogue

2011-10-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

Now I'm back to this book, the 90-day challenge to my novel (90 Days to Your Novel: A Day-by-Day Plan for Outlining & Writing Your Book).

Right now, my challenge is writing a dialogue. The scene is in the professor's office, talking to Lee regarding the fax the professor received:

Lee closed the door behind him. He saw the professor stroking his white beard, focusing on the fax in front of him. The professor said without looking to Lee "the way I see it, the perpetrators knew the science behind the airport."

Lee couldn't decipher what the professor was trying to communicate but he has a feeling that it was about the problems encountered by Charlotte International Airport. Lee asked a question slowly, "I don't understand Chuck, what are you talking about?"

"The masses that appeared in the spectrum are not traces of explosives" He handed Lee the fax.

Lee studied the 2 pages in his hands.

"Could it be possible that the instruments malfunctioned? The numbers are close to the SRM provided by the Institute of Standards."

"I know, but it's not the exact masses, they are close." Chuck handed Lee again 2 pieces of paper.

Lee read the headings

STANDARD REFERENCE MATERIAL (SRM) 2905, Trace Particulate Explosives.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology published an aid for security personnel and researchers to

NaNoWriMo and Plinky

2011-10-02T05:29:00.000-07:00

I got an email from WordPress yesterday, challenging me to write a whole novel for the month of November. So the website, National Novel Writing Month, made October the 'warm-up' month leading to the writing in November. In addition to NaNoWriMo, the website introduced Plinky to me, a website that alternate as a writing coach, prompting you to write something based on their ideas and questions.

Writing a novel in one month requires writing 1600 words a day. I'm not into that thing, but I'll do something similar, the 90-day challenge.

The Middle Seat

2011-09-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

I found The Middle Seat section of the Wall Street Journal a treasure for anything related to the airport. Since I'm writing a novel about airport security, this will be my routine, visiting this blog and their site every Thursday, or when I'm lost and my mind comes out blank of any significant plots or progress in writing.

Here's what comes out from my writing today after reading the blog:

The plane just took off from Reagan International Airport. One of the pilot's hated area to fly is Washington D.C., because regulators had banned commercial planes, choppers and twin-engine planes to fly close to the nation's treasured landmarks. But the National Airport is situated close to those landmarks, and maneuvering to stay away from Washington Monument takes more effort.

The pilot check the altimeter in front of him and glanced at the DC landmark outside to his left. The smoke inside blurred his vision and it filled the airplane's cabin quickly. Passengers outside the cockpit were confused if the smoke was from the air conditioning. The panicked captain yelled, "Evacuate! Evacuate!" The passengers froze.

Norman Snive struggled to unbuckle his seat belt. He panicked and passengers were pushing and shoving.

PROFESSOR'S DESCRIPTION

2011-09-28T20:15:00.003-07:00

I updated the description of the professor in my book, after discussing what a professor should look like after my previous blog.

“We don’t have evidence we’re just making sure this guy is behaving” Special Agent Mowry shifted his weight in his chair.
            “Everything is under control in this lab and in this department” The professor assured the agent he’s handling the situation well and stroke his silvery beard.
            The gentleman’s silvery beard was witness to the Professor’s long and colorful career. After a large university up in Chicago conferred him his P.h.D., Chuck hung his coat and decided to work down in the sunny Florida. Without the coat, he only wears shirt and jeans. His fashions were never eye catching or even represents the profession of education. Most of his shirts were one size bigger than his body size, but he’s fit and not overweight, unlike some professors that waddle walking in the lobby. Chuck’s an educator without the tie and rimless oval eye glass (his eyes were surgically treated with laser technology).
            Professor Chuck Morison hated bureaucracy. But he has to report to the FBI if any suspicious activities going on with his graduate students, especially students who came to the United States from countries from the Homeland Security’s “priority lists”: Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon. The bureau was not satisfied even with the assurance of the teacher, believing that the greatest threat to national security is homegrown terrorism. The bureau beleives that it may come from academic institutions. So from time to time, Agent Mowry visits Morison’s office to check on things. In his busy schedule, the professor hated unexpected guest, it interrupts his thought process in his task on hand.
            Get rid of the Republicans up in DC instead The professor thought.
            “You don’t handle anthrax do you?” The agent asked.
            “Our lab is not capable, but we collaborate with CDC”
            “And you’re sure Farzad never knew about this project?”
            “No” The professor said almost in a whispered scream. “Lee and Ashley handle sensitive projects, and we never discuss the results in our meetings. I have private one-on-one meetings with Lee”
            The professor continued “Why are you suspecting Farzad?”
            “He’s Iranian and a Muslim. These are the guys who baby sit a wound inflicted by 9/11. Prisoner in a strange land for being a Muslim”
            “I handle Farzad personally, so I know if problems arise.”
            “Good” The tone of the Agent Mowry’s voice was half satisfied. “Well then Professor Morrison, I have to go. I do need to talk to other researchers around campus”
            “Thanks for the visit again, you are always welcome to drop by anytime” The professor lied. He has to kiss ass with the funding agency that kept his laboratory alive and well. Without the money from the Department of Defense, funding to continue his research could have been scarce. The combination of President’s Bush policy to cut the science funding and then the 2008 economic turmoil left the country devastated, in all areas, even science funding. But thanks to the people from DOD, the Professor’s projects were well funded—that meant he can keep his army of researchers and graduate students happy.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT SENTENCE OR EVEN A WRITER?

2011-09-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

'When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest'

This was the first sentence borrowed by a reviewer while reviewing the
book Hemingway's Boat.
He claimed that this is one of those sentences that stay in your mind. And he
added on top of being simple and balance sentence, that the doubt and melancholy
that underlie the promise of happiness makes what it is --a great sentence.
But what really makes a great sentence? A good writer?

If science knew what it is, then everybody will be a blockbuster. Nobody knows.
Publishers sign new novelist hoping they'll hit the jackpot and produce the next
J.K. Rowling. For me, I'll write every night and gamble that my stories will be notice
by agents and publishers.

DESCRIPTION OF A PROFESSOR

2011-09-27T03:48:00.000-07:00

There's a stereotype for programmers and computer analyst to be
overweight and balding, at least if they are portrayed in novels. And
I think it's the same bias for professors, in Russell Banks' "Lost
Memory of Skin", where I'll qoute from the article from The Wall
Street Journal.
The story is driven by the appearance of a social scientist called the
Professor, who is himself a social outsider because of his
intelligence--he is reputed to be the smartest man in the county--and
his extreme obesity ( he weighs nearly a quarter ton)

In my dealings with academia, most of the educators I encounteres
were fit, and ready to show off a one handed push-up. So this will
be my description of a professor in my book, a healthy buff. But one
thing about professors, they think their God (not everyone, but most
of them anyway, the God complex).

IDEAS FOR MY BOOK

2011-09-26T20:59:00.001-07:00

Levi's life of the above synopsis tangled between being rational scientist and a religious baptist reared from the south. And from there, I'm lost what to do next. But I came across this article by Ann Patchett.

No matter what you're writing—story, novel, poem, essay—the first thing you're going to need is an idea. Don't make this the intimidating part. Ideas are everywhere.

Lift up a big rock and look under it, stare into the window of a house you drive past and dream about what's going on inside. Read the newspaper, ask your father about his sister, think of something that happened to you or someone you know and then think about it turning out an entirely different way. Make up two characters and put them in a room together and see what happens.

Sometimes it starts with a person, a place, a voice, an event. For some writers it's always the same point of entry; for me it's never the same. If I'm really stuck, nothing helps like looking through a book of photography. Open it up, look at a picture, make up a story.

If you decide to work completely from your imagination, you will find yourself shocked by all the autobiographical elements that make their way into the text. If, on the other hand, you go the path of the roman à clef, you'll wind up changing the details of your life that are dull. You will take bits from books you've read and movies you've seen and conversations you've had and stories friends have told you, and half the time you won't even realize you're doing it.

I am a compost heap, and everything I interact with, every experience I've had, gets shoveled onto the heap where it eventually mulches down, is digested and excreted by worms, and rots. It's from that rich, dark humus, the combination of what you encountered, what you know, and what you've forgotten, that ideas start to grow.

When I was putting my first novel together in my head, I didn't take notes. I figured that if I came up with something that was worth remembering I would remember it, and I would forget about the rest.

I don't think that my theory on memory is necessarily true—I'm sure I've forgotten plenty of things that would seem good to me now—but not writing things down, especially in the early stages of thinking them through, does cause me to concentrate more deeply and not become overly committed to anything that isn't firmly in place.

"The Patron Saint of Liars," the novel that I largely assembled while working as a waitress at a now defunct T.G.I. Friday's in Nashville, Tenn., started like this: There's a girl in a Catholic home for unwed mothers, and she goes into labor. The home is far out in the country, maybe 45 minutes from the hospital, and the girl decides she's not going to tell anyone what's going on. She's not going to cry out, because she wants to ride in the ambulance with her baby.

So here's this girl giving birth in the middle of the night, and there are other girls in the room, girls who live on her hall and have come to help her. I looked at each one of them. I spent days thinking of their stories while I bused tables and ran the dishwasher.

I thought the novel was going to be about the girl giving birth, but there was another girl in the room named Rose, and she had come all the way to Kentucky from California in her own car, and she had a secret. This girl had a husband.

From there I started to stretch the story in every direction. What happened to Rose in California? Who were her parents and who was this husband and why did she marry him in the first place? Whom does she meet and whom will she marry later and where did he come from?

I puzzled it out, went down dead ends and circled back, made connections and plot twists I never saw coming. All in my head.

ONWARD'S beautiful sentences

2011-09-25T15:00:00.001-07:00

Some of the sentences that comes out of this book are beautiful in its
own right. And to me, it becomes a coach psyching up his troops.
Going against conventional wisdom is the foundation of innovation, the
basis for Starbuck's own experience.

Here's another one, a nice sentence:
Sometimes, the earliest days of Starbucks seemed very far away.
Like straining to remember the sound of your child's voice as a
toddler as he or she heads off to college, Starbucks' nascent days got
more elusive as the company grow.

Now that's something.

FROM MY BOOKSTACK: SCORECASTING

2011-09-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

Although some of their arguments are airtight, some are not. Overall,
if you're a sportsfan, this is a nice book to see more than what the
HDTV is showing.

ONWARD

2011-09-24T02:37:00.001-07:00

It's the weekend, and time to share books from my Book-stack. For some reason, I gravitate to books related to Starbucks. This is my
second book that I've read related to Starbucks, the first one was How Starbucks Saved my Life.

To me, it's like having a motivational coach. Here's the highlight of the locker room huddle:

Success is not an entitlement and it has to be earned everyday.
No status quo, constantly push for re-invention.
The world belons to the few people who are not afraid to get dirty.
But going forward with fear would not allow our company to thrive.

Don't roll your eyes and let the word of the coach sink in, you'll have goosebumps.

My First Starbucks in 3 Years

2011-09-21T16:44:00.001-07:00

Super Athlete

2008-08-31T19:24:00.001-07:00

University of Florida's prized quarterback and his ESPN story
regarding his trip to the Philippines.

GO GATORS!

The way I see it #291

2008-08-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

When I'm writing (or doing something requiring intense concentration), coffee's my friend. Here's an opinion I got from the cup of Starbucks I got this afternoon.

"In a world where make-believe is called reality, it is most important to have real love, truth and stability in your life"
--Bernie Brillstein
Film and television producer.

Back to the reality of writing my scientific proposal. First order of business, battle the writer's block.

Phelps

2008-08-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

I am a huge sports freak ( I can stay up all night watching ESPN),
so it is sacrilegious not to post something about Phelps and
his 8th gold medal performance

Phelps 7th gold almost slipped away. This is the analysis of Sports
Illustrated. If Cravic, the guy on the left wasn't looking up
and increased the drag, he could have won the event.

The Individual Medley Relay Swim team of the
United States, for Phelp's 8th.

Teary eyed

Alan Parson's Project

2008-08-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

Every time I'm bored writing my proposal, or bored before studying my cumulative exam, my diversion was always these guys: Alan Parson's project (Eye in the Sky,) which was used by the great Chicago Bulls for player's intro. These music is my inspiration, the same way Edgar Allan Poe looks for refuge under the influence of alcohol.

When music and sports are combined, it works for me better than bread and butter or even peanut butter and jelly (PBJ's, America's favorite lunch).

Hell! Who said writing was easy?

Quantum, eigenstates, what the @#$$

2008-08-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

I can't help it but re-blog this one.

Remember when I was researching about eigenstates? I stumbled upon, or appropriately following a science blog called "Cosmic Variance". They where discussing quantum mechanics in a non-expert, non-science majors.

The second amazing thing is that we can never observe the food to be in such a superposition; whenever we (or sleeping puppies) observe the food, we always find that it appears to be either salad or steak. (Eigenstates of the food operator, for you experts.

Remember the cat?, here they use a dog

Science Writing Tidbits

2008-08-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

When you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
-Albert Einstein

I'm writing a scientific proposal. These are set of ideas to be tested in the real world, and besides me is this book, to describe my ideas. In capital letters, I'm RECOMMENDING THIS BOOK TO BE BESIDE EVERY SCIENCE WRITING PROJECT for scientists and engineers. It's the best thing that happened to me after slice bread. Before, I thought my writing skills were good, but honestly it's not.

Science writing and blogging or novel writing are different things. In blogging, you may use fat phrases or words needlessly, but in science, leave elegance to the tailor. Check some of the examples of the book.

familiarization - possible substitute: familiarity
has the functionality- can function
has the operationability - can operate
utilization - use

Facilitate - cause
finalize - end

The Cat

2008-08-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

I was researching what eigenstate is and found a good explanation from the web.

An eigenstate is one of the many possible states which may exist prior to quantum decoherence

Ok, I don't know what quantum decoherence means, but here's a better analogy.

The story of Schrodinger's Cat is one of the most well known story involving eigenstates. The story goes like this:

There's a cat inside a box, with a poison ready to be release anytime. Since you don't know when the poison is released, the cat is either alive or dead. Alive and dead is the eigenstates.

So what does this philosophical point of view means? It means that you can't predict where exactly a hurricane will touch land. You can only calculate the possible areas where it is going :). Until you open the box, you don't know if the cat is dead. Until the damage of the hurricane is done, you don't know what area will be the most damaged:)

Sadly, this is how tiny things operate--like the electron of an atom. You may never pinpoint the exact place where the electron is, but you can calculate the probability where the location is.

I saw that shirt by the way in one of my students. Pretty geeky.

Don't Forget the Milk

2008-08-03T20:41:00.001-07:00

It's not uncommon for me to remember all my meetings and tasks, I'm still young. But lately, I forgot an important meeting with my supervisor (and to make a coffee pot for a seminar). This supervisor is my other boss, not research bosses, but the person I report to with regards to my teaching assignment.

Males like tech gadget than females. But why the *&)*&^ did I forgot the meeting even though I have a cell phone to remind me of my tasks, even a planner and a Palm Top? The answer probably because of my baby--he gets all my attention.

So I went online and seek for help. I look for igoogle and installed google calendar and everything. It didn't help out. I need something integrated to my email. I found this site: www.rememberthemilk.com.

I didn't know that I have an account in this site, registered 3 years ago, but forgot about it. But now, since it can be integrated to my Gmail, I'm using it again.

What happens is that every time I open my Gmail account (in firefox only), my tasks is on the side of the screen.

Perfect for a starving and busy graduate student.

Ivy Leaguers' big edge: Starting pay

2008-08-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's proven, that Ivy League graduates have the edge in salary in terms of starting pays. But read between the lines:

Meanwhile, graduates of "party schools" (as defined by the 2008 Princeton Review College Guide) aren't that far behind, with their incomes increasing 85 percent during that time to $84,685 from $45,715.

more here.

Yes indeed, Florida once again is on top of the food chain. (Read my blog post below)

University of Florida, #1 (Party School)

2008-08-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

From the Gainesville Sun:

The University of Florida is the nation’s top party school, completing a rise in the Princeton Review rankings that coincided with efforts to reduce alcohol abuse.

The No. 1 party school ranking appears in the 2009 edition of the review’s annual guide to colleges, which goes on sale Tuesday. The guide’s rankings are based on survey results from about 120,000 students at 368 colleges.

read more here.

This proves that the school were I'm at now doing my graduate studies, is always on top of the food chain. We know how to have a good time. It's Florida, the palm trees, the beaches, bikinis and the sun, what can you ask for more?

The rating to top the distinction as a party school is fueled by the back to back national championships in basketball and at the same year, football champions. No doubt everybody agrees with me.

It was 2 AM when my friends went home after celebrating the first ever NCAA trophy in basketball last 2006. The following morning, I was groggy while teaching the chemistry laboratory. Then one of my student begged to dismissed the class early, after all, we were the national champions. No doubt she was celebrating last night at the University Avenue.

We are Florida, the party animals, when there is something to celebrate.

Emilio Version 2.0, The Upgrade Story

2008-07-30T19:09:00.001-07:00

BY: Emilio version 1.0

Emilio version 2.0 was introduced to the world, late May of this year. It was an upgrade that was long overdue. Unlike the long awaited Windows 95, the upgrade for the outdated Windows 3.1, Emilio 2.0 came without a media hype. There were no rock bands gracing the event or Jay Leno hosting the fanfare. Instead, Shands Hospital Delivery room 3519 resembles that of a war zone -- blood where everywhere. When the smoke cleared, there were no casualties, just a newborn baby crying. It was already Thursday morning and rush hour outside was slowly building

Several hours before, our Wednesday afternoon was just like another day in paradise. I wasn't expecting the baby yet, since the doctor calculated a June birth date (now I have to believe doctors and nurses are not good in numbers). In addition, it was still an irregular contraction. I was watching the UEFA soccer championship, when my lady interrupted, it was time to pack and go to the hospital. It wasn't a drill. It was the real thing. Luckily, I can TiVo the soccer match and watch it later (or weeks after).

After signing some papers, we were ushered to our room. By 19:00 Hrs. (7 PM), she's dilated around 5 centimeters. The requirement is 10 cm for the baby to pass through. It was progressing to 10 cms slowly and contraction was becoming regular. It’s an understatement to say that the contraction without an anesthesia was very painful. Joy was in so much pain that she can grab a golf ball and smash it into pieces. Our nurse Kristen admitted that she would rather run 80 miles than give birth, a fair comparison.

Here's the subplot to the painful delivery:

The assigned anesthesiologist came around 21:00 Hrs (9 PM) to administer the injection of the epidural. Epidural injection is like that of dextrose but a little bit complicated. While dextrose’s needle is attached to your veins in your arms, in child birth, the anesthesia is attached to the lower back of the mother, a small, sweet spot in between the two discs of the lumbar spine. There is a very tiny room for error.

Another difference is that nurses control the flow of the dextrose, but in epidurals, it can be controlled manually by the patient, just in case you need more of the juice to alleviate the pain. In reality, it is pseudo-controlled by the mother.

I remember during the labor when Joy was asking for more epidural shots. Like a shaking addict asking for more of the booze, she was begging me to increase the flow of the chemical by pushing the control button more often. Unknown to her, the flow was preset per hour, so you can’t exceed the calculated volume. Many times during the 3-hour labor, the monitor said that I can’t pump more of the juice but I always told Joy I already pushed the button, hoping for a placebo effect.

It was a tense moment during the injection of the fine epidural needle since the anesthesiologist was having a hard time finding the right tiny area. Added to the burden was that Joy’s spine is a little bit crooked due to scoliosis. The older, more experienced resident anesthesiologist was called to the rescue. The pressure was on since damaging the spine can lead to devastating effects. The room calm down after the anesthesiologists successfully administered the anesthesia. End of the sub-plot.

Around 22:00 hrs (10 PM) the head commander of the operation, Dr. Ross, surveyed the battle field once again. She told us she is fielding her trusted lieutenants for the rest of the evening because she needed to sleep; she has a conference to attend to the following morning.

By this time, Joy looked like a medical specimen, with 2 wires and the epidural tube. One of the two wires monitors her contraction and the other wire measures the baby's heart rate. So you can imagine the room resembles that of a hi tech war room where Generals track the inputs and reconnaissance pictures fed by spy satellites, but instead of the RADAR monitor beeping, you can hear the regular sound of the baby's heart beat and a regular spike of contractions.

24:00 Hrs (12 AM Thursday), Dr. Ross' trusted Lieutenant ordered to break her water bag. I was half asleep when I heard the water splashed. The two nurses, Kristen and Natalia, the two loyal sergeants, cleaned Joy's bed sheets.

Between 1:00 to 4:00 hrs, doctors came in probably twice, checking on the vital signs of the mother and the baby.

3:00 hrs, I heard screaming from the other room, with people encouraging to keep on pushing. There was a loud scream from the mom. I likened the mom’s screaming to that of a neophyte being smash by a paddle in a fraternity initiation. The neophyte just scream at the top of his lungs like there’s no tomorrow. Can Joy eclipse the scene? Who knows and we’ll see.

After the loud scream next door, then came a baby crying and people cheering. I imagined the scene with full of fanatics screaming loudly while the mom giving all her strength and scream. When child birth did become a spectator sports? Whatever the case, I said to myself we were next. I wish I never heard and imagined what was coming. Ignorance is bliss.

4:00 hrs, one of the generals ordered to prepare for missile launch. She's reached 10 cm.

I’ll pay more just to make child birth as accurate as a missile lift-off, a procedure that follows a countdown. Child birth is very primitive, the duration of the labor heavily depended on how strong the mom pushes the baby out. Besides, pushing a baby out is not second nature. Mothers don't push babies out everyday. Pushing is a learned response.

My spotter instinct came into play. Remember when you helped somebody in the gym to push a heavy bench press. The spotter ensures the safety of the lifter and the same time encouraging to push more. Encouraging my wife to push was like exercising. Lifting weights is partly psychological. I don't know if my encouragement helped.

6:00 hrs, the sun begun to rise and the two sergeants were encouraging Joy to push more because they wanted to see the baby before their shifts end. The pushing has been going on for almost 3 hours already. I don’t know if the nurses really want to see the baby or they just wanted to go home without rendering overtime (their shift ends 7 AM). Natalia jokingly branded the baby as “trouble maker”, since my little one was suppose to come out June, and insisted to get out early. And now he has the opportunity to come out, he’s bailing out.

6:30 hrs, Dr. Ross came in and asked for updates, just like how any good General operates. Sensing it was taking long and stressing the baby, she ordered the vacuum, to suck the baby out. At the same time, Natalia heated the little elevated bed for the baby (Koji’s profile picture of this blog was taken on that small bed). The baby is coming out no matter what.

Then the General ordered to remove the second half of the bed. She took a stool and sat down at the end of the bed as the baby's head come in an out. This time, the head is getting bigger, with the hair covered with blood.

The vacuum came in and the General assessed the situation again. She hesitated to use the vacuum and pondered on what to do next, a bewildered commander. The two sergeants were waiting for orders. Then Dr. Ross' decided to let Joy do the work since the baby's heart rate was around 150 beats per minute, an indication that the baby is still strong and capable to handle the stress. Joy doubled her exertion to push.

The most efficient way to push the baby out is with the aid of the contraction. Since the anesthesia numbed her lower body, she can’t feel the contraction. She asked me when the contraction is coming through the monitor. When one was coming, she was like the other mom on the other room, 4 hours ago. Her mighty shadow came out.

10 minutes before 7 Am, there was chaos. Emilio version 2.0 came out and Dr. Ross catched the healthy baby in her arms. Blood were everywhere, it was a blur.

Minutes later, I followed the baby to the nursery. Just like in the movies, you watched the newborn baby outside the room, behind the glass window. Back at the delivery room, a Filipina nurse was assisting Joy and cleaning the blood sputter in the floor. I called my parents and texted my friends.

10:00 hrs., I took the baby out of the nursery so Joy can breastfeed her. Suddenly, the alarm sounded and the door in front of us closed. The monitor attached to mini-Emilio triggered the commotion. It was the hospital’s precautionary measure to prevent babies from being stolen.

Well, this is my baby, I said to myself while pushing the baby cart back to the office. My blood runs in his veins. This is my Emilio version 2.0, an upgrade, with better and slicker design, more memory storage and processing power.

Careful What You Wish For

2008-07-26T21:54:00.000-07:00

Before, my life (or the lack thereof) was an 8-5 rat race. After finishing college, I was ready to climb the corporate ladder. It turned out, the ladder was not for me (or should I build a ladder?)

The office hours brought my diversions to a halt, my soccer and reading. After school hours at UPLB, I played soccer, and being a student, you have access to the library to read the newspapers. I like to read. One of my favorite was PDI's Young Blood section. When I came to NEC to work, reading wasn't part of the job description. So, most of the time, I took the discarded newspaper from the janitors. It wasn't even a local newspaper, it was the Wall Street Journal, Asian version. But who cared, there was still sports and other sections to read.

Today, I do read---a lot, since I'm preparing for my Ph.D. oral qualifying exam after downing the written part early this year. Preparing for this kind of test is overwhelming. Digesting and absorbing a lot of information in three months is mind boggling.

Graduate school is a life of its own. Preparing for the processes to be a full pledge doctor is difficult and nerve wrecking. Here's how he process goes: The committee members ask you questions after presenting your research proposal, and they ask you things from the very basic to the very complicated related to your field. Then after a barrage of questions, they decide if you are ready for Ph. D. The only way out is read and read and read again months before. You aren't called an expert for nothing.

I do read now. Not much newspapers, but some blogs and books, and numerous scientific journals. You just be careful what you wish for.

Meeting with The Boss II

2008-07-25T23:20:00.000-07:00

Technically, my graduate adviser, my adviser in papers, is going to retire before I will finish my Ph.D. So I have two adviser, the younger one that I met yesterday and the older one that I met today.

The older more experienced adviser basically wanted to check on my progress and the problems encountered on my research. Meeting with experts is like having somebody open a flashlight in a dark trail. This light-bulb-eureka moments made me think of different avenues to pursue, since research is a venture to the unknown. The more unknown avenues you visit, the more likely you have results. But with the help of expert ideas, you are hoping to nail down the best avenue in the least possible time.

Next week, my advisers will be going to the Netherlands, at the FOM-Institute for Plasma Physics, to do some experiments. Why go there? Because one of the best LASER is found in the Netherlands (one in France and Japan). It's the Hubble Telescope of Infrared Spectroscopy.

I'm hoping (and praying) I will be going to that place to do research next year. Hoping. Right now I'm thinking of doing some experiments at the National High Magnetic Field Lab, just 2-hour ride from my school. It's a nice facility at our own backyard.

Meeting With The Boss

2008-07-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

photo from wikipidia

Being a graduate student means you are free to do and implement your ideas for experiment, sort of an independent research. But there's no such thing as independent research, at least in my opinion. You still need to meet with your graduate adviser to discuss your progress and check if what you are proposing is feasible in the realm of science and the latest technology. Besides, your adviser is the expert, his line of thinking is very different from the student.

I been working with an expensive (expensive over-all and its maintenance, a superconducting magnet that needs to be cool down 24/7) instrument for over a year now, and I thought I know most of the tricks. In turns out I don't. My boss told me about signal to noise ratio, the resolution, the nyquist criteria, zero filling and apodize. I know it sound like a different language but I'm blogging this to remind me that education is a continuous process.

You learn new things everyday.

ABNKKBSNPLAKO?!

2008-07-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

I bought this book during my visit back to the Philippines, as recommended by my cousin. The book is funny, detailed and very interesting. The book is, in my humble opinion, the Filipino version of "What I learned in school, I already learned from kindergarten". No offense to both authors.

After reading the book, it made me wonder how I survived those years: The elementary school years when we ate ice candies during our recess, or the college days, when I went basically AWOL and dismissed from the premiere institution of the Philippines. Instead of a regular 4-year course, I took the long way. My only on-time classes were P.E. and CMT. My roommate once said, "the more you stay in college the more you appreciate life". I found comfort and wisdom to those misleading words.

After a dismal semester, I went back with a vengeance and earned my degree. 7 years after, who would believe I'm now pursuing a Ph.D. You'll never know.

During my lackluster college days, lackluster in terms of grades, I traded off the classroom knowledge with things never taught from the books, increasing my street IQ ;). Those where my bulakbol days.

Now I can relate to my students, students who doesn't want to study chemistry. They are just taking the class because it's required. They will soon grow up, just like me. You just don't want to end up in their operating table in the near future when these guys become doctors. Or don't want to pass through a bridge or stay in a building they will build as an engineer.

But honestly, after those years in school, we did ok right? Read the book reminisce the old days of schooling.

Tipping Point's message

2008-07-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

After reading the book "Tipping Point", I made myself a summery of what I learned from the book.

1. Tipping point is part of the umbrella science of epidemiology, of how a virus spread such as epidemics of cholera or TB. Instead of hard medical science, it's part of a soft science such as psychology.

2. Smoking, a viral video, HIV, fashion I believe is a complicated science. There are many variables to consider, not adding the hidden variables.

3. The spread of smoking is like the spread of a viral video. You just need to know the variables involved. So if you are in the business of marketing, a viral video will be a good platform for spreading your ad. But how many viral videos succeed? The reason why viral ideas don't spread can be attributed some hidden variables.

4. Tipping point or a spread of idea will always be a part of civilization. We've seen the spread of smoking epidemics. Here's I believe are the things that the book didn't mentioned the spread of Columbine style shooting. It was followed by Virginia Tech. How many more are coming?

Revenge of the Nerds

2008-07-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

I was sporting a shirt which has a print in front saying "NERD" and in the back of the shirt is booger and the number 69.

Man, this is a classic movie but some of my friends don't know the movie, specially my students in my lab. Checking the profiles of my students from Facebook, their birthdays explained why. Most of my students were born 1987-89, and Revenge of the Nerds came out 1981.

You are getting old if the movie you watched before are classified classic already. Remember when you first heard the music of Frank Sinatra from your Grandpa's collection? You gave your grand pa the weird look. That's probably what happened with my students also. What the hell is the connection between nerd and booger?

Quote from Facebook

2008-07-19T00:06:00.000-07:00

Most of my friends in Facebook were former students of mine here at UF.
Here's one of the cool quote I read after browsing their personal pages.

“A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other...Maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever”

Lessons in blogging

2008-07-18T23:45:00.000-07:00

I've been following a blog of a venture capitalist for sometime now. In his blog days ago, he said,

"in order to win in blogging, you have to show up everyday"

Reading blogs is my way of connecting to people I don't know and absorb their ideas, just like reading the Young Blood section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I blog because I like writing, and I promised myself today that I will try to write a blog everyday.

Let me rephrase that, I will blog everyday. They said it is either you DO or you DON'T, there's no in between such as "try".

Bjorn Again

2008-07-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

Bjorn Again is a concert and at the same time the name of the band. Bjorn was one of the original member of the up beat Swedish band known as ABBA. I watched it with my dad at the Philips Center here at the University of Florida.

I'm an alternative music type kind of guy that listen more of the '90s Extreme, Mr. Big and Matchbox 20. But in the end, the show was still nostalgic and fun. I do believe Abba's a genius and here's my point: if you take for example this lyrics from the song Mama Mia, it is a classic love-hate relationship written in a poem but actually it's music.

Mamma mia, here I go again
My my, how can I resist you?
Mamma mia, does it show again?
My my, just how much I've missed you
Yes, I've been brokenhearted
Blue since the day we parted
Why, why did I ever let you go?
Mamma mia, now I really know,
My my, I could never let you go.

Here's another point, the music was made into a movie this year, 30 years after they disbanded.

Manny Pacquiao

2008-07-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

My foot hurt last week and went to the infirmary. As I was waiting for the Physician, I read a "forwarded email" type description of our school's mighty quarterback Tim Tebow. I adapted it for Manny.

What color is Manny Pacquiao's blood? It is a trick question, the Pacman doesn't bleed.

Pacquiao's tears can cure cancer ---but he's never cried

The primary ingredient of Red Bull is Manny Pacquiao's sweat

Omega pain killer too weak for Pacman, he goes underneath the magma of the earth

Life doesn't give Manny Pacquiao lemons, life ask what fruit Pacman wants

Manny Pacquiao doesn't bowl strike. He just hit one pin and the others faint

When Manny Pacquiao does a push up, he's actually pushing the earth down and not pushing himself up.

Some people wears superman pajama, superman wears Pacquiao's pajama

There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Manny leaves in the Philippines

Tipping Point Tidbits

2008-07-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

"Have you ever thought about yawning? Yawning is surprisingly powerful act. Just because you read the word 'yawning' in the previous sentences --and two additional 'yawns' in this sentence--a good number of you will probably yawn with in the next few minutes. Even as I was writing this, I've yawned twice. If you're reading this in a public place, and you've just yawned, chances are that a good proportion of everyone who saw you yawn is now yawning too...

Yawning is incredibly contagious"

I read this book in the mall, and I yawned too. This will be my fourth book to read this year.

Happy Birthday America

2008-07-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

I'm not an American, but stayed here for 8 years now as a student. Being a graduate student of chemistry, my inclination towards history is slim. But, I learned a lot of American history through watching stand-up comedians joked about the American history.

My history 'lessons' are of course backed up by watching History channels. Learning should be fun, that's why I remembered the facts of history through stand-up comedy. And after some thoughts, I realized, America is still a very young country, compared to its European counterparts.

Happy Birthday America.

Blackberry or iPhone

2008-07-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

(my old Palm Zire 72)

I'm contemplating of retiring my Palm Zire 72 as my Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and replace it with a Blackberry or an iPhone. My Palm was mainly used as my reminders and writing my thoughts. But lately, the Palm batteries are dying so fast and needs a longer life battery.

Lately also, I been reading ebooks and mainly journals from chemistry in the dark. This what happens when you are watching your baby in dimmed lights and you need to catch up with some papers to review.

Blackberry or iPhone?

Chess

2008-06-13T17:28:00.000-07:00

The glamour years of chess was the '80s, when Kasparov and Karpov battled each other for the title. The last well known chess master was Bobby Fisher. I still remember the days when I open up the sports page and follow the moves listed on the paper. I was still 11 or so, and steadily out grown my obsession to the game of chess.

I teach for a professor in chemistry, Dr. Horvath. Somebody told me that he was an internationally rated chess player. Good for him, but analyzing a game of chess inside the restroom while doing the thing you do is wierd. That's what he does anyway.

Counter Intuition

2008-06-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

Common sense tells you this, counter intuition is the opposite.

I was watching a self defense instructor last night in a National Geographic channel. She said that in order to fend off an attacker, instead of pushing him away, move him close so you can grab his neck and throat. The thinking is counter intuitive.

Today I read a blog that says "Grand theft Auto", the violent video game, is actually good for your kids. That's coutner intuitive. Here's the link

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9942041-7.html?part=rss&subj=news

here's another one

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-9889299-52.html?part=rss&subj=news

Counter intuition is useful in math, but I guess it is useful in real life too.

On-the Job Training (OJT)

2008-05-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

For the past days, my bosses were out of the country. My older Boss went to Hawaii for the summer break, then headed to the Netherlands for research. My younger adviser followed the same route, except for the Hawaii and the research part. So they're both in the Netherlands, the younger one visiting his girlfriend.

While they are out, I'm here in Gainesville with my 2 group mates. Both of my groupmates are eventually leaving this year, and since they have a combined 12 years experienced in research, I need to suck up all the knowledge and information that they can impart before I'm left on my own handling a high voltage, superconducting magnet with a delicate laser, just like a newbie, an OJT. These are expensive instruments that eat up a lot of electricity for the sake of science. Although I've handled this things before, I need more hands on experience to perfect my craft (just like today when power was interupted and trouble shooting was needed).

In a lighter side, my two group mates are very helpful. And they are both huge. I jokingly call them "the man" and "the tiger". The man is around 6' 5" tall, 300 lbs. Tiger is a smaller version. So you can imagine myself as the quarterback protected by the two offensive linemen. "The man" likes to work with the hard wares and "tiger" tinkers more on the software side. This explains why "tiger" has connection to several U.S. supercomputers housed at the Army, Naval and Air Force. He showed me a device that generates passwords every 40 seconds when he connects to secure computers to do his calculations.

Anyway, life goes on. Fortunately, they pay me for doing my OJT.

Facebook Stalk

2008-05-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

(Note: the names in this blog are real, they were my students before)

Back in the Philippines, friendster is the most popular networking site. Sad to say, friendster is a dying breed.

Although friendster was one of the first in social network, the company can't catch-up with the big dogs, myspace and facebook, in terms of growth. But these are not the reasons I have a facebook account. It started when one of my students (His name is Alberth, Albert with an H) was asking me to make one.

At first, I was hesitant but eventually made one because Alberth coerced me every time I see him in the gym. But in the end, especially during the time when the grades are uploaded to the University's system, it became our (with my students) way of communication. Instead of receiving grievances and thank you through emails, notes are posted through the walls of facebook. In the walls of my facebook where Ryan, a Filipino-American, wrote how he enjoyed watching Rex Navarette's DVD (pronounced Dee-bee-dee).

Since it is an effective way of communication, I made a group in facebook so my students can join. In this way, posting an announcement is like posting in a bulletin board -- everybody can read the particulars anytime of the day in the comfort of their own rooms (Amanda was right, facebook is a viable and practical way to do classroom business).

During the semesters, facebook is a life-line, and when the classes end, when it's time to bid adios and sayonara, good-byes are ended by tagging, "I'll just facebook you". The phrase is equivalent to saying "I'll keep in touch". Remember when Xerox, Kodak or Band-aid became a verb, such as the phrase "xerox the paper" meant "photocopy the paper" (at least back in the Philippines, that's what it meant), facebook is now a verb. I'll wait when the linguists enter the word facebook to a dictionary.

Goodbyes also are tagged with words such as "I'll facebook stalk you". Facebook stalking may sound like a joke but it wasn't for one of my student Ashley. She told me she deleted her account because her high school classmate was stalking her in facebook, leaving remarks to her wall. The remarks became offensive. Isabel commented that people spend way to much in facebook. "It's addicting", Erin added.

I will stalk facebook. What I mean by that is I will wait and see when the facebook company becomes public. If the stock price is right during its IPO (Inital Public Offering), I'll buy some. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg will be the new Bill Gates, at least in my opinion. The company is expanding too. Have you ever heard of dogbook or catbook? And besides, I want facebook to stay around, I want to know in the future if some of my students live to their promises, that is to be a neurosurgeons.

Oral Exam Preparation

2008-05-05T09:51:00.000-07:00

The nerve wrecking part of being a graduate student, is the preparation for oral qualifying examinations. Traditional education, such as classroom learning is simple: students pass the tests and they go on to the next level. Graduate students suffer differently, because you have to pass an oral qualifying exam.

I am preparing for my oral qualifying. After my committee members decide that I do have enough knowledge to continue my research, then I'm on to the next level which is a Ph.D. candidate. Right now, I'm reading anything related to my research: FT-ICR, OPO Laser and IR Laser. I take notes the fundamentals and basic of mass spectrometry, how a laser works and how is the laser useful for chemical analysis. The notes is color coded: Dirty white papers for anything mass spectrometry, Orange for anything OPO Lasers and red for Infrared related.

Passing this test requires a laser-like focus and concentration, an efficiency and strategy of a five star general, adding the analytical and methodical way of a neurosurgeon. You are not called a Ph.D. or an expert just for nothing. Suffer just like any other graduate students, as one of my friend described it as pretty hard, dude (Ph.D.)

Physician's Assistant

2008-04-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

I hurt myself playing basketball. My shoulders have limited range of motion, so I set up an appointment with a Physical Therapist at the student health center. Instead, a Physician's Assistant (PA) came to the rescue.

I have nothing against a PA, but being a PA doesn't make you an expert in shoulder injuries. I have to explain what is really going on: my range of motion (ROM) is limited, I'm protecting my shoulder in certain ROM.

In the end, he referred me to sports injury specialist (One of my dream job!!). I just wondered about the United States and the way they handle health business. People do specialize (Pediatrician, Neurosurgeon and all these experts), but in the end, they also un-specialized, such as Physician's Assistant (PA) or a nurse aid. Is the U.S. just lazy that every field needs an assistant?

Just my perspective.

The Projects

2008-04-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

The projects is a derogatory word for a dwelling. In the U.S., it's a housing project based on family income. I brought this up because, from the nice Windmeadows gated apartment, we are going back to a place subsidized by the government, the University Housing.

The place is family oriented though, if there are some consolations. But my new place is old. The ceilings, the rooms and bath. I left Windmeadows last night, and I can really feel the difference. And I was so tired moving I ended up sleeping in a sofa of a friend.

Just a thought, back in the Philippines, I moved only probably 3 times (in my college and work days). Here, I been in the U.S. for almost 6 years only and almost every year I moved (4 times already).

After returning my keys to the management (gym, mail, gate and home keys), I turned to the beautiful pool beside the club house. It's summer, and gorgeous girls in bikinis are working at their tans, worshiping the sun and relaxing.

Group Presentation

2008-04-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

I just finished my presentation, a scientific paper presented to the members of my research group. I'm telling you, even though it's a little bit informal compared to presenting your data in a conference, group presentation is tough.

The paper is about LASER and chemical analysis. LASERs are the domain of people who love numbers. I do love numbers but not to the extent that it becomes very abstract. One of my friend told me that if you work with LASERs, you should be very patient (infinite patient maybe), because you are dealing with small light.

Although I would say that I didn't ace the talk, the bright side was, I learned a lot. With four experts asking you questions - it's not fun - but very informative.

Too many books, very little time

2008-04-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

The good thing about Gainesville is that the place is a university/town/small city. This means that the place is a crossroad for people in their journey for education. When people come and go, books are left behind.

Friends of the Library (FOL) is an event in Gainesville (Fl) where you can buy cheap good books. This semester, I got a text-book for analytical chemistry. Once in a while, you need to read the basics of your field. On the list are books for tennis, baby books and something about Relativity (visualized discussion of relativity). One of my favorites is the paperback version of "Bourne Ultimatum" by Robert Ludlum.

"Bourne Series" is my favorite movie (and I believe Jason Bourne is America's favorite assasin too). The other book is about LASER, the story behind the inventor and the 30-year war for patent and royalty of his inventions. I'll be working with LASERs so I said to myself, why not read it then.

Completing the line-up is a book related to electronics (when you work with LASERs, you should know the basic of electronics) and eBay.

One shining moment...

2008-04-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

It's the time of the year when every college basketball fan will have to endure the song titled "One shining moment". The music had been a tradition for NCAA basketball, as the background music for CBS network.

One Shining Moment 2008 (Check it out before youtube removes it from the site)

My relationship with the song is mix: hate and love. Being an alternative music fan, the song's beat is painful to bear; however, the tune reminds of the the Florida Gators Basketball. I still remember last year, 2007, when the University of Florida (my beloved school) captured it's second straight NCAA basketball trophy.

Right after the game, when I opened the blinds in my apartment, I saw cars going to campus and heard loud honking. I didn't celebrate since I was in the streets of Gainesville the year before that. I should have celebrated the second championship. It will be a long drought ahead, before I will witness again the "one shining moment" clip with Florida Gator players in the video.

Here's the Florida Gators one shining moment, just in case.

2007 One shining moment

The SEARCH: How Googles and it's rivals rewrote the rules of business.

2008-04-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

It starts with a computer hamming, then the blue sky in the background, then the typing. Remember those days when you first open up the computer and typed www.yahoo.com?? I do remember those days, around 1995 to 1996 (Internet was released to the public 1992).

This is my second book for the year 2008, and it's about search. What will the internet be without a search engine? It's hard to imagine. So the first thing you type in front of a computer (most likely) with an internet connection, is of course a search engine. I do Yahoo during those days, the banner ads then appear, and then the graphics are lost because the connection was slow. I didn't encounter google.com until 2002, when I was already in the US (from the Philippines).

The book discussed how google came to be. Have you ever wonder what google means? It's a variation from the word googol, which means 1 followed by 100 zeros. In short a huge number. Too geeky? Try this, when google made public offerings for it's stock 4 years ago (2004), it sold 2,718,28 1,828 of its stocks. The numbers are not random, the numbers represent e (e=2.71828 18284 59045 23536), the natural logarithm.

The book concluded that there still no such thing as a perfect search. Search the web for "the meaning of life" and I bet you will be disappointed. Or search why "Julia loves Raymond", there's no perfect answer either. In the end, the book thought me how to do search: and that is, use yahoo and google or ask.com when you are searching for something. Every search engine is unique in terms of crawling, indexing and showing the results to the users.

White men can't jump?

2008-03-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

Recently, I been playing basketball with friends every saturday (check out this site http://www.recsports.ufl.edu/swrc_camera.aspx, I may be playing :^}). Basketball is not my sports, soccer is my game (and occasional running). Since soccer is an outdoor game, and summer is right around the corner, I decided to play basketball.

Between you and me, I'm not good in playing basketball. I can dribble, pass and shoot, that's about it. Making the shots is a different story.

Week by week, I realized that I love to defend than to dribble the ball. In soccer, I love to defend more than weave into defenders. I love to take the ball from the person (or take the person from the ball, which is a foul and a last resort). That's me.

Observe the evolution of the game anyway, you will realize that basketball is a game for blacks . It's not about who defends best or scores how many points. If you are a basketball fan, the last great white professional basketball player was Larry Bird, circa 1980s. Nobody came close to him. What followed was a domination of great black players: Jordan, LeBron James, Grant Hill, Shaq etc. Although there are whites here and there (Steve Nash), their credentials were not comparable to Bird. Are whites incapable of jumping? If you agree, you will also conclude that blacks are not suppose to round the ice hockey. Almost all of the hockey players are white (except for Jerome Iginla, a mixed black-white).

"For all the things I lost, I missed my mind the most"

2008-03-28T05:03:00.001-07:00

I watched the movie "Hackers" again. Surfing for scheduled programs to record in my HD TV., I came along with the old movie Hackers (starring Angelina Jolie).

The saying "For all the things I lost, I missed my mind the most" came from Ozzy Osbourne, the typical rebel-rocker of the 70's from the band "Black Sabbath". I'm not a Sabbath fan, I'm just amused by his saying, implying "sex, drugs and rock n roll" kind of lifestyle.

Hackers are viewed by people as rebel too. But in this case, they are the aloft and genius rebels that are anti-social. They are the ghost of the Internet, literally. They don't sleep. The walking zombies of our society, powered up by caffeine.

As life goes on, we as a society evolved to battle bad hackers: those kind of geniuses for the money, stealing identities. On the other side of the coin, there are good hackers. These are the kind of people who are curious.

Eventually though, hackers of the planet will grow-up, just like Ozzy Osbourne. They will settle and have families, and think about what have they done to the society.

"Smack my ass and call me Sally"

2008-03-27T18:54:00.001-07:00

Believe it, "Smack my ass and call me Sally" is a label for a hot sauce. My research groupmates decided to eat at Tijuana Flats today. Tijuana Flats is a Mexican restaurant that solely distribute the "Smack my ass.." hot sauce. Some of my friends jokingly refer to it as Tijuana Shits. But in all honesty, I like the food.

Anyway, every time I'm here, I order Chimichangas and the "Smack my ass.." hot sauce. As I was eating the food, I read the history of the establishment posted in the table napkin holder. It said that the founders were from UCF (University of Central Florida, my Alma mater, in Orlando Florida ). I finished my masters degree at that place, the only school who accepted me in the U.S. with financial support (currently though I'm finishing my PhD at the University of Florida).

After reading the history of the restaurant, I read the signs printed in the walls. It said "Mexican is a culture, not a theme" and "Hot is the new cool" ( I learned later it was part of their manifesto). Then I turned to my friend sitting next to me. I asked him what chimichangas are, since he was born in Mexico. He didn't know. I didn't care, I just savored the hotness of the food.

The SEARCH : History of the search engine

2008-03-25T06:41:00.000-07:00

I'm an MS-DOS baby. If you don't know what MS-DOS operating system is, it's the predecessor of Windows. It's old school.

I realized MS-DOS is an ancient technology, after reading the book. Computer technology grow so fast. Although the book is not about the operating system, reading the history and battles of the search engines is like reading how operating systems evolved (and made money). I can't tell you much about the war between Microsoft and Apple; I'm too young to remember. Reading the evolution of the search engine in contrast is nostalgic, I was using the technology, during the growing years of the Internet.

It's a new world economy, but I never thought of the search engine as a business model. It's hard to conceptualize. It's not like the gold rush: gold is synonymous to money. And companies who didn't understand how search engines could be made as a source of income, those companies were doomed.

Who were the casualties of war? If you were old enough to witness the growth of the internet, in one time or another you heard about excite.com, altavista.com, overture.com (I'm not familiar with this, but it was acquired by yahoo), yahoo.com, askjeeves.com and lycos.com. Yahoo is still alive (and struggling). These companies were mentioned in the book, and I was using these search engines before.

Nostalgic. You know why? I just visited those sites a while ago, and the designs of the sites are reminiscing of the late 1990s. Those were the days.

Blue Ray vs. HD DVD

2008-03-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

The war is over. I mean the war between High Definition (HD) format for DVD players (remember Betamax and VHS formats? If those name don't ring a bell, you're too young).

Sony (and many others) were waging the blue ray banner while Toshiba was fighting for HD DVD. If I was a stock broker and gambled between the two formats, I could have lost a lot of money because I own a Toshiba Laptop and I have the natural inclination to bet for HD DVD, I could have bet for HD DVD. Thank God I'm a consumer, I can wait and see ( I was following the battle since I have an HD TV).

I'm so fascinated by people who makes money through the stock market. Essentially, trading in Wall Street is betting. And betting, as I was told when I was a child, is bad. I was told there's no money in gambling. But how about stock brokers?

By the way, you know why Blu-Ray won the battle? It's because Sony incorporated Blu-Ray players in their Playstations. This is the same reason Microsoft (MS) crashed Netscape, Microsoft packaged the Internet Browser in the same product MS distributes, the Microsoft Windows. Unfair? Some people consider it a genius plan. Some call it an evil approach.

Allergies

2008-03-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

Although people from the snowy region welcome spring with very open arms (and why not, February's bitter cold is nasty), spring time for me is a torture: running nose, red eyes and sneezing, makes my life miserable.

I assumed before that allergies are for the weak (weak immune system, that is), and when I came here in the U.S. five years ago, I never had allergies from pollen. I told myself, pollution from the streets of Manila made my immune system strong. No need for anti-histamines, such as Claritin.

My immune system grew weak or the pollen counts in Florida increased, because about 2 years ago, I developed symptoms of allergies. It's either my system became weaker or pollen increased, I really don't know. It's probably not the two reasons I stated, much more a combination of both.

As long as it doesn't interfere with my work, I stay away from Claritin. So far, my strategy works. I just increase my tissue paper consumption and my travel to the restrooms.

Blink part II

2008-03-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

I finished reading the book titled Blink. If I summarize the book, and it's content, the theme lies in our unconscious level of decision making. Very scientific in it's discussion? It's just our bias in judgement, even though you say consciously that you are not bias.

In other words, it's what Larry Bird calls "he's in the zone" (not mentioned in the book) because he have good "basketball court sense", or why we have bias towards a black person. I never knew about the New Coke product until I read it from a Reader's Digest, and I never knew why the product failed until now, when the book discussed the fateful market research.

Blink showed me that little information is the same as more information: you just reach for the most important piece of information. On the other hand, armed with limited pieces of information can also be disastrous. You look at the whole story before judging. Although in some cases (such as when a police encounters a life and death situation, where milliseconds count), you don't have the luxury of time, snap judgements can be useful, but with caution.

Reality TV

2008-03-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

Reality TV is probably dying. People are frustrated watching "reality" on TV anymore.

As I was scanning the channels, I came upon a show called "Keeping up with the Kardashios" (or something). As I was watching, I concluded, the show was clearly under the supervision of a director. It wasn't smooth flowing just like any other real life.

Better watch March Madness even without Florida.

Frustrations

2008-03-17T15:17:00.000-07:00

The thing about research is that most of the time, you are frustrated with the outcome. Scientific method is not an algorithm or flow-chart everybody follows. Research is not just a map to follow, because most of the time, you are frustrated. It's part of research, you're expecting the road, but in reality, it's not there. You formulate your hypothesis again.

My frustration started early morning when I was expecting good results but never came. Afternoon passed by and nothing good happened. So, I just shake the day off, work again probably wednesday.

Patience. Infinite patience. It's a virtue you should have if you embark on a career in science.

by: free.tibet1@gmail.com

Blink

2008-03-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

Don't quote me here, but an average person reads 3-4 books a year. I always try to beat the average, so I started looking for a book to read this year. As I was waiting in a mall, I was scanning and reading "Tipping Point" in a bookstore. The book caught my attention. Since I don't want to buy the book, I went to the public library the next day to look for "Tipping Point". Unfortunately, the book is still in loan, so I ended up with "Blink". If there's a consolation, the books had the same author.

What's "Blink"? It's a premise that people think without really thinking. Call it gut feelings or instincts. I haven't finished the book yet, but the story line goes that experts can tell something before testing things in the laboratory.

I remembered asking my adviser if my data was real or not, and by looking at the figure, he concluded it's not real and only a noise. He was right. That's blink in action.

Love moves in mysterious ways

2008-03-14T00:15:00.000-07:00

Few days before February 14 this year, I received an emails from my friends from the Philippines. They were organizing a date for dateless individuals, or planning to. It was sort of consoling themselves for being loveless in the day of love. Sound pathetic, but the situation resembles that of a senior high school girl frantically looking for a date at a senior prom. Re-imagine Pretty in pink the movie --but not the teen age girls but ladies looking for a mid-life romance.

May, a long time acquaintance, emailed me an article, asking me if I still remember what I wrote. If blogging existed 7 years ago, the article will be in my blog. The unpolished article was about love and trying to explain love through science (and that explains why I'm in graduate school, I like science but I'm not geeky). After reading and examining my long lost article (thanks May), I realized how 7 years made a difference in how I write and how I presented my ideas.

Anyway, in the span of 7 years, I still wonder why May is still loveless. She's cute, hot, easy to get along with and some other superlatives you can think of. If I was betting money on among my friends, gambling on who will tie the knot in 7 years, May is one of my friends I'll put money into. If I did, I lost.

At the rate life is going, I think she's not frustrated and will soon find one. Love moves in a mysterious ways, just read on the link (this one's for you May, Divine or Mayang, whichever you want me to call you). I got it from the Reader's Digest Feb Edition.
http://www.rd.com/love/valentines-day/what-they-did-for-love-true-love-stories/article.html

Temporary inconvenience

2008-03-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

I went to my mechanic to do some oil and filter change, so with the car's over-all check up. Everytime I go to this guy, we discuss things not related to cars (but most of the time, about cars). It was last October when I paid him a visit, and as far as I can remember, he was to contemplating to divorce his wife.

He still remembered my advice ever since, that "there are no problems in this world, only temporary inconvenience". I told him to stick around and work the relationship out. The moment he saw me, he remembered the temporary inconvenience thing, what he cannot remember is his counter argument to my advice.

I can't remember also his counter argument, however; he stuck around with her wife with some conditions. Now, that's not love anymore if there are conditions. My car was ok though.

To Denver

2008-03-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

Actually, I'm not going because my wife is expected to deliver our baby this June, the same time the conference in Denver.

The conference is about Mass Spectrometry, the tool I used to detect and analyze chemicals. I wish I could be there and visit Denver, but I'm just tired of travel. I've been to the Philippines for a vacation and the travel beat me down bad.

I'm looking forward though for the next conference or conferences. For now, I'll gather more data and collaborate with other researchers. Who knows, I'll be going to Netherlands for special research at the FELIX (free electron laser for infrared experiments) institute (cross fingers), one of the few institutes with free electron laser.

Can we extend life past 100 yrs.?

2008-03-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

Healthy aging is an oxymoron, period. You don't want to get old and then your body starts to disintegrate with high blood pressure, arthritis, cancers, diabetes and heart diseases. Getting old is not fun. After suffering and battling the diseases, we glamorize death as if it's a wedding. The truth is, we don't have any options but face death. Do we have other options?

What if technology offers you a quality life past 100 yrs, will you be willing to accept it? Imagine, you were born 100 years ago, you can proudly say "Yap, I experienced World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the Iraq War, the Beatles, Michael Jordan, Cell Phones and the Internet".

What technologies are coming next? "Jumper's" teleportation? I don't know. Most likely, the breakthrough in genetic engineering. We may live past 100 years . If you are under 40 years old today, computational models are spitting out data that you may. Technology is becoming more and more sophisticated. Whether you are prepared or not, it will still continue to grow. Were you prepared of technologies like cell phones and the internet before? Many more are coming.

Down to 167 lbs

2008-03-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

Numbers don't lie, and I'm down to 167 lbs from 170. How about that? The good thing about achieving goals early is that it is a good motivational factor: If I did it this week, I can do it next week.

Losing 3 lbs. is within the range of your hydration. You can increase your weight by a glass of water. I know somebody, a professional triathlete, loses 10 lbs. in a hard training of running and biking. I'm not a professional triathlete, I only lose 3 lbs the most in a hard run.

Nevertheless, 3 lbs is 3 lbs.

It's the hormone, damn it!

2008-03-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

One time, I was riding my bike to my work and passed by teenage girls waiting for the yellow school bus. The bus if I'm not mistaken, is nicknamed the "cheese box". Anyway, I'm not blogging about the "cheese box", I'm blogging what I've heard from the teens. They were discussing birth control pills.

As I was closing in near the waiting shed, I heard a hush from one student, to signal the group somebody is approaching. They didn't realized that I heard the conversation loud and clear even before they spotted me. The calm winds have ears.

I'm blogging this because CNN reported 1 out of 4 teenage girls has STD. How can the government counter these problems? Education and awareness? probably. Or is it high time now to revamp the educational system? Middle school was separated from elementary school and high school, because middle school students experience rapid sex hormone increase.

What can we do? Good parenting, education and awareness. The most important: administrator in education should do something revolutionary and clever ways to decrease the statistic.

Water contamination (but what's in your milk?)

2008-03-11T10:17:00.000-07:00

(Thanks to Dr. Cooks of Purdue University)

CNN reported yesterday that water supplies of around 40 million Americans are contaminated by low levels of pharmaceutical drugs. When I was reading the news, I remembered my friend who vowed to drink only spring water (bottled Evian) and eat only organic food.

Because the high price of eating only organic food made me snob the idea of healthy living by drinking only spring water and organic food. But it dawned to me why my friend (who was a personal trainer) acted that way. My question is, what's the effect of these chemicals in our body in the long run? Will the data become clear only after I'm old and the damages are irreversible?

I can't afford the organic lifestyle, but I stopped eating burgers after watching "Fast Food Nation". I been trying to eat organic food such as carrots (taste sweet), squash and coffee:), but I'm not totally organic.

I'm an analytical chemist, and I saw data of milk contaminated with artificial growth hormones. Did the water contamination hoopla scared me? A bit, that's why I'm more vigilant on what food I put in my mouth. In addition, I wash my hands frequently after working with chemicals in my laboratory.

Increasing caloric expenditure

2008-03-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

Our bodies are product of billion years of evolution. If you think back how our ancestors lived a long time ago, they were very active. They have to hunt in order to eat or escape from predators hunting them. It's an active lifestyle no doubt.

Our lifestyle, and not our body, evolved so fast to computers, cars, grocery stores and the internet. We are not running away anymore from predators and hunt in order to live, instead, we work to pay the bills. Unfortunately, our body is still in the active, primitive mode, that's why we need to exercise.

There are a lot of things to do in order to increase your caloriec expenditure: use the stairs instead of the elevator, park your car away from your office in order to walk and all of those good things you've heard before. Mine is simple, I use the bike going to my laboratory and if i use the bus, I walk two blocks to the next bus stop.

My preciuos bike in the middle
of high tech research instruments

You only see what the headlight can reach

2008-03-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

(Note: That's me at the right warming up at my apartment complex' fitness room. I'm warming up by reading a science magazine with my navy cap.)

This day is part of the single step Confucius refers to his "thousand mile journey". The variation is that you can only see what the light of your car can reach, however; by small steps, you will arrive at your destination. I push myself to workout, wake up early in the morning and sleep early the night before.

This single step is crucial because you want your body to adapt the active lifestyle that you want. You can't get up of bed early in the morning if your body is not use to it. So what I usually do in the first few weeks is adjust. Adjust your waking habits and sleeping patterns. Science said that the optimal hours of an adult is 7.5 hours. I target 8 hours: sleep at 10 PM and wake-up at 6 AM, coffee and then workout.

How do I wake up early? Motivation. You should have a burning desire to workout.

How do I wake up early? Sleep early. Turn off all distractions around 10 PM. Pain of Discipline, or pain of regrets? You take your pick.

So, you want to lose weight?

2008-03-05T06:36:00.000-08:00

Weight loss is tricky. Even so, follow my journey as I plan to lose weight this year, 20-lbs to be exact. That will be my goal. Currently, the weighing scale measures 170 lbs. In the end of this year, it will be 148-150 lbs. If my calculations are correct, that's 10% body fat. (Compare that to Lance Armstrong of only 5%).

I'm not an elite athlete, I'm a regular mortal like you. My weight has always been my concern.

To achieve my goals, I'm using my tools and gizmos; motivation, technology, science, calorie counting and dealing with frustrations. I'll be losing weight in my busiest year ever, because of a baby coming in June and an oral examination, a requirement to become a Ph.D. candidate. Top that with frustrating (but exciting) research.

At this stage of the battle, my knees are not yet ready for the pounding of running so I'll be using the fitness first elliptical machine at my apartment complex's fitness room (pix on above left). It is a small room but it serves the purpose of burning calories. Don't get me wrong, I like big gyms, but the fitness room in my complex is a little bit convenient.

It's just the start. I lost weight before, I will be doing it again. Next year, I'll be running the Disney Marathon then.

My Navy Cap

2008-03-04T05:36:00.000-08:00

I'm not a U.S. Navy nor served the Navy. I got the cap at a recruiting station when the Iraqi War broke out 3-4 years ago . It's not that I want to be a poser, it's just the cap fit so good in my head that I use it for workout or during early mornings to cover my out- of-bed-look hair.

But using the cap doesn't free you from strangers asking "Are you still in the Navy?"or "Were you in the Navy?". I just say no to those questions. One time, in a public library, one person asked me the question, and he said he served in the Navy and very proud of his services.

Sometimes though, just for fun, those questions teased me to respond, "yeah, I served in the Navy". But what if there were follow-up questions, such as what ship were you stationed to and what rank. USS Wisconsin and just a cook will be my answers (USS stands for United States Ship).

To tell you the truth, I won't do that. If I want to serve the army, I'll go for the Air Force, and not in the field of battle, but probably a researcher.

Nowadays, you can't wear a Chicago Bulls cap without being asked if you are a Bulls fan.

Don't pound your knees

2008-03-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

If you are considering loosing weight and jump straight to running and dieting, it's a sure way of ruining your knees,specially if you are 10 to 20 lbs overweight than your ideal weight.

What I suggest, if you have a gym membership, is to use an elliptical machine instead. I know it's an intimidating piece of equipment and the movement is so unnatural, but the exercise removes the pounding from your knees. You can workout longer, compared to running, and in the end, you can do more.

I've seen substantially overweight people trying to run in the treadmill, and honestly felt bad for their knees. The idea is, loose some weight from the elliptical machine then graduate to running. I've been there.

Our knees, through evolution, wasn't designed to support heavy work loads (such as extra pounds in a long run). Take care of your knees, it's not fun when you get old.

HOW I LOVE UPLB

2008-03-01T13:08:00.000-08:00

(Blogger's note: This is not my piece but this well written journal captured my sentiments about Los Banos, that's why I grabbed this one from an e-mail. I worked in Calamba before, a 40-60 minutes commute from LB, but I opted to stay in Los Banos, for same reasons below. If this happens to be yours or you know who wrote this, e-mail me to acknowledge you)

But it's always you I run home to, take me back, take me home away from here back to where I am free" -"LosBanos" by Sugarfree

Dalawang oras mula sa usok-infested streets of Metro Manila matatagpuan ang aking personal heaven dito sa mundo. Matanaw ko pa lang ang Mt. Makiling mula sa South Superhighway, kinikilig na ako. Wala naman akong girlfriend sa LB. Lalo nang wala ding boyfriend. Kahit ka-fling na pwedeng balikan, wala naman akong pupuntahan. Pero yung feeling pwede mong itulad sa pagpunta mo sa bahay ng mahal mo matapos ang isang buwang walang pag-uusap o pagkikita.

Nasa LB ang org ko, pero hindi naman kami close ng mga orgmates, actually parang iwas pa nga sila sa kin e. Nandito sa Metro Manila ang mga kaibigan ko. Nasa Pasig ang pamilya ko. Wala naman akong ancestral roots sa Los Banos. Mayroon lang talagang hindi maintindihang connection sa pagitan ko at ng napakagandang lugar na to.

Bakit kaya ako napaibig sa Los Banos?

Suspect: Yung environment.

Kasi sa umaga, ang sarap langhapin ng hangin. Ang sarap panligo nung mainit na tubig na lumalabas sagripo. Lalo na pag may matinding hangover, ang sarap pantanggal ng sakit ng ulo. Lalabas ka ng bahay,maririnig mo yung iba't-ibang huni ng mga ibon. Dadampi sa mukha mo yung lamig ng simoy ng hangin, at didikit sa sapatos mo yung damo na nabasa sa hamog.

Hindi ko kayang lakarin ang Ayala Avenue from EDSA to Buendia, pero pag sa LB, kahit doblehin pa yung same distance, wala akong reklamo. Kahit ilang milyong bumbilya pa ang ilagay mo sa mga building ng Makati ,walang tatalo sa napakagandang backdrop ng LB, ang Mt.Makiling . Minsan magtataka ka, sa isang araw na walakang makikitang ulap, makikita mong nakatambay ang mga clouds sa tuktok ng bundok na ito.

Suspect: Yung pagkain.

Wala namang pinagkaiba yung pagkain sa LB kumpara sa Manila e. Sa totoo lang, hindi din ako madalas kumainn g buko pie. Madaming kainan sa LB, pero ginawa kong suspect yung pagkain kasi napamahal talaga ako sananay ko dahil siya yung araw-araw na nagluluto ng laman-tiyan ko. Kung gagawa ako ng list ng "The BestLB Food", nasa menu ko ang mantika-licious Ellen's Fried Chicken, yung Pinoy-style siomai sa Papu's, yung, Doner Durum (LB version ng shawarma), yung dinuguan na binebenta sa Lapitan's Meat Shop, yung chocolate cake ng Mer-Nel's, yung tokwa sa IC's bar, at syempre ang aking all-time favorite na Bug-Ong Roasted Chicken. May natikman pa akong bagong panalong chibog, yung sa Ihaw Express na malapit sa WhiteHouse.

Kahit sinong taga-LB ang tanungin ninyo, sasabihin nya na mas masarap ang Lucky Me Pancit Canton na niluto sa LB kesa sa niluto sa kung saang lugar.

Suspect: Yung inuman.

Kung magtatayo ka ng business sa LB na ayaw mong malugi, magtayo ka ng liquor shop o kaya ng affordable na bar. Dahil may kasabihan nga na "hindi ka taga-LB kung hindi ka marunong uminom". Madaming resto- bar sa LB, pero nothing beats the house parties. Bago pasumikat yung gin-pomelo sa Manila , yun na yung iniinom namin. Madami pa kaming nagawang kakaibang cocktail. Yung Kamehame Wave (vodka ice tea), yung POGi (pineapple orange gin), yung FuKiKo (fundador,hershey's kisses, tsaka kape), yung Boracay (Tanduay 3-in-1 coffee mix evap), at ang walang kamatayang PinaColaTa (pineapple coke tanduay).

Sa LB, mas maganda ang tagayan kaysa kanya-kanyangkuha ng inom. At shempre kulang ang inom pag walang home-made pulutan tulad ng Kilawing Cornick at ang sikat na sikat na Tuna-Skyflakes.

Suspect: Yung mga tao.

Ewan ko lang ngayon pero nung nandoon pa ako sa LB, walang social climber. Walang pa- sosyal dun. Yung mgagaling sa mga mayayayamang pamilya (conio in layman's terms), kailangang mag-fit in sa masa. Hindi importante ang porma. Kahit naka-pambahay na damit at tsinelas ka pag papasok, tanggap ka na ng lipunan. Kaya yung mga kilala ko na taga-UP Diliman dati, hindi ma-gets yung mga kwento ko kung gaano kami ka-barok sa UPLB. "How baboy naman the pig", ikanga nila.

Walang mapagkunwari sa LB. Siguro dahil nga small town lang to, lahat magkakakilala. Kung may pino-protektahan kang image, eventually, lahat ng baho mo lalabas din. Kaya mas magandang ilabas mo na yung totoong ikaw kasi mas mapapasama kung mabubuko kalang.

Suspect: Yung memories.

Ahhh. The memories. Siguro sa lahat ng suspect ko, etoang parang "Mastermind" . Pag nakasakay ako ng jeep sa LB, o kaya kahit naglalakad lang, hindi ko naiiwas ang tumingin sa isang bahay, sa isang bar, o sa isang kainan, at sabihin sa sarili ang mga bagay na tulad ng "uy, diyan yung first kiss ko sa 3rd girlfriend ko", o kaya "diyan sa bangketang yan natulog yung brod ko nung nalasing", o kaya "diyankami pinakitaan ng multo". Halos lahat ng lugar sa LB,may naiwan akong memory doon. May mga napalitang mga establishments, pero may itatayong bago na maaring pag-iwanan ulit ng alaala. Kung tutuusin, ang LB ay isang buhay na diary para sa kin. Bawat lugar, isangp pahina. Bawat araw, isang linya.

Madaming hindi nakakaintindi sa akin kung bakit pabalik-balik ako sa Los Banos, lalo na yung mga batchmates ko noong college. Lagi ko nang naririnigyung mga phrases na "Grow up", "Move on with yourlife", "Leave the past behind", "Wala ka na sa stageng buhay mo na college ka pa din". Masakit marinig, pero may point nga sila.

Kaya minsan, tinanong ko yung housemate ko na umuuwi sa LB every weekend. Sabi ko "bakit kaya ako bumabalik sa LB eh isinusuka na ako ng mga tao doon, wala naman akong binabalikan, wala naman akong napapala?"

At hinding-hindi ko makakalimutan ang sinabinya."Tinatanong pa ba yan? HOME. Home is where the heart is."

Reversing Reverse Culture Shock

2008-02-29T11:47:00.000-08:00

"So you forgot how to live in your own country", my research groupmate concluded, after telling him I experienced a reverse culture shock during my month long vacation in the Philippines.

Psychologists tend to over analyze everything, and I thought culture shock is just a made-up word. (Examples of these words are "overweight", "obese" and " morbidly obese". Can you distinguish the key differences? South Park made fun of these words). These words don't mean anything until it hits you.

Culture shock, in a not so text book definition is a "feeling of confusion and disorientation when one moves from a familiar environment to a new setting where language, food, clothing and even the culture of the people are different".

MY REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK. December of 2007, after 5 years in the US, I experienced first hand the Philippines again. My friend was right, I forgot how to live in my own country. I forgot how bad the traffic was. I can’t even imagine driving in Manila highways. My cousin summed it better: if you can drive in Manila, you can drive anywhere in the world. True.

If in the U.S., red light is a stop, in Manila, it means 3 more cars can pass through. If in Boston, using a signal light to change your lane is a sign of weakness, in Manila, there’s no lane. Every space available in the road is occupied, by vendors in the sidewalk and motorcycles in the middle (motorcycles are called ‘insects’ of the road).

Before, I knew that time in the Philippines warp. I forgot about the concept of Pilipino time when my brother was teasing me for being early for a dentist’s appointment. In the U.S., 5 minutes early for an appointment is considered late, because you have to fill up paper works. In addition, being late is rude, tantamount to showing no respect to other people's schedule. In the Philippines, however, it’s better to be late in order not to waste your time waiting. To paraphrase: It’s better to waste other people time, than waste your time, waiting for being early.

I just stayed in Manila for a month and I’m still in the state of shock, but, I guarantee you, I can recover. Give me a few weeks and I will be driving like Manila drivers do, give me a few months and I will be jay walking in no time (in Pilipino time fashion).

MY CULTURE SHOCK. Rewind five years ago. August of 2002, when I first arrived in Orlando to study for the fall semester. I was amazed how clean the place was—not polluted and less traffic— relative to Manila. Pedestrians follow their lane, automobile respect the pedestrian lanes.

Although I was excited, I started to see the differences between my new environment and my culture.

In general, Americans are unbelievably wasteful: my roommates, more often than not, don't turn off their ceiling fan or TV when they go to work/school. They use automobile all the time, even throwing their trash to the dumpster.

And in the dumpster, especially at the end of the semester, I see a lot of good computer tables, chairs and sofas, ready to be discarded. Americans move a lot, and they often throw away things—even if it’s still reusable—than pay for shipping.

I questioned their eating habits. How can they survive with burgers and fries during lunch time and dinner? I’m so used to rice, vegetables and meat (even breakfast). Is it me or them?

Changing gear to sex, Americans do have an active sex life, at least in reference to my roommates who were college students. There were several times that I woke up in the wee hours of the morning because of the moans from sex at the other room. Picture this also, a bed rocking at high noon. Can they just be discreet?

I’ll campaign (since I can't vote), for senators who are willing to pass a bill requiring college apartments to install sound proof rooms. If they can require smoke alarm to every apartment, they should sound proof the room too. Waking up in the middle of the night from sex moan, squeaking of a bed and a head banging in the head board, is equivalent to slow death.

One peculiar thing to me because it's the exact opposite for Pilipinos, is that Americans worship the sun to, work on their tan. Pinoys pay for whitening products (such as lotion or vitamins) to whiten their skin. Americans consider walking under the sun with an umbrella wierd; I look at Americans lying in the pool side sunbathing as skin cancer.

Before, I have the impression that Americans are so polite, until I realized that "How are you?" or "What's up?" are considered greetings equivalent to "hi" or "hello". It's rude to say "What's up?" and not expect a response. It's hard to comprehend those things being an alien in a strange land.

After 5 years in the U.S., for sure I recovered already from the culture shock. But did I assimilate the American way of living? I don’t know yet.

If eating burgers and fries in your car is a measure of assimilation, then I’m not yet fully assimilated. I don’t do it often. If knowing the rules of American Football or starting to call burger, coke and fries “fine dining” a measure of assimilation, I’m close. I still eat a lot of rice though.

I hate to admit this but I been throwing my garbage using my car, and greeting strangers"what's up?!" without looking at the person and not expecting a response.

Taga LB ka kung

2008-02-29T10:17:00.000-08:00

(From an email)
Taga-UPLB ka kung...
1. Kilala mo si Mang Pogs.
2. Nalilito ka kung saan nakalagay ang banga niMariang Banga.
3. Tubig na lang ang tingin mo sa gin.
4. Ginamit mong reviewer ang mga old exams para sa mgamidterms, prefi at finals sa math, stat, chem,physics, eco etc.
5. Hindi ka sumasagot ng UP (yupeee) kapag tinanong kakung saan ka graduate.hahaha! sagot mo elbi.
6. Taga-elbi ka kapag kilala mo yung professor nanagbi-bike ng naka-barong na kupas. (Si climax!kalahating albert einstein, kalhating mang pandoy)
7. Ok lang pumasok sa mga klase kahit naka pambahay/pantulog attire ka.
8. Pag nagtanong si manong driver ng "may animal badyan?", at may sumagot ng "meron po" ay di ka natawa.
9. Pag nagtanong uli si manong driver ng "may mens badyan?", at may sumagot uli ng "meron po" ay di kanatawa.
10. Di ka nahihiyang magbitbit ng malaking payong.
11. Taga-elbi ka kung pagkatapos mong magbakasakalikay Mang Pogs, diretso ka na kay Mr. Midnight
12. Bumibili ka ng blue book sa Coop.
13. Alam mong hindi pwedeng ibato ang Batong Malaki.
14. Nung pinanood mo ang movie ni aga at regine nashot at elbi (sa may gaygay gowns) at nagtawag ng taxisi regine e nagtawanan kayo ng mga taga-LB at cluelessang iba.
15. Alam mo kung nasaan ang White House.
16. May tanline ka ng tsinelas.
17. Alam mong mas masarap ang pancit canton na nilutosa 'heater cup'
18. Sanay ka maglakad.
19. Thursday night ang gimik night mo.
20. Alam mo na ang pinakamalaking banyo ay ang Ellen'sFried Chicken, at Sizzler's ang tinitingalang kainan.
21. Kilala mo sina Saniano Boy at Girl.
22. Alam mo kung nasaan ang "Johnson".
23. Alam mo ang kaibahan ng dalawang Flatrocks.
24. Kaya mong pumasok ng hindi naliligo.
25. Alam mong si Carasus at Pegabao ay iisa.
26. Alam mong ok lang na pumunta sa Maahas.
27. Tumatambay ka sa APEC para mag inom.
28. Alam mo kung nasaan ang Fertility Tree, Kwek Kwek Tower, at ang Templo ni Bruce Lee.
29. Tuloy ang klase kahit signal number 3 na.
30. Alam mo kung saan ang pilahan ng jeep papuntang IRRI, Forestry, o kaya ay Jamboree...
31. Hindi ka kumakain ng buko pie.
32. Alam mo na bago pa man nauso ang unli rice sa Tokyo Tokyo, marketing strategy na ito ng SaladCountry.
33. Hinahanap-hanap mo ang chocolate cake saMer-Nel's.
34. Alam mong bawal tumawid sa UPLB Gate(main), mula Guard House papuntang harap ng Carabao Park...
35. Alam mong may oras lang na pwede kumain sa IRRIpag di ka IRRI employee.
36. Sanay ka maglagay ng Knorr Seasoning sa kanin.
37. Alam mong ang hanging bridge ay di talaga nakahang..
38. Alam mong hindi lang dalawang pulgada ang layo ngBayog sa Anos.
39. Kapag nate-take mo na di magpalit ng pantshanggang ilang araw.. hehe..
40. Alam mo kung nasaan ang tatlong Ellen's friedchicken sa LB.
41. Apektado ka sa pagsasara ng ic's
42. Pag may sakit ka, hindi ka pupunta "infirmary"except lang pag kukuha ka ng excuse slip.
43. Marami kang alam na ghost stories, sa ilag's, samen's dorm, sa faculty village, sa may social gardenetc...
44. Pag umihi ka na sa gilid ng SU (tuwing feb fair).
45. Alam mo na ang tunog ng pillbox. (rambol!)
46. Taga lb ka kapag kilala mo si "manang slow"..
47. Hindi mo na naabutan ang Vega mall at Robinson's.
48. Taga elbi ka kapag mas gusto mong tumambay pag feb fair kesa manood ng kung anuman sa stage.
49. Kaya mong i-identify ang specie at subspecie ngbawat punong nadadaanan mo.
50. Alam mo na ang shortest way sa papuntang st.therese from Hum ay ang dirt road...
51. Taga-elbi ka kapag alam mo kumbaket maramingnatatalisod sa raymundo gate.
52. Hindi mo kailangan ng rason para uminom ... hindimo na rin keilangan ng mesa pag iinom (... hindi mona rin minsan kailangan ng baso ).
53. Alam mo kung nasaan ang Soils.
54. Mas trip mo mag-redhorse kesa mag San Mig Light.
55. Kung di man natuloy ay binalak mong umakyat ngpeak two.
56. Taga elbi ka pag nakakita ka ng snow pag summer(yun yung bulak na nagkalat sa campus... kapok).
57. Taga-elbi ka rin pag handa mong gawin ang lahatpag nag-peprerog ka makakuha ka lng ng slot sa subjectna yon (lalo na pag GE).
58. Alam mo kung saan makakabili ng masarap na provenat chicken skin--> dun malapit sa white house.
59. Alam mong ang devcom ay dating under ng ca.
60. Mas enjoy mo ang gimik sa apartment compared tobars and restos.
61. Alam mong ang "audi" at DL Umali Hall ay iisa.
62. Alam mong may gasolinahan sa loob ng campus (salikod ng CEAT).
63. Sineryoso mo na kailangan may kasama kang date pagdrill night.
63. Alam mo kung nasaan ang Ilag's, Raymundo's atCatalan.
64. Dismissed ka na pero sa elbi ka pa rin nakatira.
65. Alam mo kung nasaan ang Batcave.
66. Gusto mong pasabugin ang PhySci building.
67.Alam mong ang LB Square ay dating vacant lot napuro talahib.
68. Nakapanood ka na ng sine sa Agrix.

WHAT IS MASS?*

2008-02-26T05:17:00.000-08:00

One of my committee members*, who make a living doing Mass Spectrometry, once told me that one of his hobbies is scour the internet for definitions of 'mass'. He dealt with mass all his life and wants to know what really mass is. Pretty geeky but real. (On the other hand, one of my friends look for other variations of the Murphy's Law from the net.)

Honestly, have you ever wondered what causes the scale to read 150 lbs or so at your bathroom scale every time you stepped into the platform? It is adeceivingly simple question but science hasn’t really pinpointed what causes mass. Our definition of mass is primitive. Newton relates mass to force and acceleration (F=ma), while Einstein's famous equation relates mass to energy and speed of light (E=mc2) . Schrodinger has a complicated and intimidating equation butstill the equation still relates mass to something.

So what is mass? Mass is a mess (1). According to Ernst Mach, we only measure mass as ratios and one scientist jokingly concluded that "mass is what makesthe large sofas hard to push" (2). Again, we still didn't answer the question "what is mass?". I likened that question to a scene in the movie "Anger Management", when Jack Nicholson, the therapist, posed a question "Who are you?" to Adam Sandler. Sandler answered " I am Dave Buznik...." then Nickolson interupted "I didn't ask for your name". When Sandler continued telling the therapist he's a businessman, Nicholson interrupted "I didn't ask what you do". Sandler was irritated.

No doubt, the question "What is mass?" irritated the science community. So once and for all, they collaborated and try to find the "Higgs Boson", The "Higgs Boson"is allegedly responsible for mass. The Higgs came about from the ideas of theoretical physicist Peter Higgs. Theoretical physicist makes a living by making upsome things, and since "Higgs Boson" is a made up thing supported only by beautiful mathematics, everybody is hoping that it exist and can be detected experimentally.

Using particle accelerators to smash particles into pieces, the race is on to find the Higgs Boson. Fermi Lab and CERN were given the responsibility to finish the job. We are left hoping that this piece of the puzzle can answer basic questions such as "What is mass?", or "Are there mini-black holes?" And most importantly, the findings will answer the question why John Lennon was assassinated.

* Dr. Powell gave a presentation, of the same title as above, last year, Oct. 29, 2007, in a mass spectrometry class . The materials came from his discussion.
(1) K.D. Padgett, Physics Essays 3, 178-82 (1990)
(2) K.C. Cole "The hole in the Universe"

Strange (Gym) Rats

2008-02-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

"Lab rats can produce data and scientific reports, I don't know about gym rats"-unknown

It was my first time to be back at the gym after a month, and it made me realized that the gym is a peculiar place to be.

The first strange thing that bothers me inside the gym are those guys wearing sleeveless without muscles to show off. These guys, to make it worst, wear Nike dry fit body-hugging shirts to show muscle definition. There's one problem: it defines the bulge of their stomach. Times had change, times had change. If you don’t have something to show, don’t show it off. You don’t get ‘muscle points’ and a beach body by wearing those kind of apparels.

Same thing to ladies too, when they try to show off their abs, but it's not flat. Are they trying to show their back tattoo or belly piercing? It doesn't matter since the disgusting bulge of their stomach steals the thunder.

You may have noticed this before, when people leave their towels on the floor. I hate that because it’s so unhygienic. In rare cases, some dumb ass do their bench presses without a shirt, which is equally unhygienic! Does it make you stronger when you take your shirts off? One good thing though when you are work out in the gym, is that it's a place to rub shoulders with superstar athlete. One time, I saw somebody in his flip-flops. I thought slippers are not safe, and then realized that the guy was Tim Tebow, the prized quarterback of the school, working out somebody. I pardoned him already for his mistake.

When I was working in the gym before behind the desk, I thought the only requirement is that you know CPR and AED. I was wrong. Technical questions didn’t escaped me: heart rate monitor acting up, a question if Chinese food are healthy, ACL and spine injuries, the difference between decline vs. incline press, what’s a METS, a phone call inquiring for a test for AIDS and a guy asking about a rare genetic disorder called celiac disease, because he has one (eat gluten free food man).

In some instances, you find wierd of the wierdests, such as a half-blind student walking in a treadmill but his’ seeing/guide dog is sleeping beside; person doing a lat pull down while talking to a phone; a guy kissing his bicep muscles after a hard bicep curls. Here’s the best: a university that invented Gatorade but banned people drinking Gatorade inside the student gym.

In the end of the day, you go to the locker room. Then you hear this guy bitching about exercise challenging people around him, “who said exercise is fun, people who said that are hypocrites, I just finished and it was not”.

That’s weird. Ask a triathlete why he loves to burn calories and sweat it out, they're not hypocrites.

Philippine Daily Inquirer's 'Young Blood' Compilation

2008-02-15T22:23:00.000-08:00

In any given Sunday during my college years at Los Banos, my pan de sal breakfast was most likely with The Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI). And there's no doubt that I was reading the ‘Young Blood’ column. To make the lazy sunday complete, I lie in my bed or the sofa to read. Life was good (and still good to me).

Young Blood column changed the way I read PDI. After checking the sports page, I flipped the pages straight to the editorial section. Reading the Young Blood column connected me with other people of my age. Although you don’t follow a plot, I read the column just like following a story line. But having a morning paper everyday is a premium for a college student, so most of the time, I read the paper from the library. My roommate was resourceful; he took the column page (only the column page) from papers ready to be discarded by store owners, at the end of the day.

During my Philippine vacation last December (2007) after five years in the US, I went to Power Books and went straight to the Philippine section. Asking my cousin what’s the best book from the Philippines, she advised me to read the "Young Blood" compilation (and some Bob Ong books, an Eraserheads anthology and the compilation of Pilipino Scientists and Pilipino Entrepreneurs).

My stopover on my way back to Florida included a long stopover in Chicago. In a crisp Chicago morning, while waiting for my connecting flight, I sat in an isolated table with my bagel (America’s pan de sal) , my Young Blood compilation, and a hot coffee. I was wishing I was lying in my bed, for old time sake.

The Chemistry of Eraserheads

2008-02-09T14:43:00.000-08:00

My neighbor back in UP Los Banos, whose brothers were studying in UP Diliman, introduced me to " Ultraelectromagnaticpop". And although the "technical" part of the music was not the best because it sounded like "Combo lata", still, it was appealing to me. It's like eating a buko pie in a box, the box is not the best technical presentation of the product, but the product is way good.

I hailed from the south, and Superferry is the popular transportation for us students from Mindanao visiting families for the Christmas breaks. The nauseating swell of the ocean and the boring 24 plus hours at the sea were countered by playing cards, ordering bubbles of beers and some intellectual discussions. You might know already that intellectual discussions under the influence of alcohol leads to nowhere, jumping from topic to topic. Out of nowhere, injected to the discussion was Eheads, and this person I don't know told the group he heard the music. The music was new and revolutionary; however, the band needs to pass the acid test for the second album or else Eheads will be a one-hit wonder.

(Acid test of a solution in chemistry is a litmus test. Just a side note, the mnemonic for the test is BRA, when a Blue litmus paper turns Red, the solution is Acidic and my students remember this always).

The second album definitely passed the test since their music was everywhere. Even the third album, which I thought they will label it "Star Witness", was a huge success. In a popular afternoon show, the band was telling the audience that their third album is on its way, and they were planning to name it "Star Witness". It was inspired by Jessica Alfaro who was the star witness of Vizconde Massacre. For some reason they changed it to " Cutterpillow", probably in respect to the on-going investigation.

Eraserheads brought the underground Pilipino music scene to the mainstream popular culture. Alternative bands sprouted everywhere just like mushrooms, after an overnight rain. I was lost in the pile of alternative bands during my college days. Then after a family reunion in Bicol, it reunited me again to the music of the band. My trip back to LB was long, and after watching "Crimson Tide" at the bus' television set, I grabbed my walkman, inserted the long lost Eheads first album. I could feel the goose bumps: this is how Eheads music was all about.

In 2002 I went to graduate school overseas, the same year E-Heads disbanded (or disbonded). I don't blame them for disbanding. When the popular Eagles band re-appeared probably ten years ago after almost 2 decades of hiatus, they toured the U.S. again and apologized to their fans, explaining that they "never broke up, only took a 17-year vacation". Again, I don't blame them. Even rock stars deserve a rest, a very long rest. In the process, Eagles produced an album titled "Hell Freezes Over".

Eheads crystalized into an icon and a representative of my generation. It may be a by-gone era someday just like Frank Sinatra's tune (remember your lolo's music), but the music will definitely stay and will not dissolve.

E-Heads will rebond. When? I don't know. Some rebonding processes take long, and others, shorter time. My guess is that the book " Tikman and langit" will be a catalyst (an enzyme) to make the reunification faster. My guess is that the band will tour the Philippines again; make an album from the tour titled "The return of the comeback strikes back again, part 2" . If " Ultraelectromagneticpop" is Voltes V inspired, the comeback album will be from Star Wars.

C’mon Eheads, don’t “shake your heads and walk away” from your fans.

Tikman ang Langit

2008-02-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

This is the anthology on the Eraserheads. Honestly, if I didn't paid a visit to dictionary.com, I may never know what anthology means. By the way, the word means "a book or other collection of selected writings by various authors, usually in the same literary form, of the same period, or on the same subject".

Mostly, the authors wrote about their first encounter of E-heads’ brand of music. Others detailed their argument why the band is the best group who ever graced the Philippine music scene. One author made a different way of paying tribute to the god of Philippine music; by searching the web for stories. Some contributors described the Philippine underground music scene, before E-heads made it to mainstream. Reading a part of the historical accounts of the underground revolution was nostalgic and exciting. History class will probably bore you to death, but reading past events that you know you are a part of it is pure nostalgia.

I have my own account of the E-heads and I do agree to most of the writers, although some part of the stories were too long. It bored me to read long stories related to the managers and promoters of the band. In those instances, I can’t follow the characters involved. Some contributions where well written and polished, some where not. Over all, it was nice to view the different angles of E-heads, as recounted by the fans-- regardless of affiliations-- a jolog or a conyo.

How to Lose a Superbowl Gamble

2008-01-31T10:50:00.000-08:00

American football season is winding down, culminated by Superbowl XLII (42). Everybody will be watching, and some people will be placing a bet. I'm a sports fan and I log a lot of hours watching ESPN. If stockbrokers watch the rise and fall of the market and makes money by placing bet on stocks, a sports fan should also.

Plan A was to rely on statistics to pick a team to place a bet on. ESPN's analyses are littered with numbers: total yards, total rush, completion efficiency of a quarterback, touchdown to interception ratio, etc.. I've learned early on that statistics don't mean anything. Even though 76% of the Sports Nation predicted that New England will win this year's Superbowl, it's not a guarantee that the Patriots will (I checked the statistics again, it's down to 64%. Is it because Tom Brady is injured?). Again, statistics doesn't mean anything. Statistics are only figures to describe a model. To quote my professor before " Figures don't lie, but liars figure". Here's a new one I got from a seminar, it's called the Gaussian Nugget; "(Computational) models are to be use, but not believe" (Rephrased from Econometrics). Even the people who made a career using statistics once said "It is easy to lie with statistics, but it's a lot easier to lie without them." (Richard J. Herrnstein). If I can't rely on statistics, I need an alternative way of beating the house in Vegas. Scrap plan A.

Plan B came two years ago when a local news featured an elephant from a Texas zoo. This elephant had predicted the past 5 winners of the Superbowl. The handlers of the animal will show the logo of the teams vying for the championship ring and then the animal will predict the winner by pointing the team's logo. Five straight years, the animal was right. A 5-year winning streak, an unblemished record.

There are anecdotal evidences that animals can predict the coming of an earthquake. If animals can predict when an earthquake will strike, then they should predict winners of big games. Faultless logic.

That year, the elephant predicted the Seattle Seahawks over the Pittsburgh Steelers. With a little bit of hesitation, I went on-line, placed a wager on the Seahawks using my credit card.

The Seattle Seahawks lost the game, and I lost some bucks--money down the drain. I told my friend about the incident, he laughed and gave me an advice to only bet on sure things.

This year, I haven't recieved any superbowl party invitation yet; so this Sunday, most likely I'll be watching the game in my living room, on a high definition flatscreen TV, rooting for the New York Giants, but no gambling. There's no Plan C yet. I will be watching the game downing couples of beers with a bruised ego. I thought I beat the house in Vegas. Prediction and a guarantee are two different things. Damn animal!

Written Exams and Coffee

2008-01-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

Preparing for my last written cumulative exam (out of 8), I followed my routine for the past months: a visit to my favorite starbucks coffee shop, check the library for references and then sit on my favorite study table at the science library. Then I'll be reading for the next 8 hrs. A full time job. Although I hate to take exams, I don't mind studying, that's why I can't believe I'm paid to study (and do research, teach undergraduate students).

As I was paying for my coffee, I heard the guy next to me asking for the "strongest coffee" starbucks can offer.I don't need the strongest kick to study for this exam, because this will be my last (mosdef, most definitely). Besides, I only need a half pass (Grad school is wierd, they have whole pass and half pass), and to top everything, I am allowed to bring a "cheat sheet". The "cheat sheet" will be my small notebook, with all the formulas and thoughts I gathered from the readings.

Sturbucks and preparing for an examination is perfect combination. Trust me, I'm a professional graduate student. Without coffee, my attention span decreases to an hour, instead of 3.

New Year 08

2008-01-04T06:11:00.000-08:00

Everybody usher in the new year differently. Mine is simple and traditional: I write resolutions and keep them. How? I compose goals for the year in bold letters, stick the reminders on a huge corkboard in front of my bed so everyday of the year, I can see my goals. Psychologists call this "constant feedback". By being constantly reminded by your list, you are more likely to achieve the goals you set.

I don't have a wallet, only a money-clip. Sandwiched between the money-clip are my credit cards, my school ID and my driver's license. In addition to my yearly goals, buried between my credit cards is a small note with the list of my yearly and lifetime goals.

During the waning moments of the 2007 BCS Championship, University of Florida head football coach Urban Meyer was reading a note from his pocket. When a reporter asked him after the game what the note was, he replied, "It's too personal to discuss, but I had kept it for almost five years now in my pocket". I bet my whole life that the note is a list of his goals (and one of it is surely winning the BCS Championship). He's a psychologist, an expert motivator and a world-class coach, he knows the strategies in achieving goals.

So what are my goals for the new year? It's to personal to discuss. Did you make a list for yourself?(and by the way, things that I usually do during the first week of a new year are:

a. Change my passwords. Passwords are like underwears, you constantly change them, and just like any underwear, you don't show them to anybody :)

b. Clean my computer desktopc. Back-up my data. Transfer all the previous year's data to an external hard drive.d. Check my bicycle gears and breaks.e. Read magazines I missed during the previous year. Clean my email mailboxes.among other things)

The Face of a Nation

2008-01-03T12:43:00.000-08:00

After a long 11- hour flight from the Philippines (at the other side of the globe relative to the US), I arrived groggy at the Los Angeles International Airport. I waited impatiently for my papers to be updated by the Immigration, US Custom and Border Protection ( I can't remember the agency's real title).

Lining up waiting for my turn, I wathced the TV for advisories. From the TV tube came a black person barking orders to visitors how to fill up the declaration papers. You need to declare foods, agricultural products and money more than $10,000 before entering the US. This is one way to protect the nation from unknown diseases. From the TV announcement again was a white person talking about border patrol and then a hispanic lady adding some comments. The advisory ended with a slogan saying " US Custom and Border Protection, the face of our nation".

I then realized, the face of the US nation is actually faces ---because the U.S. is a melting pot of cultures. When it was my time to be interviewed, it didn't bother me that the officer didn't spoke perfect english. Officer Nguyen is Asian, specifically Vietnamese. It didn't bother me when he didn't understand my english telling him I'm a graduate student in analytical chemistry.

Since I was beaten by the long travel, I made some mistakes filling up the papers. Out of boredom, officer Nguyen jokingly asked me with authority on top of his Vietnamese accent, "You don't want to make mistakes in chemistry right? You don't want to mix things that will explode?". Of course I will not. But because probably of my accent, he heard otherwise, and I insisted I'm an analytical chemist, who detects traces of the dangerous materials instead of making it.

After the officer stamped my papers, took my fingerprints and photo, I was out to get my bags from the carousel, preparing for my other ordeals: another 4-hour flight to Chicago and then a 2-hr flight to Florida, my adapted State. It will not surprise me to see the many faces of the United States along the way, in the airport, the coffee shop, and intersate 95.