Friday Five

a la mieletcannelle. Because I tried to write about some of the other things I've been wanting to share, and I just kept getting pulled back by something shiny. Oops?


1. I tried deep fried baby carrots at a poster session this week. What a waste of batter and oil. I mean, I love a good mozzarella stick or cheese curd occasionally, and I can put down Dixie Crossroads corn fritters like there is no tomorrow, but man. What an insane waste of food. I mean, I even love steamed baby carrots! It was pretty epic...everything there was fried. Samosas, balls of rice, chicken fingers, latkes, the "fried veggies" ...ugh. I had to wash my hands twice to get all of the grease off.

(this but battered and deep fried. Thankfully a rare occurance in real life, because I couldn't find an actual picture on Google Images. Whew!)


2. For any diabetes mouse models, you give them a high fat diet. Not a high sugar diet. Proof that I may be okay in the diabetes grudge match my body may have one day (3/4 grandparents with diabetes does not bode well for me). Not that that's any reason to continue eating chocolate chips out of the bag. But they're so good! The sad thing is that I love fruit as well...so I go on mango-eating binges and then...eat chocolate. My body is just sugar starved. Or something.


3. Ice cream batch number 1 was a success! I think I need to use smaller sugar granules next time (or perhaps more vigorous whisking) but it was quite delicious. Something a bit more exciting than vanilla is in store for my next attempt.


4. I can haz orchestra?

I received an email inviting me to be a part of the MIT Philharmonic Orchestra - the summer session of orchestra here....responded saying I would absolutely LOVE to...and was told that "sorry - there are already enough horn players continuing on from last year." Uh...I guess? It's kind of jerky to turn people away from, you know, a student orchestra, but whatever. I don't care. I was also slated to play in the opera Carmen this summer with the Boston Opera Collaborative, but that was unfortunately the same weekend as a family reunion. Don't get me wrong---I'm very excited to see family as well as friends in Chicago the weekend before (plus TWO nights of Ravinia!) but does anyone know any fun gigs for me in Boston?


5. Quals are on Tuesday, I'm going to NYC in TWO weekends, and I am at work at 7:30 pm on a Friday night. Yay science!

Memorial Day

Slightly depressing, I know. But I unfortunately don't have any pictures of my grandfather from the war/with planes on my computer. So, a picture of his grave in Fort Snelling Memorial Cemetery as well as a picture of him and my grandmother holding me after the pre-kindergarten talent show will have to do (I line danced!)


Also, in true Gugisberg fashion, I may drop by the store later to pick up some Old Crow (we took shots at his funeral party). Today has been a working holiday, as my quals are in eight days, but I made ice cream yesterday and watched a movie with friends, as well as making truffles for the study group tonight---I'm always trying to improve my "work hard, play hard" ratio as per Pa's advice.

Thank you to all the service men and women out there for all that you do---it means a lot...to all of us.

For some beautiful and moving Memorial Day pictures, please see here.

I had to go to the grocery store---and why I love that the Salvation Army is on the way...

$15.03 total. For such beautiful beautiful pieces as:


and milk glass! I have a milk glass candy dish!


and a gravy boat. Because it's beautiful.



Also--it's official. I'm going to become a vintage plate lady. No cats for me...just lovely old dishes. I'm going to be the person everyone goes to when planning parties: "Hey Bridget - I was thinking of doing sort of a 60s sort of party to watch the 'Mad Men' season finale--do you have anything for that?"

Why, yes, in fact. I do.




The pineapple/grenades are pretty much my favorite.


Also, if you haven't been to Macy's home section lately, don't. Martha Stewart has her new line out in all its spring glory, and all of the packaging is just the perfect shade of blue. It will suck you in and make you want to live in pastel-world eating macaroons all day. I'm serious. I kept the box my new stainless steel bowls came in because I couln't bear to forget the color. Sick. I don't know how she does it.




And these two plates are perfect for those late nights when someone comes down, knocks on my door and asks for a cup of tea. While the pot boils on the stove, I'll bring down these two plates, and serve us some cookies or a muffin.


And after some fennel tea steeps, we talk things over---life will be calm and beautiful.

Some may argue, "You are collecting STUFF! You're forming these attachments to material objects. That's bad!" And to that I say...well...I guess? If I call it a collection does that make it better? And, according to the GRTs I have been talking to, I will actually need all of the plates and glasses I can get. So...my addiction isn't so bad after all. It at least has a defined purpose.

Also - does anyone know what these are?


They were inside a pyrex container that was taped shut that I bought this past fall. They are about 1.5 inches diameter, and I just cannot figure out for the life of me what they are for. Anyone?

Spontaneity

A few weeks ago, a friend asked if I was interested in coming to a dinner hosted by "Friends of the BSO" (Boston Symphony Orchestra) - I said, sure, why not? ...and found the place where it was supposed to be held (the math lounge 2-290) and there were lots of people there I didn't know. I was a bit late (experiment took longer than expected), and as I walked through the halls of math professors, I found the room, saw absolutely no one I knew, so I decided to try and find my friend. Unfortunately, they were all speaking an obscure language spoken by very few; in English it is known as "math").

Not only sushi, but this delicious concoction called Mochi Ice Cream - it's basically ice cream balls wrapped in a rice paste fondant. And it's amazingly addictive. As in...wow. Green tea ice cream rice paste deliciousness.

Most of the students there were only there for the food (slightly typical, but apparently there is usually a higher turnout to the actual performance than 3/30. We walked across the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge and all the way to Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory. The performance was the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and they played almost exclusively new music, including a concerto for trap set (=drumset).

I know how hard it is to play modern music sometimes...you have no one to look for to how things "should" sound, parts are almost impossible if not extremely difficult or in obscure ranges, and people in the audience don't usually appreciate/understand it as well as, say, Mozart or Bach.

Yet, as someone who has played a lot of it, as well as someone who knows lots of great composers (hey Daniel!), playing new music is sometimes more rewarding than actually listening to it only once. When you rehearse a piece over and over, you begin to appreciate the intricacy of certain rhythms, or how certain harmonies you find at first distasteful begin to make sense.

However, I was VERY impressed by all of the composers and had a great time.

Lisa Bielawa

Geoffery Gordon

Thomas Oboe Lee

Eric Moe

Lewis Spratlan

The Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama came to campus recently in order to dedicate The Dalai Lama Center of Ethics and Transformative Values -- an interesting but fitting addition to a university dedicated to learning and understand and the ultimate application of discovery.

He's quite possibly one of my favorite people ever: through his wisdom, humor, and practicality, he is a religious leader grounded in science and inquiry. His messages are devoid of proselytization and encourage peace, forgiveness, and seeing the good in everyone:

"I love your former president George Bush. He was so honest and straightforward. But as far as his policies are concerned, I have reservations.”

He touched on the current economic crisis, saying ironically, "Something’s human-created, but it’s beyond human control?" Wall Street, I believe that is your cue to say, "Oh shoot. Sorry about that...let's fix this."

He described "secular" not as an absence of belief, but as a mode of treating religious belief and non-belief with equal respect...and that ethics can exist without depending on a particular religion. He encouraged the development of a global code of ethics in order to better solve problems on a global scale, since the world as we know if is not isolated groups of people; we are in fact all interacting and dependent on each other and the environment. The bottom line is we need a better way to communicate how to do what is right.

One of the most meaningful moments for me was when he said something to the effect of "I am Buddhist and it works for me. But it does not work for everyone. And I could never force things that will not work on other people. "

You see, I don't work in black and white. And I certainly don't work with hate. Which is part of the reason I have had a hard time in the past in spiritual matters. Showing pictures of vacuumed out baby parts isn't love. It's propaganda and hate, demonizing someone who is hurt and suffering into a terrible awful person worthy of all damnation. Saying that the only one true family is a mother, a father, and children and that they are the only ones worthy of love is not representative of the families of the past or those now...and you have to look no farther than stories in the old or new testament to your neighbors down the street to confirm the irrefutable fact that love can happen in all sorts of families. I value thoughts and science and love and working together and chocolate chip cookies and wearing cotton dresses. I don't fit into a box. And I'm glad that he recognizes that people are not born perfect cubes that fit in just right without any trouble at all.

It's like when you're a little kid your mom keeps forcing you to wear socks. You hate socks, ergo you pull them off. After experience, cold feet, scrapes, and all sorts of other abuse, you start to see the point of socks. And maybe you wear the white cotton ones with pink bows your mom had you wear when you were little...or maybe you start to love bright colored bobby socks...or maybe you forgo socks and wear patterned tights instead, though you also enjoy being barefoot on the beach.

Point? Thank you for realizing that all people are different, that all people have a varied and difficult journey to find meaning and faith in something, including what kind of box they want to fit in. It means a lot.

After he spoke, he opened up the floor for questions, and one student asked about how he would suggest reconciling thoughts of peace with being a student whose job it was to work developing weapons (a very relevant question here at MIT, for sure, where all of the DOD work had to be hidden out at Draper Labs during Vietnam). His response was that individual disarmament is easy, but that sort of thing is hard to accomplish at a wider scale---which he hopes will happen by the end of the century. And in the meantime, he suggested that if you find things in your work morally objectionable, contact your senator, or volunteer with advocacy organizations that are working to help de-militarization efforts.

He also challenged MIT engineers to come up with a weapon that doesn't hurt innocent people. Anyone up for the challenge?

For more articles on the Dalai Lama's visit to MIT, please see the center's website, the school newspaper, or a religious blog covering the event.

Ben Folds and Sara Barielles--the recap

...about a million years late, I know. I've been busy!

Anyways, I went to see Ben Folds back during first semester, Sara Barielles in February, and then...wait for it....Sara Barielles AND Ben Folds at MIT's spring concert a few weeks ago.


First - I want to give Ben Folds a lot of credit for trying something new in the first concert (the first concert of his tour, actually) -- he played all of his new stuff for an hour and went on to play an hour of old stuff. It didn't work. At all. I was pretty entertained by the fact that he and his bands recorded a fake album to leak...with all the same song titles. Love it. BUT --the audience didn't know what was going on with the music, and got kinda bored, which is really lame. Especially for a concert.

So--I was very glad to see him mix it up for the MIT concert. He also sang a song with the lyrics "I'm at MIT where they know technical intelligent shit" which yes, made my night. The concert was also in a gym prompting him to say "and then there's this echo thing. And it makes me feel like there is always someone there who is reminding me how stupid I am." (promise it was funnier live).

There was also someone (I'm pretty sure I know her) who shouted "Go french horn!" after a there was a French horn counter-melody that was played by a real-live hornist on stage. He stopped noodling on his keyboard, looked into the audience, and said, "You know this is a sophisticated place when people get excited about a French horn. Because man....most colleges don't give a fuck."

And Sara was great - I love her style and silly stories ("So--I was reading a random review someone sent me of one of my shows, and it said that I wrote this next song about my dad, because, you know, he left when I was younger. [pause] Too bad that's not true"). She also brought out her ukelele for the last few songs, which was fantastic:

Sara playing Rhianna's "Umbrella" on ukelele = epic. (and don't miss the Eagles in there, too!)




Ben Folds also did a pretty epic version of Dr. Dre's "Bitches Ain't Shit," (note--profanity-filled)




(also, I'd really like to know how these people smuggled in video cameras, because there were four metal detectors and full strip search at the entrance..so yes. I'm confused).

And one of my favorites:

Ben Fold's Effington (notice the shout out to Normal, Illinois!)




However - I'm hoping to branch out next year. Hopefully Beiruit comes into town. Please?

Harold Fairchild - update!

I finally heard back from the MIT archives, and they copied and sent me three pieces about Harold 'Hal' Fairchild:

Yearbook picture:

This one is a bit hard to read: sorry about the quality. I'm going to ask them if they can do high quality scanned and reproduced images to include with the books when they are going to be donated.

It says:

Harold Welch Fairchild

Pelham, N.Y.

"Hal"; Born April 29, 1908; Prepared at Pelham High School; Aeronautical Engineering; Osiris; Pi Delta Epsilon; Tau Beta Pi; Theta Tau; Varsity Club; Aeronautical Engineering Society; Gym, Varsity Team (2, 3, 4), Captain (4); Wearer of the "T"; Field Day Marshal (4); Technique, Treasurer (2), Photographic Manager (3), Resigned, Business Manager (3); M.I.T.A.A (4); Prize Song Committee Chairman (3); R.O.T.C.; Entered Freshman Year.

I'm going to try contacting the fraternities and see if I come up with anything as well...

Here's a bit more about the Song Committee:


and also the obituary that appeared in the Technology Review in 1933: ("1929" refers to the 1929 graduates that passed away)


I still haven't heard back from Pratt and Whitney, but I'd like to find out more about his time there as well as see the back issues for SAE.

I will be going down to New York to present the three books I have in June. What a story!

Happy Mother's Day!

I love you, Mom!

The List.

(capitalized because A, I miss my brother, and B, it's a pretty important list. Enough to be a proper noun).

Things I have to do in the next month:


Today - hour long presentation on using probiotics to ameliorate Crohn's disease - went pretty well! My mango/berry smoothies went over spectacularly, I think. Also--anyone interested in hearing more about Crohn's and probiotics? I won't be offended if you're not, but I thought I'd check.

May 7 - poked and prodded for an allergy test (good thing, too--I'm walking around like a space cadet with all the pollen in the air right now) I reacted to nothing except histamine, the positive control. Oops? Apparently it could be that I am allergic only very slightly to a lot of different things, or that the allergen that I am reacting to (perhaps every day on my walks to work) isn't covered in their test of the most common allergens. Oddly enough, I had no reaction to dust mites, which I had excessive reactions to when I was young (I had to put all of my stuffed animals in the attic in 2nd grade! Tragic!) My allergist said we could do a couple more tests, but they wouldn't really change treatment (nasal spray and Zyrtec...oh joy). So yes, in the end, saving money trumps curiosity. Oh well. Also---the technology for actually doing these tests is much improved; instead of marking the entire alphabet in permanent marker on your back and individually injecting each allergen, he dips an eight-pronged plastic thing into the allergen solutions, and just presses it into your arm. It still hurts, but the administration of dose is much more standardized. Way to go, optimization!
EDIT - I had late reactions to molds. One week later and I am still reacting. Oops?

May 8 - Orchestra concert (Shostakovich 12! Oh-so-excited!) -oh my gosh what a blast! Playing Shostakovich...it's just one of my favorite things. Bombastic, intense, emotional...the things he puts in his music are just beyond words.

"Horns were impeccable yet nuanced in their articulation" thank you, MIT Tech Newspaper!

May 9 - BBQ at McCormick So delicious! And I am officially so excited for next year...I get to live with such cool people!

May 12 - paper due in Molecular Biology
- lab meeting presentation on current results - the paper was actually accomplished pretty quickly, I think due to a slightly long bus ride out to Wellesley to surprise a certain someone on his last day of classes with a bottle of champagne...I wish these kinds of carrots always worked to help me get work done! The lab presentation went pretty well, but we've established that A, Bridget knows next to nothing about the practical side of protein expression, and B, has a lot to learn.

May 14 - Final presentation on Hyper IgE grant proposal I think this went fairly well...I served devil's food cake in honor of Satan cursing Job (the other name for Hyper IgE is Job's, since you can end up with these nasty boils all over the place, which is what Satan did to Job)

May 15 - Final copy of Hyper IgE grant proposal due (including responses to reviewer's comments) I wish I could have had more time to refine and study this disease. Or that I could actually look into creating these disease models. I can haz thesis topic? Plz?

May 17 - Olin Graduation It was such great fun! All of the graduates (70 students) get 15 words to say whatever they want: thank yous to their parents, the lyrics to 'La Bamba,' or even a marriage proposal! ---my mom flipped when I told her this. Apparently she thought it was me? It wasn't :)

May 20 - Final exam - Molecular Biology I survived! Having three hours to do a two hour test is ever-so-nice! You feel like you just have so much time to think!

----interim---- =study my brains out. (working on this right now. woo-hoo?)

June 2 - Qualifying Examination. six hours of fun, baby!

June 3 - make 18 batches of ice cream. EDIT: these are using my new ice cream maker. I cannot wait. :D

Also in the works is a quick weekend trip to New York City in June, Chicago for a weekend this summer, and a week at home. Should be wonderful!

waking up...

I woke up this morning an hour later than I wanted, huddled within my blankets and clutching my phone for dear life...apparently I had woken up to shut off the alarm but then fell asleep before I put it back underneath my pillow. You know you're tired when you're so zonked that your phone is in the "if-you-want-it-you-are-taking-it-from-my-dead-body" sort of hold. I don't really know what gets into me sometimes. I'm trying so hard to get on more of an "adult" schedule (bed around 12, up at 6:30, work out--and so on)...but this has been really hard. I can't figure out if it's a REM thing, or maybe just that I need more sleep and need to go to bed at 11, or what. All I know is I need to go to bed early tonight. Yes. And instead of stuffing myself with rice crackers and peanuts (and let's be honest, more of those crack dark chocolate raisinettes) when I get home, I'll go for the fennel tea and just get to bed.

It was rainy last night, and the grey/bright green spring showers have continued today. While I do love these days---the drizzle and rain, the calm...I like them better when I get to stay at home and work on my computer, or peacefully read a book. It's not really my favorite to have to slog in to work by 9 am, do two hours of lab stuff, then four hours of class, and then lab meeting and orchestra, while trying to fit in studying and getting ready for a presentation tomorrow in my pathophysiology class. One of these days, the rainy day will be on a Saturday, and I will be able to cuddle up in my hypothetical big bed and my hypothetical West Elm pin-tuck duvet cover and read a book.

The closest I get to either of those right now is sit on top of my dorm-furniture bed with my college sheets/comforter and read papers like "Different aa-TRNAs are selected unifromally on the Ribosome." Let me tell you, that one is really a thriller. You won't be able to put it down...