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baseball and buddies

Gary and I had a fun weekend filled with baseball and buddies. Saturday, we hung out with my Aunt Nancy and then took my cousin Mallory to see Lord of the Rings (can you believe it is still playing). I think it was my fifth or sixth time seeing that film in the theaters.
Sunday, Gary and I went with our buddy Adrienne to see the Sacramento River Cats play an exhibition game against their parent team, the Oakland A's. It was very warm out. I put on sunscreen, managing to stay unscathed by the sun, while Gary declined the sunscreen and got sunburned. Then, Sunday evening, we had some friends over to watch the open game for the Angels and to celebrate our engagement. We had a fun time playing homemade scattegories (we don't actually own the game yet). Overall, a very nice weekend, it just went by too fast.

Ewan Mcgregor

Happy birthday to my most favorite actor, Ewan Mcgregor, who is 32 today. I have such a crush on him. I'm looking forward to his new movie with Renee Zellweger, Down with Love.

Onion

Rowling's baby

World famous author of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, gave birth to her second child yesterday. I'm happy for her, considering that her personal life used to be pretty dismal. But I'm concerned that there is not alot of hope for more attention going into her books with a newborn at home. I hope she can still spend time writting. This last installment took alot longer than projected.

Engaged

I am very happy to anounce that Gary and I are ENGAGED!!

After over 6 years dating, and 8 months living together, Gary and I now plan to get married. We've been talking about it for a while, and now just seems like the right time to move forward. Although we definitely do not have all the details yet, the date is set for July 4th, 2004. We are so excited!

For more information visit our wedding website.

War commentary/Oscars

I feel it is time to have my say about the whole war business. This war doesn't make any sense to me. As I've mentioned before, the Bush administration has some illogical motivations. If we are worried about a threat from weapons of mass destruction, why aren't we going after N. Korea who readily admits to developing nuclear weapons. If we are there to free the innocent civilians from a abusive dictator, again why aren't we in N. Korea, or Zimbabwe, or Ruwanda, or Sri Lanka? I speculate that the real motivation have something to do with oil and bruised egos.

I also feel that the president has more important domestic things to worry about. For example, the majority of states and the federal government are heading for historicaly deep budget deficits. I've heard estimates that this incursion will cost over 100 billion dollars. Since this sum accounts for only about 1% of the GDP, it will not be enough to actually stimulate the economy, yet still push our government deeper into the red. I just don't understand why. And of course, these are just fiscal affects. What about the loss of lives, pollution to the Iraqi environment, and damage to our international reputation?

On a lighter note, this war may even threaten a very important American institution - The Acadamy Awards! If you think I'm bummed about the war now, just stay out of my way if the Oscars are canceled.

GOP mockery

If you are fond of humor, but not too fond of the Republican party, visit this clever site.

Here is an excerpt I found particularly amusing.

MINAS TIRITH (Gondor News Network) - Thousands of peace activists took to the streets of Minas Tirith and other cities of Middle Earth today to protest what they termed a rush to war with Mordor.

“We need more time for diplomacy,” said a key member of the Middle-Earth Security Council, Saruman the White. “I am not convinced by the evidence presented by my esteemed colleague, Gandalf the Grey, or that the Dark Lord Sauron presents an imminent danger to the peoples of the West.”

Many of the people protesting war in Mordor agreed with Saruman’s remarks. “Sauron says he’s destroyed his Rings of Mass Destruction (RMD) and that’s good enough for me,” said one fellow carrying a sign that said “Elrond is a Balrog.” Another demonstrator urged, “Give the RMD inspectors more time. There’s no reason to rush to any judgment just because Mount Doom is belching lava, the Dark Tower is rebuilt, and Osgiliath has been decimated.” A third protester piped up, “I haven’t heard a single bit of convincing evidence connecting the Nazgul with Sauron. I think they destroyed Osgiliath on their own initiative without any support from Sauron. Besides, it’s understandable they’re angry with Gondor. We haven’t done nearly as much for the Orcs and Goblins and Easterlings as the Nazgul and Sauron have. It’s understandable they throw their support to them. It’s our own fault really.”

As the protesters continued their march through the city, they chanted, “No blood for Mount Doom,” voicing a common sentiment that the leaders of the Western peoples are really seeking to get their hands on the powerful Mount Doom, where the One Ring of Power was allegedly forged.

Gandalf the Grey was unavailable for comment. A spokesman said he was in an undisclosed underground location, which sources have revealed is codenamed: Moria.

ACMG meeting

I spent the weekend in San Diego, mostly to attend the annual clinical genetics meeting, but also to visit my brother, Ari. The conference was okay - some parts were pretty boring and not really applicable to what I do. The most exciting part was representing my research report (#126) on a rare form of mosaic translocation Down syndrome. I was proud to present my first scientific paper, which I hope will be published soon.

It was also nice to visit my brother. I don't get to see him much these days. We had fun going to Hillel services. It was also cool to hang out with some of his college buddies. I must say our lifestyles are very different. I feel like such a square compared to him (I guess I'm a square compared to most people too). We traded off sleeping in his bed; I took the early shift from 10pm to 6:30am and he took the 4am to 1pm shift. He was nice enough to wake up and drive me to the conference every morning too.

Hebonics

As a follow up to this morning's post. My mother sent me this on "Hebonics."

The New York City Board of Education has officially declared Jewish English - now dubbed Hebonics - a second language. Backers of the move say the city's School District is the first in the state to recognize Hebonics as a valid language and significant attribute of New York culture. According to Howard Schollman, linguistics professor at New York University and renowned Hebonics scholar, the sentence structure of Hebonics derives from middle and eastern European language patterns, as well as Yiddish.

Prof. Schollman explains, "In Hebonics, the response to any question is usually another question -- plus a complaint that is implied or stated.

Thus 'How are you?' may be answered, 'How should I be, with my feet?'" Schollman says that Hebonics is a superb linguistic vehicle for expressing sarcasm or skepticism.

An example is the repetition of a word with "sh" or "shm" at the beginning:
"Mountains, shmountains. Stay away. You want a nosebleed?"

Schollman provided the following examples from his textbook, Switched-On Hebonics.
Question: "What time is it?"
English answer: "Sorry, I don't know."
Hebonic answer: "What am I, a clock?"

Remark: "Hurry up. Dinner's ready."
English response: "Be right there."
Hebonic response: "Alright already, I'm coming. What's with the 'hurry' business? Is there a fire?"

Remark: "I like the tie you gave me; wear it all the time."
English response: "Glad you like it."
Hebonic response: "So what's the matter; you don't like the other ties I gave you?

Question: "Would you like to go riding with us?"
English answer: "Just say when."
Hebonic answer: "Riding, shmiding! Do I look like a cowboy?"

Answering a phone call from son:
English remark: "It's been a long time since you called."
Hebonic remark: "You didn't wonder if I'm dead yet?"

Jewish languages

Last Sunday, in our introduction to Judaism class, Gary and I learned about Jewish history. Because Jews have lived all over the world, they often incorporated Hebrew into the spoken language around them. The example that most people have heard of is Yiddish, a combination of German and Hebrew. But did you know about Ladino, a Spanish/Hebrew mix? There are over a dozen Jewish languages which arose from writting the vernacular language in Hebrew. Some even argue a Jewish-English language is evovling.

First Triathlon

Today I competed in my first triathlon. It was a practice sprint/half triathlon hosted by the Sac State Triathlon Club. There were over 40 college athletes from CSUS, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley. Besides me, there were only a hand full of folks from the community.

I did pretty well for my first tri. I was one of the first girls to finish the swim, but quickly lost ground on the transition to the bike. From there, I just tried to keep a steady pace. I didn't push myself too hard because I was afraid of exhausting myself in the end. Overall I finished last in the women with a time of 1:35:31. Not too bad for swimming 500 yards, biking 13 miles, and then running 3 miles. I am proud of myself.

The main thing is that it was really fun. The other triathletes were very friendly and encouraging. I hope to join them for some workouts and I will certainly be doing their next practice triathlon in April.

Black Cat genetics

In some random genetics news, researchers have discovered a link between what makes black cats black and the human immune system. They found that the gene responsible for black hair color in jaguars is also responsible for red hair color in people. What's more this gene is very similar to a transmembrane protien that functions in the immune system as a gate keeper for cells. The scientist hope by studying the genes in black cats (without having to manipulate any human genes) they may learn more about the mechanics of HIV and other infections.

My question is, does this mean red heads are more susceptible to infection? or more immune? Do blonds have more fun? Only more genomic research will tell for sure.

I know it has been a while since my last post. But nothing really interesting has happened recently and I haven't found any cool random news to write about. So instead, you can enjoy a photo from my recent trip to Lake Tahoe. THis picture is of Gary and me at Fallen Leaf Lake.