BMS Retreat 2007 @ Lake Arrowhead (aka "We had some massive nights")

Wow. Had an absolutely epic time at the UCSD Biomedical Sciences graduate program retreat the past two days. Drinking with faculty and other students, hearing lots of great stories, and actually having some input into the program's development, not to mention hearing how everyone else's research is going...there's a lot to be said for that. Had several long (drunken) conversations with faculty members, including my boss. That one included him mentioning that in two years I "should have a really good story," aka have my thesis mostly finished. That was a freaking relief to hear, especially amid all the talk of moving and whatnot. Two years is what I'm now aiming for. Now I just have to start producing some data...

Another conversation with a different faculty member ended with him saying, "Shouldn't you be getting a text message right about now to rescue you?" Ah, it's great to know that the chair of the program is up on modern technology and all it's usefulness.

At any rate, I feel completely re-energized and ready to dive back into work. Maybe that had something to do with the karaoke last night? Who knows. At any rate, the retreat actually turned out to be the great bonding experience that it's supposed to be, and I'm glad.

Hanging out with some friends tonight, but tomorrow night I'll be photographing the San Diego House Party event with The Muslims and Grand Ole Party. Come on out and say hi!

Digesting the Republican Presidential Debate in South Carolina

Another political post, I know. But I just finished reading the transcript of the Republican Presidential Debate that took place last night in South Carolina, and I wanted to share my opinion on the candidates that I definitely won't be voting for. It's all part of the "know thy enemies" way of doing things here. Although at least two of the candidates don't seem so much to be enemies. Who are they? Well, the obvious ones: Rudy Guiliani and John McCain.

Guiliani gets points for his pro-choice stance, even when he was called out on it in the debate:

MR. GOLER: You have said that you personally hate abortion but support a woman's right to choose. Governor Huckabee says that's like saying, "I hate slavery, but people can go ahead and practice it." Tell me why he's wrong.

MR. GIULIANI: Well, there is no circumstances under which I could possibly imagine anyone choosing slavery or supporting slavery. There are people, millions and millions of Americans, who are as of good conscience as we are, who make a different choice about abortion. And I think in a country where you want to keep government out of people's lives, or government out of people's lives from the point of view of coercion, you have to respect that. There are things that you can oppose, things you can be against; and then you can come to the conclusion, in the kind of democracy we have, the kind of society that we have, and the kind of society we have where we want to keep government out of people's personal lives, that you can respect other people's view on this. And I think everyone on this stage, including most Democrats, could probably very, very usefully spend a lot of time figuring out how we can reduce abortion.

It's going to take a while for the courts to figure out what to do about this.

And while we're looking at that, we should do what I did in New York, which is to try to reduce abortions as much as you can, try to increase adoptions.

That's actually remarkably similar to my own views on abortion.

McCain, of course, gets props for actually having a military background, and for having the strength to stand up for his own position on things, no matter how unpopular it may be. The man has a certain sense of dignity that's not always seen in politicians, which I think was made obvious in this exchange:

The questions in this round will be premised on a fictional, but we think plausible scenario involving terrorism and the response to it. Here is the premise: Three shopping centers near major U.S. cities have been hit by suicide bombers. Hundreds are dead, thousands injured. A fourth attack has been averted when the attackers were captured off the Florida coast and taken to Guantanamo Bay, where they are being questioned. U.S. intelligence believes that another larger attack is planned and could come at any time.

First question to you, Senator McCain. How aggressively would you interrogate those being held at Guantanamo Bay for information about where the next attack might be?

SEN. MCCAIN: If I knew for sure that they had that kind of information, I, as the president of the United States, would take that responsibility. That is a million-to-one scenario. But only I would take that responsibility.

The use of torture -- we could never gain as much we would gain from that torture as we lose in world opinion. We do not torture people.

When I was in Vietnam, one of the things that sustained us, as we went -- underwent torture ourselves, is the knowledge that if we had our positions reversed and we were the captors, we would not impose that kind of treatment on them.

It's not about the terrorists, it's about us. It's about what kind of country we are. And a fact: The more physical pain you inflict on someone, the more they're going to tell you what they think you want to know.

It's about us as a nation. We have procedures for interrogation in the Army Field Manual. Those, I think, would be adequate in 999,999 of cases, and I think that if we agree to torture people, we will do ourselves great harm in the world.

Yeah. There's not really much I can elaborate on there.Interestingly enough, Representative Ron Paul got on my good side while I was reading over his answers, mostly in regards to the war in Iraq and our response to September 11th. I think he's one of the only candidates who has a global view regarding our actions. This is a sort of long exchange about noninterventionist policies, in whicch he managed to really piss off Guiliani:

MR. GOLER: Congressman Paul, I believe you are the only man on the stage who opposes the war in Iraq, who would bring the troops home as quickly as -- almost immediately, sir. Are you out of step with your party? Is your party out of step with the rest of the world? If either of those is the case, why are you seeking its nomination?

REP. PAUL: Well, I think the party has lost its way, because the conservative wing of the Republican Party always advocated a noninterventionist foreign policy.

Senator Robert Taft didn't even want to be in NATO. George Bush won the election in the year 2000 campaigning on a humble foreign policy -- no nation-building, no policing of the world. Republicans were elected to end the Korean War. The Republicans were elected to end the Vietnam War. There's a strong tradition of being anti-war in the Republican party. It is the constitutional position. It is the advice of the Founders to follow a non-interventionist foreign policy, stay out of entangling alliances, be friends with countries, negotiate and talk with them and trade with them.

Just think of the tremendous improvement -- relationships with Vietnam. We lost 60,000 men. We came home in defeat. Now we go over there and invest in Vietnam. So there's a lot of merit to the advice of the Founders and following the Constitution.

And my argument is that we shouldn't go to war so carelessly. When we do, the wars don't end.

MR. GOLER: Congressman, you don't think that changed with the 9/11 attacks, sir?

REP. PAUL: What changed?

MR. GOLER: The non-interventionist policies.

REP. PAUL: No. Non-intervention was a major contributing factor. Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we've been over there; we've been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We've been in the Middle East -- I think Reagan was right.

We don't understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we're building an embassy in Iraq that's bigger than the Vatican. We're building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us. (Applause.)

MR. GOLER: Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attack, sir?

REP. PAUL: I'm suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it, and they are delighted that we're over there because Osama bin Laden has said, "I am glad you're over on our sand because we can target you so much easier." They have already now since that time -- (bell rings) -- have killed 3,400 of our men, and I don't think it was necessary.

MR. GIULIANI: Wendell, may I comment on that? That's really an extraordinary statement. That's an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. (Applause, cheers.)

And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn't really mean that. (Applause.)

MR. GOLER: Congressman?

REP. PAUL: I believe very sincerely that the CIA is correct when they teach and talk about blowback. When we went into Iran in 1953 and installed the shah, yes, there was blowback. A reaction to that was the taking of our hostages and that persists. And if we ignore that, we ignore that at our own risk. If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem.

They don't come here to attack us because we're rich and we're free. They come and they attack us because we're over there. I mean, what would we think if we were -- if other foreign countries were doing that to us?

I entirely agree - by fighting these people, we are inciting hatred of our country, and thus, more terrorist attacks. We're trying to stick our noses into business without even trying to understand it, and then we don't understand when it explodes in our faces. And here's something even more poignant that no one in the current administration ever touches upon:

REP. PAUL: ...We gave the president authority to go into Afghanistan, and here we have Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. They have nuclear weapons, and we're giving them money.

And we forgot about him, and now we're over in -- in Iraq in a war that's bogging us down, and we have forgotten against -- about dealing with the people that attacked us.

Kudos, Rep. Ron Paul, for having the balls and intelligence to make that statement. Although I have my doubts as to whether you are actually Republican, let alone conservative. Way to shake things up within your party.

And for the candidate that most disgusted me? That would be Represenatative Tom Tancredo, with this statement:

Congressman Tancredo, the ambassador from the European Union says the United States and Europe bear a special responsibility for global warming because the greenhouse gases causing the problem have been put there since the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s. We put most of the stuff up there. Do you agree? And what should we do to deal with the problem, sir?

REP. TANCREDO: Okay. First of all, the whole issue of global warming, for every single scientist that tells you it's happening and that it's our fault -- and they'll stack up to here in this reports -- I can stack up another group of reports that say just the opposite.

I don't believe that -- well, I'll tell you this, I don't know whether or not we are responsible, we the human race, are responsible for global warming.

It certainly could be happening, it certainly could be a natural phenomenon. If it's the latter, of course there isn't much we can do about that. If it's the former, there is something that we can do about it, and I'm all for it, and that is of course to reduce our dependence on petroleum products. If we do that, we automatically reduce the carbon emissions that people claim are causing global warming. And I'm all for doing that, because -- I'll tell you why. It's a national security issue. It just isn't an issue of fight over the science of global warming; it's a national security issue for us to move away from the use of petroleum products when they're coming from countries that want to kill us.

And although my dear friend Ron here -- I dearly love and really respect, but I'll tell you, I just have to disagree with you, Ron, about the issue of whether or not that -- whether Israel existed or didn't, whether or not we were in the Iraq war or not, they would be trying to kill us because it's a dictate of their religion, at least a part of it, and we have to defend ourselves.

First of all, get some new fucking science advisors. Any report that says that global warming is not happening comes from some pandering group that is probably being paid money to say so. Get your facts straight and your political bias out of science. We don't like your kind here.

Second of all, lose the narrow-minded view of Islam. It is not a religion that supports terrorism. It is the religious extremists who support terrorism - the crazies. Not the religion itself. And history has always shown that the crazies feed on hatred and downtrodden people. The crazies have no power if there aren't downtrodden people to support them. So let's stop stepping all over these people, okay?

End rant. Obama 2008! Although that's another blog entry for another day...

Homepage Change

For the last 5 years or so, cnn.com has been the homepage of my web browser. Even when I made the switch from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox (and you should too), cnn.com made the cut.

But I finally got fed up with their "news" about Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, etc. If I wanted to read that shit, I would have set my homepage to something like people.com. Stories about celebrities are not news, people. It's gossip. Unless the celebrity in question acheives world peace or settles third-world debt, I don't want it staring me in the face every time I open up the interweb.

And the bumbling attempts at witty headlines that tell you nothing about the actual story? Bitch, please. Information is what I seek, not punny headlines.

It's now set at washingtonpost.com, where, thankfully, I have to scroll down to even get a glimpse about entertainment. And even then, it's not a Paris or Lindsay post, it's an article about the ending of the show Gilmore Girls, which, apparantly, is critically acclaimed. Huh.

Rev. Jerry Falwell Dead at 73

Television Evangelist Falwell Dies at 73

Is this a sign from God that the religious right has gone too far?

Seriously, folks. This is the man who made the religious right what it is today. Without him, the South would still be staunchly Democratic, and religion wouldn't have a place in politics.

I don't want to hate on a guy who used to build elementary schools and homes for unwed mothers and alcoholics, especially after his death. But in his later years, it seemed as though he forgot what it actually meant to be Christian.

I was actually having a similar discussion with a friend last night. We were watching Jonestown and commenting on how far charismatic people can push their agendas, especially under the guise of religion. It saddens me to think of how many weak-minded, or just weak, people there are out there that latch on to these ridiculous claims and causes. I was raised Catholic, a religion that, at least in my parish, seemed almost cult-like in its insistence that you just follow their rules/catechism and never question your leaders. That's the short answer to why I no longer follow that religion. The longer answer is all tied up in the personal agendas inherently involved in any type of organized religion, and that if there really is a God or some higher power, then what does it matter what specific religion you follow, as long as you're a sincerely good human being.

At any rate, being raised Catholic, I know how a Christian is supposed to act. Love thy neighbor, give to those who have less than you, and save judgement of others for God. Which honestly, sounds more like a Democratic point of view than the current Republican agenda. But somehow Christianity has gotten all turned around in politics to mean: hate thy neighbor unless he's exactly like you, take as much as you can from whomever you can, and judge everyone for all their potential faults. I just don't get it. And I don't get how people don't realize it. Somehow Republicans are perceived as more moral people than Democrats. But my opinion is that they just hide their faults a little bit better.

I'm afraid I just did the unthinkable and posted a religious/political topic on my blog. But what can I say? When the words decide to flow, who am I to stop them or try to change their course?

Thanks for a very happy birthday!

Thanks to everyone that came out last night to help me celebrate my birthday. I had an awesome time at dinner, and an even better time at the Whistlestop. I'm glad that people from all my groups of friends came out and were able to intermingle well. I'm glad that Bartender's Bible was playing, because they sounded great, even to my not-so-sober ears.

And btw, the strawberry-banana pancakes at The Mission are about the best breakfast food ever.

Off to the Belly Up tonight to photograph Dynamite Walls' EP release party. If you see me there, come say hi and have a drink with this just-turned-25-year-old!

Non-Concert Photography

Sorry kiddos. It's been a crazy past three days in the lab. Crazy good, for the most part, but I've been running around and doing so much science that I haven't yet finished processing my photos from the Bright Eyes show. But never fear, I believe there are some good ones in there. It just takes time to go through 150+ photos, even after throwing out the ones that are totally out of focus.

So to appease you all while I work on those (and trust me, tonight I am working on those photos and my laundry, nothing else), I've posted some non-concert photos that I've taken in the past. Here's some from the Hillcrest Farmer's Market in January:







And here are some that I actually shot with my 35mm film SLR camera awhile back:







That last one is an example of what happens when a glass Pasteur pipet breaks while you're trying to attach it to some vacuum hosing. Ouch. My original thought was to ask for a bandaid, but when we realized how deep the cut was (it actually scratched a tendon), I got sent to the doctor's and ended up with three stitches. After reassuring the doctor that, even though I had been working in the virus hood, there was no adenovirus in my cut, he told me, "Well, I guess you'll never be a hand model." Indeed. I still don't have the grip strength in that finger that I used to. Which is a shame, as it was always the hand I used to open twist-off bottle caps.

In other random news, I've been listening to The Clientele a lot lately. Their new album (released May 8th), is fantastic. I love their lush sound that harkens back to the 60's and Simon and Garfunkel. They're playing the Casbah May 22nd with Beach House and the Electric Soft Parade. Do not miss that show - that's one hell of a lineup.

The beginning of my birthweek

It's looked mostly like this. Photo taken circa spring 2005, but it's what my nightstand looks like every damn time I've got a cold. I've mostly managed to kick this one, due to a day off from work yesterday and about 15 hours of sleep.

Anyway, my birthday's on Friday, and I need to be a full 100% by then so that I can go out and wreck my immune system again. But in the meantime, here's the plans for the week:

• Tuesday: Bright Eyes @ Soma, possible drop-in at the Whistlestop afterwards for some Super Nintendo action (if I'm feeling up for it).
• Wednesday: Hopefully Ben Kweller @ USD Sports Center, if my hookup can come through with tickets in time...
• Thursday: ?
• Friday: The big day. Dinner (probably at Apertivo) followed by a free Bartender's Bible show at the Whistlestop. Have I mentioned that I love the Whistlestop? Not to mention that it's super close to my house.
• Saturday: Potential Stone Brewery tour, followed by shooting photos at the Dynamite Walls EP release party at the Belly Up.
• Sunday: Recovery day?