All in a day's work.

I have realized that no words will summarize this day nearly as well as this picture.

Also today I drew a lot of different tiny cells that make up different stem cross sections, and I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed working on root cross sections last meeting. That moment when you finally finish filling in all the spaces with cells of appropriate sizes and shapes, when the patterns you observed and then carefully copied and laid out finally pay off, that moment, my friends, is exactly the moment you find captured above.

(Bored? More doodles here.)

Yes, unfortunately for you, the author has been reading Saramago again, and, no, he is deeply sorry to admit, but he cannot help himself.

Okay, so perhaps blogging everyday wasn't such a great idea, after all, and I'm not saying that just because I missed another day, but also because, well, when I really think about it, for the most part, nothing much differentiates each day of my existence from the other but tiny fluctuations in the only trajectory allowed by the third law of thermodynamics, a death spiral of mediocrity ending in absolute zero. 

Well, perhaps I exaggerate a bit, sometimes the upward fluctuations can be uplifting enough to temporarily dull the steady ache of being, like how fifteen minutes of fireworks can make people forget for the moment that no matter how high their hopes are, changes for the better will always be more difficult than changes for the worse, and that someone always has to clean up the resulting debris, which is not to say that all debris is worthless, because while some debris represents nothing but necessary labor, other debris may well represent the shell of something once great from which that something may be, even if reconstruction is impossible, at least appreciated one last time.

In any case, I do not think I am depressed, nor am I feeling down, nor am I in any emotional state but regret-tinged acceptance, it must be just that, on those unfortunate occasions when the weather conspires with laziness and introspection and my mental circumstances, regret and frustration are stained and stand out much too clearly for my liking or for anybody's liking, I might venture, because, we need to face it, only those strong enough of will or blessed enough by the supernatural can realistically hope to gain anything from prolonged self-interrogation, and for the rest of us, fuddlers and befuddled all, what remains is simple to say but not always to do, which is, in a word, persist. Like hope.

Drat, I broke my streak. (Mundanities, a timely reminder)

I had been blogging everyday since... December 28, but I missed a day yesterday. I wasn't in the mood last night, even though I was just procrastinating on a batch of raket articles to be rewritten. (Which I need to finish this morning, but I'm still not feeling like it, blech. Which is why I'm blogging right now instead of doing them.)

Well, to start off with some mundanities, I've been somewhat successful at trying to improve my diet. I've started keeping a Google Calendar, and I'm noting down what I eat, which is rather effective at making me more aware of what exactly I put into my mouth. Eating less, more often, and also eating more plant parts like leaves and mature reproductive organs. Meat from sea animals, too, unless there isn't any available. More water.

However, still haven't gotten around to exercising again. It is thought in some camps that diet >> exercise in terms of losing weight, anyway, except in the case of severe caloric restriction where you'd have to exercise in order to keep your metabolism from slowing. But overall, exercise may just yield second order effects. I forget which article I read that in, hmm. (Excuses. It'd still be better for me to get some cardio to keep the hypertension at bay.)

Mundanities out of the way, Jeanne recently linked me to this article on Cosmic Variance: The Cult of Genius. Hmm, sounds suspiciously like one of the reasons why I'm not so keen at the moment on pursuing higher education/ an academic career in physics. 

During high school or college, many aspiring physicists latch onto Feynman or Einstein or Hawking as representing all they hope to become. The problem is, the vast majority of us are just not that smart. Oh sure, we’re plenty clever, and are whizzes at figuring out the tip when the check comes due, but we’re not Feynman-Einstein-Hawking smart. We go through a phase where we hope that we are, and then reality sets in, and we either (1) deal, (2) spend the rest of our career trying to hide the fact that we’re not, or (3) drop out. It’s always bugged the crap out of me that physicists’ worship of genius conveys the simultaneous message that if you’re not F-E-H smart, then what good are you? In physics recommendation land, there is no more damning praise than saying someone is a “hard worker”.

Well, screw that. Yes, you have to be clever, but if you have good taste in problems, an ability to forge intellectual connections, an eye for untapped opportunities, drive, and yes, a willingness to work hard, you can have major impacts on the field.

Oh, whew. I don't have drive, nor am I a hard worker (most of the time, anyway), so I guess my decision wasn't too presumptuous. 

And, in any case, I suspect that I'm only having ego issues seeing other people enjoying their physics more and doing better work than I do. Boo hoo hoo. Well, guess what, self, time to buck up and move on. Tapusin mo na muna ang thesis mo bago ka magpaka-soul-searching diyan.

Domesticities: Milk, a simple (naive?) salad recipe; also, a small thesis update.

Some brands of fresh milk ranked in order of tastiness (personally):

Arce (carabao milk) > Nestle Premium > Mon Milk (sadly gone) > Bear Brand > Anchor > Alaska

I have the suspicion that this would also turn out to be in order of decreasing fat content. Fatty milk is fatty, but yummy. Also, including carabao milk in the ranking is somewhat unfair, as it's both much more expensive and tasty/fatty.

I write this because I keep forgetting which brand of milk to get when I'm at the supermarket. I've also tried Cowhead, and Paul's, and the non-premium Nestle brands of milk, but those are too far in the past for me to be able to remember and rank them.

The latest milk I bought, Alaska, wasn't creamy enough to make a good latte. The resulting drink seemed a little too watery for my taste, but not terribly so, I suppose. Hum.

I bought a bag of prepackaged greens recently, in an attempt to get myself to eat more leaves. I thought we had a lot of (mayo-based, Kraft, I think) dressing left in the fridge, but it turns out the few bottles still there were almost out. So I had to improvise for merienda this afternoon.

Bowlful of greens (arugula, romaine, and something else), torn by hand into shreds; a few tablespoons of dalandan juice, which I used only because there was a jar of the stuff in the fridge; a little bangus-in-spicy-corn-oil oil; a little of the bangus; dash of sugar; pinch of salt. 

Rather basic, but it was easy and quite edible. The dressing was probably a little healthier than mayo-based dressing, too. Needed pepper, I don't know why I forgot to add some. Could've been tarter, too, maybe calamansi or cane vinegar would be better acids to use.

This could be an alternative way to eat Spanish-style sardines or tuna in spicy oil (I love those!) and increase my vegetable intake in the process.

In other news, I've finally gotten around to starting actually writing my thesis. Despite still not having any new results, I realized I may as well start incorporating what I do have (from previous years' participation in SPP conferences) into the thesis template. Two months to draft deadline! D:

Another day in the life: steak and other miscellaneous food items.

I needed to buy some milk and conditioner, so naturally I had to drag Jeanne along on a quest for juicy, inexpensive meat. Our search took us to Judge Jimenez, purveyor of meats, and the journey was long, yea, and many times did we have to undertake perilous crossings.

That is, we walked a lot again, from the GMA-Kamuning MRT station, down EDSA to Kamuning, and down Kamuning to J. Jimenez. The target was Snackaroo, whose tasty steaks I'd tried before when my brother took me there or brought some home. Of course, we could have taken buses or jeeps, but for some reason, those options usually seem more unappealing to us than just walking.

Snackaroo is one of those cheap, sticky-tabled places you only find out about through word of mouth. For such a small place, there were a lot of customers, and it probably gets even more hectic during peak hours. The star attractions are their charbroiled T-bone and porterhouse steaks. 

We were planning on having a T-bone each, but as luck would have it they were out, so we had a porterhouse each instead. (Not that we were entirely clear on the difference between the two. Are T-bones juicier?) Tasty steaks, especially considering the relatively light Php130 price tag. Their gravy's pretty good too, good enough to spoon into your mouth on its own, without shame.

We had heard about a Kopi Roti branch along nearby Tomas Morato, but since we had no real idea where along that long road it was, we wisely decided to leave that for another time.

That was pretty much it. We walked back to the MRT and went to Trinoma. Coffee and still-not-dense-enough blueberry cheesecake at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, supermarket for my necessities (milk, conditioner, nuts, and leaves), Wendy's iced tea at the food court. 

Yes, I know. Nothing eventful happens in our sad little lives but food. D}:

P.S. Also I was sad for a bit because I thought I had no future because contrary to my childhood expectations, I didn't grow up to be the smartest man in the world. Also I screwed up college, and generally underachieved and failed to make better use of my time and potential. D}:

Melodious Thunk

(Psst, hey you. You can skip to the end if you just want the bottomline.)

Proceeding with my incursion into jazz music, I am now currently listening to some music by one Thelonious Monk. Weird name, right? From what I gather, during his life he was also quite fond of funny hats, and was possessed of an idiosyncratic manner, a compelling mixture of arrogance, introversion, and just plain eccentricity. 

Even to my untrained ear, the difference between his music and Ellington's is discernible. It's perhaps similar to the difference between "pop" music and "indie" music (disregarding any negative connotations of either term for the moment), in terms of innovation or oddity as well as accessibility. 

What do I mean? Ellington goes down smoothly, while Monk is somewhat more challenging. He emphasized dissonance, played quite percussively, made heavy use of pauses, and basically set out to write his own rules, both in his composition and piano playing. Of course, at present, decades later, his music might not seem quite as groundbreaking (i.e., odd) as some of the more experimental and "out there" musicians are producing (I'm looking at you, The Bad Plus!*).

Okay, enough pretending that I know what I'm talking about. Guys, basically, Thelonious Sphere Monk (what a name) was one of the earlier and most distinctive innovators in jazz music, and I have to say that the character and style of his music shows through even to casual listeners like me. 

*They're some of the only contemporary jazz musicians I've ever seriously listened to, and their music has always struck me as "weird" but also "interesting". Apparently, the trio "combines elements of modern avant-garde jazz with rock and pop influences" [wiki], whatever that means.

Bottomline: Hey, guys, Thelonious Monk made some pretty groovy, interesting (and I mean that in a really good way, okay) jazz music. Also, The Bad Plus is a contemporary group that makes music that's even more "interesting". They make good sounds, people.

Some music I've been enjoying lately.

Been downloading new music recently, which just reminded me that I'll be needing more storage soon. Only about 4 gigs left on this laptop's hard drive, while the desktop is still out of commission. (And that's also running out of space, in any case.) I really have to look into getting an external hard drive soon.

Iron & Wine, apart from having an awesome beard, also produced the excellent album Our Endless Numbered Days, which I've been listening to a lot these past days. A very relaxing set of songs, essentially composed just of a guitar line accompanying his hushed, delicate voice, although some have simple percussion such as shakers, while others contain faint hints of female vocal accompaniment. 

I'd have to say, though, his lyrics are what made the album for me, both in the simpler but oddly affecting songs such as Each Coming Night, to more drawn out numbers such as Passing Afternoon.

I also downloaded some jazz by pianist, composer, and bandleader (thank you, Wikipedia) Duke Ellington. More or less a random choice of musician to begin getting into jazz with, as he'd been mentioned by Murakami in his novels a few times, and his name was also otherwise vaguely familiar. I'm an uninformed listener, but I enjoyed the rhythm and the energetic, spontaneous spirit of the music. It's the type of music you can't help but bob your head or tap your foot along with, and will serve as excellent background music for a party, or, in fact, any activity you would prefer to be rendered groovy.