well-informed?

boy am i glad that i started reading the newspaper. how else would i find out these crucial pieces of news?

front section, mind you:

was houdini a british spy? 2 biographers suggest escape artist spied on anarchists, hunted couterfeiters, and was slain by spiritualists.

elephants pass mirror test. elephants can recognize themselves in a mirror, a measure of self-awareness that until now has been shown definitively only in humans and apes, researchers reported monday.

italian lawmakers raise fuss on toilet rights. the question of whether italy's first transvestite lawmaker should be allowed to use the ladies' room in parliament has triggered a full-blown debate among politicians.

so i'm no closer to knowing who's running for what november 7th, but now i have things to talk about at parties.

office politics

as my blogmate gets girlier, what with the shiny engagement ring and wedding planning, i'm just getting dorkier.

i'm not sure when i became such an incurable geek, but i can't really find a better explanation for my standing in line at office max today to pay for my brand new paper shredder.

in addition to being a big nerd, i apparently have the sense of humor of an adolescent boy... unless any of you would have such a hard time suppressing the nearly irresistible urge to giggle when the nice girl at the check out asked if you needed an lube for the shredder. i had no idea shredders needed lubricating.

so i got home and eagerly started shredding things, wondering if maybe those people at enron were just shredding stuff because it's fun (it's really fun!), and why it took me such a long time to realize that throwing away bank statements and credit card receipts without the aforementioned shredding was probably a bad idea.

apparently the shredder got mad at me for making fun of its intimacy issues - that or its little motor buckled under the pressure of my frenetic shredding... either way, now i've got a glorified trashcan, a guilty conscience, and lots of documents with no place to go.

smoke and mirrors

for the most part i like getting to work someplace brainy like u of c, but sometimes it can be a little tiresome.

for example, there are dedicated "centers" for the following, some with their own buildings:

integrative science
biomedical discovery
translational studies

seriously? do they know how ridiculous they sound?

it runs in the family

From : sister
Sent : Thursday, October 26, 2006 7:32 AM
To : brother
Subject : amazon

i'm officially a dork. i just ordered "medical
statistics at a glance" just because i thought i
might like to read it.

From: brother
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 7:55 AM
To: sister
Subject: re: amazon

i just got a book from the library called "The Box -
How the shipping container made the world smaller and
the world economy bigger."

dork contest:
you 1
me 1

movin' on up

sorry for the recent absence. my good blogmate and i have been a) studying night and day to try and pass our qualifying boards so that we can be full-fledged workin' types who get paid, b) stuck in suburban texas at a prep course, and c) FINALLY actually taking said board exam. soon there will be celebratory drinks.

many things could be said about the pain of boards preparation, i'm sure... like the people in farmer's branch, texas at boards-school who probably now hate us because we spent the entire week laughing in the front row, drawing silly pictures of ourselves hating to study and getting progressively fatter as the week of pizza delivery went by. or the guy who told us he could not possibly go out for margaritas because *he* was taking the boards on monday (for those not in this business, the boards only come once a year, meaning that everybody takes the boards on monday - but more importantly, what are you doing in suburban dallas if not taking advantage of the abundant margaritas???) or we could regale you with stories about the boards themselves, which assess our ability to deal properly with the pressing issues that affect this nation's children, like whether the bite of a black widow or brown recluse spider is worse for you, and what nastiness can be passed on in rabbit poo and mouse urine. sweet.

but now the big climactic two-day test is over, and we have to move on with the rest of our lives. in a way it's actually been nice to have an excuse not to deal with anything. finish project for work? sorry, taking boards. pick location or date for wedding? no can do, boards. as my dad suggested (immediately after hearing news of my engagement), work out a pre-nup? sorry, boards. also, buzzkill. nice. but also boards. post on the blog? well... you see which item comes first.

speaking of blog posts, i hear that the famed naterohan.com is back up and running. to recap, naterohan.com was once owned by naterohan, but it was purchased by some megaconglomerate in a brief moment of lapsed renewal. i look forward to hearing the triumphant tale of its return. but i close with a brief excerpt from butterknife's husband (nobody says it better) regarding a formatting issue... let me just say that my blogmate and i have been happy about the increased blog-tivity in recent months, and if this is why, i am sad but amused.

From : butterknife's husband
Sent : Monday, October 23, 2006 10:25 PM
To : jo-na, naterohan, butterknife, beloved friends
Subject : AAAHHH!!!

Finding naterohan.com back up and running? Awesome.
Linking to other friends' websites to find a reference to the Quaker Steak n' Lube, in Middleton, WI? Awesome.
Finding a link to my sister's website on naterohan.com? Awesome.
Not Awesome: filterless.blogspot.com = sister's website. filterless.blogpost.com = gay porn links.
Naterohan.com -> links to the latter.
glad that's in my browser's history, fellas.

existential wedding bitch

there's no reluctance here. sign me up.
with big looming test just a week away what could be better distraction than a newly engaged blogmate?
my down-to-earth, feet planted on the ground friend can now frequently be found lost in time and space, gazing into the shining sparkles of her new pretty ring- satisfying for me since until now i've had the monopoly on whimsical musing.
plus, there's all sorts of planning... sans bridezilla... and i get to help.
the questions that arise:
how can she drink her morning bloody mary on wedding day without spilling it down the front of her dress?
if we go try on fancy dresses at saks do we actually need to look nice, or can we go nike-clad carrying bottles of evian, as if we do this all the time?
three cheers for low maintenance-ness.

things that are awesome about canada

blood orange gelato
mountains
salmon (oh, the salmon)
smart cars
the cutest bums ever! canadian accented "excuse me, but are you going to eat those leftovers?"
the cutest bum-deniers ever! canadian accented "i'm so sorry, but i have a teenage son who wants that. very sorry."
eh?
aboot.
the largest, most manicured hedges EVER
a mass transit system that spans trains, buses and sea-buses (vancouver) on one ticket
the adorable suggestion by vancouverites that the reason they don't have a mass transit map is because "there are just too many buses" (really? but we can do it in chicago?)
taking a public bus to the wilderness (grouse mountain hiking)
coffee, and its everywhereness, and its goodness
loonies and toonies (how can canada take itself seriously?)
the fact that all service workers in whistler can tell us with no trace of irony that the best local hike is along the river of golden dreams (snicker)
more salmon
watching downhilling mountain bikers flying over our heads while drinking a pitcher of kokanee gold beer
chair lifts that enable us to only hike downhill
hotel hot tub with lake view where we drink straight rum from plastic bottle (classy)
large signs welcoming us to the wilderness
sitting on top of a mountain looking at a glacier, and leaving with new shiny rock. :)