Sunday 28 November 2010

Another Milestone

I hit 200 blog posts a bit back, but that's not it.

In two days I fly off to my first international conference.

Wish me luck.

Saturday 27 November 2010

Logorama

Yet another short animated film! This time it's Logorama, which is about a world built almost entirely out of familiar corporate logos and mascots. The short was critially acclaimed, even winning an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, and it's easy to see why. Go check it out!

Friday 19 November 2010

That Which Pride Precedes

Shortly after my meeting with my supervisors yesterday, I collapsed in a faint. This wouldn't have been a big deal, except:

  • I couldn't move my legs, or even my upper body immediately after it happened
  • I work on a deadly pathogen with a varied and often unpredictable clinical presentation

One ambulance ride, a cannulation, an eye-examination which enabled me to see the blood vessels in my own eyeball, and some blood tests later, and it was determined that there was nothing more wrong with me than simple stress and exhaustion, combined with illness, poor diet and lack of regular sleep. Which I suppose isn't so simple after all.

I'm now at home, condemed to a day of boredom which I suppose I'll have to spend reading papers and looking at my sequencing. And laundry, probably. The everyday stuff which I normally shelve in favour of labwork.

I suppose I had this coming. Too much of anything, even something you enjoy, can lead to harsh consequences. In retrospect, it's just as well that I keeled over in the office, with my co-supervisor standing next to me, and not, say, while jaywalking.

I just wish I had been more conscious to enjoy the ambulance ride. What's the point of riding in an ambulance if you're going to be sick through it? Same thing with police cars - you have to be a criminal to be a passenger in one. How harsh.

The hospital food wasn't so bad though. Admittedly, I had gone for some nine hours without food by the time someone thought to send a tray in. Also, hungry or not, I didn't have more than a spoonful of the custard pudding. It was horrible.

I'm sure I'll consider this a grand adventure some day and laugh at it all. Kinda tired right now though. Hospitals are freaky places and I hate them.

Gonna get lunch now. I'm thinking hard-boiled eggs for some reason.

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Wednesday 10 November 2010

Recipe: Chocolate Cookie Mice

(Adapted from a recipe published in Cookies, Bars, Brownies by the Pillsbury Company)

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar
100g butter, softened
100g vegetable shortening, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 1/4 level cups plain flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
Miniature dark chocolate chips
Red or black string licorice, cut into 5 cm lengths

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. In a large bowl, beat sugar, butter and shortening until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Stir in flour, cocoa and baking powder. Mix until well combined.

Shape cookie dough into 3 cm balls. Pinch one end to form a pointed mouse nose. For the ears, make two tiny balls of dough, less than 1 cm across, and flatten slightly. Press carefully onto the upper-front portion of the mouse body. For the eyes, push two miniature chocolate chips into the pointed end of the dough ball.

Place cookies about 5 cm apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes until the cookies just set. Remove from the oven and immediately push a piece of licorice into the rounded end of each cookie. Allow to cool completely. Remove from cookie sheets. Makes 36 cookies.


Variations

Stuff the mice with chocolate by pressing two chocolate chips into the dough while rolling it into a ball. Technically the cookies can also be stuffed with jam, but the cookies tend to lose their shape during baking.


Additional notes
  • Shortening is annoying to soften. You might have warm it over the stove or in the microwave oven.
  • Press the ears onto the mice properly, or they may fall off during baking!
  • I find it easier to insert the licorice tails if the rounded ends of the mice are facing the edges of the pan.
  • Don't touch the chocolate chip eyes after taking the cookies out of the oven! They will be melted, hot and very painful!

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