"Is this normal?"

Have you ever had a conversation that began with the above words, progressed to a friend bending their elbow the wrong way or turning their nostril inside out, and ended with everyone else saying "NO! That's not normal, you freak!"?

No?

That's not normal?

Anyway...

Is this normal?

Every time I get a paper cut, nick, scrape, or other kind of boo-boo on one of my hands, it seems to multiply over the next few days, leaving me with teeny tiny cuts and scabs all over both hands. In the latest example, I sliced open the iPhone touchscreen / laptop trackpad-using part of my right index finger early last week, and looking at my hands now, I have a total of six independently-acquired boo-boos on my right hand and two on my left, all in various stages of healing. Most of them are right on a knuckle, too, for added ouchies. I can understand an accumulation of cuts on the same hand as the original injury - it hurt like a bastard and probably made me clumsier and more prone to other injuries than normal - but I have no idea why I always end up with a cluster on the other hand too.

Ah well, at least I'm no longer in the lab. Profusion of cuts + latex gloves = grossness. (This is how I first observed the phenomenon, by the way. Latex gloves are a great way to identify microscopic cuts you didn't even know you had).

"Doctor Doctor! I need glasses!"

"You certainly do. This is a fish and chip shop."

BOOM BOOM!

You know what's even funnier than really cheesy old jokes?

This:

Defeating perfect enemies

Here is the single most useful piece of writing advice I’ve ever heard, and I apologise for not thinking of posting it sooner. It came from my PhD supervisor, lo these many years ago, and it really helped me to get started in earnest on writing my thesis.

----------------------

If you’re procrastinating, blocked, or otherwise having serious difficulties starting a piece of writing, it may well be because you’re a perfectionist.  You’re possibly unsure of what exactly is required of the piece - the scope, the tone, the structure, the length - and your perfectionist little brain won’t let you start working on something that it knows won’t meet your high standards.

If this happens to you: just start writing. Dive straight into that first draft. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of the good*, but it doesn’t even have to be good. Not at this stage, anyway.

The trick is to make your perfectionism work for you, rather than against you, by shifting it to a different stage of the writing process. Trust yourself: trust that if you put your perfectionist tendencies aside during the drafting process, they’ll still be there later, waiting for you, and will kick in during the editing phase. You will, inevitably, re-read your dodgy imperfect first draft, recognize the flaws, and start to restructure, reword, fill in gaps, cut unnecessary sections, lather, rinse, repeat. C’mon – you’re a perfectionist! You just know you won’t put up with an imperfect draft for long! You'll whip it's arse into shape in no time!

----------------------

Of course, you then have to turn your perfectionism back off again after a final thorough editing and proofreading, because otherwise you’ll never submit the damn thing.

Blog posts are excellent training in this regard. I’ll publish a blog post at a waaaaay earlier stage than when sending a document to my boss or another colleague. I might notice the occasional typo or clumsy wording, and go back and tweak once it’s posted… but then again, I might get lucky and have comments to respond to instead. Which is much more fun, obviously.

--------------------------------------------

*supplementary advice: as I learned just last year, during a writing course I took at work, procrastinating until just before a deadline is another way to defeat this enemy. If you wait long enough, the deadline will become so urgent that you’ll accept that the piece doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be on time (and good enough), and you'll be able to start writing. Some people will never be able to eliminate this deadline crutch, but the main thread of the advice above may help you to take the first wobbly unaided steps.

The joy of socks...

...that match your other accessories

Superstition

I laugh in the face of superstition.

I'll walk under a ladder, step on cracks in the pavement, and I can spill any amount of salt without feeling the need to throw some of it over my shoulder.

But it all goes to pot when it comes to sport.

It's all because of my upbringing; being a life-long Newcastle United fan has completely messed with my psyche. Historically, the team is pathologically incapable of defending a lead. 2-0 up with eight minutes left? We'll lose 3-2. 12 points clear at the top of the Premiership? You can put money on us finishing second.

As a result, I'm horribly superstitious when it comes to sport. I don't have to wear a particular shirt on game day or anything like that, but no-one is allowed to leave the room during play, and there are some things you just don't say until the final whistle blows. In particular I can never, ever relax during a game, and will never, ever take for granted a lead of any magnitude. To do so would be to jinx it.

"Don't jinx it!", I'll say, if anyone in the room ventures a favourable opinion on the team's chances of winning.

"Don't jinx it!", I'll say, as my team is five goals ahead with twenty seconds left on the clock.

I know it makes no sense, but I firmly believe that the USA's goal with 24 seconds left in the final period of the gold medal Olympic hockey game was due to my friend prematurely shouting "let's go downtown!!!" about 15 seconds earlier.

So the Canucks' overtime defeat on Saturday was definitely because another friend said, with the Canucks 2-0 up, "winning in regulation time is boring. I wanna see some OT!"

And here's what went down on Twitter last night:

Sigh. Three different friends. I clearly need to start watching games alone (or at least just with Mr E Man, who knows better by now), with no internet access.

Of course, there's no possibility at all that it was the team's fault. No sirree. The refs, yes, because the officiating has been terrible all series (apparently this was not a legitimate high sticking call) and there's clearly a conspiracy, but the team? No. Couldn't be. The dreadful penalty kill was totally the fault of the exchange of bits and pixels hundreds of miles away. Yeah.

Over-thinkers anonymous

I over-think EVERYTHING. It drives Mr E Man crazy. I put it down to my scientific training: you have to consider alternative hypotheses! And state the Potential Pitfalls and Alternative Approaches!

But apparently, this kind of rigour is not necessarily appropriate when trying to decide what to do at the weekend.

When Mr E Man told me jokingly (?) to "OMG, GET HELP!!!", I started to think about what that help might look like....

NB: I originally intended this post to be in the form of a cartoon, but it turns out that I can't draw. At all. I mean, I can draw stick figures that are almost as good as the ones on xkcd, but I can't do perspective or anything like that. So please imagine the poster below as part of a cartoon: it's on a noticeboard in a long corridor of the kind often seen in academic research institutes, and there's a young student standing in front of it and reading intently with a worried look on their face.

Hockey p 0rn

During the Olympics, one friend described the amazing Canada-Russia hockey game as "hockey p 0rn".

Another friend turned around with his eyes and mouth wide open, and proclaimed that "hockey p 0rn would be the best thing EVAH!"

We started to come up with a list of words and phrases that could be used in this exciting new genre, a meme we resurrected on Saturday night during the Canucks' final regular season game. Once your mind is sufficiently deeply embedded in the gutter, it's amazing what smut you can pick out of perfectly innocent TV studio and living room commentary...

Here, just in time for the playoffs, is what we've come up with so far:

• "Here comes the slap shot!"
• "I love four-on-four, it's nothing but end-to-end action"
• "He's slotted it five-hole"
• "What a powerful wrist shot he has"
• Two-man advantage
• "What skillful stick handling!"
• "I think it's time to pull the goalie" 

The star would obviously have to be Legwand (who, of course, played at the Gaylord Entertainment Center before it was so sadly and boringly renamed).

Any more?!

And here's the money shot: Daniel Sedin's third goal against Calgary on Saturday. What a fucking beautiful goal! Make sure you watch all the slo-mo replays:



Not really on topic, but still hilarious, is the term accidentally introduced by a British friend who merged the start-of-game terms "kick off" and "puck drop" into "what time's puck off?"

7 pm on Thursday, that's when it is! Puck off, LA!

GO CANUCKS GO!

-------------
ETA: I just remembered this NHL commercial from a few years ago that seemed appropriate:

Hockey pool: and the winner is...

no surprises here:

taking the lead in Week 6 while I was distracted by mojitos and white sandy beaches, Alyssa has dominated the field ever since! Congratulations, Alyssa, and thanks to everyone who played (and commented!) This was fun, and made all the non-Canucks games much more interesting!

Oh, and here are the final week's points. Alyssa topped the table again, despite not having 12 point wonder Sidney Crosby in her team! We never stood a chance, really...

Alyssa, as stated in the original post, you have won $50 worth of goodies from either Amazon or the NHL online store! Please let me know what you'd like and how we should manage the transfer - if you don't want to give me your mailing address, you could set up a wish list on Amazon, for example. Or maybe there's a way for me to email you a gift certificate code or something like that!

Playoffs start on Thursday! w00t w00t! Go Canucks Go!

Canadian Graffiti

I'm a big fan of the bathroom graffiti genre, and found some outstanding examples last night at The Foundation, an uber-hip vegetarian restaurant:

Good advice: your mother is usually right (unless she's telling you to listen to Slayer).

This second one was right underneath a larger, too-faint-to-photograph entry saying "smiling is the 2nd best thing to do with your lips":

Awesome.

The food was fantastic, the beer was good, the service was so-so, and I had an awesome last night with my friend, recalling our past boyfriends and crushes and laughing uproariously. She and her family will be gone by the time I get home from work tonight after a really, really fun visit. I'll miss them, but it will also be nice to have the house back to ourselves, not have to watch Sesame Street in the mornings, and see more of the cats than a tail rapidly disappearing around a corner or a nose sticking tentatively out from under the sofa.

Hockey pool, week 25

Penultimate week, and I'm really not expecting any shocks before the end of the season!

The three of us in the middle seem to be bunching together in these final stages, but I think the final result is pretty clear!

Bragging Rights Central IV

Dates represent date of archiving - it's just easier that way.

VWXYNot? Comment(s) of the week: 

Apr 01 2010: Massimo for "I would have so much to say about that, but my snowmobile buddies are waiting for me -- being a guy, I have to alternate between that and blogging, they are just two aspects of the same thing, you see ?"

Bob O'H for"Damn, I seem to have an imaginary wife.

I'm rather proud of my imagination."

and Antipodean for "What's up with all these ignorant woman bloggers telling other woman bloggers that they are in fact men?

In other news: the sun didn't come up this morning and no I don't have any data to back that up and it's blatantly stupid."

Apr 15 2010: Alyssa for "the wonderful thing about this pool is that I was so focused on finding the best individual players throughout the league, I stopped looking at the team stats! I only realized last week that the Flames are probably out of the playoffs!"

Kyrsten for "Other than sinking (I've seen many a float home sink), the #1 reason not to live in a small space is that you CAN'T GET AWAY. Ask the girl who grew up on a boat where the washroom was 5 feet from my head. Seriously. And we didn't have doors- we had a curtain.

SO yeah. It's not so romantic when there is more than one of you."

Bob O'H for "The Finns all have summer cottages in the countryside that they retire to for a month at midsummer. Perhaps you could do something similar - buy a floating home and some marina space. You could even make it yourself.

Of course, it would be embarrassing if it sank over the winter, but at least you'd get a blog post out of that."

and Nina (go and check out her new digs!) for "I would definitely recommend a gel saddle plus a lot of padding in the attractive shorts (yes, they are horrible). My first long 2 day cycle tour ended after the first day due to soreness like I'd never experienced before... And not in the muscles!"

Apr 23 2010: ScientistMother for "I'm sorry I thought you were British? No upstanding British person would claim that food which contained no meat was awesome. It's like saying non alcoholic beer is the bomb. Who are you and what have you done with our Cath?!"

and RPS77 for "Just think - until the development of the internet, bathroom graffiti was almost the only way for strangers who never saw each other to exchange random insults."

Apr 30 2010:  Beth for "I once caused a Canuck playoff loss because of a cursed chocolate bar. I got it during one game and we lost. Then we were losing the next game and it hit me that clearly it was the unfinished chocolate bar's fault and so I forced myself to devour the remainder of the bar and the Canucks then won the game. Which is scientific proof of my theory of the cursed chocolate bar."

Silver Fox for "I don't like walking under ladders, and *prefer* not to step on cracks (OMG am I OCD?). Friends who jinx your team like that, though... are they still your friends?"

GrrlScientist for "actually, you are well on your way to recovery because an untherapized over-thinker would write and write and write until their font has become progressively smaller and smaller and SMALLER and then runs off the side of the page and continues on the back of the poster."

Microbiologist XX for "I totally belong in that group. I can't say it's the fault of science completely, but I can say that science turned what could have been a manageable little personality quirk into an engrained personality trait."

and Alyssa for "Put the sock on the cat!! Put the sock on the cat!!"

May 7 2010: Tideliar for "I caused a local hockey team to lose a playoff game once...

I was dating this girl who I found out was cheating on me with one of their star forwards (?). So seeing as I had the flu I made sure we did the friends with benefits thing one last time. Then she saw him (nice euphemism), gave him the flu and he spread it round their team. By the time they reached the quarter finals the entire first team was out sick

:) "

and ScientistMother for summing up my entire wordy post with the words "puke on a page!"

May 14 2010: Chall for "5 weeks?!?!!?!!? FIVE?!?! In your house? By golly, I need a bigger house for that to happen (and an extra TV and some other stuff) :)"

and RPS77 for "A term like "Famous Scottish tree hybridiser" is a good reminder that fame can be relative to a particular field."

May 21 2010: Tideliar for "I was playing in punk/rockabilly band and we dragged my parents along. It was f'ing hilarious seeing my mum pretend to enjoy herself, and even watching my very conservative father squirm for a couple of hours >:) "

and Ricardipus for "I was thinking to myself, "HA! That sounds like Yoda! I will make a clever reversed-verb-and-noun kind of joke in the comments!"

Then I saw the filename of your screen capture.

Then I read the comments.

Then I actually read the title of your post.

I'll get my coat now."

Jun 04 2010: EcoGeoFemme for "I had to be in a carseat much longer than most kids because I was so small for my age. I used to like it though because it meant nobody could crowd my space in the car. Important in a family of 7! Maybe Saba just needed her space. :) "

Beth for "I just can't stop staring at the crotch of the one on the [right]. Why the $%^ did they highlight its crotch in blue?? Maybe it was to distract us from the cellulite of the one on the left. "

Mermaid for "Ack! The logo comes straight from those spatial intelligence questions on IQ tests! If I can make a complete shape out of them, am I smart enough for MENSA? Or maybe it is a Make-Your-Own Logo game?

I don't even know what to say about the mascots. They look a bit like really poorly designed hand-held showers. Or something :). "

Prof-like Substance for "The photos with the kids hugging those things is bullshit. If I saw one of those coming at me as a grade schooler I would have either run or thrown rocks at it, or both. Who thought the giant one-eye-head thing was a good idea? I think it's time to scrap the whole committee and start over."

and Ricardipus for "WTF is that logo?

It's, um... er... well it's got legs. I think. And a square bit. And sort of an "L" - I guess that's for "London".

And... a CROTCH! It's got a crotch too. That little square-ish dingus in the middle.

As for Weirdblock and Mental - forget it, everybody else said it already.

I am thinking this: there is a marketing firm, likely in the UK, that needs to be fired. Immediately."

Jun 11 2010: (bumper two week edition!)

Lisbeth for "Ahh, how nice to know that regarding ironing I'm just young and not lazy :)"

Antipodean for "Ah! I see. You're shitty at me, again, because of something dream-me did in your fucking head last night? And you just can't quite let go of the righteous indignation you're feeling, right?"

and then "MrsAntipodeans dream me is a right bastard. Some days I wanna give him an uppercut"

In a somewhat spooky duplication of Antipodean's comment, Alyssa then said, "Dream DH is a much bigger jerk than in real life - with the cheating and leaving and what-have-you. Real DH wants to kick Dream DH's ass."

and Bob O'H for "For the first one "No Mr. President. The puppet is meant to go outside the hand"."

June 25 2010:  Chall for "oh, I'm happy to sort of share (tasting part is a big thing in my family) but ask ask ask before... not just stick a fork in my food and grab the best part without warning ;)

Oh, and this does not go with taking chips/popcorn from my bowl that are mine. you grab your own bowl thank you!

Clearly an important discussion to have before you decide to date :) "

Hermitage for "I expect this from Fox News, not the BBC. Shame! Shame and dishonor!"

Pika for "Re: England/UK, etc. something you should never ever ever EVER say is something I once overheard from an Italian student who was trying to chat up some Irish girls:

"But you are the same as the English: you watch the same TV channels, listen to the same music and watch the same football."

Don't ever try this in Ireland, if you want to live. ;-) "

and Ricardipus for "MUAAA HA HA HA HA I am in.

Loading up on African teams, and those from obscure South American countries.

I will win! I will win!

[certain aspects of the above statement may not be entirely accurate]"

Jul 02 2010: (Another supersized edition! Now that the ride's over with, I'll hopefully be back to weekly updates).

Thomas for "Lookie who is the only one who picked Group C correctly. ;)

U-S-A! "

Bob for "Argentina almost didn't qualify, and TBH I don't rate their coach.

If it was handball, it would be a different matter entirely: I'd predict them to reach the final against France."

hgg for "I'm sure we easily can find someone who is happy to mansplain to us what this means! Because my ladybrain is too occupied with the stress of waiting for the dude to pop the question to be able to deal with difficult stuff like bying property."

Alyssa for "(in sing-song voice): I certainly could have never, ever, ever figured out how to buy a house without my big, strapping husband! Teehee! Thank goodness I was able to trap him into marrying me, or else I just don't know what I would do! Sigh!"

Bob (again) for "Congratulations. I always find that shooting at people makes them pedal harder. As long as you miss, of course."

Chall for "sounds like Sunday was a bit grueling and I'm happy you bit into the stubborness and rode through it. I'm sure the hot bath was a good plan since you discribe the shivering etc... if you've been cold and work out that hard for a long time, it's hard to get the body back into gear. (no pun intended... or wait, maybe a little).

It sounds like quite an adventure and yeah, I wish I could say I'd be surprised about the guns but since my time here in the South... well, let's just go with that 'it sure is different with some people' ;)"

and Mermaid for "I am so proud of you! I love that you pushed through even though you were so sick of the hills. I totally understand what you were feeling and it is just much harder than can possibly be explained properly.

Really, I am thrilled that you finished (well, I knew you would) and that you got to experience that amazing feeling that comes with the mixture of pure exhaustion, pride in accomplishment, having people chant your name OUT LOUD in PUBLIC like a rock star or something and then just plain relief to get off the d*&m bike."

Jul 09 2010: ScientistMother for "I am so so frustrated. Its this bad cycle of idiots (the black bloc) making the police hyper-viligent, getting vilified for over reacting (or on saturday not reacting enough). What gets lost is the voices and the issues of people working for social change.

I get the black bloc want to destroy the companies that they feel are perpetrating injustice, but scary the crap out of a bunch of innocent works isn't helping anyone's cause."

Ricardipus for "*This* is why YouTube was invented... :D

I am impressed you were coherent enough to record this video at all. After all that riding, one sip of beer would probably knock most mere mortals flat on their MoFo-hurting a$$. ;)"

Eva for "NOTICE how I got ONE ENTIRE GROUP correct!! I am so awesome."

Chall for "well you know, this is all bringing back those memories from the stupid hockey pool ;) I'm closer to the end that the beginning....

I am still in shock that I had 5 groups with NO points and then 2 groups perfect. Clearly missing something important... like thinking that France, Italy and Nigeria would have good teams. Pah.

well, let's see the US be beaten today. Just because I put in Ghana... but I'm not ure on that either. Surely they will have extra time until the US scores or somthing like that? (bitter? me? nahhh) ;)"

and Ricardipus (again) for "chall - the last time I was in a hockey pool, I finished pretty much dead last - long behind the "average" pick (i.e. most frequent player picked in each category in the pool) and, embarrassingly, beaten even by "Maggie Monkey" who picked at random."

Jul 16 2010:  Thomas Joseph for "If I win, it'll be monumental. If I don't ... as an American who doesn't follow football/soccer except for once every four years ... the rest of you should be ashamed that I led for as long as I did. ;)"

(he won...)

Chall for "so let me get this straight, after reading this and ponder, I'm either going to end up 2nd or 3rd? And I will get beaten by 1 or 17 points?

ahh... I knew I shouldn't have done the thinking since now it is all gone... all the excitment is exchanged for "drats, only one lousy point now WHY did I think that France was gonna pull through". blä. ;)"

(looks like 3rd, Chall...)

Antipodean for "Quebecois don't speak French wrong. The French speak French wrong, at least according to the Quebecois."

Nina for "It is one of the Dutch tricks to get foreigners prononounce the "ui' sound. Everybody fails miserably. I think it was even used in the war to check whether someone was really Dutch. That's my patriotic post for today ;)"

and Bob O'H for "I've taken to claiming that the 4th of July is called Thanksgiving in the UK. Celebrating the time when we finally got rid of that waste of space to our west."

Jul 23 2010: The Bean-Mom for "Ha ha! It seems everyone I know who assists PIs in grant applications has some variant on this complaint. Like the grant that the group of PIs suddenly decided to apply for 3 WEEKS before the deadline!!! Or the PIs who have known about a grant deadline for months, but don't let the administrators/official science writer/editor/coordinator know anything about it until the last minute. I had to listen to a rant on this topic during happy hour at out institute the other day... and all I could think was, "I'm sooo glad I'm not in that boat right now!""

Antipodean for "No fair!

There's a quadruple L in that one. When I tried to say it I gagged on one of my tonsils with the first 'LL' and then switched tonsils for the second 'LL'.

Fucking Welsh!"

and Bob O'H for "Oh poo. I thought this was going to be about another sort of rut."

Aug 06 2010: Dr A for "Clearly this meeting is very interesting."

and Antipodean for "New Zealand on the other hand will bend over backwards and forwards simultaneously to make anything as long as we get to play with computers. We only got these in the past ten years and boy are they shiny!

The next big movie project in Vancouver will be Watership Down. Sir Ian McKellan is already signed on to be the voice of the rabbit grim reaper. Brad Pitt will voice Fiver and Ellen Page is the main protagonist, Hazel.

Needless to say Sir Peter Jackson will direct and all the actual work will be done in New Zealand after they take a polaroid picture of a nice meadow with mountains in the background somewhere in British Columbia."

Aug 13 2010:  soooo many to choose from! Some excellent comments over the last two weeks...

Dr A (this was the comment that started all the dental floss madness...) for "Speaking of dental floss, the other day I saw a container of TRAVEL-SIZED dental floss. Why? Because if I have to take my FULL sized dental floss, I will not have room for my watermelon cooler!" and then "Maybe it's just that I use the free dental floss I get from the dentist? Are spools of floss really that giant? Or is it the packaging? I guess some people DO need some room to include instructions for use ;)"

ScientistMother for "Dr.A - Do you keep dental floss in your purse, along with your glasses, your childs' glasses, wallet, keys, manicure set (for fixing broken finger/toe nails, pulling out tweezers), phone, 4 toy cars/trucks because OMG the child will DIE if he does not have all FOUR monster vehicles with him at all times, until he decided want to hold them, emergency snacks for child who is always hungry?

Yes I keep dental floss in my purse, because I floss after lunch. The little tiny travel size fits nicely into my very small makeup bag. so pHHTTT"

DuWayne Brayton for "WHAT!??!?! Everybody doesn't have a fucking travel sized chapstick? Has the world gone insane!?!?!?

I suppose it's the purses. Y'all are lucky - you have purses. Unless I happen to be going to class, or the coffee shop, all I have are pockets. It's a lot easier to just keep the necessities in the pockets. Full size chapstick is out of the question.

Without small sized everything, my shorts start trying to work there way down. I am not keen on showing off my unders."

Chall for "Commercial! I mean, where is this blog going? shamelessly promoting big boxes of flossing with visible name and company." and then "joke aside. I died reading the rest of your comment. "size... satin feel... oh yeah baby... it'll never feel the same ;P ""

DrugMonkey for "When is a Canadian cooler ever *empty* of ice and beer? Pointless device, eh?"

Microbiologist XX for "I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I noticed the warning on my car sun visor (that giant cardboard thing that covers your entire front windshield). It read: WARNING, do not drive with visor covering windshield. Really? Really!! People actually don't have enough sense to know that you shouldn't drive your car when the entire windshield is covered up with an object that is not transparent in any way shape or form.!?!"

Pawl Bearing for "Canadian Tire once carried a plastic tire-replica swing. Yes, the world's hardest to dispose of commodity and there's plastic replicas of it."

Elizabeth for "I came across fresh bear scat while once hiking in Yellowstone and almost did the same in my pants. Have fun and be safe!"

Bob O'Hara for "The air horn is a bit excessive if you want to drive the mother in law away."

Alyssa for "That is an amazingly coherent dream! Mine seem to jump all over the place and make no sense when I go to retell them." and then "I have to update with my dream from last night: Someone was trying to sell me these wonky "connectors" that would allow me to connect my dreams in a coherent way! Ha!"

Aug 20 2010:  Antipodean for "The Scotsman in me is appalled that I'd have to waste at least one perfectly good outer layer on those onions."

Hermitage for "Hmm, that's one way to indulge your inner serial killer..."

and Kyrsten for "Right. I forgot you were all blaming it on me, because I introduced you to the wonders of Twitter. What would you have done if I had introduced you to Google Wave? Wait, I did. Look what happened to that! Cath, did you kill it?"

Aug 27 2010:  Mermaid for "Wow, you are indeed all powerful. Do you have this influence on situations in closer proximity? If so, I would like to introduce you to a few people :)"

and CromerCrox for "My superpowers are limited to turning up in the kitchen when someone else has just completed the washing up."

Sep 03 2010:  Bob O'H for "You're suffering from pareidolia. Next you'll be seeing the face of Alan Shearer in your toast."

Ruchi for "My eyes! My virgin eyes!!"

and Sonja for "I own the same style of Keens. And I think you are totally within your right to wear them with socks. =)"

Sep 10 2010:  Beth for "I remember being in undergraduate labs and the safety rules always said "Do not pipette by mouth" and we'd be all "Who the HELL would do that?" But in grad school I met people who were like "Oh yeah, I've done that." Gross!!!"

Nat Blair (Ologyologist In Chief!) for "Somebody needs to brush up on their readingcomprehensology."

Ruchi (LOLogist In Chief!) for

"Agrology- Study of Agro-inducing people
Campanology - Study of Campy Teen Movies
Geomorphology- Study of things that turn into other things
Metrology- Study of terrible metro systems
Myology- Study of Ruchi's Ology
Pomology- Study of People Who Think That Hideous Pom Drink is Delicious
Rhinology- Study of Rhinos (duh)
Semiology- Study of Semi trucks
Speleology- Study of Spelunkers
Vexillology- Study of Vexing People
Vulcanology - Study of Vulcans"

Chall for "am I the only one thinking "dinosaurs" when it comes to 'dactylology'?? I can't stop visualising big clawy like dino hands ;)"

and Nina for "If Google tells you differently, I do not agree. I could argue the whole night if you wish

Sorry if this is not according to the rules, but this way I have my fun too hahahahaha!"


Sep 17 2010:  Ricardipus for "Genetics? Nice and neat? Well, for a single trait I suppose. Throw some recombination out there and it all goes Gregor-Mendel-faked-his-data on you."

Antipodean for "I can confirm that the phrase is "I couldn't care less". But then again we're a bunch of inbred sheep farmers on one side of the Tasman Sea and the refuse of her majesty's prison system on the other. So what would we know?"

and Biochem Belle for "I'm a non-careless North American! The phrase "I could care less" just never made any sense to me, as the excellent argument by John Cleese illustrates. It's ridiculous. Perhaps some in the States do it just to be less British. Poppycock, I say. Then again at times, I've been convinced I'm a Brit trapped in an Americans body because really-what self-respecting Southern belle would prefer a nice hot cup of Earl Grey over sickeningly sweet ice cold tea? That would be me. Cold tea disgusts me... as does "I could careless". Now excuse me while I go shore up the defenses."

Sep 24 2010:  Nina for "42 stickers eh? That must be the answer to the problem I'm sure." (Earthquakes make you sarcastic, apparently! :D )

and Ricardipus for "I always preferred the proposed term "doubloon" for the two-dollar coin, but it just didn't catch on. More's the pity.

Finally - the Queen is not a Common Loon. She is an Exceptional Loon."

Post(s) of the Week:

Apr 01 2010: Cromercrox for "Bo-bo-bonobo" (Henry gives the most complicated answer yet to the question "Do you know what a bonobo is?")

Steffi Suhr for "If women are in science, and science is in the Antarctic, then women belong there" (Steffi's contribution to Ada Lovelace day profiles Dr. Mary Alice McWhinnie, a true pioneer)

and Microbiologist XX for "Lab coat fail" (things that make you go "LOL")

Apr 15 2010: Masks of Eris for "Oh, Okay. Now calm down." (CERN's Twitter feed inspires thoughts of how Oppenheimer and Archimedes might have reported their own discoveries in the social media age)

and Toaster Sunshine for "Post Ignite Talk" (his hand painted slides depicting transcription, translation and other molecular processes are simply amazing).

Apr 23 2010: KJHaxton for "Election questions" (Science-related questions for all political candidates in her constituency. I am so going to do this before the next Canadian election).

Pika for "On being different" (Life as a global person)

and Ambivalent Academic for "Family Planning" (an, um, creative response to questions about the current and planned future status of one's uterus. There are more excellent suggestions in the comments).

Apr 30 2010: Massimo for "She's at it again" (a response to an article by Margaret Wente, detailing why we should not respond to people like Margaret Wente)

Ian Brooks for "Fair funding for fellows, redux" (an excellent summary of the blogosphere's coverage of the National Postdoc Association's campaign to increase postdoc salaries)

and Prof-like Substance for "Open position, to be filled ASAP" (seminar napper wanted!)

May 7 2010: Chall for "Halfsie time" (one of a series of three excellent posts about an expat returning "home" for a visit)

and Beth for "Ice cream superstition" (very meta, this one. If she blogs this mention in Bragging Rights Central, the internet may very well implode) 

May 14 2010: Makita for "There's a lot more going on in there than we know" (the challenges and surprises of communicating with her son, who has special needs)

KJ Haxton for "Election thoughts" (the discrepancy between the election campaign as seen from interaction with an online community, and the reality of the results. Also, getting science questions onto the agenda)

and Uphilldowndale for "Can I have my ball back please?" (horses playing football!!! 

May 21 2010: Sara Fletcher for "So long Dr. Harris, for now" (lamenting the loss of a strong advocate for science and secularism in last week's UK election)

and Kimli for "In Soviet Russia, social anxiety overcomes you" (Kimli shares the slides and notes from what looks like an excellent blogging conference presentation about social anxiety and social media. Her post about people bringing children into the sessions is also well worth reading).

Jun 04 2010: Jenny Rohn for "In which I salute anti-authors everywhere" (oh how much fun it would be if we could "disacknowledge" the people who hindered the publication of every paper)

Tideliar for "Where did all the nice idiots go?" and Professor in Training for "Translation issues" (two posts about the trials, tribulations, and LOLs of adapting to a new country)

Jun 11 2010: Tideliar for for "Busted!" (how Tideliar got maneuvered into giving a careers talk called "How to network and blag your way to a new position by the seat of your pants")

Massimo for "Three paper rule" (excellent discussion of whether there should be a minimum number of publications required before a graduate student can be awarded a PhD, or whether other aspects of the training are more important)

Cromercrox for "First use of iPad in field conditions" (great review, which is primarily being included in BRC today because it included the phrase "it's fast. Blazingly fast. [...] Not quite as fast, admittedly, as a hot buttered ferret with chili powder up its bottom hurling itself headlong down a Teflon^TM drainpipe, but as near as might require a Steward's Inquiry.")

Kimli for "Not so bad" (a wonderful reminder that Vancouver's current unseasonably rainy weather is infinitely preferable to breathing dust, smoke, or fire. Maybe Nina should read this post :) ) 

June 25 2010: Massimo Boninsegni for "The beautiful game" (I knew this post would make it as soon as I read the first couple of paragraphs. Magnificent football rant).

Nina for "To-do list" (There are some comic gems in this post that truly made me LOL)

and Cromercrox for "Cromercrox in China: the figured stones of Chaoyang" (Fantastic account of a visit to an amazing palaeontology museum in China) 

Jul 02 2010: (I am sooooo behind in my blog reading. But luckily there is no statute of limitations for bragging rights!)

Beth for "Fun with advertising" (High fructose corn syrup is just as good for you as other things that are really bad for you!)

ScientistMother for "Dear Src Kinase" (the SM makes Src signalling her bitch)

and Professor in Training for "The overlooked demographic" (life as a single academic far from home)

Jul 09 2010: (still sooooo behind in my blog reading)

Nina for "7 days of fieldwork" (as I commented on this post: "You're so good at writing about horrible physical hardship in a very funny way!")

and Carlyn Zwarenstein for "O O O Canada" (splendid Harper rant. I couldn't have said it better myself!)

Jul 16 2010: (yup, still behind. I fear this may now be a permanent state of affairs)

Austin Elliott for "Watching football can damage your health" (be careful during the world cup final if you're at risk of a heart attack...)

and again for "It's a conspiracy - and you're ALL in on it" (bizarre accusations against the entire Nature Network by anti-vaccine loons)

Amanda@LadyScientist for "A rant that I cannot post on Facebook" (a plea to stop making personal attacks based on political preferences that I think she should TOTALLY post on Facebook!)

and I Can Haz Cheezburger? for "Wut? There were LOLcats in teh 1800s?" (you don't need me to explain what this post is about, do you?) 

Jul 23 2010: Hmm, I seem to have been far too engrossed in the World Cup and PepsiBlogate this last week to have starred anything in Google Reader - my usual way of remembering good posts for this feature. Sorry. I did star this though:

Rugby Fans by Demotivational Posters

Aug 06 2010: I think I might be catching up!

Nina for "The twisted mind of a confused expatriate" (I can identify with much of this long but excellent post)

Kristi Vogel for "Altered books: altered Gulf, altered lives"(Kristi's ongoing art project takes a depressing but beautiful turn)

Thomas Joseph for "The hotties of science" (everyone likes hotties, right?!)

Bob O'Hara for "My application to join ScienceBlogs (the blog will be about such things as "context-dependent dispersal strategies in maritime rodents")

 
Massimo for "World Cup round-up" (LOL! Right, now when does the English premiership season start?)

 
Steffi Suhr for "Do not touch" ("There is clearly a scientist in every child (or a child in every scientist?)" - I say both!)

 
Silver Fox for "Where it all began" (I love people's "how I became a scientist" posts, and I continue to be fascinated by the North Arrow in Silver Fox's head)

and Beth (who I'm meeting for coffee tomorrow!!! \0/) for "Why you should care about the government scrapping the mandatory long-form census" (SRSLY, how is Harper still my PM? What's it gonna take?)

Aug 13 2010: I'm behind again!

The Oatmeal for "Why Captain Higgins is my favorite parasitic flatworm" (hilarious parasitology comic. Yes, those words can so go together!)

StyleyGeek (she's back!) for "Harmless and misguided advice" (the dangers of suggesting positive thinking techniques to a room full of academics)

Frank Norman for "Looking at an old funding decision" (an argument for preserving bad grant reviews for posterity, rather than throwing them straight in the bin)

CromerCrox for "Apple store, Apple store" (a song composed by his daughter, who's currently saving up for an iPod Touch)

Nina for "Otira" (yet another hilarious field work report from our New Zealand correspondent)

and Beth for "My sista from another Prime Minista" (meeting me and then writing about it is a sure-fire way to make it into Bragging Rights Central!)

Aug 20 2010: Nina for "Who wants to be a professor?" (excellent take on the (apparently) astonishing concept that some people who do PhDs and postdocs don't want to be professors)
Vishal Kalel for "Kitchen Philosophy for Science" (there are many similarities between cooking and science. "Garbage in, garbage out" is just one - illustrated with photos in this case!)

Chall for "What is human... or right?" (tackling the difficult issues of suicide and euthanasia)

Kimli for "Needs more flaming Ks" (not too keen to see "Eat, Pray, Love"? Try "Drink, Fuck, Fight" instead!)

and Massimo for "Popularize this!" (the difficulties of getting people excited about an unfashionable field of physics. Hilarious comments about string theory included).

Aug 27 2010: ScientistMother for"Why I'm wishing I never went into science" (very sad post about being the only person in the family who understands what the doctors are saying in the last few hours of a loved one's life).

Jim Caryl for "Future-proofing antibiotics" (a new blog that looks extremely promising. This post addresses some of the recent media panic about the supposed end of antibiotics).

Hermitage for "Unrealistic expectations" (my comment on this post was "this should be pinned to every door in every university in the world!")

Anthony Fejes for "Genomics haiku" (lots of great examples already - why not add your own?!)

and CBC News for "Bears guarded BC grow-op: RCMP" (this is the first time I've ever included a news article in this section of the blog. Given my desire to showcase the best this awesome province has to offer, it seems only fitting to include this news article, featuring as it does a photo of a mountie posing with some bears that an enterprising lady trained to protect her weed. I love BC).

Sep 03 2010: Hermitage for "Work/Life balance" (the frustrations implicit in the assumption that all working women are, or will soon be, mothers)

and The Oatmeal for "Why working from home is both awesome and horrible" (this is exactly why I'd ideally like to work from home 3 days a week and be in an office for the other 2) 


Sep 10 2010: Professor in Training for "Why manuscript reviews take forever" (FINALLY, a proper explanation of the BS, ASS, RASH, and PRAT stages of review)

Prof-like Substance for "How your proposal gets reviewed"(inspired by the above, an excellent reminder of why you need to make your grant proposals easy to read)

CromerCrox for "Ecce Cromo" (Help CromerCrox choose his passport photo!)

and Beth Snow for "Transcription FAIL" (Marian is dead?! Was it the men for rent? Guess what Beth was actually saying before Google Voice made it hilarious)


Sep 17 2010: Tideliar for "What I know now? You're not that special" (invaluable career advice for grad students and postdocs)

and Massimo for "Quiz: what university administrator are you?" (Fun multiple choice quiz! But do you have what it takes to administer Massimo?)

Sep 24 2010:  Pika for "Where is home?" (another excellent post about the ex-pat experience)

and Microbiologist XX for "Some times you feel like you have the force. Other times, not so much" (elevators know how your experiments are going, and taunt you about it)