The Truth

Here's a recent snippit from Stephan Pastis wikkidly wikkid, Pearls Before Swine. I'm also a fan of Get Fuzzy (Go Satchel!), For Better or For Worse (I have an unhealthy attraction to comic strip characters...*sigh* Elizabeth Patterson is hot!), the nerd in me keeps it real with PhD Comics. I've always been a fan of the funnies, especially the Sunday Full Colour editions. What strips do you read?

I Couldn't Make this Shit Up if I Tried.

Has it come to this?

The Old Boys Club

I got invited to the big swanky NYU Faculty Spring Semester Reception the other night, and decided that I should go. They promised free food and cocktails. Usually it's beer and wine, or just beer, or just wine. However, the thought of drinking cocktails with academics was one that I relished. What a feast! Sushi galore (not that I sampled it), quiche galore, spring rolls galore, and yes, drinks galore. Waiters in tuxedos waiting for you to put down a plate or glass, so that they could pick it up. The President John Sexton came by and gave a pretty rousing speech, and introduced some previous Presidents (all of whom looked like they were going to croak at any moment). They had an Irish band playing some old folk songs, much to the crowds delight. The eggheads do enjoy a good drink, and much flirting followed. I got into this ridiculous conversation about baseball with the University Librarian (who was well tipsy), until he had to excuse himself. After the crowd was well soused, a few women started to dance, some guy went up to the mic and started to sing some old songs with the band, and wouldn't you know it, but most of the crowd started to sing along! It was pretty cool to see a bunch of stuffed shirts letting loose. Then I looked around the room, like really looked, and I realized that for all of the progressiveness and 'affirmative action', the world of academia is still pretty much still the Old Boys Club.

I've Got Ho's, in Different Time Zones

Whilst thinking about the upcoming international events (Winter Olympics and World Cup) I began to think about when they would be playing on the teevee. I've got to be able to see Trinidad take what is rightfully ours. It takes a clever cat to figure it out, what with all of the +6GMT's all over the place. Which leads me to my latest rant: I don't believe in Time Zones! Yes, I said it. It needed to be said.

I mean, I understand the reason for them oh, perhaps 100 years ago. In these (Charlie Chaplin) Modern Times, does it really matter if you wake up at 8:00 and the sun is not up? I propose one global 24-hour clock, in which everyone abides by. If it's 14:00 at Greenwich, then it's 14:00 in NY, Chicago, LA, Tokyo, Jakarta, Moscow etc... One world, One Time. Cue marketing genius...now.

It boils down to our conditioning, methinks. Obviously, people would still work during the day, and sleep during the night. However, no longer would you have to consult the internet to know what time it was in Sydney, because you'd know exactly what it was. Flava Flav wouldn't have to wear his clock. Business would run smoother, and so would my calls to all the ladies.

An Eye for an Eye for an Eye

I remember back in tha day when Rate My Professors was all the rage. "Dude, we totally get to grade them now!". However, it quickly became boring after reading some really dumb reviews and seeing who was hot and who was not so hot. Actually teaching a class of undergrads has completely changed my perspective on these so-called 'ratings', as most are clearly done by bitter students. With that being said, the new rage is Rate Your Students, where the bitter faculty gets back at the bitter kids. It's huh-larious. A recent sampling:

"At the end of the semester, the devilish students finally get the stones to come to the office, beg for forgiveness, ask for extra credit. I say a pox on all of them. Don't you read the syllabus? Don't you listen in class? Don't you read the daily bulletin board I send around electronically? Why do you assume that I'll hold your hand in the waning moments of the semester just because you're too damaged from TV, sugar, and glue? It may be impolitic to say these things, but students today are too entitled and too precious. I've seen colleagues roll over and take it up the ass from these awful, demented, and lazy students for too long. Don't do the work? Pay the price. See you next semester, kiddies."

Wha?? Fung Wah!

Got back from Boston aboard the awesomely awesome Fung Wah Bus. Usually, I can't even take a taxi from Midtown to NYU for $15, but aboard this magical bus, you can go from Boston to New York. Some people say that it's just a mafia front. And there are rumblings of a Jewish competitor in the midst. Price war anyone?

It's like looking in the mirror

I've been working on a 2nd year film up in Boston the last couple of days, and it's been a lot of fun and really interesting. I've learned so much about it all, and I really think it will inform my own directing when it comes around again.

A few people (and it's happened in NY too) have mentioned that I look like a younger, thinner and browner version of Francis Ford Coppola. I personally don't think so, but I hope one day to be able to command the respect that he does and be able to make whatever I want. Oh yeah, and make wine.

You Got a Fast Car

One of the not-so-cool things about movie-making are the early call-times. To wit: 5:30am Sunday morning. Which meant that I had to wake up at 3:30am, to leave my place by 4am. Not so cool. The transit system is filled with homeless people and bleary-eyed fratboys coming down from a night of 'good times'.

With that being said, there is this surreal calm that permeates everything. Almost haunted.

The only thing for a boy to do waiting for the J-M-Z train at Canal St at Five in the morning is to listen to music.

I've rediscovered Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car'. What a brilliant song. It's such an amazing narrative, filled with hope, beauty and eventually sadness. But it's also empowering in a carpe diem way.

We gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way

The Best Thing To Happen To Science?

It's old news about Woo Suk Hwang and his bogus SCIENCE articles. To be honest though, I really do think that this type of fraud is more prevalent than people think. It also shows the need for the current scientific review system to be revamped. I recently spoke with an editor at the Phys Rev, and he told me that a HUGE proportion of articles received are completely bogus, but most don't get past the editors on to reviewers. So what I find most distressing about this entire debacle is not that Hwang 'invented' his data, but that it got past the editors AND the reviewers. That is the cause for alarm. People just never learned from the Sokal Hoax, have they?

In yer face, condensed matter physicists!

I'm tired of all the trite, sensationalistic 'Best of x' (x=films, singles, albums, plays, books etc...) lists at this time of year. Except when they concern me. The American Institute of Physics said that the top physics story of the year was the strongly interacting liquid-like thingy of quarks and gluons. This is cool because my former collaboration, PHOBOS, is one of the four experiments involved with the work. It's great when things don't go according to plan.