Intelligent conversation
By Alex | July 23, 2008
While browsing through a cooking magazine:
Me: Hmm, look apple crumble, yum!
D: Cookie?
Me: No, apple crumble, don’t you know what that is?
D: Cookie?
Me: A-PPLE CRUM-BLE!!!
D: Cookie?!
Me: Yes, cookie! [sigh]
Topics: Funny as in "Ha ha", People close to my heart | No Comments »
Frenglish
By Alex | July 22, 2008
Phrases like “j’ai checké la boîte postale” (I checked the mail box) or “elle est très cute” (she’s very cute) are often uttered by Quebecers.
And in the conversations I have with D we often mix Romanian, English, and sometimes a bit of French and Spanish - stuff like “vamonos chica!” or “muchas gracias mi amor“.
So you see, I revolve in polyglot circles. But sometimes I take it to the extreme, or the opposite of extreme - I make up new words and pronunciations.
You see, at McGill I speak mostly English all the time. And when I go to the store/restaurant I usually order in English and say a hearty merci at the end. To balance things out. That’s because the Quebec accent still has its pitfalls as far as I’m concerned and I reckon it’s better to stay on the safe side. So I don’t get to practice my French that much, you see.
That’s why one day while having a debate with D about the French participe passé I actually mispronounced the word fille (girl). That’s kindergarten level vocabulary! Instead of saying something that sounds like fee, I said something that sounds like feel. I, unconsciously committed the abominable sin of mispronouncing the ll in a French word. To the guillotine! And the worst part about it is that to me it all sounded so natural.
Another of these multi-language events gone bad was when I was talking to D about some Maths stuff. I wanted to say infiniment proche de zéro (infinitely close to zero) and what came out was infinitely proche to zero. Which again sounded VERY natural since I pronounced proche in a very American way, almost Southern-like.
And to this D replied “Your English very very bad!” with an Indian accent. Like the one Babu from Seinfeld has.
Now enjoy some pictures:
Magnolias (this spring, Montreal)
Pretty lilacs (this spring, Montreal)
HDR of an urban sunset (this fall, Romania)
Topics: Funny as in "Ha ha" | No Comments »
At the lab
By Alex | July 20, 2008
A few days ago I had to go to the lab at 9pm to prepare some antibody mixes for the next day experiments. And I asked D to come with me to keep me company.
Needless to say he brought his baby (aka the Canon). And that was a very smart choice since his degree of boredom would have gone through the roof without his favorite toy.
And I had this entire thing going on in my head about D and I being bench buddies and preparing antibody mixes together. Yeah! It’s as realistic as me being a Starcraft fan!
So of course when I asked “don’t you want to label my Eppendorf tubes?” D said “hmmm… lemme think! NO!”. I think it was because the very thought of being in a room where DNA and cells and RNA, not to mention lung tissue [gasp!] are being manipulated on a daily basis made him cringe.
There’s just no way of getting some people even remotely interested in genetics! Although D did show some interest in a pipette or at least the mechanics of it. So there is still hope for him! I’m not giving up!!!
Here are the pictures he took that night.
Part of the microscope
Labeled (by me) Eppendorf tubes
Bottles with more or less dangerous/lethal substances
Organizing my Eppendorfs
Keeping the antibody stash cool on ice
The art of pipetting
So D said that if he has to (and I mean absolutely has to) come to the lab with me again, there’s no way he’s leaving the house without a laptop! Go figure, I never saw that coming!
Topics: Funny as in "Ha ha", People close to my heart | 1 Comment »
Amanda Mabro at the Montreal Jazz Festival
By Alex | July 18, 2008
D and I went to the Jazz Festival (26 June - 5 July)last week. I’m really sorry we didn’t go before - I mean there are people coming from all over the US and sometimes the world (!!!) for this festival and we live 3 blocks away and didn’t manage to get our behinds out of the house!
So we went there on Saturday night and although I was not expecting to REALLY love what I’d see (since I’m not a big fan of the jazz genre) I fell in uttermost awe with Amanda Mabro.
Her voice is extremely powerful - reminding me of Ella Fitzgerald - and her songs are some sad, some playful, some very audacious.
Here’s what the Montreal Gazette wrote about Amanda:
Jazz singing doesn’t necessarily have to be all sultry, dreamy and supperclub-ish. God knows, there are plenty of vocalists out there covering that turf. Amanda Mabro is different: her songs grab you by the throat and look you in the eye with cool defiance. This is big-voiced, cabaret-influenced music with a bit of garage attitude.
-MONTREAL GAZETTE, March 2008
This is exactly how I feel about her music. Could I be falling in love with jazz?
Here are 2 links to 2 of her songs: How long and Superwoman in the making. Go ahead and click, you might actually like her music.
Topics: So many places like home | No Comments »
Menacing skies
By Alex | July 14, 2008
Since we bought a polarizing filter (meant to bring out the blue of the sky) for our camera we started looking at the sky and the clouds more often.
With all the rain we’ve been having lately menacing clouds like these begged to be immortalized.
Aren’t these photos almost surreal?
Topics: Inner artist | No Comments »
My boyfriend, the photographer
By Alex | July 9, 2008
D took a walk last Sunday and took these nice pictures of people spending their afternoon outside, on the grass, in the sun.
I like the way he captured the motion in each photo. He’s a talented fella’, what can I say?
In these first photos people are engaged in some kind of medieval battle, with very dangerous rubber swords.
Wow! Talk about a great fall!
The following photos are of breakdancers.
Pretty cool, eh?
Topics: People close to my heart | No Comments »
New posts!!!
By Alex | July 6, 2008
I’ve written a new post on Genetics baby! on how proteins are made from RNA.
I’ve also posted some new things on The Purrfect Shoes. Go on, check it out!
Topics: Blogosphere | No Comments »
Mushrooms, certificates and servers
By Alex | July 5, 2008
These are 3 words that D is forbidden from uttering more than once a day. They were banned from his vocabulary because a while ago he said those words so many times until they made no sense at all. You know the feeling, right? Go on, say feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling! Doesn’t it sound funny now?
CHAPTER I: MUSHROOMS
One day we were making a mushroom mousaka and D kept asking me “how should I cut the mushrooms?”, “do you want me to wash the mushrooms?”, “I like these mushrooms, don’t you like these mushrooms?”, “honey, the mushrooms are done!”, “should I put some salt on the mushrooms?”. All this was said in a period of around 5 min. So you understand why it drove me crazy. “That’s it!” I said. “From now on, I don’t want to hear this word again. Use fungi or anything else instead!”
CHAPTER II: CERTIFICATES
Another day, very early in the morning, D and his friend Y were talking. I was still sleeping. And I woke up with the sound of 1 word terribly disturbing my eardrums: certificates. You see, D was explaining Y how certificates are used in computer security. If you’re not very IT savvy, let me just clear things up: these “certificates” are not some pieces of paper with one’s name on them. They’re just some things used to authenticate someone/something on the internet… blah blah. I’m walking quite unknown grounds here, but you get the gist of it, right? So D is talking, and talking, really fast as he usually does and all I hear is certificates, blah, blah, certificate, blah, certificate, blah, blah, blah… And now whenever I hear this word I can’t restrain my laughter and whenever D utters this word, he does it not once, but several times, just to bug me, like so: “Yeah, so if you go to this webpage you can install my certificate… certificates, certificates [laugh]”.
CHAPTER III: SERVERS
You’d reckon that a guy with 3 personal servers at home would say the word “server” a lot. And you’d be right. D gets a text message on his cell whenever one of the servers is down. And when I’m around he accompanies the text message with the phrase “the server is down!” with a seemingly authentic Texan accent. All this being said, the word server is pronounced at least half a dozen times a day, on average. The server this, the server that. I’m sure if we had a baby “server” and “baby” would be uttered at a similar rate.
***
If you didn’t know us and saw us smiling or laughing out of the blue when one of us says mushrooms or certificates in a strange tone of voice you’d certainly think to yourself “prepare a straightjacket, these two are a bit cuckoo”. But now that I’ve told you how things stand, you know we are almost normal people ;).
***
Again, pics are not related, I’m just adding some color to this longer-than-usual post. They were taken a few weeks ago when we were strolling around Montreal at dusk.
Topics: Funny as in "Ha ha", People close to my heart | No Comments »
The thing that made my day
By Alex | July 1, 2008
I’ve made it a sort of habit to have a cup of cappuccino at the hospital cafeteria near our lab. Almost everyday at around 3 o’clock I take a bunch of genetics papers, I buy a cup of cappuccino and I delve into the world of molecular biology, genetic networks and… lung disease (this last one really ruined the whole atmosphere, didn’t it?)
Last Friday, by the coffee machine stood this nice old man, who I guess wanted to buy a large espresso but who didn’t know that the machine only made small and medium ones.
“I’m sorry to take so much time” he said. “That’s quite alright” I told him… “I’m not really used to buying coffee from a machine. My wife used to make this great coffee, I still feel the smell in my nostrils…” he continued. And I could see he wanted to chat to someone because he went on “now she’s in the hospital, and it’s moments like these that make me realize how much I miss her.”
I didn’t dare ask what she was suffering from, I think I was sort of afraid of hearing she had some incurable disease and that this old man was going to have to buy machine-made coffee for the rest of his life… Instead I asked “how long have you been married for?”. “50 years” the old man said. And then continued “she was… she is the love of my life. She was the first woman I have ever loved.”
And I swear right then and there my knees got sort of soft and I felt I wanted to give this man a hug and then cry! But I didn’t. I just said “I hope she’ll feel better and you’ll have some of her coffee really soon!”
“Thank you, young lady.” he said with this bitter smile on his face.
And I don’t know if he thanked me for the patience of waiting for him to get his coffee, for listening to him or for my encouraging words at the end. But this moment stirred something inside me and for a moment I felt like I was hit in the stomach with a sledgehammer. Then it made me see everything from a new angle.
So I started reading my genetics papers. Because some day I want to be able to say I helped someone have some more of his wife’s wonderful coffee.
***
The following pics have nothing to do with the previous story. D took them (but I had the idea for both of them) during our trip at Tadoussac. I just think they’re uber-cool and thought I’d share them with ya’.
Topics: Core-shaker, It makes my heart melt | No Comments »
We saw whales!
By Alex | June 26, 2008
Again, apologies are required… But I hope I’ll make it up to all of you who are still reading my ramblings by saying that I came a few inches closer to having a “Free Willy” experience.
As I was saying, D and I went to this very picturesque village, called Tadoussac.
It’s only 800 km from the ocean and because the St. Lawrence river is very wide in that region whales venture in that area in search for tastier food. And apparently they find plenty since they keep coming back every year!
Unfortunately I can’t say the weather and us were BFF - it was very foggy and chilly. Which on the other hand was also quite fortunate since we could take pictures like these:
So we got on one of these cruise boats and set sail to a place where we could see the much awaited creatures.
Because of the damn fog we could only see the whales that came really close to the boat. And I swear, even if I don’t have the pictures to prove it one of the minkes (see below) did a back flip at less than 20 m of the boat. It was really amazing!
We saw beluga whales, which are white, not very big and don’t really come out of the water to have their picture taken. Their sexy backs look like this:
So I take it you’re not impressed, eh? Well, then take a look at this minke whale (much bigger, around 4m and 4 tonnes, and the camera loves it).
D was the real pro taking these pictures, using the 3 photos/sec capability of our Canon to the max. In fact the camera sounded just like a machine gun when D was taking the photos, which sort of made us the center of attention for a few seconds… before the whales came out again…
There actually were these two ladies sitting right beside us on the boat. They had each her handy cam and they were both trying to take a picture of the beast! Now just try to imagine A TINY CAMERA, which takes a few seconds to process the picture you just took and THE WHALE which spent about 1.5 sec with its head above the water. What are the odds of taking a picture of the whale? Yeah.
So here’s a conversation that took place (”it” refers to a picture of the whale):
Lady 1: Tu l’as eu? (Did you get it?)
Lady 2: Non, je l’ai pas eu. Toi tu l’as eu? (No I didn’t get it. Did you get it?)
Lady 1: Non, moi non plus. (Nope, me neither.)
D (after taking more than 50 photos in a few sec): Moi je l’ai eu! (I got it!)
Topics: Core-shaker, On a day like today, So many places like home | No Comments »