LOL … this is just too much. I just found out today that someone has actually built a real-life model of the Simpsons house out in Nevada (where people actually have that kind of time). Check out the article here at the Las Vegas Sun. There’re photos of almost every room in the house! It’s been otherwise another boring weekend with yet another winter storm blanketing us with 6 more inches of snow. Having spent both days working in lab, I can only look forward to some reprieve with the upcoming holidays…

This weekend’s noreaster dumped almost 2 feet of snow onto the city of Boston, making this probably one of the most severe snowstorm I’ve experienced since arriving in this city. My parents had unfortunately picked what turned out to be the worst weekend to visit me, and we ended up spending nearly 2 hours shoveling snow and trying to push the car out of a snow ditch. One interesting thing I noticed today while walking to local stores to find some shovels, was how nice morning people tend to be. Almost everyone said “good morning” to me! I think that night people are grumpier in general. When’s the last time someone walked pass you around 3pm, smiles, and greets you “good afternoon”? I wish I could be a morning person, but alas I have neither the willpower, energy, nor pleasantry to do so. =(

I had to give lab meeting this past Wednesday, which was pretty painful given all the obscure negative data I had to present. On a lighter note, and I know you guys have all been waiting for this moment, my review article has finally been published! It appears in the October issue of Current Opinion in Neurobiology. And since you must be dying to read all about the signaling mechanisms of myelin inhibitors, here is a link to the abstract. Enjoy!

Stepping off the plane after spending a weekend in Los Angeles, I was greeted by a gust of freezing wind reminding me that I have indeed returned to Boston. My third trip to LA this year felt a little bit too short, mainly because it WAS too short. I flew there just Friday evening and returned on an overnight flight arriving a little past 6am this morning. Over the course of the two days, we spent our time mainly eating, sleeping, and playing pool (what did you expect?). We tried out a new Dim Sum place called Hong Kong Palace which the LA times had the gall of considering the “Best Dim Sum in town”. Perhaps by “town” they meant “within a half-mile radius”. We also ventured into the outskirts of South Central to savor some authentic BBQ pork and beef ribs at Philip’s Bar-B-Que. We also spent some time at The Grove, an upscale outdoor shopping mall which features a “Red Car” trolley as well as a musical fountain. Though I wish I could have stayed longer, I’ve got a stack of 170 midterm exams to grade, a recitation section to teach tomorrow, and a lab meeting on Wednesday to prep for. Man! The fun just keeps on coming!

Waking up this afternoon after 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I realized how much I’ve missed a good night’s rest over the last couple of weeks. I looked out the window through my squinting eyelids and noticed that it was already getting dark. Yet despite how unaccomplished I felt, it was truly revitalizing. Overall, the week’s been relatively uneventful, though I was able to get a lot done, cleaning the apartment with Jeff, doing my groceries and laundry, and most of all, installing Windows and reconfiguring all my software on the new harddrive I got for my laptop. I even got to check out my very first full lunar eclipse last night on the way back from the local Stop & Shop. Though less dramatic than the solar eclipse I witnessed back in college, it exhibited a rather subtle beauty, the kind I tend to appreciate a bit more. It was too bad I didn’t have my camera with me at the time, so I will leave you with a picture of all the fun I had with the computers instead. =)

After the long week spent cooped up in lab, even on Halloween night, some friends and I decided to head back out and reexperience the Boston clubbing scene. Through some of Bob’s connections as an ex-promoter, we found out that Saturdays were International Asian Night at Club Aria, and was able to get into the VIP “Angel Room” with discounted admission. The crowd was pretty attractive and the music featured a good mix of hip-hop, reggae, smooth dub, and even a dab of Latin. Overall, highly recommended.

Hehehe… This is kind of funny. I came across this little quiz while checking out my cousin’s website and it claims that I’m obsessive-compulsive. Nothing that I didn’t already know, of course. Click on the image to read more … it’s uncanny! Anyway, I’ll be starting my first week as a TA for a cell biology class at the med school. Given my OCD, I wonder what this would mean for the students… =P

It’s been almost a month since my last update and yet when I look back, so little has happened that it’s almost sad. It appears that work has unfortunately dominated my life since coming back from LA. I even missed all-you-can-eat lobster at the annual MD-PhD retreat, which as many of you know, is not very characteristic of me. I did, however, get to pig out at two of my closest friends’ birthdays. Last Tuesday, a bunch of us drove out to this sushi buffet in Natick called Minado to celebrate Leo’s birthday. The place charges about $16 for lunch and $25 for dinner, which is very reasonable for all the sushi you can possibly stuff into your stomach, not to mention shrimps, crab legs, mussels, scallops, and even an udon bar and hibachi grill. This evening, we treated my roommate Jeff out to some hearty Chinese seafood at none other but our beloved dining locale East Ocean City, where we consumed almost every kind of meat they had (lobster, shrimp, fish, chicken, duck, and pork) and feasted to our hearts’ content. You know, looking back, I wonder how many of my posts are dedicated to my dining experiences. Well, what can I say? So much food… and so little time… Must eat it all before it’s gone! Btw, based on a friend’s suggestion, I’ve changed my guestbook into a forum. It’s really the same thing, but a guestbook implies a one-time comment on the website, while the forum allows people to comment on my updates as well as other visitors’ postings. I wonder if this will make things a bit more interesting…

For those of you who have an email address at Xephalon.net, a members entrance has been added at the bottom of this page. It will bring you directly to the webmail interface.

I just had to put this on here. Melody and I came across this baby T-shirt design during our last week in LA and I just had to get it for her. It was from a novelty gift store called Aahs over in Westwood. Confused readers may wish to refer to Angry Little Girls, and read about Kim in particular. =P