Thanks to Site59.com, the home of last-minute getaway deals, I was able to schedule my first weekend
trip to LA to visit my girlfriend! I took off right after work Thursday afternoon, and despite the flight there being a total nightmare with a 3-hour delay, I was glad to finally see her again, and enjoy some quiet time with her over the course of our 3-day weekend together. After lunch at Noodle Planet and some taro-coconut boba tea, our Friday was spent mainly kicking back and relaxing at her apartment. Dinner, however, was a different story. Cafe Sierra, located in the Hilton at Universal City, featured an all-you-can-eat (Yeah baby!) prime rib & seafood buffet consisting of an endless supply of stuffed lobster tails, king crab legs and shrimp cocktails, sushi and sashimi or any kind of hand roll of your choice, shark fin soup, ginger-scallion crawfish, roast duck, and many other Asian or American goodies. Top that off with some delicious mango pudding, tiramisu, flan, and an ultra-rich chocolate cake with everything a la mode, and you’ve got yourself a very satisfied couple =9. We spent Saturday at the Aquarium of the Pacific at Long Beach, the highlight of which included a number of petting ponds with various sharks and skates for our groping pleasure 😉 We later joined Jeff and Thu for some noodles at a Chinese restaurant that is run by Koreans… an interesting concept. On Sunday, after a quick lunch at In-N-Out Burger (my first time in this Cali fast food franchise), we visited the beautiful Getty Center, a modernist architectural marvel sitting atop the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking the ominous haze of LA’s smog-filled horizon. The buildings were erected using a material called travertine, a beige-colored fossilized stone that reflects all that SoCal sunshine in a warm, cozy glow. We spent most of the afternoon lying on the grass near the central garden, listening to the nearby parents playing with their toddlers. We finally headed back to Westwood for some dinner at Olive Garden. I was so exhausted on my red-eye return flight that I never remembered taking off, landing, or when the passenger in the next seat even got on! I pretty much passed out once I buckled in and woke up when the seatbelt sign was turned off at the arrival gate Monday morning. Thinking back to this weekend still puts a smile on my face. Thanks for everything, Melody. I love you! (btw, the new thumbnails will link to larger versions of the photos)

Along with a few friends’ help, Jeff moved into the apartment today. It was perfect timing since my parents visited this weekend and helped me pick out some home accents from a place called HomeGoods out in Newton, including new area rugs, lamps, and plants. He’ll be taking off for LA soon for a 1-month rotation so I’m helping him settle in during the next couple of days. Meanwhile, I’m kinda planning my own little weekend getaway with my gf, though last-minute deals are often quite difficult to come by, so we’ll see what happens.

Just headed out this evening with Leo and Bob to catch today’s last matinee of Terminator 3. I went into the theater with few expectations and got just what I expected. The film had all the elements reminiscent of the second movie, but haphazardly thrown together into a flimsy plot with no character development, desperately trying to redeem itself with bigger guns and trucks, louder explosions, and a higher body count. What distinguished Terminator 2 was not only the groundbreaking use of special effects, but James Cameron’s stylistic cinematography and his ability to weave action sequences into a well-drawn plot. Yes, plot. For example, he’d add a blue tinge to certain scenes to connote the stark, cold nature of the robot killers. He’d also choose interesting locations like the steel mill or the psychiatric hospital for various scenes. Despite T3 being an overall mediocre production, it was still fun watching Arnold carry out his one-liners. After the movie, Amy and John joined us for dinner followed by some bubble tea in Chinatown. Oh, btw, my CGI guestbook script turns out to be badly written, so hold off signing in until I find a suitable replacement.

The all-new CGI script for my guestbook is up and running. A link is also available at the bottom of this page. Hurry and sign it ’cause …errr… it’s good for you! Also let me know if you have a webpage I should link to.

My old friend John came up from NYC to visit me and my new apartment this weekend. Since he has already visited Boston a couple of times before, we spent most of the time just chilling out. On Saturday, we shot a few rounds of pool at Boston Billiards, though I haven’t held a cue in like 2 months (I can hardly believe this myself). We also caught the Sunday matinee of “Bad Boys II” at the Fenway theater with Jeff. As expected, coming from Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay (director of “The Rock” and “Armageddon”), the movie went from your basic, run-of-the-mill car chase in Miami to a full-scale military assault operation in Cuba! Truly 100% testosterone. As a friend of mine would say, “made by boys; made for boys.” The big news this weekend, however, is that starting in September, Jeff will be joining me as my roommate! Though I’ve been thinking about renting out the other bedroom and parking spot for a while, it wasn’t until Jeff suggested the idea that I realized how perfect it would be, especially since he is probably the only person who is as neat and OCD as I am!

I answered the door this morning to find a UPS delivery guy holding out a flattened package, telling me apologetically: “I hope there isn’t a real video card in this box”. Needless to say, my brand new GeForce3 Ti500 DVI video card was completely destroyed by the time I got my hands on it, and I’ll probably need to file an insurance claim this afternoon. The good news, however, is that my furniture from Rotman’s was delivered this morning as well, and without a hitch. Now with both my living and dining room at least partially furnished, my apartment is finally beginning to feel more like a home.

Greetings from Denver … at least the Denver International Airport. I’m currently subscribed to a 24-hr AT&T Wireless GoPort session here at the airport, where I’ll be spending the next 12 hours before my flight back to Boston tomorrow. I actually arrived in Aspen last Thursday with my classmate Savita for a 3-day National MD-PhD student conference in Snowmass Village. Though most of the posters and talks were unrelated to my work, there was a discussion panel on post-graduate opportunities led by residency directors which was pretty interesting, as was the keynote speech by Eric Kandel on his recent findings of a prion-like protein that appears to be involved in long-term potentiation. I actually spent most of my time reading papers in the hotel room, though I did make an effort to enjoy the great outdoors as well. On Sunday morning, I joined a whitewater rafting trip down the Colorado River, followed by a hike up the Maroon Bells and Crater Lake in the afternoon. This was my first rafting experience, which to my dismay turned out to be rather benign, with mostly class 2 and class 3 rapids. The view of Glenwood Canyon from the river, however, was absolutely stunning, as was the breathtaking scenery at Maroon Bells. I felt especially lucky when a pair of hikers approached us with a cell phone they’ve found along the trail, which I immediately realized was mine! Of course, our luck must’ve run out by this morning, when because of the high altitudes and unusual warm weather in Aspen, the planes could not take off with the weight of a full flight. We finally had to rent a car from Aspen and raced against the clock across Colorado along I-70 trying to catch the last flight out of Denver at 6:20pm. Despite our gallant attempt, by the time we returned the car and reached the check-in counter, it was 5:55pm, and the attendant refused to issue a boarding pass less than 30 minutes before departure. While Savita decided to head home with her parents in Colorado Springs for the night, I’ve chosen to stick around at the airport and get some work done before my early morning flight tomorrow. Though the events of the day have been pretty stressful, it actually turned out in retrospect to be a fun little adventure that I’ll certainly look back upon on.

Yet another crazy weekend. Went back to NYC for only one night, and returned to Boston with my mom and dad trying to hunt down more furniture while also getting some more work done in lab. I ended up either waking up really early to get into lab at 6am or going in after 10pm in order to make time during the day to spend with my parents. We drove out to Rotman’s Furniture in Worchester and Jordan’s Furniture in Natick, and fortunately was able to get in on some great deals on clearance items, including a twin bed, a sofa and armchair, a dining table/chair set, and coffee table/end table. We also went to Ikea, Home Depot, Linens ‘N Things, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond for various things for the home like a shoe rack, curtains, replacement locks, etc. Overall, though I didn’t quite get the chance to enjoy my July 4th weekend, it turned out to be quite productive … though certainly exhausting.

Xephalon.Net has found a new home! As of this past week, I’ve switched my hosting company from Register4Less to Digitalibiz. The new service will provide a lot more hosting space, an extra subdomain, CGI/Perl/SSI/PHP/ASP support, individual POP e-mail accounts and aliases, and even a MySQL database! I will be adding some more components to the site over the next couple of weeks, though I’ll try to keep the core of the website as simple as possible. I’ve also added new pictures, modified some links, and added a new archive page. Check it out!

Just got back today from Bethesda after a 2-day mentoring conference hosted by the NINDS, a branch of the NIH dealing with neurological disease and stroke. I had originally signed up for this for the free trip, though I was sure it was going to be boring and a waste of time. Contrary to my expectations, the meeting turned out to be quite informative, with a clear presentation of various career and funding options from the government and academia. It was refreshing to meet clinician-scientists in the neurosciences who have successfully made that connection from bench to bedside (pardon the cliché). We even got a chance to meet other Neuro MD-PhD students and rub elbows with a couple of NIH bigwigs as well. The best part was the fact that we were given a per diem food allowance on top of the free meals, free hotel, and free plane ride, so I actually ended up MAKING money this weekend! I’m glad my tax dollars are finally being put to good use! LOL