Random Friday: neuroses
A random piece of flotsam found around our place
- Ever since being given a chemistry set at about eight years old, I have had an unnatural interest in laboratory glassware. Our measuring cup, for example, is a Pyrex
® beaker, and the above photo was taken with the aid of a glass Petri dish which I was moved to purchase the instant I saw it through the pharmacy window. - Light-emitting diodes are also among the things I have a fetish for. So bright and lovely and efficient. Those are involved in that picture, too.
- Among my fallow skills set is the ability to manipulate yeast for the powers of good. Give me a dish of substrate, a live slant, and an inocculation loop, and I can easily propagate enough Weihenstephan to produce a delicious, estery Hefeweizen. When I was brewing I had an extensive, some would say ridiculous, refrigerated library of various strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and S. carlsbergensis from various regions. This is perhaps related to the first item above.
- Though I have never had any bees of my own, I am a big fan of their work. The idea of insects and fungi doing useful work for their human masters, completely gratis, fills me with joy and hope. Here is a picture of me doing some free-lance beekeeping in the Southern Cone. In spite of all this, I find the words ‘beekeeping’ and ‘beekeeper’ hilarious, especially when prefaced with ‘U.N.’
- I go through periods of having (or at least remembering) no dreams whatsoever, alternating with times of vivid recall of dreams of the utmost randomness. In the last few nights, for example, I have dreamt of Sea Monkeys and of rescuing a carp. Though it wasn’t explicit in the dreams, subtext made it clear that neither Sea Monkeys nor carp survived.
- Speaking of monkeys: I do not like them. I am sorry. I just don’t. Not even Sea Monkeys, frankly.
- I would much rather swim in salt water than fresh. I don’t really mind if it’s cold, as long as it’s salty.
- I would prefer not to be covered with sand, if at all possible, and watching Adam play on/ingest the beach gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Kilowatthour, recently become Dr. Kilowatthour, M.D., requested this post.
The picture is our latest contribution to the Flickr group ‘Choking Hazards’. Why haven’t you joined it yet?
