headhunting

1012 = ?!

steganography. the art of conveying hidden messages such that only the intended recipient understands the meaning and existence of the message.


i was recently the recipient of such a message. the other night when i uncorked a bottle of wine, i found that the cork conveyed a message - 1012. of course, many of you are probably thinking that this is just a date stamp or a factory code, but that is because you were not the intended recipient of this message (nannynannybooboo). i am absolutely certain that this message was meant for me, and that i am the wine company's link to the outside. i am to convey this message, translated, to the people of the world.

for all you readers out there that have no idea what 1012 means, it is the position in the hepatitis delta virus (HDV) genome that is edited by human ADAR1. the heart of my thesis research beats around this site, 1012! and there is a wine company out there that knows this.

but what message is this wine company trying to convey to me? is there HDV replicating in the wine they produce? is this wine meant to be imbibed only by people that have HDV replicating in their liver - maybe as a therapeutic?
i can't even begin to guess. but i am sure that this message was meant for me, and that this is the first of many messages to come. i will continue to buy wine from this company. i will buy it and i will continue to translate their communications. one soused day soon, i will be privy to the ingenious of this wine company.

and my dear readers, you will be the second to know their musings!

zen in the art of chocolate chip-cashew-coconut cookie eating

I pile two, three, sometimes up to five cookies onto a sparsely patterned white paper towel that drapes delicately atop a corner-set triangular kitchen table. I pour a generous volume of ice-cold milk into a clear glass. Immediately, dewdrops perspire on the periphery of the glass, as warm summer air spills through an open window.

I sit down.

The walls in front of me are blank. The air behind and around me is still. My ears are at rest.

My fingertips are the first to experience the jumble of chocolate, cashew, and coconut in front of me. Titilated by the many textures - soft, rigid, coarse - my hand gladly shuttles a cookie to my mouth. A cashew collides with my bottom lip. Slightly salty. More slightly sweet. I bite, and I chew - slowly. Eyes closed. Mind open.

The homogenous medley of brown sugar, cinnamon, and molasses ricochet off of one another. Reverberated by the crunch of a cashew. Intensified by sweet toasted coconut. Made ethereal by dark velvety chocolate.

I'm at peace.

........................

zen. it is the art of being present. of having the mind focused on what it is actively doing... at peace with what is happening right now! it is not eating cookies while cleaning the stove. it is not eating while painting. and it is not eating cookies while writing a blog. ...shit.

i was in the zen of cookie eating at least once in my life... and i do recommend it!

lauging to myself

a few evenings ago i thought about starting a whole new blog that would feature photos of obscure juxtapositions, bizarre ironies, and mocking hyperboles. i would call this blog, 'laughing to myself', since i often find myself smirking, smiling, or outright snickering when i encounter such situational comedies. the specific incidence that sparked this idea occurred while concomitantly stir frying leftovers and cleaning out my freezer.
i like to freeze to preserve many things. this ensures that, if a time came when i would like to enjoy that thing again, it would merely need to be thawed and boom -it would be back as good as new...hopefully. among the things i like to freeze are chocolate and goldfish. jan, the goldfish in the photo above, was flash frozen about two months ago. he was one of my favorite fish - he swam with enthusiasm, ate the vegetables that i couldnt bear to face, and never ever had a string of dangling poo. so i decided that instead of leaving him to be eaten by the angry cichlids in the tank, i would preserve him for a time when no other fish in his swimming proximity were on the attack.
unfortunately, however, when i took him out of the freezer to defrost and to bounce back to normalcy, he thawed as planned but did not regain the spunk i once admired from him. i shed a tear...and a sob, then put on my recall cap. (thinking back, i should have slowly coaxed his cells into hibernation by feeding him a 10% glycerol solution instead of throwing him straight into the freezer and straight into a state of shock). next time i will plan more carefully.
fortunately for me, but not for jan, i was able to find humor in the situation. call it morbid. call it callous. but i found myself smiling when i positioned my favorite goldfish on a plate next to my stir fry ingredients.
although i have decided not to devote an entire blog to internal laughter, i thought it was warranted to devote at least one entry to the topic. do you ever laugh to yourself? what situations cause your cavernous cackles? hopefully your encounters aren't quite as sinister as the example i just purported.
tactfully, i've decided to thaw the chocolate next time i'm cleaning my freezer.

pickers anonymous

hi. my name is sarah and i dead-end lilies. i've been picking withered flowers for most of my life now. i can't remember when it started...or even the last time i walked by a lily patch without having the urge to pick. the overwhelming impulse has ruined the last couple of weeks of my walks to work. you see, there's this long row of day lilies along the route to work, and every morning i get delayed by picking the dead lilies off their stiff stems. and as i am picking i usually wonder, 'why didn't God arrange to have these past-prime flowers fall as soon as they finished being beautiful?' He could have saved me a lot of trouble if i didn't have to play clean-up every morning.
but in the end, i have to say that i am thankful for the opportunity to feel useful.

actually, this morning i didn't dead-end at all. i guess that means i am celebrating one day of pickers sobriety. i'm gonna have a drink...or two. maybe three.

negative space

if you are a musician, a writer, a painter, or even if you get dressed in the morning, please read this blog.

reason: i am under the strong opinion that negative space is a very very important component of anything and everything that is composed, written, painted, or worn. let me explain.

imagine your favorite song. can you hear it playing in your head? my bet is that as long as your favorite composer is neither stravinsky nor britten (jk, dave), the song is pleasing to your ears. and why is the music beautiful? well, i am sure there are many reasons, but one very important aspect is that there are both 'positive' and 'negative' notes, i.e., play times and rest times. if the song were either playing or resting exclusively, then your ears would either tire from the many many notes, or not hear a sound at all. a balance between notes and rests is ideal and my bet is that the most pleasing ratio is 50:50. but i could be wrong. please comment if you think i am wrong.

now, what about getting dressed in the morning? are you one to put on a polka dotted shirt and striped pants with huge hoop earrings, 5 rings on each finger, cowboy boots, and a sailor hat? no, please, no. that would be waaaay too much positive space. maybe what would be best is to employ a little negative space here. pick your favorite of these items, and wear just the cowboy boots, or maybe one of the rings. then, make this item 'pop' by surrounding it with negative space. i.e., a monotone ensemble that compliments or contrasts the item on display.

and finally, please focus your attention on the photo above. can you distinguish the negative from the positive spaces? what is their ratio? would the photo be better if i had included more or less or either?

thats all. rock on and enjoy your negative space.

abstract storyboard

this post is intended for my mentor:
see the green and yellow post-its in the above photo for my HBV meeting abstract. read left to right, top to bottom. the title is, 'sequences within the HDV genotype III editing structure control editing efficiency and structural destiny'. i will come to your office for discussion points.