flopkins.com

Let me preface this by saying that no drugs (legal or not), or money, for that matter, were actually exchanged by, from, or to me in this process. However, everything described here actually happened two weeks ago, somewhere in San Francisco…

1.  Client calls you to get the goods.

2.  Order the goods from your supplier and determine a delivery date.

3.  On the predetermined delivery date, go to the predetermined delivery location to pick up the goods and discover your supplier has screwed you over.

4.  Curse profusely.

5.  Call up your backup supplier.  (Always have a backup!)

6.  Call you client and notify them of a change of plans and reschedule the exchange.

7.  Pick up the goods from your backup supplier the next morning at 8AM, still cursing.

8.  Meet your client behind a gas station, right off the freeway, in a shady neighborhood.

9.  Exchange said goods.

10.  Leave the transaction site immediately.

And that, my friends, is how to pull off a successful ‘drug deal’…  I know you are all so very thankful for my generosity in sharing this important information.

If you are dying to know what the ‘goods’ were, click here:  Continue Reading »

I found these photos last night and every time I need a little pick me up I just have to look at these photos and it instantly makes me smile.  See?  It doesn’t take much to make me happy!

via virginhoney on flickr

I went to the gym last night during the VP debate, thinking I’d catch a nice chunk of it on the elliptical…  but forgot my earphones.  ARGH!!!!!  Instead, I watched Pitt pretty much whomp USF… since watching football doesn’t need sound.  Yay for football!

I did catch the tail end of the debate, but really, I think this about sums up Sarah Palin’s performance:

I’m not sure I can still be your friend if you don’t find SOMETHING on this poster that makes you chuckle…

via Yee-Haw on etsy… although I can’t find this particular item for sale anymore - perhaps it’s sold out.

I’ve been having a trying week, for many reasons that I really don’t feel like getting into right now, but this morning I *really* needed some GOOD COFFEE.  I’ve tried every coffee serving establishment on the SFSU campus in the last two months, and I am sorry to say - they all kinda suck.  Cafe Rosso comes pretty close but… really?  That’s all you’ve got?

So, this morning Ryan recommended I just get something at Farley’s... *the* place to go in the good ol’ Po’ Hill area.  I’m a little wary of them, to be honest, because last time we went there Ryan ordered a decaf latte and it just tasted burnt.  (Supposedly it has to do with the decaf beans, or something, but who cares?  It shouldn’t taste burnt, I don’t care if the beans are ‘like that’ or not)

Anyway.  I thought I’d give them another try, as I was feeling a bit desperate for a good coffee.

I waited in line.

I ordered and paid.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And watched two people who ordered after me pick up their drinks.

At which point I finally went up to the counter and rather loudly asked when I was going to get my double latte.

At which point the cashier said, ohhhhhh someone else must have picked up yours, we had three double lattes in a row…  we have another one coming up though!

(No apology.)

Thankfully the second guy who stole my latte was still standing right there and gave me ‘his’ (my) double latte.

Let’s just say it took 15 minutes for me to get my latte.

I am NOT PLEASED.

The only saving grace this morning, after waiting 15 minutes for a latte, plus sitting in an extra 15 minutes of traffic coming to work (because of construction) ….

The latte is damn good.

Sigh.  It would be so much easier to hate on them if it wasn’t.

Regardless: This is strike two for Farley’s in my book.

Dear readers - what do you think?  Is waiting 15 minutes for a fantastic latte worth it?

I’m decidedly… undecided.

in wonderful harmony.

I can’t say Phelps is my absolute fav swimmer though… I think Natalie Coughlin is probably my fav swimmer right now, since she’s (a) a Cal bear (b) a woman and (c) from the Bay Area.

But this is still pretty awesome.

I’m sad the swimming is over.  It’s the best part of the Olympics!!!!

Photo courtesy of gingiemay at Tokidoki Forum.

I just scarfed down almost the entire can of these:

Which SOMEBODY left in my bag this weekend!!!!  And, um… they were pretty dang tasty.  Spicy, salty, and yet sweet… hahahahha!!!!  Anyone going to visit Korea soon?  Or seen these anywhere in the US?  Let’s talk…

And, while we’re on the topic of yummy man parts… (As you can see I’m trying *very* hard not to get a million folks hitting my website on dirty google searches)  We celebrated Erica’s Bachelorette weekend in style.  In addition to the aforementioned snacks we also had the pleasure of enjoying the first inaugural ‘Speedo Sunday’ courtesy of WET rafting company - our two guides Jeff and Kyle were trying to convince all the other rafting guides to follow suit (haha, get it? I know, I know… couldn’t stop myself) but I don’t think it will *quite* catch on the way they were hoping…  but for your viewing pleasure I present Jeff in his hot pink speedo with yellow smiley faces, complete with www.raftwet.com screenprinted on the rear… oh and that’s me, Irene, and Erica (with her veil and matching hot pink ‘Bachelorette’ sash) along with Jeff’s gf in the raft (counter-clockwise from the bottom right).

The WET guides were pretty awesome though, speedos or not - I highly recommend!!

Yes, it’s time for another one of my infamous rants. Buckle yourselves in.

Back to hp.

They are one of the evil companies that sell you (or even give you - oh, how generous are they) cheap crap printers and then rip you off on the $50 ink cartridges.

I’ve been holding out on buying those ridiculously priced ink cartridges… but that meant I couldn’t print anything at home for the last 6 months, which is kind of a problem.

Enter Office Depot.

They entice you with their Office Depot brand ink… significantly cheaper than the official hp ink. I fell for it and bought them. (Note to self and all (5) of my readers: DON’T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I knew things weren’t going to go well when I look at the contact portion of the color cartridge. Kinda crusty looking… hm… oh well. I load it into my printer. 5 seconds later: fatal error: color cartridge failed. #*$&@#(*!!

I take Office Depot on their ‘100% Satisfaction Guaranteed’ offer. I return the crap cartridges to the surly OD employee. I buy the real hp ones. I wanted to buy them from Staples or something, just to piss off OD by not giving them my $$ after all that, but I admit it, I was lazy. I just wanted my damn printer to work. I even sold my soul by selling my old empty cartridges back to OD for the $3 off/cartridge discount. (which they will use to make MORE crap OD ink cartridges… argh!!!)

Finally. I load the new, authentic hp ink cartridges into the printer. They work fine.

Then I try to hook the printer up to Ryan’s new fancy schmancy new double screen computer that he spent $$$$ on. I can’t figure it out. Ryan to the rescue. He goes to the hp website to download the driver for the printer… enters the printer model, selects the windows operating system, and then:

We are sorry to inform you that there will be no Windows Vista support available for your HP product. Therefore your product will not work with Windows Vista.

The majority of HP products not supported in Windows Vista are beyond seven years old.

If you are using the Windows Vista operating system on your computer, please consider upgrading to a newer HP product that is supported on Windows Vista. HP has numerous products on the market that support Windows Vista.

For more information on the different options, click the How to Buy link at the top of the page.

And Office Depot - you just plain suck at trying to make money off the cash cow that is printer ink…

I was referring to my doctoral dissertation as a thesis. Well, a kind friend (who also happens to be working on her dissertation) and this document from UC Berkeley has set me straight. And, according to wikipedia - which we all know is the absolute authority on everything (and anyone) worth mentioning:

At most [US] universities, dissertation is the term for the required submission for the

doctorate and thesis refers only to the master’s degree requirement.

Ha! Obviously the author of this wikipedia entry has a doctorate! Why are all the master’s students out there sweating bullets? It’s only a thesis.

Gotta love the social hierarchy of academia.

You have to admit though - ‘dissertation’ just sounds more important than ‘thesis.’ Plus, it’s a much longer word. 12 letters versus a measly 6. Twice as long - it must mean a dissertation is twice as snooty.

I guess we have to grasp at something after all these years… I mean, it’s taken me 6 times longer to get my phD than it took Ryan to get his masters - which, by the way, was a two year program he finished in one.

Damn overachiever.

No, this isn’t another post about the presidential election. Something totally different.

I came across the most awesome black and white baby art the other day. Why am I looking at art for babies, you ask me? Sigh… NO I’m NOT pregnant. Sorry if anyone is disappointed. HA! But I’ve been browsing some fun design blogs recently - I think my recent trip with Jill to a Lotta Jansdotter event inspired me to get more… well, inspired. And there are a LOT of interesting design blogs out there.

Anyway, the upshot of it was, I was dutifully working on my thesis (aka procrastinating on the internet) and I saw a photo of some kid’s room and it had the coolest b&w print in one of those framed photo collages - I can’t even remember which blog this was anymore, but it was great because I spotted it right away and was like - OMG that is the most adorable ________ (see I can’t even remember the exact animal, something about the shapes just caught my eye) where do I find that?!!! And this wonderful, now forgotten blogger linked to K Barteski’s site… where she has posted all of the original images for FREE!!!

FYI: For those of you w/o kids, apparently black and white images are supposed to be extra stimulating for babies… or something like that. Whatever, I’m ready to print these out for ME!!

And, in honor of my thesis writing, I post two animals that are related to my research:

SO COOL! The artist has a really young baby, and was, ah, unimpressed by the b&w stuff she was seeing, and she just whipped these babies up one morning. Just like that. Dang I wish I was talented. Sigh.

Check out her recently ‘published’ book via blurb - also looks adorable.

PS. For those of you non-crazy bioscience people out there - No, I don’t work with hedgehogs exactly, but a well known growth factor I do some work with is named sonic hedgehog homolog (SHH for short) after Sonic the hedgehog. Yes, that Sonic, from Sega video games. Remember Sega?