What can make you want to leave a conference?

Bleh.  That is the word of the day.  Bleh.  These conferences are totally awesome for the scientific content but they can be utterly exhausting.  These 7 am - midnight days of pure science take their toll quite a bit.  Today's other word was HEADACHE!!!!!  Totally sucked and had to be on the day of some of the biggest name people......  Anyway!!!!  Let's talk about food because FOOD!!

BREAKFAST!!!  OMG MAKE YOUR OWN OMELETTE!!!!  Also waffles.  Because waffles are great.

Yes, lunch was make your own fajita tacos.  Because Texas, I suppose.  It's not like we're right next to a bunch of seafood and could eat some of it at some point.  But watev.

Aaaaannnnnnd Dinner!!!!  Chicken and potatoes and sausage and bread and corn and salad and jambalaya  and..... ummm.... that's it.  The sausage and potatoes were awesome but everything else was a bit meh....

Incidentally, I promise tomorrow will be far more exciting.  More than simply food because I get to go on an awesome trip of awesomeness!  Huzzah!  Buy until then!

Conference Day 3!

Awwwwww yea!  Awesome day of conference science stuff.  Had a wonderful time and some very interesting talks.  My personal favorite ones thus far.  Great times and, of course, awesome FOOOOD!!!

I learned the hard way today that it is extremely difficult to avoid having more than 2 pieces of bacon when one is at a buffet.  Like seriously nearly impossible.  But OMG so good.  Also oatmeal.  Because yum.

Lunch was make-your-own sandwich.  Who cares?  OREO KLONDIKE!!!!!!!

Mmmmmmmmm Italian dinner tonight.  Fettuccini, ratatouille, baked chicken, roasted potatoes, salad, and Italian wedding soup.  SUPER awesome.

Best part of the day, though?  I managed to talk with a couple of high-profile professors about potential post-doc positions.  Aka the main purpose of me coming here.  I'm proud of myself for talking and hope that I can get in touch with a couple more tomorrow, as well.  Huzzah!  Until next time, later!

Conference and Video!

Day 2 of Galveston conference today!  Very exciting, great talks and an interesting poster session.  Had some major stem cell players come by and see my work.  Bit nerve wracking but definitely worth it.  Best part is still the FOOOOOOOD though.  OMG YUMS!

OMG breakfast yum!  And I never eat breakfast.  But OATMEAL OMG!

Lunch of make-your-own baked potato, salad, broccoli and cheese, and BBQ chicken and beef.  

Sooooooo, dinner was Asian food (Asian coleslaw, pad thai, general tso's chicken, etc.), but I was reaaaalllllyyyy hungry so I ate it before taking a picture..... *ahem*.  ANYWAY!

With today's 2 hour break I got around to editing my latest video, arguably my favorite one thus far.

Today's video is about board games that work well to transition people who are used to games like Monopoly, Trouble, the more casual family type games, and introducing the more heavily strategic and with more complicated mechanics.  Enjoy!

Hope you liked it!  See you next time!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh......... SCIENCE!!!

It's another awesome conference time for me!  This week I get to be in our very own Galveston, TX for the Gordon Research Conference on Reprogramming Cell Fate.  Mouthful?  Yes.  Awesome?  Also yes.  2 particularly fun things about this conference: the venue and food.  Absolutely amazing.  Not to mention the incredible big-name scientists that were able to come.  Not only from all over the world, but major institutions, as well.  It was a blast 2 years ago and this year's goal is to find a post-doc position.  Here's hoping!  Everyone cross your fingers!

The pleasure pier, just down the street from our venue, complete with Bubba Gump Shrimp and decked out in Mardi Gras/Carnival style!  Festive!

Panorama of the Hotel Galvez, where the entirety of the conference is happening.  Aside from the 'field trips' to various places nearby, including NASA at Houston... *sigh*... to have money....

WATER AHOY!!!!!!  Aka the gulf coast.  Huzzah, I suppose.

Science-ing in style.  I mean not.  This is terrible and should be the minimum level of room quality at all scientific conferences ever in any location.

Told you.  It's horrendous.  Bleh.

Like so many conferences of the type, this one is incredibly densely packed.  9 am - 9:30 pm each day, with lunch, a free time break, and coffee at a couple points.  Tons of information and social events.  I'm hoping to hit the socializing as best I can, gotta schmooze for those jobs.  Until next time, later!

Videos, Videos, Videos!!!

It's been a pleasantly busy few weeks for making videos.  I went on a bit of a binge after getting my awesome camcorder for Christmas, needless to say much recording needed be done.  For those keeping track, I have been spending a decent amount of time playing Gazillion's new-ish action RPG, Marvel Heroes.  It is an incredible game and I have had a wonderful time playing.  Like many games, however, it comes with its fair share of issues and confusing mechanics not easily explained by tutorials or simple help menus.  As such, I started a bit of a series of videos on the game, beginning with a fairly comprehensive general guide and adding on an additional video for the most recent game update.

I understand this is not most people's particular cup of tea, so feel free to skip down to another new one!

I posted this video on the Marvel Heroes forum here.  If you're even remotely interested in trying the game, my obviously biased opinion would be to start with my video to see what it's all about.

A nice quick vid on the latest (2/13/14 patch) for MH.  New features and whatnot.



I also felt the need to return to form for another video.  This one quicker than most of my board game ones, simply a quick list of awesomes for a specific company (and my personal favorite one, at that).

So a little bit of something for everyone.  Well.... all gamers, anyway.  And Marvel fans.  And people who like sushi and The Walking Dead.  We'll stick with everyone.  Hope that you enjoy and see you next time!

A video that saves you $$$$!!! (sort of)

It's been, at the very least, an interesting year with my videos/blogging.  Blogging being in ginormous quotes.  I've found a small thing that I really enjoy doing and it seems that some people appreciate some of the stuff I have to say (126 subscribers as of today, huzzah!!).

To celebrate in my own way, I'm taking us back to a time (or, as in my case, currently) where we have very little money but would like some entertainment.  This is a favorite category of games for me, personally, inexpensive games that give a wonderful experience.  Enjoy!!

Thank you all very much and I'll see you next time!

More Delicious Science!!!

It's been a great winter break for me, for the most part.  A little bit unfortunate, but overall pretty good.  Sadly my lab work has not been going well at all; cells not growing, torn asunder and whatnot.  Because of this I sought out other avenues to be awesome.  One was making my recent videos, the second cooking.  In particular, for Christmas this year I got the incredible gift of a large capacity KitchenAid stand mixer:

So shiny it is!!!

So the other day, after a particularly unpleasant day in the lab and bad news, I thought to myself "I should use that fancy mixer of mine".  So I thought to myself "OMG CAKE!!!!"  So I made cake.  With science!!!  And the mixer.  But mostly SCIENCE!!!  And lemons.  Soooo many lemons.

These will make cake.  Because yum.  

Dry ingredients for cake, after sifting through a metal sifter.

Initial "batter", just butter and sugar, simply a base for everything to be added to.

Proteins from the eggs smooth everything out, giving a nice consistency. Dry mixture adds all the happy volume and needed chemicals for baking while the buttermilk keeps the batter liquid-esque.  Also lemon juice and peel because how can you have lemon cake with no lemon?

See?  It's like magic.  We go from a bunch of random stuff on the counter to ready to bake cakes!!  Also on the counter.  But still!!

Since this is an awesome fancy layer cake, we need two other things.  Or rather want two other things.  First is a filling for between the layers and the other a frosting for outside.

Filling is a lemon curd.  Very simple.  Sugar, corn starch (to thicken, similar to a gravy or soup), water, lemon juice and peel.  Heat and stir stir stir.  Water evaporates, allowing starch and everything else to thicken up the curd.

Egg yolks for the curd.  Proteins always help stickiness and thickness.  Add half curd to this, while back to pan.

Back to the pan with you!!!!!!

Keep up heat and stirring, nice and thickened.

Yes.  Butter.  Because butter makes everything more delicious.

After adding butter, still nice and thickened, but now needs to cool.  To the refrigor-migator!!!

As I mentioned, cake needs an outer coating, aka frosting.  Because frosting delicious.  And proper for layered cakes especially.  In this case, we've got lemon cream cheese frosting.  Very awesome sort of thing.

Just toss it all in!!!  Cheese, butter, lemon juice and peel

Mix-a-licious!

Adding powdered sugar (aka confectioner's sugar) has a similar effect to adding starch, thickens and, or a sort, strengthens.  We're at 'hard peak' when strands stand straight on their own, perfect for spreading.

No wire racks for cooling :( .  Assembly takes place on table of awesome!

OMG FROSTING!

2 Stacked with curd in between.

Ready for curd!

Second layer of curd, ready for top layer now.

Mmmmmm.... frosting time!

Not too bad.  I can say with confidence this cake is frosted.

Told you!

OMG CAKE!!!!  It has LAYERS!!!  Like and ogre!!!  Or a parfait!!  Or an onion!!  Either way OMG!

Bit crumbly, but by no means bad.

This piece is gone now.  I don't know where.

Baking is certainly an interesting cooking technique, and there's so much science behind it that my mind tends to boggle a bit.  The now humble cake is a surprising achievment brought by knowledge of primarily chemistry and, most likely, the simple idea of "I want something NOMS!"  If you're interested, please let me know if you'd like the specific recipes for everything, definitely not very tough to make at all.  Thank you all for reading and I'll see you next time!