I spent these past 12 days at my family's cottage in the Kawarthas. Much of my time was devoted to diligent work on the painting visible above. Other activities included daily swimming; writing; games of Trivial Pursuit, Slang Teasers (aka Balderdash), and Monopoly; a 1000 piece puzzle assembled by half a dozen collaborators; heated conversations about physics, grammatical mood, and the photocarcinogenic components of sunblock.

And, of course, reading.

I didn't devote myself to reading a single text, and so regrettably finished nothing -- rather, I dipped in and out of a multitude of novels and non-fictions, frequently reading passages aloud to my companions (a behavior they tolerated gracefully). I'd like to share with you a series of  excerpts, many of which I did blurt out aloud or mark with a little dogear at the corner of the page.

I like to think that it betrays something of my thinking patterns that, when they are ordered carefully, each of the separately selected quotations shows thematic linkage to the quotation following it.

Remember how I kept muttering about endocytose being a back-formation from endocytosis? Well, dictionary.com has confirmed my suspicion.

I'm going to be honest, I'm pretty ecstatic about having spotted this one. I have a soft spot for back-formation -- it's such an interesting process.

You see, we use this verb often; and everytime I've heard it, I've thought to myself  "that is one beautiful back-formation" and I've felt myself deriving it each time I've said it -- it's breathtaking.




Note, this derivation first took place before I was born, so I likely didn't produce it de novo but, as I said, I feel myself taking 'endocytosis' and clipping it whenever I use the verb, and that was what first made me suspect that it was a back-formation.

"... on the basis of this information, we can actually figure out how genes are organized in the genome, and we can do this simply by letting organisms do what they like to do, which is to mate ... And then what we like to do, which is to use simple genetic knowledge -- we can actually map a genome, and create a road map for constructing an organism."

--- the brilliant Malcolm Campbell in lecture.

1) choose/find career.
2) figure out what to make of life.
3) find love.
4) write lab report.

"In 1905, Starling introduced the term hormone, derived from the Greek for 'I arouse'..."
-Eckert, Animal Physiology

- the roman alphabet
- metric
- the Milky Way
- public school? (flawed but beneficial)
- circulatory, nervous etc. (ie. Major Organ)

in second year zoology:

"What is that [you're drawing]?"
"Sort of a flower." (I often find myself drawing sort - of - flowers.)
"It looks like a fish."
"Oh yeah, I can see it. There're its gills."
"And the eye is there."
"Well, that's more appropriate for the class."
"Is a fish an animal?" Pause. "Oh, god...forget I asked."

This week was a long one. It felt like two weeks.

I spent four days this week attending Pride related events.

Tuesday night I was one of the two features at Coffeehouse Cabaret.  The host was Duncan Armstrong, and he had decided to feature queer poets - he chose Nicki Ward and myself. She read a strong set, composed of pieces mostly concerned with grieving and the causes for it - she did acknowledge that this was unusual subject matter for Pride week, but these were the poems that selected themselves naturally for her.
Among the open mic-ers, there were a few who had been invited. These included a comic named Sarah and a spoken word artist, Tomy Bewick. Tomy read before me and, in his closing piece, described the swelling of a larynx. Which was really cool, not only by virtue of the fact that it was a larynx that was swelling but also because, in the first poem I had lined up to read, I mentioned the swelling of a larynx. Awesome.

Thursday night I headed out to the Hart House quad for a U of T Pride barbecue.  It was a lovely, breezy night to be outdoors - especially surrounded by Hart House's beautiful stone walls. I relaxed on the lawn with some newish friends, caught up with some old ones, had a few beers, then danced the night away (quite literally - after the event finished I went down to Church to continue dancing; it was light when I got home).

Saturday was womens' day. I watched the parade. I did a couple of circuits of Church and Young, encountered condatisdylan and some others, stopped by fruit loopz, then headed for the beer store where Proud Voices was taking place - to see Sandra Alland in particular. She was stellar, as always, and read one of my favourites.

On Sunday, the usual - beer in the streets, vodka in the alleys, spontaneous head shaving (not mine), drawing marker 'tats' on strangers, swimming in fountains, nudity, dancing, flirting. Another post-sunrise return home.

Nothing that I am, on the whole, ashamed of.  Which means a good Pride.

cephalopods (including nautilis, octopus, cuttlefish, and squid) have:

- THREE hearts - 2 gill/branchial, 1 systemic
- hemocyanin instead of hemoglobin



*glee*

~

"mass is defined as the amount of matter in an object. [...] matter is anything that has mass."
-- McMurry & Fay, Chemistry, p.12

beautiful.
a good start to CHM139H1Y




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the traditional amateur dissection of the xmas turkey's liver.


~

with physics, you learn that the unimaginable exists. it does. the gravitational field. electromagnetic field. objects effect the space around themselves. other objects are moved by this distortion of . . . what? of the unimaginable. a 'space' that we do not sense, some hidden layer. but its presence is undeniable.



the iron filings are not directly affected by the magnet - the are affected by the condition of the space which they inhabit.

there is particle theory for gravity, involving the aptly named & equally mysterious gravitons?

what a confusing hidden world.

I just caught myself going through, aloud, the various ways one might inquire "should there be a double bond there?" that could denote different meanings. eg.
"should there be a double bond there?" , "should there be a double bond there?" "should there be a double bond there?" etc.

though that last one came close to what I was looking for, it was a little bit ambiguous.

I settle instead upon "shouldn't there be a double bond there?"


And yes! Upon referencing the textbook, there should  be a double bond there! Good call.

 You know, I do remember the day when I was told that water is made from two hydrogens bonded to one oxygen. I was twelve. I was very excited.

(fantastic. now I'm having on of those little melty moments where I feel glad that I'm taking science)

I heard that, in their first year, phys-ed majors dissect human cadavers. No one else gets to. Not even 3rd years.
un. fair.

A woman and man just came to my door. They wanted to share an uplifting passage from the bible that explained why we should do right in the face of a corrupt world. Because God will reward us, they read. They also gave me a magazine/pamphlet.
After they left I felt very sad. If all I had was the 'word of God' as comfort I would certainly walk door to door on a miserable day and read bible passages to people. If that was all I had to believe in I would certainly try very hard to believe it.
The magazine did have an article about Death Valley, and there were pictures of fish in the desert. There was also an article which offhandedly mentioned all the flaws in evolutionary theory (this article earned the zine its place in the recycling bin. though I may look up Death Valley in a more reliable publication).
I was motivated, then, to look up what some of these flaws in evolution were, making myself much less sad and increasingly angry.



EDIT: Upon rereading this, I realize I have capatalized the word 'God' in all its instances. Because it's a name I guess. I vaguely recall being told to capalalize it. Or maybe it's just that I've read it in capitals. Anyway, I can't offer an explanation. Interpret that as you will.