EWiggen's New Shoes!

My husband got new shoes today.

This actually is a big deal. He's been having a lot of foot pain recently. Not good for his current job (phlebotomy) nor his future career (physician) or the fact I like to run. So, the hunt began.

A doctor I work with recently got these shoes.

I thought they were kinda cool. So we began looking for them.

Well, kinda hard to find these it turns out.
While we searched online for a supplier I also did a bit of market-research to see if they were even worth the struggle of locating them.
Then I found this post from Wired.

That just about settled it. We found some at a local running retailer, tested them on the treadmill and satisfied my podicial picky husband.
Man, these shoes are awesome! I'm just too unfortunate to have very small feet, but the store said they could order some for me. No telling when I'll get some though.
There has been a lot of research recently on the benefits of running barefoot. Here's a video from Nature about it. The moment we got home we went for a brief run to test it out. He's been wearing them non-stop since. Reports they make him feel more agile and connected.

Can hardly wait till they come in my size. They're seriously geeky and cool.


Ewiggen's feet -->
(my little shoes beside him!)

And in other news

So, here I am again, about to make a mega post
Prepare thyself

I'm moving soon. Ewiggen made it into medical school and I figured, heck, we're married I should go with him.
The Pros

• Whee! Finally! I'm so happy for him
• I get to buy a house

The Cons

• I have to move
• I have to leave my amazing job

Essentially, that's it. Every thing else is negligible.

I've been running a lot and keeping a pretty good journal on that. I might think about blogging those tidbits, but that's all they are. More like tweets than blogs. I'm not that good or that fast, just starting to get the hang of things. I, like millions I'm sure, picked up on the couch to 5k at coolrunning.com It's great. If you're thinking you need a hobby or something to do, I would strongly suggest taking a look at that. While you're at it pick up Robert Ullrey's podcast to make it easier on yourself.

My lil cat, Spock, had surgery today. He's been getting a little too Pon Farr and driving Ewiggen and myself CRAZY with all the "mao mao mao" in the middle of the night. So we cut his balls off. Well, not us. The vet. My vet's name is Kirk, so it was a little funny.

I've picked up a new hobby as well. Scientist stalking. I'll pick a Scientist and "stalk" them. Read a bunch of stuff about them, what they studied, their biographies, watch their movies etc. This time it was Carl Sagan. I've still got a couple of chapters left in this biography. I'm thinking about re-watching Contact tonight and I've been getting Cosmos through netflicks. Pretty cool guy, could be a bit of a dick sometimes though. However, the things he did to gain the populus' attention toward science and further space exploration. Thumbs up. (Not like he needs a head nod from me.)

Well, if brevity is the soul of wit then I'm no Oscar Wilde.

That's about it.

Fight against Slacktivism

I'm normally not a too "fired-up" person. I spend most of my life shrugging at stupid things people can do. However, after a brunch talk with my sister I got a little enraged about something stupid and therefore will share it with you.

Recently on facebook, girls have been posting colors as their status updates. As normal, I had no idea what was going on so I ignored it. My sis tells me they are posting bra colors to "promote awareness of breast cancer"

...

So, who out there wasn't aware of breast cancer?

What good is posting your bra color going to do?

Well, (as someone mentioned) what HARM is it going to do?

This is where a little thing called slacktivism comes in.
"The word is considered a pejorative term that describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction." ~wikipedia

So you don't overtly hurt anyone by posting your bra color, however you are giving yourself a false "pat on the back" if you will that's not helping anyone either. It's adding to your own sense of collaboration with a cause that's not receiving any benefit. So you feel good, but they still get no assistance.

Here's my challenge. Donate $5 to the American Cancer Society THEN post your bra color.
After all, it's just five dollars.

Fight slacktivism.

https://www.cancer.org/aspx/Donation/DON_1_Donate_Online_Now.aspx

I'm doing so right now.

When left to my own devices

Snow day!
I have been left to my own devices for 6 hours now.
Here's whats happened.
Organized the craft closet
Organized the hall closet
Cleaned (with bleach) the refrigerator
Cooked lunch
Exercised
Played L4D2
Facebooked
Watched 3 to 3 science lectures via youtube
Listened to the Naturepod cast from last week
Watched 4 tedtalks
Explored the internet archive
Read Cory Doctorow's blog
Unloaded the dishwasher

Now what?

Sometimes I feel a bit manic...

Update from Dec 17. Birthday

I can never tell if I'm going to write too much when I start a blog post. This time there's a lot to be said.
I haven't said much in a while, I've had a birthday, and several holiday celebrations.
What to start with?

I had a great birthday, surrounded by friends and family. It was great. I finally got back in contact with several old friends that make my life much better. I made a LOT of sushi and invited some people over. I might have been the first time we had so many people in my apartment. Here's the dessert sushi we made from twinkies, fruit roll ups and swedish fish!
I spent my 22nd birthday shopping with my Mom and Grandma.
I'm not one for clothes much but I was able to get several shirts in different colors. I'm a bit like a cartoon character in that I like to have several of the exact same thing in different colors. After a day shopping we gathered at my Mom's house for spaghetti (my favorite) and pin the tail on the donkey. Fun times.
It was great and relaxed being around all these people. I had a really great time with my friends. I can't think of too many "great thoughts" to post about the goings on but it was good and I felt special.

Sometimes I'm a little crazy.

And I accidentally posted just the title a moment ago... Hopefully I can post the entire blog this time...

Not really sure where to start, it's been a long time since I worked on my blogging skills.
Alas. Here goes.

My husband and I watched a really good TED talks Friday night. Dr. Ramachandran is one of my favorite scientists.

He wrote Phantoms of the Mind which blew me out of the water and really made me realize how much I love science. So all this geekiness, could be attributed to his amazing research.

Anyway. During his speech he brings up synesthesias. John thought they were fascinating. I casually commented, "Yea, didn't you wonder why September is always blue and red?"

Oops. He didn't know I was a grapheme-synestehsia. To be honest I didn't either until my freshman psych class (oh the things we learn about ourselves in college)
I didn't know other people didn't do this matching colors to letters/numbers thing. I also do it with people and days of the week.
So he had be write a list. Of all the numbers, days of the week, letters, and people we know.
I had never really thought about it before so writing it all out was kinda difficult.

The hardest part was I didn't have enough colors in my marker box. Several times I just couldn't FIND the number. I would draw a blank like I couldn't remember the number that came next. The first time it happened was with 5. 5 is a like a pale orange/dark yellow. I only had bright yellow. I figured it out once I darkened the shade a bit. But the HARDEST was 7. I stopped at 6 and couldn't think anymore. It was the strangest thing. I couldn't remember the next number. Sure I knew 789. I was POSITIVE 9 was coming, it's red and almost the exact red I have in my marker box. My mind was SCREAMING,
"Just move on. 9 is right here! Forget about whatever you're looking for. Just draw 9! This orange is close to 8 so you can make it work. 9 is really important. You HAVE to draw 9!"
In another part of my mind I could hear,
"Forget about 7, draw 9 and come back to 7 later. Lie about 7, John won't know anyway and it can get you to 9 faster. It's ok, no one will know. Besides this is your brain chemsitry how will anyone find out. You can't be wrong, just skip it. How do you know 7 even really exists? It's all made up anyway to keep humans happy. Just an arbitrary number, you can get by without it."

It was kinda freaky. I knew this wasn't normal for most people but I'd never really dealt with it. It always just was. I had never had the experience of rationalizing that 7 didn't exist.

Then it hit me.
7 is White.

Yay! Birthday early!

Let the fabulous begin!
I have before me something wonderful. Something great. Something shiny and small. It's something every girl has ever wanted. (At least this girl.)
Seriously, I have the best husband.
He got me a netbook!

Not only that, he didn't tell me when it came in, but he charged it, loaded it up, gave it more RAM. THEN told me it was here!
What a thoughtful person.

Let's hope this make my life easier instead of harder. Hopefully I can blog not without all the crazy hassle I normally go though. (Sigh.)

Not like much of this is incredibly important, but it's exciting and I'm happy.
A lot has happened to me that I wish I had be able to share with everyone, but alas. I didn't take the time to do so.

So here goes, a new era of computing.
It's so little!

I call her Evee.