Edit: Still warm, with butter and strawberry jam, it's even better! And the smell, hmmm, lurvely! I do, however, need a better bread knife.
BREAD PORN!
Author: admin
Hmmmm, Charlize
I just found out I share the same exact birthday as Charlize Theron. Yummy!
I miss my frost-free fridge
I've just spent the last 2 hours defrosting my fridge. There's water everywhere in the kitchen and I'm aggravated. Today hasn't been the best of days.
Teehee!
I got my breadmaker today.
It will be good.
Weekend in Leicester
Just got back to Cambs from a weekend in Leicester to see Katy's gran in the hospital again. Generally relaxed weekend, except for a bit of coffee house drama. The next weekends are going to be busy. It's Rita's birthday next weekend, mine the one after, Katy needs to be in Leicester the one after that for some pre-op visits, and then she's going to be operated the week after. The weekend after *that*, I'm getting ready to leave for Munich (or is it Geneva, I'm not sure, I need to check). Therefore, busy busy busy.
Just got a bit of a phone update. Katy's gran is less than stellar right now. She seemed tired when we visited her, and she wasn't really better this afternoon. She's not eating and she's losing weight. *sigh* Getting old sucks.
Oy
I'm glad it's friday, cause I can't really take any more of this week. Quack. Quack. Quack. We were supposed to release the new version of PRIDE to the general public this week. It didn't happen, and it's not looking good to happen next week either. The problem is that we're waiting for things that are out of our hands.
Pride is a repository of proteomics data. Groups can submit their experimental results for peer review and collaboration. We have tons of data right now but it's all private. The groups haven't published it to the scientific community at large so it's not available yet. The only source of public data we have hasn't given us the data files that will work in the new version, and only they can make them. Joy. We can't release without public data, it's ludicrous.
Other nasty item: Oracle is a pig. We did all our testing on local installations of mySQL on our laptops and it runs fast and smooth. We dump all the data on it and still, it's fine. We dump the same data on Oracle and now the database queries take roughly 60 times more time. What used to take 5 seconds now take 5 minutes. We need to talk to the DBA group to tune our database, but that's not going to happen overnight. We can deploy to a mySQL database on the EBI systems network, but we're waiting for them to greenlight it and give us access.
So, basically, we're waiting on people.
Quack.
The difference between Americans and Brits
Brits: We get bombed in the transit system, ok. We'll take our bikes. We need to plod on cause we can't let them win.
Americans: In the wake of today's 4 dud bombings in London, the U.S. House has voted to extend the Patriot Act by a vote of 257-171. This includes 10-year extensions to the two other provisions set to expire on December 31, one allowing roving wiretaps, and another allowing searches of library and medical records.” From CNN
Because, apparently, there's a need for clarification
Katy and I have no short-term plans to get married.
hmmmmm, quiche
I made a bacon, leek, mushroom and cheese quiche last night. For those of you who think that real men don't eat quiche, well, think of it as a pig-and-egg pie and grow up.
Harry Potter Mania
I just finished reading the latest Harry Potter book this morning on the bus to work. I'm impressed – compared to the last 2 books, it's quite well written and the storyline is solid. I'm really looking forward to the last book in the series, but that'll probably be in a few years now.
I've been giggling a bit to myself lately because people seem to be losing their collective minds over this book. The tin-foil hat brigade is out big-time online to try and figure out what's going to happen in the last book. I've also been amused at the antics of people who try and piss off the most people by randomly posting spoilers online. Hell, there have even been reported incidents of “drive-by spoilage” where people drive by bookstores and yell stuff out their car windows. Gotta love the fandom and the fan-bashers :)
Oh, while I'm thinking of it, does anybody in Montreal have my copy of Order of the Phoenix? I can't seem to find it here and it's aggravating me to no extent :(