Just Another Blog

HPV and one woman's effort to make a difference.

2011-10-15T16:31:00.000-04:00

This story has started making it all over the internet, and I wanted to add my small part toward urging people to visit this woman's website and donate, educate, do what you can toward a worthy cause.

A tragic situation that she is using to try and make a difference. My heart and admiration go out to her and her family, a pretty meek offering in light of everything.

Robots

2011-08-02T22:53:00.003-04:00

I'm going to build my nephew a robot(my first!) and thought this would be an appropriate link to ponder.

His isn't going to be nearly so cool. But after reading the link, you know it is anything but harmless.

Human Science and Ingenuity

2011-03-18T07:02:00.002-04:00

Messenger has arrived at, and is now successfully orbiting Mercury!

xkcd: Sickness

2011-03-13T21:13:00.001-04:00

Nicely done, xkcd.

(Here's the link)

Birds

2011-03-13T18:43:00.017-04:00

I haven't been quite as busy with school this semester as last, and have been doing some work around the house to attract more birds to our yard. We get a decent variety of native species around here, and this year has started off pretty nicely as well.

A goal I really had this year was to try and get our Eastern Bluebird to nest again and raise a few broods of fledglings. Our first and second year here, we had a bluebird pair that nested and raised two sets of fledglings each year, then abandoned the site the following two years. In large part I believe this was due to the nestbox we had used initially to attract them. It was given to us as a gift, and was not really constructed properly for long term use. It was inadequately ventilated, unable to be opened for monitoring or cleaning, and after those first two years, I think it just became a bit too uncomfortable for any of the native cavity nesters we have in this area to use.

So I went to our local Wild Birds Unlimited store (a fantastic resource for anyone interested in birds around their area, they have stores nationwide you can find here), spoke with the staff and ended up getting a very basic but nice bluebird house to replace the old house we had. That same afternoon we had a pair that seemed to be fairly interested in the house, and we were excited that it looked like our plan was unfolding nicely!

Of course, it appears now as if things have turned a bit in another direction. The past several days we've had a pair of Carolina Chickadees that have been taking an interest in the nestbox as well. They are native, and quite lovely. I've been monitoring the box and each day the Chickadees place the fur and hair of their nesting material on the nest the bluebird has already built, and at some point, the bluebird removes the nesting material. There have been a few loud squabbles, and, honestly, I would like to see the bluebirds win out, but the other day I figured that what would be ideal was if I could get both the Bluebirds and the Chickadees to nest in our yard by giving the Chickadees an alternative.

So...I got a house specifically sized for the Chickadee and put that up, but it looks like this is to no avail. I think the Chickadees (surprisingly) are going to be the ones to nest in the bluebird box, now I'm just worried that should this happen, the bluebirds may attempt to kill the Chickadee fledglings, assuming they end up laying any eggs.

At this point, I'm waiting to see if the Chickadee pair do lay any eggs and if they will hatch to see if I need to put up a hole reducer to protect them from the bluebirds. I think the Carolina Chickadee only raises one brood of chicks, in which case I will remove the reducer as soon as the fledglings leave the nest and clean it out in the hopes that our Bluebirds return and use it the rest of the season. Hopefully we can get this to work out and the Chickadees will switch over to the actual Chickadee house next breeding season and we will end up having both in our yard next time around.

In the meantime, here are a few photos of the Eastern Bluebirds and Carolina Chickadees.

Female and Male Eastern Bluebird checking out the new birdhouse within an hour of it going up!

Male and Female Eastern Bluebird as dusk approaches

Male and Female Eastern Bluebirds

Male Eastern Bluebird and American Goldfinch (coming into its summer plumage)

Carolina Chickadee

Carl Sagan Day

2010-11-06T23:47:00.006-04:00

Ah, shitbirds. I didn't post this earlier in the day, but today, which is coming to an end here in the Eastern portion of the United States, is Carl Sagan Day. He was actually born on the 9th of November, but today was the celebration of his influence on popular culture through science and skepticism.
Got this from Bad Astronomy, and thought it'd be appropriate, if late.
This is done by the awesomely geeky Sara Mayhew, enjoy!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-06T15:59:00.004-04:00

The semester is winding down and getting more insane with exams, projects, labwork. But we found the time to join in a little Halloween fun! My wife actually bought her costume from Target this year, but I for one, was pretty happy with the results. I spent way too much time building my costume, a bioluminescent jellyfish, but I'm glad I did it. Still photos don't really do it justice, but here you go:

And our lovely pumpkins:

Not sure how comfortable she'd be with me plastering the others all over the intertubes, so this is all I'll post for now:

Pride Festival.

2010-10-23T22:04:00.008-04:00

I hate parades. Not a big fan of social events either. I'd prefer spending time with my dog than with most people. And even the ones I will spend time with, it still isn't as much time as I like to spend with my dog. All of that being said, we went downtown to the Gay Pride Festival where G Play, the band my wife is now in, played for the fest. It was awesome. Hot and sweaty, but really cool to watch them all play, and especially to see her back doing the very thing that really drew us together.

When we first met she was finishing up her senior year of college and playing out quite a bit for school, both her flute and bass. It is one of the things I loved about her and was a basis for our initial relationship.

I feel like we have grown accustomed to hyperbole in our everyday speech: everything is so wonderfully great, it makes us incredibly happy, there's no better feeling. But her getting back into playing music, it's strange how happy this makes me. It's easy to lose touch with things, even things we love dearly, in the daily grind. You have bills to pay, obligations to fulfill, work to get through. And we push something to the back burner for awhile, not realizing how easy it is to let that become the status quo. It's great, actually a really NICE feeling to see her getting back into the very thing that helped make me fall in love with her at the beginning. Here she is being the quintessential bass player.

LGBT Pride Festival 2010

And, as usual, once I actually got out and past my initial prickly reluctance at socialization, I had fun.

Another attempt to start posting more regularly. Again.

2010-10-22T22:24:00.010-04:00

I've been back in school and swamped with the amount of work I have. All of my classes are science and math and it's both exhilarating and overwhelming jumping back in full time after being out of a classroom environment for 15 years. It's been 18 years since I took any mathematics, and unlike a great many subjects, that has been a use it or lose it subject for me. Other than basic math skills and some algebra and geometry, I haven't used any trig or calculus since the early or mid 90's. Let me just say, it isn't all coming back to me either.

Life has required some adjustments. I am definitely more stressed and I'm certain it makes me a less enjoyable person to be around for my wife. We have been working on our own version of the modern relationship. Less time together than before, but we communicate and it helps that my wife really is my best friend. I tend to forget about things like human contact and she really keeps me grounded. It isn't always an easy or pleasant job for her, I know, and I'm always a bit dumbstruck at how she really does make me a better person in concrete ways. I'm fortunate to have found a great woman who's intelligent, super hot and interested in genuine nerds. I still find myself humming that opening stanza to Once In A Lifetime,

You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
You may find yourself in another part of the world
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself: well... how did I get here?

I honestly don't know.

Surfacing briefly...

2010-10-09T00:50:00.002-04:00

to post this. Too cool not to help spread it, and since I've gone off FB to figure out if that's a route I want to continue on, thought this would be as good a place as any to share. Here you go, might see you all in another 12 months!

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Awesome

2010-04-27T17:36:00.006-04:00

So I'm washing the dishes when my wife says to me, "Hey, what's this?". I walk over to the computer and there are little thumbnails of young Asian girls on the screen with strictly Asian script on the screen as well. Apparently, somebody had commented on my last blog post and went through the trouble of registering a google account and then going through the word verification process so they could spam my blog with porn (I think--I can't read any Asian script but the photos seemed to point in that general direction).

Now, I'm not opposed to porn, but it seems weird and a bit misguided to post that here. The internet is so wide open and seems to funnel people into previously unattainable niche markets, why go through the trouble and probable waste of time to post in a place where there is an exceedingly low probability of finding an interested party?

This is really just a curiosity question. I deleted the comment, like I said, not because of disapproval or disgust, but because it has no place here. Just curious about how, when a person only has so much time available to him (or her), that person wouldn't try and maximize the positive outcome from the effort by being more discerning about where they post.

Anyway.

And, oh yeah, Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife! ;)

From Just Another Blog

Back after a long hiatus.

2010-03-24T19:39:00.004-04:00

My life has been chugging along and I'm a bit shocked at how much time I've allowed to pass since I last posted.

The quick and dirty run down of events in the last few months. Just before my wife and I went back to the town we both grew up in, I had gotten a false alarm call for a kidney transplant. We both decided that since I appeared to be much higher up on the last than we had planned for, I would just put a hold on my plane ticket and try and use it on a future trip. I was fairly certain that even being higher up than we had thought, I was unlikely to get a call while my wife was back visiting her family for five days. So naturally, four days before Christmas, and two days before my wife was set to leave, I received another call for a kidney, which ended up being a go. She was able to get an extension for her flight as well (thank you Delta!) and just before midnight on the 21st I went into surgery.
Of course, something can always go wrong with these things, but we got through everything without any hitches, and compared to a lung transplant, this was a walk in the park. I was out of the hospital in a week, and with my immediate possible future radically different than what we had expected, I got all of my plans in place in order to return to school and finish my degree in biology. I'm supposed to start this summer.
I've been trying to make sure all the hoops I need to jump through for financial aid and registration have been jumped through, and am focused on getting my health back. I honestly don't think the experience of declining health due to end stage renal disease is close to as bad as the experience of declining lung function, but I had forgotten how much better I felt before the renal decline.
As a cf'er, I've been fairly typical in being extremely lean my whole life. I'm not tall, 5'8", and the most I've weighed is 130 lbs. With the kidney issues my weight had dropped to 110, and in order to maintain that, I was basically force feeding myself in order not to drop any further. I had forgotten what it was like to have an appetite, energy, focus. My weight has been slowly climbing back up and I'm doing more than I have been able to in quite some time.
Life is going well. We're adjusting to the new reality, a much more expansive one than before, and I'm pretty happy I didn't die, again. I received a kidney much sooner than we had thought would happen, I'm going back to school to finish my degree, I have a new nephew on the way, we can actually look to the future and believe it may be longer than we had thought.

Maybe I'll put more down later, but I thought I'd get started with something small or I might never have gotten around to it.

On the Origin of Species 150th Anniversay.

2009-11-24T16:24:00.006-05:00

For the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, the British Council presented a talk by E.O. Wilson. The talk is just under a half hour, but I've been so busy lately I had to split it up into a few different viewings. I think it is definitely worth your time if you have an interest in this subject or scientist.

Wilson is a huge inspiration of mine, as I'm sure he is to many an aspiring naturalist. If you haven't read any of his work, I suggest you go pick something up now. You're in for a treat.
Besides being considered the father of sociobiology, he is instrumental in the modern conservation movement, a leading figure in the theory of island biogeography (I believe he is credited with coming up with the theory itself), and the winner of a great many awards from the National Medal of Science to the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction (actually, two).

Many years ago I wrote to him after reading his autobiography Naturalist. I was surprised when, several weeks later, I received an envelope back in the mail addressed from E.O. Wilson. I was even more shocked when I opened the envelope to find a letter from the great scientist himself, the response giving evidence that he had actually read my letter and taken the time to respond himself.

Things have been hectic lately. Everything from a pointless debate with creationists over at Florida Citizens for Science to trying to figure out school and the kidney transplant issues. Now with heading down South for the holiday and trying to squeeze in my museum volunteering before Wednesday afternoon, I wanted to post this before I found myself completely unable to tear away from life. The last couple of days I have come to a clearer idea of what is and isn't fruitful. As PZ wrote, it is basically pointless to debate with creationists, and after nearly two hundred responses to one particular post with no evidence that we were even speaking the same language, I realized the only thing all the time and energy I put into the "debate" accomplished was to push aside all the other areas I need to focus on in my life at the moment.

In all honesty, I'm sure after the Thanksgiving holiday is over, and we're back in town next week for the daily grind, I probably won't be able to resist dropping back by and engaging in the pointless arguing again. But for now, I'm rather proud of myself that I've resisted the temptation to basically go and do nothing but spin my wheels. I'm one who has generally acted as if I enthusiastically support pyrrhic victories my entire life, but am gradually trying to teach myself that some of these causes are lost---such as an attempt to debate with a great many creationists---and I am merely expending time and energy that could be spent more wisely elsewhere.

Anyway, I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable holiday, whatever you are doing and whoever you may find yourself doing it with. Happy Thanksgiving, and see you all in December!

Get me a cup o' this joe!

2009-11-19T22:10:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Bad Astronomy for this little bit of outstanding!

Flu Shot

2009-11-19T21:27:00.004-05:00

I was able to get my seasonal flu vaccine the other day. The day I received my shot, they got a shipment of swine flu vaccine in. I'm hoping that they won't run out by the time I go back for my nephrology appointment in early December.

I'm still a bit torn about getting the vaccine. Not because of all the crazy bullshit that the anti-vaxers are spewing forth, but because there is some evidence that immunosuppressed patients cannot be assumed to mount a vaccine response. This does not mean you get vaccinated and something awful happens, but rather, you get vaccinated and the outcome may be as if you did not receive the vaccine. I cannoot stress that may part enough. At the moment, the CDC is still recommending transplant recipients (among others) receive the flu shot--not the intranasal, as this is a live attenuated virus.

Despite my initial concerns that I might be taking a vaccine from someone who could most definitely benefit from it, I ultimately decided I would get the vaccine. I will follow the science as it becomes available, to find out if the transplant population benefits from the practice.

And until then, I'll be getting my flu shots.

Free Concert!

2009-11-08T12:51:00.004-05:00

The Gainesville Community Band and Buchholz High School Band will be performing today at the Phillips Center here in Gainesville. For those of you in the area, you ought to come check it out. The concert is free and open to the public, and the Phillips Center is a nice venue for those of you who might not have had an opportunity to check it out. It's located on UF campus, on Hull Road which is right off of SW 34th Street.

Hope to see you all there!

Edit

2009-11-06T17:33:00.003-05:00

I meant to post on this awhile back, but I'm extraordinarily undisciplined. Anyway.

I went through my blog and deleted over a hundred past posts. I tried to make a simple cut off based simply on time. If the post occurred prior to September of this year, I threw it out. There were a few entries that I think would have fit with what I want this to move toward in an overall manner, but it seemed easier and would require less determination as to what was or was not a hanging chad in terms of content to just make a relatively fresh start.

So for the very few who have come here consistently, sorry if I took out something you liked, and for anyone else, I hope to make this a bit less haphazard and slightly more focused.

Photos

2009-10-16T11:29:00.002-04:00

There are some beautiful photos up at Edge.org for those who might be interested. Here, here, here and here are some of the better examples.

Defense= I do not discriminate when it comes to acting illegally, therefore it's okay. Huh?

2009-10-15T19:23:00.005-04:00

I had read a news story earlier about a NYC official who campaigned with photos of his family. What made this newsworthy, apparently, was the fact that he and his wife are an interracial couple with mixed race children. Now, it would be foolish to pretend that we have moved beyond this being an issue, hence, the news story. But the fact that my generation views this differently than my parents generation, who viewed it differently than my grandparents generation, and lets hope my children will view it with more liberalism than my generation, surely means the society at large is moving slowly away from the previous bigotry. More importantly, the Supreme Court, in 1967, ruled against the state of Virginia, striking down the law against miscegenation as unconstitutional.

So I was a bit surprised to read about this government official, who has denied a marriage license to an interracial couple, specifically stating that his reason for doing so is that they are interracial. The defense offered by this official is that he treats everyone the same, whether black or white. What he fails to understand is his actions are illegal. He cannot plead that he treats everyone illegally, and therefore it's okay. The key point being the illegality of his action, not that he does not discriminate in his stupidity.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

U2 in Tampa

2009-10-12T17:31:00.006-04:00

We went to the U2 concert on Friday in Tampa. [Insert superlatives here] awesome. My sister asked me how I thought it compared to the 2005 Vertigo tour, and, I must admit, not quite as good. I think there are several reasons for this, the most obvious being I personally like the album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb better than No Line on the Horizon. The Vertigo tour was also my first U2 concert. There were some personal circumstances around then that intensified the experience as well, but regardless, I still enjoyed this concert. I like the concept of this 360 degree event, and as usual, the band doesn't just get up on stage and go through the motions. They play a wide range of songs from their 30+ year career and they play these songs with heart and energy. If you happen to be a U2 fan, I would enthusiastically recommend attending at least one concert if at all possible.

I'm not one to be amazed when someone tells me they aren't a fan as there is no accounting for personal taste. I'm not a big fan of Jazz. I like the rare song or two, have been to see a few Jazz musicians and enjoyed the shows, but just can't get into listening to it on my own except in rare instances. I acknowledge it has had a great influence, it just doesn't appeal much to me personally.

Anyway, that last bit was kind of apropos nothing. Here's a video of one their old songs they performed.

They Might Be Giants new album!

2009-09-09T19:26:00.007-04:00

My wife just ordered the cd/dvd combo Here Comes Science from They Might Be Giants for my birthday. There's a cool video on the amazon page for anyone who wants to check out the ~~title song~~ first song, Science Is Real. Billed for kids but I'm pretty excited as well.

Loose ends

2009-09-04T01:40:00.004-04:00

My wife had to go back up North for the week, to see family and attend a benefit of her childhood friend's father who was diagnosed with aggressive pancreatic cancer. Not exactly a fun filled trip but hopefully cathartic.

So I'm kicking it at home with the dog bachelor style, which basically just means I'm not getting much sleep, there's little structure to my days and nights, and I keep putting off mowing the lawn even though I know it needs to be done fairly soon.

I need to go to bed and wake up with a new attitude.