Miscellaneous Mondays: Post Insanity Edition

My original goal in starting this whole Misc. Monday weekly post was to make sure I got on here at least once a week to touch base with my followers. It's secondary purpose is to talk about things that have nothing to do with reading. For the most part that has meant discussing my favorite TV shows and movies I've been watching, and other random tidbits. Well, this week has been so full of work that I have missed most of my TV shows, have failed to see any interesting movies, and this is the first day that I've even peaked at any blogs in over a week. AH! Don't worry, I still have some things to share, but if you find it more boring that usual blame my cancer bio test and mycology projects.


My artistic side

This is one of my more eccentric habits. At least, I've never met anyone else that does this. I've had long, fast growing nails since I was six or seven (they came with the thicker hair, which I can tell you is much less desirable). I've been an enthusiastic nail polish collector for almost as long, and I've gotten pretty good at the whole manicure process. This is where the story turns geeky--I really like choosing patterns to match my book covers. This weeks isn't the best example (I was feeling lazy, and stripes are easy), but in general this is what I do to express my dubious artistic side. I often paint my nails while a watch TV or listen to a book--multitasking is key! I don't use anything fancy, just toothpicks soaked in acetone and ordinary nail polish does the trick. They get destroyed over a weeks worth of lab work and library work, so I get to try something new every 5 days or so. I've gotten compliments, and a few less friendly reactions, but they make me happy, and that's all that matters.

Why Mushrooms Are Awesome

I mentioned above that this semester I'm taking Mycology. The big project for the class was trapping and identifying molds, which is even less interesting than it sounds. Pretty early on, however, our class went out and collected mushrooms and other fungi from the gorge adjacent to the campus. The first thing I found was one of these cute little red things. My professor's response to this was "Just don't don't your face--those things are hallucinogenic."

When I shared this story with Josh, he was surprisingly knowledgeable on this subject. He proceeded to tell me that these are the mushrooms that inspired Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland, which subsequently inspired the mushrooms used in the Mario games. Normally I'm the one that knows all of the useless trivia! I do love Alice in Wonderland, and in fact I just watched the Disney animated version for the first time ever.

In any case, mushrooms are pretty much the weirdest things you'll see growing on land, and aside from their medicinal properties and recreational drug use, they happen to be tasty on pizza. All in all, it doesn't surprise me that they play such interesting roles in fantasy and mythology--ever heard of the fairy ring legend?

Pie Poll Is Tragically Inconclusive!

The pie poll ended with a tie between Apple and Pumpkin--both traditional Thanksgiving pies for those of us in the US! I think something went a bit wrong with the poll though, because it wasn't showing as many votes as I thought there were. Hopefully this won't continue to happen.

Pie is absolutely my favorite dessert, and it's up there on the list of favorite foods in general. I'm still working out how to make perfect flaky crust for my homemade pies, and right now I don't have a really good kitchen to practice in. But even store bought pie crust makes a pretty enjoyable pie. I know a few of you are probably more brownie or cookie people, so perhaps later on we'll do a more general dessert question.

This week's poll is part of an ongoing joke between my room mate and I. She believes that, as a scientist, I should be dedicating my time to making devices that will enable her laziness or otherwise improve her life. Those in the poll are the highlights of her wishlist. Please vote for the Best Mad Scientist Invention on the right side of your screen. Just in case I ever do become mad with genius.