Vanity and gayness

Recently, I was introduced to this interesting Stateside "anthropological phenomena" called the "Guido". It all started with a viral email, which was followed up by URLs of several sites, including GuidoFistpump (which, to me, sounds like some gay porn site) and a definition of a Guido by a Cajun Boy in the City.
I guess it is similar to the Chav phenomenon over here, except that the chavs aren't (by definition) rich. Maybe the current Guido is the evolved version of an equivalent chav phenomenon. BTW, I personally don't think the wiki entry does justice to the chav, if that makes sense or if it is possible ever to justify a chav.

Anyway, after going through some websites, I started thinking. All this Guido-ness: the simple beat of the club music, the dancing, the vanity displayed, the bulging muscles, the hairstyle......if I saw one of them in England, I would think they were gay. Seriously. Because that is the gay sterotypes you see in, ur, gay clubs, over here.
Not the orangyness and the fake tan, mind you, that (according to sources) was more a mid-80's thing. Having said that, you do see orangyness over here too, but I don't really see a direct positive correlation of orangyness with chav-ness.

I guess the difference in perception arises from the fact that a Guido is a descendent of Italians (-American working class). The suave Italian male image doesn't translate at all to English /British culture. So while the current Guidos, despite their similarity with the chavs, are totally hetero (I assume), the equivalent... male example over here, might be stereotyped (at least by me) as being gay.

Interesting.
And yes, you can guess that I am running out of interesting topics to write about.

Slackers

I was talking to an old friend of mine, from my PhD years. We were talking about how we're both out of a job as a postdoc, me waiting for this other position, and her in a limbo because the two grants she wrote with her ex-boss was rejected.
She's working now in B&Q for the time being, but I have a suspicion that she actually enjoys working in the sacred temple of DIY.

Then there is this other girl I met up a while ago - from my early PhD days, when she was doing a M.Sc. in the lab. She wasn't sure about doing it, but did a PhD after all, and after a couple of 2-year postdocs, she is off Stateside for another postdoc. I think she actually has done three 2-year postdocs. Am not sure.
According to her, she gets bored with a project after 2 years, and needs to move on (to a new place).

Then there is this couple, again postdocs - but they are a couple of years ahead from me, career-wise. Still postdocing.

There must be a few others who are still doing postdocs once you hit 30...I can't remember. Oh yeah, Mr.Strauss, who is out of contract soon, and was looking at an ad for a technician position.
Anyway.

The thing we have in common is that we're all in our mid-30's (bar Mr.Strauss who is ancient).

We like doing what we do, and my guess is that we are not overly ambitious to apply for lectureships (maybe others tried...). We know what being a lecturer and PI is like (having seen it first hand), and the stress and pressures that entails. Anyway, that's what I say.
Obviously, there is no immediate and dear financial hardship, and there doesn't seem to be this need to obtain earnings which are par with the age (i.e. if you are 33, you earn 33k). I'm guessing that there are some hidden financial assets available too, otherwise you wouldn't take this laid back approach to your career.
Oh, and everyone fends for themselves. Most of them don't have children, which is a bonus - you only need worry about yourself.

Is this the new "hippie" work culture for academic scientists?
I don't know what it is. Is it the realisation, that in this age of constant career changes, it seems that it is never too late to change careers? Is there a shift in perspectives about careers?
I do like the quote attributed (according to the IMDB) to the American actor, Liev Schreiber, although I am probably taking it out of context:

"You can think about your career or you can think about your job. I like to think about my job."

Which is quite useful when thinking about your day-to-day life.
I think back about what one of my supervisors said. He was one who gave out advise, like "go to the States to do your postdoc, then you will be someone" or "going back to do a second postdoc in the lab you did your PhD is not good for your career" or "you have to be a PI after your second postdoc".

Or maybe my friends and I are all living in la-la land. Having said that, looking at the newly maternal GorrillaGrrrl, maybe not.

Music meme

Shamelessly copied over from PropterDoc.

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.

Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.

Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.

Step 4: Strike through when someone gets them right

Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.

(I did skip the non-English songs...)

1. Meeting Mr. Right, the man of my dreams
2. Where you are, seems to be, as far as in eternity
3. Friday, payday, ready to do the things we love
4. I just found me a bottle of blues
5. I find it in the atlas or flippin' over old news
6. Looking at himself but wishing he was someone else
7. Now the first day that I met ya, I was looking in the sky
8. I don't mean to make obscene, but even the mob know what the hell I mean
9. in Zaire, was not good place to be
10. Never had a point of view 'cause my mind was always someone else's mind
11. For you I was a flame
12. There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
13. Please tell me again, I was somewhere else
14. I've got a war inside my head
15. Your romantic rights are all that you got
16. How can anyone be so unkind
17. Think it's time we got this straight
18. Take me through the centuries to supersonic years
19. Voices inside my head, echoes of things that you said
20. I don't care what they say, I don't care about the style you're choosing
21. Dumb dumb - so sweet so young
22. I only smoke weed when I need to
23. She want to get out of the car in the middle of the road
24. Fast approaching monsters, marching in a row
25. I'd wash the sand off the shore

Why? Part Deux

Following on from my...questions about the BASF ad, I have something else to ad. (ha ha!)


There is this famous ad series by Hitachi, the Japanese electronics company, which they show during or after a TV programme they sponsored. (Here's a link to the Youtube vid, of the 6th generation ad aired between '84-'91)
It's common in Japan for the sponsors of the TV spot to be actually named, before or after the programme - something that is happening more in the UK, especially with Five (the CSI series is sponsored by KIA now). However, in Japan, they only show the ads of the sponsoring companies.

Anyway, I digress.
Hitachi's corporate ad centres around a particular Monkey Pod tree which is in the Moanalua gardens in Hawaii. It is a long-running campaign, started in 1973. The tree has only featured since the second generation ad starting in 1975. It is a famous tree within Japan, and Hitachi has created a proper website for it.

The ad itself is actually simple, just a rolling credit of all the companies within the Hitachi brand, with the narrator saying some corporate gibberish at the end. I don't think it really adds to anyone's interest, it is just an ad to make people aware of the Hitachi Group.
But what grabs your attention is the song they use - "kono ki nannoki" (literally "this tree, what kind of tree?"). It's like a children's song, and it has both a simple melody and lyrics - but in fact, it was specially composed for the ad.


This ad works (in the sense that it is increasing public awareness of the Hitachi group) because the campaign has been going on for so long - which I think is the key to such an ad.
They have used the same song for whole campaign which ensures continuity; in fact, they used the same singer until recently - I think he is more famous for being the voice behind that song. It is not a pushy ad, just rolling credits, and the song is quite pleasing to listen to.

I guess someone can do a study on the psychology behind using a tree instead of anything human or man-made. I'm not sure of the reasons behind using a tree - maybe something about different branches leading to a trunk (i.e. different branches of the company leading to a unified corporation, facing the future together).

Bloody money...

Why is it that when I want to go back home for a holiday, the Pound suddenly is weak? That the Yen is becoming strong(er)? Ten months ago, it was 240 yen to a pound. Now, it's more like 205 yen to a pound.
That extra 35 yen would be so welcome at this moment.

Appearances are everything

（I wrote this a while ago and promptly forgot about it...）

The previous post on presentations left me wondering about appearances. After the meeting, I asked Poodle how I did with the presentation, since the last time I ever present anything in front of a group of scientists was.......I can't remember exactly, but it must be a year ago.
That's a long time to go without practice, and I normally get really nervous, like any other person.
I also know that I stutter, say "um" a few more times, generally talk too fast, get really sweaty armpits, talk with a stronger accent (I feel like my American twang becomes stronger), and lose words in my head whilst thinking (hence I stutter and say "um" a lot more, and there are silences in between).

The thing is, more often than not, people say I did fine. I never figured out whether that was because, considering all matters I am actually a good presenter, or becauase I was talking to friends and they were trying not to make me feel bad. I guess I should do a course on presentations, but I think I don't do that bad a job. Sure, I fidget, sure, I lose words. But I don't think I am half as bad as some people.
I am told that I look calm and collected, confident with what I say. My nervousness doesn't seem to translate to action. I am always amazed at what they say, and sometimes I do wonder whether what I think I look like, and how I am actually perceived is greatly different.

I do spend a lot of time preparing though. Thinking about the audience, how to present, what level to pitch it at, etc.. I enjoy doing the planning, and as more time passes, I am getting more comfortable with the actual presenting. There is no joy greater than having an audience understand what you are presenting. And falling asleep...

War of the Worlds

It's amazing how some drugs' names sound like something from Tranformers. Like:

Ganciclovir vs. Microgynon

Everytime I hear "Ganciclovir" I imagine an evil metallic monstrosity. "Microgynon" sounds a bit like one of those car robot things. (Here's a link to the earlier Citroen ad)
An antiviral vs. an oral contraceptive - should be an interesting fight.


A while ago, someone came up with this brilliant game, whereby you scan in the barcode of anything, and you play it against other barcodes - the Barcode Battler. Someone should come up with a drug name battler. It will be a great hit with us sad scientists.

Don't ask, don't tell

When I first started working as a postdoc, I was amazed at how many gay and lesbian people I was meeting. Especially the latter. I had never ever made friends with lesbian women, but that might be because I have a very small number of friends until then. When I started postdoc-ing, as the groups in the same corridor mingled a lot, it was easy to get to know people. When I did my PhD, our lab was like the only occupied lab on the whole damn corridor.

Anyway, there was this one PhD student. Let's call him X.
He wasn't one to flaunt his sexuality - he was more... asexual than anything, to everyone concerned. He had enough friends to keep him socially busy, was not reliant on a one-to-one relationship as so many others were. I always thought he had better things to do (like research, duh), and him being a foreign student, thought that he didn't want to be attached to the area (or the country) too much.

So one day, another friend of mine tells me that someone in his lab found some gay porn on a disc that X gave to another student (female). Somehow - I am not sure of the turn of events - it ended up so that the postdoc Y of the lab had to deal with it. Yes, there was a lot of talk going around that lab about it - it was kinda scandalous. But all done hush-hush to the PI.

Now, postdoc Y was a good guy. Great sense of humour, and also a long-suffering postdoc under the hands of the PI. I believe he just had a word with student X, reminded him not to download porn on to a disk you used at work, and that was that.

It might have been that they could never figure out whether X downloaded it at work or not - probably he did, since internet connection is so much faster than anything at home. It also might be that postdoc Y was a good person, and had a relatively good relationship with the rest of students. Student X was also well liked too.

I have kept in touch with student X even after he finished his PhD - he already was a good friend of mine before that incident. I never told him about the incident, thinking discretion, and I really never knew at the time whether he was gay or "it's just a phase he is going through". And I wasn't bothered anyway.

About a year after he started working in another city, I went over to see him, and he came out to me. It was because there was a man in his life, and I guess that the timing was right. He was very uncomfortable about it, and I couldn't have had a more "TV drama" moment than that (walking home after a night out, deserted street at midnight, cool air, us talking...ah).


Anyway, the moral of the story is, never download porn at work.

Why?

I was watching tonight's episode of that pitiful excuse for a TV drama called CSI:NY, when I came across this ad, which was a spot for BASF. Yes, the chemical company. I'm afraid the ad is in Spanish, because I couldn't find one in English. But it's exactly the same ad, with the ice climbers, but the comment is in English.

Now, why is BASF doing ads at 10pm? To Joe Public? It isn't like there would be potential clients watching it. Or does that happen?
Does a family guy who is watching CSI:NY because his daughter likes watching Don Flack's fabulous tie collection, sees the ad and goes "hmmm, yes, my company needs a chemical supplier, and maybe I'll talk to my superiors about BASF"?

It's not like they're pushing people to buy a drug or anything. And anyway, those kind of ads (drug ads to the lay person) might be plentiful Stateside, but is non-existent over here...

Growing out of it

I'm watching the Red Sox-Yankees game on the ESPN's Sunday telecast, and getting mighty pissed off with the commentator team. I love Jonathan Miller. That soothing voice of his, and humour, is a joy to listen to.
But please, someone tell Joe Morgan to take a back seat when the Yankees are playing? His bias...I mean, unabashed love for that team is embarassing, no, irritating, well, infuriating. I'd be throwing my beer cans and popcorn at the TV. If only.

At least JD Drew (my current eye candy) is hitting well.