Boston & Bear Brook Adventures Part 2

With my headache gone and my body somewhat more hydrated, it is again time to continue my epic tale of cozy East Coast travels. Last time, in the part one here, I ended on our museum day. Now, I pick back up as we headed to New Hampshire to spend a couple days snug in a cabin. We made a stop in Concord, where we got treats at a bakery (The Crust and Crumb Baking Co.) and migrated over to a coffee shop (Revelstoke) with a clear view of the golden-domed capital building across the street. I tried a blood orange pistachio latte, a daring choice that paid off, and Alex had one with maple cinnamon flavoring. Mine had a very nutty flavour with notes of citrus brightening the sip as you swallow, really a good combo despite how odd it may seem all together with coffee and oat milk. The rain and fog chilled the morning and made the warm, fragrant cafe an intoxicatingly serene setting for a nice moment together, not to mention they played Glass Animals and similar swirly, melt-in-your-seat music.

Coffee and treats at Revelstoke


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DIY/Bricolaje de Compresas/Almohadas Térmicas

Frío frío frío. Con la excepción de alivio durante un día caluroso, es, sin duda, mi estado de ser menos favorito. He tenido mucha suerte en los últimos años; yo escapé de los duros inviernos en Chicago viviendo en los trópicos o en el sur de Illinois, donde no recibimos tanta nieve como el lago Michigan le da a la parte norte del estado. También, mi apartamento esta alrededor de los 70°F porque mis utilidades están incluidas y mi pitón bola, Kirminas, disfruta la temperatura. Muchas veces siento que mi cuerpo está cayendo a pedacitos, pero al menos mi Raynauds no ha sido tan grave. Voy a tomar cualquier victoria que yo pueda obtener.



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Shoot Happens (& 2023 Photo Challenge!)

For the last few years, I’ve given myself small art challenges to keep my creative juices flowing, and, in all honesty, to give me a semi-physical and conclusive product to show and feel satisfied with. Back in 2021, I decided to use an old film camera style app to record my year as though I had a disposable camera in my pocket. When the year was up, I printed them out and put them into an album I decorated to be my yearbook (you can read about it here for part 1 and part 2). I was really content with the outcome and find it fun to show to friends who are into that sort of thing, not to mention it is much nicer to reminisce with a book than just on your phone or computer. For 2022, I tried (and failed) at keeping up with a 365 day photo challenge, where as the name suggests, I would take and post one photo a day. Now with 2023 coming up, I wanted to make my final decision for the new year.



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Having the “Gall”

While IDing plants, I’ve noticed that sometimes when looking back at photos I’ve taken, the leaves have little bumps on them. I’ve always just assumed it’s a fungus growing or a deformity of the leaf. That is, until now, where I was informed those bumps actually have a name, and they can be caused by a wide variety of etiologies. They’re called “galls” or “cecidia” and are essentially growths/tumors that can form on any part of the plant, sometimes due to irritation and sometimes due to the organism of cause living inside/promoting the formation of it.



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Agglutinative vs Fusional Languages

In my language learning and teaching journey, I have become somewhat of an armchair linguist, not formally educated nor capable, but does that stop me? Of course not. With what I have experienced and looked into, jargon for aspects of language acquisition and linguistic typology often pop up and leave me at spots that don’t make much sense. A while ago I wrote about mora-timed language for this same reason, as it gave me purpose to get it figured out. Today, as I procrastinate on studying for my biochem exam and am no longer as despondent as earlier this semester, I bring you fusional language. 



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Battery Low

Hi y’all. I don’t know if anyone reads these, but either way I felt like it’s been a while, and whether it’s for me or for you, I want to just give a little update. I’m totally fine, but I realize I just might not have much to post or talk about on here until I get some time to either go on some adventures or to look into personal interests. I felt like just talking about the stress a bit might help, as well if anyone is in grad school or planning to, to know that it’s not just new scientific breakthroughs and super fun times 24/7, even if sometimes posts online make it seem that way. I also apologize if this post comes off like a rant– I guess it sort of is?



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Snail Mail for Friends (Not So) Near & Far

While at the conference I attended in late June/July, I met someone quite kind and fascinating, and although being over 1000+ miles away, we’ve managed to keep in contact. We recently decided to each send each other a little package, and it’s gotten me thinking of how I could put together something thoughtful without spending too much, nor being “extra,” as I can tend to get at times. While I pull out all the stops with my winter holiday/Christmas greetings, from hand-painted cards with perfumes and wax seals to perfectly wrapped presents with intricate bows, I haven’t had the chance to make any sort of true snail mail since the days of my old art business as a kid. I’d like to say that the cutesy art YouTubers and Pinterest boards of product packaging ideas have given me a penchant for well-curated and/or well-dressed parcels, and although back then the styles were quite brash with pinks and anything Sanario, the care put into what was really stood out. For this post, I want to share my end of the little snail mail bargain, and hopefully I can update when I hear how the receiver likes it.



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Book Review: Molecular Invasion

When I purchased this book, I was fully expecting a conversation on the ethics of genetic engineering and various biotechnologies. I figured it would broach topics such as where the stopping point was in between acceptable things like gene therapy and unacceptable things like genetically modifying entire human embryos. As a scientist, researcher, and graduate student who works with genetics in my lab, such considerations would be valuable to me and my studies, yet this book does not go there. Instead, it provides a sharp criticism of any form of genetic modification from a severely scientifically uneducated standpoint, often confusing or incorrectly stating information. While I must take into consideration that this book is from 2002 and has more of a focus on the societal aspects, I cannot excuse their blatant picking-and-choosing mindset, not to mention use of theological and artistic materials as their source of morals.



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How to Approach Duolingo

[EDIT] As Duolingo has dramatically changed in the last so many months, some of this post no longer applies. I am leaving it up, though, for inspiration and ideas.

For some time now, I’ve advocated for a more holistic approach at language learning, one where you learn from a variety of sources in a variety of ways. This typically includes having a language book or class to teach grammatical concepts or provide explanations, while also incorporating reading/writing/listening/speaking through things like reading local news websites or watching TV in the target language, for example. These approaches typically work best since you avoid the “textbook language” dilemma (where anything outside of the standard language you learned in class is unintelligible to you, or you speak in a very robotic/scrapbook way using bits and pieces rather than “chunking”) and potential illiteracy (where you can speak and get your point across– a form of fluency!– but do not use proper grammar or are unable to read/write). We will all come across these moments in our language journey, especially if this is your first time learning a language or if you are learning one with practically no mutual intelligibility, but the goal is to minimize this before mistakes crystallize or, simply put, we waste our precious time.



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