the uninteresting crippled murderer

today i learned there is a time to protect one's ego. i presented at today's lab meeting. remind me not to do a presentation in which i'm trying to figure out how to do an experiment. i thought it would be useful for me, and it was, but not as useful as i'd hoped, and more ego-bruising than i had feared.

metafilter lead me to this, a really good article about life in columbian barrios.

To say this of human beings is to say both the best and the worst. They can get used to anything. And I got used to it too. You find yourself thinking: if I had to live in El Distrito, I wouldn't stay at Kevin's but at Ana Milena's, where they have cable TV and that nice serving hatch from the kitchen to the living room... Similarly, I now found myself thinking: you know, this crippled murderer isn't nearly as interesting as the crippled murderer I interviewed the day before yesterday.

i've also been enjoying the blog called "Bad Mother" lately, which is by Ayelet Waldman, wife of the fantastic fiction writer Michael Chabon. now i'm dying to read her books.

my roommate AH asked if i would mind if she had people over tonight to celebrate a birthday of S, a mutual friend of ours. i had to ask her not to bring people over - we've had people over two out of the last three nights, and i need some time to wind down. i feel a little bad, but i think my decision was reasonable, between our recent hostessing and the lack of notice. the lack of notice was not AH's fault; S only decided today that she would be willing and able to take time from her research for a celebration. S has been working hard in preparation for a meeting on wednesday. sadly, i'm not even going out to the birthday dinner. i'll try to make an effort to take S out to lunch for her birthday. it's the first time she's ever had her birthday without her twin.