Scary Mary Poppins

This has got to be one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. Youtube has sucked away so much of my productivity this week!

A Softer World

I'm addicted to A Softer World.


(Click on the picture for a legible version.)

Reading Week

Canadians are too cool for Spring Break: they get reading week instead (I think it's because it'd be preposterous to call mid-February Spring).
Most people take this week off as a great opportunity to follow the birds and fly South. I had rough plans to go to Quebec City, New Orleans, or Washington D.C., yet here I am, still in Montreal.

It's a bit of a ghost-town right now. I love it when the city gets empty-- strange friendships form, as people look for ways to fare off loneliness. We act as surrogate-roommates for each other: spontaneously showing up at each other's doors, clutching a salad, or a batch of cookies, asking only for an evening of company.

It's been relaxing.
Good times have included:
-Snowboarding in the best conditions I've ever seen-- 80 cm's worth of fresh, fresh snow;
-Sharing a box of "Victoria sushi", watching BBC's great Blue Planet series, and imagining what the animals would say if they could talk;
-Attempting to go the Apples in Stereo show, only to find it cancelled due to illness (a.k.a. those silly New Yorkers couldn't face the cold), and retreating back home to bake midnight chocolate-chip cookies;
-Discovering oodles of new places, new music, new study-nooks;
-Race-sliding down Mount Royal, muffled in a thick snowfall...

Happy Valentine's day!

Or, if you prefer, happy Singles Awareness Day!
My week is comepletly hectic, so I don't have any plans tonight but studying Intergroup Relations.
But thanks to the internet, I can still spread some Valentine love.

Have a nice day, everyone. Here in Montreal, we've been told to expect a snow storm, which is great news because it means that's it's finally warm enough to snow!

Evo-Devo

Last night, I had a four hour discussion about Modularity, Complextiy, and Evolvability. Why on Earth would anyone go through with this, you ask?

I was preparing my 40% presentation for my Evo-Devo class next week.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, Evo-devo, also known as Developmental Evolution. It is so cool. Basically a spattering of senior undergrads and graduate student meet weekly to read defining papers and discuss the hot topics of the field.

The class is taught by two of my favorite profs, one of whom is featured in this video:



(He used to have long hair, but he shaved it off for our cancer fund raiser)
Hans Larsson: he really does giggle when he gets excited about paleontology.

As enthousiastic as I am about entering medicine, there is something about working in labs/attending seminars that I just thrive on. I love the feeling of being on the cutting edge, of discussing new results and having to interpret them with my peers.

Dear Canada

Dear Canada,

I'm sorry when I told you that it needed to be colder back in November. You have to know that I didn't mean it.
No really, please don't be like this. I'm sorry if my words hurt you.
It's been between -20 and -40 for weeks now. You've made your point! You win, Canada!

xoxo,
Victoria

January: the recap

I generally try to avoid posting personal things here, but...

So January's been a bit of a rough month for me. It seems that whether it's been in personal, professional, or academic matters, my ego's taken a bit of a beating.

But whenever I start to feel down on myself, I just look at this picture and giggle:



Nope, I'm not quite there yet. Not even close, actually.
My new month's resultion? February will be better, so help me!