better luck next year...

well this may be my last entry for a little while since things are going to get quite busy over the next several days. tomorrow i will be going with my dad to the cleveland airport to pick up my uncle and his family (who currently live in New Zealand) and my grandma (who lives in Bangalore, India). i have not seen my uncle's family in about 14 years, and have not seen my grandma for about 5 years, so this should be a good time (and interesting) to say the least.

autorickshaw...these things are sweet, and i'm definitely going to own one some day

after that new years festivities start and if it was anything like last year, it's sure to be memorable as well.
either way i am looking forward to meeting up with some of the extended family as well as making the return to ann arbor for new years (i will miss the constant supply of food and the extended sleeping patterns from back here at home).

in other news i watched the michigan game with most of my family today...although it was definitely an exciting game, i must say it was (to quote one of the commentators) 'one of the most poorly officiated games i have ever seen'. the calls were horrendous...of course the bad calls were only slightly overshadowed by the bad performance by the michigan defense and at times our offense. henne looked good for a lot of the game, but as usual when it mattered most, our defense couldnt stop those freaking cornhuskers. not that i am THAT bitter, i think some people expected this, even though just about every major sports site predicted michigan would destroy nebraska. all i can really say is that the ugly beast that was this football season can finally be laid to rest, and we'll just have to hope for better luck next year...regardless, GO BLUE!!!

i just finished watching 2/3 of 'main hoon na' with rachel (this is one of the movies i told you about AJ); i have now seen a couple of these hindi movies multiple times and i must admit i am quite fascinated with them and definitely entertained. there are a lot of basic indian movie themes in these films, but its amazing how 'western' (that's regarding us here in the US for those of you that don't know haha) a lot of the themes and style has become. i must also admit that i do enjoy the songs they include as well...this movie has matrix-style action, college campus humor, along with family drama and military intrigue...and yeah, a lot of it is still pretty cheesy...but i just can't look away! oh, and its worth seeing just for amrita rao and sushmita sen...although i probably already said that somewhere before.
i ordered the dvd/soundtrack so it should be waiting for me at the tank by the time i return to A2...i can't wait, and i'm sure damon and james will be looking for a new roommate shortly thereafter.

in other news sarah and i are excited that our cousin sunny will be coming to visit in january...just around the time of the next party at the tank and sarah's birthday, should be a good time and yet another opportunity to see if my class will be able to tell the difference between me and him (last year he sat in on my class to watch me teach, which elicited an interesting double-take reaction from the students).

in closing i will add that although the toyota prius is an eco-friendly vehicle (at least moreso than most of ours) they are a huge PAIN to drive behind because they are sooooo freaking SLOW!!!

also to be noted, those 8 ounce cans of coke are an amazing invention, and idli and sambar has got to be the best food on the planet. good night <:><

random pic:

Sheila & Me at Club Oz, New Years 2005

R&R at 44666...

well it has been a looooong time since i have updated this beast, but for the record i have updated more often than my even LAZIER sister sarah. i guess its just a by-product of the end of the semester and being on Christmas break.

as the title implies, it's been a lot of lounging around and relaxing going on here at my parents place north lawrence (aka 'nolo'). and yes, that is the actual ZIP code...for those of you who don't know why that is funny/ironic, i am not going to explain it to you because it's just too late and all i will do is make fun of you.
anyway, it's been a lot of sleeping in, eating, watching movies, and the occasional trip out to church (Christmas Eve & Christmas services) and shopping (yeah, i even entered hollister yesterday...it's like shopping at a club - i haven't been in there in 6 years). i finally decided it was time to update, not that anything really out of the ordinary has happened (at least from what one would expect from a david's family break).

Christmas was really good, and although we had church services on consecutive days (reminds me of Easter sunrise and the regular service following) my dad managed to make the sermon on sunday really short (we are talking record-time short) and we were all able to enjoy the choir music and all that stuff.
the previous day, after the Christmas Eve service my family went out for the usual tradition of going out to eat at a 24-hour open restaurant (used to be denny's back in Ashland...thank goodness we don't go to that restaurant anymore) and now it's IHOP since moving to nolo. during this time my sisters were able to convince the rents to let us open all the present that night instead of the next day (Christmas day). this was actually anchored by the reasoning that we could take a nap and not have to worry about the present-opening festivities on sunday afternoon, if we just opened them Christmas Eve. well they caved and we had fun...taking 4-hour naps on sunday afternoon...oh and the presents were cool too.

i got a lot of new clothes, luckily picked out with the consultation of my sister sarah, so they should work pretty well. i also got this really cool figurine from rachel, i would never have guessed one could combine the OSU vs Michigan rivalry with fish, but she somehow found a way to do so and pulled it off. i'll have to post a picture later when i get the chance...it's really something to behold, and i know my roommates will be very jealous! i also got the next seinfeld seasons that i had asked for and some other movie stuff. overall it was a great Christmas and nice to spend time with the whole family once again. i hope you are all enjoying a good break as well.

ok well i have a lot of other stuff to do today, so i'll have to continue this later...especially to report on the indian movies (courtesy of rakhi) i have been watching with my family recently. i must say that the actors are very entertaining, the actresses are very attractive, and the bollywood style is quite addictive, so i'm definitely not complaining so far - especially about the actress part-! <:><

Random pic:

Amrita Rao, one of the main actresses from 'Main Hoon Na' (means -I am here now-), definitely one of my favorite indian movies so far.

more pics from the party at the 'golden attic'...

no time for anything but the pics (thanks erin!) right now; have a good night <:><

group shot; beth, guy w/ a blue shirt, meghan (86.1), me, damon, laura (86.2)

AJ caught mid conversation, i didnt quite know what was being said either...

me, damon, and the 86'ers

hal, AJ, me

clearly i think laura is crazy in this shot...

erin (the party girl) and me

i love the smell of burnt popcorn in the evening...

yeah, damon apparently miscalculated on the time to keep the popcorn in the microwave...we were sitting there watching a particularly humorous (and pre-recorded because of double D's bday/ice cream party) episode of The Family Guy when damon yelled expletive deleted and i looked up to see a wall of smoke wafting towards me coming from the kitchen. yeah, it was a nice flashback to undergrad in the dorms when it seemed like every other night of freshman year someone managed to burn their popcorn...and we were in the honors dorm.

anyway, we had to open all the windows and doors and bring our apartment temperature down to just above freezing (the fishes would have suffered) as well as turn on fans, light candles, and douse the apartment with special febreeze made for deodorizing air. it was a blast, and there's nothing like standing there in the living room and being able to see your breath in front of you. the incident happened an hour or so ago and the apartment still has that wonderful smell. hopefully it further dissipates by morning. oh yeah, i killed damon shortly after i realized the lingering smell drives me insane...so i'll be needing a new roommate for next semester, let me know if you are interested...we have four bathrooms, a lot of space, and a lot of fish.

it's getting late so i'll have to (once again) put off further comments until tomorrow, except for the following statements made in bullet format:

-see Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. sure it's rated PG and based on a children's book, but if you have ANY imagination at all you should at enjoy it to some extent. it was particularly entertaining to me because of all the 'creatures'. very well done, and yes, it was soundtrack-worthy (now an accessory ranking to the stars out of 5 system) *****

-i ate red snapper for the first time saturday...check another species (family Lutjanidae) off the list. the restaurant "Pelago's" also gets high marks.

-at double D's (our other friend damon d., we call him double D to avoid confusion with the other human of the same name that is our roommate) birthday/ice cream party tonight (which was exquisitely prepared/arranged by his g/f gwen) i met an indian girl named jen, this was fascinating to me and would be kind of like if you met a white person named gandhi. also noted is that they at one point had the discovery channel on and a fish show came on...at which point me, damon, ron, and double D turned into complete fish-nerds and were allowed to do the audio commentary ourselves.

-erin and janine's party was a great (and crazy) time as was expected. we were also introduced to what is probably one of the most fascination inventions of our time...invisible kool-aid. i almost didn't believe it when i saw it (or when it was supposedly in my glass) but this stuff is great. we are definitely going to be integrating it into the next Party at the Tank (IV), which will be coming up next semester <:><

that's all for now, i'll leave you with a few of the (hundreds of) shots erin took at her place/rick's on thursday: party starts at the attic (aka the residence of erin & the 86'ers). damon, laura (86.2), and i enjoy an invisible kook-aid beverage.

several people (such as julia) enjoyed messing up my hair over the course of the evening...too bad that with the way it is now, one really can't mess it up. AJ and hal also debated on which way looks better, which was humorous.

damon, me, and janine at Rick's

me & erin at rick's...as one can imagine a stop at Panchero's was definitely in order later that night.

the polypterus and the polar bears...

i definitely need to go to sleep, so i am just going to leave you with two random pics until tomorrow when i may or may not have time to update more thoroughly. there's another 'former biofish lab students' dinner at casey's (also celebrating christine's bday which is actually in january) and then some major craziness at rick's for the end of E's 'incarceration' and janine's bday. yeah, i'm sure i'll get time to update after that, haha.

rest assured i do have some stories to tell but they will have to wait. here are the random (or as AJ would say 'rando') pics:

recent shot of a Polypterus endlicheri congicus residing at The Tank

a shot from our first party at The Tank (july) of the former Ohio Northern students, detrow, me, andrea (in case you were wondering what the entry title meant, we were the 'polar bears' in undergrad).

the civic center, hum tum, and a tank tour...

there's a lot of stuff to talk about but very little time since i need to get to bed early tonight...primarily because i need to catch THE BUS tomorrow morning because my car is in the shop (i won't even get into the repairs/costs now, but let's just say i considered the possibility of getting a new car instead).

anyway, since i currently have no vehicle (but i may be getting 'the spearmint civic' aka sarah's car as a 'loaner' -see The Mask- tomorrow) i have had a lot of extra time here at The Tank. i did get some work done, but i also get a little stir crazy, especially since both my roommates are gone until wednesday evening. anyway, i decided to take some pics to share with you.

before getting into the pics i'll leave you with a quote i found humorous from the (very funny) show 'How I Met Your Mother' from this evening:

alyson hannigan sees neil patrick harris character getting ready to go out to a club and is making fun of his very reflective shirt; neil patrick harris (who is hilarious on this show) replies with:

"one of the biggest similarities between girls and fish is that they are both attracted to shiny objects. you really never read my blog do you?"

well i thought it was especially humorous.

some other noteworthy random comments:


- given the recent debates over what truly good indian movies are, rakhi lent me the movie 'Hum Tum' (it's Hindi, and pronounced 'hum thoom'...so no, it doesn't rhyme or sound like a new brand of antacid tablets). i must say this is one of the best movies i have seen in a long time, and probably ties bride & prejudice as my favorite indian movie (although some would disput that they aren't even in the same category), ***** out of 5. the movie was made in 2004, and although subtitled (i always get distracted between reading and watching screens, but oh well) it's easy to follow and pretty modern. it's also really funny thanks to the main actor Saif Ali Kahn and main actress (the very attractive) Rani Mukerji - sometimes spelled 'Mukherjee'. the movie was so good i was inspired to get my own copy on dvd AND of course the soundtrack (both came in today...although i was ridiculed about the soundtrack since i could have gotten it from the aforementioned source...ah well, at least i get the packaging and case). either way, i have the movie now, so perhaps another indian movie night will be in order next semester (some of us watched B&P earlier this semester).

Rani Mukerji

- rumor has it those hershey's mint cookies & cream candy bars are back...get them while they last, i think its been a couple years...man those things are GOOD.

until next time, here are some pics of those items which make the tank...the tank <:><

150 gallon saltwater tank

20 gallon coral reef tank

12 gallon planted nano cube, 2 x 10 gallon freshwater puffer tanks

18 gallon puffer tank & 45 gallon freshwater stingray tank

the ever-popular stingrays

120 gallon freshwater tank & 10 gallon freshwater moray eel tank

100 gallon + 2 x 50 gallon African lungfish tanks and the 270 gallon...aka 'gar-den II' aka 'the tank'

ps - feel free to stop by and visit, admission is free...for now.

"o captain my captain"...

no, i am not quoting walt whitman nor am i quoting dead poets society...moreover just referring to the fact that on a trip that damon and i took to royal oak this past friday we were able to meet none other than THE Captain Morgan himself. of course i had my camera with me and made sure we got a pic (as well as some other cool stuff).

damon, me, the captain, emily, one of the captains 'helpers', brian

we were also able to make it to a pig roast (yes, in december) on saturday which was pretty cool. i made sure to get a pic with the pig before we took off. it may not look so great, but it definitely tasted good...and no, lord of the flies fans, it did not talk to me.

me with the pig...mmmmmm

me, hal, damon at the pig roast

that's all for now, there has been a lot of stuff going on, like my car breaking down and my being marooned at the tank, but its far too late to get into that stuff now. i hope everyone had a good weekend, and i'll be sure to update with more soon! <:><

random pic:

many of you have heard about it, but here is the first shot of one of the recent additions (maybe a month or so ago) to The Tank. yes, it's the head of an alligator gar (6-7' long fish, ~65lbs)...and yeah, it's pretty freaking cool.

stair master...

well i didnt run today...but this was expected after going out in such treacherous weather yesterday AND i was going to use today as a recovery.

i also didnt feel guilty about it since i got the absolute WORST parking spot in the garage today (yes, i have been lazy during this winter transition period lately and parked in the parking garage) and ended up on the 7th floor. yes, that is the roof. i looked off the edge after getting out of my car and i couldnt see the ground because of the clouds and i swear the air was thinner up there. this was therefore included in my post-first day workout since i got to run down and up 14 flights of stairs. fun.

ok well i really need to get to work, so it's random comment time for the rest of the entry:

-when i got off the stairs and onto campus i saw two undergrads (at least thats what i figured) having a spitting contest (distance based from what i could tell). do people still do this???

-today i could not finish my first panchero's burrito and i had to put up with being ridiculed by andrea and brenda. this pseudo-philosophical quote was also born: "some days you just can't finish the burrito"
...but of course you still have to show up, and that's where the dedication is. for the record i went there after my evening lab meeting and definitely put that second burrito away. i will also add that andrea makes her's into some sort of burrito bowl...it's really something to behold and probably involves some sort of wizardry.

-both of my roommates are gone right now and i am actually getting work done...well not RIGHT NOW, but earlier and later. if this holds up (especially since they will be gone for the better part of next week) i should be able to get all kinds of stuff done...reading some journal articles, some thesis work, maybe even some cooking...well, let's not get TOO crazy.

-the latest music of choice in regular rotation is Fall Out Boy (both major albums are sweet), Natasha Bedingfield (i'm a sucker for certain pop, but she's good), and most recently Rogue Wave (they had a really cool track -Eyes- on the soundtrack to 'Just Friends' and so with the advice of my newly appointed R.O.M.A. -Relatively Obscure Music Advisor- i downloaded their latest album which is really good so far. these and a lot of other tracks are what get me through work at the dungeon...that and battling with the rancor every now and then.

-i started eating fruit cups again. you know, those small metal cans of mixed fruit that del monte makes? i have a problem eating enough fruit most of the time so i figured to take a major trip back in time to high school (when my mom packed my lunch) and bought some fruit cups. they are pretty sweet but not as filling as i remember them. oh well, it's fruit.

-my room has been very uncharacteristically bare in terms of wall cover since i officially moved into it in september (yeah, 4.5 months of moving from one place to another is NOT fun. especially using a civic and a minivan). up until tonight, i just had the michigan football poster that has the schedule for this year on one of the walls...well today i put up THIS poster that i got from the most recent national geographic. yeah, SWEET. probably more to be added, but i'm being very selective this time around.

-the first and second season of the NBC show 'The Office' are now available on iTunes...i don't think i should download them for the iPod though because it will be far too easy to watch them at work...perhaps next semester for while i'm teaching.

ok well that's all for now, i really should get to work. it's been brought to my attention that i alluded to going out on thursday evening of last week but never put up any pics...so here are some of the missing pics, which should complete the trilogy of outings over the past weekend, definitely need to take it easy and buckle down from here on out...or something to that effect <:><

one of those generally entertaining 'hold the camera out in front of you' shots since we all wanted to be in the picture (L-R) megan, kyle, liza, me.

as seems to happen more and more often, i ran into a former student of mine, kevin, from the biology of fishes class 2003.

megan making the picture more entertaining

probably one of the few shots of both liza and me at rick's

i need an AT-AT...

today was colder than pretty much any day of the winter so far...it was cold when i woke up, it was cold at the office, it was cold outside, it was cold in the aquariums.

the temperature when i got back from work was 12F with a 'realfeel' of 6F...so what did damon and i do??? went RUNNING of course! why you may ask? essentially because damon was going to go for a run anyway and likes to punish himself with triathlons...why did I do it? because i recently bought new running shoes, wind jacket & pants, running socks, AND knew that i should start up again eventually...so why not start on the coldest day of winter so far? at the very least i figured it would mean that if i could run today, i would definitely be able to convince myself to run on most other days...at the very most i would freeze to death out there and that seems to be essentially like falling asleep for a cold nap anyway.

needless to say, all the new gear worked out quite well, although i think i'll need to order new gloves and a hat since my present gloves are actually TOO WARM and i don't have a hat (i HATE wearing hats in the winter...and yeah, its a hair thing...shut up).

i ran a little over 3 miles at a decent pace and when we finished (damon ran a few miles farther) we hit up panchero's for a well-deserved (not that one always needs to deserve it) burrito.

all that being said, it's time to go to bed since i'm tired and am not looking forward to the soreness which is sure to develop over the next two days. luckily i have plenty of work and activities to keep me occupied...that and i have to see how closely i can stick to a running schedule. reminds me of the quote jeremy wrote (regarding running track) in my 1995 high school yearbook:
"someday you will realize running in circles gets you nowhere"

ah well, maybe i'll finally get an AT-AT for christmas and be able to more efficiently navigate the ice terrain of Hoth (aka Ann Arbor). good night! <:><

random pics:

for those of you who don't know what an AT-AT is:

"All Terrain - Armored Transport" AND they look like dinosaurs, which is always cool.

and a great group pic from janine & katie's party (thanks J) some people were ready for the pic, others were not, i think its quite humorous. (janine, damon, hal, AJ, andrea, me, katie, kyle)

cracklin' oat bran...

why does it come in such a small freaking box? the cereal is expensive as it is, you would think that they would at least reward those who actually buy it every now and then by making it AT LEAST the same size as other cereals.
i bought the box on saturday evening and its already more than half way gone...i don't eat nearly as much cereal as i used to, but i definitely don't plan on buying any more for another 5-6 months (which was how long i waited this time). i got a box of honey nut cheerios that was 2x the size and was still cheaper. oh well, i don't know how i ended up with half the bags i came back with from meijer, all i really know is that the COB box is too small and i should not be allowed back into best buy, meijer, or the iTunes store anytime in the near future.

you guessed it, i have nothing more to say for this entry; perhaps something more coherent will find its way in tomorrow. i woke up at 7am this morning...after going to bed at 3am -- my hours and 'normal person' hours don't mix well like that, so the result is i'm going to sleep very soon. have a good night <:><

more weekend pics:

me, damon, and andy at Rick's for rakhi's bday (andy is actually about a foot taller than either of us)

group shot of us acting 'normal' at janine & katie's party

supersaturated...

how many activities can be crammed into a thursday-saturday period??? well i am pretty sure it was pushed to the max over this past weekend...hence the long hiatus from any blog entries (same goes for my sister as she and i discussed earlier today).

needless to say it was a busy weekend filled with a variety of events involving quite a few different people, but definitely all a great time. there is definitely no time to recap everything now so i'll just leave you with a few pics from the insanity. i hope you all had a good weekend, strangely enough i think i'm going to need the week to recover from mine! good night <:><

party for katie at janine's place (L-R) damon, me, kyle, AJ, andrea

hal dancing to that dragon's tea din tei song that i mentioned several entries ago...

double reverse oreo

me & andrea at Live

spontaneous post-party party meet up w/ erin & the 86'ers (meghan, damon, erin, me, laura)

rakhi's bday phase 2 : rick's. yes, chris went with us to rick's and it needed to be caught on film.

rakhi & me, we decided to put away our archnemesis status for an evening since it was her birthday

"go to bed early"...

that's what my mom would always tell us back at home, even now, when all the siblings are home she still tells us that, especially on saturday night. anyway, that's what i'm doing this time around so this entry will be quite short.

lately i have been taking 'power naps' when i get home from work, these are normally 10-20min for most people, but for me they were turning into an hour or so. the by-product of this was the fact that i was no longer able to get to bed before 3am, and felt pretty freaking tired the next morning as i relived the epic battle between myself and the alarm clock every day.

well today i skipped the nap since i had a late lab meeting and other stuff to do here at the tank, so i'll be 'going to bed early' in a relative sense.

i will add a few things from today:


we saw 'just friends' tonight and i must say it was HILARIOUS. now, that may already be over-hyping it to a lot of you, but it was really funny and definitely the tank-crew's kind of humor. at one point james threw his empty popcorn bucket because it was so funny. now that may not read very funny, but if you know james (aka wildcard) you can picture it and it is quite humorous. the people in the movie also graduated in 1995, so i think we related to it on that level too, since that was just a year off from when those of us who live at the tank graduated (at least damon and i, 1996). ryan reynolds does a great job in his usual style of comedy, and the storyline, although contrived at times has enough gags, one-liners, and jokes to keep things moving. ok enough with the review, it's funny; skip the penguin dvd rental and go see this movie. rating: ****

that's all for now, i am going to need the extra sleep as the next several days are going to be pretty busy with school work, social gatherings, and buying artichokes! good night <:><

random photo:

tropical gar (Atractosteus tropicus)...ah, they grow up so quickly