Wandering through the woods

I went to a suturing class today, after finishing up my final in cancer class. It was mindblowingly awesome how much hand-eye coordination it takes to keep things sterile while working on a banana. Next up: trying to do this while wearing latex gloves and covering the banana in lube, so that it approximates blood.

And yes, I hear you, filthy joke gallery.

I'm so excited about PA school! Surgery rocks.

Today, I came across this fascinating passage from Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius:

Mothers who were less involved with their children's interactions, and were less likely to respond to children's bids for attention and help, had children who were more likely to help, comfort and share with each other, and to engage in more enjoyable social interactions with others. (Crockenberg & Bryant, 1978)

That just about blew my mind. The science behind this makes some sense -- once you get a reward, after all, there is no more need to repeat the behavior unless you want the reward again. But if you're naturally inclined to do something, an external reward is only distracting.

When I first started teaching, I was told that one of the problems I had with teaching was that I was too apt to praise -- if you respond "good" to things that are only mediocre, people are less likely to strive for your praise.

I suppose a similar principle applies for even rewarding calls for attention -- people can figure stuff out a lot of times on their own, so they won't call for help as often if you don't acknowledge it as often (except through guided redirection, such as responding "dictionary" when asked to help define words.)

So. That's an interesting case for parenting by neglect being sort of useful, then. My mind is still blown, because it seems so unkind to directly ignore pleas for help -- but there is clearly a case to be had for impassivity.

The Museum of Natural History currently has this bioluminescence exhibit that sort of sucks, but is very educational. Hanging out with an old acquaintance there, we read about anglerfish, which dangle luminescent spiny bits of themselves (the luminescence comes from bacteria) to attract prey.

Anglerfish also apparently have very interesting mating habits. The males exist as tiny tiny forms that can only feed on the females. When the tiny male anglerfish find their female mate, they bite into her skin (with their huge jaws), and then release an enzyme that basically fuses the two bodies together, and then the male atrophies into a sperm-producing factory.

"Golly," said I. "I think I like our way of reproduction more. That's worse than cats with the barbed penises."

My neighbor reading the exhibit turned to me and said, "Along that line, did you know that ducks have corkscrew shaped penises?"

"No! I had no idea. What do the females do...?"

"Oh, you should read about it."

So I did.

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Also, apparently Photuris (nicknamed "vampire") fireflies attract male fireflies by flashing a "compatible female" mating signal light and then, when the innocent male approaches, she pounces and has him for dinner.

One day, when osirusbrisbane finishes building that space-time wormhole-ish transporter (because, as page_of_swords aptly points out, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle prevents that Star Trek copying-like version), I will teleport to his hypothetically-by-then already-built yarn-and-games shop, where I will join the legion groups of knitter-and-gamer couples out there. We will eliminate the age-old dilemma where "geeky boys that can't get girls" by sticking nice knitters in the same shop together with the gamer boys. Everyone wins. I will be surrounded by My People.

This weekend, I hung out with Jamie, and she introduced me to two awesome two-player games (actually, she introduced me to more, but these are the ones I liked most). The first was Ingenious (which has a cheaper travel version, too). The goal of the game is to advance all of your colored tiles on a hexagonal board; the player with the lowest-placed color loses. You get an extra turn for having advanced one of your colors all the way to the top of the counter.

The nice thing about Ingenious is that it involves both strategy and luck -- the colored tiles you grab are random, like in Scrabble, so it actually takes a bit of crossing your fingers for the right tiles. It's also a relatively tight two-player game, which is great -- often, two-player games are either decided in the first few moves, or they drag on too long, because they've been badly adapted from four-player ones.

We also played Blokus Duo. I'd played the four-player version, which is a lot of fun, because of trying to maneuver around three other people's tiles, but the two-player version is a lot faster and in some ways a better game because the tension is on from the beginning, rather than at midgame. (It's a smaller board -- 14x14 -- and you start off 5x5 from the corners, which is what makes the battling for territory move along so the tension is up from the beginning. Note: if you own the four player version, obviously it can be modded into a two player version by drawing a 14x14 square with a marker. You can make the 3p version a lot better by modding it down to an 18x18 grid, too).

So! In conclusion, if you want to play some shiny 2p games that are not endless Dominion rounds (*cough* not that we know anybody like that), try these! (Or Quirkle, possibly, though I wasn't as fond of that one for some reason). I believe both of these games also play pretty well for 3 or 4, (Blokus only when modded, though) so they're good party games, too.

At yesterday's cuddle party, the clarity of the opening welcome circle hit me again. A boundaries workshop, it made me feel completely aware again of where mine were, and of feeling free to cuddle OR NOT with whoever I wanted to.

"Have you ever had someone reach out and try to squeeze your shoulder or hug you without asking, even with the very best of intentions, and then had that feel wrong? It's because, well-intentioned or not, non-consent is about taking away your voice."

I feel like I'm finding my voice again.

Remember me saying I really, really wanted to buy the huge container of instant yeast and freeze it because my grocery didn't have instant yeast (only active dry yeast)? Well, I haven't yet, but I made Mark Bittman's Overnight Waffles, using yeast, and oh. em. gee. These are the best waffles I've ever had -- crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside, with a sourdough yeasty flavor that I just loved.

Recipe (makes 4):

1/2 teaspoon Instant yeast
2 cupsAll purpose flour
1 tablespoonSugar
1/2 teaspoonSalt
2 cupsmilk
8 tablespoons Butter; melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Canola Oil; for brushing on waffle iron
2 eggs

1. Before going to bed, combine the dry ingredients and stir in the milk, then the butter and vanilla. The mixture will be loose. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside overnight at room temperature.

2. Brush the waffle iron lightly with oil and preheat it. Separate the eggs and stir the yolks into the batter. Beat the whites until they hold soft peaks. Stir them gently into the batter. (I just stirred the eggs into the batter without separating them. Seemed to work well.)

3. Pour batter onto the waffle iron and bake until the waffle is done, usually 3 to 5 minutes, depending on your iron. Serve immediately or keep warm for a few minutes in a low oven.

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Seriously, even though Ross thought it smelled "funny" [editor's note: I think he means "a little like bread and beer"] and didn't like them all that much (an offense for which I must find some other test victims to prove him really really wrong -- any volunteers?), I thought these were the best thing to happen to breakfast in a long time.

A bit ago, my friend simonbillenness came by and made tomato-sausage risotto with me. He cut through an onion in like 30 seconds, commenting appreciatively that my knife was really sharp.

Now... my knife is sharp, but I am incompetent. I was jealous of his skillz.

See, when I cut onions, I cry. A lot. (And I am convinced that cutting the onion under running water is just a good way to get slippery soggy onions and to get back strain as you lean over the sink). Further, my attempts at dicing onions into cubes leads to very sloppy horizontal cuts that always end up slicing through the root and then I just have a mess and more crying.

But! I have discovered a new method of onion dicing! It follows the radial shape of the onion (the "fan method") and leads to way less tears: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Dice-an-Onion-Like-a-Pro/

My biochem prof is both fascinating and, oh, lions and tigers and bears, this class promises to kick my butt. But! I just thought I'd share this one thing that is still so spiffy to think about.

So you know that whole theory about eukaryotic cells evolving from prokaryotic cells? And hence organelles, like mitochondria, having their own DNA? Mitochondria, then, are reproducing on their own without the help of the nucleus. Here's the cool part: exercise makes mitochondria undergo binary fission faster. People who exercise have more mitochondria! And therefore, they really do have more energy. (Also, felllow nerds, a NYTimes link about how the increased mitochondria kept mice healthier despite those same mice having had genetic defects built into their mitochondria.)