Christmas Eve

Well, it's Christmas eve in Ontario. Time to talk about this webpage with interesting t-shirts. My friend Michelle pointed this out to me, it's Threadless.com. Some of my favorites (not that I would wear them all) are MP(3), What Would Macgyver Do, French Army Knife, Yo-Fu, Afternoon Delight, Vikings are just Swedish Pirates and Loch Ness Imposter. I was shopping on Queen West in Toronto where t-shirts were going for $55 a pop which makes these ones at $15-$17 (probaby American) a steal.

Stereo Pictures

The HAV 3C protease, in 3D. Remember those magic eye pictures where you had to stare at a picture out of focus and hope to see the hidden image pop out at you? Well, there actually is a practical application of my magic eye skills. In my area of science they often determine the structure of a molecule through a process called X-ray crystallography. A protein that I work with is called HAV 3C and my collaborators at the University of Alberta have determined the structure of the protein. They published the structure and here is an image of it in three dimensional glory. So, if you cross your eyes in just the right way while staring at the picture you can look at the 3D structure of my protease. It might be easier looking at the larger image. Good thing I spent all those hours perfecting my eye crossing skills.

Hair

I recently cut 4 inches of hair off, and while it still looks like I have long hair it doesn't feel like it. Anyway, I just posted this picture so I can use it as my blog picture and not have to host it elsewhere.

Charlie Brown Tree

Well, my parents always joke about getting a bad Christmas tree (mainly my father who has great fun in finding ever tackier decorations) and now they have carried the joke one step further. So, here's a picture of the tree in the living room and it is it a sad one. Of course, I realize it's better than what many people get, but still. Turns out this is the joke tree (a result of some judicious trimming of a tree on our farm) and we will have fun running around in the woods for a while finding something good (read, Carly likes).