A few unrelated things

(a) So, I went out for a run today. Just a little 14 K*. In a torrential downpour. Believe it or not, I actually really enjoy running in the rain... You get awfully warm running and the rain is delightfully cool. There are only two drawbacks: (1) I get a lot of water in my shoes when the puddles are too large to jump (which they certainly were today) and having wet feet kinda sucks, (2) my hair turns into a knotted rat's nest if it gets anywhere near rain. How knotted, you ask? Take this for example - after my run, I was applying a half a bottle of conditioner to try to work out the knots in my hair. And apparently, in addition to not being trusted with knives, I should also not be trusted with my own hair. Check out the wound I received from trying to run my fingers through my knotty, knotty hair:



That's a hell of a hunk flesh to be ripped from one's finger!! My poor, poor finger!!

(b) On Friday night, I went to see a talk by Nobel Laureate, Carl Weimann. He talked about his research for which he won the Nobel Prize (he and his colleagues produced the first true Bose-Einstein condensate). Here is a picture of the "velocity-distribution data of a gas of rubidium atoms, confirming the discovery of a new phase of matter, the Bose–Einstein condensate." (taken from Wikipedia... I'm just including it here 'cuz (1) it looks cool and (2) it's in the public domain, so I can).

He also talked a lot about science education, as that is what he was recruited to UBC to study. The best part of the whole talk was when this completely belligerent audience member asked a series of long and rambling questions, including a diatribe about how he didn't believe any of what Dr. Weimann said about what makes an effective educator since we all know that being a dynamic speaker is the only thing that matters to being a good teacher, "SO ANSWER THAT MR. NOBEL LAUREATE!"**... to which Dr. Weimann responded there is plenty of solid data to support what he's said about education and so, "You can either say that you don't believe evidence or you can say that I'm right." Ha ha! Take that, belligerent audience member! Here's a pic I snapped at the talk - Dr. Weimann is the guy on the right:

(3) I bought a wicked pair of news shoes. For work. Ha ha... I just love saying that. Work. As in a job. As in employment, with a paycheque and benefits and challenging responsibilities and the need for appropriate footwear. I decided to buy a simple pair of black heels, ones that will go with pretty much any outfit I might wear to work. But, being the sexy shoe-obsessed girl that I am, I bought really shiny black shoes that are ever so slightly too high to be exactly considered conservative. Yes, I'm edgy like that.

After I bought my shoes at the trusty Payless, I strolled around Kingsgate Mall (I'd never been there before) and stumbled upon a shoe store that must have fallen from heaven***. Never before had I seen so many platform boots! Boots that make my boots look like nun's shoes. I was also very pleased to see that cork wedge heels are in fashion for another year... my eBay shoes will come out of mothballs once the rain, rain goes away!

(4) Damn, I was sure I had something else I wanted to blog about, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. I'm going to blame the trauma of my above mentioned hand injury for this lapse in memory.

*That's over 8.5 miles for my American readers.
**I'm not even joking... the audience member actually yelled that, while pointing emphatically in Dr. Weimann's general direction.
***The "heaven" in my world my vary from yours.