clothes-swap.

Can you imagine swapping your entire outfit with your friend's?

Look at the couples holding hands with the boyfriend wearing dresses and rompers. It is funny and endearing.

http://sincerelyhana.com/projects/switcheroo/

baked goods before first day of class!

I have my first day of class tomorrow! I am still a non-student, but I decided to take an interesting class in the Earth Science department. I figured should know something about the earth and its chemistry since I work here. This weekend was filled with many baked goods! I spent my Friday and Saturday in Sugar Land and used this old-school oven to bake some very dense buttery muffins.

Actual buttons and knobs?

My friend hosted a chili & bread dinner at his house today (he claims he had a quarterlife crisis because "I bought a BMW and am now moving across the country!"). I think next time he has a legitimate midlife crisis, he should open a bread shop and make these three-pound loafs all day- they were so good! The perfect amount of chewiness and softness... mmmm heaven.

look at that soft, chewy inside- pour some butter on me...

three pounds of pure deliciousness

I missed hanging out with other bio people- the entire evening we chatted about silly health products seen in pharmacies ("this contains the same amino acids as whatever-hormone") and discussed how parts don't equal the whole ("How about we ingest some sodium and then chloride? Because table salt is tasty"). Dorkiest thing ever, I know, but when you have graduate students(bioe and medical) plus a sprinkle of scientists in the room, dinner conversations take interesting turns. Classes start tomorrow both for Little Brother & me- I am excited to be learning new things, especially about a subject I hardly know anything about.

your American accent.

My friend linked me to this online YouThink quiz where you can see what kind of regional accent you have by answering questions about how you pronounce certain words and make vowel sounds.

According to this quiz, I have a "neutral" accent (because you can't not have an accent). International Dialects of English Archive hosts an amazing audio archive of people speaking English in different dialects. The recordings are tagged with the gender, age, background and occupation.

I adore Southern accents, I think they sound endearing. However, different accents are associated with preconceived notions on level of intelligence and especially living in Houston, I encounter a lot of similar stereotypes about "rural Texans". This PBS article discusses this issue, with a demonstrative example of sample population surveys on accents. Here is a map of regions rated for the "correct English-ness" by about 150 Michigan residents, with 9 being the most correct:

See how Michigan ranks at the top?

Here's a representative drawing of the United States by one of the participants:

At least he drew Texas correctly?

Now look at these rankings for "pleasantness" of regional dialects by Auburn students (in Alabama):

Most pleasing to ears? Alabama, of course.

Just because a region is associated with a high level of [insert whatever you associate with lower intelligence: younger marrying age, more single mom's, violence, theft, etc] does not mean you can make generalizations about someone speaking that region dialect. But it is always interesting to analyze someone's accent and hold off confirming your guess until last minute. I had a physics professor whose accent was hard to pinpoint- Southern? Australian? We finally asked her, and turns out I had met my first South African.

Also, did you know that English is not the "official language" of United States?

children's museum of houston visit

This weekend I visited Children's Museum of Houston with the kiddos. I drove extra-slow and extra-careful around the neighborhood, which prompted them to ask "do you know where we're going?" We arrived just before lunch, and spent almost three hours running around the exhibit. They especially loved the Power Tower, which was a jungle gym of plastic plates and nets. Since I couldn't climb inside with them, I was continuously running up and down the stairs to find them wherever they decided to swing to. Beating that national first-mom average of 25 may have its advantages after all.

the colorful entrance to the museum

The museum itself is not too big. If you have older science-inclined kids, they may want to stop at every exhibit to do the simulation and read the explanations. But we breezed by most of the exhibits and spent our time outside at FlowWorks, CMH's awesome water fountain/boat race/flood majambo.

inside corridor- more activities along the hallway

see the turtle? camou-f-l-a-g-e

The museum was not too crowded considering it was a Saturday. Most of the kids were around 5-10 age range, but I noticed some older kids- teenagers even- who seemed to be having fun. If I can be honest here, I think I would have fun here with my twenty-something friends too- can I host my next birthday here?

our lunch- food pyramid is tossed out the window

Well, my Wednesday started off with me Wii-shooting a deer at 7:30 in the morning, fueled with a much-needed latte. At least my day began and ended early- I am giving a presentation this Friday to a bunch of doctors/dentists/scientists, and I may need more caffeine to finish up this PowerPoint!

SCUBA diving dangers: ear injuries.

My brother kakao-talked me that he ruptured his eardrums during his last dive... ouch? A quick visit to the hospital showed that while his eardrums are thankfully intact, he damaged his middle ear from coming up to surface too fast.

drinking out of diving goggles to celebrate his first dive

To make matters worse, he is flying to Tampa in a few hours. 24 hours have passed since his last dive (as per guidelines), but the altitude changes may be uncomfortable for his ears.

But he may count himself lucky to have such a little injury. Arterial Gas Embolisms may occur when air diffuses into the capillaries from torn alveoli in the lungs. Decompression sickness, or the "bends" are they are more commonly known, occur as nitrogen bubbles into the blood veins, often causing pain in the joints. I have a friend who swears she has a permanent headache from a dive couple of years ago!