The Top Floor Office

Here is the view from the top floor of the N.C. State library where I sometimes come to write and do work for HealthAliciousNess.



What, are you saying a top floor office is meaningless? Well that is a bit startling I suppose...
There is talk among the employees of a Holiday party this year, or we might just have a cook out this fall.

What is going on otherwise? Besides working on the garden, taking a family trip to the outer banks, reading books, and sitting down and typing questions like:
"How can I add value to people's lives?"
and
"What do I want my day to day life to be like?"
and coming up with answers.

Other questions are:
"Where to apply for graduate school?"
or
"What biomarkers of human aging are known?"

It is fun stuff when you put it all together. I hope everyone is well. Let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

Paul.

Fibroblast

I attended a stem cell symposium which entailed what we know about cells that have the ability to change into other cells and thus fabricate our bodies. Professors from UNC, MIT, Duke, Yale, and more, gave speeches, showed graphs and figures, and occasionally had playful powerpoint slides.

Breaks were punctuated with snacks, bottled water and coffee, plus the usual suspects of softdrinks.

Thus I learned that a single stem cell can repopulate the entire marrow of a mouse, that over time stem cells stop regenerating and focus on differentiating, and that the two professors from MIT flew themselves down from Boston.

It seems like way more than a year since I set off to Belize. Looking back, it was still a great trip. Sometimes I want to travel again, but mostly, I am focused on purpose and curiosity. Quotes tend to sum things up, so here are some that define this time for me:

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours." Henry David Thoreau

"There is something within me that might be illusion as it is often case with young delighted people, but if I would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity." Nikola Tesla

"I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labour, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers. Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts." Nikola Tesla

His house is in the villiage though

I might start working again. I know, it burns, it burns. But in fact it isn't that bad because the job will be part time, at a university, and tie into my current learning interests. Specifically the work will be in a lab conducting comparative genetic analysis on microbial organisms. The process is known as Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) ... It will at least give me something complicated sounding to WOW people with when they ask "What do you do?" ... as opposed to the answers I give now...

I have also started a website on the molecular causes of biological aging

Science of Aging

This includes outlining major discoveries in the Science of Aging timeline.

The website has been picked up and linked by major websites like:
The Methuselah Foundation
FightAging.org
The Ouroboros Blog (which has made two contributions to the timeline)

It seems like 10 years ago since I quit my job as a health care analyst and started a journey to travel the world, be an entrepreneur, and return to grad school. The time I was at work I had it in mind to study aging...one day... and when I have enough money. It was my deferred life plan. The dream I sacrificed for, but which I could have started at any time. It doesn't seem odd to think about it now, following your dreams is hard work. It is more work. It is fun and rewarding. But it is more work. I will also say that dreams are obscured. Or never what is expected, but have to be carved by life in a way, like a puzzle piece cut to fit.

I went to the mountains to see snow in April. I collected some video clips presented for your viewing below:


I think I will ride out the summer here, particularly if I start working and applying to grad schools, then it would be good to travel. And where to go? Good question, both Japan and France are on the list. Tokyo or Nice? Montepillier or Kyoto?

The Shepherd

Yesterday I drove to Charlotte to attend the Flavors of Carolina conference. On the way I listened to Michael Crichton's book, State of Fear, and passed cable service trucks, pick-ups, and semi-trailers which decorate the daytime U.S. highway.

The conference was being held in the Shriner Conference Center, a large one-story building located in a shopping center and festooned with two white globes on the top. Bland tile covered the floor before running into dull carpet in a cave like room made dark coming in from the sun.

People were busy setting up displays for their various food businesses. The atmosphere was the strange blend of anticipation and gravity that results from being in a large room with lots of people.

I helped my Mom set up her booth displaying business items for her bakery business Mediterranean Treats. The booth next to us belonged to Twiddle Dee Farm, and James.

James was a tall black man, young in his look and happy in his nature. After he got out of the army, he went to raising sheep.
"Was the army a good experience?" I asked.
James paused "Good and Bad." He said, then let out a laugh.
"Why sheep?"
"Well, I just couldn't go back to raising cattle, and I was looking for something new. I am a retired veteran really, but I knew I needed to do something, I would go crazy just sitting around."

I knew what James meant, and the more I talked to him, the more I fell in love with his story. How he tends and herds sheep. How he spends time out in a field. It drew me in. The retired soldier gone from the world of conflict to quietly tend his flock and become a shepherd.

Is it really not worth writing about...

Abundance, or having more than you can handle, is strange feeling, but that is how I feel. Like I am trying to cope with opportunity. It is like when you try to carry too many apples and you know that one is going to slip out of your hand, so your start running to the table, hoping to make it, while the voice in the back of your head is screaming for you to go back and just carry sensible amounts.

That is what it feels like.

I want to travel, or more to the point, I feel obligated to travel considering my life situation. The truth of it though, is that I want to learn and explore ideas. I love it, I love reading history, I love writing my perspective of the facts. I love having my curiousity pulled in novel ways. And it seems odd to be given the chance to do this, nothing but time to explore, no obligations, no struggles, just the pleasure of exploring.

It seems like nothing worth writing about. Like all movies that fade out on the lovers once they go off to live happily ever after. At the same time, it seems like the perfect thing to write about.

If anyone is interested to keep up with what I have been reading, you can check out my media review: http://pauls-media-review.blogspot.com/

task chairs

I went for the job interview. It was for The Umstead Hotel and Spa. The directions on the website instructed job applicants to go round the left, to the back of the building, and enter there. I went and parked by the loading dock. I was the only car in the lot. I figured I was parked in the wrong place, but suppressed the realization.

I walked in. The place was packed. I knew I had parked in the wrong place. They gave me a job application. I filled it. The interview went well. We went around the place, it was very nice. I felt like I was looking into a new life, one in a line waiting to be lived.

I also went to an all day seminar last Friday at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. It was for non-coding RNA. Graduate students gave poster presentations there. Out of the 20 or so posters there, at least 18 presenters were engaged in conversation. I went to one of the vacant ones, half out of sympathy, and half out of social convenience. The title on the poster was impossibly specific, something like: The effect of non-coding RNA on l-beta binding sites during non-time-differentiated binding. The girl started talking immediately. I did the only rational thing which was to nod and smile. I also tried to read the poster and come to grips with what was being said to me. What I was really reaching for was a safe question, something that said I had an inkling of what was going on.

"Why are you studying this?" I asked. "Dr. X and Dr. Y were looking into it and I took the project" she answered. It seemed kind of odd to me, but the gist of the answer is: for the sake of science. At first, this bothered me, but I thought about it and it occurred to me that not everything need be technology driven.

I got some books from the library on the cell, and am writing a history of cell theory for my HealthAliciousNess website.

I am also keeping some blogs as daily challenges. One is to create a drawing each day, and thus learn to draw. Another is a journey back over the content and concepts of mathematics.

Leaving Germany and On

I left Germany. I meant to post photos and write a whole conclusion. But, you know. You know? Basically it was a great trip, I met a lot of great people, I met a city, I met a country. Leaving was tough. It is always tough. An environment sinks into you, weaves itself into your fabric. I went from the city of Frankfurt to the mountains of North Carolina. I walked by trees but felt buildings.

I am here now, I am applying for jobs, I am blogging, I am listening to Bob Marley! :)

It occurs to me how long it has been since I have had a job. I mean, I left work in April of 2008 but it feels like years and years ago. Time doesn't fly by anymore. I think that is the first thing I noticed with a job. A month was nothing, a week was a nano-second.

Anyway, I am applying for jobs. I want to work in a busy kitchen. One at a hotel or resort, or Mcdonalds. ;)

I am also blogging. I have decided I want to find out why people get older and so I am going to dedicate my energy to that. And the way to understand it, is to write about it.