Everything his publicist told me about Alice Cooper is true. He's articulate, funny and engaging. A Conservative Christian who's been sober for 25 years, he's 61; on a scale of affability, he's far closer to his late friend Bob Hope than he is to, say, John Lydon. Age suits him; the wrinkles strangely complement his carefully dishevelled head of luxuriant, ink-black hair.

"In 1969, you said: 'Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse.' That hasn't worked, has it?"

"No. Which is funny, because all my buddies from the early days the guys I used to drink with they're all dead. Jim Morrison. Janis Joplin. Jimi Hendrix."

Taken from an article in the Independent.

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Q: Why am I speaking like a lolcat?
A: Cause I'm tired.

I've been sitting in a saunaauditorium for the past two days attending a conference in Leicester. I'm sure the talks are excellent but I'm having the damnedest time concentrating on them because of the heat. The talk I gave this morning seemed well received, so thats good.

BenBen's sleeping pattern have gone to pot. He's woken up at 5am for the last two days and he's not napping all that well. We think it's the heat. We;re in Leics until Sunday. Hopefully the weather is going to chill out - literally - and he'll settle down a bit.

Katy and I went to see Transformers 2. I can see why it's being nominated for worst movie of the decade. Michael Bay managed to create *two* characters even more obnoxious and stereotypically un-PC than Jar Jar Binks. That deserves recognition. And a kick in the face. The movie was so bad it went all the way to almost good. Everything blows up. It's one giant fight scene, and nobody but the bad guys get hurt. The robots have testicles. They hump your leg. I kid you not. I'll go see Transformers 3 when it comes out, but I don't think I'll buy the dvd...

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You bought a fan?
Yes mother, it's in the box over there.
Is that a fan? (pointing to box)
No mother, it's a sausage.

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The family went to Saffron Walden on Saturday to pick up some veg from the farmer's market and have a peek at the French market that was being held on the common. Nothing spectacular, but the food looked nice. Will and Donna came over on Sunday afternoon for a very carnivorous BBQ. I'd made sausages, burgers and home-made lamb koftas. I have to say, the kebabs were a brilliant success. Combine lamb mince with tumeric, chili powder, cumin, coriander powder, paprika, ginger, salt, pepper and minced onions and form onto soaked bamboo skewers. Grill on the BBQ and baste a few times with reggae reggae sauce until well done. Serve in olive oil-basted pitas that have been toasted on the BBQ with some fresh, home-made tzaziki. DELISH! This is a perfect way to cook lamb mince because the fat renders out and you're left with a juicy kebab that's not floating in fat.

I spent part of Sunday putting up a curtain pole and a shelf in the master bedroom. We moved our stuff over from the guest bedroom and slept in our new bed for the first time. It's going to take a bit of getting used to. For starters, it's a lot higher off the ground than our previous one and we'll need to jerry-rig something to prevent our pillows from falling through the headboard all the time. Still, comfy. We didn't sleep all that well because there were no curtains in the room so we both woke up at 5am with sunlight streaming into the room.

The beastie is getting to be a handful at times now. His nap pattern is shifting and he's alternating between tired/grumpy and awake/entertain-me-now mode. It's going to be a fun few weeks until things settle down. Still, could be worse. My cough seems to want to clear up - finally - but Katy is still feeling under the weather. If she's still not right when we come back from Leicester, I'll nag her to go to see the doc.

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As part of doing something else, I noticed that my publication record is increasing. This is not bad at all, considering that I'm not really an academic :)

1: Stockinger H, Attwood T, Chohan SN, Ct R, Cudr-Mauroux P, Falquet L,
Fernandes P, Finn RD, Hupponen T, Korpelainen E, Labarga A, Laugraud A, Lima T,
Pafilis E, Pagni M, Pettifer S, Phan I, Rahman N. Experience using web services
for biological sequence analysis. Brief Bioinform. 2008 Nov;9(6):493-505. Epub
2008 Jul 11. PubMed PMID: 18621748.

2: Jones P, Ct R. The PRIDE proteomics identifications database: data
submission, query, and dataset comparison. Methods Mol Biol. 2008;484:287-303.
PubMed PMID: 18592187.

3: Ct RG, Jones P, Martens L, Apweiler R, Hermjakob H. The Ontology Lookup
Service: more data and better tools for controlled vocabulary queries. Nucleic
Acids Res. 2008 Jul 1;36(Web Server issue):W372-6. Epub 2008 May 8. PubMed PMID:
18467421; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2447739.

4: Siepen JA, Belhajjame K, Selley JN, Embury SM, Paton NW, Goble CA, Oliver SG,
Stevens R, Zamboulis L, Martin N, Poulovassillis A, Jones P, Ct R, Hermjakob H,
Pentony MM, Jones DT, Orengo CA, Hubbard SJ. ISPIDER Central: an integrated
database web-server for proteomics. Nucleic Acids Res. 2008 Jul 1;36(Web Server
issue):W485-90. Epub 2008 Apr 25. PubMed PMID: 18440977; PubMed Central PMCID:
PMC2447780.

5: Martens L, Jones P, Ct R. Using the Proteomics Identifications Database
(PRIDE). Curr Protoc Bioinformatics. 2008 Mar;Chapter 13:Unit 13.8. PubMed PMID:
18428683.

6: Mueller M, Vizcano JA, Jones P, Ct R, Thorneycroft D, Apweiler R, Hermjakob
H, Martens L. Analysis of the experimental detection of central nervous
system-related genes in human brain and cerebrospinal fluid datasets. Proteomics.
2008 Mar;8(6):1138-48. PubMed PMID: 18283668.

7: Jones P, Ct RG, Cho SY, Klie S, Martens L, Quinn AF, Thorneycroft D,
Hermjakob H. PRIDE: new developments and new datasets. Nucleic Acids Res. 2008
Jan;36(Database issue):D878-83. Epub 2007 Nov 22. PubMed PMID: 18033805; PubMed
Central PMCID: PMC2238846.

8: Ct RG, Jones P, Martens L, Kerrien S, Reisinger F, Lin Q, Leinonen R,
Apweiler R, Hermjakob H. The Protein Identifier Cross-Referencing (PICR) service:
reconciling protein identifiers across multiple source databases. BMC
Bioinformatics. 2007 Oct 18;8:401. PubMed PMID: 17945017; PubMed Central PMCID:
PMC2151082.

9: Ct RG, Jones P, Apweiler R, Hermjakob H. The Ontology Lookup Service, a
lightweight cross-platform tool for controlled vocabulary queries. BMC
Bioinformatics. 2006 Feb 28;7:97. PubMed PMID: 16507094; PubMed Central PMCID:
PMC1420335.

10: Jones P, Ct RG, Martens L, Quinn AF, Taylor CF, Derache W, Hermjakob H,
Apweiler R. PRIDE: a public repository of protein and peptide identifications for
the proteomics community. Nucleic Acids Res. 2006 Jan 1;34(Database
issue):D659-63. PubMed PMID: 16381953; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1347500.

11: Klie S, Martens L, Vizcano JA, Ct R, Jones P, Apweiler R, Hinneburg A,
Hermjakob H. Analyzing large-scale proteomics projects with latent semantic
indexing. J Proteome Res. 2008 Jan;7(1):182-91. Epub 2007 Nov 30. PubMed PMID:
18047271.

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We have been notified of the first member of staff that has contracted swine flu. The person works in the EBI and was at home when they first recognised symptoms. They will obviously stay at home and away from campus for the duration of their illness. Their close colleagues and contacts in the EBI have been informed of the case.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.

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Girl with 56 stars tattooed on face admits she asked for them

A teenage girl who claimed 56 stars were tattooed on her on her face as she slept when she asked for three has admitted she was awake the whole time and lied because her father was "furious".



Kimberley Vlaminck had insisted she dozed off after asking the tattooist for just three small stars then woke in horror to find her face was covered. The Belgian blamed the Flemish-speaking tattooist for not being able to understand her French and English instructions.

Amid a frenzy of media attention, she then pledged to sue the tattoo artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, for the 9,000 she needed for laser surgery to have them removed.

She said after the tattooing last week: "It is terrible for me. I cannot go out on to the street. I look like a freak."

But the 18-year-old has finally confessed she did not fall asleep, that she wanted all the stars and was "fully aware" of what Mr Toumaniantz was doing. Ms Vlaminck told a Dutch TV crew: "I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them. But when my father saw them, he was furious. So I said I fell asleep and the that the tattooist mad made a mistake."

Mr Toumaniantz himself covered from head to foot in tattoos and piercings had consistently denied he had made a mistake and always insisted Vlaminck wanted all 56 stars. He said at the time: "I maintain that she absolutely agreed that I tattoo those 56 stars on the left side of her face."

But despite insisting she had asked for 56 stars, he still initially agreed to pay for half of the treatment to remove the tattoos. He said: "Kimberley is unhappy and it is not my wish to have an unsatisfied client. I don't regret it. To tell you the truth, this has given me some publicity." Mr Toumanaintz is now said to have withdrawn his cash offer and said from now on he will get written consent from clients before he begins tattooing.

---

I'm sorry, but the girl is an idiot precious-snowflake-attention-whore. Remember kiddies, this is why you actually need to think about the consequences of getting tattooed and that it pays to reflect on what you're actually getting inked onto yourself. I have ink. I do not regret it at all. I want more, and I think that the design that I want is starting to percolate towards a solid concept. Just remember this:

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Health matters have been problematic in the last two weeks. I've just about gotten back all the mobility in my foot but I now have this stupid phlegm-y chest cough. Katy had a migraine last Wednesday that left her vomiting for most of the night and part of the following day. I stayed home from work and managed to catch either a 24-hour bug or a touch of food poisoning. The result of which was I was puking my guts out Friday night and was completely useless on Saturday. I was back on my feet - mostly - on Sunday but Katy is still feeling out of sorts. She went to the doctor today so hopefully that'll be on its way to being sorted out, but with the beastie being difficult because of his teeth these days, it still promises to be a bumpy ride for the next few days. I've already taken a lot of leave time so I'm a bit conflicted about staying home, but at the same time, if she needs it, family comes before work. Still, I just wish things would settle down for a bit and the universe would give us a break.

Originally published at The beaver is a proud and noble animal. » Click here « to leave any comments.

On swine flu:

Its humbling that I could be killed by 3.2kbytes of genetic data. Then again, with 850 Mbytes of data in my genome, theres bound to be an exploit or two.

Original source: an interesting piece comparing the flu virus to a computer virus, and on hacking H1N1:
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=353

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I affirmed a pledge of allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen yesterday and became naturalized as a British citizen. The ceremony was, to be honest, a bit hokey, but the symbolism of it was nice. It would have been a lot better if I hadn't been in the middle of a nasty migraine. Afterwards, people were complimenting Katy and I on how well behaved the beastie had been. He, of course, was flirting with everything that would smile at him.

The highlight of the day came when we were making our way to the Cambridge City Council offices and ran into Santa Claus in his off-duty summer outfit. Imagine a fat old dude, with a kick-ass white beard, fabulously working flaming, scarlet red trousers and a buttoned shirt of the same colour. Fantabulous!

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One week later and I'm walking - well, limping, really - but at least I'm back at work. My ankle is strapped in and I'm wearing my hiking boots (which do nothing for my foot odour) so it's not too bad. I don't need to take painkillers any more and the swelling is mostly gone. There is still a kick-ass bruise on both sides of my ankle but it's now multiple pretty colours and that's also going away.

We spent the weekend in Leicester. Good news, we have curtains! They cost a damn sight more than we expected them to, but at least we have something that Katy and I can agree on. It should be the last big thing we need to spend on. It needs to be the last big thing we spend on, because we're broke at the moment and since Katy's maternity pay is ending next month, our budget will be tight for the next few months. Joy, joy, stress, stress, stress. Really, it's doable but we'll need to be frugal - something we're really, really bad at doing.

We went to see two movies: Coraline and Terminator:Salvation. Coraline is really funky and I'll be buying it when it comes out on DVD (see? not frugal!) T:S was very meh. Ok, but nothing spectacular. They did manage to tie in nicely into the first and second movie, but... dunno. I wasn't hanging on the edge of my seat. BTW, when did the movies become so expensive??? Tickets for two adults for a matinee, two medium soft drinks, the smallest popcorn available (which was still bigger than a whole portion of microwave popcorn that I usually share with Katy) and a small ice cream: 30!!! How the hell do teenagers afford that? I mean, shite!

We got our new sofa on Friday. The thing is f'n HUGE! I knew it was big and it knew it would fit, but seeing it in a giant showroom doesn't do it justice when you imagine how it's going to look in your living room. I had to ask the delivery men to put the old couch in the back shed because they said that it wouldn't fit in the office. I think it's partially that they didn't want to be arsed to make it fit through the door, but they have planted the seeds of doubt about getting it in its proposed resting place and that doesn't make me a happy bunny. More to come later when we attempt to pry it in :)

The BenBen was a bit of a handful this weekend. We think his teeth are giving him grief. It's coming up to the right time and he's showing some classic signs of it. He's drooling on everything! And I mean droooooooooling. My clothing gets soggy just looking at him. We're going to go see a dermatology nurse about his eczema. Hopefully it's something he'll grow out of and it's just being aggravated because of the heat at the moment. We'll see what she has to say.

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If I have to check all my assumptions, I'll never get any science done.

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In a show of great skill and talent, I have managed to lose the ability to walk in a straight line and have spectacularly wiped out on a walkway at work and have twisted my ankle in the process. I'm currently sitting with my foot elevated and wrapped in ice. Taking advantage of the fact that I'm a walking pharmacy, I'm felling a lot better after taking ibuprofen, paracetamol and codeine. Still, god damn it, I do not need this shit right now.

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Tolstoy has taken to sleeping in the most random places ever in the past few days. Normally, he's sleeping under the Poang in our bedroom but in the past 3 days, we've seen him:

- on the couch (which he never does)
- under BenBen's cot bed (he's usually *in* it)
- behind the scratching post we just put upstairs (it's always fun when he attacks your feet in the middle of the night when you're not expecting it)

And this morning, we found him sleeping on BenBen's play mat.

Random animal :)

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With the weather being so nice recently, the BBQ has had a good dusting off and has seen more usage in the last week than in the last year :) I think that having it so close to the back patio door will be a good thing. We had Bratwurst, veggie kebabs and steak last Sunday and we had BBQ chicken salad last night. If the weather holds out for tonight, it's going to be burgers :)

Oh, and as a side note, makes a really good BBQ sauce :)

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I'm happy Diversity won, but at the same time, I think that it's a shame and a farce that Stavros Flatley didn't even place!



Quote of the moment: You've got to have some Greek in you somewhere. No one is that cool who isn't a big Greek.

The dance act is quite cool though, so they're going to wow the Queen :)

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I've finally pulled the finger out and gotten some pictures online. You can go browse the galleries on the website and see:

Pictures of the EMBL Staff Association Retreat to Edinburgh: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/edinburgh_may_2009/

A really cool collection of night-time areal pictures of London: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/london_from_above/

Some recently added pictures of Mr BenBen: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/ben/

Of the last gallery, let me give you some teasers :)


  
  

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Salad

* 450g baby new potatoes
* 300g fine French beans
* pitted green olives, sliced in half
* cucumber, cut in slices
* red onion, sliced into rings
* radishes, sliced thinly
* Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
* Classic vinaigrette
* 2 baby gem lettuce, separated into leaves
* 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for frying
* tuna loin steaks, about 100g each
* 2 large eggs

vinaigrette

* 125ml extra virgin olive oil
* Juice of a lemon
* chopped chives

method

1. Boil the potatoes for 10-12 minutes until tender. Drain well then halve. Splash with olive oil and sprinkle with chives and sea salt. Leave to cool. Trim the beans then cook in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and refresh in iced water. Drain well once more and pat dry.

2. Mix the potatoes and beans with the lettuce, radishes, olives, cucumber and onions. Whisk the ingredients for the vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper. Toss the vegetables in some of the vinaigrette.

3. Heat a large non-stick frying pan until you can feel a good heat rising. Add 1 tbsp of the oil then lay in the tuna steaks. Season with sea salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes on each side until they feel slightly springy when pressed. The tuna should still be pink in the middle. Cut each steak in half and place on top of the salad.

4. Place the eggs in to a pan of boiling water and cook for 6 minutes (for a well set white and runny yolk). Plunge the eggs into iced cold water to prevent them from cooking further. Once cooled, roll the egg on the work surface, gently applying pressure so the shell begins to crack, then peel off the shell.

5. Place the eggs on top of the tuna and cut in half, to reveal the soft runny yolk.

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We ordered a beautiful, stained timber four-poster bed from Kubek, a furniture store in Leicester. We'd been lusting after that bed for years and we've always said that when we buy a house, we'll get The Bed. We bought a house. We bought The Bed. It was supposed to be delivered yesterday. The thing is fricken' huge and weighs a ton. It was assembled without hitch (the guy even commented on how smoothly it was going). It is beautiful.

It is the wrong size.

We ordered a king sized bed. They delivered a double. It is not a simple problem of having another bed delivered. They're made to order from Malta. Apparently the guy in Malta (a gentleman called Tony who will shortly receive a bollocking) shipped the wrong bed. When Kubek received their shipment, they checked that all the pieces were there and that it all fit, but they didn't realize that it was the wrong size. It's only when the assembly man tried to fit the mattress slats and they wouldn't fit that something clicked. The bad news is that the next shipment isn't due until July. They'll see if they can get cross-members of the right size shipped sooner, but no promises there. They were falling over themselves to apologize and, in essence, we're still fine to sleep in our old bed in what will be the guest bedroom.

So close, and yet so far.

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