fMRI presentation : (

I would love to slack off for the rest of the long Thanksgiving weekend, but I have a presentation to prepare. Boo! I have to present an fMRI research paper to my fMRI class on Monday, and I believe I'm the first unlucky soul to present. So that's what I'm doing today and tomorrow. I guess it's a good thing I finished all of the Stephenie Meyer books I was reading, because now I can concentrate more on my work (though I am going through intense withdrawal from the books).

I've never presented fMRI work before, and I'm supposed to comment on the methods and their appropriateness. Since I'm not a pro in fMRI methods, hence my taking this course, I'll try to gloss over those details as much as possible. I don't really mind standing up in front of the class and presenting, but this will count as almost all of my course grade, and that does make me nervous.

At least I can have "Frasier" on while I'm working.

Thanksgiving without all the cooking

Nathan and I decided to not do a big cooking kick this year for Thanksgiving. Instead, we went to the way overpriced Andronico's market up the street (or as our friends call it "Astronomico's") and bought some precooked turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. I made scalloped potatoes and stuffing, both from a box and both delicious; and Nathan steamed some carrots. What does all of this food equal? DELICIOUS THANKSGIVING FOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!! Check it.

Nathan's crazy face aside, that's some fine lookin' Thanksgiving food steam!

Yeah, Nathan's excited.

I think I should probably go eat some of that food right now. The talking walnut told me to, that way it's not my bad thing.

Explanation time

I've been preoccupied for the past couple of weeks, hence, no blog posts. Let me explain (by the way, it's all Nathan's fault).

For my birthday, Nathan bought me a new book, "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer. I was hesitant about the book because the author is mormon (yes, yes, I should be more open mided and/or accepting...) and because of it's crappy movie trailer. But Nathan said the book was right up my alley because it is "about a teenage vampire." So I gave it a try. As I began the book, my first impression was, "You can really tell this is a first-time author." It was not very gripping initially, and the chronology of the first person telling was muddled because of the author's stylistic choices. But that rapidly changed into an amazing book (and I don't know if it's my imagination, but the writing got a lot better too). The story is written from the perspective of a teenage girl, and the way it's written you really feel like you could be that girl. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that when the girl experiences an emotion, the reader experiences the emotion. For myself, I could really feel as if I was in the story and not just sitting on my bed reading a book. Oh, by the way, I finished the book in two days (498 pages).

So naturally I wanted to read the rest of the books in the series. Nathan and I walked up and down Shattuck and looked in two or three bookstores, but this being the sh*thole that is Berkeley, they didn't have the second book. Especially irritating is the fact that it took us about 15 minutes just to find a parking spot, but that's life in Berkeley. When we got home I hopped on Amazon, and much to my delight, I found the next three books all on sale. I ordered all three and spent the next few days anxiously awaiting my delivery, which got here last Thursday or Friday. Much to Nathan's chagrin (though it's all his fault, remember), I dove into the second book. And finished it. I dove into the third book. And finished it. I dove into the fourth book. And finished it just last night. So....um.....that's why I haven't posted anything for a long while. I've been reading reading reading, 2,442 pages of reading.

Here are the four beautiful books.

Apparently, I'm not the only on in the family who likes the books.

George does too! Although Fred feels they're "below him"...

...really they're below George (heh heh heh)

Anyway, I loved all of the books. Stephenie Meyer was able to write the characters as growing, but in a satisfying way, so that the reader is just as happy with each subsequent book even though the characters are not exactly the same, but changing. That probably sounds silly or "d'uh!" but I would imagine it's very hard to do. I loved the first book for one reason (and in the attempt to not ruin the reading experience for anyone else, I'm not going to say what that reason is), the second book for a similar reason but also many different reasons, etc. I see my generalities in attempting to hide the plot of the books is making my explanation a bunch of vague gobbledygook, so I'll stop here. Suffice it to say, I loved the books, and I want more!

Check out Stephenie Meyer's website here, did I mention she's from Tempe and does signings at Changing Hands? (I know I didn't, but I am now). Another reason to miss AZ, I'd love to get a signed copy of one of these books.

Also, I saw the movie "Twilight" and it's very "eh". When I first saw the preview (before I knew anything about the books), I thought to myself, "Wow, another crappy vampire movie. Great! Oh look, it's the guy that played Cedric Diggory in 'Harry Potter'." After I finished reading the book, I really wanted to see the movie. It was bad. I knew it would be bad. But it was bad. Neither of the two leads could act. Period. And the vampire special effects left a lot to be desired. I will say, however, that the guy that played Edward looked that part. So whenever he was quiet, he did a decent job, you know, just having a face and being seen. I'll still get it on Netflix when it comes out, but not for itself, for the book.