Happy weekend!

I hope you have fun plans, because mine include laundry, cleaning the apartment, and figuring out what to write in my Teaching and Research Statements for my Academic Job Market Applications ( f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g o-u-t!). Oh, and there is also Italian homework, of course :-).

Luckily, the weather forecast for this weekend is basically:

Otherwise, I would go nuts!

--- These bar codes are rad ! #mademesmile

Buon weekend a tutti!

Latex - Fixing wrong figure numbers

I didn't think I would write this kind of posts so early in my blog life, but if you happen to be a LateX user, you might thank me some day. 


I just added a couple of figures to a document within the subfigure environment (i.e. I wanted the graphs to be within the same figure, and next to each other). Curiously enough, even though it was compiling correctly, the numbers of the subfigures were right, but the number of the main figure wasn't. Under the figures it said Figure 1, but when I made a reference to it in the text it would say Figure 5 (!!!!). Luckily there is Google. And people that write about it. So here is what you should ALWAYS do:

put \caption first, \label second. 

I am borrowing the guy's nice code illustration just for you:

\begin{figure}[htp]
 	\centering
 		\includegraphics{image.eps}
 	\caption{Some Image}
 	\label{fig:some-image}
\end{figure}

I did, and all my referencing problems were solved. 5 min! I even decided to write this post. Hope it will be helpful for someone else one day as well.

mamá - :-)

Ayer estaba en el baby shower de una amiga y platicando de mi viaje a México, salió a la conversación el tema de las puntadas que luego tienen las mamás (análogas a las que hacemos de los niños chiquitos). Juré que yo iba siempre a recordar al menos el par que me habían hecho reir tanto, pero oh sorpresa, no pude :(. Así que aunque sean con mucho menos frecuencia, pero para queden en la posteridad, aquí van las ocurrencias de mi madre:

Mi mamá y yo en el Palacio (tienda departamental).,Le enseño una blusa con estampado de tigre. Dice mamá: "Ah! Es que está de moda la ropa de Animal Planet!" :D

Mi mamá aprendiendo a usar el iPad de papá: "¿qué puedo hacer con mi cuenta de tuni toons?"

Cuando mi abuela tenía demencia senil más allá que galopante, tuvo varias ocurrencias muy buenas (ya ven que dicen qeu cuando eres viejito te vuelves como niño chiquito), pero yo era una adolescente que no prestaba mucha atención a eso y no me acuerdo... Prometo buscarlas y ponerlas por aquí... algún día de estos :-).

 

Painting brush for iPad

I stumbled upon a new Kickstarter  project that looks super cool... take a look:


This is like taking the stylus idea for the iPad to an artistic level. I am always marveled by all the engineering that must be behind these creative ideas... and I am always a bit saddened when all this is developed only for iPad and iPhone (Android developers, please catch up before I end up falling into the Apple trap!!)

Have a nice weekend, everybody :-).

The amazing lyrebird can mimic anything

The amazing lyrebird can mimic anything:

I knew the male lyrebird is an amazing mimic (other birds, camera shutters, car alarms, chainsaws):

but I didn't know he could sing the Seinfeld theme song:

Seriously though, that chainsaw noise is amazing. (via ★aaroncohen)

via kottke... awesome!!

Extreme schooling

Extreme schooling:
A NY Times foreign correspondent formerly stationed in Russia tells the story of placing his three kids into an unusual school in Moscow where all the instruction is done in Russian.

My three children once were among the coddled offspring of Park Slope, Brooklyn. But when I became a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, my wife and I decided that we wanted to immerse them in life abroad. No international schools where the instruction is in English. Ours would go to a local one, with real Russians. When we told friends in Brooklyn of our plans, they tended to say things like, Wow, you're so brave. But we knew what they were really thinking: What are you, crazy? It was bad enough that we were abandoning beloved Park Slope, with its brownstones and organic coffee bars, for a country still often seen in the American imagination as callous and forbidding. To throw our kids into a Russian school -- that seemed like child abuse.

Kottke recommends watching the video, but for some reason chrome is not loading it (bummer!). I strongly recommend the full article. It is extremely well written.

It makes me wonder.... would you ever consider doing this with your kids after reading this article? I certainly would, but I am not sure I would be able to be the right support for my kids or I could stand seeing them suffer so much. The reward seems invaluable, though.

A.A. - bailando en la oscuridad

Bañándonos cierra mi chiquita los ojos y se pone a bailar y me pregunta: Mamá, ¿cómo me veo bailando en la oscuridad?

Mi respuesta a esta puntada: ¡por fin algo de acuerdo a su edad! Qué ternura de chamaca... :-) 

Kitchen: Chop, flip, chop

I often wish I could use my cutting board on both sides without having to rinse/wash it. You don't want to make your counters super dirty by just flipping the board. Look what I just stumbled upon in The Spoon Sisters:

Such an easy, practical idea. I would add this to my list of good ontwerpen (in short, it's dutch for well engineered design*), and maybe to my wishlist :-). They also have plenty of stuff that serve as excellent ideas for gifts.




* It turns out there are 2 words for design in Dutch: vormgeving and ontwerpen. The former refers to fashionable, but not really needed design; the second one refers to design that has some added value to society because of how well engineered it is. Read this on swissmiss, my new addition to my design n style list of blogs to browse.

A.A. - Cine

Hoy llevé a mi hija al cine por primera vez... Fuimos a ver Río... Se comió sus palomitas y su refresco, se reía cuando todos nos reíamos y hasta se puso triste en la parte triste de la peli... Y al salir me dice: Mamita vamo al cine otrra vez?

Update: esta frase es como de mediados de Abril de este año

Y pensar que yo rara vez voy al cine estos días... Mucho tiene que ver que si voy a salir, tengo ganas de ver más cosas. Aunque me gustan mucho las películas, siento que la ciudad tiene tanto qué ofrecer fuera del cine, que para qué meterme a un cuarto oscuro a ver una peli (y pagando mucho en el proceso). Obviamente eso no quiere decir que nunca vaya al cine o que no me guste; es sólo que en este momento no se me antoja tanto.

El punto es (y siempre es cuando pongo posts de mi sobrina) que me encanta ver cómo descubren el mundo los niños. Hoy estaba leyendo que en los paises escandinavos la gente saca a sus hijos chiquitos todos los días a jugar al parque o a dar una vuelta llueve, truene o relampaguee... y bueno, en el caso de estos lugares, neve. Ya lo había leído antes, pero ahora me pregunto cómo serán las primeras reacciones de los niños ante tanto cambio en el ambiente. ¡Qué estimulante debe ser!

Re-engineering human cells to attack cancer

I've been pretty lazy on catching up with kottke and more deep-content-blogs lately... but today I decided to give a try just to find this crazy piece of news:

This crazy-experimental therapy uses a modified HIV virus to attack cancer cells in humans. Only three people have tried this therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia; two are in complete remission and one showed improvement.

Doctors removed a billion of his T-cells -- a type of white blood cell that fights viruses and tumors -- and gave them new genes that would program the cells to attack his cancer. Then the altered cells were dripped back into Mr. Ludwig's veins.

At first, nothing happened. But after 10 days, hell broke loose in his hospital room. He began shaking with chills. His temperature shot up. His blood pressure shot down. He became so ill that doctors moved him into intensive care and warned that he might die. His family gathered at the hospital, fearing the worst.

A few weeks later, the fevers were gone. And so was the leukemia.

There was no trace of it anywhere -- no leukemic cells in his blood or bone marrow, no more bulging lymph nodes on his CT scan. His doctors calculated that the treatment had killed off two pounds of cancer cells.

A year later, Mr. Ludwig is still in complete remission. Before, there were days when he could barely get out of bed; now, he plays golf and does yard work.

---

I still can't believe it... can it be? really? How should doctors measure the risks of this treatment? How to measure if the body can actually tolerate such a bloody battle against cancer? This is truly mind blowing... 

(via kottke) 

A.A. - en defensa de los homeless

Le digo a mi chiquita: Hija te paso un papelito para que te suenes? Ella contesta: NOOOOO!!!! (un tanto indignada) A lo que respondo: A poco quieres que todos los mocos se queden ahí adentro???? Hay que sacarlos! Ella me contesta con una lógica irreprochable: Mamá, es su casita!!!!!!! 
Plop!

¡nótese el valor que le da al calor y sustento proveen una casa! que se aplique a los mocos es otro detalle :-)

A.A. - confidencias

Confidencias de mi hija en el baño:Mami, hoy jugué con Marthelo a que me perseguía... Aaayyy taan lindo! Y yo lo quería cariñar y el no queriba...

Me late que mi sobrina le va a sacar canas verdes a su madre cuando crezca... ;-)

Design pots

I often wonder why people would buy expensive tools for the kitchen that presumably have good design, but to me look just normal... Today's find in Remodelista made me think differently. These pots are very pretty looking, which would make me be confident enough to serve dishes with the pot directly to the table to guests; they are stackable; AND the  lids not can be put upside down without them spinning around, but can also be used as serving trivets. Isn't this genius? I like well designed things in general, but I swoon for functional beautiful design.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, they are stove-top and oven safe. I am already dreaming of the steamer insert... Oh well, another thing to add to my "I will buy it in a year or two"-wishlist :-).

Happy long weekend!

I am shamelessly copying swissmiss on this one and wishing you a happy weekend with this lovely cow*.

* which of course I added to my amazon wishlist... It is more for when I have a house from which I know I won't have to move within the next one or two years. Hopefully soon!!

Chipotle

They won my heart with this add!

(via swissmiss)

Ezquizofrenia y Corazón Exquisito, por Bruno Langle

Después de estar publicando las anécdotas de mi sobrina A.A. (que cada vez me parecen más sorprendentes y profundas, más que graciosas), pensé que también podía poner aquí el par de cuentos que escribió mi primo, Bruno (publicados oficialmente en este blog). Mi primo tiene una creatividad envidiable, que corre en contados miembros de la familia (como mi hermana :)) y una diposición para hacer proyectos personales que me motiva.

Keep it up, Bru!!

Ezquizofrenia (Bruno Langle):

Hice un drama de esos que hasta rojo te ponen. Aventé un plato y grite hasta quedarme afónico. Me tiré al piso y pataleé. Lloré y reí locamente por segundos que parecían horas. Embarré la miel en la pared y luego en mi cuerpo. Mi respiración era mas agitada que la de un fumador jugando a ser Rocky. Huí a la calle y me senté en un columpio. Me columpié mas alto que nunca y luego paré. Camine de regreso a mi casa y me senté en la misma silla de antes. Vi la gran mancha amarilla en la pared y aventé un plato mas. Que bueno que no soy tan débil como para asesinar.

Corazón Exquisito (Bruno Langle):

¿Que si estoy dispuesto a matar por amor o ,en todo caso,a amar hasta morir? Verás, yo soy un chico sencillo, con pocas pretensiones , no me interesa nada mas que escuchar el sonido de la cafetera expulsando agua hirviendo a las seis de la mañana. Quizás y por vivir así es que a nadie le he importado lo suficiente como para que me preguntara algo a lo que se requiera una respuesta sincera. Hoy, te puedo decir que el único amor significante que he tenido no ha muerto. Anhelo por el día que su corazón pare y su sangre deje de circular, porque será entonces cuando vuelva a sentir.Cuando vuelva a sentir sus suspiros y caricias, cuando regrese su áspera voz a mis oídos y cuando retornen mis pensamientos mas sucios también. Será entonces , y sólo entonces ,cuando podré considerar el ignorar tu pregunta, o empezar a preocuparme por la horrible decisión que tomé.