Mmmm. The dogs are making much too much noise tonight, so I have placed the bowl that I warmed up my sloppy joe innards in on the kitchen floor. Now, except for the scraping of the bowl against the floor, they are quiet.

I'm home alone for a few hours tonight and I didn't think it would feel good... but it does. It's quiet and dark outside, but not really cold. I'm wearing my "the doctor is in" House t-shirt that Steph got me for Christmas, I believe it was, last year.

I'm going to feel terrible if she got it for me for my birthday.

The organic kids are taking their second exam tonight, and they were pretty nervous. I was kind of exhausted, though, and wound up taking today to run a column to get the fraction of the products from the last reaction that I actually want. Unfortunately, I still have about seven times as much material as can be put on the column, and overloading would be very bad... so I get to run seven more columns. Oh well, it shouldn't take me more than a week. Blah!

Today was a weird kind of day, with lots of visitors and some productivity in between. Adam was in, and he's a bit of a social creature. Ed was there all day, and he ran my TLC plates for me as I column-chromatographed. Kyle came up to talk about Tuesday's gen chem lab, and Bob was also up, I think for lack of anything else to do as his analytical lab was canceled. FX visited as Ed, Adam, and Kyle were all in the lab and it was a bit of a party. I'm starting to feel like I have a research group, which is kind of funny because I don't, not really, but there's a sort of camaraderie.

We graffiti-ed up the glass panels of the unused fume hoods with mechanisms - actually quite apropos - and just were generally pretty pleased with things. I ran David from Setnor to LHS in record time to get him to the show he's playing, and then came home, where I proceeded to eat more carbs than anyone should ever be allowed to eat: two sloppy joes and a generous slice of that "Hershey's special dark" chocolate cake and frosting. Mmmmm, cake from scratch.

And now I'm sitting here and looking at the milk container and thinking that I ought probably to put it away, only I'm moderately comfortable and anyway, the spark of productivity is a dangerous thing.

The other day we (oh, I think it was me, Bob, Donaghy and Katie) were looking at the posters along the wall of the first floor of Baker and we started cracking up about the banana bag. It's very difficult to explain the banana bag, because I'm not altogether sure WHAT it DOES, but it's supposed to be a sleeping bag derivative? It's all yellow and peely. Innovative. Anyway, as we walked away, still laughing uproariously, we ran into Dr. Driscoll... who proceeded to say, "What, ya laughing at the banana bag?"

Yeah, he knows what's up! Haha, hilarious, seriously!

The really excellent news is that Mika has a new single that somehow goes with a new movie...? I'm not really sure how that works, but maybe it will be over the end credits or something. Anyway, when it comes out (May 2, I believe?) I am TOTALLY GOING TO BUY IT.



Here's the deal with Mika. He has not become any more commercial than when he started. His sound has evolved a bit, sure, but he is still lovely and off-beat and just odd.

This song makes me feel sort of empowered. Because, really, it's not a happy song. It's a chip-on-your-shoulder song. It says something about the choice or lack thereof of... anything? And it's just sort of intense. We don't have to conform, which is something that he has always refused to do.

It doesn't hurt that Mika is beautiful. I mean, beautiful. His jawline is to die for (I would die for that jawline. well, maybe not literally). Also, the heartbreaking way he picks himself up off of the ground in that video and the way he just spits out "better" on the end of "we could make it better" - it's so bitter and wrenching and sort of desperate.

We believe we could make it better? We could make it better in a perfect world? I don't know, but there's something about the entire feel of the song. It's all in-your-face and we're-just-fine and then the bit right around 2:25 when he's standing on the roof all cleaned up and confident and suddenly the whole song changes and he's someone else.

He's not letting anyone else define him? Take back your identity!

And then it's full of campy poses but you know what? I don't care because he's just full of energy and life and it's like the song is just bursting out of him because he can't bear to act anymore because he's just himself! And that's something I have always loved about him is that he seems to throw off reserve to just say HERE I AM AND I LOVE WHAT I DO AND I BELIEVE WHAT I SAY and I just hope someday I'm as happy with myself as he seems to be.

The chorus is so bitter, too, especially the way he sort of manages to just slather the phrase "we're not cool" with a ridiculous amount of disdain. WHO NEEDS IT? We're the young, the strong, and the resilient. We don't need you to accept us, because we're free, we're not bound by what you think we are. And our knees are bloody because you shove us down into the grit, but we can run with it because WE ARE BETTER THAN THAT AND WE CAN TURN THE WORLD UPSIDE-DOWN.

I think it might be a matter of self-confidence. Like I believe in myself but not in a STAND ON THE ROOF AND SHOUT IT kind of way. It's just inspiring.

And yes, I know it's just a music video but it sort of says something to me? At least the bits that are Mika and not the lame movie trailer bits. I wish the whole thing was Mika. I liked "Rain" too, for the same reason: it's not a happy song, but any means, but it's a song that says "I'm unhappy and I admit it but it is not going to ruin my life in fact it is going to push me towards being bigger than that BUT FIRST I AM GOING TO PITY PARTY IT UP BB".

Okay maybe not. But still. There's something refreshing about Mika. Something that DJ hates, but something refreshing still.

I think I have a love-hate relationship with Regina Spektor. In some ways she reminds me of Mika because she is off-the-walls, a bit. She has a lovely voice. It's just that sometimes I think that some of her songs - not all of them, mind you, I love several - are cryptic just for the sake of cultivating the pseudo-intellectualism of many of her fans. And I'm all for pseudo-intellectualism, believe you me, but there's a juxtaposition between Regina's riddles and Mika's candor (is that the word I want? I'm looking for the "candid" noun) that throws everything into sharp relief.

I'M IN A MIKA MOOD.

I have way too much homework for this. Oh, what the heck, we'll give it one more go.