A lot of great bands have made great music since Day 1, and continue to produce amazing music as they mature. My personal favorite, Children of Bodom, is a prime example.
Other bands start off sort of rocky, but quickly get their act together and become legends: think Ozzy Osbourne. You might think the first stuff he made is OK, but if you do, you’re wrong.
Yet other bands are one-hit-wonders, making an impression on the world with one single awesome song, that quickly becomes lost amidst the other noise pollution that is their attempt at a decent album.
This week, April 15th-19th 2013, began on the worst notes possible with the bombings at the Boston Marathon, witnessed a horrible explosion in Waco, Texas, and even as I write this the manhunt for the second Boston bombing suspect continues with less and less hope of finding the guy. And let’s not forget about CISPA passing in the House.
For me personally, this Worst Week Ever did have one mostly good day, so I’m classifying the week as a One Hit Wonder. Yesterday had been – right up until the shooting started at MIT – a pretty awesome day. And so from the comfort of my locked-down Cambridge apartment just a mile up the street from Watertown, I’d like to tell you about the mostly good day I had yesterday.
The day started at the allergy clinic, which at first might not seem like an awesome place to be. However, despite my sleeping in and arriving 15 minutes late, the nurse still gave me my allergy shots. In a few months I’ll be able to sniff as many cats, dogs, and molds as I want and not sneeze myself into a fit. Allergy desensitizing shots are awesome!
After that, I went to Ecology Journal Club, which is always one of the highlights of my week. I’m really lucky to be in grad school with such clever, thoughtful people. I always learn something from the reading and the group discussion, plus this week’s paper was about microbial ecology, which is one of my favorite topics. Scientists barely know anything about microbial communities outside of say, sheep rumens. And even that shit is crazy.
It was fun, but I had to duck out early because myself and a small group of graduate students were having lunch with renowned cosmologist and science writer, Lawrence Krauss(!!!). As we were sitting around the table with our food, he saw me pull out my laptop, and noticed I’d written out a list of questions I wanted to ask him. Though him and Radcliffe Facilitator Dude teased me about it, I still got to ask the first question. Being a hyper-organized crazy person pays off sometimes.
His response to my question was really interesting, and the topic deserves a post of its own (TBA). His answer also addressed some of my other questions, so I was more than happy to sit back and listen to other peoples’ questions and Lawrence’s responses. I even made some new friends that are interested in blogging about science policy, so it was all sorts of win.
AND THEN a few hours later, I headed down to Kendall Square because my lab was participating in the Cambridge Science Festival‘s Science by the Pint. My PI introduced herself and us students briefly, and then we each went around and mingled with tables full of science enthusiasts and talked about our research. I was really impressed by peoples’ questions and insight. One table even gave me some new ideas to pursue in my chili research, and another table gave me tasty onion rings and chicken. Everybody wants to be a gangster scientist.
I was still riding that happy high when I biked home around 10 pm, just half an hour before all the shooting started and the rest of the week gave up any sense of decency and sold out worse than Metallica.
Whatever, Worst Week Ever. I’ll cling to the high notes of yesterday and read about plant-fungal evolution while I listen to good Ozzy. Because even if life is really, really shitty for a while, we have to remember it can get better. Life, like even our favorite bands, sometimes forgets itself and puts out a really awful album like this week. Remember life’s good songs, and things will work themselves out eventually.
