I’ve been wondering about protein structure vs. nucleotide sequences for awhile; specifically, if it would be possible to determine nucleotide sequence to the T (yes, that is a terrible biology pun) from a protein’s specific structure, and vice versa. That is to say, could you take a protein and say “here’s the gene coding that creates this protein”.

This would, I feel, be rather an incredible tool for protein synthesis. If you could find a system with consistent rules (even if there were volumes of them), you could eventually set up a process where you could extrapolate the nucleotide sequence from the structure – ANY structure – of a protein. This would allow you to design your protein’s structure specifically for a purpose and create the sequence without issue, allowing you to make your RNA, from which point you could do many things.

Allowing for custom proteins would be, I would imagine, a rather useful process.

…Yeah, this is the kind of thing that I think about in my spare time. Don’t hate.

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Edit: Apparently this is part of the focus of a field called “Proteomics”.

Completely unbidden, often pretty unnecessary, and oh so unwanted.

I don’t know about you, but I do.

I won’t say it’s always a bad thing. Some of the best things in my life found their way upon me in exactly this fashion; crept up on me with soft feet, and hooked in before I had a say in the matter, but nonetheless would almost rather not. I mean, hell, when have I ever known what’s good for me, or what I really wanted? It’s such a fickle thing.

But it can be so frustrating. So… distracting. You think you’re in control, and you realize soon that even when you thought you were you barely had a grip on the wheel.

And you don’t really know what to do about it. And maybe it doesn’t really matter. Perhaps when it decides to slip away, you won’t know it’s gone until you reach for that feeling and can’t find it. You don’t know. I certainly don’t.

My free form prose tends to be… Incoherent. Writing’s what a blog’s for, though, so I might as well bloody use it. Never pass up a cathartic process when it’s easily available and costs nothing.

I’m posting this around campus. We should have a chance to celebrate every now and then, huh?

It seemed to be a considerably-better structured episode than the first, and now I’m actually excited to watch Dollhouse next weekend, whereas this friday I wasn’t, due to the lackluster first episode.

I do still wonder if people will become more attracted to the lesser characters than the show’s main character, but it remains to be seen how exactly Echo shapes up as a person. While I can’t imagine all – or even most – of her personality traits becoming static at most points during the show, I can see some of them becoming recurrent.

Lookin’ forward to how this series plays out – and hoping fox doesn’t cancel it before it’s been given its rightful chance to shine.

As a strang ending note, the Dollhouse reminds me of Wolfram and Hart for some reason.

There was nothing wrong with the acting, which as far as I’m concerned was great on all parts. The dialogue was unusually lacking of the snap that usually accompanies a Joss creation, and I didn’t feel hugely hooked to the series after the first episode, as I have with some series (such as Lost, which had an impressive pilot). There were a couple of lines in there that made me laugh well enough, though.

I do wonder if viewers won’t become more attached to the non-Doll characters, as their personalities are static while the Dolls’ are wiped and replaced consistently. Assumably, this’ll change, but what to degree I’m not sure.

I’ll certainly be watching it every friday regardless to see how it shapes up, but it wasn’t as good as I was expecting it to be. Then again, over-hyping generally has that effect. Hell, I’ll probably be hooked soon enough.

Danny Elfman still did the “Opening” and “Closing” for the movie, and they’re still good. More echo-y and dramatic than the original, but still relatively unchanged.

The Polyphonic Spree’s rendition of the “Town Meeting Song” makes me think of a strange mix of Pink Floyd and something else that I can’t quite place, while Rjd2′s “Christmas Eve Montage” has a fantastic beat and sound.

“Nabbed” by the Yoshida Brother’s is a curious take on the original, whirled with a new oriental sound to accompany it, which actually sounds quite cool, though there’s almost a hint of elevator music in parts. Amy Lee’s “Sally’s Song” reminds me a great deal of the cover of the same song by Fiona Apple, but in my opinion, it does sound nicer.

“This is Halloween” by Marilyn Manson appeared on the special edition release of the Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack before it appeared in Nightmare Revisited, but it still sounds good and finds a good home with the other artists. The sound of the song is very distinctly his, I think you’d have trouble mistaking it for anyone else if you’ve listened to any of his music.

Rise Against did a great version of “Making Christmas”, it makes me smile. Love the lyrics of that song, and I do rather like the sound that accompanies them in this cover.

“To the Rescue”, covered by Datarock, sounds very shiny. Does sound a bit like it sounds on a video game soundtrack, though. Regardless, fun to listen to. Does still feel like a boss battle should accompany it.

Korn’s “Kidnap the Sandy Claws” is, in my opinion, slightly inferior to the cover done by She Wants Revenge it terms of overall sound, but I do like that Korn actually make a distinction between the voices of Lock, Shock, and Barrell, and I think that adds something to the song, as SWR never did that, which kinda made me kinda understand WHY she wanted revenge. It’s gritty, but it’s good. Also, when they’re singing “beat him with a stick”, I can’t help but smile. It sounds funny.

“Poor Jack” by the Plain White T’s sounds alright; certainly not the highlight of the album, but it’s still decent, and definitely listenable. His voice is fairly reminiscent of the original Jack’s, as well, which is kinda nice, though it can’t reach the higher peaks that the original did.

I’m bummed there’s no lyrics for “Oogie Boogie’s Song” by Rodrigo y Gabriela except for a few garbled words towards the middle-end, but as an instrumental piece it has a nice sound to it. There was, however, as an iTunes bonus track, another version by Tiger Army, which I prefer to roddy ‘n gabby’s by a great deal, and in fact, I think it’s one of the best songs on the album, but my prior attachment to the song may have something to do with that as well.

Not too much to write home about for “Doctor Finklestein/In the Forest” by Amiina. Kinda indifferent about it.

“Finale/Reprise” by Shiny Toy Guns is, in my opinion, one of the highlights of this album. I’ve never heard any of their previous stuff, but after listening to this I may have to look into them. It sounds quite shiny.

The “End Title” by The Album Leaf sounds pretty. It’s got that heartbeat-y sound that is reminiscent of some of their songs, which I find is a nice lead in, and the rest of the instrumental is very nice. I’m usually a more lyric-preferential listener when it comes to my music, but this is quite a nice sounding song.

Flyleaf’s “What’s This” is a different take on the song, and initially I wasn’t terribly receptive to it. But after listening a few more times, I like it. It’s better than Fallout Boy’s rendition on a prior album, at the very least.

Not really partial to DeVotchKa’s “Overture”.

The All-American Reject’s “Jack’s Lament” is surprisingly good. It’s nice to listen to, and they do a couple of quirky things to accompany some of the lyrics, and it sounds quite nice.

Vitamin String Quartet’s “Jack and Sally Montage” isn’t bad. It’s not fantastic, but it’s fairly decent. A good listen every now and again’s appropriate.

And lastly, Sparklehorse’s “Jack’s Obsession”. Did not like it.

Despite some of the song’s shortcomings, it has some very definite high points and is altogether a pretty great album, and again, especially if you were a fan of the movie to begin with. Hope if you haven’t heard of this album, this post moves you to take a small interest in it, at least.

Though it has its flaws, as all things do, I nonetheless enjoyed Repo! as a movie and as a musical piece, and will undoubtedly watch it every now and again. I confess that lyrics are still stuck in my head, and friends and I have a tendency to break out in song to the tune of Zydrate Anatomy, sometimes to hilarious results.

I highly recommend seeing Repo! if you enjoyed Rocky Horror Picture Show, as it’s the best thing I can liken it to.

In case you’re curious and want to use it, you should know that you need the file to be a .vft/.vmt. An easy way to achieve this is to take .png and run it through http://sprayr.scumhunter.net/

When you get the program, you’ll want to select the file and select your steam account. Don’t worry if Left 4 Dead isn’t under the games option, just choose a random game. Press the create button and it’ll give you a little notice that it worked. Go to your Steam folder in Program Files, go under SteamApps > your username, and into the folder of the game you chose. There should be a folder called materials if you look around a little, and then a folder inside that called vgui, then one called logos. Inside that folder should be the .vmt and .vft files for the spray. Go back into SteamApps and go under common, into lef4dead and then left4dead again. Should be another materials folder. Just toss the files into the same materials > vgui > logos folder, and you’ll be good to go when you upload the spray in the multiplayer options after you boot up left 4 dead.

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance

Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance, by Atul Gawande, was one of the better books that I’ve read as of late. Better is a nonfiction book about the some of the mishaps and pitfalls of medicine, its failings and successes and what can be done to try to lead it on the right direction. Moreover, many of the lessons it teaches are applicable to the average person’s life; by no means do you need any medical or even biological background to read an enjoy this book. Things like the power of simple ingenuity and hard working, of striving to help, of holding oneself accountable and even washing your hands, this particular book is full of things to be gleaned that you can think about and mull over and perhaps even try to apply to your own life. Of course, by the same token, as it is indeed a book on medicine, much of the material is applicable much more to medicine and is about it.

Some of the topics and accounts covered in the book are the polio immunization campagins that are launched consistently when outbreaks occur, about malpractice, about doctor’s roles in the death sentence, and about always fighting for their patients and knowing when to realize the times when there are things that you just can’t help.

Atul’s particular style of recounting his experiences usually involves interspersing pieces of his experience with a patient with other relevant information, each in alternating chunks of a chapter. His prose is fluid and he writes with what I felt to be a kind tone, which is always pleasant.

Very much a fascinating read. I recommend it to anyone with at least a passing interest in medicine, and to others should they find themselves hooked by any information they find on the book.