Oh yeah, and we’re hiring at the Herald. It’s pretty exciting for me because Jason and I have been talking a lot lately about expanding our online content offerings. New media and all that. To drive this change at the Herald, we’re diving into video production and other online excitement. We’ll have two online content editors who oversee videotaping and interviewing each day, and who will also either edit or oversee editing of the footage to produce daily videos for badgerherald.com. I’m hoping to also find people who know how to use Flash so we can produce great graphical gadgets such as an electoral map during an election, etc.
To get the word out, tonight I sent this in an all campus e-mail to more than 38,000 students:

Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
The Badger Herald is hiring
We’ll see how it goes!
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Calculus assignment, Homework 10, Part 1
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | ||
| 8:30am | ||||||
| PHYSICS 208 LEC 1 8:50am-9:40am CHAMBERLIN 2103 | PHYSICS 208 DIS 608 8:50am-9:40am CHAMBERLIN 2112 | PHYSICS 208 LEC 1 8:50am-9:40am CHAMBERLIN 2103 | PHYSICS 208 DIS 608 8:50am-9:40am CHAMBERLIN 2112 | PHYSICS 208 LEC 1 8:50am-9:40am CHAMBERLIN 2103 | ||
| 9:00am | ||||||
| 9:30am | ||||||
| BIOCHEM 508 LEC 1 9:55am-10:45am PSYCHOLOGY 105 | ECON 102 LEC 1 9:55am-10:45am BASCOM 165 | BIOCHEM 508 LEC 1 9:55am-10:45am PSYCHOLOGY 105 | ECON 102 LEC 1 9:55am-10:45am BASCOM 165 | BIOCHEM 508 LEC 1 9:55am-10:45am PSYCHOLOGY 105 | ||
| 10:00am | ||||||
| 10:30am | ||||||
| 11:00am | MATH 222 DIS 345 11:00am-11:50am VAN VLECK B219 | MATH 222 LEC 3 11:00am-12:15pm VAN VLECK B102 | MATH 222 DIS 345 11:00am-11:50am VAN VLECK B219 | MATH 222 LEC 3 11:00am-12:15pm VAN VLECK B102 | ||
| 11:30am | ||||||
| 12:00pm | ||||||
| ECON 102 DIS 309 12:05pm-12:55pm SOC SCI 5322 | ||||||
| 12:30pm | ||||||
| 1:00pm | ||||||
| 1:30pm | ||||||
| 2:00pm | ||||||
| 2:30pm | ||||||
| 3:00pm | ||||||
| 3:30pm | ||||||
| 4:00pm | ||||||
| 4:30pm | ||||||
| 5:00pm | ||||||
| 5:30pm | ||||||
| 6:00pm | ||||||
| 6:30pm | ||||||
| 7:00pm | ||||||
| PHYSICS 208 LAB 308 7:05pm-10:00pm CHAMBERLIN 3254 | ||||||
| 7:30pm | ||||||
| 8:00pm | ||||||
| 8:30pm | ||||||
| 9:00pm | ||||||
| 9:30pm | ||||||
| Class | Name | Credits |
| BIOCHEM 508 | General Biochemistry II | 3.0 |
| ECON 102 | Principles-Macroeconomics | 3.0 |
| MATH 222 | Calculus&Analytic Geometry | 5.0 |
| PHYSICS 208 | General Physics | 5.0 |
| BIOCHEM 699 | Independent Research | 2.0 |
| Total Credits: | 18.0 | |
I got up at 7 to vote, and arrived at the polls around 7:10 a.m. to find a line down the block and around the corner. It took 70 minutes of waiting before I could cast my ballot, but when I left, the line was only half the length. Several friends reported much quicker experiences at other times of the day. Note to self: Vote absentee or procrastinate, but don't be an early bird on election day.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
The line at the No. 1 Firehouse on Dayton Street
Then after 10 p.m. the Herald started getting reports from staffers of random cheering up and down State Street. This eventually cascaded (in the biochemical sense) into a crowd of probably more than 3,000. You can read more about the night's festivities in the Badger Herald article "Thousands celebrate outcome, filling Madison streets."
Here is a mixture of OK and terrible photos I took, but hopefully you can at least get a sense of the excitement and energy of Madison tonight.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
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I also can't wait till Tuesday. I'm finding all the pre-election drama incredibly nerve-racking, and I'm also thinking more and more about how I will run for Senate someday. I'm thinking that will come after my ascent to surgeon general, assistant health secretary and finally to health secretary. Though I will also be 60 by then, so maybe that's not such a good plan.
]]>I use a small PHP script to produce the images in my posts, which requires I include the function definition in every file served. I used to append it to all files via an .htaccess script, but now I just put it in the blog template. Anyway, in order to get images to display in the feeds instead of my PHP code, I send xml files through the PHP parser, but then the first line (<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>) gets parsed, so I needed to replace that with <?="<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"iso-8859-1\"?>"; ?>. Then everything works fine.
But there's good news! I nearly finished implementing the template I designed a year ago for this blog. If you see a daisy in the masthead, you're looking at it. I still have to do the monthly and category archive pages, but all the entries and the homepage are updated. I also need to fix a lot of the style sheet, but that's to be expected with any haphazardly redone website.
So, today. Just a quick update on life:
I went with the BRIDGE program and my partner Da to Milwaukee to tour the Harley-Davidson Museum and the Jelly Belly warehouse.
The museum was fairly interesting, though my dad would have definitely gotten more out of it. I was surprised by the extensive motorcycle culture that apparently was much more widespread earlier in the 20th century. I also had no idea Harley-Davidson produced so many (88,000?) motorcycles for the U.S. military.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Me on a Harley-Davidson
As for school, I'm about 200 or so pages behind in biochemistry and about 100 pages behind in physics. I need to go way back and review in calculus, or at least work more problems. I'm nowhere near as proficient as I need to be. Top priority right now is biochemistry, though, because I have an exam Wednesday! The same day my physics homework is due and the same day I have a quiz in calculus. Ugh!
I'm listening to Feist's album Let It Die since I just finished Monarch. It's OK.
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Thank you for contacting Charter Communications. My name is Natalie. How may I
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charlie gorichanaz: Hi, i need to turn on my service, and remove the $50
installation charge since I am installing myself
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Do you currently have any Charter services?
charlie gorichanaz: no, i am trying to order internet only
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You would not be eligible for self install. You do have to be an existing
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CVH Natalie :
Also, if Internet was going to be your only service it would be $29.99 monthly
because there is a $10.00 access fee for it being your only service.
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cable modem and everything is ready to go.
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It would still be a new service through us and you wouldn't be eligible for
self install and it would be the $29.99 monthly.
charlie gorichanaz: Everyone else in this building gets internet for the price
I quoted
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It would be the $29.99 monthly.
charlie gorichanaz: So kindly allow me to pay the price considering I am
paying for cable
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You do not pay Charter directly, so it would be like setting up all new
service.
charlie gorichanaz: Or let me talk to a manager
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May I please have your complete street address including city and zip code. I'm
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charlie gorichanaz: I want to activate new 5mbps internet service for $19.99
with self install. Are you able to do that for me?
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It does depend on how your address is listed in our billing system. If you have
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charlie gorichanaz: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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CVW Jerushah :
I understand. It will be just a few more minutes.
CVW Jerushah : Thank you for your patience.
I do show that your apartment building does cover your cable costs however I
show that there is not an account in your name. In order for me to set this up,
there needs to be an account set up for you which will need to be done through
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Once that is set up, we can definitely get this Internet set up for you for
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rate of someone who already pays for cable, which I do.
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charlie gorichanaz: Can you transfer me to a manager?
CVW Jerushah :
Unfortunately, our Advocate Queue which deals with escalations is closed for
the evening. They close at 11pm cst
I haven't really talked about my new job yet. I've been hoping to find a lab job for quite a long time, though I really only applied for a few. First it was the cold study sample processing position, but I of course was in Mexico when they needed to interview me. Then I applied for a couple of random positions I found on UW Job Center. No reply on either. Sometimes I think these people in charge of hiring aren't very organized and/or nice. When I was hiring for the Herald, not only did I contact everyone who applied and didn't get the position, but I called them and explained exactly why I decided how I did. Oh well, not everyone can be that awesome...
So anyway, in late April or early May, I asked Eric to find out if there were any jobs in the Biochemistry Addition building. I was ready to take just about any lab job, understanding I'd almost certainly be a lowly paid lab assistant doing menial tasks and nothing more. Most such jobs involve a substantial amount of dish washing, and I really didn't want to do that. Hence the preference for the Biochemistry Addition building. They have a dish washing facility, so labs don't have to wash their own dishes.
Eric brought me a list of labs losing undergraduates soon, as well as contact information for a lab hiring for someone to work with mice. That intrigued me, so I looked on UW Job Center to see if the position was listed, and to my dismay, it had been for two weeks. That told me I'd surely not get the job and it was probably filled. Just in case, I e-mailed the lab manager, Wendy, about the position, and then I heard back from a different woman the same day. We exchanged a bunch of messages and she seemed interested, but then there was almost a week gap after she told me she'd write back with a time for an interview. Then she said the position was filled. And I was back at Square 1.
It was exam week, and I wasn't worrying about the job thing for a while... but then I got a message from Wendy saying I should come in for an interview. I was confused, but didn't hesitate to accept the invitation. I went for the interview Friday morning, and after more than an hour, I left with instructions to e-mail Carol, the woman under whom I'd be working, with my honest thoughts and concerns.
Before I made it home to help Yufei move some of his stuff to my apartment for the summer, Wendy called me asking why I'd left without talking to her. I said she was occupied and I didn't want to interrupt. Wendy told me they want to hire me. Confused again, I returned to do paperwork. Yay!
Wendy instructed me about the five training courses I need to do for various certifications from mouse techniques to working with radioactive materials. I went home for the weekend and returned by Monday to begin working. It went great, and has been ever since.
I should also mention the research involves testing the effect of vitamin D and a D analog on diabetic mice in Hector DeLuca's lab.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Matt holding the mysterious tailless mouse
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Matt preparing a gel for electrophoresis
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Me
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
We just fed them after they had no food!
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Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Eric in the Kiessling lab's tissue culture room feeding his human embryonic stem cells
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Preparing to make 16 liters of mouse diet
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Old food + 2 days = mold
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Mice that have diabetes pee a lot
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Babies!
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Something went wrong here... the mom didn't feed the babies and instead partially ate them.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
More bad news: Two litters in one cage, and the new litter can't get enough milk. A couple of the pups are already dead, and their skin looks pale.

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Eric and me
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Josh and Emily getting intense
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Matt and Jessica, cuties
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Eric is silly
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
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Aw
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
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I love this photo of Kevin and Anthony
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Justin V being Japanese
Several things about this photo: The man with the hand on Ryan's rear is quite a bit older than Ryan, not that that's wrong or anything... but Septimiu (Septi) Teodorescu, the shirtless guy, might be one to look out for. He's known to punch guys in the face based on hearsay. He's also engaged in conversation with a seemingly nervous underager.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Septimiu (Septi) Teodorescu
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Tim, editor at large of The New York Times
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Tim, on the floor
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Allie studying at College Library
I'm not sure if I've written about Ben yet. He's great though. Very different from me, but we get along very well, and I hope to see him a lot more.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
My new friend Ben
My second and last semester of Russian, for now.

Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Russian 102
Justin has a black and white party for his birthday. I forgot, woke up late, and then rushed there in bright yellow. Nice.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Yana is amazing
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Justin is amazing too
See the champagne party entry for more pictures.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Preparations for the champagne party paid off
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Anthony stole my track jacket
This is from the fire fighting efforts of a nearby fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Flooding from fire fighting efforts
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Sis and her baby
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
The tailless mouse
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Food I made for Eric and me
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Ice cream I prepared for Eric
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Matt loading a gel with tape still on it?
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Juli doing...something
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Gina and Jamie working out their issues
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Matt again
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
A side view from the terrace
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Tim in all his glory
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Tim, preparing to climb
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Tim, preparing to give up
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Back when there were three degus
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Eric!
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Tim and his dinner
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Tim and the Brat Fest sign in all their glory
Random side note: If you've always wanted to blast your family or any of your financial worries into outer space, check out Let Your Worries Go!
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Golf carts to transport brat-eaters to their vehicles?
So how much do these brats cost? Not that much. But there's a conspiracy here. For $1.50, you can purchase one brat and one bun. For $3.00, you can purchase two brats and... one bun. Scandal!
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
In case you're doubting the amazingness of this whole extravaganza, this sign is here to assure you your doubt is for naught:
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Someone seriously got engaged at brat fest?!
It's kind of cute how the portable bathrooms are arranged to form a little circle, but what happens when 50 people are trying to wait in line in front of each one? Poor planning, I say!
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
OK, I'm going to stop writing cheesy preludes and just let you see the pictures.
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Pedro
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Pedro and Ashley
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
So many brat lines! Well, theoretically there would be if more people were getting brats...
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Katie, Ashley and Tim and their brats
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
One of two stages
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
I wish I came when more brats were grilling
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
A semi grill... wow
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
An artist, at heart
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
A bit overpriced at $5, but still good. Yay funnel cake
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
It's not a terrible picture, Katie. :-)
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Silly Brazilian
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Silly white girls
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
A poor Brazilian scared and lost deep in Wisconsin
This was wonderfully entertaining. I loved all the happy Wisconsin people dancing to fun party songs, none of which I can recall now. Tim was quite impressive. I should have made a video! Ugh!
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Yes, he has a whistle.
And the night culminated in a thunder storm. Awesome!
Copyright Charlie Gorichanaz
Katie and Tim