She had to leave...to Los Angeles...

If you were to attend a Pink Floyd or Who reunion, you would expect the band members to be...well, old.

As I attempted to capture my lost youth on Saturday, I was surprised at the seemingly premature aging of X. I did not expect the band to look like this:

But seriously, my grandfather should not be playing guitar in a punk band.

Jeez, the "after" shots of Exene Cervenka are just terrifying.


Notes on the performance/venue:

Very good overall; aside from their appearance, the band sounded exactly as I remember (leaving Nicole to remark: "I can't understand a thing they're saying unless I plug my ears")...except the lack of an organ took away from the blusie/Doorsie sound of their albums (Ray Manzarek must have better things to do); per Nicole, I had more hair than anybody else in the room (the punks had shaved heads...everyone else was bald); I am too fragile for a real slam pit (hey, I dominate at Violent Femmes concerts).

My google footprint has recently gotten bigger, resulting in a bit of an uptick in traffic. As far as what people are searching for (and what they end up getting), I do not see much of a pattern...with the possible exception of this picture of Uma Thurman.

In other news: Does anyone still use yahoo? I am the number 3 result for "frozurt".

A little chemical naming trivia from the Thingnamer was attached to a recent post. The comments got me thinking about IUPAC which got me thinking about chemicals with unusual names.

My favorite is easily: Fucitol (C6H14O5), an alcohol derived from Fucus vesiculosis, a North Atlantic seaweed. Its optical isomers are also called D-fuc-ol and L-fuc-ol.

SEX the official abbreviation of sodium ethyl xanthate reminds me of my favorite piece of Bond dialogue:


Tanaka: This... is an order for naval stores. 500 kilos of butter, 50 containers of lox. What is lox?
James: Oh, it's an American name for smoked salmon. But it's also the technical name for liquid oxygen. Which makes rocket fuel.

Actually that's not my favorite Bond line. My favorite Bond line (from the same movie) is:

James: Now what's the plan for me?
Tanaka: First, you become a Japanese. Second, you train hard and quickly to become a ninja like us. And third, to give you extra-special cover, you take a wife.

Michael B. Lasko, Quadathlete

7 miles running.
10 miles bicycling (okay it was to lunch and back...on Kilroy...wearing flip-flops).
10 lengths swimming (at the condo, not the Olympic pool at UCI).
3.4 (nautical?) miles sailing...this was the only portion of the quadathlon with competition. I finished in 3rd; I am pretty sure I would have won the beach cruiser race if anyone else had shown up.

It's the interest that kills you...

(Alterative title: "Barack Obama has inpired me too...)

I finally decided to get around to paying off my student loans. Although the rates (and terms) are hard to beat, it seems crazy to continue paying for college after retirement.

I've been paying down pretty aggressively for about a year; today I noticed that the bank does not want another payment until 2011:

Total amount due on 05/20/11 $172.28

PS: That's just one of my loans. I am still very much in debt. If you would like to donate to the "Pay for Michael's College" fund, please click here. Free drug information will be given with each contribution.

Note to self: Do not spend 2 hours talking to "Danny". Do not go to Anteater (Anthill?) Pub with "Danny". Do not spend two hours drinking at Pub with "Danny". Do not accept ride home from "Danny". Do not spend another hour in car talking to "Danny" after he has taken you to an empty parking lot. Do not remain in car with "Danny" after he has unzipped my pants.

Seriously, how do I get off this email list?

More importantly, when did the Anthill Pub reopen?

On Thursday, May 29, 2008, a female UCI student was waiting out in
front of Langson Library late in the afternoon when she was approached
by a young man. He introduced himself as "Danny", a student from
another (unknown) school. Danny and the UCI student talked in front
of Langson Library for two hours. Danny then suggested they visit the
Anteater Pub to eat or drink and they walked over to the Pub at
7:30pm.

While at the Anteater Pub, they continued talking and consumed several
beers each (no food). At 9:30pm, the female student was tired and
told Danny she had to go home; Danny offered her a ride and she
accepted. They walked to Danny's car in Parking Lot #1. Danny's car
is only described as silver in color (no further description). Danny
drove the female student out of Parking Lot #1 and made a hasty turn
into Parking Lot 3-A (adjacent to the Merage School of Business and
across from the Social Science Parking Structure). The parking lot
was empty. The female objected and asked why he had turned into the
empty parking lot; Danny told the victim he wanted to talk some more.

Once parked in Lot 3-A, the student and Danny talked for another hour
or so. Danny then unzipped the victim's jeans and reached in,
touching her pubic area several times; no penetration occurred. The
victim verbally resisted and Danny stopped. Danny then put his hand
into the victim's shirt, grabbing her breasts. Fearing for her
safety, the victim fled the silver car and ran away toward Langson
Library at 11pm. Danny started following the victim on foot for 100
yards, calling to her to stop; Danny returned to in his car and left
the area. The victim made good her escape and arrived at Langson
Library.

The victim was upset over the incident, and did not immediately seek
police assistance. She sat outside Langson Library for two hours
before being spotted by others who notified police at 1am. The victim
provided the below suspect description; she was not injured.

Suspect Description: "Danny", Male Asian, 21 years, short black hair,
brown eyes, 6 ft 1 inch tall, 160 lbs. Last seen wearing a gray
sweatshirt and blue jeans.

Our safety escort service is available by calling 949-824-SAFE. A
uniformed CSO will then meet you and escort you to your destination, a
safe alternative to walking alone at night.

If you have further information on the suspect or are a witness,
please call the UCI Police Department at 949-824-5223.

For the grape lover in your house...

(Alternative title #1: Better than a free parade!!!)
(Alternative title #2: Don't worry, "sigmoidoscopy" is the name of that little hammer they hit your knee with.)

Volunteers Needed for Grape Cancer Prevention Study

Healthy adult volunteers are being sought to participate in a study
that will examine whether a diet supplemented with grapes can help
prevention colon cancer. The study is directed by Dr. Randall
Holcombe and is designed to see whether a component in grapes,
resveratrol, acts to block a key signaling pathway involved in the
development of colon cancer.

Participants will be placed on a monitored diet for 2 weeks which
avoids foods rich in resveratrol. They will then have a limited
flexible sigmoidoscopy to get a biopsy of the lining of the colon.
Then, participants will have their diet supplemented each day with
fresh grapes, between 1/3 of a pound and 1 pound per day for 2 weeks
and have the biopsy procedure repeated.

There will be no cost to participants. Each participant will receive
$100, vouchers from Ralphs to assist in the purchase of grapes, a
digital kitchen scale and cooler bag. This study is approved by the
UCI Institutional Review Board. For more information, please call
study coordinator Micii Martinez at 714-456-7069.


Randall F. Holcombe, MD
Director, Office of Clinical Research and Trials

Worth every penny?

The 15th annual Baoboa [sic] Island Parade is this Sunday June 1st, 11:00a.m. and 2:00 p.m. and is free to all attending.

Has anyone ever paid to go to a parade before? I guess if you want really good seats (or any seat that is not on a couch that you are about to discard), you could pay to see the Rose Parade. [I wanted to post a cool picture of Colorado Blvd the day after the parade--it's a great place to pick up furniture without having to go to the dump, but I can't seem to find any such pictures.]

You people are just mean.

Nico and I have just agreed to not spend any more money. Yesterday, I passed up a $10 off coupon at Beverages and More (because I had to spend $40 to save the $10).

Needless to say, $150 per person is not in the budget to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the (still unfinished???) restored Balboa Theater. I spent many Saturday nights at the Balboa during my high school years (yeah, well it sounded cool when I was 16)...it was the only theater in Southern California (in the late 80s, at least) that did not confiscate typical Rocky Horror paraphernalia at the door. Alas, all those years of throwing rice and hot dogs must have left the theater in a state of disrepair, and the Balboa has been closed for the last 16 years.


Since I've been back in Newport, the theater has looked like this:


I guess they ran out of money, and never got past rebuilding the facade. I should point out that I have little respect for any non-profit organization in Newport Beach that cannot raise a million dollars just by putting up a giant thermometer.


I seem to have gotten off topic somewhere. In summation: Nico and I are no longer spending money. If you invite us out to dinner, be prepared to pay for dinner. Also, I will not be attending the screening of the Rocky Horror Picture show for the following reasons:
1) I don't have $300
2) It's supposed to be shown Saturday at Midnight (I guess that's really Sunday), not Friday at 7PM
3) It is unlikely that they will allow me to bring in anything good to throw

Drug question of the day: What is Derbisol? (As asked by the Mrs.)

I wonder how long it would have taken me to answer that question in the days before google. The delinquents were obviously taking a standardized test. Mrs. Lasko told them: "If you've never heard of it, you probably haven't taken it," to which one replied: "I've taken a lot of stuff I've never heard of." Mrs. Lasko then told them the truth, forever messing up all those illicit drug use statistics you hear all the time.

To keep the Thingnamers interested: Derbisol sounds like a fake drug name to me...but that might be because I know all (well maybe not all, but nearly all) real drug names. The biggest problem with the name is that it sounds nothing like a drug of abuse. The -sol suffix is quite popular among hemorrhoid treatments (Proctosol, Anusol) otic treatments (Vosol, Acetasol), and parenteral nutrition (Travasol, Normosol, Hepatasol).

If you're still reading: here's a cool list of fictitious drug names. When I have more time, I'll go through and determine which ones are well named fake drugs.