In case you were wondering, the New Yorker just replied to my submission of Open Doors:
We regret that we are unable to use the enclosed material. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider it.-The Editors
Also see: “You suck”.
I just wanted to give you a little first-hand taste of the killing fields that is the literary publishing world. 
Ah, well. Stat rosa pristina nomine.
After spending a whole day in the lab, on Saturday I dared the unthinkable: I SUBMITTED A SHORT STORY TO THE NEW YORKER! Yeah, I thought for once I’d start at the top. You know, have a rejection from the top of the food chain.
And although I’ve been advised against such negative thinking, I’m not exactly keeping my hopes up. I mean, they take like 8 weeks to reply; besides, I’m not even American, so I don’t know how keen they’ll be to publish a story written by a Greek who lives in England. And in Bradford, of all places. We’ll see. In the meantime, you can read the short story I submitted here. I’ll be submitting this and other stories to various literary magazines, so if you know any good ones (if they pay too, that’d be great), and if you think my writing’s any good, please email me or leave me a comment (they’ll both reach my Inbox).
In other news, I’m still working my donkey off. This PhD doesn’t want to finish, let me tell you…
Oh, something interesting: Last night I watched Michael Moore’s documentary
Bowling for Columbine, which, apart from being hugely informative and entertaining, also shed some light as to why it is that North Americans (is that the PC way of saying it? US people) have such a tremendous tendency to turn into murderous, gun-toting maniacs. Moore suggests that it’s not the violent history (Germany anyone?), the unemployment rate (Canada anyone?), or the video games (Japan anyone?). According to Moore, the basis of horrible events like the Columbine massacre appears to be the culture of fear that the US has been increasngly subjected to (9/11 anyone?). In fact, I never thought I’d say this, but I found myself agreeing with interviewee Marilyn Manson, who said that the US media feed their audiences with a constant barrage of fear and consumption. Hand them enough guns, and boom! Columbine.
It does also include a fantastic short animation entitled A brief history of America – funny, and sadly accurate in the same time. You can watch it, and other clips from the documentary here.
Well, I don’t know if all this is true – Man’s corrupt nature easily lends itself to violence, just like any other kind of
indulgence. And maybe loose gun control regulations are also to blame – after all, like my weapons instructor in the Army used to say, you can’t shoot someone without a bullet. But I do know of a solution that does work, and it does so effectively, because it changes Man’s nature, from the inside. What is it?
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? – Jeremiah 17:9
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. – 2 Corinthians 5:17
I was debating today whether or not to post another short story, but then I looked at the pile of death threat letters, and thought better of it. Still, if you want to read another one, cast your vote at the “Comments” thingy below.
In other news, things are rolling as usual: Work, work, and more work. At least it seems that we are making some progress, and I think I saw a flicker of a light at the end of the tunnel, but then I had to go back to the lab.
Your autoclave bin is brimming!!!
Speaking of labs, next Thursday our Department – nay, our entire School (of Life Sciences) is undergoing a routine inspection by a Safety Regulations committee from the Home Office. In other words, The Man is coming to check us out. Which means that most researchers are going to make themselves scarce that day.
So everyone’s trying to do their bit, but there’s a lot of fear in the air, and we all know that the government can sense fear. No surprise really – the HO can shut us down just like that if they feel that we are not abiding by the Code. So I guess we should lock up all those radioactive mutant frogs that can play chess and listen to Enya. Seriously.
I’m also in the painful process of trying to put my Thesis together, and I’m discovering that writing a Thesis is nothing like a writing a paper (there’s more space) or writing a novel (there’s more boredom). What’s ironic is that doctorates demand that the hapless candidate work his or her proverbial behind off for three or four years, so that they can produce a huuuge document (up to 100,000 words) that will be read by a
maximum of four individuals: Two supervisors (most times one), and two examiners. Out of these four, the supervisors already know what’s in it (or they should), and the examiners will forget it right after they’re done with it. Oh, I forgot: Some parents might want to read it too, but they don’t count since generally it could be in ancient Martian for all they knew (“it looks lovely, dear”).
Then the candidate sits through an oral examination (a viva) where he/she sweats it out with the examiners (one external, one internal) to end up in either of five places:
… and that’s where scientists come from!
Tune in tomorrow to learn all about writers.
Hello ye all.
I think that this is by far the longest no-entry time since I started this blog. My days are so full and busy now that I can’t tell morning from evening anymore; I’ve mentioned a few times that my PhD is trying to kill me, so you can understand.
The problem is that, right now, I can’t tell exactly when I’m going to finish with this project, so currently I’m working as much and as fast as I can to get out of the lab as soon as possible. But in the same time, I’m also very thankful to the Lord for putting a real angel in my life two months ago, without whom I would be utterly unable to cope with all this chaos.
Other exciting news – we’re finishing our study on the Letter to the Ephesians this Saturday, and I get to teach on the last, wonderful chapter 6. I like it particularly because it is here where the apostle Paul, chained to a Roman soldier in prison, instead of bemoaning his troubles (prisons weren’t as luxurious as they are today), he uses them to teach some of God’s greatest truths: he looks at the Roman soldier (probably the most evangelised soldier in the Roman Empire), and parallels his armour to create a powerful metaphor of the Christian’s spiritual armour. The result is life-changing; a natural effect of God’s Word.
And that wraps it up. I promise to have fewer baby photos next time – oh, I’m also VERY slowly writing another short story, which I might post here, so, you know, watch this space…
Well, I’m back from the EHRS conference in London (Imperial College), I gave my talk, and now I can go back to fighting the clock in the lab. I wasn’t particularly happy with my presentation; a bit rushed, it felt, and it didn’t roll as smoothly as I’d like it to. But at least I got to wear a tie.
It was actually a good conference, a lot more relaxed (yes, scientists can do that, but they have to attend a course first) than last year at Zurich, where we seemed to be crammed up like sardines at every venue. This year, the traditional conference gala was onboard the Dutch Master, which took us up and down the Thames and I got some sweet pictures to share with you.
There seemed to be a good chunk of interest in follicular stem cells (quite fashionable in modern Biology), and I also had an exciting conversation with a research group from Durham University that “accidentally” turned stem cells into mycoradial pacemaker cells, which actually developped a heartbeat! And given my own fascination with brain tissue regeneration and development, I think I spent more time talking to these guys than anyone else. And before you all freak out and accuse me for supporting abortions and all that little issue, we’re talking about stem cells from fully grown, mature hair follicles – aka “dermal papilla cells”.
Well, enough with the Science stuff. It’s picture time!
Good to see the Greeks honoured. At least the ancient ones.
The HMS Belfast, in sunset glory. We’re on the Thames now.
Mr Ben. Known among friends as “Big”.
You can’t travel around London at night and not indulge in shots like this. Slow shutter speed all the way.
London Bridge at night. Looks very, very nice.
The Upturned Microscope 