There is that...

So, the computer age was supposed to usher in this era of seamless transactions around the world at a touch of a button, right?  Well, not so much.  Here are your options if you want to transfer money from a Canadian bank to an American bank: (1) Drive to the U.S., open an account, drive back to Canada, spend $30 to wire yourself your own money, then drive back; (2) Pay your Canadian bank $25 a month to click on a button to connect the two accounts so you can do internet money transfers (this isn't even an option with the American banks, who are apparently legally prevented from doing this transfer to an "alien" country); (3) write a personal cheque to yourself and wait two weeks for it to clear as the two banks MAIL each other the necessary paperwork.   Nice.  I can't wait to see how it goes when I try to cash my fellowship cheque from the Canadian government!  But, in the "totally pointless international bureaucracy resolved" file, my car is now legal in the United States, pending a safety inspection next week (and yet another $29 fee).  For two countries with so many similarities, it's really quite amazing how many seemingly unnecessary and pointless barriers are erected between them.  However, I was (for the first time) misinterpreted when I pronounced the word "out" this week in "Canadian" - I never believed we pronounced "out" any differently than the Americans, but apparently the stereotype is true. 

The research planning is going pretty well though.  I had another couple of meetings this week and now have a pretty firm idea regarding what I want to work on.  One project which isn't my idea but I found really interesting is trying to make an improved surgical adhesive by trying to simulate the thousands of hairs on the feet of geckos which allow them to climb walls - it sounds like a great way to incorporate what I know about gels with some exciting new work in fabricating structures on the nanometre-level in conjunction with a company which specializes in such work.  I'm also going to pursue my own idea for making biodegradable polymers for delivering insulin in a "smart" way by testing and then responding to the blood glucose concentration (the higher your blood glucose, the more insulin the material will release into the blood).  At least I hope that's what the material will do - it makes sense on paper, but when you stick something in the body, you never quite know what may happen.  On the bright side, I have thought of about four other things that the material may also be useful for, so as long as I can make the stuff, I'm pretty confident I can find something to use it for.  I also have one last meeting coming up this week with a group which is trying to make a drug delivery implant which can be turned on and off by heating the patch locally with a magnetic field.  I think my Ph.D. work can essentially be used to solve the problem it sounds like they are having in making their device, so if I can pull that off it would be a quick and exciting contribution.  So, I should finish my proposals and planning this week (or early next week) and start up in the lab soon. 

I also had a great time playing softball with the lab on Thursday night.  Amazingly, despite not having played softball in five years, I was one of the better players on our team.  This is less of a compliment to my own skills and more a commentary on how seriously softball is taken in the lab (i.e. not very much), which is exactly the way I like to play sports.  I think we ended up losing 17-11 in a highly intense pitcher's duel, a game we may well have won if anybody in the outfield in the final inning actually knew how to catch or throw a softball.  I think I also talked a co-worker into playing tennis with me, so that could be fun.

Finally, from the "how big a geek am I" file: perhaps my most exciting accomplishment this week was connecting my computer up to my new TV.  Why is this exciting and/or remotely useful?  Well, I subscribed to MLB.TV so I could watch the Blue Jays games via web streaming (it's amazingly good actually, a pretty smooth picture).  Now, instead of sitting on my desk chair and pretending to work while watching the game on my computer screen, I can recline on my couch and pretend to work on my laptop (while all the time simply checking the live boxscore and/or how my fantasy baseball team is doing).  So, not only does this increase my enjoyment level, but also sends my productivity skyrocketing in that I can both watch baseball AND read about baseball ALL AT THE SAME TIME!  I know, it's the gift of being an engineer, being able to identify such efficiencies.  However, with the current state of my fantasy baseball team, perhaps the less I read about it, the happier I will be...