Friday 5: Over/Under

What’s a film you consider overrated, and what’s a related or similar film you consider underrated?

This is actually a conversation I like to have with people. It's interesting to see when people's opinions diverge from the generally given consensus. It's been a long time since I've had this conversation with people, though.

The first answer that comes up for me is the Sam Raimi Spider-man movie. There was a lot of buzz about it when it first came out, so I went in with high hopes. Something just never clicked with me, though, and I left the theater feeling disappointed.

If I had to go with an underrated superhero movie (since we're in the genre), that's a little tougher. So I'll cheat and branch out a little bit, and say that some of my favorite movies are maybe in danger of becoming underrated or unknown. I'm a huge fan of The Marx Brothers, Vincent Price, and Gene Kelly (also major props to Donald O'Connor, an equally talented dancer who had the rotten luck of not being as handsome as Gene Kelly). It's good to appreciate the old as well as the new.

I will say this, though: of old things, I think The Three Stooges are fantastically overrated.

What’s overrated about the area in which you live, and what’s underrated about it?

I'm not sure what's overrated about Stockholm? But I don't think a lot of people realize how many (free!) museums there are in Stockholm, as well as festivals, concerts, and events. It has all of the culture of New York City, but with a fraction of the population.

Whose talent or skill is overrated, and whose is underrated?

This is a tricky one. I think I'll say that the concept of "talent" itself is overrated, as it leads to so much self-defeat. It takes a lot of work to get good at something, and if you just rely on focusing on what's easy the first time around, "you're gonna have a bad time."

I think people underrate the value of a good copyeditor, but I might just be biased. ;)

What item in the supermarket is overrated, and what’s underrated?

I will never be able to enjoy bacon the same way the rest of the world does. I can choke it down if I accidentally end up with some in a meal somewhere, but I'm still quite likely to pick it out. Nor have I ever developed a taste for coffee or fizzy drinks.

As for underrated, for years I labored under the false notion that cottage cheese was bland, boring diet food. I don't know if that's still the reputation it has today, but I'd like the record to show that cottage cheese is delicious.

What’s utterly terrific except for one or two things?

A few years ago, I read Jennifer Ouellette's The Calculus Diaries. As a humanities student trying to (belatedly) make peace with STEM, it was right up my alley, and overall I really enjoyed it. Except! In one of the chapters, she repeats the apocryphal story about ancient Rome and post-festivity vomitoriums. Ancient Rome had vomitoriums, but they weren't special rooms for vomiting after a particularly large meal; they were (and are) just exits in large public buildings like stadiums or amphitheaters.

Friday 5: Bizarro Cliche

The Magic Word is “please,” but what’s the magic gesture?

Well, hm, I think we can just let this one go without comment . . .


“Big D” is Dallas, but where is Big G?

I guess as a Swede, I'm obligated to say Göteberg, but it seems a little odd to hype a city I haven't visited (yet). I'm trying to think of places I've at least visited that begin with G, but I'm coming up blank.

Also, again: "Big D." I'll let this one slide, too . . .


Elvis Presley is the King of Rock and Roll, but who’s the king of your personal music collection?

Here's a question I can answer! I think Ben Folds is probably forever the king of my music library. Even when I don't love every single one of his songs (I like the more pop-oriented ones than the ballad-y or story ones, because I am a basic bitch), the ones I do love are some of my favorites. He's also a whip-smart lyricist, too, which I value in an artist.


The motherland is wherever you consider your family’s origins, but what’s the cousinland?

Any language-adjacent country or one with a similar history. Given the reputation for drinking and recent history of being oppressed by a neighboring island, for example, I think Korea and Ireland could be considered cousinlands.


CBS calls itself the Tiffany Network, but what would you call the Walmart Network?

I realize that calling itself "the Tiffany Network" is supposed to be a comment on their quality, but for me all I think about is Trump's least-favorite child. (Poor Tiffany . . . )

But moving on to the actual question: CNN? It's everywhere, it's open 24 hours, it's got the basics but nothing high-end or specialized.

Trek Thursday: Redskirts

Allow me to bring back this intermittent series on the blog to pimp my buddy Dromeda's podcast: Redskirts! In their own words, Redskirts is "a Star Trek podcast by two people who sometimes wear skirts." Right now they're focusing on TOS, my eternal fave of the franchise. It's basically the kind of podcast I'd want to be a guest on (and that was actually what I told Dromeda after she sent me the pilot ep: "When can I come in for a guest episode?"). Maybe if Skype and time zones play nice, that can happen? I have really strong feelings about The Devil in the Dark, y'all.

They're taking the episodes in air date order, so this first episode tackles The Man Trap. But if you want more, their pilot episode tackles . . . the first pilot, The Cage.

If you like it, you can follow their RSS feed and get new episodes as they go up.

Newly Relisted: Gel Electrophoresis Chainmaille Bracelets

Guys, I am so damn proud of these bracelets. I spent years thinking about how to incorporate chainmaille into my work, until I hit upon the idea of gel electrophoresis art. Then, I probably spent another couple of months thinking about how I could pull it off. I finally debuted these puppies during this year's SciArt Tweetstorm, after some valuable input from Peggy over at The Vexed Muddler.

Biology has always been a field that I've had to neglect. The nature of the work is not something easily encapsulated by simple bead-stringing; chainmaille finally allowed me to represent images instead of numbers. I was, and still am, excited about taking my jewelry in this direction.

You can imagine, then, that it's breaking my heart a little that they're not selling, but I have no one but myself to blame for that. I picked the wrong time of year to stop promoting my shop -- the triple whammy of Pi Day, Mother's Day and graduation events within a three-month period means that this is exactly the time of year for nerdy bespoke jewelry to be popular, right? Usually, yes. This year I dropped off the map.

That's a long way to say that these bracelets deserve better than me. More promotion, a sexed-up photograph, some clever copy . . . all three? But there's only so many balls a person can juggle.

1kb Step Ladder Gel Electrophoresis Bracelet by Kokoba Jewelry

I love bead-stringing, and I always will, because I am a sucker for pretty rocks. But there is a Zen-like simplicity in chainmaille. No knots, no crimps, no string or wire: just you, two pliers, and a bunch of jump rings. It's a lot easier to pick up and put down, which is something I need at this point in my life.

Right now I only have these two colors (black and a silvery champagne). Once I recover from the hit that is tax season in two different countries, I'm going to put in an order for more. I have visions of rainbow pride versions of these, for the LGBTQ+ scientists and allies in the field, but that might have to remain a pipe dream for the time being. I don't think I could get more than a couple out in time for actual Pride this year.

Friday 5: Ssssssssh!

What’s something sneaky you’ve recently done?

I'm not really good at being sneaky. It's hard to answer this one!


Who or what do you feel the need to tiptoe around?

Facebook and politics has become an interesting place since the election. And by "interesting place," I mean, "barren wasteland bereft of hope or goodwill."


What’s the dirty secret about the field in which you work?

Your own spit is, like, a really useful fluid in metal working.

For example: you could use actual lubricant (or maybe water? my memory's rusty, pun totally intended) on your hand saw, pictured above. Or you could just lick your finger and run it along the flat, non-serrated edge of the sawblade.


What was the subject of your last whispered conversation?

If we want to call the noise police (like, fake cops) or rental company about our neighbor's loud music. The situation resolved itself when the neighbor turned down the music like half an hour later.


What’s recently snuck up on you?

It's tax season, y'all! In two countries!

Newly Relisted: Avogadro Necklace

Hey kids, how you doing? I dropped off the face of the Earth for a while. Good thing I have my Etsy listings set up to automatically relist things as they expire! I'm working on some more chainmaille pieces but it's going to be some time before I put them up in the shop. Here's some chemistry #sciart jewelry to whet your appetite until then!

Avogadro in faux pearls and green marbled acrylic by Kokoba

These are glass faux pearls I received from a friend a while ago, when she was cleaning out her jewelry box. I gratefully accepted the free goodies and turned out quite a few pieces with them. This necklace is just of maybe 4 or 5 from that same batch.

I prefer gemstones (or even glass) to this kind of lightweight plastic material, but it does have its place and advantage. 

I'm also thinking about what kind of jewelry I want to tackle next. Well, I guess I'm always thinking about that! What techniques I want to try, what fields within science I want to tackle. I'm staring down a prototype for a full adder circuit I haven't shared yet here (because I want to lengthen it a little). Maybe that should be my next step. I love rocks and gems and beads, but there is something about chainmaille that is really fascinating me at the moment.

Still, though, beading is my first and deepest love, so I'm sure I'll be stringing again before long!

What I Read: Otto and the Flying Twins

I picked up Otto and the Flying Twins at a library sale some months ago, and in an odd coincidence (given the book's subject matter) I had it in my bag while I was stranded in town during the Asshole With A Beer Delivery Truck Incident at the beginning of the month. I finished it while I waited for the city to open up so I could go back home.




On the surface, Otto and the Flying Twins a whimsical fantasy story about an evil queen (though in an updated form of an evil councilwoman) trying to eradicate magic from the city, and the young boy and his magical friends who stop her. But dig a little deeper and it's hard to deny the parallels with pre-World War II Germany: the "magicos" are declared inferior and a threat to the city's well-being, relegated to ghettos or sent to work in moonstone mines.

It's hard to strike a balance between light whimsy and serious hardship, and my only complaint with the book is that Haptie never finds a good balance; despite some serious moments, the mood tilts very heavily towards "fun fantasy." Rather than address the very real problem that hatred and prejudice is built up over lifetimes and generations, Haptie compresses what was probably two or three centuries of anti-Semitic sentiment that contributed to the Holocaust into just a couple of years and the flimsiest of pretenses—essentially, one individual's personal grudge. (And greed, but arguably it's something like greed that drives people to blame The Other for economic woes, so that's not so unrealistic after all.)

But it's a fantasy book for middle grade readers, not Holocaust scholarship. I realize this is a very high-level nitpick, and I'm willing to overlook it because everything else about the book was delightful.

Anyone familiar with YA and middle grade tropes will see some of them refreshingly subverted or avoided. The titular Otto isn't The Chosen One; that's actually his dad, Albert who does much of the heroics (if off-screen). Otto is, of course, gifted with what everyone considers The Best Power Ever, but it's well-balanced: neither over-powerful enough to render his friends useless, nor so under-powered that we wonder why anyone values such a power in the first place.

When his mom finds out that Albert hid his magical heritage from her, she lashes out at him and spends most of the rest of the book angry at him, for ugly reasons (internalized prejudice) as well as respectable ones (building a life with someone only to find out they've lied about a very important part of themselves is bound to be a shocker). It's a response that feels very human, especially because she balances it with protecting her family. There's nothing worse than conflict driven by one or more parties being willfully stupid. Instead, Dolores does what she can to protect her undeniably magical family and keeps her frustration with Albert separate.

Otto's obligatory female sidekick, Mab, isn't presented as a love interest, which is refreshing—but this might be due to the target audience (the story feels and reads much more middle grade than YA). She's not entirely useful, it feels like, except to explain things to Otto (and by extension, the reader).

The language in this book is something to behold. There is an air of genuine whimsy in this that I found lacking in Harry Potter. (Well, either lacking or totally oppressive.) Normal Police, widges, dammerung, an Impossible List . . . Haptie takes well-worn fantasy tropes and adds her own unique spin to them.

Otto and the Flying Twins is the first in a trilogy of books. I get the impression that they were meant to be a longer series, but seeing as the last one was published in 2006, I think it's safe to say that the series stops at three books. If you can find it, get it. Otto and the Flying Twins is a great example of middle grade fantasy at its finest. More than that, it's a great jumping-off point to discuss prejudice and resistance—topics that are going to be quite relevant for the next few years.