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"The Swanglers go to Dominica"
2012/06/07 12:48
++ We just got back from our trip to the Dominican. It was a lovely
gift from my parents to me and Carlin for our wedding. We went to a
resort called Riu Bachata in Puerto Plata, which was very good. The
food was great, which led us to 7 days of gluttony, drinks were free
(albeit a bit watered down). So, to anyone considering this resort, the
food is a pro. They also have two formal restaurants in the resort, an
Italian one and a steak house. Both are not really much better than
the regular buffet, the steak house had a good desert which we couldn't
get on the buffet and the salad bar on the Italian restaurant was
amazing the day we went.
++ The resort did have quite a few things for us
to do, such as kayaking, swimming pools, a beach, paddle boats, paid
excursions, pick up volleyball games every afternoon. The volleyball
games were a lot of fun, and the kayak was fun as well. The only
complaint I have is the beach, which wasn't the best I've seen. There
were a lot of rocks on the sand and further out in the water quite a
few Sea Urchins. When we went kayaking, we ended up capsizing. This
would have been find if we didn't end up scrapping our legs on the
rocks and stepping on sea urchins to get back on the kayak. If anyone
reading this decide to go kayaking there, make sure to have proper
water sport shoes. I highly recommend it. Despite all that, it was
great fun.
++ We ended up doing two excursions as well. Zip Lining on the
canopy which also involved horse back riding. This one was quite a bit
of fun for people without fear of heights. Our second excursion was the
Outback Safari, which was also pretty good fun and somewhat educational
as well about the country. Only real complaint I have is the drive on
both, which I learned wasn't very safe. Dominicans drive like jerks
with no respect for human life, so just be aware of that. I'm saying
that even though I grew up in Brazil, where drivers are asses. The only
regret I have is not going to Paradise Island, which I think would have
been a great paid trip, so if you are thinking about it as you read
this, that would be my advice (although I didn't actually see it
myself).
++ On another topic, just before our trip, another
paper featuring some of the work I've done in the lab has been
published. If you are curious to learn more about the "Effects of the
5-HT(2C) receptor agonist Ro60-0175 and the 5-HT(2A) receptor
antagonist M100907 on nicotine self-administration and reinstatement"
or see my other paper click HERE.
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"My first paper"
2012/01/04 09:24
++ First of all, happy new year. I hope everyone
had a good Christmas break, much like I did. We ended up going to
Barrie to visit family. Unfortunately my parents were in British
Columbia visiting my sister for a good portion of the time. We still
saw them for a couple of days. We spent a good portion of our time with
the in-laws, which was great. Overall, it was a good holiday.
++ Just before the holiday though, I had the
pleasant surprise to see that my first paper has been published online
before 2012. We worked on getting this paper out all year and it was
basically another Christmas present to see it out there on the day I
went up to Barrie. The paper is called "The 5-HT2C Receptor Agonist
Lorcaserin Reduces Nicotine Self-Administration, Discrimination, and
Reinstatement: Relationship to Feeding Behavior and Impulse Control"
and it was published in a highly regarded journal in my field, the
Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology. You may click on the name of the
article or HERE
to access it.
++
The paper should be published early 2012 on paper, I'll be looking
forward to that. We also have another paper very close to being
accepted, which deals with the same serotonin receptor is my first one.
I wasn't as heavily involved on this second paper however, I just ran a
few of the experiments. A couple other papers are also in the oven, and
are quite likely to be submitted this year as well. All in all, our
hard work is starting to produce some fruits. I'm just hoping this year
I can start my masters..
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"Transition - I am what I am
because of who we all are"
2011/09/07 00:42
++ As you can all tell by now, the website looks a
bit different. I am trying to change it up again, it has been almost 3
years since I've changed it aesthetically and I feel like I've
neglected the v.3.0 a bit. Well with a lot of new things going on with
me in RL and online, I feel like I need a new setup for my blogging
practices. Therefore, if I haven't posted about this yet, I have opened
an actual blog which is called "existential machine" on blogspot. The
reason for that is because it is much easier to post as well as it to
navigate the blog. I like how I can tag posts with their subject and
this allows readers to quickly find my posts on different subjects.
This is something practically impossible to do on this website, so I
will keep this website for more personal posts as well as some of my
favorite ones, where I feel they can make my front page for a while.
I'll also try to keep the other pages of the website updated with the
content I've had before as well as possibly a few new things. I've also
updated some of my favorite links on the side bar, there are some great
new links there.
++ Back to my blog... I named it "existential
machine" because in the past few years I became a big supporter of the
main concepts of existialist thought. I have been trying to conciliate
my personal religious beliefs and my existentialist perspective in
order to understand myself a bit better. This has been quite an
enlightening endeavor. The machine part of the name ties back to my
materialistic way of seeing humans as machines that are controlled by
the mind in a very physiological way rather than believing in the
existence of a soul or some other kind of "human essence" which
controls the body. Now, I do realize that what I've said is somewhat
paradoxical, but I feel that perhaps just because WE are controlled by
matter and nothing else, doesn't necessarily make the human phenomenon
any less amazing. I also don't necessarily think there needs to be a
"supernatural" aspect to the mind that makes us special, and our
current understanding of neurophysiology and science in general does
seem to indicate that what is often referred to as the soul, is located
in the frontal lobe or our brain. Anyway, I will be probably posting
more on these ideas on my new blog, so make sure to check it out a few
times a month. Aside from philosophy, I will be posting about politics,
economics, current events and technology.
++ Finally, I will probably be changing the name
of this website from what it was for a lot of years (The indispensable
Carlin and Leo), the reason for that is that as much as I would like,
Carlin doesn't seem very interested in blogging and so forth. I'll try
to keep this particular website better kept and more personalized than
it has been for a while. It may take me a while to get it all done, so
in the mean time expect the site to look a bit all over the place. ........................................................................................................................................
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