Cara's Christmas Concert - The Artie Henry Middle School Concert Band

This is video from Cara's Christmas concert which took place on my birthday. I can't believe that these kids are middle school students. It was wonderful to see that all of their hardwork paid off. Great concert! Hope you enjoy it.

Christmas lights!!!

I took this video of one of the fraternity houses at the University of Texas at Austin. I can't get over the fact that the guys who decorated this house are the same guys whose front yard is usually littered with empty beer cans. Every year they do a great job of decorating their house and since I have to walk by it to get to my car each night, it puts me in the Christmas spirit.
Cheers to the men of Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity.
Pay attention for the surprise ending. It's very impressive.

Hunter and Beau

After going to the Salt Lick, Cara and I went to a Christmas party hosted by the Moore family. Hunter and Beau Moore are students who play with Cara and Robert's bands. I thought that it was great that they have such a musical family. Something about music just makes things feel more cozy.
Thanks for the concert, boys.

Lazy pugs

No commentary necessary.

Thanks to everyone who joined us at the Salt Lick for my Birthday dinner! Cheers!

These days, birthdays don't excite me as much as they used to, but getting together with good friends is always nice. I had a great time at the Salt Lick with the gang. And, my birthday peach cobbler was awesome!!!

Runaway Cab!

I went to junior high and high school with a couple of the members of Runaway Cab, Ned, the lead singer, and Jeremy, the bassist. Their Greenville gigs were always a lot of fun. Wish I could be in Raleigh for this show.
Good luck, guys!

Click here to listen to some of their songs.

Cold!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a rare sight in Austin...ice. This is a picture of ice on the window of my car. It reminds me of scraping ice off the windshield of my jeep in North Carolina. Since I've lived in Austin, I think I've seen snow or ice only twice. I miss the white stuff. It's just one more reason that I look forward to heading east after living in Austin. I love it here, but there are so many things that I don't have here that I once took for granted...trees, seasons, short drives to the beach, snow, pork bbq, bojangles, "real" southern accents, ACC sports, ACC sports fans, humidity, rain, green grass, I-40, I-95, the "smell of football season." The smell of football season? Yes, I know what it smells like on those fall mornings when the cool winds are blowing the orange, red, purple and brown leaves of the oak trees. I really miss all of these things. Am I getting homesick? Yeah, I think so.

Do you ever wonder what I do during my days at work?

Well, one of the things that I do during the day is attend seminars and lectures by scientists from all over the country? These scientists may or may not be in my field of study, but science is science and we can all learn from the discoveries of others. Occasionally a scientist will come to UT who has done work relevant to my field of study. Below you will find video clips from a recent lecture by the renowned developmental biologist Dr. Nancy Hopkins. Dr. Hopkins has been a pioneer in the field of developmental genetics by developing the technology to do large-scale mutagenic screens in zebrafish in order to identify the genes essential for embryonic development. She and the members of her laboratory empirically determined the methods to knock out a broad range of genes in zebrafish using retroviruses. This is relevant to my research because we are also trying to knock out genes of interest in zebrafish. The difference between her research and mine is that I am trying a targeted approach to gene knockouts whereas she was trying to knock out genes at random. Meeting Dr. Hopkins was very inspiring and I hope that someday, I'll be able to share the fruits of my labor with similar success that she shows in these videos.
For non-scientists, the challenge of watching these videos will probably be simply staying awake. Minimally, it may take you back to college or high school biology class, at least for a minute or two.
Enjoy!

Stephanie Elsayed

This is a very short clip of Stephanie's performance in the Marriage of Figaro with the LA Opera Repertory Company. She performed the part of Countess and this video clip includes an excerpt of Dove Sono. The clip is about 1 minute and Steph comes in at the end. What a voice!!!

Jose Ruiz from ReviewPlays.Com says, "Jos Purvis and Stephanie Elsayed sing the roles of the Count and Countess Almaviva, each providing beautiful voicing for their characters...Stephanie is excellent singing Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro ("Grant, love, some comfort"), as she laments her husband’s infidelity."
Read more of the review by clicking here.

Stephanie is a friend of Cara's...and mine...from ECU. Funny thing is that she is from Rocky Mount, my hometown. She also beautifully performed Ave Maria at our wedding.
It's really great to see our friends developing their careers. Can't wait to see the DVD, Steph!