Unusual journal citation

I came across the following citation in a manuscript today, notable because all the authors share a surname:

Huang X, Huang Y, Huang T, Huang W, Huang Z. Individual pulmonary vein imaging by transthoracic echocardiography: an inadequate traditional interpretation. Eur J Echocardiogr. 2008;9(5):655-660.

I wonder what the odds of that are? To calculate them, we'd have to factor in the number of people in China [authors' country of origin], the number of people named Huang in China, etc. Even if it's a really common surname [which it is, according to Wikipedia, which knows all and is always accurate], that's still unusual.

P.S. Huang/Wong is pretty popular, ranking seventh after Wang/Wong, Li/Lee, Zhang/Chang, Liu/Lau, Chen/Chan and Yang/Yeung. Names are fascinating!

Eating local is yummy!

I waited outside for 15 minutes today [estimated windchill factor negative a billion] because the Hindquarter, Cloud 9 Caterers' former fire engine and current mobile food van, was parked in front of my building today, and I had to test out their burger ["House Grind, Smoked Country Bacon, Lettuce, American Cheese, Tomato Jam"] and onion rings ["Buttermilk Soaked, Malt Vinegar Aioli"].

First I ate the onion rings. They were light and crispy, with no sogginess that I usually associate with larger, cheaper versions. Their noticeably salty flavor [which I liked] was cut by the mild aioli. That's glorified mayonnaise for you philistines. :p

Then I ate the burger, which came on a toasted, buttered bun. I appreciated this detail, as untoasted buns distract me from my burgers with their chewy texture. The meat was juicy, tender and done medium, as far as I can tell [outsides definitely cooked but not hard, insides lightly cooked but not red]. The bacon added a nice smoky note, and the cheese and lettuce were fine. Everything merged together into a hearty mess of flavors, except for the tomato jam, which did not overpower the burger, but definitely had a slight medicinal aftertaste. Could'a' done without that, but, for $11.00, I was very pleased with my meal. Definitely worth waiting 15 minutes in the cold for!
 

Isabel's clothes

I have a few people with whom I am trading stuff for clothes for Isabel, so I figure that I should consolidate all the information about her measurements and style in one place for convenient reference.

Isabel is a 1:6 scale resin BJD made of an Elfdoll Doona Ryung head on a modded 5StarDoll tiny girl body. 5StarDoll's measurements for that body are all still the same on Isabel; I just reduced the length of her neck and tapered it a bit at the top.

The only significant difference besides the neck is that Isabel has breasts, but they are made by stuffing tissues in a cropped tank top, which means that they are compressible and do not add much to her chest circumference. If you need any other measurements from me, please let me know!

For comparison's sake, tops and jackets for male action figures fit her well, especially if stretchy or baggy. Pants/Leggings for female action figures fit, but only if they are really stretchy. If it helps, I have a post showing her in some clothing made for "regular-size" 1:6ers.

Like most of my favorite dolls, Isabel adheres to my signature style. You can find a discussion and examples of this style here. Other sources of inspiration may be found in Motylalka's Etsy shop [I love the stuff with pink, green, yellow and orange!] and Manhattan Toy's line of Groovy Girls, who know how to make multiple patterns work!

Isabel wears the following:

• tank tops
• vests
• T-shirts
• arm warmers
• short skirts to mid-thigh
• leggings, lots of leggings
• legwarmers to knees
• things that stretch

She does not wear any of the following:

• white
• sheer tops
• low-cut tops

This is because she has a red cropped tank top for a bra, and I don't want her bra to be visible through her shirts! [Bra straps can be visible, though, if she's wearing a tank top.]

Just remember...bright...stretchy...patterned...obnoxious! You can't go wrong! :p

Some Rements are going away...

I posted 31 lots last night, 13 [42%] of which have already been spoken for. As excited as I am to get rid of stuff, I'm also quite excited at what my trades will yield: an upholstered chair to replace my current faded, stained, pink/white floral one annnnnnd clothes for Zombieville denizens.

I'd like a few more lots to go away, but I'm pretty pleased with the results so far.

Disney is making 12" dolls of everything these days.

And by "everything," I mean "humanoid characters from their animated films." Interestingly, a lot of these dolls have basic articulation [head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees]. The cartoony style of the headsculpt actually agrees with my stylized, exaggerated aesthetic, so this information could be relevant to my interests.

Speaking of Disney 12" dolls...

The dolls of John Smith [from Disney's Pocahontas] have fabulously smirky headsculpts. If Lucian were plastic, he'd have that head. Since he's not, I'm free to make other associations with the sculpt. I have seen a fellow Figurvore member's repaints of this head that look roguish, charming, quietly amused, even cheerful, but, after I thought, Lucian in plastic!, my mind immediately went to the type of character who thinks that he's God's gift to the universe.

You know the type: a straight, white, heterosexual, upper middle class, able-bodied, tall, muscular dude with a privileged life. He thinks he's an objective observer who knows better than everyone about anything, even when people are talking to him about their marginalized experiences that he has no clue about. A liberal and progressive, he donates to various charities regularly, but his use of such words as "ghetto," "lame," "pussy," "bitch," etc., etc., etc., demonstrate that his public progressive performances are not accompanied by actual open-minded, respectful behavior. Yup, he's the sort of person who wonders why "the gays," "the disabled," "the poor" and "the transgenders" are "so angry." He thinks that, if they were more "reasonable," they would "make more progress."

This particular one works at a boutique investment firm, Champlain Investments, and drives a Hummer, even though the roughest terrain he's ever encountered are those frost heaves on Pearl Street in the spring. His interests include fishing and hunting, although he has never actually caught or shot anything; he prefers to chat with his friends and drink beer. He also avidly follows whatever UVM sports teams are active in a particular season [Go Cats!], as he graduated from UVM with a BA in economics. He gets along really well with his fishing/hunting/drinking buddies, some of which are from college and some of which are from work. He doesn't get along well with women, which confuses and frustrates him, especially since his buddies are "settling down," and he would like to find a woman to marry and have kids with. He's operating under the assumption that women are foreign, mysterious creatures that require user manual/decoder key combos.

Charles -- called Charlie -- White is really, really, really ashamed of his family. He grew up "outside of St. Johnsbury" -- he won't get more specific than that -- in a trailer park in a small town. His mom raised him and his older sister with help from his grandmother. His grandmother's Social Security, plus his mom's minimum wages from her fast-food job, barely covered their expenses. [Charlie can't eat fast food; it makes him sick and gives him nightmares.] When he was 12, they were evicted from their trailer, and he lived with one of his friends till he was 14. He got an under-the-table job sorting stuff in the local junkyard and reselling it to flea market dealers, and they eventually moved into an illegal basement apartment until he escaped to college and never went back.

Charlie, the first one in his family to go to college, pretends his family doesn't exist. He's ashamed that his grandmother is on disability for arthritis and that she spends her days smoking and watching Lifetime movies. He's ashamed that his mother is still at the same fast-food place where she was working a decade ago, only now she's an assistant manager, and she almost always works 40 hours a week. He's ashamed that his sister dropped out of high school weeks before graduating because she was pregnant by her boyfriend. She and her daughter now live with Charlie's mom, as the child's father proved to be an abusive asshole. She's going to cosmetology school and working on her GED. They love him, and they're so proud of him, and his niece adores him, and he visits them and talks to them on the phone regularly, but he never talks about them at work or with his friends.

Okay, back to work.