I went today to a third meeting at the Complutense University of Madrid, this time for the head of the MEG/EEG center there (who’s* also in charge of the Psychiatry Department in the Medical School) to give me some instructions. I got there on-time, but had said I’d be late, so I walked in at 17:20, to find that he wasn’t there. I sat in a waiting room at the end of the hall (I should add that the hallway had the lights off, and that his office was the only one with anyone in it — not surprising perhaps since many professors don’t keep long office hours, but still weird) until the secretary/assistant/coordinator (I’m not sure) invited me into her office, which was heated. At maybe 17:45, Professor O. arrived, and rushed into a meeting that had been postponed, I believe. I read from Panorama, the McSweeney’s newspaper-and-magazine that I got for the holiday’s (it’s awesome — all the articles are engaging, even those that I don’t care much about; here’s one they’ve put online). Eventually, I started thinking of leaving, but I figured I’d just be playing on the internet.

Shortly thereafter, Professor O. invited me and the woman into the other room, and demonstrated these glasses that they’re using for an experiment — sunglasses with a camera on the top, hidden, for blind men to wear. I believe — this was all in very fast Spanish. Decidedly, they’re doing a study on attention and motivation (stuff I’ve worked on before!) in the blind, but how exactly the study is going on I’m still unclear on. I think they all already knew, so that was one of the main problems. In any case, there were four men — all professors or academics, at least one an engineer — talking about the study, and we sat with them for a bit. They ended up in a discussion of whether attention and motivation are separate processes or one process with two different names, which I found awesome: both the question, and the fact that I could understand it. (I think it’s quite likely they’re the same process, even if they’re that process working differently. Professor O. thinks the same; the engineer disagreed. I said a word or five, and they listened, but obviously I was slow to speak. I would’ve been even if they were speaking English; they were almost all at least twice my age.)

After the meeting wound down, Professor O. and I met briefly, and he described the plans: he wants me to do some research on the topics of positive and negative emotion as they relate to EEG waves, the two hemispheres of the brain, and picture/word presentation. In some senses, this is very similar to things I’ve done. But it’s kind of exciting, and the eventual plan is to move this study onto looking at depression. I won’t be there for that, but he intends to involve me for the entirety of this study — designing it, analyzing data, writing the paper. I’m not sure why he’s being so helpful, but I guess in some sense he’s gaining me as someone who’s excited to help run a study he wants run, and and that’s a great thing. I’m excited, for my part. If all goes well, we’ll get to publish something. And if we get stymied, I’ll certainly have a lot of great experience. I imagine I may talk more about the research I’m doing, if it’s interesting, on this forum. I’ll warn you.

* It had been a long time since I had thought of the difference between whose and who’s. I had to teach them this week. It’s generally so instinctive. Except when it’s not. I often make the written mistake of they’re versus their. And right vs. write, which is probably my worst mistake. They’re so simple to do, when you’re writing (or typing) quickly. Clearly the mistake has nought to do with not knowing, and much to do with mistaking something.

A note: I made soup with all that chicken stock I made the other day. Today, so a bit later than I thought. I’ll have it for dinner tomorrow, and Thursday, and I’d probably have enough for two more days besides if I weren’t going to Dublin. It’s spicy, and pretty good. I used half an onion flavoured with a red chili (not sure what kind — it wasn’t labeled in the greengrocer’s) and some cumin and turmeric; I added half a green pepper, broccoli, garbanzo beans, tiny pasta like orzo, and eggplant (cooked separately). In that order. Not bad for something just using all of my vegetables in the fridge.

There’s a fascinating article in Slate about vitamins (especially multivitamins) and their efficacy. It’s a question that I’ve long wondered about: just how well do vitamins work? As I briefly mentioned before, Michael Pollan suggests that we should be making sure to eat foods that have important vitamins — but that popping pills of those vitamins might not be so effective. Emily Anthes, in this article, says something along the same lines — maybe we’re not accomplishing as much as we should think, by taking multi-vitamins.

Our flour and water and many of the foods we buy already have extra nutrients embedded within them, thanks to laws in the US, and if we’re eating healthful foods, we’re probably getting many of the rest. I don’t know that I’ll warrant that supplements are bad — not until the evidence builds up a bit more — but I do wonder about the usefulness of taking vitamins every day.

In any case, I definitely recommend giving the article a read. The best part about it? I spent the first half of the article thinking to myself, “Huh. It’s interesting that they’re suggesting that so many of these vitamins can affect the body in a possibly negative way, but what about the placebo effect?”, and then the second half is about the placebo effect. The brain is decidedly able to change the body. It can be undermined anyway, though.

First: I just read a post from the BPS about statistics, which I thought was worth a brief mention: the post is about how even when we study psychology, we tend to ignore the people who developed the techniques — and that it’s important to think of psychology as mathematics and as something fallible, rather than just as something you plug into SPSS. Anyway, the post briefly discusses the ten statisticians some guy thinks are the most important. I knew only two of their names, but I know about the things that seven of them have done, so this post was kind of cool.

More excitingly: I made ketchup today.

Yeah, I know. You’re looking up at the picture at the top of this entry and saying, “Ketchup?” That was my thought. This doesn’t really look like the ketchup we know — it looks more like tomato sauce. But at the same time, this definitely tastes like ketchup. It’s got that tangy sweetness you associate with ketchup. It also reminds me a bit of Smitty’s Sauce*, this orange sweet-and-sour spicy sauce we put on chicken and rice. And honestly, unlike traditional ketchup, I wouldn’t mind putting this on chicken and rice. It would even taste good.

Okay, so I should start off by saying that I didn’t make this up. I got the recipe from The Homesick Texan, who I’ve probably mentioned before, since she’s one of my favorite food bloggers. And what I’ve been saying, and what I’m going to say, is essentially an echo of her post. Like: I never really liked ketchup all too much in the past, but this is wonderful. Like: I could totally eat this ketchup with a spoon. (In fact, I did eat it on a slice of bread while I waited for the burgers to cook.) I should also note that her description is lovely, and moreover that the post title is awesome: “Chipotle Ketchup Changes Everything.” (Chipotles!)

So let me back up. I came across this recipe when she posted it in April, I think, and thought it sounded interesting, so I saved it in my bookmarks. And then I made her refried beans the other day, and remembered the ketchup post. And then I came across this post about ketchup and french fries on another blog, and I decided — well, dammit, time to make ketchup. Since then, I’d been planning it for perhaps two weeks. I finally got molasses, got brown sugar, and got apple (cider?) vinegar, and so today I finally got it together, and bought ground beef and fresh bread (at this Gallician bakery sort of near me that actually has pretty good bread, unlike most bakeries I’ve found).

At around 7:30 I started cooking the onions, got out the ingredients, added the tomatoes and sugar and vinegar and spices (plus some cumin, which I can’t help but use constantly) and chipotles to the pot, brought it to a boil, left it to simmer and so forth. Went in my room for about an hour, stirring occasionally. At ten-’til-nine, I took the pot off the burner to let it cool before putting it in the blender. I mixed the ground beef I had with some chopped garlic, some cumin, some pepper, and some rock salt, and put it in a pan with a bit of oil in the shape of two patties. (I ate both — but that’s the fault of my not having any lettuce for a salad, and also the fact that it was delicious. Also I only bought a small amount of beef†, but it was a big meal.) While the burgers cooked, I blended the ketchup, and then tried it out on a slice of bread. Oh wow, really good. Really, really good.

And then after the burgers were finished, I cut them in halves and ate them on the bread, with dollops of ketchup and nought else. I’d say they were the best burgers I’d had in years (sorry, Jacob — yours are good, but you never made me ketchup), except for Sammy’s, in Provo, Utah, which really did me in this summer with a barbecue-bacon-avocado burger. Or something like that. Still: these were damn-tasty. (And I think garlic should always be necessary in burgers.) I would recommend the ketchup.

Now I’m left with a glass jar filled with ketchup — so I guess I’ll need to make fries sometime soon. And burgers another day next week? The high acidity of the ketchup means it should last a while in the refrigerator.

* Smitty’s Sauce is a sauce my parents make that they learned when they lived in Rochester. It is (or was?) made by a restaurant there called Smitty’s. It’s this deep orange color, made with orange juice and vinegar and hot sauce and mustard (and, the way we make it, pineapple chunks and juice). This recipe sort of is like the one we use. Although it’s not the same.

† I really think you’ve gotta make your own burgers, rather than buying pre-made shaped patties. I mean, it is easier when you’re just cooking for one or two, but I think it’s generally worth it to make the burgers yourself. I wanted to buy freshly-ground beef, but I ended up being cheap and getting the meat from a supermarket, which was probably for the best.