“I am a major shoe queen.”

You wouldn’t necessarily expect that from a quote that has been attributed to Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger, but there it is. A little honesty shows how much male fashion has changed. Not vanity, mind you, just a guy who appreciates that any outfit or look can be ruined by the wrong choice of footwear (think suits and sneakers together, unless you’re fighting cancer). Style is certainly subjective, however, and luckily the only person you have to please is yourself.

My purchases in this department had tended to be running shoes for most casual occasions, with white socks. *cringe* And you wouldn’t necessarily except much more from me – chemists are not known for their except fashion sense, like say, most of the rest of the educated world is. Now that I actually make a salary of sorts, I have the time and money to improve my shoe collection. Even though I didn’t go see Sex and the City, I wonder if subconciously I am channeling the same goals if not the same élan. To illustrate, I would like to take a moment to chronicle some of my fashion blunders. (in hindsight, I could have done worse.)

• White socks with loafers
• buzz cut
• dirty old tennis shoes
• pleated pants
• t-shirts with beer logos
• trucker hats
• tight tight jeans
• those really annoying shorts with little animals sewn in. glad I tossed that one!

Yeah. Ouch. Cleaning wardrobe shouldn’t be this hard. Gotta go shopping again sometime soon! Peace

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Welcome! I am writing this blog as a creative, mostly harmless addition to teh interwebz. I will traverse the realms of organic chemistry for my own edification and the belief that others will want to listen (also a belief in instant fame never hurts!) And, as my hero Bueller sagely said, “Besides, how could I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this?!”

A bit about the appellation: Linalool, like most acyclic terpenes, is harvested from natural sources, as well as produced commercially. The biosynthesis is certainly straightforward, since practically all the terpenes, and it seems, a ridiculous number of biomolecules, are made from geranyl pyrophosphate. Ah, monoterpene synthases are ubiquitious, and linalool is but a drop in the acyclic terpene ocean, and as cool as the name may sound, there are lots to choose from in this group!

Similarly, the uniqueness of the name is outshone by the usefulness of the compound. As all chemicals go, the dosage can indicate the use. Linalool is found in pesticides, perfumes, and cigarettes, and the concentrations fall correspondingly from almost 90% to 5% to 5ppm. It seems nowadays practically everything can found at the 5 ppm level. Just look at the levels of cocaine in paper money – and somehow we humans survive still. Quantity is usually key to toxicity, except for maitotoxin – run away!

I suppose the bottom line is that linalool provides some fresh scents with a little bit of spice. I’ll try to  live up to that!

Oh, and here’s the my cat loves total synthesis photo! I don’t think he knows how to laugh out loud, sorry

my cat totally synthetic