20081129
20081127
20081126
Hi
SD airport the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is all kinds of insane. The plane ride is like a bus-with-wings ride except with offerings of juice and peanuts. The weather in Santa Clara is dismal after SD and I'm back!
20081125
In the basement torture chamber
Just had another one of those lab-lectures and oh. My. God. I just watched a mouse being intubated before a catheter's inserted into its carotid artery while another tube is inserted into its jugular vein for direct intravenous drug administration. It's like open-heart surgery -- you can't look away even if you're squeamish. Not to mention the data for systolic pressure and EGM and such was scrolling across the giant screen in front of the room and the ventilator was pretty loud. We got a crash course on AV blocking because apparently too much acetylcholine will cause the heart to stop beating. In order to insert the catheters the blood vessels have to be sutured both proximal and distal to the site of insertion and my god, I would like to take a moment to express my admiration of the lab tech's mad skills, given that this is a MOUSE and everything is in the millimeters range.
Then we watched the demo for echocardiography on the normal, hypertrophic, and transgenic mice. It is much less invasive but the mice still have to be knocked out since the fur in front of their chest needs to be shaved.
The room came with over-head surgery lights and everything. My God.
Then we watched the demo for echocardiography on the normal, hypertrophic, and transgenic mice. It is much less invasive but the mice still have to be knocked out since the fur in front of their chest needs to be shaved.
The room came with over-head surgery lights and everything. My God.
Insanities
It's approximately 8:37 in the morning and I, for some reason that I failed to understand at this point, have the DNA song stuck in my head.
Tuesday before Thanksgiving is always interesting. In college that seems to be the day when people starts leaving, and grad school is no except. There is a fraction of my classmates who are going to depart for one place or another after class today (ending at 11am). I, and the remaining fraction of people who are leaving (we do have a few who are either from some place too far to travel or are native) (hah native), will be going tomorrow. Emerald's said she can give me a ride to the airport, and I fully intend to take advantage of this by getting the stuff I mean to take back to the bay area for the holidays packed up. The next two trips from and to the air port are going to involve me, tangling with the public transit. I plan on traveling light. It's a good thing that it's already (mostly) a habit with me, anyway.
I will have my laptop with me. I will not have a book, because most of the leisure reading I own at this point are not light. But I will have my laptop and the first three pages of my lab report on it and a folder that contains at least five separate folders' worth of notes and data that I'll have to continue to sort into it so, provided that I don't a) forget to charge up the battery the night before and b) don't slump into a pre-Thanksgiving stupor and spend the entire time at the airport staring at people and scribbling with a pencil, I will also be productive! Productivity and Thanksgiving has ceased to be mutually exclusive my freshman year as an undergrad when the professor assigned us something right before it that was due right after it and then told us "Happy Thanksgiving!"
...and I just forgot the rest of what I was going to say. Well, it ends here then.
Tuesday before Thanksgiving is always interesting. In college that seems to be the day when people starts leaving, and grad school is no except. There is a fraction of my classmates who are going to depart for one place or another after class today (ending at 11am). I, and the remaining fraction of people who are leaving (we do have a few who are either from some place too far to travel or are native) (hah native), will be going tomorrow. Emerald's said she can give me a ride to the airport, and I fully intend to take advantage of this by getting the stuff I mean to take back to the bay area for the holidays packed up. The next two trips from and to the air port are going to involve me, tangling with the public transit. I plan on traveling light. It's a good thing that it's already (mostly) a habit with me, anyway.
I will have my laptop with me. I will not have a book, because most of the leisure reading I own at this point are not light. But I will have my laptop and the first three pages of my lab report on it and a folder that contains at least five separate folders' worth of notes and data that I'll have to continue to sort into it so, provided that I don't a) forget to charge up the battery the night before and b) don't slump into a pre-Thanksgiving stupor and spend the entire time at the airport staring at people and scribbling with a pencil, I will also be productive! Productivity and Thanksgiving has ceased to be mutually exclusive my freshman year as an undergrad when the professor assigned us something right before it that was due right after it and then told us "Happy Thanksgiving!"
...and I just forgot the rest of what I was going to say. Well, it ends here then.
20081124
Accoustics in class
Today we had our paper discussion for the current module: GPCRs (G-Protein Coupled Receptors) and cardiac hypertropy (enlargement of heart due a variety of reasons; can lead to heart failure). The PIs for this module (and we have four) decided to split the class to discuss each paper, and then swap half way through to discuss the other paper (and I win a point for recognizing what methylxanthine is). (It's caffeine.)
It happens that the PIs are also as fond of calling on random people as waiting for volunteers, so in a brief segue to why the transgenic mice had faster heart rates, the guy who is my sort-of lab partner (as in we have different projects but use almost the exact same protocols and about half of our results overlap, leading a great deal of "hey, so what're you doing for THIS" on our parts) got called on.
"What makes the heart rate go up?" asked the PI, obviously fishing for an answer.
"Adrenaline," said the guy.
And somehow the PI managed to hear "treadmill" instead of adrenaline and said "Treadmill? Good, good, that's the right answer" while the poor guy tried to explain that no, he said adrenaline, really. "But what does the signals act on?" continued the PI, blithely ignoring the protests.
"Uh," said the guy, "adrenaline receptors."
"Good," said the PI, "and what acts on adrenaline receptors?"
"...adrenaline." Said the guy.
"Great!" Said the PI, clearly pleased that he had led one student toward the light.
Meanwhile, those of us sitting near the guy had a brief outbreak of hilarity. The PI didn't get it, of course. He thought we pleased as punch because the guy got the fact that heart rate increase in this case is also due to adrenaline. (Well, and also the over-expression of receptors, but that's not relevant to the story.)
...
Gmail theme in Firefox is interesting. I tried the space one first (of course) except it made my inbox look like someone's flipped off the light switch. I wonder why anyone would care whether or not the inbox theme is location-based.
It happens that the PIs are also as fond of calling on random people as waiting for volunteers, so in a brief segue to why the transgenic mice had faster heart rates, the guy who is my sort-of lab partner (as in we have different projects but use almost the exact same protocols and about half of our results overlap, leading a great deal of "hey, so what're you doing for THIS" on our parts) got called on.
"What makes the heart rate go up?" asked the PI, obviously fishing for an answer.
"Adrenaline," said the guy.
And somehow the PI managed to hear "treadmill" instead of adrenaline and said "Treadmill? Good, good, that's the right answer" while the poor guy tried to explain that no, he said adrenaline, really. "But what does the signals act on?" continued the PI, blithely ignoring the protests.
"Uh," said the guy, "adrenaline receptors."
"Good," said the PI, "and what acts on adrenaline receptors?"
"...adrenaline." Said the guy.
"Great!" Said the PI, clearly pleased that he had led one student toward the light.
Meanwhile, those of us sitting near the guy had a brief outbreak of hilarity. The PI didn't get it, of course. He thought we pleased as punch because the guy got the fact that heart rate increase in this case is also due to adrenaline. (Well, and also the over-expression of receptors, but that's not relevant to the story.)
...
Gmail theme in Firefox is interesting. I tried the space one first (of course) except it made my inbox look like someone's flipped off the light switch. I wonder why anyone would care whether or not the inbox theme is location-based.
20081122
Possibly same family
Dear Diary,
Today the potatoes I bought produced a jalapeno pepper while they were sitting in my car trunk on the way back from Henry's. This is clearly a miracle of plant genetics. I wonder if I should do DNA fingerprinting but, more immediately, I wonder what I should do with the lone pepper. Put it up for adoption?
Lost,
-S
Today the potatoes I bought produced a jalapeno pepper while they were sitting in my car trunk on the way back from Henry's. This is clearly a miracle of plant genetics. I wonder if I should do DNA fingerprinting but, more immediately, I wonder what I should do with the lone pepper. Put it up for adoption?
Lost,
-S
20081121
No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition
Once every other week my mother inquires about whether or not I have a boyfriend yet. I'm starting to seriously consider the logistics of developing a teenage crush. Logically it seems fairly simple: crush = someone you like + physical attraction. Liking people is easy for me, even if trusting them may not always be. Considering that I spent most of my formative years being trained on how to notice the details of anything attractive around me and transferring them into 2D media, the case should be simple enough -- I find someone I like, pick out all the things that are attractive about him, and think about it enough until physical attraction develops.
On the other hand, I think I just used the word "logic" and "teenage crush" in the same paragraph and that may have just invalidated my entire hypothesis by default.
The other option is starting to go to bars after lab. Considering we just had three rape/assault cases at my school in the past month and that my female classmates who live near campus have taken to forming groups while leaving lab (or calling up escort service), and considering the fact that I get home by myself via bus after dark each day, I feel like I shouldn't push my luck too much. Also, I need to take into account the fact that I'm not sure if bars are the right place to start a long term relationship such as the ones that mom seems to have in mind. Add to that mix that I've never been in a bar before and I don't even drink alcohol and...oh dear, what would I be doing in a bar? Drink water and stare at ESPN?
On top of that (worrisome note: I'm proud of my patience, but it's not infinite and I'm not sure how long it'll last at the current rate) mom told me, cheerfully last night, that she'd prepared a list of questions she wanted to ask me and that I should set aside some time during the week that she has off so she can go through that list with me. She is my mother. I find the entire list-of-questions idea, quite frankly, terrifying. She means well. It's still terrifying. The chances that the experience will be traumatizing are just too high.
Help.
On the other hand, I think I just used the word "logic" and "teenage crush" in the same paragraph and that may have just invalidated my entire hypothesis by default.
The other option is starting to go to bars after lab. Considering we just had three rape/assault cases at my school in the past month and that my female classmates who live near campus have taken to forming groups while leaving lab (or calling up escort service), and considering the fact that I get home by myself via bus after dark each day, I feel like I shouldn't push my luck too much. Also, I need to take into account the fact that I'm not sure if bars are the right place to start a long term relationship such as the ones that mom seems to have in mind. Add to that mix that I've never been in a bar before and I don't even drink alcohol and...oh dear, what would I be doing in a bar? Drink water and stare at ESPN?
On top of that (worrisome note: I'm proud of my patience, but it's not infinite and I'm not sure how long it'll last at the current rate) mom told me, cheerfully last night, that she'd prepared a list of questions she wanted to ask me and that I should set aside some time during the week that she has off so she can go through that list with me. She is my mother. I find the entire list-of-questions idea, quite frankly, terrifying. She means well. It's still terrifying. The chances that the experience will be traumatizing are just too high.
Help.
20081120
On the socratic method
Teachers spend considerable amount of their time trying to get us to learn things. They aren't always successful.
For example, in some of the science classes, where concept is emphasized over details, when the professor starts flooding us with too much detail the automatic result is that, of course, the student tuning out, missing not only the details that are spewing out of the professor's mouth but the concept behind them as well. This is, I presume, why I'm encountering more and more alternative learning methods, specifically of the "problem-based-learning" kind. The idea behind it is encouraging: making sure the students have a good grasp of the concepts by giving them problems to solve that will force them to think about and use the knowledge taught in class. But as is the case with so many things in life -- the idealism simply doesn't hold up in the face of practicality.
A part of this (but by no means all) is due to the professors, who are, I have reasons to believe, no more familiar with this whole problem-based-learning shebang imparted by the higher-ups than the students are. For instance, they may forget that we're supposed to be applying the knowledge covered in class. Extra research is all and well in its own place, but each person does research differently and will narrow down different queries, so in the overall chase for information, the main concept of the lesson that is meant to be learned is often lost. The other part of the professor-induced headache is simply: please, please, PLEASE, read over the problems you wrote before you mail them to us. I've read riddles that are clearer than some of the instructions I've seen.
On the student's part there is always the question of work load and procrastination. Say that we're assigned a project as a group. The professors are often stumped at trying to get the work load distributed evenly within a group instead of either having a) one person doing all the work or b) one person whose lack of...um...let's call it "dedication", will impact the group as a whole.
The most fundamental problem, however, remains the fact that though you may lead a horse to water, you can't make it drink. Browbeat the students all you want, if we aren't interested, no amount of powerpoints will get us to think about the topic in anything more than a superficial level.
It is a good method. Personally I find it more enjoyable than the "memorize everything method" that persisted through most of high school and half of undergrad. However, it isn't perfect (nothing is) and I wish the people who're in charge would remember that.
Yes the feedback isn't as great as you would like, but take it with a grain of salt 'cause nothing's perfect and keep in mind that you have an unfortunate tendency to poll the students when they're at their worst (right before finals and post-project-panic slump).
For example, in some of the science classes, where concept is emphasized over details, when the professor starts flooding us with too much detail the automatic result is that, of course, the student tuning out, missing not only the details that are spewing out of the professor's mouth but the concept behind them as well. This is, I presume, why I'm encountering more and more alternative learning methods, specifically of the "problem-based-learning" kind. The idea behind it is encouraging: making sure the students have a good grasp of the concepts by giving them problems to solve that will force them to think about and use the knowledge taught in class. But as is the case with so many things in life -- the idealism simply doesn't hold up in the face of practicality.
A part of this (but by no means all) is due to the professors, who are, I have reasons to believe, no more familiar with this whole problem-based-learning shebang imparted by the higher-ups than the students are. For instance, they may forget that we're supposed to be applying the knowledge covered in class. Extra research is all and well in its own place, but each person does research differently and will narrow down different queries, so in the overall chase for information, the main concept of the lesson that is meant to be learned is often lost. The other part of the professor-induced headache is simply: please, please, PLEASE, read over the problems you wrote before you mail them to us. I've read riddles that are clearer than some of the instructions I've seen.
On the student's part there is always the question of work load and procrastination. Say that we're assigned a project as a group. The professors are often stumped at trying to get the work load distributed evenly within a group instead of either having a) one person doing all the work or b) one person whose lack of...um...let's call it "dedication", will impact the group as a whole.
The most fundamental problem, however, remains the fact that though you may lead a horse to water, you can't make it drink. Browbeat the students all you want, if we aren't interested, no amount of powerpoints will get us to think about the topic in anything more than a superficial level.
It is a good method. Personally I find it more enjoyable than the "memorize everything method" that persisted through most of high school and half of undergrad. However, it isn't perfect (nothing is) and I wish the people who're in charge would remember that.
Yes the feedback isn't as great as you would like, but take it with a grain of salt 'cause nothing's perfect and keep in mind that you have an unfortunate tendency to poll the students when they're at their worst (right before finals and post-project-panic slump).
20081118
Negative infinity
After an invigorating day involving raising 0 to the 0th power, limitations, and diabetic E. coli, it has come to my attention that I may be expected to work straight through spring break. I may be able to do shorter hours, depending on the PI, but lab time is pretty much a given.
Frankly, at the current conjuncture, this sucks.
Frankly, at the current conjuncture, this sucks.
Whooosh
That's what the whiteboard in my lab says. It may be symbolic.
Finished the project, which may turn out to be only half of the assignment for this module (everyone's expression when the PI announced this was...well about what you'd expect really, after a one-night group project involving extra reading and presentations). Doing G protein stuff next I think. Lab involves lots of annotating right now. I for some reason started craving cake about one hour ago.
Finished the project, which may turn out to be only half of the assignment for this module (everyone's expression when the PI announced this was...well about what you'd expect really, after a one-night group project involving extra reading and presentations). Doing G protein stuff next I think. Lab involves lots of annotating right now. I for some reason started craving cake about one hour ago.
20081117
Too much good intentions
Today we received a project on genetics (specifically disease mapping in genetics). It includes a problem set and a powerpoint presentation. The PI pointed out that he's making it a group project so that each of us has to do less work and he's making it due tomorrow so we can get it over with and not have to worry about it over Thanksgiving. Given that we already have a project that's due tomorrow, all of us are in lab rotations all around campus (and some off campus in research institutes) with different schedules, and we have to read additional papers in order to complete this project, most of us did not appreciate his thoughtfulness.
Online meeting in an hour. If I can managed to locate everyone.
Online meeting in an hour. If I can managed to locate everyone.
20081116
Sand everywhere
I went exploring this morning, taking the car with me through downtown La Jolla to Mission Beach. The downtown is cute (think Davis + Sebastopol at the edge of a beach), even if the roads made no logical sense. The beach-side walk is a little like 17 miles near Monterey, except with fewer trees. (SD as a whole has fewer trees.) I found the SD museum for contemporary arts which is decorated with a cluster of what appeared, on closer inspection, to be canoes, at one of the top corners of the building. There's a St. James church across from it and I could hear the choir singing inside while I walked by. I stayed for a few moments until the people who were sitting in front of the church started looking at me funny. I am happy to report, Lucy, that I did not fall into anything today, pits in the sand or otherwise.
Originally I meant to stop at Pacific Beach, but I was going down Missions and driving alongside the beach, through the beach-side communities, appears to be very hypnotic. Which was how I found myself in Mission Beach and had to take a u-turn to get back to the area that I drove through without blinking. (There are a lot of churches and a lot of liquor stores. I wondered if this is indicative of the type of people who lived there.) Going to the beach has apparently replaced baking as my Sunday morning activity. I suppose it's healthier, given how far I walked.
Facebook has too many additional applet things added. Instead of being helpful, now it just looks over-crowded.
[edit 13:04]
Wanted to add that I have just checked the weather and we're in the 90s down here.
Originally I meant to stop at Pacific Beach, but I was going down Missions and driving alongside the beach, through the beach-side communities, appears to be very hypnotic. Which was how I found myself in Mission Beach and had to take a u-turn to get back to the area that I drove through without blinking. (There are a lot of churches and a lot of liquor stores. I wondered if this is indicative of the type of people who lived there.) Going to the beach has apparently replaced baking as my Sunday morning activity. I suppose it's healthier, given how far I walked.
Facebook has too many additional applet things added. Instead of being helpful, now it just looks over-crowded.
[edit 13:04]
Wanted to add that I have just checked the weather and we're in the 90s down here.
20081115
This may be a problem
I have discovered that I'm quite abysmal at reviewing articles. I have no idea what to say and I am half one and a half paragraphs from finishing my assignment and I have no idea what to say.
The parts that I've already done felt like pulling teeth. By the time I found myself using terms such as "admirably methodological" parts of my brain wanted to die. Namely the part that, after all this time, has finally decided that hey, maybe writing can be fun. Not to mention that increasing the number of articles I have to read per week means that I'm increasing my exposure to available literature which, in turn, means that I get to encounter more of the badly written ones as well as the good. Right now I am seriously considering if it'll be possible for me to write all my future reports in bullet points which, of course, no respectable scientific journal would ever accept but since only the PI's going to be reading my current work anyway...
...he probably would still tell me to put it in a report format for possible future chances where things might get published. (Current chances of that happening fails the p-value cut off.) Darn it.
Still in the 80s. SD weather bizarre. Want iced tea.
The parts that I've already done felt like pulling teeth. By the time I found myself using terms such as "admirably methodological" parts of my brain wanted to die. Namely the part that, after all this time, has finally decided that hey, maybe writing can be fun. Not to mention that increasing the number of articles I have to read per week means that I'm increasing my exposure to available literature which, in turn, means that I get to encounter more of the badly written ones as well as the good. Right now I am seriously considering if it'll be possible for me to write all my future reports in bullet points which, of course, no respectable scientific journal would ever accept but since only the PI's going to be reading my current work anyway...
...he probably would still tell me to put it in a report format for possible future chances where things might get published. (Current chances of that happening fails the p-value cut off.) Darn it.
Still in the 80s. SD weather bizarre. Want iced tea.
20081113
Ha
This week's Protein With Too-Long Names award goes to:
Betaine-homocysteine S-Methyltransferase.
Congratulations, little protein.
[edit 16:03]
Nevermind, just found something named "NAD-dependent methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase-cyclohydrolase."
Betaine-homocysteine S-Methyltransferase.
Congratulations, little protein.
[edit 16:03]
Nevermind, just found something named "NAD-dependent methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase-cyclohydrolase."
20081112
All things being equal
I have taken the time to print out the 15 page article that I have to read and, in the process, gave myself a paper cut on my knuckles.
I can't remember the last time I got minor injuries. It's a strange feeling. Logically, I know I might've collected a bruise or two while moving because I never was very careful with corners and edges when I'm lugging things around but I don't remember anything from that. I have not actually gone out in the field at all and despite of what the signs say, I don't consider it to be a trail if there is cement involved. It's just wrong. There's no falling into creeks or stepping into gopher holes or finding mysterious cuts/bruises every other time that I shower. My apartment does provide the bugs though (have found a giant almost-cricket like thing -- same genus, probably -- by the garbage can the other day and had no idea where it came from) so I am not totally out of touch with nature. Though I admit that I would much prefer to remain in touch via the more appealing aspects and not, as the case appears to be, via the crawly critters. (Though if I keep my celery for much longer I may also establish connection with the saprobes.)
I will set a new record for talks/seminars attended per week tomorrow (four), and attempt to show interest in the evolutionary constraints of protein structures.
I can't remember the last time I got minor injuries. It's a strange feeling. Logically, I know I might've collected a bruise or two while moving because I never was very careful with corners and edges when I'm lugging things around but I don't remember anything from that. I have not actually gone out in the field at all and despite of what the signs say, I don't consider it to be a trail if there is cement involved. It's just wrong. There's no falling into creeks or stepping into gopher holes or finding mysterious cuts/bruises every other time that I shower. My apartment does provide the bugs though (have found a giant almost-cricket like thing -- same genus, probably -- by the garbage can the other day and had no idea where it came from) so I am not totally out of touch with nature. Though I admit that I would much prefer to remain in touch via the more appealing aspects and not, as the case appears to be, via the crawly critters. (Though if I keep my celery for much longer I may also establish connection with the saprobes.)
I will set a new record for talks/seminars attended per week tomorrow (four), and attempt to show interest in the evolutionary constraints of protein structures.
20081111
Kid me not
I have one article and its article review due next week. I have one huge article to read for tomorrow's class, another one for tomorrow's journal club, and then this morning I received an email from the PI who'll be teaching the next module (looks like I get to learn all about macular degeneration, what fun) (translation: loss of eye sight), and attached to the email is one article and the list for two books that I'm supposed to read for Thursday and Friday. Not page numbers in the books, nor chapters, just the books.
Now, I don't know about you, but even when I have nothing else to do but read (see: two weeks in the middle of summer) I still average about a book every three days. And I take a break in between the books to do other stuff. Two is beyond me. Especially at the same time. And I've been told that I read fairly fast so I have no idea what that PI's after, since I'm fairly sure that it's an improbable demand and I'm left wondering if I should even attempt to get my hands on those books because, com'on, each module lasts a week and a day at the most, and spending a hundred dollars on books that you'll not have time to read, that you will probably never read again afterwards seems kind of silly.
Those crazy crazy PIs. I wonder how the infectious diseases people are dealing with our size 11, single-spaced papers that they've asked us to write.
...
The lab building is mostly empty. It's strange.
Now, I don't know about you, but even when I have nothing else to do but read (see: two weeks in the middle of summer) I still average about a book every three days. And I take a break in between the books to do other stuff. Two is beyond me. Especially at the same time. And I've been told that I read fairly fast so I have no idea what that PI's after, since I'm fairly sure that it's an improbable demand and I'm left wondering if I should even attempt to get my hands on those books because, com'on, each module lasts a week and a day at the most, and spending a hundred dollars on books that you'll not have time to read, that you will probably never read again afterwards seems kind of silly.
Those crazy crazy PIs. I wonder how the infectious diseases people are dealing with our size 11, single-spaced papers that they've asked us to write.
...
The lab building is mostly empty. It's strange.
20081110
Heavy and light
We had to cover hematopoeitic stem cells today (translation, stem cells that make blood cells) and unfortunately for us, we get the stuff on B cells, which involved a lot of very dense text about immunology that most of us didn't care much about. (We have a grand total of two immunologists in the class.) As a result, I spent two hours contemplating which is worse -- structural biology or immunology? In the end I decided it's structural biology. Immunology, if I went insane (more insane) one day and decide to dedicate my life to understanding it, can actually be interesting. I can see how it can be interesting. Structural biology still fills me with dread. Therefore, structural biology wins. (Or loses, depending your perspective, I suppose.)
I have discovered today that a piece of information someone in my lab has found could mean that I may have to back and re-do everything I've done in my current lab, in terms of in silico experiments. As the PI pointed out, "Such is science." So now I'm sitting at home, drinking hot chocolate as a consolation of sorts. It's Swiss Miss, which is better than the Safeway brand, but still a bit too sweet for my taste. The coffee cart in front of one of the biomed buildings, where I got my cocoa last week, had surprisingly good chocolate. I wonder if I can inquire about the source of it, since I haven't really seen many other brands in stores. My other option is to say "heck with it" and get cocoa to make my own chocolate. It always grows more appealing as I drink more of the store-brought kind. Admittedly, some of them aren't too bad. Though the orange hot chocolate that Lucy and I tried over Halloween doesn't count. It's not only orange, but also tastes nothing like chocolate. Therefore it doesn't count.
Going into the lab tomorrow, though hopefully I won't stay the entire day. Cheers.
I have discovered today that a piece of information someone in my lab has found could mean that I may have to back and re-do everything I've done in my current lab, in terms of in silico experiments. As the PI pointed out, "Such is science." So now I'm sitting at home, drinking hot chocolate as a consolation of sorts. It's Swiss Miss, which is better than the Safeway brand, but still a bit too sweet for my taste. The coffee cart in front of one of the biomed buildings, where I got my cocoa last week, had surprisingly good chocolate. I wonder if I can inquire about the source of it, since I haven't really seen many other brands in stores. My other option is to say "heck with it" and get cocoa to make my own chocolate. It always grows more appealing as I drink more of the store-brought kind. Admittedly, some of them aren't too bad. Though the orange hot chocolate that Lucy and I tried over Halloween doesn't count. It's not only orange, but also tastes nothing like chocolate. Therefore it doesn't count.
Going into the lab tomorrow, though hopefully I won't stay the entire day. Cheers.
20081109
Dear Diary
Dear Diary,
Today a spider crawled down my shirt. I considered the merits of wearing shirts that are less baggy. And the merits of short hair. (Eight more inches to go.)
-S
Today a spider crawled down my shirt. I considered the merits of wearing shirts that are less baggy. And the merits of short hair. (Eight more inches to go.)
-S
20081108
Just in, from my inbox
Are you someone eager to embark on a highly exciting and exacting new venture expected to make a significant impact on the Life Sciences community?
Are you willing to risk following an atypical career path where what really counts is how much you contribute to knowledge discovery and propagation?
Are you interested in working with the people who are behind world-renowned resources such as Swiss-Prot, PROSITE and ExPASy .
If you answered yes to these three questions, keep reading!
...I didn't know that exciting and exacting can be mutually inclusive. Also -- "knowledge propagation" makes me think of propaganda.
The Recruit-A-Scientist people sometimes scare me when they get all gung ho about things. I mean yes, science is exciting, but their enthusiasm always seems to have a faintly maniac feel to it for some reason.
Hot fuzz
The dryer did something to one pair of my socks and now the socks are staticky (and fuzzy, but you get shocked if touch the fuzz). Just that one pair. All the other pairs are fine. How is that even possible?
Capisce?
In my experience, generally the MDs are better lecturers than PhDs because they keep track of the bigger picture throughout the lecturer and are less likely to flood you with a deluge of the nitty-gritty that you won't remember and that they don't expect you to remember. The PhDs do, however, have more diagrams and are generally less likely to have photos (read: clinical case profiles) that make you want to hurl. Therefore, on the whole, it balances out. It also gives me the inspiration to try to make my future talks more MD-like in terms of structure. I keep all my shiny CGIs, of course.
...
I don't know if it's Do Your Laundry Day or what, but it was hard to find an empty washer this morning! Normal people are not generally known to do their laundry before 8am on a Saturday. Yet, in inexplicably, I find all of the washers filled and one girl standing ready to use the washer that I had used as soon as I emptied it (before you say anything, I slept all the way until 7:30 this morning so see? Adjustment). Such a thing has never happened to me before.
...
Weather here still beautiful. It's finally gotten cold enough for me to put away (most of) my t-shirts. There's something decidedly strange about my ability to wander around in my shirtsleeves in the middle of November. I don't think I've ever gone so long in a year without wearing a sweater before. It's a novel experience. I can feel my horizons expanding already.
...
I don't know if it's Do Your Laundry Day or what, but it was hard to find an empty washer this morning! Normal people are not generally known to do their laundry before 8am on a Saturday. Yet, in inexplicably, I find all of the washers filled and one girl standing ready to use the washer that I had used as soon as I emptied it (before you say anything, I slept all the way until 7:30 this morning so see? Adjustment). Such a thing has never happened to me before.
...
Weather here still beautiful. It's finally gotten cold enough for me to put away (most of) my t-shirts. There's something decidedly strange about my ability to wander around in my shirtsleeves in the middle of November. I don't think I've ever gone so long in a year without wearing a sweater before. It's a novel experience. I can feel my horizons expanding already.
20081107
I think about crayons
Yesterday's lecture was pretty neat: for the second half of it we got a tour into the lecturing professors' labs. There was this one microscope demo where we got to look at a fish embryo (which can live temporarily in jello -- well it's got a fancier name than that, but it's still, in essence, jello -- just fine) that has had all of its red blood cells labeled so that they glow in the dark (and the microscope room is a bit like a dark room). When you zoom in you can see the little glowing cells as they are pumped through the embryo's beating heart.
Way cool.
It's my opinion that our lecturers should do things like this more often, instead of setting us up for more rounds of problem-based-learning (which never fail to remind me unpleasantly of the physics 7 series at Davis). Speaking of which, I just sent in my nephrology homework (bye-bye Liddle's syndrome, I wash my hands of you) and so now I only have two more projects pending. If I'm very good I'll get both done on Saturday and wander off somewhere Sunday that involves no more reading of scientific articles.
Cheers.
I dreamed last night that everyone -- that is, to say, all the Lunatics -- was at Great America, at the funnel-cake place. Lucy wanted to go on the giant pirate ship and Anna wanted to buy a muffin. I was almost nostalgic when I woke up. Then I realized that it was only 6:30 (I will adjust, before April comes around, too) and decided to try to go back to sleep.
Way cool.
It's my opinion that our lecturers should do things like this more often, instead of setting us up for more rounds of problem-based-learning (which never fail to remind me unpleasantly of the physics 7 series at Davis). Speaking of which, I just sent in my nephrology homework (bye-bye Liddle's syndrome, I wash my hands of you) and so now I only have two more projects pending. If I'm very good I'll get both done on Saturday and wander off somewhere Sunday that involves no more reading of scientific articles.
Cheers.
I dreamed last night that everyone -- that is, to say, all the Lunatics -- was at Great America, at the funnel-cake place. Lucy wanted to go on the giant pirate ship and Anna wanted to buy a muffin. I was almost nostalgic when I woke up. Then I realized that it was only 6:30 (I will adjust, before April comes around, too) and decided to try to go back to sleep.
20081105
This page will always be under construction
When you reach the personal webpages for the open-source programs written by eclectic scientists, sometimes you encounter all sorts of things.
So: Obama won! (Part of my brain is still stuck on the "It happened! It really happened!" stage.) Prop 3 passed, 6 and 7 and 10 didn't, which made me happy. 8 and 9 passed, which I'm not very happy about. However, recalling what fragments I can of history and societal progression, I can make the analogy to evolution -- aside from moments of frenetic, catastrophic activity, progress, most of the time, is composed mostly of a lot of little changes for better or for worse that don't add up to much in terms of overall directionality. It's like a march through a lake of molasses or something. Progress and evolution are hard work. If we're lucky, natural selection is our friend and not the force that wipes our species off of the planet.
On that note: current program most frustrating, file conversion failures abound, not to mention lack of clear directions as to why the the connectivity between atoms are not recognized. At least I got a few pretty CGI from yesterday. I'm not sure what I'll get from today aside from, apparently, a seminar on the theoretical structural effects on proteins arising from genetic polymorphisms.
Someone has turned on the heater in my lab building. It is strange, since SD's in the 70s right now. My "office" is slightly cooler but out on the sunny lobby area it's vaguely like summer.
So: Obama won! (Part of my brain is still stuck on the "It happened! It really happened!" stage.) Prop 3 passed, 6 and 7 and 10 didn't, which made me happy. 8 and 9 passed, which I'm not very happy about. However, recalling what fragments I can of history and societal progression, I can make the analogy to evolution -- aside from moments of frenetic, catastrophic activity, progress, most of the time, is composed mostly of a lot of little changes for better or for worse that don't add up to much in terms of overall directionality. It's like a march through a lake of molasses or something. Progress and evolution are hard work. If we're lucky, natural selection is our friend and not the force that wipes our species off of the planet.
On that note: current program most frustrating, file conversion failures abound, not to mention lack of clear directions as to why the the connectivity between atoms are not recognized. At least I got a few pretty CGI from yesterday. I'm not sure what I'll get from today aside from, apparently, a seminar on the theoretical structural effects on proteins arising from genetic polymorphisms.
Someone has turned on the heater in my lab building. It is strange, since SD's in the 70s right now. My "office" is slightly cooler but out on the sunny lobby area it's vaguely like summer.
20081104
First election!
I didn't receive my notice for voting (the one that tells me I'm registered and where to go) until yesterday. Given that I didn't get home until around 6pm, I was in a state of mild anxiety about it all day. However, I did receive it, and immediately afterward I spent two hours reading about the props on the ballot. (Let it never be said that I don't make an effort to be an informed voter.) The first hour was fun, the second hour, less so. Partly it was because by that time the conflicting information was starting to annoy me (I tried to read something unbiased about the prop, and then something for it and something against it, before finding out who's backing it/opposing it -- in that order, because I was trying to reduce possible bias on my part). (Legal speak is worse than science speak, because at least science speak I can sympathize with and understand at some level, even if the technical details don't make much sense.) The other part was that by that time, either my internet or some of the info sites were starting to crash, and waiting for the site to load got very old very quickly. By the time I got to prop 11 -- which I didn't exactly know what it was and three sites failed to load consecutively -- I was contemplating calling Kate up for a crash course. The smartvoter site finally loaded though, followed by an SF site, so it all ended well.
(Though for some of the props I just -- it sounded so good at first until you get to the details and then -- hire some scientists, people. We don't bite. Except for maybe some of the physicists but physicists are a strange bunch on the whole and shouldn't be held accountable as a valid representation of the scientific community. It was awful. I wanted to vote yes on the idea but the reality was less than idealistic.)
Got up at 6:50am this morning to vote (don't know when I'll be home tonight and I just know the after-work crowd will be bad), which was exciting since this's my first election and a potentially history making election at that (though if McCain wins I may have to take a leaf out of the book of my high school teachers and wear black). The prop 8 guy out front told me that the line was only about 20 minutes, except for the part where I had to wait over 45 minutes and I missed a bus by a second (as in I was standing in front of the bus door when it pulled away) and so ended up spending a while out of breath and dripping in the rain. But I didn't mind and you know why? Because it wasn't cold. (SD weather = love.) At least not until I got to my classroom, which is always cold and can possibly be used as an icebox in emergencies.
Emerald was telling me about how it felt vaguely like Christmas this morning. I thought about my sense of anticipation and admitted that she had a point, and went to get a hot chocolate after class because a) it's a Christmas thing and b) after sitting for two hours in the Icebox in damp clothing, I was really cold.
Will be obsessively checking the results later today in google news. Fingers crossed, everyone!
(And now that I've had the whole wait-in-line experience, I think I'll vote absentee the next time.)
(Though for some of the props I just -- it sounded so good at first until you get to the details and then -- hire some scientists, people. We don't bite. Except for maybe some of the physicists but physicists are a strange bunch on the whole and shouldn't be held accountable as a valid representation of the scientific community. It was awful. I wanted to vote yes on the idea but the reality was less than idealistic.)
Got up at 6:50am this morning to vote (don't know when I'll be home tonight and I just know the after-work crowd will be bad), which was exciting since this's my first election and a potentially history making election at that (though if McCain wins I may have to take a leaf out of the book of my high school teachers and wear black). The prop 8 guy out front told me that the line was only about 20 minutes, except for the part where I had to wait over 45 minutes and I missed a bus by a second (as in I was standing in front of the bus door when it pulled away) and so ended up spending a while out of breath and dripping in the rain. But I didn't mind and you know why? Because it wasn't cold. (SD weather = love.) At least not until I got to my classroom, which is always cold and can possibly be used as an icebox in emergencies.
Emerald was telling me about how it felt vaguely like Christmas this morning. I thought about my sense of anticipation and admitted that she had a point, and went to get a hot chocolate after class because a) it's a Christmas thing and b) after sitting for two hours in the Icebox in damp clothing, I was really cold.
Will be obsessively checking the results later today in google news. Fingers crossed, everyone!
(And now that I've had the whole wait-in-line experience, I think I'll vote absentee the next time.)
20081103
And then for irony
When I clicked on "bug reporting" for this program that I'm running (at the prompt of the program, no less), I got:
"Error occurent while retrieving help page. Please contact your administrator."
"Error occurent while retrieving help page. Please contact your administrator."
Baaack
And it's good. I like the basic html thing and the way the post page is organized. The lack of lj cut will be missed but this is familiar, and this blog and I have history.
I woke up earlier than usual this morning of course, the end of daylight saving having not affected my circadian rhythm in academia yet. Consequently I had almost an hour this morning that was open. Needless to say I was very productive -- I went to school early, sat down in the biomed library, and finished half of the project (nephrology and sodium transport this time) that's due this Friday.
It was excellent timing, since we just got another project on diabetes mellitus today. (Type II, I think, though it'll have more to do with the specific molecular signaling downstream and the type of diabetes shouldn't matter as much then.)
We had a seminar in the lab today. It was more computer programing than structural biology and so I understood slightly more than I otherwise would have. A very good feeling all around.
Ah yes, I went to Lucy's over the weekend after I figured out that I have nothing immediately due (the lack of syllabus made things unpredictable and annoying). The traffic between SD and LA on the Friday That Is Halloween is pretty spectacular. In the bad sense. There were lots of cops around the LA region too, which I had plenty of time to observe.
LA has weather, but now SD does too: it rained this morning. (Admittedly now we're back at the blue skies again, which is nice and will perhaps make my apartment less damp and depressing.) (Damp apartments depress me.)
Lucy and I made The Pie That Is Supposed To Be Filled With Peach, But Perhaps Isn't, Really. It was still pretty good though, and now we both know what to do if we want to make a genuine peach pie. We also took photos, which Lucy will post some day before December, and toasted to Kate Not Dying, as Lucy got a call from her during pie-time that made us think the toast should be in order.
Anna, we have a photo for your to prove your good influence on our dietary health.
Also started Christmas shopping. Not the whole presents/mailing list, though, which I will work on sometime this week after the kidney thing and before the diabetes thing.
Unrelated:
This comic is completely true, by the way.
I woke up earlier than usual this morning of course, the end of daylight saving having not affected my circadian rhythm in academia yet. Consequently I had almost an hour this morning that was open. Needless to say I was very productive -- I went to school early, sat down in the biomed library, and finished half of the project (nephrology and sodium transport this time) that's due this Friday.
It was excellent timing, since we just got another project on diabetes mellitus today. (Type II, I think, though it'll have more to do with the specific molecular signaling downstream and the type of diabetes shouldn't matter as much then.)
We had a seminar in the lab today. It was more computer programing than structural biology and so I understood slightly more than I otherwise would have. A very good feeling all around.
Ah yes, I went to Lucy's over the weekend after I figured out that I have nothing immediately due (the lack of syllabus made things unpredictable and annoying). The traffic between SD and LA on the Friday That Is Halloween is pretty spectacular. In the bad sense. There were lots of cops around the LA region too, which I had plenty of time to observe.
LA has weather, but now SD does too: it rained this morning. (Admittedly now we're back at the blue skies again, which is nice and will perhaps make my apartment less damp and depressing.) (Damp apartments depress me.)
Lucy and I made The Pie That Is Supposed To Be Filled With Peach, But Perhaps Isn't, Really. It was still pretty good though, and now we both know what to do if we want to make a genuine peach pie. We also took photos, which Lucy will post some day before December, and toasted to Kate Not Dying, as Lucy got a call from her during pie-time that made us think the toast should be in order.
Anna, we have a photo for your to prove your good influence on our dietary health.
Also started Christmas shopping. Not the whole presents/mailing list, though, which I will work on sometime this week after the kidney thing and before the diabetes thing.
Unrelated:
This comic is completely true, by the way.
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