Went to Lucy's place this weekend (lol her mother likes me because I drag Lucy up at 8 in the morning and we go walking). I am still occasionally confused by the door that leads into the courtyard of her apartment complex, but given a few seconds I can now figure it out on my own. Cheers.
We also went to the Griffith Observatory, where I sat through my first planetarium show. It was magical unicorn fairy dust. I lack words to adequately describe how awesome it is to have stars and galaxies whirl past you, overhead. Though the narrator ruined it a little. PLANET EARTH has nothing on the overly-dramatic. I wanted to laugh a little in the introduction portion, but felt that it wouldn't be polite.
It was very scenic up in the mountain, despite of the fact that it was cloudy. Lucy pointed out the giant advertisements that she photographed and then posted in her lj. Yes they were that big. You could literally seen them from the mountains.
We also played Sims and I learned that toddlers apparently make people insane. This may or may not bear actual semblance to real life.
Nick still sucks at looking somber.
We found Tamaki on Twitter. It is frighteningly in character, complete with the roses. I was surprised that the person didn't employ animated glittering fonts. You can still feel the glittery-ness though.
Right-o, onward to next week!
20090531
20090529
20090528
Huh
WTH I just received credit in my student account of over 1k. Why is it there? Is it the "congrats you've joined a lab" bonus? I know you get a raise if you join the pharm track, which I'm not in, but, what?
And then, possibly, tea
I have finished a training course this week and foresee at least another three before summer's over. Presentation in the lab of my previous rotation tomorrow (due to scheduling issues). Meeting with my first year advisor next Tuesday to sign off on my progress report (after this year, I hear, you get to try to get a sign off from your thesis committee, what fun). I think I'm going to do my presentation on prion disease on the Tuesday after next week, which means a lot of background reading, I expect. Finally figured out how to get the authorization for the password that will, hopefully,get me a security badge to the basement of our lab building someday. Cell lines are fine. I need to get hand sanitizer, still.
Geez it's almost nine.
No tea then.
Geez it's almost nine.
No tea then.
20090525
Mm cookies
Taken from Le Pichon et al., 2008, from Nature Neuroscience:
(Was reading this for a project presentation and wanted to share. That is all.)
(It is what it sounds like: you take a cookie, bury it in the bedding, and see how long it takes the mouse to find it.)
Here we uncovered a previously unknown phenotype of Prnp–/– mice in the olfactory system by using a combination of genetic, behavioral and physiological techniques in a systems approach. We employed the so-called 'cookie-finding task', a test of broad olfactory acuity, to analyze a battery of mice, including PrPC knockouts on multiple genetic backgrounds and transgenic mice in which Prnp expression was driven by cell type–specific promoters.
(Was reading this for a project presentation and wanted to share. That is all.)
(It is what it sounds like: you take a cookie, bury it in the bedding, and see how long it takes the mouse to find it.)
20090522
In which I should probably go to sleep and call it a day
A bunch of things in no particular order, because it's late on Friday and my brain is more than a little fried:
Workload in the upcoming week -- three readings for the ethics course, two for the presentation I have to give next Friday, the presentation that I have to give next Friday, one paper for the presentation due in June, the presentation due in June, and a written response for the ethics course that is thankfully short, so I won't start on it until late next week.
As for lab right now -- I've five plates of bacteria with eight different vectors (PI decided to do two per plate, not sure why since I made about 30 plates and they last only six months, anyway, before the antibiotics degrade), three different cell lines, and reagents for three different treatments. I've finished a first round this week, with two vectors and one cell line for all three treatments! (Whoo, productive week!) Unfortunately one of the treatment didn't turn out that well, so I'll need to play around with it to get better results (and also optimize another one, but at least that one sort of worked whereas this one didn't). I'll need to go in on Monday to get some things started. I also need to email a whole bunch of people about equipment and paperwork for training, which I have to do next week as well.
Oh and the oil-immersion lens' resolution sucks.
I also have to go to a safety training thing next week. Which should be fun. Not. (Do they make it boring on purpose? I've often wondered.)
... ...
Last night I had a dream in which I had to identify cones of gymnosperms. There were cones from pines, firs, sequoias. They were all in these plastic trays, similar to the ones during the labs in floristics. I remember wanting to ID this one thing as something from cedar of Lebanon, except from what I retain of the image from my dream, upon waking, it doesn't really look anything Cedrus lebani. I wonder if this is symbolic of anything.
... ...
I got this in one of the school-wide flyer-emails this week:
It sounds awesome. Doesn't it sound awesome? Unfortunately I had both lab and class in that time (not surprising, since that's a huge chunk of time right there) and so couldn't make it. Now I'm tempted to look up hologram-building. And maybe try to make one the next time I have the time & leisure to do so (which is not in the foreseeable future, but well).
... ...
I should do laundry. Maybe tomorrow morning.
Workload in the upcoming week -- three readings for the ethics course, two for the presentation I have to give next Friday, the presentation that I have to give next Friday, one paper for the presentation due in June, the presentation due in June, and a written response for the ethics course that is thankfully short, so I won't start on it until late next week.
As for lab right now -- I've five plates of bacteria with eight different vectors (PI decided to do two per plate, not sure why since I made about 30 plates and they last only six months, anyway, before the antibiotics degrade), three different cell lines, and reagents for three different treatments. I've finished a first round this week, with two vectors and one cell line for all three treatments! (Whoo, productive week!) Unfortunately one of the treatment didn't turn out that well, so I'll need to play around with it to get better results (and also optimize another one, but at least that one sort of worked whereas this one didn't). I'll need to go in on Monday to get some things started. I also need to email a whole bunch of people about equipment and paperwork for training, which I have to do next week as well.
Oh and the oil-immersion lens' resolution sucks.
I also have to go to a safety training thing next week. Which should be fun. Not. (Do they make it boring on purpose? I've often wondered.)
... ...
Last night I had a dream in which I had to identify cones of gymnosperms. There were cones from pines, firs, sequoias. They were all in these plastic trays, similar to the ones during the labs in floristics. I remember wanting to ID this one thing as something from cedar of Lebanon, except from what I retain of the image from my dream, upon waking, it doesn't really look anything Cedrus lebani. I wonder if this is symbolic of anything.
... ...
I got this in one of the school-wide flyer-emails this week:
5/22 • 10:00 AM-3:00 PM
Fri, May 22 - EBU1 Rm B706
Ever wonder how a hologram works? Want to make one yourself? Come to our Spring Hologram Workshop and you can bring your own object to image. For more info, see listing at right (Entertainment & Fun).
It sounds awesome. Doesn't it sound awesome? Unfortunately I had both lab and class in that time (not surprising, since that's a huge chunk of time right there) and so couldn't make it. Now I'm tempted to look up hologram-building. And maybe try to make one the next time I have the time & leisure to do so (which is not in the foreseeable future, but well).
... ...
I should do laundry. Maybe tomorrow morning.
20090521
Gone phishing
Got an email sent by alerts@bankofamerica.com complete with logos and my name and everything. It said that a third party tampered with my account (or something like) and now they have to freeze it, and to reactivate it I need to follow the link in the email and fill out some information etc etc. Being naturally suspicious, I read over the email three times, switched over to my oldest laptop, and clicked on the link and noticed the secure website color code that usually came on in the url field didn't come on, which made me even more paranoid. Have just called (super fun to come home late and realize that you have to call the bank to ask about a possibly frozen account, no?) and was informed that it was, very likely, phishing. Have forwarded email to the reporting center at the bank. Have received email back within five minutes confirming that it is fake. Heaved a sigh of relief at being paranoid and not filling out any information for that email, because otherwise I'd be very sad right now.
Some of you will be getting the forwarded fake email from me. It's pretty well made, all things considered, no?
On a happier note, dad has recovered enough from jet lag to send me an email with a few photos he took when he went to the botanical garden at Beijing that he thought I might like. Here's one:
Almost as good as a dose of chocolate.
Some of you will be getting the forwarded fake email from me. It's pretty well made, all things considered, no?
On a happier note, dad has recovered enough from jet lag to send me an email with a few photos he took when he went to the botanical garden at Beijing that he thought I might like. Here's one:
Almost as good as a dose of chocolate.
The European Journal of Pain
My lab life ate my life.
I usually depart for school around 7:45 each morning and I've already had the pleasure of leaving lab at a quarter to 7, which means that by the time I got home, almost a full 12 hours would have past. The oddest part of this (after eight-to-five shifts of the previous rotation) is that I don't mind. Much. (I do mind when I don't get to eat lunch until 4:30, because being hungry for that long makes me cranky.) There is always something to do. Further more, there is always something I find interesting to do. My current philosophy seems to be that, if the PIs expect us to work 60 hours a week, I might as well as spend 60 hours a week on something that I'm interesting.
I.e. week two is progressing nicely.
My parents are paying a visit this weekend. Dad just came back from China on Monday. I may have to go in lab on Monday though, but we'll see.
And yes, that journal does exist. We're having a discussion on it. Now.
I usually depart for school around 7:45 each morning and I've already had the pleasure of leaving lab at a quarter to 7, which means that by the time I got home, almost a full 12 hours would have past. The oddest part of this (after eight-to-five shifts of the previous rotation) is that I don't mind. Much. (I do mind when I don't get to eat lunch until 4:30, because being hungry for that long makes me cranky.) There is always something to do. Further more, there is always something I find interesting to do. My current philosophy seems to be that, if the PIs expect us to work 60 hours a week, I might as well as spend 60 hours a week on something that I'm interesting.
I.e. week two is progressing nicely.
My parents are paying a visit this weekend. Dad just came back from China on Monday. I may have to go in lab on Monday though, but we'll see.
And yes, that journal does exist. We're having a discussion on it. Now.
20090516
In which there is karaoke
I feel much more human after ten hours of sleep. As predicted, the retreat made me somewhat sleep-deprived, though I am much better off than many of my classmates and faculty (for reasons that will be explained later). However, on the whole, it's great fun! We're far enough from SD that, despite of the fact that something like 80% of us brought work with us (100% of the faculty, but that's a given), none of us disappeared into labs halfway through (aside from certain PIs, but that's also a given). The talks are 15 minutes long each and strung into mandatory sessions, but we also get socializing hours (which I avoided mostly after my first one) and free time for half a day on Thursday, so combined with no classes and no labs, it's a bit like a vacation.
Riding on in a bus full of biogeeks is kind of fun. We watched PLANET EARTH on our way there and PLANET EARTH and RATATOUILLE (but mostly PLANET EARTH) on our way back (when I also had the dubious pleasure of having a PI sit next to me. He fell asleep half way through PLANET EARTH). I don't know about my classmates, but I for one started making little corrections in my head as I watched. We did get to see the part with the tundra and the caribou, which made me think of DUE SOUTH. Then were was the part about grasses and such where I kept thinking "Well, technically...". I'd forgotten how overly dramatic the narration and soundtrack for those sort of things and was Very Amused at the music accompanying caribou migration.
My roommate was kind of bad the first night, mostly because she kept forgetting that I existed before inviting her guy over (who happened to be my classmate, and I'm going to pretend that I went deaf / didn't speak Chinese for a few hours on Wednesday because otherwise things would be very awkward for the rest of my classes). But she remembered the next day though, which was good. The place was very ...homey, in a rustic kind of way. My room didn't get wireless, for various reasons that don't need to be explored at this juncture, but it is in a building named "Ponderosa". In fact, all the rooms are in plant-named buildings (at first I thought it was just trees, then I saw "Acorn"), which was cute.
The talks were fairly good, though there was a panel discussion about fellowships that made me realize I should perhaps considering applying for something over the summer (you could feel the pressure in the room build up as the discussion went on). We got fed a lot and my PI showed up the morning of the second day, only to disappear again as suddenly. I heard he left after lunch. Certainly he was standing in the lab with a gel tray in his hands when I returned yesterday. I was a little...nonplussed to see him the instant I stepped inside the lab.
On my free hours on Thursday I went for a hike by the lake (will post photos later to Facebook), which didn't take long, then went back, showered, and finished BELOVED. A lot of my classmates went to the pool or played volleyball (though there was a notable exception who wanted to swim across the lake -- I never found out whether she did it or not) and had tired themselves out enough that they were all sleepy during dinner. Which meant a bunch of them went to nap after dinner and came back later for the socializing hour / karaoke, which lasted until the wee hours of the morning. (I stayed for the department panel and went to sleep during socializing -- I managed to endure about fifty minutes of socializing my first day there and had to go and take a nap afterward because of a headache.) (I don't MEAN to be so antisocial, but the amount of small talk -- and you always get asked exactly the same thing every time someone comes up to you --gets tiresome really fast.) However, from what I've heard, karaoke is a lot more popular than dancing ever was. As in, there was more people dancing during karaoke than there ever was during dancing. More specifically, I heard that the faculty eventually got into it too and some of them even went up to sing while others randomly grabbed people -- students and faculty alike -- and fake swing-danced them around the room. My labmate claims she has filmed this. I am kind of boggled by the idea of some of the faculty who are there, swing-dancing.
I had the idea of a beer-pong explained to me. I had concluded that people are very, very strange. The next morning one of the faculty was so hung over that he had to switch his speaking time with someone else. On the whole though, most of the faculty were up freakishly early. By which I mean that when I went down for my tea in the morning there was a whole ensemble of faculty sitting right there by the tea with their laptops out. It was a little unnerving. I've heard more than one student wonder how they do it. PIs, we concluded, are very mysterious beings.
I met Tiffany, who was a labtech in my current lab before she became a grad student. She promised to teach me how to do brains slice cultures. I also learned a lot about the processes of grad school from my upperclassmen, a great deal of which is about getting papers submitted and how the reviewers have an uncanny ability to slowly destroy your will to live. (I take hope from the fact that all of them are still alive and I've so far only heard of one grad student who had a nervous breakdown.) All the sessions are announced with a gong, which was...strange. (Seriously, why a gong? Why not a bell? Or a buzzer? Every time I hear it I think of summer fairs when I was little.)
Upon returning I found my cell lines to be alive and well, which means I can go ahead with the rest of the experiments next week. All is well with my world.
And now, to the animal shelter!
Riding on in a bus full of biogeeks is kind of fun. We watched PLANET EARTH on our way there and PLANET EARTH and RATATOUILLE (but mostly PLANET EARTH) on our way back (when I also had the dubious pleasure of having a PI sit next to me. He fell asleep half way through PLANET EARTH). I don't know about my classmates, but I for one started making little corrections in my head as I watched. We did get to see the part with the tundra and the caribou, which made me think of DUE SOUTH. Then were was the part about grasses and such where I kept thinking "Well, technically...". I'd forgotten how overly dramatic the narration and soundtrack for those sort of things and was Very Amused at the music accompanying caribou migration.
My roommate was kind of bad the first night, mostly because she kept forgetting that I existed before inviting her guy over (who happened to be my classmate, and I'm going to pretend that I went deaf / didn't speak Chinese for a few hours on Wednesday because otherwise things would be very awkward for the rest of my classes). But she remembered the next day though, which was good. The place was very ...homey, in a rustic kind of way. My room didn't get wireless, for various reasons that don't need to be explored at this juncture, but it is in a building named "Ponderosa". In fact, all the rooms are in plant-named buildings (at first I thought it was just trees, then I saw "Acorn"), which was cute.
The talks were fairly good, though there was a panel discussion about fellowships that made me realize I should perhaps considering applying for something over the summer (you could feel the pressure in the room build up as the discussion went on). We got fed a lot and my PI showed up the morning of the second day, only to disappear again as suddenly. I heard he left after lunch. Certainly he was standing in the lab with a gel tray in his hands when I returned yesterday. I was a little...nonplussed to see him the instant I stepped inside the lab.
On my free hours on Thursday I went for a hike by the lake (will post photos later to Facebook), which didn't take long, then went back, showered, and finished BELOVED. A lot of my classmates went to the pool or played volleyball (though there was a notable exception who wanted to swim across the lake -- I never found out whether she did it or not) and had tired themselves out enough that they were all sleepy during dinner. Which meant a bunch of them went to nap after dinner and came back later for the socializing hour / karaoke, which lasted until the wee hours of the morning. (I stayed for the department panel and went to sleep during socializing -- I managed to endure about fifty minutes of socializing my first day there and had to go and take a nap afterward because of a headache.) (I don't MEAN to be so antisocial, but the amount of small talk -- and you always get asked exactly the same thing every time someone comes up to you --gets tiresome really fast.) However, from what I've heard, karaoke is a lot more popular than dancing ever was. As in, there was more people dancing during karaoke than there ever was during dancing. More specifically, I heard that the faculty eventually got into it too and some of them even went up to sing while others randomly grabbed people -- students and faculty alike -- and fake swing-danced them around the room. My labmate claims she has filmed this. I am kind of boggled by the idea of some of the faculty who are there, swing-dancing.
I had the idea of a beer-pong explained to me. I had concluded that people are very, very strange. The next morning one of the faculty was so hung over that he had to switch his speaking time with someone else. On the whole though, most of the faculty were up freakishly early. By which I mean that when I went down for my tea in the morning there was a whole ensemble of faculty sitting right there by the tea with their laptops out. It was a little unnerving. I've heard more than one student wonder how they do it. PIs, we concluded, are very mysterious beings.
I met Tiffany, who was a labtech in my current lab before she became a grad student. She promised to teach me how to do brains slice cultures. I also learned a lot about the processes of grad school from my upperclassmen, a great deal of which is about getting papers submitted and how the reviewers have an uncanny ability to slowly destroy your will to live. (I take hope from the fact that all of them are still alive and I've so far only heard of one grad student who had a nervous breakdown.) All the sessions are announced with a gong, which was...strange. (Seriously, why a gong? Why not a bell? Or a buzzer? Every time I hear it I think of summer fairs when I was little.)
Upon returning I found my cell lines to be alive and well, which means I can go ahead with the rest of the experiments next week. All is well with my world.
And now, to the animal shelter!
20090515
Hihi
Back. It was fun. Too tired to post much now. Will go eat dinner and clean up stuff (have showered). May type a detailed post tomorrow.
20090512
BBL
Will be going to department retreat. Leaving SD at noon tomorrow and will not be returning until late Friday.
Cheers.
Cheers.
20090511
Smoke on
Dear Diary,
I went to the Air Show yesterday despite of stats and enjoyed myself very much! I stayed far longer than I expected and got sunburned for the first time in my life (at least the silly flush has mostly died down by now), but it was totally worth it.
-S
I went to the Air Show yesterday despite of stats and enjoyed myself very much! I stayed far longer than I expected and got sunburned for the first time in my life (at least the silly flush has mostly died down by now), but it was totally worth it.
-S
20090509
20090507
In which we talk of feral squirrel monkeys
I finally caved the other day and resolved to start paying more attention to facebook (and then thirty minutes later my enthusiasm was diminished by the fact that there are feeds and add-ons that I just can't turn off, darn it). I even uploaded photos and set up email notifications, then promptly got swamped in my inbox when Lucy commented on the photos with all the speediness of someone who had just spent twenty minutes walking me through how to turn things off in my account.
It was entertaining, to say the least. I'm glad I didn't use my school email account for that one, since I get enough list-serve spam as it is. (I almost missed the check-in email from my SPAC adviser, who already thinks I have a strange habit of disappearing off of the surface of earth.)
I have finished all 352 pages of the book, thank goodness. It was a mercifully fast read, which is also aided by the fact that I skimmed about half of it. I'm not getting the silly thing, because we're discussing it next Monday and after that I will probably never again need to know who Robin (blonde and met the beauty prerequisite, of course) and Cliff (dirty blond and described as movie star handsome, or maybe it was music star...some sort of star) are. Unfortunately that meant that I had to get the book from the reserve (library copy already checked out and none of my upperclassmen had theirs around), which means I have only 24 hours with it before the next person gets it (grad privilege of 24 hours, otherwise I'd only have three). It's more scientifically accurate than Dan Brown, but Brown does a better plot. I was entertained by DA VINCI CODE. I can't say the same for INTUITION.
That was, of course, on top of the two research articles I had to read for the 8:30 discussion this morning. One of which is about feral squirrel monkeys. (The professor brought up an interesting point: where DID they get the "feral" squirrel monkeys? The authors are based in Baltimore, Maryland. Mental images of feral squirrel monkeys wandering through Johns Hopkins are surreal, but entertaining.) More specifically, about giving amphetamine to feral squirrel monkeys (yes I like typing "feral squirrel monkeys" as much as I like saying it). I cannot take the paper seriously, not just because of their choice of animal species, but also because it's just a ...really bad series of experiments. It's feral squirrel monkeys plus shoddy science. I felt bad for the monkeys. (There were also baboons involved, but they're not as ridiculous.)
Now there's only the stats final which was supposed to be posted on Monday but wasn't posted until yesterday, for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, despite of the fact that the software we need to solve the problems expires this Saturday.
Oh well.
I still get to read extracurricular stuff. And drink lots of tea.
Life is still fairly good.
It was entertaining, to say the least. I'm glad I didn't use my school email account for that one, since I get enough list-serve spam as it is. (I almost missed the check-in email from my SPAC adviser, who already thinks I have a strange habit of disappearing off of the surface of earth.)
I have finished all 352 pages of the book, thank goodness. It was a mercifully fast read, which is also aided by the fact that I skimmed about half of it. I'm not getting the silly thing, because we're discussing it next Monday and after that I will probably never again need to know who Robin (blonde and met the beauty prerequisite, of course) and Cliff (dirty blond and described as movie star handsome, or maybe it was music star...some sort of star) are. Unfortunately that meant that I had to get the book from the reserve (library copy already checked out and none of my upperclassmen had theirs around), which means I have only 24 hours with it before the next person gets it (grad privilege of 24 hours, otherwise I'd only have three). It's more scientifically accurate than Dan Brown, but Brown does a better plot. I was entertained by DA VINCI CODE. I can't say the same for INTUITION.
That was, of course, on top of the two research articles I had to read for the 8:30 discussion this morning. One of which is about feral squirrel monkeys. (The professor brought up an interesting point: where DID they get the "feral" squirrel monkeys? The authors are based in Baltimore, Maryland. Mental images of feral squirrel monkeys wandering through Johns Hopkins are surreal, but entertaining.) More specifically, about giving amphetamine to feral squirrel monkeys (yes I like typing "feral squirrel monkeys" as much as I like saying it). I cannot take the paper seriously, not just because of their choice of animal species, but also because it's just a ...really bad series of experiments. It's feral squirrel monkeys plus shoddy science. I felt bad for the monkeys. (There were also baboons involved, but they're not as ridiculous.)
Now there's only the stats final which was supposed to be posted on Monday but wasn't posted until yesterday, for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, despite of the fact that the software we need to solve the problems expires this Saturday.
Oh well.
I still get to read extracurricular stuff. And drink lots of tea.
Life is still fairly good.
20090506
Further proof of sadism
The book is painful. It's...John Grisham (however you spell that) for law students. Indiana Jones for archeology students.
It was funny, until about the third chapter. Then it made me want to stab myself repeatedly with a spork.
It was funny, until about the third chapter. Then it made me want to stab myself repeatedly with a spork.
20090504
Useful, in theory
Having eaten something containing those eggs mentioned yesterday and not experienced any symptoms of food poisoning or new-found super-mutant powers, I am forced to conclude that, perhaps, those eggs were "incredibly edible" after all.
Am running an experiment right now that'll go for at least another 15 minutes. Class at 10am, interview after that, class again after that, which means no time to stagger anything else with my current run. Which means I'm currently excavating my inbox (always fun).
...
Now it's 14:20. My last stats course is over, the final is take-home and due on Saturday. I would like to take the time to mention that I made another attempt to locate hand sanitizer yesterday at Longs Drugs, but couldn't find it. When I asked the staff I was told that the store was out. I blame the swine flu. (I also somehow suspect that no matter how many "antibiotics don't work against viruses" posters the MDs hang up, people are still going to think of antibiotics as the cure-all.)
...
Now it's 18:20. I'd like to say that the interview with my soon-to-be advisor went well. By "well" I mean "he spent an hour talking at me about potential projects and then said 'welcome back' and asked me what kind of pippets I like to use so the lab can set aside a set for me". He also managed to work in "a funny thing happened on the way to the forum" into one of his explanations, which I think Annie would appreciate.
I signed up for the summer reading program on campus, which goes from now till the end of July. I know we tried to do that reading thing together, Lucy, but it petered out after a while and, well, I think it will go better since I had to fill out paperwork for it. Meanwhile, I grabbed a copy of BELOVED from the library (oh yeah, that's the catch -- only the books from the campus library count) and managed to be completely distracted by it in the five minutes while I was at the bus stop (good and bad, I'll need to watch myself). My original pick was GRAVITY'S RAINBOW, but it's a bit long and I feel that I should refrain from picking up anything that's over 350 pages before spring quarter ends. (Summer, even if I don't get it off, at least will mean a lack of reading and papers from classes.)
Discovered today: carrot juice is bearable if there's enough stuff mixed with it that you can't tell there's carrot juice in the mix.
Am running an experiment right now that'll go for at least another 15 minutes. Class at 10am, interview after that, class again after that, which means no time to stagger anything else with my current run. Which means I'm currently excavating my inbox (always fun).
...
Now it's 14:20. My last stats course is over, the final is take-home and due on Saturday. I would like to take the time to mention that I made another attempt to locate hand sanitizer yesterday at Longs Drugs, but couldn't find it. When I asked the staff I was told that the store was out. I blame the swine flu. (I also somehow suspect that no matter how many "antibiotics don't work against viruses" posters the MDs hang up, people are still going to think of antibiotics as the cure-all.)
...
Now it's 18:20. I'd like to say that the interview with my soon-to-be advisor went well. By "well" I mean "he spent an hour talking at me about potential projects and then said 'welcome back' and asked me what kind of pippets I like to use so the lab can set aside a set for me". He also managed to work in "a funny thing happened on the way to the forum" into one of his explanations, which I think Annie would appreciate.
I signed up for the summer reading program on campus, which goes from now till the end of July. I know we tried to do that reading thing together, Lucy, but it petered out after a while and, well, I think it will go better since I had to fill out paperwork for it. Meanwhile, I grabbed a copy of BELOVED from the library (oh yeah, that's the catch -- only the books from the campus library count) and managed to be completely distracted by it in the five minutes while I was at the bus stop (good and bad, I'll need to watch myself). My original pick was GRAVITY'S RAINBOW, but it's a bit long and I feel that I should refrain from picking up anything that's over 350 pages before spring quarter ends. (Summer, even if I don't get it off, at least will mean a lack of reading and papers from classes.)
Discovered today: carrot juice is bearable if there's enough stuff mixed with it that you can't tell there's carrot juice in the mix.
20090503
What the...?
Yahoo Music got changed. Now I'm not allowed to have my own customized station anymore and to play my favorite songs I need to download something called Rhapsody, which will not be free after the trial period is over.
Aaaagh.
Aaaagh.
Name inconsistency continues
It's confusing when the market insists on labeling a vegetable with its English name sometimes but labels it with its native name other times (even when there is a recognized English name for it) (e.g. I've seen spinach under very exotic names). And by "native name" I mean that they spell out the sounds using alphabets.
It gets even more confusing when you take into account that the native names come in Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Japanese. (That I've recognized, anyway. There may be more than that.)
There was gobo (burdock root) today, but I wasn't brave enough to try it, not to mention that I didn't know what the heck to do with it until I googled it just now.
Today also featured buying egg from a new brand that came styrofoam containers (haven't seen those type of egg cartons for a while) that proclaims "The Incredible Edible Egg!" The proclamation of edibility makes me suspicious, since you'd normally assume that the eggs you got from the supermarket are edible. The fact that the company felt the need to make an open declaration of this seems to imply that there is reason for doubt.
Or, you know, they were thinking of those plastic Easter eggs for some reason.
Or, simpler still, this is just another case of advertisement fail.
It gets even more confusing when you take into account that the native names come in Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Japanese. (That I've recognized, anyway. There may be more than that.)
There was gobo (burdock root) today, but I wasn't brave enough to try it, not to mention that I didn't know what the heck to do with it until I googled it just now.
Today also featured buying egg from a new brand that came styrofoam containers (haven't seen those type of egg cartons for a while) that proclaims "The Incredible Edible Egg!" The proclamation of edibility makes me suspicious, since you'd normally assume that the eggs you got from the supermarket are edible. The fact that the company felt the need to make an open declaration of this seems to imply that there is reason for doubt.
Or, you know, they were thinking of those plastic Easter eggs for some reason.
Or, simpler still, this is just another case of advertisement fail.
20090502
It's officially kitten season
One of the rooms in the back of the shelter (reserve rooms -- since it's a county shelter they are legally not allowed to turn animals away and so they have what I'd like to think of as "maximum capacity buffering" rooms) is already mostly filled with kitten. Litters and litters of kitties in all kinds of colors.
I also discovered that the soap used there gives me hives if I wash my hands too often (we're required to wash our hands between handling each cat, and I go through about 12 cats per shift). It goes down by itself after a while (it's gone already) but even so, it's unpleasant. It's now obvious why the person who trained me suggested that we bring our own hand sanitizer bottles with us and I resolved to get one, possibly something with aloe. Except when I went to Vons afterward (i.e. just now) I can't find any. Where are this kind of things usually kept? Next to the facial soaps and shampoo, right? (Speaking of which, why are there so many types of shampoo? It's a grocery store.)
Anyway. Have discovered that I quite like apricot Clif bars (which reminds me I need to get another box of cereal bars, lab life seems incomplete without it), and that pearl tea is quite as good without milk as it is with. Tried rosemary-chicken-white-bean soup recently and found it quite good -- a bit like a cross between chicken noodle soup and minestrone, but without either type of pasta (I put crackers in it instead because I need my carbs). Found out that I prefer my soups to come in those ceramic-mug-type-things instead of bowls. Not entirely sure why. Logically I know that being in a mug isn't supposed to make the soup tastier, but it seems that logic doesn't stand a chance in the face of the fact that there is a handle Then again, if left alone I tend to eat ice cream out of mugs, too, so maybe it's a mug thing and not a soup thing.
Did I mention how many kittens there are?
I also discovered that the soap used there gives me hives if I wash my hands too often (we're required to wash our hands between handling each cat, and I go through about 12 cats per shift). It goes down by itself after a while (it's gone already) but even so, it's unpleasant. It's now obvious why the person who trained me suggested that we bring our own hand sanitizer bottles with us and I resolved to get one, possibly something with aloe. Except when I went to Vons afterward (i.e. just now) I can't find any. Where are this kind of things usually kept? Next to the facial soaps and shampoo, right? (Speaking of which, why are there so many types of shampoo? It's a grocery store.)
Anyway. Have discovered that I quite like apricot Clif bars (which reminds me I need to get another box of cereal bars, lab life seems incomplete without it), and that pearl tea is quite as good without milk as it is with. Tried rosemary-chicken-white-bean soup recently and found it quite good -- a bit like a cross between chicken noodle soup and minestrone, but without either type of pasta (I put crackers in it instead because I need my carbs). Found out that I prefer my soups to come in those ceramic-mug-type-things instead of bowls. Not entirely sure why. Logically I know that being in a mug isn't supposed to make the soup tastier, but it seems that logic doesn't stand a chance in the face of the fact that there is a handle Then again, if left alone I tend to eat ice cream out of mugs, too, so maybe it's a mug thing and not a soup thing.
Did I mention how many kittens there are?
20090501
Virus buses and British cows
We had our virology seminar discussion today, which was sort of fitting given the swine flu is hitting a place about an hour south of here. If you squint and ignore the fact that we were covering positive strand RNA viruses, such as polio, and I'm not entirely sure if what we learned was applicable at all. However, in our discussion we did get into an interesting conversation about how viruses leave cell, which largely depends on the type of viruses. Based on Kirkgaard's (I may have butchered her lastname) research on cytoplasmic leakage, we were wondering whether or not it's possible for multiple viruses to be leaked out together at once, in a vesicle (like a sac where the sac is the plasmic membrane), which caused my classmates to coin the idea of the viruses "going green" and carpooling and therefore promptly made it impossible to continue the thread of conversation seriously. (I didn't mind.)
We also discussed FMDV. (Turned out we had someone who used to work on anti-virals in the industry before he came to grad school. Huh.) One of my classmates, who grew up in Britain, announced that given all evidences of the recent years clearly UK should just stop raising cattle.
While we're talking about contagious viruses, XKCD, as usual, has its own thoughts about it. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Laugh, because that is hilarious. Cry, because I can actually imagine people writing stuff like that. (Evidence? Youtube video comments. My hope for humanity dies a little every time I read them.)
We also discussed FMDV. (Turned out we had someone who used to work on anti-virals in the industry before he came to grad school. Huh.) One of my classmates, who grew up in Britain, announced that given all evidences of the recent years clearly UK should just stop raising cattle.
While we're talking about contagious viruses, XKCD, as usual, has its own thoughts about it. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Laugh, because that is hilarious. Cry, because I can actually imagine people writing stuff like that. (Evidence? Youtube video comments. My hope for humanity dies a little every time I read them.)
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