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Chronicles of a Girl
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About Me
I am a nerd. Well, a nice nerd. Some say I'm a cute nerd. Sometimes I'm a happy nerd. Sometimes I'm a sad nerd. I can be a perky nerd. Or an emotional nerd. Sometimes the raddest nerd ever. But nonetheless, a nerd. Previous Posts
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Monday, October 23, 2006
Ah fuck...
I forgot to register to vote. For some reason I thought voting day was November 14th and that I still had a week or so left to register. Of course I figure this out an hour after the post office closes on the day voter registration forms have to be postmarked. This is the first time I will not be voting since I turned 18...I even voted in those special elections where the voter turnout was like 20%! I blame it on Stanford. There were so many groups working on voter reg in Berkeley it was impossible not to realize the deadline was approaching and impossible not to get a voter reg form shoved in your face every 5 minutes.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Well ain't I just a big 'ol string of bad luck?
Gah damn, honestly, it seems like whatever team I root for in playoffs loses. The Dodgers were swept in the first round, so I decided I would root for the A's in the second round. The A's got swept. I then decided I would root for the Mets since they beat the Dodgers and a victory would mean that the Dodgers lost to a great team rather than just being mediocre. Well the Mets lost tonight, and granted it was a great series and great game, they lost. I don't think I really care about who wins the World Series now. Well, maybe I do slightly prefer the Cardinals, since when was the last time Detroit was good at...anything? But popular opinion dictates that the Tigers are actually a pretty good team and judging by my recent streak, I would guess that the Cardinals would lose as well. However, perhaps simply making that statement will reverse what's going to happen. Just going to have to wait and see I suppose.
Monday, October 09, 2006
I am swimming in work
I feel so unprepared or perhaps disheveled compared to my fellow classmates. Given 2 weeks to read a paper for genetics class, I of course read it today, an hour before discussion section. And only as people in discussion section start pulling out their printed study questions as well as their 200 word response to the paper did I realize that I completely forgot we had to do any of this. It also seems like everyone's moving along on the problem set and I'm still on question one.
I wonder then, has Berkeley made me a slacker? Has getting away with absolutely no "time management" and no attention span at a top institute made me believe I can get away with it anywhere? Well tonight I scrapped everything I had written for NSF, which had taken many many hours of forced concentration and labor I would like to point out, and I started with a blank page. So now I'm back to square one. Granted I have a much better outline to work from now, but gah, sitting here and attempting to work is like pulling teeth. Well, I guess it's time I get back to pulling. Friday, October 06, 2006
No Dodger miracles here
Gah, are the Dodgers even trying? Seriously, if they're just going to lose in three games in first round of the playoffs, then DON'T FREAKIN' MAKE PLAYOFFS! Seriously, getting my hopes up and crashing them down, ALL THE TIME!
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
First rain of the season
I'm going to miss the nice weather, and rain today meant no Palo Alto Wednesday night skate, but it's kind of nice sitting at home and listening the rain. There's something comforting and quite beautiful about the sound of raindrops. Of course it will be a different story tomorrow trudging through the rain feeling cold and miserable, but for now, I like it.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Andy Fire Wins the Nobel Prize!
Andy Fire won the Nobel Prize this morning for discovering RNAi. The funny thing is, just a couple weeks ago, a post-doc at the genetics retreat told me, "You should rotate with Andy Fire. I really think he's going to win the Nobel Prize one of these days." And there I was this morning, groggy eyed in Cancer Bio thinking I don't remember this paper on RNAi being part of the scheduled lecture until the news was finally revealed. Perhaps I should have taken the post-doc's advice. =)
I think I'm really happy about this for 2 main reasons - 1. Much like Lee Hartwell's story, Andy Fire's story shows how studying very basic science can lead to discoveries with major implications (Lee Hartwell by the way was studying the cell cycle in yeast and pretty much discovered the molecular basis for cancer). Perhaps this point simply serves to make me feel better because dispite being in Cancer Biology, I find myself much more interested in basic research (e.g. molecular mechanisms) than direct disease related work (e.g. finding drug targets). 2. Andy is a super super nice guy, and perhaps the phrase, 'it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy' really does hold true. 3. I decided to add a third. During his press conference this morning, when discussing his educational background, Andy remarked something which went like, I applied to 2 schools for undergrad, Stanford and Berkeley. I went to the one which accepted me, Berkeley. Hmm, sounds familiar. =) | |
