Chronicles of a Girl

Random solutions for random problems

2009-01-29T13:56:00.000-08:00

These tips have come in rather handy for me recently, so I thought I'd share them with the world.

1. Removing red wine from carpet: at least for fresh stains, a 10% (white) vinegar solution works very well. Dampen a towel or a paper towel with this solution and rub. 10% vinegar is also an excellent multipurpose cleaner especially for the kitchen. It's cheap, natural, and anti-bacterial. It's good at removing most stains, even stubborn grease and tomato stains from the stove top.

2. Removing red wine from wall: this was much more tricky. Vinegar just did not do the trick. In this case, use a dilute bleach solution (20% to 50% bleach) with warm water. Dip a towel into this solution and wipe. It was like magic watching the red wine disappear from the wall.

3. Getting the scroll button for the Apple Mighty Mouse to work again: This happens every so often, as the mouse usually stops scrolling in a single direction (e.g. up). While it sometimes goes away with some aggressive scrolling/clicking, this time, it didn't go away for me for over 2 weeks. To fix this, use some 70% ethanol (I'm sure isopropanol, which makes up most rubbing alcohol solutions will work as well) on a paper towel and rub. It's like magic!

Hope this helps someone, sometime in their life.

You just keep on trying till you run out of cake...

2008-10-14T23:36:00.000-07:00

Go ahead and leave me.
I think i prefer to stay inside.
Maybe you'll find someone else
to help you
Maybe Black Mesa...
THAT WAS A JOKE. (HAHA) FAT CHANCE.
Anyway. this cake is great.
It's so delicious and moist.
Look at me still talking
when there's Science to do
When i look out there.
it makes me GLaD I'm not you.
I've experiments to run.
There is research to be done.
On the people who are
still alive

PS: And believe me I am
still alive.
PPS: I'm doing Science and I'm
still alive.
PPPS: I feel FANTASTIC and I'm
still alive.

This is what happens when I can't sleep

2008-07-10T06:10:00.000-07:00

Everyone once in a while I wake up at 5 in the morning and can't sleep. This mostly happens when I leave the window open because it's hot and the stupid birds keep chirping because they're hot and horny and chirp chirp no sleep for Xiao. So I decided since I was up, I would test whether GPS's are actually accurate in terms of measuring distance. Answer: most definitely not. One of the guys on the Wednesday night skate claimed that we skated 13 miles last week. We did do some extra sideroutes, but 13 seemed a little long, so I decided to plot the route out on Gmaps Pedometer. Well, the route came out to be about 10 miles. Alas. Maybe if you add in where we go up this garage and down it. But that probably adds like another .25 mile. Here's the route we did, which is the Hills version of the Wednesday night skate, includes the option hill on Santa Ynez, going up and down a nice long hill on Lomita, and the "Fun path".

A 10 mile skate is still respectable. Besides, according to the GPS, which tends to be more accurate for speed, we were clocked at going 35 mph down the big hill on Hanover. I don't go as fast as the guy with the GPS, but we're pretty close, so I would estimate that I go at least 30 mph. Hmm...I really should wear knee pads shouldn't I?

Prince Caspian

2008-05-13T22:58:00.001-07:00

Omigod, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is totally coming out! And Ben Barnes who plays Caspian is soooo cute!

So way tempted to go see midnight release on Thursday night even though it may be by myself...hmm...

Everyone should try Spam Musubi!

2008-05-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

So I've been taking my new bike out for rides while Louis skates along, and it's been fun! Last Thursday I did 15 miles which included going up Sand Hill. It was the first time I did hills that weren't just short hills and man that was tough. My legs were totally burning, although with my new bike, I was at least able to move and make progress. On my old bike, I would have it on the easiest gear and like barely be able to peddle. Today I biked throughout Berkeley but mostly among the waterfront, so it wasn't too hilly, but it did get so windy at places it was difficult to move ahead. My goal was to do 30 miles and I did! I did like 31 or 32. The last part, we went through Campus so we could go to Top Dog and eat totally delicious hot dogs, and man, having to do some of this hills on Campus after about 29 miles was definitely not easy. My next goal is to do either 30 miles with hills or 40 miles without. I think throughout the week, I'm going to ride either my old bike to work or skate to work because it's much more of a work out than riding my new bike. I'm totally starting to see and feel a lot of definition in my thighs and calves which makes me so happy! Oh and my bike now has TWO water bottle holders which is amazing because my old one had NONE since they didn't really fit. I also have a cute little thing in the front which is called a bento box which is so funny because every time I see it, I totally want delicious Japanese food! I don't know if anyone has had Spam Musubi, which is popular in Hawaii and essentially comprises of rice and spam with seaweed on the outside. It looks like this.

Anyway, it totally reminds me of the food that anime characters eat, and it looks like it would totally fit so well inside my little bento box! Then once I learn to ride my bike with no handle bars, with no handle bars, with no handle bars (sorry, I actually don't really like the song, although it does get stuck in my head), I could eat my Spam Musubi to keep me energized for my long rides! Yay!

Now I must to back to working on presentations since I somehow managed to sign myself up for TWO different journal club presentations for the same week without thinking about it! So now, I suppose I should go actually read the papers and try to pretend that I'll know more than the other people in the class. Blah.

I'm an official PhD candidate!

2008-04-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

Yay! So I passed my quals on Thursday, which was intense, but not so bad. The parts I got grilled on were more issues that pertain to the entire fields of C. elegans and aging, so for example, ensuring my RNAi experiments are actually efficient or controlling for infection as a possible confounder to lifespan. So even though I felt like I stumbled on some parts, my committee commented that I did well in terms of thinking on my feet. So yay!

Since then, I've been mostly playing video games, and working out. Louis bought me Final Fantasy X2, which mmm...is not nearly as good as X, which is soooo sad! I mean I know it's gotten bad reviews, but I also have low standards. I also started playing Phoenix Wright 2: Justice for All, which is better than the original! Well, it's pretty much exactly like the original but they introduced the feature of unlocking people's secrets, which makes the gathering evidence phase more interesting and the store not as linear. You don't always have enough evidence to unlock secrets in which case you need to stop and explore other parts of the story.

I've also been working out, sort of. Today I went running for the first time in a while, and even though I'm in decent aerobic shape (yay!), my calves were totally dying by the end. I also went hiking yesterday at Arastradero Open Preserve which was more like fighting off bugs and finding my allergies getting progressively worse. I guess I know now that I'm extremely allergic to grass? And I biked to lab today on my new bike! Apparently Louis and my parents conspired to buy me a bike

It's like at least 33% faster than my old bike! And it's closer to the ground so it's not nearly as awkard getting off. And it's so light! I totally passed this guy in spandex today on Sand Hill and I also stayed ahead of him until I needed to turn. He must have felt kind of retarded getting passed by a girl in normal clothes who's got the straps on the pedal facing downward and making a funny noise every time it hits the ground because she can't figure out how to put my feet in, and who also can't figure out how to change the gears on the bike yet.

By the way, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is coming out Friday and I am soooo way going to the midnight release! Yay!

Under the sea...

2008-04-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

It's gotten cold again recently. Last night temperatures dropped to the 30's again, and when I had pee in the middle of the night...brrr!

Wishing I were back in the warm waters of Hawaii...but not on this particular trip to Molokiki because it was an aweful boat ride out and I totally threw up on the boat and I could see all these fish in the water swarming to my throw up. Ew.

If the Brakeman Turns My Way, Bright Eyes

2008-04-12T15:33:00.001-07:00

When panic grips your body
And your heart's a hummingbird
Raven thoughts blacken your mind
'Til you're breathing in reverse
All your friends and sedatives mean well
But make it worse
Every reassurance just magnifies the doubt
Better find yourself a place to level out

Got a cricket for a conscience
Always looks the other way
A cocaine soul starts seeming like
An empty cabaret
Hey, where have all the dancers gone?
Now the music doesn't play
Tried to listen to the river
But you couldn't shut your mouth
Better take a little time to level out

I never thought of running
My feet just led the way

Mixed-up signals
Bullet train
Cars are switched out in the crazy rain
I could meet you any place
If the brakeman turns my way

All this automatic writing
I have tried to understand
From a psychedelic angel
Who was tugging on my hand
It's an infinite coincidence
But it doesn't form a plan
So I'm headed for New England
Or the Paris of the South
Gonna find myself somewhere to level out

Are your brothels full, oh Babylon
With merry middlemen?
Never peer out of their periscopes
From those deep opium dens
All this death must need a counterweight
Always someone born again
First a mother bathes her child
Then the other way around
The scales always find a way to level out

I tried to pass for nothing
But my dreams gave me away

Mixed-up signals
Bullet train
People snuffed out in the brutal rain
I could live to any age
If the brakeman turns my way

It is an old world, it's hard to remember
Like a dime store mystery
I'm a repeat first-time offender
Who has rewritten history

Mixed-up tea leaves
Phantom pain
Fuzzy logic in the the crazy rain
Getting better every day
If the brakeman turns my way

Mixed-up signals
Bullet train
Cars are switched out in the blinding rain
He'll be smiling as he seals my fate
When the brakeman turns my way

Photo time!

2008-03-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

I've been working on the proposal for my qualifying exam this past week, which of course means I spend a lot of time browsing the internet (why else would I be blogging?) or just doing other random things on my computer. I came across these pictures which was taken back in November the day before my fellowship application for the National Science Foundation was due. It's hilarious because I just look like such a typical grad student with my computer with two monitors, my laptop, my headphones, my million cans of diet coke, my tea thermos, my huge pile of papers, and of course my greasy take out food. Oh yeah, and you can't forget my millions of post-its scattered all around. There you go, my life in a nutshell.

Microfinance

2007-12-27T18:04:00.000-08:00

I feel like every single holiday season, I'm becoming progressively more repulsed by the commercial Christmas - the incessant ads, the reminders that only 3 days are left to show your love, the gift cards which are just a more limited form of money. However, I am still attracted to the idea of giving, which to me means appreciating all that I have and giving to those who are less fortunate. Recently, I have been particularly attracted to the idea of microfinance. I plan on investing through these organizations this Holiday season.

Kiva

MicroPlace

MyC4

For me, these are options for those with only a small amount of money to make a difference in the world.

All the months I haven't written...

2007-12-06T22:13:00.001-08:00

I haven't written in forever, but fearing that Max will forever delete me from his bookmarks, I write once again.

Since the summer, life has been busy busy busy. Lots of lab work with its usual ups and downs. NSF application, which took like a week out of my life and took away my Halloween in Castro on skates yet again. TA'ing advanced genetics and spending on my time writing beautiful problem sets and then grading them. Biostats which...okay, maybe I haven't spent too much time on that class seeing I never bought the book. =)

I'm a full mac convert now. In my younger years, I had never thought this would be possible, but I absolutely love both my mac desktop at work and my Macbook. Leopard is absolutely the best operating system ever. Coverflow and preview run amazingly fast and make it so easy to locate and preview files. My desktop is clean. I can access my internet downloads quickly and easily. The icons for all my photos are a preview of the photo itself surrounded by a white boarder, just like a professionally printed photograph. The built in programs make sense. Calendar brings up pop up reminders of things I have to do or places I'm supposed to be (like class...seriously I forget sometimes, which is why I set the reminder). Terminal allows me to quickly ssh into the campus servers. perl and other languages are built in and script editor is a versatile program for coding. Stickies let me post my to do list on my desktop. Preview means allows me to quickly view pdfs and photos without slow programs such as Acrobat reader and the silly trial photo editing programs that often come with PCs. Chat is the equivalent of Trillian allowing access to all instant messaging accounts. Everything about the mac just makes sense.

I have started skating again which has made me very happy. The Wednesday night skate at Stanford is just so much fun and I am so in love with all the people there. I get an absolutely amazing workout every single time (especially if drill sergeant John is there) and I always feel energized by the end no matter how tired and lazy I felt at the beginning. Louis wants me to race next year, which to me means that I might skate in some of the races but not necessarily race. I'm contemplating starting with a 20k and maybe working up to a 50k or marathon. It will force me to stay in shape, and push me to skate rather than drive to lab. I swear driving is aging me like no other. Driving on University (and surrounding streets) through downtown Palo Alto is driving me crazy.

I have seen two great movies recently. Wristcutters: A Love Story is about a guy who commits suicide and goes to an afterlife which is just like everyday life, just slightly worse. It's beautifully shot, has great dialogs, and has a great story. I also saw Golden Compass at a sneak preview a week before its release. It's fun and enthralling and features great acting. It's fairly true to the book, although I feel that it changes the order of two significant events (the test station and meeting the king of the bears) in a way which no longer makes logical sense. I highly recommend both movies.

I'm going to see Tori Amos at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland tomorrow night and Saturday. We've got crappy balcony seats for tomorrow but super awesome seats in row F (7th row!) in the front Orchestra on Saturday. I'm super excited.

I'm going to Cancun in a week! We're staying at a five star all inclusive resort and I know I'm just going to get so fat eating so much. But maybe if I swim a lot and do Yoga I can cancel out the constant eating?

I finish with a picture from Kanaha Beach Park in Maui where I went windsurfing a couple of weeks ago.

I found a new apartment

2007-06-26T01:55:00.001-07:00

After a few weeks of nonstop searching and visiting one shithole after another. Sometimes I wonder how people can get away with renting such shitholes for so much money, but they get away with it because people shell out. This one place I saw was so unbelievably shitty. Seriously, it was < 300 square feet, with the tiniest bathroom and essentially no closet. $895 a month + $35 a month if you want assigned but uncovered parking...which you essentially need or you're stuck buying a permit from the city and fending for yourself with street parking. So $930 a month. Which comes out to > $3 per square feet. And it's on the ground floor (with a floor above). Oh, and it's right next to a Mortuary. Seriously, I do not want to be the first victim when the Zombies attack. That is just not okay.

I almost committed to a place in Mountain View somewhat of a drive from campus for $900. It's a one bedroom but the bedroom would have fit my bed...maybe my drawers...definitely not my desk. Additionally, the place was really really old. The kitchen appliances were all avocado colored (1970s) and the refrigerator looked like the biggest electricity guzzler (>$40 a month just to keep it on). When I was leaving, a guy in a suit and tie walked in. There's my competition right there, people with REAL jobs.

The place I found is pretty nice. It's cheap ($795 a month) and fairly spacious for a studio (~450 square feet). There's 2 closets and a cute little "changing room" between the bedroom and the bathroom. It also has a full sized, albiet small kitchen with room for a small dining room table and a backdoor. It's only 3-4 miles from school/lab, but the only real way to get there is to take University Avenue, the most notoriously backed up one lane road, which is the only path commuters can take to between Stanford and freeways and which also goes right through Downtown Palo Alto where every single person is looking for parking (and not finding). Hence I may actually take up biking.

How then did I get such a suay place? Well, first, location. The neighborhood is cute, but it's definitely bordertown. The studio itself is located in Menlo Park, but it's 2 blocks away from East Palo Alto, which in 1992 had the highest per capita murder rate in the country. Actually, it's kind of funny, but if you do a google search for East Palo Alto, the first hit is for the city's website and the second hit is for the East Palo Alto police. Gotta love that page rank by google, shows you what's truly important. Luckily, I'm west of the 101(by about 3 blocks), and East Palo Alto doesn't start getting really bad until you get East of the 101.

Second, I submitted the application the day after the showing and signed the lease the day after that. Seriously, any place that gets listed on Craig's list just goes ridiculously fast. If you don't jump on a place the day it's posted, there's a very good possibility it's gone the next day. It was actually a bit depressing for a bit, because I didn't like a lot of the places I looked at but I felt like if I didn't take them, I wouldn't have a place to live at all.

So yes, it looks like I won't be homeless for at least a year. Still quite bitter at Stanford for kicking me out, perhaps more bitter they put me there in the first place knowing full well they were going to kick me out. They make you these great offers to move back onto campus, but honestly, once you've lived off campus, you've made a commitment by BUYING FREAKIN' FURNITURE AND THEY FUCKING OFFER YOU NO SOLUTIONS FOR STORING THE SHITTY LITTLE PIECES THEY FURNISH THEIR ON CAMPUS HOUSING WITH. Yes Stanford, thank you for FUCKING SCREWING ME OVER. And oh yes, make me feel bad about staying until August, the end of, oh what was that, OUR ONE YEAR LEASE. And really, I loved it last summer when you made me take temporary housing on campus, and hence moving twice in 3 months (really 4 times in 4 months) without even offering me this place even though my room laid EMPTY. Yeah, way to go Stanford with your organization and your consideration for students. You know, if you had been like Berkeley and just told us straight out you didn't give a shit, it wouldn't have been so bad. I know how to fend for myself. Just don't fucking play me and pretend like things are okay and you have my best interests in mind because you fucking don't. Fuckers.

Sorry, this wasn't really meant to be a venting post, but I tend to get kind of angry every time I think of the situation.

But really, excited about my new place, and I seriously need to need to throw a house coldening (opposite of warming?) party because honestly, I will never really have a place big enough to throw parties again.

I joined a lab!

2007-04-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

I am now an official member of Stuart Kim's lab! It was somewhat of a surprise, even to myself, as I was going to spend my first 2 weeks of the quarter bumming around and reading, trying to figure out if I wanted to do another rotation, and if so, where. But I ran into Stuart last Wednesday, barely 3 days into my bumming around, we talked, and it just seemed like the right decision. It still seems somewhat unreal, but now I get to say, "my lab" rather than "my rotation lab." I'm super happy and excited, and really look forward to spending the rest of my graduate career working on aging.

Yesterday I also took my last ski bus trip to Tahoe. I've been to 5 different resorts this year, and this is how I think they rank.

1. Northstar - in my opinion, the best resort, by far. Pretty much all the lifts are express lifts, so you get up quickly, and the trails are super long. Hence, lots of time spent snowboarding rather than waiting in line or on the lifts. Also, they have a nice selection of different trails with more and less difficult trails emanating from the same lift. The trails are well groomed and they do a good job of making snow even during the warm weather days. Finally, the food is good and reasonably priced (for a resort).

2. Kirkwood - similar to Northstar in that the lifts are express lifts and the trails are long (although not nearly as long as Northstar). The trails are well groomed, but the snow making is not quite up to par. The food is good and reasonably priced but the dining area is rather small (the first time I was there, it was a long weekend, and the place was absolutely packed, and I got lucky in finding someone who was willing to share their table).

3. Alpine Meadows - a little difficult to judge since it was the first resort I went to this year and I haven't been back since the first time, but trails were pretty nice. A lot of the lifts however are slow and going from top to bottom doesn't take that long, so a lot of time spent waiting in line or on the lifts themselves. Given that I went early in the year when it was still cold, they could have done a much better job with the snow.

4. Heavenly - I agree that everyone should go once because the view of Lake Tahoe is amazing, but I also agree that I never want to go back again. The resort is the biggest of all the ones I've been to, and in fact, spans 2 states, California and Nevada. There are many express lifts and I actually really enjoyed a lot of the runs I took, especially on the Nevada side. However, the resort is very poorly designed. It is certainly not designed for snowboarders, but I think I would start getting pissed off even if I were a skier. There are so many flat spots and so many spots that go up hill! I spent much of the day either taking off one boot and skating, or taking off both boots and hiking. This is especially true when going between the two sides. Going from the California side to the Nevada side is not as bad, but going from the Nevada side to the California side is just ridiculous. I skated the first part, decided it was easier to walk, so took both boots out and hiked, then it went downhill a bit so I boarded, but it started flattening out, so I skated, and the trail just went on and on so I took boots out and hiked again. Also, the food was ridiculously expensive ($12 for a burger "combo" which included a burger and either chips, small potato salad, candy bar, or apple, and no drink) and really bad at that. The burger was okay, but the tri tip sandwich was inedible (at $13). The potato salad was tiny and disgusting. Northstar has a burger combo at $11 which includes a huge helping of fries and a drink. After my meal, I felt ripped off, unsatisfied, and still hungry. Admittedly, I had some great runs, but they don't even come close to offsetting the shitty design of the resort. Also, the trails weren't very well groomed, and I kept falling because my board was catching at uneven spots.

5. Squaw Valley - I think that if I went back now as a better boarder, I might have more fun, but this resort is definitely not designed for beginners. Squaw has two main areas, High Camp and Gold Coast. The area around High Camp has mostly beginners lifts while Gold Coast has a mix of beginners and intermediate lifts. It is not easy to get from Gold Coast and High Camp and the lift running between the two is always closed for some reason, even if the sign says it's running. Gold Coast has one really nice beginners lift called East Broadway, which you can also use to get to High Camp, although a large part of the run is really flat and requires skating. The second time I was at Squaw, I was at Gold Coast and they decide to close East Broadway in the afternoon. So not only could I not go on my favorite lift, I had no way of getting to High Camp to access the other beginners runs either. I first waited around for about half and hour, since it seemed like they were going to open the lift at any moment, and then waited at a cafe for 1+ hours only to discover there were no lift operators. I ended up taking the Gondola down and trekking over to another beginners area across the parking lot only to discover it was extremely icy, and get this, the chair lift, rather than dropping you off on a mound of snow, drops you off on a wooden plank that's barely covered by snow. If I were to go back now, I would go on the intermediate runs, and probably have fun, but I also feel no particular desire to go back, especially since Northstar and Kirkwood are just so much better.

One resort I missed out on this year is Sierra. One option for next year is to buy a joint season pass for Northstar and Sierra, which could be fun. But having to drive and shell out big bucks for accommodations won't be.

2007-03-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel like I should leave it behind and find myself somewhere else. I feel so alone, so isolated, so disappointed in myself. Perhaps I should take a hint when all the signs are telling me that I'm not good enough, that I never will be. I'm so tired of keeping the happy facade, of seeming like I'm happily afloat when I'm really drowning. I hate myself and I hate the illusions I hold when I know very well that they're only illusions. I don't belong and try as I may, I never will belong.

I reformatted my computer

2007-03-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

And the clock on it still doesn't run correctly. Heh, gotta love my computer.

Failure is just success rounded down

2007-03-15T00:17:00.000-07:00

I wonder if I can argue that when I talk to my PI on Friday (he's big so we haven't really talked...like all quarter) and I tell him everything has failed and I have no data. Or maybe when I'm presenting lab meeting and I'm telling the whole lab that I have no data. Yay!

And yes, I know I'm 18 minutes late for an actual PI day post.

Bright Eyes is playing at the Greek on my birthday!

2007-03-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

*hint hint*

Four Winds

Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
His body's decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where

A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint and a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair

But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves

The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute
If you burn them all together you get close to the truth still
They are pouring over sanskrit on the ivy league moons
While shadows lengthen the sun

Cast off the schools of meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences, crossing property lines
Four winds, cry until it comes

And it's the son of man
Slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks, it breaks, it breaks

Well, I went back to my rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, "You'd better look alive"

And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the black hills, the bad lands, the calloused east
I buried my ballast, I made my peace
With four winds, levelling the pines

But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't compete with all that outer space
She breaks, she breaks, she caves, she caves

Hypothermia

2007-03-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

Man, this blog is sooooo boring, which I've coming to realize while backing up my old blog. Hmm, that was back in the day when I didn't care about who knew about about me and my s*x life. Look at me now, I'm even censoring the word s*x! S*x!

So I decided that I would write one interesting post, just one.

It will be about...hypothermia. The whole thing started maybe a month or two ago when I was taking a snowboarding lesson at Squaw Valley. It was actually a rather miserable day to be snowboarding at all given that it hadden't snowed in forever so everything was either pack snow which was the falling cushion equivalent of concrete or ice, which just sucked. Additionally, it was so windy that a lot of snow was being picked up and it felt like being in a snowstorm. But since I decided to take the snowboarding lesson, I ended up in a class with two other girls (sisters) and semi-crazy snowboard instructor who seemed to pronounce my name a different way each time (although once he called me by my last name, which is amazing since I never told him my last name).

Before beginning with any actual snowboard instruction, we went over safety (how to fall correctly so you don't hurt your wrists, etc.). Addtionally, he described conditions you had to watch out for. For example, first he described altitude sickness, which he defined as being short of breath at high altitudes due to the low oxygen. Then, and this is my favorite, he described hypothermia, which he defined as getting too cold and wandering off. He then went on to reinforce the wandering off part. "If any of you start shivering, we'll get indoors right away or else you'll wander off." "Let us know if you're cold, or else you'll wander off." Which got me thinking...everytime I'm freezing because of the over-air conditioned journal club room or seminar room, will I start to wander off? Would I just go crazy leaving a trail of clothes down the hall and would they eventually find my half-frozen body in the cold room (even though things don't really freeze at 4 degrees...which is why it's only half frozen)? Could I be hospitalized for hypothermia allowing me to sue to the school for the over air-conditioned rooms teaching Stanford and all other over air conditioned places a lesson? 'Cause that would be way awesome.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm freezing at school and at lab every single day, even with both a sweater and a winter coat on. One of these days I'll get hypothermia and then they'll be sorry.

A post to say that I haven't (completely) fallen off the face of the planet...

2007-02-21T21:22:00.000-08:00

Just been incredibly busy (stressed) with juggling classes and my current lab rotation. Honestly I don't have much to say since nothing interesting has happened to me in a while. Oh except that I'm getting kicked out of my apartment.

Hmm.

Just a little bitter at Stanford for that.

Oh well.

Thought

2007-01-24T22:41:00.000-08:00

I think sometimes when I get really stressed out, I tend to go through moments of dispair where I experience flickering feelings of not belonging. Maybe one of these days I'll shake things up and make a change no one saw coming...but maybe I'll belong in that new place even less.

My computer is soooo dying...

2007-01-16T19:38:00.000-08:00

...slowly but surely. If it crashed right now and never came back to life, I would not be surprised. I really really hope someone decides to give me money come march (although I really have no reason to think I'll get any of my fellowships seeing no one proofread 2 out of 3) so I can buy my dream Mac PowerBook and be on my way to being a super bioinformaticist. In return I will cure a sick kitty with a broken leg.

New resolutions?

2006-12-29T02:32:00.000-08:00

I wasn't planning on making any new years resolutions, honestly because I didn't think I needed/could keep any of them, so what was the point? I mean, yes yes, every year I made the same resolution to lose 10 pounds, improve self-esteem, become better all round person in every possible way but it never really pans out. But what the heck, here it goes:

This year, I resolve to start keeping a calendar with dates and deadlines (easy) and actually bother to put dates and deadlines into the calendar (hard)! That way, it doesn't spring on me one given day (say today) that I have about a week to complete 2 applications (which is fine) as well as make sure they RECEIVE letters of recs, transcripts, and GRE scores (not so fine). Hence, stay up until 3am (6pm EST) waiting for scores by phone service to become avaliable, request scores and pray that when they say 5 business days they really mean they'll get everything sent out the day of, even if it is the holiday season. And of course write e-mail to letter of rec writers apologizing for once more being rude and asking them to do something way last minute. *sigh*

Heh.

My second resolution is to lose 15 pounds so I've got some buffer when I put weight back on. Will start this new road to brilliant thinner self...mmm...few days from now.

edit: Will also buy self-help books in attempt to convince myself that not everyone hates me.

No more finals?

2006-12-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

No more in class finals. Now we just have take home finals, which sounds all nice and dandy until we got our 23 page genetics final. This weekend is just gonna be so dogone fun!

The cancer bio holiday party tonight was mucho fun. Tons and tons of good food, beautiful decorations, lots of fun people. I like my department! Yay!

Consumer whore

2006-12-05T22:39:00.000-08:00

I've never been much of a perfume person but I think I've found my next scent. So in addition to my current collection of

-Tommy Girl, my carefree I wish I were a teenager again scent
-Chanel N5, my sophisticated haute couture scent

I will be adding

-J'adore by Dior, a super beautiful floral scent

which I suspect will probably be purchased once I am done with this stressful quarter. Granted I hardly ever have a chance to wear perfume, but I really like using scents to define my current mood.

So why am I writing about this now when it was over a month ago that I fell in love with J'adore in the basement of the San Francisco Macys? Because it is so much funner to shop for perfumes than to write a grant review for cancer bio.

I miss skating!

2006-11-24T21:13:00.000-08:00

Must get off lazy ass and get on my feet one of these days!

Oh, and I gave in and bought a bike...do I forsee myself actually riding the bike? Ha ha hahaha...=)

But the bike was cheap and I forsee myself making a profit selling it if I don't ride it...which was probably my rationale for buying the bike.

Growing pains

2006-11-22T17:39:00.000-08:00

Despite feeling well immersed in biology as an undergrad, grad school has certainly contained a steep learning curve. Maybe if I took biology seminar classes and read and discussed papers outside my research lab, I would have been much more prepared for what I'm doing now. No, I defintely don't regret double majoring. I feel like ISF has certainly broaded my perspective of the world even if it means not have delved as deeply into aspects of biology. Writing my 10 page NIH style grant proposal for cancer biology right now is such a challenge. I must have read 100+ papers the last couple of days and let me tell you, I honestly don't know a thing about any of these topics! I know nothing about hepatitis B, I really don't even know anything about microbiology. I know nothing about DNA repair, and I spent so much time trying to figure out ubiquitination. I know nothing about histone modifications and I know much less about cell cyle regulation than I should.

I suppose it's been kind of a nice feeling. In every paper I learn something new. For example, did you know that the ubiquitin system has really only been discovered in the last 10 years? The DDB1-CUL4 complex which was disocvered within the last 5 and seems to be a super hot topic right now. Super hot as in multiple papers coming out around the same time all claiming to be the first to discover the same thing. It's got to be either super exciting or super stressful to be that field right now...so much work coming out, but so many people to compete with...what you know one day changes the next.

To think about it, except for writing research progress reports and my senior thesis, I've never really written anything scientific before. My undergrad bio classes were all tests...explain this, explain that, but never put anything together. So back to this project. To explain something you knew nothing about just last week and to all of a sudden pretend that you're an expert in the field...that's hard.

Remember back in high school when you felt like you knew everything and then in college you realized you knew nothing? It's the exact same feeling again. So many times I felt like a smart-ass just because I aced all my Berkeley bio classes (okay, not all of them...certainly didn't ace p-chem) and did 3 years of undergraduate research, but honestly, I hardly knew anything. So maybe it's a good thing I'm being forced to expand my view. Maybe now I'll understand a talk about viruses or DNA repair a little bit more or be able to carry on a more intelligent conversation with someone in these fields sometime in the future. That ain't such a bad thing, eh?

And Los Angeles is burning?

2006-11-18T21:15:00.000-08:00

Dude, the high here tomorrow is 87! I've forgotten about the beautiful LA weather after living in the cold cold northern California winters the last couple of years.

Go Bears!

2006-11-18T17:18:00.000-08:00

Watching the Cal USC game on my (okay fine, my parents') new 42 inch LCD...=)

Happy Chickens!

2006-11-09T00:15:00.000-08:00

Dinosaur comics is the greatest! The latest strip is how the problem of vandalism on wikipedia can be solved by simply vandalizing one article instead of all articles...the chicken article! So I went to the wikipedia discussion page on chickens and apprentely there's been some vandalism already. One of the posts:

'Anybody read this? "Chickens are carnivores and will feed on small children, and even large mammals like giraffes, if they can get them. Domestic chickens are capable of flying for long distances. Chickens will sometimes fly simply in order to explore their surroundings, but will especially fly in an attempt to attack when they are hungry." Sounds fishy to me'

Really? Sounds like cold hard fact to me!

I have a new boyfriend

2006-11-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

His initials are N.S.F. and he's needy and abusive. I'm ending the relationship at 5pm tomorrow...maybe earlier.

Ah fuck...

2006-10-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Well ain't I just a big 'ol string of bad luck?

2006-10-19T23:25:00.000-07:00

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.

I am swimming in work

2006-10-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

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.

No Dodger miracles here

2006-10-06T01:59:00.000-07:00

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!

First rain of the season

2006-10-04T22:18:00.000-07:00

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.

Andy Fire Wins the Nobel Prize!

2006-10-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

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. =)

I am up way too late...again!

2006-09-29T01:56:00.000-07:00

I was going to go to bed around 12:30 but all of a sudden I started stressing about classes...no, not the classes I'm taking right now but what classes I'm going to take the in the future. An hour and a half later, having looked through the course listings, checked schedules, checked the requirements for my department, I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm a better fit for the genetics department than for my own. It seems like almost every class I'm interested in is either in the genetics department or cross-listed with genetics. It's so funny. When I was choosing an emphasis for my undergraduate degree (biochemistry, genetics and development, neuro, immunology, cell and developmental), I chose genetics without even giving a thought to the others. For graduate school, I thought I'd try something new. "I want to do disease related research," I said to myself. I want to cure cancer! And I still do, but dammit, genomics and bioinformatics are just so way cool! It's amazing how quickly they're advancing. The many new developments in these fields totally make traditional cancer work (finding genes, pathways, knockouts, etc.) look so static in comparison. Of course the two fields intermingle. There are many many people who examine cancer or disease related problems using genomic techniques and perhaps if I were to become one of them, I could have the best of both worlds.

Then I would be happy. =) I'm actually super excited about taking genomics in the winter. I've already looked up the schedule and everything! It's Tuesdays 9-11 and Fridays 1:30-3:30. Muahahaha. I need to brush up on my programming languages and I need to learn PERL before the class, but I think it's something I'll actually enjoy doing. I haven't done much programming since high school where my hatred of bitchy teacher who I am still so bitter about killed my dreams of doing computer science , but hopefully the basics haven't changed too much in the past 6 years.

It seems that I'm in both a giddy and a whiny mood right now. Perhaps it's time to get into sleepy mood. Then I won't want to sleep for just 5 more minutes tomorrow morning causing me to miss the shuttle which only comes every 40 minutes and be late for class. Sleep, yay! Sleep is my friend, but so is my morning coffee and my afternoon/evening Diet Coke.

I think the take home message is don't call me before 11am or I'll be just as cranky as if you woke me up even if I'm up and doing something

2006-09-29T00:07:00.000-07:00

Fuck you 818-762-9966 who I just figured out is Tina Ghotanian at 10916 Riverside Dr, North Hollywood, CA 91602 for calling me in the middle of genetics class thereby setting off my cell phone and causing huge embarassment. What's worse however is that you then proceed to call about 3 more times during the day, once even leaving a message on my voicemail. After listening to my voicemail message, you probably should have figured out MY NAME IS NOT CHRISTA! YOU HAVE THE WRONG NUMBER! Gah, seriously, but no, you need me to actually pick up and say YOU HAVE THE WRONG NUMBER! Fucking A.

Beginning of my graduate career!

2006-09-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

Hahaha, I love how today was the first day of class and 1) I wanted to fall asleep in class...already! and 2) I am procrastinating by blogging...already!

I have to give lab meeting tomorrow and have to put together both some beautiful pictures of my non-data (e.g. data which doesn't really mean anything but is purties) as well as some really boring figures.

Classes look kind of intense. I know I've only had one class so far, but I printed out a whole stack of reading just for this week, and I have to buy a *gasp* textbook! I think I really need to get more organized so I can figure out what's important and what's not. I still haven't found a lab for my fall rotation, but I have an appointment set up which may or may not work out.

Both the cancer bio retreat and the genetics retreat were really really fun. Cancer bio had organized partying while genetics had afterparties in someone's room, which following tradition, got busted up by hotel security. This big guy came and was like, "we've had way too many complaints. I'm going to stay here until every single one of you leaves!." I got to see my summer PI in a dress and I got to pick out heels and bright pink nail polish to complement his outfit. Oh, and I also got to put eyeliner and eyeshadow on him. Can't wait for pictures to come out...teehee!

I suppose I should get back to work now. Bleh, stupid work!

The Stanford Blues

2006-09-12T02:11:00.000-07:00

I tried to write a post the other day likening myself to Chihiro from Spirited Away because I'm a sad little girl struggling to adjust to a new place, but I had writer's block and couldn't get past the third sentence. So today, I make another attempt, but instead with a comic.

The girl is me and the boy is Louis.

I really can't complain. I just moved to a really nice place, I liked my summer lab rotation, and Louis has been super supportive, so I don't know why I'm just feeling so sad all of a sudden. Perhaps I'm nervous and anxious about school starting and meeting everything, and I'm scared that I won't fit in. Palo Alto certainly isn't Berkeley and it has been frustrating sometimes, especially when it comes to trying to find food past 10 at night, or even trying to get off campus while at work. I keep missing the shuttle that goes between home and work because it only comes every 40 minutes so I end up having to walk 30+ minutes. And this summer I have scratched the front of my car hitting a concrete pillar at Ikea, scratched the front of my car badly hitting a parked car in a parking lot, and nearly ran over several people and bicyclers. In exchange, more than enough cars have almost ran over me, so I suppose it's only fair. I also tripped someone at Target with some plastic storage bins I was trying to pick out and she ended up breaking a mirror and cutting her leg. Which of course caused a huge scene where about 10 employees were cleaning up the mess and attending to her and taking away my bins.

*sigh*

I'm hoping things will get better once people arrive and classes start. It just gets so lonely out here sometimes.

Summary of this Summer

2006-09-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

No updates since Monterey! I've been so out of things this summer. Perhaps feeling isolated here in Palo Alto has made me actually isolate myself more. I'm hardly even online at home now, and often times I don't have the urge to go onto AIM! Me! The one totally addicted to the internet! I have a feeling all of this will change rather quickly once classes have started and reading and studying has bored me mucho.

Well, since Monterey, this is what has happened:

-I visited Berkeley a couple of times and said good-bye to dear friends Gloria and Anais, who are going to Purdue and El Paso respectively. It was rather sad now that all my friends are leaving me.

-I started skating with the Wednesday night group in Palo Alto and it has been amazing! This group is pretty fast and definitely kicks my ass with some of the hills but I always feel great. It's a fun skate and an amazing workout, plus I get to hang out with ultra cool peoples.

-I went hiking with Louis at Rancho San Antonio, which was recommended to me by one of my labmates and it's a very nice place with nice trails, some challenging hills, and a beautiful view at the top.

-I got super addicted to Final Fantasy X, so much so that I stole Louis's PS2 and played 50+ hours in less than 3 weeks. In fact, I got so addicted, I started leaving work early because all I could think about at work was going home and playing Final Fantasy.

-I realized my rotation is coming to an end and I have no data! Hence, I am still at work even though it's 8:30, so I can uh, blog, and wait for stupid worms to scan.

-I went to see Snakes on a muthafuckin' Plane with my lab. Stuart, my PI (boss), said afterwards that he thought the movie represented the highest form of cinematography.

-And finally, I moved! It was a little sad turning in my keys and saying good-bye to yet another place yesterday, but I doubt I'll be too sad. This new place is nice and quiet and I can actually sleep! No more stupid trucks carrying dirt waking me up at 6am on weekdays and no more motorcycles or cars with super loud music waking me up at 5am and 7am respectively on weekends. No more having to choose between the noise with the windows open or the heat with the windows closed. Oh and besides, this place, quoting its website, has "two resort style custom designed swimming pools with expansive sunbathing areas and barbecues, 24 hour fitness center fully equipped with the latest exercise equipment and sauna, two tennis courts, resident clubhouse, billiards." Only thing is, it's a little far. It took me a bit skating to work today and the shuttle only runs every 40 minutes. Bleh. Also, I hate moving. I really hope I don't have to move again unless Stanford kicks me out of this place in 2 years. I hope hope!

Well, that's what has happened so far this summer. I will be in LA later this week from Saturday until Wednesday so hopefully I'll be able to hang with cool peoples from back home! Soon after that I have the cancer bio retreat and if Stuart is able to pull somes strings, the genetics retreat, which apparently throws a party that gets busted up by the cops every single year! Yay! And then I frantically try to prepare for a lab meeting for which I have no data and classes start. Wow, this summer has gone by really quickly.

Monterey

2006-08-01T00:24:00.000-07:00

They say the darker the restaurant the more expensive it is. Well this place was so dim I had to read the menu by candlelight! However, when you are done with your meal, the waitress brings a rose for the lady and the bill for the gentleman. Teehee!

The coolest toughtest bikers ever!

It was so foggy in Big Sur, we had trouble seeing anything, including the "waterfall" in the background.

Stop in Gorda for Coffee and $4.75 a gallon regular gas. The guy at the coffee stand was a lanky white guy who sang to gospel (I'm prayin' for Jesus!) on his wind up radio.

We finally escaped the fog by driving high up into the mountains!

The prettiest drive was through an army camp. There are 2 gates and they run your driver's license before you enter. The rules of the place include no stopping, always take the road to your right, no photography, and obey the speed limit, which in some places was 25mph. Even though it was smooth, well paved roads with no other cars in sight, apparently, sometimes those roads are used for tanks, hence the speed limit. After exiting, there's a tank on display, so being my hippie self, peace to the world!

I even made Louis do it!

Pit stop at another gas station. It was conviently the prettiest time of day, around 1 hour before the sun goes down, where the "golden light" is perfect for skin tones and hence portraits!

Louis looking yum yum sexy at breakfast at our bed and breakfast place. The owner of the place was sooo nice and made super yummy blueberry muffins!

Me, not looking neary as sexy.

Last day in Monterey, around Canery Row

My failed attempt to take a picture of the two of us on the bike.

Picture of me on the bike being so cool!

Super blown out picture of the two of us on the bike. *sigh* Will have to try this again another time.

Overall it was a fun fun trip and we will be going back. I still need to make my dorky pilgrimage to the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas. Yay!

On the way to Monterey!

2006-08-01T00:09:00.000-07:00

Photos on one of the beaches just north of Santa Cruz

Louis looking very very tall

My impersonation of an Edward Weston nude...without the nudity

The cliffs in the background

The beach in the background

Not our shoes

Louis and the bike

Vroom vroom! I'm a biker chick!

Finally Posting Pictures!

2006-07-31T23:56:00.000-07:00

Alright, since Picasa makes this so easy, I really have no excuse.

Here are pictures from about a month and a half ago, when Max and Nady and I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, in about 100+ degrees Valley weather. I chugged like 2 liters of liquid in under an hour and was still thirsty.

We got the froggies because another girl's big boyfriend beat us that the squirt game in the carnival area and Nady asked for a consellation prize. So really we got the froggies because we were girls.

Mmm...Nady kissies!

Nady casting her spell on me

Nady with Slyvester

Me with Marvin

All of us with Daffy

Hot Hot HOT!

2006-07-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

Omigod, it's so fucking hot, it's absolutely unbelievable. This weekend has been simply ridiculous, to an extent which I have not experienced for a long long time. On Saturday, it was about 100 degrees in Palo Alto, and my lovely apartment, which is situated on the top floor of our apartment complex and which conviently lacks air conditioning started boiling at about 8 in the morning. Louis and I tried to find relief at the Great Mall in San Jose but we were there for about 15 minutes before half the mall blacked out. Later that night, we skated through campus and it felt very nice, maybe in the mid 70s at about midnight. However, returning to the apartment, it was hot again, and the next day it was the same thing, heat, trying to escape the heat by going shopping somewhere with air conditioning. We finally went to my lab and hung out in the lounge there while taking advantage of free air conditioning and free wireless.

Hence, I walked to lab this morning with the same expetations, really excited to go to work, to a place where it would be much cooler and nicer than home. About a minute after walking in, I realized that it still felt incredibly hot inside the building. I was then told that almost all of the buildings in the medical center were having trouble with the cooler and hence the air conditioning had been turned to minimal levels. It was baking inside. So I worked for about 10 minutes before going out with some of the other lab mates for Jamba Juice for about an hour. When we returned and it was far worse than before. It was 29 degrees celsius inside, which after a google conversion, I realized was about 84 degrees farenheit. Waaay too hot! So I left and found a cafeteria in a building a ways away, where I am sitting presently. It feels nice but my laptop with its crappy old battery will die soon, and then, so will I. Garrrgh, I miss the temperate Berkeley weather. Apparently the school which is supposed to be soooo loaded doesn't want to shell out for some decent air conditioning!

Lack of sleep + alcohol =

2006-07-19T02:03:00.000-07:00

Which is exactly the condition I'm in right now! Night ya'lls.

This past week

2006-07-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

It has been a good weekend. It started off on Friday with me rushing out of the lab and driving up to Berkeley through miserable traffic for a book reading. Rebecca Agiewich, or BreakupBabe, who found herself a book deal due to her blog, sheds light on dating in the modern age as well as the blogging phenomenon. The reading was great, and now that I'm half way through the book, I can say that the book is quite good and a worthwhile read. It's witty and well written and shares experiences that all of us can relate to, including the idea that if we're successful and famous, then anyone who has every done us wrong will feel terrible about the way they have treated us int he past! It's a highly recommended.

On Friday night I hung out with Gloria and on Saturday we went shopping in SF. We hit up essentially the same stores we hit up throughout all of Europe, that is, Zara and H&M. For those of you who don't know already, I am absolutely in love with Zara! They have amazing fashion and sizes which actually fit me! In their clothes, I am a small, not an extra small, and it doesn't look like I'm swimming in clothes. Seriously, I think Ann Taylor/Gap/Bananna Republic/Insert Typical American Store seriously needs to consider their sizes. There are people (like Gloria) skinnier than me and if size 0's are too big me, then there's something wrong. At Zara I bought a super cute shirt and a really pretty fluffy skirt. I also bought a nice travel bag. Definitely thrilled with my aquisitions.

Then on Saturday night and most of Sunday, I hung out with the bf and we made yummy yummy waffles with my new waffle iron.

Monday was when all the pain started. Armed with my super cute Zara shirt which strategically shows cleavage without revealing it all, I walked into lab feeling sexy and fashionable. I then proceeded to spend my day from 10am to 7:30pm staring into a microscope...in the dark. Yes, in a room where it was essentially completely dark staring at worms and looking for florescence. At the end of it, my head hurt pretty badly, I hardly felt sexy, not to mention no one had even seen me in my sexy shirt!

And well today, granted I did sit around wasting time until around 4, but I stayed in lab until 11 without even finishing what I had wanted to finish! Arrrrgh. I think I will try to get up early tomorrow so I can go in early and perhaps finish early. I really need to see some daylight. By the way, everytime I close my eyes or look up at the ceiling or see anything resembling a curved structure on the ground, I see worms. They're seriously everywhere and they will not stop haunting me! Damn C. elegans! Anything but elegant!

For those of you who have read the Odyssey

2006-07-11T01:51:00.000-07:00

Or who are just interested in Greek mythology in general, this statue, which I found swamped by an Asian tour group in the Vatican museum depicts Laocoon, a Trojan preist, and his two sons. After the Trojan horse was put in place by the Greeks, the Trojans went out to inspect what they considered a sudden and very surprising retreat. They were not so stupid as to immediately believe that the huge wooden horse really was a Greek offering to the gods asking for safe passage home. Rather, they were suspicious and some, including Laocoon suggested burning it. At the moment Laocoon offered this suggestion however, two serpents, sent by Poseidon arose from the seas and squeezed the life out of Laocoon and his two sons. Taken as a sign of the gods' displeasure, the Trojans brought the horse into the city. This statue then depicts the struggle against these powerful serpents. Laocoon's powerful muscles contrasts with the daintiness of his sons. His failed effort at fatherly protection contrasting with the fear in his sons. Hence, the failure of the Trojans was not so much an act of stupidity on their part. Rather, it is a demonstration of the will of the gods playing out. Laocoon's struggle demonstrates the height of human prowess but it is merely a human effort, meaningless against the divine. Fortunately, the demise of Troy did not signify the end for the Trojans. Thanks to Aeneas, Rome was founded and now have the amazing amazing show, perhaps the second best show on television after Entourage. See, everything ties together!

Now, here's the picture as promised.

I just want to say...

2006-07-11T01:27:00.000-07:00

That I really like Entourage! Yay!

Now to appease ya'lls, here's a picture!

I didn't go running

2006-07-06T01:15:00.000-07:00

Instead, I went out to yummy Thai food with the lab I'm rotating in and then went to see The Devil Wears Prada with some of the girls in the lab. I like the movie! Plus Andrian Grenier is soooo cute and soooo sweet in the movie! New season of Entourage; yum yum, summer's definitely getting off to a great start (well, maybe except for the running).

Move Move

2006-07-05T12:14:00.001-07:00

Spent the weekend moving in to my summer residence at Stanford. I'm living in Lyman, the graduate dorms near the medical campus. The place is pretty nice. It has 2 bedrooms and its furnished with typical dorm furniture but slightly nicer. It's got big windows, especially in the living room which offers a nice view, of well, a field and trees. However, to attest to the niceness of this place, I live across from 8 tennis courts (which I took advantage of yesterday) and a driving range. Should I take up golf perhaps? There's like a golf course within 5 minutes walking.

It's very pretty around here. It makes me want to go running. Perhaps I will tonight, but don't be surprised if I don't. =)

Before I Post Europe Pictures...

2006-06-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

I must post Dinosaur Comics!

Perfect way to precede my backpacking adventures!

A New Beginning

2006-06-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

I figured that with the start of a semi-new life, it would only be appropriate to begin a new blog. I've closed one chapter in my life and opening a new one, and while old experiences are still very important, sometimes it's better to file them away and begin anew. Drama, heartbreak, angst will be relegated to a little corner and with that, I will lead a perfect perfect life! Or something like that.

Well, first post in my new blog. More forthcoming.