For Us

Today was a full day. Early morning brought on the local Turkey Trot. Expecting a course flat like Madison tends to be, when I arched up my first loop of the two-loop course, there was a hill. Not just a little tiny, "this is kind of hard hill", but a big whopping monster of a hill. Its my own fault though, I've been to busy avoiding training on hills for the Seattle half-marathon to actually just buckle down and run up a darn hill. After finishing right where I wanted to (not the last one!!), I was basking in my awesome day off, when I was asked to cover teaching a 75 minute spin class. How can I say no to teaching? I can't. It was a great class, and I rocked it.

Now, full from two burritos, I'm sitting at home gearing up for the upcoming week at school. I have three interviews this week for my science journalism class, but if all goes as planned, I'll have topics and quotes for the rest of my stories by Friday. Hopefully I can start on my huge research project tomorrow or Tuesday, and be in tip top shape to make a graceful exit to Seattle at the end of the month.

Yesterday was EYH (expanding your horizons) at the college. There were over 300 middle school girls that came together to learn about science and math. I taught a great program (with some awesome help), where we looked at color distribution in bags of M&Ms. Back in the day when I looked at color percentages in bags of these color full candies, there were 40% brown. These days, of the 1000+ candies samples, green was the most common color (with about 24% of the totals). I feel so old.

Friday, I left school pretty earl (around 4:30), and met John at home. The long run this week was 8 miles, which isn't that bad, aside from the fact the sun goes down at 4:45 these days. Anyway, we trucked on in the dark, dashing over sticks and levels. The real highlight of the night though, was the fact that before we left we ordered pizza online, and had it delivered within 15 minutes of coming home. Nothing tastes so great. Okay, many things do, but nothing that is super cheap, requires little to no work, and can be enjoyed right after a run (aside from chocolate milk)

Aside from a great weekend full of activities, and a really busy upcoming week, the one thing that i HAVE to to before Friday is make hashbrowns. Santa came to me early, delivering a great Willow Blue kitchen aid, and I recently received the grinder set (thanks Dad). Anyway, the one thing that is really needed to break in this grinder, are some nice large potatoes to make crispy awesome hashbrowns.

Bring on this week!

the multi-verse

I have a paper due in my science journalism class tomorrow, and I've been having a hard time making the words flow, and not digress into a choppy science-themes mess. I figured it was time to update the old blog (sorry mom).

Classes haven't been to stressful, its just all this lab stuff. Its not like I have a project with a set amount of work to do. If that was the case, I'd be stressed I wasn't working enough. My project isn't like that. Nor is it a never ending amount of molecular biology lab work in my future. Instead, its a carefully crafted mix of waiting for bacteria to grow (blast you desulfuromonas), making media, reading scientific papers (which I really should do more), and feeling like I should be doing more.

I go into the office every morning between 7:00 and 8:30 AM, and rarely leave before 4:30. I know I do things, but there is still this overwhelming sense that I'm not going to graduate as soon as everyone else, and that if I was diligent, like many of the other graduate students, I would be gearing up to defend come May, not August. Not that it really matters in the scheme of things: I don't think three or four months really makes a difference. I'm still young, I have time.

In the meantime, I'm sitting in my office, thinking about stories for science journalism, getting ready for seminar in two hours and a meeting with my adviser, listening to radiolab, and being hungry.

I would really like to start the full-on run of my Masters project early next week. Like Monday, that would be great, and get me on track to starting the isotope chem come December....we'll see.

I wear my sunglasses at night.

I couldn't sleep. well, I'm sure that if I tried hard enough, I could have. I just thought getting up at 6 seemed like a great way to start my Sunday. I'll be up this early again Monday (tomorrow) and Wednesday to get my spin teaching on. Plus my brain was definitely ready to get up. Seemed strange to waste that with sleep.

I did probably one of the best runs of my life yesterday outside in the cold. It was high 30s, I was wearing a long sleeve tech tee with my tie dye Alaska Grown tee shirt on top (thanks Mom and Dad), and a pair of tight compression short short. Okay, not Cheerleader or Volleyball player short, but short in Liz world. And you know what? I rocked those 10+ miles. Finishing faster towards the end than in the beginning. My pace was steady and my form smooth as I spend close to two hours admiring the leaves and their gradients of color through the Arboretum. It was a very very great way to spend the day.

There really was no way to top that, so I came back inside, made Mahi Mahi and top Ramen for dinner (I know, its really weird but I ate them separately, not together). Ate some amazing wheat bread, and later on dowered some eggs and tomatoes and another piece of that wheat bread (do you sense a carb and protein theme). My mother should be ashamed that my dinner last night consisted of no vegetables. NONE! Because, technically tomato is a fruit. Also, I boiled up some quinoa in the hopes of making Fried Quinoa (like fried rice but with no rice) for dinner today. Maybe throw in some frozen fish, veggies and some fruit and I should be good. Let me just say that there is little I wouldn't do for a fresh king salmon grilled in my parents back yard right about now. NOTHING.

On cheerier news, I'm a little behind in lab and need to really start pushing to get some of my project stuff done. My bacterium Desulfuromonas hasn't been growing without a special reducing agent in the culture tubes that will potentially mess up my results in the future. Its super super frustrating, and I need to solve this problem. I also need to spend an hour or three making media, which hopefully I can get done today.

As far as classes go, crystal chem is finally starting to make sense and all come together, which is amazing. Now I just need to go write a story for science journalism...

Fortune Faded

I will update more...promise.

I actually need to update more because I find that writing more allows to write more freely. As someone eyeballs deep in a science journalism class with assignments ticking by, I can use all the writing exercise I can get.

This morning it was miserably rainy. Blustery, rainy and just overall icky. I made it into school around my usual 8:15 morning just as the rain ceased. It abated until my class at 9:30, and I managed to get hit with what I imagine could only be Madison's version of a tropical monsoon with cold on my bike back. The sun finally managed to peak through the clouds about 10 minutes ago, making this one heck of a weather day. I teach spin at 5:15, so I'll be holding up in my office until 4:30 to venture on over to the NAT. I have a pretty good workout today, many new drills, not quite so many hills.

On the lab front, I'm giving a presentation about my research for the large Astrobiology group on Thursday. I have officially up to two hours, although most presentations are running about an hour, and I have all of 20 slides. Its not that I haven't done a ton of diverse research, I have. Its that I want to keep it focused and on topic with the research specific to my Masters. Research that really feels like two steps forward 1.750 steps back. I'm throwing a demonstration in there to mix things up, and I know I'll get slaughtered with amazing questions that I wish I had thought of in order to know answers.

I suppose the longer that I've been immersed in my program, the more I don't mind looking dumb or not having the perfect answer to all of the little questions that crop up. I could say that I really don't care at all about how dumb I look, but that would be very incorrect. I do very much care about having a smart-appearance, and that motivates me to do more reading and more background work than I sometimes have to. That being said, I'm finally getting over my fear of asking dumb-ish questions in presentations. And trust me, they say that there is no such thing as s dumb question, but there is, and I have asked one or two in my day.

Jump Around

Its game day here in Madison. For a town with a moderate size population, game days still mean a huge swell in the amount of people driving, and more importantly walking though the campus area. The sea of red is pretty enormous, plus today's first game of the season is an evening game (6 PM kickoff), and I'm pretty sure most of the undergrads have been partying since noon. Being the victor of season tickets, I too, am going. I'm meeting some friends and heading over at about 5 to 6. I would have liked to be there earlier, because I like to be ever where earlier, but I guess as a cool grad student, I will have to be semi-late. I got a complaint that I wasn't excited enough about the game. I am excited on the inside, and it will be fun, but not outwardly excited, which is pretty strange, considering I get excited about everything else. Seriously, everything.

This morning I dropped a good $15 at the Farmers market, scooping up Beets, Cauliflower, Green Beans, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Mushrooms, Bok Choy and some other things. Went for a brief 5 mile run, and by the time I was cleaned up, John was back from school. Then, I headed to the apple store where my ipod was pronounced as dead. Apparently running through thunderstorms and sticking your ipod in your sports bra for extended periods of time isn't quite idea. Next I headed to Verizon to get a new battery for my phone. I got the sweetest phone ever, but the battery is slightly less then ideal, so they are ordering me a new one. We then hit up qdoba for my birthday burrito, and as John headed to work, I curled up to some West Wing and took a nap. An amazing nap that still has me slightly sleepy. Football awesomeness tonight, and a good nights sleep.

Taste of Madison is tomorrow (well, its all weekend, but I'm going tomorrow). I'm also getting a run in, making some spin workouts, and probably coming in to catch up on some lab work. Sunday John and I both have the day off (I actually don't think grad students get the day off, but I'm taking it anyway). I don't know what the day will involve, probably the zoo, some running, and some amazing time doing nothing (after the lawn gets mowed). Grocery shopping is a must too. Its so crazy how being gone just a few days can throw off everything in my schedule.

I need to update this blog more. Because i really do like the idea of having a log of my grad school years. I'll figure out how to update from my phone, and that might help.

This semester is going to be a doozy, with Crystal Chem, Astrobiology and Science Journalism all making an appearence. Class load will be substantial, as will the amount of research neding to get done, but, if all goes well, I can be defending my masters come May. That would be amazing. AMAZING! Kinda makes me feel less bad about becoming old.

Virtual insanity

I'm watching Bridezillas with John right now. Its such a nasty show, highlighting the negative aspects of todays wedding industry and the push towards the wedding as the end all goal. On the plus side, it makes me like look such a calm and relaxed woman compared to these crazies! I did a later afternoon 7 miler through the arboretum. The hills were okay, but the 75 degree temperature was ideal.

In other news, this article came out in USA today saying that 70% of the general public things that women should take their husbands last names when getting married. Really, 70% in this day and age. One of the main arguments was towards establishing a household mentality and a unified household demeanor. If thats really the case, then whats the argument for the groom not taking the brides name. And tradition, thats a reasonable opinion, but I wonder if the sources from the University of Utah (mormons?) and Indiana (which is fairly progressive) somehow sway the results. As a girl that loves my name, hyphens and all, I've often pondered the fact, but feel that if I was to adopt a new name, it would be the loss of not just one last name, but double that, and an entire blow to half my name (First and middle staying the same of course). Half is a lot to change. WAY more than 1/3.

Thats about all I have to say about that.

Going on a heat wave!

Okay, I really don't have any reason to have taken a posting hiatus. I did start my Delta class last week, and its been some work balancing everything, but other than that I've just been pretty slammed. Where to begin...

well, my class on Teaching Science in the College Classroom has been more work that I've expected, but I've also taken away more from the first week of class than in some of my semester long classes. We meet three hours a day, 3 days a week for 3 weeks. During the first hour we have discussion leaders and discuss the readings that were assigned in a structured manner. Hour 2 brings peer review of the assignments (lesson plans, syllabus, teaching philosophy, etc...), then for the last 45 minutes-ish, we cover a new topic that we're going to be doing, like assessment techniques, or learning plans. Its long, but the time flies by. Also, as part of it we each do a 15-minute mini-teaching assignment, where you teach any topic to the class, its videorecorded, and played back to you. You then make corrections, and get to teach it again the next week. I'm in the first group to do mine, which is this Friday. I think I'm going to present on clone libraries or PCR or DNA sequining, something that I can draw great pictures for and really help to hammer home. The class has really made me want to teach, especially next semester, but I know I'll be up to my eyeballs in research, so it is what it is.

Also, I was packing up the house on Saturday. August 15th is a Madison-wide holiday known as moving day. The way it works, is that the year long leases expire on noon of the 14th, and no one can move in until noon on the 15th, at which point every single college student moving apartments all moves at the same time. Its NUTS! So, seeing as how we're moving downstairs, we're not exempt from the moving madness, and will be hauling all out stuff downstairs come Saturday. The point of this story, is that I was starting to pack, and my cell phone rang. It was my advisor.

I don't think my advisor has ever called my cell phone, and barring that I wouldn't imagine him calling on a Saturday. So I answered, and he starts talking about how I really need to get trained in DGGE, this technique used for screening environmental microbiology cultures. There isn't anyone here he knows thats doing it, but one of his old students is down at Ole Miss. Thats right, Mississippi. So, I need to hop on a plane at the end of this month, and spend a few days in the good olde south learning some technique. I booked the ticket this morning. I'm running a half marathon on the 29th in the AM, getting on a plane in the afternoon, driving from Memphis to Conway AR to see my awesome friend Sam for a night, then the next afternoon driving the 4 hours to Oxford, MI. I'll work Monday Tuesday and Wednesday in the lab, heading back Wednesday afternoon. Which is....September 2nd. Originally I was going to fly in the morning of the 3rd and miss some classes, but the 2nd is my birthday darnit, and flying in at 9:00 at night is better than no birthday night at all in my apartment. Plus, on your birthday you get to eat cake all day, an I'm not sure if people in the south have Costco cake, so that's a risk I don't know if I really want to take.

The take home message? Its going to be a fun month for me. Also, I get to explore Mississippi (which is really fun to spell), Ar-Kansas, and Tennessee (plus I can sing Walking in Memphis while I'm actually walking in Memphis...happy birthday to me!)

In other news, I'm currently eating a bowl of with one red beet and some golden beets that I boiled and have re-heated in the microwave, so now they're orange tie-die beets. Its pretty hippy dippy, root vegtables AND a crazy color combination. I won't go a week without writing anymore, not unless I have a much better reason!

I'm still having such a good time (Can't get Don't stop me now by Queen out of my head)

This morning proved an awesome day for the farmers market. I scooped up some green beans, baby bok choy, swiss chard (the pretty red kind), mushrooms, tomatoes, and golden beets. Its going to be a pretty good week for veggies. On the downside, the people at the Farmers Market (mainly the children) drive me bonkers!!!! Especially the mothers with the 2-wide strollers toting a toddler or two. Who needs that many children? Timed that close together! Especially when your not capable of handling them in public and not having them be trampled by other market goers walking at the powerful pace of 1 mile an hour. The children fray my nerves like nothing else. I think I'll start going in earlier in order to avoid these young-ones.

After much procrastination, around 3:00 I finally got my long run in for the week. It was 10 miles at 11:15 min/mile pace. Not super, but okay. I'm pretty wiped, both from a moving party yesterday (lots of heavy lifting), and a speedy 4 mile set on the treadmill at the SERF yesterday.

I'm watching the West Wing now waiting for John to get off work. These Saturday's tick by so slowly. Although its nice doing nothing, it would be much nicer doing neither if my boyfriend wasn't gone from 7:45 AM to 11 PM every Saturday. That being said, tomorrow is John's first day off in a while, and now that his class is done, we get to actually spend some quality time together. On the menu: Harry Potter in IMAX, some great food, and some awesome hang-out time.

I've decided what my dream job would be. I'm decided I need to work for Promega, an awesome biotech company with a home base in Madison. I would want to do research and development on lab assays and better techniques/development of better environmental microbiology kits for about half of my time. The other half would be spent doing outreach and education about the company, and explaining how to use products effectively. It would couple my love of science, with my love of science education and explain how science works to the masses. I could educate and get my science on at the same time. How amazing would that be??

Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time...

Its been a pretty hectic week. I don't think one thing in particular has made it pretty hectic, but I've been working more and more this week, trying to push forward on PCR and my enrichment cultures, but honestly its a lot of time with not that much of a push forward. I'm starting to worry that although I've been rocking the preliminary experiments, I want to start doing a real experiment that will be directly applicable to my masters. In any regard, its been just a lot of time spinning my wheels.

I think whats making me feel like I've been so hectic, is that I've been away from home more and more, and relaxing less this week. John has his last class on Saturday, so he's been busting it to get everything done before Saturday, which means no free and fun time. So, I've been leaving the house at 8ish, getting some work in, sneaking out during the day for an afternoon yoga class or some time at the pool (or gym), then returning until 6 or 7 to get some more work done. Its a pretty sweet schedule actually, and I wish I would have thought of it earlier.

Exciting things, I want to take a class or two from the DELTA program here at UW. Its a pretty sweet program about teaching scientists how to teach, and how to engage students in the classroom. I was going to take the intro-level class this next spring, because the offerings in the fall didn't fit my schedule, and the summer class was offered when I was in Australia. Thanks to the lack of Australia trip, I am free to take the summer class. Easier said that done, however. So, by the time the trip was cancelled, the class was beyond full, and I e-mailed the program about being put on the waiting list. I was number 9. About a week ago, I got another e-mail from the program saying that the class starts on August 3rd, no one was dropped yet, and theres really no chance any of us would get in. Fast forward to yesterday, when I find out that indeed, someone has dropped, and no one else is able to fill the spot, so its mine!! Scary thing, starting class on Monday. Its three hours a day (9 to noon), three or four days a week for August.

I was looking over the syllabus, and its all about developing your teaching philosophy, and all that other mumbo-jumbo that I've been teasing John about having to do with his teaching classes. I think thats karma for you. But, I get to get a new notebook! I LOVE school supplies. I think thats the reason I'm still in school (even though i guess I'm technically about to start 18th grade, which is freaky deaky to realize how much of my life has been spent in school). I also need a new planner, which is again, more exciting for me that for most other people.

My local NPR station (WPR) has been spending more of the week focusing on sustainable foods, organic farming, buying local, and the real price we pay for what we eat. Its such an eye-opener, and on that note, I'm hitting up the Farmers Market tomorrow to get some veggies. Although I've had a pretty fluid off and on relationship with vegatarianism over the past 10 years or so of my life, I do feel this need to eat less meat. Which, in order to better control my thyroid problem and give me more energy I'm meeting with a nutritionist/dietitian next week. I'm actually pretty excited to talk about food.

So its almost 11, I'm going over to the SERF to run on a treadmill (I know, its beautiful and sunny outside, but I haven't been inside running in about 5 months, and the logistics of being able to shower and come back to school are unbeatable), then heading to some friends for a packing and saying good bye party before they more to Amherst...Freaking east coast.

I really want a vacation. Not the kind where I go to Alaska and see people and am energized the whole time, but one where I lie on the beach and do nothing for 3 or 4 days.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.

So today has been a pretty lazy Sunday day: I LOVE it. I woke up pretty early (7AM)ish, made a killer eggs and potato breakfast, took a nice nap when John left for work, made roasted beets, potatoes and carrots with fresh peas for lunch, had some egg salad for dinner, randomly watched some TV, and took a shower. Note the lack of going into the office, going running, or even reading a paper. Aside from the lack of John time, its been a pretty sweet day.

Yesterday afternoon Kate, Andy and I drove to Mt. Horeb which aside from being the Mustard Capital of the world, has a healthy troll population, and some awesome roads for going on a nice long road ride. Although we only did around 30 miles, there were some hills, and it was beautiful out. Very beautiful. Afterwards I headed into lab to run a gel to check the status of the PCR I was up late running on Friday. The results were mixed, with my DSR genes amplifying, some of my DGGE amplifying, and none of my 16s amplifying (I think I forgot to add in the taq). Anyway, I'm excited to head in tomorrow and see if I tweak anything I'll get a better result.

I'll get up early tomorrow, pull and easy 5 miler, and then I want to hit up Yoga at lunchtime. This week is going to be super sweet: Harry Potter finally came out in IMAX, which I've been waiting for, and there will a sweet date sometime near in my future which involves some awesome Potter-ness. Also, two of the coolest people are moving to Massachusetts (stupid east coast), and there is a moving party on Friday. I have a follow up doctors appointment for my thyroid on Thursday, and some serious lab work to get done Monday through Wednesday. Although, I might see about sneaking out to walk around the zoo for a few hours on Tuesday.

I'm getting a little sad about all my new friends leaving. Its pretty hard to adjust into a new place, get everything settled in, and then BAM, people are moving away. Even crazier to me, is the fact that a week from tomorrow marks the one year mark for when John and I moved down here. That single-handedly makes this the shortest year of my life. I mean, I'm sure time has moved in a fairly linear consistent manner, but man, the times just flew by. Makes me worry about how future years are going to speedily progress.

On a side note, I'm trying to take a science and environmental journalism class in the fall. Its pretty writing intense, and its full right now. I contacted the instructor, and I can swing by on the first day of class and see about sneaking into the class. I've been thinking about going into science journalism and outreach, so I'm hoping that this class will give me a great opportunity to get my feet wet and see if I like it.

Primers Primers everywhere and not a drop to drink

Today, (being this morning, afternoon, and fairly well into late tonight), has been spent diluting primers, and preforming PCR to see what I can see. Side note: just looked outside, and there is one hell of a thunderstorm raging on. It was pouring earlier, but abated long enough to make a quick run to home depot to get dinner with the boy (an easy 4 mile bike ride each way).

In any case, if PCR (Polymerase chain reaction: the way we copy DNA to do stuff with), was a zipper, primers would be the little crimped pieces of metal on the ends that tell the zipper where to start zipping, and where to stop zipping: they set the frame where the zipper can work. Also, to continue this analogy, PCR is like taking a zipper (a double helix of DNA), and heating it up so hot that the zipping mechanism and previously mentioned crimped metal ends falls off. This leaves two zipper strands. In PCR, the first step is to heat the DNA up so that it denatures (comes apart leaving 2 separate strands)...see the parallels?

Next, what we do is add primers to the DNA (or crimped metal ends to the zipper). This tells the DNA were we want it to replicate. These primers are pieces of DNA that are custom made so that they match up to certain segments of DNA that are present in all bacteria, or just some bacteria, which lets us be specific with what DNA we amplify. The other 2 important chemicals present in a PCR reaction, are the free nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA (think free individual zipper teeth), and Taq Polymerase, which is an enzyme that allows DNA to copy itself (for the zipper analogy, this equates to the zipper pull which physically connects the two sides of the zipper). The PCR reaction occurs at several different temperatures, which are cycled over and over again (more than 40 times) to grow DNA.

What happens is this:
First, the DNA is heated, this causes it to denature and separate into two strands (as mentioned earlier with the zipper)
Next, the temperature drops so that primers can attach to the DNA (think of putting those metal crimps on half of a zipper). This is called annealing.
After that, the temperature is raised again, and as this happens, DNA polymerase starts at the primers, and works along the DNA in one direction, grabbing free nucleotides from the liquid mixture, to match up to the DNA bases on the other side (imagine putting the zipper pull on the crimped metal end, and as you pull up to zip the half zipper, pieces of zipper are inserted into the other side of the pull to combine and make a complete zipper).

This cycle is repeated over and over again, each time doubling the DNA present in the reaction tube. Once this is done, then we run it on an agar gel (like jello), by applying an electric current that pulls the DNA along the charge (since DNA is negatively charged). This allows us to separate pieces of DNA that we amplified based on size.

Anyway, thats what I'm running up in lab now. I am in the process of getting a new anaerobic station. Here is a picture of the one that everyone in lab uses

The tubes on the left are used to run gasses into syringes to make solutions anoxic. Gasses are passed through a reduced copper column to remove all traces of oxygen, then aseptically added to syringes or solutions so that anaerobic bacteria can live!

My station is to the right: I picked out the awesome green contact paper to give it more of flair. i wanted to spray paint everything purple, but I decided that contact paper was the better option (err...I was told it was the better option)



Its still pouring rain, and I have another two hours until my PCR is done running. I'll come in and do the gel tomorrow. Hopefully there won't be anymore lightening as I still have to ride my bike home tonight.

TGIF?

I'm sweating up a storm right now. Seriously, pools of sweat are just poring down my face. I blame it on my morning run and bike ride to work in a relatively balmy 68 degree day. My morning run was supposed to be 5 miles, but I really wasn't feeling it, so I just did a out and back loop around the edge of Lake Mendota. I'll either ride the bike down to Home Depot tonight to meet John for his dinner break, or hit up the pool. The thing is, this is my "step back" week on my half marathon training plan to run a race at the end of august. Its nice to only be running 15 miles in one week, but part of me misses the 35 mile weeks I was running training for the Madison Marathon.
In lab, I'm working on PCR, this technique we use to amplify stretches of bacterial DNA, and coupling that to DGGE so I can explore the bacterial diversity of these enrichment cultures I've been working with the past few months. I'm a little nervous, just because I hear that it works really well the first few times, and then generally things hit the fan, and you can't get reproducible results when you're working with environmental samples, which would be LAME-O. Anyway, I'm going to spend a big chunk of today in lab re-hydrating the primers I ordered, and doing the PCR leg-work that I need to blast right though the DGGE next week.
Another lab plus, I'm getting my own anaerobic station, I'll have to post pictures of what it looks like, it will be super exciting, we just need to order some new parts for this piece of equipment that lets you control the gas flow rates (for H2, N2, and CO2).

By far, though, the most exciting thing happening today, is this awesome lunch I packed (err..the ingredients to make an awesome lunch and dinner). I have both a spinach, mozzarella and strawberry salad and a sourdough turkey sandwich with spinach, tomato and guacamole. Not to seem unenthusiastic or anything, but its really going to be one of the best parts of my day. Especially seeing as how John works until 11PM, and has class and work all day tomorrow (8 AM until 11:30 PM), and works sunday, so I'm pretty much on my own this weekend, which lets me get excited about my awesome meals and what I'm going to do in lab, instead of the normal fun things I have planned with the boy.
Yeah, I should probably get to work now.

Splenda with Fiber, really people?

Today's been pretty chill for the most part. I've been hearing this faint ringing of fire-truck sounding sirens for the past 15 minutes, finally I look out my office window, and there is indeed, a fire truck with a handful of firefighters and some on-lookers doing some serious-looking talking in front of the atmospheric and ocean sciences building. Hmm...I have no idea whats going on, but I'm mainly just concerned with the fact it took me 15 minutes to turn my head slighly to the right and look out my window.

I've been really delving into reading the scientific literature lately. My down-time waiting for bacteiral cultures to grow couples with this new program called Papers (for mac), and launced me into a 5-paper a day habit I'd like to maintain for as long as I can. There is just so much to read, and I don't find a direct correlation between reading, remembering, and using that new-found knowledge in a paper. I don't yet anyway, but maybe sometime soon, as I become an older graduate student. I find it so amazing that the people around me (the professors and post-docs) can remeber hundreds of papers, who wrote them, and what the key points are. But, I hear that it comes with time and practice.

I'm working on trying to isolate iron-reducing colonies that I grew on an iron silicate mix I precipitated from a reduced state in artificial seawater which mimics what we think seawater in the archean would be compositionally (about 3.5 billion years ago). Anyway, I'm working with these enviromental enrichment (mixed) cultures and trying to see which iron they like to reduce, and what carbon source they like to pair that with. Its realy intresting work, but it involves spending a few hours innoculating tubes, letting them incubate while checking reduced iron every day or two, and letting them just grow for a week or two. There is substantial down time, which is spent for the most part either reading papers (as I've mentioned above), or watching the West Wing (or a Bravo reality TV show), and spending time with my Amazing boyfriend (who, as I write this is up to his eyeballs in school work and work of his own). So, the take home message, is that I really feel guilty when I have free time, because I keep thinking that every hour I don't read papers and try to get some education in now, is another hour its going to take me to finish my graduate work. The thing is, I'm not sure if thats true or not. I wish that my advisor had a 4th or 5th year graduate student that I could draft off of (to use a bike term, as it is tour de france time).

No matter, I'll keep plugging away, if for no other reason, than with John not at home, and with no one really here at Weeks hall, theres nothing better to do.

Welcome to me?

So I've been thinking about starting a blog. Well, I suppose its progressed from thinking about, to actually being started. I figure this will be a little something to chronicle my adventures in graduate school, from the science to the people (and some of the things in between). There is something so enticing about having a way to leave your own legacy, write the present on your terms, so at least you know whats being said about yourself.

This should be a low-maintenance side project, something to keep me distracted when papers that need to be read pile up, and lab protocols go awry. We'll see, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men...