A second post?!

Wow! When I started the blog this was a pretty common occurrence, but recently it's been tough to update once a week. However, funny things warrant posts.

"Scientists are an independent lot who find success and professional advancement by successfully overturning established ideas and through vigorously debating the evidence supporting scientific interpretations in scientific conferences and journals. The thought that anyone could herd them together to conspire against anything – even intelligent design – is laughable. One may as well conspire to herd a roomful of cats."
-expelledexposed.com
(a site poking holes in Ben Stein's "Expelled" movie about evolution. As a biologist I'm a firm supporter of evolution, but that's me. You're welcome to your opinions.)

Let's keep this going.

So it's Tuesday again, and here I am again, so maybe this'll work out after all. I'm still in the lab, but it's also still relatively early, so that's good. Class was entertaining today, unfortunately for reasons unrelated to the subject matter though. Life as a whole is pretty darn good at this point. Yesterday I managed to spend about $80 on the way from campus to my apartment. Basically I filled up the gas tank and stocked up on essentials, so it was $80 that I probably won't get a lot of enjoyment out of, but it's necessary stuff. Also, I sent an email to my second rotation professor to figure out what I can expect for breaks (Thanksgiving and Christmas) so I guess we'll see what happens when she responds. My car's been making a weird noise since the weekend before last (somehow I didn't mention that last week) and I got that fixed on Friday (for free under warranty... woohoo!) so that's good. The cat got her stitches out yesterday and she's been her normal self recently, so I guess she's recovered. She holds her right paw off of the ground when she's sitting, but she walks on it, jumps on it, and lets us poke around on it and it doesn't seem to hurt, so I think she's just trying to make us feel guilty. I guess my roommate gave her treats initially after the surgery to make her feel better, so maybe she got conditioned to show 'pain' and get treats. Who knows. Now, after that string of random thoughts, here's upcoming stuff.

Upcoming stuff: next week is the last one in this rotation, then I'm off to rotation #2. At the end of next week I have to give a 15 minute presentation on what I did during this rotation, which might be a bit tough. At this point it's trying to make sure I only put what I need into the presentation... I could probably go on for an hour if I just went through my lab book. This rotation's definitely been a good one, but I do feel ready to move on. The week after next is my second exam in one class (maybe two?), so I'll be brushing up on stuff and studying as time goes on. Hopefully I can avoid the rush of cramming this time. Halloween's Friday. Not sure if I'm doing anything. There's a party on Saturday that one of the guys in the lab is hosting, so that could be cool. I guess we'll see what happens as the week goes on.

Overall, mood is still good and life is following the lead.

The beginning of a pattern?

In an attempt to get more regular posts, I think I'm going to start making sure I post at least every Tuesday. Why Tuesday? Why not?

So, yesterday I figured out that most of the work I've done in the lab so far is more or less useless. I can't use any of the products I made, but the techniques are still useful I guess. Also, now that I know what I'm doing and now that I'm doing it on the right things, I should be able to get through redoing a good chunk of it before my rotation period's over. Needless to say I'm not nearly as depressed about it as I probably should be, but I prefer being happy anyway.

Other than that not a whole lot's happened since Sunday. The cat seems to be doing well so that's good too. Oh and I replaced a light bulb that'd been burned out since... last Wednesday maybe? So that made me feel disproportionally accomplished as well. All in all, a pretty good couple of days even with a large black spot from the lab work.

Wow too long.

Just realized yesterday that I hadn't posted anything in a very long time. And so I waited another day.

Not a whole lot new to report, things have calmed down now that I don't have to be studying 24/7 like I did last week. I'm keeping up better this time though, so hopefully the next round of exams won't be as bad. I actually got good results in the lab this week, which is always a good thing, especially after about 6 weeks of kind of 'ehh' results. Also, I got back in touch with a friend from high school who is apparently living in East Lansing with a significant other (geez, what's with everyone my age already having serious relationships/weddings...) and we hung out today, so that was pretty cool. Other than that, really not a whole lot happened. The big event for the week was the cat getting spayed and declawed in the front. I hear it's cruel to declaw, but she seems to be completely recovered from it (she doesn't react like her paws aren't sensitive at all) although she's less active than she used to be. My guess is it's because she's still recovering from the spaying though. Not a big fan of seeing the sutures poking out of her, but I guess they come out in about a week. I also realized that I don't have any new entries with the 'art' tag. I should change that...

So tired.

I am very, very tired. And it's not even 10pm yet. I think I'm getting old. Especially since I've been getting enough sleep. Maybe focusing mentally for the entire day for 5 days in a row is what's doing it more than a lack of sleep. Hmm I think that's the first time this has happened. Neat.

By this time tomorrow (hopefully several hours BEFORE this time tomorrow) I'll be home and happy. Yay.

Mmmm candy

I was talking to my mom a few minutes ago and remembered that yesterday after my midterm I went to Kroger and Meijer and bought myself $8 worth of candy and a $1 piece of lemon pudding cake. I ate about 3/4 of the cake and started some of the candy, but it was a lot of candy (box of sour nerds, 2 bags of sour orange slices, sour skittles, twizzler nibs and I think one more thing) so I'm in no danger of running out before the weekend. This makes me happy, since I'm still at the lab and will be studying when I get home later. Lots of candy and some cake for dessert after some soup that I made on Monday. Making that soup makes dinner for the week so much easier.

Mid-week

Well, one midterm down and one to go. The first one was last night at 7:30 and it went much better than I expected. There's always the chance that the professors will find ways to mark me down, but I have high hopes. The next one is Friday at 2:30 in the afternoon, which means that between that, class in the morning, and a lab meeting, I'll have about two hours to be in the lab or cramming in the last little bits of information that my brain can hold. Fortunately it's an open book test, so most of the studying will be making sure I know where things are in the book and having a basic understanding of what's what. Basically it's just less to memorize and more to know than the other midterm, since this class covered more while the other one (yesterday's midterm) went more in depth with less stuff.

Basically I just want it to be about 4:30 on Friday and be on my way home for the weekend.

This week

So I got a new battery for my laptop in the mail on Friday and now I can use it without worrying about the power cord. A friend from Hope came to visit for the weekend, which was really nice, except I have midterms next week, so I had to study for them instead of going out and doing things with her and my roommate. Oh well. Hopefully it'll be worth it when I have to take the tests.

Around this time on Sunday I always get the feeling that there should be one more day in my weekend. I check the calendar on my computer to see if there is and it tells me it's Sunday and that I only have 3 or 4 more hours before I should be asleep. Now it's happening again and I have to spend most of that time studying. Not fun.