look - an update!
Summer's over. I noticed 'cause it actually rained a bit yesterday. And 'cause the tree we're tree-sitting is shedding leaves (really, it's because of the season, we haven't been mistreating it!). And 'cause of the reincarnation of homework. And because of the influx of writing that has to get done. I really enjoyed my 3 months of just doing researchy stuff and not having to worry about justifying my existence in any way. Unfortunately, that idyll can never last. So now I've got 2 presentations, a poster, an abstract, a personal statement, and a paper that all kinda sneaked up on me within a few weeks, on top of the homework-related writing. I've no reason to complain about it -- I know writing's good for my academic soul and all that, and most of those are for good causes, but that doesn't negate the fact that it's painful.
I'm taking a generic bioengineering class this term, to fulfill the generic "take something biological that involves reading papers" requirement. Actually, the class itself is surprisingly good. One of the few instances I've seen where the professor makes extensive use of the Socratic method and it actually works. I've been staying awake in lectures without even taking notes or knitting, which is unusual. Unfortunately, it also comes with an inordinate amount of homework and enforced group-work, which is really just ludicrous at this level. Also, I finally decided to bite the bullet and take a Russian class. It's Russian for native speakers, so it's somewhat less embarrassing than it sounds. Somewhat. So now I get to confirm that I have the spelling abilities of a dyslexic third-grader, a pathological inability to come up with the right Russian word when I want it, and apparently a disturbing grasp on comma placement. The latter would probably explain why I've often had issues with commas showing up where they shouldn't when I'm writing English. Ah, the joys of self-discovery... Anyhow, there's only four people in the class and if they make good on the promise that they're going to individualize the curriculum a bit then it'll probably be good for me. So far, though, it's been mostly grammar bits and watching the same little segment of Москва Слезам не Верит over and over again.
Let's see, work is going along fairly nicely so far. I'm enjoying this happy period when the expectations are pretty low 'cause I'm just starting. I doubt that will last much longer though. On the bright side, we're working on writing up a bitty paper. And also it looks like there's a sizeable chance I'll be in Boston in February for the Biophysical Society meeting. At least I hope it's a sizeable chance since I've just paid them a hefty chunk of cash for membership, registration, and abstract submission today. These conference thingies really milk you (or your grant) for everything you're worth. Anyhow, I also submitted the application for the travel grant, and I think the department has some small amount of travel money for us to use somewhere too, so with a certain amount of luck I should be able to scrape up the funding to go. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to getting back to actually doing some work instead of attempting to write about it. Any week now...
Ooh, and also, I got sick of eating Safeway bread (and there's something about paying $4 for a loaf that just grates on my nerves), so I've been learning to bake my own. And I made a loaf of Petaluma Rye this weekend that actually did the springing-tall-in-the-oven thing that means it was done right. Baking is much more useful for feeling-of-accomplishment generation than research, I find...
Also, we went to a Great Big Sea concert in the city on Thursday. 'Twas lots of fun! Even if Daniel did keep giving me funny looks because I kept bouncing. Silly boy, bouncy music is supposed to be bounced to. It was a little different from the other concerts we'd been to (one in LA and one in London) since those were in vaguely pub-like settings and this one was at the Palace of Fine Arts with seating and a real stage and everything. People still did quite a lot of standing up and hopping around though, and we ended up moving to the back of the hall so that we could see while sitting. We brought my mom along to her very first rock (well, ok, folk-rock) concert, and so that was an amusing cultural experience for all concerned. Culminating apparently with a cultural lesson concerning which parts of San Francisco you don't want to be alone in after dark... but, um, oops... we didn't mean to leave her there... Incidentally, one of GBS's new accordion songs really sounds like a certain Russian song (Шар Голубой) and that was very strange. Live music can be a lot of fun on occasion.
Ok, that was probably more rambling than you really needed to hear, so I'm going to stop now.
I'm taking a generic bioengineering class this term, to fulfill the generic "take something biological that involves reading papers" requirement. Actually, the class itself is surprisingly good. One of the few instances I've seen where the professor makes extensive use of the Socratic method and it actually works. I've been staying awake in lectures without even taking notes or knitting, which is unusual. Unfortunately, it also comes with an inordinate amount of homework and enforced group-work, which is really just ludicrous at this level. Also, I finally decided to bite the bullet and take a Russian class. It's Russian for native speakers, so it's somewhat less embarrassing than it sounds. Somewhat. So now I get to confirm that I have the spelling abilities of a dyslexic third-grader, a pathological inability to come up with the right Russian word when I want it, and apparently a disturbing grasp on comma placement. The latter would probably explain why I've often had issues with commas showing up where they shouldn't when I'm writing English. Ah, the joys of self-discovery... Anyhow, there's only four people in the class and if they make good on the promise that they're going to individualize the curriculum a bit then it'll probably be good for me. So far, though, it's been mostly grammar bits and watching the same little segment of Москва Слезам не Верит over and over again.
Let's see, work is going along fairly nicely so far. I'm enjoying this happy period when the expectations are pretty low 'cause I'm just starting. I doubt that will last much longer though. On the bright side, we're working on writing up a bitty paper. And also it looks like there's a sizeable chance I'll be in Boston in February for the Biophysical Society meeting. At least I hope it's a sizeable chance since I've just paid them a hefty chunk of cash for membership, registration, and abstract submission today. These conference thingies really milk you (or your grant) for everything you're worth. Anyhow, I also submitted the application for the travel grant, and I think the department has some small amount of travel money for us to use somewhere too, so with a certain amount of luck I should be able to scrape up the funding to go. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to getting back to actually doing some work instead of attempting to write about it. Any week now...
Ooh, and also, I got sick of eating Safeway bread (and there's something about paying $4 for a loaf that just grates on my nerves), so I've been learning to bake my own. And I made a loaf of Petaluma Rye this weekend that actually did the springing-tall-in-the-oven thing that means it was done right. Baking is much more useful for feeling-of-accomplishment generation than research, I find...
Also, we went to a Great Big Sea concert in the city on Thursday. 'Twas lots of fun! Even if Daniel did keep giving me funny looks because I kept bouncing. Silly boy, bouncy music is supposed to be bounced to. It was a little different from the other concerts we'd been to (one in LA and one in London) since those were in vaguely pub-like settings and this one was at the Palace of Fine Arts with seating and a real stage and everything. People still did quite a lot of standing up and hopping around though, and we ended up moving to the back of the hall so that we could see while sitting. We brought my mom along to her very first rock (well, ok, folk-rock) concert, and so that was an amusing cultural experience for all concerned. Culminating apparently with a cultural lesson concerning which parts of San Francisco you don't want to be alone in after dark... but, um, oops... we didn't mean to leave her there... Incidentally, one of GBS's new accordion songs really sounds like a certain Russian song (Шар Голубой) and that was very strange. Live music can be a lot of fun on occasion.
Ok, that was probably more rambling than you really needed to hear, so I'm going to stop now.