It all started because we were talking about a NYT op-ed which suggests, in so many words, that Obama's nomination of Francis Collins for NIH director was irresponsible and maybe a little too bipartisan.
I'm not going to lie. I don't like it. Sure, he's one of the founding members of the Human Genome Project and yes, he's obviously a fine manager of both people and money having served as the head of NHRGI but...he's also an evangelical Christian well documented for his belief in theistic evolution; not quite as absurd and insulting as intelligent design and creationism, but close. Obviously I'm not as tolerant about religion as I'd like, but this smells like Rick Warren opening the Obama-inaguaration except instead of pandering to the religious right over something as, relatively speaking in terms of substantive action, an inauguration, he's putting a conservative Christian in charge of the 28 billion dollar operating budget of the NIH, basically all the non-industry funding for every branch of biomedical sciences in the United States.
Anyway, one thing lead to another and we found ourselves having a good old time bashing bible thumping religious wackos with the same old, same old arguments about the complete insanity of taking the Bible that seriously.
"Have you read Relevations?! What do you mean take this shit seriously?"
"If Evangelicals can choose to ignore the Old Testament, then I'm skipping the part about sodomy. Peace out you homophobes!"
"I don't mind religion, I just don't want a bunch of crazies who think we should murder women on their periods because some Old Testament prophet said to running public policy."
"Religion and land are the most common causes of violent conflict in the world today."
"Um, have you seen Jesus camp?"
"George Tiller was just fucking murdered in a church for performing legal late-term abortions"
"The Holocaust. Point."
I enjoy judgmental as much as the next graduate of a liberal arts university, and I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but where is this so-called line between religion and science and government anyway? When I put aside my own ignorance, I can see why Obama did what he did. He ran on a platform of bipartisanship which I guess can mean either getting along with moderate Republicans on the "other side of the aisle" or actually trying to apease the hugely influential population of conservative Christians in this country. I see this, I do. But on the other hand, I wouldn't believe for one tenth of a second that Collins' views on the Bible didn't play into his nomination. Should one's belief that God created the Earth be a credential for directing the Nation's agency for health related research?
Discuss.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Oh Miriam, see this is why this blog was a great idea: so we can share the stuff that matters while also being sure to share the other stuff like how this computer I'm on used to belong to Fred Flinstone and how I'm keeping it powered by beaming positive energy waves toward it while spinning a foot wheel. Ok so that's a bit of an exageration. But yeah. It's old.
First off my news: I had my first Americorps job interview today- it's a job near Olympia, Washington that's kinda affliated with the Nature Conservancy. The basic job description: working in a native plant nursery growing thousands of lovely little native plants. I also would get to spend some time in the field collecting seeds, bossing around volunteers and students and planting the cute little plants that grow in the greenhouse. My would-be boss says "um" a lot and grew up in a hippie commune kinda thing. He has a Quaker friend who grows her own wheat and is married to a potter who sells his ceramics for bison meat. Hmmmm. I think the interview went well. It sounds like a cool job- a blend of horticulture, nursery stuff with ecology. Plus a lot of organizational computer stuff. We'll see- I should hear by this time next week. I've applied a bunch of other places too and should be getting interviews with them sometime soon as well.
In terms of the kinds of things Miriam was talking about, you know- pondering those big life questions, I've been doing a lot of that while here. Many of the people in the program don't want a "traditional" life. They don't want to settle down and live in a house with a spouse and kids and a dog. It's actually kinda funny because somehow the few straight women in the group (by chance) ended up going out for dessert together and exclaiming about the rest of the group's resistance to settling down. I know I want to get married, I know I want a labrador to two. I know I want a house. And I'm almost 100% sure I want kids. I don't know... I have just really come to the conclusion that I need to have roots. I need to have a community that supports me and that I feel a part of. I also really think that it doesn't have to be this boring, conservative thing to start a family- it can actually be quite radical in that you are helping to bring progressive, open, little people into the world.
I mean, I think part of the difference between myself and some of these people is that I'm not led to be a social activist. I'm just not. I'm not a people person. I have my core group of people that I love dearly, but my cause is not the social justice cause. I'm not going to devote my life to helping the homeless. I had to really struggle with this- thinking that somehow I was "copping out" (is that how you spell it?) and not doing the right thing; being selfish. But that's just not the case. We all have our own interests, our own passions and as a result we all can take different paths toward "saving the world". I'll be working to make sure that the planet is ok (or at least one small square of it) while they'll be taking care of one species. OK that's harsh. But in all honesty, I'm really trying to be at peace with this decision of mine to take the ecology/horticulture/biology route instead of the one that I feel like I "should" take as a liberal, compassionate, responsible Quaker citizen. So yeah- that's one of my struggles at the moment.
The YALD program here ends on August 1st and I'll be driving home on the 2nd. It's going to be so strange to leave this place. It's such a bubble here and I've felt blessed to spend my summer in such a beautiful place- beautiful in many ways beyond the asethetic beauty of being a gorgeous campus. I'm going to keep in touch with people from the program so that I have people to hold me accountable, to be sure that I continue to work on wrestling with the big questions, with my spiritual questions, life, development, etc. But also, we've become a really loving, supporting community and I'm going to miss having such a warm, safe space that I can really relax into and be vulnerable. Oh boy, vulnerability. Not my strong suit.
Anyways, I miss you all so much. They make fresh bread a lot here and every time I eat it I think of all the times we made bread together and downed a loaf in one evening.
I'm off to glazing my pottery that came out of the kiln yesterday!
love you
First off my news: I had my first Americorps job interview today- it's a job near Olympia, Washington that's kinda affliated with the Nature Conservancy. The basic job description: working in a native plant nursery growing thousands of lovely little native plants. I also would get to spend some time in the field collecting seeds, bossing around volunteers and students and planting the cute little plants that grow in the greenhouse. My would-be boss says "um" a lot and grew up in a hippie commune kinda thing. He has a Quaker friend who grows her own wheat and is married to a potter who sells his ceramics for bison meat. Hmmmm. I think the interview went well. It sounds like a cool job- a blend of horticulture, nursery stuff with ecology. Plus a lot of organizational computer stuff. We'll see- I should hear by this time next week. I've applied a bunch of other places too and should be getting interviews with them sometime soon as well.
In terms of the kinds of things Miriam was talking about, you know- pondering those big life questions, I've been doing a lot of that while here. Many of the people in the program don't want a "traditional" life. They don't want to settle down and live in a house with a spouse and kids and a dog. It's actually kinda funny because somehow the few straight women in the group (by chance) ended up going out for dessert together and exclaiming about the rest of the group's resistance to settling down. I know I want to get married, I know I want a labrador to two. I know I want a house. And I'm almost 100% sure I want kids. I don't know... I have just really come to the conclusion that I need to have roots. I need to have a community that supports me and that I feel a part of. I also really think that it doesn't have to be this boring, conservative thing to start a family- it can actually be quite radical in that you are helping to bring progressive, open, little people into the world.
I mean, I think part of the difference between myself and some of these people is that I'm not led to be a social activist. I'm just not. I'm not a people person. I have my core group of people that I love dearly, but my cause is not the social justice cause. I'm not going to devote my life to helping the homeless. I had to really struggle with this- thinking that somehow I was "copping out" (is that how you spell it?) and not doing the right thing; being selfish. But that's just not the case. We all have our own interests, our own passions and as a result we all can take different paths toward "saving the world". I'll be working to make sure that the planet is ok (or at least one small square of it) while they'll be taking care of one species. OK that's harsh. But in all honesty, I'm really trying to be at peace with this decision of mine to take the ecology/horticulture/biology route instead of the one that I feel like I "should" take as a liberal, compassionate, responsible Quaker citizen. So yeah- that's one of my struggles at the moment.
The YALD program here ends on August 1st and I'll be driving home on the 2nd. It's going to be so strange to leave this place. It's such a bubble here and I've felt blessed to spend my summer in such a beautiful place- beautiful in many ways beyond the asethetic beauty of being a gorgeous campus. I'm going to keep in touch with people from the program so that I have people to hold me accountable, to be sure that I continue to work on wrestling with the big questions, with my spiritual questions, life, development, etc. But also, we've become a really loving, supporting community and I'm going to miss having such a warm, safe space that I can really relax into and be vulnerable. Oh boy, vulnerability. Not my strong suit.
Anyways, I miss you all so much. They make fresh bread a lot here and every time I eat it I think of all the times we made bread together and downed a loaf in one evening.
I'm off to glazing my pottery that came out of the kiln yesterday!
love you
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Dear Workday, Please End
I swear to God, this has been the least productive day of my life. Well, except for all of middle school and every Saturday in college and I guess yesterday kind of and...YOU GET THE POINT.
What I mean to say is that it really sucks to not be able to do your experiments because you can't get your hands on the mice which is really to say that I wish I could again be spending my days k**lling mice which might in some contexts for some people be worrisome. But not me! Nope, Capt. desensitization, here.
Anyway, I wanted to share just about the juiciest tidbit of gossip to come through my ears in pretty much my entire life. Okay, it's not about Earlham which makes it less juicy but it still provides a perfectly good excuse to write on this blog which will hopefully make the next 35 minutes pass a little faster than they are currently.
Okay here goes:
A girl I used to row with (let's call her Kathy) IS DATING OUR CREW COACH. Let's discuss. She's 22, she met him when she was 15. When he was 30. Now he is close to 40.
EWWWWW GROSSSS.
I mean, right? I told my boss and she was unmoved. She commented that at least he waited until she graduated from college. Some people just do not recognize scandal when they see it.
What I mean to say is that it really sucks to not be able to do your experiments because you can't get your hands on the mice which is really to say that I wish I could again be spending my days k**lling mice which might in some contexts for some people be worrisome. But not me! Nope, Capt. desensitization, here.
Anyway, I wanted to share just about the juiciest tidbit of gossip to come through my ears in pretty much my entire life. Okay, it's not about Earlham which makes it less juicy but it still provides a perfectly good excuse to write on this blog which will hopefully make the next 35 minutes pass a little faster than they are currently.
Okay here goes:
A girl I used to row with (let's call her Kathy) IS DATING OUR CREW COACH. Let's discuss. She's 22, she met him when she was 15. When he was 30. Now he is close to 40.
EWWWWW GROSSSS.
I mean, right? I told my boss and she was unmoved. She commented that at least he waited until she graduated from college. Some people just do not recognize scandal when they see it.
Monday, July 20, 2009
This is Why All Twenty-Somethings Are Binge Drinkers
Sorry I've been missing in action these past few days. Did you know that I have no access to the Internet in my apartment? It is extremely tragic and going cold turkey off my gmail was like suddenly being denied access to cable television, espresso and high fructose corn syrup all in the same day. Of course I make up for lost time at work, especially on days when I can't do my experiments because a reagent is being held up somewhere between here and Sweden.
This living on my own business makes me feel simultaneously extremely old and extremely young. (Introduction fin).
Maybe I didn't mention this? My cousin and her family moved here at the end of June so her husband (my cousin-in-law, I guess) could take a position in the department of pathology here at WashU. Even though we're in the same department I don't see too much of him, though he's an attending and I'm a technician which could explain the lack of contact. Anyway, they have two young kids. D. is 5 and W. is 4 and they are just about as sweet, smart and sociable as kids (especially toddlers) come. I've seen a lot of the family, obviously, and although I love playing soccer with D. and Candyland* with W., I can't really imagine having a life that centers around children because, and this is seriously shocking given, as Jessica likes to report, I once coveted a family big enough to field an ultimate Frisbee team, I don't think I really like them.
I don't know why, but for some reason it suddenly feels like my life is on fast forward (or maybe a more 21st century simile would be the 2X button on the unduly and completely unnecessarily complicated DVD remote). Every time I meet a new person, I analyze them for "family elements." For example, if they are married, I wonder what their married life is like. Do they get tired of each other? Is their sex life dull? Do they have independent friends and interests? Do they even like independence? If they happen to be single, I wonder what our kids would look like. SERIOUSLY.
To be honest, I am a little bit freaked out by these thoughts of domesticity and I find them weirdly claustrophobic. Hence, why I now feel so old. And it's not just the children thing, either. Just the idea, in general, that in the post-college life, I don't want to be alone forever. But then I remember that I'm 21 and that my parents met when they were 34 which is more than 50% of the years in the future that I've already lived. Barely, but statistically significant, in the grand scheme of things.
It was a beautiful dawn this morning and I sat out at Starbucks watching the sun come up and psychoanalyzing myself. My conclusion is as follows: I've been really lucky in my life to have always been surrounded by a really strong group of friends. Even though I wasn't always super thrilled with the dynamics of my friend group in high school, there were so many of us. You were never alone; you couldn't be alone. It was impossible. If I wasn't at school, I was on AIM. If I wasn't on AIM, I lived in the exact center of a mile radius that included six girls I had known and been close with since the first grade. If it was the weekend, I was on a crew bus driving for nine hours to bumblefuck PA to race with a boat that was 75% my closest friends; not especially surprising given that we all chose to take up this time consuming sport as a group endeavor. Then, enter the cell phone. See what I mean? Then I came to college and pretty much found all the friendship and love and companionship anyone could want within a year. It probably didn't help that a few of my good friends became my lovers thus psychologically blurring the line between friend and girlfriend. This is going on ad infinitum, but the point is that for maybe the first time in my life, I'm not consumed in a big group of friends and therefore want a different kind of relationship. I don't know. I'm considering this a form of personal growth.
I didn't mean for this to come out sounding so melancholy because I'm in a really good mood today. I found hazelnut chocolates at the bookstore downstairs, I bought orchestra tickets this morning, Charlie has a puppy play date this afternoon and I'm in the middle of a fantastic book. I guess it's just been on my mind.
As usual and forever, I miss you all terribly.
Also, did you see this article about how short legged dogs are totally freaks of nature?
*I thought I remembered Candyland being fun, but it is seriously the most tedious board game in existence. Far worse than Monopoly.
This living on my own business makes me feel simultaneously extremely old and extremely young. (Introduction fin).
Maybe I didn't mention this? My cousin and her family moved here at the end of June so her husband (my cousin-in-law, I guess) could take a position in the department of pathology here at WashU. Even though we're in the same department I don't see too much of him, though he's an attending and I'm a technician which could explain the lack of contact. Anyway, they have two young kids. D. is 5 and W. is 4 and they are just about as sweet, smart and sociable as kids (especially toddlers) come. I've seen a lot of the family, obviously, and although I love playing soccer with D. and Candyland* with W., I can't really imagine having a life that centers around children because, and this is seriously shocking given, as Jessica likes to report, I once coveted a family big enough to field an ultimate Frisbee team, I don't think I really like them.
I don't know why, but for some reason it suddenly feels like my life is on fast forward (or maybe a more 21st century simile would be the 2X button on the unduly and completely unnecessarily complicated DVD remote). Every time I meet a new person, I analyze them for "family elements." For example, if they are married, I wonder what their married life is like. Do they get tired of each other? Is their sex life dull? Do they have independent friends and interests? Do they even like independence? If they happen to be single, I wonder what our kids would look like. SERIOUSLY.
To be honest, I am a little bit freaked out by these thoughts of domesticity and I find them weirdly claustrophobic. Hence, why I now feel so old. And it's not just the children thing, either. Just the idea, in general, that in the post-college life, I don't want to be alone forever. But then I remember that I'm 21 and that my parents met when they were 34 which is more than 50% of the years in the future that I've already lived. Barely, but statistically significant, in the grand scheme of things.
It was a beautiful dawn this morning and I sat out at Starbucks watching the sun come up and psychoanalyzing myself. My conclusion is as follows: I've been really lucky in my life to have always been surrounded by a really strong group of friends. Even though I wasn't always super thrilled with the dynamics of my friend group in high school, there were so many of us. You were never alone; you couldn't be alone. It was impossible. If I wasn't at school, I was on AIM. If I wasn't on AIM, I lived in the exact center of a mile radius that included six girls I had known and been close with since the first grade. If it was the weekend, I was on a crew bus driving for nine hours to bumblefuck PA to race with a boat that was 75% my closest friends; not especially surprising given that we all chose to take up this time consuming sport as a group endeavor. Then, enter the cell phone. See what I mean? Then I came to college and pretty much found all the friendship and love and companionship anyone could want within a year. It probably didn't help that a few of my good friends became my lovers thus psychologically blurring the line between friend and girlfriend. This is going on ad infinitum, but the point is that for maybe the first time in my life, I'm not consumed in a big group of friends and therefore want a different kind of relationship. I don't know. I'm considering this a form of personal growth.
I didn't mean for this to come out sounding so melancholy because I'm in a really good mood today. I found hazelnut chocolates at the bookstore downstairs, I bought orchestra tickets this morning, Charlie has a puppy play date this afternoon and I'm in the middle of a fantastic book. I guess it's just been on my mind.
As usual and forever, I miss you all terribly.
Also, did you see this article about how short legged dogs are totally freaks of nature?
*I thought I remembered Candyland being fun, but it is seriously the most tedious board game in existence. Far worse than Monopoly.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
come on people!
ALSO. I am campaigning that you all write posts more often because I want to hear about your lives.
So guys since I always feel the need to update my life plan on a monthly basis I thought I'd be sure to keep you up to date: the current plan is to attend grad school in horticulture- doing a combo of organic, sustainable agriculture and ecology. Where you may ask? Oh well, Cornell of course. http://hort.cals.cornell.edu/
When? Oh maybe next year?
Why? Because ecology is cool. Organic farming/gardening is cool. Science is cool. and Food is cool.
the end.
p.s. I love you all.
my backup plan? going to live with a wild herd of labradors. I won't discriminate on coat color- yellow, black and chocolate labs will all be accepted.
When? Oh maybe next year?
Why? Because ecology is cool. Organic farming/gardening is cool. Science is cool. and Food is cool.
the end.
p.s. I love you all.
my backup plan? going to live with a wild herd of labradors. I won't discriminate on coat color- yellow, black and chocolate labs will all be accepted.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Gardening and Ceramics oh my!
Friendies! (and not capital Friends.. how unusual for me these days!). I'm sitting on the back porch of the building that houses the art studio and library plus a lot of staff apartments. Pendle Hill is just insanely gorgeous, let me tell you. The campus is an arboretum and there are flowers galore. There's also a really fantastic vegetable garden. They keep us super busy here- classes, meetings, Meeting, working at our volunteer service sites, etc. Overall it's been a really wonderful summer so far- very, very challenging in many ways growthful.
I've started to realize how intense my tunnel vision was coming out of school- I was hunkered down, nose to the grindstone and kinda expected that my life would follow a neat little track of rather tough, miserable grindstones. But damn the blinders came off and life is pretty bright these days. I've fallen in love with throwing pottery on the wheel- it's immensely satistfying even though it's quite difficult. I've also really been enjoying the menial tasks that I've been doing- dishes, pulling weeds, tilling the garden, various outdoors chores. It's been pretty suprising actually. I have major ADD though about life right now- oooohhh I could do pottery ooooh I want to grow food and learn about permaculture ooooh I want to do marine biology oooohh I want to garden oooohhh I want to be at home. So I'm working on centering down and reminding myself that I need to pick one or two passions to follow and I can work in the rest as my life chugs along.
Pendle Hill is a really interesting place- it's an intentional community and has a rather eclectic group of people that live, work or visit here. Our group in particular is only about half quaker- we have some catholics, and some other motley religions (kidding). Everyone helps out with chores, we all eat our meals together (YUM the food is fantastic- all organic, local and veggie), and everyone is impossibly nice and gracious. It's just so refreshing to be able to be myself and not worry about how I dress or acting in a particular way to please certain people. It's also incredibly nice to have direct, honest communication and space to process issues and thoughts that arise through living in close community. I thought it was going to be a hippie commune but it's really not- it's a well-oiled, Quaker, beautiful, loving machine of a community and retreat/study center.
So yeah- I have to go write up a lesson that I'm teaching with one of my program buddies at our service site tomorrow. Last week it was on soil structure and the nitrogen cycle and this week...wetlands! The environmental education center we're working at is grossly mismanaged and many of the teachers are fairly unprepared to teach science of any sort, let alone ecological or environmental topics. SO- Liv and I are doing our best to help them however we can.
I miss you guys bunches and I'm sorry to be fairly out of reach/contact- not only am I super super busy but I am spending a lot of time processing, doing pottery and having random philosophical discussions with other program members. Oh and sleeping. That too.
love you all and hope you're all doing fabulously.
I've started to realize how intense my tunnel vision was coming out of school- I was hunkered down, nose to the grindstone and kinda expected that my life would follow a neat little track of rather tough, miserable grindstones. But damn the blinders came off and life is pretty bright these days. I've fallen in love with throwing pottery on the wheel- it's immensely satistfying even though it's quite difficult. I've also really been enjoying the menial tasks that I've been doing- dishes, pulling weeds, tilling the garden, various outdoors chores. It's been pretty suprising actually. I have major ADD though about life right now- oooohhh I could do pottery ooooh I want to grow food and learn about permaculture ooooh I want to do marine biology oooohh I want to garden oooohhh I want to be at home. So I'm working on centering down and reminding myself that I need to pick one or two passions to follow and I can work in the rest as my life chugs along.
Pendle Hill is a really interesting place- it's an intentional community and has a rather eclectic group of people that live, work or visit here. Our group in particular is only about half quaker- we have some catholics, and some other motley religions (kidding). Everyone helps out with chores, we all eat our meals together (YUM the food is fantastic- all organic, local and veggie), and everyone is impossibly nice and gracious. It's just so refreshing to be able to be myself and not worry about how I dress or acting in a particular way to please certain people. It's also incredibly nice to have direct, honest communication and space to process issues and thoughts that arise through living in close community. I thought it was going to be a hippie commune but it's really not- it's a well-oiled, Quaker, beautiful, loving machine of a community and retreat/study center.
So yeah- I have to go write up a lesson that I'm teaching with one of my program buddies at our service site tomorrow. Last week it was on soil structure and the nitrogen cycle and this week...wetlands! The environmental education center we're working at is grossly mismanaged and many of the teachers are fairly unprepared to teach science of any sort, let alone ecological or environmental topics. SO- Liv and I are doing our best to help them however we can.
I miss you guys bunches and I'm sorry to be fairly out of reach/contact- not only am I super super busy but I am spending a lot of time processing, doing pottery and having random philosophical discussions with other program members. Oh and sleeping. That too.
love you all and hope you're all doing fabulously.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Charlie Update
Perhaps you all have been aching to find out how Charlie is doing and what sort of wonderfully not-inconvenient things you've been missing. Well, let me update you. In the past two weeks Chuckles has successfully destroyed the following:
1.) My grandfather's first edition of Franny and Zooey
2.) The insulation underneath the carpet
3.) The carpet (wall-to-wall)
4.) My futon
5.) 6 weeks worth of recycling including steel cans
Here are some photos of him recently so we can, as it were, take a trip through time and reminisce on the long transition from fun comps procrastinatory tool to puppy destructo, this time, for reals.
I came home one day and found Charlie just chilling out in the bathtub, lapping up the Softsoap bubbles left there from my morning shower. No big deal, whatever.
1.) My grandfather's first edition of Franny and Zooey
2.) The insulation underneath the carpet
3.) The carpet (wall-to-wall)
4.) My futon
5.) 6 weeks worth of recycling including steel cans
Here are some photos of him recently so we can, as it were, take a trip through time and reminisce on the long transition from fun comps procrastinatory tool to puppy destructo, this time, for reals.
I came home one day and found Charlie just chilling out in the bathtub, lapping up the Softsoap bubbles left there from my morning shower. No big deal, whatever.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Acids Feel Strange When You Drop Them On Your Feet
Isn't it sort of cool to have this? Jess and I were recently noting how our conversations tend toward a popcorn aesthetic so this is kind of perfect for that. Right?! RIGHT?!
Um, the lab is getting way less scary which is good. I mean, at first I was super freaked out that every time I diluted SDS in PBS the lab was going to explode, but I'm getting over it. I can even use the big honking centrifuges (the ones that spin Nalgene bottles at 40,000 RPM) without having to weigh everything to the .00000001 grams first. It's great!
So, yeah, the lab is okay. I work with a bunch of people I like a lot. I've got two projects going right now. One is trying to isolate and purify glomeruli and then figuring out what immune cells are hanging out in them, both in general and then after we give the mice nephrotoxic serum (it's supposed to be a model for diabetic nephropathy but eh). Anyway, it's going okay. I'm trying a couple of different things right now and naturally, none of them are working. My other project is cloning a cell line which goes like this:
1. Digest DNA
2. Run gel to see if digestion worked. If yes, move on to 3. If no, repeat.
3. Repeat 487,986,346,345,875 times
4. Ligate
5. Isolate DNA
6. Run gel to see if ligation worked
7. Repeat 1,342,672,345 times
8. Grow up small cultures
9. Wait
10. Grow up big cultures
11. Repeat
Then you transfect a cell line (which doesn't ever work, or works with like, 1% efficiency) and then you do the same thing over and over again until (a) you can perform an experiment and get a paper or (b) you quit science and get a degree in policy.
Also, St. Louis is full of catholics. It's the most catholic city in America. I went to the bar the other night and had a long, involved conversation about if the Vatican endorses exorcisms (yes).
Also, Panera is not Panera. It's the St. Louis bread company but, Katie in case you were worried, the asiago bread is still good.
Well, I guess I should get back to this "work" of which you speak. Did you know that, like, they expect you to keep up with the current literature? What is this, an Amy Mul class?!
Um, the lab is getting way less scary which is good. I mean, at first I was super freaked out that every time I diluted SDS in PBS the lab was going to explode, but I'm getting over it. I can even use the big honking centrifuges (the ones that spin Nalgene bottles at 40,000 RPM) without having to weigh everything to the .00000001 grams first. It's great!
So, yeah, the lab is okay. I work with a bunch of people I like a lot. I've got two projects going right now. One is trying to isolate and purify glomeruli and then figuring out what immune cells are hanging out in them, both in general and then after we give the mice nephrotoxic serum (it's supposed to be a model for diabetic nephropathy but eh). Anyway, it's going okay. I'm trying a couple of different things right now and naturally, none of them are working. My other project is cloning a cell line which goes like this:
1. Digest DNA
2. Run gel to see if digestion worked. If yes, move on to 3. If no, repeat.
3. Repeat 487,986,346,345,875 times
4. Ligate
5. Isolate DNA
6. Run gel to see if ligation worked
7. Repeat 1,342,672,345 times
8. Grow up small cultures
9. Wait
10. Grow up big cultures
11. Repeat
Then you transfect a cell line (which doesn't ever work, or works with like, 1% efficiency) and then you do the same thing over and over again until (a) you can perform an experiment and get a paper or (b) you quit science and get a degree in policy.
Also, St. Louis is full of catholics. It's the most catholic city in America. I went to the bar the other night and had a long, involved conversation about if the Vatican endorses exorcisms (yes).
Also, Panera is not Panera. It's the St. Louis bread company but, Katie in case you were worried, the asiago bread is still good.
Well, I guess I should get back to this "work" of which you speak. Did you know that, like, they expect you to keep up with the current literature? What is this, an Amy Mul class?!
Mimsy is the smartest!
This is a really good idea! I hate doing generic email updates to multiple people, but I'm bad at keeping up with everyone otherwise. This makes so much sense.
So, lets see. I'm really enjoying Austin so far, but it is really far too hot. It's been hovering around 105 with full sun and 80% humidity for the past month, which I just do not appreciate. My office is really cold, though, so I have to be ready for both extremes each day.
My coworkers all seem really cool, but it is strange to be around so many marine geophysicists, they have almost no interest in rocks, only the forces that act upon them in the oceanic crust. The whole grad student life is all right, I have a computer and a blow up mattress on the floor, but I can't afford much else to furnish my apartment. I'm moving to my own apartment in mid August, which I'm thankful for. Right now, I live right by Frat Row, and even though it's summer, there is never a lack of drunk frat kids stumbling around the neighborhood, being annoying.
For the 4th of July, I went to a BBQ at another grad student's house, had fun and made some new friends when we bonded over geology, checking out this cute guy, and setting off illegal fireworks. I've been on a couple dates, the first was pretty bad, and the second guy was much more interesting. I'm going kayaking with him later today, we'll see what happens.
I should get back to work, but I love you guys!!!
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