I am filled with the serenity and self-loathing only achieved during midterms, finals, and major papers.



And now I am giving up on stupid linkage analysis - when did my classes start incorporating sudoku puzzles? - and moving on to brief nightmares of mitochondrial defects. Hopefully the alarm will kick me alive before I dream up an exam question involving risk calculation for a mito defect of unknown transmission with attached wacky pedigree. If I were writing the exam, I'd totally make a question like that, but if I were writing the exam, I would've used my lecture time more effectively than I think the teacher has.

In affirmation that I know a thing or two about Photoshop, I rock.

( Blah blah blah GRE angst. )

It's time to turn over my work playlists, but I'm running into problems: I already have half of Pink's "Stupid Girls" album in different mixes. So I'll have to branch out a bit. My life is so hard (not really): there is too much awesome music in the world.

I complained about a laundry list of worried well concerns to my doctor at my last appointment, and got a suggestion to exercise more and snack for the blood sugar shakes. So basically, what I was doing my last year of college? Sweet. Except for the part where I was about three times more active in college than I am now: I'm going to have to integrate running or swimming or cycling into every day. This could be hard.

I finally bought my San Francisco plane tickets: in town the evening of the 16th, heading home on a redeye on the 21st. I have guide books, no idea what I'm going to do there, and no idea where I'm staying, other than "not in a high crime area like the Tenderloin." Yay vacation!

If any of you know a biology student, or someone who is planning to start a stint in a biological research lab, point them at At the Bench: A Laboratory Navigator, by Kathy Barker. It's basically "lab for newbies" and is awesome. I picked a copy up on Friday, and I really, really like what I've read so far. The first chapter talks about things to do in the first day and week in a new lab, most of which I learned by trial and error. I've only skimmed the rest of the book, but it looks like subsequent chapters take a similar approach to the subjects they cover. This is a book for getting you started in lab at the most basic level, and will be superfluous for someone doing a known procedure, but should help lab newbies get up to speed. My most significant complaint so far is a lack of information about recovering from mistakes; this may be just as well, since it forces people to say, "help! I broke my gel (cracked a tube, added the wrong reagent)!" and talk to other people before compounding their error. I also wish there were a section on dealing with people issues, but that may be beyond the scope of a book whose stated focus is getting new people started. I'm going to talk to my boss about getting a copy for the lab; good luck prying mine out of my hands.

To knock points off for excessively long answers or not to knock off points, that's the question. Answer: no, unless you include factually wrong information in the extra verbage.

Project Instant Music Gratification has put a full 21 gigs of music on my hard drive. I am going to finish grading these papers, and then get myself over to newegg.com for a new external. Then I get to spend the shipping time thinking of names. (Flash drives are bird species, in honor of the Albatross. I want a different tradition for big externals.) For reasons that really don't need exploring at this juncture, everything I've thought up so far has made me cackle.

Speaking of music, look at these:

1.) Black Eyed Peas, "My Humps". This is the sort of thing used to discuss objectification of women and racial stereotypes in rap/hip-hop. (Warning: offended sensibilities. If you really want to really upset yourself, look up the notorious Snoop Dogg "Doggystyle" album cover.)
2.) Alanis Morrissette, "My Humps." The woman who tried to bring you irony now brings you parody; or, Alanis does Strange Little Girls.

Knock yourselves out.