Monday, September 25, 2006

I'm so hungry, I could ride a horse.

My internet at home has been especially fickle over the past week, so I haven't had the opportunity to blog. Yes, I could blog at school where there are many a'computer with unlimited internet access, but there is something about blogging at school that doesn't seem right to me. So, here are some mostly unrelated musings over the past week:
  • I have finally finished watching the second season of Lost. Not that anyone besides Mr. Bergman will care, but I am currently composing my praise piece. I suspect it will be a lengthy post, and considering all the school crap I have to do, I'm not sure it will be done in time for the Season Three premiere. But I will try.
  • Speaking of school, I still have not completely changed my attitude towards it all, but I think I am slowly getting into an academic groove. It helps that I have a weekly lab quiz for MMI. I have a particularly good feeling about this week, too. It's going to be productive. It has to be productive. I have my first midterm next week.
  • That last bullet had some very short sentences. I'm not sure I like it.
  • This whole boys-wearing-ultra-skinny-pants trend really isn't doing anything for me. It just makes their legs look too skinny, almost chicken-like. Most girls don't wear their pants that tightly.
  • I am progressively getting more and more angsty about next May and what I will be doing. I persistently try my method of just not thinking about it, but its effectiveness is waning. Last Friday night I had a breakdown of sorts... alone... in my room. I cried, and then I slept. What the heck am I doing with my life?
  • I have the feeling that there was something in particular that I wanted to say, but I've forgotten it.
  • Oh, never mind. I remember. OILERS!!!! OCTOBER 5!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!! Also, this is a most beautiful alliance of two of my most favourite things in the world: Oilers and male attractiveness. Too good.
  • My Spurs veritably SUCK this season. I watched them get waxed by Liverpool over the weekend. It especially sucked because I have somewhat of a soft spot for Liverpool (mainly Gerrard), and on some level it sort of felt nice to see them win. BLAH. I cannot wait until Berbatov and Lennon are back.
  • I wish I were a wizard. Hogwarts-trained. Graduate of the House of Ravenclaw. Maybe even Head Girl. I'd work at St. Mungo's. And have loyal and heroic friends like Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Not that my real friends aren't loyal and heroic. They're just not wizards.
Hollaback, yo.

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Sunday, September 17, 2006

Out of Tune[s]

There once was a time when I was heavily interested in music. One summer I spent in excess of $350 towards building my collection. And while music remains very important to me, I have recently lost touch with it. I no longer scan band websites for gossip, upcoming releases. I no longer take suggestions for bands that I should check out. I just listen to what I have, and only some of it at that. The only time I listen to the radio is when my alarm goes off in the morning, but it's tuned to CJSR and the program at 6:00 am is the BBC World Service news. Off the top of my head, I cannot remember the last album I bought.

I miss music.

I was raised on rock and roll. The Good Stuff. Then, when I moved to B.C. at the tender age of 7, my teenage cousins introduced me to pop, dance, R&B, and the like. And yes, I went through the Boy Band Phase. Then I started to explore a little, and added some indie rock and electronica to my repertoire. Lately I have been getting into genre moods. I have passed through a rap mood - a little Kanye here, Hova there; a Mötley mood - trüe to the red, white, and Crüe; a Coldplay mood - one of my favourites. But none of these binges are satisfying my longing for music. I enjoy them, but listening to them is like being hungry and merely looking at a feast set before you.

I don't really know why I have grown away from music. Maybe I just stopped listening. Maybe I became slightly disgruntled by the fact that I was close to being one of those people that look for little-known and sometimes weird music for the sake of looking for little-known and sometimes weird music.... to be cool and, er, hip. You know the type of which I speak. Why not stick to what you like for at least a while? It seems almost traitorous just moving on for the sake of being hip. [Sarcastic interlude]I mean, heaven forbid I should like the music that millions of other people may like! How embarrassing! [/interlude]

I need to reconnect. I have been trying to think of some potential music purchases. Maybe....the new RHCP? The Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack (it stuck out in my mind as quite nice as I watched the movie, which is usually a sign that I should acquire it. There are many a'soundtracks to which I have become attached)? Gnarls Barkley? I'm a little torn on whether or not I should get the newest of Keane and Snow Patrol. I like their older stuff, but the new stuff sounds different. Basement Jaxx just released a new album - quite tantalizing. k-os is coming out with something new soon. I'm a little curious about this new Bob Dylan stuff, too.

I am also torn on the issue of purchasing. While I like buying CDs for the sake of having a tangible collection (to maybe even pass on to my descendants one day when the CD is completely obsolete), I am also quite drawn to the efficiency and reduced prices of buying albums on iTunes. Oh, what a pickle.

So, I don't really know what I wanted to accomplish with this post. Maybe you, my dearest readers, can provide some insight on how to go about getting back to music. Maybe you can suggest an artist for me to check out, an album for me to consider, a song that might change my life. Maybe you can help me sort through the pros and cons of iTunes purchases. Maybe you can read this post and not leave a comment, now knowing that blog comments are what make my world go round.

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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Update-O-Rama


Aaaaah.

Hmmm.

Sigh.

Frankly, there just isn't anything I need to report. School is tiring me out, even though I am putting all my efforts towards not co-operating with it. That is to say, I have been watching Season Two of Lost instead. It is my favourite show, if I haven't said that enough times, despite the fact that I haven't even seen the second season yet.

Uh.... I got to make and stain some blood smears in my MMI lab today. That was pretty cool. It made me realize that I really want to own a nice light microscope. I have one, but it's pretty cheap, designed for kids. And it has mirrors instead of a lamp. It's highest magnification is, like, 50X maybe. Probably not even that high. I don't know what I would look at with a fancy schmancy microscope, but I am sure I could find something. Oh, and now I know how to make blood smears....

I think I'm going to try something new. I will call it... Blog On Demand... because that what our world is about these days, right? Demands, gimme-gimmes? How about YOU tell ME what to blog about. And then I'll do it, provided it's not dumb.

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Thursday, September 07, 2006

If Only I Could Think of a Title That Would Accurately Represent My Dismay...

For all those unlucky readers that never saw my old blog, this post is part of a tradition of academic... academic... something academic. After attending each of my new classes once, I write my first impressions: what I think of the material, the lecturer(s), how hard I will have to work, if I like it or not, etc. It's really for my own good, and little good at that, considering I don't even provide a follow-up post halfway through the semester (maybe I should). But before I get to that, a few considerations.

Normally I would be excited about this post, excited in a good way. But I am not. I am excited in a bad way. I am excited in this bad way because I am not all that keen on returning to my studies. This is very unsettling. For the benefit of those that do not know me, I love school. Well, I used to, at least. School is what I would call "my element." I usually get excited about returning about the beginning of July, but this year I didn't, not one bit. I absolutely dreaded my return. I can't exactly pinpoint why I didn't want to come back, but I think it was a mixture of pressure (self-applied) and the feeling of impending doom. This is my last year of undergrad. It counts for a lot. It's full of my toughest courses to date. When I'm done, I will have to decide what to do all over again. It's "growing up," and, frankly, I am in no mood to do that.

So, hopefully, by the end of this academic year, I will have a Bachelor of Science with Specialization in Immunology and Infection. It is my goal to get a 4.0 GPA in at least one of the next two semesters, which all of my fellow mathemagicians know is mathemagically impossible unless I get an A in each of my classes (University of Alberta Grading System). So here are my jaded first impressions.

MMI 426: Medical Parasitology (follow link and scroll down for description)
I enrolled in this course because I took a rather surprising liking to my compulsory parasitism course (ZOOL 352). Plus, this one has a laboratory component where we get to isolate parasites from tissue (and excretory) samples, and look at live, cultured specimens. This was my first class of the year, and I was doubly nervous because it is my first 400-level course. It also has a small class-size, which means that (ugh) discussions are more likely to crop up. Although, due to the high information load, there may not be discussions.

The lecture turned out to be alright, however, it consisted mainly of a syllabus overview and my lecturer complaining about all the construction zones she had to drive through to get to the University. Perhaps the first little black mark on its record was the fact that, despite it being the first day of classes, I still had my lab that afternoon. So, feeling very unprepared, I scanned the lab manual (which is, in its entirety, over 200 pages long), and set off to the lab. It also didn't turn out as bad as it could have, but it still wasn't fun. We had mini-lecture on malaria (cool-ish), but were given about a zillion other handouts, and the remainder of the lab consisited of looking at twenty-odd malarial specimens under light microscopes and drawing scientific diagrams for each. We also had to calibrate our microscopes, which proved more difficult that it should have.

I don't mind the main lecturer. She's got a long, unpronounceable name and a cool hint of an eastern European accent. The lab supervisor is very soft-spoken, and she has a tendency to say "okay?" after any announcements she makes or instructions she gives. It's annoying. We have other lecturers and other lab supervisors, but we did not meet them today.

I worry that this course is going to be exceedingly time-consuming and difficult. There is a lot of memorization, and there is a lab quiz each week (and a presentation worth pretty much nothing at the end of the semester). The lab also has its own midterm and final, which is expected but not appreciated.

CELL 300: Advanced Cell Biology I
My degree is highly organized and designed to leave me specialized in immunology and infection. Go figure. As such, instead of being able to choose my options from the giant list of all the science courses, I get to pick from a pre-selected, limited list. This course was one of the few I would even consider taking. It has a counterpart in the next semester (CELL 301), and you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be taking it.

My last brush with eukaryotic cell biology was some time ago... the first semester of my second year. Since then I have been bombarded with larger-scale physiology and lots and lots of bacteriology. So, I can't say that I am in a cell biology groove that will make things easier. But, it doesn't seem TOO too bad. A lot of it looks like stuff I learned in my most recent biochemistry course (BIOCH 320) - protein synthesis, cell structure components, etc. And the first of two lecturers is very organized, and gives excellent sets of notes and supplementary materials. He's also set up a lot of review-type sessions, and there are only two, non-cumulative, equally-weighted exams. The class is rather large, too, so hopefully a good curve will result.

I fear that this course might take a back seat to the others, though. There are optional readings, and it's not something like IMIN 324 or IMIN 371 that are compulsory, and ultimately a little more important.

IMIN 324: Basic Virology
Mmmmm.... a whole course devoted to viruses. Tantalizing. Seriously. As much as I love bacteria (and I LOVE bacteria), I find viruses are pretty interesting, too. And despite having a mediocre lecturer for the virology section of my introductory immunology course (IMIN 200), I have an urge to learn more.

This class will have the most number of different lecturers out of all my classes. That's okay with me. I think. It'll be refreshing, at least. The course coordinator is named Dr. Smiley. Ironically, he's not that smiley. It's a situation akin to my first genetics professor, Dr. Good, who turned out to be among the worst teachers I've ever had.

I'm not exceedingly worried about the material. We had a bit of a preview lecture today and it seemed manageable. I think having an interest in the material will also help.

IMIN 371: Intermediate Immunology
I have a confession: I actually like immunology a lot less that I thought I would when I decided on this program. I still find it interesting, maybe just not that interesting. I'm moderately worried about this course, considering the tremendous effort it took to learn the basics of immunology in my introductory course. At least this time around I have a textbook to rely on, and more tutorial sessions. I can just imagine how convoluted things are going to get. See, our immune systems are VERY complex. I can just see myself two months from now getting all caught up in which cytokines do what, and which immunoglobulins are involved in different types of responses and stuff. Okay, maybe I am a little more than moderately worried.

MICRB 311: Microbial Physiology
Aha. Back to my beautiful and wonderful bacteria. I don't really know what to expect form this course. From what I have been told, it has recently been entirely reconstructed to include updated material and new topics, as well as a new system of evaluation. It also has two new professors. I took another microbiology course last semester, but it was basically a gene regulation course in the context of bacterial behaviour, so I don't know how much overlap I'm going to get. This new course likely also places a lot more emphasis on the biochemical aspects of bacterial functions, which means biochemical pathways are involved, which makes me want to die.

I really like the lecturers, though. One is my professor from my introductory microbiology course, and she reminds me of a really kind and cool aunt (not any of my aunts, just AN aunt). The other is new to the University, and he's from Argentina/Belgium/Switzerland. He's really funny.

This course has two equally weighted exams, just as in CELL 300, but, somehow, I don't think it's going to be to my advantage in this course. I think it's going to be tough, but highly interesting.

***
So, that's it. After only two days I am extremely tired, I have a lot of work to do, and I am accordingly very grumpy and frustrated, and I never really want to go back. Perhaps it would be difficult to get that impression from what I have just said about all these courses, but it's truly how I feel. Plus, I am not really all that excited about being around all those people again. There is some new breed of douchebag roaming campus now. Very off-putting. And my schedule kind of sucks (I have no breaks, but I am done by 12:30 on four of five days), and I fear that being done so early in the day will actually tempt me to waste more time than I should. When you're done early you think, "I have all the time in the world. I can afford to take just a little break..." But then that little break turns into a big break, and those big breaks add up. And then you're screwed.

But, it's all will power, I guess. I hope. Yeah, will power.....

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Sunday, September 03, 2006

Happy New Year!

There are no real rules as to when resolutions should be made, but tradition dictates that it's usually at the beginning of the calendar year. I, however, make them at the beginning of the academic year, September here in Canada. Without further ado, here is this year's edition.

Get better marks
My resolutions usually involve some sort of academic improvement, something I have been successful at only once in the past few years (and only trivially at that - the improvement from Year 2 to Year 3 will never show up on a transcript; Year 2's GPA and Year 3's GPA round up and down, respectively, to the same value). And not to toot my own horn, but I have entered a bracket where improvement is no easy task as there is little room to improve. Nevertheless, I'm still going to give it all I've got to edge myself closer to a celebration that will involve a cake shaped as a 4.0.

Watch less TV
This resolution may be a little less ambitious than it ought to be and the details will tell you why. See, I love TV. LOVE. IT. And I plan on watching my fair share of it this year, too. I love "reality" TV (more aptly named surreality TV), and with new cycles of my favourites just around the corner, how could I not watch them? I have the likes of America's Next Top Model, The Amazing Race, Survivor, and The Bachelor to look forward to. I also like the regular syndicates: the CSI series and Lost (perhaps my absolute favourite). Plus, there is a pile of Oilers games I plan to watch. See, my problem is that I am easily susceptible to watching more TV than I had set out to watch. One hour of Lost could suddenly turn into three hours of who knows what. So, my resolution is to just stick to what I plan to watch, no snowballing, no time wasting. That's about 10-11 hours a week, which averages out to less than two hours a day, which is reasonable, right? ... right?

Have fun
I'm not saying that I don't have fun, but I think that I should have some more. The past three years have been wrought with sporadic episodes of fun between lengths of anti-social studying. This is the last year of my undergrad. The Last. I'll never have another year like it, so I suppose I've got to make the best of it. Of course, I am not thinking of "partying" nightly (because that's really not how I roll anyway), but I just think spending a little less time worrying about marks and a little more time laughing and enjoying life could do me some good.

It turns out that I am not very good with resolutions, but I argue that resolution-making is like daydreaming: you have this little window of time during which, theoretically, anything can happen, with no consequences close enough to threaten. So why not flash that ambition about, why not test your imagination? There is always the possibility that something - anything - can come true.

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