In which Tari indulges in spontaneity

Ad Mundo Exteriore,

On a total spur-of-the-moment whim, I went to the introductory meeting for the kendo club yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. I mean, it wasn't like love at first sight or anything like that--I don't think I can ever really obsess about an athletic activity. But I didn't feel clumsy and miserable like I usually do, and after a while, I started vaguely enjoying it. Besides, even if I'm not good at anything else, I can at least hold seiza for an indefinite period of time. (Seiza is Japanese for that kneeling position, which is assumed as a sign of humility and respect. And yes, I can continue kneeling even after I get pins and needles. The only problem is getting up again. Ah, the benefits of being Asian.)

I do realize the danger that after a few weeks it'll all be far too intense for me to continue, but I think I'll try my best to keep up. I mean, I did ask to take keomdo lessons in ninth grade, though that never worked out. And if I learn enough, then lush_rimbaud, tryogeru and I can form a highway brigand gang. Lydia's on the pistol team, and Tryo-chan's taking archery. We'll be undefeatable, neh? ^_^

...Tari

In which Tari procrastinates on her assignments

Ad Mundo Exteriore,

I forgot that I took this quiz:

The Ultimate LiveJournal Obsession Test
Category	Your Score	Average LJer
Community Attachment	19.35% You've got pals to cheer you up when you're down, but no audience to applaud you... Yet.	24.85%
MemeSheepage	29.82% Easily amused	30.64%
Original Content	45.16% Some stories must be told - and you're the one to tell them	40.47%
Psychodrama Quotient	4.82% Warning: Can Flame When Necessary	16.94%
Attention Whoring	18.18% Slothfully Seeking Susan	21.74%
Take The Ultimate LiveJournal Obsession Test and see how you match up!

Kendo was exhausting. Most of the pain is hitting me now, six hours after practice ended. I'm skeptical about my ability to move right now. -_-

I just found out that one of the National Astrobiology Institute's lead teams is here in the Organismal and Evolutionary Biology department, but their approach is mostly paleontological, focusing more on fossils than on living microbial ecosystems or prebiotic synthesis. (Astrobiology technically studies the possibility of life on other planets but has become a blanket term to cover origin of life studies.) There's another laboratory that works with endosymbionts in marine environments as well as chemosynthetic archaea, but their most recent papers are all about sequence analysis techniques. Which is cool, but I really don't want to do much more bioinformatics. What's especially ironic is that the Center for Genomics Research has all these interesting noncomputational projects even though the definition of genomics implies that its focus is mostly computational. There's a particularly interesting experiment using yeast that looks for the effects on phenotype under extreme selective pressures. The Center itself has this whole new "theory" about how to study cellular processes as a network of "modules", which I don't entirely understand, but it sounds pretty fascinating anyway. They have a summer internship program for undergraduates, which I definitely want to apply to. There's also some interesting research on archaea going on at the astrobiology branch of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, but it's a graduate-level-and-above institution. >_< Too many of the astrobiological teams have a rising senior minimum for internship positions. Um, I understand that I'm pretty inexperienced as an undergraduate, but I kind of want to see the research in this field before I just fling myself into a thesis project commitment! And maybe get enough background in the field so I can actually think of a thesis proposal in junior year! Honestly! The concentration guidelines all insinuate that you should start your thesis during junior year so that you can have enough time to overcome any unexpected hurdles in your research. How are you supposed to do that if labs won't hire you until you're already supposed to be halfway through your project?

Yes, I know, I don't need to be stressing about this now. It's all a long way off in the future, etc., etc. But I do feel a lot of pressure because my research experience in high school is paltry compared to other people here (who have Intel and ISEF credits to their name). Since you start applying for summer internships and jobs in December or January, you need to start looking around pretty soon to know at least what programs are out there. I don't think it's really necessary to start research next summer, but then, I need to earn money anyway, so why waste time by tutoring when I could receive a much higher stipend at a lab?

...Tari