In which Tari finds herself thoroughly satisfied

Ad Mundo Exteriore,

For the moment, my usual state of stress over assignments and extracurriculars has been put aside in favor of completely giddy optimism. ^_^ I finally got up the nerve to email one of my professors for biology. He mentioned the "RNA world" theory in class a few days ago, so I asked him if he knew of any recent research papers and of any labs in the area working in that field. He replied this morning with a list of seven papers, most of which I haven't read already, and two researchers in the Boston area.

One of them is a Nobel laureate, in the Molecular and Cellular Biology department. I actually looked at his faculty page before, and unfortunately he happens to be really excited about bioinformatics. He's researching exons and methods of identifying exons through sequence analysis, which is fascinating reading material, but not what I want to be doing in my nonexistent free time. The other is actually one of the scientists whose papers I read a few years ago. I think I did know that he was at Massachusetts General Hospital, but after I couldn't find his name on the Harvard Medical School staff, I thought I had hallucinated it or something. I looked at his lab page, and their current research projects are exactly what I've been looking for. I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, but right now, I refuse to think of any worst-case scenarios. I think I'll go and email him, and maybe also the head for the Center of Genomics Research, later.

I'm also pleased because I finally returned the BN.com order, without a mishap, because there's a perfect challenge on temps_mort that I am going to do on time, homework or no homework, and because I've caught up on assignments in all but one of my classes. (Well, so far. I may slip behind again if I don't get to work soon.) Oh, and there's a comp meeting for the HIR tonight, when I'll finally get around to meeting my mentor for the comp and maybe finally figuring out a topic for my first article.

And to complete my mood, I have Spiral episodes to watch if I get too bored. ^_^ All right, have to go memorize that dialogue now. Why we have to memorize dialogues is beyond me, but I suppose it'll be useful.

...Tari

Post-script: My fellow AP Biology students may remember Meselson? As in Meselson and Stahl? The experimenters who proved the semiconservative model of DNA replication by tagging the backbone? Someone, please, nod here. Well, Dr. Meselson is a member of the faculty, currently researching the problem of why sexual as opposed to asexual reproduction may have selective advantages for protists.

In which Tari is bewildered

Ad Mundo Exteriore,

Yes, I'm LiveJournal-ing twice in one day. I'm weird, and I have no life other than homework and possibly extracurriculars. And books and anime. -_- Nothing new there.

So...I just returned from the HIR comp meeting, where it was announced that there is going to be a HIR party on Saturday night at 10:00 PM. This is completely mindboggling. These people dress up in nice collared shirts and dress pants. They are excessively uptight and professional. They have a reputation for being "inaccessible". They are also total geeks. For example, I was editing for the first time last weekend, and one of the editor-in-chiefs walked in, interrogated us poor first-years on what classes we were taking, then proceeded to bully everyone into watching the Matrix trailer. (He did the same thing at the comp meeting today.) Now, I have nothing against geeks. I'm a geek myself, probably even more of one than this particular editor. I approve of Matrix trailers and general fanaticism about SF movies. But trying to imagine this kind of person at a party is just...wrong.

No, seriously, I'm wondering if their idea of a party is sitting around on couches and debating the Israel-Palestine issue or watching Monty Python. Because in no way can I picture these people dancing to hip-hop in a dark room with a disco ball. It's like...well, it's like picturing me having fun at a typical college party. Again, just wrong.

Oh, and for your information, no, I'm not going to go. I will be sitting in my room hopefully working on the Spiral skin, or if I'm unlucky, catching up on Rome of Augustus readings (since there is a "short factual quiz" on Tuesday). It's at 10:00 PM! >_< I hate walking in the dark at night, especially if I'm alone. It's creepy, since there aren't enough streetlamps around.

Anyway, on top of everything else, I need to be thinking up a topic for my first article. Has anything happened in Sri Lanka recently? I should peruse the New York Times more frequently. >_> Uh, can I borrow someone's time management skills? I need them, I really do.

...Tari