A list, miscellaneous

[tarigwaemir]

Haste Street, on the Feast of All Saints

1. I've been buying different types of sausages from the grocery store, and I have to say that the spicy Italian sausage I just bought this past Saturday has to be the best so far.

2. Sending out holiday cards again this year:

[Poll #1081472]

3. My rotation ends in about a week. (First-year grad students get to rotate in three different labs before making a decision on where to do their thesis research.) No one in the next rotation will be taking over my current project, which makes me feel irrationally pleased because I've gotten very attached to it, although it's a little sad that the project will be stalled after I leave. I really like this lab; at the moment, there's a really high probability that I will choose it for my thesis lab. Of course, I can't really speak until I've rotated in other labs first...

My next rotation is going to be with Prof. Eisen, one of the pioneers of microarrays. His lab is both computational and experimental, but leans more to the computational side, which means that I'll probably spend most of the rotation learning Perl. Not sure if staying in front of the computer all day is good for me, but I could use the experience in programming, and the research in his lab is extremely interesting. (They have a wide variety of projects, mostly focusing on regulatory sequence in drosophilids, but a whole host of other work on yeast and human genomes as well.)

4. What I will post once the NSF application is in:

• reviews of 칼잡이 오수정 ("Butcher Oh Soo Jung") and 태왕사신기 ("Tale of the Great King and Four Gods", otherwise known as the new Bae Yong-jun drama)
  
• the 태왕사신기 OST, composed by Hisaishi Joe
  
• recipe for 미역국 (seaweed soup)
  
• the sequel to "Real", since I owe it to aiwritingfic
  
• funny science stories from Prof. Levine (of which there are many)
  

5. Did you know Stephen Fry has started a blog? He made a long post about smartphones, and the Guardian subsequently asked him to write a column for them on gadgets. He links to this entertaining quote by Umberto Eco on operating systems.

Also, a flashcard application for Macs, recommended by Lifehacker.

6. This link via Tin on the Read or Die blog: LOLcat Wasteland, a...creative interpretation of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

7. Question of not-so-vital importance: should I try to get up extra early on weekends to chat with former object of affection who is fifteen time zones away? (Or is it sixteen? ;_;)

Yours &c.

Post-script: Oh yes, found via aiwritingfic and lacewood, the best Flash game ever: Free Rice. Have been aiming for level 50 (without dictionaries), but alas, no such luck. I am really amused though that "boffin" means "scientist".

Comments

[silvermuse89.livejournal.com]

Good luck with your new rotation! It sounds interesting.

Oh, I have the opportunity to take a graduate course next semester. ^_^ It's called "Genome Annotation" and deals with the sequenced Drosphilia genome. Do you happen to know any good articles/journals or websites that would deal with this subject? The professor mentioned that being able to understand papers on gene regulation was important, but I would like to read a bit more about the subject to see how overwhelming it will be.

Freerice is awesome. Sadly, I haven't been able to get past 48 so far. The lack of Latin is definitely hurting me. ^^; At least I've gotten most of the scientific terms. Platyhelminthes has popped up at least twice. XD

[troisroyaumes]

Can definitely recommend you some papers on gene regulation and Drosophila genomics. Hm, off the top of my head for now, this review might give you some background on the major mechanisms of transcriptional regulation. I'll dig up some more for you later. ^_^

I've gotten up to 49, but only stayed there for two questiosn before dropping back down again. It's so addictive though!

[jaebi-lit.livejournal.com]

should I try to get up extra early on weekends to chat with former object of affection who is fifteen time zones away? (Or is it sixteen?

No. It's easier to talk on Friday & Saturday afternoons/evenings, when it'll be Saturday & Sunday morning/midday for him. No getting up early required!

[troisroyaumes]

Heh, from previous experience, he usually doesn't log on during the day, even on weekends. (...Man, it's sad that I know that.) Well, maybe things are different now since he's also no longer in college.

[jaebi-lit.livejournal.com]

*dizzy*

Uh, I tried that Free Rice game and ten minutes just went by without me noticing. I couldn't get past 47. :(

[troisroyaumes]

The perfect method of procrastination, isn't it? XD

[qem_chibati]

Hee~ yes it's old Brit colloquial speech.

Free rice is fun~

[troisroyaumes]

Ah, really? Didn't know that. I am going to use that word in casual conversation as much as possible. ^_^

[qem_chibati]

Well old might be a bit of an exaggeration. XD

It's really, really popular in anything set in the 1940's that involves scientists.

You can still see it in use on places like the register, which is a humorous news site that is IT orientated.

And I've also seen it used on the BBC but it was a "those crazy scientists who knows what their getting up to next" type context.

[datenshi-blue.livejournal.com]

Good luck with your new rotation!

I left my address for a christmas card (the "--" act as line breaks ;)) I would love having yours to send a card myself. You might have posted it already, but I'm not sure, so I thought it'd save me time to ask for it.

*hugs*

[troisroyaumes]

Thanks! ::hugs back::

I'll email you my mailing address! Yay, it'll be awesome getting a card from you. ^_^

[love_archived]

Question back: since this is a FORMER object of affection, why would you sacrifice precious sleep? (*obviously places sleep VERY high on her scale of important things*)

[troisroyaumes]

Ahaha, well, by "former object of affection" I mostly mean that I'm not infatuated with him anymore. Still like the person himself and would like to stay friends. And it wouldn't really be sacrificing sleep since I'd go to sleep earlier. ::wouldn't be able to get up in time otherwise::

Well, I guess I'm mostly being nostalgic. I talked to him on IM nearly every day during the summer after I met him. We've been out of touch for the past year or so, but I just noticed last weekend that he had remembered my birthday and left me a message on my Cyworld a month ago. You see, I changed significantly that summer--I remember it as a pivotal moment in my life--and meeting him was a large part of that.

But then again, you have a point. Sleep >> everything except labwork.

[love_archived]

Ah. It would be pretty much up to you whatever you decided, then, since it's REALLY difficult for me to give up sleep for anything or anyone. *sheepish laugh* Sleep even goes above writing sometimes, for me. (It's because it's so elusive.)

[troisroyaumes]

Haha, sleep definitely goes above writing for me as well. ::tries not to look at unfinished application::

[emblem.livejournal.com]

STUPID ROTTEN NSF DIE DIE DIE HATE PERSONAL STATEMENTS DIE DIE DIE HATE HATE HATE.


Enjoy the rotations! They were the most lighthearted part of grad school thus far, for me. (And my PI went to Berkeley for his postdoc, so I'm interested ... perhaps you'll even happen upon his PI.) ^^

(And, doublepost the stories? :D)

[troisroyaumes]

YES STUPID NSF WHY DOES IT CAUSE SUCH PAIN AND MISERY! ::stabs application with sharp knife:: Argh.

Ooh, which PI did he work with as a postdoc? And of course I'll doublepost the stories. ^_^

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

Free rice is so awesome! (I can barely stay above 45 for more than a few questions)

If it's a former object of affection, why would you get up early? You could stay up a bit later instead.

[troisroyaumes]

See my response to aiwritingfic.

As for staying up a bit later, well, am even less inclined to do that, since I'm even more likely to lose sleep that way. ^_^;; Don't think he logs on during the day though, so it's a moot point.