Tomorrow

Classes start tomorrow. Thank goodness. I'm getting a bit bored. Research will commence soon enough but things need to be ordered. 

In case you're curious, I'm taking cognitive neuroscience, research ethics, and cellular mechanisms of cortical plasticity. 

Peace.

What I did today

For those of you who care: I changed the battery in my car. 

Why you should be impressed: Car was parallel parked along my DC street. 

ooo. . . 1st 2009 post

Hey! New year! Neat! Too bad I'm possibly the most not-fun-on-New-Year's-Eve-person ever. Not that it bothers me.
I really should blog more.
I'm in OK until the 22nd. (hint) Glad too be here. It's pleasant. I'll be glad to get back to lab and work and class, though. Until then, I'm pretty content to read and knit and talk to the dog and ride the horse and see the people that I've missed so much.
I've been thinking about this:

(Awesomeness courtesy of Indexed)

Also: TEXAS SUCKS!

Peace.

Katie

Semester 1 (out of 10+) done

Hooray! 

And I even got a B in the my intro class. You know, the one that I had to take the mid-term right after I got HIT BY A CAR. I never thought I would be this excited about a B. And I'm OK with this.

Most of the last week was spent grading/lab-ing/knitting/Christmas shopping/slacking. Yesterday, I spent 4+ hours grading the lecture final. Yes, it took 4+ hours with 8 people working on it. But there was free food. 

Flight to OK leaves in about 2.5 hours. So if you're there when I'm there, we should hang out. 

Peace.

post-election commentary and some other stuff

How 'bout that election?! I can't say that I'm surprised. My reaction is not what I expected. I'm cautiously optimistic. That said, I'm really annoyed with people on both sides who are reacting so strongly to the results. The universe will not come to an end. Neither will the universe suddenly be full of fields of daisies and puppy dogs. I do worry that all the people who are so excited will end up disappointed and then be forever disillusioned and cynical, dropping out of the political process forever. It's been said that slavery is this country's original sin (OK, it was on a TV show, but I think it rings true. High-five for naming the show). I hope that in some small way we as a people are beginning to atone for centuries of oppression, racism, hatred, violence. 

Other exciting news, apparently our pipes are leaking such that the water is coming out of our downstairs neighbor's vent. Rock. It should be getting fixed today. 

I started physical therapy for my leg last week. I had no idea that PT could hurt this much. What a terrible idea. Yeah, I know, it has to hurt for it to heal. And I don't care. I would like magical instant pain-free-ness. The appointments are at 6:30am, so it forces me to get up earlier than usual. And I enjoy that. I wish I had enough discipline to do this all the time.

Lab stuff is going nicely. I'm still waiting for IACUC approval. *sigh* So I've been working on some smaller projects, mostly anatomy. Not terribly exciting but very necessary. The tissue processing technique that I'm using is from the late 1800s. Adventures in Victorian Biology--that's my new memoir title. And I'm going back to doing that now since my timer is about to go off.

Peace.

weekend update

The time is coming for me to turn off my mail client and stop replying to student's emails. 14 today. Sheesh. Their 1st formal lab report for this class is due Tuesday. Of course the true panic will be setting in tomorrow evening.
Let's see . . . what else did I do? I did some maintenance on the house plants. Been doing some knitting: coffee cup sweaters, hats, and coasters with the leftover yarn. There's been some Office-watching too.
Emily called today to tell me that Neighbor Guy had a visitor today. There is no reason that I should have been as excited/intrigued as I was. Neighbor Guy never had a visitor (other than food delivery) in the year that I lived across the street from him. And now I'm a few thousand miles away and missed this momentous occasion. 

And I found an Apple gift card in my wallet yesterday. So, with my university discount and the gift card, I bought SPORE! It makes me a bit sad that I'm this excited about a computer game. But it's supposed to be awesome. The last computer game I bought was one of the sequels to Myst. And that's been awhile. I probably don't have time to start playing a game. But I really don't care. 

It's after 10pm, so I don't answer any more student emails until 8am. Best policy I ever instituted. But it's in stiff competition with the no questions about an assignment the day it's due policy. 

Peace.

Fake Presidents

Midterm

I'm taking my 1st and only midterm right now. It's take-home. And lame-tastic. 9 essay questions. About a day and a half to write. I'm bored. Or can't think anymore. 

Post-vehicular assault, I'm feeling better. My hip hurts and I'm still mentally foggy at times. Considering that I got hit by a car, that's pretty good.

Earlier this week I was really missing Oklahoma. I finally got a glimpse of the sunset. Glimpse being a bit of an overstatement. Roommate, roommate's mom, and I went to an orchard to pick apples. It was sweet. We were way the heck out of DC. It was so beautiful and peaceful. You could see really far because it was up on a hill. Good times. But sadly, no pictures. 

I'm still waiting to do anything in the lab other than finishing up the Golgi stained stuff. IACUC has to approve my protocol. I should hear back in a couple weeks if it's been approved or modified or what. Until then, I have 2 notebooks, a file of articles, and other sundry items to go through. 

Aside: All the TAs for the lab I teach spend 3 hours in the section they're in charge of and 1 hour in another TA's section. When I was in my extra hour, one of the students in there informed me that, "Of course your class finished. You're the good TA." That made me feel super-special.

Back to experimental design.

Peace.

FYI

Yes, I got hit by a car on Thursday. No, I'm not terribly damaged, just very bruised and sore (confirmed by multiple x-rays and CT scans). I was in the crosswalk, so I don't have to pay for anything (it really wasn't my fault). Apparently, my leg dented the bumper. I wasn't flung very far (like 5-7 feet) Don't know if I'm going to press charges. I did get an ambulance ride with the siren on and on a body board and neck brace. Since I was a trauma level II (whatever that means), I got to experience the joy of the county hospital, which was actually pretty good. The other bad thing: I missed The Office. Thank God for the internet and his protection.