post-quals celebration ideas

1) An actual party (which will, in fact, occur. or so I am told)

2) Re-pierce nose

3) Dye hair pink

4) Re-watch the entirety of the West Wing

5) Re-read The Brothers Karamazov

6) Finish the complete works of Flannery O'Connor

Votes?

new semester

Gosh, not actually taking classes is awesome. I'm just sitting in on one as a refresher. So, 2x/week + 0 tests = good life choice. Except that one of the major reasons I'm doing this is because I take my qualifying exam this semester. In about a week and a half. 2 days + 4 exams + 4 hours for each = *whimper* That's more equations than usual for around here. And a few weeks after that is the oral follow-up (which does not involve a dentist, more scary profs). Also, coping with quals stress via the Avett Brothers was a good choice. It seems to be very effective

I start teaching lab again tomorrow. At last check, 17 of 20 available slots are filled. It seems that a lot of people dropped because the giant waiting list (for a senior-level lab, at least) is empty and more than my section has extra space. None of the exercises have changed from last year, so this should be pretty easy.

Tomorrow's lecture will consist of:

1) Quick run-down of anatomical structures that they have to look for on slides

2) Biophysics review

3) Please don't be afraid of the electronics

3b) Troubleshooting the electronics

4) Please don't break the electronics

4b) How to not break the electronics

It's going to be a good day. And I do not mean that sarcastically.

Peace.

Beginings and Endings

Today my little sister graduates from high school. This is a good thing, as she will be free.
I'm done with year two. This semester was just awful, class-wise. But it's over and wasn't a complete waste of time. Now on to studying for quals (which are in September) and doing as much research as humanly possible. I'm working on 5 different projects with a possible 6th.
1) Anatomy
2) in vivo physiology
3)in vitro physiology
4) allometry/development
5) cross-taxa coding model
6?) comparative within taxa

As I write this, I'm watching the Blues Brothers--which is always a good choice.
I'm reading Intuition by Allegra Goodman to see if it's a good alternative to the awful novel we read for research ethics. With about 50 pages to go, I'm very pleased. Decent writing + interesting treatment of ethical issues = good choice. Anyone else ever read a good novel about research that has some form of ethics in it?

Peace.