Thursday, November 30, 2006

Caltech Physicists Successfully Split The Bill

This is hilarious. =)

PASADENA, CA—Sequestered in a private booth at a Pasadena-area Cheesecake Factory for nearly 25 minutes, a party of eight California Institute Of Technology physicists emerged exhausted but visibly excited Friday evening after successfully splitting the bill.

"This is an important day for us, not only because it marks Professor [Wayne] Newbury's birthday, but because we have accomplished a feat thought unimaginable ever since [late computational physicist Philip] Eisenreich found that it was impossible to calculate how a group of paired bodies, set in motion by the presence of a solid-state check, could come to rest at a non-variable, evenly distributed mathematical constant," said lead party organizer and theoretical physicist Dr. Cynthia Dreyfuss.

Continue to read at The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Monday, November 20, 2006

i feel old...

practicum
noun
1. A school or college course, especially one in a specialized field of study, that is designed to give students supervised practical application of previously studied theory.

essay
noun
Analytic, interpretative, or critical literary composition, usually dealing with its subject from a limited and often personal point of view. Flexible and versatile, the essay was perfected by Michel de Montaigne, who chose the name essai to emphasize that his compositions were “attempts” to express his thoughts and experiences. The essay has been the vehicle of literary and social criticism for some, while for others it could serve semipolitical, nationalistic, or polemical purposes and could have a detached, playful, earnest, or bitter tone.

distraught
adj.
1. Deeply agitated, as from emotional conflict.
2. Mad; insane.

exhaustion
noun
1. The condition of being extremely tired

freedom?
noun
1. The condition of being free of restraints.
2. Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
3a. Political independence.
3b. Exemption from the arbitrary exercise of authority in the performance of a specific action; civil liberty: freedom of assembly.
4. Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition: freedom from want.
5. The capacity to exercise choice; free will: We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon.
6. Ease or facility of movement: loose sports clothing, giving the wearer freedom.
7. Frankness or boldness; lack of modesty or reserve: the new freedom in movies and novels.
8a. The right to unrestricted use; full access: was given the freedom of their research facilities.
8b. The right of enjoying all of the privileges of membership or citizenship: the freedom of the city.
9. A right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference


"Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face." - Michel de Montaigne

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

2006_11_14 @ looking forward, looking back

just turned in the few things due for my bio lab stuff today. it's gonna be busybusy in the few weeks ahead, but nothing horrendous until 3 weeks later. but i deserve a break. chilling out a little first, recharge before i get going yet again.

28 days and counting! oh my gosh... time simply flies. soon, u'll be hearing adventures of mexico from the 2 wanderers... i'm really looking forward to that 3+ weeks, roaming the world with darling again. and who knows what exciting stuff awaits... this is all we have booked:

1. my return air ticket to San Diego.
2. our one-way trip into mexico city

neither of us speak spanish, but we'll hand-wave our way to good cheap accommodation, finding our way around on the public transport and have a jolly good time of course!!

------------------------

recent events:

  • Girls' night out: a bunch of us in my lab dept went to my grad student's place for dinner and some good time! good stir-fry chinese dishes that shudan made herself + some cranberry vodka which one of the girls brought over. after dinner entertainment was mahjong! after surviving the 2nd round of mid-term, this was a great little break from work. =)
  • Lab lunch (13th nov): over the weekend was the birthday of one of the grad students in my lab. so after lab meeting, whole lab went out to a jap/asian fusion bistro for lab lunch: boss's treat! the sushi was good, and the sizzling seafood hot plate which i had was...hmmm.. delicious!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Snapshot of Life - Weekend to-do List (part 2)

so this is a challenge by darling to post mine too, to see who's suffering more...

A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: i'm surviving from a week of craziness, including:
1. a hell week in my biology lab class collecting data
2. frantic studying of immunology midterm
3. yet more frantic studying of abnormal psy midterm
(this one leading to only TWO hours of sleep on thurs night)

Things upcoming and fighting for my attention:

1. Preparing for the bio lab class presentation (which means trying to make sense of absolutely inconclusive / totally negative results)
2. Immunology paper presentation
3. Biology lab class Experimental proposal (for the next project)
4. Biology lab class seminar critiques assignment
5. Biology lab class assignment
6. Sort out SSA finances, claim receipts
7. LAUNDRY!! (haven done in god-knows how long...)
8. Abnormal psy reaction paper
9. Abnormal psy term paper
10. Biology lab course term paper
11. RESEARCH! have been putting off my expts cos of the midterms...... time to get some things done...
12. get sleep, hang out a little before i get claustrophobia for being stuck in my room forever...

so let's take a poll: who's worse off right now?? =P

i love you dear... heh. -muack-

Snapshot of Life - Weekend To-Do List

  • OChem Lab Report IV - Adsorption Chromatography: TLC and Column Chromatography
  • OChem Lab Report V - Separation of an unknown two-component mixture by distillation and identification of the components by GC analysis
  • OChem PreLab VI - Fischer Esterification Of A Carboxylic Acid And Identification Of The Product By Micro-Boiling Point and IR spectroscopy
  • VisArts Project #5 - huge Chuck Close style drawing
  • VisArts Project #6 - recontextualizing, reorganizing, rearranging (Hannah Hoch, Ruben Ortiz-Torres)
  • Prep for BISP 194 Frontiers in Human Anatomy midterm
  • CAT essay
  • Waiting for Chem Dept reply on adding BioInfomatics class
  • Waiting for GIS Network Admin reply on spoofing by unknown user on tagboard - i'm so gonna get the person's ass for this
  • Contact ACS-CRI about laptop repair date - fried my systemboard, left mouse button and 'm' key with half a glass new zealand 2005 sauvignon blanc
  • Pick colonies on Sunday night - my slackest weekend in the lab ever
  • Get a long-overdue haircut
  • Get a life

Thursday, November 02, 2006

at the beginning... with you.

thank you, for sticking with me thru the tough times, supporting me and being so understanding... i love you dear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Life is a road and I want to keep going
Love is a river I want to keep flowing
Life is a road now and forever
A wonderful journey

I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you....
- Donna Lewis, in "Anastasia"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~