Poster Session

Last week my department had their annual retreat, which included a poster session. It wasn't required for me, but my PI encouraged me to do it, and he was totally right. It was great experience, and now I get to put it on my vita. It was, however, a huge amount of work.

That's two computers, three notebooks and an accordion folder. And yes, they were all necessary.

I printed off and laid out the slides the day before. Brandon took an artsy picture.

Rasika was presenting at the poster session, too. 

And here is my poster! 

I took a lot away from this experience. I got to bounce some ideas off of professors from our department, my knowledge of the material was tested, and it forced me to organize my thesis and the work I've done thus far. All of this was hugely beneficial. Plus, for a brief moment, I felt really accomplished. Now, of course, it's back to the grind and regular old panic mode. But then, I wouldn't accomplish so much if I wasn't panicking all the time ^_^

Dates: Who Needs 'Em?

I'm so lucky Brandon is so flexible.

Today we made salads for dinner, packed them in tupperware containers and headed over to campus, because I had some late-night lab work. There's no food allowed in the lab, so I set up my samples in the cell-counter, and we sat on the floor in the hallway and ate dinner while the cell-counter beeped and booped away.

I said "thank you for dinner," and Brandon said "thank you for science-date."

<3

Quick Hello

Hi everyone! I apologize for the lack of updates, I've been busy with school. I uploaded all the latest photos from our camera into empty entries and saved them. I'll sit down and get some writing done whenever I have time, and update periodically, just to keep the entries steady. This way, I have more time to write, and you don't get bombarded with 8 billion entries all at once. But it also means that the blog will be a bit behind, in terms of "real time," since everything I'm updating about will be a few weeks old.

This morning I popped into lab for a quick minute just to glance at my cell cultures. Tomorrow I have some real work to do, but since it was a brief trip today, I brought Brandon with me. He took a couple photos when I wasn't looking.

I let Brandon look through the microscope a while, and I tried to find some dividing cells for him. It was pretty fun. The rest of my weekend is pretty typical: housework, homework and exercise.

I'll update again in a couple days. Lots of love!

Halloween!

So, Brandon and I got a new camera. We've been playing with the settings and trying to learn how to use it. It has been a fun project.

Let me tell you about our Halloween weekend. On Saturday I had a study party, and I made festive snacks:

 

 They were all really quick and super fun to make. 

That's cheesy garlic bread shaped like skeleton bones, apple slices with almonds made to look like vampire teeth, chocolate-dipped pretzels with orange sprinkles, pumpkin seeds with garlic, sugar and cayenne and tea sandwiches made with cookie cutters shaped like bats and pumpkins. And of course a cauldron filled with Halloween candy in the background.

I had WAAAAY too much fun with this project. They were all super fast, easy recipes (they had to be, because I needed to save my time for studying) but they made an impression, and they were gone by the end of the evening. 

Brandon and I carved our pumpkin with Texas on one side and Michigan on the other. I thought it would be very appropriate for the blog:

Brandon carved Texas on the first side.

And I did Michigan on the other side.

Voila!

Since we don't have much time for fun lately, the party was actually just a glorified study session with my friends. But we still had fun munching on Halloween-themed snacks while we studied. By the end of the weekend, we were all pretty exhausted. 

It's a study coma AND a chocolate coma!

And my friend Christine thought my M&M costume was so funny, she put it on and wore it all evening while we studied. It was hilarious. 

Whatever floats your boat, Christine.

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

We're Still Alive!

Hello! Sorry! Life is hectic.

I had to swing by campus today to do a couple hours of labwork. Brandon accompanied me, and took a couple pictures.

I spent the whole time at the fume hood.

It was nice to have some company.

 I asked Brandon to take a picture of this part, because I think it looks cool.

 He obliged, even though he didn't really agree.

That's it! Sorry for the quick update, but I'm super busy this week. Hopefully Brandon will update soon with some restaurant reviews. 

Meet 'n Greet, nerd style

I just wanted to share a few photos from a little social gathering my class had last week. We got together and built models of DNA. There were snacks and refreshments, and people were encouraged - nay, obligated - to mingle. We were each given a nucleotide, and we had to find someone who had the complimentary base to pair with. Then we organized into groups and constructed the double helix. It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet some of my classmates. At the end, the professor unveiled the correct structure and pointed out some important aspects of the model.

Teamwork.

 Ours didn't look half bad!

The prof gives an overview of the correct structure.

After some socializing, I came back to find out our phosphate backbone was denaturing (read: the model fell apart.)

Turns out grad school is kinda social too, in a nerdy sort of way. ^_^

Orientation

I had orientation at school this week. I'll spare you the boring details and just say this: I'm very excited about my program. There seems to be a lot of opportunity to explore various tracks within my field.

The program I'm entering is a Master's program in Cell and Systems Biology. There are various tracks within that department, and as a Masters student, I get a unique opportunity to sort of get a taste of each. Some of the categories include: genetics, cancer biology, cellular and molecular biology, biology of aging and a few more that escape memory at the moment (memory was not one, although that would be funny.)

The first course in the program is a whopping 8-credit class that gives an overview of each of these subjects and prepares students for rigorous labwork. While taking this course, we're expected to do a couple lab rotations and start the process of deciding which lab we want to work in. Given that we only have 2 years to complete and present our thesis, I estimate that we should really have our mentor picked by the end of the first semester, although I don't know if that's typical.

Anyway, point is, I'm pumped. I've already seen a few impressive labs, so I feel confident that my rotations will be exciting and educational. I'm not nervous about the coursework at all, mostly I just want to have my mentor picked soon, so I can start digging in and working on my thesis. My only fear is that I will have to stay on a third year, when I really didn't mean to spend that much time in Texas.

Is it nerdy that I can't wait to get my textbooks, so I can start reading?