oceantheorem (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
oceantheorem) wrote2006-12-16 05:45 pm
oceantheorem) wrote2006-12-16 05:45 pm
Aaaaand... go.
I've been so lax in updating recently. I haven't said anything worthwhile in ages. I'm doing a really bad job of recording this year....
It's been a weird semester. I'm still not used to New Haven; I don't feel at home here, and a large part of me aches for Santa Cruz. I had no idea I'd miss it this much for so long. I hadn't realized how much a part of me Santa Cruz had become. I've been thinking about transferring for a couple weeks now, and nearly wrote up an application and sent it to UCSF. Their deadline was yesterday. Maybe I could have started over there; done rotations and classes again--good classes, rigorous classes with reasonable homework problems--and joined the Blackburn lab and studied telomerase at one of the best research institutions in the world. Then I wouldn't be the girl that turned down UCSF anymore. I'd be the girl that made a mistake and fixed it. Of course, UCSF could have been a mistake. Something, some feeling, made me come here. And last night two of my favorite New Haven people said, "Please stay," and today I feel much better. Just knowing I'm wanted here makes such a strangely huge difference.
So today I'm thinking about New Haven, and things I can do next semester to fit in better. Make more of an effort to go climbing; make an effort to meet a few new people and get closer to the awesome people I already know; take interesting instead of required classes; find a cheaper place to live so I have more money; actually get in the car and drive when I feel the urge (and I have plates now, so I can drive legally!); continue to be the open, heart-on-my-sleeve kind of girl I was trying to be in Santa Cruz. The east coast may be a stiff, reserved kind of place, but I'm from California and I don't have to adopt an east coast mentality just because I'm going to school here. There are people here from all over and plenty of them are the open, communicative, friendly type of people it's so easy to get along with.
My date last night went well, I suppose. He took me to an amazing, expensive restaurant, which was slightly awkward but super sweet. The food was fantastic, of course. It was just strange, because we don't know each other at all and it was hard to find things to talk about. It wasn't like I was filtering things--I just sincerely, honestly, had no idea what to say. He's a really nice guy, but he's sort of quiet, which I'm not really used to. I'm usually the quiet one. Anyway, it went well, if awkwardly. I ditched him at the end of the night to spend the night at a girl friend's house, which I feel a little guilty about, but I'll see him again tonight, so I'll apologize then.
My apartment is a dark place. I put up Christmas lights in both the living room and the bedroom, and I've been sleeping with the blue ones over my head turned on, so there's a glow around my head (which sometimes hurts my sleep more than helps, but at least it's light), but it still feels so dark in here. I think it's because there are virtually zero windows in this apartment, and none in the living room, and there just isn't enough natural light in here. I'm probably not spending enough time outside.
I want to get a small fuzzy thing. Like maybe a hamster or something. Or maybe I should start out with something harder to kill, like a really resilient plant... ...that doesn't need natural light.
My rotation ended yesterday, which was terribly sad. I had an awesome first lab rotation. The people in that lab are incredible; they're funny, smart, open, and they do crossword puzzles at lunch and play weboggle while waiting for gels to run. (WEBoggle) My rotation project didn't really work, but that's okay. I emptied out my sample boxes yesterday and threw away about 75 microcentrifuge tubes filled with no DNA, wrong DNA, contaminated DNA, or other bad versions of the truncated gene I attempted to make. I kept exactly two tubes. I suppose that's not too bad--science is kind of like that--for every one thing that works, 35 fail.
My CD drive is making strange noises while it's attempting to rip this CD. I think it might be time to replace it. Damnit, I might have to actually learn something about my computer in order to fix it.
Along that line, I think I'm going to give my old, trusty, Santa-Cruzed laptop to my parents and buy myself a macbook sometime next semester. I need something light, durable, and easy to use. I've been using the Macs in the lab for the last couple of months, and I think I kinda like them. I'll keep my PC desktop, especially since a lot of programs I like only work in Windows, but I kind of really really want a Mac notebook. The search begins to find one with all the features I want yet still reasonably priced. Luckily I really only want it to be small, light, and have wireless capabilities. That shouldn't cost too much.
I have a ten-page paper due Friday that I haven't started yet. This week will be almost as fun as last week.... At least I finished the cell bio take-home and the genetics question.
I guess that's enough rambliness for now. There are a lot of other random thoughts careening around in my head, and I didn't really manage to record anything of note in this entry, but at least I've gotten myself writing again. It's a start.
It's been a weird semester. I'm still not used to New Haven; I don't feel at home here, and a large part of me aches for Santa Cruz. I had no idea I'd miss it this much for so long. I hadn't realized how much a part of me Santa Cruz had become. I've been thinking about transferring for a couple weeks now, and nearly wrote up an application and sent it to UCSF. Their deadline was yesterday. Maybe I could have started over there; done rotations and classes again--good classes, rigorous classes with reasonable homework problems--and joined the Blackburn lab and studied telomerase at one of the best research institutions in the world. Then I wouldn't be the girl that turned down UCSF anymore. I'd be the girl that made a mistake and fixed it. Of course, UCSF could have been a mistake. Something, some feeling, made me come here. And last night two of my favorite New Haven people said, "Please stay," and today I feel much better. Just knowing I'm wanted here makes such a strangely huge difference.
So today I'm thinking about New Haven, and things I can do next semester to fit in better. Make more of an effort to go climbing; make an effort to meet a few new people and get closer to the awesome people I already know; take interesting instead of required classes; find a cheaper place to live so I have more money; actually get in the car and drive when I feel the urge (and I have plates now, so I can drive legally!); continue to be the open, heart-on-my-sleeve kind of girl I was trying to be in Santa Cruz. The east coast may be a stiff, reserved kind of place, but I'm from California and I don't have to adopt an east coast mentality just because I'm going to school here. There are people here from all over and plenty of them are the open, communicative, friendly type of people it's so easy to get along with.
My date last night went well, I suppose. He took me to an amazing, expensive restaurant, which was slightly awkward but super sweet. The food was fantastic, of course. It was just strange, because we don't know each other at all and it was hard to find things to talk about. It wasn't like I was filtering things--I just sincerely, honestly, had no idea what to say. He's a really nice guy, but he's sort of quiet, which I'm not really used to. I'm usually the quiet one. Anyway, it went well, if awkwardly. I ditched him at the end of the night to spend the night at a girl friend's house, which I feel a little guilty about, but I'll see him again tonight, so I'll apologize then.
My apartment is a dark place. I put up Christmas lights in both the living room and the bedroom, and I've been sleeping with the blue ones over my head turned on, so there's a glow around my head (which sometimes hurts my sleep more than helps, but at least it's light), but it still feels so dark in here. I think it's because there are virtually zero windows in this apartment, and none in the living room, and there just isn't enough natural light in here. I'm probably not spending enough time outside.
I want to get a small fuzzy thing. Like maybe a hamster or something. Or maybe I should start out with something harder to kill, like a really resilient plant... ...that doesn't need natural light.
My rotation ended yesterday, which was terribly sad. I had an awesome first lab rotation. The people in that lab are incredible; they're funny, smart, open, and they do crossword puzzles at lunch and play weboggle while waiting for gels to run. (WEBoggle) My rotation project didn't really work, but that's okay. I emptied out my sample boxes yesterday and threw away about 75 microcentrifuge tubes filled with no DNA, wrong DNA, contaminated DNA, or other bad versions of the truncated gene I attempted to make. I kept exactly two tubes. I suppose that's not too bad--science is kind of like that--for every one thing that works, 35 fail.
My CD drive is making strange noises while it's attempting to rip this CD. I think it might be time to replace it. Damnit, I might have to actually learn something about my computer in order to fix it.
Along that line, I think I'm going to give my old, trusty, Santa-Cruzed laptop to my parents and buy myself a macbook sometime next semester. I need something light, durable, and easy to use. I've been using the Macs in the lab for the last couple of months, and I think I kinda like them. I'll keep my PC desktop, especially since a lot of programs I like only work in Windows, but I kind of really really want a Mac notebook. The search begins to find one with all the features I want yet still reasonably priced. Luckily I really only want it to be small, light, and have wireless capabilities. That shouldn't cost too much.
I have a ten-page paper due Friday that I haven't started yet. This week will be almost as fun as last week.... At least I finished the cell bio take-home and the genetics question.
I guess that's enough rambliness for now. There are a lot of other random thoughts careening around in my head, and I didn't really manage to record anything of note in this entry, but at least I've gotten myself writing again. It's a start.
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also, you should get a guinea pig. hamsters don't live long enough for my taste. and a guinea pig will actually keep you company.
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On a side note, Chris knows more about computers and Macs than anyone else I know. (He reads technical manuals for fun and knows product numbers of each component... it's crazy) If you need any advice on buying/what's good for your money, let me know and I'll ask him.
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His suggestion would be to go with the midrange model (2.0GHz model). 80 Gigs is enough space, right? Otherwise, $200 more pushes you up to a black laptop with 120G.
And he says that waiting till next year will be better to buy it because there will be better specs.
HTH
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*sigh* I guess I'll hang on to Topher for now and continue to enjoy the warm harddrive smell.
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Did I tell you that Galen broke one of the hinges on my Powerbook? Everything still functions the way it should, except that the lid doesn't and cannot shut. The cost to fix it? $400. I'd have to replace the entire framing for the screen or the screen itself. So we're just waiting until tax return/stock money time and when he buys himself a new computer, I'll get his one-year old 12-inch. It's hard to keep putting money into something that's broken/breaking.