The past couple of weeks have been, as the title states, quite the roller coaster ride. It began with quite the high in that I am 99% confident that I will have a place in small city NY to call home (and by that I mean a job in a lab) for at least 2 years with an up and coming scientist. This scientist, who has been at the University of Small City for a year now, studies several unique properties of the brain and how it differs between men and women.
This was immediately followed up with the very sad news that my loving and caring grandmother past away at the age of 88 exactly one week ago. The funeral was very difficult to get through since most of the people there were not speaking to one another because of the green eyed monster that has consumed them since 1997.
My spirits were immediately lifted when I realized that I have just 40 more base pairs to sequence for this particular mRNA (which I have been working on for nearly 3 years) to finally be completed with experiments at Small Town University. I am constantly typing my thesis in hopes to distribute, defend and deposit by early January. Also, the proofs for my last publication was just sent to me today!!
Needless to say, November and December will be the craziest months of my life, but I look forward to finishing one chapter of my life and beginning a new one soon!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Time to Teach!!!
Hi all! This is now Day 2 of 2 when I was asked to fill in for a certain professor and teach the Elements of Biochemistry class. Day 1 went extremely well (despite the fact that the projector shut down on me half way through the class and I was forced to go old school and use the chalkboard). I had no complaints from any students, and both professors who sat in on the lecture (including the chair of the department) had nothing but complements for me immediately following the class. Here's hoping Day 2 will go as well as Day 1. Yeah for Biochemistry! Updates soon to come!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Another Weekend, Another Adventure
This past weekend, Sneks and I visited James and his awesome girlfriend Natal in the big apple. Sneks and I went to the Mets game (those losers suck, only 31/2 games up in the east), sailed past the statue of liberty by the Staten Island fairy, hit up times square and the best dinner place ever.....Burgers and Cupcakes!!! Check out the pics!!!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Late Night at the Lab
Yeah, that's right. As I am writing this, Hall and I are in the lab working on what I hope to be the final project of my PhD thesis. Today was especially long since I had to sit in on a lecture that started 7:55am, but if this experiment works, it's one step closer to moving on from Lehigh to bigger better things!!!! Fingers crossed people!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Last weekend at the Ballpark
As I said in a previous blog, life has been absolutely insane at times over the past few weeks. Not only did I have the chance to visit my boyhood pal B-man; I also had the opportunity to go to a Phillies game last Friday with Sneks' family. It was nice to see them again since I feel like I get along with all of them so well. And the best part of the whole night was the fact that the Phillies lost and the Mets won!!!! We still have a 6 game lead in the east!!!!!! Here are some pictures from that night at Citizens Bank Park in Philly.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Since We Last Talked....
I know, it's been a long time since I lasted updated everyone on life in general. So here we go. Last week I found out that my first two choices for post-doctorate work were a no go due to lack of space/lack of money. Following that low, I discovered that my second first author publication (4th overall) was accepted to be published nearly one year following the completion of the study. I have contacted other possible post-doc candidates, and one especially looks promising. Updates soon to follow!
Happiness was rekindled within me. I was able to take some time away from science in general to visit my best boyhood friend the B-man, his lovely wife Rach, and the adorable son Little H! Not only is he cute, he is so damn polite too! He actually shares his toys, I still have problems with that unfortunately!
Little H is so cute. Look how proud Daddy is. Little H might want to consider a new team, especially after this weekend!!!
Little H and I posing for the camera. So cute.
Rach, B-man, Little H and I hanging out at their beautiful crib.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Laboring on Labor Day
As a young kid, Labor Day weekend always marked the return of school. I was never really a fan of labor day as a kid because of this, but now, as a graduate student, labor day means one thing....Laboring. Yes, work on Labor Day Monday (for the past 6 years) has always meant a day at work either teaching classes, taking classes or just plain old research. Sadness.
OK, enough complaining. Since it is the end of summer, I figured I would sum up my top ten movies of the past summer. This summer seemed to be much better than past summers in my mind. There were some great movies and a lot of good movies. Here are my favorites starting with number ten. Again, the rating is out of four stars like Star Search!
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer: 2 1/4 stars
This movie was definitely better than the first one and the Silver Surfer character was done quite well. But when you have lines like "Your interaction with the Silver Surfer has affected your molecules"....I mean come on. There were some great action sequences, but compared to other movies this summer, this by far was the worst I saw in theaters.
I actually enjoyed this movie despite the low rating. Maybe because I saw this movie at the drive-in (right after another movie that you will see later in this list, my #1) at 12:30am. Bruce Willis was good, but I didn't like the censorship of F- bombs that I have come to love with Die Hard movies of the past. The action was good, but it just wasn't the Die Hard I so wanted to watch.
Again, this was a good movie and I really enjoyed Clooney, Pitt and Damon. But when I left the theater, I felt like I had seen this movie before.....twice. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this one much more than the second movie, but not quite as much as the first.
I loved the first two of this trilogy. Matt Damon is great in all three, but again, I felt as if I saw this movie before. Nothing too new in this movie. The action was fantastic and the story was well done, but if I tried to describe this movie, I believe people would say "Oh, you're talking about the Bourne Conspiracy."
I am probably one of the biggest fans of the Simpsons. But to charge $9 to see just a long episode was ridiculous. Good thing I had a free movie pass! Don't get me wrong, it had many moments where I was cracking up (my favorite was when Homer shot the double bird to Springfield). It was OK, but no more than a 2hr long Simpsons episode.
I know I'll never hear the end of it, but this movie only picked up for me at the end when Harry and Dumbledore's Army fought the Death Eaters. Oh, and Ginny is so damn cute. After reading the books, I definitely can't wait for the final two to come out, but this movie (like all summer blockbusters) failed to live up to the hype. Nonetheless, a good movie.
Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End: 2 3/4 stars
There are a lot of movies that I rated 2 3/4 stars this summer. This movie was good, the last hour was nothing but action and adventure. However, the damn movie was so long. I loved the second Pirates movie and was expecting a lot more of the third one. I felt they focused too much on Keira Knightly (I know I'm crazy, but let me finish) becoming a pirate. A good movie to see, but not as good as the first two.
Almost no one will agree with me on this one. I really enjoyed Spiderman 3. Of course it could have been better, but I really enjoyed the transformation of nice, geeky Peter Parker to the evil, self centered bastard he became once the symbiont attached to him. Good action, definitely corny at times (you know the bar scene) and I no longer can stand Mary Jane Watson screaming. Save your damn self!!! Still a favorite movie of mine.
As I stated in a previous blog, this movie was just outright funny. For nearly 2hrs, I found myself laughing at some of the dialogue between the three high school kids. Oh, and I love Mclovin!
OK, enough complaining. Since it is the end of summer, I figured I would sum up my top ten movies of the past summer. This summer seemed to be much better than past summers in my mind. There were some great movies and a lot of good movies. Here are my favorites starting with number ten. Again, the rating is out of four stars like Star Search!
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer: 2 1/4 starsThis movie was definitely better than the first one and the Silver Surfer character was done quite well. But when you have lines like "Your interaction with the Silver Surfer has affected your molecules"....I mean come on. There were some great action sequences, but compared to other movies this summer, this by far was the worst I saw in theaters.
I actually enjoyed this movie despite the low rating. Maybe because I saw this movie at the drive-in (right after another movie that you will see later in this list, my #1) at 12:30am. Bruce Willis was good, but I didn't like the censorship of F- bombs that I have come to love with Die Hard movies of the past. The action was good, but it just wasn't the Die Hard I so wanted to watch.
Again, this was a good movie and I really enjoyed Clooney, Pitt and Damon. But when I left the theater, I felt like I had seen this movie before.....twice. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this one much more than the second movie, but not quite as much as the first.
I loved the first two of this trilogy. Matt Damon is great in all three, but again, I felt as if I saw this movie before. Nothing too new in this movie. The action was fantastic and the story was well done, but if I tried to describe this movie, I believe people would say "Oh, you're talking about the Bourne Conspiracy."
I am probably one of the biggest fans of the Simpsons. But to charge $9 to see just a long episode was ridiculous. Good thing I had a free movie pass! Don't get me wrong, it had many moments where I was cracking up (my favorite was when Homer shot the double bird to Springfield). It was OK, but no more than a 2hr long Simpsons episode.
I know I'll never hear the end of it, but this movie only picked up for me at the end when Harry and Dumbledore's Army fought the Death Eaters. Oh, and Ginny is so damn cute. After reading the books, I definitely can't wait for the final two to come out, but this movie (like all summer blockbusters) failed to live up to the hype. Nonetheless, a good movie.
Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End: 2 3/4 starsThere are a lot of movies that I rated 2 3/4 stars this summer. This movie was good, the last hour was nothing but action and adventure. However, the damn movie was so long. I loved the second Pirates movie and was expecting a lot more of the third one. I felt they focused too much on Keira Knightly (I know I'm crazy, but let me finish) becoming a pirate. A good movie to see, but not as good as the first two.
Almost no one will agree with me on this one. I really enjoyed Spiderman 3. Of course it could have been better, but I really enjoyed the transformation of nice, geeky Peter Parker to the evil, self centered bastard he became once the symbiont attached to him. Good action, definitely corny at times (you know the bar scene) and I no longer can stand Mary Jane Watson screaming. Save your damn self!!! Still a favorite movie of mine.
As I stated in a previous blog, this movie was just outright funny. For nearly 2hrs, I found myself laughing at some of the dialogue between the three high school kids. Oh, and I love Mclovin!
Transformers: 3 1/2 stars
By far my favorite movie of the summer. I really went in with low expectations. I though they would screw this movie up completely. However, the story was good, the actors were good, and the action was freaking amazing. And to hear the old Optimus Prime speak once more, I nearly wet myself (I know I am a geek). A fantastic action packed movie that I loved from start to finish. Oh, and the girl was really hot in that movie!!!
By far my favorite movie of the summer. I really went in with low expectations. I though they would screw this movie up completely. However, the story was good, the actors were good, and the action was freaking amazing. And to hear the old Optimus Prime speak once more, I nearly wet myself (I know I am a geek). A fantastic action packed movie that I loved from start to finish. Oh, and the girl was really hot in that movie!!!
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