@strixluna
MS candidate in Applied Life Sciences, overall nerd about many things. You'll hear a lot about my school program, my knitting, my dog. Public account means some stuff gets left out but that's life in the digital era.
"Witches are not by nature gregarious, at least with other witches, and they certainly don't have leaders. Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn't have." - Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
I just got the email telling me that my application for the Lee Summer Research Fellowship has been accepted. I'm really looking forward to doing the research that my PI and I have mapped out.
keck.usc.edu/alpd-and-cir...
Got my grades for spring semester. My overall GPA in my master's program is 3.761. Which is frankly great.
Been in the lab all week helping the PhD students because they have massive amounts of data to collect. It's been a good week.
Last day of the academic year. I’ve got an exam this morning and a paper due one minute before midnight.
Summer will be spent in the lab full time. All my paperwork is filed for my master’s thesis work next year.
Oh no :( I hope you have aloe on hand.
Off to train on the protocol for Western Blot. There are over 40 real samples my PI wants me to run once I actually know proper technique.
Also, at some point this month I need to file the paperwork for my master’s thesis next year!
Doing practical/technical training on how to run Western Blots this week. The part of the project my PI wants me to take on will involve running like 60 of them. So at the end of all that I should feel very confident in my ability to run and interpret them.
“What a Morpork citizen liked to have on his side in a fight was odds of about twenty to one, but failing that a sockful of half-brick and a dark alley to lurk in was generally considered a better bet than any two magic swords you cared to name." -- from Sourcery by Terry Pratchett
Going to the park this morning to hit (and be hit by) my friends with foam swords.
I took my final exam in one half-semester (module) class on Thursday and just turned in my term paper for the other a few minutes ago. Now I am on spring break!!! I might get to sleep in until 6am this week.
You know how in superhero movies those villains are always named Doctor something… 🤣
Me: “On Friday the lab is taking a field trip to learn how to sacrifice mice and harvest their brains”
My startled partner who did not ask for this information: “That was a random thing to say, even for you.”
🤣❤️🧠🤣❤️🧠
Two things are required for problem solving. First you have to acknowledge the problem exists. Second you have to believe the problem is worth solving and can be solved. Problem solving is inherently a hopeful act.
I’m glad I don’t need to be on campus until noon today. The time change messes me up every year.
This week is the last week of my module 1 (half semester) classes. So I’m going into final exams and final projects.
Normally I go through life pretty well without buying a lot of yarn. But I do still end up with a fair amount. Which is how I have stash to begin with. I’m currently trying to only knit out of my stash for the time being.
So why is it now that I want to go buy ALL the yarn?!
Of all of the things that I don’t understand about humanity (and it’s a lot, trust me) the idea that wearing a mask to prevent the spread of airborne pathogens is radical or strange has got to be one of most mind boggling.
Flu season has a long tail. Mask up, friends.
Got to see neurons growing in cell culture today. We could see their little dendrites reaching out for one another in the dish.
It was SO cool!!! ❤️🧠
I kind of hate that I still worry about grades in graduate school. But the way I see it, I still need to get into a PhD program. At which point I can stop worrying about grades and worry about deliverables like every other person with a job.
Maybe the problem is that I am inclined to worry. 🤔
DS9 is my absolute favorite Trek. Usually I wax on about how much I love the Trill as a people. But these days I am feeling Garak’s story a lot.
I'm not sure how to reconcile this. It's hard to find a lot of optimism right now. Granted, per the deep Trek lore, the only way that humanity got to the peace of the 23rd century was by surviving the horrible mess that was the 21st. So maybe, just maybe, we're still on track. I truly hope so. 3/3
Specifically I'm feeling a lot of kinship with Elim Garak. And with the ordinary Cardassians who were truly the first victims of their militaristic government. The first people the Cardassians conquered and oppressed were.... each other. Or themselves, depending on how you look at it. 2/
I'm a Trekkie. I love the optimism of Star Trek. The idea that not only can humanity reach for the stars but that we can do so recognizing that difference isn't deficit and that our diversity is ultimately the strength of our species. But right now the series that I'm connecting to most is DS9. 1/
DNA Scarf 2: Genetic Boogaloo
Knit with Lion Brand Landscapes, 100% acrylic
US 8 needles
I wear progressive lenses. They took me a few extra days to adjust too, my main issue was mild eyestrain headache which I often get when I have a new glasses prescription. I don't notice the difference in the lenses now. Wear them all the time and the different parts of the lens just do their jobs.
Midterm today (it's a quarter length class) in Advanced Pharmaceutical Discovery. The topic is.... pharmacokinetics!
A year ago if you had asked me what pharmacokinetics was I'd have given you a blank stare and been all "something to do with drugs?" Look at me, an old dog learning new tricks!
"Humans are a dead end host, because raccoons aren't eating humans. So the nematode doesn't have a way to continue their life cycle, it just causes terrible damage."
- my epidemiology professor during her case study lecture on Baylisascaris procyonis
I laughed 🤣
Today was a good day in the lab. Had a great chat with the PhD student I am shadowing about his work and where the project is going after he graduates (he said that part would be my project). And our PI also referenced my PhD work (as in my future work). It really looks like I have found a program!
“There are two ways to live. You can live as if nothing is a miracle. You can live as if everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein
As I get deeper into life as a working scientist I find myself appreciating Einstein even more than I did as simply someone who loved science.
Quote from Marcus Cole, played by Jason Carter, in Babylon 5
"I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, 'wouldn't it be much worse if life *were* fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?' So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe."