RNAI AND HWAELWEG
Another Friday night at my place in the frozen North, more appropriate than ever today as it rains and snows outside. It has been a relief to come to the end of this week, so I can catch my breath a little and get caught up to where all my class material is. Courses certainly seem to get harder at upper levels, and I could swear they need more time now than say, in my second year. And of course this term has been fairly relentless with midterms, having nearly one every week for half the term. I picked up a book at the discount book shop in the mall on campus the other day titled The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester. The book chronicles the history of the English language, and the birth of the most authoritative works on one of the odder languages in history. I bought it after the advice of one of the people on a committee I serve on. I have not been disappointed. Thus far, the book has been quite entertaining and very well written. The word hwaelweg was an Old English word for the sea, meaning whale-way.These and other such trivialties are just a piece of what the book offers. The term RNAi refers to a revolutionary new understanding of of a mechanism in the cell which allows us to selectively block the expression of undesirable traits, like those in genetic diseases. It was the subject of this year's Nobel price in medecine.
HUNTING
It's that time of year again in many parts of the world where dedicated nature lovers will scramble through closets and storage containers to find hunter's orange so they can get back out in the field and woods. They'll embark on a frantic quest to rid themselves of any human odor and endeavor to remain motionless for hours at a time in search of their ever elusive prey. Being a student is not much different. Every year around this point in the semester many simply give up on hygiene, switching to old standby's like sweatpants. We too, will stalk our distant goal, paying thousands of dollars for the chance and experience. That said, I am sure most can guess what is the more enjoyable experience and for those that can't, I'll give you a hint. It's the one that doesn't involve the library. Of course, being in pursuit of that all too lofty achievement, namely a B.Sc., I spent the last several days wracking my brain for some reason why I had decided on advanced cellular biology. I am still struggling to come up with that answer after tonight's midterm. Nevertheless, life must continue on, and thankfully I have two substantial assignments to complete before Friday, as well as the usual retinue of things best put off or ignored (in a perfect world, anyway). Looking at my closet at the moment I can see that my laundry has reached critical mass and that something is possibly growing at the bottom. I'll have to look into it on Saturday -- once I get my gun and my hunter's orange.
WITNESS TO HOPE
Christian Priest Killed in IndonesiaAn unidentified gunman killed a Christian priest Monday in central Indonesia, where religious tensions have been mounting since the executions last month of three Roman Catholic militants. I suppose that this type of thing occurs frequently over in that part of the world, but it's a trend I like to see disappear. As the church is undergoing rather massive structural changes and serious decreases in clergy, this is the kind of thing only worsens matters. As the church continues to be hammered at by post modernism on the one hand, and outright hostilities on the other, it is more important than ever to critically assess both direction and core principles of the Faith. I am becoming increasingly concerned about the disharmony in the Church as it exists today. I see steps towards ecumenism, but these must be intensified and encouraged far more strongly in the future, lest the Church disappear into irrelevancy.
MOURNING AND DELIRIUM
Small Town Granum Originally uploaded by lithiumfrost. This morning around 7 AM or so I learned that my paternal grandfather had passed away a few hours earlier. He immigrated here in the 50's after serving with the Dutch Army in Indonesia. After the death of one of my uncles and my grandmother, he eventually retired and did some travelling with one of my Aunts. However, the last few years have been rough and he has not left the Granum/Claresholm area where he lived the last 50 years due to emphysema and subsequent complications. I feel fortunate to have visited him on as semi frequent basis for the last few years, and I am certain I will cherish those memories in the years to come. He had hoped for his reunion with the Lord, as he has been in a lot of pain for quite some time. Still, it's never easy letting go. I must admit that though I have much to accomplish in the coming weeks, and even to do this week as I prepare for the funeral, I feel at odds. And I feel like my head is in a fog. The young do not often experience pain or immobility, so I am finding it to be disconcerting searching for a pill desperately every 6 hours before my jaw begins to ache unbearably. It begins to profoundly affect you, though finally biological ncessity got to me on the 4th day as I became starved for food. But eating is no longer a pleasant experience. I am planning a trip to the dentist to find out exactly what is wrong. I am worried that I may have a post operative infection.
INSANITY
U.N. weighs sanctions against N. Korea (AP) AP - The world lined up against North Korea on Monday for staging a nuclear test denounced even by key allies. President Bush called it "a threat to international peace and security," and the U.N. Security Council weighed severe sanctions to punish the impoverished communist nation.
MONSTER IN THE CLOSET
As I am nearing the end of my studies, I realized that shortly I will be expected to somehow put my degree to work and get some kind of gainful employment. At first glance, this would seem to be a daunting task. Unfortunately, there isn't an abundance of jobs in Canada that rely on sciences or the kind of theoretical and principial knowledge that I have acquired. The majority are in applied sciences, like clinical practice or engineering (This based off of my recent explorations on Monster, the employment site). So for the jobs that I am best suited for, there a alimited number and they are most likely highly competitive, and so somehow, I will have to strengthen my resume so I can get a leg up. I think it is past time that I started finding industry contacts. I realized today in my class on the principles of gene manipulation that I have a midterm coming up on Friday. This is in addition to the midterm that I had planned on in Environmental chemistry. I hardly feel ready for either. I have spent quite a bit of time on the chemistry class, at least, but looking through the solutions to the problem sets makes me feel like an idiot. The prof's problems are quite complex, and require extensive and thorough knowledge of principles from previous chemistry courses: ones I forgot. Hopefully I can rectify that situation somewhat in the next 72 hours.
FROZEN PIZZA
There's nothing that makes a university student happier than a good pizza, because let's face it, for minimum effort, you have something that is easy to eat while doing anything else, cheap, and at least passably nutritious. It's become part of a staple diet, and over the years, I wouldn't even want to hazard a guess as to how many pizzas I have eaten. Still, even after the number I have consumed, I am ready and eager to have another slice; it's just that good. And I could go for stuffed crust, thin crust, Chicago deep dish, or traditional. God bless Italians. As I paid my tuition yesterday, promptly spending almost the entirety of my summer earnings, it got me thinking whether or not this education is worth it. All of my blood, sweat, and tears going to pay some doofus to teach me thermodynamics all over again but with greater detail... As I sit here with an eraser, mechanical pencil, and my trusty TI-89, I must admit that I am constantly driven to doubt. There is something immensly satisfying about finishing a difficult problem, but maybe that's because it so rarely happens. Some of the last chem 303 problems have taken me an hour each. The prof deliberately writes the questions so I'll have to refer back to long forgotten prequisite matierlal. How evil. I am looking forward to semi nice weather around here at least for the time being. In addition to the dreaded chemistry homework I have tomorrow, a bike ride or something sounds good. After all, this is Canada, there could be snow next week.
CROCK POT AND KINETICS
It was one of those weeks where nothing quite feels connected as it should. We've all had those weeks. Every event just feels shlighly askew. I lost my folder of notes and found it again, only to lose it a day later. It's just been... like that. Classes have fully started now with labs and homework, so I am getting busier. My appointment book is starting to fill out with review sessions, meetings, and the occasional party. Which means that I actually need good food, so I have done a bit of good cooking lately, prompted by some good sales on chicken, for instance. I am hoping to be able to cook enough in one day that I can have leftovers for a day o so after that, and crock pot dishes are good for that, as well as soups. To further that end, I went all the way to Superstore to get a stock pot that was on sale, only to find out that they'd never stocked it. I was not so impressed. I am hoping to get a bit of my chem homework done earlier in the week. I found out this Friday that it's best to start it five days or so before the due date. Yikes
ENDZONE
As I was watching the U of M football game against Notre Dame, I realized that I only have one year left in my undergraduate studies. It seems somewhat hard to believe that so much time has passed up here. I origiinally came up here almost on a whim, and now I am in my fourth year, trying to figure out where all the time has gone. What's more, I now have to negotiate my way to what I am doing next, a somewhat difficult maneuver given that I am not sure of overall direction yet. In any case, I will do everything in my power to go out with a blaze. Spent the day going through and rearranging furniture, doing dishes, and looking over chemical kinetics and the problem set for environmental chemistry. I think I'll be actively cursing this class before things are done, but I guess you learn through pain. The prof made these questions quite hard, and since it is such a large percentage of the final mark, the problems have to be solved well. At least it finally feels like its fall out there. It was no higher than 4 C and it was raining all day long. Gotta love it.
COFFEE WITH CREAM
It really is the best way to start the morning out. Bleary eyed I normally stumble to the kitchen and begin the time tested morning ritual which has served me so well in the past. Somehow in there, I think I need to factor in a morning jog. Over the years, I have picked up that habit and dropped it more times than I can count. But it was beneficial for me in the past, so I think I should start it up again so that I can stay awake in class and get a least some decent physical activity in a day. At least, that'sthe plan as it stands so far. My apartment has changed a bit i the last couple of weeks. All of my old roommates have finally moved out, so I have a set of three new ones, although the third has yet to even move in, despite the fact that classes have started. The last guy took his furniture with him too, so at present time, we don't have a dining room table, which is a little weird. I think we also need to pick up a few shelves and a cheap vacuum cleaner. Once things are a little more stable and set up, I'll try to post some photos of the new look. Classes look to be rather difficult this year, as I have all upper level science courses. Environmental chemistry may give me the most grief, but it's too early to say. My Genetics 390 (Genetic Techniques) may be pretty difficult as well. I'll have to spend quite a bit of time this year slogging through the material before I achive any sense of mastery. Not really looking forward to that, but at least a lot of my classes are quite interesting this year, so that should make things a bit easier. In the next few days, as I have done in the past, I will try to post a calendar of my schedule, so it's easier to get a hold of me.