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Tuesday, 7 June 2016 19:21Apparently I'd managed to forget that lab reports were part of the reason I'd dropped out to begin with.
My Level Best
Sunday, 8 May 2016 16:05In two hours I have class. Tomorrow night I also have class, and it's a prep session for the hand-on lab next week. which means I need to have my pre-lab report (and one other piece of homework) ready and printed to put in the instructor's hand. And I need to be early. It will be a fun day. And next week will be a fun week.
Meanwhile: on the advice of my wiritng workshop's coach, I started listening to the "Writing Excuses" podcast on my commute. Today I was listening to an episode about polytheism in fantasy from last year (transcript) and it struck something. Some of the issues around religion and fantasy have been niggling on me for a while, now. The cast links to a tool called the belief system generator. I think I will use today's writing time (or a portion of it, anyway) to test it out.
Right now.
Meanwhile: on the advice of my wiritng workshop's coach, I started listening to the "Writing Excuses" podcast on my commute. Today I was listening to an episode about polytheism in fantasy from last year (transcript) and it struck something. Some of the issues around religion and fantasy have been niggling on me for a while, now. The cast links to a tool called the belief system generator. I think I will use today's writing time (or a portion of it, anyway) to test it out.
Right now.
All I got out of it is
Wednesday, 25 April 2012 21:46This post about the woobification of villains, it's not new but I hadn't had time to read it till today, and it helped me crystallize a bunch of thoughts about lots of male characters, and also a story in my head that I will never write. It also gave me the bizarre idea of Jael and Sisera in a vampire A/U.
I'm reading The Golden Compass, in follow-up to a lecture about souls and another lecture about gods and parents, both from the convention on Passover. Also in follow-up to a world-building idea I shared with my brother that I am tentatively referring to as "the reverse crossroads". Lyra is kind of a scrappy lovable urchin type, and it gives me all sorts of thoughts about men writing girls (but not women), girls who only play with boys, and post-industrial revolution ideas about femininity and class. Not surprisingly a lot of this is stuff I've been percolating for some time.
My lab report is making me sad but I figure I did okay for today and it's fair to take the evening off.
I'm reading The Golden Compass, in follow-up to a lecture about souls and another lecture about gods and parents, both from the convention on Passover. Also in follow-up to a world-building idea I shared with my brother that I am tentatively referring to as "the reverse crossroads". Lyra is kind of a scrappy lovable urchin type, and it gives me all sorts of thoughts about men writing girls (but not women), girls who only play with boys, and post-industrial revolution ideas about femininity and class. Not surprisingly a lot of this is stuff I've been percolating for some time.
My lab report is making me sad but I figure I did okay for today and it's fair to take the evening off.
Race and Fandom Redux
Tuesday, 27 March 2012 11:25So I hear some Hunger Games fans have gone all Blaise Zabini on the fandom's ass after watching the film.
How fucking depressing.
Anyway I totally want to watch the movie because it sounds fluffy and fun. I do have that damn neuro lab tomorrow, though, so I don't know if I'll have the energy to go out on Thursday night. Bluh. Tomorrow will be bad, I have ten straight hours of class with only one free period. Also I cooked food for the whole week but it's already almost run out, I have to do some cooking tonight or something. Which means I have to stop for groceries on the way back from the library.
And I will apparently need to buy the Cognitive Neuroscience book, because checking it out from the library every time I need it simply won't work.
How fucking depressing.
Anyway I totally want to watch the movie because it sounds fluffy and fun. I do have that damn neuro lab tomorrow, though, so I don't know if I'll have the energy to go out on Thursday night. Bluh. Tomorrow will be bad, I have ten straight hours of class with only one free period. Also I cooked food for the whole week but it's already almost run out, I have to do some cooking tonight or something. Which means I have to stop for groceries on the way back from the library.
And I will apparently need to buy the Cognitive Neuroscience book, because checking it out from the library every time I need it simply won't work.
i have murdered this lab to death
Saturday, 11 February 2012 22:57I just made the last click on the last online quiz of my detestable organism lab. The shark incident was so fucking traumatic I don't think I even posted about it. TBH I think I haven't posted anything since the semester ended? But this is cause for celebration.
Fuck annelids and mollusks and all the rest. IDGAF anymore what grade I get, I am so far past caring, SO FAR. Basically shit like this, the degree to which I get sick of classes by the end of the semester, this is why I have to leave academia. My average sucks because of this, and it's sucking out my soul and making everything awful forever. So fuck uni and fuck everything else, just fuck it.
Anywho I still have four exams in the next three weeks and oops, two of them are one day after the next, which means I'll have to retake at least one, 90% certain. Then I only have three more semesters D: D: D: before I can break up with academia and never give it back its Grateful Dead t-shirt.
So that's the plan.
Fuck annelids and mollusks and all the rest. IDGAF anymore what grade I get, I am so far past caring, SO FAR. Basically shit like this, the degree to which I get sick of classes by the end of the semester, this is why I have to leave academia. My average sucks because of this, and it's sucking out my soul and making everything awful forever. So fuck uni and fuck everything else, just fuck it.
Anywho I still have four exams in the next three weeks and oops, two of them are one day after the next, which means I'll have to retake at least one, 90% certain. Then I only have three more semesters D: D: D: before I can break up with academia and never give it back its Grateful Dead t-shirt.
So that's the plan.
This shark that I'm supposed to be dissecting tomorrow it really quite revolting.
Why oh why will no one on the internet entertain me? I'm supposed to be reading pages of neurobiology for my January lab, and I desperately need to procrastinate. Sure I have about fifteen pages and I only read about two, but I can do all that tomorrow, right?
In other news I have three episodes of Community left and I am hoarding them because once they're gone I'm going to have to engage with reality or something. Or look for fanfic? Yeah, definitely the fic thing.
In other news I have three episodes of Community left and I am hoarding them because once they're gone I'm going to have to engage with reality or something. Or look for fanfic? Yeah, definitely the fic thing.
Just sitting in the library, not wanting to go to lab and getting distracted by cracky crossovers and slime-breeding shenanigans. Who even knows if ponies, unicorns and pegasi are supposed to be different species? Someone out there is probably fiercely debating the topic right now.
Maybe I should bathe in a relaxing cup of tea.
Maybe I should bathe in a relaxing cup of tea.
If I Was a Robot
Sunday, 4 December 2011 09:57If I was a killer robot and you needed a logic bomb (warning: TV Tropes link) to incapacitate my processor, there's one question that would probably work best: What's the opposite of "antagonist"?
I'm sure many fanfic-writing neurobiologists sympathize with my plight.
This post brought to you by the fact that I should be studying amoeboid movement patterns right now.
I'm sure many fanfic-writing neurobiologists sympathize with my plight.
This post brought to you by the fact that I should be studying amoeboid movement patterns right now.
Today I had lab. I missed microbiology because it was at 8 AM and my alarm clock met with a fatal accident in the middle of the night, so I showed up straight for lab. Now, it's a first semester, first year lab, and I'm in my third year. I presume it was the very first lab for almost everyone else, but naturally I was a bit frustrated. We were looking at tissue samples under a microscope, and I was doing okay. Really, it seems to me that there's no good reason why I shouldn't get a perfect 100% score in this lab for once.
Except it seems they have difficulty announcing things in advance. Lab reports are usually handed in some time after the actual lab, but I had to hand my sketches in on the spot. This meant I couldn't check a book to make sure of the terminology. Sure, I'd read the background material, but it was nine pages, and I didn't know in advance what would be going on in the lab. Of course I didn't memorize the whole thing. I also didn't label my drawings as I was sketching them, because I wasn't totally sure what was what, and I wanted to consult a textbook or perhaps Google Images.
"Luckily" the drawings only account for 10% of the final lab grade, and of course this is only one lab out of nine, and so it turns out they kept us hunched over a microscope scribbling connective tissue for three hours, plus a half an hour after the lab was supposed to end, for this tiny fraction of a grade. I left pretty frustrated, actually. After that I got a coffee and headed home. Tonight I'm skipping pilates and going to a social gathering instead.
I still haven't found a research lab and it's making me constantly nervous.
Except it seems they have difficulty announcing things in advance. Lab reports are usually handed in some time after the actual lab, but I had to hand my sketches in on the spot. This meant I couldn't check a book to make sure of the terminology. Sure, I'd read the background material, but it was nine pages, and I didn't know in advance what would be going on in the lab. Of course I didn't memorize the whole thing. I also didn't label my drawings as I was sketching them, because I wasn't totally sure what was what, and I wanted to consult a textbook or perhaps Google Images.
"Luckily" the drawings only account for 10% of the final lab grade, and of course this is only one lab out of nine, and so it turns out they kept us hunched over a microscope scribbling connective tissue for three hours, plus a half an hour after the lab was supposed to end, for this tiny fraction of a grade. I left pretty frustrated, actually. After that I got a coffee and headed home. Tonight I'm skipping pilates and going to a social gathering instead.
I still haven't found a research lab and it's making me constantly nervous.
I think my eBay frenzy is over, I bid on a calendar for 2012 and managed to fetch five out of six ponies. Fluttershy is a lost cause I'm afraid, at least until there's another wave or something. Anyway, whether she is or not, I'd better stop.
Still no news from the lab I want to work at, I'm supposed to hear from them by the end of the week.
My laundry dryer needs a tube thingy to go out the window so that the bathroom doesn't fill up with lint. Also, I bought bedside lamps in Passover (April-ish) and haven't put them up yet.
In more interesting news, I am deathly dull? I think reading my DW could actually, literally kill someone with boredom.
Suddenly I am overcome with a weird listlessness. It might be because I planned on taking a walk out of doors today, and forgot to do it. Consequently I'm still wearing the sweatpants I put on after my "morning" shower at 1 PM. Tomorrow I have classes and Friday I am making a family dinner, so it should go away. Oh! Next week is my first organism lab. It's a dissection, which doesn't thrill me.
Some days I am filled with a vague nameless dread.
Still no news from the lab I want to work at, I'm supposed to hear from them by the end of the week.
My laundry dryer needs a tube thingy to go out the window so that the bathroom doesn't fill up with lint. Also, I bought bedside lamps in Passover (April-ish) and haven't put them up yet.
In more interesting news, I am deathly dull? I think reading my DW could actually, literally kill someone with boredom.
Suddenly I am overcome with a weird listlessness. It might be because I planned on taking a walk out of doors today, and forgot to do it. Consequently I'm still wearing the sweatpants I put on after my "morning" shower at 1 PM. Tomorrow I have classes and Friday I am making a family dinner, so it should go away. Oh! Next week is my first organism lab. It's a dissection, which doesn't thrill me.
Some days I am filled with a vague nameless dread.
I ended up chickening out of Pride out of fear of getting lost in TA if I go alone. On the hottest day of summer so far. Um.
With respects to writing, I (just now) decided I am putting my foot down and this story is ending now even if it has turned out totally different from what I expected.Maybe I'll remix it someday No that's the worst idea I've ever had.
Anyway it's time for me to remember I'm actually a biology student and not just a professional internet slacker slash scribbler of dubious fanfic. I still have one lab report to hand in, and then I have to get serious about exams.
Tomorrow I'll read the whole thing fresh and edit all the niggling little bits. That means it should be ready for Tuesday's deadline, so that Wednesday morning I can get up bright and early and hit the books. So to speak.
With respects to writing, I (just now) decided I am putting my foot down and this story is ending now even if it has turned out totally different from what I expected.
Anyway it's time for me to remember I'm actually a biology student and not just a professional internet slacker slash scribbler of dubious fanfic. I still have one lab report to hand in, and then I have to get serious about exams.
Tomorrow I'll read the whole thing fresh and edit all the niggling little bits. That means it should be ready for Tuesday's deadline, so that Wednesday morning I can get up bright and early and hit the books. So to speak.
Labs & Fandom (Separately (Mostly))
Tuesday, 24 May 2011 15:10I had my last genetics lab of the semester today. Yesterday and the day before I finished ym two end-of-semester projects, so that all that's left is to present them. I can really feel the semester wrapping up. Time for exams and chores, huh? Damn I have a lot of chores.
In unrelated news, I'm watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I appear to have gone into a phase where I accumulate new fandoms at an alarming speed.It's like I have no checkpoint on the transition between the G2 and M phases of fandom division. Um. In this analogy, the G2 phase would check, not if the DNA in complete and intact, but if it's advisable to acquire a new fandom at this point. Wait, maybe that would be the G1/S checkpoint?
Why am I even pursuing this line of thought?
In unrelated news, I'm watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I appear to have gone into a phase where I accumulate new fandoms at an alarming speed.
Why am I even pursuing this line of thought?
I Heart Cons (and time)
Friday, 22 April 2011 12:24I had a great con! Some of the lectures were weak, some of the time I was cranky, and even though my brother and I vowed not to buy books, we ended up buying four (two each). But it was overall awesome. I had beer, which I rarely do. I also bought a fleece hat with bunny ears. :D
The theme of the con was time and time traveling, and I think I got a great idea for the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
junetide assignment. I plan on doing a lot of writing (and a lot of chores) next week. I would like to at least start a rough draft.
I thought about a lot of things this week. One of them is the possibility of dropping out of chem lab. This is something real which is really on the table now.
An hour ago it was pouring fucking rain and now it's more or less sunny. I better get in gear and hop to the grocery shop to get some eggs and things, before the weather changes its mind. For those not in the know (by choice or otherwise), it is impossible to make it through a kosher Passover without at least 893165746592 eggs. Rather, it's not quite impossible but it is extremely aggravating.
ETA: Is it possible that I accidentally enabled the "disable auto-formatting" ticky to be on by default? I keep getting paragraph-less posts that I then need to edit.
The theme of the con was time and time traveling, and I think I got a great idea for the
junetide assignment. I plan on doing a lot of writing (and a lot of chores) next week. I would like to at least start a rough draft. I thought about a lot of things this week. One of them is the possibility of dropping out of chem lab. This is something real which is really on the table now.
An hour ago it was pouring fucking rain and now it's more or less sunny. I better get in gear and hop to the grocery shop to get some eggs and things, before the weather changes its mind. For those not in the know (by choice or otherwise), it is impossible to make it through a kosher Passover without at least 893165746592 eggs. Rather, it's not quite impossible but it is extremely aggravating.
ETA: Is it possible that I accidentally enabled the "disable auto-formatting" ticky to be on by default? I keep getting paragraph-less posts that I then need to edit.
blah blah lab whine hate everything.
fuck, when did april happen?
fuck, when did april happen?
boom de yada
Tuesday, 1 March 2011 14:55i love mutated yeast
i love pickled cuttlefish
i love sandwiches
and finished lab reports
i love the whole world
it's such a brilliant place
boom de yada boom de yada
...i love how irradiating yeast always puts me in such a good mood.
i love pickled cuttlefish
i love sandwiches
and finished lab reports
i love the whole world
it's such a brilliant place
boom de yada boom de yada
...i love how irradiating yeast always puts me in such a good mood.
Labs Labs Labs TV
Tuesday, 22 February 2011 18:27The good news: I got into the genetics lab I was coveting! Hurray for not setting back my degree by a whole year. Other good news: This week will be slightly less nightmarish than I had dreaded.
The bad news: I am in permanent time debt to second date exams, and taken along with all the other work I have to do, I won't have time to breathe until mid-April. So much for a light semester. Worse news: Chemistry lab reports will apparently devour my soul, and I may as well decide in advance to dedicate every Monday to them from now until the end of the semester.
The TV news: I'm catching up on Fringe and I get the feeling that someone on that show's writing team agrees with my theorem that everything can be solved with a threesome.
The bad news: I am in permanent time debt to second date exams, and taken along with all the other work I have to do, I won't have time to breathe until mid-April. So much for a light semester. Worse news: Chemistry lab reports will apparently devour my soul, and I may as well decide in advance to dedicate every Monday to them from now until the end of the semester.
The TV news: I'm catching up on Fringe and I get the feeling that someone on that show's writing team agrees with my theorem that everything can be solved with a threesome.
My Chair Is Broken
Sunday, 20 February 2011 11:24My fancy executive chair that I got for my 25th birthday is broken. The pneumatic whatsit that adjusts the height of the seat gave out when I was studying for biochemistry. I called the store and asked who the manufacturer was, but it turns out it's an import from the US, so there's no shop or anyone to fix it, and it's not under warranty anymore either. Time to get a new chair? Is a year and a half a reasonable amount of time to make use of a chair like this?
There's a book fair this week. I might be able to con myself into actually getting out of the apartment for something other than chores and school. Maybe I'll con my brother into joining me. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon, so that might be the perfect time.
Chem lab today. The suspense is killing me. Well, the suspense is making me extremely nervous. I have no idea who my lab partner is gonna be, since I know almost no one taking this lab this semester. Probably not even PB people, since the PB lab is on Thursdays. Chemistry labs are fairly notorious. If I end up having this and the genetics lab in the same week, I'll probably cry. Anyway, I don't even know for certain if I'll get into the genetics lab.
This week is gonna be awful. At least by Friday I'll (hopefully) know what's what.
There's a book fair this week. I might be able to con myself into actually getting out of the apartment for something other than chores and school. Maybe I'll con my brother into joining me. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon, so that might be the perfect time.
Chem lab today. The suspense is killing me. Well, the suspense is making me extremely nervous. I have no idea who my lab partner is gonna be, since I know almost no one taking this lab this semester. Probably not even PB people, since the PB lab is on Thursdays. Chemistry labs are fairly notorious. If I end up having this and the genetics lab in the same week, I'll probably cry. Anyway, I don't even know for certain if I'll get into the genetics lab.
This week is gonna be awful. At least by Friday I'll (hopefully) know what's what.
Oh, Sweet Campus
Wednesday, 16 February 2011 20:19...I'll never leave you.
Now I feel like I'm back in classes.
I had blood taken this morning and fuck my arm is sore. Also I was super cranky and a little disoriented because of the fasting. I had two classes today and I got a much better idea of what I'm in for this semester. Experimental psychology has a poster project, which is pretty WTF. Also, I don't have a lab partner for chemistry, and also apparently fat people don't do lab? Finding a lab coat that fits over my hips has been a trial.
The latest flash update of Homestuck was sort of disappointingly dull, I don't think we learned anything new. I keep wanting to do a "Why you should read Homestuck" post and then... not knowing if I really want to recommend it or not. It's definitely unlike everything I've ever read, and it definitely has its moments, but... IDK.
I got new bras and 1) good bras cost even more than the shitty kind I've been wearing, 2) my breasts are apparently pretty big? I wear baggy comfortable shirts, so no one really noticed, but my breast feel and look, to me, much larger than I'd gotten used to thinking of them. Also I've spent years adjusting my straps to be way too long, and hooking them wrong and, IDK, I guess wearing bras is super complicated? When I was thirteen, mastering hooking them behind my back seemed like a huge accomplishment. It's sort of like, "Yeah, congrats, you mastered LAMARCKISM. Now scrap everything and start over! :D:D:D"
I am in a weird mood.
Now I feel like I'm back in classes.
I had blood taken this morning and fuck my arm is sore. Also I was super cranky and a little disoriented because of the fasting. I had two classes today and I got a much better idea of what I'm in for this semester. Experimental psychology has a poster project, which is pretty WTF. Also, I don't have a lab partner for chemistry, and also apparently fat people don't do lab? Finding a lab coat that fits over my hips has been a trial.
The latest flash update of Homestuck was sort of disappointingly dull, I don't think we learned anything new. I keep wanting to do a "Why you should read Homestuck" post and then... not knowing if I really want to recommend it or not. It's definitely unlike everything I've ever read, and it definitely has its moments, but... IDK.
I got new bras and 1) good bras cost even more than the shitty kind I've been wearing, 2) my breasts are apparently pretty big? I wear baggy comfortable shirts, so no one really noticed, but my breast feel and look, to me, much larger than I'd gotten used to thinking of them. Also I've spent years adjusting my straps to be way too long, and hooking them wrong and, IDK, I guess wearing bras is super complicated? When I was thirteen, mastering hooking them behind my back seemed like a huge accomplishment. It's sort of like, "Yeah, congrats, you mastered LAMARCKISM. Now scrap everything and start over! :D:D:D"
I am in a weird mood.