I'm Not Going To Cite That DNA is Comprised of A, T, G & C

Since it's been a week, I've decided to give a few updates before I gloss over the first three days and then discuss my last four. First and foremost, a few weeks ago I found out I was awarded a $3,000 fellowship to do research this summer! Additionally, I'll get free housing! I'm really, really excited. I'll be working on a project I started last fall semester with one of my favorite professors ever. The only bummer is I'll only be home for about a week before I have to run off to Worcester to start work. It's going to be really tough acclimating to the time change and trying to spend time with my family, see my friends, and pack and get ready for the summer/school year. I'll be living in summer housing in the newest residence hall (where I'll most likely have a double, sad face) for a majority of the summer, but it looks like I'll get to move into my fall rooming assignment in early August (I have a single in Hughes, the hall I lived in last fall). Overall, I'm really excited, as this is what I wanted to do the most this summer.

We were planning on going to a footy match on Friday the 14th. That's not going to happen. Apparently because the Fremantle Dockers are actually have a winning season finally, everyone wants to go see them play (their home opener was at about three-fourths capacity). Jesse and I had hoped to get tickets a few days after they were on sale, buuuut they sold out. Bummer!

I've decided to skip my Plant Diversity lectures from now on, and any labs that I don't desperately need to go to. It's come to the point where I really can't go to them because they make me so mad. My current lecturer, who is doing most of the remaining lectures, reads her slides. I am not sitting through two hours of that. I'll study the past exams and the lecture slides instead on my own, thank you very much. Additionally, the labs are all posted online (but I have to pass next week's lab in, so I'll go to that), so I can get the information needed for the lab exam (this week's lab is just filling out sheets; no tissue diagrams or anything). This is going to make my life a lot easier the next three weeks.

On Friday I had my lectures as usual and I went to my lab. I kinda... did the lab? I spent my only hour there putzing around, looking at the different plant structures and talking to the two professors (who are both really nice and helpful) about the lab and such. It wasn't a bad time. Jesse and I made dinner later that night and completely ROCKED dinner again. We had a few drinks and listened to old high school music and had a good time. Connor and Greg came up during said activities and we all hung out until it was time to go out.

I went bar hopping for the first time with them. It was actually really fun! About halfway through, we spend half an hour at an arcade which reminded me of good times from when I was younger (not that I spent heaps of time at the arcade as a kid). Here are a few highlights of bar hopping:

> Getting carded at a bar (after I was carded at the door) while next to Connor (who is two years younger than me) as he ordered us a round of drinks.

> Having some drunk, early 20s girl comment voraciously on my hair and pet my head. She really liked my hair. I told her it was imported.

> Losing my glasses several times on the dance floor and having Jesse repeatedly save them. Haha!

We then came back and we made more food because Jesse and I were starving. Then I went to bed.

Friday: 8

I woke up early on Saturday thinking I was drunk. ...I didn't have that much to drink!! After I slept some more and was more awake when I got out of bed, I soon realized I was completely sober but was having balance problems with my ears. As a result I was really dizzy and felt slightly sick. I spent most of the day near my bed and desk, until Jesse got home from an amusement park and happened to have nasal decongestants which cleared up my ears in no time! I was a very happy camper.

I didn't really feel like doing much that night... so I didn't. It was kind of a bummer evening, because I had wanted to me a few people in the city. I'm hoping for next weekend!

Saturday: 6

I didn't do anything fun on Sunday. :(

Sunday: 6

Monday. Wow, yeah... Monday. I forgot I was probably going to get my Epigenetics paper back in my Pollutants class. And I did get it back. I got a 55 on it. A 55/100 (about a "C" or lower equivalent). ...I was so mad. I then looked over the comments and such, and there were very few comments on it besides "CITE" every other sentence throughout my paper.

My TA wanted me to cite the following sentence:

DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid, easily recognized by the four base pairs adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine (A, T, G, and C respectively), is the universal basic structure of all known living organisms.

No, I am NOT going to cite that. Why? Because 1) that's common knowledge. Do you want me to cite Watson and Crick's original paper on the subject? 2) I WROTE THAT. Yes, I wrote that off the top of my head because I knew it.

This sort of thing went on for four pages.

CITE. CITE. CITE.

NO. NO. NO.

Do you KNOW how to write a paper? A scientific paper? She also complained about this:

As such, HCB raises the risk of a child developing attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Tenenbaum 2008). Ribas-Fitó et al (2006) found HCB to[...]

She told me to use one method of citation.

NO.

You're allowed, no, you're SUPPOSED to cite the way I did the second time there. Yeah, so these people did this study and this is what they found SO I'M GOING TO CITE IT LIKE THAT.

*sigh*

My TA also said my paper didn't connect well enough and didn't have a clear thesis blah blah blah. Too bad the way I wrote it (with headings) it connected just fine (but would have been weird without them admittedly) and it had a fine thesis. I don't get what she wanted. Absolutely RIDICULOUS.

I was in a furor when I went over my paper during a break with my professor. He's going to look it over and see what he thinks. I think my TA is extremely incompetent and doesn't know what she should be doing (but I've already talked about this prior to her crap mark she gave me).

This put me in a crappy mood all day. Minus Jesse, Greg and I went food shopping which cheered me up because I love Greg and I love food shopping. However, I almost cried when I couldn't find alfredo sauce, but I found the last two jars hiding in the back bottom shelf (Jesse said there wasn't any the following day). AND my hair conditioner was half off! so I bought two bottles. SUCK IT AUSTRALIA!

Monday: 4

On Tuesday I just had the one lecture and several funny stories were exchanged between Tim and I as usual. I was hoping to get a bunch of studying done after lunch and before footy, but I just talked to Alicia post lunch instead (which is time well spent anyway). I ended up getting about 30 minutes of studying done on the green in Bush court before I went back to my flat to get changed for footy.

Footy was pretty fun but pretty long: we played about half again as long as we usually do. We did ball handling and kicking drills the whole time... which is fun, but not as fun as kicking on goal. Oh well. I did however have a sick dinner of alfredo sauce on pasta which is always, always good times.

Tuesday: 7 (I'll post up through Friday tomorrow... I hope.)