Hey everyone! I know it's been a long while since I last posted anything, and I kinda fell off the face of Australia when finals hit.
But my new blog is going to be just as, if not more, fun!
I'm blogging (both videos & writing, but mostly videos) for my school, Clark University. Primarily I'm talking about what it's like to be a science student and an undergraduate researcher.
In any case, hit up my new blog here!
Cheers!
Dylan
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Skylines & Sunsets
Last Thursday, over a week ago, I took off to study. There was no way I was going to lecture. In fact, the next three days I sorta putted around studying for my exams coming up in two weeks. That Thursday night I went to Coles by myself to do my night food shopping, which was only okay by myself. On Friday, I went to my last Plant Diversity lecture in which they skimmed over a few things and told us about the final exam. In Microbiology, we had a short lecture and an overview of the exam. Both times I was let out early (and hour early for Plant Diversity) and I wasn't surprised by the exam material (let's just hope I won't be surprised when I sit the exams, ay?). The past five years the exams have changed very little, so I'm hoping by studying just the past exams I'll be okay.
The weekend, save for Sunday night, kinda sucked. I didn't get much studying done and it was pretty lonely, as everyone had left on trips for study break (Connor and Greg went to Bali with a few other kids). I hoped for rain over the study break so I would get some decent studying done, and well, sure enough, the weather hasn't been that great.
Thursday: 6
Friday: 6
Saturday: 6
On Sunday night, Jesse and I set aside time to have a few mixed drinks which was a nice change to the monotonous and quiet weekend. We made dinner and watched a bunch of South Park episodes online, which was great. However, the more and more I watch some SP episodes the less I enjoy them. :-\
Sunday: 7
Monday was a quiet day but I got some good studying done. :-\
Monday: 6
Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day. Jesse and I went into Coles to get a few things in the early afternoon and relished the beautiful weather: 66°F, slightly breezy, and very sunny. An hour or so later, we went off to footy practice which I thoroughly enjoyed, save for the severe road rash I got on my hip from sliding to make a nice catch. I didn't realize how bad my hip was until we stopped playing.
After a quick dinner and shower, Jesse came up to my flat and we skyped with Alicia for a little while before heading out to Perth for the night. We decided a few weeks ago we wanted to visit Kings Park at night, so we did. I've decided from my pictures I need a tripod, more patience, and a lens wipe (my UV filter is filthy >_>).
Tuesday: 7.5
I studied more on Wednesday, surprise surprise.
Wednesday: 7
It started raining very early in the morning and very hard... and it rained for most of the day. Instead of a steady rain, we get sporadic bursts of downpour. I had intended to go to footy practice and was out the door before it started pouring again. I said screw that and went back inside. Oh, and I studied some more. Awesome.
Thursday: 6
Friday morning I woke up early and got coffee with Paul, the CIEE coordinator, and Jesse which was a lot of fun. I didn't get much studying done though, but oh well. Jesse came over kinda late after he finished editing some film for the night and we watched a few episodes of Family Guy which was fun. But then he lodged himself in my closet and wouldn't come out.
Friday: 7
I slept in this morning pretty late because I was having some fun dreams and then got very little work done. After lunch I thought I'd try to get some work done in the library, so off I went.
...but all I decided was what a GORGEOUS day it was. On my way to the library I decided I wanted to do something outside... like watch a sunset on the docks again! I spent about 25 minutes in the library before I left. I came back and found Jesse and asked him if he wanted to go into Freo with me, and then found Connor too. Everything pretty much came together and within the hour we were on the bus to Freo.
It had been a while since I had hung out with Connor, especially since he had only gotten back from Bali last night. It was definitely good fun, yeah, the three of us. We got some chips (fries) and watched the sunset at the same place I did back in early February.
After we got back, we ordered some pizza from Dominos and watched Titan AE in Connor's flat. Good times. And now I'm tired. Beach tomorrow! THE END.
Saturday: 8
The weekend, save for Sunday night, kinda sucked. I didn't get much studying done and it was pretty lonely, as everyone had left on trips for study break (Connor and Greg went to Bali with a few other kids). I hoped for rain over the study break so I would get some decent studying done, and well, sure enough, the weather hasn't been that great.
Thursday: 6
Friday: 6
Saturday: 6
On Sunday night, Jesse and I set aside time to have a few mixed drinks which was a nice change to the monotonous and quiet weekend. We made dinner and watched a bunch of South Park episodes online, which was great. However, the more and more I watch some SP episodes the less I enjoy them. :-\
Sunday: 7
Monday was a quiet day but I got some good studying done. :-\
Monday: 6
Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful day. Jesse and I went into Coles to get a few things in the early afternoon and relished the beautiful weather: 66°F, slightly breezy, and very sunny. An hour or so later, we went off to footy practice which I thoroughly enjoyed, save for the severe road rash I got on my hip from sliding to make a nice catch. I didn't realize how bad my hip was until we stopped playing.
After a quick dinner and shower, Jesse came up to my flat and we skyped with Alicia for a little while before heading out to Perth for the night. We decided a few weeks ago we wanted to visit Kings Park at night, so we did. I've decided from my pictures I need a tripod, more patience, and a lens wipe (my UV filter is filthy >_>).
Tuesday: 7.5
I studied more on Wednesday, surprise surprise.
Wednesday: 7
It started raining very early in the morning and very hard... and it rained for most of the day. Instead of a steady rain, we get sporadic bursts of downpour. I had intended to go to footy practice and was out the door before it started pouring again. I said screw that and went back inside. Oh, and I studied some more. Awesome.
Thursday: 6
Friday: 7
I slept in this morning pretty late because I was having some fun dreams and then got very little work done. After lunch I thought I'd try to get some work done in the library, so off I went.
...but all I decided was what a GORGEOUS day it was. On my way to the library I decided I wanted to do something outside... like watch a sunset on the docks again! I spent about 25 minutes in the library before I left. I came back and found Jesse and asked him if he wanted to go into Freo with me, and then found Connor too. Everything pretty much came together and within the hour we were on the bus to Freo.
It had been a while since I had hung out with Connor, especially since he had only gotten back from Bali last night. It was definitely good fun, yeah, the three of us. We got some chips (fries) and watched the sunset at the same place I did back in early February.
Saturday: 8
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
LOL Them Noodlez Sound Lame
I started off my easy day, Tuesday, with a bit of studying in the library before my lecture. I started studying for my Plant Diversity lab prac (which is on Friday, June 4th) and realized I was really uncomfortable going over my labs. Plant Diversity actually wants to give me panic attacks. Not effing cool. After my short lecture (during which I took very few notes), I went back to my room, made 3 poorly made grilled cheeses (because I didn't feel like putting much effort into them) and ate and planned out some studying. I then went or a short run. It had to be a little shorter because 1) some jerks closed off the sidewalks I usually run on on part of my route, and 2) I had to get in and out of the shower before dinner last night.
All of us CIEE kids met down at a pub for dinner with our program director as a send off dinner (even though finals haven't even come up yet). I didn't have as great of a time as I was hoping. I was disappointed.
Number one, I didn't end up sitting with the kids I was hoping to catch up with because they came later after I was already sitting with Greg and Jesse (who I took the bus in with) and a few others.
Number two, neither the mango beer or cider I got (fo' free!) didn't do anything for me. I usually love cider, but I gave away both drinks with only a fourth or so consumed. Bummer.
Number three, while I was very gracious for dinner (even though Paul, our director didn't think I was), the choices were limited. Guess what? I got calamari (which ended up being the biggest dish) and chips. Yeah, I know how much I hate meat (especially seafood) but the spicy noodles sounded (and ended up being) really lame.
Number four, as much as I didn't want to, I was sorta stressing about my friend Alicia traveling to Luxembourg the whole time, because she hadn't gotten there by the time I had left (which was sort of expected anyway). The joke was on me though, because even though I stressed about it she didn't e-mail me until I had already gone to bed. Oh well.
Tuesday: 5
Today was a much better day though. I woke up a little late unfortunately, but had time to leisurely have a short breakfast and get ready for lecture. My first lecture wasn't very helpful and I didn't take many notes at all. However, the lecture slides will be helpful when I study for the final... so I didn't really need to go anyway. Oh well. My next lecture with my eccentric professor was started off with a short magic show presented by the eccentric professor himself. It was lolsy. I was touched when the professor told us all we should take his next course next fall, except for me because I was only here for the semester (see! He remembers me!!). We had a nice chat after class/on his way to his next lecture. Good guy.
I then went back to my room for a short lunch before I had to run back out again. On my way in, I ran into Mitch who gave me a copy of the first season of Metalocalypse, which is an animated TV show about a metal band (it's a sort of satire about the ridiculousness of metal bands in general). I collected my crappy experiment from the storage room after leaving my flat and brought it by the lab to be thrown out. While Tim and I were alone in the lab, I started to write a complicated formula which equated to my professor being really awesome, but another professor walked in on me in the act and it wasn't as awesome. I then wrote out on the board what "1337" meant, because that's what my professor Wayne was equal to. To make the first professor feel better, I equated him to being "totez awes lol" which he understood without further explaining (I love both professors so they were true statements).
Tim and I then went off to meet Mitch and Allie to have a lab meeting. We were going to meet in the library but ended up having our meeting on the green in the perfect weather we had today. We got about 15 minutes of work done before it turned into hanging out and talking about inappropriate but funny things (much of the inappropriate things were between Mitch and Tim, not me). Tim then came back to my flat and we talked about a lot of things, such as when we're going to hang out over study break (because said hanging out needs to occur before I leave).
After Tim left, I went for a longer run than anticipated but it felt really good so I was happy. I wish there were really close parks I could run in so I didn't have to run next to traffic. I'm fairly certain the exhaust isn't good for my exercise >_>. I then made a massive dinner which I consumed while watching Scrubs (this combination is the best ever). I just now finished a lab report, which I'll print off along with some study guides and then pass in tomorrow.
Word.
Wednesday: 7.5
All of us CIEE kids met down at a pub for dinner with our program director as a send off dinner (even though finals haven't even come up yet). I didn't have as great of a time as I was hoping. I was disappointed.
Number one, I didn't end up sitting with the kids I was hoping to catch up with because they came later after I was already sitting with Greg and Jesse (who I took the bus in with) and a few others.
Number two, neither the mango beer or cider I got (fo' free!) didn't do anything for me. I usually love cider, but I gave away both drinks with only a fourth or so consumed. Bummer.
Number three, while I was very gracious for dinner (even though Paul, our director didn't think I was), the choices were limited. Guess what? I got calamari (which ended up being the biggest dish) and chips. Yeah, I know how much I hate meat (especially seafood) but the spicy noodles sounded (and ended up being) really lame.
Number four, as much as I didn't want to, I was sorta stressing about my friend Alicia traveling to Luxembourg the whole time, because she hadn't gotten there by the time I had left (which was sort of expected anyway). The joke was on me though, because even though I stressed about it she didn't e-mail me until I had already gone to bed. Oh well.
Tuesday: 5
Today was a much better day though. I woke up a little late unfortunately, but had time to leisurely have a short breakfast and get ready for lecture. My first lecture wasn't very helpful and I didn't take many notes at all. However, the lecture slides will be helpful when I study for the final... so I didn't really need to go anyway. Oh well. My next lecture with my eccentric professor was started off with a short magic show presented by the eccentric professor himself. It was lolsy. I was touched when the professor told us all we should take his next course next fall, except for me because I was only here for the semester (see! He remembers me!!). We had a nice chat after class/on his way to his next lecture. Good guy.
I then went back to my room for a short lunch before I had to run back out again. On my way in, I ran into Mitch who gave me a copy of the first season of Metalocalypse, which is an animated TV show about a metal band (it's a sort of satire about the ridiculousness of metal bands in general). I collected my crappy experiment from the storage room after leaving my flat and brought it by the lab to be thrown out. While Tim and I were alone in the lab, I started to write a complicated formula which equated to my professor being really awesome, but another professor walked in on me in the act and it wasn't as awesome. I then wrote out on the board what "1337" meant, because that's what my professor Wayne was equal to. To make the first professor feel better, I equated him to being "totez awes lol" which he understood without further explaining (I love both professors so they were true statements).
Tim and I then went off to meet Mitch and Allie to have a lab meeting. We were going to meet in the library but ended up having our meeting on the green in the perfect weather we had today. We got about 15 minutes of work done before it turned into hanging out and talking about inappropriate but funny things (much of the inappropriate things were between Mitch and Tim, not me). Tim then came back to my flat and we talked about a lot of things, such as when we're going to hang out over study break (because said hanging out needs to occur before I leave).
After Tim left, I went for a longer run than anticipated but it felt really good so I was happy. I wish there were really close parks I could run in so I didn't have to run next to traffic. I'm fairly certain the exhaust isn't good for my exercise >_>. I then made a massive dinner which I consumed while watching Scrubs (this combination is the best ever). I just now finished a lab report, which I'll print off along with some study guides and then pass in tomorrow.
Word.
Wednesday: 7.5
Monday, May 17, 2010
LOL so remember that time when I posted my blogs daily?
Yuuuup. Wayyyy behind. Mum keeps reminding me by sending me howlers.
Last Wednesday started with me going into lab and talking to my professor before we had lecture. ...apparently we set up our lab wrong based on a communication error. Boy... I was pissed. I wasn't really having too many problems with this class, which was the only class at the time I was enjoying, and now our project was screwed up.
Wednesday: 5
Every once in a while, controlled burns are performed and sometimes they get the wind wrong and we get all the smoke up here. It doesn't really bother me and I think it smells sorta nice, but it is a bit disconcerting. Anyway, the sun peeking through the smoke makes my desk look almost orange. It's cool. Yup. Boring day.
Thursday: 7
Tonight was supposed to be Avatar night. However, because some people forgot it was Avatar night, it turned into getting pizza (I ate mine whole in less than 5 minutes) and watching the Lion King instead. It was still good times. I also didn't go to lab today because it wasn't necessary and it was awesome skipping it.
Friday: 8
To sum up this past week, I redid my lab with my lab partners which kinda sucked. I skipped a few classes because they weren't necessary (although I have to go this week because a few of these topics could be on the final... plus I'm assuming the professors will talk about the exams). On Tuesday I spent a better part of my morning and early afternoon with my friend Justine in the library studying. I only happened to see her there was very glad to have seen her. Justine's from Clark and will be living just below me in the fall at school. Good times were had studying. I played footy both days and had fun most of the time (but I've been so grumpy recently).
On Saturday I helped Jesse shoot a very short scene for his very short movie for a final project. I'm really looking forward to seeing it complete!
Saturday: 7
Sunday: 6
Monday: 7
Tuesday: 7.5
Wednesday: 6
Thursday: 6
One of my friends had a serious seizure though and spent a few nights in the hospital. I wasn't there when it happened but apparently he seized for way too long. He's home now and healthy.
Even though it was my last lab ever (required anyway) for Plant Diversity, it still stressed the heck out of me. So much that even a run didn't fix it right away.
Friday: 5.5
On Saturday, my friend Angela (who took me out day 2 of my stay here) came by and took me into Freo for a short afternoon. It was pretty fun and I saw a few nooks and crannies I hadn't seen before. We jammed to some good tunes (called dubstep--think violent techno) on the way back.
Saturday: 7.5
Sunday I spent my day doing nothing. It wasn't very productive.
Sunday: 6
My friend Alicia whose specialty is distracting me from doing my studying is going to Luxembourg for a few weeks with the Clark program. I now hope I can actually get my studying done!
Today, Monday, was like any other Monday... kinda boring. I went into the Bio building to look at my experiment with Tim and then went to my two hour lecture... which wasn't too exciting. I came back here and ate a big lunch and worked on my lab report for Micro. Aaaaaand then I went for a decent run and made dinner.
Monday: 6.5
This is my last week of classes (which should be a breeze). I have next week off to study (10 days even) before finals (which are way too spread out). Only four weeks left!
Last Wednesday started with me going into lab and talking to my professor before we had lecture. ...apparently we set up our lab wrong based on a communication error. Boy... I was pissed. I wasn't really having too many problems with this class, which was the only class at the time I was enjoying, and now our project was screwed up.
Wednesday: 5
Every once in a while, controlled burns are performed and sometimes they get the wind wrong and we get all the smoke up here. It doesn't really bother me and I think it smells sorta nice, but it is a bit disconcerting. Anyway, the sun peeking through the smoke makes my desk look almost orange. It's cool. Yup. Boring day.
Thursday: 7
Tonight was supposed to be Avatar night. However, because some people forgot it was Avatar night, it turned into getting pizza (I ate mine whole in less than 5 minutes) and watching the Lion King instead. It was still good times. I also didn't go to lab today because it wasn't necessary and it was awesome skipping it.
Friday: 8
To sum up this past week, I redid my lab with my lab partners which kinda sucked. I skipped a few classes because they weren't necessary (although I have to go this week because a few of these topics could be on the final... plus I'm assuming the professors will talk about the exams). On Tuesday I spent a better part of my morning and early afternoon with my friend Justine in the library studying. I only happened to see her there was very glad to have seen her. Justine's from Clark and will be living just below me in the fall at school. Good times were had studying. I played footy both days and had fun most of the time (but I've been so grumpy recently).
On Saturday I helped Jesse shoot a very short scene for his very short movie for a final project. I'm really looking forward to seeing it complete!
Saturday: 7
Sunday: 6
Monday: 7
Tuesday: 7.5
Wednesday: 6
Thursday: 6
One of my friends had a serious seizure though and spent a few nights in the hospital. I wasn't there when it happened but apparently he seized for way too long. He's home now and healthy.
Even though it was my last lab ever (required anyway) for Plant Diversity, it still stressed the heck out of me. So much that even a run didn't fix it right away.
Friday: 5.5
On Saturday, my friend Angela (who took me out day 2 of my stay here) came by and took me into Freo for a short afternoon. It was pretty fun and I saw a few nooks and crannies I hadn't seen before. We jammed to some good tunes (called dubstep--think violent techno) on the way back.
Saturday: 7.5
Sunday I spent my day doing nothing. It wasn't very productive.
Sunday: 6
My friend Alicia whose specialty is distracting me from doing my studying is going to Luxembourg for a few weeks with the Clark program. I now hope I can actually get my studying done!
Today, Monday, was like any other Monday... kinda boring. I went into the Bio building to look at my experiment with Tim and then went to my two hour lecture... which wasn't too exciting. I came back here and ate a big lunch and worked on my lab report for Micro. Aaaaaand then I went for a decent run and made dinner.
Monday: 6.5
This is my last week of classes (which should be a breeze). I have next week off to study (10 days even) before finals (which are way too spread out). Only four weeks left!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
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.)
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.)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
The King of Parks, Round 2
Wednesday was a weird day as my Wednesdays always are. I can never really gauge how my Micrbiology labs are gonna go: for instance, I expected yesterday's lab to be an hour affair. It ended up being a two hour affair... which kinda sucked. Basically our lab session was a huge cluster-$#@% because everyone needed something from the same bench in order to start our experiments. As a lot of the reagents we were setting up needed to be autoclaved (sterilized) before proceeding it was a further pain because the autoclave runs were every hour. This meant if we couldn't scratch our way to the front and set up solutions of whatever first, we had to wait an hour to go further. This happened to us because our professors misplaced our lab proposals, so it took a while to see if we were cool to proceed with our project (we where and we got good marks on our proposals). Unfortunately after starting a bit, one of our professors wanted us to tweak things a bit so we had to change our protocol... which is always annoying. Furthermore, someone in our group has to go into the lab a total of three times in the week between labs (I'm going in twice) to advance our project before our next scheduled lab. However, if all goes well next Wednesday, we might have a lab off in the future.
I went for a crap run after lab. It's getting frustrating, really. I think I need more time to run and stretch and I need new shoes. None of those things are going to happen here. Bollocks.
Right before lab, I tried to have lunch. Guess what. That didn't happen. Why? Because one of my flatmates was completely dominating the kitchen: using the whole stove with one giant wok, taking up the entire counter, and filling the air with acrid smoke and ginger (way too much ginger!). As a result (in addition to being very cranky), I was very hungry. So I ate dinner. Twice. And almost three times. GRRR.
Wednesday: 5
Today was a better day. I woke up bright and early at 6. Well, it was dark out. I woke up early at 6. At 8:30 I went to my lecture and regretted it, because no matter how nice of a person my lecturer is, she's not very good at all. I'm guessing she's a little young and maybe a little new, but she cannot for the life of her present the material on her powerpoints besides read them. YES, I see the diagram. Reading off the parts doesn't help, but explaining them and their holistic purpose does. /facepalm
After my boring two hour lecture, I got ready to go out with Jesse. Jesse and I were to meet Connor at one of the train stations in Perth, because today we went to Kings Park for a picnic. Yeah! Picnic! Jesse and I got there in good time but had to wait for Connor, who had an appointment in the city, for over twenty minutes (which was fine). By the time the three of us were all caught up we were all very hungry. Too bad none of us knew how to get to the park. We all knew where it was... but not how to get there directly. This meant we walked about two miles before getting there... but we found a great spot! My lunch wasn't great, but the company was (awwwwh!). It was good times. On the way back we found a much faster and direct route. Word.
And this tree was awesome!
Now I need to have dinner and study a bit before going to bed. And having to wake up for Friday. I hate Fridays.
Thursday: 7.5
I went for a crap run after lab. It's getting frustrating, really. I think I need more time to run and stretch and I need new shoes. None of those things are going to happen here. Bollocks.
Right before lab, I tried to have lunch. Guess what. That didn't happen. Why? Because one of my flatmates was completely dominating the kitchen: using the whole stove with one giant wok, taking up the entire counter, and filling the air with acrid smoke and ginger (way too much ginger!). As a result (in addition to being very cranky), I was very hungry. So I ate dinner. Twice. And almost three times. GRRR.
Wednesday: 5
Today was a better day. I woke up bright and early at 6. Well, it was dark out. I woke up early at 6. At 8:30 I went to my lecture and regretted it, because no matter how nice of a person my lecturer is, she's not very good at all. I'm guessing she's a little young and maybe a little new, but she cannot for the life of her present the material on her powerpoints besides read them. YES, I see the diagram. Reading off the parts doesn't help, but explaining them and their holistic purpose does. /facepalm
And this tree was awesome!
Now I need to have dinner and study a bit before going to bed. And having to wake up for Friday. I hate Fridays.
Thursday: 7.5
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
So Remember That Time I Had Fun In Plant Diversity Lab? Because I don't.
I know it's been eight days. I've been terrible about keeping up with the blog.
I have this week plus three more weeks of lectures left before a one week study break. After the study break, we have two weeks worth of exams. My four exams (three theory exams and one lab practicum) are spread evenly over nine days; my last exam is on the 10th. While this isn't ideal as I wanted to try to come home early, I'm okay with it. I'll have heaps of time to study for my finals and be relaxed for them. Until exams, I have a project to complete in Microbiology which I designed with my three lab mates (Tim, Mitch - the funny Australians - and Allie - the SC girl from my CIEE group) over the next few weeks which should be fun and only a bit time consuming, a few more labs in Plant Diversity, and a bit of reading here and there for my Pollutants class. All in all, I hope to have plenty of time before study break to study for finals.
Here's a quick run down of last week!
On Tuesday after class, I worked on some Microbiology with Tim. Good times were had. I didn't get much more work done than that.
On Wednesday, I spent too much time in Micro lab planning out our project and it was a bit frustrating. It should be okay now though! I think this was the night I went over to Connor's for a few drinks but all of last week has blended together (not because I got drunk or anything - that was them, not me!).
On Thursday I didn't have any class which was awesome! I probably failed at getting any work done, but I went back to footy practice for the first time. It doesn't look like I missed much. Only a few of us made it which was disappointing, but I'm determined to keep going from now on.
On Friday... my least favorite day of classes... I walked into Plant Diversity lab prepped for lab. I was ready. Then I forgot to take the lab quiz online before I got in. ..then... I walk into lab... and... the professor... was handing out a new lab. THE LAB TO BE DONE FOR THAT WEEK. Are you serious? I was... so mad. Essentially I prepped this coming week's lab, not last week's. I guess if I paid VERY CLOSE attention I might have guessed I was supposed to wait for this lab, but the lab I prepped was the next lab in the handbook. Thankfully the lab on Friday wasn't graded or on the final, so everything ended up okay. But I almost killed someone. I hate this lab.
In the evening, the four of us boys (Connor, Jesse, Greg and I) hung out at Connor's flat and good times were had. Solid, solid evening.
On Saturday Jesse came over to make dinner. We made the best food I've cooked for myself all semester! We made pastries filled with potatoes, onions, vegetables, garlic, bbq sauce, rice and cheese. Absolutely fantastic! I'm now going to make variations of this from now on. I made a pasta bake version of this a week or so ago and that was quite good too, but this meal took the cake. I was really glad to have shared it with Jesse too. I hope to share more meals in general from now on!
That night Connor, Jesse and I went to our friend/neighbor's birthday party. The theme was outrageous attire. ...let's just say I wore a tie around my head, a button down shirt, and a speedo. The button down shirt hid my speedo really well. Haha.
On Sunday I woke up pretty late because I couldn't for the life of me fall asleep and stay asleep--I kept having those dreams where you're trying to do something, like do complicated math or science or working your old summer job before you can go to bed. It's the most annoying thing EVER. I had plans to go to the beach with two of my friends from the Northwest trip, so I texted back one of them. She didn't respond. Finally, she texted me back again telling me she and our friend were leaving. I caught up with them in time and found out she wasn't getting my texts because Australian track phones are the crappiest things in the world. I guess my credit wasn't rolling over month to month or something. I'm so mad. This prevented me from going to a rave a few nights earlier too as it turns out. UGH.
We went to Scarborough Beach, which is north of Perth. I've never been there. Why? Because it took us nearly two hours to get from campus to the sand: walk down to the bus stop, wait for a bus, get to the train station, wait for the train, go about 10 stops on the train, wait for another bus which took even longer to get there to finally get to the beach. I mean, I wasn't really worried about it but I was having fun, but still. AND I won't go there again anyway, so it was nice to go there. It was too cold to go into the water, but the three of us had fun talking on the beach and sitting in the sun anyway.
We didn't have class on Monday because of a public holiday (ANZAC - the WWII memorial holiday for AUS and NZ) which meant my third busiest day of the week could now be spent to leisurely studying. However, I didn't get too much studying done because I did my laundry, tidied my room and flat (as it was inspected today) and looked up my exams. I was able to get the past five years of exams for my three classes (but not the practicum for my hated class) and it looks like they're all strikingly similar to each other and comprised almost completely with essay questions (which I greatly prefer). Things are looking up! I hope to answer all the questions in the past exams before study break comes and be able to study them and relax over study break. Shortly after getting this squared away, Jesse (and later Connor) came over to figure out what we wanted to do in our last 6-7 weeks in Australia. Here's what we came up with:
On Thursday this week, the three of us are going to King's Park to have a picnic lunch. I'm very excited.
On Friday, we're going to a few bars before going to an arcade with Greg included. They're all very excited (this has been planned for a few weeks).
On Saturday we might go into Freo for dinner and watch the sunset up upon a hill. Sounds AWESOME.
Next Friday we're going to have a pizza night and watch Avatar again. I'm REALLY excited for this!
The Friday after that we're going to another professional footy game. I'll have to book it out of lab, but it should work okay. After we hope to go into Perth city and explore or something like that. This probably means going to bars.
One of the next two weekends in the future we hope to get out of the metro area and go to this really nice national park and do a 15k walk/hike through some really pretty areas.
Jesse and I will be sure to do a few afternoon trips over study break since we're both here over study break (Greg and Connor are going to Bali, but Connor may cancel and study here instead!). I'm excited for this too!
We all hope to do more than the few things here. I hope the next few weeks are as fun as the first few weeks here. Since the Northwest trip I haven't been having as much fun as I was before, but plenty of fun to keep me happy. I'm just hoping to finish off my stay with a bang and leave with a lot of good memories. Let's get to it!!
Monday evening Connor, Jesse and I went to the oval where we play footy (footy fields are called ovals) and kicked a soccer ball around. It was a kind of fail trip to the field, but it was fun nonetheless. The three of us then made a repeat dinner of the pastries Jesse and I made on Saturday night and then watched an episode of Scrubs. Good times! We then went to the rec room so I could watch Connor and Jesse hit a combined 15 scratches or so on the pool table. It was fun watching them, honest. Jesse then kicked my butt in table tennis. I just want to learn how to play better haha!
Today, Tuesday, has been a long day. I woke up early to get my computer gaming in before class and make a good breakfast. I only had the one lecture today, and it was sort of a waste of time because it was an introduction to things I already knew. Oh well. After lecture I skipped lunch because my breakfast was late and filling and went to Coles with Jesse and Greg. I love food shopping at Coles. I love spending time wit Jesse and Greg. Naturally, shopping with Jesse and Greg is always good times. Word.
After I got back from Coles, I got a few things together and went for a short run. My run was kinda lame and I'm still trying to get back into shape and running 5 days a week. Oh well. I had about 40 minutes after my run to stretch and rest before going back out to play Footy again. A lot more people showed up this time (12 or so) and I generally had a fun time. It's frustrating playing a new sport and not doing so well and having 8 year olds a little ways away do everything extremely well. :-\
After Footy I was absolutely starving, so I booked it home with Jesse. I had almost twice the amount of pasta I usually do with alfredo sauce (which I've been treating myself to recently and absolutely loving it) and I'm still hungry an hour or so later. I'll have to have another dinner after I finish this.
I hope to keep up with my blogs from here on out so I can document my last few weeks really well. I'm hoping they will be heaps of fun like my first six weeks were!
Tuesday: 7
Wednesday: 6.5
Thursday: 7
Friday: 8
Saturday: 7
Sunday: 6
Monday: 7.5
Tuesday: 7.5
I have this week plus three more weeks of lectures left before a one week study break. After the study break, we have two weeks worth of exams. My four exams (three theory exams and one lab practicum) are spread evenly over nine days; my last exam is on the 10th. While this isn't ideal as I wanted to try to come home early, I'm okay with it. I'll have heaps of time to study for my finals and be relaxed for them. Until exams, I have a project to complete in Microbiology which I designed with my three lab mates (Tim, Mitch - the funny Australians - and Allie - the SC girl from my CIEE group) over the next few weeks which should be fun and only a bit time consuming, a few more labs in Plant Diversity, and a bit of reading here and there for my Pollutants class. All in all, I hope to have plenty of time before study break to study for finals.
Here's a quick run down of last week!
On Tuesday after class, I worked on some Microbiology with Tim. Good times were had. I didn't get much more work done than that.
On Wednesday, I spent too much time in Micro lab planning out our project and it was a bit frustrating. It should be okay now though! I think this was the night I went over to Connor's for a few drinks but all of last week has blended together (not because I got drunk or anything - that was them, not me!).
On Thursday I didn't have any class which was awesome! I probably failed at getting any work done, but I went back to footy practice for the first time. It doesn't look like I missed much. Only a few of us made it which was disappointing, but I'm determined to keep going from now on.
On Friday... my least favorite day of classes... I walked into Plant Diversity lab prepped for lab. I was ready. Then I forgot to take the lab quiz online before I got in. ..then... I walk into lab... and... the professor... was handing out a new lab. THE LAB TO BE DONE FOR THAT WEEK. Are you serious? I was... so mad. Essentially I prepped this coming week's lab, not last week's. I guess if I paid VERY CLOSE attention I might have guessed I was supposed to wait for this lab, but the lab I prepped was the next lab in the handbook. Thankfully the lab on Friday wasn't graded or on the final, so everything ended up okay. But I almost killed someone. I hate this lab.
In the evening, the four of us boys (Connor, Jesse, Greg and I) hung out at Connor's flat and good times were had. Solid, solid evening.
On Saturday Jesse came over to make dinner. We made the best food I've cooked for myself all semester! We made pastries filled with potatoes, onions, vegetables, garlic, bbq sauce, rice and cheese. Absolutely fantastic! I'm now going to make variations of this from now on. I made a pasta bake version of this a week or so ago and that was quite good too, but this meal took the cake. I was really glad to have shared it with Jesse too. I hope to share more meals in general from now on!
That night Connor, Jesse and I went to our friend/neighbor's birthday party. The theme was outrageous attire. ...let's just say I wore a tie around my head, a button down shirt, and a speedo. The button down shirt hid my speedo really well. Haha.
On Sunday I woke up pretty late because I couldn't for the life of me fall asleep and stay asleep--I kept having those dreams where you're trying to do something, like do complicated math or science or working your old summer job before you can go to bed. It's the most annoying thing EVER. I had plans to go to the beach with two of my friends from the Northwest trip, so I texted back one of them. She didn't respond. Finally, she texted me back again telling me she and our friend were leaving. I caught up with them in time and found out she wasn't getting my texts because Australian track phones are the crappiest things in the world. I guess my credit wasn't rolling over month to month or something. I'm so mad. This prevented me from going to a rave a few nights earlier too as it turns out. UGH.
We went to Scarborough Beach, which is north of Perth. I've never been there. Why? Because it took us nearly two hours to get from campus to the sand: walk down to the bus stop, wait for a bus, get to the train station, wait for the train, go about 10 stops on the train, wait for another bus which took even longer to get there to finally get to the beach. I mean, I wasn't really worried about it but I was having fun, but still. AND I won't go there again anyway, so it was nice to go there. It was too cold to go into the water, but the three of us had fun talking on the beach and sitting in the sun anyway.
We didn't have class on Monday because of a public holiday (ANZAC - the WWII memorial holiday for AUS and NZ) which meant my third busiest day of the week could now be spent to leisurely studying. However, I didn't get too much studying done because I did my laundry, tidied my room and flat (as it was inspected today) and looked up my exams. I was able to get the past five years of exams for my three classes (but not the practicum for my hated class) and it looks like they're all strikingly similar to each other and comprised almost completely with essay questions (which I greatly prefer). Things are looking up! I hope to answer all the questions in the past exams before study break comes and be able to study them and relax over study break. Shortly after getting this squared away, Jesse (and later Connor) came over to figure out what we wanted to do in our last 6-7 weeks in Australia. Here's what we came up with:
On Thursday this week, the three of us are going to King's Park to have a picnic lunch. I'm very excited.
On Friday, we're going to a few bars before going to an arcade with Greg included. They're all very excited (this has been planned for a few weeks).
On Saturday we might go into Freo for dinner and watch the sunset up upon a hill. Sounds AWESOME.
Next Friday we're going to have a pizza night and watch Avatar again. I'm REALLY excited for this!
The Friday after that we're going to another professional footy game. I'll have to book it out of lab, but it should work okay. After we hope to go into Perth city and explore or something like that. This probably means going to bars.
One of the next two weekends in the future we hope to get out of the metro area and go to this really nice national park and do a 15k walk/hike through some really pretty areas.
Jesse and I will be sure to do a few afternoon trips over study break since we're both here over study break (Greg and Connor are going to Bali, but Connor may cancel and study here instead!). I'm excited for this too!
We all hope to do more than the few things here. I hope the next few weeks are as fun as the first few weeks here. Since the Northwest trip I haven't been having as much fun as I was before, but plenty of fun to keep me happy. I'm just hoping to finish off my stay with a bang and leave with a lot of good memories. Let's get to it!!
Monday evening Connor, Jesse and I went to the oval where we play footy (footy fields are called ovals) and kicked a soccer ball around. It was a kind of fail trip to the field, but it was fun nonetheless. The three of us then made a repeat dinner of the pastries Jesse and I made on Saturday night and then watched an episode of Scrubs. Good times! We then went to the rec room so I could watch Connor and Jesse hit a combined 15 scratches or so on the pool table. It was fun watching them, honest. Jesse then kicked my butt in table tennis. I just want to learn how to play better haha!
Today, Tuesday, has been a long day. I woke up early to get my computer gaming in before class and make a good breakfast. I only had the one lecture today, and it was sort of a waste of time because it was an introduction to things I already knew. Oh well. After lecture I skipped lunch because my breakfast was late and filling and went to Coles with Jesse and Greg. I love food shopping at Coles. I love spending time wit Jesse and Greg. Naturally, shopping with Jesse and Greg is always good times. Word.
After I got back from Coles, I got a few things together and went for a short run. My run was kinda lame and I'm still trying to get back into shape and running 5 days a week. Oh well. I had about 40 minutes after my run to stretch and rest before going back out to play Footy again. A lot more people showed up this time (12 or so) and I generally had a fun time. It's frustrating playing a new sport and not doing so well and having 8 year olds a little ways away do everything extremely well. :-\
After Footy I was absolutely starving, so I booked it home with Jesse. I had almost twice the amount of pasta I usually do with alfredo sauce (which I've been treating myself to recently and absolutely loving it) and I'm still hungry an hour or so later. I'll have to have another dinner after I finish this.
I hope to keep up with my blogs from here on out so I can document my last few weeks really well. I'm hoping they will be heaps of fun like my first six weeks were!
Tuesday: 7
Wednesday: 6.5
Thursday: 7
Friday: 8
Saturday: 7
Sunday: 6
Monday: 7.5
Tuesday: 7.5
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