Look Out

This is going to be a dull update. Proceed with caution.
I am looking for a job very frantically. The positions I've applied for include, but are not limited to:

• Diagnostic lab technician
• Pathology lab assistant
• Multiple lab technician positions in clinical pharmacology, immunology, and other labs
• Assistant lab animal tech
• Bookseller

And I've not heard back on any of them. So. Every day I get up, do the job search thing for a couple hours, and apply for at least one new job. When I've exhausted my resources, I typically go do something outdoors, like go for a bicycle jaunt or walk the dogs for a second time around a lake (still running every morning), generally get more of a sunburn, or GET YET ANOTHER BIKE STOLEN.
Right now I'm thinking about working for a year, then going to medical or graduate school, depending on the grand revelation on which I'm still waiting.
So. I have a bunch of pictures of the quick-snapshot nature taking up the memory on my camera, so I figured I'd dump them on to the blog just to do it. This is what's new.

A while ago, we went out to Kevin's house and made sushi and played MarioKart and had a grand old time. Making foods and playing MarioKart is pretty standard procedure, during the semester.

End of semester project, which was a poster with all of the metabolic pathways and their enzymes and meticulous details. This took two all-nighters and several full days, believe it or not. Click to zoom in! You'll love it!

MY DOG THAT I DON'T OWN. But I would have loved to. She joined me on a run one morning, and then she hung out on our front porch the whole day afterward. I wanted to keep her. But I sent her home instead. Plus, Bo and Ajax were really suspicious (jealous) of her.

My new bike, to replace that which was stolen. It's actually really nice. I've already taken it to the library, post office, one 20+ mile ride, and one 8.6 mile ride.

And that's it for now.

For my brother

Today is my brother's birthday. For his birthday, I decided to make him a blueberry pie. He likes blueberry pies. So I baked him one, lovingly and painstakingly.
So. Why is Beauregard hiding fearfully under the table? It's not what you probably think. He was actually very well behaved during the pie baking, and for this picture, he is doing nothing but cowering in sheer terror, due to the violent yelling. Why was there yelling?
Because. I can describe the proteolytic chain reaction that occurs during blood clotting. I can describe in great detail the action and mechanisms of carbonic anhydrase, chymotrypsin, and protein kinase A, and restriction endonucleases, among other things.

I cannot remove a pie from the oven.




So, so difficult to clean up. Sorry, Corbin.

About the Author

Yes, yes. I still have too much time on my hands. Big surprise. The job search is frustrating. The class is at a lull (though about to pick up). The life otherwise contains not enough productivity.
There's been a current moving through the internet (mainly on Facebook), and OF COURSE I told myself I wouldn't join in, but OF COURSE I sat down and typed out a list despite the lie I told myself. Anyway, you are supposed to write 25 things about yourself. I did, and now that I have it, it seems a little presumptuous of me to assume anyone would want to read 25 things about me. But here it is, anyway. I spent the time typing it, so now it must be shared, I guess.


25 Brief Facts

1. My favorite ice creams are coffee, coconut, and chocolate chip. In that order.

2. I keep riding my bike places and then catching rides home, which is inconvenient, come the next time I need to ride my bike somewhere and it is neatly locked up wherever I last left it.

3. I wish it were raining.

4. Looking at me, you would assume I am the sort that loves baking or reading (which I truly do). But I love, love running. I recently discovered how fantastic it is to keep running after the customary two-mile loop. I love the pain and accomplishment (however transient) associated with running long distances. I love how consuming it is.

5. One of my main aspirations in life is to have a garden and make my own clothes.

6. I buy soy milk instead of regular milk. I hadn't put much thought into it at all. But since I've been doing this for so long, every time I drink regular milk now, it's really shockingly weird.

7. I love costume parties, but only when everyone is participating.

8. Despite the pretenses under which I may operate, I do know exactly what I want to do with my life. The trouble is, there are just too many things I know I want to do.

9. I can’t multitask, apparently. I’ve verified this on several occasions. Very recently I drove erratically while trying to air drum to a song playing on my iPod. I was including an air base drum, thus making my pedal foot more active than a normal driver’s pedal foot should be.

10. I can’t figure out how to get my nose ring out. Not that I want it gone, I just want to change it.

11. I know it is cliché and 90s: I love pizza. I had tofu pizza Saturday night, vegetable pizza for Sunday lunch, Greek pizza for Sunday dinner, and leftover tofu pizza for lunch today. That is four meals in a row. I love it.

12. Honestly, I think my love for camping is part of the reason why I prefer to keep my mattress on the floor instead of on a frame, like normal folk.

13. Spring is by far my least favorite season.

14. Listening to music can be (and often is) a visceral experience, I think. Iron & Wine and Nickel Creek are two of the greatest. And Sufjan Stevens.

15. At least 60% of my mental activity is devoted to over-analysis. At least 20% of that goes to over-analysis of hypothetical situations.

16. I keep a permanent file of the best quotes I’ve personally heard (not like.. from books or famous individuals; from real life). Unfortunately, the record is not exhaustive and I deeply regret this. But it remains one of my most important documents.

17. I secretly hope that when we all die, regardless of what happens, we are issued a Complete Series DVD of our life, complete with deleted scenes, alternate endings and special features.

18. I really quite like the Episcopal church that I usually attend.

19. I collect things, kind of like the guy in Everything is Illuminated collects things. My collection is far less interesting and meaningful, though. This tendency of mine, to keep plane ticket stubs and things of that nature, makes me fear that I will someday have a house full of boxes of little collections. This stresses me out.

20. It is very important for me to log my running times and distances every day. I don’t know why, because I rarely look back over them or analyze them to any extent, and I never show these numbers to anyone. But I have to do it, every day.

21. Bookstores and libraries are like sanctuaries to me.

22. Chris McCandless fascinates me. Not that I would emulate him, but he fascinates me.

23. My favorite job I’ve had (so far) is Human Anatomy lab assistant, for which all I did was one of my favorite activities (cadaver dissection).

24. When I’m bored or generally activityless, I take my pulse. I try to find it on arteries other than the carotids or radials.

25. I really, really wish my life would include some cinematic-quality scene. At least one, but preferably several. It would make it seem so much more meaningful. Watching things like Across the Universe, Moulin Rouge, and (the end of) Slumdog Millionaire, repeatedly, with wide, longing eyes only reinforces this desire.

Unbelievable

Two posts in one week! Looks like I may have way too much time on my hands.
I just wanted to say that, after years of cringing at the mere thought of consuming chili, I've found a recipe that is not offensive in the slightest. I don't know if I should call it chili, though, considering I cut back so severely on the use of chili powder. It might have just been bean and tomato soup. Either way, it goes quite well with challah.


Ajax found it necessary to monitor my intake of said chili as part of his campaign to share (or take entirely) the bowl on the table. This campaign was unsuccessful.
I am getting ready for a day of sectioning rat brains in the lab. Last week I very painstakingly and lovingly mounted an adult brain on a little platform, then put it in the deep freeze, so it should be ready for slicing and dicing now.
Ha! And I said I would start posting about things of consequence and potentially meaning. Good one, self.

Mazal Tov

I could go and list several of the activities I've done today (like can-smashing and taking out the trash and running), but I'll spare you the details and get right to the point: I am celebrating, if even for a short time. This is why:
This morning after Biochem, I trudged over to the Office of the Registrar, head hung low in acceptance of inevitable defeat. After several unsuccessful trips to said office, I wasn't optimistic about the probable outcome. I've been trying to get my diploma from them for approximately seven months now. I thought I'd go try again. I walked in, reminded them why I was there, and was immediately handed my diploma. What?
Maybe all they wanted was a little humility. Maybe they thought by holding out, they could get me to keep enrolling in classes. Regardless, I've finally officially acquired my degree. Or, the piece of paper that proves that I did, anyway. It even has the correct date on it: May 2008. Really, I am more excited and proud right now than I was during commencement. I should go put on my cap and gown again just to complete the occasion.
Now, maybe I can finally move on and make life decisions. Maybe.

Practices In Domesticity

A year ago, I was posting about middle eastern adventures and thinking about the upcoming semester of cadaver dissection and tropical field research in Costa Rica.
Today, I will post about nothing in particular. It just bothered me that this site was sitting untouched for so long. It was either update or delete. So read on; my sincerest apologies for lack of quality and substance.
I was going to let today count as productive, until I realized how transient the results of my "productivity" really are. On the bright side, it was stuff needing done.

• Ran a couple miles
  
• Went to first day of Biochem (my last first day at this school, most likely)
• Bought school supplies on new budget (read: spend no more than $5)
• Laundry
• Dishes
• Cleaned out cupboard and briefly took grocery inventory
  
• Watched a movie from the library
  
• Read
• Went on bike ride
• Changed bike seat, worked on tires briefly
• Had weekly talk with Rachelle

Notice, though, that the list doesn't include things like finding a job or sorting out what I will do with this still unused college degree. Nor does it involve anything of real substance.
Anyway, the ski trip to Minnesota was just fine. Downhill skiing, cross country skiing, ice skating, paintball, etc, etc. I'd say it was a wise decision, overall.

Maybe the next time I decide to write on here, I'll have something REAL to say.

Once and For All

It's high time the images from Costa Rica made it to the interweb.  Therefore, I give you

COSTA RICA: SOME PICTURES I DID NOT TAKE AND LINKS TO SOME I DID

I am posting these pictures, which are mostly group photos and photos that include me, which were taken by a variety of other participants in our Central American venture.  My reasoning here is simply that some other people got some decent shots that captured what our life was like there.  If you want to see photographs that I took you have three choices:

• Album on Facebook Vol. I (Snapshots) (click on the pictures to read the descriptions)
• Album on Facebook Vol. II (Less of snapshots)
• My Flickr account 

So here.  41 photographs from the neotropics. 

This is our first night (first ten minutes) at the QERC, in the bedroom.  I'm resenting the fact that it's not bedtime yet.

Julian and Javier, two boys from the valley.  Very fine young men.

On our first hike to the waterfall, I stepped in a hole.  It was surprising.

Our spring break trip to Manuel Antonio.  Someone cleverly took a picture of me sleeping.  At least my mouth is closed.

Our hostel in San Jose.  The hostels usually had little community rooms where you could watch TV or read or sleep and have offensive B.O. (as one man was doing, just out of the frame). 

Manuel Antonio and its many vendors.  

Playing cards after a long day of Spring Breaking.  Note the sunburn. 

Playing cards one night, in pajamas, apparently, at the QERC.  The desks in the background are where we spent a painful amount of time, studying and researching and being studious.  

After a game of High Elevation Ultimate Frisbee 

This is Colin on the balcony that wraps around the QERC.  Eventually we put up a hammock out there and I had some good cold night sleep out there.

On top of Cerro de la Muerte... So, so cold.

In the cloud forrest (which is rain forrest in the mountains, basically) in San Gerardo.  This was one of our group hikes.  I am taking a picture with my alarmingly red backpack, which is featured in many of the photographs below.  It's like a Where's Waldo.  But easy.  And not as interesting.

Eating sugar cane on a coffee farm.  This place was literally minutes from the Panama border.  It was our first stop on our grand tour of Costa Rica, for the portion of our studies called Tropical Ecology and Sustainability.

On our bus, which we rode to our main stops.  The Tropical Ecology and Sustainability course took us to Las Cruces Biological Station (near San Vito, near Panama), Sierpe on the Osa Peninsula (where we caught a boat to Campanario, then a boat to Sirena in Corcovado National Park, then a boat back to Sierpe), San Jose, Ostional (where sea turtles go by the millions to lay their eggs), and finally Rincon de la Vieja, which is up near(ish) the Nicaraguan border.

On the boat ride to Campanario, we stopped to climb on the mangrove roots.

I am over in the corner there, feeling sad that it was time to get back on the boat.  Climbing on mangroves is on my top ten (maybe top five) things from Costa Rica.

Getting back on the boat.

One day while we were on the Osa Peninsula, we took a boat out to an island and did some hiking and snorkeling.  We ate lunch on an abandoned boat.  Ashley and Kevin got jellyfish stings, Meredith got bitten by a snake (constrictor... not venomous) and I (and two or three others) swam after a giant sea turtle.

This is Campanario, the research station where we stayed for a few nights.  We had to access it by boats.  Such good hikes around it, and such good waves in front of it.  

Two nights while we were at Campanario, we went bat catching.  This is one that we caught.

Upstairs at Campanario.  Colin and I were doing homework, but if you zoom in very, very close, you'll notice that we're both asleep.  Also, the lighting here is misleading.  It was extraordinarily dark there, as we only used candles for light at night time.  I loved it a lot.

On one of our hikes on the Osa Peninsula.  We ate lunch by a waterfall.  Then we jumped in to the waterfall and cooled off before hiking some more.  We hiked all day.

After swimming, before heading back out on the trails.

This is our host family's backyard at Ostional.  This is only a few minutes after we arrived, and I don't know why I look so irritated.  It's very likely that someone just said something that exasperated me.  The girl on the far left is part of our host family.

After a long day's work at Casa del Sol, the fully solar energized farm where we worked for a day.  We made giant compost piles and ate the best mangos.  Notice Meredith hoarding some of said mangos.

This is one of two tapirs we saw.  They're endangered, and this one is wearing a collar because he's being studied or tracked or researched, due to his endangerment.

One of so many monkeys we saw.  I think this is a howler monkey.  Howler monkeys are my favorite monkeys (one of four species we saw).  They bark/roar like possessed dinosaurs. 

Rincon de la Vieja, our final stop.  This is the volcano we climbed.  We started from further back than this picture started.  It was a rough hike.

On the way up the volcano, we stopped to refill our water bottles at this cold spring.  Good water.  I am busy telling Stephen that he is going to fall in and get our water all dirty.  Seconds after this picture was taken, Stephen was all wet and we had to move upstream a little to avoid the Stephen water.

Red backpacked Jori, climbing away.  

That's Sarah and me from very, very far away.  

On the way back down, I think.  I am trying to blend in with the rocks.

A hot spring near the volcano. 

I liked this dog a lot.  Her name was Pantera, and she belonged to a kid who wore black spiderman pajamas all of the time, who was the son of the guy in charge of this particular station.

Me sleepin.  This was our room at the station at Rincon de la Vieja.

Such a good spring.  I am hiding under the waterfall there.  To access this little spring, we had to hike for a while (and this particular day I had to use the forrest as a dressing room.  At least I took my suit with me), then follow the spring's stream several meters back through a gorge, then there was this spring and waterfalls.  What isn't pictured, though, due to dangerous camera terrain, is what is far out of the frame.  Some of us climbed up this waterfall into another little pool, where there was another waterfall.  Even fewer of us climbed that waterfall and followed the gorge further back (about a ten minute walk) to a completely hidden, completely beautiful tall waterfall and pool.  We didn't climb that one, because of its massive height.  But it was so, so beautiful.  I wish I had a camera that could have survived the journey.

In San Jose.  Hello Central America, goodbye United States.

In David and Sarah's apartment back at the QERC, teaching English lessons.

Julian and Javier after a successful English lesson.

Our last day in San Jose.  Probably the best trip to San Jose, too.  It was a very good, relaxing, calm before the storm goodbye to Costa Rica.  As soon as our plane returned to the U.S., I had so many things to do before I could graduate.  Including a rough dissection.

Our whole group on the last night.  We ate cake and watched Arrested Development.  And I got to hold a snake (which is probably too small to be seen here).  It was good.

THE END