Poof! He's back!

Where did i disappear to? Mostly the land of "get your data together or die." Wasn't really hard when faced with thesis or death, mentality. Ever since I finally figured out how to use my sleep apnea machine well (apparently, air goes in the nose), I've had more energy and mental fortitude to put up with undergrads and interns.

The days have been the same, getting up early(crack of 9:00) to do research, get home before 12 to review MCAT material (tons of pratice questions and understanding why i didn't get the right answer). I like that by doing practice questions, and getting the answer right, i never question that i never got the material down. There are days where i get every single question right (woo!) and days where I miss everything but one (go law of averages).

But what I'm really impressed, is that after a full day of research (read: trying to not blow stuff up), I can go to the gym, get home around 6, eat and walk my dog ( mmm dog) and then studying till 12 (with a few breaks of youtube distactions and iphone games). I suppose I should try to fit in more studying time, but sometimes that just doesn't happen. Tomorrow though, I'm going to try and quickly get an animal on the rig, run back home to study and then prepare to go out with friends for once! BTW: y'all don't know this but I've been studying everyday non-stop without breaks, so yeah, i deserve this one.

Next episode: Roth's going to do co-keynoting a biology graduate retreat? Whaaaa...?

OMG data collection

Just ran an experiment yesterday, and things are somewhat coming along. It sucks that I come into lab almost everyday to generate data and some grad students in the lab, never show up, and generally are on the "good" list.

No matter. I can't possibly be concern with crazy lab mates and instead, will have to focus on my own research. I have the data, and I can possibly come up with some decent graphs if I keep at it! So there is some hope.

Last night, I decided to get myself a quick treat to fries and a caramel sundae at McDonald's. I feel a bit gross. Ever since I started to cook for myself, I felt better and felt disgusted by processed fast food. Tomorrow, I hope to get some running in (missed monday and tuesday). Tonight (wednesday), is goign to be another long night of setting up lab. Soooo yay? (Not really).

Mixed greens and turkey meatballs

Got home from class and had frozen turkey meatballs, rice and greenbeans and carrots as starting ingredients.



For a quick meal, and mostly from trader joes ( I got the meatballs from costco), this turned out well! Cooked the veggies in olive oil, pepper, italian seasoning.

I'm thinking pasta tomorrow's dinner.


-- Posted from Roth's iPhone

Location:Greenpark Way,South San Francisco,United States

To iPad or not to iPad

Besides the arrival of the iPad, there are some serious tablets out there. Just early today, they announced the pricing and specs of the new HP Slate. Despite the low battery life (5+hours vs. 10 hours for the ipad), you get a full fledged working tablet. And a front-facing camera. And a digitizer and fully capacitive multi-touch screen.

Research-wise, I can see myself bringing in the slate to run the spike-sorting software in the lab while simultaneously jotting in data in my excel spreadsheet. Maybe even do a video journal of how my research is going. Pretty awesome!

On a personal note, sleep has been better for me but it feels like my body hasn't had sleep for years and is trying to catch up. I do feel more awake then usual, but man, I really do enjoy sleeping. It's given me at least the energy to be awake to go running. And finally, my endurance has return so i can faster and longer miles.

Longtime no Bloggie

Wow! It's been a looong time since I've blogged anything! I think it's because I haven't had much to say, research has picked up a lot quicker than I thought and I've been overall busy. However, spring break is here, and it's either blog or write a few pages of my thesis. You can see what I've obviously wanted to do.

So I've had these amazing dates and I want to post some of them on my blog. Generally, I'll give insider dating tips in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Far too often, I've heard that boyfriends haven't had a clue where to take their girlfriends for a date night. Sometimes dinner and movie doesn't cut it. I've got some fairly inexpensive (and fun!) dating tips for guys and gals who haven't had a clue what to do.

I'm really not much of a bar person, so going to a bar and calling it a night, isn't what I call a special and unique evening. I'm also a grad student, so I can't afford to pull off a large production. But hopefully, in the coming days, you'll get to see a few of the awesome dates I've been able to pull of.

Angela Aki, singer-songwriter and purveryor of excellent frames.

I sort of stumbled across her when I was looking for final fantasy XIII music and saw that she's got the whole Asian Lisa Loeb thing going on. This is an example of what happens when you choose the right frame and have the right style to go with it. I think the slightly wavy hair, jeans and chucks and dark frames speak volumes.

Her father is Japanese and her mother is italian-american. Looks to me like a wonderful hapa combination and wow, can she sing. Just check out on youtube her rendition of "Eyes on Me": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1T_m2hIn3U

I personally like her collaboration with Ben Folds:

How not to manage research, schoolwork, fitness and social life

Wow, I'm so behind on each of those things. Well, not really school work since I'm acing my scientific writing class and I'm sure i'm doing well on the rest of my classes. I used to really focus on my classes, but it's been second nature as of lately to complete them on time. Research needs a bit more focus, I really do see that I haven't been ramping it up as I should have been. But I think after my talk with Megumi on tuesday, I should be steered back on track. I really just need to read more papers, specifically on cGMP/GABA and inhibition in invertebrates.

GSCB stuff has been busy as normal but now I'm faced with developing a conference. A freaking research conference! I have some experience of running a conference but in terms of developing a program, I'm completely lost. I should also be having that meeting this week too as well as trying to "offically register" the Graduate council of biology with the Student Union. Hopefully, Dr. G has completed his end.

Running has been great after I've been giving almost 24 hour access to a treadmill. So i've been running continually for a while until last week. Ah, a social life. I'm sure that has suffered as well.

Anyways, I'm going to try and get back everything on track. We'll see if I'll go insane first or i completely collapse from exhaustion.