Marieke says I need to update my blog...

Yup, my mom has given up on it, but Marieke keeps working on me. I was shown this yesterday and had wanted to do it anyways, so here goes:

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses (I am too dense to figure out how to underline)
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice (an all time favorite)
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies (to be fair, I'm currently reading it)
War and Peace
Vanity Fair

The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations

American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (own but never actually read)
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West (in my pile currently out from library)

The Canterbury Tales
The Historian: a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist (underline - doh)
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel (finished it on the plane home from my conference in Geneva last month: it has been sitting on my book shelf for years)
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye (underline!)
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

The big 5-0

I have been beating myself up over my thesis. I have been told to add 2 more subjects at this point in time which means have to take quite a few steps backwards in data analysis. I ran extra subject #1 on Thursday (and will point out how deeply in love I am with our now properly working indirect calorimeter) and will run subject #2 in just over a week.

I have been very hard on myself with the writing process because I have been "still on chapter 1" for months. This morning I compiled what I have so far for chapter 1 (I need to finish one small section and add a summary and summarizing diagram): I have over 50 pages and 185 references for chapter 1. I am still "still on chapter 1" but at least am feeling like I have done something substantial.

I have gotten some knitting done (the snowbeast is getting to be beastly in size and I have lots of little squares to piece together for the baby blanket). There will be photos too - as soon as someone gets her act together and recharges her camera batteries.

PS: note to my mother. You will be so proud of me: I went shopping and bought new jeans and 3 tops to replace the clothes you were disgusted about last week (I have a graduate student wardrobe of very old scruffy clothing - it fits, most of my nice clothes from when I was doing clinical work were purchased when I weighed 20 pounds less and somehow don't fit so great and I spend way too much time working with things in a biochem lab that are best worked with in old clothes - my mother was not impressed with my falling appart jeans and t-shirts she recognized from when I was in high school...). I can even post photos when my camera is recharged.

Snow, resiliance, fire alarms and crochet

It is almost spring (as is completely obvious when you look outside). This weekend, we have had another 51cm of snow (which, based on my math, has us within 40cm of the city's all time record). I love the attitude I'm seeing to this weather. There is a big case of cabin fever going on. Apparently, a press release was sent out urging people to stay home unless absolutely necessary. Normally, I'd figure, okay, cool, I've got food and supplies, it's Saturday, sure I can stay home. I was sick of staying home so grabbed my gym stuff, went to work out and to my favorite nearby coffee place, figuring I'd be the only one crazy enough to be out so would get a table with one of the highly coveted outlets for my computer. The place was packed to standing room only. Apparently everyone was sick of being cooped up and, despite there being other perfectly acceptable chain coffee shops within a block, everyone felt that for going out in this weather, they deserved to get their coffee in the prefered location. There's also great anxiety to reach this record-breaking 447cm mark. If we are still suffering through this snow in March, we'd might as well be able to brag about living through the record-breaking winter of 2008.



I tried to show that the snowbank behind me goes up to my shoulders. I was having troubles setting up the camera and it was too cold and snowy to be too persistant.

So, at the tail-end of the snow, my building's fire alarm went off. Surprisingly, fire trucks arrived through the snow by the time I had backed up my thesis work on my portable hard drive (typical grad student - must save data) and packed up Casey. Casey sat by the door as soon as the alarm started, as if she were waiting for instructions. She was less thrilled when I shoved her into her bag and started down all the stairs. The fire alarm stopped by the time I made it to the 16th floor so I got to turn around and let Casey go recover.


Recovering.

Finally, I did some needlework: here's the March square from my crochet blanket and the blanket so far.



And this is Boris. He is a slug (can you tell I was snowed in and sick of working last night?).

Neurosurgery... Who'd have thunk it?

I have spent the past week perusing neurosurgical journals because the part of my literature review on the effects of cold exposure on cytokines seems to be mostly covered there (a lot of work on how post-traumatic/post-stroke cooling may modify inflammatory and hence neurological outcome).

Got to admit, I like the brevity of the neurosurgical articles (compared to the longer more detailed methods sections found in the physiology journals that I have recently become so well-acquainted with) but I am really really not keen on reading any more on mouse models of head trauma and am really questioning if there isn't anything out there that may be more relevant to what I'm doing...



This is my brain on neurosurgical mouse hypothermia literature. Questions?

Why write your thesis...

...when you can make it into an interpretive dance?

Be sure to scroll down to the video player and watch the entries - they are pretty fantastic...

You know I'm wondering if I could skate mine, right? And trying to figure out music...

Ice Ice, Baby and Hot, Hot, Hot? Now to incorporate inflammation and metabolism...

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

Is it hooky if the supervisors organized it?

Here was the lab outing to Gatineau Park last Wednesday:

My new quote to live by

In my Saturday morning skating classes, I give my 4 year old group stickers at the end of every class as a reward for working hard and as something to look forward to. One little boy is particularly fond of "sticker time". This week, I had the group working on skating backwards. He stops suddenly and looks at me:

"I don't feel like doing that. Can't you just give me a sticker instead?"

That is my new line to live by. Just think of its uses with:

- Lab equipment maintenance
- Dealings with thesis committee
- Being asked to grade papers
- Personal trainers who think you should do push ups
...

Really, the possibilities are just endless.

Still Alive!

My mom phoned last week concerned that my blog had not been updated in awhile. It being a week later and there are still no new entries in my blog, I figured I should do something, even if just to convince my family that I am still alive and breathing. I also have pictures to upload (ooohhh...).

So, it's been busy on the MSc front. I'm counting down the number of ELISA kits I have left to run (1 TNF, 1 insulin, 1 total adiponectin, 1 HMW adiponectin... unless we also decide to run IL-1beta which I'm starting to wonder about and then I need to do 2 of those too). All that to say, I am approaching where I will have all my numbers and can start my stats. I'm also driving myself a little batty with my decision to redo my review of literature chapter (it's a long process). My evenings have largely consisted of writing until I'm ready to drop and then curling up in bed with a novel (hence why my 50 books list keeps growing).

I made 2 new squares for my blanket: both in what I was hoping were the right color scheme for the project spectrum fire theme. They may be a little too pink for that but it's what I have and I want to use yarn that I already have for the blanket (though there may be a yarn swap coming up and seeing as a lot of people seem keen to get their "icky acrylic stuff" off their hands, I may be able to score some more bits for the blanket. Have not done much more knitting besides taking the snow beast out to SnB this week for a bit.




Besides that, what with it being winter and all (minus 16 celcius), I've suddenly got little brown ants in my appartment (go figure). At least all my food has already been bug-proofed. I've just had to move Casey's bowl (I sprinkled baby powder around it too, based on something I"d read online - may have helped: her food has been ant-free since I did that) and borax ant traps are my new favorite thing in the whole wide world.

I managed a quick trip to Winterlude last weekend and got some photos of the ice sculptures. I wanted to try photograph them lit up at night but my batteries died before it got dark enough (plus, it was cold...). I've got photos on my little Kodak from the lab snowshoe outing last week but they will have to wait.

Obsessing over undergrad eating habits

My main job this semester is TAing a nutrition class. The main assignment for that class is a very detailed food diary assessment. I've had all sorts of interesting questions to field (my current favorite is "I ate an orange and forgot to weigh it. What do I do?????" - it was so tempting to tell the student to restart her diary the next day but I was kind and explained that she ate the evidence and could therefore make up a reasonable weight for her orange). I am currently grading the diaries. It really is like going through someone's diary. I have been so tempted to write comments like "You had HOW MANY Coors Lights?" and "No, my dear, you can not live off of nothing but Timbits" or, alternately "Is that all you ate??? That's like half your daily recommended calorie intake." I have to keep reminding myself that it is not my job. I am an impartial marker, not a physician in this situation.

February's square

For the block a month crochet-along that I'm doing, February has a heart theme. I really wasn't big on the hearts but want to crochet the same pattern as everyone else so tried to find a color scheme that would be less Valentine-ish without being garish.

Feeling crafty

Perhaps inspired by actually getting somewhere with the thesis (whew), I got a second wind with the crafty-creative stuff. I'm taking part in a 1ft square crochet block a month activity on Ravelry (the idea is that by December, you have at least enough blocks to make a small blanket (several more ambitious people in that group are aiming much higher). I finally got around to making my January block (whew! before the February one is announced:



The sand dollar sweater is also progressing:



That's the back AND the 2 upper front panels. I am wondering if the neckline will have more decoltage than my bussoms will handle but I figure I should be able to add a border if necessary once assembly is completed.

I also found this which sounds pretty awesome and will definately take part:

Project Spectrum

I am wondering if I can combine it with the blanket project and make extra blocks for each element theme (I'm thinking placing them as corners of the blanket). Thought I also want to do something with photography and perhaps try out some other creative outlets.

First up: Fire!

Thesis - hold gravy please

So, I pretend to be sometimes writing a knitting blog but really, as venting over research has cut off my knitting time (I may be finished piece 3 of Sand Dollar pullover, I just need to sit down with the measuring tape and other piece that needs to be the mirror image of this one as my quick knitting update - Amanda and I have a night of knitting planned for Friday so there should be more to come).

So I had the meeting with the supervisors regarding my need to revamp the thesis. We now have a new thesis plan sans gravy. It's the same project but instead of doing 4 arms, we're doing 2 and in arm number 2 I will have 4 subjects instead of 6. Meaning... I can start analysing my bloodwork (woohoo!) and writing (woohoo!).

Conversation that occured right at end of meeting:

Overambitious supervisor: Okay, that will be fine for your thesis. However, it would be really cool to look at lipids in (now non-existant). Are you sure you don't want to do extra 12 trials and lipid measurements for fun?

Me: Yes, it will be a cool project FOR SOMEONE ELSE.

Overambitious supervisor looks a little taken aback but as I do not think I've ever said no to more work from him and was looking rather desperate (were those real sparks shooting out of my eyes?), he didn't push.

Really to start the final push. Good thing I have Casey to help me out with some final research and fact checking.



In other news, I have a new haircut (okay, 2 weeks old now). I have been told I now have as much hair as a normal person does.



And now for my sad photo of the day, i found this at the lab yesterday:



That is right, good Christmas candies. And not just any good Christmas candy: overambitious prof's Christmas present from me. I left it for him a month ago. He never retrieved it (how can that survive in our lab where people eat Smarties out of pillboxes). I took it with me to our alternate lab where he spends more time and have been debating which note to leave on his office door:

Option 1:

"Dear over-ambitious prof,

I am concerned about the freshness of your Christmas present. Please retrieve it within the next 24 hours or my fellow lab monkeys and I will have to consume it for quality control reasons. DJ"

Option 2:

"Dear overambitious prof,

Your Christmas gift was getting lonely. It is currently hanging out with me in my cubicle. Please come retrieve it. DJ"

Number 2 is nicer, especially as I was nearly spitting sparks at his the other day but those candies sure do look tasty...

The Case of the Missing Smarties Continues

So, upon return to lab, I interogated my suspects, to no avail:

Suspect #1: "I didn't do it but that is so awesome. I'd have totally confessed if I'd done it because that's just too funny."

Suspect #2: "What?? There were smarties???"

Suspect #3: "No, I didn't but I am hungry. Got any more?"

Help! I'm drowning...

I am exausted. I am on my last day of extended-vacation-which-was-not-really-extended-vacation-because-I-brought-work-which-I-have-been-disciplined-about-doing-even-if-I-only-manage-to-start-in-earnest-at-11pm-and-then-can-not-figure-out-why-I-am-exausted-the-next-morning. Whew... When can I go on vacation.

So what am I working on?

1-) I am trying to salvage my thesis. My trials are either not happening at all, getting cancelled last minute or getting sabotaged by suicidal data-acquisition systems. I have spent 7 months working on the gravy for my thesis that is probably not necessary but would be nice for publication and have gotten nowhere. Trouble is, I can't go nowhere. Funding runs out by summer and I'm applying for PhD programs for this fall. I am hence trying to re-plan my thesis, hold the gravy.

2-) Research article. This is key. If my thesis is non publishable without the gravy and I am holding the gravy, publications are required from other projects. Lucky for me, I have spread myself very thin and have lots of other projects in the works. I am currently slaving over the discussion of one we want to send out by the end of January. Trouble with discussions is when you do research for discussion and in every article you read, you find reference to 5 more articles that you really should read. It gets to be rather distressing.

Chemistry cat

moar funny pictures

Darn it!

I just made one of these. And I was silly enough to think it meant I might actually be getting somewhere (I... want... to... finish... this... semester...).

Though to be fair, I think my Chapter 5 is currently entitled "Why am I doing this to myself" and Chapter 6 is "This is ridiculous".

Am currently taking suggestions for catchier titles...

Of yarn and birds

I have been having fun playing with the zoom in my new camera around my dad's bird feeders (though perhaps I have not had as much viewing enjoyment as Casey has been having).



I'm starting off a new sweater (Sand Dollar Pullover from Knitting Nature). I have completed 2 of the 7 pieces (not looking forward to sewing it together). I have also begun a new baby gift and true to my word, it is non-pastel!

moar funny pictures

moar funny pictures

Meltdown!

So, our insanely high snowbanks are melting due to unseasonal conditions. As the snow is still covering the ground, guess where all the melt off is going? Yup, my parents' basement. And as the stand-in for my dad while he is in Mexico (sigh), guess who gets to bail the basement? Yup, me.

I figured I was heading for my own meltdown wth the bailing, my questioning what on earth I am doing with my thesis (grr... hit research frustration point...) and unexpectedly 2 day early PhD phone interviews (when the confirmation e-mail said the 9th, it really meant to say the 7th), I thought I was approaching my own meltdown.

I then got this e-mail from un-named student in un-named class of 200 that I am now TAing. I have come to conclusion that I am not melting down but have instead entered some strange universe:

I have a huge favor to ask. I am in blank class on Monday nights and we have a midterm scheduled for Monday the 25th of February. I already booked tickets for a concert that night. I was hoping I might be able to write it the week before reading week.(week of the 11th-15th) There will be no other material covered. If you want my schedule for that week I can send it to you as well. I really hope this is a possibility and will work out.

I sat there for awhile with my jaw dropped. Seriously? You even ask? This would require a whole second midterm exam to be written. This is a large class. If we reschedule a midterm for a concert, I really would not be fair to say no to any requests no matter what the reasoning behind them. My head began to spin, causing Casey to run and hide...

Side effects of black licorice medication...

So, after buying that big bag of Goodies to vengefully fill my pillbox (hey! they work great! they're capsule shaped and I could color code them: white is AZT, green is Gravol, yellow is neurontin... I made a key with pill, color, dosage and what they are for to go with my demo), I took the remaining candy home with me in a good sized tupperware container. My mom and I emptied it over the course of 24 hours (when she gave me a list of groceries to pick up today, she added more licorice to the list... think I created a monster?).

I signed up for a read 50 books in 2008 challenge (started keeping track of my tally on the blog) via Ravelry. I'm hoping to get a little more sophisticated than Janet Evanovich (though I do love my Janet Evanovich). I'm currently reading Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez and am really having a hard time putting it down.

Dear Smartie thief,

I will have you know that I am not impressed with your antics. I had my Smartie-filled pillbox put together to demonstrate the number of pills an HIV patient is required to take as such:



You can understand my disgust and annoyance when I retrieved it from the lab today (while rushing to get my Lets Talk Science HIV presentation ready to roll on quite short notice).




Yes! That's right! Empty! Shocking...

I understand chocoholism and desperation (perhaps during MCAT preparation?) but you really have reached quite the low considering that the above pill box and the above Smarties have been handled by over 300 fifteen year olds.

I was required to go buy candy (oh woe is me!) and fill it today. Please note the candy I selected.



I have my short-list of suspects and as this must be an inside job and I am quite certain that I am the only person in the lab who likes black licorice (having gotten many a black jelly bean because of that), I am hoping that, even in times of great desperation, candy-covered licorice will be safe.



Next time you feel the need to eat a scientific teaching tool, would you please have the decency to refill it after your time of crisis has passed?

Sincerely,
The angry yet amused Doc Jock