It’s Thanksgiving break!

That means that I get to spend time with the family, the kid, and some family members who come in from out of town.

Yay!!!!

And all I have to work on is two presentations, a paper and about three dozen insects to sort through.

Seriously…I love insects, I really do. They were my first introduction to science and they have some of THE coolest adaptations to life on earth.

Did you know that some Chironomids can actually survive being freeze-dried?

Did you know that some male parasitoid wasps need to develop as parasitoids inside female wasps…eventually killing them?

Did you know that the viruses which disable the immune systems of caterpillars infested by braconid and ichneumonid wasps actually do this by forcing the caterpillar to produce proteins which mimic proteins used in innate immunity and downregulate the immune system by tricking it into thinking nothing at all’s happening?

They’re the most incredible animals on earth!

But, honestly…taking 17 hours at a time sucks. It SUUUUCKS! I can’t say that enough.

Still, though…it’s really rewarding. Like when you look over your grades from one of your classes and realize that you’ve only missed one point in the whole damn lab. Or when you bring up a random subject like codon bias and make one of your professors think of something they never realized before.

Or when a girl in class is waiting for a moth to hatch from her pupa and gets an ichneumonid wasp instead, and you turn dissapointment into wonder by explaining what exactly just happened (from oviposition to eclosion, no less).

Or when you become the life of a party by explaining malaria’s role in maintaining sickle-cell anemia through the heterozygote advantage after drinking half a bottle of Jager.

Then, you realize exactly how incredible everything is all over again.

This semester’s been a lot of fun, but it’s been a lot of work. I’ve been religiously observing no-sleep Tuesdays and Three-Hour Nap Wednesdays. I have absolutely no idea how I’ve kept going, but I have…and it’s been working (kind of).

After this week, I have three weeks of school. Then I start my last semester at Iowa State. I don’t know what I’m going to do after I graduate yet…I’m either going to graduate school or applying for vector biology jobs in Florida.

We’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, check out this post about Wolbachia at The Butterfly Diaries! It links back to one of my older posts at my old blogspot blog. Probably not my best science writing, as it was mainly a practice blog…but that’s not necessarily for me to decide. Read it, see what you think.

Oh…and something I never explained in the post they link to: The Toll proteins.

The Toll proteins are proteins which float around in the cytoplasm of a cell bound to each other. When they hit something like bacterial lipopolysaccharide, they separate and move to the nucleus and act as transcription factors for genes involved in various immune system pathways. Insects actually have very similar systems and this part of the immune system is very highly conserved.

Anyways, there’s your weekly smattering of my brainpan onto the interwebs. Enjoy!

Oh…and for the record, I am actually working on something awesome.

So, it’s been almost a month since I lost my job. Have I found a new one yet? Nope. Have I received unemployment yet? Nope.

Lately, I have just been going to school and wasting m time where ever I can. Most of my free time has been spent with Mox, as it’s always nice to be around him. But the times I’m not at school or with the boy are rather boring. My even more open schedule still clashes with that of people I want to hang out with, which obviously, sucks.

The job search is going ok for the most part. So far I’ve only been applying for things at UNM, but no one seems to want to interview my, which kinda blows. I’m really hoping something comes my way soon. As far as outside of UNM, the only place I have considered lately is Costco, but I don’t know if that is something I will like or not as I kinda want away from the retail setting for a bit.

As of right this moment? I’m sitting at CNM, a school I don’t even attend, simply to waste some time. My ultimate goal of being here is to meet up with some friends, but that all depends, again, on what they are doing.

So for now, I just continue on, wasting the time that has just been thrown to me.

So y’all are familiar with the New-Age movement where any old bullshit is accepted and respected as a religion, right?

Well, some of these loonies think the world’s going to end in 2012 based only on the misinterpretation of a Mayan Calandar.

Okay…so there’s a Facebook Group called ‘Shut Up, The World Won’t End in 2012‘ which was apparently formed to criticize this belief.

Woohoo, right? Another skeptic willing to stand up to vacuous bullshit?

Well, not entirely. Here’s their latest status message:

I’d like to say that this page wasn’t created to be a debate between religion. I don’t care whether you belive in god or not, or if you believe he has anything to do with the world ending, I just don’t want this turned into religious combat. This was created based on scientific facts, no matter if there is a god or not. Good Day. (Not offensively meant, people have their right to believe what they wish to believe.)

If you look at the discussion page, it’s chock-full of religious apocalypse predictions.

I mean, I know…right? You just created a page intended to combat a widespread belief based on no evidence whatsoever. You didn’t intend this to turn into a religious debate….really!

Look…anytime you post some sort of insane mystical bullshit, you have to expect the religious to flock to it. It’s what they tend to do. When the religious get all hot and bothered over something insane, the skeptics are going to flock to it with the intention of snickering rudely. It’s what we tend to do.

If you’re willing to criticize one insane belief, you pretty much have to be willing to criticize them all. A lot of these insane beliefs tend to be coalesced around religion in one way or another, and criticizing these crazy beliefs often involves criticizing religion. If you don’t have the balls to criticize religion, you certainly don’t have the balls to criticize the many, many, many, many crazy beliefs that are somewhat or entirely religious in nature.

Welcome to the internet, idiot. Methinks someone got his toes stepped on.

Today was my 4 month anniversary with my boyfriend. Really, when you start of dating, every month is a new achievement towards a great relationship, and so you celebrate each one, no matter how lame it might sound.

First, let me say that I have a wonderful boyfriend. He’s cute, extremely intelligent, and a very special person to me.

Past relationships I have had come nowhere close to the one I have with him. At all. Therefore, I try everything I can to not mess up, even in the slightest. He’s worth that much to me and I would be so lost without him.

Other relationships in the past have failed because of me. The past two I have had felt like they were going great, but actually were not. I was dumped twice, and I know that I was the cause of it. Even though there was never a clear explanation given, I just have this deep down feeling inside of me that I was somehow to blame, even if they said I wasn’t. And I cried. I cried so hard that I thought I might die. And I never cry, for anything.

So tonight, my boyfriend had planned a nice night in for us. Cooked me dinner and had a surprise for me afterwords. I was so super excited that my class beforehand was just dragging on and on and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

It was during my class that I received a text message from a friend in need of a ride home from work. He doesn’t have a car, just a bike, and his girlfriend was off having dinner with her dad that she never sees. Well, I also try to be a good friend and decided that I could take him home. Luckily, my class let out early, and I had a little extra time, but still knew I was going to make it to my boyfriend’s house a little late.

So I sped all over the place to get my friend home. I knew the clock was ticking. With the extra time I had, I was only 30 minutes late to my boyfriend’s house.

From the instant I walked in the door, I knew something was wrong. I know when something is bothering someone else, and I had it feeling it was my fault, and sure enough, it was.

What I hadn’t realized is that my boyfriend spent over two hours preparing our dinner. By the time I got there, it was cold.

My boyfriend was very upset with me for being late, as he should have been. My being late ruined all the plans he had for the night. So much to the point that there was even a surprise for me that I never got because of my tardiness.

I felt like such a jerk, and I still do even as I write this. We spent the whole night, a night that should have been a celebration of us being together and happy, upset and sad, and put in an awkward situation. I held on to him and wished that I could have gone back in time and told a friend “no” for once. I held onto him and he just looked forward. As I laid there next to him, I wanted nothing more than to cry and feel that pain inside me manifest. But it never came, and it still hasn’t.

Sometime I wonder if I am even worthy of someone like him. He treats me so well and has never given me an reason to ever be mad at him. But even for a small tiny thing to make him mad that I am the cause of makes me feel like the worst kind of person.

I want to make it up to him, but I have no idea how to do that. I want to make things better, and I never want him to be mad at me, ever. I know there will be times that we might fight or be mad at each other, but I try everything I possibly can to avoid it at all costs.

Am I still just a hopeless romantic? Have I become so broken in the past that I am ruining it all?

This is the man I love. I never never been able to say that about someone and know it wasn’t true. I have never though about moving in with someone else. I have never thought about marrying anybody else. I have never thought about spending my life with anybody else, except for him.

I changed up some things here on the good ol’ blag:

• Changed up the theme (and even added a customer header!)
• Organized my categories and tags
• Added some new pages to the place (the About and Links pages)
• Added some pizazz to the widget sidebars.

The next thing on my list for my series of WordPress blogs is to establish a staff over at the Que Sera Community and the figure out exactly what I am doing with 24101 Cassini.

For now, I guess I am just going to have to settle for some sleep time.

Every time I have to restore my phone, it takes forever to do.

This is because of 5761 songs that have to transfer to it.

The odd thing is, on my iPod, I was able to transfer over more music than than the same way, but much faster.

I don’t know what exactly it is about iPhone and iPod Touches (cause they do it too) that take sooo long to transfer over data.

It’s annoying.

If you commented on the contest post and haven’t sent me your mailing address, I need it within about a week if you want to recieve stitch markers.  Contest is closed, so no additions, but I wanted to make sure that those who posted and wanted to enter were actually entered.

If you already sent me your address, you don’t need to resend.

I just got word today that Charlie Miller died in Tokyo, I’m still not clear on all the details but apparently it related to Yakuza violence outside of a Kabukicho sex club where Gaijin are traditionally barred from entry.

Charlie was a lot of things to a lot of people. Husband, father, cyclist, researcher. Something a lot of people may not know about Charlie was his passion for polka music and his mastery of the accordion. I’ll never forget the time he got an entire barful of ShmooCon attendees to join him in a rousing chorus of “In Heaven, There Is No Beer”.

To most, though, he was that Apple 0day guy, one of the founders of No More Free Bugs, an author, an organizer of w00t (USENIX’s Workship on Offensive Technologies). The man was an encyclopedia of fuzzing and exploitation minutae, and an unrepentant advocate of researchers being compensated properly for their work.

Charlie in his natural element, pwning and owning

Still, Charlie was not without his enemies. There are those who claimed he remained a shill for the NSA and various other foreign intelligence agencies even after his departure from Fort Meade, that he saved his best 0day for his contacts in the underground, and may have been behind a number of very public breaches that (out of respect for his memory) I won’t list here. We’ll never really know.

Still, love him, envy him, or hate him, he was Charlie, and now he is no more.

I guess this is what I get for using a pirated version of Final Cut. Updating always sounds like a good idea, but not when you’re in the middle of working on a very important project and your “serial number” becomes invalid.
Solution? Uninstall and pray that you have the install files on your backup drive.

It sure has been a long time since I have had a blog. But I figured that now was a good time, being jobless and all.

I can’t really think of anything else to write for the moment, so I am just gonna kick it for now.

Sorry again for taking so long with the stitch markers… I’ve got quite a load right now. I missed two tests this past week (home sick; I’m fine now), and now have three next week since I have to make up one of them. The other is being exempted (with extra weight on the final. Yikes!). At least I don’t have four tests next week… Owww, that would hurt my poor brain.

On top of this, I’m participating in NaNoWriMo. What can I say? I look forward to it all year. I’ve got 2044 words, so I’m ahead as of 3 this morning–and have no excuse not to study.

Well, now that I’ve pointed that out, I have to stop procrastinating and get back to work… Microcontroller Interfacing notes await!

Just so you know I’m alive, that’s why I’m writing. From my Ipod, no less.

You know, when I was about 18 I joined a gym. (Bear with me, there is a point.). Like all 18-year-olds, I thought I needed to lose ~ 10 pounds, though in fact I was then ~ 10 pounds thinner than I am now, and I’m in pretty damn good shape now. But anyway, I joined a gym. When you join a gym, or when you joined a gym in the late 90’s, you are/were read a list of disclaimers when you sign up.

One of the things I was warned about lo those many years ago was “over-exercising”. Or “over-training”. Something like that. I was told that if I over did it and worked out TOO much I would start to feel dopey and tired all the time.

Well, it didn’t happen then, but I think it’s happening now. In the past three days I have spent five and a half hours on my bicycle. And I had Monday off because it was Canadian Thanksgiving. If I’d worked on Monday it would have been more than seven hours.

This is because I’ve moved across town but kept all my students from the old neighbourhood. So as well as biking between lessons I have 45-60 minutes of biking before I even start. Not that I’m complaining – I love all my students, of course, and work is work – but OW MY LEGS.

I assume I’ll adjust to it in time, but until then I’m being nice to myself, taking it pretty easy as long as I get all my practicing done. But I’m still alive. Just so you know.

Minor Seconds blog is at full ebb. Summer seems to be the slow season by far. But then last fall was when things really got cooking around here, following a similar silent phase, so–

I’d concede to feeling pretty uninspired and generally drained for a while – for reasons probably already sufficiently alluded to – but I hope to brighten the creeative corners, and fall is always a favored season for that. Whether or not this translates into swole blogging will remain to be seen…

Shortly, I creep in to 30[s]. Son of Sam Hain, get yourself back!

***
Where is my other?

***

So, I decided that, after reading XKCD religiously, that I would try to see what Randall Munroe, the creator, looks like. Well, I, sure enough, found on his wiki page a picture of him, but that wasn’t all. In the section titled “Other projects”, it lists a spin-off of the comic. Now, I already knew of one, which it didn’t include, that responds to comic 249 of “Chess Photo” (http://xkcd.com/249/). But this one responds to comic 305 “Rule 34″. I thought the comic was hilarious, but not so much the gallery that followed. I you are REALLY interested read the comic and search from there, I won’t try to help you find it. {HINT: The URL is in the comic}

Thanks to everyone who has replied to the next post down… There are still 3 slots open, and I’m just now getting started on those stitch markers.  (Hang on, double checking… *counts on fingers* Yep, 3 spaces left. )

(Yes, I’m an engineering student who forgot how to count.  At least I can still count on my fingers in binary.)

I got out of lab early so I thought I’d update before my next class.

I just finished Baby Hat #6, and took a group picture!  The sizes vary quite a bit; one of them I’m worried won’t fit on any baby’s head, one of them will probably wait in a drawer for a month or two.  I don’t spend much time around anyone under the age of 10, so I’m not really sure how big a baby’s head is.  In the picture, the DPNs (8″) and bottlecap are there for reference.  I’m not sponsored by Coca-Cola.  (If they were paying me to knit and blather about knitting, though, that’d be kind of cool.)

Tadaa!  I tried not to cling too closely to the “girls like pink and boys like blue” thing.  I was always fond of BRIGHT RED.  Well, now I like blue.  But red is still fun.

The purple (and all of these are Simply Soft Eco, by the way), aka Mulberry Mist, looks kind of rough and grey indoors, but I worked on that huge one outside for a little while… it GLOWS this really nice warm purple.  I’ll have to try to get a picture outside before I send these wherever they are going.

Interested in the patterns?  The cute froggies are based on Sammakkopipo (Ravelry pattern page)–I just used two repeats of the chart.  I don’t speak Finnish, unfortunately.  The smaller purple hat is directly from Preemie Hats for Charity (Ravelry | Pattern site).  The blue cable-ish looking one is Mock Rib and Cable Hat (Ravelry | Pattern site).  It turned out much smaller than expected, so if you knit tightly and/or only have DPNs two sizes smaller or 3 sizes bigger (like I do), you may want to add a repeat or two around. The lavender and off-white striped hat is a simple K3/P3 rib, and the green with pompom is a few rows of garter stitch, stockinette with decreases based on Preemie Hats for Charity.  (Finally, I understand why they keep getting those weird little points on top!)

Anyway, today has (so far) been much better than expected.  I stayed up pretty late studying for the test I had at 8 A.M., neglecting the homework that’s due in half an hour.  I did that homework when I got back from the test, then went to lab, which took about an hour less than the given time, and half an hour longer than I had anticipated upon reading the lab.  (I forgot to connect a jumper.  Oops.)  Amazingly, I’m not tired!  Need to eat, though.  Can’t get real food until after class.  I think I’m going to make Lee (he’s on Ravelry now!)

Well, time to get my notebooks and such back together so I can get to class on time!

Hey, guys…looks like this graduate school thing is going to be a bit longer than I thought. Took the GREs…gonna take them again. Need to apply for graduate schools, need to take care of some legal issues, and of course wrap up all of my loose ends here in Iowa.

It’s going to be a far busier semester than I thought it was going to be in addition to all this, but I’ll at least try to keep up on some of my blogging as best as I can.

One thing that I’d like to point out is a sense of irony that has come over me now that I’m looking back on my college career.

On this blog, I’ve made kind of a huge deal about how much I loved insects, and how long I’ve loved them for. I’ve always *known* I wanted to be an entomologist, and I’ve always *known* what I was going to study in college.

So, here’s where the irony comes in. When I came into college, I wanted to study phylogenetics, taxonomy and ecology. I never much cared for chemistry or math, and figured I wouldn’t be interested in biochemistry or genetics.

Then I started reading. And reading. And reading. Four years later, I’m applying to graduate schools for molecular biology and evolutionary biology. Basically all chemistry and math.

Fun, fun.

One of the biggest things that’s made me change my mind is learning about things like RNA interference, which is shown in this video below.

RNAi is really important to vector biologists, since a lot of insect-bourne viruses are RNA viruses. RNA viruses get into the cell, make both positive and negative sense RNA. Some of this inevitably ends up binding together, making the mosquito’s immune system think to itself ‘OMG UNDAR ATTAK!’ and sets into motion the chemistry explained above.

We’re just beginning to figure out how this system works. We can inject RNA which codes for the proteins involved in the RNAi pathway and actually use the pathway to silence itself to see how viruses multiply in the cell when unrestrained by the pathway…they kill the viruses, but not enough to stop them from transmitting the virus to a host. Basically, we can use RNAi and proteins which screw with the pathway (like B2…also derived from a virus) to learn more about the pathway…and potentially use it to our own ends.

You see, not all mosquitoes are the same…even within species. Some strains of the same species are very good at transmitting viruses, while other strains of the same species simply cannot transmit the virus. If we know why this is, we could perhaps modify some of the vector mosquitoes and make them non-vectors. This is a very far ways away, though…and it might not even happen in my lifetime. I hope it does…but man, we have so very much to learn about this stuff.

It’s really interesting stuff that is essentially a type of ecology I had not known about when I entered school. It also opens your eyes and makes you think differently. In the past, I had always viewed mosquitoes and other arthropods which vectored diseases as an enemy of sorts. Now I view it sort of as a hostage situation…these animals are potentially useful to us if they help us disrupt the transmission cycle of these diseases.

Anyways…that’s my college career in a nutshell. I went from telling my adviser to get me around as much chemistry as possible, only to dive into it headfirst.

Norfolk based ska/punk act Blag have 5 new songs posted on their myspace, check them out here.

A very wonderful person on Ravelry (Happy Birthday, Rosebelleknits!) has indicated that she’s going to send me a the pattern “Roo” that I’ve been drooling over…  The plan is to play with the pattern to make it fit me!  I’ll be posting on how THAT goes…

Meanwhile, it’s time to pick yarn!  I really like this yarn– Di.Ve’ Zenith.  I want washable and warm… and decided wool’s probably the way to go.  I can’t seem to pick a color, though!

So.. here’s a picture of me, which I previously posted to show off the scarf… and a picture from the pattern site.

That kid is so cute .

(It’s up to you to decide if I’m being narcissistic).

And now, for a CONTEST.

I think contest actually isn’t the best word for it, but I don’t know what else to call it.

I would like suggestions on which color to use, or suggestions for other yarns if you know of one that’s better.  (Like I said, I much prefer washable yarn–meaning I can put it in the washer, and also the dryer.  I live in a dorm, and there’s not much room for a line or a rack to dry things on.)  The first ten (10) repliers who also email me their mailing addresses will receive some homemade stitch markers (made by me, in assorted sizes).  If you are a crocheter and would like crochet stitch markers rather than knitting ones, please specify in the email–otherwise, I will assume knitting.  My email is Xlopsy.Xli@Xgmail.com.  Remove the Xs–they’re there to (try to) block spambots.  It will probably be at LEAST a week before I send these off.  I have the supplies, but not much time right now–lots of tests over the next few weeks.  So please be patient

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to study!  (I’ve a test tomorrow and a test on Friday, and tomorrow night I start work tutoring… Busy me!)

To the nice person who keeps googling me in Google cache: I’m afraid I haven’t yet deleted anything on this blog, so far.

To the nice person who looked for “svetlana loboda naked“: I was very sorry to disappoint you

To the nice persons who searched for “gay sex sendai” and “meet gay sendai“: I can tell you where the gay bar is in Kokubunchoo is if you leave a comment or something. It would be easier to search in Japanese, though 

To the nice people who constantly search for “satoshi kanazawa racist“: ILU GUYS.

Hello.
This is a blog.
Welcome to the WORLD OF TOMORROW!!!!!
It occurred to me only after writing my rather technophobic first entry that I should give some vague introduction to this pile of code.
Essentially, one man, a Mr. Norman Lewis, was responsible fo my creating this blog. Every year he tells us poor journalism students that it is essential that we get typing. Every year my Luddite ass ignores him.
However, truth be told, I love the future. I love the interactivity, connectivity, accessibility and all the other illities about the world we live in.
As a result, I figured it was time to get over this particular phobia and join the blagosphere of our dear old intertubes (copyright Al Gore.) The result is the Wal-Mart Diaries.
There is no significance to the name save one. For me, a trip to Walmart late at night is a zen experience full of fascinating people. I often go there with no purpose, much as this blog seems to lack a specific purpose.
The link is there, along with something emotionally penetrating. It’s to late in the evening to figure out just what that is yet though. So, until we meet again, welcome.

I’m still alive!  Really

Life has gotten quite busy.  Classes have started, and even though it looks on paper like I’ve nothing going on, the fact that I’ve done about 3 problems on the homework that’s due a week from now is a sign that I’m WAY behind.

I’ve just “baked” one of those 5 minute chocolate mug cakes and am waiting for it to cool so I can devour it.  Modified slightly–I used butter instead of oil, a little more vanilla, and only nuked it for 2 minutes, 30 seconds 3 minutes; I just went over and found that it was undercooked.  Hopefully, it will be more edible than the last try… the top was too dense to eat!

(Just took a bite mmmm that is wonderful.  Tastes like REAL cake!)

So I said I’d post pictures of the spinning… I haven’t worked on it since my roommate moved in (aside from showing her that I have a spindle and yes, that is yarn on it, and here’s how it’s done…).

This is the best picture I’ve managed to get of it… the lighting’s not great in here, and my camera is not happy… That is to say, I need to get batteries.

Slightly random… I thought batteries used to be sort of / kind of  / almost cheap?  Because I think that $7 for 4 AA batteries is RIDICULOUS.  Gonna go to a real store and see if they’re any cheaper.

Meanwhile, I’m working on a red scarf (Ravelry|Pattern) for when it gets cold outside, a skirt of my own design (Ravelry), and I’ve recently finished a hat (Ravelry|Pattern) for my roommate.

Anywho, I’m swiftly running out of things to say and the time to go to lab approaches.  So here are some pictures:

On the left is the bottom of the skirt, i.e. the hem.  It’s about all I’ve done, but I think it’s lovely so far… But that opinion is a bit biased.  You know.  Toward myself.

And to your right is a hat.  This hat was made by me for my roommate, and turned out very different from the pattern.  I blame it on my inability to count.

And for your edumacation… Hmm…  As I need to hurry and finish eating so I can go to lab, I’ll leave you with a link to a book (that is partially online, courtesy of Google and the authors).  The thing that I need to read in this is about springs and dashpots (mainly the dashpots).  It was brought up in class as though the professor assumed all of us Electrical Engineering students knew what a dashpot is already… so I’m looking it up.  In short, a mechanical system can be modelled using electrical circuits… A dashpot is equated to a capacitor, and a spring is equated to an inductor.  (Wikipedia links)  At least, I think that’s how it works; now I can’t find anything on these pages to verify this

Setembro 2, 2009…3:43 pm

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Dendrochronology: Tree ring dating.

I finished my socks!  I’m wearing my socks.  I’m annoying my roommate by reading everything I write out loud.  Loudly.

Pictures!

I was flipping through wikipedia.  Which is how I found this.  We started this with Shepitko and are now on that (dendrochronology).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2595/3857192483_d010996003_m.jpg