Do you like George Wendt?

So just wondering Pinkie: are you serious about wanting to go sky diving? Because I was talking to a friend who's gone before this past week, and it would cost 175 bucks--plus 40 if you want pictures and videos taken during--but I totally want to do it. I was thinking as part of my Fun Week 2007 list. You drop for a mile, then float with the parachute out for another mile. Apparently it's not so much scary as it is just peculiar feeling. And of course the first few times you go you have to be strapped to an experienced sky diver. Do I have any other takers? Let's take a survey.

Science Shmyence.

I guess it's been a while. I actually have quite a few things I would like to write about, but no time to do so. And actually I can't really think of them write now, as my memory is horrible, but I have some of the things that have happened to me this past week--that I would like to address-- written on a post-it somewhere. So that will have to wait. But not to worry; the time will come.

Right now I'm at the Marriot Library on Campus, but I really need to be at home doing my homework. I have 2 chapters for Genetics I need to read, and I need to start on my problem sets. I also have my O Chem Lab tomorrow, so I have to write up a pre-lab or something. I get so stressed out about labs. They're only worth half a credit, yet they take up most of your life. 4 hours of my week...only I'm hoping for it to only take up 2...then again with pre-labs and post-lab write-ups I'm betting on at least 4. Funny that I'm a scientist and yet I dread the actual part of my major that makes up what a scientist is. I simply don't like being rushed, yet I hate standing still for more than a half hour at a time, and the whole being graded to experiment thing is still a concept that eludes me. I mean, the exciting thing about experimenting is the not having bounds for learning, getting hands on experience, and the possibility of discovering something new or that will help your understanding of the world to widen. I mean, basic rules will keep you from burning off your hand (which is something I definitely appreciate), but if you're so worried about not getting something exactly right (because you'll be marked down for it), that it affects your ability to get it exactly right... It really is just me. Hopefully I'll get over it and in the future labs will intimidate me less. Maybe having a lab partner I know will help with that. She is pre-med; but I still wonder just how good she is at the lab part of these classes, having never seen how she does at such things.

That said, I really should be going. I just spent 70 bucks on my lab book and lab notebook. I'm a little irritated right now. Of course, I came from Institute before then, which was good, so that helped a little. And before that I went shopping with my sister. I really hate shopping, and she really hates shopping with me, but it had to be done. I needed pants, after tripping down the cement stairs at my house and ripping my only decent pair, and that was accomplished. Randomly we ran into my oldest sister and her two youngest kids, and her oldest, at the mall. I hate the mall. Anyway, she lives in Lindon, so that was really weird, but we had just been talking about how we wanted to hang out with Jessilee moments earlier, and suddenly there he was...so that was fortunate. My one-year-old niece Charity only likes me when I give her food, so thankfully I was holding a cinnamon sugar pretzel. Dallin refuses to hug me, or let me take pictures of him, except sometimes he randomly will--little punk. Jess realizes through years of experience that not hugging his aunties and letting us pinch his cheeks will only get him sandwiched. We went to the Dinosaur portion of the mall, and they seemed to have fun. Charity followed Dallin around saying, "where's Dallin?" whenever she lost sight of him. She totally adores the kid, who is 3 and largely ignores her; I simply can't imagine idolizing my brother in such a way--I managed to repress most of the memories that included him before his mission, which helps me to not hold anything against him now. He turned out to be an amazing person, but boy did he have a long way to go. Finally my little sis and I went to Best Buy, where she bought me 3 movies, and I was happy. But it took forever, which was my fault because I can't make decisions on my own, and my day went by with much on my list unaccomplished. I ultimately had my sister pick out the clothes she thought I should buy, because I'm so bad at doing that, and then after trying them on and showing them to her I just bought what she told me to. I like not having to think about these things, because I rarely like clothes I pick out myself. The clothes I like best I stole from siblings, and thus were selected by them. I'd now like to take the time to say that I seem to remember a certain roommate telling me once that she would be happy to be the person to do my shopping for me, and I would then just buy what she told me to; so I would just like to remind her of that promise right now for future instances.

And now I really do have to go. Thankfully I don't have work this week, so I'll be able to stay up late doing homework. Ooh, and even though buying books made me sad, I did buy a new little key-chain highlighter as well as the marker at the bookstore to replace the ones I lost. Also some little flash cards on a key-ring that will come in handy for O Chem reactions, names, and elements. I really do love shopping for office supplies--it's the only kind of shopping I like.

The Tonka Man

This past weekend I got to go camping with my fam. It was all of my siblings (though not all for the same amounts of time), my nieces and nephews, the parents, Grandma-ma, and my dad's siblings and their children. I got to fish a lot. Just me, my vest, and my pole in a fishing intertube in the middle of the lake. And my 12-year-old nephew nearby saying in a very high, purposefully obnoxious, and may I say British-sounding, voice "I don't have time for such trivial matters" (think, "Boo-kay residence, lady of the house speaking"). The name of this post is what he used to call himself when he was 3. So this weekend I ended up unhooking all of his fish, because for some reason he can't, but that's what I told him when he tangled up his line. It was his problem, he was and is perfectly capable of dealing with it, and that's where I drew the line. But of course he's a punk, and he had this high pitched laugh/chuckle to go along with the phrase--both of which made me laugh. He's kind of my favorite most days.

So I never manage to go four-wheeling when I camp. I mean, I go on them as a passenger, but I never remember how to drive them. It's like driving a stick, only complicated, and when I never practice the skills once I learn them I forget them right away, every time. I spend too much time fishing with my dad I guess. I love out-fishing him, which I definitely accomplished this weekend.

My nephew ended up staying with us the last night we were there, even though his family went home that afternoon. I love playing card games while camping, and I love playing card games with him in particular, mainly because of this one time when he was ten. We were playing Uno and he kept saying, "I choose Cazelle, the mythical beast, in attack mode!" every time he put down a card (It's some Yu-Gi-Oh! Card or another). He was trying to be annoying, he succeeded in being annoying--even though it was somewhat amusing--and fortunately he's now sufficiently embarrassed about once liking Yu-Gi-Oh! that whenever we play card games I can yell, "I choose Cazelle, the mythical beast, in attack mode!" whenever I put a card down, and I embarrass/annoy him just enough to make him laugh and say something snide to me, which makes me laugh and is my goal. Could I have made a longer sentence? Possibly not.

So while camping I ended up playing Killer Bunnies with him, my little sister, and my now-brother-in-law (That kind of sounds like I don't expect him to be for much longer, but really I'm just saying that because I'm so used to calling him my almost-brother-in-law). It's totally the kind of game they all would like, because of the sheer randomness of it all. It got pretty late pretty fast, and we ended up playing most of it by lantern light. Big drawback: there were moths everywhere. I actually coped quite well with just knowing they were there, but every time one flew near me I screamed bloody murder. My dad wasn't happy, because people were trying to sleep, but it wasn't conscientiously done.

Then I got a lecture from my Grandma about drinking caffiene; much better than her lectures about bare mid-drifts, even though I've never worn anything that would bare my mid-drift...although those conversations are more amusing. My Grandma makes me laugh...not intentionally of course. But she's so worried about things that won't happen. Actually I don't know why the stomach fetish. Anti-fetish maybe? Once she told me I was going to get stomach pneumonia when I tossed one of my 1 year old neices in the air (still holding on of course) and my sweater happened to rise ever so slightly. Oblivious that I am, not only did I not have any idea what she was refering to, but my thoughts were as follow: #1 (which I happened to say)-"I can't get pneumonia; I've had a shot" and #2 (which I thought to myself after I said the first)-'I don't think there is such a thing as stomach pneumonia.' Fortunately my mother was nearby and, after rolling her eyes at my confused expression, she informed me about what I'd missed. It's always interesting with my Grandmother around. She loves to talk, so fortunately I didn't end up driving with her on the way home. I love to hear her talk, but I had homework, and considering we're already the rebel non-BYU family of the bunch, I bet she would have had words about me studying on a Sunday.

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

This is about the coolest video I've ever seen, which my friend Sheidi sent me at work. Kind of random, which is why it's so awesome. Definitely unique. I kind of just laugh watching it, and I guess they filmed it in one take, so props to them.

The Naked Bench Where A Machine Once Stood.

I feel there should be a chalk outline or something. Although it's not dead...That's just hopeful wishing. And I guess there is an outline of sorts. You can't have something somewhere for 3 years, then expect there not to be a pile of clutter underneath once it's moved.

I never realized how loud the copy machine/printer was at work until this morning. Until now it was overshadowed quite a bit by its big brother. Man it feels weird to have that thing all the way across the lab. And in pieces too. It's nice that they left it all unassembled, without so much as a note or a phone message to tell me it's down, and I don't know, maybe when the ideal time for me to come into work today would have been. As it is I'm here now, with nothing to do, and there will be a lot of twiddling of my thumbs, but without the actual twiddling, because that takes effort. So what am I doing till then? Messing around on the computer. That's right. They actually need to move this thing next to the instrument eventually, because right now there's a lot of walking between building the run, and running the run. But for now, I'm just sitting here, keeping myself company with the click clack of the computer keys.

I think my bench does that too much on slow days, prompting my supervisor to say, "well, when you guys move to a high profile area, you won't be able to do that..." We'll see about that. If I had the work to do, I'd do it dude, but until someone cares enough to leave it for me, thank goodness for the internet. I'm the only one here so early, so really I'm stumped as to who I should even ask to give me menial labor. I used to pester my old manager to find me stuff to do on slow days, and he usually said, "let me think about it," then forgot all about it. Oh, I got the occasional project, but after I had to write the stupid Procedure for our bench...I stopped asking him for things to do. I am a little surprised that micro-manager didn't leave me a note or something. I got a lovely message on my phone during my off week telling me when to come in yesterday. Huh.

Really to make up all my hours I should have come in a half hour earlier. I don't feel too worried though, because yesterday we had a group meeting that went long, and I was here 2 hours longer than I thought I would be, just for that (Plus for our quarterly gift they gave everyone 200 bucks, which is infinitely better than a ruler with a calculator on it). I love meetings where they have food. There were m&m cookies (which in my opinion are the only ones that need to be present on most occasions, certainly any where store bought cookies are aggragating), some sort of little apple pastries (which were delightful), and fruit with chocolate dipping sauce. I think they're starting to get the idea of what pleases the workforce, after taking away all the chocolate in the vending machines. That still ticks me off. If I'm going to be healthy, it'll be because I want to, not because ACME Labs is forcing me to be. And I really do think chocolate is a daily must. Speaking of which, I brought my own, and I think if nothing else is detaining me I could totally take a break right now just for that.

A Fond Farewell, Which Doubtless Would Be Fonder If We Could Leave It At That.

I never thought this day would come. The UniCAP 1000, after a year of deliberation, planning, and no follow-throughs, it's finally moved to its new home at the front of the Immunology division. Before we were in a very small, hidden away corner by shipping and handling...I already miss it. Now we will be in a highly visible area, which will make it harder for me to do my homework, and play Freecell on my down-time. It will also be harder to hide from CAP inspections, which were already made more unpredictable by the fact that they're no longer scheduled. I will also miss the Protein section, which is comprised of many of my favorite people. Jocky will have to travel quite a bit further to tell us we have red lights on our instrument, which happens any time anything goes empty--which is several times a day. He likes to point out the redundant and remind us that "things went a lot smoother in my day, when I was in charge of the Allergen bench." He's so quiet, yet cynical...And as such he makes me laugh. However, we will be moving to where the up-front techs are, and I enjoy quite a few of them, so it won't be that bad. It would be better if Golden Boy still worked here, but you can't have everything.

In other news, which is so similar to the first news that its really in fact part of the first news...Wait for it...

we're getting yet another UniCAP 1000.

Somehow it seems like it should have it's own line. 3 years spent suppressing the desire to beat it in with a baseball bat, and now all I get is suppressed anger that will now be duplicated by 2. Add that with working for Scooter, who everyone considers the second most common thing I yell at stupid drivers...Let's just say it's not looking good. I think the towel is about to be thrown in, although what I throw it at and where I'll get a new towel has yet to be seen. It actually should be nice, especially on days when things go wrong, but I know for a fact that with two of them the probability of something going wrong is now twice as great. Not to mention there's bound to be a day when they both go down, and both will be beeping simultaneously, only one beat off from each other, so it will be one loud continuous beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!

I know, half empty, but I do have to baby-sit the thing, and now there are two of them. And as a wise man once said, "No two things are not on fire."

Just a bunch of stuff said to fill up space.

So first of all I just have to say, I hate Macs. I'm in the Marriot Library (I know, dorky considering it's Labor Day and I have no school), and all they have are Macs. I go to post a comment, and it takes forever for it to tag to the site. I'm hoping it will let me post a post, because last time I couldn't tell for a day. But I love this library, and I plan to sit in it and study till...well, I don't know, but for a while.

Anyway, Now that I'm back from camping I feel obligated to say something profound. Or at least two very dull things. I guess I could start with my birthday week. Duckling covered the day before quite adequately, so I won't say much about that. Except that eye make-up looks terrible on me. At least when too drastic of colors are involved. I look like a raccoon; but the facials were nice. The movie was questionable, but I'll let that one go.

On my actual birthday I spent most of the day doing nothing whatsoever. It was awesome. I slept in because I had no school or work (so till about 8), and then I went to the gym for 2 hours. The guy at the door that swiped my card was the first to wish me Happy Birthday. Brilliant strategy, having that pop up when you swipe the thing--I didn't know the guy, but I was particularly impressed with my gym at that moment. I ran 4 and 1/2 miles, which is what I've been stuck at for the last week, but regardless I felt really good after. Then I got home and showered was then taken out to lunch by 3 of my good friends from London. We went to Rubios, where I finally tried one of the fish tacos Traves told me to, and wonder of all wonders they had Vanilla Coke there. I let out a pretty well-developed gasp, and received some looks, but I was so happy I didn't care who knew it. I got a chicken burrito that had a lot of stuff in it, including avocado, so that with the coke made me highly satisfied with the whole outing-- more so because it was free. Then I went home and studied, or tried to before I got a really nice accidental nap in there, and at 340 I went to my Institute class. It was a pretty interesting lesson, though surprising at moments. So surprising that it would be awkward to write about. Then Sheidi, who is in my class, took me out to icecream. Mmmnnn...Almond pistachio.

That night I played Killer Bunnies at the game store with Davey, Pinkie, and Frogkisser. They gave us the best chocolate chip cookies from the bakery down the street, and we played with a bunch of complete strangers. It was awesome. I bought the game forever ago, and I had no idea how to play it till then. I'm still a little unsure about a lot of it, but whatever you don't know you just make up. But any game where you sit there and try to off each others bunnies-- in some pretty inventive ways I must admit...way up there on my list. I recommend it to all. We only played one game, but I had more homework to do and class the next day, so that was that. We opted not to do dinner, because I had been eating junk all day and was far from hungry, but I did get the best cake ever from FK, which the guy at the game store let us light inside. I guess I should say that he let us light the candles on the cake, not the actual cake itself, which would have been pretty awesome but both wasteful and hazardous. I also bought the first booster deck for my game (it's a pretty advanced card type game), because it was 15% off and I had game store money that they sent to me which happened to expire that day.

I spent the last few hours of my birthday, and the two proceeding it, studying Genetics. All in all, not a bad day. My weekend was very good, but I'll probably at least mention it later, so for now I really need to get back to studying. I had an ah-ha moment last night, so I'm pretty excited. Good considering my first test is this coming Friday, and I go back to work tomorrow.