Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in chemistrykare's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
10:16 am	Home Again It's really nice getting lots of sleep at home, but it never feels terribly restful - case in point, last night. I was technically "asleep" for 11 hours. But there were these weird, weird dreams, including one where my street flooded (3 feet of rushing water) and Mike was in a boat that was swept away into the sewer system, and I had to rescue him with a garden hose. There was more to that one, and it involved other flood- and school-related things, but I don't remember them now. This transitioned into a dream involving the cast of Roswell (SciFi channel show), and a couple of people from my high school. It was set in the year 2002, and we somehow jumped forward in time to the year 2004. We landed at a high school with multiple stories and indoor corridors (a rarity in southern California). Everything there was taught in a Brave New World sort of style, where people were divided into A-E groups, and were taught accordingly. I started off in an E group, but managed to escape, and wound up in an A group, that eventually realized I wasn't supposed to be there and started chasing myself and the other people who arrived. Unfortunately, this dream repeated itself three times in roughly the same incarnation, and was really quite bizarre. In other news, they're having a Sumo championship at the LA sports center this weekend... My mom and I are seriously considering going, but we need to find a man (or men) who are also interested in going, since the neighborhood isn't very good and we want manly support. =] It's one of those rare opportunities that would be fun to see, but I'm not totally convinced that it's going to work out. Other than that, it's pretty much wedding plans and UIUC plans galore. Which I should be getting back to. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
4:26 pm	Last few days... And I actually think I'm about ready to head back to campus. Of course, another couple of days like today, and I'll certainly be ready for campus and the rest that will follow. =] (Funny, that sounds a lot like my comment after Thanksgiving break and the great oven disaster. I need to work on having more restful breaks.) Not to say that this break wasn't restful. I spent fully the first week doing nothing, sleeping 10-11 hours a night, and cooking. Actually, I spent most of break doing that, except for a few days in San Diego and a few other days shopping. Today was exciting in that I finally was able to go to the Habitat build in my town! Huzzah! After 30 minutes of waiting for the on-site coordinator to show up, and after another 30 minutes of waiting for her to figure out what we as volunteers needed to do, we were finally able to spend the rest of the day shoveling dirt and gravel! (Irrigation ditch - need I say more?) In any case, the on-site coordinator was a bit, well, construction challenged, so I wound up leading the group of myself and 4 other volunteers. It was a blast, but my body is in a bit of a "What did you just have me do?" mood. It's really unfortunate that today was the first day I could make it to the build, but that it's also the last day I can make the build for the next four months. By that time, all they'll need is caulking, but... maybe I can rope Alan and Morgan into coming down with me for that. =] (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 21st, 2007
2:14 pm	Exciting Times in the Life.... So much for having a relaxing fall break... Yesterday, I didn't do much, and yet I had no free time. Funny, how those things work. We've been having crazy wind storms here, which knocked down one of the branches from the big tree in the back yard. Three hours later, it was happily put down and mulched with the new mulcher! (Highlight of my day so far. Which is sort of sad, but I like doing that sort of thing. =]) I'm hoping that tomorrow and Tuesday will be more restful, but I really need to finish up some grad apps over break, which I haven't even touched. Again, see the first line. Ah well, such is life. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 7th, 2007
5:59 pm	Mmm, BBQ Now, I'm about your average, BBQ-loving girl. Since my dad's diagnosis, I've been barb-e-quing every weekend I've been home. This is something I enjoy, and the food's normally great. Well, I'm currently at home, and was preparring to make some hamburgers for dinner. I turned on the gas, and opened up the BBQ to light the grill to discover... ...a rat. In the BBQ. I don't dislike rats. But let me tell you, it is VERY nerve-racking to discover a furry creature in the contraption you want to light on fire. We debated between lighting the BBQ on fire anyways (mmm, rats!) or allowing it to leave on its own, but I figured that prying a rat out from underneath the grill would be difficult. So, for the time being, the newly created rat habitat is being aired out, and I'm grilling at my aunt and uncle's house instead. Tomorrow's activity: clean the rat habitat. Of course, the discovery of this rat begs the question, how many others are there? And as the month of August brings with it the activity of cleaning out the garage, it should be interesting to discover how many additional furry creatures there are residing on our property. At least they're not in the house. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 9th, 2007
10:36 pm	Well.... it's been a bit since I've posted anything here. I guess that's mostly a factor of wishing to convey information to people directly rather than through a source like this, but right now, this is what appeals to me. I think my brain is more or less on graduate school overload. I feel incredibly behind on figuring things out for that even though I'm really not behind at all. If I think about this logically, the applications don't even come out for another two months. But it also seems like there's still so much to do between now and next April, and I'd rather figure as much of this out as possible before October and then just be done. My initial list of twenty-ish schools got cut down to around ten that I want to look at in depth further, but part of me feels like I should maybe have a backup school... Sigh... Not that I don't expect to get in somewhere, but, yeah. So now it's time to hit the books and other professional resources. And the personal statement, but that's an activity for another time. I just need a break. At the same time, though, research grad schools gives me a break from having to deal with things at home, even though I'm not there, and it's something I can talk about with my parents that doesn't revolve around things with my dad, which is nice. Or, is at least nice at times. I really wish that he wasn't sick... but I am very glad to be in southern California this summer, if only so that I can go home to visit when I want to. But all things considered, I'm doing really well. Research is, well, research, and that is by definition rather slow, but I'm enjoying the work. I now have someone living in the suite with me, which is incredibly wonderful. And even though it means I go to bed about an hour and a half earlier than what I was before Meredith got in, there's someone around to chat with, or whatever, and that's nice. Plus, evening bike rides with my sophomore suite is so much fun! Life... what an absurd progression through things. But it passes even when you think it never will, and that's something. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
5:26 pm	The Glories of Spring Break Spring break should really happen every month. Only, they should give it different names so people don't get too confused. Saturday was mostly skiing with David, Kevin, and Kevin's sister in Big Bear, which was oh so much fun. Granted, now there's this really wonky picture of me waving my arms around in celebration of David making 3 turns without falling, but I'll just destroy it off of Kevin's camera and we'll be all good. And it's nice to know that I haven't completely forgotten how to ski. Unfortunately, a good day of skiing meant no concert on Sunday, but I'm determined to get there this semester! Serious! Last night I went to Hollywood to see Wicked with David and my parents, which was absolutely wonderful! Because, you see, the songs are wonderful, but seeing the action in between the songs makes it that much better. Beautiful. =] And, there are no songs currently stuck in my head, which I'm grateful for. Tomorrow I'm heading up to Mammoth for another couple of days of skiing, which will be super, and then it's back to campus again. I have a little bit of work here and there that I want to work on, but just enough to keep me occupied on the car ride up and back without cramping my "no work spring break." Basically, it's just a lot of the same old same old except with snow in there. Which is wonderful. Southern California should really get some snow. And I really miss Boston these days (that was about the only good thing about the movie The Departed. North end, all the way. Is it sad if I can recognize t-stops based on the stair patterns, the color of the line, and the direction the trains come in even if there are no stop names posted? =] Right. I'm still in parentheses.). Of course, I could potentially swing up there while I'm on the east coast for a bit this summer. But we'll see. Now I just have to tell TJ that I'm not doing ASP... I guess the only good thing about that is he's probably the only one who will ask me directly why I didn't take the job... Sigh... But seriously, this break is fantastic. And it's only half-way over! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
8:52 pm	Australia! (In a slightly longer version) Because I'm sure I'll never talk with all of you about this specifically in person, here's more or less what I did this break starting December 25th. =] My parents and I flew out on the evening of Christmas day with business class upgrades… and let me tell you, international business class is about the coolest thing ever (after, perhaps, international first class). You have so much leg room that, when belted in, you can’t touch the upright seat back of the chair in front of you with your legs. (On second thought, some of you taller people might be able to reach, but keep in mind that I’m not the tallest person in the world.) After a surprisingly relaxing flight, it was off to the Blue Mountains (named for the coloring of the eucalyptus oils), which are west of Sydney. They had a bunch of forest fires in the area about a month before we flew in, and you could see dramatic patches of burnt forests and areas of paths where one side was burnt and the other side was untouched. And even though they supposedly call these mountains, they were more like… gorges. Incredibly scenic, but not exactly up to the mountain standard I’m more used to. The hiking, though, was absolutely fantastic. Some of the trails have been carved into the edges of pretty steep cliffs, which becomes a little nerve-racking as you walk over slippery, wet rocks with nothing on the other side of you. After a few days there, it was into the Outback. We were luckily – the temperature was only in the 90s, but apparently it can get outrageously hot there. It was a bit of fairly interesting scenery too. All of the soil is very red, but there was a lot of vegetation for it being a desert. But, the main hallmark of the area was Uluru (or Aires Rock). It’s a big rock in the middle of nowhere. Which is bizarre. But interesting. The star viewing from this area was fantastic because of how cloudless the skies are and how deserted (hah hah, it’s a desert… okay, that wasn’t funny. Whatever. Laugh anyways.) the area is in general. Then it was on to tropical Queensland, the rainforest, and the Great Barrier Reef. We had the opportunity to see some crocodiles in one of the rivers, as well as trees and trees full of Flying Foxes (giant bats with a wing span that can reach 2 meters!). Plus it’s incredibly wet out there, which serves as a major contrast with the Outback. We “celebrated” the new year at our hotel in Port Douglas, but rather than staying up until the actual local time, at 6pm on the first, we toasted to the legality of drinking at 18 in Australia and the New Year back at home. Best new year’s celebration ever. After that, we went on a 5 day snorkeling/scuba cruise through the barrier reef. I was, surprisingly, not the youngest person on the boat. This wound up being really nice for alternate activities, because I played more games of Uno than I can really count over the course of the cruise. =] The animals and clarity of the reef are absolutely brilliant. My dad and I even did a bit of scuba, which is so surreal, especially when you’re surrounded by other animals looking at you with the “You’re not normal looking for this area” look. I think I might prefer snorkeling, but it was a fantastic experience. On the animal count, we saw clown fish (popularly referred to as “Nemo!”), blue-spotted rays, giant clams (4-5 feet across), reef sharks, and fish of all kinds and colors. From there, we stayed a night in Cairns and went on the Scenic Railway and Sky Tram (much to Mom’s dismay – let’s just say that it was a wee bit too high for her liking). Then, back down to Sydney. Our hotel was across the bay from the Sydney Opera House and just around the corner from the Sydney Bridge. The harbors in Sydney are really quite scenic, even if they do have large amounts of traffic. One of our days was spent wine tasting up in the Hunter Valley (great wines and scenery up there). The remaining time was pretty much spent just sight-seeing around Sydney, including a boat tour and a walk through the Opera House. We returned home Wednesday at 10 am, 6 hours before our departure from Sydney. (Time travel is a great thing!) And then I, being the crazy person I am, hopped on a plane the next morning to fly to Atlanta. After a day of visiting with friends out there, I drove up with TJ to the High Point, North Carolina SAW (Staff Applicant Weekend, which is for people who are interested in applying for staff on ASP). The weekend was great – it was really wonderful to be able to see many of the people I’d been on staff with two years ago. Highlights of the weekend include a 12:45 am interview (yes, you are reading that correctly. 45 minutes after midnight, I had my interview. They told us that if you still hadn’t interviewed at 1:40 am, just go to bed.), a frozen t-shirt contest (first team to get the t-shirt on someone wins – we came second by about 3 seconds), indoor four-square (which, wonderfully, allows for dives. I’m a little sore, but it’s all good!), and tons of wonderful conversations. I’m still not sure if it’s what I’ll be doing next summer, but it’s certainly something I’m still considering. (Also, Shelly was also there, which was completely crazy but also really cool!) Then, I flew home Sunday evening and got back to campus Monday afternoon. And, that's about the jist of things. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 10th, 2007
12:31 pm	Back! Sort of... I'm headed back on a plane tomorrow morning bound for Atlanta, and only just got back from Australia, which was WONDERFUL, but I'm too exhausted to talk much now. Maybe next week. =] Anyways, happy new year, and I'll see y'all soon. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
8:44 pm	=] Today has been a good day. I just got off the phone with TJ, and wow, I really, really, really miss ASP right now. It was so good talking to him. You think you can get away from experiences like that, but you just can't. It's really not possible. And it's amazing. (Comment on this)
Friday, August 11th, 2006
7:32 pm	Explain this to Me So there's this song, "I Write Sins not Tragedies" by "Panic! at the Disco." It's on the radio a lot, so I listen to it on a fairly regular basis at work. Anyways, the point is that the chorus has a line: I'd chime in with a "Haven't you people ever heard of closing the god damn door. As in the case with a lot of songs on the radio, they blank out words. Only, instead of blanking the only "bad" word in that phrase, they blanked out god. Does that make any sense? I mean, honestly?? Granted, a "god --- door" doesn't make much sense, but why bother blanking to turn "god damn" into "damn"? Has that really accomplished anything? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 9th, 2006
4:56 pm	Just got back, well, half an hour ago, from watching "Little Miss Sunshine." Oh my gosh, it was absolutely hysterical!! It's probably my new favorite movie this summer. That might in part be because I really needed a destress after work this week (and it's only Wednesday!). Let's just say that I am now in crunch time. I set something like 9ish separate reactions, and a couple of extra branch-off reactions from those. And... tomorrow is going to be roughly the same. And Friday. And until next Wednesday when I present. But it's okay, I like being in the lab actually doing reactions, and hopefully (cross fingers, toes, legs, arms, and wear braids) hopefully I'll get some good results. But yeah, things are going well, they just involve me running around like mad. Right, so the movie is about this little girl Olive who wants to be a beauty pagent queen (she's 7) and her wacky family as they travel from NM to Cali in their VW wagon that ... yeah, good things. Yay for independent movies. And free tickets to the theater. And then last night, I went to Shakespeare on the Commons! SO amazing! They put on "The Taming of the Shrew," set in Bostonia in the 1940s or 50s. They played swing music during the act shifts, and I really wished I had someone to dance with. =[ But yeah, the play was amazing. Yay for Boston having things like that. My favorite phrase of the day came from a tour bus that drove by me as I was walking home. Kid 1: "Do you know what potato means?!!?" Kid 2: "Yeah, potato!" So maybe it was funnier at the time, but I love what kids say. Yup, that's life in Boston. I'm ready to head home and do NOTHING for a week. A vacation sounds amazing and incredibly good right now. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 22nd, 2006
9:48 am	And this is... a long time in coming... Comcast finally came to fix the internet, which was interesting because Kristin was the one spearheading the movement to get us internet at the appartment. I mean, honestly, as long as I have internet at work, I can still check email, weather, news, and that's really all I need. Whatever, this works too, and I'm really not going to complain. In other news, work is actually going well consistantly for the first time in 8 weeks. Weird. It's actually been really good, but SO much work. There's this added level of intensity, so suddenly I'm running 7 reactions a day as well as working up all the previous reactions, preparing a presentation for the end of the semester, attending seminars, etc, etc... Yeah, it's been busy. But very good. I can't believe I only have 4 weeks left! There is way more to do in the next four weekd than I'd like, but I'm going to get it. Let's see, next weekend I'm going down (see, Meg, I know where NY is geographically from Boston now. Although, it was hilarious, I was talking with my mom, and she had no idea where Boston was in MA.) down to New York City! Jane, Dave and I are hopping on the Chinatown bus and then are taking in the city. And then, theoretically, I'm going down the weekend after with Meg to go visit Zane (yay yay yay!). Only, that would involve me actually talking with Zane, which hasn't happened. I've left messages, the whole shebang. Zane!! If you can hear me, call me!! I want to visit you!! So yeah, good times. =] (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 25th, 2006
6:14 am	I'm baaaaaack Whoa, that just gave me the image of Jack Nichelson running through this maze we saw at a chateau shining style. Creepy. So, before any of you comment on the fact that I woke up at 5 this morning, I'm sortof on French time, but I want to go back to east coast time, rather than hastling with this whole silly west coast time zone thing. Which is annoying, because I like getting up at least after the sun rises. But sunrises are pretty, so it's really okay. MMm, David, you should bring a frisbee. We should play before dawn. That would be hot. Right... It's really weird being home. Amazon is spamming my inbox with fraud stuff that I can't do anything about because (i) I don't remember my amazon account info because I make a new account every time I buy and (ii) they're sending out emails to 5 hmc addressed at the sametime? Sketchy.... Summer living UNG~!!!!! They changed my appartment. THEY CHANGED MY APPARTMENT AND WANTED PAPERWORK FAXED A week AGO!!!! Where was I a week ago? The Dordogne region in France. So no go on that one. Ung.... so I called and faxed and hopefully they'll get it. Hopefully. Only now, my bike is somewhere mysterious I need to update my hmc forwarding address (anyone remember who I'm supposed to email?) And... yesh. No more hotel, though. Which is nice. I wanted to actually move in. You know what else is annoying? These little creepy paragraphs. And the fact that my relocation person doesn't get into the office until 11am california time. Lame. Oh, Meredith!! Quilt pictures!! CAn you email them to me or something? That would be awesome. New address for the summer: 8 Museum Way Apt# 1005 Cambridge, MA 02141 France was AMAZING! Wow, amazing! And I'll probably go on about it for a while if I talk with anyone in person about it, but it was really quite nice. Yeah. =] Yay! Okay, time to get dressed so I can drive my father into work and run twenty million errands in preparation for Sunday. Sunday!!! HOLY CRAP!! =] (18 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 20th, 2006
12:16 pm	East Coast Here I Come! So.... Amgen (huge biotech company) is hiring me for a summer internship with real research in... Cambridge Mass! I'm totally freaking out about this, because it is something that I have really been looking forward to... it's insane and awesome and... yeah! =] (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 19th, 2006
10:07 pm	( Movie Fun! =] ) (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 16th, 2006
8:53 pm	I'm going CRAZY!!!! So, Kai sends me this IM earlier today asking if I would work with him in Lape's lab this evening. I said yes, since (a) I didn't have a whole lot else to do and (b) because you need to have to people in the lab when you're working on real things. And let's just say that I'm ready to shoot myself from boredom. This is sort of the way things work: Step 1: Figure out what the hell we're doing. This is the first film we have ever made, so it's a little intense, and Kai and I really have no idea what we're doing. Which is fun times. The polymer that we're using is viscous like whoa and is rather difficult to move from the bottle to the beaker without dripping all over the scale and fume hood. Step 2: Let stir for 1 hour. I worked on my carbons lab, so it wasn't all bad. Step 3: Add 2 grams of a congealing agent. Let stir for 2 hours. Well, I'm one hour through the second stir process, Kai is off taking the 82 midterm, and I just finished all of the chem that needs doing. (Well, aside from a couple of things, but I don't have my CRC with me... grrrr) I can't leave the lab because the stirring needs to be attended (in case things blow up), and Kai is in the engineering lab. Which leaves me here, updating livejournal. Good times! I'm not even convinced that the polymer solution is getting more viscous. So, if anyone is feeling benevolent, it would be awesome to get visitors. Engineering building, upstairs west side, room 2389. =] Come with a CRC and you'll be my best friend. =] Not really, but the next hour should be amazing! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 1st, 2006
4:34 pm	And sometimes, it's just pathetic How Do These People Survive? 1) Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken Mc Nuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets. "We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the counter. "You don't?" I replied. "We only have six, nine, or twelve," was the reply. "So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?" "That's right.! " So I shook my head and ordered six Mc Nuggets 2) I was checking out at the local Safeway Foods with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those "dividers" that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed. After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the "divider", looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar code she said to me, "Do you know how much this is?" I said to her "I've changed my mind, I don't think I'll buy that today." She said "OK," and I paid her for the things and left. She had no clue to what had just happened. 3) A lady at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly. When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM "thingy." 4) I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. "Do you need some help?" I asked. She replied, "I knew I should have replaced the battery to this remote door un-locker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?" "Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an alarm, too?" I asked. "No, just this remote thingy," she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, "Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk." 5) Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, "I'm almost out of typing paper. What do I do?" "Just use copier machine paper," the secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five "blank" copies. 6) I was in a car dealership a while ago, when a large motor home was towed into the garage. The front of the vehicle was in dire need of repair and the whole thing generally looked like an extra in the movie "Twister." I asked the manager what had happened. He told me that the driver had set the "cruise control" and then went in the back to make a sandwich. 7) My neighbor works in the operations department in the central office of a large bank. Employees in the field call him when they have problems with their computers. One night he got a call from a woman in one of the branch banks who had this question: "I've got smoke coming from the back of my terminal. Do you guys have a fire downtown?" 8) Police in Radnor, Pennsylvania, interrogated a suspect by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine. The message "He's lying" was placed in the copier, and police pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn't telling the truth. Believing the "lie detector" was working, the suspect confessed 9) A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to take her kid to the emergency room, the kid was eating ants. The dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and it should be fine, the mother says, I just gave him some ant killer..... Dispatcher: Rush him in to emergency room! Life is tough. It's tougher if you're not working with a full deck! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
4:19 pm	Ungh labs today... Went in to work on the carbons lab early this week. It was going great until I filtered the product (that I could see) and wound up with no product. That works how, exactly?? And then sat in Baker's lab for 2 hours waiting for Jen to get back from her doctor's appointment so that I could work on some new lab stuff. She got back right as I was leaving. Helpful, ey? Alas... Now there's just a chemical paper to write, some GQS to do, and all the other random homework and life I should be working on! (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 19th, 2006
7:49 am	Habitat Build ( Habitat Info ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 17th, 2006
10:57 am	It was an inspiring and depressing day. Stems got off to a beautiful start - the old schedules said that the class would be help in beckman, which was where about 15 of us showed up this morning. Curiously enough, the class is actually in galileo. Fun times. It's going to be an inspiring class. And then there was french. Mon Dieu, je vais mourir. The only two times I actually remember english being spoken was when one girl said she saw the Merry Wives of Winsor (or however you spell it), and when another girl said that It just sorta happens when other languages are spoken at home. Talk about OVERWHELMING!!! I could follow everything that was said. But my thinking in french that then is converted to speaking in french mechanism is mildly broken, so my three minute conversation with the prof started out with a bang: "Comment allez-vous?" "Je m'appelle Karen.... eugh.... Je suis assez fatiguee, mais je suis bien." But the prof is awesome, so if I don't die in the first two weeks, I'll be okay. =] (1 Comment |Comment on this)