Take These Chances

No effing way

2007-01-04T20:51:00.000-05:00

So I have been reading the Economist's Pocket World in Figures (really, it's quite interesting, if you are interested in that sort of thing), and apparently China consumes more rice than it produces. Isn't that totally bizarre? I guess not really. I guess I am just stereotyping here and when I think of China I see one giant rice paddy. Well I mean I don't really think that. I just think it's astounding that they eat more than they produce.

In other news, I go back to Princeton tomorrow, thank God. Although I think Ian might be the only one there.... Whatever. I will force him to hang out. In any case, this is my last night in Durham for many many months. In fact, I don't know when I will be back at all. If everything works out well, I plan on going straight from Princeton to London for the summer, so I won't be back until the end of the summer, when, presumably, I will stop by here before returning to campus. So mid-August.

Also, I did not do nearly enough paper writing over break. That is to say, I desperately need to figure out a thesis for my history paper. Because at the moment I have no idea what to do.

Well well well

2007-01-01T20:07:00.000-05:00

It's getting close to reading period/exam week again, so obviously I am reviving my posting habits. I don't really have much to say at the moment, except that I don't know what else to do with myself and I don't want to do work. I really need to figure out exactly what I am writing my twenty page history paper about. Bah.

That was the most pathetic attempt at a post I've ever seen.

Frienster?

2006-09-06T21:25:00.000-05:00

Okay, so in response to the new Facebook crisis, I have made a friendster account. It is really boring and I don't have any more than the basic info on it because I can't find anyone I know on it (although I have not tried very hard, so don't be offended). It is also possible that I'm just addicted to making online accounts for myself. In any case, please friend me at frienster in the event that Facebook is a bust.

I am going to Jersey tomorrow!! I won't be at Princeton until Friday though. Can't wait. Now I have to finish cramming my underwear into my suitcase.

Friday I'm in Love

2006-09-05T22:23:00.000-05:00

So now I am all packed and basically waiting around for the airplane to take off. The good news is that I have more things to do tomorrow than I can possibly do in a day, so that will surely make time pass even faster. I arrive at Princeton on Friday.

I pretty much hate facebook right now. Seriously, what are they thinking? Who wants or needs to know that much about everyone? No one. I am going to give them a week or so to see if they will change it back after they realize that everyone hates it. Then I am going to start taking drastic measures. Like deleting almost all of my profile. Or completely removing myself from facebook. I hope it doesn't get so bad that I have to remove myself, but I feel violated by this development.

Time is running out!!

2006-09-04T00:03:00.000-05:00

I just realized as I was driving back from the far side of Chapel Hill that I have only a few years left where I can stay awake late into the night thinking about the nebulous blob known as the future. I feel as though after my undergraduate years end the future that I've always thought of as The Future will be here, and then I won't be able to lie awake at night thinking about it because I'll be too tired from trying to live it during the day. 50/50 chance that that sentence is totally garbled because I'm tired.

I just watched The Squid and the Whale. It was pretty good in an indie-flick sort of way, so if you like that kind of thing, I would definitely recommend viewing it. It has some pretty funny moments. I will say that it's probably not a good idea to watch it with people who make you feel awkward because it is a very awkward movie. Then again, I think a lot of life is pretty awkward-feeling, so perhaps that is just my personal interpretation.

Four days to the bubble.

Jury's still out...

2006-09-03T16:09:00.000-05:00

The jury is, indeed, still out on how I feel about Orbit's new Lemon Lime gum flavor. On the one hand, I kind of feel like I'm chewing Pine-Sol. On the other hand, it is refreshing. I have the rest of the pack to figure out if I actually like it or not.

Last night I went flipping through all my old journals. I wrote a lot. I went through a phase where I wrote every single night, religiously, even if it were just a sentence. I had no idea that I had accumulated that many pages of journal entries. I was reminded of various periods of my life that I had conveniently forgotten, either because they were embarrassingly boring or embarrassingly adolescent. I pretty much never write any more. Except to blog. Lucky you.

In other news, five days left. I still have some packing left, a hair appointment, and a physical. And I have to go make prints in the dark room at DA. And sleep before the semester starts and I don't do that anymore.

Whoops

2006-09-01T07:58:00.000-05:00

Haven't posted in, uh, a week or so. Here is the quick run-down of everything that happened:
1. My birthday

Okay, that is pretty much it, I think. On my actual birthday I went to a Durham Bulls game with Andy and his friends. On Thursday I went to Top of the Hill with Ellen, Elizabeth, and Kerry. And then Saturday night I stayed with Ellen at UNC. So that was the whole drawn-out birthday escapade. It was pretty fun.

Oh gosh, I forgot to mention that I also totally rearranged my schedule for next semester. I am now taking CHM 303 (orgo), HIS 369 (British history, 1688-1815), ECO 101 (Macro), POL 321 (American Political Thought), and then either SOC 241 (Creativity and Innovation) or ORF 245 (Stats). I was also considering ANT 342 (Anthropology of Law seminar), but I believe that it is full for sophomores. Although, it's hard for me to say for sure because the professor won't email me back. Anyway, so if you thought you had a class with me, you are probably wrong because I am only keeping two of my original five classes. Ha. Whatever, I feel a lot better about my courses now.

I am sure other exciting or not-so-exciting things happened, I just can't remember them.

Promotional Rant in Favor of Google Chat

2006-08-24T09:02:00.000-05:00

This is my effort to get everyone to convert to Google Chat. It is pretty much the best way to chat with people online. I know we are all familiar and comfortable with AIM (and it's variations), but Google Chat is really quite cool. Here are some reasons why:
1. The emoticons rotate 90 degrees and generally look cooler. Also "<3" turns into an actual heart. An actual pink heart. Not that I really use <3 that much (i.e. at all) when chatting online, but it is fun to watch it turn into a heart.
2. It makes a cool-ish sound when you receive a message.
3. It is run by Google, and one day in the not-too-distant future, Google is going to take over the planet.
4. I can't really think of more reasons, but for some reason I like Google chat a lot.

Okay, that was a lot less convincing than I had intended. Basically, talk to me on GMail. My username is takethesechances@.

Facial Mistake

2006-08-23T17:40:00.000-05:00

Sometimes when I am just kind of walking around doing things, I have an internal monologue going on. Not about anything really that important or serious or significant, but I'm usually talking to myself, you know, in my head (did you like how that got upgraded from "sometimes" to "usually"?). So, the real point of this story is that today I realized that while I am having these internal monologues, I sometimes accidentally make facial expresssions. Bottom line: I probably look like a crazy person about 80% of the time.

Now I am going to go meet someone for coffee and probably make strange, apparently random facial expressions on the way.

Colors

2006-08-22T10:40:00.000-05:00

Isn't it funny how little kids always have something to draw? I remember being a little kid and being able to sit down with a box of crayons and draw stuff for hours. Last night I whipped out my box of 96 Crayola Crayons (making Ellen's birthday card), and I couldn't think of anything to draw (other than Ellen's birthday card). I wish I were still carelessly artistic, even if the end result was tasteless garbage.

I decided that I am going to revive my betta fish hobby and get a fish for my room next year. I wasted a bunch of time* last night looking at fish supplies online and making a list of all the stuff I can get to make sure my betta is the most spoiled little fish out there. Of course, this betta thing is going to spiral out of control and soon I will have five bettas because that is what happens to me when I start playing with betta fish.

*Is it still considered wasting time if you don't have anything you should be doing?

When will I go home today??

2006-08-21T15:05:00.000-05:00

I think I might be in lab forever, starting now. Unless by some miracle one of these combinations of primers works (here's hoping), and then I will be able to go home as soon as I know that. And after I print out about 180 pages worth of data. No wait, really? 180 pages? That seems like a lot.... But... I think it might be that much.... Yeah I don't know. I'll wait and see until the printer runs out of paper.

In other news, there are no new messages in my inbox, and that is wrong. I definitely need a steady stream of new messages to keep me occupied while my research does itself. "Research doing itself" being a loosely applied term.

My gel could be done running now if I wanted it to be. Yeah, I think I want it to be. Let's hasten this whole going-home process.

Still No Writely...

2006-08-21T11:35:00.000-05:00

Monday. I am trying to optimize the PCR primers for this stupid exon, so I have set up a logic-puzzle grid of primer combinations and the PCRs are in the cooker right now. I still have another three hours before they pop out again though, so I have quite a long break.

TheSuperficial's server is down, which means that I can't read it or Geekologie until they get a new one. What makes this situation even worse is that I finished reading the archives of Piled Higher and Deeper over the weekend. I think I might have to start reading Cecilia's blog.

I'm really hungry, so I'm going to go forrage for food. Also possibly wander around Duke's West Campus and pretend it's Princeton.

Postsecret

2006-08-20T09:10:00.000-05:00

It is Sunday, and that means that it is time for what is, perhaps, my favorite blog: Postsecret. New postcards are posted every Sunday (hardly often enough for an addict like myself), and it is one of the internet highlights of my week.

Excuse me while I go read this week's secrets.

Packing

2006-08-19T13:34:00.000-05:00

I just glued some orange ric-rac around the edge of my Twister rug. I'm very pleased with the result. Perhaps I will take a picture of it and post it later. I am also doing about ten tons of laundry because I am starting to pack. Good news because it means that it is almost time to go back to Princeton; bad news because I hate having to pack my life into boxes.

I have two more weeks of work in the Nevins lab. When I think about it like that, it seems like summer has flown by. I am almost done with this sequencing project. I have one more exon to go. Unfortunately, Tim hasn't optimized the primers for the PCR, so I have no idea how long it will take me to figure out how to amplify this exon. Tim ordered a bunch of primers last week, so hopefully they will be waiting for me on Monday.

Blogger is intimidating

2006-08-19T10:16:00.000-05:00

I have had blogs before, but Blogger always seems intimidating. The other blogs on Blogger are always actually about something, and my blog is clearly not about anything. Of course, some of these blogs are pretty awesome, such as Greg Mankiw's economics blog (brought to my attention by Kenny), but it just seems to emphasize the fact that I actually don't have much to say.

Last night I went to The Last Waltz: A Farewell to Friends, which was a kind of farewell concert for In the Pocket. They had alumni come back to perform, and the show was really good. I'm always so amazed by how talented those people are.

I'm thinking about changing my major from molecular biology to either economics or politics, possibly getting a certificate in the program for political economics. It's all kind of unclear at the moment because I don't know what classes I am taking next semester. I need to switch into a closed lab section to take micro, so we'll see how that goes. The other funny thing about this is that I haven't actually taken an econ or politics course yet.

On a final note, I still haven't figured out how to post from Writely (meaning that their help center hasn't emailed me back yet), so I am blogging from Blogger. Which is fine, but I'll feel a lot smarter when I am blogging from Writely.

Writely

2006-08-18T23:28:00.000-05:00

I just signed up for writely, and seeing as they have a blogging function, I figured I should take advantage of it. Also, I am at work and waiting for a reaction to finish.

This has been a good week for periodicals in my life. The new US News and World Reports College Rankings came out, and Princeton is now holding the 1-spot all by itself. Harvard is finally #2. CIT finally got some recognition too, which is nice. The new issue of Men's Vogue also came out this week, and Barack Ombama is the cover story. There is also a review of boxed wine, which I find amusing and intruiging. It also reminds me of the Franzia parties last spring.

Now I am going to try to figure out how to post this sucker to my blog....

[Editor's note: I actually did not exactly figure out how to post that to my blog, so I copied and pasted. I'm working on it though. Hopefully soon I will be blogging from writely.]