blog.frog

A good article.

2008-05-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/05/05/f-food-prices-rice.html

I love CBC.ca! Best home page decision I could have made.

Grades

2008-05-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

I don't have my Biology mark yet, but here is how I stacked up this year:

English: A-
French 101: A-
French 102:A-
History: B-
Math: B+
Political Science: B-
Sociology: A-

That's a B+ average of 78.7% which is fine...I don't really have anything to compare it to. Hopefully when Bio comes it it doesn't drop too much. Shouldn't, anyway.

That's 7500 pennies.

2008-04-26T13:24:00.000-07:00

WestJet.ca informs me that every extra piece of checked luggage is $75 each. I only have 1 extra suitcase, but still. There should be some sort of 'total baggage limit' per plane, and then any extra will be assessed. Because honestly, there are definitely people who are checking one or no bags, along with the fact that the place certainly won't be full.

I need not bring up the fact that an extra suitcase does not weight $75 worth of jet fuel. Do they charge morbidly obese people for the weight they add? No. I suppose if you had to purchase 2 seats due to your morid obesity then that would be extra cash, but that is a rare occurrence most definitely.

Jackals!

Stop it.

2008-04-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

You know what is the most despicable habit anyone can have? I will tell you: chewing with their mouth open. The sound drives me UP THE WALL. Hearing people chew is a close second for ultimate pet peeves of mine, but open-mouth mastication is by far the grossest sound and worst trait a person can have.

Maybe I am exaggerating a bit on that last part.

But I really do hate it.

After 3 semi-moderately difficult exams, my brain has taken a turn.

2008-04-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

And that turn? Is a one-way street called Laziness.

Last night me and some girls (instigated by yours truly) decided we'd wake up and go to breakfast at 8:10 am. Which is absurdly early seeing as only 2/5 had exams today, and one of them doesn't start until 7 pm tonight. Also, that would have been an early breakfast during classes, too, as our earliest classes started at 9:30 this semester. But whatever. We all got up and had omlettes among other utterly delightful cafeteria goods.

The night before I had started packing some of my stuff up. There were several articles of clothing and items that I didn't need/want anymore, so I had organized said goods into two piles: charity donation (good clothes) and Totem Stuff Swap donation (random crap and some medium-quality clothing). Thus, before bed last night I wrote out a list of things to do after breakfast including dropping these items off at their locations. I also had some other things on the list. Well. Let me tell you what happens when you get up for an early breakfast: you do everything else early too. So basically I completed a day's worth of tasks in less than 2 hours. Besides dropping off clothing, I made a flier; printed 6 copies of said flier; ran around the buildings and commonsblock putting up the fliers; locked myself out of my own building; got back into building and accomplished many other mundane but necessary errands.

After that, I tried to relax by watching Stardust which I have on loan due to beaucoup de temps libre. Definitely couldn't focus. Ended up laying in bed for 15 minutes. Couldn't nap. Got up and emailed my resumé to Robyn so she could give it to her boss tomorrow. Then Georgie and I went to UBC's outdoor pool where I accidentally dehydrated myself by spending too much time in the sauna. (What can I say? I like heat. Maybe a little too much.)

Après pooltime, I was pretty exhausted and somehow wasted about 2 hours doing nothing at all. This time included fixing mine and Nicole's internet connections, reviewing 2.5 pages of bio, and of course Face Booking. I ended up napping from 4 'til 4:30 but by then Nicole got back, so I thought I should assemble myself into looking semi-busy and not a total slacker. So here I am typing a lot of stuff no one cares about.

Soooo it may sounds like I kind of got a lot done, but really I have felt super sluggish since my main morning burst of activity. Oh! UBC just sent out an email asking for a volunteer thing I am interested in...so I have to write a cover letter tonight. That's something to do.

PS. One more exam and then I am finito! If I can't rock an open book Bio exam created by some 60 year old hippie version of Dumbledore, I don't know myself anymore.

Freaky.

2008-04-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

That picture on the side is almost a year old. Aaaack.

Interesting...

2008-04-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

China Unblocks CBC websites

China has unblocked the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's websites, a week after the broadcaster's president formally complained to Chinese officials.

CBC President and CEO Hubert Lacroix.
(Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)

"We have today heard that access to CBC/Radio-Canada's English and French websites in China is no longer blocked," said Hubert T. Lacroix in a letter to China's ambassador to Canada, Lu Shumin.

"I am writing to thank you personally for what I assume was your expeditious assistance in this matter."

French-language website Radio-Canada.ca had been blocked for six months while English site CBC.ca had been cut off since January.

Lacroix had formally complained about the blockage last week, writing the ambassador to ask why the websites were blocked and to "take steps to ensure that this policy is reversed."

He wrote that Chinese government officials in 2006 promised to "provide services of an Olympic standard to athletes, officials, spectators and the media in order to facilitate their participation and enjoyment of the Games."

Beijing will host the Olympic Games starting in August. CBC is the official Canadian broadcaster of the Games.

Wikipedia, BBC unblocked

China recently unblocked access to the English version of Wikipedia, the user-written online encyclopedia, according to reports.

The move came after International Olympic Committee (IOC) members warned Chinese Olympic organizers that such censorship reflected poorly on the host country, Reuters reported.

In March, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported China unblocked its English news website after years of tight control. Chinese-languages services within the BBC's website remain censored, said the broadcaster.

Human rights groups have criticized China for regularly blocking Western websites, but Chinese government officials say filtering subjects considered pornographic or subversive protects citizens from harmful content on the internet.

Like really grainy, hard sands in an hour glass....

2008-04-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

SO ARE THE LAST DAYS OF UNI: YEAR 1 OF MY LIFE.

One class tomorrow, French. Then it is off to my 2.5 hour shift at Blue Chip, a shift I have come to love because basically I just hang around the back and always manage to fandangle my way out of helping customers/dealing with the cash and into scooping cookies or decorating cupcakes. It's heaven in a really small, stuffy, and crowded work space (hmm sounds like hell).

Early tomorrow morning there is a Totem-wide free breakfast, with the Dene seating from 9-11. I am truly jazzed because free anything is always appreciated. And it isn't damn chocolate chip pancake breakfast, which I am elated about. I despise chocolate chip pancakes and yet there always seems to be a free pancake breakfast somewhere in rez with only the dreaded chocolate variety. I don't get people sometimes.

Also, I am freaking out about my exams. I am DEFINITELY not ready in any capacity. Last term it was easier because I couldn't study too much for English, and really I only had to worry about Sociology and Political Science, French being a non-issue. This term though, the French has been amped up so I have to work at that, then I have both Sociology and History to frrrrrreak out about. It's not good. And those three exams are first, rather than being broken up by my Bio exam, which is going to be easy as pie. The irony of this does not escape me. The one class I'm taking merely as a science credit requirement is the easiest course I'm in. Thanks, world. Many rounds of applause to you.

On Saturday we play our final game, and then that night there is Totem Spring Formal. It shall be grand in only the way a classed-up cafeteria can serve food. Likely the formal dinner will include small rectangular prisms of butter stamped with BUTTER clear to view for those suspicious of its authenticity.

Sunday I am supposedly volunteering downtown for the Darfur rally, although I may have to pull out and do some studying instead. I think that's pretty bad karma, but you know what? I've done enough volunteering gigs to know that half of the time you aren't actually needed. And all the thanks that volunteers get is just gibberish. I rarely have felt like I positively contributed to a cause and in the end I'm bitter at having wasted my time. Not that Darfur is a waste of time, but I think that manning tables to sign people up to be on mailing lists is a bit ludicrous: they can write their own damn email addresses down if they want weekly updates of copy-and-pasted BBC articles arriving in their inbox.

Annnnnyway, here are some more football pictures from last week, just to keep the picture post thing going.

Team cheer before the game: "1 2 3 ORANGE!"

This was after I got my touchdown. Carly (coach and RA) lifted me over her shoulder.

This was an eagle that had been flying overhead. We named him Dene, as he proudly exhibited all the characteristics of a confident and hopeful Denedian.

The Dene banner and two other RAs who cheered us on even though we beat their floor a couple weeks back.

Bon soir!

another picture -- featuring more words this time.

2008-04-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

We lost our match yesterday. It was tough. But we definitely shook the other team to their core as they had won many other games with shut-outs and whatnot. They only won by a touchdown and 2 conversions, as Nicole and I both got touchdowns! So it was fun to see them visibly shaken. Next weekend we play for 3rd-4th place. We're definitely going to get 3rd because the team we're playing was actually the first team we played at the beginning of the season. And we've got them figured out. Sooooooo it's all good.

In other news, I have one more week of classes left. Huh-zah! French test on Monday, term paper due Tuesday, then it's sail time from there on out. Except for all the studying, that is.
I should get back to my term paper, which is turning out to be a monster. Not in length, as it can only be 700-1000 words. But instead, the question keeps turning over in my head and I keep modifying what I'm saying. It's really annoying and it makes me anxious. At this point though, I don't really care too much. As long as I get it done and it is semi-presentable, I'm sure I'll do okay. Whatever.

Went to a lil' concert last night...no big deal...

2008-03-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

EXCEPT THAT IT WAS THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER. And now recorded music sounds so empty.

We're in Semi-finals! Top 4!

2008-03-29T17:22:00.001-07:00

Sicko.

2008-03-07T22:39:00.001-08:00

I drew this on the whiteboard outside our room. Underneath (not pictured) I wrote: "I feel like the silenced version of Ariel from The Little Mermaid."

When I do talk, I sound like an emphysema sufferer. Not pretty.

I'm still going to do a blog entry about the book itself, but in the meantime...

2008-03-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

Having read The Omnivore's Dilemma, I decided to choose the topic "To what extent should modern broiler chickens be considered an organic machine?" because there were many areas of the book that addressed chickens in their many states and production types. So here is what I wrote. The paper itself is only allowed to be 750-1000 words max, and it is worth 25% of my grade. You can see I had a bit of English-style fun with the poultry puns and whatnot.

Robot Chicken

Within the twentieth century, society has been through a bevy of social, technological, and environmental changes. Perhaps one of the best indicators of these changes comes in the form of a seemingly feudal presence: the chicken. Indeed, poultry has encompassed the culture changes of past, present and future all within the last 60 years; revamped from a simple egg-laying creature, chickens have been highly systematized in their life course, made wholly technical within the food industry, and become a major force in the market. Drawing upon the documented history of poultry in North America and Michael Pollan’s observations within The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a clear case for the chickens’ impacting evolution can be seen within its many roles in contemporary times. The high degree of environmental manipulation through modern science has created a chicken that is a fusion of nature and technology; from the base-line level of life-production to a second tier of technical food processing and a tertiary step into the mass markets of fast food, the chicken has been effectively reincarnated by humanity. This rhapsody of purposeful poultry planning has evolved the everyday farm chicken from rare fare to “organic machine” – an element of nature exploited by science and employed for society’s benefit.
From gene selection and breeding processes to life expectancy, scientists and farmers have systematized the broiler chicken in its entirety within the past century. The term ‘broiler’ was invented to describe the special type of chickens bred for their meat, not egg production. This term, and the product of the term – the actual chickens—was a result of Word War II rationing across the world when beef, pork and lamb was heavily restricted for the masses. In order to combat “meatless meals”1, chicken entered the public spotlight as one of the alternative foods that was introduced to “stand on their own merits”2. Thus, food scientists entered the sphere of poultry production in order to engineer “superior meat-type chickens”3. Prior to selectively breeding chickens for their meat-appeal, scientists and farmers had already begun their mechanization of game by figuratively sewing the seeds for the introduction and manipulation of broiler-breed chicken: “boosting the egg output of the average hen”4. To feed the starving wartime families on the home front of North America and England, then, chickens and ever-eager scientists new to the world of genetic engineering saved the day. Good intentions 60 years ago, however, have turned rancid in the wake of poultry’s popularization and have lead to an inherently industrialized, politicized animal. Nowadays to classify a grocery store broiler as ‘organic’, ‘free range’, or ‘all natural’ is less absurd than it is appealing. Yet chickens prior to garnering high status in the stomachs of North Americans, were essentially all ‘organic’ –barn-dwelling animals bred freely on farmland. The typical broiler not specially labelled au naturel is raised on a restrictive time schedule of seven weeks and fed specially-enhanced grain in order to grow “bigger drumsticks, plump thighs, and thinner skin”5: traits unnatural to the animal but high desired by hungry humans.
Geneticists and farmers were willing to re-work nature for war’s sake, and the post-war chicken has not been let off the hook since. Broilers have been reworked many times over, both in breeding and meat processing techniques to better satiate carnivore cravings and lubricate greasy fast-food greed. Beyond the initial Mendel-like selective breeding that created the niche of broiler chickens in 1948, a plethora of “state-of-the-art industrial”6 qualities have been engrained into broilers during their individual lifetimes, all for humans to reap in economical benefits. The economic incentive for farmers begins in the form of a gamete, breeding two chickens together that will give forth their best qualities, as praised by the farmer: efficiency to convert feed into those “superior meat-type characteristics”7. A swarm of chickens that are speedy converters equals fast turnover of poultry into pay. Coupled with antibiotics and growth hormones that produce “unnatural stresses”8 on broiler joints, these chickens are ultimately a Mendelian-manipulation more so than a vulnerable entity of nature. Past farm and feedlot life, broilers are further at the mercy of technology via culinary augmentation in extreme forms. Where the fast-food industry can get an easy hold on poultry, they make a quick buck further modifying an already heavily-altered creature into chicken fingers, McNuggets, Wendy’s Spicy Chicken fillets, and KFC’s chicken popcorn. Despite the scientifically enhanced element of broilers, hormones and antibiotics have so far failed to produce chickens with nuggets, fingers, or ‘popcorn’-like features. While these popular products may be advertised as broiler chicken fare, they are indeed only “reminiscent”9 of the idea of a farm-bred Old McDonald chicken that tastes as natural as it is untouched by human science and greed.
Bred for highly desirable qualities, broiler popularity soared and thus the markets of fast food chains, grocery stores and restaurant establishments bought into the commercial chicken. Consumer markets effectively facilitated and continue to facilitate the concept of chicken as a machine – an entity that works for the people, not in nature’s harmony but rather in a slave-master dialectic relationship. Certainly this has always been the case with animals and humans throughout history: at the top of the food chain, there is nothing to hunt but those below. In the case of broiler chickens, however, the ease at which they can be “grown”10 by large-scale farms and feedlots places them at easy reach for retailers to sell in any and all forms. Raw, refried into burgers and nuggets, or reconstituted into low-cal Lean Cuisine frozen dinners, broiler chickens have become an ever-present option each day of the week, every hour of the day. The mechanic capability of broilers works much like a large cog turning smaller (yet just as economically-powerful) cogs, machines like Petaluma Poultry’s “niche marketing”11 and the McDonald’s dollarvalue menu. From the McChicken to “kosher, Asian, natural and organic”12 broilers, poultry is the satiating opiate of the masses, injected into society not unlike the chickens’ growth hormones. In as much as genetic engineering has been done to chickens so that a “ growth rate of up to 3 percent per year is attainable”13, the availability of broiler poultry that has enabled a “McFrankensteinian”14 transformation of nature to be put upon society.
Where science stepped into to alleviate a public shortage of meat, nature has recoiled into the recesses of public imagination. In exploring the modern chickens' scientific and social exploitation and its resultant omnipresence in society, largely the broiler chicken is an "organic machine" – a fusion of nature and science to be utilized for society's economic and cultural benefit.

String of decent luck!

2008-02-28T12:21:00.001-08:00

I got an A- on my 10 page Sociology paper!
I got a job at Blue Chip Cookies.

So excited for the job because let me tell you: they bake their sweet goods on-site! And the coffee is fair trade! It's all so much more glorious and authentic than Starbucks ever wishes it could be.

And tomorrow is Friday! Hurrah.

I am currently working on a History paper answering the question 'To what extent is the modern broiler chicken an "organic machine"?'. I got the majority of it finished last night in about 3 hours, because it has to be 700-1000 words -- less than 10 pages by a long shot! I like what I have so far. I have a History discussion in a couple hours so we'll see if I take any pointers away from that to add to my paper, which is due on Tuesday.

That is all for now. :-)

It's unanimous

2008-02-25T10:07:00.001-08:00

Reading Break should officially be changed to Reading Breaks.

I have a French chapter test in a couple hours, a sociology midterm tomorrow, and a History paper due on March 4 that I haven't started because I need my TA to return my email! Ugh.

If you want to think about the earth differently...

2008-02-14T12:22:00.000-08:00

...read this book! It is fabulous. I will expand upon that thought later, but for now:

Publishers weekly says, "It's a fascinating journey up and down the food chain, one that might change the way you read the label on a frozen dinner, dig into a steak or decide whether to buy organic eggs. You'll certainly never look at a Chicken McNugget the same way again.Pollan approaches his mission not as an activist but as a naturalist: "The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world." All food, he points out, originates with plants, animals and fungi. "[E]ven the deathless Twinkie is constructed out of... well, precisely what I don't know offhand, but ultimately some sort of formerly living creature, i.e., a species. We haven't yet begun to synthesize our foods from petroleum, at least not directly."Pollan's narrative strategy is simple: he traces four meals back to their ur-species. He starts with a McDonald's lunch, which he and his family gobble up in their car. Surprise: the origin of this meal is a cornfield in Iowa. Corn feeds the steer that turns into the burgers, becomes the oil that cooks the fries and the syrup that sweetens the shakes and the sodas, and makes up 13 of the 38 ingredients (yikes) in the Chicken McNuggets.Indeed, one of the many eye-openers in the book is the prevalence of corn in the American diet; of the 45,000 items in a supermarket, more than a quarter contain corn. Pollan meditates on the freakishly protean nature of the corn plant and looks at how the food industry has exploited it, to the detriment of everyone from farmers to fat-and-getting-fatter Americans. Besides Stephen King, few other writers have made a corn field seem so sinister.Later, Pollan prepares a dinner with items from Whole Foods, investigating the flaws in the world of "big organic"; cooks a meal with ingredients from a small, utopian Virginia farm; and assembles a feast from things he's foraged and hunted.This may sound earnest, but Pollan isn't preachy: he's too thoughtful a writer, and too dogged a researcher, to let ideology take over. He's also funny and adventurous. He bounces around on an old International Harvester tractor, gets down on his belly to examine a pasture from a cow's-eye view, shoots a wild pig and otherwise throws himself into the making of his meals. I'm not convinced I'd want to go hunting with Pollan, but I'm sure I'd enjoy having dinner with him. Just as long as we could eat at a table, not in a Toyota."

I wish I was joking. But I'm not. Clearly I have nothing better to do but think of this.

2008-02-09T22:47:00.000-08:00

Not much to take pictures of this week, so words will have to suffice for this lil' update.

This week was relatively boring, minus the whole threat scare thing, which was of course nothing. I don't get people; if you want to get out of a midterm that badly, there is no reason to worry hundreds of other people, create trouble for the university, the police, and give CBC something to do. It's all so annoying and pointless. If someone is willing to go that far, well their karma is going to come back to them really quickly -- how about flunking out of uni because they can't even deal with midterms? Or dying in an actual hostage/bomb/fire/threat situation? Either way.

On Friday I decided to jump on Breakdown Britney's bandwagon and put my Chapters gift certificate to good use, as I made a special trip to buy Rolling Stone's newest issue. Lo and behold, stupid Chapters either did not get their stock out fast enough or they didn't get it at all, but they still had the old issue! I was saddened to say the least, as I had read the intro of the article and it promised journalism beyond a strung-together exposé of her latest and increasingly pathetic escapades. Later that night, however, someone had gratefully typed up the entire article and put it online. On this note I will divulge some (scintillated) wasted brain cells...

My feelings on Ms. Spears have been conflicted as of late. First of all, I hadn't lost complete faith in her up until sometime in the last 6 months. I don't know if that is incredibly naive of me based on, oh the past 4 years of her gradual unwinding, but whatever. For the most part I chalked up her much-documented craziness to her brilliance; was she actually smart enough to look all disgusting and dishevelled just so the paparazzi could run around and look like idiots?

Clearly she was capable of cleaning up well, during and post-Federline years. So I guess I was still under the impression that she was sane and not just sane, but saavy! Ever since she ditched KFed, however, something snapped despite the public's momentum to support her new found freedom and recovery to the svelte lip-syncing pop star we all knew her to be. Sure she was laughable as said identity, but at least it would have left her some room to breath from the tabloids. And yet she completely lost out on the cheering heard world-wide when the divorce news broke. Why? Because she broke.

I just can't process how she became such a mess and no one could help her. She has very clearly hit rock bottom a few times over. Why can't she see that? Why does help seem to ricochet off her bald head?! It isn't fair that the whole thing has to be photographed and videotaped just so everyone else can witness it too. If it pains me this much to see her fall further into a public coma, then can you imagine what the hell is going on in her head?! When the press is guessing how many months before she kicks the bucket, I think everything has gone too far and then some. The Rolling Stone article does a brilliant job of both legitimizing her craziness but also admitting how addicting her "truth" is. It's not just her past that can explain the degeneration, but it's her fault now too --drugs, partying, paranoia.

I just think that if there was some kind of publicly agreed upon deal to stop dogging her for a while and see what ends up happening, then Rolling Stone might get to write the best come-back story this century. It would be fabulous! If there is enough decency from Hollywood to salvage the damaged goods, no matter how much frappuchino covers said goods, there may just be a blue horizon beyond the Hills.

What. The. Hell.

2008-02-05T17:12:00.001-08:00

Broadcast E-mail to All UBC Students, Faculty and Staff from President Stephen J. Toope:

For the second time in a week, our Vancouver campus community has received a threatening message.

In this second case, an unspecific threat has been made for Wednesday. The threat does not specify a time, a location within the UBC Point Grey campus or the method of doing harm.

We must take such threats seriously, and we are working closely with senior RCMP personnel to address this new threat.

What can we all do when faced with such a threat? We are taking the advice of the RCMP to treat the non-specific nature of the threat with a higher level of community vigilance but to otherwise continue our normal activities.

However, because of the specific mention of the Biosciences building in the threatening message received last week, and the traumatic experience of the occupants who endured a full lockdown of the building at that time, classes will be cancelled tomorrow (Wednesday) in the Biosciences Building.

For details, see the RCMP news release at: www.rcmp-bcmedia.ca

And please continue to look at www.ubc.ca for the latest information.

Playing football and Nintendo Wii

2008-02-02T20:02:00.000-08:00

Click the links below for more pictures

Click!
Another
Next up...
Last one.

I semi-walked through the (crime)scene...!

2008-01-30T16:09:00.001-08:00

From: ubc.systems@ubc.ca
> Subject: Announcement re Biological Sciences Building
> To:
>
> There has been a police incident at the Bio Sciences Building, which is located at the intersection of Main Mall and University Boulevard at the University of British Columbia.
>
> On the advice of the RCMP, the Bio Sciences Building has been locked down. Building occupants have been instructed to stay where they are, to secure the room in which they are located, and to await further instructions from the RCMP.
>
> No person will be permitted to enter or leave the Bio Sciences Building without RCMP authorization.
>
> Out of an abundance of caution, the RCMP is advising that others on campus stay where they are currently located. All campus occupants should be aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious circumstances to the RCMP at 911. Persons who are not on campus are advised to remain away from the campus until further notice.
>
> Further information, as it becomes available, will be posted at http://www.ubc.ca.
>
> Stephen J. Toope
> President and Vice Chancellor

Ha!

2008-01-29T14:04:00.001-08:00

My bio teacher actually made an announcement today about what I emailed him! He apologized to the class for misleading us. It was sweet.

Science-ing it up like ne'r before

2008-01-25T16:34:00.000-08:00

On 24-Jan-08, at 12:55 PM, claire tuttle wrote:

Hello professor. I have a question regarding some things we talked about today (Jan. 24) and the textbook.

In chapter 14 the book talks about methylated base repair, but it says that "mismatched repair in eukaryotes is not based on a methylation signal....researchers have not been able to determine how the eukaryotic enzymes recognize the newly synthesized strand versus the original strand." It then goes on to talk about excision repair in humans, however. So I don't understand how excision repair is really any different for methylation in knowing that bases are mismatched and subsequently having enzymes fix the bases. Can you shed some light on this?

Thanks,
Claire Tuttle (92641075)

Good for you. I should be more careful. Most work on the molecular machinery working with DNA is developed first using bacterial models. THen they try to extend these findings to eukaryotes and often, people like me, teaching the material fail to distinguish cases where what occurs in bacteria does not actually work for eukaryotes. They know there is some sort of repair system but the signal whereby the system recognized the new vs the template strand is unknown. Also it isnt completely clear that methylation is not in any way involved in eukaryotic mismatch repair---there is some in vitro (iei in a test tube) work that suggests it may be involved but the story is not simple. In eukaryotes DNA is methylated (typically at the cytosine residue) and although the full significance isnt understood, it seems to be involved in maintaining a particular developmental state---so it is important say in keeping a muscle cell as a muscle cell or a nerve cell as a nerve cell. Presumably it determines in some way which genes get transcribed in the differentiated cell. Mutants of the gene that methylates (methyltransferases) are usually lethal which would suggest an important role, whatever that may be.

I will try to remember to bring your question up in class on Tuesday.

Martin

______________________________

I just thought that was a post-worthy erudite exchange. It is even more hilarious for me that I call him "professor" because he looks exactly, exactly, exactly like Dumbledore. So it's all pretty Potterish, which is always a good thing.

Semester 2 so far

2008-01-23T23:33:00.001-08:00

20 Days into 2008

2008-01-20T21:15:00.000-08:00

Many things. Many things to say.

Semester two is looking great. Stressful, but happier in a way. Less frustration. More ease in my comfort with timing and figuring out which classes can be ignored more than others. It is also nice that I have learned to take time off on the weekends to just go out and explore beyond the campus.

Getting off campus...
...is amazing. The bus system here is great! All the Vancouverites rag on it, but if they only knew Edmonton's ghetto havoc ETS, they would know the greatness they have. The bus drivers are amazingly nice as they haven't been accosted by belligerent junior high kids with too much eye liner or oversized hoodies who think they are all that. These bus drivers will literally stop and pick you up if it is raining, even if the bus isn't headed where you are. They will drop you off at the closest stop to get you where you need to be, just so you don't get soaked. Happened to me so I know this fo shizzle!

Karla and I usually find ourselves out and about on the bus system sometime during the weekends. A new word for our bus adventures is that they are "weekend-ary". This was at first confused with (and quite rightly so) thinking she said that "[our] bus rides seem to be wheat and dairy". While we have made trips to Safeway to buy items including wheat and dairy, I didn't think she meant those purchases were our defining weekend activities, so I put what she had said together quickly after my initial foible. It's now a joke in which we actually say "wheat and dairy" in relation to weekend activities.

(Weekend) Activities...
...are looking better than semester one. For example, I have signed up for Girl's Flag Football which is a Totem Park-wide activity that will have games on Sunday mornings. I am excited! Our floor only has 6 people signed up but apparently we will be absorbing the four girls from 6th who signed up, so I'm sure we'll make a great team to represent Dene. I'm really hoping my soccer skills transfer. Such skills involve being shifty and deceptively fast and from what I have heard, these things should help me out on the permafrost mud-field.

Weekday extracurricular activities now include volunteering at the afterschool program at Strathcona Community Centre. I am excited to the max! I signed up for the UBC Trek Learning Exchange Program and attending an orientation on Saturday morning. There was a small group of mainly first year students who were interested in helping out the community, and we all got to pick which place we wished to volunteer at for the minimum of four months, 1-4 hours a week. I will be helpin' out the kids on Mondays from 3-6 pm doing various activities. I thought I would start out somewhere with smaller kids and next year I will go somewhere I can academically help or supervise. But either way, I am really excited because I am so PASSIONATE about helping out. I would really like to be a teacher in some capacity. The positive feeling people talk about when they explain how rewarding teaching is...I can feel that.

I am also feeling...

Music! I've rediscovered my passion for sound! For a while I was stuck in a soley Carrie Underwood phase which, do not get me wrong, was great, but now I am branching out and re-entering the world of Other Artists. Among them: Sara Barielles (sounds like Fiona Apple), Belle and Sebastian, Kimya Dawson, The Kinks, Satyajit Ray, and Rilo Kiley (they have finally won me over after a longstanding one-sided anger stand-off). I am so glad Dennis the Menace (my iPod) decided to stop acting like his namesake. No more random battery drains!
Red nailpolish*. The deep blood colour. It's a hard shade to find and I am still on the prowl. I will find my bottle, though. And for under $10 because I am no sucker.
Sleeping! After my little episode throughout the Christmas break, it is nice to get a full eight hours. There's nothing like three weeks of insomnia to make you appreciate steady hours of rest.
French. Maryse Duggan automatically makes this semester is great. She is more like a teacher than a professor. This means she is not some fool who thinks they are awesome because they have 200 people looking at them with tears in their eyes. Concept: she actually cares.
Watching my roommate stress eat. It's just funny.

'Tis now the late hour of 10:50 and said roommate is getting ready for bed which means I should probably being doing so as well. I have come to the conclusion that living with a roommate is something akin to a mother dealing with a newborn: you have to start being stereo with the other person in order to get stuff done. Studying, for example. If I am studying, it is my feeling that she should also be doing so. Sleeping, as well. If one of us has fallen asleep for the night and the other lumbers in 4 hours later being loud, it doesn't make for the best situation.

With these great thoughts, I shall bid all 4 of this blog's readers bon nuit.
--C

*The obligatory but necessary/true statement: I was onto this red nail polish thing way before that site or anyone else knew the happs. Just so y'all know.

Nothing to be done.

2007-10-05T17:17:00.000-07:00

Today it is Friday and thus far I am having an utterly boring Thanksgiving weekend. Most people from my floor (and I assume the other residences as well) have left for home, wherever that may be. This includes my roommate, so I have the room to myself from now until Monday night. I thought I would highly enjoy being solitary for the weekend, but after two hours I am already so bored! I have been texting people, but it really is not an adequate means of replacing their presence.

I have finished my second Political Science assignment, so I have to spend the weekend writing my first English essay. It is complicated, but I think I have a handle on it. Hopefully. I wrote out an outline for it, though it is not a standard essay where you get a question and must answer it and back up your thesis. Basically it is a two-part essay where you summarize a critique of Frankenstein and then spend the next half saying why the critique is or is not an acceptable analysis of the novel. I am writing about the Feminist critique, as opposed to the Marxist theory or the Psychoanalytic one. We'll see how it all turns out.

Frankly, I don't know what to think about English and my future with the subject. All the kids in my class freak me out because they are very...responsive to what we have been discussing thus far in the course. I have never dealt with that before on this scale for 200 kids. My AP classes were supposed to be geared toward literary kids, but in the end most of the people were just keeners trying to amp up their transcript. Every time I say something in my tutorial class, I feel like an idiot because the TA basically just poses question after question and there are sporadic opinions expressed, but then the TA doesn't follow up or play devil's advocate. He just sits there, nods, and occasionally nods sagely. It's all very strange. Tutorial is alright though, compared to the actual English class on Tuesdays. I sit there for 2 hours while my professor very passionately and animatedly talks about Mary Shelley and makes creepy associations to things that no one wants to hear. Awkward! I like that he is enthusiastic, but after 110 minutes, I want to get out of there. Maybe our next unit will be a bit more bearable.

My favourite class is Political Science, which I have Monday, Wednesday and Friday for an hour. It is a great class because the professor is young and interested in government and has all these anecdotes to tell us. He is very reminiscent of two people that I hold near and dear to my academic heart: Bill Nye and Warren "Beaver" Marcotte aka my social 10 AP teacher. The downside to Political Science is my tutorial class, which is held on Mondays from 2-3. The TA is this crazy girl who is, I swear, 22. She is BONKERS. On a power trip to the ultimate degree. She is marking us on how many times we raise our hand during the class. This marking criteria angers me so much, so I just put up my hand and contribute anything that comes to my mind. It doesn't even matter when I say, though, because it is only me and this other girl who bother to contribute. Despite this, I don't feel like I have a secure mark in the class. She gave 4/5 on my first paper, which I thought was decent considering I am the only first year in the tutorial, but I am pretty sure she took off 0.25 for my (minor) mistake of writing 'Uganda citizen' instead of 'Ugandan citizen'. What a joke! I had awesome examples for a 400 word limit, and yet she is like, "you need to expand on your case studies"...well I would if I had an extra 300 words to spare you crazy lady! I summarized them as thoroughly as possible without glossing over the point of incorporating them. Whatevs. I finished the second assignment, went over the world limit by 150 words and lied about the final count. I tried my best to answer the question specifically, but it really isn't worth fretting over because no matter how many times I email her asking for advice like she encouraged us to do, it takes her 4 days to reply back. I don't have time for that!

I had a math midterm on Wednesday. I will tell you straight up: it is really difficult to do 7 questions that are worth 10 marks each within a 50 minute time frame. Especially when you aren't allowed a calculator and more than one of the questions requires root finding such as -q^2+500q-40 000. Now, I could easily do these questions with a calulator present, but when I only have 4 minutes left, I don't have time to try and guess-and-check which numbers multiply to give me -40 000 and add to make 500. Yep! Definitely am banking on part marks carrying me through.

I love how much my standards (and everyone else's) have already dropped after being here for just over a month. It is truly amazing the power that pressure has over people. No more keeners anymore -- we're all on the same level.

Speaking of low standards, I am off to go eat some tent food. Oh the joy. I wonder what kind of medium they'll find to shove couscous down our throats tonight...today at lunch it was stuffed peppers.

Bon soir!

After almost one month of school, this is all I have learned

2007-09-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

Uniqueness.

Humanity's downfall.

The reason why people love children so much is that they are innocent, smiley, chubby-cheeked and precocious. They may be predictable in some aspects, but they're also still so fresh and new. They retain their uniqueness if only because they are not aware of it yet.

Living in a dorm and being constantly surrounded by girls and guys that are the same generation as me, have experienced many of the same personal and world events as I have and generally function on the same brain wavelength as I do causes me to be hyperaware (and protective) of my surroundings. This observation only makes me more confident in my theory that school is an institution that has the main goal of assimilating all people to become the same person. All it the evidence I need is to look at the progression that takes place from start elementary school to the end of high school and if you are --I hasten to say it-- lucky enough, post-secondary institutions.

This is probably my Sociology and English class talking, as they have both been discourses on psychology and criticism lately. Regardless of where these observations are stemming from, the outcome remains that I am more and more disillusioned with each weekend floor party, each fundraiser BBQ, each elevator ride up two stories. It seems that the more I look at my peers, the more I realize how similar I am to the person four seats away; or the girl down the hall; or the fourth year boy in my french class. I do not mean that we are similar in how we dress -- though the sheer volume of Ugg knockoffs I see each day is astounding-- or how we speak or what we do. More or less, I realize how similar my thoughts are to those around me. It all makes perfect sense that I feel this way, as these kids have all led the exact same life (give or take their country of origin, or their first language, or their food preferences) that I have. In essence, they are me whether they are bigger, smaller, taller, stronger, darker or lighter than I am. Most of us took some sort of AP or IB class, we were all on the honour roll, we all were involved in our high school in some way or another, most likely has star athletes or student council types.

It's a weird sensation, realizing just how un-unique everyone is. Or at least how un-inventive you are in relation to those around you, the kids you used to categorize and judge accordingly. It isn't my choice either, this assimilation (although is assimilation ever a choice?), and yet when you close one eye and lean forward into the magnifying glass, it is easy to see how it happened, how we all became...the same: school, as a primary institution in most kids' lives, pushes students to assert their positive qualities, to discover and develop their interests, intellects, and strengths. The problem lies in the fact that because most schools are so limited in what they have to offer students most kids develop similar interests and hobbies, and only hang around kids with those similar attributes. It's all well and good until one day you look around and notice that everyone around you is...you.

Again, I am definitely not talking about the fact that people grasp onto trends and no matter what social status, the trend eventually makes its way through 90% of the student body. Theoretically, everyone will eventually own a piece of Lulu Lemon, girls and guys. Trends are just a matter of permeation. School, however, is the factory where all that athletica is made: it churns out the same eggplant-coloured sweater beside the teal-coloured version, and even though you may not choose the purple one in the store, you are still buying the product, incorporating yourself (unwittingly, unknowingly) into a system of similarity. Completely and utterly disillusioning and so it goes.

"You have a pillow case that your friends all signed before you left? Me too!"
"The Time Traveler's Wife is your favourite book too?! Weird."
"Hey, you used to work at Starbucks too? Awesome!"

[All real examples that mildly to moderately chipped away at my personality.]

Jessica Darling put it so well in Charmed Thirds when she was talking about how, in college or uni, one can walk into a room where each guy is used to being the funniest, most witty person in their school, so they all try and out-wit and out-humour the others. It is so classic. And sad.

Since I've arrived at UBC I have used this both to my comfort and displeasure. Finding out that someone else in from Edmonton (or anywhere in Alberta) makes me feel a bit more secure in my loneliness, and a bit more connected to home. Sometimes, however, I meet someone from back home and think about how selfish I was in thinking I was the only person that wanted out of Alberta. Not to mention how stupid.

Perhaps going through university is the true test of how you are going to establish yourself from the rest of the people in this world. Certainly the premise of faculties is to distinguish one group of people from another, but within that faculty, can you ever really stand out? Are you supposed to stand out?

It isn't like I feel anonymous. That isn't the goal of going to school and it never should be the outcome. Instead I feel...underappreciated. Yet there is no reason why I should feel appreciated at all. I paid my dues in high school just like all the other people here. That's why we're here in the first place. So no matter how many student clubs I was in, how distinct I tried to make myself feel in grade 12, I'm no more or less of an established student here, right now.

It's just weird, that's all. Being around people that could be you, give or take the length of their hair? It's freaky, really.

I know I am not the only person to see this. In fact, this is probably -- no, definitely-- a standard thought process for most first years. And the fact that I am writing my observation/manifesto in a blog? That's just tacky.

And isn't it the quiet times when we recall all the laughter?

2007-08-17T00:50:00.000-07:00

I can't sleep. I can't not think about high school and how much I am going to miss it. How much I already do miss it. The thrill of the first class of the year -- how many friends will you have to commiserate with? Will there be enough time to get from block 1 to block 2 within the break time? The smell of the freshly cleaned hallways mingled with the shiny metal locks of newbie grade 10s. The sight of teachers old and new, wearing the same old clothing from the previous years; the familiar pace of classes, breaks, lunchtime, bus schedules; the cafeteria; the cinder block walls; the security.

I didn't think I would feel this way. In fact, I had no inkling that I would be nostalgic let alone sad about leaving my secondary years behind me. And yet I am so unbelievably shaken up that my grief has taken me by surprise. Only lately has it began to strike me just who I won't see come September, or how I won't be forced to keep all my binders and textbooks in a tin encasement barely the width of a standard ruler. I realize the lame-factor is running quite high. For my sake, however, I think it serves me best to write about it and release my fear in some capacity or another. This is my blog after all, not your entertainment.

With "The Scientist" stuck in my head and humming through my lips, I nostalgically write this entry, trying to sort out and separate my thoughts from my feelings. My head from my heart.

With each passing day that I wake up, be it 5:30 am for my 6:00 shift, or 11:30 am on a day off or midday shift, I can't believe how quickly August is morphing into September. With breakneck speed retailers are latching onto the parents of latchkey kids and the like, vying for their money in order to get them suited up in proper fall attire. Back to school season is upon us, despite the 15 or so hazy, lazy, crazy days of summer left.

Every Old Navy, Burlington Coat Factory, and Staples commercial I see makes me -- almost literally -- sick to my stomach. No, kids, I'm not bahumbugging the commercialization of the onset of yet another school year; I am merely expressing -- or trying to express -- the consternation I feel towards starting my school year, off at UBC. It's going to be weird and wild and I am not ready for it. I don't know if one can be ready for something like that, moving up and away from friends and family and into the unknown. All I know is that people have been doing it for centuries and come August 29th, I'll be taking my first of many steps onto the Path of Enlightenment AKA The Road of Life AKA Impending Doom AKA Cold, Hard, Unceasingly-Raw Reality.

Is this what it feels like to celebrate a bat/barmitzfah?

Is this my official transition into adulthood?

Have I selected the wrong road? Did I miss my exit or have I turned too early?

When is it time to stop asking questions and just go?

Part of me hopes that even if I was attending the U of A and staying here (I hasten to call this city home, since it truly repulses me 99% of the time) I would feel this way. And yet I look around at my friends who are staying put and they don't have the worry wrinkles sketched upon their tanned and bronzed foreheads. They can't possibly be mentally recounting how many shirts and dresses they own and how big their suitcases are. I am, though. While they are out boozing up at the local clubs and revelling in their 18 year old glory, I am working shift after shift trying to make enough money to last me while I'm in school, all the while subconsciously calculating how many loads of laundry I can do for minimum cost and maximum sanitary satisfaction.

I do not regret my decisions that I have made thus far. I question them, though. I fully understand that it was selfish of me to attend UBC. Not only is it more expensive, but it removes me from anyone who cares about me. Despite this, I believe it was a good move in that I will be thrust out to discover all the dirty truths I have somehow been protected from thus far. I just don't know if I should be protected a little longer, or if now is the right time.

Then there is the issue of work -- Starbucks. Without a doubt in my mind, I am glad I decided to stay and work through the summer instead of quitting and slumming around. Not only has it kept me busy, but it has shown me just how amazing some people are, how wonderful and generous co-workers truly make or break a job. These people have made me love coming to work for 8.5 hours to serve the unsuspecting public trans-fat-laden, overtly sugary beverages and pastries. All of my fellow Starbucks Partners, in some capacity or another, make giving mall-goers adult-onset diabetes, heart disease and lactose intolerance worth it. For that, I am truly grateful. The downside to this high level of job satisfaction is that working anywhere else, be it another Starbucks in BC or an altogether different occupation, will prove conversely unsatisfying. I'm never going to find such a concentrated amount of amazing people ever again. Of this bold declaration, I am obstinately set and sure of myself. I have heard far too many tales of awful part-time jobs to know that what I have stumbled upon is a rare and delightful treat.

So in summation: (Amazing job situation + Fear of the Unknown + Leaving Comfort) / Excitation for stepping out on my own = gripping, insomnia-causing worry + anxiety-ridden blog entries at 2 am.

If I could go back 8 months and rethink my post-secondary conquests, I don't know if I would or not. I just wish I wouldn't have been so intensely set on leaving. It may have been the ultimate mozaltov, but it could very well be my undoing.

Hey, guess what? I hate you!

2007-08-05T13:22:00.001-07:00

I have to say that I am not impressed with this Blogger site. It won't let me update unless I open the link in a new window, and I am not allowed to comment on anyone else's blog unless I try a gazillion times and/or create a new google account everytime. I don't know what the hold up is. Additionally, I cannot find the customization feature that allows me to cross-link blogs. This is annoying.

Moreover, I highly dislike the fact that this site isn't LiveJournal; it doesn't have a place for you to write what music you are listening to, your current mood, or where you are. What does Blogger have to offer, then? I don't know. I really don't know. And even the domain names aren't any easier to remember or look any sleeker than those of LJ: ___.blogspot.com vs. ____.livejournal.com.

I will keep this up, though, if only for the sibling unity factor. Maybe I'll adapt; hopefully I won't.

Good housekeeping

2007-08-02T12:33:00.000-07:00

Just because it's summer, doesn't mean life's lessons stop to soak up the rays . Here are some things I have learnt thus far into my summer vay-cay:

1. Popping popcorn with olive oil (extra-virgin or no) creates a bland kernel, as opposed to popping with canola oil. Nonetheless, if this is the only oil you have on hand, go for it. Denying oneself popcorn because of a specific oil shortage is silly. Just silly. Incidentally, I encourage one and all who are on the popcorn pathway to experiment with their seasonings. You never know when you'll hit a gold mine of explosive and satisfying flavour. I mean, who would have thought kettle corn would catch on? Sugary sweet popcorn that goes for $6 a bag at the Fringe...who'da thunk it? Probably someone with excessive time on their hands and a love of corn and flavour. You could be that person.

2. There is no such thing as 'free time'. You may be asking yourself what the hell I am talking about; this is, after all, summertime, a season fraught with short shorts, ice cold beverages and mid-to-late afternoon naps -- relaxing accouterments designed specifically for laziness. Well my good friends, l'image a gauche is my case in point. When you find yourself in need to a task to do and nothing immediately presents itself (you've already flipped through all the channels, surfed all your Internet pages, vacuumed up the dead flies on your window sill...), simply pick up your camera and start clicking. If you are lucky you may get some wonderful shots of whatever you are snapping, be it yourself, the neighbour's flowers (yours have already died due to excess, bored-induced watering), a thunderstorm etc. Who doesn't love a little documentation of boredom? It may just be the highlight of your day.

3. Summer parties and get-togethers are a dime a dozen. Firing up the barbeque and calling friends to come over is a weekly occurrence. Because of this, people have become desensitized to the fiesta spirit that only a well-planned kick back can provide and that the heat has to offer. If you are going to have friends over, make it a night to remember by inviting guests in advance; calling someone up the night before and inviting them to your house for a hamburger only makes it seem like you bought excess ground beef. Let's take a step back and remember what being a good host requires: attention to detail. If you go out of your way, people will notice and appreciate the care you put forth. Pouring a jar of salsa into a chipped glass bowl is easy; making your own salsa is cunning, adventurous, and satisfying. Not only does planning a party provide a solution to aforementioned lesson #2, but it provides an opportunity to take pictures, make delicious popcorn, and create memories of a summer well spent.

Hopefully these lessons serve you well during this last month of freedom and exorbitant spending.

Cheers!