Table Tennis Data

Hello Everybody,

I now need to update my table tennis research progress; although this time it will be with a much shorter post.

Basically, I received my DVDs of the 2010 World Table Tennis Championship (WTTC) last week and started watching some of the matches to record data. Much like Dr. Wooders did in his “Minimax Play at Wimbledon” paper, I am recording direction of serve, serve mixture, points won with certain serve, win rates, and eventually, Pearson statistics (chi-squared), and P-Values.

However, it will probably take me another week or so to record enough data such that I have good results. So far, I am actually finding that table tennis players are NOT playing according to minimax (assuming P-values that do not indicate rejection of data). The players have served more often to the left than the right even though the win rate for serving to the left is much less than for serving to the rate. This is even true when controlling for Deuce and Ad courts. However, this is through only about a quarter of the data collection that I need to do, so those results could change fairly quickly. There also is a chance that I have to watch more matches than I ordered, because even though the DVDs contain enough matches for good results, the matches are a select few compared to all the matches that took place in the tournament. The matches chosen by the producer also seem to show a slight bias toward matches involving the Chinese team (champion), and German team (runner-up)

So far, I have been working the library at the University of Arizona because it is a quiet workspace. I have spent a lot of time at the library watching the DVDs on my laptop and then recording data from them. This is more of an independent research project, because I am only seeing Dr. Wooders for guidance (at least so far) on how to conduct my research project (although the ideas for the project definitely derive from his paper).

I’ll probably post again sometime soon as to how the data is turning out.

Jayanth (Juanito6561)

Com mun ity

Community. That is my new word: Community.

How does one inspire and motivate a community to want change- to desire sustainability- to implement progress?

What if those in the community have more negative assets than economically successful ones? Delete. There is no such thing as a negative asset. When an outside source makes a promise to the people to initiate sustainable development the said source must recognize and utilize all of the community's local assets. They must mobilize the existing resources in order to instill hope and to avoid unnecessary dependence on outside groups. These assets can be anything from a library to a book club, from a sports team to a field, from a wash to a water fountain.

These ideas have been circling in my mind each day. How is a grassroots green movement started? How does it stay sustainable? How can an environmental movement encompass all of America while simultaneously embracing racial, economic, and aesthetic diversity? I hope to answers those questions.

While those thoughts have taken over, I am still working with the Drachman Institute. Last week I went to two schools, Tully and Brichta, and worked with their student body councils. We asked the kids what they thought about their schoolyard, what they wanted from their schoolyard, how they use their schoolyard, and many other things. We are now beginning to analyze their feedback and eagerly await the faculty feedback from the survey I made. We have also spoken with neighborhood associations and PTOs. We will analyze the topics of commonality between all of these different points of views and begin to create a green plan for the schools. This will contain an architecture plan. Very exciting!

I am reading many books on the environment and the state of American cities. I find myself growing worried about the practical implementation of converting cities for the future of people, rather than cars. But hey, I suppose if change is to happen, it will start with independent communities devoted to the betterment of this earth- like Tully and Brichta!

What communities do you belong to? What assets do you use weekly?

Schools are an important place for change to start; here are some kids from the BASIS community planting a garden and holding a candle light vigil. (POWER and RECS supported event)

ZV

It's a new week!

Good morning! So, luckily, I woke up this morning, and the sun was shining just for me! I was ecstatic! As I look out the window in the lab at the gray sky, it helps to know that the sun tried, at least.

Anyway, its the beginning of a new week! New challenges, things to discover, and projects to finish! You may ask why I seem so happy? Well, this week, I sincerely hope is going move faster than the last one. Anne is back, and now we can once again work on trying to make the two colonies of bacteria that will help me perform the growth competition. Hopefully, we recieve the oligonucleotide sequences, and we can work right away to attach them to the plasmids and finally transfer the Strawberry genomes to the correct plasmid! Then, we would do a cople test just to determine whether it worked, the moment of truth, and then we can play with one or two of the replicating factors in the plasmid, let them grow, and see what happens! Gripping stuff!
This week, I am really gonna try to finish character development and begin storyboarding. That's my goal. As long as I don't get distracted, which is really easy to do here, it shouldn't be a trial.
Yesterday, I visited the Bois de Boulogne, a very large park that is pretty much a mini forest in the middle of Paris. Really cool, and it was even cooler because I spent time with my aunt, her boyfriend, and my little cousin! Apart form the large roads that run through it and the big parking lots, the forest is beautiful, and it was quite nice to get back into nature again. I don't think that the air was specifically any cleaner than in Paris, but it was nice to be around some plants finally. That's one of the things I miss about Tucson. The air quality in Paris is rather deplorable.
I guess we'll see how my week turns out! Posting soon,
Clover

Tetris

Is that how you spell the game? I think so. I spent all last week playing Tetris......... in real life!! With boxes and the content of boxes. And while my description sounds like fun, it gets old after a short while. Like... two days. There are two levels of Tetris when one is packing. There is the tetris to get all the objects into a hollow rectangular prism, of which there are many of diverse proportions. There is also the tetris skill required to place all these rectangular prisms (only a very few are cubes) in a larger rectangular prism (AKA the van, Leroy) in an efficient manner. The second level of Tetris also forces the player to consider more closely such properties and laws as inertia and momentum. The Physics guys could probably also name a more properties, but these are those which seemed most obvious and important to me. Boxes shift as Leroy turns, so the Tetris-player's goal is to place the boxes in such a manner that minimizes box movement/shift.

That is literally what I did this week. And my back-muscles are mildly sore, which is indicitive of exercise on a non-harmful (might we say harmless?) level. I'm glad everyone else had a more interesting week than I.

Weddings, editing, and organizing: Clarice's SRP

Last Sunday I did my first wedding, which was quite an experience... This time, I did more field work, filmed a lot of the wedding, and lugged a bunch of equipment around for Jacob. I learned more about the settings a camera should be on for film (which was explained to me and I learned as I filmed), how to improvise when weather conditions are terrible, and much more. I'm using a Panasonic gh2, which shoots in HD video, and is overall a very lovely camera.
On Monday I uploaded the videos onto a computer and then started editing them with Adobe Premiere, which is basically Photo Shop for videos. So, instead of writing, I could show everyone pictures/videos of what my project entails.
Jacob and I also took some audio recordings at the wedding and we were hoping to sync some of the audio with the video that we got, or make a slide show of photographs that the audio can coincide with. However, the majority of the audio was terrible because of the wind, and we won't be using 100% of it (if any at all). Contrary to that bad news, I finished compiling sections of the videos that I took at the wedding into a short, chronological video. I touched up the segments individually, but I not put any creative touch to the video yet. This coming Monday, Jacob and I are going to add some still photographs that he took at the wedding and include them in the short video. So, after that, I'll add some dissolves, experiment with Premiere more and hopefully the video will come out great!
I've also been learning more about the less exciting sides of a photography business. I organized bills and receipts for Jacob, wrapped photo albums for his clients, and did number crunching for him as well. (Actually, organizing was fun). I know that I'm just getting closer and closer to organizing his whole studio. Moving on now!
This past Friday I went with Eren McGinnis (my second intern) to a shoot for the Discovery Channel en Espanol. We filmed a quinceanera of a family that Eren knew well. The point of the filming that we did was to be apart of a larger documentary about how S.B. 1070 has effected the lives of Latinos in America. I did take some still pictures of the party, but I mainly helped with the personal appearance releases (as stated previously). Eren's partner, Ari, explained to me more about audio, which isn't a strong point of mine at all, and then about shooting conditions (i.e. lighting).
I am also going to be helping Eren out with managing her facebook page for "Precious Knowledge," and just spreading the news about her film. It's going to be showing at the Fox Theater towards the end of March (March 24th, I believe) and you guys should check out their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/preciousknowledge/

Hopefully by Tuesday I'll post the video that I made and hopefully I'll get feedback from all of you guys. Oh, and just as a reminder, the Mexican film festival is next week!!!!!!! COME! http://tucsoncinemexico.org/

Blwuagh!

Blwuagh! My head will probably explode in 10 seconds from all the things I have been stuffing into it lately. Chaotic-much like the environment at the ICU- is the perfect word to describe this week because there is almost no way to organize EVERYTHING that I learned this week into one coherent entry. There are a couple of different things that I have done outside of the hospital that I haven't had a chance to do previous two weeks. In addition to shadowing Dr.Wilson at the OR , this week I also went to U of A and followed an intern at Valley Animal Hospital for about two hours; my friend's 18 year old tabby has kidney problems so she took him to the vet and I tagged along. At the clinic, I simply asked the assistant whether I could observe things for a while but at the U of A library, the situation was much trickier. I had to spend all of my limited people skills to be able to check out some pathology books. Since there is no way I could own a Cat card, I had to bribe( with Twix) one of the U of A students to let me check out the materials on her card. Anyway trickery aside, due to my confusion, I have taken a habit to writing down all the unfamiliar terms in a 5 by 5 note book ( it's faster than typing in an itouch google search and looks more sophisticated). By the end of the 3rd day I have been using the notebook ,about 6 pages (both front and back) have been filled out by probably misspelled medical jargon, shortened names of disease and tests. Because many of the definitions are closely tied with or depend on other systems in the body, the majority of my time was spent leaning about the relationships between organs( this was especially true with spinal disk herniation and the pains/sensations in different parts of the body that occur because of the pinched spinal chord). Surprisingly, I also had to learn a heavy load of biochemistry definitions and processes on a cellular level( for example, all patients receive anti-ulcer medication because they undergo a lot of stress which causes their body to output hydrocortisone or cortisol that stimulate gastric acid secretion and cause stomach ulcers if uncontrolled [ the pituitary gland in patients who are in comatose state still releases cortisol]). Most of the time, the terms centered around blood and blood thinning medication but there was also some interesting conversations by the nurses about the new smoking cessation aid by the name chantix (varenicline). Because about 85% of lung cancer patients are smokers (and I am shadowing a lung doctor ) this drug is quite important. It acts as a partial antagonist. To make it short and easy, varenicline blocks the nicotine from binding to the receptors AND stimulates the receptors at the same time. This drug has the highest effectiveness then any other anti-smoking medication and the highest percentage of suicidal thoughts in people who are taking it. ....Anyway, dying from lung cancer (or any other cancer..or just dying I suppose) is an ugly sight. Dr. Wilson said that "doctors in the ICU help the patient die comfortably " not necessarily help the patient get better.

I have also found out that medicine is very much like a business not in the terms that doctor's salaries depend on how many procedures she/he does, but to the amount of involvement of drug companies and their cooperation with the hospital. I will explain more about this in my next post because my head just exploded.

Martha the Builder

If the broad sides of your house face east and west, your energy bill is double than it should be. Last Wednesday, my mentor Mr. Abell and I had lunch at ASU with retired mechanical engineer Dave Scheatzle (pronounced like that place with the funny name and the serious sandwich). Over empanadas and soup, we were debating the effectiveness of passive and active solar energy, earth integration, cardinal directions and seasonal solar angles on buildings. Since the final product of my project will be "the most ecologically friendly, appropriate to desert conditions, aesthetically pleasing and financially attainable house for Tucson" (hopefully), this talk was a mammoth step towards that.

One focus in sustainable architecture is this: pay attention to the surroundings. Nothing matters more for human comfort here than temperature control. One natural way is a herald to the solstices: build or buy a house in Tucson with the broad sides facing NW and SE on a 28 degree lateral slant. The sunrise and set "move" positions due to the earth's natural rotation and revolution around the sun. Around this angle then, like Phoenix's Wyndham Hotel, the house receives the best of the winter morning and the minimum of the summer afternoon. It's cheap. It's simple. But of course... if you want to go expensive and complicated (ahem engineers) you can try this. Go natural or go mechanical. Build kangaroo robots while you're at it.

With the discussed ecological concepts, I started my design process this week. What I drew again from Vitruvius was that architecture is a polygamous marriage between structure, aesthetics, and finance. For my project, I am putting emphasis on the sustainability and attainability, which stresses my ability to put in some dreamability. Forget the waterfall off the roof. The living room petting zoo? Return the animals. I sigh out loud as I write this.

Despite these setbacks, I have set up a program, which means the plan for what the house will be and what the client wants. I am planning for low energy materials and low energy Right now, I am drawing bubble diagrams. It is part of vernacular building, meaning it shows logical relationships of how rooms are placed together e.g. the bedroom is far from the kitchen to minimize noise.

I know it doesn't look much, but I did over 10 of these, because one, I was trying to do a this "solar feng shui" and two, I am regrettably becoming more of a perfectionist. It's like a cross between Bob the Builder and Martha Stewart. I will soon draw some floor plans with measurements and sections, which are 2D vertical slices that often reveal the interior of a building. In preparation, I've been measuring wall spans and rooms around my house for perspective. I can't find a ruler, so I've been using a 6-in one with a Jesus fish and a cross.

I like spending my time this way.

Until the walls come down,

Nicole

P.S. I thought I posted this last Saturday night...huh.

Clover Powell's SRP

This week has been quite slow, and it isn't helped by the fact that there was one day with sun, and it lasted about 3 hours. Yeah, weather in France is like that.

Apart from that, it has been mostly drawing, and learning about very specific proteins and how prokaryotes perform DNA replication. It really is not very different from eukaryotic DNA replication, but I'll explain it anyways. As we all know, prokaryotic DNA is circular, and there is one point of origin, where DNA replication is started. At this point, there are four binding sites where a protein called DnaA binds. This protein, when it binds on the site, helps twist the DNA, forming a very tight loop. This in turn creates a force that slightly rips the bonds fromed in between the bases, and this is where DnaB, otherwise known as helicase (ha, scared you guys, didn't I? Its commonly called DnaB here in the lab.) can start to do what it was made to do. Unzip those genes! Also, a protein, called DnaC, escorts the enzyme DnaB to the spot of the rip. Once the helicase has begun to open the DNA, special proteins called SSBs, or Single Stranded Binding proteins, which protect the DNA from getting digested by enzymes called Dnase. These enzymes are put there to digest foreign single stranded DNA, but given the chance, they will apparentely digest their own DNA too, if the two single strands are left without protection.
After this, enzymes called DNA pimase synthesize and put in place a small piece of RNA, called a RNA primer, that allow DNA polymerase to come in and copy the DNA. After the DNA is copied, the RNA primer is switched out with DNA, and all the little pieces of DNA are bound together by DNA ligase. Of course, the explinqtion of this process can get much lore complicated than that, but I have all the info I need now!
Because I finally know all the major players in DNA replication of a prokaryote, it makes the development of the characters that conincide much easier to make. As soon as I've finished this step to my satisfaction, I can begin storyboarding and making the comic! Its something I can't wait to do, but that I have to take time to do. If I don't, I know that I will have a ahrder time making the comic and delivering a finished product that I am satisfied with!
Other than that, I have been living the city life well. Last night, I hung out with my aunt and uncle and we went out to eat and hit a few bars. It was very fun, but I can say that I'm reaping the 'benefits' of only sleeping seven hours.
Until the next post! Good day, Cleandro AKA Man of Honor.

Dany's Latest Adventues in Chemistry

Today has been an exciting day with Dr. Zheng and Dr. Corrales (a computational chemist I may have mentioned in an earlier post). Because Dr. Zheng was sick on both Monday and Tuesday, I unfortunately did not get the opportunity to begin lab work. However, we did discuss more specifically what my job will entail.

Before I get into details on what that job is, I should quickly provide a summary of how luminescence, or the chemical creation of light, works in the case of organic molecules. Light emission here starts with the idea of coordination complexes -- ie, molecules that form together to make bigger molecules. The coordination complexes Dr. Zheng and I are dealing with have one central ion and three outer ligands. What metal ion exists at the center of the coordination complex determines what wavelength of light is emitted upon excitation, regardless of when and how that excitation occurs.

The ligands, however, are a much more complicated matter. Their function is twofold. The first is to receive energy; this could be anything from passing a current through them to shining a light upon them. Ligands, here, are very much like the antennae that capture light and transfer it to the center of a photosystem in photosynthesis. The second function of ligands is to transfer energy to the central ion for light emission -- and this is where things become a little more complicated. Energy that wishes to leave the domain of the ligands may do so in a number of stages, known as 'singlet' or 'triplet' states. Energy could travel through many singlet states -- or none at all -- before getting to a single triplet state. If an electron does so happen to make it to a triplet state, it must then still transfer itself to the central ion of the coordination complex. The bad news? Across every "interstate" transition, energy loss occurs. This means that by the time an electron might make it to the central ion, there might be so little energy left that any feasible emission would be weak at best.

Currently, the focus of my research in the Zheng lab is to figure out what combination of ligands should be used for electron transfer. Indeed, the ligands are currently the foremost deterrent to achieving high energy transfer efficiency and thus luminescent efficiency at the moment -- experimenting with ligands of different characteristics (such as its electron donating/accepting ability) and putting together a trend of efficiency based on those characteristics would allow us to determine what is the most efficient luminescent compound.

So, this is where my work begins! In determining what kind of ligand best suits energy transfer, my first two "data points" will include the study of two compounds that are the same, but differ only by ligand. Next week, if all goes well, I will begin work on synthesizing these compounds and eventually comparing them as to whether electron "donating" ligands are more conducive to luminescence than are electron "withdrawing" ligands. Based on what conclusion I come up with, we will decide on what the third "data point" (compound) should be, and test to see whether this new compound fits the trend predicted by my first two data points.

This isn't even beginning to discuss the work I will be doing in the interim with Dr. Corrales. While I am creating these compounds, I will be learning how to model chemical compounds with a piece of software called NWChem. It's very easy to get overambitious with the use of this software, as it is terribly complicated, so I will need to start now learning how to model something as simple as a water molecule and increase in complexity from there. The eventual goal is to be able to create a modular setup that reflects the data points that I've found experimentally. That way, future chemists working in this field of study need not continue "stabbing in the dark" experimentally, so to speak, with various ligands and can determine a general idea of what the ideal coordinating complex ligand should be.

Hopefully, with all setbacks taken care of, I might finally proceed with beginning lab work and computational work next week. My third meeting with Dr. Corrales is on Tuesday; additionally, I will be meeting with another advisor who is experienced setting up computational calculations. In the interim, then, I will be studying lab recipes relevant to the creation of my first two compounds. The recipes themselves are embedded in a publication Dr. Zheng and his student collaborated on, so you can how good it feels to finally be able to understand a scientific publication (to an extent, of course!)

There was a section in the kitchen shelf entirely for tea. /Angelynn.

Originally, I didn't think I would be writing one day after another. I had planned to update this SRP blog twice a week or so, but I thought of how drastic is the change from my first day to my second in MOCA.. and I realise there's no way I can wait until Saturday to write about the fill I had today.

I had my first curating experience. Immediately after I entered the building, Anne-Marie asked what I thought about physical museum work, something off the desk. "I'm down with it!" was my reply. She warned me that I'll have a day of bureaucratic and physical museum work; I had no objections whatsoever. I like a good workout. In fact, I welcome it.

Moments later, I was introduced to Aili Schmeltz and Jocko Weyland, both artists whom I will be working with to curate her exhibition (that will open to the public by next Saturday). We went on a hunt for scissors so that we may start unwrapping her art piecees' parts. All the parts came in to MOCA from Los Angeles around two in the morning of Wednesday. During this unpackaging process, four other colleagues joined: Marcie (another intern), Christian (a volunteer), Candace (assistant curator), and Ashley (another intern). I was the newbie, haha.

For the rest of the day, we ran back and forth around the building, cleaning the room of all furniture and pre-existing miscellaneous items. Then once all the art pieces were unwrapped, we assembled what soon became looming styrofoam giants. Some of the parts didn't fit together perfectly, and we had to try and find ways to remedy the gaps. After toiling over "Does it fit?"s, we had to decided what goes where. This was extremely important because not only did we have to keep in mind the flow of the audience's path, but as well as the exhibition's first impression (when you step into the museum and take the first sweep into the exhibit's room), the harmony of everything and their positions, the noise of the atmosphere around each object, etc. Frankly, I didn't think it would be as complex as it was. But it was complex in all the right ways, as the results yielded great satisfaction! Not only was it pleasing to the eye and mind, it was enlightening, with all the new information absorbed. After the exhibition was set, I removed more unwanted things from the previous Gala in the hall, such as floaty balls, large styrofoam boards, and plastic wraps.

By the time I finished the tidy-up, it was time for my first Art Now! session. Art Now! is a series of lectures on a certain area of art. This series is about 1980s art, taught by a University of Arizona professor named Paul (I wasn't able to catch his last name, apologies). Before we begin, we can help ourselves to some healthy snacks, like carrots, broccolis, grape tomatoes, celery sticks, and pretzel sticks, and some wine. The lecture starts and finishes. Then after each lecture is a meaty discussion, followed by more snacks and wine. Today, Paul spoke about Postmodernism, Appropriation, and Signification. What is 'originality'? Is there such as a set notion of originality? If one took a picture of a picture of a picture (third generation), would it still be representing what the first generation's work represented? Would it signify the same thing? We talked about how postmodernism artists focused not on creating their art, but taking parts of things and assembling them together to give them a new meaning and signify a new notion. If one took a billboard advertisement and stripped the picture of it's advertisement text, is the remainder art? Is it original? What about the reference? Context is key; everything depends on context and juxtaposition. We talked about the so-called "nature" that was weaved by the culture to guard the female sex into this realm of the private and spiritual, and how this limited the women in every aspect. Women, the private and spiritual and impulsive and emotional. Men, the public, the physical, the rough, the steady. We talked about how artists believed that if one were to copy a work of art perfectly, then one could create the same essence of the original art piece. This was only a random sample of what was covered..

I was fascinated by the depth of his lecture and the heavy atmosphere of genuine curiousity and eagerness for art knowledge. This was the best part of my day. And then I said my thank-you's and goodbye's for the day.

Overall, today's activities were great learning experiences, from how to install an exhibition to how has mass media helped the art culture. The difference between yesterday's and today's agenda kept me on my toes and has fueled my excitement for my internship. I'm very fortunate to be working with such chill, passionate, and amazing people!

Oh yeah, and you've no idea how elated I was to find the tea section. They have Japanese tea. Good authentic Japanese tea. What's up with that? They know where it's at, that's what's up.
(Pardon my lazy language; it's two in the morning, and I am slacking and lacking.)

Until the next,
Axk.

There is a laughing machine hidden underneath the stairs. /Angelynn.

There I was, awkwardly posed by Anne-Marie's (my advisor, also director and curator of MOCA) door. Behind heaps of unevenly stacked papers, she had her phone pressed against the side of her face. I was unsure about announcing my arrival, but I stepped in anyways.

"Anne-Marie?"

"Angelynn!" She gestured at the seats before her, lively.

I promptly settled myself, waiting to reach with a firm handshake.

This was just moments before I was hit with a swift pang of the incoming information from her. My hand scribbled with my chicken-scratch handwriting; notes unjustly spewed all over my new notebook. I quickly learned the nine different departments in MOCA.

It starts with the most conceptual and proceeds to the tangible and gritty stuff. First is the Curatorial department, "where all the scholarly stuff happens" (research and research and research). Following is the "Education and Outreach," which essentially is in charge of translating and packaging all the raw scholarly goodness to an understandable wavelength for the public. Third is is Communications department; this heads the usual branding, graphic designs, mass e-mails, social media, etc. After Communications is the "Cultivation," which is more commonly known as the Development department. The Finance department is fifth, and almost everything from the other departments is connected to the Finance department. The Operations department heads the actual running of programs and events, and precedes the Governance department (board of trustee and fiduciary responsibilities). Now, we have the physical department: the Facilities, which takes care of equipments and the like in the building. The last department is the Retail department, which is straightforwardly all about the goods in the museum gift shop.

I was given the "Art Bible" named Artforum, the NOW program guide, and a thick, little square booklet on David Lewis' State Furniture to read for the day. And, well, I did exactly so (half way done with Lewis' book, but finished with the bible and the guide). After my slow but careful reading, Rochelle (whom I will be shadowing aside from Anne-Marie) gave me a tour of the building.

Frankly, I was surprised with the size of the museum, and that the museum used to be a fire station. Also, I hadn't a clue that MOCA had a Artists in Residency program! There are three or four spacious rooms on the top floor, where artists can stay for the duration of their time with MOCA's program. Beds, couches, and a large kitchen provided. (Yeah, I thought this was pretty great.)

Once the tour was over, I was put to a computer and helped sorted some auction items on Excel. Oh, and I had to work with a Mac computer. Nevertheless, I managed to swallow my usual grunt of "AughIt'sAMac" and completed my task. I ended my day with a read of Artforum and an orange Starburst.

Ultimately, I had a pleasant first day. The atmosphere was pleasantly calm and easy to work in. The people were friendly (though there weren't many at MOCA today, as a handful of them were in L.A. to transfer some art pieces for a new show). The chairs were comfortable. I have much ahead of me as I begin my submersion into the realm of the modern-day Museion. And fortunately, I am curious, eager, and ready.

Side note: There really is a laughing machine. The laugh is rather eerie too.

Axk.

One job leads to another

Yeah so today was no big deal. Just picked up Matt Wilder from his apartment, grabbed breakfast, drove him to the office, got offered a job to work on set in New Orleans on the shoot of his film Inferno...

Yes! This made me ecstatic. I don't even know if this will work out, but regardless, it shows the process of getting your foot in the door, then busting down the door with that foot.

Breakfast with Matt was very interesting- he looks at films in a similar way that I do. BASIS has taught me plenty about analyzing books (Thank you Kittredge, Harings, Toews), and in my personal time, I've made it my job to apply these skills to film. Matt learned a similar process of analysis, but at Yale. This education combined with industry experience made him a perfect interview subject. I now feel as thought I have a greater understanding of the generally hush-hush process of pitching an idea and financing a film, both of which are important in looking at the economic aspects of cinema.

After a morning of driving from errands to errands (his driver is out of town this week, and I was the next best thing [so to anyone who knows what this means, Shelby has driven around a movie director!]), he offered me a job to work as a Production Assistant on Inferno, with Malin Akerman and Matt Dillon, when they shoot this summer in Louisiana. I don't know if I'll be able to take this job, as I said, but it was a very humbling gesture that gives me optimism for the future.

After that, I moved on to more mundane office tasks, but in the mid-afternoon, I got a fun assignment. One of our bosses at the company is an avid art collector, so I was to go to his house and help his wife unpack a work of art that he just bought at auction. Then we had to transport it from his home about half a mile to the office. This was the work:


If you're not familiar with the piece, it's by Andy Warhol. So that was kinda cool. I touched the bubble wrap surrounding an original Warhol.

Tomorrow I have to go in early so I can drive a co-worker to the airport, then I've got the office to myself. Most of the day, I'll be playing real estate agent, showing the downstairs office that is still available for rent.

The days here get more and more interesting. Even though I still miss Tucson and all of you guys and some other folks, I'm enjoying my time here. I'm sure that right when I decide I'm perfectly content to stay, my time will be up and I'll go home the next day. But until then, it's good stuff.

Clover Powell SRP

Bonjour monde! I know my posts have been rather randomly placed in time, and I apologize for that.

Having said that, let me tell you what I plan to do this week.

This week, unfortunately, on the lab side of things, there's not much for me to do. My colleague Anne and my externam advisor Bianca are both "out of town" for the moment. Our first experience cutting the plasmid with the GFP genome and replacing the genome with that of the strawberry genome so that we would have the same plasmid did not work. The reason is because the sites where the restriction enzymes cut were not the same. The reason for this is that, instead of using the same restriction enzyme, Xba1 to cut both genomes from their respective plasmids, Anne used BamH1 and Xba1 to cut the plasmid with GFP and used solely Xba1 to cut the plasmid with the strawberry genome. The funny thing is that, when we did the gel to isolate the strawberry genome and the GFP plasmid without the GFP genome, apparentely, the strawberry plasmid and the strawberry genome hadn't even separated. Apparentely, the combination of BamH1 and Xba1 did not even cut the plasmid, so we couldn't even go through with trying to combine the strawberry genome into the GFP plasmid. Anne will be back in a week to help me go begin anew the process of cutting out plasmids apart and inserting the strawberry genome inside the GFP genome. Anne has ordered oligonucléotides, or in English, oligonucleotides. These moloeecules are short nucleic acid polymers, typically composed of fifty(at their largest) or less bases. what we will be doing is adding them in with the plasmids so that they have the same sites where the restriction enzymes will cut. This will allow us to cut the two plasmids with the same restriction enzymes and (if they even cut) will give us a higher chance that the strawberry genome will bind with the GFP plasmid. So, this whole process will happen next week, and hopefully this time it will work.
So, instead of doing the above mentioned activities, I will be working mainly on the development of the comic. This part is so exciting, and is also quite hard! As I outlined before, I am still thinking up of a stort, but I think that I've pretty much got the idea down.
Since I wrote in my SRP outline that I would be drawing a comic based on my experiences in the lab, that's exactly what I'll be doing. I don't want to make it a "straight from life to the page" kind of comic, though, so I've decided to explain what is happening on a molecular level in prokaryotic growth and cell division. To explain it in a fun and colorful manner, I've decided that I also would like to personify each important molecule (there are so many, and its very hard to choose) and use their role in cell growth and division to represent life in a village. I want to make the cell a village and outline the proteins and cell processes as proccesses that help the village "grow" and "survive". Its a relatively uncreative idea, but its a idea that I think I can transform into a fun and entertaining idea for the reading audience (Oh, and criticism is welcome!) Anyway, right now, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about prokaryotic cell replication, though, not much is known about the actual process. One difficulty is what to put into the story and what to leave out. What is too specific? I think that will depend on how long I decide to make this story and how much drawing and planning I'm gonna do. As soon as I am satisfied with my grip on the extent of knowledge known about prokaryotic cell division, I will really begin character development and storyboarding (though I have been doing these two activities a lot lately). Overall, it's been a scintillatingly exciting experience!
My experience in Paris these last three weeks have been really great. I have now a daily routine where I take the Metro 4 up to Les Halles station (which is next to the French version of a mall)
, then switch off to the RER B, a train that takes me all the way out to the town of Bagneux, where my lab is. At first, it was very unsettling, because there was always at least one person who was asking for money and help on the trains, and I knew I couldn't help them. Now I'm kinda used to it, so its not so bad. I haven't visited too much of Paris since I've been here, since my lab work eats up my afternoons, but this week, its finally sunny, so I will definitely hit the streets and see what's going on! Since my dad has left, I definitely feel free and liberated, but, as Josh so aptly said, everything haas been pretty much normal, and I haven't done anything really out of the ordinary.
Oh, and Greg, my lab doesn't provide me with a bed, but I am surrounded by the jewel of Europe: Paris. Think about it.

With that, I take my leave.

Bonne journée, mes amis!

Week 3/2: CERT Strikes Back

Back to the office with Gabriel Carranza.

So far my time here has been pretty good, and I am getting lots of work done.

So let me tell you a bit about my work.

I am an intern at a non-profit pharmaceutical company called the Critical Path Institute under Dr. Romero, who works for the Arizona Center for Education and Research on on Therapeutics or CERT for short. Every Monday I attend the "CERT meeting" (there are about 8 OTHER highly acronymed programs that are headed by C-Path, so they each get a meeting) and get the run down of what their goals and agendas are, and even get to view highly confidential material from pharmaceuticals that reveal the composition of the drugs they make and the stats on them. As I understand it, CERT's job is to find the drugs that are harming people and remove them from main circulation before they can harm people. They focus on the heart, mainly QT prolongation, and educate consumers about certain drugs.

The Electrocardiograph or EKG shows the heart's electrical activity over time. Each spike or drop is labeled a different letter. The QT interval is the time it takes for the heart to repolarize and depolarize. Note by this graph:


That is the QT interval. However, when it is prolonged, it can cause ventricular arrhythmias, which can be potentially fatal to people and even cause a condition called Torsade de Pointes (means "twisting of the points" in french; Rough pronunciation: Tor-sawed de Puah). This can cause a perfectly normal heart rate that you see above to become something like this:

This is obviously a very dangerous heart rate. Drugs that prolong the QT interval can cause Torsade de Pointes. TdP can cause sudden death. CERT is working to stop these drugs and pull them off the market or severely reduce their distribution in non-therapeutic amounts. They have created a list of drugs with a risk of TdP, could possibly have the risk, and conditionally have a risk that can be seen at http://www.azcert.org/medical-pros/drug-lists/drug-lists.cfm . Its the red link. These lists state all the drugs as well as their brand names. That's where I come in.

The list is quite minimal, with nothing much else besides the names and some conditions or facts. My job is to get EVERYTHING I can possibly get about these drugs. Simple things like the molecular formulas, 2-D and 3-D molecular structures are being downloaded onto the list. More complicated things such as the Half Maximal Inhibitory Concentration values for inhibition of the Potassium ion channel or hERG channel (located in the heart) or in short, hERG IC50 values are also included. Getting these values involves searching for as many articles I can get from peer-reviewed sources. Can anyone say pubmed? Easy to say, that pubmed has fallen very far from grace with me as Google Scholar has been, as I would say, PWNING pubmed and getting me far better results for finding articles. I am going very fast, and am about a week ahead. My next goal is automating the procedure so I don't have to do this anymore.

As for office life, it is as Officey as it can be. Having a cubicle near the cafeteria/water cooler allows me to hear a plethora of office chat ("how's the wife and kids?" "ready for the big presentation?" "DANG! We're out of coffee creamers! Someone get Susan to get some more!") as well as have quick access to a teacher's lounge that I can actually use. Free food tends to be my main factor in determining how much I enjoy my job for some reason. I bought Khakis for the first time in my life, and have my own coffee thermos for drinks that are not coffee. I have met the other interns and noticed they both are in grad school. I might go into the summer and get paid for the internship. I also only work 4 days a week now. Boo Yeah.

Week 2 with Dr. Zheng

Things thus far have been quite interesting with Dr. Zheng. Since about the first week of the internship period, Dr Zheng and I have been pushing the U of A to provide me with a "NetID," which is prerequisite to attaining lab training and safety certification. It wasn't until about Friday last week that I finally received my UA ID, and just this weekend I've worked hard to complete the online safety training course.

Other than that bureaucratic snafu, that isn't to say I've had nothing to do in the interim. Last week I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Renee Corrales, who is a computational chemist. I was surprised by how much I understood when he talked about the computer infrastructure responsible for running chemistry calculations at the UA. It was an even bigger surprise to hear that I would be working with a time-dependent version of Schrodinger's equation to calculate electron densities in complex molecules. Of course, the equations are terribly cumbersome and have already been worked out by others, but perhaps when Dr. Corrales mentioned it, he didn't expect me to know what he was talking about. Well, thanks to Mr Lee and BASIS, I did.

Today is the day I should be beginning my lab work under Dr. Zheng. As I've mentioned in my previous post, it will be all about deciphering esoteric chemistry recipes and putting together organic compounds. Having gone over some chemistry manuals and recipes already, I'm really reminded of how fun chemistry was in 9th and 10th grade. It looks like that Chemistry here is mostly the same as Chemistry at BASIS, except there are tons of more math (ie fun) and memorizing (ie not so fun). Safety is also quite a large concern here at the UA labs, and there are extensive protocols to do with everything from the moment one begins an experiment to the moment one leaves the laboratory. I wasn't terribly happy with the redundancy of the safety test, but such is the situation.

By Thursday, I should have figured out how to get a copy of Fedora 11 to dual-boot on my quad-core studio computer, which, as I am told, is the most optimum platform for launching distributed calculations at the UA. I will have my second meeting with Dr. Corrales on Thursday. And by the end of the week, I should have some legitimate lab work done with Dr. Zheng and a truer sense of what my life is going to look like for the next 9 weeks.

In the interests of providing a comprehensive account of what my life away from BASIS is like thus far, I can't help but mention that I've had fantastic opportunities to meet people at the Rialto and continue work at Arizona University Recordings. Because I'm very often at the UA now, I have been given the opportunity to meet Jim Blackwood, the audio engineer most famously responsible for engineering KXCI and mixing the band Iron & Wine. Depending on my luck, he may be willing to pick me up as an intern during my off-hours from the lab and I may be able to observe him/get him coffee. On the other hand, I haven't really been partying/doing anything the teenager is required to do upon emancipation. It has all been hard work at the Rialto, at Arizona University Recoridngs, and Dr. Zheng. And, so far, I'm completely happy with that.

Joseph's End of Week 2 and Start of Week 3

Since it's already Monday, I might as well throw today in as well as last Thursday and Friday. So, as I mentioned in my last post, both Cory and Brittany were not there Thursday, but my external advisor Dr. Blanche was, so I was able to go into the lab, but I didn't really do anything with the lasers. I worked on the presentation that I was going to present on Friday, did some research. Then, I went to a seminar, and it was awesome! Sure, I probably understood 30% of the thing, but still! It talked about how you could trap particles just using lasers and nanowires (which are like fiber-optic cables that you stretch until you get very thin wire, sort of like how you stretch bubble gum). I'm probably not allowed to go any deeper than that, but it was cool. Also, before the seminar, these people gave out cookies and punch! YES!

Anyways, on Friday, I learn that the meeting that I was supposed to present at was cancelled! Too few people were there or something. I was like, "WHAT? ALL THAT HARD WORK FOR NOTHING?!?" Ah, well. So, instead, I did some more research, helped Brittany with some tests, and went to something called "Community Speakers." Community Speakers apparently is where this group get I assume important people to come in and talk about their field and what they do. Oh, and did I mention that they had free pizza and soda?!? So of course I went! One of the topics was internships, and the speaker was a university student that interned all over the place, and it was interesting listening to what he did and his pros and cons of working for small vs. large companies. For instance, in a large company, you have more resources, but in a small company you get to know everyone in the company, making for a better atmosphere. I also started researching for my next assignment: testing for the sensitivity of a photopolymer.

Monday was really cool! Why? BECAUSE I MADE MY FIRST HOLOGRAM! AW YEAH! So, after doing some calculations and whatnot, I made my setup for making the hologram, turned on my laser, dimmed the lights, and started the recording. It takes time for the light from the laser to "energize" the photopolymer (holographic film). For the photopolmer to record anything, you have to pass a threshold exposure, and the exposure can be expressed in the equation "Exposure = Energy (from the laser) * Time (that the laser is shining on the photopolymer)." In terms of an analogy, you can think of the exposure as a bucket, the energy as a hose, and time as, well, time. For the hologram to work, the bucket needs to be full. Now, to fill the bucket, you can either have the hose be fully open (high energy laser), filling the bucket in a short amount of time, but you also run a greater risk of overflowing the bucket (overexposure); or you can have a slow stream of water from the hose (low energy), that would take a long time to fill the bucket, but also more leeway for overexposure. Depending on your setup, you pick the method that works for you. Anyways, my laser was relatively weak, so I needed to wait a minute for the hologram to record. Also, during the recording process, you need to be VERY still. Holograms work because they record according to interference, but interference only happens when everything is still. You don't move, you don't breathe heavily, you don't nervously move your foot, you don't even look at the hologram funny. You pretend to be frozen for a minute, and then you're done recording! I developed the hologram, and it worked! YEAH! However, it wasn't THAT great (due to a bad choice of object), so I'm not showing it to you :-p. However, more's to come, so I can't wait!

Some random stuff:

I learned about something called Hysteresis. What in the world is that, you ask? Hysteresis is the problem where there is a "lag" distance before something moves. For instance, recall that huge contraption from my last post (or go back and look at at). Say I'm doing my experiment, turning my knob by each increment, and I accidentally overshoot a little. I just need to turn back to get them aligned and take the measurement, right? WRONG! Why? Because even though I moved the knob, it might not necessarily move the platform. Think of it as a gear moving over a notched surface, and you control the notched surface. As I move the surface to the left, the gear moves as well. Now what happens if after that I move the surface to the right? Does the gear move? Well, not at first. I need to get the notches to hit the other side of the gear first before the gear will move in the other direction. However, even though the gear didn't move, my measurement of the surface's displacement changed, which means my distance is wrong. That error is due to hysteresis, or that "lag" effect.

I also saw a Tie Fighter Hologram! Here you go, the one picture of this post:

Too bad you can't see the 3D-ness of it, but trust me when I say that it was cool!

Week 1 in the ARG

Greetings from Córdoba, Argentina! I arrived Tuesday at around 3:30 pm safe and sound and super tired. If you remember my last post, I left Tucson on Monday at 4:30 pm. That’s right, 23 hours of man, I hate trying to sleep while I sit. It’s just weird. Luckily I had with me an article entitled “The Tinpot and the Totalitarian: An Economic Theory of Dictatorship” to keep me busy. Thank you Mr. Waggoner! Other cool things that happened during my flights: I flew to Chile with the Chilean rugby team (not sure what is so cool about that), on that same flight I sat next to an elderly man from Argentina (he was really nice and funny and entertaining), and on the flight to Córdoba from Chile I flew over the Andes. They were covered in snow (keep in mind it’s summer down here in the southern hemisphere). On Wednesday I went straight to the newspaper with my grandfather. I met the woman in charge of the archives, the director of photography, and the editor in chief of what many have said is the New York Times of Argentina! I sat down with all three of them and told them a bit about what I was planning to do and they were all very excited. After that the editor in chief showed me around the newspaper, it was really awesome. Then I sat down with him and we talked for a good two hours about my project and the best ways of going about collecting information and organizing it, it was really great. After that I went home mega excited to get started right away. So I got home and got to work right away on my grandfather’s collection of articles from the 60’s and 70’s and 80’s. I quickly found out that his collection is massive. It really is an amazing sensation to rifle through yellowed pages of past realities. On Wednesday I just sat there absorbing it all, amazed. On Thursday I reread all the stuff I had read on Wednesday with a digital recorder sitting next to me on the table and read aloud for three hours. I figured that recording it all would be much faster than taking notes on it and that I could easily translate it at home. Now I’m not so sure. There is such a huge volume of recordings now and it has only been a week. I guess that’s why we have a few months to get this done. On Friday I spent the day reading some books my grandfather has and going through his collection of articles again. I then came up with a really basic outline to help guide me through the incredible amount of information that I had at my disposal. I decided to break up my research into sections based on important events and to focus more specifically on the last five years of the dictatorship, from 1978 to 1983. I feel that this five-year period most accurately demonstrates and highlights the role of the press in the downfall of the dictatorship. On Saturday I sat down and watched a few documentaries that my grandfather has with footage from the time I am studying. They were really helpful in placing my research into not only a broader context within Argentina, but also placing it in a global context. Tomorrow I am going to watch some of the videos again with my trusty video camera and microphone and record some of the footage so I can have it for research and for my presentation. Today I did some more reading and had a big old arg style barbeque with all my family. Soooooo good. Anyway, tomorrow I am going to hit the archives again, I really can’t wait. It’s so exciting. I am also really excited for the interviews I will conduct this week. I have scheduled two this week, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday. I will be interviewing really important journalists who wrote during the 60’s and 70’s. One was the head of photography during that time and the other was the editor in chief of that time. Not bad for a 17 year-old. Then on March 3^rd I have scheduled an interview with the current boss of all bosses at La Voz del Interior (the newspaper, in case you don’t remember from my last post). I’m really excited for that one. Anyway, I’m really starting to dig all this investigative journalism type research that I’m doing. Not only is it really fun, but it just feels so special. I guess it might not seem like a big deal, but I get to read what people read 50 years ago. It’s really incredible to think about how they reacted to this and what it meant for them and how it impacted their lives. Crazy.

And with that, I’m off to bed.

Agustín

Here is a picture of a front page article (a very important one) from 1974, written by Mr. Temporini himself

This isn't even one third of my grandfather's collection!!

Dr. Zellmer, I daresay it was delicious and nutritious

Interesting work. Los Angeles. Blog Post.

Two weeks down, six to go here at Muse.

This past week at work was the most interesting so far! The majority of this week, I started going through our massive external hard drives (6 TBs each) to find video, and put together short videos for Muse's website. The purpose for these videos is still unclear-- they range in topic from documenting the personal life of our CEO to behind the scenes footage of films. But whatever. I just do what they tell me to do. Also, people aren't really watching them yet. So you guys could start. Here's one:

And you should subscribe to our channel.

A few notable memories from this past week: Jonathan said, nonchalantly "Yeah Josh we're gonna need to get some documents printed out at the equivalent of a Kinkos or something like that in London, so if you could get-" Me: "Did you just say London? Like... London... England?" Jonathan: "Uhhh... Yes?" Me: "Oh. Okay. Yeah. Sure." And then I skyped this print shop in London, and they printed out our stuff.

We're trying to rent out the office on the ground floor of our building, so I cleaned that out. I found a few things, including a silverfish colony, a handful of spiders, a post-it with Jessica Alba's phone number, and a box of costumes that Ms. Alba and her co-star Kate Hudson wore in The Killer Inside Me.

Just moments ago, Matt Wilder e-mailed me back! He's the writer/director of the upcoming Linda Lovelace biopic that I mentioned last blog entry. As a person making his living in the independent film industry, I feel as though he has a strong grasp on the conflict that is at the core of my project. So we're going to talk about that conflict, and that will hopefully shed some light on a lot of the problems I've had finding answers in my research. Look at me! Already "catching breakfast" (to use his words) with Hollywood folk.

(For Gabriel: I ate Chef Boyardee at lunch this week. It was nice and warm. Thank you, microwave.)


On a completely different note, I am sitting on my bed right now, but it's like 800 miles from MY bed. I'm kind of settled in here. The initial feeling of being totally displaced from everything and everyone I know dissipated after a few days. I haven't made friends, but I've gone out and kept myself busy for the most part. I've become a master of finding free things to do around town. I've hit up a couple museums, from The Museum of Jurassic Technology to the world-renowned J. Paul Getty Museum. Yesterday, I went down the neighborhood recreation center, where on any Sunday, one can attend a free archery class. So... I did that. I also caught a special 10th anniversary screening of Memento, followed by Guillermo del Toro interviewing Christopher Nolan. I'm also planning on going to a few concerts over the next month and a half. I feel okay budgeting some entertainment in there, since I'm making all of my own meals, so I'm saving money there. Gotta live a little in the big city.

I'm also not used to doing all of my own grocery shopping and laundry. (Back home, where my mom does the laundry, you would never find a plastic fork almost melting in the dryer.) It's also strange that I don't have anyone to tell me what to do. Like... I could go out and party all night! Or I could neglect to do my research, or I could eat ice cream for dinner. But so far, I've found myself carrying on as normal, doing nothing too crazy. To sound like a cliched BASIS senior, I bet this will be good for when I go away to college next year.

I have had some interaction with folks from back home-- A week ago, our friend Jayanth Ganesan found himself in LA. He told me to come by his hotel between 8:30 and 9, and we would grab breakfast. So I got there at about 8:40. We drove around Hollywood a bit, and found a little diner, and sat down by 8:50. Once the waitress brings us menus, Jay casually mentions that he needs to be back to his hotel by 9... Typical Jay. Nonetheless, good to see you, buddy.

In conclusion, you should all write me letters.
Josh Waterman
3321 Patricia Ave
LA, CA 90064

End of the first week.

I mainly worked on preping RNA from animal tissues this week, although I did learn how to spec RNA as well(detect how much RNA was extracted). The RNA comes from the tissues that I discussed in my last post. I extracted RNA from the Fat Body, Ovaries, and the Carcuss. RNA is extremely unstable, so making careless mistakes can contaminate your samples.

Preparing RNA is fairly simple. First put on gloves(verrrry important). Next you take a buffer(RLT) and pipet 10 microliters Beta ME(macryptoethanol?) for every mililiter of RLT buffer one uses. Then 350 microliters of this buffer is added to the sample tubes. Because the tissue is, well, tissue, you use very small pestles to carefully crush the tissue to make it easier for the Buffer RLT + Beta ME to break open the cells. After the tissues have been crushed, you put them in a centrifuge for five minutes. This takes all the tissue and presses it up against the wall of the sample tube. Next, you pipet the remaining solution into a labeled "Sample Tube". After that you prepare QIA cube so it can do the rest of the work for you.

QIAcube does many of the RNA prep steps for you. It centrifuges, pipets, and filters to complete the remaining RNA processes. However it is very important to understand what it is QIAcube is doing in order to properly troubleshoot it in case something goes wrong. One of the most important steps of preparing QIA cube is making sure that the chemicals(two buffers, RLT and RPE with ethanol; RNase free water; and a 70% ethanol solution) are at proper levels. On tuesday, after Anam had left, I asked Jenya(Another extremely intelligent individual working in the lab) if I could simply add more of the RLT buffer(as it was low) to the RLT that was already in QIAcube. She said yes, and I did so. I began QIAcube again, and again I got an error saying that RPE + Ethanol was low. I retrived the RPE buffer from the RNeasy buffer box and poured it into the RPE buffer, without adding ethanol.

I know now that ethanol needs to be added to the RPE(to be specific, 44ml of ethanol needs to be added for every 11ml of RPE). Because of this mistake 10 samples are possibly unclean, and therefore unusable. I was reassured that mistakes happen, and mistakes are how we learn(by Anam). It was then that I realized that working in this lab would be a development of not just my lab skills, but my work ethic and my maturity.

On friday I attended a seminar on a research paper that another lab had done that was relevant to our own. Every week a member (or in this case members) gives a presentation on said article. I was surprised that I was able to understand some parts of the presentation, as it used very specific biological terminology, some of which I had learned from Anam earlier.

After the seminar Kendra took me up to the 8th floor and taught me how to do RNA specing. You wipe off the surface of a metal arm and a extremely small platform that has a hole in it. The hole allows the liquid to pass down into another chamber, where a lazer determines the nanograms per ml of RNA in the liquid. I examined three samples after she demonstrated with three samples herself.

I am looking forward to learning more lab techniques and more about mosquitos. Hopefully I can prevent future mistakes with increased caution and by asking when I am unsure of how to do something. All in all, this week was an extremely sucessful learning experience, as I am sure the weeks to come will be.

We Be Movin'

The Kore office that we are working in is a room of a sympathetic woman's house. Now we are moving to a downtown location. Next week, actually. And guess who got put in charge of this move. ME!! Yep, I am now Master and Commander of the Kore Press Moving Endeavor. You can call me MCKPME for short. It shan't be too hard, as I've lots of experience moving, and me and another intern raided an Ace store for boxes.

I've gotten very skilled (or at least familiar) with a razor/carpet knife. It seems I am now the book boxer, which is fine with me. I have the privledge of tenderly placing books in a box or padded folder, ensuring their snugness, comfort and coziness and sealing them off from the outside world. They must be transported in safety, if not in style. I'm cutting cardboard with the razor, FYI.

So, it kind of turns out that Kore does a LOT more than publish books. The creative vision is leaning toward literary activism and projects and programs and such for the community. I don't even get to read submissions! There are volunteer readers for that. But, it is still the environment that I get to experience, so you won't hear me complaining. Lisa (Boss-Queen#1) asked me what my project was and offered to get me a contact or two in a big New York House! I was surprised and delighted. One of my fellows also was an intern in New York for the nonfiction publisher McGraw-Hill, so I'm pumping her for information as well.

I began registering to vote.

~Samone

2nd Week

This week I have mostly shadowed Dr. Clements as Dr. Wilson had a surgery almost every morning and then proceeded to quickly escape the confines of the hospital shortly after. But I still have to tell you, St. Joseph's Neurological ICU (Dr. Clements is also an intensivist [intensive care physician]) is a pretty impressive place. It is enough to look at just at one of the twelve patient rooms to get jealous; every single bed has at least 50 different settings and a huge wide screen tv on the wall( although most patients are in comatose state, or in the "la-la land"- on Propafol, the "Michael Jackson killer drug, " Dr Clements once joked). In addition to the redundant tv and awesome bed, your attention is pulled to the countless appliances situated around the bed , the annoying sounds( the most annoying one is similar to the start up of windows 7 that the breathing machine produces when a patient takes a breath on his/her own without the help of the machine), all the illustrations of vital signs on the monitors, and a chaos of tubes wires and electronically programmed pumps with at least seven different medication bags ( 3 of them are almost always Sodium Chloride).

Even though, the most common condition that the patients are suffering from is Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (the bleeding between the brain and one of the layers surrounding the brain -mostly caused by head trauma or ruptured cerebral aneurism[pockets of blood that form due to weakening of the walls of cerebral artery or vein]), there are always a couple of unusual interesting cases. One in particular was striking-- a patient with T-cell lymphoma(I am getting tired of explaining) who has zero percent chance of getting out of the hospital for more than 4 month or let alone surviving for more than 9 months; his wife is also suffering from a lobular cancer that reappeared 8 years after it was supposedly cured. Apart from the obvious reasons, I find this particular case intriguing because his family has also asked Dr. Clements to follow the DNR( do not resuscitate) guidelines; they later explained that "he would not have wanted to exist that way" referring to his current comatose state. What struck me is their practicality and decisiveness -it is as if he has already died for them( which is true in many respects).Usually, the reverse happens and people hold on the person that they love beyond the point of necessity (keeping them alive in a vegetative state for years). Because almost all the patients in the Neuro ICU are walking the line between life and death and only a third actually survive ,I was able to witness numerous other cases similar to this. On Thursday I even asked whether Dr.Clements "dissociates the patients from their body." He went on to explain that that is the first thing that all doctors do, joking that instead of "b00bs" he saw cancer. Poor fella! I also found out most doctors' opinions concerning lawyers and malpractice insurance companies as an average doctor gets sued at least one during their career and has to pay HUMONGOUS sums for this reason. Neurosurgeons have an even more sour relationship with lawyers as they get sued twice more often. "This is not a profession that makes money," said Dr. Wilson. Dr. Clement's "I am just covering my @ss" remark when asked why he documents everything also reinforces the point.

Random interesting procedure that I saw yesterday -"ventriculostomy." This was one of the most brutal things I saw done to a patient outside of the surgery room and it made Hannibal look like a kind grandfather. Vetriculostomy is done to relieve the pressure from too much cerebrospinal fluid build and it is done by putting a "small catheter" through about 5-6 cm of brain to reach the ventricles. The whole process is started with the use of "small manual drill," skull and blood fragments that are catapulted around the room by that drill, and the smell of ethanol(sanitizer). The process is finished with an odd looking stick coming out of the patients head and about 10 extra years of live.