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Well, I’m just a *little* late on posting this but I suppose since I’ve done an inordinate amount of whining about it on this blog, I better announce that as of Friday, 12/12/08 (yay.. an easy to remember date!) I am ‘Phinally Done’ - according to the sticker on the See’s candy lollipop that I got from the Graduate Division office.  Dissertation submitted without a hitch!!  Wahoo!!!  I can officially call myself a Ph.D…  not that I haven’t been ‘pretending’ for the last 6 mo. at my new job… ha!

I was referring to my doctoral dissertation as a thesis. Well, a kind friend (who also happens to be working on her dissertation) and this document from UC Berkeley has set me straight. And, according to wikipedia - which we all know is the absolute authority on everything (and anyone) worth mentioning:

At most [US] universities, dissertation is the term for the required submission for the

doctorate and thesis refers only to the master’s degree requirement.

Ha! Obviously the author of this wikipedia entry has a doctorate! Why are all the master’s students out there sweating bullets? It’s only a thesis.

Gotta love the social hierarchy of academia.

You have to admit though - ‘dissertation’ just sounds more important than ‘thesis.’ Plus, it’s a much longer word. 12 letters versus a measly 6. Twice as long - it must mean a dissertation is twice as snooty.

I guess we have to grasp at something after all these years… I mean, it’s taken me 6 times longer to get my phD than it took Ryan to get his masters - which, by the way, was a two year program he finished in one.

Damn overachiever.

No, this isn’t another post about the presidential election. Something totally different.

I came across the most awesome black and white baby art the other day. Why am I looking at art for babies, you ask me? Sigh… NO I’m NOT pregnant. Sorry if anyone is disappointed. HA! But I’ve been browsing some fun design blogs recently - I think my recent trip with Jill to a Lotta Jansdotter event inspired me to get more… well, inspired. And there are a LOT of interesting design blogs out there.

Anyway, the upshot of it was, I was dutifully working on my thesis (aka procrastinating on the internet) and I saw a photo of some kid’s room and it had the coolest b&w print in one of those framed photo collages - I can’t even remember which blog this was anymore, but it was great because I spotted it right away and was like - OMG that is the most adorable ________ (see I can’t even remember the exact animal, something about the shapes just caught my eye) where do I find that?!!! And this wonderful, now forgotten blogger linked to K Barteski’s site… where she has posted all of the original images for FREE!!!

FYI: For those of you w/o kids, apparently black and white images are supposed to be extra stimulating for babies… or something like that. Whatever, I’m ready to print these out for ME!!

And, in honor of my thesis writing, I post two animals that are related to my research:

SO COOL! The artist has a really young baby, and was, ah, unimpressed by the b&w stuff she was seeing, and she just whipped these babies up one morning. Just like that. Dang I wish I was talented. Sigh.

Check out her recently ‘published’ book via blurb - also looks adorable.

PS. For those of you non-crazy bioscience people out there - No, I don’t work with hedgehogs exactly, but a well known growth factor I do some work with is named sonic hedgehog homolog (SHH for short) after Sonic the hedgehog. Yes, that Sonic, from Sega video games. Remember Sega?

I’m just not a big data analysis person. I hate statistics. I hate compiling and organizing data. I hate photoshop. I hate all of it.

You would think otherwise, due to my somewhat OCD personality. I think the problem stems from the fact that I just have SO MUCH data, and I’m not THAT organized, so the process of doing so is just overwhelming. Add to that my perfectionist tendencies, which don’t allow me to let anything by that I think looks ugly, or weird, or off, or just okay…

and you get a girl that who is going to be absolutely batty for the next month or two.

Watch out.

PS. I have a HUGE backlog of photos and other cuteness to post. I promise I will post it all someday. Maybe after July. If you still read this by then. Then again, I will probably need serious procrastination in the coming weeks, so maybe you’ll be hearing from me more than usual.

PPS. We need another two dozen or so glass beer bottles… brown or green, no twist off, rinsed (otherwise they tend to grow a bit of mold. ick)… extra points if you clean off the labels.. ha! Please send them our way if you have any. We are going to have TWO beers for your imbibing pleasure in a couple weeks… you know what that means…. DOUBLE the AWESOMENESS that is nanoBREW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay tuned.

PPPS. How IS the thesis writing going you ask? Well, something a little too much like this…

Ok. So seriously, if this doesn’t make you laugh out loud, I don’t know what will. I’ve complained before about the ridiculous fire alarms at the wonderful, new, state-of-the-art Stanley Hall.

We had another one today.

This is the email I just got forwarded from my professor:

*********************************************************

From: [Stanley Building Manager]
To: [Professors in question]
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 5:11 PM
Subject: Stanley fire alarm - student who would not leave the building

Dear [Professors],

During today’s fire alarm, a female student that we assume is in one of your two work groups, refused to leave the building, in violation of the California Fire Code. She remained in Room XXXX. A Police Officer spoke with her, though I do not know what was said.

Today’s alarm was real: a corn dog was burned in a microwave, causing smoke to trigger three smoke detectors.

Please remind your students that it is required that they evacuate the building when the alarm sounds.

Thank you
[Building Manager]

********************************************
Need I say more?

Or should the corn dog jokes begin?

PS. Said female student was not me.

Okay, so curiosity and procrastination compelled me to click on a google ad in my gmail window… and… well just check it out: www.stemaid.com

Just to get you started, the very first statement they make on their welcome page is the following:

“Stemaid proposes safe, easy and effective Stem Cell Therapies for many conditions, in a perfectly legal environment.”

I dunnos about you, but it seems to me that if you need to justify the legality of your product… you might have a problem.

Ever wonder why the average person is freaked out by stem cells and cloning?! Because of crazy ‘companies’ like this!!!! Don’t believe me yet? Okay, okay, the stuff seems harmless right? The website looks relatively professional, and I’m just trying to figure out why it all just seems ‘off’… when I see this blurb about cloning:

“Almost six years ago, Rael, the well-known spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement, the world’s largest UFO-related organization numbering nearly 70,000 members in almost 100 countries, founded Clonaid, the first company offering to clone human beings. In this book he explains how todays cloning technology is the first step in the quest for eternal life… Click here to download this fascinating book free…”

What?! UFOs? Raelians? Apparently Stemaid has a sister ‘company’ Clonaid, check out their pdf entitled “Yes on Cloning” and the wikipedia entry.

I guess I just haven’t been in touch with how important UFOs are because I’m still finishing my phD…

This pretty much sums it up:

I heart phD Comics.

TWO fire alarms today.  Within one hour.  How in the world is anyone around here supposed to get any actual work done with fire alarms at least once a week?!!!!!!!!

At least when we were at RFS I could slowly contaminate myself with radioactive and toxic chemicals from the air… in PEACE!!!

what happened? A whole year has gone by with absolutely no posts, and suddenly (ok not suddenly, I knew it was creeping up on me) I realize that there is so much catching up to do, it’s a bit overwhelming. I’m still working on getting the archives set up, so hopefully that will appear eventually. But for now, I’m starting fresh! Although, I do have some old ‘posts’ that never actually… got posted. They’re from 2006 though… is it worth it? Perhaps not. I guess I’ll just do a distillation of it all here.

Here’s a rundown of top 25 random happenings/commentaries/rants/shoutouts of the last year (in honor of Cal rising to #10 this week in the ESPN/AP polls), in random order:

1. We live in San Francisco!! Potrero Hill is awesome. It’s sunny. And warm. But I’m gonna miss these guys:

Apparently the wild animal of choice around these parts is stray trash…

2. Cal Football is going to be GGRRRREAT this season! I know it! Plus, the student season tickets for under $100 make it even better.

3. Read this book. I have an extra copy if you don’t want to buy/borrow from elsewhere. Plus, the artist is a Cal grad. Go Bears!

4. You will get moles (and mole hills) if you overwater your lawn. Save water.

5. Do not buy vacation timeshares. Unless you have an extra $$ you want to throw away. I repeat, Do Not Buy Timeshares. There. You can’t say I didn’t tell you so.

6. Book signings are awesome. Please don’t let me get addicted to them. They are expensive addictions. I hate paying full price for books. That’s for losers, man! Except when you can get one signed. Then it’s pretty awesome.

7. Tokidoki is awesome. Too bad I’m already addicted to buying Tokidoki Lesportsac purses. Thankfully, the collaboration ends in October, so the purging of our bank account will be over. Except for the vinyl toys. And maybe the occasional t-shirt. This is me in Tokidoki Land:

8. The best part about lab moving back to campus is the food. Forget about the state of the art brand spankin’ new building we moved into. (That has wigged out security systems, broken cold rooms, freezing/burning hot rooms where you actually need to work, and not store stuff that is freezing/hot, and a host of other things) More specifically, Hummingbird Cafe and their awesome smoothies that I can get every day now… instead of once in a blue moon. Yum. That, and the korean place on northside with the beef hot soup. And Bongo Burger’s chix plate. And cheap mexican at La Burrita. And the enormous salads at Intermezzo. And… gosh I better stop now. I think I gained 5 pounds just thinking about it all… and after eating all the free pizza last week. Cheesy sticks from West Coast are still good. I mean, they’re bad heath-wise, but good taste-wise.

9. Chopping down your own Christmas tree in a non-environmentally sustainable tree farm is fun. I want to do it again. When is Christmas? Do I really have another 4 months to go?!!! *whine*

10. I am Sad that Melissa, Dino, Aiden, Arun, and Jennifer are in MA. And that Colin is in WI, that Ying is leaving for NY, and Carmel and Josh and Shelly are in/going to the UK. But I am Happy that they all have jobs that pay more than $30k a year. I think. I hope.

11. Apple picking and pumpkin patching is fun. Who wants to go again this year?!!

12. Matthew is now over 1 year old. He’s such a cutie.

It makes me want my own baby. I think. I swear my biological clock is telling me I need my own slobbery, crying baby that poops and eats all the time. I notice pregnant women now. I never used to notice them, unless they ran into me with their pregnant bellies. (ie. never) Now I think everyone/anyone (female) with a belly is pregnant. Even though I’m pretty sure most of them are just fat.

13. Ryan and I have been married for over a year. Apparently, (and this is confirmed by other married people) this means that anyone/everyone can now ask us when we are going to have children. I do want kids. Really I do. (see #12) But sometimes I just want to say “We’re practicing. All the time.” (Shyam told me this gem of a response… apparently his cousin, or someone he knows, used it on their family. I so want to use it. It’s such a great response. But I’m too chicken.)

14. In the Li Lab, it takes 3 people to change a light bulb. Or, you can ask me. I can do it alone. Without breaking anything. If you ever wonder what we do in lab when we’re bored, here’s your answer: (ie. take pictures of ourselves doing inane things like spraying our gloves with alcohol)

15. Ryan and I still have yet to order any wedding photo prints. We got our album, a year after the wedding. But no prints yet. For anyone. Not even my parents. Or Ryan’s parents. My parents printed their own after it appeared it was not going to happen on our end. Ha!

16. Speaking of weddings, weddings are awesome. (I guess I think a lot of things are awesome.) Ngan and Kan’s wedding in NYC last Labor Day was awesome. Marlena and Dan’s wedding last fall was awesome. Shyam and Jill’s wedding in Pasadena this summer was awesome. And I can’t wait until Erica and Richard start planning their wedding. I’m sure it will be awesome. Congrats everyone!!!!

17. Speaking of awesome-ness, Thane’s queso dip is pretty awesome. Let me tell you, I love cheese. All kinds of cheese. I am Wallace from Wallace and Gromit. I love expensive goat cheese, cured for 10 months in horse sh*t on a certified organic farm in Petaluma from free range goats, sold at Cheeseboard, a worker owned collective. But I am not a cheese snob. I also love fake cheese. (In fact I can’t stand nachos with real melted cheese… where’s the fake stuff??) And queso is glorified fake cheese at it’s finest… I could eat a whole crock pot full of it… if Ryan didn’t stop me. Happy birthday Thane!

18. Girls rock at poker. Esp. when the guys think you’re, well, a girl. And can’t play poker. Ha! Just because I can’t always remember if a straight is higher than a flush, doesn’t mean I can’t play poker, dammit. (is a straight higher than a flush?! shoot, I can never remember.) Oooooo… here’s a good cheat sheet.

19. Happy belated birthday Jennifer. I’m sorry I forgot to call you. I’m a bad, bad person.

20. Wii Sports is one of the best games made ever. The roundup:

Tennis: Dad:1, Mom:0.

Boxing: Dad:0, Mom:1

Mom chucking the remote and it hitting the wall above (thankfully) our TV: extra point.

Final score: Dad:1, Mom:2 Mom wins!!

21. Ever wonder what I do at work? I spend 99% of my time trying to grow these:

The other 1% of the time I am actually doing experiments with them! PS - this poster was made my 9th graders… take that!

22. Custom made AR-15 rifles are awesome.

23. Kylie sometimes looks rather menacing but she’s really just a chicken snatcher…. and bread snatcher… and any-food-that-smells-good-when-you’re-not-looking snatcher…

24. Seeing friends you haven’t seen in a long time is good. So are cupcakes. (And at $3 a pop, those cupcakes better be good!)

Seeing family is good too. Especially my cousin, who’s willing to eat a frozen strawberry filled with soy sauce for $5.

25. Koalas are cute.

So are baby seals.

Hayley in a lycra suit? Definitely not so cute. She just looks really dumb.

Whew!! Okay that’s it for now… I should be good for another year, right?