Minor update and archive coming soon
I've added a few blog links or so...and I'll be archiving the entries very shortly. I have at least one rant in me still...
Moderately good news...it looks like the US isn't in a rush to attack Afghanistan. I will also note that all countries have withdrawn their support of the Tailban (of the three that were left).
Careers Day was yesterday...ahem. More about that later I hope. As well, perhaps we'll be getting a new toner cartridge today...which would be quite good.
Added to the literature: Thursday, September 27, 2001 at 08:01 a.m.
That's hit with a riding crop at 4:28. Hit with a riding crop at 4:28.
Title topic refers to an edit made to the review in the last post...it was a riding crop, not a knife in the penultimate angsty scene.
On that note...no one has commented about my review :/...comments please no da.
My mood again fluctuates between great and...not so great. I am suffering from a relative lack of sleep as my brother had to use the computer last night (and the small lamp died so the room's light has to be on [computer is in my room as you would guess]. I was trying to read my chemistry text...was too tired and decided to lie on the living room at 11 PM...I next woke up at 1 AM when my mom came in...and my brother was just finishing up the paper -_-. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep as soon as I got into bed. I could say more...but I probably shouldn't...
Bad news...the printer toner cartridge gave up the ghost yesterday finally (it was dying before, but it's dead now)...and I have an assignment due on Friday :(. I will probably just write up the assignment in .txt, post it to the web and and then print it up from the library at school O_o;; (I don't want to have to use the printer accounts at school unless I have to). I supppose I can point a URL to the (temporary) location of my assignment, so people can see what I deal with...
Speaking about that...I'm reminded that I actually have a recent photo (read August) of myself scanned in kicking around. For those who want to risk their eyesight...e-mail me privately ^_-. "Knowledge is power" rules apply though in this case... ^_^.
Ah...slowly working on my protein paper O_o. Time is quickly passing...so I have to get working. Choosing the other protein has been a good idea...I think I can deal with this. I don't want to talk about the lab though...at all. -_-
Yay...Seimei has a blog ^_^. I'll eventually have to comment on it...^^;;;;
Added to the literature: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 at 04:27 p.m.
In which Stephen offers a tip of the hat to Priya's format of subjects, reviews a movie and other such stuff
From the Globe and Mail (Saturday 22 September 2001).
Apocalypse, soon? Welcome to Planet Earth, 2002--J. Ibbitson. Very chilling article about how dangerous times are.
Globe's main page on the attack
First of all, I'd like to apologise to the five or so people who had to look at the bloated blog before I was able to remove the Medline search later on Thursday evening. Your patience was appreciated. (handy dandy tracker tells me these things...unless they use Lynx like I usually do and don't show up ;).
My mood has been fluctuating from good to rather foul in the past little while. I was in a good mood starting Friday morning...I was wearing my Rayearth t-shirt...which actually marks the first time I wore it to school, albeit under my sweatshirt that I didn't take off during the day. This good mood was compounded by the fact that I got about an hour to talk to S-san in person (as the class was canceled...reminding me that I still have to do the assigned reading for that class -_-;). However, this good mood kind of became foul when I hit the computers to do more searching on my protein...RNA polymerase II is a fairly complex protein, so there are oodles of papers on it...perhaps a few too many than I can handle. I'm taking a peek at Hsc70...but I may just wind up doing RNA Pol II...I'll have to go through the abstracts that I've found and see what I have. The furrows in my face that get much deeper when I think about that protein project...
I discovered RPG Battle on Friday while I was searching for protein information. Lots of fun...rather mindless and a way to kill about 15 minutes easily (though you'd want a cable modem, etc. to play). I'm now at level 10 ^^; (kind of based on FFVI, you go into a stadium and hurt monsters, earn XPs, level up...very simple).
Also while there...there was this girl who was looking at an ~interesting site~...um...I saw that it was a chat window on one side...and the text in the window...well...was rather, ahem, interesting (from the second I saw). One knows that it wasn't a good place to be looking at in the library, where the girl starts turning down the contrast on the computer (to almost darkness) as I sat beside her, covering part of the screen with her hand and rotating the monitor back and forth so I wouldn't see anything. Hmmm...wonder what she was looking at @_@; After she left, my friend and I tried to find the History on Netscape, but couldn't...forcing us to look at the last entered URL list ^^;;; It was something like peekshow.com (can't remember the exact URL mind you...but along those lines). -_-;;
I finished marking the papers yesterday...it was a little bit faster than last time...but I really get annoyed at people who can't staple their work together >_< It makes it a pain to try and flip pages when marking a question {growls}.
Katelynne...I'll get around to sending a manga list to you ^_-
I saw K-san online and I with S-san had a talk to her (and the conversation between S-san alone was rather...well, I don't know how to describe it, but it's not stuff that I'd put up on the blog ^^;;) K-san's doing well...she's also working at Wal~Mart out in AB...so that makes quite a few people I know that work there now ^^;; (no, I'm not going to work there ^^;;;).
Priya...I really like your way of writing subjects. It reminds me of some...very literary work. ^_^. (I think "The Water Margin" and some of CS Lewis' work come to mind...I'm pretty sure of the first one, but less on the second one).
Jackie...I agree on that point. I probably should block them out, but again, there's that damn trait of curiosity, although I do know there are things I really don't want to know the answer to...
And now for something completely different.
It's...
as promised, a film review of "Natsu He No Tobira", or "The Door into Summer". This is a shounen-ai show (very mild), and actually marks an occasion of sorts, as it was the first shounen-ai show I've ever watched. The shounen-ai is very mild; I might not have noticed it if I wasn't specifically looking for it. S-san is guest reviewing...her comments follow in italics (this is from an online chat we had). If all shounen-ai anime is this mild, then {shrugs} there's worse on network TV.
Oh, and if I may rant - that anime was terrible! ^^;; It was saccharine, overly melodramatic, stupid, and put women in a VERY bad light. Plus, the character designs were some of the ugliest I've seen. ^^;; I was convinced at the beginning that Marion was a girl. It wasn't until he started speaking that I realized, "Ooops . . ." I mean, I like bishies and all, but this show was too much. ... Eeeeww, Iczer. That was another one that was bad. This ranked right up there, though. The melodrama was the cheesiest I've seen in a while. Who could ever take this piece of nauseating fluff seriously? Here's the even worse part. I hated all the characters. Marion was a stupid idiot to have that affair! As if he believed that was love! The only character I thought had a head on his shoulders . . . Lind, I think his name was . . . they portrayed as a bad guy.
*Laughs* I think most of them did! [Thought with the head downstairs] I wish Marion had died. Was I the only one thinking, "Woo-hoo!" when he dove between the two bullets? And, just out of curiousity, where the heck did they get those guns, anyway? Plot hole! That anime just sucked!!
Yeah...as we can see, S-san really 'liked' this show...M-san told me that "I watched the first 30 minutes, and then I stopped it." She's finishing up the tape, for curiosity sake ^^;;;
Actually, I didn't think this show was as bad as S-san thought it was, but it wasn't the best show I've ever seen, to put it mildly. The plot of the show is as follows:
After a cheesy opening sequence of two boys dueling with guns, while another boy runs towards them trying to prevent them from killing each other. Gunshots ring out, and the story starts proper (I'll come back to this sequence a little while later). I couldn't stop laughing at this sequence due to how overly melodramatic it was.
We are in France, in a boarding school at the beginning of summmer holidays. The year isn't given, but it's a relatively non-modern era. There are four boys who are friends with each other and they are all part of the "Rational Party", a group which always tries to make decisions rationally. {Obvious analytical comment: this is a setup for irony...supposedly, they only think with the head upstairs -- please forgive my male speech pattern right now ^_^;} I can only remember three names from the group, there was Claude, Lind, some other guy and Marion. Marion is the leader of the group and is loved and adored by all; he is a bishounen in a strict sense of the word...a ~pretty~ boy. One of the boys (I can't remember which one) looks just like a monkey...memories of Jubei-chan came back to me (if you've seen Jubei-chan, you'll know what I'm talking about). In the town, there is the mayor's daughter that as one would expected, is adored by all of the males...but that no one has succeeded in wooing.
The group goes to a cafe as something to do, and happen among a fight that is occuring between two students at the school over...you guessed it, the mayor's daughter (I think, I'm not exactly positive on this point). What do you think will occur? If you called that Marion would step in and solve the problem, I've got some points for you (ALA "Whose Line is it Anyways" ^_-) Marion calmly assess blame and then proceeds to give the two combatants how much they owe for breaking the glassware. One of the boys is rather pissed off and wants to go after Marion, but Marion suggests a duel to solve the problem.
The duel: Marion and the other boy stand on the train track waiting for the train to come by. Obviously, first person who moves first loses. If on the other hand, if neither moves and the train doesn't stop, our film is done. So...the train comes by with a large crowd milling about watching the two 'noble men'...Marion is calm, while the other boy is starting to get nervous. Finally, the other boy jumps out of the way while Marion stands there calmly as the train stops just before hitting him. Marion: "I was able to stop a train". The crowd cheers and all but worships Marion for his work, while a mysterious lady (sorry, I forgot her name) steps out of the train and thanks Marion for stopping the train at that point, as it is closer to her house (this big castle). The mayor's daughter pines for Marion from the distance. For her wishes though...no dice.
For some reason, the next part is somewhat blank in my mind, but I think what happens is that the mayor's daughter invites Marion (and the others?) to come meet her at the café, where she'll be waiting. Marion is a bit upset at this (as he feels he can't love or something like that) and goes storming out into the rain while the mayor's daughter sadly waits for Marion (et al?) show up. (I think there's some angst right about here, but I might be wrong). Marion somehow collapses in the rain and then wakes up in the bed of that mysterious woman. Marion is shocked, but the mysterious woman calms him down and then proceeds to...f*** him [no, I don't think I can use any other synonym for the act, because they're simply f***ing]. Yep...for those keeping score, that would be statutory rape. (This is fairly graphically shown in the anime).
Back in the boarding school, the et al in Marion et al. are wondering where he has been; he hasn't been in school for the past while. One of the et al. says that there have been rumours that he has been living with a woman (which of course is scandalous). Thus, they go to 'rescue him'. When they get to the woman's house, they see Marion being quite at ease with himself as he dries himself off straight from the bath/shower. Marion's three followers are agasp at how he's so easily abandoned his ideals. (in case one needs to be hit with a cluebar, Marion and the woman have been f***ing the whole time that they were together). I think Marion says something about being able to express his feelings now.
{side comment: I think I'd have to see this again to get a better synopsis...you know, that's actually a good idea...I could write something up for PA...hmmm}.
Back in the boarding school, Marion's followers question his leadership (I think) and somehow, there is the angsty hint that Claude likes Marion in more than a platonic way.
Somehow, Marion scorns the mayor's daughter which royally ticks off Lind who really likes the daughter. Thus, Lind wants revenge and conveniently, the noble is coming back (that mysterious woman that I've been mentioning throughout is the noble's mistress--explaining her fancy house). Lind goes and tells the noble who takes him with to the mistress' house. The noble confronts her, she tells the whole story, and the noble is amused to Lind's chagrin.
About the same time, Marion somehow is in a barn (I think after riding) and Claude comes in...rips off his shirt and jumps on Marion. I think there was some angsty moments here and someone got hit with a riding crop of some sort (Claude going for Marion I believe, but I can't remember exactly). Somehow, there is a struggle, and Claude runs away...the events following that escape me, but the net result is that Claude throws himself in the river and is dead.
About the same time, in the town, Lind and the other boy talk and the other boy is rather angry at Lind's 'betrayal and evilness' towards Lind, and so they decide to have a duel.
After reeling from the shock of Claude's death, Marion immediately runs to his FM's (f-mate) house and meets her and her patron. During the conversation, I think that the mayor's daughter comes up behind him and tells him that Lind and the boy who I can't remember are dueling in the forest. Marion runs to stop them, leading back to the cheesy opening sequence. The guns go off, and Marion takes the bullets. The narrator then does a summary of everything (Marion lives, someone or other leaves the boarding school, etc. etc.).
I apologise for the ambiguity in this summary; I didn't take notes, and I watched it over a week ago. I've presented the general plot though, although the order of a few of the events and perhaps a few of the minor events towards the end are a bit fuzzy/hazy/may be wrong.
Review time: character design--not very good. The animation was not the prettiest thing to look at...it reminds me of Iczer in some way, and I'm not very fond of that. The music was classically, no real bones about that. The story...it was very angsty and overly melodramatic almost to the point of ludicrosity. I don't think the story is as bad as S-san described it, but it certainly wasn't prize winning. I didn't really like any of the characters. The irony is amusing in a way though; Marion starts off thinking with his top head...and winds up listening to the bottom head (again, excuse the male speech pattern). An evolution or regression of males? I'll leave that comment to the reader. ^^;;
Approximate score: 6/10...in a way, it's so cheesy that it's funny as hell ^^;
Added to the literature: Sunday, September 23, 2001 at 01:51 p.m.
Another review type of day
I just realised the double meaning of this subject ^^;;
Right now, I'm trying to go and search through the scientific literature to a) pick a protein and b) find information on it. I suppose this post will also serve as a review of the 'exciting' events of my life for the past few days.
Operation Infinite Justice has begun for the US...(movement of US attack aircraft into the Persian Gulf region)...and it looks like both sides (Taliban & US) will not budge. The Taliban has suggested that bin Laden leave the country, but that suggestion is not being taken well by the US. Some commentators are asking where exactly bin Laden could go as any country that hosts him will almost inevitably be attacked by the US.
Along this line, PBS (I saw it on the CBC) had a very good documentary looking into bin Laden attempting to explain his motives behind his actions. It was quite informing to see how the US is viewed by some people in the region and their reasons why.
A bit of housekeeping information...I had mentioned how one of my classes was moved to a early evening slot...it was moved back to its original time at 8:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
All right. As some readers might have noticed, I added a few more blogs to the ones I follow (with varying levels of vigilance). I have a few more blog URLs to look up...and will get done some day. ^^; That reminds me, I should e-mail Pixbell about her Japanese pop culture course...and point her in the direction of two books I found ^^.
I finished up my experiment into crushlink.com and my slight masochistic tendancies forced me to continue the experiment. I'm now going to publish the results in "Pro Har Cong Re" That is "Proceedings of Harassing Congly Research" ^^;;; (I was joking with Jackie about this yesterday) My findings are that the first name is between A-E, is 8 letters or more, and the surname is 7 letters. (assuming that informaion is correct. No one I know matches that...so {shrugs} See the previous entry for how to go about these matters with me with anyone is actually inclined in that way ^^;;; (which I feel is probably very unlikely)
Related fact...31% of people feel that they'll meet their partner online. Interesting to consider ne? As to where I fit...I don't know ^^;;;; Perhaps I'll have to examine that matter further in another entry...some day ^^;;;;
Not too much to say right now ^^;; Kristina, NP :), WMC, I don't think you'll be getting the video tape this round (I wanted to dub a audio tape for you...but my tape deck doesn't seem to be working well ;_;)...but I'll write up a good letter today or tomorrow to toss in your package, Jackie, I agree with your comments about the ML -_-;, Priya...I really should e-mail you sometime @_@.
{Gaaaaah...so behind on e-mail...yet again :(}
I'll probably be reviewing "Door to Summer" in the next entry...I'll have to get my notes on S-san's comments, as she'll be helping out with the review (though I'm not sure if she knows it yet...wait...I did tell her ^^;;) Her review is actually quite funny ^^;;;;;
Stuffs for Stephen:
http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/full/273/43/27757/
Edwards AM, Darst SA, Feaver WJ, Thompson NE, Burgess RR, Kornberg RD. Purification and lipid-layer crystallization of yeast RNA polymerase II. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Mar;87(6):2122-6.
Beena Pillai, Vinaya Sampath, Nimisha Sharma, and Parag Sadhale Rpb4, a Non-essential Subunit of Core RNA Polymerase II of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Is Important for Activated Transcription of a Subset of Genes J. Biol. Chem. 2001 276: 30641-30647
Added to the literature: Thursday, September 20, 2001 at 01:34 p.m.
At the brink
Well...it seems all but certain that war is going to happen, but I think that was pretty clear from the beginning. It'll likely be a ground war; I think on the various talk shows this weekend, the US administration was saying that it won't be a clean war (i.e. bombing and cruise missiles with no US & ally deaths) but that soldiers from the US & allies would be lost. A very small positive sign is that a long conflict/war is expected which means that the risk of nuclear warfare decreases a fair bit (but is still present). Yes, I do note that a long war isn't good, but it is better than the alternative. Also, the US economy is all but in recession...
I have to note a few blog readings that are very worth while to consider. CC's last entry was very well put (and I wish that some people I know could read that); Kris' last few entries are also worth looking into as well as a few of Janaki's.
I remembered the other tragic irony of Tuesday's events. Tuesday was World Peace Day...
I took Friday night off effectively and went over to K's house with S, C and M (M & S had the night off so that's kind of how this could occur...and my work load was tolerable so I could make it out for a bit). Much of the time was spent by S, C and M admiring the magazines (more specifically the bishounen in the magazines) that K brought back from Japan...while I spent a bit of time sweatdropping ^^;;; After this...we ordered in pizza from Little Caesar's (had to head over to the mall as the phone at K's didn't work for some reason calling them...it worked once, but not after that). The pizza was pretty good, but the pocky afterwards was devine ^__^. The best one had to be the white chocolate pocky type stick...but the wheat tea was very good as well (like a light coffee)...I want more wheat tea no da!
After I got home on Friday (about 9ish)...I got around to marking papers. ^^;; I can't remember if I mentioned it here already, but this semester I'm marking papers for one of the introductory chemistry classes ^^;; I'm paid for three hours, but this week it took about 5 hours to do. I spent about 3 hours on Friday marking and two more on Saturday finishing up. I think I'll get better marking (time wise) as the weeks progress...this was my first time really marking large numbers of papers. The last 1.5 hours on Friday night were probably the most productive of all, as I started then marking the papers by questions (actually small groups of them) and it seemed to go faster that way. Anyhow, I'll have about 11 more times to practice ^^;;; It's kind of interesting to do...and it'll probably be a good experience (we'll see how long I keep commenting on the work though ^^;; ) [yes, again I show how I don't have a life...example two: being thrilled at the feeling of walking around with the lab coat not buttoned up...just like a cape ^^;;;]
Important thing to do...figure out a protein to write about for my proteins course (term paper and seminar on the protein of choice...I haven't really had a chance to look into the matter yet as I was working on the assignment for the class @_@; Have to come up with it by Tuesday @_@;;;;)
I watched a bit of anime this weekend...I finally finished off the first season of Slayers (I had only three episodes to go O_o;;)...standard fare...S tells me that it gets better from here on in.
Surprisingly, on Tuesday night, I received one of the ubiqitous "CrushClub" e-mails saying that "someone has a crush on me". Let me explain the system first before commenting (WMC has her own take on the matter in her blog...and I'll probably be borrowing from her statements for my comments as well ^^;). Basically, how it works is that a person creates an account at CrushClub.com and then lists his/her crushes. An e-mail is then sent to the people that were listed saying "someone has a crush on you". The recipient of the e-mail then theoretically signs up as well, and writes in who they think the crush could be. If the recipient of the original message guesses correctly, then a "CrushLink" has been made, and both the original sender and the original recipient get an e-mail saying that the "CrushLink" is made. If the recipient guesses wrongly, then everyone that the original recipient guessed gets an e-mail saying that "someone has a crush on them". Yes...you can see where this winds up...it propogates more "fun"...depending on how one feels about these sorts of things. To make it a little easier for the original recipient, clues will be offered every so often once X number of people have been tried.
So...I'm wondering who exactly could have sent that message...and why O_o;;; (hope I'm not insulting any reader here...if I am, I'm sorry). So...what is a scientist in training to do? Simple...conduct a controlled experiment XD. What I did was sign up, and enter into the list of 'suspects' the addresses of my various e-mail accounts and aliases (and I was wishing I had more), removing them and adding them again. I was able to get two clues from this (number of letters in first name and surname) and can almost get the third...I have no idea though who it might be...and we all know how good I am at guessing -_-;;; (take a look at the entries around 27 May for as much as I'm willing to explain).
WMC manages to reflect my opinions reasonably well...but for differing reasons. As she said:
"So *IF* the e-mail was indeed correct and not some clever little marketing ploy, 'fess up the old way. I don't care nor like to play guessing games." (This is a bit hypocritical now, and she knows why :P) I'm usually very dense in these sorts of matters o_o;;; (more times unintentionally @_@;)...in order to make it clear to me, one has to be really really really blunt since my skills in interpretation on these sorts of things have a poor showing. Forcing me to deal with these matters directly is probably the best way of getting success...but I think I've said too much already ^^;;;;;; I can say though...that I'm not responsible for any post from CrushLink that anyone might receive...that's not my way ^^; {perhaps one day I might devote an entry to my ethos on this...but likely not ^^;;;)
Ah...S-san said that she would redesign the blog some time ^_^. Now, this might actually look pleasing to the eye. Speaking on that topic...Tin, your colour scheme is not good >_<. My eyes are quite good (this is probably surprising ^^;;), but I still had trouble reading the purple text with any ease at all -_-;; I'll have to agree with the evil one's comments on the colour scheme in this case. ^^;;
Oi oi...today's lab built character...it lasted much longer than normal -_-; Actually, it's the longest I've been in the lab in school. The lab ended for my partner and I at 6:20 PM...lab normally ends at 5:30 PM. {mutters things about dilutions and 30 minute incubations}. Ah well, that's what I signed up for. I'm grateful that she was able to give me a ride home...I had to go walk to the other end of the university in lab coat and glasses (not a very common occurance) and tell my dad and brother to go home as I wasn't sure how much longer the lab would take.
I have an anime review coming up here..."The Door Into Summer"...and I think I'll have S-san as a guest commentator XD She really 'liked' this film ^^;;; I have a fair bit of anime to watch in the next while...so that'll be a good diversion.
That's about it...but I'll conclude with a sports reference. In some Canadian football (I think it was like some Quebec team against an Atlantic team), a shallacing was administered...105 to 0. 77-0 at half time, 49-0 at the end of the first quarter...wow. Side rant...I like Canadian football much better than American football, but I still haven't figured out how the Canadian game works the clock (and I've read the rules...but they don't seem to get followed in the games O_O;;)
Added to the literature: Monday, September 17, 2001 at 08:51 p.m.
Article to read
JBC article to read
Added to the literature: Monday, September 17, 2001 at 12:19 p.m.
Hawks vs. the Doves
This was the theme that was expressed yesterday throughout various forms of e-mail...again, I hope that rational minds will prevail and that any decision made will be made carefully. Any decision made by the US will be felt by the entire world, and must be made carefully with much thought.
On a mailing list, I'm seeing the struggle between the hawks and the doves occur...and it's not pretty. Friendships will be destroyed; that much I can see in my role as a lurker. I really disagree with some of the opinions put forward on this list, but I won't get into that.
Some more thoughts and reflections on this...in today's Globe and Mail, a reader commented on how the planes were diverted to Canada and that the US thought they might be a threat. The reader continues...what does that show about the US?
WMC, the fighting in Africa isn't WWIII...it's still rather localised with only certain countries involved. When every country (or almost all) gets involved (as it seems like is a distinct possibility), then WWIII would be occuring. During the Cold War, the prospect of WWIII was feared for the thought of nuclear war...and again is feared at this time.
Tragic irony...the first message in my Inbox on Tuesday was from TokyoPop about an 'email blast' :(
Related to that...I'd just like to take a moment to vent about the pedantic, arrogant, insensitive fornicating, illegitimate child person that decides they are better than everyone else and decides to make a post mocking someone's typographical errors on a post expressing sympathy for the victims on Tuesday. The lack of sensitivity surprised me...well, actually it shouldn't from this person's track record. I finally had enough and blew up at him on list...and then has the adacity to claim that I'm overanalysing the words. What bloody conclusion am to draw from this text?:
"> > I would also like to send my sympathy out to the Amercan's.
Amercan's what? I don't know who Amercan is. I'm sorry."
I've had enough of this individual; I note that no explaination or clarification was provided in the reply, which shows me that I was likely right in my conclusion. I'm blocking his e-mail when I get home. Arrogance is one of the traits I can't stand. I do feel better after ranting now though.
I had a headache yesterday...probably because I was still considering the events and ramifications...However, I came across some good advice from Venkarel: "When we laugh or find some joy in our lives, it should not be with guilt and it should not be condemned."
Although I'll still keep addressing this issue, I'll slowly start begin addressing things in my life...such as my shoelace breaking today and making my shoe a pain to wear all day -_-; I got to speak to S-san today as well for much longer than usual, so that was fun. Tonight...finish up my biochem assignment and may be read my notes for my analytical chem course (I'll get my stats assignment done on the weekend due to the extension that was given).
Added to the literature: Thursday, September 13, 2001 at 05:03 p.m.
...
Certain days will forever be burnt into the memory of society; yesterday was one of them. I only saw the footage of the disasters late last night...in a movie, it'd be fine and dandy. Tragically and horrifically, it was too real.
As the various media have reported, the US and the world have changed irrevocably. I think this is all but fact. Where does this take us (the world) into the future? I don't have any answers at all. The only thing that I can accurately surmise is that the US economy will now be in recession...which means the Canadian economy follows and likely a world wide effect will follow.
Friends of mine were talking about this incident sparking WWIII yesterday...now, I can no longer discount this as a possiblity. Ashcroft's remarks were ominous in asking every other country to join in the fight to find justice. Finding justice is important and I believe that those responsible should be forced to be accountable for their revolting actions. However, there is a slippery slope; it has been seen time and time again, violence begets more violence. Difficult matters to weigh and consider, and I hope that wise decisions are made in the days to come.
I hope that the governments think rationally before doing anything major. Here's a chilling hypothetical example...let's say that the US assigns blame to a particular region and attacks it. It is all but a given that blame will be assigned. What if the US is wrong? That, in my eyes, would likely lead to the third world war...in which case I would strongly bet that nuclear weapons would be used and the term MAD would be all too real. I hope that reason will still remain among our leaders.
I have no illusions of surviving if WWIII occurs...although I don't think I'd be on the front lines (rules of war says that scientists don't go on the front lines after Britain lost its top scientists in WWII), the chilling gaunt of the nuclear weapons will kind of take care of the rest. I'm in the centre of North America geographically...I'd probably be hit by fall out.
Strength in a time like this is important...but our collective wits must be kept...or I fear for the future.
Added to the literature: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at 05:08 p.m.
Sitting in a stunned stupour of shock
I was going to continue my previous entry today, but in light of what has happened today, I cannot in good consciousness make a non-somber post. It would not be right...and I don't think I can do it.
I heard about the events at 9:00 EST, but I initially thought that a plane accidently hit the World Trade Centre and destroyed two towers...I discovered more later on C's blog and then was told everything that has happened by friends at school a couple of hours later. I have not seen any of the video, all I know is what I've read on CNN, the Globe and Mail and CTV News web sites.
CNN and the Globe and Mail have detailed coverage of this horrific string of events; the links are on the side.
In situations like these...you honestly don't know what can be said or done. My thoughts, hopes and condolences go out to everyone that is affected by this event ;_;.
Added to the literature: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 11:38 a.m.
My sleeves are as wet as silk in the morning dew...
That's one of the lines I came up with when S-san had to disappear offline. ^_- I closed the window before I could have saved the log...because I was amused at the comments that I came up with. Gee...can we guess who has been influenced by Heian literature? ^_- I think the other comment was referring to how transient talking to her was ^_^; {though I'm not going to 'add it [those comments] to the literature' ^^; } Heh heh...I'll come back to S-san later (and I think I might be able to get some unity in this long entry).
I'm going to break this blog up into several sections here...random factoids that I came across in readings, real life and messages to other people who read this blog (yes indeed, people actually read this other than myself ^_^; )
Random miscellany
Let's see...I'll start off with some sports. I think last week during some international basketball play in Europe (relegation round?), one team finished off a game with only two players left on the court ^^;;;. There was a benchclearing brawl earlier in the game, and the referees ejected both benches. In the last minute or so, one team had three of their players foul out in succession (only 5 fouls by FIBA rules, not 6 as in NBA, but that's neither here nor there). Since I used to referee basketball, that story amused me a lot : ) I couldn't find the article...I think it was in Monday's Globe and Mail though.
Hmmm...the appendages on an octopus apparently have complex nervous systems and can function autonomously from the brain. Cool ^^. I saw that again in the G&M...and it was reported in the recent issue of Science. I'll go and recheck that article again. Another interesting article that came up was talking about a study about seniors and callgirls/boys and pornography in Denmark, and how exposure was beneficial to their health; "more calming than drug therapy". In fact, it seems that the Denmark government is encouraging staff to help elderly residents satisify sexual needs. As you can see...I learn lots of interesting things from the Globe and Mail. [side rant: I can't stand my local newspaper...as there is absolutely nothing in it...and I have issues towards the other Canadian national newspaper...]
I haven't seen anything really really interesting in the scientific literature...but there are a couple of e-mails piling up in my inbox with recent tables of contents. ^^; I should get to that soon (and I'll really have to send out that e-mail to Nellie tonight @_@;; ). Hopefully I'll have
time this semester to read a couple of journals (at the very least Science, Nature and New Scientist)...{sighs}.
A so-called life
Wasn't there a show called "My so-called life" once upon a time? I think so...but I never actually watched it (it didn't appear on the local TV stations). However, this observation is a bit tangental to the theme of the thread...but that was pretty clear wasn't it (honestly, my formal writing is much better organised than this...here, I'll just start rambling and rambling, etc...the "Congly stream of consciousness" style of writing...that I know a few of you have been subjected to (at least one will be subjected to) ^_-.
Online adventures
I've actually been rather social for the past while...well, mainly because the work hasn't really started yet. Tomorrow...the fun really begins (more about that below). I've talked to Jackie and Kourin a fair bit over the past
week...and it's been fun (and they're both doing well, so again, that's good...though perhaps it might be because they've got a week or so until school starts ^_-)
I've chatted to Dogger, a friend from high school...and it turns out our schedules actually work out this semester...kind of...so now, I can finally take him out for the lunch that I owe him ^^; I've talked to BB for bits
here and there...and just recently (only for the past couple of days) been talking to the evil one online....though I'm glad that she and Tin haven't teamed up to double team me. {for some reason, I have the sense that I'm creating a self-fulfilling prophecy} ^^; In fact, I'm talking to her right now ^^;;; It's sad though that's she's ill : ( Get better soon WMC! (and yes, I do recall that I accidently agreed that you'd get more stories ^^;;;)
Hmmm...I thought that was all I had to say about online adventures, but I was wrong. I remember that last week I was rather annoyed at a few posts (or rather a particular poster) on a certain message board and the comments made on a particular topic that I obviously have interest in. I'm not going to describe the post topic, or even the board as I've learnt from seeing the blogwars (various versions) from a far...and that's how they kind of start. I was initially upset...but I've calmed down a lot recently. I didn't reply to the post...though I was toying with it, although it wouldn't have been wise. Hmmm...yeah...actually, not describing the topic is for personal reasons ^_^; (though one or two of you would know why I wouldn't want to mention this...^^)
Real life time
{NB: Almost everything written above this section was written on Sunday (some edits on Monday). It's Monday morning right now...and I'm on my long lunch break. }
Life has been slow recently...as the labs don't really start until this week. There hasn't been much school work to speak of yet...but that will soon change. ^^;; I'm taking 5 classes again this term...animal physiology, proteins, genetics II, analytical chemistry II and introductory statistics. 4 labs...and I'm marking papers this year for one class. My protein course got moved from the Tuesday/Thursday slot from 8:30-9:45 to a Monday/Wednesday slot from 5:30-6:45...right after the labs. Now...this lucky science student gets Mondays and Wednesday with 4 classes, and a lab...a 8:30-6:45 day (3 hour break in the middle). That's going to be draining to say the least.
Since I didn't have much work to do this weekend, I got to help my parents do some landscaping on the yard. I remember again why exactly I dislike manual labour -_-;; (My arms ached and I was sore). Sigh...my left arm was about to give out near the end. I only worked about 4-5 hours intermittantly, but that was more than enough for me (we were raising some patio blocks off the ground to improve drainage IIRC).
I watched some anime this weekend. Episodes 1-5 of Infinite RYVIUS...I like the OP music...it's catchy (and the English remix that I heard was cool ^_^)...as for the series...I'm not entirely sure yet. Hmmm...it looks like it might have some potential, but I'm not entirely sure how well it'll be realised. It's a space drama...with basically astronaut students (in the 22nd century?) being forced to co-exist in a ship after a disaster. There's some brother vs. brother issues and it looks like a love triangle will be set up there too...so the relationship matters looks like it'll be horribly muddled, which is just the way I like them ^_^ (not in RL though ^^;;;;;)
I also watched episode 2 of Macross 7: Dynamite OAV...can't really say too much about this...though the music is somewhat catchy. I saw another work...but I'll have more about that in another entry (when I look up the title ^^;;;)
Ah...I'm going to head off for a little while, but I'll continue this entry in a little bit.
Things to write about: schedules not matching, to write to: WMC, Tin, Kristina, Katelynne, Jackie...I think that'll do for now. ^^;; {obviously, this will be deleted later ^_^ }
Added to the literature: Monday, September 10, 2001 at 10:32 a.m.
Ignore unless you're interested in protein motifs
This isn't a personal news post...it's for me to collect data that I'm looking up. I'll try and make an actual entry in here very shortly no da :)
http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~ml313is1/mcb209_313/209lectu.htm
Common tertiary structure motifs. Anti-parallel helical clusters (up/down and Greek key). Mixed alpha/beta clusters: singly-wound parallel beta or doubly-wound parallel beta. Anti-parallel beta-barrels, either up/down, Greek key or jelly roll Greek key. ß-helix. Connectivity
diagrams. Occurrence of a particular motif in biochemically-unrelated proteins. Multiple domains for stability, motion or function (hexokinase, immunogobulins, dehydrogenases). Ribbon figures of molecules. All
published 3D structures (both x-ray and NMR) are available from the Protein Data Bank at http://rutgers.rcsb.org/pdb/
Refs: Richardson, Adv. Prot. Chem. v.34; Branden ch. 3-5.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/nspprimers/proteinmotifs/proteinmotifs.pdf
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Apps/CB/pdb/content.html
http://scop.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/scop/ ^_^
http://www.biochem.ucl.ac.uk/bsm/cath_new/index.html
http://pps9900.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/PPS2/course/section10/index.html
http://pps9900.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/PPS2/course/index.html (Principles of Protein Structure Using the Internet)
random coil: the condition in solution of a linera polymer that exhibits little side group interaction, or resistance to rotation abou the bonds in its chain. There are no preferred conformations. Quantitatvie expressions have been developed for the average radius of gyration. The term has formerly been incorectly applied to various states of protein chains. (Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Revised Ed.) AD Smith Editor, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2000, 556.
alpha helix: a helical, or psirla, configuration of a polypeptide chain in which successive turns of the helix are held together by hydrogen bonds between the amide (peptide) links, the carbonyl group of any given residue being hydrogen-bonded to the imino group of the third residue behind it in the chain. This is teh case for all fo the carbonyl and amide groups of the peptide bonds of the main chain. The alpha helix has 3.6 residues/turn and the translation or pitch, along the helical axis is 1.5 A per residue and 5.4 A per turn. The helix may be left or right handed, the latter being much more common. It is one of the two basic elements of the secondary structure adopted by a polypeptide chain within the hydrophobic core of a globular protein (the other being beta strand). The alpha helix was first described by Pauling and Corey in 1951, based on model building. Ibid, 29.
beta bend or beta turn or B bend or B turn a short stretch of polypeptide chain that allows the main direction of the chain to change. It consists of four amino-acid residues in which the CO group of residue n is hydrogen bonded to the NH group of residue n+3 Ibid 66.
beta sheet an approxmiately planar array of two or more beta strands.
beta strand one fo the two basic elements of the secondary structure adopted by a polypeptide chain withing the hydrophobic core of a globular protein. It consists of two chains in a beta configuration. Two ore more strands may interact to form a beta sheet.
beta configuration a stable configuation or a polypeptide chain in which the chain is almost fully extended but slighltly puckered and is hydrogen bonded to an adjacent polypeptide chain, thus forming a beta strand, the axial distance between adjacent amino-acid residues being ~0.35 nm; the adjacent chains may be either parallel (running in the same direction) or antiparallel (running in opposite directions).
Added to the literature: Thursday, September 6, 2001 at 01:28 p.m.