The image is of Kiko-chan, the precocious star of Kiko-chan's Smile. Kiko is a 4 year old pre-kindergarden student who gets up at the crack of dawn, makes breakfast, lunch for herself and her father, helps her mother out
around the house yet is unable to tie her shoes. Kiko's teacher, Megumi-sensei tries hard to get Kiko to say good morning to her, but hasn't quite succeeded yet. Kiko's
pet, Neko-chan (actually an angel from the heavens) tries to bring happiness into Kiko's life, but unfortunately for Neko-chan, things don't work out as they should. A log of a science student (v.5) About myself: Name: Stephen
Congly Alignment: True Neutral, Good
Tendancies Current Readings Journals followed Science Books
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Isn't science fun? Today's lab had three 45 minute incubations, and one 30 minute incubation. Oh...there was also a stack of dilutions at the beginning also. Thus, the lab started at 2:30 and ended (when I washed my hands for the final time) at 7:15. Two people from the lab went to the nearby McDonalds to get the Chicken McNuggets + small fries for $2.14 (tax included). I got one...and ate it during the last 30 minute incubation. The food was cold (partially because the McDonalds was slow and the fries were quite salty). The dipping sauce was nice...the Sweet and Sour was okay, but the Hot Mustard was surpisingly good.
On an entirely different point together, I'm surprised that "Stephen Congly" is a common search term for this blog...^^;;
Just to give a taste of what I go through, a portion of one of my virology reports: Hi there...just a maintenance entry...I have a few notes on various topics I want to mention...but I likely won't get to them for a few more days (need to get my political science paper done now o.o;;)...which I should be working on now -_-; Well...being as that there were only latex gloves in the lab today, I decided to carry out the experiment to determine if latex is an allergen to me. After about 30 minutes...and feeling portions of my hand start to burn, I've made the obvious conclusion that yes, I am indeed allergic to latex gloves. Portions of both of my hands are red and painful with small red bumps being formed. It's good to know for certain now, as I wasn't 100% certain before.
Quick messages to people in passsing. Talya...sucks to hear that you got a PFO letter...:/. Ming-Ling, biochemistry exams can do that to you ^^; Hope that your situation with the theft gets resolved soon in a satisfactory manner. Katelynne, you're back in Japan. Hopefully you didn't find Thailand too too bad and you enjoyed yourself in some way. Venkarel...hope that you can get your blog problems resolved ^^. I actually use the referrer logs (for the most part) to help me figure out which people to read (as if they've read it...it may mean they've updated). ^^;; That means I'm typically a bit behind with reading your blog :/ Evil one...hope you had fun on your trip :D. Sorry for those who I didn't mention...doesn't mean that I haven't been reading, etc...I'm just a bit behind (and I see that I have to go in the next few minutes or so).
In lighter stuff...a short article about Shae-Lynn Bourne having her dress fall down a little too much. A bit embarassing...but nothing too serious.
In more lighter things...some interesting referers I've gotten @_@;; Subtitled: Silenced and swamped
Title topic refers to the fact that Priya and I had a discussion a few days ago about a few of the questions on the infamous list and being the good science-type I am, I recorded the "data" on the proverbial paper towel (i.e. the AIM window)...but closed it without thinking about it...until I realised about 10 minutes later...Doh. Yes...I've used a paper towel before to record data down ^^;;; [I know it's not good -_-;;]
I honestly can't think of anything else I really ~want~ to talk about in this entry...which is surprising, since I can usually find something to talk about. Well, I guess the key words is want, since there are always issues that I ~can~ talk about...
Ah...I have the idea and image for another layout. The image is really cool in my untrained eyes...I'm going to keep it a secret though for just a little longer ^_-
Lots of work to do this weekend...so if I'm not online much, I'll likely be writing up labs and other such stuffs. Sorry for not really replying to blogs... I suppose that title can have more than one meaning to me...but I'll only discuss one below.
I had a strange feeling Sunday afternoon when I fell asleep reading my virology text. I was in a state where I knew I was sleeping...but I couldn't get up. I could vaguely hear things from the outside...I tried to move my feet....but they felt numb and sluggish... I tried to open my eyes...but I was so tired that I couldn't... I was eventually thinking about rolling off of the couch to wake up...It was a different, unsettling feeling...I was still aware of being on the couch and in my body. It's just that I couldn't move...or I could move, but it seemed much slower. I finally remembered to mention the fact that I discovered who the author was of a fantasy series I liked a lot (and actually like enough that I might re-read it...and we all know how rarely I re-read books ^^;; The author is SM Stirling, and she co-wrote the Sabre and Shadow series. It's a pretty good series; war story about two women combatants/warriors. I have the feeling that one was a fighter proper, the other more a mage...can't remember for certain. I do remember that the two main characters were bisexual though, which was rather a unique thing to me at the time I read it. It was more a "Interesting..." rather than anything else I would say.
For the person looking up Stone Angel characters...XD This is not the place you want to be. I hate that book...and I regret not drop kicking a copy when I had the chance ^^;;;
I see another book I want to get one day while peeking at Amazon: Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook. *_*.
Lastly...I have a partial answer for question #6 in the infamous list. Kourin contributed her thoughts that it's just blood congealing. I'm inclined to agree with her; as blood clots [can't remember the entire pathway, but I do recall fibrins being involved], it congeals. My original thoughts were also that there would also be tissue ligands involved so as to get the particular constituency. I suppose experimentally, one could test these thoughts by taking such fluid, exposing to an anticoagulant, like heparin, and seeing what happens. Again, don't look at me for that :P. A number of topics to mention...I'm writing this Sunday evening/Monday morning as well, although that's not really that relevant.
First off...I had a pretty good day Friday...partially because I discovered a DDR 5th Mix machine around the town :D (sorry Priya ;) )...there were other reasons too...but I won't mention them here. Sorry ^_^; (nothing bad)
A while ago, I had looked at the magazine Anime Invasion off the shelf. It's a colour glossy magazine...okay in some ways, but nothing too much to write home about. I do give it credit for having an article about the differences between the Japanese and North American version of Sailor Moon. The articles though aren't really that interesting to me...it seems more designed for a "pop" audience...i.e. a stepping stone to the "harder" anime magazines (here, that'd be Animerica and Protoculture Addicts). Some of their articles were trying to be cutsy...I sniggered a bit at them...but I'd rather not have a cutesy magazine. Not a magazine that I'd
really buy though...I'd rather buy PA ^_^;;
This links in very well to my next topic. I have an article in press for Protoculture Addicts; a review of "Natsu he no Tobira", that shounen-ai work that I had wrote a more cynical review of here. I cleaned up the review a bit and made it more neutral...so that's something for me to look forward to :)
Ah...in the poetic justice department. Remember how I was rather annoyed at that person who made fun of my latex allergy in a non-funny manner? Guess what that person discovered they were allergic to--the powder in the latex glove XD. I had to toss her my spare pair of nitrile
gloves...heh heh...I didn't laugh at her though...
One of my colleagues was talking about the class she was marking for, and how there was cheating that occurred (same assignment that I saw cheating on last term). It was a qualitative assignment and so when papers look word for word...it's clear. This time, apparently some people copied
the key from last semester word for word @_@; Oi oi.
Continuing down my list of things to talk about...two real life notes of interest. Firstly, I survived midterms...good sign. Secondly, I have a summer research job now at the university...employment is good ^_^;
As you can see from Saturday's entry, I finally formaly wrote my list of questions asked. C-san was wondering about my answer to question #3; I did a bit more research on the topic and came to the conclusion that the
way I wrote it down (which was essentially the way that Priya told me ^_-) was not quite accurate. I've corrected/added to the original answer... Damn that curious part of my mind at times...damn it >_<
I was remiss in my last few entries by not mentioning Olympic hockey. Canada won gold medals in both men and women's hockey. I only saw part of the women's game but watched the majority of the men's game. I was a bad
fan watching the men's game...just like my brother was. When the US scored, Canada let out a collective "F***"...my brother included. However, when Canada scored, we went wild. Every Canadian goal, I would loudly say "Goal!" and point toward the screen (as the referee points to the net
whenever a goal is scored) as soon as I could tell that the puck crossed the line. ^^;; The CBC repeated the games in the following two weeks...have to milk it for all it's worth ^^;
I think I figured out what the scribble I couldn't read on my last "Things to write about" card was...it was either hockey game, or something about anthrax. I just wanted to note that Priya, with her inital commentary about how it was likely a domestic was right. My poli sci prof
brought that up about how possibly the US knew it was a domestic kept that knowledge secret in order to fuel its own ends (talking about the importance of knowledge). Kudos Priya for making the call.
Things coming my way (now that I sent off the money orders to pay for them). Utena movie DVD collector's edition (even though I don't have a DVD player _o_), more tapes...more Infinite Ryvius (it was really good last
time...can't wait to see where it'll go now that the people on the Rvyius are now pretty much on the government's kill-list and are forced to go to Saturn (I think that's right)...and the relationships now...what a horrid
love triangle I see ^_^;;;, Android Announcer Maico, and some other title I can't remember.
{grins} Celebrity boxing on FOX XD...Tonya Harding vs. Paula Jones; Barry Williams vs Danny Bonaduce (never heard of them); Vanilla Ice vs. Todd Bridges. Trash TV at it's finest ^^;;;;;
{looks at entry above}
Traditional type entry is in the works.
For some strange reason, because I'm the nearest science-type for some people, I get the most unique questions to research and look up for them. Unique...what a loaded word, and when you see the list of questions I have...well ^_^;
Actually, in spite of the fact that I keep commenting about all of these questions I get, I don't mind it too much. Most of the questions are interesting in some way, shape or form...and part of the spirit of science (in my opinion) is to educate. No individual can know everything...and overall, there aren't too many people who specialise in the sciences or related fields. Admittedly, there are parts of research that don't interest me and I don't really care for. (i.e. I would never, never read an issue of Science, Nature or PNAS all the way through ^_^;; ) Nonetheless, the information is still important.
Having said that...if anyone reading this blog (and I mean anyone) wants to put a question on my list to eventually look up, they are welcome to. I'll eventually get around to looking it up if I don't know the answer off hand (likely the former). Since the trend for these questions are to be rather ~interesting~ material, I don't care if any questions I get are...unique or not ^_^. Remember my specialities though...I'll probably be able to answer questions in those fields much better than those that aren't my forte. Nondisturbing questions are nice too ^_^ (probably because they are so rare ^^;).
There is a price you pay for this little thing however,...your name gets put up with the question you asked...XD I think it's a fair trade, don't you? NB: I don't care about having interesting referrers be created anymore...now that nifty.org is a hittable term choice o.o;;;
Stephen's Question List (as of 9 March 2002)
1. Is the term throbbing manhood accurate?
2. [question deleted--one of mine] {yes, writing up the list does give some privledges ^_^;;}
3. Why is it that I always get ill right at that time of the month?
Edit: 3/11/02
A few more sites of interest include: A reference that also helps is: 4. Apparently, if you drink a citrus juice of some kind, the taste of semen will become sweeter. Is this true and why?
5. [Hair greying in region of head. An example grey hair...] measured at 2.5
feet. It was primarily silver, however, for the 8 inches closest to the root, and the root, the hair was not silver, but myusual brown auburn color. OK, so why on earth was the end silver, but the root brown?
6. Why does menstrual blood/tissue look like jam?
I Am A: Neutral Good Half-Elf Mage Ranger
Heh...I'm a bit surprised by the alignment (as I was LN before)...but I think this makes sense. I've always liked mages and elves :D The Ranger though...that doesn't make sense...o.o;; Whosers will know the reference I'm making XD
First off, a PSA to the two (now three) individuals who found this blog by looking up "eastern blot" and "eastern blots". They DON'T exist ^^;; (I had to verify that myself a few months ago...and that's how I found Spyke's livejournal by happenstance).
Ming-Ling...glad that info could help you at this early stage ^_^. For your direct linker problem...have you considered the htaccess solution? (I think that's right)...it gives you a lot of control at who can access your files (i.e. prevent people from off the server from doing so). Okay...I have a number of topics I want to mention today (and the fact that I wasted 30 minutes playing Neopets doesn't help my productivity level today -_-;). {digs out card of notes}
First up (not on my list, but it's the easiest to mention) is that I've come into the posession of a fair number of phone cards recently offering me free calls to the US and Canada (including some from our phone company). Needless to say, I intend fully to use them to make calls to the US at the most expensive rate XD XD
{can't make out another line on sheet ^^;} Ummm...I can read that I wanted to mention the book I bought. It was really cheap, so I'm not too upset at the purchase...it was dealing with labour's role in dealing with sexual diversity...basically it talks about labour unions and their role. Not quite what I was expecting...but there might be some interesting things in there (or since it is hard cover, I will probably be able to sell it off/give it away without too much difficulty).
Male speech pattern warning... Today, the guidelines for stem cell research in Canada will be released. They are more liberal than those in the US but less liberal than those of the UK. As far as I understand, Canadian researchers can use left-over embryos from such processes as in vitro fertilisation but can't create new embryos for research (or clone them). Donators have to also be asked for permission before they are used in that way. This is such a delicate ethical issue. Myself, I think this is a pretty good compromise all around; research isn't handcuffed, nor is it given free reign; other factors are brought into consideration. I do note though what one of the researchers was saying...something about that there actually isn't a huge store of embryos available for research.
Shrinking population...a problem that Saskatchewan (my province) and countries around the world are facing. Two articles from the Globe and Mail to read: Although overpopulation is a problem in this world, it is probably a good idea to consider this issue somewhat. I find it difficult to assess whether the effects of this will be good or bad in the long run though...I suppose only time will tell.
More articles about blogs in the media...looks like they're getting mainstream...which means that in the "coolness cycle", they aren't very cool anymore...but then none of us have a blog because it's cool, right ^_- [Congly, cool...ummm...isn't that kind of an oxymoron XD]
Ah...to smoking now. Two points to note...firstly, Saskatchewan is now moving to ban the display of cigarettes in stores in order to discourage youth from smoking. (which explains why the drug store till looked different) Retailers will be hit with the bill of modifying their shelves, etc. As for the effect...I'm not sure of how much of one it will actually have. I'm all in favour for reducing the rate of smoking, but seriously, I think the effect won't be substantial enough. Ummm...I guess I could look at it in that any reduction in the rate of smoking is good...but still...I think better is to increase the tax on cigarettes up again (is it for every $0.10 you increase a pack of smokes, 40-odd percent of people either quit or reduce smoking...I read a fact ~something~ like that somewhere...but I can't remember where or even if the numbers are exact -_-).
Second point...a doctor in Manitoba has basically told his patients that if they smoke and don't want to quit, he won't be his doctor anymore...quite interesting.
I still can't read that one line I have scribbled here...which kind of makes this a lot more difficult to talk about n'est-ce pas? Three topics left then...first off, the pool tournament. It went not too badly...we finished 3-2 in the pool, made it to the next round by my partner winning a modified game of cutthroat but lost in the quarters. So...we finished at least 8th out of 20. Ironically, we didn't win any of our games by skill...(or is that ironic?! ^_-)...but rather on our opponents losing the game for us. The one game that we were doing very well in we lost because my partner had a horribly difficult bank shot to hit the 8 ball...and he missed the 8 by about a inch or so...oh well. I had lots of fun, and the event was a success. I'll probably get around to scanning the photos in sometime again (for the society). The strawberry daiquri I had was quite good ^_^
Ah...a bit annoyed with someone in one of the labs in how they were making fun of one of my allergies in a not-fun manner {growls}. I usually laugh about the latex allergy, because it is kind of funny (it's not serious...just makes my skin itchy)...but the way that this person phrased the comment was rather...rude. I'm not 100% sure of this allergy, but I'm pretty pretty sure. The only way I'd be able to test for sure is by intentionally putting on latex gloves...but the itchyness is really aggrevating. It's either itchyness due to continual wearing of gloves (and switching them on and off)...or it's the latex. I'm pretty sure it's the latter, but I'm not definitely certain yet...perhaps one day I'll have to find out for certain.
Ah...I have one more topic to deal with...but I'm not sure if I'll have the time to do so. It has to deal with the "Research Questions" people giving me for some reason because I'm a science type ^^;;; I'll list them here (probably in next entry)...plus mention who asked them (one of the questions is mine...the others are not). Sadly, I think I forgot one of the questions though...or it could just be my mind being forgetful. ...but it looks like I ran out of time. I'm doing some marking right now in front of the computer and will be headed out to the Biochem/Chem students' association's pool tournament ;)...
I'll try and make an entry this weekend (since there are some stuff I want to mention)...or failing that, Monday (I should get around to correcting some links as well that day...and adding a few).
A few referrers to consider: Other interesting search words included biochem (right place...I do try and help if I can), Montreal, Charmian, flashdance, help, women (if you combine the two, you've probably come to the wrong place -_-;;)
Okay...back to marking. Title topic refers to the fact that you can get only individual character(s) to be subscript and superscript in Excel. I didn't know that; I had just went with entries like NO2- in Excel instead of having a subscript 2 and a superscript -. I only discovered that last week when someone told me. [For any science types out there (read Ming-Ling and cc) that don't know how to do it, you just highlight the letter you want to be formatted, differently, right click and then go to Format...choose sub/super (whatever's appropriate) and be amazed ^^;;]
No smart remarks on the title topic...I'm looking directly at you WMC :P (I'd also be looking at my lab partner, but she doesn't read this...I don't think ^^;;)
I've been busy trying to get multiple things done this week...moving along, but still several things left to do. I'm going to try and write up a quick blog entry here though...
Olympics:
Ming-Ling: Columns...heh. I have issues with them (i.e. they have failed miserably on me before...though hitting the bench with my fist didn't help the column in any bit)...Packing the column is kind of fun, though it takes a while to do ^^;;
Scanlation: I'm not going to flesh out my discussion here too much since a lot has already been said on it. I don't entirely agree with Rence; I'm closer to the opinion of Ryuuen, Kris and colleagues. Scanlations in moderation are good...(i.e. give a taste of the manga)...but taken to the extreme...@_@; If you have the art...many might ask, why buy the original? Yes, there are some out there that will go and buy the original...and that's good; however... (I think Kris had a good discussion on it...either in past entries on her blog or on the shoujo manga list (original one) on yahoogroups (I think it was the latter...but I can't remember for sure). Related to this point is how Tetris no miko decided to remove description from her translations in order for people to buy Ayashi no Ceres...so concern in this field is not unprecidented.
Ummm...two dubious search queries:
URLs of interest: Nothing special happened for Chinese New Year and Singleness Awareness Day...just days of work...
"The Simpsons" in Toronto was one of the funniest I've seen in a while...the highlights for me had to be the Itchy and Scratchy episode on DVD...with the audio commentary XD, the complete periodic table with 216 elements [Skinner comments on how cutbacks forces them to have only 16 elements] and the Olympic torch bit. As for them in Canada...ho hum. Not overly funny (though ironically, there is a movie coming out about curling @.@ (Men With Brooms) )
Lastly...I see that that Anipike is back up ^^;; (yes, I'm behind...) |
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