Well, I guess I can finally admit that I’m getting rather weary of working on supplemental data for my neuroscience lab. It’s become apparent to my PI and two post-docs who work with me, so I guess it’s finally time to admit that I don’t absolutely enjoy every tedious thing for a long period of time. I should be able to; usually I can enjoy something I have to do by just reasoning out that if there’s no alternative action to be done, I might as well have fun. However, for some reason or another, that’s not even working well enough to fool myself. Perhaps it’s the recent strain of learning to ignore C-fiber pain, or maybe it’s just that a month of doing almost nothing but computer-based data analysis, with only small bits of wetwork in between. Another possibility is that now that the semester’s about to begin, and my upcoming time crunch is looming over the horizon, it’s harder to be cheerful, but whatever the reason, it’ll have to be remedied some way. Luckily, the supplemental data is almost done (although for the third time as such), so I’ll get to do some organic synthesis soon. Well, that’s about it; I guess this’ll be my teen angst post of the month. 
Weary William
Or to be more precise, exactly half lost, as two of my wisdom teeth were pulled this morning. I had a regular dental appointment this morning, and everything normally, except that they took me to take a panoramic x-ray of my mouth, since I’ve reached the age that wisdom teeth normally come in. Unfortunately (well, actually fortunately, but it doesn’t feel that way right now), my bottom two wisdom teeth were coming at near 90 degree angles to my molars, so they needed to be removed; luckily, they were all just coming in, so they were easy to remove, and Dr. Friz said it could be done today, so before I knew it, topical anesthetics were applied, and my lower wisdom teeth were being cut out.
Everything went as planned, and I’ve been admonished to take antibiotics for the next week to prevent infection of the newly opened holes. The only irritating thing is that my nociceptive C fibers haven’t stopped firing since the anesthetics wore off. I was given some painkillers, but haven’t been taking them (perhaps unwisely) as I’ve never had the opportunity to have any significant slow-firing pain. At least in my mind, it’s a lot harder to ignore than sudden sharp pain, as it gnaws away at your will-power. Still, it’s a very interesting feeling, not that I’d recommend anyone to try it.
Nociceptively yours, William
His Work and Nothing More…does not make…Popular,
But…I Could Have Danced All Night…to…All that Jazz.
A British Tar…can…Whistle a Happy Tune,
But…The Sound of Music…is…Spectacular Spectacular.
I am 16 Going on 17…but…No One Knows Who I Am.
This is the Moment…for…Defying Gravity.
All the Wasted Time…is gone…For Good.
All I Ask of You…is to…Think of Me.
Musically me
I got to see Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado at the IU Musical Arts Center last night. I’d been planning on going with a good friend of mine, but unfortunately, schedules didn’t coincide, so I just saw it myself. Anyways, it was just that during the course of the evening, I noticed so so many similarities between the Mikado and the H.M.S. Pinafore that if it weren’t for the costumes, I could probably have easily mistaken one for the other, had I dropped in in the middle of a performance.
Still, it was a fun little operetta, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The music wasn’t exactly spectacular, but it fit the storyline well. It seems as if Sullivan tried to mix in some vaguely oriental strains, but the music was obviously European in nature. Also, despite the setting in Japan, the excessively extravagant costumes, etc., I somehow picked up the feeling that Gilbert was more making fun of England than of Japan whenever humor was present. The outrageousness of some of the storyline claims was a major part of why the Mikado was humorous. Well, that’s about it for my opinion on the operetta. Look out for more, on full-fledged operas during the school year.
Not quite operatically operating one
Shortly after the end of my Spring semester this past May, I decided to help out with the National Science Olympiad which took place at my college, IU. I worked as a grader for Don’t Bug Me for most of one day, and learned a bit about insects that I’ve never realized I didn’t know, and afterwards promptly forgot most of it. A short while ago, I found myself needing something to obsess over during the summer (besides mass spectrometry, peptide purification, and organic synthesis, that is), and came up with several options. I’m already going to be obsessing over several programming languages and web scripting languages for my lab and position as webmaster of several student organizations here, so those topics were out. Also, I’m already obsessed with reading, chemistry, and Broadway musicals, so that didn’t really leave too much. Some options I thought up were birds, insects, calculus, and my sister suggested I try obsessing over girls. Mathematics is one of my majors, so obsessing over that is too easy; one of my friends Beth is already obsessed with birds, so that’s out to; and girls have the cooties (order anoplura, family pediculidae*). You can probably guess what I ended up choosing . . .
Anyways, I picked up a copy of Peterson’s Field Guide to Insects, which is a marvelous book, suggested to me by the head proctor/grader at Don’t Bug Me for the Middle School level at NSO, though mostly black and white, and ran with that; however, this evening I ran across a nice internet site that goes through a brief overview of the various insect orders. Just thought that it’d be a nice resource to any aspiring young amateur entomologists out there.
Pediculidae free Will
*Lice, for anyone who doesn’t know their insect families. Shame shame ^_^. Also sometimes classified as belonging to Mallophaga, although that’s usually just considered their suborder.
