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Wow, it's finally time.  The years flew by so quick, and today is my commencement ceremony!

If you for some reason were to watch between 2 and 5pm, you might just see my name called.  They're streaming it live online (link to watch on Windows Media Player, link for Real Media).

Because it's a Fall ceremony, and most people graduate in Spring, it's going to be three colleges combined: College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Biological Sciences, and the College of Engineering.

My degree is in Biotechnology, with a concentration of Microbiology. 

My parents, little brother, my girlfriend, and even my grandparents (who flew in from Sydney!) will be there with me. Yay!

Woohoo! I'll make a new post with pictures and fun stuff within a few days :)

I finished my viticulture final and emailed it in Tuesday evening.  I crammed all day, barely slept, and crammed again for my 8am biosci final this morning.

Bioenergetics and Metabolism! YUCK.

I absolutely hated this class, and it was honestly one of the hardest ones I've taken.  It's supposed to be a prereq for a lot of other classes (which I took fine), but I just really hate this stuff.  It's all memorization and boring stuff.  Reminds me a bit of o-chem.

Anyway, I love dual screening!

dual screening, wine production

It is my last day of school as an undergrad.
A very empty day. Only two hours of class!
Microbial Physiology, and Economics of Financial Markets.

10 days until I walk.
4 finals before then.

After 9 months, I think my research internship is done!  The PI and her PhD student took us out to lunch, it was fun.

I have so much I want to say and post, and I'm ridiculously far behind.  This is just a note that I'm still here and doing well, I've just been busy and slightly overwhelmed.  Like whoa!

It's a little rough to watch, and involves a whole lot of screaming.
Might want to read this article first before deciding to watch it.
An Iranian-American student doesn't have ID to display in the library, campus police are called in as he didn't leave, and ends up being tasered over and over.  Read the article from the Daily Bruin for the details.

Atrocious. 

It's hard to catch on the video the first watch, but when the police are being asked for thier badge numbers, they not only refuse to give them, but threaten to taser the asker.

What also disturbs me a whole lot is the thousands of comments on the different videos on youtube, and the one hosted on perezhilton.com, of people in defense of the police, with things like "well if he only stood it wouldnt have happened" or "he was just being a drama queen" or "this is less than they'd do in iran" etc.
 

Who's surprised?

Taken from http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/15/larry-king-internet/

Transcript:

LARRY KING: On your blog you write, “Bush is going to declare war on China next, I swear.”

ROSEANNE BARR: I was so scared because I woke up and there was the Drudge, you know. I always read the Drudge Report and it said on there that the Chinese were like, you know, spying on our subs or doing something with our subs and I was like, “Oh no, he’s going to think that’s an act of war and then we’re going to go over there next.” I mean we’re everywhere. We’re everywhere.

KING: The Internet as a political medium viable?

BARR: Yes, it’s like the only one left, absolutely, and that’s not just me saying it. That’s everybody saying it.

KING: But there’s 80 billion things on it.

BARR: Yes, but if you know where to look, you know, it all can come together. When you’re looking for the particular information that you’re looking for after you do the big search, this is what I found out by going on there, it just takes your mind and then you live in there forever. You can never come out.

KING: I’ve never done it, never gone searching.

BARR: Oh, my God! It just opens up the whole universe. It’s so awesome. You would love it.

KING: No, I wouldn’t.

BARR: Anything you want to know.

KING: The wife loves it. I wouldn’t love it. What do you punch little buttons and things?

BARR: You just click on this thing. The thing is you got to be able to read, so you have to have strong glasses when you’ve over 50 and then you just scroll down and click. It’s not that hard. I can show you how to do it.

KING: No, thanks.

I'll link the video later, but it's on the source page: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/15/larry-king-internet/

Show us a picture of your own handwriting.
Submitted by eclaire.

Can you read it?  Probably not.

Handwriting sample

Studying countless pages like this one as you read.  I have notoriously bad hand writing.  I've hurt my little finger a lot of times as a kid, and now it bends kinda weird, so it's hard for me to write for a long time.  But it's wonderful.
No one ever asks to borrow my notes after the first attempt! 
And I can always read my own writing (usually). That's what counts.

If you're curious what the heck it says, this page is from my Microbial Physiology class.  We were talking about the mechanisms controlling group translocation of sugars/carbon sources. Interesting stuff, huh? ;)

How do you eat your pizza:  folded, flat or with a fork and knife?
Submitted by danimass.

All of the above!!

Street style pizza slices, yeah, you fold, walk, and eat.  Or nice big gooey cheesy ones.  Yum.  If the slice is small, I end up just eating it flat.

Little speciality Italian places, too difficult to hold slice (especially when there's no crust), I end up using a knife and fork. 

Tomatina in Walnut Creek makes delicious pizza, and it's become a bit of a Friday tradition for my family and some of their friends to go there.  They go so often that the waitresses know them by sight (and sound from down the street).  They emember things like my mother wanting anchovies on the side, or my brother liking the garlic rolls, or even my Father and his friend's preference for wine from last week!   Just upon walking in, the waitresses say "give us a moment" and jump us up the queue past a 45 minute wait.  I've only gone with them a few times, but it's always fun.  And the dirty, dirty looks from people huddled up waiting is kind of fun. 

I'm a sucker for pepperoni, mushrooms, and olives.  And if you can give me a pesto sauce, so much the better.  Not a big tomato sauce guy, and I can't really enjoy pizza from the normal chains (Pizza Hut, Dominos, Round table, etc) cause I dislike thier sauce.  (As a kid, I'd always ask my parents to get 'light sauce'.)

Mhhmm, I wish I could go to Tomatina's right now. 

This will be a first for me.  I think Angela is happy and excited, so it'll be fun. She's really excited - she was a huuuugggeee N'SYNC fan in High School, something I teased her relentlessly about back in the dorms when we first met.  I've seen pictures of her room plastered with Justin posters, haha.  I guess she get's the last laugh now though!

Doing it

Seeds are yummy

2 comments

Show us something dangerously cute.
Submitted by Indy Bunny.

Awww, hammies!  I love our Dwarf Hamsters. These guys are beyond dangerously cute.  They are downright disarming.  Look how lil they are. Buttons was enjoying some nice pumpkin seeds watching tv, until Judge Joe Brown came on.  I didn't even have to say anything - he went for the remote and tried to change the channel.  He also dislikes paparazzi filming him and Belgarion trying to enjoy a meal.

These guys are perfectly tame.  I handle them regularly, and they never bite.  Well, usually not, and never on purpose.  If you wake them up from a nap, they tend to pounce.  Belgarion always jumps and grabs my finger if I put it in thier home and surprise him, but never bites unless napping, and then it's really just instinctual reflex.   Buttons...I gotta remember to wash my hands first. A few weeks ago I ate a piece of cheese, and forgetting to wash my hand, went over to say hey to him.  He gave me a decent bite (it was Jarlsberg cheese, who could blame him) - he let go pretty quickly though, before I could even react.  They've cut some scary chompers they can wield, so I'm glad they don't.  Then again, Garion didn't hesitate at all to chomp down on mealworms when I tried live food for them once as a treat.  Eww...

They fight each other a bit occasionally, and their squeeks are too cute.  They run on the wheel all the time, and they're pretty silly all around.  I could show so much more, like them in thier little hamster balls. 

They rock.