The Secular Life

To sum up my week a little bit, it was stressful.  I am still trying to figure out the best way to use my time to get all the things I need accomplished.  It's only been 2 weeks and I'm starting to feel the pressure already.

Life isn't all that bad.  I still managed to have some fun and work out when the time allows.  Nothing beats going between the gym and research lab or just take a break and talk to people before I go insane!

With that said, the first party held by IX was successful, according to my roommates.  I didn't participate in the party for the first couple of hours because I was lucky enough to go on a group date with some friends.  The best part about going on a date with one of your best friends is that the stress level is minimal to nonexistent.  It's also great to discover something about the person you didn't know before.  Let's face it, I don't think I can handle an awkward first date after a week full of stress.

Homework...ugh

All right, as promised, I was supposed to give you my brief synopsis on all my classes.  My head hurts thinking about some of them, but they've proven to be manageable for the most part... for now.

Senior year in college isn't exactly all fun and games.  At least, not this semester anyways.  Well, here it goes.

MMBio441: Advanced Molecular Biology - The good news is, it is a continuation of MMBio240.  The not-so-good news is that there are more details and mechanisms taught in this class.  The infamous Steve Johnson teaches this class.  As you can see, this professor will be someone I'll see many times a week.  Overall, it doesn't seem to be too difficult...yet.

MMBio442: Advanced Molecular Biology Lab - Ah... Dr. Johnson, we've met again.  The funny thing about lab classes in the MMBio Dept is that most of the stuff they teach you in the lab have already been learned in research labs, if you are actually part of any lab here in the building.  There's a group pair project due at the end of the semester, but the actual curriculum is finished weeks before that, so time management is purely personal here.

MMBio468: Genomics - This is a tough class to be in and to be the instructor for it.  I'm sure Dr. Udall is a good person, but I don't think he knows how to teach...to some extent.  The first part of the class has been about sequencing technology.  With little to no bioengineering background, I find this class somewhat difficult, especially when we do homework on things first before we come to class with questions.  The problems is, since we knew nothing, it's hard to know where to start asking.  Luckily, it's getting better, but it's still gonna be a time consuming class.  For 3 credits, I don't know why it's such a hassle.

Chem223: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis - This is a precision and accuracy class.  4 credit class with about 6 hours of lab a week.  This class feels like Gen Chem all over again, except this time, we can't afford to have errors.  I actually have to learn Excel functions for this class.  Besides the time this course gobbles up, it hasn't been too difficult... yet.

Phsc106: Intro to Applied Physics - Alas, I've met with Physics again.  Annoying little work here and there, but definitely doable.  I think Dr. Rees has given us more than enough opportunities to get an A-/B+ in this class, so I'm not too worried about it.

Phsc108: Intro to Applied Physics Lab - I hate physics labs because they contribute almost nothing to my learning.  They are time-consuming and pointless.  The only plus side is that it's probably an easy A/A-

MMBio494R: Mentored Research - That's right, I'm still with Dr. Berges and finally started on my project.  The current roadblock is trying to write an ORCA Grant proposal due in early November.

Life is busy, but good.  I still manage to have fun.  This is probably going to be the only semester where I'll have a lot of credits.  Wow...wall of text.  I promise that it won't happen again!