King Tut

So I was able to see the King Tut exhibit at the de young museum today.  It was pretty amazing stuff.  Its easy to forget that the old things your staring at are just that, 3000 years old.  And that 3000 years ago they were made and left in this tomb for the unfortunate 19 year old king. So much history and culture.  Interesting stuff.  Off Topic …I have had a recent obsession with cappucino’s……Must be the foam….or the yuppiness…im gonna vote number 2.

Laboratory supplies

I find it amusing how lack of scholastic funding has created an almost frenetic desire for highly valuable rare laboratory supplies. Everything becomes sacred, gloves, goggles, lab coats, all must be locked up and hidden. It’s like working in a department of pirates. Speaking of which I’d love to
Get my hand on some analytical NMR software!! But it’s 1500 dollars. Sigh

Becoming an author

One of my dreams as not only a scientist but also as a child was to be an illustrator. I have always loved to draw things and when I was In EVE 112 I had to draw over 100 disections to scale and keep intense detail. I later decided I would write up a small back ground blurb on each organism like common names, areas each I found. Some descriptions of the images I drew etc. I want to seperate each phylum alinto chapters and shrink the images down. I also think black and white makes for ovlbviously the easiest / cheapist printing. As it stands publishing costs will be about $1000
I personally think it’s worth it. We’ll see how things go….

As far as my other research I confirmed that tissue samples are best flash frozen in say liquid nitrogen in order to prevent hydrolisis of the molecules of interest. Freeze drying does infact create a stable storage condition for dissected tissues but it’s honestly a tad bit overkill. Most of the solvent partitionings that were performed in the 80’s were done by placing fresh caught samples directly into 1000 mL of 100% anhydrous methanol. I don’t have the luxury to test/ exctract immediatly. Honestly I’m wondering I’d my end goal should really be to collec new batches of ptilosarcone or if I should instead take Dr. Nurcos samples from our previous standards and run it as a control to the tissue samples done via HPLC. In terms of the chemotaxis issues, I’m not sure hoe to start a biochemically directed bioassay to determine the molecules responsible. Much to ponder/ learn.

The wonders of marine natural products chemistry

So my graduate school journey has begun. I have found myself a home in the Murray laboratory at California state university east bay. I will be pursuing my masters of science in neurobiology. The goal is to continue my previous research on ptilosarcus guernyi. The orange sea pen.

Previously I published a paper on the molecular structure of ptilosarcone. A diterpenoid brirane secondary metabolite that is produced in vivo in the organism. This metabolite degrades into ptilosarcenone in the presence of alchohol or water. This makes it rather difficult to study as the protocol for purification is to perform a solvent partitioning in 100% anhydrous methanol. That being said the research was a success and an absolute molecular structure was achieved via small molecule x Ray crystalography. Now I’m looking o to the relationships between predator prey chemical aquisition. I have many many projects in mind that revolve around tritonia diomedia and ptilosarcus guernyi so the trick will be selecting a single experimental avenue to pursue. Obviously funding will play a large role in determining which route I take. More to come on the various phases of the project.

Not looking good

Things arn’t looking so good. They just got more complicated. I think some time away will be a good solution to fix the problem. Maybe then it’ll become obvious to them whats wrong with that picture. Or maybe it wont…

Life in Drive Shifting Gears

So i’ve shifted gears again from neutral to 1st.  And now from 1st to 2nd.  (for those of you who still drive manual these days or remember what that even means).  Things are begining to turn around for me.  I’ve been working VERY closely with a reasearcher at Cal State University Hayward (Yes I know its East Bay now but I just think it should stay Hayward…) .  I am starting up my research on Nudibranchs once again.  Time to blow the dust of the old projects and take things even further.  Last time our research was disjointed and unconclusive.  We tested many aspects of our particular star Tritonia diomedia and its favorite food Ptilosarcus Guyerni.  We were successful in isolating out the toxin the Sea pen (Ptilosarcus Guyerni) contains and finding the molecular structre of that compound, a diterpenoid brirane.  Really interesting stuff.  A small Side note.  Nudibranchs use chemical defenses mainly alkaloids, from the foods that they prey upon.  They sequester the alkaloid toxins in their tissues and use this as a defense mechanism to keep other predators from eating them.

The cool thing is the toxins found in ptilosarcus are aceytlcholinesterase inhibitors.  This means they block the reuptake of aceytlcholine into their respective receptors and thus leave more aceytlcholine in the neuronal synapse thus having a higher rate of the (Ach) in the body.  This is crucial for treatment of various diseases such as Alzheimers.  HUUGE right?

On other fronts I’ve decided to medicate again .  Its been an intersting experience trying out non stimulant medication.  Hard to tell if I am on or off.  But I’m starting to feel more like my old self again. Much more stable, more more gathered in terms of my thoughts and feelings and consciousness.

Things with the new gf are going alright also.  She and I have had some intersting discussions as of late, sort of continous bad timing over and over (something im infamous for having).   Firstly with her past and then with mine and then hers.  But I’d say 90% that were having fun and developing well as a couple so early in the game.  Stressors and differences in work load aside of course.  She is definitly a fun person and a good friend to me already in such a short time.

Also on the schedule for changes…KITTENS.   I have recently aquired 2 baby kittens…although I suppose kitten implies baby cat… but since people tend to call cats kittens when they are not in fact kittens I will stick with my first statement.  Two baby kittens.  They are very different in terms of personality but both are equally cute and evil as they should be.  Already destroyed 1 toilet paper roll.

Lots of nights of hunting things like the couch and cotton balls and anything small that moves to come.  This should be interseting.

I decided to name the black kitten Dusty.  She has a tendecy to go and HIDE.  Rapidly when you enter a room.  This instantly made me think of the soot sprites from spirited away and Totoro, my two favorite miyazaki films.  So Dust Bunny became Dusty.   The other kitten (the grey one)  is named Artimis for the godess of the hunt.  My sisters cat.

ALSO that brings me to the piont that we are moving.  Well the parentals are selling the house.  thus back to apartment living for me and maybe my sister.  I will be staying in the bay area for sure as my graduate school / work prospects are all here as well as my friends.  My sister / parents though, im not sure as to their destinations and I am not sure they know either.  Who gets the kittens will be an interesting question as well.

Lots to discuss and see how things go… As they say at Acura

Acura : Advance..

Is this car an electric car?

So I saw this and I just had to wonder.  Is this an electric car!?  how appropriate would that be….

Adventures in Steampunk, costume making and automotive repairs

So the DC5R is back in the shop again.  I had the mechanic/pro driver take her out yesterday and he concured that i have an alignment issue for certain.  As it seems my front driverside tire isn’t strait with the passenger side its slighty toe out.  this in turn forces my car to consistantly pull left when im aimed strait.  What we are baffled at is WHY.  The alignment shows the car as even on both sides but its visibly different.  Our newest thoughts are dealing with the tie rod inners.   Potentialy I have bent my tie rod inner arm.  This is a brass arm which goes from the high rear mounted steering rack out to the tie rod end and then to the strut mount.  When the rack changes positions back and forth in response to the wheel turning it, the tie rod pushes the opposite direction of travel of the steering wheel thus forcing the wheel to turn in the needed direction of travel.  What im thinking is that my left side tie rod arm is some how shorter than my right even by a few mm. This is causing m car to consistantly drive left.  So a second alingment from Chris at Alignment services should prove usefull in diagnosing the problems with the vehicle.  Hopefully I can get the DC5R to the track soon.

As some of you may know, Fanime Con is coming up soon.  The costumes are in progress there is however quite a bit of work to be done .  Rob our helpful friendly mannequin should be arriving either today or tommorow.  He will prove crticial in the armor building process.  We will need about 50 ibs of plastecine clay built up on Rob to create the armor panneling.  From here plaster castings will need to be made of each armor piece.  Then plaster positives will be made and finally vaccuformings of each piece.  From there the plastic armor bits can be rivited and assembled then painted.    Needless to say we have TONS of work a head of us and Taco is leaving for korea thursday.. Things should prove interesting.

G4 last night had a pseudo hilaroius look at the trend of steampunk.  For those of you who arn’t familiar with steampunk, this is a trend that takes a victorian feel and the concept of steam power to fashion and technology.  Think steamboy, or even wild wild west.  These are prime examples of steampunk like technologies  fashions exhibited in modern cinema.   It was interesting to see and if anything else cool.   Im not about to go dressed up like captian nemo and parade about but its still pretty cool at least artistically speaking.

Car repairs

So I dropped off the car today to have her drivers side knuckle replaced. 2 months of this super frustrating problem. That rainy night and my dumb driving has caused a world of problems for me. The car haz been pulling left more and more. Shakey steering. Wander. Bouncy sporadic ride. By the end of today ill have had the entire suspension on the drivers side replaced. Every bit of it. If this issue with pull continues ill have to start chaning out the stedring rack. I have vauge memories of the integra rs and flashbacks to similar symptoms. I begin to wonder if i handled her repairs correctly or not and i start to think i did not. Internet searches hint that a bad ball joint resultsn wander steering shake clunks during turns and sporadic steering pull. All of these are symptims ive been having. I just hope this is the final fix. I miss driving my car and im upset at the nearly 2 grand ive dumped into attempting to solve this problem as well as my countless hours spent arguing with mechanics who are too quick to just say yea its fixed and return a broken car to me. Time will tell the outcome of my silver car

The Trifecta of Pop

So I picked up 3 albums this last week all by 3 talented ladies.  I’ll attempt a write up on this but I make no promises on in depth analysis.  Merely my own likes etc.

Boa Kwon Has her new american release album: Over all I give it a 7/10.  Not too great but some songs on it are really good.  Her style on here has changed quite drastically from her older styles.  Im not sure if this is to cater her self towards a more american audience in terms of sound or if she is evolving her style further.

Some great tracks to listen too are Hypnotic Dance Floor, Girls on Top *english release*,Did Ya,Obsessed and more.

From Ayumi Hamasaki Her new album NEXT LEVEL

This album is more like her classic style but some great new songs like Rule, Next level, and Identity. One thing i noticed is the album FLOWS really well from one track ot the next.

The music video for Rule which subsequently was the single as well as the song used in the new dragon ball Z film is decent. Ayu looks the most normal /hot she has in YEARS.  Pay no attention to the wierd faggy ninja guys…

Here are some screen shots:

The last is Utada’s new album. Come Back to me.

This Album is really great also.  Much similarity to some of her older things like For you and Distance but also has the great sound of Heart Station and ultra blue.  Songs like Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and apple and cinnamon

Regardless check out All of these albums!! I know Downloading is easy these days but these albums are really great. The Boa album cost me 15 bucks for the cd and the Utada album was only 7 bucks on itunes.