Im Tired!

Literally and figuratively, I am tired of working. Working at Wendy's, and simply working in general, requires too much work. So much dedication and diligence is required, that it is truly exhausting. I dislike it with passion. Looking beyond my disdain of working, and how much work it takes to hate work, I have to admit that I have been working for the past several days.

I think that the last time I came to this was on Wednesday. Luckily, I got Thursday off. Working on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday has been extreme. On both days, Wendy's has been understaffed. For example, usually there is someone to mop the floors and take out trash, but now we have had to give people double tasks and give them the chance to operate two stations. I have had to simultaneously take orders up front as well as make orders for the drive-thru. It gets so hard to handle at times that you just get tired from running in circles. On yesterday, we were so short staffed that they had to close the store for an hour until more people could be called in. I do not even know why we are continuously short staffed but it looks like it may even continue into next week. Amazingly, they are bringing in new hires.

I am just glad that, although I have to work each night until Thursday, that I will be leaving Wendy's in about 13 days. I do not really want to leave, but I am beginning to get tired. I doubt if I will come back and work in the summer or even next winter but we will see. If the same people still work there, then I may stay, if not then I will not return.

As long as I keep an attitude of looking forward in that I am being paid for this work at Wendy's, then I should still be able to keep the faith and stay positive. Like I tell people there, do not work yourself too hard. This is the only thought that keeps me going.

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The Plan

Normally, I would entertain discussion about Wendy's, but Wednesday was so slack at the store that all I sat and did was think about a new plan for my future. I do think that the plan has now become much more realistic than my previous one was. The Seven-year plan is basically of what I hope to have and achieve in seven years. Purposely, there is really no start date to this, but I am going to imply that is somewhere between last semester and maybe before I graduate.

The goal is to, in seven years, be married, have seven children, own a mansion on the riverfront, posses 14 BMW Convertibles, have a militia of cooks, nannies, maids, servants, butlers, and drivers (each will be entitled to 6 months paid vacation, lush bonuses, and a salary that is enough to fully fund the building of several houses a year), and be in an industry or government related job that is on the forefront of the latest in research climate, zoology, biology, and environment. And finally, be a leading contributor to beneficial causes and funds.

It is a pretty lucrative plan that thrives on the collaboration of several events needing to come together in swift procession. But I do think that with this focus as the forefront of my life it could be possible. The most viable plan would be this.

The goal is to, in seven years, have graduated from VCU with a PhD in Life Science, be employed by the government in a nice job with benefits and reasonable hours, be married have three children, a maid, a nanny, a butler, a driver, a cook, and be in the possession of two BMW convertibles, as well as a lovely house on the riverfront.

Ultimately, this goal seems to be the most clear and most realistic. I do hope to make it a reality. Currently, apart from the VCU part, everything else is still in the air. I must find someone to marry, and some way to have children, and some future employer, and purchase a plot of land, on the riverfront for the house.



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Christmas Day

Christmas Day is perhaps one of those most hyped events of the year. In my opinion, there is too much anticipation that leads up to this day. Sure, the ability and chance to gather with friends and family and eat bountiful amounts of food is nice, but when you look at the events surrounding this, it can be overwhelming. For example, people only officially get Christmas Day off, but most people sacrifice all of their vacation time to take not only the day before Christmas off, but also several days after it. This is very problematic for those who are unable to take days off, for when Christmas falls on Tuesday through Thursday, then they are cheated.

After experiencing, several years of receiving gifts that did not relate to technology (clothes), I have learned never to have high expectations for this time of the year. Sure, I would have loved to receive a Playstation 3 or some games, but being that I have never received much in the way of a game for Christmas, asking for this would have been too much. I was even more shocked over the fact that because we pay about $2000 a semester for me to live in Richmond to go to school for free, that I would not receive anything, even clothes. Some how, my parents surprised me and got me about several outfits, and my relatives sent a few cash options.

Christmas Day concluded, after this bountiful offering of gifts, with me being able to experience the joy of eating out with the family. It was a nice "potluck" dinner of sorts with everyone bringing some dish. I personally loved the egg rolls. As I have told my friends and everyone knows, I am pretty adamant about my grandmas cooking. It, as always is, the most satisfying cooking on earth and she did not fail to exceed my expectations. I love it.

I thought yesterday, although over hyped, as always, was quite a nice time to gather with the family and friends.

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All Work and No Play

Working over the winter break is perhaps a blessing and a curse. In a sense, it is good that I can use the time that I would spend at home doing nothing for earning money and being productive. It is terrible in the sense that I have to spend the time by serving customers and being really tired all the time to earn this money. As I think that I have said, I chose to come back to Wendy’s to work with my old coworkers, and to gain money to fund expenditures throughout the upcoming semester.

In review, for this week I was given Wednesday and Thursday off. The trade-off for that was that I would work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. To work Sunday, is usually a huge privilege as it the east busiest day of the week. However, being that this is a holiday weekend, I failed to realize that it was going to be more busy than normal. Friday and Saturday were both as busy as ever, and Sunday unfortunately proved to be as busy as those two days combined. Apart from the fact that on Friday and Saturday that I did have a runner for a short time, I mostly spent the time on Sunday taking and making all of my orders. It was aggravating that I had to do it alone, and this probably contributed to my headache. As the time on Sunday went by, I went exponentially slower and slower.

Working at Wendy’s allows you to see how things go on when there are less people than needed. If we had one more person working then things could have proceeded slowly, though as that proves, it was Sunday and it is hard to decide if there are going to be many customers choosing to dine in. Moreover, even with that, the other person would have gone to work in the drive-thru, so I would have once again had no help. In order for me to proceed faster, I would have needed about three more people working (one for the drive-thru, another for fries, and then a front sandwich maker). However, alas, life does not work in planned out proportions that support efficiency.

I hope that today (Christmas Eve), proves to be less busy. Who knows what today may hold.

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Work Friday

Once again I was able to work at Wendy's. Friday's are usually my most hectic days to work. It is usually on this very day that virtually everyone chooses to come and take part in the most bountiful and tasty offerings that Wendy's usually offers. This Friday proved no different. It was not until the 8 o'clock hour that I was able to move offline and away from the front counter. Of course, at that time I was only able to wipe down a few tables before a new crowd of people came stumbling through the door. Although there was a multitude of people, I did not receive a single disgruntled customer. It was quite amazing actually. The only problem that I had was really with a few of the newer workers. I really disliked the fact that one of them continued to move around and not say excuse me or anything. At one point I wanted to scream! She literally took the hot fries that I was about to give to my customer and took them for the drive-thru. Another worker continued to make frigid fries!

It began to get annoying after I had to keep giving customers new batches of fries. I still managed to hold everything together.

Basically it was a fun day at work. I hope to work on less crowded days though.



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Fall 2007: It's Over

I went and consulted one of my good friends and I declared to him the information about Fall Semester 2007. He told me explicitly, in his funny way, "Its Over!” In all actuality, it was Reid, a character from Tales of Eternia, a role-playing game that I have on my Playstation Portable.

For the Fall Semester of this year (lasting from August 23 until December 18) I was enrolled in four courses. The four courses were Introduction to Anthropology (3 credits), Introduction to Chinese (4 credits), Introduction to Chemistry 2 (3 credits), and Basic Practice of Statistics (3 credits). In total, this was perhaps one of my easiest semesters thus far. I was only enrolled in 4 courses, which game me about 13 credits. The most that I have ever taken was 15 credits during the fall of 2006.

Most of the courses this semester were quite easy. The only one that was difficult was perhaps Chemistry. I have learned that I dislike Chemistry very much. There is too much in the way of memorizing concepts and then applying these concepts using detailed and lengthy combinations of algebra and chemistry. At one point, I was like, “what are we in, a math class now?” Overall, it turned out well. I do have to give props out to one of my friends. Although I was adamant about studying it all alone, I have to say that whenever I did study with him, that it was quite helpful. In the future, perhaps he will continue to help others in their study groups of sorts. I have to say that I am very much against the idea of holding study groups. They are too taxing on the mind, body, and soul and people begin to rely heavily on them instead of on their own study abilities. Regardless, they seemed to benefit. I could not do it because I felt they moved at a slow pace. I even think they scored higher than I did for a large part of the course, but I got an A in then end, and as long as everyone succeeded and was happy, who am I to get mad?

Ultimately, my GPA is now a 3.837. Following my classic tradition of dropping classes during Add/Drop Week, I will probably not reveal my final schedule until, after Sunday January 20, 2008, which is when Add/Drop Week ends. Therefore, everyone will have to live in suspense until that day arrives. I probably will not drop whatever textbooks I buy for courses. Currently, I do plan to buy three textbooks from Amazon for only about $150 dollars; I hope that the prices do not alter by the time I receive my first check from Wendy’s.

School resumes on Monday, January 14 2008.

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What's Good?

One of the reasons why I love Winter Break, is that it gives you time to sit at home and have some good ole personal time. It allows one to be able to think and ponder about all the things they do in life. You get to review the course of the year, make plans for the New Year, and think about all the things that need changing. In my mind, I find that there are tons of things that I could have avoided doing (not that they were bad). There are things that I could do better, and there are people that I could have avoided and left behind. Ultimately, the time for thinking is extensive, and plans form for the upcoming year.

I usually focus during this time simply by not doing anything with friends or family. I like to just sit at home and surf the net, read books, write stuff, watch TV, and play videogames. Why do I do this? Simply put, I am quite tired from the semester of running around. If only you knew how much running around, I do, how much time I dedicate to people and causes, and then trying to sort out issues. That is not even counting the amount of time it takes to even do my own studies (not that I study), but to just review homework and do it. The end of the semester is usually the most trying time because it requires trying to spend time with people whom you may never see again as well as closing the books on several subjects, missions, goals, and even organizations. That is not even to mention the fact that once you get feedback and results back, there is this huge suspense of failure or success.

Mainly, the reason why I do tend to avoid calling people on the phone during this time is that it takes up so much time. It is counter productive to my mission if I pick up the phone and call you. My mission states that this is a time of personal solitude. If I talk to you then I am better off just going somewhere and spending time talking to you; ultimately distracting me from my mission of contemplating my life. Usually during the break, I have only been concerned with seeing only one or two people, and they know who they are. Actually, one of them we do always try to go out to eat whenever I am on a break. This always inspires me and brings me great joy. She is just so amazing!

That is beyond the point. Ultimately, as I declared a long time ago, the purpose of me really writing these notes and such is to give people an entire view of me. After being declared as being sinister and evil by someone whom I have never met, I have had to make it my mission of discovering just why someone would be able to deem me as sinister. In a way I have slightly been able to see why this would be so. Still, I would not have called my total personality as being sinister and evil. Everyone I met has had some sort of "nefariousness" in them (well not everyone).

Today, I do feel like revealing a new quality that you probably would have never been able to see in me. Therefore, I must take my third person approach.

Tristan has been deemed as one who never tells people his true feelings. Sure, he will spend time telling you his problems with others and the world but people usually have to question if he is really being sincere about these comments. It has even been claimed, that he says these things but if he has a problem he will never work to resolve it. He looks to others to solve them; if no one does then he will continue to discuss but will not do anything about it. In actuality, he spends his time building a large and complex tangled web of false stories, mistruths, half lies, tall tales, fables, mysteries, novels, fictional plays, and other such things that will have someone running in circles. It has been brought to his attention as to why he does this. Well he simply does not know. He usually does this to see and hear people's responses. In a way, he is testing to see just how good they are. More often than not, he can predict their response. Ultimately, it can easily be reversed and done to him. In the rare instance that his entire myriad of lies fails, he is revealed as weak, insecure, and ultimately emotionally unstable. Fortunately, it takes a great deal of persistence, trying, and confusing stories from others to deconstruct this web, so no one has ever seen him in his most broke down state. However, in the most recent times, the web's outer layers have begun to disintegrate.

In a short set of words, Tristan is ultimately lost currently, looking for someone to cling to for help and support. After being left with going a year with no friends he is ultimately confused and stuck, drowning in sea waving his hands wildly looking for whomever to cling too. Unfortunately, most people are to slick and he slides right off. Surprisingly this past semester and summer, he did find a few people who have been able to offer him moral fiber and support. They will remain nameless here.

In addition, Tristan, does have one minor confession, he does feel sorry for not going to visit two of his friends at their house before the semester ended. He had planned a day to go over there but the surprise news of an emergency assignment that needed to be done and completed by the next morning halted his plans for that evening.

This one has gotten to be quite long. It will be continued at another time.

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Back To Work, Back in Action

Day 2 at Wendy's went exceptionally well. I was able to return to my favorite position in the store and work amazingly well. As you can probably guess, I worked as the Front Register Operator. I believe that there is something special and exhilarating about working on the front counter. The luxury of being able to move at my own determined pace is probably why I love it. At times, I can generally move at a quick pace; some customers have been able to notice my speed because I do slip and slid on the floor, and ricochet off the door handles and counters. It can be so fun. The only two negative aspects with working in the front are that I have to clean the dining room at the end and then I have to interact with customers. Between you and me, I hate person-to-person interaction on all levels, work, play, and even eating.

Working in a fast rood restaurant that has a drive-thru window has one striking flaw. That flaw is clearly, that in most cases, in the winter the cold north wind blows through the window and lowers the temperature of the store greatly. Customers and workers always come in and complain that it is too cold to do anything. I found myself shiver and sniffing because it was so cold with the wind blowing on me as I took and served orders. Customers begged me to increase the heat setting. We cannot increase the heat setting when it will just get colder when the drive thru window opens. I, never did communicate, that fact to the people, unfortunately. At one point, I was going to put a Wendy’s coat on, but I felt weird because the coats were all too big for me. I managed to get over the coldness eventually.

Yesterday proceeded without haste. I was able to secure a raise, so I can make essentially, hopefully, two hundred dollars more than I had originally projected, so I can hope to get new Wii games and such. I hope even to earn enough to acquire Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, if I earn enough.

One of the other problems with working in any place in which customers orders must be taken involves order accuracy. When I left Wendy’s a few months ago, one of the most repeated qualities that Wendy’s Propaganda for employees stressed was order accuracy. I remember one claim in which workers are required to repeat the order three times to the customers. (On a side note, if we repeat it, enough we could eventually trick people who do not remember their order into getting less than they paid for; a truly nefarious thought indeed). For some reason, I felt the need to repeat everyone’s orders because I hate the fact that people forget what they say. The disgruntled customer that I served decided to add to her completed order three small Vanilla frosty’s. I assumed that the new button on the register was automatically rigged to total up three small frosty’s. In actuality, it was rigged to do three medium frosty’s (a flaw of the computer, for the chocolate frosty the computer automatically rings it up as a small chocolate frosty). Therefore, I totally the order up and then proceeded to cash it out. The woman realized that I had charged her for the wrong thing (she was able to do mental math multiple 99-cents by three to get a reasonably price). I followed this and realized my error. I had to race and get the manager to do a void of sorts. My manager claimed that there is a difference of 20 cents, which there is. However, even with this, there is some other problem with the inflation of prices with tax. Therefore, we, even though we were right in that she would get 60 cents back, the woman claimed that we still did not give her enough money. The manager went into the back to verify this on the calculator. In the meantime, I had to stay up front and entertain the customer. By entertain, I mean listen to her tell me and everyone else in line about her struggle with making money and her fight to fight for every single bit of money that she has earned. Therefore, by us taking two minutes to get her an additional dollar, she was claiming that this was a galactic fight of epic proportions in which one dollar would cost her, her entire life savings and projected new worth. I was like, please calm down, it is just one-dollar, you can easily find one-dollar in the bottom of your couch at home. Of course, I did not say that aloud. Overall, everything was straightened out.

The night ended sharply around 11 PM. I was able to finish everything in breakneck speeds; thanks in part to my ability to do the entire dining room clean up in a fast speed. I have it all literally memorized. I get today and Thursday off, and then it is back to the Wendy’s for fun on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

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The Semester Ends

Now I might not have managed to stay on the track as I had originally planned of updating this but now I think I may be able to focus on it. It will be my New Year's Resolution to provide continual updates to my blog. I do hope I can stay on track. I will have to put it on the daily schedule, just as I make time to do surveys, I will have to do it for this too, it seems.

The final grades are slowly tricking in and in the future I will make a specific update for that. On yesterday I went back to Wendy's to work. I was surprised to see that many of the people I had worked with before were still there. Apart from a few new faces, everything for my night shift was just about similar. Surprisingly I still knew about everything to do and managed to still get out at my regular time.

A few things were a bit weird though. First off the computer system seems to have undergone an entirely new overhaul. The font is now smaller and there are about 20 times more buttons it seems. In fact, it is so small that one has to literally pound the keys in order for it to respond. I would have expected them at least upgrade their version of Microsoft Windows (I believe they are either at 95 or NT). Regardless, I worked that out. I actually miss how the credit card thing would automatically accept the card. Now I have to mass a silly Credit Card button.

Secondly, apart from adding a few new functions, everything with the entire way that Wendy's works is still the same. Although there are new menu items, the 99 cent menu has undergone a few price increases, Frescata's and other promo's are gone, and now the drinks and stuff and Frosty has undergone changes. Personally, it was too much to grab at one time but I got it.

I cant believe that they havent been able to revolutionize the art of Fry cooking and make it take less than 3 minutes to cook, lol.

Last night I got about one disgruntled customer. Apparently, after I repeated her order to her twice even after she said okay, once she got her order she claimed that she had ordered another drink and then got so upset that she told me that Im not even fit to even take orders. She even asked me, "Are the nuggets hot?" I was like "If you have a problem with anything on your order bring it back to me and I will fix it for you and give you abundantly more?". She walked away in a sort of disgruntled way, and I felt bad for her because I gave her a free drink and she was still mad. Hm, but oh well, I did get compliments and good marks for the night.

The final annoying thing was that the vacuum cleaner was in a state of disrepair. Even after me being gone for a year, they have still managed to be afflicted with the vacuum cleaner curse. This can be looked at as either good or bad. Good in a sense that we could do less work because we dont have to vacuum the entire dining room, but bad in a sense that we have to use a broom to sweep the food. The broom is more time consuming, and leaves the floor not looking that clean but it manages to get the job done.

Ultimately, I am glad to have returned to Wendy's for it gives me something to do since just about everyone I know has gone their separate ways for this Winter Break. I am hoping to use the (hopefully) $600 or so dollars I gain from this for more Nintendo Wii games in the upcoming months. Hopefully.

Also, lastly, I do not want to hopefully have to keep paying for food from Wendy's. It makes no sense to pay for food from your own employer. But who knows, I might have to do it tonight.

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Another Day Goes By

Yesterday actually saw the first day of school following the ending to the Thanksgiving Break. For Thanksgiving Break, I actually went home and saw my aunts, cousins, and grandma. It was quite nice. The rest of the time was spent studying. I didnt really take a break from studying until about Monday.

Yesterday I attempted to not do much schoolwork outside of the classroom. This proved to enable me to go to sleep at a reasonable time and rest and relax. I began the process of starting up my Playstation 3 fund because I really want a Playstation 3. I just have to try to remain diligent in my pursuit of this goal. As a result of this diligence I should be able to have a Playstation 3 by the end of the Spring Semester, probably about May 1st, 2008.

I dont really know why I woke up this morning at about 4:30 AM. I just couldnt sleep or something, I feel quite refreshed though very thirsty. I may go get water or something.



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Its Been Awhile

Whoa it has been such a long time since I even wrote anything here. Rather than going through and detailing the entire semester, I guess I will start beack in my old fashion. The end of the semester is near. It is time for the outline view.

• Started back with researching with Dr.Stewart in the Lab again
• Am trying to maintain all A's in my four classes (Anthropology, Chemistry 102, Chinese 101, and Statistics 210)
• Still hanging out with the same 4 friends, plus 1 more.
• Traded in my DS Lite, bought a PSP 2000,
• Bought a new hard drive and a new battery for the computer
• Help at the elementary school with science labs for physics
• Cinemas in the commons is dreadful
• Still an Ambassador

I think that that is just about it. Apart from doing a few other trivial things, that is generally how my semester has been. I hope to continue to update this from time and time again. I cant believe I even remember the login. lol.

Oh yeah my first long term goal is to get a PS3 by Thursday May 1st, 20008. This will take extreme dedication and devotion but if there is a way then it can be done. I think that I will have to be quite diligent with my saving and spending. By only limiting myself to spending 20$ a week at most on items that are entertainment, halting my video game purchasing, as well as putting about 50 dollars aside each paycheck then I know that this can be accomplished.



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Monday Morning: Start Fresh

Monday is perhaps one of the most fabled days of the week. Starting with a huge drag everything moves slowly, people, traffic, music, tv; anything you can think of can and will move as slow as possible. Monday seems to miss the urgency that usually comes upon people once they hit Thursday--the weekend seems so far away.

Monday serves one purpose, and that purpose is simple. We are to simply use Monday to plan and plot how we are going to accomplish that which we need to set out to do. Things can be set out for the day at hand or for months at a time. Regardless this is ultimately its purpose.

For me, this Monday meant that I had time to think about the pressing issues at hand from the previous entry I made. Currently I still have to find a way to pay for college, a way to get a few payments from school even though I am lacking key documents, and to finally figure out how to gain a bit more money so that I can make my final three purchases for the Wii for this year. I dont really know how I am going to accomplish this but who knows what the Lord has in store for this situation.

Usually I like to leave this with a quote or two or something that I have culled together from my own personal life. I think the one that stands best for the moment is one that I thought of from one of my favorite songs. "When you love someone and they break your heart dont give up on love, have faith reside, just hold on". Thanks to the Jonas Brother's "Hold On".

And I have managed to finally discovery yet another insight in my life. I will perhaps write it later tonight.

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Problems

Lets see how has life been going for me so far. The last time I posted you may recall that I was making last minute preparations for school, which is ultimately true. By now I have completely moved in and have just finished just about the third week of being here and the second full week of school.

I have had to make a large alteration to my schedule because I couldnt handle the horrible vicissitudes of Calculus, or rather I am more afraid of it being a hassle this semester and causing my GPA to lower. Regardless I dropped that class and am now from 18.5 credits to 14.5 credits (or 13 credits of classes except in October). Chinese is ultimately my favorite class thus far. It is really interesting, currently I know about 13 Chinese Characters and about 10 words. I practice my Chinese intensely daily because I love to do the character writing.

My other classes are coming along smoothly. Chemistry was at a rough start though, with me getting a 50% on the first quiz, but that was because I didnt start studying until the night before. This time I am going to study at least two days in advance for it. I am also going to of course look into reading my Anthropology book daily. With the wee bit of credits that I do have I have so much free time that it is hard to stay in a mode of studying. Regardless, it is possible and I am going to do it. The results of being dedicated to work are worth the loss of fun time and enjoyment.

Also I have attempted to apply for a few jobs in order to fund my spending expenditures and to save up for a new computer. This is quite impossible so far as the Kroger's and Lowes that I applied to seem to have no spots open. I am a bit glad though because I can focus more time on studying.

There have been a few problems that have come up over this week, I wont go into detail but they revolve around me having to now buy a new Birth Certificate, get a new Social Security Card, pay about 2K for college, Save up for a New computer, and setup getting paid for two jobs with VCU once the Birth Certificate comes. All of which is a very very big hassel to me and my focus.

Ah beyond that everything is going quite well. I have spent time with a few of the guys. They are quite fun the five of them, we saw a few movies and ate out at a few restaurants and played monopoly. Later Days.

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Last Minute Preparations

Today marks the last day of relaxation that I get before it is time to matriculate to college. That is actually the wrong usage of the word because I am not going from high school to college this time, but rather from college level to college level, or more plainly my sophomore year. I seem to make things more complicated than they really are. How funny!

The day was mainly spent texting on my new cell phone that I acquired the day before. Because someone had ran into the pole that supported the power line for the street, the power was out for a good five hours or so. I was horrified because with what limited cool air we had in the house (the air conditioner has been broken since last week, I just found out that it took the company about a week to find the part and get it shipped from Florida, it should come in tomorrow). The fans and the air conditioner that sits in the window is our only source of cool air. Because of the power outage they went out. All of my stuff in the room was rendered useless after a while because the batteries all went dead as they weren't able to recharge. The only thing I could do was read the Supernaturalist (written by Eoin Coifer) and text message my friend Shannon. This was quite a good time though but it became hot. My step mom came home and we left for sometime to go to my grandma's house. She was luckily in the area that had power (she lives only a few blocks away) so we were able to cool down there. Needless to say the day was wasted because of the power outage.

Previously, I was able to go out and finally get my own cell phone package of my own. The Phone that I got was the Nokia 6133 which is quite amazing thus far. I love it for all of its cool and nifty features, it has a great LCD screen, touch pad, interface, camera, and the like. The bill costs me about $67 a month for all of the features (300 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends (nights start at 9), unlimited messages, My Faves (5 people in any network free). I was kicked off of my parents plan because I couldn't stay within the 100 minute limit that they had given me. Regardless, having the phone will definitely improve my communication skills with people that I talk to and such, especially since AIM is on it.

Well I am preparing for VCU steadfastly. My chemistry professor sent out one of those introduction emails to the class letting us know that class for Thursday morning was canceled (recitation session), so I will only go to four classes on Thursday of next week. Saturday I do think that I have to be at Cinemas to show two movies, in fact Saturday and Sunday. It kind of crept upon me like a thief in the night, so I was unprepared once I found that out today. Regardless I should be moved in on time in order to start the movies promptly at 7:30 if the need arises on Sunday.

Whats Been Going On?

No I have not vanished from the world as you know it. In fact I have been quite good actually. The little summer that I was able to enjoy is quickly ending. In a mere three or four days I will be moving back into VCU. This time, though, I will be in the West Grace Street Honors Housing. If I remember, I was so glad last semester to get placed in this building rather than Cabaniss. Because Cabaniss is a bus ride away from where all of my classes are at it was a hassle. West Grace Housing is located on the Monroe Park Campus, which is where all of my classes are all held. So it was more advantageous to be placed in a room on this campus rather than the other one. However, neither place are where I would ideally want to stay as I would prefer to be in the Upperclassman apartments which is just one street away from West Grace Street.

My summer has been filled with great joy, suspense, sadness, and even promise. Starting with the saddest part is the fact that several members of my church, Fourth Baptist Church passed away this year. Several deacons and deaconesses, a members husband, and other people seemed to vanish this summer. I was not able to go to any of their funerals, which I wish I had. They were all so influential and inspiring but I guess as a song says "everything changes".

I was able to experience moderate joy this summer in being able to finally purchase a Nintendo Wii as well as be able to spend some time with a few friends while I was at VCU. When I came home I was also able to go out to eat with Phylicia, which is always a good part with coming home. I do get to spend time with her. I was almost able to spend time with DeAnna, Lakiesha, and Jeff but things didnt go as planned for her birthday as I was not able to to attend the fun on the beach.

The most disappointing thing about this summer was the fact that I seemed to spend an excessive amount of money that I had received from a stipend. Originally I was only going to spend about 500$ on a Nintendo Wii and a TV, but I went a little bit excessive. I used a majority of the funds on eating out and cooking. This was quite expensive because cooking required a great deal of materials. Eating out was as I seemed to realize quite cheaper. I also spent some money on shoes because the shoes I had started to feel quite uncomfortable. A bit more of the funds was used on miscellaneous things such as books (3) and DVD's (about 10), games (4), shoes (2, converse and adidas), crocs (2, the most regrettable purchase), and a gift for a friend. Much of the spending issue came with the problem that the stuff came from online, for example because I couldn't find a Wii in the store I had to pay 100$ more for it online. The TV was actually on sale and in my range, I bought three games, which was acceptable. I shouldn't have bought the crocs, though they are great to wear around in the room. The shoes were most needed and the DVD's I could live without. If anything, I shouldn't have got big eyed with the amount of money and just stayed with buying the games, the shoes, and the TV and food, this would have gave me an acceptable range of only spending about 500-700$.

The second disappointing thing and perhaps most suspenseful was the fact that I was not able to gather enough funds to pay for college. None of my one time only scholarships were able to be renewed. I was able to get the Toyota Community Scholars Scholarship renewed though (about $2500) and the VCU Deans Scholarship one renewed ($3950). The rest of the remaining cost of school has to come out of the pockets of either me or my parents. We went through the path of getting a loan, however with the fact that I am not able to have any credit (not only do you have to have established it through paying bills, but you have to make at least $1500 a month) and the fact that my dad has been through some financial hardship in the past (medical costs and house costs when my mother was sick), we weren't able to get those loans. There is one last place that we are trying and if we dont get that then we will have to pay out of our pockets. Essentially though, in 2009 we will be able to get one. What this means is that my year is going to spent applying for as many scholarships as possible. For a partial amount of time I was considering not going back to school, but because this would result in the lose of my scholarships this wouldn't have been a wise decision.

There are a few promising things that I am going to be keeping a watch out for this year. I do hope to apply to get into yet another summer program for science this year. I hope that I really do make it, I dont know which one yet but I am going to keep an eye out for one. I am also doing great things in the field of collecting past shows on DVD. Because I have stopped and been able to overcome my addiction to buying video games at random (there are only three I want and I have been able to really keep track of my purchases so I have enough for them because they are spread apart by a month at least) I am now going to focus on trying to get tv shows that I want on DVD. I was able to get Ducktales and Xiaolin Showdown this past school year using my many Barnes and Noble Discounts. This summer I was able to get Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends and Ben 10. I also was able to search online and discover that they are coming out with the final part to the Ducktales Collection, Ben 10 second season is coming out, and Yu-Gi-Oh is being released. I would try to get Tale Spin and others but I have to save money so I wont go too far into this buying craze. Get Ducktales is the first priority and that is only 30$ in November, Yu-Gi-Oh can wait a while because there are parts of the seasons missing and I have to wait for Amazon to lower the price.

This upcoming year should really be quite enjoyable. I am going to make it my next best goal to really keep this updated as well. If not daily maybe at least once a week. I move into VCU on Saturday August 18th, hopefully everything works out well.

HHMI: Lab Research Reviewed

Tuesday was the final day of the HHMI program. The program itself came to a close with a closing seminar that took place on Friday morning and concluded on Monday afternoon. It was quite entertaining as we were able to present our findings and give a final word on what we took from the summer research experience. Of course, I was able to say that I enjoyed the hands-on experience with many of the radioactive assays that we were able to perform.

The general avenue that we took for the design of the research program consisted of mainly trial and error techniques. Dr. Stewart and I did have a bit of guidance as each successive assay gave us new findings. I wont speak of many but one such indication enabled us to alter our protein usage to a smaller amount and to increase the speed of the assay from lasting ten minutes, to going to last a mere 30 seconds. I managed to learn valuable skills that enabled me to constantly write down new protocols. Protocols that consisted of honing in on the right quantity of solution to use in our protein analysis (Bio Rad was one of them, this one used a plate reader that is able to detect protein concentration through the use of dyes and spectrophotometry). Other protocols varied in their meaning, most of them we altered the usage of chemicals and times. Each of which were vital in trying to figure out the nature of our toxin and looking at its effects on our inhibitors and such. Ironically, although the actual writing of the protocol put me to sleep, actually doing the protocol was enjoyable. The worst part was, and still remains to be the part about making buffer solutions. Let me tell you, they can take in excess of eight hours to make.

Insight: What Drives Me

I have spent the last several weeks puzzling over several things in my life. These have all driven me to total seclusion in my room at times, for they have been of nearly paramount dimensions. Today is perhaps the first day that I have finally emerged from the room in high spirits. I have finally realized the areas that are really controlling my life and dictating the direction that I turn in. It is my ultimate goal, nonetheless, that I gain from this project a truly changed outlook of life.

The environments and events that take place all around me have all served to really define who I am today. Most of which is still present and still undermines and forms the basic foundation as to which I find myself seeking to be motivated by. It served and continues to serve as my motivation. It drives me to work towards my goals, and it even determines the direction that I take to get what I need. There are simply three things that I have discovered that serve some part, in some way to really give me that push to work and move forward.

1. Acknowledgment-Tristan has discovered that he seeks to ultimately gain some sort of acknowledgment and recognition from his parents. As he has striven to gain the best grades possible, and accomplish other things, he has discovered that he is a bit unsatisfied with his parents acknowledgment of this. He ultimately seeks to please them in everything so that he can have their nod of approval and receive great praise and love from them.

2. Anger- Tristan has discovered that he is extremely angry with the world. The world is an unfair place. Having lost the most important thing in his life, he is now angered with the fact that this event has happened to him. Unfortunately he boils over heavily with vengeance daily. Although nothing can be done, his anger with this one fact alone has driven him constantly to the point of completely breaking down. In order to not erupt into fury, he channels all of his anger into his schoolwork. Only in times of great anger could he make his best grades.

3. Fear-Tristan is afraid of many things around him. Although he may not show it outwardly, he is secretly always in fear. That is why he seems to always be on guard and is always such a hard person to communicate with. His fear has driven him to become a total loner at times. Only when someone has thrust them self or either proves to be a truly exceptional person will he completely reveal himself to that person. His fear of the past, the present, and the future has really dictated life. He has a fear of the secret motives of strangers; simply put, he is afraid of people and social events.

In the next insight we will explore, Happiness...

Midterm Report

HHMI Summer program is beginning to sap some of my life energy out of me. The most difficult aspect of the program has been finding a way to balance the events in the lab with the events of the program itself such as the classroom sessions. These sessions are quite interesting though but then the lab itself is interesting to. Building upon this as well, my mentor also has a few events come up now and again and then I have additional stuff with VCU that pops up too (for example like giving a campus tour because someone took my Saturday one or having to do a transcript request). But all in all I have been able to manage it.

Progress has been made nonetheless. I have managed to continue to conduct and perform several assays. We have been able to calculate the protein concentration within our plasma membranes and microsomes by doing a simple biorad analysis on the plate counter (which works by using light to analyze the content). We have also been able to conduct several uptake assays with the membranes and microsomes and seeing how they are affected by the addition of inhibitors in the presence of the radioactive aflatoxin. We are able to get numbers from this by simply using a machine that is able to count the radiation that is given off by the substances (a scintillation reader).

I have also continued to go on my quest of finding a major. I know that I have said that I am a Bioinformatics major, but I just don't feel any excitement from it. It is a nice and promising major but it doesn't seem like it will be all that thrilling to do for the rest of my life. I could manage doing it and all but when the cover is removed I want to really do something else. I almost want to do something non science even. In the sciences I can possibly see myself as a Paleontologist or people who study early Earth formation and such, that seems thrilling. I can also see myself as a museum curator or something, nothing too heavy in history though but more like science history. Right now I just don't know what I want. Ultimately though, I would not mind being one of the scientists, like the ones from Jurassic Park, who work to bring back dinosaurs from amber and such. I go to meet with my adviser to discuss additional things to do with my path. Right now I am leaning toward a double major in Bioinformatics and Clinical Laboratory Sciences, which seems to be something else that is interesting, I might get to work with pathogens and microbes (exciting).

Basically that is what has been going on for about the past few weeks of my silence. So hopefully I will have a bit much more to talk about.

High Definition

It seems that we are finally going to experience an actually real and true first week of the actual HHMI program. There is not any summit or anything of that sort that will keep the participants of the program out of their labs.

I am actually starting to stay in lab for longer periods of time. The methods and experimenting is a bit challenging as we have been writing and trying to devise a new protocol in order to isolate several particles in the cell that we want. This is of course called Cellular Differentiation in which you take a large flask of cells and then put them through the centrifuge in order to sort the substances in the cell by weight. The first is the heaviest things to come out and this is usually the nucleus. What the project and what we have been thus far in the lab is that we have been trying to isolate the plasma membrane and microsomes within the cell. I have done several things so far with this as well. I have performed right now, Four Bio rad tests, which basically looks at the protein content within the cells. All of this is just practice really for me. I have to learn these processes and techniques well enough to be able to do them on my own without any help. And to move on from this subject, I have been attempting to take notes thus far on that which has been done.

I am having a few second thoughts about my career and major. That is all that I am saying for now.

Ah that was really all that has been done and of course, HHMI presentations. Here is a list of them. Only half the group presented.


The Tympanic Membrane: Reconstruction of the Tympanic Membrane and Repair of Perforations “Allison D”

Treacher Collins Syndrome Research: Creating a Mouse Model to Study the Genetic Disorder “Heather Cross”

Do Glutamate Receptors Exist in the Rodent Immune System “Cathryn Kurkjian”

How Does HCT Decrease Cellular Aflatoxin Accumulations "Tristan Hayes" presentation is in my File Box on my facebook profile?

Collagen Self Assembly Mechanism “Mary Beth Bird”

Zebrafish CaMK-II Beta 2 “Ludmila Francescatto”

The Use of HDACi to inhibit Pathways involved with Endotoxic Shock “Sung Lee”

Metastatic Cancer Cells and the significance of Vimentin, ZBP-8 and Sumoylatin “Maimuna Bruce”

Sequence Homology Using Automated Pattern Discovery “Derek Austin”

Sedation Effects in Mechanically Ventilated Patients “Patrick Headley”

Modulation of PL Kinase activity By Drugs “Sam Aboagye”

Descriptions were omitted, full powerpoints are all going to be made available, I believe

Payment is Always Well Received

The rest of the week finished up quite smoothly with a great transition into the normal weekend. There was perhaps one simple highlight to the weekend and I will explain in great detail.

I managed to get to the bank on Thursday after I went to the lab for a tiny bit. I cashed the $1000 check that we get for the research. It was partitioned into two sets, one for a bit that I will carry around on hand and then the other half for the part that will stay in the bank. On about Saturday morning, the money appeared in the bank account at around 9 in the morning. I went ahead and proceeded to ordering a Nintendo Wii from Ebay. I also went and gave a tour on this same morning.

The tour proceeded without a single hitch. I had to alternate part of the trip though to accommodate for the many graduations that took place in and around the Stuart C. Siegal Center. I wont say that I rushed through the tour but I did finish within the normal time that a tour is done, if not faster. It was extremely hot outside and I really wanted to get into the cold but I had to digress. I like giving the tours as they are a nice thing to do on the Saturday morning and give me something to do. I did have two embarrassing moments though, they both involved VCU buildings being closed (usually during the normal fall and spring semesters the buildings are open, but of course during the summer semester they are closed unfortunately
).

Ah after the tour I went to the Gamestop that is located right underneath the VCU Ramz Hall. In this Gamestop I went ahead and preordered Pokemon Battle Revolution for my future Wii. I also eyed a Pokemon Ultimate Pokedex for Diamond and Pearl, and I bought that too. And finally, I also looked at another game for the Wii, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I might even get it, really.

Saturday night, I went with a friend, Jordan, and we went with a Kuwaiti friend to the Short Pump mall. This mall is unreasonable expensive looking. I of course didnt buy anything from the stores. On the way out of the mall I was a bit disappointed because I could have stopped off at the Foot Locker or the Finish Line and bought a new pair of shoes. I didnt spend any money there. I also ran into a few friends of Jordan, who are here as part of a missionary training group around Richmond. They all were from Texas, so it was amazing to hear things about Waco, Texas and such.

The final stop on Saturday night was at a WalMart. It was hear that I bought a new TV. I Was surprised at the price of the TV, it was directly what I aimed for ($250). The TV is HDTV built in so it automatically converts and receives the HD signal. It is 19inches (seems bigger for some reason) and also goes up to 1080i. When I got back to Gladding Residence Center at VCU, I failed to get the coaxial cord to connect the cable cable to the actual TV, so I could watch anything, well spare the basic channels.

Sunday I went to church and had a blast. I love Grace Bible Church for some reason. Its simple style is to die for, especially its teaching. The only thing that is not so hot is the music because they do not actually have a choir, but rather everything is a congregational type song. They are nice, but I miss the style of my home gospel choir. Some of the songs they sing at GBC are similar to the ones we sing at FBC and a few other churches in my area, but these are mainly old hymns that are hardly ever sung in an alternate way. Well for one into gospel songs, the hymns sometimes do get a revamp and such. This is becoming more common nowadays. After I got out of church I walked down from GRC to Lowe's. The walk took about 20 minutes but it was really worth it. The cable cord I got works and I managed to get a Philly Cheesesteak from Dominic's that is usually in front of every Lowe's.

The TV works great in the dorm. One of the benefits with having the Built in HDTV receiver is that it automatically detects all the analog and digital signals. So, I guess unknown to a large portion of students. We get over 150 channels for TV from VCU's cable provider. Regular tvs dont pick up the signal which is why it is such a big surprise to me and many of my other friends. Ah, that is mainly what happened today. Oh yeah, I did run into Maurice (my old roomate) on Thursday and I also ran into Haris who will be here for Summer classes. We went to TT Lounge for the slush and boba drinks and the korean kitchen place for food.

The Fight

After spending a weekend of cooking fun, I was quickly brought back to reality with the preparation of a science research project proposal, a science conference, and the struggle to ascertain funds. Although it was both great and bad, this week did bring me new information and insight into things at hand.

For HHMI, I went to the lab and prepared my presentation on my project. The project centers around the mechanism of transport of a chemical produced by a fungus. The chemical is called Aflatoxin and cause a myriad of effects in people. The effects range from liver cancer to death. This substance is actually common in our foods (though like only 90 ppb of grain). I created the presentation steadfastly and then went to the Jefferson Hotel for the Summit on Systems Biology. This day had the introduction of the heavy hors d'oeuvres for dinner and a meet and greet, basically networking event. I managed to talk to a few people from firms that will help graduates find careers in the life sciences careers. I got an amazing glass cup from a company called illumina, I believe they manufacture these amazing micro array slides that have about 40 million spots on them (on the molecular level) that all take a part in analyzing the genome and sequences.

The next day opened up with the talks and such. I did manage to take quite a few notes:

At 7:00 we had a Continental Breakfast in which, I ate tons of grapes and such, I got so full.

Dr. Eugene P. Traini, the President of VCU spoke and gave us an introduction. He is an amazing speaker. The speakers came immediately thereafter.

The Systems Biology Challenge in the 21st Century Biomedical Research, by Dr. Leroy Hood (famous for the Automated Sequencer)-Systems approach in Biology and Medicine.
In the future he hopes to see that there is a grand convergence of several sciences enabling us to have predictive, personalized, preventive, participatory medicine. He defines biological information as being of two parts, one of digital information (the genome), and those of environmental information.

Perspectives on Systems Biology from the Research Institute, by Dr. Claire Fraser-Liggett (President and Director of TIGR, The Institute of Genomic Research, known for sequencing several genomes). She stated that DNA sequence data is the starting point for genomics based research. She also claimed that science takes place at the interface of computing and biology.

Perspectives on Systems Biology from the NIH (National Institutes of Health) by David Balshaw (works in NIH Environmental Health Sciences). Apart from hearing the word "peculated, I gathered from him that they have a $29.8 billion dollar budget.

Perspectives on Systems Biology from the Academia by Michael Savageau (University of Michigan), He spoke of elucidating and quantifying data. There is one goal of academia and that is to design a system for the coupling of expression in elementary Gene Circuits.

Perspectives on Systems Biology from the Pharmaceutical Industry- Burt Adelman, He basically said that the pharmacy must understand how human population has to understand human pathobiology. They have to focus industry research efforts on making drugs with the full collaboration of the scientific community.

Systems Pharmacology: An Application of Biology by Kieth Elliston, he simply said these few things. Systems biology, translational medicine, and drug development must be combined. Phenotypes are the result of complex network reactions in a biological network. High failures of drugs are due to a primitive understanding of the molecular actions of drugs. A better understanding of molecular reactions will help reduce failures.
Model to note: Casual System Model-rationalize based on knowledge we know-Automated Reasoning (interrogate data with artificial intelligence).

Human Microbial Metagenomics: Understanding Our Microbial Selves, by Clair Faiser-Liggett (she was my favorite speaker of the mix). The science of microbial communities is the systems biology of the biosphere. Microbiome0 A multi-membered community of bacteria that exists within a defined environmental domain. Human Microbiome-The community of bacteria that live on or in the human host (mucosal surfaces). Metagenomics- The culture independent study of the genomes of many organisms simultaneously in order to understand microbial communities as intact systems. In order to put this into practice we must take surveys of community diversity, do whole genome sequencing, and map the community functions back to the cells. (here she used the herculean word, as in a herculean amount of data). In summary, Our 'metagenome' is a composite of Home Sapiens genes and genes present in the genomes of trillions of microbes that colonize our adult bodies.

Circular Causality: Principles for the Analysis and synthesis of dynamical systems, by Rene Thomas (best known for Discovery of DNA Denaturation in 1951, from Universite Libre de Bruxelles). Two types of circuits exist, positive and negative. Epigenetic differences are those which can be transmitted from cell generation to generation in the absences of any genetic difference. Multi stationarity characterizes systems that can display two or more stable states in identical external systems. Whether a circuit is positive or negative depends on its partial parity. Positive circuits generate multi stationarity. Negative generates periodicity. Differentiative is a regulatory mechanism that happens when two types of extremes must be chosen. When the sign of a circuit depends on the location in phase space, we call it an ambiguous circuit.

Multi-omics analysis and date-driven systems biology by Masaru Tomita from Keio University in Japan. He spoke of the process of Capillary Electrophoresis and Mass spectrometry. He performed research in E. Coli and says that it seems to use complementary strategies that result in a metabolic network that is robust against small perturbations. Biosimulations can confirm if your model is consistent.

Digital Genetics: Unraveling the Genetic Basis of Evolution by Chistoph Adami from California Institute of Technology, created digi life. The origin and dynamics of evolutionary change is evolutionary genetics. Complex genes evolve through the accumulation of function, while the selective target constantly changes.

Student Presentaions Night
Is Reductionism Enough for the -omics hierarchy? by Derek Austin, senior HHMI VCU. Science tries to answer questions about natural phenomenon. Reductionism seeks to express life itself in terms of a dance of isolable chemical fractions (Robert Rosen quote). Conclusion: Purely reductionist study, based on the belief that biological phenomena can be completely explained by chemical phenomena is insufficient to analyze the -omics hierarchy".

Evolutionary neuronal and glial growth on electrospun polarized matrices: bridging the gap in percussive spinal cord injuries, by Woon Chow, graduate PhD student. He discussed and modeled a new method of healing spinal cord injuries, elctrospin the fibers and get straighter regrowth in the spinal cord.

The Human Cytomegalovirus Alkaline Nuclease As An Target by Allison Muchta, PhD student VCU. Current antivirals of HCMV have side effects. Alkaline Nuclease is the possible antiviral target. It is a possible recombinase or debranching enzyme.

Toward a General Approach of Designing Glycosaminoglycan Mimics by Arjun Raghoraman PhD student VCU. GAG's play an important role in the functioning of several proteins in our body.

Complex Analysis of Chromatic Associated Genes in Lung Adenocarcinoma,Sterling Thomas, PhD student VCU.

Day 2


Genome-Scale Models, by Bernhard Palsson, University of California-San Diego (Computational Systems Biologist). Genome-scale reconstruction and constraint based modeling: Enabling in silico (performed on a computer) analysis procedures. RNAP binding and dynamic maps are obtained (experiment).

Genome Design, Engineering and Evolution in Cell Cultures by George Church (known for the creation of the first Direct Genome Sequencing Method and Personal Genome Project) MIT professor and Harvard Medical School professor. He discussed the Personal Genome Project (basically people getting their genomes sequenced and it being available for scientific study).

Function, Design and Evolution of Gene Circuitry by Michael A. Savageau. Graded switches have faster switching times, robust switching times, and robust thresholds. Hysteric switches for irreversible commitment during differentiaion have slow times and act as a filter in the cell.

Identifying Gene Networks in Acute Responses to Ethanol by Expression and Behavioral Genetics by Michael Miles, VCU.

Where Medicine Went Wrong by Bruce West, author of books. Linear implies simple.

Metabolic Profiling of Planned Heart Attacks by Robert E. Gertszten, MD of Harvard Medical School.

Integrative Modeling of Cardiac Function in Health and Disease, Raimond Winsolw of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The Cell as a Dynamical Information Processing Network by Stuart Kauffman (known for arguing for Biological Complexity) from University of Calgary. Critical Cells maximize correlated behavior of genes over time. Thus they can carry out most complex coordinated behavior.

Genomic Strategies to Cancer Biology and Cancer Therapy by Joseph Nevins of Duke University. Gene expression profiles as surrogates for biological phenotypes.



Basically and in sum, I attended the conference for three days, endured just about every single presentation, and had loads of food to eat. The event was nice and I did get to meet some of the most amazing scientists ever. It really has made me think of my future and my future in research or so. I have to decide on that which I want to do now that i have seen several different areas of Bioinformatics and such in this short time.

Project Kitchen: Cooking is not as hard as it seems!

As I may have mentioned in perhaps a previous post, I had decided to, on Friday night, go out and cook some fish. I wanted to test out my new cook book and see if the recipes were really as good and easy as they seemed. After spending about forty minutes flipping through the pages, I settled upon a great meal, Pan-Fried Tilapia. The fish fillet meal would prove to be a bit involving as I soon came to find out.

In order to prepare the meal at hand I needed several ingredients. However, before I could get the ingredients for the meal at hand, I needed to also get some tools to cook with. The things that I needed were of course a whisk, a measuring cup, measuring spoons, and a pan. The meal required several things.

2 tablespoons of all-pupose flour
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon of dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon of curry powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper
2 Tilapia fillets
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Total cost of the items was around $10-$15 (would be cheaper if I had several of these things already)
After placing all of the ingredients on the counter I then took out the fish from the freezer.
The Tilapia actually came in a package of two fillets, which is more than enough for one person. I immediately took it out of the package and patted it dry. While that was sitting out, I immediately gathered all of the dry ingrediantes and began to mix them in a bowl.
Once I had poured all of the dry ingredients into the bowl, I mixed it up for a few minutes with the whisk. This part was actually fun, for I got to see the powdery stuff go up and down and travel all across the bowl. I loved the smell that came up. Most likely I smelled the garlic and curry. I couldn't wait to try it. After doing this, I immediately poured this dry concoction onto a plate. As I had already mentioned the fillets were literally patted dry (the fish were a bit wet so i patted them dry with a paper towel, I couldnt find parchment paper). The fish fillets were then placed into the dry concoction. I attempted to coat it generously with the mix. Meanwhile, I went ahead and turned on the stovetop to medium high heat. After waiting for about two minutes, I then added the Extra Virgin Olive Oil to the skillet. After waiting for twenty seconds, I then placed the fillets onto the skillet.After waiting for about two minutes I then flipped it over so that the other side could get cooked. After another two minutes I prepared to take them off the skillet. I actually kept it on the skillet for a bit longer, because it was looking a bit pale, but all in all I did take it out before it sustained burning. To complement the meal I fixed some of the mixed vegetables. This allowed ample time for me to clean up the kitchen and for the fish to cool down. I would give myself an 8 out of 10 for this meal. The only thing that I could have done better was to have actually practiced flipping the fillets over. For I actually splashed some of the sauce onto the stovetop and onto myself (it hurt!). But then again, I guess that is a risk to take when flipping stuff over. I believe that the next meal that I will do will either be Pesto Chicken Roll Ups or Fettuccine Alfredo. Ultimately, this meal was quite easy to fix up, therefore proving that for this meal, cooking is assumed to be harder than it actually is.

A Moment

I am currently at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Summer Scholars Program at Virginia Commonwealth University. This programs started on Tuesday May 29th and will last until Thursday July 24th. To quickly sum the program up: the HHMI Summer Scholars program is designed to give undergraduate students to take part in a research experience with a mentor. To enable them to do this the program provides housing for the students as well as having several seminars and other events. Each of these events aid them in some way, mainly perhaps a chance for them to really gather just exactly what systems Biology is.

Tuesday- Move in was quite successful. My stepmom and dad helped me carry my stuff up. They left suddenly for I had an orientation meeting at five o'clock that evening. At orientation I met a few people. I already knew two people (Lindsey and Ena) and I remembered another girl from just random appearances though no introductions, I still dont know her name. After the meeting I finished unpacking after I spent a large of time rearranging the room. I disliked the initial setup because every piece of furniture was directly blocking an outlet (which didnt make sense). Needless to say, it took quite an effort to move them all on my own but I did do it.

Wednesday- I woke up early in the morning in an attempt to arrive at the class on time. Sadly I arrived so late that there were not anymore chairs remaining. I had to use a chair from an adjacent lab room. Fortunately for me, I wasnt the last person to arrive. Another girl came in right after me. There was a talk given by the coordinator of the Biology Program (Dr. Len Smock). He was quite interesting). That evening I went to the lab for the first time. It was quite nice looking, yet empty. I spent about three hours in there before coming back to the dorm. On Wednesday night, I went over to the apartment of one of the organizations I am apart of and had a ball. We played a bit of football and I managed to score the first touchdown. I was surprised for I havent played it in like two years.

Thursday-Thursday was a long day at the lab. It was my first full day there and I did several things. I would have had many pictures but I failed to bring my camera to lab. I started off by first taking part in the culturing of the cells. This is an elaborate set of methods that I wont go into, well maybe in another blog post, who knows. Regardless I did another cell culturing this day. I also counted cells using the microscope and a very particular piece of equipment. We also ran into trouble with the Incubator, which is sued to store to the cells in a relative controlled environment. Something was wrong with the sensor for the temperature, so we spent about three hours trying to normalize and stabilize the temperatures. We managed to do that. Lastly, I also watched as we did an extraction of a mouse brain. I didnt like it all, but I still watched it. I felt a little bad for the mouse though. That night I went out with a friend to see the movie Grindhouse and the Byrd Theater. It was an excellent movie that had me laughing and scared the whole time. It was a nice break from the burdens and speed of the week.

Friday-Friday was a rest day. I spent most of the day in the room on the computer and talking to friends. Perhaps the most interesting thing that I did was cook fish. It was so amazing. I will also add up several things later on.

Personal Insight: A Year Later

I decided to retake a personality test that I took a year ago to see if I am still the same person. Needless to say, I am still the same in two areas but I have become less secure and much more emotional.

Extraversion|||||| 30%
Stability|||| 20%
Orderliness|||||||||||||||||||| 86%
Accommodation|||||||||||||||| 70%
Interdependence|||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Intellectual|||||||||||||||||| 76%
Mystical|||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Artistic|| 10%
Religious|||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Hedonism|||| 16%
Materialism|||||||||||||||| 63%
Narcissism|||||| 30%
Adventurousness|||||| 23%
Work ethic|||||||||||||||||||| 83%
Self absorbed|||||||||||| 43%
Conflict seeking|| 10%
Need to dominate|||||| 30%
Romantic|||||||||| 36%
Avoidant|||||||||||||||| 63%
Anti-authority|| 10%
Wealth|||||||||| 36%
Dependency|||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Change averse|||||||||||||||| 70%
Cautiousness|||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Individuality|||||||||| 36%
Sexuality|| 10%
Peter pan complex|||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Physical security|||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Physical fitness|||||||||||||||| 64%
Histrionic|||||| 23%
Paranoia|||||||||||||||||| 76%
Vanity|||||||||||||||| 70%
Hypersensitivity|||||||||||||||||||| 90%
Female cliche|||||||||||||| 56%

Stability results were low which suggests you are very worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.

Orderliness results were very high which suggests you are overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense too often of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.
Extraversion results were low which suggests you are very reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.

The Trait Snapshot: depressed, introverted, neat, needs things to be extremely clean, observer, perfectionist, not self revealing, does not make friends easily, suspicious, irritable, hates large parties, follows the rules, worrying, does not like to stand out, fragile, phobic, submissive, dislikes leadership, cautious, takes precautions, focuses on hidden motives, good at saving money, solitary, familiar with the dark side of life, hard working, emotionally sensitive, prudent, altruistic, heart over mind, unadventurous

Generally speaking, this is, once again astoundingly true. I do feel this way on the inside and I do try to not reveal myself to others. Most of all is that I am actually very afraid of everything around me. Of course you wouldnt know this because, yet again I keep it all in myself. And of course I am ultimately lonely, which is ironically the reason why I even write these lengthy things that no one would ever read, I dont think. Its like I have permanent depression and hypersensitivity to emotion and stuff. I dont know, which is why I cry about my horrid self every night as I go to sleep and write horrible things everyday.....