Schiggy

Whoa super blog redesign. Just switched over to the newer "layout" style for Blogger...something which I apparently neglected for a really long time. I actually tried to go back to see an older post and noticed there was no such link available to see previous posts. That's when I realized that I really should have tried to update the layout a long time ago. There's also way more room in the actual blog body now so I don't need to shrink/crop images so much just to post them here. Overall I'm pretty happy with this layout. It's a bit spartan, but at least it's easier to work with than before.

It's a bit sad to see that I have basically made the same number of posts in this blog over my undergrad stint as I did in grade 12 alone, but it seemed that I didn't really have too much motivation to post in the blog. In any case, I'll consider that finally revamping the blog makes up for some of that apathy. I think the fact that I even update at all is a testament to how I'm really using it as a sort of "public diary bank" to store random memories of mine in case I feel like perusing them again the future. In a silly recent happening, it seems I was getting quite a few hits to the blog via a post I made a while back due to the post title (now changed). I only noticed when the Photobucket-hosted images I placed in that post were gaining an unnaturally high number of views. Oh internet... you never cease to amaze me.

Finished with biomedical toxicology undergraduate...four years in the bank, with another possible four more years to come...? Probably the thing I enjoyed most about the university years were the times I was able to stay in residence downtown. Being able to walk around the city and to class without needing to bother with a 4 hour daily commute is rather refreshing. Being able to walk to the local store or fast food place without driving is nice too. Over those years I started to dabble more in cooking and baking (still not proficient though), extended my creative proclivities from iSketch into sites like Sporcle and BPT, and have expanded my anime repertoire. Wow that sounds geeky, but in any case, I think these are the main things that I actually bothered to make some blog posts about during these years.

Lastly, after discovering the Pages gadget thingy I decided to go ahead and make a page for the quizzes I create in Sporcle so I don't need to stuff the end of my blog posts with tons of links as I was doing before. Go ahead and check them out, if you please :) Don't mind the tons of Pokémon quizzes since I kind of got into a frenzy due to playing Pokémon Soul Silver again, but I assure you if you try them that I've tried to make them as refined and enjoyable as possible. >_>

I'm very surprised and flattered that I somehow have three quizzes voted as Editor's Choice. Of course, that's nothing compared to the seasoned Sporcle quiz creators, but it's good enough for me~ I was especially lucky with the latest quiz, Name the Theme - Symbols. I took some time over two days to gather the images and arrange them together, and then posted it shortly after completion. In an unfortunate stroke of timing, just as the quiz was getting its first plays, someone decided to enlist the aid of a second duplicate account and post about 10 quizzes in a row in the same category as my quiz, and thus effectively shoving it out of the Newly Created Quizzes list. (You're normally only allowed to post 7 quizzes/month, to be fair to others.) In a sudden turn, the new editor for the category decided to post my quiz as an Editor's Choice, awarding it with great visibility, (and the credit of being approved by an editor) and so more people were able to try it.

From my observations, the initial phase in the Newly Created Quizzes is really the only way your quiz can garner any notice and possibly become well-played. Normally once your quiz is off the list, it'll only ever be seen if someone happens to search for it or some key terms related to it. If you managed to attract enough plays, it might remain on the Most Played or Highly Rated lists for a while. There's also the Editor's Choice list which has very high visibility, but how long it stays depends on how often the editor posts quizzes up. Usually when Sporcle editors or well-known quiz creators post a new quiz, their quizzes stay visible for a long time. Essentially it's like a positive feedback loop - if you get a lot of plays, your quiz will likely continue to get a lot of plays and thus stay even longer in high visiblity. If your quiz doesn't get enough attention early on, it'll take some luck to get it back on the radar. And that's along the lines of what happened to me. I wish they'd really extend the Newly Created Quizzes list (a scroll bar would be an easy fix) since with so many quizzes being created, it's very easy for quizzes to be overlooked and buried for a long time.

EDIT: Haha wow, just after I made this rant, I go onto Sporcle and find they went and added a way to see a much longer version of all the lists, including Recent Additions. Kudos, Sporcle.

On another note, finally got that terrible desktop computer fixed up with a new hard drive. Some combination of the hard drive being really old and a bunch of other things led the computer into the most ultimate start-up infinite loop ever, where it would continually loop upon start-up, not even letting me into Safe Mode. Let's just hope it manages to run more like a normal computer now, although I'm not keeping my hopes up too high.

Future plans - a trip to Florida with friends in June, for some serious theme park action. Looking forward to it very much~

And yes, check out this webcomic if you haven't already - hilarity is sure to ensue.
Axe Cop

Mockingbirds Know Who You Are

Extremely busy nowadays - March is always the worse month, I find. I have been averaging probably 4-5 hours of sleep at night... Severe anime backlog too :(

I started drinking coffee for the first time recently. I had never before drank coffee, it was all just tea. I was surprised that it seemed to work as I was no longer dosing off every 5 minutes in lecture, but I don't want to become dependent on it so I'm trying to limit its use to midterm days or Tuesdays (the long day). And wow, Starbucks coffee really does taste burnt, I should have used more sugar... I also want to try McDonalds, which is apparently having a free coffee promotion until this Sunday. Stangely, there aren't any McDonalds nearby the St. George campus except the one up at Bloor, so I would have to make quite a detour to go there.

---

Anyway, another Sporcle update! Rather science-filled~

Anime Blitz: Opening Themes (clips)
Rapid-fire Anime Name That Tune, can you identify the anime by listening to short clips from their opening song? There's also an overlying theme common to all the songs, did you notice what it was?

Eponymous Diseases A-Z
In most of these cases, although it's called X's disease, X never really sufferred from the disorder. It's more of meant as an act of commemoration.

Serendipitous Inventions/Discoveries
The quiz promised from a previous post, can you name the inventions or discoveries made by chance, by accident, and probably by improper laboratory etiquette?

Animals Used in Scientific Research
My tribute to all of those rats that I had to work with over the past year.

"What is this ominous light that threatens to engulf us?!"

Yesss Reading Week, gotta take this chance to catch up on things because this is the only downtime I will have before March, when all hell breaks loose. This also marks the time when I'm finally done actual experimenting in my research lab, but now need to read up on tons of articles to prepare for my write-up.

I'm only casually following the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, mainly just to see the medal counts and for which events. Apparently, we have broken the "curse" of never winning a gold medal while we are hosting the Winter Olympics, so that is good news.

The exam schedule for April has been released, and interestingly all of my exams take place on Wednesdays. Of course, I'm not complaining; I would much rather have the exams spread out over a longer period of time than to be forced to write all the exams at the beginning to finish early. Cramming for several courses at the same time never works really well, even for things you have been reviewing throughout the semester, because you have to keep switching your focus between subjects.

"I'll add you to my travel partner list."

Halfway mark! Unfortunately this semester is much busier than the last, and I'm already worried about some of these courses from the first lecture. I'm also going to the lab in the mornings now so I'm actually taking the GO train. Not used to waking up so early again =_= However, it still feels better at the end of the day when compared to staying at the lab after classes until late. Hopefully my PI will give me a break this semester due to the workload and restricted lab resources...

This Christmas was such a needed break from everything. I tried to indulge in as much gaming as I could to clear some of the backlog before spring semester presents itself. Managed to get some Ogre Battle 64, Ouendan 2, Pokemon Rumble, Band Hero, and Nostalgia. Band Hero's subdued difficuly level is pretty good for GH/RB noobs like me who can only last on Hard difficulty, maybe eke out a few of the easier songs on Expert. Plus the songlist is less boring. Of course, I'm lucky the game supports the RB drum which is the one I had. Somehow I think the RB drums feel a lot better to play on compared to the GH drums.

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New Year's wasn't spent anywhere special, but was enjoyable nonetheless. Have a great 2010, a year which we can finally pronounce again as two two-digit numbers!

First thing eaten in 2010: Turtles chocolate (again, seems to be a theme)
First thing drunk in 2010: Some Chardonnay wine from Pelee Winery
First thing played with in 2010: Band Hero (I didn't manage to get drunk, probably would have been more fun that way)
First thing resumed in 2010 after celebrations: UTAMA foruming, I think

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Just today I finally found a frame for the piece of artwork I got many years ago from Epcot in Florida's Disney World. I think it's called Oriental Letter Art, where you can have someone's name or a message written out in fancy oriental characters which consist of various symbolic elements. They paint using this cool flat-tipped sponge and bright watercolours. I'm pretty sure this purchase was fueled by the tourist's souvenir frenzy but I don't mind having it around. They simply ask you for your name, then you go walk around the park while they paint your name and you can come back to see how it turned out later.

I thought the stand was personally run by the artist herself, but it turns out they have a website where you can even order art online.



There's the design. (Click for larger image) According to the brochure they handed out, the symbols mean:

Sun: hope, faith, and love

Dragonfly: dream

Bird: peace

Ship: perspective (K)

Rainbow: promise, love, hope, and peace

Crane: longevity and noble mindedness (E)

Cactus: patience and hope (I)

Mountain: perseverence and stoicism

Dragon: honour, credit, bravery and pride

I definitely like the birds and the mountain, and I like the Japanese-y vibe of the dragon. My sister actually got one of these done even longer back when we visited Victoria, BC. Her name sports other symbols like dolphins, lighthouse, shrimp (a rather ornate one at that), and some tangle of flowers which I think are orchids. Unfortunately she lost the symbol sheet so we can't know for sure what dolphins are supposed to stand for.

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I'm dismayed to find that BPT is still down for the count. In the meantime I've assembled a few quizzes on Sporcle, and I'm still trying to get some iSketch in whenever possible.

Wo probs

Broken Picture Telephone is a really interesting game which plays similarly to the well-known game of Broken Telephone. An initial message passes from one person to the next, and when it reaches the last person we see how badly lost in communicaton the initial message became. BPT achieves this by using text and drawing prompts. If you are shown a text prompt, you are given 10 minutes using very limited drawing tools and space to portray that message with a drawing. If you are shown a drawing prompt, you have to type up a message describing the picture the best you can in a limited space. When the whole chain is complete, the frames are revealed to all the players who can see how the game began, and how it progressed towards the end.

Here are two snippets from two different games (click for larger pic):

http://www.brokenpicturetelephone.com/view?id=59252

http://www.brokenpicturetelephone.com/view?id=44939
(Yeah I spelled it wrong :[ )

Of course, very rarely does the initial message stay throughout the entire course of the game, but it has happened in very rare occasions. Sometimes themes from the beginning of the game become lost, only to suddenly re-emerge again near the end. BPT really lets you see what the most prevalent motifs are in the minds of people from around the world. There is actually a fairly large player base from Europe and southeast Asia, aside from North America. These themes are usually encountered when a drawing isn't very clear, and thus the person defaults to a common symbol or image that they are familiar with. It is not uncommon for someone to draw a pizza, beach ball, or slice of cheese, only to have it described as "Pac-Man". It's also been a common complaint that most people mix up the "peace symbol" with the Mercedes-Benz logo.

Some common motifs that seem to pop up in many games include:

Green aliens/martians
Jesus
Pac-Man
Cats, dogs
Super Mario
Poop
Godzilla/T-Rex
Satan/the Devil
Cacti
Apples, bananas
Barney the Dinosaur
Ninjas
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

And more recently, Obama and Michael Jackson have been popping up. As someone once said in the comments to a game, whether you describe a brown blob as 'poo' or 'melted chocolate ice cream' probably says something about your personality.

Another thing to behold is the ability of some amazing artists who can create such masterpieces even when using drawing tools which are even more spartan than MS Paint, even more impressive when taking the 10min limit into account. It really matters, especially for me since I can't draw very well and thus draw verrrry slowly. The top artists can be seen here.

The unfortunate reality right now is that the site is defunct. The site gained such popularity that the servers crashed and now images don't load up properly anymore, meaning nobody can play right now. It's sad because the site just got a bit more publicity when named one of the top 100 websites of 2009 by PC Magazine, and I'd imagine there are a lot of interested people flocking to the site only to be completely confused when they find that they can't actually play the game.

A single person owns, designed, and maintains BPT, and it has reached a level of popularity that the owner did not expect. Part of the problem is that he is only one who can make changes to the site, but he maintains a rather remote rapport with the fans. The news section (or "Blog" as it is called in BPT) is in a discrete part of the header, and recently he hasn't been updating much. He didn't actually respond until a few days after the site became dysfunctional, and seems sort of ambivalent towards fixing the site. Of course I can't tell if this is really the case since he hasn't updated us since.

During BPT's run it has had its fair share of problems, and there are a lot of ways it can be improved. There are sometimes trolls who post as many inappropriate pictures as they can, effectively ruining the natural course of the game. Most of these trolls are the unoriginal type whose weapon of choice is the tired old "crude phallus drawing". However there were some more original trolls that attacked BPT. One such troll started tons of games with the initial prompt: "Pokemon trainer catching a _____" where each game featured a different Pokemon. Another troll responded to everything with Star Trek. There was a really big push for better administration to curb the trolls' actions, but the owner never really followed up on those. More experienced players know that if they encounter a frame with an inappropriate picture or message, they should just "begin anew" by ignoring the frame and posting as if they were starting a new game.

Despite the occasional trolling and glitches, the site is easily addictive. I first started at the end of May, drawing with the mouse. Stats class made me take a break, but afterwards I returned and started drawing with the tablet stylus. It definitely allowed me to draw faster so that my pictures didn't look as plainly unfinished as it did before. I'm not sure that the quality of my pictures has really improved that much, however. If BPT ever does get fixed up, I'll definitely start playing again.

My profile

Telephone
Broken Telephone
Chinese Whispers
Arab Phone
Whisper Down the Lane
Gossip
Stille Post

Compunction

It didn't feel like it was that long ago, but I seemed to have neglected this blog for a long time. I guess I'll just use this opportunity for a photo dump and to distract myself from the fact that I'm not sleeping at a proper hour.

This summer I've been preoccupied with Broken Picture Telephone, which I will elaborate on in a different post. Of course, the habit has been mercilessly routed due to the site having fallen into a state of disrepair. Another event of note is the first time in a while I've actually attended class during summer for school. I never went to summer school during high school, but thought it prudent this summer to take the statistics course that I didn't have room for during the main term (which was already over average course load). It worked out for the better, and I appreciate being able to eat dinner at a time earlier than 10pm again.

I reluctantly admit that earlier this year I did a lot of posting on the Gaia Online forums. Although the overwhelming population of users on that site is definitely...of a younger age group, the only place I ever post in is the 'Word Games' Forum. For some reason I have a real penchant for those silly 'Word Association' or '4-Letter Acronym' games, and since the Gaia forums are so active, it effectively feeds my obsession (and devastates my productivity). Another plus is that most the users who frequent the 'Word Games' forum post rather sensibly and intelligently. It wasn't surprising to find that many of the regulars are actually a bit older than the general population, attending college or whatnot.

The way this website hooks onto younger users is kind of devious. They offer daily promotions where they force you to watch a trailer video for a recent movie (usually the likes of Mall Cop or 17 Again and their ilk) in order to gain an item you can dress up your virtual avatar with. Not to mention that they constantly push their 'Gaia Gold' upon you, which are like cash points you can purchase from stores or online in order to be able to buy more virtual merchandise. Of all the things you can buy, I consider this one of the most useless. Perhaps if a lot of people know you on Gaia and you want to impress them, you may drop some cash to make your avatar look spiffier, but there isn't really anything past that. And of course, it's an extremely transient moment of enjoyment, at best. On the other hand, I can understand if someone was really enamoured by the avatar system and just wanted to buy themselves a nice avatar. Personally when it comes to paying for extra 'features' in games I usually forego the minor cosmetic updates.

On another note, I just recently started an account at My Anime List, which really does seem to have a very Facebook-esque interface. Not sure how regularly I will update the site (hopefully not like how I update this blog) but it's a good way to keep track of all the shows you've watched. It also reveals my pathetically long to-watch list of shows. Currently I'm indulging in Canaan, Zetsubou Zan, Umineko, and Natsume Yuujinchou, in those times between PCAT studying sessions. As the deadline for studying approaches, these anime-viewing sessions are quickly becoming endangered.

Finally, due to some sort of self-imposed obligation, here is the exam schedule for the spring term of 3rd year. I was very relieved when I found that it was much more reasonable than the monstrosity that was the Fall term exams.

Exam Schedule
BCH370 - 04/07 - 3-4pm - MS2378 - Biochemistry Lab
GLG110 - 04/20 - 7-9pm - EX200 - Geology
PCL362 - 04/23 - 2-4pm - BA2195 - Toxicology
PCL365 - 04/28 - 9am-12pm - BN3 - Toxicology Lab
PSL302 - 05/01 - 9-11am - EX200 - Physiology

Photo dump to follow, soon.

ALL OTHERS WILL BE CRUSHERD

Most intense exam schedule ever. I had to do my first ever true all-nighter. I think I've always had some sleep the night before an exam, even if only for a few hours. Compounding the problem was that they were all cumulative exams covering content from September. The "plus" side was that I ended rather early, allowing me the luxury of having more time to mourn the senseless deterioration of my brain.

Exam Schedule
PCL365 - 12/04 - 9:30am-12:30pm - GB304 - Toxicology Lab
PSL302 - 12/09 - 9am-12pm - BN2N - Physiology
PCL302 - 12/10 - 9am-12pm - EM119 - Pharmacodynamics
CLA204 - 12/10 - 7-9pm - East Hall, UC - Classical Myth
LMP363 - 12/11 - 9am-12pm - RW229 - Pathobiology
BCH370 - 01/13 - ? - ? - Biochemistry Lab

The three day chunk officially doesn't count as a conflict. As well, all of the tests (except for physiology) were short answer format, not MC. Unfortunately, unlike the spring term exams, there is no studying week beforehand. However starting next year a modified schedule is being implemented which allows for a few days of studying before the fall exams, but taking some away from the week before the spring exams to compensate. There's also this strange November break added in which I guess would help for the midterm crunch. A lot of these new breaks also count the weekend, so 5-day breaks are really more of 3-day breaks. I guess the weekend breaks apply more for university staff than students.

I would say although this was the most stressful semester by far, with six courses and some type of evaluation every week since the end of September, the content of the courses learned seemed more satisfactory. It's probably because we're starting to learn more about new content that we haven't been taught in detail about before. The courses are beginning to overlap somewhat too.

I took classical myth as an elective, and I would say that the learning experience is much less enjoyable and impressionable as it was in high school. The whole course was to essentially memorize everything in this textbook and then spill out names, terms and essays in a short amount of time. Perhaps I'm just not as used to this style of learning. I was surprised because this course is apparently in high demand, and for this past semester the waitlist in September after classes started had about 100 people. A lot of the myths that I was more intimate with from high school were glossed by in a very bare-bones manner. Of course the text was very informative and contained all the necessary details about the myths, but didn't seem to give much importance or emotion to the stories. But I guess you can't really demand much more in a university setting.

Anyway all of that is done now. There is another week or so to do non-school stuff before preparing for January midterm and labs.

"Non-school stuff" includes:
iSketch
osu!
Sporcle
FAILBlog

Also to remind you about all the shovelling you had to do:

Approximately the amount of snow that fell so far this weekend, according to my backyard table.

Galaktoboureko

Yummmm...

Ended up going to Wonderland: Behemoth was very high but it somehow felt more secure than it looked. I think it's the highest coaster that I've been on so far.

Speaking of bird nests (from last post), while lining up for The Bat we spotted a bird's nest tucked on the supports directly under the roller coaster track. There was a robin settled in the nest, apparently unaware that a coaster cart is noisily speeding by 15cm above its head. Eventually the robin flew off, revealing that there were actually baby birds in the nest. Hopefully they won't have hearing problems later on.

Also, saw The Incredible Hulk. Yes, it is better than the first one.

Currently trying to make plans for Summerlicious. Winterlicious was great, so hopefully Summerlicious is ok too. It's nice getting a set dinner for $25 when the restaurant lists that a usual dinner for two people is $100-$150.

I found this fun tool called Wordle from Sandwalk (who found it from Expression Patterns). It takes a block of text that you enter and makes a little visual cluster out of the words, with the size of the words changing according to their frequency in the passage. I plugged some stuff I had to write recently:







It's addictive for a while :P

Finally, fun summer weather = hail

Things Happened

Most of which are not very interesting.

Highlights:
- 2nd year was dealt a finishing blow
- FeMan, 404 Forbidden Kingdom
- Darwin: The Evolution Revolution @ ROM
- WiiWare -> Dr. Mario
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- The damage of the game disc of said Brawl
- Finally finished Tigana
- I found out that I liked crosswords, but am still terrible at them
- Started playing iSketch again to find that all the regulars are now using crazy pseudonyms and are all "teehee I won't tell you who I am"

Also, found a nest in the tree in the front yard:



It looks very well made. Reminds me of the duck nest, except back then the duck was still there. That was when I found out that ducks made loud wheezing noises to make you go away.

Future forecast?
- Visit to Wonderland, which is now exponentially less paramount
- Victory of Eagles
- Trauma Center 2 (!!!)

Exam Schedule
CLA201 - 04/22 - 9-11am - SEEL
BIO250 - 04/24 - 2-5pm - VAN
CHM247 - 04/28 - 9am-12pm - VAS
HMB265 - 05/02 - 9am-12pm - VAN
PCL201 - 05/07 - 9am-12pm - VAS

4/5 exams in the same place, therefore I did not get lost.

Glasses Case

I am still playing Animal Crossing: Wild World fairly consistently nowadays, but somehow today I felt compelled to revisit my Gamecube file for Animal Crossing.


It was rather nostalgic. Apparently I hadn't played the Gamecube version for 28 months, also evidenced by the fact that I'm standing in a field of weeds. I was pleasantly reminded of the roundabout chores that the animals gave you such as retrieving the glasses cases or organizers they've lent to others, for whatever reason. I also confusedly ended up asking Blathers to explain to me what the museum was until I realised that you had to mail fossils to the museum rather than have Blathers personally appraise them (a change I'm glad happened in AC:WW). Meeting the old villagers was nice too.

Also, sometimes Animal Crossing is not quite rated E.


Haha, Chuck is awesome.

Now back to human bio. Reading Week was so short-lived. :(

IL NOSTRO MONDO STVPIDO

Somehow this week has managed to be the culmination of almost everything that I initially feared could go wrong with taking public transit during winter. Compared to this, the fiasco on Friday could be a mere passable event.

Highlights of the week include:
● Almost being late for a midterm
● Being late for a lab session
● Being trapped on a VIVA bus for over three hours
● Almost missing Chinese New Year's Eve dinner
● The most hours ever spent studying on a public transit vehicle in a single week
● Writing a midterm for the worse course I have ever taken

Initially, I thought that the storm this week would be way more mild than last week, with less snowfall but a chance of freezing rain. As a lesson learned I immediately registered the Winter Storm Hotline into my cellphone. Sadly, the storm ended up being very wet and voluminous...

Wednesday morning provided a little scare as one of the ever fragile subway stations decided it would lose all power, grinding the whole line to a halt. However this is not all that unusual, and luckily that was the only interruption that morning. I normally arrive over an hour before the start time of the miderm, and I managed to arrive before the midterm started.

Later that day, there was an optional review session for the pharmacology course from 5-6. Initially I wasn't going to attend due to the professor being notorious for creating more confusion and havoc in her "clarifications", but in the end I stayed...for a reason best left unbiased by hindsight.

Because of this, upon reaching Finch station at 6:59pm, there ensued a great one hour wait in the snowstorm, by now at its peak. At least I had practice from last week. But the reason for the delay was that there was apparently some major series of accidents north along Yonge, causing a blockade immediately along the VIVA route. No buses arrived until an hour later, during which time amassed a sizable amount of snow on the platform, people in the station, and water in my shoes. Although during this time I was able to see flashes of lightning in the sky, which is apparently really rare during snowstorms.

Since the whole Finch/Yonge intersection was literally frozen in place, the bus driver headed up normally along Yonge, but reached an impasse at Clark station, where we too remained immobile for an hour. In addition to freaking about about having a lab the next day and a midterm on Friday, there was a man onboard who seemed to be suffering from a mental disorder which caused him to scream shrilly every now and then, effectively scaring the hell out of everyone on board.

There eventually formulated a plan to divert the bus through some residential streets and connecting to Bayview via John St., before turning back towards Richmond Hill Center. Awesome, let's inch along the road faster, please. Unfortunately, the plan, although with very good intentions I'm sure, involved driving into one-lane roads and over a very steep hill. This effectively amounted to being trapped in the bus for a further two hours.

During this time the atmosphere on the bus instead grew rather relaxed as we all accepted our fates in the blue-coloured tomb. Everyone grew accustomed to the random wailing of the aforementioned fellow. However, another dilemma was still present, which was that today was Chinese New Year's Eve. The tradition says that on Chinese New Year's Eve, you must dine together with your family in order to ensure good luck for the new year, a rule that my family adamantly abided by. It's either that or be cursed for the rest of the year or something. As it was currently about two hours from the end of the day, you can see why the frequency of stressful phone calls I received from home was increasing.

My father was previously stuck on the roads too but eventually reached Richmond Hill Center and we drove home. After spending about 5 minutes charging back and forth up the driveway which by now was covered in a foot of snow, our family had Chinese New Year's Eve dinner at 11:15pm.

The following day involved arriving late for the lab, rushing in short-breathed followed by a few other stragglers, but understandably we were still allowed to write the quiz normally administered at the beginning of the session and granted a zero if you were late.

Friday was a whole different dimension of stress. This involved the pharmacology midterm. However, this was no ordinary midterm. It was also no ordinary course. PCL201, up until last year, was effectively a bird course (well, as bird-course-y as life sci courses can go at UofT). This year, there was a new professor. And she decided to do things her way. This includes:

● Being excessively rude towards her students. She seems to view every reasonable request as a threat to her position or status, belitting us for wanting things that every other professor willingly provides.
● This includes lecture slides which she provides in a format which requires a magnifying glass to read without permanent damage to the eyes. When students made the request to change the format, or at least provide the Powerpoint so that the students could do it themselves, she outright refused.
● The lecture slides consist of cut and paste from what seems like Google Search images.
● She makes many, many mistakes during her lecture. She mixes up very important terms such as "hydrophobic" and "hydrophilic" which can totally change one's understanding of a concept, as well as mixing up drug names (Digoxin? Dioxin? Didroxin?).

Obviously the last straw came when marks were directly involved, as is always the case in UofT, it seems. The class average on the simple 10 question MC quizzes were dramatically low. They were the kind of quizzes that are simply supposed to "make you review" and allow you to get 10/10 on for almost every one. Most of the more adamant students appealed to the student council for pharmtox and they actually held a student meeting for the issue. Now that the midterm has passed, no doubt there will be an even greater source of enmity towards the professor.

As of yesterday, over 50 people had dropped the course. Which makes one sarcastically wonder what retake % this course will receive at the end of this semester.

Luckily on a much lighter note, tomorrow is the day of the VGL concert in Toronto! Hooray. As well, I just bought Our Dumb World today which is written by The Onion, and it is basically the best book in the world on the world.

On a more grave note, there is an organic chem midterm next week. Owch.

Winter Storm Warning

Scenario: Must get down to campus for 11:00am Scientific Terminology class

7:00am
- Wake up

7:45am
- CP24 announces that there are no delays for subway routes

8:00am
- Get a ride to Scarborough Town Center

8:30am
- Radio reports that UofT Mississauga campus is closed

9:00am
- Arrive at Scarborough Town Center
- RT is delayed; wait in packed RT platform

9:30am
- Arrive at Kennedy station

10:15am
- Arrive at Spadina station

10:30am
- Arrive on campus
- Get internet access
- Discover that UofT St. George campus is closing at 11am

10:45am
- Finished sobbing
- Depart for home

11:25am
- Arrive at Finch station
- Wait 25 mins for VIVA Blue

12:15pm
- Arrive at Richmond Hill Center
- Wait 20 mins for VIVA Purple

1:00pm
- Arrive at Enterprise
- Walk down to Unionville station
- Wait 10 mins for Kennedy bus

1:30pm
- Arrive home

1:45pm
- Type whiny post
- Cry about lost time and tokens

Coulomb Explosion

Admittedly the content from both biology courses so far seem to interest me the most out of all my courses. I can better understand the experiments outlined in scientific articles and such. We just finished off a term in which talked about experimental methods such as using reporter genes, and surprisingly the ones we learned about are actually used in real life! This is especially exciting since we're used to being taught "dumbed down" or "incorrect" versions of the facts in school. (This probably still happening to a certain degree regardless.) We mentioned Craig Venter as well, which I guess goes under the category of "hot topics in recent news".

From Discover:

Biologists Perform Genome Transplant

In June, biologists at the J. Craig Venter institute announced that they had successfully transplanted the genome of one species of bacteria into another bacterial species. "This was the ultimate in identity theft," says Venter, a biologist well known for his private-sector contribution to the sequencing of the human genome. "The chromosome [genome] took over the cell completely, and any characteristics of the original species were lost."

The transplant team took several steps to be sure the transfer was complete. First, they added two genes to the donor species' chromosome: one that made the cells resistant to the antibiotic tetracycline and one that made them turn blue. By dosing all the post-transplant bacteria with tetracycline and looking for blue colonies, the scientists could identify which cells had the donor DNA. Next, they tested all the blue, tetracycline-resistant bacteria for any traces of the recipient species' genome. When they found none, they knew the bacteria must contain only the donor species' genome. Finally, they found that all the proteins manufactured by the new bacteria were characteristic of the donor species.

This is a critical advance in Venter's quest - which he has been pursuing for a decade - to create a fully synthetic life-form. Now, he says, it could be just a matter of months before a living cell stocked with a synthetic genome becomes a reality.

- Jocelyn Rice

The Discover magazine website also has weekly podcasts of Vital Signs articles. Vital Signs is usually my favourite part of the magazine. The articles are all written by doctors who relate one of the previous patient cases they worked on, which often involve unusual or uncommon disorders and diseases. They then outline their thought process on confirming the condition and how to treat it. For example, the most recent Vital Signs article published in the Jan. 2008 issue talks about narcolepsy and cataplexy.

Preproinsulin

Dec 4:
ANT253 Language and Society
- Midterm, Essay

Dec 10:
BCH210 Introductory Biochemistry
- Exam

CLA206 Ancient Astronomy
- Exam

Dec 12:
BIO250 Cell and Molecular Biology
- Exam

Dec 14:
CHM220 Physical Chemistry for Life Sciences
- Exam

Finished...really need a break now...and sleep. Started drinking a lot of tea in the past few weeks, but managed to not drink a single cup of coffee or can of energy drink.

Main thing I leave these courses with:
Anthro - Zipf's Law is the answer to everything.
Biochem - Blueberries are high in antioxidants. Eat them. Also, COX.
Astro - You succeed in science by stealing other people's works and theories. Sadly this goes back even to Ancient Greece. Nowadays you can even get a Nobel Prize if you pull it off well enough.
Biology - I still need to do this next semester. Lab nights suck because I get home at 11pm and don't feel like studying afterwards.
Phys Chem - Kill me if I need to take another phys chem course ever.

Time to catch up on animé and reading.

"i left when he started talking...about HI HI HOW ARE YOU"

In light of an astronomy project, I went up to Aurora last night and went stargazing. Retreating to as dark an area which could be found, I looked up and saw what I believe were the most stars I have ever seen. This may be due to the fact that I have never stepped outside at night in Markham during one of those legendary "clear days". Even so, trying to find Polaris was disconcertingly hard, as all the stars around the general direction of "north" were either absent or engulfed in a huge mass of clouds. This leads me to conclude that the skies of ancient Mesopotamia must have been absolutely lucid because I can't comprehend how it was they could spot things like Saturn every day in the sky.

So the effort of braving the 5 degree night to find Polaris wasn't quite rewarded. Howeer, I did manage to get a glimpse of the "stars" which are so very hard to see.

Well that is, unless the star exploded a few million years ago, in which case that star isn't technically there...

Also, it was the "good" daylight savings switch today, the one that gives the illusion of gaining more time. :D

GER PICK-UP

So right now is way past the time when you realize university isn't fun. The first sets of midterms have already passed, and the next set starts soon. I have a biology writing report which demands you stuff information found in a ten-page scientific article into three single-sided double-spaced pages. An astronomy project expects me to be able to fully identify constellations in the sky...we are in Toronto, and it seems the professor hasn't noticed the little quirks about Toronto's sky, which is that there are no stars, only smog.

Earlier this month someone had a seizure during a phys chem lecture, which obviously caused a big clamor. Right after that I went to astronomy, and someone shouted "Call a doctor!" after the guy beside her "fell unconsious" and dropped the bottle he was holding. Personally, it just looked like he fell asleep, not unconscious...

In regards to commuting, I have sadly witnessed a sharp increase of subway beggars, who jump to and fro between subway cars pushing their Tim Hortons cup into your face as they pass while you're sleeping. I guess it is very effective as all the people around you have already been concentrated into a small area for you.

Also recently, the revelations about finding high levels of lead in products is really confusing to me. A few months ago everyone was happy with their toy cars and building blocks, and then suddenly everything has too much lead in it. It's as if quality testing just realized "Holy crap, we forgot to test for lead" and then found out everything had a lot of lead. I wonder if this was like when we found out that saturated fats were bad, and that everything actually had saturated fats.

This month is also Nintendo freebie month. They sent me a spiffy pack of DS Lite styluses a long while ago for my Brain Age 2 purchase. They're also sending out some Wii Remote jackets for people who actually still have problems not treating the remotes like a javelin.



However the change in publishers for Nintendo Power I do not like as much, as they no longer give you the option to choose a free gift when you resubscribe to the magazine, only a barebones website which forces you to get a player's guide you really don't need.

Also, contemplating SSBB:



This is what happens when I wait too long to post.

Doing Jap

Man, weirdest RT ride ever. The two people to my left were avidly chatting with sign language, the lady sitting across from me had these huge scratches along her chest and one huge red mark down her face, and the old man sitting to my right kept twitching. Worse 15 mins ever.

In other words, second year is hardcore.

Japanese-style

First day of commuting...and to think I complained about riding on a school bus for forty minutes in high school. Investing four hours a day to staring at the floor of a public transportation vehicle doesn't sound particularly appealing but the excitement of going downtown to learn is quite...well, not effective. The adaptation phase begins.

Doctors and Nurses

Back to classes today. I have to go downtown for a one hour lecture, or more importantly to get a syllabus and book list. But I guess I can also go around hunting for places to hang out in between classes, other than the library...

Friendly Fire

My course selection is in capable hands and now I'm off to Florida for a week on a chartered flight. Maybe I'll get hot towels on the flight which I've never had before (on a flight). Let's hope there isn't a nutcase in the airport/plane who tries to spoil that book for me.