![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
You can gobble to the left.
You can gobble to the right.
Then you shake your tail
With all your might.
Gobble, gobble, gobble.
(gobble)
Gobble, gobble, gobble.
(gobble)
Gobble, gobble, gobble.
(gobble)
Stupid quiz! I hate school!
Fine think whatever you want. I don't care. I love Austin. I love life. I love me. I love being happy.
Speaking of happy here is one last really happy image of the turtle pond I have to share with yall:
- Mood:
cheerful
Saturdays are always meant to be fun and recreational. Today sure was. In the morning I got to go volunteer for the First Night Austin Project, "Keep the Night Alive: Celebrating Texas Endangered Nocturnal Species." with LPPA. My job was to paint signs. Look:
I love painting. I don't why I just love it. I've always loved it ever since I was that little girl going to Gethsame School For Children in that ghetto Sharpstown neighborhood. I got to paint every morning before storytime. It's a break from everything that’s oh so academic. I am sick of school and all the stuff I have to shove and force feed into my brain. I mean it is one thing to learn something and not really agree with it and think it is absurd despite knowing that the whole world follows it. But it is totally another to not learn anything at all. It’s like empty energy. When it comes to stuff like ochem I have a lot of empty energy. I am just not meant to have any chemistry in my life. I sound like one pathetic loser at the moment who’s always moping about school. But I realize I don’t have to be. I mean life is too beautiful to live it like a complete loser. So despite my suffering gpa and the forsaken dream of getting into pharm school… shouldn’t really say that. It’ll probably make a lot of people sad and I don’t want to deal with them at the moment. I just want to make a world a better place. And I don’t believe taking a test is going to help me out with that. So today I decided to go volunteer and paint. Mixing colors and making them blurry makes them so beautiful because they cannot be unmatched. Like a child. That’s what makes every child different. The mixing of DNA. Genetic variaton. From generation to generation. I love biology. It makes complete sense to me. It’s the study of life. Ironic. Life makes sense. No. Life is just beautiful. My life is just beautiful. I make it beautiful. Like this painting:
- Mood:
restless
Mia Kirshner (aka Jenny Schecter from the L Word) finally published a book called I Live Here where she highlights the daily lives of displaced women and children from poor developing countries. It’s not like any regular book with words on pages. It’s like a piece of artwork because there are pictures everywhere and the part Mia writes are in journal format. Kind of like what I am doing here except that she writes about her experiences in the underdeveloped areas of Chechnya, Juarez, Malawi and Burma. There are four book type things for each region all filled with color photos, poetry, artwork, Mia’s journal writing in her own handwriting, and comic strips. In terms of the writing I love how Mia uses her common regular folk non literary language. I am so used to reading literature with complex sentence structure but with Mia’s book it’s like you are there thinking her thoughts and having her Jenny-like voice run through your head.
Today while she was speaking about her book and tearing up over what a sad sad world we live in I could not stop thinking about how Jenny was talking. To me she will always be that troubled Jenny from the first and second season. That mad writer trapped in her own Sara Schuster realm. Whenever I heard her voice get all serious I could not forget about that one scene where Jenny is asking Tim to read over her story the night after she first slept with Marina. I’ve never seen someone so lost on TV on that show like I saw Jenny in that scene. I could say I know where she is coming from though. But she did it again today at the book signing in the beginning of her presentation. She started tearing up and I was like “No Jenny don’t cry!” in my head but then I kept on going “No Priya, She’s not Jenny. Her name is Mia Kirshner, an actress and author, who plays Jenny. Stop trying to make fiction into reality.” I know I wasn’t there to think about the L Word and that I had to focus on the book but it was hard. When you learn to understand and know a character so well it’s hard to set them apart from fiction and reality. Because you connect with them so well so you want to deny your existence as fiction and you come to accept it as a form of reality.
Anyways Mia spoke for like an hour or maybe even less about the different parts to her book. She first spoke about Chechnya and spoke about how she comes from a family of holocaust survivors. She talked about the mass genocide happening in Chechnya and how some people were killing others to purify their land. This is still going on in this time and age and in Mia’s first journal entry she is obviously frightened about visiting but she goes on to answer why she is taking the risk to go to the country. Her answer has stuff in it like the world dying, melting and forgetting and Mia is moved by the old man she sees in the lobby of the Ukraina (hotel in Moscow). She mentions that no one sends handwritten letters anymore and then later on in the paragraph she goes on to tell the man “that these problems gather and one day might overwhelm you…maybe you stop eating meat, quit your job, go to India and live in an Ashram; or you take drugs, spend too much money, fuck too many random strangers, or just disconnect from your life”. This is why I like her writing. It’s just so real and when she reads it I know the voice really well and it sounds familiar. Like I know she wrote that and that those are her own words and can only be her own words. When she was reading that I was like this is exactly how I imagined it would be and I was amazingly amazed by something I consider the expected. This continues on throughout all four little books. She talked about the Burmese abortion stick that the sex workers were supposed to use and the book had some graphic drawings of it. She claimed that in one of the pages there was a picture of a woman’s vagina actually using the stick. Like a digital photograph rather than a colored coded illustration. She said that the woman wanted the photograph to be seen so that other people could see what injustice was happening to sex workers. These women are forced to fuck for a living. What injustice is greater than that? The Burma minibook had some of the most disturbing images in my opinion. The next part Mia talked about was Juarez and she focused on this girl named Claudia who was murdered and that the authority did not even care. According to Mia this was one of her hardest trips and experiences to write about and she left some parts of it out just because it was too painful for her to remember and share. The thing is Juarez is pretty close to Texas and it’s scary to know stuff like this happens not so far away and does not have an ocean to separate us from. After Juarez, she talked about the AIDS crisis in Malawi and how when she first visited all she saw was the personification of radiance. She emphasized that she never saw people in her life that showed such happiness and radiance to see her, a white woman who may have food to offer. That is the only thing I really remember her saying about Malawi. I remember during one part of her presentation she really put down Amnesty International about how they did not do anything about the four boys from Chechnya. The thing was that reps from Amnesty were tabling right there and I was like “Jenny what are ya saying!”. But I guess she was just so caught in the moment about talking about those four boys, she forgot to be polite. Nothing wrong with that. There is no flaw in being socially unacceptable. And even if there is just add that flaw and start making a list and work towards to crossing stuff off that list.
But anyways the booksigning was awesome. I actually got to talk to her and I told her the whole journal, art,
photo and comic concept was really cool and she told me to get this book out and taught at school. Really nice girl and very petite. But I can’t say the same about her outfit. Just take a look at those shorts :) But no need to be negative right now because it’s a beautiful night turning slowly into day. Which reminds me…I promised someone that I needed to sleep. And despite being unfaithful to updating, I am faithful to a promise. So adieu. - Mood:artistic
Now I wouldn't be me if I didn't give a review for these four amazing performances.
Mohini (top left): Great dance troupe of really talented girls. One of my friends Dimple is part of this dance crew. They just are so graceful and they make their contemporary dancing look completely flawless. Also their outfits are really really cute. I love the orange and pink combo and each of those lucky biotches can flaunt it totally cause they all are stick thin. The benefits of having a dancers' body. I should become one...but I would probably create more accidents rather than some mean steps.
Dirty South Dandiya (top right): Very energetic and the music makes you wanna get out of your chair and just step like they do. I'm gujarati so this type of dancing has a very special place in my heart and they make me sooo proud. A lot of sharp turns. A lot of energy. Nice flowy costumes. What more can a performance ask for?
Nino Kar (bottom left): He is not big manly face looking at you but rather the obscure guitarist on the bottom right hand corner of the picture halfway in the spotlight. The big face was part of the slideshow they were showing about India. Anyways it turns out that I knew this guy and had actually talked to him without knowing that he was this major rock star on campus. I mean all the girls were totally fawning over him when he did that "Vaande Maataram" piece. And he sings! One of the few brown guys in my life that I met that actually sing! And he sings pretty good too! I guess it was just shocking to me because all the brown guys I meet on campus are total science nerds but that's probably because I'm a sci major myself. Like brown guys singing only come on TV and are from the UK (like Jay Sean and Juggy D and Raghav <sighs>). But I am categorizing people too much and that's never really a good thing but it is inevitable growing up in our society. But anyways this Nino guy did kind of melt my hear with his smooth voice and I decided that he was not a total jerk that I thought him to be. So take note guys....and girls....the way to a girl like myself's heart is through an aesthetic voice....and maybe a couple of trust funds...and a few private islands....and a lamborghini. Ha ha just kidding. The only way to my heart is to make me realize that I too have one sometimes. Anyway enough of myself. This review is supposed to be about Nino (<swats Narcissism and continues to type>) Nino was a great performer and hopefully one day he ends up winning Indian Idol or American Idol or any of the many singing reality shows that air.
Hum Acapella (bottom right): This group of talented folk always seem to be making special appearances everywhere. The first time I listened to them was at Gone to Texas during freshman year, then at Explore UT, at Jhalak 2007, and today. They always have something new and fresh to offer and I love the beat boxing. Today they did Colbie Caillat's "Realize". And you know I completely have this total enmity towards Ms. Caillat because of her annoying song "Bubby". But they made me actually like "Realize". One of the guys in the group dedicated it to his gf and I was like aww. It was almost as good as when that guy proposed to his gf on stage last year before his performance. But I guess I just was in a totally good mood to enjoy something by Colbie Caillat. Or maybe "Realize" is just a way better song than "Bubbly" (actually I think nails scratching across the board sounds better than "Bubbly"...I mean anything can).
Overall Jhalak was great this year and a great break from all this school that I have actually been tending to. Tomorrow I am going on a Nazi schedule with genetics because Pierson thinks that all his students are John Hopkins worthy. If only he knew of the slowness I harbored. Oh well. I have the grades to show for it. But I would like to prove his false notion of me to be true. But not right now at this moment. The night is too beautiful and smolderingly black to think about something as uptight and coiled as DNA. I would rather be eating some strawberry vanilla yogurt and be listening to some 90s pop music (the music of my youth) aimlessly making the lyrics my own personal mantra for just one night. Yes for just one night...
- Mood: rejuvenated
Yeah that’s a pic of the tower. It’s my favorite thing on campus because whenever I feel lost I always look for that beautiful tall tower. It’s like the North Star but I sure ain’t no Viking. I wish I were though cause who wouldn’t want a super duper name like Helga or Olga. That’s right I used to be a big fan of Hagar the Horrible but I promise I’m not anymore. I’m a grown woman with responsibilities and gosh I hate these responsibilities. Like going to class. That’s like a major responsibility. Once again I was late for English so I had to take the secret back door and slip in before ERG saw me. I would think that having her talk about Pushkin would make me wanna wake up and scurry down to class. But my body thought otherwise. I blame it on the weather. Or maybe had she spoke about Dostoyevsky instead…I would have had some real motivation. Or maybe it was just the thought of facing that horrendous eco test. Geesh that class SUCKS! It’s soo bad and I am doing soo bad in there. I avoid it like the plague but somehow the black death always comes back to haunt me in the form of a gpa ruining test. Not like you can ruin my gpa any furthur but still. The prereqs I have to take for pharm school…I don’t get why U of H requires ECO304k. When I asked they said it was to help you become a more well-rounded student. Great. I don’t even have a choice on choosing what makes me a unique candidate for pharm school. Time is such a constraint. Blah. It’s like you have to take all these science classes with your pre-med/dent/pharm school buddies and then you are exposed to a whole new atmosphere of frosh business school kids. I overhear the convos of people in class (when I actually do go to class that is) and they complain about taking calculus k and l and then I just go in my head mayne stop complaining…wait until you take ochem and then realize that business majors don’t ever have to take such classes. But I don’t know. It’s not entirely the people that make the class soo horrible. I’m just not interested in the topic of economics because there is a lot of that increasing and decreasing type of crap. Stuff like up and down and left and right confuses the heck out of me. You know stuff that is always split into two. I know it sounds absurd but like who cares about positive and negative externalities anyway. The world would be a better place without externalities. That really screwed me up on the test today. Great I sound like some pathetic froshling. Anyways enough ranting about something I put my self through and didn’t pull my self out in time. But whatever. That’s life. It’s not fair or else we would all just be albino.
Phew got that out of my system. Anyways after eco, we had persuasive speech presentations in speech class. A lot of them were not really that interesting but not boring either. A lot of them were about why football is so important and how the CEC is better than the Big 12 and other stuff that I am not really informed about nor interested in. Sorry just being honest. Everybody has her and his own interests and tastes. So deal with it. But then there were some that kept me awake. One girl did a speech on how physicians should use induced suicide for the terminally ill patients. She argued in favor of that and carried her argument well and supported her reasons clearly but I don’t know I still wasn’t really convinced. I know the sick people are suffering and all but you can’t just kill them off because they are miserable. There has got to be a way to make them emotionally happy even though they are physically melancholic and just a plain vegetable. Like how can happiness be erased completely from someone’s life? I don’t want to even think about such a think and I know I’m sounding really irrationally stubborn but I don’t effin care. I do believe that the saddest of them all can be brought up in spirit under the right care. We cannot let medicine and stuff like induced suicide help us end our suffering. Suffering does only increase with time but to get through the hurdles of time people should turn to forms of happiness. Just killing them off or giving them pain relievers is kind of an easy way out sort of thing. I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be done. Yeah for some life threatening cases it’s only logical but it seems like people out there are just taking Ritalin, valium and other drugs as supplements. A couple weeks ago I went to go talk to a learning specialist at the UTLC and she was like there were two ways that I could be accommodated if I actually did have a learning disability. One way was to go visit a shrink and get a prescription. This was the less expensive route. The other way was to take a series of standardized tests and based on the results it would be determined what type of special accommodations I would need. The latter of course was more expensive. I of course did nothing because I didn’t believe in taking a pill to help me concentrate better. I mean there is soo much a drug can do. Maybe after pharm school I will change my opinion. Until them I’m just going to do everything herbally or not treat it at all unless it’s a life/death situation type of thing.
Anyways that went off at a total secant. Another speech was about how you should be more sensitive to people with anorexia. The girl that gave this speech was definitely not one of my favorite ones in the class because she is just so wickedly peppy and oh my gah my nail broke type of drama queen. But her presentation was pretty touching because I used to know someone who had this problem. This girl would seriously cut her food halfway and only eat half of it. If she ate anymore she would just feel so disgusting and poisoned from the culminating fat. And she would hate it when people watched her eat so she would take as much as she can just so that she didn’t seem so stingy about eating but then she could not finish it. She would only eat half of it anyway because only half of her was really there. But today the girl doesn’t have that problem anymore. Because she is not here. But she is not dead either. She is somewhere in between trying to choose where she wants to be. But she is doing okay.
Ok that went off at a total arctangent. But anyways I am soo glad that today is almost over and that tomorrow is finally here. I love Fridays because everybody just seems so full of energy. Speaking of energy I can’t wait to see all the performances at Jhalak tomorrow. I need an upbeat and random Bollywood song and dance sequence to pull me out of my Notes from the Underground disposition. Update tomorrow after the show!
- Mood:
blah
Speaking of happiness (what a great way to divert my attention…geesh I’m flighty) I am ECSTATIC that Obama got the presidency. I mean he is the first black president and all but finally since Clinton there is someone worthy in office. Here is some Obamawesomeness!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aop6Y9BBw
The Flobots are amazing!
Yesterday I went to the watch party in my dorm and of course there were enthusiastic Obama supporters because Obama is one of the few presidents in our history that actually got people in our age group to go out and vote and be active politically. For the first time in my life I actually cared about stuff like politics because <gasp> it does have an influence on me. Going from 19 to 20 is finally when I grew up and learned to actually be more mature and understanding. I learned to think for myself and for once a script was not set out in front out for me. Kind of scary because I’ve become a stranger to those who think they know me the best but to strangers I’ve become someone real. Yeah that did not make any sense. That’s what free coffee does to you….with like 6 packets of sugar. But anyways I’m soo glad that Obama won because in reality he just seems like the nicer guy compared to McCain. Also his family is waaay better too. Michelle Obama is just an amazing woman with her down to eartheness and she completely deserves to be first lady. She is just simply very admirable and she can dance way better than her husband. She is way better than those glamour-dosed Cindy McCains and Sara Palins. Also both Barack and Michelle seem like good parents because I bet their daughter is not gonna get knocked up anytime soon out of wedlock. Oooh that was inappropriately mean. Ok I’m mean. But I believe teenage girls should be less stupid and not get pregnant. The boys get off scotch free and the girl just has to face the punishment herself. So don’t put yourself in that position girls.
I’m not liking Conservative people at the moment (actually I never really liked them ever which is funny because I grew up with quite a few). Especially Palin and her beliefs. Like it’s okay for her daughter to get knocked up out of wedlock and not okay for two people who love each other to get married. Yes I am referring to her support for prop. 8. It sucks how it just got past in Cali yesterday. I thought out of all the places in the world Cali would be the one least likely to pass it. But it happened. I see on Yahoo Answers that some people are really sad and this completely saddens me too. It just shows how there still needs to be some change done to our society.
But I’m baffled too on this whole proposition 8 thing and the whole homophobia towards the gay community. Why cannot people accept stuff like love? I mean love is love. How can you deny someone a right because of who they love. I know some people argue that marriage is between a man and a woman but I say that it should be about between two people who love each other. Because what exactly distinguishes a man between a woman? The only difference I see is anatomical. I don’t think we should be marrying body parts. I completely (yes that means totally) believe marriage should be a symbol between the joining of two hearts. It’s all about love. Family is all about love. It’s as simple as that. Why don’t some people understand such a simple idea? We live in the friggin 21st century and tolerance should not be a taboo subject. People that are for prop. 8 say that they don’t want their kids to be influenced. I think that’s complete bullshit. Seriously. In elementary school we learn about respecting other people’s differences and base the golden rule on that. Why should the gay community be excluded in that? Kids are bound to know what the labels gay, lesbian and bi mean anyways when they grow up. I sure did. Stuff like homosexuality and sex in general were not discussed at all in my very conservative household. So I was always left in the dark and not such a nice person in the past as a result. But now after coming here I just did a complete 180 and felt foolish for being left in the dark. Like how can I be so fucking ignorant? Like Faust I too can unlock the secrets of life but I don’t need Mephistopheles to help. All I know that when you love someone, you should not be punished for it. Because there are people out there who are unfortunate enough to not know how to love at all. I would point out some names but that would not make me a good daughter and I need to be one right now because later on that might change. Some things don’t last forever but I know love does. So please no to prop. hate. Let people marry and start a family with who they love. Because speaking from experience love is an important part of marriage. I used to think that an arranged marriage was the better choice. But then I realized that I don’t have a choice if I do fall hard for that someone. The heart doesn’t listen to the mind at all no matter how badly you try to discipline it and all you do is run down the stairs ready to destroy your destiny but you don’t care because there is no destiny without….mayne I’m sorry. I’m supposed to forget stuff I don’t like to remember. Everyone is telling me to forget and forgive. But I can’t. I can only pretend. It’s only time to pretend.
That got abruptly serious. But I’m going to apply what I learned from the Late Mr. Rogers right now. I am going to take a trip to the land of make-believe. Ooh look it’s Prince Tuesday and King Friday! I had such a crush on Prince Tuesday back in the day. Yeah crush on a puppet. Lame. But he was not really different than my other past crushes. Probably even better than some. I’ve always wanted a magic trolley. Sucks that I wouldn’t be able to drive it. Geesh responsibility <scoffs> and obligations <gags> Gotta go to Ochem. I’ll be updating everyday since it’s national blogger’s month…and I have a lot of steam to give off. I am so totally exothermic and no it is not that time of the month again. That was last week so expect me to be chipper bitches.
So it has already been two weeks of school and I am just starting to take stuff in seriously now. I have pretty good professors this semester. They’re hard but lecture is interesting (well except for Bocknack but there’s not much he can do to make it interesting cause he’s one of those guys that are naturally inclined to be boring). My favorite class right now is of course genetics because Pierson is such a twisted, weird, cool, intelligent in a smart alecish way, and enthusiastic guy. He’s more of a philosopher though and that’s always a good thing because Professor Lupher from last year did not really teach us philosophy so I missed out on that while taking Intro. to Philosophy. I guess I’m getting it now. Pierson’s quizzes are very out of the “safe” genetic curriculum. We never really get that deep into the genetics into his class or office hours so that’s maybe why I like the class so much. I like being fed the unexpected to my aging self. But anyways here are some sample questions and answers that were on our first quiz that we had to memorize word for word to receive any credit.
- What is Genetics?
Genetics is the study of passing characteristics from one generation to the next.
(Pierson would seriously count the answer wrong if we wrote “from one generation to another” according to our TA because the word another does not mean the same thing as “the next”.)
- What is the modern definition of philosophy?
It is the academic study devoted to the systematic examination of basic concepts such as knowledge, truth, existence, reality, causality and freedom.
(On the quiz I had 5 out of the 6 things down and I could not absolutely think of the last one in time. It was “truth”. How ironic. Out of that list I cherish that one the most but I forget it the first…wait no…I like freedom better.)
- What is the philosophy of science?
It is the branch of philosophy that sets boundaries on what is and what is not science.
(Wow this was a major surprise to me who used to think that everything had to do with science. Wait…what’s science then and why does it have boundaries? Is there such thing as a science council up in the sky determining what is and is not science? Why does such thing exist? Aren’t boundaries the root of all evil. Isn’t that why there are wars because people are so separated by boundaries drawn by themselves. Life goal that I will never get around to doing because I have lassitude: “get rid of all these boundaries”.)
- According to the philosophy of science, what two criteria can only science consider when dealing with an idea?
The two criteria are that the idea must be ABOUT the physical universe and the idea must be falsifiable.
(Pierson really stresses the word ABOUT rather than using the word IN because of the whole thing about how a person’s mind is not part of the physical universe. So every time someone tells you “Are you out of your mind?” just say to them “Actually my mind is out of myself because it is not part of the physical universe which my body inhabits.”)
- Define falsifiable.
An idea is falsifiable if we can imagine observations that we can make in the physical universe to disapprove that idea.
(So basically this says that people who have a big imagination or rather a broad imagination, everything is falsifiable to them. So even with a really big scope of the pseudo world, they are doomed to falsify almost any idea that gets thrown to them. So sad. Poor people don’t have hope if truth does exist because everything is falsified due to their ridiculously imagined observations. But then what do people do with truth anyways? The truth is just there…sitting and watching us. Oh no I interpreted that answer completely wrong but I don’t have the willpower to backspace because I just wrote the truth according to me and that’s pretty hard to erase if you really ask me. Well for me it is and I’m just too weak at the moment right now. <reaches over for a Gatorade>).
- Why according to the philosophy of science, can science never prove anything true?
There is always more than one explanation for a particular experiment and the particular experimental outcome cannot distinguish between those two explanations.
(This was the thing that kept my head up in class. He just went on talking about how science could not prove anything true when I believed that science was the key to the truth. But I guess I was just comparing science to the stuff religious fanatics come up with and with that it seemed more true. I like this definition and I got this one right on the quiz for sure. I like how confused the particular experimental outcome is when it comes distinguishing between those TWO explanations. I mean it’s just two things it needs to make a difference between. Is that so hard? The experimental outcome is so powerless and I find it kind of funny…or something that I can relate to. I love spinning paint and how in the middle of the paper all the colors get so blurry like chocolate vanilla swirl pudding being shaken up.)
- Why does science not define reality?
Science only considers a limited range of ideas.
(Good thing I’m not a reality major because then I would have to read waaaay much more because if I read this much for science and science only considers a limited range of ideas. Imagine reading reality. That is a lot of pages to read. I guess that is where that phrase “I am reading the world as a book” comes from.)
- If we cannot prove anything in science, what is the value of science?
Science tries to make accurate predictions. As we go from hypothesis to theory to law, the two things that increase are the number of trials and the generality of the predictability of the idea.
( well wasn’t that a mouthful. This just reminds me of physics labs and all those trials our prof. made us do to improve our accuracy. So according to this it is better to be accurate rather than to prove something to be true. But people are always set out on proving stuff. Like lawyers are trying to prove that their client is innocent. Mathematicians try to prove that a certain theorem does work. Pharmaceutical companies try to prove that their drug is the best for your body and your condition. What if we told someone that they were more right but not completely right about something rather than just saying “you’re right”? Confusing as heck I tell ya.)
- What is one reason we study philosophy?
It gives us an opportunity to examine our fundamental assumptions.
(yes let us torture ourselves by making the simple fundamental things complicated by examining them while preaching that a sign of intelligence is to make the complicated simple. Intelligence is something I clearly lack.)
- Define gene.
It is a nucleic acid sequence (DNA or RNA) that codes for a RNA transcript. The term gene is imprecise so that means it can refer to allele or locus.
(now this is what you are supposed to expect on a BIO 325 quiz. Expectations are boring.)
- Define Locus.
A locus is the location on the DNA where the code for a particular characteristic is found.
(cut, dry, and simple…and the definition is in the word itself…perfecto!)
- Define allele.
An allele is a particular sequence of nitrogenous bases found at a locus that codes for a particular characteristic.
(remember that allele is a particular sequence of nitrogen bases that are found at the locus while the locus is the actual location on the DNA…<processing>………..<process complete>.)
- Mood: lazy
My dad’s brother (the ogre I was referring to earlier) also decided to sit with our family (which consists of my mom, dad, bro and sis….what?!…I’m being honest and telling the truth according to my heart) and watch this special. My dad’s brother is the most negative, offensive and unlikable man I’ve ever met in my whole 19 years of existence. All he does is criticize people because that’s all he can do. And it’s not constructive criticism either. Actually none of it is. He is always comparing Indian culture and American culture and of course being his callous self makes American culture seem inferior. He forgets that his nieces and nephews are part of that culture. Actually he doesn’t forget…he just doesn’t fuckin know the reality. It hurts to hear someone constantly telling you that your way of life is flawed and inferior. Like who the hell is he to decide what is inferior or superior. He aint God. This is fuckin America and there is no such thing as inferior or superior. There is only a path of opportunity that people take to get the most they WANT from life (not need, WANT). And they are free to think for themselves and dream. My dad’s brother doesn’t seem to get that people think for themselves. This is probably because he grew up in a society (not country…I blame society) where thinking without an authority figure shoving some propaganda down your throat. He’s trying to be the authority figure in my family’s home but I’ll make sure he’s ousted before he ever gets to think of himself as throned. In my family we all love each other (and knowing that is considered an accomplishment compared to other families I know) and we live with each other in a way where everybody is equal despite of their age, gender or qualifications. Of course my parents have some authority among us chillun (I love how that word just fit so perfectly in that sentence) because after all they are parents and it’s their job to protect us from any harm that we may not know about. But we all respect what we have to say to each other and we hear everyone out (even Paul, with his pea sized brain, gets a voice in our mini democracy) and no one practices dictatorship. We have debates but our debates are many sided instead of the one-sided that dad’s brother is used to.
Gosh I hate his eating complaints. My mom has to slave in the kitchen and make all this damn hard to cook Indian food and I hate to watch her get tortured for a man that is not worth a piece of cow shit. And on top of that he complains. Omg like has anyone ever complained about my mom’s food?! People beg for recipes instead. And she tries to make it super perfect because after all my dad’s brother is her older brother in law who she is obliged to respect. He also nitpicks at what we kids eat and is always giving unwelcomed diatribe about how American food is insipid. If you fuckin hate America then why the fuck are you here! Go back to where you came from (and I don’t mean India…I’m talking about Hell…I used to believe that Hell did not exist (b/c in Hinduism there is reincarnation) but I will start to believe it does just for them). And then that excuse for a man complains. He should just ask his female to cook for him. But his female doesn’t give a shit about him so she never cooks for him or cares about his gout problem. But she should because isn’t that what a wife is for? I guess the Indian culture my dad’s brother is from has a very different concept of marriage. People don’t marry the other person because that person is their better half. Seeing them now I don’t get why they ever married but I just put it up to God for putting two obnoxious people together so that he can spare two other innocent people from misery. Their kids are probably feeling salvation for the first time in their lives since their parents are thousands of miles away while me and my siblings and my mom are trapped in damnation due to our bad luck. That’s a really horrible thing to say…all of it is…but I just speak the truth from observation. There is definitely more but I don’t want to overwhelm my readers. Just writing about them brings their negativity closer and that is never good.
But I will tell yall one thing. I will do whatever I have in my power to teach them a lesson or at least send them a message about how unliked and unwelcome they are in my family’s home. I already have started to minor things that may earn me the title of Bitch or Mean Girl but I am willing to swallow that than take anything that man has to say. Deleting his music from our family computer and password protecting the comp and deleting the guest account is a start. At least now I can sleep in peace in the morning. But wait…his female with her loud voice screeching will probably ruin it. I can hear her upstairs when she’s downstairs. Arrrrggghh! If only she had a delete button on her too. It sucks that we don’t live in an RPG world. Life would be sooo much easier dealing with all these difficult people. But that’s not going to stop me from dealing with them. If I have to break my reputation then so be it. I’m doing it for love anyway and I hate to see the people I love suffer at these people’s expense.
Amazingly all my family members suffer – even my dad. I feel extremely sorry for him because he’s the type of guy that never talks his feelings out and takes everything in. And to top it off his older brother still thinks he can boss my dad around. There are probably a million reasons my dad is better than his older brother. I guess the whole inferiority and superiority thing applies here….No I know it applies here. I just wish my dad doesn’t take all that negativity and ruin himself. I want him to talk it out but he never gets a moment alone with his family because of work and his brother constantly nagging the crap out of him. Well it’s not like he would say anything to me because of the not so close relationship we have. But he has to talk to someone or vent somehow. After all this I’ve decided I need to appreciate all that he is done for me despite me thinking of myself as his little trophy. We have about 30 minutes each night to spend with our family (which I remind you is my mom, my dad, my sis, my bro and me) while “those people” go to sleep. It’s the best thirty minutes of the entire day and I don’t want to ruin it with complaints or any mention of those people. I have to enjoy the time with the people I know I love because time is not infinite.
And speaking of love that reminds me of the amazing thing Randy Prausch said in his previous interview with Diane Sawyer. I can’t remember the entire thing verbatim but it was something like you cannot rule out that something does exist based on what you cannot see. Like for example, you should believe in fairies because how do you know they don’t exist. Just because you can’t see them? The same thing goes for love. It’s something that does exist but we can’t see it. And mayne isn’t that the truth. But one day I do wish to see it or have someone see it at least and then tell me about it so that I can write about it. Until then I’ll just have to paint it on my wall like Prausch recommends.
- Mood:indescribable
Ok this is the horrible thing that I hated walking by every morning on my way to class.
Good thing I don’t have to anymore. I’m tired of pro-lifers stopping me and telling me what a horrible place Planned Parenthood is. Like I don’t know that already. This does not mean I’m pro-life or anything because I am actually pro-choice but I’m not pro-abortion. Geesh that made no sense at all but whatever. I don’t know where I stand on the abortion issue. Right now in my life I consider myself pro-choice but who knows later on when I actually become a mother I will probably change my mind. Or I may not. I understand how it’s my body and how the government shouldn’t interfere with it or have any rights over it. The media already does a great job with telling girls how to look and what they should wear. Sorry we are not above the influence. We are actually 6 feet under. And what about prostitutes? Wouldn’t that interfere with their job? Even though it’s not a respectable way of life, it does end up happening. It has been happening for ages. The prostitutes can’t have a baby because it would totally interfere with the product they are advertising in order to make profit. For them getting pregnant is a form of disability and they don’t have any disability insurance for it. It sounds ridiculous and it is probably completely untrue because I don’t have the fortune of personally knowing a prostitute in real life. I’m just speaking from what I read. But this is what I do know. I know that I myself cannot ever do it no matter what the circumstances. I may say that I hate kids and I do but I don’t hate them enough to kill my own. That sounds really pro-life right there but don’t put a label on me. I’m not a drug that needs to be prescribed or an empty soup can. People forget that these babies grow up into people. And it only takes one person to be another person’s entire world. What if your child could become your entire world? Would you surrender it to a biotic black hole? What if your child could become someone else’s entire whole world? Would that be fair to the other person to deprive them of their whole world? The brochures and pamphlets the pro-lifers gave me last week talked about Margaret Sanger and how she promoted eugenics. They made eugenics sound like it was the worst thing in the world. But don’t we do it to animals anyway and fruits also? Both are living organisms. And so are humans. I’m not promoting eugenics myself but I’m not against it either. I don’t know where I stand. But guess what?! I don’t fucking care because today was the last day of class WOOooo HOOoo! I’m gonna miss Torskaya and how we would all glance at each other incredulously every time she pulled out that triangle or said 5 more minutes. <snickers>. Physics is just so philosophical and I’m surprised that they consider it a science because I think it is more of an art. Speaking of art and physics, look at this:
Appledork
- Mood: full
- Mood:dorky
Geesh I haven't updated this thing in like a fortnight and a lot has happened since then! I started taking physucks (a favorite word of Diana's that she kept on imposing upon me almost every time she had physics lab last semester) and volunteering at my dream workplace: The Methodist Hospital. Life has been so busy but slow mo ever since then. Physucks is sooo easy and I think everybody should take it at HCC if they need to clean up their gpa like I do. Professor Torskaya is just so adorable with her Ukranian (or is it Russian I could never really distinguish between the two) accent. She really can't teach it well but I have an advantage because I was exposed to the Behrenator's geniousness. So during class I always try to participate but she never calls on me (or this other smart asian kid who goes to Baylor) because I guess she can't pronounce my name or she forgets it. Instead she calls on this guy named Robert because he does not have an exotic sounding name. lol. Robert in his usually pissed state answers the question while the class laughs at Torskaya's discrimination.
You know what? I've decided I like all things scalar even though everything else around me says that I should be more vector. After all work is no good if you come back to where you started. I unfortunately have to do a lot of work this summer to set a foundation for my future (wow I sound like an ITT tech commercial). Need to start applying for that pharm tech job because money is tight. There's just so much work and so little time. Hopefully I have the power to do it all. Wait....I do because isn't power defined as the capacity to do work over time. It's scalar. I love it. I'll go through with it. If not then in Tyra Bank's words I will grow through with it.
Speaking of growing, I'm earning major civic points volunteering at TMH. It's very tiring and at the end of the day I am exhausted and a mess but I don't mind. The nurses are really nice to me but despite knowing that I am a college student they still look at me like I'm a little girl. Half of them actually believe that I am in high school and I always have to correct them. I think the Olay Regenerist Face Cream my mom gave me is finally showing its effects. Or maybe it's just me watching the Suite Life of Zack and Cody during my lunch break. Oh well as long as I'm liked I'm good. The patients are pretty cool for people that are actually sick. Despite having IV tubes attached to them and giving them an alien like appearance, they still come in peace. My favorite patient in room 660b always makes me happy to be there. She is always smiling despite whatever bodily pain she may feel and is glad to see me because I reminde her so much of her granddaughter that also attends UT Austin. Every time I walk in she always has something nice to say. However not all the patients are as sweet as her. Some are just plain weird. Like that one guy in room 666 (what a nice number) was nice but kind of creepy. Well I guess boys will be boys. But overall everybody at the hospital is nice (I know I overuse that adjective but nothing else fits so nicely). Hospital pharmacy doesn't seem so bad afterall. I mean who wouldn't want to wear those fashionable white collar lab coats. I'll probably pop my collar up and look all gangsta with my platinum mini formulary. Lol.
Omg I have to go to class now to get discriminated by Torskaya. But before I leave I would like to dedicate a few words of positivity to that really awesome person who thinks I should be a motivational speaker. You should really say this to yourself because it just might be true.
"The sun is on my side.
Take me for a ride.
I smile up to the sky.
I know I'll be all right. "
Appledork
Carpe Diem Seize the day!
However, I had to get rid of my antisociality (made up word i know) because I got to meet the gang for lunch today. I got to see Ricky, Boyden, Nenna, Allison, Jansy, Rohama, Cece and my favorite bamf. Lunch was fun with all of Nenna's remarks about the food and Allison talking about how she didn't get to buy her handbag. I'm glad I have these fun people in my life. Our waiter was ghetto though just like the many things here in my part of Houston. It's not a bad thing...it's just different. I had a Five Cheese Ziti Pasta thingamabober and it was filling because of course it was five cheese. I didn't feel like eating anyway because I still felt woozy and was afraid that I might throw up if I ate it too fast because stuff like that would happen to me. I choke on everything all the time. Yes even food is dangerous for me along with hazardous heels.
For dinner I got to go to my cousin Amy's house who by the way is the coolest Aggie I ever met. We watched the spelling bee with all those smart brown kids and I learned a couple of new vocab words that I plan on implementing in my daily jargon. Kulturkampf is something we need to eliminate in our political system today. I really commend those kids for knowing how to spell words. People may think it is just spelling words and worthless memorization but I disagree. The kids learn etymology which helps them make bias towards the appearances and noises the words make. So basically if a word like "esclandre" pops up somewhere they know it's french and it means scandal so it's said in a catty sort of way. I find some words impossible to say in a monotonous tone. Like how can you say the word "sex" or "intercourse" with like zero emotion. That also goes for the word "soiree" which means an elegant party. You HAVE to hold your pointy nose up in the air and pronounce it all french like. I don't know. Words I think have their own identity even if they are just nouns or verbs. Yes I know it's called connotation but I don't know. I feel it's something beyond that. Like for people there is more to them to knowing them than just their personality. Well I think I am getting woozy again. Got to go sleep because Dr. Mom really suggests that and as a future pharmacist in training always listens to a doctor's orders.
- Mood:
weird
- Mood:
pensive
And that was a good thing today because that is what I needed for my interview. It went pretty well if you do have to ask. I had to go for a health screening afterwards which included a drug and tb test. You know what sucks?! Not having enough urine in your damn cup. The nurse was like it has to be past this line and I was like okay this can't be so bad. But when I squatted down it just wouldn't come out. I was expecting the Nile to come pouring through because I drank up before but instead I got a leaky faucet instead. But with time my vagina anxiety subsided and I finally got to past the mark and the nurse gave me a suspicious look when i walked out. Oh well. Afterwards I had to go get a chest x-ray done in lieu of my TB test because I'm a damn alien. I guess it's better than getting pricked by a needle. But I would rather get pricked by a needle any day ;)
So after I got all the administrative stuff done, I decided to walk around downtown and I found myself in a store called the Newsbox or something like that (the sign was too inconspicuous for my callous mind to remember). I know it was something box. Well anyways the thing that caught my eye was Harper's Bazaar. Nicole Richie was on it and she doesn't look THAT anorexic anymore. She actually looks presentable. Then above that they had Vogue with Sarah Jessica Parker of course and the funny thing was right next to that they had a men's vogue called Vogue Men. Now the question is what guy would actually have the bawls to buy that magazine when GQ was right there with Shia LaBeouf on it looking all "manly". And there was the special Maxim Hot 100 issue or something like that where they list the 100 most hot women in the celebrity world. So the placing was all wrong for Vogue Men. I guess that is just my opinion. But being the optimistic person I am (or maybe was this morning) I saw it as a form of gender equality. Dichotomy is one thing that I deeply support and it's nice to have two versions of something that is thought to be strictly feminine. It just makes me think that the world is doing something right or what I myself consider to be right. Hopefully they'll have a CosmoBoy or a WQ magazine in the future. That will be interesting.
Speaking of interesting I have to go do something really interesting right now. May the force be with you.
Hello All! I finally decided to start working on this online journal because these past couple of days I’ve been thinking (yes I really do think) that I am not getting any younger so what better way to preserve my fading youth. Also being cooped up in my sister’s room is kind of a bore and youtube can only be so interesting. Also I am kind of feeling down lately for no apparent reason. I think it’s that time of the month again so I finally took advice from my not so official mental health counselor who told me writing is therapeutic and that I should vent out my feelings (Yes it’s true I really do harbor them) whenever I feel necessary. It looks very not me layout wise because I don't have my desktop with the photoshop anymore. Along with my paper journal and my other treasures even that is in the garage.
But life is poppin like Robert Muraine on So You Think You Can Dance. If you haven’t seen him Pop his bod you really need to check it out cause that guy is A-MAZE-ING!! They really do save the best for last. Seriously. Here it is:
I didn’t even know what Poppin was but after seeing this I love it! (Yes I’m going to write the word Poppin with a capital P) The only downside to his performance was Mary Murphy’s annoying laughs. GAWD she sounds like Donald Duck had too much crack or something. Sorry I could not come up with a better description. Too tired. I guess I should stop writing because I need to help with the barbecue that’s going on right now because I am after all the good daughter. The bad daughter showed me this:
It’s Russian Coke! I promise it’s the good kind :)
*Appledork Ah-Gah-Pey!*
- Mood: blah
