In lab news, my research is really picking up. I'll mention a few progress points here. I'm going to start helping out with a second project this or next week to study inhibitory circuits in primary somatosensory cortex. In regards to my transparent brain project, there is unfortunately a lot of time left before my brains will actually become transparent, so in the meantime, I need to figure out the best way to image them. Hopefully my tracer worked and I will be able to successfully map projections in 3D! My main focus right now is probably going to be building a contraption to hold brains in for microscopy. For a detailed research description more than I've given here, you can see BU's Undergraduate Neuroscience page. Last week in GA groups we presented preliminary talks to practice for the end of the summer. Mine was by far the presentation with the biggest cool factor. In addition to the required background and methods, I also presented "results," which were actually just my control transparent mouse brains that you see pictured on BU's website. Not my real results, but hey, it looks awesome and everyone loved it!
I also had a super fun Friday, for once! After lab I went to Saturn Cafe, a vegetarian diner! I had a really awesome veggie burger with delicious onion rings.
After dinner at Saturn, I went to go see Brave, finally! The best part about the movie was the theater. I've never seen one so fancy!!!!!! We sat on giant comfy couches, and the theater was decorated like an old Egyptian tomb, or something similar. It was so elegant and by far the best movie theater I've ever been to. And, the other best part was that the student rate was only $8!!!!!!!!!!
And here is Scrat during the Ice Age commercial!!!! I love squirrels :).
I won't say anything about Brave to not spoil it for those who haven't yet seen it. Yes, it's Pixar, so by default it must be good, but I, like the many others who told me this before I went to go see it, did have some issues with it. I probably shouldn't say more than that so that I don't get chased after with pitchforks and angry mobs for spoiling the movie.
...And this timeline about evolution in the Bay Area!
Finally made it to the ballpark, which was really cool! They had giant statues which I could see from the outside, and it just looked like a fun place to be able to see a baseball game.
After coming back from SF, I had lunch at Smart Alec's, a fast food place near my dorm. I had a lovely eggplant sandwich and way too many fries for my stomach to take, but that's okay because it was all delicious. I then wandered around Berkeley with some of the girls from my program, went clothes shopping at another Cal gear store we discovered and just general wandering through a lot of the places I walk by all the time but never get the chance to go in. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon.
Sunday was our last organized activity (they figure now that we're halfway through the program, we should all know each other enough by now and be able to plan our own activities). Our final activity was biking across the Golden Gate Bridge. This may seem like the coolest thing ever until you remember that SF is notorious for being foggy ALL THE TIME. See below for what a sample view of the city looked like that day.
Yeah, not so fun when you can't see anything. I of course had a good time (despite the many hills we had to go up to get to the bridge), but I do wish that we had actually been able to see more of the view/bridge than we did.
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| Very pretty view of the shoreline below |
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| Biking group! |
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| Some friendly pelicans I saw on the way back! |
For my not organized by the program activities, no definite plans have been made yet for either the 4th of July or the upcoming weeks. I have a general idea of what I would like to do and will of course post all of the details of my adventures when I have them! In the short term, I will mostly be focusing on making sure I get all of the necessary data for my projects, making sure I actually start to seriously study vocab for my GRE, which I've still yet to register for, and finishing up and finalizing the list of grad schools I'll be applying to in the fall. I refuseeeeeee to believe this is all coming up so soon and my program is already halfway done. No, no, I have no desire to go one step closer to being in the real world :(
You should try to catch the bridge in the early afternoon (after 11am or so, but before 2pm), which is when the fog has usually lifted and not yet come back in. Of course, it depends on the particular day, but those times are your best shot for a good view. I hope you have good weather for tonight!
ReplyDeleteAlso, email me about Brave. I thought it was one of the best-put-together Pixar stories yet, and I'm curious why it's so polarizing.
Sonia