"Peas, can I have some more?"

This morning at work, a friend opened up Google to search for something, and the Google icon was made of peas.  I said in passing: "Peas? Is it Mendel's birthday or something?"  Indeed, it is the anniversary birth date of Mendel, aka the Father of Genetics.

It is an apt day for me to take notice, as in the future I will probably most likely be getting to know Mendel, his work and legacy quite extensively.  This fall will be the start of my forays into the world of genetics, officially as a PhD student in Human Genetics.  Sound fancy, eh?  Fancy schmancy... what it really means is that I will dive headfirst into a 4-6 year program (if not longer) that will consist of classwork and a massive amount of lab work.  I will need pick a topic that no one has yet to explore, form testable hypotheses, do extensive experimental research to test such hypotheses, produce conclusions that somehow make my results interesting to the whole of science, and then write up the entire process in boring esoteric language that only other nerds in the field can decipher.  If I am successful at performing all those steps, I will earn three letters at the end of my name.

I must be a glutton for punishment, yeah?  That thought has crossed my mind many times.  Even as I am writing this I think I'm absolutely mental.  But then the nerd inside reminds me of how long I've wanted to be in this position, to be able to study genetics in depth, to play with DNA, to have the opportunity to discover something new... and I get excited all over again.

Oh Baby!

Delinquincy

My name is Xuan, and I am a delinquent "blogger."  Yes, it seems that the more things I have/want to write about, the less time I have to write.  To compound the issue, as the frequency of posts decrease day by day, the energy that I must summon to write a new post increases exponentially.  All blames aside, I have been just too lazy to articulate my thoughts into meaningful words.  It is sufficient to conclude, then, that my new year's resolution list has been thrown out like yesterday's news?  ....Or has it?

My resolution list as of January 3, 2011:

1.  Write more often, at least 1 post per week.

2.  Spend less!!! no more spontaneous shopping sprees, no more impulsive buys.

3.  Keep organized: no more hoarding of junk, give away more stuff, thin out closet

4.  Use up more products

5.  Keep up with friends

6.  Drink more water

7.  Procrastinate less

8.  Pictures: take more, learn PS skillz, make prints

9.  More tree-hugging.

10. More nerd.

Safe to say that #1 (Kate who?), #2 (while the spontaneity factor is somewhat under control, my money has been dissipating faster than dry ice on a hot day) , #4 (negated by # 2), #6 (popcorn with water just ain't right), #7 (who am I kidding?!), and #8 (dust has collected on my camera) have been circling the drain, if not flushed away, for a while now.

But, I've not completely fallen off the treadmill... at least not yet anyways:

#3 More organization, less hoarding: I've managed to declutter my life quite a bit, showing no mercy to useless junk that I've held on since middle school; the shredder became a good friend and the guy that works at the receiving dock at Good Will knows me by name.  I've bought nifty carts and containers in an attempt to stay organized ... it's mildly better than before, but the jury's still out on my organization skills.

#5 Keep up the friendships:  Phone calls count, right?  Right.

#9 Tree hugging: Reduce, reuse, recycle... I remember it most of the time.  I've stopped to smell the roses a few times, literally. 

#10 More nerd:  This is the one thing that I can say with an absolute, 100%, positive, unequivocal YES, I DID!  It may or may not have been entirely deliberate since January, but it's the only thing that I've kept to and the only thing that's keeping me from flying off my treadmill of a resolution list.  

I'll admit, 40% is pretty miserable, but with a little more than four months left, there is still hope for us all.

Fairy tales do exist

In a world currently dealing with the aftermath of tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, famine and diseases, it takes only a kiss to awaken the promise of love that lays amidst peril.  The kiss seen around the world seals the marriage between Prince William and Catherine Middleton, who will now be known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The pomp and circumstance of the royal wedding is straight out of a fairy tale.  The magnificent church, the handsome prince and beautiful princess,  the diamond-encrusted tiara, the horse-drawn carriage... it is all spectacularly surreal.  The story of Prince Charming and Cinderella live on through the marriage of William and Kate.

I have to confess though that I was much envious of Kate, so much so that I told my sister last night that I wouldn't watch any part of the wedding.  I had such an epically abnormal crush on Prince William in high-school that I collected anything and everything that had his face on it.  This included numerous photos of his head that I cut out and a book titled William.  Even my friends knew of my obsession and I began receiving souvenirs with his face plastered on it.  One of my friends even framed a photo of him laying in the sands on some coast and gave it to me as a present.  My history teacher visited England and came back with a spoon with William's face at the handle for me.  I dreamed about going to England and meeting him by chance, and of course, falling in love and becoming a princess.  I made the trip to England in 2008 and visited the Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, but alas, we never did chance upon each other.

 My obsession with William has since significantly subsided; his face no longer gives me the butterflies and weak knees like before.  Yet, why did jealousy still reared its ugly head?  Did I wish it the princess was me instead?  That's no entirely untrue. But then as I watched the replays of the wedding, something kicked the jealousy straight in the face and reassured me of the happiness and promise that's out there in this world.  Before the ceremony commenced, William was standing next to his bride, Kate, whose father had just walked her down the grand isle.  In a private moment of unguarded happiness, William looked at Kate through her silk veil, and whispered, "You're beautiful."

Love is, indeed, beautiful.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday/Thursday-ish

Spring 2011 has arrived.

Good to the last drop

I may be out on a limb all by myself when I say that I get really, I mean really, excited when I finally use the last drop/swipe/sticky bit of a product.  This giddy excitement pertains mainly to health & beauty related stuff, as I can't remember ever getting excited over finishing the last potato chip or the last spoonful of ice-cream.  Rather, with food related products, I get quite sad when the container goes empty.  But since it takes me eons to finish a health & beauty product, I feel quite accomplished when I see the shiny pan underneath the compact, or squeeze out the last bit of that unending cream.  Really the only things that I use up on a regular bases are shampoo and conditioner, and toothpaste.  I've not even ever fully finished a stick of deodorant!  So for a 2011 resolution, I've been consciously working on finishing my products... I mean really work on finishing them... because some of them just refuse to die out!!!!

This photo is so deceiving because it looks like I go through stuff pretty well.  But some of these stuff I've had for YEARS!!!!

   

St. Ives scrub: I've had this exact same tube since sometime in fall of 2008.  It's still got a good half ounce left.
Hand soap: I remember buying this before going to England in the spring of 2008, and it's STILL not dead yet!  I reckon it'll be another 2 weeks before it dies.
Hand sanitizer:  I bought this around May of 2010 to put on my desk at work.  There's still a good 1oz left.
Toothpaste:  My best yet: newly cracked open sometime in September 2010, and not a drop left to squeeze out!  Whoo-hoo!


           
Crest whitestrips:  Technically these are my best since I used them up in 2 weeks.
Hand lotion:  This is a travel size (3oz) that I can't even remember when I got it, but it's always been around in my possession.  Because my hands get dry from constant washing at work, I began using this semi-full tube around May 2010.  It only relented and gave its last drop at the end of March 2011...
Eye makeup remover:  This 4oz bottle was purchased sometime in 2008, and it still has one or two uses before it's really d-o-n-e.
Mascara:  This tube was cracked open sometime in October 2010.  There's still a teeny tiny bit of product in the tube, but it's dried out and doesn't work as well anymore.

         

Pefumes:  I inherited this bottles from my sister.  They were almost empty and she didn't want them anymore, so I took them.  There was about 1oz left in each bottle when I started using them in 2008.... They're still good for a handful more spritzes.

Cotton rounds:  100 rounds, only 1.5 years to use up.

Cleanser:  3oz sample size, 1 year, still 1/3 full.... oy vey.

 

Face wipes:  10 count!!!! 10 count I tell you!!  And it only took me from September 2010 until now!
Face cream:  1oz sample jar.  November 2010-February 2011.

Making room for desserts: DIY chocolate strawberries

1.  Pick up some nice & juicy strawberries.  During V-day there were some in the supermarket that were specially packaged just for making chocolate strawberries.  These strawberries were JUMBo, perfectly picked & ripened, stem still attached, and going for $8 for a package of 8 strawberries.  If it was for an anniversary or something, I'd splurge for the JUMBo, but to be sure, the regular strawberries look AND taste just as delicious.

2.  Pick up some chocolates.  Milk, white, dark, mint... it doesn't matter.  I prefer a mix of dark & milk.

 3.  Set up a double-boiler, i.e. boil a pot of water and then put on a metal bowl on top to melt the chocolates.

 4.  If your strawberries had stems, use that to hold on to the fruit when dipping.  My strawberries did not survive with stem intact, so I had to use toothpicks.  Tricky business, these toothpicked strawberries.  After dipping in the chocolates, put them directly on a non-stick tray and into the freezer IMMEDIATELY.  If they are not immediately frozen, the chocolate will not solidify.

 5.  Optional.  With some chocolates left over, I dipped some bananas and sprinkled some granola on top.  Since bananas are not as dense, they need to be kept frozen for a while longer than the strawberries, lest they melt and get squishy.  Also, bananas oxidize very easily, so eat them quick or they will turn brown!

Interviewing odds n' ends

Some say that I have a very self-deprecating habit... I think that's not totally untrue.  From the very beginning of the application process, I had myself convinced that I would be lucky to just even get one interview, and possibly one shot of getting myself somewhere new.  I never fathom that I would get TWO interviews, both of which were my top choices.  Granted, I can guess at exactly why these two particular institutions invited me to interview, but this still was unexpectedly ... cool.

Without actually experiencing these interview rounds before, one would probably have thought as I did at the beginning:  awesome opportunity to travel to places, see new things, and be wined and dined all on someone else's dime!  Of course this opportunity was only for 1-2 days, but one can wish that it lasts forever, right?  Well, that was my mentality before the interviews, but not even after the first one was over, I seriously did not want to go through another one... ever.  There's always a catch to everything, and my catch was to make myself a most desirable candidate.  That's not such a bad deal if I were someone who has a stellar record with a mile-long list of accolades and accomplishments, or even someone with a gift for gab, someone who had swagger and can smooth-talk... I am not that someone, neither of them, to say the least.  In hindsight, then, 11 hot seats for those 3-4 days of schmoozing probably wasn't all that I cracked it up to be in the beginning.

Lessons learned:

• Interviews are draining on my mental health and physical health.  Overall, interviews are just bad for me.  I got sick after both, separately.
• Better to be overdressed than underdressed.  I may have looked silly in a suit, but I got the job!
• Must work on a firm handshake.
• The higher my anxiety level rises, the further to edge of the seat I get and the colder I become even though my I can feel the blood rushing to my cheeks.  
• Always nod in understanding, even if you don't understand.  Also, furrowed eyebrows are also helpful to convey deep thought.
• Check the weather forecast and recheck the weather forecast.  (If the weatherman predicts snow that day, don't be up a creek without a paddle, or like me, sock-less and in flats...)
• Valet park.... especially when there's a snow forecast. 
• The more windows and square feet of an office, the higher the position, the more nervous you should be.
• Oddly enough, those with the big offices and long titles, at least the ones I came across, were the most humbled and friendly and easy to talk to people of all.
• Read, read, re-read about people ahead of time.  Also, read, read, re-read your resume/CV ahead of time.
• Be prepared to be utterly brain-fried by the end of the interview day.  I was lucky enough to remember my name, and that was it. 

**My bum still has scorch marks. **