As of this moment in time, I can name and draw you the structures of all 20 amino acids. I probably won't be able to after Tuesday, but I can right now. 

We had to learn them for Orgo, and so our extra credit quiz today was to identify ten of them. And I aced it. Because I know them ALL.

Of course, the real question is when will I need this information later on in life? I'll have to be in a situation where:
1. I need to know the name for a structure or the structure for a name of a mystery amino acid, and
2. Be unable to look it up somewhere.

When is that ever going to happen? I mean, it's not inconceivable, but it seems unlikely.

Although, now that I know them, I'm tempted to make sure I always remember them. Just so I can show off. We'll see how that goes.



P.S. It was snowing when I came out of class this morning. On April 30th.
The following conversation just took place in my room:

Me: Abby, why is ATP crucial to the ligation reaction?
Abby: Because you're a whore.






I'm pretty sure it's because energy is needed for ligase to create the new phosphodiester bond between the 3 prime and 5 prime ends of the DNA backbone, but I'm not positive.

I haven't updated in a while, despite wanting to, because I have been studying Organic Chemistry like a FIEND. However, I just took the test (and it was AWFUL) so now I can do other things with my life.

Anyways, we all got dressed up and went to the Rugby Ball on Saturday, and I just have to say two things:

1. The Echo Center is so cool. And dancing in heels and a pretty dress amongst turtles and fishes made my life complete. Dude, it was awesome. That is the way to have a dance. If I'd had my way, I wouldn't have gone down to the dance floor (to be pushed around and elbowed out of the way by drunks) but stayed dancing upstairs with the frogs. It's not like you can't hear the music up there.

2. Boys have been going to dances since oh... about 5th grade. And they still look just as awkward and uncomfortable in their stiff button-up shirts and ties now, as they did then.

I did have a good time though. And I looked good. And Abby did my hair, and I danced provocatively with Nora, and it was fun. The music wasn't horrendous, and the people were... less drunk than usual.


Oh, and Abby and Phil and I saw Chicago at the Flynn yesterday. I really liked it (especially the glitter confetti), but BILLY FLYNN DID NOT TAP DANCE!! (These are my CAPSLOCK of rage and disappointment.) He was smarmy and fantastic, but I waited the entire show to see him tap dance, and he never did. :(  Also, Roxie looked like Liza Minelli from Cabaret. No, seriously. But I really did enjoy it.


Ok, that's all for the unexciting update on my life. I shall leave you with an Abby quote: "Sadly, I cannot do the tomato soup dance while carrying tomato soup."

Good Things About Today:
1. I got a 95 on my Animal Behavior presentation.
2. For housing this year, I will be drawing a number as a member of the class of 2008, because I have enough credits to be considered a rising senior. Which means I win.
3. I still have a boyfriend, and he is still awesome.


Bad Things About Today:
1. Molly Wobbles wobbles no more. She's been sick for a few days, floating around the bowl lop-sided and not eating, and she was dead when I woke up this morning. I am a terrible mother. I think Arthur's ok though.
2. There is no toilet paper to be had for love nor money in this building. This is rapidly becoming a problem.
3. I'm so tired I can barely type straight, and I can't nap because I have too much work to do.



Things I Don't Know How To Feel About Today:
1. It is one day closer to Spring Break, which means no classes, and seeing home people, but it also means that I have to start sleeping alone again (which I haven't done since I've been at school after the long weekend) and I don't get to see Dan and other at school people.
2. There were about 20 robins in a tree outside. While this means that spring is coming, they are totally going to die because there's still 3 feet of snow out there.
3. I have to go do a portfolio about bees now. Even though they are fascinating, they are still bees, and I'm not overly fond of bees.
Ok. I thought I could forget about this and not make it a big deal, but it's still irritating me, and this is my journal, so hey.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIES. What follows is my opinion, and only my opinion. As such, feel free to have a different one, but don't attack me for mine.


I keep hearing this ad for a spa on the radio, and it really grates against my feminist nerves. (Such as they are.)

Here's the ad, paraphrased: "American women will spend, on average, 150 hours of their lives waxing, shaving, and otherwise hating their body hair. If you come to *the spa we're advertising* we'll do all that waxing for you, and then you'll have oodles of free time, which you can use to go shopping."

Now, there are three things wrong with this,

1. It assumes that all women hate their body hair. Now, I'm no hippie non-shaver, but I know that they exist. Furthermore, what if I feel lukewarm about my body hair? Or just a slight distaste for it? Or only mild irritation with it? Don't go telling me how I feel about my body.

2. It assumes that only women have hair that they would like to remove from their bodies. Because there are no men in the world with unsightly back hair. No male bicyclists shave their legs. There are no male models that have their chests waxed. Obviously the makers of this ad have never seen The 40 Year Old Virgin.

3. This is the most infuriating one. This ad states, and I am not making this up, that if women had more free time, they would use it to GO SHOPPING. Not finish their Biology homework, or work on a cure for cancer, or even spend more time with their friends, or read, or hire a male prostitute to get them off. Nope. They'd go shopping. Why don't they just go the whole way then, and, since they know so much about women, tell us that what we'll be shopping for will obviously be lingere, so we can convince our husbands to knock us up, so we can bear their sons, and then have dinner on the table by 5:00.



I know it's just a stupid ad, but it makes me so mad. I do not hate my body hair, I do not want to go shopping, and I resent being generalized about like that.



Now I'm going to go do my Biology homework, so I can grow up to be an awesome biologist, cure AIDS, win a nobel prize, become rich and famous and not have to work anymore, and then use my free time to learn how to ride horses, and get a motorcycle license, and read The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and NEVER SHOP AGAIN. I will pay people to do it for me.
Way you know you're a science geek #5073:

You're trying to remember the name of the magazine from which you got your Ariel sweatshirt, and while you can't for the life of you come up with the word, you know that it's a science term that means "melting two or more metals down and combining them to make a stronger metal that has properties of those you melted down."

Yes, I can define Alloy, but I couldn't think of the word.

It's a good goddamn thing I'm a bio major.

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Megan

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