Numero Uno: Panda Post

Welcome [back], folks! If you’re new to this blog, hats off to you! You’ve found the greatest place on the web, within (not very good) reason. If you’re an old reader, you’ll be surprised (or maybe not) to see that I’ve changed things around a bit. Apparently I was swearing a little too much for my own good on the previous blog, and including excess incriminating sexual exploit details…which was fine for a Penn State undergrad student. After all, it IS the #2 party school (whatever, Boulder). But now…

NOW…

NOW I AM A NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION GRADUATE FELLOW (or fellowette, rather. Aren’t there female versions for these things?)! Oh yes, my little corn dogs! No one at school believed me, either, when it happened. I suppose no one thought I would actually get it, since it is a PRETTY EFFING HUGE DEAL. But here I am…$30,000 stipend per year for the next three years, plus tuition and travel included! Anyway, I’ll stop talking about it before the “Foundation” starts creeping on my posts. And hence, the reason why I revamped this blog.

On August 22, 2011, I will officially be a graduate student/PhD candidate at Georgia Tech (coincidentally, on the other end of the party school spectrum). With that, and the previously heeded advice from Doctor Professor to tone down the Facebook account, I present:

PUBLISHING PANDA PANDEMONIUM! Reppin’ the [cell] hood since 2011! The life and times of Alice the Panda in graduate school, and if failure arises she can still hopefully get a Master’s degree!

Okay, now don’t panic. I KNOW you already miss “Boogers in My Jungle Juice.” But seriously, never fear! I have a sweet apartment in Hotlanta and even though I promise to tone down the swearing (PLEASE DON’T LEAVE, AT LEAST WAIT UNTIL THE END OF THIS POST G-D*MNIT), “3P” (you know, Publishing Panda Pandemonium...) is still going to rock your socks off! Just in a more “nice, clean fun” type of way. NODONTLEAVE.

So now that introductions are out of the way, let’s move on to the juicer stuff. First, a SUPES recap of my summer: three weeks in India, a planned six weeks in China but after a Visa fail (and my new hatred toward China Eastern airlines…do NOT fly with them!) only less than a week in Hong Kong, I arrived back home in good old Amishville. Alright, alright. I know you’re dying to see picture of my trip, so I’ll humor you. BUT ONLY A FEW…OKERRRR!?

Finally graduated with my B.S. diploma (no pun intended)! Major in bioengineering, minor in Chinese and Engineering Leadership.

During senior week and for my birthday, visited friends in Portland, OR. At VooDoo Donuts in the wee hours of the morning!

Interviewing RUDIben in India to see how women become micro-entrepreneurs. Read more about Penn State Prerana team’s work with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) at www.projectprerana.weebly.com.

Finally got a day to escape by myself to Lamma Island while in Hong Kong. Took a ferry and enjoyed the beautiful ocean view.

At the traveling petting zoo in Amishville with Big K (don’t know why we didn’t take a picture together). Watch our Youtube video, a cover of “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars!

Attending the first high-school reunion wedding with The Boyf, whose hair has finally morphed (NOT to be confused with ANIMORPHS!) to 50-year-old-fantastic!

The past few weeks I spent hanging out with Big K, visited Bottleshop Cupcake Enthusiast’s grave during Arts Fest and even spilled the beans to Padre about The Boyf! But enough about the first part of my summer…this blog is dedicated to the GRADUATE PANDA! Okerrrr but FIRST: bad news and good news, in that order:

BAD NEWS: Amy Winehouse is NOT alive! I was recently just watching drunken videos of her performing “Valerie” live, because there wasn’t a good sober one of her. She definitely got what was coming, but still…she would have been so amazing if she could have just stood up straight. But who knows? The autopsy report hasn’t come out yet and for all we know she could have been clean for the past 6 months and just choked on a Dorito or something. Oy vey.

GOOD NEWS: Adriama Lima is a MILF! I had no idea that she had a daughter. She is still beautiful (Adriana, but her daughter is probably beautiful, too). So the moral of this story is that I STILL HAVE HOPE when I have children (which won’t be for awhile)! Plus, she’s my favorite model and I’m glad that she’s still got it!           

I had set up the new blog a few days ago, but waited until today to put up my first post. After reading the assignment for Block 0 (seriously, block ZERO!?) for my first med school class at Emory last night, I had a minor panic attack (when I say minor I mean GODZILLA) and had to relay my fears via text with Pedro Cottontail at 1:30am in the morning. But today I finally got started and memorized all twenty amino acids! Just give me a blank sheet of paper and I’ll write the name, abbreviation, letter symbol, acidity and draw the structure of each amino acid! After a lifetime of working in the Chinese takeout restaurant industry, I am proud to say that I’ve still got the ability to hardcore study while still frying egg rolls intermittently. VERY GOOD! And for those of you who care (it’s a grad school blog, get used to it), here are some tricks I used to memorize the amino acids:

Nonpolar: PIG CAMP TVL (Phenylalanine has the benzene group, Isoleucine has an extra carbon dangling, Glycine is the easiest and my favorite, Cysteine is the easiest with sulfur, Alanine is the easiest with carbon, Methionine is the harder version with sulfur, Proline loops the alpha carbon and amino group, Tryptophan is the crazy one and makes you sleepy because it’s in turkey, Valine has more carbons, and Leucine has the extra carbon on top).

Uncharged Polar: T TAGS (Tyrosine is the complicated one with the benzene group, threonine is the more complicated one with the hydroxyl, Asparagine has the amine and double bond oxygen, Glutamine is the more complicated one with amine and oxygen, and Serine is the easy one with the hydroxyl).

Acidic: AG (Aspartic Acid is Asparagine with two oxygens, Glutamic Acid is Glutamine with two oxygens).

Basic: LAH (Lysine has four carbons and a nitrogen, Arganine has three carbons and a nitrogen-carbon-nitrogen end, Histidine also has the weird end but it is looped in a pentagon).

Right, so you didn’t read it and you didn’t care. THAT’S OKAY! I am still a proud panda. And to prove that I’m back in the swing of things (or getting there, it’s only the first day!), I have even started listening to Pandora again! I can’t believe how much I’ve missed it. One can only take “Give Me Everything” by Pitbull for so long. If you haven’t tried it, PLEASE do! Pandora is fantastic, if only without the ads that keep popping up in between songs.

Well, that’s it! Thanks for reading my first blog post! Last week I also signed an author submission for a journal, so hopefully these posts won’t be the only thing I’ll be publishing in the near future! Updates soon! Tomorrow I am going with Padre to his doctor’s appointment, most likely going to a buffet, and comparing prices at clearance racks at the outlets. BEST. ASIANS. EVER.