Goodbye, Facebook Panda

As promised (like I always keep my promises), I am updating before the month of February has even caroused its way in. Instead of being productive and working on my application for a travel fellowship, I have decided to catch up on recent celebrity gossip. I even read this recent shocking SPORTS news story, compliments of The Boyf, of some internet girlfriend death hoax of former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o. When I start reading sports news, you know excrement has hit the fan.

In fact, approximately two weeks ago, I deactivated my Facebook account. Apparently the company also just came out with Graph Search, which is in pilot mode but seems futile at this point (perhaps it's me). Graph only searches through your friends or public profile information, which would also require people to update their profile with all of their interests and information. With the previously known onset of job interview slaughter through Facebook (myself included; remember that incident in undergrad with Dr. Professor?), most people have decided to use aliases instead of their real names for professional purposes. I also don't/didn't like to associate Facebook with my professional life, but after a while it seems inevitable that your coworker "adds" you as a friend and you would seem like a donkey-hole to reject. Although Facebook itself doesn't care what your name is because it just generates popular data from "the masses", I'm starting to get annoyed by the constant invasion of Facebook into EVERYTHING. "Vote for me," "Look I'm married now," "Look I'm skinny/fat/depressed/emo/hipster now," "Here's a photo of me looking drunk at a party even though I talked to no one the entire time because I was ON FACEBOOK on my cell phone and just snapped this photo before I left to preserve my online image." I realized that most successful and respectable (albeit usually older) people do not have Facebook, or at least keep it private enough so that you can't see them parading around in their underwear or asking for help with a survey all the time. Plus, I'm happy with where I am right now and the people I'm surrounded by, including The Boyf, so I don't really care about sharing that with other people. Let's be honest...are you REALLY happy about how happy I am? Because I'm only slightly excited when I see someone from high school get fat. TRUTH.

So you see I'm back.

And even though I had already started the deactivation process a while ago (permanently closing chat, stopped taking/uploading photos, checked maybe once a day, put up The Office of Misogamy poster...), I still feel so much...clearer...after cutting all ties with Facebook. It was easy to phase out of MySpace because Facebook was there, and now it's not hard phasing out of Facebook because I still have LinkedIn and EMAIL. The stupidest excuse I have heard of people who have Facebook is their "networking" abilities. Why not just use LinkedIn? And for your grandma, why don't you just send her an email with some photos of yourself, instead of broadcasting everything to her and the rest of the world? If she can use Facebook, she can probably check email. And she will feel special that you actually sent her the pictures instead of whoring yourself out to the internet. The only problem I really have without Facebook is that I can't access my photos. I suppose I could go and see if it's possible to download all my albums (it probably is, but I'm too lazy to do it now), but since Facebook is both good and evil, "deactivation" doesn't actually terminate your account - it just makes your account invisible to other people. You can still access your own account and retrieve your photos. For the future, though, I'll hopefully get to buy a nice camera and can just create a Tumblr account. Or, you know, just keep them on my computer and blog.

For a while (and probably even now), people were obsessed about creating an online profile of themselves that was separate from their "real" self. Now we've integrated with technology even more, but seem to have become even less integrated as human beings. Back in March, I participated as a student representative on a panel for Stay With It Facebook (ironically) Day of Engineering. EVERYONE (these are all executives and industry people) was tapping away on their phones. The only person that actually initiated some sort of communication with me was Mr. Charles Bolden, director of NASA. We had passed each other on the way to the bathroom; he was going out, and I was going in. All he did was smile at me, and I laughed because we had bumped into each other so clumsily. I had no idea who he even was at the time. And afterward (when I did know who he was), he gave me a hug and wished me good luck in school.

So here's my question: What the hell happened?

How are people so obsessed with themselves and their projected online image/profile...their "relationships" with people online, while in real life, I can't even have dinner with people without them "tagging" us at a restaurant or uploading a picture of the food online. I walk onto a bus or elevator or any other public space. Instead of what normal people would have done 10 years ago (saying HELLO), everyone is staring at their phone. I admit I'm a culprit of this, also. There have always been awkward times when I don't want to start a conversation and just randomly punch numbers into my phone, even though I have no one to talk to. But all this, I hypothesize, has been fostered by the increasing technology that is around us. It has made us feel uncomfortable to be ourselves, and to be around other people. I am and always will be a people person. I have to talk to someone IN PERSON to understand their emotions, laugh, learn, share ideas... Programs such as Google Drive have been immensely helpful in doing group work and working together online. But nothing (I hope) will ever replace what it's like to actually have a conversation with someone. I have been constantly disappointed by people who just aren't genuine at all. What's the point of building a relationship (online or off) with someone if you can't trust and rely on those people? I believe that I have great relationships with a small group of people here, and we hardly ever communicate using technology (phone sometimes to organize, but not talk).

Technology should be used to FACILITATE human communication and relationships, not replace it. Of course, The Boyf and I would have never been able to have a long distance relationship without cell phones. But we never really talked using email or chat. In fact, I'd prefer hand written letters over some public "I miss you". It's way more personal. I have two pen pals that I write regularly, and even though we correspond maybe every 3 weeks, it feels like for the past 6 years our friendship hasn't skipped a beat.

Anyway, enough of the rambling. Another exciting piece of information is that I have ventured into my first cell study of graduate school! Disgusting, I know. It's one of those things that was so common during my undergraduate research, but was "off limits" for a while in grad school since I had to perform a lot of materials characterization and optimization before the actual experiment. Ho hum. I hope to finish the experiment and get data this weekend (Happy MLK Day!), and hopefully have something to add to my poster for the Orthopaedic Research Society conference next weekend. Which is also my first conference in grad school! I've been learning a lot in lab thus far, and am excited to get started on some new things. For one, I'll be doing some hands on prototyping of scaffolds that I get to design and create myself (with the very much needed and appreciated help of a design instructor)!

Classes haven't been too terrible in terms of workload, but I do need to buckle down and get started on my proposal. Even though I've written the proposal itself (without the preliminary data), I need to go over it with my advisor because all these new projects I am working on at the moment will probably sneak themselves in at some point as well. Ah, GRAD SCHOOL! I won't bore you with details, except something exciting: apparently the Jack Daniels headquarters and tour is located 3.5 hours from me! And it's FREE (not the whiskey, just the tour...you sick poop). As soon as I get some headway on these new research projects (inshAllah), I am going to go!

If you read this and you believe that the end of Facebook is near (or not), comment below! Also, if you like alcohol (HELLO)!

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.