Supa Dupe PhD Candidate Panda

Hello, world! So much has happened since I last updated my blog. DEAL WITH IT. But the worst is over, so now I shall recap my saga.

SUPA DUPE updates:

1. I am officially a PhD candidate in biomedical engineering! Probably the biggest thing hindering updating my blog was stressing out/kind of studying for my QUALIFYING EXAM. Well, the worst of it is over. Our program has qualifying exams at the end of the graduate student's first year. It is a 90 minute oral examination held by a committee of three professors. I had heard mixed reviews from previous students who has passed the exam, even though the fail rate has been pretty low. So I did many a mock oral exam with my peers and older students in the program, blew through two  textbooks the weekend before my exam (not recommended...I just tend to focus better when I'm cramming). Anyway, long story short, I PASSED!! To commemorate the event, I even made business cards! They are so baller. Unfortunately, I have not been able to actually use them yet (except for when I just show them off to my friends); however  remain optimistic as I foresee many networking opportunities in the near future.

You wish your business card was as dope as mine.

2. My age is composed of two consecutive numbers! No, I'm not 12 or 34...I am 23 years old/young! It was a bit hectic as my birthday was May 10, and my qualifying exam was scheduled for May 14. Needless to say, I didn't celebrate until after my exam. The party  planning got a bit crazy as The Boyf was trying to plan a surprise party at the same time as I was trying to plan a dinner. Shit went down and the jig went up, but in the end we figured it out and I had a great night with my friends. The Boyf got me the NEW IPAD! I got a case and bluetooth keyboard for it, and am currently proposing this prose on the technology. Coming from someone who has always had Windows products, I may or may not be considering buying a Macbook!

Birthday cake from The Boyf and my transition from 22 to 23!

Post quals/birthday festivities at Cosmo-Lava lounge!

3. I no longer have cockroaches in my kitchen! Unfortunately, this took too long to fix, and the only way to rid myself of those pesky creatures was to move to a new apartment. Now I am happily residing in a 2bed/2bath apartment with Mr. McDonald, soon to be Dr. McDonald. He is planning on defending in July, and then The Boyf plans to move into my room and we shall have the extra room available for rent. Even though we drive each other crazy sometimes, I am glad we will soon be able to see each other every day, instead of every two months.

In short, life is good. I had stressed out since January about all these things happening, but then I remember all the times I had freaked out previously in my life for no good apparent reason, and somehow everything works out. God is good and takes care of everything. I took this personality test that examined my strengths, and Belief was one of my top 5. Which means that I believe fate has led me to become a panda. IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!

Also, the stupid IRS has been freezing my bank account recently due to an ERRONEOUS sum of money from taxes back in 2009 that I failed to pay. The key word here is ERROR, aka WRONG, aka THE IRS ARE IMBECILES that have incestuous relations with each other that procure 6-fingered child monsters, who continue to inbreed disgustingly within the next generation, causing the organization to levy innocent (and normal phalangic) citizens in order to pay the high cost of surgical removal of the damned fingers, the procedure to which I MYSELF may or may not be contributing with my doctoral research.

I HATE THE IRS.

But speaking of incest, I read the book ''100 years of solitude'' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez on a whim last weekend, and it was absolutely fantastic! Probably one of the best, if not the best, books that I have read in my entire life. Not only that, but it was an English translation of a Spanish, which makes me sad that I did not keep up with Spanish long enough to be able to read the original version of the novel. But if you have never read it, READ IT. You won't regret it, I promise you. It's so crazy and insane in the membrane that you'll wonder if the author was brilliant or deranged, or BOTH. I support the latter. MY IDOL.

And speaking deranged, today we ordered the TRIPLE CORONARY BYPASS BURGER at the Vortex restaurant, which was a bit disappointing but nevertheless lead to a satisfactory bout of diarrhea. Just kidding. OR AM I. 

I was more excited about the $10 coupon from Google offers.

Like I said, deranged.

But anyway, now that summer has arrived and I am finally DONEZO with IBS and the Core graduate classes that also caused IBS, I should have more time to update! I would toast with some wine, but alcohol just makes my stomach itchy, so I'll stick with the flavored sparkling water. Here's to a fruitful summer, with lots of updates and  fun stuff...not to mention a lot of badass research.

Would it be too much to ask for a first-author paper by August?

Panda Likes to Read

These past few weekends have not been too exciting in terms of “going out”, which basically means I haven’t been crazily dancing anywhere in the city. However, from my sheltered childhood, I have always found ways of amusing myself and having a good time without the company of others.

Last weekend I devoted my time running back and forth between the SEM on campus and my apartment. I was scheduled to use the equipment on Friday night midnight-3am, but unfortunately I was NOT GIVEN BUILDING ACCESS. So I showed up on campus like an idiot in the middle of the night (amidst many reported sexual assaults, HOLLA) and then had to come back on Saturday morning to try again. IT WAS LOCKED AGAIN. So I finally scheduled a time during the week and got card access. I now have BEAUTIFUL SEM images of my samples! They are awesome. And things turned out for the better later in the week…we had a meeting with another professor/lab about a collaboration using another imaging technique that is going to show up some REALLY COOL STUFF! I don’t get to see Dr. Barbie all that much because she is super important, but I LOVE HER and every time she is in the room something cool always goes down. REPPIN’ THE [CELL] HOOD.

This past weekend, I had to cram for my mass transfer exam. I was really worried about it, but somehow that wasn’t filtering through to my brain, and my study habits went down the drain until this morning at 7am. But I do think the “studying” (or at least trying to) over the weekend paid off; I walked out of the exam feeling pretty good about it. Definitely not easy, but I knew what techniques to use – after all, it WAS only one problem (shhhh…). And if I can manage to score average, I can pass the course, and that is all I really need. Last night (another thing not conducive to my studying), I hung out with some of my labmates. I LOVE MY LAB! Everyone is just great. And not to mention, the one guy cooks like a pro. He wants to be a medical doctor, but I know one day he is going to usurp Paula Deen (she’s getting old, let’s face it). I had the best ribs EVER. AND! I made my very first apple pie (or any pie, for that matter)! It turned out surprisingly great. I did spend A LOT of money on it ($30 just for ingredients, the apples for $10 because I had to buy granny smith and they were NOT on sale), but it turned out to be worth it. And I get to keep the leftover ingredients, so I have some groceries to last me a while (if you count eggs and sugar as staple foods, which I do). 

Apple pie before going in the oven. Everything is from scratch! The lattice crust didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped...I ran out of ingredients - oops! And yes, that is a panda.

Voila! A slice of apple pie a la mode. Complete with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, caramel crumble and honey drizzle. I know it looks a little overwhelming...but it was DELICIOUS. This was my plate and probably the least aesthetically pleasing. But it still tastes great, I promise.

Ah, so back to reading…Since I have been stuck at home all by my lonesome, I decided to order a few books to read. This also appealed better to conscience, because at least I’m buying books and not clothing…

Anyway, I ordered “The Alchemyst”, the first book in “The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flammel” series. It was actually recommended by a professor with whom I had an interview a few weeks back. I am excited to read it, but alas it has not arrived yet. The second book I ordered is called “World 3.0”, which is about globalization. It is a new book so I am excited to start that. And the third book is called “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. It was recommended by my lab manager. I started reading it this weekend and it is great! I kept having to put it down in order to (try to) study, but now that my exam is over (until my next one starts on Wednesday, but it is a take-home exam), I can try to finish it. It is about the “secret” behind successful people…which turns out not to be a secret at all! Mostly luck, drive and hard work, which is what most people will tell you. But it is written in the form of stories, which I am beginning to love. I think that life is a story, and stories are such a great way of learning information and understanding a personality. 

My aunt has finally arrived in America after being on the immigration list in China for more than EIGHT YEARS! I wasn’t able to visit her because I had to study for my exam this weekend, but I might try to go to China over winter break. If that doesn’t work, she will be back in the States in March and I can try to see her over the weekend then. Graduate school is super stressful at times, and really boring at other times, and really exciting at other times! I suppose that is just life. So if my blog is ever published, it will be like “Outliers” but about a panda in graduate school, telling panda stories all the day long! It’s nothing you don’t know already, just told in a different (hopefully better!) way.

I have been obsessing about getting my navel pierced for two weeks now…it is getting pretty bad. I think I just wanted to do something badass, and of course smoking and drinking doesn’t occur to me. Instead, I chose self-mutilation in the form of a PANDA PIERCING! Okay, so I haven’t gotten it done yet. But in my defense, the place was closed the first time I went, and the guy wasn’t there the second time. So I have taken after my former roommate, Coral diver, and gone ahead and purchased a NAVEL PIERCING KIT! It hasn’t arrived yet, but when it does you can be sure I am going to freak out and not use it! 

Alright you cheese curls (come to think of it, I am craving some cheese curls – HAVE YOU EVER HAD ANDY CAPP’S HOT FRIES!? THEY ARE AMAZ-O! Thanks to Big K for the introduction…it is on my list of favorite foods, including but not limited to: CRUNCHY Kroger brand Nutella [and regular Nutella brand Nutella], Snyder’s honey mustard and onion pretzel pieces, FROZEN GRAPES [I just tried them for the first time today and they are fantastic TO THE MAX!], and dried mango/sweet potato. Oh, and ice cream, filled cupcakes, Vortex burgers, oxtail soup, sour cream, whipped cream, cream cheese, anything with the word “cream” in it, CoolWhip…I DIGRESS [that was a lot of digressions within a digression – ANYWAY…]), I am going to go! Tonight I am having dinner with a friend from high school for HER BORFDAY (that was not a typo – the misspelling means nothing, I just like saying things weirdly)! But before I leave, I have another twenty minutes to get some reading done…

Oh, another random fact (well, two, now that I come to think of it):

1.       This morning, I dropped my toothbrush in the toilet (I know what you are going to ask, and the answer is NO! I threw it away, you fool!)

2.       Last week, I wore my underwear inside-out. TWICE.

YES! Panda is making much progress in graduate school.