Well, I’ve been meaning to do a classic update for some time, but I’m a busy guy. Let’s see.
I’m doing research with my MCB (Molecular Cell Biology) professor. She’s new. She used to work the MAYO clinic doing work trying to figure out how cells metastasize and how to stop it. The research I’m working on is trying to figure out if a specific protein, can’t remember the name right now, is natively unfolded (That means all long and skinny, which is weird for proteins). We already have some evidence in the form of a protein folding computer program prediction, but we’re trying to get some actual lab results to suggest such. So we’ve got some E. Coli with a plasmid in them that codes for the protein, and we’ve grown up a ton of the E. Coli and soon we’re going to flip the switch that says. make the protein. Once we do that we’ll have the protein in abundance. All we have to do is break open the cells and purify it. Then we’ll run some tests on the stuff, main we’ll run it through a column alongside a protein with similar molecular weight that is known to be classically globular. Our protein shouldn’t get anywhere near as far through the column if it’s natively unfolded.
All my classes seem to be going fine. Haven’t gotten into the swing of things where something is due all the time yet, but I’m getting there. I have 2 tests on Friday.
This weekend has been pretty crazy. On Friday a bunch of people came over and played Star Wars d6 and let me in. I made a bartender character, it’s pretty cool. I don’t really know the rules/universe very well, but it seems silly. I failed to ride a nerf. lol
After we ran the GM out of Star Wars ideas we set up a game of Diplomacy. There were 7 of us so it worked out nicely. The game is still going, as it’s quite a lengthy game and we couldn’t justify not sleeping completely. Currently I have the most armies, so it’s looking good. As my experience in the game isn’t getting totally trounced, I currently think it’s a decent game. 😛
Yesterday was a LAN at Ody’s. We played this silly race car game some called Track Mania. It’s fun for a little while. We also played DotA of course, and another DotA like player made WCIII map.
Today I had a D&D session. One of Dimitri’s campaigns from last semester. It is the one where I play Sal, the level 7 wizard. He’s my highest character ever played from level 1. I have quite an affinity for him. The session consisted almost entirely of a giant battle with lizard-men. One of our NPC’s died, and John’s character, Razzig the rouge perished as well. Sal killed his murderer. Although through magics I have yet to understand has risen again as a earth/rock golem thing.
So it’s been a pretty good time. I also managed to get a bit of biology study done, but mostly this weekend was play.
I hope you all enjoy the Weird Al video below. I’m glad to see that Weird Al still has all his skills. Plus, he really is a nerd. The level of detail in his video/song is commendable.