Since I seem to be posting on a monthly basis, maybe it's time I gave some updates.
School:
Classes are keeping me so busy it's a little alarming. I don't think I'll be taking 4 classes in the spring semester, but we'll see how I manage with this load. It might be easier next semester too when I've got a bulk of the wedding details hammered out. But more on that later.
Luckily I only have one class with an in-class midterm (I have one that's take-home, too), but it's in my hardest class. Somehow I thought Tissue Engineering would be about tissue growth and how to manipulate it, but so far it's all quantitative, which is boring and difficult for me. I want to know how and why cells move and grow in certain ways, and I don't really care about things like radial flow detachment assays. I know they're important, but that's not what I was hoping to learn when I signed up for the class.
My math professor is really, really nice, but I don't really learn too much during class; I learn it all on the weekends when I go home and crack open my book. He's actually very helpful outside of class- I went to his office hours once, and he's hilarious and explains things really well one-on-one. But in class he seems to stress the theory and doesn't do many examples. Or stresses the fact we're allowed and strongly encouraged to solve everything in Mathematica. Maybe I'll actually learn this program! I hated Maple and I never was forced to learn Matlab, so maybe here's my shot to actually learn a program.
Biomolecular engineering is very interesting but still a little over my head. I didn't come in with much background in biochem or even biology (that was high school) and it's a very detail-oriented class. I have my first lab to write, which I'm about 1/3 of the way finished with, and it's going to be beastly I think. There's a lot of reading I still need to do to understand more of the fundamentals behind the experiments we did during lab.
Biomedical materials is keeping me busy working on my IACUC protocol, but that's due on Friday, so then I'll have one thing out of the way for the semester. It's like 35% of my grade though I think, so hopefully it goes well. Monty hasn't said anything bad about the draft I sent him, so I'm crossing my fingers that doesn't mean I'll get an email on Thursday night with a list of 8 things wrong with it. Then after this I'll get to work on the R21 grant proposal and I'll try to turn it into an NSF proposal also.
Wedding:
I went dress shopping with Cait and Sara on Sunday and I think I found "the ONE". It's beautiful and has all the elements I was looking for in a dress and none of the ones that I really didn't like. We also found a color dress for them that they both like (I just told them I wanted blue and they could pick their own style dresses) and will look nice on my sister too. We're going to go out again in a few weekends, just to scout out a couple more places to cover all my bases pretty much. But I have a feeling I'll be back in David's Bridal ordering that dress :-D
Keegan and I met with a photographer on September 12 and she seems really great and her prices are reasonable compared with all the other quotes I've seen. She's very sociable too, so that's a plus. Now we just have to send in the deposit :o)
Speaking of Keegan, his birthday was on Friday- happy 23rd birthday to him!
I've been looking a bit at bridal bouquets also to get an idea of what I want to do with everything else. I know I want calla lilies, but other than that I'm pretty much open. A lot of colors will go with the blue for the bridesmaid dresses, but I'm thinking maybe something yellow or peachy colored. We'll see what sorts of flowers exist for each option. Maybe yellow calla liles for them and white ones with something else for me... Hmmm...
Keegan and I also have our Marriage Prep Forum this weekend at his church, so that will be really interesting and insightful I think. Hopefully he won't realize that really I'm so annoying he can't deal with me for the next 70 years. But I think we've already discussed a lot of the major pitfalls to relationships (finances, kids, careers, values, etc) so we're probably in better shape than some couples.
Well, my lunch break for myself is just about over, so I'm going to get back to working on that lab report. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with my tissue engineering homework due on Friday, but I'll try to get some sort of idea on how to do the first one this afternoon too. Then I can go home, cook dinner, watch House, and then work a bit more before bed. Sounds like a pretty sweet time, huh?
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Projects galore!
So I've just finished my second week at Duke, and I'm definitely keeping busy. It's not so much work work as reading work; essentially I spend 4 hours reading for a class, then I feel exhausted and don't really have anything to show for it. Except now I can tell you all about different drug delivery methods. But that's not the same as having 10 pages of homework to turn in or a 5 page essay. But that's okay, I'll get used to it I'm sure.
My classes are really interesting, and all the professors just jumped right in; it's really neat to be in such specific classes that are all about what I actually want to know. Except for the math class. Is it bad that as an engineer, I don't care about applied math for engineers? I understand how statistics or something will be extremely useful, but I don't really care about residues, complex integration, and imaginary numbers. I'm hoping as the class progresses I see the relevance to it, because that will motivate me more.
I've already got 2 projects assigned, and I have third, but it's not been finalized yet. For my biomedical materials class, the Ph.D. students have to write an IACUC procedure (which basically describes how you're going to use animals in your research) and a mock R21 grant proposal (which is a 15 page proposal describing a research project you'd like to do- but for me I'm actually going to describe what I would like to do in the lab). I believe if you're awarded an R21 grant you get $250,000 over two years or something like that. Monty really wants to submit the grant I think, and it would be nice to have that money to work with :-P I'm really thankful to be writing a grant so early because it's getting me thinking seriously about what research I'd like to be doing, instead of a vague idea of something related to what I'd like to do. For my Intro to Biomolecular Engineering class we also have projects already assigned, and mine is called "Unnatural amino acid incorporation into proteins and biopolymers", which (because I'm a nerd) I'm pretty excited about. I think it will be tangentially connected to the research I'll be doing for the mock grant, and I think the class itself is really going to help me. We have a lab associated with it, and over the semester I'm going to learn how to purify DNA and transfect it so I can make the DNA create a specific alterned protein that I could use. I know a lot of people already use those techniques all the time, but I've never used them, so I'm excited to learn.
I also have a project in my Tissue Engineering class, but it's a group project and hasn't been assigned yet. I think it's going to be something along the lines of "Here's a problem faced in tissue engineering- how would you solve it?" then you use what we've learned in class to try to develop a method to do whatever needs to be done.
Wedding planning is slowly chugging along, but I think once I get settled into my school routine it will be easier to know when I'll have free time and can set up appointments for things. I am going to try to go dress-browsing on September 20 with Cait, and on the 27th Keegan and I have our Marriage Prep Forum, so that's a step also. We should be able to place the order for our cake in the next week, too.
Even though it's Saturday, I'm going to be lame and work on homework. It's raining outside anyway (thank you, Hanna!), and this way I can enjoy the afternoon and evening when the weather should be much nicer. And I can also avoid being swamped later in the week.
PS: I was at Target yesterday, and the Halloween candy was out. I want fall to be here! That means the changing colors of the leaves, slightly less hot days, college football (yay for Duke winning a game- shocking!), Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! EEEEE, I'm way too excited for those things, considering it's September 6. I think it's because Keegan and I went to visit my dad in the mountains last week, and the leaves were just beginning to turn yellow. I've caught the fall fever. Which is odd, since I hate cold weather. Hmm... okay, back to work.
My classes are really interesting, and all the professors just jumped right in; it's really neat to be in such specific classes that are all about what I actually want to know. Except for the math class. Is it bad that as an engineer, I don't care about applied math for engineers? I understand how statistics or something will be extremely useful, but I don't really care about residues, complex integration, and imaginary numbers. I'm hoping as the class progresses I see the relevance to it, because that will motivate me more.
I've already got 2 projects assigned, and I have third, but it's not been finalized yet. For my biomedical materials class, the Ph.D. students have to write an IACUC procedure (which basically describes how you're going to use animals in your research) and a mock R21 grant proposal (which is a 15 page proposal describing a research project you'd like to do- but for me I'm actually going to describe what I would like to do in the lab). I believe if you're awarded an R21 grant you get $250,000 over two years or something like that. Monty really wants to submit the grant I think, and it would be nice to have that money to work with :-P I'm really thankful to be writing a grant so early because it's getting me thinking seriously about what research I'd like to be doing, instead of a vague idea of something related to what I'd like to do. For my Intro to Biomolecular Engineering class we also have projects already assigned, and mine is called "Unnatural amino acid incorporation into proteins and biopolymers", which (because I'm a nerd) I'm pretty excited about. I think it will be tangentially connected to the research I'll be doing for the mock grant, and I think the class itself is really going to help me. We have a lab associated with it, and over the semester I'm going to learn how to purify DNA and transfect it so I can make the DNA create a specific alterned protein that I could use. I know a lot of people already use those techniques all the time, but I've never used them, so I'm excited to learn.
I also have a project in my Tissue Engineering class, but it's a group project and hasn't been assigned yet. I think it's going to be something along the lines of "Here's a problem faced in tissue engineering- how would you solve it?" then you use what we've learned in class to try to develop a method to do whatever needs to be done.
Wedding planning is slowly chugging along, but I think once I get settled into my school routine it will be easier to know when I'll have free time and can set up appointments for things. I am going to try to go dress-browsing on September 20 with Cait, and on the 27th Keegan and I have our Marriage Prep Forum, so that's a step also. We should be able to place the order for our cake in the next week, too.
Even though it's Saturday, I'm going to be lame and work on homework. It's raining outside anyway (thank you, Hanna!), and this way I can enjoy the afternoon and evening when the weather should be much nicer. And I can also avoid being swamped later in the week.
PS: I was at Target yesterday, and the Halloween candy was out. I want fall to be here! That means the changing colors of the leaves, slightly less hot days, college football (yay for Duke winning a game- shocking!), Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! EEEEE, I'm way too excited for those things, considering it's September 6. I think it's because Keegan and I went to visit my dad in the mountains last week, and the leaves were just beginning to turn yellow. I've caught the fall fever. Which is odd, since I hate cold weather. Hmm... okay, back to work.
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