KT, Unwrapped

The combination of the recent Hobby Lobby ruling and the "unconstitutionality" of the 35 foot buffer zone around abortion clinics really sets back the progress we've made as a society regarding women's rights. 

I'm trying to ease my attention span back to what it was. I tried painting yesterday but could not quiet my thoughts long enough to complete a sketch, so I spent the evening working on mindless watercolor washes while finishing up An Education. I need to be watching something on my laptop while on also being on Tumblr or Pinterest on my phone as I eat; needless to say, my attention span has been reduced to complete shit.

My mom tearfully called me earlier thanking me for being a good daughter. It was pleasantly unexpected.

Dmitriy and I finally got to start Season 2 of OITNB this weekend! It's so good so far! 

The allure of summer and free time is wearing off for me. I've been stuck in the apartment for the past two days; the only productive thing I've done lately is work on my Sim house. It's a Parisian apartment-inspired home with a wild garden and fireplace on each floor.

I did go into the lab today to practice cutting some more. I think I've gotten a bit better; the trick, for me at least, is to apply a bit of tension and keep the ribbon taut by using the length of the sharpened chopstick and not the sharpened part. 

My mind's been so restless lately. I can't hold a single thought down before it races away. I want to permanently go back to being the Zen and in control person that I am once in a while.

My microtome cutting technique sucks major ass. I'm supposed to be a pro by next week so I can start working on my real tissue samples but the test samples all come out WRINKLY and FOLDED even when the paraffin comes out super straight! UGH. I'm going in tomorrow on the weekend to stain them. Then we'll know for sure how badly they suck.

I tried to image the tester slides I made on Wednesday. They suck really bad, but at least I know what I did wrong. Now it's matter of actually being able to fix the mistake.

Dean's List again! That's a whole year for me! I'm really happy with my A's and kind of not as happy for my B's, not at least there are no C's! It's a bit late and early in the game in different ways, but I'm glad of my progress. I definitely was not in the same place I was last year.

And I'm super proud of my A's in physics, lab and lecture. It's a course I didn't think I could pass at first but have grown to love and enjoy as I learned more and more about it.

Two more days until I get back to Irvine and resume my life. It feels so stagnant here. My dad is borrowing my car, so I'm basically stuck at home all day watching Downton Abbey and Simming, which is marvelous and all, but I would love to not have my trips out of the house be consist of only those that lead to the temple.

I've been a horrid person lately. I've had all these mean thoughts about my mom, and I feel terrible for them now. She's been nothing but excessively nice to me, but it's like she can't do anything right in my book.

I’ve received a stipend of $1200 from SURP. I’m a bit disappointed, to be quite honest. I had asked for $3000 knowing that the grant itself requires me to work at least 40 hours a week, and $1200 for 40 hours a week for 10 weeks is way too little. That's about $3 an hour.

My supervisor has said I could work less than 40 hours a week. Let’s see how that plays out.

I'm going to this Buddhist thing that will last 10 days and 10 nights. Good news: I'll only have to be there at night and early morning and it'll only be until Sunday. Bad news: that's not how I've envisioned spending my time off. I didn't work my butt off during the year so I can waste time sitting in on things I don't believe in or care for just because it's my mom's idea of fun.

I don't appreciate having my time off hijacked and my opinions ignored. God, I can't wait to be back in Irvine.

June 13th, 2014

So 3 hours of Simming turned out to be more like half a day of Simming. At least I filled out the paperwork before I binge-played. I managed to drag myself out of the apartment and into the nearby Starbucks at around 6 PM to read a couple of research papers. 

Lina came by at 8, bringing a little gift bag as well as a little note for me :3 I thought that was awfully sweet of her. I told her that I was nervous for my meeting with Dr. Muhkerjee, and she told me about her interviewing experiences. It's really nice talking to her; I feel like we go through similar things and we experience the same feelings as a result, and it's so nice being able to discuss that and have "Wow, you too?" moments with others. I'm glad she values my friendship as much as I value hers. Hopefully we'll stay in touch. We can be gym buddies if I live in the ACC apartments next year.

8:42 PM (VDCN)

5:15 PM (Ayala Library)

4:39 PM (Ayala Library)

I woke up early this morning and headed to Starbucks to study for Physics some more. I just went over interference problems (ex: at this distance, the two speakers are in phase, at what distance are they out of phase?) and radioactivity questions. Of course, those weren't the concepts I was tested on. 

The final wasn't too bad. I should have memorized trig identities three years ago like Mrs. Kennedy told me too. Two of the problems would have been a piece of cake had I known to simplify sin(a - b) and cos(a - b). I didn't, so I simplified it to the best of my abilities and made a table and plugged in values and see what values made my statement true. Hopefully, I'll get credits because I'm technically not being tested on my trig solving ability.

I'm glad it's over. It's been exhausting. But I'm also sad that it's all over. I remember dreading Physics before Fall Quarter started and how I thought I would hate it and wouldn't be good at it. I actually enjoy it a lot. I'm really glad they made it a requirement for Bio majors. It's my last math-based class in college, and I think I'll really miss working with equations and numbers. It's always such a magical experience to start with little pieces of the puzzle and have the complete picture by the end of the problem. It's one of those subjects that I really understand. It's a bit weird, but it's like being able to see through a clear windows and not a fogged up one; I don't think this would have been possible had Mrs. Kennedy not been just a great Calculus teacher in HS. I am so thankful and grateful for her every time I do Physics or anything math-related.

It's been really fun squeezing in slots of study sessions between mine and Lina's busy schedule and stay up late (aka till midnight) at the library to study. I like our non sequiturs and sporadic bursts of laughter with my very crude way of remember formulas (Power = Intensity * Area is also Penis is In Asshole). I like our updates on each other's life and progress and complaining about Physics and basically soaking in each other's misery and frustration at some of the problems. It's kind of sad, but I don't think we'll see much more of each other since we only meet up for Physics. It's not often that I meet someone I just CLICK with, but for the time that I do, it's always been an enjoyable - but always short-lived- experience.