This post has nothing to do with ultimate.
Tomorrow I'm giving a presentation at my lab group meeting. I think it's accurate to say that a lot of my experiments in the last 6 months have been unsuccessful in terms of not getting positive results. I suppose negative results are still results but it still makes me sad.
Right after my presentation I'm hopping on a Bolt Bus with two other bridesmaids to go to NYC, then taking the LIRR to Long Island to meet up with the bride. On Friday she wants the bridal party go get manicures and pedicures. Later that night will be the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and then we'll sleep early because...
On Saturday we're supposed to wake up at 3:45am to get our hair and make-up done in time for 9am pictures and 11:30am ceremony. Then we'll sing (well, I'll sing), dance, eat, take more pictures, and then I'm taking the train back to Manhattan to crash for the night.
Weddings are so much work. The bride made a very detailed schedule with everyone's roles and responsibilities (11 pages long!) So much time and preparation and money goes into just one day, albeit an important day.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Eligibility
Recently I took an UPA survey about college eligibility: when it starts, when it ends, what events count as exemptions to prolong your eligibility years, etc etc. There might've been a section on whether being in graduate school counts as part of your eligibility years. I'm so glad that I have had the opportunity to play ultimate in grad school. If it weren't for sMITe, I would be a lot less happy, a lot fatter, and a lot less sane (although that point is debatable).
People have been asking how many years of eligibility I have left since I was in my first year of grad school and their response has always been, "Really?! You have so many left!" or "You still have college eligibility??" Well, yes... I started playing ultimate during my senior year at Northwestern and I came straight to grad school. Now this is my fourth year in grad school and fifth and last year of college eligibility... so sad, and exciting!
I'm sad to think of what I'll do at the end of a frustrating day at lab when all I want to do is race back to MIT and run around the field and play ultimate with my teammates (my lab is at the VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain and it takes about 40-45 min to get there). I'll miss the collaborative spirit that's part of college ultimate and such a big part of sMITe, especially in the fall. I feel like there's a very comfortable learning environment or aura if you will, during sMITe practices where all the returners teach all the rookies how to play. And it's okay if you misthrow or drop a disc or try hucking for the first time because you get excited when you see someone going deep for you (or is that just me...), you're a rookie and as long as you made a well-timed cut or you're patient with the disc, the returners will be impressed with you.
I'll also miss the series in the spring. It's super exciting to see how far the rookies have come since the fall and also how much the team as a whole has improved. In the last two years, there has been a lot of activity in the Boston-area college women's scene. There is a lot more competition now and teams really have to fight for those spots at regionals and nationals. I feel like the competition in this section/region has just started to heat up and this is my last year to participate in the action!
I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do during the school year when I can't play for sMITe anymore. MIT has a lot of different activities going on... I've thought about joining the crew team, to be a rower or a coxswain (but 6am practices!), or learning taekwondo or aikido (my brother did taekwondo when he was younger), or picking up tennis again, or ballroom dancing! Ideas anyone?
Anyway, I still have another year before I have to decide and in the meantime, I'm going to make the best of what I have left on sMITe.
People have been asking how many years of eligibility I have left since I was in my first year of grad school and their response has always been, "Really?! You have so many left!" or "You still have college eligibility??" Well, yes... I started playing ultimate during my senior year at Northwestern and I came straight to grad school. Now this is my fourth year in grad school and fifth and last year of college eligibility... so sad, and exciting!
I'm sad to think of what I'll do at the end of a frustrating day at lab when all I want to do is race back to MIT and run around the field and play ultimate with my teammates (my lab is at the VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain and it takes about 40-45 min to get there). I'll miss the collaborative spirit that's part of college ultimate and such a big part of sMITe, especially in the fall. I feel like there's a very comfortable learning environment or aura if you will, during sMITe practices where all the returners teach all the rookies how to play. And it's okay if you misthrow or drop a disc or try hucking for the first time because you get excited when you see someone going deep for you (or is that just me...), you're a rookie and as long as you made a well-timed cut or you're patient with the disc, the returners will be impressed with you.
I'll also miss the series in the spring. It's super exciting to see how far the rookies have come since the fall and also how much the team as a whole has improved. In the last two years, there has been a lot of activity in the Boston-area college women's scene. There is a lot more competition now and teams really have to fight for those spots at regionals and nationals. I feel like the competition in this section/region has just started to heat up and this is my last year to participate in the action!
I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do during the school year when I can't play for sMITe anymore. MIT has a lot of different activities going on... I've thought about joining the crew team, to be a rower or a coxswain (but 6am practices!), or learning taekwondo or aikido (my brother did taekwondo when he was younger), or picking up tennis again, or ballroom dancing! Ideas anyone?
Anyway, I still have another year before I have to decide and in the meantime, I'm going to make the best of what I have left on sMITe.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Bryan's feet!!
Can you do this with your feet?!!
(Keith finds this so disgusting and disturbing)
Does anyone still read this blog?!??? I feel like I'm getting kinda desperate, posting pictures of Bryan's feet. Also, doesn't it look like he has cankles? Doris - at least your ankles don't look like these... :)
Just kidding Bryan I like your cankles. 0=)
Friday, September 25, 2009
A day in the life of... ME!
Yesterday was really fun, I carried my point-and-shoot camera around with me all day and just took pictures of my surroundings and activities. So here's a day in the life of Kshu, from midnight to midnight on Sept. 24, 2009.
Some bedtime reading =P
(the next morning)
The street that our apartment is on. It was such a beautiful day yesterday.
Anyone know what intersection this is? I guess it's kinda hard because you can't really make out any of the landmarks. =P
Waiting at the bus stop for a #1 or CT1 bus but a couple of buses passed us by because of...
... the hordes and hordes of do-gooding Novartis people who just happened to be having their company volunteer day. Except they were hogging every #1 bus stop so the bus drivers got scared and didn't stop to let people on.
Morning snack from the huge sack of apples we still have from apple picking!
Guess which MIT dorm is still undergoing renovations?
The second leg of my daily commute: Symphony to Heath St.
Everyone gets off after Brigham Circle so I have the whole T to myself. Who wants to go through that part of Jamaica Plain anyway?
Ah, the VA Medical Center...
Our offices! So new and shiny after the renovations. :) Someone looked up the cost of our desk chairs and found that they were $800 a piece. There's the VA for ya.
My desk... the "Kashu" is on the back of my Gung-ho sweatshirt which I keep permanently at my lab because our offices are always super cold.
My lab notebook doesn't typically look like this, but I felt the need to be color-coded yesterday.
All the noxious chemicals I work with =P
Mid-morning snack of bagel and honey pecan cream cheese (at my desk, not my lab bench. =P)
My desk buddy Dan!
Yep, I look like this whenever I pipet stuff or use the plate reader... =P
I normally don't like wearing lab safety gear like lab coats or goggles or the giant orange gloves for handling hot things, but I like wearing the blue lab coat and matching blue gloves because they make me feel like a giant blue marshmallow.
Haha padded elevators. I asked my labmate why we have padded elevators and he said, "because they transport animals to the animal research facility in this elevator..." Uh huh... and they let the animals roam free in the elevator???
Lunch of leftover roasted veggie lasagna.
Microtome to section paraffin-embedded samples.
Not sure what happened with this samplel... there was a hole where the sample was supposed to be. :(
I always try to do the hard sodoku first and after 10 minutes I decide it's too hard for me so I switch to the easy one...
Karen fails at the easy sodoku. Don't judge; sodoku is hard. :( I don't know where I went wrong but I was about to write a "3" in the middle box of the middle box.
There's a Red Mango coming to Boston! Right outside the Symphony station! This was probably the best part of my day. Too bad it's not Pinkberry, which is more tart and more yummy than Red Mango. :) It's okay, Boston will still have YO-BERRY! (Buy ten fro-yo, get one free yo!) haha
Can anyone guess where this is? :)
It took me 10 minutes to find this Orzo.
Free TV right outside my door!! (Too bad it wasn't addressed to me... that shouldn't have stopped me though. Hehe j/k)
Mushroom orzo with pearl onions. This was the first time I've cooked with orzo and pearl onions. So yummy!
Stir-fry veggies. Thanks Doris for the red pepper :D
Yesterday I realized that Yang poses for pictures like little kids do. There are some kids who are so well-trained for the camera that once a camera is whipped out, they'll stop what they're doing and stand still and smile for the camera patiently. Yang was probably very well trained for the camera when he was little.
My ultimate world and the rest of my world colliding
Livia before her fame through Science.
Amy a week before her wedding.
Me.
Kkz a month before her thesis is due.
After dinner I go over to Antrim and this is what I see:
... the quintessence of being a boy:
...someone remind me why I keep him around?
...oh yeah, it's because he does things like fold laundry with the utmost concentration:
I'm singing "Amazing Grace" for Amy's wedding next week, along with Kkz and Livia. The three of us are going to sing a verse each and then we're singing the last verse in harmony. I don't know why Amy asked us to sing but whatever, I okay with embarassing myself in front of 300 people.
I ended my day with a friendly game of BOMBERMAN with Keith, a game where you are these adorable little spacelings with cute antenaes, and you try to blow everyone else up using strategically placed bombs. Whee!
Ewwww... don't look if you get grossed out easily.
Oops, I guess I put the warning too close to the picture. Sorry! ;)
This is my nook, my little study area
Some bedtime reading =P
(the next morning)
The street that our apartment is on. It was such a beautiful day yesterday.
Anyone know what intersection this is? I guess it's kinda hard because you can't really make out any of the landmarks. =P
Waiting at the bus stop for a #1 or CT1 bus but a couple of buses passed us by because of...
... the hordes and hordes of do-gooding Novartis people who just happened to be having their company volunteer day. Except they were hogging every #1 bus stop so the bus drivers got scared and didn't stop to let people on.
Morning snack from the huge sack of apples we still have from apple picking!
Guess which MIT dorm is still undergoing renovations?
The second leg of my daily commute: Symphony to Heath St.
Everyone gets off after Brigham Circle so I have the whole T to myself. Who wants to go through that part of Jamaica Plain anyway?
Ah, the VA Medical Center...
Our offices! So new and shiny after the renovations. :) Someone looked up the cost of our desk chairs and found that they were $800 a piece. There's the VA for ya.
My desk... the "Kashu" is on the back of my Gung-ho sweatshirt which I keep permanently at my lab because our offices are always super cold.
My lab notebook doesn't typically look like this, but I felt the need to be color-coded yesterday.
All the noxious chemicals I work with =P
Mid-morning snack of bagel and honey pecan cream cheese (at my desk, not my lab bench. =P)
My desk buddy Dan!
Yep, I look like this whenever I pipet stuff or use the plate reader... =P
I normally don't like wearing lab safety gear like lab coats or goggles or the giant orange gloves for handling hot things, but I like wearing the blue lab coat and matching blue gloves because they make me feel like a giant blue marshmallow.
Haha padded elevators. I asked my labmate why we have padded elevators and he said, "because they transport animals to the animal research facility in this elevator..." Uh huh... and they let the animals roam free in the elevator???
Lunch of leftover roasted veggie lasagna.
Microtome to section paraffin-embedded samples.
Not sure what happened with this samplel... there was a hole where the sample was supposed to be. :(
I always try to do the hard sodoku first and after 10 minutes I decide it's too hard for me so I switch to the easy one...
Karen fails at the easy sodoku. Don't judge; sodoku is hard. :( I don't know where I went wrong but I was about to write a "3" in the middle box of the middle box.
There's a Red Mango coming to Boston! Right outside the Symphony station! This was probably the best part of my day. Too bad it's not Pinkberry, which is more tart and more yummy than Red Mango. :) It's okay, Boston will still have YO-BERRY! (Buy ten fro-yo, get one free yo!) haha
Can anyone guess where this is? :)
It took me 10 minutes to find this Orzo.
Free TV right outside my door!! (Too bad it wasn't addressed to me... that shouldn't have stopped me though. Hehe j/k)
Mushroom orzo with pearl onions. This was the first time I've cooked with orzo and pearl onions. So yummy!
Stir-fry veggies. Thanks Doris for the red pepper :D
Yesterday I realized that Yang poses for pictures like little kids do. There are some kids who are so well-trained for the camera that once a camera is whipped out, they'll stop what they're doing and stand still and smile for the camera patiently. Yang was probably very well trained for the camera when he was little.
My ultimate world and the rest of my world colliding
Livia before her fame through Science.
Amy a week before her wedding.
Me.
Kkz a month before her thesis is due.
After dinner I go over to Antrim and this is what I see:
... the quintessence of being a boy:
...someone remind me why I keep him around?
...oh yeah, it's because he does things like fold laundry with the utmost concentration:
I'm singing "Amazing Grace" for Amy's wedding next week, along with Kkz and Livia. The three of us are going to sing a verse each and then we're singing the last verse in harmony. I don't know why Amy asked us to sing but whatever, I okay with embarassing myself in front of 300 people.
I ended my day with a friendly game of BOMBERMAN with Keith, a game where you are these adorable little spacelings with cute antenaes, and you try to blow everyone else up using strategically placed bombs. Whee!
Ewwww... don't look if you get grossed out easily.
Oops, I guess I put the warning too close to the picture. Sorry! ;)
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