tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-209747642024-03-12T23:52:23.658-04:00Kristy-to-goHeaded off to grad school, and trying to keep up with peoples...maybe this will help.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-36018251573705808972009-05-10T00:28:00.002-04:002009-05-10T00:28:49.175-04:00For more frequent updates...and an archive of what all is here, visit my consolidated knitting-takes-over-my-life blog at<br /><br /><a href="http://theknittinglamb.wordpress.com">The Knitting Lamb</a>Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-40556045183696465552009-03-20T15:06:00.004-04:002009-03-20T15:11:32.715-04:00If we're all going to hell in a handbasket...I at least want to understand what's going on!<br /><br />NPR (remember, me the tissue-culture-girl extraordinare) is how I'm keeping up with (and trying to understand) the financial crisis.<br /><br />This American Life is an awesome show, and <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1285">the Bad Bank</a> episode is how I finally understood how banks work. Shameful, I'm working on a PhD at Yale and I didn't *really* understand how banks worked until now. Of course, genetics coursework doesn't really cover the banking system. I could have told you more about blood banks than money banks just a month ago! This American Life has done several other shows on the financial crisis, I just need to get around to listening to them.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/">The Planet Money</a> people are brilliant. Down to earth, probing, pretty good about presenting lots of approaches and pro/cons to the situation. They podcast 3 times a week and Twitter/blog much more than that. The news reports don't tell me what I need know, and these guys do.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-6779180116299714382009-03-18T11:12:00.001-04:002009-03-18T11:12:38.103-04:00Contamination
Dirty word, contamination. But sure enough, my tissue culture cells - all the cell lines I started making in January - wound up with bacterial contamination. Ugh. What looked intially like cell debris was on closer examination tiny little bacteria, that made my cells trypsinize and move off their plates.<br /><br />Five years, no contamination...I started doing tissue culture in June 2003. It's been a loooooong time, so I guess I had it coming, but it's still kind of depressing.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-41450795632686830092008-11-05T22:44:00.002-05:002008-11-05T22:46:41.179-05:00PeanutsUnited Features Syndicate, the people who own Peanuts (and a bunch of other great comic strips) have finally put the entire Peanuts archive online. So I had to hunt down my very favorite comic.<br /><br /><a href="http://comics.com/peanuts/1971-02-06/" title="Peanuts"><img src="http://assets.comics.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/200000/40000/5000/000/245014/245014.full.gif" border="0" alt="Peanuts" /></a><br /><br />This one also tugs my heart quite a bit:<br /><br /><a href="http://comics.com/peanuts/1970-02-13/" title="Peanuts"><img src="http://assets.comics.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/200000/40000/4000/600/244659/244659.full.gif" border="0" alt="Peanuts" /></a><br /><br />I hope I never have to find out.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-75367113246217968242008-09-30T17:40:00.002-04:002008-09-30T17:44:36.631-04:00I have my life back...Now that my qualifying exam is behind me, life is full of possibility again. Time to spend with friends. Time to have hobbies. Time to do the work that I came to graduate school to do, instead of sitting around fretting about whether or not I deserve to be here.<br /><br />I feel so grateful, being able to return to the things and people and places and activities that I really do love, and to live free from all that pressure. Of course, now that the external pressures are off, I have realized that it's going to have to be an internal drive to the finish line the next three or four years. Both a blessing and a curse - on one hand, I am my own best advocate and on the other my own worst enemy.<br /><br />I'm trying to spend a lot of time thinking about how I want to structure my time and what I really want to fill it with. What's really *me* and what are things that I don't care for but do because I "ought". What oughts are good and what oughts are not necessary? I want to be excited about every minute of my life again, not just "it's alright".Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-83065798401700487662008-08-26T14:47:00.000-04:002008-08-26T14:47:53.574-04:00Cupcake Truck!So someone, somewhere, somehow heard my oft-plea "but there are no sweet treats at the carts!<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, I think the carts are great, I just usually pack my lunch (cheaper and healthier!). Mid-afternoon, I sometimes want a snack, but I don't want vending machines. Now, there's a cupcake truck! They keep people up to date on when they're coming out and what they have that day on <a href="http://fooddriven.blogspot.com/">Food-Driven: The Cupcake Truck Blog</a>.<br /><br />Sadly, it's up on the Hill, and I'm down at the Med School, so it will be more of an occasional treat than a regular one, but that's probably what cupcakes ought to be. I had the chocolate cupcake with cream cheese icing. The icing was spectacular - it was very real cream cheese frosting, not the over-sugared variety, with that lovely tarty finish. I can see this being a regular "treat for trekking all the way to Science Hill for something" event.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-12720546020551639252008-08-17T16:18:00.003-04:002008-08-17T16:25:28.284-04:00The best of intentions...There are so many things that I plan to do, that I desperately WANT to do, and yet I never seem to actually wind up doing.<br /><br />I spent a year waiting to repot my little green tree that was very sad in it's former container in my bedroom. I have had picture frames and every intention of printing pictures for them for almost two years now. I have photos of my family that are a year and a half later unframed. I have the old Macs I'd love to do something splendidly creative with, but am yet to get going on it. And of course, there is all the yarn, delightfully waiting fates, and the fabric, including an entire quilt pre-cut out!<br /><br />On one hand, I would love to feel a greater sense of accomplishment from completing these tasks, to get the burden of them being undone off my mind. And of course, the reason they are sitting around waiting to be done is that I honestly believe doing these things will add value to my life. <br /><br />So why <span style="font-style:italic;">aren't</span> these things done yet? Why and how do I "waste" my free time such that these things I want to do remain undone? How do I get more done in my free time without feeling like it's way too structured?<br /><br />I know that one possible answer to the problem is to <span style="font-weight:bold;">put the computer down and walk away</span> to do something that has higher value and meaning in my life. I am also going to make a list of "what can I do with x amount of time" and list the projects I really want done. That way, if I have an hour, I can look at the list and pick an activity, instead of just floating around aimlessly.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-89324288890987216932008-01-11T12:23:00.000-05:002008-01-11T12:26:17.949-05:00It's been a while...Since I even thought to update this thing. Oh well.<br /><br />And now I'm not even at all interesting, since I'm qualifying. I feel like all I do anymore is read (true) and all I think about is science (also, largely true, though some of the same old distractions remain...starting to doubt they'll ever go away). <br /><br />I have given up my anti-desk stance and, for the reading period, converted my sewing table to a desk. Alas. It was a brilliant thing while it lasted.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-87609462356151282042007-07-26T23:23:00.001-04:002007-07-27T00:35:36.636-04:00Almost there...<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/9985385@N03/910898801/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1337/910898801_b6cb9daa60.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/9985385@N03/910898801/">Almost there...</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/9985385@N03/">kllamb</a>.</span></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> Almost packed up, less than 48 hours from moving. Once again, my life in boxes. When does the merry-go-round end?</p>Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-21658837105468555632007-07-21T23:24:00.000-04:002007-07-21T23:25:10.474-04:00Moving sucksI'm great at packing. <br /><br />I'm great at unpacking.<br /><br />It's that unpleasant middleness that's going to make my life suck for the next week or so.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-44633544755801612222007-07-20T01:17:00.000-04:002007-07-20T01:17:21.906-04:00Dude, it's my iPhone's great-granddaddy!<a href="http://fudder.de/artikel/2007/07/17/origin-of-the-iphone/">fudder %u25CF%u25CF%u25CF neuigkeiten aus freiburg:�The very first iPhone</a><br /><br />1983. My lifetime later...wow. To think what the next 25 years holds...maybe Emily's wish to have a Google button in her brain will come to fruition.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-70559335560617572242007-07-15T17:08:00.000-04:002007-07-15T17:09:00.629-04:00Odd dayI am sitting on my new porch and this guy just went by in an orange <br>shirt carrying a bag of Cheetos and two orange sodas.<p>Wonder what his favorite color is?Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-41381621733916102152007-07-06T01:47:00.001-04:002007-07-06T01:49:08.743-04:00Bloom'n!My orchid is in bloom, again. I'm so proud of it:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM53m3GpShdPKk_3twff1OsoeYGUgAF7C1QFAnkrSWKKKMwQ6ii09kk9jYQn5YM9rCX_NVySNzdvRHXFsoCYQyiqVw4qanKb1sEDwL2rYn2x3B1m1-dBAai2lPsak-XDoHKQAGtQ/s1600-h/DSCF1324.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM53m3GpShdPKk_3twff1OsoeYGUgAF7C1QFAnkrSWKKKMwQ6ii09kk9jYQn5YM9rCX_NVySNzdvRHXFsoCYQyiqVw4qanKb1sEDwL2rYn2x3B1m1-dBAai2lPsak-XDoHKQAGtQ/s320/DSCF1324.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5083956761181421810" /></a>Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-27287550634224588532007-07-02T00:03:00.001-04:002007-07-02T00:10:29.524-04:00Twilight zoneI think it's really weird when I do a Google search for information and find something I posted to a message board years ago. Below, something I posted to snopes.com's message boards during my sophomore year of undergrad:<br /><br /><blockquote>I was there for the whole month of July, so saw quite a bit - I had an arts class that had a field trip a day. Scoured the city for Wagner architecture and Klimt paintings (the Belvedere was super), Historiches Museum Der Stadt Wien, Secession, Karlkirche, the whole Ring, Stephansdom, tried out the flomarkt (not impressed, sadly), did the "summer night films" at the Rathaus thing several times, saw "Don Quixote" at Theater an der Wien, "The Barber of Seville" at the Schonbrunn, ate entirely too much eis at that stand on the Ring at the Swedenplatz U-Bahn stop, and spent many a night at the Chestnut Tree (Zun Narrischen Kastanienbaum) on Strozzigasse, my favorite restaurant on this entire planet.</blockquote><br /><br />I would really love to go back to Vienna someday, and sit under the chestnut trees in the back again and have wiener schnitzel and garlic cream soup, then stroll through the city just soaking it up. Can soaking up cities be a full-time past-time?Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-90133252106523286122007-06-19T13:09:00.001-04:002007-06-19T13:10:25.850-04:00New thingsI have tried the following things for the first time in the last 24 hours:<br /><br />Sushi<br />Imitation Crabmeat<br />Tofu pockets<br />YogaKristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-9763740994472453722007-05-30T00:36:00.001-04:002007-05-30T01:00:07.879-04:00High school yearbooks...I'm going through my high school yearbook and I really do feel like most of this needs to be shared with the world.<br /><br />My senior year, I was voted:<br />Who's Who in Academics<br />Most intellectual (Kie was most likely to succeed)<br />Most likely to take over Microsoft<br /><br />I wish I had a scanner at my parents so I could share with the world this picture of my pointing over a dear guy friend's shoulder like I'm telling him what to do on the computer screen (which was actually a powerbook we had to cover up the Apple on since we were "taking over Microsoft"...hahaha).<br /><br />My 20 year prediction (aka, I've got fifteen years left):<br /><br />"Kristy now has three children ages 10, 7, and 2. (Hum, five years left to get started on that one) She attended NCSU (check!) and got a PhD from Duke in Genetics (turned them down, upgrade Duke to Yale). Kristy now works as a research professor and lives somewhere in the Triangle Area in NC. Kristy's greatest accopmlishment has been becoming a consultant, appearing on PBS's NOVA, and bieng a Brownie troop leader."<br /><br />Is is strange that that really hasn't changed that much? I think the greatest accomplishments I would now reword with the Jesus perspective on life, but really, it doesn't sound like a bad life that I had planned out for myself.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-35527328121529623962007-05-29T22:09:00.000-04:002007-05-29T22:14:21.843-04:00My grandma is amazingThings my beloved Maw Maw Sadie has said this week -<br /><br />"You know, a girl could go out without clothes on as long as she had good shoes and a nice handbag."<br /><br />"If God wants me to have a third husband, He's going to have to really just put him in my lap. I don't want to bury a third one, mind you, but I'd really like a good Christian man for companionship. Someone who would want to go to church and serve the church and serve the Lord and pray. I would like a man like that." My reply? "I'm 24, you're 70, and I think we pretty much have the same problem."<br /><br />"Every night I pray that God's will be done. There's no sense in askin' for anything else."<br /><br />And her all time classic -<br /><br />"As long as you have your Bible and your rolling pin, it's going to be okay."Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-86250583413033076202007-05-21T00:08:00.000-04:002007-05-21T00:11:21.628-04:00The Search is Over...I have found the most amazing chocolate...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.chocolatesantander.com/img/imgRetailBars_Milk36Cacao_01.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.chocolatesantander.com/img/imgRetailBars_Milk36Cacao_01.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />EVER.<br /><br />Santander milk chocolate. Single-origin Columbian chocolate, 36% cacao, over 20% solid dairy fats. Best milk chocolate bar I've ever had (and that includes all my European adventures).<br /><br />My quest in life is now simply to find another one.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-54063403073550897312007-05-15T23:32:00.000-04:002007-05-15T23:33:44.569-04:00I joined a lab!May 11, I finally came to my decision, and joined the Kim lab. I'm pretty excited about it. Even though it is a little scary to join a brand-new lab, I think the research is facinating and it will really allow me to grow intellectually in grad school. I also feel entirely okay saying, "I am confused and do not understand" without being thought of as stupid. That counts for a lot.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-22437809401696132912007-05-10T20:45:00.000-04:002007-05-10T20:46:02.370-04:00Arrrgh!So I have come to a realization -<br /><br />You CAN be in school too long.<br /><br />I am very tired of the semester-exam treadmill. Six years is enough! One more semester, though, and my school experience will be forever...different.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-22486775364024944002007-05-09T00:09:00.000-04:002007-05-09T00:15:50.245-04:00City songsI want to find my New Haven song, probably because I'm so fond of my Raleigh song.<br /><br />What makes the city song the city song? It has to:<br />1) Mention the city I'm living in/have lived in<br />2) Capture my sentiments toward the city.<br /><br />My Raleigh song was Wagon Wheel, whose original lyrics are typically attributed to Bob Dylan. The song was popularized by Old Crow Medicine Show, and when the bluegrass-y fiddle gets going in my car everyone practically snerks at the fact that, at the end of the day, I am quite Southern after all.<br /><br />My favorite lines from that song...<br /><br /><i>Headed down south to the land of the pines<br />Thumbin' my way to North Caroline<br />Starin' up the road<br />And pray to God I see headlights<br /><br />I made it down the coast in seventeen hours<br />Picked me a bouquet of dogwood flowers<br />And I'm a hopin' for Raleigh<br />Wanna see my baby tonight<br /><br />Runnin' from the cold up in New England<br />I was born to be a fiddler in an old-time stringband<br />My baby plays the guitar<br />I pick a banjo now<br /><br />And I gotta get a move on before the sun<br />I hear my baby callin' my name<br />And I know that she's the only one<br />And if I die in Raleigh<br />At least I will die free</i><br /><br />Every time I put on my iPod on the flight home, this is the first song I play.<br /><br />So the hope is that some day, New Haven will have a song too. Therefore, dear friends, be on the lookout for New Haven in song...I'll find it someday.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-25902420888425160722007-05-06T16:59:00.000-04:002007-05-06T17:05:26.135-04:00Word roots, as recently discussed at partiesFrom my massacred reading of the Oxford English Dictionary (aka, people who are working on PhDs in Classics would be much more helpful) - <br /><br />The origin of a musician's "gig" is unknown, but dates back to c. 1920 in print.<br /><br />Ovation, in the context of applause, first appeared in print in the 1830s. It largely came straight over from Latin, and in Roman times meant an entry that was a little below a triumphal one. The Latin ovant shares a root with the classical Greek ovation. Appparently ovum, and ovulation, have that all important u that leads back to the Latin word for egg. So ovation and ovulation are totally, word wise, unrelated. And biologically pretty unrelated as well...<br /><br />School of Music people are a riot, for the record. Yay for cake binges!Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-51774959837345474372007-05-06T16:05:00.000-04:002007-05-06T16:08:12.323-04:00Scared SenselessJust for Tori - or more aptly, to keep a deal with Tori:<br /><br />So I just ran downstairs to grab the quarters I bought yesterday out of my dash (laundry day it is) and as I was opening the front door to the house, my neighbor was opening it from the outside. I think I just knocked a good few days off the end of my life.Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-1160342737534610492006-10-08T17:25:00.000-04:002006-11-03T10:02:16.723-05:00The updated states-visited listStates I'd visited as of 2004:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedStates/statemap?visited=DCGAMDNYNCSCTNVA"><br/><br /><br />After my summer in Michigan (2005):<br /><br /><img src="http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedStates/statemap?visited=DCGAILINMDMINYNCOHSCTNVAWV"><br/><br /><br />After interviews:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedStates/statemap?visited=CTDCGAILINMDMIMONYNCOHPASCTNTXVAWV"><br/><br /><br />After moving (mid 2006):<br /><br /><img src="http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedStates/statemap?visited=CTDCDEGAILINMDMIMONJNYNCOHPASCTNTXVAWV"><br /><br />After the MCGD retreat:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedStates/statemap?visited=CTDCDEGAILINMDMAMIMONJNYNCOHPARISCTNTXVAWV"><br/><br /><a href="http://www.world66.com/myworld66">create your own personalized map of the USA</a><br /><br />I think I need to go to Kentucky, on principle.<br /><br />More pics from the retreat and stories forthcoming. Genetics homework first. :(Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20974764.post-1160111573660263232006-10-06T01:12:00.000-04:002006-10-06T01:12:53.730-04:00Find a Dunkin' Donuts Store Location Near You<a href="https://www.dunkindonuts.com/aboutus/store/Results.aspx?&GAD2=84 Nash St&GAD3=New Haven%2c CT 06511-2618&GCITY=New Haven&GSTATE=CT&GZIP=06511-2618&GAD4=United States&DSN=MapPoint.NA&LOC=41.318162%3a-72.90884&IC=41.318162%3a-72.90884%3a32%3a84 Nash St&radius=10&recNum=15&isNav=1&ST=0&CT=41.3177285482219%3a-72.9129736506691%3a25.6%3a16&showNonSvcStores=1&LV=4">Find a Dunkin' Donuts Store Location Near You</a><br /><br />There are 46 Dunkin Doughnuts within a 10 mile radius of my apartment. Why isn't New England fat?Kristyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427402838743616579noreply@blogger.com0