It's Winter

I haven't given up on this. I was just lazy last quarter. However, so much has happened since my last post. I'm sure most of you know I'm playing hockey on the UCSD ice hockey team. That was most of my life outside of school last quarter and its quite fun (and sometimes painful too). My roommates are also great, which has made being at the house that much more enjoyable. I also turned 22 since my last post.

My Christmas break has been lots of fun so far. I've seen my family, gone out with friends... a lot, had some wine, had some more wine... that's been most of it. One highlight had to be the record-setting 13 hours of my life. Rachel and I successfully, meaning neither of us fell asleep, watch all 5 Harry Potter's in a row. We started around 3pm and finished close to 4am. According to IMDB it's 749 minutes for all five. There was only one brief food break too. Becca joined us for the third movie. Everyone else missed out. We even had a had a drinking theme (that we didnt drink to) for each movie.

The January Mammoth trip was also a good one this year. Though it ended up being just Katie and I who went, we had a great time. The drive up was good, and the first 2 days on the mountain were nice, even though the snow kinda sucked. But then Thursday night the blizzard rolled in. So, we had to put chains on in heavy snow (we tried the night before but it failed) and then we drove to the mountain to get some powder runs in. It was crazy up there. It was a blizzard for sure.. white out conditions with most of the mountain closed. On the drive home we were escorted down sherwin grade by a CHP and had the chains on until about 10-15 min before Bishop. Thankfully 395 wasn't closed. And when the snow stopped, it was rainy/windy the rest of the drive. It was fun.

It's like a Drug...

Hockey. Lately I've been going through hockey withdrawal. UCSD hockey tryouts are Oct 2nd. Lets hope I get a little bit of ice time between now and then. (I also suffer from snow withdrawal.)

In the Lab

So here's what I have actually been doing all summer: Cognitive Neuroscience!! The first week was boring as hell, but its gotten better since. I worked with rats everyday until monday (they died for science). We did a maternal deprivation study, where we filmed the pups and dam (mother rat) interaction and maternal behavior following periods of pup/dam isolations. I filmed, defined behavior, scored the behavior on a computer, interpreted, graphed, found significance... for all the mother and 8 pups. Then we did some odor habituation tests on the pups over the next couple days. Odor habituation is learning. We compared the maternal deprivation, sham, and HI (brain damaged) data and found significance. Yay!! That's basically what I have been up to this summer.

What Work

I watch videos of rats and record certain behaviors all day (except for lunch). Exciting...

Neuro-what?!

I've just spent the past 2 weeks in Novato visiting friends. This was my summer vacation. It consisted of golf, drinking, golf, a pool party, games, poker, watching movies, the gnome dance!! and watching fireworks from a boat on the bay on the 4th. And sleep. On Monday the work part of my summer will begin. I got the research position at USC. I will start out doing neurobehavioral analysis and progress to an animal model of maternal deprivation for neonates. (sounds pretty cool) Anyways, once that gets started hopefully I can post some cooler stuff. Until then.. its flippin hot here.

Post Finals

One year down, one to go. Finals were better than expected and my GPA went up .035 (yeah!!).

Bleh

I hate finals.

Disneyland!

Finally something to write about.. I went to Disneyland with my parents, katie, robert, and lauren. Katie had this genius idea of staying at the park until midnight. And of course I was up for it. So, we got into anaheim friday afternoon, hung out, had dinner with the rents then got a good nights sleep for the next day (not!!). Our day started around 7ish when my parents called our room to wake us up. Then it was breakfast and to the park. My dad was at a conference for the day, but katie, my mom, and i went to the park around 8. We did all the good/crowded rides before robert and lauren got there. Then we did all the good rides again... Usually I get my fill of the park quickly, this time though, we did the buzz lightyear ride... a lot. Not just a few times, but really, a lot. Robert got the high score of the day when the ride didnt stop (I got the unofficial high scored cause it stopped in front of a diamond and triangle which are worth lots of points). Then we ate lunch at ESPN Zone, which is fantastic. There was golf and hockey on the tv's. After lunch it was more time at the park. My dad joined us a little later in the day. And of course we took him on the buzz lightyear ride. And after a long/fun day my parents left, and then eventually robert and lauren too. But katie and I were there til midnight. We got on space mountain at 11:55. and were about the last people allowed in line. Needless to say, by the end of the ride and after a short walk to the hotel we both crashed in a matter of minutes. A 16 hour day at Disneyland has been added to my "once is enough" list. (watching all 4 Harry Potter's in one sitting is on the list too)

I think I may adopt robert's policy of once a month posting. It seems to work well.

Quick Recap

Here's the short version of my spring break. I came home last week, hung out with the smart bunch on Friday night. Saturday was golf and dinner at Patrick's. Then it was off to Mammoth with Katie for 4 days. Weather was great, including the storm that left over a foot of powder. I spent all day wednesday finding ungroomed powder runs. Then thursday was spent finding more powder. It was also windy enough to keep the snow remotely fresh all day. On the way home I had a slight mishap and had to buy a new battery for the car. Now its back to normal. I am off to San Diego to (hopefully) enjoy another quarter. And I did pass calc with a C last quarter. Yay for no more calculus!!

That Time Again..

Finals suck. Especially this quarter.

Simple

It's raining here, which is nice. And I want to go snowboarding.

It's Late

I hate calculus.

Round 1

So here's the latest- I had 3 midterms and a bio quiz this past week. It sucked. No midterms for a week. Yay!

Lately I have been craving jellybeans. Probably because I don't buy junk food or anything sugary. So I was just going to buy a thing of jellybeans from Costco and have it around. And today, knowing it would be crowded, I decided to find the costco and buy some. After waiting 5 min for a parking spot, some ass takes my spot after the guy backed out. The guy saw me too. I was not happy!! So I rolled down my window and kindly told him how rude he is. I wanted to say a few choice words, but I didnt. But because I was now upset, I just left and got some food for lunch. Freakin' Costco *bleep*...

The Chill

It's been colder than usual lately, but so has the rest of the state. It's kind of amusing to see San Diegons dress for colder weather. Some of them look like they're dressed for a snow storm. My classes have gotten busier with 2 quizzes last week and 1 tomorrow. Next week I have 3 consecutive days of midterms that I am definitely not looking forward to. I guess my plans are to study and read a lot this week. The highlight of the past two weeks however, was me moving my radio antennas so that I can actually hear more than just static. Exciting!

So Far...

What a great start to 2007!