…dontcha think?
“Any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science.” — Cardinal Christoph Schanborn
That quote comes from an article posted at New Scientist, submitted by Steve Hosack.
I’m not even going to comment on this except to say that the irony of the statement is staggering and ignorant. I’m very glad I’m not Catholic… 😛
So yeah, a few random things:
1). Yesterday was the Biochemistry Dept. orientation for new graduate students. I’m not really considering them right now, but I am going to be rotating with a professor in that department beginning next week, so it was worth a listen, I guess… Regardless, we got free food, visited with some students in the department (I may be set up in a poker game in the next week or two as a result…heh…), and later in the day, we got to participate in a reception with more free food and about 9 varieties of beer. It is still rather odd to be on campus in a science building with free beer provided to the students. I think I could get used to this “private school” shenanigans…
2). I’m heading to Columbia this weekend briefly to visit with Jan Allmann, who was an exchange student from Germany my senior year of high school. He’s back this summer (though leaving shortly…) interning at MU for something business-related. Anyway, Brooke and I are going to Columbia Friday afternoon for some frolfing and dinner, then returning here on Saturday. My parents and Brooke’s parents are then coming into St. Louis on Monday (Labor Day) for some BBQ, so that should be fun…
3). My laptop has an obnoxious white line traveling horizontally across the entire LCD screen. I called Toshiba about it last night and they said to take it by Mobile Office Machines, here in St. Louis…who’s apparently a licensed Toshiba repair place. So I called them up this morning and I’m taking the laptop by them. They’ll need it for 24 hrs to properly diagnose the problem, then they’ll order the necessary part (while I hang on to the laptop) and they’ll call me when it arrives…and then they’ll fix it… Firstly, thank God I have that 3 year warranty on this toy…and secondly, thank God I live in a metropolitan area with a repair place close by so I don’t have to UPS this thing to China…
4). School is going alright…all still mostly review, but I’m sure it can only get harder from here. I’ve been very good about reading the material ahead of time before going to class so I know what’s going on before I get there…go me…
5). Mike Goodspeed had a very good posting on his blog a few days back…you should check it out… I still stand fast by my decision that George W. Bush is an idiot, for the record…and on a related note, the poverty rate in this country has risen to 12.7%…
“Why do we need explosive detection methods? Terrorists. Because they all want to increase your entropy?”
– Joel Brockmeyer
So classes have officially started. All I had today was BBS 501: the “BBS” stands for “Basic Biomedical Sciences” and, essentially, this class is Graduate School Biochemistry (officially titled “Beginning Basic Biomedical Sciences I”, I think). Today we began a few lectures on thermodynamics, hence the aforementioned quote regarding entropy…spoken by Joel during my Junior Chemistry Seminar class Junior year at Truman…
If today’s class is any indication of the future, then it shouldn’t be too terribly hard for the first few weeks. We had a review on thermodynamics, and by “review,” I mean back to Freshman year of college. I’m sure it’ll get more difficult, but flipping through the first few weeks of the syllabus, all I can see is stuff I’ve, at the very least, heard of if not studied on multiple occasions in various classes throughout undergrad. I think the primary difficulty will be in the sheer amount of material, however. As in, I’ve got this class weekday mornings at 9:00 am…so when I have my first test in just over 2 weeks, I’ll have had about 11 lectures…which is the equivalent of almost a month of lectures (MWF) at Truman. So yeah, I dunno…it could be easy…could get a lot harder really quickly…
The exams will be completely in essay form and we are assured 3 hours to take the exam and each lecture will be covered by only one question on the test…therefore, we are relatively aware of what’s going to be on the test already…that, and we are being told to a). get the previous tests from upperclassmen and b). that the questions are very similar from year to year.
Graduate school?! So far, it sounds a lot easier than I would have thought in many of my undergrad classes…on the other hand, I’ve only had one day to deal with…but, then again, I only have two real classes to worry about: this one and a class twice a week that deals with reading “classic” papers (i.e. the original Watson and Crick DNA structure paper, etc.).
Only time will tell, I guess…
Yeah, very shortly, I will be attending classes at Saint Louis University, “officially” making me feel like a graduate student (the summer thus far hasn’t been much besides a “job,” of sorts…now I actually have to study and such…). This is both exciting and rather scary, the former due to the fact that I get to finally delve in to my chosen profession…the latter because…well…it’s graduate school… Likely this will be my largest challenge to date. The really odd parts follow:
So yeah, completely new shenanigans to deal with. Really, I’m the same old person in a completely new environment…making me wonder how I’ll deal with the situation. Will I study as much as I should? Will I make it to class on time? Or at all? Will I be able to manage money better now that I’m married and on my own? Will my personality remain the same, or should I expect another paradigm shift as what occurred in college? …or will I wake up tomorrow and still be in my bed at the old apartment in Kirksville?
…as Spock once said: “Life…is not a dream.” And as he also said, in a different movie, I “will perform as according to one’s gifts.” Hopefully I’m as prepared as I can be for the flames I am to be thrust in to….’cause it’s going to be close to five years that I’m roasting in them…
“Sounds like fun.” (…that was Kirk, this time…)
For the record, I’m very much enjoying Brooke having the job at the movie theater…since that means we get free movies every week… 😛
Anyway, we saw “Wedding Crashers” last night and I think I’ll have to agree with Andy S.’s review on this one. For the most part, it’s a very funny and entertaining flick…but, at the same time, it’s just about the same thing as every other movie that these actors (Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, etc.) have ever been in…
Yet, again, it’s a funny movie and worth seeing. While most of the movie was completely predictable, there were definitely a few parts that I didn’t see coming… Brooke even pointed out that the movie had more of a plot to it than she expected… The whole “crashing weddings” gig really only lasted for a 5 minute music video of sorts toward the beginning until the two main characters, Vaughn and Wilson, made it to Christopher Walken’s daughter’s wedding. There were many “laugh out loud” moments throughout the movie, which was the reason we went to see it in the first place (well…why I went…Brooke wanted to see what the heck John McCain was doing in the movie…).
But at the same time, I already bought “Old School,” so I’m not sure I’m going to have to buy this one when it comes out…since it’s practically the same movie…
“Brooke…well, I checked the news tonight…Pat Robertson wasn’t killed…”
— Andy Linsenbardt
So yeah, this guy has been pissing me off lately… First of all, John Stewart (“The Daily Show”) did a little news bit (click on the “Prayback Time” link on this page) showing Robertson on “The 700 Club” praying that more Supreme Court justices are “removed” from office so that more conservative forces can take over…saying that the Supreme Court justices as they stand today are the “number one threat to America today.” Secondly, I was watching “Today” on NBC this morning and they mention that Robertson yesterday called for the assassination of the Venezuelan president because he’s looking to allow Communism into his country.
The actual quote:
“You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it,” Robertson said. “It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war … and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.”
Seriously…what the heck… The man was praying for the deaths, ailment or retirement of Supreme Court justices on national television. This doesn’t really send a good message about prayer, no? …and suggesting that we knock off someone in another country that is (currently) not even threatening ours? Is he going to call for the assassinations of the leaders in India and China because they are Hindu/Buddhist instead of Christian? Obviously they’re terrible people because they don’t believe the same things we do, I guess… Good thing Pat Robertson is around to make these suggestions. I don’t know what we’d do without him around.
Here’s a great site about him… 😉
So Brooke and I got to see “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” last night, finally… Overall, I thought it was a pretty damned good movie.
First of all, I don’t remember ever reading the book… Secondly, I think I’ve only seen “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” once or twice…so I don’t remember it, either. Therefore, my opinion of this movie is almost solely based on whether it’s a good one or a bad one…not its comparison to the book or anything else…
So, in light of this fact, I liked the movie. It was definitely “odd” at many parts and Johnny Depp did a great Michael Jackson impersonation throughout, but it was a very entertaining, humorous, and touching story throughout. Tim Burton was very successful in depicting the plight of Charlie’s family, as compared to the well-off and misguided other families who won a trip through the infamous chocolate factory. I particularly like Burton’s films because they’re so visually attractive. You can’t help but get immersed in the scenes and environments being depicted, taking advantage of the differences in color (i.e. dreary and bland outside the factory, yet very colorful and vibrant inside).
So yeah, I liked it. I thought it was funny, entertaining, visually stimulating, and honest about the human condition…helping to convey Roald Dahl’s initial vision for the book (as I understand it)…and also that spoiled children are evil, yet innocent, poor children are really cool… 😛
So yeah, in the same vein as all the evolution posts from the past week or so, Andy S. sent me this link…which is rather amusing… 😛 It’s an open letter to the Kansas state school board…and is very, very sarcastic…
I approve whole-heartedly… 😉
In other news, I think I’m going to wait to build my poker table until I’ve paid some more bills and get my paycheck next week… I haven’t quite decided whether to build a table-top (i.e. fit it on top of our card table) or build an actual table (you can buy folding legs at Home Depot for, like, $20…). I think I’d be happier with a separate table, but we’ll see…
…in other news, I am getting in practice for our AoE II playing this weekend…I can take on a single “hard”-rated computer character and win…sometimes it takes me awhile, though… Back in my prime, I would take on 2 “hardest”-rated computers…but that was Sophomore year…been awhile……
Well, Kristen left this morning after visiting for a few days. A good visit, in all, yet seemed somewhat rushed at times. Apparently, certain museums in this town are closed on certain days and some don’t open until certain times, so that threw a kink in things…however, we did make it to the zoo, the Missouri History Museum, got some shopping done, went to Union Station and made a valiant attempt at going to a Cardinal’s game…but the game was so full, there was only standing room available…and I wasn’t about to pay to stand there and watch a game… 😛 Hopefully we’ll get to see a game sometime soon, though…
Anyway, I’ve got some errands to run over the next few days…nothing terribly important, but errands nonetheless… I’ll be heading to Kirksville this weekend to get some AoE II action on, so I’m looking forward to that. Regardless, I guess I’m looking forward to classes starting in a few weeks…although, it’s gonna get pretty hard, I’m afraid…
But on the plus side, I decided that I want to build a poker table… 😉
“It’s like taking a spoonful of Drain-O: sure, it’ll clean you out, but it’ll leave you hollow inside.”
— Lt. Frank Drebin; The Naked Gun
What a great movie… 😉
Well, the little sister is visiting for a few days in St. Louis, so I’ll be busy entertaining her for a bit, hopefully getting to see things here that I haven’t gotten to yet this summer, such as the Zoo, Contemporary Art Museum, City Museum, Card’s game, etc. Sadly, those two museums aren’t even open until Tuesday/Wednesday…for some odd reason, they aren’t open on Mondays…shenanigans…
Any other suggestions on things to do between now and Wednesday?
