Officialness

Lots of people I know have blogs/sites that are like a mini-cover letter. I've been thinking of doing something similar recently...

Today I finally made a Linkedin. Currently not so sure about what the boundaries between the professional world and the personal world should be.

I'm at a point where I'm wondering if this blog should be allowed to be tied in with my Linkedin. But I'm not so fond of the idea. Mainly because I do believe in a separation of the working and personal environments. But then, I don't really get extremely personal with what I write here, in my opinion at least.

Gift Ideas in Chapters/Indigo

Generally when you think Chapters and Indigo, you think books and Starbucks. Well at least that what I always thought. But I made a wondrous discovery the other day, they have really neat gift ideas.

I've always wanted my clock to have a
"You're late" instead of a number

I would use this... but after a while I would need new
questions on the clock... white board clock above
better I would say

It's actually really fun to detach and
reattach 

And all so pretty 

Window sill plants?

These are memo pads, beautiful and exquisite memo pads

I hear they're really difficult to play with

For all of you who travel a lot

There were also a whole bunch of other really nice things, I swear I saw some of the stuff that Think Geek sells. Specifically this.

Spring is my favourite season

I love it when the flowers are blooming! I love the warm weather! I love the colours in the grass!

So I took some photos today this(these?) week(s?). Apologies for the blurry images, my camera phone wasn't the best.

I singled out a single flower
These flowers weren't so pretty cluttered together

Here're some flower beds:

This flower bed wasn't so nice when close up

But I thought they were better from afar

Obviously I'm not the greatest photographer, but there's something about seeing a bloom in the warm spring weather that cries out for a picture. Expect more of these types of posts... at least until the dense summer heat starts.

Colour Quiz

I took this Colour Quiz

About the test
Some psychologists say that depending on your current situation in life certain colours appeal more to you. That's the basis of this test.

My results

Sprouts's Existing Situation

Desperately needs a close relationship with an affectionate and accepting partner; or some other way to be recognized and known.

Sprouts's Stress Sources

"Looking to stand out in the crowd and wanting to keep her rank and status. her current situation is irritating her because she can't seem to find anybody out there who values the same high standards she does. she is feeling isolated and wants to give in to her carnal urges, but can't bring herself to appear weak in the eyes of others. Wants others to see her unique qualities and character but can't stand to come off as needy, so instead she has an ""I don't care"" attitude and pushing people away. she turns her back on those who criticizes her behavior, but beneath her indifference is a person who is in desperate need of approval."

Sprouts's Restrained Characteristics

Open and emotionally involved in relationships and easily finds satisfaction through sexual activity.

"Struggles to make her demands clear, but feels ignored. Feels resentful, but acts as if she doesn't care, doing what is necessary to keep peace."

"Struggles to make her demands clear, but feels ignored. Feels resentful, but acts as if she doesn't care, doing what is necessary to keep peace."

Applies tough standards to her potential partner and demands an unrealistic perfection in her sex life.

Current situation is leaving her doubtful and cautions about becoming intimately involved with others.

Sprouts's Desired Objective

"Longs for tenderness and for a feeling of acceptance from a partner. Appreciates things that are beautiful, pleasing to the eye, and stylish."

Sprouts's Actual Problem

"Wants to be valued and respected, seeks a close and peaceful relationship with a shared respect of each other."

Sprouts's Actual Problem #2

Disappointed because her hopes have not come to pass and she fears coming up with new goals will only lead to further disappointment. These conflicting emotions lead to a feeling of anxiety and depression. she tries to escape into a peaceful and calm relationship which offers encouragement and protection from further disappointment.

My thoughts
First time reading it I was a bit shocked at the accuracy of this test. Several complications in life right now really do seem to have been reflected by these results. But then re-reading this really made me realize that quite a few statements are also very general and can be applied to other people. Could it be that they're just common problems or am I just looking too much into them?

Regardless, it was a nice side-track from studying.

Why am I awake right now?

The time is 9:10AM.

I woke half an hour ago.

There are no classes or anything I have to do today other than readings and for the past week I've been consistently sleeping at 11-1 and waking at 11-12. I slept at 1 again last night and now I'm really confused as to why I'm awake.

It was one of those strange wake ups, I was having a worrisome dream and suddenly I was aware of myself. I knew I could choose to go back to sleep or wake up. And for some odd reason I opened my eyes and suddenly realized I wouldn't be able to sleep again. I then got up and experienced the symptomatic headache of not having gotten enough sleep, but as I laid back down and closed my eyes, sleep refused to return.

It might be weird that the first thing I'm doing this morning is writing a post about how I woke up. And I kind of wish there was a purpose to all this... but alas it's probably just going to be one of those days.

Stubborn

Thinking about things, I really realized how much I always want things to go my way. My ego constantly blinds me and give me the crystalline illusion that my way is best.

Obviously that's not the case for most the time. But I'm so darned stubborn that somehow things always go my way. Which, at the time, is wonderful; looking back, is not so much so.

I'm not sure if I'd categorize this as 'regret', things can always be worse, but there's still this occasional nagging feeling that things also could have been better.

And times like this it's hard to just close my mind off and just let go. Being content is enough, but only sometimes. Yeah, I'm selfish like that.

It's a nasty habit, and I think I should change it, but I seem to so far only realize it when looking back, and not at the present time. But there's also the thought that always trying to have things my way is how I choose to express myself; I just really enjoy expressing myself (even when it makes no sense). And sometimes stepping down for a moment actually causes me so much mental anguish that it'd probably be better for everyone around me if I didn't. Am I defending myself now? Maybe.

In the end I think it comes down to confidence, and in some areas I have too much (not all of which is well earned). But though I keep thinking about this, I know that nothing about me is going to change, because I really don't want to change anything. It's just slightly unfortunate, but not yet worth the trouble.

I HAVEN'T WRITTEN ANYTHING FOR TOO LONG

But I really have nothing interesting to say.

Well a lot of interesting things to say but no time or coherence to actually make sense of them.

Saw my adorable brother this weekend. I do believe he sees me as a cookie making machine. Which is good since this means my parents automatically are required to go buy ingredients for me. Baking is so relaxing.

I really can't think of anything else to say. My mind's everywhere at once and so I can't really get anything across to you.

Purple flowers.

Yeast Reproduction is romantic

Here's the mating cycle of yeast taken right out of my lecture slides:

Scientific Terminology

Diploid: Having full the full set of chromosomes (one from mother, one from father; or two copies of homologous chromosomes)

Haploid: Having half the full set of chromosome (half the diploid; or one copy of a homologous pair)

Budding: Asexual reproduction by creating a mini-clone of the self that 'buds' off to create a new cell with the exact same genetic make up

Spore: The 4 haploid cells that are released when the yeast chooses to go with sexual reproduction

In yeast, the two haploid spore types that are formed during sexual reproduction are called an a cell or an a cell. You can kind of think of these cells as akin to male and female. These haploid cells are able to reproduce their haploid genome via budding. 

Mating occurs when one a cell finds another a cell and the two halves of a full diploid combine together, fusing their membranes and joining their DNA into one. I think the notion that in order to become a full diploid yeast cell, two haploids have to find each other and literally fuse into one, is really quite romantic. 

To top that off, if a haploid cell has a loss of function mutation in a gene (let's call it gene A), it's overall growth and survival is very limited since they don't have a correct copy of said gene to make up for the one mutation. Now say there's another haploid with a mutation in a different gene (let's call it gene B) but has a functional copy of gene A. If these two haploids mate then they will fuse their genes together so that there are now two copies of each gene. Since one haploid had the wildtype (functional) allele for gene A and the other haploid had the wildtype allele for gene B, the diploid cell will have two perfectly functional alleles for both gene A and gene B! The two haploids complement each other's flaws so perfectly!

Of course, in the case that both haploids have a mutation in the same gene, well, their resulting relationship will also be pretty in-viable... I guess it's all about finding the right match.