Happy birthday, Israel

* The second semester started and though the fallen soldiers memorial day and independence day cut two days off the week I managed to experience most of the classes (save for Evolution). So far so good, and here's what we have this time:
Microbiology - the prof. of which is a chubby and huggable little Sweedish Chef lookalike who's prone to smiles and staying off boring subjects.
Mulecular Biology - lead by a prof who sort of looks like Christopher Ryan with a little more hair. So far, boring as hell, actually, but tolerable.
Invertebrates Lab - only had classes so far but it's fun fun fun; lots of cool facts about inverts!
Evolution - which I have yet to have a class in but it should be interesting, lead by the last prof who taught us Animal Behavior.
Animal Behavior lab - AWESOM!! Hooked up with uni-gang-member Dana to work on steriotypical beharion (a.k.a pacing in our case) in the striped hyena and stone martens of the zoology garden.

* We're so kicking ass with that animal behavior lab project; we already have the experiment procedures figured out and a plan all ready and that SO impressed the guides and prof, way cool. We're going to make toys so the little beasts won't be bored and neurotic which also contributes to their quality of life ^_^

* Today is independence day for Israel and we celebrated by going to Jerusalem's Israel museum and science museum. The first was very nice, had a lovely mini model of Second Temple Jerusalem and the Kumeran scrolls along with some modern art I wasn't bothered with and a show of liberated art stolen from jews by the nazis.
The science museum was fun and cool and the exhibition about medicins and drugs had a bit where you can build molecules from beads and bonds and such and I made Alanine in a peptide bond with Cistein. Yes. Nerdy. I know.
The first museum also had a fantastic book about crusaders in Israel, their beginning, their various waves of conquest and their way of life and I got it for almost 200 shekels less its original price because the cover was mis-glued to the paper. Luckily, my grandfather worked at a printing house and dad knows a thing or two on fixing these things. Basically, I got an extremely cool book for dirt cheap ^_^

Ta ta!

Stuffs, many stuffs

Nerdiness: How bad can it get? Pretty damn bad. You think blowing things up and making shampoo jump is the worst of it? I find this song is disturbing enough to gain a few Super Nerdiness points; The PCR Song



I love the black guy who kisses the PCR. Crazy, nutty, nutty geeks. You can find the (nerdy) lyrics here. BTW, our lab instructor told us the guy who invented the damn method had taken some 'reality enhancing substances' before thinking up the idea. The jokes amungst the professors go that the guy's an idiot who happed on the idea, made his money, and returned to his bleak life of not-very-clever semi-scientific decelerations and mindless existence. They say he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, not the fastest horse on the track, but who cares when the guy's obviously making so many people happy (the nerds that they are...)

Tests: Animal Physiology's behind me. It was hard but it was hard for everyone which at least gives me some perspective on how I might have done. Maybe. Genetics results is back with 60%. It's not a fail but it's not a very bright score. Luckily the course isn't very heavy on the average calculations so I'll sign up for a re-take and see how it works up my average and if I'm happy with what I've got I'll not bother taking it again. I didn't have good enough time to practice for it, despite the fact that it was a very hard test that needs proper studying to so I'm not disappointed or anything and it's not a fail so I don't have to take it if I don't want to.
But guess what, the Test Analysis course, the one with the professor who snarled at me whenever he's answer my questions? I got 82% in it >.< score! Not so bad at all ^_^

TV babble: I'm hooked on The Shield. One of the channels has got it on rather late at night but I don't care; the plot is addictive and the men are H-O-T!! Damn, they're hot. Don't be frightened, I'm not on the brink of another silly period of fangirling idiotism; had quite my fill with that. Still, I can bathe my eyes in the loveliness and relish the plot, ne?

Book Report: Finished The Night Watch and enjoyed every minute of it to the (almost) tiniest bit. Here's the Goodreads review:

I loved this book. Not just because it was a way-way-way better version of the two movies, but also because it was one of those rare and precious truly novelty fantasy books.

Who'd think Evil'd need a license, that Good was bound to paperwork? The powers, super creatures, spells and potions, all are explained carefully, without pompous drama or pathos sticking to human emotions, wants and conflicts.

The small tidbits of history, biology, Russian life and modern pop culture only add to the list of loveliness that makes this book and the thought behind it so unique and refreshing from all the tacky Hollywood-like 'magicians, werewolves and vampires, oh my!' fiction and movies out there.

The movies do this great plot and writing a great dishonor but they're still fun to watch.

Despite the somewhat unsurprising endings of the last of the book's stories, and the slight sense of disappointment, it's still a good book with great writing, exciting and fascinating plots and a lot of work put into it.

I highly recommend this book!

Am now reading: Charles Darwin The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animal

Kitty mayhem: I'm in the middle of test season but the cats'll have none of it. So what if I need to concentrate on my studies? So what if my folders have precious paper material in them I'll need whole, without paw prints or scratches? They want attention!!

Tell me, who can concentrate with such a thing at the corner of your eye?


"Forget the cramming; my belleh calls to thee"




Striking a pose


I'm afraid my PostIt note-maker-thingies proof too much of a temptation for the fluffies; they must have them!!






"w0t? I'm not doing anything"






"Meh, I'm bored, now that you're not squealing to make us stop"


And this is after the little monster (Sam) got himself soaking wet and leaped on my work table to sit on my notes, looked me deep in the eyes (so I'll take particular note of his existence) and buggered off leaving me with a soaking page, the ink smudged and the highligher smeared....gee, thanks, kiddo.

Over and out for today ^_^

Oh, the nerdiness

Our little kitty's too big for his old bowl and has lately been spilling out of it whenever he tried curling up in it (his legs would slip out and his fats would spill out on the rims of the bowl) so we got him a bigger bowl into which, I have no doubt, he'll eat and grow himself into. His father was a 13 kilo little fluff monster so I know he'll end up a biggie like his dad, even if we snip-snipped him.


Like our dear Clio, Sam also developed a habit of sitting with his ass on my mouse-hand for attention. Only Clio was slim and flexible and quite able to clean her butt, not something I can say about or plump Sam who once in a while needs us to give his rear end a cleaning. We're so lucky he's a raggie or we'd be in hospital by now <3


Last friday friend Guy from the university gang threw a purim party and here are some (shamefully blurry) pictures of the events. I will find better pictures, I promise.

Here's Shay dressed as his pet mantis, Menash


Here's Olga (dressed as a zombie nurse) and her boyfriend (dressed as Clockwork Orange's Alex)


Here are (from left to right) Merav dressed as a chinese thing, Neta dressed as something ambiguous and Dana dressed as a Hawaii girl.


These are Guy (at the back) dressed as last year's math course lecturer who we suspect is actually Count Dracula and Shiran (at the front) dressed as a flying gay deer of some sort.


I dressed as a mouse going to sleep. I'll find a picture of it.

And now, nerdiness beyond repair, cellphone pictures from various microbiology labs:


Creating as buffer was never something I thought would be easy, but it is!! As you can see, this pH stick indicating the exact pH we (me and my lab partner, Guy) wanted to achieve is evidence of such a triumph.

These are the E.Coli we planted on our petri plate in the first lab and got to see in the second lab. I took mine home (freaked my lab teacher out a bit) where Scarlett licked it happily due to the agar's attractive smell.

3rd lab results as we checked for protein activity rates in various concentrations (I think) then checked to make sure, using a spectrophotometer.

The charting of the results of the 4th lab, where we checked to see how much E.Coli survive on various substrates before we make a plasmid out of them.

Handed over my first test this semester (student test season starts next week @_@) for 'Lab and test result analysis' course which had nothing to do with the title. We had a home-test over the weekend the answers to which we were to hand over this morning. Nice picture, eh? Quite pastoral, no? Well, a touch of pastorality before the test season <3 here, have some fluff in bookshelves: