A short Respite

Alright, long haul with work and finally it's thanksgiving break. My sensor lab kit arrived on the 16th and I began tearing it open. I found a workbook, the machine itself, countless wires and resistors, capacitors and LEDs,  and the various "add-on cards." It was daunting at first, but not so much once I looked at the work book and saw that it's actually a really simple circuit and there's no soldering, but I figured I'd save it for thanksgiving break.

Nov. 22  Time to go back home later today. I have my Organic Chem exam on nomenclature, IR Spectroscopy and Acid/Base reactions (which we haven't talked about for over a month...) We also have the questions for Ch 5 and Ch 12, plus the naming lab, a ton of problems that make me feel like I never want to name something again. After the exam we got to leave and I didn't have any classes after then until 6:30, so I went back to my room where my girlfriend, Jess, was still asleep, and cuddled back up with her and fell asleep until 12:45 (when my lab would have ended, if I had it that day) It was a glorious sleep yet I think it set me up for the failure of sleep that is to come... Band was shorter then usual and I felt great for going. My mom came by to pick me up around 10:30 so i packed up everything I wouldn't need and we even moved my room around a little. On the ride home we talked, as usual, and my mom kept mentioning how Biotechnology is such an ethically charged field, and she thinks I'll be good in it. Who knows, all I know is I'm more and more excited for this field.

Nov. 23  I looked at the kit and followed it's directions exactly "put a wire in slot J5 and spring 15" etc. Still no good, so I fiddled around with the wires and eventually I got something to work. Don't know exactly what I did but it started reading. It mad eme happy and Dean, my good friend was mystified at how it worked. A photo resistor, as I'm now slightly more familiar with, decreases the resistance based on how much light is present, meaning a read of 7 (on the 1-10 scale) means that there is quite a bit of light. There's also a potentiometer on it that I can adjust to increase the sensitivity of the resistor, giving me a higher or more precise value.

Nov. 24  The lab I used as a reference recommends attaching a multimeter to it to get a numerical read-out, which I am planning on doing. I also have a few glow sticks in my dorm room, so I could assemble my jar full of black-out and put the glow stick in it and basically do the lab they recommend to familiarize myself with the process. This will hopefully give me an idea on what I would need to do to improve the sensitivity of the resistor or how to actually quantify my data. We also had thanksgiving which was a welcomed moment of food, peace and family, even though most of my family isn't in this part of the world and the family me and my mom live with aren't necessarily our "family" I felt connected and important all over again. It made me think of what I'm thankful for in life and get all reflective.

Nov. 25  I have also began building piñatas for MCLA's Computer Society. We're having an event at the end of the semester based on smashing a computer-shaped piñata and playing videogames that are based around  computers etc to get frustrations about finals out. It will be awesome I'm sure and exciting too. Two more members of this "family" came up and played with everyone/ thing, Samantha and Chase both quite young and quite fun to play with. Samantha is apparently an expert at crafts so my mom pulled me off Skyrim at a good point to ask both of us if we wanted to make the piñatas, which both of us eagerly did. It was fun, I haven't paper mache'd for quite some time.

Nov. 26  It's been a difficult time waking up these past few days, my bed at home is so comfy compared to the rock I sleep on at college. I wake up at 6:00, open my eyes briefly to check my watch then fall asleep before I even know- I close my eyes, then every hour I wake up again and fall asleep until 10 or 11. It's gonna be a horrible transition, but hopefully I can make it. Today me and my mom are going to Jo-An's Fabrics to get some paint for the piñatas, I'm also getting some sequins for one of my friend's christmas presents I will be making him over the next vacation.

Nov. 27  Home time, played Skyrim last night which was fun and I managed to wake up at 9:00 which is a little better... this bed is still too comfy. I now journey back to MCLA for the move-back-in and eventual relaxation time before Monday's classes.

Not exactly short, but whatever it was a 6 day rest.

Perceive That Which Cannot be Seen with the Eye

Today marks the first real step towards my research project. I have learned what tool I will use to quantify the light emitted by Noctiluca scintilans. This device uses a photo-resistor to quantify the light produced. Then, it makes sense to look at how many of the organisms are present and divide the quantified light released by the number of N. scintilans present in the sample. This device, however, I must make for I'm sure there are ones out there but we don't have one. Luckily I found a nice website that details an experiment using one. And this is what the box looks like, I will likely get working on it over this month, unless I get it for christmas, but I'd rather start on it now to see if it's at all possible.

This is my quarry, I will have it, and I will measure the luminosity of N. scintilans, and it will be an awesome lab and journey. (That's my current hypothesis, soon to be amended once I actually get the machine working and fully design my experiment.)  The actual project will involve using varying water conditions to see what produces the most glow, then I was thinking of expanding it to see which conditions would produce the most toxins (the ones found in red tide during massive feeding boons) so I could possibly draw a correlation between water conditions, luminescence and chemicals released. I ordered the parts and they should arrive on the 17th ideally.

I also found out that I am 1 of 2 Biotechnology concentrations at MCLA, which made me feel kinda cool, yet kinda lonely at the same time. Ahwell, guerentee'd spot in the Spring Break internship, I get to culture my own stem cells! Also, tomorrow Skyrim comes out (Midnight Release) and there's no school Friday so, yea it'll be a weird day Friday, but exciting none-the-less.

I also fixed the motherboard on my computer, and re-applied thermal grease so it is fully functioning... except someone locked me out of it by changing the user name and password before the computer decided to break down... Sage Puppy, Y U NO?!?

The glorious, near 6(7?) year old computer has been restored after a power surge fried the voltage regulator on my old videocard... and the old power supply. Now it has a new power supply, a corsair 700w, and a new videocard, Radeon 4850. Not the best, but it gets it running. I recently replaced the motherboard too, and the thermal compound on the CPU, so now it's working nice and well.  Everyone can be happy!

Master Calligraphy and Blade

One of Musashi's teachings is that a samurai should be as deft with a sword as he is with the ink. Calligraphy tames and cools the mind, while swordplay heats it up, it's kind of like tempering a sword in that you must heat it, then cool it and continue until it becomes strong. Or at least that's my interpretation of his teaching. On that note I plan on writing a bit during the month of November due to it being some novel writing month. I figure that will be a nice relaxing de-stresser from the encroaching finals.

This morning at around 6:00 then again at 9:00 I took walks into local North Adams and it was really peaceful for a city. I can't explain it but it put my mind at rest (at least until a car came by). When i got back I checked Deviant Art and found that my friend Mr. Kosslick had created many new pieces of art on Correl painter. I find his work relaxing and inspiring, therefore I'm going to include some of his images in short stories I write this month. I will likely post them here so stay tuned.

Tomorrow I am dreading, I need to be ready to write a paper on on the Kennedy Tapes Concise Edition edited by Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikov. That book gave me a deep insight into the whole Cuban Missile Crisis which i appreciated, however the way they conveyed it (I know it is taped and 'unedited' etc.) just seemed like needless repetition. Every day they talked about the same thing, which I can appreciate, it just made for a slow read... and when you're already a slow reader it doesn't help. Though the discussions we have in that class make it worth it. I can fully understand the reading I've done and all the events that transpire, such as why the Cuban missile crisis was such a hot debate, and why we couldn't simply accept Kruschev's offer of trading Turkish missiles for Cuban ones. I think I've learned more from the discussion then from the book. Dr. Montgomery is an interesting old man indeed. To top that off, I have a Zoology exam on Phylums: Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Arthropoda, Mollusk, Echinodermata, and Chordata. It's a lot of material, I just need to look over Chordates since we only had one day to go over them. Immunology is also tomorrow and if I remember right we have a test in that class on Wednesday also. Boy it'll be a long morning.

I regret not spending this weekend as efficiently as I could have, if I had worked really hard, I could maybe have today off to write and work on my research proposal for next semester. I'm really exited to work with Noctiluca scintillans and learn all about it's bioluminescent properties under different conditions. Once I discover that I plan on expanding it to see when it bioluminesces, if that produces more toxins that affect red tide, and once that happens, I hope to discover if there's a correlation between high amounts of luminosity and high toxin levels. Being able to work on research/ writing would be a great relaxer, and if I had succeeded, I could break the college cycle of "Sunday slam-cram day," but I failed this weekend. Though I can, without a doubt finish all my work during the day, I just wish I could relax. Ah well, there's always next weekend... oh... wait, SKYRIM. Never mind.

Anyways, that's all for now, I'm hoping to write something later today if I finish my studies, so keep doing what you're doing.

Never step with just one foot.

Well, "First Blog" or "Post 1" might be a more fitting title for this... But I am truly a fan of Miyamoto Musashi's work, therefore I named this blog based off of one of his quotes: "One should never step with just one foot." I also figure that, since today I attended a Graduate School Fair, learned some topics in Biotechnology that I would really like to pursue, and have registration for my 4th semester of college at 7:00 in the morning tomorrow, I figured it's about time that I think about the future, and what better way to do so then write a blog. This blog will be a looking back on all the things that have inspired my decisions, all the movies I have watched and found really interesting, events, and other fun ideas.

 My friend, Andy (Same name as me, but taller) recommended a documentary to me called "Transcendent Man" talking about Ray Kurzweil, the "Heir to Edison" and his wondrous perspectives on the future. This documentary was really interesting talking about uses for Biotechnology that I thought were possible but not necessarily in the way he described them. He mentioned eternal life, and I thought back to this summer when me and my friend Dean were pondering the use of sea urchins as an example of eternal youth. I also learned how cancerous cells worked in my Introductory Biology class and started thinking about how urchins do it, if they make telomorase, or if they have some other way of prolonging their existence to beyond 200 years. Though, this also factors in the question of "Should this be done?"

The Documentary talked about people rebutting that the best way to create global war is to delve into "eternal life" This is paraphrased, but it rings true, if the rich have access to modifications such as this or remote implants or nano machines that increase their intelligence or immune system, then the poor will die off and he who has the best modifications shall be king and our whole social structure will be thrown off. Also it wouldn't be something good to live forever, you see those around you slowly wither and die because they aren't as lucky as you.

He also mentioned that technology is exponentially growing, think of the first super computers... think of your cellphone. it's literally 100,000,000 times smaller and 100,000,000,000 times more computing power. He used some huge figures, and described that soon we will have reached a singularity, or positive feedback loop where technology is at a maximum, but the maximum is continually expanding as knowledge grows. It's a weird concept, but kind of scary to think about at the same time.

He also talked of AI growing to a point of self awareness. This was related by many people to "Terminator" which is kind of true, I liken it to The Matrix where we becomes slaves to a greater intellect. "Much like ants or cockroaches are flicked and squished because we find ourselves superior in intellect  these 'new gods' will think of us as disposable and not give a damn about our demise." This was a morbidly true thought. Enough pessimism. Watch the documentary, it's great, but watch it with an open mind, his information is great and he seems like a hopelessly zealous preacher at times, and similar to Nostradamus with his predictions, but it's well worth it, and it's on Netflix instant stream. I will likely put full comments on it when I actively watch it again sometime, so... keep in touch for my opinions and whatnot...?

I guess the point of a blog is to develop a style and way to convey information? I have no idea, but I guess this next section is about my experiences at the Graduate School Fair that our school had. I learned that not many schools nearby offer biotechnology as a concentration, but one school, Suffolk University, offered a science management course, so I talked to the recruiter asking "what exactly this is" and they said that, "managing a laboratory is potentially in your future, and we teach how to manage a successful laboratory through business and administrative courses along with science courses. This got me excited, the prospect of being like Robert Oppenheimer, one of the people of history whom I enjoy hearing about. He was a great laboratory manager and helped the United States develop the Atomic Bomb, with his quote that I personally like, "scientific developments are motivated not by what is necessary, but by what is possible."And this is possible, so why not prepare if it happens. The field that Ray Kerzweil talked about (not to bring up the big bad omnipotent one again) is GNR (Genetics, Nanotechnology and Robotics), which interests me and influenced me to take the Robotics course when it's next available. That is the course I'm most looking forward to I think, but there are bound to be more courses offered that will spark and prepare me for my interests.

While looking through the course book, I stumbled on a "possible concentration" in the Interdisciplinary Studies section: Science Writing. This seemed boring, but some of the courses like "Technical Writing" and "Bibliography and research styles" seemed useful for writing lab reports, there was also a course "Science in History" taught by one of my new favorite professors, Dr. William Montgomery. I am seriously contemplating taking these courses in the neer future, but tomorrow is the registration for classes, and tonight is Dungeons and Dragons, so i guess that's all... this probably isn't the most interesting blog yet, so I'll just include a picture or two...

I see people acting like this all the time... the more you hit it, the faster it will come... In all honesty, my girlfriend seems to believe this is true, for her sake I hope it is... for the elevator's sake I hope it isn't true and everyone learns it.