Infomercials

Hi there, friends!  Did you know that it's Visa Renewal Season in sunny Scotland?  For a glorious month and a half, join us as we run frantically about, assuring the government that we are humble science students, not bioterrorists or WMD experts, and trying to persuade them to let us stay just a little longer!  Of course, if Scotland becomes independent in two years, then that precious piece of paper may become a useless anachronism, but just think of the sentimental value!  The joy!  The headache!  Don't miss this exciting opportunity, coming to you in the spring of 2012!  What better way is there to usher in the year of the Olympics?

Shouldn't your visa be a renewed visa?

Remember, when you've said "Tier 4 General Student Visa,"

You've said it all.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

First of all, I feel compelled to correct a spelling mistake in my post from July 21.  I wrote "counsel" where I meant "council."  My apologies.  (This matters to a grammar freak, particularly a fantasy-loving grammar freak who was attempting to write intelligently about Tolkien.)

This is just a brief note to let everyone know that I have finished (officially!) my Masters degree--the oral presentation was on Friday the 9th, and while the official grade won't be available for a while, my advisor tells me that the grading committee thought very highly of my work.   So, yay.  I don't fail.  :)

Also cause for celebration, tomorrow I'm hopping on a bus early in the morning and beginning my long journey home for a month's visit, and all proceeding according to plan, it'll technically still be tomorrow when I arrive.  Only 10 minutes until it becomes the day after tomorrow, but nonetheless.  Tomorrow is tomorrow.  (Until it becomes today at some point tonight, in which case the day after tomorrow will be the new tomorrow, but if I didn't get home until then, I'd be late.)

*ahem*  Anyways.  To say that I am excited about seeing all of you is the understatement of the CENTURY, but you know, there's something to be said for understatement.  I'm excited about seeing all of you!  Four weeks will seem very short, but I plan on catching up with as many people as possible, as thoroughly as I can.  I love and miss you all, and I'll be seeing you all (very very!) soon!

My verdict on summer in Scotland

Well, what can I say?  The poor thing tries its best (bless its little heart).  I'm afraid I've lost faith in its efforts, though, and I went to lab today in corduroy trousers, a sweater, and a sweatshirt.  With an umbrella.

For Want of News, a Blog Was Lost

So, in her e-mail this morning, my mom passed on a message from a First Pres. lady (who shall remain nameless) saying that she checks my blog daily for updates and would love to see a new post soon!  Seeing as I haven't been on here in a month, that has to be the sweetest, politest guilt trip I've ever been on, and it worked.  So wonderful First Pres. ladies who shall remain nameless,

This one's for you.

And now it remains for me to come up with some news to share with you.  Well...I bought a magazine in the grocery store today.  (This means nothing to most people, but my Tech roommates and probably my mother just felt a subtle shift in the balance of the universe.)  It was a movie magazine, and for those who would like to know, the first part of The Hobbit is coming out on December 14, 2012.  It looks AWESOME.  They're even putting in some of the concurrent events that don't get mentioned in the book, like the White Counsel storming Dol Guldur...*ahem*...sorry.  I just finished re-reading The Lord of the Rings, so I'm on a bit of a Tolkien high right now.

The past few weeks have been very pleasant, in between the return of productivity in lab and the chance to go out and do a few fun things.  Lab first: right after my last post, all my experiments were put on hold while I attempted to find a source of dirt in the lab that was making all my samples...well...dirty, shockingly enough.  We (the postdoctoral researcher and I) never did identify the source, but we altered and replaced enough things and tightened enough cleaning protocols that we did get rid of it...after about three weeks.  So this week and last week have been wonderful in that I've actually gotten to do some of my research again!  The first draft of my dissertation is due tomorrow, and while it's not a great draft, it does exist, and I think it's a good start.  I have 10,000 words without even including the actual results (which I don't have yet) and discussion, so I'm set as far as the length of the paper.  But then again, when was verbosity (or the lack thereof) ever a problem for me?

This summer I've gotten involved with a group of--I'll call them "youngish professional and/or student-type" people at my church for a weekly meeting that's sometimes a Bible study, sometimes an organized discussion group, and once a Fourth of July barbecue (there are a lot of Americans in the group).  We take it in turns to lead the study/facilitate the discussion, and I'll be leading Ecclesiastes 3 next week.  I'm really enjoying the time spent making friends with this big group of people, all of whom are very different and have very different professions and outlooks on life, and the thoughtful, intelligent discussions we have every time we sit down together to study.  It's been challenging for me, too, particularly in my interactions with the other physics student in the group, who is a quantum field theorist, well-read in every area of philosophy and theology that I haven't "gotten around to" yet, and whose intelligence generally intimidates me.  It's revealed to me just how much my self-esteem depends on my ability to think of myself as "the smart scientist," and it's led me to think and pray a lot about how I identify myself.

The various members of the group are a lot of fun, and I went with a handful of them (including Mr. Quantum Field Theorist) to see the last Harry Potter movie.  It was a lot of fun to be with them and at the midnight opening, but the movie just didn't do the end of the book justice.  I'll spare you my rant (well, no I won't, but I will try to make it short), but basically (see?), they cut out so many of the supporting characters and side threads of the plot in the earlier movies, that when they got to the end, it had been totally robbed of its power.  And...nah, I'll leave it there.  The Potter Geek was not pleased.  But it was still fun to go.  I most definitely had my wand in my bag (a modified paintbrush, for those of you whose eyebrows are steadily rising past your hairlines).

The weekend before that, three of my friends from Tech came into town, and we went hiking in the Highlands, up Ben Vorlich (a mountain, most of which are "Ben Something" in the Highlands) by Loch Earn.  I have to specify Loch Earn because, as it turns out, there are two Ben Vorlichs, a fact we neglected to take into consideration when we booked our B&B for the night after the hike, which was, of course, at the Ben Vorlich by Loch Lomond.  So the owners of a quaint little farmhouse at the base of the Loch Earn peak were very surprised when four backpackers showed up at their door, asking where they were going to stay, but they then proceeded to overwhelm us with the most astonishing hospitality I've probably ever encountered.  No, they did not put us up for the night, but the lady did let us use their computer and phone to sort out what had happened; she also got on her cell phone and called all the hotel and B&B owners she knew, as well as the village shopkeeper (no joke), to see if he knew of anyone with a room; she also let us leave our bags in the hall while we hiked up the mountain (might I add that I was humming walking songs and poetry from Lord of the Rings the entire way up?); and when we got back, her husband drove us to the hotel she'd found for us in the one-street town of Stratheyre.  AND she let us play with her dog's one-week-old puppies.  I could not possibly have gotten a more heartening impression of everyday rural Scottish people on my first "real" trip into the Highlands.

Now, before you ask, I have no pictures.  I forgot my camera.  If I ever figure out how to dump my friend Erin's pictures from her Picasa album onto my computer, they will turn up (eventually) here and on Facebook.  However, on my honor, I swear I will bring my camera when I go to Germany in a week to visit Erin (who is doing an internship there this summer).  It'll be a lightning-fast weekend trip, less than 48 hours, but I'm extremely excited about it.  Not only will I be with one of my best friends on my birthday (which means, by way of implication, that I won't be in lab on my birthday!!), but I get to visit Germany and Belgium with someone who knows where she's going and can sort of speak the language!

I think I'm going to get going now.  I probably ought to proofread my dissertation before sending it to my advisor, and I'd rather not do the whole thing tomorrow.  Two chunks will be better.  Bye, everyone!

When did I get beamed to opposite planet?

After five weeks of learning to make nice, stable sample slides that will last for hours of data-taking, on Monday I suddenly had a change of assignment.  It is now my job to see how much abuse aforementioned slides can take before everything on them falls apart, so I have been trying my level best to destroy the fragile molecules tethered there with all the nasty acids and denaturants I can throw at them.  Needless to say, my *cough* fragile *cough* nucleic acids have drifted through it completely unscathed.

My address

...Not.  Actually, this post is to tell you that if you want my address, please e-mail either me or my mother and ask.  I don't want to post A&J's address on the internet because...well, it's their house in addition to being my current residence.

In reference to item #5 in my previous post, A came home yesterday with a bag full of lego ninjas for the kids he teaches (tennis).

Things that would have made my first day in lab more interesting

1.  The use of actual piranhas in the “piranha etching” step of sample preparation.

2.  If leaving the sample for 17 minutes instead of only 15 had made it explode.

3.  Meat Science magazine.

4.  A blowtorch.

5.  Ninja monkeys.  (They make everything more interesting.)

Well, now I know how much of an effect overall mood has on my blogging abilities.  The first day of my dissertation project has me feeling more energetic and purposeful than I’ve felt in weeks, and here I am writing!  First of all, here are the links to my two most recent photo albums:

Spring Break in England

Walking Tour of Heriot-Watt

You know, now that I don’t live there anymore.  There won’t be pictures of the house in St. Andrews where I live now, at least not many or for quite a while.  The couple I rent from  (I’ll call them JT and AT, as per usual with my initials thing) live here, too, and I’m not going to plaster pictures of their house all over the internet without their permission.  I’m one of four graduate students renting from them (all with our own rooms/bathrooms—it’s a big house), to be reduced to two this summer, then three in the fall.

I moved back up here the weekend before last, and spent most of the week slowly settling in and relaxing.  This weekend felt like a re-initiation of sorts into the life of the town—Saturday I attended a play written and performed by a youth club here; Sunday my church had three baptisms (in the North Sea!), followed by a big whole-church breakfast and the service; and I had dinner with my flatmates from the fall semestre that evening.  Welcome back, indeed.

And, as I mentioned at the beginning, today was my first day of work on my summer project.  Preparing sample slides for use is not the most exciting task in the world (the cool-sounding “piranha etching” procedure just means using acid to eat away the dirt on the slides; the blowtorch, however, is exactly what it sounds like, and I get to use that tomorrow :D  ), but I did meet a number of my groupmates and get all the logistical things like my computer account set up.  And like I said, I’m excited now—just having something to do again is starting to lift me out of my funk, and the projects are going to be cool.  A formidable mountain of work, but cool.   It’s going to be an exciting summer.