I love when o-chem lab gets out early!!! Yet another reason why 143A is a thousand times better than 6BL. Now I can actually eat something and not be hungry all through bio lecture!!!

Nobody came to my section yesterday. I feel so unloved. So do my expertly composed lecture outlines. When they dont get A's on the next midterm they'll all say "If only i had gone to mike's section and not forced him to sit around drawing stick figures on the chalk board".

Padres 13-9

"What if I said what I was thinking?
What if that says to much?
When everybody's got a reason
I feel like giving up"

Wow its hot. I think I'm gonna go to work and hang out in the cold room.

"So many moons that we have seen
Stumbling back next to me"

Friday ate at Shogun's with mario. Food was good, and we saw Diane there.

Yesterady drove up to Del Mar with the folks cuz mom wanted to see the Home Development Expo. Exciting stuff if youre into that sorta thing. Stuff like fireplaces that run on ice and "The World's Greatest Toilet System" or something like that. There were lots of food stands also, plus free candy!!!. Afterwards we ate at The Fish Market, which was also good food, with the added bonus of several pretty waitresses.

Found a journal of mine from 2nd grade. The writing was difficult to interpret, but i did find one entry about me and vic looking all over the school for someone's missing watch. Haha. I actually remember it happening too. Me and Vic were great detectives, despite the fact that someone else ended up finding the watch. Good times eh?

Be excellent to each other!

"Be, be the one I need
Be the one I trust most
Don't stop inspiring me"

The Joys of Being a Biology TA cont.
Today i got to grade midterms. Fun stuff. The page I graded had the impossible last question on it, which an amazing 2 out of the ~200 pages I graded got full credit on. Add that to the 1 full credit paper that heidi had (we each did half) which makes it about 3 out of 400 people. The best answer to the question (which asked about myosin being able to distinguish between ATP and CTP) was a drawing of a dragon looking thing with an arm sticking out of its back and ATP going into its mouth. A character from some website apparently, and worth 1 point since we gave a point for any answer. All those people who left the question blank will feel stupid when they realize they could have just drawn a picture of a dragon with an arm sticking out of its back to get a point.

Also, according to the professor people with last names starting with Z are the dumbest people in the world.

Asked during the midterm: "I know its those little p thingies. Can't i just have the first letter?"

Padres baby!!! 9-7

"I've been all over the world
I've seen a million different places
But through the crowds and all the faces
I'm still out there looking for you"

Done with my midterm! Lots of fun.

Also got to proctor my first test today, which was equally fun. People ask pretty interesting questions, like "When it says draw a lone phospholipid does it mean draw one?" and "That number on the board, is that the time remaining?". You'd also be surprised how often people cheat. This one girl was seriously looking at everyone's test around her, and even after one of us told her to keep her eyes on her own paper she still keeps cheating!! Oye. Even more fun was alphabetizing, dividing, and taking apart 400+ 10 page midterms. According to Dr. Hasson using a staple remover requires a "bit of anger", and seeing as how i was pretty good at it i guess i'm a pretty angry guy.

Best excuse to try and get out of taking the midterm; "I think I may have testicular cancer"

Best answer on a Biology final: "Have a Great Spring Break!!!"

"So if an old friend I know
Drops by to say hello
Would I still see suspicion in your eyes?"

Midterm week is so much fun (note the sarcasm in case it is not immediately apparent). I hope I make it through.

"Lately I can't be happy for no one
They think I need some time to myself
I try to smile but I can't remember
And I know tomorrow there'll be nothing else"

"I write about the things I'll never know
And I can't find a moment just to slow down
It makes me think I'll never have the chance
To figure out what it's all about
So tell me what it's all about"

So my 2nd TA section went much better. Its probably cuz i studied the stuff pretty well this time, since the professor had most of us TA's take the midterm to check for mistakes, and i didnt want to look bad by not knowing something. I had 4 people again, except the 3 girls from last week were replaced by all new people. I guess a net gain of 0 is better than a loss. Thanks again to vic for even more moral support.

Not much else going on except that I feel really tired. 8:00 in the morning is way too early for an O-chem lab, and 8:00 in the evening is way too late for an O-chem lecture. Especially when that lecture takes place at the same time the physics TA gives away the questions for tomorrow's quiz. >:0

See ya around.

"Well its all so overrated
In not saying how you feel
So you end up watching chances fade
And wondering what's real"

Weekend was good. I actually got some homework done, plus had a ham dinner for Easter yesterday. Now the week has started and I cant believe midterms are coming up again. Don't these things ever go away? Actually, it turns out I only have one midterm to worry about, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

What's scary is when you've gotten so used to early classes that waking up at 8:00 in the morning feels like sleeping in. Whoa. Freaky.

Other than pachisi, recently i've been playing chess on hoyle board games when i need a distraction from hw. It kinda bugs me though cuz the computer seems to constantly call stalemates for no reason. I think that i've got the game won for sure when all of a sudden "Stalemate!! You dont get to win cuz its a draw!". Can anyone tell me how it can be a stalemate when he's got nothing left but his king and I've got 2 queens and a rook? Battle Chess never did that to me.

I'm stuck here till 6:00 cuz of my wonderfully scheduled TA meeting. Sitting in CLICS trying to distract myself from working on my chem lab writeup. This is really a pretty nice building. There's a really cool design on the roof that i dont really know how to describe. Maybe if i paid more attention in humanities. And did anyone ever notice that those support rail things are purple? Amazing what you learn when you dont want to.

Okay, sorry about that. Later kids.

This quarter is so busy. Physics, O-Chem lab, TA stuff, and work take up so much time . . . and the REALLY scary part . . . I haven't even started doing any O-Chem yet!!!! !$@%!$@#!! On a brighter note, my lab TA is really cool (he happens to be named Tom Brady . . . haha), and doesnt require that we use that damned carbon paper stuff. He actually lets us type up our labs!!! Greatest lab TA in the history of kind and caring lab TA's!!!

My first section went ok. Four people showed up not counting victor. I think i did ok except for messing up two things . . . i'm glad that one guy showed up during the last 15 minutes cuz he asked a bunch of easy questions that i could answer and somewhat redeem myself. And thanks to vic for the moral support. (Ask him about trying to get those two girls to sit closer together :P ;) ... hee hee.

"I didn't notice
But I didn't care
I tried being honest
But that lead me nowhere"

"This, whatever you make it to be
Sunshine set on this cold lonely sea"

Baseball season is back! Whoohooo!!! It was good to see the padres back in action . . . i have to say i like their new uniforms. And what could make opening day better than beating the dodgers!!!!! Yeee haww!!! We're goin all the way this year!!

Padres 1-0

The joys of being a biology TA. One of the things that makes biology at UCSD so great is the fact that there are always a billion TA's. Well, 14 at least for my class. Which of course means there are plenty of section times for people to chose to, therefore providing no need to attend a section at 6:00 in the evening on a wednesday. Which of course, is exactly the section I was assigned. On the first day of lecture Professor Hasson went down each section time to get a show of hands of how many people would likely attend that time. Of course, in our class of 412 students, only one person raised their hand when the Professor asked who would want to be studying bio at 6:00 in the evening (that one person happened to be sitting next to me and asked if I was a TA). So, after spending the last hour typing up study notes that probably nobody but myself and my dogs will ever enjoy, I invite everyone to come spend quality time with Mike in Center 217A at 6:00pm next wednesday, since I'll probably be having a pizza party by myself.

Note: if someone does show up, just bring the pizza in after.