Tag Archives: Goals met

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More goals

Several of past goals were met. New ones for now:

  • Write up for Lab
  • Spironolactone/Investigate questions brought up by Dr. Samuel regarding ESRD and potassium channels
  • Read children’s books
  • Continue handstand work (I have made great progress in this – held a handstand with back against the wall for the first time – arm strength is increasing)
  • Register for Biochem.
  • Matlab/Wolfram practice

Goals met:

  • Scored well
  • Perform RT-PCR analysis and ICC staining
  • Lift with friend
  • Send out updates to all schools
  • Passaged cells
  • Finished pediatric proposal (not great but we’ll see)
  • Got a squat rack

As a side note, the long-standing goals have yet to be met.

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December 4, 2012 for me in a nutshell

Today, I am pretty sure I got everything right on my exam except the question about ETC sites. Completely drew a blank. Sat there for a good 30 minutes before I took a guess. I vaguely remember looking at the slide but truly had not idea that ETC stands for Extra-TFIIIC . These are sites that were found in the eukaryotic genome that exclusively bind TFIIIC but not TFIIIB or RNA Polymerase III. This was done via a micro-array analysis. Fun stuff.

In other news, I had a long pep-talk with my mentor Dr. Samuel. Basically, he said chin up, chest out, and make the most of your situation. We also discussed publishing another paper (this time about Spironolactone). After that I passaged cells. Now I need to identify a good neuronal marker. We shall see. I might use MAP2 to stain again, but I’d rather do some RNA analysis. Something definitive.

Then I came home and practiced handstands. For real this time. Apparently I have no core strength. Turns out, life is about getting better at and mastering things you have conveniently pushed away when they confronted you in the past (why? because they were ‘too hard’). For me, these are two patently glaring things on my transcript I now love: genetics and anatomy.

I say this because the first progression I was told to practice for the handstand was something called the hollow body position. Could not hold it. It’s basically laying you your back and holding up your legs. The key is that the small of your back must stay on the ground, magnifying the difficultly. I hated doing this in the past (why? because it was hard) but now I recognize it’s a key movement I should master. I know it’s going to take time.

Anyway, that was that. I waited for Parth (my brother) to get home and we (by which I mean I) went to town on some deep, DEEP squats. Moved up 20 lbs on the bar also. Literal progress. Also, time to make that squat rack. We almost died when I was done with my max and we have no idea how to get the bar off my back safely. I ended up waddling to the bed, slowly sitting down and leaning back to release the weight. Yeah, that was dangerous.

Fist

Current status: Legs dead, stomach full. I am content and motivated to start working on the next big project with Amar (and work as a scribe for the next few days).