Sooo... I've been on a graph kick lately... I'm sure I'll post something of substance eventually, but for now enjoy a graph regarding information I collected during my Men's Group.



-Ken

Phenomnomnom = the phenomenon of the Omnomnomnom.

The Two More Weeks List

There's a often a lot of feelings that come along with the closing of a semester. For those of us that are students, it marks the end of a year to be followed by a three month hiatus of normal school life. For those of us that aren't students, well if you know any students well then this is a significant time period for you as well. Finals are right around the corner, going to class for the final few classes becomes increasingly difficult, the scent of summer with its hot breezes to run from and cool pools to swim in becomes entirely too enticing. The lust for freedom from stress becomes overwhelming. Some throw in the towel, some finish strong. I've done both to be perfectly honest. This time around, I'm hoping to be part of the latter group. I've got a final report due in two weeks, and a cell bio final on the same day. My project in my lab is on the brink of being successful. Everything is coming together. However, I can't just sit idle and wait for it to come to me. This past semester has taught me a lot about being idle. About waiting, biding your time, and waiting for the time to be right. About when it's good to be patient, and when it's not. About what it means to be busy. What it means to give something everything that you've got. What it means to work towards that goal, and maybe, just possibly, succeed. I've got two more weeks left of classes. Two more weeks of studying hard on top of my other classes for cell bio, working on and finishing my lab report, and completing my project in the lab I work in. Two more weeks of balancing academics with church with my social circle with my lab and with my marriage. Afterwards I might just have a good rest. But for now I must work and push through the exhaustion that I feel. "Don't ask for it, go out and win it on your own. Do that and you will succeed." - Renton Thurston, Eureka seveN. It's an interesting quote imo, and I like it. I think I'll keep it close to me.

-Ken

How Often Ken is Late

A Ken is never late, he always arrives precisely when he intends to.

-Ken

Rockband and Physics Homework from Last Night

The peak is where I realize what time it is. I very soon stop caring...

-Ken

Blame

Today I learned something. I can't go into too much detail, however I submitted a rather large sample to a facility for DNA sequencing. Now, when I got the results I was a bit surprised to find that every single part of my sample had failed. How could this of happened when I was sure that I had done everything correctly. I spoke with a friend about the situation and they suspected that something went wrong on the facility's end. So, I went to go find more information out. Upon speaking with them I came to find that there was a miscommunication somewhere and they had run the samples using the wrong settings, but before I ran to submit another plate, I requested that they re-run two of the samples with the proper settings to verify that the samples would work. They did as I requested and when I received the results I was once again surprised to find that although the DNA sequencing had worked, there was nothing but junk in the resulting sequences. It had failed. Now here is where things get tricky. I went to go speak with the facility and found some inconsistencies with their numbers. Thus later I was going to simply try and get the cost of the experiment refunded since it seemed that they messed up. I went to go speak with my PI and was surprised yet again by their response. They pointed out that I had never actually checked to ensure that the process would work in the first place, and thus it was not only possible, but likely, that something had gone wrong on my end. They also pointed out that, while human, it was not right nor logical to place the blame on the facilities as it is unlikely they made a mistake since they do what they do for a living. Not only that, but had they done the correct protocol, I would've simply received junk back anyways. Clearly, there is something that went wrong on my end. My mistake cost about $200, and my PI wasn't super happy about it, however they pointed out that it is vitally important that I learn everything I can from this mistake. And so I've thought about it a bit, and in truth I'll probably think about this for some time and take as much as I can away from it, and I've learned the importance of common sense first and foremost. I'd like to think that I'm good about not being rash, but in this case the opposite was disturbingly true.
Be logical. That's what I've taken from this. Break things down. Understand how everything goes together and deduce where the problem may lie.
Think ahead. Plan ahead, and plan for what might happen in the future. More importantly, determine how I will prove things. I honestly should've have ran a small sample first to make sure the process worked and as a control for comparison.
Think on the grander scope.
Learn everything you can from a failure, don't let it happen again.
Failure can be acceptable, so long as you learn from it.

These are all things that began to flood my mind. It has clearly been too long since I've self-reflected and now I've suffered the consequences. From here on, I'll do my best to do better and not be so rash.

-Ken

So... I just checked the National Society of Leadership and Success UA chapter ballad and I'm the only one down for vice president....Looks like I might win it.

Spring Fling

This past Saturday I was assigned to work a cashier's shift for the Spring Fling carnival hosted by the UofA every year. Every club has to give members to help, and it's a great deal of fun. Anyways, I'd like to take a moment and rewind to cashier training. Roughly a week and a half before my designated shift, I had to go through cashier training (which makes sense) and learn all about the rules and what not. Well during the training, which was hosted and taught by none other than the events coordinator. During the training we were told that if we mouthed off to the field supervisors, then we would be fined, and that the field supervisors were plenty capable of handing those fines out. I asked, what seemed like a rude question at the time, "what do we do if our field supervisor's a dick?" The leader's response was that all of the field supervisors had done the event before and were to be trusted and that had personally interviewed each one. He also indicated that we were able to dispute claims, but implied that he'd probably take the side of the field supervisor.
Well, enroute to our booth, while the field supervisor had our cash in their bag, they proceeded to stop and deviate from the path to "say hi" to their friend. I was not happy, but hey, w/e right?
Nay.
My partner and I were forgotten. What do I mean by this? I mean that at 11pm, when the field supervisors went to go and release everyone from their booths, we were forgotten about and left behind for an hour or so. Not kool. Now, while there are any number of reasons as to why this happened, I'm wondering if the field supervisors were a bit too busy chatting with each other or with their friends and somehow lost track of the 4-5 booths they were in charge of. (Yes, 4-5, I asked during the training how many booths each field supervisor was responsible for.) So yeah... You be the judge. I'm still irked about it even a week later, although it is for the better that I waited so long, initially I was going to write a much more bitter post so... Yeah. I'm over it now, but boy oh boy was I upset. Hopefully my next post will be a bit more cheerful.
-Ken

Jeans are like the Ditto of the fashion kingdom, lookin' good with just about everything. Also, that whole posting something, yeah... I forgot to make a note...

Well Cheerios, it's been a while since I've posted. I'll make it a goal to post something today.

Lab Work

So... I determined something at roughly 2:30am while pipeting various primer stock solutions into matching tube for dilution. I determined that I really didn't mind that it was so late and that I was working on my project, in fact it was, while not necessarily fun, enjoyable to some degree. I think that I'm going to like doing research in the future.

-Ken

So... You know those guys that go for that "wrinkled clothes" look? I just realized that I pull that off naturally. Ha! Suck it posers! Messiness FTW!

Sometimes, I think to myself, how awesome it'd be to randomly be attacked by a (Fail) ninja.

Flashlights...

Is not what this post is actually about. I really just titled the entry that because I got to the title section, look down, and there stood a flashlight. I felt like it was fated to happen. Also. I've only just now realized the irony of the past couple sentences. Cuss. Oh well, anyhoo, today's post is brought to you by ZOMG! Ken is friggin tired but still has about four hours of stuff to do, must-get-out-of-bed... So... What's the moral of the story for today? It's simple: The plan don't work if you don't stick to it. And thus later you pay for it. Example: I should be doing my lab report right now, instead I will finish this post and then head to the movies to watch Clash of the Titans. Later, I will not be happy about this decision. Oh well... Guess ya can't change much in the way of fate. ;)

-Ken