Wednesday, December 31, 2008

December the 31st - Goodbye 2008

Winter Break: Day 12

*wakeup*
Breakfast
Rhodobacter planning and Google Docs configuration
Cereal with almonds, walnuts, pecans, soymilk
Halogen Oven quesadilla
Shower
Fenske
Halo, >> 2009, Rock Band
Back to my apartment with Brian and Bryan
Quesadillas, blueberry cranberry smoothies, Deep Sky Map, black-and-white photography
Shower
*crash*

December the Thirtieth

Winter Break: Day 11

Bike Bath!  (Yes, in the bathtub and all!)
Bike Wax!  (Sooo shiny now)
Bike Lube! (Rides like... [and that's what... {I'll stop.}])
Halogen oven test-drive! (Melted cheese on 15-grain bread, ate with Southwestern corn soup)
Shower
Refrigerator rack shower (I spent a long time accompanied in the bathtub today)
Speaker system ordering (Scratch-and-dent stretches every dollar further)
Kitchen layout design and execution (positioning the tabletop, stacking appliances)
Cereal for late lunch
Apartment junk shifting and reorganization
Bike to Fenske
Rhodo Resurrection
Pasta cookup
IM with Bryan and Annette
Project updates, general online organization
Shower II
*crash*

Monday, December 29, 2008

December the Twenty-Ninth

Winter Break: Day 10

*wakeup* (late!  noon!)
Shuttle home
Bike retrieval
Bike ride
Lab unlock
Bank (closed until the 2nd!)
Bicycle Shop
Lab organization
Algae sampling help
Soup dinner at home
Lab flyby: water the plants, collect junk, etc
Apartment
*crash*

Sunday, December 28, 2008

December the Twenty-Eighth

Winter Break: Day 9

*wakeup*
CurtisLab website construction
Bathroom setup
Kitchen setup
Soup!
Rhodobacter stuff
Shopping Trip - Apartment Cooking Stuff and Food
Fenske dishwashing
Lab stuff
Fenske dinner

Saturday, December 27, 2008

December the Twenty-Seventh

Winter Break: Day 8

*wakeup* (9:30am)
Wayne's World web design
Lab stuff
Apartment organization
Bed setup
*crash*

Friday, December 26, 2008

December the Twenty-Sixth

Winter Break: Day 7

It's the end of the first week of winter break, so it's probably a good time to review the progress I've made on various projects so far.

Organization
  • Box Sorting: Completed!  Highschool stuff is a project for another day
  • Apartment Move-In: Big progress made!  Additional furniture procured
  • CurtisLab Data Backup: decent progress made; still a bunch of computers to back up
  • Wayne's World Site Construction: no progress since finals week
Courses
  • ENGR 497E book purchase: Completed!  Should arrive any day
  • ENGR 497E site construction: waiting on book arrival
Health
  • Workout Plan: Progressing well!  Will be improved by the move to the apartment
Finances
  • Knowhow Notes: first set of test banks procured; no progress on solutions yet
  • Scholarship Apps: no progress yet
Teaching
  • ChE 340 Class Planning: no progress yet
Publication
  • Write A Paper!: experimental plan converted to HTML and rewritten; still lots of work!
---------------------------------------------------------
Today I'll be rather busy: Secret Plans

*wakeup* (6am)
Weekly Review
Breakfast
Shower
Bed pickup
Home stuff procurement
Apartment move-in
Lunch
Nap
Resume Update and PDF conversion
Dinner
Website Updates
Projector Planning
Speaker Planning
Kyle Visit
Grad School Planning
*crash*

Thursday, December 25, 2008

December the Twenty-Fifth

Winter Break: Day 6

Merry Christmas!... where appropriate.

*wakeup* (6am)
Gift Exchange
Breakfast
Box sorting
Netbook setup
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Craigslist furniture hunt
Lunch
More box sorting
Weights
Dinner
*crash*

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

December the Twenty-Fourth

Winter Break: Day 5

Cloudy today, so much warmer (31F) and not nearly as astronomically interesting.
Freezing rain all night, so everything's coated in a sheet of ice.


*wakeup* (5:45am)
Finances
Spring Budget
Speaker Research
Photography
Box Sorting
Lunch (soup and toast with swiss)
Graduate school research
Indiana Jones
*crash*

Listening to:
Jimmy Eat World - 23

Boys Like Girls - The Great Escape
Angels & Airwaves - The War
The Ataris - In This Diary

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

December the Twenty-Third

Winter Break: Day 4

Beautiful beautiful crescent moon out this morning. I'd take a walk, but it's NINE DEGREES (-13C, 260K).


Irony: a Facebook ad for careerbuilder.com states that it is 'looking for the next Tesla'. I'm sure every company wants a genius they could steal some of the greatest technological advances of the 20th century from, completely uncredited. Tesla died penniless, driven mad by the firey destruction of his laboratory and the failure of his Wardenclyffe Tower project to maintain sufficient investor support.

"It is intended to give practical demonstrations of these principles with the plant illustrated. As soon as completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than all of this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction."
-Nicolai Tesla

It's been over a century, and well... we've almost caught up.

*wakeup* (8pm-3:30am, 7.5 hours)
Various last-minute Internet Tasks
Shower
Alumni Day
Ride home with Matt and Erik
Honors math alumni networking initiation
Dinner (potatoes, corn, squash, stuffing, cranberry sauce)
Miscellaneous reorganization
*crash*

Monday, December 22, 2008

December the Twenty-Second

Winter Break: Day 3

*wakeup* (6am, 3.5 hours)
Kitchen organization
Home procurement
Pain Box sorting
Dentist Appointment
Subway Run
*crash*

Sunday, December 21, 2008

December the Twenty-First

Winter Break: Day 2

*wakeup* (3am!)
XHTML/CSS Refresher
id assigns a specific identification tag to almost any element
clear specifies where another floating element _cannot_ be in relation to the element
css:html #junk : id="junk" .stuff : class="stuff"
when setting attributes, clockwise!: attribute: top right bottom left
use 'min-height' to prevent things from getting ugly when the browser window is resized
Float everything. Table-free!
id - unique identifier
class - recyclable identifier
style - in-line stylizer

HTML port of experimental plan
Rhodo experimental plan start
*nap* (3-6pm)
Dinner
Email Tasks
Tomorrow Planning
Shower
*crash*

Saturday, December 20, 2008

December the Twentieth

Winter Break: Day 1

*crash*-*wakeup* (6:30-8:00)
Redifer breakfast pickup
Ice biking to the apartment
Breakfast with Annette
Frozen parking lot breakout
Nittany Mall
Apartment Cleanup
E*Trade Transfer
Amazon Order
TV Pickup
Website Updates
Apartment Move-In
Cinderblock Pickup
Home for dinner
*crash*

December the Nineteenth

All-nighter!

Set up 'BC's Documents' and 'Life Organizational Strategies' to organize my organization
*Nap* (2.5 hours)
Fenske pasta dinner with Annette
Apartment key pickup
British TV with Annette
Netbook research
Wireless authentication cracking:
Migration to Garden House (6am)
Fortunately, due to the magic of the general populace's complete computer illiteracy, I could unpack, plug in, and connect to a completely unsecured network within seconds *rolls eyes*.

Updated goals for winter break in the 'Current Directives' file... sort of a modified version of Bethlehem Steel's 'notecard method'.

Major price increase for Garden House, but it doesn't affect me. Still... ouch.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

December the Eighteenth

Last night in Fenske! Tomorrow, I pick up the keys to my new apartment and start moving in.

Rothrock was quite an adventure... we lit a fire in the snow, with the help of a lighter, some tissues, and a handful of peanuts, no thanks to the flame-retardant Redifer napkins and ice-covered sticks. Laurel Run Road is frozen already, so we may have to wait all the way to spring thaw to head back up that way (in a car, at least!).

*Wakeup* (9:35am)
Tutoring (to 12:30pm)
Simmons with Bryan
46 (1:30pm)
Organization
ANGEL harvest
Nap
Redifer with Bryan
Rothrock with Bryan and Annette
Fenske with Annette
Nap
Bike ride, Fenske >> Apartment >> Fenske
Copyright licensing research:
Try out 'Remember The Milk' - Task Management Webware
  • Integrates with Gmail and Google Calendar
  • Available online from anywhere
  • Available OFFLINE through Google Gears
  • Very many very nice features
Breakfast - rice and stirfry
Breakfast II - cereal + nuts + cranberries
Shower
Mess around with HTML Hosting in Google Docs
Try out Box.net - Free Online Storage
Try out FEBE - Firefox Environment Backup Extension
*crash*

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

December the Seventeenth

*wakeup* (7:30am)
Walk back to Fenske in the icy, snowy melt with Annette
Daily Review
College Search organization
File Backup
Housing phonecall
Fenske Mass Transfer studying and Pasta Cookout
46 with Annette
Tutoring marathon
Apartment with Annette
India Pavilion
Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood
Fenske; water the plants
Organization
Shower
*Crash*

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

December the Sixteenth

Major Bioseparations crunch
*crash*, 10am (one hour)
Shower
Undergrad lounge donuts
Bioseparations midterm
Allegheny Power phonecall
Angel Fall 2008 Harvest
Daily Review
File Organization and Backup
Nap
Wegman's with Annette
Fenske Stir Fry
Apartment with Ben and Annette
Graduate school research
*crash* (2:30am)

December the Fifteenth

All-nighter #2!
Bioseparations Crunch Time
Wayne's World laptop backup
Bioseparations, all morning/afternoon
4-hour *crash*
Visit with Annette
Physics Tutoring
Late-Night
Fenske Dinner with Lan and Bryan
Bioseparations, all-nighter #3!

Monday, December 15, 2008

December the Fourteenth

It's amazing how productive life can be when there aren't classes to screw everything up!

All-Nighter in Undergrad Lounge
Spring 2009 FINAL course finalization
Wayne's World site development
Pancakes: shelf-life experiment
*crash* (noon)
Undergrad Lounge Cookout
Pancake shelf-life experiment
Mushroom and olive quesadillas with hot salsa
Kitchen cleanup
Water the Plants
Vitamin Restock
Emails, emails, emails
Bioseparation Construction


I would really like a gigantic LCD monitor for my desk in 46.
I also need some sweet speakers for my apartment!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

December the Thirteenth

*Wakeup* (8:30am)
Writing: Master Plan 2009
Breakfast: Honey almond flax cereal, almonds, walnuts, fresh cranberries, soy milk, vanilla yogurt
Sink cleanup and white vinegar soak
Nap (12:30 to 3:30)
Master Plan completion and publication
Urgent To-Do list knockoff

For the rest of today:

Dinner with Annette and CurtisLab (salt-free stir fry on brown rice)
Major Bioseparations studying

Friday, December 12, 2008

November the Twelfth

*Wakeup* (9am)
Check Deposit
Fenske
Shower
Water the Plants
P4_H2O Overclocking
Email; Learning Gmail Shortcuts
Bioprocessing
Waffles+Eggs at Focust
Essay Contest - too hard
Pearson's Advisory Board - too preppy
Shopping @ Wegmans
Cranberries with Annette

General Organization
A few dozen more emails...
Application for SHC Orientation 2008
Application for 'Genetics of Personality and Sexuality' study
Checking on my Carnivorous Plant project:
  • Seeds in media flasks under the lights have formed mats of seedlings!
  • Seeds left in microcentrifuge tubes full of ddH2O in the hood are etiolated, but sprouted!
  • Germination rate looks decent, probably 35-50% so far
  • Can definitely afford to put more seeds per flask to save time
  • No contamination!
Fenske Workout
Shower
*crash*


Shopping List:
  • 9-grain whole grain bread
  • shredded parmesan
  • vanilla soymilk
  • yogurt vanilla
  • 7-grain pasta
  • brown rice
  • pasta sauce
  • kalamata olives
  • honey almond flax cereal
  • bananas
  • mushrooms: oyster, shiitake, portobello
  • onions
  • potatoes
  • Florida avocado
  • papaya
  • mangoes
  • Jersey cranberries
Deliciousness.

Gotta start prioritizing Spring 2009!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

December the Eleventh

So freaking tired...

Biochemistry
Biochemistry Final
Bioseparations
Engineering Entrepreneurship
Major Planning
*crash*

December the Tenth

Wakeup (7am, 3.5 hours of sleep)
Thermo Exam
Tutoring (5 hours)
More Thermo Exam
Bioprocessing
KnowHow
Apartment with Ben (Mmm curry and bread)
Biochemistry with Annette
*crash* (6:45am, ~1 hour)

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

December the Ninth

Wakeup at the apartment (7:45am, 2.5 hours of sleep)
Biothermo paper wrapup
Thermo Presentations
Biochem Quiz
Engr presentation writeup
Engr presentations
Sleep at the apartment
Vegetable curry
Back to Fenske with Ben
CERS abstract submission
Thermo Exam
Late Night
Shower
*crash*

December the Eighth

*Wakeup* (9am, five hours of sleep)
Water the plants
Cereal for breakfast
Tutoring, 9:45-10:45
Bioprocessing Homework
Tutoring, 1:15-2:15
Bioprocessing, 2:30
Tutoring, 4-6
Dinner with Annette (2x quesadillas, huevos rancheros for the lab)
psuKnowHow Biochem Study Party
LateNight with Bryan
Apartment Migration

December the Seventh

*Wakeup* (1pm)
Workworkwork
Dinner with Annette
Homework + Pasta + Blueberry Smoothies
*Crash*

Saturday, December 6, 2008

December the Sixth

For today:

- Bioseparations Homework
- Thermo Paper

Wakeup, 11:30
Internets
Breakfast
Bioseparations
Simmons with Bryan
KnowHow party
Apartment
Fenske
*Sleep*


Final Spring 2009 Schedule

Friday, December 5, 2008

December the Fifth

EVE6 concert was awesome! A very fun day and a very good week.

Wakeup (9:45)
P4_H2O File Maintenance
Shower
Lunch
Biofilms
Bioprocessing
Website Updates
Dinner with Annette
Blueberry smoothies with Bryan and Annette
Shower
Email Check
*crash*

Thursday, December 4, 2008

December the Fourth

Onset of sleep was pretty late last night... but I spent a good amount of time organizing 46, and it's in much better shape now. Today, I need to start on the huge number of things due between now and finals.

Wakeup (11am)
Internets
Breakfast/Lunch
BMB
Biosep
Entrepreneurship
Fenske Pancakes with Annette
EVE6 Concert
Apartment with Annette, Ben, Brian
*Apartment floor crash*

Homework:
ChE 340 - 'Biofilm' Project Friday
ChE 449 - Final Homework Set Tuesday
ChE 524 - Write Paper Tuesday, Study for Exam Thursday
Engr 310 - Continue updating Business Plan, Oldcastle Project next week
BMB 401H - Quiz Tuesday, Exam Thursday

Tonight:
Continue updating Business Plan
'Biofilm' Project Friday
Final Homework Set Tuesday

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

December the Third

Dear Brandon:

Effective fall 2008 your change of major request has been approved.

Finally! I'm a Real Chemical Engineer now.

Time to file all the rest of that paperwork...


Scholarship stuff
Tutoring - 3 hours
Bioprocessing (briefly!)
Tutoring - 2 hours
Web updates and organization
Dinner w/Annette
Food Micro Lab

December the Second

7:30 Wakeup
10:00 Curtis Seminar
11:15 Thermo
30-min nap
Fenske Lunch with Annette
Engr 310 - Oldcastle presentation
Simmons Dinner with Bryan
WalMart with Annette
Fenske All-Nighter
*Crash*

Monday, December 1, 2008

December the First

Up at 7:20! Who would have thought?

Today I'm going to pick up tickets to a free Eve 6 concert, tutor for five hours, and hit the BMB review session to see what the heck is going on in that class. Afterwords, a bit of homework and a decently-early bedtime (say, 1am). I think for the the time being, I want to get into an 'early to bed, early to rise' schedule to get myself a little more sunlight as it starts getting cold and miserable.

Today (Mon, Dec 1)
7:45 Breakfast (Flaxseed Crunch, almonds, walnuts, vanilla soymilk, white tea)
8:15 Hub (Eve 6 Tickets)
9:45 psuKnowHow - Phys 250
1:15p psuKnowHow - Phys 212
--No Bioprocessing Today!--
4p psuKnowHow - Biol 230
5p psuKnowHow - Phys 250
8p BMB 401H Review
Sterile Seed Distribution
Thermo
*Crash*

Sunday, November 30, 2008

November the Thirtieth

X Wake up (2:30)
X Minor business plan edits
X Sterile carnivorous plant seed distribution
  • Hood is too full of algae prep stuff to do the distribution
  • Checked seeds in the shake flasks in the incubator
  • Six of seven show no contamination
  • Seed germination is extremely apparent
  • Tiny plant root/shoot is poking out of the seed
X Old Castle organization
X Food Micro Lab
X Dinner with Annette
X Wegmans Run
X Fenske Foods Planning
X Shower, etc
*Crash* (1am)

Saturday, November 29, 2008

November the Twenty-Ninth

Two days, and then classes start back up... gotta take care of work before the distractions arrive anew. Personal business plan is waiting on the Finances section (almost done locally), and then I also have some thermo and some bioseparations that I'd like to take care of.

Wakeup (1:30)
Business Plan
Ride home; bike swap
Bike ride with Annette
Dinner I: whole-wheat tortillas, black beans, green peppers, mushrooms, hot salsa, cheddar cheese
Dinner II: seven-grain spaghetti, olive oil and garlic pasta sauce with mushrooms and peppers, olives, grated parmesan cheese
Finances section finished
Shower
*crash* (6:15)

Friday, November 28, 2008

November the Twenty-Eighth

Today is a big day! Three more days until school starts back up, and I definitely want to get a head-start so that these last two weeks before finals aren't too ridiculous.

On tap for today:
- Completion of Personal Business Plan
(vision statement, finances, marketing)
- Completion of Bioseparations homework
(adsorption and chromatography)
- Completion of Thermo project
(biochemical thermodynamics paper)

The business plan is almost finished, save for the Finance section: http://brandon.curtis.googlepages.com/businessplan
I also want to link in some junk on my Keirsey Temperament Sorter results, because I think they're very relevant.

I also want to skim back through a book I read eleven months ago on procrastination. It's one of the larger problems that I have to cope with, and a big stumbling block to working efficiently and having more time to do the things that I want to do. I want to start a pretty gigantic publication project over winter break, so I could use a refresher on getting started.


Today's Plan: "Focusing"


Went shopping this evening, and picked up the following:
  • Farberware non-stick cookware (8" skillet, 10" skillet, 11" square griddle)
  • Farberware turner
  • 3M Command adhesive + hook (46 needs another coat hook)
  • Whitening stuff
  • (2) Drosera adelae, half-dead
  • (4) Wildflower bulbs
  • (2) Fern rhizomes
Life in Fenske improves ever so slightly...

Thursday, November 27, 2008

November the Twenty-Seventh

To sleep at 5:30, awake by 8:30...

- Thanksgiving



Six hours in a car sucks. Fortunately, sleep deprivation allowed me to be asleep for the majority of it! Farm animals and a long walk in the woods made up for the drive.

One thing I noticed is that even some of the younger people on my dad's side of the family have gained quite a bit of weight since the last time I saw them, Thanksgiving two years ago. I am determined not to allow this to happen. For this reason, look for the Fitness Project to pop up sometime in the not-so-distant future. The projected start date is December 16th, two and a half weeks from now, the day I finish up with finals. Part of it will be the continued refinement of my (now completely vegetarian) diet, and the other part will be a hardcore three-week exercise program to get myself ready for the start of Jiu Jitsu in the Spring semester. I've broken a lot of bad habits this year, and now it's time to make a lot of good ones.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

November the Twenty-Sixth

Wake up (3pm.... fell asleep around 5, so that's ten hours)
Creamery Ice Cream Run (2x Vanilla, 1x Chocolate, 1x Peachy Paterno + dry ice)
Personal Business Plan - Strengths & Weaknesses
Dinner at Home - Pasta
Personal Business Plan - Action Plan
Personal Business Plan - Executive Plan

Splash page: not quite done yet, but getting there!

All-nighter? It could happen!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

November the Twenty-Fifth

Early morning today! Got up at six to come into Fenske early, but was delayed by icy roads.
In the lab by eight, checked out at 1am. Now it's 4:30am and I'm still awake... thank you, winter's eternal darkness.

Lots o' website updates.

Plans for today:

Review Rhodobacter cloning strategy
Meeting with Greg Ferry, 9-10am
Argonne Conference Call, 2:30-3:30pm
Omelets with Brian
Dinner with Waqas
Seed Surface Sterilization (D. capensis, narrow-leaf)
Daily Updates
Personal Business Plan knockdown
Shower
*Sleep*

Monday, November 24, 2008

November the Twenty-Fourth

Watchmen trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/high.html

Looks pretty intense. It's on the 'I should read this' list... hello four-day weekend.

The song in the background is The Smashing Pumpkin's "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning", an unused B-side off of the Batman & Robin soundtrack: http://www.myspace.com/batmanrobinsoundtrack (the second song).

Lyrics: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/The-Beginning-is-the-End-is-the-Beginning-lyrics-Smashing-Pumpkins/2043F6D9E10A34FD48256B840031FCF1

Dark, brooding, and apparently appropriate.
=============
TODAY:

Wakeup, noon
Personal Business Plan
Dinner
Rhodo Research
Personal Business Plan
*Sleep*, 2:30am

Sunday, November 23, 2008

November the Twenty-Third

Got some new stuff! New shoes, and new pants... and these pants almost fit decently. Miraculous!

Went to bed around five, slept until ONE today. Time well spent, I think.

Wakeup (1pm)
SF_PC Backup
CurtisLab Webpage Prototype
Surface Sterilization Wrap-Up
Dinner at Home
SF_PC Backup Wrap-Up


Check out the new page!: Wayne's World

Saturday, November 22, 2008

November the Twenty-Second

It's going to be a cold break... temperatures are not expected to rise above 40 degrees in the next ten days.

Laptop file backup is underway. I'm organizing as I backup, so this could take a while. Once everything is backed up, I'll probably reformat.

Carnivorous plants continue to grow crazy well. Plan is to do a very large round of surface sterilization this weekend, for creation of embryogenic material (for propagation, and for intermittent-effluent bioreactor test).

Wakeup (8:30, seven hours)
Water the plants
File backup
Surface Sterilization
Pizza Dinner at Redifer w/Brian
Pizza Delivery (home)
Computer part scroungin'
LeydePC assembly
Computer success!
ChemE party
Shower
46 Crash

And now, my feature presentation:



(Way too amused at this for my own good)

Friday, November 21, 2008

November the Twenty-First

Wakeup [just before ten(!)]
Tutoring cancellation
Change-Of-Major, Research Credits, TI Program...
Lunch at Redifer
Bioprocessing
Enormous Amounts of Paperwork
Ice Cream at the Creamery
Bike Ride of Death
Thanksgiving at Focust House
Apartment Flyby
Project Updates
46 Crash


My Rhodo presentation at AIChE went extremely well.
Some additional info on the research here: AIChE 2008 - Rhodobacter Membrane Protein Expression System

Thursday, November 20, 2008

November the Twentieth

Thermo
Biosep studying
Spring-Summer housing finalization
Engineering entrepreneurship
Biosep midterm
Planning: tutoring, etc
Sleep

November the Nineteenth

Wake Up, 7am
Shower, dress-up, sprint to convention center
Enter Rhodo World
Springer Publishing
Other protein expression talks
Back to the hotel...
Hurried checkout
Back to the convention center with Steve and Waqas
Market lunch with Steve, Waqas, dad, and grad student
Computational protein engineering talks
Last-minute parking garage computer work
Market lunch with dad
Poster Session - Waqas, Steve, Georgiou Skretas
Sign Steal
Back to the garage
Homeward bound
Fenske landing; email barrage
Food Micro with Annette

Semiconscious...
46 Crash

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

November the Eighteenth

Early Wakeup
Day Prep
Biofuels Talk
Advances in Cell Culture Talks
Rhodo Prep
Yale Bash with George and his friend
Rhodo Blitzkrieg
Powerpoint finished: 3am
Talk finished: 4:30am
Sleep, 5am

November the Seventeenth

Rhodo Preparation
Biofuels Symposium
Penn State Bash
Purdue, Ohio State, UPenn
Dr. Harvey Blanch
Back to the Hotel...
Chinatown with Waqas
Spring Rolls
Conference Prep
Crash

Dr. Blanch seems pretty awesome. Can I get into Berkeley?
Semester bills are posted today.
Finalizing housing for spring; Garden House apartments, right across the street from the free food I get from being denied on-campus housing. One-bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom, and it's mine for spring and summer this year.
Have to remember to set up my Teaching Intern stuff for spring...

November the Sixteenth

Rhodo Preparation
Conference Registration
Bizarre Dinner
Masonic Temple Bash
Rhodo Preparation
Crash

Things for the next conference I go to:
More lasers
More food
Business cards, with presentation name
WATER

Pretty unexcited about more hours fighting with Microsoft's trashy software... about time I switched to a Mac?

November the Fifteenth

Late Wake-Up
Eastview Rejection
Apartment Shopping
Rhodo Preparation
Shower
Packing
Philadelphia Drive
Student Conference
Rhodo Preparation
Crash

Friday, November 14, 2008

November the Fourteenth

Priorities, now until Thanksgiving Break:
1. AIChE Presentation!
2. Bioseparations midterm, upon return from AIChE
3. Thermo problem set, upon return from AIChE
4. Personal Business Plan, due the 20th (talk to Boyer)

More priorities certainly doesn't mean better, and I think that's more than enough to keep me busy until break.

Thanksgiving Break project plans:
1. Rhodo Pro5 - DEFINED media
2. Carnivorous Plants project
3. Aquatic Plants project
4. Spring 2009 finalization
5. Winter Break planning


Spring 2009 Plans - In the works.
http://lionschedules.com/rytciz
http://Brandon.Curtis.googlepages.com for more info.


Wakeup - 10:30am
Hard drive formattin', downloadin'...
Rhodo Presentation
Shower
Class + Cereal
Rhodo Presentation
Nap (exhaustion)
India Pavilion
46
Home
Crash

November the Thirteenth

Three hours of sleep...
Bioseparations homework
Thermo ( + Bioseparations)
Rhodo News
Biosep Class ( + Biochem)
Engineering Entrepreneurship ( + Biochem)
Food Science with Annette
Redifer with Ben and Annette
BMB Exam
Fenske with Annette, Ben, and Brian
Redifer in the Undergrad Lounge with Annette, Ben, Bryan, and Brian
Bike trip to the apartment
Wind-down
Crash

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

November the Twelfth

1:15p psuKnowHow - Phys 212
2:30p ChE 438
4p psuKnowHow - Phys 250
6p psuKnowHow - Phys 250

Redifer dinner with Bryan and Brian
*Rock Band Intermission* (couldn't help myself)
Bioseparations
Eggs with Annette
Bioseparations..........
................
*Crash*

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

November the Eleventh

7-11am Thermo paper
11:15a ChE 524
1p BMB 401H
Didn't go! Lunch instead. Also, found a preying mantis.
2:30p ChE 449
Actually went for once!
Superfast shower afterwords.
4:15p Engr 310

Afterwords:
X Redifer dinner
X Fix Napster
X Media Distribution (30mL per wide-mouth Erlenmeyer for seed-starting!)
X AIChE storyboard!
- Homework Cleanup
- Paper Cleanup
- Biosep Homework
- BMB notes print, First Pass studying


Race is on... now until Thanksgiving break is going to be insane.

Got a Blue Screen of Death earlier this morning, while working on my thermo paper. Good thing everything was in Google Docs...
It's time to back this thing up and reformat it.

I wanna launch a rocket. Who's with me?

OpenOffice3 is pretty sexy.

Monday, November 10, 2008

November the Tenth

Yesterday I added a bunch of Links to my personal homepage. Eventually, this will be expanded to include links to anything and everything that I've found to be useful and relevant.
=======================================
Today's agenda, copied from my lovely Google Calendar:

9:45a
psuKnowHow - Phys 250

Heading back to Fenske after this.
Working until 12:30, then lunch at Redifer on the way back.

1:15p
psuKnowHow - Phys 212
2:30p ChE 438
4p psuKnowHow - Biol 230 [[CANCELED]]
5p psuKnowHow - Phys 250

Dinner at Simmons, perhaps?

8p BMB 401H Review

Actually 9-10pm!

10pm-3am, chilling in Fenske with Ben, Brian, Bryan
3-7am sleep
=======================================
The things that 100% MUST be completed today:
1. Bioprocess homework submission
2. Ethics worksheet completion
3. Thermo paper writeup
4. Germination media distribution

After all of that (hah), gotta do a storyboard for AIChE, get started on that bioseparations homework, and decide how exactly to tackle the upcoming BMB exam.

If I can get through the above, I will have dodged this week's bullet.
=======================================

Plans for the Spring:

http://lionschedules.com/rytciz

3 ChE 494H Research
3 ChE 496 Independent Study (Book Coauthoring)
3 BMB 402 Biochemical Pathways
3 BMB 474 Analytical Biochemistry
3 ChE 450 Process Control
3 Engr 407 Tech Entrepreneurship

Plan for completing the ESHIP minor more-or-less painlessly:

Engr 411 - already completed
Engr 310 - completing this semester
Elective #1 - substitute FdSc 406

Engr 407 - Tech Entrepreneurship, spring semester
Engr 4xx - Substitute Learning Factory project!
Elective #2.1 - substitute Current Issues in Biotech course
Elective #2.2 - substitute Life Science Ethics course

I already planned to take everything but 407, and I hear that course is a good one (if that means anything). I've gotten a few worthwhile things out of the minor so far, so we'll have to see how it goes.

If plans change, anything two-credit that's mildly business-related could be subbed for the Current Issues course.

Probably not going to bother:
3 Biotc 479 Plant Tissue Culture Biotechnology
Dropping this will open up four hours on Wednesday for things that I don't already know how to do.

Judo for the spring? I'll have to see how I feel by then.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

November the Ninth

Nine hours(!) of sleep
Choir researching
Shower
Water the plants
Submit a homework
AIChE meeting discussion
Project updates
Egg-and-pepperjack cheese omelet
All PSU internet connectivity is down...
One-hour nap
Quesadilla
Bike ride home
Warm apple pie and vanilla ice cream
Computer messin'
Homework sorting
Crash


I'm now working from two computers simultaneously; when I'm doing everything online through Google anyway, I can swap back and forth and do some stuff on either machine and all of the changes appear on both.

RAID array is installed; controller required drivers to be loaded before Windows XP could recognize the volume. Had to dig up a FLOPPY disk.

Somehow managed to lose the wireless adapter's antenna... only getting about a 4% signal. Wrapped some aluminum foil around the antenna contact... and now I'm up to 14-20%.

Made an omelet in a stock pot yesterday; definitely not the way to go. Ben, I'll trade you something for that tiny, useless 1-egg frying pan of yours.

Researched 'None Of The Above', a modern music a capella group at Penn State. That would be very cool.

AIChE meeting is VERY soon... really need to get on that.

Still have to distribute that seed-starting media that I made earlier in the week that's sitting in the fridge... must get to that today.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

November the Eighth

Wakeup (7:30am)
46 Desktop software installation
Ordered wireless adapter antenna
Blogger setup
Computer messin'
Three hours of thermo suffering
Egg and cheese omelet
More computer messin'
Dinner with Annette
Ben's Glee Club concert
Fenske with Annette
2am bike ride
Crash