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