Incredible. Must Watch.
This is incredible, I am in tears. Grab your children and hold them tight!
Heck, it’s Friday! Phew!
What a week, I mean, what… a… week! Monday and Tuesday were “fall break” at my school. Yeah, right! Not for me! I had a virology exam on Wednesday and a molecular development exam this morning. So, what did I do for MY “fall break”? Study. Throw in three kids, and well you get the picture. It’s 3:15pm on Friday, do you think it’s too early to crawl in bed? Nah! But, before I go, I swiped this histerical video from the facebook circle. Enjoy!
For The Grandparents
We had a wonderful, awesome, busy weekend. Soccer games, cafe at Forsyth park, playing at Forsyth Park, Leopold’s Ice Cream, walking around downtown, strolling down to river street, Savannah Bee Company, Studying, watching movies, Krispy Kreme, picnic and exploring at Fort Mcallister. Whew! I’m tired!
Is it Monday yet?
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For the Love of Your Nerd Child
I have a nerd child. He is a monster that I have encouraged. He is inquisitive and hungry for knowledge. He is highly conversational, said his first word at 10 months of age, and never stopped talking. I quit tracking his list of baby words after approximately 15 months of age. Fortunately for him, he has a mama who panders to his knowledge quest. When he asked how rain is formed, I tried to explain in terms of particles. HAH! I didn’t really know the answer, and we were in the car so I tried the best possible answer. I explained that water particles get really excited and move around a lot and they need more room ’cause they’re bumping all around, “dancing”, and they move up into the atmosphere and then condense and fall back down as rain. He was tickled by the “dancing” particles explanation, and I made him “repeat after me, b-r-o-w-n-i-a-n motion.”
We often talk about chemistry, to the best of my biologist-brained ability. Hence, I have been searching for a child-friendly version of the periodic table. While my kids were visiting their father this weekend, I strolled through Barnes and Noble and stumbled upon a great little series of books, each one dedicated to a subject of science. The authors are Simon Basher and Dan Green. The characters and illustrations are whimsical and vibrant, I find them to be enjoyable to read myself! Each book also has a glossy poster, most importantly the Periodic Table book includes a periodic table poster. yay! I purchased Physics, Chemistry, and Periodic Table. If you are in search of material to feed to your nerd-monster, I highly recommend you search this series.
One Last Siesta
All summer, I have been incredibly busy with work and research. Not a moment to rest. My kids spent the month of July on summer visitation with their father. A break for me? Yes, a bit. However, I was jailed up in the laboratory every day and so the month flew by at the speed of light. I took one last hurrah weekend before the kids came home, and thus we spent a long siesta weekend at a boutique hotel in Beaufort, S.C. We had a spectacular dinner at the Breakwater restaurant, and then alternated between steam room and the beach at Hunting Island. (I can also tell you where NOT to eat. They should be embarrassed.)
Ahhhh. All rested up. I love Hunting Island’s beach because it is undeveloped, and thus the tree line comes right up to the beach. That means I can nap in the shade.
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I’m Laughing Now
In an effort to make hay while the sun shines, otherwise known as cleaning while my kids are with their Dad, I am going through some storage boxes and pulled out a box of sentimental/keepsake items. In this box, I found an ancient diary from when I was 10. It’s ironic to me that in some of the excerpts I sound like a typical suburban adolescent, full of inadequacies, and of course a dislike of school and parents. I love this first page, (written in hot pink ball point ink) oh yes, the year is 1989:
” My name is Faye I’m ten years old, and hate fifth grade. My hair is blond and chin length. I have blue green eyes and am going to get glasses.
It’s 9:09 at I’m on my bed, talking to you saying how board I am.”
Gotta love the spelling skills too, LOL.
Now for your lesson in history, straight from the words of ten year old Faye:
“Last night the Berlin wall was taken down! Isn’t that great? On Thursday, November 9, 1989. That is the biggest news in a long time. Personally I think it is neat to be able to live while something like that happens. Don’t you think?”
“Dec 20, I hate Noriega so much! I will tell you about him tomorrow when I have time. I must go to bed now….”
“Today is Christmas Eve! Isn’t that great? Well on with you know who… We, the Americans and the Panamanians are trying arest Noriega their dictator. Well, Noriega is hiding and he says that he would rather die than surrender to the U.S. For Christmas I want…”
awesome
I went out on a limb and posted yesterday’s photos on a photography forum. I have never received constructive criticism on any of my photography and decided the route towards better photos starts with some honest feedback. Someone on the forum edited the following photograph, and I’m just speechless. I think it looks awesome. 
Happy Birthday to me
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Johnny boy surprised me with a new 250mm lens for my birthday. For the past three years I’ve been using the standard “kit” lens that came with my camera, all the while dreaming of spending the cash on an upgraded lens. After a plate of beignets and a cup of coffee, this morning, we strolled around downtown while I played with my new toy.
Funny Thing
I often embarrass myself.
Maybe no one notices.
Perfectionism is Enough to Kill
image ripped from, http://www.vectordiary.com
You may not know it, or maybe you do know it and I’m the one who is learning this, but I am a perfectionist. And let me tell you, it is a disease. It causes me a lot of anxiety. I am working on a research presentation for my molecular biology class, and I get quite frustrated with myself because I waste a lot of time trying to “get it perfect”. I’ve tried to cast aside perfectionism. In a lot of scenarios, I think I do a pretty good job. well, actually here’s the thing about being a perfectionist, if I can’t do it perfectly then I won’t do it at all. There are plenty of aspects of my life where that holds true. I wont run through the list, it might get depressing. So, the best thing I can do is say “forward! Just keep trudging through it, Faye!” It doesn’t help that I’m highly distracted too. Oh! You are learning a lot about me in THIS post! LOL Here is my abstract-in-progress. It hasn’t been edited or spell checked yet and there are several explanations yet to be included, but at least you get an idea of what I’ve been learning/studying. 
“Optically active reduced carbonyl compounds are highly desirable in pharamceutical settings. They are, however, difficult and costly to achieve in the laboratory setting under synthetic conditions. Optically active compounds are best achieved through naturally derived mechanisms. Aldo-keto reductases (akr) can produce the reduced carbonyl compounds that are used in pharmaceuticals. The structure of aldo-keto reductases affects their stereoselectivity. By altering the structure of aldo-keto reductases, desired stereo-isomers can be synthesized. Mutagenesis was performed on ydl124w, an aldo-keto reductase isolated from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commonly known as baker’s yeast. The structure of ydl124w is not yet known. In order to better understand the structure of ydl124w, and also to modify the stereoselective outcome of its product, mutagenesis was performed. The genetic sequence of ydl124w was aligned with human aldose reductase, a structurally known enzyme. Human aldose reductase, as with ydl124w, is enzymatically dependent on the binding of NADPH near its enzymatic region. Residues of ydl124w were analyzed at 7 angstroms radial distance from the NADPH binding site. Residues S159, N160, F161 were selected for alanine substitution based on their highly conserved nature across several members of the akr family……”
