Long time coming... Fall 2007

Well, since it has been a good 3 months since I last wrote an entry, I should put something down. I have been doing a very poor job of finishing up all that I needed to do. I'll be around A&M next semester for sure. It is getting to crunch time and I need to do a ton of dissertation writing. I have much written, but much more is needed to get done. Now that teaching is mostly over (have to give the final exam next tuesday) I can concentrate on the writing and remaining experiments.
I must say that the last few months have not passed without any events... I went to a Regional Chemistry conference in Lubbock, Texas. It was low key... and that city is surrounded by cotton fields. See the picture above. Also had an interesting Halloween party, going as a white Rastafarian. My friend BJ is there, after breaking his ankle, with crutches along with our friends Justine and Victor.

I also had fun at some A&M football games (even though they fired the coach at the end of the season).


Also, here is some of the "Nationally famous, fightin' Texas Aggie Band" doing some traditional marching drills while playing at halftime at the Oklahoma State v A&M game (in silence). Guess that is it for now... enjoy the video. Hope to post sooner.
--TK

Back in the swing of things....

So the big school is back in session and I've been quite busy. I'm teaching the Organic chemistry first semester for majors. Luckily this is just and adaptation of the chemistry for non-majors class I've taught probably 5 semseter worth of classes. Making quizzes for the semester was a bit of a chore, but I got it done before classes started. In addition, I am going to do some lecturing about the lab exercises. It should be interesting.
On the other side of the coin, I haven't made near enough progress on writing my Ph.D. dissertation. I have been doing quite a bit of reading, going through old data, and writing for some chapters. The goal is to have it all written and in fairly polished form by the beginning of December. Although this is a few months away, I still have research goals to accomplish. Concentrating will be key.
I was recently informed that my family will once again be going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in June 2008. I surely hope to join them for some time. Last year I only managed 3 days out there, two years before I only did 5. So I'm hoping to at least put in a week. I suppose it will depend on my employment at the time. I sure am looking for some type of break between this Ph.D. experience and the next phase in my career.
MOre posts will come as I have the spare time.... Until then.

Kim's Graduation

Hey all:
It was an event years in the making. Kim graduated yesterday. Sitting through the ceremony, listening to the speeches, and biding her time, she waited to get up to the stage and hear her name called. Kim had the distinction of being the only entomology major (graduating with the College of Life Sciences) to have a * next to her name indicating she was a double major. Luckily the ceremony was being held in Reed Areana, the basketball/performance center on campus with the Air conditioning. It was another high 90's day in Texas.
After surviving the ceremony, she went with the rest of her family and myself to go eat, then back to her apartment to pack up some things and say goodbye to the family. She had survived a week of finishing of projects, studying for exams, preparing for graduation, and packing up her apartment. All this with very little sleep. So, when her best friend backed out of throwing her a graduation bbq/party, her other best friend had to go to San Antonio that night. Her family took off and her roommate left. By the time I showed up at 8:30 after changing clothes, she was pretty down and exhausted.
We chatted about the graduation ceremony and we cleaned the apartment a bit, defrosting her mini fridge. She was pretty ready to shut down for the night. I suggested getting out of the apartment, taking a walk or getting ice cream or some drinks at the bar district to celebrate her graduation. No interest. Her sister showed up at ~10pm and also wanted her to go celebrate. We finally convinced her to put on some going out clothes and walk over to her sister's place for her graduation gift. She reluctantly went all the time telling us that she was tired and would be really ticked off if it was some sort of party. We looked at her strangely and told her that wasn't the case at all. Of, course when we got to her sister's place.... it was a surprise party.
I think Kim was able to shed her tiredness and sadness immediately. She got to see friends from long ago. Her family had contributed a spread of food, her sister decorated and got some party favors, and there was a keg, jello shots, and beer pong. All in all it was pretty great time.
It turned out she had no idea about the party..... a great way to round out her time in Aggieland.

Grinding through the details

There are times in your life where things are not changing. They can be any length of time, days, hours, months, decades. There are times that give us the feeling that life could somehow stretch on infinitely in just the same way they are at that moment. I think our brains allow us to shut out the distractions in order to allow us to think. I imagine that you considered how things change all the time you would go crazy.
The reason I bring this up, besides being personally near a transition time in my life, is that I feel once again that I have re-learned three life lessons: 1) Change is a constant in life 2)If you do not stay ahead of the curve, you're falling behind 3) Life is finite for me. Connecting these three has been the center of my recent musings. For instance, if one simply stuffs their money in a sack for safe keeping, it is probably better than spending it all when you have it. However, doing this for your entire life will get you no where and nothing. Putting your money to use is the best idea. This could be investing the money in a venture, product, or a bank.
This also holds true with your time here on earth. Though you cannot know when you'll die and years can see to stretch on forever in front of you, the do not. As much as I have felt some of my years in Graduate school have drifted towards being in the category of idle years, I think they were not unduly spent. In the end I will have a degree. If I have a job remains to be seen. The job market for chemists/biochemists is not fantastic. I think my investigation of this will be fun , scary, and interesting.
Back to the grind... :)

Weird News from TK

I guess I will have to introduce the concept of my weird news. Well, for several years I have e-mailed (sometimes more consistently than others) friends past and present to relay amusing or strange occurrences in my life accompanied with the weekly Chuck Shepard's News of the Weird (www.newsoftheweird.com). I think recently I've been slacking off at my weekly e-mails. However, I've followed suit from my sister and started writing this blog. The interesting thing about the blog and the e-mails is that I've found that I should be careful what stories to tell. Since as soon as the post is made or e-mail sent, it is no longer owned by myself, but to the ages for all to see and do with as they wish. Thus I get to amusingly be careful about what I say. Put a filter on myself is probably what I should call it. But if that means I need to practice being polite, kind, understanding, and eloquent, I think I should suffer the consequences. Anyways, I think I'll probably just put up the most appropriate post of the week for my weekly e-mail and also reference the blog. Sounds pretty fair, right?
Enjoy.

Time to step up and deal

Well, I cannot say that this will be an unmemorable weekend. It has come to my attention through several means that my time in Aggieland is not to be an unending ride to oblivion. There is an end in sight. Finishing out several projects has been and will be a top priority. After being in this town for over 5 years (6 summers for those counting), consideration of a time beyond my half decade home is bittersweet. Moving onto the next step in my life will be exciting, interesting, and of course a bit daunting. Where to go? Where can I go? Where do I want to be? What do I want to be? The endless questioning of any student in their last year of study. I can remember the constant questions each time I reached the precipice. It is understandable.
My girl, Kim, is at such a junction this week. She is graduating from A&M with a unique double-major combination of Psychology and Entomology. Although I joke with her plenty asking if she will be asking insects how they feel for a living, she is very interesting in a field in which both are in play, Epidemiology. Towards this, she is also searching options and looking for a great program to enroll into, while getting practical experience in the mean time.
Before all of that, though, is the task of graduation and moving out. I have found myself lucky in not having had to move in my time here. It has been exceedingly convenient that the apartment I got after rolling into town with my U-haul has been reasonably priced in my tenure here. I do not relish the task when it comes, to determine what stays and goes in my apartment in the transition to the next place. My mother has told me that I should just toss most of my apartment furniture (as it all looks like a college student's furniture). I'll consider it. I guess I will also have to get used to dressing nicely again. Such are the challenges of life. Time to step up and deal.

TGIF?

Another Friday comes, so that means another day of fun in the lab. Basically, I have plenty to do
that keeps me busy all day long. A very standard procedure, but a day's worth of work. Before I get too boring, I can at least tell you about an special occurrence a few weeks back....
On Friday July 13th, I was in the lab, doing my thing... but when I was in the midst of cleaning a piece of glass equipment, it snapped at a joint stabbing me fairly deeply in my left hand just below the thumb. I stopped, looked at the wound, then it started gushing blood. I grabbed it with my other hand, and went into the hallway for help as my lab mates in my room and the next had already left for the evening. I went to my advisor's office, but she had also left for dinner. Seeing another professor down the hallway, I called to him. Unluckily, he was leaving, too, on his bike! I asked him to at least help me clean the wound. We put paper towels on it (leaving a nice trail of blood from my laboratory to my advisor's office).
Luckily my lab mate and friend B.J. was in his lab and ran to get his car (parked a good jog away). B.J. had recently begun lifting weights in the gym, so his legs were already cramped, but he made fantastic time to retrieve the car. He picked me up (after I carefully locked up the labs using my feet). We sped off to the medical center and informed my advisor about the injury per regulation of on the job injuries. After a pretty long wait I was finally seen by the physicians' assistant. The wound was X-rayed, cleaned (after I did an initial job), and stitched shut. It became very painful when it was being cleaned.... even with extra shots of anesthetic. After relaying my story... and the fact that I worked with microorganisms, the floor doctor came in and shot the breeze and discussed with me which antibiotic would be best for infection prevention given the circumstances. It was amusing. He couldn't find the bacteria I worked with in his book, so I had to detail it and the other possible bacteria involved to him.
Once it was time to leave, I had probably explained to every person I had met that this injury had occurred at work at A&M. Still, instead of filing a worker's compensation injury claim, they insisted that I use my insurance and pay the co-pay. This seemed quite reasonable at the time. I paid, and after a 4+ hour stay B.J. and I (with an incapacitated left hand) left and hit up the Whataburger across the street, then headed BACK TO LAB. I found out when I got to lab that the trail of blood had been quite confusing to some folks who came back to the lab. The thought perhaps my advisor had been injured. I finished up some work, cleaned up the broken glass, and went home to recover.
The next monday, I filed an incident report about the injury. I was then asked why I had paid at the hospital. Confused, I had it explained to me that the hospital should not have charged me and somehow I should have convinced them and the pharmacy that either: 1) A&M would pay them back or 2) I should have absorbed the whole cost, hoping that A&M would pay me the whole amount back. I recently found out that the total costs to me had I payed out of pocket for everything would have been $1200!!!! Now I am told that I may or may not get the cost of my antibiotics and $100 Emergency room copay refunded. I, only having a hand injury, which I have mostly recovered from, am scared for those that have an even worse calamity befall them. I am pretty lucky. Hope all have a great weekend!