child devil of tuna

So, what does Eva do while I'm at work? That's a good question. While I'm slaving away running gels and what not, I just assumed that Eva was just writing her thesis, doing homework, maybe even going to class. You know, nothing too out of the ordinary. I know that when she gets bored, she tends to take up hobbies: her Procrastination Station, the makeover page, stuff like that. I thought I had her all figured out. But little did I know.....

I came home early from lab today only to discover that Eva has taken pornographic photos of squirrels getting frisky on our balcony! Here is the conversation:

Grace: You did WHAT??
Eva: I saw some squirrels mating on the balcony. I thought that maybe you'd want to see some pictures....
Grace: What made you think that I would want to see pictures of squirrel getting it on?
Eva: I thought it was so cute! It looked like they were dancing!
Grace: Dancing?
Eva: Yeah! And they were making all these noises. I wasn't taking those pictures to be raunchy.
Grace: They were just really cute, right?
Eva: And you HAVE to see the video I took of them....

Cute..... riiiiiiiight... But when I saw the pics, I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. I must say, they were quite entertaining.

And now I know you're all curious. You sick, sick bastards. So here they are. To satiate that gnawing curiosity I'm sure you all have right now....
Squirrel Porn 1
Squirrel Porn 2
Squirrel Porn 3

To see Eva's filming debut (before they feature it at the next Sundance Film Festival), you'll just have to contact me and I'll show it to you!

posted by Grace @ 4/29/2003 04:07:00 PM 0 comments

I know this is twice in one day, but I felt this overwhelming need to waste more time in the face of a whole shitload of things to do. So, instead of working on my thesis, my Southeast Asian Studies paper, my MCB lab report, or the PSP digital yearbook (I'm still waiting on all of you delinquent PSPers who have not sent me your shout-outs! And thanks to those who got them to me ON TIME), I felt compelled to write about my excursion to San Francisco with Kim yesterday.

For those who don't know, yesterday was the second day of WonderCon, the Bay Area's biggest comic book convention. Kim and I volunteered in order to get free admission--and also just because we thought that it might be cool--and ended up getting the lame job of "greeting" people at the door, aka "running after them and making them fill out registration forms before they got to the front desk."

But the whole experience was very cool. I got to run around like a giddy little child in a candy store and just be silly for a day. I got to be excited about watching all of The Hulk movie previews and the newest Matrix Reloaded trailer that was only released this past Friday. For you Matrix fans out there, the Wachowski Brothers have written scripts for 9 short animated features which will be released on DVD this summer sometime. The Animatrix, as it is called, looks super-cool and you can download some of the shorts from the website. Go check it out. And I have a screener for all nine of the shorts (wahoo for freebies!) if you are interested in watching them. On a side note, I also found the two issues of The Masters of the Universe comics that I was missing. Yeah, I know. What's so cool about He-man? Let's just say I'm a sucker for 80's cartoons. Or maybe it has something to do with a buff man in a loincloth.... who knows?

The best thing though was meeting comic book artists who haven't made it big yet. Some of them have written excellent books. Check out Jeff Parker's The Interman. He was nice enough to sign my book and draw a little picture. I even met a writer who knows my Southeast Asian Studies professor. Small world, no?

So anyway, ComicCon International comes to San Diego this summer, July 17 - 20. Anyone want to go with me? I promise you, it'll be a good time!

posted by Grace @ 4/27/2003 06:26:00 PM 0 comments

Since David so RUDELY pointed out that I don't update this blog (tell me that next year when YOU have to write your thesis!!), I decided to take a break from the insanity that is my life right now and bring you the promised "One Pound Tomato" entry.

As I'm sure you PSPers know, the Betas put on a scavenger hunt. One of the items was to find the BIGGEST TOMATO in Safeway. Eva found a tomato that weighed a whopping 0.96 pounds and cost $3.16. We totally thought that we were going to win that part of the scavenger hunt. But little did we know, that Alex's Rice Rocket group had come across a mutant behemoth....an uber-tomato that cost $3.75!! Crushed, our group accepted defeat and settled for second place.

But now comes the question of what to do with our one pound tomato. Can't really throw it away.... cost too much. You could almost buy a meal at the Ghetto for that. Or a Cheese N Stuff sandwich. So, two limes, three additional roma tomatoes, 2 serrano chile peppers, a small onion, and a handful of cilantro later, we present to you, TWO POUNDS OF SALSA which Eva and I promptly started eating. Seeing as how it was a lot of salsa and we probably couldn't finish it all ourselves, we invited our fellow 2525 Stuart Street apartment-mate, Anjali, over to share in the salsa extravaganza. We finished the whole thing and I promptly felt a little sick afterwards.

Moral of the story: tortilla chips and salsa should not be substituted for dinner.

posted by Grace @ 4/27/2003 12:14:00 PM 0 comments

Let me start off by saying that I SURVIVED my week of hell and my poster presentation was successfully finished this afternoon at 5pm. Thank you so much to those people who came to visit me (Anjali, Jenny, Danny, the CozzLab, etc etc.... you guys know who you are!). It was so wonderful to get to share with you what most of my free time has been devoted to for the last year! If any of you who missed the poster session are absolutely dying to know about the effects of DNA supercoiling on E. coli SSG's, I still have my poster..... =Þ

Since I'm running on nearly zero sleep, I will be brief. I just wanted to thank all of the Betas for putting on a great social! You guys should be very proud of yourselves. I had an AWESOME time running all over Berkeley like some crazed maniac. And the dinner! What can I say... very classy. And you all looked soooo good! Mad props on a job well done!

As for me, I'll stop it here because I can barely keep my eyes open. It's taken me far too long to type these few lines... 5 words per minutes is not a good sign. With my hand eye coordination and mental thought processes reaching an all time low, I say good night.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Grace's Supercool Way Awesome Blog: "One Pound Tomato"

posted by Grace @ 4/12/2003 01:26:00 AM 0 comments

Taking a break from writing my genetics lab report and my senior thesis. Since I have biology on the brain, you all get a lesson:

Fruit flies are widely used by geneticists. There are a huge variety of mutant flies one could potentially use for his or her studies. There are the standard mutated genes (ie the gene "white" which causes flies to have white eyes or "singed" which causes a fly's bristles to look, well, singed), and then there are the not-so-standard mutanted genes. And I am not making up these names.

"Prune" causes flies to have wrinkly wings.
"Killer of Prune" causes only flies with wrinkly wings to die.
"Shaven Baby" flies have no bristles.
"Cheap Date" flies lack a good copy of the gene that encodes alcohol dehydrogenase, the enzyme that breaks down alcohol. Therefore, these flies get drunk faster than normal flies when exposed to alcohol.

Then there are plant geneticists (some of you might remember this from my AIM profile a few months back):

In plants, there is a gene which was named "Superman" because mutating this gene (either by deletion or methylation) causes the flowers of the plant to have 12 stamens instead of 6 (superplant? whatever). The methylated (ie mutated) form of the gene is called "Clark Kent." Normal function of "Clark Kent" can be restored by the mutated form of a protein named "Kryptonite," a methyltransferase. The mutated form is unable to silence the "Superman" since it cannot properly methylate the DNA so the flowers will still have the normal number of stamens.

And finally, a little bit of mouse genetics (to commemorate the completed sequencing of the mouse genome earlier this year):

Mice have a gene that is homologous to the gene that causes Cystic Fibrosis in humans. Mutating this gene in mice does NOT cause Cystic Fibrosis in the mice. Instead, it causes Chronic Bowel Obstruction Syndrome.

Now, with all of this great knowledge of genetics, if only we could find the human gene for "Likes to Procrastinate" so that I can silence all copies of it and get cracking on this thesis...

posted by Grace @ 4/08/2003 09:24:00 PM 0 comments

I know, I know... I said I would never do it. I said I would never start a blog. But until I can get my act together and actually start the online illustrated journal that I've been advertising on my website, this will have to do.

Actually, there is a reason why I decided to start this blog. Yesterday, I succeeded in doing something that I felt warranted recognition. I have one word for you all: Listerine. For those who have experienced "Listerine," I think you'll know what I'm going to talk about next. If not, well then.... go try it out. I highly recommend it.

So the directions state in a very matter-of-fact tone: Rinse full strength for 30 seconds. Easy, right? I think not....

Dental hygiene is one of those things that most people are really lazy about, limited to brushing twice a day and that's about it. I think I read somewhere that the average American uses only 14 inches of dental floss per year. 14 inches! I think I use that much in one day. So anyway, my last trip to the dentist resulted in an extremely annoying and painful root canal so now I'm paranoid about losing all of my teeth by the time I'm 40. I've become something of a tooth-brushing Nazi and I've recently added Listerine to my daily repertoire. And I've learned that 30 seconds isn't as easy as you'd think.

So here's the breakdown:
5 - 10 seconds: God that stings.
10 - 15 seconds: This isn't so bad anymore.... wait...
15 - 20 seconds: ARRRRRGHHHH!! (this is where I got my first time)
20 - 25 seconds: [no words to describe the pain. your eyes start to water at this point]
25 - 30 seconds: WAHOO!

And yesterday marks the momentous occasion where I was actually able to hold that stuff in my mouth for a full 30 seconds! I was crying uncontrollably and my tongue was utterly numb, but gosh darnit, my teeth had never felt so clean! Colgate commercials, here I come!

posted by Grace @ 4/07/2003 08:52:00 PM 0 comments