child devil of tuna

dentist + Grace = bad bad news. Without fail. Today was no different.

On Sunday night, all of a sudden and without warning, the entire right side of my jaw felt as thought sometime had exploded inside and I was literally seeing stars because the pain was so intense. The dull throbbing achy feeling persisted through the night and into the next day, and I only managed to get through a full work day by taking loads and loads of tylenol. During the middle of last night, I woke up at about 2am with the weirdest sensation in my mouth: my upper right molar (which had been causing me the excruciating pain) felt oddly tingly and tender (not unlike when you bash your funny bone against your desk or something). It wasn't exactly painful anymore, but definitely a million miles from normal. First thing this morning, I called about 10 different dentists in hopes of getting an emergency appointment. Only one would see me today and while this dentist was extremely nice and very professional, I still decided that I hated dentists as a whole and no matter how friendly or nice they are, they scare the shit out of me.

Long story short, there is apparently nothing wrong with the integrity of the outer parts of my tooth. For some reason, however, I have an infection of the inner pulp and will require a root canal. Boooooooo. That's gonna be no fun. To make things worse, they didn't have any free appointments until Feb 28th, so in the meantime, they have me on antibiotics which should at least kill the bacteria proliferating inside my tooth and hopefully STOP THE PAIN. Otherwise, this is going to be a looooong four weeks.

posted by Grace @ 1/31/2006 08:43:00 AM 0 comments

If you immediately think of white lab coats, bubbling flasks of mysterious green fluids, and socially inept geeks every time someone mentions the word "scientist," you are not alone. According to a survey, about 70% of 11 - 15 year olds in London thought that scientists were not "normal young and attractive men and women" and they always "wear big glasses." OK, so I do wear glasses, but in my defense, they're not big. I'd say they're pretty stylish. But that's just my opinion. To see if the "scientist" stereotype holds up, I'm going to put out out my own little survey. Here are some of the people that I've met in the UK. Some are scientists and some are not. Can you tell if the people in each photo are scientists or not? (Hint: Unless I say otherwise, ALL of the people listed/named for each photo will be scientists or they ALL won't be)

I'll even give you two freebies:

1) Not scientists.


2) Definitely a scientist.


3) Adam and Chris


4) Cristina, Vera, Vicki


5) Anna and Claire


6) Stephanie


7) Mark


8) Dave


9) Francesca, Sonya, Kelly


10) Antonis


11) Geoff and David (one is a scientist one is not).


Good luck!

posted by Grace @ 1/29/2006 04:22:00 AM 0 comments

Cold cold cold. It's not gonna be a pleasant week weather-wise. Well, at least rain isn't in the forecast for Manchester:


Sometimes I wonder why I left SoCal:


Oh, and something funny I came across. A really good blonde joke. Enjoy!

posted by Grace @ 1/22/2006 05:02:00 PM 0 comments

Holy giant jellyfish, Batman!

The article isn't that interesting, but the photo of the humongous jellyfish is.

posted by Grace @ 1/20/2006 03:59:00 AM 0 comments

I started my second rotation today and I'm really excited about this project.

For my fellow nerds: I'll be looking at the Wnt cell signalling pathway to see how it drives early chondrogenic differentiation in mesenchymal stem cells. By using varying concentrations of a particular Wnt ligand, I'll be able to see if there are any changes in expression of ECM related genes and how that affects differentiation events.

For the non-bio-nerds: Stem cells can develop into any kind of cell in a particular organ or tissue and are important for maintaining cell populations (for example, for making new red blood cells to replace old ones) and repairing damage/injuries. For my project, I will be studying human adult bone marrow stem cells to see how they develop into cartilage cells (chondrocytes).

Because it was my first day, I didn't have much to do except set up my cell cultures so that they can start growing. However, I did manage to spill HeLa cells all over myself. For the uninitiated, HeLa cells are derived from human cervical cancer cells, so yes, I spilled cancer on my hand today. In my defense, the cap on the tube was not in perfectly working order. What a great way to make a first impression. Really, I'm not THAT much of a spaz.

posted by Grace @ 1/16/2006 11:49:00 AM 0 comments

WAHOO! I am a free woman again!! I just turned in my first project report--all 49 evil evil pages of it--with 29 hours to spare! It's not due until tomorrow but I was on a roll and I spent most of last night typing away like a crazy person. It feels good to be done. I start my second project on Monday but until then, I get Friday, Saturday, and Sunday completely off. Ooooooh, freeeeeeeeeee tiiiiiime....

So here is my cheesy "Year in Review" entry that was planned forever ago, but whatever. you guys get it now. Two weeks into the new year.

January 2005: I came home for the first time in the one and a half years that I had previously been in Japan. Here is my brother and cousin at one of our festive Lee family Christmas/New Year dinners. Sorry for the graininess of the photo; it was taken with my cool little Japanese cell phone.


February 2005: Jenni, Ruth, Alice, Shannon, and I headed to Hokkaido for some fun in the snow to celebrate my bday and to see Sapporo's famous ice festival. I don't know if you can read it, but the title of the ice sculpture behind the girls is "Weasel's Slash." Ah, the Japanese and their wacky nonsensical English!


March 2005: The crazed obsession with snowboarding is at its peak and we were all making the loooooong trek to the slopes nearly every weekend. I think this was in Nagano and I'm eating J-curry for lunch. Mmmmmm.


April 2005: Cherry blossom season in Japan. One of the few times of the year when the weather is bearable, even pleasant. I must admit, as cliche as they are, they were really pretty though.


May 2005: Shan, Jenni, and I headed over to 'Nam for some R&R. Here is me and Shan in a restaurant in the beautiful beach resort of Nha Trang.


June 2005: Ali and his friend Prem came to visit me in Japan. My friend Satomi and I took them to the World Expo in Nagoya.


July 2005: After two crazy years in Japan, I finally made the great escape. But not without the many obligatory good bye parties (complete with attempts on my part at making speeches in Japanese). My board of education office threw me a little farewill partay.


August 2005: Family reunion of my dad's half of the clan in the gorgeous mountains of Mammoth, CA. We're missing a few people in this pic, but that's what happens when you hike SLOWLY. You miss out on the family pic.


Still August 2005: Went to sunny San Diego to meet up with my Berkeley Buds, Anjali and Eva. I miss you guys!!! Not to mention the weather. Why I left warm mild beautiful CA to come to cold wet windy Manchester beats me. Oh yeah, school and my degree.... dude,whatever!


September 2005: Moved to Manchester to try my hand at being a student again. What have I gotten myself into?! Good thing I met JP.


October 2005: Nothing too terribly important or interesting happened here.

November 2005: Went to Stratford upon Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace) and Warwick castle with JP.



December 2005: Ruth and her family invited me to spend Christmas with them so that I wouldn't have to spend the holidays all by my lonesome. They kept me very well-fed and I got to see the beautiful Welsh countryside.


Well, that's it in a nutshell. Happy New Year everyone!!!

posted by Grace @ 1/12/2006 05:32:00 AM 0 comments