I'm so absent-minded

Biked a truncated version of Blue Clay on Sunday (was trying out a Trek Fuel, hehehehehe), and as we started packing up, raindrops descended on our heads. In the hurry to leave before we got too wet, I must have left my less than a year-old helmet and biking gloves on top of Wendy's car. Sighs. Went back to next day but no sign of either, not even crushed silver powder on the roads. Am severely bummed out!!

Seem to be deep in a flurry of bike-related purchases. Starting with....my new baby!! That's right, I decided I wasn't going to bother with cheapo steel tanks or mess around with other people's bikes and just get the shiniest new bike that sets my heart a-flutter. And so...it was with some trembling that I handed my credit card over at the bike shop on Friday and got myself a Cannondale Synapse (alloy, not carbon, I still want to afford to eat...)! Yay!!! Pretty new bike!! Some might think that I've betrayed my first roadie by getting this one, but sweetie, you live on another continent, and...I really miss riding road bikes...I still think that you are the sweetest and bestest road bike ever and I'll always love you for being my first one, so please forgive me...

Ahem...so aside from the replacement helmet and gloves, of course I HAD to buy a cycle computer to keep track of my fitness levels while riding, waiting for my road pedals and shoes to arrive, and got a headlight for those long rides home at night. What can I say? Am pretty happy. :)

And...please don't get on my case about upgrading the MTB!! It's no Trek Fuel but it's still ridable!

I guess I'm in

So I have unofficial confirmation that I'm accepted into UNCW's PhD program in Marine Biology, and just received an email from the Director of International Student and Scholar Services congratulating me on my acceptance and asking about the change in my I-20. So I suppose...em...Woohoo? Sorry if I seem a little understated right now, I think I'll get more excited once the official letters come in and the news sinks in. :)

Self-doubt

After the exhilaration of obtaining positive results on the cruise, I'm back to Wilmington and back to reality. 6 months in, and I'm still struggling to optimise a reaction to amplify and sequence a gene of interest from the Mycale genus of sponges. It doesn't help that learning all these protocols and their steps require constant repetition and I'm always away this summer. Was happy to have amplified the ITS gene before Key Largo, but the cloning got stymied by a bum cloning kit. The next two attempts didn't succeed, and today, I couldn't even get the PCR reaction working, although I tried twice. What frustrates me is that unlike in ecological research, I don't really know how to proceed to troubleshoot all these problems. The protocol is like a giant black box, and when there's a negative result, I don't know if it's due to my error, insufficient DNA, annealing temperatures and what have you.

Just got reminded not too gently that I should start purchasing my own reagents, but I'm assailed by self-doubts. Have half a mind to can this project and concentrate on the chemical component of my project instead. On the other hand, it worked before, it probably can work again, and I've collected so many samples from so many people it seems like such a waste. Where to find the motivation to keep striving though?

Bahamas, baby

So, first day of diving in the Bahamas. We didn't even reach Freeport yet when I realised I had left something pretty important behind. To Mumsy's credit I didn't flip out and have a total meltdown in the galley, not even a slight foaming at the mouth. Huh. Who knew I could be this calm about my f***-ups. Anyway, things to solve the problem are in progress, and I await the resolution to the whole matter in the meantime.

Woke up to good weather, and splashed in around 2pm, back to the old place we got to know so well at 4am last year. Supposed to catch a whole bunch of fish to run tank feeding assays with, but I must say the overall haul of the day was pretty abysmal. As for me, I caught 1 fish in 2 dives. Ah, how I have fallen from the goby catching days of yore. Nothing to do but console ourselves that the fish were satiated by late afternoon and not interested in the food bait. Will try again tomorrow first thing in the morning. This is why I kinda like working on sessile marine inverts. Heh.

Beautiful nudibranchs

I dearly miss my colourful reef nudists here in the Caribbean. But what a wonderful gallery from National Geographic!

Owwwww....owowowowwwww....

Back to texting with one hand, dammit! Re-injured my left thumb two weeks ago by jamming it against Sensei Keith's fist twice in aikido class, and my first thought was "Oh %#@%, I gotta dive next week..." Somehow managed to scrape through mountain biking shifting with the fleshy part of my palm and playing volleyball mostly with my right arm, and was just wondering to myself when it would stop hurting when I landed a hammer on my left thumbnail today. Hard. Resulted in 5min of tearing underwater, gripping my left hand between my knees and swearing silently but profusely. And did it again 10min later. Hurts like hell. Going to bed now so I don't hit anymore sensitive body parts with hard and heavy objects...

Critical Mass Ride April 2008