the side effects of grad school

so the new macbook pros have finally shipped. which means that they have one on display in our campus book store. which means that we can go play with all the features, including the built in isight and the new(ish) photobooth program. good times. and in case you were wondering what my pchem buddy blue looks like, here he is, in his natural state:



i'm telling you....pchem does weird things to you. = ) blue and i needed to take a break, so we killed some time playing around with pictures. but even more fun than that??? scrolling thru all the photos that *other* people had been taking on the display computers. it was funny to see who had come back multiple times to take more photos of themselves. and to see how people posed. the one that cracked me up the most was this:





ahhhh. i could probably spend hours playing around just with that program on the new macbook. and after spending hours in front of my computer working on a synthetic paper, that's about all i *can* manage to do.

sorry if i've seemed distracted or distant to anyone lately. it's getting to be the end of the quarter crunch time, where all the teachers try to cram in all of the assignments they put on their syllabi but never got to in a timely manner. (arghhh) oh, and i have another cume on saturday, so keep your fingers crossed for me then. or don't. it's entirely up to you. = )

Posted by *erin* | 11:59 PM |

recruitment time

ohhhh this comic is all too fitting right now. tomorrow begins the free-food frenzy that is recruitment season. meaning that prospective students are starting to visit grad schools. which means the department is hosting events to lure them in, and they want grad students there. and, as everyone knows, the only sure fire way to get grad students anywhere is to offer free food. hence, the frenzy has begun. (also, my students have a midterm tomorrow.....and seeing premed's freaking out about chemistry can be more than a little scary at times)

i can't believe it was only a year ago that i was going thru this process for myself. i feel as though i've been at ucla for years. (and i definitely think i've aged that much since being here) (though i'm still getting carded) i feel like such a different person than i was last year. and like a completely different chemist than i was a year ago. i went to a pretty fascinating talk today on the design and self-assembly of metallocyclic polygons and polyhedra via coordination chemistry. and that's something i *never* would have said a year ago. amazing how time flies by and how quickly we can grow in just one year's time...


well, think of me tomorrow as i spend my friday night stuck in a claustrophobic conference room grading 200 organic chemistry spectroscopy exams. it's gonna be a long night........but at least i'll have all that free food to keep me going. = )

Posted by *erin* | 12:12 AM |