My Hair

Just read my last few posts and realised I mentioned the possibility of me cutting my hair, and how unlikely it was to happen. Well suprise suprise I actually did get it cut. It's now normal long hair length (bra strap length) with a couple of layers. Thankfully due to the field trip quite a number of lecturers (i.e. those that went) know my name now - so the memorable feature isn't needed (fingers crossed). I like my new hair though so alls well - at present.

TTFN xxx

Back in the Bubble

It's fresher's week here in St Andrews, but as a third year with a project report already in the pipeline I'm not really participating in the festivities. I'd like to say I took part last year (and even possibly my own fresher's), but this isn't the case. Oh I went to all the meetings and events etc (well not the late night drunken riot stuff). Not drinking alcohol really stunts my social outings - but saves my body in every other way :D.

The aforementioned project report refers to the field trip I went on last week to Orielton, Pembroke. I loved it !! though there were a few too many barnacles for my liking (we identify and count barnacles way too often). My project (and my partner's) is basically a study and comparison of invertebrate abundance and diversity in woodland and grassland habitat. It involved laying pitfall traps (got muddy, bruised, stung and scratched in the process - loved it :D), spending hours (and I mean hours) peering into microscopes to identify all the little critters and then stats to analyse. Despite the hard work I really did enjoy it all and it's made me feel a part of the green biology ermmm 'group' - I am a green biologist!

The project report is a little daunting - as a third year how do I up my report writing skills from last year. Would help if my results/stats made sense to me. In explanation there was a pretty little trend in the first days results which were then completely opposed by the day after, and now the combined results seem to fall with the illogical trend we did not predict. My plan is to hold a meeting with my partner to discuss etc and just lay out our results so we have a level footing and understand what we actually found. Until then I'll write the methods section I think.

Trying to decide whether I should attend a seminar on Wednesday entitled "Visualizing adenovirus structure and host factor interactions by CryoEM and Crystallography." Thinking not to be honest but we'll see how my Wednesday goes - also if I can figure out which room it's in (I've never heard of the room it states).

Let's see whether a good and stable internet connection, personal freedom (except from work) and boredom/procrastination mean this blog becomes a little bit more active.

Sayonara Capabara xxx

I can never remember my ATHENS username

It's so annoying - btw when I'm in St Andrews I live in university accommodation (too cowardly and loserish to find flatmates to rent with) so don't need ATHENS. Why can't I change the username to something I'll remember (probably because all St Andrews accounts need a particular format (all start with stand I assume). Rant over and on to more general catch up.

Thinking of cutting my hair and getting my ears pierced - won't happen though as no matter how much I complain about getting it caught on stuff and blown by the wind I like my very long hair. It's how I'm recognised - lecturers may not know my name but I'm pretty sure the recognise 'the girl with the long hair that never misses lectures and comes to optional seminars.' Without my long hair I would no longer have an easily recognisable feature. Maybe I'm being melodramatic.

Back to a semi ATHENS subject - sciencedirect is pissing about with me. There's an article called 'what do animal signals mean?' and the PDF just won't open properly. Oh well that'll just be one less article I'm intending to read.

I really want to buy the complete Indiana Jones. I love the movies but only have the first 3 on VHS - which is pretty useless. Bit too expensive for my cheapskate ways - we'll see. I bought Marly and Me on DVD when it came out. That movie really makes me cry, and I don't just mean the single 'this is a sad movie' tear that can be fought back I mean full blubbering sobbing tears that leave your eyes red and blotchy. It's the end bit when Marley gets put down - I get flashbacks of when I've been there and done that with my pets. Speaking of pet flashbacks, a guy came to my door yesterday to ask if i'd lost a cat because he'd found a dead one down the road that'd been hit by a car. This is a flashback because I had a cat (it was my younger sister's, all black and called babe) who was hit by a car and killed about ermmm 10 years ago. Thankfully I gave the cat treat box a shake and both cats came bounding in throught the cat flap. But I really feel for the cat owner - it's a horrible moment to hear that, I remember the last time I saw Babe (I told it to get off my bed - I wanted to get in and go to sleep but couldn't fit with her at the feet end).

Good news now. I got on to the Dean's List 'for academic excellence' for my grades this/last year :D. Only students with grades over 16.5 in each module get on (btw mine were all over 17.4). Really happy about it because I was feeling a little average.

Can't think of anything else to tell you apart from the fact I have the weekend off from babysitting as mum's staying over at babys dad's house. My uncle and aunt are coming to visit and he has a bigger house so they tend to stay there. Thus you may get more updates in the next 48 hours than you have since my summer began :D.

TTFN xxx

p.s. what should I do with my free weekend.

Mum's really not feeling well

Mum's not well and has gone back to bed (after ringing her work to say she just could not go in). Fingers crossed she gets better soon - can't be doing with looking after baby until she gets better (doesn't want to pass it on and she's just not with it enough). Had to sleep in the same room as baby last night while mum slept downstairs - just because she wouldn't have been with it enough to deal with her in the middle of the night if there was a problem - thankfully there wasn't.

Do you find my use of "-" annoying? Also isn't odd I'm keeping the rouse of having readers up - fooling myself into internet popularity. Speaking of internet popularity I think someone else is following me on twitter - must block them they're a random something or other desperate for twitter peeps.

I think I'm going to be invited out today - the first idea was the park but the weather looks decidedly British (overcast with threats of rain). Anyways can't go 1) mum's to ill to give me a life and the bus costs a fortune 2) baby must be looked after - I would leave to my other sister (15 yr old) but she has GCSE work to do and I value school work. Albeit I don't think she really does the work when I leave her - procrastination is a nigh on inevitable bummer - and msn etc are evil. I do not have that problem as none of my people come online anymore. It is making me feel alittle isolated here looking after baby in the house almost constantly - social interaction limited to family.

Is it wrong to plan my birthday present now - btw my birthday is October 30th. Thinking of getting a netbook (I'll end up putting some money towards it). I will give my reasoning 1) I realised last semester how many trees my lectures notes were killing 2) my laptop battery isn't quite up to lasting 2 lectures back to back 3) it's a little to wide for easy portability. So yeah the idea is that I'll take the netbook to lectures and write my notes on it, but use my laptop for everything else. What do you think?

Baby's still having her morning nap :D see you later alligators xxx

apologies for the break - catch up

I'll be honest I have little to update you on, I haven't done anything :(. My baby sister Harriet has taken over my life - I actually half wake up at night thinking I'm supposed to be babysitting and have lost her. Apparently I actually look around for her and talk in my sleep "where are you going Harriet?" etc.

I have been out to see my friends twice so far this holiday - it's an upsettingly low number. Been to the cinema twice as well (once with friends to see the new terminator and once with dad and brother (fathers' day) to see the new transfomers). My verdicts are that terminator was ok but not great - the internal plot of the guy was amazin but it's place in the series was a bit stupid and john connor annoys the hell out of me (as does christian bale in general - it's his voice). Transformers two was amazing absolutely awesome.

Also watched Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull - I admit can't remember it's actual title. Shia leBeouf (guess at spelling) was once again awesome - so far from his days in even stevens.

Ermm don't really have much more to say - wish there was more nature documentaries on tv, most of them are crappy and soapesque - why do they have to give the animals voices or make it like some kind of soap e.g. meerkat manor? Why not go back to the good old days of life on earth - life of mammals was my favourite - although the clip of chimps organising and implimenting the hunt of colobus monkeys was horrific as a small child. Thank christ for Eden (TV channel) which is most likely to have actual documentaries. Currently showing elephant nomads of the namib desert. Earth's greatest events was incredible tv I will admit and I have it on DVD - AMAZING !!! (felt capitilisation was necessary there).

Right baby's asleep in her bouncer and I have a serious number of RSS feed journal articles to flick through. Oh N.B. internet connection not the fastest here and often dominated by my brother and his Xbox live (he is currently away at my dad's though - hence the post).

TTFN xxx

I'm sorry for not posting

Who'd have thought I'd post less on holiday at home - well to be honest I had a sneaky suspicion this would happen (internet connection not as fast here and I've spent much of my time babysitting). I have an 11month old baby sister (may have mentioned her) and mum seems to be using and abusing my inability to say no. But it's not so bad just time consuming. 

In fact it's baby's first birthday a week on tuesday - hopefully will be fun :D. 

My Walk - Plus Some Random ChitChat

Walk was amazing. One of those times when you just don't want to go back to civilisation (albeit it was only 30 mins away). You're heart just sinks at the first sound of cars and people as you walk back. I am so antisocial :P. 

Anyway pics as promised: 

Best part of the walk was watching gannets plummeting into the sea to catch fishies :D. Watched for about 40 mins - partly in the hope that larger more mammalian diners would join the apparent fishy feast (btw they didn't). For further info I'm not an ornithologist (bar corvids) but rather a mammaliologist (may have made that term up). I did try to film the action with my digital camera - with slight success:    

                                          

I'll go on another walk later, but this time I'll take my big binoculars rather than my baby ones. Judging by the fact I saw more gannets on the way into town this morning (walked along the beach), I should see more later :D. 

Currently I'm packing (or atleast that's the intention). Dad's picking me up on wednesday, and I'm no where near down. It's just so daunting looking around at your stuff and just no idea where to start. Not Good! 

May write something more later - and possibly post a song :D we shall see saw. 

See You Laters, Alligators xxx