Book of Days…

So, I’ve been asked about what my research position is all about. I’ll try to make it as interesting (and understandable) as possible.

Basically, I’m combing facial skin for bacteria to analyze their DNA.

That’s a little dry. Here’s where it gets interesting. There are these things called ‘phages’ — think of them as viruses that attack only the bacteria on your skin. It seems as though people who don’t have acne have a lot of these bacteriophages. There’s this relationship between your own immune system with phages versus the bacteria. When it gets out of balance, you’re a lot more likely to have acne.

It’s a crazy concept: people with naturally beautiful skin are a viral breeding ground!

The idea, hopefully, is to study this relationship to make some pharmaceutical product designed to treat acne more specifically (instead of washing it with generic benzoyl peroxide as most acne medications do nowadays). If this can happen, I’ll be super duper rich! But then again, that’s not likely to happen. Still it’s interesting work.

Title: Research Lab Asst I

Job Duties: Assist in the development of experimental protocols for sequencing and as required by the research project. Duties include assisting in molecular and cell biology techniques such as cloning, PCR, DNA purification/preparation, immunoprecipitation, agarose and polyacrylamide gel electrophoreses, immunoblotting, and bacteria/phage culture. Other duties include standard instrument maintenance, inventory maintenance, and keeping the lab clean and well-organized.

Job Qualifications: Knowledge of basic microbiology, genetics, molecular biology and biochemical principles. Ability to use basic laboratory equipment and to create and maintain records accurately. Ability to communicate effectively to convey experimental procedures and results. Interpersonal skills to effectively interact with faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows and students. Ability to maintain laboratory readiness for future
experiments. Demonstrated computer skills including knowledge of MS Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint.

I start February 1st. Yay. This job pays about $5 dollars an hour LESS than what I was making. Still pays well enough, and I guess I have to be willing to start back at square one since it’s a different field.

Getting this job means that I will have to drop one of my two organic chemistry courses because they each have 6 hour labs (12 hours of lab D:).
 
It works out to 50+ hours of work a week on top of my organic chemistry coursework. Damn.

So I’ve largely kept to myself the fact that I’d been dating someone for the past month or so. Not with the intent on keeping any secrets or hiding anything, but there was just no reason to broadcast it.I posted earlier a bit about how she motivated me to not be so damn lazy, and I love that. It really feels like I’m making headway in life lately, which is a welcome change from my apathy the past couple years.

Problem is, she’s also a workaholic to the point where it’s unhealthy and a little crazy. Also, apparently, a workaholic to the point that I doubted she was able to handle a relationship properly, and it wasn’t working out for me. I lamented the idea of having to break up during Xmas season, and to add to it all, it was also her birthday just after Xmas. Breaking up with someone on their bday or Xmas was too much of an asshole move even for me, and I hoped to avoid it. I thought maybe I could settle for less, at least for the time being, and see how things went. It was mainly the almost complete lack of communication day to day in between when we saw each other that was the problem — when we actually saw each other, our dates always were marathon dates and we do well together in person.

 So yesterday, into another awesome date we went, starting with a candlelight dinner (yes, i CAN cook gourmet food, not just ramen!) and short hotel stay, to the following day’s horseback riding, hiking, observatory star gazing, shopping, beach walking, fooding, and a movie. Wow, that was lot to fit in a day’s time. After that awesome date, to cap off the wonderful evening…

we broke up.

With no tears but hugs kisses and smiles, it was the most bizarre and also amicable break up ever. Truth be told, I didn’t want to let go. It feels a little bittersweet, but I’m pretty happy at how things turned out. I’d say it was mutual breakup. Sometimes, as well as people get along, things just don’t work out.

The past year has been a web of lies. Not the kind that fuels fist-fights or shouting matches, but the ‘new years resolutions that don’t come to fruition’ kind. I feel I am capable of much more than I have thus far achieved. After all, I did graduate with a bachleor’s degree from UCLA. That has to imply at least a certain amount of aptitude. Through all the ego and self-awareness of my potential, though, I am still standing at the same pharmacy counter, counting pills and trying to be cordial to a crowd of customers that consists of narcotic addicts wanting to get their medication. Not that I’m complaining about my job — I like what I do; I just know there’s a lot more I should be doing. All the meanwhile, my career goes no where. I wonder why the lack of motivation, and I wonder if there’s something just wrong with me. My best friends tell me I need to pick up the dropped ball. I promise to them and I promise to myself to try harder. I promise to retake coursework, and to apply to different jobs. all a web of lies this past year. I met someone recently, and we’ve been talking. She says there are those who live in a bubble, the naive who don’t see the need or don’t have the impetus to be successful, and whom don’t see how hard and tough the real world really is. She wasn’t talking about me specifically, but since I have moved back to the shelter of my parent’s home without a clear motivation for what I want to do, it’s hard to not see a reflection of myself in that. Contrast that with what I can see of how hard she works, the ambition that drives her, all despite the success that she has already achieved, and I’m jealous. I’m really damn jealous. Is that what it really takes?? I want to be like that, damn it. In the 2 DAYS since then, I’ve applied to more jobs than I have in the past half year, and enrolled myself into a difficult curriculum at a local college. I definitely need to keep talking to this person. Perhaps I won’t be lying to myself anymore.

I told myself I shouldn’t do it.

Said it wasn’t worth it. But my resolve crumbled. …

I camped for Black Friday. -sigh-

1 hour of waiting, and a whole lot of crafty line cutting later, I got myself…. a whole bunch of electronic crap I’m not necessarily sure I need. But hey 400 people were willing to wait in line for these doorbusters so that makes it okay, right? RIGHT???!?

-_-; mou nemasu.

…and all of a sudden I realize the world has DETAIL. I’ve been missing out. @_@ -your new 4-eyes.

I’ve worked in a pharmacy for a couple years now. (How time flies…) Work there is always interesting because retail is innately interesting. About three weeks ago, we received a prescription for Oxycontin 80MG #90. Now, Oxycontin is some seriously heavy pain medication and 80mg is as high as it gets. A dosing of three times a day like that would be fatal to you or I since we haven’t built up any type of tolerance. You’re not going to be on this kind of dosing unless you’re a cancer patient or in end stage renal disease or have multiple schlerosis or something like that. The point is that if you’re really in need of this, then there would be plenty of activity as far as prescription history goes prior to it. And here is a girl waltzing in with a prescription with no prior medical history, wanting to purchase them all out of pocket (about $480 dollars!!). Highly suspicious. So my pharmacist called to verify the prescription and found out it was a forgery. A really good one! We called the police because the doctor ordered it, but these people are really smart, and we didn’t expect her to return to pick up the prescription. True enough, she didn’t. Once the police came in to formally write up a report, they sequestered a picture of her from the video cameras and we were given a copy in case she did come back. My pharmacist thought it would be funny to paste a text bubble next to this photo that said "Oh Dan you’re so hot when you fill oxycontin" -_-;;; People loved it, and so I had the displeasure of staring at her picture every day "saying" that I’m hot for the past few weeks. Yesterday, I was covering the drop-off window where patients drop off their prescriptions when a familiar face came to the window. IT WAS HER!!! And surprise, she had another prescription for Oxycontin. I look up and did my best fake smile and excused myself to "check stock" ._.; and quickly went to my pharmacist whispering "it’s her. call 911". Then it was time to pretend I was a fumbling idiot who typed slow…anything to keep her there long enough for the police to arrive. My pharmacist couldn’t walk away or do anything suspicious, so he seriously called 911 right in her line of sight. I could hear what he was saying, so I bet she could have too. I decided to prevent that by diverting her attention to my voice and million questions that become kind of stupid as I started to run out XD (would you like child safety caps? can I have an alternate phone number in case we cant reach you? did you know we also used to have a staff member with the same last name?). I had only taken some 5-6 minutes when it became obvious that I couldn’t keep her any longer. I told her it’d be ready in 5 minutes if she’d wait, but she declined, perhaps sensing something wrong, and left for the door. I asked a coworker to quickly remove her pharmacy smock jacket as to not be obvious and quickly run to grab her license plates as she drove off. Apparently she had two african american "drivers" and as soon as she slipped into the back seat of the car, a buttload of police blockaded the car and came out with their guns drawn!!!! WOAH. That was fast! They arrested all three and blocked some 2-3 rows of cars from being able to leave the parking lot for at least a couple hours. Now, let’s pray that I don’t leave an evening shift at night one day and have retaliatory "visitors" @_@

1. Use Google to find crap! Here’s a search string that can help you find files with google. Copy paste the following into google, and you’ll find mp3s for "The Fray": {-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(mp3) “fray”} You can change the syntax above to fit your needs. change (mp3) to be any filetype and "fray" to be any word. you can also use | as an "or" . therefore if i did (smc|fig) and "mario" I could probably find super ninteno "mario" emulator files that end in .smc or .fig Pretty nifty 2. I’ve been spending less time chatting or surfing or reading the newspaper because I realized that while they may be useful (being up to date on current news) or useless (surfing wikipedia for example), it still ends up being unproductive because in a month’s time I wouldn’t have remembered doing it at all. So, the last couple months I’ve been studying kanji and learning to play the guitar. Both are going kinda so-so, with the kanji study being a lot more productive than the guitar stuff. I’ve picked up on the Heisig method of learning kanji which has its issues, the biggest of which being that i dont know any on/kun readings. It’s also going to be a pain learning the compound kanji. Still, I can write from memory and know the meaning of nearly some 400 kanji in this short time, and without really trying all that hard. Here’s a list of most of them, if any of you jp people want to test me XD All of them are Jouyou common use kanji, but some of them are obscure. 口日月田目古吾冒朋明唱晶品呂昌早旭世胃旦胆亘凹凸旧自白百中千舌升昇丸寸専博占上下卓朝只貝貞員見児元頁頑凡負万句肌旬勺的首乙乱直具真工左右有賄貢項刀刃切召昭則副別丁町可頂子孔了女好如母貫兄克小少大多夕汐外名石肖硝砕砂削光太器臭妙省厚奇川州順水氷永泉原願泳沼沖江汁潮源活消況河泊湖測土吐圧埼垣圭封涯寺時均火炎煩淡灯畑災灰点照魚漁里黒墨鯉量厘埋同洞胴向尚字守完宣宵安宴寄富貯木林森桂柏枠梢棚杏桐植枯朴村相机本札暦案燥未末沫味妹朱株若草苦寛薄葉模漠墓暮膜苗兆桃眺犬状黙然荻狩猫牛特告先洗介界茶合塔王玉宝珠現狂皇呈全栓理主注柱金銑鉢銅釣針銘鎮道導辻迅造迫逃辺巡車連輸前各格略客額夏処条落冗軍輝運冠夢坑高享塾熟亭京涼景鯨舎周週士吉壮荘売学覚栄書津牧攻敗枚故敬言警計獄訂討訓詔詰詠詩語読調談諾諭式域賊栽載茂成城誠威滅減桟銭浅止歩渉頻肯企歴武賦正証政定錠走超赴越是題

1. Google has a 411. It will also transfer you FREE of charge! Call 1-800-GOOG-411. No joke. I had much fun with it and the automated voice recognition is top notch, as expected from Google. It understood my FAKE HINDU KWIKIE MART ACCENT! 2,Hagen Dazs has Creme Brulee flavored ice cream. Wow. How did I miss that? http://www.haagen-dazs.com/products/product.aspx?id=221 Moreover, there’s a Hagen Dazs store location in Westwood UCLA. HOW DID I MISS THAT? What’s so damn good about creme brulee anyway that makes it 5 bucks an ounce? 3. Leave it to the Japanese to make bitch beer that absolutely kills all alcohol taste. It’s called Chu-hi, and why I hadn’t tried it in my numerous trips there remains a mystery. http://www.mikegerhardt.com/blog/archives/blogpics/chuhai_grapefruit.jpg Here is a quote from the webpage I get when I hit the "I feel Lucky" button on a google search for Chu-hi: "I must admit that this has become the bain of my existence. I love them so much that I honestly would drink them all the time, but the give me such a buzz that I would just live in a state of drunkeness." XD 4. I frequent a lot of deal-of-the-day websites, such as Woot.com — they are pretty good since if a company sells only one thing the entire day, that one thing better be something good or that company is in quite a bit of trouble. Anyway, there are sometimes random bags of crap or mystery bags with random crap in it. Usually stuff they have in their warehouse they need to rid of or if you’re really lucky something that’s really expensive like a Nintendo Wii or 61" LCD TV. Sometimes, as was the case with my bag, it’s a gag prize. I got this useless crap. Ahahaha, it’s so stupid.

Imagine this happening all your life: Me: Hi nice to meet you. My name is Dan Mr.X: Dan? You mean your name is Dan Tran ?? Me: Uh, yeah. It rhymes, I know. Mr.X: HAHA. DAN TRAN THE MAN! Me: Yeah. Uh. that’s me. Mr.X: MWAHAHA DAN TRAN THE *INSERT WORD HERE* MAN!!! Me: ….. -_- At this point Mr. X thinks they’re original. Unbeknownst to him though, I’ve heard this conversation hundreds of times. The interesting thing though is that many times he really is original. I’ve heard everything from the conventional "Dan Tran the Tennis Man" to the unconventional "Dan Tran the Orkin Man" (remember that exterminator commercial from 10 years ago? well thanks to that chant I’ll never forget it). So here it is. Submit your DAN TRAN CHANT. Go to my group: I ♥ DAN TRAN and post it in the group forum! http://ucla.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2258055623 (If you don’t have facebook, just post it here) The winner will win a prize. and bragging rights. XD