An Epic Ballade of Texas

I had planned on entitling this post "Attending Class" and just talking about some of my classes, but then I started writing about this whole interviewing weekend thing at the end, and it got so long that I had to delete the first part about attending class. So maybe classes will come next week. But for the time being... This weekend and the next are “interview weekends” where the school invites prospective graduate students to campus to decide whether or not to admit them, and to show them what a nice program we have. The current graduate students are asked to help with a variety of tasks. The good things that we get to do are take the kids out to eat at some restaurants (above), paid for by the department; and on the actual interview day we have access to unlimited free coffee, donuts, pastries, cookies, baklava, etc. In fact, that was the only thing I had all day, breakfast lunch and dinner. The not-so-good things that we got to do were to share the duties of picking...

It is interesting that in a town of about 80,000 residents, there should be four separate congregations with the name “ church of Christ ”. I would submit that there are a number of reasons for this phenomenon; the only reason that I will mention here is that Christianity in general, and “ church of Christ ”-ianity in specific, seems more prevalent here in Lawrence Kansas than back in Southern California . While a couple of the aforementioned congregations are rather large, the congregation that I meet with is rather small. I would estimate that average attendance Sunday morning is about 25, otherwise around 15, and apparently the group is quite a bit larger than it was a few years ago. Below is a picture that I took while I was supposed to be giving a speech. It wasn’t the best day to do so because there were quite a few visitors. Nevertheless, you can still see most of the regular attendees. Super extra bonus points for anyone who can guess where I usually sit. I da...

...Back to School I had a delightful time during my four weeks in California , spent with family and friends whom I miss very much. Alas, the days flew by and it was soon time for me to return to school. Here are some statistics about the trip itself, for those interested. Note that both there and back I used the same route, but on the way there I took a number of side-trips. Time there: 53 hours Time back: 23½ hours Total miles there: 1713 Total miles back: 1629 Total cost there: $192.22 Total cost back: $198.74 Spending time with family and friends: priceless I also tried an experiment, buying 87-octane gasoline the whole way there, and 91 or 90 (depending on the state) on the way back. I then checked to see if there was an effect on my gas mileage. On the way there, I calculated a disappointing 20.0 MPG (worse than I usually get in everyday driving) while on the way back I got 22.7 MPG. It is difficult to say whether the difference was solely due to...

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that I am currently safe and sound in sunny Southern California. I arrived Thursday, December 14, at around 8:00 pm. Here are a few scenes from the road: Miles and miles of flat land.... Followed by more miles and miles of flat land... And more flat land... Interrupted by an occasional mound, slope, hill or mountain. The journey lasted a total of fifty-two and one-half hours, including a one day stop in Albuquerque (with a tram ride to the top of Sandia Peak) and a half-day stop at Petrified Forest National Park. "Sunny Brae" Prior to my trip I went to the local AAA office in Lawrence and had them print out a deluxe, detailed map of the exact route I was planning to take. I told the lady that my destination was sunny Brea, California (as it was snowing at the time in Lawrence), and she asked me if the name of the city was "Brea" or "Sunny Brea". I told her that it was Brea, and spelled it out for her. So I get...

Kansas City, MO For those of you who like Adam Norris Trivia, you may be interested to know that this is the second consecutive Thanksgiving that I have spent in the Midwest. This time, however, I did celebrate with family, albeit extended family. Very extended... It was actually a very nice day, spent with second cousins, and the cousins of my second cousins. You may notice a number of familiar faces, including Mr. Boom Bennett. One of the nicest parts was homemade donuts, which held the guests over until mealtime (although it is hard to beat Aunt Sheila's dip). Oklahoma! City After the football games were over, Emery Wright and I were planning a road-trip to Oklahoma City ( OKC ) and Tulsa, but at the last minute he cancelled, then I cancelled, then I re-signed; so I began my solo trip at around 9 pm Thanksgiving day. At around 2 am I reached my first major destination: the Oklahoma City National Memorial , which commemorates the 1995 OKC bombing. Now I ...

(And Elsewhere) Of course it was only a matter of time until I had to write about food, and as it turns out, that matter of time was three months. So I signed up for a KU meal-plan, which gives you a discount when you purchase on-campus meals in bulk. I purchased the cheapest meal-plan, which amounts to about three all-you-care-to-eat meals per week plus a bunch of credits accepted at on-campus food courts. Mrs. E’s is my all-you-care-to-eat location of choice, because (a) it is by far the best one, and (b) it is the most convenient (as demonstrated in Episode II, it takes only five minutes to walk there). Technically the name of the place is Ekdahl Dining Commons, but I suppose the marketing directors decided that name does not sound particularly appetizing. And they are right. Thus it is called Mrs. E’s, which, although no one has actually seen Mrs. E, we figure the name must stand for “Mrs. Enormous”. The online advertisement for Mrs. E’s boasts a “stunning” view,...

I suppose it is just about time that I post about something “important” and “career-related”, so here we go: The biggest part of a biology PhD program is research, and as of a few weeks ago, I am officially enrolled in laboratory rotations. Basically, lab rotations consist of the student working in three different labs, with a period of about two months spent in each lab. At the end of the last rotation, you decide which lab you want to continue in. For your edification, I have provided a brief description of each of the labs that I will be rotating through. Chris Gamblin runs the lab that I am currently working in. He studies a protein called tau that is thought to be important in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. He has lots of spending money (so I hear) and employs a rather large staff, with a post-doc, two technicians, a graduate student and an undergraduate student. He also listens to completely random music in lab. Erik Lundquist heads up the lab for my second r...