The Joy of a Functioning Computer

It's been a long while since my beloved little Powerbook did all the things it's supposed to. Now that it is New and Happy, I can post pictures! and print things! and use iTunes! and all kinds of things! WOW!

So here's the tattoo:



And no, I have no idea why the second image keeps showing up flipped on its side. I am giving up on that particular problem for the moment.

Perhaps it is a sign of feeling pretty good in general, but I actually ordered yarn for a project - this one from Knitty. Even using mostly the called-for yarn, even though I have another color in the stash that would do just dandily, I'm sure. Um, actually, if I think about it for more than around ten seconds, I have precisely the required gauge in multiple materials in enough quantities to make a closetful of different versions of this. Ahem. We will gloss over that.

I handed in my first lab report for bio this week. I felt compelled to do a full proper write-up, avec "procedure" utilizee et tout la. Almost certainly overkill, as it far exceeds what the TF asked for. The main value in the entire exercise was 1) acquainting myself with modern lab equipment (whee!), and 2) forcing me to fiddle with MSExcel and Word in ways I have hitherto avoided. So hoorah for that. I continue to be an anomaly in that I enjoy playing in lab. Also lecture this week went into transmembrane proteins - hurray! my favorite! and gated channels and an overview of all that. Neurons were mentioned! So I was a happy camper. My classmates from neuro were less thrilled, and frankly Liz no not excited at all to see internal and external ionic concentrations for Na+ and K+ coming up again. I was gleeful in a solitary manner. Sigh. I will be obnoxiously delighted when we study neurons again in more detail next semester (yes! we will be! is that not the greatest thing ever?!)

Our next lab is coming up really soon - week after next - so I'll be able to spend some time at Javaroom again then. Yay! I must collect an ant on which to do DNA extraction exercise of some kind. I have a kitchen-table version of a DNA extraction experiment from MAKE to play with, too, which I'll get around to sooner or later.

Now that my computer is healthy, I've also downloaded bits to install and play with Polyworld, which should be interesting. I'll need to do a bit of hackery to get my machine happy to deal with the compiled code files, but it should be doable, chiefly because extremely detailed instructions are posted on the web. I need detailed instructions for such things. Then the real fun begins, mwah ha ha.

I can not remember who of probably one of you reading this recommended "Run Lola Run," but whoever it was, THANK YOU. Netflix delivered it the other day and I watched most of it last night, and whoa. What a cool movie.

On the subject of Culture, I'm going to the opera tonight - a "concert" staging (i.e., not staged at all) of Cosi fan Tutti. Which I've no doubt misspelled. Should be a good time. Mozart good.

Rhinebeck approaches!
The fall leaves are turning!
Oldest child is getting her college applications done!
Also I think we've managed to get the required National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist forms sent in to see if she gets to be a Finalist. This forced me to sit down and generate a transcript for her, which was good and now it's done, yay.

Later, all.