tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87787699800421026122009-11-11T07:39:17.750-05:00This blog is about everything that comes to mind and possibly more than that.makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.comBlogger210125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-38422003042391639992009-10-21T22:34:00.005-04:002009-10-21T22:38:00.273-04:002009-10-21T22:38:00.273-04:00

This morning as we're getting ready to leave the house.F1-3: "You're a tree mama!Mama: "Huh?"F1-3: "You're a tree! Brown on the bottom, green on the top."Lo and behold, I was wearing brown pants and a green sweater, indeed in rather earthy hues.So there you go, going green.

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-68932395596407980062009-09-19T08:58:00.005-04:002009-09-19T11:03:25.050-04:002009-09-19T11:03:25.050-04:00

This morning I was inspired by Cuttlefish. I suppose that makes me a hopeless romantic too. Oh well, so be it.I met this guy when I joined a friend at a meeting of her favorite student organization. My divorce had just been finalized, as in: that morning. I wouldn't have noticed him if he had done a hundred cartwheels wearing a worn pink polka dot shirt.Six months later we were at a party

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-21989701570055133212009-08-30T13:14:00.004-04:002009-08-30T15:48:48.903-04:002009-08-30T15:48:48.903-04:00

Graduating definitely has perks.1. I have more free time, I can watch tv, or movies, or read, or hang out with kids, or... whatever.2. I make (a little) more money), I can actually afford Netflix.I've lately started watching some of their instantly available stuff, and it's good fun. I'm not much of a tv watcher. While I don't shy away from the tv, my repertoire is pretty limited to watching

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-34860683257557796012009-08-05T10:04:00.003-04:002009-08-05T10:21:44.647-04:002009-08-05T10:21:44.647-04:00

Did I mention that I love, love, love my job? If I didn't, I should have. I can hardly wait to get to work in the morning, and if it wasn't for the family, I'd have to be chased out at the end of the day.Of, course, when you're not looking for it, you get all these job offers. I already declined a rather attractive job offer. It wasn't an easy decision. The week after I declined that offer, I

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-16226949718114562222009-08-04T19:30:00.002-04:002009-08-04T20:43:14.515-04:002009-08-04T20:43:14.515-04:00

After the judge ruled that F1-1 gets to live with us, his father left. Even though he could have had F1-1 accompany him for the better part of the remaining summer vacation if he had postponed his trip for a couple of weeks. We thought he might even come to negotiate some kind of arrangement, but he hasn't yet. I'm not complaining.A few weeks after his departure, my attorney received notification

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-89286606943074128992009-08-04T19:06:00.003-04:002009-08-04T19:08:36.268-04:002009-08-04T19:08:36.268-04:00

This evening's conversation at the time that F1-3 announces she's done in the bathtub.Makita: Oh! Look at the mess you made. There is water all over the floor and a huge pile of toys. Why did you do that?F1-3. I was doing science and that why it's a mess. I was doing science. This is how you do science.Makita: Oh. Okay.

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-12455666137345517032009-07-14T21:02:00.004-04:002009-07-14T21:33:57.910-04:002009-07-14T21:33:57.910-04:00

I haven't written anything for so long, because my life was focused on the legal battle. That's all I wanted to write about, and of course I couldn't.Now that it's over (well, not quite, but largely), I can finally write. And guess what?The good guys won! That is, F1-1 won. Because really, it wasn't between me and his father. I wasn't trying to accomplish what was best for me, I was trying to

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-52107454052232437022009-06-15T13:44:00.004-04:002009-06-15T23:02:37.762-04:002009-06-15T23:02:37.762-04:00

As some of you may remember, I had to decide whether to change labs and projects at this point. I wrote about that before. I got to read the project proposal and went back and forth a number of times over the weeks. Sometimes closer to staying, other times closer to leaving. If I decided to leave and join the other lab, I had to make myself available for an all-day meeting tomorrow.For the past 2

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-17709457033253546462009-05-10T19:16:00.005-04:002009-05-11T11:29:42.149-04:002009-05-11T11:29:42.149-04:00

This link seemed appropriate for Mother's Day.In recent paper in the journal "Science," a study claimed that there was gender-based differences in standard testing, in layman's terms: boys did better then girls. It's probably better not to get me started on the topic. My rant would last forever. I'm going to let the Feminist Chemists do the talking for me, they are much more articulate than me.

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-77401322668624801822009-05-04T10:18:00.002-04:002009-05-04T10:21:19.857-04:002009-05-04T10:21:19.857-04:00

To bid on your own personal genome. There is one bid right now for the low, low price of $68k, and you still have a few hours to place your bid. You can have your own genome sequenced and the proceeds got towards the X-prize foundation.Click here if you want to place a bid.Now if I could only find my checkbook to write out $70k, I would place a bid in a heartbeat.

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-88578199595881462382009-04-28T10:46:00.004-04:002009-04-28T10:52:03.213-04:002009-04-28T10:52:03.213-04:00

the color of man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyesMore at Playing for Change.

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-89304221828156048982009-04-27T15:07:00.003-04:002009-04-27T15:19:30.342-04:002009-04-27T15:19:30.342-04:00

Ok, the dilemma has arrived. Now that it has, I realize that I was hoping the decision would be made for me by default. But it wasn't meant to be. Help!!A position that I had applied for in another lab has become available. My current position is listed is technically as an hourly-wage position, even though I get paid for 40 hours a week no matter how much time I put in. It doesn't have health

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-60747877179764690622009-04-20T09:55:00.003-04:002009-04-20T09:59:26.914-04:002009-04-20T09:59:26.914-04:00

Here is a really cool video of how an astronaut used candycorn coated with oil on one end and stuck the other end in a floating ball of water. He found the candycorn ball mushy and squishy, until the waterball surface was full at which point it turned solid.

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-86304916115903168682009-04-08T20:59:00.004-04:002009-04-08T22:08:14.129-04:002009-04-08T22:08:14.129-04:00

Tonight I'm in such a good mood! For all intents and purposes I've finished my first project in my new lab as a post-doc. I've never actually had a project that was just finished. There was always something else that had to be done, a slew of experiments that could/should be done. None of that. A few minor holes to be plugged, and I've already done those experiments and sent them off, just

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-76988714822679929062009-03-22T11:19:00.004-04:002009-03-22T12:44:01.500-04:002009-03-22T12:44:01.500-04:00

I only had a little input in F1-1's choice for a science project this year. He is going to do a project on photomorphogenesis. Because I have very little to do with the actual performing of the experiments, you probably shouldn't expect too much advanced biology here, but it's the principle of the matter that counts. He will take some boxes and grown plants with different colors of lights and

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-31814673406360882832009-03-20T11:25:00.001-04:002009-03-20T11:28:09.143-04:002009-03-20T11:28:09.143-04:00

In an update on "talking", if we say to F1-3 "ma-ma-ma," which he is supposed to repeat back to us, he now consistently responds "eh-me-me." This is fantastic progress in two ways. He is actually trying to say "ma-ma," which is not trivial for him to do on command, but he the mimicry is something he has not been capable of before. We're so pleased. Just in time for his 7th birthday too! Woohoo!

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-23890850918286923132009-03-20T11:21:00.002-04:002009-03-20T11:24:16.815-04:002009-03-20T11:24:16.815-04:00

Ok, I know I'm a week behind on this one. Nothing unusual, if you've read my posts from earlier today. Life is crazy. But apparently, science is crazier. From last week's ScienceFriday on NPR. How cool is this?

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-39566549299212158742009-03-20T10:12:00.004-04:002009-03-20T10:17:49.562-04:002009-03-20T10:17:49.562-04:00

The first was sent to us by our lab manager. It's a video. The first part demonstrates how we do science in our lab. Not!The second is called plantingscience.org, and it allows graduate students, post-doc, professor, and other plant scientists to help kids from Kindergarten to high school with science projects involving plants. If you are involved in plant science consider signing up as a mentor

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-41068052447614862972009-03-20T10:01:00.003-04:002009-03-20T10:12:13.296-04:002009-03-20T10:12:13.296-04:00

In the good news department, I'm love being a post-doc. It's really nice to do research and not have to worry about classes and such. More good news: A paper I submitted in December was accepted with some minor modifications. Not half bad. But wait! There's more! I'm submitting another paper today, and hopefully wrapping up the modifications to the first this weekend. And it doesn't stop there

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-53179418193800710152009-02-19T11:32:00.003-05:002009-02-19T23:31:57.302-05:002009-02-19T23:31:57.302-05:00

Question: Ah-ah-ah?Answer: OhIt may seem silly to most people. Even parents. For the past few weeks, if I say to my 6-year old "ah-ah-ah" he consistently looks me in the eye and responds with "oh." That may not seem like much, but for my baby who is a week and a half short of 7 years old, it's huge. It's humongous. It's the closest thing to a miracle I've ever seen.So when his speech therapist

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-54921931806350693492009-01-30T20:19:00.005-05:002009-01-30T23:33:20.829-05:002009-01-30T23:33:20.829-05:00

At the end of my first week in my new lab, I must say... I'm ecstatic. I love it! After having done much more applied than molecular work over the past few years for my PhD, I'm back to more molecular work. And I can't believe how much I've missed it. I've been home from work for about 3 hours now, and I can hardly wait to get back!I still have to finish a couple of papers from my PhD work. I'd

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-43534695902187744692009-01-20T11:39:00.003-05:002009-01-26T22:22:52.174-05:002009-01-26T22:22:52.174-05:00

Has it really been 3 weeks since I last posted? I thought it was a couple of days ago. I guess I'd better get everyone caught up.I've taken a nice break. From (almost) everything. The holidays were relaxed, although it was a bit challenging to entertain 3 kids with ages varying from 3 t0 13. I've had to take care of my plants for the experiment I'm trying to wrap up for publication purposes, and

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-79614559251667944802009-01-05T15:02:00.004-05:002009-01-05T15:13:09.237-05:002009-01-05T15:13:09.237-05:00

Aahhhhh!The break is over. For the first time since, well...., since eh, forever, did I have a real break. No deadlines, nothing to do that would make or break my life. Just getting reacquainted with the husband and the kids. It was good.It was also challenging to keep the kids happy and occupied throughout their vacation. Every day we had to figure out something to do to get the kids out of the

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-80649738516152139672009-01-05T15:00:00.001-05:002009-01-05T15:02:10.901-05:002009-01-05T15:02:10.901-05:00

This is finally demoted from the top of the page. It may very well be the last one with the "dissertation" tag. I can always hope, right?

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8778769980042102612.post-23786176818932257952009-01-01T01:07:00.001-05:002009-01-01T01:08:45.782-05:002009-01-01T01:08:45.782-05:00

(hickup)... New... (hickup) ...Year.. (hickup)!!! All the best for everyone (hickup).

makitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16946226160704777285noreply@blogger.com2