Syposium

Tomorrow is my last day with the program...I'm kinda sad to see it go, but then again, I had lots of fun and learned a lot. The symposium was today and I did, okay I guess. Briana and I presented together (first, I might add), but I actually spoke first. My parents said that I didn't say 'um' at all, but that I seemed nervous. In reality, I was excited, nervous, anxious, and tired all at the same time. I was really stoked to use the laser pointer. My grandmother and grandfather both came, along with my godmother, Elaine (my mom, dad, and brother were there of course). I learned a lot tonight from the presentations. We also got our certificates and notebooks (I, again, was first). I cannot believe the program is really over...

Mock

Today was the mock presentation and it went okay. Except for the fact that we had to format our disc...then lost the presentation. Luckily, Briana had the e-mail of an earlier form of the presentation, so we made the necessary changes. The presentation is about 9 minutes long...not bad, huh?

Finished!

I'm so happy! Briana and I finished all the revisions that our mentors had for the powerpoint. Then we got to leave early. I can't believe that the presentation is in 2 days.

Last Monday

I cannot believe that today is the last Monday of the program. Six weeks went by so fast. I am very happy. Briana and I finished our powerpoint and one of the obligations I had been stressing about didn't exist: I thought we had to have a separate website and I had spent a lot of time on that. I didn't realize that this blogger was the website. Dumb, I know.

Last Real Day

Today was actually the last real day of the program. Next week is devoted to preparing for the symposium. Today, we had our last computer workshop and GCRC lecture series. We also got our safety goggles as well (go figure...).

Under Stress and LC/MS

Gosh! I have sooo much to do. I have to finish my powerpoint and my website (still not sure how that whole website thing is going to work out, but oh well). Today with Dr. Clarke we're doing LC/MS and microsomal incubations. The HPLC results for Cheese and I came out great, Rick and AliBabwah weren't as lucky. We have to re-do the experiment, just for their sake, but it doesn't matter because now I know I can actually do a good experiment.

As we go on...we remember...

I cannot believe that today is our last day with Dr. Harp. I might actually cry, seriously. We, uh, celebrated by doing CHEMICAL BINDING in Dr. Childers' lab, the hottest lab on campus. When we got back, we did some data interpretation with Excel and we also discussed information in the Dogwood Conference Room.

Protein and Pizza

Today I had pizza, again. This eating in the 'blue room' (lol) is getting old, but I've learned to deal with it (by adding a salad). After Dr. Clarke explained once more, we got started! Cheese and I actually finished our timed experiments, unlike other people.

Almost over...

Today I worked with Dr. Clarke. We did calculations in Excel to know what we would be doing: timed microsomal incubations. We didn't actually get around to starting, but we will be ready for tommorrow. We also had a meeting with Dr. Lambros. I was very confused, but whatever. I can't believe the program's almost over.

Problems with Technology

This morning when I came into the computer lab, I tried to put my floppy into the drive. All well in theory, except for the fact that my CPU didn't have a disc drive. My disc fell through the drive and was stuck in there for about 10 minutes. I got it out eventually, but it was still weird.

Preparing for the Future

Yesterday, after lunch, Cheese and I made buffer stock and solutions for later use. What were these solutions to be used for? Preserving the organs of the rat that we would be killing. I picked up the rat, who we dubbed Frankie, by the tail and then put him in the ether chamber. Then I picked him up by the nape of his neck and placed his head in the guillotine. Dr. Harp actually killed Frankie, but I put the body in the red bag. I was suprised that no one else wanted to do anything with Frankie, especially by Rick. After Dr. Harp demonstrated how to slice the brain, I did some slicing. It wasn't as gross as I thought it would be, and actually it will be a lesson that I will be happy I learned because I want to be a surgeon.

Check It Once, Check It Twice

Today we'll be checking and double checking our compounds to be sure that they're pure. This morning when I came in, I noticed that our compound had solidified on the outside of the vial, so we had to scrape what we could back into the vial (not a fun process). After we rotovaped our solutions, we spent some time in the computer lab working on our various projects. Dr. Harp informed us that we will be interpreting some chemical binding notes that she has. It sounds hard, but I'm sure it won't be that bad.

Hope Springs Eternal

Today we took NMRs at Wake Forest University with Dr. Harp. Cheese and I had two samples, in which the solvent was chloroform. Rick and AliBabwah only had one sample. Apparently, we all had additional ether and other substances in the samples. Now we have to run them again. After we finished the NMR, Dr. Harp allowed us to take lunch. When we got back, we were given a lesson/lecture about NMR. I hope that the next time we do this NMR, my compound is 100% pure (I said hope didn't I?).

Utter Disbelief

The program is almost over, I am in total disbelief. Today with Dr. Harp, Cheese and I are continuing to work on our Convergent Synthesis. We finished our alkylation and purified it [before Rick and Alejandro (there's a first time for everything, really)]. We prepared our samples for the NMR we'll be doing tomorrow at Wake at 2:00. I washed so many dishes and made so many solutions today...but I cannot wait until tomorrow.