Brrrrraaaaiiiinnnnssssss

I’m finally all graduated and stuff, at least for now.  I have a master of science in Biostatistics, and in the fall I get to start all over and continue towards my PhD, this time in bioinformatics.

Meanwhile, I’m working full-time in my lab.  I like my lab a lot, which I why I chose to forgo the mandatory lab rotations and just stay where I am.  I told Dr. Chuck (my advisor) that I wanted to do more wet lab stuff over the summer in addition to all the computational/statistical stuff I do, to which he agreed.  So, my first project this week has been rat perfusion and brain extraction, which has been…challenging.  The idea, in short, is some of these rats have nice metabolic features and we wanna know why.  The hypothalamus regulates things like how hungry you are and other metabolism related things, so we wanna look at them and see if there’s anything interesting in there.  To look at them we have to take the brains out.  Obviously, since I watch Animal Planet all day and sometimes almost cry at the most mildly graphic pet abuse, killing, flaying and removing the brains of these rats is hard.  I know I shouldn’t, but I even pet them and talk to them while they go under so that the last thing they remember isn’t some bitch sticking them in the stomach and putting them in a box to die.  

 Other than work, I’ve been doing pretty well at my new exercise regimen.  I pretty much let myself turn into a blob during the semester so I’m trying to get back in shape and make a good routine that I can maintain next semester.  Bryan made up a weight training program for me because he knows a lot about muscles and stuff, and I only know about bein’ cute an’ lookin’ purty.