Finishing up fall semester

My first semester of univeresity was a lot of fun. I only took three classes, but those classes were a lot: intro to quantum mechanics (general chemistry??), introductory proofs, and Spanish composition. My professors this past semester were fantastic. If this is what all my classes will be like, then I’m absolutely jazzed to be here.

Back at it again in the lab

The lab’s first paper is published in Cell! It’s really cool work, and I’m thankful to have been a part of this team. There’s also a supplemental movies playlist that is absolutely worth checking out. Very visually striking!

Current experiments in the lab are promising as well. 117 things left to test in this batch of microscope work.

Completely blew through the free 300 MB of library space that zotero includes. Didn’t realize I would run out so fast! Had to migrate papers to a different set of folders to avoid sync issues.

Learning python

Learning to use python for data science. Working with Anaconda and jupyter notebooks, since that allows me to save outputs and mess around with small parts of the code. Also learning to handle machine learning and modeling via scikit-learn.

Starting up a D&D group

Some of my friends and I are trying to put together a D&D game this semester. Hoping it works. We’re using a a house-ruled version of 24XX for this, and I’m very excited. We’re gonna make some weird stuff.

Catching up on reading

I have not been reading nearly enough. Since I have time right now, I’m focusing a lot on sitting down for an hour or so each day to work through my to-read list. It’s a nice way to decompress before going to bed, and it forces me to slow down for a little bit during the day.

Things I needed to encounter

• “Theory can only take you so far” as a response to everything in chemistry class. Most of my classmates were engineers or applied math/physics majors, so this kinda makes sense.
• Puzzmo. I’ve been doing the puzzles almost daily, and it’s a neat 10-minute diversion. Lots of word games.
• Interview with a VIM enthusiast. Inspired me to learn VIM “ironically” and then genuinely. Now I can only write if something has VIM keybindings in it.
• “Still Alive” Frank Sinatra style by the 8-Bit Big Band. Need I say more?