11 things...

I know, I know. Blogger memes. Ridiculous. But I just couldn't help but do this. Feels like myspace. Mmmm nostalgia.

1. I've never been to the hospital. Never broken a bone. Never gotten stitches. (Knock on wood!)

2. I lived in Arizona when I was really little. It's probably just nostalgia, but I miss it all the time. I remember the wildlife (scorpions, tarantulas, javelinas, coyotes), the cactus, the sunsets...yep, I could definitely see myself living there again.

3. Milk Duds are my favorite candy, followed closely by Sour Patch Kids. In high school, one of my teachers sold candy in his class as a fundraiser for a yearly school trip to Europe. Every day before class I would buy a box of Milk Duds. If you sent in 12 proof-of-purchases from the Milk Duds you got a free movie ticket. By the end of the year I had six free movie tickets. Yep. I like Milk Duds.

4. My first car was a 1980 Audi 5000 that I called "The Boat." I loved that goofy car - such a stereotypical teenager car. It was constantly dying and I'd have to get a jump from friendly strangers. The battery was in the backseat, making the process super hilarious/awkward. "Umm, no, you need to pull around behind...the battery is in the back seat."

5. Once I get sleepy, I cannot stay awake. I have fallen asleep in class, standing up, in a crowded bar, at a Megadeath concert, while driving, and even while pipetting at work. I'm pretty sure I have excessive daytime sleepiness.

6. I definitely don't consider myself a picky eater, but I do have weird/specific things I don't like. Like ground beef. It's okay in tacos, but totally totally gross in lasagna, meat sauce, on pizza (ew, why??), chef boyardee, and worst of all...sloppy joes. Gaaaaaag.

7. I'm not incredibly short (5'3"), but I have freakishly short legs. They are significantly shorter than my mom's legs, and I'm taller than she is. For Christmas I got a pair of "cropped" length jeans...I had to get about two inches hemmed off them.

8. When I was little I really thought I could fly. I had dreams where I could fly, but I thought they were real. In my dreams I couldn't control when I could fly, it would just randomly happen. I kept telling people I could fly, but I couldn't prove it because I didn't have control over it.

9. I absolutely cannot stand bitting into cold fruit. Cold strawberries are the worst. Or popsicles. Makes me shutter just to think about. Uggghhhh.

10. I'm part hispanic, but most people tend to think I'm Jewish.

11. I met Jimmy Carter on an airplane. I was sitting next to a marine. When Jimmy Carter got on the plane he shook the marines hand, and then he shook mine too!

11 Questions (some from Sometime Sweet, some by me)

1. What's the last concert you went to?
Ensiferum and Children of Bodom. Good stuff.

2. You are stranded on a desert island with a food replicator. The replicator can only make three meals/types of food for the rest of your life. What food would you pick?
Bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, cheese enchiladas, and creme brulee (very healthy).

3. What is the blog you've started following recently?
I am totally crushing over the blog Virginie's Cinema. Her style is perfect. Major girl crush!

4. What's your all-time favorite TV show?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

5. What is your all time favorite book?
The Count of Monte Cristo.

6. What is your favorite movie?
Probably Little Women (the Winona Rider and Claire Danes version). Don't know what it is but I just love that movie. Princess Bride and Amelie are pretty damn good too.

7. What part of the world would you most like to visit?
Recently I've been dying to go to Finland. That country just seems to have its shit together. Great schools, great healthcare, 180,000 lakes! And they have so much metal!

8. What's the best youtube video you've seen recently?
I know this isn't a new one, but I had to watch this Fancy Feast video again today. In other news, watching videos not just about cats, but videos that are actually commercials for cat food, brings my crazy cat lady syndrome up to a whole new level.

9. If you could live in any time period, when would it be?
I would live right now (is that boring?) I think the 21st century is pretty awesome. The internet, antibiotics, technology....it's good stuff!

10. If you had to wear one color forever, what would it be?
Black! Without a doubt. I have a hard time not wearing black everyday.

11. Onion rings or tater tots?
Tater tots!

If you want to do this to (ie you are bored) just post a pic of yourself, 11 random facts, and then answer 11 questions (either these ones or ones you make up yourself).

Leap! (subtitle: I heart jumping pictures)

Hope you are enjoying this bonus day and doing lots of leaping! 

So I got my hair cut...

Yay! I have been dying to get my hair cut since...well, pretty much since the last time I got it cut over Thanksgiving. This cut is so much better, and it makes my hair look so much curlier! Magic. 

By the time I got home it was already dark outside, but I wanted to take some quick pictures of my fancy hair. Since the flash on my camera isn't the greatest I experimented using the flash I have for my Holga. It's a stand-alone flash that comes in different colors. I think the result are pretty awesome. Don't know how well it would really work for outfit photos, but for something silly like "look at my hair!" I think it worked out pretty well.

Ramblings

Sorry to get all whiny here, but if you can't whine on your own blog then what's the point right?

A pharmer's clothes: February 21, 2012

First things first: I love how these pictures came out! Little camera still has it, w00t. These were taken on the backside of the Lincoln Memorial - the light there is amazing! Apparently, I am not the only one aware of this fact...there was another woman there with her photog beau, and she was definitely a fashion blogger too. Except she was all decked out in fancy dress + heels and had a real camera. Awkwaaaaaard. 

Whatevs. She may have had a DLSR and designer threads, but I have this awesome silk dress from Urban Outfitters that I scored for $10, complete with cut-out back. Also, I have velvet loafers. What could possibly be better than that??

(( dress: Yellow is Gold via UO / shirt & tights: Target / shoes: Zara / necklace: Made with Molecules ))

It's not super noticeable, but I re-dyed my hair this weekend. I was supposed to get it cut on Friday, but ended up missing my appointment (the never ending headache of car troubles, blah...) To compensate I decide to dye it purple. I bleached it first, which was weird...this is my second time bleaching it at home. I'm definitely still learning. Parts of it turned out pretty blonde, but other parts turned out extra pink! My hair was pink before, so it's not that surprising, but still weird. Pink + bleach = hot pink? Weird. Then I dyed it purple, which came out super dark. I'm really excited for it to fade a bit because right now it is pretty subtle. This is the darkest my hair has been in a long time though, and it's kind of nice! Darkness. Raaahhh.

(That last part was in a growly metal voice, if you couldn't tell...)

So I know this post was totally photo overload, but I really love how these pictures came out! This last set is my favorite - I love that you can see Jason's shadow in the corner, kneeling to get a good angle and pretty much just being the best sport in the world about my ridiculous hobbies, like blogging. 


I love him  :)

Sunday table: chile & mint lima bean soup

Whew, what a crazy week I had! My seminar was on Tuesday - I was infinitely stressed out about it, but all things considered it went pretty well. I didn't have the quality/quantity of data that I would have liked, but there was nothing to be done about it on such a short time scale. I felt that I spoke well and it was definitely the most confident I've ever felt during public speaking. So I'd say that's a win, yeah? Jason had a really crummy and stressful week at work too. Needless to say, both of us were looking forward to this long weekend.

On Friday night we went out to sushi and then saw The Phantom Menace in 3D. I'd never seen it before! Crazy considering that I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan. I guess the overwhelmingly negative reviews scared me off. But honestly I didn't think it was that bad! Maybe because I went in with the lowest expectations possible. Honestly though I thought it was just as good (or just as bad...) as the other two new movies. On Saturday we ran some errands and made some delicious chile and mint lima bean soup. Being that we have both been so busy, it has literally been weeks since we've made anything more ambitious than pasta and frozen veggies for dinner. Spending an afternoon in the kitchen together making a warm, hearty meal was exactly was my stress-ravaged soul needed. The soup came out really well, so I thought I'd share it with you all.

We followed this recipe from 101 Cookbooks (which is my new fav cooking website. It has tons of great vegetarian recipes!). As I said, it came out amazingly. It was a moderate amount of work, but not too much for a lazy Saturday afternoon. Plus, now we have tons of left overs. We each had two big bowls and we hardly put a dent in it! Lunch for the rest of the week, woo hoo! Cooking the lima beans in veggie broth really gave the soup a lot of hardiness. Ever since Jason has switched to being a vegetarian I've had a hard time making really good vegetarian soups - everything always seemed to be missing that savory body that meat gives. But this soup was delicious! I didn't miss meat at all. And adding mint and cilantro at the end added such a nice freshness. We served it with a few slices of toasted, crusty bread. Yum!!

The recipe calls for fava beans, but we couldn't find any, so we used lima beans. Our chile sauce topping didn't come out very saucy either - I would recommend cutting the chiles very fine, as we cut ours into confetti-like strips and they just wouldn't absorb much liquid. We used pasilla chiles and I was surprised at how sweet the topping was; it was almost like raisins! To tone down the sweetness, next time I would add a chopped up chipotle pepper to the sauce for a bit of spice and a little smokiness. But all in all I would say the recipe was fabulous. We will definitely be making this one again!

A pharmer's clothes: February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I will admit it, I totally love the sappiness of Valentine's Day. Any excuse to A) hang out with the person you love, possibly over yummy dinner or B) eat chocolate without regrets is a win in my book! Sadly, Jason and I aren't celebrating today; he has class until late and I have to tutor. We are celebrating this weekend instead, when we will also celebrate my seminar being over! OMG YES SO SOON!!! I present at 4pm today and I am pretty nervous, but mostly just excited to be done with it. I think excitement trumps nerves today. Score!

(( top: Jason Wu for Target / shorts: Urban Outfitters / shoes: Seychelles / Purse: Target ))

These pictures are a bit of a fail. Poor little point and shoot camera. It really does not like reds - they always come out so over-saturated! And then these pictures were taking on an overcast day, and my camera is also not a fan of low light, hence the blurriness. But you've gotta work with what you got, right? I don't even mind the blurriness too much. I mean, who doesn't love blurry pictures where it looks like your hand has disappeared? Good stuff.

Science Sunday: Ketamine and depression

I am incredibly lucky to have a family that not only supports my decision to get my PhD (at a university across the country), but takes an active interest in my research! Especially my step-dad, who is constantly asking me if I know of such-and-such study that he heard about. This week he told me about a report that he heard on NPR about glutamate receptors, which is what I study (although different ones than what are in the report). I thought this would be a good opportunity to finally talk a little more about my research here on the ol' blog, but after I read the report I couldn't not talk about it instead!

In a nutshell, the story highlights research examining the use of ketamine to treat depression. Yep, you read that right...scientists are using Special K as a depression treatment (if you have the time, I fully recommend heading over to NPR's website and reading the article real quick). Basically, a small study in 2006 found that depressed patients treated with ketamine felt better after one day.  Think about that for a minute...current antidepressants take weeks to months before effects are seen, and they are generally less effective in seriously depressed patients. Ketamine, on the other hand, seems to help chronically depressed patients, with results that can be seen within hours and persist for up to a week after a single dose. Completely astounding. This quote from the NPR article really sums it up perfectly:

As mentioned in the NPR article, ketamine changes the signaling of glutamate in the brain. When talking about depression, everyone is used to hearing about the neurotransmitter serotonin (heck, I even have a serotonin tattoo for "happiness"). Most antidepressants on the market (Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, to name a few) work by increasing the amount of serotonin available to neurons. One of the huge limitations of these drugs is that they take weeks to work. One of the theories to explain this therapeutic lag is that increasing serotonin is making a change that is far upstream of what is actually causing the depression. On the other hand, glutamate plays an obvious role in depression, partially because glutamate is the most prevalent neurotransmitter in your brain and as such is critically involved in many neurological functions.

To understand how how regulating glutamate signaling can affect depression, first we need to understand what is happening on a neuronal level. Neurons communicate to one another by releasing chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. Once a neurotransmitter is released from a neuron it is received by a neighboring neuron via a dendritic spine: an outgrowth of a neuron that acts as a focal point for incoming neurotransmitter messages, sort of like an antenna. The number of and shape of spines is indicative of the health of a neuron. During bouts of stress or depression, the number and shape of spines changes in a number of important areas of the brain.

Wikimedia commons

It has been known for years that ketamine inhibits a type of glutamate receptor called NMDA receptor. Blocking glutamate neurotransmission has many effects on neurons, one of which is activation of proteins that regulates cell growth. Specifically, a recent paper in Science showed that ketamine rapidly activates the pro-growth protein mTOR. Once activated, mTOR increases the number of spines a neuron has (and more spines means stronger, happier neurons). In rats, co-administering ketamine with a drug that blocks mTOR prevents this increase in number of spines and blocks ketamine's anti-depressive effect. Thus, the evidence is strong that ketamine reverses the loss of spines due to depression by activating mTOR.

Well, so what? If ketamine is some sort of depression-fighting wonder drug why should we care how exactly it works? The reason is because ketamine is a drug of abuse - it is addictive and can be very dangerous if taken in large doses. If we understand how ketamine fights depression, we can try to design a drug that does the same thing (activates mTOR and increases the number of spines) but doesn't have the negative psychotic effects. And that, my friends, is why pharmacology is so damn cool. The better we understand the body, the more likely we are to make medicines that effectively and safely treat disease.

Scienced!

A pharmer's clothes: February 10, 2012

Greetings! Long time no see, huh? I've been working my bum off getting ready for my seminar on Tuesday, so I took a bit of a break from blogging. Real life, ya know?

So a lot has happened this past week! First off, I didn't get to make it to Target for Jason Wu. Sad times. I was able to order a lot of good stuff online, but I missed out on the store-only items (read: cat scarf). The reason I missed it is because my car got side swiped on Saturday night while I was at work. That's right, I spent my Saturday night working, and then panicking/raging/crying about my car. The good news is it isn't totaled and insurance is covering it. But on Saturday night I was one unhappy camper.

On a lighter note, I was featured in the Washington Post Style blog yesterday!! It's a piece about changing the public perception of science. They found me via a tumblr blog called This Is What A Scientist Looks Like, where scientists submit pictures of themselves to try and show that we aren't all old dudes with crazy hair (like this guy). I'm so stoked to be featured in the article! (right next to a picture of the president, nbd). After some internal debate, I decided to share the article on facebook. I was worried about broadcasting my blog to all of my friends and family, but everyone was so nice!! Just goes to show that so many of the little things you worry about turn out to be no big deal after all.

 

(( dress: Anthropologie / tights: We Love Colors / shoes: Steve Madden / glasses; Warby Parker ))

I wanted to take pictures outside today to celebrate the fact that I actually got dressed for the first time in two weeks. But then things at school lasted longer than I anticipated - we were interviewing potential new students today. I must say that I kind of like these interview days! It's fun to meet the potential newbies. But then things went long, and I still had some stuff to finish up in lab, so I was there past sundown. I decided to take the pictures inside using a flash, and I actually really like how they came out! Plus, when you use a flash you can do all sorts of fun/silly things like so:

Quality jumping pictures totally justifying looking washed out, imo.

Happy Friday, by the way!! Any fun plans for the weekend? I am beyond excited for my seminar to be over and then I can be free, free at last!! Just one...more...weekend. Oof!

Jason Wu for Target = obsessed.

I might be a wee too excited for the Jason Wu for Target line. I am already planning on getting to Target at least half an hour before it opens on Sunday. I know this makes me look cuckoo bananas, but some of the pieces look amazing. I'm not one for intense shopping, but I think I can see myself fighting a chick for a cat print scarf.

(Oh god, that's insane on so many levels....)

Since I am expecting Target to be psycho come Sunday morning, I had to make a list of priorities. These are the items that I'm hoping to get my hands on:

 And if I can manage it, I wouldn't mind picking up a few of these things too...

Love it so much. Are you heading to brave the madness this weekend? Trying your luck online? Think I'm weird and vapid for blogging about this?

Moving on....in other news, I wore my hair in milkmaid braids this week (was I subconsciously inspired by this lookbook?? Who knows) Anyway, if you wanted to get teased beyond belief, wear milkmaid braids to school. My boss laughed at me multiple times, said my hair looked like something from the 1800s, and then came back in later to look at my hair again. Le sigh.