Alli and Jeanne: 4

I'm so sleepy! This is what I get for leaving stuff to the last minute and end up spending yesterday night finishing it up. I was supposed to wake up early this morning to study, but failed to do so. Woke up and stared at the ceiling for several seconds before knocking myself unconscious again. Need to force self to wake up earlier. Horrible will power I have.

Alli and Jeanne: 3

Oh dear...we need to take Jeanne to either a Sharks game or an Earthquake game. 


The first pouring rain of the season came today to the Bay Area. This is rather depressing since why couldn't it have rained yesterday when I was sitting at home, but it has to rain today, meaning I feel so lazy to drive back to Stockton. Also it means that Stockton would probably be gloomy and rainy and gray...and no offense to Stockton, but I would take gloomy, pouring rain San Jose over gloomy pouring rain Stockton any day. 

Alli and Jeanne: 2

...Because it's rather disturbing to be sharing saliva with more than one person at one time...

Alli and Jeanne: 1

To try and keep my sanity while in school, I'm going to create...drum roll...a comic strip. And I'm gonna call it Alli and Jeanne...for reasons that are obvious to those that know me. So this is the first one. Let's see how long this lasts. =]

Stories From Microbio: Gruinard Island

Bacillus anthracis @lanl.gov

We're learning about pathogens in microbiology right now and we looked specifically at genus that forms spores: Bacillus and Clostridium. The most well-known specie of Bacillus is Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax. Spores are very resistant forms of microbes that can stay dormant for a long time without the need of nutrients, energy, or anything else that is required for living organisms. In fact, usually cattle that are infected with the pathogen are incinerated to prevent the spores from remaining in the soil.

Bacillus anthracis spore @ cdc.gov

My microbio professor told us the story of Gruinard Island, located off the coast of northwestern Scotland. During WWII, the British did biological warfare tests on that tiny island. Sheep were put on the island, along with some Bacillus anthracis. Naturally, the sheep all died. And well...the researchers were left with an island infested with a deadly pathogen that forms spores and doesn't die, but live basically forever in the soil. So what did they do during that time? They quarantined the island and prohibited anyone from going there. 

In the 80s, environmental protest groups forced the British government to take responsibility and clean up the island. The protest group got soil samples from Gruinard and threatened to release the samples to the public if the government continue to leave the island contaminated. The government quickly began their clean up of Gruinard. They poured lime in the soil, remove the most hazard portions, and poured formalin into the waters that surround the island. 

Gruinard Island@lonely-isles.com

There are three types of anthrax: cutaneous, gastrointestinal (GI), and pulmonary (inhalation). Cutaneous, though looks the worse, is the one that is more easily treated relative to gastrointestinal and pulmonary. Cutaneous anthrax causes eschars, which are black legions on the skin (it looks like a huge black scab). Cutaneous type is usually not fatal, unless the pathogen gets through the skin and into the blood. GI and pulmonary types have high fatality and characteristic symptoms include dysentery and hemorrhaging, respectively. Personally, I see Gruinard Island as an Azkaban-like place from Harry Potter...it's easier for me to remember things if I connect it to something else. It seemed like something wizards would try to do to prevent Muggles from accidentally coming upon the island. Not to mention blogging this really helps me study for microbio =]

San Francisco Adventure

Last weekend, my family and I went to San Francisco. I only needed to go to the de Young Museum to do my art review for art history class, however, I figured we might as well go to the Hagiwara Tea Garden while we were at it since the Japanese garden is right next door to the de Young. I really wanted to see the Post-Impressionist Exhibition that the de Young was having. From now until January, the de Young is showing the Impressionism collection that is on loan from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, France. The de Young is the ONLY museum in North America to exhibit this collection and when January comes, the paintings of Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, and many other Post-Impressionist artists will be going back to Paris, where they will probably remain forever, without leaving as a large group again.
However, that Saturday that I went to San Francisco also coincided with Fleet Week! So I opted for Fleet Week instead of the Post-Impressionism exhibition since I still have December to go see the exhibition, while Fleet Week is just for the weekend (well...of this year, anyways =]
I must point out, traffic in San Francisco is terribly on regular days, but during the time when the city hosts Fleet Week...well, traffic is insane. I spent half an hour on the same street and, from my GPS, only drove 3/4 of a mile. Walkers beat us!
So, on the way to Golden Gate Park, I saw a poster on the back of the bus and I made my sister take a picture of it. Many of you will appreciate the humor.

Yup...be proud. Hilarious. =] When I saw it, I thought of Ariel* and our midnight conversations to distract us from the grueling world of chemistry/physics/biology.











We didn't actually get to do down to the Marina to see the Blue Angels fly since as I've said, traffic was insane-bumper to bumper insane. And I wasn't too enthusiastic about parking (or lack of) either. So I just drove around aimlessly. Many other drivers were driving around aimlessly as well. I saw this one car with its emergency lights on and as we passed it, we found that the driver was gone. So I'm guessing soooomeone decided to ditch his car, engine running, doors open, to go and take snapshots. The most amusing and probably most efficient and cleverest as well were the people on their roof. Best. Front. Seats. Ever.

No traffic.
Top view.
Close up.
BBQ!












And of course, thanks to my darling sister, we got some awesome shots of the Blue Angels flying across the amazingly clear blue sky.

The view is amazing! The hill I was driving up...x.x not so.

WHEEEEEEE!

Crossing Tip #11: Navigator systems don't find a way to avoid traffic...fathers with a map find a way to avoid traffic.