Ceramics Update

Here are some new pictures.  We've been having fun :)

Suzy cleaning the bottom of a bowl she made.

Suzy's 'flower' pot :)

My latest creation.

Why I LOVE my Major

Today in Organic Chemistry we learned about epoxides.  It wasn't that cool.  But for the last half of the class Dr. Savage had us put away our notes and we talked about why OChem is important.  He started talking about 'antimicrobial peptides.'  These proteins are one of the defenses that our bodies use to kill bacteria.

Chemists and biologists are working on synthesizing a new class of molecules called Ceragenins.  These molecules mimic the effects of our bodies' antimicrobial peptides and are capable of killing bacteria.  Upon further research I learned that my professor, Dr. Paul Savage, invented these ceragenins.  He told us in class that it was likely that these antibiotics will available for human trials.

Today I got so excited about biology and chemistry that I just had to blog about it.

I really just love my major!

Book Review: The Happiness Project

I recently finished reading the book 'The Happiness Project' by Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen writes a memoir of the year she spent trying to be happier. I was drawn to this book for a couple of reasons: I am a bit of a self-help junkie and it was sitting right there in the self-help section of the bookstore (one of my favorites!), and the cover was bright blue. I feel that the color of a book speaks volumes about it's content. I know that theory is in direct violation of the old adage, 'don't judge a book by its cover,' but how many people really follow that rule? Regardless of the the reason I picked it up, I am glad that I did. I really loved this book. She's so straightforward in her approach to happiness. I feel that I learned a lot about myself while I read her happiness strategies. She tackled everything from clutter to nagging her husband and exercising more. It was really inspiring to read about the changes she saw in her life.

I think I'd like to do a bit of a happiness project of my own, though maybe nothing quite as extensive as Gretchen's. This feels like a good time to start to me. I have some pretty big things in the year ahead of me. I've made a lot of goals for myself, from running a half marathon to graduating with my bachelor's degree and [hopefully] starting a career. I think being more conscious of the little [and big] things that make me happy, and things I can do to make myself happy has the potential to make a big difference in my life.

Ceramics

Suzy and I decided to take a ceramics class together. It's for people that aren't art majors, so we fit the bill. It's been a really fun excuse to be artsy again, which is something that we both miss. Here is a preview of our mad skills:

My pot :)

Suzy's pot...in case you couldn't guess that based on the color...

My Personal Record

3.5 miles without stopping even once.

I did that today.

It's my new, personal record.