Mini Hiatus

So I will be on somewhat of a video hiatus. It's not voluntary at all. I'm rather upset to have to take a break, I had so many vids lined up and ready for editing and posting. Unfortunately, I had a co-worker spill soup onto my laptop, which contains all my footage. And even if I had my video footage elsewhere, my desktop computer does not have the proper specs or software to complete any of my projects anyway.

It's pretty bad. I brought my computer home to remove the hard drive. I was hoping to prevent further corrosion from the salts in the soup by removing it. When I took the computer apart, I found soup in my touch pad, my keyboard, and on the motherboard. Not only that, I found a lovely patch of burnt motherboard. Not to mention the soup had soaked all the way from the top of my computer down to where the RAM is housed... not a good sight. I managed to remove the hard drive, which has some dried soup on it. My hubby works at Best Buy, so he's supposed to help me extract everything that's on my hard drive. Fortunately, I keep my research data backed up regularly. The problem will be my pictures, videos, and music. There isn't enough space on my external HD for all that.

Anyhow, wish me luck. So far Geek Squad, my dad, and my computer tech Father-in-law all say it's pretty hopeless. I have no choice but to purchase a replacement. That computer retailed for $1900 when I bought it...ouch... I wasn't expecting to buy a new one for 5-6 years.

Man, today really sucked. I only accomplished 1/3 of the research I intended to, and now I can't order primers to fix my problems because I don't have access to my data. Then, of course, there's the laptop issue. In top of that, I came home seeking comfort food, so I pulled out and English Toffee Ice cream bar only to find that the ice cream had melted and re-froze at the bottom of the package, so when I bit into the bar, all I got was the chocolate shell. After I sucked the ice cream from the wrapper, I got a new one, cuz I felt I deserved a decent ice cream bar after today, and the wrapper got stuck to the side, so as I ate it, I had to pull the paper out of my mouth... Augh! What a day. Hope yours was better. Please have patience while I go on video hiatus...

My Grandma

In exactly one week (July 4th), the entire United States will celebrate its 233rd anniversary of declaring independence. Since most of my family lives in the US, we'll be celebrating this as well. However, we'll also be celebrating something more important to us, the 89th birthday of my grandmother (on my mom's side).

She's the only grandparent I've ever known because all the other 3 died before I was even born. Not only that, she was there to watch me be born and even to help raise me. To this day, I find it a treat to eat ramen noodles for breakfast. Odd I know, but every morning, my grandma would wake up early and make ramen noodles on the stove for me. Then she'd pack it into a tupperware, and I'd take it to school with me. I always got to school really early because my dad was a teacher (at another school that opened earlier) and had to drop me off at school before it officially opened. So I had the school to myself for 2 hours every morning. I'd arrive at school and the janitors would let me into the cafeteria. Then I would take out my packed ramen noodles and enjoy every bite.

I also remember how much she loved to play cards, especially solitaire or go fish. We'd play go fish together for hours. Unfortunately, her arthritis makes holding cards rather difficult know, but she likes to play sungka now, which is a filipino strategy game (more info here). Her arthritis also prevents her from one of her greatest skills: sewing. She's a master seamstress. Show her an outfit in a magazine and she could replicate it for you. I had so many homemade dresses when I was a little girl. I remember one especially cute sailor-inpired jumper. It was black and white plaid with a cute little red tie. I used to love watching her sew. To this day, I take great comfort in hearing scissors cutting fabric while resting on a table.

So anyhow, as for the celebration. We're having a big program for her and even renting a venue. There's supposed to be roasted big, and I'm sure plenty of other filipino delicacies. I finally picked the song I'm going to sing and I've been practicing hard. It's in tagalog, so it takes a little more time to memorize and I just staring memorizing yesterday...hehe... I had songs in mind, but the family wanted me to sing a tagalog song. There is always something so entertaining for filipions to see me singing tagalog songs. I'm just glad I've finally graduated from "Ang Pipit" to a more mature song. If anyone is interested in seeing my performance, perhaps I can video it and post it to my youtube.

Well, unfortunately, it back to work time for me, so TTFN!

Beauty Profile

Since I do beauty tutorials on top of my other vids, and since I usually do makeup and hair that best suits me, I thought I should put up a skin and hair profile.

My hair:

• Color - Dark Brown

• Texture (Thickness of each individual hair strand) - Fine

• Density (Actual amount of hair) - Thick

• Classification - Combination (Oily on one spot on my scalp, normal everywhere else)

My Skin:

• Color - Very light, but not quite fair. Fair denotes pink undertones, but my skin has yellow undertones. For reference, I used to use Bare Escentuals in Medium Beige (2.3). I now use Everyday Minerals in Warm-Medium Beige. I also use e.l.f. shielding hydrotint in Tone 2.

• Classification - I have standard combination skin with an oily T-zone and normal skin elsewhere.

• Problems - I don't have a huge problem with pimples, which is something I consider to be a disadvantage. The more oily the skin, the longer it stays looking young. This is why my 60 year old aunt looks 45, but still gets pimples. So those plagued with acne, be content to know you will look younger than the rest of us. I do have issues with blackheads on the nose though, for which I have recently found treatment. I also have issues with milia, which are seriously frustrating and I've had some that hang around for years before I get impatient and simply extract it myself with a sterile needle. Sometimes they don't even last a month before I get annoyed and extract the little devils...

So that's all I can think of right now. Let me know if there's anything else I should put here.
TTFN!

Colleen

Frustration

I'm so upset. I've been trying to get around to editing my video on mini eggplant "pizzas" video, and I finally had the time, only to find that the footage is completely gone! Argh! I have no idea where it is. It's not on my computer hard drive, it's not on the external HD, it's not on the camera HD. I have no idea. Looks like I'm gonna have to completely re-do the whole thing... Time to go grocery shopping...

Random Ramblings - Research

My research is done for the day, except for needing to start an overnight culture of Streptococcus pyogenes, so I thought I'd take some time to blog a bit. I've mentioned in the past that I am a graduate student of biomolecular chemistry, but I've never really mentioned what I do. So, if you care: I'm gonna tell you. If you don't: wait for my next blog or video upload. I'll do my best not make it boring.

I work on something called riboswitches. Now if we break that down, what we get is: ribonucleic acid + switch = RNA switch. And it is what it sounds like: a switch that is made of RNA which turns gene expression on or off. It's a very simple mechanism and requires very little materials, hence it's a good system to be used by small organisms that don't have a whole lot of life materials to spare (i.e. bacteria). There are plenty of these guys in nature. They usually respond to things like nucleic acids, amino acids, or other life-essential molecules.

However, scientists have become experts at using things found in nature and molding them to their own benefit. So what we do in our lab is attempt to make riboswitches that respond to molecules we like (or don't like).

But what good is that? Well, think of these as applications:

A bacterium that seeks out pesticides in soil, and when it finds the pesticide, an ezyme is expressed that can break down that pesticide, leaving clean soil!

A synthetic cell that can be injected into a diabetic patient so that when it detects high amounts of blood sugar, they pump out insulin. No more insulin shots!

A sythetic cells that seeks out molecules secreted by cancer cells, and pumps out medication to selectively kill the cancer cell.


Now obviously, these are things that will take years to develop. But everyone in science does their part to build up to these great inventions. So I work on putting these switches into pathogenic bacteria. With my particular project, people who work with pathogenic bacteria will be able to turn genes on and off to determine which genes are essential for pathogenesis (the process used by bacteria to invade another organism). The better we understand the genes involved in infecting (people
for example), the better we can treat infections. In the picture to the left, you can see where I have turned on gene expression (left) versus expression being off (right) in response to the presence of theophylline, a caffeine derivative. The section on the bottom of both plates contains strains of bacteria that always express the enzyme that makes the cells blue (called a positive control).

So I hope this hasn't been a complete snooze fest for you. I didn't want to go too in depth. I was going for an overview, so that people know in general what a biomolecular chemist does. Who knows, maybe one of you will want to become one (or are becoming one) one day!

That's it for now, and don't forget to keep checking out my youtube channel for more cooking tutorials, beauty how-tos, and product reviews!

TTFN

My Review of Cuticle Pushers

EyesLipsFace.com

Achieve healthy looking nails with the dual end cuticle pusher. Each end is designed to fit snugly around the nail to push back cuticles and to clean the nails for a well manicured look. Includes 2 Cuticle Pushers.

Cuticle Pushers

not as pictured

CKR Atlanta, GA 6/15/2009

 

4 5

Pros: Easy To Use

Best Uses: Daily Use

These pushers look different from the picture. First of all, they are two identical plastic pushers. They work, and I like them. I keep one in my purse and one in my manicure kit. Basically one side looks like the flat rounded end of an orange stick (The wooden manicure stick that comes with a lot of manicure kits) and the other end is flat and angled to a point. The only reason I gave 4 stars is because it was not what I was expecting from the picture shown on the website.

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My Review of Hollywood Eyelashes Kit

EyesLipsFace.com

No mess, lash beautification for a Hollywood glamour look. Achieve lashes like the celebrities with this all-in-one kit.
Kit Includes: Lash applicator, lash stand, false lashes and adhesive glue.

Hollywood Eyelashes Kit

like the lashes, not the applicator

CKR Atlanta, GA 6/15/2009

 

4 5

Pros: Good Value, Lightweight, Effective

Describe Yourself: Budget Buyer

My Beauty Routine Takes: 30 Minutes

The lashes look great. They look better than natural and dramatic without looking fake. I must say I don't feel the need for the applicator. I find it easier to use tweezers. The applicator is only helpful if your eyes are shaped a particular way. The stand is great though. It helps keep the form wonderfully.

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Props to Smashbox

So, a while back I was blogging about how upset I was that Smashbox stated that amino acids are the building blocks of DNA. I e-mailed them about it and got what seemed to be a "blow-off" e-mail that stated my suggestion would be put into consideration. I figured they would ignore me. Instead, I checked their website today and found out that they have since changed the description of their Lash DNA mascara. It's good to know they listen to their customers (though I'm not really a customer since I've never purchased from them.) I may just have to buy something from them (I've been liking the free sample of foundation primer I have) just because I'm so impressed they they have listened to the consumer. Now I know I am probably not the only one who wrote in about this, but I am definitely happy I was able to participate in this change. Props to Smashbox!

Beauty Product Reviews on the way

Hey Everyone!

I'm really excited. I recently found out that I was accepted into the Beauty Stars program from Beautychoice.com. That's all well and good right? But what good does it do you? Well, it means I'll be able to do more product reviews without sucking my wallet dry. Beautychoice.com will send me products to try, and I do reviews on them and post them to my youtube and to their website. Very simple. The first product is already on the way. Not to mention I have a ton of e.l.f. product reviews to do on my own. I've found some great products from eyeslipsface.com and some not so good products, so stayed tuned! I'll be posting new vids soon of reviews as well as a few tutorials.

Take care!

Colleen