Do Macs taste like Apples?

Ok, odd question I realize. But there is a good reason for the question. My husband and I have our own laptops. Soon after I had mine replaced from the soup fiasco, my hubby bought himself a MacBook Pro. It's a nice machine. He offered it to me, but my laptop is 2 pounds lighter, so I decided to stick with mine. Besides, as far as aesthetics goes, I'd say Mac and Sony are in a tie.

Anyhow, that has nothing to do with the title of the post. All you really need to know is, I have a Sony and my hubby has a Mac. OK, so, the hubby and I often sit in bed with our respective laptops and we surf the net, watch shows, sift through youtube, go to forums, etc. Our cats are usually close by to watch. Mau is my cat, and he sits at my feet (I like to believe it's to keep them warm...). Donnie is Wilson's cat. He's a bit more mischievous. He likes to get all up in what you're doing. He likes to lick you while you sleep. He also like to bite things... Perhaps you can see where this is going in regards to Macs tasting like apples...

Donnie has never tried to bite my laptop. Never. I leave it sitting around when I'm at home, and I've never seen a mark on it, nor witnessed Donnie attempt to bite it. However, twice now he's chomped on the Mac's screen... So that leaves me to wonder, does the Mac taste better than the Sony? Or smell better? Or look yummier? What do you guys think? More interestingly: Do cats like apples?

Man, Donnie is such a character...


On another note, I've got some new vids coming out soon. Take care guys!

Colleen

Addiction

I am officially addicted to sewing. Every spare minute is allotted to sewing, hence the shortage on videos...I will be editing some soon. Hopefully posting one today maybe? So far, I've done a few clothing reconstructions and a few made-from-scratch items. I hope to do a show-and-tell type video to show you what I've made. I'm amazed at how much money you can save by making your own clothes. Especially when you make items like business attire, which can cost an arm and a leg. I made a cute pencil skirt for around $10 total with buying a high-quality fabric. It's a very fulfilling hobby. I had no idea... I'm so glad I tried it. I'm fairly certain this isn't one of those pick-it-up-for-now-drop-it-in-2-months kind of hobbies. I think this is something I'm going to stick with for a long time to come. I hope you guys will enjoy the ride as well.

As far as videos go, I've had requests for more school/work east-to-do styles. I'll try to post one vid a week, alternating between cooking, make-up, and hair. Sometimes you'll find that I post in batches, then will be silent for a few weeks. I'm sure you guys will understand that with my 7-day-a-week work schedule, I don't have a whole lot of extra time each week (not to mention the new addiction), but I'll get them out as I can.

TTFN and take care!

Natutulog Ba Ang Diyos?

So several people requested to hear it, and here it is. I'm sorry about going off pitch in several places and for the poor audio quality. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

The title is "Natutulog Ba Ang Diyos?" which literally translates to "Is God Sleeping?" But do not misunderstand the title. The singer isn't asking if God is asleep. She is asking a person who is always worried about problems and trails whether that person believes God is sleeping. The translation can be seen below with the tagalog words as well.


























I sang this for my Grandmother's 89th Birthday. At the end of the video, you can see her. My mom said she almost cried...almost (oh well, maybe next time)...





As you can tell, I got my new computer, so look for new tutorials soon!

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!

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

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!

Upset about make-up

I was reading Cosmo last night, when I stumbled upon an advertisement for smashbox's lash DNA mascara. I don't usually look at the ads for expensive make-up, but being a scientist, I was interested in what smashbox defined as DNA. I figured it was an acronym, and I was right, it's apparently and acronym for DeoxyriboNucleic Acid...good ole fashioned genetic material. Now what could possibly make me angry about this? Nothing.

What upsets me is the information they deliver. Keep in mind, this ad will be seen by non-scientists, many of them young high school and college students. Here is what the ad says:


Long lashes not in your genes? Our revolutionary new scientifically-engineered mascara is packed with proteins and amino acids, the building blocks of DNA, that bind to lashes for genetic defying length as it conditions and repairs former damage. The unique double helix brush grabs each lash, no matter how small, for the ultimate fanned out effect. Dramatic jet black shade intensifies and defines. Defy genetics with Lash DNA Mascara.


What bothers me is the words in bold. PROTEINS AND AMINO ACIDS DO NOT MAKE UP DNA!!!
So this is false education. So, if any of you are just as upset as I am about this, please feel free to join me in e-mailing smashbox. A link to customer service is below where there is an e-mail address... I don't mind mascara that "defies genetics" or saying that proteins bind to the lashes to make them prettier, but saying proteins make up DNA is downright wrong and can serve to miss-educate students.


Customer Service contact info

Anyhow, I'm done ranting...hope you guys have a good day!

Yo yo weather

I hate yo yo weather. Cold then warm then cold then warm. Now I have a terrible sinus infection, and a whopping headache to go with it... What's more, the sinus infection makes it hard to sleep, so I'm low on energy too...

Ok, so enough complaining. I posted a vid today on how I trim my hair. Sometimes people ask me who cuts my hair, and usually, the answer is me. I only get a professional cut about twice a year (sometimes only once). So here is how I cut my front layers. Remember to try at your own risk, and if you do try, go slowly. Impatience will get you mistakes. Mistakes that won't go away until they grow out.

Moving in

So needless to say, I haven't been doing many videos lately. I promise I haven't forgotten, and I still have several that have been shot but not edited. I still have to post the ever popular tempura tutorial. I've just been very busy moving to a new house. Yep, the hubby and I have finally flown the coop of our tiny one bedroom apartment and moved to a brand new house! The problem is, we've also moved further from work, which makes time at home very scarce. Therefore, videos will probably be rather scarce as well, but I will get them out whenever I can. Hopefully you guys will have no trouble waiting.

As far as the move goes, we've got in our furniture and everything is out of the apartment. I've completely set up the kitchen (so get ready to see a new kitchen featured in my vids, not to mention a new bathroom). I also finished most of the living room and dining room. I finished up the office last night. The Master bedroom is far from done, and my clothes are still mostly in boxes. Every night when I get home, I try to finish another section of the house, so hopefully I'll be all done by next week.

Well, I'll be posting new vids as soon as I get a chance to edit them, so you'll be seeing the old apartment till all those vids are out. But stay tuned to see the new house!

TTFN

Random - Skittles Reflect the Rainbow

So, since my blog is the realm of random ramblings, I will ramble about something random. I saw my cousin's status on FB and it was talking about a Skittles commercial. SO I looked it up on youtube. I thought it was hilarious and wanted to share, since I won't be able to post any vids of my own for a while. So here it is. Enjoy! The argument isn't the only funny part. There's also the fact that the white guy looks in the mirror and says "Wait, I'm not eating Skittles" and says nothing about the fact that the "him" in the mirrors are all different ethnicities. The man in the mirror is Filipino and is speaking Tagalog. I'm not sure about the tailor. I don't think he's Filipino or speaking Tagalog. One of the comments I saw states that he's Thai. Maybe someone else can confirm that?

Anyhow, enough rambling. WATCH IT!!!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year one and all. I hope your celebration was as fantastic as mine! As always there were lots of family members and friends and plenty of fun. In celebration, I wanted to post a video about my favorite products I found in 2008. These are not all the great things I've found, but they are ones I had to tell the world about before 2009 really gets rolling. So here we are:



Happy Shine Photos:

Week 1: Blowdry

Week 2: Curling Iron-styled

Week 3: Air Dry

Week 4: Air Dry

Week 5: Flat Ironed

Update

OK everyone! I'm back!!! I have about 5 videos, maybe more depending on how much time I get, to be posted in the next week. I'm trying to make up for my extreme absence. For a preview of what's coming, look at the projects list to the left! Stay tuned... Oh, and try not to watch them all at once, cause after the semester starts back up, I'll probably be back to 1 a week or so. hee hee.

Well, TTFN!!!

Stuff

OK, so I know I promised the tempura video a while back. I just want you to know, I filmed it, I just haven't had time to edit and post. I will probably be on a bit of a hiatus until the end of finals. I promise I will make up for it after all the hullabaloo is finished... You patience will be rewarded!!!

Take care all!!!

My Top 5 Movies

So how excited am I to be tagged on youtube for the first time?!?!? I'm sure you can guess. Anyhow, cocorais has tagged me to do my top 5 movies, and so here it is! Enjoy getting a peek inside my eclectic mind...

Fall Back

I'm not a huge fan of cold weather. For those of you who know me, you know that anything below 70 degrees F is getting cold for me. So when fall comes, I brace myself for the winter to come. And for some reason, this year, winter seems to be coming faster than before. Is it global warming? Maybe. Either way, it's been literally freezing temperatures 3 nights out of this week. I've been bundled up with tights, knee-high socks, boots, jeans on top of that, plus a long sleeve shirt topped with a sweater, topped with a jacket, and finally topped with a coat, plus a nice fat scarf. I realize that seems extreme for fall weather, but I get cold easily.

What I can say that I love about fall is good ole Daylight Saving Time! It's time to fall back! And that means I get an extra hour to do whatever on Saturday night (I always set my clock before going to bed Saturday night instead of doing it on Sunday). I've been feeling really slow lately (probably a hibernation reflex, haha) and so I'm hoping that this time change with infuse me with a little more energy. Maybe I'll also have time to finish crocheting my scarf. And who knows, I may get some more videos out!

BTW, I am so excited to find out that I now have 25 subscribers on youtube. How cool is that? Yes, I know it's not much, but it's a start. Who knows? Maybe I'll be a youtube partner in 2009!

So as I look forward to my extra hour on Saturday, I bid you all Adieu for now. Take care all!!!

Youtube videos

So I have a TON of video footage (you can see a list on the left hand side). My goal is to fully edit and release at least one video a week. I tend to shoot the videos as I'm getting ready in the mornings or as I'm cooking for dinner, so it doesn't take any extra time to take the footage. What takes time is editing, rendering and uploading. That's why you see my projects list on the left get longer and longer, even though there aren't any new vids. So just be patient, I'll get them out bit by bit. Keep watching the left side bar, so you'll know what to look forward to!

Till next time...

How to Suck up to your boss?

Well, I guess a great way to suck up to your boss is to bake him a cake in the shape of his favorite beer for his birthday! Well, actually, I didn't bake it to suck up. I just like baking. And as Wilson says, I'll make any excuse to bake a cake. So here is a cake for my boss that we presented to him as a surprise.

And for the record, I don't condone sucking up in any way. Besides, I'm sure that my boss would rather I have been doing lab work than baking a cake! haha...

But anyhow, it was a fun project. If you want to do it yourself, you'll need some fondant (see my video how-to) and three 6 in round cakes stacked up to make the shape of a drink can. You can decorate the can as anything you want...try root beer, fresca, coke. Whatever you like. Well, anyhow, now that that is over, it's back to work for me!

Reports, take-homes, and homework

Wow, so I've at least finished working on all my assignments. The first draft of my progress report is completed. I've also finished the first draft of my take home exam. I think I'm done with my population genetics homework. Now all I have to do is wait for feedback. My Molecular Evolution professor says that he'll look over our take home tests this weekend and hand them back for correction on Monday. We have several days to try and get things right. We can turn it in and get feedback as many times as we want until the official due date...That is so bad for a perfectionist like me...I'll keep wracking my brain about it until the very end. And now I'm waiting for feedback from my lab mates on my report. Hopefully, I won't have to change much. My brain is completely fried from all the school work I've been doing. Maybe I can actually get some lab work done tomorrow... Well, I'm gonna go recuperate from my brain frying week, and try not to think about the corrections to come... TTFN!