![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Wettening
Oct. 6th, 2011 06:04 am1. I woke up, and it was raining. This is unusual, for Santa Barbara. We get these massive fogs that roll in off the Pacific, so nights are often misty and slightly surreal, but this was Michigan-style rain: a cold, wet, gray drizzle that just kept going and going. I still had to bike to class. It was horrible.
2. Continuing the experiments from yesterday: we added a milliliter of water today. After going through all the effort to keep water out. This is because the lipids wouldn't mix if we added them to water directly. We had to make them and then add water. Tomorrow, we add DNA (the cheap kind) and do microsonication. Then DLS to make sure we have what we think we have. And then! Oleic acid!
I need a Fish Store. The market near me had tuna-in-a-can but not fish, which is sad because I want protein in a slightly less processed fish, and also one less horrifically bad to eat. (Tuna: a slow-growing, carnivorous fish. It concentrates all the poison in its body, and global overfishing is serious threatening wild populations. Oh, and we haven't figured out how to farm it. If you can, chose tilapia instead.) But I do not know where to get any fresh fish at all. Which is sad :<
I was complimented today. One of the students in section said I am a better teacher than Prof Sears. I'm not sure if that means I'm really good or he's bad, but it makes me feel better. I mean, my style of teaching is mostly me asking questions to lead them where I want to go, which I like because it means that when they get the answers it's because they figured it out instead of just being told. But it leaves room for error because people who don't figure it out can miss it entirely. So I worry about loosing people, and instead they tell me they get things that I teach much better . . . !
2. Continuing the experiments from yesterday: we added a milliliter of water today. After going through all the effort to keep water out. This is because the lipids wouldn't mix if we added them to water directly. We had to make them and then add water. Tomorrow, we add DNA (the cheap kind) and do microsonication. Then DLS to make sure we have what we think we have. And then! Oleic acid!
I need a Fish Store. The market near me had tuna-in-a-can but not fish, which is sad because I want protein in a slightly less processed fish, and also one less horrifically bad to eat. (Tuna: a slow-growing, carnivorous fish. It concentrates all the poison in its body, and global overfishing is serious threatening wild populations. Oh, and we haven't figured out how to farm it. If you can, chose tilapia instead.) But I do not know where to get any fresh fish at all. Which is sad :<
I was complimented today. One of the students in section said I am a better teacher than Prof Sears. I'm not sure if that means I'm really good or he's bad, but it makes me feel better. I mean, my style of teaching is mostly me asking questions to lead them where I want to go, which I like because it means that when they get the answers it's because they figured it out instead of just being told. But it leaves room for error because people who don't figure it out can miss it entirely. So I worry about loosing people, and instead they tell me they get things that I teach much better . . . !
