Random Quote

"If my heart is broken, I should be thankful that I was blessed to have loved... but I cannot live that wisely. That’s why I cry"

On the issue of theories of mine...

I am told that chemical reactions are like having and raising a baby. First there is all the fun and activities to start out. Then there is this really loonnngggg wait till the baby gets here or the reaction goes to completion whichever you can relate better to here. In that time you pretty much do nothing but sit around and twiddle your thumbs. Of course I am sure my dear advisors would much rather prefer that I sit behind my desk and studiously catch up on my reading on my project and literature and such from scholarly journals (but what is the fun in that). Instead I am updating my blog. Naughty, naughty me.

All of today has been me sitting around waiting for my DSC to go. It is too bad I am about a 20minute walk from my own lab. It would have been great if I could go back and forth, that way I could also get something else done. But there is really no point since in the time it takes to get to my lab, I will have to put in a new sample or do something of the sort.

Ok, back to theories. So finally the baby arrives. Usually in the first few days (hours) they require a lot of work and attention (think working up reaction, purification, columns, crystallization). As they grow, you need to be careful with them. Too much attention and they get spoilt, too little and they go really bad (ask me about my little explosion, my hood is still greasy from the oil spill).

Ok, so my point is that I am bored to death in lab. My eyes are beginning to glaze over from reading these articles. HELP!!!

e-Mail from the Moon

When I was growing up, I wanted so badly to become an astronaut and go to space. I kind of outgrew that idea. There is still however some part of me, hidden in the background that believes that there is more to this universe/galaxy than we think (not meaning in the spiritual sense or anything) and definitely more than we know now.

I have this idea that God really must have some other planet prepared for us when we are done ruining and also overpopulating this one we live on now. And here, I am not in any way advocating irresponsible environmental and earth threatening activities. However, I find it very unlikely that the earth is the only hospitable planet. There is that statistician in me that says that one little spot cannot just suddenly have ideal conditions and nowhere else. I am imagining the earth being at the peak of some bell curve like situation. Which means that admittedly the extremes exist at the ends. We all know mercury and Pluto (Oh poor Pluto, no longer considered a planet) exist. So there must be some other close to ideals close to the earth. You think?

So why am I thinking about these issues? One of my friends just applied for a job to be an astronaut for a North American country’s space agency. He is still in the very early stages of the application process, and there is a 1 in 2500 chance of his getting the job. But still, it is really easy get into the excitement of the moment, to hope that he could possibly get the job and maybe someday get to visit the moon. I made him promise to send me an e-mail from the moon, someday, if he gets to go.

So, here’s to all of us keeping our fingers (and toes) crossed for my friend getting the job so he can go to the moon, so that I can get an email from the moon. According to his roommate, he would probably be the first homicide in space. As she puts it, “can you imagine spending months in an enclosed space with “J”?” And so let’s also try to keep the haters in check as well.

Mandela taken off US terror list

I just read here that Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, former president of South Africa, Freedom Fighter, anti-Apartheid Activist, Nobel Prize winner, Humanitarian, etc, etc was just taken of the US’s terror list.

The African National Congress (ANC) was designated as a terrorist organisation by South Africa's old apartheid regime. ...
Under the legislation, members of the ANC could travel to the United Nations headquarters in New York but not to Washington DC or other parts of the United States.

I am amazed. Not so much that the members of the ANC got put on this list. It is somewhat understandable, given the way the West thought of such “insurgents” at the time that they got put on the list. I am however surprised that it took the US this long to get their act together, after all the craziness of apartheid had been resolved (at least the main big political issues) to get these guys off the list. So I can’t vouch for any of the other members of the ANC (some of them have been prosecuted for various offences since the end of apartheid), but really, Nelson Mandela too, really? Only eighteen years after his release from prison, only 14 years after he became president and only 9 years after he was president. Maybe the powers that be thought, what can we get him for his ninetieth birthday present? We know, we will take him of the terrorist list. WOW.

I have very few heroes. But of the few I do, Nelson Mandela is one of my most respected. I want to be just like him when I grow up. :-)

And now I will end with a quote from another well known African leader (although for entirely different reasons than Mandela).

Our economy is a hundred times better, than the average African economy. Outside South Africa, what country is [as good as] Zimbabwe? What is lacking now are goods on the shelves - that is all. (Robert Mugabe)

Please don't get me started on this guy. Maybe some day.
After yesterday's posting, I figured I should lay off the US for a bit and focus on my own continent.

Why I am voting Republican

Disclaimer: This video has a huge bias (jeez, it is so obvious it smacks you in the face). I don’t believe Republicans (most or even any) will agree with everything these people are saying. But it is funny and I had to share.

p.s. You have to watch to the very end of the video.

The Democratic Primaries are over

And I am glad. Ideologically, I found Obama and Clinton to be pretty much the same candidate. [My instinct here is to refer to her as Hillary, but I get annoyed when people refer to Barak more formally but are informal with Clinton. I am not sure if it is because she is a woman or because we already have a Clinton and so we don’t want to get the names confused.] On the issues I am in agreement, they hold the same views. On the issues I didn’t agree with them, again, I didn’t agree with either of them.

As a Black Woman however, I was torn. Did I want a Black man (possibly the first Black US president) or a Woman (again, possibly the first female US president).

As an African Woman who is alum of a women’s college, I was even further torn. Of course, I wanted to support the African man who could by some simple (really, most Africans are related by only four degrees) extensions be my uncle/cousin. Even though we are from different countries and more importantly different ethnic groups, you know Africans are all really family. You know, the reason why every time I tell anyone where I am from, they feel the need to tell me about that friend from Madagascar or some other African country. [And no, that’s not where I come from, not even close. Of course I know them. Their grandmother and mine often picked firewood from the same spot.] So I was really rooting for Obama.

But then again, there is nothing stronger than the bond between daughters of the Seven Sisters. Being that I attended the oldest sister and Clinton went to Wellesley (maybe some day I will blog about how Wellesley is the one school I really wanted to get into for college and didn’t.) This seven sisters bond transcends age, backgrounds, location or political ideology. I can’t count how many times I have met another product of the seven sisters (not necessarily from the one I went to) and how we immediately have so much in common. Sometimes more in common than with other women/people I have known for several years. It is a really special thing that cannot be explained.

And so with all this turmoil, I am really glad I didn’t get a chance to choose between the two. You can’t imagine how hard that would have been.