Saturday, March 14, 2009

Pre-China Post

My sincerest apologies for not posting much this week and not having a the first China post up. But, tomorrow! I finally got all my pics uploaded onto Facebook. I'm going to call this my "Pre-China Post." In the meantime, I'd like to note two important things that happened to me this week.

1. I went into lab on Monday, and my researcher tells me, "So, our poster got accepted for the conference." I was like, "Cool . . . what poster?" Apparently, he submitted some poster way back in January to a super-important conference on cancer, and I'm second author! I was supposed to have been emailed and notified, but I figure I might've misread the email and accidentally deleted/archived it. So he printed me out an abstract. We're submitting the paper for publication in the summer, and if accepted, I'll have a citation! Seriously, this citation just fell into my lap. That never happens. Now I have to do the experiments to verify the data and prove myself worthy of my citation.

2. I had my 2 Friday discussion sections. It went well, as usual. I actually ran out of handouts for half of my students in my last section. The professor didn't give me enough, though she thought she gave me way more than I needed. Ha! I have like, 2-3 times more students show up to my sections than other GSIs. I was also amused that 3 students came to me this week in discussion or via email asking to be added to the course website I created for my discussion sections (they weren't originally enrolled in my sections). How cool is that?! My friend AG-F describes me teaching discussion sections as my "weekly pick-me-uppers." It so is, I love teaching!! It makes me happy that, on average, I seem to teach the material better than others and so am more "favored" by the students. At least, that's what the high attendance rate seems to translate for me. I could be completely wrong (but I really hope not).

Okay, now some teaser pics of China.
The Great Wall

The Forbidden City (The Imperial Palace)

To quote my friend: "This food is sooo good, it shouldn't be this good."

near Tiananmen Square

China posts forthcoming soon!!! In the meantime, let AJ's new pic blog, A Bi Boy's Pic Blog, entertain you. XD

Oh, and I changed the layout of my blog. Like it? :P

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

lord, love the green colouring. i'd love to do something with gay+teen+sydney but i haven't really got enough time and i'm familiar with coding as i'm familiar with quantum chromodynamics (in other words, i suck). but china looks lovely :O. i've been wanting to visit china for years. you don't mind if i experience my vacation vicariously through your photos do you?

charlie said...

The new lay out is really cool! I'm looking forward to see more of your pictures :)

Congratulations on your citation!

Mike said...

Congratulations on the citation!!! I have heard how important those can be!!!

That Great Wall picture amuses me because it looks like you're standing so high up above it, the snow on the ground, and things like that.

E said...

Congrats! There is almost nothing like sudden and utter triumph after dealing with difficulty.

I was eating cereal before I went to bed and it was so good....until I saw the pic of food. What I gotta do to get some of that?!

Anonymous said...

New layout? Me no likey. Too much going on...GAH! You're putting me into seizures.

The pics of china=cool. However, that particular dish you posted does not look appetizing at all. XD

I just did my evals for this quarter, I hope the students liked me. I try to be honest, outgoing, available, and engaging with them...so, we'll see. :)

Tris said...

I'm going to have to agree with James on the whole layout ordeal... There's so much going on with it!!!

Aek said...

g+t+s: Thanks! ^_^ It's actually a lot easier than it looks. I used this template: http://www.ourblogtemplates.com/2008/09/blogger-template-romantico.html

Just follow the instructions and then tweak the colors and fonts in the "layout" tab of your blog dashboard thing. It just takes some time to play around.

charlie, Mike, E: Thanks!! :D

James: Aww, too bad, that dish tastes wonderful actually. ^_^

James, -T-: What exactly is "too much going on?" It feels a bit more structured than before, and there are fewer colors (or at least, the colors actually complement each other now). What would you two suggest? o.O?

Anonymous said...

There's like all the borders, everywhere! There's so many borders it's sending me into an epileptic fit. And the neon green against black burns out my eyeballs. And there's the random image in the middle of the sunset...what's that? The colors of the sunset also don't match that of the blog, which doesn't really match the colors of the banner image.

Anyways, I don't want to seem overly mean, I know more than anyone else you've put a lot into this. But it's just like a paint shop threw up, lol!

I suggest something with black text on a white background, minimalist, and maybe some parchment or red for color.

naturgesetz said...

Well, I though the new layout was an improvement on the old one. But I do agree with James that dark letters on a light background are easier on the eyes.

Congrats on your success in teaching. That must be very satisfying.

Aek said...

James: There's really only 2 (maybe 3) borders . . . I actually colored most of the borders to be the same color so it fades away. And I just needed/wanted a pic, and while it doesn't thematically fit, it offers some more color and tone changes. :P The suggestions you make sound remarkably like how your blog looks like. o.O

naturgesetz: Yeah, I guess I like bright fonts on dark backgrounds because it doesn't burn my eyes out when I'm reading in low light or have the back-light of my laptop screen turned down (to conserve battery power). A dark background is somehow easier on my eyes.

I <3 teaching!! ^_^

Anonymous said...

Of course it sounds like my blog's layout. lol! But you should note that others agree with me on what I've said here.

Aek said...

James: But you should also note that an equal number of people also like it (and thus disagree with you). :P

Anonymous said...

Well now, there's no accounting for poor taste. :P

Aek said...

James: Tastes are subjective. ;-)

Anonymous said...

*insert naughty memory*

*cough*