Quick YouTube post

As I rarely find time to post anything, I'll start doing so hit-and-run style, i.e. type something short, forget to check the spelling and grammar, and hit 'publish'. Also means I'm limited to redirecting you to content somewhere else, such as:

• This is how it should have ended, which is watched easiest on you tube (though the site has better quality, it asks for installing DivX webviewer...), via the HISHEdotcom profile.
• And, introducing the book.
• By the way, Hebe says to check out the storyteller as well.

Biochem...

And once again I find myself trying to compose a (hopefully) sensible methods section in a research proposal. 'Sensible' meaning that throwing liposomes at it just won't do (thankfully I wasn't in that group at UC). The proposal is a little risky though, so the trick will be to write it optimistically. But then again, and I'm willing to wager that this comes as a shock to some, I've been told that I'm a bit optimistic in these things.
The one thing that the UC flashbacks do make me wonder, is how I ended up where I am. When I left, I was up for starting something a bit more chemical. I even had an internship offer at a reasonably hardcore biochem department. Turned it down. Somehow I've now ended up in a situation where my activities seem to be more related to genetics, and shock horror, phytopathology. Which incidentally are covered by two different Master's programmes, two that I'm both not enrolled in. Oops.
Anyway, back to the biochemistry, the fun thing is always finding out what the real name is of the compound you need. And then to work out how much of it you need. And then to find out what it costs... So here's a nice one for those that like to draw molecules from the systematic name: Dexamethasone (which is also used in a number of drugs (the non-hallucinogenic ones) is actually: (11β,16α)-9-Fluoro-11,17,21-trihydroxy-16-methylpregna-1,4-diene-3,20-dione or
9α-Fluoro-16α-methyl-11β,17α,21-trihydroxy-1,4-pregnadiene-3,20-dione or
9α-Fluoro-16α-methylprednisolone. (Estimated, haven't checked more than a few suppliers) Price range: €400-450/g. Now to find out how much I need...

Quick update

As it's been a long time, just an 'I'm still alive' post.

• What I'm up to: putting the internship report on hold until I finish my Master's thesis, which will be a research proposal rather than a literature review. It seems more usefull than yet another larger paper (9 ECTS, six weeks full time).
• What Anna's up to: preparing to go to Oxford (MPhil Modern European History) for two years starting September.
• My plans: To stay in science a little bit longer if I can find a nice project. This most likely will be here in the Netherlands, as I have greater trust in the average quality of the education here (4 years, Master's required), than compared to, say, the UK (three years, straight from (good) Bachelor's). That, and I'd get paid here, whereas the UK options can only get me a scholarship for college fees (and not living expenses, travel expenses, bench fees (10k p.a.) etc.).

And if you're bored:

• The angry video game nerd: especially the 'Chronologically confused...' one.
• And dutch voiceovers for well-known TV-series: Mastermovies
• K. got published, Nature Immunology. It's indexed on pubmed, so search against the name as first author.
  

Whoops

...time flies (like an arrow, fruitflies like a banana; I know). And hence there's been no word here for a long, long time. Not that there is that much to actually write about - the internship is continuing at the usual pace, I'm not finding out what it really is that I want to do at the same pace (though there are a couple of place where I'm considering to apply) and hence most of it isn't to interesting.

In the same manner, I've not been on the net for that much time either. Though I have set IM to auto-login... Anyway, the only thing that I have found is the dubious practice of windows live search promoting itself by contributing an unspecified amount of money to chartity (help refugees learn) per search. All in all, it's a poorly hidden advertising campaign for live search - with the obvious inspiration from the 'forward this e-mail to everyone you will ever know as some company will give cash to orphaned refugee cancer patients with no legs and no arms as well as give you a new phone, and by the way if you don't your house will burn down due to a computer virus that gives you breast cancer if you also use deodrant with aluminium oxide...' Did I miss any?
Anyway, if you do want to 'donate' via live search, go here.

And the world didn't end... again.

First of all, happy New Year to anyone who may read this that I haven't spoken to yet. This post will mainly be about the FnF trip to the middle of nowhere - and hence feature sand, drunk people and things that don't work unless you actually were there.

The whole event took place in a holiday park in Renesse, Zeeland in two 7-person houses. Of course we booked two adjacent houses, and of course that went wrong. We ended up with two houses at the opposite end of park (360m by air, 420m by road), but had fun nonetheless. House 35 was designated the main house, and, due to varying day/night rythms, had quiet hours from 04:00 to 08:00, as opposed to the slackers in the other house who rarely got up before 11:30 :P.

If you're ever there, this is a 'nice walk' to a lighthouse (debate still raging on whether this one is closest):
Although it does involve a lot of sand, takes over 4 hours, as it is actually 21km, and made me, Sanne and Stefan late for dinner by 15 minutes + time to change clothes. I think Sanne won't ever go walking with Stephan and me ever again. Though maybe with Stephan - well, he did carry her for a bit:

As we left late, we did the last 7km in the dark, whilst attempting to keep the pace up as not to be late. Britt did cook a wonderful meal - and then it was time for New Year's eve, which started off with drinking on every mention of Verdonk, which then led to some brilliant performances of which a few sound bites exist (though poor recordings, they're available...). The words 'star spangled banner' can almost be made out above the din, as can the comment at the very end about a p*ring around someone's head, which makes this one the adult version. For the children there is (though not tested) this battle between the mushrooms and the Zeppelins.