Another reason why Microsoft is evil.

Everyone uses PowerPoint, right? They always include it with the "base" version of Microsoft Office, right?
Hmph, I just found out today that my $129.00 version of MS Office had everything BUT PowerPoint, and to get it I had to shell out another $119.00 to buy "Microsoft Office Small Business"! The annoying thing is that, along with PowerPoint, I have to buy a bunch of small business software (like publisher and some finance stuff) which is totally useless to me--all I want is the freaking PowerPoint!
Bah, this is like when you buy a car and want the nice drink holders, but they only come bundled with the sunroof and the leather seats.

Ok. I've finally made my decision

So, guess where I'm going to be next year???
UCLA!

Phew. Finally made that decision. I've been going back and forth for so long, and as you probably all know, I had a great time in Houston at Baylor and met some really awesome people. The thing is, I really don't want to leave California (especially for 8 years!!), and SoCal is practically a new state. I mean, everyone here is a lot weirder than up north, and they don't have Safeway--it's just like the east coast, right? The biggest part of my decision was ultimately the school. Grad school is all about research, and the research at Baylor in biocomputation just can't compare to the UCLA program. Besides, UCLA is starting a bioinformatics department next year, and I really wanted to go to a school where I could get a true bioinformatics PhD, and not just some random genetics, cell bio, or translational medicine degree that included computation.

So I'm super excited, the people I met here were also very cool (of course we all bonded at some random bar at 12 am, per all other med school revisits), and LA is a fun city with more shopping than you can shake a Marc Jacobs bag at. Now I just need to learn how to drive on the freeway better, and I'm all set.

Google Desktop?

I just installed Google Desktop, so that I could access my Google Calendar without having a web browser open all the time. It's pretty neat, but it's really hogging my memory, and my (decently fast) computer is struggling a little bit to keep up. Has anyone else used this/is it worth it? I guess when I get my new, faster laptop in a week or two, this won't me so much of an issue.

Horse head!

Horsey horsey horsey.





I should have bought this horse head when I was in Arcata... it's pretty much the best thing ever, even though you can't see anything out of it (you have to look through the nostrils, and have zero peripheral vision).

Chocolate Bunny

I got a chocolate bunny the day after Easter! I love chocolate bunnies.
The one problem I have with them is that I feel weird about eating something with a face and appendages. I didn't start eating it for a few days because every time I tried to bite into it, I felt bad about "killing" it. Does anyone else have this problem?
I should go back to Safeway and see if they have any more... hmmm...

What did I get myself into?

So, my [awesome] final paper for my Russian lit class got nominated by the professor for an award, and I blithely agreed to revise some parts of it before submitting. Now I'm sitting at my desk writing about mimetic desire while my friends are having fun. Blah, I am regretful. Oh well, it's my fault for putting it off.

And, I got into the Baylor MD/PhD program! Super exciting, so now I have two programs to choose from.