So this semester I am taking a Biology 100 class. However, by some of the assignments, you would not guess that this is a general education class! For example, we have to do a big project complete with proposal, peer reviews, major sources, the experiment, research papers, etc.... So for this, I decided to do my project on.... wait for it.... toe jam! I started my proposal off with "How clean are you really?" We also had to include a sentence in there about why our experiment is original and creative and I put down that mine was original and creative because we get to measure toe jam!
The point of the experiment is to determine if it really matters what kind of bar soap you use in showering, and if so, what kind. According to the FDA, there are three types of soap out there: "true" soap, cosmetic soap, and drug soap. "True" soap being soap that just cleans without any extra ingredients, detergents, cleansers, etc... added in. Cosmetic soap being soap that cleanses, moisturizes, beautifies, etc... with drug soap being soaps that are recommended by determatologists, acne soaps, etc... I set my experiment up to have 3 control groups with 3 people in each group. Each group will shower with one of the soaps and take four samples of bacteria throughout the two weeks. There will be a sample taken before they start showering with the soap, 3 days in, 7 days in, and at the end of the 2 weeks. Basically, they will just shower with the soap and when I give them a petri dish, they will scrap between their toes and wipe it on the dish. I was able to get the hook-up with the petri dishes (meaning I didn't have to pay for them of the auger! Bonus!!! because I needed 12 of them.) and the guy that gave them to me, Chris, told me that I could use that lab and the resources there to incubate and refrigerate the samples too! I was pretty happy about this.
One of my Biology teachers had told me to go talk to one of the Molecular Biology teachers and he'd tell me what I needed to know to conduct the experiment and where to get the petri dishes and auger. After class, I went up there but none of the teachers or TA's were up there. Then I saw one of my old roommates working and when she asked what I was doing up there and I told her, we talked with the head lab student, Chris, who hooked me up with everything. I was just expecting to get some questions answered that day about how to do everything but instead came away with petri dishes in addition to getting my questions answered! Score!
Sunday, October 18
Sunday, October 11
Random Pictures
Here are some random pictures from last month:
We were having a watermelon seed spitting contest. The object/ desired goal to get the seeds into was the sink. We had some pretty crazy moves going on with the contest: twirling, whirling, upside down, mass ejection of seeds, jumping, etc...
As you can tell, we didn't have a lot of success. We got watermelon seeds all over the place! We were still finding them over a week later in random places in the kitchen. The Dirty sign is for our dishwasher but highly appropriate in indicating the state of our floor. I took some video of the contest too. Once I get it edited and down to a smaller size, I'll probably post it.
This next picture is of my roommate, Brynn Secrist and her fiance, Matt Adamson. I have known Brynn for about 12 years or so. We met about a year or so after my parents moved to Colorado. And after all this time, we are still friends and we decided to live together this year because it would be fun and we already knew that we liked each other.
They were eating ice-cream and also feeding it to each other. Matt kept giving Brynn huge bites of ice-cream and so Brynn was trying to get him back by giving him tons of ice-cream. He was trying to stop her and was saying something about how strong she was in getting the spoon up to his mouth even though he was trying to stop her. And Brynn said, "Of course I'm strong! I feed old people for a living!" It was pretty funny but it might have been one of those things you might have had to been there for.
We were having a watermelon seed spitting contest. The object/ desired goal to get the seeds into was the sink. We had some pretty crazy moves going on with the contest: twirling, whirling, upside down, mass ejection of seeds, jumping, etc...
This next picture is of my roommate, Brynn Secrist and her fiance, Matt Adamson. I have known Brynn for about 12 years or so. We met about a year or so after my parents moved to Colorado. And after all this time, we are still friends and we decided to live together this year because it would be fun and we already knew that we liked each other.
Ward Camp-out!
I love camping! And once again because of school, work, and life in general, it has been too long since I went camping last. What was the motivating factor this time? My ward was having a camp-out. I was able to get off work a little bit early but by the time I left to get up there, it was already dark. And since I also left at 3:30 in the morning, it was dark too. So I didn't get to see a lot of scenery or anything, mainly just lights out in the darkness but oh well.
We started off with dinner and then there were skits performed by all the FHE groups. Some of them were pretty good and others left you wondering, "what in the world were you thinking?" We all watched Kung Fu Panda in one of the cabins, stood around the fire talking and roasting marshmallows and starbursts, and a dutch oven cook-off. I also played catch phrase with a twist: if it ended on you, you had to perform a dare... no truth involved here, all dare. Some of them were gross, others interesting, and others just fun. For example, I had to eat a piece of a twig. It was pretty fun.
I loved the opportunity it presented in getting to know other members of the ward better outside of church and FHE settings. Plus I got to go camping! And even though I had to leave at 3:30 in the morning, did I go to sleep early? Nope, I went to bed at about 2:30 or so. It quite possibly could have been even later too. When my alarm went off in the morning, it didn't even register that it was mine going off. All I could think was that somebody's phone kept ringing and wouldn't stop.
All in all, I had a blast and I love camping! I have included some pictures of the Heber Valley Camp from their website.
We had to drive all the way up this mountain and it was switchback and switchback but worth it for the view at the top!
This is one of the cabins we stayed in. I know that it isn't real camping if you stay in a cabin but with all the people we had, tents weren't really feasible. It was still fun though! And even though, there wasn't snow anywhere else, there was snow by the cabins and the pavilion.
We started off with dinner and then there were skits performed by all the FHE groups. Some of them were pretty good and others left you wondering, "what in the world were you thinking?" We all watched Kung Fu Panda in one of the cabins, stood around the fire talking and roasting marshmallows and starbursts, and a dutch oven cook-off. I also played catch phrase with a twist: if it ended on you, you had to perform a dare... no truth involved here, all dare. Some of them were gross, others interesting, and others just fun. For example, I had to eat a piece of a twig. It was pretty fun.
I loved the opportunity it presented in getting to know other members of the ward better outside of church and FHE settings. Plus I got to go camping! And even though I had to leave at 3:30 in the morning, did I go to sleep early? Nope, I went to bed at about 2:30 or so. It quite possibly could have been even later too. When my alarm went off in the morning, it didn't even register that it was mine going off. All I could think was that somebody's phone kept ringing and wouldn't stop.
All in all, I had a blast and I love camping! I have included some pictures of the Heber Valley Camp from their website.
We had to drive all the way up this mountain and it was switchback and switchback but worth it for the view at the top!
This is one of the cabins we stayed in. I know that it isn't real camping if you stay in a cabin but with all the people we had, tents weren't really feasible. It was still fun though! And even though, there wasn't snow anywhere else, there was snow by the cabins and the pavilion.
Sunday, October 4
As Slow as a Snail
One day as I was walking to school, I ran across a snail. The snail and I (meaning mainly me) decided to do a photo shoot. This is what came out of that photo shoot.
A Wall of T.P.
This phenomenon occurred during the first week of school in the Orem Wal-Mart.
There was so much toilet paper! It just went on and on and on... I thought it was kind of interesting how much toilet paper Wal-Mart put out expecting students to buy.
A Century
Last Saturday, I completed my first century! I have been wanting to do a century for a while now and I decided that I was just going to do it and not put it off any longer. I looked around and the next century was the Heber Valley Century (http://web.bike2bike.biz/), so I signed up for it. My goals for the ride were: to finish, to finish in 10 hours or less (giving myself a generous time frame), to not finish last, and to not walk at all on the course. Saturday morning comes and I have to be up in Heber by 7:30 am. The atmosphere in the beginning as we were all getting ready was a lot of fun. Most of us had to move our cars a few times as they told us to park in the wrong place and there was going to be a softball tournament there while we were gone.
A view of the mountains and a tidbit of some of the fall colors.
Me after the century. I was so filthy and my face was slightly burned too.
This is about 1/3 or so of the way done when we were way out in the boonies and were about to hit the dirt road that we all had to ride along for awhile.
We started by heading out to Soldier Hollow, and then Midway, over Jordanelle Pass, Francis, Oakley, Rockport and out to Coalville. After Coalville, we turned around and headed back to Oakley, Francis, back over Jordanelle Pass, and ended in Heber. This is a map of the route:
It does not look like it would be that hard but almost all of it was made up of hills after hills after hills.... Because of how many hills (not too mention Jordanelle Pass:4 miles at an 8% grade!) there were, it took me a while to complete the century but complete it I did. I met all of my goals that I had set and I biked it all! The only walking I did was at the rest stops, and at the beginning and end. It was kind of cool at the lunch break hearing all of our cleats making noise on the cement while we walked around.
I was so filthy when I was done! I had dirt, grease, tire marks, chain marks, dried sweat, etc... all over me, especially on my legs. I took a picture of my legs at the end but the picture doesn't do enough justice as to how filthy my legs were. I also had a random burn spot on my right upper thigh even though I know I sprayed that spot with sunscreen. I was a little burned around the edges on my back too. Evidently, I didn't get the sunscreen all the way to the edges when I was spraying my back.
I was so filthy when I was done! I had dirt, grease, tire marks, chain marks, dried sweat, etc... all over me, especially on my legs. I took a picture of my legs at the end but the picture doesn't do enough justice as to how filthy my legs were. I also had a random burn spot on my right upper thigh even though I know I sprayed that spot with sunscreen. I was a little burned around the edges on my back too. Evidently, I didn't get the sunscreen all the way to the edges when I was spraying my back.
Overall, I am really glad that I did it and met all my goals. In a few more years, I might do the Heber Valley Century again. I was talking to some of the other riders and they were telling me about some of the other centuries that are out there that are pretty fun too.
A view of the mountains and a tidbit of some of the fall colors.
Me after the century. I was so filthy and my face was slightly burned too.
This is about 1/3 or so of the way done when we were way out in the boonies and were about to hit the dirt road that we all had to ride along for awhile.
Not Your Ordinary Vending Machine
These are pretty fun! My sister, Jena and I went to one located in Milwaukee. The stuff that they have in them are interesting, fun, and random. I got a pair of earrings, a mask made of mud, and a fish.
A lot of airports have these now. They are vending machines that you can buy ipods, headphones, etc... from. Out of the airports I have been in, I have seen only seen a few so far. But who knows, one of these could be coming to an airport near you!
I have to admit that this vending machine is probably one of my favorites simply because I love books! I saw one of these the last time I was in Seattle. I was out at the convention center by the Space Needle wandering around an Arabian Festival when I saw the machine. There were actually two of them and they had lots of books, some games, cards, and 2 rows of candy. It was pretty cool! I even purchased a book from the book vending machine and now I can say that I have bought a book from a vending machine. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)