Started from the bottom, now we're here.

This is my first post of my junior year of college.

I have been thinking of what to write almost every single day of the school year so far but haven't really known what I wanted to say. I've tossed up ideas about different series to start writing about sharks or jellyfish or just anything else but what was really on my mind. This is not going to be a funny or witty or even a particularly interesting post. But it's one that is symbolically and emotionally important for me.

It's been an interesting start of the semester to say the least; I think I've experienced every possible emotion in the last month. The gory details are not important but it's been a time of transition in more ways than one.

For awhile, I've been concentrating on myself, on doing the bare minimum, on just getting by. It was a pretty isolating to be completely honest. It was an odd existence, to be constantly surrounded by people but always feeling lonely. Over the past few months, I've wondered if that's just what it meant to grow up, that adults just don't interact the way that we used to when we were in high school. But I think I've realized that connecting with people is a conscious choice that we make and that the way I was going through my college career is not something I want to continue and this year. I've given myself a few challenges to change that. Maybe I'll share the others in the future but I think one of the most important ones right now is letting people in and letting them really know me. I think for a long time I wanted to keep people at a difference to keep up the appearance of gliding through my time at Wellesley but that is simply not accurate.

And that's okay. It's okay not to be okay.

It's okay to admit you need strength from others.

In the last few weeks, I have found support from my friends in incredible ways and I really can't say how grateful I am to be surrounded by these wonderful people, you know who you are.

In a fairly recent vlogbrothers video, John mentioned that most successes belong not to one person but that they are the product of teamwork and collaboration of many different people. It made me think of how my getting through this, as I am reasonably confident I will, will not just be my victory but the victories of my friends as well.

This is a departure from my usual subject matter, it's much more personal. But I wanted it to be out there, in the open.  I think it's important and I don't want to forget it in the future.

To my friends, I just want to say: I appreciate you and I am lucky to have you in my life. Thank you.

Plant Update: I am a botanist.

We are inching ever closer to the beginning of a new term at school and my plants are similarly inching their way towards the sun. It's been about a week since the first lemon seeds germinated and they're kind of just going wild now! I'd been experimenting with a couple different ways of speeding up germination periods by removing the tough outer seed coat on the lemon seeds as well as softening the coating by soaking them overnight. The first pot had seeds treated slightly differently so they didn't all sprout at the same time as seen here:

Progression of Pot 1

Day 1 of germination

Day 2 of Germination

Day...7? I don't even know

Day 3 of germination

I'm really pleased that these even came out, to be honest. But even more good news: About a week and a half ago, I started another pot of lemon seeds that had been pre-treated the most to hopefully speed up the germination process. I saw my first sprouts yesterday but I woke up today to see this:

Day 1 of Germination: Pot 2

There are so many seedlings coming up at once! I'm hoping that in a couple of weeks, Pot 2 will have a fairly sizable lemon bush-type growth. I don't think I'll be able to bring that particular pot back with me to school immediately because I want the stems to be a little stronger and some more leaves. College room environments aren't the kindest even on tougher plants(as evidenced by the poor state my Rhoeo plant Ferb was in when I brought him home). However, I think Pot 1 is getting strong enough that it will be able to survive the harsh conditions that are my dorm room. I'm just kind of excited that something I found on Pinterest actually worked!

More updates to come!

Weapons of Mass Destruction: Nerve Agents explained

For those who have not yet heard, there have recently been toxic chemical attacks in Syria that have killed hundreds of citizens outside the capital of Damascus. Many news outlets believe that this is the work of the government against its own people in a tragic demonstration of power. Most specialists seem to think that the deaths were caused by nerve gas due to the lack of wounds on subjects as well as several other symptoms. This has previously been defined by President Obama to be a "red line", which would prompt "enormous consequences" should we find out that they are being used(presumably through US military involvement).

But what are nerve agents and what do they do?

Simply put, nerve agents are biochemical weapons that affect the nervous system by inhibiting certain neural enzymes. It is considered to be a weapon of mass destruction because they are very toxic and spread rapidly.

It's necessary to review a bit about the nervous system to understand the effects of nerve agents. A class of neural enzymes are called neurotransmitters and are essentially responsible for the proper transmission of impulses, the mechanism through which the brain sends messages. Particularly, acetylcholine(ACh) is important because it controls the contraction of a variety of muscles. However, ACh is fairly ubiquitous and can be found in many different types of motor neural pathways in both the peripheral and central nervous systems(PNS & CNS).

ACh is controlled by acetylcholinesterase, a neural enzyme that breaks down ACh, which allows muscles to relax. Nerve agents inhibit this enzyme which leaves muscles in a state of constant contraction and excitement. It basically acts as an "OFF" switch for neurons, so without it they are constantly "ON". The effect of prolonged neural stimulation can be absolutely horrendous. Initially, subjects will feel nauseous and their pupils will constrict but that can escalate to vomiting, crying and an inability to control bowel and muscular movements(paralysis). The ultimate cause of death however, is from hypoventilation or complete respiratory depression. Subjects will not be able to breathe and take in enough oxygen to offset the carbon dioxide levels in blood. Since the heart is also controlled by muscular contractions, subjects' heart rates can be much faster than normal, which may exacerbate the condition through increased blood flow.

Personally I think that biochemical warfare is more terrifying than traditional tactics because according to the BBC(info originally compiled by the CDC), this nerve agent was odorless, colorless and tasteless. It spreads quickly and does not discriminate subjects(it can even be mixed into water!); it's basically undetectable. For Sarin in particular, the time between inhalation and death could be minutes which is not a lot of time to administer antidotes, especially if there is little way to know that there are nerve agents present.

I know this isn't the most polished piece ever(I wrote it up as soon as I saw what was on the news) but I thought it was a really important topic. I myself didn't know a lot about nerve agents before I wrote this, so I hope it was informative; I will continue posting sources for you to learn about it for yourself.
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Resources:

• ATSDR Case Studies in Environmental Medicine: Cholinesterase Inhibitors, Including Pesticides and Chemical Warfare Nerve Agents U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• AChE inhibitors and substrates – 2wfz, 2wg0, 2wg1, 1som in Proteopedia
• [Brain hypoxia and the role of active forms of oxygen and of energy deficit in the neuron degeneration].-Review
• Emergency management of chemical weapons injuries.-Review
• Center for Disease Control: Sarin Overview

Plant update: I see sprouts!

It's actually blowing my mind that I need to go back to school soon, excited as I am for it to be Fall again.

I hate to be making a reputation as that crazy plant lady but I am excited to tell you that after a couple weeks of waiting, my lemon seeds have finally sprouted!

I was worried that they wouldn't even grow because I'd been informed that commercial lemons that you buy from the store are often sterilized radioactively. However, these little ones seem to be alive and well so I think the hardest part is past.

I'm hoping that they'll grow enough for me to be able to take them back to Wellesley safely in a couple weeks! (Side note: I can't believe I have to go back to the nunnery in a couple weeks). Pinterest keeps telling me that they are a great natural air freshener so I'm hoping to put that to the test in the coming months.

Ferb the Rhoeo plant is still also doing well after being rehabilitated by Mama Chan because I nearly killed him during the spring semester.

I don't know why exactly but there's something deeply cathartic about planting something and watching it grow. Though, I think my parents think I've gone kind of nuts because in addition to the pot pictured above, I have about 20 seeds in another pot that I'm waiting to sprout too. Scientist that I am, I pre-treated the 'new' seeds differently to try and speed up the germination time so, fingers crossed!

Tiff has some new plants!

While I'm having such a posting spree, I thought I would let you know something about my life rather than just my thoughts: I have new plants!

Today, I finally planted four lemon seeds which I am hoping will become seedlings within the next couple weeks. Finally getting to plan the seeds is very exciting for me as they have been sitting in a paper towel in my fridge because someone on the internet told me that's what they should be doing for a while after you've taken them out of the fruit.

Anyone who actually knows me knows that I have a little bit of a brown thumb, which is a source of sadness as a biology major. If growing a plant successfully was the initiation rite for a society, I would fail miserably. My first dorm plant(a sunflower named Bob) tragically died during Spring break 2012 while my Rhoeo plant Ferb needed serious rehabilitation by Mama Chan after Spring of 2013. (Ferb is now in good condition and even has a few flowers).

However, I'm hoping that these little ones will thrive in spite of it all because apparently lemon leaves smell heavenly, according to Pinterest. Also because I have a single this year, I will inevitably get lonely so the more the merrier.

Hopefully I'll have a pleasant update in the near future!

An Open Letter to my Readers

Hi Lovelies,

First off, I want to thank you for reading my blog! That in and of itself means a lot to me and I want you to know that I appreciate that you took the time to read my viewpoint about...anything really! So far I've posted about a lot of different topics from YouTube to music to Mad Men. I'm grateful that I live in an era where I have the opportunity to disseminate my opinions.

While the responses to my posts have on the whole been positive, there has been some negative feedback. Personally, I love it when people disagree with me and I really do mean that sincerely. Ever since I became a college student, I've had the realization that my viewpoint is much more limited than I previously thought and any opportunity to broaden my horizons is greatly appreciated. However, I do want to bring your attention to a couple things:

1) My blog writing is a lot different than my normal writing. By nature, these posts are much more casual than any paper I would hand into class or one that I would submit to my editors at the Wellesley News. I can write about things that interest me, things that are happening in the news etc. Inevitably, there will be some mistakes(there are probably some in here) and if you see them, please do let me know! I want to improve my writing; that's the whole reason I started the blog-to practice. But do keep in mind that while I do edit these posts fairly rigorously there will be mistakes.

2) I'm not an English major. If you didn't know, I'm actually a Biology major! While I do still write a lot of things for my science lab courses, the writing is bit different from the writing I would be required to do in, say, a Milton class. I don't consider myself a writer but I do consider myself an observer of the world and occasionally I reflect upon things here. I do try to read things whenever possible to expand my vocabulary and what not but if you have something you would phrase differently or think should be reconsidered, let me know! However, please remember that my college education isn't focused primarily on becoming an expert wordsmith.

In short, I just would ask that if you have a criticism that you would first remember that this is something I do for fun on the side. I'm not being paid to write posts and this type of writing is not what I do normally. Most of the times, I just write about something that I care about or that I thought was interesting. I am only human though so I do make mistakes. I only ask that if you find something wrong with my writing that you are both respectful and constructive so that I have an opportunity to learn from the experience. It may not seem like it but sometimes writing these posts is incredibly scary. I would argue that it's on the same level as performance art because in a way you're exposing yourself to the world. However, I believe enough in what I'm doing to continue on in spite of it and I hope that you can respect that when you read and critique my writing. Furthermore, if we have an ideological incompatibility I hope that our opinions can still coexist happily.

If nothing else, I hope that these posts cause you to think about something more deeply than you would have otherwise. If I've achieved that, I think I can continue on happily. :)


Bises,
Tiffany

This is not a feminist post.

She's having so much fun, you can just see it in her eyes.

The song Blurred Lines has been ruling the Billboard Top 100 charts for a significant part of this summer and a couple of days ago I finally got around to watching the music video.

For the record, I am certainly not a music elitist when it comes to pop music-I listen to Taylor Swift and One Direction. Most of the time, pop music is innocuous at the very worst but occasionally can be catchy even if it's not particularly good. (My conservatory colleagues are probably rolling their eyes at me right now). But really? This entire endeavor was just really sloppy. It's as though the producers just got really lazy and decided to throw together a bunch of random footage of the guys messing around with models(that they paid to be there and do this stuff) and try to pass it off as a music video.

As far as the song itself goes, the lyrics are pretty standard(guy trying to get some action) but people are up in arms because the lyrics have implications of rape and heavily objectify women.

Is it offensive? Of course! But so it about 70-80% of all music out there if you bothered to listen to the lyrics.

But the supposedly "anti-feminist" approaches to both the song and video are not what I find most offensive.

It's just not a very good song.

You can't tell me that this is art. It's compensation.

Yeah, I said it. Like I said, I'm not really a musical elitist but I do have some standards left. The aural aesthetic of this song are seriously lacking. From a purely artistic standpoint, this is simply not compelling in any way. The lack of bass in general makes the song sound pitifully anemic. Pharell's "Whoo!"s gave me a migraine. And what's up with those weird 3 note modulations? This song is literally made up of these tiny bursts of vocals interspersed between long stretches of that God awful backing track. As the song lacks a clear melody, it's left the realm of tonality but I don't even think it deserves to be called atonal either. It's just annoying.

What's hilarious though is that so many other reviewers have been saying that it's a "catchy dance song with a good beat" which I could not disagree with more. Are we even listening to the same song right now? I had to try approximately 5 times before I could make it through the entire thing and even now I wouldn't be able to sing you the melody(because there isn't one!)

Seriously, what is with the goat?

As far as the video goes, I feel like to get recognized in the industry your videos need to be over the top ridiculous or absolutely ooze sex and if you see the unrated version, you'll see that the produced managed a really bizarre mix of the two. At times I questioned if I was watching an American Apparel ad or a music video. Thicke apparently tried to defend the video saying that's ironically feminist because one of the models winks, which we as the audience are supposed to interpret as her being tongue in cheek. She's in on the joke therefore everything is supposed to be okay?? That doesn't stop this from being a really weird video. Why is that model cradling a taxidemied goat? Why are there girls throwing gigantic dice at your head? I'M INCREDIBLY CONFUSED.

Point blank: this is a weird song with a weird video. When I see the types of music videos that are coming out today, I always have to think "Future generations are going to think that we were really messed up".  I think that they do it for the controversy-Thicke and Pharell knew the video was going to be talked about and publicized to death and now it's at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 because people have been obsessed about it. Not because it's good but because it's absurd. And as long as we keep consuming what they're dishing out, they're going to keep making stupid things like this and profiting from it. But this is me saying no. No, I will not continue to listen to this so that you can get more money for very little work. There is little if any artistry being displayed here and the only way to end this monstrosity they're trying to call music is to not give these "artists" the power of your ears, your attention and your money. They only have worth while they're relevant, they derive power from their audiences. So no, Robin Thicke-after this moment, I'm going to forget about your ridiculous and slightly macabre video. You do not pass Go and you certainly do not get my $200.

Because capitalism, betches.