i dunno about yall, but i am soooo tired of annotations! almost done with ‘em though! which is good since class is almost done too… oops! nothing like the last minute! i’m sort of feeling like annotations may wind up with their own mini poem soon… i will have to ponder that one. to my poetry fans, be watching!

so it seems like everyone is expressing a similar sentiment, but where on earth has the semester gone?! and the year, for that matter. i wasn’t with you all last semester so maybe that’s part of why this semester has flown by… wish i could have known you all longer! looking back: i feel like this has been hands down the most challenging bio class ever. buuuuut… totally the most rewarding. i keep having to step back and evaluate when i get frustrated with all of the work  that we have to do and how totally stressful this class is. and when i step back and evaluate i realize that this has been such an awesome opportunity and totally worth the extra work/stress/sleeplessness/confusion/etc… really totally is.

anyways, class is almost done for the year, so super bittersweet there. mostly sweet i think, with just a touch of the bitterness. sort of like a good cup of coffee! now with that witty comparison, i believe i shall end this.

benedict, oh benedict
a slight frustration you do detect
among the valiant students, who,
on hearing your name, begin to boo.
but with you,
we are (for tonight) through.
oh, benedict….

random benedict theme inspired poems come into existence while studying late at night. this is what this class has done to me…

Today in lab we got together in small groups to combine and compare our annotations. Our group was actually making really good progress (we were through 3 out of the 4 people and about halfway done with the 4th) when guess what? The workflow went down! Go figure. Oh well… We can finish it up pretty quick once the workflow is working again. Whenever that is… But anyways, our annotations were pretty much in agreement across the board with only about 4 genes that we had to look at twice. So over all a pretty successful consolidation of Benedict genes.

Ok! First post on here… We had our fourth lab today and we finally began calling genes on Etude individually. It was a bit overwhelming at first (so many things to analyze!) but it was thrilling to finally be able to see fruits of our labors. So there are now two separate genes that I called on my own and two that we called as a class… I feel so accomplished! It is super exciting to know that I am working on something new and actually contributing… this isn’t just lab “busy work” that everyone does just because the teacher said so. This is actually discovering something, finding things out for ourselves.

I am still a bit… ok, no I’ll be honest… a LOT overwhelmed in the class so far. It is harder when you don’t know that many people and don’t have the background research and knowledge from the previous semester. But I am loving every minute of the class and actually look forward to it every day (even when it means waking up early to get there on time).