8 Ways to Make Weekends in the Lab Fun

While working on weekends is not a must… research is ongoing and the desire to find out more often gets me to work on the weekends (especially if I don’t have a trip/adventure planned). However, the weekend does not have to be counted like a total loss.  Most people just hear “I’m going to work!” and assumes my day will be sitting inside my lab or analyzing data 9 am – 5 pm. THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG! First, a lot of what I do includes LONG incubation period/treatment times… so I do not have to sit there and watch my cells the entire time. While, you could sit in lab staring at the many posters that you really only have up because it looked pretty, or scrolling through Facebook to pass time… Get up and do something. Here are some ways how!! 1) Overdrive: FREE BOOKS! FREE AUDIOBOOKS! FREE MOVIES!! I found …

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That Time When… I Walked on Water in Estonia

So, where the heck is Estonia? That is pretty much what I said when I decided to go on a Scandinavian tour… by this I was thinking of countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. However, I ended up also exploring other countries as well… like Estonia. Just a ferry ride away from Helsinki, Finland I explored an unknown land to me. I started with my usual Free Walking Tours (which I recommend to anyone that wants to get a good feel for their new surrounding while traveling) and was impressed with the very adorable architecture of the area. After trying Elk Soup (which wasn’t bad by the way), Seeing Patarei Prison only closed in 2005 (truly a hell hole, and unbelievable that prisoners were held there), taking beautiful pictures from Kohtu Platform seeing all of Tallinn… I still needed something adventurous.. Something new… So, I asked the Free Walking …

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What I Actually Do Everyday-Neuroscience

So for the most part, I am not blowing things up in my lab everyday… but the field is very exciting!! Just to give you a quick run down, without overcomplicating it… I work in a niche of neuroscience focusing on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and how it has negative cognitive effects on daily living. Most people, do not know that in addition to the known immunological deficits of HIV, individuals actually develop mild dementia earlier in life, and the prevalence is expected to increase. So my job is to understand…. How? and If something can be done to help? I’m usually in a cell culture hood treating cells (usually neurons, microglia etc) with drugs or proteins etc to measure changes that occurs and indicate the effects on the cells. EXCITING RIGHT? *smiles* I will share a bit more on this later… until then…. World’s AIDS Day just passed December …

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YOLO

You Only Live Once!! Definitely something I believe in. If you want to do it, I say make it happen. Don’t sit around waiting until you have time, make more money, or find the right people. There is no better time than when you desire to make something happen. And this goes for all things in your life.. not just your crazy adventures. As for me, I like to create the right moment to make all my desires happen…. So far as it related to adrenaline rush I have been able to: 1) Sky dive over Washington DC 2) Bungee Jump into the Nile River in Uganda 3) Hanglide in Clewiston, Florida 4) Attempt to swim with Shark in San Diego, California (Epic fail, because I definitely can’t swim) 5) Reverse Bungee/Slingshot in Orlando, Florida 6) Rock Climb somewhere in California I can’t think of others right now… but I …

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