Denied IM team tennis

The other day I registered as a "free agent" on the OSU intramural webpage for team tennis and got pretty excited today when "Team Federer" picked me up. It seemed like a pretty sweet thing, $25 for weekly Sunday afternoon matches. I would have gotten to play some tennis, meet some people, but sadly I have found out I am ineligible for the first year after college varsity experience and will not be playing team tennis this fall. Sadly I do not think IM soccer will fit in my schedule and so there will likely be no IM sports for me this year.

First full week

So I've been settling in to a routine pretty nicely here. Although my lab is on the Vet campus which is west of the main campus, it hasn't been much of a problem bouncy between the campuses. People in the lab have been very reasonable with their expectations of me given I still have classes. Speaking of classes, there is a lot of reading as expected but I think I will be able to manage. This Friday I head to New York to visit my sister so I'm pretty excited for that. Will try to blog more I have been losing my touch.

First day of class tomorrow

So I officially started my rotation this morning (although only a half day) and start my classes tomorrow. Now I am rotation with one Dr. Wu who is working on the HIV virus. His lab is very successful winning grants and publishing in prestigious journals left and right so I feel very lucky to get into his lab. Getting rotations is pretty much a free for all and I was lucky to be one of the first to meet with him (and most aggressive) and was able to talk him into letting me start the next day. Today I printed off around 100 pages of course information, notes, and required reading for day one along with the 3 large packets of info my post Doc in Dr. Wu's lab gave me so it has officially begun. Would love to talk more but I have stuff I need to do.

Photos from the Cincinnati Masters

So this Friday with no orientation events, I got up early and went to the Western and Southern Open (regrettably named in my opinion) just outside of Cincinnati to watch some tennis. It was an awesome day and although the matches were not to intense, I got to see some of my favorites including my all time favorite Roger Federer. Here are some photos of the day.

100th Comment, hoping to reach 1000 views

So right now I'm at 979 views, I'm hoping my 100th post (and a link on facebook) will push me to 1000. Thanks for reading everyone!

Mexico 0 USA 1

Well despite having minimal possession of the ball the US managed to nick Mexico 1 0 at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. This is the first time the U.S. has won in Mexico. In fact, they had only tied once before. Although our quality of play wasn't great we defended well and it's a good win that will increase the US confidence. Hopefully this win will give them more confidence.
On a personal note I have one more day of research colloquium and a student-faculty mixer tomorrow evening. I have contacted several professors and have a tentative meeting about the second rotation this fall with one geneticist and a meeting on Monday with a researcher who is working on the HIV virus in a very successful lab. Hopefully I will meet some more people tomorrow. Then Friday I'm off to Cincinnati to watch tennis although in retrospect I should have bought the evening session so I could have used the morning to meet with professors.

Research Colloquium

So this week I guess it is safe to say graduate school has more or less started. We are spending the days Monday through Thursday listening to professors present their research and hoping to arrange rotations based off of these. There are many faculty to choose from and many students preying like vultures so this week will be tricking. I have emailed the professors who I have found interesting and said I hope to speak to them more at our mixer on Thursday and I will try to take it from there. More details on this process later my brain is a bit friend and I must preview tomorrow's researchers.

A funny photo

New Room Pictures

So as promised here are the updated photos of my room. Allposters.com had a sale and I couldn't resist. As you can see the wall by my bed is now dedicated to Barcelona (sorry Ankit) with an Abby Road poster to compliment. Behind my desk begins my art selection of a little Van Gough, Pablo Picaso and Salvador Dali in addition to a picture of the Earth at Night (was only $.99 and cool looking). Completely the room is the pull up bar which is removable and a Sergio Aguero poster. No I would not say I am a Manchester City fan but I do love Kun (his nickname). I am currently in the market for a Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal poster but the cheapest I found online was $20 pre shipping, which was what the rest of my room was with shipping included. 

In addition to my room I also bought a nice pair of shoes this weekend because my old ones are getting holes. 

Decorating my room

Spending the Saturday night cleaning and putting up new posters in my room (still working on the friends thing). Pictures to come tomorrow.

Ohio Weather

So someone made a comment about the quick-changing weather when I did my interview here but I dismissed it because I've noticed wherever I visit people usually have something negative to say about the whether. I have to say however that Ohio whether can change pretty quickly. I woke up this morning and it was pouring and after getting ready around 8:30 I waited a few minutes to see if it would change (the rain was coming in waves). After it lightened up slightly I took off only for it to pour again by the time I reached the end of the road. By the time I got to work I was soaked. Thankfully I plan ahead and always bike in gym clothes and change there. This is nice because it gives me something dry and clean to wear at work and gives me clothes to take to the gym immediately after work. Within 30 minutes of being at work, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It was clear all day till 7 pm, when I was finishing up my work, and by 8 it was pouring again when I finished for the day. i just gutted it out and biked home getting soaked in the process but sure enough an hour after I'm back the sun is out again. After being caught in the rain a few times I think I should just stash my raincoat in my backpack for all times just in case.

New formats

I have decided to play around with the format a bit to make my blog look better. Bare with me during these fickle times for me.

Reflection on previous post

So today at lunch several members of the lab and I had a conversation about how crazy the Olympics were (which relates to my previous post). For instance, the New York Times posted an article which compares the top runners and swimmers of today (Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps) to every Olympic Gold Medalist going back to 1896 and the consistent progression of better times each year.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/05/sports/olympics/the-100-meter-dash-one-race-every-medalist-ever.html?hp
This article poses the question "How fast are we capable of going." Each year, multiple World Records are broken at the Olympics and have been since I've started watching. World Records are broken so often I've even stopped being surprised. Today we debated what could be done for them to go faster and just how fast a human is capable of going based off of new training techniques, changing technology, and nutrition.
The pressure in some of the events is just absolutely enormous to. For instance in gymastics, you work all your life to get there and only do your routine one time in the finals and thus one slip will completely ruin your dream. In track, a false start or even a slow also means the end of your dream (although runners and swimmers often make multiple Olympics unlike gymnasts). I personally always chuckle at events like swimming or track because the athletes train non stop for 4 years for these finals and they take a very small amount of time to actually be completed (for example the 100 meter dash is less than 10 seconds). Those 10 seconds however mean the difference between anomity and immortality in the running world.

The ugly side of this Olympics

Although I feel bad laughing at this guy, this is pretty hillarious.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/diving/highlights-german-diver-lands-on-back.html

Some pics

After Happy Hour Friday on High Street, I walked back across campus to the BRT (Biomedical Research Tower) where my bike was to head home and noticed some nice photo opportunities along the way. The top one is the view of the intramural fields from the base of the BRT. Behind is the famous Ohio Stadium. The second is Mirror Lake on Neil Avenue in the heart of campus. Mirror Lake is famous for the "Mirror Lake Plunge" that occurs the week before Ohio State plays Michigan in football when the entire student body congregates around the lake and the bold jump into the lake in the November weather. But in the late evening it happened to be a pretty scene.