Early morning lab worker, teil zwei

Monday didn't go so hot. If things aren't off the chain this afternoon, I am going to start panicking.

I've been re-reading Bulfinch's Mythology and learned the origin of that word, panic. I don't know why, but I've always really liked reading about mythology from all over. I even like reading several different accounts of the same myths. It's just very entertaining to me. I suppose it's further indication that I am in fact in the wrong field. Maybe this week is just the powers that be trying to tell me to get out of the lab and hop a flight to some obscure archaeological site in the Holy Land.

I think my kidney hurts.

My grades from winter quarter came back. Thermodynamics was to winter quarter what biochemistry was to fall. At some point in my college career, I got really good at knowing when to cut my losses and focus on the classes I actually understand, so my quarterly and cumulative GPAs are fine. Not that I'm terribly concerned with either so long as I can keep it above the threshold for finishing with Honors. Of course, if my experiment today fails like Monday's, I won't have a thesis, and therefore won't be able to get Honors anyway. I've come to grips with it not being the end of the world, but I think I would be pretty disappointed.

Charles Mudede at The Stranger wrote a kind of amazing article on Vampire Weekend. My own ranting diatribes had mostly focused on their being pretentious, overrated Ivy League snobs, but I think Mudede raises some good points. Plus, using terms like "postcolonialism" and "cultural appropriation" makes the whole argument sound really, really smart and legitimate.