.the gpb kids.

I haven’t read too many comics in my day. I never really got into them while I was growing up. I read a few Daredevil and Darkhawk books, and some of my brother’s Spawn collection, but that was pretty much it. However, over the past year or so, a couple of series have caught my attention.

At the recommendation of a few people, I started reading The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. The setting is your typical zombie apocalypse. The main character, Rick Grimes, awakens from a coma to a world that’s already overrun. Thankfully this series doesn’t use those popular new-age zombies that can run and jump and climb and such. These are the classic groaning, bumbling zombies, that overwhelm with numbers. The series focuses on how Rick and co. cope with their new world. I’ve read through the first ten trade paper back volumes so far and I’m itching for the next one.

Y: The Last Man is apocalypse series I just started reading. In this one, Yorick Brown is literally the last man on earth. He and his monkey are the last male animals. I’m reading this one at the recommendation of a few people too. I’m only two books in, but so far it’s pretty good, even though I find Yorick pretty annoying. This series has already wrapped up so I could potentially just buy the rest of the books, but I think I’ll try borrowing them from someone first, and buy if I like it.

Next Tuesday begins four weeks of gaming madness for me. Seven titles are coming out in that time frame that I want to play. That’s over $300! (Don’t tell my lady.) Let’s run down the list.

Napoleon: Total War (Feb 23)

Despite its flaws, I loved Empire: Total War. It’s surprising to see a full sized release within a year of the previous game, but who am I to complain. I’m hoping they’ve cleared up some of the weird AI issues but I think I’d be pretty satisfied if was just an expansion.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (March 2)

I’ve purchased all of the Battlefield titles starting with Battlefield 2. The large maps, squad tactics and vehicle battles have improved with each iteration. And I think 2008’s Bad Company took everyone by surprise by adding a solid single player campaign to go along with the established multi-player experience that the Battlefield franchise is known for. From what I’ve played in the beta and demo, Bad Company 2 looks to be another great Battlefield title.

Supreme Commander 2 (March 2)

When I first played Supreme Commander in 2007 I thought it was going to change the genre. I remember seeing Company of Heroes at E3 that year and asking the attendant “Is that as far as you can zoom out?” The guy looked at me with contempt before his truncated “yes.” Three years later and it’s hard to believe that every RTS game has not adopted the ability to zoom out enough to see the entire map. I’m ready for more large scale warfare with looping factory queues, complicated patrol routes and synchronized, multi-faceted attacks.

Final Fantasy XIII (March 9)

The last final fantasy game that I played was Final Fantasy IX. The last one that I beat was Final Fantasy VI. This is the first time I’ve been interested in the Final Fantasy series in a long time. This isn’t a definite purchase for me yet but I’m feeling pretty optimistic about riding chocobos in the near future.

Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising (March 12)

I bought Dawn of War and all of its expansions and when I first played the second game I was disappointed to only play with four units instead of the army that I had previously commanded. But that disappointed quickly evaporated as I got deeper into the game. The RPG elements took over and I became engrossed enough to play through the campaign once on normal and again on the most difficult setting of primarch. I still harass snider and try to get him to play co-op with me. So I’m excited to play through another campaign and renew my co-op harassment.

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (March 16)

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed playing Command & Conquer 3. Previously I wasn’t much of a fan to the series, but the latest installment felt so polished that I quickly played through each of the campaigns. This is another game that I’m not positive I’ll buy, but I’m eager to find out how the addition of classes (offense, defense, support) changes the game. I’m more of a defensive RTS player myself.

God of War III (March 16)

Back in 2007, God of War II marked the end of the PlayStation 2 for me. It was the last game that I played on that console and even though I have a PS3 with backwards compatibility, I haven’t played a PS2 title since then. I was impressed with the GoW visuals in 2007 and from what I’ve seen of God of War III, I will not be disappointed.

So there it is, my next four weeks, all planned out.

In the event of a zombie apocalypse, perhaps we can use our garden plants to protect us.

Today I was testing out a protocol for isolating DNA from a strawberry for class tomorrow. It worked beautifully. That white slimy stuff on the stick is the DNA. As well as the bubbly wispy strands floating in the clear portion of the solution. Materials used: strawberries, dishwashing liquid, water, salt and cold 95% ethanol (well, -20C actually).

Protocol taken from The Tech Museum

Each strawberry yields around 25 mls of strawberry extract- enough for 25 students.

For 3 strawberries:
~1/2 tsp salt (2.5 g)
~1/3 cup H2O (80 ml)
~1 tbs liquid detergent (15 ml)
~Chill ethanol (rubbing alc should be fine; no need to break out the Everclear) in freezer

1. Mix salt, water, and detergent together in a bowl to make the extraction liquid. This is double what you need in case you mess up. (~1 tbsp/strawberry).
2. Squish strawberries in a plastic bag.
3. Add 3 tbsp (45 ml) extraction liquid. Squish thoroughly.
4. Strain through a cheesecloth.
5. Aliquot ~1ml, or more, into each tube.
6. Slowly add cold ethanol on top. DNA precipitates at the interface.

I inoculated some media with bacteria to grow overnight so I could make some stocks. When I came back the next morning, I noticed something odd. The culture on the right should look just like the culture on the left. Instead, it looks purple, and the cells don’t look very happy! Apparently, sometimes autoclaved toothpicks can cause this. My poor bacteria got the short end of the stick. Poor unhappy bacteria T_T In the  6 years that I’ve used toothpicks  to inoculate media, this is the first time that I’ve seen this. I guess I should use a different method from now on. Just in case. How curious.

So we had our dept Halloween Party today, and there was a costume contest. 3 of us decided to be a “Ferrous Wheel” because we though it would be very punny (ehehe) with our Fe2+ (ferrous iron). So half an hour before the party, we made big cardboard raindrops with Fe2+ written in glitter glue, and when our turn came about, we linked arms and spun round and round to be the “wheel”. People seemed to enjoy our joke, and we almost won. The group that beat us out was a production put on by this entire lab. They were all parts of a gigantic magnetotactic bacteria. They obviously put in way more effort than us. So I was surprised by how much applause we got. I think they liked that we danced around in a circle. But next year… we shall totally own them.

This short video made me really nostalgic for Berkeley and the College of Natural Resources. This girl looks like she followed a similar routine as me. Class, work at the Botanical Garden, study, hang out. I even recognize the bus driver.

Ah memories.

This frustrated me for like an hour today. The problem is that in JavaScript, arrays are treated like objects and are referenced when you really want to clone them. See embed.

Trying out the wordpress app.

That is all.