"You're mom is really nice."

     I shall be taking chemistry at Cal Poly this quarter - CHM 121: General Chemistry, to be exact.  Huzzah.  Good-bye for now, math.  I shall revisit you frequently, though, I promise.  Taking this class will prepare me to enter a higher chemistry class at Pomona and allow me to better understand the papers I am reading for senior project.  I hadn't anticipated how chemistry and molecular biology-based the answers to my EQs would end up being - all this talk of synthesizing organic macromolecules, transesterifying biomass in biodiesel production, and redox-based fuel cells.

It can be a bit lofty at times.  

Oh Bird of Knowledge, give me a feather.

     For that reason, this chemistry class shall be a part of my independent component, accompanying the systems biology class I am taking on Coursera.  It's going well, by the way.  I'm almost done with the first assignment, which entails that I give short answers to questions regarding short papers on biology databases like PubMed, Gene, and UniProt.  The videos this week covered what systems biology, bottom-up and top-down approaches to viewing a system, and doe detail on cycle adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and its role in certain signaling pathways.  

     You see, cells and constantly responding to stimuli that one can think of as new information - just as us humans respond to new things were learn.  If I learn that one college is giving me more financial aid than another, I will act accordingly.  In order for the cell to respond, though, that information must be translated into intercellular language that components in the cell can understand.  This is done via signaling pathways wherein information is passed on down the line in a "bucket brigade" manner - like a bucket of water passed form hand to hand until it reaches the fire.  This process is called "transduction" and is a hot topic in biochemistry, according to this cool blog post: http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2007/05/regulating-glycogen-metabolism.html.  

This shows the path from hormone to cellular response,
found and explained more thoroughly on the blog I mentioned. 

     This is how hormones affect our moods.  The hormone binds to a receptor on the cell, the signal goes down a signaling pathway until it is an an intracellularly (meaning "inside cell") understandable form, whence it affects a physiological function and elicits the results it is meant to.

     I shall attend my first class with this professor (having tried to add myself to another professor's class at the time Labadzhyan's class took place on Wednesday) tomorrow at 2:00PM.  Mentorship shall now have to take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Things are looking good - 'tis now a matter of juggling core, Cal Poly, Coursera, my independent endeavors regarding differential equations, and getting the paperwork in for college and scholarships popping up.  When May rolls around, classes at Pasadena Community College will open up, so that shall add another scintillating layer to my life.  Gosh, it's all moving so quickly - kind of hard to not get swallowed by "the machine" (On the Road reference - that book is quite a trip, and not just figuratively).  

   Mom, Robert and I went to the bookstore together to buy my chem. book.  As she paid for it, the cashier guy turned to me and said, "You're mom is really nice."  As we walked away, he iterated his comment with a smile.  Yes, she's awesome, actually.  I realize more and more each week how she's much of why I am who I am - her and my Dad.

As I near graduation, I find that realizations like these are important.