The Work Week

I've almost completed a full week of work now and the week seemed to stretch on forever. It wasn't entirely unenjoyable, however, and I feel I am settling in well and will hopefully be given a wider variety of assignments as time goes on. One thing I appreciate is not having homework/studying to do. When my day ends, it ends and that is definitely something I am relishing in. Also, I appreciate my time more now that it is quite limited.
With my gym membership it is great to exercise after work because by 5 pm I am aching to release massive amounts of pent up energy. So I am trying to get to the fitness center at the very least 3 times per week.
What's on the agenda for the weekend? Not sure yet, but I'm going to love it. Oysters and 80s night at Lola's on Friday for now.
I have a Cormac McCarthy book on hold at the library. I've rarely ever had to place a book on hold, but in a city like Portland, everyone reads. I want to read "The Road" before the movie version comes out. It seems like a pretty intense one, according to Ma who read it on the diving boat in Indonesia after her root canal some time ago.
But the living is good here.
I wonder how Dave is doing in Africa....
well i'm settling into a routine pretty quickly. i have lots of ideas in my mind but no sense of how to organize them yet.

the job: day 1

First day on the job went alright... much of the day was taken up with more in-depth orientation and being taken out to lunch, got to hear vague news of the upcoming 20th anniversary party that has a "Great Gatsby" theme. I hear this company does parties big...
It'll take some time to settle in and figure out what's going on; although I don't think it should be too difficult to get the hang of my day-in-day-out tasks. I'm excited for the point where I am comfortable with the people and what I do.
Other than that, I set up my gym membership and therefore at $30/mo am gonna be more motivated to actually use it. One of the greatest things about this transition from school to full-time employment is the lack of homework. I keep having dreams that I have assignments due and feel so glad to wake up without any impending shit. I will get to missing the learning and science however when the monotony of data-entry becomes more apparent to me.
For the mean time though I am excited to live in Portland, more excited than before. In the college bubble I feel it was hard for me to appreciate Oregon for all the wonderful places and activities it can offer. The coast trip with my ma helped open my eyes to what a diverse state this truly is. But I still don't think I wanna tough it out one more winter... perhaps this is the last summer for me to soak it all up like a sponge.. for a while at least. It's too early to tell anyway.
Up on the horizon: weekend after 4th of July is Oregon Country Fair, which is 13 miles west of Eugene in a town called Veneta. I can't wait...

Graduation Day!

Now comes the post-graduation wind-down. It was quite a rush having everyone flood into Eugene for a weekend (that is: Grandmother and Granddad, Ma, Ba and Jan, Aunt Beth and Anna, Shawna, Julian and Alexei) and then suddenly disappear, followed by an awesome vacation period with Ma in and around some unique spots in Oregon.
My internship starts on Monday and I'm feeling subtly nervous, still unsure as to whether I'm gonna need to throw down the money on a tailored business suit or whether a dark gray sports jacket to match my dark pants will suffice for my daily attire. I don't know quite what to expect, as is the case with most things that are new to me so I guess I will just have to dive right in the day after tomorrow and figure it out on my own.
Graduation was fun, a rush and almost a dream. During the whole build-up I didn't get much sleep on account of finals and then during the weekend still not a lot of rest on account of Julian. But it was a whole lot of fun and definitely quite a bit of British TV impressions on the part of the Brothers Ku.
Then Julian and Alexei went back to Denver, Shawna started full-time at Nia, and the Grandparents left for Iowa. So Ma and I spent the entirety of Monday up near the Columbia River Gorge on a 12-mile hike along Eagle Creek. Along the way we passed several amazing waterfalls, the most grand of which was the very last, Tunnel Falls, which allowed passage behind the massive waterfall. Words would fall far short of a good description, so pictures may be the best way to describe how awesome this area was.
The next three days Ma and I went on a short road trip to coastal Oregon, starting with Astoria where we found "The Goonies" house, the "Kindergarten Cop" school, and loads of old-school Scandanavian architecture. Astoria is a really cool place for a weekend visit with loads of beautiful access points to where the mighty Pacific meets the Columbia River. Also, it was interesting retracing steps of Lewis and Clark, the latter of which we are directly related to on Grandmother's lineage.
Next we went to Cannon Beach which was touristy but still it was great to be on the beach and see some sunshine. And lastly, we stopped in McMinville to see Great Aunt Kathy and Nick for some wine-tasting in Carlton. We went to a small boutique winery where the wine-maker was present to describe his craft. He was a personal friend of Aunt Kathy's and he was extremely knowledgeable about the stuff. He said something like, "each wine is an expression of a different time and different place" which blew me away for some reason and I felt like I was in that movie "Sideways." I imagined Dave and I reinacting that movie, albeit not quite verbatim: I would be the sour balding writer and he'd be the dude-ish aspiring actor driving around the vineyards.
Anyway it was an awesome graduation trip of sorts with my mama and of course a good segue between senior year of college and the workforce.
And now I have moved in with Shawna and we have been organizing and cleaning up the apartment, gearing up for this summer. It looks like it will be exciting, as soon as the weather becomes consistently good. Since Shawna just bought a car we will have better and more efficient access to plenty of places in and around Portland to make the most of the weekends. So I am pretty excited for this summer and hopefully amidst the work and the adventures we will be able to figure out our plans for the autumn.
Until next time, I will be adjusting to the full-time work week, adjusting to the environment of my new job, and figuring out how to maximize and utilize my free, homeworkless time.














Astoria-Megler bridge that connects OR and WA














Outside "The Goonies" house















Punchbowl Falls






















Tunnel Falls

Tetanus vs. Botulinum

A little essay question I answered as part of my protein toxins class; more relevant things to write later....

Although the molecular mechanisms of both botulinum and tetanus neurotoxins are highly homologous, each one’s resulting symptoms are rather different. Both toxins are produced by bacteria of the genus Clostridium and are composed of a heavy (H) and a light (L) chain connected by a disulfide bond that act as binding and active subunits, respectively. Evidence has suggested that botulinum (BoNT) and tetanus (TeNT) toxins require at least two cellular receptors, many of which are presently unknown. It is believed that all serotypes of BoNT as well as TeNT will bind ganglioside lipids such as G_M1, GT, and GDb1, albeit with low affinity. The idea behind this is that low-affinity binding to gangliosides allows for localization of the toxins at the neuronal surface, after which they may be internalized into a synaptic vesicle. The process of internalization would then require a second receptor with a higher affinity for binding the toxin. Studies have identified a few protein receptors, including the luminal domain of SV2 for BoNT serotype A, the luminal domain of synaptotagmin for BoNT serotypes B and G, as well as a GPI-anchored protein Thy-1 for TeNT. It is believed that TeNT has even more hitherto undiscovered receptors since its mechanism involves extra trafficking. Regardless, the notion of multiple receptors for these two types of toxins would give support for the neurospecificity seen in each case.

Both tetanus and botulinum toxins are endocytosed into synaptic vesicles according to their high-affinity binding to synaptic vesicle proteins. While different serotypes of BoNT cleave various SNARE proteins involved in binding and docking of vesicles with the synaptic membrane, for the purposes of comparison, serotype B (BoNT/B) will be discussed exclusively in relation to the enzymatic activity of tetanus toxin. After TeNT and BoNT/B bind the synaptic membrane and are subsequently internalized, the light chain will be pushed onto the vesicular surface with the help of the heavy chain’s translocation domain. Once exposed, the light chain causes proteolytic cleavage of VAMP/synaptobrevin, which is a v-SNARE. Although both neurotoxins cleave at the same amino acid bond in VAMP/synaptobrevin, the resulting symptoms are actually opposite one another. Whereas botulinum toxin induces flaccid paralysis in muscles, tetanus toxin’s effect is a spastic paralysis. The reason for these starkly opposing symptoms is ultimately attributed to the specific location at which the toxins are shown to act.

The effects of BoNT are localized at the presynaptic cleft of a neuromuscular junction. At this location, the toxin has been taken into synaptic vesicles and it cleaves VAMP; as a consequence, the toxin blocks other vesicles from the ability to bind to corresponding t-SNARES on the synaptic membrane, followed by fusion and release acetylcholine neurotransmitter via exocytosis. Thus, motor signals that are sent along neurons to affect muscle fibers are completely blocked due to the inhibition of acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction and the intoxicated animal suffers a flaccid muscle paralysis. While tetanus toxin cleaves the same v-SNARE protein, its action is seen elsewhere in the neuron. Interestingly, whereas BoNT is largely focused at the presynaptic membrane of the neuromuscular junction, TeNT is retrogradely trafficked to the cell body of the motor neuron following its internalization into a vesicle. Reaching the cell body, tetanus toxin is delivered into the presynaptic terminal of inhibitory interneurons that normally send a signal to keep muscle tissues from contracting. At this point, TeNT executes its action of VAMP cleavage, thereby blocking the release of inhibitory neurotransmitter much like BoNT does to stimulatory signals at the neuromuscular junction. The result of this blockage of inhibitory input into the motor neuron leads to excessive activity, wherein stimulatory neurotransmitter is released further downstream at the neuromuscular junction without an opposing signal to control it, and thus a spastic muscle paralysis associated with tetanus toxin ensues.

less than 24 hrs

Tomorrow at approx. 10 am I finish my last exam of my undergraduate college career. So far it doesn't seem very climactic, but it hasn't quite sunk in yet that the whole family is coming barreling into Oregon within these next couple of days.
June 22nd I start work as an intern for an educational consulting company where I'll be doing data-entry for a pretty penny. Come fall I don't know what will happen, but Shawna and I would like to move out of Oregon, and I personally want to keep close to a scientific field if I can.
I really don't understand where the time went... half a year ago I was still recovering from jet-lag after a journey over the Pacific Ocean.
Everyone is telling me I should be excited, but truth be told I do not know what to feel. Surely I am excited about the family reunion... I'm excited about this summer to a certain degree. It's been awhile since I worked full-time, and even then I was a manual laborer. Now I need to acclimate to the office environment: neck-ties, good posture, smiles, simulated and regurgitated conversation, business-speak. But I think it can be a wonderful experience in some respects as well.
Here I will be in Portland this summer, hopefully saving up money and having a good time; Dave is in Africa for a month (first Carter to step foot on the 'dark continent'?) followed by forestry research in Wisconsin; Erik Schuessler is working for EPIC in Madison, WI, probably up to his usual antics and dating a Jewish girl; Ryan will be doing some sort of sales internship for his aunt over in Ohio, the place he seems to thrive in; Seth just started EMT classes in preparation for becoming a paramedic while still hanging on to his graveyard shift job at the veterinary lab; Brian is working for his older brother Jeff (who is poised to get married in November [will be trying my best to make it back home for that]), and doing the long-distance-thing with his girlfriend who lives in Springfield, IL; Simon is working from home in the air-conditioning where he thrives most as a customer support line for people with I-pod/phone problems, Eric Hsu is working on Wall Street in something investment bank related don't really know before going back to Michigan for his senior yr; no idea what Eric E. is doing...
Whatever the circumstances, I will be making it home for Christmas this year and hope to meet with all of those I just mentioned (maybe not Simon since he is in California after all) and be able to catch up at length. As for now, the team huddle is broken.

public speaking

Minutes before my presentation for Protein Toxins in Cell Biology class, the heavy curtain over the window blew open slightly as though guided by some benevolent hand to give me fresh air from the outside. Usually at this time my heart is racing and I feel adrenalin being dumped into my bloodstream by the spoonful. But I felt strangely calm. I thought of my friend Ryan all of the sudden, the words he had said to me the last time we spoke on the phone, which was the beginning of the term. I told him about this class in detail, how it was a discussion-based biology course that focused on the use of protein toxins as molecular scalpels to learn aspects of cell physiology. He was really good and passionate with biology back in high school, as I remember. Our conversation over the phone found him two thousand miles away and drunk and alone on his couch in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He told me that night that I was doing the right thing, whatever path he envisioned me taking these days. That stuck with me. I thought about that before my presentation, and any trace of nervousness or self-consciousness vanished from my system as I took center stage.

For Shawna

Raining and snowing off and on all day
and then only clouds overhead,
sunshine at last burst through
in a few invigorating rays
to light up the place.
And it made me think of your smile,
the way it brightens any moment
of mine; your smile
I know was meant for me
like a ray from my own private sun
no one else who sees your smile
could absorb it like I do.