Anonymous Confessions Online

In case you're not in the know, the Spring 2007 Berkeley Anonymous Confessions is online. Come procrastinate studying--or if you have come to terms with your inability to study, come spend your freetime-- by reading others' secrets. And post your own....

Grinding Organs

In our decal class today, instead of the usual workshop, we encountered a short free-writing prompt given by our gracious, facilitating host. No rules, no restraints, just write for a bit of time. So I did, and I think some of my personal life has rubbed its way into my writing (god forbid), but I hope to start writing more frequently on other topics soon enough. This is fiction, by the way.

***

I grind organs. All afternoon of every day last week, and every day thereafter, I've extracted little clumps of living tissue from freshly euthanized animals. Their bodies are still warm when I make my incision, and fondle their insides for ripe targets. Isolated in plastic containers, I line up my specimens next to a complicated-looking lab instrument that resembles a power drill with a blunt bit. I turn on my tool and

I grind.

"There's little we can do to change this"
"Please..."
"You've not been honest with me"
"Please..."

My hand cramps from the effort and my nose protests the scent. Slowly, slowly the organs break down. Flecks of tissue climb the test tubes' sides. Guts, brains and all, dissolve into a lumpy lubricant for another machine.

"We can't go back to what we had"
"Please..."

When I grind organs, I must focus my attention on the heart.

"Please forgive and forget me"

Muscle turns to fibers turn to loose threads, and I continue to grind. The heart is the hardest organ to break. But it always does.

sleepytiredstressedgiraffes

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I think I'm getting back on track now. I've kept myself sane by watching Robot Chicken, over and over and over again:

Daily Cal and (another) Intro

Welcome to all 7 of you who found this blog from the Daily Cal article "Blogging Berkeley". Yes, please read on in good health and humor and feel free to leave comments and feedback, although I must caution that all of you simply must control your raging Firefox browsers, as bandwidth doesn't grow on trees, y'know. Hippies, yes. Bandwidth: no no no.

I had thought being plugged in a newspaper would feel somewhat more momentous then it does now. But I shan't complain. I'll instead give some background for this blog and this author's ideation.

I started "The Catalytic Triad" in July 2006 as a response to what I've experienced in blogging communities both here in Berkeley and afar, and as a chance for personal growth. Blogging offers an open forum for folks to circulate different perspectives regarding all kinds of issues, and reading these can be as educational as it is enjoyable; there is a wealth of good writing that can be found within many blogs, offering insightful analysis, witty humor, and a powerful voice.

I’m fond of the different perspectives and styles I’ve read from bloggers whom I admire, and so I thought I’d also contribute my voice and perspective to the forum. Writing has also been a great way to sort my thoughts and stances on various issues, and to push myself into being more informed of issues that interest me.

The title of my blog espouses some of my motivations for writing: I believe that science, education, and progressive policy will most effectively promote the formation of a technologically-sound, socially-just, free-thinking society, one that isn't afraid to address questions of where we came from, nor one that acts myopically in its treatment of different cultures and norms. As a student, I choose to act on these by first educating myself, and then by educating others. My blog is one venue for that. My job on Hall Staff is another.

And in the nearby future, Teach For America will also be one. After graduation, I’ll be beginning my summer training to become a teacher, since I will be teaching secondary biology come this September. By that point there will be a million more ideas that I will want to write about. Consequently, this blog has taken up permanent residence for the foreseeable future.

One of my favorite memories of blogging is also one of my worst, because it involves a news story that broke my heart—the tragic story of Melinda Duckett. Writing of her account and the media pundits that disgraced her was a cathartic experience for me: writing gave me a way to express my grief, while the power of blogs allowed my thoughts to reach out and persuade others. The whole experience reinforced the importance of having a persuasive voice in a public forum, and of taking an ardent stand on subjects one feels strongly for.

A Brief Disclaimer

We had our first DeCal writing workshop Monday evening, where we all got a chance to critique a few compositions written by members of the class, and I noticed that perhaps it would be helpful to identify my purpose in maintaining this blog and my interests in writing.

The tagline really says it all: I’m a progressive-minded aspiring science teacher who strives for social justice. That’s me. True colors indeed.

My blog’s name is actually a neat little scientific concept that ties my interests together, as I wrote way back in July:

As for the fancy title: the term "catalytic triad" describes the mechanism in which a large protein, in our case an enzyme, can catalyze the cleavage of parts of other proteins, normally for digestion. The area of the enzyme that manages this, the active site, has 3 separate functional parts that are specifically arranged to interact and cut proteins along certain folds. Without these 3 parts perfectly arranged in proximity, the enzyme loses its function, and its purpose in a living organism.

The idea of 3 parts working in concert to promote change in the system is one that best describes my motivation to begin writing here: together, science, education, and progressive policy will most effectively promote the formation of a technologically-sound, socially-just, free-thinking society, one that isn't afraid to address questions of where we came from, nor one that acts myopically in its treatment of different cultures and norms. Just as with the enzyme, if any one of these ideas is absent from our collective thoughts, there can be no forward progress. To put it chemically: We need to catalyze the change we wish to see in the world.

Since I started writing here, I’ve assimilated styles of writing from blogs that I frequent and adore—a few are listed in the blogroll to the right. Post content and styles vary from personal to professional, from salient to silly, from responses to news articles to relishing Cal Football’s victories. As a blogger, I use my voice to catalyze change in the areas that I am passionate about. And yeah, from time to time I deviate from this path to have some fun, but for the most part I follow clear goals I set for myself.

It all comes down to this: I want to persuade you, the reader. I want you to leave this website with some information you hadn’t known or hadn’t thought of prior. I know that the Berkeley bubble is a blessed place for folks of my political persuasion, but I also see lots that could be changed even within the confines of this city, such as attention to aspects of diversity. And if you're not from around here, maybe you'll take more away from what I write. Who knows?

I’m also not exactly writing just for you. I’m writing for myself, to sort out my thoughts on these topics. I’m writing for my ideological opponents, who scoff at issues of diversity and education. I’m writing for the sake of writing. You are more than welcome to come along for the ride. Enjoy yourself. Write me comments. I appreciate the feedback and advice.

New Blogger

I don't want the new blogger. Leemeelone, I tells them. But it's mandatory now, and so it shall be done.

We're now broadcasting to you live from the new version of blogger. I had heard stories that my commenting service HaloScan does not like this new version, but I'm really hoping they were filthy lies and I don't have to rework the template or anything.

Consider this a test post.

Blogging Begins

Writing boot camp has begun! Well, not really.

“The Weblog as a Medium for Nonfiction Creative Writing” met for the first time this semester just a few hours ago. Upon arriving at the white-spotted Barrows Hall, a building very becoming of our campus, I followed some dilapidated signage downstairs and across a pale checkered floor to the smallest classroom I’ve ever seen in my life. A walk-in closet with desks. At this point my grand expectations now felt somewhat limited, if you will.

Class started with the characteristic DeCal start: a chatty first-year asks if this is “that one seminar”, passively argues with facilitator about telebears troubles and miscommunication, leaves, and stifled awkwardness ensues.

The classroom size obviously was not a big help at this point: students were forced to sit and face every which way to fit desks/backpacks/bodies/children together, but we managed.

Our facilitator was also new to DeCals, nervous and green with respect to blogs: he’s never made one himself. His intentions are still golden, though, and this class still intends to focus on developing better writers and expanding writing ability within the context of nonfiction writing through peer critiques, workshops, and written prose.

Each week we are expected to write:

1) Separate appraisals for 4 different writing samples from other students to give feedback on writing styles, and

2) 5 entries on any topic that we want, with 1 of these owning some size superiority in relation to our other 4 works, and

3) A 5-10 page final paper on whatevah.

Lots and lots of writing.

Fortunately, of these writing samples, we are unrestricted either in subject or style, so long as we write. This post counts, too. Hell, this might even count for one of those weekly biggies. Maybe this won’t be so difficult.

Digital Bling

NYT has a short on 'widgets', or mini-applications adorning blogs that are becoming increasingly popular and appealing to use:

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, about 12 million Americans now maintain a blog. Widgets are elements, often in the left or right columns of a blog, that enhance its usefulness or aesthetic appeal. (The term “widgets,” confusingly, can also refer to compact applications that operate on a computer’s desktop.)

...

But while widgets are growing in popularity — the first major conference dedicated to “the emerging widget economy” was held in November in San Francisco — they can still be perplexing to bloggers and readers. And some are wondering whether a blog can become weighed down by too many widgets.

There was a conference on the widget economy? Get in on this booming market at widgetbox.com.

Berkeley Blogging

The Berkeley blogosphere needs your help! Tens of thousands of students attend Cal, all hailing from a wide array of backgrounds and comprising a subset of the diversity found all over the world, yet weblogs, a new and increasingly useful medium for disseminating information, portraying perspectives, and accentuating activism, are only utilized by a select few. As technology rapidly advances, it seems college students here are inapt to embracing it.

A new class offered this Spring, "The Weblog as a Medium for Nonfiction Creative Writing", seeks to change that. I encourage readers who attend Cal to consider enrolling in this class, to better your writing skills and to add to the voice we Golden Bears have on the web. Why not start your own blog today, and get some practice before class begins?

Back again

And after a torturous finals week, we are back to our regularly scheduled blogging, and I'm back in San Jose for two weeks.

I'm thinking of changing the template around slightly (as I've done somewhat already), but will wait for further divine inspiration (or feedback) for what exactly that will entail.

Blogs (and a departure from studying)

The Berkeley blogging atmosphere is a trifle stuffy lately, what with the lack of everyone's will to write anything of value. Finals week has a way of crippling the collective will to create.

And, try as I may (and I have), I just cannot get into the Berkeley livejournal speek. Don't tell me what to confess anonymously, oh random wretches of cyberspace.

But I do enjoy pixelated goodness.

Webcasts

I've added a link that will be new to those of you non-Cal students: Berkeley Webcasts. It is a listing of recorded events and class lecturers that anyone may peruse at any time. It is definitely a step in the right direction in making school more accessible to everyone, and I'm glad the number of classes and events that are recorded seem to be increasing as of late.

Note: See those 2 MCB courses, 102 and 110? I (need to) see them a lot, myself, to prepare for another round of GREs, biochem-style. Irk.

Where do we go from here?

This will mark my last official week of my blessed summer, as I will be moving again from this summer apartment sublet of mine back into the dorms, where we'll start another intense 2 weeks of Hall Staff training followed by a welcome week with exceedingly younger freshmen (class of 2010!).

During that time I will be mostly preoccupied with all-day training sessions and meeting new staff, so I'm not betting on any long-winded posts, although I still will be checking in *hopefully* every other day. I'm going to try and say a few words about aspects of diversity that we touch on during training, about acknowledging their importance in facilitating a cohesive and supportive community. Last year's training was replete with lasting conversations and alternative perspectives, and if this year runs the same way, I will have a lot of information to distill into this blog.

In the meantime, I'll be continually working as an undergrad slave researcher, and studying for the GREs which happen to be coming up on Friday. I'll wager you'll see a post or two on these topics as well.

The next dimension... and then some

As an exciting new beginning to my long-term residency on the internet, I've started up this sparkling new "web log" as an outlet to organize my thoughts and, maybe, express them.

As for the fancy title: the term "catalytic triad" describes the mechanism in which a large protein, an enzyme called chymotrypsin, can catalyze the cleavage of parts of other proteins, normally for digestive purposes. The area of the enzyme that does the bulk of the work, or the active site, has 3 separate functional parts that are arranged in space to interact together to cut a protein along certain sites. Without these 3 perfectly arranged in proximity, the enzyme loses its function, and its purpose in a living organism.

The idea of 3 parts working in concert to promote change in the system is one that best describes my motivation to begin writing here: together, science, education, and progressive policy will most effectively promote the formation of a technologically-sound, socially-just, free-thinking society, one that isn't afraid to address questions of where we came from, nor one that acts myopically in its treatment of different cultures and norms. Just as with the enzyme, if any one of these ideas is absent from our collective thoughts, there can be no forward progress. To put it chemically: We need to catalyze the change we wish to see in this world.

Aside from a passion for human progress and knowledge, I like to waste time on the internet (who doesn't?). I'm sure this aim will also be forwarded frequently amidst my entries, as is the case for this one:

How many dimensions are you experiencing currently (assuming no drug use, and that you're relatively sane)? Can you imagine life in several additional dimensions? What about the big 1-0? The Tenth Dimension has a mind-bending flash movie on imagining such a concept. Whoa.