Happy Veterans Day!

I love that the Boy Scouts from our ward come and put a big flag in our yard on patriotic holidays. First of all, it reminds me that there actually is a holiday, but it also fills me with love and gratitude for our nation to see our flag waving in the breeze.

Today is one of those days.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 the World War I Armistice was signed by Germany, ending the war. Thus November 11 used to be known as Armistice Day until the 50's when it was renamed Veterans Day to honor all veterans, not just those who served in WWI. How grateful I am for all those who have served in the military in various capacities to guard and protect our nation and others, as well.

I'm taking a class right now that I would HIGHLY recommend to all BYU students. It's called The Pen and the Sword. There are two semesters of it, Honors 201 and Honors 202, one dealing with history before 1500, the other with history from 1500-present. The whole class is about war in literature and how humans have viewed war, waged war, and resolved conflicts throughout history. We have read works ranging from the Iliad to Socrates to the book of Genesis trying to understand why we as humans are constantly angry and fighting. One of the themes of the class is whether or not peace is even possible, and if it is, what peace even means. Does peace mean signing a cease fire, as they did in WWI? I don't believe that anyone could argue that the end of WWI brought peace at all, even though everyone's troops went home...

My professor, world renown Egyptologist Wilfred C. Griggs has been teaching this class for over 20 years and he said that every year that he has taught the class there has been a major war somewhere in the world. Scary, right? Why does it have to be this way? Why can't we all just get along? Throughout this semester, I have had huge personal realizations regarding the way I view human nature, foreign policy, and what it truly means to be a hero. Thus I will and this short musing by saying that I believe that those who willingly enlist to serve our nation in the military are true heros, while those who get fat sitting in the seats of Congress mostly are not...

Happy Veterans Day to you all. I hope you take some time today to think about what freedom means to you, and think of all those who have made tremendous personal sacrifices so that we can enjoy that freedom every day. And don't forget to hug a veteran!

Who doesn't love J-Dawgs?

Seriously though. I think it's near impossible to eat a fresh-off-the-grill J-Dawgs' hot dog and not love every bite of it... Unless you're a vegetarian, which I used to be (yes, used to be.. as in, not anymore).

Anyway, the point of this post is not an advertisement for them, but a little tidbit of news. While eating there I chatted with a friendly employee who informed me that they are expanding! They're building a J-Dawgs at UVU and the U this year. They're going to take it a little slow and see how the new ones do, but the goal is to have one at every college campus in Utah... and maybe even the whole world! Okay, so maybe I added the whole world bit, but they really are going to try to get on every campus in Utah, which I think is brilliant. Way to go, J-Dawgs. Spread your special sauce love to all those other college kids who have no idea what they're missing yet.

(photo from here.)

Would you be willing...

....to pay $925 million for this little cutie?

A real life Pikachu hamster. Genetically modified to look just like the character Pikachu from the popular anime series Pokémon. It is so cute... I think I kind of want one. Could anyone spare a billion dollars for me? :)

A real date!

Mr. Right and I went on a real date last night. Can you believe it? A real date! I love real dates with my husband more than anything, I think. It was wonderful.... except...

There are two new restaurants that have recently opened in Provo. One is Communal from the creators of Pizzeria 712 that we have been dying to try. The other is the Pizza Pie Cafe that we drive by so often on University Parkway. We were deciding between these two because (1) we always like to go to local places instead of chains and (2) we love trying new things. We were both in a sort of laid-back mood, so we decided to go with pizza.

Yeah... kind of a mistake.

There was so much hype about Pizza Pie Cafe. They have huge spotlights out front and big signs saying it's the best pizza ever and they are audaciously located just across the street from local legend The Pizza Factory. They must be good, we thought. Unfortunately we thought wrong, and needless to say, we were sorely disappointed... You pay at the door and get a paper cup, then you grab a plate and eat warm-ish pizza that has been sitting under a heating lamp for 20 minutes. Now, I agree that all-you-can-eat restaurants have their place. But that place is not right in the middle of t&k's fancy date night. The pizza was okay, and I might consider going there with a big group of kids for a birthday party or something because it's easy and pretty cheap, but to be perfectly honest..... we will probably never go there again. So please let this be a warning to you, and don't go to the Pizza Pie Cafe expecting something delicious, original, or classy. The Pizza Factory and Brick Oven Pizza (our favorite local places) absolutely CRUSH them. Next time, we're going to Communal for sure.

The end of our date was wonderful. We finally saw Where the Wild Things Are and absolutely loved it. What a beautiful story. And Ty and I both agreed that the boy was cast perfectly. Haven't we all felt like that sweet little boy? I know I sure have. Loved it. We definitely recommend that one.

My Thesis!

This video is so cool! It reminds me of my life as a scientist. It is seriously amazing what has happened in the fields of molecular biology and genetics just since I've been in college, and I'm sure the same kind of explosion of knowledge is happening in other fields as well. I'm sure that graduate school will open my eyes to even more exciting things as new discoveries are being made.. Heck, I might even be a part of some of these new discoveries! Watch this video. It will blow your mind.



In other news, I've finally gotten my Honors thesis approved with my academic adviser! The next step for me is to write up a 5-10 page prospectus to the Honors department with background information, significance of the project, etc. and then hopefully they will give me a $1000 grant to pay for the materials and sequencing and stuff. Then I will be spending all of this next semester researching and doing lab work, then I will spend all of spring term writing my 30-50 page thesis, then I will have to defend it in July, and then hopefully I'll be able to graduate with Honors in August... just in time to start school again haha

Anywho... here's some background info on my project for all you interested blog readers.

There is a species of grass called Cheatgrass that has been invading Western ecosystems for the past 130 years or so. It is not native here, but is very weedy and grows super fast, choking out other natural grasses and shrubs wherever it goes. Needless to say, it's causing tons of problems for lots of other plants and animals out here, so scientists have been trying to find ways to get rid of this pesky Cheatgrass... the trick, though is finding a way to get rid of it naturally without harming the natural plants and animals in these wild and delicate ecosystems. A possible method has in fact been discovered, which is what I'll be working on.

There is a fungus that infects the Cheatgrass seeds, making them nonviable when they are fully mature and drop to the ground. Thus, if the Cheatgrass can't produce seeds, it obviously won't be able to spread any futher, and then the existing plants will eventually die off. Not very much is known about this fungus at this point, so I'm going to get samples of its DNA, sequence its genome and map all of the genes onto its genome. Also, I will be paying special attention to genes that make the fungus virulent vs. avirulent, map where those genes are located in its genome, and divise a way to control the genes to make them all virulent so they will infect the Cheatgrass. Cool, huh? It's going to be a ton of work, but it's going to be soooo fun for me. It includes lots of things that I'm really passionate about like the environment, bioinformatics/computer work, and genomics.... so it's basically the perfect project for me and I can't wait to get started.