Preparing next semester's schedule

The registration "plan ahead" system opened a while back, so last week I figured out my ideal schedule for next semester. It's significantly nicer than this semester's, since I wouldn't have to get up early for any class at 8 AM. Unfortunately, the CS classes don't open for registration to non-CS students for a couple weeks after my registration time, so if they fill up, I will need to significantly rethink my schedule. I plan on taking the first organic chemistry class over the summer to make room for two CS classes in the fall, but that could be moved to the fall if CS isn't an option. I still need to find time to see an adviser to determine whether there's a better course of action to get into the CS program.

Back to work

This afternoon, I arrived back to campus. After unpacking, I started handling some of the items on my to-do list. I completed the pre-lecture assignments for MCB and a worksheet for chemistry, both due near the start of this week. I then did some quick investigation into a bioinformatics tool sent to me by my lab supervisor, getting it up and running in a VM. I was about to go across the street to buy some groceries for the week, but then I remembered that all but one of the university shops are closed the day after break, so my roommate and I took a bus to that one. I now have sufficient bagels for another week.

One week to break

Last Thursday's MCB exam went pretty well. Official results will probably be out tomorrow; my unofficial grading says I got a 93. Speaking of MCB, this week I filled out the form to officially change my major from the generic Biology not-actually-a-major to MCB. It was approved and the change has replicated to some of the official systems. The others should be updated in a few days.

There's now just one more week before spring break. It's going to be pretty busy, with two exams on the same day. I've studied for chemistry this weekend and I feel pretty good; I'm still working on differential equations, but I'll be ready by exam day.

Exam series before break

The week after next is spring break. I'm very much looking forward to a rest from this semester's schedule. Before that, though, there's another round of exams. The MCB one was tonight; it felt pretty good. Originally I was going to have one next Wednesday and another the next day, but the Wednesday one was rescheduled to that Thursday at the same time. That's clearly a problem, so I had to register for the conflict exam, which will be held also that Thursday, but earlier in the day. Once those are over, I have a single class on Friday and then I'm gone for a week.

Found some numbers for the lab

This week while working with some sequence data in the lab, I found an association between a certain base change and a splice variant. We're not yet sure whether it's a signal of a biological reality, but it's very intriguing and might lead to something interesting. Either way, I'm having a good time using scripts to extract patterns from sequences. I've gotten a lot of interesting figures out of this data set already and there's still lots more to explore.