Sorry this took so long, things have been rather busy here on the west coast, and a lot has happened, so this might be a doozey of a post. Suffice it to say that I've been having a good time.
I'm living in a nice little apartment that I'm paying too much for, but it's not a bad deal by Berkeley standards. My roommate is a fellow PMBer (PMB is my department) and a really cool guy. He kinda reminds me of Lipshaw in that they're both short, have Jewish last names (Steinbrenner, though he's not Jewish), and get geeked about things like tea and craft ales. At any rate, he's a really kick ass guy and we get along like peas and carrots.
By far the best part about moving here has been my fellow first years. Without exception, everyone is super nice, super smart, and about a good half of us get blackout on a regular basis, so super fun. Everyone gets along really well, and we're all working together and doing some kickass science. I've never known so many nerds, let alone socially well-adjusted ones. Pretty much everyone just wants to have as much fun as possible, which is super easy to do in Berkeley. There's also a ton of people into hiking/camping, and while we haven't gone on any good trips yet, it's inevitable.
School is fairly tough, but it hasn't been too ridiculous. We only have one real class that's split up into 3 modules per semester. I just finished the 2nd one today, and they've both been rather easy. There's a couple people who already have fellowship money, so grades don't matter at all to them, and they just sleep through class. It's actually kinda rude because there's only 10 of us, but the point is that classes aren't emphasized. It's all about lab work. I'm nearing the end of my first rotation, and feel like I've accomplished nothing. That's not quite true, but it hasn't gone too well. I've been working on generating a DNA library to send of for sequencing, but nothing has been working for me. It should be fairly straightforward, but everything has been a problem. It should work out, but it's kind of a drag. My PI is awesome though. He's probably the only person I've ever met that I'd actually say is a genius. He's probably got some idiot-savant or polymath going on. I met with him for half an hour yesterday and it was all I could do to keep up with him. He does this thing where he pauses, kinda like a stutter, and then just blurts out a sentence. It makes it hard to keep up, especially because his mind moves so fast. Just as you're catching up to what he's talking about, he's two or three steps ahead of you. It's good though, and damn impressive. Dude just pulled down a 2+ million dollar grant from the NSF. He gets shit done.
In terms of time, though, I really haven't had to put much in for school. In fact, three weeks ago or so I went 6 for 7 on getting blackout drunk and high. The first night was supposed to be a chill movie night, but as is all too common, it turned out to be blackout fueled by tequila. The next night I went into SF for metal show that fucking ruled, and the next night was a house party for the first years and anyone else that wanted to come. That in and of itself would have made my week. At one point there was a smoking circle with over 20 people in it, with 4 joints lit at once. Other highlights included mix drinks made with lab equipment, dance party, and the end of a 3-year long relationship (drama!). It was an event. At that point, I planed to chill out for a while, but there was this thing in SF called Hardly Strictly Bluegrass going on. My friend convinced me to go, armed with a dozen beers and something like half a dozen joints. It was held in golden gate park, and was all free. It's exactly like what I imagine Woodstock was like, just on a much smaller scale (although still huge, probs bigger than Michigan football crowd). It was tons of fun. At one point, this hippie was tripping his ass on E, running around dancing. He had on these weird pants-things that came off in the course of his reverie. He was just running around the crowd for a good 5 minutes before he got himself dressed again. No one gave. a. fuck. So chill. Most of the stereotypes you hear about the bay area are dead on. It was out of this world. The next night I did some shit that I don't really remember, but it was fun. Two days later I saw Dead Meadow (DC natives I think) and that capped off one of the most ridiculous weeks of my life.
Shit hasn't been that intense the whole time, but I've been having a blast. The other highlight was the departmental retreat, which was supposed to just be moderately fun, but mostly about hearing research talks and the like. Well, it took place in Tomales Bay, which was about an hour drive from Berkeley in this beautiful part of California. I'm talking really scenic stuff. Anyway, three of us killed a 750ml bottle of Whalers rum (from trader joes, of course) before we even got there. I was just high on life the whole fucking time. We started playing frisbee in this giant circle, and I was running around like a fucking hippie. I almost beaned Pat Zambrisky in the head with the disc (senior faculty, discoverer of agrobacterium, national academy member, and general badass) but thankfully didn't. She did comment that she was impressed that I was able to throw so well despite how obviously wasted I was (this was bout 4 in the afternoon). Alcohol was plentiful the whole time, so things just deteriorated from there. After the keynote lecture, I got about 5 words into a question before I forgot what I was going to say, so just awkwardly stalled until someone finished it for me. This was pretty much my introduction to the department, and such an auspicious one. Brian Staskawics (another academy member and research thug) gave me the nickname "Sluisinator" for that, and that's pretty much stuck. Everyone who went to the retreat remembers my name, so I guess it's not all bad, but it was out of control. After the actual talks, we all just went to a big field and drank, smoked, played guitar, etc. There were several hookups, though sadly I was involved in a triangle situation that wasn't the good kind, meaning one too many dudes. Although, in retrospect, I planted a seed that has since developed into a plant that's very likely to be fucked. Oh, and Staskawics? I smoked him and a few other profs down on the second night, one of whom is my next rotation PI. Other highlights included going to a beautiful beach for a good nap, with oysters on the way back, and a drunk, horny old professor that hit on all the hot female grad students. Apparently people kept trying to put him to bed, but he would escape and get into more shenanigans. I'm not making this shit up, this weekend was legendary. It took a solid two weeks of exchanging stories until I could remember most of what went down, and even then most of it is a blur.
California is a hell of a good time, and you all need to visit. It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to make it out for a game this year, but I promise to make it up at some point. To Duke and Naynay, prop 19 didn't pass, but I'll be getting a card, so you two will have to check out the Cali bud. I've gone through half an ounce since I've been here (I've been sharing a lot) and have a kick-ass bong that you guys need to hit. There's always fun stuff going on, and San Francisco is a short BART ride away. The best weather is supposedly in Sept/Oct, so it's getting somewhat cooler and more rainy (it didn't rain the first two months I was here) but there's still lots of nice weather. It was 74 and sunny today, and I went on a nice bike ride up into the Berkeley Hills, looking over a sweet sunset on the bay.
Peace kids, hope to hear from you soon!
-Sluisy
