ATAR Notes: Forum

Uni Stuff => General University Discussion and Queries => The University Journey Journal => Topic started by: sweetiepi on August 22, 2017, 08:00:02 pm

Title: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 22, 2017, 08:00:02 pm
Not quite sure what to add for the first post here, but here goes nothing! :P
(Also if anyone has a better title, let me know haha ;D )

A super brief overview of "Pharmaceutical Science"
Basically the degree I'm doing covers how medicines are made, from drug target identification to formulation and being placed on the market.
In this first year, I've covered a lot of chemistry and a bit of physiology, as well as some research aspects and a 'taster' unit which gives me the opportunity to see which major/specialisation (Drug discovery biology, medicinal chemistry or formulation science) tickles my fancy the most.

Last semester: was really enjoyable, especially with one of my chemistry units having the lecturer/unit coordinator know us all by name, made the transition from school-life to uni-life just a little easier. I found that I did particularly well in my physiology (biology + a mix of neuroscience and health) unit, which was interesting, as I hadn't done any biology since year 9. :)
I also have found my cohort to be really close-knit, as we're quite a small cohort, which means that we all basically know each other now. :)

Today (22/8/17): Was a relatively chillaxed day, we started covering medicinal chemistry in my 'taster' unit. I'm really interested to see how this particular series goes, as I'm currently tossing up between medchem and formsci as a major currently, and the next few weeks will most likely solidify my choice. I also have just started the research for my next group presentation, still looking at psoriasis, but we get to modify a current drug- which is kinda exciting!
I also had lunch with one of my uni friends afterwards, as we recently discovered there's a general store and a sushi place right across the road from campus. :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: strawberries on August 22, 2017, 08:35:13 pm
Love it! :D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 23, 2017, 06:40:26 pm
23/08

Today was fairly brutal, considering it started with an 'interview' with the lecturer assessing my next group assignment. I'm actually a more unclear on the task requirements than before that. :P

I had a cruisy 3 hour 'break'* before my lab, which gave me the opportunity to print off my next week's worth of lecture slides and to let me type some of my notes from the past week.

To finish my day, I had a 3 hour lab which was fairly brutal- considering the strictness of the safety concering some of the chemicals we used- we were basically required to change gloves every hour or so and then we had to wipe our pens down with ethanol. Safe to say I was working with some highly toxic poisons today hahaha.

Tonight I was planning to do some study for my physiology quiz on Friday, but now I honestly don't think it'll do me any good- I won't remember anything :p

*it is never a break, there's always stuff to be done :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 25, 2017, 04:07:25 pm
25/08
Yesterday:
Only had 2 afternoon classes- one of coordination compounds, and one on drug receptors. Both were very interesting, although I was very thankful for the late start- I needed the extra sleep! :P

Today- A day in the life of me:
6:45- woke up
7:20- speed walked to the station to catch the next train out.
7:30- started last-minute studying for this morning's quiz
8:20- got to uni; chose to read my book (I'm currently reading Take the key and  lock her up by Ally Carter)
9:00-9:30- had my quiz (physiology); was probably my least favourite quiz I've undertaken so far this year.
10:00- had a physiology lecture, the third in the series for the reproductive system.
11:00- had a physical chemistry lecture, the second for looking at surface properties.
12:00- was supposed to have a lunch break, but I snuck into the earlier session for a computer lab (I was supposed to be in the 1pm session, but attendance wasn't recorded :P )
1:00- go to Brunswick with some of my uni friends for Lebanese pizza and pies
3:30- eventually arrive back home

Tonight:
- I'm aiming to study a bit for my upcoming midsem for bioorganic chemistry- that's by far one of my harder units this semester
- I'm also going to research what other medications treat psoriasis, given that my group's interested in the pd4 (I think) receptor.
- I'm also going to make time to start reading over the next week's worth of notes and revise over my annotations on this week's lecture notes. :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 28, 2017, 08:33:11 pm
The past few days have been fairly up and down-
- Late Friday night: I ended up in a bit of a panicked state because I realised that I felt like I barely knew much of what I'm being tested on for my midsem which is coming up- it made for a very unpleasant night; unsure of what do to at that point in time.
- Saturday: I was fairly unmotivated, and I didn't do very much, considering the most notable thing that happened was my younger brother's last cross country race occurred (he beat his PB, I'm uber proud of him).
- Sunday: As I haven't been doing so well for the past day and a bit, I chose to not push myself right out to the point of burnout (I was feeling like I was on the verge of that by this stage) by instead only doing some very light study/research- posing questions for my group project and going over the last few week's worth of bioorg and physchem.
- Today: I had a relatively short day- had 2 chemistry lectures and a physiology lecture (all back to back). Again, haven't really done much since getting home, but I hope to *attempt* to pick up my game again before the busier end of the week comes, else I fear that I'll be snowed under- which is never fun. :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: babushka818 on August 28, 2017, 08:40:28 pm
The past few days have been fairly up and down-
- Late Friday night: I ended up in a bit of a panicked state because I realised that I felt like I barely knew much of what I'm being tested on for my midsem which is coming up- it made for a very unpleasant night; unsure of what do to at that point in time.
- Saturday: I was fairly unmotivated, and I didn't do very much, considering the most notable thing that happened was my younger brother's last cross country race occurred (he beat his PB, I'm uber proud of him).
- Sunday: As I haven't been doing so well for the past day and a bit, I chose to not push myself right out to the point of burnout (I was feeling like I was on the verge of that by this stage) by instead only doing some very light study/research- posing questions for my group project and going over the last few week's worth of bioorg and physchem.
- Today: I had a relatively short day- had 2 chemistry lectures and a physiology lecture (all back to back). Again, haven't really done much since getting home, but I hope to *attempt* to pick up my game again before the busier end of the week comes, else I fear that I'll be snowed under- which is never fun. :)

Nice to see that you've taken some much needed time off :) hope you feel better soon!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 28, 2017, 08:42:41 pm
Nice to see that you've taken some much needed time off :) hope you feel better soon!
Thanks babs <3 I hope so too! ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: strawberries on August 28, 2017, 08:43:03 pm
The past few days have been fairly up and down-
- Late Friday night: I ended up in a bit of a panicked state because I realised that I felt like I barely knew much of what I'm being tested on for my midsem which is coming up- it made for a very unpleasant night; unsure of what do to at that point in time.
- Saturday: I was fairly unmotivated, and I didn't do very much, considering the most notable thing that happened was my younger brother's last cross country race occurred (he beat his PB, I'm uber proud of him).
- Sunday: As I haven't been doing so well for the past day and a bit, I chose to not push myself right out to the point of burnout (I was feeling like I was on the verge of that by this stage) by instead only doing some very light study/research- posing questions for my group project and going over the last few week's worth of bioorg and physchem.
- Today: I had a relatively short day- had 2 chemistry lectures and a physiology lecture (all back to back). Again, haven't really done much since getting home, but I hope to *attempt* to pick up my game again before the busier end of the week comes, else I fear that I'll be snowed under- which is never fun. :)
insanipi <3 :-*
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: EEEEEEP on August 28, 2017, 09:04:48 pm
The past few days have been fairly up and down-
- Late Friday night: I ended up in a bit of a panicked state because I realised that I felt like I barely knew much of what I'm being tested on for my midsem which is coming up- it made for a very unpleasant night; unsure of what do to at that point in time.
- Saturday: I was fairly unmotivated, and I didn't do very much, considering the most notable thing that happened was my younger brother's last cross country race occurred (he beat his PB, I'm uber proud of him).
- Sunday: As I haven't been doing so well for the past day and a bit, I chose to not push myself right out to the point of burnout (I was feeling like I was on the verge of that by this stage) by instead only doing some very light study/research- posing questions for my group project and going over the last few week's worth of bioorg and physchem.
- Today: I had a relatively short day- had 2 chemistry lectures and a physiology lecture (all back to back). Again, haven't really done much since getting home, but I hope to *attempt* to pick up my game again before the busier end of the week comes, else I fear that I'll be snowed under- which is never fun. :)
There there <3. Try not to work yourself too hard lou :33
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 29, 2017, 07:23:28 pm
insanipi <3 :-*
There there <3. Try not to work yourself too hard lou :33
Thanks guys! <3

29/8
Today's been a much better day- I did some light study before my lectures this morning, then grabbed a coffee- decided to shake things up and get a different coffee today (That's probably why my day was better than the past few :P ) :) .
In my lectures today: we covered a lot of exam questions in physiology, as well as learning a lot about what goes down in medicinal chemistry- including looking at/interpreting Lipinski's rule of 5, total polar surface area and membrane permeability.
I've also started going through and making flashcards for my chem unit that has a midsem test, after realising that my pal Quizlet has most of the reactions I need to memorise already in pictures!
I'm also lowkey excited for my prac tomorrow- we're doing some ion exchange chromatography- I'm not entirely sure how that links into my physchem unit, but made for an interesting read (and reread/rewatch of prelab stuff), as I hadn't heard of that type of chromatography before about 3pm :P
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: peterpiper on August 29, 2017, 08:31:00 pm
Thanks guys! <3

29/8
Today's been a much better day- I did some light study before my lectures this morning, then grabbed a coffee- decided to shake things up and get a different coffee today (That's probably why my day was better than the past few :P ) :) .
In my lectures today: we covered a lot of exam questions in physiology, as well as learning a lot about what goes down in medicinal chemistry- including looking at/interpreting Lipinski's rule of 5, total polar surface area and membrane permeability.
I've also started going through and making flashcards for my chem unit that has a midsem test, after realising that my pal Quizlet has most of the reactions I need to memorise already in pictures!
I'm also lowkey excited for my prac tomorrow- we're doing some ion exchange chromatography- I'm not entirely sure how that links into my physchem unit, but made for an interesting read (and reread/rewatch of prelab stuff), as I hadn't heard of that type of chromatography before about 3pm :P

What coffee did you get? And what coffee do you normally order?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 29, 2017, 08:34:40 pm
What coffee did you get? And what coffee do you normally order?
I got a medium flat white today, and I usually get a small cappuccino ;D
(also I don't have sugar in my coffee- sugar makes me kinda sleepy, and that's not the desired effect :) )
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on August 30, 2017, 08:53:34 am
I got a medium flat white today, and I usually get a small cappuccino ;D
(also I don't have sugar in my coffee- sugar makes me kinda sleepy, and that's not the desired effect :) )

I've never had sugar in coffee (or tea), but I honestly can't imagine it being pleasant in the slightest.
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 30, 2017, 05:06:43 pm
30/8

Today I finally found some motivation to study- I got up early and went to the campus library to study for the good part of 4 hours- I should probably do this more often haha.
Today's prac was highly enjoyable (and easy)- titrations and filling tubes with not so highly dangerous chemicals is always so relaxing and repetitive, a great mid-week prac.

Tomorrow is going to fairly full on- I have another lab, this time making methyl salicyate (aka deep heat), but before that I have a tute for that same unit. I'm most looking forward to the lecture tomorrow, which continues upon the medicinal chemistry series- has been super interesting so far!

I've never had sugar in coffee (or tea), but I honestly can't imagine it being pleasant in the slightest.
My thoughts exactly haha ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 31, 2017, 05:38:25 pm
31/8/17

The day of trying new things (not necessarily to do with uni but still my day so :P ):
- Having something different for breakfast (cream cheese toast in case anyone's curious :) )
- Using new things in my lab class such as separating funnels, and rotary evaporators (the second sorta reminds me of a shrinking gun that a villain would use haha)
- Testing out something different at the uni caf- some stirfry noodle thing that was actually really nice haha
- Finding a new spot to read my book (New books for the week- the second Dark Tower book by Stephen King and A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas)
- Sitting at the back of a lecture theatre with the others- only 12 of us showed up to the only lecture of the day :-[
- Trying chatime for the first time

Generally it's been a pretty decent and relaxed day, my 3hr lab only took us 2 hours, so the day didn't seem to drag on. I also got my results back for one of my pracs last week (I didn't like this one whatsoever lol) and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I passed haha. However now I smell like deep heat- which actually is an ester of salicylic acid- so not at all surprising, given that esters generally have a scent. :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: strawberries on September 01, 2017, 11:21:19 am
- Trying chatime for the first time
how was this? :P
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 01, 2017, 01:33:50 pm
how was this? :P
Not bad, was a little sweet though! :P
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 07, 2017, 01:32:08 pm
7/9
What a week I've had! During the week I have started a new exercise routine (read that as: yoga- not gonna lie, it's addictive haha), studying (and sooking) about the mid semester test I had today, and being stuck on trains in excess of more than 3 hours.

Earlier this week I had a few shorter days*, which is always good fun! Left me plenty of time to complete some study and bicker about my group assignment with my group members- it seems that we chose two drug molecules that target the PDE4 that have very little information about them (considering one of them only got approved for use for psoriasis in December last year!) :-[
* Except for the day I finished 15 mins earlier than normal and it took me 3.5 hours to get home lol

Today has been a bit of a patchy day- I had my only midsem (worth 15% of one of my unit's grade) and quite honestly I don't think I did very well. The unit in question is proving fairly difficult too, which really doesn't help my stress levels :P
I've also had a 4 hour break (which at the time of writing I'm still in haha) between this and my only lecture (for the same unit as the test- what a low blow hahah) for the day. At least I've used most that time well by finalising some parts of my group assignment and reviewing content for an upcoming quiz.

The next week of uni shall be interesting- I have a quiz tomorrow on the reproductive systems for physiology, and my group oral presentation on Tuesday. I also have a lot more contact hours than what I've had for the past few weeks, but I also get free food and a lab tour at the end of next week- which I'm uber excited for! ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: strawberries on September 07, 2017, 01:39:26 pm
sorry to hear about your train ride, insanipi :(
glad to hear you're enjoying yoga!

but I also get free food
best thing of uni
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 07, 2017, 02:00:47 pm
best thing of uni
Is uni even worth it if there's no free food? ;)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: zofromuxo on September 07, 2017, 02:46:08 pm
7/9
During the week I have started a new exercise routine (read that as: yoga- not gonna lie, it's addictive haha)
Did heid convert you into a yoga fanatic? Should I be scared now?

Also good luck with your oral group presentations. Make sure all your other members get the memo to arrive on time... Lets just say my group had some issues regarding this and among other things when we had to present.  :-X
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 07, 2017, 02:52:08 pm
Did heid convert you into a yoga fanatic? Should I be scared now?

Also good luck with your oral group presentations. Make sure all your other members get the memo to arrive on time... Lets just say my group had some issues regarding this and among other things when we had to present.  :-X
Nah, my own decision- wasn't really doing much exercise so that was the first thing to come to mind :P

Thanks! :) Luckily my group is pretty good- this is the second presentation I'll do with them, so we're allgs ^_^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 08, 2017, 12:07:21 pm
8/9
The day I can breathe easier- I passed my midsem ;D
(I honestly thought I'd fail haha)

I also think I did alright on my physiology quiz this morning, bar that one question I didn't really know how to answer. :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on September 08, 2017, 12:16:01 pm
Congrats on the midsem, insanipi. :) Must be a bit of a relief!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 08, 2017, 12:19:16 pm
Congrats on the midsem, insanipi. :) Must be a bit of a relief!
It sure is a big relief hahah :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 10, 2017, 04:10:27 pm
10/9
The day where I actually find it too painful to continue watching a series of 4 prelecture videos in preparation for my physiology lecture tomorrow.
I also need to read some lecture notes for a physical chemistry lecture tomorrow as well. :)
I can't wait until the midsem break, I'm starting to wear down a bit and I need that too recover study. :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on September 10, 2017, 04:11:33 pm
10/9
The day where I actually find it too painful to continue watching a series of 4 prelecture videos in preparation for my physiology lecture tomorrow.
I also need to read some lecture notes for a physical chemistry lecture tomorrow as well. :)
I can't wait until the midsem break, I'm starting to wear down a bit and I need that too recover study. :)

What's a pre-lecture video? :-\ Like, I can guess based on the name - but are they compulsory?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 10, 2017, 04:16:33 pm
What's a pre-lecture video? :-\ Like, I can guess based on the name - but are they compulsory?
Basically a "lecture" that I have to watch prior to my active learning lectures. I have to prepare for my all my lectures before attending (usually it's a reading or 5, very rarely a video haha), otherwise the lectures themselves are pretty pointless, as we do activities about the content, instead of covering the content :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 11, 2017, 08:22:53 pm
11/09
- Late last night I finished *all* of those prelecture videos for physiology- made it worthwhile this morning as I had to draw a concept map about the process of identifying a bitter taste. (shown below)
- I also had a physical chemistry lecture- saw an eye injection video, kinda glad I have a strong stomach*
- I also had an bioorganic and medicinal chemistry (what a big name for a unit haha ::) ), in which we covered polymer chemistry. :)
- I also sat through 4 long hours of presentations this afternoon- what joy hahah
- Today also marked the start of a new group assignment, which is going to be fun (I hope! ;D )
Slighty blurry and messy photo of concept map
(https://i.imgur.com/LHFNJdw.jpg)

*Unless you ask me what happened late Friday arvo hahah

Tomorrow is a lot more chill than tomorrow, I only have to sit through 4 hours of presentations again, but this time, my group is presenting ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Natasha.97 on September 11, 2017, 08:26:47 pm
11/09
- Late last night I finished *all* of those prelecture videos for physiology- made it worthwhile this morning as I had to draw a concept map about the process of identifying a bitter taste. (shown below)
- I also had a physical chemistry lecture- saw an eye injection video, kinda glad I have a strong stomach*
- I also had an bioorganic and medicinal chemistry (what a big name for a unit haha ::) ), in which we covered polymer chemistry. :)
- I also sat through 4 long hours of presentations this afternoon- what joy hahah
- Today also marked the start of a new group assignment, which is going to be fun (I hope! ;D )
Slighty blurry and messy photo of concept map
(https://i.imgur.com/LHFNJdw.jpg)

*Unless you ask me what happened late Friday arvo hahah

Tomorrow is a lot more chill than tomorrow, I only have to sit through 4 hours of presentations again, but this time, my group is presenting ;D

what happened late Friday arvo?  ;)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 11, 2017, 08:39:56 pm
what happened late Friday arvo?  ;)
I knew this'd be asked hahahah. it's not that long of a story but:
After uni on Friday, a ton of us went to a place (I kinda got persuaded to come haha) that us pharmsci kids refer to as ABC. I kinda had a few and it was fairly lit, but then I consequently fell sick not too long after I left xD Insert something here about drinking a jug of cocktail like it was a jug of cordial (::
Long story short, made for a fun lateish afternoon trip home :P
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: zofromuxo on September 11, 2017, 08:54:00 pm
I knew this'd be asked hahahah. it's not that long of a story but:
After uni on Friday, a ton of us went to a place (I kinda got persuaded to come haha) that us pharmsci kids refer to as ABC. I kinda had a few and it was fairly lit, but then I consequently fell sick not too long after I left xD Insert something here about drinking a jug of cocktail like it was a jug of cordial (::
Long story short, made for a fun lateish afternoon trip home :P
I love that subscript so much, probably the reason you got sick. But I do wonder how did that even happen?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: EEEEEEP on September 11, 2017, 08:56:57 pm
I love that subscript so much, probably the reason you got sick. But I do wonder how did that even happen?
:P

I wonder, how do people get sick?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 11, 2017, 09:00:09 pm
I love that subscript so much, probably the reason you got sick. But I do wonder how did that even happen?
Highly doubt it's the reason why, I'm pretty sure I ate something bad beforehand haha. :)

:P

I wonder, how do people get sick?
Viruses and bacteria, or so I've been told :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 18, 2017, 01:36:37 pm
18/9
I feel like 2/3 of today's lectures were repeats of what I learnt last semester, but I like the reinforcement. :)

- I've been consistently tired for the past week
- Why do I have to wait until Friday for the midsem break?
- Let's see how long I last without consuming anything mildly caffeinated :P
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 19, 2017, 12:42:54 pm
19/9
I had 2 Formulation Science lectures today as a part of my 'taster' unit for the three majors. It was really interactive, and the lecturer  (the course director) made these lectures hella fun- heaps of in class discussion and activities were had. She also took a photo of us mid-activity so I'm sorta #instafamous hahaha. Lowkey looking forward to the next few days- I have 3 3 hour labs/workshops over the next two days, which is hard slog, but well worth the not-so-midsem midsem break that comes at the end of the week! ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 21, 2017, 07:28:09 pm
20/9
- I had a three hour workshop, and a three hour prac.
- In the workshop, we completed an 'online quiz' on nucleic acids, for my bioorganic chem unit. Alongside the quiz, we also had to submit a 'report' about DNA and it's interactions with some drugs. This was a fairly fun workshop, as one of the tasks was flaling attempting to do 'DNA origami'- this proved challenging for myself and some of my friends! This finished early, so to treat myself (you should always treat yo'self, regardless) I had my first ever slurpee, and then escaped to get a burrito! ;D
(The video we used to make the origami: https://youtu.be/_EYBNB5ouiU)
- In the prac for my physical chemistry unit, we were making emulsions. This was an interesting prac, as we were working in groups for 4-5 to make 8 emulsions. (Emulsions are dispersions of one liquid in another liquid, where it isn't soluble or miscible, with the use of surfactants or other emulsifying agents). This was fairly tiring and exhaustive, as not only did it take forever to mix the emulsions using falcon tubes and a vortex mixer (which feels weird imo). We finished the prac on time, however I volunteered for my group to take the lab report home and fix it up, as we had until 9am this morning to hand it in.

21/09
- I got to uni at 7:40 to finish said lab report from yesterday. I also had a physiology lab, 2 lectures and a whole class tute.
- After walking up the stairs (2 floors up- I was in the common room- fave spot on campus/10) to the lab report submission boxes, I went for a large coffee so that I wouldn't fade during the day :P
- My physiology lab today was about sensory physiology. This encompasses the eyes, ears, nose and taste. Some of tests we did in class were the vision ones (such as the astigmatism test- a round circle, and the standard visual acuity one- think about the letters going from really big to really small and that's the one) and hearing (such as the location of a clicking sound, when the eyes are closed, and a sound frequency test). We finished early, so to soak up some of the lovely weather, a group of us went down the Yarra River and chilled- with donuts from Walker's (across from Flinders St Station- at the top of Elizabeth St) (we had to walk down from Collins street, as a tram ahead of us got derailed, but the exercise was nice!)
- I also had a bioorganic chem lecture- we were looking at the perspectives of medicinal chemistry- specifically DNA and binding sites. It was an interesting lecture, as the lecturer brought in a random toy monkey for no reason (he has a really eclectic personality).
- My second lecture of the day was another FormSci lecture- this time we were looking at a case study- propofol and a prodrug of propofol. Propofol (aka Diprivan) is a pretty common anaesthetic (or so I've been told haha!). This made for another really interesting lecture! ;D
- My whole class tute was the last event of the day, which was for physiology. In this tute, we were introduced to our week 12 assessment- a debate. This will be an interesting assessment for me (worth 10% of my physiol mark), as I've never debated before (as far as I can remember anyways haha). We got to choose our debating groups, and I'm super glad I'm working with 3 of my friends for it! ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 30, 2017, 06:08:02 pm
30/9
I have taken "mid-semester break" a bit too literally (I mean I've had a pretty full-on week of activities), but managed to get 3 hours of catching up done so far today- which is impressive, as I'm sorta struggling a little at the moment haha. ^_^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: zofromuxo on September 30, 2017, 06:41:32 pm
30/9
I have taken "mid-semester break" a bit too literally (I mean I've had a pretty full-on week of activities), but managed to get 3 hours of catching up done so far today- which is impressive, as I'm sorta struggling a little at the moment haha. ^_^
Wait, you have "mid-semester break" now? That is bizarre. Is RMIT the only university that has mid-semester break during mid-semester?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 30, 2017, 07:03:24 pm
Wait, you have "mid-semester break" now? That is bizarre. Is RMIT the only university that has mid-semester break during mid-semester?
Yup!
At least it was a well-deserved break! :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Coffee on September 30, 2017, 08:14:00 pm
30/9
I have taken "mid-semester break" a bit too literally (I mean I've had a pretty full-on week of activities), but managed to get 3 hours of catching up done so far today- which is impressive, as I'm sorta struggling a little at the moment haha. ^_^
One of my lecturers is from Ireland so he calls it ‘Reading Week’. Unfortunately, it caught on and I can’t stop calling it that. :P

You have to admit though, Reading Week makes a lot more sense.
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 30, 2017, 08:18:14 pm
One of my lecturers is from Ireland so he calls it ‘Reading Week’. Unfortunately, it caught on and I can’t stop calling it that. :P

You have to admit though, Reading Week makes a lot more sense.

It does make a lot of sense! I like that term, haha! ;D
(I wonder if it'll catch on more haha)
Except I think I only picked up a book once this week )':
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 01, 2017, 09:12:27 pm
1/10- The end of semester is near...
It feels completely weird to finally have all the notes for 2 of my units (and the other two to follow soon) for the semester. It just means that the semester is nearly done, which means exams are near. This is a pretty scary thought right about now! :P
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: EEEEEEP on October 01, 2017, 09:34:20 pm
1/10- The end of semester is near...
It feels completely weird to finally have all the notes for 2 of my units (and the other two to follow soon) for the semester. It just means that the semester is nearly done, which means exams are near. This is a pretty scary thought right about now! :P
You'll be okay :3.

You should be fine as long as you have practiced and studied enough ^^. 

//hugs
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 09, 2017, 08:46:00 pm
It's been a while since I've updated... but it's been busy!
Last week saw the end of my content lectures for Physical Chemistry, the rush for me to start 3 group assignments (one "presentation", one debate, and a report) that are due next week!
Today saw the last of my content lectures for bioorganic and medicinal chemistry- arguably a sigh of relief, as I'm still trying to understand some of the content, haha :P .

This week is hella busy:
- Tomorrow, for my "presentation", my group is going to start filming tomorrow afternoon after 4 hours in a row of lectures and lectorials
- Wednesday, I have two 3-hour workshops that I'm hoping will both finish slightly early
- Thursday, I'll have my last physiology prac/workshop on the gastrointestinal system
- Friday, I have two tests/quizzes- one for physiology- focusing on the kidney; and the other is for physical chemistry- a practical test, which apparently is 'hard', according to the person who made it. :P

I've also finally decided on a specialisation for next year onwards- Formulation Science, which will be super interesting to dive into! (I'm yet to solidify which 'elective' I wish to take with this particular stream, but I'll consult the unit guides this weekend! :) )

Next week is going to be doubly exhausting, so bring on SWOTVAC! ;D

EDIT: Added stuff about next year haha
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: zofromuxo on October 09, 2017, 08:56:57 pm
Wow, you have a lot on this week and I thought my week was rough.
I hope all goes well for you this week and your exams.

Is the choice for specialisation in formulation science next year, what you are planning to do as a career path in pharmaceutics?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 09, 2017, 09:12:32 pm
Wow, you have a lot on this week and I thought my week was rough.
I hope all goes well for you this week and your exams.

Is the choice for specialisation in formulation science next year, what you are planning to do as a career path in pharmaceutics?
Just another typical week for me, haha!
Thanks! ;D

Not sure if I'm going to answer your questions properly here, give me a shout if I don't :)
For pharmsci, we have a choice of 3 specialisations/majors (Drug Discovery Biology, Medicinal Chemistry, Formulation Science) from second year, semester 2 onwards (as the first 1.5 years is all core subjects) - of which I've chosen to go down the formulation science pathway (the most popular stream, from what I hear, haha). Typically this'll allow me to either a follow a path in the pharmaceutics/biotech industry as a formulator/pharmaceutical scientist (drugs or otherwise), or I can also undertake a research pathway- one of my 'formulation science' lecturers/my course director is one of these researchers, she has a pretty cool project going on that you can read about here :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: zofromuxo on October 09, 2017, 09:23:13 pm
Just another typical week for me, haha!
Thanks! ;D

Not sure if I'm going to answer your questions properly here, give me a shout if I don't :)
For pharmsci, we have a choice of 3 specialisations/majors (Drug Discovery Biology, Medicinal Chemistry, Formulation Science) from second year, semester 2 onwards (as the first 1.5 years is all core subjects) - of which I've chosen to go down the formulation science pathway (the most popular stream, from what I hear, haha). Typically this'll allow me to either a follow a path in the pharmaceutics/biotech industry as a formulator/pharmaceutical scientist (drugs or otherwise), or I can also undertake a research pathway- one of my 'formulation science' lecturers/my course director is one of these researchers, she has a pretty cool project going on that you can read about here :)
Cool, I'm also not surprised at it being the popular one considering formulation is where the industry is going now, unless that has changed in the last year or so.
Should I be concerned that you could be drugging me the next time I see you for "research" purposes XD?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: EEEEEEP on October 09, 2017, 09:45:40 pm
Should I be concerned that you could be drugging me the next time I see you for "research" purposes XD?

Now why would the kind insanipi drug you :)?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 15, 2017, 04:18:26 pm
15/10
Reasons to hate group assignments:
- I have 3 due this week, one due tomorrow :O
- I feel like I'm running around like a headless chook half the time
- So many group chats
- Little time to do any other uni work

Reasons to love group projects:
- Whipped cream
- They're nearly over
- Getting to know your group members better
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: strawberries on October 15, 2017, 05:11:30 pm
What do you mean by whipped cream?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 15, 2017, 05:15:54 pm
What do you mean by whipped cream?
Glad you asked!
Don't mind the audio in these videos, but here's what I meant by whipped cream:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dl6olyit78t6jan/MVI_4046.MOV?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sn0g6q9l955hegq/MVI_4047.MOV?dl=0

(and yes, that's me :P )
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: EEEEEEP on October 15, 2017, 05:27:04 pm
Glad you asked!
Don't mind the audio in these videos, but here's what I meant by whipped cream:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dl6olyit78t6jan/MVI_4046.MOV?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sn0g6q9l955hegq/MVI_4047.MOV?dl=0

(and yes, that's me :P )
Looks like fun :) ! Dawhh!

P.S. You are so adorable in those videos :3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: zofromuxo on October 15, 2017, 08:31:54 pm
Glad you asked!
Don't mind the audio in these videos, but here's what I meant by whipped cream:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dl6olyit78t6jan/MVI_4046.MOV?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sn0g6q9l955hegq/MVI_4047.MOV?dl=0

(and yes, that's me :P )
I'm going to need some context for this.
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 15, 2017, 09:05:24 pm
Looks like fun :) ! Dawhh!

P.S. You are so adorable in those videos :3
It was fun!
Don't see how I'm adorable, but thanks E6P! ;D

I'm going to need some context for this.
Here's the context:
We had to come up with a delivery system for our group's "improved drug", so we chose to go for a spray foam. As we had to represent our chosen form, we settled on a can of whipped cream to represent our final product. Our presentation had to be creative, so we chose to do an infomercial, and I got the job of demonstrating the "product". ;D

The final video has been done, and it looks so good (although it is cheesy- which is the sole intention lol). ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 17, 2017, 05:07:01 pm
17/10
We finally presented the final video, and that's a relief!
However, I have discovered that hayfever really truly sucks, and I can't take antihistamines, so I'm really struggling right now. 😂

It was a nice warm day otherwise! :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: zofromuxo on October 17, 2017, 05:15:12 pm
17/10
We finally presented the final video, and that's a relief!
However, I have discovered that hayfever really truly sucks, and I can't take antihistamines, so I'm really struggling right now. 😂

It was a nice warm day otherwise! :)
Ahh, another victim has been struck with hayfever.
Have you tried eye drop and/or nasal spray as well?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 17, 2017, 05:18:30 pm
Ahh, another victim has been struck with hayfever.
Have you tried eye drop and/or nasal spray as well?

I literally can't take any antihistamine product- tablets or otherwise haha :)
(Also added irony about tablets- I can't swallow them, and I'm doing pharmsci...)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: zofromuxo on October 17, 2017, 05:21:09 pm
I literally can't take any antihistamine product- tablets or otherwise haha :)
(Also added irony about tablets- I can't swallow them, and I'm doing pharmsci...)
Do you get adverse side effects from taking them?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 17, 2017, 05:27:22 pm
Do you get adverse side effects from taking them?
Yep!
Only if there was something that wouldn't give me any unwanted side effects haha
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 18, 2017, 12:33:08 pm
18/10/17
Just a quick update because I'm procrastinating like all hell right now :P

It's the middle of week 12 and I have a super rare day off... except I am currently on my bed scrambling to finish off a group assignment report (due Friday), and trying to crash-course myself on how to debate- I have that tomorrow, pray for me guys! :)

As well as those two assessments, I have three other in-semester assessments to go- a bioorganic and medicinal chem lab (tomorrow), a physiology quiz on the gastrointestinal system (Friday), and a press release (due at the start of exam week two!).
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 28, 2017, 11:39:31 am
28/10
I have an exam on Tuesday. I don't feel like I've done very much study for this unit. Someone save me please 😂
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 29, 2017, 01:17:25 pm
28/10
I have an exam on Tuesday. I don't feel like I've done very much study for this unit. Someone save me please 😂
Update: I'm feeling okay now, don't mind my unnecessary panicking :) (I'm now sick to death of the unit's content :P )
I've just finalised my cheat sheet for the unit in question- there's a lot of content I could be tested on, I believe I've tested myself on all of it, so I'm feeling fairly confident- just hoping that there aren't any surprises :P
I'm taking the afternoon off to read a book (Girl at War by Sara Novic for those interested) to wind down a little :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 31, 2017, 09:00:39 pm
First night exam done of the semester (and a seemingly forgotten ID)- and pending results, I'm pretty much done with Physical Chemistry! :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on November 10, 2017, 07:30:27 pm
10/11
After a fairly painful exam last night, I seriously can't wait for my last exam to be over- I have to wait until Wednesday night for that to happen though! :(

Thankfully the night after, a group of us pharmsciers are getting lit on the pharmacy boat cruise party (I mean lowkey taking it over- but shhh they don't know that lol), which is going to be rad- it's been the talk on campus since like week 10 :P
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on November 16, 2017, 10:24:01 am
16/11
Boy am I glad that these exams are over! Woke up without panicking/being somewhat crazed with stress for the first time since the start of the semester! 😂
This semester really wore me down, but I've effectively made it through, so I'm really happy about that!

Looking forward to decompressing with friends tonight, and then making a dent into my pile of books! ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on January 22, 2018, 05:03:09 pm
22/1/18
It's been a while since I've posted on this obviously, haha. :)
I'm really looking forward to going back- I found that uni last year gave me a bit of a respite from my (often) hectic family life; although it stressed me out heaps last semester, my friends made it well worth it in the end. (We caught up recently and it was a blast- maccas runs and all ;D )

I'm lucky enough to be selected as a mentor for the first year kids on campus this year as well- which means that I'm back on campus in just over 2 weeks for training and whatnot, but that means I have 2-3 8am starts on O-week, not ideal, but I hope the free food makes it well worth it. :)

Speaking of early mornings- I've had a look at the class timetables (as my personal timetable doesn't come out until the Tuesday before week 1- sad), it looks like I still have 5-day weeks, but thankfully nothing starts earlier than 9, and less contact hours than last year. I'm hella thankful for that!

In unrelated news, I'm planning to drop by campus for coffee (I have a loyalty card that's looking pretty miserable rn) and to drop books off at the city library in the next few days, as well as planning to go to the local gym with my sister- who's wanting to start getting ready for her next hockey season. I've also made a dent in my to-be read pile- but not without me getting more books as well, haha. :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on January 24, 2018, 04:22:49 pm
24/1/18

I went to campus today to help out one of my old classmates who got an offer for pharmsci- so proud of them :'D
I discovered that half of "the caf" (the cafeteria with semi-expensive food on campus) was blocked off for renovations- not surprised, it's Monash :P

Anyways, I found this cute little addition to the tables at the other cafe on campus, and I just had to take a picture of it. ;D
I mean the beakers here
(https://i.imgur.com/nF6yKNP.jpg)

Additionally, I learned a few things from one of the student reps:
- there's another boat cruise coming up, just after oweek- meaning that I'm probably obliged to go if my mentees are going haha;
- one of my least favourite lecturers is the sole lecturer for one of my units in semester 2, and that unit has 4-5 hour labs -eek-
- on the topic of labs, she also told me that I get a few 8 hour labs next year. Not sure how that'll turn out, but that's way to far in the future rn, haha :P

I dragged my sister along and she scammed a hot choc off me (and whined that we were staying too long on campus), but we then went to A1 Bakery in Brunswick. 10/10 recommend that place- mainly because it is cheap, but the food is actually pretty nice! :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: RuiAce on January 24, 2018, 04:27:50 pm
Anyways, I found this cute little addition to the tables at the other cafe on campus, and I just had to take a picture of it. ;D
I mean the beakers here
(https://i.imgur.com/nF6yKNP.jpg)
Wow you must really love that beaker
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on January 24, 2018, 04:31:48 pm
Wow you must really love that beaker
It's not everyday you find beakers not in a chemistry lab, Rui :P
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on February 09, 2018, 04:59:15 pm
9/2/18

I have discovered there is actually such thing as too much free food/coffee- literally received 3 lots of catering both yesterday and today just for showing up to a section of my mentor training (y'all probably just as sick of me mentioning this by now haha :p ). I found this section of training actually pretty good in a sense that I could relate it to past personal experiences, and I'm sure I can also put it in to good use in the future.

A plus side to being a mentor (aside from helping the mentees) at Parkville is that I have already received my locker allocation, and I don't need to pay this year! 😍 (sure, that's $5 saved, however $5 is 5 large slurpees from 7/11- which probably a better use of my money :P )

I'm also pretty tired atm, and could probably sleep for a whole day at this point, but I'm super excited for the next week- which is busy af, and a bit of fun before uni fully starts back! ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on February 15, 2018, 05:35:30 pm
15/2/18

After a full on Mon-Wed taking Rui (who was amazingly good company and has a wacky personality behind his red text to boot) around Melbourne, I returned to complete the last day of mentor training- for the Ask Me program run by TeamMONASH and the oweek/first few weeks program run by the faculty, which complements the mental health first aid training that I completed a week ago (and will complete the accreditation quiz sometime before Monday so that I'm certified!). As my campus is small (as Jess1113 and Rui can now attest too), the faculty can basically run a pretty neat oweek program which includes the game that I still hold the campus record too 8)

I'm a tad annoyed I'm called in for the Monday session (which is pharmacy's day), however it's well worth the free food, the giftcard I apparently receive at the end of the year and the mention on my academic transcript. However I'm really excited to meet my mentees on Tuesday, albeit the 8am start for me! ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on February 22, 2018, 12:58:57 pm
22/2/18

I've discovered that mentoring this week was pretty challenging, but I've learnt heaps this week.

Just a few challenges/things that went on:
Monday: I discovered that it was hard to run fun games with the very vague instructions that were left for us, so trying to negotiate the rules that were fair was a tad hard, and we ran across quite a few problems throughout, so I'm surprised the marketing guy (who was in charge of the whole week) wasn't sick of us pharmsci mentors by day's end. Learnt that communication was really important on the day. :P

Tuesday: I met 7/9 of my mentees-  they were extremely quiet and wouldn't talk much, and this proved challenging, especially as two of them were international students, so that taught me a heap of patience as well as other ways to encourage them- I managed to get them to band together by the end of the day with the "element cup" competition, so I'm really glad about that.

Wednesday: Was a better day with ny mentees, they were still really nervous  (but who isn't in their situation), but we had a blast playing Kahoot and Quiplash  (which is basically an online rip-off of CAH), and I sorta felt like they were starting to open up to me, to the point that one of them was asking me course-related questions whilst I was still out last night- which was pretty cool. I tried showing them the clubs on campus at our clubs carnival, but I think they were more interested in the free sliders we had!
I also met another group of mentees last night for the race around Melbourne, which I was a co-leader of with another mentor. Discovered that I'm pretty rubbish at dancing, but it was really fun! Also went along for the pub crawl after that, but I only stayed for like 2 stops because I was just too tired- but hey, I got to meet an old pharmsci club president who now works at CSL down the road, so +1 for connections! 😍

I've also seen some of my lecture slides for pharmacology and analytical chemistry and I'm slightly nervous now, but I hope it isn't too bad! ;D

Hopefully my start of semester goes well as well, as I'm also doing the Ask Me program on campus for the first 6 weeks, and I'm nervous for what that'll bring as well. :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on February 26, 2018, 07:33:32 pm
26/2

Today was a very relaxed start of semester for me, as I only had 2 lectures today- one on organic chemistry (which was rehashing on what I already knew from my previous two semesters' worth of organic chem), and one on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. However I was on campus early today as I did my first round of the 'Ask Me' program, which provided successful (even though I forgot to bring food, so I had to ask one of my friends to buy me some (obviously paid her back, I'm not greedy :P )).

The rest of this week is chill, I have one lecture already cancelled for Friday, so I'm down to 8 lectures this week, which is a nice little kickstart for next week, which will be more insane with labs starting on Monday! (and a relief as I've been extremely tired for a while, so I need a gentle start to routine again. :) )

I'm also excited for the first event on campus for the semester, which is the trivia night, on Friday- which is a bit of fun before it gets busy. I get a little competitive with trivia aha.

offtopic
I've probably mentioned this somewhere already but the main reason why I've chosen pharmsci was that I've always been interested in what medicines do and how they interact with the body. This probably has something to do with being dragged in and out of doctors/specialists offices since I was 8 months old due to my mum battling cancer twice (theoretically speaking, I shouldn't have siblings, but I do; miracles do happen, I suppose :P ). I've always been curious as to what made mum's ever-changing medicines tick, and now here I'm studying it myself, aha. Now that mum's received the all-clear for her 18month check-up with her surgeon, I'm now of age to start having check-ups with that surgeon too, which is actually kinda nerve-wracking as I honestly don't know if the cancer genes got passed onto me or not (there's a family history of it too), and that process starts tomorrow and it's kinda scaring me a little too much rn. :)

Sorry if that was a little heavy to read <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 05, 2018, 06:11:36 pm
5/3/18

I've had an interesting day, and a more jam-packed week (including uni club stuff) ahead. Today we got to play around with Nurofen Zavance in my very first "4 hour" lab... honestly I don't think it took us more than an hour to do the actual experiment- it was the calculations and error analyses that took the most time (and I still managed to finish early, so I'm happy haha). I also had my first full-on active learning lecture today, which started off with my lecturer debating about whether or not soccer was better than AFL, but it was a bit of fun applying my knowledge to some potential real-life problems, and made me make a mess of my notes on OneNote haha :-[
My really messy active learning notes
(https://i.imgur.com/MeaHvgl.png)

As for the rest of this week:
- I have another 4 hour lab tomorrow afternoon/night and then I'm going to the music club networking night straight afterwards!
- I have my first tute of the semester on Wednesday; I hope there'll not be any icebreakers!
- I'm planning on checking out the DnD night on Thursday, because that's naturally what I'm going to do with my $5 games club membership haha
- Friday is a couple of lectures, and also the Greatest Shave fundraiser which I have been advertising to my mentees for the past few days aha, as well as a coffee catchup with my mentees (read as: free coffee <3 )

On the reading front, I'm currently trying to find time to read the Agatha Christie books, starting with the early Poirot ones- so stay tuned for my opinions of them as I finish them! ;D

That's all for now,
Lou xo
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 12, 2018, 07:26:36 pm
12/3/18

Something different for a change!
Spoiler
(don't mind the background noise! :) )

I encourage y'all to vidpost as well! ;)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: RuiAce on March 12, 2018, 07:33:47 pm
12/3/18

Something different for a change!
Spoiler
(don't mind the background noise! :) )
Congrats, you've exposed yourself in front of the public.
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Potatohater on March 12, 2018, 07:54:47 pm
Haha falling asleep in lectures is so me aswell and I've only just started arghaha
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 12, 2018, 07:57:09 pm
Congrats, you've exposed yourself in front of the public.
Speak for yourself, mate. :P

Haha falling asleep in lectures is so me aswell and I've only just started arghaha
It'll become the norm, trust me :P
(I feel bad for yawning so much though! )
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on March 12, 2018, 08:13:46 pm
LOVE the video. I agree - more vlogs would be the best! ;D

Who'll be next? ;)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Potatohater on March 12, 2018, 09:27:07 pm
Who'll be next? ;)

Well based on recent events, I know of a potential candidate...  ;)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: RuiAce on March 12, 2018, 09:43:04 pm
Speak for yourself, mate. :P
You're the one that's too shy to do this and that :P
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on March 12, 2018, 09:45:02 pm
Well based on recent events, I know of a potential candidate...  ;)

This would make my fortnight.
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 13, 2018, 06:32:14 am
You're the one that's too shy to do this and that :P
Can't be shy forever ;)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 18, 2018, 08:05:37 pm
Hey guys! Decided to give a bit of a ramble this week, but to also give a bit of a closer look at things I get up to during the week. ;D

My ramblings <3

Pictures from the past week:
Games club committee meeting shenanigans:
(https://i.imgur.com/3aj1mtv.jpg)
Discovering my new favourite word:
(https://i.imgur.com/KSM2raD.jpg)
Finding Parkville's newest amusement- Dance mats
(https://i.imgur.com/MM6eIiC.jpg)
Last minute answering tute questions
(https://i.imgur.com/5kdGfXl.jpg?1)
Us pharmsci kids have hijacked the postgrads' arcade machine
(https://i.imgur.com/1r4lZbt.jpg)

Have a fab week y'all <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 29, 2018, 10:20:20 pm
29/3/18: more rambling, nothing more, nothing less :D

Welp, it's midsem! I'm feeling a fair way behind at the mo, and I have a quiz due on Saturday (eek!), and two midsems in week 6 (including one on my birthday- sad :'( ). Other than that, I'm super happy to be basically halfway through one of my three lab programs- the most intensive and energy sapping one! However I can't relax with those labs as I have a 4 hour prac exam to deal with at the end of semester :( .

This week was also topsy-turvy, I stupidly had a couple of really late nights. Didn't learn a thing those days. Oops. It was well worth the free nachos from the games competition on Monday night though! ;D
I've also now seen the downside of being in not one, but two club committees, one of the cohort fb groups is mainly just recent club event advertising spam from me. Not my fault that I was given the pharmsci rep role for one club, and the advertising/social media for the other! :')

Anyways my plans for midsem are:
- to attempt to catchup and do the most urgent tasks I have
- catchup on some sleep,
- have a bit of fun with karaoke and movie night on Tuesday
- going interstate (for the first time)- which I'm really excited for! :3

Have a great Easter/holiday everyone! ^_^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on April 12, 2018, 07:14:17 pm
Feeling especially ramblesome (is that even a word?) today! ;D
Spoiler
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on April 23, 2018, 09:07:42 pm
Feeling tired, organic chemistry is the devil and more!
23/04/18

Hey y'all!
So I've now received my midsem test scores back. They're okay, and could be better, however I passed and I'm truly grateful for that! Not much has been happening of late, aside from club events (including a games competition that I bailed early from (for a burrito) with one of the club exec's who lives in the same area as me), and me being extremely tired. When I mean tired, I mean I fell asleep at like 8:30 the other night or something and slept for 12 hours. Insane.

Anyways, I've discovered that I truly dislike organic chemistry. Considering this particular organic chemistry unit is the third and final core of that area of chemistry, I hope to never have to endure it again after this semester. I think the universe must hate me for saying that because when I was doing my MSDS sheet for my organic lab tomorrow, it crashed on me. :'(

I also dislike biochemical pharmacology at the moment, but I'm blaming it on how repetitive and dry the content is- signal transduction for those who are actually reading my ramble. :')

Analytical chemistry and biopharmaceutics classes are my highlights of the past few weeks. Analytical chem revisited a few things I learnt in VCE physics that I really enjoyed (electromagnetic radiation and the wave-particle duality of light <3 ), and I'm now looking at HPLC- which I have my first lab in the fancy HPLC lab on Friday! Biopharmaceutics recently had one of my favourite lecturers (Michelle McIntosh, of Inhaled Oxytocin fame for those who are curious) take us for some of the routes of administration classes. Her classes are always fun to go to as she always has a fun story or five that are relevant to the content to bring up, instead of dreary old talking off the slides. :')

Anyways time for me to wind down for the night before my double lab day!
Until next time,
Lou xo
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 10, 2018, 08:02:57 pm
10/5/18

A quick update for y'all <3

(I honestly feel like I look a tad weird on this one, but still enjoy the quick update <3 )
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on May 17, 2018, 12:45:24 pm
A cafe and a cafeteria? You have so many options! ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 17, 2018, 02:49:29 pm
A cafe and a cafeteria? You have so many options! ;D
I say not enough! :P
(I mean if you're asking for a recommendation- the focaccias (especially the chicken and avo one) at the cafe are great haha!)

I also managed to embarrass myself not once but twice when emailing lecturers today. :-[
Today went downhill after my quiz this morning, I guess haha!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on May 17, 2018, 03:04:35 pm
I also managed to embarrass myself not once but twice when emailing lecturers today. :-[

What happened? :(
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 17, 2018, 03:13:55 pm
What happened? :(
There's a few scheduled echo360 recordings that are missing and:
1) I emailed one lecturer about a "lecture" on Wednesday next week... I got a reply back saying the lectures were on Thursday and Friday... Turns out I misread my timetable and it is a tute :-[
Even worse as that lecturer is one I just had as well and he brought up the timetable topic- eek!
2) I emailed another lecturer about a lecture I'm now sitting in that isn't actually being recorded and said 17/3 instead of 17/5 and he asked if I was talking about the right year. :-[
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on May 17, 2018, 03:15:00 pm
There's a few scheduled echo360 recordings that are missing and:
1) I emailed one lecturer about a "lecture" on Wednesday next week... I got a reply back saying the lectures were on Thursday and Friday... Turns out I misread my timetable and it is a tute :-[
Even worse as that lecturer is one I just had as well and he brought up the timetable topic- eek!
2) I emailed another lecturer about a lecture I'm now sitting in that isn't actually being recorded and said 17/3 instead of 17/5 and he asked if I was talking about the right year. :-[

That sucks - easy mistakes to make, though!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 17, 2018, 03:19:33 pm
That sucks - easy mistakes to make, though!
Very true

Also I wish the cafe was open later as well- I'm here until 9 (for games club stuff), and I'm stuck with only a single noodle cup left from my stash
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 18, 2018, 12:58:27 pm
Later today I have a lecture on occular drug delivery. I was just previewing the slides and here's one of the videos we're going to watch: https://youtu.be/HRM9LaPnbUw (Caution! Not recommended for those who are queasy!)

Will give a proper update tonight sometime :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 18, 2018, 08:19:33 pm
18/5
Back again!

This week's been a whirlwind of ups and downs uni wise! It's been challenging time wise, with lots of things due/needed to be done in a space of a few days! I had one of my lab proforma, an abstract writing task and an online Moodle quiz due on Tuesday, two tutes on Wednesday, another quiz, and a panel discussion, and games club Dungeons and Dragons night duties on Thursday.
I've been having less sleep, but that's a side-effect of having too much to do!

I'm a lot happier about organic chemistry after my tute on Wednesday, I think I understand it a lot more now! The questions for the tute set kept me up late at night, which was a big mistake, but oh well!
Analytical chem's going alright, we're looking at Gas Chromatography and Mass Spec with some industry guy from the Medicines Manufacture Innovation Centre (which happens to be on campus, haha!), he's fairly engaging, and I think I've taken in more in the past two lectures than every other lecture for that unit- oops! Biochemical pharmacology is getting tough- I've already been put through a tough abstract writing task, and I have another one to go next Tuesday (I'm praying that it's easier because I have another prac that afternoon too!), and a prac report worth 15% due on Monday morning, but I'm currently stuck on what on earth to write for my study design- which is apparently different to my procedure/method- eek!
Biopharm is bloody brilliant- I did well in my quiz last week, and I think I smashed that panel discussion, and I just had that ocular drug delivery lecture, which was a blast (and well worth the travel in for just that lecture haha!).

Next week I have 2 prac exams, an abstract writing session and 2 quizzes- then I'm done for the semester (bar the SWOTVAC/exams)! Uber excited about that!

I'm also listening to these two podcasts- one's an interview from my ocular delivery lecturer Ben Boyd (on one of his other projects- I understand most of it due to my studies this semester!), and the other's about the Synchotron!
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/evenings/malaria-breakthrough/9768058
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/evenings/explain-this:-synchrotron/9769100

Anyways, I'm going to have a chill night tonight before having an early start tomorrow with my brother's cross-country, before volunteering at Red Cross in the afternoon!

Until next time,
Lou xo
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 01, 2018, 01:29:42 pm
Don't mind me- I'm just rambling! ;D
(Also YouTube decided to let me choose from 3 derpy-looking thumbnails, so naturally I chose the least derpy-looking one haha :') )
Spoiler

(At the time of posting, my laptop is still going... long sigh :') )

Good luck everyone else that has exams coming up and have a grouse weekend <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on June 01, 2018, 02:17:02 pm
What does an angry moose sound like? 🤔
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 01, 2018, 02:23:46 pm
What does an angry moose sound like? 🤔
Something like this (Except a little more angry sounding aha :') )
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 06, 2018, 04:45:31 pm
Hey y'all!

So... SWOTVAC's over- which means that my first exam (biochemical pharmacology) is tomorrow morning!
I've done more than enough study to make sure I can cover most if not all of the learning outcomes that I could be tested on, however I'm honestly scared that I'll blank out on the specifics that I should remember to full-mark questions, because this exam is going to be super reliant on my memory!
I hope it goes better than I actually hope it will, but let's see how it works out!

I've done 2 of the 3 short-answer sections of the past exams for this unit I planned to do today, and I plan to do the last run through before I just completely disconnect from my studies for the night, because I value sleep more than last-minute study! ;D

My parents have also been really nice in the past two days, making sure that I'm actually eating enough (i.e. mum taking me out to get food for lunch- including a beautiful pad thai today <3), and making sure I take a couple of breaks from study by forcing me to come pick up my younger siblings from school! My parents are also forcing an excursion to Healesville Sanctuary on Monday, for some "time-out" away from studies (they don't want me to stress nearly as much as I did last semester- that was a disaster and a half aha :') ), and I'm actually excited for it, so I better make sure I'm on top of my studies prior to going! :)

Currently, I'm taking a small study break, blasting some classic Aussie bangers which is driving my other sister absolutely nuts right now but it is so worth it! ;D

See y'all on the flip side!
Lou :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on July 15, 2018, 09:37:19 pm
15/7/18
Even though there's a week of break left, I'm still waiting on a timetable (as my faculty don't let us use allocate :'( "given the small nature of the faculty and cohorts in the faculty in general.") (Yes, the class timetable is up, but it doesn't cut the mustard tbh :'( )
This post sums up all my frustration rn
(https://i.imgur.com/1fXTXVM.png)

Other than that, I'm pretty happy that I passed everything, even though I seemed to have lost wayyyyy too many marks than I should have on some exams, although I'm very glad I don't have to deal with the beast that is last semester's organic chemistry subject again. :')
I'm also lowkey waiting for moodle to tick over to my sem2 subjects, as the class timetable suggests that I may have a lab first day back, and because I don't exactly have access to my desk for 3/7 days next week I kind of want to get my pre-labs and pre-readings done beforehand... but the chances of that happening are pretty slim!

I'm also excited to finally start my specialisation- formulation science- which starts off with two units this semester: one entitled formulation chemistry; and the other called colloid chemistry. I'm also taking a third chemistry unit (computational chem) as my "elective" unit this semester, and looking at last year's guide, it looks like a bit of fun! (my options were spectroscopy, molecular cell biology or that; and I'm not the biggest fan of the other two! :-[ )

I also have only 2 "core" subjects remaining- one being the molecular pharmacology (this semester) and another analytical chemistry one next year!

I'll quit rambling now, but catch y'all later! :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on July 23, 2018, 05:15:46 pm
23/7/18

So it's the first day back! I was pretty excited to see my friends from uni again, but was totally not ready for actual uni. But maybe that's because I'm still mentally in holiday mode, even more so as I recently came back from a trip up to Sydney (which was amazing- considering the people I was around and the things I got up to when I was there haha!)

My timetable is decent, however slightly brutal- it timetabled me a 3 hour formulation chem lab this afternoon, which wasn't optimal but it does mean I have a week until my next lab- which will be a 4-hour molecular pharmacology one. (These clearly alternate, haha!)

I also had my first computational chem lecture today and I found it really interesting! It started to get into the quantum mechanics, so it started to feel like I was back in a physics classroom! (This unit is extremely small- only about 30 of us are in it, out of the entire cohort!)

I also had a formulation chemistry lecture today, which was pretty dry, but I'm hoping that it'll become less dry as the semester progresses! Interestingly though, my lecturer said the quote I have in my personal text and I found it funny after he told us that nothing is cheap. He kept using the word cheap after telling not to aha :))

I'm also looking forward to starting my colloid chem and molecular pharmacology stuff- as I have no idea what those units are really atm!

This is sure to be a wild ride of a semester though, with 4 lab-heavy subjects and a couple of massive projects that I have to complete for some units, but I have all the support I need to get through this next semester!

Have a fab start of this week y'all

Lou xo
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on July 24, 2018, 11:37:54 am
So I have a massive break rn due to an early committee meeting so I decided to go to Barkly Square (local shopping centre near uni) and stock my locker up! Here's a look at it rn! ;D

(https://i.imgur.com/uoV6gGs.png)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on July 24, 2018, 11:51:02 am
So I have a massive break rn due to an early committee meeting so I decided to go to Barkly Square (local shopping centre near uni) and stock my locker up! Here's a look at it rn! ;D

(https://i.imgur.com/uoV6gGs.png)

I'm noticing a trend!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on July 24, 2018, 12:00:22 pm
I'm noticing a trend!
What type of trend are you noticing? ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Bri MT on July 24, 2018, 03:52:20 pm
So I have a massive break rn due to an early committee meeting so I decided to go to Barkly Square (local shopping centre near uni) and stock my locker up! Here's a look at it rn! ;D


I love that you have a locker - do you get much use out of it?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on July 24, 2018, 04:30:01 pm
I love that you have a locker - do you get much use out of it?
I get heaps of use out of it!
It's mandatory to have one/share one on campus due to the lab nature of my course, so I'm always stowing my bag/other stuff in there. It's also in the 24/7 cafeteria space so I can access it whenever I need too, even on weekends, which has saved my butt heaps aha. :')

Usually it's $5/year for a locker on campus, but as I have the mentoring gig this year, I got early access to locker allocations and for free! 😍
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 06, 2018, 09:43:31 am
6/8/18
(This is mostly a rant, bear with me <3 )

So it's the start of week 3! Time seems to fast so fast, no matter what I'm doing! ;D

Who knew that uni went from 0 to 100 in a matter of a few days? :')
I went from having nothing to do in week 1 to having 3 lab reports to simultaneously having to write at the mo- one for pharmacology (which is an 8 page group lab report. So much joy. :') ), one for compchem (and I'm currently missing one graph and the software we were using didn't want to even load this morning to try and let alone let me try to retrieve the graph, so pray for me because I don't see how I'm going to finish that one by its due date- Wednesday night aha :') ), and the other for formulation chem, which is probably the easiest of the lot, as it is fairly continuous.
I also have a group report for Colloid chem that has very vague instructions (read as- we're lost. And we have a quiz on the report topic on Friday. There's no content from lectures or workshops. Stressful unit/10 ).

Aside from all the assessments, I'm actually really enjoying learning the content for compchem and formchem! They are definitely my two favourite units this semester- albeit occasionally I have found myself having to sit down and think about all the maths and theory surrounding these units, else I'd be as lost as I am with Colloids! I like my pharmacology unit this semester, however listening to the sole lecturer is a seemingly impossible task- he just makes the whole lecture about him and it gets tiring after the first week aha :')

Clubwise, I'm doing pretty okay! Planning is in full swing for Winterfest and open day- which has been keeping me busy on and off campus. I also got the opportunity to help run the games club/postgrad association games night on Friday, so I got to see what some of my lab demonstrators are actually like, and to get some of the goss on some of the lecturers!

Anyways, have a grouse week y'all! :))
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 19, 2018, 08:31:52 am
Hey y'all!
Tomorrow marks the start of week 5! Gosh time flies by so fast!

I'm currently on the train towards uni for open day- which supposed to be a lot of fun-- except the fact that it is forecasted to be cold, windy and rainy today!

Content-wise, I'm doing okay! I have a lot of spare time throughout the week, even if I take an morning or afternoon off studying!
Colloid chem is going pretty great- my group has managed to write a report on the nearly zero criteria we were given for sedimentation, so we're all pleased as punch! Not looking forward to starting the next report on aggregation soon though! Compchem is probably my fave unit atm- I have this really kooky lecturer that makes even the current dry topic (QSAR) a ton of fun! However I'm known now for my impatience in the complabs because of how slow the PCs are. :'D Formchem is probably the hardest but most rewarding unit I have this semester, and I feel like I'm travelling well with it at the mo- given that we've been looking at reaction kinetics and degradation pathways in class, which nicely mirrors the 2-month long study in the lab I have to write a prelim report up for by Friday! 
Pharm is a pretty decent subject content-wise (mainly looking at GPCRs rn, can't complain), however I just can't pay attention to the lecturer- he's like nails on a chalkboard and makes it all about him in the lectures. A lot of people just don't show up anymore, but I'm persisting even though I've been toying with the idea of not going to them myself. :')

On the clubs front, I'm facing a very full-on week, with Open Day today for both, beading class tomorrow lunch for the music&arts club, a Mario Kart competition tomorrow night for the games club, and to top it all off- another art class- needle felting! :))

Keep warm today!
Lou xo
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 22, 2018, 07:40:05 pm
Content-wise, I'm doing okay! I have a lot of spare time throughout the week.
Turns out I spoke too soon. 😅
I have a lab report due tonight, another two due on Friday and Monday respectively, and two on Wednesday next week. This is ontop of a midsem exam. There goes all my free time for the next week! 😂
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 12, 2018, 09:20:36 pm
A quick update because I feel guilty for not posting here for a while.

Spoiler
I NEED MY MIDSEMESTER BREAK VERY SOON

Completing lab reports is consuming a lot of time at the mo, pushing actually studying content further down my priority list than it should be. (I can't help that I had a 20-page lab report to do week 5/6 that took forever to do!) This has seemingly caused a few issues- a) I did worse on a midsem test in week 6 than I should have (#salty- it's my favourite unit) and b) didn't do enough study for my other midsem test-- and fell sick that week so I wasn't up to studying the few days before (because #timepoor). I'm very happy that I scraped a pass on that (I was so down with the both hayfever and being sick, I felt pretty crap during the test but I gotta push on, I guess), but I should have also done better (My lecturer made a deal with us- he'll give replace our midsem scores with our exam scores if we beat our midsem scores- I'm determined to meet that deal aha. Maybe he's being nice because this is the last time this unit is being run. Who knows?) That being said, some of my lab scores recently have been really good, and I'm really happy with that, and it is worth all the effort I have put in thus far, and as my lab programs are finishing up, I should have a lot more time to study and prepare for other assessments such as an oral presentation in week 12. (Moral to the story/TLDR: Taking 4 lab subjects is very hectic.)

I'm also starting to find that one of the club committees I'm on has about 4 useful committee members- and two of them are on placement at the mo, so noone's communicating much at all and we're trying to plan out a few events for after mid-semester break, and I'm the one having to bump things to get things done, which sucks because I hate being the one to nag! The other committee runs so much like clockwork however, although I feel bad for ditching half the events because they often run at a sort-of inconvenient time-slot for me aha (typically Thursday nights- I finish early that day aha and things my family plan always fall on Thursdays oops :') )

Anyways enough of a rant from me- love you AN xo
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 07, 2018, 02:50:16 pm
Exams are close. Tomorrow marks start of week 11. I overslept this morning.

Other than that, uni's been okay. At the mo I only have two active assessments- a 10% lab due tomorrow night, and a group report (which I'll do some research on sometime today, I hope*!) due next Sunday. I also know I have an oral coming up on Monday week 12 which relies on the report being done, and a massive lab report due late week 12 that is about 20 pages in length. :')
I spent most of last week bringing myself up-to-date with content because I did absolutely squat for most of midsem break (I have a legitimate excuse for that. But hey- I needed a break anyways ), and I now (at time of writing) only need to make notes for my 3 classes from Friday!

As expected on the club front- Jam Night was a bit of a flop on Monday because not enough people knew it was happening although I made several posts. Oops. However, Thursday's Casino Night (a fundraiser for drought relief) went really well- although all of us running the show got a little too tipsy from the faculty-bought alcohol. :-[ There's another competition night for the games club tomorrow night, which I'm excited for because it's guitar hero and we've chosen to make wraps instead of going for pizza! \o/

I'm looking forward to the finish of this semester- even though I have 2 weeks of class left, SWOTVAC & exams and an intensive week to follow!

Have a grouse week y'all! xo

*Given I have decided to get hooked on the TV show Scorpion recently, I have my doubts. :')
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 22, 2018, 12:23:34 pm
Heyo fam!
It's SWOTVAC- naturally the time of the semester that I freak out and worry the most. Surprisingly hasn't kicked in yet (hope it won't either). I started properly studying yesterday and I was going to study today- but I'm currently on a train into the city, having to make an emergency trip across the city to Brighton to visit a fam member in hospital. Not the greatest timing, but fam is important y'all! Hopefully I do end up getting some study done later tonight and early tomorrow, before I also take tomorrow off to take mum to our fave cafe in Geelong for her birthday! ^-^

I've finished the semester strongly, so I'm hoping that momentum will continue until my last exam (compchem) on the 14th! ^-^

I've also been lucky enough to inherit the vice president role next year for the games club on campus (by default- no one wanted it, and I wasn't even going to run but here I am haha!), which also prevents me from continuing to be on the music club committee after the year's over, which I can live with- I have a placement unit sem2 next year anyways so managing 2 clubs would be hella difficult!

Hope y'all are doing swell and lots of love and encouragement too! <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 27, 2018, 11:05:51 am
Things I learn 2 days before a 20% newspaper article on "unstable water soluble suspension injections" is due: writing 500 words on that topic without criteria is very difficult. Send help <3
(I have 214 words at the moment and am struggling.)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Bri MT on October 27, 2018, 12:44:42 pm
Things I learn 2 days before a 20% newspaper article on "unstable water soluble suspension injections" is due: writing 500 words on that topic without criteria is very difficult. Send help <3
(I have 214 words at the moment and am struggling.)
This could be completely useless but:
- what are the requirements for stability?
- what are the requirements for being water soluble?
- how do these relate (or not) to the requirements for being water soluble?
- what's the importnace of these attributes in injections?
- how often are injections unstable and water-soluble?
- give an example
- what does this mean going into the future?


if it's for a newspaper article you can probably add a bit of padding by giving metaphors to help the non-scientific audience understand (eg. "oil and water" comparisons)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on November 15, 2018, 05:37:34 pm
It's (nearly) the end of the semester!

I finished my last exam yesterday and felt confident in it- so I treated myself to books from both a library and a bookshop. I also had a coffee with @Coffee too! ^-^

The next week or so will be truly hectic- I'm jetting off tonight for a quick trip and returning Saturday night, Sunday I have work, and I have a site intensive week at uni. To top that off, I have 2 early morning shifts on the following weekend, and a 21st on the Saturday of that double shift weekend. It'll be such an insane week, but I'll battle through, just like I had battled through this semester! :))

For the site visit intensive week I have next week, I'll be visiting CSL Behringer, Peter Mac (both on Tuesday), Aspen Pharmacare (Wednesday), and Pfizer (Thursday). I also have both Monday and Friday at uni for networking purposes. Hopefully it'll be fun- I'll keep y'all posted on what the visits were like! :D

Anyways I better keep an eye on where I am on this train, catch ya on the flipside! ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on November 20, 2018, 09:14:58 am
I gained access to CSL Behring (big pharma!), stay tuned for my adventures when I recount it all later this week!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on November 27, 2018, 08:04:57 pm
Don't mind the poor lighting/glare in my glasses y'all <3
My rambles

(Also fun fact: the necklace I'm wearing is the Caffeine molecule! ^-^ )
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on December 05, 2018, 08:41:07 pm
After having a bout of imposter syndrome over results (this happens every semester, to varying extents), I discovered that I actually passed, which means I only have a year to go! :))
Time flies so quickly though, it feels like the June mid-year break was only a blink of an eye ago!

Now that I'm on break, I'm thinking about the next year and what's to come. This includes being a part of the aMigo online orientation program, peer mentoring on campus (again) (got a kick out of seeing this on my academic record recently too ^-^ , didn't realise that'd be there!), resuming games club duties as vice pres, being on the committee for site visit week, and placement in semester 2! It'll be a hectic year, just looking at all this now! I'm also really scared for one of my units in sem 1- it's a semester long industry-based project, which sounds really daunting atm! :O

Looking back on the year, I feel like I have a lot to be grateful for (just like @miniturtle), especially each and everyone of you that reads this <3, including this handful that instantly come to mind:
- miniturtle: for being kind and supportive <3
- Poet: your openness and willingness to hug <3
- Bea: for being fun to be around, and for your sneaky pics <3
- J41: for understanding coffee. I owe you like a million by now <3
- AngelWings: For unknowingly letting your wings guide me <3
- Calebark: For being the forum tortoise, and for the nephew snaps that are adorable! <3
- lm21074, Erutepa, S200: For engaging with the forum games. A lot. <3
- Rui: For having some magical ability to keep me calm even when shit hits the fan, and for always encouraging me <3
- The forum in general: a place to rant or tell positive stories and to help out, and for the community <3 <3 <3

(I guess that enough, else I'll get soppy rip)

A cafe and a cafeteria? You have so many options! ;D
We no longer have either option- both leases are up, so there's now no food outlets on campus until idek when -cries- </3

Love you all! <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on January 19, 2019, 08:29:24 am
19/1
Well, I've had my break and now I'm busy getting ready for semester 1!
I went up to Sydney for a week, which was hella amazing!

some of my favourite pictures!
This was taken whilst I was having a food coma, don't mind me!
(https://i.imgur.com/z1gBo2D.jpg)
Jake told Rui to unload all the chem notes. This was the aftermath. There was a whole tower
(https://i.imgur.com/i8i4T7R.jpg)
These lights are conical flasks. Thanks to Jake for pointing this out during the lecture I crashed!
(https://i.imgur.com/7ueMaMD.jpg)
Yes I stole via a screenie. This was fun <3
(https://i.imgur.com/nPb0xv4.png)

As soon as I got back, the day after I went straight back to Parkville to receive training on how to operate aMigo- which I found pretty straightforward!

I also completed the LILO modules that I needed to do for mentoring and committee stuff, so I was also pretty productive!

As break's basically over now- The next few things uni related happen in the next week or so; aMigo opening on Monday, a committee meeting on the 24th, helping out for the orientation video on the 25th, and the Student Leaders' Retreat at Camp Toolangi on the 31st!
After that, we'll have planning for clubs carnival and week 1 trivia (funded by faculty), as well as mentor training and setup for oweek!

I'm really excited to be heading back to uni soon!

Hope y'all are well and safe,
Lou xo
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on February 26, 2019, 08:14:39 pm
It's been a while and I've been busy but yeah a quick update and a few random things I felt like doing because I had a little too much free time today haha :')
Spoiler
Other highlights from today:
* Catching up with Mini :D <3
* Going to UniMelb and trying to join a UniMelb tour with a couple of other mentors, in our Monash shirts :')
* BURRITOS for lunch. (For free. Monash Parkville had more free stuff than UniMelb today from what I saw lol)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 15, 2019, 08:50:52 pm
Hey hey!
I'm back in the full swing of things at uni, and I'm really excited to see where this year takes me!
I'm really enjoying most of my units at the moment, and I find that this semester is completely different to the last 2 years, as the teaching style and format of this year is 150% more teamwork based than every other unit I've taken.

Applied Analytical Methods:
This is my only core unit for third year, and it focuses of developing HPLC methods, and analysing how to separate chemicals, and working in a team to solve a problem brief (written by "Lorenzo Lando". If you say it out loud, it kinda sounds like Laurence Orlando, who's my UC for this unit. I found that funny :'))
I currently have 3 hours of interactive, task/discussion based lectures a week (split into 1 + 2), where all the concepts are learnt in the self directed learning modules which I have to do every 2 or so weeks (There's 5 modules + 1 intro module, and I'm currently in the middle of the first module); as well a 4 hour HPLC lab (nearly every week)

Industrial Formulation:
Not really much to report here aside from it's basically Colloids pt2. Except, this unit involves actual industry problems that we try to solve/develop ideas for in teams. I'm lucky enough to be doing a project with Baxter Laboratories, and I'm really excited to actually get in the lab and do stuff after midsem break! ^-^
Also bonus points for the fact that one of the workshops that are there for me if my team needs it happens to fall on Tuesdays, and is my only class that day, so I effectively have Tuesdays off for half the semester!

Biomolecule formulation & Modified Release Technologies (I actually had to look up the actual name of the unit on Moodle oops)
I love the current topic, rDNA technology, molecular biology and protein expression, however the lecturer's voice is that really nice tone that will eventually lull me to sleep. I'm really hoping this unit is going to really live up to my expectations, but we'll see, we've only covered two-thirds of the first topic thus far! ^_^
This is my lowest real contact hour unit (excluding industrial formulation), only requiring 2-3 hours/week for most of the semester!

Pharmaceutical Product Manufacture
The TL;DR summary of this unit: making tablets and creams with a team.
This is the subject that I have to really know my way around Excel for, else there goes my marks (I have to be able to make this thing they call a DoE. It sounds like it'll be really fiddly to do haha). This subject is rather intense, and has 4 hours of lectures a week (2 + 2) and a smattering 3 hour labs. In labs we have to follow GMP (good manufacturing process) and sign a ridiculous amount of paperwork in a batch record. The thing I'm looking forward to the most in this unit is using the tableting machine, which is affectionately called Shrek by my UC, Laurence :'D

Other Uni stuff
Mentoring:
My mentees are definitely more talkative than I expected which is really good! Most of them signed up for clubs and made the most of the free food on campus- they were very willing to line up for 30 mins for tacos at one point! I check in with them at least once a week, and they seem to be settling in okay, it seems to be that some of them have mixed views on physical chemistry or physiology, but that's pretty normal in first year.

Clubs:
PGC: I feel like I'm doing a lot more of the club workload than I'm supposed to atm, but hopefully it will die down now, given that we just elected our new general committee members! ^-^ (One of them is my mentee, so I'm excited that they're embracing a fun opportunity)
I got completely smashed in MarioKart last night though! :(
The Clayton board games society also reached out to us recently, so that'd be pretty darned cool if we can get some inter-campus events on the hap :D

MAP: I sat in on 2/4 of the committee interviews the other night, and I'm excited for the new committee members! There hasn't been any events this year yet, as it is only myself and the 2nd year VP on campus at the mo (the pres and the secretary are currently on pharmacy placements). Once the pres and secretary get back, I'm eager to see what events (aside from the major ones such as karaoke and the uke workshop) we'll be running are! :)

Catch y'all next time! ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on March 28, 2019, 04:09:58 pm
Somehow missed your last vlog at the time but I enjoyed the train commentary haha. Looking forward to your next video, yo. 👍

EDIT: What's Building 5?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 28, 2019, 04:39:12 pm
Somehow missed your last vlog at the time but I enjoyed the train commentary haha. Looking forward to your next video, yo. 👍

EDIT: What's Building 5?
Haha, glad you enjoyed the commentary! (I comment I mean complain about trains on a twice (or more) daily basis though haha :'))
I'll consider doing another vlog over the weekend or next week, just need to do a couple of group assignments first! :D

Building 5 is basically all staff offices and this joint-venture thing between UniMelb and Monash called BioCurate. Noone talks of it because it's obviously got UniMelb's mitts on it! :'D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on April 03, 2019, 08:46:48 am

(Early upload before my lab this morning :D )
(Oh god that preview image ahaha)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on April 04, 2019, 03:12:16 pm

(Early upload before my lab this morning :D )
(Oh god that preview image ahaha)

Nice one! Can imagine vlogging while running to the station would be difficult anyway hahaha.
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on April 10, 2019, 06:27:32 pm
Nice one! Can imagine vlogging while running to the station would be difficult anyway hahaha.
I could try, but I won't, too many roads to cross tbh haha 😅

Lesson learnt today: HPLC machines are like printers, they can sense fear.

(My group's HPLC disconnected itself from the remote computer that the chromatagrams were being recorded on mid-run on the longest run of the prac, so we had to restart that one. Then on the second run, the peak AUCs (area under curve) was practically 0 in comparison to the other runs, so we had to rerun that one too because we needed the data (it was the second longest run) :') that added 40mins to my prac I didn't need to have today :( )

Science doesn't always work ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on April 16, 2019, 08:19:41 pm
Cut the vid short bc mum called me when I was like 300m from home to see if I wanted to go to the shops (and buy Yakult) but sure here it is :')
Spoiler

Other things to mention:
- I have learnt to assert dominance in the common/games room by sitting in a little space munching on maccas. Most first years in the room were mortified today.
- Games club doesn't seem to work smoothly without someone (usually me) asking if rooms are booked and event made and advertised on FB
- Music/Arts club are going to see a comedy tomorrow night- which is pretty cool I guess, I've not really been one to go to these things, but I'm dragged along because of Monash's incident management trained people requirement :D
- Royal Parade in Parkville is a pretty road to walk along, I can't seem to not take a photo (or two) whilst walking from Barkly Square (nearest decent shopping centre to uni) to uni haha. :')
- I am writing this post to avoid making an excel sheet rn.

See y'all on the flipside of break! x
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 09, 2019, 02:41:57 pm
It's been a while!

It's the tail end of week 9 and I'm uh sick. :( I dragged myself in for a 2h lecture this morning and then decided to go home instead of attempting to not be a hazard in the lab this afternoon. :-[ (this is the first lab I've ever missed, oh well I guess, my health does matter :'))

Anyways subject specific updates:
Analytical methods:
We've essentially finished with HPLC, and we're starting to look at LCMS. I prefer the new lecturer's teaching style in comparison to Laurence (the UC), however, the content is even more dry than HPLC theory.
I got to use a UPLC (ultra high pressure liquid chromatography) machine last week instead of the manual HPLCs, so that was pretty cool.

Industrial formulation:
We've started our project, however it's not really going to plan- getting things to be the way we need them is going to take a bit of work. At least we know how to make what we need too now.
I'm nervous for the final report and presentation for this tbh!
(I wish I could talk more about the project, but I can't because it's a real industry one so I have to keep quiet aha :'))

Biotech
I had a 10% computer game assessment and I thought it was the easiest assessment that I've ever done. In contrast, writing a 1500 word report on something that has about 2 published documents on it was really tough- I had to start waffling about the disease and not just the history and development of the drug!
I also had my oral presentation on that report on Tuesday and I had a mind-blank, mid-speech, but otherwise I think I did okay enough.

Product Formulation
We've finished making both tablets and creams, and now we're just writing and recording our reports and SOPs. Nothing really much to mention here, aside from the fact that the creams did smell nice!

(Also last week, I won a couple of tickets to go to an event at the Sydney Writer's festival, which was pretty cool! I picked up a couple of books at the event, and I had fun! It was very much well worth the train-ride back home that got me back to Melbourne at 7:30am Monday, just before my 9am Monday class aha :'))

Catch y'all next time! ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 25, 2019, 04:09:22 pm
At this point of the semester, I'm not entirely too sure if I'm doing pharmsci, or if I'm just sitting here making videos haha.

Coming soon: Unipharm Episode IV: A New Cream :')
(https://i.imgur.com/gjyzLQN.png)

It's going to take all afternoon and maybe night to render all my titles. I'm going to go read a book.

That is all for now ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: homeworkisapotato on May 29, 2019, 04:20:54 pm
We've finished making both tablets and creams,

Creams as in beauty creams? That's so cool! ;D
Also what aspects of pharmsci do you like and dislike? It seems like such an interesting course :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 31, 2019, 03:59:31 pm
Creams as in beauty creams? That's so cool! ;D
Also what aspects of pharmsci do you like and dislike? It seems like such an interesting course :)
Pretty much! It is pretty cool!

Likes: all the cool hands-on labs I've lucky to have thus far and nearly all the formulation and biotechnology subjects.
Disliked: Colloid chemistry and organic chemistry units.
If you want in details about any units I've taken, feel free to chuck me a PM or check my reviews out on the Monash Subject Review thread! :)

Sorry for the short reply, I have a million things to do atm haha! ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: homeworkisapotato on May 31, 2019, 06:49:12 pm
Pretty much! It is pretty cool!

Likes: all the cool hands-on labs I've lucky to have thus far and nearly all the formulation and biotechnology subjects.
Disliked: Colloid chemistry and organic chemistry units.
If you want in details about any units I've taken, feel free to chuck me a PM or check my reviews out on the Monash Subject Review thread! :)

Sorry for the short reply, I have a million things to do atm haha! ^-^
aaaah thank you so much! I'm really considering this as a career option...I'll be sure to read your reviews ;D
btw are you planning on completing a PhD?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 31, 2019, 09:25:37 pm
aaaah thank you so much! I'm really considering this as a career option...I'll be sure to read your reviews ;D
btw are you planning on completing a PhD?
I'm not too sure what I'm considering after this year, honestly, but a PhD would a little while away for me! :)
PhDs are sound like a lot of hard work, according to my  lab demonstrators and tutors haha!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 04, 2019, 08:57:13 pm
Hey hey!
It's SWOTVac, the time of the semester where I seemingly stress out the most over exams. This semester's a little weirder, I only have a single exam to worry about, but 3 reports to hand in- eek!

The end of semester has been hella busy- I had several assessments due on Friday, which was a pain, but I got through that*!
*With a little help from a verycute sweet Rui who was down for a couple of days, which was probably my high point of the semester <3

Analytical Methods wrapped up with LCMS and an 8% report, which was done pretty quickly! I have to go over everything from the past semester though as this is the exam unit!

Biotech: My group report on patisiran is due in a couple of weeks, but it's nearly half done, I'm excited to get this one out of the way asap!

Industrial formulation: WE HAVE RESULTS AND A PROPER FORMULATION!!! I'm so excited over that! I also started writing up the 10-page group report today. Oh boy I have a feeling that we'll have to cull heaps. What makes me scared about this is that we have an oral and the report due on the same day, so there goes 70% of my mark haha :')

Product formulation: We finished the report on tablets and the cream video I ranted about last week ahah! I now have to write up a report worth 25% on my own and I'm terrified for it as I have NO IDEA what I'm meant to include in this report!

My to-do trello board currently looks like this for uni, I hope I won't be in a mad dash to everything last-minute! I'm nearly done for the semester, so keen for a little bit of a break haha!
(https://i.imgur.com/0gGilGI.png)

Catchya on the flipside :D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Ionic Doc on June 04, 2019, 10:05:11 pm
Hey hey!
It's SWOTVac, the time of the semester where I seemingly stress out the most over exams. This semester's a little weirder, I only have a single exam to

Hi  :)

Nice update ( have fun stressin about exams  :P )

anyways I was just curious to know what is SWOTvac ? I've been seeing it pop up all around the forums. . . What's it stand for?

Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 04, 2019, 10:13:43 pm
Hi  :)

Nice update ( have fun stressin about exams  :P )

anyways I was just curious to know what is SWOTvac ? I've been seeing it pop up all around the forums. . . What's it stand for?


Hey, thanks haha

SWOTVac stands for study without teaching vacation- it's a study week haha :)
(Some other unis refer to it as Stuvac- study vacation) :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: homeworkisapotato on June 22, 2019, 01:03:42 pm
heyy it's been a while since your last update I hope you're doing well ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 22, 2019, 09:05:42 pm
heyy it's been a while since your last update I hope you're doing well ;D
Hey hey! It has been a while, but I'm doing okay!

I had my only exam for the semester on Thursday night, and I've been living my best bookish life since I finished- I started (and am currently about 100 pages into oops) my 4th book since Thursday!

Uni-specific updates:
Industrial Formulation: This was a stressful unit around submission and oral presentation time- half of my group literally didn't finalise their slides until 5mins before our 20% presentation. We also submitted our 50% report a couple of mins late... and I wasn't exactly happy about that (and I may have broken down), but it's over now, what is done is done I guess. I think we did okay though! (I'm also praying the unit coordinator doesn't dock half our report marks for being 2.5 mins late though -nervous laugh-)

Product formulation:
I finished my really colourful excel template with fancy features and I'm really happy with it! However, I had a creams report for this unit due the night after the industrial one, and I think I could've done a little better, but I think I did enough to get myself a mark I'd be happy with, given the feedback for a report we did a couple of weeks before was given to us a day before it was due, it was a pain to fix up a good 25 pages before due time!

Biotech:
I'm feeling really, really good about this unit! My group and I fixed and finished our final group report and submitted it a good 8 hours before it was due! Safe to say, I kinda did sleep for that extra 8 hours haha :') I'm placing bets that this is going to be my top subject this semester haha!

Analytical methods:
I was so confused about my exam- we had 2 hours, it was open book, and we had 2 'cheat sheets' we could bring in. Yet it was only worth 20 marks. Otherwise, I think I'm glad to be done with this unit, I don't want to see yet another 3-hour-long moodle quiz in my life :') I may however be in the lab during winter if my unit coordinator lets us do our induction on Monday haha- using the HPLC machines are fun!

On the clubs front, it's a little quiet, given it's still exam time/winter break!

Even though I don't go back until 29th July, I've had a look at the cohort timetable, looks like my days of double lab at uni are over, which is a relief, but it'll be hard going back into 7-8 hour lab days for placement during weeks 5-9! (I'm not sure where my placement will be still, but I'm very nervous about it!)

Books read so far haha
The Paper & Hearts Society (Lucy Powrie)
Lily's Just Fine (Gill Stewart) (Advanced Copy!!!)
Legend (Marie Lu)
Shadow of the Fox (Julie Kagawa) (currently reading)
Spoiler
More excited about finishing this one in the next day or so because I'm going to see Julie Kagawa at Readings Kids on WEDNESDAY and I've been internally squealing all week about this.

unrelated but related book things
I'm also going to another book launch on Friday night, and a YA Bookfest in August. I haven't shut up about either to my parents in the past week, and I'm driving them NUTS aha :')

Til next time,
Lou ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: homeworkisapotato on June 22, 2019, 10:08:31 pm
aaah it's good to hear that you're doing well! It seems like you're cruising through all your subjects... other than creams, what else do you create in the lab?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 22, 2019, 10:31:04 pm
aaah it's good to hear that you're doing well! It seems like you're cruising through all your subjects... other than creams, what else do you create in the lab?
Other things I've done in lab this semester include my industry project (body wash) and tablets. I have made aspirin and other drugs in organic labs in the past as well!

Most other labs are analytical- titrations and HPLC; I haven't had any biotech labs, even though that stuff is cool 😍
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: homeworkisapotato on June 22, 2019, 10:55:32 pm
Other things I've done in lab this semester include my industry project (body wash) and tablets. I have made aspirin and other drugs in organic labs in the past as well!

Most other labs are analytical- titrations and HPLC; I haven't had any biotech labs, even though that stuff is cool 😍
That's really cool! I'm considering going in this pathway in the future. What career are you hoping for? Research and Development? Sorry for all the questions I'm just really intrigued!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 23, 2019, 12:23:26 pm
That's really cool! I'm considering going in this pathway in the future. What career are you hoping for? Research and Development? Sorry for all the questions I'm just really intrigued!
It is pretty cool haha! I'm really glad you're considering it! I'm leaning towards the research and/or development, or clinical trials side of things atm, but that may change, who knows haha! :)

Don't be sorry for asking questions, I'm way more than happy to answer!!! ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: homeworkisapotato on June 30, 2019, 04:36:04 pm
It is pretty cool haha! I'm really glad you're considering it! I'm leaning towards the research and/or development, or clinical trials side of things atm, but that may change, who knows haha! :)

Don't be sorry for asking questions, I'm way more than happy to answer!!! ^-^
oooh would you be looking into the medicinal drugs side or the make-up side? Apparently Vic has a lot of pharmaceutical industries!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: brothanathan on June 30, 2019, 05:27:30 pm
Noice a Trello user. Have you tried Notion before?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 30, 2019, 07:18:06 pm
oooh would you be looking into the medicinal drugs side or the make-up side? Apparently Vic has a lot of pharmaceutical industries!
I'm looking towards more the medicinal side of things, personally! (That may be influenced by why I chose the course in the first place haha :) )
Also true! We have quite a few pharmaceutical companies around Melbourne/in the leafy east! :)

Noice a Trello user. Have you tried Notion before?
I've heard of it, but it seems too cluttered for my liking. I'm a uni student, I don't need more clutter in my life :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: homeworkisapotato on June 30, 2019, 07:22:04 pm
I'm looking towards more the medicinal side of things, personally! (That may be influenced by why I chose the course in the first place haha :) )
Also true! We have quite a few pharmaceutical companies around Melbourne/in the leafy east! :)
I've heard of it, but it seems too cluttered for my liking. I'm a uni student, I don't need more clutter in my life :)
I love the leafy east! tbh more pleasing to the eye than the west. Did you choose the course so you can help make medicines better/ safer?
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 30, 2019, 07:55:18 pm
I love the leafy east! tbh more pleasing to the eye than the west. Did you choose the course so you can help make medicines better/ safer?
Same, but I do live in the south-west aha :') I chose pharmsci as I've been surrounded by medicines and doctors and stuff ever since I was little, as mum was sick. I've always been interested in the science behind them, so it lead me to here! ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: brothanathan on June 30, 2019, 11:19:24 pm
I've heard of it, but it seems too cluttered for my liking. I'm a uni student, I don't need more clutter in my life :)

Even with the current updates and templates, I guess so. Not all can convert.
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: readiii on July 08, 2019, 11:34:27 pm
Hi insanipi,

I just found your journal and I would just love to say that it has been nothing but a pleasant read. I literally spent 45 minutes reading from the start of your journey to now haha. As a nurse now, a lot of the things you've said somehow resonates with me a lot. I also love your vlogs. :D

Can't wait for more. Thank you for making my night :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 05, 2019, 08:06:17 pm
update

Hi insanipi,

I just found your journal and I would just love to say that it has been nothing but a pleasant read. I literally spent 45 minutes reading from the start of your journey to now haha. As a nurse now, a lot of the things you've said somehow resonates with me a lot. I also love your vlogs. :D

Can't wait for more. Thank you for making my night :)
This made me so happy to read, but no, thank you!!! :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 18, 2019, 08:47:08 pm
Been a while!

Here's a quick update, featuring tired me! :D

Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 24, 2019, 09:20:07 pm
So I got kinda bored on my 6 min walk to the station this morning, so have a ramble featuring me in my fave hoodie :D


Hope all is well with y'all <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 14, 2019, 08:05:30 pm
Just posting my rest of semester to-do list here, to keep me accountable, because ...I'm in a real bad slump. It's worse than a reading slump, I'm telling you. At least it's all over in now under 5 weeks, I guess! :')

This is a mix of stuff that is kinda urgent, as well as final assignments, and a bit of exam study- as my exam timetable is not ideal and doesn't give me a lot of time to really study for anything during swotvac lol.

(https://i.imgur.com/CUUaPM6.png)

I'll report back at the end of the week (hopefully), love y'all! ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 21, 2019, 03:57:19 pm
Just posting my rest of semester to-do list here, to keep me accountable, because ...I'm in a real bad slump. It's worse than a reading slump, I'm telling you. At least it's all over in now under 5 weeks, I guess! :')

This is a mix of stuff that is kinda urgent, as well as final assignments, and a bit of exam study- as my exam timetable is not ideal and doesn't give me a lot of time to really study for anything during swotvac lol.

(https://i.imgur.com/CUUaPM6.png)

I'll report back at the end of the week (hopefully), love y'all! ^-^
Reporting back in!
I actually managed to do a whole metric butt-ton of stuff in the latter part of the week, after I slogged through my lab reports, which makes me really happy- I completed a lot more tasks than I originally planned! :D
Things I managed completing lol
(https://i.imgur.com/UjVDEOq.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/bJYNiM1.png)

Things left to do before my first (of my last set of them) exam:
(https://i.imgur.com/FQOAHfo.png)

I'm honestly scared that I finish up at the end of this week, but also kinda sad. I had my last chem lab today in the teaching chem lab, and I only have 5 lectures and a computer lab left. D:
I still have nfi what I'm going to do with myself after this year tbh -nervous laugh-
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: caffinatedloz on October 21, 2019, 07:31:30 pm
I'm curious as to what "fluffy snake" on November 5th entails? ;)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 21, 2019, 08:01:07 pm
I'm curious as to what "fluffy snake" on November 5th entails? ;)
It's just a timeline that I've had to make for one of my units, that my lecturer calls the fluffy snake aha! 😅 I'm planning to use scratch to make mine kinda interactive and will be actually doing all the scratch stuff during Swotvac (next week), I've been working on the "avatars" and info I need to add all semester aha 😊
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on December 16, 2019, 10:22:16 pm
So, I just finished year 3 of pharmsci, and I did surprisingly better than I thought I would have this year, which is amazing! I'm glad that I don't ever have to work on that Fluffy Snake assigment or do another 3 hour long Dr Orlando quiz ever again haha!

A couple of highlights this year include placement, winning "Ms PharmSci" at the grad ball (which I scored a $50 giftcard for. Pretty much spent that on uh... books haha), and the annual student union ball where I spammed the phootbooths a little too much :').

... So what's next?
Well, I direct applied to Monash for honours in 2020, and I got my offer for that this afternoon- so I'm highly stoked! ^-^ I'll be focusing on a project that involves lipid gene delivery in one of my favourite lecturer's labs in the Drug Disposition, Delivery and Dynamics (D4) research theme! (Formulation Science is the baby form of D4, so like ...this'll be fun lol).

This means I'll be back at Parkville next year, and I'm excited (and also v terrified) to see what adventures the next year takes me on!

Have a safe holiday period everyone! ;D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on February 15, 2020, 07:32:12 pm
Given that I'm back to uni late next week, I'm actually terrified- where'd my summer break go?! (Admittedly, my summer break has been really long imo this time around as I had my last exam very early in the exam season aha)

I feel like I'm ready, but also not ready! Given that my project has a molecular biology background, I've had to do quite a lot of reading in the past month (and not of my usual fictional books- even though I've read 18 of those already this year haha) on the topics including CRISPR and base editing (alongside other aspects of molecular biology because I got so lost reading the journals my supervisor initially sent :( ). It honestly feels weird not knowing what I'm really in for, and mildly terrifying that I'm not entirely expected to know what the heck my supervisor's on about from the get go and having to actually go look stuff up all the time.

I'm probably going to be so amused reading back on this post in October, as rn I'm internally screaming haha.

Anywho, I'll report back any interesting tidbits as the year goes on! ;D

(EDIT: I made an oops and had a typo)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: AngelWings on February 16, 2020, 01:47:56 pm
I got so lost reading the journals my supervisor initially sent :( ). It honestly feels weird not knowing what I'm really in for, and mildly terrifying that I'm not entirely expected to know what the heck my supervisor's on about from the get go and having to actually go look stuff up all the time.
That's the Honours life for you! It's one of the biggest learning curves and it's absolutely OK to not fully 'get' anything until like a month into your actual project (I didn't). 
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on February 25, 2020, 09:06:09 am
Given that I'm waiting for the library to open, I'll give an update!

Yesterday was officially the first day of honours- and tbh I was BORED. I had nothing really set to do yesterday aside from reading journals and doing that for 5 hours yesterday was like listening to nails on a chalkboard 😂

My supervisor is always hella busy so I was really lucky to check in with him v late yesterday- so I now have a focus and hopefully won't get as bored 😅 (considering I'm expected to read thoroughly on CRISPR for the next 1.5 weeks 9-5 M-F, we'll see how I hold up haha)

Today was off to an okayish start- I got to uni at 8:30, which is wayyy too early for the library to open haha (I'm always early to things- a habit I've never been able to shake haha).

I was going to make myself tea- but the hot water tap's down, so I ended up getting a coffee- maybe the caffeine will energise me enough haha!

Also I learnt that I have a meeting every second Friday from 4-5pm. That's brutal :(

Anyways that's all for now, I'll keep y'all posted! ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 03, 2020, 09:54:03 am
Morning y'all!

Today's a bit of a late day for me- I only just left for the city (because I need to visit and bookstore and get my most anticipated book of the year first before going to uni)!

I met my PhD mentor (Tom) late last week and he's super helpful, given that I feel like I know squat (and feeling v much like an imposter still haha). Tom was super impressed that I grasped CRISPR within a week, so that was kinda nice! I also sat in on the main research group meeting on Friday and found it really interesting, even though I was pretty lost for most of it- but that's okay, I don't need to know everything- plenty to learn!

Today's pretty cruisey for me- I'm just going to be reading papers for most of the afternoon before meeting my supervisor Colin at 5 (yes- 5pm!) to see what my next steps are and then hopefully not being late for bookclub tonight! 😊

Whilst it feels super lonely being at uni and not having v many people around that can understand my research topic, I've found that having lunch or studying/focusing on journals whilst with some other honours pals has really helped pass the time a lot more quickly!

Have a grouse day y'all! ^-^
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 12, 2020, 10:51:22 am
The past week has been a blur, let me tell you!

I've been doing a little bit of journal reading, but I've also started looking at designing my fluorescent protein experiments, which is actually super exciting (even though I'm 100% certain Tom and Colin are way more excited than me- but I'll soon start understanding why (I hope!))

Most of the past week has been meetings and inductions as well- so now I can access the main lab (under supervision though- I'm missing one key induction that got postponed til April thanks to Monash's coronavirus precautions), and the tissue culture lab- which is exciting because I can now grow cells when the time comes! I also had the gas cylinder and cryogenics training yesterday, so now I can roll gas cylinders around and freeze stuff with liquid nitrogen, even though I'm not actually sure why I needed to do this one (yet) tbh.

I also finally got to have a proper lab session yesterday afternoon, learning all the basics, and it was so nice to be back in the lab doing things, after not being in a lab since October(?) last year, so that was a thrill and I'm absolutely here to have more fun with that soon!

I better stop procrastinating and actually start writing my research proposal slides (due to be presented on April 3, but my supervisor wants a draft by Tuesday afternoon, eek!), so catch y'all around later! :D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 18, 2020, 06:23:16 pm

Aside from uni, I've been doing some napping, some general book blogging/bookstagramming, and occasionally writing an article for the super blog, The Nerd Daily (with my latest review here that I was super excited to write!)

Hope everyone stays well during this CRAZY time! <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on March 26, 2020, 11:53:18 pm
After being in such a huge slump in the past week or so (due to the uncertainty surrounding what the heck will happen to me if uni shuts), I found that I had a super productive day today! :D

Today I:
- Made a second draft of my slides
- Went to bookshop (got Oasis by Katya de Becerra)
- finalised my protein edit excel sheet
- Went for a walk down Princes Park (the park across from uni)
- Finished an audiobook (The Ruin- Dervla McTiernan- a book that is not YA- shock!)
- Froze my cells I've been working with in liquid nitrogen
- Started a reading a new review book for an upcoming blog tour

--

As it stands, I'm still required to be in at uni whenever I need to be in, however, with all the rapid changes Monash has made (including shutting both the library and Monash Connect (as of tomorrow) down at Parkville, alongside no cafeteria (since last week)) in the past 24h, I'm seriously unsure if I'll not be on some sort of leave of absence by the end of next week at this stage! I'm trying my best to stay home and work when I don't have to be at uni though, which is the best I can do in the very touch-and-go situation.
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on April 06, 2020, 09:23:44 am

As it stands, I'm still required to be in at uni whenever I need to be in, however, with all the rapid changes Monash has made (including shutting both the library and Monash Connect (as of tomorrow) down at Parkville, alongside no cafeteria (since last week)) in the past 24h, I'm seriously unsure if I'll not be on some sort of leave of absence by the end of next week at this stage! I'm trying my best to stay home and work when I don't have to be at uni though, which is the best I can do in the very touch-and-go situation.
I spoke too soon- last week was a non-lab week for me, so I stayed home and did my stuff here. Little did I know that I'll be doing that for the next month haha 😅

For the first half of last week, I spent a lot of time just napping honestly- I lost all the motivation to do much :( It took a lot of effort to pull myself back into some sort of rhythm haha. As it stands, uni has finally essentially shut down, so my PhD mentor has told me to hang tight and take time to read the literature- something I basically spent the first three weeks doing haha. I currently don't have any coursework to do on Moodle, so I need to think of a new game plan until I get some- perhaps I'll just take the time to read a book a day instead :D (joking- I can't do that, my guilt would stop me haha)

Until next time, stay safe y'all <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on April 21, 2020, 08:36:23 pm
Hello hello!

I'm starting to get used to being home all the time, I think! I've stopped napping all the time. I even have my desk tidied (first time all year haha- sitting on my bed doing my uni stuff was doing my back in and making me nap all the time haha), and bookshelves sorted (kinda)- and I'm nearly ready to present my project intro Thursday!

I've also been working on my research proposal- and I'm telling you, editing it is like cutting grass with nail clippers. Super tedious, I'm telling you.

I'm super glad that my project is somewhat still going ahead once I'm allowed back into uni, which is something to look forward to! It'll be hard work though, as one of the constructs I require would've been shipped from the US, but I'll have to make in-house, which takes time- but oh well!

Aside from uni stuff, I've been really digging crime and police procedural audiobooks recently, and I have started watching Witcher- it's an interesting show.

Til next time, stay safe xo
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 09, 2020, 02:16:38 pm
Just as I've really gotten into the swing of things from home, Monash (well, more specifically my PhD mentor Tom tipped me off Sunday night- and confirmed by the head of MIPS not even 24h later) basically told me to start preparing to come back in for lab in the next few weeks.

Whilst this is exciting, I'm still trying to plan out my experiments. This part isn't going very well because nothing is easy when I have less resources than I would've for what I want (and need) to do haha. 😅 The main problem is finding a pair of proteins that have only a few amino acids difference in a row- which is ideal for editing, whilst having a good fluorescence, based on what Parkville currently has in stock. This has proven to be a nightmare and a half this week!

I'm also having a bit of fun occupying some time doing a couple of online courses that were suggested by Estelle, a really lovely postdoc in my research group. They're actually pretty good for filling up time on some of the days so it doesn't feel like I'm not doing as much as I would've in normal circumstances.

Honestly, I'm excited to be heading back into the labs in the near future, and hopefully my experiment planning actually goes somewhere soon!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 19, 2020, 10:15:59 am
Just a quick update whilst the library search function appears to be refusing to work haha.

Honestly, I'm excited to be heading back into the labs in the near future, and hopefully my experiment planning actually goes somewhere soon!
My experiment planning is still not going too well- I had a step in the right direction over the weekend, but this new lead kind of is actually hard to work with (or so says my PhD pal), so I'll just have to wait and see what my supervisor says tomorrow -grits teeth in suspense-

Despite this, I'm still keen not to lose hope, even though this project is super tough- not only is the technique I'll be using really new (the first paper on it was released v late last year), but it's also harder in the terms of we can't just order things from overseas to make life easier.

For now, I'm just going to sit here and read papers in cas e I find some other proteins that may work out- at least that's all I really can do until my meeting haha.

I'm keen to start going back from the 26th- given that I really felt that I haven't been doing much whilst stuck at home oops. :D

Stay safe y'all <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on May 26, 2020, 04:01:17 pm
A quick update!

(You might want to have the volume a little higher than normal, sorry fam haha)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 05, 2020, 10:23:36 am
Just a quick update!

its a video!

Anyways look at the nice view I get from the floor my lab's on :D
(https://i.imgur.com/rL6ckjB.jpg)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on June 17, 2020, 09:06:10 pm
Things I've learnt in the past 12 days that might encourage others:
- Don't overcomplicate things (especially calculating concentrations (c=mv is my friend) and dilutions, overthinking it is the enemy)
- Always be prepared- plan ahead if you can
- It's always worth making an effort or at least an attempt at something you're trying to figure out at first, before giving up
- Don't be afraid to ask the questions, no matter how dumb you think the question is (chances are that it isn't
- Not to drink coffee on an empty stomach (I had the worst cramps from that this morning, realllly don't recommend)
- Similarly, water is not the enemy
- Breathe, and believe in yourself
- Take it easy on Mondays, go hard on the other four weekdays, if you have a case of the Mondays

I'm busy actually doing things in the lab and preparing my actual real important experiments now and it's scary as heck, and I'm also v tired, so I'm am definitely taking it easy every night, so I don't crash out!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on July 04, 2020, 01:37:30 pm
Howdy!
I'm tired and my back kinda hurts but at least I have progress with my project!

I started roughly planning out the next couple of months based on what I need to get done aims-wise, and it actually turns out that I'd already achieved the first of my three aims- which is actually pretty bloody brilliant because I was starting to worry that I wasn't doing enough. I'm also about to start working on the second aim of mine next week- which includes learning how to make LNPs (lipid nanoparticles) and LPs (lipopeptides). Hopefully I'll be able to start getting results with the third aim sometime in the next four to six weeks too!

I'm also really getting used to cell culture, having not infected nor killed my practice cells in all the time I've been back! <3 I was recently also asked to teach someone else cell culture and it's already been a tough start to doing that, but I'm sure it'll improve. I'm also excited because I finally have a flask of the cells I'm going to be working with, so I'll probably start freezing down stocks of them this week too!

It's pretty cool with my practice cell line that I've been able to transfect properly so that they go from non-fluorescent to fluoroescent, so that's pretty swish too!

Stay safe y'all :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on July 14, 2020, 06:59:24 am
Good morning!
I'm getting up and ready for a full-on day at uni, hoping it is better than yesterday (which was terrible haha, but it was a Monday, I guess it can be excused).

This week is all about inductions for me it seems- today I should be finally allowed to go and get inducted into the lab with the liquid nitrogen storage (we've been asking for this since Feb and earlier for my PhD friend), tomorrow I get to get inducted into the analysis lab (so I can access the Dynamic Light Scattering machine) and later on I get to be inducted on the microscope that caught fire about a month ago, and Thursday I get to find out what the heck flow cytometry is 😂

Hopefully I get to do some formulation work this week too, but I highly doubt it because there's simply not enough hours in a day atm (and the uni doesn't want me there earlier than 8am or later than 6pm, nor apparently at uni at all yesterday when the security/access coordinator managed to remove my card access to the external campus doors and my usual lab when they gave me another lab I'm allowed to access with my card haha 😅)

Hope you're all staying safe and mostly staying home! ❤
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on July 27, 2020, 09:00:49 am
Howdy!
Just a cheeky morning update whilst I let breakfast settle before I write that monthly report I owe :-X

I honestly feel like I've done squat bar from being a slave to my cells tbh- they're needy little critters! But I have actually done a lot (including having to get up early this morning and nab the autoclave before ANYONE could use it, leaving me to have breakfast after the quick lab session haha). I just can't believe that it's nearly the end of July because oh gosh I have about 1 page written for my thesis and still no actual usuable results and I'm definitely feeling the heat D:

This week I'm mainly focusing on amplifying my DNA plasmid because I have like 2 ul of it left and kinda need more! I tried to start that process Thursday, but couldn't (because the autoclave door was jammed), and again on Friday (some jerks booked it out the whole day), so now I've started the process this morning! I've also thawed some of my GFP-expressing cells down so I can personally make some stocks sometime this week (because previously I had to bleach my batch because we had no cryovials at the time :( )

This week will probably be a chill week otherwise in the lab (pending my weekly discussion with Tom-the-PhD-pal), which is good because I kinda need the spare time as this report won't write itself (and I need to make a presentation for the big group meeting on Friday too and I currently have nfi to put in that either meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep haha)

Love y'all <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on August 17, 2020, 02:29:31 pm
Howdy!

I'm still allowed to come to uni to do lab work, so that's hella nifty! I got my first official bits of data last week and I'm doing my first proper experiment of the project this week- but that's already hit a bit of a bump as I have found that I can't just go do a quick check on the plate reader to see if it works as the blue led sucks, so it'll be either Wednesday or Thursday when I find out if it works or not when I go use flow cytometery 🙈

Aside from that, I was well rested over the weekend, but I just seeded (or plated) 4 plates worth of cells and I'm sapped. I still have 2.5h to go because I'm also making an LNP formulation today. Then I'm here from 8:15 until 5:30 tomorrow, because I'm a slave to my cells haha.

Anywho that's all from me, stay safe xo
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 07, 2020, 08:52:49 am
THE BASIS OF MY WHOLE PROJECT ACTUALLY WORKS! 😍

I ran flow cytometery on Friday for measuring the fluorescence of my cells and I got around 2% positive! This isn't much, but we know it works- so all my hard work so far has been worth it!

Want to know what a typical day of mine looks like at the moment?
Let's use today for an example!

6:00am: wake up
6:40: brekky
6:50: leave house for train
7:07: train
8:05: arrive at uni
8:10-8:30: cell culture- coating plates with poly-d-lysine and checking on a plate from last week.
8:30-9:00: coffee/tea and analysis break.
9:00: retrieves cell culture media from other lab to thaw and make up some new stock because I was lazy the previous week and now desperately need to make more
9:30-10:30: cell culture- moving some experimental cultured plates to an 8 well slide for microscopy later today
10:30-11:00: break for data analysis
11:00-11:30: meeting with my PhD pal to discuss this week's experiments
11:30-12:00: outside break
12:00-1:00: microscopy
1:00-2:00: lunch and planning for the week's experiments
2:00-3:30: cell culture- moving my lipopeptide plate to flow cytometry tubes
3:30-4:30: flow cytometery
4:30-6:00: get home

Stay home/stay safe y'all ❤
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on September 07, 2020, 08:55:57 am
Great news! Well done - happy for you. :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: homeworkisapotato on September 07, 2020, 08:57:32 am
So happy for you <33
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 07, 2020, 09:17:37 am
Despite my not understanding practically anything about this stuff, it's really interesting.  :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: AngelWings on September 07, 2020, 10:32:34 am
THE BASIS OF MY WHOLE PROJECT ACTUALLY WORKS! 😍

I ran flow cytometery on Friday for measuring the fluorescence of my cells and I got around 2% positive! This isn't much, but we know it works- so all my hard work so far has been worth it!
That’s amazing to hear! It’s not often that things actually work, especially something experimental (and harder still when it’s during a pandemic). Congrats on this milestone!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on September 08, 2020, 11:51:44 am
Great news! Well done - happy for you. :)
So happy for you <33
💚💚💚

Despite my not understanding practically anything about this stuff, it's really interesting.  :)
Don't worry, I'm still getting my head around it too, despite being nearly 9 months deep into the project haha :P

That’s amazing to hear! It’s not often that things actually work, especially something experimental (and harder still when it’s during a pandemic). Congrats on this milestone!
I was genuinely expecting it not to work, but alas, it worked! I still cannot get one of the delivery methods to work though (trialling with plain cells to GFP), no matter what I do- it doesn't work aha :P

I also got some cool images from the microscopy yesterday, which confirms that seeing what I did on flow cytometry last week wasn't just a fluke! :)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 01, 2020, 11:00:05 am
A bit of a quick update today! It's been nearly a month, and I haven't really acheived much else aside from getting replicates for the data I already had.

This week already has been a drainer and a half- I had a lab class Monday, and I'm in the middle of preparing for my journal critique assessment tomorrow- which is on top of me just setting (just under) half my assays I had planned- I was meant to get another two started, but a machine that I absolutely need busted itself Tuesday, so I don't know when that'll be fixed because I kinda need to get my stuff done and obviously can't (there's only one of this machine on campus, so that's a yikes and a half if I ever saw one :'))

On the bright side of things- I got some pretty cell images yesterday night, and I now have the right to keep my scrunchie obsession up haha!

That's all for now, toodles! <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 12, 2020, 07:35:27 am
A bit of a quick update today! It's been nearly a month, and I haven't really acheived much else aside from getting replicates for the data I already had.

This week already has been a drainer and a half- I had a lab class Monday, and I'm in the middle of preparing for my journal critique assessment tomorrow- which is on top of me just setting (just under) half my assays I had planned- I was meant to get another two started, but a machine that I absolutely need busted itself Tuesday, so I don't know when that'll be fixed because I kinda need to get my stuff done and obviously can't (there's only one of this machine on campus, so that's a yikes and a half if I ever saw one :'))

On the bright side of things- I got some pretty cell images yesterday night, and I now have the right to keep my scrunchie obsession up haha!

That's all for now, toodles! <3
Following on from this, last week I had a terrible cell contamination event happen so I couldn't restart my experiments when the broken machine got replaced 🙈

That means that I'm having to squeeze 14 assays into the next fortnight; I hope I can do it, because I have a deadline to meet!

Hoping I don't go too insane from it! 😅
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: AngelWings on October 12, 2020, 10:34:42 am
Following on from this, last week I had a terrible cell contamination event happen so I couldn't restart my experiments when the broken machine got replaced 🙈

That means that I'm having to squeeze 14 assays into the next fortnight; I hope I can do it, because I have a deadline to meet!

Hoping I don't go too insane from it! 😅
That’s absolutely horrifying! 😱 Wishing you good luck from here on out. You’ll make it, Insanipi!

An anecdote from my own Honours project:
Spoiler
I was about 2/3 of the way through the year and had just made my first real model for my project... only for my supervisor to notice that we’d forgotten to cater for one for the big assumptions we said we’d cater for, so they’d taught me the wrong method and my entire first model was incorrect. I was mortified; that was a month’s worth of work down the drain! Fortunately I was able to create the correct model from scratch with some help from my supervisor and managed to recover the work the following week.
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on October 25, 2020, 08:23:40 pm
Following on from this, last week I had a terrible cell contamination event happen so I couldn't restart my experiments when the broken machine got replaced 🙈

That means that I'm having to squeeze 14 assays into the next fortnight; I hope I can do it, because I have a deadline to meet!

Hoping I don't go too insane from it! 😅
So. I had more bad things happen to my labwork in the past fortnight, so I'm still doing lab work. But! I'm working it out time-wise so that I'm also doing the bulk of my thesis before my last experiments have had their run! (See also: my thesis writing thread in Accountability and Motivation)

Despite the setbacks (and the breakdown earlier last week), I'm due to plate the last of my experiments tomorrow (to transfect on Tuesday), ready for analysis on the flow cytometer on Friday 5 November!

This year has been a pain, but it's taught me many important lessons too.
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on November 30, 2020, 10:39:34 am
Howdy!
Been a while since I last updated, but today's my presentation and viva day (I'm up in about 20 mins) and I'm super nervous.

That's all for now ahhhhhh <3
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Evolio on November 30, 2020, 10:55:38 am
All the best for your presentation!! You got this!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: katie,rinos on November 30, 2020, 01:43:53 pm
Hope it went well!!  :D
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Joseph41 on November 30, 2020, 02:54:16 pm
Sending ~good vibes~. Hope it went/is going/goes well!
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: Coolmate on November 30, 2020, 03:11:05 pm
Goodluck insanipi! I hope it goes well and you will smash it :D

Coolmate 8)
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: sweetiepi on November 30, 2020, 10:24:35 pm
All the best for your presentation!! You got this!
Hope it went well!!  :D
Sending ~good vibes~. Hope it went/is going/goes well!
Goodluck insanipi! I hope it goes well and you will smash it :D

Coolmate 8)
I think I did okay! It finished earlier than I expected, but I wasn't given too hard a question, honestly (which is weird because this was worth 25% of my year, yikes!)

That's pretty much it for my honours year, I'm not sure when results come out (I've been quoted December some time but no actual date has been communicated), but you betcha I'm going to sit there and not read the email with the results included for many hours after I get it :P

What's next? Honestly, idk - I just really need a break, but I'll figure it out as I go along maybe? (As if that's not what I did this year anyways :P )
Title: Re: A Spoonful of Sugar- insanipi's PharmSci journey
Post by: AngelWings on December 01, 2020, 11:47:13 am
Congrats Insanipi! Enjoy your break - you deserve it! How does it feel now that you’re done?