The vast majority of this weekend was marching through the asian steppes and cold mountainous reaches of cell and molecular neuroscience. I dutifully ignored going out on friday, and deftly, somewhat painfully parked my ass on the couch and continued studying rather than going out with Brian and his friend Liz or to the Inferno. I made most of my social neuroscience lecture for wednesday on oxytocin and social cognition, and completed the template answers for the TA. I even forcefully neglected to wash my laundry, go to Woodman's to get groceries, and have only screwed around to drain the brain for a few hours a day.

I have been a good boy. Trouble is I have so much more to cover.

(Don't ask me; talk to the other bald guy)

In particular has been this receptor targeting lecture. Oh Holy Prophet and engorged Buddha, what a mindfuck of a lecture. I have spent 3 hours deciphering and committing it to memory. Is it really that hard, you ask? Let me excerpt a 5 minute block from the powerpoint:

"GluR2/3 COOH tail (ESVKI) binds to
1) GRIP via 4th and 5th PDZ domains (Grip has 7 PDZ domains)
2) PICK 1 via its single PDZ domain

Association with GRIP or PICK1 is activity dependent; phosphorylation of
GluR2 reduces interaction with GRIP.

GluR1 COOH tail (ATGL) binds to
1) SAP97 via 2nd PDZ domain (SAP97 is similar to PSD95: 3PDZ
Domains, 1 SH domain, 1 GK domain)
Intracelllular COOH terminal region of GluR1 can also bind CAMKII.

GluR1-4 TM domains bind to TARPs
1) STARGAZIN (4 transmembrane AMPA-R regulatory protein)
Stargazin promotes insertion of receptors. Can also bind to PSD95."

Now try to functionally integrate that with pre-existing knowledge of electrophysiology and neurotransmitter binding characteristics.

Weep, bitches.

Luckily I'm almost done with this lecture. Then there's one more Cindy lecture on Dopamine and GABA co-localized receptor integration.

Then there are the Englishman's lectures. Can I get a Jesus Fucking Christ. Thank you. What time I gain in not being expected to read and integrate handouts, a powerpoint lecture, discussion papers, AND lecture notes...I more than make up for in trying to decipher his Sanskrit Fuckery.

But I'll hopefully cover most, if not all, of it. For lo, tomorrow, is a study session right after class with a gaggle of neuro people. Who all seem to be swimmingly able to just rocket through this shit.

Might've kind've helped if I'd had the physics, advanced chemistry, or initial cell and molecular biology courses. But I've effectively taken all those by trying to master this material. I've frustrated and pissed off my advisor, a senior scientist (not Gabe, Heather), and basically tanked my reputation for doing research in my lab partly due to focusing so much on this and the other med school course.

But.
Really.

If I ever had to do another project like the one I'm doing now, I would bludgeon myself to death by smacking my erect penis against my forehead until the skull cracked and I died of a brain hemorrhage. I would rather fuck my own mind--TO DEATH--than ever attempt an investigatory gangbang of this magnitude ever again.

But I tiptoed into a cluster fuck, and now I gotta survive until this friday. And You do realize that, after finishing things at the lab and packing, I am going to get BLITZED. I am going to stand upon the precipice of FUCKED UP, look down into that Gorge of Vomiting and No Return, and toe the very line--then dangle one foot in the air, over said Gorge of Vomiting and No Return. Then put it back. Then put it out again. Then shake it all around. I will do the hokey-pokey on Blitzed Mountain, 'cuz that's what it's all about.

But first I need to finish the C&M Neuro (or S&M Neuro) notes.

And then start all over again.

Sisyphus was a gimp.

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