Thursday, November 24, 2005

Proteins and mp3s???

Our mind is an amazing thing. It lets us concentrate really well on certain things that we do, at the same time, it can wander away to the furthest corners of the universe! I realised these amazing "properties" of the mind over the past few weeks while preparing for exams with my friends. The mind has the capacity to absorb certain things from your text book really well, while certain other things just fuel its journey to dreamland.

In this post, I thought I would just list a few things I had heard my friends say over the past two weeks and also certain other things that I had said or thought... just to demonstrate the concentrating and wandering powers of the mind while studying. Especially in the exam season!

Here are a few instances when you know you have studied too much and that your mind has been absorbing stuff from books for too long.. a hint for you to take a break ;)

  • when your friend looks at you after you have had an exceptionally full meal and wonders what your expansion coefficient is. (hey! are you trying to hint something??? :P)
  • when you look at your crumpled jacket and remark "my jacket is a protein! it folded!"
  • when your friend passes by a water tank and wonders at what rate the water should flow, what the diameter of the pipe is, how long it will take to fill half the tank...blah blah blah...zzzzzzzzzz
  • when your curly haired friend remarks that she needs a "disufide bond breaker" for her hair.. a.k.a hair straightener.
  • when you start wondering about the changes in properties of the cheese on your cheese toast when you toast it and watch the cheese melt. (yum! cheesy!!!)
  • when you go to help your friend shop for a birthday present for someone else, and you think that a particular coffee mug there looked perfect to act as a molecular chaperone for proteins to fold in... rather than to hold coffee.

I could go on and on... All these instances probably just mean that you have studied too much and you need to get out and breathe some fresh air more often!

Then again... there is the opposite! The case where your brain just refuses to concentrate on the task at hand and decides to wander all over the place!

Here are a few examples of the weird things that I said out of the blue to my friend while studying subjects like organic chemistry or biochemistry.. and also a few weird things that ran through my mind, but i didn't tell them out

  • Asking your friend "Which one costs more? a new cycle or an mp3 player?"
  • Some guys look quite good in sleeveless tops, but there are so many who just can't carry it off!
  • Asking your friend (who is studying pretty seriously) whether she thinks your handwriting looks mature or is it still like a little kid's handwriting... (sigh... i will never learn!)
  • I need a couple of nice pants... maybe brown... and not to mention jeans!
  • I have got to see the new harry potter movie.. i wonder how the yule ball is...
How irrelevant could my thoughts be???!!!!! All these thoughts while studying Biochemistry or Organic chemistry??? :O

These are just a few things that buzzed around my brain while i studied.. if i were to list down every single thing that went on in my head while i studied, the number of irrelevant thoughts would outstrip the relevant thoughts by a huge margin :">

I just thought it was pretty incredible that our mind can get so deep into certain things, while certain other things just bounce off. Two opposite properties in the same mind.

Hmmmmmmmmm....... How did that happen??

8 comments:

Anusha said...

Hahahahahaha!!! *falls off chair laughing*

okie..me back!! and..ouch. that fall hurt!! anyways...brilliant post, i looooved it!!

i've had loads of weird thoughts myself...man, the things my mind starts to wander off to when i'm 'supposed' to be studying!!

it can be very disconcerting too! imagine going... "Alkenes undergo oxymercuration and hydroboration reactions, giving Markovnikov and anti...it may sound absurd, but dont be naive, even heroes have the right to..umm...erm...oxymercuration and hydroboration...zzzz"

and oh, for the record? i havent met a single guy who can carry off a sleeveless shirt..:P

great post!! loved it! :D

Anonymous said...

Mind is a dangerous thing!!!
Manam (mind) oru kurangu (monkey)
YING YANG - mind is just that!!
GOD-SATAN mind is made of them
It can reveal you "self" and it can also hide you.
Mind has a mind of its own, does n't it? Way to go "mindful" macho girl, if the disulfide bonds can do the trick for the curly hair, what can do the trick for the wandering mind? Well....a new research topic perhaps!!

Anonymous said...

Two opposite properties in the same mind.

Hmmmmmmmmm....... How did that happen??

don't you see life is full of that irony???

Anonymous said...

harry potter movie we're definitely watching on the 1st dec no matter what ;) funny how our mind goes crazy when its under pressure! i really enjoyed reading that post. me- your straight-haired friend doesn't need a disulphide bond breaker. that's a good idea for our curly-haired friend's next bday... btw, your handwriting is fine dudette ;D

Macho Girl said...

#clueless
Glad u liked the post so much! i know it can be kinda irritating when u read something and are trying to concentrate on it, then outta nowhere, ur favourite song pops up in ur mind and sticks in there for the rest of the day!

And about the sleeveless... well... come to think of it... even i haven't met one....maybe sleeveless was just not meant for guys! ;)

#double head
life is full of irony... which is why songs like "ironic" are written! it works out fine for me though!

#ann@
We ARE going for harry potter movie... come rain or shine... oh.. wait a minute... there is no shine during the night show :">... anyways... the point is that we are going!

I am sure our curly-haired friend will appreciate a disulfide bond breaker... her next b'day is too far off though.. we better start saving! we have loans to pay :P

Anusha said...

hey..if i'm the curly-haired friend being mentioned here...just wanted to say, i'd really appreciate the disulfide-bond breaker!!!

if i'm NOT the curly-haired friend u guys are talking about..then...well...boo to u. :P

cheerios!! and i'll be waiting for the DBB!!! :D

Vijay Chidambaram said...

Great Post! You write really well!

Anonymous said...

Hey...I didn't actually mean anything when I spoke about your co-efficient of exapnsion!!!...LOL...that was so funny...guess there was too physics going into my head at that time...and to think that when I went for the haunted house hunt with a few of my friends, I actually thought of physics when I looked at the water tank there...about how much water it could hold when at a particular temperature n stuff !!! Man...This is what exams can do to you...!! Haha...one of most awesome blogs..loved it !! :)