Y llaman Universidades a criaderos de mutantes

Puerto Rican police beats parent for bringing food for his son

My alma mater has been on strike for the past few weeks due to proposed changes in services and increases in fees and tuition. Unlike mainland US, access to higher education is considered a right in PR, and increasing tuition (because the state cut about $100 million in funds for the university) would decrease access to working class and poor students.
The University of Puerto Rico plays a vital role in increasing social mobility. Plenty of us that are now in prestigious graduate and medical schools in mainland US wouldn't have had any higher education if it weren't that accessible.
The police department, however, has had a strained relationship with the university and the students since the 1960's. They have been banned from entry to the Rio Piedras campus since the Riot Police shot and killed a student that was in her apartment balcony shouting at them to stop beating the crap out of protesting students in 1970.
As I've posted earlier, it is quite common for the police to beat up UPR students for no reason. My husband was at the receiving end of one of those beatings when he was a freshman.
Unsurprisingly, this strike has been peppered with accusations and video evidence of police brutality against the students. In this instance, the police beats up a parent for bringing food to his son that is striking inside the campus.

Waking Up

So, slowly but surely I'm coming out of my depression. However, my social anxiety is still pretty crappy. For some reason I can either talk to people face to face or through email/text, but talking on the phone really freaks me out! But whatever, things are getting better.
On the crappy side of things, I gave up on my thesis project on my 5th year. That protein is simply not suitable for that type of experiments and I just have to deal. But it fucking blows - 2 more fucking years here. Thankfully my new project is with a protein that knows how to behave.
Also, I'm going back home in a week! And for the first time my youngest sister is old enough to drink and drive (obviously not both at the same time!) and so now all three of us can leave our respective parents (and their dramas) at home and go chill out at the beach.
It's so weird to have my 'baby' sister grow up - but it's also very awesome. My middle sister has always been one of my best friends, and more and more so as we grew older. But the age difference was 6 years, so as soon as she hit about 16 we could, you know, talk about stuff. But my baby sister is 12 years younger than me! And in addition, we are from different marriages so we never had the opportunity to live together for very long. I have only seen my sisters sporadically the last 5 years, since I've been stuck here in grad school. And during this time she has grown up to be a pretty awesome almost-adult! I'm really, really looking forward to go back home and spend some time hanging out with them both and get to know my youngest sister better. There are few people in this life I love as much as I love them.
So here I am, waiting for the storm to get the fuck out and hoping for Spring to bring some good times.

Happy Belated Blasphemy Day!!

Usually I avoid posting shit that would bother the theists. Today is not an usual day. Nothing is sacred, and everything should be open for questioning. Even here, in a country where there is supposedly both free speech and a separation of church and state, open criticism and questioning of religious institutions can result in exaggerated pious whining, violence, and threats of violence. I lack the creativity to make some cool blaspheming so I'm turning to blasphemous music!

PR Police Fucking Blows

I'm probably making a longer post about this at some time, but although enraging, this is unsurprising behavior by cops towards the students from the state universty's main campus. They even shot students that were telling others to get into the college residence with tear gas. And by shot I don't mean into the air like they are supposed to. I mean to they aimed those things at the students and caused bleeding.
And again, unsurprisingly, the media coverage of the incident is full of air quotes around police brutality and the insinuation that the students deserved getting beaten by batons and thrown tear gas for swearing at the police.

Stupid is as stupid does

I skipped going to the lab on Saturday because I was too hungover. So I went to bed early, got ready to take the 1st bus, walked 10 min to get to the bus stop and 30 min to get from the closest bus stop to the lab.
I wished for another shower as soon as I got to the lab. I don't remember being this sweaty in Ithaca ever - this is something I only associated with PR, not the north-fucking-east. I put on some music and started working. Everything was going fine until I chose the wrong centrifuge tubes. I lost my goddamn samples for being stupid and not running the centrifuge with empty tubes first. GRR. Wasted Sunday due to my stupidity. I would have been comparatively ahead if I just skipped coming to the lab yesterday.

Cuando respiro en tu boca

I'm too hungover to go to lab today. Thankfully my culture pellets are stored @ -20C. I'm doing my Sunday chores today and going to lab tomorrow- so lets start the Sunday cleaning and dancing music!

Me alzo y salto entre tus dedos sabré caer
ojalá que sea cierto que odio tus dedos
me estiro y espero que algo enrosque tu
espalda en flor ojalá que sea cierto que
odio tu espalda cuando respiro en tu boca
y penetra tu ojo en mi ojo cuando respiro
en tu boca me escondes como sangre a la herida

me pongo de pie y perdono al daño que
a mi oído destrozó que sea cierto que
odio el silencio cuando respiro en tu boca
y penetra tu ojo en mi ojo me precipito
hacia el cielo cuando respiro en tu boca
cuando respiro en tu boca de par en par
tu flor tensión y caída cuando respiro en tu boca