17 Oct 2013

This was pretty much a tiny conversation I had with myself just as I was reading through the marking scheme of my report on Human Phylogeography. Even this name sounds fancy, and I just felt like I had no clue what was going on, no idea what I was supposed to do. I really did feel like I should just give up and not do this assignment at all. But it weighs 25%, and I am very sure that the future me will regret not doing this assignment.. So.. here it is.. my conversation with myself! I apologise for the vulgarity. I tend to be really mean to myself. :D

I can write an essay on how Humans came about, but I can only do that based on what I know. Which probably can be summarised in one tiny paragraph. But here, I have to write it up in a whole report form with a word count of 1500 to 2000 words and it costs me 25% of my course. I have no idea HOW to even start my first sentence. Should I have just asked questions when I didn’t know what I am doing? But what am I supposed to ask, when I don’t even know what I have to do and what I am doing.. Search for materials.. Is fine. But why is it so difficult for me to look for proper sources? It is as though I am searching for something else, and my search results gives me a whole lot of other junk that are irrelevant to this topic of what I have to write about even.

How do I even begin with a intro..?

Hypotheses for human origins

I only know that humans originated from Africa. THAT IS ALL.

Hypotheses for human worldwide dispersal

Humans moved out of Africa, moved to Europe then to Asia then to Australia. The Asian line then went over to America. But somehow there are Europe lines that are much much younger than the Americans.

Aims of study

FIGURE THE FUCK OUT HOW TO DO THIS FREAKING PIECE OF PAPER.

Methods

What data are you using to build your trees?

I DON’T KNOW, the data was given, all I did was fucking extract it and wait for it to process for me.

To which part of the genome do these sequences belong to?

The Mitochondrial genome?

How many sequences?

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?

How long are these sequences?

FREAKIN LONG

Where did you obtain these sequences?

EXTRACTED from the given data.. what am I supposed to write even?! T.T

Description of methods used to build and date phylogenetic tree

Model of DNA evolution.. ?! WHAT?

Tree- building algorithm WHAT SHIT IS THIS?

Bootstrap

I still don’t know what this is.

Software used

Wasn’t it MEGA5? What else?

Molecular clock-dating

ITS RIGHT THERE, I JUST USE IT!

I have been talking to myself alot, recently. I think I am deprived. But mehhh..

In all honesty, I really don't know how am I going to pass my exams this semester. God Bless me..