A third of you is daffodil

After a short (but exhausting) week, I abandoned post on Friday and went to Lucy's. Originally we were considering going to the Santa Ana botanical conservatory, but between the traffic and the week I felt more inclined to lie on the floor than move, so we didn't. We did got see the new Alice movie. Depp was creepy / mad as always, and between the nonsensical words in the original work and the accents, I only caught about 50% of the lines. Even so, I really liked the movie. It feels like it'd be good to watch alongside Gaiman's Mirrormask. Oh and there're fun moments in the dialogue (the fear about the decline of aristocracy is very great).

We did also play a bit of Sims (the game has been neglected of late on both of our parts, for various reasons). Nick and Alice had again, spontaneously developed A Relationship (though even Lucy admits that this round was ... strange). It's reassuring for me to know this because that means that when I originally created those characters and have them develop a relationship in the story they are actually compatible. Is this what it means to be soulmates? I don't know. Though I do know the part where Alice, still in her pajamas, walked up to Nick in the computer room and jumped him (and the events leading up to that) had me covering my eyes and muttering "I can't watch this". (But it all worked out, so hey....)

Speaking of the Lunatics. Lucy has apparently spotted yet another blond "Zach". We pondered what this means (why are there no brown-haired versions? He'd be happier with brown than blond). And whether or not it'd be too creepy of she took a photo of him for me. (We decided that the answer was "yes".)

Saturday I felt energetic enough that we made our way to Solvang and tried to determine whether it's better to be danish or donut. (Lucy picked danish, I haven't decided yet.) I liked the architecture (all very quaint & picturesque, complete with rolling green hills) and the food (well except the sour cabbage, which Lucy informed me was an acquired taste, and the cooked carrots, which I have never liked and probably never will). Lucy picked up more fridge magnets and we took a bunch of photos, which I've now uploaded to Facebook (and consequently chose to do this over reading, because uploading and labeling photos requires more...activation energy, if you will, than reading). The stores there sold all kinds of random knickknacks, including a bookstore with a fact-book that claimed everyone is 1/3 daffodil. I didn't read the explanation for how the author(s?) came to this astonishing conclusion, but was very amused anyway.

Finally, I was introduced to GLEE (the tv show), which I liked for reasons that I have yet to be able to satisfactorily explain to myself. I don't particularly like the characters, or the drama. The music has bits that I like and bits that I dislike. I fail to find it funny as a comedy. It's not the first show about underdogs and misfits becoming something special. Maybe it's the overall undertone of optimisms, or possibly just the odd moments of emotional honesty in between all the other over the top stuff that's going on. (Or maybe it somehow appealed to the third of me that's daffodil.) I think I need to watch more episodes to know. Maybe I'll like it less then. Or maybe the fact that I probably won't have the time to watch it before the end of the quarter will just kill off the enthusiasm because my attention span would've waned by then.

Which reminds me to say: insanity starts tomorrow! (Cheers.)

In which there was a massive attack of time management

I have to be in lab both days this weekend, due to a slight misunderstanding when I'm working with a postdoc in which we thought that the protocol took three days when it took four, and I was planning to add on another day to it for something else I'm doing, so it ended up needing five days and we started on Wednesday.

As a consequence I am currently in lab, waiting for the timer to go off so I can start the next round of incubations.

This week's been pretty good, all things considered. I ended up plotting out my experiments, once again, only to realize that there were a few images that I need to have taken that I haven't yet and so had to tack on a few extra hours of quality time with the microscope. There was three hours of minor panic on Wednesday morning regarding some misunderstanding with the vivarium paperwork, but luckily that sorted out alright too. I turned in my final on time, neglected to read my paper for journal club, and took part in the baby shower we (meaning the lab members and I) threw for Wendy. (I suspect my concept of what a "normal" baby shower is is nice and skewed by now, given I've only attended two and they're both lab-hosted ones.)

...and there is still no spring break for grad students. Stop asking.

...though I am taking next Friday off to go see Lucy (and possibly visit that nice botanical garden). I felt fairly justified, considering that I've had to come in on the weekends for something like three weeks straight and that after next weekend I have to come to campus on Saturday, again, to attend a TA training session of all things. (Yep, they do train us. Or at least they do try.) (Que horror?)

I have to present at lab meeting next week. I need to put together my powerpoint slides (I've decided to save trees and not do printouts, given how many images I have.) I also need to do the pilot run on my sequences on Daemon's linux OS sometime this weekend.And possibly clean my apartment again. Somehow I did manage to remember to fill out the Census form that I got and drink tea.

My PI continues to be strange, as usual, though he did bring us earl grey chocolate from Chuao's (yep that fancy chocolate place) which I figured most of you will probably approve. (He also classified RNA extraction procedure as being split between "crunchy" and "squishy", e.g. worms are squishy and flies are crunchy.) (...yeah I don't know, either.)

I don't understand

Dear Diary,

Today when I returned to my car after purchasing a baby-shower present for Wendy I discovered that someone has left a half-eaten lollipop stuck to the hood of my car.

It was very sticky.

Sincerely,

S

In which twitchiness is most unhelpful

There is too much to do. That is my conclusion right now. I realize that I am going to get very little done in terms of experiments during next quarter and so, in a fit of conscience, decided to try to round up everything in the next two weeks so that I will not be in the middle of things when the madness descends.

And now I am suffering for having made that choice.

Okay, it's not that bad. This is mostly me being grumpy about having to deal with all these other stuff on top of lab, including a final full of essay questions. Yep, there's lots to be done this weekend (need to stop by lab AGAIN tomorrow), but for tonight I need a break and so I'm going to eat dinner and watch an episode of Due South, pay my phone bills, and go to sleep.

Oh and there will be tea. Tea makes everything better.

Then they will all go crazy and die

I am currently 170 pages into A Game of Thrones and considering whether or not I should start a Twitter account just so I can note random thoughts as I go on (and make predictions, those are always fun). The book's good. It's intricate enough to keep me engaged, fairly good pace in terms plot, even if it still lacks something in terms of thematic grittiness. The most annoying thing so far is the length of description for scenery. I have now made the promise to myself that unless a particular setting is especially crucial to either the development of the characters or plot I will not spend paragraphs rhapsodizing about the view from the shore or the mystery of decaying trees in any story I write from now on. Just...no. My favorite thing, aside from a plot that actually understood that not everything can be split into right vs. wrong, is the characters. Mind you, I don't like most of them, especially Sansa (I like her even less than I like the antagonists). It's perhaps very telling that I identify the most with Lord Stark (second place is a tie between Tyrion and Snow). The lack of female characters at this point is not due to the fact that the females lack strength of will (which is a nice surprise) but the fact that all of them so far, despite of their strength, are still ruled by their passion and none of them seems capable of just being logical for a scene. I've also concluded that at least half of the Starks are going to die. I suspect that the queen will probably die too. Or the king. Or both. The odds of royal family's survival, at this point, isn't looking too good either. Daenerys might live. And grow a backbone, which would be nice. The beggar king lacks crucial survival instincts but might live out of sheer perversity (it'd suit him). Tyrion might live to mock everyone from his corner, but seriously, with all the foreshadowing I think the royal household will be the death of the Starks.

In other news: PI got me a external harddrive that's 500G and smaller than my hand. And strawberry soda is very good. It is still shedding season at the Animal Shelter.

Okay, this is alarming

My PI mentioned something to me today (about my pippetman preferences) that we talked about, once, the first day (or around that time) I joined the lab and hasn't mentioned since. Given that the conversation that started this was a sort of throw-away type of exchange from early-mid May of last year, now I live in paranoia that everything I've ever said in front of him will come back to haunt me later. Anna's linked me to this comic from OpenWetWare. After much debate, my labmates and I have decided that our PI is a hybrid... between "Control Freak" and "Science Wonk".

He is awesome, but he is also rather freakish.

Well, good luck to the recruits tomorrow.

Also: Anna? Trust me when I say that after all of this is over, in the future seeing other recruits getting interviewed will only inspire vague feelings of nostalgia. Your time will come, grasshopper.

Second recruitment weekend starts tomorrow (the recruits will be arriving throughout the day tomorrow). I didn't get an email with the necessary information, so I assume I will not be involved this time. I did get an email for the social events concluding each evening though, but since I don't drink alcohol and loud music plus crowd is a sure-fire way of giving myself a migraine, I probably won't be attending.

Watching recruits wander through lab on Friday should be entertaining, though. It's my other source of excitement aside from living vicariously through my friends who are going through the interviews these weeks.

Speaking of schools: I had an enlightening conversation with my PI about schools today (it stemmed from neuroanatomical atlases -- just don't ask me how). I have been told that switching to a different state at some point in my academic career is a good career move, because it shows potential employers that you're not just fixed in California and they have to be more competitive in terms of recruiting you (as opposed to knowing that you're limited to the choices in Cal anyway, I suppose). Today I found out that my PI will be happy with just a change of institution. And that it can even be one of the research institutes right up the street. I also found out that Cal Tech is apparently a very small school and very "spotty", and that Boston has a good academics environment. I am currently going to take his words for it, since he went to Cal Tech for grad school and then did post doc at, I think, MIT. Given what kind of person he is, if he thinks Cal Tech is spotty, I should probably be avoiding the place.

Today one of my classmates helped me carry stuff. Without even saying anything (e.g. asking me if I need help, or have me ask for help). It was very nice. Apparently guys like that still exist.