Hey my powerpoint slides finally passed or maybe he just ran out of patience but most likely both as in it got closer to what he wanted and he doesn't want to deal with me anymore but either way he's going to sign the paperwork and then I won't have to deal with him for another year hallelujah I feel like I won.

The award for the most bizarre songs to get stuck in my head during protein gel, to date, now goes to the Mary Poppins soundtrack.

Dear Brain, what are you doing?

You can actually put anything in it, it just may not taste right

Today a random man poked me on the bus and asked if I "cooked Japanese or Chinese food". Then he wanted to know if I cook it at home. Then he wanted to know the name of "you know, those roll...things...that you fry..." and then he wanted to know if you put vegetables in spring rolls.

The strangest part of this conversation was that usually when I don't feel like dealing with people I put on my earphones and people leave me alone, but somehow this gentleman decided to persist and initiate physical contact which was...okay, more than a little irritating.

Here's a hint: if someone is wearing earphones and giving you short, terse answers? She doesn't actually want to talk to you. Please respect her wishes. Thank you kindly.

(Thankfully he didn't initiate until just before my bus stop so I escaped via leaving bus and didn't have to deal with "Sorry, I'm not interested in talking to you nor do I find your attention flattering" ordeal.)

Why's it always beetles

Kept meaning to update and even made notes to myself about what to write but these days experiments are going 7 days a week and things are kinda busy so when I do get a free moment I feel more like drawing to unwind than writing (which requires more brain cells, not to mention grammar). However, I'm currently logging back in to report that I've been hearing this weird noise tonight that, for the longest time, I thought were noises due to things being piled precariously, as they shifted weight. That sometimes happen. However they don't happen that frequently. As in once every five minutes. Turns out? The noise was weird because I've never hear the sound made by a really massive beetle bouncing off the ceiling (sometimes literally, it seems a bit directionally challenged).

After initial flailing (late night battles with beetles are one of those few moments in life where I remember fondly of living with my parents and am not happy to be an independent woman, because I can no longer make my dad go deal with it) I actually managed to successfully herd the massive beetle of massiveness back out the door, alive and no worse for the wear (meaning the beetle -- I was very cranky at this point).

Except then somehow, within the next fifteen minutes the beetle managed to find its way back in through a warp in the bottom of the door frame. (Was going to wait till winter again before getting landlady to fix it.) I was dozing off when I heard the distinctive clicking of its wings. So yeah: directionally challenged. At this point I'm exhausted and lost all patience with this particular arthropod -- if you can't be bothered to stay alive after I went out of my ways to help you then -- well---

--I smacked it with a rolled up magazine. Quite a few times, actually. It didn't do a darn thing. Have I mentioned it was massive? With massive hard shells covering its wings?

Herding wasn't working because of the directionally challenged thing, so eventually I gave up and hauled out the vaccum cleaner, sucked it up, and deposited it in the bathroom and closed the door because I just can't deal with it anymore. I wanted sleep.

Then I sat down on my bed and realized that all that flailing and vacuuming had made me quite wide awake so now I'm on my computer blogging about it.

I don't want to go out when it's chilly and kind of damp and walk to the unlit garbage area where there are even more insect to free a beetle that will probably find its way back somehow, anyway, because the thing is out of its little beetle mind.

I also don't exactly fancy the idea of a massive beetle incubating inside my vacuum cleaner either.

Perhaps if I need to use the bathroom later tonight I will be attacked by the ghost or not-so-ghostly beetle. It is possible. And if I were to perish mysteriously within the next ...oh eight hours or so, I want "death by beetle" in my eulogy somewhere, got it? Good.

Conformity approved

Remodeling of lab is done, except it isn't -- there are parts of our ventilation that are different from the blueprint the construction workers got (read: a result of the duct-tape and glue patch-ups that have happened over the past decade), which meant that the crew is still wandering around, causing massive panic when they get lost in our building and propose to seal off a lab when they, in fact, meant the lab one floor up.

Good things

I have returned from my vacation and my brain's sporadic interpretation of the ground swaying like the boat on the ocean to inform you, my dear readers, that I have discovered really good mint green tea today, totally by accident, when Lucy and I were recovering from Comic-Con by the way of lunch. It came from a plastic bottle. It shouldn't be this good. It was. It also read, on its packaging:

We found this great flavor while traveling through Morocco on bicycles. Our folks weren't very excited about the semester of class we missed, but at least we came home with the most delicious tea recipe ever...and a couple of kilim rugs for our college apartment.

...we are still inspired by Clayton's granny, "Mimi," who taught us never to use ingredients we can't pronounce. We hope you have as much fun drinking our tea as we have making it.

<3

It's called "Sweet Leaf green tea", mint and honey flavor. If you like mint-flavored things or tea flavored things even remotely I'd highly recommend it!

So this topped off a day where I stopped by the Peanuts booth when they were doing signings and Vicki Scott drew Marcie for me. Which topped a weekend where Lucy came over. Which topped off a week of vacation. 

...at which point I said, screw it, it's late on a Sunday and I'm not going into lab. One more day will not make that much of a difference to the overall progress of my work but it will make a lot of difference on my happiness this month, when I look back on it, years from now because, right now? I find myself almost bewilderingly happy with Life, the Universe and everything. 

(My God, what is in that tea?)

OH MY GOD

In the light of my post on Jul. 6th, this feels like some kind of karmic coincidence.

Thesis comic...in two minutes...but Jorge Cham of PhD Comics.

Going on a boat tomorrow & our room's starboard!

I am declaring war against the English language. We are at an impasse.

...can I draw my entire dissertation as a cartoon? CAN I.

Writing: day 2

It's really hard to spell multiple sclerosis for some reason. Also, I've migrated by to being on the chair but the curtain needs to be closed because otherwise my screen is too shiny.

I am writing the discussion part (only bit left besides the methods section) right now, and I have a strong urge to discuss how manuscript writing is really educational for the grad student but really hard on the eyes. All that staring at the screen, you know?

Oh God I need a nap.

Manuscript writing, 8 hours in

I just compared Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) to tumbleweeds to my PI (it made sense in my head at the time). Also: I need more tea.

Manuscript writing, 4 hours in

Have migrated from chair to floor. Referenced only 2 papers so far and consumed only 1 cup of tea. Already feels jittery and have started googling terms because I am starting to forget what is a legitimate biological term and what is made-up. (The distinction is fuzzier than you'd think.) Lunch break, methinks. 

...

Went in for a talk with one of my committee members about a part of my project as well as future career plans. During the talk she made a comment about how my logic is "different". It's not an insult or a compliment -- just a matter-of-fact observation. Yet, somehow, it made me feel inexplicably lonely -- more so than anything else anyone's said to me within the past year.

Asdf

Newly discovered item on the list of "Things You Never Want to Hear Your PI Say":

"I'm not sure if he (other senior professor) is doing this to you to make some sort of point to me...".