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.
20100304
20100303
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.
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.
20100228
...
Did it seriously rain like an reenactment of Noah's arc yesterday? Because the sky is very, very blue today.
The rose from a couple weeks ago appear to have finally recovered! There're new leaves and everything.
The rose from a couple weeks ago appear to have finally recovered! There're new leaves and everything.
20100222
Whoa baby whaaa?
I found a lot of interesting things today and my mind was reeling to the point where I accidentally dumped a container of CDs on my head of all things, while in lab, before giving myself a paper cut that is currently making it hard for me to type. (Then again, it wouldn't be the first time I bled all over my keyboard. It's less damaging, at least, than getting coke all over the keyboard.)
On rare occasions I feel brilliant. Most of the days I still feel like an idiot.
I should start with the worry hovering over the entire lab all of last week: Wendy's fine! Actually she came in today and did two hours of mouse work in the vivarium. I spent some time explaining that most people in her condition would be home, resting. She pointed out that since her baby (boy, born late last Wednesday) has to stay in the hospital for a few months, she doesn't have to take her maternity leave until the baby comes home and so in the mean while she can try to get all her stuff down so she can graduate. I explained that people usually go from hospital rest to home rest before going to work. She pointed out that since the baby's early she recovered fairly quickly, that there's nothing she can do at home except sleep (which, isn't that the point of rest?), and that she has mouse embryos to dissect tomorrow, and genotyping to do. I...just.... Well, at least she seems fine, despite of the massive amount of bruising on her arm from the IV (she has small veins; I can sympathize). She showed me the tag they put on her. Apparently baby-stealing is a common enough problem that they tag the parent and tag the baby right after birth and if you take the baby outside of the door it'll beep -- the door, not the baby. Like an errant library book or, as Wendy pointed out, a shirt from the store.
I had an odd mental image of babies with barcodes stamped on them. (Why not? I've been tagged with something that DID have a barcode on it before.)
So right. Next up is something that I found out about the recruitment process of grad school! Our recruitment weekend ended Saturday evening, everyone flew out at different times Sunday (or really late Saturday night). Around late Sunday I got an email (which I didn't read until this morning) asking me to a) give some feedback on the weekend and what can be changed for the better, in terms of organization &c. and b) review / rate my recruit.
I felt very twitchy the entire time I was filling out the form, and not just because the name of my recruit happened to be "Anna". I was asked to rank the acceptance (from high priority to low priority to don't accept), as well as to describe the strength and weaknesses of the recruit (e.g. communication skills, interest in research &c.) along with anything exceptional (and I have no idea what's considered exceptional). Somehow I suspect all the PIs that had interviews are also asked to fill out these forms (which makes me wonder how they can fill it out, considering that most of them didn't give us the time to talk during interviews at all) ("quiet", "relatively quiet", "managed to squeeze in one question", "fell asleep"?). Right after this, we were asked to send a nice email to our recruits (after all, we are trying to "recruit" them) to conclude this entire thing. On one hand I'm pretty sure my classmates and I will not be putting anyone in the "don't accept" category (unless you really are psycho and talking to you has made us fear for our lives -- in that case we don't want you in SD, we want you as far away as possible). On the other hand, I do feel that since the job of the hosts are to take the recruits out, talk to them, and show them around in a nice, relaxed atmosphere, is it really fair to rate this interaction as one would an interview?
This bothers me.
Thirdly. The collaborator that I've just spent a month and a half waiting for and committing academic stalking via email for (yeah the one who never answers his email or if he does, never includes the information I need, such as his protocol index) gave me all the information I needed today, in under two minutes, because I got so fed up that I went and called him instead of sending him increasingly more frantic emails. He was very nice over the phone and even gave me his cell phone number (I called his lab, figuring that someone there must know where he is, and he picked up) in case I need to reach him again. And then the rest of the paperwork for animal transfer was submitted in under fifteen minutes, approved right after lunch, and ready to go by five pm.
I waited a month and a half for this.
People are truly complex and so very, very, annoying.
Though now this means I might have more behavioral data in a few months, finally, and that's kind of exciting.
I had "The War of 1812" by the Arrogant Worms stuck in my head today, for no apparently reason. It was a little disconcerting to keep catching myself singing the chorus part under my breath while I was cutting my cryostat sections (how is it that I use three different types of razors, two types of tweezers, and three types of surgical scissors regularly, and still manage to injure myself with a sheet of paper, by the way?). Considering the lyrics, I wonder if someone might mistake me for a terrorist at some point and try to report me. Well, if I suddenly disappear off of the face of the earth you guys will know what happened.
On rare occasions I feel brilliant. Most of the days I still feel like an idiot.
I should start with the worry hovering over the entire lab all of last week: Wendy's fine! Actually she came in today and did two hours of mouse work in the vivarium. I spent some time explaining that most people in her condition would be home, resting. She pointed out that since her baby (boy, born late last Wednesday) has to stay in the hospital for a few months, she doesn't have to take her maternity leave until the baby comes home and so in the mean while she can try to get all her stuff down so she can graduate. I explained that people usually go from hospital rest to home rest before going to work. She pointed out that since the baby's early she recovered fairly quickly, that there's nothing she can do at home except sleep (which, isn't that the point of rest?), and that she has mouse embryos to dissect tomorrow, and genotyping to do. I...just.... Well, at least she seems fine, despite of the massive amount of bruising on her arm from the IV (she has small veins; I can sympathize). She showed me the tag they put on her. Apparently baby-stealing is a common enough problem that they tag the parent and tag the baby right after birth and if you take the baby outside of the door it'll beep -- the door, not the baby. Like an errant library book or, as Wendy pointed out, a shirt from the store.
I had an odd mental image of babies with barcodes stamped on them. (Why not? I've been tagged with something that DID have a barcode on it before.)
So right. Next up is something that I found out about the recruitment process of grad school! Our recruitment weekend ended Saturday evening, everyone flew out at different times Sunday (or really late Saturday night). Around late Sunday I got an email (which I didn't read until this morning) asking me to a) give some feedback on the weekend and what can be changed for the better, in terms of organization &c. and b) review / rate my recruit.
I felt very twitchy the entire time I was filling out the form, and not just because the name of my recruit happened to be "Anna". I was asked to rank the acceptance (from high priority to low priority to don't accept), as well as to describe the strength and weaknesses of the recruit (e.g. communication skills, interest in research &c.) along with anything exceptional (and I have no idea what's considered exceptional). Somehow I suspect all the PIs that had interviews are also asked to fill out these forms (which makes me wonder how they can fill it out, considering that most of them didn't give us the time to talk during interviews at all) ("quiet", "relatively quiet", "managed to squeeze in one question", "fell asleep"?). Right after this, we were asked to send a nice email to our recruits (after all, we are trying to "recruit" them) to conclude this entire thing. On one hand I'm pretty sure my classmates and I will not be putting anyone in the "don't accept" category (unless you really are psycho and talking to you has made us fear for our lives -- in that case we don't want you in SD, we want you as far away as possible). On the other hand, I do feel that since the job of the hosts are to take the recruits out, talk to them, and show them around in a nice, relaxed atmosphere, is it really fair to rate this interaction as one would an interview?
This bothers me.
Thirdly. The collaborator that I've just spent a month and a half waiting for and committing academic stalking via email for (yeah the one who never answers his email or if he does, never includes the information I need, such as his protocol index) gave me all the information I needed today, in under two minutes, because I got so fed up that I went and called him instead of sending him increasingly more frantic emails. He was very nice over the phone and even gave me his cell phone number (I called his lab, figuring that someone there must know where he is, and he picked up) in case I need to reach him again. And then the rest of the paperwork for animal transfer was submitted in under fifteen minutes, approved right after lunch, and ready to go by five pm.
I waited a month and a half for this.
People are truly complex and so very, very, annoying.
Though now this means I might have more behavioral data in a few months, finally, and that's kind of exciting.
I had "The War of 1812" by the Arrogant Worms stuck in my head today, for no apparently reason. It was a little disconcerting to keep catching myself singing the chorus part under my breath while I was cutting my cryostat sections (how is it that I use three different types of razors, two types of tweezers, and three types of surgical scissors regularly, and still manage to injure myself with a sheet of paper, by the way?). Considering the lyrics, I wonder if someone might mistake me for a terrorist at some point and try to report me. Well, if I suddenly disappear off of the face of the earth you guys will know what happened.
20100220
Huh, there goes another week
The quality of food from Costco always surprises me because I'd think that it's, well, Costco. The giant stacks of boxes of socks and soap are not exactly what anyone would associate with gourmet. Yet somehow there're pretty good stuff there. My recent discovery is their Belgian chocolate cups, especially the dark chocolate ones. (Which reminds me to note that I finally remembered to try that chocolate soda that Lucy brought over the last weekend and it tastes like carbonated chocolate milk. It's...unsettling. I think I might just let it set out until all the CO2 goes so I can pretend it's chocolate milk.) (Yes it's still slightly carbonated, even after a week. Impressive, isn't it?)
The night with my recruit went well. We had, against all odds, things in common, such as being one of the few applicants of our year who hasn't obtained our bachelor's and liking Neil Gaiman's work. We went out for Thai food and I warned her that it might rain, because SD always rains on recruitment weekend. This turned out to be true, but at least the rain was this morning, and brief, so that most of the outdoor events that were planned for Friday and Saturday should've gone fine.
In fact, that evening went so well that when I got the desperate email asking for the hosts to volunteer a second time since we have over 40 people coming the second weekend, I agreed to host another student.
The interviews with the PIs were on Friday, so I got to see my PI as well as one of the neighboring PIs wander past with the recruits (recognizable by their red-bordered name tags). Afterwards when I asked my PI how the interviews went, he commented that all the students had potential, but since this is recruitment he couldn't really ask them any of the hard questions. (There you go, Anna, apparently the PIs have some sort of unspoken codes of conduct for recruitment weekends.) Of course immediately after this comment I had a moment of incriminating doubt about my PI, because somehow the comment made me recall with horror every single oral exam I've ever had to take and I didn't really expected that from him. Then I realized I couldn't actually remember him ever asking me really hard questions. Therefore it's possible that either he was really desperate for a grad student when I joined (Wendy's graduating, once a PI's lab has emptied of grad student it'll be harder for him/her to get another one -- admittedly not as hard as a PI who's never had a grad student), or that he was joking. The jury's still out on this one.
We still haven't heard anything from Wendy yet (and by "we" I'm referring to my labmates and I). I've talked to one of her friend on Wednesday and was informed that she was fine. However, then we got an email from her husband saying how the baby could be expected any day now. Six months is so much shorter than what it should be. Admittedly modern medicine has gotten very good with premature births and one month ahead of time is almost guaranteed to be problem free, but even so.... It's not even six, to be honest. It's five and some.
My labmates and I are currently in the habits of crossing our fingers at each other when we talk about this. I feel like I should be crossing my fingers now but that would impede typing.
Parents are coming today. I cannot stop them. It should be nice and awkward.
The night with my recruit went well. We had, against all odds, things in common, such as being one of the few applicants of our year who hasn't obtained our bachelor's and liking Neil Gaiman's work. We went out for Thai food and I warned her that it might rain, because SD always rains on recruitment weekend. This turned out to be true, but at least the rain was this morning, and brief, so that most of the outdoor events that were planned for Friday and Saturday should've gone fine.
In fact, that evening went so well that when I got the desperate email asking for the hosts to volunteer a second time since we have over 40 people coming the second weekend, I agreed to host another student.
The interviews with the PIs were on Friday, so I got to see my PI as well as one of the neighboring PIs wander past with the recruits (recognizable by their red-bordered name tags). Afterwards when I asked my PI how the interviews went, he commented that all the students had potential, but since this is recruitment he couldn't really ask them any of the hard questions. (There you go, Anna, apparently the PIs have some sort of unspoken codes of conduct for recruitment weekends.) Of course immediately after this comment I had a moment of incriminating doubt about my PI, because somehow the comment made me recall with horror every single oral exam I've ever had to take and I didn't really expected that from him. Then I realized I couldn't actually remember him ever asking me really hard questions. Therefore it's possible that either he was really desperate for a grad student when I joined (Wendy's graduating, once a PI's lab has emptied of grad student it'll be harder for him/her to get another one -- admittedly not as hard as a PI who's never had a grad student), or that he was joking. The jury's still out on this one.
We still haven't heard anything from Wendy yet (and by "we" I'm referring to my labmates and I). I've talked to one of her friend on Wednesday and was informed that she was fine. However, then we got an email from her husband saying how the baby could be expected any day now. Six months is so much shorter than what it should be. Admittedly modern medicine has gotten very good with premature births and one month ahead of time is almost guaranteed to be problem free, but even so.... It's not even six, to be honest. It's five and some.
My labmates and I are currently in the habits of crossing our fingers at each other when we talk about this. I feel like I should be crossing my fingers now but that would impede typing.
Parents are coming today. I cannot stop them. It should be nice and awkward.
20100218
...what happened?
This week has been fairly insane so far, despite of the fact that it's a short week. Well, short week by the standards of anyone not involved in graduate school. I spent Monday in lab, after all, as did many of my lab mates. Experiments to run, etc.
Wendy, my labmate, ended up in the hospital on Saturday. I found this out on Monday, when she called the lab while I was down in the vivarium. She went into contractions two and half months early and now they've got her on IV and enforced bed rest. Meanwhile the rest of us have taken to sending her massive amounts of email and plotting when will be a plausible time to sneak in to see her without causing her unnecessary stress. Oh and taking care of her mice. She has a lot of mice (currently I think almost half of the cages in our vivarium are hers). There's a collective air of "omigod I hope everything will be okay" going on at the lab right now. Add in the fact that Dorothy's taking the week off and we've just had a post-doc who'd left a few weeks ago, the lab seems very quiet and subdued this week.
I am picking up my recruit from the airport tonight. At some point I will blog about this, in the aftermath. Meanwhile I just want to note that some of my classmates tend to group together for these sort of thing (i.e. a couple hosts go out together with their recruit as a group), while I'm doing this one-on-one tonight. It is probably a good thing. One-on-one people tend to think that I'm weird, but can be fun to talk to. In a group setting all that people get from me is weird and quiet.
My parents still want to come this weekend. I should probably call them at some point.
I am WAY behind in updating my lab notebook.
And cryostat sectioning.
My life needs more tea at the moment.
Sunday was fine though. Sunday was FUN. Lucy and I went to the Wild Animal Park in SD, as I'm sure many of you have seen the photos for already. We tracked down flamingos, were wowed by the crazy creations of mother nature in the animal world, and fed birds. There was also a balloon safari that resembled a giant float grapefruit in the sky, which I've taken to use as my landmark for pinpointing directions while in the park. The native plants section of the park was a slight disappointment but, as Lusine had pointed out, the fact that they HAD a plant section is impressive (their conifer arboretum was quite good though, with streams and ferns and everything). And they had bonsai. I have no idea why but ...bonsai.
We also got to see the baby elephant that was born at 3am the day that we were there. Lucy claimed that she was going to "die from the cute". (He was a very large baby. Then again, she was a very large mother.) There was also a theatre proclaiming 4-D shows, which after much debate, we were forced to conclude that no time traveling was involved (such shame). I think they meant 3-D plus motion which okay, is 3-D plus an extra sensory so I guess they thought 3+1 = 4? Except this is like adding things on the Cartesian coordinates to imaginary numbers -- that's NOT how it works. If they're doing motion as one of the experiences, then the 3-D is purely visual effects which is ONE sensory input so it's really 1+1 =2. ...but anyway, much lolz was had.
We also saw a kid who reminded us of Zach, at the age of ...what? 7? 8? Despite of the fact that he was blond (oh so very irredeemably blond). At least the skinny pale boy in glasses part still fits, leading me to conclude that whatever people thought of Zach post-puberty, he was very cute as a kid.
Okay classes now.
Wendy, my labmate, ended up in the hospital on Saturday. I found this out on Monday, when she called the lab while I was down in the vivarium. She went into contractions two and half months early and now they've got her on IV and enforced bed rest. Meanwhile the rest of us have taken to sending her massive amounts of email and plotting when will be a plausible time to sneak in to see her without causing her unnecessary stress. Oh and taking care of her mice. She has a lot of mice (currently I think almost half of the cages in our vivarium are hers). There's a collective air of "omigod I hope everything will be okay" going on at the lab right now. Add in the fact that Dorothy's taking the week off and we've just had a post-doc who'd left a few weeks ago, the lab seems very quiet and subdued this week.
I am picking up my recruit from the airport tonight. At some point I will blog about this, in the aftermath. Meanwhile I just want to note that some of my classmates tend to group together for these sort of thing (i.e. a couple hosts go out together with their recruit as a group), while I'm doing this one-on-one tonight. It is probably a good thing. One-on-one people tend to think that I'm weird, but can be fun to talk to. In a group setting all that people get from me is weird and quiet.
My parents still want to come this weekend. I should probably call them at some point.
I am WAY behind in updating my lab notebook.
And cryostat sectioning.
My life needs more tea at the moment.
Sunday was fine though. Sunday was FUN. Lucy and I went to the Wild Animal Park in SD, as I'm sure many of you have seen the photos for already. We tracked down flamingos, were wowed by the crazy creations of mother nature in the animal world, and fed birds. There was also a balloon safari that resembled a giant float grapefruit in the sky, which I've taken to use as my landmark for pinpointing directions while in the park. The native plants section of the park was a slight disappointment but, as Lusine had pointed out, the fact that they HAD a plant section is impressive (their conifer arboretum was quite good though, with streams and ferns and everything). And they had bonsai. I have no idea why but ...bonsai.
We also got to see the baby elephant that was born at 3am the day that we were there. Lucy claimed that she was going to "die from the cute". (He was a very large baby. Then again, she was a very large mother.) There was also a theatre proclaiming 4-D shows, which after much debate, we were forced to conclude that no time traveling was involved (such shame). I think they meant 3-D plus motion which okay, is 3-D plus an extra sensory so I guess they thought 3+1 = 4? Except this is like adding things on the Cartesian coordinates to imaginary numbers -- that's NOT how it works. If they're doing motion as one of the experiences, then the 3-D is purely visual effects which is ONE sensory input so it's really 1+1 =2. ...but anyway, much lolz was had.
We also saw a kid who reminded us of Zach, at the age of ...what? 7? 8? Despite of the fact that he was blond (oh so very irredeemably blond). At least the skinny pale boy in glasses part still fits, leading me to conclude that whatever people thought of Zach post-puberty, he was very cute as a kid.
Okay classes now.
20100214
20100206
Don't make the apocalypse in a test tube, kids
Dude. Dude. I cannot believe that the word "biohacker" is currently being used. It is oddly applicable and all the more scary for it.
Before I denounce all and sundry I should point out that I am, in principle, not against the biohackers. I can see where they are coming from. The fact that you practically need a PhD and massive amounts of funding (millions of dollars, and I have no idea what the current ROR grant award rate is, so don't even ask)to do any kind of research in biology does bother me. I am all for a cheaper way of doing things and the fact that you can buy the same blender (Warring) from your local store that would costs something like ten times more to buy from a biology research tool&appliances catalogue is utterly ridiculous. It is a blender. It chops things. It's even made by the same company and has no differences in settings and motor voltage so why, people? Why?
(Our lab's microwave that we use for experiments probably comes from Fry's or something. It's cheaper.)
That's not even taken into account the PhD thing. Do you really need a doctorate in your field in order to do good science? Clearly not. Plenty of important discoveries were made by people who have never worked in a field that their knowledge contributed to. Dendrochronology is an example of someone contributing from a different field of science altogether. Lorenzo's Oil and, slightly less so, Something the Lord Made are both good stories (in movie format, even!) about people who are not PhDs who have made significant contribution. Having all that scientific knowledge wrapped up and kept under seal, away from the public, is in fact dangerous. It is the public, after all, who makes the decisions about policies. It is the public's voice, the collective "We" (no dystopia jokes please) whose voice is heard. Therefore isn't a little scary to think that about a third of America still doesn't believe in evolution? Uninformed public is dangerous, but what is more dangerous is a public that has been misinformed. In an age of internet and too much information, both accurate and inaccurate, floating around, is it really a good idea to keep what has been scientifically proven restricted to journals that only scientists would probably ever pay to subscribe to? I have somewhat more faith in humanity than Hobbes, but even so, considering what we are capable of doing right now in the field of biology, I think the imbalance of flow of information is getting to be too great. Something's gotta give. (Greener Than You Think is a satirical account of what could, in theory, happen when the scientific knowledge, for whatever reason, just failed to make it across to people -- a salesman in this case. I always wondered if it might've gone better of the biologist in that story managed to appeal to the salesman better and explained why he had to do things a certain way.)
(Which reminds me to mention again how wonderful PLoS is. Really. I love it. If I had more time I'd read more articles from it besides the ones the PI keeps on forwarding to me.)
Now my issue with biohackers (aha, you say, here it comes, but hear me out) is this. As with the original use of the word hackers in the field of computational sciences, the general public tends to lump the word "hacker" and "cracker" together when the two groups of people are in totally different camps. Similarly, with the ease of ordering and shipping (we get our DNAs Fedex'ed, I think people's worked out how to ship all kinds of things via Fedex now) I worry about the possibility of "biocrackers". I feel like I should remind people that unlike comp sci stuff, bio sci things can literally grow and multiply and take over the world. Anyone who's paid any attention at all to news must know of the possible issues people have with antibiotic resistance in bacteria, GMO, as well as the use of animal in research. All these issues arise from a time when the biologists can pretty much just do whatever they wanted, without having to go through protocol approval and acquisition paperwork. (The original discovery of allergy shots? The MD just went out there and injected volunteers. No prior testing on animals or approval of procedure by an elected committee.) Although these have resulted in a lot of awesome discoveries, they also lead to a lot of abuse and environmental dangers in the future. Who could've predicted the frequency that bacteria swap DNA with? The rapid rate that antibiotic resistance can be passed through all different strains? Who could've predicted that increasing yield in crops can also lead to out breeding and "superweeds?". Or those issues with pesticide? For all that I will grumble and complain about the song and dance we have to go through to get anything new done, I also agree that, to an extend, those procedures are necessary. Therefore, your local backyard biohacker, who does not have a protocol approved by a committee who will ask in detail about what happens in case of cross contamination, spills, and a plethora of possibly dangerous things that can go wrong, can in fact get into some serious trouble, not only for the biohacker but for everyone.
There is only one planet earth, people. (Maybe if I repeat this enough time some of the more recalcitrant folks out there will finally realize that their net income each year matters slightly less than the end of the world?)
So my issue is this: not the hacking, nor the backyard, but the fact that we have no way of knowing whether or not the hackers have had any training at all in dealing with research biology. Whether or not, for instance, they know the differences between biohazards level 0 to 3 and that you can't pour biological waste down the drain or into the trash -- there are rules with 10% bleach and 70% ethanol (now a controlled substance that we have to get our PI to sign in order to buy -- sometimes the safety committee can get overly zealous, yes), depending on what you've used, that apply. We don't know whether or not these hackers know that when you mix certain reagents, a small percentage of it can get aerosolized so the area that you work has to be contained -- all our labs have constant air filtering and are at a negative pressure so whenever we open the door, air is sucked into the lab, never out. We don't know even if these hackers know the basic protocols of what to do in case they spill acid or base and let's face it, theory is very different from reality. Back when I did my safety training the people used to tell stories of this poor guy from physics, who'd never done any lab work, and how he spilled acid on himself and how he then poured base on himself to try to neutralize it on his skin. (For the record, people: do not do that; go stand the affected area under the DI water immediately for 15 minutes instead, that way you might actually avoid third degree chemical burn.) What we need, in addition to possible background checks to make sure the person is a hacker and not a cracker, is this: some sort of system (I suspect it will have to be volunteer based because I cannot foresee a lot of the university committee people voluntarily going out to do this) to make sure that everyone can attend a standard safety training session the first time they order stuff to do biological research. It'll be fairly simple, containing information that can probably fit onto a small packet, but it will have to be a training session because people are more likely to pay some attention that way than if they were handed a packet that easily fits into a recycling bin. You don't need to be a professor to give that kind of training sessions -- anyone who's had any sort of lab experience at all can do it. They can get the packet. Or the powerpoint. Whatever. It will have to contain information such as what to do if you spill things on something / someone and why you must make sure you don't carry whatever critters you've made on your bench with you when you leave and accidentally unleash the apocalypse upon the world.
I'm exaggerating a little, of course. Organisms are surprisingly resilient. Even a doomsday scenario like the one in Oryx and Crake a few humans still made it through, and that was for something that's targeted against humans. So in reality a doomsday scenario will probably only result in decimation of humanity and lots of general difficulties such as lack of clean food, water, and hazmat suits.
So the second half of my title for today's entry is, in reality, "...but if you must, makes sure the tube is capped and you know what to do with it afterwards."
End rant.
Yeah, can you tell this has bothering me a lot since yesterday?
Before I denounce all and sundry I should point out that I am, in principle, not against the biohackers. I can see where they are coming from. The fact that you practically need a PhD and massive amounts of funding (millions of dollars, and I have no idea what the current ROR grant award rate is, so don't even ask)to do any kind of research in biology does bother me. I am all for a cheaper way of doing things and the fact that you can buy the same blender (Warring) from your local store that would costs something like ten times more to buy from a biology research tool&appliances catalogue is utterly ridiculous. It is a blender. It chops things. It's even made by the same company and has no differences in settings and motor voltage so why, people? Why?
(Our lab's microwave that we use for experiments probably comes from Fry's or something. It's cheaper.)
That's not even taken into account the PhD thing. Do you really need a doctorate in your field in order to do good science? Clearly not. Plenty of important discoveries were made by people who have never worked in a field that their knowledge contributed to. Dendrochronology is an example of someone contributing from a different field of science altogether. Lorenzo's Oil and, slightly less so, Something the Lord Made are both good stories (in movie format, even!) about people who are not PhDs who have made significant contribution. Having all that scientific knowledge wrapped up and kept under seal, away from the public, is in fact dangerous. It is the public, after all, who makes the decisions about policies. It is the public's voice, the collective "We" (no dystopia jokes please) whose voice is heard. Therefore isn't a little scary to think that about a third of America still doesn't believe in evolution? Uninformed public is dangerous, but what is more dangerous is a public that has been misinformed. In an age of internet and too much information, both accurate and inaccurate, floating around, is it really a good idea to keep what has been scientifically proven restricted to journals that only scientists would probably ever pay to subscribe to? I have somewhat more faith in humanity than Hobbes, but even so, considering what we are capable of doing right now in the field of biology, I think the imbalance of flow of information is getting to be too great. Something's gotta give. (Greener Than You Think is a satirical account of what could, in theory, happen when the scientific knowledge, for whatever reason, just failed to make it across to people -- a salesman in this case. I always wondered if it might've gone better of the biologist in that story managed to appeal to the salesman better and explained why he had to do things a certain way.)
(Which reminds me to mention again how wonderful PLoS is. Really. I love it. If I had more time I'd read more articles from it besides the ones the PI keeps on forwarding to me.)
Now my issue with biohackers (aha, you say, here it comes, but hear me out) is this. As with the original use of the word hackers in the field of computational sciences, the general public tends to lump the word "hacker" and "cracker" together when the two groups of people are in totally different camps. Similarly, with the ease of ordering and shipping (we get our DNAs Fedex'ed, I think people's worked out how to ship all kinds of things via Fedex now) I worry about the possibility of "biocrackers". I feel like I should remind people that unlike comp sci stuff, bio sci things can literally grow and multiply and take over the world. Anyone who's paid any attention at all to news must know of the possible issues people have with antibiotic resistance in bacteria, GMO, as well as the use of animal in research. All these issues arise from a time when the biologists can pretty much just do whatever they wanted, without having to go through protocol approval and acquisition paperwork. (The original discovery of allergy shots? The MD just went out there and injected volunteers. No prior testing on animals or approval of procedure by an elected committee.) Although these have resulted in a lot of awesome discoveries, they also lead to a lot of abuse and environmental dangers in the future. Who could've predicted the frequency that bacteria swap DNA with? The rapid rate that antibiotic resistance can be passed through all different strains? Who could've predicted that increasing yield in crops can also lead to out breeding and "superweeds?". Or those issues with pesticide? For all that I will grumble and complain about the song and dance we have to go through to get anything new done, I also agree that, to an extend, those procedures are necessary. Therefore, your local backyard biohacker, who does not have a protocol approved by a committee who will ask in detail about what happens in case of cross contamination, spills, and a plethora of possibly dangerous things that can go wrong, can in fact get into some serious trouble, not only for the biohacker but for everyone.
There is only one planet earth, people. (Maybe if I repeat this enough time some of the more recalcitrant folks out there will finally realize that their net income each year matters slightly less than the end of the world?)
So my issue is this: not the hacking, nor the backyard, but the fact that we have no way of knowing whether or not the hackers have had any training at all in dealing with research biology. Whether or not, for instance, they know the differences between biohazards level 0 to 3 and that you can't pour biological waste down the drain or into the trash -- there are rules with 10% bleach and 70% ethanol (now a controlled substance that we have to get our PI to sign in order to buy -- sometimes the safety committee can get overly zealous, yes), depending on what you've used, that apply. We don't know whether or not these hackers know that when you mix certain reagents, a small percentage of it can get aerosolized so the area that you work has to be contained -- all our labs have constant air filtering and are at a negative pressure so whenever we open the door, air is sucked into the lab, never out. We don't know even if these hackers know the basic protocols of what to do in case they spill acid or base and let's face it, theory is very different from reality. Back when I did my safety training the people used to tell stories of this poor guy from physics, who'd never done any lab work, and how he spilled acid on himself and how he then poured base on himself to try to neutralize it on his skin. (For the record, people: do not do that; go stand the affected area under the DI water immediately for 15 minutes instead, that way you might actually avoid third degree chemical burn.) What we need, in addition to possible background checks to make sure the person is a hacker and not a cracker, is this: some sort of system (I suspect it will have to be volunteer based because I cannot foresee a lot of the university committee people voluntarily going out to do this) to make sure that everyone can attend a standard safety training session the first time they order stuff to do biological research. It'll be fairly simple, containing information that can probably fit onto a small packet, but it will have to be a training session because people are more likely to pay some attention that way than if they were handed a packet that easily fits into a recycling bin. You don't need to be a professor to give that kind of training sessions -- anyone who's had any sort of lab experience at all can do it. They can get the packet. Or the powerpoint. Whatever. It will have to contain information such as what to do if you spill things on something / someone and why you must make sure you don't carry whatever critters you've made on your bench with you when you leave and accidentally unleash the apocalypse upon the world.
I'm exaggerating a little, of course. Organisms are surprisingly resilient. Even a doomsday scenario like the one in Oryx and Crake a few humans still made it through, and that was for something that's targeted against humans. So in reality a doomsday scenario will probably only result in decimation of humanity and lots of general difficulties such as lack of clean food, water, and hazmat suits.
So the second half of my title for today's entry is, in reality, "...but if you must, makes sure the tube is capped and you know what to do with it afterwards."
End rant.
Yeah, can you tell this has bothering me a lot since yesterday?
20100204
Genuinely flawed
Hosting a speaker for lunch today was surprisingly fun, despite of the fact that there was a moment of panic this morning when one of the students who had originally signed up came down sick and I had to swap in someone else in her place. The seminar speaker seems to like me too, which was strange, considering that I was much more myself than I perhaps should've been. Then again, coming back after New Year's I've broken almost every single rule I've ever made for myself, about the things I cannot say to other people and emotions I can't show. It had seemed simple enough at the beginning. Well-meaning enough. Doing and saying certain things will only bother people, be a burden to them, so I won't. I want to become a better person than I am, so the way to start, simply, was to pretend to be a better person. There is a difference. My thoughts are still my own, I just don't share them.
Yet somehow, despite of the fact that I have said, no, no more, if I want to be kind I must reach the state where I can feel kind and despite of the fact that I am showing people, co-workers and classmates who have never seen this side of me, that I can be petty, sarcastic, impatient, vindictive, whiny, and so much imperfections somehow people seem to like me the better for it. Is it because it makes me easier to relate to, despite of my relative strangeness? Does it make me seem more normal? Or is it that something genuine, even if it contains so much ugliness, is still attractive? Why is it that forcing others to cope with facets of personality that they do not like worthy of like? Somehow the math doesn't quite add up -- keep adding negative numbers will never give a positive result. Or at least it shouldn't. Perhaps I am only a foil of others, since we like to see faults that we can laugh at in others, many television programs being examples. It is all very confusing.
Still, all this serves to make me realize how much I appreciate honesty.
....
A post-doc from my lab left this Tuesday. She went back to northern China to a part that, after south Cal, will be like moving to Siberia. I am not a little awed by her courage. I also miss her. She was very nice to me.
Yet somehow, despite of the fact that I have said, no, no more, if I want to be kind I must reach the state where I can feel kind and despite of the fact that I am showing people, co-workers and classmates who have never seen this side of me, that I can be petty, sarcastic, impatient, vindictive, whiny, and so much imperfections somehow people seem to like me the better for it. Is it because it makes me easier to relate to, despite of my relative strangeness? Does it make me seem more normal? Or is it that something genuine, even if it contains so much ugliness, is still attractive? Why is it that forcing others to cope with facets of personality that they do not like worthy of like? Somehow the math doesn't quite add up -- keep adding negative numbers will never give a positive result. Or at least it shouldn't. Perhaps I am only a foil of others, since we like to see faults that we can laugh at in others, many television programs being examples. It is all very confusing.
Still, all this serves to make me realize how much I appreciate honesty.
....
A post-doc from my lab left this Tuesday. She went back to northern China to a part that, after south Cal, will be like moving to Siberia. I am not a little awed by her courage. I also miss her. She was very nice to me.
20100131
One in a thousand
Today I bought a mini-rose. It's a sad looking little thing that I pulled out from the back of the shelf, with browning leaves and half-dead flower buds. I got it because it still had managed to keep one flower half-opened, and among all the pots there this one is the only one with the color that I wanted. I have trimmed it and re-potted it. Hopefully it can recover. If it can't ...well...I accept full responsibility for being a fool.
It had to be exactly that shade of dark red.
It had to be exactly that shade of dark red.
20100130
So what's wrong with taking the back streets?
Pasta is cooling. I feel like typing a long post today.
As I drove to lab this morning I suddenly realized that, even not counting the classwork, I've a lot going on this quarter, or at least in the next few weeks, and I have no idea how that happened.
In terms of research I suddenly found, to my astonishment, that I am now apparently doing stuff with zebrafish and fruit flies in addition to mice. I went in this morning to collect samples from four day old fish. I am not entirely clear on the physiological differences between day three and day four, but from the practical perspective, day four is apparently when the fish gain the ability to swim back out of the pippet when you're attempting to transfer them. It makes counting out 100 fish that much more difficult. What all this means is that I have currently five collaborators on my project: two for mouse behavior, one for fruit flies, one for zebrafish, and one for lamprey (yes you read that right: lamprey). It's cool and fun and also insane. Just in terms of communication and emails. I think I need more inbox folders.
I am the student hosting a seminar speaker for lunch next week. I still need to go in to the department office for that. I also was involved in inviting a few other students to go along (this is the grad student hosting speaking type of deal). My inbox was swamped on Monday.
Victoria and Anna are coming to SD in two weeks! Lusine's also coming that weekend, so it should be fun. Though we still have to figure out the actual schedule.
I'm the student host for a student for my program's recruitment weekend in three weeks. She's flying in from New Mexico on Thursday night. I also have to go to someone's office at some point for this.
Classes together have bumped up my reading volume to about five papers per week. Not quite as insane as eight or something per week from a year ago, but still more details that I can retain. Oh well, at least those details are not what I'll be tested on.
In general though, the abundance of recruitment events and the fact that so many of my friends are going through the grad school application this year made me feel strange. I wondered at this for a while until I realized that, for a lot of them who I'd met in high school, while in high school we were all on the same page. By which I meant, AP and honor classes aside, we are in the same high school, experiencing the same environment and for the most part, the same education. Since school was so much of our life then (like it still in now for most of us, heh), whatever our differences are at home and such wasn't as important. Anyone of us could have done what any other one of us had done, in theory. You'd think that the different majors once we've entered college would have cued me on to something but no, it isn't really until now that I realized that with the specificity of our higher education and how we've ended up not only in different college and vastly different grad programs, each one of my friends have gone on to somewhere where I figuratively could not follow. Somehow, when we're not paying attention, time has wrought the changes that we didn't find the day after our high school graduation. All the "welcome to the real world" jokes that had seemed to applicable then are applicable now in an entirely different fashion, as we managed to find our first jobs, pay rent, bang our heads against car insurances and so on.
Some important things have remained the same, and most of us are happy, or at least content, in our own way. That, I think, is still more important than anything else.
...I totally did not have a point planned, in case you were wondering.
As I drove to lab this morning I suddenly realized that, even not counting the classwork, I've a lot going on this quarter, or at least in the next few weeks, and I have no idea how that happened.
In terms of research I suddenly found, to my astonishment, that I am now apparently doing stuff with zebrafish and fruit flies in addition to mice. I went in this morning to collect samples from four day old fish. I am not entirely clear on the physiological differences between day three and day four, but from the practical perspective, day four is apparently when the fish gain the ability to swim back out of the pippet when you're attempting to transfer them. It makes counting out 100 fish that much more difficult. What all this means is that I have currently five collaborators on my project: two for mouse behavior, one for fruit flies, one for zebrafish, and one for lamprey (yes you read that right: lamprey). It's cool and fun and also insane. Just in terms of communication and emails. I think I need more inbox folders.
I am the student hosting a seminar speaker for lunch next week. I still need to go in to the department office for that. I also was involved in inviting a few other students to go along (this is the grad student hosting speaking type of deal). My inbox was swamped on Monday.
Victoria and Anna are coming to SD in two weeks! Lusine's also coming that weekend, so it should be fun. Though we still have to figure out the actual schedule.
I'm the student host for a student for my program's recruitment weekend in three weeks. She's flying in from New Mexico on Thursday night. I also have to go to someone's office at some point for this.
Classes together have bumped up my reading volume to about five papers per week. Not quite as insane as eight or something per week from a year ago, but still more details that I can retain. Oh well, at least those details are not what I'll be tested on.
In general though, the abundance of recruitment events and the fact that so many of my friends are going through the grad school application this year made me feel strange. I wondered at this for a while until I realized that, for a lot of them who I'd met in high school, while in high school we were all on the same page. By which I meant, AP and honor classes aside, we are in the same high school, experiencing the same environment and for the most part, the same education. Since school was so much of our life then (like it still in now for most of us, heh), whatever our differences are at home and such wasn't as important. Anyone of us could have done what any other one of us had done, in theory. You'd think that the different majors once we've entered college would have cued me on to something but no, it isn't really until now that I realized that with the specificity of our higher education and how we've ended up not only in different college and vastly different grad programs, each one of my friends have gone on to somewhere where I figuratively could not follow. Somehow, when we're not paying attention, time has wrought the changes that we didn't find the day after our high school graduation. All the "welcome to the real world" jokes that had seemed to applicable then are applicable now in an entirely different fashion, as we managed to find our first jobs, pay rent, bang our heads against car insurances and so on.
Some important things have remained the same, and most of us are happy, or at least content, in our own way. That, I think, is still more important than anything else.
...I totally did not have a point planned, in case you were wondering.
20100129
Urk
Why am I so exhausted? The workload for this week hasn't been that bad, and yet I find myself buying black tea on campus to stay awake. It's the end of the month, which means I'll have chores to run this weekend, but that's no worse than usual, either.... Oh well, I'll make my to-do list tonight and then go to bed early. Maybe sleeping lots will help.
20100126
Huh
Dear Diary,
Today while I was talking with one of my collaborators in his office, which has a very nice ocean view, I saw a small plane fly back and forth over the beach area, trailing a banner which said "Emily, will you marry me?"
I think this is the first time since high school and Mr. A and Mr. Morse's tales that I've seen such an elaborate way to propose.
It was sweet though.
Sincerely,
S
Today while I was talking with one of my collaborators in his office, which has a very nice ocean view, I saw a small plane fly back and forth over the beach area, trailing a banner which said "Emily, will you marry me?"
I think this is the first time since high school and Mr. A and Mr. Morse's tales that I've seen such an elaborate way to propose.
It was sweet though.
Sincerely,
S
20100124
Public voting
Which do you think is the weirder fruit: the durian or the cherimoya?
(I mean, I wouldn't know what to do with either one of them, to be honest, but spiky vs. armor-plate?)
[Edit 12:52]
Okay I really need to sharpen my knife. My parents are the ones who have the whetstone and the honing tool -- whatever you call that thing. Anyone know of a chain store name where I might be able to find these things? I couldn't find it in any of the stores I've looked in so far.
(I mean, I wouldn't know what to do with either one of them, to be honest, but spiky vs. armor-plate?)
[Edit 12:52]
Okay I really need to sharpen my knife. My parents are the ones who have the whetstone and the honing tool -- whatever you call that thing. Anyone know of a chain store name where I might be able to find these things? I couldn't find it in any of the stores I've looked in so far.
20100123
Jump-start
I've discovered that all my drawings of people feature people in really boring clothing, and so have started going through deviant art & clothing catalogues (okay, catalogue, because I forgot to keep the other ones) and trying to draw random people in them. As I've discovered when learning to draw other things, the best way to find my own style is to not worry about it and keep drawing, trying to emulate other's ideas and then...it just happens. Presumably this is also what happens in terms of writing, which mostly leads me to conclude that I don't write enough (and unless I plan to work less or give up drawing, on my current schedule this won't happen, so it's not happening).
There was a new rabbit in at the Shelter today who is HUUUUGE. For those of you who remember Kate's rabbit, this one is about three times her size. Honour was using him to demonstrate to me how to handle a large rabbit (because I have no experience with them and that is one large rabbit). Fortunately the giant rabbits (FYI: this one's an albino) are usually less high strung than the dwarf varieties, though this one did, during initial meet-n-greet process, manage to steal Honour's animal crackers. We were thinking of naming him "Crackers", since he still needs an ID card to go along with the tag. He was very friendly though. There was also a white rabbit with dark eyes, which is really rare since the white rabbits I usually see are full albinos and have red eyes. She was pretty. Also sheddy. (Aww darn it, it's almost molting season isn't it? And I'll have to change clothes after every visit to the Shelter.)
It is strangely sunny here today, after a week of rain. I'm glad. It's Wendy's birthday today.
There was a new rabbit in at the Shelter today who is HUUUUGE. For those of you who remember Kate's rabbit, this one is about three times her size. Honour was using him to demonstrate to me how to handle a large rabbit (because I have no experience with them and that is one large rabbit). Fortunately the giant rabbits (FYI: this one's an albino) are usually less high strung than the dwarf varieties, though this one did, during initial meet-n-greet process, manage to steal Honour's animal crackers. We were thinking of naming him "Crackers", since he still needs an ID card to go along with the tag. He was very friendly though. There was also a white rabbit with dark eyes, which is really rare since the white rabbits I usually see are full albinos and have red eyes. She was pretty. Also sheddy. (Aww darn it, it's almost molting season isn't it? And I'll have to change clothes after every visit to the Shelter.)
It is strangely sunny here today, after a week of rain. I'm glad. It's Wendy's birthday today.
20100121
Week-long deluge
South Cal was not prepared for this much rainfall, and neither was I. A lot of places have flooded and I need a new umbrella.
I wonder if this means that it won't rain on Recruitment Weekend. It's a running joke around grad students here that this place only rains two weeks a year but it will always rain on Recruitment Weekend.
I wonder if this means that it won't rain on Recruitment Weekend. It's a running joke around grad students here that this place only rains two weeks a year but it will always rain on Recruitment Weekend.
20100116
Dude
I got Photoshop to work under Linux!
...however the tablet pen sensitivity only works with Gimp, not Photoshop.
Darn it.
...however the tablet pen sensitivity only works with Gimp, not Photoshop.
Darn it.
Miscellaneous
Trying to work around my class schedule has been sufficiently challenging. Next week I'll be attempting something that will, most likely, take me five days to do. Given that I have classes three days a week, I will probably be on a very tight schedule.
I have also managed to wow and amaze one of the PIs this week by running part of a GWAS (Genome Wide Association Study) on Ivy. He was amazed by the computation powers of a netbook and reminisced about the days when he was doubtful whether the student could run GWAS calculations on a regular laptop. (Well, some of my classmate's computers did crash, but they shouldn't have, given they're running on 2G of RAM while Ivy has only 1G and a lot of them are REALLY new laptops.) Ivy has pretty good specs though, all things considered. Things have updated enough since when I graduated from high school that Ivy's specs are, in fact, better than Daemon's. Zen has the super shiny WXGA display screen, but it's also 1G. In terms of processors Ivy is on Intel Atom and Zen on dual-core. Daemon is still on Intel Pentium M. Wait. Zen is supposed to have 2G I think, 'cause dad installed an extra one. Whaaaaat?
My coverslips finally came in during lab yesterday, along with a trashbin that no one remembers ordering, so that caused some excitement for a while. Unfortunately our lab tech wasn't there yesterday (I think she's out sick) so our hypothesis could not be validated one way or another.
The recycling bin for my apartment complex has disappeared. What. On. Earth. What the heck would someone do with two dusty old recycling bins? (They're the blue plastic ones.) I am boggled. Then I asked my neighbors. It turns out that we're getting them replaced with smaller ones since the large ones are too heavy when filled (it's over a hundred pounds; the neighbor guessed at around two hundred but the point is that I can't drag it out, I don't even try). Well then, hopefully the new ones arrive soon. My place doesn't exactly have a lot of room to store empty containers of things.
February should be exciting! I also volunteered to host a student for my department for recruitment weekend (the first one) so we'll see what I get signed up for. Meanwhile, I'll need to make a note to myself to remember to house clean again in the beginning of February. And get snacks.
I have also managed to wow and amaze one of the PIs this week by running part of a GWAS (Genome Wide Association Study) on Ivy. He was amazed by the computation powers of a netbook and reminisced about the days when he was doubtful whether the student could run GWAS calculations on a regular laptop. (Well, some of my classmate's computers did crash, but they shouldn't have, given they're running on 2G of RAM while Ivy has only 1G and a lot of them are REALLY new laptops.) Ivy has pretty good specs though, all things considered. Things have updated enough since when I graduated from high school that Ivy's specs are, in fact, better than Daemon's. Zen has the super shiny WXGA display screen, but it's also 1G. In terms of processors Ivy is on Intel Atom and Zen on dual-core. Daemon is still on Intel Pentium M. Wait. Zen is supposed to have 2G I think, 'cause dad installed an extra one. Whaaaaat?
My coverslips finally came in during lab yesterday, along with a trashbin that no one remembers ordering, so that caused some excitement for a while. Unfortunately our lab tech wasn't there yesterday (I think she's out sick) so our hypothesis could not be validated one way or another.
The recycling bin for my apartment complex has disappeared. What. On. Earth. What the heck would someone do with two dusty old recycling bins? (They're the blue plastic ones.) I am boggled. Then I asked my neighbors. It turns out that we're getting them replaced with smaller ones since the large ones are too heavy when filled (it's over a hundred pounds; the neighbor guessed at around two hundred but the point is that I can't drag it out, I don't even try). Well then, hopefully the new ones arrive soon. My place doesn't exactly have a lot of room to store empty containers of things.
February should be exciting! I also volunteered to host a student for my department for recruitment weekend (the first one) so we'll see what I get signed up for. Meanwhile, I'll need to make a note to myself to remember to house clean again in the beginning of February. And get snacks.
20100112
Classes makes the day go faster
The genetics course continues to be three hours long despite of the promise that it should be shorter. I'll hold out for another week before giving up all hope. The reading material is usually quite long too. There was a 23 paged monster this week. At some point, around figure Too Many, I read "controls" as "carrots" for some reason and had a moment of utter incomprehension. Then I decided I needed a break from the paper.
My PI poked me yesterday and informed me he somehow might probably have found a collaborator to work on the zebrafish aspect of the evolution portion of my project. Then he insisted on spending nearly two hours (or so it felt like) looking through my sections today. (Mostly pointing out their flaws, of course, but at least I know the ones he looked are ARE bad quality so it wasn't as bad as it could've been). He is strange and strangely angry at the image program that came with the camera. I noted that he has gotten considerably less PG since I joined the lab, though usually directed at things not me, so I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
Cold has gotten much better now. I suspect I may have passed it on to Wendy.
My PI poked me yesterday and informed me he somehow might probably have found a collaborator to work on the zebrafish aspect of the evolution portion of my project. Then he insisted on spending nearly two hours (or so it felt like) looking through my sections today. (Mostly pointing out their flaws, of course, but at least I know the ones he looked are ARE bad quality so it wasn't as bad as it could've been). He is strange and strangely angry at the image program that came with the camera. I noted that he has gotten considerably less PG since I joined the lab, though usually directed at things not me, so I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
Cold has gotten much better now. I suspect I may have passed it on to Wendy.
20100109
Same quiz
It's been years since I've done this same quiz.
The results look like that my overall personality has remained the same since high school, though the individual values have shifted a little.
Stability results were medium which suggests you are moderately relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.
Orderliness results were high which suggests you are overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense too often of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.
Extraversion results were very low which suggests you are extremely reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.
trait snapshot:
clean, secretive, does not make friends easily, observer, hates large parties, risk averse, perfectionist, reclusive, solitude loving, more practical than abstract, does not like to stand out, high self control, intellectual, mind over heart, very cautious, takes precautions, respects authority, irritable, emotionally sensitive
The results look like that my overall personality has remained the same since high school, though the individual values have shifted a little.
| Advanced Global Personality Test Results
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Stability results were medium which suggests you are moderately relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.
Orderliness results were high which suggests you are overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense too often of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.
Extraversion results were very low which suggests you are extremely reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.
trait snapshot:
clean, secretive, does not make friends easily, observer, hates large parties, risk averse, perfectionist, reclusive, solitude loving, more practical than abstract, does not like to stand out, high self control, intellectual, mind over heart, very cautious, takes precautions, respects authority, irritable, emotionally sensitive
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