20100920
Heads up
Don't know how many people checks what but: if you received an email from my yahoo account this weekend. That is a virus / spam. Don't click on any links. Avoid opening it if you can. I did not send that and I'll be debugging my account today. Sorry about that.
20100915
Like something very squishy
It's a shame that my clearest reflection over what happens and should be happening, these days, happen in the morning in the bus ride to school. Back in the days evening was my thinky time. Now I find myself missing chunks of time -- by which I mean I find myself going from the bus stop at point A to the stop at point M with no memory of what happened in between. The time as I was falling asleep these days -- well, I'm usually so far gone then that there's no way to logically assess anything. Instead my mind usually wonders to inconsequential things that are related to the day, and most of my thought processes at that point, will make no sense if I'm actually awake.
It makes blogging in the evening a bit more difficult, as I realized yesterday. There's a lot of staring blankly at the screen, thinking "I knew there was something else I want to mention" involved. By now, for instance, I forgot what I was going to write about to begin with. If I had to summarize my day in bullet point format, it would go thus:
- campus-wide grad student orientation is today, met international students looking for directions on the bus
- lost a person I was supposed to practice my presentation on, due to scheduling conflict, so I'm down one
- got email notifying me of gigantic mess up with my mice at the other vivarium. Flailed at PI, flailed at vivarium staff. Hopefully this will never happen again or I will go mad. Or cry. Or both. The two are not mutually exclusive.
- helped labmate update lab equipment software, as she uses a mac and the equipment runs a Dell desktop
- directed people to the right exit during lunch
- gave a practice presentation
- went to lab meeting, which was blissfully short; there were cookies
- three new litters of baby mice born today!
- forgot I had a gel running -- all my samples ran off
- Ivy's bios got corrupted again and I couldn't repair it at lab
- went home early to fix Ivy; fixed Ivy
... - sleep
It makes blogging in the evening a bit more difficult, as I realized yesterday. There's a lot of staring blankly at the screen, thinking "I knew there was something else I want to mention" involved. By now, for instance, I forgot what I was going to write about to begin with. If I had to summarize my day in bullet point format, it would go thus:
- campus-wide grad student orientation is today, met international students looking for directions on the bus
- lost a person I was supposed to practice my presentation on, due to scheduling conflict, so I'm down one
- got email notifying me of gigantic mess up with my mice at the other vivarium. Flailed at PI, flailed at vivarium staff. Hopefully this will never happen again or I will go mad. Or cry. Or both. The two are not mutually exclusive.
- helped labmate update lab equipment software, as she uses a mac and the equipment runs a Dell desktop
- directed people to the right exit during lunch
- gave a practice presentation
- went to lab meeting, which was blissfully short; there were cookies
- three new litters of baby mice born today!
- forgot I had a gel running -- all my samples ran off
- Ivy's bios got corrupted again and I couldn't repair it at lab
- went home early to fix Ivy; fixed Ivy
... - sleep
20100914
Unexpected problems
1) Guys, I can't turn off my cell phone.
No, really.
I even checked the manual and held down the key all the way until the screen went dark due to inactivity. The phone won't turn off. I'm going to try the battery-out and battery-in strategy later but really, this was not a problem that I would've expected.
2) Went to dentist, discovered two cavities on their way to eating through my enamel. Am scheduled for two appointments (I was told they will be around 30 min ea -- which strikes me as really short) for fillings. Now I am googling what "white filling" is and trying to figure out what the dentist is going to do to me, as that I've never had a filling before and the vague notion I've had of anaesthesia and drills scares me. Just a little.
(I was also informed that I don't have upper wisdom teeth. Just the lower ones, which was confirmed to not to need to be removed, thank God. This strikes me as strange. Must remember to call parents to see who I got this bit of luck from.)
3) The undergrad who borrows my reagents and then forgets to put them back. It's not that she does it on purpose, she's just careless by nature and is in the habit of forgetting to put chemicals / equipment back where she got them from in general and although I'm not in charge of her, it occasionally gets really annoying. Especially when I need something within two minutes in a time-sensitive experiment and my stuff aren't where it's supposed to be.
On the plus side I have:
1) Heard back from PI #5 and the Exam of Doom, as Lucy had dubbed it, will be on Oct. 1st, and I will NOT have to present twice which is awesome. I am contemplating my original plan, from back in winter / spring quarter, of getting the Exam of Doom completed before fall quarter classes start. Getting it done one week after it started is, all things considered, pretty good. Assuming that the stats I'm trying to run on some of the data doesn't drive me nuts and that I actually PASS, of course. Otherwise I'll just be sad.
2) We're getting a rotation student! Which is always exciting. I remember when I was a rotation student. Tempus fugit, indeed.
........
Though considering all the troubleshooting and editing and things not working out that I'm experiencing these two days, I'm feeling pretty happy and content with life right now. Isn't that weird?
No, really.
I even checked the manual and held down the key all the way until the screen went dark due to inactivity. The phone won't turn off. I'm going to try the battery-out and battery-in strategy later but really, this was not a problem that I would've expected.
2) Went to dentist, discovered two cavities on their way to eating through my enamel. Am scheduled for two appointments (I was told they will be around 30 min ea -- which strikes me as really short) for fillings. Now I am googling what "white filling" is and trying to figure out what the dentist is going to do to me, as that I've never had a filling before and the vague notion I've had of anaesthesia and drills scares me. Just a little.
(I was also informed that I don't have upper wisdom teeth. Just the lower ones, which was confirmed to not to need to be removed, thank God. This strikes me as strange. Must remember to call parents to see who I got this bit of luck from.)
3) The undergrad who borrows my reagents and then forgets to put them back. It's not that she does it on purpose, she's just careless by nature and is in the habit of forgetting to put chemicals / equipment back where she got them from in general and although I'm not in charge of her, it occasionally gets really annoying. Especially when I need something within two minutes in a time-sensitive experiment and my stuff aren't where it's supposed to be.
On the plus side I have:
1) Heard back from PI #5 and the Exam of Doom, as Lucy had dubbed it, will be on Oct. 1st, and I will NOT have to present twice which is awesome. I am contemplating my original plan, from back in winter / spring quarter, of getting the Exam of Doom completed before fall quarter classes start. Getting it done one week after it started is, all things considered, pretty good. Assuming that the stats I'm trying to run on some of the data doesn't drive me nuts and that I actually PASS, of course. Otherwise I'll just be sad.
2) We're getting a rotation student! Which is always exciting. I remember when I was a rotation student. Tempus fugit, indeed.
........
Though considering all the troubleshooting and editing and things not working out that I'm experiencing these two days, I'm feeling pretty happy and content with life right now. Isn't that weird?
20100911
Well, that could've gone better
My new resolution to update more regularly crumbled in the face of the discovery that The Exam will (most likely) be on Oct. 1st, due to various scheduling conflicts with the different PIs. However, I'm still waiting to hear back from one of them...which actually doesn't make that much of a difference given that with the current four that I have scheduled there is only ONE day when everyone has time free. (They were given the entire month of October to choose from, November being off limits for other activities and December being the No Man's Land of scheduling and fall quarter being the recommended time for The Exam.) So I might need to present twice. Oh joy.
Damnations. I just ran out of tea. Must go make more.
It's close enough to 3pm that I should probably switch to de-caf stuff. Not like I need more reasons to twitch, right? I've opened another bag of the caffeine-free tea that Christine got me. It's called "Caribbean Breeze" and smells like strawberry cough drops. (Tastes a lot like that bright red tea Lucy gave me with the pomegranate and the hibiscus and possibly rose.) And while I'm on the topic I would like to note that the darker of the two green honey sticks left does not taste like apples, but it does taste like some kind of fruit that I can't identify. The lighter of the yellow sticks left tastes like honey, which is very ordinary and surprising that I had to re-examine it but -- well -- it looks very normal.
This is probably going to be a very long rambling post. Forget labels, what blogger really needs is one of those LJ-cut like functions. Since that is clearly not going to happen right now...onwards!
In the reminder of this week I have discovered a way to make myself depressed in under two minutes -- by reading people's comments under the news articles in yahoo, discovered that the other, other post-doc's wife is having a baby (and he didn't even tell us! We saw his wife and figured it out because she looks pregnant) and was helpfully reminded that now, in our lab there is only me and the other post-doc who haven't procreated yet. (They're not counting the undergrads.) ...yes, that's a lot of babies. (Three since January, and I've never even been to a baby shower before the one we threw for the post doc a year ago.) Christ. BABIES. One's due in October and one in November and I really need to go and shop for presents because the lunch-thing we (the lab) are planning on is before The Exam and the weekend before The Exam is off-limits. (For anyone who's curious, that's three boys and one girl. We're in a genetics lab and I'm thinking of ordering this -- yeah? Yeah?)
While we are on the subject of reproducing (and of the remaining babyless post-doc who told me to not worry because I "still have lots of time") I find myself revisiting my stance on dating. As in I really don't actually want to, nor do I want to get married, nor get pregnant and have a baby so why am I doing this again?
After considerable thought, it strikes me that wanting to make friends and go out occasionally is a questionable sort of incentive for dating. The length of time it took me to reach that conclusion makes me feel a wee bit demented.
G2G and SG aren't really doing anything any more (in terms of people messaging and so on) so I'm closing those. I don't want to deal with OC, but I have to admit, the people who have a matching score of 90% or above are really fun to talk to and I think are / will become really good friends (sadly I don't want to date any of them, though they are very nice), so while on one hand I want to just close that account too and say, to heck with it, it's not worth the effort of dealing with all the rest of the people and the messaging, those few people ...might be worth it?
Though with The Exam looming on the horizon, this is not a particularly good time to do anything about it or try to come up with a new strategy. Lucy's introduced me to MeetUp.com so, you know, maybe. Some day. When I'm no longer going insane and pondering whether or not I should make yet another cup of tea.
First years are arriving for orientation next week!
(And I'll be presenting on Friday but I'm trying hard not to think about that.)
Damnations. I just ran out of tea. Must go make more.
It's close enough to 3pm that I should probably switch to de-caf stuff. Not like I need more reasons to twitch, right? I've opened another bag of the caffeine-free tea that Christine got me. It's called "Caribbean Breeze" and smells like strawberry cough drops. (Tastes a lot like that bright red tea Lucy gave me with the pomegranate and the hibiscus and possibly rose.) And while I'm on the topic I would like to note that the darker of the two green honey sticks left does not taste like apples, but it does taste like some kind of fruit that I can't identify. The lighter of the yellow sticks left tastes like honey, which is very ordinary and surprising that I had to re-examine it but -- well -- it looks very normal.
This is probably going to be a very long rambling post. Forget labels, what blogger really needs is one of those LJ-cut like functions. Since that is clearly not going to happen right now...onwards!
In the reminder of this week I have discovered a way to make myself depressed in under two minutes -- by reading people's comments under the news articles in yahoo, discovered that the other, other post-doc's wife is having a baby (and he didn't even tell us! We saw his wife and figured it out because she looks pregnant) and was helpfully reminded that now, in our lab there is only me and the other post-doc who haven't procreated yet. (They're not counting the undergrads.) ...yes, that's a lot of babies. (Three since January, and I've never even been to a baby shower before the one we threw for the post doc a year ago.) Christ. BABIES. One's due in October and one in November and I really need to go and shop for presents because the lunch-thing we (the lab) are planning on is before The Exam and the weekend before The Exam is off-limits. (For anyone who's curious, that's three boys and one girl. We're in a genetics lab and I'm thinking of ordering this -- yeah? Yeah?)
While we are on the subject of reproducing (and of the remaining babyless post-doc who told me to not worry because I "still have lots of time") I find myself revisiting my stance on dating. As in I really don't actually want to, nor do I want to get married, nor get pregnant and have a baby so why am I doing this again?
After considerable thought, it strikes me that wanting to make friends and go out occasionally is a questionable sort of incentive for dating. The length of time it took me to reach that conclusion makes me feel a wee bit demented.
G2G and SG aren't really doing anything any more (in terms of people messaging and so on) so I'm closing those. I don't want to deal with OC, but I have to admit, the people who have a matching score of 90% or above are really fun to talk to and I think are / will become really good friends (sadly I don't want to date any of them, though they are very nice), so while on one hand I want to just close that account too and say, to heck with it, it's not worth the effort of dealing with all the rest of the people and the messaging, those few people ...might be worth it?
Though with The Exam looming on the horizon, this is not a particularly good time to do anything about it or try to come up with a new strategy. Lucy's introduced me to MeetUp.com so, you know, maybe. Some day. When I'm no longer going insane and pondering whether or not I should make yet another cup of tea.
First years are arriving for orientation next week!
(And I'll be presenting on Friday but I'm trying hard not to think about that.)
20100906
Good weekend until yesterday, I guess
Dear Diary,
Over the course of this weekend I have
a) put the finishing touches on my powerpoint (though now I noticed the video clip doesn't work and so I will fix that today, yes I will).
b) fixed Daemon, because the issue turned out to be software after all.
c) spent six hours talking to a friend that I haven't really spoken to in a while who is in the middle of planning her wedding, who now left me with the impression that perhaps the candidacy exam is less scary than a wedding.
d) finished watch the season of DW (11th with Amy) which had more fall-through in plot and science than a sieve has holes, but somehow was still spectacular.
e) cooked pork chops for the first time.
f) made cookies from scratch.
g) scrubbed out the kitchen thing.
Now it's Labor Day and I'm in lab, waiting for the media to warm up and trying to figure out how to schedule The Exam.
Well, at least there's free parking today.
Sincerely,
Yrs Trly.
Over the course of this weekend I have
a) put the finishing touches on my powerpoint (though now I noticed the video clip doesn't work and so I will fix that today, yes I will).
b) fixed Daemon, because the issue turned out to be software after all.
c) spent six hours talking to a friend that I haven't really spoken to in a while who is in the middle of planning her wedding, who now left me with the impression that perhaps the candidacy exam is less scary than a wedding.
d) finished watch the season of DW (11th with Amy) which had more fall-through in plot and science than a sieve has holes, but somehow was still spectacular.
e) cooked pork chops for the first time.
f) made cookies from scratch.
g) scrubbed out the kitchen thing.
Now it's Labor Day and I'm in lab, waiting for the media to warm up and trying to figure out how to schedule The Exam.
Well, at least there's free parking today.
Sincerely,
Yrs Trly.
20100905
Lovely morning
Daemon is fixed. It turned out to be a software problem and not hardware, as I'd originally feared (and which I would not be able to fix). I'm still not entirely sure what was wrong so that the network card got permanently stuck on "disabled" but it works now and given I'm not from IT, that's all I care about.
And I updated to Fedora 13 (was previously running 11). As you can see from the screenshot, the new theme is star based and very pretty. I'm also going to use this opportunity to cheer on Lili (short for Linus Live) USB Creator that allows you to make a live boot USB stick (so you don't have to burn the .iso to a CD and thus allows you to save the environment from some more plastic). It is, for one thing, the shiniest thing ever. The user-interface is very aethestically pleasing, very intuitive, and automatically verifies your iso (in case of downloading errors). It's small enough to be a fast download even on my bandwidth, easy to install, and it's fast in what it does. I don't have a screenshot of it since I'm currently on Daemon and Lili is a program that I ran on Zen's Window's XP, but yeah, after years of checking hash and CD writing I'm a little bit in love with this USB image burner.
(Though there was this one "pick your source file" window that came out in French and that was very very strange.)
Right. Now I'm going to make sure I have all the right updates, install them along with OpenOffice, mplayer, and IDEA (why I took the time to fix Daemon this weekend, to be honest -- and yes Daemon's specs is not quite up to par...it's getting to be quite a geriatric laptop now, but I think I can find a way to manage).
I'll figure out the tablet thing next weekend, but that's supposed to be one of the improvements in the newer version, I think.
I now have the strangest urge to watch West Wing. Also, it's time for lunch!
20100904
I believe in updates, I do, I do
Another insane (quite) week has passed. In lab we sorted through stuff in the freezer, tried to figure out what to do with the sodium acetate (trihydrate) that's solidified into a chunk, and watched the PI pretend to be a handyman. (He screwed back in a part of the autoclave and failed to fix a chair. The first few moments of watching him come by and methodically flip chairs over -- with no explanation--was very surreal.) There was also the moment when PI Dearest compared my metazoa-wide cloning attempts to collecting Pokemon cards (i.e. "gotta catch'em all" and that one of them might be "magical"), which resulted in the moment where both Wendy and I stared at him like he was insane (aside from the undergrads who weren't there, and the tech who away doing something else, we were the only ones young enough to get the reference) (the lab tech was the other person besides the PI with kids who might be old enough to get the reference). Magic clones. Right. I think I'll go back to my miniprep now. (He also managed to wheedle me into presenting during orientation. How does he do it? I hate public presentations.)
I've twisted my ankle a while ago and, although it didn't seem that bad after the hell that was day two, for some reason I'm still limping a little. This is the main reason (the other one being the gloomy weather) why I had to keep slashing my plans to go visit the beach. Instead I've been puttering around a lot indoors and re-organized all my music files. Sadly, this also led to my discovery that A) I have more music than I thought because for some reason my mp3 player just doesn't play some of the mp3 files (the entire folder of the DW fanmix will play on my computer by not the mp3 player and I haven't the slightest clue why) and B) my mp3 player eats files, and then spit out versions that NOTHING will play (I have no idea why this is either). I've managed to figure out what's missing and what's usable though, for the most part, and that I have at least three copies of "Watch the Sky" in different folders. (It's one of my favorite songs but yeah, that's waaay too much.)
In the progression of the week I've also gotten a parking ticket for forgetting to move my car during the Wednesday every month where I can't park on the street (always inconvenient since I leave / return at a time where all the cars are parked and there is no free spot), received my copy of DS CDs that I ordered in the mail, and discovered that all the worms in the worm bin have perished out of neglect (read: further proof of why I should not be allowed to have pets during grad school).
Lastly I should mention I submitted my first draft of my advancement to candidacy exam to my PI yesterday and he has given me his blessings to schedule the exam in October (also introducing me to Doodle, whose name first made me think that he was making some kind of weird joke again). Given that no one from my little protein group has asked me for a copy of the presentation that I've promised them two weeks ago, does anyone want to volunteer their time some time within the next three weekends to hear me present a much longer version (30-40 minutes), so that I can polish my presentation enough to withstand the 50 minutes (I kid you not) of verbal grilling during the exam? Putting together this bit of fun has been what I spent all my spare time doing this week during lab, and then it's onwards to carrying on the tradition of being twitchy and mad every fall....
Well, time to hit the list of chores.
I've twisted my ankle a while ago and, although it didn't seem that bad after the hell that was day two, for some reason I'm still limping a little. This is the main reason (the other one being the gloomy weather) why I had to keep slashing my plans to go visit the beach. Instead I've been puttering around a lot indoors and re-organized all my music files. Sadly, this also led to my discovery that A) I have more music than I thought because for some reason my mp3 player just doesn't play some of the mp3 files (the entire folder of the DW fanmix will play on my computer by not the mp3 player and I haven't the slightest clue why) and B) my mp3 player eats files, and then spit out versions that NOTHING will play (I have no idea why this is either). I've managed to figure out what's missing and what's usable though, for the most part, and that I have at least three copies of "Watch the Sky" in different folders. (It's one of my favorite songs but yeah, that's waaay too much.)
In the progression of the week I've also gotten a parking ticket for forgetting to move my car during the Wednesday every month where I can't park on the street (always inconvenient since I leave / return at a time where all the cars are parked and there is no free spot), received my copy of DS CDs that I ordered in the mail, and discovered that all the worms in the worm bin have perished out of neglect (read: further proof of why I should not be allowed to have pets during grad school).
Lastly I should mention I submitted my first draft of my advancement to candidacy exam to my PI yesterday and he has given me his blessings to schedule the exam in October (also introducing me to Doodle, whose name first made me think that he was making some kind of weird joke again). Given that no one from my little protein group has asked me for a copy of the presentation that I've promised them two weeks ago, does anyone want to volunteer their time some time within the next three weekends to hear me present a much longer version (30-40 minutes), so that I can polish my presentation enough to withstand the 50 minutes (I kid you not) of verbal grilling during the exam? Putting together this bit of fun has been what I spent all my spare time doing this week during lab, and then it's onwards to carrying on the tradition of being twitchy and mad every fall....
Well, time to hit the list of chores.
20100828
Developing a healthy case of neurosis, among other things
There was a few rounds of email exchange with a PI who is a collaborator of mine (in the sense that I work directly with him in the other vivarium and not someone in his lab), who also happened to be on my thesis committee, that went something like this:
Me: "...and so given this has happened in the past, I'd appreciate it if all the vivarium can set up a system for double-checking the animals as they are being transferred."
PI replied: "Paranoia is a very, very important trait to cultivate, I'm happy to do the checking in this vivarium...."
Me, post the second shipping mix-up this week: "If unjustified anxiety is paranoia, what's justified anxiety?"
PI, after apologizing for the mix-up: "Woody Allen said that paranoia is having all the facts...."
I cannot even begin to count the number of times the various post-docs / students I've worked with have cracked jokes about certain parts of the protocol being "probably unnecessary" but how it's better to be safe and paranoia's useful. (Doing it with a PI is a definite first, though.) This is one of the oft overlooked facts of doing research in biology, I think -- the development of paranoia and patience, by sheer force of necessity.
...
I have finished the Avatar cartoons and, amazingly, found it to be as wonderful as everyone kept saying. It manages to cover a lot of important issues without making either the main characters, who are kids, less child-like, or dumbing down the concepts. The art / music / style is amazing and I've never seen a western production of anything Asian-based that got so many of the cultural details exactly right. Also? The sense of humor. Oh the humor. It wins at life.
My favorite character is Toph, I ship Zuko / Mai, and I'm heartily thankful I never saw the action movie. Of course I'm not going to let that stop me from enjoying the comments made by people who poke fun of it, the Macarena video being a key example. (It gave me a good laugh, especially the bit near the end with the group earth-bending dance because..."Go Little Rock go!" And then I got the hiccups.) Then there's, of course, Deviant Art, where I was inspired enough by Rufftoon's tea comic to make a new lj icon from it. (For those of you who haven't seen Avatar, the spiky guy in there is Zuko, who, for 99% of the cartoon, seems to be very very allergic of things such as zen, being well-adjusted, and tea.)
Speaking of tea, the dark blue honey stick is the one that I think should be blueberry, though it tasted like grapes. Given that it's blue, however, "grape" doesn't make much sense and I always thought that dried blueberries tasted like raisins anyway, so: blueberry.
And while I'm typing about food, I caved in to my curiosity and brought a dragon fruit (also known as red pitaya, I think).
It tastes, to me, like a strange cross between daikon radish and honeydew melon, with tiny black seeds that crunch between your teeth like the kiwi fruit. Maybe it's just the one that I happened to get, but it was pretty bland.
Lastly, since I have a phone that allows me to upload photos, I'm going to share a random plant photo of the rose I got a while back (yes the one that I insisted on getting because of the flower color, even though the plant looked like it was dying). First rose of the season?
Me: "...and so given this has happened in the past, I'd appreciate it if all the vivarium can set up a system for double-checking the animals as they are being transferred."
PI replied: "Paranoia is a very, very important trait to cultivate, I'm happy to do the checking in this vivarium...."
Me, post the second shipping mix-up this week: "If unjustified anxiety is paranoia, what's justified anxiety?"
PI, after apologizing for the mix-up: "Woody Allen said that paranoia is having all the facts...."
I cannot even begin to count the number of times the various post-docs / students I've worked with have cracked jokes about certain parts of the protocol being "probably unnecessary" but how it's better to be safe and paranoia's useful. (Doing it with a PI is a definite first, though.) This is one of the oft overlooked facts of doing research in biology, I think -- the development of paranoia and patience, by sheer force of necessity.
...
I have finished the Avatar cartoons and, amazingly, found it to be as wonderful as everyone kept saying. It manages to cover a lot of important issues without making either the main characters, who are kids, less child-like, or dumbing down the concepts. The art / music / style is amazing and I've never seen a western production of anything Asian-based that got so many of the cultural details exactly right. Also? The sense of humor. Oh the humor. It wins at life.
My favorite character is Toph, I ship Zuko / Mai, and I'm heartily thankful I never saw the action movie. Of course I'm not going to let that stop me from enjoying the comments made by people who poke fun of it, the Macarena video being a key example. (It gave me a good laugh, especially the bit near the end with the group earth-bending dance because..."Go Little Rock go!" And then I got the hiccups.) Then there's, of course, Deviant Art, where I was inspired enough by Rufftoon's tea comic to make a new lj icon from it. (For those of you who haven't seen Avatar, the spiky guy in there is Zuko, who, for 99% of the cartoon, seems to be very very allergic of things such as zen, being well-adjusted, and tea.)
Speaking of tea, the dark blue honey stick is the one that I think should be blueberry, though it tasted like grapes. Given that it's blue, however, "grape" doesn't make much sense and I always thought that dried blueberries tasted like raisins anyway, so: blueberry.
And while I'm typing about food, I caved in to my curiosity and brought a dragon fruit (also known as red pitaya, I think).
It tastes, to me, like a strange cross between daikon radish and honeydew melon, with tiny black seeds that crunch between your teeth like the kiwi fruit. Maybe it's just the one that I happened to get, but it was pretty bland.
Lastly, since I have a phone that allows me to upload photos, I'm going to share a random plant photo of the rose I got a while back (yes the one that I insisted on getting because of the flower color, even though the plant looked like it was dying). First rose of the season?
20100826
Vexing
After seven day's worth of "meme-ing" here I am again, ready to blog about the inanities of my day. Today's little blurb is brought on by the animal transfer this morning, where there was enough confusion with the vivarium staff to warrant two trips to the vivarium while we sort out the animal IDs (and yes, these are the animals that take six months to get). There was some degree of communication error between the two people in charge, which resulted in the staff writing down "1 animal per cage" instead of the animal's ID number. Luckily, the delivery people were late so we managed to get everything sorted out before the animals got shipped. Then there's the issue of the undergrads in our lab who tend to forget to write down items on the "to be ordered" board when they take the last of something, which resulted in me discovering, mid-experiment, we're all out of the coverslips I use to mount specimens. Round off that which the email to my PI about a certain protocol in which I briefly mentioned at the end, as an aside, that it's been a really long time since I submitted my thesis committee for approval, and is it supposed to take this long?
Turns out that, guys? My PI had already received a letter approving my committee -- guess when? July 28th.
Why do people not tell me these things?
Given that today's August 26th, I am not going to be doing the candidacy exam before the end of August. So if I've spent the in-between-experiment breaks for the past few days frantically putting together figures for that grant that the PI wants to try for and these two days sorting out the transfer paperwork, guess what I'll be doing in the next...oh foreseeable future? (Admittedly these days I don't see very far.)
Well, cheers.
Turns out that, guys? My PI had already received a letter approving my committee -- guess when? July 28th.
Why do people not tell me these things?
Given that today's August 26th, I am not going to be doing the candidacy exam before the end of August. So if I've spent the in-between-experiment breaks for the past few days frantically putting together figures for that grant that the PI wants to try for and these two days sorting out the transfer paperwork, guess what I'll be doing in the next...oh foreseeable future? (Admittedly these days I don't see very far.)
Well, cheers.
20100817
20100815
Are they serious?
Exposure to excessive cold or heat will result in malfunction, damage and / or catastrophic failure.
Now I suddenly have a mental image of a doomsday scenario. All caused by one cell phone. Or maybe one type of cell phone. Geez.
You should consult with manufacturers of any personal medical devices such as pacemakers and hearing aides to determine if they are susceptible to interference from your mobile phone. Turn off your phone in a medical facility or at a gas station.
1) Can you imagine what the company consultants would say if you were to really call them up and ask, "Excuse me, but I was wondering if using my cell phone might accidentally deafen / kill me?"
2) Why gas station? The phone is so volatile that it'll set off an explosion?
Never place your phone in a microwave oven as it will cause the battery to explode. Do not dispose of your battery by fire or with hazardous or flammable materials.
This is one of those "Caution, content will be hot after heating" things, isn't it?
Unplug the power cord and charger during lighting storms to avoid electric shock or fire.
Based on this logic you should unplug all power cords and chargers in your house during lightning storms (aka thunder storms). We never did that in Beijing and dad has gone through an experience where the lightning actually managed to make its way inside (but you can't exactly "unplug" the ceiling light in an apartment). Maybe it's a US thing. Annie, let me know if you find out anything? There're, I think, more possibility for this sort of weather where you are now than where most of us are in CA.
Never store your phone in temperatures less than -4F or greater than 122F.
Dude, why would you?
While we're at it: don't ever drop your phone into a volcano, as it may cause a premature eruption and will damage your phone in a way that will void your warranties. Do not throw your phone at people, as it may cause a concussion and/ or damage the inner circuits.
Seriously, people.
Do not place or answer calls while charging the phone as it may short circuit the phone and / or cause electric shock or fire.
I've seen this warning before. I have also placed and answered calls while charging the phone.
In conclusion, aside from the pacemaker bit, the rest of it is pretty similar to what it was 3-4 years ago. Or in other words, it sounds like the phone is not so much a phone as a unstable, explosive tool of the apocalypse.
Oh oh this part is good:
If you are listening to music whilst out and about, please ensure that the volume is at a reasonable level so that you are aware of your surroundings. This is particularly imperative when attempting to cross the street.
On the second thought, no, it's just depressing. A phone manual is giving advise on something that should be common sense. Com'on guys.
(Whilst?)
Also my phone also comes with, it looks like, a small build-in mirror (at least that's what the manual calls it). Why would I need a build-in mirror that's, in terms of practicality, too small to really see anything, on my phone?
Important! You should insert battery before charging.
(And this was in an orange box so that we know it's important.)
Oh my god.
OH MY GOD THERE IS SOMETHING MOVING INSIDE THE FLUE OF THE HEATER AND IT'S QUACKING LIKE A DUCK.
[edit 9:04]
It managed to get back out. I think.
Oh hell. I have no way to check, have I?
Shininess
My phone came!
By which I mean that I checked the tracking number, saw that it has been delivered, and sat around wondering why I didn't see anything yesterday. Turns it that this time they'd left it sitting on top of the mail boxes instead of leaving it in front of the doorstep like they used to (and I don't always check my mailbox on Saturdays). So now it's here, and charging, and supposedly after it finishes charging and I turn it on the new account balance will show up within an hour.
Oh yeah and the cable for it also came, which is cool but, you know, not as exciting as the phone itself.
Off to read the manual.
-----------------------------------
Honey sticks:
The transparent pink one is watermelon, and I have no idea what the palest yellow one (there are four yellow ones) is. It...just tastes like honey.
Watermelon honey + masala chai = weirdest mixture ever. A bit like one of those watermelon jolly ranchers mixed with gingerbread.
By which I mean that I checked the tracking number, saw that it has been delivered, and sat around wondering why I didn't see anything yesterday. Turns it that this time they'd left it sitting on top of the mail boxes instead of leaving it in front of the doorstep like they used to (and I don't always check my mailbox on Saturdays). So now it's here, and charging, and supposedly after it finishes charging and I turn it on the new account balance will show up within an hour.
Oh yeah and the cable for it also came, which is cool but, you know, not as exciting as the phone itself.
Off to read the manual.
-----------------------------------
Honey sticks:
The transparent pink one is watermelon, and I have no idea what the palest yellow one (there are four yellow ones) is. It...just tastes like honey.
Watermelon honey + masala chai = weirdest mixture ever. A bit like one of those watermelon jolly ranchers mixed with gingerbread.
20100814
Food post, mostly
I was at 99 Ranch today when I saw shao-mai (or "shumai", as wikipedia calls it) and thought, "Huh, I haven't had that in a long time. I wonder why." Then around lunch time I remembered that oh yeah, I don't have the apparatus for steaming things. I mean I figured out a rough estimate using the microwave, but it's not quite the same. The difference (somehow) becomes more pronounced when the food cools, which is a problem for me given that I tend to cook more than I can eat in one meal. Despite of that, the Kimbo shrimp shao-mai was quite good.
I am still sampling different gum. The Trident strawberry one was not very good. It's too sweet for one thing, and has this weird aftertaste like it's thinking about being minty, but never quite got past the thinking stage to the doing stage. To complete the short but very recent dislike of strawberries: one of the ones I got this week had a caterpillar in it. The outside wasn't noticeably marked either. I just took a bite, looked inside the empty space that sometimes form inside the fruit, and saw a very green, very plumb, and no doubt very confused caterpillar.
Now I'm paranoid and don't dare to eat anymore. At least not while I'm occupied with other stuff such as reading.
There was also chayote. One of these days I will remember that one chayote is enough to last me a week, because when I'm buying them I usually think "hmm, vegetable is about the size of my fist. I should get two." Then after I finish cutting one and see the pile of it on the cutting-board I'd think, stupidly, "Oh." And possibly, "Oops. Maybe I can freeze the other one?"
(I also tend to have a similar problem with potatoes, leading usually to a scenario where I'd have one lonely potato sitting in the fridge.)
The darkest red honey stick (there are four reddish ones) is, I think, cinnamon.
And now for something completely different:
Today as I was exiting the store I saw a dog on a car. It was sitting on the roof, over the driver's seat. The car is empty and not moving. The dog (smallish in size) looked kind of bereft -- it'd shuffle around a little, sit down, and stare off into space. I don't think it's tied down, though it was wearing a collar and I didn't get close enough to investigate. But dogs -- even the non-Diefenbaker variety -- should still be able to get off the roof via the hood or the trunk if they wanted to, right?
While walking through downtown PB I also saw, in front of an empty, abandoned store, two TI-83s laying on the ground, side by side. The calculators were off. There was nothing else or anyone else nearby. They were laying face-up in the yin-yang orientation. There were no stores nearby that sold calculators, so I'm at a loss. Besides, those things are pretty expensive so ...I don't know. The little mysteries in life. Or rather, in this case there is only one mystery: people.
Anyone else heard about the window phone 7? I'm actually pretty excited with the policy they're employing to attract developers. Gives the product a lot of potential if it survives the initial debut.
I am still sampling different gum. The Trident strawberry one was not very good. It's too sweet for one thing, and has this weird aftertaste like it's thinking about being minty, but never quite got past the thinking stage to the doing stage. To complete the short but very recent dislike of strawberries: one of the ones I got this week had a caterpillar in it. The outside wasn't noticeably marked either. I just took a bite, looked inside the empty space that sometimes form inside the fruit, and saw a very green, very plumb, and no doubt very confused caterpillar.
Now I'm paranoid and don't dare to eat anymore. At least not while I'm occupied with other stuff such as reading.
There was also chayote. One of these days I will remember that one chayote is enough to last me a week, because when I'm buying them I usually think "hmm, vegetable is about the size of my fist. I should get two." Then after I finish cutting one and see the pile of it on the cutting-board I'd think, stupidly, "Oh." And possibly, "Oops. Maybe I can freeze the other one?"
(I also tend to have a similar problem with potatoes, leading usually to a scenario where I'd have one lonely potato sitting in the fridge.)
The darkest red honey stick (there are four reddish ones) is, I think, cinnamon.
And now for something completely different:
Today as I was exiting the store I saw a dog on a car. It was sitting on the roof, over the driver's seat. The car is empty and not moving. The dog (smallish in size) looked kind of bereft -- it'd shuffle around a little, sit down, and stare off into space. I don't think it's tied down, though it was wearing a collar and I didn't get close enough to investigate. But dogs -- even the non-Diefenbaker variety -- should still be able to get off the roof via the hood or the trunk if they wanted to, right?
While walking through downtown PB I also saw, in front of an empty, abandoned store, two TI-83s laying on the ground, side by side. The calculators were off. There was nothing else or anyone else nearby. They were laying face-up in the yin-yang orientation. There were no stores nearby that sold calculators, so I'm at a loss. Besides, those things are pretty expensive so ...I don't know. The little mysteries in life. Or rather, in this case there is only one mystery: people.
Anyone else heard about the window phone 7? I'm actually pretty excited with the policy they're employing to attract developers. Gives the product a lot of potential if it survives the initial debut.
20100810
Small vials of unknown liquids, we need a dungeon
We are due for a lab safety inspection, and yesterday, while cleaning out a cabinet, my labmates and I discovered unlabeled vials of colored fluids, in three different colors. In our lab colored usually means toxic, but because they are unlabeled, we didn't know what to put on the toxic material disposal forms. The purple one is too red to be coumaussie blue or any of the loading dyes, but too blue to be hematocyclin. The blue one is not blue enough to be coumaussie, we usually leave trypan blue in the container it came in, and its not viscous enough to be any of the dyes. The pink one had stuff growing in it.
After much deliberation we had to label it as "unknown liquid" and hope that the Haz Mat people can figure it out.
I realized that I should never ask my PI to score phenotype for me, because though the instructions state to put down either 0 for wild type, 2 for mutant, or 1 for uncertain, I get numerical values such as 0+. How the heck do you run statistical analysis on 0+? What does that even mean, if you try to plot it on Cartesian coordinates? What's a negative zero, then?
In other news. OkCupid does this thing called "quick match" where someone indicates they're interested in you, and then the site sends you an email with nine photos, one of which is the person who is interested in you. If you pick the right one the site'll alert the person to let them know you are interested as well. If you pick the wrong one, nothing happens. I wanted to mention this because of the nine photos I just received, one of them is a photo of a boat.
Now I may have misunderstood, but isn't a profile photo supposed to be a photo of a person?
Com'on girls, didn't you always want to date a boat? (It's even one of those ones with sails!)
Neuromancer has a graphic novel? Why wasn't I told this?
[edit 8/11/10 8:19]
The brown opaque honey stick is either chocolate or coffee, but more likely chocolate with a strong chemical taste. (It tasted like how some of my reagents smelled.) The peach opaque one is ...either plum or very sour peach. More likely to be peach, but I'm used to artificial peach taste being really sugary sweet and this was surprisingly sour, given that it's, well, honey.
After much deliberation we had to label it as "unknown liquid" and hope that the Haz Mat people can figure it out.
I realized that I should never ask my PI to score phenotype for me, because though the instructions state to put down either 0 for wild type, 2 for mutant, or 1 for uncertain, I get numerical values such as 0+. How the heck do you run statistical analysis on 0+? What does that even mean, if you try to plot it on Cartesian coordinates? What's a negative zero, then?
In other news. OkCupid does this thing called "quick match" where someone indicates they're interested in you, and then the site sends you an email with nine photos, one of which is the person who is interested in you. If you pick the right one the site'll alert the person to let them know you are interested as well. If you pick the wrong one, nothing happens. I wanted to mention this because of the nine photos I just received, one of them is a photo of a boat.
Now I may have misunderstood, but isn't a profile photo supposed to be a photo of a person?
Com'on girls, didn't you always want to date a boat? (It's even one of those ones with sails!)
Neuromancer has a graphic novel? Why wasn't I told this?
[edit 8/11/10 8:19]
The brown opaque honey stick is either chocolate or coffee, but more likely chocolate with a strong chemical taste. (It tasted like how some of my reagents smelled.) The peach opaque one is ...either plum or very sour peach. More likely to be peach, but I'm used to artificial peach taste being really sugary sweet and this was surprisingly sour, given that it's, well, honey.
20100808
Putting the "mort" in mortified
I just had to go introduce myself to my new neighbors, in the sense of "Hi you don't know me but I live next door and the walls here are thin so did you know that when I sit on my bed I can hear EVERY SINGLE WORLD you are saying?" (And by "you" I meant "you and your girlfriend".)
I feel like such a jerk, or at least one of those scary librarians who keep shushing you violently for being too loud, but the other options (in addition to possible cases of sleep deprivation because my god are morning people an endangered species here)are to try to muffle out the sounds with my pillow (I tried, but asphyxiation is really not the way I want to go) unsuccessfully (denser pillows? Because I can't sleep with ear plugs in my ear), or feel horribly guilty that I'm overhearing things clearly not meant to be overheard, or possibly die from embarrassment because yeah, clearly not meant to be overheard.
Guilt over overhearing things and embarrassment trumped (clearly) guilt over being a killjoy / scary librarian girl.
I'd try to become a heavier sleeper except I don't want to, even if I could. Being a light sleeper is safer.
But at least it's quiet now.
Yeah, some times I really am awful.
I feel like such a jerk, or at least one of those scary librarians who keep shushing you violently for being too loud, but the other options (in addition to possible cases of sleep deprivation because my god are morning people an endangered species here)are to try to muffle out the sounds with my pillow (I tried, but asphyxiation is really not the way I want to go) unsuccessfully (denser pillows? Because I can't sleep with ear plugs in my ear), or feel horribly guilty that I'm overhearing things clearly not meant to be overheard, or possibly die from embarrassment because yeah, clearly not meant to be overheard.
Guilt over overhearing things and embarrassment trumped (clearly) guilt over being a killjoy / scary librarian girl.
I'd try to become a heavier sleeper except I don't want to, even if I could. Being a light sleeper is safer.
But at least it's quiet now.
Yeah, some times I really am awful.
The things you learn about a place
I live in a city where the nearest public library only operates five days out of seven per week. (And two of those days it opens at noon, one of those closes at 2pm.)
And here I thought I'd finally gotten over my earlier misgivings about this place.
Tourist cities are weird.
Unrelated: the transparent light green (there are three different green ones) honey stick is lime flavored. Yes I am trying to keep track. I think I may need to print out the photo so I can label it or something.
And here I thought I'd finally gotten over my earlier misgivings about this place.
Tourist cities are weird.
Unrelated: the transparent light green (there are three different green ones) honey stick is lime flavored. Yes I am trying to keep track. I think I may need to print out the photo so I can label it or something.
20100807
Because explody things can be fun
Okay so I did end up closing two of my accounts (the intell' ones) and opening another one under OkCupid to maintain my three-accounts count. (Still haven't found the stalker button yet, Lucy.) Which then promptly sent me ... well several emails, but the one that caught my attention and caused much lolz is one titled "World Map of Your Matches" where, as the subject line indicates, they generated a heat map of where each person's best matches are around US and around the world. According to my map within the US I should be thinking about Hawaii, North Dakota, Alaska, Virginia, and Delaware. (Hawaii is warm. I approve.)On a world map US didn't even make it onto the list. Instead I got Slovakia (yes I know), Sweden, Israel, Singapore, and Slovenia. (And I had to look up where Slovenia is because I can't for the life of me remember.)
Also? I messaged someone, who did message back so now he's teaching me how to make potato-cannons! (No I didn't message him just to get the instructions. OkCupid did send a message with all possible matches and this guy's over 90% matched.) Given the email exchange this is probably going to the extend of my involvement with the Cannon guy, but oh my god projectiles. I was disappointed that we didn't do any projectile stuff (egg drop doesn't count) in physics the way I was disappointed we didn't do any origami stuff in geometry, so this is very exciting. (Do people still fire actual potatoes?) Not that I can really build one because although I know where to get pvc pipes I have no drill. Which is a crying shame but alas, life is cruel that way.
(It's worth signing up for these instructions alone.)
...does anyone own a drill and want to collaborate?
(P.S. Yes I'm still penpals with Xylene. We've moved on to medicare-type dilemmas now, I think. With lingering hints of alien conspiracy theories.)
---------------
Not related at all, but those vanilla Almond Dream Bites (chocolate-covered non-dairy ice cream balls) are way addictive. Think chocolate-covered almonds. Except as ice cream.
Also? I messaged someone, who did message back so now he's teaching me how to make potato-cannons! (No I didn't message him just to get the instructions. OkCupid did send a message with all possible matches and this guy's over 90% matched.) Given the email exchange this is probably going to the extend of my involvement with the Cannon guy, but oh my god projectiles. I was disappointed that we didn't do any projectile stuff (egg drop doesn't count) in physics the way I was disappointed we didn't do any origami stuff in geometry, so this is very exciting. (Do people still fire actual potatoes?) Not that I can really build one because although I know where to get pvc pipes I have no drill. Which is a crying shame but alas, life is cruel that way.
(It's worth signing up for these instructions alone.)
...does anyone own a drill and want to collaborate?
(P.S. Yes I'm still penpals with Xylene. We've moved on to medicare-type dilemmas now, I think. With lingering hints of alien conspiracy theories.)
---------------
Not related at all, but those vanilla Almond Dream Bites (chocolate-covered non-dairy ice cream balls) are way addictive. Think chocolate-covered almonds. Except as ice cream.
The fun's just begun
Placed order for new phone, phone number transfer not allowed. I'll send out the new phone number when I get it, one way or another. I also forgot to mention that while I was gone the mint came down with a sudden and severe onset of spider mites and I have not been able to rescue it in time, so now I have dead mint. Which is depressing since I've had this particular batch since Davis and the thing's practically invincible, or so I thought. Except obviously not. (Mortality is a nasty shock. Yes, even with plants.)
Have mac computer in lab that we want to install something on but the PI doesn't remember the password. We could get the department tech to override it, but meanwhile the rest of the lab and I are engaged in trying to guess the password based on the hint. It's amateur hacking as a side hobby, whenever a few of us have a few minutes between experiments.
On Thursday there was a sudden flood of cheerleaders (mostly jr. high, high school aged by appearance, of all different kinds of uniforms) and you can hear them coming a mile away. They went past the bookstore to the fields where presumably there is either some sort of cheer camp or competition going on. They are very thin. Were they always this unhealthy looking?
On Friday there was a sudden horde of marathon people, in purple and black uniforms, that ran past our lab. I dubbed them "the invasion of Fedex" (because of the uniforms), much to the amusement of my labmates. There was a person driving alongside, shouting something on a megaphone, but no one in lab could make out what he was saying.
And then the PI came out and we got distracted for a bit.
I've had "Brand New Day" (yes Lucy, the one from that DW video...have you been able to find an mp3 yet? Because my mp3 player doesn't play the video's format) stuck in my head for two days. It comes and goes, much like my state of sanity. (Oh right I should go and run more chores now. Later!)
Have mac computer in lab that we want to install something on but the PI doesn't remember the password. We could get the department tech to override it, but meanwhile the rest of the lab and I are engaged in trying to guess the password based on the hint. It's amateur hacking as a side hobby, whenever a few of us have a few minutes between experiments.
On Thursday there was a sudden flood of cheerleaders (mostly jr. high, high school aged by appearance, of all different kinds of uniforms) and you can hear them coming a mile away. They went past the bookstore to the fields where presumably there is either some sort of cheer camp or competition going on. They are very thin. Were they always this unhealthy looking?
On Friday there was a sudden horde of marathon people, in purple and black uniforms, that ran past our lab. I dubbed them "the invasion of Fedex" (because of the uniforms), much to the amusement of my labmates. There was a person driving alongside, shouting something on a megaphone, but no one in lab could make out what he was saying.
And then the PI came out and we got distracted for a bit.
I've had "Brand New Day" (yes Lucy, the one from that DW video...have you been able to find an mp3 yet? Because my mp3 player doesn't play the video's format) stuck in my head for two days. It comes and goes, much like my state of sanity. (Oh right I should go and run more chores now. Later!)
20100805
Evidently not meant to be
I've gotten worse at updating my blog regularly, even though these past few weeks there's actually been stuff happening in my life. But these days I get home at around 7:40pm and by the time everything (read: food, shower, dishes, brush teeth) is done I look around hey, it's 8:47 already. At which point I'd assess my own level of energy, take into account that I have to be up at 6-ish the next morning and generally turn in early.
Which means no updates about the bay area trip, the stapler that clonally-reproduced and mutated into hole-punchers, or the arrival of my cells from Germany when there's no one else around for me to deliver them to or flail at. At some point I was going to also mention the time when my PI asserted that he was secure enough in his masculinity to use a purple pen (I think he's gotten stranger in the few days I've been away) and that the bugs have gotten into my rice and that I still have not heard back about my thesis committee yet, but I think this is about the extent that I will mention those events. I am limited to short posts. Until the weekend. At which point I may find the time to watch more Avatar, update, and figure out what to do with the kiwis.
Which means no updates about the bay area trip, the stapler that clonally-reproduced and mutated into hole-punchers, or the arrival of my cells from Germany when there's no one else around for me to deliver them to or flail at. At some point I was going to also mention the time when my PI asserted that he was secure enough in his masculinity to use a purple pen (I think he's gotten stranger in the few days I've been away) and that the bugs have gotten into my rice and that I still have not heard back about my thesis committee yet, but I think this is about the extent that I will mention those events. I am limited to short posts. Until the weekend. At which point I may find the time to watch more Avatar, update, and figure out what to do with the kiwis.
20100802
Quick post
Have uploaded photos from the weekend to my Flickr account (go to the main site and search under "people" for my yahoo user name) since Kate requested that I not post anything with her in it on Facebook and I'm too lazy to load separately / twice with my at home internet speed.
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