Told you
Remember when I said that I knew certain people in the lab were talking about others in a language we could not understand and that sometimes you could hear your name or whatnot but obviously didn't know what was being said about you (business or personal)? And remember how I asked how polite it was to talk in a language that most of your coworkers couldn't understand when you were talking about them some unknown percentage of the time? Well, I think that percentage is a bit higher than I guessed. Or, at least, my suspicions of gossiping itself were confirmed.

See, through some misunderstanding, Zero Code thought someone in the lab understood Chinese and completely panicked. A total wait, you know what I'm saying, going pale and speechless, faking a smile and tee hee laugh panic. So yeah, I think gossiping happens so if anyone can teach me basic mandarin (or is cantonese the universal language? I can never remember) or at least teach me how to say "I understand you." that would be great.

Or, if you could teach me how to call someone incompetent that would also be great because Zero Code's incompetence has struck again. I don't know if I blogged about this or just vented in real life but in January she was handed a protocol spelling out what to do to make a media. Not, make 10mM of X and add to Y spelled out but add 10ul of X to 90ul of Y spelled out. No math involved. And she did it wrong. By a lot. Like 30000 times concentrated. And looked at me like it was ricockulous of me to expect her to read simple directions. That was the end of my patience with her. Today I went to get some samples from the liquid nitrogen and they were assigned to rack D slot 11. Except there wasn't a rack D and the only slot 11 had my samples in it. After much frustration the lab tech told me that the unlabeled rack was D and not E as I had assumed because the only boxes not labeled with initials or names were labeled with Es. In fact the box I was looking for was in D11 (D10 actually, I think) but was labeled E3. She explained this to me like I was an idiot and wasting her time and ZC was completely justified in being "too busy" to cross out E3 and write D11. Because the 30-45 minutes of my time wasted isn't as valuable as 5 seconds of her time. I really don't get why the lab tech excuses such behavior from her expect that perhaps she sees a younger version of herself in ZC.

Anyway, I just needed to vent about that. It made my day seem much longer and caused me to delay my lunch until 2ish. The panicking about whitey understanding chinese thing was hilarious though. Seriously, someone teach me the language. I want to hear the gossip too.
- posted by meg @ 5:53 PM

 
i'm freakin' sweet
I'm two degrees from Seth McFarlane. I just found out that a friend of mine went to the same karaoke bar as Seth McFarlane. They weren't buddies but they did acknowledge each other. I think that counts.

This is totally in the meeting Screech/getting an e-mail from Wil Wheaton file. Hey, if Wheaton e-mailed me does that make me two degrees from the Shatner? Because that would be freakin sweet. (I'm thinking probably not though. Face to face could be key.)
- posted by meg @ 2:02 PM

 
Princess in search of pea
Actually I have a lot of peas in my freezer. I like to marvel at their green pea-ness. I love the Critic. I can't remember the verb exactly but Orson Welles doing a pea commercial is comedy GOLD.

I was reminded last week that I am very sensitive to changes in my environment. If there's a stray hair or cobweb on me, I notice it. (I used to think there was something weird going on with cobwebs across sidewalks or doorways, the single strand almost always hit me in the face even if someone walked ahead of me. Now I think I'm just the only person who notices it.) A few degrees' change in temperature? I can feel it. A rock in my shoe, definitely feel that. And the reminder this week, I'm ticklish. How was I reminded, you ask? I was at the dentist. No, this dentist didn't flirt with me, but when she was polishing my teeth the little brush thingy was tickling my lips and I said, you know, if certain people knew that this was tickling me, they'd be very disappointed. (So, of course, I bring it up here.) I am quite possibly the most ticklish person in the world which is sad because I've actually made strides to control it.

It's nice to be able to think of myself as a princess though. I have a tiara and a shirt stating as much. Although I also have shirts labeling me an angel and a zicke. Actually, that pretty much sums me up. It might be cooler to have a super power though.
- posted by meg @ 9:09 PM

 
mish mosh
I got a lot of compliments on this tulip photo, so I sent an 8x10 to my dad and uncle for their birthdays. I also like this blurry image of the same photo. I also like this photo done toile-y and tile-y. I still have more but I'll spare you that. Twenty years ago I'd have had a projecter and slide carousel.

My weekend went by wicked fast. All of last week actually. It freaks me out a bit when I think of all the stuff I wanted to do that I didn't. I mean, I'm pretty busy in the lab and I think shooting for 10 hours a day is enough to leave me satisfied and not guilty about the time I spend not doing work. But that doesn't leave me much time to do my hobbies and such. I think once I establish a schedule I'll feel less overwhelmed or anxious at not relaxing enough. If that makes sense. I enjoy lots of hobbies and I get a little OCD when I can't get time for all of them in a week. Or month. Season. Whatever. Probably just me. And all the other OCD perfectionist who need to schedule fun time. Although if you're really busy you sorta need to do that to make sure you relax.

Speaking of relaxing, I'm doing remarkably well about not freaking out about the huge bill I just got to replace the tensioner, serpentine belt and four brakes on my car. I mean, I think it's a decent deal for what it was but brakes are expensive. Apparently my car eats them only half as fast as others, although I bought it at 4 years old almost 3 years ago so I'm not sure that really helped me all that much. Maybe they should've been replaced at the dealership but I didn't think to ask as they worked fine, the tires appeared new, they replaced the stereo (burnt out lcd) and the total price was under blue book. I guess it does mean that I likely won't have to replace them again before I get a new car. I just had my serpentine belt replaced in December at an oil change chain so I'm going to have to ask for a refund from them since the non functioning tensioner destroyed that belt. I don't know if it'll work though. I'm excited about getting my PhD so that when I have to get all bitchy with people I can call myself Dr. ___ and be all intimidating and stuff. It's a good perk.
- posted by meg @ 8:06 PM

 
Tulip Time
On Saturday I went to Holland, Michigan for the Tulip Time festival which is, apparently, the third largest festival in the US after Mardi Gras and the Rose Parade. Since I've been to Tulip Time twice and the Rose Parade once, it's clear what I need to do next. New Orleans, watch out.

It was a short trip but fun. I didn't get drunk because it was $6 to get in to the beer tent and $3 per beer and I'm poor. Well, really, it was pricey and the Red Tulip Ale just wasn't good enough to spend another $9 ish to get drunk. I was pretty tired from the day and the preceding week and actually was home and in bed pretty early. Which was sad. I shall not repeat this in weekends to come.

Anyway, it was a good time. The food was excellent. I had chili cheese fries, my first corn dog (not bad, but I'm good for a while on corn dogs) and delicious coffee lovers ice cream that we had to split three ways. If I had more room in my tummy I could've also eaten fried dough and perhaps the most magical food creation I've ever seen and not tasted, the waffle ice cream sandwich. You see, you take two waffles, toast them, and insert between them a thick slab of neopolitan ice cream. I hope to make them myself one day but I really don't frequently buy waffles or ice cream.

So the point of this post was more to give context to some photos than babble on about my weekend fun. I took some photos at the festival and some around my apartment building and had some fun on the computer. I like the original photos and the altered photos and I think I'm going to print some out to put around my apartment. I'm not claiming that they're art or anything, I really don't think that I'm artistically inclined so usually anything I can do is not considered art to me, but I think they're kinda cool. Still, if I somehow created something marketable don't go spreading it around. :) (blogger is copyrighted anyway. if I know you we can work something out though. :P) And now, with way too much build up, I present to you tulips and tulips viewed by someone on acid. There's also spring in Ann Arbor, and what spring sometimes feels like in Ann Arbor. (Ignore the red block from the cropping in the tulips, I will when I print it.)
- posted by meg @ 10:19 PM

 
sign of the apocalypse
My brother, who has said on several occassions, 'so, meg, what's with books?' told me the other day that he's reading A Brief History of Time. By Stephen Hawking. And he likes it. It took me a second to recognize the book because I didn't expect him to tell me he's reading it. I was floored. I'll have to read it so we can have a book to talk about.
- posted by meg @ 4:59 PM

 
Rules to life
Rule of Meg #1: The improbable will happen.

Rule of Meg #2: Any attempts at technical support will repeatedly return you to the same person who insists on answering questions you do not ask and avoiding the questions you do.

Rule of Meg #3: The boss will only show up the moment you sit down for a snack or to check e-mail; the boss will not show up any of hours that are packed solid with work.

Rule of Meg #4: Experiments requiring the use of several cell lines at once will always be delayed by one cell line deciding to grow slow/die/become infected. One and only one.
- posted by meg @ 10:58 AM

 
language lessons
Ever wonder what the male version of wench is? It's a mensch.

Come on, it totally works.
- posted by meg @ 3:05 AM