Out of Post-Its?

Posted on March 30, 2008

It’s Saturday. I came to work fairly excited today to start a newish phase of my research. Sometimes the weekends are the best times to get things done because there are no interruption/interrupters. Anyways, this is what greeted me on the lab white board as soon as I arrived in the lab:

It’s tough to read since I took the pic with my cell phone camera but I’ll dictate it to you:

Friday
1. Electronic pipette must be returned to charging platform, or guess what happens? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist! Lab phone had similar problem and was beeping about it.
2. pH electrode reference solution was evaporated because of inadequate parafilm coverage.
3. Gel box power supply was left on. Geez!…
4. Gel running buffer was left in gel running box to dry out.
5. Beaker stuck to benchtop.
…Thanks for making it all seem worthwhile!

This is exactly the type of behaviour that makes me not want to come into work. And no, this isn’t the work of a colleague or lab mate…it’s my boss. My favorite part is the line about the rocket scientist. Seems to be one of the boss’ favorites. Looking over the list I know that 4 of the 5 of these items have nothing to do with me. I don’t use the electric pipette. I haven’t run a gel for months. And the beaker was stuck to the gel station benchtop. None of my doing. The pH electrode is on my list of equipment that I maintain in the lab. I check on it once a week. Last week I checked it on Tuesday. It was fine and full. The parafilm only comes off when the electrode is in use, and I haven’t used it in at least 2 months. So none of the angry list items are my fault, but I still can’t help but be angered, hurt, and discouraged by it.

It’s just another sign that I work somewhere where workers aren’t treated with dignity or respect. How can a boss expect notes like this to resolve anything. If anything, it makes workers less inclined to care about their jobs than more inclined to. It’s unprofessional, and demeaning.

Normally these little notes (yes, with more “rocket scientist” references) are on post-it notes left in the lab. Those are a little less infuriating because you can at least crumple them up in a ball and throw them away to relieve some anger. But this one was huge and written on the white board. I can’t erase it, so it’s going to have to stay there, making me angry, until the boss takes it down. I guess we were all out of post-its.

How not to drink tea

Posted on March 25, 2008

I drink a lot of tea at the lab. Everyone does. It’s a tea culture at OGI. We have a water spout in the kitchen that spits out 190 degree water so there’s no boiling necessary. Well, last Thursday I walked down to the tea fountain, filled my mug, added tea and honey, and walked back to the lab. Before I made it back to my desk where I was going to put down the tea to cool, I got involved in a conversation with a lab mate. 1 minute into the conversation, I had forgotten the tea hadn’t cooled, and took a big sip. Ooowww! Scalding hot water burning the roof of my mouth. Sure it hurt, but I do dumb stuff like that all the time. I had no idea that 5 days later I’d still be paying for this mistake. Huge blisters had formed. Sunday they burst. Eewww! And ever since then it’s been more painful than before. Eating is the worst, but drinking isn’t a picnic either. Stay away from anything citrus! Toast is a no go. Anything you need to bite pieces off of, like a sandwich, is misery. Even breathing through my mouth is painful. I’ll think I’ll be sticking to water at the lab for a while.

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The Team Formerly Known as OGI

Posted on March 23, 2008

After the student’s research symposium two weeks ago, a group of us students set to work making T-shirts for the Shamrock 5K run. We call ourselves “The Team Formerly Known as OGI.” It’s sort of a play on the fact that our school is getting eaten up by the med school and will cease to be it’s own independent school within the university. While the paints on the shirts was still wet, we put them on and went to Pub Night on campus. Once every one or two months our “school” brings in a keg and some pizza or sandwiched after work on a Friday night. Faculty and students kick back, have a beer or two, eat, and relax a bit. With the unique organization of our “school,” most people spend 99.9% of their time in their labs and wouldn’t hardly get a chance to socialize without these Pub Nights. This Pub Night was St. Patrick’s Day themed. We were given green beads and there was a bagpipe player. It was pretty fun.
Anyway, about 9 of us signed up together to take part in the Shamrock 5K run on March 16th. The run was loads of fun! Lots of people were dressed in St. Patrick’s day attire…running in foam Guinness mug suits, or tied to 5 other people dressed as beer bottles in 6 pack. The Team Formerly Known as OGI will run again soon. We have a few upcoming races on our docket. We’ll have to make some non-specific team shirts soon.

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Student Research Symposium

Posted on March 23, 2008

Two Friday’s ago students in my department took part in our annual student’s research symposium. Symposium is just a fancy way to describe a bunch of grad students standing around a room next to 3 foot by 4 foot posters of our research while faculty and other interested parties walk around and ask us to talk about our work. From the faculty’s perspective, it’s a good way for the students to get practice designing and presenting research posters which will be helpful for big future international conferences. From the students’ perspective, it’s little more than drain on time that could be spent in the lab, but on the plus side it goes along with free pizza so I’d call it a draw. Anyways, here’s a pic of me next to my poster.

To and Fro

Posted on March 1, 2008

On my long, long list of things to do today, is to clean out my car. Throughout the winter things would migrate to it, and there they have stayed. I dread this project so much that I even had dreams about it last night. In my dream, I don’t know why, but I had to pack up my Jetta and move again to a new house, but I couldn’t because I had so much other junk in my car already. That got me thinking. I’ve always owned a Jetta, and I’ve moved a lot. I wanted to pin an actual number on how many times I’ve packed all my belongings into a Jetta. So here it goes, here’s my list:

1. Manchester to Syracuse, Day Hall
2. Day Hall to Manch
3. Manch to Haven Hall
4. Haven Hall to South campus
5. South Campus to Ostrom Ave
6. Ostrom Ave to Genessee area apartments
7. Genessee area apartments to Manch
8. Manch to South campus
9. South Campus to Manch
10. Manch to Washington, DC
11. DC to Manch
12. Manch to Salt Lake City, University Ave
13. University Ave to 300 East
14. 300 East to Manch
(moved to Switzerland for 6 months)
15. Manch to Salt Lake City, small studio
16. Studio to a friend’s apartment
17. Friend’s apartment to San Diego, Pershing Ave
18. Pershing Ave to Reno, NV
19. Reno to San Diego, A St
20. A St to University Ave
21. University Ave to NE Portland
22. NE Portland to SW Portland

So there we have it. I’ve packed all my belongings into a Jetta and moved 22 times! That’s pretty impressive. Jetta’s aren’t especially spacious. I gues it’s a good thing I played to much Tetris as a kid.

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