Safety Message

Over the last few days, people I know are losing loved ones randomly to car accidents. Random senseless things where there was no real reason...

So please. Drive safely K?
I need all of you :)

Oh...you wanted the truth then? Whoops...

This article in the Guardian is a very humorous take on how the "regular" press reports on scientific discoveries and facts. A brilliant parody of science reporting. A friend forwarded it to me and it made me smile.

Funny...and sadly...too often true.

Yakawow. Indeed.


Oh - and if you were so inclined to do multiple regression analysis at 7AM to get an assignment completed before work (what?) - may I recommend the following song as a soundtrack?

It worked for me...

I'm exhausted

"I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter, scraped over too much bread"

~Bilbo Baggins

So very true...This 14 hour day sh*t is really getting to me.

*sigh*

image source

beep beep beep beep beep beep ....

They have been loading building materials off a truck and into the construction site right outside my lab all morning. If they are not done soon I am going to put on my ninja suit and go outside to disable that ridiculous backup beeper thing on the loader...

beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep ....

Faith and Begorah

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Oh I am so glad it's friday. Yes I know I have to work on saturday too, but tonight I get to see my husband! Wohoo! We'll be home at the same time...and awake! Booyah.

And yes, when I opened my cup of Tim Horton's coffee after my workout this morning it tasted so fine that there were rainbows...in my head...and now they're there ALL THE TIME!
MUAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Exhaustion is fun :)

Rocking the lab. Yo?

Because I've been spending lots of time in the biosafety hood this week culturing cancer cells...in our affectionately nicknamed cabinet room ("the hood") I present to you a few tracks from a favourite remix album of mine I've been listening to while I'm in there. For some reason it keeps me going at the end of a long 14 hour day...

Have a good day Y'all...

I am slowly going crazy, 1,2,3,4,5,6, switch!

Well hello there.
Here I am again at the lovely Chez Laboratory, in my home away from home. Yesterday was a 15 hour day and more of the same today...I have a stat assignment due and cell lines to culture and more MSc stuff. Busy...but somehow thriving on it. Something about throwing my wobbler and then making a game plan for what to do next has taken away some of the jibbelies and gotten me focused again. I have deadlines. I thrive with deadlines. J is equally busy with his job so we're cheering each other on and trying to get things done for a few moments home together...

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My knee is still a bit twingy from the spin class abuse on monday so I gave it another day off and have just come in early to work to have a few minutes to sip coffee and check in on the interwebs and get my sh*t together before another long day.

In the end, eez gutt people. :)

Yesterday morning a sparrow flew in the bus and fluttered a bit and then settled in on the steering wheel of the bus, much to the joy of the driver. He was looking at me (it was 6:05 and I was the only one on the bus at first!), the road and the bird saying "look at the little guy!" and grinning madly. Eventually the bird flew near the back door and someone getting off managed to shoo it back outside...odd little things in my day keep happening to make me smile. I like to think the world is trying to keep me sane in what little ways it can :)

Everybody making a sound....

Well I feel a bit better.
I worked hard this weekend got to visit old friends and unwind a bit. J was sweet and took me out to a great thai place and helped me unwobble. Yes, I'll have a whackload of work to do, but it is what it is. I'll just have to buckle down and do it.
I got up for another spin class of doom this morning. I arrived late and got one of the crappier bikes, which seemed to bug my knee a bit, so I'm going to make a point of getting there earlier and try to get a better bike. The last thing I want to do is screw up my knee...I think I'd go nutso if that happened. Tomorrow is swimming so that should take some of th edge off. It's stiff but not sore so I think it'll be OK. I'm trying glucosamine supplements to strengthen it...we shall see.

I've been listening a lot to the Gorillaz: D-sides album lately. I like it even more than the Demon Days album it is a B-side album for . I leave you with a track from it that has been stuck in my head all day - it's using some of the audio from another Gorillaz song I like called Dare and making a new equally great song out of it... Have a good day everybody.

The best intentions have screwed me over

Know how I just said nothing could bring me down?
Yeah.
Well...
I just received the results back from the external lab testing of my MSc project stuff...and they totally did NOT do what they were supposed to. They took my stuff and redid it as they thought would be best and not what they were told to...meaning I have way more work to do than originally and the results are NOT quite what they were supposed to be...so I'm struggling with trying to figure out a new way to analyze my results because I can't do what I was supposed to and it's all I get. I could have prepared them differently and gotten better results from them this way had I known what the f*ck they were going to do. What a great reward for all my hard work! As a bonus, since they're doing a favour for me to analyze them like this I'm not really in the position to complain... so I just have to sit here and imagine hitting the tech over the head with a baseball bat while I try and salvage as much useful data out of these different results as I can.
It's not very cathartic. I need a bigger imaginary bat. Maybe a tazer...

I appreciate people trying to take initiative but this is not their project to screw with...there is nothing like expectantly waiting 2 months for the results of a lot of hard work to find more work... I think can make it work for mostly what I want, but it isn't what I'd really needed and will extend what I have to do just that much longer.

F*CK.

Happy day.

This song came on this morning and I've been humming it ever since. It fits my mood...
Have a wonderful day everybody - I know I will :)

Four fried chickens and a Coke. And some dry white toast please...

Yesterday J got to meet Dan Aykroyd and shoot an interview with him for a coworker. Dan was in town promoting his new crystal head vodka (which is remarkably good actually...and it's in a cool bottle). J was (to put it mildly) pleased. Our van plates are Ecto-X...so yes, you could say that Ghostbusters is a favourite film, and the Blues Brothers was a huge influence on him as well...and I admit to liking them supremely as well. Dan is a comedy icon from our childhood...So, yeah - meeting Dan and finding him to be a good guy was a really cool experience for him.

Me? I met with my brother and a bunch of old people after supper to help them plan how to update their website.

I am thinking I did not get the better deal for the day :)

Oh well. There was cake...:)

Pipette Hero

Man I wish I had $1000 of product to order from eBioscience, 'cause I'd LOVE to have this promo shirt...

Anyone up for a ride? No? A dance then?

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Holy cardio batman

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I went to my very first spin class this morning at the gym. I swear that lady was trying to kill me...I do feel great now though! I will definitely be going again. I've been assured it's an OK workout for my knee and I've already been biking so I figured it was a good place to start.

This sounds wierd I know, but I'm trying to figure out if I can wear my heart rate monitor in the pool. I know the watch part is waterproof, but I'm curous if the Polar F4 heart rate monitor chest strap can be used underwater. It'd be rediculously cool to see how I do swimming heart rate wise, but I don't want to wreck the little robot...it's a fun toy. Anyone know if you can?? I'm geekily curious...

Back on the wagon again

Well I finally got to the gym after trying all week to make the schedule work for me.
I made the 6am bus and got to the University Physical Activity Center and checked it out...it's nice. I'm curious to check out the pool and their spin classes next week too. They even have a climbing wall...but I'm not interested in that. I had plenty of time to check things out and have a workout for 35 minutes on the treadmill (I tried my very best to just speedwalk but I did run a few 2 minutes spurts...couldn't help myself. Listening to Prodigy when I workout does that to me). I wore my heart rate monitor to make sure I got a good workout...it's a fun little toy. It tells me if my heart rate is in cardio range, for how long and how many calories burned. (I think I'll log it out of curiosity...and be my own new lab experiment!) Then, after some other muscle stuff an some stretches I still made it to work on time with a cup of coffee.
Cool!
Now if it would only stop raining I'd be happy as a clam. :)

Buses can be a PITA

All week I keep having grand schemes to get in to work early and use the pool here and check out the other gym facilities. Our local transit has made it more complicated by f*cking up all the routes as of September 1 (I believe their words were "revamping them for a better tomorrow!"...*ahem*)...essentially they've revamped a lot of the routes that apply to me in the AM, so I' having a bit of a problem not missing buses or taking ones that get me here with any extra time. Everything is slightly off the norm and it'll take a few weeks until the buses themselves actually arrive when they say they will as well...for now if you're not out there about 10 minutes early you're playing roulette with actually catching the bus you want -lots of waiting either way. This morning I managed to miss a bus by mere seconds...I've been able to log some extra time this week here as makeup time for missing classes so it's not *that* bad, but I'd rather have swam this morning than sat in a bus stop for 25 minutes in the rain. Thankfully I had some CBC podcasts to amuse myself so it wasn't so bad. If it hadn't rained I would have biked in...I like biking because I have control over my arrival time. Unfortunately in the rain and snow it's not so great, so despite my whining, I have to figure this transit thing out...and I will.

Ah well, eventually I will get here in time to see the pool and perhaps even swim in it...we shall see. For now, it is another day...we shall see what's up :)

Fall Meme

It's been a while.
I have time to kill.
So here ya go...because I know you're all dying to know the random wibbles of my daily life...

Current clothes: Jeans. Orange polo shirt and socks.

Current mood: Guilty. I brought an adaptor to work this AM (thought it was my brothers cell phone adaptor he said he’d left at the lake and I’m meeting him for supper) and then my husband spent an hour at home this morning looking for it (because it was *not* in fact my brother’s but part of my husband’s light board…which he needs today for work...heh) and so he was stressed out for no reason and quite late for work. AND has to come to my work to get it. Fucksticks.

Current music: just listened to Blur, Think Tank.

Current annoyance: Hearing people complain about being busy as they sit there doing nothing while I run around like an idiot trying to keep my life on track. I do a zillion things cuz I have to and don’t whine about it and then they’re done…of course maybe they just did that and now that they’re *done* they feel free to bitch about them. Hmm…

Current thing: trying to fit exercise in my already full days

Current desktop picture: A woman playing ukulele on the moon

Current book: I just finished Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman -loved it.

Current song in head: Hey Mr. Bassman…sung by Scooter and the band from the Muppet Show. Don’t ask…I don't know how it got there either.

Current DVD in player: Currently rewatching Torchwood season 1.

Current refreshment: Thinking about running to get some lemonade.

Current worry: Just had random wiring issues with my furnace fixed and it’s supposed to be OK now…but now wonder what else in my house can just randomly arc or combust…

Current thought: Wish I’d just left that adaptor at home this morning, or mentioned it in passing to J before I left. Funny how a little act of what you think is helpfulness can totally bugger up someone’s day. I *meant* well…

*sigh*
Here's hoping I manage the rest of the day better :)

*tears of laughter*

...I have no words as to how rediculously awesome this photo is.
*snort*

Oh no, I gotta go back to school...

I'm officially a student again.

How utterly wierd...

It's ALIVE!

Hooray! My furnace and AC work again.
It was just a minor repair to replace a wire that had gotten old and cracked and broken...so it arced the side of the furnace instead of being one piece and starting the fan motor like it should have. According to the guy I got to fix it, it does look like the wiring in the furnace is old and getting brittle so we need to look into replacing either it or the furnace in the next 1-2 years to be safe. He left us with some options to think about...to replace all the internal electrical in the furnace (which is about 40 years old and really inefficient) would cost about 700-1000...and a whole new furnace would cost ~3500. So...it will take some thinking and planning...that's a lot of lettuce.
Either way I'm not comfortable with leaving old wiring in there long term, because, honestly this could just happen again, eventually. He said the wires in there looked OK as of now, but you never know...he recommended not to leave it longer than 2 years, just for safety. I know I don't want to worry about that sort of thing happening again when we're not home...it should just blow the breaker. This arc actually made a little hole in the side of the furnace box (spooky) We were lucky this time and should be responsible and look into fixing it properly.
Thankfully this repair guy is one who was honest with us and he helped us fix our furnace motor in the middle of the night mid winter and was helpful and honest when everyone else tried to screw us over or lie to us about cost. I called him to install our gas stove too. He's' a good local guy who doesn't BS, so I trust him. He can put in new furnaces too, so I'm going to get him to quote us and see what our options are. By spring we can look at what to do. I like supporting local nice honest people.

It's nice to know it's fixed though. Man, electrical things always creep me right out...

SCIENCE!!!

Birthday boy

Happy birthday J. Thanks for sharing our crazy life :)

I heart you.

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PS - I've been humming this song all morning.

Have a go: