10 Ejaculates and a Good Centrifuge.

"Go around and pee on home plate!"

There is a mediocre HBO show called Hung, in which the premise of a recent episode was the main character's son peeing on home plate, or as they called it, "defiling the baseball diamond". At first I was confused about the motivation and the big deal. Until the opening comment was uttered to me last night. I guess I wasn't drunk enough to fully appreciate it, but being on a field, the sprinklers going on, a small crowd cheering you on behind you - there's a little bit of je ne sais quoi quality about it which makes it a little bit ridiculous.

Of course, although not drunk, there needed to be quite a bit of alcohol consumption for the event to occur. And with that, my supervisor, my coworker and I had a long discussion about anything that came to mind. Lots of praises flew around, although one particular praise went on about 30 odd times in the night, with at least once where it was mentioned 3 times in a row. Quite a few insults flew too, but this time it doesn't seem like toxic environment causing - everything was honest, with supports, and not meant to be malicious towards the objects.

The talk repeated a lot of things over and over, I mean, we were quite drunk at that point. However, it seems to tell me that I could go to grad school if I want to. Of course, this doesn't actually tell me that much - before there were the three thoughts: a- want to do BEd, b- do i want to do MSc? and c- can I do MSc? Although c is somewhat eliminated, it was never really that far away from b.

I'm going to really miss my supervisor when I leave. Last night was filled with fun, even without the alcohol.

You are the 6000th visitor

Today when I plopped in my sample for mass spectrometry, the computer showed that I was the 6000th sample from my lab. Artificial fireworks flew across my screen, before real life sparklers going off beside the monitor, and the mass spectrometer playing a happy diddly. The technician comes by with a miniature cupcake with "Happy 6000th" icing and a blue candle.

....

Not really.

The machine just asked me for my sample name and expected mass. It was very anti-climatic in actuality. That's what happens when a special date or milestone was over-emphasized for ages, only to disappoint with mediocrity.

But then, why can't mediocrity be enough? Why do we strive for extraordinary things when the simple things in life pass us by without so much as a thought, much less the appreciation they deserves? Why can't we be happy that it's raining in the middle of summer? Or be excited that when we take out our pencil, and it's still sharpened? Why do we hold parades for all sorts of frivolous things, when we could be celebrating the fact that our breaths don't stink because of that pack of gum we found at the bottom of the couch cushion?

Growth of a noun

Ask a 12 years old what he or she think a scientist working in a lab looks like. The response might be lab coats or goggles, or swirling an Erlenmeyer. That basically rules out all the mathematicians and let's not even bring up the social scientists. As they grow, their definition of scientist might morph and mature until it becomes a definition they're willing to stick with.

Cab ride in the rain

I'd like to think I'm not quite yet at the level to deserve the title of scientist, but frankly, I might be close. Two years ago, I would looked at myself funny if I saw my google search left with inquiries such as "palladium-assisted indolinimide hydrolysis" and "quenching LDA reactions of acid-sensitive moiety".

Kahlua baked in cheesecake

Sure, the latter one might be just because moiety is one of those awesome words of vowel-tasticness, but I wouldn't even know how to use half of those words a while ago.

I've always said that I'm not defined by not definition, or at least that's what it says on my Facebook profile. I will make the scientist I'll be; Science will not define me. I'm not going to be a spandex- and cape-wearing B Man; Justin's gonna be throwing down with the rod of democracy.

Velvet flutter of skirts

It really is going to be business as usual next year. The amount of cancellations and negotiations that I have to deal with is mind numbing. Not to mention the budget's an utter mess.

Blood-letting and leeches

Not that there's a lot of hours that needs to be put in, but the amount of random worrying is starting to catch up to me, and my thoughts are starting to get scattered. It makes writing in this blog really difficult, since in writing of this blog post, I've wanted to change the topic 4 times. My thoughts don't get developed fully any more, so it looks like a chicken scratch of notes.

Simple full layouts

So blog posts will probably start again with a little bit more gusto, now that I have someone to write for.