Records of a Mad Scientist: Home/work

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Home/work

So... I'm home for the holidays. Actually, I'm taking a ridiculously LONG holiday break, which may or may not be a mistake. Three and a half weeks away is a long time. Three and a half weeks with my mother is a long time. I love my mom. I just find living under her room difficult. For example, I've been told that I need to live on a "normal" and "adult" schedule. Translation: I need to get up before sunrise and go to bed just after sunset. Additionally, while I'm home, I need to "contribute to the family". This translates into my mother using my various weird skills to either (1) Further her struggling start up, (2) organize parts of the house which she has neglected over the years, and will shortly make a mess of. It may also involve her (3) "teaching me to cook" under the guise of making me play step and fetch. I swear that I will never actually be allowed to cook under my mother's roof because she likes too much control in the kitchen, and doesn't trust me that way.

Take today for example. I got up afternoon. I spent last night planning out the way I'll do my break work, since my computer is STILL on the fritz, and only works with someone else's power cable. I slept late, because, it was Saturday, and I generally have a problem with getting up before 1 pm on a Saturday. It violates some sort of principle of Saturday being my day off of work/school. I got called downstairs to "help Mom cook", which was family for "Re-organize the pantry". We live in an area of the country popular with members of the LDS church. One of their requirements is that they be able to have enough food for a year in their house. So, all the pantries here are really big, and ours is no exception. Somehow, though, we have managed to acquire all sorts of weird things, like Carne de Membrillo (quince paste), three types of curries and kippered trout. I spent quite a few hours organizing the pantry, and will probably end up finishing tomorrow.

The nice thing about being home is getting to spend time with my sibs. I miss them when I'm at school, and they're here. My brother is growing up to be quite the ladies' man, but I reassure myself with something he said the one time I took him to Hooters. He studied our waitress, and, as we were walking out, told me that he had trouble liking her because he found her vapid and shallow. He tries to pretend he's a badass, but he's a pretty good kid. Then, there's my sister. I'm still a little terrified of her, but she is an amazing person, expect when she's talking about anime she assumes that I've read, and then it sucks. Of course, I talk about biology and chemistry she has never heard of, so I guess that's good.

I got the text that AD was home safe, so now I'm going to bed. No doubt my parentals will wake me at an "adult" hour tomorrow, because I haven't been working on my job for six hours tonight.

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Cast of Characters

AC -- AD's roommate. Famous for his frustration with his own epic procrastination and ability to curse the latin word on the tip of his tongue.
AD -- my boyfriend. Its new... and exciting... and hard from this distance. An aerospace engineer. Still goes to the famous former football giant across the road from the castle where I went to undergrad.
BD -- one of my best friends from undergrad. Another ex-boyfriend and part of my incestious little circle of friends. Has rigid boundaries that serve him well. Math major and genius.
Dr.jR -- head of the chemistry and biochemistry department. Researches NOM (not eating, sadly, but natural organic material). Nice, but unpredicatble.
DrA -- my research boss. Somewhere in his thirties and totally chill. The first PI I've ever met who bakes cookies during lab meetings.
DrR -- my teaching boss. Crotchety old man who doesn't take shit. Slightly sexist. Smokes like a chimney. A teddy bear.
JL -- our post doc in lab. Chineese. Tells me not to work so hard.
JP -- an ex-boyfriend of mine and sort-of friend. Suitmate of AD. Sort of an asshole. VERY crude. We tend to play off eachother. Once dropped his pants in the middle of a crowded room. Also, halo teabagged someone in real life. More than once. Signature phrase is "Dicking Fuck." Exemplifies why Physics and Math double majors scare me.
Kara -- basically the person who told me to write this.
Michael Cera -- guy in my program. Actually younger than I am (I was suprised). Very nice. Lutheran boy scout. Might decide to teach chemistry. Analytical chemist.
MK -- The youngest member of the Quad (AC, AD, JP and MK). Computer science major. Bearded. Sometimes more mature than his fellow seniors who can drink. More or less uncorrupted. It was adorable when he had his first girlfriend.
N -- my fabulous Indian roommate. Seriously, she is great. And, she feeds me.
St. Pat -- One of the guys in my program. Older than the rest of us by a few years. A good analytical chemist. Smart. Familiar with the works of Joss Whedon.
T -- my former roommate. Gave me a cold for my brithday. LIke, a stuffed one.

A few definations...

Cell Biology -- a field of biology that is basically their answer to the fact that life is based in chemistry. As a graduate level course, it has involved a 2 day lecture on atomic bonding and the Krebs cycle. These were things covered in my freshman chemistry and biology courses.
Cubby's -- My prefered non smoking bar in graduate school
Macrophage -- Somestimes called Macs; a type of immune cell, and the target of my research. I've been told they're ugly, but I think they're pretty cute when I get to dye them pretty colors with florescent dye or proteins and look at them under the microscope. I get geeky abou them.
Microscope -- Dr.A's big, expensive microscope that looks at cells. It can see brightfield (normal cells) and florescent ones. We can also see if protiens are clumping together with it.
Students -- I teach freshman science majors, except for the ones who want to be chemists. I have a lot of engineers, a handful of premeds and biologists, and quite a few pre-pharmacy. Sometimes agravating, often exhausting, and a huge time suck. I want them to suceed, which, according to my defination, is learn something.

WARNING: Scientific Content

I realize that not all of my readers are scientists (I think maybe 1/3?), and even fewer are chemists. So, I propose a science warning system.

* Basic science. Things you should have learned in school if you had been paying attention. Or... if you don't know this, you need to talk to T because our science education system sucks.

** High School/Freshman college science and math. Stuff I would expect you to know after a calculus class and at least one class in physical and life science.

*** Some scientific knowledge. Let's assume you've had 1+ upper level science course in either biology or chemistry.

****Upper level science. You probably need 3 - 4 years of college chemistry/biology to get this part. Maybe not, though. I'll try to avoid this as much as possible. Sometimes, though, I can't help myself and I geek.