I'll agree with this.

This is probably why Geeka and I get along so well.

Your Score: Dr. Lisa Cuddy

50% Eccentricity, 45% Confidence, 60% Kindness

Congratulations, you're Dr. Lisa Cuddy! You've got a healthy balance of confidence, kindness, and general oddity (because asking a person who works for you to stick a needle in your butt is odd, no matter how hot he may be). You're probably an excellent leader with a good sense of humor. You also probably have a vulnerable side that not many people know about.

Link: The House, MD Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Digital camera advice?

Okay, so I'm extremely anal when shopping for something expensive or that I would consider an investment. I've been saving money up for compact digital camera and now I have enough. But I'm having trouble decided between three of them:

1. Sony Cybershot DSC-T100
2. Canon SD1000
3. Canon PowerShot SD850 IS

If anyone has used any of these cameras can you let me know how you like it. I'm looking for one with a short shutter lag, takes good quality pictures in outdoor and indoor lighting, and is compact. All of these seem to fit the bill and I can't make up my mind. I know I'm obsessing a bit much but I know that I'll have this for a long, long time and want to get the right one.

Any input? I know the chances are slim that anyone actually has one of these since there are so many out there but I had to ask.

I'm back

Well, almost, to the regular schedule thing. I've been putting off doing regular work for awhile. I'm not sick anymore, still coughing because of my pain-in-the-butt asthma but oh well. I can't use illness as a reason not to do work. Lately, it's been easy to come up with reasons not to do work. I know I'm getting burned out but now it's time to go back.

It's not so bad really. The kiwi boss man is gone on a holiday. Won't be back until the second week in August. And LB is on a month's long vacation. On one had, we are all pissed because he can take all the time he wants off. On the other hand, he's not here, which is great. So right now it's not so bad going to work. We don't mind it as much because the two people in the lab (Kiwi and LB) are gone. And no, they aren't on vacation together.

Some updates:

• Ding is back from maternity leave.
• I'm finally going to get my name on a paper, other than a review. I did some microscope work for Mo.
• Had lunch with my class, all the people who came in the same time as me. But that will be another post, lots of issues there.
• Started golf lessons. A reason to get out on the weekend, instead of sleep or work. And I must say, I did awesome!
• My tomato garden is really taking off. Blossoms are starting to show.
• I get to start working on my first author paper. I have to have the layout of my figures worked out for when Kiwi comes back.

Other than that, not too much has been going on. It's been really slow around here.

It's nice to be back blogging! Now I have to catch up on reading my favorites.

Safety measures, yeah right

So I mentioned that we had a Center wide meeting, that lasted 10 minutes, about the tissue culture rooms. I want to reiterate how stupid and pointless this meeting was.

Right now there are two hood rooms, my lab brought over three hoods with two in one room and one in another room. The room with one hood we can no longer use. It has been designated "infectious aerosol virus" room. One of the other labs works with a virus that can infect people via inhalation. A bad virus. So they now have that hood room to themselves.

The safety level is designated BSL2+, which for those of you not familiar, this uses the safety precautions of BSL3 lab in a BSL2 environment. The important thing to note here is that there are NO double doors. There is no double entry. The way it should be for this virus is when they are done working with it, they leave the hood room into an intermediate room, remove their PPE, then leave that room into the outside environment. This way the risk of virus escaping the room is minimal.

Of course, that's ideal. And the brand new facility isn't exactly ready to work with viruses like this. There is no double room. The instructions are that when they are working on this virus they must wear their PPE, including and N95 respirator and post a sign on the outside of the door. When finished, they take off their respirators, leave the room, and set a timer on the door for 30 minutes. It takes 30 minutes for the virus to dissipate from the air and it will be safe to enter the room without a respirator. That is the exact order.

Think about this - remove the respirator then leave the room. What point is there in that. And not permit anyone in the room for 30 min. It's unsafe for 30 minutes, yet they can immediately open the door when they are done to the outside environment. Technically, they should have to stay in that room for 30 min with their respirator on, then take their respirator off, then leave the room.

Oh, the respirators are also supposed to be stored outside the room in the hallway. Because the lab manager said that there should be no infectious virus in the respirator. Wait a minute - am I missing something? Isn't the respirator supposed to block virus from being inhaled? Meaning there is a good likelihood there is virus on the filter?

So, in this 10 minute meeting - we learned the "proper and safe" way to utilize the new room when infectious virus is in use. Boy, I feel safe.

Time to go back

Tomorrow I have to go back to start experiments again. I have a meeting with my boss that I've managed to put off until Friday but I don't have much done. I have this underlying sense of anxiety because I know I should have A LOT done by now. But on the other hand, I just don't care. One reason I've had such a hard time getting back to work is because of the type of experiments I have to do. They can last up to 12-14 hours, and I can't shorten them. Which is long enough to work everyday but seems virtually impossible lately since I've been sick.

The problem I'm having is that this cold has bothered my asthma. I had a cold like this a few years ago, where even after the cold was gone I had lingering asthma problems for weeks. And I know that this is one of the same colds. I'm still not completely better but I'm sooo tired because I'm not sleeping. As soon as I start to fall asleep I cough and wake up. I don't know how I'm going to make it through the day tomorrow.

I went to work yesterday for a little bit. We had a Center meeting for all the postdocs, research associates, and grad students about the tissues cultures rooms. I was so pissed because the meeting lasted less than 10 minutes. They spend more time talking about why there was fruit instead of cookies at the seminars instead of the tissue culture rooms. I was actually happy there was fruit but apparently, fat and sugar is what people want. As someone said, the cookies keep people coming, as you know, compared to the person giving the seminar.

I stayed home today because I was so tired. Also I had the excuse that all over the news they kept saying that the air quality was extremely bad today and those people with lung conditions and the elderly should stay inside. I would have had an even harder time breathing.

But it's supposed to rain tonight and the air is supposed to be better tomorrow. I know I'll be exhausted but I need to go anyway. I keep telling myself that my boss is going on vacation on the 20th. If I can last that long I'll take time off if I still need it. I also can't help thinking that LB is taking a months vacation, so why the heck should I feel guilty taking time off when I'm sick.

Made it to work

I did make it to work today to process my blood so I have cells to work with next week. It almost wasn't worth it though because my yield was terrible. I got enough for about 1 1/2 experiments. Which I guess is better than nothing.

I'm finally starting to feel a slight improvement. My appetite is good, I'm not coughing as much, and I can talk now, even if I sound like a frog. I just wish I wasn't so tired. It's still giving me problems with my asthma, though. I've been wheezing a bit which is why I'm coughing now. I couldn't get my allergy shots this week because they won't give them to me if I'm wheezing.

My fiance cooked on the grill this evening. It was beautiful outside. The sun was setting, we were in the shade, and a breeze was blowing. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if we were out in the countryside, not on the edge of the city.

I'm looking forward to this weekend, the weather is supposed to be nice and I'm going to rest a lot. Tomorrow my cousin is having a graduation party back home but I decided just to send a card. I need to rest and the drive is about 2 hours each way. He won't mind. I'll still send him money in a card!

I hate summer colds

So I've been sick. The symptoms started last Wednesday. I was going home Friday for the 4th of July (since it was on a Wednesday we celebrated on the weekend, it was easier for everyone). I know when a bad cold is coming on and I just knew. So I called my doctor on Thursday for a prescription, yes, I know, antibiotics don't help when it's a virus. But the past few times I haven't had any luck in getting rid of it without help, so I wanted to hit it before it came on hard. Well, I didn't get the prescription until Saturday morning, actually two, amoxicillen and hydrocodone for the cough but it was too late. It already hit me hard. I had no voice, was exhausted, and coughed a lot. It was bothering my asthma.

Unfortunately, I'm still sick. The only thing I could keep down yesterday was some broth and that wasn't until late in the evening. As a result, I've missed a lot of work, the end of last week and ALL of this week. What compounds it is that the week prior I didn't get anything done because the cytometer was broken and I had to toss my cells because of an unwanted virus infection. I've lost half a month. I wanted a break but not this way. This isn't rejuvenating. Pardon my language, but this just sucks. The amoxicillin is useless and the hydrocodone works to stop the coughing but it makes me feel 'funny.' Now that I'm pressured to get a lot done to graduate I can't afford to take this much time off. I was only able to drag myself to work to process blood so I have cells to do experiments.

I'm starting to feel extremely discouraged, more than usual. I remember two months ago I was telling my parents that I should be done with experiments by the end of June. Before that we were hoping I'd graduate in June, then it was moved to the end of summer, now it is moved to early fall. I feel like I'm running out of time. What if I can't get done by December? I have no choice because Kiwi isn't paying for me anymore, the department is. The reality didn't hit until I received confirmation of my registration for the fall.

I'm not even to the point where I can write yet. My boss doesn't even want me to work on a publication yet. I'm starting to, as geeka puts it "falling into a deep pit of despair."