So the mystery picture is. . . .

I'm very impressed with mrswhatsit's guess. The mystery picture is actually a chandelier made of glow sticks in a tent. Since it was pouring when we were camping she decided to break open the glow stick and make a chandelier. And we were in different tents so she sent the picture to my phone. A memento to remember the evening by.

Espresso machine

I recently remembered that I had an espresso machine. It's been sitting on my kitchen counter collecting dust. I haven't used it because I couldn't find the instruction manual and I didn't want to blow it up.

Last week I went online and after some searching found a manual for an espresso machine similar to mine. That's all I've been drinking since then. I haven't made regular coffee in awhile. I'm assuming that the number 4 on the glass container means 4 shots? If so, I've been having 4 shots of espresso every morning. It's been a good jump start since I've been so tired lately. But nooot necessarily good for me. Has anyone ever heard of people developing tolerance to caffeine?

I'm being treated like a human being.

An interesting thing happened today. It's been happening more and more lately. The Kiwi is talking to me like I'm a human being. Not only that, but a human being that knows what it's doing. He actually wants me to do something not related to directly to my project. This is the first time all the years I've been here. Yes, it will benefit him (it's something for a new grant he's writing), but it's still amazing. And he's been talking to people about my work. Good stuff. He's even presenting all of my data at the Departmental Retreat of the other department he's a faculty member in. I just found that out today while he was bragging to the new rotation student about what I do. He told her I'm "dangerously close" to finishing up.

I'm not really sure how to act when he's like this. The best thing to do when he's like this is just to go along with it, because it can change from day to day. It's happened before. It's a calm before the storm. FD seems to think, he says he has a feeling, that Kiwi is trying to be a better boss. I don't know. I think it's a phase. This has happened too many times before. He's only in a good mood because he likes what my project is doing right now. And he's using my cells and my assay to get data for his grant.

But it does make me feel good that he likes what I'm doing right now. That doesn't happen often.

Mystery Picture

My sister took this picture on her cell phone this weekend. Can anyone guess what it is?

I had a dream

So, this first part isn't a dream. I'll get to that.

This weekend Fiance and I went camping with my sister and her boyfriend. I wasn't sure how it would go because we don't always get along. But it was one of the best times I think I've ever had. It was better than I could have hoped. It was a peaceful, private area next to a creek not far from where my parents live. I was so relaxed. Work only popped in my head a few times but didn't stay long. It poured all night, there were two waves of thunderstorms. The storms were so bad that the thunder shook the ground. The water level went up almost a foot. But despite the weather I had a wonderful time. I don't remember the last time I was that relaxed.

And I must say, that with weekends like that I can handle the work week a lot better. I'm not nearly as frazzled as I normally am, even though I have several deadlines that I'm not going to make right on time.

So to the dream. I dreamt that Fiance and I were camping in another country. I don't know which one but it felt like New Zealand because my boss, the Kiwi, eventually was there. Wherever we were, a rhinoceros appeared and it sprayed our tent because it though our tent was another male rhinoceros. It was going to attack so we had to run out the back of the tent. Then all of a sudden we were in another tent in another area. And my boss was having a meeting somewhere near because I saw him, but he didn't see me. While Fiance and I were in the tent Scope Man, the member of my committee who I do microscope with, was trying to look through, not in, but through our tent with a new portable microscope he had. I saw him and yelled at him. I demanded to know what he was doing and he said if I would let him publish his data then he would tell me. Then I woke up.

I know. I'm pretty sure I need some help. I'm not even gonna try and figure out where that one came from. But my dreams about work are getting weirder and weirder. Anyone else have really odd dreams about work?

Another meme to distract me!

I've been tagged by Dr. Brazen Hussy. She tagged me awhile ago but I've finally gotten to it. Sorry it took so long!

The Four Things Meme

Four Jobs I Have Had In My Life:
Roller skating rink guard and concession stand person (that counts as two)
Student office assistant
Wild animal keeper

Four Places I Have Lived:
Really really small town, Central Pennsylvania
Close-to-bad-part-of-city apartment building, Pittsburgh
Closer-to-bad-part-of-city townhouse, Pittsburgh
Relatively peaceful almost suburb apartment, Pittsburgh


Four of my favorite foods:
Pasta and sauce (any pasta with some kind of marinara sauce)
Sushi (eel especially)
Shrimp (cocktail, scampi, steamed, grilled, etc.)
Waffles and gravy (my grandma's version with chicken)

Four Places I’d rather be right now:
Private campsite near my hometown
Bed
Wildlife Refuge in the Ozark Mountains, Arkansas
My parent's house

Four movies I can watch over and over:
The Muppet's Christmas Carol
Speed
The Prince of Egypt
Dante's Peak

Four TV shows I like to watch:
CSI (Las Vegas, the original)
Bones
The Closer
Saving Grace

Four websites I visit daily:
Weight Watchers
Bloglines
Twitter
iGoogle

Four early musical influences:
Bon Jovi
Madonna
Def Leppard
Chicago

Four Computers I’ve Owned:
Compaq laptop (can't remember what kind)
Dell Desktop (ditto)
Dell Inspiron 600m



I tag:

Geeka507
Kelly
Jenny F. Scientist
mrswhatsit

(See Geeka, I resisted the urge to tag you. So you don't feel obligated to do it!)

To Steamed Puddings

Kelly,

I think I'm doing something wrong on your site. When I leave comments I do it under the anonymous setting since I don't have an account with any of the ones where you can log in. I don't think you've been getting them. Let me know what to do to leave comments. I replied to that wonderful post that mentions all the different websites you found.

Thanks!

Perverse satisfaction

After yesterday's episode, FD informed me that LB's flow staining that he did yesterday didn't work. He used several antibodies and all he got was autoflorescent background tails.

So sad. I can be spiteful, I know it's wrong, but sometimes he gets me to the point where I just don't care.

I'm going to bop him in the head

He pushes my buttons, I admit it. He just plain pisses me off when he speaks. So it is just compounded when he's speaking to me and arguing about my methods.

Our poor lab tech Ding is trying to learn too many things at one time. She getting the procedures confused and mixed up and she knows it. But the Kiwi wants her to learn everything as fast as possible all at the same time. LB is teaching her a couple things, one of which FD and I are going to have to reteach her, namely flow. But she's trying to do flow and elispots at the same time. She offered to work late tonight to get it all done so the work she's doing fits into his schedule. He's not the one with a 2 month old baby to take care. He's not the one with 10,000 things to learn in two weeks. So I told her if she wants to do the flow staining tomorrow she can. Just fix the cells, put them in the fridge, and stain them tomorrow. It will be fine, she's only doing CD14 staining.

LB stood there and told her it was a bad idea. I told him it's perfectly fine. He told her it isn't. Notice he's talking about what I said, disagreeing, to her not me. Which pissed me off even more. Then he said it's "bad practice." I almost decked him and called him a f#$% a$%^hole right there. I said I do it all the time, my stuff is fine. He told her it's bad practice. I finally looked at Ding and said both procedures are perfectly fine, it just depends on what you're doing and what antigen you are looking at. Neither way is wrong and neither way is bad practice. Then I walked out.

I am soooo pissed I'm shaking. I know he shouldn't upset me so much but he's an arrogant bastard. Someone who leaves antibodies on for 2 hours to overnight so his staining looks better, who counts background as events, who doesn't even have the appropriate controls needs to keep his mouth shut and learn from someone who does it all the time. FD called me a flow guru, it's true, I need to calm down.

But I really want to hit him. He better not speak to me again. That's the first time since the email episode awhile back (part 1, part 2)and all he does is act like an a#$%hole.

I tried to stay dry

Yesterday I had a lot of computer work to do. The weather was crappy so I figured I'd stay home and work until the rain let up a bit. I didn't want to stand at the bus stop in the pouring rain. So I waited, it slowed, I went to work fairly dry.

Then I went home. FD and I caught the bus at the same time (we live near each other) and the sky was clear - it was cloudy but wasn't raining.

The closer we got to home the weather rapidly changed. The sky got darker, the wind picked up, rain started to fall, then rain started to POUR. I mean a torrential downpour. It wasn't lightening though, until I commented that at least it wasn't lightening. FD wanted to hit me, he's a strong believer in Murphy's Laws.

I had an umbrella but it didn't do much good, it kept my bag fairly dry. And thank goodness Fiance bought me a raincoat a couple weeks ago. There really was no point in running because I had to go several blocks, so I would be just as wet walking. Running actually splashed the water more. I had three streets to cross and the water was just rushing down them. On both sides of the road water ran about 3 feet wide and several inches deep, more than enough to go over my shoes. There was no avoiding it. And water pooled on the sidewalks.

So, point of the post - even though I stayed dry in the morning I made up for it in the afternoon. My only pair of sneakers are still wet today, it was like I dunked them in a bucket of water. Here is what I looked like when I got home. The water soaked the whole way up to my shirt. Admittedly, I'm only 5'3'', but that's still pretty high.

A computer-free weekend

I actually managed to relax and stay away from the computer all weekend. I thought about email, thought about blogging, but managed to not log on, not even turn on a computer until right before I'm climbing in bed tonight.

Fiance and I decided to take on a new hobby/recreation. As you can see from my profile and am a country girl temporarily stuck in the city, but slowly getting out. I moved out of the near center of the city to a more suburban area. I just need to keep moving out, even though I do like the neighborhood I'm in now it's not the same as having no neighbors and no traffic sounds.

Back to the hobby - it's camping. Camping is something I've never done but always wanted to. Don't ask me how a country girl made it all her life without camping but I did. I just wasn't something my family did on the farm. We lived in the countryside, so why did we need to go out into it at night. Also a major contributing factor - my mom hates it. Fiance and I thought that it would be a relatively cheap thing to do on the weekends to get away from things. Yes, there are initial expenses that we splurged on for the gear, but at this time of year we got almost everything for over 50% off. And after the initial purchases the most common expense is food and batteries.

In a week I'm going camping with my sister and her boyfriend. In the past year it is something my sister has taken up and she is actually excited about camping with us. This means a lot to me because her and I are two years apart, she's younger. And we never really got along. However, we get a long much better that we live in separate houses. We may have actually found something that we both can do together.

This weekend Fiance and I decided to test the new equipment in a more 'controlled' environment. I wanted to make sure everything worked before we went out into the middle of the woods. I envisioned the tent collapsing or something. So we camped in my parents' backyard, that way if anything happened we could go inside. I know what you're thinking, it's not really camping if you're in a backyard, but you don't know our backyard. There is a small woods lining the property and acres of farmland, and no other houses are visible from the back. And all sorts of wildlife traverses through it. We commonly have raccoons, deer, skunks, sometimes opossums. Bears have even been spotted, not just wandering through the yard but tearing down bird feeders attached to the house. So even though it's in a yard it's still an experience. And what's nice about it is that we get to visit with my parents and still have time to ourselves outside.

So after watching the first half of the Steeler game we went outside. Fiance had a nice fire going with wood that my dad got from my uncle. We must have spent an hour just sitting there, listening to the sounds of the forest, staring at the fire. Looking into the flames is very hypnotizing. Though I must admit that a few times lab popped into my head and I had to force it out. It was so nice in the tent all night because it was like being in the center of a sound spa. I have a sound spa by my bed that I listen to every night to try and distract me from the noises outside, and also to drown out ringing in my ears. It was just fabulous to have it in stereo!

Everything worked fairly well except it rained pretty good during the night. Which actually turned out to be a good thing. The tent leaked. It wasn't a bad leak, it's not like we were swimming in water when we woke up, but there were small drops of water that had collected in tiny puddles. Water had leaked in through the seam above the leak guard on the door. I'm going to see if I can take it back since it's the first time we've used it, if not, it's a Coleman guaranteed for 5 years and they will either fix it or replace it.

What matters is we had a good time, relaxed, and got out of the city. I can't wait to go again!

Lots of things

So much has happened in the past couple days that I have a lot to write about. But I'm going to have to save that for the weekend, highlights include; working in Geeka's office, I processed my samples in another lab, dealing with the Center manager, my friend and classmate defended and passed, the celebration dinner.

But, I either have a 24 hours bug or I ate something bad last night. I woke up sick around 4am this morning, barely made it to the bathroom. But I had to be at work by noon. I wanted to prepare for the meeting tomorrow but felt so bad and had such trouble focusing I accomplished nothing, I could have jus stayed home. I'm going to get up early and do it tomorrow, hopefully I'll feel better. I don't have a choice, I have to get up and go.

My head, neck, and shoulders hurt. My throat hurts from getting sick. And food still makes me nauseous. I'm going to bed to try and sleep.

Funding issues

Soooo, those of you have been reading know that the Kiwi stopped funding me at the end of April. In September, the Center was supposed to take over my funding, as well as Mo's funding. According to Mo, who just talked to the financial person in our department, that's not the case. The head of the Center, and the head of our department, both told Kiwi that he brought students in so we are his responsibility.

I'm a little scared about what this means. Not that he can get rid of me - he can't. But now he will probably revert to extra a-hole man. So, now he has to pay for FD (whose fellowship is ending), Mo, me, and a new post-doc.

Makes me nervous. I'm waiting for something to happen. Now I know I don't want to talk to him Friday at our meeting.

The day started good, at least for a couple hours

Okay, it's only a bit after 9am and this day is off to a bad start. Well, it started out good then went downhill. I only hit the snooze for 20 minutes this morning and I was here by 8am. Right on time. I needed to get my assay set up so I could make to a friend's defense this morning.

From there it went downhill, not steep, but starting to decline. I proceeded to set up my assay this morning, about an hour into it I realized that I made a stupid mistake. I used the old calculations for my reagents, I now add them to the assay differently. I need them at a starting concentration of 1000x. Not 1x. Needless to say - experiment down the tubes.

Next, I went to turn off the centrifuge by my bench since I didn't need it anymore. There, sitting right next to it, was a box that says "REFRIGERATE" all over it in big red letters. It was the antibody I had been waiting for since last Friday. Even though our lab is cold, it's not as cold as a refrigerator. Thankfully, the company said even though the box said 'refrigerate upon arrival' the antibody would be good for about a week at room temperature since they shipped it as a powder.

When I got on my email to send out a gentle reminder to everyone to please pay attention to where packages need to be placed I noticed an email with hood rooms as a subject. From the lab manager so can't be good.

Good morning all! I apologize for the short notice but we need to block off (hood room) tomorrow morning. Electricians are coming to wire the card readers on the doors and hence the doors will be open and therefore no one will be able to work in the hoods. Please plan to move your work to late afternoon.

Forget the fact I already have experiments planned for the morning. I've had them planned for a week now. The girl who is defending is one from my class. We are good friends and she is going back to her hometown Thursday. Who knows if I'll ever see her again. We are having a going away, celebration, you're finally done party tomorrow night. I CAN'T work late. I talked to the lab manager and she said she'll talk to the electricians, so I can either set up my experiment before them or see if they'll finish our hood room first. And I hate talking to her - she has one of those fake smiles, I'll just agree to shut you up smile.

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Time to get serious

I've had a lot of trouble getting motivated lately. Not that this is something new, but it's been worse than usual. I'm sleeping later and later (today I didn't get up until 12:30pm.) And I'm accomplishing less and less. I'm pretty sure I know why I've been this way but that's for another post.

Today I've decided to "kick myself in the pants." The only way I will ever change my situation is to get moving. Otherwise I'll never get out of this hell hole. So to help motivate myself I'm making a list in a post. This will make me aware that other people know my plans so it will push me to do it. Even though I don't know most of you and will never see you, I think it will still help. So,

1. I will stick to Weight Watchers all the time, not just now and then.
2. I will get up when my alarm clock goes off. I will not turn it off, reset it, or hit snooze for three hours.
3. I will go to bed before midnight, as close to 10pm as possible.
4. I will stick to my planner, meaning I will do experiments I have planned and not put them off until later because I don't feel like doing them.
5. I will not come in on the weekends unless I absolutely have to. I need to make me-time and fiance-time.
6. I will work on my bioterrorism journal article and get it to my true mentor.
7. I will work on my CV and start looking for a job.

Wish me luck. I may not succeed right away on everything but I will do it. Soon.

Hood room woes.

We are having issues with the hood rooms again. Why can't the Center just leave things alone. First the rooms where shut down on Monday to install electronic locks. This was so only people with ID badges with permission to enter the biohazard rooms could gain access. Okay, that makes sense. However, on Tuesday when we came in that's not what happened. There were plastic black knobs where the lock used to be - the actual lock was removed. In its place is this black knob. Now it is impossible to hold anything while opening the door because it takes two hands. With one hand you have twist the black knob, which seems to be spring loaded, hold it in place, and open the door with the other hand. And as for only allowing certain people to enter, there is a huge sign on each door that says, with an arrow, "Turn to open." The lock is also flimsy also. Remember, the whole point was to make the room more secure - I wiggled it, and the lock fell out of the door, in two pieces. It just balances in the door.

There were also new additions on the inside of the room as well. We know have magnetic pipette holders that attach to the hoods. Which was a good idea, except where they placed them. I was, of course, focused on setting up my assay. I slide up the hood shield and Wham! The pipettes go crashing to the floor. And we just had them calibrated a couple days before. They placed the pipettes too low so the shield slammed into them. Another brilliant move.

There were also these plastic acrylic holders stuck to the hood. And I mean stuck! They used super adhesive tape to stick these things on. Can you guess what they are for? Not gloves, which would make sense. They were holders for kim wipes. All of us said the same thing - who the hell uses kim wipes around here in a hood. The only thing we use them for is to clean coverslips and microscope lenses. Which aren't in the hood. The bad part was where they put them. When we sit in the chairs they are above our heads. Mo cracked her head twice, I cracked my head once. The corners are very pointy and hard. It pisses me off, if they want to add things to the room fine. Give them to us to put where we want. They don't use the room, we do. Quit changing things to make it 'better' when they don't even use the place.

Well, I should actually be talking in past tense. The holders are no longer there. I was talking to Geeka about them and how FD, Mo and I were trying to figure out the best way to get them off. She suggested ethanol. Well, Friday evening Mo and I soaked them in ethanol, we used our squirt bottles. After a good dousing and shaking they came off. In pieces. The plastic directly attached to the adhesive is the only thing remaining. The lab manager of the Center will probably be pissed. But she was stupid enough to put them were we would crack our heads. I feel a little guilty at breaking them, because I don't know how much they cost. But boy, was it satisfying to break them.

I wonder if anyone will mention the missing kim wipe holders?

Interesting

Okay, I took this because Geeka507 took it and she was angelic. Which is a bit off, okay more than a bit. (Not in a bad way Geeka507!) I know these surveys are just something fun to do but usually they aren't too far off. This was my score, which sounds more like her. Maybe the scoring is backwards. Not that I'm angelic but I'm not sure what cruel things motivate me, but yes, I do kill bee's that will sting me.

Your Score: Mild

You scored 40 on cruelty!

You're in that wee crowd which we cannot categorize. You enjoy some cruel things, yet aren't completely motivated by it.

Link: The Cruelty Test written by legend1979 on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Look what Geeka got me!

What this means: Geeka and I took a survey one time and she was 2x evil and I was 1x evil.

I'm half the evil of Geeka. Which is the worst kind. You'd never suspect me!

How do you know a student has been gone too long . . .

when the PI has to give him a tour of the lab. Yep, that's right, Kiwi had to give LB a tour of the lab. In the time he's been gone the major changes include the moving of several rooms.

We can no longer use one of our hood rooms, the one designated for a specific infectious disease. The small hood that belonged to my lab was put in the DNA/RNA room while the small hood of the other lab was moved from the general area to where our old hood went.

So we no longer have a DNA/RNA room. Everything in that room is in the aisles of the currently unoccupied benches. Including some of the stuff from the old hood room that doesn't fit in the new smaller room. We still haven't figure out where we are going to put everything. The Center likes to take our space away. Eventually we aren't going to any. Follow all that?

So LB needed a tour. And Kiwi looked happy to do it. While this was going on, FD and I learned what the monkeys feel like at the zoo. In the Pittsburgh zoo the monkeys are behind glass. So people are on the outside looking in at them. FD and I were working in the hood room, with Kiwi and LB talking, smiling, waving their arms, and looking in at us. I felt like I was on display.

It's amazing how someone can show up and immediately put everyone in a bad mood and make the atmosphere change. On a good note, I managed not to actually speak to Kiwi today.

Heat Advisory

This came to my email. Of course, this would happen when the AC goes out:

Issued at: 10:18 AM EDT 8/8/07, expires at: 8:00 PM EDT 8/8/07

heat advisory in effect until 8 pm edt this evening

The NWS in pittsburgh has issued a heat advisory, which is in effect until 8 pm edt this evening. Temperatures will rise to the lower 90s this afternoon. With very humid conditions in place, heat index values will rise to around 100 degrees this afternoon across most of southwest pennsylvania, northern west virginia, and east central ohio.

A heat advisory means that a period of hot temperatures is expected. The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will combine to create a situation in which heat illnesses are possible. Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.

They're baaaack

LB is back. Now I know why. The Kiwi just showed up. He's in his office.

Words can't really express what I feel right now. Hell begins again.

It's hot

Okay, it's not often I complain about the heat. I love hot weather. I'm happy in the 80's, even the 90's. As long as the humidity level is relatively low. I've always been 'cold blooded' as some people who know me love to say. I'm almost always cold. It can be 70 and I'm cold. So when I complain that it's hot and uncomfortable. It is really hot and uncomfortable. The weatherman dude said it actually felt worse here than Las Vegas. Too bad I'm not in Las Vegas, then I wouldn't mind so much.

At work it's freezing. It's a relative new building but they seem to have a problem controlling the air. Everyone walks around in sweaters, coats, and hats. The longer you're there, the colder you get. It gets so bad that it is detrimental to working.

I have central air at home, which we use when it's uncomfortable and humid. Which it has been lately. But it's a temperature I can control so it's not too cold.

But now the AC is broke. So I went from way too cold, to way too hot. The humidity is ridiculous. The cats were melting when we got home with the windows shut. My cat sheds bad enough as it is, now if it's possible, he's shedding more.

One bright light in this weather conundrum - we have a window AC we put in the bedroom window that we bought before central air was installed. The bedroom is now our haven. The only problem with that - the little cat Sophie, likes to ambush my cat Dante from behind the curtain. There will be hissing and screaming all through the night. It's started already.

My internal dialog cont. . .

Procrastinating self: Are you happy? We compromised this weekend.

Ambitious self: Not really, I didn't come in Saturday, I came in Sunday, but I didn't do any of my own work. I did work for other people.

Procrastinating self: So what? At least you did work. And it turned out great.

Ambitious self: But had I looked at my own slides on Sunday I would have known my antibodies didn't work. I don't know why, they've always worked before. I wasn't expecting that.

Procrastinating self: It wouldn't have changed anything. The slides still look the same today as they would have on Sunday.

Ambitious self: I could have repeated the experiment before my meeting on Friday with the Kiwi.

Procrastinating self: No you couldn't. You're working on other stuff.

Ambitious self: I'm getting stuff done but not what I should be getting done. At least not what would make my boss happy.

Procrastinating self: He's never happy so it doesn't matter what you do.

Ambitious self: I don't need to hand him a reason though.

My new camera

I want to thank everyone for their advice on a digital camera. I wanted to let you know what I got and give my 'official review.' I got the Cannon SD85o IS.

Here are the major good points:

• very fast shutter speed
• excellent pictures in dim indoor lighting
• nice design, small but still easy to hold
• good manual controls
• several scene modes

Here are the major bad points:

• having trouble getting the software for the camera on the computer to work properly
• can't use macro mode, wide angle with flash, the barrel of the camera creates a shadow

Conclusion: I'm going to keep it. The macro mode thing really, really annoys me. But I'm very critical of digital images. I have to take into account what I bought the camera for. An everyday use camera to carry around in my purse to use at social functions, vacations, and stuff like that. I have to remember that I didn't buy it for flash macro images - how often would I do that anyway.

So, Image Goddess rating: four out of five stars

I can take good images

I took some microscope images for Geeka yesterday and she looked at them today. She liked them, they were what she wanted.

It's nice to have someone say that my images are "awesome," instead of, "those are nice, but we want you to do XXX instead." Too bad she's not on my committee.

That's me.

Your Score

You scored: Linear B

You are Linear B. Even those who can follow you think you're all Greek to them. Which, after all, is true - Linear B being the first known text for written Greek. To most people, you're incomprehensible. But what do you care? You're tough, hard, long-enduring and have greater nobility than most. Naturally, you don't admit to borrowing extensively from your brother Linear A.

Link: The Which Ancient Language Are You Test written by imipak on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

My Internal Dialog

Ambitious Self: I really need to work this Saturday and Sunday.

Procrastinating Self: Yeah, but you've been so tired lately you need to take a day off.

Ambitious Self: But the Kiwi has been gone for two weeks and expects me to have a lot done for our 2 hour meeting next Friday.

Procrastinating Self: Okay, work Saturday but take Sunday off. You need at least one day.

Ambitious Self: But the stupid Center is shutting down the hoods on Monday so I can't do an experiment, so I should work Sunday.

Procrastinating Self: So what, that's not your fault. You can use that day to work on the figures the Kiwi wants you to have done for next Friday.

Ambitious Self: Hmm, you have a good point. I haven't made time for that yet - but I can't work on the figures if I don't have the experiments completed. I could work on them during my incubation periods.

Procrastinating Self: You always say that but it never happens. Your incubation times are too short for you to accomplish anything, and your experiments are too long.

Ambitious Self: But it's a TWO hour meeting. I need to have a lot of stuff to show him.

Procrastinating Self: It doesn't matter how much you have. He won't be happy with it anyway.

Ambitious Self: I really should work on Sunday.

Procrastinating Self: You know you won't. Just face it, stay home, sleep in.

Ambitious Self: But I'll feel guilty for not getting done what I need to get done.

Procrastinating Self: So what.

Ambitious Self: Why should I listen to you? It's your fault I don't have this stuff done already. I haven't done much the past week and a half the Kiwi's been gone. If I hadn't listened to you all this stuff would be done by now and I wouldn't be in this predicament.

Procrastinating Self: You work best under pressure.

Ambitious Self: I really should work Sunday.

Procrastinating Self: We'll see.

Ambitious Self: Yeah, We'll see.

To be continued . . .. . .