I called my boss irrational

After much deliberation (which including talking to mom, Geeka, and fiance) I finally faced the reality that there was no way in heck I was going to have my dissertation written by Monday. I felt much better. However, I still had to talk to my boss. The first thing I did was call the person in the department in charge of the students. He was completely supportive, said it was no big deal. It happens more often than not. Don't rush it if I need more time to write. If anyone gives me problems, have them talk to him. I shot an email out to Kiwi telling him I had to meet with him Friday and we decided 8:45 before his day started. He had a meeting at 9:30. I spent all evening and morning thinking about what I was going to say and how I was going to say it. After interacting with his craziness for 6 years I thought I knew how he was going to react. He'd be pissed, complain and whine, insult me, but ultimately say it was my decision and it's between me and my committee, he wouldn't want a part in it.

I thought wrong. He is much crazier than I thought he was - and that's saying a lot.

This was the rational that I would use:

1 - I have been working non-stop but the reality is that 1 1/2 months is not enough time to write a dissertation from scratch. Without a manuscript to start from.
2 - I understand I will not get a stipend after May. He won't pay me. I'll deal with it because it's my decision.
3 - The committee won't care, all they want is a manuscript which had to at least be submitted by the time I defend, which it isn't. It's been on Kiwi's desk for weeks.
4 - It serves no one to turn in something that isn't done; it is a waste of every one's time.
5 - It will not affect him at all since he won't be paying me. I just have to write and schedule a meeting.

It's hard to even describe how the meeting went. He asked how it was going. I said not that great. And told him I finally faced the reality that it wouldn't be done by Monday. We argued for the next 20 minutes. Through the course of the argument I reiterated several times what I mentioned above. Here are some of his comments.

"I will not even entertain the idea."

"I recommend you don't pursue it."

"As far as I'm concerned your dissertation is on the 19th."

And the best one "I'll be there on the 19th for your defense whether you are there or not."

He had the look of a petulant child throwing a tantrum, like he's going to do it whether I like it or not.

Then he proceeded to compare me to a student who had rescheduled several times and was there 9-10 years. I just interrupted him, told him that isn't even a fair comparison. The difference is my work is done, all I'm doing is writing, and I'm pushing to leave. She wasn't.

I must say it was wonderful to call him irrational to his face, and ridiculous. I'm just glad I've developed self-control over the past few years with him. There was A LOT worse running through my head.

Finally, he said turn it in next Friday instead of Monday - which I should be able to do. But I never actually verbally agreed to it. Then I asked him why in the last email he sent me he said the manuscript had to be completely reworked. We went through it, he's only scanned it so far. I asked him if he looked at the part of the dissertation discussion I sent him a couple days ago. He hadn't. I made him open it and go over it with me. I made him 1/2 hour late for his meeting. I don't care. If he was going to be such an ass, he was going to give me CONSTRUCTIVE feedback on what I sent him.

Grrrrr.... I went and vented to Geeka. We calm each other and prevent the other from harming people.

Of all the scenarios I ran through my head that was not one of them. And at the end of the meeting he had to sign the GSR letter stating I will get paid the month of May. He looked at it - "What's this," "What does it say?" and proceeded to read it. It is the same letter he has signed for every student since before I was there - every semester. Like I was hiding something in it!

He's gone next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so I scheduled a meeting with him Thursday morning.

I can't wait to get the hell out of here. Oh - I told him that too. If he thought I was making the decision lightly about rescheduling I wasn't, I want to be out of here and get this done more than anyone. I want to move on with my life.

My laptop went into a coma

The past few weeks my laptop has been doing strange things. At random, it wouldn't detect the network or wireless card, it detected unknown new hardware, the USB drive worked only with a few things, and sometimes the power button had to be pushed two or three times before it would come on. All this happened randomly, sometimes together, sometimes alone, but it was always something.

The IT person here at the Center is fabulous. He actually is very knowledgeable and helpful, unlike most IT people I have experienced. I was hoping he could fix it but when we realized he couldn't (which was a couple weeks ago) we decided it was time for me to call Dell technical support because my laptop is under a full warranty. I could even drop it and they will replace it.

I have never had a problem with Dell support, I always got what I needed handled by the appropriate person. I've been procrastinating because I wasn't looking forward to going through all the steps in the support persons "script" because they "have to." (The quotes are from a support person I spoke to a few years ago.) I needed a block of time to deal with it at work (I wasn't wasting time at home, I'm usually too tired anyway) and that time was today. I checked my email this morning, walked away to set-up an experiment, and when I came back my computer was off. And wouldn't turn back on. Looking on the bright side, I thought "at least I won't be on with tech support for long, there is only so much to try when the computer won't even turn on." I should have known better. I really should have.

Here is an abbreviated version of what occurred.

Tech#1: Hello, this is tech support, may I have your service tag?"
Me: Don't you want the express service code?
Tech#1: No, I need your service tag.
Me: 12A34
Tech#1: Okay, you have a model A, correct?
Me: No, I have a model B.
Tech#1: Do you still own this computer?
Me: Yes, it's sitting right in front of me, that's why I'm calling. (Duh.)
Tech#1: Has it always been yours?
Me: Yes, why?
Tech#1: Well, according to our records, you have a model A, the ownership has been transferred to someone else, and the warranty is expired.
Me: No, it isn't.
Tech#1: What is your service tag again?

I repeat it, he still gets the same thing. We argue for a while, with me becoming progressively pissed, and him getting more rude. Finally . . .

Me: Well, your information is wrong.
Tech#1: Let me talk to my manager.

After several minutes . . . .

Tech#1: You need to talk to customer service.
Me: You're kidding me.
Tech#1: (in a snotty voice) No, you need to talk to customer service and verify that the computer belongs to you.
Me: (fuming) Can you transfer me?

Rude Tech#1 proceeds to transfer me and disconnects me in the process. I then go online using the work computer and get the customer service number. I call customer service which has an automated voice telling me there is a wait due to high call volume. In the meantime, I have to get work done so I put the call on speaker phone, I take my cells out of the fridge, then someone picks up. I flag down Ding to put my stuff back in the fridge for me. I immediately start loudly complaining to customer service (CS) about what Tech#1 told me then apologized for being rude to him, I know it wasn't his fault, but I'm pissed.

CS: Can I have your service tag please.?
Me: 12A34
CS: Can you tell me the model please?
Me: Model B.
CS: Ah, are you sure?
Me: Yes, I'm sure. (Of course I'm sure! It's sitting right here in front of me. If I get one more stupid question I'm going to scream!)
CS: That's not what I'm seeing in your account.

I then go into a tirade about how I'm looking at my Dell account online, on the Dell website, and it's telling me that it's the correct computer, it's mine, and the warranty is good until 2008. How can he possible be looking at something different! He then repeats the service tag, which is wrong. He types it in properly and all of my information comes up correctly. He is extremely amused that all the confusion was due to a phonetic misunderstand. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Rude, and now Stupid, Tech#1 got the service tag wrong three times. What a colossal waste of my time. CS now transfer me to tech support. Again, I am on hold, so I try to do work, take my cells out of the fridge, only to have someone answer the phone. This time I flag down Apple to put my cells back.

Tech#2: Can I have your express service code?
Me: Everyone else wanted the service tag.
Tech#2: No, I need your express service code please.

I give him the number and all of my account information appears correctly. The express service code is all numbers, unlike the service tag (where a letter caused all the confusion), but that shouldn't have mattered because I speak clearly.

Verdict - I need to get a new motherboard. Since the hard drive doesn't need to be replaced, just the motherboard, my computer is in a temporary coma. Not usable, but all the information in it is not lost, so it's not dead.

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.