rapid fire, also the end of an "era"
Politics, politics politics.
I mailed in my voter registration last week, since i moved. I am officially no longer a Republican. Fret not, i am not a goddamn Democrat either. I am restistered/unenrolled. One of those Independents. It's pretty great that in Mass, as an independent you can choose a party's primary to vote in (Democrat, Republican or Green), instead of being excluded from the primaries.
The downside of this is that not only am i unsure who i'd like to see win the primaries, i'm not even sure which primary i want to vote in. I did watch the New Hampshire debates (fucking vicious Republican debate...shocking), and even tried out the Facebooking thing. Not sure if that was more distracting than worthwhile, but the polls were interesting. I guess i'd like to see McCain take the Republican primary, i think he's the only one (who has a chance) that i even remotely like. In terms of the Dems it was down to Hillary or Obama for me, but i was impressed by Edwards in the NH debate, and i felt like Obama got overshadowed to some extent. Wouldn't be able to tell my dad i voted for a fucking trial lawyer though, haha. So i dunno. I buy Hillary's experience but she is so politicky and it's hard to believe she is really down for the sweeping changes most of us would like to see. Plus, fuck single-payer national healthcare. Actually i really wish they'd have spent more time talking about healthcare during the NH debate (the Dems). And science policy, fuckin' barely any discussion of that (not counting environmental science policy). This seems to help though.
So i dunno. I took a quiz (thanks, ktangel13!):
84% John Edwards
84% Barack Obama
82% Hillary Clinton
82% Chris Dodd
78% Bill Richardson
74% Joe Biden
72% Mike Gravel
63% Dennis Kucinich
48% Rudy Giuliani
45% Tom Tancredo
43% John McCain
39% Mike Huckabee
38% Mitt Romney
30% Ron Paul
27% Fred Thompson
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz
The first time i took it, i had Hillary, Obama and Edwards all tied at 83%. Which was soooo helpful, haha. Thanks quiz.
Cheers to New Hampshire for not falling (too much) for Douchey Douche McRomney's bullshit or Huckabee either. I don't know if i can take 4 more years of a president who doesn't believe in evolution or human rights.
I probably have more to ramble about, buuuuut i'm tired. Didn't get out of lab until just about 8:00pm today, because i didn't get around to starting my realtime PCR until after 3, and i'm using a different instrument which apparently takes over 3h instead of about 2h. Poop. At least my data looked halfway decent, that was unexpected- haven't done realtime in at least 6 months, used a completely new instrument, reagents and protocol (which i kinda made up part of). Shit maybe i am actually somewhat competent? Also, this means that apparently the snowball incident didn't wreck the experiment which is damn near amazing.
Parting thought: Ways to appear busier than you are at work (if you work in a bio lab):
1. Always have one glove on, preferably holding another one so it looks like you're just at your computer for a sec.
2. Never do anything your boss asks of you right away, unless he specifically tells you to.
3. If you do Western blots, always have a blot incubating on the rocker, even if it's really jut a piece of paper in some water. Of course then you'd be screwed if your boss asks what you're probing for. Similarly, if you do cell culture throw some media bottles in the water bath or hood.
4. If you're really bored, randomly load gels with nothing but a water/loading dye mixture. You can also pipet said mixture around into different tubes to set up a fake PCR.
This is what i think about when i'm closing in on an eleven hour day.
Serj Tankian is the man.
I mailed in my voter registration last week, since i moved. I am officially no longer a Republican. Fret not, i am not a goddamn Democrat either. I am restistered/unenrolled. One of those Independents. It's pretty great that in Mass, as an independent you can choose a party's primary to vote in (Democrat, Republican or Green), instead of being excluded from the primaries.
The downside of this is that not only am i unsure who i'd like to see win the primaries, i'm not even sure which primary i want to vote in. I did watch the New Hampshire debates (fucking vicious Republican debate...shocking), and even tried out the Facebooking thing. Not sure if that was more distracting than worthwhile, but the polls were interesting. I guess i'd like to see McCain take the Republican primary, i think he's the only one (who has a chance) that i even remotely like. In terms of the Dems it was down to Hillary or Obama for me, but i was impressed by Edwards in the NH debate, and i felt like Obama got overshadowed to some extent. Wouldn't be able to tell my dad i voted for a fucking trial lawyer though, haha. So i dunno. I buy Hillary's experience but she is so politicky and it's hard to believe she is really down for the sweeping changes most of us would like to see. Plus, fuck single-payer national healthcare. Actually i really wish they'd have spent more time talking about healthcare during the NH debate (the Dems). And science policy, fuckin' barely any discussion of that (not counting environmental science policy). This seems to help though.
So i dunno. I took a quiz (thanks, ktangel13!):
84% John Edwards
84% Barack Obama
82% Hillary Clinton
82% Chris Dodd
78% Bill Richardson
74% Joe Biden
72% Mike Gravel
63% Dennis Kucinich
48% Rudy Giuliani
45% Tom Tancredo
43% John McCain
39% Mike Huckabee
38% Mitt Romney
30% Ron Paul
27% Fred Thompson
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz
The first time i took it, i had Hillary, Obama and Edwards all tied at 83%. Which was soooo helpful, haha. Thanks quiz.
Cheers to New Hampshire for not falling (too much) for Douchey Douche McRomney's bullshit or Huckabee either. I don't know if i can take 4 more years of a president who doesn't believe in evolution or human rights.
I probably have more to ramble about, buuuuut i'm tired. Didn't get out of lab until just about 8:00pm today, because i didn't get around to starting my realtime PCR until after 3, and i'm using a different instrument which apparently takes over 3h instead of about 2h. Poop. At least my data looked halfway decent, that was unexpected- haven't done realtime in at least 6 months, used a completely new instrument, reagents and protocol (which i kinda made up part of). Shit maybe i am actually somewhat competent? Also, this means that apparently the snowball incident didn't wreck the experiment which is damn near amazing.
Parting thought: Ways to appear busier than you are at work (if you work in a bio lab):
1. Always have one glove on, preferably holding another one so it looks like you're just at your computer for a sec.
2. Never do anything your boss asks of you right away, unless he specifically tells you to.
3. If you do Western blots, always have a blot incubating on the rocker, even if it's really jut a piece of paper in some water. Of course then you'd be screwed if your boss asks what you're probing for. Similarly, if you do cell culture throw some media bottles in the water bath or hood.
4. If you're really bored, randomly load gels with nothing but a water/loading dye mixture. You can also pipet said mixture around into different tubes to set up a fake PCR.
This is what i think about when i'm closing in on an eleven hour day.
Serj Tankian is the man.