Update. I Should Do This.
Actually, what I should be doing is reading 60 year old journal articles for my Ion Channels class (yeah, you can actually take classes devoted to ion channels. It could be worse really... American roommate is taking classes about genocide. She says it's how to prevent it.. but you never really know). The papers are actually awesome (I'll spare you the neuro geekery about that though), but they're very long, and involve trying to understand algebra again, which I've successfully avoided for quite a few years now actually.
So... update!
Last week was a busy one... from times of bloody stupid crap: my wallet, including credit cards, SSN, NZ driver's licence got stolen from my bag at a bar on Tuesday night (sadly, it was a very cool bar too, and now I never want to go back there. Grrr.). And one of the people when I rang up to cancel my cards asked me for my name, and then, after I gave it, asked me if that really was my name.
Of course it's my bloody name, you idiotic twit, which is why I GAVE IT TO YOU WHEN YOU ASKED.
I forgot to cancel my NZ VISA card too, and apparently some STUPID FUCKING BASTARDS went on a spending spree with it on Wednesday, until the bank at home noticed the sudden charges (I haven't used that card since August) were fraudulent, and cancelled it. Thankfully, we're not liable for the spree, but it's still shitty.
On the other hand, since Wednesday was Flyboy's birthday, and the day that one of his friends (who is dating one of my friends... yeah, I know, it's sick) passed his qualifying exam, we went out to a fancy restaurant on Central Park West (it was restaurant week.. fixed menu for $35, yay!) and pretended we weren't science geeks with no lives. The restaurant owner came up to tell us how pleased he was to see young attractive people there for once... which just goes to show that you should stay away from the Upper sides, West or East, when trying to be cool, unless you want to be a cool ageing matron. It was fun, all the same.
Even better, the new lab I'm rotating in this semester is made of great amounts of Awesome. As I may have mentioned to people earlier, a lot of the research that goes on here consists of four hours a day of obsessively watching mice and rats nurse their babies, and plenty of the rest in getting them to wander around in large boxes. And entering the data with appropriate codes into spreadsheets. In terms of the Fink Law (one of the 2nd years in my program) of picking a lab on the basis of how much you enjoy the minutiae of what you do every day, I may never leave here. On the other hand, i do smell like mice at the end of the day.
The other great part is that the lab consists of a Canadian lady and two English guys, all of whom have been working together in someone else's lab (it's now the Canadian's) for about five years, and me (plus a couple of undergrads who come in a couple of days a week, and are also cool). On my first day, there was a half hour conversation about cricket, followed by extended discussion of the weirdness of America, compared to the Commonwealth. And everyone sounds normal (oh British accents, how I've missed you)! Despite the fact that the research is completely dissimilar, it feels a lot like my lab back home. We also share lab space with a bird lab, that has a couple of my favourite fellow neuro grads (Joe my Sin City buddy, and David/Keith, who I am going to write a book about. No really), and other cool people. Friday afternoon, we decided to stop work, in favour of playing Mortal Kombat in the conference room. Grad School is the Win.
And the Giants won the Superbowl! Clearly I picked the right city to come to this year.... I was down near Times Square last night, and it was awesome. People celebrating on the street, everyone honking (well.. okay, that's normal. But it was in a happy way, for once!).
So... update!
Last week was a busy one... from times of bloody stupid crap: my wallet, including credit cards, SSN, NZ driver's licence got stolen from my bag at a bar on Tuesday night (sadly, it was a very cool bar too, and now I never want to go back there. Grrr.). And one of the people when I rang up to cancel my cards asked me for my name, and then, after I gave it, asked me if that really was my name.
Of course it's my bloody name, you idiotic twit, which is why I GAVE IT TO YOU WHEN YOU ASKED.
I forgot to cancel my NZ VISA card too, and apparently some STUPID FUCKING BASTARDS went on a spending spree with it on Wednesday, until the bank at home noticed the sudden charges (I haven't used that card since August) were fraudulent, and cancelled it. Thankfully, we're not liable for the spree, but it's still shitty.
On the other hand, since Wednesday was Flyboy's birthday, and the day that one of his friends (who is dating one of my friends... yeah, I know, it's sick) passed his qualifying exam, we went out to a fancy restaurant on Central Park West (it was restaurant week.. fixed menu for $35, yay!) and pretended we weren't science geeks with no lives. The restaurant owner came up to tell us how pleased he was to see young attractive people there for once... which just goes to show that you should stay away from the Upper sides, West or East, when trying to be cool, unless you want to be a cool ageing matron. It was fun, all the same.
Even better, the new lab I'm rotating in this semester is made of great amounts of Awesome. As I may have mentioned to people earlier, a lot of the research that goes on here consists of four hours a day of obsessively watching mice and rats nurse their babies, and plenty of the rest in getting them to wander around in large boxes. And entering the data with appropriate codes into spreadsheets. In terms of the Fink Law (one of the 2nd years in my program) of picking a lab on the basis of how much you enjoy the minutiae of what you do every day, I may never leave here. On the other hand, i do smell like mice at the end of the day.
The other great part is that the lab consists of a Canadian lady and two English guys, all of whom have been working together in someone else's lab (it's now the Canadian's) for about five years, and me (plus a couple of undergrads who come in a couple of days a week, and are also cool). On my first day, there was a half hour conversation about cricket, followed by extended discussion of the weirdness of America, compared to the Commonwealth. And everyone sounds normal (oh British accents, how I've missed you)! Despite the fact that the research is completely dissimilar, it feels a lot like my lab back home. We also share lab space with a bird lab, that has a couple of my favourite fellow neuro grads (Joe my Sin City buddy, and David/Keith, who I am going to write a book about. No really), and other cool people. Friday afternoon, we decided to stop work, in favour of playing Mortal Kombat in the conference room. Grad School is the Win.
And the Giants won the Superbowl! Clearly I picked the right city to come to this year.... I was down near Times Square last night, and it was awesome. People celebrating on the street, everyone honking (well.. okay, that's normal. But it was in a happy way, for once!).