So another possibility, after some thought, is iron deficiency. GI issues can screw up iron absorption, as can phytic acid (in grains and beans and nuts) and tannins (in tea). Iron's a nasty thing to have too much of, so I've avoided it in multivitamins. Plus I've always passed the iron-sufficiency test during blood donation. It's not well absorbed ( Read more... )

It's so much easier dealing with my (ex) boss when it doesn't matter ( Read more... )

For the past week and a half I've been craving ice cream. Specifically, soft-serve. Since chocolate is out of the question, McDonald's soft-serve was a viable option. Also, kitty needs new litter very badly. Luckily, there's a McDonald's by Walmart by the mall. It's about a 30 minute walk (no car this weekend!).
Yesterday I spent most of the day ( Read more... )

This morning I woke up feeling like utter crap, so today started with coffee, which should not happen on a weekend. In any case, bear that in mind when I spout nonsense.

Yahoo Answers is hopelessly addicting. I love answering questions. Is that arrogant? After much thought, I think this is good... if I eventually want to teach, I need to be able to ( Read more... )

I feel like a bit of a jerk spending $2.65 on a fancy coffee when there are, to use the cliche, kids starving in Africa.
But then, small businesses deserve patronage too, right? without people paying money to places like these, those baristas would be out of jobs and the economy wouldn't get my recycled money etc etc? Good stewardship, I think, does ( Read more... )

In lab meeting today, the Japanese post-doc presented her project. She doesn't speak English very well, so she has to prepare a long time beforehand, and this was kind of sprung on her. In the course of the presentation, the boss interrupted her and told her she should have a timeline drawn out of the experiment, when she'd explained the timeline ( Read more... )

Today has been interesting. 
Yesterday, the research associate brusquely informed me that the 'water jacket' light is blinking on the incubator and therefore I need to fill it. Put a tube or something in this hole in the side, she said. Use autoclaved water. There should be something to get it in there. 
Doing things based on vague instructions alone ( Read more... )

Yuffie came back! Yay!

Tonight is the Christmas party for the department. I don't want to go, as usual. Why can't things happen during the daytime, spammit.
Last night was an Advent dinner at church. Two friends from work went, which made my night. Seriously though, people, does every dish have to have bread in it? Can we get some unadulterated  ( Read more... )

It's been a difficult week.

Mostly, I've been waiting for reagents to come in. There were a few wrinkles and resulting required email/phone correspondences, and I was accused of all kinds of stupid crap by my boss. The phrase was NOT accusatory, boss. And the fact that I, a native English speaker didn't pick up on it should be a tip-off that's ( Read more... )

See if you can spot the flaw in this logic: "We should eat tree fruits because they're the only fruit developed specifically to be eaten."

Yesterday:
The morning is a confused jumble. We had three passages (infected flasks; why they call them 'passages' is beyond me), and one had what appeared to me to be many lysed host cells. Now, I've had time to ( Read more... )