Idiot

Yeah, that would be me, the idiot. This week one of my classmates and I are presenting a paper for the journal club we are required to attend every semester of our PhD program. We were suppose to pick a paper investigating the interface between innate and adaptive immunity. Never mind if you don't know what that is, lets just say we found the perfect paper. Perfect. A faculty member had even recommended it on the nerdy science database that is the go-to place for finding articles. We had the department admin send it out to everyone last Friday. Fast forward to yesterday, and witness the IM conversation between me and another classmate:

Smart Friend: So I just printed out the JC paper... didn't we read this paper already?

Idiot (me): Um, maybe, it's possible, but I don't really remember it...

SF: Well I could be wrong, but it seems a little familiar.

me: Could be, I can never remember what papers we read.

SF: I just figured out why it looks familiar... I presented it last semester. LOL

So now we have to present another paper (Luckily we had found another last week before we got the brilliant notion to do the first paper) and the entire department knows I'm a forgetful idiot, since they all got the second email from the department admin. How awesome is that.

On work and other pursuits

So I'm headed for Altanta tomorrow to visit my sister and brother-in-law for a (very) long labor day weekend. Yay! As a result I have been trying to get a little bit more accomplished at work this week. Luckily I managed to save the images I got at my early date with the microscope... that is a big step up from last time. More imaging is in my future, I think about 5 hours. Here's some good news, though, my friend Ethan is now Dr. Ethan Chiang, so congrats to him! Also, this means you can see the cake a created in his honor.

About a year or so ago, I started making cell/science themed cakes for people in our lab defending their theses (what we call the B-exam). This is a fine example, actually one of the best, I think. Ethan has been doing a bunch of studies looking at protein distribution on mast cell surfaces using gold labeled antibodies and scanning electron microscopy. So I decided to create a tiered cake representation of an electron micrograph (figure 1D, in fact), complete with gold particles (in two sizes). It was a big hit- maybe because of the chocolate mousse filling and buttercream frosting? Or maybe because we are all a little geeky? Anyway, the cake isn't doing me any good in the getting-back-into-pre-Brazil-shape stakes, but I always was a sucker buttercream.

The pottery studio offically opened back up yesterday, so I headed over there. Where I ran in to Gary, a great guy and a great potter, we had a nice chat. Then he snapped this picture of me hard at "work":

All this activity got me thinking about how much time I spend on projects unrelated to my "work", i.e. my PhD/technician job. I wouldn't have it any other way, I love getting my grubby little paws into all sorts of creative mischief- including this little blog. Just think , though, if I could channel all that energy into my research- wow- it boggles the mind. But it would never work, all this creative stuff is the stuff that keeps me sane so I can still do the research, even when nothing seems to be working. I forsee a lot more food, pottery and knitting in my future. Maybe even the odd upholstery project- my batting finally came in, so now I have no excuse!