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November 30th, 2008

12:58 am - Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Free genealogy - Family history

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June 11th, 2007

06:47 pm - I'm cold. I like cold. But I like cold because I can generally do something about it, not because I enjoy being able to see my own breath in the air inside my house. I have a fire going, but I'm still cold. Anyway, surprise post to shock those who may have me on their friends pages but have forgotten because I never post. Surprise! You're not supposed to be excited. I never post because I rarely have anything good to say and I don't like saying the same depressing crap over and over. e.g. "Nothing I do in the lab ever works." "I will never finish my thesis." "I'm doomed." etc... I'd like to think there's more to my life than just trying to get my thesis done, but let's face it... there really isn't. Unless you count watching TV/DVDs. I'm in the middle of Angel and Maguyver. What does that say? I've been planning a post-thesis holiday in the hopes that it will help me motivate myself to actually get it over with. When I get even vaguely motivated it doesn't last very long because I look at my crap data (or lack there of) and remember that there's nothing worth being motivated about. I want to start booking my holiday, but I'm scared that I won't get my thesis finished on time to go on the dates I want to book. The departure date is one month before the absolute last day I can hand in my thesis (and two months after when I plan to) yet I'm still too much of a wimp to actually book it. My supervisors have started talking about organising a post doc position for next year. That should be really exciting, but instead it just depresses me because I feel like it's just getting my hopes up and it'll never actually happen. I got the data from my animal experiments last week. It was supposed to work this time. But no, that'd just be too convenient. The non-immune mice cleared the bacteria too fast so the whole thing is crap, I think it was because all the mice were infected with Staph which could/would cause local inflammation and white cell infiltration that would mean they'd all clear faster than they should because the white cells would already be there. Vaccination wouldn't really make that much difference because all that does really is speed things up. That wouldn't explain why it looks like the control for my fusion protein (i.e. totally unrelated antigen) looks like it's the best of the lot - it's not, none of the antigens made any difference. Then I tried to analyse my growth curve data. I was all excited because I'd realised that I can use a first order rate equation to describe the curves and that should help me a lot. But not I'm annoyed because out of 4 different nutrients tested, 4 are negative and 1 is positive. Sounds good? Well sort of, except that the one positive one has massive variability in the controls. The controls that are exactly the same as the ones with the other nutrients (i.e. no extra nutrient added, just the base media) and they don't have so much variability. It's just bad luck. I guess I should try to repeat those ones again to try and get better data. But I've already tried that and the new data was worse - not terribly motivating to try it again. On a more positive note: I have a literature review and two half size chapters written. That's nice. They all need a little more work, but at least they're there. I just need at least 2 more proper results chapters (preferably 3 more), a discussion and perhaps a method section. Maybe I'll go back to writing the method section, that shouldn't be too hard. Current Mood: cold

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October 12th, 2006

04:01 pm - news http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1759367.htm "A small pile of leftover jelly discarded beside the road after a wedding party caused a large-scale security alert in Germany with biochemical experts, firemen and police called in to investigate. "Passers-by called police after finding a pool of a flabby red, orange and green substance on the roadside," a police spokesman in the eastern town of Halle said. Fears of toxic waste led to the closure of a wide area after the emergency call on Sunday, and experts wearing chemical warfare suits spent two hours examining the gelatinous substance before deciding that it was jelly." nice. In other news... I get to go home soon! Flights booked for Saturday 21st October. Yay! Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: Daisies of the Galaxy. Eels.

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October 8th, 2006

11:52 pm - Cat haiku I'm sure the whole world has seen these before, but I hadn't. Wanna go outside. Oh, no! Help! I got outside! Let me back inside! The rule for today: Touch my tail, I shred your hand. New rule tomorrow. Grace personified, I leap into the window. I meant to do that. Current Mood: lazy Current Music: Siamese Dream

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October 6th, 2006

06:23 am - should I be inspired? I saw a talk by David Suzuki last night. He's selling his autobiography and is doing a book tour at the moment. He talked for an hour and a half about his life and all the things he's achieved and how wonderful his kids are etc etc an it was really quite an impressive story (which I'm way too lazy to even summarise). Afterwards I had the usual thoughts after hearing such stories such as "wow, it's amazing what one person can actually achieve if they put the effort in" followed closely be the typical "I'm so insignificant compared to that, I'll never be able to make that much of a difference" etc etc and then today I thought about that a little more (can you tell how bored I am up here in Rockhampton?) and came up with this: I think how such a story effects you says a lot about your view of yourself and/or whether you are generally optimistic or pessimistic. As far as I can see there's two ways you can take such a story, you either get inspired to put some effort in and make a difference or you decide there's no point because you'll never be able to achieve that much and see yourself in a worse light than you already did. I think I'm more naturally inclined towards the latter idea, mainly because I'm a terribly terribly lazy person, but having said that I think I _should_ choose to be inspired and try to achieve something. What is the point in life otherwise? (That is another long, rambling story in itself. The short version: I believe the answer to that question entirely depends upon how old you are). Of course, as I said, I'm a terribly lazy person so there's usually a huge difference between what I think I _should_ do and what I actually get around to doing. I suppose only time will tell... Current Mood: bored Current Music: JJJ

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September 18th, 2006

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02:43 pm - What can I say? So I've decided (in spite of chrisj's prodding) I should actually post something. Could it be considered rude to read other people's LJs and not write anything in my own? I was thinking about that... it's almost like stalking; sort of "I want to know all about you but not tell you anything about me" or something. The thing is, I don't really have anything to say... Out of a complete lack of anything interesting to talk about, here's a quick update on my life as it is right now (you'll notice a distinct leaning towards my uni work, there's a reason for that: it is my life, such as it is). ( So the sane people don't need to read this crap ) Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: A random assortment of weirdness.

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June 27th, 2006

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September 7th, 2005

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August 20th, 2005

04:21 pm - well i guess it fits the pattern You scored as Logical/Mathematical. You like to work with numbers and ask questions. You learn best by classifying information, engaging in abstract thinking and looking for common basic principles. People like you include mathematicians, biologists, medical technicians, geologists, engineers, physicists, researchers and other scientists. </td> Logical/Mathematical 86% Bodily/Kinesthetic 64% Visual/Spatial 61% Musical/Rhythmic 50% Interpersonal 46% Verbal/Linguistic 36% Intrapersonal 36% The Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligences created with QuizFarm.com

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August 14th, 2005

12:50 pm - The end of the world may be here shortly I never agree with the TripleJ film girl. If she likes a movie, it's generally a good indication that I'll hate it. She gave Land of the Dead 4 stars so I was a little worried. Anyway, turns out it was friggen awesome! I saw it with someone I don't know particularly well (who had actually seen it before, but anyway) and I thought it was rather amusing that we both giggled at exactly the same bits the whole way through (and most of the rest of the audience didn't) :) So yeah, I guess I can't really rely on thinking the opposite of Megan Spencer anymore... oh well. Current Mood: bouncy

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August 10th, 2005

06:35 pm - snow! (again) It snowed here (Canberra) today. In fact, I think it snowed pretty much all over the south east of Australia. There are places in Tasmania that are getting the day off tomorrow because they're all stuck inside. I just drove home from uni while it was snowing - I've never done that before, it was really cool :) It wasn't enough to settle on the ground, but I got a decent amount around the bottom of my windscreen. And for my readers from cold places: this is odd, ok? It doesn't snow here very often at all. Current Mood: excited

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August 7th, 2005

12:13 pm - snow! I went snowboarding yesterday for the first time in at least 2 years (might have been 3, my memory sucks). It was the first time I didn't have a lesson (I like lessons, I tend to be really wussy without someone telling me to try something new) but I impressed myself. Normally I tend to just stick to the really easy runs and do the same one or two all day (as I said, I'm wussy), but yesterday I started on a run I've never done before (that's pretty good for me) and I didn't stack and I remembered how to do stuff and everything - I was so happy! :) So anyway, I got steadily worse as the day went on because I was getting tired, but that's only to be expected. All in all I had a good day, I was heaps more adventurous than usual and did a whole heap of runs I've never tried before. I even did a blue run and didn't kill myself! (I usually stick to the green ones, which are the easiest, blue is the middle level) When we went to leave we got to the carpark, put our dry socks on and all that kinda stuff. Fit all the gear back in the car, had a drink and went to leave... only to find out that Ezequiel (yes, I'm not changing names because he's not innocent and doesn't need protecting!) left the headlights on all day! So yeah, the car wouldn't start. Ezequiel decides that we should be able to roll-start it, but that didn't work (I don't know if he was doing the wrong thing or what, but it didn't even nearly work either). While we were trying that some random NiceGuy decides that the two girls and "skinny arab" (as he described himself) obviously needed some help and ran over to help out. When we'd all decided that roll-starting wasn't going to help I said "Hey, you don't happen to have any jumper leads in your car, do you?" so he runs over to his car, looks around and pulls out a brand new pair of leads (still in the plastic packet!). What luck! So we jump-started the car from theirs and it worked perfectly. Yay! I would have hated to have to wait for the NRMA to get out there (and pay for it!). We were going to stop at Jindabyne for some food and caffeine before the drive home, but decided to go as far as Cooma instead to make sure the battery was charged enough before stopping. When we'd got to Cooma we all decided we just wanted to get home so we didn't stop. Then about 10min out of town we realise that we really should have stopped for petrol... We had a full tank when we left Canberra, and half a tank when we started the return journey so it should be _just_ enough to get home... which it was (we stopped at the first service station we got to in Canberra - the Gull at Hume - with the indicator pin as low as it could go) but I spent the entire rest of the trip staring at the petrol guage, I couldn't keep my eyes off it. All in all, the day was quite good and totally worth all the bruises and sore muscles... I think. Anyway, I should be going back next Saturday. I think I'll wear knee pads. Current Mood: sore

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July 19th, 2005

10:44 am - I suck. So I looked at my sequencing results. It's all fucked. The inserts are all wrong. Sure, I actually have inserts this time, but they're not the right ones, so it's all crap. I'm a complete and utter dumbarse. I know what I did wrong. I'm going to have one more go (yes, we've all heard that before). But seriously, this is the last time. If it doesn't work this time I'm really stuck. I feel like breaking things. Or maybe just eating lots of chocolate ice cream, either way. Current Mood: disappointed

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July 15th, 2005

04:33 pm - this is good... this is all good... My PCR screen showed that all 30 colonies were positive! woohoo! One last check (sequencing) to go and then I will be most happy (assuming the sequencing tells me what I want it to, of course). Niccy rules! Current Mood: happy

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12:10 pm - yay! I think my cloning might have worked this time *touch wood* (hur hur *snigger*) This time I dephosphorylated the plasmid to reduce my background - I only got one colony on the 'no insert' control plates, so that's a good start. I got a mixture of white and blue colonies on the others (so the blue/white screening is working) and more white than blue (good good). So everything is pointing towards goodness here... my PCR screen will finish running at 3pm so I'm going to sit back, relax, and hope to hell it works! I'm not organising the party until after I've sequenced them, but if they're correct there will definitely be much celebrating to be had. Current Mood: hopeful

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July 7th, 2005

03:34 pm - Insert offensive language here. AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!@$A#%^&(&%$*()&*_@*#_)(@)%$&#*%# OK, now I've got that out... The PCR Gods hate me. There's no other explanation. I ran 2 PCRs yesterday - one worked really poorly, the other produced a massive smear on the gel that looks like degraded genomic DNA (only my template was plasmid, so I have no idea what it actually was). Today I repeated those PCRs - neither worked at all. I would guess my enzyme's gone off or something, I doubt it because I used two different enzymes (pfu for one, and taq for the other). I guess I do store them in the same freezer box so there's a chance some idiot's left the freezer open (again) and destroyed my stuff (again). I also doubt it's the buffers for the same reason. dNTPs maybe? I dunno. This totally sucks. So the question is - do I bother trying again, or just go home and "cry in a corner somewhere" (as suggested by our lab manager)? Bah. I hate this. I had a project meeting yesterday (for the first time in AGES - we're supposed to get them once a month, but I think my last one was in November last year or something). Anyway, basically, my supervisor thinks I'm lazy and that I haven't achieved anything because I'm not putting any effort in and not concentrating. Her solution? Turn the radio off. Yeah, good one, JK. Like that's going to help. I'd be the first to admit that I'm not the most motivated person in here, and I am reasonably lazy and vague at times, but that doesn't explain all of my problems. I think I'm jinxed or something. Nothing works. I feel like someone's sabotaging me or something. I've wasted so much time trying to create these 2 clones. I can't do anything else until I've done them, and I just can't get them to work! Every time something different goes wrong. So both my supervisors say "Well what does that tell you? It's obviously 'technique' at fault." ("Technique" being code for "your lack of skill"). GGGRRRRR. If something doesn't start going right soon I think I'm going to have to run away and hide. I'm halfway through my 3 years and I have nothing. No results at all. And nothing that I can use to generate any results either. ARGH! I just want to smash things. This is so frustrating. I wonder if "I suck." is a good enough reason to take a leave of absence for a semester and run away and hide somewhere. I wonder if that would help at all anyway. Meh. Current Mood: frustrated

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July 2nd, 2005

03:45 pm - update time! hrm... so I figured it was time I updated again. Mostly because I *shock horror* have something to write. 1. I'm tricking myself into believing that I may have some sort of social life. This is because two (yes, that's right, two (2), not one, but two) Fridays in a row I didn't just stay home and watch tv all evening. Last week I went bowling, and discovered that I'm much better at it left-handed. I also discovered that some boys are capable of turning 10-pin bowling into a dangerous/painful sport. *shrug* perhaps that's just when they're trying to show off or something. This week (last night) a few people came over to my place and indian takeaway (mmm... Rama's...), movies and games. We ended up watching a Bill Hicks dvd, which I'd seen before, and playing poker on the pool table. I discoverd that wine in moderation may actually help my poker playing (I learnt a few months ago that wine in large quantities definitely does not help...). Anyway, I tripled my money ;) (It sounds more exciting to say I tripled it than to say I made $10) 2. Yesterday was the beginning of the end. Yes, that's right people... a not-so-serious serious post. Little Johnnie now has control of both houses of parliament. There's no stopping the bastard now. I wonder how hard it would be to run away to NZ or Canada or something... Current Mood: tired

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June 17th, 2005

07:33 pm - So true, so very very true... Robot You are 100% Rational, 28% Extroverted, 14% Brutal, and 42% Arrogant. You are the Robot! You are characterized by your rationality. In fact, this is really ALL you are characterized by. Like a cold, heartless machine, you are so logical and unemotional that you scarcely seem human. For instance, you are very humble and don't bother thinking of your own interests, you are very gentle and lack emotion, and you are also very introverted and introspective. You may have noticed that these traits are just as applicable to your laptop as they are to a human being. In short, your personality defect is that you don't really HAVE a personality. You are one of those annoying, super-logical people that never gets upset or flustered. Unless, of course, you short circuit. To put it less negatively: </p> 1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive. 2. You are more INTROVERTED than extroverted. 3. You are more GENTLE than brutal. 4. You are more HUMBLE than arrogant. My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 97% on Rationality You scored higher than 25% on Extroversion You scored higher than 5% on Brutality You scored higher than 41% on Arrogance Link: The Personality Defect Test written by saint_gasoline on OkCupid Free Online Dating

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