OK Go - Here It Goes Again

This is about the coolest video I've ever seen, which my friend Sheidi sent me at work. Kind of random, which is why it's so awesome. Definitely unique. I kind of just laugh watching it, and I guess they filmed it in one take, so props to them.

The Naked Bench Where A Machine Once Stood.

I feel there should be a chalk outline or something. Although it's not dead...That's just hopeful wishing. And I guess there is an outline of sorts. You can't have something somewhere for 3 years, then expect there not to be a pile of clutter underneath once it's moved.

I never realized how loud the copy machine/printer was at work until this morning. Until now it was overshadowed quite a bit by its big brother. Man it feels weird to have that thing all the way across the lab. And in pieces too. It's nice that they left it all unassembled, without so much as a note or a phone message to tell me it's down, and I don't know, maybe when the ideal time for me to come into work today would have been. As it is I'm here now, with nothing to do, and there will be a lot of twiddling of my thumbs, but without the actual twiddling, because that takes effort. So what am I doing till then? Messing around on the computer. That's right. They actually need to move this thing next to the instrument eventually, because right now there's a lot of walking between building the run, and running the run. But for now, I'm just sitting here, keeping myself company with the click clack of the computer keys.

I think my bench does that too much on slow days, prompting my supervisor to say, "well, when you guys move to a high profile area, you won't be able to do that..." We'll see about that. If I had the work to do, I'd do it dude, but until someone cares enough to leave it for me, thank goodness for the internet. I'm the only one here so early, so really I'm stumped as to who I should even ask to give me menial labor. I used to pester my old manager to find me stuff to do on slow days, and he usually said, "let me think about it," then forgot all about it. Oh, I got the occasional project, but after I had to write the stupid Procedure for our bench...I stopped asking him for things to do. I am a little surprised that micro-manager didn't leave me a note or something. I got a lovely message on my phone during my off week telling me when to come in yesterday. Huh.

Really to make up all my hours I should have come in a half hour earlier. I don't feel too worried though, because yesterday we had a group meeting that went long, and I was here 2 hours longer than I thought I would be, just for that (Plus for our quarterly gift they gave everyone 200 bucks, which is infinitely better than a ruler with a calculator on it). I love meetings where they have food. There were m&m cookies (which in my opinion are the only ones that need to be present on most occasions, certainly any where store bought cookies are aggragating), some sort of little apple pastries (which were delightful), and fruit with chocolate dipping sauce. I think they're starting to get the idea of what pleases the workforce, after taking away all the chocolate in the vending machines. That still ticks me off. If I'm going to be healthy, it'll be because I want to, not because ACME Labs is forcing me to be. And I really do think chocolate is a daily must. Speaking of which, I brought my own, and I think if nothing else is detaining me I could totally take a break right now just for that.

A Fond Farewell, Which Doubtless Would Be Fonder If We Could Leave It At That.

I never thought this day would come. The UniCAP 1000, after a year of deliberation, planning, and no follow-throughs, it's finally moved to its new home at the front of the Immunology division. Before we were in a very small, hidden away corner by shipping and handling...I already miss it. Now we will be in a highly visible area, which will make it harder for me to do my homework, and play Freecell on my down-time. It will also be harder to hide from CAP inspections, which were already made more unpredictable by the fact that they're no longer scheduled. I will also miss the Protein section, which is comprised of many of my favorite people. Jocky will have to travel quite a bit further to tell us we have red lights on our instrument, which happens any time anything goes empty--which is several times a day. He likes to point out the redundant and remind us that "things went a lot smoother in my day, when I was in charge of the Allergen bench." He's so quiet, yet cynical...And as such he makes me laugh. However, we will be moving to where the up-front techs are, and I enjoy quite a few of them, so it won't be that bad. It would be better if Golden Boy still worked here, but you can't have everything.

In other news, which is so similar to the first news that its really in fact part of the first news...Wait for it...

we're getting yet another UniCAP 1000.

Somehow it seems like it should have it's own line. 3 years spent suppressing the desire to beat it in with a baseball bat, and now all I get is suppressed anger that will now be duplicated by 2. Add that with working for Scooter, who everyone considers the second most common thing I yell at stupid drivers...Let's just say it's not looking good. I think the towel is about to be thrown in, although what I throw it at and where I'll get a new towel has yet to be seen. It actually should be nice, especially on days when things go wrong, but I know for a fact that with two of them the probability of something going wrong is now twice as great. Not to mention there's bound to be a day when they both go down, and both will be beeping simultaneously, only one beat off from each other, so it will be one loud continuous beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!

I know, half empty, but I do have to baby-sit the thing, and now there are two of them. And as a wise man once said, "No two things are not on fire."

Just a bunch of stuff said to fill up space.

So first of all I just have to say, I hate Macs. I'm in the Marriot Library (I know, dorky considering it's Labor Day and I have no school), and all they have are Macs. I go to post a comment, and it takes forever for it to tag to the site. I'm hoping it will let me post a post, because last time I couldn't tell for a day. But I love this library, and I plan to sit in it and study till...well, I don't know, but for a while.

Anyway, Now that I'm back from camping I feel obligated to say something profound. Or at least two very dull things. I guess I could start with my birthday week. Duckling covered the day before quite adequately, so I won't say much about that. Except that eye make-up looks terrible on me. At least when too drastic of colors are involved. I look like a raccoon; but the facials were nice. The movie was questionable, but I'll let that one go.

On my actual birthday I spent most of the day doing nothing whatsoever. It was awesome. I slept in because I had no school or work (so till about 8), and then I went to the gym for 2 hours. The guy at the door that swiped my card was the first to wish me Happy Birthday. Brilliant strategy, having that pop up when you swipe the thing--I didn't know the guy, but I was particularly impressed with my gym at that moment. I ran 4 and 1/2 miles, which is what I've been stuck at for the last week, but regardless I felt really good after. Then I got home and showered was then taken out to lunch by 3 of my good friends from London. We went to Rubios, where I finally tried one of the fish tacos Traves told me to, and wonder of all wonders they had Vanilla Coke there. I let out a pretty well-developed gasp, and received some looks, but I was so happy I didn't care who knew it. I got a chicken burrito that had a lot of stuff in it, including avocado, so that with the coke made me highly satisfied with the whole outing-- more so because it was free. Then I went home and studied, or tried to before I got a really nice accidental nap in there, and at 340 I went to my Institute class. It was a pretty interesting lesson, though surprising at moments. So surprising that it would be awkward to write about. Then Sheidi, who is in my class, took me out to icecream. Mmmnnn...Almond pistachio.

That night I played Killer Bunnies at the game store with Davey, Pinkie, and Frogkisser. They gave us the best chocolate chip cookies from the bakery down the street, and we played with a bunch of complete strangers. It was awesome. I bought the game forever ago, and I had no idea how to play it till then. I'm still a little unsure about a lot of it, but whatever you don't know you just make up. But any game where you sit there and try to off each others bunnies-- in some pretty inventive ways I must admit...way up there on my list. I recommend it to all. We only played one game, but I had more homework to do and class the next day, so that was that. We opted not to do dinner, because I had been eating junk all day and was far from hungry, but I did get the best cake ever from FK, which the guy at the game store let us light inside. I guess I should say that he let us light the candles on the cake, not the actual cake itself, which would have been pretty awesome but both wasteful and hazardous. I also bought the first booster deck for my game (it's a pretty advanced card type game), because it was 15% off and I had game store money that they sent to me which happened to expire that day.

I spent the last few hours of my birthday, and the two proceeding it, studying Genetics. All in all, not a bad day. My weekend was very good, but I'll probably at least mention it later, so for now I really need to get back to studying. I had an ah-ha moment last night, so I'm pretty excited. Good considering my first test is this coming Friday, and I go back to work tomorrow.

FYI

I feel like I should post something new before I go camping this weekend, because a lot has happened this week, but I just don't have the time. I need to go read my Genetics book so I don't fail my quiz.

To Dew, Or Not To Dew

So Im thinking my caffeine resolve needs to end. I was sitting in my o chem. Lecture last night, and I was dying. It’s a night class, sort of, from 4 to 530 pm. It’s only held twice a week, but it’s an hour and a half long because of it, so we fly through the material, and at night my brain shuts off. I also had my Genetics section and lecture that day, and my o chem. Section right before the lecture, not to mention work in between, so my head was pounding. Then I thought, "hey you, how did I make it through night classes before?" Vanilla Coke; that’s how. My first night class was an English one. I loved that class, but I would always need a pick up before class or during, and since they lack pepsi machines at the U, I would get Vanilla Coke or that Coke One stuff—both of which are really good by the way. The same went for my History of Ceramics class. I think both were at 6. Physiology was a 2 hour class that went from 7-9, so I needed more potent stuff, but I think Coke will be fine for my needs here. It’s become one of my study aides, along with peanut m&m’s for test studying.

What’s weird is that when I give up caffeine I forget what Mountain Dew tastes like, which is what I’m always hooked on, and yet I crave a Coke whenever I see one, and even though I never drink it that much, I can totally taste it just thinking about it. It makes me wonder if they ever took out the cocaine in the first place. So yeah, that’s what I was craving like the Dickens the whole class.

Visiting the Point of Exhaustion.

Saturday we celebrated my birthday. "We" being me, Frogkisser, Pinkie, Duckling, Socially Retarded-Boy, WJJ and Joshuar. The whole thing started at the game store at 6:30 pm. Rather, at 6:40 when I got to the game store. Mainly because I wanted to make eclairs for my work potluck the next day, and even though I could make them in my sleep, it took a while to locate all of the materials with which to make them--and I couldn't just leave them baking in the oven. Then I had to pick up WJ, which I found out just as I was driving past his house. He was carrying around this 2 liter of Sprite with him everywhere. I asked him if he was thirsty, and he told me that if he could no longer have soda on airplanes he was going to make the best of it by having it everywhere else that he still could. Clasically WJ; "those poor slow children...at least they can still play." So then it was just me and WJJ in my tin can of a car without AC driving down the freeway with the windows down--which created a wind tunnel affect. A very interesting experience I must say. Amidst our many conversations he informed me that he wanted a wench on the back of his car (it's a type of hitch apparently).

At the game store we ended up playing two games, neither of which I remember the names. What were the names FK? One was a card game, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I guess it's the only game they had that more than 6 could play at, and we were 7. It's always amusing to see WJ lose at games due to his strategery. There were a lot of numbers, no turns (we all played simultaneously), and points were penalties, which capped off at 75, thereby causing the game to end. I got second, Pinkie took it all if I remember correctly, and I think Joshuar was the Ultimate Loser. Or The second Ultimate Loser next to WJ. And Dave gave me the best back massage. The second game had a dragon card, paths cards that were defined as the game went on, and dragon pieces that moved along them as you tried to not send yourself off the board. First thing I sent Pinkie off the board, without any idea of what I was doing. I ultimately won, as all but two of us crashed into one another, and I held out against Joshuar and let him kill himself. Good times. Actually, the only board game I haven't won there was Niagara.

Then we went to the Spaghetti Factory at Trolley Square. It's been a while since I've been to the Spag Fac, so I was excited. I got the Chicken Parmagiana with spaghetti, creamy pesto on my salad, and a raspberry Italian cream soda. Predictable, but that's why I go there. As always, I got full on the salad and the bread, so I only ate one bite of my food--which I only did so as to not look like I didn't eat anything. Then because it was my birthday they brought me out something that looked like fried icecream, with something crispy on the outside, but it tasted like Heath or something. With that I had my spumoni, so I ate entirely too much icecream.

By the time I got home it was pretty late, and then I still had to finish making eclairs at my parents' house, as I had neither the ingredients or the means to make them at my house. I really only had to fill them, which can be messy and time consuming, and I ended up making two more batches for good measure. As a result I have quite a few left over eclairs, but thankfully I didn't have any left over filling. I swear, you make one batch of the filling and you have to make 4 batches of the eclairs to use it all. Let me know if there are any takers. I think I'll be in the So Jo end of the valley on Tuesday, which is tomorrow.

Finally I was back in Salt Lake, and it was already past 1 in the morning. I got to work at about 2, and was pretty tired by the end of the day, but I stayed at work till 3. Part of that was that I stayed till noon to hit the potluck, then ended up staying just so I could put a dent in the list of pipettes I need to calibrate this quarter (all the computers are in use on the week days, so times are limited for me to do that). Then I went home and basically passed out, but woke up at 7 pm or so to do some much needed laundry and studying. All in all, this is the first time I've been well rested in a couple of weeks. And to top it off, today is my Friday, so I'm very excited. I would be more so if I didn't have classes to go to in 15 minutes. I have 2 lectures today and 2 sections.