In your Honour (Week nine)

Wednesday:

I do my flies and run a gel to see if the stupid restriction digest (cutting up of DNA) worked last night. I’ve almost forgotten how to run a gel, it’s been a while since I’ve done one. Despite this, I notice that I’ve become far too efficient at setting up gels and these things. It used to be I’d make the gel and in the time it took me to prepare everything else, the gel would have dried and I could continue with it straight away. Today I sit around for five minutes waiting for the gel to dry.

After getting my gel results, I throw out two of the samples as I’ve screwed them up good and proper. I continue to make probes (this involves a lot of putting enzymes into the mix and waiting for them to do their thing) with the remaining six samples.

As I’ve just handed in my essay draft, and need to wait until 2pm before I can get feedback on it, I’ve got very little to do. I spend a lot of the day e-mailing people and trying to arrange for buying tickets to see The Living End in a few weeks time.

I finally get to speak to PD and he is encouraging, we can’t deny that, but he gives me a LOT of work to do before the essay is going to be ready for submission (mind you, it’s due Monday). My chances of getting more feedback from him are slim, and the offer is he can do it again Thursday night if I get it to him before then. Deal.

Return to the lab to do more probe stuff, running out during incubations to research the gaps in my essay.

By the end of the day I get to run another gel to test if making the probes work. I’m even more efficient at preparing the gel this time. Sit around for ten minutes waiting for the gel to dry.

The probes didn’t work.

Fly count: a few more virgin whites, otherwise the same

Thursday:
I suspect I have enough flies to set up matings today, so I do so. Turns out I don’t have enough flies (it’s hard to count them while they’re flying around) but the crosses should be fine with four girls to each boy (if only Andy could read that).

I spent the entire day on a massive adrenaline rush trying to do my essay. I eat lunch at my desk, despite the fact that I said I’d eat with the Biomeds. I’m going crazy.

At 2.30 I attempt to buy tickets for the Living End. General Admission. Sold out, my arse.

Henry asks me how the probes went. I show him the photo of my gel and he promises to try and help me fix it after the essay is handed in.

Continue with my frantic attempts to finish the essay. Lee helps me find the title to a chapter of a book I’ve had since day one, just with no idea as to what it was.

PD informs me at about 5 o’clock that he’s got enough to do for the night and he’ll read my essay tomorrow morning. Deal.

Go home and open my essay on the computer. The computer crashes. Try again “there was a serious error last time you tried this, are you sure you want to try again?” Uh oh. It works though.

Fly count: a lot fewer white virgins and five matings set up

Friday
Set up another mating and decide to let the white flies build up over the weekend. It looks like some might come out over the weekend. Bugger. Alex agrees to collect them for me so I can still visit my grandparents on Saturday. Bless him.

Send PD my essay.

Run around looking for other people who want to criticise my essay. Find them and get thoroughly beaten into submission. I didn’t do the experiments, don’t tell me they’re crap.

Meet up with the Biomeds to celebrate someone’s birthday with lunch.

Come back to the lab to find PD has given me feedback on the second draft of my essay. Ok. Start working through three sets of comments on the essay.

At four I meet with the Phils to get more feedback on the previous version of my essay. A lot of what he said doesn’t matter any more, and it turns out I could have gotten real feedback on the most recent draft by sending it to him straight after lunch. Whoops.

PD and I run around for a while to locate a laptop I can take home rather than trusting my computer with my precious, precious essay that is currently 500 words over the limit. Whoops. Manage to fix Lee’s so that it’s workable. Lee is my new best friend.

Fly count: Six matings, two white adults and a lot of larvae

Weekend
It’s nice sitting in a warm room while I’m working. I’m plonked in front of the TV surrounded by drafts of my essay and notes and comments and all the papers I’m talking about (bar one – manage to get Lee’s laptop onto my internet so I can download it again) and have the football on in the background. Richmond v Carlton was a pretty cool match.

Saturday Night
My essay doesn’t actually make sense. E-mail PD with concerns, hoping he checks his e-mail tomorrow morning so that I can continue work on this tomorrow.