In your honour - Week 10

Monday
Return Lee’s laptop to him before going to collect virgins. Return to Bio21 to open up my essay and read it a few more times before printing out four copies (17 pages each – it was a fair wad of paper). Mo and I wander over to hand in the essay at about 12, when it’s not due in until 4. We are told that we’re abnormal.

I start working on my presentation which I am to give to the department on Monday (the next one of course).

At 3.30 we head over to Genetics because one of the PhD students in my lab is giving him final presentation. Good on him, he spoke very well, but I slept every badly and it’s hard to pay attention to anything for an hour.

I felt bad about the fact that my attention was slipping but I caught one hons student and a RA asleep, one of my supervisors playing silly games with another hons student and the head of department was resting his head against the wall.

Play soccer. I actually kick a few goals this time (woot). Managed to get a soccerball pattern bruise on my leg that as of Saturday still hadn’t healed. After soccer I do my flies and return to Bio21 for my stuff. It’s pissing down with rain so I have a fairly fun time getting home.

Fly count Do you have any idea how hard it is to fill this in a week late? I believe I picked up some DB flies today. I have to try and breed them up, which should be interesting because they don’t survive too well. But they have curly wings and are really very cute.

Tuesday
Stupid Meeting Day!!!

One of the meetings is cancelled today and another isn’t compulsory, so I don’t bother. I do my flies and walk to Bio21 (1). I sit at my desk and attempt to do slides for a while before being dragged to the stupid non-compulsory meeting (2) by someone who thought it was worth going because of the lab meeting afterwards he didn’t realise wasn’t on. Idiot.

Meeting runs late and then we do the quiz. I need to go back to Bio21 (3) to get my lunch. On the way back to Genetics (4), Jeremy decides to show the rest of the Bio21 hons students the “secret underground tunnel” that I’ve been hearing about since October last year. This thing has been a rumour for so long for me, and it’s taken THAT long for me to find it.

What a waste of time. The thing goes for MILES! It’s ridiculous and meant we were late for the seminar so I couldn’t sit next to Sarah. Boo.

Walking back to Bio21 (5) I’m talking to a PhD student who tells me that he’ll watch the honours talks for the same reason he watches the Grand Prix. Because you want to see the crashes. That was encouraging.

Back at the lab I check my e-mail and find that I’m in trouble for not handing in the form I didn’t get given at a meeting I wasn’t supposed to attend. Figure that one out.

Return to Genetics (6) for a careers seminar in which we have a not very useful speech from a Genetics Counsellor and a very interesting chat from David Heckel, who is currently playing a cameo role in our lab. He’s from Germany and visits occasionally because he still has students here. Brilliant speaker at least.

After this I do my flies and return downstairs to chat to some of the PhD students hanging around after the speeches (there was food and drinks). There is apparently a rumour going around that I have a boyfriend (I don’t).

I honestly believe I spent an hour walking between genetics and Bio21 today (6 times – I counted for you). I think I did the trip 7 times on Monday.

Fly count: I collect my first fly that’s supposed to have mutated. It hasn’t. Keep it anyway and collect more virgins.

Wednesday
Today Sam helps me buy a new computer. I send off the order but don’t get a reply.

I suspect I spend most of the day fretting about my presentation, as I don’t remember anything else happening.

I also wash the dishes, as I’m on that duty this week. Keep splashing myself with the water, which sucks a little given the bottle is covered with labels like “Warning, do not contact skin” whoops.

Tonight though is a post-grad society meeting. Cool. I rock up and the Dean of Science is sitting in the meeting room with a bunch of important people. Ok…I’ll do something else then.

I hand in some chocolate money and wait in the PhD room for a bit. This is followed by speeches by two PhD students, one on scientific fraud, the other on the IgNobel awards. Very funny.

I do some flies and go home.

Fly Count: Have stolen more flies of Alex now, set up 7 matings I think.

Thursday
Do some flies and get a hot chocolate with some other people before heading to the room we booked to practise our presentations. All four of us, only Jeremy ain’t around. All three of us then.

Some silly receptionist double booked the projector meaning we didn’t get it, it went to the other person who booked it. That’s fair.

We wind up booking the auditorium in Bio21 instead. I go first, jump up and deliver my little speech, which is probably just about the right length of time. I get told a whole lot of changes to make and a whole lot of new things I need to say. Time is going to be a problem (you’re supposed to speak for 15 minutes and then answer questions for five). It feels like a lot of criticism at the time, but they’re just trying to help (it was in private consultation with PD and Sam later that the words of encouragement came).

So I get given a lot of advice, which I write down and disappear to lunch. Here I meet Carl, who is on exchange from Canada. I didn’t realise you could exchange in an honours year (or something like that).

Return after lunch and change all my slides, send them to PD for more words of wisdom.

At some point during the day, I’m sitting at my desk and PD sticks his head into the room and says “Do you have those flies?” Yes, flies. In any other work place you’d have to spell it differently.

Sam gets bored and chats to me for about an hour, meaning I don’t start my evening fly work until 6. Fly work takes a fair while as I’ve got to move flies from vial to vial and etc. This was supposed to be my going home early today. I run through Melbourne Central on the way home and pick up a KFC kids meal (the free toy I wasn’t given, unfortunately, as it was a PC version of a board game, I might have actually used it). It’s the first time I’ve eaten dinner this week.

Friday
Rock up first thing and do flies, before killing a few minutes before the Honours Talks start. Find myself a seat and then just sorta pay attention for some time,

Return to Bio21 briefly, eat lunch, watch more talks.

Sarah presents her thing. I kept thinking about the funny things she found out while researching her essay and struggle not to burst out laughing for a fair part of her presentation. Whoops. She did well, good girl. Everyone asks me where she comes from, as no one can place her accent. At least they aren’t accusing her of being kiwi again.

Return to Bio21 to watch Jeremy practise. Get an e-mail from the computer guy. “Call me.” Eep. I do so and Sam helps me sort out the fact that we’ve chosen a poor combination of parts to chuck in the machine. Whoops.

I wash the dishes again, do flies and then meet up with Gemma so we can go to comedy festival to see Lano and Woodley perform. They were fantastic. I laughed very, very hard and wound up in pain over it.

Return to uni at 11 to check for virgins. This means I can sleep in Saturday. Yay.

Saturday
What a shit week I’m having. I picked up the computer and attempted to install Windows. That didn’t work. I’ve taken the computer back to the shop and even though the guy I was waiting on a phone call from should have been back at his desk half an hour ago, I still haven’t heard a word.

Meanwhile, I’m currently at uni, waiting for flies to emerge. Well, just waiting until it’s late enough such that 16 hours later it’s an hour I consider plausibly involving me being back here again.

I WANT MY NEW COMPUTER! After all this damn effort in ensuring that I’d have power point working over the weekend and I’m stuck using the shared computer in the honours room.

Fly Count: I just morgued those guys that I’ve been collecting the past few days. So a few less, but I also found me some white virgins. Woot.

Later Saturday
YAY! They called, I can pick it up!!!!

Well, I can’t pick it up, Mum will. But YAYAYAYAY!
Fly count: I have 19 vials of white virgins, each with 1 to 2 flies in it. I have 22 lines of flies that are currently trying to breed. Then there’s a bunch of stock vials to get more virgins from. My tray is almost full.

Sunday
Arrive to find all the flies that are going to come out today have already done so.

Yipee! I can go home and make it to stick class.

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.

A day in the Life (Hons Week 10)

Tuesday – Anzac Day
9am
Arrive at close-to-deserted Genetics department. Walk into the smelly, smelly upstairs fly room and take my tray to the fly lab. Also locate some smelly fly food from my tray in the cold room. I find I have three virgins to collect, all of which are my white-eyed strain. I incorrectly sex two of them, Chris tells me when he eventually rocks up.

Put my flies away and head to Bio21.

9.50
Arrive at Bio21 and sit and chat to Lee about nothing in particular for a while.

10 am
Turn on my computer to find that the bassist (Pauly) from Magneto (band from Firday night) has e-mailed me. That’s kinda cool.

10.10 am
Decide it’s going to be a low work kinda day and that as such I’m going to keep an account of the entire day, just so you guys can see what it’s all like. This has nothing to do with the fact that I’m reading Jeffrey Archer’s prison diaries for the second time. No, nothing.

10.12 am
That stupid song “Apple Eyes” by Swoop is playing on my mp3 player. I have 2251 songs on this damn thing, yet it’s always playing Apple Eyes by Swoop. I may have to delete this song.

I am now turning my attention to finishing my essay referencing. I’m so sick of this essay.

10.26
It occurs to me I forgot to rant about the agriculture library last week. I never went to the place in undergrad, but found myself headed over there three of the four days last week to photocopy junk from “Bulletin of Entomological Research.” On the Thursday (I think) I arrived in the morning before the librarian. Now that is service.

10.33
I just found a reference that I have been searching for for AGES. The paper happens to be in the world’s most hard-to-access journal, but I only mention it briefly so I’ll live without it.

I seem to have a never-ending supply of easter eggs in my drawer. I consider this incredibly cool.

11am
Wander into the lab as I’m bored of the computer. I leave a little note for Alex before deciding I may as well stay in the lab and set up for DNA concentration determination.

This involves taking samples from the massive DNA extraction I did the other day and diluting them in water. Easy, right?

Well it was.

Although, I think I’ve been out of the lab for a while as Henry and Adrian have spread their stuff all over my bench (three to a bench, I’m in the middle). Not only this, but a whole lot of my stuff has been “borrowed.” Fortunately, it was all labeled with my name so I simply “borrowed” it back.

I edited my essay before going into the lab, which means it will be easier to find the reference I was, as I don’t have to get them to say exactly the same thing. It may mean I have to read all the things I already said and see if they’re useful in the new context. Damn.

I should save this document, It’s starting to get long…

11.43
I’m eating carrots. I’m a hungry girl.

I’ve filled in another reference point. I gave up on trying to find one article to say what I wanted it to say, and wound up putting in three. Much easier.

That leaves one I’ve got and I’m not sure if I need to reference it, and another where I know who to reference (ironically enough, it is WHO) but I don’t know how to. I need Sam.

I’m just about out of carrot now.

11.56am
I have just closed the document that contains my essay. I put in that reference I wasn’t sure I needed. So I’m happy.

I just gotta wait for Sam to do the last one, which will probably be tomorrow.

A few people have shown up now, so there’s a little more noise. It’s now me, Lee, Tamar and Ariadne. In an office that holds 17. None of the people with more lonely offices, or no offices are here. The only person who isn’t a student is David, a visiting academic from Germany I think.

I need to find something to do…I think it’s going to be something very un-geneticsy.

12.06
Keep getting texts from Se so we can arrange lunch.

12.15
Wow. The phone’s ringing in the other room, which is essentially this room. There are desks in the middle with pin boards and overhead lockers, so you can’t really see over them.

12.34
Ariadne wanders in to make a hot drink. The lab is normally more exciting than this, I promise. I continue to work on my art journal.

12.46
I give up, I’m going to lunch.

1:45
I turn on the UV spec lamp to let it warm up

2pm
I return to the UV spec machine and realize I don’t remember how to use it

2.15
Turn off the UV spec lamp and use a different machine (one that Chris knows how to use) to check my DNA samples.

2.50
Return to Bio21 with $40 worth of chocolate and results for my DNA concentration. Spend some time in the lab doing calculations and checking calculations to make sure I do my later experiments properly.

3.20
I fill up the chocolate box with my newly acquired treats. It’s a full three minutes before one gets purchased.

3.26
Go to the park and play Frisbee for 40 minutes. Come back and prepare DNA digest.

5.26
Finish preparing the digest. I have been given some shoddy advice on picking enzymes and as such had to go through the process again. That took sometime. It involved me running from the lab to the office about ten times, keeping in mind that nearly everytime I did this I had to take off my labcoat and gloves.

That got annoying.

That should have taken me 10 minutes to prepare, for the record.

5.30
Check my flies. There’s a few new ones. Nothing to be excited about. Go home (finally).

Fly count: A bunch of white adults, 6 isolated transgenic survivors and a few vials full of babies.

Sometimes I don't feel the same way as you feel

Wow. This is the seventh (or eighth?) post that I've submitted today.

Everyone can stop complaining that I don't blog enough.

This is just a little something weird my mum said.

"Is that why you've been so happy since Easter?"

We were discussing Sean's brother.

The married one (yes, you).

She had, somehow, gotten it into her head that I'd managed to pick up this married man, who is currently residing in America.

Good work.

Living on the Moon

OH WHAT THE HELL?

My day just got weirder. But it starts last night.

I went to my cousin’s wedding (the first I’d ever been to actually) and it was a nice little affair, even if none of the groomsmen or bridesmaids stayed quiet throughout the service. Besides the point.

Then there’s the reception and speeches which are all lovely dovey making me feel all sad and alone.

I’m pretty miserable by the time I get home.

What do I do to cheer myself up? Go to a rock show.

The Sparrows are at the Espy at midnight.

It’s ten o’clock. I go anyway.

I’ve not been out much lately so I had to check the melways to remember how to get to the Espy and I do make it there as a band are setting up. I perch against a post and watch them play.

They’re incredible. I’m instantly cheered up. They mention tonight they’re launching a single, and to come talk to them if you want one.

Now, I’m quite a shy person but I want a copy of the CD, so eventually manage to work up the courage to chat to this brilliant, brilliant guitarist who is named Michael. We talk a bit, I ask him for a CD. We chat a bit more and asks “So, you liked it, did you?” Well…I’m buying the CD…

He introduces me to Paul, the bass player. And the singer, Johnny. And one of their friends/roadies/manager who eventually rocks up with the CD. The band, it turns out, is called “Magneto.”

I keep talking to Paul as the next band starts playing (The New Electric – also fantastic, a bit weird but brilliant) and he shows me the bassist from the Fauves with whom I exchange a funny face and a wave as he’s smoking and can’t shake my hand. He also introduces me to Andy.

Andy is the one on the right.

We all talk a bit, they decide to leave, I watch the rest of the Sparrows set and chat to the singer for a little bit (we know each other vaguely).

I wander off home with a copy of the Sparrows EP for Sarah (I’ll get another for me later) and go to sleep in a great mood.
Today. (Saturday)

I have lunch with Sarah and the others. She loves her CD and is wowed by the night I had last night.

She breaks my heart a little because she’s going to start doing a med degree mid year and may just be dropping out of honours.

But let’s not think about that for now.

I go home and look at my Magneto CD. I read the names of the guys I had spoke to (and the sole member I didn’t) and stopped on the guy I’d spent the most time with. Paul Inglis.

It sounds so familiar to me. And he was talking about some other band he’s a member in. So just now, I’ve googled it.

Prettymess.

That’s the other band he’s in. Another band I’ve seen support the Sparrows. Another band I fell in love with almost instantly.

Wow, what a fucking night that turned out to be.

(For anyone who isn’t aware of it – I do really, really love the Living End as well)

In your honour - Week Eight

Monday
Well, this is Jesus Zombie Holiday so I had today off. Nice.

Tuesday
I’m supposed to have today off as well, but Alex told me I had to clear the adults from my fly vial so I did that. I also checked for more little microinjection survivors and I found a single one. Yay.

I then sat around trying to do my essay, which was hard given it’s a literature review and I left all my literature at home. Whoops.

Wasn’t too much of a problem as Lee decided he didn’t want to do any work and spent about two hours chatting to me over the course of the day.

Fly count: One vial at the department + a bunch of transgenic larvae in my lab

Wednesday
Today I rocked up late as I slept in, and had to go get all the literature I left at home off my Mother (I slept in Hoppers Crossing you see).

I eventually get to the office and tap tap tap tap tap tap tap etc on my stupid essay.

Wander around getting photocopies for my stupid essay, and reading articles to talk about in my stupid essay (I think you may get the point).

After lunch Alex starts the microinjection again and I help out a little while I can before having to run off to the “Post grad talks.” I had no idea what they were until I got there.

They won’t be the same every month, but this time they had the distinct taste of an Applied Pests meeting. Because all the students talking were from the lab that enjoy dominating us at the stupid CESAR group meetings.

I can’t help it with all of these meetings and presentations and whatever that I’m always attending. I’m constantly reminded of a line from a Harry Potter novel of all things “ ‘Always the same,’ said Mr Weasley, smiling, ‘we can’t resist showing off when we get together.’ ”

Fly count: One vial at the department, a few microinjection survivors now also at the department and however many embryos survived Alex’s good mood this afternoon.

Thursday
Erm.

I worked on my essay.

Fly count: One vial at the department, a few microinjection survivors now also at the department and so far about 20 survivors from Alex yesterday.

Friday
Photocopied stuff for essay. Sat down to write my essay.

Had a supervisor meeting for the first time in quite a while, in which we discussed my essay (and other things).

Had pub lunch and then left to go to my cousins wedding. More on that episode later…

Fly count: One vial at the department, a few microinjection survivors now also at the department and maybe more than 20 survivors (I left before Alex checked them).

Saturday
My first weekend stint. I picked up fly food and put cotton wool in the tops of the vials.

I also collected my first virgin.

Fly count: One vial at the department, a few microinjection survivors now also at the department, Alex’s survivors and a sole transgenic adult. =)

In Your Honour - Week Seven

Monday
Today I became so sick of not being able to reference my essay that I made a phD student who enjoys wasting time sit down me and the hons guys and show us how to use a program called Endnote.

That proved useful.

Fly count:zilch. Please note the new fly count. These will refer to fruit flies, as they’re the only ones I deal with while they’re alive more or less. Any blow flies I get are generally crushed, frozen or dissected immediately.

Tuesday
I went to the doctor again about chronic fatigue. I’m perfectly healthy. I hate it when they say that. Why do I feel so crap then?

She gave me a vitamin shot though. Then I sat through a bunch of meetings (I did miss one though – late from the doctor).

In the evening I did something called a microinjection. This involves mutating fly embryos by injecting DNA into them. This is a very, very painful process.

I left at seven o’clock (the view from our lab looks amazing at night by the way) having spent four, four and a half doing the stupid injection.

I go to bed that night and can see little embryos when I close my eyes. These things are about as big as a full stop and I spent so many hours looking down a microscope trying to align them (yes, line these stupid little things parallel to each other down the edge of a glass slide).

And after all this, it doesn’t look like many of them will make it.

Which means we have to do it again.

Fly count:Maybe a few little babies that survived the injection.

Wednesday
Today Alex taught me how to deal with the fly lines I’m about to get. It’s going to be a lot of work.

He also gave me a vial of adult flies that will be important for all the fly work I’m about to get.

I also froze a bunch of older baby blow flies for crushing. I still need primers before they are of any use though.

It may have been today, but instead of bringing in his son’s rabbit, today Tek brought in his son. He gave us all easter eggs.

Fly count: A vial of adults with white eyes (normally they are red) and possible injection survivors.

Thursday
Today was the day I looked for more injection survivors and could find a single one which a phD student told me how to deal with (this fly would later die and some might be tempted to blame the advice I was given for this).

I call the fly room so I can speak to Alex to ask his advice. Jin answers the phone. Jin is a phD student and is quite a character. I had a five minute conversation with him, during which all I said was “Is Alex there?”

Alex comes over and finds another half dozen survivors.

We need about 50. Not good.

I got some primers. Still waiting on another four though.


Fly count: a few more survivors and my vial of adult white eyed guys.

Good Friday
I did not attend uni today, but rather went away with my sister et al. for the weekend. I read a phD thesis about esterase-mediated OP resistance for some of the weekend.

In your honour - Week Six

Monday
Today the question was raised as to why there were no longer chocolates in Bio21. We sell giant freddos etc to fundraise for the Post-grad society.

It was then that I became the Bio21 chocolate rep. I don’t do much, but it’s a very important role.

Tuesday
Stupid meeting day.

Spent the morning polishing my essay intro and e-mailed it to PD and PB.

Went to stupid meeting and acquire $90 worth of fundraising chocolate to sell at Bio21. Good fun.

After meetings PD tells me to come chat with him about the essay. It appears he then walked off out of the building and didn’t return until a few minutes before home time.

Get my sequencing back – it was fact, I was right.

But I’m in the lab preparing bacterial growth (from my blue guys who weren’t supposed to be blue) for the massive DNA extraction I’m about to do.

I get out and wander aimlessly to find PD for half an hour before finding him. I pretend to cry, he laughs, we both go home after agreeing to meet tomorrow.

Wednesday
I went to a doctor today and didn’t ask about my foot. I asked about chronic fatigue instead. So I got manhandled by a pathology nurse.

I arrive a little late and jump straight into the quiz (I got to read it today, how special). Then there was a short meeting with PD about my essay intro, which was pretty bad it would seem. Oh well.

After lunch I started work on the world’s most hideous and painful DNA extraction. I spent 4.5 hours on it and it still ain’t done. Grrr.

Thursday
I do believe I screwed up my PCR again.

I went to a dermatologist this morning and said “What’s wrong with my foot?” “Oh that’s easy, it’s granuloma annulare.”

Well, that was easy.

Finished doing the stupid, stupid DNA extraction.

Then, this afternoon was my lab versus the other CESAR lab at netball. My team nickname was Jude “Don’t mess with me” Mitchell.

I played centre. I’m not very fit, but it didn’t matter because I played really well (and that’s not just my opinion). But that’s besides the point because we won. 28-15 or something. Woo hoo.

Friday
When I got to the office this morning I met with a nice surprise. There was a rabbit in the office. It’s name is “Bunny.” It was a very sweet little thing and I spent a fair amount of the day cuddling it.

I actually did manage to have my weekly supervisor meeting this week (even if one of them is still in Texas). During the meeting I was given some bioinformatics work to do as well as the decision to do a new experiment which will require me to do radiation training. Boo.

Oh well, I might learn something interesting from the experiment. But, I personally, believe it comes down to PD’s predisposition to thinking that his experiments are great and can be applied to everything (see back to Bio21 symposium day – everyone does it).

Then there was pub lunch where Emily and I shared a “fat-ass parma” and we didn’t even get the whole thing eaten.

I also discovered the best way to get one of the post-docs to do something for me. I just followed him around until he finally coughed up what I wanted. Maybe I should try that more often….

In your honour - Week Five

Monday
So…in the lab there are these stupid duties. It would seem it’s my turn to do one this week.

Waste disposal.

It involves taking waste to and putting it through a thing called an autoclave, which sterilizes it.

That’s all well and good until you realise I don’t know where the autoclave is and I don’t know how to use it. This is probably for the best given I’m also not allowed to use the autoclave.

Tuesday
Today I had to give a little talk in lab meeting.

It was horrific.

I hate public speaking, and I’ve been so nervous about it. I kept telling myself that they were all my friends and I shouldn’t worry about it, but it still sucked.

Everyone told me I did well.

In the afternoon I did an experiment. Yay. I genetically modified some bacteria. Cool, cool.

Wednesday
There was a morning tea at Bio21 today from which I got a bunch of free pens. Hooray for free pens.

I suspect I did some things to my bacteria from yesterday, but I’m writing this entry at the end of week 8 so I hardly remember.

Also today was the Post-grad AGM. Nothing all that exciting happened. People were voted in to new positions. I almost volunteered to be activities co-ordinator, but it’s supposed to be a phD student doing that. Oh well.

Thursday
I had some rather strange results from my genetically modified bacteria which was “You’re wrong.” It was telling me something I knew to be fact actually hadn’t occurred. Because it was blue. The bacteria aren’t supposed to be blue.

So I had to do a pain in the arse sequencing reaction to ensure that my fact I once believed was, in fact, true. Problem is, I don’t have a password to submit sequencing reactions. Bugger.

I went to see a surgeon today and said “What’s wrong with my foot?” He said “I don’t know, go see a dermatologist.” This was after waiting three weeks for the appointment followed by an hour and a half in his waiting room.

Friday
Another meeting with the Phils. Pub lunch. Work on the essay.

Use Henry to submit my sequences.

That’s about it.

Ever wonder what happens to your days?

In your honour - week four

Monday
Today I had some marvellous thing called a committee meeting. It includes my supervisors (PD and PB) and two other members of academic staff (MH and DG). MH is someone I’ve never encountered before, but in telling people that he was on my committee, have been offered condolences.

DG I thought was safe, as I’ve actually worked for her and met her and chatted to her on several occasions. So what happens when I walk into the room? “Hello, Louise.” Damn it.

They asked me a lot of questions and I felt rather concerned by the end. PB tells me I did well, I just need to learn to speak louder (I would later learn he was praising me to another Hons student in another committee meeting).

Then I went to the Commonwealth Games. Jason (FIND A LAST NAME) is my hero.

There was quite a mess getting out of the MCG. It took me 45 minutes to get from my seat in the stadium to my platform on Richmond station. Think about it.

Tuesday
Today I had a meeting (in addition to department meeting, department seminar, lab meeting) with all the people who are studying the same organism as me. There ain’t many of us.

Me, one of my fellow honours students, the RA I do a lot of work with (Alex), the guy who never gives me primers no matter how many times I ask him and a population geneticist (shudder).

Population genetics is the reason I hate the Applied Pest Meetings. They look at genes to guess which way bugs are moving. It’s all statistics.

PB called the meeting as he believed t was a good idea. He was at the Games. That was a small error in communication. Not to worry. We all gave the population geneticist our e-mail addresses (he’s in a different lab) and got on with our lives, event to be re-scheduled.

Wednesday
I picked up some little maggot guys and froze them. They’re now sitting in a box in the minus 80 degree freezer. I don’t even need them because I borrowed Alex’s when I did that experiment.

Then I went to Ronald McDonald House. Yay.

Thursday
I don’t actually remember this day, and didn’t write down about anything I did.

At the very least, it meant I could continue with lab work.

Friday
Another meeting with the Phils (PB and PD if I haven’t said this yet). They are apparently very happy with the work I’ve done. That’s nice to know.

I’m not so hot when it comes to the literature research unfortunately. All the facts are just too messed up in my head.

I managed to avoid going to the waste of time “Applied Pest Meeting” today. Only time will tell if I actually get away with it.

Meanwhile, I spent the afternoon cataloguing all the papers I’ve read and fill in the gaps in my knowledge.

PB recommended some guys who did some great work that I should read. They did such great work that they felt satisfied they’ve solved the problem and gave up researching any thing I care about 15 years ago. What this means is I can’t get copies of any of it, because online journals didn’t exist then.

Conclusions for the day: I don’t know a single useful fact in the world.

Weekend
Everything I’ve read so far is useless.

But at least it’s organised now.
Fly count:

In Your Honour - Week Three

Monday

I hand in my stupid research plan. I’m not sure I’ve done it correctly, but it’s done. PD gave me the go ahead.

Tuesday
Meeting day. PD requests someone draw him a picture of a fruit fly (an organism we study a lot) holding a coffee cup (it turns out caffeine does something to the flies that we find interesting). That’s right up my alley I think.

Wednesday
Oh wow! I get a sample. I run eagerly to the genetics building and carry back some baby flies frozen in liquid nitrogen. This means I have to take the stairs, which got a little boring.

Wow. A sample. I begin to do an RNA extraction and screw it up completely. I have learnt the value of buying an mp3 player as it helps subdue the boredom of waiting for an incubation.

Thursday
I did so much junk in the lab today. I did in situ preps for Henry. I did sequencing for Alex. And I did my own RNA extraction (again).

All these experiments involve 10 minute incubations or whatever so I was constantly running from one thing to the other with my eye on the time so I knew which one I had to run back to just as soon as I’d added 10 micro litres of….

My RNA extraction worked this time. Everyone was so happy for me.

Friday
I had a meeting with the Phils today. One of them didn’t realise it was on. We discussed the essay topic I was going to write about, and I wound up with something I was rather pleased about. I was also prepped for my committee meeting on Monday. Eeeeeeek.

PB loved his coffee drinking fly.

In Your Honour - Week Two

Details start to get hazy here. I can’t remember specifically what got done.

Monday
Take ultrasound photos back to the doctor – What’s this lump on my foot?

Tuesday
Meeting day. All the same meetings as I had last week and an extra special bonus this time a presentation and writing skills presentation. Admittedly, it was given by one of my heroes, John McKenzie who was Dean of Science last year and has since been promoted.

Wednesday
I attend a session on risk assessment training that it turns out I didn’t need to go to. That was the world’s biggest waste of time.

Thursday
Chemical management training. We get shown a whole bunch of dangerous things and get told

“don’t.”

I also get a silly photo taken to stick up on the wall in the department outside the main office.

Friday
The Bio21 symposium. Everyone in the building got together and gave a little presentation on what they spend their days doing. Then they get asked questions. The questions often, to me, seemed to be “Why don’t you do experiment X?” coming from a scientist that spends all his or her time doing experiment X.

I worked the displays to get free samples, pens and post-it notes from all the scientific supply companies. It turns out Invitrogen pens are just the greatest things in the world.

Also, in the morning is the applied pests meeting.

That sucked.

The whole thing was studying insects from a very different angle from us. I don’t think the guy even said the word “gene.”

In Your Honour

Weekend One - Portsea

Friday
Down we go. Jeremy and Mo discuss music in the front seat and I sit in the back having thumb wars with Alex. The trip was a long and possibly incorrect one, but we eventually made it to “Port Campsie.”

The four of us arrive, dive into the ocean and proceed to throw around a tennis ball until dinner. Which was pizza and fish and chips from town.

After all that had been done there was a table tennis tournament in which the rules constantly changed. I don't remember who won, but I was paired up with Jim-Lad. I just remember sitting on the side with the phD students from my lab, heckling/cheering with as much enthusiasm as I've done at any football game. The rest of the night was spent with those boys in a similarly silly fashion.

I also discovered that it's often seen that PB doesn't take on a large number of female students. "Why me?" I ask. "There'll be something about you." "There'll be a reason."

Maybe PB does love me after all. I heard that he rang someone else who is an hons student with me, begging him to be part of the lab because he didn't trust the hons co-ordinator to do the job proprely. I'd been struggling with how well I fit into the lab/was wanted to be there up until that point.

At about 12.30 the camp CEO comes in and threatens to kick us all out unless we shut up. Ok. The karakoe was a little loud. But still, one warning at least?

We all go down to the beach but I go to bed shortly after.

Saturday
I wake up, have breakfast and go swimming.

That's the way life should be.

In the water I play a lot of frisbee. I think I may have gone swimming again after lunch.

At some point all the honours students gather together to prepare our play for the night. All the costumes are there and the props because we've already decided it's going to be a take off of the life of an honours students, safety meetings and other meetings and etc.

I volunteer to help dress Mo in his safety gear. Nice quiet, easy part. Not embarassing or difficult at all.

And I've forgotten my lab coat. Shit shit shit.

Moving on I come up with an idea thanks to recent flights to and from Tasmania. "Why don't we make the safety presentation like the ones they give on aeroplanes?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea. You do that, Jude."

Hang on.

I'm a pretty shy girl, so standing up in front of a lot of people I don't know and trying to be funny doesn't sound like my cup of tea. Bugger.

Then ice cream. And more swimming.

Then the competition starts in which very stupid games meet very geeky games and a few meet drinking games. My team (SyBr greens) blast the first comp (karakoe) by convincing the department's only Professor (and a few others) to get into skirts and preform "i feel like a woman." We lost everything else though.

Not to worry.

The comp ends and the room goes silent as everyone glares at the hons students, immediately expecting us to be entertaining.

We wander off and prepare. Put on lab coats (I don't mind you - it's at home).

Me, I'm nervous as hell and shaking like I always do.

The play starts, people are laughing (and shouting all sorts of jokes out at us - makes it hard to concentrate).

My turn. I walk up and start my half-scripted bunch of jokes with a small, nervous voice.

They all laugh.

And laugh.

And laugh.

And applaud.

Yay. I'm elated. We finish up, but not without getting a few people wet in the process.

Best of all, afterwards we all start drinking and chatting again and PB walks up to me

"You were fantastic."

This, coming from a man who used to produce amateur theatre "You've got a future in this."

=)

I then find Andy, who I wound up bumping into a lot while I was trying to get into honours. He gave me a fair amount of advice I believe I've never thanked him for.

Any way, we start talking.

Three hours later we stop talking and go to sleep.

Sunday
Unfortunately, i was desprate to get home to sticks and so left fairly early on Sunday. But a fair few people did.

The trip home was quieter but still enjoyable.

I find myself now wanting to do a phD just so I can go to Portsea again.

In your honour - Week One

Monday
I arrived this morning in a state of panic. I was sure there’d be trouble for the fact that I was starting a week late. Fortunately I appeared to have gotten away with it. Quite the opposite, in fact, it was hard to get people to care that I had arrived.

I met my new collegues and was allocated a desk (the one right next to the door) before being told to sit down, and not given a great of advice other than this. I turned on the computer and set up my e-mail before beginning to download some papers to read.

At 2.30 I wandered over to Genetics (I’m actually in a building a stone’s throw from the campus) to attend a safety seminar. Given I’d already read a massive document on safety, I didn’t learn much. All it seems was that it was a waste of time reading the document.

Tuesday
This morning I went to see a university doctor and asked him what the lump on my foot was. I waited in a queue to see him for about 40 minutes before he even walked into the building. I get in to see him then run to Genetics for the departmental meeting. Then the lab meeting. Then lunch. Then the departmental seminar.

I finally get to Bio21 at about 2 o’clock and somehow haven’t done a single thing during the day.

I read some papers and go home.

Wednesday
I arrive today and call for someone to let me into the building. Despite the fact that I agreed to this honours project some three months prior to the starting date, no one thought it might be a good idea to grant me access to the building. Oh well.

I do however, have a key to my drawer. Which will come in handy if I ever need to lock anything in it, which seems unlikely at this stage. Print outs of papers perhaps?

At 11 am I wander over to Genetics to see how to play with blowflies (allegedly I may be doing this at some point in the year). They smell.

More to the point, they like to eat off meat. That smells.

I read some more papers and get shown some really, really basic lab skills.

Am starting to regret signing up for this thing.

Thursday
I don’t have anything written in the diary for this day, so I assume I read papers.

I also have to call someone for help when I go to the bathroom. The door to come BACK from the toilet will keep you locked in a small corridor for eternity if you don’t have the access card. It’s getting annoying.

I am really starting to regret signing up for this. I'm sad and stressed and desprate for something to do.

Friday
I go to Royal Melbourne Hospital this morning and get an ultra sound of the lump on my foot. When I get to Bio21 after this I call someone to let me into the building.

I had a small meeting with my supervisors PB (head of the lab) and PD (a post-doctorate fellow). They inform me I’ll get to start work on Monday. I’m rather excited by this prospect.

The rest of the day was spent reading papers.

That is, up until we left for Portsea….stay tuned.

And this is how we gonna do stuff

I still exist.

I've been snowed under with Honours, and I intend to tell you all about it as soon as I can.

I've also been to Tasmania, went to the Commonwealth games, managed to visit Ronald McDonald House once or twice and tried and failed to do some art stuff which I love so much.

I've acquired three "how to" books in the past few months but still haven't managed "to" yet.

I intend to start writing Honours stories up here, but at the moment I'm stuck in something to do with a gene being overexpressed in a DDT resistant mosquito and I'm somewhat interested.

But the world has really been against me updating this thing. I've tried to several times and just nothing.

Sorry peeps, assuming people are still checking this.