Moon Eclipse

I took the photo. Not very sharp though.

You Are Just Too Lazy!

The Genetics Lab's big lab report dues in two days. Naturally, the hallway outside of my boss's office is suddently filled with desperate students seeking his last-minute counsel.

Some can't stand the long waiting so they turn their attention to me.

"Lei, maybe you can help us?" Vic, one of the students, asks.

I should. I am the TA of this class.

But I can't. I can solve all the technical problems during their experiments. But their data is too complicated. As a new TA of this lab, I don't know all the details and tricks of the experiments. In fact, I tried to help one group with their data analysis before. But either I was too stupid or their data were full of error, I couldn't figure out how to solve their problem.

So I go,"Sorry, Vic, I really want to help. But I don't want to misguide you. You'd better ask the professor."

He goes:"Sure you can. It's a good question. I believe you can."

Very tempting. Very seductive. I almost give in. But I tell myself to stick to my gun.

"No. Sorry."

And I feel really sorry for not being able to help.

He says:"Oh. Lei. I believe you can do it. You're just too lazy!"

The take-home lessons: a)students, when cornered, are quite aggressive, and b)I am a lousy, lousy, lousy, lousy TA.

Total Lunar Eclipse

There is going to be a total lunar eclipse tomorrow night.

I hope the weather will cooperate. Don't be cloudy, please. Or at least let us see the moon, please.

It always fascinates me that ancient people could figure out that lunar eclipses are caused by the earth's shadow, and that it proves the earth is round. They must be supersmart.

Lab Art

Two modern art pieces, by our lab artist Feng.




Packaging Peanuts and Pipet Tips #1: Lamb






Packaging Peanuts and Pipet Tips #2: Bird

Gold Medal

So he's going to keep it, anyway.

Winner takes it all.

Unfair.

But how could you expect fairness in an unfair world?

So naive. Too simple.

Less Is More?

Nature says human gene number is less than 25,000, about the same as green pufferfish.

We used to think we had 100,000 genes. Or at least much more than those of animals.

What a shame.

So it's not quantity, it's quality.

After all, we are much smarter than pufferfish.

Or are we?

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy readers should know what I mean.

Well, at least it matches the minimalism philosophy. Like the new iMac.

Who says science can't be chic?

After Dark

A view of my desk after the lights are off.

A mini constellation in my room.

Who cares if it is raining outside or not?

Which File Extension Are You?

I am:


Which File Extension are You?

Doh!

Oh, well. I guess it's true though.

At least Molly thinks so.

The behavior of taking this test at midnight itself is also a sign.

Cat's Nose

So I went to my boss's house to take care of their pets tonight. Molly was sad, as usual. Or maybe she was just bored without my boss around. When he was around, she barked a lot, as if talking to him. But now she was completely silent.

Did my boss tell her that I am from China so she thought my English was not good enough to understand her?

This made me think of a girl from the Genetics Lab of which I am a TA. She never asks me any questions. One day I overheard her conversation with her lab partener:"I don't think he understands us."

Oh, well. Who cares.

While I was patting Molly to try to cheer her up, the cat "Noodle" ran down the stairs, jumped on the coach and sat beside me.

This was new. The last several times when I was pet-sitting, she didn't even look at me.

She began rubbing her cheeks against my hand. Her fur felt so soft. And her nose, ah, her nose was so cold.

Was it because it was raining outside?

I guess the poem "Fog" can be changed to:

The rain comes
on little cat's nose.

Bigger Chests, Bigger Chances

BBC reports that men in Shanghai are seeking male beauty by chest implants.

In its Chinese version of the same news, the title ends with an exclamation mark. (一些上海男人为了拥有健美胸肌，竟然开始填硅胶隆胸！)

I mean why exclamation mark? Isn't it a world where men and women are equal? Some women want bigger chests and so do some men. They want them and they want them NOW! What's wrong with that?

I want bigger chest, too. I prefer "physical exercise" rather than implants, though. So relax, and don't expect me to come back from China with bigger chest!

Eclipse

There will be a partial solar eclipse tomorrow. But I can't see it because I am not north enough.

Square Bacteria

Square bacteria grown in lab for the first time.

Absent-minded

1:00 pm. I sat in the injection room, getting ready for another afternoon's injection.

Feng walked in. He asked:"You forgot?"

Me:"What?"

Feng:"The Germline Group Meeting!"

Oh. My. God.

Every Monday, we have a group meeting at 12:00. I never missed one. But I completely forgot this one.

Worse yet, today the presenter is-my boss!

Oh. My. God.

This was not my first time.

Last Friday I was setting up the injection and my boss looked at me in puzzlement.

"What are you doing?"

I felt confused too:"Injection?"

"But our lab meeting's in 5 minutes!"

Oh. My. God.

Just 3 days later I did it again.

What had happened to me?

I felt so stupid. I blushed. I sat there motionless. But then I found I was actually shaking all over.

I tried to find an excuse. But then I couldn't find one except that I was so stupid.

I tried to blame someone else. But then I could blame no one but myself.

I could imagine people's laugh, or smirk, or sneer. I wanted to destroy these people's soul.

But then I found that the one I really wanted to destroy was myself.

I asked Feng:"What did he say?"

"He said:'Welcome aboard! The Absent-minded Professor!'"

Oh. My. God.

House Of Flying Daggers

Salon.com seems to like Zhang Yimou's new Wuxia movie "House of Flying Daggers" a lot. In its review, it calls the movie "an epic of the heart".

But Chinese audience called it "heartless and silly".

This makes this movie more intreguing.

Will I like it?

Can't wait to see it.

The teaser looks pretty cool, at least.

Man's Best Friend

Today my boss asked me jokingly:"So you are still going home?"

I said:"Of course."

He said:"Then I guess I have to find someone else to take care of my Molly and the cats when we go to Kentucky this Christmas."

Oh. That was good news.

Not that I don't like Molly. I do like her. But everytime my boss's family went away for vacation, she always thought she was abandoned by them. You should just look at her sad eyes. They broke my heart.

So I was glad I didn't have to face those eyes again.

Going home during Christmas=No pet sitting. I made a quick mental note.

But my boss continued:"This reminds me: are you going to be around next weekend? We are going to Boston next Friday to visit my son. Parents' weekend, you know. Maybe you can take care of Molly and the cats if you are free?"

Oh. Great.

Kiss Of Death

Three scientists won the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering how cells destroy unwanted proteins.

I am excited because this is what I am working on.

Well, sort of.

Homeward Bound

I'm sitting in the railway station
got a ticket for my destination
mm, mm, mmm ...
...

Today my boss agreed to let me go back to China this Christmas break.

Thus officially began my long, painful, costly and risky journey back home.

I have come to the US for four and a half years and never been back. Not that I don't want to, but because the US government has tightened its visa policy for international students in the "sensitive" majors. Biology is one of them. We are very likely subjected to "background checking", which takes God-knows-how-long. A girl in my department went home last Christmas and didn't come back until this May. In the mean time, we have to stay in our home country and let our experimental material rot.

I remember when I was in college I felt very excited towards the end of each semester just by thinking of the warmth of home.

But now it feels so stressful.

Babara Walter said her favorite journey was:"to my home."

Would she feel the same if she had to suffer what we have been through?

Homeward bound,
I wish I was Homeward bound

I wish I was homeward bound, too, without the fear, you know.

New Gmail Features

It's been reported that some Gmail accounts have seen some new features.

Contacts list: Moved to the main screen. New list of frequently used contacts
Drafts: You know have the ability to save a draft
Atom: You can now receive your new mail notifications in your RSS reader

Mine hasn't changed yet, though.

The Atom feed feature is the most exciting thing. Can't wait to test it out.

Who's Cookin'?

Sunday. I came to the lab as usual to take care of my flies. To my horror, there was no fly food left.

We used to have an undergraduate student making food for us. But she graduated in May and my boss didn't hire another one. So for the last four months, my boss and I had been the food makers. He usually kept an eye on the food supply. When it was low, he would say:"Lei, we are almost out of food. When do you have time to make food with me?" But this time, he didn't say anything, as if he didn't notice. Weird.

I looked into my boss' office. The lights were off. Usually he came in on weekends, but he wasn't here at this time. I was the only one in the lab.

So it left me with two choices: either wait till tomorrow to make food with my boss, or make it today by myself.

It was probably OK to make food tomorrow. The flies wouldn't complain if I left them in old food bottles and vials for two more days.

But it would be better if they had new food sooner.

Finally I decided: as a 5th year graduate student, I should take the responsibility of the lab chore.

In the kitchen I started weighing out the indregients. Making fly food is the same as making your own dinner. You put right amount of suger, corn meal, agar, yeast and water into a big kettle and let it boil for 10 minutes while constantly mixing it. Then you dispense the super dense corn meal soup into 90 bottles and 180 vials. Let the food solidify overnight, and put stoppers on the bottles and vials the next day.

It isn't a tough job. But it can get pretty hot, laborous and smelly at times. That's why nobody really enjoys making food. We make food when we have to.

When I almost finished, my boss came into the kitchen. He looked pretty surprised.

"Ah, you are making food!"

"Yeah."

I waited for him to praise me.

He hesitated a little. Then he said:

"I forgot to tell you that I did hire an undergraduate to make food tomorrow."

Oh. Great.

Firefox Security Update

Mozilla released a security update for firefox today. They say it is an important update.

I just updated my Windows and my Office for the JPEG threat thing yesterday, which was not a very pleasant experience. Now Firefox is jumping onto the "security update" wagon too.

Expect more security update from more software.

It's like releasing security updates is the new hip thing of the net.

There should be a website which collects all the software updates, just like the websites which collect deals. And of course, it should be RSS enabled. This would save us a lot of trouble to look for updates.