Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff

It was another snowpocalypse up north but here it just rained all night. I know because I got the stomach bug that fell half of the lab Sunday afternoon and I spent the night between waking up to go to the bathroom. I only puked once and that was the best part (I felt better for a little bit but vomiting doesn't come easy to me). I also slept through most of the Monday while the wind howled and the weather rapidly switched between sun and rain. Or maybe that was just that my moments of conciousness were so far apart. But it rapidly got better today and I'm almost got to normal just in time to go to party to say farewell to half my lab friends who either change jobs or move back to their countries. The party was great but I'm already missing them. Especially the Swede as so many of our experiences were similar so we got the whole America experience together. And since HR is slower than glaciers we still don't have replacements for people who are leaving so we are going to be seriously understaffed for few next weeks.

So at least Person of Interest delivered some distraction. SHAW IS ALIVE!!1!! I never actually expected them to admit to that. At least not this year. After all Sarah Shahi is pregnant with twins and noone knows when she'll be able to come back. I was resigned to them just stringing this on until they know if she wants to come back. But they didn't. She's alive. I also loved the Machine breaking Root's heart. Her faith was to blind. She needed to have her goals crash against those of Machine to see who she really is. Now I can worry what Samaritan is going to do to Sameen. With it's brain implants and human experimentation.

Agent Carter however made a very little sense today. I hope that that Russian they brought back is a plant otherwise this whole thing with Leviathan inviting them to their lair only to have it empty and almost unsecured and letting their most important assets escape makes absolutely no sense. Also making sure we got Dottie was a Leviathan spy was a little heavy handed. We got it even without the handcuffs.

Today, finally after two months of waiting we got our missing bench tables and finally have enough workspace not to sit on one another. But the guys bringing the tables came at 8am or rather just before it. We didn't expect it - we thought more like around 10 - so there was no one there. I got the call (because my phone is there as a contact in case no one's inside) just before 8 that said they are waiting at the door. My bus leaves at 8 and the next was in 15 minutes. I went from half dressed to bus stop in 4 minutes. I didn't even have time to brush my hair. Or eat. Or drink.

I'm not used to going to work so early. And after all the moving and rearranging was done I almost crashed on my desk. One of my co-workers overslept so he almost missed the whole thing. I was practically alone for the first hour. Scientist - not very good with early mornings (except for the ones that wake up early anyway - I had a friend like that). I keep forgetting most of the working world doesn't work on the same schedule.

Now, I'm to tired to do anything so here's more scientist at work. Postdocs at LHC made a movie about zombies. 27 km of underground tunnels. I know people for whom that's scary enough even without the undead.


Oh, and Happy All Saints Day.

One of my American friends invited me to her family Thanksgiving this weekend so I will be able to see how real American Thanksgiving looks like. I'm kind of excited so I'm sorry to leave with sad news. I just learned that Lynn Margulis died on Tuesday. If you'd ask me to name women scientist I she would be one of the firsts. She was the one who formulated the endosymbiotic theory on the origin of eukaryotic organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts. They have their own small genomes and these genomes are very similar to those of simple bacteria. The endosymbiotic theory states that the eucariotic cells turned the bacteria they sucked in into the power and photosynthesis organelles instead of digesting them. When she published this there was a lot of backlash but now it is generally accepted. She then went to live on the boundaries of science sometimes fallowing some crazy hypothesis many of which were wildly criticised - as the Gaia hypothesis but you cannot push the boundaries of science without getting it wrong sometimes. I also find it fascinating that she and Carl Sagan were married for a while before they got famous in their respective fields. And that she enrolled at the University of Chicago when she was 14. As I was working on mitochondrial genomes for a long time she was always my role model. It is as Richard Dawkins said:

I greatly admire Lynn Margulis's sheer courage and stamina in sticking by the endosymbiosis theory, and carrying it through from being an unorthodoxy to an orthodoxy. I'm referring to the theory that the eukaryotic cell is a symbiotic union of primitive prokaryotic cells. This is one of the great achievements of twentieth-century evolutionary biology, and I greatly admire her for it.

I think I mentioned I like the phdcomics several times. I'm not sure I mentioned they made a movie out of it. It's amateur production but from the trailer it looked fun. Especially for the people who know the life of PhD students and post-docs. I just found a review that confirms it. My experience is also not identical but, the same as with the comics, I'm sure that there will be plenty of stuff I can relate to. I was so happy to learn that my problems and depressions are not unique. That what I feel is normal and that even in a far a way and much richer countries the science is basically the same.

As it is not a major production it's being shown as a single even at select places - mostly universities. However, it's actually being screened almost in every one of them (and not just in US) and here's a list and even a map so maybe it is somewhere near you. And here's a trailer - Cecilia and stapler are my OTP ever since I read that story.

PHD Movie Trailer from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

Everyone keeps sharing this and I've just overhear people talking at lab about this vid so here it is



BTW Is it sad that I know Lady Gaga's songs only from parodies?

This time next week I'll be on the plane to Poland. I just spent an hour talking to the customer service. It's because I just got email that my trip back will take one more stop and plane change then it was suppose to. This means that I get back at midnight instead of 10 pm. After being awake for 24 hours it is a big difference. It turned out that they are unable to do anything but maybe before my actual flight back they'll change it again. On the other hand I finally got my ticket number so 'yay' to small victories.

I still have a lot of stuff to do before I left because latest results forced us to rethink what we need to show. I want to make it as close as possible to the final data representation so that my PI can make final adjustments while I'm gone. I'm also preparing data to take back to Poland.

I learned yesterday that I somehow disappeared from the department mailing list. I just thought that the fact that I get less messages because of holidays. It turned out I missed some important announcements e.g. the department retreat registration. No I need to write poster abstract by the end of the week and I have no idea what it should be about (see last paragraph).

And I want to see Scott Pilgrim before I leave because it'll be gone before I come back.

The winter is in full swing. It's -15 outside and temperatures have been dropping steadily since last post (it was -8 then). When I wrote it on Wednesday it just started snowing. It snowed for the whole night and then the whole day on Thursday. Warsaw was gridlocked and although I got to work on time (the superiority of train travel) it took me hour and half to get back because I did something as stupid as getting on a bus. Of course many people who live much closer then I but were crazy enough to take cars to work it took even longer to get home. The first attack of real winter weather is always the worse. After that people get used to it and start behaving normally but at first it's always disaster.

It stopped snowing on Friday but it got colder -13 and my train didn't come at all. Any other day I would stay at home but I had an appointment at the US embassy to talk to consul so I could get a visa and needed to get there on time. I went for another train. It was already on station so I thought I was lucky for a change. But no, of course not. The train stopped several times between stops and just stood there for something like 5 to 20 minutes. Last stop was the longest and I almost lost hope but the train finally started to move again. My mother called later and said another train broke down and blocked the tracks. The trains go through the centre of Warsaw underground. To add to the whole experience they forgot to turn the lights on (or maybe that got broken too). So cold, dark and almost all people left earlier - real ghost train. Anyway by the time I got out of train it was already appointment time. I went the rest of the way on foot and was only 15 minutes late at the embassy gate. There it turned out it doesn't matter because lots of other people was waiting there too and nobody cared I was late. I had to gave away my cell, went through the metal detector (I put on wrong sweater - with metal zippers - so it took few tries), got my documents checked, fingerprints taken and I was ready to see a consul. I waited for few more minutes - good I had a book with me both there and on the train. Anathem made it all bearable. The talk with consul lasted about a minute and I was out of embassy an hour and half after I arrived at the gate. Now, I just have to wait for my passport to get back to me. And hope I won't be turned around on the border. On my way back home the traffic was less awful then on Friday but learning from experience I walked on foot to the train station. That was a lot of walking through snow.

Whole week I had a lot of work at the lab and I also had to complete all the documents I needed before going to embassy and then there was the visit there. And all the running in cold and snow. I was planning to simply rest today. But no, somebody broken into our summer house and we needed to go there and see the damage and wait for the police. Another few hours in the low temperatures. At least it was sunny today but the sun disappears under, well maybe not horizon, but tree line about 3 p.m. and it gets dark fast after that. Shortest days now. And tomorrow is to be the coldest. And maybe I'll get some rest.

I think I'm going to be sick again. The weather is still depressing. I have loads of work this week and I need to prepare a presentation on my visit to Prague (mostly photos :P).

My laptop is dieing (more precisely the hard drive). I was to buy a new one but I suppose there's no point now. I was to post some thoughts on Dollhouse and BSG The Plan and Dust of Dreams yesterday but I lost it. Now it'll have to wait till I have time to write it again and hopefully no hardware failure to thwart me.

Today is my birthday and I was busy so all you get is me:



This is how I dress for work as the renovation still is not over :P