He proved he could talk fluent human

This is a comment made by a Guardian Unlimited commentator about Gordon Brown, future prime minister of Britain.

HANK (to Larry): Look, you seem like a nice guy, so I'm telling you this for your own good: judging by the two times I've met you, your life has been a waste so far. Forget these chorus guys and find a nice girl, or at least something productive to do like a stamp collection. Your local postmaster can help you. Here's his number.

Who knows where words come from...

So yesterday marked two milestones: I am done writing the Materials and Methods section of my thesis and I applied for my first jobs (about 10) for after graduation. I have been fretting over what statistical methods to use in my thesis but my adviser told me that there is a biostatistician that I can talk to that would help me (thank goodness). I have one more paper that I want to get and read and then I am done with all my background reading. But best of all I heard the best word today. It was on an episode of this American Life and there was a little section about pledging to NPR and Ira Glass used the allure of the rewards of various "merch" to encourage donations. I will be using this word when ever appropriate now.

BOBBY: What we need is a class full of girls who don't know us very well.
JOSEPH: Yeah! We could pretend we're from the future, and we need to experiment on 'em!... Wait, this is why girls don't like me, right?

A 45 second minute

The title comes from a description I made of the power supply I am using to run gels for the past week. Either the internal clock on the power supply is off (and running fast) or I have lost the ability to tell time. I am really close to setting a defense date for my thesis, either July 2nd or 3rd. My third committee member will be leaving town on the fourth and be gone until August so that kind of made the first few days of the July the best days. I don't really mind have my defense early in the month, that means that I can leave Iowa earlier. I am so close to being done with my research. I have already prepared about 56 of my samples to be sequenced. I also have maybe four more papers that I want to get and then I can start really writing my background (instead of just organizing it my head). I am planning on making a rough outline this weekend. So for the first time in a while, I actually feel confident that I am going to graduate in the foreseeable future (so please don't rain on my parade!). I got to expand my baking repertoire yesterday when I made a devil's food cake for a labmate's birthday. I meant to take a picture of the cake to post but I forgot.

" Oh, dang, someone's coming! Lie back and think of England. Hugh Grant. Spice Girls. Paddington!" - Bobby Hill

When life gives you the short end of the stick

make shortbread (with dried cranberries). I took a picture of my fancy shortbread but the picture didn't turn out very well, and you can't see the United Kingdom related impression (a thistle for Scotland, a dragon for Wales, and a Tudor rose for Britain). But it is really good shortbread!

ANNOUNCER: Up next: "History's Mysteries, with Nazi Hidden Gold," followed by "Building the Nazi War Machine" and "Nazis of the Desert, Nazis of the Sea."
LUANNE: Wow, the Nazis did a lot.

Satellites Lost

It has almost been two weeks since I have posted (and I sure lots of people are sitting at home wondering what has happened to me!). This is mostly due to the fact that I had to replace the hard drive on my laptop last week and I usually write my posts in the evening between reading papers and writing parts of my thesis. I've been pretty busy in the lab but I was able to make time to go home to the farm for Mother's Day which was quite nice. I got to spend lots of time with my parents and was the least stressed that I have been for a month. And my mom made me delicious ribs for dinner on Sunday. It would not be a trip home if I didn't have some car trouble driving back to school (okay this is just the third problem out of multiple trips). This time I had a leak in my radiator so after 100 miles all the antifreeze had leaked out so my dad loaded up the trailer and picked me up outside of Gridley (on the bright side I did get some papers read while waiting and thought about how I wanted to organize sections of my background in my thesis). After replacing the radiator, we also replaced the shocks and the muffler. So I drove back Tuesday morning and worked in the lab for six hours. The extra day at home hasn't affected my lab work too much. I also have my laptop back so hopefully I will better about posting.

"I know it's you Dale. You're smoking the same brand of cigarettes you did in third grade" - Rusty Shackleford (the real one!)

"I didn't die in third grade Dale, I just moved away."- Rusty Shackleford

One piece at a time

For once I have good news, I am half-way done with my research in the lab. Thank goodness, because the pace I have been going has been tough but I think that it will slow down a little to a less exhausting pace. But I have some bad news, which is that my laptop is acting up a little bit so I haven't been able to work on my thesis in evening so I have been reading lots of papers. I have made a significant dent in the materials/methods. But now time for more papers and reading!

RAY: You ever hear of a guy named Jack?
HANK: Well, I went to high school with a guy named --
RAY: No, no, this guy never went to school, he grew up in the hills. But he wrote the book on homemade bait. 'Course it's just a bunch of scribbles 'cause he never went to school.