Science Is A Cruel Mistress

Wow, that's really all I care to pontificate on this whole thing. If you read this, you know that I've been burnt-out and tired of troubleshooting this experiment for the last 6 weeks that I've been stuck on this step of the experiment. Miranda, the lab manager, does the same procedure I've been at for weeks using the old reagents, and lo and behold: a miracle. The thing works perfectly for her the first time. It's an old rule in science that if you're really really stuck, I mean you've exhausted all the possible permutations, then giving off to someone else is a sometimes useful course of action. There's something about a fresh pair of hands on a sticky experiment that often coaxes it back into working order. I did this for Virginia with her EMSA last summer, she was stuck: she would get a good result and then it would fail, or be un-repeatable, or some such thing. I did it three times perfectly using the exact protocol she had been using. I didn't know until know how much of an idiot that will make you look. Yes, this is a group effort; yes, this is one of the many flukes of science that we as scientists can't or won't question; and yes, the new hands often aren't seeing the big picture or get tripped up in the minute details like the primary person would; but this still makes you feel stupid. I suppose it has something to do with the ego we all put into our projects and our work. We take time, blood (sometimes literally here!), sweat and tears to make this stuff work. This goes for any job where people are passionate about what they do! When someone just nonchalantly comes and makes this thing you're stuck on work like a well oiled machine the first time, it makes you feel dumb that you couldn't. I'm trying to be Zen and just throw this up to the fact that this is how biology and cloning works, so just let it go and move on.

In other news I couldn't really sleep last night so I finished construction of my box that you've read about in a few previous posts. It looks very nice and looks like a pro rack box. Here's a description: Imagine looking at a box that's 8" tall and 19"x19" in the length and width. If you look down from the top, you see, as you are at the front of the box, my turntable controls and then the mixer after that. Then there's a gap behind the mixer (so I can get my hands in to change inputs and cords on the fly should anything screw up. I forgot to mention, imagine a 1" border of brushed shiny metal lining all the edges of said box. The front of the box is a descending black panel (poly-urethane treated MDF painted black and given another poly-urethane coat) then the turntable CD unit (think 2 CD drives in your computer side by side) and that's where I load the records. The sides are solid black like the front panel with large, heavy-duty handles that are the same shine/color metal as the lining. The back of the box is totally exposed so that I can plug everything into the power strip and so I can have unhampered access when I'm actually setting up everything. I'll post pictures later this afternoon when I get home and you can see what I've been up to these past few days in my garage! I've cut myself twice, gotten slivers of metal in my hands and feet (I had to pull 3 metal splinters out of my thumb this morning), burned myself three times, and dropped the metal skeleton on my toe: 100% worth it, it looks hardcore!

My family was impressed with how it came out and my dad asked me how much it had cost for everything. I told him and he said I could easily sell it for more than I got it, and I told him that I still wanted to play on it before I ever thought about that! I showed him how to use all the stuff and he was impressed. He was thinking about giving me some old speakers (they're still great and are older than I am) and they've got RCA output which suits me just peachy. I'm really looking forward to playing for people in Austin at parties and whatnot. I keep thinking about Austin, and even though I know it's not that far off for me, I still feel my time here like I'm wading through mud and I can't move much. Dallas isn't really home anymore and I'm wondering if it would ever be again. At least when I'm at my parent's house, it feels more like home, but everyone's schedule is so crazy it feels very different now.

This is all for now, feel free to post a comment if you are so inclined, I'm just plodding along today and there's nothing much to be said of Thursday, except that it's not really Friday and yet it's not so tied to the work-week.


She's so fickle sometimes...