asimplechord

+ Last weekend when we went to SATX for the family ~thing, StepMom loaned us the DVDs for all seven seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Time to marathon a season or two?

~ Work is work. Two post-docs are on maternity leave + Student defends his masters thesis next week, so we're experiencing temporary shrinkage. We're hiring a technician to help with some chores and animal care/characterization (b/c the one thing I stipulated when I was hired was no animal care. ever.) and I'll have a summer undergrad, so we'll be full-up again soon.

~ I finally finished the March bookclub book, The Thirteen Tale. Eh. Sort of gothic mystery, Jane Eyre meets... IDK, Rebecca? I was not impressed. It took multiple instances of picking-up and putting-down before I settled into it, and the ideas expressed about twins irked me. Like, REALLY. I don't care if it was supposed to be early 20th century psychology of twins, it was just lame. a) Don't compare non-twinned people to amputees, missing something they need; if they never had a twin to begin with, they don't know they're missing anything, unlike an amputee. (The narrator's ~issues feel sort of inflated, and I know she has them to parallel what the Missus thinks re: twins, but if she hadn't been a sneak and found info as a kid, would she ever have known? I doubt it.) b) Don't act like there's some amount X of empathy that an embryo has in the womb, and if all of it goes to one twin then the other won't get any. Physical =/ emotional. Also, if pyschology DOES have some basis in genetics, identical twins start with identical genes. Someone's got some weird ideas. But I did enjoy the way, in the story within the story, the narrator's pronoun choice signaled shifts and gave clues to the ultimate outcome.

+ Apparently we are brewing beer this weekend? There's still imperial stout on tap, but the double IPA didn't age well. Whatever, as long as I don't have to be the person organized and alert at 8am on my day off, I don't care.

+ New music! AAR's album, Empires' EP, and The Used album all dropped on Tuesday! Anyone else I'm missing? I'm sure there is. I feel like my twitter feed was pretty chatty about this topic earlier in the week.

~ I feel like there was something else I was going to say... maybe about tennis? Rafa + Daveed both made it to the QFs at Miami. The Williams sisters lost, but I was super impressed that Venus made it as far as she did, and have high hopes for the rest of her season. And I'm hoping that Sharapova delivers a smackdown to Wozniacki today. Even as I type. Or... IDK, maybe that Electric Touch is at HOB tomorrow, and I haven't decided if I'm going to go see them or not? Memory, the first thing to go!

1. Are y'all following the Dear Author discussion about fanfiction and the pulled-to-publish mess highlighted by 50 Shades of Grey?

2. Kim Rhodes is pretty awesome.

3. I have not seen either Iron Man movie, Thor, or Captain America. Someone explain to me why I'm reading Tony Stark/Steve Rogers and Phil Coulson/Clint Barton(/Natasha Romanov) fic. RDJ, Jeremy Renner and Chris Adams, duh. *facepalm*

4. fun. tonight! I'd be a bit more excited if it weren't about to pour like a mofo all day long. DNW to wait outside in the rain. I guess this means I'll just have to go next door to Lucky's & have nachos and beer until the show starts. My life, so hard.

5. I'm pretty sure I had an actual #5 to share, but I can't remember, so.

I know I used to mention the departmental x-ray film developer a lot. Each piece of shared equipment is assigned to a professor, who is in charge of maintenance and repair. My boss got the dark room, which really means that I get to deal with the dark room.

Whatever, I develop multiple films every day, so it's not like I wasn't in there for a quarter of my day, anyway. I will say that it became much less convenient when my lab moved down one floor and to the other end of the building.

For a long time we had a lemon of a developer.

In order for it to function, we instituted a series of rules: take your gloves off (there's a piece of cardboard in film boxes, and with gloves on it feels like film; no one wants to have to clean out the entire machine because you put in cardboard instead of film, and it fell to pieces when soaked in fixer & developer solutions), don't cut film (flip your film for multiple exposures; smaller than 5x7 films get caught in the rollers between tanks), feed film into the machine a specific way, do not fill the chemical tanks with more than one bottle of concentrated reagent (otherwise the auto-fill water that dilutes the reagent will overflow, creating a mess that will require EH&S investigation) and if you have any questions, problems, or jams, CALL ME. (These last two points are pretty important.)

Even so, it was not unusual for me to receive multiple calls per day that a film had jammed, could I come extract it/fix it/do something.

(As you might imagine, this is not an efficient use of my time or departmental resources.)

Eventually we purchased a new developer. The exact same model. It was not as dysfunctional.

But some completely incompetent utterly illiterate asshat apparently cannot read the sign and ignored the departmental email that detailed the same information, and on multiple occasions in the past four months has filled the chemical tanks with twice the amount of concentrate that is necessary. This has led to three separate EH&S incidents caused by massive chemical spills that spread into the next room. The sheet-rock walls were permeated, and now they are moldy.

So the dark room is closed while it undergoes renovations. Of course, the chair's lab has their own developer system, so he didn't want to shell out money for this, but it had to be done for the other lab groups. And the admin he put in charge of organizing it didn't realize that the developer was used 7 days a week, starting at 10am and straight through to 7 or 8pm. She was dismayed to realize that we would have to organize an alternative.

On one hand: yay, an alternative. All research doesn't grind to a halt. OTOH: minimal hours of availability, three floors and one building away. :/

Today Yesterday, I had 8 blots to develop. I have climbed at least 20 flights of stairs. I am tempted to start taking the elevator.

Also in work fuckery, I still don't know what to do about Post-Doc. She just... she's messy. She's inconsiderate of others in common spaces. And she's lazy, OMG. We make SDS buffer for whole-cell lysates, because it solubilizes everything. It's got protease and phosphatase inhibitors, plus SDS, a detergent. The inhibitors require long-term storage at 4C, but SDS is insoluble at that temperature, so before use it should be warmed up to bring the detergent (which is looks flaky and white - like soap, obvsly) into solution.

I found the common bottle in the fridge, and was mildly annoyed that there were only 2mL left, but that was going to be enough for my experiment, so I stuck it in the water bath to warm up. Thirty minutes later, when I checked it, the SDS was in solution, but the buffer was cloudy and I could see that there was a grey-brownish clump of contamination floating in it. So I asked Post-Doc, who used the buffer the previous day if it had been okay then. Her response? No, there was a floater in it, but she figured it was just part of a paper towel or a bit of the lid's lining fallen into the buffer, so she used it anyway.

...uh. No. No one just sticks a paper towel into a bottle of common reagent. And the lid's interior lining was intact. So she harvested an entire experiment of 30 samples with contaminated buffer, because she has no fucking common sense, and is too lazy to make fresh. That was days of work, reagents and cells, and now the result is unusable. :/



On the not-work front, Matt Nathanson was at the House of Blues the other night. He is the MOST entertaining when it comes to between-song banter. Brandi Carlile was there last night, but by the time I was out of work, appropriately exercised, and hosed off, I didn't have the energy to drive back in from the 'burbs. :( Next time. (See, one more reason we need to abandon the Borg 'burbs and move inside the loop.

This weekend: The Seagull at the Alley. Possibly a 40-mile bike ride. Editing fic. Maaaaybe setting a goal of words-per-week for myself, to kick-start myself into plotting and writing the GK/Casablanca AU or Brad/Walt fics that live in my head lately. And booking our vacation. Which, in the end, is probably going to be hiking in Peru.

Top 5 shows of the year?

1. Patrick Stump @ HOB Dallas
2. Foxy Shazam, Patrick Stump, Panic! at the Disco @ Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ
3. Without A Face, Stamps, Tommy & The High Pilots, Ludo @ Bronze Peacock/HOB - Houston
4. Riverboat Gamblers, Flobots, Rise Against @ Verizon, Houston
5. My Morning Jacket's set @ Lollapalooza

( cut to save your f-list )

...or that's what BUrie would have us believe.

ANYWAY.

things

1. Rise Against last week. Clearly I am used to people being in line super early for Discos, because I was surprised that no one (except me) lined up until after 4:30pm. So was the Rise Against tech I chatted with while he was on a smoke-break. Still, worth it.

I was MOST amused by the dude next to me at the barrier, who had spent the morning at a Glenn Beck book signing. When asked if he didn't see any inherent conflict in his love for Rise Against and admiration of Beck, he replied that if he thought about Rise Against's lyrics, he could convince himself that they were libertarian, not liberal left-y activists. (Uh-huh.) He was NOT amused by the Flobots. At all.

2. Super-sekrit Ultimate Ears show at Momo's in Austin, with the ~~~mystery band, Panic! at the Disco: LOL, OUR KARMA. sunn_doyouknow, catchmelike, and I each won two spots each on the guest list, but catchmelike couldn't go, so it ended up being me, shutyourface, eckerlilas, fiddleyoumust (check them for pics, b/c I forgot to take a camera), E, & sunn_doyouknow. The set was short, but it was acoustic, which was awesome, and we were right up front, the best spot to be. :) And there was hanging out at the bar and chatting afterwards. Plus free Ultimate Ears earbuds and t-shirts, and hangtimes w/ ppl I hadn't seen since... the last Discos show, LOL. So, totally worth the drive to Austin. :D

a) They are ridiculous.
b) Did I mention they are ridiculous?
c) I've never been as close during a show, because there was literally no barrier at all. To start the show, Ian & I exchanged high-fives. NGL, I spent a few minutes thinking how pretty Brendon's and Spencer's eyelashes looked on their cheeks, b/c they looked down/closed their eyes during some songs.
d) Dallon (and his stage-banter) is the most hilarious. And best dressed, in a creepy, Dexter-type way, although his sideburns need some work. HE'S TRYING REALLY HARD TO GROW FACIAL HAIR, OK? (And in conversation, he told me that Mormons from Utah are different to Mormons from elsewhere. I was like, ".... uh... anyway..." while thinking that I would not disagree, given my experience living there, but I'm glad that I was not the person to voice that thought.)
e) I cannot decide how to feel when both Brendon and Spencer say they're glad to see us again, and that it's good when they can look out and see people that they recognize, especially at a small show where the crowd is not necessarily their fans. On one hand: \o/ GLAD TO BE THERE AND HELP. OTOH: O.o
f) Zack's judging face: still awesome.
g) Ian: needs to wash his hair and shave his scruff. Perhaps he was too busy playing with his new harmonica to do so yesterday?

( crappy cell-phone pic of my view beneath the cut )

OK. Now to finish editing and write more of my YAGKYAS fic.

The sound for last night's My Chem & Soundgarden sets was the worst mixing I've ever experienced at a festival or a MyChem show. Here's hoping that the FOH for Social Distortion & blink-182 is better.

~ Gah! I hate it when a fic I submitted for a fest is posted and I find a TON of things I want to change but I CAN'T.

But on the plus side, the we_pimpin exchange fics are live. Anonymous wrote me some awesome Ray/Walt fic! Then It Gets Good. Go give them some love if Generation Kill is your thing!

~ Spain vs. France Davis Cup action tomorrow! Rafa. Daveeed. I'm sad that there will be no Gael Monfils. (NGL, mostly I watch him to see if he melts down spectacularly. So much athletic possibility there, steered awry by his head.)

~ Contagion, Saturday.

~ Tattoo & Body Art Expo on Sunday, possibly?

~ Someday Bush (the band, not the former president, who is known hereabouts as the Shrub) will come to Houston and NOT play a festival at my least favorite venue in town. Sadly, the next time they're in town is not that day. *sigh*

~ Spencer Smith: big troll or biggest troll? Thanks for letting your fans know you need more than one cock in your household.

♥ A++++, Brian Fallon. I have had Elsie on repeat all day.

:( Fail, USTA. FAIL. The last two days have been nothing but fail.


Rafa was not amused.


Nor was Daveeed.

Rafa overcame his annoyance to trounce Gilles Muller today, but Daveeed, not so much.

♥ Did I mention I started taking the bus when Houston Metro opened a new park & ride about a mile from my house? I LOVE IT. Someone else can worry about traffic while I sit and read or check my f-list. And the extra bonus: I cannot stay late, working extra hours, because of the limited schedule. Which I would do if/when I drove to work, even though overtime does not exist for my position.

♥ In my possession:
- airfare to BWI for Halloween week
- tickets for the DC show on the Tour Of Glee & Flailing
- possibly tickets for Philadelphia and Sayreville
- notice that I am taking leave for the TX/NOLA/East Coast shenanigans


Internet. If you could pick any single song that Patrick Stump and BUrie would perform together, ANY SONG AT ALL, what would it be?

+ Chicago was awesome! Lolla was great, except for the deluge(s) on Sunday. If you check out the Lolla YouTube channel, the video of the Cage The Elephant set? You can't tell, not really, how it was POURING. But it was. We literally could not see Sears Tower through the rain, it came down so hard. And it was still a good time. We were the filthiest. And that was before wading into the poorly drained mud pit that is the north end of Grant Park for the Foo Fighters' set.

Possibly unpopular opinion: I was not that impressed with the Black Cards. Bebe's hot, and the songs are okay, but they didn't hold my attention for the length of the set. (I sort of feel the same about Crystal Castles and DeadMau5: house/dance music is fine, but DNW 30-60 minutes of it unleavened with other beats, especially if it's broad daylight, not a dark, smoky club.) And Pete... just seemed like a frat boy on a rampage. I mean, do your DJing, pimp Patrick, stage dive as much as you want. But throwing what seemed like an endless supply of toilet paper to the crowd to get them to TP everything? Meh.

Patrick Stump, on the other hand? Unf. Gimme all the 90's R&B/hiphop covers in the world, and I'll listen.

Other sets I enjoyed: Friendly Fires (wow, the lead singer looks crazily double-joined at the hip!), Smith Westerns (I thought this set was better than the one at Bonnaroo), My Morning Jacket (ditto), Muse (not quite as good as the ACL set last year), Damien Marley & Nas, Ellie Goulding, Lykke Li, Explosions In The Sky.

+ Work. Eh. Good stuff, bad stuff. Spent a lot of time doing imaging lately. I ranted in an email-chain entry about Student. IDK. At this point, I wonder if he's even going to meet the deadlines to defend his master's thesis before the end of the fall term. Also, the med students are back, which makes me >:/ with their need to take the elevator one fucking floor, to walk in packs the full width of the hallway at an extremely slow pace, and to generally get in my way.

+ I got my we_pimpin assignment! I'm sort of excited about it! And I am rewatching GK for some inspiration. :D :D :D

+ Took the laptop to the Apple Store. Explained that I thought the fan needed to be replaced. The guy reset the battery, and the fan didn't come on for the 10 or so minutes that he fiddled with things. I told him that I'd reset the SMC myself, and that I thought the fans still needed to be cleaned and or replaced. He said the battery reset should fix it. But I've had it booted for approximately 10 minutes with nothing but the text editor and firefox open, and the fan's going like mad. So we'll see. Everything's backed up, at least.

+ Attending a lingerie shower/bachelorette party tonight. I... don't really want to go? I'm not that close to the bride - the groom is better friends with A than I am with the bride - and I am tired of the continuous round of engagement party, bachelorette party, wedding gift shopping for people who have been working and living together long enough not to actually need a shower in order to furnish a new home. Plus, I have work to do tomorrow, and getting sloppy drunk is not on my agenda for the evening. Ugh, when did I start being a grown-up? But anyway, skimpy "goth" schoolgirl outfit assembled for the bride, since the groom has a fetish. (NGL, it sort of skeeves me to know that about him.)

+ Now to backread what I've missed over the last ten days or so. &youguys;


I tried to post at DW, and apparently since I changed my username here since I set up the crossposting info at DW, it's having issues? IDK. Whatever. Comment here, there, or not at all.

While LJ's behaving...

+ I forget to post over there, mostly, but I am favoritemistake over on DW.

+ Been re-reading Snarry and Snarry/Weasley fic. How much do I love anal_cram_ink's Beaters & Seekers? A LOT.

+ My schedule for the next week:

Today: work
Saturday: work briefly, play at the Alley
Sunday: work (at least four uninterrupted hours with the Nikon A1)
Monday: work (four more hours with the A1)
Tuesday: work (four more hours with the A1), dentist appt
Wednesday: work (four MORE hours with the A1 if I can wangle them from the imaging facility manager), pack
Thursday: CHICAGO (MAP ROOM, I'M LOOKING AT YOU)
Friday/Saturday/Sunday: LOLLAPALOOZA (PATRICK. BLACK CARDS. GOLD MOTEL. FOO FIGHTERS. SMITH WESTERNS. FITZ & THE TANTRUMS. SKRILLEX. PAAAATRICK.)
Monday: fly back to Houston, work


What's up with y'all?