asimplechord

1. I had to be at work relatively early Monday morning, so I missed seeing Stamps perform on Fox News. Actually, it's just as well, because I would've been conflicted about breaking my "never ever will I watch Fox News" rule. But then Stamps linked to their performance. (I'm still conflicted about visiting a Fox News site, tbh.) It's... sort of strange? The anchorperson is this super awkward dude, and I don't think Ren Patrick's voice comes over well in the video. But still. Publicity. And a new song.

2. Awesome As Fuck really is that awesome. I got the download and listened to it Monday night, but I didn't have a chance to watch the Tokyo concert until tonight. I like that it's straight through, unlike Bullet In A Bible. (Also? The video to the Tokyo performance of When I Come Around is available for free download from iTunes right now.)

3. I know everyone's been linking to the interviews and reviews on LJ and tumblr, so I won't spam y'all with repeats of pics and such, but seriously. Vices & Virtues is going into the DVR after the Green Day disc is finished. And, yeah. BOYS. Nobody ships you like YOU ship you.

4. SCIENCE! Yesterday I received a gargantuan file of mass spec data, and it is FABULOUS. I spent the afternoon and most of today sifting through protein IDs, trying to parse which ones I think will be the most interesting, relevant interactors to pursue. Probably tomorrow or Friday The Chief and I will get a couple of coffees and compare notes to map out the direction I should steer my project.

5. My head still aches from spending the day with dilated pupils. But apparently my optic nerves are healthy, the intraocular pressure is low-to-normal, and my prescription is actually slightly *better* than it was last year.

6. passe_simple posted Jesse/Andrew baby-fic that has been open in a tab on my computer since Monday evening, and I will read it tonight.

7. US vs. Spain Davis Cup will be in Austin in July. ROAD-TRIP! RAFA and FeVer and Daveeeeed. Plus Andy Roddick, I guess?

Hangtimes at eckerlilas' today! For all that we all live in/around H-town, we don't get together enough when we're not standing in line to get into a show. We def should pick a weekend and an actor and have a movie marathon soon.

Also? I cleaned out my closet and cleaned off my bookshelves today. Tomorrow we tackle the kitchen cabinets, and then we'll take things to Goodwill, to the public library, and to be recycled.

( Random bullet-points about the Linkin Park show the other night )


( In which I ramble about work (again) )

OK. I am going to go drink some Left Hand Milk Stout, be jealous that J went to NYC and saw American Idiot (again), and read an email why_me_why_not sent me earlier.

I can't even. This day has been made of fail since the moment I opened my office door. The latest incident:

The post-doc who joined us in November has been running Westerns and saying she's not seeing bands at the correct molecular weight. All this time, she's been doing her analysis using the *native* molecular weights of the marker proteins, not the *actual* molecular weight once they've been modified with a dye and re-calibrated.

Months.

She has a PhD. So it's not like she's NEVER DONE SCIENCE BEFORE.

It says right on the spec sheet (which I post on the freezer door for all to see) that those are the native weights, and next to them it lists the ACTUAL, OBSERVED molecular weights for calculations.

What the actual fuck.

I am ready for so much wine, you don't even know. Too bad I have two more hours of labwork to do. >:/

I am supposed to be doing something chore-related, but the washer and dryer are both full, and the kitchen is still occupied by a crazy man with hops and boiling malt, so I'm doing the icon meme-thing.

harriet_vane picked six icons, and if you comment, I'll pick six of yours to explain. ( :D )

+ One more day, and I can haz fangirls and Fall Out Boys and Gabe Saporta in my face. Why, yes, I'm ignoring the fact that 50c is involved in any way.

+ Most of my department is on a scientific retreat. Since I'm not technically a student, post-doc, or faculty, I do not have to go. Thank fuck. I'd be really annoyed about the frowny faces I'd earn for bailing on the Friday portion of the agenda to go to Dallas for the above-mentioned fangirls and Fall Out Boys.

+ Sadly, this does not mean I am alone in lab, as I had hoped. I was really looking forward to cranking the tunes and rocking out, but the Idiot and the Other Post-doc declined to attend the retreat. >:?

+ My latest experiments involve MCF10A cells. They're an immortalized normal mammary epithelial cell line, for comparison to cancerous and cancerous/invasive mammary epithelial cells. I do not like growing them. They are slow to grow, they stick like mad to the culture plates, and they require an assortment of the oddest media additives ever. (Seriously: horse serum? cholera toxin? WTF? How did they figure that shit out, just randomly throw things they found in the freezer into the media and see what made the cells keep growing? I mean, why would you think that human cells would maybe want horse serum to grow? Not an obvious leap, to me.) DNW to keep using them. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to be using them for the foreseeable future, since they form 3-D structures similar to mammary ducts when grown in soft agar, and that's relevant to the breast cancer model we're studying. :(

+ I twittered this, but I'll post it here, too: Saturday is Record Store Day. Every day is a good day to go to an independent music store, but they're giving us EXTRA reasons this weekend: a bunch of in-store appearances. And according to their myspace, Cobra Starship is supposed to be doing one at Cactus Music. They're at 4pm, but there are other performers there all day. I know not all the Texas crew have early entry to the show at the Race Park, but is everyone going to go hang at the venue early to get barrier spots, or are some people going to go to Cactus while others hold a place in line?

I'm reading a JCB paper that describes culturing cells in low-calcium medium to prevent adherens junction formation, and seriously. SERIOUSLY. This is in the methods section:

Normal human keratinocytes from newborn foreskin (strains z, kb, kc, and kd, passage 3-6) were cultured[...]

I know that all the cell lines and samples we use came from patients originally, but they are from patients who consented to having their cervical cancer or breast cancer biopsies used for research purposes.

NEWBORNS' FORESKINS? REALLY?

Did Tom Conrad and Jon Walker coordinate for simultaneous glee?



Also? I've been doing these stupid endogenous RhoA activity assays and getting variable results for two months, and I just talked to a new prof, whose entire thesis project hinged on getting this type of assay to work. Her comment? Oh, your bait isn't folded properly. I spent a good chunk of my graduate career trying to figure that out. Then she handed me a protocol and photocopied some of her lab notes.

It would have been nice to know this BEFORE I spent two months using bait made by the standard (shitty) protocol.

First thing this morning was lab meeting. Excruciatingly boring. Poke-my-eyes-out levels. The Chief even wanted to get up and leave.

Yesterday's work-related rant was muted by why_me_why_not's happy-making post and by a) constant reminders that it was Hotass Brothers Day (which ended up being *such* a disppointment), b) only one day remained until the Gym Class Heroes show (YAY!), and c) the appearance of this month's AP, complete with Rise Against interview.

I'm mostly over it. Mostly. But the day is young.

To let you know the level of yesterday's stupidity, I'm just going to ask you science-type people one question: if I told you to use isobutanol from a bottle containing a settled mixture of water and isobutanol, which layer would you take, the upper or lower?

Uh-huh. The Idiot was not clear on whether hydrocarbons were more or less dense than water, and was choosing the wrong layer. For making gels. Which he made wrong. Twice. Because apparently the label "1.5M Tris pH 8.8" really means "1.5M Tris + 20% SDS". Really.



So. TONIGHT, I AM GOING TO HAVE DRINKS AT ABSINTHE, AND LISTEN TO THE GYM CLASS HEROES, AND NOT THINK ABOUT WORK EXCEPT TO BE GRATEFUL I HAVE A JOB AND I'VE GOT THE WEEKEND OFF.



*smirk*

Is it wrong that my first thought upon receiving Ticketmaster's weekend ticketing notice is that Metro Station's tour title is possibly the least accurate thing ever? "One Hot Night In November"? If it's not sold out the day-of, I might go just to laugh at their skeeze.

+ NRGH. Phantom Planet. Jeff Conrad, you win for suggesting your band cover Be My Baby when your lead singer doesn't know all the verses. Alex Greenwald wins an even bigger prize for doing it anyway.

I love the Warehouse Live Studio because it's so small and intimate, but the sound remains problematic. Sometimes it's awesome, sometimes not so much. During Electric Touch's first song, the lead singer's guitar and mic lines literally disappeared. For several minutes. WTH?

+ Listening to yesterday's Democracy Now. There was discussion of the death of LaVena Johnson, in which the use of lye to obliterate DNA evidence was mentioned, and Amy Goodman asked, "Lye, the acid?"

Dear Amy Goodman,

LYE IS NOT ACID. It is, in fact, the complete and utter OPPOSITE, being a caustic base.

+ I need WAY MORE COFFEE before I can stumble my way to work.