So, apparently there is a laboratory "agitator" called a Belly Dancer.

Belly Dancer Laboratory Shaker

The smooth combination of vertical and horizontal orbital motion allows more rapid exchange of solvents in applications like staining and destaining gels and assures lower background in applications such as blotting.

Methyl finds this disturbing.

Methyl sometimes watches worthless morning tv when having tea, icing feet, and generally trying to wake up in the morning.

Today, I was flipping through the channels and first found a PBS station where there was a show that was going to be all about the "very girly" host doing things that "women all like" (you'd have to hear it to understand that it was said in a way that just grates on my nerves).

Disgusted, I flipped again to one of the main network morning shows. A male anchor was doing a story about preparing to fly in a U-2 spy plane (which was awesome). Right after that a female anchor was very excited to tell women how to get the perfect lips, first talking to a plastic surgeon that was eager to advertise, and then advertising worthless "spa" products.

While Methyl knows that morning tv is useless, seeing these things back to back makes me wonder if the social perception of women is shifting backward. And that's not even getting into the concern that these type of cosmetic segments prompt women into thinking that they're "obligated," or at least should want, to undergo medical procedures or buy crap to reach some "ideal" that is really unnatural. :(

The amount of time and energy women are "expected" to expend on their bodies is staggering. I'd never get anything done if I regularly did much of what popular culture considers necessary. Then again, you don't see any grad students looking all that put together on a daily basis. :p

Methyl may have finally sorted out an acceptable procedure for this useful if irritating self assembly chemistry (stuff based on the gold + thiol route for those who care about details).

Yay.

If she times things well, the samples could be ready for characterization by the end of tomorrow.

Exactly when "end" of the "day" will occur is up in the air, especially since Methyl might go to two potentially sleep inducing seminars tomorrow afternoon. :p

The one she went to on wednesday kept her awake. Videos of surgeons and bloody gory things will do that. Very unusual for a materials talk.

*** *** *** ***

Methyl can't wait to go home for a few days and be a lump over thanksgiving. Preparing for a show and forcing the research to progress (plus other stuff and things have have to be done) has wiped out Methyl's energy. No more go. :(

Yay! Time to rinse and soak the samples! Then Methyl gets to crawl back under the mossy rock.

The giant red arrow indicates the current location of Methyl's story. :p

( Where's Waldo . . . Errrr Arcana? )

Methyl is feeling burned out enough that she prolly won't do any work over thanksgiving (or not much work . . .), which (assuming she can hole herself away in some cozy corner) will give her time to write. Finally. You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff stuck in her head or in the little black book of notes (between the science scribbles).

Besides, going up the the NW is always inspiring, especially considering the story isn't set where it is bloody sunny all the time! Go away sun, go away summer! At least the leaves are really turning now. :p

Ack, the data is summoning Methyl back to do its bidding.

Methyl likes pumpkins and slugs (even though they eat her garden, they're not as bad as the evil squirrels).

Methyl's mom made Methyl an awesome pumpkin tea cozy for her teapot to keep her tea warm and . . . cozy. :p

( Tea Cozy )

Methyl thought that these pumpkin peeps resembled demonic bunny heads. Another (larger) box of pumpkin pees which Methyl mostly devoured looked more like they were made with the valentine heart molds. :p

( Disembodied orange demon bunny heads? )

And lastly, Methyl dressed up as a banana slug for Halloween. No one guessed what she was without lots of clues. Not sure if that is good or bad, or just a function of this being SoCal.

( Halloween Costume )

No, I don't know what the SAT stats are to get into my school (where I'm a doctoral candidate, not an undergrad) . . . nor do I know the SAT stats for admitted undergrads of OTHER universities such as Stanford. You should go to the library where they have books on colleges. No, I can't tutor your son for SATs. Not only don't I have the time or desire, the test has changed a whole hell of a lot since I took is Way Back In The Day. Maybe you should look into a professional tutor from Princeton Review of Kaplan, maybe you should look into a professional tutor from Princeton Review of Kaplan, maybe you should look into a professional tutor from Princeton Review of Kaplan . . . er, maybe that's not sinking in.

Also, if said son doesn't know he wants to do math, science, or engineering, he should look at other schools. And if he's "not Harvard Yale smart," despite a 4.6 gpa (whatever that means), then maybe he shouldn't be too focused on this school either . . . especially if he might want to go into the arts of design . . . x_x

Just saying.

*** *** *** ***

It wasn't really all that annoying, but I had to run away to do an experiment. And now I need to get a shower and a lunchy!

Methyl does make use of her cell phone. It is even turned on most of the time. No, she never goes through many minutes . . .

But Methyl is glad she got a phone (still "free") with a decent camera.

voldiespet should appreciate these first two:

( Angst and Marshmallows )

The next three pictures are of the food variety, including some creatively labeled berries:

( More Noms )

And lastly we come to an example of Methyl Quality Spelling, and Methyl Level Identification of the Obvious. No, she didn't write the sign (handwriting on the sign is far too good for that).

( The Door )

The above is what happens when Methyl has a half hour in lab at 12:30 am to wait for experiment to do its thing.

Fabrication and gas sensing properties of In2O3 nanopushpins
Ahsanulhaq Qurashi, Toshinari Yamazaki, E. M. El-Maghraby, and Toshio Kikuta
Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 153109 (2009)

Seriously, nanopushipins.

That's a new one even for me.

see more Celeb Look-A-Likes

Next I wanna see the phenol group pokemon!

Back in august or so Methyl found Awesome Chair by apartment dumpster and nabbed it. Since then it has been patiently waiting on the back porch of a grad student house for Methyl to refinish it and bring it inside.

Said Awesome Chair is a wooden glider that (formerly) just needed refinishing and a new cushion.

Today when Methyl went to check her garden, the chair was GONE.

Yes, GONE . . . along with some other crap that had been there.

So Methyl was pissed, and found maintenance guy. He said the stuff had been thrown away. Apparently they didn't think to hard about which things were to be tossed. Luckily he knew where the dumpster was now (across campus).

So on the way to ballet, Methyl drove to the dumpster, crawled in, and pulled out the Awesome Chair. Sadly, being tossed into a nearly empty dumpster broke one piece of wood. Also, the dumpster left Methyl sporting a few spots of white paint (and some tree sap from this chunk of tree she had to move) on her lab shoes and new $6 purple sweat pants from Ross (grumpy). Annoyingly Awesome Chair didn't fit into Methyl's car. So she left a sad little sign on it that read "Please don't take me."

Oh, and poor Awesome Chair got fricken rained on (freak early rainstorm in SoCal). Methyl had been keeping it nicely under cover . . .

After ballet and research group meeting (8:00 pm to 10:20 pm), Methyl walked back to dumpster and carried Awesome Chair all the way across campus and up to her third floor apartment.

Now Project Chair has the added feature of furniture repair along with furniture refinishing.

And no, Methyl isn't giving up. She's pissed that maintenance threw out her chair, and now she's gonna make it into a truly Awesome Chair.

Methyl got an email today addressed to "Mr Methyl."

To be fair, it was from France, so it's not a big deal. Just made Methyl blink and then chuckle.

*** *** ***

There's a chance that it might actually rain here early next week. Rain would be nice. Methyl would go out and frolic in the rain.

Methyl is also getting older soon. :O

Yep, you read it right, and Methyl typed it correctly.

I've used the ellipsometer in my lab on and off for years and never noticed that when it was unable to calculate the thickness of the thin film you're trying to measure it doesn't output "no solution," but instead "no soution."

Yes, there is no "l" . . . and Methyl never noticed until kilroi pointed it out.

Methyl is procrastinating by cleaning.

This means going through the pile of junk mail that has accumulated (it seems to be Methyl's job to get rid of it). Upon thumbing through the old grocery store ads, Methyl came across something scary: an ad for "Beer and Urine."

Upoon blinking and re-reading, Methyl found it actually read "Beer and Wine."

Methyl just realized she has sock tan lines. x_x

Socks are thicker than silk skirts, which must let some small amount of UV through, and that leads to paler feet than legs. It is odd.

Yes, Methyl wore socks all summer long. Blame the closed toed lab shoes with custom orthotic inserts, which require socks. :p

Methyl found a pretty red leaf on the ground yesterday and declared it to be Fall.

It was foggy and cool last night and this morning. Sooo nice!

Keeping the fingers crossed that the 100 deg F temperatures won't be back in two days . . .

*kicks summer away for the year*

Ceiling: *plonk*
Methyl: *analyzes data* "Sounds like a cricket got stuck up there."
Ceiling: *drip*
Methyl: *looks at blog* "Wait a minute . . ."
Ceiling: *plonk drip plonk piddle pitter patter*
Methyl: "WTF?!" *climb onto desk and pulls off suspended ceiling tile*
Ceiling: *plonks and drips on Methyl*
Methyl: "Ugh!" *runs upstairs to the basement* "Hello? You're freezers are dripping on my office again!"
Researcher: "Oh, this happened the last time we defrosted too, right?"
Methyl: *scowls* "Yeah, it did."

Yes, this did happen once before. Luckily Methyl is in the office and caught it before it started dripping on the computers. Still might need to replace the ceiling tiles . . . again.

Why can't it rain outside where it is supposed to rain? :(

A few months ago, Methyl was trying to do some stuff with a focused ion beam thingy. Nothing came of this, save knowing it wouldn't do what I wanted . . . and allowing Methyl to discover a nanofish on her sample.

( nanofish )

Here are two titles that Methyl ran across today while looking at scientific articles.


"Impact device for measuring the flesh firmness of kiwifruits"

"Locally resonant phononic woodpile: A wide band anomalous underwater acoustic absorbing material"


Now Methyl goes back to furious data analysis.

I took this picture last night from the roof of one of the buildings I work in.

So, the mountain north of Methyl is being burninated by the Station Fire (one of four fires currently burning around LA). It is still far away from where Methyl resides, but JPL's main campus is closed and Methyl knows people that live up there too.

( Fire Pictures )

Station Fire Map