Pink No More

Tired of gingham - so March!  I am had long day at the Biosafety cabinet chickens so Eppendork is tired and thought about Abel Pharmboy's little titilating rant about vaccintions and sexy, sexy videos.  I was going to have a rant balanced discussion about the pro's and con's of vaccinating your beautiful children - very little con's lots of pro's to be very honest and how more discussion and talking with people who don't have 7 year degrees is a good thing (and I realise here that saying if you have Phd or a MD you are going to vaccinate your child is not always true but more likely I think if the PhD is in some form of Science).   How ever I don't think it matters how much we the microbiologists, the medical plethora and other scientists say vaccinate your child those who really dont want to aren't going to. Which saddens me but not a lot you can do about it.  I still think it does border on child abuse - when a disease is preventable it should be prevented.  Fullstop.  End of story.  If you want a nice discussion about how vaccines work ToasterSunshine has one.  I am just too sleepy.

E.

I wonder

I wonder if the person giving a presentation on their past year or two's work should feel insulted that a lead PI nodded off during their presentation? What do you think?

Eppendork may have a little crush on Mr Nick Cave

I love this song - PJ Harvey rocks the house too.

I am up to eyeballs in Lit review at mo - so not too much blogging going on unfortunately.

E.

PS fave Nick Cave song - Into my arms - seriously good song - the man's a genius.

On why Macs rock da hizzle

I Eppendork own a Mac - it's true.  I haven't always been a fan Mac's used to be very naf and then one day they weren't they were sexy and sleek and did all sorts of hot funky things and the whole no virus thing is da bomb, well the world was mac's oyster.  With itunes/ipod, iphone and beautiful Mac laptops well they can do no wrong really.   There is even a documentary about people who love their Macs. Now the iphone is truely an ass kicking hot piece of technology - it is just that sexy - love playing with it a lot.   I havent manned up and brought one yet but I know some one who has one and they let me play with it if I'm good.   The reason for this little ramble into Eppendork's sometimes mac fetish was this little slide show in the New York Times - what to do when you have too much time on your hands.

Figure 1: Ooooosh!  

Ask me again why I think Mac's are da bomb - they're like little cockroaches of the computer world...

E.

I'm so sick

So sick that I wrote sik three times before I could get the word spelt properly.  I wanna bitch about American Idol - are you all so stupid that if they tie them up with a bow they're gonna make it in the fickle, fickle world out there?  Removing anyone of any real interest - bar the guy with the indie bent - makes AI a dull show - cookie cutter molds are destined to fail - cause the flavour is going to change and no one wants your gingernuts any more.  And really why isnt there a Science Idol - hmmm?  Well I realise there is the Nobel prize but thats for people who have been there done that a lot - kinda the point of the prize.  Seriously, where is the competition for noobs who have talent but just lacked their 'big break' - huh?  

I may need some more flu meds.  

E. 

The Leslie Winkle experimental methodology

Okay so as I write this I am tucked up in bed with the flu, I have my lemon, honey and ginger tea next to me, on the other side is the work I brought home with me that I have yet to pick up yet.  Very hard script is on top of the pile mocking me with its brilliance - I made a little progress on understanding it - upside is I have realised I will have to learn how to script in python - although I am told once I know how to script in it - I wont ever go back - bit like the dark side really.  Any who I was reading Juniper's blog, about her current trevails and trials in her pathway to become a real scientist, and I thought to myself damn - how can it be so hard?   Then as I do in my slightly drug-induced fluey state I thought - things happen for a reason and sometimes we dont get what that reason is until we get to a place where we do.   

For me I wanted to do science when I left high school - but due to a mixture of severe lack of intellectual self esteem and generally propensity to take the easy way out (when I was 17) I enrolled and completed a very average BA and then took up the only career I believed was open to me.   Turned out I was good at it but I felt like my true potential was being smothered and I just couldnt do it anymore - so I stepped outta my comfort zone a long way outta my comfort zone and found the confidence to do what I wanted to do in the first place, science.  I thought of doing medicine so I started there and my undergrad was focussed on that goal - but in the end I decided Micro was where it was at and battabingbattaboom whaddya know here I am.

Course it didnt happen all nice and neat like that - when I said I wanted to do science, my then partner basically laughed and fully expected me to fall flat on my face and go back to doing what I did before within a year of starting my undergrad.  It felt good to show him the straight A's I got in my first year - I didnt give up I worked two part time jobs and was a full time student and a mother.  It wasnt easy and I have to say the first year of my MSc was the most stressful year I have ever experienced in my whole life - I wouldve lost the plot completely had it not been for a very good friend of mine who I love dearly.  Needless to say my relationship with my ex didnt last, but my relationship with science is still going strong.   When I think about it now - if I had of tried to do my science straight out of high school I would have crashed and burned majorly - I didnt have the motivation or the self confidence to do the work that had to be done.  I couldn't see that at the time.  I do now - I had to go through a shit load of growing up to realise I had a brain in my head was useful for something other than sleeping and breathing.

Juniper sweet cheeks - I almost feel like you need to take a time out and center yourself and make a plan.  OMG I am such a control freak - I am such a planner - I like to know what to expect - go figure.   You need to focus your efforts, don't disperse them left right and center - get a piece of paper out - write down what you want, what you want to do and how you are going to get there.  Find places that are doing what you want to do - then ring them up and explain your situation - could you intern for them? Could you do an MSc with them?  You never know your luck - and believe that half of the science opportunities start because some is in the right place at the right time.   You are a kick ass writer - your blog shows that - figure out what you want to happen and then make it happen - you are the only person who can do it for yourself and you are the only person who can stand in your own way.  Focus chick focus.

E.

PS:  Still fluey  gotta love viruses - they are little pieces of God's own glory they are, they are.  Mmmmm I have M&M's as well - purely for medicinal purposes you understand.  

Old Skool Styles

Vintage just says Im Styling hot Science Chick - dont make me take off my sunnies and come over there!

So I took a facebook quiz to burn a little time - Eppendork decided that if Isis can blog about Barbie then I can certainly take a quiz to find out just what sort of Barbie I am.  So I took it and the news is out - Eppendork is old skool - Vintage Barbie - classic down to her mean patent pumps and kick ass corset figure.  Did I mention I have a slight girl crush on Ms Von Teese?  I wish I looked that good!

That is all.

E.