Heaven

Wow, it has been a whole year since I posted on this blog! Sorry for any of those who have worried about my absence, I have had a lot going on in my life and it might be awhile before I fully take this poor blog out of the moth balls and start posting more regularly.

In September I had one of the worst days of my life. I got a call that one of my closest friends had flat-lined while being rushed to the hospital. I spent the day hoping and praying she would be ok and waiting to hear something. I had just talked to Diana a few days prior, she was a bit out of it and the doctors weren't sure why but she seemed like she would be fine. I jokingly told her she wasn't allowed to die because I didn't have time to visit for a funeral (her and I had a slightly twisted sense of humor with each other) and she suddenly got kinda serious and asked me if my boss would let me go to her funeral, I told her that if something happened to her I would not be asking I would be telling and that I would definitely be going. I was totally broadsided to then hear that she had taken such a dramatic turn for the worse so soon after I had spoken to her. That night I called home and after talking to my dad for awhile he figured out that I didn't know that she had passed away earlier that day. I still can't believe she is gone, even though I drove home to attend her funeral as soon as I was safe to do so and saw her body in a casket it is hard to comprehend someone who has been a part of my life since I was a baby and was like a second mother to me no longer being there. It breaks my heart even more knowing that her son, my godson, has lost his mother at such a young age.

Today is the birthday of my dear friend WeaselMomma's daughter Claire, aka Angel Weasel. For those of you who do not know Claire's family will unfortunately be celebrating her 9th birthday at her grave, she passed away two weeks after she was born. Like Diana she brought joy and happiness into this world and left it and those who love her way too soon. I like to think that Diana is helping Claire celebrate her birthday in heaven today, a mother taken from her child too soon and a child taken from her mother too soon, holding each other until they can be reunited with their families. Happy birthday dearest Claire, please give Diana a hug for me and remind her that I love and miss her very much.

Diana and her son in 2007

Pray for Dakota

This little girl is very sick, she has a blood clot in her leg and a blood infection. This is a very bad combo, the bacteria in her blood are growing/hanging out in the clot in what is called a biofilm. Biofilms are microorganisms living and interacting together in a goo matrix (goo is not the technical term), they are highly resistant to stress that would kill them if they were going it alone, this unfortunately includes antibiotics. So the bacteria in her blood get knocked down by the antibiotics (she is on several very potent ones) but they are replaced with ones coming out of the biofilm/clot. They are using medication to try and dissolve the clot, which is a problem by itself, so the antibiotics can do their job but this is not without risks. They are using very aggressive treatments to try and knock this out once and for all so that they can save Dakota's life. She was born prematurely and so has been a fighter since the day she was born, please pray, send positive thoughts or whatever you believe in that the doctors have gotten her on the right treatments and that she has the strength to beat this thing! Thank you all!




Note: Thank you to all my regulars who are still reading this blog, I am sorry I have been too busy with work and life to keep up with both writing this blog and keeping up with your blogs. Once I get my life balanced and some issues worked out I will hopefully have the time to resume blogging more, so much has happened of the past few months I am pretty overwhelmed. I've been trying to stay in touch using twitter, if you have it and want to chit chat with me on there I am Microblogology, send me an @ message so I know you are one of my bloggy friends and not a spammer. If you have skype that is even better than twitter. Miss you all!

Math Major Monday

The other day I was doing some prep work for my current project and was making up the tubes I need to make dilutions for spread plating. If you click that link note that it is one of my first videos and so I was still working on the whole learning to talk coherently and do lab work at the same time, lol. Oh and I plan to bring Guess that Gizmo back I just have been busy and it was not getting the response I wanted so I kind of put it on the back burner figuring I might pick up a few more readers and revive it.

Back on track. I was doing this prep work and one of the first thing one should do while doing prep work is to figure out how much of something you need. I have become a white board addict for this kind of task, don't waste paper and it is quick and easy to correct errors. The lab has a big one but lately it has been filled up with the chicken scratches of the lab jerk (he makes my crappy handwriting look good!). For that I am not really faulting him since I am as well, I tend to be less of a hog about it. It just so happened though that I had gone shopping at Cubs, which used to be the place I bought most of my groceries but the opening of the Super Walmart has changed my life forever, one stop shopping is a beautiful thing! Since I was in the area though I decided to snoop around Cubs and found a dollar bin, I am a sucker for those, LOVE the ones at Target! They had these little white boards, pretty crappy but only a dollar, I decided to get it for the lab and imagined using it to harass people. Well between lab jerk hogging the white board and me liking to have reminders to help me not miss something on a long day I've basically only used it for legitimate reasons. This day I used it to write out the calculations for figuring how much peptone water (water with stuff in it so it is gentle on the bacteria) I needed to make. Here is the picture of it with the calculations all written out:

I promise you that 3000ml (3 liters), is the correct answer. There are 72 tubes per rack. If I have any engineers I think some of them would get it and the rest are likely convulsing on the floor. I wrote it out and afterwards decided it looked funny, makes perfect sense to me but to an outsider it probably looks like a math FAIL. Anyone want to take a stab how someone with a bachelor of science degree and a calculator managed to make 1300+1440=3000? And no, it is not an example of my having lost my sanity, though the lab jerk has been pushing it to its limit lately. I keep reminding myself that the prison probably wouldn't let me have much internet access and that Doc actually checks the police blotter to see if any of his patients did something stupid (he told me after I expressed my semi-joking wish to hit lab jerk with a rolled up newspaper). I was instructed not to get my name in the paper, being the super compliant patient that I am I did actually get my name in the paper that week, just not the blotter, lol!

My boss saw it before I did and now won't stop harassing me to get going on writing up the current experiment, get the stuff that does not involve the data and data analysis written up now, so not my style though, especially after a long day in the lab! Good thing she does not know about the bloggity! Though this is seriously very very different writing wise and I am using this to try and help me sharpen up my writing skillz a bit since it has been awhile since I took a course that required that much writing and I am incredibly intimidated by this technical/scientific writing thing. I have never really done it before, my one attempt I felt sucked really bad, so it is kinda scary, but I will figure it out and she will help by ripping it to shreds until I get it right! Hopefully it won't be too bad, we shall see. Between that, and lab work, and twitter/facebook I have not had as much time for blogging, both as a writer and a reader and am behind on both, miss you all and I will eventually catch up with reading and am trying to make sure I post once in awhile so you all don't think I died or something.

One last thing before I crash, on twitter a few of us were chatting and Flat WeaselMomma came up and McMommy decided she wants to host FWM (that would be so cool) and then she started contemplating making a Flat McMommy and sending her up to hang out with the Weasels. Then the idea snowballed and she wants to come visit me and hang out in the lab too! I totally played it cool and was all saying it could be arranged but I was totally doing the excited tween girl contemplating meeting a Jonus brother or something tweens are into these days!!!!! I'd consider Flat Microblogologist but it would cause Baby Sibling to make fun of me since I am already flat, she got almost ALL the boob allowance for our family and did not leave much for Middle Sister and I, Middle Sister is the one that actually wants it too! Anyone have any ideas for what I should do if and when Flat McMommy comes to visit? For sure she'll join me in the lab but I have to show her more than just that. Something fun to think about =)

Dearest Bugs

Dear Research Organisms,

You know that I love you all and enjoy working with you for the most part, yeah sometimes I get jealous of the others with their bugs* that do not have to be incubated without oxygen like you but all in all you are great bugs. The fact that first B. breve, my shining star bug, stopped growing after the initial revival step. That was bad enough but then when I got up early so I could inoculate for the last run of my last rep (not counting redoing some runs that did not turn out after I am done with rep 3), I was so excited! Then I pulled you out of the incubator and only B. bifidum grew well, B. breve grew a tiny bit, and B. infantis and B. longum, nothing!

It makes absolutely no sense that you did not grow, you grew in the first step and that was coming out of the -75°C freezer. It would make some sense if you did not revive at that point but the second pass, why!?! I am trying again but this puts me way off my schedule! Thankfully the new schedule works so that I will still be able to see Doc on Monday, though of course I am quite nervous about this appointment since it is basically a one way ticket to referral land and I do NOT want to go there! You all are so not helping, you know stress is a trigger for GI issues right? I will admit, I stress you out with my simulated GI tract, I'm sorry but it is for your own good. Have you all gone bad and made some sort of deal with Helicobacter pylori??? Giving me an ulcer will make this take longer but it is not going to stop me so you might as well be good little bugs and grow like you are supposed to!

Yours,
Karen



~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*Bugs means bacteria or other microorganisms, it is a somewhat common nickname in my field and I use it a lot.

Twit or Not?

OK so many of you fellow bloggers have that twitter thingy and I vaguely know what it is. For those of you less savvy than even I am from what I can tell twitter is like facebook's status updates on steroids. You basically write relatively short one liners and can reply to other people's "tweets". Facebook has recently made it so you can comment on other people's status updates so perhaps they are practically the same at this point. I see them on many of the blogs I read and several bloggers talk about their twitterings and such. I was delurked by the lovely Mrs. Watlz via her twitter, that was quite amusing!

Now I figure you see where this is going, I am contemplating getting this twitter thing. Sometimes I come up with what I feel are hilarious thoughts but they are only one liner type things and so not really enough to support being a blog post but that does not make them unworthy of being shared. Sometimes this is probably a good thing though since sometimes when I am sleep deprived and feeling sickly the stuff I come up with is decidedly not funny, unfortunately I am in this state a lot lately (I have an appointment with Doc next week so no worries). That part aside I have been neglecting facebook for the most part and have been trying to go on it more to keep up with some of my people and at first I really enjoyed the new status comments thing but then I started getting swamped with the back and forthing of it. I am used to skype, which is almost instant not the facebook thing that has a lag time and at least for me seems to dump the comment backs on me all at once. And of course if I were playing on twitter I would have less blog reading and writing time most likely. But on the other hand all the cool bloggers are doing it and if McMommy jumped off a bridge I just might follow suit.

And so dear readers I would like to know what you think about twitter. I get confused reading other peoples' twitter things since it only tells you what they write and if they are replying to someone else it will say that name but not give the original comment. Is it less confusing if you are one of the Twitterers? Can't I just con you all into going on skype instead? Of course that could cause the blogosphere to crash, all of us would be too busy cracking ourselves up on skype to blog, unless we posted the conversations on our blogs taking turns or something... Who all thinks I should go for this twitter thing? If there are enough people pimping it I'll probably try it, no promises that I will and if I do that I will keep it. Thanks!

On a different note, do I have any Jewish readers? If so please let me know if "stealing" the dreidel song would potentially offend you. I made a song about how to label chemicals in the lab for the lab jerk who can't seem to get it through his thick skull that there are laws/rules that apply to him too, it is definitely not vulgar like my last song. I didn't really have any qualms about the last one since it is "my" song, but I definitely do not want to offend someone of another faith, especially one I respect and admire and that has way better songs than mine! Seriously I can listen to the dreidel song all day but you start playing most Christmas songs and I am sick of them very quickly. Thanks for letting us steal your religion to make ours ;). Oh and thanks for producing the best doctor ever!

My New Pet

Warning, you may need one of these if you read this post (at least I have been cracking myself up all day over it):

It is a pretty well established fact that people crave companionship, we are an at least somewhat social species. So what is a workaholic hermit graduate student living in the frozen tundra to do? Obviously the more traditional pets are out, especially since my apartment is not pet friendly and I'd have to move to one that is (think the only ones that are pet friendly are the ones that have the stupid layout and no carpet and no dryer hookup and no basement, ick), and I think the fee is $350. That and I don't like the idea of a pet that sheds, licks, jumps, makes noise, and could excrete waste on my floors. I also do not like the idea of scooping poop out of the yard or a bin. I have fish, tired of dealing with them though, way too much work for a busy/lazy person with bad joints and a knack for flooding the place when trying to clean the stupid tanks.

I have plants and adore them, but most (BFF Pasha) do not consider them pets and I will likely devote a post to them in the future so they'll get a mention but not be listed as pets. I do have the occasional transient "roommate", they are a great source of amusement for me, but usually do not stay too long. This one is a permanent resident, though I brought her in from outdoors in the state she is currently in (I think it is a she based on the abdomen) to show my mom when she came to visit me (in the much anticipated trip that never was due to her foot needing surgery), she is a small one of her kind and this year they had a population bloom and were everywhere (so fricking cool!). Had Mom visited I think she would be in California by now after seeing one of these babies:


So anyway, while reading WeaselMomma's most recent post she introduced a new idea for a pet that is perfect for the average busy college student. And here it is:

Is it?
Oh yes it is!
Cough syrup!
What a little cutie, so happy and content and low maintenance, and don't listen to the directions on the box, she lasts way more than 8 hours with no risk of Toxic Shock Syndrome (in this application, not the other use, the other use definitely has a TSS risk but if you are dumb enough to take the before mentioned statement as directions for THAT then it is natural selection and I thank you for taking yourself out of the gene pool and will nominate you for this year's Darwin Award if I hear about it)!

And she gets along with my other low maintenance pet that Middle Sister gave me years ago as a joke and can't believe I still have it. They are so BFFs!

Nice and cozy, it is good to mimic your exotic pet's natural environment to make them feel more comfortable in their new home.

Awww, they are playing leap frog, how adorable!

And there you have it, thank you WeaselMomma for the wonderful suggestion! The only problem is I don't know what to name her, maybe my readers can think of some suggestions in the comments... Oh and if you plan to adopt one of these lovely pets you might want to make sure you get unscented, my goodness does she stink up the place, her only flaw! Hopefully it will wear off soon if she becomes this blog's version of the Bathtub Gangsta, because knowing my luck you will all fall in love with her*.





~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*By fall in love with her I mean fall in love with the idea of me carrying her around in public, I know at least some of you people!

~By the way doesn't my new camera take awesome pictures, I LOVE it!!!!! Only good thing about breaking the one I bought in May 2008!

~~If you read this Doc you don't have to send me to Dr. Seat Stealer (J told me he is a head shrinker so I'll so know what you're up to if you ask if you can "consult" with him), I have so not lost it, this is totally normal blogger behavior! Seriously go read about the Bathtub Gangsta (it is hilarious), this may be slightly more warped than that but I totally had to do it after reading WeaselMomma's blog. I am so not helping my case am I...

Navigationally Challenged

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses; strengths to help you get through life and weaknesses to keep you humble. One of my weaknesses is the fact that I am navigationally challenged. Once I have been a place enough times I am pretty good at getting around but until I am used to it I can get turned around and lost quite easily. I was discussing this with WeaselMomma on one of her recent posts, I was telling her that if I ever went to Philly (her home town) that I would probably end up calling her hopelessly lost and she'd have to figure out where I was and get me unlost, or that I would have to kidnap her and use her as a prophylactic but in this case as a guide so I didn't get lost and not in terms of antibiotics* nor birth control.** I then revealed to her that I was navigationally challenged to the point of getting lost in my hometown and she said she wanted to hear this one so I am indulging her and the rest of you with one of my slightly less finer moments, enjoy.

It was the fall of 2001, I had graduated high school, gotten my driver's license, became a deli clerk, and got my first car, a 1988 Mercury Topaz that was my grandma's but she had stopped driving and it was just sitting in her driveway collecting wasp nests, a fact that scared the shit out of my mother (Hi Mom, I saw you save my blog address so you don't have to hide if you are reading this, I was getting ready to link you anyway). I started college that August at Benedictine University, a small private university in Lisle, IL. It was an interesting transition for me, not only was I new to the whole college thing but I had my K-12 in public school (a good system) and it doesn't take much guesswork to figure out that Benedictine is a catholic school given the being named after a saint thing.

At Benedictine Christian values are something they strive to instill in their students no matter what religion they are, this was rather apparent in their humanities classes, especially the first one that all students are required to take. In that course I was given an assignment, I was to do 10 hours of community service and write a report about the experience. This assignment proved very difficult for me, not only did I now have a full time course load but I was also a deli clerk and up until that summer I had been in a coed youth program through the Boy Scouts of America called Venturing Crew. My crew dissolved before I started college. While in crew I did many hours of community service, without crew I had no outlet and had to find my own place to volunteer, and most I thought of and contacted didn't have anything or I needed to have background checks or other nonsense that prevented me from doing it. Finally I found a nursing home that was happy to have some free labor, and it happen to be in my hometown, score!

A little bit about my hometown. It is a rather small suburb of Chicago. According to the sign last time I saw it there are 24,600 people in my town, obviously this is a somewhat rough estimate but close enough. Almost no one has heard of this little town, it isn't uncommon for people from neighboring burbs to have not heard of it. I was about a year and a half old when my family moved to this town and lived there until I finished my undergraduate work and moved here for grad school. So one would assume that I know this town quite well right? Well you assumers are wrong, I know parts of this town very well, the nursing home in question was NOT in my area, which was still very small since I had only recently started driving. My mom told me she knows where this place is, it is past 63rd street she tells me. And so confident in my abilities I got in my trusty Mercury and hit the road.

I get on the street the place is on and am driving along and get to 63rd street and start looking for a nursing home, I didn't see one. I kept going a ways until I decided I must have missed it and so turn off the main road onto a side street so I can turn around legally (too much traffic to do one of the U-turn using all 4 lanes my daddy taught me and I have made my own). Unfortunately for me this stupid side street had some odd twists (I was going around the block instead of finding a driveway to use figuring it would be easier, hah!) and instead of ending back on the main road I was on I got on another road that I thought was the main road but wasn't. At this time I had this really bad instinct to keep driving, I used to always do that when lost, just keep driving in hopes I would eventually get somewhere I recognized. In my defense I had not diagnosed myself as navigationally challenged yet and used to be dumb enough to think this method might work.

I drove until the road I was on either ended or forked and kept going and going. Eventually I saw a Jewel, which is a grocery store chain, and decided enough was enough and stopped to find out where the heck I was and call for help. I walk into the Jewel and find an associate and asked them what town I was in, the answer was Countryside, which is several towns over and around 6 miles from my hometown, though I took the insanely "scenic" route. I found out the street names and got on my cell phone (which only had 75min/month so I never used it) and called Grandpa and told him where I was and asked how to get home. He gave me specific enough instructions and so I went on my merry way.

The funny/ironic part was as I got back on the street I was on and drove further I drove into LaGrange, the town I was born in, where my clinic/hospital was and oh yeah, where I went to church for quite a few years. I was not far along at all when I started recognizing the landmarks, the road I was on was the road we took to get to church, except we turned before Countryside since it was in LaGrange, once I was in LaGrange I knew exactly where I was and how to get back. So my strategy funnily enough would have worked had I stuck with it about a block or two more, which is probably why I later used it when trying to navigate elsewhere with generally bad results. Instead of going home I decided that since I had been driving for like an hour or so I should at least try to make it to the nursing home, which Grandpa told me was BEFORE 63rd street. I found it and worked for a few hours, the next day I went back for a few more and then was too busy to get the full 10 so wrote it up as was and turned it in for a not so good grade.

And that dear readers is how I got lost in my hometown. Since then I have actually improved in my abilities to turn around and am a little better at navigating. It helps that I generally refuse to go anywhere without mapquest directions. Oh and my getting a little mixed up on my way to the Weasel's house was totally the weather's fault. I went during a bit of a snow storm that consisted of somewhat sticky blowing snow that coated the street signs and reduced visibility. That said if I ever do go to Philly I will likely get myself GPS chipped and steal WeaselMomma along the way!

~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*Use of antibiotics in a patient without a bacterial infection that has a risk of contracting one is the application of the word prophylactic that I encounter and use the most.
**Referring to various birth control methods as prophylactics was the application I actually forgot about when commenting on WeaselMomma's blog, proving once again that I am a nerd and my blog title is quite appropriate in more than just the figurative sense.

Summing Up 2008

I stole this from Tammie who stole this from Cindy. By doing this I might just open the floodgates to meme tags but oh well, usually that is a sign one's blog has "made it" I guess. And of course if it gets too bad I can always sign on to my neglected myspace page and turn "bulletins" into "memes" and tag the excessive taggers until they are also drowning in them...

2008 - Questions and Answers

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
I started a blog.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't do new year's resolutions and lately whenever I set goals all hell breaks loose that prevents them from happening, and they were insanely reasonable goals too!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Deb did, to a beautiful baby girl she needs to post more pictures of so it won't slip my mind next time (she says she was conned into the second which would imply there won't be a third but her kids are so cute...)! My sister's BFF did but I barely know her, she birthed twin girls and lovingly chose a couple who will take very good care of them in an open adoption. Oh and VegasDad's lovely wife recently had a baby boy, a carbon copy of the first so they have a spare, sweet! And thankfully Abby's wife Sharon did not give birth, she is due in February (Hallie was extremely premature and her beautiful twin didn't make it so there was concern about her little sister coming early as well). Liz had a boychild, definitely a cutie. And Jayden made his appearance in April of 2008 making the MommyDaddy blog's title appropriate (they registered the URL before she got pregnant and without immediate plans for her to become so, lol). I think that covers all the 2008 babies for the people who I read and who read me back. Nate and Tricia's baby girl was born last January on the 8th, but he has way too many readers to read me, their story is amazing though so if you have time click on over there and join the thousands enamored by them of which I have been for almost a year (I started reading shortly after Gwyn was born).

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, though a member of my church back home passed away unexpectedly, I didn't know him too well except that he was a nice guy and sold me Oldsie.

5. What countries did you visit?
Michigan (lol).

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
The ability to digest whatever I feel like ingesting. A wrist I don't have to worry about messing up doing every stupid little thing (like cleaning fricking test tubes, I was going to work this weekend but nooooo). Note: I am a little cranky at the moment, it is not that bad.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
9/24 = Miracle Dodge Day. That was the date of my last GI related appointment with Doc and I managed to wiggle out of being referred to the doc with too many cameras. It also marks the day when someone actually had data proving I was full of shit instead of making an unsubstantiated accusation to that effect.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I didn't die. I made some progress on my project, not nearly as much as I had planned (original plan was for it to be finished AND written up by now, not even close, sigh).

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not taking care of myself that well and not getting my project done.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
That is an understatement. There are others way worse off than I am though so I try not to complain too much (this post would not be evidence of that).

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I bought a counter top dishwasher, that has helped me out a bit. My camera is another good purchase, my old one was great but dying and it rarely worked when I needed it so it was time, nieces are only little once and this might end up my only one so I have to get pictures of her.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Mine, I didn't hit my idiot coworker with a rolled up newspaper like I wanted to but my boss told me not to and I grudgingly listened to her (I was semi-joking when I asked her).

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Said coworker and the visiting professor.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Right back to the university in rent and fees and such, the rest tends to get spent at the new super walmart (say what you want against them, having a 24 hr one stop shopping option has been great for me).

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting to see not only my beloved family members for Thanksgiving but also being able to make it over to meet the Weasels.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
I don't know that any will.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? About the same.
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner.
c) richer or poorer? Richer since I have been saving my money.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Research.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Being sick.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Packing the car up and driving to Chicago, missing dinner sadly.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Not in a romantic sense no. I did make new friends so in that sense yes.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
I don't watch TV, my internet addiction takes up my free time.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Not really.

24. What was the best book you read?
I read a few, don't know what the best was, most were pretty good.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Ian.

26. What did you want and get?
Time with my loved ones, though not nearly enough.

27. What did you want and not get?
My mommy was supposed to come visit me but wasn't able to, that rather sucked.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Wall-E, it was cute and Niecey's love for it definitely raises its value in my world.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 25 and I worked, talked to various family and friends on the phone, opened the presents from my mom while on the phone with her, other than that it was just like any other day. Pretty much how every birthday has been since I moved, I don't really fuss much about my birthday anyway.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If there were approximately 300 less miles between here and Chicago.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Not cold: If it is clean, fits, and vaguely matches it works.
Cold: If it is warm it doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it doesn't smell it is fine!

32. What kept you sane?
Who said anything about my being sane? The computer keeps me "sane", it is how I communicate with the outside world for the most part.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Do bloggers count as celebrities? I don't keep up with the celebrity stuff and being from Chicago, IL I have basically no faith in politicians, ESPECIALLY ones from Chicago, IL (either party). I suppose I fancy the prosecutor that indicted the governor, I hope he doesn't think his job with my home state is done, it is very far from it, there are much bigger fish to go after than stupid blago.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
I hated everything about the 2008 election from start to finish, I am unaware of a single good thing that came of it other than I discovered that I could talk to certain people who had different beliefs than my own without it turning into an ugly fight that resulted in loss of friendships. I kindly ask those who feel differently about the outcome of this election to not bring it up with me, I don't want my blog to turn into a cesspool, politics sicken me in general and there is way more than enough stress working against me and my stomach lining...

35. Who did you miss?
Considering the vast majority of my family and friends live 350 miles or more away I'll go with everyone for most of the year.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
The Weasels, finally a happy question!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Kids are the most important aspect of ones life, for me it is currently Niecey and Buggy (godson).

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
If you're going through hell (grad school, lol) keep on going!

Community

When I talk about my blog to people, whether it be fellow bloggers or people who are unaware of the blog world I will often cite reasons for starting this whole blogging thing. I lurked the blogosphere blogless for over a year I think, I enjoy reading and being a grad student I often don't have enough time to really get into a good book and so rarely bother trying to read one. Blogs were different, they are like a long series told in many short segments and it was easier for me to read a post or two or 100 in my spare time (aka time I should be doing lit review, bleck). Another thing about blogs I found was that if I really liked something brought up in a post I could comment about it and therefore interact with the author, how cool is that?!

As is often the case reading one blog led to reading another and another and another... The blogs I read in the beginning were premie blogs but eventually that led to blogs written by non-premie parents. After awhile I noticed that there were these social clicks/rings between some of the blogs I read, this intrigued me. Not too long after this I was reading one of my newest favorites and came across this post. I got a good laugh out of it and commented, we had a comment and e-mail exchange in which we discussed the idea of my having a blog:

NukeDad: I know that a lot of people who read it [his blog] are bloggers themselves, are you a blogger?

Blogless Microblogologist: I am not a blogger myself, life as a grad student who doesn't get out much does not make for much amusing blog material*.
NukeDad: Keep in touch, cuz when you start your blog I want to be one of the first subscribers.

This exchange happened about two weeks before I started this blog. I had actually entertained the idea of starting one before but had concluded I would be the most boring blogger ever, him expressing interest in a blog by little ole' me made me think about it more seriously. After this conversation I talked to Baby Sibling about hypothetically starting a blog and we threw around some ideas of what I would call it and write about and she came up with "Microblogology" and I instantly fell in love and HAD to start the blog immediately.

Back to the concept of community, the topic of this post, I even named it that. Seeing how the different bloggers interacted and formed friendships definitely attracted me to joining the blogosphere and becoming one of them and not just be a lurker on the outside looking in. Life can be a little isolated when you live 350 miles from most of your family and friends and don't make friends that quickly/easily in general but especially in the college setting**. So I started the blog and it did not take that long for me to make a few friend in the blogosphere. Not too long ago (ok fine, forever ago), I was recognized for this in what I consider to be one of the best awards I have seen by WeaselMomma, this is so sweet of her (thanks WeaselMomma!) here it is: “These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

How sweet is that?! Only problem I have is that I have to choose 8 people, there are WAY more than just 8 people in my blog roll who totally deserve this award, but here goes:

1. NukeDad
   
2. Nonna
3. LiteralDan
4. Sweetened Taters
5. Missives from Suburbia
6. Waltz in Exile
7. Former Goat Nanny Diaries
8. 7 Acres of Heaven
   

I see this as a sign that I have made it into the blogging community, a community that I am very proud to be a part of. I have witnessed several occasions that highlight how awesome the blog community is but the most recent example I have come across I think is a shining testament to just how great our community is. It all started here, on WeaselMomma's blog, her husband had lost his job and she jokingly suggested that her readers should help them out by clicking her google ad links***. What started as a joke ended up earning her almost $200 since all of us WeaselLovers started clicking her ads, she was amazed and so grateful that people took the time to actually click. It was exciting and fun since she would update us as to how much money was earned at the bottom of her posts. Then out of the blue it was over, google got rid of the ads program and never sent out the $200. And then, just like a pheonix rising from the ashes (a second time in a way), the blogging community rallied. They would NOT be beat by this, they WOULD help the Weasels! And thus the Save the Weasels' Christmas was born, run by Big Bad Daddy Rant and pimped by others, like NukeDad.

Unfortunately I got behind on my reading because I had to work and did not find out about this until now, too late to donate nor pimp it, left only to document the fact that not only did they manage to replace the $200 they managed to earn up $250! In the end it is not about the money, of course it helps, but this $250 means so much more than its face value. This money represents how people can come together in times of hardship to help someone out just because it is the nice thing to do. The moral of this story is that there is still good in this world, sometimes it seems hard to find but it is there. I don't know about you but this definitely helps restore some of my faith in humanity! And this act of unselfish love couldn't have been directed at a nicer family, I had the great honor of meeting them with my little Niecey over thanksgiving break and they are truely wonderful people.




~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*I must say I stand corrected, apparently a few people do find my world amusing.
**In my experience as both an undergrad and a grad student one tends to form a "buddyship" with someone that ends when the shared class ends. To me a real friendship is one that continues on, even if you don't talk much when you eventually do it is like nothing has changed, the majority of my friends that fit into this category are ones I have known since K-12.
***Google ad links was a blogger feature that allowed you to host some ads and if people clicked them the blogger would earn money from it, like 0.001 cents a click so it took a LOT of clicks for this feature to make a blogger much money.

An Update, A Message for Doc, and An Answered Question

So I have not posted since I was in Chicago over the Thanksgiving holiday, what a neglectful blogger I have been! Rumors of my death are somewhat exaggerated, my new wife/babysitter is taking very good care of my workoholic self. Though her looking up what a GI doc would likely do to me if I ever let Doc talk me into seeing one has led me to conclude that I think I would rather die than take that referral. Good thing my issues are not life threatening, Doc said he has yet to lose a patient and I would hate to be the one to ruin his record!

My Shadow and I rocking the bun look Grah dislikes

I have not forgotten this blog and all of my bloggy friends, in fact in my spare time I have been trying to catch up on my blog reading, remember I was a blogoholic before I was a blogger. I will be posting more about my trip over thanksgiving and such but it will have to wait until I have a few more brain cells working. Since coming back I have been working every day and I think I am averaging about 10 hours a day, though not all of that is working 10 solid hours and I have been going to water aerobics (Thursday was the last day before finals and break sadly). I still have some residual plague symptoms but it is not that bad and does not interfere with my working so I plan to ignore it and hope the immune system eventually works it out.

Niecey and Smallest Weasel (so cute!)

Despite all the driving, 5.5 hours to Chicago followed by about 5 to Michigan after sleeping an hour between, it was worth it to get to see my beloved family and it was such a treat getting to meet the real WeaselMomma and her delightful family. My little shadow definitely felt it was worth the time and gas for me to come visit her and go meet our new weasel friends. I was not planning to make the trip since I was still sickly but Doc assured me that I was not contagious anymore and told me to go see the family. Niecey definitely appreciated the fact that I followed his advice and wanted to tell him. Here you go Doc, a video on my blog just for you, thank you so much for all you do to try and keep me functioning despite my orneriness:

And I have decided to answer a question (and probably go off on several tangents) I received from Abby here since my computer ate my reply to her on her blog and also I have a tendency to write way too much for a comment (if you aren't cool with this Abby let me know and I'll delete this part or edit it). She and her wife have an adorable daughter who has GI issues, some of her symptoms are quite similar to mine but the poor kid is way worse than I am and we have different causes for our issues. I find it interesting that so many GI issues have very similar symptoms and treatments, I learn so much reading about what they are going through with Hallie (though of course I prefer the posts that tell how cute and smart she is with pictoral evidence). In my experience and based on what I know and have read, people with GI issues have to find the right balance of drugs and foods to either control or lessen the symptoms. The current treatment Hallie is on or is about to be on involves a course of antibiotics to try and knock back a potential overgrowth of bacteria in her intestines (most likely kinds that are not the healthiest to have) . Someone suggested that they put her on probiotics (she is actually already on them), which are health benefiting microorganisms (generally bacteria), to hopefully prevent some of the more unpleasant aspects of going on the antibiotic* (diarrhea mainly I am guessing but they can cause more than just that).

Being a microbiologist with similar issues and who happens to work with probiotic organisms (specifically Bifidobacteria) I commented that I felt this was good advice. Use the antibiotic to knock out the bad and then take probiotics during and after in hopes of colonizing her gut with healthy bacteria. She asked me what I use and somewhat ashamedly I must confess that I do not really practice what I preach and currently am not taking any probiotics. I was trying to get into the habit of eating Dannon Activa but I do not like yogurt and especially after coming down with the plague I had even less desire to eat the stuff. I am definitely considering trying probiotics in pill form but have not gotten around to looking at what my options for that are. In Hallie's case I would recommend taking a supplement that contains at least one strain of Bifidobacteria (for her colon) and potentially a Lactobacillus species or two (or more, they tend to colonize the upper intestines) because the goal is to help her get through the antibiotic and establish a healthy flora. Given that the science is behind on substantiating claims made about certain possibly probiotic organisms (human studies are complex and expensive) and currently probiotics are not regulated it is hard to say if the claims made by these products are valid or not**, but it does not hurt to try.

I really hope that the antibiotic, mixed with probiotics, helps balance out Hallie's system. It is hard enough as an adult dealing with GI issues and knowing the reason behind them and the treatments (some of the treatments can be unpleasant), I cannot fathom being a child and only knowing the pain and discomfort these issues bring. But it is not all bad, Hallie has parents who fight for her and will do anything to help her as well as a nanny who adores her and does what she can to help as well. Also she is developing an instinct for what foods make her sick, something I am starting to get as well and it is very useful. No matter what she is an amazing little girl who is going to be a big sister in about two months (8 weeks).

~~~~~Copy LiteralDan Section~~~~~
*Anyone can have GI issues during and after antibiotic therapy, the intestinal flora in humans is very important and antibiotics tend to wreck at least some havoc with it, one of several reasons not to go on antibiotics unless it is necessary. I am not against the proper use of antibiotics, improper use of them and the resistance that is resulting from that is a huge public health concern. They can cause more harm than good in someone who is sick with "just a virus" and I am glad that doctors are more and more standing up to their patients who insist on having a script even when it is clearly a viral infection and it is explained to them that an antibiotic will not help. I say those people should be put on placebomycin and told it should work within 2 weeks and they should drink plenty of fluids and rest...
**Please do not interpret my skepticism as my not thinking probiotics give benefits, as a scientist my job is to be skeptical.

Save Edna Jester

So I was checking my AOL mail and I often get distracted by the headlines and click them, especially funny sounding ones. Well I came across this gem and decided to share it with those of you paying attention to the less important news, such as the train wreck upcoming election (that is as political as I plan to get on this blog). Basically it is about an 89 year old woman who was arrested and is being charged with petty theft because some kid(s) threw a football in her yard and she was holding onto it to teach them a lesson.

The neighborhood is divided on this issue, according to the video this has been an ongoing issue with her and the neighborhood kids/families (or at least the one). To me I think the fact that she has made it clear she is annoyed with the kids having their balls go into her yard and got to the point of keeping them for however long to reinforce this that the parents' of these children should use it as an opportunity to teach their children about respecting their elders/neighbors, hell they should have already taught them. Is she being harsh, perhaps, but at the same time I would be very frustrated myself if someone was being disrespectful of me and my property (something I had to deal with in the lab yesterday) and if it was a kid that their parents did not teach them manners. According to the youtube video I found the "kid" is a teenager who got a job and bought it with his own money. I'm sorry but if a kid is old enough to have a job they should be old enough to know better than to mess with their elderly neighbor and perhaps old enough to go to the nearest park to play if their yard is too small.

Perhaps it is the way I was raised, I was expected to be polite and respectful of my elders. When we went somewhere I was expected to follow the rules of that place, even if it was something that was otherwise considered fine behavior for home. I plan to raise my potential offspring in the same way. If I knew my neighbor was bothered by something I or my kids did then I would try to talk it out with them to come up with a solution/compromise. Is it Edna's place to try and teach a little respect to the urchins next door, not really, but at the same time what are her other options if the parents don't do their job? Perhaps it is a silly issue to make such a big fuss over but at the same time it does bring up valid points, and really what means something to one person may mean something else to another.

Perhaps I am relating to Edna and reading too much into the issue given my issues with one of my coworkers (Prof Wannabe for those keeping track). But that is for another post.


FYI: I am working a lot right now and it is significantly limiting my blog writing and reading. I have set myself on a schedule that does not involve days off, it is not as bad as it sounds, some days I have very little to do so it is practically a day off, but there is always something that needs doing that totally gets in the way of blogging. Plus I didn't want to post and have my contest get burried (check it out, post below this, contest deadline has been extended to the 31st). Hopefully I can catch up at some point, miss you guys!

Contamination

The contamination I spoke of earlier appears to be more widespread than we originally thought, as in I now have two out of four of my cultures showing signs of it. The "patterns" are still rather random and I am having trouble figuring out what caused it, I can't fix it unless I find the source (I suspect it is either the stocks or myself at this point). Once a pattern seems to emerge a result comes along that throws it out. V asked what we are going to do, I suggested hitting our heads on the lab bench until we don't notice/care anymore. My boss graced the path lab with her awesomeness, it was amusing that she has the same approach to looking at slides under the scope that I do, stare at one, switch to the second, go back to the first, second, first... Then go cross-eyed and look at the plates awhile before going back to the microscope. She got tired of it and said "This is why I'm a chemist." So much for my trying to convert her! The bugs look similar under the scope, hence the switching, and also we really really want them to be the same and the right bug, but alas when Dr. M looked at them he confirmed my (and likely her) sneaking suspicion, they are most likely not. Good thing I don't have stomach acid or I'd have an ulcer by now!

I have options, we will get through this, it is just very frustrating that I am once again stalled and poor V is as well. I feel extra bad for V since she has been going insane with this too and it originally looked like it could be "her fault" now it looks like it is not (it could be mine). Hopefully I will get to the point of posting more regularly, I have posts swimming around in my head but it takes time to get them written, and some require photoshop and possibly Baby Sibling. Plus I really need to get my progress reports done, they are a pain and two are late (the two I don't care about as much and protest having to do).

In the mean time here is a video I made of what I am recently doing a lot of. I actually made three, at risk of scaring you all away and having Baby Sibling laugh hysterically at me I am posting the one that I narrated. What I am doing is called "streaking" it is often used to test the purity of a culture, in my case I am actually spreading what are pretty much pure cultures onto plates that I added a chemical to that makes my research organism (Bifidobacteria) turn blue and the others stay white. This will likely confirm that I have contamination in at least two of my cultures. Oh and I wore the lab coat just for you so feel special, I rarely wear one, that's how much I love you guys.