...Because I wish all a Merry New Year!

Holy moley....it's

2008 !

Happy new year!

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

...Because it's a quiet night

Whoops where've i been?

Already it's mid-Dec, and soon it'll be x'mas and the new year. Where'd the year go i wonder? It just seemed only a while ago, i must have been having fun.

I havent written in a while, but since i'm on leave for the next 2 weeks, i guess i'll have time to think about what to write about.

Well - I'll try.

Been really busy lately, but not with work, but with errands, meetings, and coming up with evil plans to take over the world. hurhurhur....

Started a small "business" of sorts with bm and siting for fun, just to do something different and for the experience of working with each other.

Been playing badminton on weekends.

And now, watching lots of TV on the internet.

However in the midst of all the activities and plan-hatching, as the year draws to a close, one cant help but grow increasingly thoughtful about how things have turned out over the year, and how things will turn out in the coming years.

will see i guess. until next time. :)

cheers

...Because it's just another day at The Office

I realise that when i talk about work, i find that it's kind of hard to describe it. I'm at a loss of words when people ask me what i do for a living. The typical answer of "labtech/research assistant(RA) lor", is followed by "science", is followed by "research" followed by "cells"...followed by "aiyah i'm a cleaner with a degree!!"

I find myself telling my friends that i'm "in the office" for lack of a better description. I work everyday of the week, and i can don't work any day of the week. I can apply for leave, yet turn up to work, and not apply for leave and disappear from work. It's because science doesnt really have fixed hours or a work week, but we do try our best to keep to it. Besides, there's no money in doing science, there's GOT to be SOME perks. One cant survive on passion alone...And thus because of that, i told Eric that i dont think i'll be joining him and gil for a holiday overseas this deepavali weekend, because i can find time to go on a non-peak period and i don't really need to save my leave because my leave is utterly useless!!!!!!!

So what do i do in my job?

- I do maintenance. I clean, i wipe, I tidy, i stack and i pack. I make up solutions, i refill solutions. I deice the fridges with a hammer and scrapper. I top up the inventory. I take inventory of consumables and stores of cells in the liquid nitrogen storage. I seek quotations. I order items. I collect items. I tidy up the lab. I pick up the garbage when the bin gets too full. I climb tables to reach high objects. I take dirty glassware to a collection centre for washing, and send and collect things for autoclaving/sterlization. Sometimes i'm like a PA to my mentor and ppl look for me when they are looking for him or wondering where he is. I tend to remind him he has meetings too for some reason, hahahahaha...

- I keep key components up and running for experiments. I make sure we have enough reagents, enough cell-lines that are alive and healthy for use. I set up and prepare the cells in the arrangements required. I do techniques, or rather, application of technical skills to carry out experiments. Examples of techniques would be transfections and transformations, PCRs, cell culture, bacterial culture, cloning, immunohistochem etc.

- I run experiments as directed by the big brain (ie; my mentor/boss) These can take several minutes, an hour, several hours, several days, several weeks, or several months. I usually run week long experiments, and currently i'm involved in a 6 month long experiment. Sometimes i even use my own brain (hahhahaha). eg; i collect the data, and process the data, and depending on who i'm working with, provide an opinion.

- And lastly, most importantly, I take the blame. Every office needs a scape goat. And that's what research assistants are for. We take all the shit!

So that's what i do really. I have to admit the current job is a good life compared to the previous one. I now get to go for lunch and go home early or on time. Other than working 7 days a week, i'm getting fatter(sigh.), so it's all good! Science isnt that bad after all.


*****





Anyway, this is my "office":


Well, actually we DO have a proper office. I just wasnt issued a desk in it. Due tolack of space, the lowly RA is assigned a table in the lab to enjoy the lab air*cough cough*

Anyway, It's a lot tidier than it usually is. I was abit free today, so i started wiping down my table, throwing away used tubes and stacking things up in a more tidy fashion. My bench is also more stocked with equipment than most benches because I very kiasuly ordered equipment before the budget ran out and when i got a chance, and stole what ever i didnt have from ppl who were leaving - ok lah, not STEAL, more like "inherited".

On the right of the bench is a centrifuge machine for microtubes, on the left is my trusty styrofoam box of ice, centre racks of tubes, foil wrapped giant beakers with autoclaved tubes. Reagents on the shelf above me with notes and recipes stuck to it. Gloves, bunsen burner, ethanol spray bottle, timer, labelling tape, markers, pens, and a lone plate of Agar can be seen too if you look closely enough (btw, bad practice to leave that plate lying around hurhurhruhurh). So yup. Welcome to my desk :)


That's all for tonight.

晚安!