Himay's Journal

01/04/2010 14:55 #50737

Quirky
Category: science

When my music isn't enough to remove the tedium from my daily benchwork in the lab...

...I make patterns in experiments. Like my gels. Pretty colors!

In other random musings while I'm waiting for my gel to run, contemplating the whle "resolutions for the new year" thing. I always feel like I cheap out on them whenever I did in the past; it's probably been six or seven years since I actually made resolutions to stick to. This year might be a good one to propose a few with, however.

zobar - 01/04/10 23:32
what do you people do all day

- Z

himay - 01/04/10 19:25
Now I'm pondering ideas of a t-shirt design of agarose gel electrophoresis. Ack!

tinypliny - 01/04/10 17:13
Those colours would look good on a Black T-shirt.

tinypliny - 01/04/10 17:12
I think its an AWFUL LOT of fun when you make resolutions and find out that you have broken them on the VERY first day. ;-)

01/02/2010 09:47 #50723

Winter
Category: weather

Now this is the kind of weather I enjoy waking up to in Buffalo. :)

01/01/2010 16:10 #50713

Filling a void!
Category: football

This may not be the best place to be checking around, but my friend and I still have 3 seats to this Sunday's Colts game since his shady cousin (and co.) backed out on him. The seats are somewhere in the 100's, but I will update later with the specifics on seat/section.

I know there'll be nil chance of seeing Peyton (for all the Manning-love fans), but is there anyone interested in going that hasn't already obtained tickets? You'd be welcome to tailgate with us, however there being only 2 or 3 of us at present, we may not tailgate more than an hour or two. I'm still beating my infection from doing this at the last home game.

drew - 01/01/10 17:38
I would love to go, but a 1pm game is not feasible for me.

12/31/2009 13:01 #50704

Bacteria Gone Wild!
Category: science!

Who needs Girls Gone Wild?

terry - 12/31/09 15:23
how'd you get a puffball in your E.Coli sammich?

heidi - 12/31/09 14:28
I like the fungal donut picture.

himay - 12/31/09 14:22
Might have found an ID on whatever that spiky thing was:
Lycoperdon echinatum :::link:::
or possibly also...
Lycoperdon pulcherrimum :::link:::

We don't have a microscope in the lab to really check 'em up close for confirmation, and I'm not about to try and dissect one of them just to further perpetuate whatever infestation(s) we have going on in our air-handling systems.

himay - 12/31/09 13:46
Ah, and now that I've learned to read the help/FAQ page....
Flickr pictures! :::link:::

himay - 12/31/09 13:45
Argh, that worked horribly. We're just going to do this the old-fashioned way (I hope).
[link=http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcbaxter/2370266286/][/link]

himay - 12/31/09 13:41
The bacteria (Escherichia coli) are the boring, flat colonies on the plate.

Those spiky fellows, I have no idea what they are. Can only assume they're some kind of fungus/mold, as the plate (and another one like it which also had one spiky dude) contains chloramphenicol (a rather robust antibiotic). Our lab also works with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (which happens to be chloramphenicol-resistant by nature), but it grows nothing like that.

I'm still trying to find a decent guide to do a taxonomical identification of these guys. Usually our contaminating buddies look more like this:
[link=http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcbaxter/2370266286/][img=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/2370266286_a8b559c6c7.jpg][/link]

tinypliny - 12/31/09 13:21
They are from contaminated Alien worlds that haunt (e:himay)'s lab ducts.

theecarey - 12/31/09 13:16
very cool.

As with (e:paul), I'd like to know more, too.

paul - 12/31/09 13:08
What kind of bacteria are those?

12/31/2009 12:59 #50703

NOMs
Category: food

Homemade trail mix (kind of), only because I can never find any with blueberries in them!

So voila, peanuts, cranberries, and blueberries. NOM!

janelle - 12/31/09 13:53
I feel like you should be my new best friend. We both love blueberries, have sinus problems and live on the same street! Lol.

himay - 12/31/09 13:49
Aldi currently has dried blueberries in their Fit'n'Active variety of dried fruit. It looks like it's a seasonal item, but at $2.99 (I think; it could have been $3.99) for a cup of them, I'm hoping they make them a steady in-stock product.

tinypliny - 12/31/09 13:20
Ooh, where did you get dried blueberries?

paul - 12/31/09 13:08
Yum