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Himay's Journal

himay
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01/12/2010 12:02 #50802

Bachelorhood (or not)
Category: food
Walking around with a shopping cart in Aldi, it was filled with twelve boxes of hot-pocket wannabes and eight pot pies.
image

I can only imagine how it screamed "lazy non-cooker." However, for $26, I now have 32 lunches stocked in my freezer at work! They're really only backups for those days I forget to bring in some leftovers or a prepared lunch. I think I'm done with the "crap, forgot lunch so I'm going out to eat" mentality. The budgetary reassignment necessary for that is insane when I do the math. Blargh!

Thank goodness I only have to do this 2-3 times a year.
tinypliny - 01/13/10 20:45
Interesting back-up plan. What I'd be more interested in hearing (after this month is out) is:

Was there a statistically significant difference in the number of times you forgot your lunch now that you KNOW that these packed frozen thingies are waiting for you in the dept. freezer?!
metalpeter - 01/13/10 18:06
Wow That is so Me, except I don't post my recipts. I go with the banquet Pies yes swanson makes them but they aren't my taste. I think they are about .50 at price rite. I prefer tops and wegs cause they have more variety. Also when they are on sale Michellines yes there are two other brands that are all the same company makes A nice little meal for lunch. That is what lunch is supposed to be it doesn't need to be a footlong sub or a tripple sacker king size meal. Yes eating a lot is good and gives lots of energy but it is also way more then anyone needs. I'm guessing a week's lunch that way is about the same price as one trip out to fast food. I used to go out all the time myself also. I On the other hand never cook. It is just me. Plus I suck at cooking anyways so.........

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...
image
...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. :)
image

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?
image
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?