I, like many others, watched the swearing in of our 44th president today. It was a pretty amazing event. A day to be remembered. I really hope this power transition is the start of something spectacular for our nation. I witnessed history today.
Watching the national coverage of todays events I was happy to see the number of families that braved the cold and the crowds and ventured out onto the mall. What will the children that attended todays events remember from it? what message did they take home? I have some strong yet fractured memories from an inauguration and the associated festivities that I attended in January of 1993, I was 10 and William Jefferson Clinton was being sworn in to the office. Somewhat sadly, my strongest memory of the celebration was the commemorative Metro passes. Printed specifically for the weeks event, the cards had Clinton and Gore’s signature on them. Although, the memory of the Metro cards seems somewhat trivial to me now, as a 10 year old I think I saw it as proof that it was a big deal, I was apart of something special and that these men were very important people. And indeed they were both important and influential figures in our nations history. President Obama and Vice President Biden arguably have the potential to be far more important and have broader reaching influences. I just hope the children watching today's event realize how important this is and that
they are apart of history whether they take their proof from metro cards or from the tears of joy on adults faces or from some other detail unnoticed by adults....
Anyways, welcome to a new beginning. Happy Inauguration Day.
(So, with just minimal searching I actually able to find the aforementioned metro pass.... apparently I'm a little bit of a packrat)
I am a little afraid that the experiments that I’ve been doing in lab lately will turn me in to the little guy pictured above. Not because we do crazy gene mutation in the lab (we don’t) or because I was bitten by a radioactive crab (I wasn’t), it’s because in the past two days I have I pipetted approximately 3637 times. That number isn’t a hyperbole, it’s an actual engineering estimate with an error of plus or minus 8. The experiment I started yesterday has 35 conditions that I deposit in quadruplicate on 5 different 384 well plates followed by seeding cells into each well of each condition, add in the initial reagent dilutions to total of pipetting approximately 1516 times, then today I pipette in to each well of each plate 3 times in order to first induce a signaling pathway and then to image the response, add in a few extra uses of the pipette to dilute the imaging substrates to reach a total of 2121. And BAM you get 3637 times. Luckily, I can use the repeat pipettor 2800 of those times since I am delivering the same thing to each well but since using the normal pipette you have to push the button two times, once to suck up the solution and once to expel, that means that I in the past 2 days I have pushed a pipette button a total of 4474 times. Anyway, I’m going to be repeating similar experiments for a good long time in the foreseeable future and therefore I will either get carpal tunnel or have a really buff right arm.
(So, with just minimal searching I actually able to find the aforementioned metro pass.... apparently I'm a little bit of a packrat)
Don't let the sunshine fool you, the high today, according to my widget, was -5 degrees.
It’s official the economic recession has weaseled its nasty little head into my world. My favorite bargain movie theatre has closed its doors. Only a half a block away from my apartment, with $6 student tickets and free popcorn on Wednesdays (BYOB, bring your own bag), this place will surely be missed.
As a grad student, I have not been been greatly affected by the economic crisis. My paycheck, although small, is stable. Nothing has really changed in my finical life but I’ve still felt the need to scale back just like much of the country’s population. However, I’ve been thinking lately, maybe it’s best if I don’t change my spending habits. My local restaurants, bars, shops and entertainment venues need my money more than ever. So I think it may be my new goal to patron a non-chain store/restaurant in my neighborhood at least once a week. I know my money wont make a big difference but it couldn’t hurt.
