Frustration and Jubilation

Eisthen & Coddington Lab, Woods Hole, MA
It's finally up and running....mostly.

SO, I've taken some more pictures and experienced a few new things. Time, once again, for an update!

My roommate Hannah has finally arrived! She's from Arkansas originally, but she goes to school at University of Illinois. She's in her third year of graduate school as a physics major, and she's at MBL for the physiology course. Hurrah! It's nice to have someone around for a change.

Speaking of people being around, the town is steadily filling with students. Three more courses start this week, and the new arrivals are pouring in from the bus stop, large rolling suitcases in-tow. The dining hall is going to packed like never before!

I'm not a stalker, I swearz.

Insert excited axolotl face here.

Oh boy oh boy!

The events of today were a little frustrating (what else is new?). It's my "day off", but I had to hit the animal room to prepare odors for my experiment tomorrow (we get body odors from animals by placing them in Ringer's solution overnight). Lo and behold, the lights in the animal room were OFF, which is really bad news since we're trying to mimic the light cycle of Mexico in winter to get our axolotls in a reproductive condition.

Insert shocked axolotl face here.

SRSLY??? But I needs to be der HORNY axolotl!

In addition, the temperature was around 20 C (it's supposed to be around 17 C) and the water pump that we use to make Holtfreter's (the water that axolotls live in) was flowing slower than an oil-covered turtle on Louisiana's coastline.

Insert frustrated axolotl face here.

ARRRRRRGH

Heather came by to do animal care and we decided to call Dan the Animal Man to notify him of these problems. We've renamed him Dan the Worthless Man. He doesn't listen, he interrupts, and worst of all, he offers futile solutions and expects us to fix these problems ourselves. This wouldn't be a problem if we weren't paying MBL large sums of money ($$$) for our animals to be cared for.

(Donald Herrington or Jessica Venier, if you're reading this, plz get your butts to Cape Cod and replace this fool)

Insert sad axolotl face here.

WHY, DAN, WHY???

On the lighter side of things, Apparatus Mike has fixed our second solenoid controller! Three cheers for Mike! We still need to test it out on an animal, but it looks promising so far.

Insert relieved axolotl face here.

THANKS MIKE!

Mike also showed me some of his shoes from his 400+ shoe collection. Mike really likes collecting and wearing shoes, mostly shoes made for women. He admits he's kind of a freak, but I've reassured him that it takes all kinds to make a world, and I appreciate his courage to flaunt his hobby in the open.

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not."
-Kurt Cobain

Rock on, Mike.

The dining hall isn't open on Sunday evenings, so my labmates Sarah and Erin are going to join me for dinner somewhere in town. Should be a blast.

I miss everyone. Hope to see as many of you as I can when I return for my 21st birthday on June 26th.

Thanks for reading!
Lila

Science is Rough

Sunset @ Stony Beach, June 7th, 2010

Time for updates!

I've been here for slightly more than a week, and a pattern is finally being established. Most of my time, especially during the week, is spent working.

The EOGs (electroolfactogram recordings) that we do can take anywhere from four to ten hours. The time increases for every problem you encounter. When you hit a snag in electrophysiology, fixing it is usually guesswork. We record such small responses from such delicate epitheliums using such tiny equipment that it's impossible to know exactly what's wrong. There are a myriad of common problems, like excessive noise, inconsistent recording, no response to odors (which means the location of your recording pipette is complete shit and you probably need to move it by 0.0002 cm repeatedly until you get something).

Then there are ridiculous problems, like the left light of your dissecting scope isn't grounded, the suction pipe is broken and your dish is flooding, a cord is an inch too close to your faraday cage, you walked past the rig and all of a sudden your noise shot up. I literally had a gator clip connected to the 'scope foil that refused to decrease the noise unless it was touching a human being. It didn't even want an apple; only a hand would satisfy it. Sometimes, we noodle around with everything until the problem goes away, but we never know for sure what caused it. Hear ye, the Gods of Electrophysiology art easily angered, and let it be known, they were PISSED on Tuesday. They decided to smite one of our solenoid controllers, so Nick and I are currently working with a single rig until Apparatus (Cross-Dressing) Mike fixes the problem.

However, things went relatively well yesterday, despite our equipment essentially being cut in half, and if we work diligently for the Gods of Electrophys, they may reward us with decent responses from timely experiments. I'll seal the deal by offering the life of every mosquito I kill to our fickle deities.

That's all for now. Expect more pictures in the next post! The weekend is approaching, so I'll have time for more photoshoots.

Thanks for reading,
Lila

Two Days or Two Decades?

Good mornin'.

Lordy....I've been here two full days now, but it feels like years. There's a lot to take in, so forgive me if I forget something. A picture's worth a thousand words, so I'll try to let them do the talking.

View from my window in Ebert. Eel Pond. 5:30 AM

My dorm room in Ebert Hall. Note the empty bed; my roommate (Hannah) does not arrive until June 12th.

The ever awesome sink in my room.

Ebert Hall from the outside. Eel Pond was behind me. My windows are second floor, far left.

Lillie Building

Rowe Laboratory. Our lab is on the second floor of this building. It's where the majority of my time will be spent.

The very small beach across from Rowe. There's the harbor.......

The infamous "Wood's Hole" (the pile of rocks in the water). This is what the town is named for. It's extremely difficult to navigate, and boats tend to get stuck on the rocks quite frequently in the summer (especially if the driver is some rich tourist who can't drive her or his expensive boat to save the world).

A Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) dock.

WHOI research vessel. These boats are so badass that I might pirate one by the end of summer.

WHOI building.

The now out-of-business Woods Hole Market. You'd think that the only grocery store for six miles would do pretty well in a town full of rich tourists........I shudder to think of the fool in charge of finances.

View from the drawbridge that is suspended over the connection between Eel Pond and the harbor.

Ferry to Martha's Vineyard. I'll have to try it while I'm out here......

Note that the $20 sign is removable. You know how deep into summer you are based on the price.

The coffee shop.

I was quite intrigued by this......

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Swope Hall, where I take my meals. While I took this, Ebert Hall was directly behind me. Food is literally across the street from home.

Dining hall!

Beware- the ever ominous Drew House. Gasp in fear at its dilapidated form.......

Poor Nick has to live here, while I get to live in Ebert Hall. Funny story, though. The first morning that we arrived, Josh Hamilton visited our lab to welcome us. He's the Head Honcho around here, so it was quite a surprise. Heather, staying true to form and loyal to her peeps, immediately went Peepzilla and chewed him out for the discrepancies between the ways her two students were being treated. It was rather hilarious to watch him register what she was saying and offer to see what he could do. Then she thanked him for the lab and he went on his merry way.

Nick's living quarters. Quite spacious, but.......

The three jankity dressers in his room (and the desk that I helped him "borrow" from one of the empty rooms).

Mold on the window covers. Nick does not approve. Neither would the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.......

The Drew House basement. AKA the next episode of Ghost Hunters.

Icky un-private shower stalls. I'm sorry, Nick!

Note the duct tape holding the walls of the stall together.

Our Super Awesome Amazing Cool Ocean View Laboratory!!!!!
(you have no idea how lucky this is)

Time to set up the rest of the equipment.
(No, this is not a finished product)

*SIGH* It's been a loooooooooooong two days. Lots of work. Our axolotls came in today, and I think I'm going to get some pictures of them for my next post or so. Updates will continue, but I hope you've enjoyed what I've posted so far.

Toodles!!!