final countdown

kie: neb 141: the lab
kiel: still sick, coughing up all kinds of stuff
kio: secret agent pls

and now, today's top news headlines (two of which are rather applicable to my current situation), courtesy of the onion

Neurosurgeon Heckled From Observation Deck
HOUSTON—Dr. Martin Kenneth Rinjipur, a neurosurgeon at Methodist Hospital, was heckled from the observation deck Monday after removing a cancerous tumor from a patient's occipital lobe. "You call that closing an incision?" the unidentified man shouted. "I could make a cleaner suture with 15 centimeters of frayed chromic gut and a pair of barbecue tongs. Go back to Johns Hopkins." Rinjipur did his best to act like he had not heard the comments.

Stick Shift Bragged About
NEW YORK—Sources say Gary Baumgarten, an accountant in the bursar's office at Barnard College, introduced his stick shift into the conversation again Monday. "Traffic was murder over the Verrazano Bridge this morning," Baumgarten said. "Especially driving that five-speed. But a stick is the only way to go. Of course." Later that day, Baumgarten touted his stick shift during conversations about San Francisco, taxi drivers, and the drive-thru at Taco Bell.

everone always gets so excited when the Onion mentions johns hopkins. i guess it kind of adds a bit of notariety, at least in some circles, to be mentioned in the Onion and not be something randomly picked. this is, of course, in spite of the fact that we do not attend the world-renowned johns hopkins med school, which, incidentally, i had the chance to visit today.

every time i make a mutant in lab, i have to get it sequences to confirm that i have the right mutation. however, here at homewood we don't have a facility that will do DNA sequencing. so, the researcher needs to deliver himself and his midi-prepped plasmid to JHMI and drop it off at the DNA analysis facitlity. the shuttles leave homewood and jhmi every half hour and the ride takes about 20 minues, so if you're quick, you can catch, say, the 1100 shuttle there, power-walk through the hospital and the children's center (knocking over pregnant women and small childern with great gusto), then run up monument st. to the outbound shuttle stop at 1130. the shuttle is basically a school bus. and sitting in the very back seat is not advisable due to 1) the circa 1970 shock/strut design of the bus and 2) the poor condition of baltimore city roads. at one point my ass was literally 12 inches away from the seat.

that brings me to my second headline. i, as you may know, am in the market for a car. and so while i am working my butt off here my parents have been perusing the classifieds nightly in search of the perfect auto for me. they found a 92 passat with 80k miles for like 2500. the price is definitely right, as the insurance company cut me a check for about 2800 bucks for my car. we shall see how this little sale goes. the only bad thing is it is an automatic. but the shifter is on the floor, so that's cool, right? i mean... i think... that.. i'm a cool guy...

oh it snowed here. and baltimore once again crapped its pants. nothing really new about that.

also, i got a part in "songs for a new world" , the barnstormers intersession musical. 4 cast members, lots of singing. should be big fun.

it's finals time and i should be studying. but i'm not. again, nothing new. i have three finals, one on friday and two on monday. sounds like a fun weekend for me! but after that i'm done. well, actually i can't go home til i kinetically characterize a mutant i'm making for lab. i've never had a research deadline imposed before (marc is typically very laid back) and i must say it is not fun.

well perhaps i ought to open my genetics book.