Day 7: Fun with Palindromic Primes!

I am 32 seconds away from Asperger syndrome (at least in a world where Windows XP games are a diagnostic tool). Now to figure out what to do with the other 469s of my break from thesis writing...

Day 6: Flash drives cost nothing these days

I was uploading some pictures to my laptop at work during a break from thesis-writing. When I was done, the "safely remove hardware" function decided not to let me have my camera back. I got in a small temper and removed it anyway, but then realising that this could potentially damage my camera, I decided to take a picture in order to ensure everything was working properly. The flash going off caught the attention of my colleague, who looked at what I was taking a picture of, then looked at me with quite a puzzled expression on her face. I asked her why she was looking at me like I was doing something really bizarre, to which she replied jokingly,
"You know there are better ways to back up your thesis?"

Day 5: There ain't no bugs on me...

... The same, alas, cannot be said of my backdoor. According to the folks at the Smithsonian, there are 10 quintillion insects living on this planet at any given time. That averages out to about 200 million creepy-crawlies per person. I know where mine are...

Day 4: It's around here somewhere!

There are many things that suck about thesis-writing; the fear, the nightmares, the cold-sweats, even the odd blue screen of death right after you write an awesome paragraph but can't quite remember what you said. Aside from the emotional toll of wrapping up a doctorate, the thesis-writing process tends to wreak havoc on everything around you as well. When your big achievement of the last 48 hours is the inarticulate scrawling of a few sentences that don't stand a chance of surviving the first draft reading, guilt becomes an inherent feature of not only relaxation, but any activity. Dishes pile up the sink, your laundry pile becomes such a behemoth that it attacks your pet cat and ring binders and file cabinets are jettisoned in favour of the open-plan filing system.

I realized that my plan of keeping my primary literature out and where I need it, i.e. by my recliner where I work, was not quite the success I had hoped when I spent about 45 minutes looking for a review that I was sure I had brought home.


Maybe it's somewhere on my desk at work...

Day 3: I Hope They Serve Yarn in Hell

Thanks Kristine - My thesis, nay, my life is on hold until I get through the Yarn Harlot's book that you loaned to me!


I allowed myself to sleep in this morning as it is Saturday and I haven't slept properly all week. I must really have been stressed or sick or something, because I didn't wake up until 1pm. I have a Western blot transfer running overnight that I was meant to have dealt with this morning. I was packing my bag to go work, when I came across the copy of At Knit's End. I opened it to read one or two pages, in order to decide if it made the cut of "things I will agree to lug in my backpack all the way to work", an honor held by such prestigious objects as my target brand weight loss shake, a weird collection of grocery shopping receipts and a pattern for an ugly aran sweater that I have been carrying around for some reason.

As I said, it was my intention to read one or two entries, but Hey Presto! It's now half two. This woman is my idol. She is the Tucker Max of knitting. I want to be even half this entertaining in storytelling. The last time a book consumed me, instead of the other way around, was when I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. I assume my protein has transferred right through the membrane by now, and the time I had set aside to get the sample through primary antibodies and onto secondary has elapsed. But it's my lazy Saturday, so maybe it was meant to happen this way. Besides, one of the entries in the book features a quote that is somewhat relevant to my day...

"I love deadlines. I especially love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
- Douglas Adams

Day 2: Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

As people go, I am a little prone to insomnia. It being my final year of grad school, I haven't found it easy to do that thing where you stand horizontally with your eyes closed and hallucinate for a few hours. Tonight, adding to my problems initiating or maintaining sleep are the heavenly aromas of sodium hypochlorite wafting around my bedroom. Why does my boudoir reek of a public swimming pool you ask? Well, the age-old war between Liz and Nature still wages. Mainly owing to some interesting design ideas on the part of the folks at Haier, there’s a big gaping hole in the barrier between separating my personal space from the world and the rich diversity of creatures therein.


I was getting into bed when I was unnerved by an unexpected movement in my peripheral vision. It wasn’t so much an insect crawling up the wall, as it was a medium-sized dog with an exoskeleton. With no undergrad handy, I was alone in dealing with this distressing athropodan invasion, so I instinctively grabbed my copy of Poirot in the Orient and introduced the critter to the genus Homogenate. Unfortunately, the ex-insect was rather large, and had what I deemed to be a rather impressive fat body so merely flicking his remains into my trash can wasn’t going to cut it. Luckily, I come prepared; I have a box of latex gloves from the lab, and the store-brand answer to every Clorox product at my disposal. My little hexapodous friend is en route to a burial at sea and I can rest assured that everything he touched now bears no trace of his filthy nature-ness, that is when the smell of cleaning products dissipates enough for me to fall asleep!

Day 1: Copycat

I am going to try to emulate my friend Carly's "A Month of Photos" idea. Aside from being a nice activity, my boyfriend's father just bought me a sweet Sony CyberShot so I thought this would be a fun way to break it in.

This is my claustrophilic cat Buttons in one of his favourite grocery bags... I worry that one of these days I'll hear meowing when I am walking through the store!