Rules, Regulations, Evacuations and Failure

Rules and Regulations:

• Apperently, according to the small letters on one of the many random forms that I have, my large internship needs to take place within the faculty of Biology. Regardles, I just received a letter (misspelt address, misspelt supervisor name) saying that it had been approved (as an 'external subject' i.e. not part of the faculty of Biology), so at long last bureaucracy is not taking things into a stranglehold. That would be the last straw though, if it wouldn't be possible to do all the aspects of the Masters programme because although it's a joint effort, it is subdivided into parts.
• Mobile phones are not allowed in the lab. For those who had the idea that it was (one or two people accidentally showed the fact that they had a phone) some new signs have been posted on all (even the reasonably hidden back passage) entries to the lab. And the scary thing: lab management doesn't seem to be behind this, so who is?

Evacuations:

• Went is a funny place. My course their got moved to Kruyt because they had evacuated the building after a power failure followed by a ventilation failure. Okay, so it's right above a couple of chemistry lab, so maybe it isn't even that unnecessary.

Failure:

• That transformation doesn't want to go my way. Right now I am, let me see, exactly where I started three weeks ago. So guess what I'm doing next week!

Link out, animations again:

• Weeble and Bob are back with the Industrial Revolution. And if you think that's weird, don't try their guide on dating.
• Magical trevor is back. Not as good as episodes 1 and 2, but ow well, here's Magical Trevor 3.
• Also in Episode 3, and also not as good as the preceding episodes: Tiny Plaid Ninjas 3. The end is kind of decent though.

And that's all. For now.

Two weeks on...

Time flies! Seeing as I'm off to the lab between 08:15 and 19:00 (approx., inlcuding transit and shopping) and I'm doing reading outside of those hours, I'm not here that often. I've also been located in Amsterdam for some of the remaining time, but as my reason to be there just moved to Exeter, that'll no longer be the case. Que planning to leave for England (again). Maybe I should also start to plan to leave permenantly.
But before I start to do that, I'll at least hole up here for at least two years. Along those lines, I'm also finalising the furniture in the room. The latest addition are two identical bedstands on wheels, that sit beneath the table and are used to store my pots and pans. I still need a cabinet for up against the wall to store my plates and glasses. On the next-week list is hanging up some mini shelves above the kitchen and possibly increasing shelf space in the rooms by utilising some unused space (yes, I still had some). Also unused: the staircase, undoubtedly I'll find something creative to use it for.
For those asking about the research: I've been working op copying small parts of the DNA encoding for a protein and getting bacteria to express what's encoded on that DNA. This involves putting it in a vector. As there were weird results (probably because the supply of vector was contaminated) and part of the copying also didn't give results (probably a primer problem), I'm starting over.
As for Blog maintenance etc.: I'm low on time in that direction. I just accidentally wrecked my freeBSD install (turning it into a media server linked to my TV and Stereo), so that's restoring in the background. I'm looking into using Skype (via my MSN Messenger e-mail address) to dial out (need a field test of PC to PC first). The blog is next on the computer priorities list...
Links? Ow well, I'll dig something out.

• This I don't get. Is it because I'm a guy, or is there really no point? Walk
• Probably at least the 1st repost, yet here's one of the examples that good flash animation is still possible: Beatles - I feel fine
• Revenge on snail mail spam: Revenge

Well, that's it for now...

That's one day, 169 to go...

Don't get me wrong, it was quite nice. Filled in a form, and another form, and another form and [...] and figured out I'm not VMT certified (soon to be solved), got a badge [that needs to be worn in sight whilst on the premises], a locker, etc. etc. The first PCR has been done, I've got a bench spot and a reading spot, I know where to find stuff and I even have half a shelf in the freezer. Now I actually need to do the 'fun' part - which is actually registering for this whole thing. The card is handy though - I can now access the bikeshed also after 18:00, and seeing as I left 15 min later than said time... Anyway, enough of that for now. There are a few mindless games on the net, but I find them to dull to link. Maybe next time.

Whoops, lost the linebreaks!

I changed around a setting by accident which basically removed all the linebreaks in all posts, making some of them a bit annoying to read. The setting is back to what it should be, but some of the more recent posts may have become broken as a result. Apologies to all those digging in the archives.

Evening view from the back window

I quite like the big church that I can see from my room. They're nearly done restoring it to it's former glory (look carefully and you can just make out the scaffolding). It features more in the view than the picture would suggest - in the way my room was made to look larger on that panorama picture, I took this picture in a manner which made the church seem smaller. For good measure, to bring out the sky a bit better, I ran it through fireworks. Now it looks a little more like I remember it. (Yes, clicking it brings up the large version, larger versions available on request)

...and practice will follow.

Or, at least, that is what they say. So far, in just about every internship related thing I've heard that line (comes into play when discussing a UC background ). As long as the theory is fine (note)(hide) [Given the fact that up until now people are explaining fairly basic things as if they may be a bit difficult, that shouldn't be the problem. At least the last guy that I spoke to asked if I understood the concept and the use of PCR, rather than spending (in the case of a specific 300-level course) half an hour to explain it], then the practical aspects of, in this case biomolecular research, will follow quite easily. Now I only need to actually put that theory itself into practice. At least I now have an internship (despite being late for both meetings (note)(hide) [First time round, I arrived on time, but then had trouble finding the exact location as there were no room numbers posted and I had the wrong room number anyway. Second time, I get to the station early, only to find that the whole station is filled with buses and people, as there had been an accident at the entry to the station. This was solved by hurrying back to my room, and grabbing my bike instead.]) - the thing at the cell biology department did come through. The good thing about it is that it consists of some widely applicable techniques - which allows me to get a feel for labwork, and might even allow me to figure out a few things (note)(hide) [This includes:

• Figuring out what I think I'm doing
• Figuring out what I am doing
• Figuring out what I should be doing
• Optional: Figuring out what I want to be doing
• Figuring out what I what to do when the internship is over
• Figuring out what to do about some old issues that I managed to keep buried for some time

The last one being one of the reasons why I need to do the others.]
in the meantime (9 month should be enough, I hope (note)(hide) [Something tells me that I won't have that much time left anyway, and that besides that I know there's no acceptable end to it all.]).
Moving on to house related issues - house warming party. I don't think I'll be having one, even though if I move the couch and the table, there would be space, I'd still rather not have too many people up here in one go (and besides, I still only have seating for four). Everyone is still welcome though, even though I'll be running around quite a lot (intro starts tomorrow, internship straight afterwards (next Monday) , so let me know. I know everyone has impossible schedules etc., so I can understand if it takes some time before people have time.
Also in this post: It's the 75th post. Hurray to you for still reading this after going through 74 other posts in the past. That being said, time to dump in a few links, just like in the olden days:

• Biased reporting? Using New Orleans flood coverage as an example.
• Goodie Bag TV: Agent Rod Brickman, Copyright protection. Sharman Networks, who own Kazaa, lost a legal battle and has been ordered to 'modify the system to prevent further piracy'. Not that there aren't dozens of alternatives, but maybe things will one day come to scenes such as those in the clip.
• Chat to the whole internet. Ask the internet anything. If you're bored.

Inside / Site maintenance

And a very distorted view of the room. It looks about 5 times larger than it actually is.
The site is under limited maintenance - I'm changing the linked blogs section. Any additions? Let me know! Maybe I'll also weed out some code artifacts, or maybe I'll re-implement them. Anyway, I've got to run...