HFCS: effika’s blog

Hey, look! I’m alive!

I bet when Jay goes away I will update something like 4 times over the weekend. If he goes. He’s been sick all week and doesn’t know if he can fly with his family. Anyway, the point is that I update more when I don’t have somebody around to tell my stories to whenever I’m home from work/class.

I’m trying to read the Harry Potter books. Paul was supposed to bring them to me tonight at dinner, but he completely forgot about them until he walked in the door at Bison Wiches and saw me. Tomorrow or Friday we will try to be in the same place for long enough to pass on the books.

Class has been rather trying. It’s not a hard class, but the people in my lab are making it a more difficult than it should be. Well, really only one person. There are only 5 people in my lab, so we split up into groups of 3 and 2. I got 2 lab partners, one just fine and the other I’m surprised got so far in his academic career. I seriously doubt he will ever find this blog, but let’s just call him T. T has problems with things that should be routine by now.

We do a lot of pipetting in lab. A lot. If you can’t pipette, you are screwed, plain and simple. We used pipettes extensively in organic lab, one of the prerequisites to this lab. T still can’t pipette. We use some pretty old pipettes that take a little bit to get used to, but after a few minutes most of us had no trouble with them. Today I asked T if he could get me 2.5mL of Bradford reagent and place them in the two cuvettes I’d laid out. This is how the exchange went:

Me: T, can you get me the Bradford reagent? We need 2.5mL into each of the cuvettes. The cuvettes are on the bench and the pipette is already set.

*T looks at each of the 4 pipettes carefully before selecting the proper one and heading to fridge.

*T comes back.

T: How much did I need?

Me: 2.5ml, pipette once for each cuvette. It’s already set up, see? And don’t forget the cuvettes.

*T takes the cuvettes and the pipette, and comes back a minute later with a beaker clearly labeled as Tris.

T: Is this it?

Me: No, Bradford reagent is the brown stuff. Remember the stuff we’ve used in the last 2 labs? It’s the same stuff. I’ll show you.

*T and I walk over to the fridge. I get T the Bradford reagent and put the Tris up.

*T draws the liquid up too quickly and draws it up into the filter.

Me: Oops, you drew it up too quickly. Remember you have to go really slowly with this one. Why don’t you get a new filter and I’ll find a new tip?

T: I’ll go ask the TA

*T goes to show the TA the mess he made of the pipette. She shakes her head and finds a new filter, and warns him to be more careful next time.

T: I got it.

*T gets liquid in the filter again.

Me: Here, I’ll just get it…

That was just one exchange today. He also asked me repeated why were heating the enzyme, why we later cooled the enzyme, why we centrifuged the enzyme, and why we had to use separate tips for differen reagents. I don’t mean asked me one of these each time, I mean I got each question at least 2 times. I’ve taken to using the phrase, “Well, as Dr. Gray told us this morning in class,” and optionally, “As I told you earlier,” more and more each time I have to talk with him. I think even the TA is sorry for me putting up with him.

You have Jay to thank for this update. I began talking his ear off, as I’m always talkative after chatting with Paul, and he suggested that I update while he gets some quality time in with the GBA.

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