TGIF!

After many weeks of grayness, we've had about a week of blue skies and sunshine. Too bad I was so tired all week. Perhaps that was the lack of caffeine yesterday and today (though I did have tea, which was very nice)... Tuesday's workout included 1/2 hr on the elliptical machine (like running but without the impact) and I've been feeling it in my calves since Wednesday. We had a pretty intense intra-lab basketball game Tuesday evening; several injuries were sustained. I personally have a bruised big toe to show for my efforts on the court. Wednesday evening Gabriel and I hosted a big going-away / birthday party for Katja, an undergrad from Mannheim (sp?) who's been with us for about 5 weeks (she started the day after I arrived). I made a big batch of pasta sauce and spaghetti, which almost fed everyone. (I haven't learnt how to estimate quantitites for large groups.) Gabriel made two cakes. People brought all kinds of drinks and snacks. Special thanks to Lisa for bringing the salad. We managed to use just about every dish we have in our apartment. Yay! = : s

Tonight we're going to hear the Goettingen Symphony Orchestra at the Stadthalle, and there's talk of going to see a basketball game tomorrow evening. All in all, a weekend of hard work. Incidentally, I also have to finalize my Monday group presentation, by which I mean of course that I haven't started yet. : ) But not to worry, I have a fair bit of material and a few presentations already under my belt to draw from, and I'm comfortable speaking on my work. Cheers and have a good weekend!

TIRF

Today was "fix the TIRF microscope" day. That means I spent 5+ hours at the microscope imaging different samples under TIRF microscopy. For the layperson reading this, TIRF is an acronym that stands for Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence. It's conceptually rather easy and in practice not much more difficult. That said, the fluorescent bead solutions used to calibrate it show up fine. But when I try to image our cells the signal is very low and there's a band structure across the image. That might have been the special coverslip I used introducing interference effects in the laser beam but when using the same coverslip with the fluorescence beads there's no such band structure, so it must be something about the cells themselves. Warrants further investigation; ie. call the Olympus Techs for help

Rooftop with a view

I discovered today that my building has a rooftop patio with an amazing view of the surroundings mountains and the Goettingen valley. I even sunbathed. :) I would post pictures (of the view, not of me sunbathing) but alas, still no digicam. *Ahem* *birthday present* *cough* --clears throat-- Excuse me. As I was saying...
I also discovered that it's vital to have good, inspiring books with you at all times. In those moments when inspiration is lacking, I turn to one of my favourite science books (no, not the textbook kind) and read about all the cool things people have thought and done and the interesting stories associated with this event or that discovery. That all said, I also found a cute little program called VoiceCandy that will record anything you say into your computer's microphone... and if you should so desire it will even lend your voice one of eight cool themes, including Darth Vader, Old Radio and Chipmunk. Oh, and by the same people who make VoiceCandy is Podcast Maker, which I have yet to try but would in theory enable me to join the ranks of such eminent internet-enthusiasts as Munir Squires (no relation) and Co. But before that, I'm going to try using VoiceCandy to dictate to myself, as I've found writing off the cuff to be a great challenge.