Good bad day
Overall post-PhD life has been amazing. I wake up happy. Almost everyday. I go home happy. Almost every day. My days are no longer full of melodrama and woe. I take two days off every five days...well not always, but it's just such a novel concept that I can if I want to...
Frankly, it borders on banal.
Then along came Friday the 31st of March. The conjunction of three experimental timepoints resulted in eleven hours of hellish torment. Altercations with support staff, running out of crucial reagents, disappearing/re-appearing parasites, teetering on the edge of destruction, racing the clock to make my instrumentation booking, barely time to catch my breath, let alone eat lunch... I was multi-tasking my multi-tasking, on the fly, racing from one task to the next.
AND I LOVED IT !!!!!!!!!!!!! This is what I've been missing !! Danger, excitement, intrigue !!
I have a friend who is a pediatrician, who also does laboratory based research. When I complain that I've had a bad day she puts the question to me - "Did anyone die?" In her definition of a bad day, someone did, and then she has to tell their family. In mine, I just get frustrated feel like i've wasted my time. It puts everything in perspective really.
So, Friday the 31st of March is officially my worst day of 2006 so far. And really, looking back, it wasn't that bad .. and that's something to celebrate !
Cheers !
Age of Terror
This morning as I was cycling to work I saw an abandoned piece of luggage. It was a
black suitcase, carry-on sized, with a handle sticking up. In the middle of the cycle path with no apparent owner. And as I rode past it, my vivid imagination flashed an image of it exploding in a burst of reds and yellows and blowing me to smithereens. This is the meaning of the age of terror. A simple suitcase, left on the path whilst someone checks the bus timetable is a threat. I am appalled that my mind leapt to that conclusion, and disturbed that the threat of terrorism is somehow imprinted in my brain.
One of my favourite films in the
Tropfest 2006 finalists is called "Last Stop" and deals with a very similar scenario. A young 20-something man of middle eastern appearance leaves a sportsbag on the tram... which is slowly noticed by the passengers one by one. A couple, a father and daughter, two middle aged women, exchange worried glances... the tram goes one stop then two... Watching the thoughts of terrorism tick over in their minds, can you blame them? I thought the same thing this morning...
I think they're winning.
(and in case you're interested "Last Stop" is screening in
Fitzroy on Tuesday April 4th)
A blog by any other name..
My friend S, who started her PhD at the same time as me, was nicknamed Super S, and so I became Krazy Krystal.. I have no idea why, possibly just for the alliterative effect. Anyway, the nick caught on, to the point where when new comers were introduced to the people in the lab it was "This is John, this is Jane, this is Krazy, this is Belinda..." Unbelievable.
Interestingly a few people, mostly those with psychology backgrounds, were offended, if not appalled at the use of a mental illness term in such a flippant sense. The argument was that using "Krazy" as a nickname could be construed as offensive or trivialising to those who are indeed mentally unwell. Though I would think that the term crazy would not have been used professionally in this day and age. Also, their argument was that "Krazy" contributes to re-enforcing a negative stereotype regarding metal illness.. but I don't regard my nickname as insulting or derogatory to myself, I embrace the
definition of crazy as "bizarre or fantastic".
Anyhow, one of my friends was on holiday in Tasmania recently and happened to spy a curious item in the window of a toy store... Krazy Krystal Laboratory!
It's a chemistry kit that allows you grow your own crystals in various structures and make multi-colored crystal forests.. Though another friend of mine has remarked that instead of Ages 10 and Up, Krazy Krystal's Laboratory should really be R18+...
Perhaps I should offer to become a spokesperson for the product! Combine my love of acting with my love of science and do product endorsement commercials.. Even Krazy Krystal loves the Krazy Krystal laboratory.
And hence the name of my blog..
Shouting random abuse
I have a friend Pete.
He works in North Melbourne in a record store.
It's like being in "High Fidelity" all day.
Pete rides a bike.
Sometimes I see Pete on his bike when I am on my bike.
If I see Pete on his bike I like to stop and chat to him.
Yesterday I was cycling down Swanston St and I saw Pete.
He was riding along the cross street, against the lights.
I playfully yelled "Watch where you're going Pete!"
It was not Pete.
I would like to publically apologise to "not-Pete".
Sorry.
Party time ! Excellent !
Seven weeks today i will arrive in the UK to start a new series of Krazy Adventures
™... and that's a great excuse to have a party !
Date: Friday the 5th of May
Time: From 7pm onward
Where: The
Purple TurtleAddress: 166 Johnston Street, Fitzroy - to the east of Brunswick St
Wear: A Krazy accessory (think ties, featherboas, tiaras...)
No RSVP required.. open invitation, bring your friends, housemates, siblings etc..
Where is the "common" wealth ?!?!
The city of Melbourne is abuzz with the
Commonwealth Games, and there are colour lift-outs in every newspaper available. Along with the medal tallys, interviews, predictions and highlights, there are also the heart-warming stories of
athletes who have struggled to be here, who's rags to riches stories are meant to inspire us and fill us with warm fuzzy feelings over our cornflakes in the morning.
Personally it makes me feel a little ill. Look at the
nations of the commonwealth... a staggering percentage of them are classified as developing countries. So I ask you where is the "common wealth" there? Teams from Malawi, Tanzania, .. some of the
poorest nations on the planet, who have had to be
sponsored by Victorian communities just to be able to afford team uniforms and equipment. Imagine if an equal amount of money was then spent on the poverty stricken communities in those nations.. how many
goats could we buy? People could
we educate and train? Children could we
feed?
When faced with the contrast of the opulance and spectacular of the opening ceremony , versus the violence, poverty and oppression in countries like
sierra leone, can you really blame the athletes for trying to
defect...
When you look at the medal tally, it seems that the Games are slightly weighted in favour of certain nations. And when you look at the quality of life across the commonwealth, infant mortality, life expectancy, literacy and income and you'll see the scales are
tipped even further.
So yes, I'm enjoying the free festivals, concerts and exhibitions... but the shiny glow of gold has been tainted a little for me...
Technology is fun
For all of you out there in LJ land, my lovely friend R has set up a syndicated version of my blog so you can have me on your friends page... whatever that means..
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/dr_krystal/profile
Bright Red Shoes
I have a new pair of
bright red shoes !! Huzzah ! And the best thing is that they are made with
100% sweatshop free labour. The company that makes them is called "
No sweat" and the shoes are made in a unionised factory in Indonesia that has all of the same worker rights that you would expect to be in place in the 21st century, crazy concepts like OH&S, sick leave, set work hours and such.. also, the workers are paid 30% above the Indonesian minimum wage. Ok, the other best thing is that they look really cool too. I know they're a rip-off of Converse All-Star, but i would prefer to buy shoes that not only look good, but that I know didn't exploit anyone when they were being made. The company makes other stuff too, T-shirts, thongs, clothes, so
check it out people!
I'm moving to York !
I'm moving to
York... on the 15th of May ! Scary but exciting! I've been offered a post-doctoral research position in
Paul Kaye's laboratory at the
University of York, working on Leishmania. Leishmania is a parasite, not too dissimialar to malaria, which causes a tropical disease called
Leishmaniasis. The parasite is transmitted by sandfly bites, and is found in countries such as Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Sudan. My new job will be looking at the way in which the immune system responds to infection, focussing on the ways in which the immune system fights disease, but also how some of the immune responses may actually make the disease worse... very similar to what I've been doing in malaria during my PhD. It will involve learning lots of new and interesting things, and I'll get training in new technologies and skills... and, I get to live in England where there are buildings that are more than 200 years old! Yah !
I am excited and nervous all at the same time, but it's a good kind of nervous.. the kind you get on opening night of a play, standing in the wings, waiting to go onstage... It's going to be great, but I am sad to be leaving melbourne and be so far away from family and friends... But I am happy to be going, this is the job I wanted, in the lab I wanted, working on really cool cutting-edge stuff.. So it'll be lots and lots of fun. At the moment I have a three year contract, but there is an option to extend out to about four and a half years if I want to. Wow.. it still just doesn't feel real to me yet !
The good news is that i have a GREAT excuse to have a HUGE PARTY !! Yah ! So set aside
Friday the 5th of May, as
Krazy Krystal's Last Friday Night In Town. Details will follow.. I'm going to head up to NSW to visit my family on the 10th of May, before heading out of the country ... So i've got about 8 weeks left!
ANyway, with the help of the lovely T, I've created this blog so you can keep up-to-date with all my krazy adventures, both before and after I leave.
Much Love,
K
-xx-
