So we postponed soup night and went out to eat on Friday night...to that Mexican restaurant. I finally got the expensive meal I've eyed someone else eating everytime i've gone. It was well worth it. I was in the lab all day saturday infecting fish, and I set up a new microscope station Keep your fingers cross that my infection procedure worked!
I went to the All Blacks match on Saturday night against South Africa...we lost by 2 but it was still heaps of fun. We went to our friends' place for the pre- and post-party. We drank heaps, I left my purse in Wayne's girlfriend's car at the beginning of the night and didn't even realize it, played some intense foosball so much so that my hand is still sore. The All Blacks do this intimidating Maori dance at the beginning of their games called The Haka. The All Blacks website says "More than any aspect of Maori culture, this complex dance is an expression of the passion, vigour and identity of the race. Haka is not merely a past time of the Maori but was also a custom of high social importance in the welcoming and entertainment of visitors. Tribal reputation rose and fell on their ability to perform the haka"
The haka performed by All Blacks at the Carisbrook stadium here in Dunedin in 2004
Monday, July 14, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
TGIF or better yet TGFIO (Thank God Friday Is Over)!
This is how my day went...I put my snails in the incubator to shed my parasites and laid out everything I need for my experimental infections. I come back to pull out my snails and one of my labmates has shoved all of my set-up out of his way to use the scope I was using when there were 3 other scopes that no one was using. I kicked him out of my spot, telling him I had my stuff set out for a reason. Then I accidentally killed all my parasites by using a new light that emitted heat and the incubator that's supposed to be at 25C was at 33C. After transferring my snails to fresh water and getting the temperature back down, I only got one snail to shed any more parasites. My intentions were to try infecting an anesthetized fish by dropping the parasites right onto it. Well, no one could tell me how long the anesthetic solution will last but obviously two weeks is too long cause my fish was as lively as ever. I did get quite a few parasites to contact the fish though. So it looks like I'll be back in the lab on Saturday mixing up new anesthetic and hoping my snails will shed!
I'm supposed to have a couple folks over for my tomato bisque soup tonight and see what Anson thinks of the flat...we're hunting for a new flatmate since Deanna is leaving me! And tomorrow I'm going to an All Black's rugby test (it's a test not a game, don't ask me why)...I'm way excited about that! Other than that I'm working as much as possible this weekend...infecting fish and cranking out a draft of another manuscript from my master's research.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Habit at Work
New Zealand has this great website to help you assess your work area and other ways to alleviate the sources that can aggravate pain. I now have my chair backrest in a new position and my laptop (which I already have it on a riser to make it closer to eye level) and keyboard moved to a new spot. I highly recommend this site if you have any type of back, neck, limb, joint pain!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Happy 4th of July!
No fireworks for me this year, but a few of us are getting together for burgers, drinks and pool tonight. Maybe we'll find some place to play darts if we're lucky. It'll mostly be Americans but a few international folks in my lab will join us as well.
My infection procedure is making some progress! I had some luck getting the parasites to penetrate the fish if I anesthetize the fish first. I'd still like better infection success...3 out of 50 successfully infected a fish and 10 out of 50 infected another and I'd like an average of 10 parasites to infected each fish. Next I'm going to try dropping the parasites in a small drop of water right onto the anesthetized fish and see what happens. Wish me luck!
The Attachment Style Test
My Results for The Attachment Style Test ...
The Free Agent
19% Anxiety Over Abandonment and 28% Avoidance Of Intimacy
You like to be independent, to play by your own rules. You're not terribly interested in finding a partner and settling down, and it makes you nervous to imagine that someone might depend on you for anything. Were you to find the right partner--someone as independent as you, probably--you'd not be too put out about sharing your adventures with him/her.
Fictional characters with whom you might identify: Han Solo (Star Wars), Beatrice ("Much Ado About Nothing")
To find out your Attachment style, go to: http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-attachment-style-test |
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Wishing I was home already...
I broke up with my boyfriend a couple of weeks ago. Turns out he's verbally abusive which has really shown through the last couple of weeks since I refuse to take him back. It's gotten worse the past couple of days - I suppose because I talked to him, which gave him hope but the talk turned into a horrible mess, and now I refuse to answer his calls or even read the texts he sends.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Petrol perspective
I know you all are going into shock over the rise in fuel costs in the U.S. But you don't realize fuels is cheaper in the states than in Canada, which is cheaper than in Australia which is cheaper than here in New Zealand and we get it cheaper than in the U.K. And cost of fuel is rising here just as it is there. I did some calculations from NZD to USD and liters to gallons...petrol costs over 6USD/Ga here and diesel costs about 5.50USD/Ga including the extra road user charges us diesel owners have to pay. I know the sudden rise is a shock, but adjust your frickin' life style! If you bought one of those largest SUVs to get that Bush tax write-off, you might be thinking that wasn't such a great idea now. Get a more fuel-efficient vehicle, walk to the store, learn how to ride a bike again, combine several errands into one trip! It's good for your pocket book, the environment and your bum!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The U.S. is neglecting diseases of the poor
Summary of a news article from msnbc.com:
9 parasitic diseases afflict 10 million Americans, predominantly minorities living in the Mississippi Delta and the American South, in disadvantaged urban areas, along the U.S.-Mexican border and in disadvantaged white populations in the Appalachia. The diseases include Ascariasis, the most common human worm infection; Toxocariasis, a roundworm transmitted in dog feces; Strongyloidiasis, another roundworm; Cysticercosis, pork tapeworm; Giardiasis, or beaver fever that causes diarrhea; Cytomegalovirus, which causes deafness and mental retardation in infants; Chagas disease and Dengue fever. These are not killer diseases but instead cause people and children to be anemic, weak and unproductive. With global climate change and increased flooding many of these diseases will be promoted. Yet the U.S. tolerates these diseases of our poor while spending $1 billion per year preparing for outbreaks of diseases the have not occurred, including smallpox, anthrax and avian influenza.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Videos from the trip
Videos of my trip with Leah and new albums to the right...really Leah was with me even though I don't have a single photo of her!! Every photo I took of her was with her camera, and I didn't always have my camera so Leah has heaps more photos, especially from Milford Sound when we took her disposable camera, but I probably won't get those from her until I come home...
Jack's Bay in the Catlins
Purakaunui Falls, Catlins
"Moving" picture of me in front of the falls
Moeraki Boulders - the Maori legend is that gods came to visit mother earth and when leaving one of them messed up the chant and came crashing back to earth in his canoe, New Zealand is the canoe partly upside down with the ridge of the canoe forming the mountains. The food baskets spilled out of the canoe and these boulders are those upside down baskets...
Dunedin Railway Station
Jack's Bay in the Catlins
Purakaunui Falls, Catlins
"Moving" picture of me in front of the falls
Moeraki Boulders - the Maori legend is that gods came to visit mother earth and when leaving one of them messed up the chant and came crashing back to earth in his canoe, New Zealand is the canoe partly upside down with the ridge of the canoe forming the mountains. The food baskets spilled out of the canoe and these boulders are those upside down baskets...
Dunedin Railway Station
More penguin videos from Sand Fly Bay...
Can you see the 3 fur seals laying on the rocks behind this penguins?
And another sea lion video
Round and round the South Island I go
I have soo much to share!
The first week of June I spent doing fieldwork with Dave from my lab and Andy, another PhD student in my dept. We went north and west over the mountains to Lake Poerua. I wanted to collect snails from a creek that runs into the lake and a student from Indiana U told me these snails were highly infected with the parasite I work with. Well, we get there and the creek is dry - damnit! So I collected snails from another creek and 3 locations of the lake. I'll be screening these snails this week to determine if they're infected. We stayed in Shearer's quarters on a farm on the lake - a complete shit-hole with mouse turds and faulty heating and no hot water for the first day - I took pictures. The good thing was we had easy access to the lake since this farm was on the lake. Then we drove down the west coast - absolutely beautiful! - to Haast area for Andy to collect some fish. The drive was windy and up and down...horrible when you're in back pain and want to lay down but laying down makes you carsick! Yes, I was in back pain when we left for this trip, then I spent the week sitting long hours in the truck or bent over collecting snails. By the time we got back Friday night, I couldn't sit or stand very long. I had a ticket for a whiskey and chocolate tasting for Friday night. Haseeb in my lab put together the tasting and the chocolates were designed and made by his wife who is a chocolatier. The chocolates were made with the whiskey they were paired with...ahhh, whiskey was great for the back pain....until Saturday...I could barely move - I couldn't even sit up in bed, I had to roll over and roll my legs out so my knees were on the floor and then stand up. It hurt to sit, stand, walk, so I spent most of the day in bed...then something must have happened in the middle of the night because Sunday morning I felt great, just had sore muscles and by Monday I was feeling perfect - weirdest thing.
So good that I felt back to normal cause Leah arrived that Monday. I had to take care of my snails so they'd live while I was traveling with Leah and she mostly rested on Monday since she had vertigo from traveling. Then Tuesday we made a couple of stops in the Catlins and then headed to Te Anau and stayed at a backpackers. We went to the glow worm caves - they were pretty cool - insect larvae that glow to attract other insects upon which they feed....they have these little sticky fishing lines that insects get caught in. On Wednesday we went kayaking in Milford Sound - that was the highlight of the trip for me! Kayaking is sooo much easier than canoeing. I got to try Sea Urchin, raw, for lunch - very, very salty! Thursday we shopped for souvenirs and drove to Queenstown, which we decided was too commercial and touristy so we continued on to Wanaka via the Crown Ridge road over the mountains. Spent the night there at another backpackers and on Friday we had lunch and a tasting at one of my favorite vineyards, Mt Difficulty, which has incredible views of Central Otago. Then we drove like hell to get to the Moeraki Boulders on the east coast and we arrived there just at dusk and in time to take a couple of pics before it was too dark. We had dinner at Fleur's in Moeraki, a place many folks have recommended - it's a run-down looking place with the best food ever and the fish on the menu were caught that morning! And finally by Friday night we were back at my place. We spent Saturday going to the Farmer's Market, shopping, and Rachel came over for dinner and we made Roasted chicken and vegetables, then we headed to town for a few drinks - the latest Leah stayed up the whole time she was here! Sunday I drove her around for some sight-seeing and then headed to Sandfly Bay for the penguins. There were heaps of sea lions and fur seals so I didn't know if we'd see any penguins. We saw one right away but I was worried that was it until right before dark and two more popped up over the cliff and then another two popped up on the rocks. Leah was so excited and said that was the best experience of the whole trip. And Monday I saw her off at the airport...talk about a whirl-wind of a trip!
Albums and videos will be posted shortly...
Now I'm trying to get back to the swing of normal life. Still haven't been able to infect my fish...argh. But hopefully I screen these snails and find infected ones so I have more parasites to sort out the problems I'm having with the infection procedure.
The first week of June I spent doing fieldwork with Dave from my lab and Andy, another PhD student in my dept. We went north and west over the mountains to Lake Poerua. I wanted to collect snails from a creek that runs into the lake and a student from Indiana U told me these snails were highly infected with the parasite I work with. Well, we get there and the creek is dry - damnit! So I collected snails from another creek and 3 locations of the lake. I'll be screening these snails this week to determine if they're infected. We stayed in Shearer's quarters on a farm on the lake - a complete shit-hole with mouse turds and faulty heating and no hot water for the first day - I took pictures. The good thing was we had easy access to the lake since this farm was on the lake. Then we drove down the west coast - absolutely beautiful! - to Haast area for Andy to collect some fish. The drive was windy and up and down...horrible when you're in back pain and want to lay down but laying down makes you carsick! Yes, I was in back pain when we left for this trip, then I spent the week sitting long hours in the truck or bent over collecting snails. By the time we got back Friday night, I couldn't sit or stand very long. I had a ticket for a whiskey and chocolate tasting for Friday night. Haseeb in my lab put together the tasting and the chocolates were designed and made by his wife who is a chocolatier. The chocolates were made with the whiskey they were paired with...ahhh, whiskey was great for the back pain....until Saturday...I could barely move - I couldn't even sit up in bed, I had to roll over and roll my legs out so my knees were on the floor and then stand up. It hurt to sit, stand, walk, so I spent most of the day in bed...then something must have happened in the middle of the night because Sunday morning I felt great, just had sore muscles and by Monday I was feeling perfect - weirdest thing.
So good that I felt back to normal cause Leah arrived that Monday. I had to take care of my snails so they'd live while I was traveling with Leah and she mostly rested on Monday since she had vertigo from traveling. Then Tuesday we made a couple of stops in the Catlins and then headed to Te Anau and stayed at a backpackers. We went to the glow worm caves - they were pretty cool - insect larvae that glow to attract other insects upon which they feed....they have these little sticky fishing lines that insects get caught in. On Wednesday we went kayaking in Milford Sound - that was the highlight of the trip for me! Kayaking is sooo much easier than canoeing. I got to try Sea Urchin, raw, for lunch - very, very salty! Thursday we shopped for souvenirs and drove to Queenstown, which we decided was too commercial and touristy so we continued on to Wanaka via the Crown Ridge road over the mountains. Spent the night there at another backpackers and on Friday we had lunch and a tasting at one of my favorite vineyards, Mt Difficulty, which has incredible views of Central Otago. Then we drove like hell to get to the Moeraki Boulders on the east coast and we arrived there just at dusk and in time to take a couple of pics before it was too dark. We had dinner at Fleur's in Moeraki, a place many folks have recommended - it's a run-down looking place with the best food ever and the fish on the menu were caught that morning! And finally by Friday night we were back at my place. We spent Saturday going to the Farmer's Market, shopping, and Rachel came over for dinner and we made Roasted chicken and vegetables, then we headed to town for a few drinks - the latest Leah stayed up the whole time she was here! Sunday I drove her around for some sight-seeing and then headed to Sandfly Bay for the penguins. There were heaps of sea lions and fur seals so I didn't know if we'd see any penguins. We saw one right away but I was worried that was it until right before dark and two more popped up over the cliff and then another two popped up on the rocks. Leah was so excited and said that was the best experience of the whole trip. And Monday I saw her off at the airport...talk about a whirl-wind of a trip!
Albums and videos will be posted shortly...
Now I'm trying to get back to the swing of normal life. Still haven't been able to infect my fish...argh. But hopefully I screen these snails and find infected ones so I have more parasites to sort out the problems I'm having with the infection procedure.
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