macOS Frustrated with something beyond your control? Vent here.

[atari1356]

Well, this isn't programming related, but:

1. last week my iMac at work died (under warranty thankfully)

2. on the way back from picking up the repaired iMac I was rear-ended while stopped at a stop sign... I wasn't hurt, but the rear bumper on my truck is bent up pretty badly so I need to get that fixed

3. my washer started making noises and producing smoke on Monday, so tonight I get to go buy a new one

I'm doing my best to not be like this: and be more like this:

 

[AppleMatt]

Over-confidence

I'm trying to clone a plant gene... have been looking for it for about 6 months now, and I keep getting the run-around. Nearly there, think I've got it, then it turns out to be something else... argh, I don't know why I am trying sometimes. Now I can't even get the basics to work... PCR, ligations... if this means nothing to you, fear not. Molecular biology is probably a lot like Java programming.

A few years ago I spent probably around 4-5 hours of my morning doing hundreds of monotonous reactions for a Northern (I think). Finally I carefully pipetted all the reactions into the wells, probably took around 20 minutes. Then I had to transfer the gel and...I dropped it.

Slippery, aren't they.

It's safe to say that I completely lost my head (not only was it my fault that I'd dropped the gel, but also I'd jumbled everything up ready to throw away after I thought I was done, so I couldn't just re-load a gel). My tutor looked at the floor, smiled, and said "yeah that happens sometimes. Go home, sleep, we'll go again tomorrow."

AppleMatt
(oh, and now I am anal about labeling everything, numbers, what's in it, what time/date it was prepped etc etc. And I leave the moving to the lab techs.)

 

[dops7107]

Slippery, aren't they.

Hell yeah! We've all dropped gels, or they disintegrate before blotting... very frustrating. I have come to the conclusion that some days you are just better off going home and cutting your losses. Nothing works, or you keep making stupid mistakes. I once left a PCR machine on with my samples in it at 95 degrees for an hour, because I forgot to unpause it after a hot-start... the really stupid thing was that I made exactly the same mistake a couple of hours later!

(oh, and now I am anal about labeling everything, numbers, what's in it, what time/date it was prepped etc etc. And I leave the moving to the lab techs.)

Yep - date everything. All those eppies start to look pretty similar one month later! I have a very well organised tech help me - but I still get a little nervous when she's handling a critical experiment for me!