h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For some reason, I totally forgot to post this big mad news item.

See, there's this thing some universities do called UREKA. It entails working in a lab, doing experiments, for the summer. That's right folks - I'll be working as a mad scientist this summer (or Igor, at least).

I'm making €300 per week, which is minimum wage, but hey, it's money, and that's enough.

As an added bonus, I've been hired by UCC instead of my alma mater, NUIG, which means I can finally leave the bosom of my family and live on my own for a bit. (Of course, it >would< have been sweet to get the position in Athens, Geaorgia*, but you can't have everything).

I am also tremendously pleased that I got this entirely on my own merits without having to rely on family connections, an idea which has been causing a bit of tension in the household recently.

The only downside is that I am now saddled with a mobiel phone. However, it does have the rather nice ability to block incoming calls, so maybe it won't be too bad.

Anyway, go me!

* When I say Georgia, I mean the United State of America, not the former Soviet republic. And when I say Athens, I mean the place in that Georgia, not the capital of Greece.

yaay! go, you!

next time come up to Galway..much fiercer craic

I live in Galway normally. The craic is indeed better. On the other hand, Cork is more bike-friendly.

On a totally unrelated note, while I've been practising mad science, my cousin from Mayo has been building houses in Kenya.

http://fionainkenya2007.blogspot.com

and Mayo is cool too. Stayed up near Ballycastle a few years ago....very remote but a great detoxxer from the city!

I write this sentence at approximately 3:20am GMT. One of the Americans went home about two weeks ago, due to different college schedules. The Dubliner quietly slipped out of our house, but remained in Cork to the end.

The other American left earlier today. The Pole left at midnight. Now, only the Romanian and I are left. We are waiting for 4:00am, when her taxi will arrive to taker her to the aeroport. We're tired.

The past three months have been a strong contender for the best of my life. The lab experience was incredible. You really don't get this kind of stuff as a puny undergrad. Plus, one of my lab's two principle invesigators got a tad gushy after last night's farwell dinner, and waxed lyrical about how UREKA is such a potent bonus when seeking PhD positions. (If Scandrea pays any attention to this journal, she may have a thing or two to say. If not, I'll assume that all of her collected wisdom is contained within her own postings.)

The time away from parental supervision was needed. Really, I had to experience this situation before becoming a Master's student. Though the idea had been gradually burning in my mind for some time, I have finally come to truly realize in the conscious part of my mind that I dislike nightclubs. Pubs, too, for the most part.

In Ireland, this attitude severely limits my ability to enjoy myself on a night out.

I've discovered something of a knack for cooking. I mean, I was always capable of making food by following a recipe, and am quite accomplished on a barbeque, but this was my fist time attempting to cook on a regular basis, on something resembling a budget, and having to get all the ingredients myself. I ended up making an insane number of stirfries, plus the odd wrap, which basically entails stirfried vegetables wrapped in a tortilla.

Towards the end, I successfully combined Chinese with Mexican cuisine, by which I mean I put some random Mexican sauce over a wok of stirfried stuff. Chilli sauce acy=tually works incredibly well.

Yesterday, all the UREKA students had to give presentations of the work they did. Due to Pseudomonas fluorescens being a stubborn of a bacterium, I was never able to make either of my strains mutate, so my presentation was all about my failed attempts to generate gene-defective mutants. Now my metor gets to do all the cool stuff with them...on the other hand, she has to do all the pick plating. Bwahahahahahahaha! (If you've never worked with plant-symbiotic Pseudomonas, pick plating is incredibly unpleasant.)

The time is now 03:36 GMT. The Romanian just asked my about what the word 'Leprecháin' means. Google.ie doesn't find the auhentic Irish word 'Leprecháin', but it does find the English corruption 'Leprechaun.' The word means either 'little man' or 'half shoe' (because leprecáiní were said to be fairy cobblers.)

I suppose we should talk about something, but as I already said, we're tired. Also, her friends have simultaneously baied on her, so things will get very fun when she gets back to Bucharest.

We wait.

(This is going to look pretty bad when I'm lucid, but I don't care).