of missed opportunities, love stories and dark rooms
Within an hour of me complaining about death cab for cutie, aaron messaged me to tell me that they would be performing on the 11th of March in oxford (as in oxford, england) and was wondering if I would be there on that day.
Can you believe it? I will be in oxford on 11th of Mar! It just happened that that's how I planned my itinerary for my spring break. So, full of enthusiasm, I went online to purchase the tickets. I was so darn sure that the brits wouldn't listen to death cab for cutie since they had better artistes with the whole poignant angst thingy...
Can you believe it? It was sold out. I can already imagine how the oxfordians will be packing The Zodiac while I will STILL be at oxford sulking my way the whole night because I would have been like 15 min away from death cab for cutie twice in my life but just NOT at the concert itself.
Ok, enough of this whining. I just wanted to see them very badly. When I told my suitemate about this, I received a very surprising answer. "Oh, since you always check this kind of things, can you tell me when Mariah Carey comes to St. Louis?"
Sorry, to me, the current Mariah Carey is not an artiste. We don't belong together. Please forget about us (and the album Glitter)
Judy has been telling me more about her love stories. So it turned out that she wasn't married once, but twice. That means she has been divorced twice.
The other day, she was talking about a boyfriend that she had for 10 years, AFTER she was divorved from both marriages (that is pretty late in your life, if you think about it). Somehow or another, they just never got married. With a longing look in her eyes, she told me "It was a long distance relationship that lasted for ten years." I was full of awe until she said, "Oh, I was in Houston and he was in Dallas."
Ok, that wasn't long distance at all. But that's not the point. The point is, she met the guy EVERY SINGLE weekend in a small town in between the two cities and they erhmm "did everything" (i quote), which i presume means the whole dating thing, the lovey-dovey can't-separate thing, and erhmm of course the whole sex thing (sorry if you had to squint to see that, haha i am shy lah). And well, they both thought that they were so suited for each other, because after 10 years, they were still together. But they just didn't get married, that was the key point and that was puzzling to me. But I kept my mouth shut (see, even kai kai can learn a lesson or two).
Just as I added in my last micropipette of Trizol, she suddenly said,
"Oh, but I know why we got along so well. That's because we never lived with each other so we never got to see each other shit, throw a tantrum, live together, quarrel, fight over utilities bill, or even argue about who should bring the trash out. That's WHY."
*walks away leaving a blazing trail of her scorching words*
Gosh, sometimes brutal honesty works. We just don't want to know it.
The next day, Judy went on with more love stories (in a way, i am kinda glad that we are getting pretty close since I will be in st. louis for the most of the summer, and while she could be my mom/grandma, I really do take a liking for her personality). This one was even better. So, when she left Texas (after the "long distance relationship") and came back to Missouri, she decided one day that she had to erhmm put herself out there again (yes, it's a wild market out there, didn't you know that?). So she goes with her girlfriends to a nightclub one night and she sees this guy (yes, we are talking like 60 yrs old, which is natural since that's how roughly how old Judy is) dancing. He had like a beautiful crop of white and gray hair and was dancing so well that everyone was looking at him. She called him a "silver fox" (to which I suggested "the richard gere type?" and she exclaimed "Yes yes yes!"). Well, Judy being Judy, she went up to him and asked him IF HE WOULD LIKE TO DANCE WITH HER. Gosh, that gal's got guts man. He said yes and then they danced for quite a while, and she kept saying that he was "god-damn hot". Just before she left the night club, he gave her a business card and she was thrilled because she was definitely gonna call him and who-knows-what-could happen.
A few days later, she lost the business card (somehow or another) when she was looking for it in her handbag. So that's that. A broken connection.
A few months later, she found out that Yahoo! has a page that allows people to look for an ideal mate. You just have to input information about yourself and kinda advertise for yourself and people will read your profiles and get back to you. And while she was scrolling through the ads, lo and behold! She found her "silver fox" again. Yayness! And then she read the profile:
http://personals.yahoo.com/us/preview/preview?search=1&resulttype=1&kws=0&searchinternal=1&position=17&total=139&adid=personals-1062345788-079006&affid=&searchview=1&searchsort=1&speed=2&advanced=1&primary=&searchname=
And well, she was disgusted by it. It's hilarious. Go read his profile. Go figure. He has an extremely long (read: desperate) profile which goes on to elaborate how he has discovered that tall chicks can be hawt too and yeah, blacks don't need to apply. And remember, NO PHOTO NO RESPONSE (that's like putting your penis out there for everyone to see, if you know what I mean).
So Judy decided not to contact him. But Judy being Judy, she goes on to search for him on EVERY other single dating-ad program. And you know what? She found him on EVERY single one of them. So she decides to apply her "look-wait-buy" theory. Basically, this theory is derived from the purchasing of a car. You look at papers and ads and you see an ad for a car. And you should keep looking and waiting. Not because you can't afford it, but because ads that have been rerun for forever are the ones that you shouldn't contact. It's tried and tested - those are the rotten apples.
And yes, Judy being Judy, she checks his ads every week for a year and it's still up there.
Gosh, so many intricacies involved, but yeah, there ain't no love in the air (i feel it in my fingers~ i feel it in my toes)
ENJOY, ragazzi.
Can you believe it? I will be in oxford on 11th of Mar! It just happened that that's how I planned my itinerary for my spring break. So, full of enthusiasm, I went online to purchase the tickets. I was so darn sure that the brits wouldn't listen to death cab for cutie since they had better artistes with the whole poignant angst thingy...
Can you believe it? It was sold out. I can already imagine how the oxfordians will be packing The Zodiac while I will STILL be at oxford sulking my way the whole night because I would have been like 15 min away from death cab for cutie twice in my life but just NOT at the concert itself.
Ok, enough of this whining. I just wanted to see them very badly. When I told my suitemate about this, I received a very surprising answer. "Oh, since you always check this kind of things, can you tell me when Mariah Carey comes to St. Louis?"
Sorry, to me, the current Mariah Carey is not an artiste. We don't belong together. Please forget about us (and the album Glitter)
XXX
Judy has been telling me more about her love stories. So it turned out that she wasn't married once, but twice. That means she has been divorced twice.
The other day, she was talking about a boyfriend that she had for 10 years, AFTER she was divorved from both marriages (that is pretty late in your life, if you think about it). Somehow or another, they just never got married. With a longing look in her eyes, she told me "It was a long distance relationship that lasted for ten years." I was full of awe until she said, "Oh, I was in Houston and he was in Dallas."
Ok, that wasn't long distance at all. But that's not the point. The point is, she met the guy EVERY SINGLE weekend in a small town in between the two cities and they erhmm "did everything" (i quote), which i presume means the whole dating thing, the lovey-dovey can't-separate thing, and erhmm of course the whole sex thing (sorry if you had to squint to see that, haha i am shy lah). And well, they both thought that they were so suited for each other, because after 10 years, they were still together. But they just didn't get married, that was the key point and that was puzzling to me. But I kept my mouth shut (see, even kai kai can learn a lesson or two).
Just as I added in my last micropipette of Trizol, she suddenly said,
"Oh, but I know why we got along so well. That's because we never lived with each other so we never got to see each other shit, throw a tantrum, live together, quarrel, fight over utilities bill, or even argue about who should bring the trash out. That's WHY."
*walks away leaving a blazing trail of her scorching words*
Gosh, sometimes brutal honesty works. We just don't want to know it.
The next day, Judy went on with more love stories (in a way, i am kinda glad that we are getting pretty close since I will be in st. louis for the most of the summer, and while she could be my mom/grandma, I really do take a liking for her personality). This one was even better. So, when she left Texas (after the "long distance relationship") and came back to Missouri, she decided one day that she had to erhmm put herself out there again (yes, it's a wild market out there, didn't you know that?). So she goes with her girlfriends to a nightclub one night and she sees this guy (yes, we are talking like 60 yrs old, which is natural since that's how roughly how old Judy is) dancing. He had like a beautiful crop of white and gray hair and was dancing so well that everyone was looking at him. She called him a "silver fox" (to which I suggested "the richard gere type?" and she exclaimed "Yes yes yes!"). Well, Judy being Judy, she went up to him and asked him IF HE WOULD LIKE TO DANCE WITH HER. Gosh, that gal's got guts man. He said yes and then they danced for quite a while, and she kept saying that he was "god-damn hot". Just before she left the night club, he gave her a business card and she was thrilled because she was definitely gonna call him and who-knows-what-could happen.
A few days later, she lost the business card (somehow or another) when she was looking for it in her handbag. So that's that. A broken connection.
A few months later, she found out that Yahoo! has a page that allows people to look for an ideal mate. You just have to input information about yourself and kinda advertise for yourself and people will read your profiles and get back to you. And while she was scrolling through the ads, lo and behold! She found her "silver fox" again. Yayness! And then she read the profile:
http://personals.yahoo.com/us/preview/preview?search=1&resulttype=1&kws=0&searchinternal=1&position=17&total=139&adid=personals-1062345788-079006&affid=&searchview=1&searchsort=1&speed=2&advanced=1&primary=&searchname=
And well, she was disgusted by it. It's hilarious. Go read his profile. Go figure. He has an extremely long (read: desperate) profile which goes on to elaborate how he has discovered that tall chicks can be hawt too and yeah, blacks don't need to apply. And remember, NO PHOTO NO RESPONSE (that's like putting your penis out there for everyone to see, if you know what I mean).
So Judy decided not to contact him. But Judy being Judy, she goes on to search for him on EVERY other single dating-ad program. And you know what? She found him on EVERY single one of them. So she decides to apply her "look-wait-buy" theory. Basically, this theory is derived from the purchasing of a car. You look at papers and ads and you see an ad for a car. And you should keep looking and waiting. Not because you can't afford it, but because ads that have been rerun for forever are the ones that you shouldn't contact. It's tried and tested - those are the rotten apples.
And yes, Judy being Judy, she checks his ads every week for a year and it's still up there.
Gosh, so many intricacies involved, but yeah, there ain't no love in the air (i feel it in my fingers~ i feel it in my toes)
ENJOY, ragazzi.
XXX
Everyone who does western blotting understands the voidness of the dark room. After several failed attempts to get the correct western blotting, I have been reduced into a nervous wreck every time I even step close to the dark room.
I now understand why so many people want to develop their own pictures, why there are so many enthusiasts. When the light is off, there's nothing u can do but grope in the dark. Suddenly the sense of touch has a heightened awareness and you are thrown into a void of nothingness. The first time my mentor brought me to the dark room, I panicked real badly when he switched off the light. We are too used to the light; we just have to see everything so clearly. But after a few more times on my own, I have learned to appreciate being in the dark. There is a loose insanity involved in taking out your films and your HRP-conjugated membranes and literally exposing them to get your autoradiogram before you develop them. During that period, there is just nothing. No one appears to you, no one has the most fashionable clothing, no one will judge ur personality based on one look, better still, there's no one.
So the other night, I was developing an autoradiogram when I heard the door turning. Obviously someone came in and seeing that the lights were off, she knew someone else was in the room too. She said a casual "hi" which filled the whole room with a nice warmness while I uttered back a hi too. And then we began to talk.
In my frustration, I said, "Western blots are tricky, rite?"
"Yeah."
"They just don't come out the way you want them, rite?"
"Yeah. They don't. They just don't turn out the way you want them."
"But why?"
"There are so many reasons. Sometimes, the immunological protein isn't there. Sometimes, you think that the primary antibody wants that protein only, but it doesn't. It wants something else too. It binds to something else too."
"Yeah. And sometimes the secondary antibody doesn't just go for the primary too, does it? Sometimes it wants something else too, rite? Even though it was meant for the primary.."
"Rite. And sometimes you get bands that aren't of the correct size. Sometimes, it's actually the correct protein but the size is wrong just because the protein has been modified. And so, you miss it, even though it was the right one for you."
"And sometimes another protein could be glycosylated and it could be at the right band when it's not the one you actually want. Right?"
"Yes."
"Yeah."
*machine churns out last failed autoradiogram"
"Ny name is ursula."
"Mine is kai."
"Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too."
"Bye."
"Bye."
I left the dark room.
posted by smartypants at 3:57 AM
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