Oops I did it again!

Damn this fucking internets!

All the debate and chat about anonymity. Prof Like Substance mentions he has deleted posts after realising he was too close to revealing something. Professor in Training has been worried and self-edited. Damn Good Technician was outed in her previous lab, leading to acrimonious...acrimony. Grand Inquisitor was identified by disgruntled persons (un)known, who hacked his blog. Female Science Professor has some interesting posts on the topic. And Comrade Physioprof said Fuck, a lot, about this very issue.

I used to have another Blog, with the same title, that ran for several years until I was outed on a web-forum I moderate. Not a big deal, and a lot of my readers knew me anyway, but it necessitated closing and locking the blog once I'd made a few life changes and certainly, before I changed jobs and had to pretend to be a grown-up.

Now, I'm no technophobe, but like Stephen Fry said recently, I have the terrible habit iof acting without thinking, of opening my mouth and letting whatever (to me) witty aphorism, or apt riposte is curdling in my brain, slough out of my cakehole with nary a thought for the consequences. I tend to do the same thing with my actions: I am desperately impulsive, which gets me in no end of trouble.

I opened a Twitter account, and promptly, without thinking, linked my user name to my meatspace moniker. That was dealt with quickly, and I think indexing has buried any knowledge of my true identity. However, I was pottering around on Posterous, replying to a post on Brain Gym, that bedevilment of woo-science that infiltrates schools, universities and now medical Schools (seriously! What-the-ever-buggering fuck are you doing A) believing in Brain Gym, if you have an MD, and B) doing teaching it to your Med Students?). Well, the option came to post my comment to Facebook, so without thinking I said Yes! Share my thoughts with the world, for I am nothing if not vain & opinionated, and that is why I invented the internet.

And thus it came to be, my post, linked under my user name, Tideliar, linked to this page, has just been flashed across my Facebook page, which is under my meatspace moniker. And subsequently flashed across the homepages of all 400+ of my "friends", a lot of whom are work colleagues, who will be appalled to find some of the filth I've vomited forth on this site.

Let the editing begin...

I don't fucking believe it.

I want a death match between gates and jobs right now.

Why oh why oh why oh why do little things like keyboard shortcuts have to differ between Mac & PC?

Like "jump back one word" vs "jump back one page"?

I only ask, because, say, for example, you're taking an online test, and the system is set for a single attempt. So, when you hit the wrong combination and it jumps back a whole motherfucking page, the system locks you out as if you'd submitted the test.

Imagine doing something so unutterably fucking stupid when you were only halfway through the test.

Imagine what a complete fuckwit you would feel like. Especially if you were the Project Manager for the office that oversees and administers the system.

Just imagine how stupid and irritated you'd feel right now. And what a bowel-looseningly cringing and fawning email you would have to send to the Head Instructor begging to be let back in over the weekend so you could finish said test.

Goddamned, motherfucking son of a fucking bitch.

What the everliving F*** is your problem? Part III

To the ignorant, shit-kicking, fucktard behind me line at the deli today:

So they don't have iced-tea. Big fucking deal. Was it really worth a ten minute rant at the poor cunt standing behind the counter, who quite clearly cannot do anything about the fact that his employer doesn't carry iced-tea?

Oh, wait! They DO have iced-tea, just not the brand you want to drink! Oh, well it's fine to launch into a fucking ignorant, race-fueled rant about "them damned foreigners" in the middle of Einstein's Bagels then. Of course. We all wanted to know your views on "everything that's wrong with this country nowadays" because they don't have Lipton Fucking Iced-Motherfucking Tea.

"I don't drink any of that foreign muck. This is America, and we don't like foreign muck!" Was a work of rhetorical genius, made doubly ironic by the copper tint to your badly permed hair proclaiming your European ancestry. I, as a foreigner, felt especially welcomed to your city, as did my Nigerian colleague, and I'm sure the two Indian students in front of us were overcome with joy too.

"When I was in Boston they didn't even ask if I want sweet, or unsweetened, or even offer me any NutraSweet...that's why I won't live nowhere like that. They don't understand how things need to be done in the South."

Awesome. You geographically challenged fucking bigot. You predicate your entire, godforsaken, blighted existence on the basis of the availability of fucking Iced Motherfucking Tea? Seriously? You need to go fuck yourself. Really, you do.

You define, sum up and personify everything that is wrong with the racially charged Southern US. I know you, and I know your type. Making comments at them damned uppity coloureds, and never mind the Mexicans or the Jews. All things foreign are to be feared and reviled, and everything that is white and good lives here in the South. And is decorated with Confederate flags, and maintained by white folk. God fearin' church-goin' hypocritical lazy motherfuckers like you.

God Bless America.

Dr. Ruth Kirschstein has died...

A sad day indeed. From NIH Director Francis Collins:

Dear NIH Family,

We are all deeply saddened by the news of Dr. Ruth Kirschstein's death last evening. She died peacefully, after battling a long illness. Our hearts go out to Ruth's husband, Dr. Al Rabson, and their son, Dr. Arnold Rabson.

Ruth embodied the spirit of the NIH. She was an icon. She was loved and admired by so many at the NIH, across the medical research community, among hundreds of members of Congress, and around the world. Knowing Ruth, she would cringe if she heard us praise her--modesty was one of her strongest suits. Dr. Kirschstein couldn't, however, argue with the facts about her service to the NIH that spanned more than 50 years. She was the first female Director of an NIH Institute, NIGMS. She was the Deputy Director of the NIH, acting NIH Director, and senior advisor to multiple NIH Directors. There are few at the NIH who have not been touched by her warmth, wisdom, interest, and mentorship. She worked diligently on breaking the mystery of polio and developing the Sabin vaccine. Her many other accomplishments are too numerous to list. We will have an opportunity for the NIH family to pay tribute, reflecting upon the life and lessons of one of our greatest leaders, according to her and her family's
wishes, at a future date.

Ruth worked up to her last days. Last week, in fact, I was on a conference call with her, and her insightful contribution made it clear she had not missed a beat.

I know I speak for all of the NIH and our entire community, when I say that the world has lost one of its dearest, most dedicated public servants, one with a huge heart and brilliant mind. We will miss her always.


Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.,
Director, NIH

Sod this for a game of soldiers!

I'm on vacation as of......NOW!

Albeit, a stay-cation. With family in town. Including a screamy 3 year old.

But!

I'm out of the office until Wednesday. Hooray!

But!

I will have my laptop, be on email, working on my biostats homework. And I keep my G1 powered up and active, so I'll be getting the daily minutiae and bullshit.

FUCK!!!!

I suck at vacationing!!

What the Everliving F*** is Your problem? Pt. II

For a resolution to Part I: he was helped to understand the error of his ways and chose to forgo his poorly timed vacation.

To part the Second!


I am going out of town for a conference in a few weeks, to a city I love from afar: Chicago! now, I know we're in a time of budgetary woes and so forth, so I have gone out of my way to cover costs and reduce expenses as much as possible.

Firstly, I am traveling with two colleagues from work (two of the co-authors on the presentation I'm giving) and we are driving for fucks sake. It's a 10 hour journey. We are not flying we are fucking driving. We are not taking a 2 hour jaunt aboard a modern sky-liner to get there, because it is expensive. We are fucking driving for ten goddamned motherfucking hours to help save money.

Secondly, I am sharing a room with another colleague (from a different institute) when I get there. I could have got my own motherfucking suite at the motherfucking Hilton, but I did the right thing, and called up a friend and we figured out a room share.

Thirdly, I got pre-approval from the Executive Management Board of the Institute I work for to go on this conference. I wrote a memo to the Board, I drew up a budget and justification and I plead my case. They were so swayed by my rhetoric and oratory that of course they approved. It's only costing $2000 (that was before we decided to drive for fuck's sake. It's even less now).

So, I would say I've done pretty fucking stand up job of Doing My Bit, or being a Team Player, if you will. So now you might understand my frustration that I find out just three weeks before leaving, just AFTER the cut-off date to get the hotel booking fee re-funded that they won't cover my motherfucking hotel room!

Corporate, in their infinite fucking wisdom have canceled all purchasing and advance privileges for everyone, everywhere in the whole goddamned System. This arrives on top of my partner not getting paid for two goddamned, camelwanking months by the inept, corrupt and thoroughly fucking useless local City Government. So, I have killed my credit cards (and credit), and emptied my savings (not that she gives a good goddamn, but there you go, that's a rant for another day), and now I'm told I have to fork out $800 for a fucking hotel room, and I might not get it reimbursed!

Which bit of "work related expenses" do they not get? Do you really think I want to sit in fucking car for 10 fucking hours and get up at 6 in the fucking morning to give a presentation? Do you think that after working non-stop for a year trying to get this fucking Institute funded and efficient I wouldn't rather go on a fucking vacation?

I am told that the only option is to write a begging letter to the VP Finance and essentially beg for a...payday advance?

So, they'll cover my expenses.

With my salary.

Maybe.

Can someone, somewhere explain the logic behind this please? Anyone? anyone? Don't be shy, don't raise your hands, just shout it out?......

.....

.....

.....

No. Me fucking neither.

The Institute has already approved the funds from their budget. So why the everliving fuck are Corporate being dicks about this? Why must employees be treated like conniving, thieving little children out to have a jolly on the company dime? Why must I beg for something that has already been given to me?

I haven't yet decided on my approach, but have no fear, it will be extreme, and will share it with you too Dear Reader. Just what I fucking need. More fucking work.

Sartorial Inelegance

One has a nice blog post brewing about hats at the moment, but that must wait, for I am in the middle of putting on another hat.

Suffice-it-to-say right, now, that is raining, heavily, still. Has been for days. I am wearing khaki slacks with a nice, full cotton French cuff shirt, replete with silver treble clef cuff-links. I look FANTASTIC.

However, I had to rush outside to grab something hat related and an unfortunate gust of wind now renders me sartorially inelegant. The problem with khaki is that it shows moisture. I must now attend a seminar on genetic research into the underlying etiology of Parkinson's disease in Drosophila melanogaster, followed by a poster presentation hosted by our Research Technology Unit, looking like I need potty training...