Pipets are cheap, so why not just buy them?

I keep thinking that it's only been about three days since I've written, but then I stop and think about it. Once I've realized it's been several weeks, I figure, "Meh, one more day makes no difference".

Two weeks ago I was in my elective class, making lab material out of glass heated over a huge Bunsen burner. I mean, that's what I was supposed to be doing, except my efforts were producing little more than... well, twisted bits off glass (and yet my bits of glass were some of the best in my class. Hm.). I made four attempts at Pasteur pipets and a triangle. Who knew making pipets was so hard? The triangles were relatively easy, though.


In the process of forming my second triangle- which, alas, was never to be- I was kinda not paying full attention to it, so I bent it too hard when it hadn't heated up enough, so it broke (well, I guess technically I broke it) and then followed a trajectory which led it first to my arm and then to the floor.

Now I've got this burn on my left bicep and let me tell you, it ain't pretty. It's not really gross or anything, but still.

Oh, and that same day, I was taking something out of the toaster oven (fish sticks or what have you) and I burned my hand.

Ouch.

Oh, although one of my pipets wasn't sealed shut, and it actually had a little hole about half a millimeter wide on the small end. Useful for sucking up minute amounts of water.

You know what's tasty?

I do: an octopus! I watched a documentary on octopi once, and not only do they imitate the texture of coral reefs and fish and stuff, they also imitate their shape by arranging their (many) limbs in different ways... AND they imitate behavior. Like, they can mimic both a fish that swims a few centimeters above the ocean floor, and one that swims a few meters above. I assume they can do other swimming patterns, but those were the only two I saw.

See the octopus? The delicious, delicious octopus?

Fun fact, just now when I was writing about fish, I typed "...a fish that flies a few centimeters above...".

Ooooooh god, it would be so scary if fish could fly! Imagine a fish that dies mid-flight and falls on your head!!

I'll leave you with that thought and retire off to bed. Hopefully I won't dream about F.F. (and I mean Flying Fish, not Final Fantasy).

Biologist?

I have a class called Orientación Educativa, which I guess is kind of like career counseling, as well as being a class that I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO TAKE this year, but I do anyway because it can be interesting and it's always warmer inside a classroom (even if there's only 5 to 8 people in it... again, it's optional) than outside... well, mostly I take it because one of my friends makes us. I don't offer up any resistance anymore, but for the first two weeks or so, this conversation happened every Thursday after Biology:

Me: Aaah, let's go see who doesn't have class.

Brenda: Ok!

Wiskas: No! You guys, let's go to Orientación!

Brenda & Me: Aaargh, Wiskas!

Brenda: Why do you want to go? Nerd! You're a nerd!

Me: It's not like we don't already know anything they're going to tell us...

Brenda: And it doesn't even count. There's no credit.

Wiskas: C'mon, let's go! It'll be fun!

Brenda & Me: ... ... ...

Wiskas: Please?

Brenda & Me: Fine, let's go. It's cold out here anyway.

Wiskas: Yay!

[We walk up to the classroom while dozens of people in our class head off for their morning coffee]

Me: Dang, we're all nerds.


The point of all this was that we have to (okay, "have to" is too strong here. We're meant to) find information about someone who inspired us to pick the career that we want to study. I thought about it, and I can't really conjure up any biologists that inspired me.

(Note: My mom is a biologist, but I didn't even know until, like, a year ago. I mean, I admire her, but I didn't grow up saying, "I want to be a biologist like my mom!". How can you not know that kind of stuff? I should sit my parents down and have a serious talk with them. Another example of neglect is that my dad can only hear out of one ear and I had no idea until I was 12 and he told me to walk on the other side of him because he couldn't hear me. I was shocked.)

Sorry, I keep getting sidetracked. Biologists I admire!

Right, so I guess I thought it was cool when biologists would go on Quirks and Quarks, a radio show, and talk about their latest discovery in animal behavior or extremophile bacteria research or stuff. I don't even remember any of their names, but they're awesome. I think one of the things that makes it cool is that they sound like they really love what they do, and they're always being surprised by their findings and all.

There's only one specific biologist I admire, now that I think about it (apart from my mom. Hi, mom!): Roberto Rojo.

He's this guy that hosts a show on channel 11 (well, several, but the most famous one is the one I'm talking about here) where he goes around the woods and jungles and so on, looking for animals, picking them up and talking about them. What makes his shows different from others of the same kind is that he actually respects the animals he finds.

I mean, take Steve Irwin. I know he's dead, was probably a nice guy and lots of people loved him, but SHEESH! He'd go around pouncing on crocodiles' backs going, "CRICKEY! CRICKEY, IT'S HUGE!!". Or pick up snakes and yell at the camera about how they have huge fangs and poison that can kill you, and hoo boy, you don't want one lunging at your face! Just like this one is lunging at mine! Because I'm pissing it off by YELLING IN ITS FACE!

Sorry. Nothing against Steve Irwin (plus he's dead, so I can't say anything too mean about him. Like when Michael Jackson died, suddenly everyone was all, Oh, I never made fun of his nose! How cruel that anyone would. Yeah, right.), but you get my point, right?

Lots of people that host that kind of show will go, "Oh, this bug's gross! You wouldn't want to find one of these! Look at it, eugh" or "This thing's got huge claws that'll --oh! I've got to be careful or it could rip me to shreds! I'm in real danger here--oh! There it goes again! No, get off! Heh.. no, don't bite... don't bite me!"

Roberto Rojo, however, is awesome. Like, once he picked up a cockroach and said that he loved cockroaches, 'cause they're really cool and people shouldn't get so freaked out when they see one. Or if he sees a snake, he's gentle with them and seldom provokes them into attempting murder. Once he caught this lizard that was lying on a branch over a swamp, and he totally fell in the swamp when he caught it but he held it above his head the whole time so it wouldn't get hurt.

I mean, compare that to poking a snake with a stick and going, "This thing is off the Richter's scale! It was so ballistic, it was launching itself out of the tree, trying to sink its fangs into me! Crikey, it was dangerous! Really dangerous!" (actual Steve Irwin quote).

Plus I went to a conference he gave once about bats and MAN, is he cool! He gave autographs after, and he's super kind and fun.

Plus he's hot. THERE. I SAID IT.