In an effort to improve my memory for my external life, to improve my storytelling abilities and to work on my writing, I've decided to start writing posts detailing my daily life. It's a lot like a diary, I suppose, but more narrative (hopefully) and less feeling-oriented (again, hopefully). Onward!
I woke up late this morning. I wake up late most mornings, though. It is important to understand this about me. Mornings are my bane, and nothing I can do will change it. I wake up to my alarms (plural), pry my sleep-glued eyes open, shut off my clocks and fall back asleep for twenty minutes. I curse my inability to wake up every day, but it doesn't seem to matter. If I wake up at 6:30, I get to work at 8:10. If I wake up at 5:30, I get to work at 8:10. This, I think, is another important thing to understand about me.
We dosed fermentations this morning as soon as I got into work. At my old job, we would run one one-liter fermentation at a time, sampling every half hour for twelve to thirteen hours. At Novozymes, we run a lot more simultaneously. It's more efficient, actually, because we get replicates of everything and I don't sample every thirty minutes. I'm going to stop talking about our methods, though, because I'm not sure how much is covered by my NDA.
I was setting up the second fermentation this morning with Guillermo, my supervisor, after having prepped all the stuff for it yesterday alone. It was my first time propagating yeast and setting up the fermentation matrix alone, actually. Kerry and Katie, my coworkers, were both out, and Terry and Guillermo had left for the day. It was hellacious, but I got through it. It's always obvious when they're not there. Especially Katie. She's my go-to girl, I guess. She'll be back tomorrow. Don't tell her, but I'm very relieved!
After finishing the setup, I retired to my OLO to work on tomorrow's experiment. Before you ask, I don't know exactly what an OLO is. Well, I know what it is: a largish cubicle with four deskish areas in it, sitting in a corner of the lab. I have no idea, however, what OLO abbreviates. No one does, as far as I can tell.
Setting up the experiment was interesting. Not only is it the first experiment for which I am taking a Study Leader role, it's rather different than our normal experiments. I was stepping out on an unknown surface a little, but I feel like academia prepared me well for that. Close to everything I did in Lamb's Lab was a new procedure. At any rate, I don't have any regrets regarding my plans for tomorrow.
After lunch (Remington Grill), the day went by surprisingly quickly. I finished up my experiment plans while Catherine complained about her current work (some kind of charge-measuring thing). Catherine and Tim started watching a few YouTube videos, so I got to introduce them to some of the memes I take for granted. It's funny how much I expect people to be entrenched in the internet. I don't realize how nerdy I am sometimes! Did you know that some people still haven't seen the Dramatic Look Gopher? I know. It blew my mind, too.
The tail end of the day was just measuring the running experiments and setting up tomorrow's stuff. Today's setup was pretty much the same as the stuff I did yesterday afternoon, but it took me like a quarter of the time and I didn't get blindingly frustrated. Experience grows on you quickly. Finishing up did take me until after five, though, which means I missed rock climbing again this week. A crew from work has started going. I need to get involved. I love climbing!
By my hand,
~Michael Akerman
