Adventures of a Lab Rat. Subtitled: Why me?

"Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake of this creeping malaise
If I don’t stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze? "

- Pink Floyd
Dogs (Waters, Gilmour) from "Animals"

For the last month, I have been working in the Neurocognition Laboratory of the Human Nutrition Research Center on Ageing at Tufts University (And no wisecracks, please, about me discovering cognition,finally, or "coming to my senses"). Ergo, the lack of posts. I am trying to refine my hypothesis; let me rephrase that - I am trying to figure out what my hypothesis will be; i am immersing myself in the lab to get oriented with, and learn more about, lab techniques, pick up skills in hitherto unheard of (atleast in ordinary everyday science lives) tests like genotyping, and generally bring some hilarity into the lab atmosphere. I have also been a not-so-proud active participant in the "sacrifice' of 60 rats in two batches of 30 each. The experiment involved seeing the effect of various diets on membrane lipids in various organs, and blood. I remember the rat experiments in school, and the heart and nerve physiology experiments in the torture chamber called "Medical Physiology Lab", and these experiments, which details I will not divulge as I have blocked them out from active memory, fall in the same category. These noble souls have given their lives for scientific progress. They, and their species, will not be forgotten. Here's looking at you, Rainy!
On a cheerful note, when I am not lab-ratting (yes, that is a verb!), I hang out with a cool group of people, enjoying their company, as I hope they enjoy mine.
~Still Alive and Kickin' Lab Rat
PS: I am assuming that the smart readership of mine (all 10 of you; Yay! up from my last census count of 6) must have already discovered the obvious link between my post title ("rat") and the line from Dogs ("maze")... hahaha... but it goes deeper than that... i am talking about a metaphysical maze, and my path forward...if you figure that one out, do send me a telephatic message

A Big Thank You...

...to the Shpais - Girish and Lo, Ram and his deep pockets (and I am not talking about Pita bread), Dinu-saurus and Lachchho...
...for keeping me afloat, solvent... for "dissolving" my pain :)

"Fall of the House of Dents"....

.... occurs in exactly 24 and a half hours when I am told the results of my qualifying exams! Edgar Allen Poe, eat your heart out! This tale of suspense has no equal!

The writing hand, having writ, goes into spasms...

43 hours and 20 minutes before I receive my written question for my PhD qualifing exam... the question on everybody's mind is....
"Who let the dogs out...to take PhD exams???"
The question on my mind is...
"What is the meaning of life? Does the ends of life justify the means or do they only affect standard errors and test statistics" (Duh, sorry, statistics joke.... All Ye Awake, Stats nerd in Da House!)

Its official...

Its good to be back... the last three weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster... an intermingling of the personal, academic and social sides of this hunka cheesecake ("Who? Me?!!")...

Some updates:

I now run three miles every morning (for the metric folks, which *sigh* still includes me - its 5 kilometres)... I wake up at 5 AM, jump out of bed (i take that back.. I limp out of bed), and start running... The average tempretures outside range from 46-56 F(7 - 12 C)... Father Winter is around the corner... By mile 0.5 the tip of my nose is frozen and by mile 0.75 i can't feel my hands... To paraphrase Calvin's Dad (of the Calvin and Hobbes fame/notoriety): "Its good to be alive"... by Mile 2 I am panting and sweating... by mile 3 i am dead... but i feel alive

I am the Teaching Assistant to a Data Analysis class... and I love molding young minds (Read as, messing around spreading misinformation and humour)

I take the written part of my PhD qualifying exams next Tuesday (Nov 1) and the oral exams on Nov 21 (9 AM to Noon)...

I still do not know when I get to go home (Since that hasnt changed in the last few months, I guess that does not qualify as an update)

I make a presentation on Nov 9 to the PhD seminar on some ideas that i am entertaining for my PhD...

I entertained one lone stray thought of leaving it all and coming home.. but that was a fleeting moment of weakness at the nadir of the rollercoaster, and that very thought is now banished forever...

I will not be posting as much as I wish, for reasons that are purely and wholly academic (Again, not much of an update point, is it??)

Later...