The days of our [Science] lives

So much drama! I thought I left of the drama behind in high school.

People breaking up friendships, tears, anger, and where would we be without people being rude.

Now I am not a part of any of this, but I get vented to, and asked for advice.

I am not a fan of drama myself, but I don't like to see my friends get hurt. So what I do is I bring her tea, chocolates, and just listen. Oh and starting a 9pm throwback dance party in lab! That part was actually a lot of fun.

What I do want to talk about is this whole "rude" thing. I lose complete respect for people when they are assholes, plain and simple. If you are a pompous bastard please stay far away from me.
In my last post I mentioned how the poster awards had to do a lot with "biology politics". Well one of the people who won is in my lab (that's out of 3 people in my lab, 1 won a poster award). Now I am not saying he didn't deserve it, yet.

First, he won because he is a favourited by: my professor, TA's, my professors close colleagues. The only people who don't favourite him are his colleagues (so us, students). Now this isn't because we're jealous, trust me. He is favourited because of his project BUT the project isn't even his!!! My professor started this project and this guy is only CONTINUING it. Unlike my project where I made up my OWN question, my OWN methods, my OWN results, I didn't just get stuff handed to me like he did. So I believe, that because of all of this (and other minor details in this category he won). I again was to stress that this is not because of jealousy, because there are other people in my lab (Master's student) and people outside of the lab that agree with me. And when I told them about how he won, their response was similar to mine: "of course, it was almost predicted that he'd win".

Now this isn't the "drama" part. What happened yesterday was what really irked me. He started a conversation with me about how he has a lot of work, including thesis. One of his projects just happens to be due at the same time as his thesis. Here are his words almost exactly:
"So I think I am just going to go up to Professor ______ and ask for an extension. He should understand thesis comes first. And he obviously knows I am a good work, like I WON THE POSTER AWARD. Clearly he'll give me an extension".
Wow buddy... Clearly you have a complex over the fact that I didn't recognize that you won the poster award and I didn't congratulate you and knelt at your feet like you expect people to.
So this makes me pretty mad. But it gets better.

A TA passes our lab and stops to congratulate him on getting the poster award. To which he replies "Oh it really isn't a big deal, it's not like I get anything with it." So when we talk to me we want to be all high and mighty, but with others we're average. Fuck you too.

Please people, don't be egotistical assholes.

Deadline approaches.

I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks. So much for posting at least once a week. But! I havent been to Starbucks to write (it was a blogging atmosphere), I have had lots of work....

a lot of thesis work...

Like I wasn't getting out of the house because I had so much work...

So clearly I wasn't able to blog. 

St. Paddies day was my only day off, I swear.

It really was! The week before I was working on thesis drafts and of course the poster. Everything caused me so much stress, it was overwhelming, ending in a mental breakdown in lab on Sunday afternoon. I'm an emotional person but I have never had a mental breakdown, especially due to stress. But I got over it, got everything done, woke up 6am on St. Patricks Day to get the poster printed (for $50!!), went to work, and then, finally, went out to play.

All the hard work really paid off

Although it really sucks that I didn't win the poster award. Turns out Biology is all about politics and who you know, which pisses me off. 

Sadly, real life isn't any better.

Now I have to finish writing the thesis, final copy. It is due in less than a week now; hopefully I can get it done with no mental breakdowns. 

If anything I have this girl to keep me company:

Relax, take it easy.

Hmm free Starbucks samples. That and free WiFi. The perks of sitting in Starbucks and sipping on heavily overpriced lattes.

Last week was incredibly stressful for me. All day, everyday, I was writing my thesis rough draft. Even though it was a rough draft I still preferred to have as much of it done as I could. Well it was rough. One day my professor says "Give me what you have, don't stress too much". Then on the day it is due, he comes into the office, where it is just me, my thoughts and my thesis and says "I hope your writing is wonderful". Wait.... what?! Yesterday you say one thing and today you want it to be close to perfect?! Well he got what I could do. Whatever.

Right after handing in my thesis I headed off to work. Until 3 am I was staring down drunk people and checking IDs. Coming home, sleeping in until 11am and then heading out to volunteer. **A message to undergraduates in university/college in really any program: volunteer! Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer! Don't be shy to email professors, PhD students, Masters or even your fellow Undergraduates. I did not realize how many people need volunteers until I was surrounded by all these PhD and Masters students who were struggling to find people** Later that night I worked again (money is very helpful in this world). This time it was a Special Event, an Arts and Science Undergraduate Formal. Ladies looked beautiful, men looked handsome. It was a sight to see. Me and my other coworkers would entertain ourselves by pointing out our favourite dresses, some beauty no-nos and of course drunk people (but this was secondary to the fashion of course). I happened to end early (1:30 am) and headed down to join my friends at a pub, made my two guy friends walk me home and safely went to bed. This morning I set up for a Photo Contest that my Conservation Club is hosting which was so lovely. Looking at the pictures made me miss summer so much! I can't wait for all this snow to finally melt away, for the days to grow longer and for the dresses to emerge.

It's cold ok. 

Just a quick flashback to last weekend. A good friend of mine came to town and we had such a wonderful time going to clubs, having lunch and catching up. I pretty much just wanted to put this in because I think the pictures are cute.

We got matching rings because we're high school like that. 

And we're just adorable.