Happy Chrismakwanzakkah

Please answer the poll question above

Poll clarification

Hi all.  I just wanted to clarify the latest poll.  We are asking which date scenario you would consider the most romantic, not which fast food restaurant is your favorite.  Thanks in advance for your participation!

Haunted Lab

It appears that we have a ghost in the lab.  If you have any experience with removing ghosts, please let me know!  Otherwise, be sure to record any ghost induced incidences so that we can keep track of her quirks.    Thanks!  Her name is Hilda and she lives in my hood.  She gets quite unhappy when I open my hood, and sometimes even when Keith opens his.

New Poll!!

Finally, a much anticipated blog update!! We have a new poll.  Which Jonas brother does Lorenz most resemble?  See pictures below...

Nick Jonas

Joe Jonas

Kevin Jonas

Lorenz

Welcome to New Frick!

We are now moved into New Frick, yay!  Please feel free to post any pictures you have taken of the new lab.  We will have upcoming contests, madlibs and member profiles in the new building soon.  Until there, here are a few pictures I have taken.  Excuse the quality, they are from my phone.

Academy Awards of Lab Moving!

Academy Award for Best Surprise: The Magic Box!
This prize is awarded for the mysterious full box of chemicals which was found in 63 at 4:00PM on the inventory day...

Academy Awards for Best Historical Souvenir: The Mysterious Can!
This prize is authorized to recognize the group's frugality in preserving unopened chemical!

Happy glassware redistribution day!

In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!
-Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program, Germany 1875


I. Nothing in society will belong to anyone, either as a personal possession or as capital goods, except the things for which the person has immediate use, for either his needs, his pleasures, or his daily work. II. Every citizen will be a public man, sustained by, supported by, and occupied at the public expense. III. Every citizen will make his particular contribution to the activities of the community according to his capacity, his talent and his age; it is on this basis that his duties will be determined, in conformity with the distributive laws.
- Morelly, The Code of Nature, France 1755

Comrades Mike and Dave decided to dress up to celebrate this joyous day. Power to the people!

Contest

We have been a bit disappointed by the lack or participation in contests.  Because of that, I thought I would make this weeks contest quite simple.  It will only take 2 seconds to enter.  One entry per person please.  Deadline to enter is Monday at 4 pm.

The prize is this beautiful picture frame!  We will supply the picture.

And now for the contest.  You must guess what number I am thinking of between one (1) and twenty five (25) inclusive.  Integers only.  Whoever is closest when the contest ends will win the prize!

Blog Updates

In addition to the fish feeding application that Keith mentioned, I have added a couple of other features to the blog.  On the righthand side below the polls you will find tips to heal a broken heart. 

All the way at the bottom of the page you will find that you can play tetris while you learn tips to whiten your teeth!

Lab Member Profile -- Dr. Maurice Marsini

This week's group member profile features our beloved postdoctoral colleague Maurice, shown below in his native habitat. Amy has also installed a special application that you can find at the right of the screen; please click on Maurice's face to feed the fish. On to the interview ...

1. What is on your bedside table? my watch
2. Do you have posters up on your room walls? no
3. Do you still have tonsils? yes
4. Which do you prefer - Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi
5. What is the thing you love most about Amy? her keen scientific mind
6. Did you like Amy instantly? yes
7. If you had a lot of money, where would you go on vacation? Italy
8. Which part of you do you hate the most? height
9. When you encounter a sad moment, what do you do? reflect
10. Do you have any bad habits? don't have any
11. Describe yourself in three words. pragmatic, humble, freon
12. Are you mostly a clean or messy person? clean
13. What's your favorite thing to do on a Saturday night? eat a nice dinner with my wife
14. What's your favorite song of all time? Speedway to Nazareth by Mark Knopfler
15. What would be the main reason that anyone would want to be in a relationship with you? I'm a very understanding person.
16. If you won 10 million dollars, what would you do? live off 1 million and bank the rest for interest
17. Name your five favorite foods. shellfish, duck, my wife's pizza, venison, sauteed kale
18. Are you usually late, early, or right on time? early
19. You can have one of the following things: trust or love? trust
20. Are you the kind of friend that you would want to have as a friend? yes
21. Your best friend dies: what would you do? Why don't you drive yourself: because I'm a space cadet.
22. Would you give a homeless person CPR if they were dying? uh ... yes
23. Which would you choose -- true love with a guarantee of heart break or never having loved at all? true love with heart break
24. What is your middle name? Angelo
25. How big is your bed? queen-sized
26. Who was the last person you hugged? my wife
27. What is the first thing you notice in the opposite sex? butt
28. Have you ever fired a gun? yes
29. Are you hiding something from someone? no
30. What would you like people to call you, other than your name? Apollo
31. How does it feel to lose the weight loss competition to someone twice your age? fantastic
    

Mad Libs Tuesday

This week's addition was completed by your wonderful move coordinator, Dave Siler:

Dear Aldrich:

Cheryl worked for me as my assistant for 10 years. I recommend her without bugs for the garbage collector program.

While working in baseball bat production, I often relied on Cheryl to put together red presentations, for which she described and thumped the artistic approach to the project, researching birds and photographic bad materials. Her creativity, resourcefulness and ability to see a project through really made these presentations smelly and broken.

When we went into production on the feature film Office Space, Cheryl was able to observe every box of the process, running in on meetings and working with monkeys in all areas of the production from the moment the production was set in motion through the release of the film 2 minutes later.

During this time, she was a young graduate student, often serving as my liason to scattered balloons of the crew. She also coordinated projects involving old people, and her ability to work strikingly while guiding the project quickly and smashingly was wrinkly. For example, when we suddenly needed to reconceive several action scissors that had already been storyboarded, Cheryl quickly found a new storyboard cab driver on location and worked with him, the stunt coordinator and the congressman through several drafts to make sure the new scissors worked, and then thumped with crew balloons from all departments, making sure everyone was up-to-date on the changes that were relevant to them. She even whacked in to draw a few last-minute ancient changes herself.

Cheryl`s sensitivity, stick, energy and sense of shoe made working with her a rotovap. I highly recommend her as a trashy addition to the program.

Sincerely,

Dave

New building!!

Today the fantastic four (i.e. Jeff, Cheryl, Dave, and me) took a tour of our brand new lab facilities. Here is a picture of us on the Bridge to Science; please note the similarity to the real Fantastic Four.


Here is our new group room, which is adjacent to Erik's office. The facilities people showed us how the windows (shown in the reflection) open completely and how there is virtually no guard railing in place. We inquired as to whether they could also install a step stool for your jumping convenience.


The new desks are very large, and there is lots of storage space. There are also locking drawers for your various private / embarrassing / incriminating items.



The new hoods are very spacious (we spared no expense!), and the bench space looks great. The lab also has a very open feel that reflects the close-knit, happy family that we are (or will become).


Finally, this is the dark and creepy portion of the lab that will house underachievers and group malcontents. In an attempt to secure extra funding, we will also be hosting some local prisoners in this section of the lab. Jeff will be sending out guard duty assignments in the coming weeks.



Think of these brand new labs as a reward for all of your hard work. Who says that dreams don't come true?

Monday News

Good afternoon everyone!

Just wondering how many people remembered to celebrate Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night which was last night.

This may be the last week of chemistry before the move, especially if you are attending ACS!  Hope the chemistry gods are looking down upon us favorably this week.  The rest of us will be taking a trip to Mexico while you're in Boston.

We are now taking submissions of questions for this week's interview with Dr. Marsini.  If you wish to submit anonymously, you may place the questions in my mailbox upstairs.  The interview will be conducting Wednesday, so please submit prior to that!

Thanks and have a great National Resurrect Romance week.

Week in Review

We only have one entry for the chemdraw contest.  The deadline will be extended until Monday.  We appreciate your participation.

Lorenz gave a really great talk at group meeting about artemisinin and it was followed by some great discussion.

 

The NMR shutdown has gone smoother than one may have expected, but delays are unavoidable.  Only 1 week left of research before the packing begins.  In the meantime, start to get rid of any clutter in your area.

Contest #5 (asap!)

While we await more contest entries for contests 4 (chemistry haiku) and 5 (medium-certainty protons), get your creative juices flowing by admiring Cheryl's lovely clean desk.


While you're at it, try guessing all the locations that Cheryl stashed her favorite delicious banana Laffy Taffy to hide it from the rest of us. :-( Reply soon, though, cause she'll probably devour them as soon as she arrives today!

Rules:
- reply in the comments below
- please be specific about locations (ie "inside the pop-pop box")
- your guessed locations may only include items visible in this photo
- (+1 point) for every correct answer, (-1 point) for every incorrect answer
- no cheating!

Prize!:
- two lovely photo frames to brighten your desk in New Chemistry Building

Move quickly, the contest ends when Cheryl arrives!!!

TRIPLENO

NO IDEA, NO PROGRESS, NO HOPE

National Chocolate Chip Day News

I have not yet received any contest entries.  Don't miss out!

I think Dr. Malona needs a hug, so be sure to stop by his desk and give him one.

We need volunteers for the next member profile.  Matt gave us a great interview which was posted today, so the standards are high!

Group Member Profile: Matt Naylor

Mr. Naylor was kind enough to allow us to conduct an interview with him and here are the results:

 

1. Where in the world have you been that you thought was paradise?  Mt. Rainier, WA
2. What is your favorite bumper sticker?  I'd rather be here, now
3. What would you do if you didn't have to work?  Farm
4. What is your pet peeve in traffic? Lack of conviction
5. Who is your favorite dead politician? Abe Lincoln
6. Ever been arrested? No
7. Who would you call for bail money? My dad
8. Name a time when you got into big trouble with your parents. I was a perfect child
9. When you were small which superhero did you like? Batman
10. Can you fake any accents? NO!
11. You wouldn't be caught dead where? Trenton
12. If you had a time machine that could take you back in time, what year would you go to and why? 1940, intrigue leading up to the second world war would be fascinating
13. Do you have any hidden talents? Whistling
14. How far east can you go before you're heading west? For me, 5 years
15. Most hated chore on the household chore list? Historically washing dishes
16. Which bad habits of other people drive you crazy? I'm not usually easily bothered by people Griping and deprecation
17. Which kind of puppies do you hate the most?  Chihuahua or any form of rat dog
18. What in the stupidest habit that mankind participates in regards to the environment? Packaged food
19. Do you have any relatives in jail? Not that I know of
20. Where is your bloodline originally from? 1/4 Scottish, a fraction Cherokee (but who isn't?) and the rest is a Caucasian mutt
21. If you had to, what family member would you kill off and why? My dad's sister's family who refused to RSVP for our wedding and then said they were coming but didn't show up.  We even had a hotel room reserved for them.
22. If you had to eat a raccoon, how would you cook it? Through the wisdom of my Chinese mother in law, I would boil it first to remove toxins, and then pressure cook it.
23. What is your earliest memory? I remember being enamored with a small yellow book in the shape of a school bus at around 2 years old.
24. What was your favorite musical group when you were in Junior High? Switchfoot
25. Name 1 thing you miss about being a kid. Slow summers and cushion forts
26. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? An architect
27. What was your favorite childhood injury? Falling off my bike into gravel, still a scar on my knee
28. When was the first time that you had beer? Probably at home in front of my parents when my dad let us try everything in the liquor cabinets at about 14.
29. Was there ever a time when you were frightened for your life? Yes, at a haunted cabin in Washington on our honeymoon
30. Worst roommate you ever had, give some details. A nocturnal, overbearing social butterfly who became one of my best friends
31. Which is the best vacation you've ever had. Road trip from Berkeley to Princeton with three friends
32. Which is the funniest prank you have ever played? Giving my wife a fake ring two days before I proposed
33. You're about to make your way down the green mile, what do you have as your last meal? BBQ ribs, fried okra and a beer
34. How much deeper do you think the Pacific Ocean would be if the sponges that grow in it did not suck up all the water? About a bathtub's worth
35. Who is the person you respect the most and why? My father, his priorities and sacrifices
36. What outdoor activities do you like to do? Backpacking, hiking, sea kayaking, paintball and gardening
37. If your house was on fire and you could grab only 3 things before leaving, what would they be? Hard drive of photos, backpacking knife and bible
38. What would your dream job be? Teaching at a small liberal arts college supplemented by keeping a small family farm
39. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? Seattle, WA
40. If you could start your own restaurant, what would it be? California cuisine, locally sourced
41. Do you have a favorite ride at the amusement park? Go-carts
42. Do you have any phobias? Fungus, anything squirmy
43. What do you think the greatest invention is in your lifetime? LCD TV