Blowing myself up.

I had a meeting this morning with one of my supervisors to set up a relatively straight forward experiment. I had read a paper the night before, and felt pretty confident that as long as all the equipment was there, I could assemble it without too much difficulty.

Upon arrival, it didn't take me long to realize that I was naive in my believing it would be simple, and really, just an idiot for thinking I could do it on my own.

I had assumed that someone, anyone, would show me how to do some of the more basic stuff.
At first, I was thrown (not literally...) into a room and given a pat on the ass (not literally...) and told 'go to it', leaving me with a random collection of gadgets, tubing, and a 50L tank of PRESSURIZED NITROGEN GAS. Seriously. I realize that nitrogen is not typically dangerous... but it being pressurized is a little disconcerting to me....considering that I don't know how to use the valve controlling it's release and the fact that the valve was FUCKING BROKEN. While unlikely, it was entirely possible that I could have rocketed myself through a wall... or, much worse, blown up the whole building. (I didn't.... in case you were wondering)

30 minutes later, there are 3 scientists huddled around a large cubic tank of water discussing the best plan of attack, and explaining the procedure to me.
The thing is, it is hard to have a conversation with 3 incredibly smart men, while I have absolutely nothing to contribute except
'Ohhhhh.... okay'
'Yeh'
'I understand'
'Uh huh... and thats why you use.... oh okay'
'Perfect... sounds good'

Anyway, I didn't blow myself (or anyone else) up.


#4 My favourite guilty pleasure song is 'When Doves Cry' by Prince. Really, I like anything by Prince, or the artist formerly known as prince, or the fucked up looking symbol.
There is no funny story behind this. I just like it.