Catching Up

I added two more blogs to my Reader that seem to be favorites in the scientific blogging community, specifically the personal-type blogs by folks in academia. Shoo, there are some angry people in academia. I hope you aren’t the ones reviewing my manuscripts! I find it striking that, had I only read their blogs, and only a few entries, I would have taken their bashings of other bloggers in their community as some kind of field standard, and subconsciously written off those other blogs. What is it about the mind (or maybe just mine) that mistakes passion for expertise? That simply because someone really doesn’t like someone else’s opinion, then it must truly be a crappy opinion? Good thing I kept reading and realized how generally disenchanted these people are with the entire system, and that it was still possible their hatees were reasonable human beings… reading their posts makes me happier with my current situation, another phenomenon of the mind that intrigues me. It’s not that their situation is worse than mine so my life looks better in comparison (although I wasn’t complaining in the first place, my life is pretty sweet most of the time), it’s something about hearing someone complain with great exuberance about something that doesn’t seem that bad from where I’m standing. And I don’t think I’m standing far from them.
In other news, I had a student ask to leave the laboratory period early because he had an interview the next morning and wanted to get home early. This is the same student that got in a yelling match with me in front of the class recently regarding whether or not female rats urinate from their vaginas. (I hope it goes without saying that he was the one arguing that yes, indeed, they did, where else would the urine come out?) So of course you don’t have to listen to me explain your homework! Of course you can leave early, because you’ve shown the utmost competence and respect! What?! WHAT? NO, SON! YOU MAY NOT! SIT DOWN!
Time to cover slip slides and go home. Hurrah.