Month: June 2006

(…Not All that Funny, Actually)

Early one morning last week, I went to the University District’s International House of Pancakes, the only place where one can actually get breakfast before 8 am. Lo and behold, a gruff talking, shiny pink cap wearing, less than hygienated man and a pasty, bi-minutely mirror-preening woman wearing a dress emphasizing her unhealthily slim physique sat at a table that, unfortunately, occupied the majority of my visual field.

Highlights of their conversation included:
“Bitch, are you listening to me…?”
“Yeah whatever, that skank’s on crack anyway…”
“Hey waiterman, bring us our fuckin’ check. Been waiting a fuckin’ half hour already.”

I couldn’t help looking; they were worse than a car wreck. I guess I enjoyed a somewhat vice-sheltered upbringing. Needless to say, I don’t see myself going back to IHOP anytime soon.

… what would think about this image? Can you see anything in it?

What about this one?

Both of the above masks are composed of equal parts information from these two images:

Do either of the top two images bear a stronger resemblance to either of these bottom two images from which they were constructed?

As my third and final rotation is coming to a close, my present advisor (who I’ll call B) asks me:

“I hear that you’re planning on joining E’s lab. I’ve been meaning to ask you was there anything aversive about your experience here that shaped your decision?”

I replied “…not at all…” and said nothing more. I assumed that, by virtue of the fact B’s lab encompasses much of the same space and personnel as E’s lab, that B knew of my inclinations to join E’s lab from the start.

I assumed wrong.

Even though I was all but certain that I had already secured a place in a different lab, I put my total effort into this quarter’s project. I figure that if the department has enough confidence in my potential as researcher to support my ass, I had better not disappoint them by sluffing off at the first opportunity. In hindsight, perhaps my hard work signalled to B that I had designs on her lab. After all, I’m quite pleased with how this quarter’s project has turned out and I’ve learned a ton (i.e. primate handling, design of psychophysical experiments and a good many of the statistics needed for analyzing them).

In my program, the whole process through which students choose their labs is wraught with political sensitivities. I’ve heard that many other research oriented graduate programs employ a more formal means of matching students to labs. While I would ordinarily claim that I have little need for formality at all, I will admit that it is often an effective reducer of social awkwardness. I think that a more formal lab selection process would have made my transition into my permenant lab considerably easier for all involved parties.