Ally, Entry #5, how are they still marketing Olaf I mean it's been years

I'm finally on my last week.  I say finally, but I think it went by rather quickly, so seems the trend for the entire summer.  So little time left, but I still have so much work to do..

This being what I believe to be my last post (I think we're supposed to write 5?  No one answers me when I ask them how many there are supposed to be), I thought this would be a good time to talk about what I learned.

1. It's ok if you break glassware, and when you do, dispose of it properly.
Three broken test tubes, an 1000 mL beaker, and a mercury thermometer later, somehow I'm still alive.  You see, when cleaning test tubes with a wand, it might not be best to use so much force that the wand physically breaks through the bottom of the test tube.  It took me a couple to figure that one out.  There should be a sharps container somewhere in your lab, safely dispose of such glassware broken in a fit of kultzy-ness and stupidity in the box.

2. Ask questions.
If you don't you're going to end up mixing two toxic chemicals and blowing something up, and as much as Mr. Park does it for fun, it's not the best way to use your chemicals.

3. You're not always going to have something to do,
Sometimes you're going to sit around and have nothing to do.  Enjoy your free time and catch up on that summer reading you probably should have done by now.

4. Lab work can be very boring.
Sometimes you're going to have to spend 3 hours at a time cleaning test tubes.  Deal with it, it's got to get done.  Just think that if that test tube doesn't get clean, someone's experiment is going to be contaminated, so you're going to put the damn time in the make sure that test tube is squeaky clean.

5. If you read your Enviro book in the lab and your PI walks in and you're working in a marine biology lab, he will be very impressed.
Enough said.

6. Washing glassware is a tedious and over the top process.
I washed a lot of glassware.

7. The fish tank in Mario's office is cursed.
There were 6 fish in there and then 5 of them died, leaving Andy,  Steph and I bought 2 more, Owen Wilson and Creamsickle Joe, and then Creamsickle Joe died, so we bought 2 more, the Winklevoss twins (the Winklevi), and then the three remaining died.  Except Andy.  Andy is still alive.  I don't think Andy is ever going to die.

8. Listening to music makes everything go by faster.
This is a general rule for all of life.

9. If your PI is named Olaf, take full advantage.
The lab computer background is this (tiled):

And my thank you card has a picture of Olaf drawn inside:


10. Dress comfortably.
It makes such a difference when you're sitting in the same spot for hours at a time.

Until later.