This was all written on Tuesday by the by, my interents have been broken lately and I'm sure you care at all. One of these days I will put up that missive on what exactly my job entails, but once again I’ve been derailed with crazy shit going down in science town.
For the time being know that I work on mice that possesses a certain awful neurodegenerative disease and despite our efforts that disease remains pretty much altogether incurable.
It’s not the most uplifting of work.
I mean it would be if we made any progress at all but as it stands right now not so much. Bah.
But it’s also very complicated work, and for an obsessive like me that’s pleasurable. In fact my employment is also rather complex, since there are a few different grants paying my salary and they’re not all from the same lab. This may actually be my saving grace, since my overseers aren’t sure if they can fire me without pissing off one of the others I toil for. One professor in particular is a floor higher and responsible for 20% of my salary. I don’t see him very often, and just this afternoon he noted this fact.
Dr. 1/5th: Say Tom it doesn’t look like your working anywhere near 20% of your time for me.
Me: Well um some weeks are more some are less but yeah pretty much no where close.
Dr. 1/5th: Indeed. Well I’ve got a new project in the works somewhat removed from the one you’ve been ignoring a while.
Me: Aright.
Dr. 1//5th: You would be working with my most attractive post doctoral student, she doesn’t really know much about mouse breeding.
Me: Oh? Well yeah I’d say my schedule is fairly-
Dr. 1/5th: I’ve also taken an interest in this matter, I think I could say of the work I’ve done in the past decade it’s the most promising line of research I’ve ever seen.
Me: Wow. For sure I could start-
Dr. 1/5th: Oh were also collaborating with Dr. _________ at the institute? You may remember him, he said it’s his most intriguing work to date. Really beyond anything he’d done before. Including the work he did for the Nobel.
Me: Oh that Dr. ______! Oh yeah, right so I’ll just talk to your student about when I should-
Dr. 1/5th: So basically it’s a model, in mice, of…
…Depression.
Me: Fuck.
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5 comments:
What are depressed mice like? Do they lose interest in cheese and the wheel or something?
I'm honestly not sure. Maybe when they stop swimming in our water maze and just sink. Must investigate further.
Your next project will be a study of mice who try their damnedest every day, without giving up hope, and still never make it in life.
Promise me you'll name one of your mice Willy Loman?
Make sure to take all of your mice's shoelaces.
What's that? Your mice don't wear shoes? No wonder they keep dying.
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