Issue Nine, this sixteenth day of May, 2003

'Richard is my victim'

There is a level in every organizational structure above which once-intelligent people lose the ability to find things out for themselves. I'm not totally sure where that level is in this august institution, but I suspect it's Band 3.

Sauron of course is well above it, as evidenced by his needing to be hand-held when sending plates off for sequencing, and even turning off options in a widely used (and sworn at) word processor program - one that I don't even use! For a moment there I thought Hippy had hit the level, but then he redeemed himself by learning how to do mass spec. Just don't say 'six Daltons' to him. And don't offer constructive criticism either - he can't take it, and sulks in a corner.

Oh boy. What a week. I emailed Kate on Wednesday, 'Going (not so slowly) mental'. I received a one-line reply, 'oh dear, what's he done?'. Actually that time it wasn't him, but that was merely to lull me into a false sense of (in)security. You know, when things don't work and I spend the day wishing I'd stayed in bed because at least that way I wouldn't be wasting reagents, it's pretty damned certain that I am already frustrated. Having a pest buzzing in my ear does not help; he can not be any more pissed off than I am already, and all it does is demotivate me. Grr.

And if that wasn't bad enough, we revisited an old chestnut today - the perennial issue of lab computing. He didn't quite use the term 'dumb terminal' but the essence was there, as was the implication that we should throw out perfectly usable machines. And of course he thinks he knows what we want (he doesn't) and he imagines stuff (he imagines wrong) and he is going to pilot using X11 windows under OS X (I've already piloted that and it works dammit why the FSCKING HELL won't you listen to me?!). Apparently the current Macs aren't real Unix and Apple have made the wrong decision regarding architecture and they will end up sticking to software and and and by Cthulthu he talks a load of crap. I can't imagine he's actually read this detailed analysis of the industry because the guys at the Register certainly haven't heard of it and it must be coming from some deep, subterranean spirit that was buried before the days of ENIAC that is channeling through him because I have no bloody idea how any sane person could believe what he's saying.

I think I've just spotted the logical flaw. I'll leave you to guess what it is.

Ever get the feeling you're adrift on a sea of shit, holed below the waterline and bailing like billy-ho but still going down?

Heh, and, if that weren't bad enough, we're (yet again) at the stage of crisis because native gels aren't working. It could be just my prejudice of course (really??), and we need quickies to sort it out. Oh my.

Oh on a lighter note, we had a moment of cultural cross-talk. Imagine Sauron as as Yoda. When 900 years old you are, so good you look waaaaaaaaaaaa. Crystallographer you want to be, waaaaaaa?

Crawling out of the primordial slime,

Richard (- my brain's turned to scrambled eggs).

Footnote: I just googled for 'ENIAC'. I came across 'By today's standards for electronic computers the ENIAC was a grotesque monster. . . '
How preternaturally appropriate.