It’s the end of the semester, and I still seem to be messing up making media. How does one ever get good at this? There are like a million different types of media I could make, and then a million and one things that have to go through the autoclave. Did you know the autoclave takes about 1.5 hours? This means I don’t get to know if I completely fucked up until 1.5 hours later? So, I give up for the day and try again the next.
One time I made a media that was supposed to be green, but—lo and behold—when it came out of the autoclave, it was red. Granted, it was just a simple pH imbalance, but how was I supposed to know that? I put the correct amount of everything, and it still went wrong. That’s what I hate about science sometimes—you can do everything right and still be completely wrong. What a tragedy. Thank god I love the misery, though. Honestly, without being a teaching assistant, I wouldn’t know half the stuff I do about biological media now. Always gotta look on the bright side.
On another note, my friend and I have been doing a “word of the day” every day, and I learned a new one: flummery. It means oatmeal or boiling flour and water until it becomes a thick consistency. If anyone ever fed me flummery, I think I’d cry. I hate oatmeal, and I definitely don’t think I’d enjoy hot, thick flour water. I mean, who even comes up with that?
Actually, let me not judge. I remember growing up, one of my family’s “struggle meals” was mizukake gohan, which translates to “water-covered rice.” It’s basically Japanese-style flummery. It was tasty though—sometimes we’d pour on a little soy sauce, and it added a nice umami flavor. Oddly enough, I still eat it whenever I’m feeling a little homesick, though I add a bunch of other random things to it now.
Well, that’s all I’ve got to say today… TOODLES!