meisa's lagoon

it's been about a week since max left. shell finally came through for him with a job, and he left northwestern for good to go to houston to be with his wife and dogs.
it's kind of weird without him here. someone else has taken over his desk right behind mine and his lab bench, also right behind mine, has been cleared and left so clean, you could eat off it - although i wouldn't recommend it. i wonder when it will sink in that he's gone, and not just on vacation.
as he was leaving, i found it strange that i wasn't really that worried about how i would fare in research without him. over four years as a mentor, he's brought me a long long way, and i feel pretty comfortable out there on my own now - which i think is the best sign that he was a truly wonderful teacher. also, i think it helps me feel better to think that i *hopefully* won't be here very much longer without him.
a million thanks go out to max for everything he has done for me in the last four years. i'll miss you so much.

Posted by Meisa at 03:04 PM | Permalink

dellisimo finally died. that would be my dell laptop. kaput. never to turn on again.
it seemed to be on a weekly cycle. every friday for a month was a milestone on its journey to death. and this last friday was when it finally just wouldn't turn on anymore. i called dell and they determined that my motherboard needed to be replaced...a $500 endeavor. no thanks.
so i say goodbye to it, and with it many of the emails sitting in my inbox, a handful of things i'd done for work, all my links in my favorites (hence the lack of blogging), and most of all the little bubbling beaker icon i had that replaced the hourglass when windows was "thinking". luckily, before i dissected the machine 2 weeks ago, i backed up most of the stuff i care about, but i don't yet have a machine to load it on to (please excuse my lack of emailing if you haven't heard from me...i just don't know your email address right now). but i guess i'm pretty lucky that i still have it all.
i'm going to try to access the hard drive and get some of this stuff back and then wipe it clean before trying to sell it on ebay. khalid's brother, also known as the king of ebay, has agreed to sell it for me, so hopefully he can get a couple hundred bucks for the parts.
it's kind of exciting, i guess, to get a new computer. a pain to load it with all the stuff, but it will be nice to have something that doesn't take 10 minutes to start and freak out on me when i have more than 3 programs running at once. right now, i'm using our group laptop - an IBM thinkpad. i'm loving it...so speedy and smooth. maybe my next one will be even better than this.

Posted by Meisa at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

well, it seems as though my computer might be on its deathbed. after a week of working just fine since i operated, it went kaput on friday. giving a white striped screen at startup, then a purple one, and finally a black one. it seemed as though nothing could be done, but i went ahead and called the dell guys anyway. they, of course, scolded me for replacing the fan myself, but aside from that, they brought it back to life. he claimed that i probably built up extra static electricity on my motherboard during the surgery. and then he taught me how to expunge the system of this excess electricity. so it worked for awhile. then stopped again, and now it's up again. we'll see how long it lasts. i'm determined not to get a new computer until i graduate. maybe this will be more motivation to get me out of here faster!

Posted by Meisa at 09:10 AM | Permalink

damnnnnnnn yooooooouuuuuuu websudoku!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Meisa at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

oh that word is so applicable right now. not only is the temperature outside FRIGID (5 degrees F on my walk to work), but i caught another cold this weekend. another one!!!!! what's up with that?!?! i was just sick a month ago. at least there were better movies on tv this weekend. tbs came through for me - not movies i love, but good enough entertainment when you are snotting your weekend away...kate & leopold, serendipity, stepmom. as good as it gets was just about to come on when khalid came home and asked to switch off the movie marathon to watch the news instead. party pooper.
this time, i didn't let myself succumb to blobbing around the entire time. sometimes i feel like if you push forward with your life, your cold gets left behind. and sometimes that backfires and you start to feel much worse. but, luckily, not this time. i battled my cold with a little trip downtown to the museum of contemporary art and michigan avenue. it was soooo beautiful with the snowflakes falling and all the twinkle lites - i kind of forgot about my snot for awhile.

Posted by Meisa at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

i took apart my ENTIRE laptop. the screen was gone, the keyboard was gone, all the innards were spilled everywhere. i replaced the fan and then put it all back together again...with no leftover pieces. a true miracle. i kept saying as i was doing it, if it worked, this would be one of my greatest accomplishments ever. that sounds kind of pathetic, but messing with computers frightens me, and this was not something that i would normally undertake. and if i did, i would probably be unsuccessful. i have to admit, i got a small amount of help pulling some of the intestines out, but for the most part, it was me.
i'm not sure if my fan/speed problem will be solved, but only time will tell. for now, the computer started back up, and i seem to still have everything in place. even the cd drive still opens! yay!

Posted by Meisa at 04:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

as though i weren't terrible about blogging already, but now and for the last several weeks my computer has been having some issues. i have it on right now to begin the back up process before we try to replace parts of his innards. so hopefully i'll get back better on blogging and email once he's running again. i think my next computer will definately be a female, males are too temperamental. i'm also pretty sure i'm going to go for a mac next time. they're just so darn cute.

Posted by Meisa at 08:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)