You know what really grinds my gears?

So, I was fixing a clogged DCM pump on the LSRII this morning, which requires the removal of the side panel on the instrument, getting on your hands and knees and digging around in the inner bowels of the beast.  As I was shimmying around, contorting my limbs in all sorts of god-awful positions, I kept crunching pieces of plastic under my feet.  I peaked down, backwards, over my shoulder to see a bunch of pipette tips on the floor...surrounding the trash bin at the foot of the instrument. Are you kidding me?  People, presumedly adding their PI or DAPI at the instrument, are ejecting their used tips in the vicinity of the garbage, and missing >50% of the time.  They obviously can hear the tips crashing into the ground and missing the garbage, but decide to do nothing about this?  I then pan across the room, and I see racks of nearly empty tubes, crumpled kimwipes and a full waste tank.  C'mon people, have a little respect, pick up after yourselves.   Needless to say, my DCM repair turned into a full-on cleaning session; swept, threw out all the tubes, wiped down the bench space, and even got the mop from the janitor's closet and mopped the floors.  So, here we go people, August 27th, 2010 at 10AM, the LSRII area in 037 is clean.  LET'S KEEP IT THAT WAY!

It's GLIIFCA Time!

We're in the dog days of Summer, so that could only mean one thing... GLIIFCA 19 is right around the corner.  The Great Lakes International (because we let the Canadians join us) Imaging and Flow Cytometry Association's 19th annual meeting will be held September 24 - 26, 2010 in Detroit, MI.  This is a great meeting for users of Flow Cytometry and Imaging technologies (including the ImageStream!) that gives you a chance to see how people are using Flow in interesting and novel ways in their research.  It's also ridiculously cheap.  The registration fee is a paltry $80 AND, if you bring a poster, you'll get a $100 travel stipend.  Also, it's close enough to drive,  and the hotel rates are very reasonable as well.  So, there's really no excuse not to go.  However, if you need one more reason why you should go to GLIIFCA this year, it's because the theme for this year's Saturday night party is freaking STAR WARS!!!!   So, click on over to GLIIFCA.org and register yourself today.  If you U of C folks do decide to join us, David will buy you a beer!