It's been a long, long time comin'

(An old Tragically Hip reference there, I think from Road Apples for those who care...)
Alright, I know that it has been a while since I have posted, but remember that all good things come to those who wait... and if you wait a little while longer, and look elsewhere, I'm sure that this will hold true for you too...

So why so long between posts you ask?

Remember a little while ago (May to be precise), I was frantically trying to get an experiment set up to work properly to get some final results for my thesis... Well those experiments have been done and then came the analysis bit. There has been a girl hired to help run and analyze microarray data, but she's useless in this respect.

Harsh? Yes.

But it's not entirely her fault, she was hired to run a system which they are going to buy in a few to several months or so, which she has knowledge of... But right now, she has very little if any knowledge on how to analyze data that you get now. I do not blame her for this. I am upset with her a little bit because she has been hired and "working" there for a few months now, and STILL doesn't know how to do this. And she complains of boredom. Hmmmmmmm. I'll leave you all to fill in the blanks here.

But, where does this leave me... Simply put, writing cheques that can barely be cashed. I needed to have some results by this morning. So I have been learning how to use several computer programs with unfamiliar lingo to analyze my data... I finally found one that I have confidence in, but it required me to learn to speak in "R". So I learned to "speak" some of the lovely language of R on Tuesday night until 3:20am, then struggled to write the commands required to do what I wanted (I had to do the same analysis about 4 times over for scientific reasons that I will not bore you any more with) until 2am Wednesday, and did the analysis of everything (with ironing out of details) on Thursday until Midnight, so I could say something at a departmental meeting this morning.

So, I have had little sleep the past week and am now exhausted and tired. Much worse than the last post. As I have yet to recover from then... Too much computer screen... But I think that I get to re-affirm my status as a Geek. (yes Geek deserves to spelt with a capital "G" because it is the Geeks who run the show... I think that it's payback on society for all those years in ...junior high it was, where you get picked on by the "popular" kids who are now either drawing welfare, or in the throes of middle management, while the Geeks of the world have taken up positions as Phd's etc to fight for every dollar that they can get from Granting bodies while trying to prove to people that their work is important.... All those years of being called "Doogie".... When I get back I'll show them! I'll show them alllllll!!!! HAHAHAHAHAhahaha ahem.... Sorry... some things are not to be spoken of again.. keep calm. breathe in. imagine your happy place....)

So ya, I've been a little busy lately and have neglected my adoring fans.... Sorry guys, can't promise it won't happen again, because it surely will...
But, can you guess what me and Alex did on the weekend?

Clever!! Ya, we went and saw Superman Returns! And I had to dress Alex up in his Superman outfit. He loved it! It's been out for a while so there wasn't alot of people there that day, so he was the only kid there, and so the only kid dressed as Superman. But that made it all the more cooler!!!

As for the movie itself, it wasn't bad. I openly thought that Superman's casting was bad, but I was wrong. He did a great job; looked the part, played the part, and was the part. Kevin Spacey, while not his best work (he's genius in "Usual Suspects" and apparently in "K-Pax" although I have yet to see this, I trust my source as we have similar tastes), but he gives good life and evil-ness to Lex Luther. In watching this movie, and "rating" it, I think it's important to remember that there are certain rules which must be followed in any Superman movie, such as no (very little) blood or extreme violence (which are good things), happy endings, and that in the end, it's a kids' movie. However, it was a kids movie that I enjoyed watching, and would recommend to see to kill some time, and don't care about predictable story lines, reliance on special effects, and high quality dialogue. Reeves was Superman, and this (Brandon Ruth?) new Superman does him justice.

See, a happy ending!

Well, I gotta run back to the lab. But I'll try to post again early next week... say...Monday maybe...