happychemist

Words can't describe the elation I feel right now.

I got a new heating block today. To all of ye, it may look like a block with a lot of holes in it. Ok, to most of the world.

But I'm telling you! Prior to this wonderful day, I only had 8 labeling reactions going each week. Now that I have this baby, I can have 28! Three and a half times the productivity!!!!

YAYNESSS!

Nobody has claimed responsibility. And I've lost my will to fight and be angry. I'm just resigned and frustrated. In the last three months, I've had 20 stir bars, 1 powder funnel, and these solvents disappear on me. I'm starting to realize that this is an uphill battle. Either somebody is lying, somebody outside of the group is stealing our stuff, or I'm just going crazy and losing crap all over the place.

Thoughts.

• I feel like a terrible person for not being easy-going about my lab equipment. But really, I stock solvents so that when I reach under the hood to use them, they're there for my convenience. Ditto with my stir bars. It's like reaching for your stapler and finding out that somebody else has used all the staples.
  
• I've already taken to hiding and labeling everything, but I've drawn the line at mislabeling bottles, etc. I already feel like a terrible enough person for not wanting to share, but I'd actually feel evil if I messed up somebody's experimentsm, esp if the person only needs like 10 mL one evening when the stock room is already closed.
  
• I've conveyed to everybody in the labs that they can borrow things as long as they let me know they're taking them; Steve and his undergrad do that all the time and look and we have a great system. I've done all I can. so how come things still don't work?
  
• We don't have a lab policy regarding these things. That's what really sucks. Is it communal or is it considered property of some scientist or another? I really don't know.
  
• I'm thinking too much. Let it go.

Less than a month after I took the trouble to clean the MonoS column, I went to use it today to find that the sucker was more than dirty; it was completely jammed and clogged. Someone has managed to render it completely useless.

( Share and share alike? )

It was a less than ideal day at work, to put it mildly. I need a vacation.