Obtaining the 9th Level of Power...

I had a startling realization the other day while I was in lab. I was sitting at my desk, and spent a solid 2 minutes trying to find my pen, lost somewhere beneath a pile of papers, notebooks, scratch paper, and wrappers. Now, those of you that know me realize this is somewhat uncharacteristic. I'm a fairly ordered person and I try to keep my areas organized and clean... so what's the deal?

My suspicion is that I am entering the realm of the true nerd, from which there is no return. I remember when I was younger, I would look at the work spaces for graduate students as well as the offices of my professors and wonder how they could possibly work in all that mess. Everything is in piles, papers are scattered everywhere, and there is seemingly no organization. The fume hoods for synthetic chemists are worse. Half-finished reactions, completed reactions that aren't worked-up, fritted funnels with stuff still in them, overflowing wash basins, unemptied columns... Well, at least that's what my fume hood looks like right now. Somehow, my post-doc's hood looks worse. I now realize this has nothing to do with how orderly a person is, and so much to do with being sleep-deprived, overworked, and perpetually behind.

Its interesting to realize how my day goes. From the moment I get to lab, I single-mindedly pursue some product or objective until I get distracted by something else, which I then proceed to pursue single-mindedly until I remember the first thing I was pursuing. Chances are I'll get distracted by something else before I get back to the first thing, and so completely abandon the second in deference to the third. This will repeat all day.

So like I said, my mannerisms and behaviors are beginning to mimic some of the more brilliant, albiet absent-minded, scientists I've worked with. In my opinion, this should be enough to justify me earning a Ph D, so while this is destroying my (notional) personal life, it is great for my research. Anyhow, let's walk our way through the list:

1. Decreasing social skills and an overall persona of awkwardness
2. No appeal to memebers of the opposite sex
3. Desk/Fumehood an absolute scattered mess.
4. Absent-mindedness. I completely blew off seminar yesterday. I maintain I didn't know it was Tuesday, but my friend Joe says he reminded me at 10:45 (seminar is at 11:00). I personally do not remember the conversation, but apparently I had a solvent trap in my hands and was headed towards the rotovap. I do remember wondering where everyone was around 11:40... I figured they went to lift weights (something we usually do at noon) and didn't tell me they were going early. Nope. It was seminar.
5. Following work, I go home and play video games to escape the tragedy my life is rapidly becoming by vicariously living an adventure through imaginary characters. Sweet.
6. Increasing sarcasm
7. Frequent references to obscure cartoon characters or shows.

Figure 1. Example of a reference to obscure or semi-obscure cartoons. One
can see the obvious similarities established between all parties pictured above.

Anyhow, I'm writing this in lab instead of doing my research. I just thought it was worth sharing. But since always seem to have plenty to do, I most regretfully must wrap-up this rant.

In the words of my brother, "Back to the Nerdery!"