Po is amazing!

So as she named Norbert, we had promised to write a post on the amazingness of Po. But as I had discovered (to my joy) that my laptop has an integrated microphone, we decided to record a message instead. Of course, knowing us, we couldn't keep on topic at all, so I'm afraid you have to listen to our ramblings before you get to the amazingness of Po.

There are also (gasp!) pictures of Luke wit his broken nose, pictures of many people who aren't Leia, and some amazing audio-editing by Luke to remove Leia's REAL name (whoops). As I don't have a third party audio hosting site thingie, we figured why not make it a movie-type thing, as blogger lets you upload videos but not just sound files for some reason.

Oh, and don't panic when there are areas with a black screen, I decided that we had enough pictures!

Enjoy!

Introducing... Norbert!

I'm afraid I've been a bit slack in concluding the super-awesome Name That Cactus Competition. Priorities start shifting when begging for large amounts of money become the main focus of the entire lab (fingers crossed that we get it!). Anyway, as I'm sure you can see from the poll on the right, by a totally democratic process, the cactus has been named Norbert! And just in case you didn't believe that we would follow through:

He's been tagged and everything!

Special mention goes to Hannah and Henno for their choices of Reuben McGarrige and Gulliver respectively. It was pretty close!

Of course, the glory all goes to Po, for suggesting the winning name, and as such we must give her TEN POINTS and of course discuss her awesomeness!

I will not mention the awesomeness until I've got the others locked into the lab with me (the weird thing about postgrads is that you mention 'writing' and they vanish and you have to coax them out from under their beds with donut crumbs and the promise of free food... It's almost as bad as the postgrad reaction to words like 'statistics'; 'graduate' and 'what will you do when you've finished?') although I don't think it'll be that difficult!

In the meantime, as promised, Po, I give you TEN POINTS and a group hug:

We couldn't find a photo of Po, so you'll have to use your imagination!

Name that cactus!

So the weekend is over and it's time to VOTE! Thanks again to everyone who suggested names for the cactus. If your suggestion isn't on the shortlist I'm really sorry, but please don't let that stop you from voting!

Without any further ado, the final list of potential names is:

• Leroy
• Norbert
• Gulliver
• Edmund
• Reuben McGarrige

I'm putting a poll up now and it'll be there until Friday, so please vote for your favourite!

Competition!

So back on the day of me dragging Leia around the paintball course in search of a geocache, we got a cactus for the lab. We already have a plant (Spaz), a bryophyte (Kermit) and a while ago we had a fish (Spot) with an aquatic snail called Gary (who randomly gave birth to Basil).

So now that the cactus is firmly established in our little family, we need to name it. and that's where you guys come in.

Please will you suggest some names? We just can't make a decision. If there isn't a clear winner then we will set up a poll to decide.

PLEASE help us on this! Arguing over names is seriously denting our productivity!

After much discussion we have decided that the person who picks the final name will win:

• a digital group hug from all of us


• a special post about your awesomeness (can be exchanged for a guest blog from one of us, you can choose who writes it)


• A specially made award badge for your blog


• 10 points!

Sounds like it's worth a try doesn't it?

Good luck and get naming! Multiple suggestons per person are allowed, but please put them as separate comments so we don't miss any!