In the spirit of not wanting to talk about what's actually going on

I was thinking this morning about how I should really be working on my lecture for next week, but I'm stuck at one point so I figured I'd do a search through my email and look for a memo I made a few years ago for one of the pracs which we're running tomorrow. I searched and Gmail came up with one result - a chat message from when I was in the field for the first time, two years ago. At the time my friend Ben was helping out and we were doing quite well, but a lot of bizarre things happened.

 

I thought you guys would enjoy seeing a little bit of what we might consider as normal...Here is an except of some of a conversation I had with Luke telling him about what was going on that week:

 

me: so did I tell you about this morning?

 Luke:   No...

me: for the first time in almost a week it wasn't raining, so we took all the traps we have and went off to the field
  proceeded to get pretty sunburned and caught 10 male lizards and 2 HUGE geckos
 

Luke: Cool!

 me: and then looked up to realise that the farm was on fire

 Luke: So what was the weird stuff that has happened?
  WHAT?!

 

me: this after the roof in the bathroom fell in and we got flooded yesterday

 Luke: Yes, I remember that... :D
  So, what happened?

 me: not the farmHOUSE, the grass and stuff

 Luke: Oh! LOL. OK then :)

me: but it was hot and windy and the fire was moving quickly and I was sitting working as fast as I could and then ben decided that the bakkie was going to get burned, so he hurtled down the hill and moved it
  and then got lost coming back so I thought he'd died

Luke: Sounds fun! Veld fires are scary! I remember that one in the Kalahari! That was unbelievable! It was so unreal!

me: I know! anyway I thought Ben had died, especially considering he was nearly attacked by a Mozambique spitting cobra last time we were in the field, and some kind of mamba today

Luke: Woah! You are NEVER coming on my field work! I'll get jinxed like him!

me: but he yelled until I answered and then followed my voice through all the trees, and we finished up and packed up and ran off to the car.  Which was not on fire...  and then I'd decided to take the ring road - it's bad and you need to use lowrange but at least the fire wouldn't be all OVER THE ROAD and Ben decided to drve us back through the fire  we nearly died!

Election day!

So today is the big scary D-day for the political gemors that's been building up over the last year or so. With half the bigwigs in court for various levels of currution, the biggest party having a major fight and splitting up into two groups...

 

When I've voted before I've been quite upset at the level of apathy that South Africans show to the whole democratic process. The queues are always bad, but generally more becauser the things in the front aren't all too organised, not because there's too much demand to join in. Last election day I was at university doing bservations on the lizards until 12, went to vote at 12:30, went home (all of 3 blocks from the voting station) had lunch and made it to work by 3pm. While I was there I noticed that hardly anyone had the black mark on their thumbs from voting, and if I asked, most people said that they didn't care.

 

This time, due to the fact that the university is over 6 weeks late to pay me and I need to put fuel in my car and feed myself when I go on fieldwork in 2 weeks, I accepted a fantastic double-pay shift at work, which starts at 4pm. So I figured I'd go through at 7am when the station opened, vote before anyone got there and then go home and work until I had to leave to go to the work that actually pays me.

 

At 7:30 I woke to find that my brother was calling me, and my alarm had been snoozing for an hour and a half. Bleh. Turns out as we registered at the same place we might as well keep each other company and so he picked me up and we joined the queue.

 

The line of people was 3 times as long as last time! It must have been over 200m of people standing around. Some enterprising people had set up a stall selling coffee and boerewors rolls (which smelled incredible but I'd just had breakfast and weetbix doesn't go well with meat) and we stood. And stood. And stood. andstoodandstoodandstoodandstoodandstood.

 

After over an hour, when conversation was drying up, our feet and backs were aching and we just wanted to go home, the little old lady behind us started trying to caht, while waving a climp of khakibos in our faces. It smelled horrible, and she apologised, explaining that every time she got sleepy she would sniff it and it woke her right back up. They should try that with long distance truck drivers, but I think they'd go on strike again.

 

Eventually after about two hours or so we got to within sight of the door, and a little bit sheltered from the freezing wind, a guy came and scanned our ID books to print out our voter registration number. I'm three thousand and something. The old lady started yelling at the poor guy with the scanner because the place was "obviously badly organised and what the hell is wrong with you people?" He sighed and carried on, it must have been his millionth lecture for the day and he's just doing his job.

 

The worst is the people cutting into the line. Old people (who are not just old but old and infirm, as the lady behind us explained) are allowed to the front along with whoever is helping them with the walker or the stick or the wheelchair or whatever. Apparently the lady behind us had been refused entry because although she was old enough, she seemed ok. She should have brandished the khakibos and gone with the insane argument - "you don't want me in the line, people won't make it out alive!"

 

Eventually we went through, had our thumbs drawn on - I wanted to request a smily-face, but when they refused to mark my right hand instead of my left I decided it wasn't worth it, scribbled my X where Iw anted it, stuffed it in the box and went home.

 

It took forever, my feet hurt and I think it'll take a few weeks to thaw from the freezing cold, but I'm glad that it was full of people. I'm really happy to see some South Africans caring about what happens to their country, and compared to before, it seems like a lot of people are voting when previously they'd stay at home and enjoy the day off. And after all, we got there at 8, and I'm home having tea and a cupcake by 12, it could have been a lot worse!

 

Here's hoping that it all turns out well in the end!

 

Happy election day!

I feel I must mention...

I feel that I must explain, I have nothing against happy couples. I
think that it's great and I'm really happy to see my friends fine
someone who can make them happy and glowy and all that.

I DO however have a major problem with couples who cannot be in the
same room without being plastered together.

I don't have an issue with people having private conversations around
me, even if we're sitting in a group of three. I have no problem
sitting quietly and doing my own thing while they argue over who is
cuter, or better, or more fantastic, or just 'hello' 'hello' 'hello'
like a pair of demented budgies . It's awkward but I can deal.

What gets me is the persistant fondling. I think it's my inherent
English upbringing, but I get very uncomfortable around public
displays of affection. I just don't know where to look. Anything
beyond holding hands gets me a little uncomfortable, particularly when
it's just me and 'ze ghappy couple!' and I have no option of getting
away.

It sucks as I used to spend almost every tuesday might sitting having
dinner with Jo, and then this guy started dropping by. She was still
married at the time and officially trying to save the marriage, so it
wasn't bad because they never even touched each other when I was
around. Then she needed a confidant, I happened to be around and next
thing you know they were all coupley around me, no holds barred,
complete with reflex-rebound from all the hiding it.

And so now that I'm working I've been stuck in a store with them for
the last 4 hours. They've been stroking each other for most of the
time, whenever they're not doing the grope-while-walking-past move, or
the staring lovingly into each other's eyes while giggling at the
amazing wit that they seem to have. Like ' it looks like a little D,
so instead of 'no disc' it looks like it says 'nod isc' isn't that
funny?'

The thing is, they LIVE together, why do I have to watch them, when
they have hours and hours at home every evening?

I just don't get it.

It gets worse

And now they're calling each other pet names and feeding each other
Thai food. I feel kind of ill...

randomness

I'm liking this blogging from email thing! I'm at work and I've jacked a connection from the Italian Restaurant next door and I'm sitting typing away innocently while my boss and her new flossie cavort around the store. Peaunut butter curry has arrived!!! W00t!

The cutest thing EVER!

So I started watching this movie last night and it's the cutest thing EVER! I haven't finished it yet because my ribs are a bit bruised from falling and laughing really hurts, so I'm waiting until I feel better to finish it. I might finish it sooner though because apparently I look like hell today and a few people have hugged me and told me to go home and stuff and it makes me feel crap to think that I'm not hiding the headache as well as I'd thought.

So anyway, if you're looking for an adorable but very funny movie, I would totally recommend it! It makes me want to run off and film stuff!

whiplash!

So I was playing with my dog on Saturday and she doubled back for some reason and tripped me up. I was running pretty much full-tilt at the time which meant that when I went flying, I REALLY went flying! The dog somehow got out of the way and I did a graceful swan-dive, culminating in a face-first 1 metre slide along paving stones.

 

I snapped my head back (and avoided concussion) and escaped with losing the skin on my knees and elbows, the front of my thighs has bruised black, friction from my shirt ripped some of the skin off my chest and I bruised my ribs so ghat I am entirely unable to laugh 9and of course many hilarious things happened ever since).

 

Of course my dogs see my lying on the ground and go "Hey! That looks like fun!" and they both jumped o top of me, tails wagging away. I realised I had whiplash when I got a pounding headache an hour or so alter and lost the ability to turn my head. I took some painkillers and headed off to the zoo benefit at the theatre, where by interval the room was spinning alarmingly and so I snuck off early and went home to collapse.

 

So now I look like I'm being abused at home, I'm wearing long sleeves and scarves to hide the bruising and I still have a nasty headache. Al because I thought that my puppies would like to play!

Church people

So I went off to church on Easter Sunday as the good little priest's kid that I am. Admittedly I was exhausted, having sat up until late the night/morning before playing board games and watching DVDs before collapsing on a couch so I probably wasn't in the best mood.

Anyway i got there and the place was PACKED! We usually have 100 - 150 people in there and being Anglicans that avoid sitting anywhere near the front we manage to fit inside quite comfortably without having to make eye contact with any strangers.

So I found a spot at last and settled in, feeling a bit queasy from lack of air, but otherwise OK, and then I looked up to see that a really old couple with walking sticks had arrived and there was nowhere for them to sit. Everyone who noticed them either stared straight ahead, or focused on the pew leaflet or something, in the understanding that until you make eye contact it is not your problem and someone else would help them. I got up and gave them my place, much to the chagrin of the person next to me who had to (shock! horror!) move up a little bit and after much hunting I found another seat.

Ten minutes later the same thing happened and everyone ignored the new old people AGAIN! After about 15 minutes into the service I was feeling really sick from the church being super-stuffy and i found that I was far more comfortable sitting on the floor in the corner behind the bell tower and so I spent half the service there before the sides-man decided that it looked bad and was actually very kind and brought me a stool to sit on.

It really bothers me that people go to church and get all dressed up and the whole shebang, and they sit with their prayer books and hymnals and sing loudly about how awesome God is and how we must love everyone, and then they treat the people in their midst like that. It would have taken five seconds for a row of people to shift closer together and make a space for a newcomer, but heaven forbid we sit next to a stranger!

More monkeys and sunshine than I can handle in one weekend

So I decided to spend a few hours at the zoo on Friday and ended up spending most of my day there. It started when I went in to feed the monkeys and my friend the zookeeper gave me a bag and a broom and told me to change their straw. it was disgusting, and particularly difficult to do with monkeys hanging of me and launching themselves onto my back. It was particularly tricky when Thandi realised that she got quite the reaction from me if she started poking at my butt every time I bent over.


It was quite special because Oliver, the spider monkey has been very standoffish lately, to the point where he'll play with one or two people but he's pretty much avoiding contact. Anyway by the end of it I had Thandi jumping up and down on my shoulders and launching into my arms or onto the nice springy bag of straw, Oliver holding on to me and ignoring her, and the floor was all shiny and clean!

From there I helped with random things around the zoo, notably moving a few lizards to different tanks, which involved carrying extremely heavy tanks filled with sand between displays, catching lizards inside the tanks and then setting up new tanks with two lizards in each hand. It was awesome!

The next day I organised to go in early and help, in exchange for letting my uncle visit a few animals. He's blind, and so it's really fantastic for him to be able to touch different animals and learn about them, while 'seeing' their different characteristics. It's also a great excuse or me to be able to go and play with some of the animals I don't get to see very often. The best part (besides watching my aunt's face when the Mona monkey peed on her shoe) was going into one of the lemur enclosures and paying with a hand-reared lemur. He's adorable and fluffy and so so cute and we had the added bonus of the general public on the other side of the bars looking very jealous!

The bad part was that as I was helping with the new baby spider monkey and the Mona monkey, I ended up changing nappies and the little spider decided to pee all over my lap when I changed her. I hosed myself down and used some hand soap so it was all off, but I had a rather embarrassingly situated wet patch. I forgot about it until we came out of the lemur enclosure and were confronted with half my third-year students coming to say Hi!

and after all that I was completely exhausted, went to a games evening were Luke was house-sitting and was so tired I managed to end up on the wrong third avenue! Whoever decided to put two roads with the same name within 5 km of each other was a moron!

Life After Facebook

So I've been considering deleting my facebook account for a while now. It was fun for a bit, but right now its just annoying. For one thing it's blocked at university until 5pm, by which point I'm either busy working on something, or trying to get to work so that my day wasn't wasted. I also have absolutely no interest in half the stupid applications which I get invited to on a daily basis. I usually add them just to stop the notifications. And with the grand unveiling of the "new Facebook" I found myself losing interest completely.

So anyway my birthday in in a couple of days and usually I would set up an event on facebook and we'd go from there. This often lead to me invite people I never would have thought to invite if I hadn't seen their names on the list, and that usually led to very entertaining evenings with people I don't see often enough!

But this year I couldn't bring myself to log on, so instead I sent an email out to a bunch of people and sent sms messages to some others and the response has been underwhelming... I guess I left it a bit late, but it seems like people check facebook more often than their email!

Just quickly

So Bullet for my Valentine and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus pulled out of Cokefest. I'm a bit annoyed, particularly because apparently Red Jumpsuit Apparatus pulled out because they've got 'recording commitments' or something. I'm pretty sure recording studios need to be booked and so you'd know long before the people in South Africa had advertised (they released the lineup ridiculously late). Plane tickets and accommodation and everything are booked. Two years ago Guns and Roses did the same thing. Apparently Bullet for my Valentine were scared to perform without a manager holding their little bitty hands.

It really bothers me, not so much because I'm a major fan - to tell the truth I was planing on going to keep a friend company, but I was hoping that it would make the crowd a bit older - the joy of Snow Patrol being one of the main features is that the place will be packed with 15-year olds.

In the meantime as it's a public holiday tomorrow we've decided to have Donut Thursday instead of Donut Friday and then I have to run off and lecture the first-years and then tutor third-years.

It looks like so much fun!

I was watching a music video that has a huge fight scene between two people (totally over-acting and so not as horrible as it could be) and I just though that it could be really hard to act it out. I mean how on earth do you keep a straight face while pretending to throttle someone?

The blinding blinding pain!

So I went off to the gym last night, to find that the bodybuilder and the creepy little guy - while still regular fixtures over the last few months - weren't there. instead I ran into a bunch of my students. It was very awkward. so I ran off to the bike that I always use and settled down to do some serious cycling, and I nearl did 30 km! i was so proud! And now I can't climb stairs without considerable pain. I've had worse though, so I guess all in all it's not that bad!

I've also decided to stop the banging-head-against wall reaction (no, not literally) that i've had towards several people lately. I guess it's harder to move on for some relationships than others, particularly when the people in question have been around for a long time. A long time ago when a friend of mine 'unfriended' me by sms I was terribly upset until I realised that while I was a bad friend to her, I also hated being around her because she made me feel incredibly guilty all the time. There are people in my life at the moment who berate and criticise and basically make me feel like I'm substandard, and its just not good.

So while I listened to some loud music (just because I listen to goth music when I exercise does NOT make me a goth!) and ignored the cramping in my legs, I decided that it has to be more than me deciding that it doesn't bother me. I have to make a more active decisiona nd stop getting myself into situations that make me feel like I'm not worthwhile.

Some people go to the gym to spend time with friends, others for the endorphin rush, or to remove the guit of eating that extra donut. I go there to figure out my life. Therapy? Give me a bike and an imaginary road stretching off into infinity!

So just when I thought I was making progress...

So after all the girly discussions we've been having in the lab, me painting my toenails a scary lumo-pink (which I love, but that's besides the point) and even choosing clothes that had been ironed a few times a week (rather than the usual rolling out of bed and checking to see wat's the least crumpled) it appears that the world still sees me as being male.

During lunch today I got my bag out to get money to give to someone so that they could bring me caffeine (why you can't buy a caffeine IV is still beyond me) I found my insanely bright orange nail poilish that I thought I'd lost. So I got all excited and painted my nails. A few minutes into it Luke walked past, did a double take, blinked a few times and said "Am I seeing things?"

aaaaargh!

All growed up

So Luke lectured for the first time today, it was very different for me to be on the observing side rather than last time when I had to jump in with both feet and teaach room full of second-years. He had a tough time, the class was packed - well over a hundred students, the acoustics in the room are awful so he had to really work at projecting, and the girls sitting behind me are already planning their stalking campaign.

Despite all of that he did a totally amazing job! I was so stunned to see him transforming from the quirky and enthusiastic student to an authority figure. The kids listened, the called him "Sir" and they wrote furiously. I think if you were to tell them that he was only a few years older than most of them they wouldn't believe you.

It was really amazing to watch!

So we're all growing up, and it's very very scary!

And I refuse to accept that I'm nearly 24 until it happens thank you very much!

Fridays are never predictable

So every Friday morning we have coffee and donuts together. This morning was no exception and we were joined by the IT guy, who is actually quite cool. He also cleaned out my laptop with a high-pressure air thingie and washed my screen (with soap!) and we had a chat which was quite enlightening and thought provoking.

I was also slapped on the butt by a cleaning lady/man (I'm not sure), had some awesome moments of people watching, was tickled and chased by said tickler into the men's room, listened to some strangely uplifting morbid music and had a good giggle about some people's reactions to the lyrics.

Luke has discovered failblog, so we lost a good while to giggling over the silly things that people do/say/wear/film. the nun who works next door dragged me aside under the pretenses of my being in trouble, when she just wanted gift-giving advice. The vet from the zoo hugged me, which freaked me out totally, and the new vet student is being pursued by almost all the girls who work at the zoo which is very entertaining to watch.

We also discussed chemical peels, cellulite massages, that mineral blasting thing, the pros and cons of sunblock... poor Luke! Although he starts it as often as not...

I had way too much coffee today, and nothing makes much sense, so I'm going to stop now.

Super-substitute! (Not really super but super enough)

So I woke up this morning feeling fantastic (possibly helped by a rather large mug of coffee). I just knew that it would be a great day. I got up, got ready and left to go to the lab, and proceeded to get stuck behind every slow moving car in the southern hemisphere. no problem, I'd found another old cassette tape that for some reason has the soundtrack to My Fair Lady, so I was quite happily driving along, enjoying the sunshine and singing along (windows closed of course, nothing like a funny look from a biker to throw off a perfectly good morning!).

Anyway I was a few blocks away when my phone rang, and on the ther end was one of the higher-ups at the zoo, in tears because the zoo staff decided to go on strike today and there was nobody to feed the animals. I went through immediately and was left alone pretty much taking care of all the lizards.

Despite a slightly close encounter with a cranky sungazer it all went well and I was moving from one area to another when I heard the strikers approaching, vuvuzelas blaring (WHY they must scare the animals is beyond me, why not just march around management's cars in the parking lot?) And I (very heroically of course) turned and ran back inside.

fortunately one of the institutions that works out of the zoo was running a tour and I'm quite well acquainted with the tourguide and so I gave them an impromptu lecture on the various lizards and lizards in general, and was able to keep them occupied until the danger ahd passed and I could go and climb the fences into the tortoise enclosures to feed them.

For the record, the tortoises were starving and rushed to the food, and it was the cutest thing ever! After that I joined the others and got covered in baboon poo while a friend of mine was nearly attacked by said baboonand I learned the skill of cleaning a water dish through the bars of a cage by skillfully manoevring a hose pipe (although that last orange peel will be in there for all eternity).

Once we'd finished there we went to start on the next section to find that the strike was over and the real zoo staff were back at work. So we went for lunch. And then I saw Thandi, the baby mandril and played witha meerkat and did all the usual stuff I do at the zoo, before going shopping! Where I discovered that, while MAC has some awesome stuff, the staff have no idea how to use it and I ended up feeling like I'd spent half an hour in a room full of... ladies of the night?

So I didn't actually make it to uiversity today, but I had a totally awesome day. And I'm so glad I wore sunblock! Although closed shoes would have been advisable!

I should research this!

So someting happeed last week in that I did bundles of landry and nothing came out the other end... To be honest, my participation ended at putthing clothes in the washing machine and hitting the start button. I'm very good at doing laundry strategically when I'm either about to go out or just before Gertrude, the super-awesome maid arrives (she hides things and tends to put clean cothes in the wash while folding up dirty clothes back in my cupboard, but she's totally awesome! plus she spends two days a week at my hous so I don't have to worry about my dogs being lonely. I think in a life or death situation Max would totally rescue her first!)

So anyway for the last few days I've been battling to find anything to wear. Finally in frustraton I went through my cupboards last night to discover that it is a lot neater than usual bcasue half my stuf fis gone. More specifically the pants that went into the wash have not re-emerged. I ended up wering a skirt yesterday (horrors), going to gym in my pyjamas (ok, that's normal) and now I'm walking around in cargo pants I found in the back of the cupboard that I haven't worn since high school. They not too bad except they have a million pockets and I keep losing things and then i have to hunt through all of the pockets and zip-compartments and velcroed sub-pockets within pockets until I forget what i was looking for in the first place.

I hope that my clothes do their usual trick of being missing for a week or so and then reappearing just in time for me to avoid going to university in my swimming costume, fluffy slippers and a bathrobe out of desperation. but the fact remains: where the heck do these things go? I don't mind occasionally losing a sock or a shoelace or a glove, but all my jeans and about 3 pairs of gym pants in one fell swoop? That's one hungry washing machine!

Any ideas on where they might be? Has anyone else had an experience like this before? It makes me feel kind of violated and alone...

Girls who like boys who like...

I am going to stop talking about life in the lab or a bit, mainly because the girl who tried very hard to wreck the equipment is now being more annoying than ever and I really have no desire to rehash the lecture I just gave her via email.

anyway last night we were chatting to the IT guy about GHD straighteners, and he freaked out at the level of girliness and ran off, and so I was chatting to my labmate, and it became apparent that she had never even seen a hair straightener, does not own a hairdryer and only uses conditioner when the mood hits.

And as much as I tend to climb trees, get covered in dirt and get bitten or crapped on by various animals regularly, I freaked! Life without heat-styling? A day without conditioner? Even if you listen to Oprah and only use shampoo twice a week, you HAVE to condition!

Anyway the IT guy is going overseas and might be able to pick up a GHD for me. I have the good old Toni & Guy which I'm totally fond of, but I'm torn between saving up for a new camera lens, or grabbing the opportunity for the world's most awesome straightener...

Thoughts?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The cheesy title is an attempt on my part to get a boy-band song out of my head... I found these old mix-tapes I made off the radio when I was about 13 and I was listening to one in my car - never ever ever again! I've had this cheesy song in my head since about Friday...

So anyway A few months ago (I think it was around November last year) my supervisor asked if I was going to be using a certain piece of lab equipment soon - there was a colleague who ad a visiting student and blah blah blah and basically it would be lent to another lab until February.

When I got back from fieldwork we sat down and worked out a lab protocol for working with the data from said piece of equipment (he typed, I dictated and later I added in pictures and screenshots with arrows and stuff) and we sent it off to said visiting researcher.

Said researcher freaked out as it turned out there was a box she was supposed to click and she hadn't clicked it and so all her readings were saved in the wrong format. My supervisor made sympathetic noises and forwarded me her email saying "can we help?" and I sent back some suggestions which she seemed to ignore or maybe didn't receive or something.

So a few weeks ago I got an email from this person asking me to take a bunch of reference readings so that she could test whether or not the conversion she tried is actually working or not. I agreed as it's stuff I do often and I can take measurements in my sleep and so I went upstairs to get the stuff out of its case to find that she'd totally dismantled the wires to connect the machine to its power supply. I freaked out, supervisor promised to get it fixed and I sent said visiting researcher a mildly strained email saying that as she had screwed up the power supply she was going to have to wait. She agreed somewhat grudgingly.

So anyway today I was in the lab when my supervisor appeared with the repaired equipment and I figured I'd take the measurements quickly because it has been bugging me for a few weeks now and I would really like to have it done, so I took it all out to find: she'd messed up the sandpaper (which is very important as we use it to clean off surfaces), she'd tangled the wires horribly, adjusted the probe so I couldn't use it without doing some readjustment with pliers and she's totally destroyed a reference sample. These things cost about R2000 each (fortunately I had had the R5000 one with me so she didn't have a chance to destroy it) and it looked like she'd dunked it in water, dropped it, used it as an ashtray... I don't even know, but I've never seen any piece of equipment treated so badly. If I was to guess what happened it would be that she left it in its case in a pocket and washed her clothes.

Te fact that it happens doesn't bother me, stuff goes wrong, if I had R10 for every time my flash-drive has gone through the washing machine, or I've found damp money in my pockets... well lets just say I wouldn't need to study! The fact is, after changing the electronics without asking first, she damaged a really expensive piece of equipment and then calmly packed it back in the box and returned it as if nothing had happened!

I mean seriously, my degree is based off readings from a piece of equipment just like that and I have been known to sleep with it under my bed when we had visiting students in case anything went wrong, and I have every right to use it. So now I've been mean and nasty and laid down the law - nobody else touches that thing until I graduate, then they can drop it in seawater for all I care!