Milo protocol!

Warning:This post will seem hilarious only if you have experienced lab work, and have undergone the various safety briefings!!

I'm currently interning at A-Star IBN (Insitute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology) at Biopolis. Today, a couple of my friends at IBN and me went to the pantry on our floor to make milo. Each floor has a pantry and each pantry has a bottle of coffee powder, milo, tea bags, creamer and sugar, and a small box of biscuits/cookies. We wanted to make the milo and freeze it, and have it later when it became a little solidified. I had tried it before and it tasted really good, so I decided to make it again, for all of us. But there was a small problem. The first time I had tried it was in my first week of internship. Today, after 4 weeks at IBN, this is what was in my mind when I made the milo..

1. Wear your lab coat and gloves. Spray your gloves with 70% ethanol to keep it germ-free.
2. Spray the table with ethanol and wipe it with tissue.
3. Take 4 fresh autoclaved cups from the stack of cups covered by plastic, don't take it from anywhere else! And don't forget to label your cups.
4. Add 25g of milo reagent to each cup.
5. Add 10g of creamer to each cup, but make sure you don't touch the spoon to the milo reagent that's already inside the cup. If you do, use a new spoon.
6. Add 10g of sucrose reagent to each cup if you want to drink hot milo. If not, add 14g, because in conditions below zero degrees, the sucrose is less effective. Make sure you don't touch the spoon around, if not use new ones.
7. From the water boiler, add MilliQ water to each cup.
8. Since u have added the same reagent to each cup, u can use the same spatula for all the cups. Vortex. Clean the spatula with the delicate 'KimWipes' and place it back.
9. Clean your work area with ethanol.
10. Spray your gloves with ethanol and also the door handle of the freezer.
11. Put the milo cups inside. Make sure that the pantry door is closed when you open the freezer door.
12. After you finish drinking the milo, please dispose off the cups in the 'general waste' bin and the gloves in the 'biohazard' bin.

One month of work and this is how I think about non-lab activities!!
And I still have 5 weeks to go..

Status messages.. on your phone?

If you check my inbox/outbox during term time, most of the messages would be.. "Wru?".. "Give me another ten mins, I'll see you at your residence then.." and most importantly.. "Lunch?".."Dinner?".. Haha.. And especially if ten of you are going out for dinner from one place, like pgp, and you decide to meet at one place at a particular time, you have to message and ask each one why they aren't there yet. Lots of people may end up messaging one person, and on the other hand, someone may be left out! Haha.. haven't we experienced this before?

Given such scenarios, wouldn't it be really wonderful if we could have status messages on our phones just like we have on facebook? You can choose to display your message to one, a few, or your entire contact list if you want. And you can check the latest messages on the "Status updates" section, just like facebook. [Have I been facebooking too much? :)]

Then, in the given example of going out as a gang, you could set your status message to just those ten people as "CS is ready and is waiting at the foyer".. lol.. and if someone is late, they could write "X is almost done, will be there in 5 mins..".. Or if you decide to meet at the back gate instead of the foyer, just display it! :P It seems weird, but it is a great idea! Sometimes everyone is busy and you don't have company for lunch, you could just check your phone and see if someone you know is lunching somwhere and you could join them! But what if that person doesn't wanna have lunch with you? Well, in that case, that person would have selected you to be able to see his/her status message! Even during exam time, if you are studying in the library and you want a break, and you don't know who else is studying in the library [given that it is so huge!], you could easily set your status asking your friends if they are in the library and if they wanna go for a walk! Or if you're going to mustafa, you can tell a select few of your friends and ask them if they want anything!

Enough examples, you get the drift! I don't know if it's stupid, but it's just something I think about in certain situations.. and how helpful it would be.. This reminds me of the !dea tag line.. An idea can change your life!

Early morning blues!

*Beep beep* *Beep beep*

Aah, there goes the alarm.. It's morning already?

But I'm sooo sleepy.. I wish I could sleep a little more..

Snooze..

10 mins later.. *Beep beep* *Beep beep*

10 mins up already? :O I don't believe it..I just snoozed it..
Just 10 mins more.. I don't need to wash my hair today so I can sleep a little more..
[This happens only on alternate days, since Confused soul washes her hair every second day these days, thanks to the weather.]

Snooze again..

10 mins later.. *Beep beep* *Beep beep*

Okay if I don't get up now, I won't have enough time for breakfast and I'll miss the shuttle bus, and I don't wanna be late for my internship..

The alarm is finally switched off completely and Confused Soul sits up on her bed for a while..and then gets out of bed to get ready..