...and my wine had gone sour

today was shitty in pretty much every way possible, except for maybe dying or killing small children accidentally.

this morning, a classmate and i had to give a presentation in biophysics. i thought we were friends and all, and we frequently talk about her discomfort and nervousness in presenting and i try to assure her about her smarts. we put together our ppt slides yesterday, and i was a little dismayed to find no titles, graphics, or anything short of misaligned text on hers. no matter; to each his own. then she said she was animating hers and has "extensive experience in powerpoint" and that she recommended doing this. i explained that i don't work well presenting that way, and when i listen to a presentation in that style, i can't pay attention; so i prefer to do it the old school (read: business world) way. she seemed cool and we agreed to leave our slides as how we each made them. so imagine my surprise this morning when, 5 minutes prior to our presentation, she mentioned that she animated all my slides too, to "avoid all that cluttered text on there." unfortunately, this did little to avoid the number of times it took me 10 arrow clicks or more to go back a single slide time and time again as people asked questions and requested that we go back to the previous figure. all it did was throw me off my game and scratch another would-be ally off my list. it's the principle that counts; i had refrained from saying that only douchebags animate their powerpoint and nobody with any professional experience actually rolls this way, but you can see how well my restraint was repaid.

backstabbing: still alive and well.

then i met with my postdoc to do some experiments. the tech who takes care of the T cells had vanished, so we had no cells. the one who makes the peptides had left, so we had no peptide. we pieced together alternatives and went ahead. then the cell irradiator broke for the first time since, well, it was purchased in 1962. with our sample stuck inside.

bad karma: still alive and well.

then i drove home hoping to make it to that well-deserved and much anticipated glass of red wine as fast as possible. a jeep cut me off going 20 mph slower than i was, so a quick left turn signal to ask "please do move over at your earliest convenience so i may proceed" turned into a 10-mile ordeal of him tailgating, brights flashing behind me, attempted passes on the shoulder, pulling even to presumably gesture or aim a gun at my head (who knows, i never look), and being followed on my own exit home. it took me 6 or 7 solid tries to ditch this guy, including slowing to 2 mph on a 45 mph ramp and having to thread myself into some tight traffic to prevent him getting behind me. i had to get back on the highway and go through town, prolonging my commute by 15 min.

middle finger as a potent driving tool: still alive and well.

i'm done with this day.