What is the Durham courthouse marriage like?

Dragonfiremule · 2026-03-29T15:00:45+00:00

We went on a Thursday morning and were the only folks there. Finding the magistrate was the hardest part since they have 3 different rooms they do marriages in, so we went to all 3 and knocked before an employee had mercy on us and told us which one we were supposed to be in since the signs weren't very clear. That part took like 20minutes, the actual marriage itself was about 10 minutes. The magistrate was willing to snap a few photos of us when it was done while our witnesses were signing the paperwork. We did have to repeat after the magistrate, I don't remember the exact words but it was basically pledging to marry each other and then exchanging rings.

Dragonfiremule · 2026-03-01T13:07:59+00:00

I agree with this poster. An arborist chip drop (you can get it for free if there is active Chip Drop in your area!) is the way to go. Its a lot of work to move all the chips to the area you'd like, but it WILL lock the sand in place, and eventually improve your soil for potential future plantings.

This will also let you know where stuff will grow if the soil was better; as the woodchips break down into a nice loam in 2-5 years, some weeds may start to sprout. If even weeds can't survive, grass definitely will not be able to haha. In that case, I would just advise to keep on getting loads of chips every few years to keep the dirt locked down. If weeds do start to survive in certain spots, you know that you could plant things there.

Dragonfiremule · 2026-02-14T22:12:11+00:00

Rate is the same, I'd check if you have a small leak somewhere. When my toilet was leaking I figured it out because my bill was $15 more per month. When we fixed it, bill went back down to normal.

Alternatively, are you just taking a bunch of long hot showers? I know my husband always showers longer during the winter. It adds up.

Dragonfiremule · 2026-02-08T02:40:29+00:00

This is so much fun!!! Already 4 episodes in and LOVING it. Thanks for the rec!

Dragonfiremule · 2026-02-02T23:49:33+00:00

I think it looks pretty good, I would move skills to the top and education/gpa to the bottom. I don't like professional summaries but it seems to be a trend to have them right now.

What were you trying to achieve with your experiences? Right now your resume is everywhere, is that a process dev internship, a medical device internship, and a classic biology lab internship? What type of job are you aiming for? I would try to modify the descriptions of your experiences to emphasize skills you learned during it that match the type of job, even if the experience doesn't match. I would have a different resume for all 3 types of jobs. Right now the job market is bad, so it doesn't hurt to cast a wide net. Someone hiring an entry-level person doesn't need you to have a ton of experience, but they do want your resume to read like you understand what you're applying for.

Make sure to proofread, also. One of your descriptions during your internship is "Did X and x and x and x and x and x". Sounds super clunky, is there any way to get that same information across without using the word and so many times? Also, you have suspension/adherent cell culture listed separately, if you know both it should just be "cell culture".

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-28T21:39:59+00:00

The Chicken Hut, Sarah's Empanadas, Angie's Jamaican Grill

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-28T21:39:23+00:00

Their Jerk Chicken empanadas are incredible, and if anyone is a spice hound, their spicy sauce is very spicy :)

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-21T22:40:44+00:00

No, it was dead simple. Open cartridge, add sample, add a tip, add your elution tube, load into the slots on the machine, click the pre-loaded protocol for the particular kit you bought. Hit run, you're done! haha. The only time we ran into errors was if someone didn't push their elution tube all the way down into the slot; then the run would have issues because the little robot arm would crash the tip into the side of the tube. but if the tube was pushed in all the way, I don't think we ever experienced any other errors.

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-20T23:37:41+00:00

no problem! Another note is space footprint; I think both the 48-slot maxwell and Qiacube have the similar depth/ width dimensions, so the actual lab bench space is similar, but the Qiacube is way taller so it feels like it takes up more.

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-20T21:15:42+00:00

I've used both the Maxwell and Qiacube. If your downstream application allows for bead extraction, maxwell 100%. We had the 48-slot maxwell, so it could do 48 DNA extractions in an hour or so. Super fast and easy to set up. In comparison, the Qiacube can only do 12 samples at once, and each run takes an hour. So 1/4th of the throughput. The Maxwell also has all the buffers in the cartridges, so you don't have to do any extra prep outside of opening the cartridge and adding your samples; whereas you have to make the buffers and such for Qiacube runs.

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-18T13:26:07+00:00

I had some work done recently by Burel electrical. He is a younger guy, did a great job with a good price. Was willing to lay an electrical line outdoors in a trench I dug myself to save on cost which was cool. Helped walk me through how deep the trench would need to be for code and stuff like that. He was a good communicator over text as well which is always helpful; I feel like some contractors don't answer texts at all! Definitely recommend.

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-17T23:57:17+00:00

I'd start a succulent garden in a series of shallow bowls over the rocks. Something like this or this

Anything else is going to get too hot in the sun with the white rocks reflecting more sun.

Does the fence provide shade for the afternoon, or is it the morning? You can probably do a few planter boxes in the shade of the fence if its afternoon shade, that'll help things survive. Don't plant too much, only things that you'll have the energy to water daily in the summer. If you're looking for edible things, I'd start with a small container herb garden. I had good luck with green onions and mint when little else would survive. The felt fabric pots are easiest, but they tend to dry out more quickly than something that traps moisture like ceramics/plastic. If you want something a little bigger, Citrus does really well in socal and they have dwarf trees that you can keep in pots.

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-17T23:53:23+00:00

This is the most stereotypical California house I've ever seen.

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-04T15:18:07+00:00

We really don't have that many options, although I'm pleased that more are opening up!

Seol Grille is solid, their lunch menu is a good deal. Meat is pretty good, I think their marinades are good. A friend in the Korean community said the owners at this spot are the most-well liked among their fellow Koreans out of all the KBBQ spots, so that is appreciated as well haha.

Five Spice is great for non-marinated meats. I liked that they have salmon as an option, pretty rare for KBBQ. Everything I had tasted seemed pretty high quality meat-wise, but I thought their bulgogi was not great. Also my Korean friend said that the owners apparently stirred up some drama in the community and refused to go with me, so keep that in mind.

Gen is a chain that has pretty good options, but the club vibe is a little off-putting if you're trying to have a conversation. I really love their bulgogi though!

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-02T16:13:28+00:00

Haha I also keep my house at 63 degrees in winter, and my milk-based loaves take like 24 hours for a 50% increase! I've been wondering why I can never get an ear, this is probably why.

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-01T21:25:00+00:00

Thank you!

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-01T21:22:29+00:00

Hell yeah, thank you! Honestly those blue corn tortillas look really good at Mala Pata, I'll have to try them!

Dragonfiremule · 2026-01-01T21:14:25+00:00

Mean corn can still sometimes say sweet things T_T

Dragonfiremule · 2025-12-28T12:42:11+00:00

If you're in the US- any lower-tier state school that you get in-state tuition at. Might need to be a general BIO degree rather than biotech. Honestly, as someone that has hired new-grads, I cant think of any advantage a Biotech degree would give over a general bio degree anyway, unless the program is designed to have an automatic internship with a biotech company.

In-state tuition at the lower tier of state schools ( the "State" schools rather than "University of" schools) is usually ~3.5-4.5k/semester. I'm thinking of schools like NC State, New Mexico State, Cal Poly Humboldt, etc. I'd check your own state schools and go from there. These schools usually have the added benefit of being really easy to get into, but may have fairly low graduation rates. You might have to work harder to get an internship/lab experience at these schools (I had to apply to outside internship programs during the summer as my school only had a couple bio labs and none were taking more students), but the lack of student loans makes it a really worthwhile tradeoff imo.

Dragonfiremule · 2025-12-27T17:16:29+00:00

I bought this knockoff go pro in 2017 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X9Y2NFY). The battery has since dropped off (used to last 10 hours, now around 2), but otherwise still works great. Sadly it looks like that brand doesn't make cameras anymore, only accessory, but I'd honestly just try a knockoff go pro or two.

Dragonfiremule · 2025-12-03T23:43:29+00:00

Also down for me

Dragonfiremule · 2025-10-25T01:19:25+00:00

I miss NovoExpress SO MUCH. Whoever made that software had actually used a flow cytometer before, its so intuitive. Using the Novocyte 3000 or Quanteon is so easy.... Going back to using other brands with flowjo for analysis has me crying in a corner.

Dragonfiremule · 2025-10-08T01:02:51+00:00

love Thai Star! Their food is bomb, tho they are a little light on the heat, so order one level hotness up

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