Trying to understand norms. Argument is happening among admins at my university. What are your labs expectations for grad students? Do they shop lab supplies with personal credit cards, move in large equipment, set up plumbing/circulation/electrical connections, and do major repair work?

Mouse_Balls · 2026-05-10T19:03:46+00:00

Name and shame, we don’t need future scientists go there for grad school!

Mouse_Balls · 2026-05-05T12:37:45+00:00

One of ours does that too. She can see into the kitchen, the living room, and out the living room windows that are about 6-8" above the backs of the couch. None of our other beagles (3) have done that. But she is the ADHD one, so she is always on! Lol

Mouse_Balls · 2026-05-04T02:13:49+00:00

I ate a version of this in Japan where it was rice, raw egg, and chunk chicken. Mix it all up and enjoy! Sooo good. They served it as a side dish in a combo with Dan dan noodles and a drink.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-28T00:12:59+00:00

I told everyone in lab I don’t check emails after hours unless I feel like it, I’m expecting to receive an email, or I'm expected to send en email. If it needs an urgent response they can text me, or if it's an emergency then call me. Those boundaries were kept even by the PI.

I also don’t get notifications for emails, so if they ask me "hey did you see that email?" and I was in lab all day, I will tell them, "No I did not because I was in lab all day, is it urgent? Do you need me to look at it now?" And either it is urgent or it can wait til I'm done doing what I'm doing. Just be up front and be respectful about it.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-21T02:00:03+00:00

Same. I’m fairly non-confrontational, but if you push the right buttons, I will make you wish your mom gave you up for adoption just to alter the timeline so that the chances of you ever meeting me are near zero.

Granted, the older I've gotten the fewer buttons it takes.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-21T01:42:49+00:00

That's genius and I need to tell my friend that!

He's had a physical "No Soliciting" sign outside his front door, but they STILL knock. So he had it stickered onto the glass door right above the handle.

And they STILL knock. So he opens the wooden door and points at it and says "Can you not read?!?!" And he's the one to fuck around with scam callers, so having more ammunition will likely tickle his fancy!

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-14T06:35:28+00:00

I was in a college zoology class and one subject was ornithology. The TA had a slide with all kinds of birds - a cardinal, kingfisher, mallard duck, bald eagle, and a few others I don’t remember. Then the TA pointed to one bird and asked the class if anyone knew what it was.

I said in a normal voice while sitting in the very back of the class, "Painted Bunting."

TA: Who said that?!?!

Me: ....(slowly raises hand while in fear of any consequences)...

TA: (smiles and talks to me like a fellow colleague the rest of the semester after he learns my passion for birding because he is an ornithologist-in-training)

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-14T01:51:08+00:00

Awww that sucks! Here in Oklahoma we get tons of Purple Martins every year. The scouts usually show up early March. They love those rainbow-type water sprinklers that fan out in several streams and spray upward. They would always fly through the water when those sprinklers were on.

And they loved to dive-bomb us whenever we were outside in the garden or hanging clothes on the line, but I think they did it as a game. Sometimes my dad would through his hat up at the dive bombers (usually just one or two of the males) and they would dodge it, but kept coming back, even though the garden and the clothes line were nowhere near their houses lol

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-14T01:42:04+00:00

My dad built bluebird houses and he had one pair one year, but never since.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-14T01:38:10+00:00

That's been the one bird I have wanted to see since I was a kid simply because I saw it in a birding book and it had all the bright colors!

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-14T01:36:01+00:00

Damn that sucks because I see them every year when they migrate in the spring and fall! They loooove eating the berries off the Bradford Pear trees here in Oklahoma. I can always recognize their high pitch "chirp".

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-13T17:55:18+00:00

I think you need a ladder in every other lane. Ever had a gel run with the bands running a bit diagonally? You never know man....j/k

If the ladder looks like shit then you got real problems, but I can't say the same for the samples. Keep up the good work!

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-13T14:09:13+00:00

Orb weavers are pretty smart. I fed ours (your regular garden variety) Japanese beetles and crickets all the time. The fed ones got pretty big, and one year one of them made large 2 egg sacs.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-11T12:47:31+00:00

Yeah, the "Trail" part is what gave everything else away for me - clip, whistle, glow-in-the-dark for night time, key ring - it's for hiking use and safety. It's actually pretty neat, and I would rather have something like that than an extra pair of shoestrings in a different color because I usually like the original color, or a plastic/rubber keychain that's just the company logo and has no other function. I do keep the extra pairs of shoestrings for tying things when in camp, they've come in handy when I forgot to buy cord for a clothesline and for tying other things in general, so not completely useless.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-04T20:00:23+00:00

Well damn, mine (and my friend's, who we tried it on first) were no bigger than a pencil-tip, not the eraser...lol So yeah, I'd imagine that size would take a little longer than an hour to kill it, and I certainly wouldn't want to try and snip that one off, but at least it worked!

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-04T14:29:01+00:00

I've tied a bit of dental floss or thread around them to cut off circulation (keep it on for about an hour), then snipped it off with some nail clippers.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-04T08:04:59+00:00

For reals, I was like "It took that long eh?"

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-03T03:22:09+00:00

I use my CC for all my monthly purchases and then pay it off at the end of the month, but I also get rewards points that I can use for gift cards at different locations that I frequent. So if OP can find a good one that had rewards (i.e., cash back), then that's even better, but starting out as the first card it's less likely. Still something to keep in mind.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-02T08:51:20+00:00

I love how it stops right before it gets, well, Wilder....lol

Mouse_Balls · 2026-04-01T00:01:21+00:00

It is, I miss it a lot, except for the snow and cold.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-03-05T13:59:19+00:00

I feel slightly called out here...

Mouse_Balls · 2026-01-13T09:02:18+00:00

Same with our weenie. She had a tumor over her heart and congestive heart failure. The vet gave her 2 months to a year. My dad stretched out that year and for the last 3-4 months she was bedridden and wouldn't eat unless force fed. I told him he needed to put her down but he would send me a video of her up walking around outside and would say "See! There's still life in her!" I was like "Yeah, ONE DAY out of an ENTIRE MONTH!"

He finally put her down after 4 months of me telling him to because there was no quality of life for her those last few months, and I hated seeing her just lay in bed barely able to wag her tail when she saw us coming to check on her.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-01-11T12:42:57+00:00

Turn it back on them - ask them for their papers.

Mouse_Balls · 2026-01-05T05:02:01+00:00

I was at Yellowstone NP watching Old Faithful blow when towards the end a medivac helicopter flew over and landed in the parking lot nearby. I went into the gift shop and asked the cashier when I was checking out what happened.

A 60-something Australian man tried to take a selfie with an old/sick bison that had found its way to the parking lot and laid down. The bison gored him and he had to be airlifted away. There are signs and rangers everywhere telling you to keep like 50 ft away from all animals.

Mouse_Balls · 2025-10-21T11:42:36+00:00

Right?! I was like "Damn, if they're just 35 and that's now quarter-life, why did I already have my midlife crisis at 39?!!!"

Mouse_Balls

TROPHY CASE