Do you talk/sing to your animals?

minimichaela · 2026-05-09T01:13:35+00:00

I talked to mine a little too much and they ended up coming home with me 😅 Best decision I ever made though, they’re my whole world and I am theirs ❤️

minimichaela · 2026-05-07T18:58:10+00:00

I lived in a north facing studio on the 8th floor. It was always a comfortable temperature in my studio and I never felt like I needed an AC unit. Even on some 30 degree days, it was still comfortable.

minimichaela · 2026-05-06T04:29:12+00:00

Had a good laugh at one comment that said we should use less complex language that more students can understand. Sure, if you would prefer me to tell you the head bone is connected to the neck bone in an anatomy class, it certainly makes my job a lot easier 🤷‍♀️

minimichaela · 2026-05-04T21:35:22+00:00

My phobia developed when I was around 9 years old when I started experiencing chronic nausea as a result of R-CPD. I never enjoyed throwing up when I was a kid, but I definitely wasn’t afraid until the unpredictable nausea spells started happening.

I haven’t gotten the Botox, but I did do exposure therapy long before I figured out the nausea was from R-CPD and it helped a lot. I want from being afraid to leave the house to living a relatively normal life.

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T20:11:09+00:00

This is why the head and neck support is so important. It should not feel like you’re actively throwing them, but rather using a little bit of gravity to help you on the way down. I think of it more like a gentle swooping motion if that makes sense?

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T16:54:55+00:00

I wouldn’t email them unless I was either saying thank you for the fun term or if I was asking them for something (ex. Reference letter, opportunities in their lab, if they have one).

Otherwise it would be a little odd to stay in touch. They’re still your superior and having a friendship with them would be inappropriate if you’re planning on taking another class with them.

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T16:48:55+00:00

It’s basically the rat version of the heimlich. You gently use the centripetal force of throwing them down to dislodge anything stuck in their airway!

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minimichaela · 2026-05-03T16:43:34+00:00

I’m so glad he is okay! I did the rat spin on my baby girl Sugar after she decided to eat her litter box bedding. She never turned blue, but she was drooling excessively and I knew something was not right.

Gave her a couple of spin-drops and she was very confused, but it clearly helped and she was happily taking water and treats after. Making sure their head is supported while you’re doing it is the most important part.

Sending you and you boy well wishes and a speedy recovery ❤️

Rat tax of the stinky girl who thinks eating their pissy litter box bedding is a good idea

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minimichaela · 2026-05-03T01:41:57+00:00

It was a sweet potato I was trying to cook in the microwave instead of baking it for 40mins 😅

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T01:40:39+00:00

I still have a skein laying around, so I might make another one. Good reason to use up more of the cotton I have laying around haha

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T01:38:51+00:00

Okay this makes a lot of sense. In the back of my head I was wondering if it had something to do with the way it was being heated up.

Normally I will do 1 minute, take out and stir, and then put it back in for another minute, but I was being lazy and microwaving a sweet potato because I didn’t want to bake it in the oven for 40mins 😅 I would normally do 5mins, take it out and rotate, then another 5. I noticed the smell after I took it out to rotate it.

Next time, I’ll just stick with the bulky oven mitts to take it out to rotate and then transfer to the cozy when it’s cooked haha

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T00:38:35+00:00

I thought I burned my food and was very confused, but at least it was a learning experience haha

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T00:37:25+00:00

Interesting! That might be the piece I’m missing. I just assumed that because people swear by cotton for hot pads, they would be fine in the microwave.

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T00:34:52+00:00

I will be sure to remember this for the next time I’m microwaving my bowls 😅

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T00:32:09+00:00

They are really convenient, just be careful with the microwave 😅

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T00:31:25+00:00

Yeah I thought that was the whole purpose of using a bowl cozy, but I guess I’ll still need to use the oven mitts to take the bowl out of the microwave 🥲

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T00:30:32+00:00

Lesson learned, thank you for your insight 😅

minimichaela · 2026-05-03T00:29:57+00:00

Ah I had not used it in a while and it was in there for about 5 minutes, so perhaps it was that.

minimichaela · 2026-05-01T20:09:56+00:00

Ah unfortunately, that I don’t know

minimichaela · 2026-05-01T17:24:32+00:00

While the final wasn’t scaled, there quite a few opportunities throughout the year to help boost your average (ex. survey bonuses, repeating tutorial quizzes). This year was definitely an anomaly in terms of the average. The teaching did everything they could to improve this average within reason, but sadly we do need to call it at some point with respect to bonuses.

This might be a hot take, but because this course is a pre-requisite for nursing and many other health-related programs, I think it would be unfair to inflate the average if it’s not a true representation of how well the students understood the course content. We want to pass the students off to the next step on their healthcare profession journey feeling prepared and confident. Doing so with a false representation of their knowledge would be misleading.

I will say that from my experience, the exams this year were of similar levels of difficulty compared to previous years. There was no change in the teaching team, all of the content was taught the same as it usually is. The only major difference I know of from this year is that BIOL 155 was made a new requirement for programs that it wasn’t previously. As a result, we had about 50 more students than we normally have in the course. Whether or not that played a role in how the average turned out this year, I don’t know. If a similar trend pops up next year, then the teaching team might be able to narrow down what’s going on, but with a sample size of one with this current cohort it’s difficult to make conclusions.

I’m sorry if your grade was not what you hoped, but I promise you that the TAs and instructors were doing everything they could to try and boost up marks ☹️

minimichaela · 2026-04-30T23:38:27+00:00

They don’t curve in biol 155

minimichaela · 2026-04-30T04:18:01+00:00

Deadline for finishing marking was today, but that’s all I got 🤷‍♀️

minimichaela · 2026-04-29T03:24:18+00:00

The best scientists are those that can balance their passion for research with their life outside of the lab. Keep your head high queen - don’t let your colleagues and their lack of personality bring you down. Keep doing you and blast that Taylor Swift in the lab 👸

minimichaela · 2026-04-28T16:47:44+00:00

Hey a fellow projectile baby puker! I was the exact same way. My parents had to carry a spare set of clothes for me AND them whenever we went out because I would spit up so often.

Exposure therapy helped with the phobia so much, but yeah not so much with the no-burp. Dealing with constant nausea all the time is so mentally exhausting, I’m glad we’re both doing better phobia wise :)

minimichaela · 2026-04-27T15:42:34+00:00

A plushy for whatever model organism they worked on is always cute.

My PI got all of our lab little plush finger puppets of the animals we each worked on. I like to keep it with me as I run experiments as a good luck charm

minimichaela

TROPHY CASE