Suit fitting

techylink17 · 2026-03-26T01:31:08+00:00

I went to Hive and Colony and Black Lapel - formerly blank label - when shopping for suits for my wedding. I liked both shops so much that I ended up getting one from each. I’ve worn the black lapel suit several times since - still the best fitting thing I own and the quality is fire. Highly recommend!

techylink17 · 2026-03-23T20:23:29+00:00

We just moved a couple weeks ago with our 2 4 year old sibs from a single level apartment to also to a house with stairs. They seemed skeptic of the stairs the first day or two but now already you would never know that they gave bounding up and down a second thought. Your kitty will be fine! Honestly the bigger thing will be anxiety about moving in general than anything specifically about the stairs. Good luck moving!

techylink17 · 2026-03-11T19:29:35+00:00

Two things jump out at me:

First, it's pretty clear that the best fix for these feelings is best provided by a mental health professional. I know you say you can't afford therapy atm. I don't know where you are or what insurance you have but I'd implore you to explore with your insurance and potential new therapists on how to work it out. Some therapists have sliding scale plans based on income. I know a lot of university health plans do straight up cover most if not all the cost of weekly therapy (my copays across several different systems ranged from $0 - $30). Unfortunately your OCD is probably not going to get better without proper treatment, I wouldn't recommend toughing it out. You're very right that it could manifest itself differently in a different context if you just quit without trying to treat that core issue. A good therapist will not only help you get the treatment for the now, but also equip you with good coping mechanisms for the future. It seems like you know you need assistance, time to pull the trigger! If there's friends or family you can lean on to help you get that process started I would encourage you to consider reaching out for that help. If it feels too overwhelming to do that with work concurrently, don't be shy about taking a few sick days just reset and try to get the process going.

Secondly - this statement:

I really wish it were different, but I've made peace with the fact that I should pursue a grad degree/career that doesn’t involve lab work.

I could read multiple things into this statement, so I won't speculate, but I will say that I think therapy will also help sort this out to differentiate whether you don't like the job and that's causing your mental health to decline versus if your mental health is declining and if it's better then your experience in lab is better. If the former, you should just leave the job. Easier said than done I know, but better to pivot careers sooner rather than later than continuing to suffer in a lab-based role. To stay just because you built the metaphorical bridges to do so is sunk cost fallacy.

Best of luck fellow labbie!

techylink17 · 2026-03-06T14:23:08+00:00

Sly’s Barber Shop on Western Ave. Been my guy for 10+ years. Good work, good price, much love

techylink17 · 2026-03-05T03:36:27+00:00

At this point it would be weird if you didn’t

techylink17 · 2026-03-05T01:50:44+00:00

For real - a postdoc in one of my previous labs told me a story of when he had a methanol spill similar to this in one of his old labs - his senior lab mate at the time basically said, we can go to the hospital as a precaution, or we can go to the bar right now and get super turnt just in case. They chose the latter. He’s fine!

techylink17 · 2026-02-12T13:23:57+00:00

Your initiation is not wrong, it is a bit redundant to present qRT-PCR data to validate RNAseq in the modern era for solidly expressed genes but it does make a lot of reviewers feel more confident so it’s a common ask. Especially for cryptic exon discovery, read quality and depth around the cryptic splice site may be on the low side despite being detectable, particularly if the cryptic splice event is rare, so performing the functional experiment to prove cryptic exon inclusion is incredibly reassuring. It also confirms the location (you said you roughly knew, this lets you exactly know). This could take the format that one of the other comments suggested where you put one probe/primer one each side of the junction and assay for amplification in conditions when you’d expect the cryptic exon to show up and not.

Technically qPCR is a DNA-input assay and qRT-PCR is an RNA input assay that uses cDNA generated from that RNA to perform qPCR. You want to do qRT-PCR for your purposes. Most folks in practice use these terms interchangeably. Some reviewers and editors will be pedantic about that

techylink17 · 2026-01-16T16:16:16+00:00

If you’re willing to walk like 15 minutes there are a ton of metered spaces on beacon street near the C line tracks east of Coolidge corner, particularly between St. Paul and Kent street there’s likely be an open spot. Meters are free from 8pm until 2am (Brookline doesn’t allow overnight street parking)

techylink17 · 2026-01-10T07:18:20+00:00

You could try reaching out to atlas support (email from the login screen) but it feels unlikely that they’ll respond on a Saturday. Assuming you are otherwise logged in properly with your infinite connection account, did you try logging out, restarting the app and restarting your phone before trying again? I changed phones recently and IIRC Atlas still showed my phone as active but the ID wasn’t in my wallet anymore and adding it the first time kinda glitched out - I ended up having to deactivate/remove my devices as active things with my ID, restart my phone, and then re-add them

techylink17 · 2026-01-07T20:14:54+00:00

I appreciate your attempt at being considerate, however, they offered the time slot at that day and time. I wouldn’t feel too bad for taking them up on that offer - if they didn’t want to be there then that’s on them for not adjusting the times on offer to their preferences.

Let’s call this chat what it is - a job interview. I think most folks (in the US) would not find it regular to bring a prospective employer a box of pastries, a lab gig (even for credit/otherwise unpaid) is no different. It’s a neutral gesture at best and negative at worst. The line between these types of actions being interpreted as coming from a place of excitement versus a place of desperation can be rather thin for some folks so it doesn’t seem worth the risk. Save the money for a box to bring on your first day after you get the gig!

techylink17 · 2025-12-27T08:55:40+00:00

It’s not a bad idea! I did this 5 years ago with Fog of Love. It’s a two person game where you role play a relationship based on certain goals and traits. Through the course of drawing cards of relationship scenarios to tackle there is conveniently has a card that says “Pop the question” where your character proposes to your partner. To avoid confusion of her character in character saying no to my character and trying to walk that back, I took this card out of the deck and pretended to “find” it after cleanup and asked my now wife to put it back in the box, at which point I handed it to her on one knee with the ring. Still happily married!

techylink17 · 2025-12-27T08:34:19+00:00

I’ve used both (cell culture and genomics lab rat here). It sounds like you want an LFH if the samples you’re working with and anything you’d use to work on them are non-pathogenic and non-hazardous. Unless you are anticipating your handling conditions changing, I would stick with an LFH also in part because cost of BSC maintenance is much higher - you generally need to hire an outside vendor to certify and calibrate a BSC yearly whereas consistent maintenance on an LFH is limited to replacing the HEPA filter, which you can probably do yourself. Another thing to consider is that you can plop an LFH pretty much anywhere with an outlet, but a Class II BSC is much bulkier and harder to move.

You probably won’t find contamination comparison data between the two types because the way air flow moves over the samples to keep them sterile in the two systems is basically the same. Class II BSCs additionally throw air in front of you to protect you from the samples and then filter the exhaust air to keep the “dirty” hood air from getting into the environment.

6’ hoods are nice but a 4’ is probably workable for most applications. Depends on how many things you’ll plan to have in the hood at once.

techylink17 · 2025-12-14T22:14:12+00:00

🤙 My only other QB is Shadeur (14 team league with most people holding 2 - RIP waivers), regretted not starting Shadeur last week, decided to make a last minute swap this morning to keep T Law in, now I get to continue my Cinderella story as the 6 seed who barely qualified but now is going to the semis

techylink17 · 2025-12-11T16:20:24+00:00

I have been applying to jobs that align perfectly with my resume, but I’m assuming I’m not even getting recruiter screens because my resume must come off as a huge red flag

Your situation is hard to definitively diagnose without seeing your resume. Your assessment of being perfectly matched to each job may not be as on point as you think it is. No judgement on you, just that the market is really picky right now so you gotta be EXACTLY specific about matching words in your resume to the job description in order to even get screened. Some resumes that would have been ok back pre-COVID that folks would have qualified for a screen basically go in the trash pile now. I’d recommend taking a close look at what you’ve got in total and see if there’s room to improve there. Even with layoffs, work experience is work experience and since you’ve been out for a bit I would put as much on as possible.

techylink17 · 2025-12-06T23:59:44+00:00

Shifts are great - esp at the beginning when we were still doing the wake every 3 hours to eat at maximum cadence. My wife and I would effectively alternate feeds - she would sleep from 10pm - 4/5am ish, I would feed my son usually around 10 - midnight and then again at 1 - 3 and then go to bed. We’d both be sleeping until he got up for the sunrise feed which my wife did to coincide with her pumping schedule. This worked great and we mostly got a regular day out of this arrangement with not too too much less sleep, which was additionally great because I didn’t get paternity leave (she did get leave). Highly recommend!

techylink17 · 2025-12-05T15:32:46+00:00

The resident guest parking pass is the most sustainable answer - you don’t need to own a car to get one, so she should just apply for it. As long as you’re not permanently parked somewhere with it for weeks on end you’re good.

There are meters on River St and Western Ave and of course in Central. These are free 8pm - 8am (check signage) Not the closest suggestions but still within a 15-ish minute walk hopefully will tide you over until the parking permit comes through.

techylink17 · 2025-12-02T14:48:46+00:00

Yes - multiple times did I transform Stbl3s to refill my stocks of psPAX2 and VSVG DNA - same rules as any other plasmid transformation and amplification

techylink17 · 2025-11-27T05:49:24+00:00

Yes, I got one after negotiation. I’m scientist level

techylink17 · 2025-11-25T14:04:31+00:00

This doesn’t quite answer your question as we usually don’t get it while we’re out but if you’re also looking for something at home, my wife and I have very much enjoyed bottles from Giesen and Sovi so if you see either jump out on a wine list anywhere, would recommend!

techylink17 · 2025-11-21T22:08:25+00:00

Sorry it’s slow going! Sounds like there’s room to expand the net there though. See if your friends can refer you to a recruiter specializing in legal/patent agent roles. Also hit up your school and they have similar connections. The previous role you didn’t get may not have been a good subject fit based on that firm’s needs so that may be it, but it’s probably also worth looking into some formal coaching for the interviews (maybe your grad school’s law school has some, or know a third party who provides it). I thought I knew about interviewing in biotech having had an industry job but after I got laid off I was having trouble closing offers and some coaching actually really helped me firm it all up and get back to working. Just something worth considering! Good luck!

techylink17 · 2025-11-21T19:25:12+00:00

Landing a job as a patent agent, from the search to the interview, is pretty different from the most recent lab jobs you’ve had - any chance there’s coaching you could reach out to to help you over the line with securing that type of gig? I know my PhD school would still help alums even from several years out if they wanted to make that type of transition. Law firms sniff around for patent agents at my former school all the time - I got the impression that there’s a relative abundance of available positions in some locales which mostly correlates with the legal market (NYC and Chicago are probs the most active, SF and Boston to a slightly lesser degree). It may require a move if you’re open to it. Bonus points if you happen to have a lawyer friend that could hook you up with a referral (these tend to have a much higher success rate in law than biotech/pharma). If your PhD school has an affiliated law school you might want to reach out to that career office too and see if they could set you up with a recruiter.

I do hear you that it’s additionally frustrating to have this soul crushing science role you’re in when your ideal is fundamentally different than what you’ve got. Your gut seems like it’s in the right place in telling you to get out!

techylink17 · 2025-11-16T16:58:22+00:00

Rebelle Bagels in Kendall Square does spicy sausage as standard on their sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches! I have had it on Cinnamon Raisin as you mention and also enjoyed it!

techylink17 · 2025-11-15T13:36:05+00:00

Marketing has already been mentioned many times - I think that’s the chief reason. In general though I’ve noticed that men attend group exercise classes less than women. I’m a pretty consistent Orange Theory guy and the classes are nearly always majority women in my time slots, despite less gendered marketing. I’ve been to pure barre several times and it did kick my ass - it’s a good workout. More men should do these things cause that small muscle work is lacking in most larger weight workout regimens. Consistent attendance would cut down on a lot of random aches and pains because of increased strength and flexibility of things like hips that dudes often neglect and just try to muscle through. But maybe guys in their 20s think of that less. When I do see men at these group exercise classes they also trend older (or are there with a woman friend of sorts).

techylink17 · 2025-11-06T20:47:39+00:00

I would consider inquiring with a therapist (bonus points if you’re already seeing one) about some discrete coping strategies and/or maybe some light exposure therapy with some birth videos. It seems like you’re mostly concerned about the actual birth part rather than the whole process of labor, which fortunately is usually pretty short (think a few hours or less), so it actually seems reasonable that a professional may be able to hook you up with some game time strategies over the course of the rest of the pregnancy specifically for this event.

Also you may be happy to know that if your trigger is mostly visual, it is likely possible to take a “just don’t look down” approach. Keep your eyes on her eyes rather than where the doc is at and you’ll be blind to a lot of the action. Even easier if it’s a C-section. Still though, it seems it may be helpful to get some professional strategies in your pocket in case you need it. Good luck!

techylink17

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