Yes, its a Monday and for a change I am not at work. W00T! Feels kind of weird actually. I haven’t had a Monday off in a LONG time. I did absolutely nothing this weekend and it was great. Well not nothing I guess. I did go out on Saturday for a bit to get some fresh air, and had to go out to get food yesterday. Not to say I didn’t consider going out to do something more this weekend but for one I wasn’t feeling very inspired, and two I really have to save all the money I can for my trip to FL next month. My flight and hotel are finally all booked and set so in a month from now I will be in sunny Florida. Woo hoo! Hehehe.
Work has been good. We will be finishing up the FTIR section this week and then moving on to GC/MS. Nothing too exciting really but is moving along quite nicely.
On a random, uber geeky note, I found this nifty website for email chess. You play against people from all over and get move notification via email. Its cool so far. Games can take anywhere from a few days to weeks, most of them give you either 5 or 10 days between moves. Ill keep yah posted on how I do. If anyone really cares. Hehehe.
Just when yah think I can’t get any more geeky eh?
Zen and the MTA »« Straws?
So when I went grocery shopping this past weekend I bought a box of 100 flexible straws on an impulse. What can I say? I like flexible straws, and they were 99c so thats like a penny a straw. (Keep reading this post IS going somewhere I promise) So today, come dinner time, I go to grab my self a straw to have with my lovely beverage. Only this time I notice that on the side of the package they have, other then the product name “Striped Flexible Straws”, a list of straw features as it were. I guess to inform you about this particular brand of straw you are buying. A nice thought until you actually bother to read the list of straw attributes.
1. Flexible – Well, um, I wold hope that my “Striped Flexible Straws” are actually flexible but you never know maybe “Striped Flexible Straws” is just the name and they aren’t really flexible. Now I know for sure thanks to that bullet point.
2. Plastic – Ok, I guess they worry that the clear window showing me my obviously plastic straws isn’t enough for some people so they have to re-enforce the straws true make up. The bigger question is if not plastic then what? Yes, yes, yes, I know there are such a thing as paper straws but when was the last time you saw one? Thought so.
3. Waterproof – Huh? We have already established that they are plastic, so that alone should be enough for us to assume they are waterproof. But the bigger question is: are there some straws that are non-waterproof? And if so, dear god why? What exactly would a non-waterproof straw be anyway? The purpose of a straw as I understand it is to transport liquids from one place, say a cup or glass, to my mouth. One of the requirements for this job would be waterproofness, or so one would think.
4. Sanitary – Good to know I chose the brand of straws that are sanitary as opposed to the ones that were fished out of say the east river and re-packaged. Helps me to sleep at night.
Funny? Pointless? Disturbing? Sure! But what really makes it funny is to think that some one, some where, can actually put on their resume: wrote straw feature bullet points for “Stop and Shop Striped Flexible Straws” Their mom must be so proud! Hehehe.
Ahhh a day off. »« Looks like we got gator fans…
Being bored with the subway and feeling adventurous I tried out my new root to get to work/home. But instead of taking the bus for the Myrtle ave. stretch I decided to get some exercise and walk the whole way. Took about 40 minutes which is a tad much to do everyday but I figure if I take the bus ought to cut that trip down to like 20 min or so. End result would be an extra 30 min of sleep for the Captain every morning which is a very good thing.
Work today was still the same. More IR. Almost done finally thought, gona start the unknowns tomorrow, then the test samples should be done by Friday ideally. Throw in a review or two of the theory stuff (and a easy Friday before a nice long weekend 
) and then the written exam will be Tuesday or Wednesday. After that its on to GC/MS and a quick ride through paperwork, weighing stuff, court testimony, and its supervised casework time. Woot!
Just got finished booking my flight to FL. That was a huge pain in the ass. Apparently all the cheep flights involve flying out of NY at like 6am. Um…no. I finally found one that leaves at a much more reasonable 230pm. The return doesn’t get in to NY till like 1130 but I figure thats what Taxi’s are for, to get home and all. Now I just have the hotel to worry about and I will be all set. Yay! Andrew is going on vacation! Sure FL in July isn’t exactly the best of locations but I’ll be near the beach so I should keep. I just need to be sure to get like a gallon of SPF 45 sun block. Us pasty white geek types don’t tend to do too good in the sun. Think lobster red!
Maybe I’ll try and get some sun around here before then….we shall see.
Straws? »« Links to share
A quick post to share two links I found that I think others would enjoy as well.
1. The results of the “Geek Limerick Contest”. The winner is a total re-telling of Monty Pythons Holy Grail in limerick form. But my favorite, which still cracks me up everytime I read it is:
Said Gollum to R2-D2,
” I could so beat the crap out of you.”
R2 beeped, “You’re a liar,”
And set Gollum on fire
With an appendage for lighting a barbecue.
hehehe…still kills me.
and link
2. A pink dinosaur has appeared on a volcano crater webcam used by New Zealand’s Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS). Some one put the plastic dino. on the remote island in front of the web cam.
got to love the web.
Looks like we got gator fans… »« Fun fun Sunday
I guess I could say I had a semi-productive weekend. Worked yesterday, 7 hours of OT so it was worth it. The money is good and I got to run my samples with out having to fight others in my class for a spot at the FTIR. Then today did all the exciting things I couldn’t do yesterday like laundry and spending too much on food shopping. Quite the exciting life eh? Oh well. At the moment I’m too poor for excitement. Maybe once I start working and do a good amount of OT ill have enough money, just then no time to do anything hehehehe. I really ought to book my flight for FL later today. That is something to look forward to! Jenn is going to FL today actually, gona meet up with her parents in Orlando for a little mini-vacation.
Guess I should go out for a little walk while its nice out still. They are claiming rain/thunder today but then again have been saying that all week so who knows.
Links to share »« Interviews and extractions
Today we had a visit from the ASCLD-LAB pre-inspection team. New York requires all forensic labs in the state to be ASCLD-LAB (American Society of Crime Lab Directory – Laboratory Accreditation Board) which is a independent organization that goes around and inspects labs and issues accreditation. Our labs accreditation is up for renewal in October and not passing would be a really, really bad thing. So they got a group to come in and do a practice inspection so we can know how we would do for the real inspection/ what we have to fix. For this practice inspection we (the training group) was broken into two groups and interviewed separately. All they really asked were some very general question on the training process we have been going through and such. When the time comes for the real inspection things wont be nearly as easy. We will have been on the bench for a month or two by that point, so we will have to answer question about what it is we do and more importantly why we do thing how we do them. Not being able to answer their questions properly is what we in the lab business call “a bad thing”. Bad for us and the lab so practice interviews are a good thing. I am not really that worried my self, ASCLD-LAB doesn’t scare me but from what I have seen thats not true for some other people in my training class so I hope they got more out of our little interview then I did.
After that fun we went over our IR subtraction tests and signed off on the results, as far as I know everyone passed just fine. Then we had a little lecture on using extraction on samples for the IR. The main ones we are studying right now are for MDA/MDMA/MDEA tablets, and Diazepam (aka. Valium). Then after lunch we went up and Bob gave us a quick demo on how to do the extraction and then run the IR on a thin film. Starting tomorrow we will get our own samples of Diazepam and get to try out the extractions our self.
Should be fun!
Fun fun Sunday »« 2/3 ain’t bad
Well after today we are finally about 2/3 done with our IR section. Almost everyone was able to make it through the test samples today. One more section (extractions) and then the written test. Then maybe we will start doing a bit more during the day. On the plus side in the last 2 weeks I’ve read probably 5 books! Not much happening on the home front. Do have to start planning my trip to FL in July (hint hint Meg I am still waiting for that email info you are supposed to send) Should be a good time. God knows it will be the first vacation I’ve had in some time. But sadly I have several weeks of work before that…or as close to work as we have been having lately. Hehehehehe.
Interviews and extractions »« Another lazy Sunday….
Lets hear it for a lazy do nothing weekend!
Now thats not to say I was totally unproductive. I did laundry, and a little cleaning. I went for a walk both yesterday and today, and as you can see re-designed captainscience.com. It now has a shiny new look. Yes, it’s a little generic but I like the cleaner more modern look and the fact that the pages are a lot smaller and will load much quicker. As far as I can tell everything is working fine but I may of missed a thing or two so it may need a few more tweaks here and there. My other adventures this weekend consisted of finding a collapsible shopping cart at a yard sale for 5$ and making jello brand instant flan….mmmm…flan…..
Sadly now the weekend is almost over and I must go back to the fun world of work and drugs tomorrow. I suppose after working there for a bit longer I will get used to it but right now every now and then it hits me how very strange it is to be walking through the hallway with glass vials of cocaine and heroin in my pockets (hallways that also always smell like marihuana hehe)
Anyway tis food and more tv time so enjoy the new site and if yah find broken stuff let me know.
Thanks.
2/3 ain’t bad »« A training revelation
Today started like any other day at the lab. We had a little lecture going over the subtractions again and then got our mixture samples to run on the IR and try out our subtraction knowledge. Nothing too exciting really. But then around 2:30 our Mgr. came in and had a little meeting with us. For reasons that are too complicated to go into here they decided to cut the GC Quant training for us for now. We will get it eventually but not as part of our training class. The major implication of this are that our training will now be cut by about a month! So while they still need to go over it with the supervisors and everything it looks like we may very well be starting supervised case work as early as mid-July!!! Which if you think about it really isn’t that long from now. I think everyone was happy with the news. At this point we just want to get to do real work I think. As nice as it is to have easy days while training, doing real work helps the days to pass a bit faster! Hehehe.
Another lazy Sunday…. »« At work
Last night I realized that is has been a week sense I made an entry here. This is mostly because there has been little going on worth posting about. I would rather have gaps then pointless daily posts of little to no interest.
The last week, or the short version at least, is really not all that exciting. At the lab we have been doing FTIR stuff still. Running our unknowns and known samples, and today we are going to do our test samples for the “Basic” exam. We will have two other exams where the samples will get a bit more complicated, with extractions and subtractions and stuff.
This past weekend I went back home to Hartford. Went to Val’s for her baby’s second birthday party on Saturday and did some other random stuff the rest of the weekend.
Real exciting stuff eh? See what you are missing. Hehehe. I did finally get my birthday box of stuff from Jenn , no thanks to the US mail! She got me a box of uber cool stuff from the Russian store in Nebraska. Thanks Jenn!!!
Well I should keep this short sense I am sorta doing this at work and I’m sure that’s kind of frowned upon. Plus as soon as the test samples get back here I ought to go run my samples on the IR so I should get my stuff ready.
I will try to keep this up a tad better as soon as something interesting enough happens that is worth posting!
A training revelation »« Student loans can bite me!
I got a letter from my student loan people today telling me that my application for deferment due to my job was accepted! According to them I don’t have to make any payments until 9-15-2005! And at that point I can re-apply assuming I am still working for the police! So woo hoo! Yes, sadly it was just the little loan, but still it should save me around 40$ bucks a month which at this point is a big deal for me. I just had to share my happiness hehehehe.
At the lab today we continued on with our FTIR training. Tom showed us a demo of how the software works and the basics of how you would run the background, 100% line test, and how to do a subtraction if you think a sample is mixed with some other material. Then this afternoon we got to go up to the fifth floor lab and see a quick demo of a real working FTIR. Starting tomorrow we will be getting our known samples (likely cocaine, heroin, and some other material like lactose), and will get to start running them on the FTIR. The trick with the knowns and unknowns is not identification really, the instrument does most of that work for us, but rather the procedure we have to follow, saving the files in the right place and correctly logging stuff in the log books. See thats what you don’t get to see on CSI the exciting paperwork part of the job! Until you see it your self you have no idea what sort of paper work a crime lab generates! For everything you do there is a form, logbook, or paper to sign, which is then saved in a big file room. Then every once and a while they give some nice trainees (Me) the task of moving said papers around the file room for some reason that makes sense to them, only for it likely to be again moved by some other trainee a few years later. Sure it sucks but I am a damn well paid file clerk so I can’t complain too much I guess!
At work »« What a nice day for a field trip!
