This is why I love my job

Where else can you “go for a walk to think about stuff,” and call that work? My walking and thinking about stuff was actually quite productive. I realized that we’re making this experiment much more complicated than it actually is, and then I figured out how to simplify it. It’s ridiculous actually, that I didn’t figure this out earlier. I am known for my love of simplicity, especially in experimental design. The experiment was designed to be similar to one that the previous jellyfish student did, but then it evolved, and the methods didn’t quite evolve with it. We’ve been scrambling to figure out how to make the underwater video camera work for our purposes, and that’s been making things complicated. Turns out we just don’t need it. Just looking at the damn things is going to be more than sufficient and way easier than using the camera. On my way back from my walk, I made a long mental list of all of the things that I was going to accomplish this afternoon, and now that I’m back at my desk, I can’t remember a single one of them. Oh well, at least I’m wearing pants (really, I checked).

In other news from my walk… while I was off in my own little world thinking about stuff, one of the maintenance guys managed to get my attention. He was working on a tank in which something very exciting is going to happen on Monday. I’d tell you what that exciting thing is, but then I’d have to kill you. If it goes well, I’ll try to remember to explain when it’s done (because by then it will have made all of the papers). He told me how he was planning to turn the girl who runs our fish hatchery into an action figure—Fishgirl. He plans to retire off of the lunchbox proceeds. He threatened (offered?) to expand the line and use me as inspiration for Jellygirl. I didn’t think that would sell unless she was the villain, but I’m not sure I can support that. People already don’t like jellyfish. They don’t need more bad publicity.