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Inspirational Reads

Bucket Brigade

February 19, 2009

Sorry that I've left you guys stuck with that review of Orcs for a couple of days, but I'm fucking wiped out. I don't know what it is, but I'm thinking I need to remove the "iNDefatigable" part from my title. I guess I can't dress like Dr. Jones anymore.

My boss spent the weekend fountaining vomit, and one of my coworkers felt lousy on Monday afternoon and was out Tuesday. Surprisingly, neither of my kids nor my wife are sick. Me? I'm run down and my eyes have that gritty, grainy feeling that you get when you rub them too much because you love that sort of glowing yellow-green torus that appears when you do so. Not even coffee has made me feel my normal perkalicious self; you know something must be wrong if I'm not perkalicious after infusing my bloodstream with the sweet brewiness of Cofea canephora!

I'm hoping that I can sleep it off some more tonight. I'll still slap together the Latin lesson for tomorrow morning, and I swear, as soon as I can, I'll be back here divulging too much information to you all as well as peppering my sentences with f-bombs like they were semicolons.

For now, I think I'm going to go start a hydrogenation. Let's see...flammable solvent, explosive gas, pyrophoric catalysts, forces that convert glassware into grenades. What could possibly go wrong?

16 comments:

Sassy Britches said...

Oh, the humanity!

Chemgeek said...

Just make sure you flush your flask with hydrogen BEFORE adding the catalyst. Then when you add the catalyst, make sure you leave the septa off for a little bit to give the oxygen a chance to mix with the hydrogen a little. It will be so much more Hindenbergy when you add the catalyst.

red said...

Get well soon!

TishTash said...

Don't remove the "iNDefatigable" part. It reminds me of the Knights of Camelot song from Monty Python every time I see you around the blog world.

Oh, this is appreciated, I should mention.

Giggle Pixie said...

I hope you escape that nasty bug and feel better soon!

Gwen said...

Egads. I have pneumonia, Some Guy has shingles and you're so close to erupting that I feel a little queasy. What has happened to us?

Frank said...

I managed to somehow bruise my eyelids as a kid because I enjoyed that color show when I rubbed my eyes...guess I did it a little too much.

I think it was after than when they started testing me to see if I needed to be put in one of the special education classes.

pistols at dawn said...

For your eyes, I suggest listening to crappy dance music, since if your eyes can't be perkalicious, they can at least be Fergalicious.

SouthernBelle said...

Feel better soon, Crusty McGee.

Scope said...

Gwen, Some Guy, and "The Artist Formerly known as: the iNDefatigable mjenks", I see you all couldn't resist the Valentine's Days candy I sent.

Consider yourself "doted"

You can be "anti-doted" for the proper amount of cash.

Hap said...

Hydrogenations are so much fun when you flush with the hydrogen before adding 10% Pd/C. All the pretty sparks.

Oh, and I thought azides were supposed to reduce to primary amines. I got loads of secondary amine when I tried; even worse, I could have had a TL if I had actually followed up. Oops.

coolred38 said...

Thanks for the visual help dude...I like totally couldnt picture you puking your nuts up....I mean guts up.

Get well soon.

the iNDefatigable mjenks said...

@ Sassy Britches: Yes, indeedy do.

@ Chemgeek: I could also paint the outside of the balloon with thermite, too. And, I did, once, make the mistake of dumping hot catalyst through a blanket of hydrogen. I hadn't flushed the flask enough, so I had a little light display.

@ red: Thanks. I'm feeling much better. Apparently, a grilled ham & cheese sandwich as well as 10 hours of sleep will cure what ails you.

@ TishTash: And this is why you are one of my favorite commenters. The cuteness factor mixed with the ability to drop in a Monty Python ref = awesome.

@ Giggle Pixie: Thanks. I'm feeling much better today.

@ Gwen: Viruses. Curse the lot of them. Except in your case. Yours sounds entirely bacterial.

@ Frank: I didn't come that close, but, yeah, I would always rub my eyes way longer than I should, because I loved the light show. I also will stare at things sometimes when I'm alone, just to see them go all funky.

@ pistols: Do my eyes have to piss their pants in the middle of a show to attain that level of Ferg?

@ Hap: *shifty eyed* We're not allowed to play with 10% Pd/C any more. Too many light displays.

And, did you make a nitrene or something? The guys who work in my lab do that reduction all the time to get primary amines. You're right, that does scream Tet. Lett.

@ coolred38: Guts, nuts, nuns...when I'm all bent over and heaving, they're all the same. sometimes I swear I clean out from under my toenails when I'm in the middle of a good heave.

Pearl said...

When coffee doesn't work, I recommend a hot bath and a light coma. Feel better, DOCTOR Jones.
Pearl

Hap said...

I think the primary amine must do an Sn2 on the unreacted azide to obtain the secondary amine. Why I got that I have no idea. I isolated me a low yield of goo (oligo(ethylene glycols)) and sent it for mass spec and got...almost twice as much. WTF?
Less than a year after I began working, I got a TL to work on that described what I'd seen.

My azide experiences don't get better - it took me awhile to realize what all those alkene peaks in the NMR when I tried to do a Mitsunobu with azide on a cyclooctane. No azide for you - medium-ring chemistry is not my friend.

I was just amazing in lab.

Fancy Schmancy said...

I hope you stay virus free in all areas of your life!