Charlie Hatton About This
About Me
Email Me

Bookmark
 FeedBurnerEmailTwitterFacebookAmazon
Charlie Hatton
Brookline, MA



All Quotes
Site Search:
HomeAboutArchiveBestShopEmail

« We All Scream for a Time Machine | Main | There's a Sucker Bjorn Every Minute »

The Memory of Wheeze

I write a lot of nonsense around here. I wouldn't want you to think that I'm specifically torturing you by throwing all that jibberjabber in one place. There's plenty to go around. Plenty.

By way of proof, I'll share a bit of nonsense with you that, until now, actually wasn't posted anywhere in these pages.

Though after I share it, I suppose it will be posted in these pages, and so I'll have tortured you with another bit of jibberjabber, after all.

Sorry. At least take heart that you weren't the first to deal with this particular nightmare. And may not be the last.

Anyway, here's the thing. A few weeks ago, the company I'm with celebrated their fifth year anniversary. I haven't been with them for all five years, of course -- only for sixteen months or so. And being relatively new, I wasn't sure what to get them. Or us. Or however this works. I felt like I should bring in something pewter, or marbled silverware or some sort of commemorative tea cozy. These "social convention" events make me all nervous and clammy.

(My wife and I solved the problem by deciding for our fifth anniversary, we should exchange "alcohol" and "moist towelettes". Much better. And practical, too. To a certain point.)

Luckily, it turned out I was off the hook for this company anniversary thing, mostly. They didn't want gifts or cards or a nice romantic dinner. Instead, they asked each employee to relate a memory of their time at the company -- something in the last year that inspired, or awed, or otherwise made a personal impact.

The admin staff collected these stories into a little booklet that we all received at the company party, and I got to see how my fellow employees thought about the place. All the amazing work and the people they remembered. The triumphs. The challenges. The drive to achieve and persevere and do good science.

(Because we're a science company. If we were a bakery, that would be weird. You do "good science" in a bakery, and probably the donuts don't get made or something. But for us, it's a good thing.)

Yeah. So here's the lasting personal memory I shared (very slightly edited, to protect the innocent):


I joined the company on January 1, 2012 and - once the New Year's bubbly was fully out of my system - settled in nicely to work on projects. One of my first assignments was analyzing ChIP-seq data for an experiment of [one of the lead scientists and company founders; let's call him Carl], and I dug in as best I could.

"It's the kind of experience that can quickly make you wonder whether your last employer kept you around simply because you make a mean tuna casserole at the potlucks."

(Despite not knowing much yet about the experimental setup. Or ChIP-seq. Or epigenetics. It's the kind of experience that can quickly make you wonder whether your last employer kept you around simply because you make a mean tuna casserole at the potlucks.)

As the calendar had just turned over, I was also in the midst of that time-honored American tradition of joining a gym and working out for the first week-and-a-half of January, before giving up and swearing off exercise again for another eleven-plus months. During one of my jaunts at the gym downstairs, I found Carl furiously pedaling away on a stationary bicycle. I nodded hello, set up shop on a bike down the row, and commenced faux-cycling myself.

Five minutes later, Carl finished his workout and stopped by. I hadn't had a chance to make much of an impression - on anyone, really - yet, so I welcomed the chance to "talk shop" and see how much I'd learned. Hold a stimulating scientific conversation. Maybe show off a little, even.

Unfortunately, this was the moment my bike's exercise program switched from "warmup" to "Himalayan assault". The gears locked up, the pedals pushed back at every inch, and I was nearly coming out of my seat just to keep the meter running. Meanwhile, Carl - smiling and enthusiastic - asked a perfectly simple question: "So, how's that new dataset we got looking?"

I mentally reviewed what I'd learned -- the technical considerations, the scientific implications, how our initial findings dovetailed with the larger biological context evidenced in the current literature - and gave him as clear and concise an answer as I could:

"It's... *huff* *huff* ... the, uh, data is... *puff* *whew* *gasp* ... it's... *gah* *erk* ... pretty good."

Thankfully, Carl didn't press for more info. He just smiled and walked away - back to his office, most likely, to figure out how in the hell I'd gotten hired in the first place. Or to brush up on CPR, since it probably seemed likely that I'd someday be found unresponsive and exhausted from trying to open a bag of chips or something.

Eventually, I made good on analyzing that dataset - and talking coherently about it. Well, mostly coherently. Just don't ask me to give lab meeting while riding a stationary bike, apparently. It's a good thing I didn't list "multitasking" as a strength on my resume.


And that, friends, is why they pay me the big bucks. Or the medium-sized bucks. Mostly these days, they just tie a twenty to a stick and dangle it over the front of the exercise bike.

They know I'll never reach it. But if I pedal far enough before I pass out, maybe they can run the lights for a few minutes on the cheap. So I'm helping. See? I'm helping!





Permalink | Comments (0)


,



Post a comment

HomeAboutArchiveBestShopEmail © 2003-15 Charlie Hatton All Rights Reserved
Highlights
Me on Science:
  Secondhand SCIENCE


Me on ZuG (RIP):
  Zolton's FB Pranks
  Zolton Does Amazon


Me on Baseball:
  Bugs & Cranks


Me on Apartments:
  Author Page


Three Wee Tweets:
Favorite Posts:
30 Facts: Alton Brown
A Commute Dreary
A Hallmark Moment
Blue's Clues Explained
Eight Your 5-Hole?
El Classo de Espanol
Good News for Goofballs
Grammar, Charlie-Style
Grammar, Revisitated
How I Feel About Hippos
How I Feel About Pinatas
How I Feel About Pirates
Life Is Like...
Life Is Also Like...
Smartass 101
Twelve Simple Rules
Unreal Reality Shows
V-Day for Dummies
Wheel of Misfortune
Zolton, Interview Demon

Me, Elsewhere

Features
Standup Comedy Clips

Selected Clips:
  09/10/05: Com. Studio
  04/30/05: Goodfellaz
  04/09/05: Com. Studio
  01/28/05: Com. Studio
  12/11/04: Emerald Isle
  09/06/04: Connection

Boston Comedy Clubs

 My 100 Things Posts

Selected Things:
  #6: My Stitches
  #7: My Name
  #11: My Spelling Bee
  #35: My Spring Break
  #36: My Skydives
  #53: My Memory
  #55: My Quote
  #78: My Pencil
  #91: My Family
  #100: My Poor Knee

More Features:

List of Lists
33 Faces of Me
Cliche-O-Matic
Punchline Fever
Simpsons Quotes
Quantum Terminology

Favorites
Banterist
...Bleeding Obvious
By Ken Levine
Defective Yeti
DeJENNerate
Divorced Dad of Two
Gallivanting Monkey
Junk Drawer
Life... Weirder
Little. Red. Boat.
Mighty Geek
Mitchieville
PCPPP
Scaryduck
Scott's Tip of the Day
Something Authorly
TGNP
Unlikely Explanations

Archives
Full Archive

Category Archives:

(Stupid) Computers (70)
A Doofus Is Me (203)
Articles 'n' Zines (74)
Audience Participation (35)
Awkward Conversations (176)
Bits About Blogging (168)
Bitter Old Man Rants (50)
Blasts from My Past (78)
Cars 'n' Drivers (60)
Dog Drivel (78)
Eek!Cards (267)
Foodstuff Fluff (116)
Fun with Words! (71)
Googlicious! (27)
Grooming Gaffes (88)
Just Life (238)
Loopy Lists (33)
Making Fun of Jerks (59)
Marketing Weenies (66)
Married and a Moron (185)
Miscellaneous Nonsense (62)
Potty Talk / Yes, I'm a Pig (84)
Sleep, and Lack Thereof (34)
TV & Movies & Games, O My! (101)
Tales from the Stage (74)
Tasty Beverages (29)
The Happy Homeowner (81)
Vacations 'n' Holidays (134)
Weird for the Sake of Weird (71)
Whither the Weather (40)
Wicked Pissah Bahstan (49)
Wide World o' Sports (124)
Work, Work, Work (206)

Heroes
Alas Smith and Jones
Berkeley Breathed
Bill Hicks
Dave Barry
Dexter's Laboratory
Douglas Adams
Evening at the Improv
Fawlty Towers
George Alec Effinger
Grover
Jake Johannsen
Married... With Children
Monty Python
Nick Bakay
Peter King
Ren and Stimpy
Rob Neyer
Sluggy Freelance
The Simpsons
The State

Plugs, Shameless
Alltop, confirmation that I kick ass

TopOfBlogs

HumorSource

Blogging Fusion Blog Directory

bloglovin

Listed on BlogShares

Top Blogs

 

Feeds and More
Subscribe via FeedBurner

[Subscribe]

RDF
RSS 2.0
Atom
Credits
Site Hosting:
Solid Solutions

Powered by:
MovableType

Title Banner Photo:
Shirley Harshenin

Creative Commons License
  This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License

Mint Installation

Performancing Metrics

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

Valid XHTML 1.0

Valid CSS!

© 2003-15 Charlie Hatton
All Rights Reserved