Good week

I met Nina on Tuesday!

She's in town on a family trip, and took some time out to meet up with me for some yummy pasta, local wine, decadent chocolate cake, a jazz band playing just for us, and a really fun conversation! As I know I've said before, meeting a blogger is like a first date with an old friend - you know some of their stories and personality, but have to ask basic questions like "so what exactly do you do?"! Anyway, I hope I've inspired Nina to meet up with some more bloggers who live just a leeeeetle bit closer to Freiburg!

And then, on Wednesday...

What's this?

It's part of a mega-cool stage set that barely fit into BC Place, that's what it is:

But who's it for?

U2!!!!!!

I've seen them before, and was very happy to see them again! I agree with some of the local reviews I've read; while I do like the new album (MUCH more than the one before), I would have liked to hear more of their classics. But they have such an immense repertoire that they're never going to be able to play everyone's favourite songs, and all in all it was a great show. I would post my videos, but the camera is blatantly moving to the music in a rather embarrassing manner.

Hallowe'en party at the weekend! w00t!

Just sayin'

9 days to go. Don't get flu, don't get flu, don't get flu...

Mr E Man is not old and stupid...

...just older and stupider* than me!

I saw an article on the BBC website on Monday proclaiming that "the secret to a happy marriage for men is choosing a wife who is smarter and at least five years younger than you". After reading about this no doubt world-class research, I went home that evening to give Mr E Man the good news that we're all set for an eternity of marital bliss. (The fact that he was in the middle of cooking dinner and had a glass of chilled white wine waiting for me might help, too).

I might hold off on telling him the corresponding story from News Arse, though. The article on this satirical UK news site (fans of the BBC website will recognise the layout, fans of The Onion will recognise the style) is titled "women encouraged to marry old and stupid men", and gives hope to "those previously considered terminally undate-worthy":

Reg Brown told us, “I’m thick as pig shit and the wrong side of fifty, so this is the best news I’ve had since The Sun did its 10p issues".

Good stuff!

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*Not true - I may be more educated, but I was only (although consistently, heh) ahead by 2 IQ points in some online tests we did for fun a few years ago!

Tuesday Pet Peeve: common garden variety

It's a beautiful day today. After days of rain the sun is shining on the snow-capped mountains, and the trees are resplendent in yellows, oranges, and reds.

So are the roads.

Yup, the leaves are falling and winter is on the way. And gardeners were out in force this morning, taking advantage of the break in the weather to give their rakes and leaf blowers an airing.

Because, apparently, fallen leaves shall NOT be allowed to sully any perfect lawns*. They should, instead, be dumped into the road (a bike route).

Yup, I saw about eight people today moving leaves off the grass (where they run the risk of mulching in and actually doing some good), and into the road. Where they will form a nasty sodden brown mass next time it rains (tomorrow, probably), blocking the drains, and forcing cyclists to ride over a layer of treacherous slipperiness, with a couple of inches of dirty water sitting on top of it for good measure.

It's like a man cutting the hair off his head and gluing it to his back and the insides of his ears instead.

Where do my leaves go?

Some go into my compost, some go into the municipal composting bins (unlimited citywide curbside pick-up of leaves throughout the autumn), and the rest get spread over my lawn and veggie patch.

A plague of hairy backs upon the leaf blowers!

A leaf blower, yesterday**

--------------
*these are the same lawns that are suspiciously green, lush, and wet in the middle of the summer sprinkler bans. As a French friend of mine once said, "this is Vancouver. Your lawn is going to do its best to be brown in the summer, and moss in the winter. Why fight Nature? Have a glass of wine and forget about it".

**sorry, couldn't resist! This photo did the rounds at work a few years back, as an email with the subject header "Leaf Blower For Sale". 

Hockey Pool, Week 4

Mixing it up a bit this week... when I first set up the pool, someone called AJBroome joined it. I didn't know who this person was, and my attempts to contact him/her failed. However, this person contacted me for a different reason over the weekend, and I now know that it's a regular reader (albeit one who can't post due to some kind of work browser/firewall conflict), rather than some random person who found the pool through an internet search! So he/she has now been added to the pool update spreadsheet.

Another person for me to beat...

AJ, I don't know your preferred username and whether you would prefer a gender-neutral pseudonym to your real name, so I'll use the name you joined the pool under and will not disclose anything else about you unless you let me know that it's OK.

Nightmare

I had a bad dream last night.

I dreamed that my Mum told me I was boring. And, what's worse, my sister backed her up! That little traitor!

This turned into a dream of me running away from home (i.e. my parents' house, despite being an adult in the dream) on the number 10 bus (there is no number 10 bus route anywhere near my parents' house, but somehow this seemed very important), with the family dog - an Old English Sheepdog called Charlie (we have never had a dog). It turned into one of my recurring "being chased by something I can't see" dreams, and I woke up in that middle of the night state where you think that everything in the dream was real.

I was quite distraught. OMG, people think I'm boring??!!

But then the slightly-more-awake part of my brain said "but people comment on your blog! You can't be that boring!".

And I settled back into blissful, dreamless sleep.

Does anyone know a good therapist?

Lighting a flame

The Olympic torch has been lit, the relay has begun, and the Games are on their way to Vancouver!

As I've mentioned before, there has been a lot of local negativity and knee-jerk NIMBYism around the Olympics. There have been good reasons behind some of the negative reactions; the local media are ramping up their coverage, and it seems as if most of their stories highlight cost overruns, heavy-handed treatment of anti-Olympic protesters, new traffic restrictions etc etc etc. I was strongly pro-Games from the start, but have had to concede that the anti-Games crowd have a point when it comes to some of these specific criticisms.

But there have been some strong positives, too. The recession hasn't hit BC as hard as many other places, thanks partially to all the Olympic and related infrastructure construction work that's keeping people employed. The venues have all been completed well ahead of schedule, and have even been winning awards. I've seen some of the plans to turn the venues into community facilities after the Games, and am stoked to be getting access to a brand new aquatic centre about 15 minutes walk away from my house. There's a bit of a buzz developing around the Cultural Olympiad, which promises to keep even the most rabid anti-sports people happy. The Canada Line is up, running, and packed to the gills. The improvements to the Sea-to-Sky Highway got us to Whistler in record time a couple of weeks ago. However, these stories haven't been getting as much media coverage as all the negatives.

The tide seems to be turning, though. First the (mostly) favourable reaction to the medal designs (I love them!), and now the tradition and symbolism of the torch ceremony. I hope that things are on the upswing.

An Australian friend gave me another reason to be cheerful. He was living in Sydney during the 2000 Summer Games, and said that the negative media coverage and vocal NIMBYism that we’re seeing here in Vancouver were also evident in the run-up to the Sydney Games. However, once people from all over the world started to arrive in Sydney, the licensing hours were extended, and the cultural events kicked off, the excitement started to build. The vocal NIMBYs were still spouting off, but they started to get shouted down by the excitement of the people who’d always been pro-Olympics. And then the Games started, and the silent majority who initially either didn’t care or were on the fence, got caught up in the excitement and proceeded to get behind the Australian athletes, go to all the concerts and parties, and generally have an awesome time.

(Oh, and completely drown out all the miserable NIMBYs).

Now, nine years after the Sydney Games, people just remember the fun they had, and enjoy all the leagacy sports and other facilities.

I can't wait for February! Once the hockey starts, the NIMBYs don't stand a chance!

So, who wants to work with me?

My boss told me last night that he's recruiting, and asked me if I know anyone who might be interested. He's looking for two postdocs to start next summer, as well as a grad student "or maybe two".

Our new (and still in progress) website has links to some of the larger projects currently underway in the lab - the exact projects that are open may change, and will depend on who applies!

So, if any of my blog buddies* are interested, drop me an email at vwxynot [at] gmail. I'd be happy to chat off-blog about the lab and its projects, and if you decide to apply, I can get your CV and cover letter to the top of the pile**. The rest is up to you!

And now you all know who I work for... in the interests of Google rankings, please don't type his name in the comments section. We're working really hard to get the new website to show up first when you Google his name, but with only a few weeks' worth of content, it's easy to override those efforts.

------------------

*If you're not a regular reader and you've found this page by chance, you're very welcome to apply through the regular channel outlined on the website I linked to. Sorry, but I'm not going to screen CVs from any old stranger who can do a Google search! We have an HR department for that :)

**I can also take you for a beer if you come for an interview

Hockey Pool, Week 3

What's that I see in my rear view mirror?

Oh, right: everyone else!

Spasiba, Alexander!

For EcoGeoFemme!

Comment on my last post: "I'm really the first American commenter on this post? yikes! Maybe you should make another map with your regular commenters' countries. :)"

Well, I'm both cheap and lazy, so I haven't switched from my free (but limited) account at statcounter.com to Google Analytics yet. So I can't give you my overall, all-time breakdown, but here's the location of my last 500 visitors:

This is reasonably typical, I think!

I'd be interested to see the breakdown from other bloggers' stats, if anyone has the time and the inclination!

I'd like to thank the International Academy

I'm coming up to the second anniversary of my return to academia, and I'm still loving it. I like to say that I learned a lot from my time in industry, the most important lesson being that industry doesn't suit me - I'm an academic at heart, and I love being around and getting to write about some incredibly exciting science* (without having to actually do any of it myself).

One of my favourite things about academia is its international nature. I've been lucky enough to be part of three very multinational labs, and have shared bench and office space with people from all over the world.

Anonymous Cath has visited worked with people from 13% of the countries in the world!

(This map represents the nationalities of my immediate current and former academic colleagues only - adding in friends from other labs and departments would fill in most of the rest of Europe).

This work environment has benefited me personally - I've tried food and drinks I never would have come across without an introduction from my colleagues, I've learned (and forgotten) snippets of lots of different languages, I've discussed Iranian and Russian and Israeli and Indian politics with natives of those countries, I've heard some hilarious Greek jokes and Russian toasts, and the world cup and other international sporting events are always a hoot. Mr E Man and his friends appreciate it, too - they've all known each other since high school**, and love hanging out with my more diverse set of friends from time to time.

I believe that the multinational approach to research has also benefited my supervisors, if their publication records are any guide. Their international trainees have done and are still doing some truly world-class research, and every department I've worked in has had a very warm and welcoming atmosphere. I'm not usually one to blow my own trumpet so overtly, but my former PI asked me to check the reference she wrote as part of my Permanent Residence application, and she specifically stated that after hiring me, she was pro-actively trying to recruit other British postdocs - and she has in fact hired two more since then.

So it bugs me when I read blog posts like the recent email conversation between DrugMonkey and PhysioProf that imply it's only worth hiring US postdocs. Although this isn't the first time I've heard this kind of thing from PhysioProf, it's a little unfair to single him out when this attitude is so wide-spread, both in the blogosphere and (from my own experiences, and inferring from the statement in that post that "In my field, newly-minted PhDs from US universities have their pick of good post-docs") in real life, too.

Yes, US science is fantastic, widely regarded as the best in the world. Yes, that's why so many foreign researchers seek to undertake part or all of their training there. Yes, that's (probably) why so few US trainees spend time in foreign labs. (And yes, the scientific blogosphere is overwhelmingly American - both its authorship and its readership - and yes, it's completely natural for that (dare I say) bias to spill over into its content and discussions).

But you know what? The rest of the world is also doing some fantastic science. I know that it's possible to cherry-pick statistics, but the fact that the UK has the best ratio of citations to public spending is no small matter. And it's just my own national bias in reading material bringing that particular example to the forefront of my mind at this time - great science (and great scientific training) is being done all over the world.

Sure, it's easier to judge the calibre of a serious applicant*** to your lab when you already know the reputation of their institute and (probably, for post-doc applicants) their supervisor. But is it really so difficult to determine the quality of a foreign institution? A ten-second Google search just now brought up the Google College Rankings site - "an independent project to rank colleges and universities worldwide" - among many other similar sites. Or ask one of your colleagues who comes from that country. And shouldn't an applicant's publication record speak for itself? A phone interview would also be revealing, surely.

The comment thread on the DrugMonkey Blog post I linked to has started to address this issue. Obviously not every PI will seek to exclude foreign trainees, and some may even prefer them. But I feel that PIs who don't consider non-US applicants are missing out.

I know their other trainees are.

------------------

*My boss's paper was the cover story and image in last week's Nature - how cool is that??!!

**If you're lucky enough to be born and/or raised here, there's really no reason to ever leave.


***I say serious applicant because I'm aware of the phenomenon of generic spammy emails sent to every PI possible. I mean, I get them myself, and I'm nowhere near being a PI.

Hockey Pool, Week 2

Only one day late...

ScientistMother joined us one week into the competition, but is making up ground very quickly! How will all the injuries the Canucks sustained on Sunday affect the pool? Stay tuned and find out!

"Marriage is gay"

Just a quickie: this week is going to be crazy busy with grant and progress report deadlines galore. But I just wanted to send a belated "Happy Thanksgiving!" to my Canadian readers!

We spent the long weekend at my mother-in-law's, which is always well worth the two ferry (i.e. four hour) wait on the way home. The turkey dinner was the best evah, and brother-in-law #1's Hilarious New Fiance silenced all the doubters with her whipped yam-ginger-orange juice concoction.

HNF and I also upheld our tradition of swapping new music and podcast tips. My iPhone is currently chockablock with Spanish lesson podcasts (we listen to them in the car - our vacation is less than four weeks away!), so I was reluctant to add any more casts to my list... but as usual, she had some awesome new ones that I couldn't resist subscribing to. Here's my favourite episode (so far) from my favourite new podcast, "That's Gay". Enjoy! I'll see you on the flipside...

Friday silliness

I have a new joke!

I've had my hair cut very short before, and when I started to grow it again, I never quite got tired of repeating the same line:

Friend: "So how long are you going to grow it?"

Me: "Six months ought to do it"

And now I have a new one!

Me: "I just got a tattoo"

Friend: "Ooh! Where?!"

Me: "Burnaby"

I've used it twice so far, and plan to use it as many times as I can get away with.

I have a new song!

I let the thin cat in,
I let the fat cat out,
In, Out, In, Shake the bag of treats about,
I scoop the kitty litter and I sweep up lots of fur,
That's what it's all about.
Whoa, shitty kitty ditty,
Whoa, shitty kitty ditty,

Whoa, shitty kitty ditty,
Head bump, Chin rub, Rah Rah Rah

I amuse myself. It's just as well, really.

Ink

I've wanted a tattoo for, ooh, about ten years.

Not just any old tattoo, though - one that means something to me, that commemorates a specific event.

Initially, I decided that I'd get one when I got my PhD. But then, what with the rush to make corrections, get the thesis bound, sort out my Canadian work permit, move to a new country, get set up in a new lab, find a place to live, get a bank account, make friends, etc etc etc, it was suddenly a whole year since my viva, and it was no longer a current event.

Plus, although I didn't know anyone in the UK who'd got a double helix tattoo upon finishing their PhD, it turned out to be quite common in Canada. And I wanted something unique.

A couple of years later, as I applied for Canadian permanent residence, a new idea started to form in my mind. I knew I'd be shooting for citizenship as soon as I was eligible, so why not get a tattoo to commemorate that? The bringing together of two cultures - that's meaningful enough for me!

Given my family's Irish and Scottish roots, and my memories of the very happy few years I spent in Glasgow, I decided that I wanted a design that incorporated Celtic design into a Canadian maple leaf. I Googled all kinds of combinations of those words, but never found anything. So it would be both meaningful and unique!

The problem with unique was that I would have to find someone to design the tattoo for me. My initial attempts to sketch a Celtic style outline for the leaf looked Celtic enough, but not even the most patriotic Canadian in the world would have recognised the key component of their national flag in my work. And placing a regular maple leaf inside a Celtic circle looked cool, but from a distance, too much like the Air Canada logo.

"I'll do it", said Mr E Man

"Erm... OK...?" I said. I figured I'd let him take a shot at it, and at least use it as the basis for the final design.

But look what he came up with!

Mr E Man's initial sketch:

I absolutely loved the concept. For some reason I'd never thought to put the Celtic part inside the leaf!

The next step was to find the right tattoo artist. Mr E Man stepped up to the plate again: a work friend's partner/wife has a very well known and positively reviewed tattoo studio (according to her website, she was "the 1st female artist to own her own Tattoo studio in Canada", which is pretty damn cool). I called her, sent her Mr E Man's sketch, and she turned it into this:

Tattoo artist's interpretation of Mr E Man's design:

And so, earlier this evening, I headed out from work and went to get my first ever tattoo! I was pretty nervous, but the studio felt more like a nice hair salon than a den of painful torture (although I quickly realised that my normal hair salon level of chatter was not an option - I did not want to break her concentration! Hair grows back...) I was still apprehensive about how much it was going to hurt. The answer (for me) is more than a flu shot, more than a cat scratch, less than a bee sting, less than a bikini wax. Kinda like a sustained wasp sting. It hurt more as she went back to the lines she'd already drawn to strengthen the outline, and I'll admit to being very happy that I'd decided last week (on purely artistic grounds) to just get the outline, no shading!

 About half-way through

The whole thing took less than an hour, and while it obviously hurt, it really wasn't as painful as I'd expected.

A shot to give you an idea of size and placement

Hopefully the healing process won't be too long or too painful! I've got my instructions, and plan to follow them to the letter.

 Nice juicy close-up

I'll get another photo when it's all healed up and not quite so red!

I am sooooo glad I finally did this.

Hockey Pool, Week 1

 Weeks on the X axis, Points on the Y axis.

ScientistMother, what happened to you?! Your name isn't showing up in the group any more...

Book Reviews: the good science, the bad science, and the ugly

Inspired by Science Bear's epic book review post, here are three very overdue book reviews of my own!

The Good Science

Dry Store Room No.1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum, by Richard Fortey.

I first visited the Natural History Museum in London when I was 16, and it was love at first sight. It's a beautiful building in its own right, and full of geeky pleasures ranging from stuffed dodos to videos describing chromosomal recombination and meiosis. I've since been back several times, to the bafflement of my sister, who lives in London and doesn't understand how I can spend all day in the museum (and neighbouring science museum - both free! Thanks, Tony Blair!) while she's at work. (What can I say, I had to see the new Darwin Centre when the first phase opened - I did a tour with a group of other tourists, and when they made us put on lab coats, everyone else giggled and did up all the buttons and took photos of each other, while my own coat flapped open as I walked about hands in pockets, and bugged the tour guides with questions about whether they could extract RNA from the pickled lizards).

It was actually my sister who bought me this book, a behind-the-scenes view of the museum from the resident trilobite man (and now I know how to pronounce trilobites! Bonus!) I was in heaven as I read about the dusty store rooms with their hidden treasures, and the crazy characters who populate the museum's back rooms. There were times when I felt the book went into too much detail, but overall it was a very enjoyable read. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of natural history museums in general, and the London version in particular.

8/10

The Bad Science

Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre

This is one of the best, and definitely the most important, of the books I've read this year. Everyone should read this book. EVERYONE!

If you've read Ben Goldacre's blog of the same name, you'll have a good idea of what to expect from the book - a dissection of the dubious science reporting that drives us all crazy. The author's disdain for the quacks and journalists who spread inaccuracies and outright lies is clear - but the book manages to be funny at the same time!

Well, at least towards the beginning. The early chapters rip apart the more benign incidences of bad science - the detox footbaths and homeopaths of the world. As the book progresses, the targets get larger and more important - think big pharma and the anti-vaccination movement - and the tone understandably gets more serious.

As you might expect from a British author, there is a focus on the British press - for example, the anti-vaccination chapter focuses on the media frenzy around the MMR vaccine, which went largely unnoticed in North America, where people chose to panic about mercury instead. But, as Goldacre says, the fact that there were different frenzies in different countries is yet further evidence for the hollowness of anti-vaccine arguments; if there was any genuine link between vaccines and ill health, you would expect people to claim the same link all over the world. (Apparently in France the worry is that the Hep B vaccine causes MS - but who in the UK or North America has heard of that one?!)

If, like me, you're already convinced that homeopathy is nothing but overpriced water and that the anti-vaccination movement is intellectually bankrupt, this book obviously won't change your mind. It's still well worth a read, though, to help you understand why so many people have been misled by media and quack practices that range from the dishonest to the downright dangerous.

If you know someone who's not a scientist, and who is on the fence about any of these issues (using homeopathic cold remedies, for example, or (more to the point) trying to decide whether they should get their baby vaccinated), I imagine they would benefit enormously from reading this book. Buy it for them - seriously! The book started quite the conversation when I started reading it at a gathering of my in-laws, several of whom are into homeopathy and associated woo (there was some muttering about the book in the kitchen later, but don't worry, we're all still the best of friends!) And I've passed it on to a friend who has been subjected to some of the anti-vaccine woo and was starting to be swayed by it.

10/10, VERY highly recommended.

The Ugly

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson

I was soooo excited to read this book. It's the third in the Jackson Brodie trilogy; the first book is one of my all-time favourites, but I found the second a little disappointing. It breaks my heart to have to tell you that the third book continued the trend of declining quality.

True to form, Atkinson's writing is still wonderful, somehow blending humour with bleak despair,  and with occasional toe-curlingly, grin-at-strangers-on-the-bus moments of linguistic ecstasy. And her characters, old and new, are still amazingly vivid and real - you feel like you know these people.

But.

But, but, but.

Reading the book was like stuffing myself with junk food; pleasurable while it lasted, but ultimately deeply unsatisfying. Atkinson's trademark weaving together of several story threads felt forced and unnatural. Whereas the previous books brought characters together through asthma attacks or car accidents, When Will There Be Good News? relies on murders, kidnappings, and train crashes. It was just too much.

I can forgive my favourite author one bad book; I'll buy the next one for sure (although I'll probably wait for the paperback, rather than pre-ordering the hardback like I did with this one). But if the law of diminishing returns continues, I may have to cut my losses and stop reading before I pollute my feelings about some of my all-time favourite books.

9/10 for the writing, 4/10 for the actual book.

How's this for a headline?

"Cancun kidnapping, crocodile attack a hoax: RCMP"

From the article:

"The RCMP says a story about a young man from B.C. on holiday in Cancun, Mexico, who was kidnapped outside a bar, forced to fight two other tourists, shot in the shoulder and dumped in the water where he was attacked by crocodiles, is a fabrication."

[...]

"RCMP said the incident began when a 20-year-old man decided to urinate in a crocodile lagoon in the resort area of Cancun, despite signs in English and Spanish warning of its toothy inhabitants. Alcohol was a factor, police said.


The man apparently was bitten on the leg by a small crocodile and fell on the rocks in the water, where he was attacked by some other 30-centimetre crocodiles, said Cpl. Jennifer Pound, in a statement released on Thursday."

LOL! Eejit. And kudos to the CBC for their subheading: "Piddle in wrong puddle".

Bragging Rights Archive III

Dates represent date of archiving - it's just easier that way.

VWXYNot? Comment(s) of the week:

Oct 2 2009: Anonymous for "I currently live in Hawaii. Our street names alone can break anyone who hasn't lived here for a while. You haven't lived until you've tried to get a tourist from Texas to properly get their tongue around "Keeaumoku St.", "Queen Liliuokalani Freeway", or the "Likelike Highway" ("lee-kay-lee-kay", not "like-like"!)"

Bob O'H for " I was told several times I had a great Danish accent. My strategy was to talk as if I was drunk."

and Juniper Shoemaker for "That's it, smug Brit-Canadian. Our countries are going to war!" and then "I'm just bitter because I made the mistake of reading aloud things like "The Tailor of Gloucester" when I was a wee tiny tot. 'Twas only a matter of time before people who knew all the abominable-- um, I mean, correct pronunciations overheard me. :)"

Oct 9 2009: Mermaid for "I have a similar relationship with my Teva's. I love them and can wear them for days. I have traveled the world in them... and can admit freely that they are ugly. Don't care because even if I am in Paris I want to be able to walk and enjoy my time, rather than mincing about in adorable shoes. [...] On the other side, I also love my Choo's - can't walk in them worth a damn but I can pose for hours!"

and ScientistMother for "haha, I guess I can be scary since although I think I am shy about expressing my opinions, I seem to get proven wrong when its something I am passionate about. :))

I was surprised you didn't want to go in for a pitcher, you did your english heritage wrong. All that talk of being a beer lover, I just don't believe you...hehe."

Oct 16 2009: Tina for "I'm a person who changes hair styles annually, so I'm afraid to be permanently attached to a tattoo"

Mermaid for "What a great tattoo! That is so cool. You will have to show me the next time we have coffee. Wonder how we can make THAT look like a 'work meeting'?"

and RPS77 for "I'm still irritated that Canada appropriated the maple leaf as its own when there are just as many maple trees in the northern US as in Canada. As grievances go, however, this one isn't very serious."

Oct 23 2009: Ruchi for "Wait, where is the smack talk? I thought that was the entire point?! Or is that only when Massimo is in the pool? ;)"

this comment was immediately followed by ScientistMother with "I AM kicking your asses! Take away week 1 and I rock it!"

There's the smack talk, right there!

Oct 30 2009: Bob O'H for "That's the real reason Cath got her pseudo-American citizenship, so she'd be allowed to continue to blog." and "Ah, you seem to be implying that the blogosphere is full of US biology post-docs complaining about how hard it is to be a post-doc in the US."

Alyssa for "As an astronomer, I feel even more out of the loop. Most bloggers are American and in biology related fields. Half the time I don't get the American references, and the other half I don't understand the biology ones!"

and EcoGeoFemme for "It's good to see posts like this sometimes. I'm sure I'm super Ameri-centric on my blog even though I know I have many readers who are not American. It's good to have a reality check. [...] I too get tired of the bio-sci focus on blogs. I tend to skip the posts that are about bioscience itself, as well as the ones that are all about NIH. I tried to get into it at first, since I figured anything about careerism could be worthwhile, but now I just find those posts tedious".

Nov 6 2009: Wow, what a great week for awesome comments! A bumper crop at harvest time. I had a hell of a time deciding between my favourites... so I put them all in! Enjoy!

Makita for "Who needs a therapist when you can blog and receive comments?"

Professor in Training had an alternative solution with "Therapist? Who needs a therapist when chocolate and Doritos are on hand?"

ScienceGirl settled the matter with "Blogging is therapy!"

Bob O'H for "I still think that if you've got a hockey pool, you're doing something wrong. Like having the heating on too high."

RPS77 for "There's something to be said for self-sown, low maintenance, free-form, self replicating natural groundcover (aka weeds). Sometimes I've gotten pleasant surprises in the form of nice wildflowers when I let "self-sown" plants grow. I will often leave weeds in the gardens that I don't recognize alone for a while and see what they end up looking like. This sometimes has negative results, like letting a 7 foot tall clump of ragweed grow in a flower bed because I didn't know what it was and was hoping in vain for colorful flowers!"

Ruchi for "Perfect. I am narrowing my dating search to old, stupid men. Preferably old, stupid, rich men. After all, don't they say that wealthier couples have a lesser chance of divorce? And according to Pew, you have a lower chance of divorce in Massachusetts than in most other states, so he'd need to be old, stupid, rich and a Massachusetts resident. Plus, live in a city with a major league baseball team and be an atheist.

With all these studies to help me out, what's love got to do with it?"

and then "Well, agnostics also have low rates of divorce, and since you guys are all weird and Canadian having a major hockey team probably counts the same as having a baseball team. The lack of riches is a problem, but you know, that's probably compensated by his being all old and stuff. So, you guys will PROBABLY be okay, but if things don't work out, I'd recommend you move to Boston."

and finally, Lisbeth for "So since we're also doomed - hubby is both younger and smarter than me - I wonder if I should divorce now and take advantage of my (relative!) youth when trying to find an older, stupid man (this way the choice will also be wider...), or wait for the marriage wealth build-up (Ruchi's link) and then be better dressed/have a nicer bike/have a house/know where I will live in the long-run/etc. when I enter the 'market'?"

Nov 27 2009: Bob O'H for "Does this mean you won't be able to infect a pile of people when you get on the plane? Where's the fun in that?

On behalf of the cats, I order you to lay around all week in an ideal position to be sat on. Oh, and make sure you've got plenty of cat treats on hand."

and Chall for ""ditches the swedes" = week 3, when the points started coming in ;)" (oh the trauma of choosing head over heart!)

Dec 04 2009: Chall for "haha, it is indeed after five, now where is that gin and tonic (in your case I guess Cuba Libre or Caprhina?)"

and Mermaid for "After a soggy walk to work, I am sitting at my desk staring at your photos :). Nice to see the sun again, even if only in pictures!"

Dec 11 2009: Massimo for "LOL, I think we have taken the same pictures..."

Microbiologist XX for "I had a similar negative experience on a tour. In the end, we were glad we took it, but we certainly did not like all the structure and time restraints. Of course, we would probably still be lost in some jungle had we tried to go it alone."

and Chall for "well, he was at least going for a player from the OTHER team. Not like that Ballard guy who "accedentially" hit his goalie. sure. An accident. Sucker."

Dec 18 2009: Mermaid for "when the 'Feed the World' Christmas song came out all those years ago, my mom thought it was 'Feed the Whales' and was awfully confused as to why Christmas should matter to whales."

JaneB for "My Godson told me that Christmas was the birthday of the 'Baby Cheeses'"

and Ruchi for "You put up all these gorgeous pictures just to taunt the Americans, didn't you?"

Jan 4 2010: Antipodean for "Try googling the Australian prime minister. He's the love child of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy."

Bob O'H for "Vote for me, or The Beast gets it!

Unless you don't like The Beast, in which case vote for me or The Beast doesn't get it."

and Ricardipus for "I do "without context" particularly well, in all imaginable contexts. Or not."

Jan 8 2010: Special bumper Christmas and New Year version

Beth for "I was watching the news one day and my then husband was in the next room. I called out to tell him something I'd just heard on the news, "omg, George Bush just had precancerous lesions removed from his face," but he heard," George Bush had three cancerous baboons shit into space!""

Eva for "My dad's never funny. This past week he sent me five pictures of two cat litter boxes from different angles, and still managed to not make that funny at all."

Chall for "being a somewhat odd bird here in the land of "oh no, we don't have a good concept of our bodies and nudity", I would say that many people equals nudity with SEX. And since they do it, everyone does it, right?!?!

I find this a bit funny, since my experience is nudity is nudity, and sex is a bit different. Then again, I come from the land where you can have a sauna (or how ever this would be written - can be In a sauna) naked with people from the other gender as well as your own and there will be (gasp!) no sex. I know, isn't it Sooooooo strange?!!? People can actually be naked/scantly clad without humping each other."

Dr. A for "I like reading your posts while I eat my yogurt. It's messy, but fun.

I've never seen a late night movie where scantily-clad folks (ie baring bums and boobs) were performing any type of rite or custom.. usually they are just humping. I'm sure they could find a better way to state this, but they were probably trying to give parents a heads up that it was indeed EDUCATIONAL nudity, not sexual. Watching sexual nudity with parents is far more awkward.

Let's see how many more times we can say bum and boob in this thread!"

Bob O'H for "Can I escalate to tits and arse?"

Alyssa for "Tits boobs butt tits arse? Boobie-boobs, tit arse butt arse tits, tits butt. Titty...arse butt tits arse."

and finally, Dr. A again for "Umm tits and arse are nowhere as cool as boobs and bum."

Jan 15 2010: DuWayne Brayton for "I really miss Portland, where you could probably walk down the street naked - arse and "willy" flapping in the breeze and barely garner the odd look here and there. It is very irritating that people are so very concerned about boobs, bums and willies - like we don't all have some combination of these bits. [...] Besides, exposing your penis, vagina, mammaries and glutes - along with the rest of your body is really rather refreshing. Though right about now, here in MI, it would be rather more refreshing than even I can appreciate..."

Mermaid for "Personally, I like the fur coat aspect of being a PMP rather than the hat. The long flowing coat just makes me look tougher"

and then "OK, I need to start a blog just so I can have an honour roll and use "Like PMSing, but more fun.""

and Unbalanced Reaction for "I was frequently part of two, three, or four hour group meetings in grad school. I wish we had been standing up-- I can guarantee that they would have been much shorter!"

Jan 22 2010: Mermaid for "Metrics + previous last position = grumpy Mermaid. Especially metrics without any ability to spend the money to achieve the metrics. Who thought THAT was a great way to measure performance?

Properly used, metrics can be useful and motivating. But in my experience they were mostly used for evil."

and Chall for "I just hope that something changes for you guys. And that the next people in power will make a big difference in how to handle things like this.

(still being sort of an optimist on the political side of things, obviously. Thinking that people would have things like spines, integrity and standing by their word.)"

Jan 29 2010: ScientistMother for "some of us are too busy skiing in fresh powder to worry about hockey...

oh and PHHHHTTTTTTTT!!!!,

I never said I was more mature than the monkey:)"

Mermaid for "just had a flash of what might be posted should you review the content of our coffee 'meetings' and it made me giggle. First of all, you would have to explain why we voluntarily choose to meet at a place nicknamed 'Pubes'. Good luck with that :)." (I showed her, eh?!)

and Bob O'Hara for "I heard that the pro-prorogue counter-rally was canceled because of the Olympics. Some people were unhappy at this, and are arranging an anti-prorogue pro-prorogue rally."

Feb 5 2010: Mermaid for "I dream about people too. The worst is when you don't really remember initially, and then you run into that person later the same day and the dream flashes into your mind. I tend to blush when that happens, even if the dream is really innocent! Awkward!"

Alyssa for "I totally agree with you about winning the lottery. I think we're all "trained" to say that we'd still work, and put in our time, blah blah blah...but come on, really? Why? LOL"

ScienceGirl for "It is funny to have a pony story to go with a gnarly scar"

and Eva for "My most impressive scar is not very impressive at all, but I got it in a rollerskating accident: I was 13 and I had to take the glass recycling out to the bin, but I also had to meet up with my friend, so I thought it would all be done a lot quicker if I took the glass out on rollerskates and then went straight to her house. I tripped in the doorway, dropped the glass, picked up the bag again, and didn't notice there was now a shard sticking out of the bag. That cut into my leg as I skated away, and I barely felt it because it nicely severed some neurons as well, but you could see quite deep into my leg in the opening it created. I went to the doctor instead of my friend's house. Multitasking fail!

Feb 19 2010: Amanda for "Once I woke up pissed at Dr. Man because he didn't set the alarm clock like I asked him to. As I was brushing my teeth, I was thinking, "He just wasn't listening to me. It was like that all last night. Just like with the sharks chasing the fruit..." Then, I realized it was a dream. It was a good thing I realized it then because I was working up a good mad!"

Mad Hatter for "My country is out of [the FIFA world cup] too (has never made it as far as I know), but that's beside the point. The real point is to play a World Cup pool for bragging rights when we all make better picks than Massimo! :-)"

and Ricardipus for "Woo. Your Canucks beat the Leafs. I wouldn't crow too much about that - you, me, and those monkeys I keep seeing in your sidebar could probably beat the Leafs.

Dion Phaneuf, mark my words, will not be The Great Messiah. On the other hand, it is likely that your Canucks will be in trouble, because if there's one Great Truth Of NHL Hockey, it's that when players leave Toronto, they begin to perform. Watch out for Calgary."

Feb 26 2010: Bumper two week "I forgot to do BRC last week because of the Olympics" edition.

Scientist Mother for "WHAT!!!!! You have readers that don't care about winter sports? AND you want them BACK????? Why?"

Antipodean for "Australia has tended to pick up a gold medal recently (3 Gold 3 bronze in total). One of these golds was because everybody fell over in the speed skating in the semi-final and then everybody fell over again in the final. Our plucky hero was far enough behind everybody else in both races that he missed the pile-up. It's now entered the vernacular as "doing a Bradbury"."

ScientistMother again for "what do you mean you're letting something like the olympics get in the way of our hockey pool??? Its a sad day, Cath."

Chall for "I watched some of the game last night and am not all together convinced that it will go my way Wednesday.... although, Swedes are always better against better teams! We don't like pounding the other team into gravel and humiliate them as _certain_ teams with 18 - 0 does..."

and ScientistMother yet again for "The protestors have lost all respect and support. Yes they had legitimate points, but its pisses me off when protestor impact veterans (you may not like war but they fight for your right to protest) and when children miss out. I felt so bad for those kids in the downtown eastside that waited to see the torch and then couldn't. Then to vandalize?? what does breaking windows have to do with protesting?"

Mar 8 2010: Mermaid for "Yay, fabulous birthday! Sounds like the perfect way to celebrate. How nice of the IOC to organize the Olympics around you."

and "Awesome wheelchair ramps! And three cheers to the genius who redid the work, correcting the assumption that fastening to ice would be good enough. It was pretty mushy up there and the ramps would definitely have shifted were it not for the quick thinking of certain people :)."

Chall for "I am now a bit confused about why the commentator stressed "we beat their all NHL team" since as far as I know, US has a NHL packed team too??"

Thomas Joseph for "We whooped Canadian butt. Why would we not be talking to you?"

Microbiologist XX for "What would happen if you were to say, accidentally, knock one of those piles of rocks down? Would you get chased through the streets by people wearing those sporty new Canadian olympic team gloves?"

Mar 12 2010: Bumper "Own the Goldium!!!" Edition

Kyrsten for "I can't get over how nuts this city is. Friday night, when the game was on, we were walking to find a place to have dinner where we could watch Canada vs Slovakia - and everytime a goal was scored, entire condo towers would burst out into cheering. I mean, the cheering was literally coming from the sky! it was not uncommon to see people run out onto their balconies and holler down on the streets of downtown. I was out at Robson and Burrard on Friday night when Canada won over Slovakia, and I've never, ever seen anything like it. I have a few photos, but I've never seen that much red and white! We wandered down Granville, and at one point, I was pinned in by cheering people on all sides and *couldn't* move. It was awesome."

Thomas Joseph for "The only fitting ending to this Olympics is an American win over Canada. It would be the just payback for the loss to Canada at Salt Lake. Home soil defeat for home soil defeat and we'll call it even.

Go U-S-A!"

But then, after the game...

"Total heartbreak of a game. After regulation, I thought momentum was on our side, and hoped that if we could at least get through overtime, Miller would make the difference in a shoot out. Alas, it was not meant to be. *sigh*

Congratulations Canada, and while we leave with the most medals, Canada certainly owned the top of the podium with a record setting number of gold medals. You hosted a fabulous Winter Olympics, and you should be proud."

(Sorry, Thomas! And thank you!)

Antipodean for "The whole of Canada is now drunk."

Natalie for "I live out in the sticks - the nearest neighbour is 0.5 km down the road (ie before it turns to dirt). We don't watch sports at all, and I haven't been following the games. But after reading your post, I was moved enough to 1. live-stream the 3rd period and overtime and 2. read your post out loud to my husband, who came into the kitchen to catch the OT and winning goal. There were no shouts from the sky nor people pouring out to the street. No beer, no facepaint, no cackling excitement of hundreds of people packed into a bar to watch on the big screen. Just two people in a tiny kitchen, hugging in relief and celebration. Go Canada Go.

Thanks Cath:)"

(This comment made me smile for a full week, and I'm smiling again now as i re-read it!)

Chall for "something similar happened Friday after the nerve wrecking curling final. I'm sorry but I was soooo happy about it. I ended up buying a lot of drinks for friends :) maybe not the cheapest, but we got some extra ones since people were happy and happy that we were happy. it's just a great thing when there is happiness in the air!! :D"

and Microbiologist XX for "I still find epp tubes in the freezer labelled "PCR 1" or something similar. So, yeah, I can tell it's not a tube of frozen water, but what the hell is PCR1? Was it so awesome that I was sure not to forget and felt compelled not to label it properly. This brings me to two important questions: (1) Can any PCR really be that awesome? and (2) Why, after so many years in the lab, do I still convince myself that I will remember what this actually means despite the fact that I never do?"

Mar 19 2010: ScientistMother for "you can't find anything because fashion sucks ass right now. Its all eighties inspired. Everytime I look at people, I think OMG I wore that exact outfit in grade 10 (~15 years old)."

Lisbeth for "When we went out Saturday night, I remarked that all the (young) girls looked like they had dressed up; ie. it didn't match their age. Then I realised that's because their outfits to me signal "80's dress up party" and not usual 'real' clothes!

Been there; done that, NEVER again!!"

and Microbiologist XX for "Yeah, you can thank the 80's resurgence for the lovely attire hanging in the stores now. I am just sitting this session out. I've already got a set of pics from the 80's that make me cringe every time I look at them, I do NOT need to add to that collection. I will thank myself later. I'm sure about it."


Mar 26 2010: Ambivalent Academic for "St. Patricia Day is August 25. Not aware of any drinking traditions surrounding this saint, so as far as celebrations go...eh. But now you can tell people they got the wrong date when they wish yo a Happy St. Patty's Day".

Tideliar for "My god those guys must have the stamina of OXEN!"

and Chall for "it's like watching a cat find a cat nip bag in the cubboard.... "it's all MINE" :D

(Your happiness about this Olympics I mean, duh. By the way, you want me to email you a table of all the medals per country, broken down with gold,silver and bronze? *nudge nudge* ;) )

(Sorry... I will do the final Olympic pool results thread after the Paralympics are over (not that those medals count for the pool, but I'm going to Whistler this weekend to watch some events and do some skiing myself, so I won't be able to blog))


Post(s) of the Week:

Oct 2 2009: Bob O'Hara for "ACORN and casting nets too widely"

and Prof-like Substance for the awesome graphic in "I wasn't ready"

Oct 9 2009: Crystal for "Chatter"

Eva Amsen for "Dear Mrs Fernandez"

and PZ Myers for "I get email"

Oct 16 2009:Eva Amsen (second week in a row!) for "Speaking Styles and Papers: Academia Divided"

and Uphilldowndale for "Inevitable"

Oct 23 2009: Viktor Poór for "The Nobel Prize in Medicince 2009 (comic strip)"

and The Digital Cuttlefish for "New bling for Saturn! (Galileo's revenge)"

Oct 30 2009: Ruchi for "Equity, Equity, Equity"

and Massimo for "On scooping"

Nov 6 2009: Jeanne Sather for "What's your happy ending?"

Alyssa for "Ah, "science""

and T. Ryan Gregory for "Microbial art is alive!"

Nov 27 2009: Ruchi for "Yes, this is important"

Viktor Poór for "Caenorhabditis species (comic strip)"

and Jen (Cake Wrecks blog) for "New discoveries from the animal kingdom"

Dec 04 2009: Lots this week as I try to catch up! Next week might be a big one too!

KJHaxton for "Should we be polite on blogs?"

Chris Surridge for "This is it!" (best first post ever?!)

The Bean-Mom for "Nemesis, grudge"

Massimo for "Pet peeves"

Chall for "Thanksgiving"

and Alyssa for "Academic snobbery"

Dec 11 2009: Jennifer Rohn for "In which we go a little cycle-pathic"

Steffi Suhr for "And now for some perspective"

and Cobi Smith for "How long is a piece of string? Random sampling can tell us!"

Dec 18 2009: Chris Surridge for "How to... count"

Cromercrox for "The discovery of a new kind of radiation"

The Bean-Mom for "Holiday photo FAIL"

and Prof-like Substance for "Soooo professional"

Jan 4 2010: GrrlScientist for "Gift wrapping with parrot companions"

and Jeanne Sather for "Christmas lights"

Jan 8 2010: Silver Fox for "Geology dreams: some beers at a meeting" (when she dreams, she always knows which way is North. How cool is that?!)

and Caroline Sober for "Incarcerated by Santa Claus" (this appears to be a corporate blog from Promega, but it's actually really good and not too corporate / marketingy at all! Check it out!)

Jan 15 2010: (lots, because I'm still catching up on blog reading from the holidays)

NCBI ROFL for "I hope the lab coat was clean..." (their new blog, Pwned Experiments, is just as funny as the original!)

Hermitage for "Ruminations on time management" (she's back! And hating the guts of the Unicorn Fairy Princesses like never before!)

Beth for "An analysis of the Canadian men's Olympic hockey roster" (hot vs. not)

Kimli for "Swallowing magpie eggs" (she's happy about wangs. And monkeys)

and News Arse for "Coldest night forces Newcastle residents into long sleeves" (so true) 

Jan 22 2010: Ruchi for "The newest, most awesomest eco trend!" (Ladies! Recycle your fat!)

PZ Myers for "America's next religion!" (Choose your next state religion in a fun gameshow format!)

and Very Demotivational for "Branches" (You guys know that I only pick the very best of the best LOLcats etc, right?) 

Jan 29 2010:  Mad Hatter for "Love at first sight?" (projects, not people. Well, people too)



Bob O'Hara for "You can see my data from space" (I've never even been able to see mind down a microscope. Stoopid molecular biology).

and Henry Gee for "Three short stories about language" (despite subsequent posts and comments about what actually happened in person, I still agree with most of what Henry wrote in this post)

Feb 5 2010: DrugMonkey for "Roosters and Lab Rats" (the "blood on the hands" of vegetarians who eat eggs and milk)

Stephen Curry for "Still running" (running, photography, and art)

and Viktor Poór for "The vired iPod (comic)" (what would a virus listen to? Dunno, but it's probably something retro)

Feb 19 2010: Prof-like Substance for "Painful budget cuts"(it's painful funny 'cos it's true)
Linda Lin for "You know you've worked in the lab too long..." (add your own contribution to the comments!)

and Stephen Curry (again!) for "Homeopathy: that's Numberwang!" (Stephen takes his life in his hands, risking arsenic poisoning a sugar rush to make a point

Feb 26 2010: Kristi Vogel for "Home on the Range: Bovid Weaponry, and a Female Cernunnos" (I somehow managed to talk about kilts in the comment thread on this excellent post about the evolution of horns and antlers)

Bob O'Hara for "Jerry Fodor Fails Evolution 101. Again". (If you thought pigs might fly before Bob wrote something for the Deep Thoughts section of his "Deep Thoughts and Silliness" blog, you were wrong...)

Henry Gee for "The New Alternative" (you can't go wrong with a post taking the piss out of woo)

and Chall for "Go looking for happiness" (the grass is not always greener... not even on Facebook) 

Mar 8 2010: Kristi Vogel (two weeks in a row!) for "The skeleton zoo" (the science of the winter Olympics)

Jeanne Sather for "Where did my fear go?" (life with metastatic cancer)

And, of course, EcoGeoFemme with the wonderful "ScienceGirl's baby shower" (this is one of the best ideas I've ever seen on a blog! Thank you to everyone who participated, too!) 

Mar 12 2010: Elizabeth Moritz for "What your gloves say about you" (apparently I'm a traditionalist. Who knew?)

Raf Aerts for "Acceptosaurus" ("the evolutionary tree of rejectosaurs and acceptosaurs, showing that Rejectosaurus resubmittens is not an acceptosaur, but a dead-end offshoot of the line leading to true rejectosaurs.")

Toaster Sunshine for "Bridge Cheese!" (Toaster dreams of having fun with goats. But don't worry, the post is Safe For Work).

and FAIL Blog for "Bike Win" (I wonder if I have time to try this before the Paralympics start?) 

Mar 19 2010: MissPrism for "Compare and Contrast" (yay, she's back! And highlighting the very different way in which the BBC reported a study done just in women, and a study done just in men).

Joseph Lewis for "Where do you see yourself in five years?" (sci-fi inspired LOLs from the usually serious Work Awesome blog)

and Information is Beautiful for "When sea levels attack" (very scary graphic of which cities will be consumed when by rising sea levels) 

Mar 26 2010: Silver Fox for "An Alaskan lunch overlooking the Glacier" (Art! Fossils! Bears! Beers! Bears with beers! No glacier, though)
and Jennifer Rohn for "In which I tell it like it is" (the joy of jargon) 

Divangelising

Yes folks, it's another post full of TMI. Especially for the guys. I know that at least one of my readers will be happy, but others among you may wish to go and read something else instead.

Why not join the hockey pool while you're waiting for normal service to resume? You have until 7pm EST today to make your first picks.

----------------

I first read about menstrual cups (specifically the Moon Cup) on an advert posted on the inside of a toilet door in Heathrow airport. I remember the occasion because it made quite the impression; I was in my late teens, and my nose wrinkled with disgust as I read the text. When I came out of the stall, one of the girls I was travelling with said "did you get the same advert as me? GROSS!!!" I had to agree - crazy dirty hippies!

However, I am now well and truly converted. A growing unease about the environmental impact of disposable products, combined with my discovery of green bloggers such as Ruchi, convinced me to look into the Diva Cup a few months ago. It took several posts by Ruchi and other trusted bloggers to get me to the stage of reading the product's testimonials and FAQ pages, and I gradually realised that it wasn't such a scary thing after all. So off to London Drugs I went*, and after reading the instructions very thoroughly, I made the switch.

And I aint going back.

Seriously, it's an amazing, life-changing product. You put it in, and just forget about it for the day. I've never had to empty it more than twice a day, and never at work or while out and about - just once at home before leaving for the day, and then again before bed. I no longer have to worry about having the right number and kind of tampons stashed away at home, at work, and in my various bags. I also don't have to worry about disposing of used tampons in friends' houses or other places with no sani-bins. I can vouch for the safe and comfortable use of the cup while running, cycling, swimming, circuit training, doing yoga, and skiing**. And you know what? No string. On the one occasion that I got caught out without my Diva, I broke out the aforementioned handbag tampon stash, and found the string to be more inconvenient and gross than I'd remembered, and much worse than using the Diva.

It did take a bit of getting used to. The first couple of days were a little uncomfortable, but once I got the hang of inserting and (especially) removing it, I had no other problems. You really do need to read the instructions - there's a right way and a wrong way to put it in. If it doesn't open up fully, it will leak - but luckily I was using back-up that night (I highly recommend doing this until you're comfortable with the cup). I also had a couple of spills while learning how to remove the cup - maybe wait until a lighter day before using it for the first time! I will confess to standing in the bath to remove the cup until I was sure I'd got the hang of it, somewhere near the start of my second cycle.

Is it gross? The first time was... different, but I got used to it very quickly (again, starting to use the cup on a lighter day might help to mitigate that initial reaction!) Now that I'm used to it, (and because I'm such a biology geek), I actually appreciate having a more detailed insight into my cycle, not that there's any real practical benefit to this!

As I mentioned above, it took multiple positive reviews over a period (ha!) of years for me to even consider switching, so I'm not expecting anyone who reads this to go rushing out to the store THIS INSTANT. But I do hope that I can be one influence among many for someone who's already somewhere along that same path.

Viva la Diva!

----------------


*For Ruchi's benefit: the French text on the bilingual packaging says "coupe menstruelle" (menstrual cup, obviously) and "protection d'hygiène féminine" (feminine hygiene protection, duh.)

**Not until Day 3, obviously. Incidentally, the Diva is also fully compatible with moaning, whining, lying on the couch, eating chocolate, and trying to calculate the maximum tolerated dose of ibuprofen.