Letters to a Persian Cat » Politeness | Letters to a Persian Cat

Just an ordinary day

admin — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 18:29:11 +0000

Came to my lab at 9.30 am, with the firm idea to finish a manuscript and work a bid on my DSc thesis,

At 9.40 am my master student arrived, whom a had not seen for the last 3 month after he did his last experiments. Two weeks ago he called to tell me that all his MSc thesis drafts got lost after he visited Munich Oktoberfest. O.k., I thought, the guy will have to rewrite the few parts he had not backed up then. A week ago he send an e-mail to tell me his parents had used his backup USB stick to store all holyday photos on, thereby overwriting the backup. Today he came around with a MSC thesis rewritten from scrap within a week, to ask me my opinion and corrections. I asked him to show me his protocoll-book with the original records and data. He sad “Sorry, but the Lab-book was also stolen at the Oktoberfest”. This is the final disaster: Without the original protocol documentation, all his master thesis are worth nothing and publication is a joke.

At 11.20 am a secretary from another Institute asked me for an advice of how to organize a lecture series. I told her this and that, and also that the students usually like to have name badges to be identified as course participants at the cafeteria. An hour later she asked me how such name badges can be made, and what she should write on them. I remained very calm, I don’t know why.

After lunch my office door opended and in came a strange guy from Japan. Looked like a world traveller with two suitcases. Explained me he just arrived from Minnesota University, where he skipped his BSc biology study. Asked me if he can work with me, doing proteomics and radiation biology. He said he can not go to Japan, cause everything there is radioactive, and he has documentation in his suitcase, and therefore the Japanese police is after him. He can not return to the US, since they also hunt him, because he knows too much. He said he does not want to study further, ’cause Master or PhD is too hard for him. And becoming a professor would not satisfy his ambitiouns to tell the world all the things he knows (and which are written in his documents). He also considered becoming a director of his own company, but he is not so much interested in making lots of money. At the moment he has not a single pence to take the bus to town, therefore he asked me very politely if he could sleep somewhere in our institutes building ( I like the Japanese people so much, for their politeness. He bowed again and again, even if I told him that our Institute is also completely contaminated by radioactive stuff, and that he would risk his last few brain cells by staying here overnight).

So happy, that tonight I go rehersing with our rock band. I hope we play some dirty Punk tonight in the backstore of this Munich petrol station.

Sorry, but I did not managed to work on the manuscript, or on the DSc thesis. But I promise, tomorrow I will do nothing else (unless a silly MSc student comes with new horror messages, or a stupid secretary askes for advice how to sharpen a pencil, or a Japanese weirdo wants to colaborate with me to teach the whole mankind).

Shopping and Raving in Munich – Burkas wellcome

admin — Thu, 30 May 2013 15:43:39 +0000

Ghazal Dear, I still regret that you have been so much occupied with shopping here in Munich, but we never used any of the fine occasions to go out to one of the music clubs in town (except for the Bayerischer Hof Nightclub). This year many of the Munich clubs announced their parties, and I think they might attract at least some of the tourists that come here every summer from Arab countries and – very much like you – usually associate Munich only with shopping.

Shopping and Raving in Munich – Burkas wellcome

Take Care, my Dear

Michael

That’s what we are needed for

admin — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 15:59:21 +0000

On its concert tour through Israel a German chanson singer introduced one of his songs (about the mutual dependence of men and woman) as following:

“A woman needs a man mainly for two things: First, to open the champaign bottles, and second, to explaine things.”
One of his fellow musicians, a violinist girl replied after a few seconds “Hold on, wasn’t there one more thing, I just can’t remember what it was”.
I guess you are referring to our duty to wait for her at the side of the pool, with the a fresh towel ?
Yes, you are almost right. It has something to do with waiting. But woman don’t need a man who waits for them, but they need a man they can wait for, like Penelope was waiting for Odysseus.

A more modern version, although from last century is the below graphic that Marina gave me last year for birthday. It shall symbolize me leaving in the morning for work, and returning home in the evening. I have to admit, the most realistic on this image is the happiness of the dog.

A fine gentleman …

admin — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:03:05 +0000

Dear Ghazal,
If you ever heard Jimmy Hendrix giving an interview, you would not believe it is the same person as playing here “Hey Joe”, about coldblooded shooting down his Lady for adultery.
In the interviews, Jimmy Hendrix appears as the most careful, educated, polite person you can imagine, even showing some shyness. Unlike contemporary musicians, he alwas tried to be nice to the journalists and answer the questions with some sort of humor that everybody could understand and laugh about.

Enjoy, Michael

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Dear Michael, good song, but which interview were you referring to ? I got the feeling you posted this music video only because the brownish colour so well matches the design of your blog.
Take Care
/ghazal

Love in the Era of Social Networking

admin — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:55:32 +0000

Ghazal my Dear,About a year ago we were sitting at the bone fire on the bank of the Isar river and I was badly condeming destiny for beeing so cruel to me by sending you here, the most fascinating and inspiring person I ever met, but at an too young age to get closer with somebody like me who was in his fourties already. There at the river bank, laying on the peble stones and talking open about our dreams and about science and life, you remember I told you how little I could understand your confession that – except for a school-mate – you only had boy-friends that you met at internet dating-sites. My suggestion to you, just to wait until a real brave and strong person approaches you in a coffee-bar or in the train or at the university, without going through all this cyber-dating proceedure could not convince you much, even though I argued that this short relationship that we have here in Munich (you call it friendship, for me it is a bit more)is the best example that two people can still meet each other outside the cyber-world. The fact that I simply went to you after the lectures and never hesitated to invite from then on almost every day to go out, without having ever seen your Facebook identity, this you obviously considered an exception. Maybe you saw me as a social fossil, or an immoral person who stands outside the social networks.

Zoe Margolis, writer of the blog “Girl with a one-track mind” and author of a book with the same name (under her pseudonym Abby Lee) wrote a remarkable witty and obviously experienced essay about the evolution of a relationship in the era of social networking. It shows that it is so damned easy to turn a loos exchange of some thoughts with a so-called “friend” at Facebook into a more and more privat and intimate relationship. Because it is just words, ideas, and maybe photos that are exchanged, one never has to present itself in his entire personality. The social networks are almost invented to polish a personal identity from all unwanted details. It starts with the very simple thing as a photograph on your privat page. It usually shows you at a younger age, in a very pleasant condition, sometimes after sophisticated Photoshop work. One of the obvious examples is Zoe Margolis Blog-page itself: Whereas in reality in front of a TV camera she appeares as a mature, self-confident woman, her blog autobiography shows her on a college girl style picture. I”m not trying to make any judgement here about which of the two appears more attractive (this as usually lays in the eye of the viewer), for sure the two images almost show two different characters. And as there are these huge uncertainties to find out how somebody looks in reality, if you only know him through social networks, the rest of your web identity is usually also a reflection of how you would like to be, rather than what you really are.
Zoe Margolis describes in her short essay in a very clear and pointed way how sooner or later the real person behind the web identity has to unvail itself, if the relation gets closer and closer. And a relationship goes trough a difficult, not so say catastrophic time if confronted with these torn images. How hard it is and how painful if the social network link suddenly dries out.
Zoe Margolis describes this as following:

“Once upon a time, outside the social network of the Internet, you’d just shrug if someone dropped communication and accept that if they really wanted to stay in contact, they’d simply pick up the ”phone and say hello. But in the web of modern interactivity, where you get used to the regular loud chatter of the (false?) intimacy of the social network, the sudden distance and silence from someone you’ve connected with on a frequent and personal basis is –ironically – deafening.”

Political Power, Sex and the 21st Century E-Communication

admin — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:50:53 +0000

Anthony Weiner, highly praised democrate representative and candidate for N.Y. mayor resigned this week over his cyber-sex affair that is in the media since may. Mr Weiners activities outside his office duties, which involved sending explicit photographs of his most precious body areas to several femal followers through Twitter and Facebook are still difficult to judge in terms of their moral or political implications, both for his political peers and voters but even more for his wife Huma Abedin. Are they really as immoral as the Washington Times tries to makes us believe, or is this media outcry rather a hypocracy when it comes to our own secret phantasies, that we like to forbid to those who are paid with our tax money ? I”m wondering what would happened if Mr. Weiner would not have send his “Bulge” pictures and “Shaved Breast” pictures and testosteron-loaded short messages to younger ladies or university students, but to elder house-wives or congress representatives of the republicians ? Would have Mrs. Nancy Pelosi, congress speaker and his party fellow demanded his resignation with the same mercyless ? It is really hard to tell how much Mr. Weiner must be considered a liar and therefore banned from the political establishment, or whether he is a victim of the Big Brother media establishment, who is regularily searching for fresh blood to drink. I wont make any judgement here myself, I think it is about the people who voted for him as representative to decide over his future, and in particular it is about his wife Huma Abedin to consider if she wants to stay with him for the rest of their life.
What I like to suggest here, however is that Weiners affairs highlights the validity of an old issue: that of the erotic component that is related to power. In particular in the sphere of politics, that in Weiners case very simply ment that he had a sort of power over ~ 50 000 people that he represented of his New York district, power is easily gained by questionable personal qualities such as networking, bribing, lobbying. What comes with this political power is an ever increasing media presence, and it was especially the later that Anthony Weiner very obviously exploited for his cyber-sex relationships. If he would have used an anonymous user-name such as “dear-Mr-president” or “democrats-bulge” or “oral-bill” for his twitter and Facebook accounts, instead of clearly showing that it is Anthony Weiner here, your most appreciated and praised democrats futur NY mayor that sends you these steam-hot messages and pictures of his body parts, he would have received much less reponse for this, considering that the photos he send around showed a rather prude clerkes physiology (no tatoos or body piercings or scarves from gang fights or military combats). It was obviously this “added value” of offering his verbal sex and body pictures to young ladies in combination with the thrill of having all this “dirty stuff” with a guy whom the rest of the nation only knows as Mr. Super-Clean and everybodies darling. And for the failure of this attempt, i.e. exploiting a political function that has been given to somebody by his voters to attract femals for love affairs, I praise the public media who exposed this story.

Natural Confusion

admin — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:12:42 +0000

Ghazal my dear,
I hope you don”t mind me adding to our long lasting conversation and exchange of ideas some external thoughts. A witty blogger at Iranian.com (called ComraidsConcubine) posted this dialogue and therefore in a most intelligent way paraphrased the wide-spread ignorance about nations and cultures.

If you want to read more of Comraids Concubine thoughts, go to her blog in english or in persian.

Take Care, enjoy the evening
Michael

The excited Explorer

admin — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 13:18:56 +0000

hi michael,
you send yesterday the article from “The Onion” about the first people on the moon. i was very shocked initially by the rude language. i could not believe that an educated person such as you reads and even circulates such a primitive conversation ? But then I reconsidered and tried to understand what the article is mainly about: O.k., it uses a lot of blasphemic words, like you hear on Octoberfest. But when we ignore those, what remains from this conversation of Armstrong and Aldrin during their first walk over the moon is: They were just emotionally overwhelmed. And there is absolutely nothing bad about this, in opposite: I find it bad if somebody who discovers nature, explores the unknown and steps into a sphere no one else has been before, if he (or she) does not allow any expression of excitement.
Therefore, if Armstrong and Aldrin would have indeed shouted “Fucking Christ, we”re on the bloody Moon”, I would 100% feel with them. They were human as we, and why shouldn”t they go absolutely mad walking on the moon, if we are already so much excited just looking on the moon from here.
So who knows, maybe once we discover a gene for a strange disease, we will also shout in the lab “Holy shit, I found this fucking mutation”.

Enjoy the evenig, sleep well
/ghazal

Beach without you

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:10:07 +0000

Hi Ghazal, my Dear,

I hope you are doing well and feel o.k.
Is it quiet now in the Lab ? Usually this is the best time to concentrate on the project. I hope so much that you find some intellectual satisfaction with the project and not have to consider it as a hard burden and a duty to fulfill.
I prepared some text about the mapping, the markers, the mouse strains and linkage. It should somehow fit into the thesis structure (as much as I remember it was part 2 or so). Just break it apart into the several sub-headings.

And of course, if you find in the text something difficult to understand or wrong or strange, please write me back. I very much like the intellectual conversation with you and I learn a lot from your questions as well.

I will also send you something that explains the animal experiments (the older ones we did years ago and the JF1 x FVB crosses). Was Prof. T. already around ?

I think of you and your aristocratic character, that is so much different from the people here around which are very loud and miss any sense of ellegance. This is usually what one can expect at a beach,but the kids like this and therefore I have to decline.
I”m waiting to see you next week.

Take Care,my dear

Michael

……………………………………………………….

Hi Michael!!

T. has not been here yet. I think he chose this week on purpose. Both
you and M. are on vacation.
It is a bit quiet yes. I put aside the labwork yesterday and today to
sit and read and write. btw, the sequencing worked!! im happy. me and
claudia will maybe analyse the data later today.
it is not a burden to do this project. everything has been good so far.

I do not know how to thank you for writing so much for me. i have
written a bit about the mapping and microsatellite and QTL. but it was
not as much as yours. so thank you. you should not do this on your
vacation. just go and have fun. right now i am concentrating at the
first part with chernobyl and thyroid cancer.

take care and see you next week!

/ghazal

………………………………………………………
Ghazal my Dear,

Good to hear that you managed so well to continue with the project and the thesis during this week. Good luck with the sequence analysis,hope you and C. find some interesting variations between the two strains.
I attache a piece of text that describes the rational for using the JF1 and the FVB/N strain in this project. Please double-check if any of the chromosomal loci or gene names are consistent with what you wrote before. Also, in case you find any other discrepancies with the other text-pieces,please mark it in red and we will go through when I am back.

Ghazal, please don”t feel obliged to say “Thank you” for these small pieces of text. It is my very duty as a supervisor to help you with this. It is you who is doing the sophisticated and very decent experimental work day-by-day, without complaining that it is getting boring. Therefore,it is in fact me who must be extremely grateful. Don”t forget this, please.
And what is maybe even more relevant, that you always have this endless patience with me, if I come around and require that you spend the time after work with me. No MSc student has the commitment of going to the movies or to an exhibition or to the beach with its supervisor, or attend with him a concert or watch the meteor shower in the middle of the night. You could have in fact complaine with Prof. T. right from the beginning and ask for another project or another supervisor. I know I was always a bit violently when I asked you to meet me after work,and who knows how often I have disturbed your planing for the evening when you wanted to read or write something for the project. Therefore,it is the least I can do to help you to get everything together know for the thesis, it is a very small compensation for all the nice days and moments you have been with me and for having been always so patient and listened to my silly stories and telling me something from you. You could have easily send me to hell, you never did (I hope you dont wish you could have done this, but you did not wanted to risk your project).

Ghazal, you will see at the end (and everybody will agree) that a successful MSc project does not need this archetypical and hirarchical relation between student and supervisor, but it also can be done if there is a (sort of) frienship.
For me,to be honest, you are too much a mystery to call this a simple friendship.

I wish you a pleasant evening, a relaxing night, and nice dreams.

Michael

PS:How is your watch doing ? I hope that “No news are good news” and it runs precisely now, since you gave it a bit more freedom around your arm.

………………………………………………………
hi michael,

i think i found one mutation on the third exon.

yes u are right i could ask prof. t. for another project (and he would not give me another since i already tried in the beginning). but i enjoy it here i would not do it. u could also be a bad supervisor and not wanting to help. so i am grateful.

i send u a text with some questions. answer just if u have time. no hurry.

my watch is suprisingly doing great!its strange.

have a good day!!
/ghazal
……………………………………………………….
Ghazal my Dear,

Congratulations for finding a sequence variation in FGF10 in one of the mouse strains..
You could check (using Ensembl and search for FGF10 in mouse,and click on the left panel on the button for variations) if this sequence alteration was already described in any other mouse strain. You should also check if it might cause an amino-acid change, in case it is still part of the coding sequence (I remember large parts of exon 3 were already 3″ UTR. Maybe you find something.
Before I left, I already ordered primers to test the FGF10 transcript and expression. Could you,please write a mail to O. and ask if and where she has stored the JF1 and FVB/N RNA or cDNA from thyroid (she extracted it as part of her MSc for the expression array).

Thanks for writing that you feel o.k. with how the project developed and that you are o.k. with everything and don”t regret that you came to Munich. You gave me the nicest and most exciting summer of my life, Ghazal. I never felt so much inspiration, excitement and satisfaction to share with somebody a project and many hours after work as with you.

Take Care

Michael

PS:I go through your text today and send you comments tomorrow

Back to the Scrap-Yard

admin — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:19:02 +0000

Ghazal, my Dear,

After dropping you at the Guesthouse today, I was quarreling once again with myself for having missed the opportunity to kiss you. It was silly, I know, in particular after I made this terrible observation at a scrap-yard for cars. There I found the remnants of a red Toyota Corolla, that had its upper part shaved away as if St.Michaels sword was used to convert into a cabriolet, and the chairs stained with blood. Obviously, a whole families life was extinguished in an terrible car accident, perhaps within tenth of a second. Maybe at least once in life one should see how instantly all our long-term plans can literally end in a scrap-compactor and our patience while waiting for second chances in life becomes obsolete.

Therefore I so much enjoy the nice moments beeing with you, although I always know in advance how terrific it will be later on when I have to leave you.

Michael

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hi michael,

yes it is nice to be with you. but as friends. and we know that i will leave soon, to go back home.
about the kiss,i am greatful that you did not go so far because i appreciate your friendship very much.hope you understand.

good night and have a good week-end.

/ghazal
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Hi Ghazal dear,

I very much appreciate your clear and firm statement, I think it is always best to be honest. I hope you considered my open, maybe shameless words in the last e-mail the same way and can tolerate them. The things are as they are, I have no clear idea how to handle it, no experience how to get alonge when emotional and professional relations intermingle. I very much admire that you deal with everything more wisely. For me it is a big help that you can live with the persian-cat blog (as long as it keeps your privacy intact) and that you have no problems communicating by e-mail with me.
What is most important right now, that your MSc project is not hampered, I think it even benefits from it. If you got a different feeling, please tell me.

Take Care, Sleep well

Michael