Legitimizing Nerditude

So I started a new job, and now I look at stuff that people "found" in there food all day. It's funny having the opportunity to peer into the mind of people who operate under a completely different set of mores and concepts of right and wrong. It's amazing what people will try all in the name of the quick buck or "sticking it to The Man" with no rational awareness that what they are doing is illegal.

I do occasionally find beauty in the job. In the past two weeks, the lab has had a perpetual visitor at the door. A black bird (with two large orange spots on its wings), whom I have dubbed "Gilderoy", hangs out just outside the door and looks at himself in the glass all day. You scare him away, and he comes right back to peer at himself. He doesn't peck at the glass. He doesn't flap his wings. He just stands there, sings, and admires his impeccable visage. I think he may have dive-bombed one too many windshields.

Also for your viewing pleasure: scenes from a microscope.

Iodine crystals under polarized light (63 x)

PET under polarized light (100 x)

Glitter (100x)