Sarah Hird, PhD

A very full box of munchkins. I had already eaten 3.

31.

I swear Dunkin is the most chaotic chain in America. Generally chaotic good but sometimes not (“is this coconut in my drink?”).
I just ordered 10 munchkins. Guess how many I got. Go ahead. You’ll never guess.

a boy is sitting in front of a television playing mario Alt: a cartoon boy is sitting in front of a television playing mario

I need a new video game. Any recs?

Close-up of a black and white abstract pattern of microbes with colourful coral-like shapes in blue, pink, green, and purple accents.

Society Champion, Eliza_coli has designed Multicoloured Microbes colouring sheets which provide a fun microbiome-themed activity for outreach work. Society members can now access these, alongside a host of other resources:
https://microb.io/3N9ESZP

Spent more time on my porch this morning than any winter morning I can recall. It was lovely!

This video - without a neighbor’s generator going in the background- is 💯x better.

Now that the sun is out, so much ice is thawing & falling out of the trees, it looks & sounds like medium-heavy rain. Yay, I guess?

I love caves, inflatables and science communication. This month is #colorectal cancer awareness month - the disease that has been ruining me the last 20 months. Get a colonoscopy folks. It’s not as fun as what I’m doing here but it ain’t that bad either.

Pick a button meme where the choices are “be aware of objective reality” and “get anything done”

Every minute of every day.

Two guys placing scooters near a crosswalk.

I saw some guys in Levy vests placing rentable Levy scooters near a crosswalk on campus. Is that how this works???? The company just leaves their scooters anywhere they want? I wondered where they were coming from… now I know, I guess.

Thanks!

YouTube video by LoveMovieQuotes Office Space (1999) - Every day is the worst day of my life

So….this. m.youtube.com/watch?v=_o26...

a person standing in a puddle of water with their feet in it Alt: a person walking through sludgey water

SLUDGE is the perfect freaking word for it. 💯💯💯

a man in a plaid shirt is sitting in front of a window with a sticker that says ugg Alt: Schmidt from new girl in a plaid shirt sitting in front of a window with the text ugggghhhhhh

And then when that was sorted (aka I capitulated), they follow-up with “do you have the software pre-approval form?”

And…I don’t. I forgot that was a thing.

HOW CAN ANYONE REMEMBER ALL THE (MADE UP & ARBITRARY) THINGS?

Background - I’ve been fighting with acct people about the fact UConn says all fractions of an annual software contract past a grant’s end date can’t be paid off the grant. So 1 month ($6) of an annual subscription has to be accounted for - even though an annual subscription is in the grant.

a man says " it 's too much " in front of a window Alt: David from Schitts creek saying " it 's too much " in front of a window

Are administrative-burden audits a thing? I think the amount of STUFF UConn requires of our time is excessive - trainings, inspections (ok these might be fine), paperwork, surveys, approvals, etc.

It’d be interesting to quantify (in work hours & $$$) although I already know it’s TOO MUCH

In case you missed it: our review titled "Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities" is out! 🚨

Let me hit you with some highlights on why spatial structure matters. (and why you should care!)

Sharing is appreciated 🙏 🧵👇

doi.org/10.1093/fems...

Just a head’s up: That is not snow out there. It’s wet cement.

That classic New England pastime of waiting for the power to go out. 👍👀👍

#NutmegSky

Good to see us among the states w/o official ICE co-op.

I did not know there were so many of these and I love them all.

Happy Darwin Day, y’all!

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

with a PhD from @uconnhistory.bsky.social. our alums do great things!

Things are going swimmingly.

Screenshot of an Elden ring starting character build with a bitmoji head that looks vaguely like me.

I’m about to waste A LOT of time making a Women in STEM Keynote using Elden Ring character building as the analogy for being a successful woman in STEM. Lots of different attribute combinations work! Don’t try to stop me. I’m confident that with just 100 hours of work, it’ll be a great 20 minutes.

Moment of joy:
Yesterday I overheard a very cute toddler in a very cute toddler voice call seltzer water “spicy water”.

That’s all.

Stairs on UConn’s campus completely covered in snow.

Walkway on UConn’s campus completely covered in snow.

On campus objectives today, UConn edition:
Do not freeze.
Do not fall down.