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Scientific Vixen Monthly
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Below are the 15 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Dr. Tensai Vixen" journal:
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01:03 am
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Photographic Evidence
( The before and after pictures. )
I think the experiment was a success!
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05:06 am
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How time flies
Has it really been 5 months since I have last updated this thing? It has. Those that still monitor this for signs of life must have assumed I have vanished off the face of the earth. Rest assured that I have not forgotten to read the entries of my friends, but actually putting text into the update box had fallen into the "I'll get to that later" death spiral.
A little known fact (but seemingly quite obvious, when one glows in the dark) is that I suffer from insomnia on occasion. Which explains why the sun is about to rise (or perhaps has already risen, I never seem to notice these things) and I am here writing this down instead of trying to sleep.
I will make the attempt once more, but I thought that I might write a little update. Attempting a major journal entry with my lack of sleep would be quite dangerous... who knows what my sleep deprived mind might put out, or whether or not you would even be able to read it amidst the typos.
Current Location: Deep 13
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07:12 pm
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Truth is Stranger then Fiction
It seems life really does imitate art, at times!
IAEA commissioner falls into water tank at Czech nuclear plant
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11:32 pm
[Link] | It is a sleepless night, so I suppose I can take a few moments to make an update. If you think you have been seeing less and less of me, you are probably correct. While there are plenty of vixens, there is only so much of this vixen to go around, and all my efforts to be in roughly fifteen places at once have not been very successful.
One thing that has taken up much of my time is work. Not my work, no, that would be far too expected. Just "work" in general, specifically the company that I work for. It is currently in the process of being sold to another one of those mega-corporations that seem to come and go. I suppose I should pay more attention to the business side of things, but really, it bores me terribly so. Oh, I understand it quite well, along with the need to bring a profit, but most people obsess with such things and want to nickel and dime to death bottom line without realizing they are in fact being penny wise and pound foolish.
As I expected, the subject of me comes up quite frequently with the boards of directors and the like. There are not that many insurance companies willing to front a policy to cover the employment of a highly irradiated vixen, but those that do exist charge quite a lot for such a policy. I will not mention the exact number, but it is rather substantial. I believe the phrase "greater then the GDP of a third-world nation" was used more then once.
I have had a few meetings with representatives from the new corporation's lawyers now, which have been quite boring. So far all they have done is offer "suggestions" but those have all involved the buyout of my employment contract, a nice severance package, and getting me as far away from the building as possible. Of course, this is the same thing that happened the last two or three corporate mergers ago, and here I am again, so their track record is not so spectacular. One of these times they will be successful, and they know it as well as I do, so the offerings continue to get bigger. This time, they say, in addition to large bags of cash they will make a substantial donation to the local university here in Layleaux. Enough, they say, when combined with their "connections" to ensure me a spot in the faculty roster.
They certainly are trying, I will grant them that. This time they have offered something that is really quite interesting, and I find myself rather tempted by the offer. It would allow me to get back to research on my own terms, instead of whatever management has read in this month's issue of Scientific American and insists we one-up everyone else... Not to mention, it would solve the occasional difficulties in finding certain species of people for some of my personal research... Oh, did I write that? Certainly I would never take advantage of such a thing...
Ah, but on the other hand, sticking around purely to be a thorn in their side has its benefits as well. My employment contract is ironclad, drafted by the best legal sharks (Literally!) money can buy, so unless I willingly leave, my position in the company is virtually certain to remain. As someone famous once said, "I know when I'm not wanted. That's when I'm needed most." I suppose we will soon see what happens!
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04:15 pm
[Link] | I spend much of my time writing things that are, admittedly, not very interesting except to those in my field of work and study. Even then, they tend to get rather dry and completely devoid of anything creative. Of course, this assumes that pages upon pages of data, matrixes, and pie charts are no less creative then a work of fiction. It sometimes makes it all the harder to switch your mindset and come up with something other then that.
I have been neglecting this poor journal of mine once again, though it is not entirely my fault. Projects have been coming and going quickly, and I have not even had much time to document, much less continue, my ongoing research on the kitsune I had found myself so fascinated with.
Another thought, that instead of writing about that as I usually do, I would try to tell a few more tales from deep in my memory. After all, one never knows when one might lose them. Though I think it would be rather unlikely, one should always be prepared.
(Also, I hear that the sales of this type of literature are on fire. Perhaps I might be able to wrangle a book deal out of this!)
So here is another story of my life, taking place some years ago:
After graduation following many, many long years of schooling, I found myself with the right to the title of "Doctor", a large amount of debt to repay for obtaining such a title, and, as I would soon discover, very little prospect of employment.
Though I possessed advanced degrees, the trouble was finding someplace where I could put them to good use. The problem was, you see, that in my part of the world, there was not that many of my species that had reached such an achievement and were seen as a risky proposition. (I have since discovered that the demand for science vixen is quite high, but this was, as they say, a long time ago in a place far, far away)
( Read more... )
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01:20 am
[Link] | I realize that continuing to write journal entries that begin with "I have been very busy and could not find the time to write more" and then not writing anything particularly convincing of the fact that I have been very busy and could not find the time to write more is no way to continue with a journal.
So I thought I would take a different path and write about something not particularly current and not particularly interesting, but something I tend to not discuss all that often. For not real reason other then it does not often come up; when you glow in the dark some questions are put ahead of others, after all.
How I ended up with a career as a scientist is not a very interesting story either, but I was thinking about it recently, wondering where I might have gone if things in my childhood were different.
( So here is a story of how I got on my way to becoming a scientist. )
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02:20 am
[Link] | If it not one thing it is another. So soon after I write about how I am... 'borrowing' company resources that the budget cuts have been decreed from the powers that be is hardly a coincidence. I still find myself employed by the company, of course, but now I have far more work to do and far less toys to play with. I suppose one of these days I will learn.. but if this is a similar scenario to events past, then the cuts will last a few months to allow the corporate board to feel good about it, work will pile up, and the funding will quietly be restored. It is all very cat and mouse like.
So much has happened, recently. A dear friend of mine, whom I regrettably have not seen much of lately due to conflicting schedules, has been of much help in my research of the mythical properties of the kitsune. She is a mythical creature herself, though not what you might expect. You see, she tragically passed away some time ago. However, in some manner which I still do not fully understand, she was resurrected somehow and is now an angel. I have not seen a halo, but she certainly looks the part with a set of wings, feet floating above the ground... The world of Layleaux is a strange one indeed!
This provided a unique opportunity to study the makeup of an angelic being, that as far as I can tell has never been explored. It will make a very interesting paper for me to submit to the journals.. but I have gotten ahead of myself. An angelic being is, technically, dead, and as such feels no pain. It is a bit odd having a test subject that is awake and talking as you do things with sharp objects that would normally be impossible to do on a live being, but I have long forgotten any ethical concerns I may have had at the time.
The results are quite interesting. Surprisingly, angelic beings are very much like the kitsune, in that they are both capable of the creation of illusion. Those who are angelic seem to be in their present form simply because they want to be, and can use their power to change just as the kitsune do. One difference, however, is that while kitsune use their power to change themselves, the angel seems to be able to extend their abilities to change others as well!
I will have much research to do on this subject, but if this ability could be extracted and its secrets mastered, it will be a tremendous asset in my search of a way to reverse my condition. Who knows, it may even be possible to mass-produce a device, infused with this power, sold commercially for personal use. One step at a time, though, I should not get myself carried away...
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02:48 am
[Link] | I am not dead, despite the conclusion one might draw with my long disappearing act plus my random but very short appearances around the town.
I must have had an incredible premonition when I purchased my very first extended warranty when I purchased a laptop computer. Usually I do not even consider such a thing, as my luck with electronics has been that something will either immediately break or never break.
My luck finally did run out, though it was of my own fault. One should never precariously balance a laptop on the top of an unwieldy large stack of books.
Luckily, if one is creative in their explanation of the circumstances how a computer got to be in a non-functional state to the technical support personnel (i.e., lying through your teeth) a dead computer will soon be replaced with a working one!
Now that I finally have had time to properly restore all my data I can hopefully return to my usual schedule of things.
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02:33 am
[Link] | I am sure it will be of interest to at least someone reading this journal that I have since patched up my friendly relations with the kitsune colleague I wrote of earlier. In fact, later this week when the two of us are free we may even meet for coffee in the cafeteria.
I fear that is by far the most interesting piece of news I have to write about in my journal. Work is work, as it always is, keeping me far too busy to say hello now and then to my friends. That may not change for several weeks as I am approaching many deadlines, so I do apologize in advance to anyone who thinks I may be ignoring them.
As I have been heavily utilizing the company laboratories with my research; the research I am being paid to conduct, and of course the research the company is not paying me to conduct but I am using company resources to do it anyway (the kitsune project), I may have attracted the attention of the higher ups in management once again. Cost and materials justification requests now make up several multiple inch-tall stacks on my desk, all with a deadline of 'yesterday.' This is, of course, their way of letting me know that I should stop whatever it is I should not be doing, should I indeed be doing something I should not be doing.
In the past, when something like this has come up and I.. lost the paperwork, so to speak, I have never received, more then a mild wrist slapping. This time, it may be different. In a conversation with someone from the corporate office that had nothing even remotely related to some outside project I may be doing, it was mentioned that the company was looking for someone 'qualified' to spend an 18 month period at a research facility located someplace near the antarctic south pole. I took that as a hint.
I must be more careful in my sneaking about, then. Perhaps after this weekend I may even be successful in begging my kitsune friend to assist me in some of my work to speed up the process!
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10:04 pm
[Link] | Once again I write how work has kept me far too busy to do something as simple as update this journal, so I am starting to sound like a broken record. In fact, I am working even as I write this, so this entry will likely be rather short.
This long stretch of work has forced me to put my kitsune side project on the back burner. I am hoping to make some progress or discovery soon, though an incident earlier in the month may have set me back somewhat.
A colleague of mine was celebrating a successful product, and as tradition dictates, the celebration was held at a nearby pub. By coincidence, my colleague is a kitsune, the three-tailed variety, and I had mentioned to him what I was up to. He was interested, and offered to help should I need it.
Everyone present was having a marvelous time, including myself. During the celebration, evidence points to the fact that I drank too much then I should have. Far too much. I must make that rather odd statement, for I cannot remember the evening all that clearly...
Not much was said about the evening by my colleagues, which leads me to believe that either I was very silly and they want to spare me any further embarrassment, or the party got very much out of hand and neither of them remember much, too. I am banking on the latter. Scientists know how to party like the best of them, but our associated stereotypes ensure that no one will believe any stories told about them.
At any rate, of what I do recall, I managed to find myself off in the corner with my kitsune colleague. We discussed something at length... of what I do not remember, though I have a vague memory of one of us being very animated about it... and that is the last I can recall. Things have been different after that night; if we meet in a corridor he avoids eye contact, ducking away into a room or pawing through some papers. I caught him in the elevator one day and apologised profusely for anything I might have said or done that night, but he replied by saying nothing was the matter and quickly departed.
I am starting to remember a few more details of the night, including a very embarrassing attempt to prove that I was skilled in some sort of game involving quarters... I may yet remember what was said, though I am quite sure it is best left unsaid and forgotten by all.
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12:59 am
[Link] | The project that I continue to write about, well, continues. I should say it continues to haunt me, for as soon as I decided I was very close to success, fate intervened and decided that was not so. After a few long nights and weekends at the lab, I can safely say I have made little gains in my work.
However, in between that, I have managed to start a new project, albeit a bit of research to satisfy my personal curiosities,. I have been curious about the genetic structure of the kitsune; those vulpine you see with the multiple tails. This mystery has always fascinated me, most likely due to the rarity of the kitsune in most of the world. I do not ever remember meeting one until very recently in my life, certainly not even during university or shortly thereafter. That in itself is odd, considering I have relatives, both distant and immediate, that hail from the far east. Tokyo, I believe. I do not keep up with them, really. Though I must disclose that I am also partially motivated by the fact that anything I discover could be published and bring in a nice monetary prize.
At first I thought it must be a simple genetic difference. I was worried that I would have trouble coaxing one or two into giving up a DNA sample for me... but I have discovered that Layleaux seems to have the highest population of kitsune outside their native eastern lands. Even before I decided to work on this project I had met a few in casual conversation, so this was not very difficult after all.
So far I have determined that aside from some slight differences that seem to have no effect on the number of tails one will grow, kitsune are genetically identical to an ordinary creature of the vulpes genus.
Kitsune do, according to legend, possess a laundry list of mystical abilities. I have long been skeptical of such things, though the more time I spend in town, the more willing I am to believe that some of them may in fact be true. After all, to quote the classic line, 'when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'
There is still much to be done on this project before I can see any results. Namely attempt to determine a new kind of test to compare kitsune with a vulpine to see what I am missing by looking at the genetics alone. There is still much we do not understand about DNA, perhaps this is one of those mysteries. Hopefully I finish my "real" project soon so I can devote more then idle moments to this.
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06:54 pm
[Link] | Again so much time has passed between updates. I have been terribly busy as of late, almost no time for friends or socializing of any kind. I will get to make up for lost time and missed commitments very soon, hopefully.
As for what has been keeping me so busy, well, that is a story in itself, and a rather long one at that. I am still working on the same project, and have been having moderate success with it, I am pleased to say. The Van Cassadyne problem is the biggest sticking point, but after many weeks of effort a solution may be just around the corner.
A very interesting thing has happened. When word of my impending success broke out, representatives of, and later, the top brass of the military came to ferret around for information on my work. I suppose I should not be surprised at this, given their obvious interest in very dangerous things that can likely be used on 'the enemy' should the need arise. What I was surprised about was how fast they learned of this. Usually a military scientist or two will show up after the product has been launched or the research papers published and want some more information, which management is usually all too happy to provide. It helps to have friends in powerful places, especially when it comes time to give out government money for research grants.
I am not a friend to the military, nor are they to me. When it comes time to help them I will do the minimal amount of effort to comply with their requests. We have an unofficial agreement about this, so they have come to expect it and generally leave me alone whenever possible.
My hostility to them comes, I suppose, from the early days after my accident that left me irradiated. They were naturally quite interested in me, and hoped that I might provide some clue on how to mass-produce my strange condition. I suggested they were reading too many comic books, for they expected me to come away with super strength, the ability to fly, or something silly like that. They were, to put it mildly, disappointed. They were very sure that radioactivity plus ordinary person equals someone who could turn out to be some kind of super-powered soldier they could then use, despite the evidence to the contrary.
Try as they might, with experiment after experiment on me, the details of which are rather personal and are best shared over a drink and not read in some journal, they were not very successful. I heard rumors that when they failed to get the answers they wanted from me they attempted to duplicate my accident on other 'volunteers' to the cause, the results of which were ... not pretty.
As some kind of attempt to make up for the troubles they caused (which of course never officially happened and the records and people involved have all mysteriously disappeared) the top generals and admirals and the like gave me a few medals and feel-good honorary awards plus a modest cash payout. I think I still have some of them boxed away someplace.
I suppose the military scientists will be around within the next few days to hit me up for information. They always try, even though I ignore them for a few days, lose the paperwork requesting I help them for a few more, and ignore the telephone after that when management finally rings to complain.
Current Mood:  stressed
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02:56 am
[Link] | The excitement of several days ago has passed and once again it is back to the usual routine. Work has been slow, especially since I am waiting for IS to deliver me some new equipment. I am grateful for the lull, of course, but if history repeats itself like it has several times in the past, the lack of equipment is my project manager silently telegraphing to me that management wants to rethink the entire thing and start from square one.
The current project has been canceled twice, redefined thrice, and bounced from division to division until it fell into my lap. I suppose I am the most suited for it, really, given that large quantities of ecclesium are highly radioactive. A colleague, Dr. N, nearly succumbed to delta wave poisoning even with a class 4 containment suit on. On the other hand, I show no side effects from exposure thus far. I do have a slight headache, but I attribute that to not having any coffee all afternoon.
Ecclesium has potential to be a cheap and non-toxic replacement for high grade uranium in fast breeder nuclear reactors, potentially quadrupling efficiency. Almost non-toxic I should say, there still is the problem of the Van Cassadyne energy particles created by the neutron reaction of the reactor core. The particles have a most deadly effect on living tissue, and contaminate just about everything.
I suppose I will at least attempt some progress on this task given the late hour of the day and my desire to go home at a reasonable time for once. Until next time.
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06:43 pm
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How Time Has Flown
With the holiday season nearly over, I might get a moment of rest. My assumption that I could accomplish much of anything in addition to the usual holiday responsibilities thrown upon me were foolish at best.
I never was much of a Christmas person, or much of any kind of holiday person, really. Far too many holidays spent home alone or the sole employee volunteering to work the holiday shift to avoid being home alone have probably left me just slightly bitter, but I do try to not let it show too much. Buying myself a nice and expensive Christmas present often helps. This year's purchase was no less nice or expensive, an iPod Video. Thank goodness for the bonus in the paycheck this year.
I promised a friend I would take advantage of certain equipment available to myself to work on an unofficial project, the origins and details of which were promised not to be revealed. Not more then five minutes after beginning a rather interesting analysis of a genetic sample that may or may not be related to a certain promise I made to someone, I received, a telephone call from the corporate office. This was a surprise, since for various reasons I am sure I will write about later, they would prefer to pretend I do not exist and generally leave me alone.
After a round of twenty questions on the call, a conference call no less between an Executive VP, Legal, and someone else who did not identify himself, asking what new project I was working on and which budget I was charging this to, their sudden curiosity, in my work was satisfied after a few creative little white lies. Hollywood should be calling me next, as the performance I gave was rather brilliant, or so I thought.
I thought it best to take a late lunch at that point and run a few errands. When I returned, I was in for a surprise. Fire trucks, police, and several black unmarked vans were surrounding the building. It seems there was a "bomb threat" to the building, in the basement parking garage someplace. Which if it were true, does not explain the number of corporate security uniformed men with rather interested in my office on the fourth floor and diligently searching it under the supervision of the stereotypical "men in black".
Of course they found nothing explosive in my office, and from the rather displeased look on the face of the executives who finally came around to reopen the building, they didn't find what they were really looking for. They of all people should know by now that hiding sensitive data is practically the company's primary source of income and I am a very quick study.
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11:05 pm
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Commemorative First Posting
Having put this off for far too long, I have finally tired of an empty journal staring me in the face and have decided to write something in it. Forcing me to answer the eternal question, what do I have to write about that someone beside myself will find interesting?
I suppose the answer to that question will require time to discover. In the mean time, I hope to fill this journal with various thoughts, the results of some of my experiments, and probably a few other things.
As you might know, I am a scientist by profession, currently employed by a large faceless corporation that does many different things, among them, operate the Layleaux Town nuclear power plant. I used to work for a different company, but for various reasons I no longer work there. I will likely expand on the reasons in a later time, but for now, to say that I am persona non grata amongst a large number of my peers.
The first entry in any journal should be profound and memorable, but my free time has been scarce lately, and so this entry will be quite short. Back to work I go, though on an unofficial project. A good friend of mine has sent me something she wanted to have analyzed, having come across it under very mysterious circumstances. I should have a full report very soon.
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