I could deal with Cold War being bossy and occasionally condescending. I could keep my mouth shut about her mistakes that affected my project. I could even tolerate some of the absurd precedents she established for this or that procedure.

But this pisses me off.

Several days ago she said she'd be using our lab's only camcorder in the afternoons. This'd be every weekday for the semester. I didn't need the camcorder in the afternoons, so I said fine. After all, my assistant actually preferred coming in the mornings to score mini-DV behavior tapes. We had the camcorder to do this in the mornings, so there was no conflict.

And then I get an e-mail tonight from my assistant. Cold War told her that in addition to using the device on afternoons, she was also using it wednesday and friday mornings. For the entire semester. Wednesday and friday mornings are the only days my assistant is available for lab work.

I came dangerously close to calling and confronting her about this development. I hadn't been consulted, I hadn't been told, and I had to be told through my assistant. You do not suddenly decide to whole-sale reserve and use equipment others need for their research without asking them first. I don't care if it's conscious or unconscious. This is allegedly a team effort and coordination is needed.

I finished an e-mail to the advisor an hour ago. At the least I need to secure new equipment so that I can get my tapes coded on time. I'm not about to have my assistant and I sit on our hands when we could be getting this project done, and be getting this data coded and analyzed. The only way I see that happening is to get another camcorder, since I can't find for the life of me a mini-DV player. And I will be damned if anyone or anything keeps me from publishing on a regular basis, especially her.

It's bad enough I've been the lowest person in the lab hierarchy for 3 years. I have to impersonate someone I am not for the sake of getting my way or not offending someone who can get my ass canned. This sort of disrespect, however, balls me over. What arrogance. What gaul. She and I expressly discussed exactly when she'd need the camcorder. This was a done issue. This was a discussed and agreed on issue.

The chief reason I'll be thankful when this project is over is never working with her again.

I'd already had a really bad day. It started at 6:30am to do lab work and went from there. The experiment part at least went alright.

I'd like to update more, but I need to distract myself.

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