...you are now crossing the 38th parallel

In the news today, president of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun crossing the borderline between South and North Korea (or North and South if you like), the famous 38th parallel along which the cease-fire back in 1953 set the borders between the two countries (and the two "worlds" supporting each one).

My crossing the line on the other hand is somehow different. It is less dramatic, not recorded by mainstream media, won't have any impact on world history plus it hasn't quite happened yet.

Nonetheless I may be close. Close to crossing the line from being a worrying-less, relaxed post-doc who spends most of his leisure time reading thick books and listening to long albums, to a poor, neurotic, hopeless guy who screams "Fucking genome assemblies!" in the middle of the lab. I spent a good part of the weekend trying to make sense of a stupid (sorry Pep) program, which is built in such a way so that only its creator can make full use of its potential, (in the same way only King Arthur could lift up the Excalibur or only Ulysses could string his bow). Then Monday came and after finally making some progress with this, I found myself surrounded by almost-overlapping genomic segments, succumbed in a sea of numbers that matched only marginally, when they should have been matching exactly, slowly sinking in a quicksand of tests, each of which led me far deeper into despair than the previous.

But I was strong. When things reached the point of no return (which in my case would be somewhere around 9) I still had the guts to stand up, award my screen with a look of anger and pity blending with discontent and walk away under the sounds of PJ Harvey singing "Before Departure"*. Only that I was just departing and I still had it! I could still say "screw them assemblies!", ride back home, joke with my flat mates about the vanity of life, the universe and everything, have some glasses of wine, then a beer with some friends and forget about it all.

It may sound the easy thing to do but I can tell you it is not. There have come many moments (and there may be more to come) when crossing the line seems like the right thing to do. Stay, fight and persevere. But who said our staying, fighting and persevering should only be carried out against genomic assemblies and alignment problems? I prefer to keep my strength for crossing this world's real 38th parallels, which may actually make the difference. After all, as Bjork once sang, "there's more to life than this"!


*Thanks Zoe, this album is just great