Translational Orthopaedic Research Laboratory
Part of the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State University and UNC-Chapel Hill
Another year, and more great costumes! Our group did Inside Out characters.
From left to right:
Back row: Matt as Bing Bong, Steph as Sadness, Margaret as Disgust, and Jacob as Embarassment
Front Row: Ricky as Anxiety, Melika as Joy, and Rahul as the Subconscious Guard (Frank or Dave)
As usual, our BPC labmates delivered as well.
Minions, GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) pigs, Magic School Bus, Scooby Doo, Brown Labs, Looney Toons, Rock-paper-scissors
Looking back through our old posts, it became apparent that we never posted about the beginning of TORL’s annual mini golf tradition. Though there are now few still around who remember this far back, we do remember that Matt won (of course). Paul lost and was forced to eat some awful concoction that no one remembers at this point. We all blocked it from our memory.
And thus a TORL tradition was born!
Even the guy who made the suspicious treat was doubtful, but Paul was a good sport about it.
Thanks, but we’ll pass
TORL 1.0
The day that the world has been waiting for finally came. Matt finally lost at mini golf!!
It seemed like any other game that would end with Matt winning. Turns out, halfway through he was already behind, but because he was keeping the score he didn’t mention it. The rest of us went on playing as if it was a mini golf competition like any other.
But then the final scores were tallied, and Matt lost!
Matt lost to both Ricky AND Jacob! A monumental day for everyone in the lab (except Matt).
Our favorite place with snow cones closed at some point between 2019 and 2022, so there was no inventive (translation: disgusting) flavor combination for him to eat. But they did have a stockade, and Matt did wind up in the gallows.
Sure, we would have rather him have to eat something gross, but we’ll take what we can get.
This year’s group costume, in honor of the 2023 movie, was Mario.
We loved seeing all of the great BPC costumes!
Looks like we forgot to share Labsgiving 4.0 (2020, aka Labsgiving: COVID Edition- Outdoors, with all items individually packaged and no serving utensils) and Labsgiving 5.0 (2021, back to normal!), but rest assured we have not forsaken our annual tradition. Recently, we celebrated Labsgiving 6.0 (aka 2022 Edition).
As in years past, we were warmly welcomed with some custom artwork.
The turkey looked (and tasted!) delicious
We had a special turkey-shaped butter decoration, which was promptly beheaded.
So many desserts!
(But, let’s be honest, that’s the real reason we were there.)
Including cupcakes that were almost too pretty to eat (almost…)
We were entertained with science fair projects…
HAPPY LABSGIVING!
We confess, Halloween kind of snuck up on us this year. But, rest assured, we still did a group costume and it was just as amazing as you have come to expect from us. We did The Good Place!
From left to right (click photos to enlarge):
The whole BME-BPC Crew: TORL as The Good Place, Brown Lab as favorite condiment, Greenbaum lab went with black t-shirts printed with their own microscopy images, and Freytes Lab went as ghosts
For previous Halloweens, check out this post
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Thanks to the easing of COVID restrictions, we felt that it was time to return to the annual TORL Mini Golf Competition™! This was our fifth year of competition (technically spread over 7 years, but still). We all had one goal: bring down Matt!
We proposed that scores would be averaged across everyone with shared DNA. It seemed more than fair. Steph’s score would be averaged with… no one. Zack’s score would be averaged with… no one. Jacob and Lewis and Ricky and everyone else? Also averaged with no one. Matt’s score, however, would be averaged with his kids (who joined for the outing). Really, who can argue with that fairness? According to these new rules, Matt’s score was 57 which put him squarely in the middle of the pack.
But, alas, by the old rules, Matt won again. We didn’t even take a picture this year because, really, why bother?
But in an exciting new twist, we had two trophies this year! It was decided that the second trophy would go to the most holes in one, which was won by Steph with a terribly impressive TWO holes in one. And, really, the Ewok is the better trophy anyway.
Then we went out for Pizza. We figured it only made sense for the winner to treat everyone else– it’s the least he could do.
A few years ago several lab members got together to go to an NC State Men’s basketball game, and we had a great time. Now that sports are back, we decided to do it again this year. Sadly Matt was not able to join us, but he was there in spirit (hovering over our shoulders, so to speak) to see State crush their opponents in the historic Reynolds Coliseum.
GO PACK!
Looks like Matt’s floating disembodied head forgot his mask.
Some very cool artwork on the walls:
The court:
Looking back through the posts, it’s become apparent that we’ve neglected Halloween on this website, which does not align with our actual treatment of Halloween. We love Halloween! So, here’s a look back at the TORL Halloween costumes throughout the years.
Skip to: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2021
First up, 2017: Where it All Began
For our first annual TORL Halloween (TORL-o-ween?) we decided to go as The Office.
Some Outtakes:
(and therefore first Halloween where other labs dressed up too)
In 2018 we went with a slightly less cohesive theme that gave everyone a bit of room to flex their creative muscles. Our theme was “90s Nickelodeon”.
Aka the upside-down year, or the year we did Stranger Things season 3.
In what is perhaps a disturbing metaphor for the way we’ve felt for the last ~18 months or a scathing commentary on the cutthroat world of academia (or just what everyone was watching at the time), we opted to go as characters from Squid Games. Except Steph– who has never seen the show and doesn’t want to– chose to go as 2000s-era Netflix, complete with DVD. Only somewhat relevant but everyone decided to allow it.
Our (more or less) annual lab holiday tradition is to go see whatever Star Wars movie is being released in December. This year it was the final installment in the Skywalker Saga, Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. We all enjoyed the movie, we think (some of us are still processing).
We recently dedicated a lab meeting to celebrating Stephanie and Paul and their accomplishments. We’re so proud of the lab’s very first PhD students!
We started with a review of the 2+ year-long study that they’ve been conducting: A retrospective of Paul’s man-bun.
Matt presented them with gifts wrapped in their very first posters (or the earliest we could find):
Personalized jerseys! (Size youth extra small, for for display rather than wearing). Matt also had all of their lab mates sign a photo mat that went in the frame.
In a shocking turn of events, Matt won at mini golf once again, and made sure to rub in his 4-peat. You’re the best at mini golf, we get it, SHEESH. He was bequeathed the 2019 mini golf trophy, which he will lord over the rest of us for at least a few months.
In a new twist, we had a tie for last place – Paul and Zack get joint custody of the much-coveted losers trophy. Great job guys!
Matt adds to his trophy collection
They were clearly thrilled to be sharing last place
We took a break during the BPC holiday party to take this delightful photo of (some of) us standing in front of a Christmas tree, located in front of a mural with some Raleigh highlights (the PNC Arena and the Jim Graham Building at the fairgrounds). May your holidays be as bright as the lights on the tree and the fireworks on the wall!
It was once again time for our most favorite annual tradition – Labsgiving! That day when we eat too much food and celebrate all of our awesome lab members. Luckily, no one passed out at the end of the night this time like last year. We also didn’t take quite as many photos, because we were too excited about the food. We’ll try to do better next year.
And rest assured that our fearless lab manager did join us, but she came late because she scored Hamilton tickets and, frankly, we’d skip the start of Labsgiving for Hamilton too.
This year’s theme was 90s Nickelodeon. See if you can figure out who everyone is! 
The other BPC labs had fun as well. We had Harry Potter, Bob Ross, and Minions! Check out the other costumes here: https://research.ncsu.edu/cmi/bpc/