Being tired/stressed/forgettfull...or just a little stupid?

This was one of those annoying days where the simplest thing goes wrong!

Making agar plates is THE simplest routine chore you do in the lab. Or it should be, but usually I manage to make a big deal of it. Mostly that is because it's so boring, but also because I'm really strict about keeping all my plates as sterile as possible, as we don't use any antibiotics.

That takes us to today's problem. I made a big batch of MS agar and used two sterile benches to pour the plates. It was enough to pour two stacks of plates, which I guess is around 40, in each of the two benches. One of these benches is weird though. There's no logic whatsoever concerning what button turns it on, off or half-on - the only easy thing is turning the light on. And as the light was on, and the bench was humming, I forgot to check the rest of the buttons before I began pouring the plates.

Not until I was going to turn off the bench, after cleaning everything up, did I notice that it had been only half-on all the time!!! Oh, I got so mad with myself for not noticing right away. I didn't throw the plates out though (I mean, the bench was half-on...?) but I marked them with B - for BAAAAAD!

Then I went home to stay on the couch for the rest of the night. I usually don't mess up that bad when I'm on my couch.


- Thinking of the whole thing now: I can't even remember if I did turn the bench on and then off again, without thinking about it - and only noticing after I'd already turned it off, thinking it had never been on...
I confuse myself, where is that couch?