How hard is it to follow the instructions?

Dear Labmates,

This is Microbiology. I know you know how to use a microscope, or you'd never have passed General Bio. What's more, we did a refresher on it in the first lab session. If you're too macho to follow the correct technique (as one of you seems to be), then I don't want to work with you. Your insistence on incorrect technique has a time overhead that I don't want to pay.

Further, fixing and staining bacteria is not hard. No, I didn't do it right the first time, either. But after the first time you ignored the instructions and marked the top of the microscope slide with the grease pencil, did you maybe notice that you couldn't rinse off the excess stain without directly spraying the smear area, and thus rinsing off your bacteria? No? I mentioned it to you directly the second time. And the third time.. you did it again. Why?

I have no problem being the first person in the group to produce data. Being the only person to do so, because you can't follow the instructions in the manual, is not okay.

No love,
- Me