Quick update from the road. Wade and Jessi had a beautiful wedding in Farmville, VI, with close friends and family coming in from all corners. I've been in Pittsburgh for the following week, working and catching up with old friends. It's been a little hard to keep up the pace of work that I have at home with fun distractions like meeting friends for lunch, but I'm glad I chose to make this a working trip because it means I can spend more time here.
My manuscript (the bulk of my graduate work has been unpublished so far) was submitted, and FINALLY accepted. This is the last thing that needed to be finished out from my time in graduate school. There is still some discussion of other brilliant ideas we might toy with later, but getting that paper published will actually make by CV look like I am a scientist again.
But the real reason I opted to come at this time was for my labmate and classmate Karen's defense. That happened yesterday. She was very poised, and gave a very thoughtful, scholarly seminar. Her defense took hours, but was very friendly. She emerged as a doctor, and the lab swept into action to make a big departmental party. It was perhaps not quite as amazing as the party I had, but we are all holding back since she is hosting a party this afternoon. There is going to be inflatable jousting. It should be fantastic.
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Design Make Play and NY Adventures
Last week, I settled into Chinatown, narrowly avoided food poisoning, invented AND solved a mystery settled at the New York Hall of Science while training nearly 20 new recruits for Click! Spy School. Clearly, my trip to New York was a success.
But first, the backstory on the adventure: 1) Why I was there. As a volunteer at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, I seemed to impress the staff with both my "knowing stuff" and also my human side (Someone actually said to me, "You just told a joke! You have a Ph.D. and you are funny!"). They think it is cool to have their very own scientist around, so they've kept me as an off site volunteer, and normally I help in developing some of the online tools we are becoming well known for.
2) Why this meeting? Are you familiar with the Maker movement? I was, vaguely, before I went, but this is a movement of non-experts and experts who are interested in getting people, including children, to engage in and influence their own world productively by Making Stuff. This encourages ownership, and independence, and creative problem solving and building new skills and collaborations, and you get stuff out of it too. The movement is decentralized for the most part, but your town may host a Maker Faire, or a Hackerspace or one of the other places or events that bring these people out. What they call the "informal education" folks (museums, afterschool programs and summer camps) are starting to take note, and this meetign was to help those of us in the informal arena think about how to effectively incorporate elements of "design, make and play" into education programs. This was hosted by the New York Hall of Science in Queens.
Take 1+ 2 and you get 3) The Carnegie Science Center of Pittsburgh submitted an application to share our Click! Spy School program, which won the juried response, and they really wanted to impress this group of assembled peers.... so they convinced the New York Hall of Science (who was hosting the event), to fly me out for the presentation.
I figured this would be must like other professional conferences I've been to- unending supply of coffee, crowds of people assembled to make the mucky-mucks feel important and a brutal schedule of talks that make you exhausted enough to sleep in a bare dorm room at the end of the day. This was not much like that. Our hotel was very posh, and located in Flushing, New York, which is New York's major Chinatown. There were about 100 participants, and from what I could tell, not a lot of mucky-mucks. Don't get me wrong, there were some really important people there, but I talked with most of them. One of the Keynote speakers came to our workshop even. Oh, and the schedule was broken up with workshops by different groups- people came from all over to present their ideas about Design, Make and Play. There were several robot building workshops, something on hydraulics, several cool techie computer type things... but obviously the coolest of all was our Spy School presentation.
It was the coolest because we showed up a day early to create a site specific workshop, a nefarious character whose grandmother was embarassed at the 1964 World's Fair (at that location) was plotting to release and acne germ via the Maker Space downstairs. But to solve the mystery (which "the agency" revealed to us within minutes of our "recruits" sitting down to begin their training), our agents were given iPhones loaded with info and clues, and sent out into the museum to gather clues or complete training programs. We got to be very secret agent-y, and the workshop was very well received. We even got some folks asking to collaborate for off-site activities! This was a big relief, because our leader, who applied to bring us here, has been involved in the program for years, became violently ill overnight with food poisoning, so two of us presented the workshop like we'd done it before. I did read dozens of pages of grant info and previous "training materials" before I came, but we were still REALLY nervous.
I got to chat up lots of people, many of whom are quite important in their own right, many more of whom are doing really really cool projects in other places. It was the funnest meeting I could have imagined, and everyone was very encouraging and open. Even during the keynote, dozens of people were taking pictures of slides or videos of the presenters- this is unheard of in science! The conference ended with a large brainstorming session to talk about what are the potential benefits of this type of work, and how can those be assessed by small, grant funded entities like us. There wasn't much extra time for site-seeing, I just hopped on my plane and headed back to snowy-Seattle.
But first, the backstory on the adventure: 1) Why I was there. As a volunteer at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, I seemed to impress the staff with both my "knowing stuff" and also my human side (Someone actually said to me, "You just told a joke! You have a Ph.D. and you are funny!"). They think it is cool to have their very own scientist around, so they've kept me as an off site volunteer, and normally I help in developing some of the online tools we are becoming well known for.
2) Why this meeting? Are you familiar with the Maker movement? I was, vaguely, before I went, but this is a movement of non-experts and experts who are interested in getting people, including children, to engage in and influence their own world productively by Making Stuff. This encourages ownership, and independence, and creative problem solving and building new skills and collaborations, and you get stuff out of it too. The movement is decentralized for the most part, but your town may host a Maker Faire, or a Hackerspace or one of the other places or events that bring these people out. What they call the "informal education" folks (museums, afterschool programs and summer camps) are starting to take note, and this meetign was to help those of us in the informal arena think about how to effectively incorporate elements of "design, make and play" into education programs. This was hosted by the New York Hall of Science in Queens.
Take 1+ 2 and you get 3) The Carnegie Science Center of Pittsburgh submitted an application to share our Click! Spy School program, which won the juried response, and they really wanted to impress this group of assembled peers.... so they convinced the New York Hall of Science (who was hosting the event), to fly me out for the presentation.
I figured this would be must like other professional conferences I've been to- unending supply of coffee, crowds of people assembled to make the mucky-mucks feel important and a brutal schedule of talks that make you exhausted enough to sleep in a bare dorm room at the end of the day. This was not much like that. Our hotel was very posh, and located in Flushing, New York, which is New York's major Chinatown. There were about 100 participants, and from what I could tell, not a lot of mucky-mucks. Don't get me wrong, there were some really important people there, but I talked with most of them. One of the Keynote speakers came to our workshop even. Oh, and the schedule was broken up with workshops by different groups- people came from all over to present their ideas about Design, Make and Play. There were several robot building workshops, something on hydraulics, several cool techie computer type things... but obviously the coolest of all was our Spy School presentation.
It was the coolest because we showed up a day early to create a site specific workshop, a nefarious character whose grandmother was embarassed at the 1964 World's Fair (at that location) was plotting to release and acne germ via the Maker Space downstairs. But to solve the mystery (which "the agency" revealed to us within minutes of our "recruits" sitting down to begin their training), our agents were given iPhones loaded with info and clues, and sent out into the museum to gather clues or complete training programs. We got to be very secret agent-y, and the workshop was very well received. We even got some folks asking to collaborate for off-site activities! This was a big relief, because our leader, who applied to bring us here, has been involved in the program for years, became violently ill overnight with food poisoning, so two of us presented the workshop like we'd done it before. I did read dozens of pages of grant info and previous "training materials" before I came, but we were still REALLY nervous.
I got to chat up lots of people, many of whom are quite important in their own right, many more of whom are doing really really cool projects in other places. It was the funnest meeting I could have imagined, and everyone was very encouraging and open. Even during the keynote, dozens of people were taking pictures of slides or videos of the presenters- this is unheard of in science! The conference ended with a large brainstorming session to talk about what are the potential benefits of this type of work, and how can those be assessed by small, grant funded entities like us. There wasn't much extra time for site-seeing, I just hopped on my plane and headed back to snowy-Seattle.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
These are a few of my favorite things
I got to spend the last couple days in Austin Texas indulging in some of my favorite things- squishy baby cheeks, dorky science, great friends, fun with the family and so much yummy food I'm not eating again until Christmas. I came down for an algae workshop and met a friend from Pittsburgh who got me interested in algae for biodiesel in the first place. It was at the University of Texas, so we BOTH got to stay with my favorite Texans, Noel, Jessie and uh... oh yeah, my nephew THE BEST BABY IN THE WORLD. How fun!
The workshop was fantastic! We learned SO much, and I've got some big ambitions for when I get back. I also got to meet some great people, and hope to be able to keep those contacts. And frankly I've been fighting the urge all day to stop playing with Tyler to check my email, make some calls to some people, look up some things online... my excitement over this workshop will still be available after Tuesday- Tyler's lovely little cheeks will be thousands of miles away by then. Prioritize. My former coworker/classmate Karen is one of my favorite people to indulge in this type of dorkitude with, she is even more excited and motivated and forward thinking about turning a PhD in yeast into a career in green energy, so it's really great to have someone I trust and enjoy so much to take a class with, to share these contacts with and continue to rehash our experience with. And I got a dose of Pittsburgh news, which made me feel like I'm not so far away yet.
And I did get to see lots of Tyler. I was a little sad that he didn't recognize me when I first arrived (I was here just a couple months ago), but he warmed up to both me and Karen within a couple days. The real test will be to see if he likes me again at Christmas. Oo, AND Karen and I got to Babysit for Tyler while his parents went out just to have fun. They enjoyed the company holiday party, and we invited some other former Pittsburghers over to catch up and watch the baby monitor (the baby was 100% asleep on my watch). It was great all around.
Once the workshop was over, we were free to play. We managed to eat almost all the food in Austin: BBQ, Tex-Mex, more BBQ, truck food, giant donuts, Giant onion rings, most of Whole Foods... like I said, I may never be hungry again. In between eating, we did a little shopping in South Congress, and took a nice walk in the Zilker Botanical Gardens. This helped us work up an appetite for even more eating- including Noel's rendition of Mom's beautiful stuffed pumpkin, and Noel's famous Egg Nog French Toast. Yes. Noel loves me very much. He even braided my hair every day. I'm not sure what I did to endear him to me so much, but if he keeps treating me so nice, I'll probably come back next weekend.
The workshop was fantastic! We learned SO much, and I've got some big ambitions for when I get back. I also got to meet some great people, and hope to be able to keep those contacts. And frankly I've been fighting the urge all day to stop playing with Tyler to check my email, make some calls to some people, look up some things online... my excitement over this workshop will still be available after Tuesday- Tyler's lovely little cheeks will be thousands of miles away by then. Prioritize. My former coworker/classmate Karen is one of my favorite people to indulge in this type of dorkitude with, she is even more excited and motivated and forward thinking about turning a PhD in yeast into a career in green energy, so it's really great to have someone I trust and enjoy so much to take a class with, to share these contacts with and continue to rehash our experience with. And I got a dose of Pittsburgh news, which made me feel like I'm not so far away yet.
And I did get to see lots of Tyler. I was a little sad that he didn't recognize me when I first arrived (I was here just a couple months ago), but he warmed up to both me and Karen within a couple days. The real test will be to see if he likes me again at Christmas. Oo, AND Karen and I got to Babysit for Tyler while his parents went out just to have fun. They enjoyed the company holiday party, and we invited some other former Pittsburghers over to catch up and watch the baby monitor (the baby was 100% asleep on my watch). It was great all around.
Once the workshop was over, we were free to play. We managed to eat almost all the food in Austin: BBQ, Tex-Mex, more BBQ, truck food, giant donuts, Giant onion rings, most of Whole Foods... like I said, I may never be hungry again. In between eating, we did a little shopping in South Congress, and took a nice walk in the Zilker Botanical Gardens. This helped us work up an appetite for even more eating- including Noel's rendition of Mom's beautiful stuffed pumpkin, and Noel's famous Egg Nog French Toast. Yes. Noel loves me very much. He even braided my hair every day. I'm not sure what I did to endear him to me so much, but if he keeps treating me so nice, I'll probably come back next weekend.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Genetics are the most fun!
We have had two days of making gene bracelets at the science center. It's a great event, and I don't mind saying that we had a good demo to add to the day. I was worried that it might be too involved for middle school students (score yourself for ELEVEN traits, and make a bracelet). But most kids seemed really interested (having bright colored beads to play with helps), and scored through the whole bracelet. We may have overestimated the number of beads we'll need for the week, but the whole demo is working better, and I think will probably be used again. We had a couple teachers ask for our materials, and it made me feel good to have injected a cute idea with a lot of science. It was fun. I also had a lot more time to minimize my worries about our event Saturday. There is still work to be done, but I'm sure it will come together. Tomorrow I am going on a river tour to learn about the stuff we'll find in water samples, and to gather samples for the event. Whee!
It's weird to be doing all this and also doing a count down of last days in Pittsburgh. I am trying to see my friends and have some good times before I head out. Our stuff has arrived in Pittsburgh, including the car, so Matt is making headway getting us settled there.
It's weird to be doing all this and also doing a count down of last days in Pittsburgh. I am trying to see my friends and have some good times before I head out. Our stuff has arrived in Pittsburgh, including the car, so Matt is making headway getting us settled there.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Donors Choose!
Although you all deserve a proper update on my funtastic trip to Washington (summary: awesome and productive adventures), and might be interested to hear about the emerging arch of my autobiography right now (summary: weird), instead you get to hear about the happy hour I hosted tonight.
The good folks of Steel City Science decided to host a departmental happy hour in support of the Science Bloggers for Students Challenge we are participating in at DonorsChoose. We raised nearly $100 using supplies that were mostly hanging around our homes, and hopefully got to promote the blog a bit. And we've completed out first project!
Although at the happy hour, we were promoting a local project that wants a model of the human body, the project that is really killing me right now is the classroom that wants pencil sharpeners and whiteboard markers. Yes, this is a high poverty area very near where I live. The requested budget is teeny, but would clearly make a giant difference in the education of these elementary school students. Writing utensils make a big difference when you are practicing literacy. And DonorsChoose is a great non-profit to support as they have very little overhead, your money goes directly to teachers in need.
So yes, if you guys wanted to pitch a couple bucks to Ms. Kacsur, I'm sure I can get focused enough for a proper blog post like you all deserve. The challenge is over next week, so donate now and make me feel good.
---UPDATE----
My parents are awesome. If you also want to be awesome, check out the other projects in need here.
The good folks of Steel City Science decided to host a departmental happy hour in support of the Science Bloggers for Students Challenge we are participating in at DonorsChoose. We raised nearly $100 using supplies that were mostly hanging around our homes, and hopefully got to promote the blog a bit. And we've completed out first project!
Although at the happy hour, we were promoting a local project that wants a model of the human body, the project that is really killing me right now is the classroom that wants pencil sharpeners and whiteboard markers. Yes, this is a high poverty area very near where I live. The requested budget is teeny, but would clearly make a giant difference in the education of these elementary school students. Writing utensils make a big difference when you are practicing literacy. And DonorsChoose is a great non-profit to support as they have very little overhead, your money goes directly to teachers in need.
So yes, if you guys wanted to pitch a couple bucks to Ms. Kacsur, I'm sure I can get focused enough for a proper blog post like you all deserve. The challenge is over next week, so donate now and make me feel good.
---UPDATE----
My parents are awesome. If you also want to be awesome, check out the other projects in need here.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Science Bloggers for Students
I am really excited about the stuff we've got going on at Steel City Science these days. I hope you read my latest diatribe about polyomavirus research, but today I want to point you to something I am even more excited about. There is a movement in the science blogging community (which our blog is hoping to break into) to support a non-profit called DonorsChoose. If you have not heard of this group, they help teachers gain money for small scale projects, and individual donors can support part or all of these projects. $10 for pencil sharpeners in a third grade classroom, $25 towards purchase of a laptop in a middle school, $100 for new textbooks. The donor chooses what they want to support and to what extent. Cool right?
Every year there is a challenge called Science Bloggers for Students, that allows different blogs to seek donations and encourages competition to maximize funding. I was heartbroken to see that Pittsburgh has 18 projects which are largely unfunded, including some really important requests for basic supplies (scientific calculators, ouch). So we've decided to jump into the challenge, check it out at Steel City Science. Or just follow or donation page here. From there, you can also track our brilliant successes, and I think track our progress against other blogs and blogging networks. Yeah, we are up against WIRED blogs, so we *might* not win. But if we try at all, hopefully students win, right?
Science Bloggers for Students, Steel City Science Page
If there are other projects you are more interested in supporting (the African drumming class needs drums. Ouch, my heart.), if you follow my link, it still counts towards our total.
Every year there is a challenge called Science Bloggers for Students, that allows different blogs to seek donations and encourages competition to maximize funding. I was heartbroken to see that Pittsburgh has 18 projects which are largely unfunded, including some really important requests for basic supplies (scientific calculators, ouch). So we've decided to jump into the challenge, check it out at Steel City Science. Or just follow or donation page here. From there, you can also track our brilliant successes, and I think track our progress against other blogs and blogging networks. Yeah, we are up against WIRED blogs, so we *might* not win. But if we try at all, hopefully students win, right?
Science Bloggers for Students, Steel City Science Page
If there are other projects you are more interested in supporting (the African drumming class needs drums. Ouch, my heart.), if you follow my link, it still counts towards our total.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Speed of light: Why you care
This was going to be a comment response until it got too long, so: here's your implications:
Our current understanding of the way the universe works is largely based on well tested and well understood theories started by Einstein and built upon by pretty much every physicist since. These laws say things CAN'T move faster than the speed of light. Since space and time are intertwined, if you are moving as fast as you can in space, you can't move *any* in time. You can read more about that, but it's been one of the rock-solid foundations of physics for a long, long time.
The critical thing about this is that we may have just proven that theory wrong. If something, ANYTHING, can ever travel faster than light under *any* circumstances, the entire theory *instantaneously* falls apart. (I know, isn't science CRAZY?) Now this isn't instantaneously catastrophic for most of the physics we know and love. After all, the fact that Newtonian Physics falls apart at the very small and very large doesn't mean that we can't use it to approximate a lot of useful things.
But notably, all science is about trying to correctly model the way the universe actually works. In that way, being proven wrong is actually sometimes more interesting than just being right over and over. It would be as if we had to update the theory of gravity to include "except for at 3:57 on Thursday afternoon in Topeka, Canada for about 1/10th of a second". All of a sudden there are a billion more questions to answer. "Why?" "Why not Wednesday?" As to this faster-than-light thing, similar questions arise. "Why these particles?" "Can we see the same phenomena from other sources?" "If things can travel faster than light, how come light doesn't?" The answers to these questions will inform whatever theory rises up to replace the broken one, and will offer a more complete and correct understanding of the universe. And with that better understanding, who knows what new technology could eventually be informed by our better knowledge. We got MRIs from a whole bunch of physicists who had no interest in medical imaging *at all*. Maybe in the future we will look back at this as the first breakthrough that eventually led to faster than light travel for the human race!
Or, you know, maybe the thing is just off a little.
-N
Our current understanding of the way the universe works is largely based on well tested and well understood theories started by Einstein and built upon by pretty much every physicist since. These laws say things CAN'T move faster than the speed of light. Since space and time are intertwined, if you are moving as fast as you can in space, you can't move *any* in time. You can read more about that, but it's been one of the rock-solid foundations of physics for a long, long time.
The critical thing about this is that we may have just proven that theory wrong. If something, ANYTHING, can ever travel faster than light under *any* circumstances, the entire theory *instantaneously* falls apart. (I know, isn't science CRAZY?) Now this isn't instantaneously catastrophic for most of the physics we know and love. After all, the fact that Newtonian Physics falls apart at the very small and very large doesn't mean that we can't use it to approximate a lot of useful things.
But notably, all science is about trying to correctly model the way the universe actually works. In that way, being proven wrong is actually sometimes more interesting than just being right over and over. It would be as if we had to update the theory of gravity to include "except for at 3:57 on Thursday afternoon in Topeka, Canada for about 1/10th of a second". All of a sudden there are a billion more questions to answer. "Why?" "Why not Wednesday?" As to this faster-than-light thing, similar questions arise. "Why these particles?" "Can we see the same phenomena from other sources?" "If things can travel faster than light, how come light doesn't?" The answers to these questions will inform whatever theory rises up to replace the broken one, and will offer a more complete and correct understanding of the universe. And with that better understanding, who knows what new technology could eventually be informed by our better knowledge. We got MRIs from a whole bunch of physicists who had no interest in medical imaging *at all*. Maybe in the future we will look back at this as the first breakthrough that eventually led to faster than light travel for the human race!
Or, you know, maybe the thing is just off a little.
-N
Sunday, September 25, 2011
an update? a quick update?
Ok, smart people, I need a quick ramp-up here: faster than light neutrinos.
What is the significance of this? Assuming for the moment there's not a gauge or sensor somewhere in the 400+ mile underground corridor that's juuuust a few nanometers off the bubble.
The liberal arts branch of the family wants to know the Deeper Meaning of all this. Einstein was wrong? We can put an asterisk in the E=MC2 thing? I know time travel won't be on offer any time soon (unless we get some really surprising visitors) but . . . intergalactic tourist travel?
No pressure, I just like to hear what the implications might be . . . maybe for the stock market, etc.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
New Blog! Steel City Science!
One of my friends, who is a talented scientist and great writer, has decided that Pittsburgh needs a new blog, a blog to cover the exciting science happenings in town. It's surprising that there isn't something like this already, frankly. There are a lot of "Pro-Pittsburgh" blogs etc., supporting this great online community of people who like to shine a light on what makes Pittsburgh unique. There are dozens of research institutes and museums here, with cool science for Nerds and the Public alike, but no single place where all these great things get highlighted. Her idea, then, is to publicize it a bit more. Short news features from cool seminars, updates about great public events written for the average yinzer to understand. And she asked ME to help! I'm so excited!
The new blog is called Steel City Science, and you can follow us on twitter @SteelCitySci. Obviously, the twitter is mostly me. My posts are written by drsandlin (obvs), and the other bloggers (so far) are former coworkers.
I'm excited about this 1) because it gives me a good excuse to go to events and science stuff still, and 2) because it is a new way to think about science. AND it's giving me an excuse to learn some new skills- I'm the defacto PR person (uh, Kels, expect some calls). For example, I am linking here because I know you all LOVE to see what I am up to, but also because we need some more google cred to climb the rankings. Share the link, send me Burgh related stories and prepare to be excited by the awesome science coming out of Pittsburgh!
In other news- I'M GOING TO TEXAS TOMORROW! Don't leave your babies unattended or they will be kiss-tickled into hysterics.
The new blog is called Steel City Science, and you can follow us on twitter @SteelCitySci. Obviously, the twitter is mostly me. My posts are written by drsandlin (obvs), and the other bloggers (so far) are former coworkers.
I'm excited about this 1) because it gives me a good excuse to go to events and science stuff still, and 2) because it is a new way to think about science. AND it's giving me an excuse to learn some new skills- I'm the defacto PR person (uh, Kels, expect some calls). For example, I am linking here because I know you all LOVE to see what I am up to, but also because we need some more google cred to climb the rankings. Share the link, send me Burgh related stories and prepare to be excited by the awesome science coming out of Pittsburgh!
In other news- I'M GOING TO TEXAS TOMORROW! Don't leave your babies unattended or they will be kiss-tickled into hysterics.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
With all this free time, why do I feel so busy?
Hello old, neglected blog,
It's been a long time since we've had a chance to catch up. I know, it's surprising, given that I am between jobs at the moment. But I am intermittently very busy with finding the next job, and this is time not punctuated by anything very interesting or blog worthy. So there you have it.
Actually, that's not true. Yesterday was Matt's birthday- totally blog worthy! Matt went for a nice bike ride on his "new birthday wheels" (read:expensive wheels he bought himself a month ago and is still really happy with) and we ordered a meat lover's pizza and watch Thor, which was exactly as awful and awesome as I expected. If I hadn't been at the Science Center all day, I would havebaked a cake gone to the store to get ice cream.
Speaking of the science center- it's so fun! I'm starting to feel more confident on the exhibits, so I feel ok approaching people to encourage them a little. My favorite is the atrium, which is the 4 story playground for rockets, parachutes and air cannons. To me, its clear how play become science. "Your rocket went so high! Do you think it would go higher with different wings? How did you make it spin like that?" It's partly because kids never get tired of shooting the rockets. (They tend to get a little bored of the laproscopy demos, and there isn't as much to say about an aquarium.) And neither do I, apparently.
I'm also starting to work with a group that is promoting girls in math and science, or as it is known, the STEM fields (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math). My job right now is to come up with some online modules for a budding online community to have some STEM activities and prompt some interaction. I've got some starts of ideas, but it is going to be challenging to find a way to meet all the design requirements for the site. Like, there are some great science demos you can do for kids 10-14, but there is no reason for them to come back online and share. And how do you use that to launch deeper exploration? It's a fun challenge to break up the job hunting. Bleh. I'll let you know if that goes anywhere. In the meantime my "job" is looking more like a job. I've got more work for the week I'll be in Austin TX, which will keep me busy between BABY KISSING and BABY CUDDLING, my main plan for TX.
It's been a long time since we've had a chance to catch up. I know, it's surprising, given that I am between jobs at the moment. But I am intermittently very busy with finding the next job, and this is time not punctuated by anything very interesting or blog worthy. So there you have it.
Actually, that's not true. Yesterday was Matt's birthday- totally blog worthy! Matt went for a nice bike ride on his "new birthday wheels" (read:expensive wheels he bought himself a month ago and is still really happy with) and we ordered a meat lover's pizza and watch Thor, which was exactly as awful and awesome as I expected. If I hadn't been at the Science Center all day, I would have
Speaking of the science center- it's so fun! I'm starting to feel more confident on the exhibits, so I feel ok approaching people to encourage them a little. My favorite is the atrium, which is the 4 story playground for rockets, parachutes and air cannons. To me, its clear how play become science. "Your rocket went so high! Do you think it would go higher with different wings? How did you make it spin like that?" It's partly because kids never get tired of shooting the rockets. (They tend to get a little bored of the laproscopy demos, and there isn't as much to say about an aquarium.) And neither do I, apparently.
I'm also starting to work with a group that is promoting girls in math and science, or as it is known, the STEM fields (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math). My job right now is to come up with some online modules for a budding online community to have some STEM activities and prompt some interaction. I've got some starts of ideas, but it is going to be challenging to find a way to meet all the design requirements for the site. Like, there are some great science demos you can do for kids 10-14, but there is no reason for them to come back online and share. And how do you use that to launch deeper exploration? It's a fun challenge to break up the job hunting. Bleh. I'll let you know if that goes anywhere. In the meantime my "job" is looking more like a job. I've got more work for the week I'll be in Austin TX, which will keep me busy between BABY KISSING and BABY CUDDLING, my main plan for TX.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Weekend in Virginia
Matt and I took advantage of the long weekend to go and visit our favorite people in all of Virginia. They've been living there for a year, so it's really about time we stopped by for a visit. I can't say I've thought much about Virginia before, but it was so green and beautiful down there. We had a nice drive down on Friday, stopping only once to feel deeply lost, and got in some hiking, some eating, some chatting, some touring and some more eating over the weekend. It was a really nice trip, and of course always fantastic to see old friends, and see them doing really well. New jobs, new house- it was like hanging out with grown-ups.
Of course, getting to travel is one of the perks of being "between work." I finished my last day of real work at Pitt on Wednesday, and I've started volunteering at the science center- how fun! I'm going back tomorrow for my first non-orientation day. The time in between, is of course, to find a real job. And make dinner and stuff. I had a good lead today, and hope to work on a system for getting more soon. Being unemployed could be fun for maybe as much as a month, but I'll get bored of it pretty quick, I am sure.
Of course, no sooner am I out of a job but my main manuscript was rejected. Bummer. Not sure how Dr. Boss plans to deal with this yet, so I'm going to go visit on Thursday and see what he is thinking. I'm sure he'll get it out somewhere, but he doesn't have the incentive to get published that I do. I expected this though, so I am optimistic that we can move on it quickly.
Of course, getting to travel is one of the perks of being "between work." I finished my last day of real work at Pitt on Wednesday, and I've started volunteering at the science center- how fun! I'm going back tomorrow for my first non-orientation day. The time in between, is of course, to find a real job. And make dinner and stuff. I had a good lead today, and hope to work on a system for getting more soon. Being unemployed could be fun for maybe as much as a month, but I'll get bored of it pretty quick, I am sure.
Of course, no sooner am I out of a job but my main manuscript was rejected. Bummer. Not sure how Dr. Boss plans to deal with this yet, so I'm going to go visit on Thursday and see what he is thinking. I'm sure he'll get it out somewhere, but he doesn't have the incentive to get published that I do. I expected this though, so I am optimistic that we can move on it quickly.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Getting done and getting back to normal
As Dad pointed out, I defended my Ph.D.! This is a big milestone for me, and it was really fantastic to have my family around to help celebrate what has felt like a very personal struggle culminating in such success! Much fun (and food!) was had by all over the weekend, and served as a well needed break.
Because when I got back to work on Tuesday... there were literally 1,000 pages of comments waiting on my desk- that is 2 full reams of paper, dog eared and with post-it notes sticking out. That actually has been fairly managable to tackle, and I expect I'll be done with the worst by the end of the week. But I'm not sure yet, since I am doing some experiments this week too- I feel like I'm getting right back to normal. Well, not normal, precisely. Absolutely better. I don't feel anxiety about coming in to work, mostly because the one most important thing I've had to worry about (getting my degree), I got, and they can't take it back. My papers may never get published and it may take a long time to get a job, but I've got the degree.
And otherwise things are moving along. I'm covering some experiments for my undergrad while he crams for the MCATs, hoping we can all get a manuscript 3 or 5 or whatever out of this deal... Oh, and good news, Manuscript #2 was resubmitted today. I'm fairly confident it will be accepted, and hoping that can move forward quickly, since a publication would greatly improve my scientist credibility. This paper has been a lot of back and forth with the collaborators in many timezones, and although I am the first author, I've had very little influence on the actual written document (for better or for worse). For me it has been easy to participate in, although if I had any more pull on the project, I'd have written it up differently- but it probably wouldn't have been as interesting to the people we want reading it that way. I'll happily overlook all that if it gets published, so keep your fingers crossed!
Because when I got back to work on Tuesday... there were literally 1,000 pages of comments waiting on my desk- that is 2 full reams of paper, dog eared and with post-it notes sticking out. That actually has been fairly managable to tackle, and I expect I'll be done with the worst by the end of the week. But I'm not sure yet, since I am doing some experiments this week too- I feel like I'm getting right back to normal. Well, not normal, precisely. Absolutely better. I don't feel anxiety about coming in to work, mostly because the one most important thing I've had to worry about (getting my degree), I got, and they can't take it back. My papers may never get published and it may take a long time to get a job, but I've got the degree.
And otherwise things are moving along. I'm covering some experiments for my undergrad while he crams for the MCATs, hoping we can all get a manuscript 3 or 5 or whatever out of this deal... Oh, and good news, Manuscript #2 was resubmitted today. I'm fairly confident it will be accepted, and hoping that can move forward quickly, since a publication would greatly improve my scientist credibility. This paper has been a lot of back and forth with the collaborators in many timezones, and although I am the first author, I've had very little influence on the actual written document (for better or for worse). For me it has been easy to participate in, although if I had any more pull on the project, I'd have written it up differently- but it probably wouldn't have been as interesting to the people we want reading it that way. I'll happily overlook all that if it gets published, so keep your fingers crossed!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Dissertation, Done! and a seminar primer
I turned in my dissertation today! Hand delivered to each of my committee members (except for the one who left for Atlanta this morning, but he doesn't mind), who each recieved it with varying degrees of ambivalence and dread. I realize that this milestone for me is actually the starter's gun for them. I finished writing 200 pages! Now you have to read it! Needless to say, this drained the excitement out of the moment like a whistling slow leak on a bike tire. In fact, while hanging around waiting for various committee members to be available, I ended up chatting with enough of my peers to acknowlege that Yes, I am graduating in 9 days and No, I don't know what I'll do next, but Yes, Dr. Boss won't be paying me in September. What should have been excitement about a writing break, quickly turned into acute panic about my employment status. Ugh.
In the next nine days, I am hoping to find some jobs to apply for and prepare my seminar. I've had the privilege of going to some other defenses lately, which reminded me that people who don't do this often might like a primer on The Seminar.
I'll be giving my seminar in a lecture hall, which will hopefully feel well attended. The only people required to be there are my committee members- you'll recognize them by having a 200 page document they bring with them. They might flip through it while I talk- this is not rude. Those of you in attendance will get to see me sweating about projector set ups as early as 12:30. At 1pm sharp- or whenever all my committee members have assembled, Dr. Boss will stand up and give a brief introduction. Some faculty like to tell embarrassing stories or get choked up. Fortunately Dr. Boss will say something fairly flattering and professional, but don't expect a well rehearsed speech. The last time he introduced me he admitted my project was "something of a mid-life crisis that turned into a really great opportunity to work with Dr. Rockstar. Here's Sandlin!" "...?" I guess I am saying, don't read to much into whatever he says.
Then I will talk for about an hour. For those not already familiar with my work, I would hope you can understand the first slide or two, and you can be awakened for the slide titled Conclusions. I've decided to keep my acknowledgments strictly professional (people sometimes take the opportunity to publicly thanks their family and friends. I don't think I can do that with dry eyes, and I need my professional dignity for the committee meeting), so I'll probably go through three slides of collaborators and people who've taught me techniques, and then I'll say "and with that, I'll take any questions." Everyone will clap- but it's not over yet! Now is not a good time to take phone calls! Dr. Boss will jump up to moderate any questions, and everyone will stay in their seats to hear what is asked and how I respond. Anyone is welcome to ask questions, but please keep in mind the above regarding my professional dignity. I've seen a spouse ask a devastatingly prescient question the graduate had no response for, and everyone felt awkward about it. Hopefully this won't drag on more than 15 minutes. After that, Dr. Boss will say something about reconvening the committee, and everyone will clap again, and leave. I'll break down my computer while everyone else shuffles out, and then race upstairs to the conference room for my committee meeting. I know it may seem tempting to do otherwise, but this is the peak of my professional career, so no matter how flustered, or blubbery or astoundingly brilliant I seem, please don't come give me kisses, yet! Just brave smiles and I am off to The Defense. This is the end of the part you'll see.
After that, I'll have a meeting with my committee. I actually have no idea what will happen in there, but I expect it will be an hour or two. Eventually, I will be on the receiving end of 1,000 pages of comments and some congratulatory handshakes. Those in attendance are welcome to retire to their hotel, or hang out at my desk and harass my coworkers- they love funny stories! - since this is probably where I will head first to deposit 1000 pages. Those in absentia can expect texts before 5pm EST. Once Dr. Boss is out of sight, pile on the hugs and kisses, my professional obligations for the day are over! I promise I'll come hunting for family to hug no matter where you are, so go ahead and enjoy a nap or a lemonade or something else to kill the time.
In the next nine days, I am hoping to find some jobs to apply for and prepare my seminar. I've had the privilege of going to some other defenses lately, which reminded me that people who don't do this often might like a primer on The Seminar.
I'll be giving my seminar in a lecture hall, which will hopefully feel well attended. The only people required to be there are my committee members- you'll recognize them by having a 200 page document they bring with them. They might flip through it while I talk- this is not rude. Those of you in attendance will get to see me sweating about projector set ups as early as 12:30. At 1pm sharp- or whenever all my committee members have assembled, Dr. Boss will stand up and give a brief introduction. Some faculty like to tell embarrassing stories or get choked up. Fortunately Dr. Boss will say something fairly flattering and professional, but don't expect a well rehearsed speech. The last time he introduced me he admitted my project was "something of a mid-life crisis that turned into a really great opportunity to work with Dr. Rockstar. Here's Sandlin!" "...?" I guess I am saying, don't read to much into whatever he says.
Then I will talk for about an hour. For those not already familiar with my work, I would hope you can understand the first slide or two, and you can be awakened for the slide titled Conclusions. I've decided to keep my acknowledgments strictly professional (people sometimes take the opportunity to publicly thanks their family and friends. I don't think I can do that with dry eyes, and I need my professional dignity for the committee meeting), so I'll probably go through three slides of collaborators and people who've taught me techniques, and then I'll say "and with that, I'll take any questions." Everyone will clap- but it's not over yet! Now is not a good time to take phone calls! Dr. Boss will jump up to moderate any questions, and everyone will stay in their seats to hear what is asked and how I respond. Anyone is welcome to ask questions, but please keep in mind the above regarding my professional dignity. I've seen a spouse ask a devastatingly prescient question the graduate had no response for, and everyone felt awkward about it. Hopefully this won't drag on more than 15 minutes. After that, Dr. Boss will say something about reconvening the committee, and everyone will clap again, and leave. I'll break down my computer while everyone else shuffles out, and then race upstairs to the conference room for my committee meeting. I know it may seem tempting to do otherwise, but this is the peak of my professional career, so no matter how flustered, or blubbery or astoundingly brilliant I seem, please don't come give me kisses, yet! Just brave smiles and I am off to The Defense. This is the end of the part you'll see.
After that, I'll have a meeting with my committee. I actually have no idea what will happen in there, but I expect it will be an hour or two. Eventually, I will be on the receiving end of 1,000 pages of comments and some congratulatory handshakes. Those in attendance are welcome to retire to their hotel, or hang out at my desk and harass my coworkers- they love funny stories! - since this is probably where I will head first to deposit 1000 pages. Those in absentia can expect texts before 5pm EST. Once Dr. Boss is out of sight, pile on the hugs and kisses, my professional obligations for the day are over! I promise I'll come hunting for family to hug no matter where you are, so go ahead and enjoy a nap or a lemonade or something else to kill the time.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
I was going to say something about my fun weekend, but...
A paper came out last week that reclassified the family of viruses I study into 3 viruses. It doesn't change the way I did or should have done my experiments, but it certainly changes the way I should describe them.
Today just got extra busy.
Today just got extra busy.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Manuscript #2 submitted!
Not much really changes in my daily routine, which I recognize is getting a bit repetitive. But this week, breakthrough! My collaborators submitted manuscript #2- and I am the first author! There has been a lot of back and forth to get this story together, which draws heavily on the distinct expertise of 3 different labs. The bumps in the road will hopefully pay off when the Journal of Biomolecular Screening reviews is and LOVEs it.
Actually, I am not really holding out hope that this will be different than manuscript #1- I expect to get it back in another month and we'll make up our minds about what else to do to it. Weird though it seems, this is still what progress looks like.
The dissertation continues too. 140 pages, 269 references. I doubt the final product will be more than 200 pages, I feel like most of it has been committed to paper by now. I continue to feel intermittently very clever and very foolish about the experiments we've done and the results we've gotten. 57 days left until my defense... I gave Dr. Boss the first draft of a chapter- we'll see if I am as close to on track as I feel.
In other news, we fired the wood kiln over the weekend. This was WAY less work because there were twice the people we usually have around. This also means there was WAY more food too- double awesome. The weather was great too. The firing went very quickly, and we got home quite early on Sunday. We crack it open Wednesday- I'm excited to see what we get. I made LOTS of plates this time, and baking dishes. Both are relatively new forms for me, with luck they look great. No pictures this time, I guess it is starting to feel pretty routine. Our teacher was a little ill, so we kept sending him away to sleep while we took charge of things. It's nice to know what you are doing.
Actually, I am not really holding out hope that this will be different than manuscript #1- I expect to get it back in another month and we'll make up our minds about what else to do to it. Weird though it seems, this is still what progress looks like.
The dissertation continues too. 140 pages, 269 references. I doubt the final product will be more than 200 pages, I feel like most of it has been committed to paper by now. I continue to feel intermittently very clever and very foolish about the experiments we've done and the results we've gotten. 57 days left until my defense... I gave Dr. Boss the first draft of a chapter- we'll see if I am as close to on track as I feel.
In other news, we fired the wood kiln over the weekend. This was WAY less work because there were twice the people we usually have around. This also means there was WAY more food too- double awesome. The weather was great too. The firing went very quickly, and we got home quite early on Sunday. We crack it open Wednesday- I'm excited to see what we get. I made LOTS of plates this time, and baking dishes. Both are relatively new forms for me, with luck they look great. No pictures this time, I guess it is starting to feel pretty routine. Our teacher was a little ill, so we kept sending him away to sleep while we took charge of things. It's nice to know what you are doing.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
This is better than I thought
Obviously, I like writing. If I didn't like writing, I certainly wouldn't keep a blog. But I thought that "writing I like doing" and "writing you do under duress to get a PhD" would not overlap. This is in part because my efforts to write Manuscript 1 and get Dr. Boss to read it were so frustrating. Yet here I am, happily writing my dissertation. Sure, my interest/motivation ebbs and flows a bit, but I haven't hit any major blocks yet.
This is probably because there are so many different things to do, update references, make figures (find figures), create tables, read loads, about LOADS of really different but interesting things... all of which are at this stage equally productive.
I couldn't sleep this morning (it is so humid out, my sleepy brain thought we were at a lake or something), so I popped up around 5:30 this morning to write in a bit more about how cool Table #2 is, and add in that my perspective on this whole field is pretty unique... and then I added some figures to the second chapter (which I mostly loaded yesterday- this is manuscript 1 + whatever negative results I feel like adding).
There are also way more read-outs for progress than I would have thought, and it is really gratifying. For example, this morning I crossed the 100 page mark (23 of which are references- and yes it's double spaced, but still!). I am at 257 references, which makes me feel well read. I've got 10 figures and 5 tables. I want to make progress bars for all these things! I also think I am about at the halfway mark of getting it written, which is actually a bit ahead of schedule. That makes me feel really good about it. Today I am going back to work, to split my time between some experiments and making some figures. With luck this experiment will be done next week (and then it will go into my manuscript AND dissertation- more progress!), and I can focus full time on writing really.
This is probably because there are so many different things to do, update references, make figures (find figures), create tables, read loads, about LOADS of really different but interesting things... all of which are at this stage equally productive.
I couldn't sleep this morning (it is so humid out, my sleepy brain thought we were at a lake or something), so I popped up around 5:30 this morning to write in a bit more about how cool Table #2 is, and add in that my perspective on this whole field is pretty unique... and then I added some figures to the second chapter (which I mostly loaded yesterday- this is manuscript 1 + whatever negative results I feel like adding).
There are also way more read-outs for progress than I would have thought, and it is really gratifying. For example, this morning I crossed the 100 page mark (23 of which are references- and yes it's double spaced, but still!). I am at 257 references, which makes me feel well read. I've got 10 figures and 5 tables. I want to make progress bars for all these things! I also think I am about at the halfway mark of getting it written, which is actually a bit ahead of schedule. That makes me feel really good about it. Today I am going back to work, to split my time between some experiments and making some figures. With luck this experiment will be done next week (and then it will go into my manuscript AND dissertation- more progress!), and I can focus full time on writing really.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Knowing things seems to make a difference
Two interesting things happened this week that made me feel like spending 3 weeks cloistered and learning some science were not a waste of time. First of all, this scientist came to visit Dr. Rockstar, and he wanted people to talk with her. We talked a little bit about my work, and how that might intersect with her work (on how viruses assemble), and we agreed that she would send me reagents to do an experiment that would be interesting to both of us. I felt really capable of talking about, not just my own work, but also how that intersects with fields, and was able to reference specifics. We actually got into this 3 way discussion about... well it doesn't really matter what, but I felt pretty awesome reminding Dr. Rockstar about the evidence from the mid-80's that showed that these late 90's hypotheses were well founded, even if they still haven't been thoroughly tested. Yeah- my dissertation has some 200 references right now- so I've been doing a LOT of reading.
The other kinda cool thing was I gave a seminar this week. Just my usual, annual seminar for the department. I barely spent an hour putting the slides in place, gave a pretty scattered practice talk for the Dr. Rockstar's lab, who gave me really helpful comments, which I didn't have time to deal with until the morning of the talk. I spent another hour and a half on the talk (which, since it was 30 min- means flipping through it twice). I felt a little nervous giving a talk I spent so little time preparing, but I think it was perhaps one of my more interesting talks. Part of my nervousness was talking about a project that didn't exactly fail, but surely gave us disappointing results. How do you say that without opening yourself up to being eaten alive by criticism? With some help, I decided to go the open and honest approach, which was really well received. But more than that, I felt like I had a lot of context to add. After all this reading and thinking, I am starting to understand that what we undertook in the project is not straightforward. That is why I felt like the seminar was quite successful, even though I talked about a project that was basically an epic failure. Lots of positive feedback after that.
I am still stymied with my one "easy" experiment, so I'll be doing bench work for at least a few more days. Today, I am going to try and incorporate some of the comments from my coworkers on the introduction to my dissertation. Dr. Boss wants to see that on May 1, although there is lots more work to be done (figures? tables?), I feel like that is pretty do-able. Next weekend is also the wood-firing, so I am trying to get work done ahead of that so I can really enjoy it.
The other kinda cool thing was I gave a seminar this week. Just my usual, annual seminar for the department. I barely spent an hour putting the slides in place, gave a pretty scattered practice talk for the Dr. Rockstar's lab, who gave me really helpful comments, which I didn't have time to deal with until the morning of the talk. I spent another hour and a half on the talk (which, since it was 30 min- means flipping through it twice). I felt a little nervous giving a talk I spent so little time preparing, but I think it was perhaps one of my more interesting talks. Part of my nervousness was talking about a project that didn't exactly fail, but surely gave us disappointing results. How do you say that without opening yourself up to being eaten alive by criticism? With some help, I decided to go the open and honest approach, which was really well received. But more than that, I felt like I had a lot of context to add. After all this reading and thinking, I am starting to understand that what we undertook in the project is not straightforward. That is why I felt like the seminar was quite successful, even though I talked about a project that was basically an epic failure. Lots of positive feedback after that.
I am still stymied with my one "easy" experiment, so I'll be doing bench work for at least a few more days. Today, I am going to try and incorporate some of the comments from my coworkers on the introduction to my dissertation. Dr. Boss wants to see that on May 1, although there is lots more work to be done (figures? tables?), I feel like that is pretty do-able. Next weekend is also the wood-firing, so I am trying to get work done ahead of that so I can really enjoy it.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Yesterday sucked. Today I made up for it.
Yesterday I actually had to go in to work, which made the day not so good. For starters, I had to go there because I had non-writing things to deal with, so the day was inherently less productive than I wanted it to be. I had an abbreviated talk with Dr. Boss about the fate of manuscript 1 (now he is really worried about getting it out on time, arg) that made me feel good about the writing, but kinda crappy about the timing of everything else. He won't be able to pay me unless I commit to TAing in the fall, which I don't think will give me enough flexibility to find and take a job, so the end is really in sight now.
Then I had to run up the hill to get some drugs from a transplant surgeon for some experiments I had planned. He works in my field, and if he weren't such a nice guy, I would consider him a major competitor. Which is why it totally shatter my confidence when he seemed slightly worried and confused about why I had bothered doing all the experiments I've done on my project, and the conclusions I'm going to be able to draw from them... ("But do you have some other side project besides those two screens that didn't work? Something else to talk about at your defense?" "Uh, no. That's pretty much 5 years of work in an egg shell...") And then I tried to get some work done at my desk, but people kept coming by with weird questions, that given my seniority I am supposed to answer. It makes me feel like a jerk to be so irritable (Really? You want to know where the alcohol waste goes, and you thought because I have my headphones in and haven't looked up for 20 minutes I would want to tell you about that?), so the best solution for me is to work from home. For me and everyone else. But when I got home (late), I didn't have any energy to do anything but whine about how I haven't found a job to Matt. Ick, what a lame day.
But today, I decided I don't have time for sucky days. I am hoping to get ahead of my writing schedule, and get back into the lab for a couple of days and finish up the easy experiment for manuscript 1 (since we are worried about the timeline now). I got up, took my breakfast in front of my computer and decided I have so much to do, I can write whatever I feel like, stop whenever I get stuck, but just keep writing (I think I am better at editing than first writes). Yesterday, I had barely 6 pages of "content" and 23 references. Right now I have 15 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables and 70 references. I am kinda feeling like a rockstar right now. And I do mean unshowered.
Unfortunately, I am going back in to work tomorrow, so I expect less progress, but hopefully I can clear up a few things with Dr. Boss- like this table that I have running on to a second page, how will I know when to stop? And is the figure a bad idea? And should I try to get back in to do that experiment? And if so, do I really need to keep coming in 3 days a week for all these meetings? Wish me luck.
Then I had to run up the hill to get some drugs from a transplant surgeon for some experiments I had planned. He works in my field, and if he weren't such a nice guy, I would consider him a major competitor. Which is why it totally shatter my confidence when he seemed slightly worried and confused about why I had bothered doing all the experiments I've done on my project, and the conclusions I'm going to be able to draw from them... ("But do you have some other side project besides those two screens that didn't work? Something else to talk about at your defense?" "Uh, no. That's pretty much 5 years of work in an egg shell...") And then I tried to get some work done at my desk, but people kept coming by with weird questions, that given my seniority I am supposed to answer. It makes me feel like a jerk to be so irritable (Really? You want to know where the alcohol waste goes, and you thought because I have my headphones in and haven't looked up for 20 minutes I would want to tell you about that?), so the best solution for me is to work from home. For me and everyone else. But when I got home (late), I didn't have any energy to do anything but whine about how I haven't found a job to Matt. Ick, what a lame day.
But today, I decided I don't have time for sucky days. I am hoping to get ahead of my writing schedule, and get back into the lab for a couple of days and finish up the easy experiment for manuscript 1 (since we are worried about the timeline now). I got up, took my breakfast in front of my computer and decided I have so much to do, I can write whatever I feel like, stop whenever I get stuck, but just keep writing (I think I am better at editing than first writes). Yesterday, I had barely 6 pages of "content" and 23 references. Right now I have 15 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables and 70 references. I am kinda feeling like a rockstar right now. And I do mean unshowered.
Unfortunately, I am going back in to work tomorrow, so I expect less progress, but hopefully I can clear up a few things with Dr. Boss- like this table that I have running on to a second page, how will I know when to stop? And is the figure a bad idea? And should I try to get back in to do that experiment? And if so, do I really need to keep coming in 3 days a week for all these meetings? Wish me luck.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Getting forgetful
All I can say in my defense is that when I get focused on writing projects (which involve burying my nose in a book and thinking about 60 years worth of literature), I tend to become impervious to social cues. Last week, Dr. Boss gave me the green light to write full time, which I've been doing. So I was a little miffed when he stopped by my desk yesterday to ask me about some experiments we have planned for the summer- like namely what I was doing about them. First I had to return to reality land to engage in conversation, and why are we talking about this anyway? I'll deal with it in July, right?
I confided this to my coworker who at first was equally confused. Does Dr. Boss not want you to be writing? Or maybe he just wanted you to volunteer some clues about how it is going. Have you told him how it's going? Well, no, actually. I didn't feel like I had anything to say yet because there is a lot of work to be done, and I know what I need to do right now. But he works really hard at not putting pressure on by asking "how's the writing going?" (which would probably make my head implode), so maybe I could help him by giving him some clues that I am on track. Or asking for the help that I want. Something so he doesn't worry I've just taken a vacation for the next couple months.
I suppose from his perspective, I just stopped coming in to lab, which doesn't look any different from when I do go on vacation. I've sent a couple emails today to give him some clues that I am working, and still really committed to this project, and interested in having it succeed so he doesn't worry I am just going to cut out once I have my degree.
And in case these seem like really obvious and normal interactions to have, and you are not sure why I am being so intentional about it, yesterday my foggy brain actually responded "Oo, fun!" to a friend who told me she had been at the doctors. So yeah, the social interaction center of my brain is clearly on sabbatical until the think about science part of my brain gets this thing under control.
I confided this to my coworker who at first was equally confused. Does Dr. Boss not want you to be writing? Or maybe he just wanted you to volunteer some clues about how it is going. Have you told him how it's going? Well, no, actually. I didn't feel like I had anything to say yet because there is a lot of work to be done, and I know what I need to do right now. But he works really hard at not putting pressure on by asking "how's the writing going?" (which would probably make my head implode), so maybe I could help him by giving him some clues that I am on track. Or asking for the help that I want. Something so he doesn't worry I've just taken a vacation for the next couple months.
I suppose from his perspective, I just stopped coming in to lab, which doesn't look any different from when I do go on vacation. I've sent a couple emails today to give him some clues that I am working, and still really committed to this project, and interested in having it succeed so he doesn't worry I am just going to cut out once I have my degree.
And in case these seem like really obvious and normal interactions to have, and you are not sure why I am being so intentional about it, yesterday my foggy brain actually responded "Oo, fun!" to a friend who told me she had been at the doctors. So yeah, the social interaction center of my brain is clearly on sabbatical until the think about science part of my brain gets this thing under control.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
It begins
If Noel is going to continue posting that life is returning to Normal in Texas, then I think it is safe for me to return to posting. I'll just skip to the point:
I did my last experiment today.
I usually like to be superstitiously cautious when it comes to saying things about results before they happened (ie. "That experiment totally worked"is never uttered until it's been repeated in triplicate and shown at lab meeting. Not, say, while I am waiting to read the results). Which is why, even though I sensed this would be the case Monday, I only whispered it to a coworker when we were well away from the experiments in question. And then waited for that to be confirmed by Dr. Boss. "Those are great results. Send them to the collaborator and let's be done wit this."
Awesome, manuscript 4 is set- from my end.
And yes, I've agreed to do more experiments for manuscript 1 (and I suspect 2 and 3 aren't far behind) this summer, I won't be a graduate student then, so it hardly seems like it counts. In fact, that's more like job security. In the meantime, it's time to write. Dr. Boss and I hashed out a timeline and outline for this document. I'm feeling mixed excitement and worry. Doing experiments I can do. I've been doing that for like a decade. Writing long but cohesive documents, using a complex word template and citation manager on a computer that has already been through thick and thin with me is a whole new adventure. It might suck- but the blessing is that I actually enjoy writing quite a bit. (That's why I've been looking for jobs in technical writing) And let's not forget that you only get to write this document when you are going to FINISH. And GRADUATE. AWESOME.
I'm going to try and figure out a system- write from home or work? read while writing or schedule blocks of time? And how do I keep to a deadline? At least while I am getting started, I am stuck by a couple personal limitations- I can't read anything first thing in the morning (it doesn't stick), and although I write really well at night, I can't sleep immediately after I think about my research. Editing or formatting and figures can fill in some of that gaps later, but for now I need to decide what goes into this document.
I did my last experiment today.
I usually like to be superstitiously cautious when it comes to saying things about results before they happened (ie. "That experiment totally worked"is never uttered until it's been repeated in triplicate and shown at lab meeting. Not, say, while I am waiting to read the results). Which is why, even though I sensed this would be the case Monday, I only whispered it to a coworker when we were well away from the experiments in question. And then waited for that to be confirmed by Dr. Boss. "Those are great results. Send them to the collaborator and let's be done wit this."
Awesome, manuscript 4 is set- from my end.
And yes, I've agreed to do more experiments for manuscript 1 (and I suspect 2 and 3 aren't far behind) this summer, I won't be a graduate student then, so it hardly seems like it counts. In fact, that's more like job security. In the meantime, it's time to write. Dr. Boss and I hashed out a timeline and outline for this document. I'm feeling mixed excitement and worry. Doing experiments I can do. I've been doing that for like a decade. Writing long but cohesive documents, using a complex word template and citation manager on a computer that has already been through thick and thin with me is a whole new adventure. It might suck- but the blessing is that I actually enjoy writing quite a bit. (That's why I've been looking for jobs in technical writing) And let's not forget that you only get to write this document when you are going to FINISH. And GRADUATE. AWESOME.
I'm going to try and figure out a system- write from home or work? read while writing or schedule blocks of time? And how do I keep to a deadline? At least while I am getting started, I am stuck by a couple personal limitations- I can't read anything first thing in the morning (it doesn't stick), and although I write really well at night, I can't sleep immediately after I think about my research. Editing or formatting and figures can fill in some of that gaps later, but for now I need to decide what goes into this document.
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