Today is a national holiday, which means that my class was canceled and that the labs will be locked for those without access cards. However, that does not mean that experiments have stopped or that people associated with experiments get the day off. Consequently I'm going to lab soon and there's a seminar that I'm attending at noon today but hey, free parking on campus!
...which is why I'm currently at home still. I meant to get a bit more sleep in, but when I first woke up this morning I wasn't able to pull out "Today's a Holiday" out of the foggy recesses of my mind and so automatically started blocking out my day in terms of what I must do, when. By the time I got to afternoon and class I realized that there's no class today, my memory caught up, but all gears are running already and my blood pressure is high enough (did I mention I missed the poster printing deadline by 15 minutes yesterday, partly due to an unexpectedly long lab meeting? And that today the printing services are closed?) that I ended up getting up early anyway.
The direct consequence of which is that now I have time to drink tea and... ponder about life. Or something.
(Erk erk I hope the incubation I started last night went okay and I'll have to leave the conference early Monday after all to go to lab to image something and possibly pick up my poster.)
For those of you that I'd initially contacted about FoldIt, today is three months after that round of email and the original deadline for everyone to go through the tutorials. I only know the usernames of two others and no one besides me seemed to have finished the tutorials. Given that I do (to varying degrees) know what everyone's going through right now and I am also aware (to varying degrees) that the years after this will, for most people, get even more insane, not less, I think the most reasonable thing will be to just drop this group project bit. If anyone ever finishes the tutorials within the next few years (at some point at least three months before I start writing my dissertation -- and trust me, you'll know when that time arrives because of the verbal flailing I will commit here) and still feel like giving this a shot...you all know how to reach me.
I have discovered that I definitely now own more than two gigs of music, as that my mp3 player declared itself to be full. I should probably go through and delete all the ones that it doesn't play but that requires more dedication and patience than I can spare at the moment. I have to deal with mice today. I wonder if any will try to bite me?
Off and away! (And maybe if I go to work a bit earlier than usual I can leave a bit earlier than usual? Not that it works that way, but a girl can hope.)
20101111
20101109
Salsa; the answer is salsa
Today is the start of Radioactivity, Round II. In between all the stuff I went over my poster with my PI and he'd like me to move around and change about half of the figures. Given that the conference technically starts Saturday, I want to be able to pick up the finished poster on Friday. Given the on-campus queue right now, that means I will have to finish my poster by...tomorrow.
I wasn't very happy with this and, at one point where the PI was suggesting other ways for me to analyze the data I flat out told him that I was just going to toss out the other two figures because I don't have the time to deal with them on top of the experiments that I'm running this week. Astonishingly, he didn't lose his temper then, either. I have passed the "talk about data without releasing sensitive data" part, at least -- all the information that could theoretically lead to limelight-stealing has been censored.
Now I just have to shuffle stuff around and make sure all the fonts are the right fonts and size and everything lines up properly. Dammit. I have spent far too many hours doing formatting on powerpoint slides this quarter. I haven't spent this much time eyeballing alignments and making sure the hues of background match since when I did web-designing back in the days. And that was without juggling two classes and four different experiments in three different species. It makes me long for the days when our frustration can be relieved by hauling paper out to the barbecue place by the pool and setting them on fire. I can't set Daemon on fire -- there's too much useful stuff on here and not to mention I'm quite fond of Daemon, what with it being my first laptop. I can draw things burning in graphic detail -- but that requires time, which I'm a bit short on. Thus, as of today, I'm mostly reduced to glaring murder at my slides and sighing.
C'est la vie, right?
Speaking of which: R.I.P., Ivy. The IT (finally remembered to go in today, yes) diagnosis is "most likely hardware problem" and I was informed that it'd cost more to fix it than to just get another netbook. Dad will probably want it for the spare parts, if nothing else, because that's what he does. But he might want to play around with it, back where all his tools are, so we'll see -- there is yet hope for a functional Frankenivy.
Lara sent me the transcript of the closing speech of the Steward / Colbert Rally, which was pretty awesome and also allowed me to track down the collection of truly hilarious signs people were carrying for the event. My current favorite was the one that proclaimed "Guacamole", and then included the ingredients for guacamole. I was remarking to Wendy that perhaps world peace can be achieved through food, and doesn't avocado make everything better? Then after a brief sorting out we realized that neither of us actually eat avocado, thereby provoking outrage from the guys next bay over who heard us, who demanded to know what on earth do we eat our chips with...
...random food conversations are kind of fun, actually, and currently the highlight of the day.
...well that, and the fact that the postdoc's baby's due today! We are all sort of anticipatory today but alas, unlike the other two babies, this baby's parents don't utilize Facebook at all.... (This is the last baby expected in our lab, by the way.)
I wasn't very happy with this and, at one point where the PI was suggesting other ways for me to analyze the data I flat out told him that I was just going to toss out the other two figures because I don't have the time to deal with them on top of the experiments that I'm running this week. Astonishingly, he didn't lose his temper then, either. I have passed the "talk about data without releasing sensitive data" part, at least -- all the information that could theoretically lead to limelight-stealing has been censored.
Now I just have to shuffle stuff around and make sure all the fonts are the right fonts and size and everything lines up properly. Dammit. I have spent far too many hours doing formatting on powerpoint slides this quarter. I haven't spent this much time eyeballing alignments and making sure the hues of background match since when I did web-designing back in the days. And that was without juggling two classes and four different experiments in three different species. It makes me long for the days when our frustration can be relieved by hauling paper out to the barbecue place by the pool and setting them on fire. I can't set Daemon on fire -- there's too much useful stuff on here and not to mention I'm quite fond of Daemon, what with it being my first laptop. I can draw things burning in graphic detail -- but that requires time, which I'm a bit short on. Thus, as of today, I'm mostly reduced to glaring murder at my slides and sighing.
C'est la vie, right?
Speaking of which: R.I.P., Ivy. The IT (finally remembered to go in today, yes) diagnosis is "most likely hardware problem" and I was informed that it'd cost more to fix it than to just get another netbook. Dad will probably want it for the spare parts, if nothing else, because that's what he does. But he might want to play around with it, back where all his tools are, so we'll see -- there is yet hope for a functional Frankenivy.
Lara sent me the transcript of the closing speech of the Steward / Colbert Rally, which was pretty awesome and also allowed me to track down the collection of truly hilarious signs people were carrying for the event. My current favorite was the one that proclaimed "Guacamole", and then included the ingredients for guacamole. I was remarking to Wendy that perhaps world peace can be achieved through food, and doesn't avocado make everything better? Then after a brief sorting out we realized that neither of us actually eat avocado, thereby provoking outrage from the guys next bay over who heard us, who demanded to know what on earth do we eat our chips with...
...random food conversations are kind of fun, actually, and currently the highlight of the day.
...well that, and the fact that the postdoc's baby's due today! We are all sort of anticipatory today but alas, unlike the other two babies, this baby's parents don't utilize Facebook at all.... (This is the last baby expected in our lab, by the way.)
20101107
...okay
Catching up on the internet between cleaning and found that underwater rivers do exist.
Really. WTF nature?
Yesterday I discovered that I left Daemon's power cord at the Lab, so despite of my resolve to Not Be In Lab At All this weekend I had to pop in to grab the charger. Fail, yes. It is, coincidentally, really hard to present data when you can't present data. (This is apparently a valid worry when presenting at large conferences about unpublished research, as that, despite of being considered unethical, people have stolen information and used it to "scoop" other's research.) (For those not familiar with the academia: your standing and survival depend on publications. Your publications is ranked by impact. Your impact decreases exponentially with each paper someone else besides you publish on similar / identical research.)
(It's perfectly possible for someone to be scooped without any data-stealing to occur, I should mention. Especially if you are working on a really popular topic, such as application of stem cells in neurodegenerative disease. Or diabetes. Heck, anything that involves application of stem cells.)
Really. WTF nature?
Yesterday I discovered that I left Daemon's power cord at the Lab, so despite of my resolve to Not Be In Lab At All this weekend I had to pop in to grab the charger. Fail, yes. It is, coincidentally, really hard to present data when you can't present data. (This is apparently a valid worry when presenting at large conferences about unpublished research, as that, despite of being considered unethical, people have stolen information and used it to "scoop" other's research.) (For those not familiar with the academia: your standing and survival depend on publications. Your publications is ranked by impact. Your impact decreases exponentially with each paper someone else besides you publish on similar / identical research.)
(It's perfectly possible for someone to be scooped without any data-stealing to occur, I should mention. Especially if you are working on a really popular topic, such as application of stem cells in neurodegenerative disease. Or diabetes. Heck, anything that involves application of stem cells.)
20101105
I am twitchy and crazy and the insanity is surely spreading
Dear diary,
Today we (that is, my labmates and I) discovered that our lab may have an imaginary member. You know? Like an imaginary friend? Except in lab. Listed on our approved personnel form for radio-isotopes. We have checked and this "Joseph" person is someone that no one knows and has never, at any point during the existence of our lab, worked in our lab anyway. To top it all off his name is high lighted in the form that was sent to us by the radioactivity portion of the health & safety organization on campus. We pondered this. Perhaps there is an imaginary lab member lurking around which would serve as a better explanation for the missing pens, odd incubator noises, and migrating hole punchers than simply a lab poltergeist. Perhaps he's the Canada of Hetalia, doomed to invisibility while the rest of us wondered at our vague senses of unease.
We do not know the answer yet, though we have emailed to inquire after this mysterious Mr. Joseph. Friday afternoon paperwork can be a source of intrigue and mystery (not of the confused by bureaucratic language sort) apparently. Who knew?
Sincerely,
S
Today we (that is, my labmates and I) discovered that our lab may have an imaginary member. You know? Like an imaginary friend? Except in lab. Listed on our approved personnel form for radio-isotopes. We have checked and this "Joseph" person is someone that no one knows and has never, at any point during the existence of our lab, worked in our lab anyway. To top it all off his name is high lighted in the form that was sent to us by the radioactivity portion of the health & safety organization on campus. We pondered this. Perhaps there is an imaginary lab member lurking around which would serve as a better explanation for the missing pens, odd incubator noises, and migrating hole punchers than simply a lab poltergeist. Perhaps he's the Canada of Hetalia, doomed to invisibility while the rest of us wondered at our vague senses of unease.
We do not know the answer yet, though we have emailed to inquire after this mysterious Mr. Joseph. Friday afternoon paperwork can be a source of intrigue and mystery (not of the confused by bureaucratic language sort) apparently. Who knew?
Sincerely,
S
20101101
Oh the weepings you'll...weep
I spent a good portion of Sunday thinking about cytosol. It is the most bizarre thing that popped up in my mind while I was drinking tea and infected itself on my brain. It's not even really related to my project -- or at least no more related to my project than anything in the field of biology is, inherently, related to the innards of a cell. Instead I found the word scrolling through my brain like one of those neon marquees that you never see outside of downtown while I drove to lab, it flashed most appalling while I was trying to spot my 2mm long transparent fish embryos floating in their clear fixative (computer no longer being the only source of eye strain these days), and bouncing around like an echo while I drove to the groceries. At which point I was promptly distracted by the fact that the music playing through the speakers seem to contain rather more screaming than usual. It took me a few seconds too long to remember that, oh right, Halloween. And then I got pomegranates, thought about Hades -- and "Myth of Devotion" is a lovely poem, by the way -- and tried to finish putting together my figures.
(I failed. I finished that in lab today, though I still haven't quite figured out how to diagram my results from Tukey's test without overwhelming my graphs with lines. I despise statistics. I really do.)
I want cake. Radioactivity is this week. The paperwork has gone through and I am now officially a Candidate and have used up 7 of my 18 quarters required to graduate. (There was a form and everything.) Also, one of my new litters of mice died, which consequently means that I have no behavioral test to run during Christmas week, so that works out (though it also means another month tacked onto the project). I am presenting in lab meeting this Wednesday.
I just realized that my paragraphs got progressively less coherent. Time to move on then!
(I failed. I finished that in lab today, though I still haven't quite figured out how to diagram my results from Tukey's test without overwhelming my graphs with lines. I despise statistics. I really do.)
I want cake. Radioactivity is this week. The paperwork has gone through and I am now officially a Candidate and have used up 7 of my 18 quarters required to graduate. (There was a form and everything.) Also, one of my new litters of mice died, which consequently means that I have no behavioral test to run during Christmas week, so that works out (though it also means another month tacked onto the project). I am presenting in lab meeting this Wednesday.
I just realized that my paragraphs got progressively less coherent. Time to move on then!
20101030
Addicted to stress
Lab both days this weekend. Ivy still broken. (Managed to confirm not software issue.) Zen refuses to open old .psd files. Green tea frappe. Data mining. Putting together figures. More tea. Headache started behind eyes and have moved to back of neck. OpenOffice needs custom error bars. Why are all the default chart colors so hideous? Number crunching. Looks like I might be disproving one of my hypotheses (oh snap). How many ways are there to graph pulse blocks anyway?
20101026
AWOL for a bit
To those of you who haven't heard yet, yes, Ivy caught a trojan last week (the hiloti one). I was able to catch it at some point, though not before it managed to eat AVG (which detected it as it came in from MegaUpload) and get past the McAfee scan. I was locked out of the school network at one point because it was trying to use my email to spread the virus but I managed to get rid of that bit as well (that was a fun evening at home). The result afterward was that Ivy is no longer contagious, I was allowed back on the network, but the OS is still glitchy.
I wasn't aware of the whole extend of glitchiness until the point where Ivy stopped booting at the login window, which made it necessary for me to ...well it wasn't important. The important part was that I was able to pull out all of my files safely and run a registry scan, which gave me over 1000 errors (I kid you not; I was deeply unhappy with this) in the reg and the option of either paying a rather lot to buy a software to fix it or fix all the errors manually, which I do not have the time to do.
So, like a good little amateur hacker that I once aspired to be, I swapped to Ubuntu. Which worked gloriously until this afternoon where Ivy's network component promptly died for no reason I can decipher. Both wireless and ethernet are gone right now and the computer's wireless card light is off, and I can't get it to turn back on. Will most likely be troubleshooting that at some point. Or possibly pay the student center people to, because this is now taking up way too much of my time. Meanwhile, 'net time's limited and I need have to put together a poster for the conference, probably on Zen. (Linux is awesome but there is no graphic software like Photoshop, which just doesn't seem to perform as well in Linux as MS.)
I wasn't aware of the whole extend of glitchiness until the point where Ivy stopped booting at the login window, which made it necessary for me to ...well it wasn't important. The important part was that I was able to pull out all of my files safely and run a registry scan, which gave me over 1000 errors (I kid you not; I was deeply unhappy with this) in the reg and the option of either paying a rather lot to buy a software to fix it or fix all the errors manually, which I do not have the time to do.
So, like a good little amateur hacker that I once aspired to be, I swapped to Ubuntu. Which worked gloriously until this afternoon where Ivy's network component promptly died for no reason I can decipher. Both wireless and ethernet are gone right now and the computer's wireless card light is off, and I can't get it to turn back on. Will most likely be troubleshooting that at some point. Or possibly pay the student center people to, because this is now taking up way too much of my time. Meanwhile, 'net time's limited and I need have to put together a poster for the conference, probably on Zen. (Linux is awesome but there is no graphic software like Photoshop, which just doesn't seem to perform as well in Linux as MS.)
20101019
Grad school haiku
Idea stolen from Anna.
The month is ending
I watch mice run in circles
And think about life
The month is ending
I watch mice run in circles
And think about life
20101017
Uber nerd post
I discovered "Axis Power Hetalia" yesterday, both the webcomic and the anime. The anime (the first episode at least) is hysterical in a "wow I can't believe they did that" kind of way (and occasionally the caricature will even ring true). The anime is based off of the comic, which is hugely irreverent and disturbing and amazing. I pondered what would've happened if I'd discovered this during the year in high school when I had world history. It is possible I would've been traumatized, though how something can be so soul-destroying-ly cynical yet cute at the same time is a mystery.
(In case the name didn't make it obvious, it's about the anthropomorphic personifications of world powers, mostly during WWI and WWII.)
Now: onward to something totally unrelated.
We recently had a Stem Cell Awareness day on campus, the discovery of which led me to go up to our post-doc who is working on the (murine; read: mouse) stem cell project and ask, "Are you Aware of stem cells?", to which she replied that yes, she was and so we were all good.
That wasn't the point though. The point of that day was to raise public awareness about the sort of research we do and why it's important. There was a seminar with panels to answer questions from the public. Although I didn't attend and am by no means an expert in the field of stem cell research, I do know there are a few points of stem cell biology that tend to be confusing for people encountering it for the first time:
1) Not all stem cells come from embryos.
True stem cells that we work with are either embryonic stem cells, which does derive from a fertilized egg (when it's starting to divide and is on its way to the "ball of cells" stage), or they are adult stem cells, which can come from a fully grown organism.
2) Not all progenitor cells are stem cells.
To be considered a stem cell, it must fulfill two criteria:
a) self-renewal - the stem cell must be able to divide and grow as a stem cell
b) differentiation - under certain conditions the cell must be able to change into another cell type, and stay that way.
3) The most important aspect is potency.
A stem cell is special because it can become many different types of cells, and so for disease that results from defect and/or death of one particular cell type, we like to dream about a therapeutic procedure where you fix the disease by replacing the dead / defective cells with new, working cells. However, not all stem cells are created equal -- meaning they can't all differentiate into all types of cells, and in this case they are classified by potency:
a) Omnipotent (does anyone even still use the term "totipotent"?) cells - can become anything.
b) Pluripotent cells - can become anything but the placenta, so still very useful.
c) Multipotent cells - can only become one lineage of cells, e.g. only neuronal cells, or only blood cells. Adult stem cells are multipotent.
4) ipSC is supposed to be pluripotent.
Researchers have found a way to take certain cells in the body and reprogram them to become Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. Which is excellent, except...
5) It's unknown whether ipSC is a true stem cell.
Sure it looks like a duck and it'll quack like a duck, but until you know how to ask the right question -- for instance, "does it have feathers? does it move autonomously?" -- how can you tell apart a very good mechanical wind-up toy from the real duck? My understanding of the ipSC right now is that for the general tests that people can think of testing, they look and behave like true stem cells. But whether the tests we've done are the right, key, tests or whether ipSC is a different animal altogether and we've just didn't test for the right things -- no one knows.
In therapeutic considerations, this brings up additional problems, because ipSC is made by reprogramming a cell. Usually with virus. Virus can change the expression of genes in the cell, which is what the "reprogramming" is all about. Changing the expression of genes is what gives you the stem cell like behavior, but you know what else changing the expression of genes can result? Cancer. (This has been shown to occur, though I should add that one of the ways we test for the stem-cell-ness of stem cells is by seeing if they form the right kind of tumors, because the types of cells the tumor contains give us an idea of the potency of the cell -- but you can imagine the problems if the cell likes forming tumors too much and then metastasized.) We are, essentially, taking a genetic program Nature has perfected through eons of evolution and random sticking in codes that we think regulates certain cell behavior. So yeah: so much we don't know, it's a little scary.
So there you go, five main points people should know about stem cells. From vicarious observation in lab I can tell you that trying to get cells to change cell type is really hard, and often a multistep process. (I had to work with a neural precursor cell line once and I kept getting the cells stuck one step before the final stage and my god, that was frustrating.) I don't think I need to mention this but my labmates seem to think there might be cause for concern, but stem cells don't glow. They are special, but not that special. Unless we infect them with a virus that codes for a glowing protein or stain them with something that glows and then, you know, they glow. But so will any other cell type. (Glowy pulsating heart muscle cells is, frankly, kind of creepy.)
(In case the name didn't make it obvious, it's about the anthropomorphic personifications of world powers, mostly during WWI and WWII.)
Now: onward to something totally unrelated.
We recently had a Stem Cell Awareness day on campus, the discovery of which led me to go up to our post-doc who is working on the (murine; read: mouse) stem cell project and ask, "Are you Aware of stem cells?", to which she replied that yes, she was and so we were all good.
That wasn't the point though. The point of that day was to raise public awareness about the sort of research we do and why it's important. There was a seminar with panels to answer questions from the public. Although I didn't attend and am by no means an expert in the field of stem cell research, I do know there are a few points of stem cell biology that tend to be confusing for people encountering it for the first time:
1) Not all stem cells come from embryos.
True stem cells that we work with are either embryonic stem cells, which does derive from a fertilized egg (when it's starting to divide and is on its way to the "ball of cells" stage), or they are adult stem cells, which can come from a fully grown organism.
2) Not all progenitor cells are stem cells.
To be considered a stem cell, it must fulfill two criteria:
a) self-renewal - the stem cell must be able to divide and grow as a stem cell
b) differentiation - under certain conditions the cell must be able to change into another cell type, and stay that way.
3) The most important aspect is potency.
A stem cell is special because it can become many different types of cells, and so for disease that results from defect and/or death of one particular cell type, we like to dream about a therapeutic procedure where you fix the disease by replacing the dead / defective cells with new, working cells. However, not all stem cells are created equal -- meaning they can't all differentiate into all types of cells, and in this case they are classified by potency:
a) Omnipotent (does anyone even still use the term "totipotent"?) cells - can become anything.
b) Pluripotent cells - can become anything but the placenta, so still very useful.
c) Multipotent cells - can only become one lineage of cells, e.g. only neuronal cells, or only blood cells. Adult stem cells are multipotent.
4) ipSC is supposed to be pluripotent.
Researchers have found a way to take certain cells in the body and reprogram them to become Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. Which is excellent, except...
5) It's unknown whether ipSC is a true stem cell.
Sure it looks like a duck and it'll quack like a duck, but until you know how to ask the right question -- for instance, "does it have feathers? does it move autonomously?" -- how can you tell apart a very good mechanical wind-up toy from the real duck? My understanding of the ipSC right now is that for the general tests that people can think of testing, they look and behave like true stem cells. But whether the tests we've done are the right, key, tests or whether ipSC is a different animal altogether and we've just didn't test for the right things -- no one knows.
In therapeutic considerations, this brings up additional problems, because ipSC is made by reprogramming a cell. Usually with virus. Virus can change the expression of genes in the cell, which is what the "reprogramming" is all about. Changing the expression of genes is what gives you the stem cell like behavior, but you know what else changing the expression of genes can result? Cancer. (This has been shown to occur, though I should add that one of the ways we test for the stem-cell-ness of stem cells is by seeing if they form the right kind of tumors, because the types of cells the tumor contains give us an idea of the potency of the cell -- but you can imagine the problems if the cell likes forming tumors too much and then metastasized.) We are, essentially, taking a genetic program Nature has perfected through eons of evolution and random sticking in codes that we think regulates certain cell behavior. So yeah: so much we don't know, it's a little scary.
So there you go, five main points people should know about stem cells. From vicarious observation in lab I can tell you that trying to get cells to change cell type is really hard, and often a multistep process. (I had to work with a neural precursor cell line once and I kept getting the cells stuck one step before the final stage and my god, that was frustrating.) I don't think I need to mention this but my labmates seem to think there might be cause for concern, but stem cells don't glow. They are special, but not that special. Unless we infect them with a virus that codes for a glowing protein or stain them with something that glows and then, you know, they glow. But so will any other cell type. (Glowy pulsating heart muscle cells is, frankly, kind of creepy.)
20101016
A thousand times: yes
Dear ATT internet tech support staff,
I would like to share a webcomic about our relationship that I recently found. Uncanny, isn't it?
Sincerely,
-S
I would like to share a webcomic about our relationship that I recently found. Uncanny, isn't it?
Sincerely,
-S
20101012
PI-isms
PI came by to congratulate me on the exam thing this morning and see how I was doing. He always comes by at least once per week and it never ceases to amuse me because a) he teaches one of my classes and b) I see him every day in lab. But those points aside, today I pointed out to him something that the staff in the vivarium did that didn't make sense. His comment was that I was assuming that other people besides me were actually thinking, and whiles this "better be true" in his lab, generally speaking this assumption may be....faulty. I gaped at him for a bit then remarked that was a really very cynical view, to which he replied, "I'm relapsing." For some reason I found this hilarious.
Aside from his apparent bout of recidivism to skepticism (wow that's a lot of "ism"), there was also the part where he reminded me that should I feel uncomfortable talking to him (a laughable notion, since up till now he's the only PI I ever felt comfortable enough to make these sort of commentaries on, sometimes to his face), there are other PIs that I can talk to who are obligated to help me. This particular bit of PI-ism goes, I believe, "If they have the title of "professor", they'd better be professing!" (And then afterwards I of course went to google the term because I've never heard the word "profess" being used that way.)
Now I have the strongest urge to go up to the PIs I know and ask, "Have you professed today?" (And then probably giggle hysterically and blame my PI for the whole thing.)
Aside from his apparent bout of recidivism to skepticism (wow that's a lot of "ism"), there was also the part where he reminded me that should I feel uncomfortable talking to him (a laughable notion, since up till now he's the only PI I ever felt comfortable enough to make these sort of commentaries on, sometimes to his face), there are other PIs that I can talk to who are obligated to help me. This particular bit of PI-ism goes, I believe, "If they have the title of "professor", they'd better be professing!" (And then afterwards I of course went to google the term because I've never heard the word "profess" being used that way.)
Now I have the strongest urge to go up to the PIs I know and ask, "Have you professed today?" (And then probably giggle hysterically and blame my PI for the whole thing.)
20101011
Not bad for a Monday
I've successfully refrained from checking my school email all weekend, which meant I found out this morning that a) the post-doc's baby was born this weekend and b) I passed the candidacy exam. (The PI who was the one who promised to ask more questions didn't, and made some comments on how the formatting of the titles of the slides should be how I do it for the rest of my career, which I took it to mean that he liked it and tried not to think too much about what my career will be like.) It was a very exciting morning and passaging cells, right after that, seemed anti-climatic.
But passaging cells I did, and now I'm back more or less to your regular feature presentation of experiments with a sprinkling of classes. Currently I have four more minutes before my last incubation is done and I can go home, which gave me the time to type a short entry.
But passaging cells I did, and now I'm back more or less to your regular feature presentation of experiments with a sprinkling of classes. Currently I have four more minutes before my last incubation is done and I can go home, which gave me the time to type a short entry.
20101009
Frilliness
Enough pleasant things happened today that it felt like a day where life rewarded me for attempting to have a life outside of lab. It started off with a nice morning where the neighbor's girlfriend's children did not stay over, thereby waking me up with their screeching on the two days a week where I'd try to sleep in. (I don't think I'm asking for much. Just until 8am is all I ask and my life would be complete. Which it was, today.) Despite of all the timing confusion and email last night I did manage to meet up with Ashley today (it's kind of crazy to think of how long we've been living in the same city together -- and I mean years-- and only met up now), during which I described my recent adventures in grad school and she flailed about wedding planning. I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but she's getting married in February and so she's up to her eyebrows in florists and invites and what-have-you. I promised to help do the placement cards (note to self: go dig out the calligraphy kit Anna gave me and try to find out where in the closet those bottles of ink have migrated to), though I did have to ask her to explain exactly what's entailed in a wedding ceremony, as that I've never been to one before. There's a sort of Mission Impossible feel to it, from what I gathered, and the sort of attention to colors that is frankly astonishing. (White is apparently passe, ivory is in, Ashley's dress is in "almond metallic" or something -- yeah we're not entirely sure about the name either -- but I gather that "soy" is not a romantic enough color for wedding fabric when compared to "almond".) This was made even more absurd by the fact that Ashley has never been to the wedding before either, and neither of us ever really figured out all the details to the enigma of articles of feminine mystique such as make-up and some kind of religious experience involving many pairs of shoes. The ceremony should be hair-raising -- and beautiful and touching -- once she stops panicking about how the wedding is eating her brain and "happy" is the only thing left. (She can't keep on panicking from now to February right? Human psyche can't maintain that high level of constant stress. My Psych101 instructor said so.)
Lunch was Vietnamese. Pho can be quite good but spring roll will never cease reminding me of eating a roll held together by serran wrap. Egg rolls are still better. I now know what a "brisket" is and that the population of trees in Yellow Stone Nation Park is largely coniferous, with a few hardy deciduous species such as cottonwood and aspen.
Speaking of food. Has anyone ever tried matcha? There's this green tea pastry recipe I want to try out but I don't think I can substitute in jasmine and I'm not sure if matcha is anything like plain green tea that you'd get at from Good Earth or something. I'm going to try to make sponge cake tomorrow, though I've never been able to get the hang of beating egg white until they become stiff. I think I should aim for an electric mixture someday. Or a contraption like the one from Annie that Kate and I accidentally creamed the potatoes with, that one time, back in Davis.
Lunch was Vietnamese. Pho can be quite good but spring roll will never cease reminding me of eating a roll held together by serran wrap. Egg rolls are still better. I now know what a "brisket" is and that the population of trees in Yellow Stone Nation Park is largely coniferous, with a few hardy deciduous species such as cottonwood and aspen.
Speaking of food. Has anyone ever tried matcha? There's this green tea pastry recipe I want to try out but I don't think I can substitute in jasmine and I'm not sure if matcha is anything like plain green tea that you'd get at from Good Earth or something. I'm going to try to make sponge cake tomorrow, though I've never been able to get the hang of beating egg white until they become stiff. I think I should aim for an electric mixture someday. Or a contraption like the one from Annie that Kate and I accidentally creamed the potatoes with, that one time, back in Davis.
20101008
Well, that was entertaining
I have submitted the slides for my Exam of Doom today, which have undergone five different revisions since last week. About a few hours after that I realized this was going to be very different from last week in the sense that, aside from the fact that I don't have to present, the committee is also no longer obligated to pass judgment within 90 minutes. Then Wendy pointed out to me that, if the committee wants to, this thing can be delayed indefinitely because it's an email and there's no reason why PIs can't just email me back continuously to ask me more questions and request more tweaks. After another half an hour of shared flailing and metaphorical nail biting (we work in lab; there are gloves) -- since Wendy's waiting for our PI's revision of her manuscript and the first revision is always brutal -- we concluded that it's unlikely for us to hear back from anyone before Monday and instead of anticipating revisions and soul-destroying comments we'd rather anticipate a baby: one of our post-doc's wife is due to have a baby this week. The baby hasn't happened yet and the week is almost over. We asked him to send us an email if the baby is born this weekend. See? Much better than revisions.
Which means that there is no veggie ramen to night (though I discovered that my teeth have become sensitive to cold, which is mildly depressing -- I suppose my days of ice cube chomping are over), and rather than dealing with this as yet another week with the Exam of Doom hanging over me -- you know what? Enough. If I don't pass I'm not going to deal with it before winter quarter. Fall quarter from here on out will be busy enough as is. I have loads of stuff I still want to do and so I'm drawing a conclusion to this thing tonight and moving on with my life. I should go out tomorrow. I have an odd craving for chicken nuggets. (Yeah, I know. Isn't that gross?)
Going to clean up the kitchen, listen to some music, and turn in early. Weather forecast is most promising.
Which means that there is no veggie ramen to night (though I discovered that my teeth have become sensitive to cold, which is mildly depressing -- I suppose my days of ice cube chomping are over), and rather than dealing with this as yet another week with the Exam of Doom hanging over me -- you know what? Enough. If I don't pass I'm not going to deal with it before winter quarter. Fall quarter from here on out will be busy enough as is. I have loads of stuff I still want to do and so I'm drawing a conclusion to this thing tonight and moving on with my life. I should go out tomorrow. I have an odd craving for chicken nuggets. (Yeah, I know. Isn't that gross?)
Going to clean up the kitchen, listen to some music, and turn in early. Weather forecast is most promising.
20101007
You lied, forecast; it's drizzling
Due to certain incidents on the bus near a person who always reeked of dirty cat litter, I had a dream last night about fleas. With wings. As in we were maneuvering them with forceps and you can see the tiny, fruit-fly-like wings. Luckily, in reality, I remained blissfully flea-free.
The number of incidents of sniffling on the bus has gone up recently, and the crazy weather no doubt contributed to the percentage. Wendy and I went and got ourselves vaccinated yesterday. Sometime in the afternoon I realized that my arm hurts, and asked her if she was in pain as well. She was, but just hadn't noticed it until I brought it up, and thus allowing me to conclude that I have unwittingly contributed to the pain quota per day. (Pain's gone this morning, though.)
The PI came back yesterday and spent four hours going over everything that needs to be changed in the slides (yes, the ones due tomorrow) with me. (Leading to some jokes between Wendy and I about PI causing pain.) On one hand, it's touching that he's willing to invest that much time on me. On the other hand, ouch. Okay, I'm ready for the weekend now.
AAaaaand now it's back to editing.
The number of incidents of sniffling on the bus has gone up recently, and the crazy weather no doubt contributed to the percentage. Wendy and I went and got ourselves vaccinated yesterday. Sometime in the afternoon I realized that my arm hurts, and asked her if she was in pain as well. She was, but just hadn't noticed it until I brought it up, and thus allowing me to conclude that I have unwittingly contributed to the pain quota per day. (Pain's gone this morning, though.)
The PI came back yesterday and spent four hours going over everything that needs to be changed in the slides (yes, the ones due tomorrow) with me. (Leading to some jokes between Wendy and I about PI causing pain.) On one hand, it's touching that he's willing to invest that much time on me. On the other hand, ouch. Okay, I'm ready for the weekend now.
AAaaaand now it's back to editing.
20101005
Exposure to infants
Yesterday I got to hold a baby! More precisely, I got to hold Wendy's baby since we left the lab at around the same time and her husband came to pick her up and the baby was in the car. (And they are of the opinion that I'm of the age where I should have handled a baby at least once, or something.) He was very warm, and probably would be cuddly if he weren't moving around so much. I spent the first few moments torn between the terror of accidentally dropping the baby (the horror the horror) and the terror of accidentally breaking the baby, given that I wasn't entirely sure where / how hard I should grip to prevent the baby from escaping while he was flailing around. (Babies are fragile, and therefore terrifying.)
Then there's the bit where he was making faces and noises at me and I was trying very hard to figure out if the scrunched up face meant that he was uncomfortable or sleepy or about to spit on me or what (currently: still uncertain to the best of my knowlege). He's at the pre-teething chewing stage though, and made me very glad that I washed my hands before leaving lab because -- potential lab chemical -- baby-- no.
In conclusion: terrifying, confusing, very squirmy. (But cute. He's definitely at the cute stage now.)
[edit 9:16am]
Saw this over at Annie's LJ. To quote / summarize:
Then there's the bit where he was making faces and noises at me and I was trying very hard to figure out if the scrunched up face meant that he was uncomfortable or sleepy or about to spit on me or what (currently: still uncertain to the best of my knowlege). He's at the pre-teething chewing stage though, and made me very glad that I washed my hands before leaving lab because -- potential lab chemical -- baby-- no.
In conclusion: terrifying, confusing, very squirmy. (But cute. He's definitely at the cute stage now.)
[edit 9:16am]
Saw this over at Annie's LJ. To quote / summarize:
I want to do my part not only for the “It’s Get Better” initiative, but to bring to light that bullying in any form is despicable and sickening, especially against those teens who are trying to come to terms with their sexual orientation in some places where being gay, unique and wonderfully eccentric is frowned upon and thought evil.
For every comment left here, I will donate a dollar a comment up to $500.
20101004
Wet
Went to part of the airshow on Saturday, which was fun, though v. hot in terms of weather, which makes it all the more surprising when it started raining this morning. Forecast says there'll be showers in the next two days as well.
PI will be out of town until Wednesday, so that's when we'll talk about my slides. Meanwhile I get to figure out how to make my slides less student-like on my own, which I will attempt at least, though "less student-like" is not the clearest set of instructions I've ever received.
Meanwhile, here's a set of numbers that, post-exam, my PI decided I should know. Feel free to use any of these to impress random passerby:
Size of mouse genome: 2.5x10^9
Number of chromosomes in mice: 19 autosomes and 1 sex chromosome (20 total)
Mutation rate in standard large-scaled mutagenesis screens: 10^-6 / bp
Recombination to size ratio in mice: 1 centimorgan approximates 1 megabase
(Those numbers aren't actually directly applicable to anything I'm doing / will be doing in the foreseeable future, but eh.)
PI will be out of town until Wednesday, so that's when we'll talk about my slides. Meanwhile I get to figure out how to make my slides less student-like on my own, which I will attempt at least, though "less student-like" is not the clearest set of instructions I've ever received.
Meanwhile, here's a set of numbers that, post-exam, my PI decided I should know. Feel free to use any of these to impress random passerby:
Size of mouse genome: 2.5x10^9
Number of chromosomes in mice: 19 autosomes and 1 sex chromosome (20 total)
Mutation rate in standard large-scaled mutagenesis screens: 10^-6 / bp
Recombination to size ratio in mice: 1 centimorgan approximates 1 megabase
(Those numbers aren't actually directly applicable to anything I'm doing / will be doing in the foreseeable future, but eh.)
20101001
Probation!?
I'm on probation. Sort of. All my committee members have signed the form except I'm not allowed to turn it in until I've revised my slides and sent everyone a copy of the revised version. (I'm not considered a candidate until the form's turned in and processed.) Because they didn't like the format of my presentation (i.e. it's still too much at the level of a beginning graduate student and not enough at the level of a scientist). On the plus side? They like my experiments and my data. Given that those two things are what we are generally supposed to be marked down on, I conclude I pretty much suck at presenting stuff. (Which my PI sort of agreed and suggested that I volunteer myself for the seminars and lunch-talks.)
In case anyone is wondering: yes the questioning was gruesome and yes we did use up all 90 minutes.
I was given a deadline of exactly one week for revision. At least one of the committee members has promised (read: warned me about) more comments following.
So now I'm eating ramen, because somehow over the years Oodles of Noodles with veggies has turned into my comfort food of choice. (Oh my god, stupidest way to delay ever. I'm surprised that I haven't started crying yet.) I mean I sort of passed, the people congratulated me and everything...but I really hate the "probation" label (which granted is a term I assigned to myself, but it's technically true).
In case anyone is wondering: yes the questioning was gruesome and yes we did use up all 90 minutes.
I was given a deadline of exactly one week for revision. At least one of the committee members has promised (read: warned me about) more comments following.
So now I'm eating ramen, because somehow over the years Oodles of Noodles with veggies has turned into my comfort food of choice. (Oh my god, stupidest way to delay ever. I'm surprised that I haven't started crying yet.) I mean I sort of passed, the people congratulated me and everything...but I really hate the "probation" label (which granted is a term I assigned to myself, but it's technically true).
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