More summer...

The moon and clouds looked cool the other night. So, with my point and shoot I attempted to take a picture. My camera is definitely better for daylight (or at least some light).In an attempt to take a better picture, I played around with the settings. Then a mosquito decided to eat a chunk out of my arm while I was snapping, and this happened:I think it is going to be a long bug-bitten summer. However, it IS starting off with a two-week trip overseas to visit CF's family and friends, and we leave tomorrow night. Have a good first half of June - I'll catch up with you all when I get back!

(As an aside, I think the last post was my 500th! Or maybe it was the post before that. Blogger counts drafts as posts I think. Either way I'm over 500.)

Summer meals

When it is just me and the weather is this warm, I have a hard time making an actual dinner. Last night, I had bacon popcorn (and then tracked down the idea to an email my dad had sent to me and a college friend). Then I had a bowl of ice cream. I only made the popcorn in bacon grease and did not add bacon bits or cheese. It was yummy and very crispy.

Tonight I whipped up some pancakes for the next few mornings and had a couple for dinner. I now have a "standard" base recipe that I have added different things to. Here is the basic recipe:

2 T cornmeal
1/3 c oatmeal
1/3 c wheat flour
1/2 c white flour
1 T ground flax
1 T brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 c milk
1 T oil
1 c fruit
spices
Mix the dry. Mix the wet. Add the wet to the dry. Get your mind out of the gutter, and cook.

The fruit and the spices are what I use to mix it up. The first time I chopped apple and strawberries and added about a tsp of nutmeg. Tonight I added a cup total of chopped apricots and cherries and sprinkled in some ground ginger and some cardamom. They were delicious. The pancakes go pretty well with this (and I love me a good microbrew), but I think coffee will suffice in the morning as well.

Looking back, this was a pretty yummy meal, and apparently I think a lot about summer food.

Trial and error

I have had the pleasures and frustrations of mentoring, training, teaching, and/or supervising undergraduates throughout grad school and now as a post-doc. While teaching in a classroom it is necessary to disseminate a bunch of information, I always thought a good teacher would try different ways, incorporate peer and student feedback, and always strive to get more students to understand more. One-on-one I think it is easier to change what you are doing quickly. One of the things that always bothered me about my PhD advisor was her inability to effectively manage (nevermind mentor or teach) different personalities in the lab even though in a large lecture hall she seemed to do fine.

So, with the undergrad who I am supervising now, I am trying my darndest to make it work and find new ways to work together. I do not think I will ever remember him fondly, but he is a smart kid, has decent lab hands, and...well...that's it. My FB status the other day (and the wonderful exchange a PhD friend and I had under it) sums it:

Dear undergrad, come in to lab when you are supposed to. Follow explicit instructions I give you or write down for you. Bring your key with you. Do not lie. And generally speaking, just stop messing up. Thanks.

Dear Jenny,
I am busy either sunning myself on the green or getting drunk. Get off my back. Love, Undergrad. :)

Dear Undergrad,
You didn't come in yesterday so you could enjoy the sun. If you want beer money, come in and do some work so you can get paid.
Dr. Jenny

Dear Dr. Jenny,
I was hoping you would collect my data for me, write a pub, and make me first author. I'll see you in a few months, I'm going backpacking across Europe. Have a good summer.
Ciao, Undergrad

Send a postcard, bring me chocolate, and then we can talk about it. (Translation: See ya and good luck in life.)

Just this summer, my little prodigy has come in late (like 45 minutes and then 3 hours) twice after we had explicitly discussed the scheduling of his experiments. Both times I got excuses. Actually, this week he was really defensive when I asked him about it, suggesting to me he knows full well that he was supposed to come in when he did not.

One issue is that my current PI does what my PhD advisor did - she allows herself to be wooed with a good transcript.

The other problem is that sometimes undergrads do not understand that they are doing real research in a real lab that is really important...even when you tell them repeatedly.

Because I am of the opinion that whatever an undergrad does needs to be of some value to me, it is likewise important to me that I get to a point where they are relatively independent and trustworthy. Previous attempts to explicitly tell my current prodigy what to write in his notebook, to stand over his shoulder and constantly correct him, or tell him things without having him think about them have failed.

This week he knew that I was frustrated and he is not one who will take blame, what with the random excuses he gives me. While I was cooling off at the microscope while he did some bench work, I thought about how to handle the situation.

1. I told him that I do not want excuses. Period. There is no point in excuses. My chemistry teacher in high school pointed out that it does not matter if you are late because your alarm did not go off; you are late. Period. Move on. I explained this is why I was most frustrated - we had explicitly discussed the experiment he would do, the timing of the experiment in light of his summer class schedule, and the exact times he would come in. Therefore he should have come in.

2. Clearly the way we are communicating is not working, so I brainstormed about how to improve this to achieve a better working relationship. My first idea was to have a word document that we would email back and forth with our goals, hypothesis, running lists of techniques and materials he knows and needs to learn, and research steps (from literature searches and discussions to experiments) taken to address the goal. I explained that this would make writing a proposal, presentation, or paper for any class credits he takes a MILLION times easier and would concurrently ensure he and I are on the same page. We talked about this idea, I drafted a word document, and then we decided to use g.docs to track the progress on the document rather than the emailing of many documents. We both agreed that this would allow him more freedom with his schedule, as I would know when he would need more help. Although, we are supposed to meet about this at noon tomorrow and he has yet to access the document according to google, so we will see.

My current PI has weekly meetings with us, and my lab mate in grad school did this with one of her undergrads when she was having difficulties communicating with them too. I am hoping that this will replace possible weekly meetings, but I think that can only happen if he and I check and modify the document every couple of days.

Wish me luck.

Social responsibility

To what extent are we all responsible for the success of society? I think about this a LOT, particularly when I listen to the news and hear about all this bipartisanship crap or tragedies or environmental problems or...

While a democratic capitalist consumerist society is great for motivation, creativity, innovation, success, and for some the ultimate goal of wealth, where does helping those less fortunate, contributing to the country economically, and not trashing the world for your family tree, fit into the picture?

While many want the government to be smaller, how can it try its best to prevent ginormous oil spills or make sure that people are not doomed to a life of poverty because they cannot afford health care or schooling, or keep the economy afloat without some rules and regulations? What should we think of those people and groups who do not follow these rules or want no rules because they can make more money, only to find out that as a result people are dead, wildlife is dead, and long-term effects of their actions cannot be predicted or known?

Why can I marry someone I want to marry anywhere in the country, while many I care about cannot? Why should friends I have who have paid money (required by government applications and rules) and followed the rules be one-upped by those who get over the border? How can a millionaire manage to tax-credit away her or his economic responsibilities to the country in which they live? How can you say you do not want to give the government any money but use all the public resources (roads, schools, medicare, social security, etc.)? Where is the logic in saying you do not want the government getting involved in your medicare (seriously, I heard this in a radio interview)? Why do I have to believe in your spiritual beliefs to be good and not have you attack my country or the lifestyle or beliefs of my friends and family?

So what are we all socially responsible for? How can the government maintain a civil society and satisfy everyone? If each individual only looked our for themselves, society would not be to where we are today. It is easy to see throughout history and current events (wars, environmental disasters, greed, lack of understanding...) how things go wrong. Yet they continue to go wrong. Over and over again.

How old are people when they forget the cardinal rules of sharing and do unto others?

TMI

Yesterday I spent $65 on a bra. I kept meaning to go to this store when I had a coupon; then it expired; then I went anyway; now I will wait until I have a coupon before I go again.

It is official!

All of my grad school papers have been accepted for publication as of the email I just got from that last journal. WOOHOO! I am still going to commencement in a week, but I officially graduated at an earlier date the university has. SUWEEEEEET.

So much for all of that hullaballoo they tried to tell me about grad students leaving and their papers never being published. TWO papers I revised quickly and had to push my PhD advisor to submit. HAH. I am thinking about making a point of this to those who were "worried". Gotta even the balance for future grad students.

Random PSAs

These public service announcements have come to mind recently:

1. "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down," does not pertain to public restrooms.
2. Tetanus shots and yoga do not mix.
3. On a related note, even if you relax your arm muscle when they give you a tetanus shot and keep the arm relaxed for as long as it takes to pay your co-pay and get to your car, it will still hurt for several days no matter what the nurse tries to tell you.
4. This Real Simple article has some cool ideas.
5. This video is a disturbing but important reminder why you should not text and drive. I would post it on my blog, but it is just that disturbing. It is worth watching, or if you have young drivers in your life, making them watch. (I don't know if the FB link will work, but it is not on the UTube.)
6. Hypothetically speaking, if you are sick, you do not need to show your supervisor a picture of your diseased throat (that you likely pic msged to your doctor dad who diagnosed you with "contagious strep") as proof that you are sick. Really, just try to be sick less.
7. If you have one of those pre-paid credit cards and return something, make sure you still have the card on which it was returned so that 4 months later you are not trying to figure it out.
8. If your brother is coming home to visit from a foreign country, do not kid yourself that he will bring you Skittles. Just ask his girlfriend and save yourself the extra step.
9. Send people snail mail just because. It is nice to get.
10. When planting anything in a raised garden bed that is against your house, make sure that when it rains, the water from the roof will not pound down on the baby plants. (I lucked out on this one!)

Anything else important that I am missing?

Curious

I was recently checking the keynote speaker CVs for a conference. The woman listed all of her former post-docs and current positions, one of which is a stay at home mom (others included science journalism, biotech positions, etc.). At the bottom of the post-doc list it stated that one post-doc has left the field of science. So I wondered, is the one who left science the stay-at-home mom or is there someone who is not on the list?

Interestingly, at the end of her list of former students, it says that three have left science. However every single one that is on the list is doing something science-related. I truly cannot pick three former students who could be considered to have left science, except maybe the student they have lost track of but who was last known to have been teaching college-level science.

If my suspicion is correct that this woman did not list the names of those who left science, and includes the former post-doc stay-at-home mom in the list of those still in science, I have a better impression of her now than I did after I heard her talk.

Note taking

As I was sitting in a seminar taking notes on what the speaker was saying, I noted the abbreviations I use because I happened to use an abbreviation common in texting that I cannot remember right now. A sampling of common abbreviations in my notes:

Δ = change (thanks to physics classes eons ago)
@ = at (duh)
fxn, mxn, sxn, txn = function, mechanism, section, transcription respectively
two letters for species, for example Homo sapiens = H.s.

I guess it is a bit of my own shorthand. The real shorthand my Mom learned is way more convenient because she can write about Christmas lists in shorthand and none of us can read it. Who would want to read my seminar notes though?

Much better.

This is what my living room furniture looked like yesterday.
The couch and the chair belonged to my great aunt and my grandparents, respectively. They are sturdy, comfy enough, and only gently used, but the fabric is old and starting to disintegrate. On the couch it is getting bad on the back where it sat in windows and the sun did a number on the fabric. The cat seems to like to scratch on the arms of the chair once in a while, so I can only imagine she does even more when I am not home to spray her with water. Like how I prop a cat toy out of the chair for when I am lazy? I got the slip cover that is on the couch because it was on sale. Luckily, with a calico cat and a black slip cover, it vacuumed quite nicely! I took a close up of the red blanket (the kitty's favorite!) and the slip cover before I cleaned them off yesterday, but the flash reflected and I did not play with it.

Anyway. One of the things on my "expensive things to buy" mental list is a couch. Mine is a fold out, which is great and VERY HEAVY; it is also the size of a large love seat, which happens to be smaller than the size of CF. A nice big comfy couch with room for two people to sit on with both their feet up would be nice. I have looked around since I moved and found good deals, but unless I actually have money saved up, I cannot rationalize getting a couch on credit when I do not really NEED a couch. I have started reading DIY decorating/design type websites, one of which is all about the slip covers. She also mentioned once how she washes them every week or two. Hah! I have never done that! Anyway (again...sorry for the randomness), I decided to get some slip covers. CF likes natural woods and lighter colors, and I have a lot of dark wood furniture and darker accessories, so I went with "natural" slip covers...Pardon the wrinkles. I am not about to iron my furniture. I rarely iron my clothes.I need to fix the chair slip cover a bit because it is for a wing-backed chair, but that is what my sewing machine is for (it was the closest in shape and size for the chair on Overstock).

On the table in between the couch and chair are some lilacs I cut from the neighbor's bush hanging over my fence. They smell lovely.

Dinner

I used to wonder why people would go through the hassle of cooking a bunch of artichokes just to use the choke. I mean, that is a lot of work! Unless you get artichokes at the beginning of the season when they are GINORMOUS. Maybe I have never registered the pile of GINORMOUS artichokes at the grocery store at the beginning of the season? (The first main flower must be these big guys. After this one ripens, smaller side flowers ripen.) I had one of these for dinner last night (and one the night before), and they have a lot of plant meat in them. Last night I had it with lemon butter and the night before with a yogurt-mustard mix. Delicious.

For the better

There are lots of things that have changed for the better in my life over the past six months. Although I miss my old city and friends and family there, the improvements are all a result of finishing my PhD and relocating. While the most obvious probable contributer to my slightly smaller size is a change in generic hormones, any and all of these could directly affect my well-being.

I now sit at a desk next to a large window that gets direct sunlight all day. Sometimes I even have to pull the shade down because it is so bright and warm (it is not a black-out shade, so natural light still gets in). No longer are the lab and office in which I spend my days windowless.

I no longer feel like I need 8+ hours of sleep a night. As a matter of fact, even after and during the busier times I have had at work, 7 hours seems adequate for me to function perfectly normally. This is particularly important because I drive 35 - 60 minutes each way (depending on traffic, weather, and whether I am heading to my house or CF's). I do not like driving tired.

I am funded by my university's training grant. I know there was one other post-doc who was applying to be on it when I was, so it was not a sure thing. I tried to apply for external funding in grad school to no avail. While this is not exactly external funding because someone at the university chose me to fund, it still felt good that someone saw potential in my application. We will see how I do when it comes to applying for an individual training grant this summer.

Last Sunday CF and I were both working on our computers and both our stomachs were growling. We were at his house, so of course it was his job to feed me. Then the power went out. So after a while he suggested that we go to the local pub he has always gone to. As we were walking out the door, the power came on but we went anyway. He took a different way home and then turned away from the direction of his house. I asked if we were taking a mini Sunday drive, and we were.

Then we were sitting on separate couches on our computers again. I was trying to work on my mediocre poster (which is much better and printed now), and he was killing time online doing something. I asked how he was (he looked pensive and we had been talking about his grandfather who recently passed away earlier in the day). He said he was in love. {cue: Awwwws}

Today I had two moments of deja vu. One was when I was writing up a description of a microscope image to submit to a bioartography thing at my university; the other was when I stopped to get my glasses adjusted a bit so they would fit a little snugger. Some TV show or movie or something once said that deja vu means you are in the right place at the right time. I get that it is a trick of the mind and probably some weird synapse thing, but I still like the feeling that I am supposed to be here.

Just not that into you

I have had some productive science days the past month. I did a 12 hour timepoint day, which means I was there for a good 14 hours; Friday I put in some time to get the final photos I thought I needed for a poster for an upcoming conference; I started a list of questions I would want to answer and techniques to do that with for a training grant application this summer; I read a publication related to my research I get all these ideas and questions, plus all the other experiments/data I have been working on.

This weekend, when I was supposed to be putting together a poster, and today when I was finishing it, I just did not feel that into it.

My PI gave me feedback on the poster, and I am almost done with the revisions and changes, but then I felt even less into it.

I don't even know what else to drone on about. I keep wondering what I am really in this for. Arg. I really should not write about this and go finish my poster. Peace out.