Two for one!

I like a good deal. For example, with a 2-for-1 plus a coupon, I bought some new mousse and hairspray that normally would have been about $14 for $3.50 last week. I can find a good sale.

Tonight I got two good cries in one night! What a deal. Normally I would just watch Home Makeover Extreme Edition, get a feel-good cry in before the week starts, and go to bed wondering why I am not doing something more good with my life. I was watching my niece and nephew last night, so I missed out on a semi-regular movie-night with my roommate and her boyfriend. Last weekend we watched No Reservations because August Rush was out. Last night they watched August Rush and then did not return it so I could watch it.

I started August Rush, then watched the first 10 minutes of Extreme Home Makeover, then watched more August Rush, then the last 10 minutes of EHM, then the end of August Rush. If you have not watched either, you should watch both. I cried several times throughout the evening.

I think I will buy August Rush. My roommate said if you love music, you would especially love the movie, and I can totally see that. It was amazing. I would totally do Jonathan Rhys Meyers and his accent. Freddie Highmore was amazing. I have always had reservations about Keri Russell, and I would not say I love her, but she was almost perfect for her part. Have you seen it? No? YOU MUST!

I also need to set up a Juno date with KHC and her BF. I hear it is a good movie. They would both watch it again. :)

What to do with my life?

There will probably be a lot of posts about what the heck I am going to do with my life in the next year. I now realize I should start looking for a post-doc, oh, now. One year before I will actually need that position. That's fine. It will give me something to do online at night instead of watching TV online. :)

I will also probably start writing bits and pieces of the introduction to my dissertation. We had an invited speaker yesterday, and it was the first time I have met individually with an invited speaker. He was a nice guy, the big piece of advice I got was that it is a good idea to start your intro about a year ahead of time. By your fourth and fifth years in a bio PhD program, the basic background you will need to present is not likely to change; the introduction is the least interesting to write, as it is just putting literature together not analyzing your own experiments; and it is never bad to have something written! I told my advisor this advice. She said she would rather me start writing the introduction to my next paper. Whatever. That is sorta hard to do if I do not have more data ready to go.

I should think about where I want to be for my post-doc (probably the northeast or Oregon, where my brother is now), and whether I want to primarily teach or teach and run a lab. I had a heart-to-heart with an undergrad in my lab the other day. I almost made him cry. It was a mix of pep talk and getting him to realize that some of what is happening was preventable and he will have to think ahead in grad school. I felt better knowing someone had talked to him about how the semester went, but he is writing a senior thesis and our advisor should have also been more proactive. My point is that I can not imagine letting a situation get to where that one got, and that makes me want to run my own lab purely to provide a good learning environment for undergrads and grads.

At the same time, I do not want to fight tooth and nail to fund a research program. My teeth and nails are valuable to me. Losing a few (but not all) hairs would be okay because that keeps you going. I do not want to "waste" my time endlessly applying to grants with no money coming in. The funding environment sucks. Period. This makes me want to skip the whole running a lab thing and really focus on being an effective instructor. I will also likely do a post-doc anyway to see if training in a different lab will help me with regards to grant writing and money getting.

Luckily I have some friends who are ahead of me in the game. Within similar fields, I now know people looking at running their own lab and teaching, focusing on teaching, and going into biotech. If that includes you, you better watch out because I'll be coming for advice. ;)

K. Back to TLC. I am watching my niece and nephew. They are in bed (and maybe asleep, but I doubt it), and the family has cable. I am slightly addicted to home makeover shows and have to get my fix in while I am here! Their friend's dog is here so I can get my canine fix too.

Catchin' up.

Well, I have me my wireless back. Thank goodness.

I actually got to thinking about daily habits while my wireless was out. I used to watch a not too excessive amount of TV. Then my ex had TiVO, and that certainly increases the amount of TV one watches. Then we broke up and I did not have cable or internet, so it was back to network stations. I still had a fair amount of regular shows to watch though. Then I started the online dating thing and retelling my stories got a little old. We started chipping in for the wireless upstairs and I started this blog so I could reduce the number of times I (knowingly) retold the dating stories. [I have a habit of retelling stories - a quality I inherited from my mom.] Then the writer's strike and my busy schedule. Then Blog365. Then? WIRELESS OUTAGE. NO TV. NO INTERNET. TRYING HARD TO RESIST BLOGGING AT WORK. It was only for a couple of days. Enough to test me I suppose. So I am generally out of the habit of watching TV (except Home Makeover Extreme Edition), and into the habit of sitting on my computer at night. I do not know if I will get back into Scrubs and ER and whatever else, but I can always just watch them online while I sit at my computer at night. :)

Anyhoo. That's the past couple years of my TV and internet habits, in case you wondered. So after deciding to run about half of the errands I want to do this weekend tonight, I am home catching up on all the wonderful posts that have been put up since the wireless was out. If you are getting a bunch of comments from me all at once, that is why. Thanks for posting so I had something to do while I drank my wine. ;)

Why I'm single?

One of my office mates has a cute saying on her desk: You're single because you use emoticons.

I use a lot of smiley faces with online communications, because it is often difficult to determine what someone's intention is by typed words. Email miscommunication has gotten me into trouble before. I can not think of an exact example, but I remember it happening. I particularly like it, in yahoo for instance, when there is a drop-down menu I can chose a face from. Then I do not have to remember how to type it.

The ones I usually use are: :) ;) :p ;p :D

I guess I usually want someone to realize I am joking or giving them a hard time.

I am not sure this explains why I am single.

What do I get myself into?

As I mentioned yesterday, my internet at home is a little funky (as in we give money to the couple upstairs, they provide us with wireless, and it is not working right now). So you get a brief glimpse at the kind of stuff I get myself into through the grad student council...

In, oh, 5 minutes I am supposed to be at a pre-dinner reception.

Then a dinner.

Then a lecture.

Then a post-lecture reception.

The topic? Byzantanium and Armenian art. I am a biologist. I can look at art and wonder how anyone can produce it. In general, I would say that I hate history. This will be rough. Never mind that I am supposed to introduce this woman. Twice. At dinner and the lecture.

I like biology. Like labs and experiments and data, when I'm lucky. I am lucky tonight though - lots of free food and really that is what grad students are in this for.

My kind of quiz!

[Sadly, my internet at home is funky. This should be interesting when I want to post!]

Spark had this quiz up the other day. In addition to finding online quizzes slightly addictive, I particularly liked how some of the questions were asked. It is like my long-lost twin wrote them...or one of my other personas.

One of the questions was, "Do you keep a to-do list? (tasks, not people)" [See my #52 here.]

THEN it said if you have STDs to click on a link...that takes you to match-dot-com. [NOTE: I did not contract any STDs while partaking in online dating.]

This was my kind of quiz! Here are my results.

The Maid of Honor Deliberate Gentle Love Master (DGLM) Appreciated for your kindness and envied for all your experience, you are The Maid of Honor. Charismatic, affectionate, and terrific in relationships, you are what many guys would call a "perfect catch"--and you probably have many admirers, each wishing to capture your long-term love. You're careful, extra careful, because the last thing you want is to hurt anyone. Especially some poor boy whose only crime was liking you. We've deduced you're fully capable of a dirty fling, but you do feel that post-coital attachment after hooking up. So, conscientious person that you are, you do your best to reserve physical affection for those you respect...so you can respect yourself. Your biggest negative is the byproduct of your careful nature: indecision. You're just as slow rejecting someone as you are accepting them. Your exact female opposite: Half-Cocked Random Brutal Sex Dreamer Always avoid: The False Messiah (DBLM), The 5-Night Stand (DBSM), The Vapor Trail (RBLM), The Bachelor (DGSM) Consider: The Gentleman (DGLM), someone just like you.

Link: The Online Dating Persona Test | OkCupid - free online dating | Dating