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.