A Lady Scientist- Blog

I try to stay out of politics in the blogosphere– I just don’t have a thick enough skin. But this stuff has been going on all around me in every day life and it’s driving me nuts. So, I’m going to vent here.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about Joe Wilson’s outburst during the President’s address to a Joint Session of Congress. The outburst itself bothered me, but what bothers me more is the ensuing debate. It seems to center around whether or not it is right for a member of Congress to have such an outburst. And if people’s opinion would change if it was the former president speaking instead of our current one.

To me that argument is moot. A member of Congress is not allowed to have such an outburst during a session of Congress. When s/he joined Congress s/he agreed to operate within certain rules in that venue (a more concise viewing can be found here). That applied during the last administration as well. You agree to those rules, operate by them, and learn how to work within them (or change them).An ordinary citizen at a town hall did not agree to those same rules at the outset and if s/he wants to give a shout out in the middle of anyone’s (including the President) speech, then fine.

But in certain venues you agree to follow certain rules. I don’t interrupt my professor when s/he is talking to tell them that I think s/he is wrong. I raise my hand and state that when recognized (ok, I’m not going to lie here, chances are I’d utilize another outlet, i.e. office hours, to do so, but then again I’m not that ballsy). While I’ve seen things get heated during scientific debates, I’ve rarely seen someone interrupt the speaker (and no matter the validity of the interrupters statements, it’s rarely looked upon favorably).

In summary: Joe Wilson gave up the right(? I don’t think that’s the word I’m looking for) to shout out during a Presidential Address to a Joint Session of Congress. He agreed to rules, knew about them, and broke them. If he feels that the rules shouldn’t apply to him, then he should be a private citizen.

First: The Dixie Dog is all better. I didn’t want to say so before now (didn’t want to jinx it), but it’s been confirmed. No more symptoms and her white blood cell count is back down. I’m much relieved.

Next: Thank you all for the birthday wishes. They made me smile after having a pretty crappy day and feel less guilty for having a bad day. (The common question asked after a birthday “Did you have a good one?” is hard to answer when you didn’t. I just fudged the truth.)

Last: Now, I have some sort of cold-type-thing. I’m using it as an excuse to take two whole days (the weekend) off from lab. In the end, I think the time off will be worth, especially if I feel better tomorrow.

Posts are slowly coming these days. Mostly I’ve got lots of work to do that’s leaving me with little time to blog. Also, my blog writing neurons seem to have seized up and died. I’m rapidly becoming the least articulate person I know. Sigh. So, here are a series of updates:

Lab work is going fairly well. I’m making slow and steady progress, which I’d take any day over rapid and backwards progress. I finally ::knocks on wood:: got past my cloning difficulties. So, it’s on to the the next couple of steps.

I think I’m making progress in the time management aspect, too. I tried biochem belle’s suggestion of organizing my time. She suggested printing out my weekly calendar and planning out all the experiments, etc. on them. I’ve done something similar using iCal and Omnifocus. I’m doing this because I like to break up my experiments into tiny, tiny steps (as in: (1) Pour gel, (2) Load gel, (3) Run gel, (4) Take picture of gel). I break up the tasks, not to make them seem more manageable, but because I like to cross things off a list. So, the more steps I have the more I get to cross of my list (I know, this is sad, right?). So far, so good, though.

Continuing with the time management aspect, I think I’m doing better on this balance thing. I can’t work nonstop and remain sane. I’ve stopped (or am trying to stop) reading into this too much. As in I’m not allowing myself to state that just because I become unglued after several weeks of nonstop work (and no progress) that I’m never going to graduate and become a grown-up scientist. Instead, I remind myself that working sane hours and making steady progress is the most important part of this graduate school thing (I can’t state anything about allowing me to make it in the “real” world, but I figure I’ve got to make it past this part). Also, I’m not allowing myself to get into those one-up conversations. (You know, the ones like: “I worked 150 hours last week and I haven’t had a weekend off since high school.” “Oh yeah, I worked 170 hours last week and I haven’t had a day off since the first grade.”) That’s helped quite a bit. So, instead I’m working while I’m at work and taking off a day a week.

To develop this even more, I’m going on vacation next week! Dr. Man talked me into taking a week off during August. So, the last week of August it is. We’re going to Washington, D.C. to visit friends, parks, and monuments (not necessarily in that order). (Also, if anyone in that area would like to meet up, drop me an email.) I’m very excited (see the exclamation points). We have a couple of friends up there that we haven’t seen in ages! I need time off! Flights were cheap! Plus, I’m not allowing anyone to make me feel guilty for taking time away from the bench. I keep repeating to myself that it’s ok for me to take a vacation, the world will not end, and I will (probably) still graduate.

Besides I can always read papers on the plane, right?

I just caused a grease fire in my kitchen (oops). No casualties (except perhaps the pan). And I remembered not to use water (luckily I was able to quickly find the lid). This is why I don’t cook.

Some days I just should stay in bed.

I’m watching Ghostbusters right now (and enjoying a fine red wine– ok, maybe not fine… it’s Barefoot Bay Cabernet Sauvignon, but I’m a grad student and that’s pretty fine as far as my budget goes). Anyhow, Ghostbusters is on AMC and the commercials are depressing (except for the Julia Roberts ones). So far there’s been two types of commercials. One is for life insurance (really does one want to think about death when watching movies from ones childhood?). The other is for Extenz-E which appears to be something for male or female (seriously, femaie. I’m not sure what’s in those things. I always assumed that the male one just contained some sort of testosterone. I don’t know what the female one would contain. Maybe I should just Google it.).. ahem… personal enhancement. So, according to AMC I should be close to death and in need of help in a certain arena. The good part is that I have wine and Dr. Man is finding me entertaining.

I was tempted to start this post out with some sort of “I’m still here” comment, but I realized that I’m doing that a lot lately. So, instead let’s just consider it said. I have ideas for posts, but I haven’t had a chance to write any of them. I’ve putting in a lot of time in the lab and that brings me to my RBOC post.

• Dr. Man and I (a variety of people from his family: Dr. Man’s Parents, SIL-3, BIL-2 & his girlfriend, BIL-3 & his girlfriend, and BIL-4) went to the City of Brotherly Love for his Cousin’s wedding.
• Said wedding was lovely. The reception was amazing. The food was pretty good, the band played well, and there was an open bar. God bless the open bar.
• I saw the Liberty Bell. The exhibit was really nice. I thought that the exhibit built up the many different causes that the Liberty Bell has helped further (Women’s Lib and Civil Rights come immediately to mind).
• I need to be more efficient with my time in the lab. I’m not sure how to keep focus that long. Suggestions?
• As far as lab work is concerned, it’s been pretty up and down.
• I made progress in Damned Yeast Project.
• Then, I found a fatal flaw.
• Then, I realized that it wasn’t a fatal flaw
• as One of my other clones will work
• and now I’m back on track.
• I was very lucky.

I know, I know. I never write, I never call, I’ve dropped off the face of the planet. I’m still here. I haven’t blogged because I’m trying to be more positive about grad school (and life in general). But lately I’ve been grumpy. Over everything. And no one wants to hear me grump.

So, let’s see if I can be positive in this blog post. Well, research is going, well, like it always goes: in fits and starts. Project: Pretty Colors is going swimmingly. It seems that most any time I try something, it works (more or less). It’s really pleasing to try something and get a useful result. Project: Damned Yeast is going, well, deserving of its name. Things that were working have just stopped. I am positive, though, that it’ll start working again… eventually.

What else? Umm… I’m going to the ‘City of Brotherly Love’ this upcoming weekend for a wedding. It should be fun. And I’m taking a three day weekend for it. So, definitely no lab work next weekend.

Also-also, I’m going to take a nap later. That’s very positive!