Monday, June 25, 2007
Ow!
Bleugh this is not the way to start the week. I have been stuck at home all weekend with a horrible cold which is just getting worse so I got no sleep last night as I was trying to cough up a lung and didn't get any of the heaps of work I needed to do over the weekend done. And my wisdom teeth are hurting and it's totally chucking it down with rain at the moment.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Communal Lab
Mostly I like working in a communal lab as it means I get to see more people, catch up on gossip and chat away while making samples BUT it would be so much better if people stopped stealing and borrowing away the communal equipment, I don't have the time or inclination to go around all the rest of the labs in the building to see who has taken my marker pen, pipette, ruler, reagent bottle etc and actually kept to the cleaning rota. I totally scrubbed clean the lab and cleared all the surfaces, cleaned and tidyed the glasswear, sorted the skanky mouldy water bath only a few weeks ago and it is already looking like total shit tip again. Grrrrrrrr. I'd send out a stroppy email to the other users but I know that it won't make any difference to people's behaviour.
Labels: lab stuff
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Blergh
Dunno what's happened to my motviation recently. I've been a pretty busy bunny in the lab but it's been frustrating as I've not been getting consistent results. I hate having to process rubbish data, if everything has been going well and sucessfully I'm usually pretty keen to get all the data sorted and stuck in my lab book and waved at my boss, but when it's rubbish mostly I want to procrastinate or bang my head on the desk in frustration. But it's important to still go through all the data and try and figure out where all the problems are coming from. So if it's so important still why can't I do it? Argh. I suppose logging off here would be a start though.
Labels: data analysis, motivation, procrastination
Monday, June 18, 2007
Reassured
I was quite reassured the other day to see my typically cool, calm and self assured boss fretting over a departmental talk he had to give. It was a special talk related to a prize he was awarded and amongst a few other talks to other departmental award winners. It was reassuring to see that he really was human and gets worried sometimes (usually I am so in awe of him as he's so clever, funny and chilled). It's definitely good to see that people who seem totally on the ball and unflappable on the outside can still feel as imposterish and worried on the inside.
The only downside to this talk as it made me realise even more how hard it is to explain my research and results to audiences. Being between the sciences is great most of the time but when time is limited and you need to explain the significance of the results, it is especially hard when the majority/all the audience are totally unfamiliar with the experimental technique. Still it means I always work hard whenever I have to give a presentation and means I'm not likely to rest on my laurels and risk losing the audience as I have assumed too much previous knowledge, although it's a fine line not being too patronising
The only downside to this talk as it made me realise even more how hard it is to explain my research and results to audiences. Being between the sciences is great most of the time but when time is limited and you need to explain the significance of the results, it is especially hard when the majority/all the audience are totally unfamiliar with the experimental technique. Still it means I always work hard whenever I have to give a presentation and means I'm not likely to rest on my laurels and risk losing the audience as I have assumed too much previous knowledge, although it's a fine line not being too patronising
Monday, June 11, 2007
Professional Societies
Being a bit confused as to exactly what sort of scientist I am these days, I can't really figure what (if any) professional societies I should join. My work crosses the 3 main science subjects so I could join the 3 main socieites, but that seems a bit excessive and redundant. I'm not sure whether I should go with the society most closely related to the department which employs me and will (hopefully) support me with some of the issues I face in my current environment or whether I should go with a society more closely associated with my first degree and is still relevant to my current project and is how I most readily identify myself, or should I go with the society most related to the main experimental technique and methods I use? Should I join all 3? none? find a more specialist society to join? I really have no idea at the moment.
Labels: interdisciplinary perils, professional societies
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Senior Scientist
I've been totally anxious all day for various reasons but today I got thinking about my current fairly haphazard career so far and that of my peers. One of the thing which has been really different for me compared to everyone else I know still heading the academic route is that they have had so much more support throughout their projects. I drastically changed fields (unintentionally but impossible to change without scuppering my chances of ever getting PhD funding again) and was the senior person in the lab after the PI, and again I'm in the same situation. Sometimes I think it's OK and think "wow - I am doing a great job getting all this sorted and understood in my head on my own" but at the same time it is really hard as there are no other groups in the university doing the same techniques as me and that being spread across several departments makes it hard to have a good support network and close friends and people to ask troubleshooting questions and really stupid clarifications. Mostly my bosses are fine but sometimes I don't want to bother them or feel like the question is way too stupid and I don't want to look like even more of a dunce to them than they think of me already.
Labels: interdisciplinary perils, lab stuff
where are the women?
Feeling a bit mooped again today. Stuff is going pretty well with the lab this week which is good and I am sporting a lovely new haircut which always makes me feel good but as I was walking about campus today I was wondering where all the women were. I know I work in a male dominated area and being (one of) the only is something I generally just have to live with but sometimes it would be so nice to have someone to notice my new swishy hair-do, to have as a role model and make me feel a bit more 'at home'.
I think I'm going to get in trouble as I've not arranged my final probation meeting but I just don't want to see my advisor/mentor dude. He seemed OK when I've seen him about but I felt my mid-way probation meeting was a total waste of time and he was totally disinterested in me, just checking I felt like I was doing something publishable. Grrrrrr.
Enough moping and mooping and time to get back to updating the labbook and going through current data.
I think I'm going to get in trouble as I've not arranged my final probation meeting but I just don't want to see my advisor/mentor dude. He seemed OK when I've seen him about but I felt my mid-way probation meeting was a total waste of time and he was totally disinterested in me, just checking I felt like I was doing something publishable. Grrrrrr.
Enough moping and mooping and time to get back to updating the labbook and going through current data.
Labels: mentoring, mooped, women in science
Monday, June 04, 2007
Swimming
The past couple of weekends I've had nothing much (at all) to do so I've taken myself and my incredibly expensive swimming costume to the local pool and gone for a swim. I had totally forgotten just how much I like swimming (desipite having gone through another swim phase just a few years ago). The local pool really suits me as it's not too busy, not full of posers or pro swimmers. At the weekends it's all families and the odd random person pootling up and down the roped off lane. It's lovely and toasty warm and quite small so I can do lots of lengths and feel pleased with myself and not totally knackered or rubbish by the end of it. I really enjoyed the last session as I could totally zone out and not think or worry about much and not feel bad that I was wasting away more of my life.
I think swimming is great as it is actually a sport I can do comfortably without worrying about getting horribly sweaty and bright red within 5 minutes of getting started, I don't worry about stuff rubbing or wobbling about uncontrolably and I reckon no one looks great in a swimsuit and once you're in the water it's all distorted and everyone looks even stranger anyway so it doesn't make me look enviously at other peoples bodies.
Yay for swimming
I think swimming is great as it is actually a sport I can do comfortably without worrying about getting horribly sweaty and bright red within 5 minutes of getting started, I don't worry about stuff rubbing or wobbling about uncontrolably and I reckon no one looks great in a swimsuit and once you're in the water it's all distorted and everyone looks even stranger anyway so it doesn't make me look enviously at other peoples bodies.
Yay for swimming
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