Friday, August 31, 2007
Compliments
My lab work is still going totally and utterly pants but I'm still plodding through and trying to be methodical and careful to try and figure out what's going on with my samples. As I've been putting the hours in the lab I've been having plenty of chats with the most junior PhD student in the lab who works for my ex-boss (my slightly more effective PhD supervisor) and it seems like the nagging and crazy encouragement and enthusiasm I have been showing him and his project has actually been helpful. I really hated being so isolated in the lab and not having anyone but my boss to ask questions or be interested in my project (and even then as soon as my boss got a visiting student, undergrad project student or anyone else in the lab I got totally ignored and forgotten about) so I have been making a real effort with him to encourage him and be interested in his project (he is doing it the hard way but I do believe in his project and think it could have some really interesting benefits and uses).
Anyway we were both in the lab yesterday and my experiment still wasn't quite behaving but I heard a little yelp of joy from the next bay for about the first time ever, usually junior is really down on his project and whinges about it lots. Anyway he had got possibly the best and most totally ace and skill results of his PhD so far which really confirm the whole idea and concept of the project. As we were chatting about these new promising results he thanked me for the interest, enthusiasm and faith I'd shown in him and his project which was really sweet. Sometimes I worried that I was maybe a bit overboard and/or out of place with my interest in him and the project but it seems not. It was even nicer to be thanked as I was feeling a bit down about everything and how I feel that I am being really supportive to all the current PhD students around me and how no one took the time to be like that during my PhD or as I am now. I am still a solitary little lab person stuck in a room on my own for large parts of the day and with no other people on the project and only my PI to talk to about data, results and experimental difficulties.
Anyway we were both in the lab yesterday and my experiment still wasn't quite behaving but I heard a little yelp of joy from the next bay for about the first time ever, usually junior is really down on his project and whinges about it lots. Anyway he had got possibly the best and most totally ace and skill results of his PhD so far which really confirm the whole idea and concept of the project. As we were chatting about these new promising results he thanked me for the interest, enthusiasm and faith I'd shown in him and his project which was really sweet. Sometimes I worried that I was maybe a bit overboard and/or out of place with my interest in him and the project but it seems not. It was even nicer to be thanked as I was feeling a bit down about everything and how I feel that I am being really supportive to all the current PhD students around me and how no one took the time to be like that during my PhD or as I am now. I am still a solitary little lab person stuck in a room on my own for large parts of the day and with no other people on the project and only my PI to talk to about data, results and experimental difficulties.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Still not working
I am so bummed out. I still haven't sorted out my activity problems. The only thing I can think is the problem is that all my samples have gone mad in storage and died or that the preparation method is mucking them up. Looks like I'll be in over the long weekend missing out on the lovely weather and running through a set of 4 experiments which will hopefully give me some sensible guiding data on whether the problem is with my samples and/or with the preparation method. This has been going on so long and I am so fed up with it and having crappy data. I'm hoping that this set of experiments should give me some sort of definite answer. If my samples are dead I am totally stuck as I can't think why they would have lost activity and I don't really have time to make up a new batch before I have to give a big talk on my work. Also I would like to figure out why they have suddenly gone screwy so it doesn't happen again.
I am still hoping to pop out into the sunshine a bit to get some nice things in the shops. And even better is that I don't need to feel guilty as it seems like HR picked up that I'm finally graduated and am officially a proper post doc rather than a bog standard research assistant so I finally got a pay rise this month. At the moment I have my eye on a new school bag (a funky patterned messenger bag which is practical and not too bulky) and some new trainers for wearing with dark slim leg jeans. Woo hoo. Also I think I'm looking forward to my friends hen night which is a murder mystery dinner party in fancy dress. I still need to sort out my outfit and will probably have to brave Primark to get something. I think Primark is probably the best motivation for getting me out of bed and at work early tomorrow, the queues in Primark are absolutely mental. It's not a place I ever usually bother shopping at but it's currently rammed with ugly hippy stuff that will suit the character of the person I'm meant to be at the dinner party and is cheap enough that I don't mind buying something I will only wear once.
I am still hoping to pop out into the sunshine a bit to get some nice things in the shops. And even better is that I don't need to feel guilty as it seems like HR picked up that I'm finally graduated and am officially a proper post doc rather than a bog standard research assistant so I finally got a pay rise this month. At the moment I have my eye on a new school bag (a funky patterned messenger bag which is practical and not too bulky) and some new trainers for wearing with dark slim leg jeans. Woo hoo. Also I think I'm looking forward to my friends hen night which is a murder mystery dinner party in fancy dress. I still need to sort out my outfit and will probably have to brave Primark to get something. I think Primark is probably the best motivation for getting me out of bed and at work early tomorrow, the queues in Primark are absolutely mental. It's not a place I ever usually bother shopping at but it's currently rammed with ugly hippy stuff that will suit the character of the person I'm meant to be at the dinner party and is cheap enough that I don't mind buying something I will only wear once.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Today is another day
So far, fingers crossed, everything seems to be going really well. The sun is shining, my sample was dead easy to set up with another perfect surface and I'm in a very cheerful mood looking forward to getting some good results and the long bank holiday weekend.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Not my day
Man alive I don't believe it. I was super efficient all morning sorting out new samples for experiments today from a couple of old archive samples in the freezer to check that I'm not going mad and also to fill in a couple of points for this scary talk I'm giving in a few weeks. I was zipping across campus between labs and dodging the millions of builders lorries which I'm sure are out to get me, the building round here is totally doing my head in, everything is dusty, grubby and in my way. Anyhow I was happy with my speedy efficient ways until I finished my first experimental run and realised the stupid set up was leaking. I thought with the new screws and stuff that it was all pretty water tight, but apparently not. Anyway managed to get everything set up again (I was determined to get everything set up for a good experiment as I had the best surface in a long while so I wanted to make the most of it). But even though my set up wasn't leaking, I was still getting results that were characteristic of a leaky experimental set up and in the end I had to go off for cake. Unfortunately cake did not magically solve my strange leaky looking problems but I have a good idea of what the problem is and will try fixing it tomorrow as it's too late to restart anything today and I have also run out of surfaces. Fingers crossed tomorrow I will have a good surface, no leakiness and some decent activity. Generally I find I can get 1 out of 3 right but unfortunately the results aren't useful unless I can coordinate all of it together at once.
I think one of the best things I ever learnt as an undergrad was about zen and the art of practical experiments. If the going gets really bad, just leave everything on the bench, step out for a cup of tea and large cake and then come back and try to sort it again, rather than staying there and getting so annoyed something finally breaks putting you even further back in the experiment.
I think one of the best things I ever learnt as an undergrad was about zen and the art of practical experiments. If the going gets really bad, just leave everything on the bench, step out for a cup of tea and large cake and then come back and try to sort it again, rather than staying there and getting so annoyed something finally breaks putting you even further back in the experiment.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Argh
Well first day back in the lab was totally pants. Still stuck with the same problems which have blighted me off and on since Easter. Today I have decided that going into the lab will just depress me so I am going to have a mega data clean up and sort out, sort out all my files on my computer, sort out all the literature I have scattered about on my project and get myself totally up to speed for this talk I have next month and try and pin down the problems I've been having and to blast through the last data bits. Wish me luck!
Labels: data analysis, lab work
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
In the mood
I am so not in the mood for work today having just got off holiday. It was so great to go on holiday and not worry about work - I totally didn't have any proper holidays while I was doing my PhD and this was the first time I've been abroad since finishing so it was extra nice. I had such a great time mooching about in the sunshine and eating loads of cake, cheese and ice cream. The weather was unbeliveably perfect, sunny but with a cool breeze so warm enough to swim outdoors but not get sticky and sweaty and minging. Hot temperatures don't agree with me and just send me floppy, whereas this holiday I got lots of sunshine but cool enough for going out and about and doing stuff.
Now I'm back and it's as grey, damp and depressing as ever. I've got heaps and heaps of work to do to try and figure out all my data and get some definite numbers out of it. I'm really bored of it now and want to move on to some new stuff, but need to get this finished off properly first. Also I've got railroaded into giving a talk at a research day thing organised by another faculty. It's one of those things I agreed to do as it sounds like it would be good experience for me but will be totally terrifying and stressful to actually do.
Now I'm back and it's as grey, damp and depressing as ever. I've got heaps and heaps of work to do to try and figure out all my data and get some definite numbers out of it. I'm really bored of it now and want to move on to some new stuff, but need to get this finished off properly first. Also I've got railroaded into giving a talk at a research day thing organised by another faculty. It's one of those things I agreed to do as it sounds like it would be good experience for me but will be totally terrifying and stressful to actually do.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Dirty Labs
Gah - what is it with some of the people around here who seem to be totally incapable of tidying up any sort of mess. I was in the lab yesterday and there was spilt and dried on pirahna solution on the general work bench, pirahna solution shouldn't even be ON that bench, let alone totally left there as a potential hazard for the other lab users. And then I came across a load of spilt anonymous white poweder in the balance - people shouldn't even be weighing out stuff directly in the balance, let alone chucking it about and leaving it a total state. Still at least the big boss has given all the lab users a severe warning and next time there is a problem in the lab, people will get their acess blocked. I have seriously never worked in a lab where people are so downright lazy and dangerous before. I feel like such a spod for continually pointing out all the problems in the lab but I figure someone should do it.
Labels: lab stuff
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