Sunday, September 30, 2007
A lab called home
I'm a bit peeved tonight as I came into work to make up some plates and bits in advance of all the biology bits I have to do this week. Unfortunately I didn't do the main prep I wanted as I couldn't find the antibiotics to make up into my plates. I like working on a project that uses so many different skills and is so interdisciplinary but I am getting a bit tired of being a bit of an itinerant scientist and not being settled in just a single lab (or even just a single department) like most of the people around me. It's especially hard going over to the biology lab as I use it so infrequently and I don't really know all the protocols and particular lab proceedures and culture for doing stuff. I just slip in, use all the materials and equipment I need for a week and then disappear for another 6 months or more. It is hard as there are some big personalities in the lab and they are all used to working together all the time and I find it very hard to speak to new people, ask questions and make new friends. Ideally I like to pop into the lab at strange times to do as much as possible out the way of everyone else, but at the same time my efforts are thwarted by not knowing where stuff I need is kept and not wanting to rummage around the millions of fridges, freezers and cupboards to find stuff.
Another thing which is getting me down a bit is that I do very little lab work in the department where my office is based and again it's hard to get to know people and make friends when working on such a different project and not being around all the time so I miss out on all the coffee break bonding and stuff which goes towards getting to know colleagues and stuff. Being multidepartment gets really physically tiring as the 3 labs/departments I work in are separated by up to a 10 minute walk (depending on how much stuff I am carrying with me).
Enough moaning, I will be up bright and early tomorrow for the gym and hopefully get into work early, finish the stuff I wanted to do tonight and prepare everything else for the week and get on with more exciting sciencey stuff. I also get a minion for the first time ever so I hope they are reasonably bright and independent and interested in the project.
Another thing which is getting me down a bit is that I do very little lab work in the department where my office is based and again it's hard to get to know people and make friends when working on such a different project and not being around all the time so I miss out on all the coffee break bonding and stuff which goes towards getting to know colleagues and stuff. Being multidepartment gets really physically tiring as the 3 labs/departments I work in are separated by up to a 10 minute walk (depending on how much stuff I am carrying with me).
Enough moaning, I will be up bright and early tomorrow for the gym and hopefully get into work early, finish the stuff I wanted to do tonight and prepare everything else for the week and get on with more exciting sciencey stuff. I also get a minion for the first time ever so I hope they are reasonably bright and independent and interested in the project.
Labels: interdisciplinary perils, lab stuff
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
All Change
It's the start of a new academic year and it's all change around here. One of the students I have been particularly close to in my old lab group finally submitted his thesis and is leaving the department. Another student in my old lab group is just about finishing up in the lab and will hopefully be written up and submitted in reasonable time (my old supervisor seems very keen on traumatising his now unpaid, stressed students by trying to get them to help project students and stuff in the lab and not being at all helpful with actually writing up and getting submitted in a reasonable time frame. I could post loads about how out of order my PhD supervisor was with the writing up and submission phase of doing a thesis). It will be so quiet in the lab space I do most of my experimental work as there are loads of people due to finish this coming academic year and very few new students to take their place. Apparently this pretty much comes down the RAE and it not being such a good financial deal for the centre to have lots of PhD students anymore, they are more interested in recruiting research fellowes. It is a real shame as there has been quite a buzz around the centre with lots of sociable students and people being busy and productive and now it's really quiet and empty a lot of the time.
It's not quite all doom and gloom and emptiness as there is a new PhD student just starting with my current boss. I was showing him the experimental system we use and how to prepare samples and stuff and had a good chat with him and he seems great. He is certainly competent and sensible in the lab and seems to be careful and quick at getting to grips with everything. It seems like we are quite lucky to be getting a new student in the lab as there seem to be very few new students in any of the labs I work in this year. It's also slightly disappointing to see that out of the few new students, there isn't a single female this time around.
It's not quite all doom and gloom and emptiness as there is a new PhD student just starting with my current boss. I was showing him the experimental system we use and how to prepare samples and stuff and had a good chat with him and he seems great. He is certainly competent and sensible in the lab and seems to be careful and quick at getting to grips with everything. It seems like we are quite lucky to be getting a new student in the lab as there seem to be very few new students in any of the labs I work in this year. It's also slightly disappointing to see that out of the few new students, there isn't a single female this time around.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Made up martyr
The peace and quiet of the past week is back to being disrupted again now that the particularly infuriating post doc (we call him Billy Talentless as he is a bit like the slightly strange lead singer of Canadian rockers Billy Talent - except he's a waste of space and has no percievable talents at work) is back from a conference.
We were having coffee a couple of weeks ago and Billy was moaning how he has been made a particular safety officer and how the head safety people must have caught him on a good day to get him to do it. This totally did my head in as Billy is the most interfering annoying idiot and likes to concern himself (mostly in slightly inappropriate ways) with health and safety things in the group and wider department. Fine, if you want to be involved in H&S go ahead and do it, I have a big interest in H&S being adhered to properly at work myself, and am not ashamed to say it's a big important thing for me and I applaud anyone who wants to make the extra effort to take a bigger role in ensuring H&S is done properly in the department. What really got me was the fact he moaned about doing it when everyone knows it's what he absolutely loves. I had no intention of massaging his ego and pointed out in front of everyone that he should quit complaining as we all know he totally loves it really. I'm not really a fan of laughing at other people's expense, but I can't help but think he really did bring it on himself.
We were having coffee a couple of weeks ago and Billy was moaning how he has been made a particular safety officer and how the head safety people must have caught him on a good day to get him to do it. This totally did my head in as Billy is the most interfering annoying idiot and likes to concern himself (mostly in slightly inappropriate ways) with health and safety things in the group and wider department. Fine, if you want to be involved in H&S go ahead and do it, I have a big interest in H&S being adhered to properly at work myself, and am not ashamed to say it's a big important thing for me and I applaud anyone who wants to make the extra effort to take a bigger role in ensuring H&S is done properly in the department. What really got me was the fact he moaned about doing it when everyone knows it's what he absolutely loves. I had no intention of massaging his ego and pointed out in front of everyone that he should quit complaining as we all know he totally loves it really. I'm not really a fan of laughing at other people's expense, but I can't help but think he really did bring it on himself.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Volunteering
I have been a total wreck at work this week after staying up until stupidly late on Monday night doing volunteering. I don't mind giving up my time to help others, in fact I think it's really important and is one of the reasons I do it. But I got a bit caught out this time and will have to keep a close eye on things to make sure I don't inadvertantly get signed up for things that will interfere with work and stuff, like late nights. Still at least it's friday and I will make sure I get plenty of sleep in over the weekend and be able to re-set my body clock properly for next week and get lots done in the lab. I'm looking forward to next week as one of my friends is finally submitting his thesis and I get to properly help and supervise a student in the lab. On the downside another part of my experimental system has gone strange and now I can't even get really simple control experiments to work. But this isn't quite as bad as it could have been as I think this new problem actually means that the huge problem I thought I had is actually OK. Fingers crossed I will be able to sort it out next week. It was sorting out another problem with the system which actually flagged up this new peculiarity, so hopefully things are smoothing out and I will be able to get some decent data quickly and soon.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Avast ye scurvy dogs
Today is International Speak Like a Pirate day where I am planning on thoroughly confusing most of my workmates. Although that's nothing new as no one understands what I'm on about most of the time anyway!
Friday, September 07, 2007
Offices
I am so glad it's finally friday. I've managed to get all my data processed and all the gaps filled in, now all I have to do is put it into some sensible sort of summary graphs and figure out where exactly I am with everything. Fortunately it has been quite quiet and bearable in the office as PhoneBoy has mostly been working from home this week. Although my ears are ringing today after he spent a good half hour or more wittering on to some random supply company wheedling for a discount on equipment. I really don't like the office I am based in most of the time. The office has the most rubbish layout with desks facing walls so everyone has their back to one another and it gets really hot and stuffy when the sun comes round the windows during the day. One thing I've noticed is that I'm the only person in the office with any sort of personal decoration on my desk, everyone else on has stuff like the university wall planner or calendar and then their computer and the odd paper and some dull stationary. I love my little space of wall where I have stuck up loads of postcards and pictures and the most random calendar of vegetables shaped as animals. Maybe it's a gender thing but I find it really strange that no one else has got anything at all pinned by their desk.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Data
I am bored to tears with my crappy data. There are so many numbers and graphs which come out of an average day in the lab, all of which need editing and processing with the most crappy software ever, then key values taken out and summarised in an excel file, which then have the 2 or so key values from the whole day to be put in origin and excel and finally when I have done enough decent consecutive experiments, made into a graph. On the one hand I love being able to generate loads and loads of data in a day, but then again I hate summarising it down to such a tiddly point in the Big Scheme of Things.
At the moment I'm realising how poorly I summarised some of my earlier data and am now going through my old lab books and computer files and trying to get everything sorted out neatly and completely. It's so dull. At least one of the PhD students is back and so I got a good gossip in earlier, and have been speaking to a couple of other students who have come by the office to ask questions and stuff. I get really down on myself and thinking I don't know anything, whereas in reality I am actually really knowledgable on my subject. All I really need to do is make more effort on the bench side of things and concentrate on getting a lot of good results and going through the data promptly and thoroughly when I get it.
At the moment I'm realising how poorly I summarised some of my earlier data and am now going through my old lab books and computer files and trying to get everything sorted out neatly and completely. It's so dull. At least one of the PhD students is back and so I got a good gossip in earlier, and have been speaking to a couple of other students who have come by the office to ask questions and stuff. I get really down on myself and thinking I don't know anything, whereas in reality I am actually really knowledgable on my subject. All I really need to do is make more effort on the bench side of things and concentrate on getting a lot of good results and going through the data promptly and thoroughly when I get it.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Owwwwwwwww
I joined the gym just around the corner from my house last week as I am fed up of being a lumpy, tired out grump and figured that a bit of exercise would probably be very beneficial. I've never ever been to a gym in my entire life until this week and I was quite suprised how nice everyone is and how much there is to do. I am totally suffering this morning as I did a circuits class yesterday. I thought I was going to die during the class, especially when I was totally knackered and realised I'd finished the circuit, only to be told we had to do it all again when my legs were already turned to jelly. I managed it and was pretty pleased with myself but now today my legs and bum are very stiff and I am like an old woman, especially when I have to sit down or get out of a chair.
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