A Weekend Off

Eventually, I decided against D, but for A. (As an aside, it turned out that I hadn't really lost any sample. Apparently, I can shave about two hours off of my protocol. So, yay!) By working last weekend, I decided that I could take this weekend off. That should have been an easy decision to make, but it wasn't easy. I never figured myself for a workaholic, but I'm beginning to think I might be.

I have two main projects going on in the lab right now. One is making decent progress, it's just slow (this is mostly a function of the project, not troubleshooting). The other is just riddled with problems and it's been a pain. I've been working pretty much non-stop trying to overcome those problems and I'm stuck. I've been told by a variety of people that I should take some time off, but it's hard for me to do that. I want things to work and I'd like to (eventually) graduate. So my logic goes that if those things are priorities for me, then I should be working. If I'm not working, then I'm not making any progress and I'm just prolonging my stay here. Ergo, I should be working all the time. Burn out be damned.

Except that I am burned out and it's starting to show. Advisor all but kicked me out of the lab on Friday (not in a bad way). I asked him if it would be ok for me to leave early and that I was thinking of taking the weekend off. His response, "I'm not only not standing in your way, but I'm encouraging you. Have a good weekend. We'll get a fresh start on Monday." My response, "But..." His interruption, "Go."

Poll

If you've been working 3 weeks straight without a day off (albeit you've only worked half days on the weekends) and then you sort-of mess up a protocol (by losing some sample) do you:

(a) Start prepping a new batch of samples while continuing with your diminished-sample prep because, hey! maybe diminished-sample prep will be enough (at the very least it may still tell you what you need to know). But know that you'll lose your Saturday (with your significant other) off.

(b) Just toss everything as (now) diminished-sample prep was a trial for your new preparative method and start over. And lose your Saturday (with your significant other) off.

(c) Just like (a) but decide that you'll take Saturday off anyhow and just come in Sunday.

(d) Just like (a) but decide that you fail at life.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Ice Machine

Scene:
Interior. Sunday. Morning.

Grad Student leaves lab proper to get ice from the communal ice machine. She uses the door-propping-open-function of the door to keep it open because she has no pockets in her running shorts for keys. She makes it down to the ice machine and hears a door slam

Grad Student: Please, please, please let it not be my door.

GS walks back down the hall to her lab.

GS: Crap! That was my door. Now what?

GS frantically looks around, wanders the halls, and eventually finds a communal-- free-- house phone. She calls campus information.

Campus information: Campus Information. How can I help you?

GS: Hi! Can I have the number for Hospital Security?

CI: Sure. It's 555-5555

GS thanks them, hangs up and dials the number.

Hospital Security: How can I help you?

GS: I have a problem. I'm a grad student down in Building. And I locked myself out of my lab.

HS (Giggles): We can't help you. But Campus Police can. Call 444-4444. Have a nice day.

GS wishes HS the same, hangs up and dials Campus Police.

CP: Campus Police. How can we help you?

GS repeats her story. CP laughs.

CP: Have you tried HS?

GS: Well, they said to call you...

CP: Of course! Well, I'll call them and tell them to send someone out.

GS goes to wait outside of the lab door. Nervously hoping that her experiments will be ok with the delay. Campus Police Officer comes up.

GS: Thank you so much!

CPO: Hi. Can I see your ID?

GS: It's in the lab. If you unlock the door I can get it.

CPO: I can't unlock it without ID.

GS: Seriously? (She starts panicking. Experiments...) But it's in the lab.

CPO: There's nothing I can do. I need the ID.

GS: Look, you can follow me into the lab. I'll just grab my ID. Promise. Please, please, please let me in the lab. (That's a phrase GS never thought would leave her mouth.) You really can't unlock the door without my ID?

CPO (Laughs): I'm just kidding. Of course I can unlock the door for you. (Unlocks door) Have a great day.

End Scene.

Aha! A list of Famous Lady Scientists

I previously wrote about a survey that stated that two-thirds of all Americans could not name an famous female scientist. While I still don't know how they defined famous (Mad Hatter pointed out that Field Famous versus Nobel Famous verses Household Name Famous are all very different), I think that it's still important for the general public to know that there are (and have been) very influential female scientists. So, I was very relieved when I found-- and by I, I mean that I found it on Science Woman's twitter feed-- this list of famous female scientists.

While not comprehensive, there are still a good number of lady scientists on there. And it gives me a place to point the people who had no idea that there are lady scientists out there.

In a Forwardly Direction

This month's Scientiae theme is particularly apt for me (I'm just a lot late in posting). I'm within (approximately, you know, give or take a semester or five) a year of graduating, I'm training for a 13k in October, and Dr. Man and I have started brewing our own beer. I feel like I've been in a holding pattern throughout my PhD experience. There's a lot of 'Well, I'd do X after I'm done with school' or 'I'm justing waiting to graduate until I try Y.' A lot of times, it's like I'm waiting until I'm old enough to do something. Like there's some magical age after which I'll have things figured out or there's an age I must reach before I can do something.

Recently, I've decided that I might as well allow my life to move forward as much as it can. Hence all the activities. It doesn't make sense to put off my life until after school. And I think that's become an excuse to stop trying. If I categorically state that I won't try/do something different until I've graduated, then I'm off the hook. I don't have to do anything new or different or scary.

I don't have any advice on how to make forward progress, but my guess is that it'll be incremental. It'll involve breaking up the new, different, scary things into smaller more palatable pieces. For once, I'll look at the trees more than the forest. And hope that will allow me to make it through.

scientiae-carnival

Committee Meetings, Experiments, and Thesis-ing! Oh My!

I had a committee meeting on Monday. It actually went fairly well. I was very worried about it because I haven't made much progress over the past 8 months (the meeting was delayed because of extenuating circumstances, see: the month of March). I put together my presentation outlining what I've been doing during this time. It added up to about 22 slides showing a variety of results (ranging from good to bad). My committee didn't seem too unhappy and they were more than willing to sign off on the "making adequate progress" line. Overall, I considered it a not bad meeting.

However, all of my committee member brought up the dreaded, "When do you think you'll graduate?" question. It would appear that they have not read The Guide to Proper Grad School Etiquette. Advisor answered their question with, "About next summer." This was news to me. I considered next summer at the earliest, if every thing went according to plan. I thought a more realistic goal was next fall-- 2010 (in fact, I was told that this was a more realistic goal. I don't know why Advisor said next summer? 5.5 years is about average, so I don't think my taking that long would make him look bad. I must be the first grad student ever who was horrified to learn that his/her advisor thought they could graduate earlier than they thought. But I digress. A lot.). This has led to a minor freak out on my behalf. I've got a list of things-- about 3 pages long-- of experiments to do before I graduate. The majority of my freak out has centered around the following two thoughts: (1) To get all this done by next summer, everything has to go perfectly and I can never leave the lab, and (2) If I take longer than next summer, will my committee be angry? I'm trying to take deep breaths and picture a happy place.

Along those same lines, Advisor wants me to start writing. He's wanted me to start writing since I joined the lab. I hate writing. A. Lot. So, I haven't taken him up on his advice. Now, he wants me to turn in the draft of one of my chapters by Friday. It's not too unreasonable because I have most of it written (I had a paper published on this project, so I just have to add some stuff and format it), but isn't it a bit premature to start writing a year before I have any hope of graduating? Or heck, even before I have a projected graduation date? Or before I have all the data?

How many can you name?

I received an email from Amy R. at a Strategic Agency (not the name, but the type of Agency). In it she gave me the following link:
Nearly Two-Thirds of Americans Can't Name a Famous Female Scientist According to National Survey

Seeing the headline, my first thought was, "WTF? Seriously?" I asked Dr. Manto name one and he said, "You." (Which demonstrates his brilliance.) I've since asked other people and I've received one of three answers (I've yet to get 'you' as an answer again): (1) Marie Curie, (2) Rosalind Franklin, (3) Ummm.... Unfortunately, answer 3 seems to be the most prevalent. So, maybe that survey is about right. I hope not, though.