Today is another last. A leaves tomorrow, following his presentation to his lab. He's stressing out about this WAYYYYYYYYY too much. I gave my presentation yesterday and my whole lab was really supportive. They asked some good questions and we talked about how much stuff I've accomplished. It actually was a lot of fun. I got nervous, but at the same time, no one knows more about what I did than me. (except maybe BC, but she wasn't there)
This weekend was a little crazy. Friday night we went to Molly's for R's last night in Hanover, then we just hung out for a couple hours. I slept ALL day on Saturday. And when I say all day, I mean it. I literally got up in time to say goodbye to R, tell O that I didn't want to go to lunch and I slept until 6pm. Then I got up for dinner with everyone. We went back to Mollys because Murphy's was really busy. We sat in Mollys for FOREVER. It was really nice. I'd intended on working on my paper when I got back, but instead I went to bed. I got up pretty early Sunday morning and I worked a bit on my paper. Lunch was at Molly's at 1 with AB, A and O. After that, I walked into lab and worked for 6 hours on my paper. I finally finished my roughest of rough drafts around 1am and went to bed.
I didn't do much on Monday. I presented at lab meeting. I set up another lysis/PCR. I worked almost all day on finishing up my paper. My rough draft in its entirety was finished last night and I sent it to BC. Hopefully she actually checks her e-mail at home and gets back to me before I leave.
Today I've not done much. I ran my gel and am attemping gel extraction. I'm waiting my turn so I can run my product and see if it worked. If yes, then comes sequencing!
Well, I gotta get back to work.
Showing posts with label SURF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SURF. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Just two weeks now. Almost time for me to come home!!!
Another day at the salt mines.
haha. makes me want sing.
Another day, another destiny.
This never ending road to Calvary.
...One. Day. More....
*snicker*
So I made it though another day. barely. I woke up and felt just fine. By lunch I was absolutely miserable. Stuffed up nose, sinus headache, upset stomach, nausea, heavy chest, labored breathing. rawr. it was super yucky. After lunch and another dose of meds and I felt pretty fine.
I wasted 3 hours of my morning being stupid. I did manage to set up my gel and run it, though I forgot that I needed to do it, so I didn't start right away. I got one of four samples to work! Hooray! Almost needless to say, the purification was a dismal failure. So I set the reaction up again. Lysis. PCR. Tomorrow I'll run the gel, then Stephane is gonna help me with the purification. BC is gone. She's done helping me out. She's being induced tomorrow. I can't wait to see her little boy. :-) It's a real shame that she's not going to see me through my last two weeks. Not much anyone can do about that though.
So I survived today. Got home around 7 and have spent most of the evening in bed watching Buffy. Just one more episode until I finish the second season. Then on to the third. It's really weird. I watched Angel first. So I know how the whole Buffy-Angel thing pans out. I don't like the scenes when they're together and I hate the scenes where Angel is the bad guy. I just wish that someone would find that stupid disc with the translation of the ritutal to give Angel his soul back. I like him better when he's got some sense of humanity. Also, I don't like David Boreanaz to be the bad guy. He's Booth for crying out loud. Plus, when he's nice, I think he totally wins over other Vamps. Team Edward? heck no! I'm Team Angel!! for sure.
Well, it's getting on that time. I need to head to bed to see if I can get some sleep so that my body can put itself right piece by piece. Go B cells! Go T cells! rah rah rah! dang, should have been a cheerleader...I would have kicked some major butt. *snicker*.
Another update soon...maybe this weekend if I can find a free second. It's gonna be pretty busy, and I'm pretty excited. :)
haha. makes me want sing.
Another day, another destiny.
This never ending road to Calvary.
...One. Day. More....
*snicker*
So I made it though another day. barely. I woke up and felt just fine. By lunch I was absolutely miserable. Stuffed up nose, sinus headache, upset stomach, nausea, heavy chest, labored breathing. rawr. it was super yucky. After lunch and another dose of meds and I felt pretty fine.
I wasted 3 hours of my morning being stupid. I did manage to set up my gel and run it, though I forgot that I needed to do it, so I didn't start right away. I got one of four samples to work! Hooray! Almost needless to say, the purification was a dismal failure. So I set the reaction up again. Lysis. PCR. Tomorrow I'll run the gel, then Stephane is gonna help me with the purification. BC is gone. She's done helping me out. She's being induced tomorrow. I can't wait to see her little boy. :-) It's a real shame that she's not going to see me through my last two weeks. Not much anyone can do about that though.
So I survived today. Got home around 7 and have spent most of the evening in bed watching Buffy. Just one more episode until I finish the second season. Then on to the third. It's really weird. I watched Angel first. So I know how the whole Buffy-Angel thing pans out. I don't like the scenes when they're together and I hate the scenes where Angel is the bad guy. I just wish that someone would find that stupid disc with the translation of the ritutal to give Angel his soul back. I like him better when he's got some sense of humanity. Also, I don't like David Boreanaz to be the bad guy. He's Booth for crying out loud. Plus, when he's nice, I think he totally wins over other Vamps. Team Edward? heck no! I'm Team Angel!! for sure.
Well, it's getting on that time. I need to head to bed to see if I can get some sleep so that my body can put itself right piece by piece. Go B cells! Go T cells! rah rah rah! dang, should have been a cheerleader...I would have kicked some major butt. *snicker*.
Another update soon...maybe this weekend if I can find a free second. It's gonna be pretty busy, and I'm pretty excited. :)
Saturday, August 8, 2009
It's been a while......
*huge sigh of relief*
The GRE is over. finally. No more GRE class, no more crazy Kaplan lady, no more stress!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, no more stress for about 36 more hours...then I've got a few projects I need to get started on.
The last two weeks have been crazy busy. Lots of work, lots of class, and tons of studying.
I don't even know where to begin to get caught up.....I got back from the leadership alliance conference with a head full of ideas for graduate school, a desire to start searching and a little bit of terror for the whole process. I have no idea how anyone ever gets into graduate school and succeeds based on the information that I got that weekend....I know they were trying to help, but all they did was scare the bajeezus out of me. I actually had a mini crisis after this weekend trying to determine if I was actually cut out for graduate school. I mean, qualifying exam? public defense? talk about make me want to vomit. As if the entrance interview isn't scary enough. But I can do it. I can do anything I put my mind to. Just ask my mom.
So when I got back from the conference I really started pushing hard. I'd work until 5, studying my vocab words at work, working out of my course book after work. I had class 4 days of 5, and that was rough. I actually enjoyed the ethics class though. The weekend was crazy full of studying. I watched some Buffy the Vampire Slayer while studying. Perhaps not the best of study tools, but it was good for relaxing. SURF paid for us to have dinner and see a movie last weekend. We went to see The Hangover. It was the second time that I had seen it and it was probably funnier than the first. First of all, I was in much better company and the girls laughing made me laugh. Dinner at Murphy's was good too. I ate too much and loved it.
This past week I didn't get to watch any Buffy; I had too many things going on. I had my last GRE class on Monday and I am so glad that it over. That class was so painful. The only reason it was beneficial at all is because I got paid to go to all the classes and the other study tools were indespensible. Tuesday was another journal club. Only one left! Unfortunately I haven't found a paper to present yet, and that's not good. I need to ask BC about it tomorrow, otherwise I don't know what I'm going to do on Tuesday.
I've been working long hours this week. Wednesday I worked 9-10 and Thursday I worked 9-7:30ish and I went into the lab today rather than stay late last night. Yesterday, we went to dinner at Molly's to relax before the big day. We stayed out a little too late, but it was fun. I got up this morning bright and early to mentally prepare myself to take the GRE. AB picked me, R and AH up around 8 and we went and kicked that puppy in the butt. I think we're all pleased with our scores; none of us are planning on taking it again. I think I did well, but I certainly don't have any intention of telling anyone how I did. There's certainly no need to compare; I think we all did well. :) :) :) Another 3 students are taking the GRE next weekend...the boys this time (C, A and M)...I think we might be going to AB's afterwards for a cookout. I think it'll be fun. And it'll be nice to relax with everyone before the program winds down. I leave in 3 weeks, but B, the first to leave, leaves in 10 days. It'll be extremely boring once people start leaving. B is leaving early, R is leaving early, C and A are leaving early. I think M and N are leaving a few days early, and I think only AH, O and I will be here until the end. I'm certainly not ready to start thinking about my final paper, though I definitely need to. Yucky yuck.
No one wanted to go to Molly's with me for their famous $2 margarita. Maybe another day. Instead I'm going to celebrate my success today with a bottle of Mike's and just relax for the first time since I started working on my poster *before* the Leadership Alliance conference. I'm gonna either go back to watching Buffy or read some of On The Beach before bed. Tomorrow is another early (ish) day filled with exciting activities and I am absolutely pumped about it all. :)
<3 I love Dartmouth. <3
The GRE is over. finally. No more GRE class, no more crazy Kaplan lady, no more stress!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, no more stress for about 36 more hours...then I've got a few projects I need to get started on.
The last two weeks have been crazy busy. Lots of work, lots of class, and tons of studying.
I don't even know where to begin to get caught up.....I got back from the leadership alliance conference with a head full of ideas for graduate school, a desire to start searching and a little bit of terror for the whole process. I have no idea how anyone ever gets into graduate school and succeeds based on the information that I got that weekend....I know they were trying to help, but all they did was scare the bajeezus out of me. I actually had a mini crisis after this weekend trying to determine if I was actually cut out for graduate school. I mean, qualifying exam? public defense? talk about make me want to vomit. As if the entrance interview isn't scary enough. But I can do it. I can do anything I put my mind to. Just ask my mom.
So when I got back from the conference I really started pushing hard. I'd work until 5, studying my vocab words at work, working out of my course book after work. I had class 4 days of 5, and that was rough. I actually enjoyed the ethics class though. The weekend was crazy full of studying. I watched some Buffy the Vampire Slayer while studying. Perhaps not the best of study tools, but it was good for relaxing. SURF paid for us to have dinner and see a movie last weekend. We went to see The Hangover. It was the second time that I had seen it and it was probably funnier than the first. First of all, I was in much better company and the girls laughing made me laugh. Dinner at Murphy's was good too. I ate too much and loved it.
This past week I didn't get to watch any Buffy; I had too many things going on. I had my last GRE class on Monday and I am so glad that it over. That class was so painful. The only reason it was beneficial at all is because I got paid to go to all the classes and the other study tools were indespensible. Tuesday was another journal club. Only one left! Unfortunately I haven't found a paper to present yet, and that's not good. I need to ask BC about it tomorrow, otherwise I don't know what I'm going to do on Tuesday.
I've been working long hours this week. Wednesday I worked 9-10 and Thursday I worked 9-7:30ish and I went into the lab today rather than stay late last night. Yesterday, we went to dinner at Molly's to relax before the big day. We stayed out a little too late, but it was fun. I got up this morning bright and early to mentally prepare myself to take the GRE. AB picked me, R and AH up around 8 and we went and kicked that puppy in the butt. I think we're all pleased with our scores; none of us are planning on taking it again. I think I did well, but I certainly don't have any intention of telling anyone how I did. There's certainly no need to compare; I think we all did well. :) :) :) Another 3 students are taking the GRE next weekend...the boys this time (C, A and M)...I think we might be going to AB's afterwards for a cookout. I think it'll be fun. And it'll be nice to relax with everyone before the program winds down. I leave in 3 weeks, but B, the first to leave, leaves in 10 days. It'll be extremely boring once people start leaving. B is leaving early, R is leaving early, C and A are leaving early. I think M and N are leaving a few days early, and I think only AH, O and I will be here until the end. I'm certainly not ready to start thinking about my final paper, though I definitely need to. Yucky yuck.
No one wanted to go to Molly's with me for their famous $2 margarita. Maybe another day. Instead I'm going to celebrate my success today with a bottle of Mike's and just relax for the first time since I started working on my poster *before* the Leadership Alliance conference. I'm gonna either go back to watching Buffy or read some of On The Beach before bed. Tomorrow is another early (ish) day filled with exciting activities and I am absolutely pumped about it all. :)
<3 I love Dartmouth. <3
Saturday, July 25, 2009
I'm Trapped in the Network.
Chantilly, Virginia.
2009 host of the Leadership Alliance National Symposium.
Here I sit in the lobby of my hotel: The Marriott. It's one of the nicest hotels I've ever been in, except for one fault. There isn't any free internet in the rooms....it costs at least $16 to get the internet in the rooms. But there is free internet in the lobby. No poor college student is going to pay that fee when then can just walk out to the lobby and be inconvenienced. None that I know at any rate. So the conference has been going well enough. We left Hanover around 6ish on Friday. I was riding in AB's car with R. I attempted to do some GRE studying on the way, but I'm not sure if I got very far. I'm a little terrified that I'm not going to be ready. There is no possible way that I can memorize the other 125 words that I've got left to go for vocab or do over 100 pages of practice problems. I really really would have preferred to get more practice in. Ugh.
We got to the airport right on time, and got through to security without any problems. So apparently I don't pay attention to the rules about what things are allowed on planes. I should have just checked my suitcase, but I thought maybe it'd be easier to just use O's carry-on. I should have thought about the things that I put in said carry-on. Then I wouldn't have had to have my bag searched and a bottle of anti-static cling confiscated. As if I knew that wasn't allowed on the plane. *shrug* Oh well. It only cost me $1.45 of something. I'm not worried, but the guy looked at me as if I was gonna try to blow up the plane. We took off with no problems, flew with no problems, and then landed going too fast. It was actually kind of scary because it was like the plane had to slam on the brakes harder than normal, but that only lasted about 20 seconds before we were totally stopped on the tarmac. We got lost in the airport trying to find our contact and our bus. We finally got all that figured out and we got to the hotel. We checked in. Everyone was rooming with someone else from the program except for me. I don't know how it works out that I'm always the one getting left out from everything group oriented. Actually, my roommate is kind of great. She's doing summer research at Cornell, and she's really really nice. I'm glad that I got to meet her, but it still would have been nice to actually be on the inside for once. I signed in for the conference and got my free stuff!!!! We got these really nice portfolios and sticky notes and the program made us a couple of sheets of business cards to hand out as we network. We went to lunch at the hotel tavern. My sandwich was so small for the cost; it was ridiculous. Luckily, the program is going to reimburse me. We had this random orientation/starting networking thing in the afternoon. We had to give a 30-45 second elevator speech about ourselves. Obviously the elevator I was in got stuck somewhere on the way to the ground from the 8th floor because Ethan and I chatted for a good fifteen minutes about pretty much anything. So I made my first contact and he was quite nice.
After this session, I went back to the room for a bit to take a nap. Getting up at 5am is not exactly my idea of fun. I slept like a rock. I was totally out. When my alarm went off at 6:30 telling me that it was time for dinner, I was not pleased. Dinner was actually really good. N and I sat at a table with some new people and AB came to join us. I've got this really nice coin that I'm supposed to put on the table that signifies that I get the vegetarian meal. So I had a salad, some alfredo and cheesecake for dessert. It was delicious. During the end of dinner, they had the opening remarks and had this little exercise to get us involved. They read through all of our home institutions and we had to cheer when ours, or the school of a friend, was called. Let's just say that there were only 4 Ohio schools called and 1 Indiana school called. I cheered pretty loudly for me, but I was not crazy like some of the other people that were there. After dinner, they had this panel that was supposed to talk to us about grad school and get us to make informed decisions about our futures and whatnot. Three people, 2 professors and a woman who works for the FDA, talked to us about their research and what they can do with a Ph.D. in their field. It was kind of interesting, but I think it ran too long. After the panel, I sat out in the lobby for a bit using the free wireless with my friends and I went to bed pretty early. I didn't fall asleep right away, but when I did I was totally out.
We had to get up pretty early on Saturday. Breakfast started at 7:30 and that's when everyone started putting up their posters. Before the poster session had even started, I'd already fielded a question by a non-science major. They asked what C. elegans was and this was an easy question. I hadn't been nervous about the whole conference until about 10 Friday night. This totally put my mind at ease. I could do it. I knew more about asymmetric cell division and apoptosis than any of the other undergraduates here. What could possibly go wrong. I was actually presenting at the second session, so I walked around the first session. I listened to one poster, but the guy wasn't clear at all so I didn't stick around. Then I moved to another poster. I picked people that didn't have anyone around. I wanted to be super supportive of everyone else. This guy was K. He's an undergraduate at Cornell and was also doing his research there. His poster was about Golgi tubulation and I didn't know anything about it, but he was really friendly and answered all of my questions. We chatted for at least 20 minutes. I gave him my card, but he didn't have his because he's not as cool as me. He promised to stop by my poster and listen to my spiel since I was pretty much the only one at his poster. I figured I'd better get moving if I wanted to finish walking around before my presentation at 9:45. Let's just say that I got really into the next poster. This was E. She's doing her summer research at Harvard, but she's originally from George Mason. Her poster was all about tuberculosis and this genetic screen that she's doing. We chatted about everything for about half an hour. We exchanged cards and I had to go get ready to present.
When I got to my poster, this group of people were standing in front of my poster. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to butt in and be like get the heck out of my way. AB saved me by asking me to walk her through my poster and then asking the people to please move. After she left, the first person came up to my poster. This guy was a real talker. I think he really got into what I was doing because he asked a bunch of questions as I went and I think he really wanted to understand what I was doing. In the end, he finally introduced himself to me. Apparently he works at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and he totally tried to recruit me. He wants me to consider the University of Tennessee for graduate school because then I could come work at the hospital. And he told me that even if I choose to go somewhere else for grad school that I should consider the hospital for my post-doc. I about peed my pants. I couldn't believe that he was serious. We exchanged cards and I think I'll either stop by his table at the recruitment fair tomorrow or send him an quick e-mail thanking him for his interest in my work. Next I talked to one of the graduate students at the conference. He's from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. I think. He let me walk through the poster and he asked a bunch of questions, but I'm not really sure he was grasping the whole idea of what I was doing. I really had to keep trying new ways to explain the suppressor screen. Sandy came up and asked me to go through my poster with her, so I did. I actually think she probably got the best explaination of everyone because I knew she didn't have as strong a science background. As I was talking to her K came up and listened to my poster. After I answered all of Sandy's questions, she bailed so I could chat with him. He'd heard most of my presentation, so he didn't ask me to go through it again. He asked a few questions and I gave a little bit more explaination and then we parted ways. I saw two more people during the hour. Another graduate student came up and asked me what my project was about. I gave her two sentences and then she worked her own way through my poster. She asked one question and then moved on. At the very end of the hour another girl came up to my poster. They were trying to force us out of the room so she got the quick down-and-dirty version. I was really really surprised when she told me that I was the best presenter she had seen. I really wanted to ask her if I was the *only* one she had seen. But she said that I had been very clear and really emphasized the key points. So I'm going to take that super well. :)
After the poster session ended I came back up to the room for a nap. I had a killer migraine and my shoes had really pinched my toes. I feel bad because I skipped the entire first session of orals, but I did go to one every other session after that. Lunch came next. The food was significantly less interesting. I'm not even sure what I ate. I had vegetarian soup. It was actually really good, but a tad on the salty side. Then I had this really weird vegetable rice pastry. I was so confused about what it was, but I ate it anyway. They had this really pretty white cake with strawberries for dessert.
After lunch I went to the oral sessions to see some talks. It's actually breakfast time now so I'll have to finish my update later, probably when I am back in Hanover. Today (Sunday) is the networking fair and I am more than pumped. Hopefully my network will expand to more than 5 people. haha. talk to you later!
2009 host of the Leadership Alliance National Symposium.
Here I sit in the lobby of my hotel: The Marriott. It's one of the nicest hotels I've ever been in, except for one fault. There isn't any free internet in the rooms....it costs at least $16 to get the internet in the rooms. But there is free internet in the lobby. No poor college student is going to pay that fee when then can just walk out to the lobby and be inconvenienced. None that I know at any rate. So the conference has been going well enough. We left Hanover around 6ish on Friday. I was riding in AB's car with R. I attempted to do some GRE studying on the way, but I'm not sure if I got very far. I'm a little terrified that I'm not going to be ready. There is no possible way that I can memorize the other 125 words that I've got left to go for vocab or do over 100 pages of practice problems. I really really would have preferred to get more practice in. Ugh.
We got to the airport right on time, and got through to security without any problems. So apparently I don't pay attention to the rules about what things are allowed on planes. I should have just checked my suitcase, but I thought maybe it'd be easier to just use O's carry-on. I should have thought about the things that I put in said carry-on. Then I wouldn't have had to have my bag searched and a bottle of anti-static cling confiscated. As if I knew that wasn't allowed on the plane. *shrug* Oh well. It only cost me $1.45 of something. I'm not worried, but the guy looked at me as if I was gonna try to blow up the plane. We took off with no problems, flew with no problems, and then landed going too fast. It was actually kind of scary because it was like the plane had to slam on the brakes harder than normal, but that only lasted about 20 seconds before we were totally stopped on the tarmac. We got lost in the airport trying to find our contact and our bus. We finally got all that figured out and we got to the hotel. We checked in. Everyone was rooming with someone else from the program except for me. I don't know how it works out that I'm always the one getting left out from everything group oriented. Actually, my roommate is kind of great. She's doing summer research at Cornell, and she's really really nice. I'm glad that I got to meet her, but it still would have been nice to actually be on the inside for once. I signed in for the conference and got my free stuff!!!! We got these really nice portfolios and sticky notes and the program made us a couple of sheets of business cards to hand out as we network. We went to lunch at the hotel tavern. My sandwich was so small for the cost; it was ridiculous. Luckily, the program is going to reimburse me. We had this random orientation/starting networking thing in the afternoon. We had to give a 30-45 second elevator speech about ourselves. Obviously the elevator I was in got stuck somewhere on the way to the ground from the 8th floor because Ethan and I chatted for a good fifteen minutes about pretty much anything. So I made my first contact and he was quite nice.
After this session, I went back to the room for a bit to take a nap. Getting up at 5am is not exactly my idea of fun. I slept like a rock. I was totally out. When my alarm went off at 6:30 telling me that it was time for dinner, I was not pleased. Dinner was actually really good. N and I sat at a table with some new people and AB came to join us. I've got this really nice coin that I'm supposed to put on the table that signifies that I get the vegetarian meal. So I had a salad, some alfredo and cheesecake for dessert. It was delicious. During the end of dinner, they had the opening remarks and had this little exercise to get us involved. They read through all of our home institutions and we had to cheer when ours, or the school of a friend, was called. Let's just say that there were only 4 Ohio schools called and 1 Indiana school called. I cheered pretty loudly for me, but I was not crazy like some of the other people that were there. After dinner, they had this panel that was supposed to talk to us about grad school and get us to make informed decisions about our futures and whatnot. Three people, 2 professors and a woman who works for the FDA, talked to us about their research and what they can do with a Ph.D. in their field. It was kind of interesting, but I think it ran too long. After the panel, I sat out in the lobby for a bit using the free wireless with my friends and I went to bed pretty early. I didn't fall asleep right away, but when I did I was totally out.
We had to get up pretty early on Saturday. Breakfast started at 7:30 and that's when everyone started putting up their posters. Before the poster session had even started, I'd already fielded a question by a non-science major. They asked what C. elegans was and this was an easy question. I hadn't been nervous about the whole conference until about 10 Friday night. This totally put my mind at ease. I could do it. I knew more about asymmetric cell division and apoptosis than any of the other undergraduates here. What could possibly go wrong. I was actually presenting at the second session, so I walked around the first session. I listened to one poster, but the guy wasn't clear at all so I didn't stick around. Then I moved to another poster. I picked people that didn't have anyone around. I wanted to be super supportive of everyone else. This guy was K. He's an undergraduate at Cornell and was also doing his research there. His poster was about Golgi tubulation and I didn't know anything about it, but he was really friendly and answered all of my questions. We chatted for at least 20 minutes. I gave him my card, but he didn't have his because he's not as cool as me. He promised to stop by my poster and listen to my spiel since I was pretty much the only one at his poster. I figured I'd better get moving if I wanted to finish walking around before my presentation at 9:45. Let's just say that I got really into the next poster. This was E. She's doing her summer research at Harvard, but she's originally from George Mason. Her poster was all about tuberculosis and this genetic screen that she's doing. We chatted about everything for about half an hour. We exchanged cards and I had to go get ready to present.
When I got to my poster, this group of people were standing in front of my poster. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to butt in and be like get the heck out of my way. AB saved me by asking me to walk her through my poster and then asking the people to please move. After she left, the first person came up to my poster. This guy was a real talker. I think he really got into what I was doing because he asked a bunch of questions as I went and I think he really wanted to understand what I was doing. In the end, he finally introduced himself to me. Apparently he works at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and he totally tried to recruit me. He wants me to consider the University of Tennessee for graduate school because then I could come work at the hospital. And he told me that even if I choose to go somewhere else for grad school that I should consider the hospital for my post-doc. I about peed my pants. I couldn't believe that he was serious. We exchanged cards and I think I'll either stop by his table at the recruitment fair tomorrow or send him an quick e-mail thanking him for his interest in my work. Next I talked to one of the graduate students at the conference. He's from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. I think. He let me walk through the poster and he asked a bunch of questions, but I'm not really sure he was grasping the whole idea of what I was doing. I really had to keep trying new ways to explain the suppressor screen. Sandy came up and asked me to go through my poster with her, so I did. I actually think she probably got the best explaination of everyone because I knew she didn't have as strong a science background. As I was talking to her K came up and listened to my poster. After I answered all of Sandy's questions, she bailed so I could chat with him. He'd heard most of my presentation, so he didn't ask me to go through it again. He asked a few questions and I gave a little bit more explaination and then we parted ways. I saw two more people during the hour. Another graduate student came up and asked me what my project was about. I gave her two sentences and then she worked her own way through my poster. She asked one question and then moved on. At the very end of the hour another girl came up to my poster. They were trying to force us out of the room so she got the quick down-and-dirty version. I was really really surprised when she told me that I was the best presenter she had seen. I really wanted to ask her if I was the *only* one she had seen. But she said that I had been very clear and really emphasized the key points. So I'm going to take that super well. :)
After the poster session ended I came back up to the room for a nap. I had a killer migraine and my shoes had really pinched my toes. I feel bad because I skipped the entire first session of orals, but I did go to one every other session after that. Lunch came next. The food was significantly less interesting. I'm not even sure what I ate. I had vegetarian soup. It was actually really good, but a tad on the salty side. Then I had this really weird vegetable rice pastry. I was so confused about what it was, but I ate it anyway. They had this really pretty white cake with strawberries for dessert.
After lunch I went to the oral sessions to see some talks. It's actually breakfast time now so I'll have to finish my update later, probably when I am back in Hanover. Today (Sunday) is the networking fair and I am more than pumped. Hopefully my network will expand to more than 5 people. haha. talk to you later!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
A Very Harry Weekend
Another Sunday, waking up earlier than I would like and not for church. I know there's a church in Hanover somewhere, but I'm not sure if it's the right kind of Lutheran or the wrong kind. hahaha. and yes, there is a difference. :)
Most of Friday afternoon was spent working on my poster. It's all set up now, but not exactly finished. I really should be working on that now, but I'm having too much fun. I put all the figures on and organized them and made my poster look all awesome. It's still not finished. I talked with BC about my poster and she made a few suggestions, but I've managed to forget everything she said to write in my captions. Ugh. I should have written it all down. Perhaps she'll be able to help me out tomorrow. I did make a cross plate for the males I made by heat shocking worms the other day, but that didn't take too long.
Friday night was a lot of fun. We'd intended to go see Star Trek at The Hop, but we missed the movie. We'd went out to get Ben and Jerry's before the movie, but O was still hungry so we went to EBA's. Our food came out and we almost finished our food before the movie started....and so we missed it. But once we'd finished at EBA's, we went home and put on 21. I fell asleep towards the end of the movie, so I don't know how it ended, but I enjoyed what I saw, especially the main character....I hadn't realized that he was the same guy as Jude in Across the Universe. Now if only he'd sing in 21. haha.
Saturday was quite a bit of fun. I got up early for a Saturday (9am) and went to breakfast at Lou's with R and AH. I had the pancake special. Peach pancakes with strawberries and syrup. Yum. I also had an egg: overhard, of course. It was delicious. Then we went to the Hanover streetfair. I didn't buy much, but I did buy a Dartmouth shirt. If I were really rich, I'd have a bunch of Dartmouth apparel already to make me look super cool. =] I really want a Dartmouth Medical School shirt, but the only one they had was white and I don't buy white shirts. After the streetfair I came back to Mid-Mass and took a nap. Then I got distracted from the work I am supposed to be doing by Hulu. I've seen all kinds of commercials for Hulu with the guy from Family Guy, but I didn't realize what it actually was until R told me. So I watched Angel. Pretty much all day. haha. I attempted to work on my poster some and study for the GRE some, but that David Boreanaz, he's awful distracting. ;-) I was quite surprised when I got a call from AH asking if I wanted to go out. So I put on my shoes and out we went. We headed for the Canoe Club for a late night snack and drinks. We'd just missed the live music, but our waiter-guy was entertainment enough. He certainly was the chatty one, and we might go back next Saturday to "ask for Danny". bwahahahahah. He certainly was an interesting one...
Today was a good day too. I got up at a relatively reasonable time (10am) and went to the gym around 11. I ran 3 miles on the elliptical. 2 miles forward, 1 mile backward. Then I biked for about 15 minutes. The machine wasn't exactly working, so I have no idea how long or how far I went. Oh well. But it was a nice workout and I was quite smelly at the end of it.
When we got back to Mid-Mass there was a BBQ going on. So AH and I grabbed R and B and we had a nice free lunch. I would have had a veggie burger, but they cooked them on the grill rendering them uneatable. Clearly the grillmaster at hand doesn't have any vegetarian friends. So I ate a piece of watermellon, some chips and a cheese and mustard sandwich. It was kind of tasty, but not super exciting.
Instead of working on my poster today I got super distracted by Angel. I attempted to write a few captions, but it didn't really work out so great. Maybe tomorrow. I have to finish tomorrow so I can send my poster to AB to have her check it out. I want BC to check it too, but she's gonna have to look for scientific accuracy, not if my poster is followable. *shrug*
Tonight I had dinner at Thayer with some of my friends and then almost all of us went to see Harry Potter. Oh My Goodness. It was super awesome. I'm sure lots of people are gonna pitch a fit about the movie/book continuity, but whatever. I liked it. It certainly was entertaining. I love Helena Bonham Carter. She makes a wicked Bellatrix. *grin* And Snape was a total bada$$. hahaha. I know some people are gonna love the romance but the whole Hermione-Ron-Lavender thing and the whole Harry-Ginny-Dean thing made me wanna vomit. haha. I suppose that means I'm not as romantic as I would like. Oh well..... But the movie was such an enjoying thing. I was pleasantly surprised.
Now it's bedtime. I'm watching another episode of Angel. ruh roh. I'm just over halfway through the season. I'm just surprised that I haven't finished the whole thing yet. hahahahah. I've got to get up early to get my clothes washed, otherwise I won't have anything to wear to work and that's just unacceptable. Hopefully I manage to get up in time to get my clothes washed and dried before work. I'm not quite sure I'm ready for another full week at work, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it. More soon if I have something to report. :)
Most of Friday afternoon was spent working on my poster. It's all set up now, but not exactly finished. I really should be working on that now, but I'm having too much fun. I put all the figures on and organized them and made my poster look all awesome. It's still not finished. I talked with BC about my poster and she made a few suggestions, but I've managed to forget everything she said to write in my captions. Ugh. I should have written it all down. Perhaps she'll be able to help me out tomorrow. I did make a cross plate for the males I made by heat shocking worms the other day, but that didn't take too long.
Friday night was a lot of fun. We'd intended to go see Star Trek at The Hop, but we missed the movie. We'd went out to get Ben and Jerry's before the movie, but O was still hungry so we went to EBA's. Our food came out and we almost finished our food before the movie started....and so we missed it. But once we'd finished at EBA's, we went home and put on 21. I fell asleep towards the end of the movie, so I don't know how it ended, but I enjoyed what I saw, especially the main character....I hadn't realized that he was the same guy as Jude in Across the Universe. Now if only he'd sing in 21. haha.
Saturday was quite a bit of fun. I got up early for a Saturday (9am) and went to breakfast at Lou's with R and AH. I had the pancake special. Peach pancakes with strawberries and syrup. Yum. I also had an egg: overhard, of course. It was delicious. Then we went to the Hanover streetfair. I didn't buy much, but I did buy a Dartmouth shirt. If I were really rich, I'd have a bunch of Dartmouth apparel already to make me look super cool. =] I really want a Dartmouth Medical School shirt, but the only one they had was white and I don't buy white shirts. After the streetfair I came back to Mid-Mass and took a nap. Then I got distracted from the work I am supposed to be doing by Hulu. I've seen all kinds of commercials for Hulu with the guy from Family Guy, but I didn't realize what it actually was until R told me. So I watched Angel. Pretty much all day. haha. I attempted to work on my poster some and study for the GRE some, but that David Boreanaz, he's awful distracting. ;-) I was quite surprised when I got a call from AH asking if I wanted to go out. So I put on my shoes and out we went. We headed for the Canoe Club for a late night snack and drinks. We'd just missed the live music, but our waiter-guy was entertainment enough. He certainly was the chatty one, and we might go back next Saturday to "ask for Danny". bwahahahahah. He certainly was an interesting one...
Today was a good day too. I got up at a relatively reasonable time (10am) and went to the gym around 11. I ran 3 miles on the elliptical. 2 miles forward, 1 mile backward. Then I biked for about 15 minutes. The machine wasn't exactly working, so I have no idea how long or how far I went. Oh well. But it was a nice workout and I was quite smelly at the end of it.
When we got back to Mid-Mass there was a BBQ going on. So AH and I grabbed R and B and we had a nice free lunch. I would have had a veggie burger, but they cooked them on the grill rendering them uneatable. Clearly the grillmaster at hand doesn't have any vegetarian friends. So I ate a piece of watermellon, some chips and a cheese and mustard sandwich. It was kind of tasty, but not super exciting.
Instead of working on my poster today I got super distracted by Angel. I attempted to write a few captions, but it didn't really work out so great. Maybe tomorrow. I have to finish tomorrow so I can send my poster to AB to have her check it out. I want BC to check it too, but she's gonna have to look for scientific accuracy, not if my poster is followable. *shrug*
Tonight I had dinner at Thayer with some of my friends and then almost all of us went to see Harry Potter. Oh My Goodness. It was super awesome. I'm sure lots of people are gonna pitch a fit about the movie/book continuity, but whatever. I liked it. It certainly was entertaining. I love Helena Bonham Carter. She makes a wicked Bellatrix. *grin* And Snape was a total bada$$. hahaha. I know some people are gonna love the romance but the whole Hermione-Ron-Lavender thing and the whole Harry-Ginny-Dean thing made me wanna vomit. haha. I suppose that means I'm not as romantic as I would like. Oh well..... But the movie was such an enjoying thing. I was pleasantly surprised.
Now it's bedtime. I'm watching another episode of Angel. ruh roh. I'm just over halfway through the season. I'm just surprised that I haven't finished the whole thing yet. hahahahah. I've got to get up early to get my clothes washed, otherwise I won't have anything to wear to work and that's just unacceptable. Hopefully I manage to get up in time to get my clothes washed and dried before work. I'm not quite sure I'm ready for another full week at work, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it. More soon if I have something to report. :)
Friday, July 17, 2009
Surprise! I'm not entirely technologically illiterate!
Ugh. It's been a crazy long week. I don't know how I survive in school when things are just as busy and I sleep less. I must be out of my mind. Oh well. Wednesday was an interesting day. I got back from my lunch and seeded 400 plates. I borrowed ~50 from R and ~50 from S. With a little help from Rhiannon, I picked another 100 worms. I am so tired of picking worms, but I'd rather pick worms than do nothing like B sometimes does. This took a little bit of time. Honestly, I can't remember if I did anything after this. It's been too long of a time and there's been too little sleep since then.
Wednesday night was GRE class. Our teacher, N, said she'd bring us pizza so we didn't have to eat in Thayer. I watched the beginning of the series finale of Eli Stone and then walked to class. Of course there wasn't enough pizza to go around at class, so we all sat there with our stomach's growling. Class went so much better this time around. N didn't baby us at all. We literally looked at the problems, talked about how maybe to solve them and then we just did our own work. It went sooooooo much faster. We got out early, which was exciting. A asked if anyone wanted to go get some ice cream, so AH, R, B and I piled into his car to head to Ice Cream Fore U. I got the special of the week: peppermint stick, so I got a small ice cream for the price of a baby. I was pleased. :) and the ice cream was really good. I got back to the room around 10ish and was thinking about maybe heading to bed, but I wasn't tired yet so I went next door where N was hanging out with the rest of the boys. They decided they were hungry and so after taking forever to get ready, we went to EBAs, which stands for Everything But Anchovies. I didn't order anything because I only had $3 left after the trip to get ice cream where we also stopped at Shaw's and I got some popcorn. I had some of C's nachos though. Oh they were so good. Somehow I ended up with a glass of Bud Lite and I'm not sure how that happened. We were all just sitting around chatting with the waitress and eating food; it was nice. O managed to spill his beer on N and so we ended up being a little rowdy. Oops. N and I ended up being the party poopers and said we needed to go home and go to bed. I got back and didn't crawl into bed right away, which might be the reason I had trouble falling asleep in the end. *shrug*
Thursday was a great day, even though I was exhausted. I got up and came into work. I started my day the same as every other day this week. I picked the F1 worms off the plates from the day before and then I started picking worms for the new plates. I didn't finish this until after my lunch break. Once I finished picking worms, I met with BC to talk about my poster. At this point, I'd barely started it. All I'd done was put my title on, my name and research location information, the Dartmouth Medical School emblem-y thing and the long version of my abstract. My poster was all white and super boring. But now I have pictures and figures! I'm super pumped. (take that mom, I used the word super instead of really!!! hahahaha) After the meeting, BC and I got the small scope set up for some scoring. We put my worms from Monday on ice and I started data collection. Sort of. (such a harmless thing to say....) I didn't actually see any of the phenotypes that I was looking for on any of the plates I looked at. So I didn't actually have to write anything down, I just threw those plates in the biohazard bin. BC said I might have to look at 900 animals (or maybe she said plates) before I find a mutant phenotype. That's crazy. I haven't even made 900 plates. 600, yes. 900, no. rawr. This could take forever and I might never see anything. I'll be doing some more scoring today, I think.
Last night wasn't too terribly exciting. I got off work, came home and then turned around and went back to the gym. I ran 3 miles on the elliptical. I wish I had one at home. I could turn on the tv and run though an entire show. I ran 2.25 miles forwards, and 0.75 miles backwards. The running backwards hurts so much more than running forwards, but I'm trying to work all my muscles. If I wouldn't look like an idiot, I'd consider walking backwards every now and again because it works the other set of muscles. hahah. I also wish I had my hand weights here. Our room floor is so disgusting that I'm afraid to touch it, let alone do push-ups and sit-ups on it. My arms are missing out on their workout. I don't work my triceps at all here in Hanover, and I think they're sad. After I ran, I biked for nearly 25 minutes to round off my hour. I biked 7 miles while watching more HGTV. I love that channel. I love watching all the homes be transformed from average to extraordinary. I wish I could do that to our house....make all that clutter disappear. hahahahaha. As if that'll ever happen. :-P
After working out, I hurried home and quickly got cleaned up. We were having group dinner time at Thayer for the first time in a while. I tried to be good and I got a salad, but I decided I was too hungry for just a salad so I got a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. I really should stop eating them and get something else, but it's just so easy. Maybe next time I'll wait in the sandwich line and get a veggie sub or something. After dinner I came back upstairs and worked on GRE stuff for a little bit until I heard the girls (sans N) were watching Mamma Mia. I took some popcorn and went down for the movie. I really enjoyed watching the movie and sort of humming along to the movie while doing more GRE stuff. After the movie I came back upstairs and waited up for O. His roommate's girlfriend was in town, so he was planning on staying in the empty bed in the other room to give them some privacy. In the end, he decided that he'd just go to bed in his own room. I was so annoyed because I could have gone to bed hours earlier, but I didn't want to go to bed and then have to get up to let O in and everything. rawr. Once I heard this, I went right to bed. Oh sleep is so good. I got up this morning. barely. I slept so well, but I was not ready to get up. I'm just glad that today is Friday and that means I can sleep until noon tomorrow if I want. :)
Oh my goodness, there has been so much drama here this summer. The group really has split down the middle, leaving me confused....I'm not sure where I belong. I really like the girls (R, B and AH) and A. They're really a lot of fun, but they're not always social. The boys (C, M and O) and N like to go out, but sometimes I think they have a little too much fun and they're a little rude to others. I like everyone and I'm not sure why everyone can't just all get along. We're only here for another 6 weeks and it's not like we all have to love each other. The boys don't like the girls because they think the girls talk crap about the boys. The girls don't like the boys because they're mad that the boys think the girls don't like them. It's ridiculous. A doesn't like the boys because they're too loud for him and the boys don't like A beacuse he is too serious. Don't even get me started on N. All the girls and A think that she's the reason for all of the drama. I don't even begin to know what's going on. I think it's all really stupid that anyone is talking badly about anyone else, especially since most of what everyone is saying is a lie. rawr. I hate the idea that the high school drama never ends, even after high school does. *grimace*
Today has been a fairly relaxed day thus far. I got to work at 9ish and got set up. Then I removed all the F1 worms from the plates I made yesterday and what came next was NOT making more worm plates. I am so thankful because picking worms is not exactly my favorite thing to do for 3 hours each day. Instead I started putting together my poster for the conference. I'm really excited about my poster, but I'm not sure how well it's going. I don't really know what I'm doing. Below is a screenshot of my poster so far.
Wednesday night was GRE class. Our teacher, N, said she'd bring us pizza so we didn't have to eat in Thayer. I watched the beginning of the series finale of Eli Stone and then walked to class. Of course there wasn't enough pizza to go around at class, so we all sat there with our stomach's growling. Class went so much better this time around. N didn't baby us at all. We literally looked at the problems, talked about how maybe to solve them and then we just did our own work. It went sooooooo much faster. We got out early, which was exciting. A asked if anyone wanted to go get some ice cream, so AH, R, B and I piled into his car to head to Ice Cream Fore U. I got the special of the week: peppermint stick, so I got a small ice cream for the price of a baby. I was pleased. :) and the ice cream was really good. I got back to the room around 10ish and was thinking about maybe heading to bed, but I wasn't tired yet so I went next door where N was hanging out with the rest of the boys. They decided they were hungry and so after taking forever to get ready, we went to EBAs, which stands for Everything But Anchovies. I didn't order anything because I only had $3 left after the trip to get ice cream where we also stopped at Shaw's and I got some popcorn. I had some of C's nachos though. Oh they were so good. Somehow I ended up with a glass of Bud Lite and I'm not sure how that happened. We were all just sitting around chatting with the waitress and eating food; it was nice. O managed to spill his beer on N and so we ended up being a little rowdy. Oops. N and I ended up being the party poopers and said we needed to go home and go to bed. I got back and didn't crawl into bed right away, which might be the reason I had trouble falling asleep in the end. *shrug*
Thursday was a great day, even though I was exhausted. I got up and came into work. I started my day the same as every other day this week. I picked the F1 worms off the plates from the day before and then I started picking worms for the new plates. I didn't finish this until after my lunch break. Once I finished picking worms, I met with BC to talk about my poster. At this point, I'd barely started it. All I'd done was put my title on, my name and research location information, the Dartmouth Medical School emblem-y thing and the long version of my abstract. My poster was all white and super boring. But now I have pictures and figures! I'm super pumped. (take that mom, I used the word super instead of really!!! hahahaha) After the meeting, BC and I got the small scope set up for some scoring. We put my worms from Monday on ice and I started data collection. Sort of. (such a harmless thing to say....) I didn't actually see any of the phenotypes that I was looking for on any of the plates I looked at. So I didn't actually have to write anything down, I just threw those plates in the biohazard bin. BC said I might have to look at 900 animals (or maybe she said plates) before I find a mutant phenotype. That's crazy. I haven't even made 900 plates. 600, yes. 900, no. rawr. This could take forever and I might never see anything. I'll be doing some more scoring today, I think.
Last night wasn't too terribly exciting. I got off work, came home and then turned around and went back to the gym. I ran 3 miles on the elliptical. I wish I had one at home. I could turn on the tv and run though an entire show. I ran 2.25 miles forwards, and 0.75 miles backwards. The running backwards hurts so much more than running forwards, but I'm trying to work all my muscles. If I wouldn't look like an idiot, I'd consider walking backwards every now and again because it works the other set of muscles. hahah. I also wish I had my hand weights here. Our room floor is so disgusting that I'm afraid to touch it, let alone do push-ups and sit-ups on it. My arms are missing out on their workout. I don't work my triceps at all here in Hanover, and I think they're sad. After I ran, I biked for nearly 25 minutes to round off my hour. I biked 7 miles while watching more HGTV. I love that channel. I love watching all the homes be transformed from average to extraordinary. I wish I could do that to our house....make all that clutter disappear. hahahahaha. As if that'll ever happen. :-P
After working out, I hurried home and quickly got cleaned up. We were having group dinner time at Thayer for the first time in a while. I tried to be good and I got a salad, but I decided I was too hungry for just a salad so I got a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. I really should stop eating them and get something else, but it's just so easy. Maybe next time I'll wait in the sandwich line and get a veggie sub or something. After dinner I came back upstairs and worked on GRE stuff for a little bit until I heard the girls (sans N) were watching Mamma Mia. I took some popcorn and went down for the movie. I really enjoyed watching the movie and sort of humming along to the movie while doing more GRE stuff. After the movie I came back upstairs and waited up for O. His roommate's girlfriend was in town, so he was planning on staying in the empty bed in the other room to give them some privacy. In the end, he decided that he'd just go to bed in his own room. I was so annoyed because I could have gone to bed hours earlier, but I didn't want to go to bed and then have to get up to let O in and everything. rawr. Once I heard this, I went right to bed. Oh sleep is so good. I got up this morning. barely. I slept so well, but I was not ready to get up. I'm just glad that today is Friday and that means I can sleep until noon tomorrow if I want. :)
Oh my goodness, there has been so much drama here this summer. The group really has split down the middle, leaving me confused....I'm not sure where I belong. I really like the girls (R, B and AH) and A. They're really a lot of fun, but they're not always social. The boys (C, M and O) and N like to go out, but sometimes I think they have a little too much fun and they're a little rude to others. I like everyone and I'm not sure why everyone can't just all get along. We're only here for another 6 weeks and it's not like we all have to love each other. The boys don't like the girls because they think the girls talk crap about the boys. The girls don't like the boys because they're mad that the boys think the girls don't like them. It's ridiculous. A doesn't like the boys because they're too loud for him and the boys don't like A beacuse he is too serious. Don't even get me started on N. All the girls and A think that she's the reason for all of the drama. I don't even begin to know what's going on. I think it's all really stupid that anyone is talking badly about anyone else, especially since most of what everyone is saying is a lie. rawr. I hate the idea that the high school drama never ends, even after high school does. *grimace*
Today has been a fairly relaxed day thus far. I got to work at 9ish and got set up. Then I removed all the F1 worms from the plates I made yesterday and what came next was NOT making more worm plates. I am so thankful because picking worms is not exactly my favorite thing to do for 3 hours each day. Instead I started putting together my poster for the conference. I'm really excited about my poster, but I'm not sure how well it's going. I don't really know what I'm doing. Below is a screenshot of my poster so far.
It's got quite a ways to go and it has to be done by Monday so BC can look over it and make edits before I give my first runthrough at journal club on Tuesday. I'm not even thinking about presenting the poster at the Leadership Alliance. I got an e-mail telling me when my presentation time is and I thought I might vomit. haha. I'm getting nervous already and I don't present for another week. I'm probably going to continue to work on my poster for another two hours and then I'll score worms for an hour and a half before the end of the day. I can't stand sitting at the scope for much more than 90 minutes at a time. *wrinkles nose* I need to have something that looks like legends and stuff for my figures by 3ish when BC gets back from her meetings....and I have no idea what I'm doing or what I should write. oops.
well, it's about that time again; I should get back to work. I'm gonna put on some of my favorite American Idol tunes and pretend like I know what to say about my figures. I really should figure out how much text is acceptable...and soon.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
A spoonful of E. coli makes it so you can't keep anything down....I think I'll try sugar next time.
I've had the hardest time staying awake lately. I come home at the end of the day and barely make it to 11, which is now my bedtime. My sleep schedule is significantly different from before. I can't even begin to fathom staying up until 2am without a little (meaning a lot) of help from my good friend caffeine. I don't know why I'm so tired. And it's not like I'm not getting 8 hours of sleep most nights. I actually had a dream last night...maybe that's why I'm so tired now. Hmmm.
So Sunday wasn't too terribly exciting. I got up at my normal sleep in time and sat around for a while. At 3:30, B, AH and I walked to the gym. They went to play tennis, but I decided that I'd rather just go do my workout. So I ran a mile and a half. One mile forwards, half a mile backwards and decided that I was done with my cardio. hahah. I really should probably be adding more time to my cardio, but oh well. Then I went and got on the biking machine, turned the tv on to HGTV and biked for nearly 40 minutes. I suppose the machines are accurate enough, but I don't know if I really biked 11 miles or not. I wish the bike did cardio work, but it is really only legs, which means I can ride for longer, but I'm not working out as hard as I would like. After the gym, we came back to mid-mass and cleaned up because R's sister L was taking us out to dinner. We went to Salt Hill Pub in Lebanon, NH. I had yet another veggie burger, but it was good enough. I had the best black and white cheesecake for dessert. It was so delicious. I'd thought about having the Guinness float, but decided that I really wasn't *that* brave. hahah. We got back around 9ish, and I decided to do nothing for the rest of the day. It was kind of wonderful, except that I didn't fall asleep real well when I went to bed. But N was still home for the weekend, so at least she wasn't keeping me up.
Monday morning and N *still* wasn't back from her birthday weekend. I got up and headed into work. Monday was a really great day of work. We had lab meeting at 10 again. Someone had brought in muffins for the meeting, which was great. I really liked this lab meeting as compared to the last one. We went around the table and everyone said what they had been working on thesse past few weeks and what their plans for the next week were and everyone gave suggestions and it was really interesting. I gave my short spiel. I've been absorbing everything and trying to keep my mind from exploading from all the imputs. I wrote an abstract and this week I have to make a poster. Then BC went into a little bit of detail about what actual work I'm doing. haha. She sort of explained the suppressor screen and such before moving on to the next person. After the meeting was lunch and after lunch I came back and started some real work. My first mutagenesis plates were ready, so I got to work with them for a bit. I'd seeded about 200 small plates on Friday, so away I went picking worms. One worm to a plate. 186 worms total. It took forever. Absolutely forever. Half of the worms went back in the 20 degree incubator and half went into the 15 degree incubator. This took me several hours, so I checked my e-mail and saw that BC had e-mailed me back a new abstract.
"Hi Beth,
You did a great job on your first ever abstract!!!! You definitely got the overall idea right. To get this idea across a bit better, I did some rearranging and added a few things like a description of the ces-1(gf)phenotype. See what you think.
B."
Oh my word. I was beyond pumped. I'd really spent most of the weekend thinking about what kind of criticisms I would get....and I suppose I didn't get any. She really did change my abstract around and add some stuff, but there are definitely traces of what I'd written originally. *grin* I was so pleased. So, if you'd like a nice and short summary about what I'm doing and why it's important, read here:
So there you have it. My first ever piece of real honest-to-goodness scientific writing. With a little help, of course...but still. A true masterpiece, in my "unbiased" opinion. *giggle*
Monday was also GRE class again. It went much better than the last time. Obviously N is a verbal kind of girl. She only made a mistake a couple of times. I got to tell her that BEVY is to QUAIL as STAND is to TREE. But I only got that one after she told us that a bevy is a group of quail. As if anyone would really know that one! But apparently no one but me knew that a stand is a group of trees. I think there was another one of these analogies or maybe an antonym where I was the only one who knew the answer and it was really funny because I got to make the comment "that's what a midwest education can get you" because it had something to do with farming or something else rural. It cracked me up.
Tuesday was a good day as well. I spent too much time in front of the scope, but I enjoyed it. I'd only enjoy it more if using the scope were more ergonomical. I hate stretching to see down the scope. So I unpicked all 186 worms from the day before. This just means that I took the F1 worms off all of the plates and then I flamed them. It's a good thing I'm not too squeamish about killing worms. Now if these were mice on the other hand and they wanted me to gas them, I'm not so sure I could do that. But I put the plates back in the incubator so the F2 generation could develop. The F1 worms had layed a bunch of eggs overnight, which is good. Then I clonally picked 196 more worms from the 15 degree plates to small plates. I incubated 96 of the plates at 20 degrees and incubated 100 plates at 15 degrees.
Last night we didn't have journal club because AB is in the Dominican Republic. I'm super jealous. N's friends Anna, Erika and Beth came up to visit. We went to dinner at Molly's and I had the greatest Tomato Basil Pasta. It was super good and the tomatoes were all fresh tomatoes and I loved it. Then we took a tour of Remsen and Vail. N and I both got to show off our labs and I enjoyed that a lot. I think I like being knowledgable. :) We went out for ice cream at Ice Cream Fore U. I love this place. I've been several times because the ice cream is pretty inexpensive. A small hard serve ice cream is $2.25 and it's HUGE. It's just too much ice cream for me. I really should order the baby size next time I go. That's only $1.50 and is really the perfect amount of ice cream. Then they headed back to Keene and I went to bed. haha. I'm such a party pooper. That's okay though. Sleep is well worth it.
Today has been a good day so far. I had a little bit of trouble waking up this morning, so it's a good thing B didn't want to go running. I stumbled into the lab at 9 and immediately started unpicking the worms from yesterday. That took most of the morning, but I still had some time before lunch so I seeded about 300 small plates. I'm actually a little worried that I've managed to give myself an E. coli infection because I've not been feeling so great lately, but I haven't seen the really diagnostic symptom. Let's hope that it never shows and that I'm just tired and haven't been eating well enough. *crosses fingers*.
My Amazon package came in today. I've got 3 new books. 1 is the last textbook for my philosophy class: On The Beach by Nevil Shute. It was pretty hard to get a copy of this book....I had to buy the hardback edition and I think there was only one left after I bought my copy. I hope everyone else in my class has already ordered their copy or they might not get one. I also bought Good Omens which is my favorite book. I love Neil Gaiman, of course. Stardust is one of my absolute favorites too. This book was written with Terry Pratchett. While I've never read anything he's written before, Good Omens is an amazing read. The third and final book I ordered is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. J recommended this one to me. I'd started reading his copy twice, but I never made it past the first 100 pages. So I thought I'd order it and then maybe pass it along when I finish, if I don't absolutely love it. It's really funny so far, but a little inappropriate. I think it's sort of funny that the two books I ordered "just because" are funny books about Christianity. Good Omens is about the apocalypse and the antichrist. It's really really funny.
Well, my lunch break is officially over five minutes ago, so I'm gonna go back to work. I've got to see if I can borrow 100 small plates from someone since mine aren't dry yet and then I have to go pick 100 more worms. *sigh* It's never-ending and I still suck at it. Oh well.
So Sunday wasn't too terribly exciting. I got up at my normal sleep in time and sat around for a while. At 3:30, B, AH and I walked to the gym. They went to play tennis, but I decided that I'd rather just go do my workout. So I ran a mile and a half. One mile forwards, half a mile backwards and decided that I was done with my cardio. hahah. I really should probably be adding more time to my cardio, but oh well. Then I went and got on the biking machine, turned the tv on to HGTV and biked for nearly 40 minutes. I suppose the machines are accurate enough, but I don't know if I really biked 11 miles or not. I wish the bike did cardio work, but it is really only legs, which means I can ride for longer, but I'm not working out as hard as I would like. After the gym, we came back to mid-mass and cleaned up because R's sister L was taking us out to dinner. We went to Salt Hill Pub in Lebanon, NH. I had yet another veggie burger, but it was good enough. I had the best black and white cheesecake for dessert. It was so delicious. I'd thought about having the Guinness float, but decided that I really wasn't *that* brave. hahah. We got back around 9ish, and I decided to do nothing for the rest of the day. It was kind of wonderful, except that I didn't fall asleep real well when I went to bed. But N was still home for the weekend, so at least she wasn't keeping me up.
Monday morning and N *still* wasn't back from her birthday weekend. I got up and headed into work. Monday was a really great day of work. We had lab meeting at 10 again. Someone had brought in muffins for the meeting, which was great. I really liked this lab meeting as compared to the last one. We went around the table and everyone said what they had been working on thesse past few weeks and what their plans for the next week were and everyone gave suggestions and it was really interesting. I gave my short spiel. I've been absorbing everything and trying to keep my mind from exploading from all the imputs. I wrote an abstract and this week I have to make a poster. Then BC went into a little bit of detail about what actual work I'm doing. haha. She sort of explained the suppressor screen and such before moving on to the next person. After the meeting was lunch and after lunch I came back and started some real work. My first mutagenesis plates were ready, so I got to work with them for a bit. I'd seeded about 200 small plates on Friday, so away I went picking worms. One worm to a plate. 186 worms total. It took forever. Absolutely forever. Half of the worms went back in the 20 degree incubator and half went into the 15 degree incubator. This took me several hours, so I checked my e-mail and saw that BC had e-mailed me back a new abstract.
"Hi Beth,
You did a great job on your first ever abstract!!!! You definitely got the overall idea right. To get this idea across a bit better, I did some rearranging and added a few things like a description of the ces-1(gf)phenotype. See what you think.
B."
Oh my word. I was beyond pumped. I'd really spent most of the weekend thinking about what kind of criticisms I would get....and I suppose I didn't get any. She really did change my abstract around and add some stuff, but there are definitely traces of what I'd written originally. *grin* I was so pleased. So, if you'd like a nice and short summary about what I'm doing and why it's important, read here:
The nematode C. elegans has proven to be a good model for studying programmed cell death or apoptosis, a process that is important for development and cellular homeostasis in all multi-cellular organisms, including humans. Of the 131 cells that undergo programmed cell death during C. elegans development, the cells of interest arise from the neurosecretory motoneuron (NSM) neuroblast. Due to the activity of the gene ces-1, which encodes a zinc finger-containing transcription factor, the NSM neuroblast divides asymmetrically and gives rise to a large cell, the NSM, which develops into a neuron, and a small cell, the NSM sister cell, which undergoes apoptosis. How ces-1 acts in asymmetric cell division is currently unknown. To identify targets of ces-1 function, I will perform a ces-1(n703gf) suppressor screen using a reporter that tags the NSMs and ‘undead’ NSM sister cells with green fluorescence protein (GFP). Specifically, in animals that carry the ces-1 gain-of-function mutation n703gf, the NSM neuroblast divides symmetrically to give rise to two daughter cells of similar sizes both of which survive. Therefore, rather than one GFP-positive cell per side of the animal, two GFP-positive cells, the NSM and undead NSM sister cell, can be detected. As some mutations are temperature sensitive, mutagenized ces-1(n703gf) ‘P0’ animals will be incubated at a variety of temperatures. Their F2 generation will be screened for animals in which only one GFP-positive cell per side is detected. Potential suppressors will be identified, characterized and the penetrance of their phenotypes determined. The mammalian homologue of C. elegans ces-1 has previously been implicated in apoptosis regulation as well. In addition, ces-1-like genes have recently been shown to function in stem cells, which, like the NSM neuroblast of C. elegans, divide asymmetrically. Homologues of ces-1 targets identified in C. elegans may therefore function in apoptosis regulation and stem cells in mammals as well.
So there you have it. My first ever piece of real honest-to-goodness scientific writing. With a little help, of course...but still. A true masterpiece, in my "unbiased" opinion. *giggle*
Monday was also GRE class again. It went much better than the last time. Obviously N is a verbal kind of girl. She only made a mistake a couple of times. I got to tell her that BEVY is to QUAIL as STAND is to TREE. But I only got that one after she told us that a bevy is a group of quail. As if anyone would really know that one! But apparently no one but me knew that a stand is a group of trees. I think there was another one of these analogies or maybe an antonym where I was the only one who knew the answer and it was really funny because I got to make the comment "that's what a midwest education can get you" because it had something to do with farming or something else rural. It cracked me up.
Tuesday was a good day as well. I spent too much time in front of the scope, but I enjoyed it. I'd only enjoy it more if using the scope were more ergonomical. I hate stretching to see down the scope. So I unpicked all 186 worms from the day before. This just means that I took the F1 worms off all of the plates and then I flamed them. It's a good thing I'm not too squeamish about killing worms. Now if these were mice on the other hand and they wanted me to gas them, I'm not so sure I could do that. But I put the plates back in the incubator so the F2 generation could develop. The F1 worms had layed a bunch of eggs overnight, which is good. Then I clonally picked 196 more worms from the 15 degree plates to small plates. I incubated 96 of the plates at 20 degrees and incubated 100 plates at 15 degrees.
Last night we didn't have journal club because AB is in the Dominican Republic. I'm super jealous. N's friends Anna, Erika and Beth came up to visit. We went to dinner at Molly's and I had the greatest Tomato Basil Pasta. It was super good and the tomatoes were all fresh tomatoes and I loved it. Then we took a tour of Remsen and Vail. N and I both got to show off our labs and I enjoyed that a lot. I think I like being knowledgable. :) We went out for ice cream at Ice Cream Fore U. I love this place. I've been several times because the ice cream is pretty inexpensive. A small hard serve ice cream is $2.25 and it's HUGE. It's just too much ice cream for me. I really should order the baby size next time I go. That's only $1.50 and is really the perfect amount of ice cream. Then they headed back to Keene and I went to bed. haha. I'm such a party pooper. That's okay though. Sleep is well worth it.
Today has been a good day so far. I had a little bit of trouble waking up this morning, so it's a good thing B didn't want to go running. I stumbled into the lab at 9 and immediately started unpicking the worms from yesterday. That took most of the morning, but I still had some time before lunch so I seeded about 300 small plates. I'm actually a little worried that I've managed to give myself an E. coli infection because I've not been feeling so great lately, but I haven't seen the really diagnostic symptom. Let's hope that it never shows and that I'm just tired and haven't been eating well enough. *crosses fingers*.
My Amazon package came in today. I've got 3 new books. 1 is the last textbook for my philosophy class: On The Beach by Nevil Shute. It was pretty hard to get a copy of this book....I had to buy the hardback edition and I think there was only one left after I bought my copy. I hope everyone else in my class has already ordered their copy or they might not get one. I also bought Good Omens which is my favorite book. I love Neil Gaiman, of course. Stardust is one of my absolute favorites too. This book was written with Terry Pratchett. While I've never read anything he's written before, Good Omens is an amazing read. The third and final book I ordered is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. J recommended this one to me. I'd started reading his copy twice, but I never made it past the first 100 pages. So I thought I'd order it and then maybe pass it along when I finish, if I don't absolutely love it. It's really funny so far, but a little inappropriate. I think it's sort of funny that the two books I ordered "just because" are funny books about Christianity. Good Omens is about the apocalypse and the antichrist. It's really really funny.
Well, my lunch break is officially over five minutes ago, so I'm gonna go back to work. I've got to see if I can borrow 100 small plates from someone since mine aren't dry yet and then I have to go pick 100 more worms. *sigh* It's never-ending and I still suck at it. Oh well.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
I swear I'm twenty-one, honest to goodness.
Okay, so journal club went well. My presentation was by far the shortest and had the least amount of scientific information. The presentation was only supposed to be 2-3 minutes! Some people talked for like 10 minutes explaining their research in detail. It's not that I don't want to know that stuff, but that wasn't the point of the exercise. It was really just to make sure we all had projects of our own and that our summer had some direction. I felt like a total slacker in comparison to everyone else, but at least I know how to follow directions. *grin* Actually, most everyone's project seemed to be really cool. I wouldn't want to work on some of them, but that's okay. I'm quite happy right where I am.
After journal club a carload of us went to West Leb. to do some shopping. I got a bunch of fresh fruit and stuff to make pb&j sandwiches. I *finally* bought a pillow. Oh it felt so nice to sleep on a fat, extra firm pillow. I've been managing with this really thin, squishy pillow for the last two weeks and it's been awful. haha. On the way back it poured. I walked with N from Lot A back to Mid Mass and that's a 20 minute walk. It was pretty yucky. It seems to be raining in Hanover frequently. It's a bit ridiculous. haha. Then yesterday was an interesting day. I came right in and got to work. D had a few instructions from BC for me and so I did that job first. I had to look at my mutagenesis plate and pick out 150 healthy worms to 10 different plates. They mostly looked good, so I hope the mutagenesis actually worked. This took me about an hour and a half to do, but at the end I felt really accomplished. At the beginning, I was really sucking at picking worms. By the end, I was picking 3 worms at a time and not having to chase them around the plates. That's a huge accomplishment. Of course it helped that I wasn't having to pick them by age. Since I'd picked them all as L4s the day before, they were all young adults so it didn't matter.
When I was picking the worms, SR asked me if it was okay if he put music on. He said that he thought we didn't listen to music every day because BC didn't like us to. So he put on some Top40s-type song and the two of us and S were enjoying it when D marched right into the lab and demanded that we turn it off. She said we couldn't listen to music until after 5pm. We were all really dumbfounded. We weren't disrupting anyone and it wasn't affecting our work. She wasn't even in that lab, she works in the lab across the hall, so we were all really confused and not very happy. I was mostly sad because we'd been doing some real lab bonding at that point. Negative brownie points for D for that. :(
After lunch I started looking at my heat shock plates for males. Most of the progeny are too young to really see so I can't tell if the heat shocking worked or not. Perhaps it'll be easier tomorrow and I know I'll be able to tell by Monday. Then I looked at the plates for the other strain that I'm going to mutagenize. These are the bag-of-worms worms. They are super creepy. haha. While I was doing this, D came in to stand over my shoulder to make sure I'm not going to blow up the lab. I wasn't particularly pleased with this, but what can I do? I wasn't even using the ethanol burner at this point. Oh well. When I finished looking at the worms under the scope, I decided that it was time to do some more scoring, so I tried a couple ways to figure out how to get one of those bags of worms onto a slide and not rupture the cuticle. I finally figured it out and I headed for the small scope. I turned on the GFP filter and got up close to the worms. It was really disgusting. R was on the computer in the same room as the scope so she laughed at my reactions to the worms. It was actually really kind of cool though. I got to see all the worms wiggling around inside the cuticle, which was nice because they couldn't wiggle outside of my view, but I hadn't done anything to keep them from moving, so it was kind of hard to actually score them. sort of. Since these haven't been mutagenized yet, they all had 4 GFP positive cells, so it should have been easy.
When I tired of looking at those worms, I brought out my plate of double mutants, put them on ice and worked on scoring some of those worms. I'm getting significantly better on the small scope. I hit a few snags when I would lose the worm, but I was more than capable of seeing the GFP positive cells, even though the sample wasn't really magnified a great deal. I think I do better on the large scope, but I'm gonna try to use the small scope for the most part because I don't kill the worms on the small scope like I do on the big scope.
When my eyes started to hurt from using the scopes, I put the worms away and read a little bit at my desk until I couldn't stand it anymore and went home. Dinner was in Thayer with most of the people from the program and then GRE class was after that. I was really excited about getting to take the Kaplan course, but our teacher totally bombed the first day. I actually felt bad for her, she tanked so hard. I don't know if it's her first class or what, but she didn't understand the math we were doing. I don't know how many times we had to correct her to tell her she told us the wrong answer. She was really nice though and next week she's bringing us pizza for dinner. I'm hoping that the next session will go better.....we did learn some really neat tricks about some of the problems, but for the most part it was a waste of time. I really want to know how my diagnostic exam went, but they haven't posted our scores online yet.
Today was an interesting day. B and I got up at 7 and went running in the sports center. It was a nice 40 minute workout. By the time I got to lab, I'd already been up for two hours and I was wide awake. I feel like I was a bit of a waste today. I got to lab around 9:15 and got all my stuff set up. Then I got my worms out and looked at a couple of my strains. The worms on my heat shock plates are too young to set up male plates, so I ignored them. Then I looked at my plates for the bag of worms mutants and those worms were too young for mutagenesis. So I started looking at corpses to see if they had larvae in them. So I was counting corpses today and that was really the highlight of my day. After this, I went back to work on my poster. I'd sort of started to get it set up yesterday, but I really started thinking about what I wanted on my poster. I set up a little outline and started making some notes about material to include. Right before lunch I went into BC's office to ask her for some help. I told her all about how I need a title and abstract ASAP and how I have to have a poster ready to print by next Tuesday because I'm presenting my poster to the journal club Tuesday night and then fly to Virginia that Friday. So I think I might ask S or R for some help making a poster. I don't know if SR has ever made a poster, so he might not be a good choice. I think that BC and I are gonna do my title and abstract tomorrow. So she gave me some pointers about how to think about doing my abstract and told me to work on it this afternoon. Then she showed me how to chunk my plates to transfer "starving" plates to fresh plates. We go through worms like crazy in this lab. I feel bad, but I don't at the same time. *shrug*
So from 1ish when I got back from lunch until 5ish when I left, I was working on my abstract. I read the Masters Thesis that I have again to really get more information about my methods. I also reread a couple pages of some of my papers to get a feel for the imporant things to include and I finally started writing. I managed about 150 words, but it's not finished and I'm not sure that it's good. hahaha. I'm really nervous about showing it to B tomorrow. Especially since I took so much time working on it. ugh. I wish I were more confident with my scientific writing...but I'm not. But I'm looking forward to tomorrow. More mutagenesis and abstract writing and who knows what other cool things. :D
I was so pumped to have time off this evening. These 12 hour days are really rough. We all went out to dinner tonight. N's 21st birthday is this weekend, so she said we were celebrating, but I think most of us just wanted actual food. I had a black bean burger with some really good broccoli. And we all split a thing of chips and salsa. I also had a frozen mango margarita. I really enjoyed the drink and it wasn't too strong like the one I had at applebees. I wasn't so sure I'd be served alcohol because our server must have thought we all had fake ids. She looked at them all and then said she had to take them back to the back. I don't know if she had them scanned or if she asked someone about them or if she had them photocopied or what, but she was gone forever. N wanted us all to get up and leave if they refuesed us service. But, as it was, she finally brought us our drinks...and they were cheap and that was wonderful. :)
Oh! I got my Amazon package today. So now I have a few books to read. I'm already 1/3 of the way through Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm actually really enjoying it so far. I also got Of Mice and Men and Brave New World. Those are next on my list of things to read. I haven't read all that much this summer. Every year I reread the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, but this summer I only had time to read A Game of Thrones before leaving for Pittsburgh. I also read probably two dozen YA books, but I can't remember one of them. I think the best thing I've read this summer is The Kite Runner. I'm glad I went to see the one man production in Ada this past year, and I loved the book. I didn't expect it to be quite so powerful. I know I just got some new things to read, but I already made my next purchase. I'll wait until those books come in to tell you about them though.
Well, it's time for me to head to bed....I've gotta get up early again to go running with B. We're gonna try to work out every morning for the next two weeks. We'll see how that goes....I am kind of a lazy bum and I really really like my sleep.
Until next time!
After journal club a carload of us went to West Leb. to do some shopping. I got a bunch of fresh fruit and stuff to make pb&j sandwiches. I *finally* bought a pillow. Oh it felt so nice to sleep on a fat, extra firm pillow. I've been managing with this really thin, squishy pillow for the last two weeks and it's been awful. haha. On the way back it poured. I walked with N from Lot A back to Mid Mass and that's a 20 minute walk. It was pretty yucky. It seems to be raining in Hanover frequently. It's a bit ridiculous. haha. Then yesterday was an interesting day. I came right in and got to work. D had a few instructions from BC for me and so I did that job first. I had to look at my mutagenesis plate and pick out 150 healthy worms to 10 different plates. They mostly looked good, so I hope the mutagenesis actually worked. This took me about an hour and a half to do, but at the end I felt really accomplished. At the beginning, I was really sucking at picking worms. By the end, I was picking 3 worms at a time and not having to chase them around the plates. That's a huge accomplishment. Of course it helped that I wasn't having to pick them by age. Since I'd picked them all as L4s the day before, they were all young adults so it didn't matter.
When I was picking the worms, SR asked me if it was okay if he put music on. He said that he thought we didn't listen to music every day because BC didn't like us to. So he put on some Top40s-type song and the two of us and S were enjoying it when D marched right into the lab and demanded that we turn it off. She said we couldn't listen to music until after 5pm. We were all really dumbfounded. We weren't disrupting anyone and it wasn't affecting our work. She wasn't even in that lab, she works in the lab across the hall, so we were all really confused and not very happy. I was mostly sad because we'd been doing some real lab bonding at that point. Negative brownie points for D for that. :(
After lunch I started looking at my heat shock plates for males. Most of the progeny are too young to really see so I can't tell if the heat shocking worked or not. Perhaps it'll be easier tomorrow and I know I'll be able to tell by Monday. Then I looked at the plates for the other strain that I'm going to mutagenize. These are the bag-of-worms worms. They are super creepy. haha. While I was doing this, D came in to stand over my shoulder to make sure I'm not going to blow up the lab. I wasn't particularly pleased with this, but what can I do? I wasn't even using the ethanol burner at this point. Oh well. When I finished looking at the worms under the scope, I decided that it was time to do some more scoring, so I tried a couple ways to figure out how to get one of those bags of worms onto a slide and not rupture the cuticle. I finally figured it out and I headed for the small scope. I turned on the GFP filter and got up close to the worms. It was really disgusting. R was on the computer in the same room as the scope so she laughed at my reactions to the worms. It was actually really kind of cool though. I got to see all the worms wiggling around inside the cuticle, which was nice because they couldn't wiggle outside of my view, but I hadn't done anything to keep them from moving, so it was kind of hard to actually score them. sort of. Since these haven't been mutagenized yet, they all had 4 GFP positive cells, so it should have been easy.
When I tired of looking at those worms, I brought out my plate of double mutants, put them on ice and worked on scoring some of those worms. I'm getting significantly better on the small scope. I hit a few snags when I would lose the worm, but I was more than capable of seeing the GFP positive cells, even though the sample wasn't really magnified a great deal. I think I do better on the large scope, but I'm gonna try to use the small scope for the most part because I don't kill the worms on the small scope like I do on the big scope.
When my eyes started to hurt from using the scopes, I put the worms away and read a little bit at my desk until I couldn't stand it anymore and went home. Dinner was in Thayer with most of the people from the program and then GRE class was after that. I was really excited about getting to take the Kaplan course, but our teacher totally bombed the first day. I actually felt bad for her, she tanked so hard. I don't know if it's her first class or what, but she didn't understand the math we were doing. I don't know how many times we had to correct her to tell her she told us the wrong answer. She was really nice though and next week she's bringing us pizza for dinner. I'm hoping that the next session will go better.....we did learn some really neat tricks about some of the problems, but for the most part it was a waste of time. I really want to know how my diagnostic exam went, but they haven't posted our scores online yet.
Today was an interesting day. B and I got up at 7 and went running in the sports center. It was a nice 40 minute workout. By the time I got to lab, I'd already been up for two hours and I was wide awake. I feel like I was a bit of a waste today. I got to lab around 9:15 and got all my stuff set up. Then I got my worms out and looked at a couple of my strains. The worms on my heat shock plates are too young to set up male plates, so I ignored them. Then I looked at my plates for the bag of worms mutants and those worms were too young for mutagenesis. So I started looking at corpses to see if they had larvae in them. So I was counting corpses today and that was really the highlight of my day. After this, I went back to work on my poster. I'd sort of started to get it set up yesterday, but I really started thinking about what I wanted on my poster. I set up a little outline and started making some notes about material to include. Right before lunch I went into BC's office to ask her for some help. I told her all about how I need a title and abstract ASAP and how I have to have a poster ready to print by next Tuesday because I'm presenting my poster to the journal club Tuesday night and then fly to Virginia that Friday. So I think I might ask S or R for some help making a poster. I don't know if SR has ever made a poster, so he might not be a good choice. I think that BC and I are gonna do my title and abstract tomorrow. So she gave me some pointers about how to think about doing my abstract and told me to work on it this afternoon. Then she showed me how to chunk my plates to transfer "starving" plates to fresh plates. We go through worms like crazy in this lab. I feel bad, but I don't at the same time. *shrug*
So from 1ish when I got back from lunch until 5ish when I left, I was working on my abstract. I read the Masters Thesis that I have again to really get more information about my methods. I also reread a couple pages of some of my papers to get a feel for the imporant things to include and I finally started writing. I managed about 150 words, but it's not finished and I'm not sure that it's good. hahaha. I'm really nervous about showing it to B tomorrow. Especially since I took so much time working on it. ugh. I wish I were more confident with my scientific writing...but I'm not. But I'm looking forward to tomorrow. More mutagenesis and abstract writing and who knows what other cool things. :D
I was so pumped to have time off this evening. These 12 hour days are really rough. We all went out to dinner tonight. N's 21st birthday is this weekend, so she said we were celebrating, but I think most of us just wanted actual food. I had a black bean burger with some really good broccoli. And we all split a thing of chips and salsa. I also had a frozen mango margarita. I really enjoyed the drink and it wasn't too strong like the one I had at applebees. I wasn't so sure I'd be served alcohol because our server must have thought we all had fake ids. She looked at them all and then said she had to take them back to the back. I don't know if she had them scanned or if she asked someone about them or if she had them photocopied or what, but she was gone forever. N wanted us all to get up and leave if they refuesed us service. But, as it was, she finally brought us our drinks...and they were cheap and that was wonderful. :)
Oh! I got my Amazon package today. So now I have a few books to read. I'm already 1/3 of the way through Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm actually really enjoying it so far. I also got Of Mice and Men and Brave New World. Those are next on my list of things to read. I haven't read all that much this summer. Every year I reread the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, but this summer I only had time to read A Game of Thrones before leaving for Pittsburgh. I also read probably two dozen YA books, but I can't remember one of them. I think the best thing I've read this summer is The Kite Runner. I'm glad I went to see the one man production in Ada this past year, and I loved the book. I didn't expect it to be quite so powerful. I know I just got some new things to read, but I already made my next purchase. I'll wait until those books come in to tell you about them though.
Well, it's time for me to head to bed....I've gotta get up early again to go running with B. We're gonna try to work out every morning for the next two weeks. We'll see how that goes....I am kind of a lazy bum and I really really like my sleep.
Until next time!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Playing God and Influencing the Sex of My Offspring
Today I got to do something brand new and super awesome. D wasn't in the lab today, so I was more on my own today than ever. I got to lab bright and early; I'm always one of the first people in the lab. BC wanted to have a chat about the plans for this week. This is why I have a fantastic PI. Not everyone in the SURF program gets to work so close to their PI. It's not like I spend all of my time answering to BC, but she's definitely there to help me. Some people never see their PI. I think M said that if he needed his PI, he essentially had to schedule a meeting time before he could see him. I think that's crazy. I think you should be willing to be available to work with the undergraduates if you volunteer to have one. But what do I know? So I have quite the to-do list for the week. I'm really excited about getting to practice my scoring some more, but that'll have to wait at least until tomorrow.
This morning was the lab meeting. I wasn't sure I was going to have to attend, but I went nonetheless. It was really interesting stuff. R and Bo presented some of the things they learned from the ABCAM conference that was last week. I was supposed to go, but things were just a little too complicated and I wasn't allowed to go. I don't really know enough yet to really join in, but I tried to listen intently. I hope no one noticed that I was practically falling asleep during the meeting. oops. In all honesty, I enjoyed hearing about what other people were doing, even though I didn't really understand any of it.
After lunch the fun really started. I got settled at my disecting scope and pulled out one of the plates of my newest strain. I set out on an L4 hunt. L4 is the last larval stage for C. elegans. They're characterized by a white circle on their ventral side, with a black dot in the center. This is the vulva. This indicates that the individual is nearing sexual maturity. I am terrible at picking out L4s, even though I try really hard. Actually, I'm just bad at picking worms in general, but finding L4s in a mess of other stages is even harder. So I finally got a plate with a few L4s when BC came in to see how I was doing. She checked out my plate and confirmed that I did have some L4s on the plate....then she told me that I was going to need more. So in like 5 minutes she made me three more plates of worms. Mind you, it took me over an hour to make my one plate. I really really suck. haha. Of course it's hard to compare myself to someone who's been doing this for years and years. But we put all the plates of L4s into the incubator at 33 degrees to heat shock them. I have to come back into the lab in a couple hours to take them out of the incubator so they don't die. That'd be bad. Heat shocking causes nondisjunction in gamete production, which leads to an increased number of male offspring. Hermaphrodites have an XX genotype much like human females. Male worms have an XO genotype. This means that they only have one sex chromosome which is obviously different from the XY genotype of human males. It's really interesting that males only arise from an accident in chromosome segregation. So I made males today. It makes for a sort of interesting story. I need to produce enough males to do some crosses. I'll be mating males that I create with hermaphrodites of of the same strain to really get a good number of males. Since the males have the XO genotype and half of the gametes produced will be lacking a sex chromosome, about 50% of the progeny will be males. At this point I'll really have a good amount of males and I'll be able to set up another cross and then I'll be doing some characterization of the mutation. It'll be really cool and I'm looking forward to it. Unfortunately, each life cycle takes 3-6 days so I won't be working on this for a while.
Tonight is my first GRE course. It runs from 6:30-9:00. I really hope to get something from this class. I know the GRE isn't really the most important part of the package when applying to graduate school, but I'd like to do well. I'm not the only one excited for class. B is looking forward to it even more than I am. I think I just want the materials more than anything. haha.
Well, it's time for me to pack up and leave the lab. I've gotta run and get dinner so I can be back to rescue my worms. I don't want to kill more than I have to...that's not my style. Plus if I kill my males, I have to attempt to find more L4s and, well, I don't really enjoy that yet. haha.
This morning was the lab meeting. I wasn't sure I was going to have to attend, but I went nonetheless. It was really interesting stuff. R and Bo presented some of the things they learned from the ABCAM conference that was last week. I was supposed to go, but things were just a little too complicated and I wasn't allowed to go. I don't really know enough yet to really join in, but I tried to listen intently. I hope no one noticed that I was practically falling asleep during the meeting. oops. In all honesty, I enjoyed hearing about what other people were doing, even though I didn't really understand any of it.
After lunch the fun really started. I got settled at my disecting scope and pulled out one of the plates of my newest strain. I set out on an L4 hunt. L4 is the last larval stage for C. elegans. They're characterized by a white circle on their ventral side, with a black dot in the center. This is the vulva. This indicates that the individual is nearing sexual maturity. I am terrible at picking out L4s, even though I try really hard. Actually, I'm just bad at picking worms in general, but finding L4s in a mess of other stages is even harder. So I finally got a plate with a few L4s when BC came in to see how I was doing. She checked out my plate and confirmed that I did have some L4s on the plate....then she told me that I was going to need more. So in like 5 minutes she made me three more plates of worms. Mind you, it took me over an hour to make my one plate. I really really suck. haha. Of course it's hard to compare myself to someone who's been doing this for years and years. But we put all the plates of L4s into the incubator at 33 degrees to heat shock them. I have to come back into the lab in a couple hours to take them out of the incubator so they don't die. That'd be bad. Heat shocking causes nondisjunction in gamete production, which leads to an increased number of male offspring. Hermaphrodites have an XX genotype much like human females. Male worms have an XO genotype. This means that they only have one sex chromosome which is obviously different from the XY genotype of human males. It's really interesting that males only arise from an accident in chromosome segregation. So I made males today. It makes for a sort of interesting story. I need to produce enough males to do some crosses. I'll be mating males that I create with hermaphrodites of of the same strain to really get a good number of males. Since the males have the XO genotype and half of the gametes produced will be lacking a sex chromosome, about 50% of the progeny will be males. At this point I'll really have a good amount of males and I'll be able to set up another cross and then I'll be doing some characterization of the mutation. It'll be really cool and I'm looking forward to it. Unfortunately, each life cycle takes 3-6 days so I won't be working on this for a while.
Tonight is my first GRE course. It runs from 6:30-9:00. I really hope to get something from this class. I know the GRE isn't really the most important part of the package when applying to graduate school, but I'd like to do well. I'm not the only one excited for class. B is looking forward to it even more than I am. I think I just want the materials more than anything. haha.
Well, it's time for me to pack up and leave the lab. I've gotta run and get dinner so I can be back to rescue my worms. I don't want to kill more than I have to...that's not my style. Plus if I kill my males, I have to attempt to find more L4s and, well, I don't really enjoy that yet. haha.
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