Best song ever... You'll be missed buddy.
Herding cats...Committee Meetings
Its almost time for me to have another committee meeting again, and I usually dread this time. Not for the meeting but trying to nail down a 1-2 hour window in which four or five busy PI's can sit down to meet with me. This may encompass everyone at one site, people at multiple sites by videoconference, or heaven forbid the teleconference. Teleconferences for me are the worst, it feels like I'm getting scolded by Charlie from Charlie's Angels on the phone. I honestly feel for the admin assistants that are constantly trying to get PI's scheduled for meetings, I have two meetings a year and its like pulling teeth to get everyone's schedules to gel. Plus I catch flack from my institution if I don't have my meetings within a precise time frame, getting their nasty emails if my committee meeting is a day late.
It really is like herding cats...
Its takes all kinds of people to make a world or a corner store parking lot variety show...
I'm a graduate student so that means I live in a shitty area, actually its not that shitty, it just borders on a shitty area. Its synonymous to living in Long Beach and staring across the street to your neighbors that reside in Compton. And those of us who habit these borderlands of pending gentrification usually have a corner store where you can stop and purchase anything you need: gas, condoms, bath salts, you know the basics to have a good time. But that's not half the fun, no my friends, the best thing about the neighborhood corner store are the people that hang around outside.
These are the cast of characters that loiter the corner store by my apartment:
-Bob from the Biggest Loser: except Bob is bald, 30 pounds heavier, and looks like he just came off a savage three day coke binge
-Mexican Billy Ray Cyrus: he's got the mullet and he's trying to serenade the ladies in the parking lot, he's awesome
-Lil Albino Tupac: white kid that typically does not wear a shirt but sports the bandana knotted on the forehead, almost gets hit by cars while trying to "spit game at bitches" and doesn't understand why the ladies won't "let a playa get some conversation." He is a dead ringer for Jamie Kennedy's character in Malibu's Most Wanted.
- Tunisian Jackie Chan: practices Tae Kwon Do moves in the parking lot while emptying the trash cans and sweeping the parking lot. TJC is usually getting yelled at by his boss who speaks some hybrid language that consists of Armenian, Spanish, Pidgin English, and a conglomeration of virtually every language and dialect's profanities.
So when I step out my car and run in to grab a drink, I'm greeted by the pleasant lyrical stylings of Mexican Billy Ray Cyrus, walk past Bob from the Biggest Loser who looks like he is passed out in his car, wait behind Lil Albino Tupac ranting and bitching, and almost get knocked out by Tunisian Jackie Chan as he works on his spinning back kick while smoking a cigarette and holding a broom. Its dangerous but I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.
Except a nicer place to live.
Abstractly Referential
How many of you put references in your meeting abstracts? Most program booklets I see make me think its pretty rare, so what say you dear readership? Do you always put references in the abstract? Sometimes when necessary? Or never?
Scientopia takes over Ohio!!!
I'll be in Cincinnati, OH for the 14th Annual Midwest DNA Repair Symposium May 18th-20th. If you want to grub up or hang out, let me know.
Non-Compliant on compliance training
My institutions sees fit to make us once a year submit to a battery of exams on institutional mission and values, cultural competencies, bizarre and byzantine employment laws whose memorization is not necessary for but a limited few outside of HR. The institution gives us a deadline to get them done and they continually harass us to get it done months before the deadline.
Not me man, I don't drink the Kool Aid or fall for the stupid incentives to get it done, don't treat me like a child. I usually get the trainings done on the last day or the day before because lets face it, I really do have more important stuff to do. But the force is too strong and them and I grow weak and weary from the daily emails reminding me to get it done.
Must fight the man...
I'd rather not reminisce about my childhood...
when you bring up the fact that when I was six, I used to sit on the edge of the bathtub and read to my older cousin while he took a dump, because he was horrible at reading back then. Some memories are meant to be blocked out.
Ten Years Gone
On the drive into work today, the thought popped in my mind that I have been working in science for a little over 10 years now. Not that it is a major accomplishment and many have put full lifetimes into it, but it is a significant mile marker in my life. Believe me I did not have the most glamorous start to my scientific career, I started out as the bottle washer for a departmental stock room, but that is where I made my start. When you think of jobs that scientists want, bottle washer ranks as DFL, but it was good for me to start at (or maybe even below) the bottom rung of the scientific ladder. It made me humble and as I slowly (and I mean slowly) progressed up the ladder I have had the fortune to meet and work with amazing people.
Science is beautiful because you seem to bring together people from such divergent backgrounds with a variety of interests. Some of us were born on 3rd base. Some of us were born in the projects. Some of us were born in squalid third world backwaters with little to no opportunities. But yet, here we all are working together and in our off times sharing our experiences and cultures. After 10 years in science you learn how to say shit in three languages, how to eat with chopsticks, and how little you know about the world around you.
Once you realize this, its amazing, you never want to stop learning and discovering. About science or humanity.
Skype Conferences and Hygiene
Cramming a bunch of us into my PI's office and in front of his monitor for a videoconference makes you realize the fundamentals of good hygiene and a resentment for those that don't practice them. Wash thy ass because you stink!
Need to kickstart this morning
I've had no caffeine this morning and its slow goings, here is a little music to jolt you into getting it done today.
