Teaching portfolio.

Last Wednesday was my last class of GSU's "Teaching Wombats" seminar series. While not super useful, the prof was very nice and the only real work was showing up every week. Not a big deal.

However, as a closing note, the prof mentioned to us that now is a good time to start making a teaching portfolio. (GSU has all of the first year chem grad students finish their teaching requirements within the first two years, unless you're asked to TA a grad level course.) Teaching portfolio!?! Crap. I don't even know what that really means.

After a quick google search, Berkeley's career center comes up with one of the best descriptions. Of course, I now wish I'd had the prof I'm teaching for come in during my discussion section. Luckily, the prof who taught the seminar course did come in to see me teach. Hopefully she liked what she saw? We have a meeting later next week, so I'll find out more about this teaching portfolio deal. She said that we should save things like emails from students that thank us. Really? Is that actually a legit thing to put in a teaching portfolio?

Any suggestions out there for what to put in a teaching portfolio? What not to put in a teaching portfolio?

Lab injuries.

To be honest, many other chemists do far more dangerous work than I do. As a bioinorganic chemist, the biggest constant safety issue that I work with is a Schlenk line that is too big for a hood. But yesterday was a good reminder of how dangerous a lot of the materials my lab works with.

Luckily, in this particular incident, everyone's ok. Let me start out with that. One of my labmates accidentally dropped a beaker into a base bath, which caused the base bath to splash onto her face (she was wearing goggles, thank goodness). Unfortunately, her first reaction was to swipe at her face with the gloves that had base bath on them, so even though a second or two after that when she shoved her face under water, she managed to burn herself. Luckily, nothing got in her eyes and I had my car with me yesterday, so I drove her to the ER. The ER staff was as slow as molasses, despite a call from the chem dept that we were coming and that it was a potentially time-sensitive issue. They didn't do much other than have her take a shower/stuck pH paper all over her face, and eventually let her go with a prescription for a painkiller/steroid. She's a little shaken, but it mostly looks like she got an odd sunburn and there won't be any lasting effects.

We had a really bad acid burn for a different labmate earlier this year (before I joined), but both situations were caused by accidents and compounded by instinct. It's just a frightening reminder that despite proper safety gear/training, our instincts as humans take over first before our safety training kicks in.

A year ago, I graduated. WHAT

Congrats to all the graduating seniors. I wish each and every one of you the best of luck.

Your first year out of college is incredibly crazy. You really, really comprehend how little money and time you have. How much you miss the friends from school. But you'll make new friends, and you'll deal with the money and time issues. And slowly, but surely, things will start to fall into place.

Here's advice from someone who was in your shoes a year ago: You will figure out everything. As the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy states, don't panic.

Congrats to the class of 2011!

Belated anniversary post!

Ok, so I've officially kept this blog going for over a year now! Wooo! *dances a little*

I recently went back and looked at the posts I was making around this time, and in celebration of me even making it this far, I'm going to make a list of "things I wish I knew this time last year."

1. You might think you're vaguely prepared. You aren't. At all. For anything: the classes, the TAing, the workload---even the lab you're convinced you'll join might not be "the one." Just accept it, and realize that first year is awesome in a supremely sucky kind of way.
2. Grad school likes to pretend that its bureaucratic rules always apply. Not true. Make nice with the first year coordinator, and you'll be able to take that super cool class that happens to be at the same time as the totally lame class that the dept says you have to take.
3. You know how annoying it was when people told you that "you'd make the right decision for you" when choosing your grad school/lab/classes/etc? It's true. Still annoying, still not helpful for decision making, but true.
4. If you haven't already, set up a feed reader for all of the journals you should be paying attention to. My google reader is filled with Science, Nature, PNAS, JACS, J. Bio. Inorg., etc. IT IS AMAZING. I just scroll through titles every day, star the ones that are relevant/cool looking and I now have a stockpile of papers for our lab journal club/lit meeting presentations. Plus, I sometimes send relevant papers to my labmates. Technology is amazing.
5. People skills are a wonderful blessing. Your labmates will love you. You will get along with your boss better. Your classmates will not want to throw knives at the back of your head. If you have people skills, awesome. If you don't, develop them. Now.
6. You will present/argue about science in class and meetings more in your first year of grad school than you did in two years worth of undergrad (even though I did this a lot). This is awesome. And terrifying.
7. Your first big, independent, feasible idea is the biggest high you can possibly have in this place. As far as I can tell. It's even better than things working.
8. Luckily, I've become used to failure. You have to turn it around though---I think what's been nice about my project is that the smallest successes have brightened my day. (This gel looks pretty---hooray!)

Anyone else have more to add to the list?

Advice: Don't get really sick when in grad school.

So I got ER-level sick on Wednesday. This led to me taking Thursday and Friday off. And getting little to nothing done on either of those days. (I am back to 100% now.)

But you know what? That's ok.

I talked this over today with a fellow first-year labmate and while he asked me if I felt guilty about getting less shit done (yes), we both agreed on this fact: I have 4.5 years of grad school left. It's ok for me to take two days (yes, I did go in both days of the weekend) off. There is plenty of time left.

Also, people are very helpful when you use the phrase "medical emergency." The prof I TA for found me a substitute, the prof I owed a take home exam to gave me an extension, and my boss was completely understanding.

Hobbies outside of research.

I've mentioned many times before that I am a runner. Never really did track or cross country, but I've been running off and on for most of my life. About a year and a half ago, I decided to run with the goal of running a half marathon in mind.

Well, I have my first half marathon in a little over a month, and I am so excited. And nervous.

Being grad students that have other things to do other than train non-stop, Running Buddy and I are somewhat prepared. I did 9 miles on Saturday. I've never run 9 miles in my life. And I not only ran 9 miles, I ran 9 miles in the rain and up and down many, many hills. My dad (who has run the NYC marathon three times) thinks that if we both can complete two 10 miles runs before the race, we will be fine.

I am so thrilled that for once, instead of thinking about it, I am actually running a half!!!

And Running Buddy and I both agreed once we're both back in GSU-city, we're going to try and go back to consistent running, since our rotation schedules derailed us consistently running together.

Anyone have some advice on running or on carving out time in grad school for things like hobbies?

Grad school dating fail.

Quick disclaimer: This is not about me. This is all about my wonderful Lab Soulmate who has had to deal with this for the past few months. I will post my own fun stuff in a few days.

Ok, so imagine you join a group. Yay! Woo! Group! You get along with most to all of the people. Very importantly, you get along with the guy you are sharing equipment and a hood with. Hoorah!

However, things start getting awkward fast. Being an attractive, smart, funny, single female, your coworker is interested. And makes his interest known. Multiple times. Despite you doing everything short of banging him over the head and yelling "WE SHARE A HOOD YOU MORON HOW BAD OF AN IDEA WOULD THAT BE?!?!" This other student is a third year student, who, despite everything else, is a nice guy and you do not want to make things ultra awkward and still would like to get along with this guy.

Unfortunately, he drunkenly asks to kiss you at a holiday party and you explain to him that this is a bad idea because: a) he's drunk and b) you share a hood. This goes over somewhat well in that he doesn't storm away and seems to realize that it's not OK to date you.

But how do you stop the awkward??? Dear readers, got any tips for Lab Soulmate? As we both figured so far, there's no real solution other than what she's done already. But maybe someone else out there who has some good ideas and/or has dealt with coworkers trying to romance you.

Lesson learned.

Don't go to grad school within 3 hours of your undergrad when your PI doesn't trust the people she has working for her.

Major points of the past few days:
1. Passed exams! :) I don't have to take any undergrad classes, but...
2. ...this means I have to take 3.5 grad classes in a 10 week period. I am officially staying in my summer lab for my first rotation, which is good.
3. During an orientation activity, I see my lab mom calling. I call her back, set up a time for today to talk about paper related stuff, and nervously wait for today's phone call.
4. We talk about all of my project related stuff. She tells me there are two manuscripts with my name on it. One of these is due to approximately one week's worth of stuff that I did. The other is due to my thesis: the two projects that are completely new techniques that I tried, troubleshot, and after lots of struggle and effort, got to work. As well as a technique that I perfected for our lab over the course of the year before. Of course, it's the second paper that's in trouble due to a few experimental controls.
5. We talk about who could do the experiments. Essentially, one of the people who I taught is very bright, but doesn't give a shit. She's been switched to a completely different project (hilariously, like I told Lab Mom to do) while the second person who is also very bright and definitely cares, wasn't taught that particular technique because Lab Mom wanted her to learn a different technique from me. (Again, ironically, I will be teaching her this technique this weekend.) The conversation goes like this:

Lab Mom: There really isn't anyone who has been taught this technique?

BOTR: Well, I taught Labmate1. But she's been switched to a different project. And Labmate2 doesn't know it. And it would probably take Labmate2 a few runs to get it down.

Lab Mom: Yeah, and I can't write anything after two weeks.

*awkward silence*

BOTR: Too bad I can't do the experiments.

Lab Mom: *laughs* You sure you can't?

*conversation continues, feeling of being trapped overwhelms BOTR, and she makes plans with Lab Mom to come back this weekend and do the experiments*

Lab Mom: You agree that my points are valid though, right? There won't be a paper unless those experiments are done.

BOTR: Yup.

Gahhhhh. I feel so irritated. If she'd prioritized this project with one of the summer students, they could have gotten it done. And she hasn't really kept in touch despite my frequent emails, and when she has, it's been pretty much all business. Which makes me sad. And I'm pretty sure it's a somewhat cultural thing/she's really freaking busy and that's fair. I just feel used. And I know this is good for both of us, but I know that she was playing on the "your project will die" aspect that she knows drives me nuts. I wouldn't have trained so many people for her if it was going to turn out that she wouldn't trust them and will instead guilt trip me into coming back. Don't get me wrong---I still love her. I just wish I hadn't expected this outcome.

Damn it, I hate that I feel like I don't have a backbone. I think that's the real problem here. I can stand up for myself when it comes to my mentors, but when it comes to PIs, my backbone disappears because I so desperately want to get papers because I really want to have an outstanding grad career to get a fantastic postdoc to be able to get a TT job.

Anyways, I need to go pack for tomorrow. I'm going into my lab at GSU and then driving two hours to go into lab at my undergrad. I probably won't be back until Monday morning. Hopefully things go well and this weekend in undergrad lab isn't a waste.

Things I have learned.

1. If you are sick, please, please please do not come into lab. Everyone else will refuse to stand within a 10 foot radius of you. Except, of course, your rotation student who is forced to spend lots of time breathing in your germs.

2. If you are trying to help said rotation student with an upcoming presentation, do not get her sick.

3. Denial (and orange juice, sleep, and lots of tea) can help keep the germs at bay.

4. However, denial can only prevent the full blown cold. You'll still feel vaguely sick. And it still sucks. And the full blown cold is bound to hit at any moment.

Moral of the story: Don't spread your cold. Health first, work later (or just work on whatever stuff you can at home).

An Open Essay on Wombattiness.

Wombat: 1)(n) A small, furry marsupial, as seen here. 2) (n) A clueless undergrad or incoming grad student. Someone who has very little idea what is going on. Can also be used as an adjective to describe general incompetence.

It can be used in a sentences like these:

"Billy laughed at the new wombat in the lab who couldn't find the beakers."

"As she looked through a cabinet for the third time, BotR cursed the day that she had become a wombat."

"Dude, way to wombat it up by asking where we keep our FeCl3."

Can often be heard asking questions such as these*:
1. Where's the nearest bathroom?
2. Um, is this open?
3. Uh, is this on?
4. Can you say that again?
5. You guys store that in the -80, right?
6. Uh, how do I get into the building on weekends?
7. How does your autoclave work?
8. Any special instructions on the pH meter?
9. Do you guys grow your cultures in tubes like these?
10. Where is ________? (Fill in with any piece of equipment, reagent, location or wombat's mentor.)


Wombat syndrome can happen to competent people when moving into a new lab. However, this does mean that the competent person will be viewed as a wombat and spoken to in a gentle voice (by at least one person) so as to not spook the wombat**.

*These are all questions asked by me within the past two days. In my defense, the bathroom question was legit since I hadn't ever been in that building before.

**There's at least one person who thinks that I'm hopeless in my new lab. She's been very nice, so hopefully when I don't have to ask where everything is anymore she'll stop using a sugar sweet voice so as to not freak me out. In her defense, I'm pretty sure I run around with a crazy look on my face like "Omg, I will burst into tears if I can't find their filter flasks."

Posts to come.

I am tired, therefore I will be lazy with my post tonight and just tell you what exciting bits I have planned for the next few weeks:

1. I want to discuss more about LGBT issues in a scientific workplace. This will require lots of people to give me input. I'm editing some questions right now, and I hope that you all + even more people will help me with more answers.

2. I've been getting lots of questions in my non-blogging life from friends that are about to enter the sphere of grad school apps. Therefore, I have decided to essentially start a short series on the advice that I have given/stuff people are about to ask. PLEASE SEND IN QUESTIONS to help me design this series!!!

3. The book reviews that I have half typed up will be up soon. I promise.

Send in questions/topics by either commenting/emailing me at biochemistontherun@gmail.com !

Apartment!

Woooo!

We've signed a lease in a nice 2bd/2ba!!!!

That's a relief. Today's catching up with apartment related phone calls, recovering from very little sleep (early departures, all day apartment viewings, lots of discussion with the roomies, more studying, and sleeping on people's floors), studying and a baseball game tonight! :)

Oh, and just as a tip, looking for an apartment in a limited time span went much faster when we used this process:
1) Collect tons of places within your price range
2) Divide into geographic locations that you'll visit within a set amount of hours
3) CALL. Don't email. While a few places got back to us really quickly over email, most were delayed by 36 hours instead of 12 (what I thought they'd do). When making the appointments, tell them your price range and when you want to move in---that'll eliminate more.
4) Leave an hour for each appointment and 15 minutes for getting to and from places.
5) Ask lots of questions when you get there. That eliminated places really quickly for us---average utilities? How are utilities divided up (by building or unit or complex)? How's the internet done? Do you need renter's insurance? Pet rent/deposit? Laundry? Parking? Test things like water pressure, stoves, how easily closets and windows open---don't be shy! If the renter doesn't know the answers, you might not want to live there.
6) Drive by the complex at night and see what parking and the atmosphere is like. (That immediately eliminated a place we loved.)
7) Consider the surroundings: bus stops, shopping centers, groceries, parks, and banks.

Anyways, the process was painful. But now it's mostly over! Hooray!