You know you have a rockin' boss when

you present him with data showing that a major part of your plan doesn't work and he makes you laugh, tells you to try again because it probably didn't work for a different reason, and proceeds to tell you that your idea was a good one.

Happy birthday, bossman!

It's not grad school unless

you're in the lab crying because you just wasted 2.5 weeks barking up the wrong tree at 11pm on a Friday night.

THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Ok, grad school, I get it. I was feeling positive about you and then I realized that I cannot physically do:
a) my research
b) my classes
c) my TAing
d) my running
e) my dealing with my apartment water heater leaking all over
f) keeping up with literature
g) catching up with literature

I cannot. Do. All of these. Well. This week has been TA/apartment/classes heavy and I am getting so little done on research. This is ridiculous.

Also, NSF? I thought I was going to get actual feedback on my proposal. If you tell me that I'm awesome and then don't tell me how to improve so I can attempt to get funding next year, that's not helpful. At all.

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?

Spring break! Hooray!

Spring break is coming up! Therefore, I only have a third of a million things to do instead of a million things!

In this upcoming week, things I have to look forward to:
1. Monday morning meeting where I present my first-completely-by-myself crazy idea experiment to Bossman. Hopefully it goes well so I can get him to buy the stuff for this experiment.
2. I make myself do the experiment I hate twice.
3. Science demos with wee children!
4. Meeting the parental units of boy (nervous nervous nervous).
5. Figuring out schedule for classes/TAing. Currently there's potential conflict. One of the lecture days for the class I might be TAing is the same time as a class. But the prof I'm TAing for might not care about me missing one lecture a week?
6. Lab, lab, more lab?
7. Anniversary blog post!

But now, off to a brunch at labmate's apartment!

An ode to coffee.

Dearest coffee,

I knew you in undergrad. We met on a regular basis up until my junior year, when I figured out that both loads of stress and caffeine triggered an irregular heartbeat.

But now, my dear beverage, we have met again.

This quarter was the true beginning of a real relationship---not like the fling we had in college. I consume at least one cup of coffee a day. And while before, I only really enjoyed my lattes and cappuchinos, I will have you any way possible. Coffee, espresso, ridiculously sugary drinks that contain you---anything for my daily fix.

My mood is less than cheerful if we do not meet in the morning. By the afternoon, I am craving a pick-me-up. You, my dear friend, have kept me going during my 7:30am-11:30 pm days (and my normal 12 hour days too). And perhaps due to the fact that I am in a constant state of stress rather than intervals, you have not brought my irregular heartbeat upon me again.

Thank you for everything. Now could you please not cost me as much as you do?

Love,
BotR

Science demo ideas?

Oh, and as long as I'm on here, does anyone have ideas for science demos that are appropriate for kindergarden kids? Bossman's recruited me to do science demos at his son's school with the other first year in the lab (who, fairly enough, is not enthused about this extra work).

My current ideas: lemon as a battery, color changing "clock", glow in the dark slime, "elephant toothpaste", and colored smoke (if we can do it outside/we can scrounge up the materials).

Bossman is insistent on doing thermite. Which is super cool (hell, I absolutely still love that demo), but I am convinced we have the potential for half of our audience crying. I am secretly hoping that the department won't let him check out the stuff.

Therefore, we'll probably be doing thermite, but that leaves room for one or two more demos. Bossman has grudgingly approved lemon as a battery.

Any other ideas would be much appreciated.