Okay okay okay, I've been tagged 4 times already, so I guess I better get to this...
Here's to a happy and healthy 2008 for everyone.
1. Will you be looking for a new job?
No. I'll continue to slave away as a Ph.D. student for several more years before "job" finds its way into my vocabulary.
2. Will you be looking for a new relationship?
Just the change in relationship from fiance to husband.
3. New house?
I hope not. If the answer to this becomes yes, then it means that the fiance will be doing BOTH his intern year AND radiology residency outside of DC and we'll be living apart even longer than expected and I can't afford to stay here and pay the full rent by myself. :( As it stands now, he should be staying here for intern year, and then heading elsewhere for residency, meaning we'll only be living apart 2-ish years post-marriage.
4. What will you do differently in 08?
I'd like to actually make some progress in the lab and maybe finally purify the protein that I've been slaving over for 23 months.
5. New Years resolution?
I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions... if I see something that I need to change about myself, I change it then and there rather than waiting for the calendar to change. That said, I'm currently working on the following:
a) Returning to my pre-back injury gym regime -- alternating days between the elliptical and running or lifting and stretching. I can't make it through 45 mins on the elliptical without a vicodin, but my doctor continues to insist that I don't need to go to physical therapy. I'm trying to learn to just deal with the pain and see if my body can adapt.
b) Drinking 8 glasses of some kind of liquid per day. Due to meds I was on as a child, my liquid intake was severely restricted, and my body has completely adapted to not needing more than 1-2 glasses of water per day. While I'm fine and suffer no side-effects of dehydration, it can't be great for me, so I'm trying to change. But man, having to pee every 2 hours is a PAIN. I don't know how you people deal.
c) Cutting back on spending once I pick up a few things in post-New Years sales. My spending has gotten out of control, though I am still paying off the AmEx in full each month, so it certainly has not been detrimental. We stopped by the jewelers when we were in Philly last and the wedding bands look like they will total a bit over $5K (I'm paying for both) and there is a honeymoon coming up, so this should inspire me to save a bit more.
6. What will you not be doing in 08?
Hopefully I will not be refilling any vicodin or percocet prescriptions!
7. Any trips planned?
Honeymoon. Location TBD but it is looking like either Tahiti or the Mediterranean. Probably Tahiti, if the fiance gets his act together and talks to a travel agent (seriously, I give him TWO THINGS to do for the entire wedding and neither has been done).
8. Wedding plans?
Several, involving both being a bride and being a bridesmaid.
9. Major thing on your calendar?
My fiance's graduation from medical school and then exactly one week later, our wedding. And then he will make me introduce him to everyone as "My husband, the doctor."
10. What can’t you wait for?
I can't wait to successfully purify the pain in the ass protein that has made my life miserable.
11. What would you like to see happen differently?
See above. Protein purification.
12. What about yourself will you be changing?
Potentially my last name, but hopefully not. We still "argue" on a regular basis about that -- I don't want to change my name, he wants me to change. I've agreed to hyphenate, but that's just not good enough for him.
13. What happened in 07 that you didn’t think would ever happen?
We got a new purification system in the lab! And I passed comps! But I guess I thought those would both happen, eventually.
14. Will you be nicer to the people you care about?
I'll try.
15. Will you dress differently this year than you did in 07?
If my two lost lab coats don't somehow make their way back to the lab, I'll probably wind up dressing more casually so that I don't ruin my nice skirts and sweaters with all the crap in the lab. I want my lab coats back, damnit.
16. Will you start or quit drinking?
I drink probably six times a year. That will probably increase slightly from spending 2 weeks laying on a tropical beach with drinks containing little umbrellas.
17. Will you better your relationship with your family?
I'm going to go with a giant PROBABLY NOT since it will be a miracle if my mother and I are both still alive by the time of the wedding. She is the #1 reason why I kind of deep down regret that I am getting married -- frankly, I'd rather spend the rest of my life single and miserable then have to put up with my Momzilla.
18. Will you do charity work?
I would if I had time, but I am often in lab 7 days a week. Instead, I just donate money to charity.
19. Will you go to bars?
A few here and there, but I'm not really a bar person.
20. Will you be nice to people you don’t know?
Depends if they are nice to me.
21. Do you expect 08 to be a good year for you?
I hope so.
22. How much did you change from this time last year till now?
I've become much more bitter and cynical. Thank you, graduate school.
23. Do you plan on having a child?
No no no no no no no no no. Regardless of how many times my future mother-in-law comments on how she cannot wait for grandchildren, there will be NO CHILDREN until I am at least 30, and I am going to immensely enjoy the next 6 child-free years of my life.
24. Will you still be friends with the same people you are friends with now?
I can't think of any friends of whom I am actively trying to demote to non-friend status.
25. Major lifestyle changes?
I'll be acquiring a husband.
26. Will you be moving?
Nope. I'll be in DC until I finish my Ph.D. I'm guessing around 3.5 more years, but I'm hoping to shave some time off of that, since obviously it will be less than ideal living several hundred miles apart from my husband.
27. What will you make sure doesn’t happen in 08 that happened in 07?
??? I don't think I can control any of the bad things that happened in 2007 to ensure they do not repeat themselves. I'd like to say that I can make sure the Steelers don't lose the league rushing RB 2 weeks before the playoffs to a broken leg, but I can't control these major annoyances.
28. What are your New Years Eve plans?
I've been living in DC 7 years now and I'm excited that this will be my first NYE in DC. We'll be partying with the college friends.
29. Will you have someone to kiss at midnight?
My fiance will be at the same party, but we never kiss at midnight. He always has single friends around and doesn't want to seem to be rubbing it in their face that they are single and he is not. Come to think of it, I've never gotten a kiss at midnight, despite having been in a relationship for something like 10 New Years Eves.
30. One wish for 08?
Truthfully? That my fiance winds up matching here for residency so we don't have to live apart at all. But that's not what he wants, so I can't REALLY wish that for him. Maybe I should wish to learn to become less selfish. I guess my real wish is that things take a turn for the better in lab -- I wish that my experiments all work so I can expedite the graduate school process. Or, you know, so that as a 3rd year graduate student I can finally get ONE FREAKING EXPERIMENT to give me some sort of positive result.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Thesis Committee Help!
I'm at the point where I've started putting together my thesis proposal and forming a thesis committee. Technically speaking, this is required to be complete within one year of completing comps. One year would be the second week of January... but while this seems like I'm waiting until the last minute, I'm actually the first student of my year to actually start to formally put together my committee (let's just say that the program let's this year deadline slip unnoticed). My background is complete, I have my big-picture general hypotheses written, and three main aims with multiple sub-aims. My PI/adviser said today that I have roughly 140% of a thesis on paper, meaning that I have more theoretical aims than I will need to complete, but we both think this is a positive since it's easier to cut out part of a project than add to it.
At this university, thesis committees consist of 5 individuals: the adviser, 3 other internal members (one of whom must serve on the program oversight committee), and one outside member. I know who my ideal internal members would be, but my adviser is the only one on the oversight committee and he doesn't count since he is my adviser. Unfortunately, this means that I have to eliminate a potentially very useful committee member to make room for another potentially less-useful member. As far as my outside member, I'm going to wait and see what direction my experiments take over the next year before I decide if I am pursuing a crystallography direction and thus would want a crystallographer, or if I am pursuing a helicase direction and thus would want an enzymologist. My PI had great suggestions for one of each, both within driving distance, so I am optimistic for finding a suitable outside committee member.
That said, I now need to formally ask the internal members to serve on my committee. Female Science Professor's recent post on seeking advisors has made me think about the best way to ask these individuals. After all, there is really little benefit for agreeing to serve on someone's thesis committee -- published papers will go under my PI's lab, not theirs, it's unlikely that (with the exception of one of my hopeful committee members) I will be doing major collaborations with them, and it's a lot of time and effort on their behalf. To add to that, my project is way out in left field in comparison with everyone else in my program. Almost all the Ph.D. students are studying cell signaling, mainly in breast or prostate cancer. As you can see from my above comments on crystallization or enzymology, my project has nothing in common with signaling or cell/molecular biology in general -- I may as well transfer to the biochemistry department at this point. Additionally, my project is really trying something new and unique that applies to the entire field of studying disordered proteins, much more so than just studying the particular forms of pediatric cancer studied by my lab. That said, I am super excited about the project, because it has the potential to wind up being something completely novel within biochemistry and widely applicable to the field of disordered proteins as a whole. I want to express this interest and excitement to the potential thesis committee members as a way to encourage them to agree to serve on my committee; while it may be more work on their behalf since this isn't a topic they see everyday, scientists should be excited by the new and unexpected, right? Especially when the new and unexpected is coming from a graduate student!
I asked a few older students how they formed a thesis committee, and most said they just sent an email basically saying "Will you serve on my committee?" My plan at the moment is to send a brief but well-written email stating why I think they would be a good fit for my committee (i.e., their involvement with biochemistry, their tie to the small molecular inhibitor side of my project, etc,), how much I value their opinions (particularly from those from whom I have already seeked advise), and attach a brief summary of my thesis proposal -- three paragraphs on background, my hypotheses, and the general aims and sub-aims, but without the proposed experiments. It totals 2 pages, and a significant chunk is in outline format. I don't want to send too much to read, but I want to show that I have put a lot of thought into the project thus far, and I am not blindly asking them to serve on a committee without a strong idea of the direction in which I want to take my research.
For those who read this blog who are faculty members, I'm hoping you can provide me with some suggestions as to the best way to ask these committee members. What impresses or disappoints you in regards to being asked to serve on a committee? I know it is a LOT of work for faculty members, and I really want to assemble the best possible thesis committee that I can.
At this university, thesis committees consist of 5 individuals: the adviser, 3 other internal members (one of whom must serve on the program oversight committee), and one outside member. I know who my ideal internal members would be, but my adviser is the only one on the oversight committee and he doesn't count since he is my adviser. Unfortunately, this means that I have to eliminate a potentially very useful committee member to make room for another potentially less-useful member. As far as my outside member, I'm going to wait and see what direction my experiments take over the next year before I decide if I am pursuing a crystallography direction and thus would want a crystallographer, or if I am pursuing a helicase direction and thus would want an enzymologist. My PI had great suggestions for one of each, both within driving distance, so I am optimistic for finding a suitable outside committee member.
That said, I now need to formally ask the internal members to serve on my committee. Female Science Professor's recent post on seeking advisors has made me think about the best way to ask these individuals. After all, there is really little benefit for agreeing to serve on someone's thesis committee -- published papers will go under my PI's lab, not theirs, it's unlikely that (with the exception of one of my hopeful committee members) I will be doing major collaborations with them, and it's a lot of time and effort on their behalf. To add to that, my project is way out in left field in comparison with everyone else in my program. Almost all the Ph.D. students are studying cell signaling, mainly in breast or prostate cancer. As you can see from my above comments on crystallization or enzymology, my project has nothing in common with signaling or cell/molecular biology in general -- I may as well transfer to the biochemistry department at this point. Additionally, my project is really trying something new and unique that applies to the entire field of studying disordered proteins, much more so than just studying the particular forms of pediatric cancer studied by my lab. That said, I am super excited about the project, because it has the potential to wind up being something completely novel within biochemistry and widely applicable to the field of disordered proteins as a whole. I want to express this interest and excitement to the potential thesis committee members as a way to encourage them to agree to serve on my committee; while it may be more work on their behalf since this isn't a topic they see everyday, scientists should be excited by the new and unexpected, right? Especially when the new and unexpected is coming from a graduate student!
I asked a few older students how they formed a thesis committee, and most said they just sent an email basically saying "Will you serve on my committee?" My plan at the moment is to send a brief but well-written email stating why I think they would be a good fit for my committee (i.e., their involvement with biochemistry, their tie to the small molecular inhibitor side of my project, etc,), how much I value their opinions (particularly from those from whom I have already seeked advise), and attach a brief summary of my thesis proposal -- three paragraphs on background, my hypotheses, and the general aims and sub-aims, but without the proposed experiments. It totals 2 pages, and a significant chunk is in outline format. I don't want to send too much to read, but I want to show that I have put a lot of thought into the project thus far, and I am not blindly asking them to serve on a committee without a strong idea of the direction in which I want to take my research.
For those who read this blog who are faculty members, I'm hoping you can provide me with some suggestions as to the best way to ask these committee members. What impresses or disappoints you in regards to being asked to serve on a committee? I know it is a LOT of work for faculty members, and I really want to assemble the best possible thesis committee that I can.
Monday, December 17, 2007
IT'S HERE!!
Two giant crates were delivered to the lab today containing the new purification system.
YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!
Happy Holidays to me!
(Frankly, at this point, I don't even care if I get to use the new system, even though I should kind of get priority over most people in the lab since I do the most purification with the most difficult proteins. I'll be thrilled just to get the old AKTAprime all to myself... no more having to sign up for purification 2 weeks in advance, or coming in at 3am to run columns... no more having my experiments pushed back because people forgot to watch the system and it leaked and they needed to start over from the beginning... no more having to track down people who left their columns on the machine overnight or forgot to flush out the system and clogged part of the tubing... it will be mine, ALL MINE!!!)
YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!
Happy Holidays to me!
(Frankly, at this point, I don't even care if I get to use the new system, even though I should kind of get priority over most people in the lab since I do the most purification with the most difficult proteins. I'll be thrilled just to get the old AKTAprime all to myself... no more having to sign up for purification 2 weeks in advance, or coming in at 3am to run columns... no more having my experiments pushed back because people forgot to watch the system and it leaked and they needed to start over from the beginning... no more having to track down people who left their columns on the machine overnight or forgot to flush out the system and clogged part of the tubing... it will be mine, ALL MINE!!!)
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