And the envelope please...

OK So the actually envelope isn't in my hands, and won't be until at least Monday. But today, whilst I was out and about doing some Christmas shopping, I got a phone call.

From Augusta Health.

Offering me admission to their program. The director called to see if she should mail the letter to my apartment here in the burg or to my parents' house in New Jersey. Since it's being mailed today, I told her sending it here would be fine.

And after we got off the phone, I proceeded to freak out.

OH MY GOODNESS HURRAY!!

Waiting...

So I've had two interviews now (Augusta and Valley) and there is nothing to do but wait. Valley is supposed to send of decisions on December 1, and Augusta just said that I would know "before Christmas". It's so vague; it's making me crazy.

In the mean time, I have to work on my presentation and report for my undergraduate research. I have my own project now, working on capsule production and motility, but nothing really has been determined with it yet, as I only started at the beginning of November. I have to present sometime before finals--the exact date depends on the availability of the other undergrad in the lab, so we can present at the same time. However, she just had a baby so she's not even sure when she'll be available.

That's all I've got for now. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, whether they were home with family or far away.

The Waiting Game

So I had my first interview (Augusta Health) on Friday. I think it went well; one of my interviewers said she was very impressed by my knowledge of the profession.

I am supposed to find out by Christmas...

It's official...

My first two interviews are scheduled:

Augusta Health - 13 November, 3 PM
Valley Hospital - 23 November, 11 AM

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

Now if only the sweaters I ordered for the express purpose of wearing as interview attire would arrive. I managed to find nice pants at the store, but for some reason, there were no sweaters in XS to be found in the entire store.

Oh Em Gee!

So those who know me well know that I've applied to three clinical lab science programs (Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, VA, Augusta Health Center in Fishersville, VA, and The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ). I also thought about applying to Virginia Commonwealth's program (Richmond, VA), but as it's in a college setting, it takes longer. Semesters and courseloads and all that. For hospital-based programs, it's done on intensive block scheduling, and you work for 12 months straight (with a week break between Christmas and New Year's).

For those who don't know what that is, clinical lab science is a branch of pathology (medical specialty) that deals with the biology and chemistry (and biochemistry, which I'm loving, btw) of disease. If you've ever given a urine sample, had a blood test, or even just a throat culture for mono or strep throat, a clinical lab scientist processed and analyzed your tests. The results of these tests factor into about 75% of diagnosis and treatment decisions made by physicians; other results can be used to determine if blood is suitable for transfusion, genetic testing to see if you are predisposed to a disease, or simply typing blood. There are several divisions of this science; at the moment blood banking (transfusion science) and microbiology (I know, shocker) are the most interesting to me.

Anyway, I've been having kittens over the fact that two of my letters of recommendations were lost in the mail (one of which is due next Saturday). Obviously, this is crucial for Valley, as their deadline is October 31; it is also a serious issue for Augusta, who does semi-rolling admissions. Augusta chooses about half of their class through people who get complete applications in early and the other half by those who have their applications completed by their February 1 deadline.

This became especially agitating as Valley e-mailed me on Monday offering me an interview, but only if they received my final reference by their deadline. For the record, it was sent out September 15. Curse you, United States Postal Service.

Fortunately, the professor who wrote my missing references agreed to issue new ones, as he had saved them. He even gave me some money to cover the cost of sending the letters priority mail so they would arrive at Augusta and Valley by the end of the week.

Anywho, I just got an e-mail today saying they had received my third letter and they're offering an interview as well...I'm so excited!

The more I learn about this career, the more I realize it's what I really want to do. I've been doing bench science and lab work my entire Tech career; it's what I love. I also am completely fascinated by how the body tells us that it's sick or damaged. I can't imagine letting this knowledge and these skills be wasted, especially when I get so much joy out of it. So I'm hoping and wishing that these interviews go well.

In other news...in Patho lab today, I got to culture Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The species name should tell you what nasty disease that causes; the bacteria we use in teaching labs are engineered to be non-virulent though, so it's really not so bad. They made us work in the biosafety hood anyway, to give us experience with the skills. I'm super excited to look at this particular bacteria under the microscope on Tuesday. I'm such a nerd.

Augh.

So either one of my letters of recommendation (that went to two of the three schools to which I applied) has been lost in the mail or was never sent in the first place.

AUGH!!!!

You're Incompetent!

Oh my cells...

We've been trying to transform bacteria in order to determine some genes, except none of the transformations are working.

So today I started a test to see if these cells are even competent. For those who don't know, competence is the ability of bacteria to take in foreign DNA. I tested the strain we've been using, a newer stock of this strain, and another strain that we know to be competent.

Man I hope I find something.

Sorry I haven't written anything in a while.

Keeping Track, Week 1

So I have to write a paper (and make an oral presentation) at the end of this semester about what I've done and learned doing undergraduate research. This isn't such a terribly big deal to me, but I definitely need to keep a log of what I've been doing. Granted I have a laboratory notebook for this purpose, but that's a lot of notes and scientific data. This can be in more narrative form.

So Monday I spent most of my time in the lab reading the safety manual and skimming articles about the organism we're working with, Pantoea stewartii stewartii. I also inoculated an overnight culture for the grad student to use the following day. Included in this was actually making the solution in which we're growing the culture and then collecting samples from the freezer stocks. I learned to use the automatic pipetter (love. it.) and just generally worked on lab skills.

Wednesday (yesterday) I continued to learn some basic skills by performing a Mini-Prep plasmid extraction. I'd done them in G&P lab last semester, but never with a filter. I also accidentally spilled one of my cultures, so I wasn't really surprised to see that particular culture reading at almost no DNA content when I used the mass spectrometer at the end of the extraction. I also learned how to use an optical density reading and convert it to the mass of what is in the solution (in this case plasmid DNA).

Other than that, school has been, well, school. We had a lecture in biochem about multitasking (actually pretty interesting), my patho teacher has successfully scared at least 20 people into dropping his class, and toxicology...I can't even determine how I feel about toxicology. It's just a huge blank.

In case you were wondering...

I got the new wet-lab position! Woohoo!

Interviewing

So today I interviewed with my advisor and her two doctoral students with regards to working in the lab. I think it went well...I may have impressed the grad students more than my advisor, but she did catch me off guard.

That's what I get for not reading up on her research before going in. Not that it would have really mattered, as she has almost nothing written about it on her faculty page.

But I got along incredibly well with the two grad students, and that's what I was really worried about. Both of them (both women) were easy to talk to. We soon strayed away from discussing the lab projects and talking about classes (I've had two courses with the both of them, as the Micro program has grad and undergrad sections of the same classes--with the only difference being that the grad sections have an extra meeting each week). We also talked about vaccines, IVF (in vitro fertilization), birthday cake, and how cartoons were so much better when we were kids. I had a great time and my advisor was shocked to see that I was still there talking with them when she came in to talk to one of the students about her project.

So I've got my fingers crossed at the moment. I already wrote my follow-up e-mail expressing my desire to work in the lab, so hopefully I'll hear by the end of the week.

I just want to point out that this was a completely different experience from applying to my first undergrad research lab.

And on that note...

I would have written this Monday, but I did end up quitting my research. I'm also interviewing this upcoming Monday for a position in a wet lab, where I can actually do microbiology things. NO MORE EUKARYOTES!! HOORAY!!

Wow that was nerdy.

Gathering the Nerve to Quit and Applications

Summer's a slow time. Time to break down what's been going on lately and update on my life.

I've totally given up on my research at this moment. I haven't looked at it in weeks and can vaguely remember what I'm supposed to do. My PI's going to be pissed.
But I hate this. I honest to god want to quit. I'm over the frustration and not being able to actually DO anything. None of my work is hands on in the lab, it's all on the computer, and I hate computers. Linux is not my friend. And I'm tired of having to do long-distance communication with my PI and my project partner whenever I have a problem. I can't solve these things remotely, I have NO computer science skills.
I really want to quit, to the point where I actually had a discussion with my advisor about it on Monday. She heard through the VT Microbiology grapevine (the program is small and everyone's a gossip) that I was miserable and wanted to talk to me about it. She thinks maybe I'd be happier with a different project and even, in a roundabout way, offered me a spot in her lab, but first I have to talk to my PI.
I hate talking to adults. Which is pathetic given that I'm graduating next May and will be an adult myself. But I'm always so freaking terrified of disappointing authority figures in my life...hence why it took me over a month to tell my advisor that I wasn't applying to grad schools anymore. I hate being a disappointment or letting people down. And I hate having to tell people who have authority over me that I'm going to do so.
But I need to tell him. I've been putting it off since Monday and will probably put it off at least another week (hurray Hokie Camp actually allowing me to procrastinate). But this needs to be taken care of before school, and time is ticking down. Otherwise, I may be facing a completely miserable semester.

In other news, I've decided to not apply to graduate school for the time being. This is partly because of my general frustration with research as a whole and partly because I am SO OVER school. I love learning and classes, but graduate school is more working than learning. You're sort of between an employee and a student.
Oh, and I've spent nearly 17 years being a student...I think I need to do something else for a while. I need to grow up and be an adult. Maybe learn to talk to them (see above).
So I've been applying to medical technology certification programs. They're one year programs, doing hands-on lab work and I should be able to get a job once I finish. The field has a severe shortage. I want to work in a lab and run tests and things...another drawback, really, to going to graduate school. All the PhDs I've met (post-docs and professors) spend more time in their offices than in their labs. I want to do actual work. OK, the post-docs do a lot of lab work, but for the goal of living in their offices...I don't want that.
As of Monday afternoon, I've sent off two applications and requested three letters of recommendation for each. I'm waiting on a third program to release their application...and hoping beyond hope that all my letters get in ASAP.

Well, that's all that's going on in my life right now.

Yup.

This pretty much sums up how research has been going for me lately. Except my PI thinks I'm a moron who can't operate a computer. Which, let's face it, I probably am.

shocking.

I hate Linux. So much. So so much.

whatever

Why is it that every day of my vacation I had no problem waking up at 7 (or earlier), but as soon as I had to go back to work, my body has been like "ugh, 7:15...I want to die"?

Also, I've determined that the lab computer just doesn't like me.

Deja Vu Much?

I felt like I was going to class this morning, as opposed to work. I was armed with a backpack loaded with the following: a notebook, my Microbial Physiology textbook, my laptop, a long-sleeve shirt in case I get cold, and a copy of the CT when I was able to find a newsstand.

Welcome back to research-land.

My Very Own Project

I meant to write this last week before I went on a trip (the boyfriend was a groomsman in a wedding and his sister's graduation was in the same week, so we made a vacation out of it), but I'm doing some summer research and I now have my OWN PROJECT!

I'm doing pretty much the same work I was doing in the spring, but I'm starting a whole metabolic system from scratch, which includes doing gene look-ups and actually creating the trees I need to annotate. This means learning more Linux and getting trained to use SystemX. I'm not a huge computer nerd, but I'm actually really excited to be using SystemX; it's only one of the fastest supercomputers on the plant.

What system will I be working with, you ask? Ever heard of The Krebs Cycle?

A Completely Non-Scientific Note

So I've had a mole removed. Hopefully this will be the only one, as I'm not particularly fond of the implications.

I'm a pale kid. I don't tan (intentionally or otherwise), I wear sunscreen almost all the time if I'm not covered up, and I don't mind that my skin could probably be described as "alabaster". 200 years ago, that was sexy, right? I'm a pale, brownish-red haired, slightly freckled girl with tanned blondes for a mother and sister.

Honestly, the worst part was after they put in the anesthetic and waited for it to kick in. I must have been lying on my stomach, with my butt exposed to the world, for a good 20 minutes. I don't have butt issues, per se, but I'd prefer to not to be lying prone on an exam table with only a hospital gown preserving my dignity. When they were actually cutting it out, we talked about prions (apparently they factored greatly into this past season of 24), Swine Flu, and hummus. I could feel pressure on my back, mostly when they were stitching me up, but it didn't hurt. Apparently, people believe that when you get anesthetized, you can't feel anything. People, you'll feel pressure, but it won't hurt.

The mole was on my back, slightly above where a bra or bikini strap would rest, and tiny. But it was slightly star-shaped. Like Star of Bethlehem, not a sticker you got on your spelling test in the 3rd grade. And apparently it was deep, deep enough to warrant a subcutaneous stitch, as well as the nice collection I've got holding my back together.


I've had stitches before and have no issue cleaning them and I can deal. These, however, are driving me nuts. They're at the exact place on my back that I cannot reach, so I have to rely on others to clean them for me. And they itch like crazy (my back hurts a little, as well, but the itching is more annoying). I'm also incredibly paranoid that I'm going to inadvertently rip these out. Or have them ripped out by my cat, who is a terrorist and has a penchant for jumping at my back anyway. I had to move seats twice at dinner to get away from him, as he kept jumping behind my chair and twice got his claws into my back -- nowhere near the stitches, but enough to make me incredibly anxious.

So that's all that's new right now. I'm sure I'll have something to say about work and research once I get back to the 'Burg.

Blah

It feels so weird being around here and not having work to do.

The latest adventures in my life include surreptitiously gathering graduation presents with those of us who are not graduating for those who are (all in our group of friends except for the three girls and two of the guys). After a brainwave last night, we finally got everyone covered and hopefully the last of the ordered presents will arrive today. Graduation is Saturday, and they're all graduating from the same college, so we don't have to juggle ceremonies.

I managed to get A job. Not a job I really wanted mind you, though for the last few days, it was starting to look like any job would be acceptable to me. So I'm part of the Personal Computer Initiative at the bookstore, which basically means I answer the phone and organize laptop orders for incoming freshmen and other people who are ordering new computers. Funsies.

So I guess I'm going to go do my dishes now because they've accumulated rather well. Then I'm not sure what I'm going to do...no one else is up this early, and the only reason I am is because I had to drive the bf out to the Village to find his car. He left it there when he went to a department barbeque, at which he got rather drunk and obviously did not drive home.

Been Busy

So I've been gone a while. End of the semester is a busy time, as you may know. So here are some brief wrap-ups of my labs.

Class Lab
Presented the giant mutant project. Somehow managed a 95 on the presentation, despite completely blanking out on how Ethedium Bromide works. I'll never forget again after that. Also did reasonably well on the final. Given that and an impeccable attendance grade, plus extra credit points for doing the unthinkable and turning work in on time (don't ask), I might possibly scrape an A in the course. Who knows.

Research Lab
I ended up having to complete a multiple sequence alignment, which for several weeks was the bane of my existence. However, once it was all said and done, things turned out quite pleasantly and I actually had something to show for my work, aside from some very colorful cladograms. This is not to say that I wanted to pull my hair out on more than one occasion, mostly as a result of some proteins being hypothetical or certain websites (no naming names...) making it almost completely impossible to find sequences.

So that's what I've been up to. No idea where my life is going for the summer. Stupid economy.

Mutant Woes -- 7A

So in my Class Lab, for the last several weeks, we've been working on a Transposon Mutagenesis project (don't feel like explaining what that means at the moment). And my group had isolated some nifty mutants, specifically a uracil auxotroph (RBJ-7A, 7A for short).

But, in this lab, we also learn the woes of research: things don't always work. Our little 7A kept on pushing through, even when the rest of our mutants (we had about 25 in total) refused to grow on other media or didn't electroporate properly or whatever. 7A made it all the way to selection for sequencing, which included a restriction-enzyme digest and gel electrophoresis, the results of which my group and I waited for with baited breath. But 7A passed.

And then we sent it to be sequenced...where...it didn't work out.

Such is research, as my TA told us, which is completely understandable. But I was rooting for this little guy. My group was going to have something exciting and different to present at our poster session in May. But it was not to be. So we're using a sequence provided for us by the TA.

Fortunately, little 7A is quite literally chilling out in the -80 freezer, so I know it'll face another day in the future.

Yes, I did get that attached to a Bacillus subtilis mutant. I know I'm a giant nerd.

Since everyone else was doing it...

1 test (Physics)
1 presentation (gene mutants)
2 quizzes
2 homework assignments
3 extra credit assignments
3 finals
...and about 50 genes to transcribe, translate, and align so my PI can get published

Just in time for summer vacation.

In the meantime, I'm waiting to hear on summer jobs. I've applied to two lab jobs, planning to add a third (orientation aide, undeclared majors) on this week, and will apply for a fourth (orientation aide, science majors) when it becomes available. Maybe I'll apply for a bookstore job as well.

I love school, but I am so ready for summer and NOT HAVING HOMEWORK.

Keys to the Lab!

So I'm finished with trees for the time being. Aside from my PI sending me one every few days as he finishes up his grant stuff and pushes towards publishing, I've been working on a new project.

Unfortunately, it's going to drive me mad.

All those genes I had to annotate on trees? Well, now I'm doing intron analysis. If I hadn't been required to take Intro Genetics, I would have completely forgotten what those were. You see, prokaryotes DON'T have introns, and that's what I've been studying for nearly two years now. In prokaryotes, you find an open reading frame (ORF) and you keep going until you find a stop codon. Nice and neat, no splicing, no guesswork.

Introns are a pain. They can wedge themselves between two amino acids or even within one and you'll be none the wiser until you start translating and realizing that your code is a lot larger than the protein. Hrm. Also, it's impossible to tell an intron from an exon by simply looking at the chromosome or the mRNA.

Cue an awesome little program called DS Gene. I love it already. It gives me potential ORFs; all I have to do is translate them and see if they match the recorded protein structure wherever the genome for these organisms are being held. Most of them are on NCBI, which is just dandy, but there are a few lurking elsewhere in cyberspace, though I think I've tracked most of them down by now.

One little hitch/piece of awesomeness (depending on how you look at it): DS Gene only runs on Windows. I have a Mac, a Mac that stubbornly resists Bootcamp for some reason. So last week I received keys to the lab so I can get in on days that the building is closed (if I need to do so) and run my analysis on the lab computer. Woo!

Continuing Education

So lately I've been considering, a lot, what I'm going to do after graduation. (How I realized I could have graduated this semester if I had been so inclined is another story)

I know I want to go to graduate school, that much is certain. However, I don't know if I want to do a masters or a PhD program. I know I can put in two more years, but I'm balking at the thought of four or more. Especially when my future plans aren't set in academia.

I want to work for the government, ideally as a weapons analyst. In the defense capacity, not offensively. I am so ethically opposed to the idea of engineering organisms for strategic purposes (translation: biological weapons) that it is slightly painful. But at the same time, I know there are people and groups out there researching and doing just that. And we need to be prepared.

This desire probably stems from my literary love for spy and crime novels, as well as the books by Richard Preston. In fact, his books are primarily what I want to do with my life--be on the defensive for whatever is out there waiting to infect and attack the human race.

In principle, these things aren't difficult, just time-consuming. But there are people who have nothing but time to tinker in a lab with the same skills I'm learning in classes (transformation, mutagenesis, etc), with potentially crippling results.

It doesn't even have to be something engineered. During irradication, it was determined that smallpox only needs 20,000 people within a two-week radius of each other to survive. Heck, there's more than that in a 15 minute radius on my college campus on any given weekday. Other diseases, like polio or measles, can have vast damaging effects, especially in an age where more and more people are refusing to vaccinate their kids. One day at the swimming pool and you can have at outbreak. In the 1980s, the Rajneeshees reminded us of our weakness to plain old Salmonella typhimurium by spreading it on the salad bar.

I want to do work with things like this, in a microbiologist's capacity. However, I'm not sure if I really have it in me to get a PhD, or if I even need a PhD to do these things. I don't want to run the show, I just want to get in the game.

On Sleep Deprivation

Strange things happen when I don't sleep. In my mind, at least.

I woke up this morning at about 500 EDT. I gave up on sleep around 730. In between, I fretted about everything from my weight to my being silly about my weight to what is going to happen when the sun dies and whether or not humanity will even make it to that point and how it's not really going to matter to me because I'll be long dead and then my brain tried to wrap itself around the possibility of my ending and what if I just rolled over and fell asleep and never woke up again...and then I'm afraid to fall asleep. Because we all count on waking up the next morning and living on.

Yeah. This is what happens when I can't sleep. It's a vicious cycle.

In other news, I am DONE annotating trees, with two days to spare before my PI's presentation. Provided he doesn't send me any new ones between now and then. Who knows what will happen after that.

Just a Quickie

Because I've got a report to edit and studying for my Microbial Physiology test to do.

Anywhoo, I've been busy, editing trees and all that. I'm finding that this one gene, A622 (with a supposedly unknown purpose in tobacco plants) has a lot of roots in...wait for it...diatoms and algae. Hrm...

Granted, I haven't spent that much time doing undergrad research in the past 2 weeks or so due to midterms and writing reports and pretending I want to have a life.

The snow is all right, I guess. We've got a lot, and of course VT didn't close. I'm kind of over it at this point, mostly because I know it's supposed to be in the 50s and 60s Thursday and Friday and that means it's going to melt and be a huge disgusting mess here. I'm just ready for Spring Break.

We're doing stuff with bioluminescence in the class lab. Hooray mutating E.coli to glow in the dark. I just wish I didn't have to write a report on how I did it. I hate writing lab reports. Especially when the prof rips them to bits every time.

I didn't even know they made them that large

...That's what she said. OK, seriously.

So I have a neuronoma in my foot. Which, according to the Mayo Clinic's website, is a swelling of a nerve. Due to injury, wearing tight shoes, or repetitive sports that put strain on the balls of the feet (i.e. running or tennis). In my case, injury. Maybe running from class to lab to class to lab to home to lab to Boyfriend's to class to lab to...you get the idea.

I thought it was a stress fracture or a pretty serious contusion, but nope. Apparently it's a neuronoma. Guess what the best treatment for those are? A shot.

A huge-ass cortisone-anesthetic shot. Oh and the standard RICE-ing. But the shot. I kid you not, the needle was as long as my pinky. And it wasn't one of those quick in-and-out shots like HPV or Tetanus--no, the doctor kept it in and had to inject slowly. And kept pushing the needle deeper. I swear, at one point, I could feel the it poking at the bottom of my foot.

On the bright side, I felt grrrrrr-EAT for the next 3 or so hours. Driving home was hilarious, too, as my foot fell asleep (of course it was my driving foot).

So that's my story for today.

Holy Nitrogen Fixation, Batman! Real Results!

So I was puttering around with my research today (Linux is all fixed, btw--Dr.J never changed the privacy settings in my files, so while I could see them, I couldn't access them), and found something exciting. AKA really nerdy and boring if you're not into microbio.

One of the proteins for which I was annotating a phylogeny, I noticed a huge group of the phyla Alphaproteobacteria were all of the same two genera: Rhodobacter and Rhodopseudomonas.While their proteins weren't directly related to the one I was working on--as noted by how the structure of my tree was shaping up to be--it was interesting that they were all of these two genera. You see, these two, as well as other Alphaproteobacteria whose genus name starts with Rhodo, are bacteria that reduce Hydrogen Sulfide to elemental Sulfur in metabolism. So I started going through my notes from when I took Microbial Diversity (so glad I ended up saving those) and found out some more information, though not enough. I'm going to have to search through the Journal of Bacteriology's archives or something.

I'm excited to present these results on Friday. I don't know what it means yet, but it's exciting.

Linux-ing, Part 2

I hate Linux and it hates me. Seriously.

Either that or Dr. J's main computer is out to get me. For real. It isn't letting me access any files, now including the ones I made myself. I was able to access one file for about an hour or so last Tuesday (basically, long enough for me to finish working with the data in that file) and then it decided I couldn't use it anymore.

And I'm the only undergrad having this problem. I think Dr. J might think I'm a moron.

In other news, I've been looking at Microbiology Master's programs (I don't think I've got it in me to get a Ph.D.), mostly in the Richmond to DC corridor. So that would be VCU, George Mason, and Georgetown. And I found two MS programs in Biohazard Defense that look pretty cool in addition to normal Master's programs.

Hopefully I can rock the GRE in May.

Off Topic...

I know this is in no way related to the purpose of the blog at all, but:

I'm going to Las Vegas!!!

Which should be amusing since I almost never drink and don't gamble. But gambling really isn't high up on any of my friends' list of priorities for this trip. And the only reason we're really going is because it's incredibly cheap for us to go at the moment (thanks, recession). It's going to end up being $440 for the flight and hotel together...and we're staying at one of the seriously famous hotel-casinos, not some AmeriLodge 3 miles away from the strip.

So exciting!!

Also: apparently Montgomery County has a brushfire warning today...in the middle of February. I love it here.

I hate getting graded

Nothing like a few grades to remind me why I prefer my research lab to my class lab.

My average in class lab right now is a whopping 50. And that's easily one of the lowest in the class. I know I'm not really a very smart person, but being in my major is one of the easiest ways to constantly remind me of that.

In research, it doesn't matter how smart I am, as long as I can figure things out. At least it feels that way to me.

This was an incredibly incoherent entry, mostly because I'm annoyed at myself for not doing better.

Linux-ing

So today was my first experience with Linux. And my first step into hacking. Sort of. VT-endorsed hacking.

I learned how to create tunnels to other computers, namely the Linux system that is holding all of the lab's molecular evolution data. I have no files as of right now, but Dr. J (my research lab adviser) is placing files into my home program so I can work from home and not spend every waking second in the lab, on the computer in his office. This was in the plan all along.

Learning the command lines is tedious. Right now all I can do is sign in and out and toggle between my folders. I need to figure out a new password that will be acceptable to the system so it will let me change my password from the default one that Dr. J gave me when he set up my account.

I'm also learning to use a program called FigTree to create cladograms (or, at least as of right now, annotate already existing ones to make them ready for publication), which is a pretty standard, self-explanatory hybrid of Photoshop and Excel.

All in all, it's been a good few days in the research lab.

In other news, once again VT is proving to the world that it never, ever closes. Not even when all the schools in the county, nay, the commonwealth are closed. Including many other universities. Eesh. So when I wiped out on a patch of black ice today, when rushing between classes, I just reminded myself that this will all be worth it in the end. And popped a few Advil to keep the souvenir bruise on my knee from hurting too much.

This cannot become a pattern

Today was my first day of what unfortunately is looking like a truth of this semester: not having lunch.

In fact, it is nearly 6 and I have not eaten yet today. As Winnie the Pooh would say, "there's a rumbly in my tumbly." And I won't be eating until the boyfriend gets out of his senior design project meeting. About which I'm not complaining, since I know he has done exactly no work on it yet this week and it is sort of required of him if he plans on graduating.

But my schedule this semester is not conducive to the standard 3 meals a day. Neither is my friends' latest habit of having movie nights that start at 10 PM. I like movies too, but I can't sleep through my morning classes because Braveheart ended at 2 AM.

Anyway, I have my first major report due in G&P lab, which has to be written in the format of an article for the Journal of Bacteriology. Yikes. Bookmarked that webpage, it's a new BFF. Fortunately all lab reports have rewrites, which will be essential for me, as I've never written a science journal article before. And I'm going to have to magically understand microbial metabolism overnight, because I can't explain the results right now.

Research is going slightly better. We have weekly group meetings on Fridays, and then there's a mini-group meeting for me and this kid in Computer Science (hereafter referred to as CS Guy) on Tuesdays. Except the first one was today due to a scheduling error. Basically, I'm going to start out annotating phylogenetic trees until CS Guy has written a PERL script that will get through GenBank and BLAST searches faster. Oh and we have about 50 pages of reading on nicotine metabolism that our director wants us to understand backwards and forwards. A preliminary glance at it seems reasonable, a lot of organic chemistry and gene regulation, but I have the biology background for this. CS Guy hasn't had biology since the 9th grade. It's gonna be fun.

Well, that's all for now because my room is cold and I need to read for class.

Week 1- Homework, ghost movies, and labs, oh my!

Oh School.

I'm very obviously procrastinating on homework at the moment (2 papers, nearly 300 pages of reading, 2 pre-labs, and a survey that VT Survey refuses to let me access) and I've got a sore throat, so let's recap on the week before I get dressed and hit the books. Man I wish the library opened before noon on Sundays.

Monday was a day off from school, so I spent it attending meetings, stalking the necessary people to sign my undergraduate research form (adviser, dept. head of Biology, academic dean of the College of Science, etc), and relishing the last few hours without work. Tuesday I was off and running, with Microbial Physiology, Gender in 20th C. Africa, and Physics II, followed by dinner on-campus with the boyfriend, one of his roommates and the roommate's girlfriend. Wednesday was the long day, with 3+ hour sessions each of The Great Depression and Microbial Genetics and Physiology Lab (aka Class Lab), and I made the mistake of taking cold medicine in the morning and nearly passing out in Depression. Decided I would not be re-dosing for lab, as sleepy Beth + open flames is surely a recipe for disaster. As it is, I've already burned myself in that lab. Thursday was the same as Tuesday, but managed to grab lunch with the evil twin as Physics II lab doesn't start until the second week, and as soon as I got out of Physics, I went home, jotted a post-it of my homework, and officially called it a week.

I'm becoming a bit of a Guillermo del Toro fan. I've always liked Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, and this weekend I watched The Orphanage and The Devil's Backbone with the boyfriend, both of which are excellent movies. While The Orphanage is trippy in the same way as Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone was a pretty straight-forward ghost story. Also, after seeing The Unborn last week, The Orphanage was reminding me of that a little as well.

Well, that's all for the moment. Gotta get dressed and start on that reading, so I can write the papers...and everything else.

So I Guess I Should Introduce This

So I've finally succeeded in something I've been threatening to do for the entirety of college: have a semester where I spend so much time in the lab that no one will ever see me.

I've already got mixed feelings about this. I'm excited to be in the labs, one for a class, the other for research, but I know both are going to consume copious amounts of time. Time that recently has been spent playing Guitar Hero, watching Law and Order, Scrubs, and The Office, denying that many of my friends will be graduating this semester, and the occasional drinking.

So about my labs. They will be known, until I get bored of code-naming everything, as Class Lab and Research Lab. Class Lab is a 3-credit, writing intensive, likely-to-become-7-hours-a-week-nightmare, if only because I have a nagging fear that I am not cutthroat enough to be a research kid in a room full of pre-meds. It will be covering molecular and microbiology techniques and we'll see how I feel about my lab group on Wednesday.

Research Lab...well, I recently just got into it, and odds are I'll be sharing all the boring details with you (not boring to me, but probably dull as paint to people who aren't into systematics or genetics). Basically, I e-mailed Dr. J a month ago, met with him last week, got the offer to work in it yesterday, and will hopefully be meeting with him Monday.

Interspersed with Lab Talk will probably be occasional mention of my life outside the lab -- other classes, friends/boyfriend stuff, the news, maybe touch on the roommate issues. Who knows. I guess I'll write as I feel like writing, and we'll let it go from there.