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.