Day before the race

I am in the lab now. I hate working on the weekends because it is so quiet, but I realise that I need to get work done for the week, and a couple of hours today may help me in the week to come. A mix of guilt and desire to graduate I suppose.

Went to Bob's birthday party at UCLA on friday. It was really really nice to see everyone again. Anhthu, Brandon, Jinsun (who I don't really know). Met Greta (finally). We have had so many conversations on the phone and know so much about each other that it is strange that we have not met for all these time. She's a riot! I'm sure we would have gotten along very well had we been in the same lab. Bob pretended that he didn't care that it was his 60th birthday but we all knew better. Anyone who had known him in some capacity would know that he LOVES the attention. Of course we had on of those Grand Marnier cakes that he likes so much. It is strange, now that I haven't had one for quite a few years I actully think that they are pretty good! Also got to meet some of Bob's undergrads for his HHMI undergrad research grant. It's good to see that comtinuation of learning. Strange because I was in that position more than 5 years ago! How time flies, and it amused me that the undergrads were in awe of the fact that I'm doing my PhD at Caltech. I suppose it's all a matter of perspective. For me everything seems so ordinary and normal. And I certainly don't feel special in any way--after all, everyone else I associate with here goes to Caltech too. Big deal! But once in a while I run into someone who is not doing a PhD at Caltech and then I realise that to others perhaps what I'm doing sounds impressive. It made me feel to go back and talk to Bob and realise that not all labs are like the one that I am in. Bob keeps telling me that while I may feel miserable and unhappy now, in 10 years I will probably look back on this as one of the most amazing experiences in my life. I sure hope so. But it made me feel good about the pursuit of science again. That you can find mentors out there who care about you and your learning and not just treat you as a data generating machine. And that perhaps this is a good thing just for the fact that now I know what I like and don't like about being a scientist so that when I run my own lab I will know how to run it.

Got a postcard from Cheryl from DC. She should be coming back soon. I'm glad I heard from her. I was starting to get worried....

Watched "All the President's Men" yesterday. Great movie. A must see for all you journalists out there.

Bought a container of that EnduroxR4 stuff that I had heard about today. It's a recovery drink after a good workout so you can replace your fluids with some protein so you can rebuid muscles better. We'll see if this stuff is any good. Stefan and I want to run the LA marathon next year. I think it may be good to join a pace group. Even though I hate running groups because I find it hard to stick to a schedule, it may be a good idea for a race as long as 26.2 miles. Most of the groups meet on the westside, but there's the Pasadena Pacers which meet at the Rose Bowl. Still 7am on a saturday is very very early......

Long weekend!

I'm just biding my time until I have to leave for UCLA to Bob's birhtday cake. I think I shall stop by Trader Joe's on the way to pick up some cheese etc. Memorial day is round the corner and everyone is getting lazy.

I somehow ended up with unenviable task of coordinating the lab demo of the sea urchim embryo sorter machine. Apparently this machine will be able to sort gfp expressing from non expressing embryos. I can imagine that it might be really useful. If it works really really well it might speed up my PhD thesis! I am really hoping for that, because I need to spend about a week of my time with the salesman working out hwo the machine works etc. Otherwise it would just be a waste of time.

We have a postdoc interviewing at the lab today. Some mathematics/physics dude from Stanford. I guess Eric is really pushing for a more computational lab now. I think a good number of the people will be leaving in a year or so, and that means that lab will be very very different after that. We are getting two new postdocs this summer. One is a bioinformatics woman and no one seems to know about the other one. Well, I just hope I will be in a position to leave in about a year. I would hate to be around afer all the people I know have left!

Roger might be flaking out on me for the race. He is thinking of going to the mountains with Mariu, theo etc. But he's going back to Barcelona next week so he doesnt really want to take too much time off. Besides, he had also paid $40 for the race.

Nose just told me about some giant zit she had. Damn gross! Reminds of my abcessed leg. My leg appears to be fine now. It is still a little discolored and feels slightly lumpy, but somehow I think that I am going to make it......

I received the acknowledgement from the journal that they have my paper and will send it out for review soon.

It's a long long day

We just had one of those marathon lab meetings. This one lasted for 2 hours and is probably the longest one I had been in. But thank goodness it isn't as boring as the usual ones. Paola and Feng talked about fossils today.

My little SURF student stopped by for the lab meeting today. Well, she's not really that little, but she's young. Her name is Kelly and she seems social enough. One thing I cannot deal with is non social primates. That breed seems to be rather prevalent at Caltech, usually I find that my cats are more interactive than them. Of course being that way I am it would be impossible for me to work with someone I cannot communicate with. Roger has changed hsi opinion of her and now thinks that she is cute.

Yesterday was Roger's birthday and Mariu held a birthday party in his honor. We had some delicious Argentinian BBQ with REAL charcoal! I had thought that stuff we buy at vons was real charcoal! Eric thinks that we should get some for our next BBQ. Food was great, company was wonderful and there was plenty of booze.

Finally got an email from Paul after a long long absence. Turns out the company was under some internal review and he was really busy.

Still haven't heard from Cheryl. I hope she is still in Taiwan.

Tomorrow is Bob's 60th birthday. Anhthu and Brandon are having a little party for him at the lab. I think I'll stop by. But the drive to UCLA will be hell though, and I am not entirely enthusiastic about it.

Off for a run........

Done!

I finally submitted my manuscript today! Well, actually I gave the copies to Jane, who will send it to EHD's favorite editor at Gene expression patterns. I still need to give EHD a copy....ha ha its funny that I forgot to give him of all people a copy of the paper, but oh well.

I hate tuesdays! It seems that I can never get enough done because I have to leave my 6:30pm. Not that I normally stay past that, but having to go to UCLA early means that I often get my tuesday run in, like what happened today. I went to a seminar on genome reprogramming and cloning today, which turned out to be an utter waste of time. Should have gone running instead. Now my PhD is delayed by an hour and I have not improved on my fitness....

The last lecture of the ethics course was today. Finally! I had to take an ethics course as part of the NIH training grant requirement. Supposed to teach us about ethical conduct in science. Bah! For the most part it was a waste of a good two hours of my monday afternoon. I managed to get through a good portion of a recent copy of science during today's lecture.

I received my info for the half marathon today. I am quite looking forward to racing next monday, though I am a little concerned about the change in elevation. Running downhill can seriously weaken one's quadriceps, which would make the race slower overall. Ha ha ha, I suppose I really should be content to finish in a reasonable time, but I really want to beat my previous time of 2:00:16.

I went to the REI store this weekend to get my baymate Roger a birthday present. I ended up getting him a camelpak. He likes all kinds of outdoor activities. The camelpak is probably too heavy for running, but would be great for hiking, camping etc. While there, I was like a kid in the candy store and ended up buying a racing cap for myself. It's one of those ultralight things lined with coolmax. I used it on my long run on sunday. I have to admit I didn't feel as "free" as i might if I hadn't worn a cap, but it did soak up the sweat on my forehead and served the other purpose of blocking out the sun. I don't need any more sun damage then I already have.

My other acquisitions this weekend was a bottle of Calendula toner from Kiehls and the Never a dull moment facial scrub from origins. I swear by both products--some of the greatest facial care ever created.

I have finally made all the changes to my paper. I need to check with EHD (my advisor) to see if he wants anyone else to review it or if we are ready to submit it. If I can get a moment with him, that is.

Thesis defenses

This is the season for people defending their Ph.D.s Yesterday Mariu and Tony both successfully defended the theses and are now doctors! They are both very very happy and very very relieved! Roger and I are looking with wistful eyes, thinking that oh we want to finish too!

Shelley will be defending tomorrow. I must remember to go. She came by yesterday to drop of the invite for her wedding to Harry in June!!! I'm sooo excited! We promise to go for lunch/dinner sometime soon so I can see the Burmeses.......Shelley says they're a little inbred, one of them has a tongue that hangs out and a wide head.

My labmates have been circulating the 10 favorite words from Merriam-Webster. Pretty random stuff, and we have been making stupid sentences today.

Eric brought me McDonalds for lunch. I love their grease soaked fries and puny burgers. And he spent the lunch hour telling my labmates about his fantasies towards Brad Pitt. Obviously he is looking forward to watching Troy.

Nose says she wants to open a doggy day care center in Singapore. People are really crazy if they are going to take their DOG to day care! But this is coming from someone who talks to cats...

Have all the paperwork finalized for the SDB meeting in Calgary. I am still hoping for the plane ticket price to drop. My boss was giving me shit again about how crappy that meeting was etc. And of course he wasn't going to pay for it but he was curious about how I was going to pay for it. Bah! My secret (or rather not so secret) objective is to scope out labs for a potential postdoc.

Off for a run...I heard that we might have a spawning party next week. !@#@!^

beginning of another week

My leg is much better. It is not really red anymore, though it still appears to be a little swollen. I managed to squeeze out some amount of pus on saturday, which Eric was quite interested in watching. Parts of the leg still feels really turgid, but not particularly painful. Am not quite sure what that means.

Watched 21 grams....good movie

Went for a 13 mile run on sunday. This is the longest run I had done since my race last november. I was totally beat and am a little sore today. But I think I will recover soon. Now I know I can still finish the distance......the question is in what time? My most favorite new gadget is the garmin forerunner 201. Something every serious runner should not do without. Using GPS it can calculate distance travelled and hence speed. Also gives you a map of where you had gone so you won't get lost. Also has a funciton called virtual buddy which you set your goal pace and you can see if you are ahead or behind. Only drawback, you need an open view of the sky. So it may not work in well shaded hiking trails.

There will be a spawning party tomorrow. I didn't sign up for it this time. I figured I had already had experiments planned for today and to give me one day's notice really isn't quite enough. Cathy was rather pissed that no one seemed enthusiastic about it. I understand her frustration, but that's what happens when you give people short notice. Besides, I figured that I have gone to enough spawning parties that I am not going to feel bad about not going to this one.

My friend Tony Giannetti is defending his thesis tomorrow. I have to make a note to go.

Someone sent me a link to a DNA sculpture made of shopping carts. Pretty cool!

Heading to the gym. Good thing there's no TV monday nights, perhaps I'll be able to get my paper corrected or partake in some other form of intellectual pursuit.

Weekend!

The Davidson lab baby boom continues.....Lili (ex-postdoc) gave birth to her daughter Lida Wang a few days ago and we got the pictures!

Went to the doctor again regarding the cat bite--it appeared to have expanded a little which worried me, but the doctor said i shouldn't worry about it too much. Thank goodness! I think I might be well enough to go running tonight. I am definitely getting antsy from not being able to run for so many days. Heard about a mud race in camp pendelton. I was quite interested until I heard about the getting completely muddy part--with no shower facilities. Reminds me of that orientation mud games we used to play at NJ.

Momo and Atticus have a very shaky truce right now. They mostly avoid each other. Momo growls when Atticus gets too close, but I can hardly blame him. Roger says that if a person inflicted that kind of damage to me I would have seriously kicked some ass, but since it's one of my cats.....

Just went to see the newborn baby of someone I know from when I was in the Caltech women's Glee Club. Turns out Takuya (one of my labmates) and her husband are good friends and they had made arrangements to meet by the gene pool (yes we have geeky names for fountains here at Caltech). It always amazes me how small babies are when they are born. And I was that size at one point!!!! Hard to imagine!

Off for the weekend!

Whoopee!

Just submitted my gene sequence to Genbank. Yeah! It will be released 9/1. Hopefully by then my paper will be accepted.
My paper came back from Jane with a bunch of changes. Luckily they are all format related. Except that 1 figure will b e hell to modify.
Had to go to the doctor again today to get more powerful antibiotics. Hopefully these would do the trick and I won't have to go back again.
Carolina (grad student in my lab) gave birth to a boy, Ian Ferreira Bower. The Davidson lab is starting to become a nursery...
Just had a talk with my advisor....sigh. More experiments to do again.
Off to home! Eating goose for dinner!

Ouch!

I have been setting myself a new goal of coming to work early everyday. So far I have been pretty good, having made it into the lab ~9am for almost 2 weeks! I think this is the longest streak I have ever had :P. Boy I must want to graduate.
Fungus is going to venture into the world of paintball. When I told Eric he thought I was going to go to the private game this saturday too and he got so excited that he almost went out to buy me a vest. And spent some time thinking about which gun would be most suitable for me. Alas! It's not to be....I still have no intention of being pounded with little balls filled with paint.
Atticus had another berserk episode last night. This time he managed to grab a hold of my leg and created a vast array of scratches and some bite marks. I'm now on antibiotics for the cat bite and have to go back tomorrow for a follow-up. Apparently cat bites are very prone to horrible infections. He and Momo are once again separated and would only greet each other with copious hissing...well I just got a refill of kitty prozac for Atticus. I was hoping he could go off it but I guess the day has yet to come.
Good news, I finally gave Jane a copy of my paper. Now she is going to review it and let me know whatever it is that need to be added and hopefully we can submit it soon. I still have to submit that cDNA sequence to genbank, but that can be done in an afternoon or less.
Jill is going to defend soon! whoopee! A couple of students from my year are defending this week, and this has depressed Roger (my baymate) and I for some time, but i think we are mostly over it now.
Feng Gao's wife just gave birth to a baby boy today. They have named him Sean. He's a big boy at 8lbs and 20in.
Choir practice tonight. My carpool bores me but i'd rather not drive myself to UCLA every week. Wonder which movements we are doing tonight. I hope we get to do "Lift thine eyes" soon.

My very first entry

Thanks to my SNGS friend Jean I have decided to venture into the world of blogging.
Perhaps it would be a good way to keep people updated of my mundane daily activities.
Now I just have to figure out how actually to work this whole thing before all the interesting stuff starts flowing...