Fit

With graduation fading in our memories, my lab is undergoing a change. One of our own is leaving. They are off to an assistant professor job. It is a position they seem happy with and we are all happy to see them off to succeed in the world. The Advisor, other faculty, other labmates, other students and myself have all had difficulties with this person* and I wish them the best in their new life.

Mad Hatter talked about the 'airport test' and how fit is much more than just personality. She actually says most of what I have been thinking about, and in a far more linear way so check it out if you haven't already.

So how does fit relate to a graduating student? Well, our lab has never run more smoothly**. Lab meetings are fun. It is a more supportive environment now. The person who left was never unsupportive or anything...but the entire atmosphere has changed and we are all a little more relaxed.
In addition to the huge influence of one single person, I find it interesting that as labs evolve what constitutes fit will change dramatically. Given that the rest of us get along well, what we look for in our incoming student is very different than when I started. A big part of my litmus test on my interview was how I would fare with someone difficult. I was put one on one with lab members and advisor was up front about potential personality conflicts. Our incoming student was thrown in with all of us to see how they would handle the possibly-overwhelming group of us.

Finally, this fit talk is everywhere. Between starting this post and publishing this post I heard from a postdoc acquaintance who just accepted a job. With three (3!!!!!!!!!, 2 at R1s) offers, the reason for their choice: 'it feels like a really good fit.' In all my postdoc hunting, I have kept my own feelings about where I fit in the back of my mind. The prestige or fame of PI or money issues have taken center stage but they really probably shouldn't.



* Which remain unbloggable.
**In my time there. Also, I am the only lab member on campus. I run smoothly all by myself but that is fodder for a different post. Possibly not with the usual 1o day interlude.

ummmm, right.

Alright, I know I was all ready to goof off on Friday but seriously. The faculty are worse than the students around here. If it isn't playing the bongo drums in your office, it is playing basketball. In the hallway. On a Monday morning. During finals.

Too many PhDs

I mentioned that there were 6+ dissertation defences this month in my department. Today it dawned on me that have so many PhDs in the world may not be the best thing. Why? The competitive job market? The excess of adjuncts? The funding crunch?
No.
The cake. We freaking have cake twice a week. Today there was no defense and still, there were 3 brand new cakes to eat for something else! While V has given up sugar, I have no control over cake. Turning down cake just seems wrong. It would be nice to just avoid it but that is difficult when you have to congratulate the newly minted PhDs. Lately, I have been better about avoiding the sweets people bring in to share but oooooooooo the cake....

Spring Break Woo!

Woo hoo! The advisors are out of town (both V's and mine)! The undergrads are gone! Time to break out the good booze and swing naked from the chandeliers of our hallowed halls.
Or, you know- work just like normal.

Actually, the only out of the ordinary aspect of the week is that I am going to steal a decent chair from V's lab for the week. Proper posture- now that IS something to get excited about!

I've been waiting

One of the most frustrating aspects of my research life lately has been waiting for data. When I left the desert, I left a lot of samples for the lab tech there to run (the process of leaving the samples could be a post of its own!). These samples make up the most exciting, sexy parts of my dissertation. I was very confident that my work would get done quickly, with few problems. We agreed on a deadline of Jan 2008.
Hehe.
Right.
Well, equipment broke and then other equipment broke and then this and that and the other. Now, 6 months later, I am still waiting for data*. There seems to be an 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality about my samples despite my persistant calls, setting of deadlines and general bitchiness towards folks I like and don't enjoy being bitchy to. One one hand, I will end up doing it all myself when I return to the desert, which will decrease my guilt about having a tech do a portion of my dissertation benchwork. On the other hand, the analyses might not work. Which will leave me with very little time to change direction let alone come up with new experiments or, you know- do them.
So, how do I get my samples? My new strategy is to ask for only small number of the samples completed. I can figure out my analyses on a small scale before finishing the bulk of them myself. But I have to get the small number of samples still**. I will see the tech at a conference in April. The head of the desert lab is aware of the issue although has not resulted in much progress. My advisor has no relationship with the lab so can't help me. Besides calling frequently and emails I am not sure what else to do. Any suggestions?

*Not just waiting, of course. There was the teaching and I am getting data on other experiments and even other aspects of that experiment.
**I with they could just send them to me but it is impossible to get them at my home university.

No one's home

It is a rare week in my lab. There is no one else around except me and my advisor (who is too busy writing a proposal to want to chat right now. This is rare- he likes lengthy chats). The undergrads are still gone and all the other graduate students went into the field. While field work is always fun, particularly in sun-drenched tropical countries, it hasn't been too bad around here either. There are no other schedules to compete with for lab time so I can power through as much of my current experiments as my little heart desires. So far, I am on track to complete the final treatment for one project and have been working out the details of the experimental design for another small project I want to try to do this semester. Being able to pop down to the lab throughout the day (and actually have things to do in there rather than just visit for no reason) has also helped keep me away from bloglines, gossip sites, email and...wow- I haven't looked at Cute Overload in 3 weeks!
If only it were this easy to stay productive when writing!

How you can tell I need the weekend to be here already...

One of my officemates came into the office for the first time all semester. He looked at me and said "Oh, hey there DancingFish" like he was surprised to see me in the office. I managed to smile and say 'hi' back but in my head it went more like this....'I hate you for taking the only desk near the window and then NEVER using it except to store your giant piles of papers while I stare at a wall 40 hours a week. And, also, you smell.'

Ok, I might be a little overly bitter about the window. But he really does smell- usually of cigarettes.

I can't wait for the weekend when these two are my 'officemates.'

Wha huh?

As if my first class weren't exciting enough.... we were all stuck in our offices for a few minutes in the afternoon at the request of police.

We were let out. No one has a clue why or what happened but it appears as of now that everything and everyone is fine.

UPDATE: There was a medical emergency. The involved parties are being treated and expected to be fine. Sorry to worry you, Mom!

On being very far away...

Considering that I am working in a lab 3000 miles from my university, I am pretty isolated from the daily goings-on of my department. V is a grad student there too so I hear about some things from him but we usually talk more about home, pets, wedding, and our own work rather than the latest from the department.
It is a strange situation. I still hear some gossip that is blatantly false, some that is heresay 4 times removed and some that I am sort of involved in (even though the people spreading it don't know it has to do with me at all). While it could probably be said that I was too involved in the gossip side of things, I miss the community of my department. Seminars, hallway chats, interaction of any kind- be it about science or who baked cupcakes that day.

Even stranger is my lab situation. I have very little idea what is going on there. I am sure if major changes or anything happened I'd be told but I am far enough along in my program and far enough away that I am not really involved with new students and not involved with any one elses' projects on a day-to-day basis. Even more than the department, I miss the camaraderie of my lab. Having lab meeting either with bagels (A.M.) or beers (P.M.) is a weekly occurrence and I thrive on chatting about ideas for experiments or what those new results could mean. It is so great to be surrounded by people who all get excited about science because it is a passion, not just a job. After being used to that environment, I wonder if my new environment influences how I work (or don't work). There, if you are stuck on a sentence you can take a break, walk down the hall, talk it out and move on. Here, I can walk down the hall and see if there is any coffee left, check up on my pilot experiments for the 4th time that day or check bloglines. Pretty much all of these ends with my mind remaining stuck exactly where it was. To make everything worse, there are never any cupcakes...