Dead tired
this morning, but made it to work by the usual time. Started the day by walking
to the main cafeteria to buy a cup of (regular) coffee. Can’t live without my
coffee. Already had my espresso at home before we left for work. Latest
research shows—coffee is good for you—three or four cups a day—perfect. Opened
Outlook—checked my emails. One of them was a thank-you email from a granting agency
in Singapore thanking me for reviewing two of their grant applications. I do
that now—I get paid for it. Got started on answering my emails early, and got
them out of the way. Trying to figure out the best way to formulate emails
these days can take several hours for just a couple of them. Made a few phone
calls. Arranged an examiner for my Master’s student who will have her exam in
June—took all of about half an hour. Ecstatic! Wasn’t as easy three years ago
when I had to find opponents for my PhD student. Frustrating then. Went and
talked to one of the women in the pathology department who is the
administrative leader for the technicians there. Talked about the logistics of
a project that needs technical help from the department. One of my jobs now—to coordinate
external and internal research projects that require routine technical help. Went
online to get price information for two items that needed to be ordered. Went
to the secretary who enters the orders into the computer. Chatted for a while.
Have decided that nice is the way to be; everything goes more smoothly when you
treat others well. Don’t care if the rest of the world thinks it’s not
efficient. Can honestly say that I've been nice to others most of the time. Worked through lunch doing my consulting job. On Twitter checking
out all the updates. What would I do without it? Better than Facebook in so
many ways. So much info on social media, so little time.
Started working after lunch on analyzing some statistical data for my student’s project—realized I had made
so many mistakes the first time I filled in the data tables. Why? I was dead
tired and when you are dead tired you shouldn’t be working at the computer
filling in data tables. Couldn’t understand why the graphs looked so odd
afterwards—huge standard errors. Now I know. Solved that problem. Moving right
along. Did a literature search on microRNAs—they’re
what’s hot now besides stem cells. Feeling the pressure to conform again. Maybe
I’ll get more grant support that way. Can I do like the others? We’ll see at
grant time in May when I start writing them. Printed out four review articles on microRNAs. Went
back to working on the statistical data. Playing around with grouping the data in different ways to produce different plots. Saw some interesting differences between untreated
and treated samples—there might be a story after all. Ecstatic again! It’s not
often that happens. Most of the time—balloons get punctured. Started dreaming
about the experiments I want to do. Usually do this whenever lab work goes
well. When it goes badly, I want to go home, crawl into bed and pull the covers
over my head. Saved the statistical tables in one file, emailed a copy of it to my home email,
and decided that for once I will look at it during the weekend. But right now,
glad it’s Friday. Monday it starts all over again……..
