June 27, 2009 - Posted by danielle - 1 Comment
This week it really hit me, this is the way to do research. I love having my research be about teaching people - in this case, really bright undergrads - how do do research.
I think that the biggest part of it is the teaching and training side of it. I’ve always loved teaching others how to do a particular technique in the lab. But this time, I’m also teaching them the theory behind it And I’m explaining how to decide which parts to change when optimizing an experiment. And we are discussing experimental design. And they are learning even simple things like how to keep a notebook that is actually useful to yourself and to others.
All in all, it is a LOT of fun.
I also think that some of it too, is not having the pressure to produce a certain amount of results in a certain amount of time. Sure, we have a goal to get a certain amount of answers by the end of their 10 weeks. But hey, if we don’t make it, there will be more time to keep working on it.
I wonder how much of it too is that I came up with the research path/topic of research myself. Maybe I’m kidding myself, but I think that our work will have a bigger impact on science than some of the other projects I’ve done. Or maybe it is that I had such high hopes for those other projects, and now, I realize that they didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped.
Anyway, life is good right now. Still crazy busy. But in a good way.
June 20, 2009 - Posted by danielle - 0 Comments
As I was prepping to fly out to MA to see SeaQueen, I was trying to remember the last time I saw her in person. I think it was about 2 years ago when I was at a conference in San Diego. She drove up from LA, and among other things, we visited Sea World. I concluded that it has been faaaaaaaaaaaar too long since we’d gotten together. But note that we talk on the phone almost every Saturday.
Anyway, I’m going to talk about my visit in chronological order, because that is how I tell stories about trips (you probably know this by now about me).
My flight was uneventful, which is always a good thing. 2 terrific things happened: 1) we got in 20 min early due to a tailwind and 2) the minute I walked up to baggage claim, there was my bag! I couldn’t believe the baggage claim part. It was definitely a good omen for my trip. This allowed me to take a bus out to the Cape that arrived ONE HOUR ! early!
I had missed a reception at SeaQueen’s school, but we went to a local bar and hung out with some friends who we really only got to talk to extensively that night. So, it was good. One of the guys is a particularly funny storyteller, so it was a really fun time.
The next day was the hooding for all Ph.D.s at the University. We battled Boston rush hour morning traffic, but we made it in time and got pretty good seats. The ceremony was really nice. The procession was fun. There were tons of faculty present, which surprised me. The president spoke a little bit - just enough and not too much - which helped make the ceremony seem official. And then they started hooding the graduates. It was so much fun to see each graduate just smile and smile when getting hooded. And all of the family and friends were so proud and excited too. We coordinated a small group cheer with the people sitting nearby when each other’s graduates got hooded.
Afterward, we found a nice spot by some landscaping and flowers and got some good photos of SeaQueen by herself and with us (her parents and me). They are all on Flickr. But they are set to private, so if you don’t have access, let me know.
That afternoon, we drove around her town on the Cape and her campus and got some shots to remember things by.
That night, we went out to a nice supper back near her home on Cape Cod.
And then, since the ceremony the next day - which was the official graduation with diplomas and all - started early, SeaQueen and I drove back to Boston to stay overnight with a friend who was also a graduate. He is a great guy and was a great host. He also had talking parrot named Jose, who was really fun. I’m really glad he was willing to host us. It was a fun night.
For the big ceremony day, we had a nice relaxing breakfast instead of battling rush hour again - which was ideal.
Then we split off and the graduates went to their staging area and I went to get seats. Her parents were driving up that morning, but they made it in plenty of time. We really lucked out on the weather. The graduation was outside and it was overcast. So, we weren’t baking in the sun. Neither were we getting rained on, which happened either last year, or the year before. Yes, they will hold the ceremony in the rain - which is a bit odd. But there is no place for them to hold it otherwise (evidently).
It was a great ceremony too. The music was great. We sang the national anthem and I got compliments by 2 people nearby on my singing which perked me up too (and gave me some extra confidence for the Variety Show at church - to be discussed later). The procession of graduates was a lot of fun. The aerospace engineers had attached models of the space shuttle and rockets to their caps, which was pretty funny. There was only a speech by the president of the University and then by the governor. The president’s speech focused on service to the community. The governor’s speech - well, he had a variety of points - I kind of drifted in the middle - and honestly, nothing has stuck with me now that some time has passed. Both of them mentioned the challenging economic environment, but put a positive spin on it - i.e. - you can be the ones to help turn it around! rah-rah. 
They handed out 2400 diplomas, which, surprisingly, took a little over an hour. It was pretty impressive. We spent some time examining the program and doing a rough estimation of women who graduated - I’m sure there are official stats on the University website - but we came up with 32%. I got the idea, because at my school, when the women’s college graduates, there are some profs who count the percentage of women listed in the program with Mary, Maria, or Marie as a middle name. I think it is something like 50% of the girls.
Afterward, there was a reception for SeaQueen’s department. They had great food and I took several photos (again - big surprise) that are also on Flickr. The food was great and the conversation was also good.
That night, SeaQueen and I were on our own, so we had Thai take-out and watched Mamma Mia! Both of us had never seen it, but we both own ABBA’s greatest hits album, so we knew all of the songs and had a lot of fun singing along. If you get the DVD note that one of the bonus features is a sing-along. They basically show the scene where the song is performed and show the words at the bottom.
The next day was pretty relaxed. Breakfast out, lunch at the house with some friends, a nap (for me), and then the Shiny Party. The Shiny Party is so named, because people wear Shiny or Sparkly clothes - the photos on Flickr will give you an idea. It is a crab/lobster bake and dance party. It is an annual tradition for her program at the Cape/the town and was a LOT of fun. I haven’t danced in several years, and I’ve missed it. The music varied, some was better than others, and some of the dancing was a little bit risque for such a public setting, but all in all, it was a really good time. Since I’d had a nap, I could’ve danced longer. But with flying out the next day, it wasn’t a bad thing for us to call it quits at a reasonable hour (11:30? midnight?).
The next day, I flew out in the afternoon. Beforehand, we had time for breakfast, a bit of shopping, AND I went to her neighborhood beach while she packed for her trip. Going to the beach was awesome. It was definitely a highlight for me. I just hung out in shorts and a top, because the weather wasn’t really bathing suit weather. But the ocean sounded and smelled so good. I almost fell asleep it was so relaxing. Someday, I’d like to live on the water. Probably not the ocean, since I’m weirded out by climate change and changing coastal boundaries and then the hurricanes - but a lake (or maybe a river) would be nice. I’m definitely a “water” - you know the whole earth, air, water, fire personality thing? Well, I’m a water. Note: you are supposed to be able to tell by your dreams - and I frequently dream about water. I also love floating in water.
On the bus trip back up to the airport, we had a lot of fun talking. The friend who’d hosted us up in Boston was with us, because he was headed back to Boston too. It was a lot of fun hearing about his post-graduation prospects for postdocs.
And then, with not much time to spare, because the bus was 45 min late in arriving at the airport due to traffic, I boarded the plane and headed home.
All in all, it was an awesome trip.
It also emphasized to me that I want to try to get together with SeaQueen on a yearly basis.
Now, go check out the photos on Flickr if you haven’t already.
June 10, 2009 - Posted by danielle - 3 Comments
Ironically, when I have the most interesting things going on in my life, I have the least amount of time to blog about them.
So, here is a synopsis of what has been going on.
I went to a really awesome career/grant workshop. I was noticed by the Provost and Associate Provost. I actually sat next to the Provost for the first part of the day. She was really excited about my research. I think that this will definitely help my chances of being hired.
I was super energized by the workshop. It is great to know that other people think my research is worth pursuing.
That energy helped keep me going to prep for the start of my research. I spent pretty much every day working pretty hard on it and still didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. But, it was enough to get going.
Research officially started June 1 - a week and 2 days ago. It has been really crazy. I’m trying to teach my two students all of this background info that took me years to really learn well. I’m breaking it into 3 segments and am doing mini-lectures with them where I pretty much explain the basics and they ask tons of questions. They are soooooooooo bright and soooooooooooo excited. I pretty much knew that going in, which is why I chose them. But I’ll tell you what, it has just been awesome. The first “mini-lecture” was outside on the lawn on a beautiful 70-ish degree day. We ended up taking about 3 hours, which was pretty intense, but was also really great.
After working with them for Monday and Tuesday, I pretty much had to abandon them for SeaQueen’s graduation with her Ph.D. in Boston. The timing was unfortunate, but there was nothing to do about it. I put them to reading and prepping the lab for experiments. It is great that they have each other, because they ask each other questions and really seem to brainstorm up interesting ideas with each other.
SeaQueen’s graduation deserves a post all on its own. Once I get some photos up on Flickr, I’ll start writing about it.
In the meantime, we have family coming to visit…
… today!
HB’s parents, his brother, and his cousin are coming for a really short trip. It would be a long weekend, if it were a weekend. With taking time off last week, it is really hard to squeeze in more time. But I’m going to take Friday off and that will be another “reading day” for the girls.
And then, I sing in the church variety show on Saturday night. Which means I have practice tonight and a small segment on Friday night for the dress rehearsal. Our family won’t still be here on Sat night, but they will be here Fri night when the dress rehearsal is going on. So, maybe they will get to see a little bit of that.
For now, I need to continue trying to remember the things we need to get done before everyone arrives tonight!
May 18, 2009 - Posted by danielle - 2 Comments
I almost forgot to tell you about my mini-solos at church, but then I saw Squirl’s comment on my previous blog post.
It was about 50% great and 50% okay.
Basically, I nailed it during practice and during the first service. Then, during the second service, the parts of the verses that were in my upper range (head voice) just ended up really weak. Thankfully, my mini-solo ended in my chest voice. So, at least I ended well.
I think that what happened was that I oversang in all of the songs between the first and second service and wore my voice out. I actually could tell that my voice was getting rough by the time we hit the sermon in the second service where we leave and go hang out.
That makes me frustrated. *sigh*
After the first service, the music director and his wife (who is also in the band) said that they should try to have me do more solos. Well, we’ll see what they think after hearing me in the second service. *sigh*
Well, I knew it wasn’t in a great spot in my range. But I’d hoped to overcome it. And I DID overcome it for the first service. Just not the second.
I guess there is something to be said for pacing!
May 16, 2009 - Posted by danielle - 4 Comments
Remember that list of things I was hoping to do over these 4 days? Well, I was a bit derailed by my head.
I ended up with migraines on Thurs and Friday. At first on Thurs, I thought it was just a headache and it would get better. But just before I needed to go to the salon, it really intensified. I still went - I just wore earplugs and didn’t talk to anyone. And when I got home, I took my super-strong medication and rested, and tah-dah, it went away. But when that happens, I’m pretty much house-bound with reading and minimal computing.
Then the same headachey feeling came back on Friday!? This reminded me of what happened a month or so ago when I stopped using my humidifier (because it needed to be cleaned). This time, I’d stopped using it, because I couldn’t seem to get it working. However, HB came to the rescue. Before he left for work Friday morning, he got it working.
Today, after sleeping with my humidifier again, I’m headache free.
I usually don’t like to talk about my health, but this whole humidifier thing has been rather eye-opening. Minnesota must be particularly dry or something. It is odd, though, because I don’t have this problem in TX when I visit there (and don’t use one). Puzzling, I say.
Anyway, yesterday, I went ahead to the movie theater and saw Earth. It was really good. They did a really nice job of starting in the Arctic in January and then progressing through the year and the globe and ending up again in the Arctic in December. It had its usual sad predator-prey moments, and another sad moment (I won’t say, in case you watch it), but it had a joyous ending. I got chills watching parts of it. Some of the shots that they got of migrations were just incredible. I don’t know how they manage to be up in the air at just the right time and place to film them - particularly the birds. They had some shots of birds trying to migrate over the Himalayas that were just spectacular.
As for my other plans, today, I may or may not weed. I don’t want to stir up my allergies. I need to have a clear head and throat to sing that mini-solo in church tomorrow.
I did call the garden center and they said that the official last frost date is around May 20. And she said not to plant anything before Sunday, because someone there had told her that there was a frost warning between now and then. So, my annuals will wait a little longer. That’s okay. I’ll have them soon enough.
That is pretty much my excitement. I just finished the last book in a Fantasy fiction series that my friend from my post-doc got me started on. It is the Summoning series by Robin D. Owens. It was good.
This week, my copy of Hearts and Bones arrived and so did the Spymaster’s Lady. I might read my library books first, though, and save them for later, since my library books have due dates. We’ll see.
I’ll keep you posted on how they turn out. 
May 14, 2009 - Posted by danielle - 3 Comments
As you can see from the title, my grading is done. I just finished yesterday in the late afternoon and submitted final grades last night.
whew!
Now, I’ve got a couple of details to wrap up this morning (department duties and such). But then I’m free, free, freeeeeeeeeeee today, tomorrow and the weekend! After that, I’ll need to start prepping for my summer research.
Today, I get my brows plucked and hair cut (relatively boring, but will be nice to get it done). Then, I’m going to go see the Disney movie Earth. It looks like it has amazing cinematography. So, I’ll let you know what I think after I’ve seen it.
I also plan on reading and reading and reading.
Oh, and maybe I’ll do some weeding. I really hate weeding. But it is a necessary evil of home ownership with nice flower beds.
On the flower note: I’m not sure if we can plant annuals yet. It has still been pretty cold at night lately (low 40’s). I’ll probably call the greenhouse and see what they recommend.
On another flower note: I bought a bouquet of flowers to keep me company while I graded. I think that they are still in good enough shape to spend some time taking photos today or tomorrow.
Joy!
Finally: At music practice last night, the director asked me to do a 1 verse solo at the beginning of one song (ballad). It is mostly in my chest voice, which is awesome. But there is this one note in the very first phrase that is right at the edge of my chest and head voice. I’m going to see if I can keep it in my chest voice, because it is so hard to switch for one note. And when I tried switching, it came out more warbly than I’d prefer.
Overall, I’m excited to be asked and to do it. However, it is a little off-putting to have the instruments back out and just have my voice out there all on its own (which is how they are doing it). But if they think it sounds okay, then I’ll go with it. Maybe I’ll get an mp3 of it after I do it so that I can share it with you. It requires some extra work by the sound guys, so we’ll see if they are up for it.
Overall though, we are doing 3 of my favorite songs this Sunday. They are the ones with really great harmonies.
May 8, 2009 - Posted by danielle - 4 Comments
Yesterday, all of the finals were handed in around 10:30 and I got to breathe one big sigh of relief.
I had a chunk of time to figure out where all of the materials are that I’m going to borrow to do Westerns at the beginning of this summer. The one thing is that this is an older set up where you have to pour your own gels. Not that pouring is so hard, I used to do it when I was an undergrad and they pretty much always solidified, but some of the chemicals themselves are kind of nasty and hazardous until the gel solidifies. So, we might go with pre-cast gels. The only problem with that method is that the rig that holds the pre-cast gels is handled by the guy that wasn’t around yesterday. So, I’ll have to work on meeting with him - which gets tricky, since I’m going to try to limit how much I drive up to school in the next week or two.
The best part of my day was that I had set up a last-minute lunch with my friend - another “young female” faculty member. We’ve really hit it off. Last semester we started a standing schedule of having lunch on a particular class day every other week. This semester, our schedules didn’t mesh and we just did lunch a couple of times. But yesterday! Ahhhhhhhhh, just thinking about it makes me smile, we basically left for lunch around 11:45 and didn’t go back to work until about 3:00. It was awesome.
We hung out in the lunch room/cafeteria for a while, and then decided to wise up and hang out outside in the sun (out of the wind). We ended up on this curb in front of our building, which I’m sure appeared kind of funny to the students passing us by, but it was a nice spot.
I think I should keep some of those fold-up camp chairs in my trunk for these kinds of situations.
It also made me think of something else, wouldn’t it be nice to have meetings in the summertime outside instead of in stuffy conference rooms? Of course, it gets harder to keep track of papers….
… but one can dream.
The rest of the day was getting some lab details figured out - freezer and fridge space, lab bench space, checking out the incubator - which appears to need to be repaired. There is an odd noise that sounds like a fan issue. That part is scary. I’m worried about the cost of that repair. The department has pretty much spent our budget for the year and we don’t get our new round of money until July 1. I really don’t want to pay for the repair out of my own grant money, but I’m wondering if it is going to come down to that. *sigh*
This would be the difficulty of doing research at a small school.
But hey, we just got a nanodrop spectrophotometer. That should come in handy. I’ve never gotten to use one before.
And now, I’m off to see if I can schedule a lunch/afternoon with my friend from my post-doc lab for tomorrow. yay!
May 6, 2009 - Posted by danielle - 2 Comments
Well, I give one final today at 3:30-5:30 and the 2nd one tomorrow at 8:00-10:00. Yes, 8:00 am. I think that means that I have to leave the house around 6:15. Which is do-able without too much rearrangment of my schedule - but will still suck.
THENNNNNNNN - yes, then. Ah, the weight that will be off of my shoulders.
I already have dreams of playing Wii, reading the first book in the series by Margaret Lawrence, going for walks outside, watching the new Star Trek movie in the theater. Watching Wolverine in the theater.
And of course, lots of grading. But grades aren’t due until the 18th. So, it isn’t like I have to kill myself to get them done.
I’m still planning on getting them all done in 4 days (3, if the students answer the questions concisely). But I’m not going to work on the weekend to do them.
*happiness*
I also attend graduation with gowns, hood and all on Sunday (Mother’s day). It will be the first time I’m on the “other side” of graduation. Should be interesting. I hear, rather boring too. But well, novelty usually helps keep at least some of the boredom at bay.
Well, time to go work on writing that final for tomorrow. *sigh* Going to be a long day today getting that one done.
April 27, 2009 - Posted by danielle - 3 Comments
I’m getting closer to the end of the semester. I have finished about half of the grading for lab. I think it has taken me about 5-6? hours so far. So, with one big final push, I should manage to get it done. I really want to get it back to them at least a few days before the last day of class so that they can look it over and see if they have any issues with the grading…
In other news, I wrote the last lab manual section last week. I was up until 12:30 finishing it - sucky. But, I think it turned out well. I won’t really know until we have lab. I hope that when the prof who regularly teaches this comes back, he will use some of it. Alternatively, that some of my ideas are incorporated into the Intro Bio labs. Note that these labs are the sequencing of a portion of mitochondrial DNA that can be used to follow heredity through the female line of your family. There are 83 sequences from around the world that you can align your DNA with and see how your ancestors might have migrated. It was designed by the Dolan Learning Center, which has some cool lab ideas for high school and college students. The funny thing about the protocol is that they’ve designed the PCR so that the students can use waterbaths to cycle their reactions!! For those of you that know PCR, you’ll realize how hilarious this is. For those of you that don’t, suffice to say that this is how PCR was done in the early years (early 80’s I think).
We had a day last week that was solely dedicated to student presentations of their research and projects. It was really interesting. The best part about it, I think, was that I discovered a chemistry prof who is interested in some of the same kinds of proteins that I’m going to be studying. Maybe we can find some overlap and collaborate!
I sang at church yesterday. Practice fell on the night of the student presentation day, and I thought I’d be able to leave early and come home. However, it turned out that I wanted to work on lecture prep (and that lab manual). Instead, I basically sat down to unwind with about 30 min of American Idol and then slumped down on the couch and went to sleep at about 8:30. I ended up waking up around 10:3 and just going to bed. I felt minimally guilty about not going to practice. I knew all but one of the songs. And for that one, I learned it Sunday morning in about 10 min by showing up early. It was the really cool new song that I’ve been wanting to sing up front. Here is a youtube of it. This youtube is a bit slower than we sing, but pretty close. If you want to skip to the chorus, go 1:00 min into it.
And I think I’ll end there.
April 18, 2009 - Posted by danielle - 4 Comments
I have little bits and pieces from this week to share with you.
**updated below**
1. I received my internal grant for summer research supply money! I am now in good shape to do the kinds of experiments I have hoped to be able to do with my 2 summer students. I spoke briefly with the person on the committee who is in the Bio department and he said that my proposal was well received. So, hopefully, if/when I go back to them for money to attend conferences to present this work (that I hope to accomplish), that will also be well received.
2. My Wii fit age was 29 on Monday!! Since I’m 35, this is quite exciting. Also, I’ve lost a wee bit of weight (a few pounds), but nothing extraordinary. I’m more excited that I’m beating myself at some of the games, whether they be balance (my favorites), yoga, strength, or aerobics. I’m improving in all of them. AND I’m getting to the point where I can do super hula-hoop without making my heart rate get too high.
3. I used a new lecture system this week by using a document camera. It is basically a live image camera that points down at the table. I can have my lecture slides on paper instead of transparencies and write all over those now. Now, I just have to wait on the tablet PC that Information Technologies has ordered for me…
… when I can use THAT for my lectures, it will be really seamless (and a better quality). Right now, I fight a little bit with focus and white balance.
4. I only have 2 weeks left of lecturing! Then review sessions, finals, grading finals….
… getting closer.
I have one lab to go, but a LOT of grading to get done. (I just sighed while thinking about it, and HB heard me and asked what is wrong.) It is weighing on me, but right now I’m just barely able to get my lectures done in time. So, grading labs, which aren’t as pressing, is hard to get done.
5. The weather has improved here dramatically. I went for 2 outside walks last weekend. Also, the greenery for the tulips is probably up 5 inches or so. The rest of the perennials are starting to show green sprouts too.
*** update ***
6. This morning there were two ducks in our back yard! Two mallards. One male and one female. I can only assume they were looking for a place to build a nest…
… alas, I was going to go discreetly out on the deck to take their picture and just opening the door scared them off. No ducklings for us (probably). Probably for the best, since the neighbor kids extend their play area into our yard all the time, and if the adults didn’t like me opening the door, then a game of football nearby would definitely not suit their need for peace and quiet.