June 30, 2015, Tuesday, much was learned
Today, Grace learned how to run an RNA gel! After the big experiment, we went to Ali's Cookie store and bought two cookies each!
I transcribed more RNA. I Nanodropped it (to find concentration) near end of day, and it was really low. I do not know why. On the plus, the RtcB seems able to be concentrated using the speed vac. This result is unexpected. I wonder if that's because the salt concentration increases? I wanted to try for more experiments, but I got worn out. Tomorrow is another day!
Also, today USA vs Germany in Women's soccer. John is SO pysched.
I transcribed more RNA. I Nanodropped it (to find concentration) near end of day, and it was really low. I do not know why. On the plus, the RtcB seems able to be concentrated using the speed vac. This result is unexpected. I wonder if that's because the salt concentration increases? I wanted to try for more experiments, but I got worn out. Tomorrow is another day!
Also, today USA vs Germany in Women's soccer. John is SO pysched.
June 29, 2015, Monday, Grace discovers the lab tribble and learns how to run a protein gel!
Today, we did all kinds of things! I attempted to do the following ...
1. Teach Grace how to run a protein gel.
2. Teach Yun and her student Nick how to run a DNA PAGE gel.
3. Transcribe RNA.
4. Begin step 1 of labeling the RNA.
5. Run a reaction and an RNA gel myself.
Sadly, #3-4 died in the process. I transcribed RNA, lost it once temporarily, then lost it again for good at the end of the day. It poofed. I have no idea what the HECK happened to it. I'm pretty ticked about that. But it's ok.
Today was GREAT. I had fun. I enjoyed teaching everyone things. Josh insisted we eat lunch outside too so we did and got to enjoy the weather with him and Yuan. Grace did a great job with her gel. She's rapidly becoming an old hand, I'd say. Her gel is currently de-staining overnight and looks quite good. I think it will turn out nicely.
During the day, she also discovered the lab tribble! I was extremely pleased to see that she actually KNEW what tribbles were! So many people aren't introduced to this awesomeness. They are the best the cutest Star Trek character known. See "Trouble with Tribbles," the old 60's episode.
TOMORROW ... we will SEE what we SEE! I won't spoil it by telling you what I'm planning. :D
1. Teach Grace how to run a protein gel.
2. Teach Yun and her student Nick how to run a DNA PAGE gel.
3. Transcribe RNA.
4. Begin step 1 of labeling the RNA.
5. Run a reaction and an RNA gel myself.
Sadly, #3-4 died in the process. I transcribed RNA, lost it once temporarily, then lost it again for good at the end of the day. It poofed. I have no idea what the HECK happened to it. I'm pretty ticked about that. But it's ok.
Today was GREAT. I had fun. I enjoyed teaching everyone things. Josh insisted we eat lunch outside too so we did and got to enjoy the weather with him and Yuan. Grace did a great job with her gel. She's rapidly becoming an old hand, I'd say. Her gel is currently de-staining overnight and looks quite good. I think it will turn out nicely.
During the day, she also discovered the lab tribble! I was extremely pleased to see that she actually KNEW what tribbles were! So many people aren't introduced to this awesomeness. They are the best the cutest Star Trek character known. See "Trouble with Tribbles," the old 60's episode.
TOMORROW ... we will SEE what we SEE! I won't spoil it by telling you what I'm planning. :D
June 28, 2015, Sunday, tying up loose ends
Ho-hum, a good day. This Sunday, I finished comments on a review of a paper that needed to be sent out. I also re-read a Shuman paper about my enzyme and ironed all John's clothes while listening to some great music from Bethel. John got home at long last around 2 p.m.! I was SO glad. I replied to some emails and did other things.
June 27, 2015, Saturday, a day of rest
John went to help his parents in Alabama Friday night. Today, I rested, for the most part, and read a Shuman paper on my enzyme. I played some SWTOR and did my weekly heroic dungeon with my friend Vivek. And I jogged. Showed off the lot and Madison floorplan model home (which version we are building) to my parents today - which was SO fun - dad took pictures. I had been looking forward to showing it to them. I'm feeling much better overall! Looking forward to really digging into things tomorrow.
June 26, 2015, Friday, 4th Friday Candy day!
Isolating the protein. Today, Grace, Weiwei and I froze our protein in 100 ul aliquots in a total of almost 240 tubes! In the end it was probably more like 200 tubes. I measured the concentration after Grace left and it was a little lower than I would like, but still usable. I might try it again next week though anyway, because I'm a crazy perfectionist. While isolating the protein, I burned my hand in liquid nitrogen by pouring it on myself. Don't do this! It's a bad idea.
Talking to Becky about protein at 4th Friday. It was 4th Friday today too, and I went. They had candy because June is candy month! Unfortunately, I ate way too much chocolate before this anyway. I have to stop that. I talked to Becky (Conticello lab) a long time about plasmids, protein expression and lyophilizing proteins. I'm excited to maybe try that. I want to figure out how to get higher yield. Becky does *tons* with protein all the time and she says she's working on nearly 14 different proteins simultaneously.
Talking to Becky about protein at 4th Friday. It was 4th Friday today too, and I went. They had candy because June is candy month! Unfortunately, I ate way too much chocolate before this anyway. I have to stop that. I talked to Becky (Conticello lab) a long time about plasmids, protein expression and lyophilizing proteins. I'm excited to maybe try that. I want to figure out how to get higher yield. Becky does *tons* with protein all the time and she says she's working on nearly 14 different proteins simultaneously.
June 25, 2015, Thursday, isolating our protein
Today, Grace, Weiwei and I isolated our proteins and are allowing them to dialyze overnight. I learned some new rules I didn't know about concerning the Weinert lab ultracentrifuge - which grease to use on it, for example. It's a scary centrifuge that spins our samples to 67,000 g! It can go as high as 120,000 g. It was a long, grueling day, but Grace did splendidly and held up through it all. She did most of the steps herself too. Looking forward to tomorrow!
240 tubes labeled for freezing our protein tomorrow!
June 24, 2015, Wednesday, Kevin defends his thesis and buffer pH
Weiwei and I mostly finished pHing the buffers! AND Kevin Yehl defended his thesis! He is now a doctor!!!! It was an epic celebration. A separate post related to this is coming this weekend. It must be treated with all the pomp and ceremony that Kevin richly deserves.
June 23, 2015, Tuesday, Yang presents in lab meeting
More buffers. Yang gave a stellar presentation in lab meeting related to his research, and Grace, Weiwei and I worked on finishing making the buffers and pHing some of them. It was lots of work! We didn't finish the pHing.
Mistakes were made. The highlight (or not) of the day was me accidentally melting a plastic guard on a graduated cylinder in the autoclave and having the molten plastic seep into the autoclave's grate. Not my finest hour. Jan put it to right, but warned me to never do that again and to tell my lab about this.
Mistakes were made. The highlight (or not) of the day was me accidentally melting a plastic guard on a graduated cylinder in the autoclave and having the molten plastic seep into the autoclave's grate. Not my finest hour. Jan put it to right, but warned me to never do that again and to tell my lab about this.
June 22, 2015, Monday, Grace begins work and making buffers
Grace begins her first full day in lab! She, Weiwei and I worked on making the many buffers we would need for protein expression.
June 6, 2015, Saturday, lazy day of work
Today, John had to work, but I got up REALLY late (10 am). I then did an HM with Vivek (Josh), online friend on SWTOR -- it's become a routine almost every other week. I jogged 30 min, but by then it was HOT. SO HOT. Took a shower. Then, messed around organizing work, printing articles to read, etc.
Mom showed me the iphone Health app and I found out I walk an average of 10,271 steps a day. Last Wed, it was 20,000 something. I also walk an average of 4.71 miles a day. This info amused me greatly. I helped mom bring in the three grape plants she purchased.
Ate a late lunch at 4 pm, John came home, and we looked at the floor plans of the houses we are interested in, planning to visit the neighborhood tomorrow. I took a 1 hour "nap" in which I did not sleep but reveled in laying in bed under a cushy blanket -- got exhausted after I ate.
In the late afternoon, I wrote up charts of what's in our -80C freezer -- specifically, the competent cells and my freezer boxes. I made a stab at designing these RNAs I need to order for my next experiments. I finished my DNA / RNA library -- a list of all the sequences I've ever purchases since I worked for Khalid (there are 54 of them). I wrote these blog posts. Ate dinner. That's about it! Sorry for the boring commentary -- I must be in a blah mood today.
Mom showed me the iphone Health app and I found out I walk an average of 10,271 steps a day. Last Wed, it was 20,000 something. I also walk an average of 4.71 miles a day. This info amused me greatly. I helped mom bring in the three grape plants she purchased.
Ate a late lunch at 4 pm, John came home, and we looked at the floor plans of the houses we are interested in, planning to visit the neighborhood tomorrow. I took a 1 hour "nap" in which I did not sleep but reveled in laying in bed under a cushy blanket -- got exhausted after I ate.
In the late afternoon, I wrote up charts of what's in our -80C freezer -- specifically, the competent cells and my freezer boxes. I made a stab at designing these RNAs I need to order for my next experiments. I finished my DNA / RNA library -- a list of all the sequences I've ever purchases since I worked for Khalid (there are 54 of them). I wrote these blog posts. Ate dinner. That's about it! Sorry for the boring commentary -- I must be in a blah mood today.
Typical Weekly Schedule These Days
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
5:45 am - wake up, roll out of bed
6:10 am - leave for Emory
7:00 am - arrive at Emory and park
7:00 - 8:00 am - God time / prep work / meditate on life / 10 min feedly journal article skim
8:00 am - experiments BEGIN!
8:00 - 11:30 am - (experiments, reading papers, freezer organizing, and STUFF)
11:30 - 12:00 - lunch
12:00 - 6:00 pm - more experiments!
6:00 pm - attempt to leave Emory - sometimes it works, sometimes I keep doing stuff
7:30 pm - arrive at home (hopefully)
7:30 pm - 10 pm - work some more! Eat, shower, work some more
10 pm - SLEEP
Tuesday
5:45 am - wake up, roll out of bed
6:10 am - leave for Emory
7:00 am - arrive at Emory and park
7:00 - 8:00 am - God time / prep work / meditate on life
8:00 - 9:00 am - setup an experiment, prep something, read something, 10 min feedly journal article skim
9:00 - 11:30 am - LAB MEETING
12:00 - 6:00 pm - experiments!
11:30 - 12:00 - lunch
6:00 pm - attempt to leave Emory - sometimes it works, sometimes I keep doing stuff
7:30 pm - arrive at home (hopefully)
7:30 pm - 10 pm - work some more! Eat, shower, work some more
10 pm - SLEEP
Friday
5:45 am - wake up, roll out of bed
6:10 am - leave for Emory
7:00 am - arrive at Emory and park
7:00 - 8:00 am - God time / prep work / meditate on life
9:00 - 11:30 am - organize all the week's data, think about next steps
11:30 - 12:00 - lunch
12:00 - 3:00 - organize all the week's data, think about next steps
3:00 - 4:00 - Meet with Khalid
4:00 - 6:00 - Get misc work done or leave Emory early
7:00 - 10:00 pm - WORK MORE, do misc activity, or sit and lay on the sofa b/c I'm so tired
Saturday
8:00 am - wake up, roll out of bed
8:00 - 10:00 - drink coffee, Facebook, read Bible, wait for Vivek to get up
10:00 - 12:00 - HM with Vivek, or other SWTOR activity, then 30 min jog and shower
12:00 - 10 pm - SWTOR, variable activities or relaxed work, catching up on everything else I didn't get done
Sunday
8:00 am - wake up, roll out of bed
8:00 - 9:00 - coffee and whatever
9:00 - 10:30 am - Grace New Hope church
10:30 - 11:30 - variable work or fun STUFF
11:30 - eat with John's parents
2:00 - 6:00 pm - hang out Brian and Matt at Brian's house (John's Warmachine friends) for board gaming session - OR, me hang out at home and work some more, or play SWTOR - these days, work some more
6:00 - 9:00 pm - work, dinner, shower, washing / ironing all our clothes for the next week
9:30 pm - SLEEP
Variations: This past week, on Wed, I worked from 7 am - 10 pm; last Saturday, I went in to work to organize the freezer half the day, a lot of days I leave later than 6 pm by accident, and sometimes I leave at 5:30 pm. But, this schedule is a good general rule of thumb, and what I shoot for.
5:45 am - wake up, roll out of bed
6:10 am - leave for Emory
7:00 am - arrive at Emory and park
7:00 - 8:00 am - God time / prep work / meditate on life / 10 min feedly journal article skim
8:00 am - experiments BEGIN!
8:00 - 11:30 am - (experiments, reading papers, freezer organizing, and STUFF)
11:30 - 12:00 - lunch
12:00 - 6:00 pm - more experiments!
6:00 pm - attempt to leave Emory - sometimes it works, sometimes I keep doing stuff
7:30 pm - arrive at home (hopefully)
7:30 pm - 10 pm - work some more! Eat, shower, work some more
10 pm - SLEEP
Tuesday
5:45 am - wake up, roll out of bed
6:10 am - leave for Emory
7:00 am - arrive at Emory and park
7:00 - 8:00 am - God time / prep work / meditate on life
8:00 - 9:00 am - setup an experiment, prep something, read something, 10 min feedly journal article skim
9:00 - 11:30 am - LAB MEETING
12:00 - 6:00 pm - experiments!
11:30 - 12:00 - lunch
6:00 pm - attempt to leave Emory - sometimes it works, sometimes I keep doing stuff
7:30 pm - arrive at home (hopefully)
7:30 pm - 10 pm - work some more! Eat, shower, work some more
10 pm - SLEEP
Friday
5:45 am - wake up, roll out of bed
6:10 am - leave for Emory
7:00 am - arrive at Emory and park
7:00 - 8:00 am - God time / prep work / meditate on life
9:00 - 11:30 am - organize all the week's data, think about next steps
11:30 - 12:00 - lunch
12:00 - 3:00 - organize all the week's data, think about next steps
3:00 - 4:00 - Meet with Khalid
4:00 - 6:00 - Get misc work done or leave Emory early
7:00 - 10:00 pm - WORK MORE, do misc activity, or sit and lay on the sofa b/c I'm so tired
Saturday
8:00 am - wake up, roll out of bed
8:00 - 10:00 - drink coffee, Facebook, read Bible, wait for Vivek to get up
10:00 - 12:00 - HM with Vivek, or other SWTOR activity, then 30 min jog and shower
12:00 - 10 pm - SWTOR, variable activities or relaxed work, catching up on everything else I didn't get done
Sunday
8:00 am - wake up, roll out of bed
8:00 - 9:00 - coffee and whatever
9:00 - 10:30 am - Grace New Hope church
10:30 - 11:30 - variable work or fun STUFF
11:30 - eat with John's parents
2:00 - 6:00 pm - hang out Brian and Matt at Brian's house (John's Warmachine friends) for board gaming session - OR, me hang out at home and work some more, or play SWTOR - these days, work some more
6:00 - 9:00 pm - work, dinner, shower, washing / ironing all our clothes for the next week
9:30 pm - SLEEP
Variations: This past week, on Wed, I worked from 7 am - 10 pm; last Saturday, I went in to work to organize the freezer half the day, a lot of days I leave later than 6 pm by accident, and sometimes I leave at 5:30 pm. But, this schedule is a good general rule of thumb, and what I shoot for.
June 5, 2015, Friday, Last minute experiment and evening meet up with friends
Did a last minute experiment for the week, before my meeting with Khalid. Met with Khalid and went home to be with John early, since he got off work early. We hung out from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. with our small group -- young married couples -- it was John's first time there for a LONG time. He's just been so busy he hasn't been able to make it. We met / talked to a lot of great folks and had a good time! I love how everyone in our group is having babies.