Friday, October 17, 2014: My last practice talk
Time 11:05 a.m. I met Matt from Liotta lab in the parking lot and we agreed that we probably would survive second year and looked forward to when it would all be behind us like a bad dream. I had my last practice talk after biotech class at 9:30 a.m. today. Gokul and Morgan made great suggestions and Gokul wrote a lot of notes, which I was really impressed by and appreciated. We'll see how the rest of the day goes!
Thursday, October 16, 2014: Talking to people about experiments
I was able to practice my presentation with a lot less dread, which was a relief, and get through quite a few more slides. I also read some - not enough - but more than yesterday, and talked to Kornelia about circular dichroism experiments I could do and to Gokul about ICP-MS. I want to use them to look at the structure of my protein and it's metal binding, respectively - see how denatured it might be. It was a good day overall. I went home and wrote a friend Sarah a long note about how to search for a good grad lab.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014: A day that felt wasted
Not very productive: Unfortunately, I managed to run through my presentation well in the morning, but during the evening it was like pulling teeth. I gave up around 6:15 p.m. and went home, when M and Tu, I had been practicing until 8 p.m. Also, during the day, I didn't read as much as I could have.
Taking an evening off: I went home and played Skyrim, blowing up a vampire and some rebels and helped two people "find love." It wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped though. I had wanted to blow up a WHOLE cave of vampires. It wasn't a big enough cave. There was good loot.
Taking an evening off: I went home and played Skyrim, blowing up a vampire and some rebels and helped two people "find love." It wasn't as satisfying as I'd hoped though. I had wanted to blow up a WHOLE cave of vampires. It wasn't a big enough cave. There was good loot.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014: A good day!
Internet fix: Austin, a very awesome rotation student with us presently, found a port on my laptop for an Internet cable, by looking at it while I was backing out with it. It was a God-thing. I had looked for that for almost a year without finding it. First time I've had unflakey Internet at my desk since I joined the lab in February. Also, the professor Dr. Jimin and the post-doc Dr. Englert got back to me about the RtcB crystal structure question that I had! That was a key piece of the second year report. I couldn't have been happier!
Misc: I finished making fixes to my slides and sent them to Khalid. I got back my proposal reviews from our practice panel last Saturday and they were good, suggesting some minor changes. I practiced my slides for three hours in the evening. And that was the day!
Misc: I finished making fixes to my slides and sent them to Khalid. I got back my proposal reviews from our practice panel last Saturday and they were good, suggesting some minor changes. I practiced my slides for three hours in the evening. And that was the day!
Monday, October 13, 2014: Got to talk to Khalid about slides!
Miraculously, though Khalid was busy, I got to discuss my slides with him - a real God-send. He suggested some great and critical things I'd forgotten about - which I knew would happen. The lab is about to move in the STORM microscope. The AFM was moved out to the second floor, most of which Khalid oversaw himself.
Sunday, October 12, 2014: Reading papers for Monday test
I finally ate food after church and felt better. Also the panic attacks subsided, miraculously. I was able to be normal enough to finish reading and studying the papers for the Biotech test on Monday. I also played Skyrim for 1.5 hours and killed off some evil cultists with my Stormcall shout and rescued someone's family sword.
Saturday, October 11, 2014: Major panic attacks
I went to a grant review panel session in the morning - four groups of us headed by a different faculty reviewed 11-12 proposals from one of the other groups. Each of us got to be a primary reviewer who led off the discussion of one and took notes. Then reader 2 and 3 talked. It was actually a lot of fun!
When I got home though, I had the worst panic attacks I've ever had about my second year report. I didn't eat.
When I got home though, I had the worst panic attacks I've ever had about my second year report. I didn't eat.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014: Working on the 2nd yr presentation
Today, I went to class - it was really interesting - went to a doctor's appointment and worked on slides. We had lab meeting and my classmate Victor gave his 2nd year report practice talk. I liked it - helped me understand what he's doing even better.
I almost forgot to buy pizza for the meeting - Kornelia reminded me. Kevin appeared behind me at the pizza place to help me carry it back - so nice of him! We had an amusing conversation about the ATL science festival and ideas of things we could talk about to a general audience - Kevin said - the science behind whiskey! LSD! Pot! I said no, no, no. He was trying to think of controversial topics - he's that way. Ha!
After meeting, I then ran through my presentation again. It's still bad, and too long. I found more slides to change. Ms. Harmon was going to come over this evening, but she had something come up. Instead, I worked on more slides.
I almost forgot to buy pizza for the meeting - Kornelia reminded me. Kevin appeared behind me at the pizza place to help me carry it back - so nice of him! We had an amusing conversation about the ATL science festival and ideas of things we could talk about to a general audience - Kevin said - the science behind whiskey! LSD! Pot! I said no, no, no. He was trying to think of controversial topics - he's that way. Ha!
After meeting, I then ran through my presentation again. It's still bad, and too long. I found more slides to change. Ms. Harmon was going to come over this evening, but she had something come up. Instead, I worked on more slides.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014: Having a bad day, for no reason
Today, I prepared and prepped my slides to go over with Khalid. Unfortunately, he had meetings all day and couldn't meet with me after all nor any time this week, upon which I was incredibly disappointed and bummed. I had banked everything else on that, wanting feedback for my Friday practice talk. I later decided, on practicing my slides some this evening, it was better that way - my talk is terrible and I need to tweak it more anyway.
I met a nice Turkish girl interested in interning in our lab, or perhaps with Dr. Hill's group. When I wasn't working on the slides, I worked on trying to read papers on Spinach for next Monday's Biotechnology test. Spinach is the name for an RNA mimic of green fluorescent protein (GFP), commonly used for cellular imaging. We have five papers to read, digest and annotate, along with "secondary literature."
Tonight, I was going to jog, but instead, I'm working on a transcript of my second year report speech. I booked a room every day for the next two weeks to make sure I have time to practice it in. This week is totally slammed and I despair at my not using my time efficiently. Pray for me to do better! Thanks.
I thought I had a bad day, but when I talked to Austin (who is rotating with us), he had a worse one. Pray for him too and a good relaxing week! ~ Jess
I met a nice Turkish girl interested in interning in our lab, or perhaps with Dr. Hill's group. When I wasn't working on the slides, I worked on trying to read papers on Spinach for next Monday's Biotechnology test. Spinach is the name for an RNA mimic of green fluorescent protein (GFP), commonly used for cellular imaging. We have five papers to read, digest and annotate, along with "secondary literature."
Tonight, I was going to jog, but instead, I'm working on a transcript of my second year report speech. I booked a room every day for the next two weeks to make sure I have time to practice it in. This week is totally slammed and I despair at my not using my time efficiently. Pray for me to do better! Thanks.
I thought I had a bad day, but when I talked to Austin (who is rotating with us), he had a worse one. Pray for him too and a good relaxing week! ~ Jess
Monday, October 6, 2014: Speaker Spotlight and slide editing
Kevin and I, Yuan and Ben (Weinert lab) took Dr. Lynette Cegelski out to lunch, a very interesting speaker who is studying bacterial biofilms - the slimy stuff that bacteria excrete to live in - through solid state NMR.
I worked on looking at my protein RtcB structure, trying to figure out how the active site was setup, and updated my 2nd yr report slides with the new structures. Much editing and grief over slides.
I worked on looking at my protein RtcB structure, trying to figure out how the active site was setup, and updated my 2nd yr report slides with the new structures. Much editing and grief over slides.