Countdown

Approximately 11 PCRs to go.... give or take a couple for later analyses. I am so excited. As I was setting up one this afternoon, my friend J wandered in, to look for a hairdryer to dry her pants as she had poured coke all over herself while we were having lunch with a job candidate for the department, making her my favourite person of the day, and asked what I was up to. I replied "PCR, what else do I do?!". I'm getting a little tired of lab work in case you can't tell. Just a month and a half to go - after this I move on to some phytochemical stuff for a bit.

Last night, J came over to join the roomie and I in watching Twilight. AMAZING. I had not seen it yet, and laughed myself silly. We're working on a drinking game, including taking a drink whenever an ironic line is uttered, such as Bella telling Angela she is a 'strong, independent woman', despite that basically being the antithesis of the message of the whole series (I cannot live without my looooooooooveeeee........ I will kill myselffff for my babbbbbbbbyyyyyyy......). My inner feminist cries but I just can't turn away. It's just such a nice alternative to the mountains of papers I am currently slogging through, or editing my own stuff. In further escapism, almost time for Grey's!

Fridays

You can tell that you've had a productive week when come after 4 on a Friday afternoon, your brain starts to grind...... to ...... a..... halt. I'd give up but am waiting for my carpool buddy to get out of class. Instead, am working on powerpoint slides for upcoming presentations (playing with the colour schemes is WAY too much fun) and ruminating.

I've had a pretty productive week and actually found some really good sources today. Am still on track to be finished the second third of my lab work by the end of the month. WOOHOO! I have a mound of editing/writing to slog through this weekend though, and at least part of Monday. However, am reaching a part of my thesis when I have more and more questions about a variety of subjects, and my supervisors are being rather difficult to get hold of. *Sigh* I know it'll get worked out, I just get frustrated with the waiting around I often have to do.

Anyways, don't want to end the week on an annoyed note, despite have a boat load of work to do I have so many fabulous plans for this weekend! Drinking with a lovely former quasi-roomate (she hung out in my room in 1st year to avoid her rather smelly and odd actual roomate), shopping with a great discount card (thanks x-ine!), dinner with another undergrad friend who is also slogging it out here, Battlestar marathon on Sunday..... it just goes on and on. I figure, I have less than 6 months of living in Montreal left (ZOMG!) and so I should take advantage as much as I can. 

I would also like to note here how much I really am going to miss Battlestar but currently have no idea how this whole end business is really going to go down. Anyone have any thoughts?

The real world.... dun dun DUN

So I seem to have a job. I got an offer from the competition I participated in last week today! I am quite excited, I squealed and managed to freak out my lab mate. While it made working this afternoon a little bit more difficult, knowing that to accept said job, with its nice pay and benefits, I need to finish my degree will hopefully continue to spur me on. The fact that stuff in the lab seems to be working is also helping.
So in a few months, I may be lady of the laptop, but not so much all day. I guess it is important to move on from time to time, and learn to go through a working day without compulsively checking e-mail, Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook, Jezebel, the major newspapers, rando blogs..... hm, this might be a good required change in my life. It's actually fairly impressive that I've gotten anything done in the past year and a half (OMG, I've been doing my MSc for a year and a half. How time flies). It will be a change to go from running my own day, coming in late and leaving early as I feel like it, but I know that I've done it before and actually quite enjoyed getting a bit more direction than I currently do.
It will definitely require a revamp of my wardrobe. I no longer can put off the purge that is SO REQUIRED as evidenced by the constant bulging of my wardrobe despite having two closets. Going to do some shopping this weekend to spend some of the prize money from my conference (on some classy jewelry methinks) and will start to ponder the puzzle of professional wear (say THAT 10 times fast)
Here's me in my last incarnation as an employee of ye old feds, I'll show you the next one sometime in the late fall....

Crazy times in Mtl-Van-Mtl

Sorry for the long delay in posts. As you knew, I took off to Vancouver for 5 days last week for a conference. It was awesome, easy flights, Vancouver was BEAUTIFUL! I can't imagine not having snow to deal with, and such lovely, lovely views wherever you look. The conference was really interesting, I knew some people but also got to hear about work completely beyond my own. We also got to hit the town, drink some yummy cider and also met up with my wonderful friend Lauren, with whom I had gone to Mexico two years ago. In fabulous news, I won the poster contest for graduate students! Here I am in my fab poster (if I do say so myself), with my fab professional wardrobe.

I have to say though, I was happy to come back to school and get to wear jeans all week. Between my interview and then the conference, I was all slacks'ed out. The fact that working will require effort on the clothes front is currently the only thing that makes this transition less than completely appealing. 

(As I'm writing this post, I'm watching the Amazing Race and am laughing my ass off at people get frustrated with eachother, especially as its usually the person completely in the wrong which is most insistent that THEY ARE RIGHT DESPITE LACKING ANY REASONING BEHIND THEIR HUNCH.)

In exciting job front news, I had a good interview with someone from a part of the government very close to my current research (closer than the department for which I had previously interviewed). He knows a lot of people I know, and was impressed with my CV. He would love to hire me, but due to government restrictions against hiring without competition (ie. nepotism, which is so sad considering the number of contacts I could milk), I could only start on a contract or temp basis and hope for a position to open up. So it's something to be considered but I will stll be keeping my options and eyes open. 

This month is going to be BUSY, I really hope to finish up all my genetic stuff by the end of the month and then move onto.... the FINAL STRETCH. I'm also just waiting for final approval on my abstract from up north before I can submit it to a conference to go to in June. The conference looks awesome, its in South Carolina and I am so excited. (I'm also kind of happy its the same weekend as a high school anniversary/reunion thing. I feel no need to go back quite yet, maybe at 10 years.... thanks to facebook there is almost no reason to go to these things anymore). 

(Amazing Race update, when you're crying because you're stubborn and being mean to your sister, I have no sympathy for you).

So that's about it. My life has been rather boring this week due to having to go on antibiotics, which make me feel not so great, to clear up some final skin issues, but I can tell its working so I'll put up with it. But from here on will just work as hard as possible to get my work done, yet hopefully will have slightly better health so I'll want to do more of other stuff in the off time. 

(OMG! This boy on the amazing race is incredibly stupid! I want to hit him! He's so condescending to his sister!!! Gah. Just GAH. Ha ha, they went from 1st to second last in one leg, that'll show you.)

Ta for now.

Update: THIS is hilarious.

Happy Valentines from a not so bitter me

Tomorrow is Valentine's day and around the world there are single women (and men) prepared to raise the bitter flag and rail about this over materialistic, over promoted, manufactured holiday. A few year's ago, I would have been right there but this year, despite not having a boyfriend (though with one or two prehaps prospects on the horizon), I'm not feeling the usual bile rising. 

I don't know if its because I've recently decided that freaking out about being single has really accomplished nothing over the past few years, that I'm spurring myself on to be a bit braver when it comes to matters of the heart, or the fact that I'm really bloody tired, with another few very busy weeks ahead of me still. 

I am extraordinarily lucky after all. I have a wonderful family, fantastic friends, and my PCRs are working! (My priorities are awesome). I am looking forward to this weekend as one of my besties is coming into town, and then I get to go explore Vancouver next week. Of course having someone special in my life would be great, and I am looking, and open, but I think I need to take some time to count my blessings. 

I could also just be extraordinaly charmed by this, perhaps the cutest story EVAR (Koalas fall in love post rescue). In any case, I hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day, whether you celebrate it with roses or ranting. 

Oh February

Not even halfway through ya, and I feel as though you are speeding by like a bullet.

I am currently in Ottawa doing some very intense exams/interviews for what could be a really good opportunity. I'm trying not to get too hung up on it, there are offers to be made to 45 people and there are 120 people being interviewed for them. Not terrible odds but not a sure bet either. I've had to wear the suit and other professional clothes my mother bought me over Christmas, a definite adjustment from my usual garb of jeans and t-shirts, perhaps with a nice cardigan thrown into the mix from time to time. 

I'll have to haul out the professional wear again next week as I'm jaunting off to Vancouver for a conference. I'm really excited for this as it's my first opportunity to visit B.C., and hope to do lots of looking around. I'll do my best to keep you all updated. It's also my first time presenting my work at a real conference so we'll see if I'm really as smart as I hope I am (I am currently hoping I'm smarter than 80 other people.... there are some pretty smart people here). 

Anyways, in between that we're having a lovely former roommate to visit and at some point I guess I should keep with the actual working on the thesis huh? Oh lab work.... I will not miss you (the e-mail I got today about some not so great results is not being terribly encouraging in terms of wanting to get back to it. Sweet salaries and contributing to my country seem a great deal more interesting right now).

I should get off to bed, have another round of interviews tomorrow so night!

Unabashed nerdiness

I should so be asleep right now but I had one of those days today (run to school, run gel, work on poster, have graduate society meeting, wait for supervisor to appear, meet with supervisor, run back to lab, set up plate for sequencing, run home, watch Battlestar....) that has left me still feeling a little buzzed. So I thought I'd write a post about being both a nerd, and a scientist.

Being a nerd: 

• it's Darwin's 200th birthday next week! I am such a nerd when it comes to Darwin, its rather like Schroeder and Beethoven. I just really the love the guy. I'm a little sad as I currently haven't heard of any events for it going on at my current university, while I know my former supervisor is part of a big panel at Undergrad U and also at one of the universities in my home town. Without evolution, without Darwin, I am a firm believer that nothing else in science really makes sense. So I'll celebrate on my own a bit this weekend by reading a book about him I recently found at the library at school. 
  
• Am really loving 'The Big Bang Theory'. Very few shows on TV make enough science jokes for my taste so this one, about geeky scientists trying to deal with the real world/their pretty neighbour, absolutely tickles me. 
• I've been following debates on a couple of websites, including on Dr. Isis (whom I adore for not only sending me get better wishes on Twitter, but also advocating for looking hot while doing hot science) about Jill Biden -AHEM, DR. Jill Biden asking that she be addressed as such on official invitations, announcements from the White House. Some people seem to have a problem with this, that it seems 'pretentious', as only medical doctors should use this title. It has also come out that many journalists will not refer to people with ONLY a PhD as Dr. Sorry about the caps emphasis, I seem to get more self-righteous after midnight. This just bugs me. I am currently not studying for a PhD partly because its incredibly intimidating to me! It takes a lot of work, I would almost think more work than medical school, in part based on the sheer number of partying photos that friends of mine in medical school have posted on Facebook in the past few years. She earned it, she should damn well use it and be proud of it.

• I mentioned briefly that I have a job interview coming up with the government of my fair country. If I was hired, it would be because of my background in science but I would no longer be a scientist per say. I have to admit to developing mixed feelings about this. I was quite sure it was the shift I wanted to make, but as my mother starts insisting I only purchase 'professional/work appropriate clothes' now, I am more and more drawn to the hoodies and yoga pants I can wear to either the lab or the field. However, based on my sheer nerdiness for science (such as my extreme love for David Attenborough going through the animal tree of life, here,)(he is another Darwin lover!) I know I will never really leave it.
• (P.S. Way to go Steelers not letting me down!)