The thing about groupwork...

I do apparently play well with rocks.....I was making an inukshuk, ok, it's not like rocks are my only friends.


The thing about group work is that it inherently takes a task that you could have accomplished in a short amount of time on your own and triples it, along with bombarding your inbox with millions of emails when/where/how should we meet.

I almost always prefer to work on my own. Having reached grad school I thought I had finally left the world of partners and group projects behind (I mean of my 3 classes, the largest one had 15 people... so they really don't need to pair you up to reduce marking ok). But alas, I still have to suffer through it, every other week.

Once in undergrad, my partner, who were were supposed to be paired with for the whole year got bit by a rabid dog and later dropped the course (unrelated reasons) and so I got to be a group of one! It was bliss! (she was fine, don't worry)

I know that working well in groups is an important skill to develop, and that some groups can be very effective... but for the most part its a huge pain!

Is it really so bad that I don't play well with others?

Do you have any group project train wreck stories... or times when everything went perfectly smoothly?

October Already

Me in Banff about this time last year, Tunnel Mountain.

Another "I can't believe it's October already!" post for you to read, and one day late too, I know my feed was full of them yesterday.

Last night as I walked across campus after a somewhat productive 45 min in the gym, I thought to myself what a beautiful night. The air was crisp, it was chilly but not cold really, and the full moon was out just as clouds rolled in from the west to cover it up while I walked. I took the chance on that 10 minute or so walk to just breath and clear my head, because yesterday was the start of an incredibly busy week, and an even busier month for me.

School wise I have a class this semester, which so far has me reading between 4-6 papers a week, with a presentation every other week, and a paper to write soon. I have my research proposal to finish up the final draft by the end of October so I can have a committee meeting again mid November. Fall is the season of applying for funding in academia, and I subsequently have an application due on the 15th. I have a whole side project of experiments that I'd like to finish out before the end of november, alongside the rest of my lab work. On top of that I'm the president of our department grad association, I volunteer with the committee which organizes the faculty symposium each year, and I am responsible for a news article for a student run health sciences journal out of UofT. Add to that our lab tech being on holiday for the next two months and I've somehow become the default replacement and you can see my head is spinning.

Life wise I'm standing up in my cousin's wedding this month, and will be travelling back to Ontario for that. I am doing two dance classes a week, (add it to the night class and tuesday and friday are my only nights off). I am trying to get into the gym two nights a week, and run outside at least once. I have my first half Marathon coming up Nov 11. And I still want to try to get 2-3 blog posts  (minimum) up a week.

Yeesh... I may just collapse in a heap come Halloween! Oh halloween... I have a costume to sew for that!

So this month will be the ultimate test of my time management skills, but consider this post a disclaimer up front....if I disappear off the face of the internet this month, it's not because I don't love it here, it's only because I'm passed out under a pile of journal articles.

Cheers, and happy fall!

Sara

Today I: am back to class, and learning NMR

OK, so I just had to share this real quick, because it`s got me feeling a little like this kitty:

 source

SO I`m doing a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, so it stands to reason that I might have to take a couple graduate level biochem courses, tonight I have the first lecture of possibly my last class ever. The topic for the evening, metabonomics and pharmacology. The papers assigned to read in advance feature a lot of techniques, and a lot on NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance)  of which I previously know very little about... having coming from a physiology based undergrad (not biochemistry). The moral of this story is, in reading one of these papers I came across this sentence....and subsequently feel like the above cat.

``An NMR spectrum of biofluids can be thought of as an object with a multidimentional set of metabolic coordinates, the values of which are the spectral intensities at each data point, and the spectrum is therefor a point in a multidimensional metabolic hyperspace.``

 (Lindon JC, Holmes E and Nicholson JK, 2006)

So there you have it.....hopefully tonight`s class goes better than the reading of the papers did... looks like I`ll be working double time this semester.

4 simple goals

Today I'm linking up with A Beautiful Mess, and Sharing my 4 Simple Goals.

As you might be aware, I already have a bucket list of goals, 25 to be precise, to accomplish before my 25th birthday in February, but based on the nature of the goals suggested, I thought why not add another 4, to hold close over the last 4 months of 2012.

You see, the purpose of these goals is not to accomplish a specific task, but rather to focus on to improve your life in general. Things that if I work hard towards over the next 4 months, might just become habits that I keep indefinitely. So here they are, my 4 simple goals.

1. No More Snooze Button! this might just be the hardest one for me, so lets get it out there right away. I am a snooze button monster. It is so easy for me to hit snooze every 5 minutes for an entire hour. To avoid being perpetually late, I set my alarm way earlier than I need to, knowing I'm going to hit snooze. This needs to stop, people like @TrainerErrick and posts like the one I found yesterday on what successful people do with the first hour of their day; (and my own plain common sense) tell me how important it is to wake up and seize the day. My most productive days are the ones when I hop right out of bed and get at it. So goal number one, get rid of the snoozing, and get going!
2. Prints, prints, prints! I have been living in my apartment here in Calgary for over a year now. And I don't have a single picture of family or friends up anywhere! One of my best friends @setulk prints her photos within days of taking them, Every time I go to her apartment there are new photos up on the walls (always perfectly framed too!) and it's so cozy. This may be a cop out goal, because it is one of my 25, but I'm making it a huge priority. I want my home to be full of memories and love... and sometimes that means getting the pictures off my PC and onto my walls.
3. Just Keep Running! An obvious one, considering if you've been around my blog this week you know I've got a half marathon set for November 11. So this goal comes in two parts.....(1) run, at least 3 times a week (at least!) between now and race day. (2) don't stop because you finished your race, as was this issue with my first 10 back in May, I ran hard and long leading up to it, and then fizzled out as soon as I was done. This should not be about finishing a race, but about becoming someone who can honestly call themselves a runner.
4. Read that stack on Papers! On my desk at work, and on my table here at home, I have stacks of papers to read for school. Stacks! and they constantly grow (especially now because I'm going to be taking another course this semester) So I need to get reading, I need to be in the habit of tucking in to at least one a day during the week. Grad school is a very self directed learning process, some of which comes from doing the actual science, but a lot of which comes from reading. You have to have yourself fully immersed in the literature, all the time, to be successful. So I need to up my game, and become someone who regularly is reading, not just in spurts and bursts.

Fascinated With Fridays : 3 Separate Things

Here's what's captured my interest this Friday!

As the re-release of the 1998 must have toy, the Furby, is making headlines this week, Hello Giggles had a fun post featuring other toy fad's of the 90s. Many of which, skip-its, pogs, floam; were immediately banned from my elementary school. (krazy bones, and snap bracelets were also banned from the play ground, but interestingly did not make the list).

As I finally got around to opening the cover of this summer's AIHS Research News, the first story drew my attention. University of Alberta law professor Timothy Caufeild's book 'The Cure for Everything' is supposed to be worth a read. In it he debunks many health myth's and cures, often using himself as a guinea pig, all in an effort to drive home the message that healthy living really is the cure for everything. Don't have time to read the book? You can just read his article on the Huffington Post "9 Health Myths Debunked."

Source: losingfat-findingme.tumblr.com via I'm going to Asia on Pinterest

I've been feeling in a bit of a lab related rut lately, maybe too many days spent on the same equipment, maybe just contemplation about being one year in with no end in sight. Anyways this leads me to wanting to feel more motivated, get successful, I know there have been a bunch of posts round the blog-o-sphere recently about 'Eating your Frog' so here's one about 'What Successful People Do with the First Hour of Their Work Day." How do you start off your day, with a specific ritual? I'd love to try to get into some wake-up sun salutations.

Advice from my supervisor

My supervisor sent me these today, I  pass them on to you.

He pointed out that number 7 was of particular importance.

Good advice I'd say.

Enjoy your weekend peoples!

Today I...A much better day

Today I...

• Woke up at 7AM and felt ready to get out of bed (as opposed to dragging myself around my apartment with my eyes closed)
• Pressurized a vessel...with tone...and got some real, usable data points!
• Ate some very tasty chocolate cookies
• Debated over a weekend meeting/fund raising event... came to a conclusion...maybe
• Made some hepes buffers 
• Attended my first ever class as a TA.

Before the student's left they were asked to answer some questions about themselves on a card and hand it in. I looked some quickly, and saw reasonable responses, some that made me chuckle (answers intended for humour), some that reminded me of me, and one specific one that was truly inspiring.

So I eagerly look forward to getting to know these students better, and dread the first pile of marking I'll be taking home.

Tonight I will.....

• Buy apples to make this apple sharlotka
• Buy some carrots and cream cheese to make these inside-out muffins
• Type up an abstract from all my jotted down notes
• Have a drink damn it!
• And see a friend play a show with his band

Ah Grad school

Bossypants and no pants days

Just finished reading Tina Fey's autobiography, Bossypants (really only stared it 2 days ago, so it's fast reading people, especially if you are enjoying your summer of unemployment as I am).

From her introduction:

If you are a women and you bought this book for practical tips on how to make it in a male-dominated workplace, here they are. No pigtails, no tube tops. Cry sparingly. (Some people say "never let them see you cry." I say, if you're so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone.) When choosing sexual partners, remember: Talent is not sexually transmittable. Also, don't eat diet foods in meetings.

*And if that paragraph makes you laugh, chuckle, smile, or even just continue breathing normally, then definitely read her book. In fact even if you stop breathing altogether in reaction to your perceived lack of comedy in that paragraph, read it anyways, just because.

And me, as a woman about to permanently enter a male dominated workplace (academia yeesh) by starting grad school next year; loved it.

Anyhow, today I am not wearing my bossypants (do I even have those? yes, they're burberry pants that I got for 30 dollars at a thrift store, and they are bad ass, in a norwegian curling team kinda way, has it been too long since the last winter olympics for that reference, yes, but I don't care). Today so far is looking like "no pants day #2". Does this mean I'm currently wearing a pair of boxers instead of pants, yes, but also more importantly, it's part of my summer plan of wearing shorts skirts and dresses as frequently as possible, befor heading back into the lab in septemeber (mandatory full length pants!).


Anywho, getting back to blogging, hope that was moderately funny for you, if not refer to the * above, and follow those suggestions for my blog.

Day Seven...Fave Movies

So some of the blogs I follow are doing the 30 day challenge over at Katie's Journey.

I thought I'd pop in at day 7.

Today we're supposed to list our favourite movies, and I love soooo many movies that I'll have to go with the ones that come to mind first.

• Star Wars - all of them
• The new Star Trek, not that the old ones aren't great, but the new one was fantasticle!
• Across the Universe - Because of the music and the colours and the wonderful.
• V for Vendetta - and I am currently reading the graphic novel.
• Airplane the movie! - this was my parent's first date too!

And that's all I can think of right now.

In other news I recently painted my nails a neon sherbet  peach colour, kinda fantastic. Vegas was great, maybe I'll get around to posting pictures soon. I spent 8 hours at work yesterday running an elisa (fun times). And I feel like I'm 15 again, maybe it's because I've got a big old hickie!

Picked a PhD

So I've decided who really needs a master's degree? I mean I've worked in a lab for the past 8 months, and had several excellent lab positions/experiences before that. And I've just let Long Hair (my boss/supervisor... who does in fact have long hair for a man) and one of his colleagues talk me into just applying right into the PhD program next year.

Well there's a 4 year commitment decided upon in a hour.... well not really an hour, this is something I've been talk with myself about for the last 4 months. So hurray! it's all decided and stuff.

In other news, I moved up to my new lab today... going to take a break (kinda) from mesenterics and spend some time learning about myometrium. Here's a look around.

Well not really a look around, labs are all confidential and stuff... so instead it's just a generic back drop style shot. As for that totally awesome shirt I'm wearing, it's vintage liz claiborne, picked it up for 5 bucks on ebay. The belt is from pac sun.... its was cheep... that's all I know about it. Oh I found it here.

Anyways, this is the face of someone committed to being a student till she's 27 (minimum).

Working on Sunday!

I have to drag myself in to the lab shortly to put in a solid 8 hours on the myograph, (an awesome set up for working with real, pressurized, blood vessels) and make edits on a paper.

It's Sunday!

Gotta love putting in extra hours, but since as of monday I work in a different lab then the one I have been working on my thesis project in, and since me thesis project is not quite done yet, I gotta finish it on my own time.

 Sexy boots from Spring!

Yesterday however, I spent at a loverly new mall Cross Iron Mills, and shopped myself out... we litterally skipped a whole quarter of the mall just from exhaustion and lack of funds. I picked up two cute pairs of boots, a jacket, a couple sweaters, and 3 cute dresses to wear when I'm in Vegas next month.

Did I mention I'm going to Vegas for Canadian Thanksgiving?

Vegas!