I gotta get out of this place ..

This week has been full of lab-related drama and I may have been slightly "animated" after a few drinks, but overall, I think I handled it alright and the lab continues to run smoothly.

But today was just too much for me.

I knew a shipment of fish was coming in via UPS and the department secretary knew that I was to be called when they arrived. I was down in my basement-mens-room-lab for a few hours, working away, awaiting my fish shipment. When suddenly my advisor bursts through the door with a departmental lab-tech and boxes of fish.

I said, "Oh, good, the fish are here!" (smiles)

My advisor replies (in a not-nice tone) (in front of a departmental lab-tech), "They've been sitting in the office for quite a while but no one knew where you were!"

To which I reply "Why wouldn't anyone think to look in the LAB?". You know, the lab far away in the basement where I spend all of my time since I became your indentured servant???? There is a phone in this cave that you can talk to me on from your super fancy, windowed, chair's office. All you have to do is enter in 5 numbers and my voice will magically appear on the other end.




I realize this sounds silly, and minor and you're wondering "why would this stupid little thing bother her?". But if you had just had the week that I had, you'd be crazy too!

Can't wait to leave this place (both for the weekend, and eventually forever)!

Birthday wishes for my favorite Nephew!

Happy 5th Birthday Nephew!

Uncle Ry & I are so very excited to celebrate with you at your birthday party this weekend!!

I hope to take lots more pictures of you to share with all of my friends!
(You're 3 in this photo! I can't believe how fast you've grown up!)

300

Yes, it's my 300th blog posting!

Wow ... I thought I'd be bored with it after just 100 ...

In honor of blog posting #300, this is brought to you by the number 300!

300, of course, is a triangular number and the sum of a pair of twin primes (149 + 151), as well as the sum of ten consecutive primes (13 + 17 + 19 + 23 + 29 + 31 + 37 + 41 + 43 + 47). It is a Harshad number. To learn more about the number 300, click here.

300 is the number of Spartans that fought in the Battle of Thermopylae. Um, totally one of my favorite films! That queen is so bad-ass!

300 is a perfect score in bowling. Someday, I will achieve a 300 ... in Wii bowling, of course!

300 was apparently the year in which lions went extinct in Armenia, the elephants went extinct in North Africa and the wild ass went extinct in Algeria. Poor extinct animals. Other important happened in the year 300 as well.

Oh, 300. How important you are!

I need to move ... soon ...

Yes ... this was the sign put up on my street by the Little Town police.

When they gave me a ticket for parking there illegally, I sort of wanted to contest on the grounds that I had no idea that there was no parking on WEDNESDAY.

Thank Goodness!

It is NOT illegal to drink and VOTE (click here)!!

But it IS illegal to bring liquor to voting sites -- be careful, Joe Six-pack!

The Big Apple with my Big RyGuy

Ry & I had a wonderful weekend in NYC!

Ry moved to northern NJ about 2 months ago now, so we decided it was time to figure out how to take a train into the city! After only a few wrong ticket buys (my bad), we made it to Central Park!

We wandered around for a while and finally found the zoo! Of course we spent hours near the sea lions and seals and polar bears!

After a nice stroll around the park, we decided it was so nice and we should walk the 20-some blocks back to Penn Station! We stopped into a few stores and saw the skating rink and grabbed some NY pizza and sat on some benches to enjoy it in the middle of Broadway!

We can't wait for our next visit to celebrate our 3rd Anniversary!

Best. Lecture. Ever.

OK, so maybe it wasn't the best lecture ever. Or even the best lecture that I have ever given. But it's been a while since I gave a lecture -- and this one was fun! And the students loved it!

Well ... maybe their loving it has more to do with the fact that the class is normally taught by my advisor. He's been teaching the class ... for a while. I think Plato was one of his students. So, as you can probably guess, he doesn't use any fancy teaching techniques. Like asking the students for feeback during the class ("Does anyone have a guess as to what the outcome of this experiment was?"). Or PowerPoint.

Because I am my advisor's bitch ... er ... I mean, "research assistant", I had to teach this one topic while he is out of town. When I asked if there was a computer in the classroom so that I could use powerpoint, he looked at me like I was crazy. I'm not sure if he was more confused about the actual presence of a computer in the room OR the fact that I wanted to make a powerpoint presentation.

So I think the praise I received from students was mainly due to relativity ... but I'll enjoy it anyway! And it definitely reinforces my desire to teach and spend less time in the lab (SHHH! Don't tell anyone!)!

Political Science

So, I won't post my political views, as I don't really love either major candidate. But I though I'd post this for you: Click Here to read the answers of Barack Obama and John McCain to the top 14 sciences questions. These questions were put together by scientists and governmental science foundations. If you're on the fence, maybe you'll be swayed be these candidates' scientific views.

Or, if you're a New York State resident like I am, your vote won't really matter anyway (damn electoral college!!)! But I did apply for my absentee ballot.

Speaking of ballots ... did you realize that there are 7 different presidential candidates on the ballot? I got my absentee ballot yesterday and was surprised to have choices. Who are these people? I think I might do some googling and see if Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clementa from the Green Party are worthy of my vote!

Of course if Tina Fey was running, she'd be my first choice.

"Because bitches get shit done"

A is for Adorable Ally!

Yep, my best friend Kimmy has the cutest kid!

Year of the Baby!

As the year of the baby is coming to a close ...

I threw one more baby shower this past weekend!

It was for Ry's big sister Lor!

She and her husband have been trying to adopt for as long as I have known them & they're finally getting a little girl from China!!

Meet Hannah Rose Han Yun!

We had a great time at the shower, we loved painting and decorating her Tinkerbell bedroom, we've bought her lots of presents and now we can't wait to meet Hannah!!!

Must ... publish ... must ... publish ...

Why do I need to publish?

2 reasons:
(1) I want a job some day.
(2) My advisor has this ... goal ... for his students -- "publish 10 papers in grad school" (10 is a lot). Then, 2 guys actually did it (eventually). So, my advisor said to me when I started "publish 10 papers ... no including your dissertation". I decided that this would be a good way to achieve my main reason for being in grad school -- to get a job. And I'd be the first person (and woman) in the lab to do it. (Have I ever mentioned I am slightly competitive, in a non-cut-throat way?)


Thus, I have been working hard on this quest for the "Big 10", and this summer I managed to get out quite a few papers:

1) Great study on Jamaican fish that provides evidence against a hypothesis that I really disagree with. Data from Summer '07. Status: Being published in a very good journal! Available online now!!!

2) Cool study about one endangered species endangering another. Data from Summer '06; second author. Status: Being published at cool journal of short articles!

3) Random little study on zebrafish. Asked to assist due to my amazing zebrafish sexing abilities, but ended up doing quite a bit of work on it. Data collected from Spring '06 until recently; second author. Status: Accepted at an OK journal after many revisions.

4) Awesome study on convict cichlid parental care (wow -- almost related to my dissertation). Data collected in Costa Rica January '08; second author. Status: Being published in a second very good journal! Will be out in January '09!

5) Little study on Jamaican fish that we did at the end of the Summer '07 field season because we had a few extra days and nothing else to do; second author. Status: Being reviewed at very good journal, will likely be rejected and will then be sent to cool journal of short articles.

6) Lab study on my fish that is the preliminary data of my dissertations. Data collected between Fall '05 and Spring '06. Status: Rejected from pretty good journal, with the option of resubmission. (Reject & resubmit is totally lame and I am waiting to hear back about my compelling argument that my paper is fine how it is)


Because that's only 6, I am currently working on ... 3 more manuscripts. Plus a collaborator is working on one more. And I have potentially a few more than that.

Oh, and maybe I should actually get some data that goes towards my dissertation. Because all of the above articles will be great for helping me get a job. But none of them are helping me graduate! (Can I get a job without graduating?? Hmm ....)

So, if you're bored in the next few months, Google me and you can find some very boring articles about fish behavior to read! :)