Chatterbox x3?

The chair of the graduate committee just informed me that I "owe" the department 3 seminars next semester. That's 3 hours of talking about my research.

Now ... I love me some powerpoint presentations.

But does anyone really want to hear about fish behavior for 3 hours? Really??

All in a weekend of work ...

Last weekend, I attended a local symposium to give a little talk about some of my research. This was my 4th time presenting at this and I look forward to it every year, because it is just a few local folks, mostly some professors and some undergrads.

This year's highlight's included:

• RyGuy came for the day to hang out with me (his 3rd appearance at this symposium that is totally NOT related to any of his research interests)


• An old labmate came back to give a talk about her field research and brought a student who did a little poster (and she won Best Undergrad Poster!)


• My advisor actually came .... for half the day ....


• The final speaker of the day gave a 1.5 hour talk on field work on insects in a foreign Asian country ... in which he included many videos ... one of cattle crossing his field site ... one of his colleagues dancing to "Who let the dogs out?" ... and TWO of his van driver singing in a foreign Asian language that none of us know. And I almost lost it near the end when he said something about something "going on and on and on and on and on" (it was like trying not to laugh at a funeral!!!)


• 6 slides into my 15 minute talk I realized ... I was giving the WRONG TALK!!!! (as in, an old version of the talk that still contained many slides that I thought I had deleted and planned to not talk about ....)


• Despite giving the WRONG TALK ... I still managed to be awarded "Best Graduate Student Talk" (Sorry Joe, but 2nd place ain't bad!)


• Best part of the day ... the most awesomely horrible hairclip I have ever seen a female professor wear. I only wish I had a good photo of it. Here is my attempt below. I know it is hard to make out ... but there is (in order) a bunch of bananas, an eggplant, an artichoke, an orange thing (squash?), asparagus and a tomato (or apple?). So amazing ... in the truest sense of the word.

Two life lessons learned:

1. Always, always, always check the PowerPoint presentation after it is loaded to be sure the right one is waiting for you!
2. Accessorize like nobody's watching!

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!)!