Schooling and such

As promised, here's an update on my school stuffs.  This might be a bit boring for those readers who aren't so interested in the gory details of a combined degree program, so consider yourself warned.  We'll return to our normal furry broadcast next post.

Right now (and for the rest of the PhD, the next three years) I've essentially got two things going on: 1) lab  2) classes.  This being my first year, I'm working mostly on familiarizing myself with my new field in the lab while trying to knock out my required course work.  Once I've got a project up and running, the course work will be pretty much done for me (by middle of 2nd year), and "classes" will begin to refer to classes that I will TA (hopefully!).  That's the basic over-view.  What does that mean I'm actually doing right now?

Reading.  Sh*t-tons of reading.

This is because my previous experience/knowledge was pretty much all to do with cancer cell signaling.  Now I'm in an immunology lab.  I did take a big-honking immunology class as part of my master's degree at UVa....but that was two years ago and I've used about 1% of what I learned.  As I've mentioned before, my brain operates on use-it-or-loose-it for most things, thus I'm re-learning immunology.  One stinking review article at a time.  It was interesting the first three weeks, but that's about all the tolerance I've got for just sitting and reading scientific articles.  Plus my desk and chair in lab are built for someone about 5'4"... I'm all scrunched up by the end of the day.  I've been trying to mix it up by reading at home, Starbucks, exploring libraries, but eventually I just want to freakin' pipette something!!

Honestly, I could be reading something fun like Hemingway or Kipling and I'd be sick of it after three weeks of nothing else.

But I have had a goal during all the reading: to come up with possible PhD project ideas, or more scientifically, hypotheses.  My mentor is all about encouraging me to be independent, and with my level of previous training (I know that sounds snotty) I should be.  I'd rather be testing my skills of developing a project NOW when I've got a mentor to guide me (i.e. tell me that my rationale is completely flawed) rather than later when my career/funding depends on it. So I came up with a few ideas, and my mentor chose one he thought was the most promising for further development.  But I also need a "backup" project, basically in case one of them tanks either b/c my hypothesis was totally wrong or because I run into insurmountable technical difficulties.  And I should also have a project tied to what's going on in the lab, which the first idea didn't so much.  So back to reading and familiarizing myself now with neutrophils and microRNAs. That's where project stuff stands.

In the midst of working on this stuff, my mentor asked me to help write a review!  Actually the other grad student is really writing, and I'm assisting.  (The lab consists of me, other grad, technician and a senior post-doc who is actually research faculty, and of course my mentor the PI).  It's both a crap-ton more reading and writing, but also a really good way to learn.

As for classes, they started Aug 22nd, and the first week was luckily all intro/syllabus stuff.  I say luckily because I managed to come down with my first cold the Thursday before.  That cold dragged on and on, but I thought I was getting better till just this past Thursday when my throat flared up again - now I've got swollen lymphnodes the size of strawberries.  I'm blaming it all on the germy little undergrads running around.  Poo on them!

Back to classes.  So I'm taking Vet immunology (for review primarily), Intro to Systems Biology (how to model cells/biochemical reactions with a computer), two seminars, one of which I have to present in, and a grant writing class.  The grant writing class is specifically designed to have you end up with a complete grant (6 page, K08 style) by the end of the semester, which is good for me because I'm planning on actually applying for both an NSF graduate fellowship as well as an F31 NRSA fellowship through NIH.  It's mostly for the scientific glory, but the NSF would land me substantially more stipend money and I'm also required to have a "grant writing experience" as part of my PhD program, and by taking the class I'm getting credit for the writing time.  Killing three birds with one stone!!

The work load is going to keep me pretty busy this semester, but it hasn't hit quite yet.  It really won't hit until the Vet immunology starts.  That class is with all the DVM students (and it will count towards my DVM) and the schedule is completely nuts: it meets on different days and different times every week.  Doesn't start till the end of Sept but then ends in November, with the final exam during finals week in Dec....it's going to be fast and intense, with only two exams and the final on which to base my grade.  Fun stuff!  Systems bio is going to be really interesting, but it also has exams and two projects so it's not exactly a light work-load.  I don't see myself getting a ton of experiments done in lab with all the class work, but I'm hoping to at least get preliminary data for my personal project proposal.  If I can complete all my classes in very good standing, get the fellowships submitted (with prelim data) and have my projects clearly outlined and experiments at least planned, it will be a successful semester....at least in my opinion!  I should check on that with my mentor ;-)

Meanwhile, for the program I have to "identify" (i.e. beg professors to be in) my committee.  I will meet with these guys once a semester to go over my work and plans, and they will ultimately decide when/if I get to graduate.  I have to pick profs from within my dept and without.  I also have to come up with a "plan of study" which basically outlines all the courses I plan on taking.  The plan isn't binding and can be modified, but they want to see that I've made sure to complete all the requirements for the program.  I'm lucky b/c a bunch of my master's classes can be transferred in and will cover some of the requirements.  That means fewer classes total for me, but I'll also have time/room in my schedule to complete something called the "Future Professoriate Certificate" through the graduate school.  It's basically a program that trains individuals to teach at a collegiate level, regardless of subject.  I'll have to take 6 extra credits, but since being a professor is what I'd like to do, it's worth it!

Well, thinking about all the stuff I've got to do makes me think I should get off blogger and work on some of it :-)  Being sick for the last 15 days has put me behind a bit....I've been trying to lay low but I don't know why my body is being so wimpy.  I actually went to Student Health on Friday - strep test and mono test were negative, and my white blood cells weren't elevated, but the doc was concerned about the swollen nodes (I mean, even hubby could see them clearly on my neck).  So I'm stuck taking ibuprofen, vit C and Zinc, and trying to sleep as much a possible.  Which isn't hard b/c I'm pretty pooped.  This is NOT the way I wanted to start the semester.....or spend my 31st birthday, which was this past Wed.  That was before my neck exploded, so hubs and I did celebrate by seeing the movie "Buck" and having a dinner out.  He surprised me with a Nook eReader, which I was considering returning b/c of the cost...but then I downloaded some books...and....well....now it's covered in fingerprints and I can't possibly return it!!  Actually, what's cool is that it's color and I can download pdfs of science papers and read them anywhere with all the figures in color!  Saving paper is a good thing, right?!?  This might seem ironic since we just went and got our local library cards, but get this: our library lends eBooks too!!! (can't remember if I mentioned that previously)  How cool is that??

It's pretty cool, I think.  So off to do some reading.....

Illness, waiting, and physics. Ugh.

So the lovely cold the hubby shared with me has followed the same path his did.  I thought I was feeling better on Monday so went to work....had long day at work....had physics homework kick my butt that evening....low and behold I was in worse shape Tuesday, stayed up half the night coughing and finally decided to drag my pitiful butt into the doctors yesterday.  So it's on the antibiotics and codeine syrup train now *sigh*.  And my voice has blown out from all the coughing so I sound ridiculous.  At least this didn't happen during my Tech interview, right?!? SILVER LININGS, DAMNIT!!

Unfortunately the cold happened just when I was supposed to be catching up on the physics reading and studying I had blown off while prepping for my interview....so now I feel doubly behind.  Not just feel, but am.  I am hereby taking control of the situation NOW.  From now on, I am cut off from TV during week nights  -  it's either reading/studying/working on physics, or doing dishes, or bed.  (You all might find me going to bed at 8:30pm from now on...).

Seriously though, one of my biggest problems is that after a long day working in lab, bouncing to and from class and what ever else, I'm POOPED in the evenings and find myself too often staring blandly at the TV until 10pm.  When I'm already kinda tired, all will power to shut off that soul-sucking electronic devil is washed away.  I realize that I still need to devote the majority of each weekend to physics studying and practice, but even if I get two pages read on the weeknights, that's something!!  Plus TV shows just make me wish I was thinner, witty-er and better dressed *sigh*

This actually leads into my hypothesis that TV is the root of all societal discontent....but that's for another post.

In other school news, I found out letters for the combined degree from Tech should have been mailed *today*.  I haven't gotten an email, and I don't know if they'll send one, but regardless I should get the letter pretty quickly.  Like tomorrow or Saturday.  Will keep ya posted!
I also found out that I should hear from UCDavis between the 14th and 18th...again, not holding my breath for this at all, but a decision one way or the other will just help solidify plans.  I mean, in the very far off chance I did get an interview at Davis, it would really complicate the decision making process.  The details are neither interesting nor pertinent until I find out, so I will spare you all.

Wish I had creature news, but don't.  All the furries are stable, and totally bored with Brian and I for being couch potatoes for so long.  I have a few pics I should probably get up but...yeah...been too busy coughing.  Dearest H. (H is for hubby) is getting much better, so hopefully life will return to happy normalcy soon.  Off to do a post-physics-lab quiz and split some cells.  Good times.