I know I promised to finish the Thanksgiving trek story next, but this is more fresh in my memory. Also, geesh, when am I going to cook something? It's been nothing but pizza and fend-for-yourself for quite awhile in these here parts. :)
Actually I'm enjoying some blackened catfish (good, but salty), white corn polenta with parmesan, and kale sauteed with onions even as we speak. But, back to my 2nd interview tale.
Back in October, when I attended the SFN conference in Chicago, I finally worked up the nerve to ask one of our collaborators about post-doc positions. I've had a lot of reservations about the whole post-doc thing, and I'm still not thrilled about the pay level, given how much education is required prior to this, but the non-academic job market has changed in the recent past. Many positions (of what's left; not too many people are actually hiring) now require 3-5 years of postdoctoral research, so it looks like I'm headed in that direction anyway. The thing is, this guy is a big deal in my field of research (and a few others as well), uses the techniques I think will be most helpful (and that address experimental questions I come up with), and has trained a lot of people who've gone on to become successful.
So I headed down there a couple of weekends ago, and got to see some of Nashville before the marathon interview. I got in on Saturday, visited with some friends from Pittsburgh (who moved down there last year for work), spent Sunday working & purchasing some last minute necessities to look put together on Monday for my talk, returned my rental car to the airport (needed it on Saturday), and got ready for dinner with the research group I would be working with.
At 5:40 pm, the interview started. 7 of us had dinner at a pretty good Thai restaurant, and I actually had a great time. The people were friendly, funny, and gave me the pros and cons of Nashville (most are explants from other areas) and Vanderbilt. I got back to the hotel around 9:30, and went back to work on my talk. This is the same talk I gave at NYU, but I had updated some of the data, and had to rework a few things for a different audience. I think I went to sleep around 12/12:30, and got up with plenty of time to spare.
Which is a good thing, b/c while I was in the shower, the head guy called to see if he could pick me up 15 minutes earlier. He managed to reach me after leaving me a message, and I agreed. So he picked me up at 8:15, we went to breakfast at a cool diner near campus, and then he gave me a quick walking tour on the way to the labs. Showed me around the various labs, then went to get set up for my talk at 10.
I got that out of the way (ugh, I don't like my own work, though I wasn't as nervous as last time, and since this will also end up being my thesis talk, I need the practice), and started meeting with people. Two senior lab techs/lab managers, four graduate students @ lunch, three post-docs, two junior lab techs and another grad student later, the head guy picked me up & took me to a hockey game (with a few other people from the lab). We talked a lot of science, but man, was that a long day (8 am till 10 pm straight).
Tuesday, I packed up my stuff, checked out of the hotel, and the head guy picked me up again for a few more meetings. We checked out a new microscope that Olympus was demonstrating that day (very cool, I wish I had one now; it would make my data collection much much quicker), then I met with the Postdoc affairs lady, another grad student, and had a meeting with the head guy before he drove me to the airport.
We left it open, with a soft deadline for me to accept or pass of by the end of February.
It's a great opportunity, but Nashville is certainly not somewhere I had on my radar. It is definitely in the South, financially about the same as Pittsburgh (okay, a little more expensive, but not much), and I heard several comments about church, so that would be a little different. I didn't state my beliefs outright, so I hope that doesn't become an issue. But it's also warm (yay!) and the research environment seems like a step in the right direction from where I am now.
D seems on board, even though it might be tough for him job-wise. I'm subtly suggesting he should go work at a vineyard, and learn how to make wine - but that's my daydream, I suppose. I do worry that this might not be the right step for us, but I think he wants me to go after what I need for my career. I also worry that I'll be a disappointing post-doc, but I don't think there's anything I can do about that unless it starts actually happening.
So it looks like I'll be moving to Tennessee, come September, assuming my thesis gets wrapped up without any further major snags.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Long Overdue Post on NY
So, what you all don't see is that my Drafts folder is full of half-started posts, none of which I ever returned to for purposes of, y'know, finishing them. What's even sadder is how often this could also be said of my actual work-work, my fiction writing (lifelong problem there), work on the house, etc. etc.
I seem to have a problem finishing alot of things that I start.
In any case, I believe I promised some comments on the New York visit, and have another job interview experience to describe as well. No pictures (of course!), but mostly I just sat in hotel rooms working on slides when I wasn't actually talking with other people.
First up is NYU. I missed my intended bus into Oakland that morning, and had to run into work anyway to check a couple of last minute things on the computer there/print out extra CVs. I realized as I was waiting for the Airport Shuttle that I was going to be cutting it too close at the airport, and managed to snag myself a cab instead at the Holiday Inn on campus. Some other time, I will explain what a feat this is in Pittsburgh, and the general dismal state of transportation-for-hire here in the Steel City.
I made it to the airport with plenty of time, and got all checked in. Then I found the special laptop charging bank of seats near the terminal and sat down to do some work. As usual, I had bitten off more than I could chew in terms of planning my talk, and was running a little behind on finishing up a few different things. I couldn't really do anything substantive at the airport, but I had to alter some superficial details of one set of graphs (combining datasets, changing fonts & symbol colors & size), and this was sufficiently mindless that I could do it even in my state of heightened anxiety, brought on by the impending interview.
When I got to Manhattan, my host greeted me at the nearby residence hotel, and loaned me her MoMA membership card. She also suggested I walk through Grand Central Station to view the famed ceiling. It sounded nice, but I was also anxious to get some work done & explained that my talk still needed work. At which point, I was told that I pretty much had the job if I wanted it, and the talk was just formality. I still wanted to do a good job, but I accepted the pass & decided to head uptown on foot for awhile, as my room wouldn't be ready for a couple of hours anyway.
I browsed the gift shop a little bit, since it was getting toward Christmastime, but the place was also mobbed with people, so I didn't end up buying anything. I did have a nice walk, and grabbed something to eat, but the experience left me a little flat. NYC used to be very exciting, if overwhelming, for me, but this time all I could notice was how little sky was visible. All of those buildings seem to crowd in overhead, and the sheer number of people just made me feel existentially lonely. If I'd thought about it, I might have decided right then that I couldn't live in NY, but I was still excited about the possibility I guess. In any case, there was a Dunkin Donuts 1/2 block from the hotel, so I was pretty happy regardless of what happened.
My host picked my up again for a fantastic dinner (fondue = yum!), thought the restaurant was little loud for the purposes of discussing science. Her postdoc was also very nice, but we realized at dinner that we had had some miscommunication. I was being considered for a fellowship that had a required start date of June 1, 2010, but my anticipated graduation had been shifted back since our last conversation, so we weren't sure whether I would make it in time.
We still proceeded the next day, but I certainly felt bad that I hadn't been clear enough in our e-mails. In any case, my host picked me up and took me to breakfast in the morning (after I was up until ~2 working on slides after dinner), my talk went okay, I met with a lot of scientists, and had a fun day talking science. At the very end (6:30 pm or so), and then I was put in a cab back to LaGuardia.
I just have to interject here that apparently cab drivers in New York have never heard of the law that they're supposed to take the way that you specify to get to the airport, so I never saw the inside of the Queens Tunnel, despite asking two different drivers to take that way. The second cab was a little scary, as the guy was yelling into his cellphone alot, and I had no idea where we were going for awhile, even while watching our progress on the GPS map in the back of the cab. But, he got me to the airport on time, for less than I was told it would cost via the tunnel, so I guess I can't complain.
And then my plane was delayed like 4.5 hours. RRgggh. LaGuardia is not a good airport to be stuck in. Though they do have a Dunkin Donuts cart, and I got to read Wicked, which was interesting.
I seem to have a problem finishing alot of things that I start.
In any case, I believe I promised some comments on the New York visit, and have another job interview experience to describe as well. No pictures (of course!), but mostly I just sat in hotel rooms working on slides when I wasn't actually talking with other people.
First up is NYU. I missed my intended bus into Oakland that morning, and had to run into work anyway to check a couple of last minute things on the computer there/print out extra CVs. I realized as I was waiting for the Airport Shuttle that I was going to be cutting it too close at the airport, and managed to snag myself a cab instead at the Holiday Inn on campus. Some other time, I will explain what a feat this is in Pittsburgh, and the general dismal state of transportation-for-hire here in the Steel City.
I made it to the airport with plenty of time, and got all checked in. Then I found the special laptop charging bank of seats near the terminal and sat down to do some work. As usual, I had bitten off more than I could chew in terms of planning my talk, and was running a little behind on finishing up a few different things. I couldn't really do anything substantive at the airport, but I had to alter some superficial details of one set of graphs (combining datasets, changing fonts & symbol colors & size), and this was sufficiently mindless that I could do it even in my state of heightened anxiety, brought on by the impending interview.
When I got to Manhattan, my host greeted me at the nearby residence hotel, and loaned me her MoMA membership card. She also suggested I walk through Grand Central Station to view the famed ceiling. It sounded nice, but I was also anxious to get some work done & explained that my talk still needed work. At which point, I was told that I pretty much had the job if I wanted it, and the talk was just formality. I still wanted to do a good job, but I accepted the pass & decided to head uptown on foot for awhile, as my room wouldn't be ready for a couple of hours anyway.
I browsed the gift shop a little bit, since it was getting toward Christmastime, but the place was also mobbed with people, so I didn't end up buying anything. I did have a nice walk, and grabbed something to eat, but the experience left me a little flat. NYC used to be very exciting, if overwhelming, for me, but this time all I could notice was how little sky was visible. All of those buildings seem to crowd in overhead, and the sheer number of people just made me feel existentially lonely. If I'd thought about it, I might have decided right then that I couldn't live in NY, but I was still excited about the possibility I guess. In any case, there was a Dunkin Donuts 1/2 block from the hotel, so I was pretty happy regardless of what happened.
My host picked my up again for a fantastic dinner (fondue = yum!), thought the restaurant was little loud for the purposes of discussing science. Her postdoc was also very nice, but we realized at dinner that we had had some miscommunication. I was being considered for a fellowship that had a required start date of June 1, 2010, but my anticipated graduation had been shifted back since our last conversation, so we weren't sure whether I would make it in time.
We still proceeded the next day, but I certainly felt bad that I hadn't been clear enough in our e-mails. In any case, my host picked me up and took me to breakfast in the morning (after I was up until ~2 working on slides after dinner), my talk went okay, I met with a lot of scientists, and had a fun day talking science. At the very end (6:30 pm or so), and then I was put in a cab back to LaGuardia.
I just have to interject here that apparently cab drivers in New York have never heard of the law that they're supposed to take the way that you specify to get to the airport, so I never saw the inside of the Queens Tunnel, despite asking two different drivers to take that way. The second cab was a little scary, as the guy was yelling into his cellphone alot, and I had no idea where we were going for awhile, even while watching our progress on the GPS map in the back of the cab. But, he got me to the airport on time, for less than I was told it would cost via the tunnel, so I guess I can't complain.
And then my plane was delayed like 4.5 hours. RRgggh. LaGuardia is not a good airport to be stuck in. Though they do have a Dunkin Donuts cart, and I got to read Wicked, which was interesting.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
I'll have a blue-ew Christmas....
Welcome back! Spurred on by fieryboots, I felt I had to post something new. It's tempting to post more frequently on the goings on in my life, but mostly it plods along in a succesion of mundane details. It's only when some time has passed do I realize that I actually accomplish anything.
D & I made our whirlwind Thanksgiving car tour. We usually just go to Philadelphia for a couple of days, but every few years, I like to make sure we get up to Massachusetts for the feast, and time with my nephew. And some Dunkin Donuts coffee. Alright, lots of Dunkin Donuts coffee. And the accents :)
I picked up the rental car after work, and packed most of our stuff in it while waiting for D to make it home from work. He'd been working 90+ hour weeks for over a month at this point, and his office was moving to a new location, so I felt a little bad making him take almost an entire week off. Not that he didn't need it, but if he got fired for taking time, I'd feel really guilty. Still, he brought his work laptop with him, and tried to work from the road during the trip.
We headed out of Pittsburgh on leg #1 of our trip - ~ 3 hrs. on PA-76 east to a town just outside of Harrisburg. 76 is the turnpike, and kind of boring visually, but it was dark out, and I'd booked us a room for less than $50 (thanks, AAA!) We were only 1 hr behind schedule, and managed to keep to that time pretty well, despite some uncomfortable driving. I was trying out a new-to-me rental model (Ford Focus), and I didn't figure out how to raise the driver's seat up so I could look down over the steering wheel. Also in play: 1) it was very foggy going over some of the mountains & I had to slow down to ~35 mph, along with everyone else on the road; 2) it was raining & I caught some hydroplaning at certain points, as Hertz had neglected to check the tire inflation & all four were really low when I checked the next morning); and 3) there was some kind of oil on the wiper blades that kept smearing across the windshield - combined with the rain, dark & oncoming headlights, visibility was pretty crappy. We tried to wash the stuff off at a gas station, but it just came right back. D thought that someone had Armor-alled the wiper blades.
So, not real happy with Hertz at that point. Plus, can American car makers possibly make cars with any bigger blind spots? I thought it was just Dodge, but this thing was awful from that perspective. We got to the hotel, and went out again for a really good meal at a little casual place near Carlisle, PA. It was actually ~ 11 miles away, but the only thing open that had drinks & food past 11 pm. I was expecting awful bar food, but was presently surprised by he homemade stromboli. We had pepperoni, black olive, & mushroom - yum!
Afterwards, we got some sleep, and got up reasonably early in the morning. Although I like lounging in bed as much as the next person, when I'm in a new situation, or traveling, I always prefer to get up early. This has, in the past, been a point of contention between D & me, as he likes to sleep until noon-ish even when we're on vacation (see: Disastrous Seattle vacation, in which Ericka gets super-pissed that someone slept until 2 pm (2!) when she wanted to go to the art museum, but not by herself). But this trip worked out pretty well. Plus, when I looked out our window, I was greeted by the sight of cats-in-the-mist. Between the hotel and the highway onramp (it was only $45 after all!), there was a small field, and three cats were sitting out there, all just sitting and looking in our general direction. It made me smile, and miss our cats at the same time.
We got some breakfast at Wafflehouse (where the waitress obviously liked D alot more than she liked me) and then hit the road, picking up some highway or other (81, I think?) through Harrisburgh and northward. We listened to science fiction podcasts on the radio through D's handy FM transmitter & his iPhone, and did okay despite having to stop to inflate tires mid-morning. Early in the afternoon, we hit traffic around the change to 84, and tuned in to the news. There was an accident up ahead, and 16 miles of backed-up highway. We happened to be right at the turn-off for the Taconic State Parkway, so we took a chance and headed off on an adventure. I'm glad we did, because this was a much prettier drive than the larger highways, and we ended up at the Mass Pike anyway.
So we got into Arlington only a little bit after we'd planned, and got to see some new terrain in the bargain :)
I'll post more of this soon, I promise - it's just getting a little long for a single entry.
D & I made our whirlwind Thanksgiving car tour. We usually just go to Philadelphia for a couple of days, but every few years, I like to make sure we get up to Massachusetts for the feast, and time with my nephew. And some Dunkin Donuts coffee. Alright, lots of Dunkin Donuts coffee. And the accents :)
I picked up the rental car after work, and packed most of our stuff in it while waiting for D to make it home from work. He'd been working 90+ hour weeks for over a month at this point, and his office was moving to a new location, so I felt a little bad making him take almost an entire week off. Not that he didn't need it, but if he got fired for taking time, I'd feel really guilty. Still, he brought his work laptop with him, and tried to work from the road during the trip.
We headed out of Pittsburgh on leg #1 of our trip - ~ 3 hrs. on PA-76 east to a town just outside of Harrisburg. 76 is the turnpike, and kind of boring visually, but it was dark out, and I'd booked us a room for less than $50 (thanks, AAA!) We were only 1 hr behind schedule, and managed to keep to that time pretty well, despite some uncomfortable driving. I was trying out a new-to-me rental model (Ford Focus), and I didn't figure out how to raise the driver's seat up so I could look down over the steering wheel. Also in play: 1) it was very foggy going over some of the mountains & I had to slow down to ~35 mph, along with everyone else on the road; 2) it was raining & I caught some hydroplaning at certain points, as Hertz had neglected to check the tire inflation & all four were really low when I checked the next morning); and 3) there was some kind of oil on the wiper blades that kept smearing across the windshield - combined with the rain, dark & oncoming headlights, visibility was pretty crappy. We tried to wash the stuff off at a gas station, but it just came right back. D thought that someone had Armor-alled the wiper blades.
So, not real happy with Hertz at that point. Plus, can American car makers possibly make cars with any bigger blind spots? I thought it was just Dodge, but this thing was awful from that perspective. We got to the hotel, and went out again for a really good meal at a little casual place near Carlisle, PA. It was actually ~ 11 miles away, but the only thing open that had drinks & food past 11 pm. I was expecting awful bar food, but was presently surprised by he homemade stromboli. We had pepperoni, black olive, & mushroom - yum!
Afterwards, we got some sleep, and got up reasonably early in the morning. Although I like lounging in bed as much as the next person, when I'm in a new situation, or traveling, I always prefer to get up early. This has, in the past, been a point of contention between D & me, as he likes to sleep until noon-ish even when we're on vacation (see: Disastrous Seattle vacation, in which Ericka gets super-pissed that someone slept until 2 pm (2!) when she wanted to go to the art museum, but not by herself). But this trip worked out pretty well. Plus, when I looked out our window, I was greeted by the sight of cats-in-the-mist. Between the hotel and the highway onramp (it was only $45 after all!), there was a small field, and three cats were sitting out there, all just sitting and looking in our general direction. It made me smile, and miss our cats at the same time.
We got some breakfast at Wafflehouse (where the waitress obviously liked D alot more than she liked me) and then hit the road, picking up some highway or other (81, I think?) through Harrisburgh and northward. We listened to science fiction podcasts on the radio through D's handy FM transmitter & his iPhone, and did okay despite having to stop to inflate tires mid-morning. Early in the afternoon, we hit traffic around the change to 84, and tuned in to the news. There was an accident up ahead, and 16 miles of backed-up highway. We happened to be right at the turn-off for the Taconic State Parkway, so we took a chance and headed off on an adventure. I'm glad we did, because this was a much prettier drive than the larger highways, and we ended up at the Mass Pike anyway.
So we got into Arlington only a little bit after we'd planned, and got to see some new terrain in the bargain :)
I'll post more of this soon, I promise - it's just getting a little long for a single entry.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Finally! A new post!
Every few weeks, I think about how I should post something, but somehow I never get around to it. My bejeweled high score is up to 191,000 though, so at least I'm using the time well ;)
Otherwise, life has been a long series of workdays for both of us. D is certainly glad to be working, but logging 14-16 hour days is getting a bit much for him. And my work seems to skip along a series of deadlines, so that I have to drop working on some projects to get a poster, or talk or paper revision done. I do feel like I'm accomplishing a lot, but it's hard not to look at everything that hasn't progressed lately.
My paper is almost ready to be published, and I don't see any reason that it won't be published once we submit it. I've pretty much finished analyzing the preliminary data for my dual fluorescence project, and hope to start imaging my data in December. I think the analysis will be pretty quick on that once I actually take the pictures, so that will be done by February.
My last project is really the pain right now. I'm having trouble generating successful cases, and it's always a different problem. I think I have finally figured out a staining problem I was having on my tissue. And I really want to finish all of the staining soon, so I don't risk more antibody problems down the line.
I have no idea when this will be done, but I would hope that I won't be doing any more surgery after January. Then it will be a lot of photographing and counting, and write the paper. I think that will give me a few months to write/defend my thesis, and still be done by June.
In the meantime, I have a job interview for a post-doc in New York City this week. The last week has been all about putting together a 30-minute talk on my work, which is both easier & harder than it sounds. I'm glad that I've already presented some of each of these projects, because I've created most of the graphs, tables, and image panels before, so that hasn't taken too long. And my work on dual fluorescence stuff has generated quite a few as well. Still, I'm amazed at how long it takes to change the colors of the bars in an image. I have almost no blank slide left to fill, but I may have to cut some (I've got 37 slides for 30 minutes right now, so something is going to have to go - or I'll have to talk for 45, which I don't really want to do).
Everything else in my life involves household chores, so not very much that's exciting there. Maybe I'll remember to bring a camera to NY with me, but even if it's pictureless, I'll post when I get back to let you all know how it went.
Good night!
Otherwise, life has been a long series of workdays for both of us. D is certainly glad to be working, but logging 14-16 hour days is getting a bit much for him. And my work seems to skip along a series of deadlines, so that I have to drop working on some projects to get a poster, or talk or paper revision done. I do feel like I'm accomplishing a lot, but it's hard not to look at everything that hasn't progressed lately.
My paper is almost ready to be published, and I don't see any reason that it won't be published once we submit it. I've pretty much finished analyzing the preliminary data for my dual fluorescence project, and hope to start imaging my data in December. I think the analysis will be pretty quick on that once I actually take the pictures, so that will be done by February.
My last project is really the pain right now. I'm having trouble generating successful cases, and it's always a different problem. I think I have finally figured out a staining problem I was having on my tissue. And I really want to finish all of the staining soon, so I don't risk more antibody problems down the line.
I have no idea when this will be done, but I would hope that I won't be doing any more surgery after January. Then it will be a lot of photographing and counting, and write the paper. I think that will give me a few months to write/defend my thesis, and still be done by June.
In the meantime, I have a job interview for a post-doc in New York City this week. The last week has been all about putting together a 30-minute talk on my work, which is both easier & harder than it sounds. I'm glad that I've already presented some of each of these projects, because I've created most of the graphs, tables, and image panels before, so that hasn't taken too long. And my work on dual fluorescence stuff has generated quite a few as well. Still, I'm amazed at how long it takes to change the colors of the bars in an image. I have almost no blank slide left to fill, but I may have to cut some (I've got 37 slides for 30 minutes right now, so something is going to have to go - or I'll have to talk for 45, which I don't really want to do).
Everything else in my life involves household chores, so not very much that's exciting there. Maybe I'll remember to bring a camera to NY with me, but even if it's pictureless, I'll post when I get back to let you all know how it went.
Good night!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Wedding reception
Well, it's done :)
After months of stress, tears, and struggling with excessive anxiety, we had a wonderful time. The venue was perfect for what we were doing, I think people liked the ceremony-as-it-was, the weather held well, and the people-who-dance-at-weddings got down for most of the night (me included!)
It was wonderful to have the families meet, and to have my mom & sister's family see a little more of Pittsburgh. It may be gritty, but I've come to love it, for all it's geographical and sociocultural quirks. We rode the Monongehela Incline for the first time, walked around Station Square, looked out on the city, gave several tours of the house, and got to stay & eat at the Parador (which I'm pretty sure we'll have to visit again sometime)!
Unfortunately, I neglected to take any pictures, so am waiting to receive some from the kind family & friends who shot tons of photos. Thanks to everyone for a good time, my only wish is that I got to spend more time with each & every one of you! I never knew how much work a wedding involves, even after everything is in place.
Tonight, we'll finish relaxing, putting laundry away, and getting ready for my reappearance at work tomorrow.
After months of stress, tears, and struggling with excessive anxiety, we had a wonderful time. The venue was perfect for what we were doing, I think people liked the ceremony-as-it-was, the weather held well, and the people-who-dance-at-weddings got down for most of the night (me included!)
It was wonderful to have the families meet, and to have my mom & sister's family see a little more of Pittsburgh. It may be gritty, but I've come to love it, for all it's geographical and sociocultural quirks. We rode the Monongehela Incline for the first time, walked around Station Square, looked out on the city, gave several tours of the house, and got to stay & eat at the Parador (which I'm pretty sure we'll have to visit again sometime)!
Unfortunately, I neglected to take any pictures, so am waiting to receive some from the kind family & friends who shot tons of photos. Thanks to everyone for a good time, my only wish is that I got to spend more time with each & every one of you! I never knew how much work a wedding involves, even after everything is in place.
Tonight, we'll finish relaxing, putting laundry away, and getting ready for my reappearance at work tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Work update
For those who are interested (others disregard, it's bound to get geeky up in here!):
I worked really hard for a few weeks on immunohistochemistry experiments, generating tissue for two separate projects. One, my dual immunofluorescence examination of the colocalization of VAT and CHT in limbic regions recipient of ascending mesopontine cholinergic innervation, had to have all the tissue processed in one big batch, which made for some particularly long days. But after a couple of weekends off and a few shortened week days, I'm back to business. I've started cleaning up/ organizing my files, and cross-referencing/cataloging the physical micrographs, image files, actual tissue, lab notes, sampling notes, and excel analysis files. It's a little daunting, because I've put off dealing with a lot of the unfinished projects, which generated a lot of data, but is hard to classify. But, I inventoried two lab notebooks last night, and I'll probably spend a day or two this week burning secondary back-up CDs.
Then, maybe, I can be done with this project. Finally.
I moved forward with my dual fluorescence project today, when a really nice grad student showed me the post-processing steps to use on my image stacks. I still need to spend some time playing with the masking procedure to identify objects as sets of voxels, but I think this will be a good way to do this project. I'm really grateful to the professor who's helping me do these experiments (and letting me use his imaging system), and to the student who helped me today.
My tract-tracing project is moving a little bit farther as well. I got an analyzable case, and I have the slides prepared, and took some low magnification shots of a far-red fluorescent dye called Alexa-647, that labeled the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAT). I had to paste these together in Photoshop, as the 2x image wasn't big enough to cover the entire section.
So tomorrow evening, I'll start sampling 20x triple fluorescence images. This is A--- 488 for green fluorescent latex microspheres, A--- 568 for CTxB, and A--- 647 for VAT. So far, on a quick scan, I haven't seen much colocalization of the tracers, and I haven't found anything yet that had all three labels. But I looked at very rostral sections, where inputs to the AVN aren't very heavy.
So... maybe six months? I'll bet eight ;)
On that front, I'm going to send resumes/CVs/coverletters to whatever jobs interest me, and see where that takes me. It's a strange way for me to do a job search, I'm used to taking whatever comes up first because I need the money, and not-so-secretly hate being without a job. So wish me luck with all of that, and hopefully I'll love my next career move.
I worked really hard for a few weeks on immunohistochemistry experiments, generating tissue for two separate projects. One, my dual immunofluorescence examination of the colocalization of VAT and CHT in limbic regions recipient of ascending mesopontine cholinergic innervation, had to have all the tissue processed in one big batch, which made for some particularly long days. But after a couple of weekends off and a few shortened week days, I'm back to business. I've started cleaning up/ organizing my files, and cross-referencing/cataloging the physical micrographs, image files, actual tissue, lab notes, sampling notes, and excel analysis files. It's a little daunting, because I've put off dealing with a lot of the unfinished projects, which generated a lot of data, but is hard to classify. But, I inventoried two lab notebooks last night, and I'll probably spend a day or two this week burning secondary back-up CDs.
Then, maybe, I can be done with this project. Finally.
I moved forward with my dual fluorescence project today, when a really nice grad student showed me the post-processing steps to use on my image stacks. I still need to spend some time playing with the masking procedure to identify objects as sets of voxels, but I think this will be a good way to do this project. I'm really grateful to the professor who's helping me do these experiments (and letting me use his imaging system), and to the student who helped me today.
My tract-tracing project is moving a little bit farther as well. I got an analyzable case, and I have the slides prepared, and took some low magnification shots of a far-red fluorescent dye called Alexa-647, that labeled the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAT). I had to paste these together in Photoshop, as the 2x image wasn't big enough to cover the entire section.
So tomorrow evening, I'll start sampling 20x triple fluorescence images. This is A--- 488 for green fluorescent latex microspheres, A--- 568 for CTxB, and A--- 647 for VAT. So far, on a quick scan, I haven't seen much colocalization of the tracers, and I haven't found anything yet that had all three labels. But I looked at very rostral sections, where inputs to the AVN aren't very heavy.
So... maybe six months? I'll bet eight ;)
On that front, I'm going to send resumes/CVs/coverletters to whatever jobs interest me, and see where that takes me. It's a strange way for me to do a job search, I'm used to taking whatever comes up first because I need the money, and not-so-secretly hate being without a job. So wish me luck with all of that, and hopefully I'll love my next career move.
Poached fished with ginger and vegetables
Shoot, I just realized I didn't take a picture. Well, my Asian food never really looks appetizing anyway, so you'll just have to picture it for yourself.
I bought a couple of bass the week before last; they were gutted, but still had bones and scales/skin. I foolishly thought that I would save a lot of money by doing this at home, but neglected to properly weight the fact that I don't know how to de-bone a fish. They still had dorsal fins. Ew.
Okay, I really do wish that I'd taken pictures now.
They'd been defrosting for a few days, since I pretty rarely cook these days, but I pulled them out, rinsed them out, and made a first attempt to saw through the bones with a long slender knife, that I think is supposed to be used for filleting. Of course, I was kind of cutting in the wrong direction, but soon stopped. The fish was just a bit too smelly for me to feel safe cooking it, so I tossed it back in the freezer to wait for trash day, and went to the store. I picked up some more bass, this time already prepared for cooking, though still with skin, and some veggies, ginger, and lots of other random things that we needed.
So, about an hour later, I put the groceries away, and pulled out some shrimp stock I made, and froze, back in May. Melted that in the pan, then diluted it, and tried to skim off some of the stuff that was suspended in the liquid.
Poached fish with ginger and vegetables
1 1/2 cups shrimp or fish stock
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 lb bass fillets, with skin on
Heat stock in a large, shallow pan to quick simmer, add water if necessary. Stir in ginger, then place fillets, skin side up, and cover for 4-5 minutes. Reduce heat if necessary to poach fish. Remove fish from pan with tongs/spatula. After all pieces are out of the pot, you can add the remaining fillets, and finish them up. Take a fork, and scrape the skin/scales off of the topside each fillet. Try to get it all in one piece, I think it reduces the number of scales that you end up eating unwittingly. Throw it out - I don't know if I want to compost this, b/c of the smell, and I don't know anything else to do with it.
Pour the stock out through cheesecloth and a fine mesh wire strainer, to get the liquid. Don't (as I did!) forget to put a bowl or some kind of container underneath the strainer, so that you can actually get the part you want, rather than sending it down the drain. Luckily, I only did this with half , and my shrimp stock was stronger than I really wanted it to be [which is a whole nother story involving leaving the stove on while D & I both went out for 3 hours.] Dad, I think this means I can no longer make fun of you for doing the same with the great stock debacle of '92 or '93.
Okay, so I diluted the stock some more, in a big Pyrex measuring cup. Rinsed out the pan, and reheated it on mediumish heat.
If you happen to have a handy electric rice maker, now is a good time to start the rice.
And I can't believe I actually use one of these. I have a strong conviction that many gadgets don't really make things easier than doing it by hand. I don't ever make microwave popcorn, though I do use the microwave to heat up coffee/water, melt butter, and bake potatoes. I resisted a food processor for a long time, but for some things, it's worth taking it out for. I used to make fun of people who had rice cookers. Rice is not hard. You boil some water, add some rice, cover it & reduce heat, then check it a couple of times. Voila. But the beauty of the rice cooker is that you don't have to boil the water first, then add the rice. Just put both in, and turn it on. It's pretty much the only step worth eliminating. And, you don't have to check it at all - it switches itself into "Keep Warm" mode.
1 cup (dry weight) rice, prepared
(I used jasmine)
2 tsp oil
1/2 onion, sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup zucchinni, julienned and cut to ~ 1-2 inches
1/2 cup carrot, julienned and cut to same length
1 cup green beans, snapped to same length as above
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
Heat the oil, and add onions, then garlic. Stir-fry for a couple of minutes (3, maybe?) on high, until onions are browning at the edges and crispy. Add the carrots, and a few tablespoons of the stock. cover for 1-2 minutes, maybe turn down the heat a little. Add the peas, and 1/2 C more liquid, to steam the vegetables a little. Recover and cook for a few minutes. Add the zucchini, and recover for 2 more minutes. To the remaining stock, add some rice vinegar, spices, etc, to spice it up a bit.
Add the rest of the stock, ginger, a handful of chopped cilantro leaves and put the fish pieces sans peau back in, cover, and cook 2-3 more minutes. Serve over rice with dry white wine.
We ate outside in the LB Memorial Patio, by candlelight, and with the cats frolicking in the plants :)
It was okay, better than my usual attempts. I think, despite how much I hate it, I need to break out the Wok, and get the oil hotter before I cook the vegetables. At least the Indian is pretty fool-proof, and I have a dishwasher, which makes experimenting with multiple pot cooking possible.
I bought a couple of bass the week before last; they were gutted, but still had bones and scales/skin. I foolishly thought that I would save a lot of money by doing this at home, but neglected to properly weight the fact that I don't know how to de-bone a fish. They still had dorsal fins. Ew.
Okay, I really do wish that I'd taken pictures now.
They'd been defrosting for a few days, since I pretty rarely cook these days, but I pulled them out, rinsed them out, and made a first attempt to saw through the bones with a long slender knife, that I think is supposed to be used for filleting. Of course, I was kind of cutting in the wrong direction, but soon stopped. The fish was just a bit too smelly for me to feel safe cooking it, so I tossed it back in the freezer to wait for trash day, and went to the store. I picked up some more bass, this time already prepared for cooking, though still with skin, and some veggies, ginger, and lots of other random things that we needed.
So, about an hour later, I put the groceries away, and pulled out some shrimp stock I made, and froze, back in May. Melted that in the pan, then diluted it, and tried to skim off some of the stuff that was suspended in the liquid.
Poached fish with ginger and vegetables
1 1/2 cups shrimp or fish stock
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 lb bass fillets, with skin on
Heat stock in a large, shallow pan to quick simmer, add water if necessary. Stir in ginger, then place fillets, skin side up, and cover for 4-5 minutes. Reduce heat if necessary to poach fish. Remove fish from pan with tongs/spatula. After all pieces are out of the pot, you can add the remaining fillets, and finish them up. Take a fork, and scrape the skin/scales off of the topside each fillet. Try to get it all in one piece, I think it reduces the number of scales that you end up eating unwittingly. Throw it out - I don't know if I want to compost this, b/c of the smell, and I don't know anything else to do with it.
Pour the stock out through cheesecloth and a fine mesh wire strainer, to get the liquid. Don't (as I did!) forget to put a bowl or some kind of container underneath the strainer, so that you can actually get the part you want, rather than sending it down the drain. Luckily, I only did this with half , and my shrimp stock was stronger than I really wanted it to be [which is a whole nother story involving leaving the stove on while D & I both went out for 3 hours.] Dad, I think this means I can no longer make fun of you for doing the same with the great stock debacle of '92 or '93.
Okay, so I diluted the stock some more, in a big Pyrex measuring cup. Rinsed out the pan, and reheated it on mediumish heat.
If you happen to have a handy electric rice maker, now is a good time to start the rice.
And I can't believe I actually use one of these. I have a strong conviction that many gadgets don't really make things easier than doing it by hand. I don't ever make microwave popcorn, though I do use the microwave to heat up coffee/water, melt butter, and bake potatoes. I resisted a food processor for a long time, but for some things, it's worth taking it out for. I used to make fun of people who had rice cookers. Rice is not hard. You boil some water, add some rice, cover it & reduce heat, then check it a couple of times. Voila. But the beauty of the rice cooker is that you don't have to boil the water first, then add the rice. Just put both in, and turn it on. It's pretty much the only step worth eliminating. And, you don't have to check it at all - it switches itself into "Keep Warm" mode.
1 cup (dry weight) rice, prepared
(I used jasmine)
2 tsp oil
1/2 onion, sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup zucchinni, julienned and cut to ~ 1-2 inches
1/2 cup carrot, julienned and cut to same length
1 cup green beans, snapped to same length as above
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
Heat the oil, and add onions, then garlic. Stir-fry for a couple of minutes (3, maybe?) on high, until onions are browning at the edges and crispy. Add the carrots, and a few tablespoons of the stock. cover for 1-2 minutes, maybe turn down the heat a little. Add the peas, and 1/2 C more liquid, to steam the vegetables a little. Recover and cook for a few minutes. Add the zucchini, and recover for 2 more minutes. To the remaining stock, add some rice vinegar, spices, etc, to spice it up a bit.
Add the rest of the stock, ginger, a handful of chopped cilantro leaves and put the fish pieces sans peau back in, cover, and cook 2-3 more minutes. Serve over rice with dry white wine.
We ate outside in the LB Memorial Patio, by candlelight, and with the cats frolicking in the plants :)
It was okay, better than my usual attempts. I think, despite how much I hate it, I need to break out the Wok, and get the oil hotter before I cook the vegetables. At least the Indian is pretty fool-proof, and I have a dishwasher, which makes experimenting with multiple pot cooking possible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
