1) Life is still really, really wonderful!!!
2) If my teenaged daughter "eye balls" me again, she's gonna end up eyeball-less and I'm gonna end up daughter-less!!!
3) It's starting to look like I'll be back at the NIH by the end if the year. Yeah for full-funding in a lab with equipment that works and isn't older than I am.
4) My September 11th birthday was odd this year for the first time since 9/11/01. :(
5) We've chosen a name for the next feline addition to the family. Now all we have to agree on is the type/color.
6) I'm doing my first PCR reaction in years as I type this post. Hopefully, the first one is the charm!!
7) Somehow I ended up behind in my Pythin course and I'm spinning my wheels trying to get back on track. Yep, spinning with a BIG smile on my face!!
8)In heavy iPod rotation is an artist by the name of Frank Ocean, whose first hit song, Thinking 'bout you, is about his first sexual encounter with a man. And that's all I'm gonna say about that!
9)After I accidentally misnamed a structure in class, I was reminded by a student that she has a degree in Chemistry (from an Arab country) and that she finished it with a %100 percent average. This same student claimed to need a translator after she flunked the first quiz and used that as her excuse for failing. Not ironically, she has a "C" average in my class which means she needs to quickly have SEVERAL seats, lol!!!
10) A headhunter contacted me the other day asking if I knew someone who could fill a position with a starting salary between $200-250K! I wanted to respond heck yeah, just gimme 10 years, lol!!
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
Tired, tired, and more tired...happy, happy, and more happy!!!
I seriously didn't realize that it's been 2 weeks since my last post. And while I'm LOVING life these days, I'm really, really, REALLY tired too! And exhilarated at the same time!
I'm now settled in with my teaching gig and my class is just too funny. I've got the "cheaters" who think I don't see what's going on and whom I'm going to set straight next week. The "know it alls" who really don't know that much, and then there are my favorite students, the "light bulbs" who I see growing in confidence with each passing week. One reason these are my favorite students is because I used to be that student, lacking in confidence and skills that when paired with the right instructor, grew exponentially. And I see this happening with many of my students!!!
Lab work was pretty much at a standstill as I realize that while my PI is a superb teacher, the mentoring skills aren't close to where I'd need them to be in order to consider getting my PhD with her. Other details, I'd probably better keep to myself, suffice it to say that I'm going to enjoy all the new techniques and skills I'm learning and keep it moving reasonablly soon.
Private tutoring is going well too and about a month into it, I've decided NOT to tutor any more college students. And I've also come to the very unusual realization that anyone who needs significant help in courses like Orgo or Physics probably needs to first work on being independently motivated to study and do well on their own FIRST in these classes!! In other words, my Orgo students for example, don't review the materials I tell them to review, so when we meet they can't do the problems. And frustrated is NOT something I'm into these days. OTOH, my high school students are a lot like the students in my class, need a little confidence and organization to be on their way academically.
And that brings me to an issue which makes me angrier than 50 thousand devils. I HATE that my female students feel so much less confident than the boys/men I work with. I mean, the boys/men could be wrong as rain, yet will talk me to death to prove otherwise. My girls/young women are the exact opposite even when they're right!! URGH!!! How did we as a society get to this place?
Anyhoo, I have my best moments ever when I see those "light bulbs" go off in my female student's heads because I think to myself I could be looking at a future nobel prize winner in Science or the designer of the next US supported spacecraft. All they need is that extra push, the same extra push people gave, and STILL give to me!
I'm now settled in with my teaching gig and my class is just too funny. I've got the "cheaters" who think I don't see what's going on and whom I'm going to set straight next week. The "know it alls" who really don't know that much, and then there are my favorite students, the "light bulbs" who I see growing in confidence with each passing week. One reason these are my favorite students is because I used to be that student, lacking in confidence and skills that when paired with the right instructor, grew exponentially. And I see this happening with many of my students!!!
Lab work was pretty much at a standstill as I realize that while my PI is a superb teacher, the mentoring skills aren't close to where I'd need them to be in order to consider getting my PhD with her. Other details, I'd probably better keep to myself, suffice it to say that I'm going to enjoy all the new techniques and skills I'm learning and keep it moving reasonablly soon.
Private tutoring is going well too and about a month into it, I've decided NOT to tutor any more college students. And I've also come to the very unusual realization that anyone who needs significant help in courses like Orgo or Physics probably needs to first work on being independently motivated to study and do well on their own FIRST in these classes!! In other words, my Orgo students for example, don't review the materials I tell them to review, so when we meet they can't do the problems. And frustrated is NOT something I'm into these days. OTOH, my high school students are a lot like the students in my class, need a little confidence and organization to be on their way academically.
And that brings me to an issue which makes me angrier than 50 thousand devils. I HATE that my female students feel so much less confident than the boys/men I work with. I mean, the boys/men could be wrong as rain, yet will talk me to death to prove otherwise. My girls/young women are the exact opposite even when they're right!! URGH!!! How did we as a society get to this place?
Anyhoo, I have my best moments ever when I see those "light bulbs" go off in my female student's heads because I think to myself I could be looking at a future nobel prize winner in Science or the designer of the next US supported spacecraft. All they need is that extra push, the same extra push people gave, and STILL give to me!
Saturday, September 8, 2012
The Eternal Post-Doc
One of my very first scientific mentors was a middled aged man who'd only been employed as a post-doc for his entire professional career after finishing his PhD. And at the time, I thought that was the craziest thing I'd ever heard of. Until a few days ago when I was on my way to pick up my daughter from school at 3 in the afternoon. Like a bolt of lightening it hit me that I've NEVER been a stay on a job for 39 years kinda person, preferring instead to change my environment every so often. Or 10 times in the last 10 years if I'm reading my CV correctly. I suddenly realized that flexibility and change actually works better for me than 9-5 daily political battles, inflexible schedules, and people with personalities that are a cross between a cactus and a fruitloop.
I realized that I thrive on not knowing exactly what's in the future place wise, then I started thinking about how that attitude fits in with a career in research and medicine. And believe it or not, it can fit in VERY well. Locums are people who fill temporary positions and in the US, those positions are usually filled by Physicians. And while I don't know any personally, I initially started thinking about this type of work a few years ago when locum Doc on Mommd made comments about her experiences.
The idea of being on a reservation in Alaska for a few months for 3 months (in the summer time, lol), taking a month off to work on my research, then working another couple months in the bayous of Louisianna sounds VERY appealing. I could do that for a few years, then take a 2 year Post-Doc in Bioinformatics while moonlighting on the weekends in an inner city hospital. In other words, I think being a Locum Doc could work very well for me!!!
Oh well, enough daydreaming about the future, I've got to work on my lesson plan for Monday as well as a complicated program for my Python class due the following Monday.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, LIFE IS GOOD!!! Or as Destiny's Child says in the video below, I'm doing so Good!
I realized that I thrive on not knowing exactly what's in the future place wise, then I started thinking about how that attitude fits in with a career in research and medicine. And believe it or not, it can fit in VERY well. Locums are people who fill temporary positions and in the US, those positions are usually filled by Physicians. And while I don't know any personally, I initially started thinking about this type of work a few years ago when locum Doc on Mommd made comments about her experiences.
The idea of being on a reservation in Alaska for a few months for 3 months (in the summer time, lol), taking a month off to work on my research, then working another couple months in the bayous of Louisianna sounds VERY appealing. I could do that for a few years, then take a 2 year Post-Doc in Bioinformatics while moonlighting on the weekends in an inner city hospital. In other words, I think being a Locum Doc could work very well for me!!!
Oh well, enough daydreaming about the future, I've got to work on my lesson plan for Monday as well as a complicated program for my Python class due the following Monday.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, LIFE IS GOOD!!! Or as Destiny's Child says in the video below, I'm doing so Good!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
The Nutty Professor
The screen shot above is from what I think is one of the funniest movies by Eddie Murphy, the Nutty Professor. And since I'm now Professor Apop201X, I thought it an appropriate picture for this post!! Plus the fact that the Janet Jackson character was a Molecular Biologist!
So I report for duty as a part-time Adjunct Prof. at a local University this Monday and it's an understatement to say I'm excited!!!! I'm absolutely THRILLED!!!! I'll be teaching Chemistry for Nursing students, a course I've taught in the past. And because these classes tend to have at least one student who really wants to be an MD, I look forward to once again, putting a student or 2 on the right path. Not that I think there's anything wrong with nursing, it's a perfectly decent and well compensated profession. I just love having the opportunity to give a student the confidence to succeed in what they really want to do particularly because that's what a couple of someone's have done for me.
On to my Python class, it's going very well and I did great on my first assignment. And just before class started, I had the encounter with the gunner from hell and the conversation went something like this:
Gunner: "Hey, did you guys finish the homework?"
Apop201X: "Yep".
Other classmate AKA Sexy Italian chick (SIC): "I finished at midnight last night".
Gunner: "How did you construct your program comments? I was really confused by that"?
Apop201X: "What comments"?
SIC: "Yeah, what comments"?
Gunner: "Yes!!!! That means the curve is gonna be in my favor on this one"!!!
Apop201X: With a narrow, snake eyed look, "WOW"!!!
SIC: "What an ass"!!!!!
Gunner: Slowly picks his face off the floor then says, "I did't mean it like that".
Apop201X: ROTFLMBO!!!!!
Turns out the Prof. forgot to tell us to make comments on our scripts but since Gunner had him the semester before, he knew to do that. Of course he didn't tell any of the rest of us before hand, and that's cool. We didn't loose any points. But apparently Mr. Gunner and expert Java programmer didn't have a clue about the homework because me and SIC both did better than he did!!!
Now in case anyone is wondering why I felt the need the point out the other classmate in this conversation was Italian is because it relates to my post. I suspected she was because besides being absolutely gorgeous, her skin was on the dark side. But when she called the guy an ass in his face, I KNEW she was, LOL!!!! Sorry about the stereotyping but hey, even I know some folks you just don't rub the wrong way. EVER, LOL!!!
Sunday, September 2, 2012
From comment to post
I receive some pretty interesting comments so from now on, I'd like to use one as a post every so often. Here goes:
Being a minority nontraditional graduate student in science is very courageous and cutting edge.
While I'm painfully aware of the dearth of minorities in the medical profession and in STEM subjects, I never see myself as doing anything special. Having tried everything else to have career satisfaction and found some but not nearly enough (especially in the Pharmaceutical industry), I'm just happy and blessed to now be able to give 1000% to something I enjoy.
The thing is you are vulnerable like the typical 24, 27, or 30 year old grad student in training yet may not get the same support because you are a nontrad age. That's so unfair and then compound this with being a minority..
This is a VERY true statement. However the significant difference between myself and someone younger is that I've been in the game long enough to know what pitfalls to avoid and know when to move on. For example, some recent changes in the way things are being done in my current department have raised some serious red flags for me, situations that a typical grad student may underestimate or chose to plow through. With many years of experience being in academic environments, I know after a little over a month, that it would be in my best interest to get my PhD elsewhere. As in with an NIH group elsewhere. Doing dissertation research at the NIH not only puts you in direct contact with folks at the top of their fields, it pays more and has far better benefits. Most importantly, there's a certain amount of unspoken "protection" a predoc gets being there because of the NIH prestige factor afforded the PI, the home institution, and the student for being able to put "NIH" on their CV's. In other words, a dissertation student at the NIH is far less likely to have political bull crap hold up their getting granted the PhD and at my age, I'm so not interested in wasting ANY time.
As for the unfairness of it all I see that as life, MANY things in life are unfair. But because I so thoroughly enjoy what I'm doing, I choose to focus on that and not all the obstacles, both real and created, that will come along on my path to the MD/PhD.
Your blog is an inspiration for others who are similar. It's difficult for people especially older minorities to keep going to school with the socioeconomic realities they face more.
When I started this blog, I realized that there weren't many minorities in graduate and professional programs and so my primary goal was to let others know that we may be few and far between in numbers, but that we are out here! And you're right, finances make things VERY difficult for people no matter who you are especially given the fact that most graduate and medical students have parents with MD and/or PhD's. That fact alone creates a HUGE difference in access to the right information and resources needed to achieving such challenging goals. But it CAN be done!
Finally, I'd like to thank this anonymous poster for the words of encouragement and for the other comments as well!
Being a minority nontraditional graduate student in science is very courageous and cutting edge.
While I'm painfully aware of the dearth of minorities in the medical profession and in STEM subjects, I never see myself as doing anything special. Having tried everything else to have career satisfaction and found some but not nearly enough (especially in the Pharmaceutical industry), I'm just happy and blessed to now be able to give 1000% to something I enjoy.
The thing is you are vulnerable like the typical 24, 27, or 30 year old grad student in training yet may not get the same support because you are a nontrad age. That's so unfair and then compound this with being a minority..
This is a VERY true statement. However the significant difference between myself and someone younger is that I've been in the game long enough to know what pitfalls to avoid and know when to move on. For example, some recent changes in the way things are being done in my current department have raised some serious red flags for me, situations that a typical grad student may underestimate or chose to plow through. With many years of experience being in academic environments, I know after a little over a month, that it would be in my best interest to get my PhD elsewhere. As in with an NIH group elsewhere. Doing dissertation research at the NIH not only puts you in direct contact with folks at the top of their fields, it pays more and has far better benefits. Most importantly, there's a certain amount of unspoken "protection" a predoc gets being there because of the NIH prestige factor afforded the PI, the home institution, and the student for being able to put "NIH" on their CV's. In other words, a dissertation student at the NIH is far less likely to have political bull crap hold up their getting granted the PhD and at my age, I'm so not interested in wasting ANY time.
As for the unfairness of it all I see that as life, MANY things in life are unfair. But because I so thoroughly enjoy what I'm doing, I choose to focus on that and not all the obstacles, both real and created, that will come along on my path to the MD/PhD.
Your blog is an inspiration for others who are similar. It's difficult for people especially older minorities to keep going to school with the socioeconomic realities they face more.
When I started this blog, I realized that there weren't many minorities in graduate and professional programs and so my primary goal was to let others know that we may be few and far between in numbers, but that we are out here! And you're right, finances make things VERY difficult for people no matter who you are especially given the fact that most graduate and medical students have parents with MD and/or PhD's. That fact alone creates a HUGE difference in access to the right information and resources needed to achieving such challenging goals. But it CAN be done!
Finally, I'd like to thank this anonymous poster for the words of encouragement and for the other comments as well!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)