And the hits keep on coming

Got another call today. From DM in Boston.

Basically, sorry, no money. Dang it.

I wanna be David Suzuki when I grow up

Spoke with the head of communications for AHFMR about possible jobs in media and communications. They were extremely nice, but I had a bit of a reality check. There are no jobs for me to jump right into! It's all about experience!

Or go back to school for a journalism degree. No.

But I'll definitely have to start writing and submitting stuff. And I'm guessing blogging doesn't count.

This will be the first of many meetings about the future.

Seeds of discontent

Told my supervisor today that I'll have to prepare for the possibility that nothing may work out for post-docs. Of course she said if I want one, I'll get one. I do know that's true. I know if all I want was some post-doc, I can find one no prob. But with me, academia is all or nothing. If I expect to get a faculty position at a Canadian top ten university, then I need that top tier Nature/Science/Cell paper. Which then necessitates a post-doc where I can get said big paper. This means I can't just do any post doc.

Go big or go home.

Time to see what's at home.

Hang on

Now DK has gotten back to me and asked me to just hang in there for a bit more till he figures out financial matters.

"you're an attractive candidate"

High school reunion

Well I'm supposed to be at my high school reunion right now. My excuse is that it starts and 5 and I'm still at the lab. But the truth is I just don't feel like it. I'm sure there are those more lost than me, but I don't revel in the thought of telling people I hardly knew that my future is out of focus. Not that I'd know many of them anyway. I was a geek and wasn't exactly popular. And the few I've kept in touch with, I keep in touch with.

*Update* I heard from an attendee that the hot dogs sucked anyway.

Awards matinee

First annual departmental matinee honoured the acheivements of PIs and students today. Everyone who got an external award of some sort got a gift and some recognition. I had received the token GSA partial award so I was included, although I didn't feel deserving of it. It's not exactly a hard studentship to get, and while I'm happy to get it, it just doesn't feel like any great acheivement.

On the peachy side, the gift was $20 for use at the Bookstore! Wee, this will come in handy when I go off to a land beyond the horizon sporting my UofA sweatshirt.

Come and gone

End of the week has come and set on Boston time. This was when DK had promised a decision about my spot in his lab. How depressing.

I hope it comes through with DM's lab...

Clear as gravy

I feel terrible.

I thought this trip would be it. There'd be no more guessing, no more ifs ands or buts. But if that were true, I wouldn't be tossing and turning.

I like to make plans. I like to see into my future. Whether or not it is accurate, I like it to be in focus.

It was supposed to be the trip end all trips.

Lab #?

Just have one more meeting today, with CM, to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude for helping me arrange the details of the visit and putting me in contact with the right people for the ABMG program. It was just to be a wrap up meeting, or so I thought.

"So did you meet with DM?"

Nope, someone she had always suggested I meet with and someone who I never was able to get in touch with, DM. She made a few calls, a few winks to her secretary and I was set for a surprise last minute interview! No pressure!

And it turns out to be the best one of the trip. Fascinating research, part of the DGAP project. He's obviously an excellent PI and supervisor too.

Imagine being able to follow a unique patient mutation from gene mapping, identification, all the way through to biological characterization? Only at Harvard!

Government center

Near a T-Station serving Faniel Hall, a touristy spot in Boston.

Lab #1.5?

Met with the director for the ABMG program today and just got through some details of the program. No big surprises, but that she wants me to wait and start the program a little later and hope that there'd be independent funding for the clinical rotations. Not a bad idea I suppose, since I'll have to be in the lab for a couple years at least to get things going.

I was quite excited about meeting with CS today. She's quite big in her field and has done some amazing work. It'd be very interesting to get into heart disease. But the meeting definitely did not go as planned. It was very preliminary and not really an interview. Just a quick meeting without much discussion. How dissappointing.

"You can do anything, why do you want to do this?"

"Because I want to try something different and expand my horizons"

Peak of scientist chic

It requires a certain level of nerdiness to mark bathrooms with chromosomal gender.

Lab #1

Met with DK today about a post-doc position and doing the ABMG program. Caught him on a bit of a bad day since his beeper was off the hook. And not in the good way in which the young'uns nowadays use 'off the hook'. I guess he was covering for a bunch of other oncologists off at some conference. But he did find some time to meet and have a quick lunch with me. Very nice man, and obviously brilliant, with a PhD in mathematics if my memory serves me (which it often doesn't, hence this blog). Also met with a few of his people and it seems to be a great place to be.

Research is of course a bit off from what I have done, but it'll be nice to have a little change.

Unfortunately, no solid offer dispite the apparent level of interest. Damn it.

On the road again

Must settle this once and for all.

I'm on the road again, after my first trip was less than satisfactory. Refer to its own blog for details.

This time just for Boston, and just for the ABMG program. The purpose of which is to train scientists to run molecular genetic diagnostic labs. The other specialties being cytogenetics and biochemistry. I'm mostly interested in molecular, first because that's my background, and second, it's the future of genetic diagnosis. Classic cyto technique is so time consuming and labour intensive. Biochemical would be interesting though since it'll always be the protein level at which biological activities occur in terms of disease. Perhaps a dual specialty...

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Happy happy joy joy

Memories, light the corner of my mind! Oh joy, I can now play one of my very favorite video games ever! They feature a Japanese comic character Goemon and his adventures. Not that I understand his adventures, but it's obvious it involves all manner of hilarity and cute enemies to bop over the head. And you get to ride each other piggie-back style in two player mode!

Nostalgia, both in terms of 2D platformer games gone by, and more innocent days gone by when that cooperative function was not necessarily associated with homoerotic implications. Sure, it brought giggles galore, and it was contested as to who was on top, but it was all in good fun.

Centrifuges, test tubes, and antibodies oh my!

Wee, it's trade show day! It's a carnival for scientists!

It's all about free stuff. Pens mostly, and the occasional floaty.

It's fun for us, trust me.

Berkeley bound... for me?

Just got a message from the berkeley lab about the post-doc position. It seems she really wants me to start. It's great to be wanted, but to come so close to my second interview trip is complicated...

Worst timing ever!

My new MP3 player just broke! I can't believe it, just when I need it most for the trip ahead. WHY?!

I will never buy another Creative product again! My MuVo was the same way, going kaput twice for no apparent reason. What is with their crappy firmware? ARGHGHGHHHH!

Acceptance

Yea! I've been officially accepted into the ABMG program at Harvard. Wee! Of course, it still depends on finding a lab to support such training, but it still feels great to know!

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New passport

Yup, new passport. That's all. Now I can skip the country again. But now I lose all my previous stamps! Nuts.