Busy Times

The last couple of weeks have been like a whirlwind. Sure I've had short breaks from time to time, but for the most part I've been swamped with work or attending commitments. My writing progress has taken a big hit, which I expected. The main cause of this business has been several experiments of mine, which really eat up time. The last two weeks, plus a third today, I've had experiments - each of which chews up a day-plus not counting time to prepare then one to two days afterwards to summarize, analyze and do "post-op" work. The positive note is that the experiments have been very successful so far! If today's experiment follows the same pattern, my advisor hinted yesterday (yes, we were both in on a Sunday) that I may have enough data to start writing up for paper #3! And, paper #3 is the last leg of my PhD dissertation, which has to be finished by the start of March for me to graduate in May. So, no pressure on today, of course. ha.


Another highlight is that the submission of my 2nd paper/manuscript to a new journal, after our first choice made a bad decision, was ACCEPTED with minor revisions. The reviews were VERY brief and positive. There was a single minor comment/question from the two reviewers and editor, which were outnumbered by comments like "well designed study," "Congrats, nice work," and "very novel work." Wow! That made my Monday last week. Unfortunately it took until Sunday to get to the paper, to make a few minor changes. It is funny how the reviewer process can be so different from journal to journal. Granted, this manuscript did get reviewed at another journal but we only addressed a couple of their comments and the new journal didn't know about the previous submission (no need). My first paper had somewhat similar issues as noted elsewhere, where in the second round of comments, the harshest reviewer asked for extra work that should have been raised in the first round. Sometimes it seems like such a crapshoot - get good reviewers (and/or brief ones) and the world is a happy place...get random comments from left field and the stress levels get ratcheted up a notch. Life in academia...

Also, something I'd like to keep in mind if/when I have my own lab to direct: making sure to integrate discussions about proper research conduct into regular meetings. We've talked about topics like this occasionally, but usually they get pushed aside by the daily/weekly items of note and the fact that most in our lab aren't planning to stay in academia and "don't care" as much - their loss. We aren't a poor-conduct lab by any means, but I like the method discussed in the link.

Time to finish preparations for today's experiment. Hopefully things go smoothly and I don't finish too long after midnight...I've got plenty to do tomorrow before leaving for Thanksgiving on Wednesday.

College Hoops have finally returned

Although I haven't been able to watch any yet (mainly because I'm not blessed with ESPNU but also because I haven't had the time), it is great to finally be back in the college basketball season.

This will be a frustrating year for my primary alma mater (Illinois) who are still lacking talent and lost several key players from last year's "most losses ever" squad. After barely slipping by a DivIII school in the last exhibition game, warm fuzzies are not being felt by the fan base. Still, like for every program, there's a sense of hope like at the start of a baseball season. Anything can happen in a given season, if players come together and injuries are minimized. (And, having a bunch of top recruits sign paper today is a mental bonus). Plus, the supposedly easy pre-season schedule of many teams lends itself to some victories and a chance to build confidence. I'm looking forward to watching as many games as possible.

I've read a lot about what players and teams are predicted by others to be the best. Not much to add there as people are pretty consistent. Here are some players and teams that I'm interested in watching this season:

Teams:
-Illinois (duh, although they will give me high blood pressure and cause more hair to fall out)
-UCONN - with Thabeet & Adrien inside and Price outside, they should be fun to watch on both ends of the court...especiall with the smack talk Thabeet is doing.
-Oklahoma - Blake Griffin is a freak of nature - can't predict what he'll do, and the outside work of Willie Warren will make this team exciting.
-Michigan State - I always enjoy Tom Izzo teams. I expect this team to outlast Purdue in the Big10 and make some noise nationally.
-Indiana - every loss will bring me joy

Players:
-Demitri McCamey - Illinois PG. If he is consistent (rarely last year), he could put up big numbers. 30 points in a game last year...but less than 10 the following game
-Alex Legion - Illinois SG. He is eligible late December after transferring from Kentucky. If he plays up to the hype (top recruit out of HS), the Illini have a chance at the Big Dance. If not (limited PT at KU which led to departure), it will be a disappointment.

-Stephon Curry - Davidson PG/SG. Um, who doesn't want to watch this guy?
-Eric Maynor - VCU G. I went to the Bradley-VCU game last year and Maynor was clearly the best player on the floor. He's a fun floor general to watch, even more so after his game-winner a few years back against Duke.
-James Harden - ASU G/F. In ASU's first game last year against Illinois, his team was lost, but you could really see Harden's potential. He's getting a lot of ink, and should have a great season.

Unballsy predictions:
-Illinois will finish in the bottom half of the Big 10 (I really really really hope I am wrong)
-UNC will get to the final four, but won't win it all
-MSU will win the Big 10
-Blake Griffin won't win the national player of the year that some are predicting

BRING ON THE GAMES!!!

A day of experimenting and interesting reads

Today and yesterday were crazy experiment days. In my lab, we tend to have experiments 3-4 times a month (when we're at speed) which each last from 20 to 50 hours. One student doesn't stay the entire time, for ones longer than a day, but the three main grad students in the lab trade off who is testing or monitoring. So, this week an experiment started yesterday in which another student was primary experimenter. I came in early to do some of the "prep work." Then he "tested" and "changed settings" from ~10 am yesterday until ~5 am today. I came back in at 4am and followed him with testing until we ended the experiment after 11 this morning. It is a fairly efficient model, which allows multiple students to get data - for me this was mainly a dry run for a specific future experiment. I learned a thing or two, which was sufficient. The problem is that the sleep schedule is really messed up. Getting up 3 hours early put me in a funk this afternoon, so I came home to nap...to recover a bit before an intramural volleyball game this evening. I hate napping as I always wake up groggy. It looks like it takes me 30-45 minutes to really wake up, as I feel fairly decent now. Putting in my contacts should seal the deal.

In the meantime, there were several very interesting blog posts today. A post on Poverty and the Brain at the Frontal Cortex was enlightening. The ties between mental stimulation of a child and their intellectual prowess aren't surprising, I guess. The need to constantly provide input to a kid is something I want to remember (and focus on) when I've got kids of my own.
I like watching TED videos when they are posted to the TEDBlog. A new one today talked about using "play" for creative thinking. As I think that I am personally not an innovative person (partially the grad-school self-doubt syndrome, I know), some of the things to keep in mind struck me. I know that I have a sense of self-editing when I think. Like Tim Brown suggests - I need to limit doing that and spend more time just writing down random ideas. A colleague in my lab (semi-"wise old man") talks about coming up with at least one idea a week, only a few of which pan out. I think he is a good innovator and probably follows this principle.
And, finally, Professor in Training talked about preliminary data requirements for new investigators. The points discussed struck home things my advisor has said about the need for preliminary data being CRITICAL. I also find it odd that filing for grant applications apparently wants you to have performed the studies you want money for, to show that they are feasible. Then, if/when you get funded you are expected to finish the study so that it is publishable. It is a strange vicious cycle where you have to have data before getting $$, but getting data requires $$...most likely from already obtained grants on previous or other research. I wonder what the expectations are for R21 grants, which are for exploratory studies that "may not" have preliminary data. While I'm finishing up my PhD studies, I'm going to try and take every opportunity to try a few things in other people's experiments, to add to my repertoire of "preliminary data" while keeping in mind the above points about innovation/critical thinking.
Interesting....and thought provoking...time for volleyball...

Change?

And so, a new era begins. Can one man truly bring about CHANGE? I'm skeptical, especially with his history of staying on one side of the aisle and minimal experience. But, there certainly are legions of highly excited people (especially in academia - many of my colleagues). On the Republican side, there certainly wasn't the kind of excitement that Obama generated. Is it anything more than disillusionment with the current group? A little bit, I know. How much can one person really affect anyways? In the big picture, I don't think it is much, especially with congress also appearing to go democratic. I wonder, though, that with this CHANGE, will there be a greater confidence by many which will provide fuel to the economy? So, a collective pulling out of the recession by a increase in confidence rather than any policy changes? We'll see.....

November Writing Goals

Well, to put it in writing, here are my research goals for the month:

-Finish writing a F32 post-doc grant and have it go through at least one pass with my advisor. If it gets done, it has to be submitted by December 8th (otherwise wait 4 months). I've already got a lot of writing done on this - all the relevant sections are at least started, and the Specific Aims are pretty solid. But, this is a lower priority than dissertation research, and getting feedback from my advisor (still waiting on Aims and training portion for weeks) isn't easy.

-Bulk out the outline of two dissertation appendix items. These were small studies that weren't investigated enough for a paper, but I'll have to stick in the appendix so they can be referenced in the future.

-Start outline for dissertation 3rd aim work. After spending 2007 getting together the hardware and preparing for the studies, then having an experiment in early 2008, it is pretty certain that my original plans for Aim 3 aren't going to happen. 10+ months of waiting on others to have more experiments. What a joke. Granted, there have been several staffing changes and clinical work always has challenges, but the inefficiency of team members and the lack of updates from the advisor on this has been maddening. So, I can't wait any longer if I can still hope to finish by May so I'm looking into a replacement aim. I'm not overly confident of being able to finish it in time, though. We'll see...plenty of experiments to come yet this year...

-(low priority) Write outline and first draft of paper for professional society magazine. This magazine is for BS grads of the last 10 years, and it had an open call for articles on career development and other categories. I figure it'd be semi-easy to write about my BS-MS-industry-academia path - with thoughts and things to consider. It is low priority, but would be a good way to bulk my CV without having to wait for advisor feedback, and to get my name out there a little more. I'm hoping I can get motivated on this...we'll see. It has to be submitted by 12/1. I've gotta get feedback from someone on a draft by Thanksgiving if I'm going to make it.

Will the Bulls be good?

Well, after 3 games, it looks like my prediction of a 0.500 season may be pretty accurate. They beat two mediocre teams (Memphis and Milwaukee) and were blown out by an excellent team (Boston). It feels like a season of winning most games they should but not many against playoff teams...

Granted, the Boston loss was on the road against one of the top teams in the league. But, for the parts that I watched, the Bulls clearly looked outclassed. Tyrus Thomas is on a horrible shooting spree. Against the Celtics he kept forcing shot after shot, ending up 2 for 17 from the field. Wow. For a forward with many of those coming around the basket, that is one frustrating night. It was pretty obvious from watching, too, as he was really forcing things. But, he kept hustling, which I liked. He's young and will have nights like those (which semi-continued yesterday against the Grizzlies with an 0-5 shooting night offset by 5 blocked shots).

The stud so far has been Derrick Rose. Wow. He looked quick and in control when I watched against the Celtics. Yesterday's 26 point, 6 rebound dismantling of the Grizzlies was fantastic. Yeah, he's young and will have plenty of off-games this season. But, I like what the future holds. It is interesting to see Hinrich and Gordon continuing to come off the bench, with Sefalosa starting. I wonder how the rotation will shift when Larry Hughes starts playing again. I sure wouldn't mind if he were left off the rotation.

At least the Bulls haven't started off the year terribly. We'll see if they can avoid the November swoon that often hits.....

Holy Cow....

I got gas yesterday.....and paid ONLY $1.99(9) a gallon! Prices have been falling lately, but I was shocked to see a leading "1" for a gas price. Especially in the middle of a big city - though this station is my go-to place for the best price when I'm getting on the interstate(s) to get out of town.

Not terribly long ago, prices at this place and around the area were upwards of $3.80. I've heard that the lower prices now are because of reduced demand. Seriously? Perhaps there are less cars on the road because of the "recession"...and prices may be lower as we're out of the summer driving months. But...50% lower? This just shows, IMO, what a crock those high prices were and how the oil companies had to be making a ton of dough. I've heard (but never really seen numbers to back it up) that gas station store owners don't make much money on gas - it is more on the food and other crap that people buy when they come in to pay for the gas. If that is the case, how can stations afford to have $0.25 swings in gas prices over the course of a week? I can't imagine that they are getting new gas deliveries at a higher frequency with such variances in prices.

I guess I need to bone up more on economics. I understand supply/demand. But, if gas is such a low margin thing for the stations, but large decrease in price is hard to understand (not that I don't like it). I wonder if there have been changes in oil production. I wonder how things will change come January with the new presidency. I wonder if gas will drop to $1.50. And....I wish I had sold my "oil" mutual fund back when prices were high. doh!