Labitude

We use a lot of different ways to describe ourselves. Today I’m going to tell you 20 ways I would describe myself in the realm of Science (since most of you don’t know me there):

1. I am not the light-hearted friend that you may know at the beach. I am very serious and I don’t really care what you did last weekend
2. “Miss-Organized” has the messiest desk you may have ever seen… and my bench space looks lie that too sometimes.
3. I don’t keep track of time- it flies!
4. I’m either super distracted by Facebook/e-mail or I’m so focused on my work that you should make some noise when walking towards me so that I don’t jump 10 feet in the air when you say “I need you”
5. Don’t tell me how to do something unless I ask. If I don’t ask, I don’t care what you think. We are all trained by different people. Just because I don’t do it your crazy OCD way doesn’t mean that my way is incorrect. Ha.
6. I make up a lot of stuff as I go, “work on the fly” you might say. As long as you do it with confidence, people will believe you.
7. I am not afraid to ask for help. I believe that this has contributed to my success as it has broadened my horizons.
8. My favorite time to be in the lab is after everyone else has gone home… it’s so peaceful.
9. I hate giving presentations. My boss always tells me afterwards “we need to work on getting rid of your California accent” (apparently it gets stronger when I get nervous).
10. If it doesn’t get me closer to graduating, then I don’t care. Harsh but true.
11. I type my lab notebook.
12. I curse at the computer when it makes me angry. It often makes me angry… especially 2008 Excel.
13. Anything super-complicated is no problem for me… but simple math and linear regression curves, forget it! I’m lost. (thus today’s aggravation).
14. I get overwhelmed my the amount of things that I have to do, sometimes it paralyzes me to the point where I have to go for a swim before coming back to lab.
15. I am one of 3 Americans in my lab group of 9 people total.
16. I have goofy days at work too… usually from lack of sleep or wine at a seminar. Here's an example:

17. My job is to kill things: mouse cells or bacteria, I don’t care… just die!
18. I absolutely cannot multitask! If you ask me to do this, I will mess up, I promise.
19. I am a bit of a free spirit in the lab. My opinion is that academic science should be free of crazy restrictions like closed-toed shoes and lab coats (which should be reserved for industry). We should be free to pursue intellectual curiosities and having discussions about them without the hindrance of high-demanding people.
20. The bulletin board in front of me has the following things:
a. A cheat sheet for diluting antibiotics and other chemicals
b. A “coffee talk” calendar (this year). The April character is holding a cup of coffee saying “Drinking coffee & slacking off are all part of what I do”. Although January was the seller for me. She’s saying “Drink Coffee! Do stupid things faster with more energy!”
c. 6 different scribble-drawings of my “model” that will one day be my doctoral thesis
d. a list of important phone numbers
e. Mr. Right—grows 3-4 times his size in water!
f. A hand-knit ornament from a visiting Korean post-doc. His sister made it and it can be used to wipe down your kitchen… not me!
g. Sticky: OD(600) 1= 3x10^8 M.smeg/mL
h. A card from a girl from church who wanted to encourage me
i. An abstract that I need to add to my CV
j. Sticky: year I should consider applying to work for the Epidemic Intelligence Service
k. An e-mail from my dad 16 July 2008 saying my hard work will take me to the top and he loves me