Slackers

I was talking to an old friend of mine, from my PhD years. We were talking about how we're both out of a job as a postdoc, me waiting for this other position, and her in a limbo because the two grants she wrote with her ex-boss was rejected.
She's working now in B&Q for the time being, but I have a suspicion that she actually enjoys working in the sacred temple of DIY.

Then there is this other girl I met up a while ago - from my early PhD days, when she was doing a M.Sc. in the lab. She wasn't sure about doing it, but did a PhD after all, and after a couple of 2-year postdocs, she is off Stateside for another postdoc. I think she actually has done three 2-year postdocs. Am not sure.
According to her, she gets bored with a project after 2 years, and needs to move on (to a new place).

Then there is this couple, again postdocs - but they are a couple of years ahead from me, career-wise. Still postdocing.

There must be a few others who are still doing postdocs once you hit 30...I can't remember. Oh yeah, Mr.Strauss, who is out of contract soon, and was looking at an ad for a technician position.
Anyway.

The thing we have in common is that we're all in our mid-30's (bar Mr.Strauss who is ancient).

We like doing what we do, and my guess is that we are not overly ambitious to apply for lectureships (maybe others tried...). We know what being a lecturer and PI is like (having seen it first hand), and the stress and pressures that entails. Anyway, that's what I say.
Obviously, there is no immediate and dear financial hardship, and there doesn't seem to be this need to obtain earnings which are par with the age (i.e. if you are 33, you earn 33k). I'm guessing that there are some hidden financial assets available too, otherwise you wouldn't take this laid back approach to your career.
Oh, and everyone fends for themselves. Most of them don't have children, which is a bonus - you only need worry about yourself.

Is this the new "hippie" work culture for academic scientists?
I don't know what it is. Is it the realisation, that in this age of constant career changes, it seems that it is never too late to change careers? Is there a shift in perspectives about careers?
I do like the quote attributed (according to the IMDB) to the American actor, Liev Schreiber, although I am probably taking it out of context:

"You can think about your career or you can think about your job. I like to think about my job."

Which is quite useful when thinking about your day-to-day life.
I think back about what one of my supervisors said. He was one who gave out advise, like "go to the States to do your postdoc, then you will be someone" or "going back to do a second postdoc in the lab you did your PhD is not good for your career" or "you have to be a PI after your second postdoc".

Or maybe my friends and I are all living in la-la land. Having said that, looking at the newly maternal GorrillaGrrrl, maybe not.

Music meme

Shamelessly copied over from PropterDoc.

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.

Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.

Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.

Step 4: Strike through when someone gets them right

Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.

(I did skip the non-English songs...)

1. Meeting Mr. Right, the man of my dreams
2. Where you are, seems to be, as far as in eternity
3. Friday, payday, ready to do the things we love
4. I just found me a bottle of blues
5. I find it in the atlas or flippin' over old news
6. Looking at himself but wishing he was someone else
7. Now the first day that I met ya, I was looking in the sky
8. I don't mean to make obscene, but even the mob know what the hell I mean
9. in Zaire, was not good place to be
10. Never had a point of view 'cause my mind was always someone else's mind
11. For you I was a flame
12. There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
13. Please tell me again, I was somewhere else
14. I've got a war inside my head
15. Your romantic rights are all that you got
16. How can anyone be so unkind
17. Think it's time we got this straight
18. Take me through the centuries to supersonic years
19. Voices inside my head, echoes of things that you said
20. I don't care what they say, I don't care about the style you're choosing
21. Dumb dumb - so sweet so young
22. I only smoke weed when I need to
23. She want to get out of the car in the middle of the road
24. Fast approaching monsters, marching in a row
25. I'd wash the sand off the shore

Why? Part Deux

Following on from my...questions about the BASF ad, I have something else to ad. (ha ha!)


There is this famous ad series by Hitachi, the Japanese electronics company, which they show during or after a TV programme they sponsored. (Here's a link to the Youtube vid, of the 6th generation ad aired between '84-'91)
It's common in Japan for the sponsors of the TV spot to be actually named, before or after the programme - something that is happening more in the UK, especially with Five (the CSI series is sponsored by KIA now). However, in Japan, they only show the ads of the sponsoring companies.

Anyway, I digress.
Hitachi's corporate ad centres around a particular Monkey Pod tree which is in the Moanalua gardens in Hawaii. It is a long-running campaign, started in 1973. The tree has only featured since the second generation ad starting in 1975. It is a famous tree within Japan, and Hitachi has created a proper website for it.

The ad itself is actually simple, just a rolling credit of all the companies within the Hitachi brand, with the narrator saying some corporate gibberish at the end. I don't think it really adds to anyone's interest, it is just an ad to make people aware of the Hitachi Group.
But what grabs your attention is the song they use - "kono ki nannoki" (literally "this tree, what kind of tree?"). It's like a children's song, and it has both a simple melody and lyrics - but in fact, it was specially composed for the ad.


This ad works (in the sense that it is increasing public awareness of the Hitachi group) because the campaign has been going on for so long - which I think is the key to such an ad.
They have used the same song for whole campaign which ensures continuity; in fact, they used the same singer until recently - I think he is more famous for being the voice behind that song. It is not a pushy ad, just rolling credits, and the song is quite pleasing to listen to.

I guess someone can do a study on the psychology behind using a tree instead of anything human or man-made. I'm not sure of the reasons behind using a tree - maybe something about different branches leading to a trunk (i.e. different branches of the company leading to a unified corporation, facing the future together).

Bloody money...

Why is it that when I want to go back home for a holiday, the Pound suddenly is weak? That the Yen is becoming strong(er)? Ten months ago, it was 240 yen to a pound. Now, it's more like 205 yen to a pound.
That extra 35 yen would be so welcome at this moment.

Appearances are everything

（I wrote this a while ago and promptly forgot about it...）

The previous post on presentations left me wondering about appearances. After the meeting, I asked Poodle how I did with the presentation, since the last time I ever present anything in front of a group of scientists was.......I can't remember exactly, but it must be a year ago.
That's a long time to go without practice, and I normally get really nervous, like any other person.
I also know that I stutter, say "um" a few more times, generally talk too fast, get really sweaty armpits, talk with a stronger accent (I feel like my American twang becomes stronger), and lose words in my head whilst thinking (hence I stutter and say "um" a lot more, and there are silences in between).

The thing is, more often than not, people say I did fine. I never figured out whether that was because, considering all matters I am actually a good presenter, or becauase I was talking to friends and they were trying not to make me feel bad. I guess I should do a course on presentations, but I think I don't do that bad a job. Sure, I fidget, sure, I lose words. But I don't think I am half as bad as some people.
I am told that I look calm and collected, confident with what I say. My nervousness doesn't seem to translate to action. I am always amazed at what they say, and sometimes I do wonder whether what I think I look like, and how I am actually perceived is greatly different.

I do spend a lot of time preparing though. Thinking about the audience, how to present, what level to pitch it at, etc.. I enjoy doing the planning, and as more time passes, I am getting more comfortable with the actual presenting. There is no joy greater than having an audience understand what you are presenting. And falling asleep...

War of the Worlds

It's amazing how some drugs' names sound like something from Tranformers. Like:

Ganciclovir vs. Microgynon

Everytime I hear "Ganciclovir" I imagine an evil metallic monstrosity. "Microgynon" sounds a bit like one of those car robot things. (Here's a link to the earlier Citroen ad)
An antiviral vs. an oral contraceptive - should be an interesting fight.


A while ago, someone came up with this brilliant game, whereby you scan in the barcode of anything, and you play it against other barcodes - the Barcode Battler. Someone should come up with a drug name battler. It will be a great hit with us sad scientists.

Don't ask, don't tell

When I first started working as a postdoc, I was amazed at how many gay and lesbian people I was meeting. Especially the latter. I had never ever made friends with lesbian women, but that might be because I have a very small number of friends until then. When I started postdoc-ing, as the groups in the same corridor mingled a lot, it was easy to get to know people. When I did my PhD, our lab was like the only occupied lab on the whole damn corridor.

Anyway, there was this one PhD student. Let's call him X.
He wasn't one to flaunt his sexuality - he was more... asexual than anything, to everyone concerned. He had enough friends to keep him socially busy, was not reliant on a one-to-one relationship as so many others were. I always thought he had better things to do (like research, duh), and him being a foreign student, thought that he didn't want to be attached to the area (or the country) too much.

So one day, another friend of mine tells me that someone in his lab found some gay porn on a disc that X gave to another student (female). Somehow - I am not sure of the turn of events - it ended up so that the postdoc Y of the lab had to deal with it. Yes, there was a lot of talk going around that lab about it - it was kinda scandalous. But all done hush-hush to the PI.

Now, postdoc Y was a good guy. Great sense of humour, and also a long-suffering postdoc under the hands of the PI. I believe he just had a word with student X, reminded him not to download porn on to a disk you used at work, and that was that.

It might have been that they could never figure out whether X downloaded it at work or not - probably he did, since internet connection is so much faster than anything at home. It also might be that postdoc Y was a good person, and had a relatively good relationship with the rest of students. Student X was also well liked too.

I have kept in touch with student X even after he finished his PhD - he already was a good friend of mine before that incident. I never told him about the incident, thinking discretion, and I really never knew at the time whether he was gay or "it's just a phase he is going through". And I wasn't bothered anyway.

About a year after he started working in another city, I went over to see him, and he came out to me. It was because there was a man in his life, and I guess that the timing was right. He was very uncomfortable about it, and I couldn't have had a more "TV drama" moment than that (walking home after a night out, deserted street at midnight, cool air, us talking...ah).


Anyway, the moral of the story is, never download porn at work.

Why?

I was watching tonight's episode of that pitiful excuse for a TV drama called CSI:NY, when I came across this ad, which was a spot for BASF. Yes, the chemical company. I'm afraid the ad is in Spanish, because I couldn't find one in English. But it's exactly the same ad, with the ice climbers, but the comment is in English.

Now, why is BASF doing ads at 10pm? To Joe Public? It isn't like there would be potential clients watching it. Or does that happen?
Does a family guy who is watching CSI:NY because his daughter likes watching Don Flack's fabulous tie collection, sees the ad and goes "hmmm, yes, my company needs a chemical supplier, and maybe I'll talk to my superiors about BASF"?

It's not like they're pushing people to buy a drug or anything. And anyway, those kind of ads (drug ads to the lay person) might be plentiful Stateside, but is non-existent over here...

Growing out of it

I'm watching the Red Sox-Yankees game on the ESPN's Sunday telecast, and getting mighty pissed off with the commentator team. I love Jonathan Miller. That soothing voice of his, and humour, is a joy to listen to.
But please, someone tell Joe Morgan to take a back seat when the Yankees are playing? His bias...I mean, unabashed love for that team is embarassing, no, irritating, well, infuriating. I'd be throwing my beer cans and popcorn at the TV. If only.

At least JD Drew (my current eye candy) is hitting well.

Excellent!

This the funniest thing ever. And I so totally love it.

Lost titles

Explanation from the creator:

The modern trend for making shows without opening titles really scuffs my nips. we've decided, with the help of Darling, to show J.J Abrams the error of his ways and help him out at the same time with a lovely, theme tuned up, opening. You can use it if you like Mr Abrams.

I'm such a sad person I actually transcribed the lyrics myself.

They are lost!
On a magical island
and nobody knows where they are

They are lost!
Before someone can find them,
before they fall into more danger

Flying from a land down under
up to the land of the free-ee-ee
Their plane fell from the skies
yet somehow they survived
but in this strange place
no one is safe
that's for sure

They are lost!

Disturbing

I saw this the other day, about what parents think is offensive in games. Wait a second, isn't a graphically severed head more...gruesome than two people having sex heterosexually?

Granted, the question had the term "offensive", but in my case it would be swearing, severed head, gay men kissing, then hetero sex.

Which is kinda funny, because I was thinking about the language in online gaming. I play online games (not the MMORPG but ~30 player stuff). And it's quite amusing to hear some of the languages used.

I tend to play on the European servers, so you have a variety of languages being thrown around - I've heard Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, French. English, of course, comes in many flavours, and I have heard the chavvy accent, Scottish, some random English accents...and American.
I noticed that most American players seem to have kind of Midwest like twang (kind of difficult to understand for me), and that they swear a lot. It's like a competition to try and put in as much expletives in a sentence as possible.
And apart from swearing, they make threats. I have heard one person threaten another that they will "come and kill you if I knew where you lived", another two going on a rant for 20 minutes using various derogatory terms for homosexual men. Those two, I remember, because I was shocked. A few where they just went on and on, swearing. That is a mite irritating. There was one game where the guy was complaining about the lack of tactical finesse in the team - by slagging off everyone. Me thinks he is NOT going to be a great middle manager.

Apart from that, I've heard people complaining that they don't speak English (wow, welcome to the Earth, dude), men trying to figure out if one was a "girl" or not (tad hard when you have to speak through a headset), chatting idly about the game and life and things in general (oh, so where are you? Florida? Cool), randomly trying to converse in broken English, and so on.
Most of the time, it is when players get irritated and take things personally, that things go south.

It is amusing to listen.
But I could really do without all the swearing...

What's wrong widda chicken?

So I finished my Buffalo Trace pretty quick after that post, and I went to buy another bottle of bourbon. Well, I've tried Maker's Mark, and I've tried Buffalo Trace. I thought I was going to go for Knob Creek next, but convenience is a big thing in my life and I ended up with this pretty (hardy har har):



(i.e. they had it in Tesco and I couldn't be bothered to go to that fancy offies to get Knob Creek. And anyway, I went and they didn't have it in stock)

Anyway, my opinion is that Wild Turkey is not as....unique as Maker's Mark, but certainly follows MM in the harshness. I assume that that is what bourbon is about, and that Buffalo Trace is, in fact, an anomaly - it is far too smooth.
I'm liking Wild Turkey, actually. It's nice as a "high ball" - I have mine with carbonated water (soda), lots of ice, with a slice of lemon. Heaven! And thank God it's BST (British Summer Time).

Anyway, I've also been thinking lately at the difference of people's taste/palate sensation. One reason is my take on Maker's Mark - I've read comments on the net about how different and smooth it is. I beg to differ.

Then I hear CB tell me that the Colombian coffee I bought last time is a tad too acidic for his taste. I didn't think it tasted that bad; it was a good, cheap alternative to the Tesco limited edition (pah) El Salvadorean I so love (which, being limited edition, is not available anymore...). It certainly doesn't have the depth of aroma, the mellowness, but now that I can't have my El Salvadorean coffee from the supermarket, Colombian bog-standard is a good cheap alternative. (N.B. emphasis on cheap(er).) So now, I shall toy with various Central/South American coffee. I think Guatemalan wasn't too bad.

So there must be some kind of difference in palate - maybe it's to do with some taste buds on the tongue being different between either ethnicity, or diet or something. After all, umami had a late start in the tongue area competition, but we in the orient knew about it...

realt-time PCR

Recently, I was invited back to my old lab to give a presentation about a particular method used to analyse qPCR (real-time PCR) data - specifically, the 2-DDCt method (read delta for D). It's apparently also known as the comparative Ct method.
I didn't mind doing it, but it was like 4 years ago when I last touched a qPCR machine, let alone do a complete analysis of results. So whilst I was okay with the whole idea (thinking that I should really get paid for such a service), I was curious as to why.

The whole presentation was to do with the theoretical aspects of the 2DDCt method, as developed by Livak and Schmittgen in their 2001 paper - so I decided, sadistically, to go through the derivation of the formula, as well as go through one example in detail, including calculating the errors.
I wasn't quite sure who was going to be there, and what kind of background they had - I thought I shouldn't really go into the details of tehcniques or mechanism of qPCR, but just stick to the actual analysis, and iron it out. Rather like a detailed journal club, if only in describing the details of the paper in biologist's terms.

Anyway, I enjoyed doing it. I have to admit, I REALLY enjoyed going through the actual derivation of the formula used (I went back to the original paper for that). I enjoyed seeing the eyes of some of the members of the audience, almost glaze over, as I put up slide after slide of mathematical equations. Biologists, ay? I am forever greatful for my understanding of mathematics.

Although I did mention being sadistic, there is a reason why I thought it better to go through the derivation, even if that meant biologists dying from a mathematical equation induced coma. There are two assumptions made in the derivation that leads to the final formula. And to drive home the point of the importance of these assumptions, it was necessary to derive the formula, so I could point out exactly WHY you must adhere to them.
We all know that people take shortcuts. Hell, I do too. But as in most cases, you have to know what you can cut out, and what you can't. And these assumptions are certainly NOT something you can wiggle your way around. And yes, I have seen people try to.

Suffice to say that my presentation was a hit. And it transpired that the reason why I was asked to do a presentation, was because a lot of people in the Faculty were using the standard curve method - and people in my former lab still used the comparative Ct method, probably because I used it.
Apparently the postdoc in my former lab had overheard a conversation, whereby the technician running the qPCR machine facility was telling another researcher about why he preferred the standard curve method - to which the researcher answered that he preferred to use the comparative Ct method, because he understood the limitations.
Now, my former lab apparently has been having some problems with qPCR results. I don't know why and where to reasons or blames lie, but it seems they were slightly confused (as well as presented with peer pressure) as to why they were using the comparative Ct method when everyone else was doing it the standard curve way. Peer pressure is an evil thing.

Of course, that does leave the question - couldn't someone in their lab do a search to look for a paper that had done a comparative study between the analysis methods??

Misanthropy and contempt

The previous post has opened up certain bitterness I hold towards others, for better or for worse.

I don't like a lot of women who I have had to work with. Women are crap that way. They like politicking, sticking to groups (why the f$%k do you have to go the goddamn toilet in groups?) and generally bitching or gossiping about everyone. Some have a mentality of an 18-year old, and they are 30. I fucking hate girls.
This probably stems from some bullying I received when I was younger - and it was always girly groups that did it. Don't you just hate them? I do. I think they are pathetic, but unfortunately, group dynamics dictate that a black sheep is ostracised.

I don't understand this "men only - women only" divide that occurs in this country. In a social setting - no, let me define this. In a group of couples comprising mainly of British people, the group often segregates into "men only" or "women only" sections. They don't mix.
This came to light when I went to dinner with such a group one evening, and ended up sitting on a long table. I always thought it was good social manners to mingle, so that the person sitting directly next to you and opposite you are of the opposite sex. And so on, so you have, on one side of a table, m-f-m-f-m-f-m-f-m seating arrangements. This didn't happen. All the girls sat on end, and all the boys on the other, like m-m-m-m-f-f-f-f. Like, what is this, the sixth form prom or something?
And you know what these people talk about? The boys - they talk about football, rugby, drinking. Girls, they talk about makeup, fashion, and gossip. There is no witty banter, no intellect at all. What irks me more is that these people are actually "intelligent" people (so-called due to their having a postgraduate degree of some kind).

I hate people who are indecisive with a capital I. I know someone like that; you probably do to. You know, the kind of person when you take them to a new restaurant, they take 15 minutes to decide on the menu. Hell, by the time they've decided, I've decided on my 3-course meal, wine, ate the bread and the starter. It's just fucking food. Get over it. You won't get food poisoning if it is a restaurant worth their salt.
It's like...they can't bear to decide, just in case they make the wrong decision. To the detriment of anyone else on the effing table.

I hate people who don't take responsibility for what they say. People who think they can joke about a sensitive topic, because "everyone else does it" or "I thought you could take it". Can these people not take a hint? Or just have manners?
It's amazing how it is these exact people think they have manners and are witty conversationalists, when all they are are just irritating pricks who other people tolerate rather than enjoy. You'd think they would get the hint, but oooooh no, they have their heads so stuck up their own backside that they are oblivious to them.

Grrrrr. Rant o-ver!

On anonymity

The subject of anonymous blogging seems to be cropping up more often than not nowadays. I guess it really hit home when Kyle started talking about it on his blog, how his cover was blown (as they say). Then with comments from Derek Lowe, FSP, PropterDoc and others, it made me think about why I chose to remain anonymous.

But first...I have to admit, that this drive to find out who Kyle is, is mystifying to me. Maybe he wrote things in his blogs that piqued interest, but unless it is specified in the blog that "I come from such-and-such Uni/area", I'm not particularly interested in finding out who the person is, just for the sake of it. Apart from the fact that I DO have a life outside the internet, although hard to believe.
If there was a positive feeling I have towards an anonymous blogger, sure, I would like to know them - but then, would they be interested in me? Internet and blogging is such a one-way street. I've been contacted by people I am supposed to know, but I don't recognize. I ignore attempts at contact from people like that now. Just because you like someone's blog, or site, they might not welcome or appreciate the attempt at contact.
I guess everyone in the internet is a "famous person" to an extent. And that is, I guess, why I prefer not to be famous - really an oxymoron, the "anonyomus blogger".

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I don't really have anything insightful to say. But I can tell it from my point of view.

I guess that the nature of my blog, which is more personal than professional (as in, I don't particularly write critiques on scientific topics), lends itself more to anonymous blogging. Lets admit it. No one really cares what one postdoc working in a random non high-profile lab. If the reader comes across it, it is a bonus for both the reader and myself - let's make each other's life more interesting, or at least, waste each other's time.
It's nice and comforting to read about someone, who shares an interest, or a job, or a hobby, with you. And it's a nice slice of a cake, you eat it, and that's it. Gratification for a while.

It's similar to talking to strangers in a bar.
It is far more easier to talk about random personal stuff, and demons, when you are talking to a stranger. Why? Because you don't care what they think about you afterwards. What they know will not interfere with your life. Like reading a blog, it is gratification without the grave, long-lasting consequences. The whole point is that this action is transient. (Yes, I do realize such an action can not only mean talking, but includes sex.)

And there is some joy from such a transient action. Whether it be talking or having sex, the joy is in meeting someone who shares a little bit with you, without the baggage of everything else.
I guess it is like a cake - you are the cake. And you share a slice with different people - whether it be work related, or share a certain history (school or Uni, PhD or work), or whatever. And I choose to share this slice of me with you, the readers. And I may choose to share another slice with someone I knew from 10 years ago.

But why not put trust in someone you can see? Why not trust your colleagues, who know you? Because that is exactly why I don't trust them. It might sound like a con, but it isn't. And anyway, who do you know that well that they don't surprise you sometime? Still waters run deep.


So I guess, my take is that anonymous bloggers are like people you meet in a bar. There is this unspoken rule that you don't delve too deeply into them, or find out what they are hiding (if anything) - enjoy the transient encounter, don't ask too many questions, you are not their pal. You just have the luck to listen to their story for a while, then carry on with your life.

Global village

Ok, so here I am, looking at "Instructions to authors" in yet another journal. Today, I looked at the Biochem. J.. Notice anything funny?

They have a Chinese version (link to pdf) of author's instructions.

Which strikes me as very odd.
The journal is published in English, by a British society. I can appreciate that it might (and probably has) a large Chinese readership. Is this a common thing for journals to do? I haven't seen it happen in any other English journal that I might send my meagre offering to the scientific universse.

But what, exactly, is the point in having the instructions in Chinese if the manuscript has to be in English? Since when did that kind of concessions occur?
Ok, granted, Angew. Chemie was solely published in German - but it still gave way to the lingua franca of science, English. I somehow can't see Chinese becoming a force in scientific publishing, especially (despite?) a journal of that standard. And I can't see a regression occuring back to another language from English.

So...writing a paper in English may be easy, since you follow a set pattern - it's not like writing a literary piece. And I can understand that it is important that the instructions are clearly set out and understandable, and that they are followed to a T. But why bother when the actual manuscript has to be in English? "Instructions to authors" isn't that hard to follow.

I wonder if they had problems with more than a few manuscripts, which had good work, but was sent back because it didn't follow the instructions? But why not outright reject it then? Was the quality of work so good, that they still wanted the manuscript even if the instructions were not followed?

This isn't some leaflet or something for the council, or the government, or whatever - they produce leaflets in something like 20 different languages. That doesn't bother me as much as the fact that as scientists, shouldn't the authors be a bit more...educated? Okay, it's hard to write in English if you are a foreigner. But everyone goes through that.

Oh I'm rambling...

Got Ink?

Scientists and tats.

If I ever had one, I think I'll go for a big biohazard logo on my back. I think the sign is pretty cool. Hazard symbols in general are good. The detail lin European explosives is cool.
I have a softness for the solidness of the radiation warning sign; reminds me of Henry Rollins' neck tattoo of the Black Flag logo, which I like (the tattoo, not the band).