In science:

We got word from the journal today that my paper was accepted! This was the paper that encompasses most of my thesis work (6 years) plus the time it took to alter the paper per journal reviewer requests when we submitted it the first time (6 months). YAY! I'm so happy that we don't have to do yet more experiments - the topoisomerase assays are a real pain in the ass and I'm the only one in the lab that does them regularly.


On the housing front:

We've had two people look at the condo a few weeks ago, one of whom is now thinking about a house instead and the other is talking finances with his parents. A med student came through tonight with her parents and another is coming tomorrow morning. It's nice to have these two visits spaced so close together so we only have to clean the place once. A fifth person from Stanford has also shown interest - the bf is actually talking to him on the phone as I type. So that front is promising!

We spent last weekend looking at homes and we plan on going to open houses and touring with an agent this weekend too. We've seen about 2 dozen homes. So far we've found one great home that has EVERYTHING we want...except it appears to be the most expensive one in the neighborhood. And I've been told that it's far better to buy a cheaper house in an expensive neighborhood than an expensive home in a cheaper one. So that house looks to be out. Hopefully we'll find something great this weekend!


We're going to go out and celebrate right now and then...BSG YAY! :)

Yay, I'm going to San Diego on Sunday! The bf is interviewing at UCSD for residency and I'm going to tag along and see my bro, who's pursuing a music PhD there. We're going to stay a couple of days and check out the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, and probably bum around the La Jolla beaches. Nice! Sun and surf will be a most welcome change this time of year. Cameras will be in tow (we're renting the 400 mm for this occasion), so photos will follow.

Has anyone been to the San Diego Wild Animal Park recently? I was there a long time ago and I don't know if it's still all that or if it's skippable. They have an indoor aviary with lorikeets that you can feed by hand and that sounds cool.

In other news, yesterday a grad student ended his departmental talk about his research with...a lolcat. Win.

Oh, I am SO pissed right now. The federal branches of scientific research got their 2008 budgets yesterday by the House and Senate. I've been very disappointed with funding in the past years. Right now about 1 out of 10 grants submitted to the NIH are funded. And we're not talking weak grants here either - these are grants proposed by established scientists with strong backgrounds in research. Several of the labs here at Mayo have had to close shop because of lack of funding. It's a major reason why I'm trying to get into clinical research, which will always get funding by the hospital, instead of more traditional forms of research funded by the NIH.

So what was the budget given for 2008? An increase not even enough to match inflation. Idiots.

Here are some highlights from the article in Science:

"After Bush vetoed legislation that would have given NIH a $1 billion increase, Congress gave it $329 million more, or a 1% raise, to $29.2 billion" (1% is PALTRY)

"The president had requested a $506 million boost for the $6 billion foundation (NSF) --an increase of 8.7%--and both House and Senate panels had added to that total. Instead, the omnibus provides a total increase of only $117 million..."

"For NASA the news is mixed. Although Congress approved its request for $17.3 billion, or 3.1% more than in 2007, the House and Senate conference rejected a Senate plan to add $1 billion to the space agency in order to cover rising costs in the space shuttle program. Those costs, combined with increases in the new Constellation rocket program and in several science projects, threaten to eat away at NASA's science and aeronautics endeavors." (Wasn't Bush all "Wee! Let's go back to the Moon and go to Mars!" a while ago? Maybe someone should tell him that it requires FUNDING to actually do that.)


And what do I blame the most for a lack of funding in the sciences? The blurb at the end says it all: "Late last night the Senate passed the House omnibus bill after adding $39 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That brings the total in the bill to $70 billion, and gives the Defense Department leeway to spend it as needed."


(And to add to the insanity, a couple of weeks ago Slashdot posted this article stating that the average US citizen thinks NASA gets way more funding than it does. No shit - "Respondents generally estimated NASA's allocation of the national budget to be approximately 24% (it's actually closer to 0.58%) and the Department of Defense budget to be approximately 33% (it's actually closer to 21%). In other words, respondents believed NASA's budget approaches that of the Department of Defense, which receives almost 38 times more money." Just goes to show you that the average citizen has NO idea of the general runnings of their government. Pathetic.

Hi! Thanks for the well wishes! I'm very happy with how the interview went. It was exhausting and even though I had a free lunch I wasn't hungry at all, but I think my one on one talks went fine and my presentation went without a hitch. It's nice to get it over with and think that I did the best that I could. Now I have to wait until mid January to hear the results, argh.

My interview certainly went better than the bf's, who's currently in Florida. I dropped him off at the airport at 10 am yesterday, expecting him to call me from his hotel after a short flight to Minneapolis, a flight down to Jacksonville, and an hour long ride to the hotel. He called me at 9 last night saying he just got in! The airplane that was supposed to get him up to Minneapolis was grounded due to concerns, so he had to be rerouted to Minneapolis and missed his flight down to Florida and had to get another flight. On top of that, when he got to the airport there was no one there to get him to his hotel! He had to bum a ride off of someone that was heading that way! Yikes! Here's hoping the return flight is easy - I already have to pick him up tonight at 11:30!

I have most of my Xmas gifts purchased and sent, including one for the ever tough to shop for bf. (Not going to post what it is either - he likes to read my LJ on occasion...) ^_^

Huh, my paid account expired and I got to keep my layout! Didn't 3 Columns use to be a paid member only layout? Oh well, yay me! Sucks though, now I'm down to 6 userpics. Choose choose choose...

Anyway, BIG INTERVIEW TOMORROW! Good lucks and well wishes are most appreciated! I'm very nervous, as I'm talking with 8 directors and giving an hour long talk on my research. Argh. *breathes*

It's been snowing a lot recently. Right now we have 4-6 inches on the ground, which is more than I remember for early December (rhymes, snerk).


Science update! Unfortunately, that second manuscript was turned down from Genes and Development in a little over a week. We sent it to EMBO and got the same reaction. Bummer. They wanted more of the mechanism behind our observations, which makes sense as it would make a more well-rounded manuscript. However, our lab is not equipped to do experiments detailing the mechanism, as it requires in vitro cellular systems with DNA repair and histones and all that fanciness. We've never done such a thing, and having someone learn how now would take way too long. So, we're resubmitting the manuscript to the JBC tomorrow. Sigh, I hope this one at least gets reviewed...

And my fellowship interview is next Tuesday! I'm quite nervous, as it's difficult to make sure you put on your best face for no less than 8 faculty members, plus give an hour-long talk about your research. Good news: I did buy a nice suit for $80 (steal!) and I'm making it even more awesome by getting it tailored.


I'm sort of torn that Heroes is over, part of me wants more and the other part was kinda bored by the season and frustrated by the finale. I'm looking forward to the SGA ep tomorrow night, partially because of Weir, yay, and partially out of morbid fascination to see what TPTB end up doing with her. Quite worried they might kill her off this ep, or worse...

Is Beckett coming back next season? I've read some tentative rumors, but I don't know if there's anything concrete to back it up. I don't know quite what to think if TPTB bring back Beckett but are done with Weir forever after s4. It's not good thoughts at TPTB, that's for sure.

I got an interview with the fellowship! And they're only interviewing 5 people for 2 spots! Oh so HAPPY!

And to think that only yesterday I was biting my nails and fretting that they'd never get back to me. Or that I'd get one of those "thanks but no thanks" emails again!

Weeeeeeee!

I've been allergic to aspirin all my life. If I take it by accident, I start wheezing and my back itches. So, no aspirin for me. I'm relegated to tylenol, ack.
And only last week do I realize that I've been using face cleaners with salicylic acid for the past decade or so. Uh, duh? I never had an allergic reaction on my face, but maybe it's better that I don't use that stuff, no?


In other news, we submitted the second paper to the journal "Genes and Development" last Friday. Now one of 4 things can happen:

-We get an email anywhere between 24 hrs - 1 week later stating essentially "thanks but no thanks." This is the polite way of saying "what the hell were you thinking submitting it HERE?!" If this happens, we'll revamp the paper and resubmit it to another journal (EMBO is next in line).
-We get an email 3-4 weeks later saying "It's great, we'll take it as is!" This is very rare and worthy of celebration.
-We get an email 3-4 weeks later saying "It's great, but you need to do [insert few to many additional experiments here] before we'll take it". This response tends to be the most common in our lab (it's what happened with my first paper, actually). At this point, you have 6 months to fix things up and resubmit it. If you did what they wanted it's in. If you didn't and you skirted what they asked the paper may be rejected entirely (my boss and I once rejected a resubmitted paper because they had completely ignored our recommendations).
-We get an email 3-4 weeks later saying "thanks but no thanks". This sucks the most because it's such a waste of your time.

So I'm hoping that we don't hear anything in the next week, which would mean that it didn't get automatically rejected and it was sent out for review. Beyond that, who knows!


And finally, do you guys remember when I was dumped from that postdoc spot I had lined up? And the professor who dumped me had evaded emails from me and my boss and NEVER TOLD ME HIMSELF? Yeah, well it turns out that he's done such assholish behavior to at least one other person who wanted to work in his lab. Jerk. Plus, rumblings around the institution hint that many faculty members don't like the guy AT ALL. So maybe it's a good thing that I didn't go work for him? Maybe my karma was very good to me after all. *hugs karma*. ^_^

I've been getting up for work extra early lately so right now I'm tiiiiiiiiiiiired. The walking around like a zombie, forget doing any sort of complex thinking, fall asleep if you lay down anywhere kind of tired. And I still have to finish a bunch of experiments today, go through old data, and have a meeting with my mentor. Urgh.

Good news though - we got the reviews back on our manuscript that we submitted to JBC. They seem pretty happy with the paper and while we have to make some revisions and do some more experiments it doesn't appear overwhelming. Hopefully we can resubmit it before Christmas. Manuscript number two will be sent to Genes and Development (high impact journal, yay!) in under a week.

I just ordered three tins of tea. Darjeeling tea , spring cherry green tea, and blueberry tea. Happy. :)

A few trees around town are just starting to show their colors. Dammit, I'm not ready for fall yet. I spent too much of the summer working on my thesis. Hell, I didn't even upgrade the layout for this journal.

My postdoc position in my lab has been approved. All I have to do is turn in my thesis next week and I'm good to go! (Slightly) higher salary, here I come!! ^_^

I finished sorting through the photos from my trip to Wisconsin in July, so I'll post some of those next. The current count of Yellowstone photos is...2700 and falling. Still, I think it's getting manageable enough to start posting photo travelogs soon.