Music Monday

This is Jerry Garcia and Friends performing 'Fire on the Mountain' live in Petaluma, CA in 1987. Carlos Santana plays in this as well. This is a great version!



To view on YouTube the link is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmN0mFHDH2w&NR=1

Odds and Ends

I am not going to be applying for any more jobs right now. Most of the jobs that I have had throughout my life have come to me from people that I either knew or had some connection to. I should have at least gotten an interview for the most recent position that I applied for; the people there knew me. But I didn't even get an interview. It could be my age or my varied work history or who knows what. While I work to figure out what is wrong and what I can do about it (if anything), I will keep an eye out for job opportunities, but will not actively apply for anything for now.

I made the decision a couple of weeks ago that I am not going to get a laptop for now. At the end of August, I will lose my health insurance, so I am going to use the money that I saved for the laptop, for my asthma medicines instead. I have enough money to get 2 months worth of medicines and I will just keep saving to have enough for 3 and 4 months and so on until I can get insurance.

I am also working on cleaning up my blog a bit. There are a few posts that I don't like and will most likely delete them as I have done with a couple already.

Working on a Weekend

There is an additional thing that I have to do that I forgot to put on the list in my last post...I have to write the content for a website describing my research project. The PI wants the content to look like a journal article with an introduction, materials and methods, results, and discussion. It is due tomorrow. I worked on it for about 2 hours on Friday. About 10 minutes after I started I realized that it would be impossible to write a "journal article" in just a few hours. So I am trying a different approach. I will instead put up the title of the grant with the project description, project introduction, research objectives, brief summary of materials and methods, and some results (maybe a few tables). Unfortunately, the project description, introduction, and objectives will all be copied and pasted from the work plan, but that will have to suffice. I have so much data, that it will take hours just to put some of it into a form that can go online. I told the PI that I was uncomfortable with putting data and results online before it has been published, but she said it doesn't really matter. Maybe not to her, but it does to me. Anyway, that is what I am dealing with this weekend.

Swamped

It is overwhelming how much I have to do. I am either working on or have the following to do:

1. Organizing 2 all day workshops, including getting speakers, getting approved for CEUs, acquiring funding and sponsors, food, supplies, and producing flyers - ongoing until the workshops

2. Completing the data and statistical analysis for the first year of my project - ongoing but I have enough for presentations, posters, and publications

3. Preparing a presentation for both workshops (same presentation for both workshops) - must be done by 8/10

4. Preparing 3 posters of stuff related to my research for the workshops - must be back from printer by 8/10

5. Must submit an extensive research progress report (estimated at 30 - 40 single-spaced pages) at end of August

6. Working on 2 manuscripts - due by end of October

It's so much that I am sitting here at work paralyzed. I have completed a lot already, but at the moment I can barely move...

Music Monday

This is Playing for Change performing Back to Your Roots live in Vancouver, British Columbia. It's really good so I just had to post it here. Enjoy!





To view on YouTube the link is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGE7-n9Pbng&feature=related

When I Find Another Job Will There Be Anything Left of Me?

I was hoping to leave work at 5:00 pm today, but 10 minutes ago, the boss came in and made a request. She said "Make a list of all of the ornamental host plants that are susceptible to TSWV and then go to Lowe's and see which ones they have and buy some. Do this RIGHT NOW, TODAY". OMG....

Today I Told My Boss...

...to calm down. She came into the lab this morning in a panic, saying that we needed to spend $50,000 by June 30. She told me to stop what I was doing (my data analysis) and start ordering stuff immediately. She started shrieking and circling the lab bench and saying that today, right now, I had to order a laptop, a water shaker incubator, a refrigerator, 5 cases of petri dishes, and whatever else I could think of.

I am having some problems with high blood pressure because of all of the stress I am experiencing due to stuff like this. Every day there's a crisis over something. So, this morning I took a deep breath and told her to calm down, have a seat, let's do the math, we've already spent a lot of money, I don't think its $50,000. I got out our budget and went over it with her. As it turned out the amount that we had remaining to spend was $6000. So she calmed down and then went off to her other lab. And I was left to deal with trying to calm myself down.

I shouldn't be doing the ordering at all. I am suppose to be doing my research 100% of the time. But she asked me to take on most of the lab management duties because the person that she hired to do that isn't fit for the job. So, now I'm practically doing the work of two people. I work every day. Monday to Friday, I work about 10.5 hrs a day and on weekends I work about 6 hrs a day. I don't take breaks and I don't get paid for overtime.

I need to get out of this job. A person can only handle stuff like this for so long. One post-doc in the lab is leaving after only having worked for a few months and another one that hasn't been in the lab very long is actively searching for another position. I wish I had the time and energy to conduct a job search, but I don't. I feel stuck.

This experience hasn't turned me against doing scientific research. I love science and I love doing research. I just need to be doing it somewhere else. It will be very interesting to see what the future brings for me.