Lesson Learned: Do not Greet Professors in the Hall Unless you Want to Feel Like an Idiot

She confused me with two other people but still managed to make ME feel like an idiot.

"Oh so I am using your lab now"
"Really?" (I was confused because I hadn't seen her in there)
"Yea, well actually two of your lab mates.." (Weird....I just have one lab mate)
"Really?"
"Yea, J and M"
"Oh, that's not my lab"
"Oh that's right. I thought you were going to go to Friday Harbor this summer. What happened?"
"umm.....no, that must have been J. you were thinking of."
"Oh. So what are you doing?"
"Just staying here, running experiments on my water striders. Remember?"
"Oh yea! How is that going? Is it working out?"
"Yea...kind of. Remember that I was running the water striders to see if the water conservation hypothesis was supported when looking at discontinuous respiration.."
."..right..." (nodding)
"Well, I did see DGC in one adult, but now that I am running the nymphs they aren't responding. I have been running them with different variables, but still I have no clue. It might be the developmental stage they are at, but....."
"So, are there different instars available?"

Damn! I heard this word like 3 months ago, and I was going to look it up, but I didn't...and know here it is again. I thought it had something to do with developmental stages......but I thought maybe it only dealt with larva vs. pupae, and water striders don't go through those stages...instead they belong to the Exopterygota division of the Pterygotas, which means that they have young which resemble the parent, except they lack wings and are smaller.

"Umm.....no, well....umm....there like...I forgot the word....but the nymphs I have are just smaller than the parents...and that's what I have been running all this summer..."

Immediately I saw that look. The She-has-no-freaking-idea-what-she-is-talking-about-how-could-they-have-let-her-into-the-program look.

"Good, well good luck"

I immediately knew I had messed up. I walked away shaking my head and covering my face. God I'm such an idiot.

A month into Summer

It's the first time soemone has actually entered my "office" this summer. I was very excited, but soon realized that he was very lost. I heard myself explain natural selection and evolution to him, and I saw him consistently nodding his head in agreement, but I didn't think he was getting it. It was a fake nod. So I asked him to explain it to me, and he froze. he is coming back tommorrow he said.

Today I discovered that this months work has been a bunch of crap. I have old files without some data which I recently began obtaining.....so, do I use the data that are on those files and then run another experiment exactly the same and take an average? or just start anew? The water striders aren't doing what I want them to do......is it due to their metabolism? a change in temperature? a difference in their developmental stage? short hypoxic conditions? time that the experiment was conducted? flow rate of air? the last time they ate? or am I just running it incorrectly? Arghhhhh! Everything looked so nice when I only had Jeffrey (I say N=1 should be good enough).

It's our third week meeting and it will be my third week no preparing for it. I don't know why I can't get into it! Our first year exam is only two months away and I can't focus on studying. Is there a secret? it's been so damn hot here that by the time I get into lab I feel lethargic. I've gotten other stuff done? Of course, things that really did not need to get done.....like cleaning the lab.

Why is that once you start the work routine you never want to stop. Being here until 10pm actually seems like its not enough. I really just want to bring a cot and stay all night. So when I walk home and I see the rest walking home as well, it does not feel odd. But when I speak to my friends, and they actually have lives, it feels depressing.

Across the plaza I can see them working as well. At 2am, I see them walking out. What the hell do I do all day?

Todays topics:
1. The importance of metapopulation concepts to modern conservation biology.
2. Bottom-up vs. top-down communities
3. Ecological efficiency
4. Regulation of populations by intraspecific and/or interspecific competition

To be an Undergrad

I think that generation Y was born with ADD, and with some genetic code for "not having a clue". Honestly, every single one of them. If it's not one abnormality is the other.

Today was the second time I told a student to pay attention and stop IM'ing/MySpace'ing/blogging/random searching on their lap top. She looked at me like she did not understand what I was saying. Completely blank eyes.

"ahh......pay attention, and stop messing around in your computer 'cuz its distracting to everyone around you"

The constant tapping of the keys! She got it then and gave me a dirty look, like I was her mom and had just told her to pull her pants up because her damn ass was hanging out and everyone behind her could see her crack.

Five minutes later this kid walks in, an hour late, walks straight to the professor (who is lecturing in the front of the class), stands there until the professor stops talking and asks him what he wants, and asks: "Have you guys taken the test yet?" Could he not have waited until the break to ask? How could he think that walking up to the professor in the middle of class, after he is an hour late, to ask him anything is proper?

Their either getting more and more annoying or I'm getting older. I wonder how I will react to them in my last year.

On my Days of Summer

Summer sessions go way too fast. We are in week 4, they have taken their first midterm and I am already forgetting to show up to office hours. They don't show up anyway..but still..I should be there just incase.

My experiements are on the preliminary stages. I have been running some water striders, but there are still things I am not sure about (number of striders to run, if I need to keep track of who is who, how many trials per insect, how to analyze my data, tubing and how to make the flow rate stabilize, etc...) but I'm at least getting data. I hope the water striders don't die!

I finally was able to collect some....surprisingly in the same creek where I found my frogs. Funny that I never saw them when I went looking for tree frogs...of course I wasn't looking. I was happy to be out again searching for specimen to work on. It is so amazing to be out in the "wild" and have nothing to look at but nature. It's amazing. I wish I did that more often, but, I am always afraid to go out on my own, and there are not that many a people who like to go out in the wild.

We have started our study group for our first year exam (which is at the end of the summer). I can't seem to concentrate enough to get actual answers down on paper. I have simple outlines which I am sure will not help me when I am trying to write an essay during the test. Arghh! I need to pay attention. Plus, our apartment (without the air conditioning) has been unbearable, which should motivate me to stay in lab longer......which I think I will start doing today......

I have been told that Fall quarter I will be teaching Animal Physiology Lab (YIKES!) I have been hoping to avoid that class as much as possible. I knew I wanted to teach it, but no this soon! Next year I will be taking Med School Physiology and teaching that lab.....should be fun...and not stressful.....

Back to research.....

My first Blog anniversary!