Postdoc pros (and cons)

 Here's what I have to say about my postdoc after one week on the job, presented as pros and cons:

• Pro: I have the most glorious office evah.
Con: But that is just one of three offices I'm expected to occupy on a regular basis.

• Pro: I have four bosses.  That presents an opportunity for major mentorship and collaboration.
Con: It runs a major risk of turning into a serious clusterfuck, or alternatively, letting me fall through the cracks.

• Pro: I'm working with people far outside of my field.  So far, everyone has been super nice and accommodating.  In addition, because I am the only expert in my area in our group, there is no one to second guess me.  Thus, at least I feel confident about the things I do know.
Con: It's a bit intimidating, and I'm worried about making sure I can pull my weight with these high-tech heavy hitters.

• Pro: They got me a fancy new laptop!
Con: It's a mac.  So far it's great (so fast! so quiet!) but I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about some of the software I rely upon.  That's a real problem.

• Pro: My abs were sore by the end of the week from laughing so much with my new colleagues.  Not only are they funny, but they think I'm funny too.  Imagine that! 
Con: These people work crazy, crazy hours and I think they expect that I will too.

• Pro: I get to expand my PhD work into a new area that is right on the bleeding edge of what's being done in the field.
Con: I have SO MUCH to learn!  Eek!

So far I'm super happy with my job, and really excited to get the science ball rolling. Stay tuned.

It's a virtual baby shower!

Everybody needs a little help when she has her first baby (or second, third, and fourth babies, for that matter!).  Our lovely blogger friend ScienceGirl at Curiosity Killed the Cat is anticipating the arrival of her first little one, but unfortunately there is no baby shower in the works.  ScienceGirl recently described one of the pitfalls of the nomadic acdemic lifestyle--it's hard to establish a village to help you raise your child when you move all the damn time, your extended family lives in another state or continent, and your colleages are mostly men:

The problem is that I am new in this area. I only know a handful of people closely enough to possibly even ask for such things [baby supplies], and most (um, all?) of them are male and/or non-parents. So although my coworkers are all nice people, there won't be a baby shower, nor will I be able to ask someone to bring over dinner once the little one gets here.

Several of us responded to that wishing we could give her a shower.  After years of reading ScienceGirl's blog and her comments on other blogs, I think of her as a friend.  I'd just hate to see her have her baby without any fanfair first, and without the support of a network of friends.  So, we're going to have a virtual baby shower for her here!

Following the Scientiae model, I'm hosting a baby shower-blog carnival.  Please write a post on your own blog about something you might share at a baby shower: a funny story, your best advice, reassurance for ScienceGirl, etc.  It doesn't matter if you're not a parent yourself -- you'd go to a real life baby shower for a friend, right? and you've got nieces and nephews or godchildren or friends' kids or memories of your own childhood, right?  So you have content for a post!  Some of you are parents who have a lots of exellent parenting posts in your archives, so another great option would be to collect those links into one post.  I'll round up all the links for these entries in a summary post here, and ScienceGirl will be able to save them to read again and again in the future.  We also have a mechanism for sending gifts, so send me an email for more information if you'd like to hook ScienceGirl up with some baby goodies (no pressure).

ScienceGirl is due on March 1, so we need to hurry!  Please email me a link to your post by midnight on Saturday, February 20, and we'll "have the shower" on Monday, February 22.  The only thing we'll be missing is one of those creepy baby-shaped cakes, so everybody plan to eat a (non-baby-shaped) cupcake in ScienceGirl's honor on Feb 22! 

Email or leave a comment if you have any questions. I think we're going to have a great time showering ScienceGirl with support from her bloggy village!

Live blogging Lost

8:10:  WTF??????!!!!?!?!?!?!

8:23:  WTF?!?!?!

8:30:  Dude!

8:39:  WTF?!

8:51:  HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!!  YAHOO!!

9:02:  Huh?

9:15:  Whoa! The Temple!

9:27: WTF?

9:41:  Oh Noes!

9:52:  Where?!?!

10:00:  ZOMG!  I CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK!!!!!!

Enlighten me

I figure I'm going to be referring to my temporary-job-that-follows-a-Ph.D. fairly frequently in the coming months.  I tend to refer to such a job as a "post-doc", but I've noticed lots of people write "postdoc" and some write "post doc".  Please weigh in using the poll on the side bar, or leave a comment with your remarks.  Only vote once.  I will use whichever one gets the most votes after the poll closes.

Closure WIN!

I turned in my final thesis yesterday. All the tasks that I expected to be roadblocks -- obtaining forms, getting signatures, paying fees -- fell into place one by one. The grad college guy said he'd look over it early next week and then let me know if there are any formatting issues.

I'm so pleased to have this phase over, and to have it over before my post-doc starts. woot!

Closure FAIL

I thought I could deposit my thesis today. But I could not.

By the time I went home yesterday I had done all the revisions required based on the defense, checked over all the data, and did and most of the formatting. This morning I got a later start than I intended and then I had to stop to buy the fancy paper on my way to work. Buying the paper took a while, as I had to consult with two different associates to make sure I had the right stuff. When I got to work, I spent some time making the last of the formatting changes, and then decided I needed to read through the whole thing one last time to make sure I hadn't done anything weird during the revisions and formatting. Then I printed it. Then I did the copyright form. Then I did the Earned Doctorates form. Then I got it all sorted into the proper envelopes. Then it was almost 3 pm and I still had to get a money order for bound copies I want, drive to the university, pay the stupid get out of jail grad school fee, pick up the signed forms from my adviser, and hand it in at the graduate college office. Cutting it close.

I got on the highway without stopping at the bank for the money order, so I had to turn around and go back for it. Then I forgot exactly where the building with the cashiers' office is and lost some time circling it and finding a parking space. I thought that office closed at 5, but in fact it closes at 4 and I got there at 4:04. Fuck. And why the hell can't I pay this lame-ass fee online? So I went to my adviser's office to get the forms, thinking I'd at least be able to get the packets all ready. Nope, he wasn't there despite an email yesterday saying he'd be there all day. he was probably expecting me earlier than 4:15. Whatever.

I was inordinately disappointed that I couldn't just get it the fuck done. I even had a bit of a tanty in the car after I left the closed cashiers' office. I still have plenty of time before the deadline to graduate this semester, but I just wanted this phase of life to be over. I don't want it to drag on another day. And I really wanted to have it done and dusted before I start the post-doc.

But whatever. I'll suck it up, and go back tomorrow and try to take care of it.

The day did get significantly better after all that, however, since EGM made a positively outstanding chicken makhani. Yum!

Update

I have a post-doc staring Monday! Doing pretty much my dream research! With a great salary for which I'm smug to say I negotiated!

There's a bunch of stuff related to this that I'm just dying to blog about, but I haven't yet decided how to pseudonymize it. In fact, that has kept me from posting over the last few days despite a new meme (!) from Amanda. I'm sure I'll settle on a identity-hiding scheme soon so I can tell you something about what I'll be doing, or at least something about how I feel about it.