Merry Christmas!

Dear Santa,

All I'd like for Christmas is a completed dissertation. Hope you and Mrs. Claus are well.

Love,
Anne

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and that you and your loved ones are all happy and healthy!

Graduation Notes

Dallas and some other friends walked/got hooded at commencement, so a bunch of us went to the College of Science ceremony yesterday morning.  Some thoughts:

• Nobody quite understands how they come up with the list of names "graduates" published in the program.  If the student is actually there walking, I understand.  But the student that walked last semester, but didn't defend or file this semester?  Or the student who is a 5th year masters student whom nobody has seen in months?  I plan to walk next spring, but if I haven't actually defended by commencement, I won't walk unless I'm damn close to defending.
• Psychology is a recent addition to the College of Science.  I don't know what college they were under before (social sciences?), but they should be booted the hell out of CoS and back to wherever they came from.  This has nothing to do with whether or not I or anybody else thinks psych should be classified as science.  There are 23958203465 million psychology students, and their friends and family are FREAKING OBNOXIOUS at commencement.  For every other department there was polite to sometimes rowdy applause, a few yells maybe for students, but NOBODY wants to listen to prolonged screaming and yelling for all 23958203465 million psychology undergrads.
• Do not wear stripper heels to graduation.  Heels, if you can walk in them, sure.  Cute, colored, or even sparkly ones, sure.  But the stiletto heels with a 2" platform and 6" heel in bright red?  The point of getting a degree is so that you don't have to wear stripper heels.  I couldn't believe how many girls wore suuuper trashy shoes.

• At graduation here, each student's name and degree, along with a quote/message of their choosing is displayed on the screen as they cross the stage.  Most of these are some variation of thanking mom/dad/etc or a quote about education from some dead person.  One CS student proposed to his girlfriend!  There was a ton of cheering when people noticed it.  I was bummed the name reader didn't pause to get an answer!  I am generally opposed to public proposals, but that was pretty cute.

All ridiculousness aside - Congratulations, Grads!

Attention Getter

I made these cranberry-orange muffins for my committee meeting the other day.  It was a short meeting, but a fed and caffeinated committee is usually a happier committee.  After the meeting, my advisor took one with her, mentioning that she really loves cranberries.

Later that day I saw my advisor again at subgroup, and I swear she spent the first 15 minutes raving about some bakery on Broadway.  Seriously.  She went on, and on, and on about this thing they make and that thing they make, and they usually go this day because then they have these cinnamon rolls, and there's this giant case of little cookies, and a giant case of big cookies... It was a bit strange, but actually pretty funny to listen to The Queen go on like this.

Anyways, so the combination of comments made me think of this cranberry "pie" from the Pioneer Woman that I made last year, so I emailed her a link to the recipe.  Literally three (3!) minutes later I had a reply.  Seriously.  She doesn't reply that fast to emails about science or other lab stuff.  Heck, sometimes she doesn't ever reply.  Man.  Maybe I should send a recipe at the beginning of every email when I really need a reply?

6 months to go! (ish)

I had my six month meeting with my committee this morning.  I think it went well.  They all seemed on board with my plan - that the work I have left can be done in the next semester or so.  The only "concern" they had was whether my timeline factored in how long it takes The Queen to get around to reading things.  (As if she's actually going to read my dissertation... Ha!)

In my department, there is a TON of folklore surrounding the oral exam.  While everybody's oral is a little bit different, if you ask around at all, you can at least get a pretty good idea of the process and order of things.  However, there's essentially ZERO folklore regarding the 6 month meeting.  I was able to get some idea from Tiff and previous grad students, but still had to kind of sit there awkwardly til I had some direction.  While each professor cared more about one thing or another here's what was discussed:

• General overview of my research - My biochem committee members are actually fairly familiar with my research as I've heavily collaborated with them both.  One of my analytical committee members in particular is not terribly familiar with my research (and I suspect she also wants to see how competently you can briefly summarize your research).  So I talked briefly about the bigger picture and broader themes and goals of my dissertation research.
• Chapters - Generally what's in each of them and the major conclusions.
• What's left to do - This is a big one.  I think I've got my dissertation pretty well planned and outlined, but I know there will still be some surprises and gaps once I really get to writing.  One of my committee members really only cared about what work was left to do and was it do-able in the time frame I think.  In my case, I don't have many experiments left that I already know I have to do (although I do have a ton of data analysis left...), and I'm expecting some more experiments to pop up - I discover a hole in my story while writing, or that some spectrum I want to show has kinda crappy S/N etc.
• Publications - How many publications do you have?  How many are you first author on?  What's submitted/impreparation?  What else will or can be published?
• Timeline - When do you think you'll be done?  When do you plan to finish labwork?  When is your final seminar scheduled?  When do you plan to defend?  Do you need to file in time to have your degree posted by May 2012?
• What's next? - The dreaded question I very much hoped to avoid.  I was SO close to escaping without talking about it when one of my committee members asked.  This particular committee member happens to know about the cross-country-boyfriend situation, and I swear she asks ALL THE TIME what I'm doing after graduation, like to the point where it's weird.  But anyways.  I told them I needed a job.  You know, somebody to pay me.  At which point one of my committee members interjected, "Wait!  What is this? An unemployed mass spectrometrist?!  That's unheard of!"  Fortunately my advisor told her I hadn't really started looking, and the snarky committee member kept his mouth shut.  They let it drop and the meeting was over.

Woohoo!  They're gonna let me out!

Cafe Reviews for the Dissertation Writer, Volume 4

Earlier this week Tiff and I worked at Cartel Coffee Lab.  In short, it was terrible.  The only place I won't go back to work.

There were still a couple pros/neat aspects:

• They had a really neat/funky table arrangement.  Two tall, pretty big tables near each other, but rather than having separate seats for each table, the space in between was occupied by what looked like a lower table.  It was like two benches joined together for a shared seating space.  There were normal bar stool type seats on the outer sides of the tables.  I thought they were kinda cool.  They had normal tables/chairs and bar/bar stool seating if that's too weird for you.
• It's near home for Tiff
• Real dishes, by now you all know how I love real dishes.
• Free wifi (when you ask for the password when you buy something...)
• It wasn't crowded, so there was plenty of space to work and plenty of tables available, though when you see the con list you might understand why.

Cons:

• The drinks were totally overpriced.  The small drink, was VERY SMALL.
• My VERY small hot chocolate was barely lukewarm.
• The menu was VERY limited.
• There was essentially no food.  Certainly none worth eating.  All they had was a basket of bagels, presumably leftover from that morning.
• The cafe itself was cold.  I don't want to have to wear my coat all night just to not freeze!  Not to mention my wet rain jacket isn't going to do all that much to keep me warm.
• The background music was way too loud - definitely louder than at other cafes.
• It's also super annoying when the barista's loud and obnoxious friends decide to come visit her at work.
• And it's only open til 10!  Assuming I've been able to sleep more than a few hours/night for the past 2 weeks and aren't dozing off left and right, I probably hit a good, productive stride around 9, and you're going to kick me out at 10??

Sorry, Cartel.  I won't be back.

Cafe Reviews for the Dissertation Writer, Volume 3

Last week Tiff and I had our dissertation date at Epic Cafe, just around the corner from where I live.  Here's the breakdown, with perhaps more commentary than usual, because once again, I'm waiting on spectra to acquire:

Pros

• Free wifi - though should this really be on the "pro" list?  I mean, what cafe doesn't have free wifi?  I probably wouldn't bother working at any place that didn't.  I guess I'll keep putting it.  Just in case we ever work somewhere about which I have nothing else nice to say?
• Real dishes - this isn't just me being a green/hippie freak.  I genuinely prefer real dishes to disposable.
• Epic has lots of food, including meal-worthy food (sandwiches and pasta salads and soups and such), not just sweets/snacks.
• Walking distance of work and home - this is literally like a 2 minute walk from home.  It would be hard to be closer to home.
• Local business
• Non-distracting music
• Couches!
• Super foamy hot chocolate deliciousness
• They'll reheat your drink when it gets cool before you finish it. :)

Cons

• It was quiet when I got there, but became really loud.  Like REALLY loud.  Considerably louder than Starbucks.
• A lot of their sweets are vegan.  Baked goods are meant to have butter and eggs.  I'm sorry, but vegan baked goods taste like crap.
• The couches and tables not at compatible working height.  If I sat on my feet I was at an ok height to work at the table, but if I sat on my butt I was too low to comfortable work with my laptop on the table.
• A lot of the tables are VERY close together.  Seriously.  No more than a foot.  I had to turn sideways and slide between them. This can be quite awkward when the couple next to you is having a conversation not meant to be had in public, or when the crazy old man next to you notices that you're doing Science.  Which brings me to a story.

So the crazy old man sitting next to me at some point looks over and realizes that I'm doing Science (I was putting a zillion little colored dots on a spectrum to label the peaks.), and asked if I was doing psychology.  Not sure how you get psychology out of that, but then he starts rambling about a psychology degree that he finished in 2007 (coincidentally, the same year I graduated from college, and this guy had to be at least 70).  Then he starts talking about some college algebra class he took in 1964.  I'm mostly smiling and nodding, because what else do you do?  You can't ignore a man talking to you from the table 12 inches away.

Eventually he leaves, telling me and Tiff that it'll all be worth it.  We reply that we certainly hope so.  (Really, really, really hope so.  There are a lot of days when I'm not remotely convinced.)

At this point the girl sitting at the table on the other side of Tiff asks if we're grad students.  She's not phased when I say yes.  After all, if she's an undergrad at U of A there's no way she hasn't had graduate students instructing far more than just her lab courses.  Then she asks what we're studying.  Tiff tells her we're both working on our dissertations for a PhD in chemistry.  Her reaction, given with a look of pity and horror:

"Fuuuuuuuuuuck."

:)

Cafe Reviews for the Dissertation Writer, Volume 2

Last week Tiff and I met for another dissertation date, this time at the Starbucks right by campus on University (as opposed to the one on campus in the bookstore, or the one about half a mile southeast of campus...).  I got the scoop on how her 6 month meeting went and worked on some more figures for my own.  Here's the breakdown for this dissertation writing venue:

Pros:

• Fireplaces!  A fireplace automatically makes a place homier and cozier and means automatic points in my book.
• Walking distance of home and campus
• Peppermint hot chocolate - my seasonal holiday hot beverage of choice :)
• Free wifi
• Decent food/snacks available in quantity and quality (though pretty much all sweet and definitely all overpriced)

Cons:

• No surprise, but the Starbucks right be campus was swarming with undergrads, some of whom were absurdly loud and annoying
• There are very few tables big enough for more than one person to work.  We got lucky this time.
• Definitely not local business (I'm generally in favor of supporting local businesses.)

While the fireplaces are a huge plus in my book, this wasn't my favorite place to work.  Though I think there's a good possibility that it could be quite nice as soon as the undergrads clear out for Christmas break.  Finals start tomorrow, so not much longer. :)

We've got another dissertation date tonight, though venue has yet to be decided...