TAing๐งโ๐ซ
Sunday, January 18
154.6 lbs (from 152.5 lbs on Oct 26) | ๐๐ป Done (7/6)
Yoga felt tougher๐ณ I love it, but I also feel I need more time to train for my upcoming half-marathon, and weekends are best for long runs. I already paid this monthโs membership, so after two more sessions I will pause and come back later. I took a nap (no idea why I was so tired), then went to the lab, tweaked the assay, and ran two conditions. I still could not pinpoint the issue I saw on Friday. The good news is I have a meeting on Tuesday with Bill and a DeGrado postdoc who can help with practical troubleshooting. We will see how it goes.
Monday, January 19
154.4 lbs (from 152.5 lbs on Oct 26) | ๐๐ป Done (1/6)
Today is a holiday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), so I woke up late but finished all my blog posts using the Pomodoro technique (I like it). I just played a 3-hour YouTube timer with 50 minutes of focus and 10 minutes of rest, repeated three times, and it worked for me. I hit the gym, came home, and spent the rest of the day preparing for three meetings tomorrow. I wrote a pre-meeting note for Bill and built slides for the postdoc and for one of my qualifying committee members. Hopefully it goes well.
Tuesday, January 20
155.8 lbs (from 152.5 lbs on Oct 26) | ๐๐ป Done (2/6)
Waking at 5:30 is not easy, but it has many benefits. The gym is comfortable, mornings feel longer, and I end up working with better focus without leaving later than usual. Today was packed. I met with Bill, then with a postdoc who agreed to be my new lab mentor, then in the afternoon met one of my qualifying exam committee members. I am grateful so many people are helping me, even though this is my own project and choice. One uncertain update: the professor I met today has a conflict on my QE date. She suggested either finding a replacement or asking the other three professors to reschedule. I am convinced this professor could be especially valuable for my project, so I will try to reschedule first. Fingers crossed!
Wednesday, January 21
155.2 lbs (from 152.5 lbs on Oct 26) | ๐๐ป Done (3/6)
After DeGrado group meeting, Bill ran a mini session on how to write papers, since many of us are drafting. I resonated with a lot of it, so I took a photo of the notes. โVery, very quickly make conceptual figuresโ stood out. I always tell myself to do this, then postpone it. These figures help both when explaining to others and when aligning my own direction, but making them all at once could feel overwhelming. I pushed experiments afterward. I am still struggling with the expression of one protein, but I left the lab on time, went for a run, and slept well.
Thursday, January 22
155.7 lbs (from 152.5 lbs on Oct 26) | ๐๐ป Done (4/6)
Protein expression failed again. This was my last test with the current glycerol stock, so I think it is simply not viable. A postdoc made this stock, and expression already failed once when we tried together. I also tried with another postdoc and it still failed. I gave it one more chance after confirming the construct sequence, but it seems like a time sink. In the same conditions, a different construct expresses very well, so the sequence may be poorly suited to this expression setup. I have another construct I ordered as a gene fragment before. It also struggled, but at least some protein came out, so I will switch back to that. Delays from unexpected places make me impatient, but I will try to stay steady! To save time I also started expressing other needed proteins in parallel. For the QE, I sent the rescheduling request, and professors are voting quickly. With luck we will have a new date by next week?
Friday, January 23
155.6 lbs (from 152.5 lbs on Oct 26) | ๐๐ป Done (5/6)
In the Reaction Mechanism class, I taught for about an hour today. I have explained problems and answered questions before, but actually teaching the class is not easy. Simple Korean phrases I rely on for stereochemistry (like โcoming outโ vs โgoing inโ) do not pop into my head in English on the spot. Lately I have been braver and go without a script. If I get stuck, I use body language or slow my delivery a lot, and keep it moving. I am making mistakes, but I am learning, and honestly, I enjoy it. When someone says my explanation helped, it feels great. Maybe it is both helping others and feeling useful myself. Either way, it is good. Workwise, I am planning to be in the lab all weekend. Not exciting, but I am managing fine.
Saturday, January 24
153.4 lbs (from 152.5 lbs on Oct 26) | ๐๐ป Done (6/6)
Workout, then a lot of time in the lab. This time, the experiments felt a bit more promising. I had lunch with a labmate who sits behind me. He is much younger, fresh from undergrad, but very enthusiastic and often in on weekends. His background in biochemistry helps me. The place he wanted to go was on break, so we tried House of Tadu Ethiopian Kitchen (1130 4th St, San Francisco, CA 94158). I think I had the lamb tibs plate. The injera was too sour and spongy for my taste, so I barely ate the extra carbs I ordered (2/5๐ค. From now I will rate a restaurant 1:๐จ 2: ๐ค 3: ๐ 4: ๐ 5: โญ๏ธ). Since we never talk about personal things in the lab, we used lunch to talk about how we got here and how life is going. It reminded me that you only get to know people if you make time outside work. Lately I feel too drained to do that. I cannot blame language anymore. Even in Korea I was not the type to be friends with everyone or constantly make plans. I have many things I want to pursue, and I value relationships where we support each otherโs paths. I need to think more about how to build and sustain that kind of connection.
