getting caught up
Three new posts in a new, that's a record for me. But seeing that it's been almost two months since my last posting binge....
Things are going well here, I'm just staying very busy with work. And I've also been doing some traveling. I made a great weekend trip to Nashville to visit with one of my dearest friends. We had a great time together, hanging out, catching up and eating. It was funny to read our old yearbook entries - 15 years later and we are still talking about the same stuff! I also visited with family and friends at Mammoth Cave -there's a post about that below this one. And I have two more trips coming up. Next weekend I'm leaving for the "Society for Industrial Microbiology" conference in Toronto. The conference lasts Sunday - Friday and then a grad school friend and I are going to tour the city for the weekend. Then in mid-August my parents and I will be making a road trip through South Dakota. My dad is doing a great job planning that trip.
Otherwise I'm mainly busy with work. A major part of my research involves "CBiRC", the Center for Biorenewable Chemicals. It's funded by the National Science Foundation and they came out for a visit in early May to make sure we were using their money properly. It went pretty well, all things considered. A collaborator and I submitted a proposal to the National Institute of Health in mid-June. We won't hear a response until early next year, but it was helpful just to get our thoughts written down. And now I'm trying to finish up my "CAREER" proposal for NSF. NSF has a great program for young faculty where you can write a proposal for a 5-year project. You have three chances to submit, and I'm going to try this year. I'm not very hopeful of getting it, but at least I'll get some feedback for my next attempt. That's due on Wednesday and I have a ton of stuff left to do - which is why I've spent all of today doing housework and blogging. Makes sense, no? I also learned a very important lesson with the CAREER proposal preparation. I had this great project all written up, had found the references, made the figures and THEN did my budget. And found that I was 30% over the maximum allowed budget. So then I had to go through a cut a lot of stuff and I was really mad about having to cut things that took a while to formulate/write. So now I've learned that I need to start thinking about the budget BEFORE I write the whole darn thing. And that's the important thing, right? That it was a learning experience?
I do have one small project that's been awarded funding. It's a collaboration with an Ames-based nutraceutical company. They've been great to work with so far, now I just need to hire a postdoc to work on the project! I interview a great candidate, but they ended up taking another job. So now I'm looking for more applicants....
Who's seen the newest Harry Potter movie? I caught on showing on Thursday. It was good, but just couldn't hold my attention. And I missed the fun of standing in line in Hollywood and the campy atmosphere. Tonight I'll be catching a showing of "Angels and Demons" at the local second-run theatre. Has anyone else seen it? Enjoyed it or no?
Things are going well here, I'm just staying very busy with work. And I've also been doing some traveling. I made a great weekend trip to Nashville to visit with one of my dearest friends. We had a great time together, hanging out, catching up and eating. It was funny to read our old yearbook entries - 15 years later and we are still talking about the same stuff! I also visited with family and friends at Mammoth Cave -there's a post about that below this one. And I have two more trips coming up. Next weekend I'm leaving for the "Society for Industrial Microbiology" conference in Toronto. The conference lasts Sunday - Friday and then a grad school friend and I are going to tour the city for the weekend. Then in mid-August my parents and I will be making a road trip through South Dakota. My dad is doing a great job planning that trip.
Otherwise I'm mainly busy with work. A major part of my research involves "CBiRC", the Center for Biorenewable Chemicals. It's funded by the National Science Foundation and they came out for a visit in early May to make sure we were using their money properly. It went pretty well, all things considered. A collaborator and I submitted a proposal to the National Institute of Health in mid-June. We won't hear a response until early next year, but it was helpful just to get our thoughts written down. And now I'm trying to finish up my "CAREER" proposal for NSF. NSF has a great program for young faculty where you can write a proposal for a 5-year project. You have three chances to submit, and I'm going to try this year. I'm not very hopeful of getting it, but at least I'll get some feedback for my next attempt. That's due on Wednesday and I have a ton of stuff left to do - which is why I've spent all of today doing housework and blogging. Makes sense, no? I also learned a very important lesson with the CAREER proposal preparation. I had this great project all written up, had found the references, made the figures and THEN did my budget. And found that I was 30% over the maximum allowed budget. So then I had to go through a cut a lot of stuff and I was really mad about having to cut things that took a while to formulate/write. So now I've learned that I need to start thinking about the budget BEFORE I write the whole darn thing. And that's the important thing, right? That it was a learning experience?
I do have one small project that's been awarded funding. It's a collaboration with an Ames-based nutraceutical company. They've been great to work with so far, now I just need to hire a postdoc to work on the project! I interview a great candidate, but they ended up taking another job. So now I'm looking for more applicants....
Who's seen the newest Harry Potter movie? I caught on showing on Thursday. It was good, but just couldn't hold my attention. And I missed the fun of standing in line in Hollywood and the campy atmosphere. Tonight I'll be catching a showing of "Angels and Demons" at the local second-run theatre. Has anyone else seen it? Enjoyed it or no?
posted by Laura at 3:47 PM
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