Since last week I have been juggling lab work and preparing for some presentations at scientific meetings.
On the one hand this is a bit frustrating because the lab work inevitably gets delayed and I would really like to have more data at this point (especially for the presentations), but on the other hand it is a nice change to spend more time organizing and polishing the work of the last few months in order to have a good presentation.
One advantage is that the academic meetings I will be presenting at can everything can be done in English, which means I can at least relax from trying to memorize the correct way to say things in Japanese and instead just present things in a flexible way.
The only disadvantage is that this is still a relatively new field for me, so I am much more prepared to answer questions related to the techniques and the molecular aspects of my work, but not so much about the intricacies related to the purpose of it (for example how it compares with other approaches used), so I also have to spend more time studying other people's presentations and trying to guess what kind of things would interest the audience enough to be included in the questions.
Well, I still have a few weeks, so I hope I can do well, and if not, there is always the next meeting.
I have been getting to know some new people from the lab lately, and this week we went out for dinner and a few drinks at a nearby restaurant, with the added bonus of being able to choose the location. One of the nice things about Tokyo is that you can find a lot of different cuisines, and I was able to try food from my birthplace without having to go too far.
I have never been very sociable, so it is quite difficult for me to meet people outside of my own lab or department, but after last year I made a firm promise to try to open up a little more and meet other people for fun.
So I have been accepting invitations and even making a few of my own, and thanks to that I have met a few other people, as I have mostly been invited to things related to my work, most of these new acquaintances are related to research work close to mine, but going out to eat and drink also means that the conversation can be completely unrelated to work, and about 30 to 40% of the time it ends up being about completely different things, which is a lot of fun.
This time it was mostly like that, and since we were all guys and our ages varied a lot, the conversation ended up being about a lot of different topics. The food was very nice and they also had a lot of drinks from my birthplace, so I took full advantage of the "all you can drink" option we were using.
One thing I was surprised to find out from the conversation was that one member of our group is married to someone who works close to one of my coworkers at my old job, and another member knew another member's wife from college.
It was fun to find out these coincidences, but it also made me think about how small Tokyo (or Japan) can be, so I should be careful how much I talk about old times or people from my past, I might get into trouble if it ends up there is some unexpected relationship with the people I talk to, so I should use names only when the story is positive and keep the bad talk only about anonymous people.
A short entry because I haven't written for a while and I don't want to lose the habit.
Later I will write more about the business trip, but for now I can say that it was a great success and a nice experience that I hope will help me a lot.
But because of it, a lot of work piled up during the week I was away, so I had to work twice as hard the last two weeks to finally get things in order.
Still, a lot of new things are coming up from now on, and I need to make sure I have time for everything, so I need to get some "result savings" so that I can stop doing my main research work while I devote some time and effort to the extra things that are coming up.
Also, (un?)fortunately, my last boss is still interested in publishing one of the things I did while in the lab, so I have to spend a lot of time writing just in case that can be done, even though it will be a short paper with shared authorship, but in my situation every little thing counts, so I will try to get it done...
All preparations completed
Lab work completed and at a point where I can stop for a while without affecting new results.
All paperwork done, so there are no surprises after coming back (very important at the end of the fiscal year)
A few extra preparations done so things will run smoothly even if a minor disaster happens.
All contact information at destination confirmed and two extra expenses arranged so I can guarantee to be in communication.
Now to enjoy and learn a lot and hopefully this can be another step to a nice position in the future!
Not really a lot, but things are going along, I still have to repeat a few things, but now I am confident I can do everything that I am supposed to do in the lab without problems, from running the machines to taking the minutes from the meetings (not a small feat for a foreigner since the whole thing is in Japanese). So even if I have to work extra to get better data I no longer get stuck asking around for help.
Then again, this week I have a few extra things to do because of my business trip, so I will have to push around my schedule to avoid getting behind on my work. I already have my visa and reservations, and the plan well studied, the experiments planned to be around the time I will be away, etc. Even the considerations about the end of the fiscal year have been considered.
And after coming back important changes in the lab, hopefully for the better. Thinking about it there is still a couple of things I should be asking around in the main office of the university about a new member of the lab, I worry paperwork may be going on too slowly and that can complicate things for the newbie.
Things are going relatively smoothly, but that means the work is getting more and more complicated and difficult, which is ok up to a point.
My current main project is getting good data, the mouse experiments went relatively well even if the results were not that interesting, now I have to repeat some things and include other variables, but at least it looks like a paper can be published from the results, depending on how the new experiments go it might even be a good paper.
Then I am planning a working trip to attend an interesting workshop, which means a lot of preparations (including preparing the visa application) that will eat up my time very quickly.
Then my side project suddenly got unstuck, so I have to make time for that as well, and a dead project from my old job suddenly got wings and now I have to consider it as well.
Then a new employee may join the lab and I will take care of the necessary things to make the process as easy as possible.
So far there hasn't been a big problem, so I can juggle everything, but if something big comes out, I'll have to drop something, so I have to be very careful because I don't have the luxury of just letting things go.
Then, as soon as I have some time, I have to finish my studies to become a better bioinformatician, see if I can take the national exam to get my medical license, and prepare for my permanent residency (maybe need the JLPT?).
Anything, as long as there are no sudden obstacles.
Today (Tuesday the 13th) is considered an unlucky day in the culture of my birth country, I usually don't pay too much attention to this kind of superstition, but last night I had a recurring nightmare (for the first time in many months), so I had a lousy sleep. Probably because of this, I have had a lot of small problems during the day, careless mistakes, having to repeat things, being in a bad mood, etc.
This may just be a "self-fulfilling prophecy" and the stress of the day is what made me have the nightmare, but it is quite inconvenient, especially since it comes right after a long weekend where work is piling up.
Anyway, as far as "bad luck" days go, this one is relatively mild, so I guess I should not complain, after all, there are many things that could go horribly wrong, but fortunately still go well. I just hope things get back to normal tomorrow.
Some minor hiccups, but the last month has been quite productive. It feels good to develop something almost from scratch in a relatively short amount of time.
Apart from 2 other projects that are stuck, my work last month focused on a research proposal of my own, using an in-house tool, I designed a research plan that was approved so I could get the resources to start it, prepared and ordered everything necessary (from reagents to plasmids and cells), then did some preliminary testing that confirmed the feasibility of the plan, solved a few unexpected problems, and then just tested everything I could think of in vitro until I got results solid enough to convince my P.I. that the idea had merit.
February will be even busier as I start my own animal experiments in mice (small scale at first), while writing two more papers (hopefully getting them out of the way), exploring a collaboration with another lab (which unfortunately is having some problems right now, so I don't know how well that will go), and also helping with a big in vivo work from another collaborator.
This is what I imagined my work would be when I started my Ph.D., and it has taken long years to get to this point, but I can proudly say that it came from my own efforts, so I am really happy about it.
Of course there are many sources of stress, but getting a good day's work can work wonders as an anti-stress measure, even if things don't go smoothly, having some progress does a lot of good for my mental health.
Working late (or early?) I have a chance to think about some things and since I have time right now I thought I should write about it so I won't forget it later, so here I am.
Going back two years, I had a terrible month around now, bad job prospects, terrible family matters, and the unexpected attempt by the toxic stalker to bring death, illness, and failure to me and those I care about.
It took me a long time to get through that, and it has taken a lot of sacrifice and hard work, some difficult decisions, and the loss of things that were a part of me that I held very dear. But with the support of people around me and a little bit of luck, I was able to get out.
Then last January was difficult again, but even after finding out that the toxic stalker was approaching me, I was in a much better place thanks to the previous year's sacrifices. I was able to save a couple of years of work that month and successfully deal with some serious issues, after which things improved rapidly and I was able to make important decisions that had a big impact on my life.
And so here I am this January, even though I had to come to the lab to work nights (after a long time of not having to do that), I am really happy because the research is interesting and productive, I am getting good results, and I have left behind a lot of negativity from last year.
Life is not perfect, but it is improving, and I have a much more solid standing now, I can be optimistic about the future and so can prepare extra resources to deal with emergencies. It may just be superstition, but I am glad that I focused only on improving my life instead of blaming other people, I can't shake the feeling that wishing bad things on others would have had a negative impact on my life.
Anyway, I feel happy in many ways and I hope this year will be a reflection of the good January I am having right now. I'm afraid to be so optimistic, but maybe all the hard work I've been doing has paid off.
2023 was a year of changes, of problems and crisis happening at frequent intervals but ended up in a positive note.
So even if I could not attend the "forget the old year" party my purpose for the 2024 is to leave behind all that toxic parts of the previous year and I am willing to work hard for that.
I know it may seem weird to say leaving things behind will take work to do but for me it has been quite difficult so manage that before so this time I will make sure to put out the necessary effort, I was lucky enough to dodge a couple of bullets, so now I can focus on a positive future and do my best to enjoy it.
Batteries fully charged, a thousand projects coming up, 2024 seems like a much better year than the previous ones. =)