May 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st
4 lessons and 35 reviews
appeased the owl mostly
lectures x4
The Fifth Elephant
Prisoner of Azkaban
The past few days have been a roller coaster, mostly due to the fact that my first presentation was coming up in this weekās lab meeting and research hasnāt exactly been going well. However, turns out for the sake of not being eaten alive by other staff, it was actually advisable to show as little of my experiments as possible. This meant I had to completely rework my presentation starting after class the day before I had to present it, all while doing another experiment likely needed for the presentation that didnāt have one of the numerous problems my other gels have had (that one also had a problem, but a new problem, my ladder fell right out of the well lol). Presentation went pretty well actually, survived all the questions, and donāt have to do this again for a bit. This is mostly thanks to my mentor of course. People praised me for the presentation being clear and simple. Like yes it is but thatās because I am not great at understanding this stuff so I have to write it in the most clear way possible or else it makes no sense to me. This ends up benefiting those around me, even though it is totally not on purpose hahaha.
Speaking of my research presentation, the research plan my professor gave me turns out to have been at least partially if not mostly written by AI. While I am starting to appreciate AI in the scientific space, this seems like a kind of inappropriate use of AI. Like is someoneās life for the next 2 years really not worth spending your time on? Additionally, the reason I found this out is my mentor looked at my presentation and pointed out missing information as well as the proposed research plan using cells that DO NOT EXIST. That ending up in the presentation because I donāt know any better would be a problem. The professor would probably call me out on it, just like my mentor did, but not sure how to tell him that is in fact what his research plan for me says. If you are going to use AI, at least proofread CAREFULLY to make sure you arenāt sending people on a wild goose chase to do research with made up cell lines. I essentially had to rework my presentation to make sure all parts mentioned actually exist and are accurate, scary stuff.
What also bothered me a bit is I had to be somewhat dishonest about my research here so far. Like everyone I talk to seems to be very open about the fact that a lot of experiments fail and that itās normal, and yet I had to hide that fact in my presentation. Only two pictures from my experiments were used, one from April 20th and another from May 20th. Iāve done at least one experiment a day in that timeframe. I also had to make it look like I have only made it through the entire experiment sequence once, when in fact I have made it all the way through twice. This does make me look better obviously, but itās sad to me that I canāt be honest about all the problems Iām having and ask for help.
As a result of all this presentation preparation and finishing Aprilās reports late, Iāve only done one of my May homework assignments so far. Pray for me guys
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Interestingly, one of the professors this week walked in and saw the handful of foreigners in our small class and asked if we would be okay with Japanese. I told her we would try our best, and this lady starts speaking Chinese to my friend then GIVES THE ENTIRE LECTURE IN ENGLISH. Her slides were all in Japanese, so I kind of get the impression she didnāt intend to teach in English that day, but I guess she had a āwell, the foreign students are struggling every day letās make the domestic students ganbare for 90 minutes.ā She works in a rather international field (influenza outbreaks) and talked about working and collaborating abroad. Truly a cool lady. Despite the general lack of English ability even among English teachers and the general disdain for the gaikoku among Japanese people, many researchers are truly open minded and wonderful. Research can be weirdly aggressive environment but among that there are a lot of people out there who just want to spread the word of research and collaborate around the world to find the answers to lifeās questions.
Speaking of weirdly aggressive, some of the other new students are getting scolded quite a bit these days. It once again makes me question why the system of mostly teaching yourself is still the dominant one. My previous research was through school programs matching students with labs to get students into labs earlier. This is so current researchers can spread the love of research as well as train and inspire the next generation. It does slow down the research a bit of course, but those programs have been hugely helpful in my future. The lab I am currently in took a keen interest in me because I already have research publications from those programs and not needing much training here has allowed me to hit the ground running and make fast progress. The time my previous mentors took to train me one on one for many hours means I now get good results with fewer attempts no matter what I do, itās just overall the way to go I think.
Recently I received an email asking for testimonials and survey information because one of those research programs I talked about just lost their funding. They need to look for new funding and having data about how their program has truly made a difference in peopleās futures will help them prove that. It definitely helped me, both in lab skills/theory but also by giving me the opportunity to do enough research to get published before graduate school. These results are less a testimonial to how good of a researcher I am but to how important these teaching programs are. It takes investment up front but the investment in funding these lecture series, summer internship programs, and the lab staff willing to train confused students pays off for the rest of those studentsā careers. Itās not something the labs get any sort of direct monetary or research benefit from, in fact it is often the opposite, but itās researchers who believe a core part of research is paying it forward to training the next generation of researchers. I hope someday I can pay it forward too and have my own little shadow for a summer to teach stuff.
I canāt believe Iām saying this but I have an update on the insurance situation. I got a book of payment slips from å½ę°å¹“éäæéŗ and considering it was quite easy to apply for the pension (幓é) exemption and the insurance (äæéŗ) was giving me endless problems and the two offices are the same window in city hall, I assumed that the city hall had forgotten to register my student payment recalculation paperwork and these were my insurance bills. I took the bills to the fees department and the guy looked at me like I was crazy and eventually told me that one, the payment slips are in fact not for insurance but for pension (which again, I already submitted the paperwork for an exemption) and two I was not enrolled in national insurance. Like sir what do you mean I came here 4 times with all my paperwork 7 weeks ago, how can I not be registered?!? Went back to the registration window and told them the day I applied (April 2nd) and when they looked at my paperwork, turns out they had it all but forgot to submit it. Anyway they got me a temporary insurance card within 15 minutes but I will have to come back again to renegotiate payments. Very frustrating but at least I finally have an insurance card.
In talking to all these city hall people I realized that my Japanese is starting to suffer. The primary language of my lab is English so Iām not really speaking Japanese these days outside of greetings. Need to figure out what to do about that.
Obligatory Obaachan (and bread) pics. Itās getting warmer so sheās sprawling more than making herself bagel/shrimp shaped. In her previous life she used to love sprawling upside down on the roof of my neighborās car port. Recently she likes to meow right next to my head at 1am. Like girl I get you want me to clean your litter box, but Iām not doing that in the middle of the night lol



Despite the 180 person waiting list, the library has something like 63 copies so it wasnāt as long of a wait as I thought. Still waiting for my turn with the libraryās copy of Night Watch (next Terry Pratchett book in the series, will finish this series pretty soon) and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (I start cell experiments soon so I want to understand the mother of all cell lines in the world). Also really feeling like listening to Un Lun Dun again. That book is so whimsical and fun. Barely read any books so far this year but getting really into the wonderful world of books again.