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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Thu, Oct 21, 2010, 4:47 am CDT

This one will be Nov. 7

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Posted by: Dr. O
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 10:34 pm CDT

What day is this one on? I might go ahead and get it ready, just in case...

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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 6:58 pm CDT

I was thinking something similar. Phil Clifford and Joan Lakoski just published part two of their "ten ways to be a good mentor/be a good mentee" (ScienceCareers), so I was thinking about my version of that/how it's worked for me.

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Posted by: genegeek
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 5:38 pm CDT

I'll probably do something on the difference between being a boss and a mentor - is it one or the other?

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Posted by: Dr. O
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 3:59 pm CDT

I think author's choice is a good way to go - a fairly varied set of posts should be a good thing. We can just keep the overall topic broad, as "mentoring styles".

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Posted by: Genomic Repairman
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 12:57 pm CDT

I have a how to and a how to not based upon labs that I bounced around.

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Posted by: Dr Becca, Ph.D.
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 12:53 pm CDT

I'd imagine that for those of you who are "out," a How Not to Mentor post wouldn't really be in your best interests...

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Posted by: David Manly
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 12:46 pm CDT

I'm comfortable with either.

 

The "How I've been mentored" will be an interesting story about how I almost got out of science and how I was brought back. I'll probably do that (if we're leaving it up to the author's)

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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 12:05 pm CDT

Yeah...I'm not comfortable writing a bitchfest post about bad mentoring I've experienced. I think I'll do a what I've learned/how to

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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 11:58 am CDT

Mine would be the latter, "How not to mentor."

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Posted by: Dr Becca, Ph.D.
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 11:54 am CDT

My choice would be to go with how we were mentored--the other way around might come off as a little didactic, don't you think? But stories of great mentors can be, you know, heartwarming and inspirational. They could also be stories of bad mentors, sort of a "how not to mentor," perhaps.

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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 11:50 am CDT

I guess author's choice?

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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 9:34 am CDT

Both are good.  FOr mentoring styles, should we talk about how we mentor students or how our mentors mentored us?

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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 9:10 am CDT

Unless we want to go back and do "a day in the life"--which was tied for 2nd but on the last round, we felt like that had been pretty well covered--then the next in line is a tie for 3rd between mentoring styles and the strangest thing you've seen in the lab.

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Posted by: Genomic Repairman
Posted on: Wed, Oct 20, 2010, 9:08 am CDT

What's our theme topic for November.  I'm trying to get ahead on my posts because I'm going to be out for my wedding soon.

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Posted by: Psycasm
Posted on: Tue, Sep 28, 2010, 6:28 pm CDT

cheers.
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Tue, Sep 28, 2010, 5:51 pm CDT

You can switch the order that the posts are displayed in "Account settings"

You can find the next blog theme here: http://www.labspaces.net/view_thread.php?parentID=1000&subcatID=19&catID=4&groupID=0
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Posted by: Psycasm
Posted on: Tue, Sep 28, 2010, 5:14 pm CDT

Woah, I only just realized that this forum goes backwards... the bigger numberes = more recent. What's next week theme, and what do we do? Just answer the question in whatever way we see fit?

Cheers
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Posted by: Odyssey
Posted on: Tue, Sep 28, 2010, 10:36 am CDT

I call "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"!

And as far as next week's theme is concerned, doesn't it require knowing what it is you're currently doing? If so, I'm screwed...
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Posted by: David Manly
Posted on: Tue, Sep 28, 2010, 10:31 am CDT

I like the children's book idea. But there are soo many to choose from!
Now I need to start thinking what I would be doing if I wasn't doing what I'm currently doing ...
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Tue, Sep 28, 2010, 9:43 am CDT

Can you image Doc Becca writing reviews for Hotels.com or Trip Advisor? I bet she'd bring a ruler with to measure the height of the dust covers
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Posted by: Dr Becca, Ph.D.
Posted on: Tue, Sep 28, 2010, 9:40 am CDT

The next theme is about how if I weren't a scientist, I'd be a Caribbean resort-tester, right?
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Tue, Sep 28, 2010, 9:03 am CDT

Nope, next week's theme is set, this was just another suggestion to add to the "potentials" list :)
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Tue, Sep 28, 2010, 8:59 am CDT

So it this childrens' book thing instead of or as well as the Day in the Life or WTFE it was going to be?

What about childless misanthropes like me who didn't read childrens' books?
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Mon, Sep 27, 2010, 8:55 pm CDT

?? The first post time in the thread is a bit wonky. All the other ones after that are good ;) I need to fix that...
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Posted by: Namnezia
Posted on: Mon, Sep 27, 2010, 8:05 pm CDT

Why are the thread posts in a non chronological order?
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Posted by: Namnezia
Posted on: Mon, Sep 27, 2010, 8:05 pm CDT

Along the children's story theme - what about something along the lines of "what is your favorite children's book"? People are always curious about what children's books scientists read to their kids, or what books motivated them as kids. Maybe a bit corny, but a thought...
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Posted by: Dr. O
Posted on: Mon, Sep 27, 2010, 6:32 pm CDT

You're getting so many more blogging underlings to keep up with, Brian, you might have to resort to name tags.

And Gerty is my hero - I want to be an awesome blogging junior prof just like her some day. :) I should really get back to work if I want that to happen though...these friggin' research statements aren't going to write themselves. Right after I finish my latest post...
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Mon, Sep 27, 2010, 6:00 pm CDT

I have this terrible problem of thinking of one of your names and the putting in another. Apologies!
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Posted by: Gerty-Z
Posted on: Mon, Sep 27, 2010, 5:50 pm CDT

It's true, I had nothing to do with the little lab bench that could. Dr. O is WAY more creative than I, and you better damn well appreciate it. that is all.
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Posted by: Dr. O
Posted on: Mon, Sep 27, 2010, 5:26 pm CDT

Wait just a sec, Overlord, that was little ol' me that did the little lab bench that could... ;-)
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Posted by: Evie
Posted on: Mon, Sep 27, 2010, 4:40 pm CDT

I call Harold and the purple crayon!! It's my fav :)
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Mon, Sep 27, 2010, 3:37 pm CDT

How about a theme day where we take our favorite children's story and give it a science spin. Kind of like what Gerty did with "The little engine that could" and now Namnezia has a post up on his WP blog about "Jack and the bean Stalk." Just and idea :)
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Sat, Sep 18, 2010, 5:32 pm CDT

I can always be the default if no one else wants to volunteer. I tweet them all out anyway!
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Sat, Sep 18, 2010, 5:23 pm CDT

I second your self-nomination.

LabSpaces thanks you for your dedication >:)
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Sat, Sep 18, 2010, 10:55 am CDT

So do we have a volunteer to keep a running tally of posts for the Oct. 5 carny, like I did for the last theme?
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Posted by: David Manly
Posted on: Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 10:25 pm CDT

I agree with Tiddles, Dr. Becca and Biochem Belle on the topic of "What I'd be doing if ..." as I am currently doing so many things, it would be nice if I could only do just one!
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 8:53 pm CDT

Stop putting in fake tags and it won't eat your posts. :P I'll try to fix that sometime soon. Sorry Tiddles.
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 8:03 pm CDT

LMFAO, I did another one of those "less than signs" after that bracket in my last comment, trying to point something out. It ate the rest of the comment.

Anyway, humor fail again Dr. T, not sure why I bother, but...faint heart ne'er won fair maid, as the bard might have said, I was actually going to argue that "day in the life of" might be more appropriate give the remit of the site. But then, who knows?

what, more beer? OK then...
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 7:41 pm CDT

I'm with Tiddles and Dr. Becca.
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Posted by: Dr Becca, Ph.D.
Posted on: Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 7:35 pm CDT

Second "what I'd be doing if not..." Better stories, and we'd get to know the non-sciency sides of each other.
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 6:09 pm CDT

So Which Topic?

I vote for "what I'd be doing if I wasn't doing this." Right now I'm grant writing and I just did a post on grant writing. Conversely (
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 3:58 pm CDT

a preggo streaking during a cage fight

Dr. O You have officially won today's internet and one coffee->nose->keyboard clean-up bill
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Posted by: David Manly
Posted on: Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 3:54 pm CDT

Count me out ... no way I'm volunteering for that. Unless it's a paid gig, then I'd have to reconsider ;)

Dr. O - Ohhhh yeah, this was a forum about theme's, wasn't it?
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Posted by: Dr. O
Posted on: Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:09 pm CDT

I've also got my money on Tiddles...if you don't both end up blasted before the fight starts. And I'm sure NObody wants a preggo streaking during a cage fight - just wrong on so many levels.

BTW, have we decided what the theme is going to be yet? I've gotten seriously distracted by all the cage-fighting talk. ;)
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Posted by: Gerty-Z
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 10:03 pm CDT

I don't know about good v. evil, but crazy whips strong every day of the week. My money is on tiddles!
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 9:43 pm CDT

I assume you're not volunteering?

I guess either David, Thomas or our Overlord...anyone up for it lads? Give us all a giggle?
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Posted by: Dr. O
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 7:09 pm CDT

@Tideliar - who's the streaker gonna be?
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 11:35 am CDT

I don't care who claims the title, I just wanna see the cage fight!! Fight!! Fight!! Fight!!!

Could be fun! He's probably got 20lbs on me plus used to play Football. I've been fighting a lot longer though and train in a MA. And everyone know you bet on the wiley old dude. WE know more dirty tricks.

Plus, we'd both be drunk by the time the bell went and probably just end up getting the giggles and falling over TBH...

Or this...
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Posted by: David Manly
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 11:26 am CDT

All bow to GeekMommyProf!
After all, as a great evil man once said, "Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb."
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Posted by: David Manly
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 11:24 am CDT

I meant "good," not god. Jeeez people :P
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 11:22 am CDT

Speaking of the devil... GeekMommyProf's (GMP) userID on this site is 666. So maybe she gets to be LabSpaces' satan.
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Posted by: Odyssey
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 11:20 am CDT

We should have a TL vs. GR cage match anyway. It'd go viral on Youtube...
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Posted by: Evie
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 11:19 am CDT

I don't care who claims the title, I just wanna see the cage fight!! Fight!! Fight!! Fight!!!
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Posted by: Genomic Repairman
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 10:54 am CDT

Dude you gotta give the devil his due, its TL all the way. I'm just the resident drunkard.
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 10:51 am CDT

I think you and GR will have to battle it out for that title, Tiddles. LabSpaces cage match anyone?
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 10:45 am CDT

If you're gonna be god, does that mean I can be the LabSpaces Satan?
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Posted by: David Manly
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 9:49 am CDT

I am god with whatever the Hive decides ... wait, I mean group :P
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Posted by: Dr Becca, Ph.D.
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 9:19 am CDT

I will disagree. Regardless.
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 7:17 am CDT

Just pick one BB, I don't think any of us will disagree :) They're both good topics
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 5:22 am CDT

That works for me. There's actually a tie for second between "a day in the life" and what you'd be doing if you weren't doing this.
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Wed, Sep 15, 2010, 7:52 pm CDT

I like the idea of just working through the list for the next 3 and then revoting.
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Wed, Sep 15, 2010, 6:30 pm CDT

Why not pick the next in the list? We can always work the top three then re-poll every quarter.
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Wed, Sep 15, 2010, 6:05 pm CDT

Do we want to go through the voting scheme again for the next theme day, which on the current schedule would fall on Tues., Oct. 5? If so, I'll reset the poll so voting can start fresh.

If no voting, how are we deciding?
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Posted by: David Manly
Posted on: Sat, Sep 11, 2010, 11:00 am CDT

Sorry I've been away and missed everything!
But, getting back from vacation and starting a new job has eaten up a lot of time. But, I'm BACK now!
Quick - what have I missed?
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Sun, Sep 05, 2010, 7:16 pm CDT

Busted!
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Posted by: Thomas Joseph
Posted on: Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 7:22 pm CDT

No probs though, I have a blog post ready to write on this topic anyway...

Translation: I'll pull something from my old blogs archives. ;)
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 12:26 pm CDT

So I got 4 days to come up with 1500 words on "What I wish I knew before.... I knew what I know now"?

I thought we weren't doing this one because of the overlap with the grad school carnival?

No probs though, I have a blog post ready to write on this topic anyway...
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Posted by: Lab Mom
Posted on: Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 3:20 pm CDT

At least none of you got invited to any conferences in people's pants. Blog about breastfeeding JUST ONE TIME and you will get some lovely spam! VOMIT!

Anyhoo.. Okay so the theme of the month is: "What I wish I knew before.... I knew what I know now" By Sept. 7. GOT IT!
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Posted by: Thomas Joseph
Posted on: Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 11:54 am CDT

TJ - I got invited to speak at a fake conference in Singapore!!

Oh, nice! Singapore would be cool. Not too thrilled with my scam-vite to Dalian, China. They just had a huge oil spill there ... not sure the tourism-draw will be as strong for me now.
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Posted by: Dr Becca, Ph.D.
Posted on: Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 11:35 am CDT

TJ - I got invited to speak at a fake conference in Singapore!!
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Posted by: Thomas Joseph
Posted on: Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 10:39 am CDT

Here's a theme for you:

Most interesting bit of scientific spam/scam you've been emailed.

I think I just got ping'd with one myself. Invited over to China to give a talk! Beat that!
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 7:56 am CDT

I think we can make the chosen theme suitably broad. A few ideas have been thrown out in the thread about the Sept. 7 blog theme.
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Posted by: Damn Good Technician
Posted on: Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 7:10 am CDT

Yeah, Brian's right - if we had a poll, and folks asked to hear about "what I wish I knew...", then we're a little obligated to write about it or else run the risk of looking like a bunch of dicks.
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 7:03 am CDT

I like the idea of the interviews, but it seems like a lot to put up at once. It seems it may be better suited for a round robin sort of thing, where we could have a post each week until we get through everyone.
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Thu, Sep 02, 2010, 5:51 am CDT

I thought the whole point of having a poll was to write on something the readers would like to read about... the interview idea is interesting but we can't hold polls and then say, "oh, just kidding, you voted wrong."
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Posted by: Lab Mom
Posted on: Wed, Sep 01, 2010, 8:54 pm CDT

I like the interview idea too. I am in the middle of closing on a new house and moving, so I have been absent, but I definitely want to jump onto any theme/carnival thing everyone is doing.
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Posted by: Damn Good Technician
Posted on: Wed, Sep 01, 2010, 7:31 pm CDT

What are these famous interview questions people are talking about? Or are we just going to pick a generic set of 10 questions. (Let me say, I am entirely on board with the interview idea. A meme of this went around the sciblogosphere a few years ago and was pretty cool.)
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Posted by: Genomic Repairman
Posted on: Wed, Sep 01, 2010, 2:46 pm CDT

You mean like we each answer the same 10 questions and post our responses. That would be cool. I agree that it feels like showing up to a party at 3am right after it peaked if we did the "I wish I knew thing" right after that whole carnival stuff.
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Posted by: Dr Becca, Ph.D.
Posted on: Wed, Sep 01, 2010, 2:37 pm CDT

It looks like "what I wish I knew before..." is the winner by a hair. Not to be the problem child or anything, but it seems a little redundant seeing as how the grad school advice carnival was just a couple of weeks ago, and there's also been a bunch of "new faculty" advice going around lately as well. I don't see a ton of genuinely new content coming out of something like this one if the "..." is meant to be some variation of "I became a scientist."

I like the interviewing-each-other idea, especially TL's idea of using famous interview questions (I think this is what you mean, right?). It's interesting to see how different people answer the same questions.
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Posted by: Genomic Repairman
Posted on: Wed, Sep 01, 2010, 8:22 am CDT

So what's our next topic?
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Posted by: Evie
Posted on: Sat, Aug 21, 2010, 10:54 am CDT

I'm w @Belle, one a week or something would be good, and round robin fashion sounds great.
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Sat, Aug 21, 2010, 8:58 am CDT

I like the interview idea. It'd be a great way to get to know each other better and for our readers to learn more about us. There are some great ideas about how to do it. I wonder if it might be better to do this sort of thing in a round robin fashion, where there's maybe a post a week, instead of posting all within 24 hours. Perhaps someone (Geeka? Evie? Tiddles?) might like to take the reins on this one and set up a new thread.
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Posted by: Evie
Posted on: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 7:46 pm CDT

That sounds cool, I was thinking we could like skype interviews, so audio, possibly video as well for interview type stuff. I'm actually gonna try to do that down the road, my friend is one of the judges at a green bettery competition in oct, thought it'd be cool to talk to her about what new designs are around.
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 7:31 pm CDT

Like it!!

How about even finding a famous interview, I dunno, somewhere in Time magazine or something, and we take turns interviewing one another. The interviewer gets to write it up.

OK, I know that sounds a bit kind of campy and self-indulgent, but bear with me...

Firstly, each of us has a style so we get to read an interview written up in that style. I would enjoy that and I could learn a lot by seeing how other people handle situations differently to me. Also, I would be pissed if someone interviewed someone and it was too frivolous or somesuch, and I missed out on my chance to find something out about the pseud behind/ahead of the blogger :)

Oh oh oh!!! Wait, wait wait!!

You could choose to interview the Avatar (Tideliar) or the RL person writing as Tideliar...unless I'm the only that projects through my avatar...or do I. AAARGH CIRCULAR REASONING!!!
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Posted by: Geeka
Posted on: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 6:20 pm CDT

What about a question from one of the bloggers to another blogger? Sort of like a round robin interview. We could pull names out of a virtual hat?

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Posted by: Odyssey
Posted on: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:52 pm CDT

I also prefer once a month.
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Posted by: Tideliar
Posted on: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:15 pm CDT

Why am I always late to everything!?!?!?

i got dumped once because I was (am) so consistently NOT on time for shit. She left me a note...

Anyway, I'm in. I voted on the poll, but I'm the "Other" I love and have something to say on all those topics. :)

Oh yeah, and once a month is my preferred rate for something like this.
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 12:47 pm CDT

Ok. I say that since the third Tuesday is just around the corner, we hold off until the first Tues. of Sept. (which is Sept. 7). If we want to go twice a month, we can start in Sept.

Now go vote for topics! I'll put a blog post this afternoon to solicit reader participation too :)
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Posted by: Genomic Repairman
Posted on: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 12:17 pm CDT

I think we could manage two theme posts a month. And Tuesdays are good days for me to post.
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 12:14 pm CDT

Poll sounds good to me. I could write a polling program, but if you'd rather use poll-daddy then that saves me some effort :)

If once a month I say it should be the first Tuesday.

If Twice, the first and third Tuesday.
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 12:10 pm CDT

I have questions... questions that need answering! :P

Our last theme day went up the first Tuesday in Aug. There was some mention of third Tues. So final call: once a month or twice a month? And if once a month, first or third week? Keep Tuesday as post day? (I lean towards once a month, first week, day doesn't really matter to me.)

Re: post topics, would there be any objection if I set up a standalone poll (a la polldaddy with which I have an account)? Seems like that might be the easiest way to tally votes. Plus we could link it on one of the blogs so that readers might be a little more involved.
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Tue, Aug 17, 2010, 9:09 am CDT

Are we going to do another one of these next week? If so, let's pick a topic so I can get an early start on procrastinating!
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Posted by: Dr Becca, Ph.D.
Posted on: Tue, Aug 17, 2010, 9:05 am CDT

The only issue I have with "a day in the life" is that it means public acknowledgement of how much time I actually spend cruising the internets!! :)
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Posted by: Odyssey
Posted on: Tue, Aug 17, 2010, 8:54 am CDT

I'm with Kelly - we should try to make a decision soon so everyone can start thinking about what they want to write. My preference would be for "what i wish i knew before starting..." "A day in the life of..." would be my second choice. Perhaps we can decide the next three or four themes so we don't have to thrash this out every month.

And are we aiming for the the second Tuesday of the month? If so, that would be September 14.
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Posted by: Kelly Oakes
Posted on: Tue, Aug 17, 2010, 8:14 am CDT

this seems to have slipped down the forum so i thought i would bump it back up again!

my vote would go to something like "a day in the life" or "what i wish i knew before starting..." (the latter may be more relevant given the time of year?) because i know i could write something about that. a lot of people seem to like the idea of "choosing a mentor" though so maybe that should be next? either way i think we should come a decision soon...
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Posted by: Damn Good Technician
Posted on: Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 3:09 pm CDT

All I meant was that the things a tech looks for when deciding to join a lab is probably a bit different than what a grad student/postdoc looks for. Oh, and don't worry that I'm somehow reticent to voice my opinion - that has never been my problem. :)
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 1:07 pm CDT

DGT, if we didn't want your perspective, I wouldn't have asked you to join the fam. Don't be a wall flower! Everyone can dance :)
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 12:17 pm CDT

DGT, one of the great things about this group is the wide range of experiences, and I think people would definitely be interested in hearing your perspective.
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Posted by: Damn Good Technician
Posted on: Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 11:36 am CDT

Picking a mentor is a great topic. I wonder if people would be interested in hearing about picking a mentor-slash-boss from a technician's point of view? I mean, I've only picked two, but the process is obviously different than picking a grad lab, for example. LabMom, would you be interested in chiming in on this topic?
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Posted by: Lady Scientist
Posted on: Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 11:08 am CDT

Well, a way to get around the anonymity thing would be to summarize the first paper that was influential to your science. Was it a cool paper from C/N/S? Or something from a more field specific journal? I mean, we all know that (for instance) Biochem Belle works in biochemistry, so if she summarized a biochemistry paper it wouldn't give her away (I don't mean to pick on BBelle, you were just the first person who came to mind). :)

All that being said, for our first topic, I like the idea of picking a mentor. I just had to go through this and I think it'd be helpful for a start of the school year type thing.
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 9:18 am CDT

It's up to you guys, I'm just putting ideas out there.
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Posted by: genegeek
Posted on: Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 8:52 am CDT

Brian, that's a great idea. You will force me to go back to my past...
I'm torn on the anonymity thing - I've had trouble with a stalker in the past so I don't really want to have 'Catherine Anderson's blog' but then again, my name is so common. I think I'll stick with the name of DNA for the blog but will make my name accessible. Does that work?

Do you want to do something light for this upcoming session and then do the first first author post?
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 8:42 am CDT

I think a cool topic, at least for those of us who aren't anonymous, would be to summarize your first, first author paper, and talk about how those results stand today.
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Posted by: Damn Good Technician
Posted on: Fri, Aug 06, 2010, 9:24 pm CDT

Hey wow, I'm late to this discussion. I do like the themed topics - I'm voting for once a month, or maybe every other month. The "things that pissed me off about TV/movie science" topic sounds awesome, but it seems a bit more like an anecdote than a whole blog post (maybe I'm wrong)? I also friggin' love scifi tv & movies (and videogames!) and could totally talk about that forever.
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Fri, Aug 06, 2010, 1:57 pm CDT

@Belle, HAHA, David Manly actually writes a blog for some other comic/scifi site! You should ask him about it sometime. I can't remember the name of the place though. It's like nerd troopers or something like that.
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Posted by: genegeek
Posted on: Fri, Aug 06, 2010, 1:54 pm CDT

Please can I write about GATTACA? I like the third Tues in the month...
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Fri, Aug 06, 2010, 1:52 pm CDT

How many sci-fi fans amongst our writers? On more than one occasion, I've seen a news headline here or an article elsewhere that reminds me of something only dreamed of in sci-fi not too long ago. So I propose a theme around what sci-fi got (more or less) right-before reality caught up. I think it would be a fun counterpoint to pet peeves re: science in pop culture :)

Re: the next theme, I think one about choosing a lab/mentor would be poignant in the near future, since many peeps will be starting graduate programs soon. But I also agree with DNA that it would be nice to have a lighter theme.

Re: when, I lean toward once a month-third Tues. (or thereabouts) worksfor me.
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Posted by: genegeek
Posted on: Fri, Aug 06, 2010, 1:09 pm CDT

That would work well for the cross-posting idea. If someone answered my question, I would be happy to write an intro for any answers. I often don't go out of my comfort zone into somewhere like physics but if someone with a similar background suggested it, I might try it = maybe lead to some new readers?

I'm happy with the suggestions. Can we wait to do the women in science topic? I think it would be good to do something lighthearted and the women in science often touches on balance like we had with the last theme.
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Posted by: Kelly Oakes
Posted on: Fri, Aug 06, 2010, 1:00 pm CDT

Just realised I forgot to add...

D N A said:
5. not sure if this would work but maybe we could ask question of each other (cross-post) to explain something that has always confused us (for me, I'm stumped with most physics things)

I think this ^ is a good idea, but maybe we could keep it separate to the themes and just have a thread running where bloggers/readers can post science questions they'd like answering, and someone with the right area of expertise could write a blog post answering it if they wanted to. Is that the kind of thing you meant, D N A?
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Posted by: Kelly Oakes
Posted on: Fri, Aug 06, 2010, 12:40 pm CDT

maybe we should all vote on the next topic?

to make it easier, here are all the suggestions from this thread in a handy list:

1) mentorship style of PIs
2) women in science
3) how to choose a science career (or maybe how we chose / are choosing our careers?)
4) what i wish i knew before starting...
5) a day in the life
6) worst seminar speaker ever
7) strangest thing you've seen in the lab in the middle of the night
8) science confessions
9) how did you get where you are and are you finished?
10) pet peeve with how your science is shown in movies/TV
11) has science training helped with other parts of your life?

anyone have any other suggestions before we decide?
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Fri, Aug 06, 2010, 7:55 am CDT

Ok, so now let's set a date and topic for the next one! Make a new thread and I'll "Sticky" it to the top so we don't forget. I guess we could also always do the first and 3rd Tuesday of every month?
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Posted by: genegeek
Posted on: Thu, Aug 05, 2010, 8:41 pm CDT

I like the once a month idea - and maybe we can skip one if it doesn't apply? My suggestions:
1. science confessions - more space to truly explain than in the twitter space (can we also coordinate something on twitter?)
2. how did you get where you are and are you finished?
3. pet peeve with how your science is shown in movies/TV
4. has science training helped with other parts of your life?
5. not sure if this would work but maybe we could ask question of each other (cross-post) to explain something that has always confused us (for me, I'm stumped with most physics things)
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Posted by: Lady Scientist
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 8:24 pm CDT

I like once a month or twice a month if the topics were light-hearted. I was thinking of something like stories from the lab like the worst seminar speaker ever or the strangest thing you've seen in the lab in the middle of the night-- something along those lines.
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 6:21 pm CDT

I'd own a saltwater fish store, or maybe be a web developer (I guess I kind of already do that :P).
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Posted by: Geeka
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 5:58 pm CDT

I'm good with once a month. Maybe like the first week of every month.

I think that why you picked your PhD lab would be a good topic, or maybe what you'd do if you weren't doing what you are doing? (For instance, I'd be a meteorologist).
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 5:23 pm CDT

@Belle, Angry is the alter ego of someone on this site... Shh, don't tell anyone ;)
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Posted by: Evie
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 4:59 pm CDT

How about a day in the life of.. what work/school is actually like on a typical day. Im good w every month or 2.
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Posted by: Kelly Oakes
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 4:57 pm CDT

i like the sound of "what i wish i knew before starting... [whatever]", think i could definitely come up with something for that. women in science too i'm sure i could write about. career related posts could be a bit more of a challenge considering i have no career to speak of, but i don't mind sitting out occasionally.

we could wait to see how many potential topics we can come up with before deciding on the frequency, but monthly or bi-monthly sounds manageable to me.
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 2:42 pm CDT

Personally, I was thinking either monthly or bi-monthly as well.
I like the theme ideas. I've also thought about something along the lines of 'what I wish I knew before starting (grad school/postdoc/job...)'
It might be fun to have a topic that's a little lighter, too. Perhaps Angry Scientist might have some ideas here ;)
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Posted by: Brian Krueger, PhD
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 2:30 pm CDT

Those are all great ideas. I vote for once a month or every 2 months just so we don't run out of topics, Unless if we can come up with more than 24 off the top of our head, it might be hard to sustain that amount of posting!
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Posted by: Genomic Repairman
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 2:23 pm CDT

I agree with Dr. O's idea of choosing a career. Maybe that should be next?
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Posted by: Dr. O
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 2:16 pm CDT

Once a month is probably a good idea.

Possible topics - how to choose a science career (I think we have a decent representation of academia, industry, and journalism) and adventures in writing (grants, manuscripts, etc...). I also like GR's ideas.
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Posted by: Genomic Repairman
Posted on: Tue, Aug 03, 2010, 2:09 pm CDT

Maybe once a month, it might just be too difficult if we tried more frequently. Another topic kicking around in the back of my brain is mentorship style of our PI's (past and present) and the need for changing styles as we progress? A second one that I think is important is women in science and WTF are you doing about it.
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Posted by: biochem belle
Posted on: Thu, Oct 21, 2010, 4:47 am CDT

Today's blogging theme seems to be quite a success! DrugMonkey has even posted an overview on Scientopia. Brian and Genomic Repairman were inquiring on WorkLife Posts thread about the interest in doing more themed blogging in the future, and I would be up for it.

A couple of questions come to the fore:

1) How often? Once a month? More often? Less often?

2) Topic suggestions?

What do you guys (bloggers and readers) think?
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