A Blog for Brooke and Andy
mostly unimportant
Teaching Experience
Aug 30th
About a month ago, the FUTURE in Biomedical Sciences group here at the University held a forum, of sorts, to help answer questions from graduate students and postdocs regarding what it takes to get a job at a Liberal Arts institution, especially in the State of Iowa (where these four individuals reside). The FUTURE group, now in its second year, has multiple professors from Liberal Arts schools across the state (this year’s participants came from Loras College, Drake University, Morningside College and Wartburg College) come to Iowa City to do research for the summer, learning some new experimental techniques and generally expanding their horizons beyond what they can do at their respective institutions. The forum was very informative, covering a variety of topics including how to write up your resume, what kinds of places to apply to, what to look for in a school, when to start looking for jobs, and what the jobs tend to be like. More than anything, however, they all stressed the need for experience: the more experience you have on your application, the better chance you’ll stand against other applicants. I’m not really looking for another job yet or anything, but it’s really good to have this information at the back of my mind as I keep building up that resume. Hearing them talk about their jobs makes me want to get to that stage even more, providing me with some much needed motivation to get a few things done while I’m here!
Thankfully, I already have a leg up on that one. Back at SLU, I had the good fortune of getting to teach in “Drugs We Use and Abuse,” a course run by the graduate students of the Pharm/Phys Department. It is team-taught each Fall to around 50 non-majors (e.g. Business majors, History majors, etc.) and generally centers around…well…just what it sounds like. If you ever wanted to learn what meth, cocaine, opiates, depressants and caffeine do to your body, then this is the class for you. I taught in it for 3 years: I was a section director for 2 of those years and course director for 1 year. The experience was very good, so much that I decided I want to do it full-time as a career: teach at the undergraduate level.
When I took the position here at the University of Iowa, I asked my mentor if it would be alright for me to continue teaching occasionally alongside the rest of the research I’m doing. He was kind enough to allow it (if anything, he was excited that I’d take a few lectures off his hands). This October, I’ll be teaching two classes of Advanced Toxicology, one talking about neurotransmission and the other talking about neurotoxic agents (e.g. cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy). Both of these subjects are within my proverbial wheelhouse, so they shouldn’t take up all that much preparation time. That, and I have the previous year’s lectures in a Powerpoint file to help me throw something together. While Drugs We Use and Abuse was directed at non-major undergraduates, this class is for graduate students and there are only 12 in the class, so the dynamic will be quite a bit different than what I’m used to.
I will likely get the opportunity to teach in the Spring as well. That course is in our department, Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, and is also targeted at graduate students (and will likely be just as small, if not smaller). Not sure when we’ll get that going, but it probably won’t be until January, knowing how things go around here.
Either way, I think I’m doing a reasonably decent job at preparing for what’s ahead, with regards to that whole “career” thing. At the very least, getting to add a few “guest lecturer” points on my CV is always a welcome addition.
And maybe I’ll even have a little fun doing it. :-)
The Meaning of Efficiency
Aug 27th
One of my favorite video game genres is the “Real Time Strategy” game, or “RTS.” In such a game, you generate resources in order to build units that the allow you to conquer the other player. Starcraft II is, perhaps, the most recent example of such a game, and one I’ve been playing a great deal of recently, however the Age of Empires series is, perhaps, best-suited for explaining more clearly. In an RTS like Age of Empires, you start the game with a few units (Villagers) that harvests resources for you, like wood, food, stone and gold. These four resources help you to produce other Villagers, but also Military units. When you’re starting out in the Dark Ages, you primarily need food and wood for “Clubmen,” but as you advance toward “Swordsmen,” you need more diverse resources like gold.
These games are generally part of a larger game mechanic called “resource management.” Basically, you begin a given game with a finite amount of resources and you choose how to spend those resources. Some of them should go to more resource-generating (e.g. investments), while other resources should go toward the ultimate goal of the game. It’s up to the player to decide to what degree they go in either direction. If you want to win quickly, then you pour more resources into building military units so you can take out the other player. If you want to “tech up” to a more stable position, but take longer doing it, you pour those resources into investments.
As I said, I’ve always liked this kind of game. But I’ve never been terribly good at it in real life.
Brooke and I have never made huge amount of money, but the move to Iowa cost us a great deal. Brooke was unemployed for the first 3 months of living here, and she’s still only been able to get work part-time (but that’s going to steadily increase). That combined with the fact that we have a baby now means that our collective (limited) resources have been directed in other avenues than what we are used to. Child care alone is a ridiculous, but necessary, cost. Therefore, we’ve been doing our best to maximize our available resources as best as possible. With various payments that one has to car loans, student loans, life/auto insurance, etc., that only leaves a relatively small percentage of cash that you can adjust for whatever purpose is required.
A few summers ago, we started with helping limit our energy costs by getting a single-room A/C unit for our bedroom. That helped save us $100 in a single summer, paying for the A/C unit itself. We’ve been using it in our house in Iowa now, helping to limit the excess cost of cooling a much larger space than we were dealing with in St. Louis by only cooling our bedroom(s) at night, as opposed to having our central A/C running too heavily. Thankfully, Iowa summers are substantially cooler than St. Louis summers, and the house is in the shade enough that it rarely heats up to a significant degree. We’re already talking about ways to limit the amount of propane we’ll use in the relatively harsh Iowa winters, trying to defend against the northwest wind by insulating specific windows. We’ll probably spend more time upstairs, as the heat will collect there. We’ll probably try keeping the house cooler than we had it in St. Louis, as well.
We’re also trying to limit travel to some extent. When we can take Brooke’s Scion xA on longer trips, we’ll take it (37 mpg), but when we need a larger vehicle, we’ll have to use the Sportage (27 mpg). I’m driving the Sportage to and from work every day and, on those trips, I’m doing my best to stay around 65 mph, as an engine runs most efficiently within that range. Doing so, I’ve been able to help limit my gas costs to a reasonable degree. I’ve also started getting up earlier, getting to work around 7:00 am and leaving around 4:00 pm, thereby allowing me to miss the traffic that frequently causes me to speed around people.
Brooke has done an excellent job over the summer growing vegetables and canning them for later months. We’ve been able to save a pretty decent amount of money on food already, but those savings will continue on into the winter months. So far, Brooke hasn’t had to buy much solid food for Meg, either, as the carrots and squash she’s been eating were grown in our garden. Brooke froze down more of it so she can make more in the next few weeks. As Brooke already posted about the cloth diapers, we’ve already saved a pretty large amount of money over disposables. Otherwise, we still shop at Aldi, as always, but are making a more concerted effort to limit the “extras” (although, Brooke has already demanded that her ice cream allotment not be limited).
Our entertainment costs have dropped dramatically, as we don’t have cable anymore and our internet connection is fast enough that we can Netflix or stream everything we want. I’ve seen one movie in theaters this summer and have decreased the number of games I’ve purchased, as well. We also aren’t going out to eat as often, partially because we have to hold Meg and would rather have her in a high chair or something (which she isn’t…quite…ready…for…).
We’re still looking for improvements, but I think this is a helpful, albeit stressful, experience. As in RTS games, if you build up your resource-generating units early on, you get a strong economy that can then provide you with better military units later in the game, allowing you to conquer and win. It takes keen resource management to do this, as you have to be very, very efficient with the military units you do build early in the game, while instead putting those resources into things that can help you later on.
Let’s hope we learn something now, so that we’re prepared for later stages of the game.
Breastfeeding Savings
Aug 16th
I debated about just adding this information to my Diaper Savings post, but decided that this topic might warrant it’s own comments!
Meg is breastfed and was exclusively (except for about an ounce of formula in the hospital because I was freaking out that she was hungry…I know better now) until she started eating rice cereal at 4 months. There’s another post coming about how that’s going for another time. I still continue to nurse and to pump while she is at daycare about 5-6 times each day, which I’m guessing gets Meg about 28 ounces of breastmilk a day, which should be plenty. I’m starting to think about weaning her to a combination of stored breastmilk and formula from a bottle in the next month or so, mostly because my work schedule is complicated and there’s not always time or a place for me to pump when I need to, and because I’m starting to feel like I’ve done my job in this arena. I have a feeling that weaning will go slowly to ease the hormonal and therefore emotional toll it will take on both of us (or all of us, really because Andy will have to deal with it, too).
I think to breastfeed or not is a very personal decision, just like I think most parenting decisions should be. It’s super easy to start thinking that your way of doing things is better than anyone else’s, and why this is true for each parent’s situation, I’m trying really hard to not worry what other people think of what I’m doing with my job and at the same time not judge other parents for their decisions.
That being said, when I was looking at how much money we’ve saved my cloth diapering, Andy was also interested in how much money we’ve saved by not buying formula. Here are the CDC’s statistics on the numbers of infants in the United States who were breastfed in 2006:
* 73.9% were ever breastfed
* 43.4% were still breastfeeding at 6 months of age
* 22.7% were breastfeeding at 1 year of age
* 33.1% were exclusively breastfed through 3 months of age
* 13.6% were exclusively breastfed through 6 months of age
So, obviously, most babies are being breastfed at least some, so this number isn’t this high unless a baby has only ever had formula. But, for a basic, name brand formula, for the first 6 months of life, you will have spent $717.93 to feed a baby. Breastfeeding is absolutely free!! In our case, since I have a pump and the necessary accessories for storing and feeding pumped breastmilk, the net savings is about $400.00. That’s pretty good from a purely monetary perspective, if you ask me (and I know you didn’t, but whatever…)!
Diaper Savings
Aug 13th
So, I bought a new pair of boots, and in trying to justify the purchase to myself and Andy, I started thinking about all the things I do to save money.
How we’re cloth diapering was discussed here, but not the costs. A lot of people will say that, in the end, the costs associated with cloth diapering doesn’t really save a lot over disposables, while others say that you break even with your first child and the savings come with subsequent children. I contend that disposable diapers are WAY more expensive than cloth. And, from my experience, I’d also say that anything that is cheap is also good for the Earth (hanging clothes on the clothesline, gardening, driving a high gas mileage car…), so we’re doing our part!
I also added in 20% of the cost of our new washing machine because we probably wouldn’t have bought such a nice one if we weren’t washing diapers 2-3 times each week. The amount of electricity used seems fair, as it also includes water since we have a well and sewage since we have a septic tank. We do not currently have trash removal, but if we used disposable diapers, we would have to pay for that as well!
The ongoing costs of cloth diapering from this point will include a few more covers as Meg gets bigger, but the current ones should fit her until she’s at least 18 pounds, and electricity. Our electric bill may increase a little in the winter when I can’t hang the diapers out to dry as often, but I really don’t very often now anyway because they have to hang outside all day and I usually need the clothesline space if it’s a Saturday and I’m doing lots of other laundry.
I totally paid for those boots just in cloth diapering the last 6 months ($186.00 saved!!!!), but now I’m looking for other ways that Andy can thank me for being so frugal! Up next, canning, canning, canning.
At Work and Working
Aug 12th
Now that I’ve been working at the University of Iowa for over 3 months, I figured I’m past-due to explain what exactly I’m doing. Honestly, it takes about that long when you’re in a new job like this to figure out what’s going on, who you’re working with, and what the general trajectory of the position really is. Suffice to say, it’s all been very interesting thus far and I’m enjoying myself.
As I’ve stated before, I’m a “Postdoctoral Research Scholar” in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Iowa. A “Postdoc,” as we’re commonly referred to, could be equated with a medical doctor’s “Residency” period. At this point in the career, you are above a Graduate Student (i.e. no longer taking classes), but you’re still below a full Faculty Member (i.e. no responsibilities with committees, teaching, etc.). Basically, you have more responsibility and freedom than you did as a Grad Student, but you still report to a mentor for training and guidance. I have been adjusting to this dynamic over the past three months, but it will probably become more apparent as the school year starts and the graduate students in the lab start attending various functions that I’m not required to attend anymore.
Speaking of which, the other students in the lab are cool. They certainly aren’t like what I experienced at Saint Louis University (no alcohol allowed on campus…stupid public schools…
), but they are a dedicated bunch that do good science. This is also a larger lab environment than I became accustomed to at SLU, with 4 graduate students and a lab manager (and now a postdoc) in this lab alone, plus all of the other students in the other labs we work with. The grad students in our lab are working on related, yet different, aspects of Parkinson’s disease, ranging from the effects of neurotoxins on PD-like symptoms to protein binding to dopamine metabolism. One thing I’ve noticed is that this lab is much more Chemistry oriented than anything we had at SLU. Considering that I haven’t taken a Chemistry course in over 5 years, I’m having to remind myself and/or re-learn some basic concepts that I haven’t had to use since then.
However, that’s kinda the point of a postdoc. The general rule of thumb in choosing an appropriate postdoc position is to a). use techniques you already know in a different scientific field, or b). stay in the same scientific field but learn completely new techniques. I would fit into the latter category, as I’m still working in PD research, but I’m using Chemistry much more than I did in Grad School. The ability to use mass spectrometry as an analytical technique is especially exciting in that it’s something I’ve wanted to learn more about since Undergrad, but haven’t had access to the equipment to learn on. Now I do, and I have a variety of scientific questions built up in my head over the past few years of things to look at.
I have just started working on a grant. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary government entity that provides scientific research funding, and they offer an F32 grant for Postdocs designed to help defray the cost of their employment, but also provide the funds for you to train in things you don’t know much about. The application is due in December, so I’ve got some time, but right now I’m working on getting some preliminary data to include in the 6 page research design portion (6 pages is very, very little…I could write 20 pages today on the subject, but figuring out what is important and what isn’t will be the challenge). The NIH has a relatively high fund rate for F32s, but the award is by no means guaranteed. I’ve never submitted one before, but I’m going to do my best to write the best one I can.
Regardless, the lab itself is a good learning environment and I’m learning more and more about my co-workers every day. It took awhile to figure out all of their “inner-workings” (i.e. who will take to my sarcastic personality and who won’t…), but I’m getting closer. The science itself is very interesting and I feel like I’m learning, hopefully preparing myself for what lies ahead.










