Ken Nealson

It’s not often that you walk away from a seminar, feeling totally inspired and rejuvenated by the presenter. I had the good fortune to attend a very well-delivered seminar by Ken Nealson last week. His presentation style is remarkable. He was able to deliver his science in an engaging manner. He was inspiring for he challenged the audience to making daring hypotheses that were not thought of by peers in the same field. He was quick to point out that the work was not done by him alone but by a whole team of students and postdocs and collaborators. While I was still a PhD student reading those papers published by big names like Ken Nealson, David Stahl, Gary Olsen and so on, I often thought when would I have the opportunities to meet them. At that stage, those names are big names that are revered highly, and of so many miles apart that I would not even dare to think that I would have the chance to interact with them. After I moved to US to do science, I’ve learnt that big names do not always mean that they are doing good science. Neither does it mean they are having good reputation or necessarily inspiring. There are only a few that are really on par with their reputation. And I had the good fortune to experience one such person while I am here in UIUC.

The four seasons

Wow, this is my third consecutive post. Guess I am really procrastinating from my readings. Anyway, it's been a year. To be exact, I have been here for almost ten months. It's the first time I have experienced all the four seasons in US.

Sharing some snapshots of the beauty in each season:


Winter. I am having a love-hate relationship with snow and cold.


Spring. I love spring. It's as if life blossoms again and hope is everywhere. As cheesy as it sounds, you really get that feeling when spring comes, because the dreadful and depressing winter is finally over!


Summer. Lush green trees. AND heat spells.


Autumn. I kind of like this season too. The dazzling colors (orange, green, yellow, brown) displayed by the trees are mesmerizing. When the wind blows, maple leaves rustle and settle on the ground beneath. Beautiful.

And now, I should get back to my readings. Oh wait, I got that pile of dishes to clean first.

My lunches

Living overseas alone means you have to watch your expenses. Especially when you are just a poor postdoc who earns a miserable salary. Complaints aside, that didn't really stop me from buying comfort items at times. I got to find ways to keep my sanity, right?
Besides the occasional spending spree, my main expenses would be the accommodation, which already accounts for 22% of my take-home salary. Yes, now you know how little I earn. Besides the accommodation, food would constitute the next portion of my monthly expenses. I try to save by cooking my own food. A good meal at the cafeteria or restaurant would cost approx 9 dollars. And I can't afford to eat it for every meal. Plus, they don't serve enough greens.
From the initial conscientious effort of packing my lunch on the night before, I have adopted the lazy habit of cooking once-off all my lunches for the entire week on Sunday. For example,


Monday : Rice with two side side dishes (i) Bean sprouts and tofu, and (ii) dark soy sauce pork stew.

Tuesday: Probably a sandwich I bought from supermarket, plus a salad.


Wednesday: Rice with (i) bok choy (ii) dark soy sauce pork stew (again)


Thursday: Rice with excess (i) bean sprouts and (ii) bok choy,and (iii) dark soy sauce pork stew (AGAIN!). Plus a NEW dish! Egg with diced green beans.

Friday: Dine out!

Saturday: Korean instant noodles and whatever vegetables and meat left over from my previous week of grocery shopping. I then go out for my new groceries.

Sunday: Depends...most likely instant noodles too. But fresh groceries today!

The good thing with this workflow is that you solve the problem of having to cook small portions. Cooking small portions don't make sense to me. It's not cost-economical and time-efficient. Of course, the only way this workflow can work is when you have a pretty strong and robust gut system.

Housing

It's the long Thanksgiving Weekend (Thursday all through to Sunday)! Grateful for it because I have an official excuse to just chill out a bit. I'm just not in the mood to work hard cos I am so looking forward to going back home. I meant REAL home, back in the tropical Singapore. Speaking of which, I thought I should just post some photos of my current apartment. I guess people won't be able to visualize what an "efficiency" means in the US terms. Most of the rich professors stay in landed properties, probably overlooking a lake or a ranch. But students and the poor postdocs would never be able to afford that kind of luxurious housing. So the best option is to stay in an efficiency - an apartment with the kitchen, the bedroom, a study desk and bathroom. It's pretty hard to imagine that before I actually stayed in one. So I thought some explanation of what an "efficiency" would help.

Kitchen right next to the entrance. Equipped with the small fridge and oven at the bottom. Three stoves, tap and small basin. Plus, a built-in cupboard for storage at the top.


Built-in racks and wardrobe at the corner opposite to the kitchen.


Study desk right next to the window. Room is also equipped with heater and air-conditioner. The air-con is kind of lousy, but the heater and insulation is no prob. Which means I am having a sauna during summer.


Furnished with a bed too. Yes, I brought my Patrick the Starfish to accompany me.

Bathroom's shared and I am thankful that my current neighbour next door doesn't occupy the toilet for a long time. She tries to keep it clean too, which is cool. I bought all the other things - rice cooker, mirror, bedsheets, etc etc. Blew a hole in my pocket. My current apartment costs me 480 USD per month, inclusive of utilities, electricity and internet. Pretty good deal? Of course, I have an even better deal back in Singapore. It's free there.

Recap

It's been seven months since I came back here to Urbana Champaign after a long visa wait. I can still distinctly remember the first day, when I went to school to meet my new boss, and he shook my hand and gave a hug, saying it's good to have me back. The first time I entered the lab, I was flabbergasted to see the state of the lab. Everything looks old, worn, laid with a thick layer of dust. The fridge were all occupied with stuff, some of the samples even dated back to 1990s. It was quite impossible to work effectively if I let it remained like that. And so I took about 1.5 weeks to clear most of the things: the fridge (with the help of boss, RM), the workbench, the numerous hungate tubes and so on. Finally, I was satisfied with its current state. The good thing about my current lab is that it is very very very very spacious, spanning across three lab spaces, and I am usually the only active soul around. So Boss RM called me the person-in-charge of lab. Simply because I am indeed the only one around. I love my current lab. When I had the chance to go back to WT's lab in Civil, I thought it was cramped, dirty, and depressing.

I'm still trying to get accustomed to my new boss being a super nice elderly man. Every morning (or rather almost every morning), he will come in and greet me (this sounds weird, I should go and greet him, but heck) and said in his chirpy voice "Good Morning!" and then asked me how's it going. It's stressful on my part because I associate "How it's going" with "Explain your progress for the day", and my day barely started. Even though he may not mean entirely work-related updates, but rather a genuinely "how's my day". But I am not used to having small talks with bosses, and so I pretty hard stammered most of the times or stare blankly at him.

I am also keeping my life here pretty routine, much like what I would do in Singapore. Just that no close family and friends here. Every weekday morning, I will wake up at 715am, then wash up for school, reach school at 8am, then drink my coffee and surf web, start work, eat lunch and work, and then go home at around 7pm (later if my boss is around). Once I reach home, I just surf web, play FB, watch online drama, and sleep at around 1130pm. Most of the weekends are spent alone. On some Saturdays, I will go to school and work in a relaxed manner. Sunday is all about rotting and doing housework.

It's pretty monotonous. And I miss the weekend gatherings or occasional dine-outs with parents. But I made the decision to come here. Although I complain about it, I still have to pull it through....I hope when 2 years is up, I can say goodbye to here in amicable terms with my current boss. And that means I really have to show my results for the current project.