I'm bad at blogs

Same with diaries, I could never keep writing one consistently. So the chances of this working out are about as good as any other experiment I've performed. (hint: slim to none)

But whatever, I decided that I too wanted a soapbox thinly veneered with anonymity from which to vent about how hard a mistress is Science and how I will never succeed and they'll kick me out of grad school after seven to eight years of slaving my fingers to the bone at the bench. Because, you know, I am totally unique in thinking this and will doubtless contribute brilliant and insightful commentary on the state of Academe.

Ha!

So here's the lowdown. I'm a brand spankin' new grad student at a Big Research University (BRU) doing something vaguely biomedical. I'm currently stressing out over the choice of thesis supervisor, since of course making anything but a perfect decision will ruin my graduate (and further) career forever. And I'm frantically scrambling trying to learn everything there is to know about the new field I've picked, which is quite different from my undergrad major.

Fig 1. The habitat of the common lab minion. Except shinier and with less cells.

I work at the bench and sometimes behind a screen. My data makes no sense, I have a billion papers to read, and I feel stupid pretty much every day, but I'm getting used to all of the above. They say humans can get used to anything with time. I guess(hope) that applies to Lab Minions as well.