It shall be done!

At the end of my last post I complained about having to work over the weekend...but it's over and done now.  Hopefully the effort will yield some good data.

And today I managed to do something so far yet undone:  Convince my PI that my new scheduling of several up-coming experiments works better!

You see, today my PI wanted me to start a 3-day process that I did not want to start. 

I just like that photo.  It is not a photo of the Spoiled Rotten Cat (SRC). 

After being hunched over my bench for ~7 hours on Sunday, the last thing I wanted to do was start another big process.  In fact, my back has been aching all day.  I'm not a spring chicken. (I'm what is called a "non-traditional student.")

Anyway, I managed to convince my PI that I'll actually get MORE work done if I shift it around like so.....
And it actually worked. 

I still managed to get a boat-load of stuff done today...

Most of it is to organize part of the extra stuff I'm doing.  You see, it has recently come to light that the DLM isn't just dumb, but pretty much completely incompetent.  About 1.5 weeks ago, this became painfully known to my PI.  This was much to the satisfaction of the other grad student and myself, as we were worried that PI would think we were training the kid horribly.  We weren't; we tried to make idiot-proof protocols, but there's only so much you can do.
So the PI now knows that somehow they were duped into taking on this kid.  Thankfully the MRU is funding his one-year masters program thing.  But now my PI is stuck with him, and he's working (well, kinda) on part of project that's funded by a grant that's under review soon.  Because I have done similar experiments, I can pitch in and help out. 

And this has pretty much turned into my PI and me doing all of DLM's work...because PI doesn't trust the kid anymore.  At.  All.  He's pretty much been demoted to making buffers and cleaning the lab. 
I honestly don't know what the PI is going to do.  The DLM certainly couldn't defend his thesis.  I asked him about one of the papers (our lab's own) which is the foundation for his thesis, and apparently he can't recall too much about it. 

I suppose the PI is going to let the system work its magic.  Come the late spring, he'll have to defend, and when he doesn't pass, it isn't necessary for the PI to take him back.  I don't know how all the money or administrative jumbo works, nor do I care.  I'll be grateful when I get done doing double duty for this kid. 

Until then...I'm trying to steam ahead to the end of this semester.  I have two papers and one project for classes, plus a ton of work for this grant review.  Hold onto something bolted down; it's going to be a bumpy ride!