NIH Grant, DONE!!!

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while. Suffice it to say that I was preoccupied; I was writing a ‘big’ grant for an NIH fellowship. Big relative to this stage in my ‘career,’ if you will; I’ll be writing much bigger grants in the future. It was due yesterday and I was able to get it in with a whole 11 minutes to spare! The final product was a 42 page PDF! Luckily I did not do it on my own. I have to thank Dave and Jane, my PIs, Marsha Brooks, our staff assistant, and my three referees (those who wrote reference letters; Sean, Joanie, and Terry). Now I can get back to doing graduate stuff, a.k.a research. I am excited to get back into the research, It’s difficult but the challenge comes with numerous learning opportunities. It is my personal belief that learning, personal growth, and happiness are synonymous.

For Thanksgiving, I went to NOVA (a.k.a. northern Virginia) where my brother’s (Shane’s) family were kind enough to host me. It was a great dinner but the best part, as always, was to spend time with some family. I went up there the next week where I watched my Aggies play Georgetown, we didn't win but it was fun to see them play nonetheless.

I will work on my research for a week and a half and then I’ll be heading to NOVA yet again to spend Christmas with Shane’s family (thanks Shane). That is unless I find $600 dollars on my way to school, in that case I’d go back to Utah :).

Not much to this post because all my time has been spent on this grant. Until next time...

Grants and the state fair

In school I have put my research on hold while I take up the proverbial pen and start writing grant proposals. I am writing my third NSF (National Science Foundation) GRFP proposal and it so happens that this will be my last year of eligibility. I am pretty much done with that one because I am using the same documents from last year save a few minor changes. I have also decided to take on a bigger proposal through the NIH (National Institute of Heath) though the amount of money is considerably less. I am doing this one mainly because it will force me to write down what I plan on doing for my dissertation. This will require a lot of thought on my part as well as thought as I discuss my project with Dave and Jane, my PIs. Further, this process will go a long way in preparing me for my preliminary exams, specifically the written portion. Overall, it is a very worthwhile exercise.

This weekend was a blast. I went to the North Carolina State Fair, which is always loads of fun. My goal is to go there every year that I’m here. We saw old-fashioned crafts, a gristmill (powered by a waterwheel!), huge vegetables, and many livestock. We went on Saturday, which was a beautiful day, sunny and the perfect temperature. There was a beautiful garden exhibit. I am bummed that I didn’t take my camera.

The food. We ate at a Methodist ‘diner’ where we had very good food (cheeseburgers, BBQ pork, onion rings, ham biscuits, etc. At the gristmill we had very good hush puppies for free! We then had to try some fair delicacies, deep-fried whatever. This year’s big feature was the KrispieKream cheeseburger where a KrispieKream doughnut was the bun. I did not try that! What I did sample was deep fried Oreos, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, and cookie dough. These were not as bad as I though they were going to be, not that I am claiming they were delectable either.

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death” -- Albert Einstein