LTE 2.0

[DevilWearsPrada2.0]

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!! With Halloween and a great Duke Football away game Victory!!!!!!! Let's finish Strong In November!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lavabe]

The first week of the post-BarMinion Era has been eventful, in a very good way. Friday was jam-packed!

Remember the infamous instrument company deal? Well, Road Runner is still working on it. You may recall that the person from the company (we'll call him Corporate Guy) originally wanted all 3 of us: MacGyver, Road Runner and me. I'm the one who started the discussion of the whole thing. Since that time, though, RR has taken over and completely cut MacGyver and me out. She has done her darndest to make CG et al. think that MacG and I are still in the picture, but they know this is not true. CG was in town on Thursday and Friday of this week, so he got a first-hand view of the lay of the land. I talked with CG on Friday morning and told him about my new project. Since he had just spent a day trying to train the people in the core lab, he agreed with my assessment that I should get the preliminary data for my grant in my old lab at Wash U. In fact, he said they're the top lab in the country for this particular technique.

In the afternoon, we had a group meeting. Two things became painfully obvious in this meeting: 1. RR has handed the data analysis over to Natasha and Pippi (the stuff she told CG that I would be doing), and 2. At this poing, as much as I like both of them, they have no clue what they're doing. CG is NOT happy. He told me he'd much rather be working with me, and he also said that the deal with RR is starting to look like a train wreck.

After chatting with CG, I sent a quick email to my old boss to check with him about preliminary data. He called me back shortly thereafter to let me know that he has arranged for me to come in and work with the new faculty person in the lab, who is an expert in the type of analysis I want to do. In fact, he has a Young Investigator Award from the instrument company (very similar to the type of deal RR is trying to get). I'm scheduled to go up during Thanksgiving week, which means I can disguise it as a vacation and not tell RR or anyone in her group what's going on. I got an email from YI this morning, confirming that I can come that week, and also offering me a practice data set to play with. I passed all this news along to my new collaborator, and he has agreed to come up with money to pay for the analysis.

I'm keeping this as quiet as possible at work. I will NOT be telling RR about this. When/if she finds out, she will absolutely stroke out. Her little house of cards is falling down around her.

Love it!!! Very well done, AD, Sis!!!

This is NICE!!

[YmoBeThere]

We flew right through Zep-tember, paused briefly for Rock-tober, and are now in ????.

[Lavabe]

We flew right through Zep-tember, paused briefly for Rock-tober, and are now in ????.

Holiday Shopping Season.

Hope you had a great Pumpkin Festival Day!

[devildeac]

We flew right through Zep-tember, paused briefly for Rock-tober, and are now in ????.

Tur-duc-ken-ber?

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

The first week of the post-BarMinion Era has been eventful, in a very good way. Friday was jam-packed!

Remember the infamous instrument company deal? Well, Road Runner is still working on it. You may recall that the person from the company (we'll call him Corporate Guy) originally wanted all 3 of us: MacGyver, Road Runner and me. I'm the one who started the discussion of the whole thing. Since that time, though, RR has taken over and completely cut MacGyver and me out. She has done her darndest to make CG et al. think that MacG and I are still in the picture, but they know this is not true. CG was in town on Thursday and Friday of this week, so he got a first-hand view of the lay of the land. I talked with CG on Friday morning and told him about my new project. Since he had just spent a day trying to train the people in the core lab, he agreed with my assessment that I should get the preliminary data for my grant in my old lab at Wash U. In fact, he said they're the top lab in the country for this particular technique.

In the afternoon, we had a group meeting. Two things became painfully obvious in this meeting: 1. RR has handed the data analysis over to Natasha and Pippi (the stuff she told CG that I would be doing), and 2. At this poing, as much as I like both of them, they have no clue what they're doing. CG is NOT happy. He told me he'd much rather be working with me, and he also said that the deal with RR is starting to look like a train wreck.

After chatting with CG, I sent a quick email to my old boss to check with him about preliminary data. He called me back shortly thereafter to let me know that he has arranged for me to come in and work with the new faculty person in the lab, who is an expert in the type of analysis I want to do. In fact, he has a Young Investigator Award from the instrument company (very similar to the type of deal RR is trying to get). I'm scheduled to go up during Thanksgiving week, which means I can disguise it as a vacation and not tell RR or anyone in her group what's going on. I got an email from YI this morning, confirming that I can come that week, and also offering me a practice data set to play with. I passed all this news along to my new collaborator, and he has agreed to come up with money to pay for the analysis.

I'm keeping this as quiet as possible at work. I will NOT be telling RR about this. When/if she finds out, she will absolutely stroke out. Her little house of cards is falling down around her.

Love it!!! Very well done, AD, Sis!!!

This is NICE!!

.....and getting exciting, to boot!! Love, Ima

[YmoBeThere]

Apparently, I needed more cowbell.

[Lavabe]

Apparently, I needed more cowbell.

Do you have a fever? If so, how high is it?

[ArkieDukie]

Apparently, I needed more cowbell.

Do you have a fever? If so, how high is it?

The only cure is more cowbell.

[YmoBeThere]

A fever for the flavor?

P.S. An old tag line for Pringles

[lawgrad91]

MIckey Mouse and Admiral Ackbar both got votes for the Martinsville City Council.

[Lavabe]

MIckey Mouse and Admiral Ackbar both got votes for the Martinsville City Council.

Did they get more votes than Brad Keselowski?

[TillyGalore]

MIckey Mouse and Admiral Ackbar both got votes for the Martinsville City Council.

[lawgrad91]

MIckey Mouse and Admiral Ackbar both got votes for the Martinsville City Council.

Did they get more votes than Brad Keselowski?

They don't like Kes around here too much, as far as I can tell. He's one of them Yankee fellers....

[windsor]

Dog Events caused me to miss both the football and basketball games on Saturday. Lucky for me I will be watching the full replays on GoDuke.com (I usually buy one month of premium version so I can see the exhibition/cannon fodder games

[CameronBornAndBred]

Dog Events caused me to miss both the football and basketball games on Saturday. Lucky for me I will be watching the full replays on GoDuke.com (I usually buy one month of premium version so I can see the exhibition/cannon fodder games

Bad dog!

[DukePA]

Estrogen is a mighty fine hormone. Back to biting my tongue. Carry on.

[Very Duke Blue]

Two days since the last post on LTE. That's a long time. GTHC!

[YmoBeThere]

Presbyterian needed more cowbell...

[ArkieDukie]

Last Thursday, The Boss pulled me in on a project that I haven't been involved in, despite the fact that 25% of my salary is paid by said project. The reason? The short version is that the folks on the project do not want to work with Wile E. Coyote any more. They're so annoyed with him that they are starting to look into other options for completing the work that he's stalling on. I was pulled in and instructed by The Boss to make this project my top priority; he is doing his darndest to do damage control and keep the project. There have been 2 meetings so far with me, The Boss and WEC. At the most recent meeting (Monday), we were given instructions on what we should do. WEC was instructed to contact the project manager and get a list of the planned experiments. Crickets. Yesterday morning, The Boss stuck his head in my office and asked me if I had gotten the list of experiments yet. I said, "I haven't heard anything about the list yet from WEC, so I was going to ask him about it this morning." He then proceeded to chew me out because I hadn't obtained the information for him yet! My mouth dropped open about a foot, and I stuttered out something about that task being assigned to WEC. His response was something to the effect of me expecting WEC to do it, and WEC expecting me to do it. So, I did it because I really had no choice. Golden Boy obviously wasn't going to do it, even though he was told to do it, but I was going to be the one catching flak over the whole thing. I've answered every single question The Boss has asked while WEC has put in minimal effort at best. Somehow it will all be my fault if the project goes away, even if the fault is solely WEC's. I looked at the presentation he gave to the group; it was complete and total garbage. I know the field and couldn't make heads or tails out of what he told them. If they dare to ask questions he gets mad. In summary, I cannot blame them at all.

A few fun factoids to help put the current emergency situation into perspective:
1. These folks are the ones for whom The Boss introduced WEC as THE world's expert, and me as "oh, she just does data analysis."
2. The second meeting I went to for this project, The Boss literally told me before the meeting that I should be seen but not heard. Seriously. He told me not to say anything at all in the meeting. His pet, the alleged world's expert, did not receive the same instruction.
3. I haven't been invited back to a meeting with these folks since the third meeting I attended, when I dared to call BS on WEC's ridiculous claims about the amount of time it would take for him to do the analysis. He whined to The Boss, and I got cut out of the loop. Guess what? We're back in hot water because the collaborators don't like his time frame.
4. WEC and The Boss are making their ridiculous assertions about analysis time in an effort to get $$ from the group to purchase an additional instrument for WEC. It appears to me as though that strategy is coming back to bite them in the ass. For that reason alone, I would laugh if the group takes the project elsewhere.

The other fun part of the equation here has to do with Road Runner. When The Boss demanded that I make this project my top priority, he diverted my efforts away from Road Runner's project (for which she pays 5% of my salary). Based upon the tracking of work efforts, I can tell you that, for the current fiscal year, >30% of my efforts have been spent on said project. The math seems really easy to me: 5%<25%, and 30%>5%. In other words, I've more than fulfilled my requirements for that project. Well, Road Runner does not see it that way. She is mighty peeved that The Boss would dare to ask me to work on HIS project when SHE needs me so desperately for HER project. Apparently HR will not let her hire a replacement for the recently departed Bar Minion because she doesn't have enough $$ ( ), and there's a possibility that she can get enough $$ from this particular project to hire a new person. This is all contingent upon her meeting an early December deadline. We were supposed to have the analysis done by next Friday, and I'm not sure that's going to happen now. In any event, she's planning on complaining to The Boss about him pulling me away from her project at this critical time. My guess is that this particular conversation will not go over well. His math skills are as good as mine.