Bitching about the poster I'm making...

Poster Poster Poster. All day. I am jealous of my husband and his research professor butt who gets to make his poster while he is at work. Not me. I have to do mine on evenings and multiple weekends. Like a hobby scientist. Which is how I feel today, like a hobby scientist.

At a small liberal arts college that has under 10 faculty in the sciences, you can bet I'm the only one in my specialty. In fact it was culture shock to go from my post-doc to faculty here. In my post-doc there were as many scientists in my SUBspecialty as there are faculty at this entire school. So the problem isn't just the poster editing, its an overall problem of no feedback or collaboration on my work in general.

I DREAM of someone qualified check over my poster (or my work) like, oh, professional scientists do in their lab meetings. But no, I'm out here flappin' in the breeze. Hub will find the detailed mistakes for me like font mismatch-he's good at that- but can't help me with the big picture, such as logical flow. So I will do my best by myself, and pray that I don't embarrass myself or those who have invested a lot in my training (who will be there).

I've had a brilliant scientist (dean of a top med school) look at my work this month, but he is in the phase in his career where he is encouraging young scientists, not helping find the flaws in their work. Otherwise, my colleagues (great as they may be) have no time or clue to critique me. So I get to critique myself. See any problems with that?

I'm wishing that some of my blogosphere friends will come by my poster and give me a true and tough critique of my work, shred it to pieces (politely) before I submit a manuscript. I know you can't help me before I head to the printer. But if you are reading this and going to a very big meeting in the next few weeks (mid-November), then send me an e-mail and I will send you my poster number. Bring your shredder carried in your kid gloves :)