Here’s a link to the gallery of pictures I took on the trip. I’ve tried to describe below what the pictures are of (follow the pictures in order in the gallery, top to bottom on each of the 8 pages — hopefully it’ll make sense!). If you want to read some specific, scientific coverage of the meeting, Nature’s Stem Cell Niche (blog) has some good blurbs (some written by me!) and the ISSCR website will have some coverage too.

The airplane shots are over the area between France and Spain — I took a picture of the flight map so you can kind of see where they are. There were lots of little villages we went over (probably just within France) and then we went over the Pyrenees Mountains which form the border between Spain and France — there’s one good picture of the mountains (the last airplane picture). They reminded me a lot of the Rockies, except maybe with less vegetation.

Arriving in Barcelona, I met up with other students from UCSB attending the conference (or hanging out in Barcelona) (pictured are Dave, Thales, and Donovan) and we eventually figured out how to take the public transportation to the conference from the hotel — Barcelona has a great subway and tram system. The big bullet-shaped skyscraper is Agbar Tower.

Next are pictures of the conference. Tons of people! I heard estimated 3000-4000 attendees. There are pictures of people in lines waiting to register (this was after it had died down a little). The conference hall pictures are of the main conference hall (I was sitting about halfway to the front — it’s huge!). The speaker was projected on two big screens at the front along with their powerpoint slides (though later they didn’t show the speaker during talks, only the powerpoint slides on all screens). Another screen halfway back also showed their slides. The next picture is the outside of the building — it’s not very impressive at all. It’s also just a few blocks from the beach, but almost impossible to get to — there are roads, a highway, and blocked off walkways… we never made it. The area it was in was with many other such big conference buildings that all looked very empty except ours — it’s hard for me to imagine they get enough use out of them to make it a viable enterprise.

The next many pictures are of the palace we went to for dinner — it’s the Royal Palace of Pedralbes. Honestly, it seemed more like a museum than a palace, and it was not as big inside as I’d imagine it’d be — I think it’s more well-known for its big front gardens and fountains. It was buffet-style dinner, but the space was rather small (people were quite crowded) and consequently everyone was rather hot and hungry. I don’t think they were expecting so many attendees. It had a nice big outside area behind the Palace too — it too was packed with people (and apparently my camera lens is a little dirty!). Dave gave an amazing patriotic speech. There was quite a nice fountain in the front of the Palace too, but it was rather dark to get a good picture.

Next (middle of the 2nd page) are some pictures of my hotel room (ends with the closet picture). My hotel was Hoteles Catalonia Atenas, about a 20 minute bus ride from the conference. The hotel was OK, but I’d probably give it 3.5 stars instead of 4 — it was a bit dirty and the internet constantly dropped me, but it was quite a big room, an amazing breakfast buffet, and a nice bathroom (except the shower had some problems). There’s a really nice view from my window — I could see the Sagrada Familia cathedral from my window. Construction started in the 1800s and they’re still working to finish it!

I took several pictures from the roof of my hotel (starting at the bottom of the 2nd page) — really great view of the city from there! The first 8 pictures make up a panoramic (not quite 360% — there was a building in the way). It’s probably hard to tell, but the second picture of this series has the ocean in it. There is a little pool on the roof, but it’s really not much — the view is what makes it awesome. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t typical Barcelonian weather for July — it’s been rather rainy and overcast, so not beautiful pictures, but it gives you a good idea of the city. You can see that same cathedral off in the distance.

The hotel breakfast buffet was quite satisfying (though expensive — 7.50 euros, or about $13, and I think this is on a special sale too). I then took several pictures of the conference (bottom of page 3). The first one is of the main entrance/registration area, where there’s free wireless and tables for people to hang out. The outside pictures are right outside of this area — some interesting modern art designs. The next are of the huge poster presentation area — half of this giant room was posters and half was vendor stands. I proudly presented my poster for two and a half hours, as did Thales for his. There’s one picture of the vendor stands (more to come later).

We all went out together later and had an amazing seafood dinner (thanks to my boss, Dennis!). The most impressive, or unusual, dish for me was the barnacles — they were surprisingly tasty (Dave really enjoyed them — see middle of page 4). We tried everything from mussels, clams, shrimp, deep-fried fish, seafood with rice dishes, octopus, and seafood croquettes. We also all had amazing deserts — I had a crepe with vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce.

The next morning I decided I’d better make an effort to see some of the city before the trip was over! I set off to find a “$1 store” (which in Barcelona was a 60 cent store!) but missed it and instead went to a giant open-air market (page 5, middle). I very cautiously went in and checked everything out. There was everything from kitchen/bathroom supplies, including faucets!, to clothing, CDs, wood furniture, and African trinkets. I had much fun. I then met up with people and we went to the Sagrada Familia cathedral, which was just one subway stop from our hotel. The cathedral is quite impressive and unique — it felt very “organic” (not very sterile), which is probably what distinguished it in my mind from other gothic cathedrals I’ve been to. The cranes were really something to see too.

We went to a park across from the cathedral to figure out what to do next and I, of course, was immediately drawn to the little enclosed, dirt-covered dog park present. I tried to decipher specific breeds, but it seemed like a lot of the dogs I saw in Barcelona were different mutts. I took the subway (bottom of page 6) back to the conference — I’d been warned to watch my bags on the subway, but never saw anything too shady myself, but was always on the lookout. I snapped a few pictures of the vendor stands (BD Biosciences had its own personal island!). Later that night Dennis was on a panel for Millipore with three other experts to discuss the promise of induced pluripotent stem cells.

Next morning — another wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel (middle of page 7). I made my way over to the conference to hear Prof. Shinya Yamanaka, who created induced pluripotent stem cells at the same time as Prof. Jamie Thomson, speak — he was a lot younger looking than I’d expected, and quite entertaining as well. The conference hall was quite full for his talk. I later went to a vendor talk that had a smaller audience, but offered good refreshments (only on the last day did I discover how to get a free lunch!).

Back at the hotel for the last day, I took some pictures of the nearby area (I couldn’t help but go into the Chinese trinket store, which was amazingly run by a man of Asian ethnicity). I took the bus to the airport the next morning and saw some neat sites — one was a big stadium of some kind, I assume, and another I’m pretty sure was the capital building (page 8, top right). I took a few pictures of Barcelona from the plane as we fly past it. Luckily (with no thanks to Air France) I made it home without too much eventfulness, leaving my hotel at 8AM Sunday and arriving back home in Santa Barbara, CA, 11PM Sunday night, only 4 planes, 3 security check points, and 30-or-so hours later.

So, why Japanese? Well, languages are neat, and I’ve always wanted to study an asian language… Teisha likes Japanese (and we thought it would be cool to be able to understand anime someday); and most importantly, we’re planning to go to Japan for our honeymoon, so it would be really neat and respectful to try our best to learn a little language and culture before we fly over there.

Seeing the charts of verb conjugation and the sample “Hi, how are you?” conversations in the lessons actually made me yearn to review my French as well…

こんばは！

So, what’s an air motor? Basically, you can hook it up to a compressed air line or a pump, and it converts that force into rotation. I couldn’t capture an image of it running, but it goes pretty fast. How useful is it? Not at all, really. But it gave me a chance to learn how to use Band Saws, Drill Presses, Lathes, Mills, and how to polish, measure, tap, and lots of other techniques on metal and plastics. Combined with my previous experience working with wood, I’m starting to feel fairly proficient at building things. Next, I need to find an electronics/circuits course!

Why am I interested in these classes? Several reasons, I guess. Firstly, it’s very satisfying to see a final product that you made with your own hands. I think that’s the biggest motivation. But it’s also a skill-set that I could always advertise that I have as an extra perk, and it will help in the case of a collapse of society, I guess. Lastly, I’m always a little jealous of engineers– with most engineering work, you can explain the benefit of what you’re doing in just a sentence or so. With my research (and believe me, I’ve tried), I can’t give an accurate impression of what I do in less than two paragraphs. And to add “why is this useful” adds another paragraph or two. So the accessibility factor is lacking. With a real product, at least you can point to it and say, “I did this.”

Anyway, does anyone else have any recent crafts handiwork to show off? (I know you do, shortspeedfreak– I’m sure of it)

So, I’m curious– what have you done to put some razzle-dazzle into your C-V or resume?

As you can see (if you visit AndrewJBonham.com), I have a pretty well-developed Research section, but my Curriculum Vitae is (1) not very well formatted (I just pasted it in from google documents) and (2) pretty bland.

So, how to improve it? Teisha already suggested making the Teaching section more prominent and higher up the page, since that’s my goal; a good suggestion. But i feel like the whole document is too dry and passive. At the same time, I don’t want to go crazy and have a document that doesn’t look professional.

Also, I haven’t written anything for the Interests section yet, since I’m honestly not sure what face I want to present to potential employers about my hobbies: Do I mention my love of tabletop roleplaying games? What about computer games? Should I talk about my amateur programming and web design (probably)? What can I add to put my best foot forward?

Those are my primary dilemmas, but I’d be interested in hearing about (or seeing) your resumes as well, and how you’ve crafted them.

In my mind, I’d say that there are some subjects so core that I can’t imagine calling something an “education” if it lacked them: reading/writing, basic math (simple 2x = 23, solve for x level algebra, at the very least), world history, some review courses of the social sciences (politics, psychology, etc), and some basic science (a little general chemistry/biology/physics, not even calculus; with an understanding of the scientific method). If you learned just that much, I’d say you should at least pass high school.

But what would I add on top next, to create a good, general education? Firstly, something that is usually a rare elective would be front and center– I think everyone going further into academia than high school should be required to take a class on Logic. I couldn’t take symbolic logic until I was a junior in college, and it would have helped so much in so many classes. Secondly, learn some calculus– it’s math that will help you understand trends, patterns, and ideas in fields from physics to economics to sociology. I also agree that foreign language requirements make sense. And, as I started this thought with- I think, these days, that a programming class (not a typing class or a “play with hypercard” class– a basic introduction to something like javascript and C++) should be in the bare minimum undergraduate college curriculum. I’d also add that a class in Ethics might be a good idea, but I’m not sure that will ever fly. Add on more stringent writing classes, some more broad review classes in the hard and soft sciences, and you’ve got a generally useful base to serve as a foundation for a degree (and the attendant specialized classes it requires).

But that’s just my feelings. I actually think about these issues a lot, since I want to be an educator when I “grow up”. Even at the level of a single class, it’s important to ask yourself “what is the bare minimum that the students must know for me to feel like I’ve taught them?” You can’t set the bar too high– you’ll cover a lot more, and some students will learn everything you throw at them and more (and should be encouraged through private discussions, extra opportunities, etc), but having a good sense of the baseline, the minimum helps me know what to reinforce, time and time again.

How would you change school curricula, if you could?

I’m conflicted because I want to get back into some long-term lab projects, but have no idea when my mock could be — they do the scheduling a week in advance, and if the next week doesn’t work then they start scheduling for the week after… (such as, last Thursday I was told it could be this week, on Wednesday, but was only told today that it won’t happen… and they’re starting to check it if can happen next week, but that’s doubtful with faculty going on trips over Spring Break). People tell me not to worry about doing experiments right now, but it’s just kind of hard to for me — I want to get things done and get out of grad school eventually, not to mention feel more productive and accomplished…

Socially, it’s been hitting me a lot too — even when I haven’t been studying/reviewing and have been trying to have fun with friends, it’s been hard. Even when not studying, I’m a lot more stressed and anxious than usual — I’m a bit of a catastrophizer and the exam is always lurking in the back of my mind, and I know I won’t feel better until it’s done. Also, some friends have been trying to plan an all-day party event with us and their other friends, but I haven’t really known my schedule in advance because any time I might find out my exam is a few days away, and then I’ll need to review/study/rehearse more…

Anyway, I just want it to be over with, but at this rate it may not be until April… I’m tired of putting off friends and work, but oh well, I guess that’s grad school.

edit: Detection of Sequence-Specific Protein-DNA Interactions via Surface Enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering

No real story here, other than a mildly interesting article and my obsessive-compulsive nature.