Survived

So we all survived the conference.  And a great one it was at that.  Mr. Dr. Zeek of course enjoyed the locale (who wouldn't-leaving places snowy and cold for warm sandy beaches?) as did I (or at least the little bit that I could enjoy of it).  I even had someone ask me to send them my CV and preliminary info since their university is starting a job search soon.

Big Boss Man commented to me yesterday how I was hitting everyone up to find out if they were hiring or not.  Really, it wasn't exactly like that, but people do know that I will be officially entering the market this fall.  Which, according to Big Boss Man, sounds like great timing.  That is, of course, if I sit my ass in the chair and write these two manuscripts.

There seems to be another rumble looming on the horizon, this time with close working collaborator.  I have said it before and I will say it again, it sucks when you have to treat you collaborator as a competitor.  We have a mini-meeting coming up to "discuss" the three manuscripts (two are "mine", one "his") that are so closely related it would be silly not to put them in the same journal or try for a back-to-back submission to "Great Journal Everyone Reads But Has Low Impact Factor".  Or at least that was my assumption.  While I understand as a PI you need to look out for number one (namely yourself as the tenure clock is ticking) throwing every post-doc, graduate student and member of the community who is trying to help under the bus is NOT a good way to get to where you are going.  After talking to a few people at the conference, the general unsolicited opinion of said collaborator is not so hot (mind you, I kept my mouth shut and took it all in).  Maybe I need to distance myself as soon as possible?

So, in spirit of our mini-meeting next week, I have been listening to my favorite Social Distortion song which seems to sum things up quite nicely.