Top 10 perks of being an academic scientist

It's a Wonderful Life: A Career as an Academic Scientist
Mol Biol Cell. 2010 Jan;21(1):11-4.

1. Freedom to Choose Your Directions
2. Reinvent oneself through one's career
3. Participating in the great era of discovery
4. Being part of an international community joined by common interests
5. Pleasant travels
6. A social and youthful job
7. Many measures of success
8. Flexible daily schedule
9. Doing some good
10. Scholarship

I like 3, 4, 5, 9 and 10.
What do you think are the perks of your job?

Recent wisdoms

I love talking to smart people. Or having wise people talk to us. Here are some random pieces that I don't want to forget.

From Sandy:
How much proof do you need before you believe something is real? You can always disprove something with an example of a case that doesn't fit the theory. But how much evidence would you need before a theory becomes a fact? Evolution by natural selection is a theory but we all believe in it. If it's just a belief, what makes it different from intelligent design? We believe in our evidence, they believe in theirs.. How's one more right than another?

From Ron:
Ron was just inspiring. He's right. I got to do something other than science. Help the community, help lab, make friends, spend time with friends and family. It's not about karma, it's about being human. Whatever happened to my humanities training?
My New year's resolution: be generous with my time and not hog it all for myself.

On a separate note, check this out. if you want to learn some biology, the lectures here are pretty good. Not too long, not too difficult.
www.ibioseminars.org

From me:
Watched this Jap postdoc come ask another Jap postdoc questions. Think they bowed to each other 5 times before started talking.. What would they think of american culture? where you call your PI by his first name, joke, curse, swear with ur superiors..

Back to life

I love holidays. Don't have to worry about work, school, deadlines.. But holidays have to end. And it's back to life. Let me bask in my last hours of holidays..

The older i get, the more emotional i get. Thought people get hardened by life. I never used to cry in movies.. but now i'm getting teary at albatross stories. Not to mention the tears shed for stolen clothes. Perhaps i'm just not used to having attention when bad things happen.. and crying is not an expression of sadness but an expression of thanks for all the concern? weirdo

Highlights of the holidays

1. hiding out in cafes in cold drizzly weather (if anything, i'm not against Starbucks any more
2. Pike's clam chowder
3. Avatar
4. train ride to Vancouver
5. bus ride in the rainy night back to Seattle (feeling warm and protected in the bus, playing Spikey and talking abt life)
6. Koi palace dim sum
7. quaint downtowns (Napa, SB)
8. Monterey Bay Aquarium (the bkgd music + the sea creatures never fail to attract me)
9. beautiful coastline, fierce waves, foamy seas (Monterey, 17-mile dr, Big Sur, I would go there any time)
10. different photo ideas from different people at the same spots
11. John Mayer trio (extremely talented 3 people, 5 rows away from me)
12. warm comfy beds
13. Guitar Hero
14. CS's sour apple pie
15. nice guitar
16. Balboa Park on a sunny Sat afternoon watching planes land and people take wedding photos
17. being around friends, all the time

Forgettable moments

1. discovering that the car's missing
2. hotel room getting broken into and luggage rummaged through
3. Hearst castle
4. LA jams