  This is what I have been doing for the past 3 years. Well, at least the past 1 year certainly. I took my oral exam at the end of May last year, and since then, I have just been doing lab work. And I have accomplished pretty much nothing. I do have more of an idea of what I want to do, but you'd think after 1 year of work, I would actually have acquired some concrete information. However, I have not. I have nothing. Zero. Zilch. If I don't get something done this summer, I will have exactly the same poster as I did last year.
I think in that case I wouldn't put it up because it would be so pathetic. The thing is, I don't understand how this is happening, and what I am doing wrong. I really do try to work hard. I just get stuck on these stupid problems that I'm sure nobody else is having. For instance, I've been trying to get a real-time PCR assay going since about January. Finally it looked like my primers were good, I had a kit and a protocol that worked, but oh, suddenly, I can't get my RNA isolated correctly. Either it's not dissolving, or I have protein contamination. Yes, having this problem might be acceptable, but not being able to fix it for 3 weeks is not.
This is my life. One stupid problem after another that I can't figure out what in the world I'm doing wrong. When you feel like a complete failure all the time, it's really hard to motivate yourself to keep coming in and keeping your pace up. Because really, if I'm not going to get anything done, I might as well have a clean house, or be well rested, or getting plenty of exercise.
You'd think. It makes me want just chuck it and start over with something else. Get a job. Do something and be successful. But I don't want to give up and quit. I have to make this work. So maybe I'll write another post this time next year and I'll have my assay working. 
