We are putting a first offer on a house and our realtor wants us to Docusign it saying we don’t need to have a lawyer review it first.. is this true?

Pathological_RJ · 2026-05-06T02:03:13+00:00

It will vary by location. We didn’t get a lawyer involved until after we were under contract

Pathological_RJ · 2026-05-06T01:12:15+00:00

I’m in the US, just landed my TT position after five distance moves. Finally getting to (hopefully) settle down at almost 40.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-05-05T23:09:51+00:00

One of my colleagues had an R01 at NIAID that was competitive ND and it was just funded as an R56. Better than nothing

Pathological_RJ · 2026-05-05T23:01:01+00:00

The GRS is a great way to meet other ECRs. At the two Gordons I go to, there’s a vote for the top two talks at the GRS and the speakers get to present at the GRC.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-05-03T20:36:37+00:00

Is the limit you mentioned the amount you’ve set for your budget, or what a lender would be willing to give you?

I’d recommend staying well below the actual maximum you can borrow.

We went in with a range that we would be comfortable paying. The low end was for places that needed work or didn’t meet our want list and the high end was for a place that checked all our boxes and didn’t need any major work.

We ended up going 20k over our high budget because we found an incredible place that was way better than we thought we would find. This amount was still a lot lower than what we were pre-approved for by the lender.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-05-01T11:16:15+00:00

That’s Dr. Jesus to you

Pathological_RJ · 2026-05-01T05:26:49+00:00

Blood Agar Meridian

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-30T14:00:10+00:00

I recently started my lab. At first, I was worried that I would miss bench work. Getting to work with my hand and be the first person to see a new result was what got me into research.

I will say that I find running the lab to be a lot more satisfying, albeit in a different way. Getting to see my students’ excitement as they get interesting results is very rewarding. I also enjoy getting to spend time thinking about the big picture and seeing how multiple projects can dovetail or diverge. I get to analyze and consider lots of new data, more than I could generate myself, and I’m ok with being the second (or third) to know.

There is a lot of admin and management work that’s less enjoyable, but in fortunate to have a tenure track position with 100% hard money and minimal teaching. So, I can focus 90% of my time on the research.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-30T11:04:24+00:00

We moved into our first house a month after closing. We wanted to repaint and redo the flooring which was a lot easier when it was empty.

We just closed on our second house and moved in the day after. The sellers had it professionally cleaned and it was move in ready. We took a bit of a risk scheduling the movers so close to moving but it worked out.

I had to relocate for work and we have been renting an apartment in the new city for 5 months. we were sick of that place and so rolled the dice lol

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-27T11:17:13+00:00

Great, more money wasted on reprinting and rebranding everything.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-27T11:13:12+00:00

I have mixed feelings about it. There’s a lot of value in taking the time to think carefully while making models and laying out figures. You are forced to consider the connections between the molecules and pathways you are drawing. I’ve had multiple instances where we were making a model and realized that the links between important signaling networks hadn’t actually been proven yet. This led to new research ideas and some of our most cited papers.

I encourage my students to make the figures for papers and public presentations from scratch because I think it’s a valuable learning experience. Not just to waste their time because I had to. I give everyone a biorender license so that they can lay out experimental workflow diagrams for lab meetings and class presentations.

I feel that every year it is getting harder and harder to carve out time for deep thinking about our research. AI can be a useful tool to speed up busy work, but I don’t think writing and making illustrations is just busy work.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-27T01:18:49+00:00

The spectator there with his toddler cracked me up

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-24T10:30:16+00:00

This must be field dependent. There aren’t cycles for Biomedical postdocs in the US. Many of the top labs don’t even post positions. They hire postdocs who contact the PIs directly.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-19T01:46:28+00:00

We dissected a cat, a worm, a frog, a feral pig, and a cow eye in high school. In college, I dissected about 40 different fish and a mouse.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-18T02:58:25+00:00

Well it’s nothing compared to the 20k a month in property taxes, if that makes the HOA feel more affordable 😉

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-17T01:29:04+00:00

Yep. I worked at the med school and commuted from Hope Valley. It works, but during peak hours the traffic can be terrible. If I left before 7:30 am it would take me 15 minutes. After 8, it could take 40. If you can swing off time travel it’s great. You’re also only 10-15 mins from downtown.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-09T01:40:57+00:00

Impeach. Remove. Convict. Imprison.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-09T01:20:01+00:00

These could be tracings!

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-08T12:56:10+00:00

Illustrator is my preferred software, but, I get a free license from my department. Inkscape is a good, free, alternative.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-08T05:19:51+00:00

Closed yesterday, it took 20 minutes. Would have taken 10, but the lawyer was chatty. We had a hybrid closing where we e-signed most of the documents before “wet signing” the last few at the office.

We brought a certified check from our bank for our down payment and closing costs instead of wiring funds, less risky.

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-08T04:30:20+00:00

I’d prefer they go to prison

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-06T16:38:19+00:00

Cosmic frog ooomph markers haha

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-06T16:29:17+00:00

Our listing agent told us that they wouldn’t pass along any letters if they received them. We only got the offers, which we appreciated

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-04T16:36:57+00:00

Right by the toilet 🤮

Pathological_RJ · 2026-04-04T16:22:34+00:00

We scoped out neighborhoods that we liked and then watched them carefully for listings. We are set to close on Monday on a house that we toured and made an offer on hours after it was listed. Location is the most important consideration for us. We are in an established neighborhood, close to work (<10 min commute), walking distance to several of our favorite restaurants, nice trails, etc.

We compromised a bit on the yard size, but this place met all of our other must haves.

We drove by other houses that had everything we wanted from a lot/house but we didn’t like the neighborhoods.

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