Eigen

In my experience, sometimes what you think about schools drastically changes post visit. In my visiting times, back in the dark ages, my order of interest in schools flipped entirely pre-visit to post-visit. The school that looked amazing on paper was filled with depressed people who didn't enjoy their lives, and didn't really get excited about the research. My last choice school (relatively low ranked) had amazing faculty that were really well connected and really passionate about their work. I ended up choosing a school that I wasn't serious about before, and rejecting a school that I was exceptionally excited about. 
I encourage all of my students to visit any school that is paying, that they are not completely sure they wouldn't go to. An interview is largely a chance for the school to sell you on why they're the best choice for you, while at the same time being a chance for you to sell yourself to them.
When we were doing graduate admissions work when I was in grad school, I know we'd have wanted someone to come even if they weren't sure- it was our chance to convince them, and we couldn't do that if they didn't come. This is completely separate from someone being absolutely sure they weren't going to come, and visiting for a free trip. 

Really, there's no way to know for sure. A lot depends on how you rank relative to the other students interested in joining the lab. 
A PI could be looking for research productivity (past), or be looking at how you frame your potential for productive research with them. They might have someone with a particular skill set that they would like to have in the lab- and they may or may not know this when they interview you. It might be about personality, or a perceived similarity of working style. 
Honestly, don't overthink it. Once you get to the interview stage, a lot of it is a toss-up. Most PIs are in the position of having 2-6 students all of whom they think would be a good fit for their group, and having to pick one. What they end up going with isn't something you can do a lot to control, or really anything about your credentials.
That said, usually (imo) it's not going to be something obvious in your CV (i.e., number of publications) that decides a PI post-interview. That's what they use to decide who they want to interview. It's going to be how you can talk about your research, and how it feels like you'll fit into the group, both personally and professionally. 
Be cordial, be enthusiastic, and overall be yourself. Nothing makes someone less certain of you than a feeling that you're not being honest, and it makes them worry that they're not choosing based on the "real" person. Don't try to be what you think the person interviewing you wants. 

Really, there's no way to know for sure. A lot depends on how you rank relative to the other students interested in joining the lab. 
A PI could be looking for research productivity (past), or be looking at how you frame your potential for productive research with them. They might have someone with a particular skill set that they would like to have in the lab- and they may or may not know this when they interview you. It might be about personality, or a perceived similarity of working style. 
Honestly, don't overthink it. Once you get to the interview stage, a lot of it is a toss-up. Most PIs are in the position of having 2-6 students all of whom they think would be a good fit for their group, and having to pick one. What they end up going with isn't something you can do a lot to control, or really anything about your credentials.
That said, usually (imo) it's not going to be something obvious in your CV (i.e., number of publications) that decides a PI post-interview. That's what they use to decide who they want to interview. It's going to be how you can talk about your research, and how it feels like you'll fit into the group, both personally and professionally. 
Be cordial, be enthusiastic, and overall be yourself. Nothing makes someone less certain of you than a feeling that you're not being honest, and it makes them worry that they're not choosing based on the "real" person. Don't try to be what you think the person interviewing you wants. 

Really, there's no way to know for sure. A lot depends on how you rank relative to the other students interested in joining the lab. 
A PI could be looking for research productivity (past), or be looking at how you frame your potential for productive research with them. They might have someone with a particular skill set that they would like to have in the lab- and they may or may not know this when they interview you. It might be about personality, or a perceived similarity of working style. 
Honestly, don't overthink it. Once you get to the interview stage, a lot of it is a toss-up. Most PIs are in the position of having 2-6 students all of whom they think would be a good fit for their group, and having to pick one. What they end up going with isn't something you can do a lot to control, or really anything about your credentials.
That said, usually (imo) it's not going to be something obvious in your CV (i.e., number of publications) that decides a PI post-interview. That's what they use to decide who they want to interview. It's going to be how you can talk about your research, and how it feels like you'll fit into the group, both personally and professionally. 
Be cordial, be enthusiastic, and overall be yourself. Nothing makes someone less certain of you than a feeling that you're not being honest, and it makes them worry that they're not choosing based on the "real" person. Don't try to be what you think the person interviewing you wants. 

It was a call from a professor who was interested in your application. 
Don't read too much into it. 
They may or may not be on the search committee, they may or may not know the final decision of your application, or whether it's been forwarded to a higher power for final review. 
You can drive yourself crazy overthinking it, and there's nothing you or anyone else can infer from it, other than that it's generally a good thing and there's someone interested in you from the department. 

You're one of those people who dyes their hair rainbow, aren't you?
But seriously, I feel like there's a little bit of merit to what both of you are saying. Yes, snap judgements are real (don't wear your fedora to the interview quanto), but in the end they are interested in what you can bring to their program and that you're not that unhygienic dude that showers once a week because "natural oils are good for you".

I can't believe people worry this much about what to wear! Chill out and just wear decent clothes. If they care that much about what you're wearing, then they're focused on the wrong things and they can go F themselves!

It can be really hard, but this is a great time to treat learning how to cope with waiting as learning a life skill for academia. 
After this point, you will constantly be applying for things and waiting in the nether to hear back. Funding opportunities, fellowships, post-doctoral positions, faculty jobs.... They're all the same type of hard, anxious waiting. 
Learning how to hit the submit button, and then cease thinking about it until you hear something back is one of the best things you can learn how to do. 

So much this. I give an A- when there's a significant difference between the work shown and what I'd look for as an A, but the student hasn't dropped to B. I also give it when the student oscillates consistently between A and B work.

It can be really hard, but this is a great time to treat learning how to cope with waiting as learning a life skill for academia. 
After this point, you will constantly be applying for things and waiting in the nether to hear back. Funding opportunities, fellowships, post-doctoral positions, faculty jobs.... They're all the same type of hard, anxious waiting. 
Learning how to hit the submit button, and then cease thinking about it until you hear something back is one of the best things you can learn how to do. 

It can be really hard, but this is a great time to treat learning how to cope with waiting as learning a life skill for academia. 
After this point, you will constantly be applying for things and waiting in the nether to hear back. Funding opportunities, fellowships, post-doctoral positions, faculty jobs.... They're all the same type of hard, anxious waiting. 
Learning how to hit the submit button, and then cease thinking about it until you hear something back is one of the best things you can learn how to do. 

It can be really hard, but this is a great time to treat learning how to cope with waiting as learning a life skill for academia. 
After this point, you will constantly be applying for things and waiting in the nether to hear back. Funding opportunities, fellowships, post-doctoral positions, faculty jobs.... They're all the same type of hard, anxious waiting. 
Learning how to hit the submit button, and then cease thinking about it until you hear something back is one of the best things you can learn how to do. 

You should at least read the websites/interests of everyone. 
For the faculty you're interested in, I would suggest reading selected (or a lot) of papers that are relatively recent as well. 
Don't tell them their research bores you. To be perfectly honest, I'd worry on moving away from this mindset entirely. It's not good to feel that any research outside your area "bores" you. Even if you're not explicit about it, it will come across and you will not make a good impression. In my honest opinion, you should be able to be interested enough about nearly any research in your field, broadly defined, to have a 30 minute conversation with someone on it. 
Part of being an academic, and being part of the larger academic community is respect and interest for research that is not your own. 

FWIW, I consider not going clean shaven nice on interviews because it's one less thing that needs to be done well each morning. Especially on the off chance travel goes awry, and you wind up having little time to prep before your first meeting, a nicely trimmed beard takes no maintenance.
Some also depends on how heavily your beard grows. I end up with a significant 5-o'clock shadow that I think looks less professional than a trimmed beard. 
I'm not in your field, but I've never heard negative comments about a well groomed beard, only unkempt ones. I also personally bias to the advice that you should be as much yourself as possible during interviews. Part of the purpose is to see how you will fit in somewhere. 

On quarterly taxes:
 
I end up owing around 1500-2000 per year. The penalties for that degree of underpayment are quite small- if you'd prefer to budget and not have to file quarterly, you'll probably be fine.

You should at least read the websites/interests of everyone. 
For the faculty you're interested in, I would suggest reading selected (or a lot) of papers that are relatively recent as well. 
Don't tell them their research bores you. To be perfectly honest, I'd worry on moving away from this mindset entirely. It's not good to feel that any research outside your area "bores" you. Even if you're not explicit about it, it will come across and you will not make a good impression. In my honest opinion, you should be able to be interested enough about nearly any research in your field, broadly defined, to have a 30 minute conversation with someone on it. 
Part of being an academic, and being part of the larger academic community is respect and interest for research that is not your own. 

I'm pretty sure that is Jim Ridolfo's map from rhetmap.org, and it's probably best to include the link to the main page if you are going to share it. He does a lot of work tracking programs and jobs every year.
 
I'll also point out that your list is all over the place, and you probably need to focus in a little before applying. It appears that you are only looking at PhD direct admit programs (though I don't think ASU or Purdue offer that), so I'm not sure what the hell you are doing.

Look at top-tier journals in chemical biology. Note faculty doing research that interests you. Apply to those schools. 
Rankings really aren't worth all that much- find someone doing interesting work that consistently publishes and you're likely going to be going into a successful group. 

You should at least read the websites/interests of everyone. 
For the faculty you're interested in, I would suggest reading selected (or a lot) of papers that are relatively recent as well. 
Don't tell them their research bores you. To be perfectly honest, I'd worry on moving away from this mindset entirely. It's not good to feel that any research outside your area "bores" you. Even if you're not explicit about it, it will come across and you will not make a good impression. In my honest opinion, you should be able to be interested enough about nearly any research in your field, broadly defined, to have a 30 minute conversation with someone on it. 
Part of being an academic, and being part of the larger academic community is respect and interest for research that is not your own. 

You should at least read the websites/interests of everyone. 
For the faculty you're interested in, I would suggest reading selected (or a lot) of papers that are relatively recent as well. 
Don't tell them their research bores you. To be perfectly honest, I'd worry on moving away from this mindset entirely. It's not good to feel that any research outside your area "bores" you. Even if you're not explicit about it, it will come across and you will not make a good impression. In my honest opinion, you should be able to be interested enough about nearly any research in your field, broadly defined, to have a 30 minute conversation with someone on it. 
Part of being an academic, and being part of the larger academic community is respect and interest for research that is not your own. 

You should at least read the websites/interests of everyone. 
For the faculty you're interested in, I would suggest reading selected (or a lot) of papers that are relatively recent as well. 
Don't tell them their research bores you. To be perfectly honest, I'd worry on moving away from this mindset entirely. It's not good to feel that any research outside your area "bores" you. Even if you're not explicit about it, it will come across and you will not make a good impression. In my honest opinion, you should be able to be interested enough about nearly any research in your field, broadly defined, to have a 30 minute conversation with someone on it. 
Part of being an academic, and being part of the larger academic community is respect and interest for research that is not your own. 

I know the title is rather generic, but everything else I tried seemed too specific. 
What are your plans and goals for the new year? Any academic resolutions? Things you want to try? Things you tried last year that didn't work out?
Personally, I'm in the midst of trying to re-organize and re-arrange my office. After moving last year, half of my files were still in boxes, and the other half were stuffed in a drawer somewhere. Organizing old grad school/postdoc files, my teaching files, and my research into some manageable grouping is the main plan before the new semester starts. 
I felt like my office floor plan wasn't really as conducive as I'd like to multiple students for office hours, so I moved things around to make a nice 3-4 person seating area with a table around a whiteboard that should make those easier. 
I'm determined not to over-prep for classes this semester. The fall had way too many 1 AM mornings before an 8 AM class! Less preparation, and more enthusiasm and energy were a better combination than extremely prepared, but exhausted. 

I feel you! Last year was a "where will I be in a few months?!" year, and I juggled defense and jobs as well. Got everything ready, and figured I could hold off if I didn't get something. 
And I'm in a one year position now, wondering what will come through for next year. Lots of interviews, nothing concrete. 
Unlike the grad school process, the timing of post docs and faculty positions so rarely lines up, so you almost always have to take what's offered without direct comparison. My offers so far have all had strict 1 week timelines, so not even time for my spouse to get to see the town we're deciding if we want to spend the (likely) rest of our life in. 

I have a personal website I write on, but it's mostly news and teaching stuff. 
I also have a site some friends from grad school and I run that humorously applies a mock peer review process to non academic things- beer, bourbon, popular articles, etc. I doubt anyone reads it, we mostly do it to keep in touch- and it doesn't have any of our real names on it. Everything is pseudonymous. 

I have a personal website I write on, but it's mostly news and teaching stuff. 
I also have a site some friends from grad school and I run that humorously applies a mock peer review process to non academic things- beer, bourbon, popular articles, etc. I doubt anyone reads it, we mostly do it to keep in touch- and it doesn't have any of our real names on it. Everything is pseudonymous.