Infrequent

Today I set a goal, and I achieved it! I planned to read and take notes on six boring methods papers and stay until at least 6 pm. I finished the last paper at 5:50. I was totally exhausted at that point but it was okay because the traffic was great! SAVOR IT.

I have one last "experiment" to do for my thesis research. It's small, but it will make the fourth data chapter. Part of the method is my bread-and-butter lab work that I can knock out in a matter of days. That will be followed, however, by something newish. I am sort of familiar with the kind of thing I want to do, as it's an auxiliary technique for us. But, we've already decided that I will do something a little different with this study. Thus, I have to decide on exactly which approach I want to use out of a suite of related methods. I've been reading all sorts of reviews and comparison papers and the emerging theme seems to be, "all the methods suck". Some comparisons suggest that method X is really good but method Y is useless while others say that method Y is better. Then a review will say they are both terrible, but method Z works great . And another one will say that Y is good in situation A but only mediocre in situation B...you get the point. I think it will come down to a gut feeling that will probably turn into a well reasoned argument after some rumination. I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to support whatever decision I make because there is such variety in the literature -- there is support for almost anything I want to say! But right now, I'm frustrated with trying to sort out what to do and bored with all these dry papers.

I met my goal for today, but there is more of the same waiting for me tomorrow. At least I get to look at my garden at lunch time!