I can't find my checkbook. Need to send the rent today...
UPDATE: Found it!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
The missing piece
You may recall that I am writing each of my chapters as separate, stand-alone papers that will be compiled into a dissertation by the addition of an introductory chapter and a synthetic conclusion chapter. Anyhow, I have been working on the Chapter 3 Paper and feeling kind of blah about it. The results are solid and will be valuable down the line for modelers, but by itself this paper was seeming kind of confirmatory. That's okay, I guess, since I'm planning to submit it to a specialist journal, but I was hoping for more out of this study.
Last night I obtained some supplementary data from a colleague. That allowed me to do some extra calculations and then bust out a figure that shows some very cool relationships among my results. This is the piece that was missing, the thing that will help tie everything together. What's more, it will better anchor my findings to the recent literature. I think the paper will be much more interesting now. yay.
Last night I obtained some supplementary data from a colleague. That allowed me to do some extra calculations and then bust out a figure that shows some very cool relationships among my results. This is the piece that was missing, the thing that will help tie everything together. What's more, it will better anchor my findings to the recent literature. I think the paper will be much more interesting now. yay.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
nom nom nom
EGM's friends came to visit a few weeks ago, and they came bearing many packages of delicious sweets from Far Off Land. There were some lollies candies and whole load of biscuits cookies. EGM has been saying forever that American cookies* suck compared to the ones from Far Off Land, with Oreos as his primary example. I've tried to explain that Oreos conjure many comforting childhood memories rather than being high-brow treats, but he doesn't get it. Anyway, I sampled the cookies if FOL when I went there a few years ago, but I didn't try the variety that we've had lately. Wow! They're great! The best is this one kind that's like a Twix but with a better texture and nicer chocolate. I think I have to concede that FOL cookies are indeed better than the U.S. ones. Perhaps we should think about that as we consider potential postdoc locations...
*I'd like to note that we're only talking about relatively inexpensive supermarket cookies, not fancy gourmet ones.
*I'd like to note that we're only talking about relatively inexpensive supermarket cookies, not fancy gourmet ones.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sigh...
I've been pretty quiet lately. Things have been busy. We had friends visiting from Far Off Land for a couple of weeks, went to an out-of-town wedding, and have been working later recently. I could have made time to blog, but I just haven't felt compelled to write. Each evening I feel more interested in reading other blogs than in writing my own. Anyway, I thought I'd check in at least. I have some posts in mind - maybe I'll get them written soon.
I think my posting hiatus started with the realization of how little time I have left to finish my dissertation. I panicked a little bit, then worked out a timeline for completing each chapter. That helped, but I need to stay focused and crank up the hours to get it all done. Between deadline fears and cessation of carpooling, I've been really productive, but that has left little bandwidth at the end of the day for blogging. I'd like to let you know, though, that I am working on the last of my lab work which should be mostly done in the next 2 (or maybe 3) weeks; I completed the revisions on my revise and resubmit and am waiting for my advisors to comment (have been waiting for >4 weeks); I have rewritten big chunks of the next paper; and finally, I have written the methods section for the paper that will come from the current lab work. So I've been doing lots of things, just not blogging.
All this has made me very tense, however. I think the venting I do on blog helps that, so I will try to get back in the habit.
I think my posting hiatus started with the realization of how little time I have left to finish my dissertation. I panicked a little bit, then worked out a timeline for completing each chapter. That helped, but I need to stay focused and crank up the hours to get it all done. Between deadline fears and cessation of carpooling, I've been really productive, but that has left little bandwidth at the end of the day for blogging. I'd like to let you know, though, that I am working on the last of my lab work which should be mostly done in the next 2 (or maybe 3) weeks; I completed the revisions on my revise and resubmit and am waiting for my advisors to comment (have been waiting for >4 weeks); I have rewritten big chunks of the next paper; and finally, I have written the methods section for the paper that will come from the current lab work. So I've been doing lots of things, just not blogging.
All this has made me very tense, however. I think the venting I do on blog helps that, so I will try to get back in the habit.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Yum
A while back, I commented at Sciencegirl's place that we wanted to learn to cook Indian food. EGM has become obsessed really into it, and we have been practicing curries and such for the past several weeks. This chicken korma is currently simmering on our stove. It smells awesome. Too bad it's nearly 11 pm...
UPDATE: We had a taste and it was incredible! Holy crap!
UPDATE: We had a taste and it was incredible! Holy crap!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
NYR Update
First, let me just say that EGM got poison ivy and was scratching all night. I'm tired! And if it happens again tonight, one of us is going to the couch. Aren't I nice, sensitive, and empathetic?
Now that that's out of the way, I think I should report on my new years' resolutions. I have performed mediumly on both of them. I've sent birthday cards for almost all of the family birthdays so far, but several of them have gone out late. But, I have the next ones all ready to send. As for being more eco-conscience, there has been progress and setbacks. I kind of gave up on the paper recycling after the pile got so big that EGM finally threw it away -- I just kept putting off dropping it at the recycling place. We also decided not to do the CSA after all because we're not sure we'll actually use that much produce. On the other hand, the garden is going well. The seeds I started indoors are starting to look like plants and the things I planted outside are starting to take. Also, we started a compost pile near the garden. I have been bringing our kitchen scraps to work to compost, which gives me warm fuzzies. I'll post some photos soon.
Now that that's out of the way, I think I should report on my new years' resolutions. I have performed mediumly on both of them. I've sent birthday cards for almost all of the family birthdays so far, but several of them have gone out late. But, I have the next ones all ready to send. As for being more eco-conscience, there has been progress and setbacks. I kind of gave up on the paper recycling after the pile got so big that EGM finally threw it away -- I just kept putting off dropping it at the recycling place. We also decided not to do the CSA after all because we're not sure we'll actually use that much produce. On the other hand, the garden is going well. The seeds I started indoors are starting to look like plants and the things I planted outside are starting to take. Also, we started a compost pile near the garden. I have been bringing our kitchen scraps to work to compost, which gives me warm fuzzies. I'll post some photos soon.
Monday, May 18, 2009
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!
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!
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