Don't give me shit and call it ice cream.

A friend of Eastern European origin once shared this phrase with me, and I love it.

I'm currently trying to turn shit into ice cream in the form of my next chapter/paper. It's the least interesting part of my of my Ph.D. work. The data were collected mainly to provide baseline information for another study, but it took so much effort that I wanted to get something more from it (remember the counter I had going on my sidebar a while back? it's that project). Unfortunately, some of the findings contradict one of the main conclusions from the first chapter/paper, and I think it's because the design of this second study kind of sucks. However, I can't just say that, nor can I present explicitly contradictory data. For one thing, I don't want to completely undermine the ongoing study before I even collect the data from it.

So, what to do? The design has specific weaknesses that are quite common in my field. But honestly, I think that the natural phenomenon I am trying to describe interacts with those weaknesses in a way that enhances them. When others have tried to address the same question, they sometimes find result A, occasionally find result B, and sometimes find no difference between A and B. I think I need to take a look at the experimental design that generated each result to see if there are trends. Perhaps result A is only possible to detect if you have the proper design? Maybe all the studies that find B or no difference use this common, yet crappy design? I suppose that would be sort of interesting.

Just work already

My internet connection drives me crazy. It works just fine until we get a visitor who wants to connect to our wireless network. Almost without fail, the new computer boots my computer off the network. It then takes an hour-long phone call to the router tech support in India to get it to work again. Although incredibly patient, the tech people sometimes don't know how to fix the problem and will just kind of hang up on me. Then I have to call back the next day and, hopefully, get someone who can figure out what to do. None of them seem to be able to fully explain the underlying problem, but it seems to be something to do with interference with assigning IP addresses.

We had a visitor last week from Far Off Land whose laptop stole the internet from my laptop and I only just now got it working again. However, the things the technician had me do this time seemed familiar, so maybe the next time this happens (and I'm sure it will happen again), I'll be able to do more trouble shooting on my own.

Holding my breath

When I submitted my paper earlier this year, my mom said, "I'm sure it will be accepted -- you're so smart!"

Now, I know she was trying to be positive and encourage me, and since she doesn't have any experience with science publishing, it was really the best she could come up with. But I responded, "don't say that, because by that logic if it gets rejected it will mean that I'm not so smart." She said, "oh. yeah. well, I hope it gets accepted."

It's kind of funny when people try so hard to say something really nice and it just comes out all wrong. My poor mom probably felt like there was no winning.

***************

I've already written here that the paper didn't get accepted, but I was invited to submit anew after revisions. The revisions were tricky, and then it took months for my co-authors to sign off on the revised manuscript. It's now under review again and I really hope it gets accepted. If it fails again, there is little hope that I can get it turned around and accepted elsewhere before I graduate. Plus, the journal's impact factor has risen significantly since I submitted the paper the first time such that it is now one of the highest in my field. This is the part of my PhD work with the broadest appeal, so I think it is my only chance for a paper in a high-ish IF journal for the time being. Wish me luck! In a better way than my mom.

One of the reasons I'm ready to not be a student anymore

I doubt I will go through another six-year period without finishing any project. At least I hope not.

The meeting

Thanks for all of your concern about my travel drama. I made it to the meeting the next day with a couple of hours to spare. My luggage didn't make it on my flight, but they delivered it to my hotel before I wanted to go to bed, so no harm done. That day was about as stressful as I imagined, but I got through it with no major bumps.

Our special session went much better than my travel. The speakers all basically talked about what we wanted them to cover, and we mostly stayed on time. I had the unenviable job of moderating, including cutting off famous scientists when they went on too long. I hated doing this, and won't volunteer to do it again if I can avoid it. On the other hand, we got some good feedback about the session. We have even been invited to write a couple of summary/commentary type reports for publication, which is very exciting. The due dates are really soon, and neither of us really have time for another writing project, but I think it will be quite worth it.

My poster didn't get too much traffic, but I felt fine about that. It was directly after the session and I was too worn out from the travel anxiety and stress of running the session to be interested in answering questions. What's more, it was based on the least interesting chapter of my diss. So whatev.

The social aspects of the meeting weren't as good as they have been in past years, partly due to the geography of the location, I think. Still, I got to see some old science friends, meet a few new ones, witness an ass-shaking contest (abhorrent), and I got a couple of post doc leads. We'll see what comes of those.

In all, it was a successful meeting for me. I'm glad it's over, as I always feel when I return from travel. The weeks leading up to a trip are filled with conversations ending with, "after I get back from the meeting, I'll do x". It's nice that things should settle down now so we can all get some meaty work done.

Overbooked

I should be on an airplane right now. Unfortunately, my flight got canceled due to mechanical problems or something. There were absolutely no seats available on flights to my destination, or to the next nearest city. There were no seats on my airline, nor any other airline. There were no seats from the airport I from which I was meant to depart, nor from the next closest airport, nor from any airport within a 4-hour drive. Only the leg of my journey from here to layover city was affected, but there were no seats to layover city in time for the final leg of the flight. There was just no way to get me to Conference City today. At all. Could I BE any more pissed?!

So, my first airline refunded half my fare and I booked a new flight myself on Southwest, which apparently does not have ticket agreements with the other airline. Thus, I had to pay for the ticket, which was $185 more than my original fare. I will get to Conference City around 9 am. Our special session, which I am moderating, starts after lunch. I should make it with enough time, but I will feel rushed and tense instead of (sort of) relaxed and in control. The original plan was to arrive around 3 pm today, go to the hotel, and finalize details for tomorrow with my friend/session co-organizer. We were going to decide exactly what I'd say at the start and end of the session, what she would say after the break, what we hoped to achieve if we got time to meet with the speakers later in the day. She was going to practice her talk for me, since I am more expert in parts of her project than she is (it's new to her, but is my bread and butter). I was also going to have time to iron my clothes for the week, suss out what talks to see, and have dinner with other scientist-friends. Instead, I'll arrive in the morning, rush to the hotel to drop off my bag if I have time, or else go right to the conference center. I have to register, hang my poster (which is also scheduled for tomorrow), attend moderator training, finalize the deets with my friend, eat lunch, and get to the session. It will all be fine, I'm sure, but not how I wanted it to go. Stupid airplane.

Working

Things have been going really well the past several days, but it feels like work is a series of ups and downs. I got some feedback on that interminable paper which, although constructive, really challenged me psychologically. I tackled the comments, but it was difficult and I felt like I was working in slow motion.

Then last week someone at my work organized a writing group for grad students. He suggested that we make a time line coupled with weekly work plans with tasks assigned to each day. We buddied up, and then created these work plans in Google docs, which we share with our buddy.

This system has been amazing so far. I have been getting so much done, even on the weekend when I typically only fake work. I know what I need to do each day, so I don't spend any time deciding what I feel like doing next. It also helps to have something to aim for each day. Perhaps most valuable, it gives me a way to gauge my progress, which I find extremely difficult with writing. The tasks are supposed to be broken down into chunks that should take no more than a couple of hours, although many of mine have been larger than that. Still, it has made what used to feel like an overwhelming volume of work seem manageable.

I have had good results in the past by making weekly plans, especially when I share them with a buddy for accountability. But this is the first time I have taken the effort to actually plan the work day-by-day, and I think it has made a difference. I haven't been doing it all that long, and I'm preparing for a conference next week which always ups my motivation, so we'll see if I keep up the momentum long-term. I might be blogging about this prematurely.

I thought you might like to see an example of what I mean, so here is my work plan for this week. Items in gray are complete. I'm not sure I can get through all the Chapter 2 writing I scheduled, but I figure it's good to aim a little high. I left some play in the schedule for Friday in case some of the writing spills over or if there are problems with poster printing.

Tasks to complete by July 31:

• Finish and print poster
• Finish Chapter 1 paper revisions
• Discuss revisions with RA
  
• Finish new cover letter for paper revisions
• Email revised paper and cover letter to coauthors
  
• Set up work space for new lab protocol
  
• Do trial protocol on practice samples if reagent arrives and I have permission from safety committee
• Draft Results and Discussion of Chapter 2 paper. Organize remaining tasks.
• Plan meeting session intro/moderation
  

July 27

• Set up work space for new lab protocol
  
• Finish paper revisions; list items to discuss with RA
  
• Email graphics people about poster printing
  

July 28

• Revise poster; email to coauthors
• Polish figures for Chapter 2 paper. Embed in paper.
• Draft Chapter 2 results
  

July 29

• Discuss revisions with RA. Get cover letter comments from RA.
• Draft bloogle section of Chapter 2 discussion
• Start trial samples for new protocol
  

July 30

• Complete Chapter 1 paper revisions
• Finish trial samples
• Polish poster
• Draft bloggle section of Chapter 2 discussion
• Draft bloogle vs. bloggle section of Chapter 2 discussion
  

July 31

• Print poster
• Email revised paper and cover letter to coauthors
• Wrap up trial
• Assess progress on and create plan for finishing Chapter 2 paper
• Make plan for week of Aug 10

Aug 1

• Shop, laundry, pack for meeting
• Complete personal schedule for meeting
• Script brief introduction for session I'm moderating
  

Aug 2

Travel to meeting