Make it happen

Why does something that seems relatively simple on the surface always take so long to do? There is one instrument I occasionally use at the university. Since I don't use it all that often, I need help each time. Even if someone takes me through everything step-by-step, I don't repeat the process enough to commit it all to memory or to learn how to do even basic trouble shooting. Plus, by the time I use the instrument the next time, the protocol has usually changed.

This thing is a complicated piece of equipment, but it's not rocket science. There aren't that many steps to running it. Yet, it always seems to take up the whole f'ing day! I love getting the data, but using this instrument drives me crazy!

Revisions

I've spent about 75% of my work time in April on paper revisions. They really aren't all that bad, but I've had to do some literature searches, read papers, and dig out some old data to beef up the results and that all takes time. I also got log-jammed on one difficult section, but I'm think I'm over it now. I'm striving to have most of it done before Friday, when I go to Florida for a long weekend with BFF and another friend.

I've been feeling a little frustrated by working on these revisions. Of course I see this as a priority; I want to get the paper turned around as fast as possible so it gets published as soon as possible. Since I have no publications yet, I'm desperate to get this one out. But. The annoying part is that this manuscript is already dissertation quality. The changes I'm making will certainly make it much better, but it is already good enough for my diss. So instead of spending my time on the other chapters that are not yet written, I'm spending more time on this chapter to get it ready to resubmit.

I'm obviously not going to set aside the revisions in order to work on another chapter, but it is frustrating to sink yet more time into this one that could be considered done.

Are they that cool these days?

Is the photographer on ANTM wearing a t-shirt with a microarray?

Irony

I celebrated Earth Day today by ending my carpool. How lame.

I've been carpooling with the same person for about two years. It has gone pretty well overall. I have appreciated my reduced gas and car maintenance costs as well as the shared responsibility for our 35 mi one-way commute. However, my carpool buddy has to work a fairly strict schedule because of his childcare situation. The nanny for his two small children must be relieved by 5:15. That means we have to leave work by 4:00 (to give enough padding for frequent traffic jams). We're supposed to leave home at 7:00 am, which should put us at work by 7:45. But sometimes there's traffic, and dude's almost always late in the morning and on the rare days that he isn't, I am. So most days I barely get 8 hours in.

This schedule has been terrific in some ways. I sit in a lot less traffic than I used to because our schedule forces me to get up and out before the peak of rush hour and to leave work before the worst of the afternoon congestion. Also, the shorter day has made me much more efficient since I know that I can't stay late to compensate for goofing off. I'm more focused and spend much less time on the internet while at work. Those changes have been great for my quality of life.

But right now, a spare 8 hours is just not enough. I want to defend in the fall, but I still have a lot of work to do. I calculated some milestones based on a loose timeline that would get my dissertation finished by September/October. I think I'm at a point where I'll be okay if x, y, and z are done by mid-summer, but that means a big push now to get the last of my data collected and analyzed. And that means I can't carpool.

My carpool buddy seemed disappointed when I told him today, but such is life. The arrangement is more important to him than me since his family has only one car and his wife needs it sometimes. But the carpool isn't totally dead. His wife always needs the car on Fridays, so I said I'd continue to carpool two days a week so he doesn't have to drive on Fridays and I get a day in return. Plus, I only canceled through July. Who knows -- at that point, I might be burned out and welcome a return to bankers' hours.

Burrrrr!

I read Bean-mom's description of spring in the Midwest, written in her characteristically beautiful prose. She says of April, "... it is an unsettled month here in my region of the Midwest, where the weather careens wildly about, soaring into sunlight and the 70s on one day, plunging into the 30s and frost on the next." Honestly. There was hail tonight when I was driving home. There is supposed to be more fucking snow tomorrow! It's late April, dammit! I could say something nice like Bean-Mom, but really what I'm thinking is more like, "when the fuck can I finally put away my fucking sleeping bag with sleeves winter coat and be free?"

Thank god it's meant to be nearly 80 by Friday.

Fixed!

I'm back online! w00t! Evidently, the source of the problem was settings on a house guest's laptop. I couldn't fix the problem the last time I talked to tech support because the offending laptop wasn't here. But today it was, and the problem is solved. When Firefox jubilantly started google after days of failed page loads, I said, THANK YOU to the man on the phone. To which he replied "you DID it! You followed all of my instructions and now it's working!" How great is that?

More later.

Broken

My home wireless network isn't working and I'm pissed. I spent about an hour on the phone with tech support today and in the end, they just told me to call back later. Nice.

Regular blogging will resume when I don't have to sit 1 foot from the modem (I can only connect using the very short wire).