Friday = Finished

YAY!

As I said earlier in the week, I wanted a complete draft of my proposal off of my desk this week.

And, at 3:30 on Friday afternoon, I finished it!

YAY!

I know it is not really complete (I will surely think of 20 ways to change it and then get all the feedback from my advisor and (currently non-existant) committee members), but at least I now have a complete working copy. And I hope to defend my proposal (which means have a closed oral presentation with my committee) before the end of the year.

This is very exciting!! Now I will go forth and celebrate (or have some diet coke and relax with friends all night)!!



Oh, and on a side academic note -- one of my papers was cited AGAIN today. How weird is that? It's like all of a sudden my papers have become popular! 3 citations in a month -- totally weird. Maybe other scientists don't pay attention to their citation rate, but I get excited when I get cited. Maybe because I am shocked that anyone even read my paper!

Time to finish so I can start

In order to start my actual dissertation research, I need to write & defend a proposal of my research ideas.

I have lots of ideas for work I could do and I have picked a few that my advisor agrees will be good enough to get me a PhD in a few years!

But writing up this proposal is taking far too long. Far too long.

I am usually a pretty efficient writer and I have thought of many psychological reasons as to my hesitation in writing this particular piece of work. There are also a few physical reasons why it's not done (like I can't continue to write while I am teaching, grading, in meetings or in seminars for 20 hours each week). But the main reasons are all because of stupid internal things that I just need to get over.

I decided, this is the week I finish it.

Actually, Hamster Grrl shared with me our Aquarius horoscope for this week and it says that I need to finish it now!!

So, here it is, in writing. A promise that I will finish this week.

OK ... enough blogging ... I need to write a proposal ...

Sneks et al. 2006b

Wow -- my other paper got cited too!

There must be a surge of fish papers coming out right now!

Oh, the excitement in my life!!!

A few fall adventures

I just realized that I never told you all about my awesome weekend with my family OR the fun visit we had in NYC.

Luckily, Ry already wrote about both (click for family fun & click for NYC fun)!! So, I will just include a few pictures here from our fabulous fall fun weekends for you to enjoy!!!

Ry watching the Phillies game!

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

Speed Limit=50mph
Speed=0mph
(Hence the reason I moved out of Philly -- no more driving on 76!!)
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Ry & I figured out how to win on the ponnies: bet for each of them to win!
********************** Ry, Talia & "James" at the Mets game!
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I love Ferry rides!
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Heaven.
I mean, the place Talia & "James" took us for dinner! YUMMY!

A thoughtful gift

Hamster grrl is the nicest!

This morning she gave me these awesome post-it notes.

I will use the top notes for my advisor and the bottom ones for my students (and maybe some of my labmates! haha!)!

The little things that make me happy!

Filming begins!

As it has been a few weeks since I spoke of Harry Potter, I thought I would update all of you on the 6th movie!

Oh yes!

The 6th movie, Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince, began filming today!

Start the countdown to its November 21st, 2008 release!

YAY!!

Sneks et al. 2006

I just got an email that one of my papers was cited in another paper.

This happens to famous scientists every day, I am sure. (Like RyGuy and his book citations)

But I get just a bit excited when it is my paper that gets a citation! That means someone actually read my paper!!!!! And not just read it, but thought it was important enough to mention in their paper! And it's not even someone I know (usually my citations are by collaborators)!

A sad little highlight of my science-filled life!

Perhaps polio shouldn't be my only fear ...

As I was enjoying my first can of diet coke this morning after a very exciting TA meeting, I get the following email from my loving mother:

This incident happened recently in North Texas. A woman went boating one Sunday taking with her some cans of Coke which she put into the refrigerator of the boat. On Monday she was taken to the hospital and placed in the Intensive Care Unit. She died on Wednesday.The autopsy concluded she died of Leptospirosis. This was traced to the can of Coke she drank from, not using a glass. Tests showed that the can was infected by dried rat urine and hence the disease Leptospirosis. Rat urine contains toxic and deathly substances. It is highly recommended to thoroughly wash the upper part of soda cans before drinking out of them. The cans are typically stocked in warehouses and transported straight to the shops without being cleaned. A study at NYU showed that the tops of soda cans are more contaminated than public toilets -- full of germs and bacteria. So wash them with water before putting them to the mouth to avoid any kind of fatal accident.

EWWWW!! I immediately poured my diet coke into a cup.

Which will prevail: my love of cans of diet coke at work or my fear of infectious diseases???