'Little' 10!

I am so happy about science write now (which is not something I have been able to say lately)!!!

I just got a paper accepted!!! YAY!!

I am even more excited because it was the Pesky Thesis Paper that has haunted me for more than 4 years!!

The paper is on the behavior of every scientist's favorite fish, so I thought it just had to be published at some point. But this paper has been rejected so many times that I actually lost count (I am not being cute ... I really lost count ... it has to be 4 or 5 times now ... in various forms). But now, after my old advisor got asked to be part of a special issue in an international journal, and he re-wrote some stuff, and his student did some more tests ..... it was accepted for publication! Without revisions!!!!!! YAY!!!!

And, as a milestone, this is officially my 10th paper!

It doesn't count toward the Big 10 that my current advisor challenged me to get, but it is still 10 for me!! And I am very happy!

InaDWriMo2009 update

I am at about 44% for my November writing goal. It is quite obvious that I won't hit 100%, but it was a pretty busy month in terms of non-work things, so I am not too upset about it!

My first chapter of my dissertation is almost done. Half of it is written, the majority of the statistics are complete, half of the figures are made, and it's shaping into a nice paper that I am thinking of sending to a decent journal. It is my goal to get a draft to my advisor in 2 weeks!

I'm also waiting on a paper from my co-author who has yet to look at it, despite the fact that I sent it to him at the very beginning of November. It's the field data from a decade ago, so I suppose he is in no real rush to get it out after 10 years. But I would like to get some things in review! Let's get going people! Before Christmas!

Those were my 2 main contributions to InaDWriMo2009. Hopefully I can get the writing really going in December and January!

Reason why I work from home, #42

Today my advisor sent me a "report" to edit for him.

I spent 30 minutes fixing typos, making the punctuation and formatting consistent, and deleting half-sentences (because he likes to randomly start sentences and never finish them).

While I enjoy a good edit, I was annoyed by this editing for a variety of reasons:

1. The minor changes I made would have been fixed if he actually re-read what he wrote.
2. The content wasn't fabulous, nor that clear. But I did not put in the effort to fix it because this report is not something that is peer-reviewed, nor is my name on it.
3. My name is not on it.
4. My labmate's name is on it.
5. My labmate's name who is on it did not (to my knowledge) read nor edit it.
6. Last year, when this report was due, my name was on it, I was my boss's RA and I spent 2 incredibly late nights in my boss's office writing the entire thing and making many of the figures.

The only positive to this is that, because I am working at home, I didn't have to actually meet with my advisor to discuss this report. That would have been far worse and I doubt I would have been able to hide any frustration.

Mid-month goal post, November!

How is it mid-month already??? Jeez! I need to stop thinking about Christmas shopping and Wedding planning and get back to work!

Here's how I'm doing so far this month:

• Analyze ALL data from Experiment 1b
  I swear, this will be done THIS week! Or I will die trying.
• Write significant draft for Experiment 1 paper and send to advisor
  It's half done! Once I get the data analyzed (above) this will get finished and contribute to my final goal of the month!
• Collect HALF the data for Experiment 2
  OK ... haven't even started yet
• Finish getting replicates for Experiment 2 (just 1 or 2 more!)
  Sigh ... still waiting for my fishies to ... spawn
• Start draft of Experiment 2 paper
  Will start soon ...
• Finish getting replicates for Widow paper
  Down to the last 3!
• Assist old advisor in finishing & submitting Pesky Thesis Paper
  Submitted!!! Finally!!!! Woohoo!!!!
• Edit & submit CR field paper
  Out to my co-author ... as soon as he gets around to it, I will work like crazy to get it submitted!
• Give two guest lectures
  Done!!
• Apply for 2 more jobs (until post doc season starts)
  Done!! (Though I should apply to at least 2 more before the end of the month)
• Apply for fellowship for Spring semester
  Done!! (Please keep your fingers crossed for me! If I get this fellowship again, my final semester will be so much easier!)
• Write 10,000 words for InaDWriMo (as part of the above goals)!
  It looks like this is only minimally started, but I swear the numbers will jump in the next week or so!

Overall, I think I am doing OK this month, but I need to have a very successful week this week! Because then we have a weekend full of holiday fun and in 9 days we head to Buffalo for Thanksgiving!

400 posts!

That's correct!

This is post number 400!

From the girl, who, 4 years ago, would say "I'll totally have to write about that in my blog". Even though I didn't have a blog. Just because I thought I was hysterically witty.

Here are a few facts about 400 to brighten your day!

• The roman numeral for 400 is CD
• 400 is a self number in base 10, since there is no integer that added to the sum of its own digits results in 400
• 400 is a Lebanese card game
• The year 400 was a leap year
• On Thanksgiving day (just 14 days away), it will be 400 days until RyGuy's and my wedding!

Nephew in NYC!

It was a few weeks ago now, but it's taken me a while to upload some photos to my computer!

Nephew, my older brother and my sister in law came to visit Ry & I at our new place for the long weekend! We hung out, watched a movie, went to NYC and then carved pumpkins during football! It was lots of fun and we can't wait until they come visit again!

Here are some photos for you!

We love to ride the (staten island) ferry!

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Because it has a great view of the Statue of Liberty!!
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Nephew was sooooo excited to ride the subway ....

...then he rode it and it wasn't that exciting!
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We checked out ground zero and then made it to the Central Park Zoo before it closed!
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It was such a beautiful fall day and we had fun running in the park!
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Nephew and Uncle Ry got the same socks at the Zoo gift shop!!
Who doesn't love puffins??
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PS -- Nephew started reading Twilight!

November's Goals!

Here's what I want to accomplish this month!

• Analyze ALL data from Experiment 1b
• Write significant draft for Experiment 1 paper and send to advisor
• Collect HALF the data for Experiment 2
• Finish getting replicates for Experiment 2 (just 1 or 2 more!)
• Start draft of Experiment 2 paper
• Finish getting replicates for Widow paper
• Assist old advisor in finishing & submitting Pesky Thesis Paper
• Edit & submit CR field paper
• Give two guest lectures
• Apply for 2 more jobs (until post doc season starts)
• Apply for fellowship for Spring semester
• Write 10,000 words for InaDWriMo (as part of the above goals)!

November is also full of non-work things (like Ry's big birthday and a trip to Buffalo for Black Friday ... I mean Thanksgiving!), so I need to really work my butt off this month!

Where did October go?

My goals for October were:

• Collect & analyze ALL data from Experiment 1b
• Write significant draft for Experiment 1 paper
• Start collecting data for Experiment 2
• Finish getting replicates for Experiment 2
• Finish & submit pesky Thesis paper
• Write significant draft of CR field paper and get it out to co-authors
• Get together some lectures for a bunch of classes I agreed to teach the first week of November
• Finish applying for jobs (until post doc season starts)

OK ... so, if I again calculate out a possible 100% completion score for all goals, I am only at 68.667%. That is slightly better than September's score, but still not good!

Totally bringing down my average (with a 0% completion) is the Pesky Thesis Paper. I have sent it to my co-author and old advisor a while ago, and hope to hear back this week about getting it out SOON! I am sick of the paper and have no desire to work on it anymore, so it better get accepted this time!

The rest of my goals were a bit closer to completion. And I am hoping I'll have a much higher score for November!!! Stay tuned for new goals soon!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from RyGuy's family!

(With it being Hannah's first Halloween, Ry's sister has requested that we begin a new family tradition -- family photos every halloween!)

Happy Halloween!

This halloween we decorated quite a few pumpkins with our niece & nephew!

Ry painted a vampire Mickey pumpkin for Hannah & Hannah painted a very pretty little pumpking that she was very proud of!

When Nephew came to visit, he carved his very own pumpkin (on the left with the awesome purple glitter!) and he helped Ry & I care some too!

Hope you all had a nice halloween too!