Mandatory Meeting of the Minds

I thought I would take a moment to complain.

This evening, I am required to go to a "mandatory" meeting for all of the grad students in my department. The topic of the meeting is "professional development".

Here are a few reasons why I'd like to complain about this (here, on a blog, rather than to the grad advisor in charge, whose signature I need in a few weeks) :

• It's until 7pm, and I have an hour drive home.
• The woman in charge of the whole thing is hardly the model of professionalism.
• The students that actually need help with the whole grad school thing don't realize it and will not take this seriously.
• Perhaps too little, too late.
• How is it "madatory", if there are no consequences for not attending?

Thanks, I feel better now.

2010 already? It's gonna be a CRAZY year!

I haven't blogged since LAST year!

While I haven't been updating my goals, I have been working very hard towards them.

Ry & I spent a very nice holiday with his family and then traveled to Buffalo for a week to hang out with my family (maybe, someday, I will get around to some photos on here). We spent time with the niece & nephew, hung out with family and friends, and even managed to do a few things for the wedding (officially less than a year now!!!!)!

As soon as we got back home, I went into crazy work mode, preparing for a BIG committee meeting. While there was an opportunity for it to be an amazing success, it did end pretty well. But resulted in lots of work that I need to do NOW, NOW, NOW! If I want to graduate in May ...

While freaking out about graduation, I am still waiting to hear about a job. I have applied to a few dozen places now and am just hoping to hear SOMETHING at some point! I will soon start looking in to other types of work!

So the next few months will be busy, busy, busy, with a dissertation, finding a job and getting ready for the wedding!

Good thing I like to be busy!

Yikes! Mid-December Update

The month is half-over, and here is how the goals are coming along:

• Finish draft of Experiment 1 paper and get it to advisor (ASAP!)
  Done! The draft is complete and it is off to the advisor. He told me yesterday that he "forgot" he was supposed to be reading it. Sigh.
• Collect HALF the data for Experiment 2
  I have started collecting data .... but have a LOT more to go!
• Finish getting replicates for Experiment 2 (just 1 or 2 more!)
  If my fish would just ... lay eggs ... I would be a happier person.
• Start draft of Experiment 2 paper
  It's in my head, just not written down yet!
• Finish getting replicates for Widow paper (3 more!)
  Again ... if my fish would just f...
• Get CR field paper from co-author, edit & submit
  This is really starting to annoy me. I wrote up this paper on data from another scientist ... and got it to him 6 weeks ago ... and he hasn't even bothered to look at it yet. If I don't get a response about it in the next week, I am going to have to get on this guy!
• Apply for 1 more job (until post doc season starts)
  Actually managed to apply for 2, but hope more will be posted and will be able to apply to those too! I am really hoping to hear something good about all of these applications soon!

Here's hoping I have a super productive week and get a crazy amount of work done before Christmas and traveling to Buffalo for New Years! I have a committee meeting in 4 weeks and have to convince my committee to let me graduate in May. So I gotta get my ass in gear!

My current life ...

... Exactly.

(**Except exchange the peaceful walk to work with a peaceful 1-hour commute)

Chatterbox x3?

The chair of the graduate committee just informed me that I "owe" the department 3 seminars next semester. That's 3 hours of talking about my research.

Now ... I love me some powerpoint presentations.

But does anyone really want to hear about fish behavior for 3 hours? Really??

December Goals

It's only 3 days into December, but I am totally distracted by Christmas and other non-work things! It is time to get serious!!

Here are this month's (far too ambitious) goals:

• Finish draft of Experiment 1 paper and get it to advisor (ASAP!)
• 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 (3 more!)
• Get CR field paper from co-author, edit & submit
• Apply for 1 more job (until post doc season starts)

I need to have a committee meeting in January and give a seminar in February, so I need to stay on track! And avoid the distractions of Christmas and wedding planning!

November is over!

I blinked and November is gone!

Here are those goals I set for myself:

• 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)!

I'm giving myself a score of 57.167%. Not great, but I am giving myself 10 extra bonus points for each of two goals: (1) Not only did the Pesky Thesis Paper get submitted, but it was accepted! and (2) Not only did I apply for the fellowship for the Spring semester, but I was awarded the fellowship!!! Yay! With those bonus points, I am at 77%, which I think is outstanding!

Let's see how December goes!

InaDWriMo2009 = failed

Well, the month is over and I did not accomplish my writing goal of 10,000 words. But, reading over at Brazen Hussy, I see that I am not the only one.

I would have liked to finish, but I don't feel too bad about it. This month was full of some personal things that decreased work production. So, I feel like I accomplished a lot, given my distractions.

Hopefully, I will get my writing done this month! I'm gearing up for my December Goals post, so you'll see what I want to get done before Christmas!