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Yesterday evening my eldest son, Al, was out working, and I figured it was an opportune time to install the new lighting I’d bought for his room.  (FYI, I’d bought it last fall–I’ve been so busy that it’s hard to get around to these things.)  

So I installed it and left it on for when he got home–he was out until after midnight–instead of the usual bedside light.  I woke up halfway when he came in, dumped his backpack on the floor, and trudged into his room.

“Oooh, Ma,” he said in an awestruck tone of voice.  ”Like!!”

I’m glad he likes it, but still…*sigh*

 

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This semester I’m in charge of mentoring JimBob. He’s a bright kid, so (as always) working with him is a breeze.

Because he’s a senior, he’s sent his grad apps in and is eagerly awaiting a reply. I wish I could have written him a letter of recommendation. If I had, it would go something like this, though maybe a bit more formal:

JimBob is a sharp guy. He is always thinking ahead: anticipating future problems, constantly asking how something he read about applies to the current situation, pondering where experiments can go next. He spots problems and fixes them before they turn into major issues. Not only does he pick up how to use new equipment quickly, he learns how to troubleshoot it as well as the most senior lab members. Best of all, he tackles everything with a marvelous sense of humor and gets along well with others.

This kid is amazing. You’d be an idiot not to take him.

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First I was going to be a TA again. Then the department decided they didn’t have room for me to TA after all. Hopes up? Hopes dashed.

Research was draggy, depressing…now is going well. Yay!

My personal life has been a bit of a roller coaster too. No details now, but let’s just say that it’s nice to finally have someone in my life again who also gives instead of just taking…

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I feel like I can finally sit down and put my feet up. Sort of.

My poster wasn’t finished until Monday–yes, after I got here–so I printed it with the Alphagraphics service that supposedly offers a discount to AGU customers.  To make a long story short, they charged me five times what I would have paid at school and did a crappy job (my bar graphs ended up being colorless!)

The poster session was good, though.  I ended up talking to most of the people whose papers I read, as well as one of the biggest names in trace metal chemical oceanography.

I think I would like to go back to my hotel, but this would involve hiking up Nob Hill, and I’m tired.  *sigh*

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I’m supposed to have the draft of my AGU poster ready in time for group meeting in a couple of hours. Instead of working on it, I am listening to one of the idols of my youth, Harry B. Gray:

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If I don’t post for a long time, it’s probably because I’m doing a lot of writing/composing. I’m always busy, but when that busy-ness is working in lab or packing for a cruise or something I like to write as a break. Whereas if I’m writing or making posters or Powerpoints or doing stuff on the computer in general, more writing seems like a drag.

Last week MacGyverina and I gave a presentation at the Colorado Science Conference, which I think was well-received. Earlier today I finally finished writing the autobiographical statement I’m supposed to give to my parental responsibilities evaluator–close to 15,000 words, though I actually wrote more. (My consultant told me to cut quite a bit out and give him the ‘short version’. I think I wrote closer to 20,000.)

I still have to finish my poster for AGU–I’m presenting two weeks from tomorrow. This will be a real pain, because Dr. Hand-Waver and I have realized that our method makes it very hard to pick out ‘good’ data sets, and I’ve been doing a lot of number crunching to try out new ways to do this.

In any case, I am alive; and hopefully now that my writing-load has eased a bit I will post more!

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Two days ago one of my cohort (yes, someone who came in at the same time as me) defended his dissertation. I’m happy for him, but at the same time I’m frustrated because none of my projects are going well right now and graduation seems to be so far off in the future.

This morning, I received the following email, which I assume came in through Academia.edu:

Dear Dr. [Unlikely]

My name is [redacted], a postdoctor in [Chinese] University in China, and I am writing to inquire about the possibility of pursuing a postdoctoral position in your research group.

I received my Ph.D. in Municipal Engineering in [Chinese] University in 2011. My doctoral research is studying on [stuff approximately related to what I do.]

Now, my research is on [very specific stuff so he can't be a random spammer, and it is actually related to my group's research objectives].

My research objectives:
1) [Environmental engineer's equivalent of the theoretical work we do]
2) [Keywords that make him sound good, like reducing carbon output]

In recent years, I have published 5 papers cited by SCI (2 of them accepted), 3 papers cited by EI and 3 papers in level key periodical of China. My CV has been attached. Thank you for taking time to consider my application.

I look forward to having the opportunity to further discuss with you how I could contribute to your organization.

Sincerely,
[Name]

I appreciate the promotion to head of a research lab, but in all actuality it’s probably going to be another two years before I get there. I foresee this as being two years of congratulating members of my cohort as they defend their dissertation, all the while trying to whip my research into shape.

Gah.

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A large portion of today has been spent trying to design my poster for the AGU conference. Note that I used the word ‘design’ rather than ‘create’. I’ve never done a poster before, so I had no idea how to even start such a thing, never mind fill it with content.

Luckily the corridor walls in my building are filled with old (sometimes as much as 10 years old) posters from other conferences. I walked around looking at designs, taking note of what I did and didn’t like.

Next I poked around the web looking for design tips. I really enjoyed the gallery at PhDposters.com which showcases some rather beautiful poster designs. Another good resource I found was the thorough (and highly amusing) essay on designing posters by Colin Purrington.

Finally I started actually trying to put my poster together. I had the poster dimensions right but no one had ever given me an idea of what appropriate font sizes might be. So I printed out a piece of paper with words: “This is 90-point, This is 72 point, This is 60 point” etc. (all in the appropriate sizes of course) and compared them to the posters in the hall. People used all sorts of different type sizes; I found 60-point too small for the poster title, though it’s perfect for contributor’s names. My title ended up in 86-point font.

Tomorrow I’ll actually start filling in content.

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My ‘depression’ posts continue to be the most popular posts in my blog, so here’s an update.

In my second post on depression someone commented that my coping mechanisms were temporary fixes only, and that I needed to get to the root of the problem. For the last 2 years or so, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing:

(1) Psychotherapy. I started out doing appointments every other week; switching to every week a year ago was incredibly helpful.

(2) EMDR. This is a therapy used for “rapid reprocessing” of traumatic events. I started this after experiencing PTSD episodes linked to stuff that had happened in my marriage.

(3) Meds. This was the last piece of the puzzle for me–my therapist is very conservative about starting people on meds, but it became clear that I needed them (for a while, at least). Of course they help me not be depressed–but they also have helped me get rid of my anxiety symptoms. EMDR became so much more effective once the meds kicked in!

This combination has been super potent for me. I’m not saying I don’t have days where I’m not a little hard to motivate (who doesn’t?), but I never get non-functional the way I used to when I was still married.

It’s kind of weird being ‘normal’ but it’s a kind of weirdness I can get used to.

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Over the past month I’ve come to realize that pretty much everyone* in the department who started grad school before me is getting ready to defend/graduate in the next six months. Which means that, by June, I’ll be one of the most senior grad students in the department.

Needless to say, I’m walking around in a state of disbelief!

*except one of my officemates