On progress and slacking off

On Tuesday this week I finally had my project proposal committee meeting. It generally went well with a few minor additions and changes. The deadline for revised submission: today. With it all ready to sign off, my head space is very definitely moving into the summer Christmas holiday frame. The vibe everywhere is tangible: as the ambient temperatures increase, road traffic frays tempers, heart-rates thunder as shopping is done at the last minute in crowded malls. With all the people flocking from inland to the coast for their summer hols, you'd think things up here on the Highveld would calm down. But alas we have to wait for Christmas day for true peace.

As if you didn't know, Christmas holidays here in South Africa coincide with possibly the hottest month of the year. Yet we continue, in many respects, to emblazen shop windows and Christmas cards with all the European traditional pictures of Christmas with an evergeen conifer and plenty of snow. It's not like that at all! It's all about summer beach holidays, cold beers and watermelons, lazying by the pool and opening pressies in your shorty-summer jammies.

What this all means is that I'm taking a break for a few weeks. Whether you're drinking hot chocolate in front of a fire or sunning off at the beach, have a blessed Christmas! Chat again in the new year.

Research rewards

I've spent the better part of this week contemplating how I need to conduct my PhD research. The project proposal is now taking shape with the what and why questions more or less answered. Now I'm focusing on the how and when.

Part of achieving a doctorate in a field is the inclusion of something novel in the research process - a new method, a new environment, a new model. For a while now I've been considering what the novelty or cutting-edge is in my project as it grows. The concept of ecosystem acidification is not new. Neither are the methods to assess the rate of the acidifying processes. Studies in the vicinity of my study site are not unique either. What's the difference that makes the difference? Perhaps its the time aspect, in this case. Since 'acid rain' was big news not much more research has been conducted in the area and given that rates of acid deposition are more likely to have increased than decreased over time, perhaps now is a good point to re-evaluate the status of the environment. There is another option, and before I shoot my mouth off about why I think it could be valid, I just want to check up on my thinking.

The point of today's ramblings? I'm making progress even if that progress is main based on question about how to move forward. Even though the mid-November deadline looms large, after Mary's inaugural lecture last night I am feeling energised and I have been reminded exactly why I'm back here and why I'm working with Mary and why I'm doing what I am. So now it's back to anthropogenic acidification and it's impact on water quality. Or as I framed it the other day: saving a small bit of the world in small chunks.

The adventures of a people watcher.

When last did you go people watching? Here follows my report of a recent field trip.

Ten empty tables. Delicate chattering from the minority of tables with company. The picture is different to the normal frenzied crowding, and it's about to change. Passers-through pick up an early lunch and before I see it seats have emptied. The clock laboriously ticks closer to lunch. More of the table-sitters change. I notice now at the table next to mine, a brand new copy of a book "The dirty work of democracy" - the pages unturned and the book unopen as the patron reads something else. Perhaps the owner is incognito working as a marketer in a publishing house. With that kind of catchy title isn't a University coffee shop the perfect place to leave a volume to market itself?

The clicking of a pair of hard-heeled shoes breaks the thought thread. Where was I ? Oh right - democracy. What a cosmopolitan mix of staff and students, black and white and shades between. I guess it's human nature to categorise. Is the white boy hanging out with the Indian kids dirty democracy or is it all irrelevant as long as we're talking to each other and accepting of each other? The pigeon pecks at the leftover croissant crumbs on the floor. The calmness of his gathering is in stark contrast to the animated discussion 2 tables away. The words unclear, the wild gestures expressing volumes from way across the room.

Yet another table empties. A warm greeting from a passer-through I know. The democrat prepares to leave and in on fluid movement is away. The movement stirring the air and in wafts the pungent odour of cigarette smoke from outside and the thought of returning to more demanding tasks surfaces and retreats. I've seen the old guy here before. He wipes down the table with a serviette and takes his seat with his Exclusive Books bag and a double espresso. His suit and tie are as regular customers as he is. His slight stoop and frail frame belie the experience and knowledge contained within his scarcely covered head. Out the bag comes today's newspaper and a homemade sandwich. An old man from the old school.

The fickle weather expresses itself inside by the range of clothing worn by the patrons. Those that arose late, sport summery fashions. Those that awake before this face of the earth turned towards the sun, carry jerseys and jackets and live with closed shoes and long pants. Maybe it's the those who watch the weather channel and those who watch the weather. More aromas drift through the passages, this time its bacon and more tables fill - it's almost tea-time (or noon as it's better known). A thirty-minute breather between hurrying and scurrying between lectures, lunch meetings and reality. Youthful exuberance filling the air with laughter and increasingly loud chatter.

The guy in the red shirt expect company, his constant twittering and glancing at all the passers-by tells me this. A noon meeting as he waves to his guest. In fact closer inspection reveals him to be the campus guest and his client the local. Selling insurance? All the signs concur.

We're down to 4 open tables - all wobbly and uneven and missing chairs that have been moved to support the growing gatherings at other round tables. One of the tables is being used by the signwriter changing the ad in the lightbox mounted on the wall. As the noise levels grows to an almost intolerable level, I decide this field trip is over for now. The learnings indicate that I'm still observing. Imagination and focus required to pick a particular story and run with it are still strolling behind me. It's time to go and I walk past the noon meeting, signwriter, old man and the corner table now stands empty. For a short while.

No news is good news.

Well in some cases this statement is true. Whenever I think about this statement I recall a certain field trip in 1996 down to the south coast. I was perplexed by the behaviour of most of the other girls on the bus. Given that this was before the days of cell phones in South Africa, these girls would phone home every time the bus stopped for a comfort break. And while on our 10-day adventure, these same folk would phone home whenever they were in reach of a tickie-box.

Back then I knew I was different. Not only did I not feel the urge to phone home, I left home without my wallet. It was an all expenses paid, 'cept spending money. And my family knew that no news was good news and that there'd be plenty of stories to hear when I made it home. In fact I think if I did call they probably would have been more worried in case something awful had happened.

The reason for the long introduction is simple. I've been so busy on both projects, that I've scarcely had chance to think about a new blog entry, never mind actually blogging. See no blogging can also be good blogging.

As for a progress report, writing seems to be coming much easier. All the reading over the last few months must have paid off. Have about 6 or 7 pages of a project proposal simmering away too. What is also working out is the mental distinction between the two projects. I have found that spending a few consecutive days on each project means I can focus just on that and then switch as necessary. Although the division of labour has been a little unbalanced, this can be rectified soon. Included in the last 2 weeks activities were 2 presentations for the Engineering project, one on Tuesday last week to RandWater and one last Friday to the Water and Health group at UJ. One more coming up on the 6 October and then hopefully all remaining public appearances this year, will be related to my PhD.

More news when there is news.

It's been a while.

Just start writing and see where it leads. After getting into a little bit of (let's call it...) trouble with my supervisor, I have been working, *koff* reading, hard. The trouble is that I need to submit a project proposal, explaining the big picture of my project and chunking down to the knitty-gritty science of it all. I am required by University rules to submit this document to the people in charge, by early November. Good thing I cottoned on to this deadline a few weeks back, it could have been worse.

However there has been progress. Not much on my PhD as yet, other than mounds of reading and starting a reference library to keep track of everything I've been reading. The most obvious progress has been on my other part-time job / reasearch / MPhil in Civil Engineering. The project is now off the ground I have some initial data which could actually make it into the early part of a paper or report or dissertation. All of what I've got so far has a deadline of early September.

What I've found over the last day or so is that inspiration for writing all of this up, (and a blog in between) is not plucked out of nowhere. It's simply a state where I find that the words appear, initially by force and logical thinking and then by some magical mysterious power they just come to be, written in shorthand somewhere.

My wild ideas about having things organised in order for something to be written (the downside of having been an operations manager) is rather short sighted. And I should know better. So over the next few days, this'll all be about consciously accessing a state of writing, where necessary reaching for a dictionary or thesaurus to access an extend vocabulary too. Hopefully be the end of next week there'll be a real and tangible something appearing out of all the time I've spent reading.

Thanks for reading... I have some writing to do.

One of those days

I'm sure you've also had one of those days. When nothing helps you get an edge. And progress takes the backseat to procrastination. I've not only had a day like that, it's been more like two weeks. However it's not necessarily been procrastination that's been the driver, it's been bureaucracy.

It would be easy to admit that today has been another day of lack of progress, but I'm not so sure it would be truthful. I have just spent a gruelling 3 hours filling in an online application for funding for 2007. Let's hope that the 3 hours pays off and I get the funding next year. Why you may ask? It's almost double the normal funding that I could expect from my project supervisor. I'm a firm believer that students can always do with more cashflow.

Considering all the time spent filling in forms and sorting out claims and so forth, I have decided that: One. It's good to start a new degree the same time as everyone else... then everyone is filling in the same forms and whinning about the same stuff - to use the Tax Department's phrase: Filing Season. And Two: It's no wonder that doing a PhD takes on average longer than the 3 years it's supposed to. That over-time is spent on passing through red tape.


So with only the hardcopy paperwork to wrap up on this, the first application of filing season, I hope the others go smoothly and the time spent is worth it at the other end - the paycheck end.

Hopefully more about the project soon. On the bright side, the application has taught me how little I actually know about the finer details of my own project!

Todays Vocab Word : Amphoteric
In chemistry, an amphoteric substance is one that can react as either and acid or a base. Examples include amino acids, proteins and water. Many metals, such as zinc, tin, aluminium and beryllium, have amphoteric oxides.

What's mine is mine.

Friend C and I were chatting yesterday about the possible content that I had planned on including in my posts. The issues of copyright and intellectual property were raised and I got thinking if I'll be able to meet my original intent of publishing results, findings and thoughts uncovered on my PhD journey, through this medium.

I approached Friend AuE for his advice. He has more web publishing experience than I do and thus I respect his views. With his advice, I have decided to re-think the intent of publishing and prolific writing through the medium of a blog, and to further investigate facilities for private posts and so forth.

I'm off to reassess things. What I do know is that I am confident that this will grow and change as I make even more progress with my project. I'm excited to see where this takes me.

Special thanks to Friends C and AuE for probing my neurons into making more connections and consuming more glucose. *bow*

Today's Vocab Word : Stoichiometry

... is the calculation of quantitative, measurable relationships of the reactants and products in chemical reactions.

Where to start?

Well I guess starting at the begining, or what may simply be a point in time where we choose to start our story. I've had this blogger account for about 2 weeks now, mentally working on the opening pitch, so to speak. A friend yesterday reaffirmed a position / thought of mine about writing things like essays, which can easily be transferred to blogs too, that for most of us we need to find that zone, where writing just flows. Sometimes finding, the zone, is equal to being forced by some deadline or purpose.

So our story begins with me wanting to learn how to write prolifically. As I start my PhD, I'm reminded about how labourious writing up my MSc and subsequent papers was, especially in terms of finding a zone. The idea was that I now find a ways to switch a mobile writing zone on, before thousands of data points and statistics spin Terrifirma into a writing wobble.

I got thinking about how to, everyday, make some contribution, document some finding, about what I had learned or discovered that day and keep it somewhere as a log of my entire PhD. Then writing up is merely a case of assimilating those daily writings and Bob's Your Uncle or something like that. Well at least I hope so.

Can you see now where this is going?

Having had some intimate exposure to let's call it web presence, in an old life, a personalised blog seemed the way to go. And this is only the start. I have a few big ideas of what I want to address each day in this process, but there's room for organic unplanned growth. Stick with me and let's see how this pans out.