What happened to me?

For the last few weeks I've felt not quite myself: overwhelmed and more of a half-empty outlook compared with my normal half-full perspective. Some of this feeling I attributed to the Fifa 2010 World Cup mayhem and foolishness and I wanted nothing to do with it. "Soccer's not my game" I've said over and over. So what happened today, hours before kick-off, that got me so excited: tweeting posting googling sharing whooping and giddy? I've always called myself a Proud South African and I guess today my 'gees' is based on the fact (it is now a fact) that we're pulling off a feat many people, other Saffas included, didn't think we could pull off. Dang those stadia look good and the Gautrain runs and the airports are impressive and the weather is sunshiny.

We still have issues of slow development, poverty, lack of service delivery, crime, potholes, litter and really bad road driving habits. So today I'm going to again adopt a half-full perspective and state that maybe this showcase of national spirit and unity may be a surge to solving these issues sustainably.

Maybe I get to have this spirit-filled attitude because I decided weeks ago to stay out of public areas and off the roads today. A good decision that was too, considering how Wits has become the Jozi Soccer Central - hosting 2 teams training camps, an international media centre and park-and-ride facilities. All this to the exclusion of the PG students and staff who have not taken (cannot take) vacation time to revel in the celebrations or get away from the busy-ness. Well if I can't work because of these restrictions I may as well blog.

Whoa! it's here - I'm feeling it. We'll start a new count down at 16:00 today: counting down until this all ends and we can return to a life forever changed and hopefully more normal. Welcome WC2010! I'll say it while I feel it - it may only last a moment.

Could this be me?

I always wondered if the safety-net of the postgrad life I remembered at Wits was part of the reason I came back to do my PhD. Now I see the symptoms in this recent Piled Higher & Deeper strip.



Some context: The good doctor has told Cecilia that she's allergic to her thesis and also to reality outside of her research manifest after seeing fellow students graduate. Use the 'previous' button on this link to see the 4 previous strips if you need more context. I ♥ PHD Comics :)

So if this thread is to be believed, when will I show symptoms of allergy to my work? Does avoidance of deadlines count?

Travel tales, Part 1 - Edinburgh

That's Edin-bur-ah, not Edin-berg. Well it took me 2 days to find someone who spoke with any kind of Scottish accent! So the "bur-ah" vs "berg" story was relayed to me via an American delegate at the Nitrogen deposition workshop I attended. What a culturally diverse city with many many foreign nationals doing the business end of dealing with the public. To start with the young lady in customs at Edinburgh airport (story to be told in person to protect the not so innocent) had family in South Africa, but she hadn't been to visit them yet. And then the hotel I stayed at, on the dodgier side of town, had staff mainly from Eastern Europe. And the lady at Subway(TM) who was from some part of Asia and I struggled to understand her - although she probably wondered where I was from too. I later found out that there are a lot of young Polish people moving to the UK looking for work. The point-at-item-when-there's-no-other-option-system is well in place in Edinburgh.

The weather was typically fine, and much warmer than I expected, for the 3 days we were cooped up inside for meetings. Then the wet weather arrived with a serious gust of wind that blew for the next 1.5 days until I left. I felt really sad for the people in South West Scotland who had their neighbourhoods washed away. At least I could get a train down the east coast and not be too affected by the flooding.

I did find a way to spend some time in the wet weather before I left on the train; possibly one of the most amazing museums I've ever visited, Our Dynamic Earth. Loved the interactive style, touching an 'ice-berg' and being shaken by an earthquake, being sprinkled by a rain-shower in the rain-forest and being an astronomer for 20 mins.

Some photos are in a collection on Flickr.

Oh the workshop went well too: met lots of new contacts, got good feedback on the research our group is doing, and good feedback on my talk too.

I *gasp* can't *gasp* stop

I've been working through another book by Cecile Badenhorst in order to get to my publications for my PhD write up (describing the process of writing an article for publication). One of the golden rules in her book is: Writing begets writing. I had a very real experience of this yesterday. I'm retyping here what I wrote in my writing journal[1].

19 May, 09:30
" All the thoughts running through my head now want their own 15 mins of fame and be idolised on paper. They need to get out! Release is what they crave! How do I sort? Filter? Settle my mind to focus on ideas that right now mean progress towards a goal? Can we get to channelling creative thoughts soon please, Cecile?

I love this state! I need to use fine sandpaper or something to refine it into avenues that are a little more distinct.

There's an underlying caution that I'll write down stuff buried so far beneath the layers of sedimentary knowledge and emotions and feelings and thoughts. We could have a volcanic-like eruption of words that could have serious repercussions. Is this an early warning system to save the inhabitants? Does it matter? Bury the emotions or live with them and work with them. Colonise the lava fields. Rich volcanic rock makes for fertile ground for further life, words, emotions and thoughts.

Carry on writing."

On the next page in the book: "How and what you write is a choice" (Badenhorst, 2007:9). I chose to write this one in more than just my note book. More insight to follow. Really loving writing and looking forward to directing it in more purposeful ways.

[1] Yes she advocates writing, not typing, for many reasons and advises that all writing should be on coloured paper, in felt-tip coloured pen and only ever in the landscape position - no lines allowed!

What relief!

The whole idea of this blog was to provide experience for writing up my PhD results. I had a crisis of intellectual property faith early on and realised that this may not be a useful or ethical purpose. My intention for this exercise then became one of keeping the 3 readers out there up to date with my progress and as a way of practising my writing skills hoping that this would spill over into writing up my PhD.

Officially, today is the first day of my write up. It's very early days yet. This week's focus means that I'll spending time thinking about my major findings so far, how they can be moulded into publishable papers and how to represent the data so that they tell the story appropriately. And then I get on to actually writing the stories.

I can 'see' two papers so far. There's still some work to be done and data to be untangled and models to buid and test. In spite of this, I feel good that I'm getting somewhere now. Really proud of myself today. Yay! I'm sure this feeling will pass soon enough but it's worth remembering now and for when frustration and confusion bear down their weight.

This is like my Comrades marathon. Right now I've been on the road about 7 hours and only 4 to go.

Excel carpal-tunnel

Nothing like early on-set carpal-tunnel syndrome as a result of number crunching in Excel. Today's been a data day and I've realised part of the reason I am so easily distracted on data-days: because with all the "shift+ctrl" +"ctrl+V" combinations my wrists take a beating. So much for speeding things up using keystrokes instead of the mouse. *clicky clicky* The distractions are often wrist breaks and they do help break the monotony of almost 2000 of the same keystrokes for just one page in a spreadsheet.

Just blogging this I'm intentionally dancing my fingers around the keyboard and flexing different muscles. I've seen people after carpel tunnel ops and it ain't pretty. *stretch, yawn, flex*

The positive spin on this is that I'm actually crunching numbers all to draw graphs so that I can formally unpack my results. There's a pearlescent lining here somewhere.

With gratitude

One of the best things about reading theses and dissertations is reading the acknowledgments. It's about finding out a little bit about the writer, who thereafter is usually referred to in the third person and past tense. As though some amorphous mind created and engineered a piece of work that now contributes to the body of science. In my humble opinion it's never as simple or removed from reality as that. I guess that's where the tradition came from - including a page or so recognizing those who assisted along the way.

I have recently learned that it's more surprising to find yourself, at that point in time - the reader, mentioned.

Claire - I didn't read your whole dissertation. And I probably only gave the acknowledgments a cursory glance. However it is praise indeed that I made a very honorable mention, especially for all the 'computer stuff'. LOL! *bow* Thank you for the nod.

And most importantly: Congratulations on the submission of your MSc. A grand achievement indeed. Now while your work is in the system, you get some well earned time-off. Let your brain rest so that you can start your doctorate at some yet-to-be-decided-UK-university, refreshed and rearing to go.

Welcome to the club of esteemed scientists.


Todays Vocab Word : Secchi depth (pronounced "secky") a measurement that indicates water clarity.