Exam blues ... well purple

There is a saying around Wits that if you haven't started studying for exams by the time the Jacaranda's bloom then there is a good chance you may not pass the exams. Given the tendency to weight exams heavily in the overall mark, this concerns most students.



The Jacarandas on campus are old and huge and beautiful. Their purple flowers are like the shedding of a drab winter coat, coming into flower around mid-October. When exams start in the second week of November (on the normal time-table) then the warning in the myth above is enough to spur-on even some of the most recalcitrant students. However, this saying has never been more true than this year.

Exams started nearly a month early this year, making space in the timetable for the 2010 enforced shut-down in the middle of the year. So this year the start of exams coincided with the start of the purple flush. If you hadn't made an effort to study, well, uhmn, then maybe there was no hope. Exams ending, in the first week of November, will probably the coincide with the falling of the purple blooms. And then if definitely would have been too late.

Reading writing and arithmetic

I'm working on a knowledge review for the bigger project of which my research forms part of and it's due ... oh heck at the end of September. The reading part took a few months, in between my teaching responsibilities. I had done well and was ready to get writing late September. Like I said I was ready, but I was not necessarily willing. Procrastination crept in for about 2 days and I called it 'not knowing where to start'.

In popped an old visitor that I actually enjoy entertaining - arithmetic. With heaps of data to analyse at this stage of my research and a meeting with my supervisor - Mary - looming, some number crunching was far more enticing than writing.

I'd been scrabbling around with the writing for a few days and had some thoughts on paper, when Mary handed me a great little book to look over: The Scribes Journey by Cecile Badenhorst. Just reading the introduction and doing the playing with the first exercise got me excited about reformulating the bits I had done and adding the rest of the knowledge review. I also had about 8 blog ideas rush into my head at once. Mary also gave me another book by Cecile about writing a dissertation and it's already in my shopping basket at my favourite online store.

The first full draft knowledge review is now on Mary's desk for review and so should be distributed before the next project meeting early in November.

So this is what I learned through this exercise. Reading writing and arithmetic sometimes appear out of order and that's just fine. I also know that I'm OK with reading, it takes me a while to do, partly because I get distracted easily and partly because there's so much out there to read. I'm getting better at arithmetic because it's a practise game and I know I'm smart enough to get to grips with numbers and sometimes even statistics! And there's no pretending anymore, with good works like "The Scribe's Journey", writing can also be fun, freeing and painless. I also know that the first draft may be a list of ideas scribbled on some paper, it's seldom a master piece right off the bat. Just writing something gets me to what I want to say. Here's to balancing the threesome of reading, writing and arithmetic into a relatively pain-free thesis, and many more regular blog posts.

If you've got something to say, even if there's no one to say it to, write it any way. That which seems trivial to you now maybe profound only 5 minutes from now.

Doing things differently and learning new "stuff"

Ever noticed how going to a new place with new people can be great fun and filled with learning? I spent last week down on the KZN north coast with a fun filled group of colleagues, 3rd year students and Amy (a colleague's 4 year old daughter). A diverse mosaic of personalities and experience, almost as diverse as the landscape patches we were exploring: dune forests, grassland patches, sandy beaches and rocky shores. Even the weather was diverse: from a rainy beginning to hazy mornings and sunshiny afternoons. The almost gale force winds were the only constant, with only one calm day in the whole week.

What did I do differently? Well apart from engaging with a group of colleagues outside of my normal sphere of influence, I co-supervised a project on the rocky shores. I thought I knew very little about them to start with and I did compared with Jenny's astounding knowledge of marine species. But I learnt I'm a quick learner and by the end was more comfortable helping the students identify organisms. That's some of the new 'stuff' I learnt. Like that Ascidians are chordates because their larvae have notochords - pretty cool stuff to know. Thanks Jen.



You know it's a good days work when you can birding and hear / see at least 5 new species you've never identified before, have breakfast and get 'work' done on the rocky shore by 14:00 on a Friday. I'm really disappointed that I didn't get out with the small critter collector people too. Darn slippery rocks and unsteady feet. Next time Mark for sure!

Teaching a small group of enthusiastic students - in spite of having to have a late lunch and working in a howling gale - in such a novel manner is something that I did differently and got to learn a bunch of stuff about. Graham mentioned that as staff we open our personal lives to scrutiny by students on these types of field trips. Graham: thanks for being the model of professionalism while still engaging on a human level with the students.




Quick itinerary summary:

Day 1: Depart Wits Sunday 6:30. Breakfast at Wimpy in Ermelo 9:30 (yes I lead everyone on the windy-windy route - sorry!). Quick comfort and snack stop in Pongola. Interesting bumpy journey - how did you sleep through that Steve? - to Sodwana. Arrive and settle in at Sodwana Bay around 16:00.

Day 2: Breakfast and recce exploration of landscape patches. Never done about 3km hike in 45 mins! Rewarding lunch followed by project design sessions dinner and a lecture. Expedition to the rocky shores at night - fun times!

Day 3: Earlish start, breakfast and get the gear together. Start project just before low tide. Back in time for lunch and an afternoon on an adventure with Amy followed by convivial dinner.

Day 4: Game of 'keep the ball in the air' after breakfast, and head to the beach. Only calm day so project data collection was fun. So was the sand fight with Rob and slipping on the rocks and landing face first on a wet rock! Afternoon spent consoling my ego and playing with Amy, coaching her towards the "most awesome-ist sandcastle builder in the world" award. Oh and Paddle-Pops ROCK!

Day 5: As the tide got later and later so did our beach departure time, but breakfast remained at 7am. The Cheese and Wine group were concerned about missing lunch and so were motivated to do a proper job in good time to get back for lunch. Dinner was followed by drinks at the guys cottage and some entertaining commentary on rhythmic gymnastics from Beijing. The early mornings got the better of most of the staff and we all could barely keep ourselves awake enough to see SA's Odette Richards.

Day 6: Last day of data collection, latest day to hit the beach. Probably the windiest day too. More sand castle building after lunch, good dinner and a short lecture on what was expected on the last day in the field.

Day 7: Be there when Amy woke up - by personal request - with an extended story time. Breakfast and gear pack up. Got our group working with their data, watched some rugby, panic station assistance for group before their presentation. Presentations and good dinner, bit of socialising, followed by packing and fading.

Day 8: Depart Sodwana 6:50 - 10 mins early! Good cheerful drive back including some name trashing disco moves. Back at Wits just after 15:30.

Splendid trip. Cheers! to doing things different and learning new stuff.

Environmental awareness

How environmentally aware are you? Do you have a memory of who it was that first enlightened you about how humans affect their environments and not always in a sustainable way?

I am of course talking here from the perspective of our physical environments. Those which are the providers of our physical nourishment. In the shadow of the Live Earth concerts,I've been considering how I grew in awareness of human exploitation of natural resources. At a great girls out dinner in Chinatown recently, two friends were discussing their anticipation and expectations of the Live Earth concert the following evening. Ever the eco-bunny I considered going along for the 'cause' but declined on the grounds that I'm not all that into crowds and concerts.

It was at this evening that I recalled the theme tune to The Wombles - "...making good use of the things that we find, things that the everyday folks leave behind". We laughed about the fact that I actually have this theme song on my iPod and it crops up quite regularly in the song shuffle.

Seriously though, even though I only remembered one of the characters names from childhood memories of the show, I now believe that these guys are an icon of environmental awareness for me. Should I be surprised? I am a child of the 70s after all.

Thanks to The Wombles, I'll carry on recycling my household waste as I have done for many years, "even bottles and tins". It feels like I'm doing something small to "answer the call" as Live Earth are imploring us to do. Also thanks to The Wombles, one day, when I own a golden spaniel, I already have his name worked out - Orinoco!

Missed me? I was on holiday for 4 weeks. I was convinced I had blogged my leave of absence before I departed. I noticed now that I hadn't. Our holiday was only slightly too long, which has made the return of focus to my PhD a little challenging. It's only Day 2 back at the desk, so I'm treading lightly. It's not all that amusing how a short holiday can make my Action-list bulge at the seams.

In these 2 days some progress has been made - mainly financial. Considering it's June and I had not yet been paid for being here since November last year, it's high time. I'm hoping you're nodding with me.

I'm also back in the field next week. Not for my project yet, sadly, however it will be a good exercise nonetheless because it's for the bigger project that mine forms part. I'm sure this expedition will go along way to me adjusting my state of mind with respect to how far I am. Can you believe I've been doing this for a year already? Some days I wonder how I've spent all that time.

Yesterday I also heard that I have been short-listed for an associate lecture post here. This is very exciting since I applied nearly 2 months ago and was beginning to think that the lack of communication was because I was not successful this time around. The interview is tomorrow. The lecturing will actually be for those courses that my supervisor can no longer present due to her other commitments. There are 3 undergraduate courses and a Master's level course. The courses are all right up my alley of scientific knowledge and experience and should slot into my career building aspirations quite nicely, thank you. *dreamily considering my own office in these hallowed halls*

Watch out soon for some more paper-based writings of mine. I'm working on 2 for industry-related periodicals while I blog. If you can imagine the world-wide collection of scientific periodicals as a continuum, you'd see the one I'm submitting to on the layman-side for the non-technical reader. The other is sort of in the middle, scientific enough for local (South African) industry specific readers. Here's hoping that they are both accepted on submission and need no revisions. To finish the mental picture, the other end of the continuum are Science and Nature. The 'one-day' list for every aspiring scientist.

Back to building the "Published Papers" part of my resume!

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.

It seems to have slipped my mind...

One of the intensions of this blog was to include in amongst my ramblings, a Vocab word of the day. Well I noticed that it's been a while since I remembered one of those. So here's one on it's own. As a reminder token.

Todays Vocab Word : Lysimeter A device for measuring the percolation of water through soils and for determining the soluble constituents removed in the drainage.

Now it seems I have to start reading again to find some more words to keep this objective going.

The heat is on!

Somebody open the fridge door! It's been crazy hot these last few days. Which I guess is not that unseasonable, and nonetheless leaving a strong sense of discomfort. Sure feels like climate change scientists are right about it getting hotter.

And apparently there was rain last night in some areas of Joburg. Not even that far from us. Storm cells must have completely missed us. Either that or I was so tired I slept through a storm of near apocalyptic intensity. No wonder today it's humid in the city.

It's at this time of the year that I remember how pleasureable it was to be an undergrad - with 3 months summer holiday. Spending time chilling (or burning) by the pool in preparation for a challenging year ^H^H^H^H 9 months ahead, seems like a perfect way to spend 3 years. And so those days are over and we're back to the office early in January to get ahead start on our projects.

Speaking of which mine is slowly getting off the ground. This week's action list is to make contact with all those people who will be suppling some input and or data to this whole process. Then at least any delays are on their part and I can continue with my stuff. Additional good news is that the corporate financing this whole deal has finally agreed with some caveats and changes to the bigger project scope and approach. This is good news especially since I didn't get the bigger bursary I had applied for. The sad news is that the physical money may not be seen until probably June - I'm sure you have an idea of bureaucratic process in any good corporate.

One year on from leaving Obsidian and the happiness quotient is well up compared with this month 2005. The bank account is depleted rather, and it's a little inconvenient without a car of my own. Thankfully I have a fabulous mom and sister who subsidise a little and lend out their cars a lot. They will be remembered in heaven.

*raises imaginary glass* Here's to a happy, healthy and progressive year 2007!

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.