Had a nice day today, even though it involved about six hours of marking exams. My housemates took me to St. Jacob's Market (which is largely Mennonite, hence the horses and buggies on the road). I bought super garlicky hummus and red pepper jelly and lots of berries. Then we had apple fritters and coffee, and they took me to buy groceries (no hauling them home on foot!) So nice to get out of Guelph, even for a few hours... it was cold but sunny and I was so happy to get some fresh air. I don't even notice that I spend all my time in my room or at the lab until I finally get to do something else.
I'm halfway through long answer question 3 out of 6 - still hoping to have this all (or mostly all) out of the way by Reading Week so I can take the week off from TAing at least.
Saturday, 11 February 2012
Thursday, 9 February 2012
In which I am not quite THAT youthful
Two people in the last week told me they thought I was 25. I'll take it, I guess! It weirds me out a bit though. When I actually was 25, I was in Scotland, living an entirely different life - in some ways, I feel like I was an entirely different person. Odd how that goes. Never mind, it's been a fun ride one way or another.... even if the (cute) new departmental hire is a mere year older than me, with a solid academic job and a star-studded career.
The new post-doc, on the other hand, is 26 freakin' years old and gunning hard for a tenure-track position ASAP. He might do it, too. He has four times my paper count and a million NSERCs and whatnot on his record. He is hard-core.
Somebody remind me that it's not about competition and that I'm pretty freakin' lucky to have the most fun job in the world... even if it means living below the poverty line (at my age!)
That said, having a pretty fun semester so far. The big news (to me at least) is that I handed in a thesis draft last week. I was mad because it was a month later than I had hoped, but it is a huge weight off. Of course, this is only the start of the process - first my supervisor will make me change it all, and then we will send it to my committee and they will make me change it still further. Then the external examiner will tear it to shreds and then I will have to (gulp) defend it. But for the moment, it is Not My Problem until Mark sends it back. Hallelujah!
In the meantime, I am keeping myself busy with five piles of marking, four students to supervise, three side projects, two seminars to teach (and a partridge in a pear tree). I have an honours student and two internship students whose projects I'm responsible for, and one of the volunteer RAs just expressed an interest, so I've designed one for her as well. The more the merrier! I am still collaborating with Yale on a couple of things, and my labmate Tyler and I have a side project on the go that is looking really good right now. I looked at the pilot data today and am quite excited, so full speed ahead with data collection and we will see what we get.
Teaching is going pretty well too. I have two seminars and don't hate teaching them as much as I feared. They all just stare at me blankly the entire time, of course, but they do seem to be paying attention and I've just finished all the marking of that first assignment. It was kind of fun teaching them experiment design, since it's pretty much my favorite topic right now.
In other news, the new postdoc (despite inciting extreme CV-related jealousy) is totally awesome. He has single-handedly instituted Thursday/Friday Pub Night every week and for the first time in three years, I have actually met some people in the department who are not in my area. I had literally never seen these people before - sad. He also keeps inviting me round for games nights and dinner and this and that. It is glorious. On Tuesday I was at the grocery store when I ran into him and his wife, who scooped me up, bought me fried chicken and cider and entertained me until midnight before giving me and my groceries a ride home. Amazing how having ONE PERSON (okay, technically two people) in this stupid town who appear to enjoy my company and will actually go out of their way to hang out with me can have such a huge effect on my quality of life.
And the best part? One week till Reading Week, mega Del time and roadtrips! Cannot wait. I'm going to push through and work the weekend, in the hopes that by the time Del-time rolls around, I can actually take the week mostly off. Glorious!
The new post-doc, on the other hand, is 26 freakin' years old and gunning hard for a tenure-track position ASAP. He might do it, too. He has four times my paper count and a million NSERCs and whatnot on his record. He is hard-core.
Somebody remind me that it's not about competition and that I'm pretty freakin' lucky to have the most fun job in the world... even if it means living below the poverty line (at my age!)
That said, having a pretty fun semester so far. The big news (to me at least) is that I handed in a thesis draft last week. I was mad because it was a month later than I had hoped, but it is a huge weight off. Of course, this is only the start of the process - first my supervisor will make me change it all, and then we will send it to my committee and they will make me change it still further. Then the external examiner will tear it to shreds and then I will have to (gulp) defend it. But for the moment, it is Not My Problem until Mark sends it back. Hallelujah!
In the meantime, I am keeping myself busy with five piles of marking, four students to supervise, three side projects, two seminars to teach (and a partridge in a pear tree). I have an honours student and two internship students whose projects I'm responsible for, and one of the volunteer RAs just expressed an interest, so I've designed one for her as well. The more the merrier! I am still collaborating with Yale on a couple of things, and my labmate Tyler and I have a side project on the go that is looking really good right now. I looked at the pilot data today and am quite excited, so full speed ahead with data collection and we will see what we get.
Teaching is going pretty well too. I have two seminars and don't hate teaching them as much as I feared. They all just stare at me blankly the entire time, of course, but they do seem to be paying attention and I've just finished all the marking of that first assignment. It was kind of fun teaching them experiment design, since it's pretty much my favorite topic right now.
In other news, the new postdoc (despite inciting extreme CV-related jealousy) is totally awesome. He has single-handedly instituted Thursday/Friday Pub Night every week and for the first time in three years, I have actually met some people in the department who are not in my area. I had literally never seen these people before - sad. He also keeps inviting me round for games nights and dinner and this and that. It is glorious. On Tuesday I was at the grocery store when I ran into him and his wife, who scooped me up, bought me fried chicken and cider and entertained me until midnight before giving me and my groceries a ride home. Amazing how having ONE PERSON (okay, technically two people) in this stupid town who appear to enjoy my company and will actually go out of their way to hang out with me can have such a huge effect on my quality of life.
And the best part? One week till Reading Week, mega Del time and roadtrips! Cannot wait. I'm going to push through and work the weekend, in the hopes that by the time Del-time rolls around, I can actually take the week mostly off. Glorious!
Sunday, 22 January 2012
P.S.
There is a magnet on the fridge at the new house that reads:
Having someplace to go is HOME
Having someone to love is FAMILY
Having both is a BLESSING
(I'm sure you can picture the cutesy font and floral background).
It is taking all the self-control I have not to add an extra line underneath:
Having none of the above is GUELPH
Never mind! I will just have to make sure that I do what I have to go to get out fast...
Having someplace to go is HOME
Having someone to love is FAMILY
Having both is a BLESSING
(I'm sure you can picture the cutesy font and floral background).
It is taking all the self-control I have not to add an extra line underneath:
Having none of the above is GUELPH
Never mind! I will just have to make sure that I do what I have to go to get out fast...
New Year, New House, New Students... New Thesis Draft?
So, new house. I moved in straight off the plane from Alberta, at about midnight on a Monday. It took me two days to meet any housemates, so that was deeply weird. Luckily there is a super chatty one called Kate who caught me leaving on the third day and gave me the lowdown.
New House Pros:
- SO CLOSE TO WORK. I am still excited about this. I used to walk past this place every day and then keep walking for 40 minutes until I got to 127. Now, if I forget something at home/school, it's no big deal! I could even COME HOME FOR LUNCH! (not that I ever do).
- Someone is designated to clean! That person does not require nagging! The bins even get taken out and the toilet paper replaced. Heaven.
- If something is broken, in theory someone will come fix it. About to test this out with a burnt-out lightbulb, as soon as my room is in a state that I'm not embarrassed to let the landlord in :/
- Big huge window. Natural light rather than a view of next-door's hallway: bliss!
- Never see housemates unless I want to, and way less kitchen and bathroom crowding than you would expect.
New House Cons:
- That one weird dude who told me he's been "watching my room to see when my light would come on" right after I moved in. (Have avoided the heck out of him since). Creepy, or just slightly socially awkward? I don't necessarily care to find out. Luckily, as above, you pretty much never see anyone if you don't want to.
- Small room, right next to the bathroom. Awesome.
- Coin laundry.
- People who beep the microwave a million times at 6am. Although lately it seems I'm able to sleep through this, so dropping down on the cons list. In general people are pretty good about not making noise in the common areas.
- For some reason, all the S1 shelves (my room's name) are the highest ones, so I can't actually reach anything without climbing on chairs.
The setup is basically a big house that's been made into a sort of boarding house. It's like if you lived in a hostel for months on end, but with fewer Australians. When I come upstairs it's just a hallway full of closed doors, unless someone is cooking (rare). Mind you, I'm generally in the lab from 9 until 8 or 9 or 10, so maybe I'm just missing the majority of activity. Everything is hilariously labelled ("Put shower mat HERE." "Do not use this soap dish." "Men: please consider sitting down for all your toilet activities" "Only two pairs of shoes per person in front hall please.") including all the shelves in the kitchen, so there is no question where your stuff goes. It's going to be a tight squeeze once I get my stuff back, but I will manage...
Anyway, at this stage it suits me fine. So nice not to have the drama (or the sullen boyfriend spending weeks on end sleeping in till noon at our place and then using our shower).
Work-wise, it's going to be a crazy semester. I'm wrestling with my thesis because I REALLY want to have a draft to my supervisor by tomorrow, and let's just say there's a way to go. I just want to be done with it for a while, though, so probably worth pushing hard now. Today won't be fun, though. I've promised myself all the caffeine and chocolate I want today in return for exerting some self-regulation in thesis-related areas.
Apart from that, I'm teaching two seminars and TAing/marking for two classes. I've acquired another student, meaning I'm supervising three projects this semester plus keeping an eye on Asma's students (as she's in Bangor learning to do fMRI, lucky toad). I also am collecting data on two other projects since I keep thinking this might be my last chance for a while.
So in theory I should also be freaking out about postdocs and What Do I Do After? - but I find I just don't have time. I will have to assume something will sort itself out. Will start applying again after thesis draft is done, I suppose...
We were on Korean TV this week! Mostly my supervisor, of course, but I starred as "Girl in Fake fMRI Scanner". I'm sure it is merely a small step to superstardom in Korea. The program, by the way, was called "Brain Garden" (as far as I can tell) and featured a flower garden in the shape of a brain!
New House Pros:
- SO CLOSE TO WORK. I am still excited about this. I used to walk past this place every day and then keep walking for 40 minutes until I got to 127. Now, if I forget something at home/school, it's no big deal! I could even COME HOME FOR LUNCH! (not that I ever do).
- Someone is designated to clean! That person does not require nagging! The bins even get taken out and the toilet paper replaced. Heaven.
- If something is broken, in theory someone will come fix it. About to test this out with a burnt-out lightbulb, as soon as my room is in a state that I'm not embarrassed to let the landlord in :/
- Big huge window. Natural light rather than a view of next-door's hallway: bliss!
- Never see housemates unless I want to, and way less kitchen and bathroom crowding than you would expect.
New House Cons:
- That one weird dude who told me he's been "watching my room to see when my light would come on" right after I moved in. (Have avoided the heck out of him since). Creepy, or just slightly socially awkward? I don't necessarily care to find out. Luckily, as above, you pretty much never see anyone if you don't want to.
- Small room, right next to the bathroom. Awesome.
- Coin laundry.
- People who beep the microwave a million times at 6am. Although lately it seems I'm able to sleep through this, so dropping down on the cons list. In general people are pretty good about not making noise in the common areas.
- For some reason, all the S1 shelves (my room's name) are the highest ones, so I can't actually reach anything without climbing on chairs.
The setup is basically a big house that's been made into a sort of boarding house. It's like if you lived in a hostel for months on end, but with fewer Australians. When I come upstairs it's just a hallway full of closed doors, unless someone is cooking (rare). Mind you, I'm generally in the lab from 9 until 8 or 9 or 10, so maybe I'm just missing the majority of activity. Everything is hilariously labelled ("Put shower mat HERE." "Do not use this soap dish." "Men: please consider sitting down for all your toilet activities" "Only two pairs of shoes per person in front hall please.") including all the shelves in the kitchen, so there is no question where your stuff goes. It's going to be a tight squeeze once I get my stuff back, but I will manage...
Anyway, at this stage it suits me fine. So nice not to have the drama (or the sullen boyfriend spending weeks on end sleeping in till noon at our place and then using our shower).
Work-wise, it's going to be a crazy semester. I'm wrestling with my thesis because I REALLY want to have a draft to my supervisor by tomorrow, and let's just say there's a way to go. I just want to be done with it for a while, though, so probably worth pushing hard now. Today won't be fun, though. I've promised myself all the caffeine and chocolate I want today in return for exerting some self-regulation in thesis-related areas.
Apart from that, I'm teaching two seminars and TAing/marking for two classes. I've acquired another student, meaning I'm supervising three projects this semester plus keeping an eye on Asma's students (as she's in Bangor learning to do fMRI, lucky toad). I also am collecting data on two other projects since I keep thinking this might be my last chance for a while.
So in theory I should also be freaking out about postdocs and What Do I Do After? - but I find I just don't have time. I will have to assume something will sort itself out. Will start applying again after thesis draft is done, I suppose...
We were on Korean TV this week! Mostly my supervisor, of course, but I starred as "Girl in Fake fMRI Scanner". I'm sure it is merely a small step to superstardom in Korea. The program, by the way, was called "Brain Garden" (as far as I can tell) and featured a flower garden in the shape of a brain!
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
2012!
I have high hopes for this year. We will see how it goes.
If I had a ridiculous run of good luck, my semester could look like this:
Jan 31: Thesis totally approved by supervisor and sent to committee (who have never even met with me and have not heard from me since my thesis proposal - not that they seem to mind).
Feb 29: Committee approves draft.
March 31: Changes suggested by committee made and everything fixed up. Draft sent to external
April sometime: Defend
Since everything seems to take at least three months as long as it should, though, I ain't holding my breath.
Plus, after that comes this part:
Summer 2012: No job, no plan, no idea.
But hey! It should be interesting.
In the meantime, in honour of the New Year, here are some things I did for the first time last year:
- Lived in America, Social Security number and all
- learned how to collected EEG data (i.e. wrestle a wet, soapy net onto the head of a recalcitrant teenager and try desperately to get the impedances down)
- learned how to analyze EEG data - sort of. Require heavy supervision with this one.
- Moved to Connecticut, met some cool psychiatrists, did a lot of clothes shopping
- Went to an amazing Catalan wedding and learned to say "fantàstic!" and dance some random Catalan folk dances
- Discovered and semi-stalked Josh Ritter
- Drank a Dunkin' Donuts latte, and then about another three a week depending on Helena's level of sleep deprivation
- Got two papers in press, woo hoo! (One, we just found out, has just been for real published)
- Was on Korean TV (this I assume is true, although I have not seen the evidence) and did a photoshoot in a fake MRI scanner
If I had a ridiculous run of good luck, my semester could look like this:
Jan 31: Thesis totally approved by supervisor and sent to committee (who have never even met with me and have not heard from me since my thesis proposal - not that they seem to mind).
Feb 29: Committee approves draft.
March 31: Changes suggested by committee made and everything fixed up. Draft sent to external
April sometime: Defend
Since everything seems to take at least three months as long as it should, though, I ain't holding my breath.
Plus, after that comes this part:
Summer 2012: No job, no plan, no idea.
But hey! It should be interesting.
In the meantime, in honour of the New Year, here are some things I did for the first time last year:
- Lived in America, Social Security number and all
- learned how to collected EEG data (i.e. wrestle a wet, soapy net onto the head of a recalcitrant teenager and try desperately to get the impedances down)
- learned how to analyze EEG data - sort of. Require heavy supervision with this one.
- Moved to Connecticut, met some cool psychiatrists, did a lot of clothes shopping
- Went to an amazing Catalan wedding and learned to say "fantàstic!" and dance some random Catalan folk dances
- Discovered and semi-stalked Josh Ritter
- Drank a Dunkin' Donuts latte, and then about another three a week depending on Helena's level of sleep deprivation
- Got two papers in press, woo hoo! (One, we just found out, has just been for real published)
- Was on Korean TV (this I assume is true, although I have not seen the evidence) and did a photoshoot in a fake MRI scanner
Saturday, 5 November 2011
One Good Thing about Guelph
I will give Guelph this: its autumn is the nicest I've ever seen. Almost a week past Hallowe'en and no snow, gorgeous sunshine, pretty leaves... stuck in a basement most of the time, but today I walked in to work to enjoy the weather.
This last one is the fort I wish I'd had... although would have skipped all the "no girls allowed" signs!
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Comparing myself to others
Went to a Ph.D. completion party last night, for Frank, who is the awesome and very sweet boyfriend of the awesome and very sweet Erin, who is doing her Ph.D. on the animal side. Frank's Ph.D. was in Comp Sci and it sounds like he kicked some thesis defense butt. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
We went to dinner (that's three times in two weeks, yikes - but there keeps being things to celebrate!) and over to someone's house for drinks. And this is where I wish the dept was less segregated to so I could actually talk to other Ph.D. students more often. It really helps to have some idea of how other people work things and what their experiences have been.
First of all, I found out that some people who I thought would be kicking butt financially (due to having got one of those big scholarships that I have no hope for) are actually living on credit and begging for TAships to at least pay tuition. It seems that being insanely cheap and putting up with a not-great living situation because it's the least expensive option is actually working out pretty well for me, relatively speaking. At least I haven't taken on any new debt since starting the Ph.D. (not saying anyone else has, but I think that is still a win).
That said, I'm seriously considering giving my notice at the house on Nov 1 (they want two months notice of moving out??!!!) and finding something else for next semester... since it seems to be pretty clear that sticking around even after the writing up is done and collecting more data is probably a wise career move. Going straight to Oxford would be awesome but leave me with a pretty large CV and productivity gap. Sigh.
[The house isn't so bad, but it isn't great either. The undergrad housemate (UH) told me he was going to "have a few people over Thursday night" a couple of weeks ago. Come home Thursday night to find a raging kegger and screaming undergrads puking on my lawn. Awesome. Our neighbours hate this sort of thing, understandably, and I for one had to get up Friday morning and work. So, Mark and I tried to corral them into the house and convince them to stop screaming. Sort of worked: now they were screaming outside the door to my room. Apparently one of them puked in the sink and another broke Mark's expensive vase and another spilled a pitcher of beer all over the downstairs couch. The UH, when confronted, said, "oh yeah, I didn't think there would be that many people" and wandered off to class to leave Mark to clean up.
This was also the night I heard about poor Matt, so needless to say I was not in the mood to deal with screaming morons... kind of a bad night, all in all.
Anyway, that isn't typical, but the lack of cleaning (mostly by UH) and the boyfriend slumped on the couch seven days a week using our electricity but not paying rent ARE. Not the end of the world and the non-UH housemates are pretty respectful, but I'm about ready to get gone.]
Anyway, next semester will necessarily be more expensive, so saving like crazy now... we'll see how it goes.
(Speaking of finishing up soonish, I forgot to send my proof of student status to the student loan people this semester, resulting in a repayment notice - reversed, of course, but yikes, gotta be saving hard for that too in case I don't have a postdoc to jump into right away!)
Apart from that, seems like most people are taking at least four years (plus) to finish, despite Guelph's weird assertion that three years of guaranteed funding should be PLENTY to get a Ph.D. done. This leads to a lot of financial stress at the end. I'm still (knock wood knock wood) more or less on track to hand in at the end of my third year, plus a semester for the committee to read it and a defense committee to be formed and all that rigmarole. So that's only a semester over the three year funding guarantee, and they will probably throw me a TAship for it.
That said, getting through quick necessarily leads to fewer pubs (one girl is graduating with NINE of them) which might hurt me. Not more than sticking around Guelph for an extra year for that reason would, though. Am still hoping to get at least one from my practicum, and have started a number of collaborations that might be productive enough to get a few things out the door. Fingers severely crossed.
Did I mention, though, that we have two in press?? Both online now, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance and Acta Psychologica, woo hoo!
So yeah, could be doing better, could be doing worse... but nice to know what the rest of my cohort is up to rather than totally having to guess.
(plus - they are good to talk to and throw fun parties!)
We went to dinner (that's three times in two weeks, yikes - but there keeps being things to celebrate!) and over to someone's house for drinks. And this is where I wish the dept was less segregated to so I could actually talk to other Ph.D. students more often. It really helps to have some idea of how other people work things and what their experiences have been.
First of all, I found out that some people who I thought would be kicking butt financially (due to having got one of those big scholarships that I have no hope for) are actually living on credit and begging for TAships to at least pay tuition. It seems that being insanely cheap and putting up with a not-great living situation because it's the least expensive option is actually working out pretty well for me, relatively speaking. At least I haven't taken on any new debt since starting the Ph.D. (not saying anyone else has, but I think that is still a win).
That said, I'm seriously considering giving my notice at the house on Nov 1 (they want two months notice of moving out??!!!) and finding something else for next semester... since it seems to be pretty clear that sticking around even after the writing up is done and collecting more data is probably a wise career move. Going straight to Oxford would be awesome but leave me with a pretty large CV and productivity gap. Sigh.
[The house isn't so bad, but it isn't great either. The undergrad housemate (UH) told me he was going to "have a few people over Thursday night" a couple of weeks ago. Come home Thursday night to find a raging kegger and screaming undergrads puking on my lawn. Awesome. Our neighbours hate this sort of thing, understandably, and I for one had to get up Friday morning and work. So, Mark and I tried to corral them into the house and convince them to stop screaming. Sort of worked: now they were screaming outside the door to my room. Apparently one of them puked in the sink and another broke Mark's expensive vase and another spilled a pitcher of beer all over the downstairs couch. The UH, when confronted, said, "oh yeah, I didn't think there would be that many people" and wandered off to class to leave Mark to clean up.
This was also the night I heard about poor Matt, so needless to say I was not in the mood to deal with screaming morons... kind of a bad night, all in all.
Anyway, that isn't typical, but the lack of cleaning (mostly by UH) and the boyfriend slumped on the couch seven days a week using our electricity but not paying rent ARE. Not the end of the world and the non-UH housemates are pretty respectful, but I'm about ready to get gone.]
Anyway, next semester will necessarily be more expensive, so saving like crazy now... we'll see how it goes.
(Speaking of finishing up soonish, I forgot to send my proof of student status to the student loan people this semester, resulting in a repayment notice - reversed, of course, but yikes, gotta be saving hard for that too in case I don't have a postdoc to jump into right away!)
Apart from that, seems like most people are taking at least four years (plus) to finish, despite Guelph's weird assertion that three years of guaranteed funding should be PLENTY to get a Ph.D. done. This leads to a lot of financial stress at the end. I'm still (knock wood knock wood) more or less on track to hand in at the end of my third year, plus a semester for the committee to read it and a defense committee to be formed and all that rigmarole. So that's only a semester over the three year funding guarantee, and they will probably throw me a TAship for it.
That said, getting through quick necessarily leads to fewer pubs (one girl is graduating with NINE of them) which might hurt me. Not more than sticking around Guelph for an extra year for that reason would, though. Am still hoping to get at least one from my practicum, and have started a number of collaborations that might be productive enough to get a few things out the door. Fingers severely crossed.
Did I mention, though, that we have two in press?? Both online now, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance and Acta Psychologica, woo hoo!
So yeah, could be doing better, could be doing worse... but nice to know what the rest of my cohort is up to rather than totally having to guess.
(plus - they are good to talk to and throw fun parties!)
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