Thursday, January 18, 2007
F is for Faffing
I am possibly the worlds biggest procrastinator and faffer. I don't really know what's happened to me but as I get older I seem to get faffier. It does not make for a good and productive scientist. I seem to be quite disinterested in the actual detail of my work, so I tend to do stuff without thinking, spend more time reading blogs and nonsense on the internet instead of trying to order my life, analyse data, read papers. It's pretty much out of control I think and I don't know how to stop it. I keep planning to start stuff, to change, to take up something new. My faffing tends to mean I don't get to work until about 10am when I mean to get in for just before 9am, I don't get my lunch until about 2pm, I don't get out from work until about 7pm (and usually because I've been doing not much, rather than getting around to any serious work).
I've got a progress meeting with my bosses on monday and god knows how I'm going to explain myself to them, I've got so little work done to show for the past 2 months. It's not like I've tried stuff and it doesn't work, it's that I've not tried, I've just faffed. Help!
I've got a progress meeting with my bosses on monday and god knows how I'm going to explain myself to them, I've got so little work done to show for the past 2 months. It's not like I've tried stuff and it doesn't work, it's that I've not tried, I've just faffed. Help!
Monday, January 15, 2007
weekends
another weekend. Another wasted 48 hours. I need to find something fun and easy to do over the weekends. It's far far too easy to just stay in bed and do nothing and get totally mooped.
E is for electrochemistry
Electrochemistry is like a sophster!
Over the past 4 years I have been (un)fortunate enough to enter the field of electrochemistry. It is a strange field, generally overlooked and left out of chemistry where possible. It's awkward, difficult, unusual and the theory can be a right pain in the bum but generally I love it. It can be such a powerful analytical technique which is great as it can be really obvious when you have a problem with the system you're using in the lab (yes I know this is a bad thing but the problem gets flagged up and is reasonably obvious to start with meaning less wasted samples). It requires patience and a lot of understanding but is worth it in the end.
Over the past 4 years I have been (un)fortunate enough to enter the field of electrochemistry. It is a strange field, generally overlooked and left out of chemistry where possible. It's awkward, difficult, unusual and the theory can be a right pain in the bum but generally I love it. It can be such a powerful analytical technique which is great as it can be really obvious when you have a problem with the system you're using in the lab (yes I know this is a bad thing but the problem gets flagged up and is reasonably obvious to start with meaning less wasted samples). It requires patience and a lot of understanding but is worth it in the end.
Monday, January 08, 2007
D is for discussion
Bit of a rush today (mostly as I've been a total lazy bum and am still disorganised today) but I think one of my main strengths is being a bit of a gossip and discussing science with anybody and everybody.
I go a bit screwy in my current office as there is no one about to really chat about science, people, news, films or anything. It's really annoying as I've always found that I learn and understand stuff best if I can do it, read it and then discuss it with my peers to really clarify and sort my thoughts on the concepts and ideas. Still I'm hopefully helping set up a journal club in the department which should be a good forum for discussing things with like minded people.
I go a bit screwy in my current office as there is no one about to really chat about science, people, news, films or anything. It's really annoying as I've always found that I learn and understand stuff best if I can do it, read it and then discuss it with my peers to really clarify and sort my thoughts on the concepts and ideas. Still I'm hopefully helping set up a journal club in the department which should be a good forum for discussing things with like minded people.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
backtrack: A is for AAAARRRGGGHHHH AFM
New year. Still no better at AFM. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
C is for Career Path
I nearly did this as C is for Colleagues but I get to bitch about them plenty in real life and I'm trying to make this blog not too ranty and bitchy so career paths (and lack of) it is.
I'm 9 months into my first post doc (although it seems a lot less as I spent the first 7 months still finishing up writing my PhD thesis - oops). I have a fantastic boss at the moment but I know I'm being a bit of an idiot for not working harder while I have the support as I still only have one not very impressive paper to my name and I know I'm not going to get very far until I improve this situation.
At the moment my vague career plan goes something like work hard in current post for the remaining 2 years to develop my research skills (this is a big one as my PhD saw me change from a happy carefree biochemist to a stressed out and confused physical chemist and I'm still worried that I'll never fill in all the gaps in my physical chem knowledge and become a decent well rounded scientist). At the moment I'm doing my post doc at a really good department in a pretty good university but I have no idea where I want to go or what I want to do after this. I don't think I really want an academic career as there seem to be virtually no positive role models I know of in real life or through the internet so I guess I'll try my luck and see how I can fit into some sort of industrial setting. I do want to continue with labwork though as I love the freedom of just slobbing about my lab and office and the whole experimental process.
I'm 9 months into my first post doc (although it seems a lot less as I spent the first 7 months still finishing up writing my PhD thesis - oops). I have a fantastic boss at the moment but I know I'm being a bit of an idiot for not working harder while I have the support as I still only have one not very impressive paper to my name and I know I'm not going to get very far until I improve this situation.
At the moment my vague career plan goes something like work hard in current post for the remaining 2 years to develop my research skills (this is a big one as my PhD saw me change from a happy carefree biochemist to a stressed out and confused physical chemist and I'm still worried that I'll never fill in all the gaps in my physical chem knowledge and become a decent well rounded scientist). At the moment I'm doing my post doc at a really good department in a pretty good university but I have no idea where I want to go or what I want to do after this. I don't think I really want an academic career as there seem to be virtually no positive role models I know of in real life or through the internet so I guess I'll try my luck and see how I can fit into some sort of industrial setting. I do want to continue with labwork though as I love the freedom of just slobbing about my lab and office and the whole experimental process.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
B is for Biophysicist
These days when people ask what I do I call myself a biophysicist. I like my job and I love having a finger in so many different scientific pies but it makes it a nightmare having to explain to people (especially other scientists) quite what it is I do. I went to a 'speed networking' evening run by the university before christmas which I really enjoyed but it was very tricky to get across my work in just a few minutes and also find out what other people were doing.
I always feel like I'm a bit isolated at work as I am a bit of an oddity being a biologist who has gone across to the dark side (the physical sciences) as it seems to be far more common to have physical scientists get grabbed into the life sciences. On the whole I feel like I've been picking up things fairly well (totally unsupported though - but that's another issue for another day) even if the commonly held opinion around here is that biologists can't learn physics! Well we can try but you don't make it easy for us - I for one am going to stick with it as I quite like being an oddity and I get a real sense of satisfaction from chatting about my work from my point of view and comparing my ideas and thoughts with the physicists who have gone a bit bio.
I always feel like I'm a bit isolated at work as I am a bit of an oddity being a biologist who has gone across to the dark side (the physical sciences) as it seems to be far more common to have physical scientists get grabbed into the life sciences. On the whole I feel like I've been picking up things fairly well (totally unsupported though - but that's another issue for another day) even if the commonly held opinion around here is that biologists can't learn physics! Well we can try but you don't make it easy for us - I for one am going to stick with it as I quite like being an oddity and I get a real sense of satisfaction from chatting about my work from my point of view and comparing my ideas and thoughts with the physicists who have gone a bit bio.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
A is for Apathy
The last year has been pretty hard going for me as I just haven't really cared about things long term. It's so easy to just fiddle about at work in front of the computer, fob off people with random ideas and a nodding head and just not get on with things much. I think the amount of effort I put into blogging last year pretty much reflects the state of everything else and how little I put into things.
Like I mentioned before I'm not one for big resolutions or anything (I know I don't have anything even resembling willpower and motivation these days) but there are a few key things I want to acheive this year which are quite definite milestones. I want to get another first author paper published (or at least submitted) by the end of the year, I want to get my provisional licence and finally learn to drive (I think finally after 10 years my mother's rather cutting remarks about how there is no way on earth I should be trusted behind a wheel have finally faded enough). These are my main objectives but other things I'd like to get done but know are much harder to motivate myself to get done are getting fitter and getting cleverer at maths and finding a fun hobby to do outside work.
Like I mentioned before I'm not one for big resolutions or anything (I know I don't have anything even resembling willpower and motivation these days) but there are a few key things I want to acheive this year which are quite definite milestones. I want to get another first author paper published (or at least submitted) by the end of the year, I want to get my provisional licence and finally learn to drive (I think finally after 10 years my mother's rather cutting remarks about how there is no way on earth I should be trusted behind a wheel have finally faded enough). These are my main objectives but other things I'd like to get done but know are much harder to motivate myself to get done are getting fitter and getting cleverer at maths and finding a fun hobby to do outside work.
A to Z of my life
I've really got into reading blogs by other post docs and scientists which has encouraged me to get back to posting on this blog more often and I decided one way to ensure regular posts is to do a little A-Z of various things which are important to me.
Monday, January 01, 2007
New Year Old Habtits
Glad that 2006 is finally out of the way. Despite getting a good post doc job and passing my PhD it was a pretty rubbish and stressful year. I'd like to say I have high hopes for 2007 and but mostly I've found getting my hopes up tends to lead to more unhappiness and disappointment. Still here's hoping things improve and I can get my arse into gear a bit more and get on with things better.
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