weekends are supposed to be fun

I ended up spending most of the weekend pottering away at preparing data for reanalysis for the second paper (which is now being urgently demanded... sigh...) for DataCrunchingProject (see recent rant on the subject).  Not very exciting. 

I spent most of the time doing things two or three times to correect small errors (or large errors)... which is actually a GOOD reason to do this sort of thing AT HOME, where I am less distracted and can more easily walk away when it gets maddening and think things through. 

But doesn't make the process any less annoying, boring and fiddly.

Especially when I am essentially revisiting materials prepared by someone else, for a different purpose, 4+ years ago, so waste a lot of time trying to reconstruct what is going on.  I've dropped one sample from the dataset and flagged several others as potentially problematic because I just can't work out the datasheets.  If I can get publishable results from the remaining data, I don't really see the point of trying to sort it out (if it's even possible, which it may well not be this far removed).  IF.

Also, some bread got in the house and got consumed. :-(

So not the best weekend ever!

Next week:

• grading arriving in dribs and drabs
• complete two refereeings of articles and one summary-of-literature
• planning for summer teaching week
• at the end of the week I have two days of visitors/data crunching for odds and ends paper
• catching up meeting with PDF and hopefully re-submitting her first thesis paper that came back as minor R&R
• two lots of back-poking (chiropractor - no doubt good for me but at the same time costly and painful!)
• must chase up blood test results

 So I'm not likely to make much progress with DataCrunchingPaper2.  Oh well, there's always the weekend...

Hang on, where did the weekend go?

I had plans to do lots of things this weekend.

I didn't.

I suppose that, after having visitors and travelling in the last ten days I shouldn't be too surprised about that, but I struggle to tell the difference between genuinely needed downtime, laziness, anxiety or procrastination... especially when there are decent grounds to argue for each of these as a cause of inaction.

It's wierd, reading about everyone else starting the semester, especially as PDF and I are both at that point in the summer where we keep saying "I can't wait for the end of September" - which is when our semester starts and so our fieldwork pretty much ends. I have the next four days in the office (actually, in the field Wednesday, and meeting with an overseas grad student who's arriving for training tomorrow every other day, so more like two days of actual work time), then two weeks in the field and then a week off before classes start (it looks as if I may be in the office one or two days in the week off, just because of the impracticality of doing reorganisation during teaching weeks and the fact that by the start of teaching I have to have all the contents of my office back in my office (from the larger office I've been 'nearly moving into' for about 2 years now and from the 'resource area' I create in one of the student teaching spaces for the field week I taught back in June. Of course, whilst these things were out of my office the remaining things expanded to fill the space available, so it just isn't as simple as getting a trolley and moving a few boxes...). And by things, I mostly mean books and papers (mostly). Sigh. Non-compressible things!). PDF is doing the last few bits of fieldwork whilst I have my week off and then, whilst I start teaching, she and her partner are off on holiday. So at least the first week of teaching will be teaching-orientation-freshers-project-students-having-crises-meetings-of-the-three-new-committees-I'm-on-getting-new-masters-student-started only - PDF and KhakiWearingStudent will both be away until the following week, when research (including not just their work, but a couple of research experience students and the ends-tying-up-projects with WierdBugMan) also needs to be fitted into the mix.

Hmmm. Contemplating-the-future-is-overwhelming paralysis should clearly be added to the list of reasons for not doing things this weekend! However, I DID do two loads of laundry, some grocery shopping, and some errands-in-town (so I now have all the things from the chemists and outdoor shop that I needed for the next fieldtrip*, and foreign currency, and the latest copy of the knitting-mag-with-good-freebies-on-the-front**).

Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more productive of yer ac-tew-il work.


* why yes, I have been doing fieldwork off and on all summer, and I still need to buy Things. I have lost one walking pole (stolen by the really buggy, bite-y woodland in first overseas field area. I reckon it was the mosquitos carrying it off to slow down their walking buffet. I HAD it (and indeed was photographed with it so am not just relying on all-too-fallible memory here) by a particular tree on the (very rough) vehicle track and did NOT have it by the time I had walked another 20 metres to the place we pulled the vehicle off the track. It's gold and bronze, it was extended to about 1.20 m in length, and it should have been pretty darn visible, but it just... wasn't anywhere. Big mystery!), wrecked two pairs of socks, lost an aluminium waterbottle and we also discovered on Friday that some other bits of useful 'equipment' (things which you don't have to buy from a laboratory supplier but have considerable field work value) had somehow escaped from the equipment box (who knows where or when?) and we were down to the last one or had to improvise, and PDF was away at her partner's place so I got to shop for them.

**yes, getting that surely counts as a chore... :-)

A list post

It's a long time since I wrote a list post. Most of the later part of the summer was spent being fed up and not acheiving much, and for the first few hectic teaching weeks my diary has been my only list - I see what's on today, what's on tomorrow, and prep for those things in order. Focusing on teaching has made it easy to use a diary as a list - the only thing I've needed to add is reminders about sending reading lists out for seminars at least a week in advance and about returning grading. Having a cold has helped me to accept that everything else will pretty much go by the wayside. I did a moderately good job of ignoring the constant nagging lists of research stuff, but I can't carry on doing that.

I'm frustrated, and I'm stressed, and my mood isn't great, and my sleeping patterns are going nuts again, and although I'm very pleased to have managed to keep my voice and 'mood' stable enough to teach to this point - really, six weeks, that's so little. Being pleased about being on top of (i.e. 24 hours ahead... not good enough) one third of my job is a pretty low target. Though this is my heavy semester - teaching is more like half my job until Christmas - and next semester is lighter in terms of formal classes (but heavier in advising/mentoring/dissertation supervising). Now I've decided to postpone the parent-visit, the next two weeks (one with no formal classes and the second with mostly seminar-type classes) offer a chance to whack a few particularly noisy, guilt-inducing research moles, enough to quieten them down until Christmas (when the large mound of summative grading suddenly makes research seem like the easy option). As long as this cold, which is still lurking (sore throat, sneezes, maybe part of the thick-headedness) but not developing, is reasonably civilised... Anyway, I need to do this. So here is a list.

Because clearly before I can start work I need to make a list of work.

Health Things
which clearly need to come first. The usual, really....

• Planning meals: tomorrow, banana and yoghurt for breakfast, three-bean soup for lunch, lentil moussaka and steamed veggies for dinner, apple and cheese slice for supper. And a trip to the supermarket to buy more bananas
• making sure I exceed the five a day on fruit and veg and eat some fruit other than bananas
• watching protein levels (I find it very easy, as a vegetarian trying to keep dairy intake low who doesn't like most meat substitutes, finds her digestive system is picky about beans and spices and a.dores (probably in an unhealthy way) some basic carbs like pasta and potatoes and rice (not to mention bread, which is definitely not something I should have around. White bread, butter and thick slices of raw mushrooms or lightly steamed brocolli - delicious! And NOT what you could call healthy), to eat a lot of carb-and-vegetable meals)
• drinking plenty of water/tea
• Taking vitamins (currently a female-friendly multi-vit/mineral, a fizzy C+zinc tablet and extra calcium for the voice, plus echinacea for the immune system). Should probably switch to a calcium+D (which might help with the sleeping) and add a B-complex (for stress)).
• getting some daylight every day, by going for a walk around campus at least
• trying to sort out the temperature problem in the building...
• make a list and actually take some action on environment stuff around the house

WORK. In this section I will use colour to add a second level of organisation: Purple for asides, Red for most urgent/top priority, (yes, I KNOW I can only have ONE real top priority at any time...) orange for moderately urgent, and a sort of brownish colour for stuff that needs to be done by Christmas.

Teaching

• Write reflective review of these few weeks and notes for next year (yes, I did a few as a went along, but need to do the whole lot properly)
• Second year Beach Studies module
• sort out study guide (I don't usually do these, but what with my vanishing voice, the fire practice, and losing a class from the sequence due to my statistics exam, they didn't get my best lectures, so I asked for feedback on which topics they didn't really understand and will write some short summaries/directed reading notes on those)
• draft marking rubric for lab report, whilst I remember how the class actually went as opposed to how it ideally goes (most of them didn't get to part 3 in any serious way, which, OK, their problem in many ways and something they can study up on privately - was mostly due to them NOT working efficiently in their groups on the earlier parts - but it was a new, thrown-together-in-response-to-panic practical, so to be fair to them I need to take that into account in the rubric - which will be fairly easy to write as it just means annotating and developing the one page single spaced assignment briefing sheet, but it needs doing).
• this is the subject area which is most likely to attract dissertation students for next year, and I would like to be prepared for enquiries (and maybe even encourage them, in the right sub-areas... students supposedly design their own topics, but a nudge is often a Good Thing), so I'd like to write and make available a short 'if you are thinking of doing a project on...' sheet
• open enrollment option module
• get decision on whether assessment can be changed as per students request (they have actually asked permission to do MORE work. At present they pick one topic of two taught and write an essay. Some have asked if they can write essays for both and just count the best mark. In my experience maybe 5% of the class will ACTUALLY choose this option, so it's little extra work, and giving them something they ask for is good PR (and in general a way to build up a bank of goodwill with the students, a sense of partnership). However, some of the team think this is a silly idea as it means more marking, and isn't 'fair' on students who don't want to write two essays (I don't follow that argument))
• write brief study notes (as above, just substitute no microphone for fire alarm...)
• draft marking rubric, as above. I will be really happy if these are done, come the end of December Marking Marathon
• skills course for integrated masters' students
• mark formative essays that came in late last week. Get other marker's marks, write summary comments, return to students
• new batch come in on Tuesday. Collate, check, send to other marker, record missing essays. mark essays, get other marker's comments, write summary, return to students. Rinse, repeat, sigh.
• find reading for next seminar, read, talk to Dr Labrador about how he wants to run the class
• prepare handout for research skills class in a few week's time
• email colleagues and remind them that this cohort start choosing dissertation projects earlier than the standard bachelor's degree lot; as politely as possible, request colleagues NOT to send students in this group away telling them they don't understand their schedule, because they are on a different schedule to the 'normal' student
• research reading list for final seminar on wacky topic no group ever picked before. Regret putting wacky topic on list of options...
• Project F linked modules
• prepare reading list for undergrad version seminar, circulate by Wednesday
• prepare reading list for masters' version seminar, circulate by Wednesday (of course they picked different topics. Of COURSE)
• explain again to technician that none of students can access VLE. Ask that it be fixed. Again.
• prepare handout/activity for practical class on specialist statistical method
• draft briefing document for end of term presentations
• review, and draft a feedback questionnaire, on the first two practicals, which didn't seem to go very well - not sure if it was me, or them, or just that the topics were not appropriate...
• other master's level module
• prepare materials for next week's class
• find marking rubric from last time I set the first assignment, and discuss with rest of team
• find old materials for following class and refresh them
• first assignment comes in in the second week, so will need grading then
• first year module I take over in about 2.5 week's time
• check out what the syllabus said I'd do. Is that what I plan to do?
• prepare introductory session handout and draft class activities
• prepare practical materials and send them for printing
• give thought to backup plans if I lose my voice... other than getting DrTouchy to teach. She WILL do something awful if I do that...
• other stuff
• arrange to meet with all project students who I haven't seen for at least 2 weeks
• chase up provision of materials/technical support for Keener
• sort out space for DrL's student in our joint lab
• attend committee meeting for new StationaryStudies PhD student
• do filing from first half classes

miscellaneous administrivia

• Put together timetable for DrVisit (who wants to visit different types of classes before going home at the end of December, in order to 'experience western style teaching')
• Go through emails from start of semester. Add things to lists. Hope will do them.
• Book for short meeting in CrowdedCapital in January. Consider where to stay and how to pay...
• email FormerFlatMate OopNorth and see if can combine a visit with other meeting in January
• write and submit abstracts for HugeMeeting next year by end of November
• email LearnedSocietyMentee and arrange a meeting
• draft materials for schools outreach programme (subject of corporate nag on Friday)
• talk to HelfySafety man about step stool to reach shelves in new office.
• move some more stuff to new office

Research

• Go through daybook and create list of 'small jobs' from recent meetings/phone calls. Add to relevant projects
• check in with KhakiWearingStudent
• DataCrunchingProject - which I actually worked on Friday afternoon
• run extra nifty analysis (learnt on stats course!) of confusing data
• create figure(s) of confusing data
• write results for confusing data
• review other sections of draft ms
• write plan for simulations
• carry out simulations, make figures, write up
• Big Grant for work in Exotic Country
• block out work plan
• set up research office online forms
• get DrVisit to start getting support letters from partners in Exotic Country
• write second draft of main supporting case
• start filling out endless online forms
• discuss with research office
• Project F
• review budget
• write up output formats for new software. Grovel to WierdBugMan about having taken so long to do so
• work on manuscript from meeting in May
• extract timeplan from PostDocF by fair means or foul
• check date for funding application for extra travel monies which I need to lead on
• email all collaborators for next summer
• Informal Working Group
• put together very late newsletter
• circulate feedback from last failed grant, and check next dates - decisions about resubmitting need making
• draft poster for meeting in January
• FavouriteIslands. PostDocF has gone to the meeting alone - I couldn't get out of my teaching duties. With this cold hovering I'm kind of relieved, as two full days of travelling would probably bring it into its full glory. But I wanted to go ::pout::
• work on collecting data for pilot study for future grant application - 14 samples
• contact FairlyFamousProfessor and find out what he is up to!
• make sure preliminary report gets written and submitted by 15th November
• FocusedWoman's Big Project
• Check over all data
• find software for initial analysis. Check remember how to work it
• write out working plan
• organise selected data for initial analysis using simplistic method and sophisticated method
• run analyses. Hope work needed for sophisticated data prep is not pointless!
• prepare remaining data for initial analysis, run, make figures, draft report - BY THE END OF NOVEMBER
• collect base data for main analysis
• other stuff
• finish draft of PowerhouseProject first paper, email to collaborators
• sort out data FocusedWoman wants, email to her
• check progress with ForgetfulBloke on collating the data I need for the other paper with FocusedWoman