Hmm... what was so special about June 9th?

Well as you can tell I haven't been so good with updating the blog. I like to think it's because I'm so focused on writing my thesis. Riiiiight. I'll keep telling myself that. I figured I should check to see if my blog is still there since it's been quite some time. Then for kicks I decided to check out the Tracksy stats on my blog. That's right, Tracksy. I'm a loser who likes to see how many people visit my blog. So it appears that June 9th was quite a busy day over here at the Science Geek blog. Most hits from that day came from www.insidehighered.com. Could someone fill me in as to why? I'm all excited thinking maybe there was a link to my blog on that site.

Go Oilers Go!!!!

Normally the Stanley Cup wouldn't really affect my thesis writing but with the Oilers in it I have to watch now. Yes, I have been watching religiously since the conference final but haven't blogged about it at all because it isn't at all PhD related but since I'm sick of thinking about PhD stuff then the Oilers it is. Tomorrow is game seven. GAME SEVEN! Oh the stress! I really hope the Oilers win (of course) but not just because I'm cheering for them but because, although they have had bad games, they are able to pull it together and play awesome when need be. Also, and I may get flamed for saying this, I think winning the Stanley Cup means more to the Oiler's fans than the Hurricane's fans. The Oilers have such a hockey legacy. It would be nice to bring the cup back. GO OILERS GO!!!

Thesis writing distraction

I haven't been so good at updating my blog lately. I've come to the conclusion that it's because I spend all day writing my thesis... okay, perhaps not all day but I try. Anyways, I spend a lot of my time writing my thesis, which if you read my last post, you'll realize I find thesis writing kinda boring. So really, do I want to prolong the agony and write stuff on my blog about writing my thesis. Not so much. So, in an effort to not go insane with thesis overload my blog may diverge from the usual PhD related blabbing.

On that note, I am reliving high school by way of Beverly Hills 90210 coming back on TV in reruns. It's a nice thesis writing distraction and also provides me with some much needed humour. Sure the show isn't a comedy but the outfits and the acting definitely are. Just when I thought I would have no good TV to watch over the summer while writing my thesis along comes 90210. So the other day I'm watching it and it's some episode with the moral lesson of how you shouldn't discrimination, be prejudice, or racist. Oh, life lessons courtesy of Beverly Hills 90210. As I'm watching the show and they are getting to the end and wrapping up the life lesson I notice the black guy, who was cast soley for this episode, wearing a t-shirt that on the back had a list of terms that over the years were used to refer to black people. My jaw dropped when I first noticed the shirt because the word at the top was the n-word. I shit you not. They didn't show the whole back of the shirt but it was enough to make it out. The words continued down the shirt each getting more politically correct until it ended off at whatever term was considered most politcally correct in the 90s. Now, first off, why the hell did a black actor agree to wear that shirt? And secondly, for a show with the big moral conclusion of anti-racism, who in charge of costume design thought this shirt would be a good idea? It's a whole different world watching 90210 as an adult and not an easily influenced teenager, I tell you.

So slow...

I don't know if it's just me but I'm finding this thesis writing is going so slow. And b-o-r-i-n-g! I can spend all day working on one figure. I'm all happy when I'm done it but then when I realize that is all I've done all day it depresses me a tad. Plus, sitting at the computer all day is also boring! I'm used to moving around, standing, sitting a bit but never for too long. I've decided I need to go jogging to at least get out of the house. Problem is, the husband wants to go with me but not when I want to go. So far the jogging together hasn't worked out well. I want to go around 10 or 11am-ish. I find when I sit at the computer for too long in the morning I start to fall asleep so jogging mid-morning would be great. Problem is, the husband is at work. He wants to go jogging in the evening, after supper. I write best from about 8 pm until late so usually I'm working on my thesis when he wants to go. I think I'll just go in the morning and if he wants to go in the evening and I have time I'll join him.

Anyways, got a little off topic there. So thesis writing, boring! At least in the lab I could feel I accomplished something when I got the result of an experiment at the end of the day. Even if the experiment didn't work I still did it. One figure in a day! Dear lord. I'll be writing this thesis until I'm 80. I think I got a bit cocky when I made like five figures in one day a while back. Gotta love Photoshop and it's layers. Wonderful for making figures that have the same labeling.

Another thing about thesis writing I don't like - it's depressing. It's somewhat sad when you realize an experiment that took you almost a year to do fills up a page. A PAGE! Albeit I was doing other experiments at the same time but still. Writing out what I've done for the past six years and what it means is a tad humbling. Let's see... I did what seemed like a bunch of work and filled up almost four lab books and a few binders but put it all in some coherent form and it seems like I hardly did anything. Sigh. I swear this whole PhD process is just some mean initiation that started back in the day by some disgruntled professors.