Progress

Of late I have felt so cut off from my online social life…I haven’t read others blogs or updated mine in so long. There are three primary reasons for this: (1) its summer, (2) no internet at home, and (3) I’m focused on my research. The “its summer” part probably isn’t totally accurate because it was summer a month ago but I was still on top of things. More accurately is that it is August, which could encompass both its summer and I’m focused on my research. It is during this month of summer that it dawns on me that the summer is nearly over and I have made very little progress on my research (or as much as I had hoped). Last year I was in Memphis starting in the middle of June, didn’t collect a single useful data point until August 14th, and completed three full experiments by the middle of September. This year August hit and I realized that nearly nothing was completed with respect to my dissertation and then got focused and have been working during every free moment I have (except this moment). Then on top of this the not having internet at home means that I can’t check or update while taking a break from work at home and I spend my time in the office trying to deal with the emails I received the night before. Thus I have plenty of excuses for why I have been a poor blogger of late.

On a slightly different note, while being so focused on my research I have had to go back and reprocess data from 2005. This was the first experiment that I ran at Michigan. Going back over the data sometimes gets me frustrated trying to figure out why I sampled a certain way, didn’t record something, test condition selection, etc. Then the moment after I ask those questions I’m really encouraged because I get to see how much I’ve learned and improved as an experimental fluids researcher in only 2 years. It is also good so that perhaps I won’t be so hard on some of the younger grad students if I take some time to reflect on where I was not that long ago.

Blog Update

To start off today I got to go to a baseball game with Demoree, Trudi, and Sherry and I'll be filling in details of that in the near future, but since I don't have some cool picture to put with that post I'll write about something else for today.

Tonight I got thinking about my blog, which I do from time to time. I was reflecting on my lack of updates and the need to put some time towards it. This got me thinking about why I started it in the first place. I started this blog with 2 primary objectives: (1) share some good stories and memories with whom ever is interested in reading them and (2) to have a source to purge out my thoughts on whatever topic is consuming my waking moments.

Overall I would have to say that it has really done a great job with both of my goals. I still have plenty of stories to share but think to date I have included a nice collection of past and present stories. The second objective has worked out incredibly well. Prior to my blog I would be constantly thinking over and over the various issues of some given topic (religion, sports, the existence of God, evolution, scientific theories, etc) and working out my thoughts and views on them. The problem was that once I had really settled my mind on an issue I would be so frustrated since I knew that if I didn't write it down I would just forget how I reached the given conclusion and have to do it all over again in the future. Well with this blog I've been able to take my thoughts, post them, and forget about it for the time being. I would have to say this is the primary motivation for me to update (unless I have pictures for people...stories are just so much better with pictures).

Thus I think the main reason I haven't been updating much recently is that currently my thoughts have been on a bunch of topics/issues with no time focused on one thing. This results on a long list of ideas for updates, but with no clear direction of how I want to write. The good news to those that enjoy reading my blog is that I'm getting back to reading some Clive Staples, which should get my mind more focused and able to sort out details. This should then result in me having topics that I just can't wait to write about.

Procrastination

When I started this blog I said that I wanted to be more proactive in my procrastination. Well it is about 5pm and I should be working but lack motivation...therefore I should write a post. In just over 4 weeks I will be heading down to Memphis to conduct this research experiment that will hopefully produce the bulk of the the data I'll need to get my PhD. Unfortunately the preparation for this test hasn't been all that great, and since I'm the manager I feel quite stressed and a little guilty. It has become all too apparent to myself that I won't be able to get the work done in time for the start of the test. This has an even worse affect on me because when I don't think I can do everything the right way I really don't want to do anything...hence the reason I'm writing a blog instead of mastering particle image velocimetry.

Me working hard...I don't know why but my desk is actually clean (photo by Sherry)

Every once in awhile I have thoughts about the possibility of having this experiment completely bomb, and the result would be basically me starting over my PhD. So instead of being done in a year or two I would have like another 4 years or so. Even though these panic thoughts hit me from time to time, I know that we will pull this off. While I think I'm not that good with preparation (at least for a large scale project like this), I am quite confident that when I'm running the experiment we will get good data (I don't have a great answer why I feel this...I just do). Even though this is going to be 13 weeks of 16 hour days, I'm really actually looking forward to getting it started because once it begins we actually start accomplishing real goals. I suppose this is the result of my competitive nature and my love of being the underdog.

Well since I'm not getting any work done I suppose I should go running. I hate running, but I love the results of running. (1) When I stop running I feel great, (2) it helps me work on self discipline since every single step I want to stop, (3) gives me time to think, and (4) this is my God time (I run in the woods, and I don't see how anyone can be out in nature and not know that God is there with you). So I'm out...I would have to say this is the least organized post I've written to date.

Side Note: I've found it quite interesting that my conversation on the shape of blue to be more controversial than evolution. However the evolution post has certainly increased my readership. Normally I have about 10 visitors per day, but since I posted that one I’ve had over 70 new readers.